Gregarius » éléments par Ed Oswald

éléments par Ed Oswald

Uber's tone-deaf surge pricing is its undoing

Publié: décembre 16, 2014, 10:43am CET par Ed Oswald

uber

As downtown Sydney was in full panic Monday during a hostage crisis at a local cafe, Uber sat at the ready to get people out of town. There was only one problem: the ride would cost you $100 or more, four times the service’s normal rate.

The reasoning? Surge pricing.

Uber’s oft-maligned pricing strategy is an effort to entice drivers to areas where there is higher than normal demand. Problem is a human being is not behind the adjustments in price: instead it is left up to a computer algorithm. Not exactly the best way to figure out a fair price.

Monday’s actions by Uber created yet another public relations black eye for the company which has struggled to gain any positive press recently. It also put Uber in an awkward position: having to defend its business practices amid a high profile crisis that made headlines worldwide.

Uber did respond quickly following a Mashable report highlighting the company’s ride prices in downtown Sydney during the crisis. For a brief time, rides out of Sydney’s Central Business District were free of charge, and Uber also promised refunds for those that paid the company’s surge prices. The sting remains though. Critics on social media blasted the company, and wondered why Uber didn’t step in before media pressure forced its hand.

Monday’s events clearly lay bare a critical flaw in how Uber does business. By leaving the surge pricing to computers that obviously have no clue what is causing the spikes in demand, Uber’s customers are subject to pricing that in the least looks tone deaf, and at worst is outright price gouging.

This issue has gained the attention of at least one state attorney general. Uber settled with the state of New York in July of this year, and agreed to limit its surge pricing to only the highest rate it has charged on any trip in the past sixty days. This policy was later adopted by the company nationwide.

It is not clear whether a similar policy was put in place in its overseas operations, however.

Given Uber’s fights with local transportation agencies over its legality to operate, events like this give those agencies even more ammunition against it. While these agencies do by default give certain taxi providers a monopoly on the market, they also exert tight controls over pricing.

These agencies strictly forbid any kind of surge pricing in most cases akin to what Uber does. Why should Uber be allowed to operate on a different set of rules? Yes it is a luxury service, but does that give it the right to charge three, four or more times its normal rates at the times where the public needs it the most?

No doubt in the coming days and weeks Uber will be forced to revisit its pricing strategies, and we can only hope that the next time the company is far more proactive in preventing a public relations nightmare than what it has on its hands now.

Iowa set to debut digital drivers licenses in 2015

Publié: décembre 11, 2014, 1:36pm CET par Ed Oswald

iowa

Iowa is first in the nation when it comes to selecting the candidates for the US Presidential election. Soon it will be the first to offer digital drivers licenses to residents in a mobile app, too.

In a budget hearing Wednesday, Iowa Department of Transportation chief Paul Trombino told state lawmakers in a budget hearing Wednesday that the app is set to launch next year. While the department still plans to issue old fashioned plastic licenses in the near-term alongside the app, Trombino says the app-based ID will be acceptable as identification for law enforcement and airport security officers in the state.

The digital ID app uses encryption for security, and requires a PIN number to access. The state is also looking into using optical bar codes and 3D-like photos to make the licenses even harder to copy. Officials say the move is logical, considering the ever increasing dependence on smart devices for a variety of applications.

Other forms of digital identification are already accepted in the state. Iowa (and 29 other states) accept digital versions of insurance cards as valid proof of insurance.

Besides using the app for identification purposes, the Iowa DOT will also use push information on traffic advisories and alert a driver when their license is about to expire. A small group of state employees will pilot the app over the next six months, with wider availability coming after that depending on the pilot’s success.

It’s likely that Iowans still will have to carry plastic IDs outside of the state, as laws on digital identification vary widely from state to state. There is also training to be done: police and other businesses will need to be instructed on how the system operates, and Iowa itself will need to ensure the system is secure. That is especially important.

Many years ago, easy to replicate licenses made getting a fake ID easy for underage youths, spurring states to beef up anti-counterfeiting measures. Does potentially insecure method of delivery like a smartphone app usher in a new black market for forged ID’s? That’s certainly something that the project’s detractors will be quick to point out.

Photo Credit: Alexander Jensen / Shutterstock

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T-Mobile’s Un-carrier effort unnerving wireless competitors

Publié: décembre 10, 2014, 2:19pm CET par Ed Oswald

panic

As T-Mobile announces yet another offering aimed at the nation’s top wireless carriers, one thing is clear: AT&T and Verizon feel the pain.

Both companies reported this week that they are finding it more difficult to retain customers as competition heats up in the US wireless market. Verizon says increasing competition is causing churn to trend "higher both sequentially and year over year", and expects these pressures to cut into profits and margins in the fourth quarter.

AT&T made similar statements to the Wall Street Journal, indicating it too was seeing price pressures that would affect its bottom line. But the hurt may only be beginning, as T-Mobile aims to gain a larger foothold in the US market.

T-Mobile introduced yet another salvo in its ongoing fight against industry norms, debuting a new family plan on Tuesday that costs $100 per month and offers unlimited LTE data, voice, and text for two lines. Additional lines (up to 8) cost $40 additional per month.

The latest offering is nearly 30 percent cheaper than T-Mobile’s previous two-line plans. It is also far below Verizon and AT&T, neither of which offer unlimited data. Verizon’s family plan for two lines and 20GB of data sets you back $180, and a similar plan from AT&T with 30GB of data for two lines is $160 per month.

"People are saying loud and clear that they hate the confusion and complexity of the carriers’ shared data plans, and they should", T-Mobile CEO John Legere says. "These plans are purpose-built to do one thing, take money from your pocket and put it into theirs".

Both current and new subscribers are able to take advantage of the new plans immediately. It should be mentioned that this plan is not a permanent fixture: T-Mobile intends to eventually discontinue the offer, but allow subscribers to keep the plan for life if they switch.

In an interview with Re/code, Legere repeated his official comments and added that he is not surprised by Verizon’s announcement regarding its finances. He says T-Mobile is on target to hit its own numbers this quarter, and that "the last thing" investors will hear is an earnings warning of any kind.

The earnings sheet will tell the story, however. All three companies are slated to report their quarterly earnings late next month.

Photo Credit: Stuart Miles /Shutterstock

Sony's wearable gamble: go big or go home

Publié: novembre 26, 2014, 9:29am CET par Ed Oswald

Paper watch

Sony will enter the wearable market with a high-tech watch made of electronic paper, reports indicate. The watch will likely debut early next year as one of the company’s first products from a division aimed at refocusing the company on innovation.

The watch is said to emphasize style over technology, and features a display that wraps around the entire wrist. This means both the face and wristband would be able to function as a display and change the user interface based on how the watch is used.

First reported by Bloomberg late Tuesday, Sony’s gamble seems aimed at bringing back the company to its former glory. Besides the popular PlayStation brand, the company has fallen behind its competitors in terms of innovation and has lacked a major new product for several years.

Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai created a new division at Sony earlier this year to address this, and its mission was simple: to create innovative products based on cutting-edge technologies. The most promising of these would then be sped to production and release, using the public at large as its test bed.

It’s a potentially risky move: Sony has been forced to cut both spending and shrink its workforce as a result of decreasing revenues. Hirai realizes this, but sees a refocus on innovation as the only way back for Sony. Moreover, he wants employees to think outside the Sony box when it comes to new product pitches.

Part of his plan includes an effort called the Sony Seed Acceleration Program, or SAP, which essentially works like a internal venture fund. Employees pitch ideas to the group, and receive funding for them much like small companies do now in front of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. From there, Sony provides guidance in planning, prototyping, and if the idea succeeds, production.

A product will either be folded into a existing Sony division, or potentially spun off into a separate company.

According to Bloomberg, Sony received 187 applications during the first call in June, of which 80 were allowed to proceed with funding. It’s not immediately clear whether or not the watch was one of these 80 initial projects that went forward, or a project that Sony already had in the works.

Hirai’s gamble does seem to be paying off, though. One employee told Bloomberg that the SAP was creating a buzz, especially among younger employees. At the same time, he said some were hesitant to come forward and present ideas out of fear they might fail.

There might be the biggest challenge for this apparently "new" Sony: making employees realize that the risk of failure is part of Hirai’s new startup-like philosophy.

Photo Credit: igor kisselev/Shutterstock

Obama's immigration moves not enough for Silicon Valley

Publié: novembre 21, 2014, 11:46am CET par Ed Oswald

Obama

While Republicans are seething over President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration, Silicon Valley headhunters and executives seem to think his plan doesn’t go far enough.

The tech sector is one of the less talked about victims of a broken immigration system: one where the United States trains and then loses some of the brightest prospects in tech. Making matters worse, those trying to stay in the country legally face long wait times as backlogs in processing for green cards get ever longer.

Obama briefly touched on the issue in his speech to the nation Thursday night. "I will make it easier and faster for high-skilled immigrants, graduates and entrepreneurs to stay and contribute to our economy, as so many business leaders have proposed," he said.

While the plans laid out do attempt to keep high-skilled workers trained in the US in the country instead of heading back overseas, it did almost nothing to fix the way so called H-1B visas are issued, or offer easier paths for visa holders to stay in the country permanently.

H-1B visas are awarded to workers in a variety of specialized fields including many technology-related professions and require a bachelor’s degree in order to apply.

A maximum of 85,000 visas are awarded every year: 65,000 to those with bachelor’s degrees and an additional 20,000 to those with masters or doctorate degrees. There is no prioritization of these applications however as they are awarded by lottery, and twice that number applied for 2014 alone.

Companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Intel and others have lobbied for more H-1B visa spots complaining that they lose talent due to these quotas. Some go a step further, arguing that these valuable workers should also be fast-tracked for green card applications.

Current H-1B visa holders have no guarantees that they will be able to stay, these people argue. For example, if a visa holder fails to obtain permanent residency status within six years, they must leave the country for one year before applying again for another H-1B visa, although extensions may be possible in some circumstances.

Moreover, if their employment is terminated, in many cases the worker must reapply with the sponsorship of a new employer, and may again be subject to the quotas.

The system is as confusing as it sounds, and headache-inducing for American tech companies attempting to attract top overseas talent. With Obama’s move Thursday, a solution might now be even further off as Republican’s focus now seems to be more of a personal battle with Obama himself rather than addressing the problems of a broken immigration system.

Photo credit: Mykhaylo Palinchak/Shutterstock

CurrentC is a threat to iPhone and Android users alike

Publié: octobre 28, 2014, 6:51pm CET par Ed Oswald

currentc

In the iPhone vs. Android drama, it’s easy to pit one side against the other. Closed architecture vs. open source. Vendor lock-in vs. consumer choice. iOS vs. Android. But a new effort by retailers is one thing that actually unites either side’s fanboys towards a common cause.

It’s called CurrentC. The effort is a payment network created by an organization of vendors known as the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), and aims to take credit card processors out of the equation. Payments are processed by MCX itself and then sent directly to your bank for payment. MCX partners read like a who’s who of companies that have refused to accept Apple Pay: Best Buy, CVS, Rite Aid, and Walmart, plus about 50 other major national stores and chains. Target is part of MCX too, however it's playing both sides of the fence (at least for now).

Low Tech, Little Privacy

CurrentC payments are processed using a QR code that is displayed on the payment terminal. To make the payment, the customer scans that QR code using his or her mobile device from within the CurrentC app. MCX is also allowing retailers to gather information on customer purchasing habits in the background for marketing purposes.

As an Android user, you might be saying "why should I care about these retailers banning Apple Pay?" Retailers from these chains are turning off NFC at the point of sale, meaning that no one, whether you’re using your NFC-enabled credit or debit card, Google Wallet, or Apple Pay, will be able to use contactless payment at all.

This NFC ban is bad for everyone. Apple and Google’s payment systems offer anonymous payment, and the retailer just knows they’re getting paid. While earlier reporting does seem to indicate that Apple has bigger plans for NFC and Apple Pay, in the end the payment is still anonymous.

Let’s also consider the user experience. With Apple Pay, all you need to do is get out your phone and place your thumb on the Touch ID sensor. You also have the choice of payment method. Perhaps you don’t want to pay for the item right away through a debit card? That’s okay, use your credit card instead.

Lack of Choice

CurrentC doesn’t give you this choice. It’s either debit, or store prepaid card. Since they’re giving the finger to the credit card processors, you can sure as hell bet you won’t find your Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express here. Plus the whole process is overly complicated and likely problem-prone.

What if your camera lens is dirty? It’s going to have problems focusing on that QR code, slowing things down. What if the app has trouble connecting to MCX’s servers? Too bad, the payment’s going to fail. And the fact that your information is being collected and likely shared among the group’s partners? No thank you, I control how my information is used and collected.

I’m also skeptical of a payment technology that is tied directly to my bank account using non-secure technologies. How secure is a QR code or the cloud, really? I understand that the QR code is for "one time use," however the payment process is now essentially happening outside the device especially when it goes to the cloud. With Apple Pay, payment processing occurs within the device through the secure element.

You tell me which one you’d think is more secure. CurrentC is overly complicated, and just leaves too many opportunities for something to go wrong, or a hacker to make their way in. That seems counterproductive.

So what can you do? First off, let the companies know. Through social media and by email (many already are). Next, change your shopping habits. Support places that support consumer choice when it comes to payments. It doesn’t matter whether you own an iPhone or an Android device, because this effort by certain retailers affects us all.

And most of all, start using Apple Pay or Google Wallet!

Stop the iScandal insanity!

Publié: octobre 27, 2014, 7:58pm CET par Ed Oswald

iPhone insanity

Another day, another iPhone scandal. It seems like we can’t go through one news cycle without something to blame Apple for. While yes, the iPhone is nowhere near perfect, at times the level of negative press has bordered on ridiculousness.

My patience with these iScandals reached its breaking point this weekend. Here on BetaNews we covered the latest media-created iPhone flaw, which apparently is called "dyegate". The gist is this: a small minority of users complain that their iPhones are being stained by the dye from their jeans. That’s right: it is Apple’s fault that the consumer purchased a cheap pair of jeans that weren’t correctly pre-washed at the factory to prevent these dye bleeding issues.

Nevermind that those cheap jeans could stain that consumer’s white shirt (I guess it’s the shirt manufacturer’s fault they made the shirt white), or anything else that’s in your pocket at that time. But we’ll blame Apple for it, because it makes for great link fodder.

To be fair to BetaNews, this was not our own story. This instead was based on reporting from another site. But this same site is running another manufactured scandal which leads me to suspect that these stories are not run exactly for their news value (ten years in tech news, you kind of see through these things).

Oh Wait, It Gets Better

This particular iScandal is "a serious software problem you should know about," the site claims. Here’s the Cliff Notes: the "problem" affects the 128GB iPhone 6 Plus model, and centers around crashes on devices with more than 700 apps installed.

Yes, 700+ apps! I am not even sure there are 200 apps I’d want to have, and I thought the 85 or so I had installed was a little extreme. But apparently there’s about four dozen or so users out there according to this Apple support forum post that do.

This again is something that can happen to any computer device. Load it down with hundreds of apps (which no doubt at least a quarter of them or more are operating in the background), and it’s going to cause problems whether you’re using a PC, a Mac, or a smartphone. Memory is a finite resource. Of course the device will eventually crash or freeze -- it’s likely out of memory!

There’s also "bendgate", which was partially disproven by Consumer Reports (yes, the center force testing is suspect, thus why I say partially). But what saddens me is that this was born out of coverage of a legitimate issue with iPhones that nearly everyone could reproduce.

How About a Real iScandal?

"Antennagate" was a legitimate iScandal. It affected a large portion of users, and even got Apple to admit that it messed up. However since then, it seems to have become de rigeur for the tech press to place every iScandal in the same realm. The reality is no iPhone issue since then has even come close in scope.

Why is this happening? Everyone has their opinions, but I do think the tech press has a propensity to concern themselves with linkbait over honest and actual news. We do a disservice to our readers by riling them up with half-assed stories and turn minor issues into showstopping problems. It’s the same thing that’s happening in the mainstream media with the Ebola "crisis".

Nobody is being served by this type of reporting. That’s a story for another day, though.

I’d like to hear from you all, and especially on Twitter. You can find me @edoswald. Use the hashtag #iScandalinsanity and share some of the other iScandals I haven’t covered here. Is Apple getting a fair shake?

Photo Credit: Stuart Miles /Shutterstock

UberX lands in hot water with Philadelphia Parking Authority

Publié: octobre 26, 2014, 6:02pm CET par Ed Oswald

uberX_FrontView_Color

Uber’s low-cost ride sharing program UberX launched in Philadelphia this weekend, but not without attracting the ire of the notorious Philadelphia Parking Authority. The agency claims UberX is operating illegally within the city, and has threatened to shut the service down.

Despite these threats, those looking for UberX rides in Philly will be hard pressed to find one. Uber ran a promotion for free rides up to $20 through the service to celebrate its launch, and through much of the weekend UberX showed no cars available.

UberX has been available in the Philadelphia suburbs for several months now, but its debut in the city itself was delayed due to questions of legality under city statutes. Uber changed its tune late last week however after insurer First Keystone Risk Retention Group, Inc. went bankrupt, leaving as much as a quarter of the city’s 1,600 taxis and limos without valid insurance.

Drivers of these cabs will have until Tuesday or Wednesday to obtain new insurance before being forced to park, PPA legal counsel says. Some taxi owners are fighting back though, claiming they’re covered for another 30 days despite the bankruptcy.

That placed the PPA in an odd spot when fighting back against Uber. "Public needs to know UberX drivers may not be licensed and cars may not be insured. Criminal background checks also in question," it wrote in a tweet on Saturday.

Uber shot back, noting that UberX drivers and passengers are protected under Uber’s $1 million insurance policy, which the company pointed out is 28 times more than what is required for PPA-backed taxis. It also pointed out that its background check policy is far more stringent. It claims that about 100 of the city’s PPA-sanctioned drivers would fail Uber’s background checks if they had applied.

Regardless of Uber’s claims, the PPA will impound any vehicle found to be driving for the UberX service, it says. In addition, both the driver and Uber will be fined $1,000 a piece. As of Sunday, five cars had been impounded through an undercover "sting" operation according to local media reports.

It was not clear what Uber is doing for drivers affected by PPA’s enforcement operations. It does seem likely though that UberX will end up meeting a similar fate as SideCar, which also tried unsuccessfully to launch in the city last year.

There too, the PPA impounded cars and issued fines claiming the service was illegal and that drivers lacked proper insurance. Three drivers were busted, and according to at least one media report drivers were instructed by SideCar itself to drop passengers off immediately and refuse service to any further passengers during that weekend.

SideCar no longer operates in the city.

Bluesmart debuts its intelligent 21st Century suitcase

Publié: octobre 23, 2014, 11:51pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Bluesmart

There are a few things that annoy the modern jet-setter more than anything. It is those pesky baggage restrictions for some. For others, it’s the airline’s uncanny ability to lose your luggage at the most inopportune times. Or maybe its those pesky TSA security lines or a lack of power outlets to charge your electronic devices.

Bluesmart Technologies wants to solve those problems in a new high-tech carry-on suitcase, and from the looks of it, the traveling public is ready to give the firm their hard-earned money.

Within two hours after the suitcase debuted on crowd-funding site Indiogogo, Bluesmart surpassed its $50,000 funding goal. Over 1,300 funders have contributed more than $310,000 to the project as of Thursday afternoon.

The suitcase connects to a user’s smartphone via Bluetooth. The user can lock and unlock the suitcase, weigh the contents within, track its location, and be alerted if the suitcase is left behind, all from Bluesmart’s mobile app.

"We came up with the idea for Bluesmart after suffering a couple of bad experiences with our luggage, when airlines forced us to check bags only to have them mishandled or lost," co-founder Tomi Pierucci says. "Suitcases haven’t seen much innovation in decades, so we decided to design a suitcase for this century".

Bluesmart adds specialized protected compartments for electronic devices to the standard clothing compartments, and goes even further by tapping into the suitcase’s internal battery for charging needs. The company claims a standard smartphone can be charged fully six times over.

The weighing mechanism is contained within Bluesmart’s handle. To weigh the contents, all the user needs to do is pick up the suitcase and access the weighing option within the app. Other features include TSA approved locking mechanisms and content exposure methods for smoother security experiences.

We did find the location services option a bit problematic, at least as its been explained so far. It appears the service will rely on other users to track your lost luggage, meaning once it's out of range it may be difficult for early adopters to effectively use this feature.

Of course, with all this technology comes some fun features, too. Bluesmart will track your travel information, giving you real time updates on miles traveled and countries visited, time away from home, and even updates on your flight information so that you don’t miss your flight.

The Bluesmart is expected to launch in July 2015 at a retail price of about $450 USD.

Five things to hate about the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Publié: septembre 25, 2014, 1:46pm CEST par Ed Oswald

iphone-6 unhappy

Second in a series. Yesterday we gave a rundown of five things to love about Apple’s new iPhone lineup. We pointed to the design, the screen, a better camera, choice in size, and NFC as some of the highlights.

I’m willing to wager this post is the one you all are waiting for given the patterns of BetaNews commenters, though. No doubt even some of the Apple faithful will admit the device is far from perfect. So, what bothers us about the new iPhones?

1. Fragility. Call it "Bendghazi". Or "Bendgate". Apple has a problem on its hands when it comes to the iPhone 6 series and its choice of manufacturing materials. It chose aluminum for the body, an easily malleable metal, and a thin piece of aluminum at that. Making matters worse, the glass used also appears to have a good deal of flexibility to it too. What does this equal? A perhaps too flexible phone.

Over the past few days reports have begun to flood in indicating how just a bit of pressure can cause the phone to deform. Hipsters and the general tight-jeans-wearing public are the most at risk for this issue to show up. Don’t try to bend it back either: those who have tried ended up with a cracked screen. Not a positive mark for Apple’s Quality Assurance team.

2. The iPhone 6 Plus. How can a whole phone be something to hate? Size matters. The iPhone 6 Plus is a monstrosity and an accident waiting to happen, as there’s almost no way to use it one-handed. iOS 8’s "Reachability" feature -- which brings the top of the screen halfway down the display to reach those top buttons -- is really only useful on the 6. You still need two hands for a 6 Plus regardless of what Apple says.

I can only imagine how many people are going to drop this thing while trying to manipulate their hands to hold it one handed. Honestly folks, if you really need a device that big you should be thinking about an iPad mini. It’s going to be a much better user experience overall, and with iOS 8 Continuity you can make phone calls from it if you really, really need to.

3. Scaling. This issue was something that can and should have been avoided. Apple doesn’t like tipping its hands on new products, and this is where it’s coming back to bite the company in the rear end. Scaling is a great feature because it makes any app automatically usable on the iPhone 6 series’ bigger screens. But as anybody knows, scaling up comes at a cost: clarity.

Scaled up apps look huge on the device and with the trend towards minimalist design that started with iOS 7’s release, more amateurish. It’s also a little weird to watch the top status bar from the home screen double in size when you load up a non-optimized app. And for whatever reason, Apple isn’t doing much to fix things.

Major apps like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Google’s Chrome and Gmail apps all still haven’t updated their UI’s as of Wednesday. At least three of those have been updated since iOS 8 and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were launched. Why is Apple still approving apps that haven’t flipped the switch yet? It doesn't make sense.

4. A not-so-quiet silent mode. Upgraders will notice one huge difference between previous models and the iPhone 6: the vibration. While I do have to say I am no longer missing calls because I just didn’t feel the phone vibrate, the vibration is, well, loud.

I am not quite sure whether this is a result of the variances in composition of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, or if the vibrator is in a different place and is also vibrating something beside it, but you really hear it. I’m sure for people looking to attack the iPhone, this is going to be something else to complain about.

5. The NFC walled garden. While I cheered the addition of NFC previously, I did not mention there’s a major downside. Apple is limiting use of the technology to just its Apple Pay service -- at least initially.

CNET got confirmation from an Apple spokesperson that developers will be locked out of using NFC for at least one year, and the fruit logo company declined to say if there were any plans to ever let developers use NFC in their apps.

For a company that has certainly made some strides to open things up this is a step backward. While I understand limiting NFC for payments to Apple only (hey, it’s the company's device), why prevent developers from using the chip for other innovative uses? It doesn’t make sense. There’s all kinds of cool uses out there -- pairing devices via Bluetooth with a tap, or sending information by tapping a device to another -- but iPhone users won’t be seeing those any time soon.

Photo Credit: Art Konovalov/Shutterstock

Five things to love about the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Publié: septembre 24, 2014, 10:42am CEST par Ed Oswald

Love iphone

First in a series. Now that the initial excitement surrounding the launch of the new iPhones has calmed down, most of us new iPhone owners have had a chance to play around with our new devices a bit.

So what’s there to love about the iPhone 6 lineup? What do we hate? In this first article we’ll take a look at the positives. No doubt, ten million phones sold over the weekend indicate that most consider this a significant step forward for the iPhone itself, so I think it’s only fair to you and Apple to wax poetic about the good things first. Note this is not a review, but more just musings on the device itself. Every tech publication known to man has already written how "game-changing" and "revolutionary" it is, so here we’re going to give equal time to both the fanboys and naysayers. Both camps have valid points.

1. The design

This by far is the best feature of the iPhone 6 series. I was not a fan of the iPhone 4/5 design at all. It was a step back to me for a company that prides itself on cutting-edge design aesthetics. What we got was a device that more resembled an outdated candybar design which every other manufacturer had moved away from years before.

Curves are back in style with the iPhone 6. What I find most visually appealing is how Apple rounds off the glass face which seamlessly blends into the body. The design also makes the phone itself fit in the hand better. A candybar design with a larger overall phone just isn’t comfortable to hold for long periods of time.

The reduction of bulk has a lot to do with the impression that the device weighs less. Compared to an iPhone 5, the iPhone 6 actually weighs about a half ounce more (4.55 oz). You don’t notice it.

2. Screen size choice

Apple admits with the iPhone 6 series that the size constraints it placed on the iPhone 4 and 5 do not work in today’s smartphone market. The iPhone 6 at 4.7 inches erases the criticisms that its display is too small -- it’s now square within the average size of most modern smartphones. For those who desire a larger size, iPhone 6 Plus’ 5.5-inch screen is about as big as you can get before one handed usability issues become significant.

I personally prefer the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 -- and it seems a lot of others do too. It still feels right in the hand, and doesn’t require two hands to use most of the time. I have held the iPhone 6 Plus too, but it’s not for me. At sizes like that, I’d rather have more screen space in a small tablet form (iPad mini), but to each their own.

3. The display

Apple’s Retina HD display truly is stunning. Colors are crisp and accurate, and fonts are much clearer. Pictures and video look great on the device, and the display has significantly better visibility at indirect angles. I did notice even in sunny outdoor conditions that it was much easier to see things on the screen. That’s been a complaint for a long time and Apple has fixed it as best they could in the iPhone 6.

What may be the difference is better contrast here: 1,300:1 in the iPhone 6 Plus and 1,400:1 in the iPhone 6, up from an 800:1 contrast ratio in the iPhone 5 series.

4. The camera

Finally! While it’s still an 8-megapixel camera there are noticeable differences. Autofocus is significantly faster, and in the iPhone 6 Plus you gain optical image stabilization, which makes for much clearer photos as hand shake is compensated for. But where the new iSight camera shines is in low light.

Critics (especially those from the Nokia crowd) pointed to Apple’s generally poor performance across the line when it comes to low light photography as a big negative for the iPhone in general. I have to say that the difference is literally night and day from personal use, pardon the pun. Pictures are still grainy, but significantly less so.

It is clear that Apple spent quite a bit of time on the camera to address these criticisms, and it is much welcomed by those of us that have stuck with the company since the original iPhone.

5. NFC

Yes, Apple is late to the party. But can anyone point to a NFC solution that has managed to see widespread adoption yet? I doubt it. Soft Card (formerly Isis) still seems mired in corporate disputes and has yet to find widespread adoption -- it’s only available in about 200,000 retail locations nationwide.

Google Wallet seems to be a little more successful, however Google itself doesn’t seem very interested in pushing the technology on a consistent basis.

Apple is taking a slightly different route, making NFC only a part of Apple Pay. It also showed during the September 9 keynote that it plans to push it as a method for in-app payment. This difference in how it is marketed to the consumer may be the answer to general apathy from the public at large when it comes to NFC.

If you program the consumer to use something and commit to it, it’s much more likely they’ll use it consistently. NFC on the iPhone 6 is not only a means to join the ever growing number of smart devices adopting the technology, but to also change how customers use their devices overall.

We can only hope that this lifts the entire wireless payment industry up, and brings a technology to the mainstream that has sat in the shadows for quite a long time.

Wearable tech: Where do we draw the line?

Publié: septembre 17, 2014, 2:35pm CEST par Ed Oswald

wearables

Wearable tech is back in the forefront with the release of the Apple Watch. Apple’s entrant is sure to help the sector overall, with expectations of tens if not hundreds of millions of devices to ship annually from Apple and others by the end of the decade.

This success does not come without its share of questions, however. Unlike our cell phones, tablets, and video game consoles, this new class of devices are different. For a lack of a better way to say it, they are a part of you. Its use carries significant societal and moral implications.

Those issues came to my mind after reading a recent piece by my colleague Joe Wilcox. In it, he spoke of comparing the Apple Watch with Google Glass. I do agree with him on his central argument of innovation: Google Glass is far more innovative than Apple Watch in several respects.

I think he misses a bigger question, however: which device has a greater societal impact? And how will it affect us?

You can think of wearable technology as coming in two flavors: intrusive and non-intrusive. Non-intrusive wearable technologies follow the same patterns of your typical smart device: it’s complementary, dismissible, and secondary to how we interact. Apple Watch is a perfect example here. You’re not connected to it at all times.

(In fairness to the Android faithful, you could easily substitute the Galaxy Gear here any time the Apple Watch is mentioned. The argument remains the same.)

Google Glass is different. Its use is intrusive. Wearers live in augmented reality. Looking at the sky gives you the weather. Walking or driving down the street, directions where you’re heading appear in your field of view. A near never-ending stream of information bombards our senses. It’s more supplementary than complementary. Data is persistent rather than dismissible. In many cases, the data becomes central to how we interact with each other and objects around us.

Modern society is already attached too much to our digital devices as it is, and intrusive wearable technologies exacerbate the problem. Is your Google Glass-wearing friend really listening to you, or is he checking the latest Yankees score? That lady in front you on the Capital Beltway: is she paying more attention to the roadway and those cars in front of her, or the directions in her field of view?

You can argue that this is just a distraction rather than a complement. These issues and the entire concept of the extent technology will take over our everyday life is probably one of the great technological riddles of this century. Are we really ready to put another barrier up to human-to-human interaction?

Innovation isn’t everything. Consumers and the technology manufacturers alike must remain cognizant of the implications of wearable tech at every turn. Do intrusive wearable technologies have their place? They certainly do, but society as a whole must decide if it really has a place in everyday life.

I’m interested to hear the community’s opinions on the implications of wearable tech. What do you think? Is there a line society is about to cross that may be a step too far? Let me know here in the comments.

Image Credit: JMicic/Shutterstock

Apple's next big thing is even bigger for Invensense

Publié: septembre 12, 2014, 8:57pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Apple Watch

Analysts and the Apple faithful alike fawned over the new device when Apple introduced the Apple Watch on Tuesday, the company’s first new product of the Cook era. However, if you’re one to believe rumors, an upstart company called Invensense may stand to gain the most from Apple’s latest device.

An increasing amount of evidence now suggests that the San Jose, Calif. based company stands to cash in on the Apple Watch, as it is believed that Invensense is supplying Apple with the components necessary to power the Apple Watch’s most compelling features.

Inven-who?

Who is Invensense? Its chips and sensors --including those so-called "system-on-a-chip" solutions -- can be found on devices including cell phones, tablets, remote controls, and gaming devices. Although founded in 2003, the company didn’t see significant growth until the past five years or so, when mobile sensing technologies became more ubiquitous.

Device manufacturers looked for more intuitive ways for user interaction. The standard point and click (or in mobile device terms, point and tap) gave way to gyroscopes, accelerometers, compasses, and other methods to measure motion in free space. Invensense specialized in these technologies, and was primed to capitalize.

The company’s bottom line reflects this: annual revenue has nearly tripled over the past three fiscal years ending in March. Invensense president and CEO Behrooz Abdi said in a recent earnings release that recent design wins are "positioning us for strong market share increases in the coming quarters".

Could one of those design wins be Apple? There are some hints that the answer could be yes.

It’s All About Battery Life

The aforementioned components that Invensense focuses on -- while making our phones more useful -- also drain the device’s battery. Ensuring minimal battery drain is going to be paramount in a device as small as the Apple Watch.

Apple is certainly concerned with battery life. LTE adoption in the iPhone was held up long after it had become commonplace elsewhere due to battery life concerns. There is even evidence as reported by Re/code earlier this week that current iterations of the Apple Watch drain the battery in less than a day.

Invensense is positioned well to meet these challenges. Low power is a signature of its product lineup, and one of its new chips seems like a good fit. In June, the company announced the release of a new gyroscope chip that uses just under six milliwatts of power in a chip that is only .75 millimeters thick. Invensense also has several other products aimed at low-power applications which seem a natural fit for devices like the Apple Watch.

Apple: The Big Get

Product additions alone aren’t sufficient evidence that Apple is ready to jump on board with Invensense. Another clue could come in the company’s dramatic increase in production capacity. Earlier this year, the company announced it was ramping up capacity from 400 million units to nearly one billion units annually.

Such a dramatic shift in production is not made on a hunch alone, especially for a relatively small (at least for now) chipmaker. The company must have gained a major customer, as there are very few electronics companies able to place large enough orders to warrant this need. Several of those companies are already Invensense customers, but not Apple.

Those changes caught the eye of stock analysts like Pacific Crest’s John Vihn, who said with the new capacity Invensense "remains extremely well-positioned to penetrate Apple this year". Other analysts argue that getting into the Apple Watch provides a gateway into Apple’s other portable devices, creating even more upside for the company’s bottom line.

Of course, with Apple’s secretive nature and its control of its partners and what they can say, it is likely we’ll get no confirmation until the new year at the earliest. But if true, Invensense may be well positioned to become Silicon Valley’s next hot company.

Microsoft, Oracle and others side with Apple over US iPhone 4 ban

Publié: juillet 30, 2013, 9:44am CEST par Ed Oswald

Representatives of several companies are asking the Obama Administration to intervene in a patent dispute between Apple and Samsung that resulted in a ban of the sale of older iPhones in the US.

The International Trade Commission ruled last month that Apple infringed on patents owned by Samsung, and ordered a ban on the sale of the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 in the country beginning August 4. Of those devices, only one is now sold. The effect on Apple’s business is likely to be considerable however, given that the iPhone 4 is now free with contract through most of its US partners.

In a rare show of solidarity, representatives for Microsoft, Intel, and Oracle have come to Apple’s aid, arguing through the trade group BSA that bans on products due to the use of standards-essential patents should not be permitted except under extraordinary circumstances.

Verizon and AT&T -- who too stand to lose out in a deal -- also have contacted the Administration asking US Trade Representative Michael Froman to nix the ruling. Froman has the authority to overturn such rulings, but doing so would be unusual. The US Government has not overturned an ITC ban since 1987, when the Reagan Administration nixed a ban on the importation of Samsung memory chips.

Although Apple does not break out sales of its iPhones by model, it is believed the iPhone 4 sells well as a result of its low price. The device accounted for 18 percent of all iPhone sales between April and June of this year, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners says.

Without the iPhone 4, Apple stands to lose a significant portion of its market share and a chunk of its sales. The effect will likely only be temporary -- given the iPhone 5S and a cheaper plastic iPhone are expected to debut in September or October of this year.

Ed Oswald is the founder and editor-in-chief of TechPolitik, a technology blog that explores technology issues and their effect on politics in Washington, D.C. and around the world. His work has appeared on several sites including BetaNews, ExtremeTech, PC World, Technologizer and VentureBeat over the past decade in the tech news business.

FISA court orders allow data storage without a warrant

Publié: juin 21, 2013, 9:06am CEST par Ed Oswald

A set of two FISA court orders leaked on Thursday indicate that surveillance agencies can store data it has collected for up to five years, even on those not suspected of any crime.

The latest revelations indicate that the secretive court gives the NSA broad powers to maintain a database of information regardless of how the agency maintained it. This includes data that is "inadvertently" collected as part of a broader investigation. Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on both orders in April 2009, indicating the storage of data has likely occurred for at least four years, if not longer.

While strict rules exist on how data on US citizens is collected and stored, these FISA court orders seem to give the NSA a method to store data on Americans even if it was not the intended target. While most data collected in this way is destroyed, the court orders spell out how it can be kept for use in investigations.

According to documents obtained by the Guardian, the data can be retained if it contains "significant foreign intelligence information," "believed to contain evidence of a crime that has been, is being, or about to be committed," addresses a security vulnerability, or contains information on "a serious threat to life or property". These conditions apply to both information on those suspected of a crime, as well as the "inadvertent" data collection.

The latest leaks directly conflict with statements made by President Obama and members of his Administration since the first FISA court orders leaked two weeks ago. As recently as Monday, Obama himself said contents of phone calls and emails were not collected without a warrant.

Only general information was supposedly collected, the President told PBS’ Charlie Rose in a sit-down interview.

While this may be the case for data where the NSA knows the person is located in the US, if the agency cannot determine the person’s location, the FISA court orders state that it is permissible to treat the person as if they were outside of the country. That means the contents of the calls or emails are indeed permissible to listen in on, regardless of Fourth Amendment protections.

Edward Snowden -- A fine line between hero and traitor

Publié: juin 15, 2013, 9:50am CEST par Ed Oswald

The South China Morning Post is the next stop on Snowden’s media tour. Not to discuss the NSA’s surveillance on American citizens, but the agency’s work in China. You read that right, that’s not a typo.

Snowden tells the (semi) independent Hong Kong paper that the NSA’s PRISM program is used against companies and people within China, and that the US government is and has been hacking into computers in both China and Hong Kong for at least four years.

He even told the Morning Post how we do it: by hacking into Chinese network backbones, allowing the US government to spy on Chinese Internet traffic without hacking into each computer. So, the Chinese government now has proof of our actions within the country, and that’s troubling.

Snowden’s motives for running to the Chinese media is unclear. The Morning Post says he provided them with “unverified documentation” supporting his claims. Such a revelation shows that Snowden may have far more in his possession than we already know, and God only knows who else he plans to share it with.

But why? Why did the Chinese need to know?

China Shouldn’t Be Part of This Story

I have a hard time comprehending why he felt the need to talk to the Chinese. Especially with evidence that China stole weapon designs and is actively stealing intellectual property from American business. If Snowden’s truly an American, he would have thought twice about helping them.

I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American.

It’s a fine line between traitor or hero. He’s right: he’s certainly no longer a hero. His efforts to get the NSA off American’s backs was much needed. His new tack to reveal our country’s methods to monitor foreign countries is not, and is getting damn close to treasonous. There’s a lot China is doing that this country needs to be worried about, and no American with knowledge of our actions should be THAT willing to share anything.

The last thing we need is somebody like Snowden blabbing to those that we need to keep an eye on that he has evidence of our activities and how we’re doing it. Who’s next? Russia? North Korea? Even for libertarians, this should be seen as a very slippery slope.

(I’ll note that Russia is one of the countries offering Snowden asylum. With the chilling of US-Russia relations, I can’t see them not trying to find out similar information on our efforts there first. He already talked once, why not again?)

The bottom line is this, and it’s a plea to your better judgement, Mr. Snowden. If you are truly an American, you will stop talking now. At least to others. You had a point when it was about America. Talking to China, you look more and more now like Benedict Arnold.

That’s a shame.

Toshiba bows out of Windows RT, Microsoft works damage control

Publié: août 14, 2012, 10:55pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Toshiba is the third Microsoft OEM to pass on Windows RT, saying Tuesday that it has cancelled all plans for devices based on the platform for the foreseeable future. The announcement follows the very public comments of Acer CEO JT Wang, whose comments on Surface suggest his company isn't interested either, and a similar move by HP back in June.

"Toshiba has decided not to introduce Windows RT models due to delayed components that would make a timely launch impossible. For the time being, Toshiba will focus on bringing Windows 8 products to market", a company spokesperson tells BetaNews.

Toshiba's announcement timing is interesting considering the comments of Microsoft ecosystem and planning chief Mike Angiulo on Monday. Angiulo tried to calm the nerves of the community, saying the Redmond, Wash. company is doing all it can to work with partners on both Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Microsoft "worked very hard" to Support Partners

"Microsoft has worked very hard with this release to provide the tools and support to contribute to new PCs that are more reliable, faster, use fewer system resources, and have improved software loads than comparable Windows 7 PCs", Angiulo says. He lists Dell, Lenovo and Samsung as ready to produce RT devices.

There are two noticeably missing from that list, Acer and Toshiba. This omission could mean that Microsoft knew about Toshiba's announcement ahead of time, and used the blog post to limit the damage.

"Windows RT represents a significant reimagining of not only Windows, but Windows PCs and how we partner together to engineer them", Angiulo concludes. "We are looking forward to the exciting announcements ahead from Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung".

Toshiba's Decision came Recently

Toshiba's announcement can be seen as somewhat a surprise. Texas Instruments was the company's partner building Windows RT devices. The two had already shown off concept hardware, and things were going well -- as recently as two weeks ago.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, TI Windows development manager Kathy Brown describes development as "going well", saying she is "very excited" with Toshiba's plans. At the same time, Brown did admit RT development is difficult. That said, Dow Jones characterized the interview as positive.

So why the decision in such quick order? With TI nor Toshiba commenting further on the circumstances surrounding Tuesday's news, any suggestions to the true reasoning would be pure speculation at this point.

No One Reason for ditching Windows RT

It isn't clear why OEM's are seemingly running away from Windows RT. There are a few possible reasons though. The first as discussed is Microsoft's decision to encroach on OEM's turf with the Surface. These partners may feel attempting to compete with Microsoft itself is not worthwhile as consumers may see the tablet as an inherently superior product due to the fact that it's built by Microsoft.

But there could be another reason, and that's support. Since RT is built to support ARM processors, no x86-based software will work. This creates an issue for these manufacturers in that the amount of software available will be far less than its Intel-based counterpart for an extended period of time.

Photo Credit: arindambanerjee/Shutterstock

Apple price matches iPhone, but it's nothing new -- should you wait anyway?

Publié: août 10, 2012, 8:57pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Here come the iPhone price cuts. With the launch of the iPhone 5 likely a little over a month away, retailers are beginning to drop prices on iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S models in stock in order to make way for the new device.

There's a key difference here over previous pricing changes, and that's the adjustments are originating with the carriers first and trickling down to retailers. AT&T and Verizon's pricing on the iPhone 4 and 4S remain at $99 and $199 for the 16GB model: however Sprint has lowered the price of the 4S to $149.99.

Some retailers have taken things a step further: Radio Shack and Best Buy are also discounting the iPhone 4 8GB, which is now available for $49.99. This results in uneven pricing, including in Apple's flagship stores.

Thus, the Cupertino, Calif. company has authorized its employees to take the seemingly unprecedented move of honoring price matching upon request.

There's only one issue with that: it's actually nothing new for Apple, as far as we can tell. You may not have ever heard of it, but apparently Apple has had a price matching policy for quite a long time, possibly as long as its retail stores have been in existence. There is evidence as far back as 2008 showing Apple price matching on hardware, and we even caught a forum post on MacRumors from 2004 where Apple apparently had listed a similar policy on its online store for a time (the link on apple.com has since been moved or removed).

So while this may seem groundbreaking, the only thing that might be different here is the fact that a tipster got ahold of Apple's price matching plans and sent it off to MacRumors, where details of Apple's policy regarding iPhone pricing first appeared on Thursday.

While the price cut will probably attract some fence-sitters, is it worth it to jump on a new iPhone now? Probably not. Both the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S are likely to see a price cut in about a month, when the iPhone 5 is expected to launch. The iPhone 4 will likely become free with a two-year contract, while the iPhone 4S will drop to $99.

If we use Apple's previous strategy as an indication, the 4S will likely only come in an 8GB capacity, so if space is a concern for you, and you don't care about LTE data, buying the 4S at a discount now might be a good deal.

There's another issue, and that's the discount on these models isn't that big: just 25% on the iPhone 4S. If you can hold out just a month more (from what the rumors tell us), for $50 more you could be getting a much better phone.

Matt Brownell of the financial site MainStreet.com just might have the best advice here: "Unless you just dropped your iPhone in the toilet and desperately need a new smartphone now, we suggest showing a bit of patience". Maybe he's right.

Photo Credit: Lou Oates/Shutterstock

Mars Rover Curiosity camera isn't as good as your cell phone's

Publié: août 9, 2012, 10:19pm CEST par Ed Oswald

NASA's Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars on Sunday night, and almost immediately began transferring back to Earth the first images of the Martian surface. But for its reported $2.5 billion price tag, the images have a little less clarity than you might expect.

Curiosity's cameras have a maximum resolution of two megapixels. For perspective's sake, modern smartphones typically are 8MP or more. The result will be images that are sharper than those of Martian rovers past, yet lack the clarity that would be expected of a modern research craft.

So why does Curiosity have such a low-tech camera on board? There are two big reasons: the rover's long developmental period and limitations on the transmission of interplanetary data, says camera project manager Mike Ravine of Malin Space Science Systems.

In an interview this week with Digital Photography Review, Ravine notes that his company had been working on Curiosity's cameras as early as 2004. The specifications called for 8GB of on-board flash memory, which may sound like a lot is not much considering the rover's two year mission on the planet's surface.

A two-megapixel camera will obviously produce images that are small enough in size to permit thousands of images to be stored in Curiosity's on-board memory. Additionally in 2004 terms, 2MP wasn't so low-tech as it is now. That's when the design for the camera was proposed, and Ravine notes that his company couldn't develop something else once NASA approved its proposal.

An even bigger consideration for both NASA and Ravine's team is bandwidth. As it stands now, interplanetary data transmission is a slow and tedious process. Curiosity sends data to two satellites currently orbiting Mars -- the former Mars Reconnaissance and Mars Odyssey orbiters -- which then transmit data back to Earth. But at a speed of only 128Kbps, it's still quite slow in modern terms. This is not a lot of bandwidth given the scope of the Curiosity mission.

While pictures are what most of us are going to associate with the Curiosity mission, the rover has far more data that it must send back. With only about 250 megabytes of data able to be transmitted back to Earth daily according to Ravine, bandwidth is at a premium.

There still should be visually stunning images from these cameras. The image shown below of Curiosity's heat shield falling away from the rover before final descent is arguably one of the clearest images sent back from an outer space research vessel yet. At the same time, these will be the exception and not the rule as NASA will need to pick and choose which images to retrieve due to the lack of bandwidth.

So how do we solve this bandwidth problem? At last year's TEDxMidAtlantic event in Washington, D.C., Google chief evangelist and "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf talked about the need for an interplanetary Internet. The beginnings of such a system already exists in how NASA and other space agencies are repurposing orbiting spacecraft to become communications relays.

But what happens when spacecraft begin to travel longer distances in their missions, say to distant stars like Alpha Centauri? Our modern point-to-point radio link system will be far less reliable, and the delays will be immense. It will soon be time to re-imagine how our spacecraft "phone home", or face an ever more difficult time in leveraging our modern technologies to advance the pace of space research.

YouTube app disappears from latest iOS 6 beta, Apple says license has 'ended'

Publié: août 6, 2012, 9:19pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Apple's divorce from Google is nearly complete: say goodbye to the native YouTube app. The change came within iOS 6 Beta 4 which released to testers on Monday. The reasons for the move are unclear: little was said other than the license to carry YouTube in iOS had expired.

Monday's news follows Apple's decision to dump Google Maps in favor of its own in-house solution. As competition heated up in the smartphone sector and Google's Android gained more market share, the two companies have begun to distance themselves from one another.

The only core Google functionality that remains default in iOS is search. However even there users are not bound to the Mountain View, Calif. search giant: they may instead search through Yahoo or Bing. Thus, in some cases iOS devices could be completely Google-free.

"Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended", Apple said of its move in a prepared statement. The company is recommending users of the iOS 6 beta take advantage of YouTube's mobile website, and say Google is working on a standalone version of the app which will be included in the App Store.

While beta users may find the ditching of YouTube as a minor inconvenience, in the end the divorce could work out better for both sides. iOS' YouTube app often worked kind of clunky, and video quality at times seemed inferior to that streamed by the HTML5 based app. There also hasn't been a major update to the app itself since its inception.

Google may like producing its own app more because it will no longer be bound by some of the tight constraints Apple likely put on the native app itself. It's not out of the question to expect the company to include advertising in its own in-house app. After all, that's where Google makes a good deal of its money.

A request for comment from Google on the move and on a timeframe for the standalone app went unanswered as of press time.

Apple's dock connector update may trigger refresh of entire product line

Publié: août 6, 2012, 8:35pm CEST par Ed Oswald

While the focus on Apple's next big thing has surrounded the likely release of the iPhone 5 next month, the Cupertino, Calif. company's decision to change the dock connector may affect its entire product line, a new report claims.

Rene Ritchie at iMore says sources told the publication that the entire iOS device lineup will receive a refresh when the iPhone 5 launches, rumored to occur on September 12. The report claims that date will see a refreshed iPad, new iPod nano and iPod touches, the iPhone 5, and even the debut of the 7-inch iPad.

Such a massive refresh would be unusual for Apple, which traditionally separates these unveils. At the same time, a move to a smaller dock connector presents an issue for the company itself and especially third-party accessory makers, who would for a period of time have to deal with producing accessories for two types of Apple dock connectors.

A single refresh of the entire line will allow for a gradual phase-out of the 30-pin connector to the new 12-pin one, which is believed to be a result of Apple needing more space for the LTE chipset and additional battery power. It also allows Apple to move the headphone jack from the top to the bottom of the device, which has been frequently mentioned as a likely design change in the iPhone 5.

For the other devices, it may not be as much about space as continuity and for the reasons already stated.

A change from the 30-pin to 12-pin adapter may in some cases obsolete a large number of accessories, however there has been some talk of an Apple-produced adapter being offered in the short term. Details have been scant, but it would not be out of the ordinary for Apple to do such a thing.

When the company updated its MagSafe adapter port, it offered an adapter for older models. It has also done the same with various display adapters, which sometimes were included in the box. While it is not clear if Apple will do the same thing with the dock connector adapter, there is precedent for such a move.

As for iMore's claims of a new 7-inch iPad, the site might find some validation in its rumors from events surrounding the Apple-Samsung patent trial currently underway. Reuters reported over the weekend that Apple officials were discussing a 7-inch model as early as January 2011, even as its ailing CEO Steve Jobs was publicly decrying such an idea.

These e-mails indicate that Jobs may have been speaking out of both sides of his mouth: Reuters described Jobs' attitude towards the suggestions of a 7-inch iPad as 'receptive'.

What's in a name? Metro becomes a bad word at Microsoft

Publié: août 3, 2012, 8:07pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft isn't known for its ability in picking catchy names, so it was somewhat shocking when the Redmond, Wash. company began referring to its clean, typography-first interface as "Metro". It was beautifully simple, and just seemed to fit.

Not anymore.

For whatever reason, Microsoft appears to have decided Metro is a bad word, and has instructed its teams to stop using the brand name.

We don't exactly know why, either. Tom Warren at The Verge initially reported Thursday that the change had to do with a possible trademark dispute involving a German company called Metro AG, Mary Jo Foley heard similar rumors from her own sources, but added the move away from Metro could be due to overuse.

Was Metro getting played out like .NET did nearly a decade ago? Was its meaning being muddied as a result, and Microsoft decided its overexposure was doing more harm than good? We just don't know, and the statement we received doesn't explain much either.

"We have used Metro style as a code name during the product development cycle across many of our product lines", Microsoft representatives told BetaNews. "As we get closer to launch and transition from industry dialog to a broad consumer dialog we will use our commercial names".

That was news to us. For what it's worth, Metro was never offered just as a code name. Typically, Microsoft code names are not so commonly used in both marketing materials and in public if there's no intention of holding on to it.

Metro had become a brand -- a recognizable term to describe the drastic change in Windows UI design. But now we're being told that it should never be spoken of again, and it just seems mighty strange so close to the public availability of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, where Metro (or apparently now, Windows 8 Style UI) plays a big part.

So where do we go from here? Although Microsoft would not comment further on the situation, elsewhere it was reported that the company could debut a new term to replace Metro as early as this weekend. I think we all share the hope that the new name doesn't go back to the clunky nomenclature that Microsoft has too often used in the past.

Until then, I guess we'll still be calling it Metro, and I'm willing to bet a lot of other people will too, regardless of the new name.

Photo: Imagestalk/Shutterstock

Dead Trigger is now free on iOS too, but is piracy really to blame?

Publié: août 2, 2012, 7:59pm CEST par Ed Oswald

A week after Madfinger Games made much to-do about piracy driving its decision to make first-person zombie shooting game Dead Trigger free on the Android platform, the game developer has now done the same for the iOS version.

Those who purchased the game while it was 99 cents will be given in-game currency 25 gold and ten casino chips in the 1.1.2 update. Unlike last time however, there is no grandstanding from CEO Marek Rabas on a privacy problem on Apple's mobile platform. All we know is that Madfinger is moving to a "freemium" model with Dead Trigger, and in one case, blamed it on piracy.

Mobile app piracy is indeed a growing problem, and the concern that it may be detrimental to the platform overall is growing as well. Android's freeform method of allowing application installs from other app repositories other than the official channels does make this a good deal easier.

This is significantly more difficult on the iOS platform because Apple controls the process from the top down. There's no way to get pirated content onto an iOS device unless it's jailbroken. Rabas admits this, and recently said "the number of pirates on iOS is comparable with the amount of jailbroken devices". The process of jailbreaking is still a somewhat complex effort, so its extent is probably overstated.

What's the real reason for making the game free? It's simple: for smaller developers, the freemium model works better. When you have next to no exposure, and are trying to get your app in the hands of as many people as possible, going free-to-download just works.

In conversations with small developers, I have found in nearly every case that this move not only increased downloads, but also made the game more profitable overall. The developer reels you in by allowing you to play the game for free, but you stay and end up purchasing something while you're playing to make the gaming experience more enjoyable. My BetaNews colleague Tim Conneally has even confessed that he makes more in-app purchases in games he likes as a gesture of support to the developer. It's a variation of the "pay what you like" model that many musicians have tried with new mp3 albums.

Madfinger said in a statement on its Facebook page that Dead Trigger is not freemium, but in the end there are still in-app purchases. People are still going to buy those extras, and Madfinger's going to make money -- it's as simple as that.

As much as Rabas and others may protest that point of view, most people do not spend endless hours in front of the computer writing thousands of lines of code just to give it away. If that was the case, why would Dead Trigger have been 99 cents in the first place?

Why aren't you mobilizing your business in the cloud?

Publié: août 1, 2012, 8:59pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Is your business cloud-ready? More importantly, are you using the cloud to mobilize your business? Mobile connectivity has become crucial to businesses, and in many cases a necessity. While on the road, it's important for your employees to have access to their email, mission-critical business applications, and the Web itself.

A recent study by research firm SMB Group showed that small-and-medium businesses are looking to mobilize, not only increase productivity but save money. Forty-four percent of all respondents said the ability to work from the field was a driving force in their mobile business strategy, while one-quarter say the ability to make decisions faster was a key factor.

That said, it's crucial to make the right decision when planning out your mobile business strategy.

Big, Big Data

Businesses transfer larger amounts of data, which vary based on the business: remote monitoring of company assets, telemetry data, security footage, fleet management, or offsite diagnostics are just a few data-intensive applications. Machine-to-machine solutions may help manage those costs.

Verizon is one of the companies focusing on M2M solutions, and might be the answer to manage big data in your IT deployment. The company currently offers four separate solutions along these lines, which can be customized based on need.

These include VMware vCloud Express, Verizon's on-demand computing solution; Enterprise Cloud, which offers IaaS functionality; colocation services in Verizon's more than 50 data centers worldwide; and managed hosting, which offers 24/7 managed services for both virtualized and dedicated resources.

Taken together, Verizon's cloud computing suite is an alternative to other major scalable computing offerings, including those from Amazon and the recently announced Oracle cloud. All these companies see a growing market -- and a lot of money to be made -- in big data.

It's About The Apps, And The Support

While getting into the cloud makes good business sense for these companies, the services are only as good as the apps available. It's the reason why Oracle made a big deal out of the 100+ apps its cloud supports, and why Amazon repeatedly boasts about its widespread support among cloud software developers.

In Verizon's case, the company has announced support for its own suite of business apps, as well as the popular Google Apps for Business. It will also host private app stores for its customers, which are vital for those looking to provide a central location for its employees for company-specific applications.

Obviously, Verizon is a communications company, so some type of communications product is going to play a key role. The company offers something called "Unified Communications and Collaboration as a Service (UCCaaS)" (which we'll discuss in the next section), as well as a mobile payment solution from Intuit GoPayment.

Given the success and popularity of Square, and its quick adoption among small-and-medium businesses, it should be no surprise that Verizon has decided to include such a service in its own mobile business packages. Mobile payment processing is a big deal, especially for those businesses where a large majority of the workday (and week) is not spent in an office.

You might also remember as part of the Oracle announcement that company's focus on what it called "world class support". Most cloud providers these days realize the key to a successful cloud offering is not only giving customers the computing power and application support they want, but also the support to ensure that it all works.

When choosing a cloud solutions provider, ensure it has sufficient support resources. Verizon points out to us that it has 3,000 professional consultants on call, which seems to suggest they're taking the support side of things just as seriously as Oracle has.

Staying Connected Inside and Outside the Office

While mobile connectivity is important, so is staying connected within the office. As mentioned previously, Verizon is a communications company first, which means their business cloud offering will highlight these inherent advantages.

The company features two devices that showcase its advanced communications strategy: the Cisco Cius, and the Mobile Unified Communications Client and Docking Station.

The Cisco Cius is a detachable business tablet integrated with a desktop phone that allows employees to use Cisco video and web conferencing tools. The Cius supports WebEX, and can improve communications through its wide array of telepresence and instant messaging features.

For those worried about security, data is protected through the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client to ensure that data never falls into the wrong hands.

The Mobile Unified Communications Client and Docking Station offers PBX functionality through select mobile devices, and allows mobile users to take advantage of features available through your PBX system -- such as low-cost international calling -- that might not be available on their handset.

To enable the PBX functionality, all the employee needs to to is dock their supported smartphone in the provided dock at the top of the phone. It's as simple as that.

To support SMBs advanced communications needs, Verizon offers Unified Communications and Collaboration as a Service, which like any cloud service allows them to pay for only the needed resources.

Top Photo Credit: James Thew/Shutterstock

NBC pressures Twitter to shutter account of journalist critical of Olympics coverage

Publié: juillet 30, 2012, 10:28pm CEST par Ed Oswald

As criticism over NBC's coverage of the 2012 Olympics in London grows, the network now finds itself at the center of a controversy surrounding its apparent involvement in the suspension of the Twitter account of an American journalist.

Guy Adams, the Independent's Los Angeles bureau chief, has been extremely critical of NBC's coverage of the games. In a series of tweets, Adams takes on NBC's decision to run almost no major event live, and Matt Lauer's sometimes inane banter during the Opening Ceremony coverage. Adams even went so far as to criticize NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel.

But there's one tweet that apparently ticked off executives at Comcast-NBC enough for them to seek out Twitter to silence Adams, and here it is:

guyadams Guy Adams
The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven't started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com

Adams' decision to publish Zenkel's e-mail is apparently what caused NBC to complain directly to Twitter, and successfully have Adams muzzled. "We filed a complaint with Twitter because a user tweeted the personal information of one of our executives", a spokesperson for NBC Sports says in a statement.

So far, Twitter has not responded to BetaNews' requests to confirm that the network's complaint is behind their decision. That said, in a Monday piece for The Independent, Adams reports that Twitter support representatives told him that the aforementioned tweet is why his account is suspended.

"Since I’m still trying to get to bottom of the hows and whys of my suspension, which conceivably raises various ethical issues relevant to journalism in the online era, it seems premature to comment further", Adams writes. "Except, perhaps to say that I do not wish Mr Zenkel any harm, and to share a transcript of my most recent email to Rachel Bremer, Twitter's head of European PR".

In that e-mail, Adams tells Bremer that no rule was broken as Zenkel's e-mail is not private. Adams is right: a simple search for the executive's e-mail address will turn that information up (even after you take out all the results from the dozens of news outlets now covering this story, which are also republishing Zenkel's address).

There's another problem: Twitter really isn't following its own rules. The policy against the sharing of certain information on Twitter only covers "non-public, personal e-mail addresses". Zenkel's address is already public, and it is a corporate e-mail for a public company.

Under a strict reading of this policy, Adams has violated none of Twitter's rules, and his suspension sounds more like a move to appease an advertiser. As a story last week in the Wall Street Journal indicated, the two companies are working together to "tweet" the Olympics, with a full-on Olympics Hub to centralize coverage of the games.

Apple scoops up security firm AuthenTec for $356 million

Publié: juillet 27, 2012, 5:47pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Apple has agreed to purchase security firm AuthenTec for $356 million, a Thursday SEC filing from the Melbourne, Fla.-based company indicates. Apple is likely looking to bolster the security credentials of its products, and with the recent focus by hackers on Apple's products, that might be a good idea.

AuthenTec produces a variety of software and hardware-based security solutions, including fingerprint sensors. Its VPN security software is already included in smartphones and tablets from Samsung, and its DRM platform is used to protect streaming content within the HBO GO application.

It is not immediately clear whether Apple would continue to honor AuthenTec's prior agreements, although the filing indicates that Apple paid $20 million for "non-exclusive licenses and rights" to the company's patented technologies. That may provide some wiggle room for companies like Samsung, who just signed an agreement with AuthenTec earlier this month.

AuthenTec had not responded to requests for comment on the future of its deals with these companies as of press time.

That said, the deal also stipulates that Apple is under no requirement to license any future development work on a non-exclusive basis. Any future intellectual property would be fully owned by Apple thanks to a $6.5 million payment for "development work".

While we're talking about the iPhone here, the deal may have more to do with Apple's future strategy than just mobile. In an earnings call earlier this week, CEO Tim Cook made several references to the Cupertino, Calif. company's slow yet steady march into the enterprise -- led by its market-leading iPad tablet.

Enterprise computing is a market that is largely untapped by Apple. At the same time, security is also a major concern of IT administrators. Cook and others may see the AuthenTec acquisition as a way to bolster their enterprise chops and gain a foothold in this market.

In any case, the deal will not make much of a dent in Apple's overall finances. As of last quarter, the company is sitting on some $117.2 billion in cash -- meaning the Authentic acquisition represented just .3 percent of this massive reserve.

Photo Credit: Jirsak/Shutterstock

Google's Kansas City ultra-fast fiber network set to debut

Publié: juillet 26, 2012, 10:23pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Residents of the Kansas City metropolitan area are close to having access to super-fast Internet as Google unveiled its fiber-to-the-home service on Thursday. For as little as $70 per month, Google will provide 1 Gigabit Internet service to customers in both Kansas City, Mo. and Kansas City, Kan.

The service will also include a television component for an additional $50 per month. Deployment depends on the number of consumers that pre-register in a specific area: Google will only complete runs of fiber-optic cable to where the demand is highest.

Pre-registration is now available from the Google Fiber website. Registrations are due September 9, after which Google will make an announcement informing which neighborhoods will qualify for the initial rollout.

The Mountain View, Calif. company has spent an undisclosed amount of money running cables through the two-state metropolitan region. Kansas City "won" the service last year, beating out several other cities after Google announced its intent to build a project fiber optic network. Hundreds of other cities across the U.S. attempted to lure the search giant to build its experimental fiber optic network there.

Google hopes that Fiber will show what's possible with the Internet, and spur innovation. There could be a side benefit to this high-speed fiber optic network too: tech companies may now see the area as an attractive (and low-cost) alternative to Silicon Valley and the emerging tech scene in New York City.

"No more buffering. No more loading. No more waiting. Gigabit speeds will get rid of these pesky, archaic problems and open up new opportunities for the web", Google vice president of access services Milo Medin wrote in a blog post. "Imagine: instantaneous sharing; truly global education; medical appointments with 3D imaging; even new industries that we haven’t even dreamed of, powered by a gig".

In addition to the Gigabit service, Google is also offering a "free" option which will run fiber to the home, but cap speeds at 5Mbps download and 1Mbps upload. Customers will be responsible for a $300 construction fee, and service will be guaranteed at no cost for at least seven years.

With all this speed, will there really be a noticeable difference? That's unlikely. Webpages and videos will instantaneously load, but unless the user's watching the progress bar they're not going to notice a difference. Where they may is the speed of online backups, or sharing files -- where essentially the speed it uploads is going to be limited by how fast your computer can send it.

"Access speeds have simply not kept pace with the phenomenal increases in computing power and storage capacity that’s spurred innovation over the last decade, and that’s a challenge we’re excited to work on", Medin continued.

Yes, Twitter was down (And Google Talk was too).

Publié: juillet 26, 2012, 8:12pm CEST par Ed Oswald

It has not been a good day for messaging services.

Both Twitter and Google Talk experienced service problems Thursday, with Google Talk down for much of the morning and Twitter until early this afternoon. As of press time, neither Twitter nor Google had given specific reasons for the downtime.

Google Talk went down for a majority of users around 6:40am ET, and the company informed users of the disruption. The outage affected chat functionality through Google+, Gmail, and standalone applications. Those affected saw service start to return about four hours later.

The same cannot be said for Twitter, however. The site appeared down for much of the planet on Thursday afternoon, and it was not immediately clear as to why. The company acknowledged the issue and said that its engineers were "working to resolve the issue". They may have: Twitter appeared to have returned for many as of 1pm ET.

While Google Talk's issue is a bit more difficult to figure out, Twitter's may be more easily explainable. The 2012 Olympic Games in London are now ramping up, and so is the amount of traffic flowing through the social network's servers. The company is expecting an unprecedented surge in the amount of tweets, which could bring the service to its knees.

Not too long ago, those surges in demand caused Twitter to crash, and the "Fail Whale" became a large part of the tech lexicon. We could be seeing the return of those days in the not too distant future if Thursday is any indication.

Malware infects three-quarters of the world's top banks

Publié: juillet 25, 2012, 9:10pm CEST par Ed Oswald

File this story in the "Who do you trust with your money?" category.

Eighteen of the top 24 banks in the world have malware problems, security firm Lookingglass says on Wednesday. Even three-year old worms that have long had patches and fixes to address them continue to infect the PCs of banks, including Conficker, found (gasp) in the IT deployments of 10 of the top 24.

Other virus and malware of note found on these computers included DNS Changer, Gameover Zeus, BlackHole Exploit Kit, and Fake AV among others, the security firm says.

It is not clear what the extent of infection is, or how it may be affecting bank customers. "We don't have evidence that the infected systems are actively infecting other systems, but most of the types of malware involved are designed to infect as many other hosts as possible", chief scientist Jason Lewis tells BetaNews.

"There is a strong likelihood that the computers in question have infected other hosts", he continues. Lewis would not identify the banks in question, saying Lookingglass wanted to give these institutions time to address the problem.

Reinfection is also an issue. While these banking institutions apparently attempt to address their virus problems, the issues continue to come back due to unclean portions of their networks affecting cleaned areas. This could be due to large companies by nature being slow to apply updates and important patches that would otherwise close the holes malware exploits in order to spread itself, Lewis tells us.

"If hosts are cleaned, but not patched and nothing further is done to prevent reinfection, an endless loop occurs. Just cleaning a malware infection is not enough -- steps to prevent further exploits have to occur", he explains. "In some cases, the operating systems involved no longer have support from Microsoft, which means they will never be protected".

The latter is an obvious reference to the enterprise's insistence on hanging on to aging platforms. Take, for example, Windows XP: while Microsoft still issues security updates for the platform and will do so through 2014, it's likely many of these companies will continue to use it well past that date, or have not update to SP3, which is necessary to receive those updates.

Or even Windows Server 2003, which is no longer supported. Again, if the customer is not on the newer R2 version, they're unprotected too.

"The biggest take away from this research is that no one is safe", Lewis concludes.

So here's the big question: if the banks have such a serious malware problem, is our financial data really that safe? Enterprising attackers likely already know this, and may have already exploited these holes to their advantage.

Photo Credit: Oxlock/Shutterstock

VMware acquires virtual networking software company Nicira for $1.05 billion

Publié: juillet 23, 2012, 11:27pm CEST par Ed Oswald

On the same day as reporting strong second-quarter results, virtualization software developer VMware said Monday that it has entered into an agreement to purchase network software Nicira for $1.05 billion. The company's software is used to manage network deployments and create virtualized network infrastructure. VMware expects the deal to close in the second half of the year.

"The acquisition of Nicira adds to our portfolio of networking assets and positions VMware to be the industry leader in software-defined networking", VMware CEO Paul Maritz says. Others called it a major move which positions VMware well in the fast-growing cloud computing sector.

"By combining Nicira’s technology with VMware’s market-leading server virtualization and cloud products, VMware today creates a clear path to becoming the most important infrastructure company across servers, networks and storage for the next 10 years", Ben Horowitz explains. Horowitz is co-founder and General Partner at the Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The firm was one of the key early backers of Nicira.

VMware is making a strong push into the cloud as was evidenced by its executive swap announced last week with parent company EMC. Maritz is off to head EMC's strategy in September -- which is likely going to involve a heavy dose of cloud, and will mostly be handled by VMware, the company he currently is CEO of.

Photo Credit: nokhoog_buchachon/Shutterstock

Is there really 'unprecedented' demand for iPhone 5?

Publié: juillet 23, 2012, 10:36pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Demand ahead of the launch of Apple's iPhone 5 is "unprecedented", with a third of all potential smartphone buyers planning to purchase the device. The data comes courtesy of a new survey of 4,000 consumers carried out by research firm ChangeWave.

Fourteen percent of those polled say they are "very likely" to purchase an iPhone 5, with an additional 17 percent saying they are "somewhat likely" to do the same. Combined, that represents the highest number for those planning to purchase a new iPhone model.

A ChangeWave study conducted before the release of the iPhone 4S showed a little over 21 percent were either very or somewhat likely to purchase the device.

Of course, ChangeWave has had a general tendency over the years to sometimes overexaggerate things. The most recent example of this was the launch of the iPhone on Verizon last year. A few weeks before the carrier debuted the phone, Changewave published findings claiming 15 percent of AT&T subscribers were ready to switch.

The actual data told a different story -- AT&T's quarterly results during that time period were stellar. Instead of a drop year over year, new phone activations were up 23 percent -- likely indicating the launch on Verizon had little effect on its competitors.

All this said, it may be worth expecting a far more muted (yet still significant) consumer response to the iPhone 5. Yes, the likely inclusion of LTE and the capitulation on Apple's part to include a larger screen will drive a higher adoption rate of this generation iPhone. At the same time, it seems a little difficult to believe that difference will be 44 percent higher as ChangeWave (when comparing the 4S survey to the iPhone 5 data) suggests.

There's a whole caveat to the demand argument though, and that's distribution. The iPhone 5 will be Apple's most widely distributed smartphone to date. There's also the distinct possibility that iPhone will be available for the first time on T-Mobile, considering the carrier's recent moves to "refarm" its spectrum and bring its 3G and 4G bands more in line with US cellular practices.

If that's the case, then demand for the iPhone 5 could certainly reach those lofty ChangeWave numbers. But until then, it's a good idea to take these survey numbers with a grain of salt.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcos

DirecTV the apparent winner in new deal with Viacom, 10-day blackout ends

Publié: juillet 20, 2012, 8:08pm CEST par Ed Oswald

A 10-day dispute between Viacom and satellite provider DirecTV ended Friday as the two sides consented to a new long-term agreement that put Viacom channels back on the air.

DirecTV customers lost access to 26 channels on July 10 after the company walked away from negotiations, claiming Viacom wanted a 30-percent increase in carriage rates. While the two sides did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, both Bloomberg and Reuters report that it is worth about $600 million, or a 20 percent increase over current rates.

The satellite provider won some important concessions from Viacom. First, it will have the option to carry movie channel Epix, which Viacom had attempted to force DirecTV to pick up. Viacom also will allow DirecTV to stream all channels live through its mobile DirecTV application. That said, no timeline was given for the availability of those channels.

Even in apparent victory, DirecTV officials still took a defiant stance.

"The attention surrounding this unnecessary and ill-advised blackout by Viacom has accomplished one key thing: it serves notice to all media companies that bullying TV providers and their customers with blackouts won't get them a better deal", DirecTV's content strategy chief Derek Chang says. "It's high time programmers ended these anti-consumer blackouts once and for all and prove our industry is about enabling people to connect to their favorite programs rather than denying them access".

Viacom's response is muted. "Viacom is extremely pleased to bring its programming back to DIRECTV subscribers, and thanks everyone affected by the disruption for their patience and understanding during this challenging period", the company says in a brief statement.

At 10 days and 26 channels, the blackout is unprecedented in both size and scope. However, the tactic of yanking access to channels is becoming more common as of late as entertainment providers look for more leverage in a market that grows at a far slower pace than in the past.

Regardless, both sides did not walk away unscathed. DirecTV is said to have lost some customers during the period, and Viacom channels like Nickelodeon saw an appreciable drop in their ratings, losing ground to competitors like The Disney Channel.

Senator Schumer sides with Apple and publishers in ebook price fixing case

Publié: juillet 19, 2012, 9:35pm CEST par Ed Oswald

A prominent Senate Democrat sided with Apple this week, and called on the Justice Department to drop its ebook lawsuit against the Cupertino, Calif. company. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in an opinion piece that appeared in the Wednesday edition of the Wall Street Journal that a victory by the DOJ could be detrimental to the entire publishing industry.

"The suit will restore Amazon to the dominant position atop the e-books market it occupied for years before competition arrived in the form of Apple", Schumer argued. "If that happens, consumers will be forced to accept whatever prices Amazon sets".

DOJ lawyers sued Apple and five publishers in April, accusing the parties of colluding to fix ebook prices. Before Apple entered the market, publishers and ebooksellers used a "wholesale" model to sell books. Under this method, the retailer is then free to charge whatever it wants. Amazon was a fan of this model as it helped the Kindle gain market share in short order, and at one point controlled 90 percent of the market.

On the flip side, publishers don't care for this model because they believe it cheapens the price of books and trains the consumer to expect lower prices. Thus, the DOJ claims that the publishers colluded with Apple to use an "agency" model, where the price of the book is set by the publisher and the seller gets a commission. A clause in Apple's contract forbid the publishers from allowing other retailers to sell the books at a cheaper price.

This forced the entire industry to the agency pricing model, which caused end prices to consumers to go up, the DOJ suit claims. The suit originally was filed against Apple, Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster, however Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster have chosen to settle.

Schumer argues that a win by the DOJ would signal a return to the way the ebook industry was before, where Amazon controlled prices due to its dominant position in the market. He further argues that allowing Amazon to sell books at rock-bottom prices makes it much more difficult for publishers -- especially smaller ones -- to survive in the ebook market.

"As our economy transitions to digital platforms, we should be celebrating and supporting industries that find ways to adapt and grow" Schumer wrote. "By developing a pricing model that made e-book sales work for them, publishers did just that".

He also expressed concern that the lawsuit empowers monopolists, and called for guidelines on non-merger investigations. He accused the DOJ of "missing the forest for the trees", and argued the publishers need a pricing model that is sustainable over the long term.

"These new guidelines should take a broad, pragmatic view of the market as a whole. As the e-books case shows, this kind of perspective is sorely missing today", Schumer concluded.

credit: Tischenko Irina/Shutterstock

Researchers take down botnet responsible for a fifth of world's spam

Publié: juillet 19, 2012, 7:41pm CEST par Ed Oswald

If you notice a huge drop in the amount of pharmaceutical spam you're receiving, you're not imagining things. Security researchers say they were able to take down "Grum", the spam server behind about 18 percent of global spam.

The process began when researchers blocked the botnet's command servers in the Netherlands and Panama on Tuesday. Grum's administrators acted quickly to restore the server, and shortly thereafter had set up new command servers in Russia and Ukraine. Researchers were still hot on their trail, and Militpas, Calif.-based security firm FireEye along with UK-based anti-spam group SpamHaus worked with Russian security experts to take down Grum again on Wednesday morning.

Researchers worked with ISPs hosting these servers to cut their Internet access off, effectively killing them and orphaning the zombie computers that they control.

Grum's reach is immense: some 120,000 IP addresses were known to be sending spam before the researcher's action. That had been reduced to some 21,505 known spamming IPs after the takedown. It is thought the rest of these IPs will stop sending spam as they no longer have any active control.

This week's actions are important overall in the fight against spam because it shows that countries that normally have been viewed as "safe havens" for spammers are now taking a role in the fight against the problem.

"There are no longer any safe havens", FireEye researcher Alif Mushtaq says. "Most of the spam botnets that used to keep their CnCs in the USA and Europe have moved to countries like Panama, Russia, and Ukraine thinking that no one can touch them in these comfort zones. We have proven them wrong this time".

While there still remain several active botnets out there sending quite a bit of pharmaceutical spam, and Grum itself is not dead yet, this week's effort sends a message to spammers worldwide. You can run, but you can't hide -- and now the places where you thought you were safe are not so safe anymore.

"Keep on dreaming of a junk-free inbox", Mushtaq muses.

Maritz may be out as VMware's CEO, but now heads EMC's business strategy

Publié: juillet 18, 2012, 12:16am CEST par Ed Oswald

EMC and VMware confirmed that Paul Maritz is leaving his position as CEO of VMware late Tuesday, transitioning to chief strategist within parent company EMC. As first reported by CRN Monday, and confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, Pat Gelsinger will move from his current role as EMC President and COO of Information Infrastructure Products to CEO of VMware. Both appointments take effect September 1.

EMC acquired VMware in 2004. Insiders say that while the two companies initially stated their respective management teams would stay separate, many expected an eventual blurring of those lines and a shuffling of executives between the two companies. Maritz has been with EMC since 2008, and Gelsinger joined a year later.

In addition to Maritz and Gelsinger moves, EMC executive vice president and CFO David Goulden will take Gelsinger's position as president and COO. After the shuffle, Maritz is being tasked with creating EMC's overall big data and cloud strategy, Gelsinger will lead VMware's cloud infrastructure initiatives, and Goulden EMC's information infrastructure business.

CRN and other's reports starting on Monday night sent both EMC and VMware's stock tumbling. VMware's stock dropped over four percent in midday trading, with EMC down as much as two percent. This announcement, which came after the close of the markets, was likely aimed at calming investor's frayed nerves.

"Today we are witnessing an extraordinary transformation in the IT industry unlike anything we have seen before", EMC Chairman and CEO Joe Tucci says. "To capitalize on this tremendous opportunity we are positioning our executive talent so that we can benefit from their exceptional professional strengths with the goal of further advantaging EMC and VMware to deliver long-term value to our respective shareholders".

Tucci himself has been the subject of some speculation over his retirement: in a conference call he confirmed that he plans to stay with the company through at least 2013. So for now EMC's pending leadership crisis is resolved.

VMware CEO Paul Maritz reportedly out in executive swap with EMC

Publié: juillet 17, 2012, 7:35pm CEST par Ed Oswald

VMware CEO Paul Maritz (pictured right) has reportedly been ousted as the company's CEO, with current EMC Information Infrastructure Products division president and chief operating officer Pat Gelsinger taking his place. The news, first reported by CRN on Monday night, has so far gone unconfirmed. The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday cited its own sources saying Maritz will take the position of vice chairman within EMC.

EMC acquired VMware in 2004. Insiders say that while the two companies initially stated its respective management teams would stay separate, many expected an eventual blurring of those lines and a shuffling of executives between the two companies. Maritz has been with EMC since 2008, and Gelsinger joining a year later.

BetaNews was not able to independently confirm CRN's report with either VMware or EMC as of press time. The news sent VMware's stock tumbling over 4 percent in midday trading, with EMC also down about 1.7 percent. Maritz's future is unclear, and sources did not say whether he had taken another position in the company or had left altogether.

Financial news service Bloomberg was able to contact Maritz, who only told the news wire that "it's just speculation" without elaborating any further on the news.

One possibility is Maritz could be preparing to take the CEO job with EMC. Current CEO Joe Tucci is months away from retirement, and the board is seeking a replacement. Gelsinger was thought to be a top candidate for the job, but with him taking the top spot at VMware, that apparently is no longer the case. Now Maritz could be considered the favorite here.

There's another possibility too, and that's disagreements over VMware's business strategies. The timing of the news of Maritz's departure follows news that the company is planning to spin off its cloud assets along with EMC's Greenplum big data initative into a seperate company.

Maritz may have disagreed with this strategy, and either stepped down or was removed as a result. But here's yet more speculation for you: The Register reports that this isn't a "punishment" for the exiled CEO, rather it's indicative of a strategy change within VMware. That may suggest Maritz just wasn't the man for the job and the strategy that VMware and parent company EMC were looking for.

BetaNews will have more on this story as it develops.

Microsoft delivers Customer Preview of new Office suite

Publié: juillet 16, 2012, 9:45pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft unveiled the latest version of Office on Monday, intended to take advantage of the latest features of Windows 8 including touch, an ARM-based version for Windows RT, and two new Office applications including OneNote and Lync.

"We are taking bold steps at Microsoft", CEO Steve Ballmer said at the press conference in San Francisco. "The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8".

Expanding into touch is an important step for Microsoft as it embraces touch in Windows 8 and its newly announced Surface tablets. In addition, the company is looking to cement Office's spot in the cloud productivity sector.

To that extent, Microsoft is integrating its SkyDrive storage offering, and documents are saved to SkyDrive by default. Another feature known as roaming will allow your settings and documents to follow you through signing into the application at launch, and a subscription-based service called Office on Demand will allow for full-featured applications to an Internet-connected Windows-based PC.

Yammer, the business social network Microsoft acquired last month for $1.2 billion. Yammer will integrate into both SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft says. Support for large touchscreens is another new feature in Office, made possible by Microsoft's purchase of Perceptive Pixel last week.

The Redmond, Wash. company is so far staying mum on availability and the various offerings, only saying Monday that those announcements will be forthcoming in the fall. That suggests an early 2013 release for the productivity suite.

Microsoft should follow Apple's lead and ditch the disc in Windows 8

Publié: juillet 13, 2012, 9:29pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft plans to simplify Windows 8 sales by eliminating the full version of the operating system and focusing on upgrade and "system builder" editions. The change likely means that Windows 8 will be cheaper by and large to obtain the most consumers.

Pundits Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley spoke of the move, citing sources on their weekly Internet radio show "Windows Weekly". The move follows another from April where the company announced Windows 8 would only be available in standard and Pro editions, aimed at making the purchasing process much easier.

Betanews' own sources are unable to confirm at this time whether Microsoft plans to use a similar download/boxed copy strategy it has with the upgrade with the System Builder version. With the upgrade, if you don't mind downloading Windows 8, you can get it for $40. Those that want a hard copy from a retail outlet will pay a $30 premium to that price.

Microsoft's Already Got The Message -- Somewhat

The Redmond, Wash. company already makes download versions of Windows 7 available to consumers through the Web-based Microsoft Store. That said, there is no discount: the price is the same whether you have it shipped to you on a DVD (or purchase it at retail), or download it immediately.

Microsoft has changed its strategy with the Windows 8 upgrade. Now it is further changing that by apparently getting rid of the "full" version of Windows. There's a potential here for Microsoft to significantly reduce its expenses while still maintaining its margins.

The only difference between the OEM version of Windows and the full copy sold by retailers is the full version also includes support through Microsoft. Given that a majority of those people building their own computers are already tech savvy and likely wouldn't need the support, getting rid of that version is not going to affect many customers.

There's also another big cost savings in adopting a model similar to the upgrade options Microsoft has given its customers and that's distribution. By relying on a predominantly physical media-based model, Microsoft has quite a bit of overhead invested in production and distribution of those discs.

Do We Really Need Discs Anymore?

I know you remote and rural readers will complain that I'm way off base, but the disc truly is an outdated software distribution model. Modern broadband Internet connections now have the ability to download files the size of the Windows operating system in a matter of an hour or two. Delivery via download only costs Microsoft the price of the bandwidth used to transfer it to the customer.

It is for this reason that Apple has been able to successfully slash the end cost of an upgrade to $30 (and soon $20 with Mountain Lion). Overhead is minimal using a predominantly download-based distribution model, and still allows the Cupertino, Calif. company to meet its margins.

Think it's hurting Apple? That's doubtful -- a look at the company's latest financials show strong revenues and healthy profit margins. But there's also another positive effect, and that's adoption.

In just a year of release, Mac OS X Lion is now installed on 40 percent of Macs currently in service. While some pundits (including my colleague Joe Wilcox) say that is low given Lion's $30 price tag, I think that's fantastic. Compare it with Windows 7 adoption, and you'll see just how well Lion is doing.

Windows 7 launched in October 2009. By the following October, it was only on 20 percent of all Windows PCs. And this was considered one of Microsoft's more successful operating system launches.

Fixing The Upgrade Malaise

I'll argue here that by making Windows 8 more accessible and using a predominantly download-based model -- and not only doing that but offer a significant cost savings over purchasing the physical media -- Microsoft will be able to solve what is a continuing problem for Windows: upgrading.

The company needs to find ways to get users to adopt its new releases faster. There's something to be said when your most recent version of Windows (now three years old) is just now matching the market share among Windows-based PCs as Windows XP, now 11 years old. Having so much of your install base on what is now an old and increasingly useless platform slows innovation overall.

While Microsofties hate to follow in Apple's footsteps -- I often wonder if its more denial that Apple does things right, and for too long Microsoft's been doing it wrong -- this is one place where Redmond needs to take a page from Cupertino. Get into the 21st Century and ditch the disc, Microsoft.

The entire Windows system will (eventually) thank you.

UPDATE: Microsoft sources told Betanews late Friday that internal marketing is still moving towards the full version being sold, so any changes in strategy have not yet been made at the marketing level.

Windows Server 2012 will be generally available in September

Publié: juillet 10, 2012, 8:38pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft will publicly release Windows Server 2012 a month earlier than Windows 8, the company's server and tools business vice president Satya Nadella told attendees of the Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto on Tuesday. The release will be part of a broader effort to draw customers away from its competitors and on to the Windows Azure platform.

The server platform will release to manufacturing first in August, followed by general availability of the OS in September.

As part of this effort, Nadella announced an in-house program that will assist partners in migrating their cloud infrastructures from VMware to Azure. The company is banking hard on the cloud, and an obvious move is to begin chipping away at the dominance of its larger rivals first.

Nadella says there is a huge opportunity in the cloud, and cited data that indicates some three-quarters of all businesses plan to embrace cloud computing in some fashion. While early players to the game like VMware certainly have the advantage, there is a potentially massive untapped market.

"We’ve taken everything that we’ve learned from running data centers and services at a global scale to usher in the new era of the cloud OS", he tells attendees. "Microsoft offers partners modern yet familiar technology to meet customer demand on their path to the cloud".

Windows Server 2012 does include a lot of functionality that will help clients embrace the cloud, but also includes several enhancements since the last release of the server platform four years ago. The Metro interface has been carried over from Windows 8. Access controls have been improved, and group management of WS2012 machines from a single console has been enabled.

Other enhancements include multi-tenant configurations in Hyper-V, Windows' embedded hypervisor, and a new file system, called Resilient File System (ReFS), is said to be more scalable and reliable that its predecessor, NTFS.

Photo Credit: Novelo/Shutterstock

Microsoft keeps the old Surface alive with Perceptive Pixel buy

Publié: juillet 9, 2012, 8:16pm CEST par Ed Oswald

While Microsoft has turned to the smaller touchscreen with its Surface tablet, the company hasn't forgotten about its roots in large-format touch screens and the original Surface (now PixelSense). Microsoft announced the acquisition of Perceptive Pixel on Monday, one of the leading large-scale, multi-touch display solution providers.

You are probably already familiar with Perceptive Pixel's technologies, although you may not realize it. CNN began using the company's touch displays during the 2008 presidential election and has used them ever since. Perceptive Pixel also has customers across other sectors, including government, defense, energy exploration, engineering, and higher education.

While Microsoft already has a foothold in this market thanks to PixelSense, the purchase of Perceptive Pixel may have more to do with building market share quickly in large size touch screens. These technologies will be built on top of Windows 8, so obviously Microsoft is hoping to increase the ground its newest operating system can cover.

There's also the fact that Microsoft is all but an industry standard when it comes to office productivity applications, so the Perceptive Pixel team has a direct line to apps that its customers will obviously want to be touch-enabled.

"By joining Microsoft, we will be able to take advantage of the tremendous momentum of the Microsoft Office Division, tightly interoperate with its products, and deliver this technology to a very broad set of customers," Perceptive Pixel Founder Jeff Han says of the acquisition.

Though the acquisition was announced by Microsoft's Office division, the specific team Han will join at Microsoft was not disclosed.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed either. Microsoft appears set to integrate Perceptive Pixel's technologies into its portfolio of preexisting touch technologies.

"PPI’s large touch displays, when combined with hardware from our OEMs, will become powerful Windows 8-based PCs and open new possibilities for productivity and collaboration," Office division chief Kurt DelBene says.

Don't expect these technologies to make it into the consumer realm, at least initially. Perceptive Pixel's partners have paid a high price to incorporate the technologies into their workflow. A display with the company's technologies will set you back about $80,000, although Microsoft says it plans to make the technology more affordable.

How much more affordable is yet unknown, but at least for the time being it appears Microsoft's new big-screen touch displays will end up in the hands of its enterprise customers.

Apple's App Store flub causes dozens of iOS and Mac apps to crash

Publié: juillet 5, 2012, 8:36pm CEST par Ed Oswald

A bug in Apple's App Store updating mechanism caused some recently downloaded apps to crash on startup. The issue affects several popular apps including Instapaper and Angry Birds Space, and made Fourth of July stressful for many developers.

The issue appears to have cropped up after changes in Apple's app distribution. The glitch not only affects iOS apps but also those obtained through the Mac App Store, leading some to believe the issue may reside in Apple's FairPlay DRM mechanism.

"It appears that Apple has recently changed something in their app distribution engine, and ever since that change there are ongoing problems at Apple's end", iPad app Goodreader -- one of the apps affected -- says in a message to users. "These problems result in a number of customers receiving a damaged binary which doesn't start after updating apps on their devices".

Affected iOS apps fade to black and return the user to the homescreen. On the Mac, the message "[App] is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete [App] and download it again from the App Store" appears.

Instapaper developer Marco Arment says his company was deluged with complaints within minutes of releasing an update to his app, and he believes the issue affected several apps who have issued updates over the past few days. He complained to Apple's App Review support and the issue was fixed within two hours.

"I haven’t yet received a response from App Review, so I don’t know whether the fix was because I made noise, or simply because time passed, which may, for instance, expire a cache with the bad data", Arment says. "I’ve heard reports of this happening with numerous updates released on July 3rd, 4th, and 5th".

Attempts at contacting Apple were unsuccessful, which is typical.

Apple's App Store woes again bring to the forefront a discussion on the way it handles app approvals. Google and other app stores employ a more hands-off approach to administration, so a bug that appears can be fixed immediately. With Apple, you could wait days to get your update approved.

For these affected developers, that's what they're faced with. Even when the problems are fixed, those who downloaded the app while the issue existed are stuck with a buggy app. That is certainly going to frustrate and anger some developers.

Users will never know that it is Apple's fault for why their favorite app isn't working, and the developer gets blamed. Arment himself made these frustrations known in his comments on the incident,

"Apple: This is a serious problem. It’s not isolated. Please fix this".

Photo Credit: BMCL/Shutterstock

Micron swoops in to save Elpida, becomes top-tier supplier

Publié: juillet 3, 2012, 9:45pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Micron set itself up to be the world's top tablet and mobile memory supplier after announcing its intent to purchase Elpida on Monday. Apple is one of Elpida's biggest customers, and its chips are found in devices and Macs throughout its product line.

Micron will pay Elpida creditors $2.5 billion to settle any claims, and will pay Elpida $750 million to purchase its assets. Another $1.75 billion is to be paid through 2019 in installment payments for foundry services to be provided by Elpida to Micron, which will now operate as a Micron subsidiary.

Closure of the the deal is expected within six months, and Tokyo bankruptcy court approval.

With Elpida already the world's third largest memory supplier, Micron is now one of the world's top memory manufacturers with positions in several markets. Elpida is a leading memory supplier to Apple, and primarily produces DRAM memory for smartphones and tablets. Micron, on the other hand, produces memory for enterprise systems and servers, but had trouble breaking into the increasingly lucrative mobile market. This deal answers that problem.

While Micron is now significantly larger, there are still larger competitors -- Samsung and Hynix. According to IHS iSuppli, Samsung controls about 40 percent of the market, while Hynix comes in second with 23 percent. Previous to the acquisition Micron held a 12 percent share: adding Elpida's customers will place it within striking distance if not slightly ahead of Hynix with a 22 to 23 percent share, IHS iSuppli says.

"The purchase of Elpida represents a huge boost for Micron’s status in the DRAM industry", IHS iSuppli DRAM analyst Mike Howard says. "Micron is gaining access to some excellent mobile DRAM technology, which should greatly improve its product portfolio".

Regardless, the real reason Elpida is in the arms of Micron is financial. The company is in trouble financially, and is currently reorganizing following bankruptcy in April. Elpida needs court approval for its reorganization plans, and a buyout agreement may be the answer.

"Joining with Micron also delivers a clear advantage for Elpida's customers, suppliers and employees," Elpida co-trustee Yukio Sakamoto says. "The transaction is a strong testament to the value of Elpida's technologies, products and people, and it will result in a combined organization that can best serve customers with broader memory solutions, strength and scale."

RIM Death Watch: Revenues plummet, jobs cut, BB10 delayed until 2013

Publié: juin 29, 2012, 1:30am CEST par Ed Oswald

The news for Research in Motion went from bad to worse after the close of the market Thursday, as the company reported a sharp 33 percent drop in revenues quarter-to-quarter. Worse yet, its next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system is postponed until the first quarter of next year, meaning any major new device releases are also delayed.

As part of its earnings announcement, RIM is also giving some bad news to its employees: layoffs for 5,000, or about a third of its workforce. Looks like it's time to start the RIM death watch once again.

Revenues for the second quarter were $2.6 billion, down from $4.2 billion in the previous quarter and $4.9 billion a year ago. This resulted in a net loss of $519 million, sharply down from the $695 million profit reported in the year ago quarter.

"I am not satisfied with these results and continue to work aggressively with all areas of the organization and the Board to implement meaningful changes to address the challenges, including a thoughtful realignment of resources and honing focus within the Company on areas that have the greatest opportunities", RIM president and CEO Thorsten Heins says.

RIM's death spiral is hard to pin on Heins, though. He has only had control of the company for less than six months, and much of these problems predate his tenure and will be hard to overcome.

It's not like the company does nothing: In March, Heins announced a restructuring strategy based on integrating, rebranding, and licensing. It's too soon to know, however, whether Heins' plan will have any positive effect.

While some may consider RIM's decision to push off BB10 and thus any new BlackBerry devices as foolish when the company is already circling the drain, Heins is framing it as a move aimed at preventing a half-baked version of the BlackBerry OS out in the wild before it is truly ready.

"I am confident that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones will provide a ground-breaking next generation smartphone user experience", Heins says. "We are encouraged by the traction that the BlackBerry 10 platform is gaining with application developers and content partners".

Even with this confidence, don't expect the company to bounce back quickly. In reporting this quarter's results, RIM says it expects to lose additional money this quarter. It also will begin to shrink its product portfolio and offer less devices over time, meaning revenues could sink further as its product line contracts.

That seems to match up with the comments from analysts earlier this week. In a note to clients obtained by InformationWeek, Morgan Stanley suggested many of the changes that RIM was forced to make today.

"We believe the only way RIM remains a viable entity is at a fraction of its current size, a transformation that erases much of its earnings power," the firm writes. "The next nine months will likely see rapidly deteriorating fundamentals on the one hand offset by stories of potential strategic options on the other".

Google-backed CliQr may have the solution to end cloud vendor lock-in

Publié: juin 26, 2012, 6:57pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Google-backed startup CliQr launched its cloud management platform on Tuesday. CliQr's offering is aimed at making it easier for enterprise IT to migrate legacy apps to the cloud, as well as between different cloud platforms with little additional work.

Lock-in has become an increasing concern among cloud computing industry watchers, as Amazon Web Services takes an ever more dominant role. Rackspace president Lew Moorman slammed AWS last week, saying its proprietary cloud tools make it difficult for Amazon customers to migrate elsewhere.

CliQr supports Amazon's cloud architecture, as well as any VMware or Openstack-based cloud. "Migrating their existing applications has been costly and complex, often involving cloud-specific re-coding, virtualization and, once on the cloud, sub-optimal performance", CliQr co-founder and CEO Gaurav Manglik says. "CloudCenter changes all of that".

CloudCenter is made up of two separate applications, Orchestrator and Manager. Orchestrator is the platform which allows CliQr to enable migration between the various cloud architectures it supports, while the Manager allows for the administration of "moving, managing, optimizing and securing their applications on clouds".

Orchestrator itself has three parts. The first are templates to speed deployment of specific applications on CliQr-supported cloud platforms. The company is offering templates for Hadoop, High-Volume Batch, Parallel Computing, Web-Apps, Cluster Computing and Multi-step Workflows initially.

Another part is called Orchestrator and deals with allowing the application to run on any supported cloud without modification, and the last is called CloudBlades, and are "unique, cloud-specific best-practice implementations of a cloud's rules and behaviors around compute, storage, network and security". These "snap-in" to CloudCenter, and will initially support Amazon, HP and Rackspace as well as Openstack and VMware in the private cloud.

Manager on the other hand supports the overall migration process and includes modules for application lifecycle, policy, storage, benchmarking, cloud account management, license management, and security.

"We designed CloudCenter to be an extremely approachable platform that looks at the task of cloud computing from an application's perspective, simplifying on-boarding without modification and image management, optimizing performance and providing end-to-end cloud security for any business application on any one or combination of private, public or hybrid clouds", co-founder and chief technical officer Tenry Fu says.

CliQr CloudCenter is available starting today. The company says it charges on an "on-going basis" according to a FAQ on the product, but does not publicly disclose specifics.

Photo Credits: James Thew/Shutterstock

Box OneCloud third-party sync solution now available for Android

Publié: juin 25, 2012, 9:21pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Cloud storage service Box extended its mobile app framework OneCloud to the Android platform on Monday, allowing apps to use Box as storage for data. The company released a similar offering for iOS developers back in March.

Both platforms offer Box compatibility with 50 productivity apps on either platform. An SDK and API have been made available so that other developers may use Box in their own apps. The apps supported here initially with OneCloud for Android include iAnnotate, Breezy, Docusign Ink and Fetchnotes.

The standalone Android app will direct users to apps that are compatible with Box, the company says.

"Box OneCloud offers the most complete suite of productivity tools for today's post-PC enterprise", CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie says. "IT departments and the mobile workforce now have a unified platform to securely manage applications and content from any device or location".

Box's offering may please enterprise IT administrators who are facing increasing pressure to support the growing bring-your-own-device trend. With the introduction of these devices also come security concerns. Box is playing to these concerns, releasing administration tools to help manage how corporate data is shared through the service.

OneCloud also keeps corporate security concerns in mind, and Box says it has taken steps to ensure data is protected -- including never storing files unencrypted on the device. This forces the user to be authenticated at all times to view the files.

An app for Box OneCloud is now available from Google Play, and the company says its developer SDK is available through its developer website. For those looking for the APIs for iOS, they are available through the same site, although no separate OneCloud app exists.

Rackspace exec says Amazon Web Services is doing it wrong

Publié: juin 22, 2012, 7:50pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The rift between Amazon and its cloud competitors got a little wider on Thursday after Amazon Web Services' dominance in the market took center stage at the GigaOM Structure conference in San Francisco. Rackspace president Lew Moorman called for an open alternative to AWS, and warned the service is creating vendor lock-in.

Rackspace and Amazon are becoming increasingly bitter rivals as competition in the cloud heats up. Moorman's company is one of the leading participants in OpenStack, an open-sourced cloud standard. Amazon does not follow cloud standards, and that has lead to the development of OpenStack rivals such as CloudStack.

Soon Rackspace will compete directly with Amazon on the IaaS front, offering a cloud hosting service similar to AWS based on OpenStack, starting in August. Moorman obviously has a vested interest in pointing out Amazon's negatives.

Vendor lock-in is one area that Moorman has an issue with. "Once you’re integrated into a cloud provider it’s very tempting to use proprietary features of those clouds", he said. "And Amazon’s made great advances here and launched a lot of great services like SimpleDB and DynamoDB. But once you use these applications and once you use these components, you are truly fused to that cloud provider."

Another point Moorman brought up in his talk was the subject of AWS API cloning. Eucalyptus is an example of this. The company, which open-sourced its software that clones AWS APIs locally on Tuesday, is obviously who he is talking about. AWS endorsed Eucalyptus' activities back in March.

Moorman warned that simply cloning the API would not be enough. Since AWS is proprietary, those who clone the API would be simply baking the same compatibility issues into their own deployments that already exist in the AWS cloud.

"There’s the basic fact that APIs are nothing more than an interface to real technology", he argued. "They’re a bridge, a protocol. But the truth of the matter is the cloud is not a protocol".

Stupid IT mistakes make AWS outages even worse

Publié: juin 22, 2012, 12:03am CEST par Ed Oswald

The massive outage that struck Amazon Web Services last week proved the cloud service is becoming an increasingly vital part of the IT infrastructure of many companies. For better or worse AWS is becoming a standard in the cloud, and its own fortunes are tied to that of some of the biggest web services out there.

Quora and Pinterest are just two services that rely on AWS in part or in full. When Amazon's cloud goes down, these sites will too.

Cloud service analysis firm Newvem says that as much as 40 percent of companies currently using AWS are not prepared for the next outage. Worse yet, only three in five companies choose to backup their data. What's this mean? Amazon has a catastrophic failure that involves loss of data, and you're pretty much screwed.

While this may sound like something only newbies to IT would do, Newvem finds that it is fairly common among larger enterprises as well, where IT personnel obviously have a good deal more knowledge in the field and should know better.

At issue is an overreliance on Amazon itself. Users of AWS assume that the company is taking all steps to protect critical data from loss, when Amazon itself provides no guarantee that all data is being backed up. The responsiblity to ensure the integrity of customer data is -- and should be -- the customer.

So what can you do in order to prepare yourself for the (inevitable) AWS outage? First things first, back up. Ensure that all data in the cloud also resides somewhere else, either locally or on another cloud service.

Overdependence on AWS is another issue. Is there a way to not lean on Amazon so much? There are other providers -- like Rackspace and now Oracle's own cloud offering -- where your cloud can reside.

In addition, redundancy is always good too. If you wish to still stick with AWS, deploy your cloud across multiple regions. Amazon itself strongly discourages the practice of deploying in one region only. Of the two major outages on AWS over the past two years, both were limited to servers in a single region (its Eastern US servers).

The sites affected most? Those that didn't think of redundancy in the cloud, in the same way they would in their own physical data centers. In the end, it appears more that AWS users should be blaming themselves for not following proper (and smart) IT practices.

Photo Credit: fbmadeira/Shutterstock

Microsoft's Windows Phone Summit Liveblog: Introducing Windows Phone 8

Publié: juin 20, 2012, 4:23pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft sure is busy this week! Join BetaNews starting at 12 pm EDT for our liveblog of the Windows Phone Developer Summit in San Francisco. We're expecting the debut here of Windows Phone 8, the next version of Microsoft's mobile operating system.

Windows Phone 8 is expected to have a host of new features, including Near Field Communications, support for multicore processors, new screen resolution support, improved Skype application (although still seperate), and the replacement of the Zune PC client with something that's closer to ActiveSync, Mary Jo Foley reports.

Of course, Microsoft seems to have a penchant lately to surprise, so who knows -- we might see a few things we don't expect. What we're most interested in hearing here at BetaNews is whether or not the rumors that current Windows Phone devices are indeed not upgradable to WP8. May not be said here but we could get the first indications of Microsoft's plans.

So thanks for joining us again for another liveblog, and we'll see you soon. Until then, what's your hopes for Windows Phone 8? Better yet to those not on the platform, what would it take to make you switch? We want to hear your thoughts.

[Updates are in chronological order (in EDT), newest first]

1:20pm: The in-depth developer talk begins now, so we're going to stop the liveblog here. Thanks for joining us today. What do you think of what you've heard?

1:19pm: Video time showing Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 shared core functionalities and how they'd work together. If your expecting huge news here, it's not going to happen. This is a developer-centric event, remember.

1:09pm: Wallet now being shown, with a early preview of a Chase app that is due later this year.

1:05pm: NFC being shown in game play to create a peer-to-peer network on the fly. Devices were tapped together to start the game.

12:59pm: Developer geekiness here. Marble Maze, a game that's been in the DirectX SDK for a long time, ported to WP8 with "incredibly small" code changes. Works with the phones accelerometer.

12:54pm: Demo of the anti-phishing technology from IE that is being brought into WP8.

12:52pm: He just pointed out a Windows Phone 7.5 app that is running in this new UI. There's your background compatibility.

12:51pm: Belfiore is demoing how easy it is to customize and move things around. As an iPhone guy, there is something that appeals to me about this. The UI just works for me. Now I'd argue that the tile idea doesn't transfer well to the desktop, but here on mobile, I'm a fan.

12:46pm: Full customization. Tiles are no longer one single size. It's up to the user which tiles are bigger and smaller. "Windows Phone is even more personal that it was in the past". You'd think this looks busy, but it is pretty nice looking.

12:44pm: Windows Phone 8 looks like changes the start screen. We're getting a demo.

12:43pm: WP8 includes device management and other features to ease deployment in enterprise. Secure boot, office app, encryption.

12:39pm: Nokia's mapping technology will be built in.

12:38pm: Every WP8 phone will ship with Wallet. Orange will be the first carrier to launch with Secure SIMs that work with the Wallet in Europe. In US, Microsoft is working with Isis, but it will not be available at launch.

12:39pm: WP8 will support NFC natively. This is also coming to laptops well that run with Windows 8. Microsoft is including a Wallet Hub within WP8. Belfiore makes mention to the wallet feature within iOS 6, calling WP8's implementation "similar".

12:32pm: Native Code developers, WP8 is for you. "We're expecting some fricking killer games". Hah.

12:29pm: IE10 included in WP8.

12:27pm: Multicore support is in. As is screen resolutions. 800x460, 1280x768, 1280x720 (720p). MicroSD support is a core part of the platform now.

12:24pm: 8 Platform Announcments today. "We're not disclosing today all the end user features".

12:24pm: For consumers, it means more hardware and new experiences. More apps due to the fact W8 apps will run easily on WP8. Hardware partners experience faster time to market because the drivers and core is similar to that of a PCs.

12:22pm: Yes, WP8 shares a core with Windows 8. "It changes what the platform is about".

12:20pm: Platform Preview today. Joe Belfiore on stage.

12:19pm: Seven of the top nine phones on Amazon by rating are Windows Phones.

12:17pm: Three principles guided WP development: Windows Phone needs to be a more personal experience, needs to be more relevant to the user, wanted to deliver the most connected experience.

12:16pm: Terry Myerson is on stage. Your typical welcome. "This year Microsoft has reimagined Windows." We're here to promote the next chapter .. Windows Phone 8.

12:11pm: Just a note Microsoft, your electronic music selections are seriously dated. Come on now.

12:07pm: Announcement that we're beginning in five minutes. Sit tight.

12:03pm: We're still waiting. Hopefully not as long as we waited for Surface!

10:30am: We'll start our coverage around 11:45am ET, with some early thoughts. See you then!

Eucalyptus open sources software, cozies closer to Amazon Web Services

Publié: juin 19, 2012, 8:04pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Hybrid cloud software provider Eucalyptus open sourced its software on Tuesday, moving the entire package to code-sharing site GitHub. Version 3.1 of the software includes performance enhancements and a feature called FastStart, which allows IT administrators to deploy Amazon Web Services-compatible clouds in under 20 minutes.

Eucalyptus is an application that reproduces the AWS cloud locally, which in turn allows IT personnel to easily migrate cloud applications built from AWS back and forth from the public to private cloud. Amazon itself supports Eucalyptus, giving the nod to Eucalyptus' efforts to support Amazon Web Services' APIs back in March.

Version 3.1 of the software brings compatibility with the latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, with EC2, EBS, S3 and IAM using Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and VMware virtualization platforms. It expects additional enhancements to come out of its decision to move to GitHub as more open source developers get their hands on the code.

"Creating enterprise IT platforms with innovations coming from open source communities, Eucalyptus is laying the foundation for new levels of collaboration in driving the future of cloud computing", Opscode marketing chief Jay Wampold says.

While the move sounds good in theory, it is sure to cause some concern among those developers wary of giving Amazon all but the level of a standard when it comes to cloud computing. Remember back to April when Citrix began pushing CloudStack, its recently acquired cloud platform. That comes with AWS API support built in.

The company saw the effort as a necessity considering the level of use AWS has throughout the IT industry. At the same time, it elevates AWS' profile just like cloning the API for private cloud use would here with Eucalyptus. The company's partners seem to care less though, and point to it as a strength.

"Eucalyptus has the features we need, such as strong AWS API compatibility, to operate a research-oriented cloud service", Cornell University's Center for Advanced Computing director David Lifka says.

Eucalyptus 3.1 is set for public availability on June 27, according to the company.

Photo Credit: Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock

Microsoft, Symantec team on future disaster recovery solutions for Azure

Publié: juin 15, 2012, 9:13pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Customers of Microsoft's Windows Azure platform will gain disaster recovery features thanks to a partnership with Symantec announced this week. The offering is the first such service for the Azure platform, the two companies say.

While the effort was announced this week during Microsoft's annual TechEd conference in Orlando, Microsoft says the actual service itself will not be available until sometime next year, and is a move that makes sense for Symantec at this point.

"Windows Azure is growing rapidly as a platform, and we are seeing many of our customers utilizing it as part of a new delivery model for computing resources", the company's storage and availability management head Deepak Mohan says.

The security company will build the service on top of Azure and will extend its Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows and Veritas Volume replicator disaster recovery (DR) software solution to the cloud. It says the offering goes beyond common and traditional backup systems.

For example, Symantec's Azure service will not only protect data but the applications as well. In the event of an outage, a subscriber would be able to start a virtual machine to run mission-critical applications in the cloud while restoration of on-site resources is completed.

In other words, data from the customer's primary IT site is duplicated to disaster recovery site. At the same time, this data is also duplicated to a location close enough to the customer so that applications can be run without an appreciable decrease in overall performance.

"Leveraging cloud computing as a disaster recovery target addresses business continuity needs for organizations that cannot afford a secondary site or at-a-distance failovers for mission-critical, virtualized workloads", IDC research vice president Jean Bozeman says of the news.

Photo Credit: Jirsak/Shutterstock

Amazon improves customer support options for AWS customers

Publié: juin 15, 2012, 12:42am CEST par Ed Oswald

Amazon has expanded its support options for its Amazon Web Services cloud offering, giving better free support to all customers and reducing the pricing of paid support tiers. The company is also renaming the paid tiers to better represent its target customers.

These tiers had been named Bronze, Gold and Platinum -- they are now referred to as Developer, Business, and Enterprise. Amazon expanded its paid support options back in January, and added third-party support and Trusted Advisor services in beta to its Gold and Platinum support levels. Thursday's moves take these offerings out of beta, and makes the higher-level support options affordable to a wider range of AWS customers.

So, here's what's included in these new tiers:

Amazon's Basic tier will be provided to all customers upon registration. The free support now includes 24-hour access to customer and technical support. This is in addition to the previously offered features of free support including access to technical papers, guides, and the AWS Service Health Dashboard and AWS Developer Forums.

The Developer tier will offer all features of Basic plus 12-hour guaranteed response time to service tickets, one on one customer support, and access to AWS Technical Support Engineers. That tier will cost $49 monthly.

The Business tier will drop its minimum monthly fee to $100 from $400, and betters ticket response time to one hour, and access to support engineers 24 hours per day. Third-party application support is also included. Business customers will gain access to AWS Trusted Advisor, "a program that monitors AWS infrastructure services, identifies customers' usage patterns, and notifies customers when opportunities exist to save money, improve system performance, or close security gaps".

The high-end Enterprise tier will change its pricing from the flat fee used in the Gold tier to a usage-based system. Usage was previously figured as a 10-percent flat fee based on the total of your AWS bill; that has now changed to tiers of 10 percent, 7 percent, 5 percent, and 3 percent. Fifteen-minute response time to tickets is guaranteed, and a dedicated "Technical Account Manager" is provided, which will familiarize him or herself with the customer's specific AWS cloud architecture. Access to Trusted Advisor is also available.

These new support options are available immediately, Amazon says, and can be changed or cancelled at any time as they carry no contractual agreement.

Cisco debuts networking products for the cloud

Publié: juin 13, 2012, 8:04pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Cisco knows that the cloud is worthless without networking, so its Cloud Connected Solution announced on Wednesday shouldn't surprise anyone. The company debuted both new cloud-enabled software for its ASR and ISR routers as well as a virtualized router aimed at extending virtual private networks to the cloud.

This new router software will be found on the ISR G2 platform, and a new Aggregation Services Router (ASR) platform based router, the ASR 1002-X was introduced. Cisco announced new Unified Computing System (UCS) E-Series Server Modules on the ISR G2, which is also on the way.

"The Cisco Cloud Connected Solution redefines the WAN architecture with key innovations that leverage the network intelligence as a critical link in cloud deployments by putting more functionality into traditional enterprise routing", Cisco Services Routing Technology Group chief Praveen Akkiraju says.

Cisco says the new router software should help improve the performance and security of cloud applications, while the the new CSR virtualized router should prove useful to those looking to adopt hybrid cloud architectures.

The San Jose, Calif. based company's moves to cozy up to cloud computing don't come as a surprise. As said previously, the network is key when it comes to the cloud: if that doesn't work, neither does the cloud. Cisco is also making a smart move making a play for the hybrid cloud market, as an increasing number of IT departments are embracing the cloud by incorporating both public and private elements.

"Network infrastructure must rapidly adapt to fully support future enterprise communications systems, which will be highly virtualized, intelligent and application-aware. The impact of new infrastructure and application strategies on the network cannot be overstated", Gartner principal analyst Bjarne Munch says.

Everything announced Wednesday is currently available except for the Cisco UCS E-Series on ISR G2, which will ship in the fourth quarter, and the the ASR 1002-X, which is due in September.

Photo Credit: Inq/Shutterstock

Cloud adoption is finally beginning to live up to all the (over)hype

Publié: juin 12, 2012, 10:37pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Cloud computing is one of the most hyped (some would say overhyped) concepts in IT right now. But data from research firm Strategy Analytics suggests that real-world application of the cloud is now beginning to match that hype.

SaaS is experiencing significant growth, as it is perhaps the easiest cloud technology for enterprises to adopt and deploy. Some 64 percent of the 1,750 organizations surveyed across the US, UK, France, Germany, China, India and Brazil report increased spending year over year. Other cloud technologies are seeing growth, but nowhere near to the degree of SaaS.

IaaS spending increased in 37 percent of those organizations surveyed, and 22 percent for PaaS.

Enterprise software and Communications director and analyst Mark Levitt points to the fact that many organizations are relying on software that is increasingly migrating to the cloud -- be it email, CRM, and web and audio conferencing -- for more than a decade.

"A majority of corporations have abandoned traditional on-premise software deployments for many types of application and infrastructure software", he explains. "Public and private cloud computing is now the norm, not the exception".

The common benefits of cloud computing, including scalability, visibility, and manageability, is what is driving this growth, Strategy Analytics finds. That said, the cloud still has its issues that keep some from adopting it in their own IT deployments.

Respondents cited security concerns, downtime concerns and reliability as their barriers to cloud adoption. These should also begin to fade if recent news is any indication. Most cloud providers are building a good deal of redundancy into their services, and security has become a major concern.

In fact, security was the main reason Oracle decided to offer its cloud customers individual virtual machines in its offering. CEO Larry Ellison seems to consider multitenancy as a security risk since data is co-mingled with other customers, and he may be right.

There may be another driver to the cloud madness in IT, and that's mobility. Strategy Analytics noted that companies seem to be both adopting the cloud in greater numbers, while at the same time becoming more mobile. The firm cautioned however that it didn't have enough evidence to consider one factor was driving the other, yet.

Photo Credit: Helder Almeida/Shutterstock

Amazon S3 hits 1 trillion objects stored in the cloud

Publié: juin 12, 2012, 7:35pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) has reached the one trillion mark in number of objects stored. For some perspective, that's 142 objects for every person on the planet, or counted one per second, it would take you 31,170 years to count them all.

The feat shows that Amazon's cloud business growth continues to accelerate. In a blog post announcing the event, web services evangelist Jeff Barr notes object growth reached an astronomical 3.5 billion per day, or about 40,000 every second. There doesn't appear to be any end to it either as more and more large scale customers hop onto S3.

"On behalf of the Amazon S3 team, I'd like to thank you for all of the amazing ways that you've found to put S3 to use. We really enjoy hearing and reading about your applications", Barr writes.

Growth also appears to be accelerating. In October, S3 hosted about 566 billion objects, and 762 billion in January. By April, that number had surpassed 900 billion. S3's object growth is probably closely linked to similar growth in AWS itself, so it's fairly likely that during this same period Amazon's cloud user base has also grown as fast.

Will it continue now that it has competitors in both Microsoft with its most recent release of Azure with IaaS functionality, and Oracle Cloud? That remains to be seen.

Photo Credit: T. L. Furrer/Shutterstock

iOS 6 Developer Preview out today, public release this fall

Publié: juin 11, 2012, 11:02pm CEST par Ed Oswald

While the focus of WWDC's iOS 6 announcements surround Apple's decision to kick Google to the curb when it comes to maps, there are plenty of other features coming to the next version of Apple's mobile operating system that deserve mention.

"iOS 6 continues the rapid pace of innovation that is helping Apple reinvent the phone and create the iPad category, delivering the best mobile experience available on any device", iOS chief Scott Forstall says.

Siri's getting a bit smarter, including the capability to answer sports questions, show movie listings and reviews, and display better restaurant information. Integration with the OpenTable app will allow Siri to assist in placing reservations. Siri can even post Twitter updates, and yes even to Facebook, which gets the same integration throughout iOS (and Mac OS X "Mountain Lion" too) that Twitter did.

And guess what? She's finally coming to the iPad, and even cars too. In an effort that seems directed at the likes of OnStar and even Microsoft's Sync, Siri will make its way into select BMW, GM, Mercedes, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Toyota and Honda vehicles via a button on the steering wheel.

While it will still require you to carry an iPhone (smart move Apple, it doesn't affect their iPhone sales), Siri will talk to you through your car's integrated Bluetooth system. The details are really scant as it was only a passing mention by Forstall during the keynote, but expect to see this in cars within the next year.

Photo Streams will now be shareable between iOS devices, and finally Apple has turned on cellular data support for FaceTime, making the videoconferencing feature truly useful.

A new app called Passbook makes its debut; Forstall described it as an easy way to keep passes in one place, such as airline or movie tickets, or even loyalty cards. Since the app is location aware, the ticket or loyalty card needed will automatically appear when you are near to a specific location.

Other enhancements include iCloud Tabs; photo upload functionality; full-screen functionality in mobile Safari; VIP mail functionality, which generates a notification when a message is received by an important sender; do-not-disturb option that turns off all types of notifications; and enhancements designed to improve the experience for Chinese users.

The latest version of iOS 6 will be compatible with the iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S, and the new iPad, iPad 2 and iPod touch (fourth generation). It appears as if owners of the original iPad are out of luck for now, unfortunately. iOS 6 beta is available to developers today with an expected release in the fall for the public, likely close to the launch of the iPhone 5.

Does iOS 6 finally place Apple's mobile operating system on level playing ground with Android as far as functionality goes? Arguably, yes. Turn by turn navigation was an advantage to Android's mapping platform -- that is now available in iOS. Attaching photos and videos the right way from the Mail app was another pet peeve of many, which you coud do far easier on Android. That's fixed.

It does seem like Apple took a long look at Android this time around and decided to close the gap completely. It's hard not to say Apple is building momentum in the mobile space as of late, and iOS 6 does look to maintain if not accelerate it. The real test though will be the iPhone 5 in the fall. Will the combination of a phone from Apple that finally admits we need larger displays, combined with a considerably better mobile OS be the ticket?

Time will tell. That said, don't forget Google I/O is in two weeks. While the gap has closed today, Google might be able to jump back out front with the release of "Jellybean".

Apple dumps Google Maps

Publié: juin 11, 2012, 9:44pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The marriage is over. As widely rumored, Apple debuted its own mapping service alongside the unveiling of iOS 6 at the Worldwide Developers Conference Monday. The move had been expected for awhile now, considering the Cupertino, Calif. company's recent acquisitions.

Apple's Maps include turn-by-turn navigation with smooth vector-based graphics. "Flyover mode" is the company's answer to Google Earth and Street View: it includes photo-realistic views of major cities, even allowing you to fly around and see all sides of a particular building. Traffic including crowd-sourced reports are built in, which can be used to change directions on the fly.

The moves are a direct challenge to nearly everything about Google's mapping service, and made possible through Apple's various acquisitions. In 2009, it acquired Placebase which gave the company the maps it needed. This was followed by the purchase of Poly9 in 2010, which gave Apple access to high-resolution imagery. Finally, the purchase of C3 Technologies last October rounded out Apple's mapping endeavor with its 3D rendering technologies.

But Apple's plans to oust Google from maps may go even further back than that. Some reports indicate that Apple has planned to take over maps almost the whole time the iOS platform has existed. This contradicts some analysis out there saying Android was the cause: the massive growth only accelerated the planned divorce. Given Maps was the only native application that relied on technologies that Apple did not own, this was bound to happen.

Also with the increasingly strained relationship between the two companies, it looked likely. Eric Schmidt left the board in 2009, later saying "he just couldn't stand it anymore", and Jobs even said in the statement announcing his resignation that Google's business activities and Apple's planned ones created a "conflict of interest".

Google did not have any immediate comment on the move, but it's clear that its mapping service is about to see a significant decrease in traffic as a result.

Apple's WWDC 2012 Keynote Liveblog: iOS 6 and more

Publié: juin 11, 2012, 6:41pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Apple's yearly developer conclave is here, and we're expecting a good deal of news out of this year's event. We'll see the debut of iOS 6, and likely a significant refresh to the Mac lineup. Of course, Apple always likes to surprise, so it's fairly likely that some of the rumors we've heard -- from new native apps to some enhancements to iCloud -- will also be announced.

WWDC 2012 is also the first major company event to happen after the death of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs. It will be interesting to watch how CEO Tim Cook and the team handle the event without their iconic and charismatic leader running the show.

[Updates are in chronological order (in ET), newest first]

2:53pm: He seems to be wrapping it up, praising those who work for the company and its developers. And with that it's over. It's a wrap!

2:51pm: Tim: "so what do you think?" Crowd obviously cheers.

2:50pm: iOS 6 looks quite impressive, and finally deals with a lot of the issues that gave Android the edge, especially in maps. Developers get the iOS 6 beta today. Public this fall, and will even be supported by the 3GS! Tim's back on stage.

2:42pm: Heres the 3D stuff thanks to the C3 acquisition. You can even rotate to see the sides of the buildings. It's clear here that Apple wanted to make a huge splash here with map, and what we're seeing here is quite impressive.

2:39pm: Here it is. Maps. Google is gone. Traffic also included, including real-time crowd sourcing of data. And FINALLY (yes, again) -- turn by turn navigation, with realtime adjustments based on traffic.

2:36pm: A new app called Passbook debuts. Forstall says its for things like boarding passes, movie tickets, store cards, etc. Even GPS enabled so it pops up the necessary item when you're at your location. Developers will be able to integrate with this app easily. These cards are live, meaning if something changes on them, it's done so automatically.

2:34pm: iOS 6 can share Photo Streams, and appears within the Photo apps. Commenting also enabled. Mail gets enhanced with a "VIP" function that generates a notification, and FINALLY you can insert photo and video within Mail, without having to go through the Photo app first.

2:28pm: FINALLY. iOS 6 introduces FaceTime over a cellular connection.

2:26pm: Phone app is getting some enhancements, which will allow you to slide up from the answer screen to reply with a canned message or remind yourself to call back later. A Do Not Disturb mode, which appears as a Slider in settings will never light up the screen or make a sound, Forstall says.

2:23pm: Facebook integration in iOS 6, just like Twitter. Even Siri can post your status updates now. Facebook integration will be coming to the Mac as well.

2:21pm: Ready for a Siri button in cars? Apple is working to get it in models from BMW, GM, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda, within a year. It is integrated with the iPhone itself. Sounds like Apple wants to go for OnStar's throat. Local search is being expanded worldwide, several new languages.

2:18pm: Better restaurant information, and the capability to place reservations, thanks to integration with OpenTable -- although that looks like you still need OpenTable's app. It also includes movie information along with ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. She even can now launch apps for you.

2:15pm: iOS 6 is official. Up first, Siri's getting a makeover. Now you can ask her questions on sports: "What the score the last Giants game?" or "What is Buster Posey's batting average?" You can even ask questions on standings, or compare two players.

2:11pm: Now onto iOS, and Scott Forstall is up. He's of course taking some time to point out Android fragmentation as part of the introduction, given 80% of iOS users are on iOS 5.

2:10pm: Holy heck. Mountain Lion is $19.99. Snow Leopard and later can upgrade for this price. One purchase good for all Macs, and it's coming in July.

2:04pm: This is going to be one of Apple's longer keynotes in recent memory. 65 minutes in and we still have iOS 6 to go, at least. And oh dear, somebody who looks like Stig from Top Gear just came on stage to play what else but a racing game through Game Center, which is being done to also show off AirPlay Mirroring, since Stig is on an iPad.

2:02pm: Apple has a new feature called "Power Nap", which while the computer sleeps keeping your e-mail, calendar, photos and other data up-to-date. Updates for your computer downloaded as well as Time Capsule backup. AirPlay Mirroring will send your Mac's screen to your AppleTV. Game Center is also coming to Mac OS X.

1:59pm: "Lightning fast" page scrolling and loading. Tabs are sent to the cloud and then synced across your iOS devices. This is obviously going to be an iOS 6 feature. Multitouch support.

1:55pm: Now talking about the iOS-like Notifications center that is coming to OS X. Dictation is also en route. "Sharing" is another new feature, built in system wide. For example, share a link to Twitter within Safari, etc. New Safari is also coming, with unified search (search within the address bar) and the "fastest JavaScript engine of any browser on the planet."

1:46pm: Mountain Lion. They're talking about eight features today. Deep iCloud integration, "Documents in the Cloud" will support documents-based apps, including third-party solutions, with a Developer SDK to be made available.

1:44pm: On to OS X. Craig Federighi on stage now.

1:43pm: 15.4", 2.3GHz i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB flash storage for $2,199. A little pricey but not bad and ships today.

1:39pm: Asymmetric fans make the computer run quieter, with improved venting system.

1:36pm: HDMI, two Thunderbolt ports, an SD slot. USB 3.0/2.0 ports on both sides. Glass multitouch, 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, Facetime HD camera, dual microphones, better speaker. Video now playing, we haven't heard anything on price yet. This should be pricey. But hey, this could be the buildup before they try to knock your pants off. Who knows.

1:34pm: i7 processor 2.7GHz, up to 16GB of RAM, Nvidia Kepler Graphics, 768GB of Flash storage. This thing is a beast. 7 hours of battery, with 30 hours standby.

1:31pm: Updates for Aperture and Final Cut Pro coming. Adobe is working on a "jaw-dropping" version of Photoshop, as is AutoCAD. Diablo 3 will even be retina ready. Wow. Apple telling developers about products AHEAD of time? What Apple is this?

1:30pm: The notebook will ship with Lion, so at least we know that Mountain Lion is likely NOT releasing today or in the near future from that comment.

1:29pm: Essentially this new MacBook Pro looks like a MacBook Air. It's thinner than his finger at .71 inches. About the same thickness as the Air. Weighs 4.46 lbs.

1:25pm Next generation MacBook Pro being announced, with a Retina Display...

1:24pm: NEW LAPTOP LINE...

1:24pm: MacBook Pro will get Ivy Bridge too, up to 2.7GHz, 8GB memory, USB 3.0. 13" and 15" sizes. 13" starts at $1,199 with a $1,499 option. 15" starts at $1,599 with a quad core i7 model for $1,799. High end $2,199 model too. Also shipping today.

1:21pm: 11" and 13" models. The 11" has prices of $999 and $1,099, the 13" $1,199 and $1,499. Note the top end models are down $100. And they start shipping today. Next up, MacBook Pro.

1:18pm: Macbook Air first. Getting updated with 3rd generation Ivy Bridge chip, i7 up to 3.2GHz, 8GB RAM, as much as 512GB of FLASH storage (wow). 60% faster graphics, and USB 3.0 is being included. Wonder what this means for Thunderbolt?

1:16pm: Joe was right, new OS X. And iOS 6 and major laptop changes. Phil Schiller on stage to talk about notebooks first.

1:12pm: Various apps being shown from Ariadne GPS to 3D4Medical and Airbnb's apps.

1:10pm: Well 10 minutes into this, and we still haven't gotten anything new. Nice touching video on how developers are doing some cool things with iOS.

1:05pm: App store, 400 million accounts, with credit cards. 650,000 apps on the store, of which 225,000 are for the iPad. "A few hundred" for our competition. 30 billion apps have been downloaded, making $5 billion for developers.

1:03pm: Tim Cook on stage.

1:00pm: Keynote begins with Siri telling absolutely horrible jokes. Next...

12:55pm: We know iOS 6 is a given, and likely a large Mac refresh. Joe points out that Mountain Lion might be a surprise guest since all these new Macs are coming out. He might be onto something.

12:45pm: Keynote is scheduled to start in about 15 minutes. We'll start updating right here when it starts.

Microsoft: the cloud is your future, and ours

Publié: juin 11, 2012, 5:16pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft is doing what it can to promote cloud computing, focusing on the platform at the TechEd annual developer conference in Orlando, Fla. this week. In the event's opening keynote, Server and Tools chief Satya Nadella told a sold-out crowd of 10,000 that the future of Microsoft is in the cloud.

In the month or so leading up to TechEd, Microsoft has made a fair number of cloud-related announcements. Some of this is out of necessity, because of customer demand, but a lot of it has to do with competitive pressures.

Microsoft finds itself squeezed by Google and Amazon, as both make their plays for the cloud. It could be argued that Google is one of the premier PaaS providers out there, while Amazon pretty much has the IaaS sector locked up. This leaves little space for Microsoft, who long ruled the traditional computing market with an iron fist.

That doesn't phase Nadella though, and he believes Microsoft is uniquely positioned to make a play for the cloud.

“The operating system does two things: it looks after the hardware, and it provides a platform for applications. The modern datacenter and modern apps put more pressure than ever on infrastructure to become truly cloud-optimized, and that’s where Microsoft builds on our legacy with the OS to help our customers,” Nadella said.

Nadella pointed to Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate as a sign of the company's seriousness in helping its customers adopt the cloud. The RC is being marketed alongside System Center 2012 as a way to embrace both virtualization and the cloud, both public and private.

The latest update to Windows Azure and its move from a PaaS play to an Iaas and PaaS offering is another facet of Microsoft's increasing support for the cloud. Azure now permits users to run persistent virtual machines of both Windows and Linux, as well as develop virtual private networks that extend from on-premise into the cloud. Obviously, Microsoft is attempting to take on Amazon Web Services here, which has a very strong presence in the IaaS market.

Finally, Nadella announced a new version of Windows Intune, which includes expanded mobile device management features and upgrade rights to the latest version of Windows as the company moves towards a fall release of Windows 8.

In an accompanying blog post, Nadella explains more about Microsoft's cloud strategy. "With Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure, we’ve taken everything we’ve learned from running datacenters and services at global scale and are delivering the next generation of operating systems -- the 'cloud OS' -- to help our customers seize the opportunities of the cloud", he wrote.

Photo Credit: Alexander Kirch/Shutterstock

Microsoft gets 80,000 seat Office 365 contract with FAA, DOT

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 8:03pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft's Office 365 cloud productivity suite gained even more momentum on Thursday, with both the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration announcing they will move some 80,000 employees to the platform.

The deal is worth some $91 million over seven years, and is provided through Microsoft partner Computer Sciences Corp. Office 365 plays a central role in the SaaS deal, which will offer DOT and FAA employees email, instant messaging, calendaring and webconferencing tools in a multi-platform environment.

The two agencies follow other federal government agencies that have begun moving to the cloud. The General Services Administration and the Agriculture Department moved there last year, and in May, the Interior Department announced a move to Google Apps.

Chief rival Google already has a strong presence in the government sector with its Google Apps for Government product, which has now been around for two years. It counts state and local government entities in 44 states among clients, including cities of Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Pa., and Orlando, Fla., and the state of Wyoming.

Less than two weeks ago Microsoft announced Office 365 for Government in an effort to loosen Google's grip in the government sector. This deal is the first major "get" for the company since that announcement.

"Microsoft has supported government agencies such as the FAA for nearly 30 years, and as a committed partner we'll continue to innovate in ways that help our public-sector customers improve efficiency and reduce operating costs while delivering better citizen services", Microsoft's US public sector division vice president Curt Kolcun says.

Photo Credits: James Thew/Shutterstock

Red Hat moves hybrid cloud management software CloudForms out of beta

Publié: juin 8, 2012, 12:45am CEST par Ed Oswald

Red Hat moved its hybrid cloud management software called CloudForms out of beta on Thursday, aiming to allow IT customers with considerable infrastructure to leverage it with public cloud resources to enable easy migration between the two.

The open-source software company first introduced CloudForms last May, then positioning it as an IaaS product. Since then, the company has begun contributing heavily to the OpenStack IaaS platform, and is now a platinum member of the OpenStack Foundation.

Given that hybrid clouds seem to be in vogue in cloud computing right now, this repositioning may not be that bad of an idea. It will run on a software stack that includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, JBoss Enterprise Middleware, Red Hat Storage, and thousands of certified ISV applications.

CloudForms will allow for applications to be moved between the cloud and in-house infrastructure even if the cloud architecture itself is different. Red Hat says this helps to avoid "vendor lock-in" and negates the need for configuration adjustments.

"We recognize that for a complete open hybrid cloud, enterprises need more than just the management layer – they also need openness and portability across compute, data/services, programming models and applications", chief technical officer Brian Stevens says of the platform.

Like competitors offerings, CloudForms offers end user control for self-service capability. It also reduces administration times through use of a predefined application blueprint, which define everything the application needs to run in a particular environment. CloudForms itself maintains a catalog of these blueprints, which are called anytime an application is requested.

"There's no doubt that end users want to help themselves to cloud-like compute resources, but the IT department still needs to centralize deployment, management and integration", 451 Research vice president Rachel Chalmers says.

Photo Credit: Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock

Microsoft wants Azure cloud to play with the big boys

Publié: juin 7, 2012, 9:09pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft beefed up its Windows Azure cloud platform Thursday, announcing a host of features that take it out of a primarily Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) role and place it into the realm of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). The Redmond, Wash. company appears ready to take on IaaS heavyweights like Rackspace and Amazon Web Services, as well as new entrant Oracle, who announced its own cloud offering on Wednesday.

Microsoft doesn't "catch a new trend right with the first iteration but they keep at it and eventually strike the right tone and in more cases than not, get good enough", Forrester analyst James Staten says of the company's moves. "And often good enough wins".

Azure is now much more of a full-service cloud platform than it had been, and there is a reason why Microsoft began leaking details of these upgrades a little early yesterday.

Oracle's announcement yesterday spanned across all of the major aspects of cloud computing -- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), PaaS, and IaaS -- and Oracle has gone from a nobody in the cloud to a significant player practically overnight.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has been in the cloud game for over two years now, and the company runs the risk of being relegated to also-ran status if it doesn't beef up its offerings quickly.

Microsoft is enabling users to run persistent virtual machines of both Windows and Linux within Azure. Linux distributions supported include OpenSUSE 12.1, CentOS 6.2, Ubuntu 12.04 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2, while Windows Server 2008 R2 and the Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate VMs will also be supported.

The company is also embracing the "hybrid cloud" concept, allowing IT administrators to develop virtual private networks that extend from on-premise into the cloud. A third concept, called Windows Azure Web Sites, will allow users to build and deploy websites based on a number of standards, as well as supporting migration of open-source applications like WordPress, Joomla!, DotNetNuke, Umbraco, and Drupal to the Azure cloud in only a few clicks.

Staten says some work still remains for Azure. "It has a big task before it to get the thousands of Windows applications built by its partners moved over to Windows Azure", he says. "This is probably their biggest outstanding task, as the ecosystem of partners offering SaaS, PaaS, management tools and cloud services on AWS is a huge reason for its outsized success".

Oracle debuts massive end-to-end cloud strategy

Publié: juin 7, 2012, 12:59am CEST par Ed Oswald

Oracle jumped head-first into the cloud Wednesday, announcing the immediate availability of its comprehensive cloud offering. Oracle's cloud service spent seven years in development, and is comprised of over 100 apps.

In an event announcing Oracle's cloud strategy, CEO Larry Ellison stressed that his company's efforts were a long time coming and that Oracle had no interest in being a "niche" provider. "Very few companies can cross the chasm from one technology to the next" like Oracle has, he told attendees.

He did not shy away from taking shots at a number of competitors -- most notably SAP, Salesforce.com, and Workday. These are favorite targets of Ellison over the past few years as his company made a slow and steady march to the cloud, even as its outspoken leader publicly derided the term cloud computing as "complete gibberish".

Oracle's cloud apps are a mixture of in-house development and technologies acquired through recent acquisitions. Talent management offerings come from its February acquisition of Taleo, while its customer experience apps come out of services acquired through its acquisitions of RightNow and Virtue, the latter which it acquired just last month.

All other services were developed in-house, from ERP and HRM to sales and marketing software, with a focus on adhering to web standards. All of Oracle's cloud apps have HTML5 and mobile compliant interfaces, something that sets it apart from competitors, the CEO says.

Oracle Cloud also separates itself in that every customer is given its own virtual machine. Typical cloud providers comingle users' data, something Ellison seemed to infer was a security risk. He compared the company's cloud efforts most closely to Amazon, which also follows a similar strategy.

Another difference is in upgrades. The company would not force upgrades of its SaaS products for up to one year, which Oracle says gives partners the chance to upgrade on their own terms. In addition, data can be easily taken on and off the cloud, so that customers wouldn't be making a "forever commitment" to Oracle services.

Ellison repeatedly pointed out that it took many years of work and a good deal of resources to get to this point. He contrasted Oracle's announcement Wednesday with recent comments from its chief rival SAP, who has previously indicated it may be as late as 2020 before its services are available in the cloud.

"All SAP's got? SuccessFactors", he quipped. "2012 is way to late to start with the cloud", adding that simply buying things would not have been enough.

Photo Credit: nokhoog_buchachon/Shutterstock

Change your LinkedIn password NOW: 6.5 million accounts at risk

Publié: juin 6, 2012, 4:56pm CEST par Ed Oswald

LinkedIn users are advised to change their passwords after it was revealed that more than 6.5 million encrypted passwords were posted to a Russian hacker website. The hackers are attempting to enlist help to crack the encryption, and 300,000 accounts are already compromised.

Security experts who have seen the data say the encryption appears weak and will likely be broken in short order. This means millions more will soon be at risk of having their accounts compromised. While the social network has yet to confirm the breach, it did say it was "looking into reports".

With 150 million users total, this hack only affects about five percent of LinkedIn's userbase. That said, the attack vector nor extent of the hack is known and more password data may exist. While the hackers have not posted user data to match these passwords, Finnish security firm CERT-FI believes they have access to such information.

If you're on LinkedIn, it's a good idea to change your password now. Make sure this password is different from those of other sites, for additional security. This makes you less susceptible to attacks where a hacker gains access to one of your accounts and then attempts to use these credentials elsewhere.

News of the hack follows another report from Wednesday morning on the way LinkedIn's iOS app transmits data. TheNextWeb reports that the app collects notes and calendar information and sends it to the company in plain text, possibly disclosing private information to snoopers.

The option is opt-in, so by default the app will send no data. LinkedIn appeared to take issue with the report, although it has updated both the iOS and Android apps as a result.

"You may have seen a few press stories highlighting concerns about how your data is used in the opt-in calendar feature of our mobile phone apps", mobile product head Joff Redfern writes in a blog post.

Calling it a "great feature", Redfern says the LinkedIn app will "no longer send data from the meeting notes section of your calendar event". Additionally, the app now includes a "learn more" link for users to understand better how their data is being used. Redfern stressed that data had always been sent over a secure (SSL) connection.

Photo Credit: Gunnar Pippel/Shutterstock

Meg Whitman battles to convince world that HP isn't in terminal decline

Publié: juin 6, 2012, 1:49am CEST par Ed Oswald

HP Discover is the company's yearly opportunity to showcase its product lineup for enterprise customers. This year's event takes on a different tone, as some people are concerned about the company's future direction and whether or not HP's best days are behind it.

HP CEO Meg Whitman took over the company last September, following mixed messages on the fate of its consumer-facing businesses and a failed mobile operating system strategy in WebOS.

This culminated two weeks ago with the announcement that HP will cut 27,000 jobs, nearly eight percent of the workforce. This turbulence has given corporate customers -- typically used to slow change and stability -- reasons to worry.

Whitman took the stage Tuesday morning in Las Vegas to allay those fears. "The kind of turmoil that HP has had at the top of the company can take a toll on company's, employees, and shareholders", she told those in attendance. That said, Whitman noted the company was taking actions to right HP's sinking ship. "HP is a remarkably resilient company".

While former CEO Apotheker signaled HP was to exit the hardware business, Whitman's on stage comments suggest the sector that makes up nearly three quarter's of HP's revenues is a key part of its future strategy. Whitman says hardware is the "foundation" for its more service-centric future.

Her words should provide some solace to investors and customers. HP must "get with the times" and wean itself off of hardware revenues. Services are far more profitable, and increasing in demand in the enterprise as the entire sector moves to the cloud. Whitman understands this while at the same time acknowledging that sectors like cloud computing are extraordinarily competitive.

That could be one of the reasons why HP has decided to stick with its hardware business for the time being. It already has a successful business here, and will provide investors with the steady stream of income they're looking for to assure them the company is in good health.

At the same time, these investors (as well as employees, who are likely shaken by last month's layoffs) are looking to see that the company is ready to meet the market demands of the future. "We are here to make it matter for you. We are aligning our portfolio to deliver what you need most", Whitman told attendees.

Zune -- It's really dead this time

Publié: juin 6, 2012, 12:30am CEST par Ed Oswald

Stop me if you heard this one before: the Zune is dead. Buried within Microsoft's slate of announcements at E3 was a change in branding, which effectively kills off the Zune altogether. A new music service is in the cards, called Xbox Music, which will be its replacement.

The Xbox branding is more appropriate considering the service will be available across Microsoft's disparate platforms -- Windows 8 computers and devices, Windows Phones, and the Xbox 360. Removing the Zune branding also gives the service a fresh start, free from the negative connotations the Zune name may have among many consumers.

Microsoft is all but confirming this, saying it decided on the Xbox brand name as it is better known. Zune players were discontinued last year, although the brand lived on in the form of an entertainment service for Windows-powered devices.

Now it appears Microsoft wants to scrub its hands of Zune altogether and start fresh. To be honest, it's probably not a bad idea.

Editor: Zune was dead long ago, Microsoft now admits the body is buried.

Netflix will build content delivery network of its own

Publié: juin 5, 2012, 9:43pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Netflix is building its own content delivery network, a sign that the company wants to be able to deliver its content on its own terms. The move signals trouble for current content delivery partners, many of which get a large portion of their revenues through contracts with Netflix.

The company is not immediately tearing up these contracts: rather Netflix will continue to use these commercial networks for the "next few years". Eventually, however, most Netflix content will be delivered through its own pipes, called the "Open Connect Network".

"Given our size and growth, it now makes economic sense for Netflix to have [our own network]", vice president of content delivery at Netflix Ken Florance writes in a blog post.

About one billion hours of movies and TV shows are currently delivered by Netflix every month. Other major content providers -- such as YouTube -- have already deployed their own content networks. The effort aims to provide users with the best experience possible.

Netflix will deliver the content to the locations ISPs desire, or choose to access the content from a common Internet exchange. The company is also open-sourcing portions of the Open Connect framework, which it says is "suitable for any high-volume provider of large media files". About five percent of Netflix's traffic is already served through the next-generation network, the company says.

As expected, some of Netflix's partners in the content delivery space saw their stocks tumble following the announcement. Eleven percent of Limelight Network's revenues come from its Netflix contracts, and its stock tumbled over 13 percent to $2.34 in late trading, near a 52-week low. Akamai, another partner of Netflix, was down five percent to $26.93. Level 3 stock was up slightly to $20, but opened sharply down as news of Netflix's plans broke.

Limelight did not respond to requests for comment, although a spokesperson for Akamai said the company had been aware of Netflix's content delivery plans for several months.

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Microsoft turns on 'Do Not Track' in Internet Explorer 10 by default

Publié: juin 1, 2012, 6:23pm CEST par Ed Oswald

In a move that is sure to rankle web advertisers, Microsoft late Thursday disclosed that Internet Explorer will have "Do Not Track" functionality on by default. This will prevent browser data crucial to behavioral and targeted advertising from being sent to third parties and could seriously disrupt the advertising industry in general.

Microsoft is vowing to move ahead despite the complaints of the industry. "While some people will say that this change is too much and others that it is not enough, we think it is progress and that consumers will favor products designed with their privacy in mind over products that are designed primarily to gather their data", IE vice president Dean Hachamovitch says.

The Federal Trade Commission began efforts in December 2010 to develop a standard for "Do Not Track" technology, which allows consumers to choose whether they will permit online tracking. Microsoft launched support for the feature in Internet Explorer 9 that same month, with Firefox and Chrome announcing plans to support the initiative last year.

DNT is optional, which means that advertisers and websites don't need to support it. Either way, the effort is gaining momentum, with Twitter announcing support for do not track last week. Microsoft's support then has to be seen as a good thing, although the move to make it on by default could become an issue.

Advertisers, the Feds, and technology companies are busy hammering out an agreement which both honors the concept of Do Not Track, yet does not restrict the advertisers too much. It's a loose and fragile coalition, and Microsoft's move may blow it up completely.

Why? When Internet Explorer 10 releases, a significant portion of Internet users will upgrade fairly quickly. A sizable portion of surfers will now be unreachable by these targeted ads, which are by far the most lucrative for the advertising companies.

Nothing would stop these companies from then directly appealing to the websites and services to pass on adding support for DNT. Since it's a voluntary service, and needs support from both the browser and the website to work, this would effectively kill the effort altogether.

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Judge strikes down Oracle API copyright claims against Google

Publié: juin 1, 2012, 2:51am CEST par Ed Oswald

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison may have felt like king of the world Wednesday night as he announced his company's move to the cloud, but today he's likely licking his wounds: Oracle's case against Google over Android's use of Java is essentially dead.

Judge William Alsup ruled Thursday that Oracle could not assert copyright claims on Google for 37 different Java APIs used within Android. Alsup ruled that only the code within, and not the way they are used, are subject to copyright claims.

Oracle was obviously displeased with the ruling and said in a statement that it intends to appeal.

"Google’s implementation of the accused APIs is not a free pass, since a license has always been required for an implementation of the Java Specification", it argues. "This ruling, if permitted to stand, would undermine the protection for innovation and invention in the United States and make it far more difficult to defend intellectual property rights against companies anywhere in the world that simply takes them as their own".

For those keeping score, Oracle won a muddled victory in the copyright phase, with the jury finding that Oracle had successfully proven Google's infringement upon the overall structure, sequence and organization of its Java copyrights. At the same time, the jury could not agree if Google's application of Java constituted "fair use".

In the patent phase of the trial, Oracle lost outright, with the jury finding no evidence at all of patent infringement. Now with the API question resolved in Google's favor, Oracle's case is pretty much decimated.

It should be noted that Alsup's ruling is fairly narrow, which doesn't address the point of whether or not APIs are actually copyrightable. "No court of appeals has addressed the copyrightability of APIs, much less their structure, sequence and organization. Nor has any district court", he says in his ruling.

That statement should calm developers' nerves, says legal site Groklaw "The sky has been full of FUD about this topic, with folks, both self-styled experts and even a lawyer who has done work for Microsoft claiming that APIs have been copyrightable for years and years, throwing cases at us and examples of terms of use", the site writes. (A copy of the ruling is also available on the site as well.)

"Terms of use don't make law, ladies and gents and experts and lawyers. A company can say whatever it pleases, but that doesn't mean they are in harmony with the law". In other words, some company is going to need to take the issue itself to court in order to get solid legal opinion on what has become a hot-button issue for many in the development community.

So where does this leave Oracle? Without a case and with little restitution, it appears. For the copyright infringement portion of its case, the maximum Oracle will be able to collect is $150,000. That's far below the millions it has spent over the last two years to attempt to cash in on Android.

In a statement, Google lauded Alsup's decision as a victory for innovation. "The court’s decision upholds the principle that open and interoperable computer languages form an essential basis for software development", a spokesperson says.

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Microsoft debuts Visual Studio 2012, .NET 4.5 and Windows Server 2012 release candidates

Publié: juin 1, 2012, 1:05am CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft's suite of enterprise products isn't about to let the consumer-facing ones steal the headlines. On the same day the Redmond, Wash. company announced the Release Preview of Windows 8, the company's enterprise and developer software arm announced the release candidates of .NET Framework 4.5, Visual Studio 2012 and Windows Server 2012.

Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5 are available for download by anyone by visiting the Visual Studio 2012 website, while Windows Server 2012 is available only to TechNet and MSDN subscribers by visiting TechNet.

New to Visual Studio is a redesigned logo, tweaked to follow the design cues of the Metro interface. Setup is improved, with install times down 20 percent over previous beta releases according to the company. Installation customization has also been added back in -- a vital consideration for those of us that like to tinker with the install itself to save on hard drive space.

Microsoft says testers will notice appreciable performance boosts throughout VS2012. Debugging, the editing of large C++ files, and XAML performance is all improved, along with user interface changes based on tester feedback -- many having to do with giving VS2012 subtle hints of Metro styling.

[See this post on the Visual Studio blog for more on the UI changes.]

On the Metro front, Microsoft has added and improved tools for building upon the platform, including a host of new templates, and improvements to existing ones.

Microsoft is shipping both VS 2012 and .NET 4.5 with "Go Live" licenses, meaning developers are free to begin using and deploying production applications using these tools.

Windows Server 2012 also is out today, and is aimed at solidifying Microsoft's place in cloud computing. The Release Candidate is being marketed alongside the Release Candidate of System Center 2012 as a way to embrace both virtualization and the cloud, both public and private.

"With nearly 300,000 downloads to date of the beta release [of Windows Server 2012], the excitement around this new Windows Server is unprecedented", Windows Server Lead Architect Jeffrey Snover says of the excitement surrounding the product.

Microsoft did not immediately specify when final versions of the product will ship, although it may be a good bet that the development products will release before Windows 8 debuts this fall.

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Oracle's Ellison: "We have a much more modern version of the cloud"

Publié: mai 31, 2012, 2:15pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Think what you want about Larry Ellison personally, but Oracle's bombastic CEO is never one to be shown up. That's why when he took the the stage at the D: All Things Digital conference near Los Angeles Wednesday night, he had an announcement to make: his company is wholeheartedly embracing the cloud.

Oracle will announce next Wednesday that all of its tools will be available in the cloud. This is a major step for a company that was seen as lagging in the cloud computing sector. Look at Oracle's competitors: SAP just last week acquired Ariba in a blockbuster $4.3 billion buy, and VMware is aiming for the developers that Oracle calls its core customer base.

That's not to say Oracle has sat idly by while its rivals eat its cloud lunch. Just a day after SAP's Ariba buy, the company announced it had acquired social CRM provider Virtue, giving it a foothold in an increasingly lucrative sector. Last year it acquired CRM company RightNow for $1.5 billion.

The services acquired through those two buyouts will be combined with its Fusion business applications, as well as database software and Java middleware, through the cloud. But what about Ellison's personal thoughts on cloud computing, a term he once called "complete gibberish"?

Pressed on his displeasure over the term by All Things Digital's Kara Swisher, Ellison seems to have backtracked. "I like the words. It’s a charismatic brand", he offered. "People do need to simplify their existing data centers and deliver services in simpler ways".

While Ellison seems to have admitted he was wrong, true to form, he still had time to tell others how they are wrong. He criticized the strategy among current cloud providers to use multitenancy, where cloud services for different customers are put on the same server. As well as sharing a server with other customers, Ellison bemoaned the fact that those customers don't control the underlying software upgrades.

In Oracle's cloud, each customer will be given its own virtual machine. Ellison says this is a better strategy since the user controls the specifications and upgrade paths of the server their cloud services reside on.

"We have a much more modern version of the cloud", he boasted. Whether Ellison is right remains to be seen. Either way, his 25-year-old company has its work cut out for it as competitors have had a several-year head start in the sector, and far more experience.

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Office 365 for Government puts Microsoft squarely on Google's turf

Publié: mai 30, 2012, 10:29pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft is making a play for the lucrative government sector, releasing Office 365 for Government on Wednesday. The service is much like the standard product, including Exchange Online, Lync Online, SharePoint Online and an option to purchase a local version of Office Professional Plus.

Where the government version of Office 365 is different is how it stores data. Government agencies typically require a good deal more security, so all data is stored in a "segregated community cloud". This means data for government customers will be completely separate from other Office 365 users.

"We also know that security and privacy play a big role in any decision to move to the cloud", Office vice president Kirk Koenigsbauer says.

Office 365 already supports a host of privacy standards, including ISO 27001, SAS70 Type II, EU Safe Harbor, EU Model Clauses, the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the US Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the US Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), some of which are mandatory in government settings.

In addition to these standards, Microsoft says it plans to add support for Information Security (CJIS) policies, and add IPv6 support in September.

Government is a sector that Google already has a decent foothold in. Google Apps for Government has been around now for two years, and has customers in 44 states including the cities of Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Pa., and Orlando, Fla., and the state of Wyoming, among others.

Microsoft is the underdog here, although many municipal, state and federal government entities already use Office products. That gives it an advantage in advocating its services to these bodies. Cost savings are a major factor in adopting the cloud, and many municipalities are scrambling to save money in light of sagging tax revenues and higher expenses. That could be Microsoft's "in".

Office 365 for Government is available immediately, the company says.

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Is Israel behind the 'Flame' worm?

Publié: mai 29, 2012, 9:43pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Security researchers are warning of what they call one of the most sophisticated worms to date, and believe that this time, the worm may be the work of a nation-state rather than hackers. Called "Flame", the Trojan has hit Middle Eastern countries particularly hard, most notably Iran.

According to Kaspersky, Flame is capable of stealing "computer display contents, information about targeted systems, stored files, contact data and even audio conversations". The worm appears to be targeted to specific computers, likely indicating its creators are searching for specific information.

Unique to Flame is its usage of Bluetooth. In theory, any Bluetooth-enabled device nearby could also be at risk, as the worm also attempts to collect data via file transfer from those mobile devices.

"One of the most alarming facts is that the Flame cyber-attack campaign is currently in its active phase, and its operator is consistently surveilling infected systems, collecting information and targeting new systems to accomplish its unknown goals", Kaspersky Lab chief security expert Alexander Gostev says.

Flame is quite large in size -- about 20 megabytes. This would make it over 20 times the size of the Stuxnet worm.

Given that Flame appears to be targeting Middle Eastern governments, suspicion that this may be the work of hackers connected to the Israeli government is high. While the Jewish state has not taken responsibility for the attack, the comments of Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon did little to quell speculation otherwise.

"Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat is likely to take various steps, including these, to hobble it", Yaalon is reported to have said on Israeli Army Radio Tursday. "Israel is blessed with high technology, and we boast tools that open all sorts of opportunities for us".

Even with Yaalon's comments, it is still important to note that Kaspersky found Flame on computers in Israel as well, although nearly every other country that Flame has been detected in -- Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Sudan -- do not have the best relations with Israel.

Flame evaded detection for two years as it was successfully able to morph itself by attempting to detect what antivirus software was running. From there, it would hide itself in files that the antivirus software would not expect to be holding malicious code.

That is the biggest problem here, say experts. Traditional antivirus techniques failed, and Flame is successfully exploiting these holes.

"The reality here is that threats, regardless of whether they are crafted by nation states or not, find their way into networks", SourceFire development chief Alfred Huger said of the news. "Most technology focuses on stopping threats yet gives us little recourse if they fail to do so. This is the area that needs attention when we talk about threats like Flame. The gap that presents itself in the 'what if' and 'what now' is best summarized by a lack of visibility and a lack of control".

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Over-allocation kills cloud savings

Publié: mai 25, 2012, 8:20pm CEST par Ed Oswald

When it comes to the cloud and Amazon Web Services, IT administrators often buy far more than they need and fail to adjust to realities once they have a good understanding of their deployment's needs. These are the findings of Cloudyn, a cloud cost management provider.

Cloudyn estimates that some cloud adopters are wasting on average 40 percent of their annual expense on AWS resources they don't use. The reasons why vary: resources are often over-allocated, instances are left running after they are no longer needed, or even failing to take advantage of Amazon's own cost-cutting offerings.

Forrester Research principal analyst James Staten argues long-standing beliefs in IT are what causes us to so dramatically overestimate our needs. "The first rule we learned about capacity planning was that it's more expensive to underestimate resource needs and be wrong than to overestimate, and we always seem to consume more resources eventually", he says.

With the cloud this overplanning isn't as beneficial, and effectively erases one of the platform's biggest advantages, cost savings, if you don't get rid of what you don't need. This seems to indicate most cloud users could be saving a lot more if IT administrators just took a few minutes to review their cloud strategies and usage, Staten suggests.

A common error among AWS users seems to be a general pattern of allocating large or extra large instances when a small or medium instance would do. This led to a 17 percent utilization among the 400,000 instances Cloudyn monitored. Worse yet, among the extra large instances that utilization dropped to four percent, which are eight times as expensive as the small instances.

Cloudyn also found that many instances are left running and unused for days or even months at a time, even worse than underutilization because they aren't being used at all.

One way to fight ballooning cloud costs on AWS for computing power you might not immediately need is the Reserved Instance program. This allows the user to purchase a block of instances ahead of time and at a reduced cost to save money. Cloudyn says that most of the deployments in its study were not taking advantage of this program.

"This one takes longer to assess, but once you know you will be staying in the cloud for a year or more, there's no excuse not to take advantage of this", Staten argues.

To further this point Staten brings up the deceptively low cost of the instances themselves. While a medium instance will cost you 32 cents per hour, over the course of a year that is $2,800. If an IT department is not making full use of that instance, that is a significant amount of money -- especially considering there will be dozens more instances just as equally unused.

"It heavily behooves you to give back what you aren't using," Staten says. "Because you are paying for what you allocated whether you are really using it or not".

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Box cozies up to large scale users, debuts new admin tools

Publié: mai 24, 2012, 5:13pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Enterprise cloud-based file sharing service Box strengthened its offering on Thursday, announcing new features that will simplify management for IT administrators. The new functionality allows for greater control over security, and the ability to enable enterprise-wide search.

The company also debuted new pricing structures that enable larger companies to adopt its services with more predictable pricing. This is a move away from the traditional per-seat model of the past, and makes cloud storage more cost-effective for large enterprises.

Box counts 11 million users including 120,000 businesses -- 82 percent of the Fortune 500. Box's most recent changes are in direct response to requests by users, and take into account the more widespread use of the cloud in the enterprise versus the isolated deployments of the past.

The changes to search within Box are evidence of this. Searching was previously limited to individual accounts. With the new admin console, administrators now have the capability to search across the entire enterprise, making it much easier to view files and folders and understand how they are being shared both within and outside an organization.

"Enterprises are realizing transformative gains by adopting the cloud, but there is a need for technology that provides deeper visibility, control and data security", Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie says.

Box has improved mobile security, enabling passcode locks for file access on mobile devices and more control over offline file access, and the ability to support more than one domain in a Box enterprise deployment. It is also introducing new logging capabilities to track items comments, tasks and sharing files.

The company says this will be especially useful in industries such as finance and healthcare, where such data must be kept to ensure regulatory compliance.

On the subject of pricing, Box's new Enterprise License Agreement will make large-scale cloud users happy. Instead of a per-seat cost, larger users will be able to enter into multi-year licenses with Box at a fixed rate. This will allow them to plan better for IT costs and will simplify the administration of large contracts.

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HP reports better-than-expected quarter, but cuts 27,000 jobs amid restructuring

Publié: mai 24, 2012, 12:11am CEST par Ed Oswald

HP released better than expected results after the close of the markets Wednesday, and the company overall shows signs of a long-awaited turnaround. But the big story tonight surrounds the 27,000 workers who will lose their jobs as part of a "multi-year" restructuring plan announced by CEO Meg Whitman.

The cuts amount to about eight percent of the workforce and are expected to save HP between $3 and $3.5 billion annually by 2015. It will be phased in gradually though 2014, and involves an early retirement package to be offered by the company. In a conference call with analysts, Whitman described the quarter's results as positive, but added "we have a lot of work to do".

HP employees have been through this before: in June 2010, the computing giant announced cuts over a "multi-year period", which amounted to the loss of 9,000 jobs. In 2008, another restructuring program eliminated about 25,000 jobs, and in 2005, 15,000 workers lost jobs over an 18-month period.

These cuts did little to improve the fortunes of HP, analysts argue. The latest move was already criticized before being announced: a Deutsche Bank analyst questioned the company's efforts in a research note, quipping that HP "has been restructuring for the past decade".

Most of the savings will be reinvested back into the business, the company says. HP plans to invest in its core printing and personal systems business -- a welcome sign considering these two business segments seemed dead just a year ago -- and into emerging businesses including the cloud. That said, a $1.7 billion pre-tax charge will be taken during fiscal 2012 to cover costs associated with the cuts.

"While some of these actions are difficult because they involve the loss of jobs, they are necessary to improve execution and to fund the long term health of the company", Whitman said in a statement. In the call, Whitman said she was "cautiously optimistic" on the company's fortunes coming out of a successful quarter.

That cautious optimism may be smart, evidenced by the troubles of Dell. That company reported as part of its quarterly results after the close of the markets Tuesday that it saw a slowdown in the overall PC industry. That news coupled with disappointing earnings sent Dell's stock tumbling over 17 percent Wednesday, its worst performance in 11 years.

HP reported second-quarter GAAP earnings of $1.6 billion on revenues of $30.7 billion, down three percent from a year ago -- about 80 cents per share. That was above the company's own estimates of 68 to 71 cents per share, and revenues came in above an average of $29.92 billion forecast by analysts polled by Thompson Reuters.

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Oracle gains stake in social CRM with $300 million Vitrue buy

Publié: mai 23, 2012, 5:38pm CEST par Ed Oswald

A day after competitor SAP acquired Ariba to bolster its cloud portfolio, Oracle announced a significant buy of its own, acquiring cloud-based social, marketing company Vitrue on Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although TechCrunch reports it was worth some $300 million.

Oracle's purchase of Vitrue gives the Redwood Shores, Calif. company a foothold in the social CRM segment, an initiative Gartner says companies will spend some $2.1 billion on this year alone. With the rise of social networks, companies need methods to quantify the results of their social marketing. Virtue's platform allows customers to "centrally create, publish, moderate, manage, measure and report on their social marketing campaigns and activities", Oracle says.

"The proliferation of social media and an increased demand by consumers to engage with brands across multiple social channels is driving chief marketing officers to look for an integrated social marketing platform", Oracle development vice president Thomas Kurian says.

Oracle expects the combination of the two companies to allow its customers to build better relationships with their customers, as well as improve return on investment from these initiatives. Turning back to that Gartner study, ROI was a major concern.

Gartner found that only half of all Fortune 1000 companies participating in some type of social marketing initiative would see positive ROI this year. Worse off, only a fifth of those companies actually have methods to measure their returns.

Such a statistic seems to suggest that Oracle may find itself entering a largely untapped market with a lot of upside potential. Vitrue's offerings will be added into the Oracle Cloud after the completion of the deal, although its products are expected to continue to be available individually according to a FAQ posted by Oracle on the implications of the deal.

In any case, some are arguing that Oracle got a great deal on Virtue, as the company was purchased for only three times its revenues. "I thought the words 'social media' and 'huge valuations' went together like 'Facebook' and 'privacy issues?'", MarketingPilgrim's Andy Beal wrote in response to the deal.

"Vitrue is reported to be 'nearly profitable' which may be the reason for such a low valuation. The $100M in revenue looks like a great number, but $100M without profit simply has me scratching my head", he mused.

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SAP acquires Ariba for $4.3 billion in bid to challenge Oracle in the cloud

Publié: mai 22, 2012, 10:11pm CEST par Ed Oswald

SAP made a major play for the cloud Tuesday as its American arm announced acquisition of Ariba, a German cloud computing applications maker. The transaction is worth some $4.3 billion, and is expected to close this summer.

Ariba is the world's second largest-cloud vendor by revenue, SAP says. With the addition of the German company, SAP now looks to challenge rival Oracle, which also has made a play for the cloud segment as of late.

"The addition of Ariba will create the business network of the future, deliver immediate value to our customers and provide another solid engine for driving SAP’s growth in the cloud", SAP Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe say in a statement. Current Ariba CEO Bob Calderoni is expected to be named to SAP's Global Managing Board pending the approval of the company's supervisory board.

SAP expects the combined company to "create new models for business-to-business collaboration in the cloud", and to position the company well in what has become a fast growing segment.

In late day trading, shares of SAP were down slightly at $58.49 per share, but shares of Ariba were up over 19 percent to $44.89 after being halted for the acquisition news.

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Open source software comes of age

Publié: mai 22, 2012, 6:40pm CEST par Ed Oswald

More than half of all software acquired by IT in the next five years will be open source, according to a new study, and open source software (OSS) leads in the areas of cloud, big data, mobile apps and enterprise mobility.

"Taken together with applications like mobile and enabled by cloud, we are entering an exciting new era of 'Open Innovation on Demand,' where not only can OSS innovate faster, it can be deployed immediately and consumed as a service from the cloud", says Michael Skok, general partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, one of the sponsors of the survey.

Respondents to the survey cite the quality of software as one of the three most important reasons why they chose open source, although 43 percent say project maturity plays an equally important role in their software decisions. Nearly half believe that data management will be the market segment most affected by OSS.

The findings suggest that the OSS industry is coming into its own and seeing significant adoption in the enterprise segment, where there once was a good deal of resistance to open source. Given that most OSS projects have matured a good deal in recent years, IT administrators have less concerns about introducing OSS into mission-critical systems.

This relaxing of attitudes is evidenced by the growth in open source: investment in OSS in 2011 reached $675 million, up 49 percent from the previous year.

While OSS is certainly gaining steam, some challenges do remain, the survey finds. Most OSS solutions are unknown among IT professionals, which leads to a lack of skilled workers able to successfully deploy and manage deployments containing open source.

That said, OSS is taking an increasingly bigger role in computer science classes at college institutions, which could lead to an increase in skilled workers in the field in the not too distant future.

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IT embraces bring your own device in corporate deployment, despite risks

Publié: mai 18, 2012, 11:41pm CEST par Ed Oswald

While the bring-your-own-device phenomenon in IT presents a fair amount of risk to enterprise security, most companies are warming up to the idea anyway. A Cisco-sponsored survey of 600 IT and business leaders found that 95 percent of their companies allow employee-owned devices on the corporate network.

Of all companies surveyed, 36 percent support all BYOD devices, while 48 percent support a select list of devices. An additional 11 percent tolerate employee-owned devices on enterprise networks, but will offer no IT support.

The overwhelming number of corporations giving some type of support to BYOD is due to a large majority of IT executives themselves seeing the initiative as positive to their companies. Cisco says 76 percent of respondents called BYOD either somewhat or extremely positive, citing higher employee job satisfaction and increased productivity as reasons for their support. The benefits outweigh the risks, the data suggests, and it's better to keep your employees happy.

While employees may appreciate device choice, there's a much more personal reason behind the push for BYOD. Employees cite personal freedom as a major reason for wanting their own devices in the workplace. Corporate-owned hardware typically comes with usage policies that prevents personal use. That means checking Facebook or instant messaging is a no-no. Cisco says it found that 69 percent of BYOD users were using unapproved applications on these devices.

Simply put? It's much more difficult to track what your employees are doing when they're using their own devices. BYOD gives the employee the freedom to do as they wish.

This personal component seems to really be driving the BYOD phenomenon, but the need for mobile connectivity is also a factor. Cisco found that four in five white-collar employees use a mobile device in the course of their workday, with 65 percent of all white-collar workers requiring mobile connectivity in order to perform their jobs.

"As the number of devices being brought into work increases, organizations need a comprehensive mobility strategy", Cisco chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior says. Undoubtedly, this strategy needs to include some type of security component, as respondents listed security concerns as a top challenge in dealing with BYOD.

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Comcast ditches data caps, but charges heavy users overage fees

Publié: mai 18, 2012, 12:32am CEST par Ed Oswald

Comcast said Thursday it plans to make changes to its pricing structure to start billing for the amount of data customers use, versus the capped method in place today. The cable company will test two different pricing structures in some markets, while hard enforcement of the 250GB cap put into place in 2008 would end.

Both piloted pricing structures give users 300GB of data at a flat rate. Where they differ is in how this allotment is treated: one solution places this cap across all of Comcast's tiers, while the other carries the 300GB allotment for the Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance tier and higher allotments for faster tiers above that.

In all cases, users are charged a flat rate for additional bandwidth beyond that initial allotment -- for example, $10 for 50GB, and so forth. The company says that while an overwhelming majority of its users still remain far below its set caps (some using as little as 2GB or 3GB a month), the cap itself cast a shadow over some of Comcast's recent announcements.

"Over the last several years, we have periodically reviewed [the capping] policy, and for the last six months we have been analyzing the market and our process and think that now is the time to begin to move to a new plan", Communications and Data Services head Cathy Avgirls writes in a post to the company's blog.

"This conclusion was only reinforced when, in recent weeks, some of the conversation around our new product introductions focused on our data usage threshold, rather than on the exciting opportunities we are offering our customers", she continues. One of those "conversations" could have been its move to allow Xfinity movie streaming to the Xbox to not count against a subscriber's cap.

That prompted Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to accuse the company of favoring its own traffic over competitors, an accusation Comcast executives did not address in a conference call on Thursday announcing the move.

Instead they focused on marketing the new plans as a way to force heavy users to pay up for data they use, while giving users worried about hitting the cap more flexibility. Seems like Comcast finally realized that caps are bad for business, but their reasoning is not the answer Hastings or other industry watchers were looking for.

Comcast has found itself in trouble before over traffic favoritism, and accusations it throttles specific types of traffic such as BitTorrent. While the end of the cap is surely welcome news, it still does not answer the deeper questions of whether the cable and Internet provider's forays into the businesses of its competitors mean its own traffic gets prioritized over others.

That in essence is the whole argument for net neutrality, and Comcast's move Thursday is sure to bring that debate back to the forefront, regardless of whether the caps are there or not.

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Earthlink debuts hosted desktop services, adds cloud expert to executive team

Publié: mai 17, 2012, 6:03pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Earthlink this week strengthened its cloud services offerings, debuting a hosted desktop solution that allows customers access regardless of device and via both the Internet and secure MPLS connections. Over 250 applications are supported, and customers may also install their own custom applications.

Since the middle of last year, EarthLink has been transforming its business from an ISP to cloud services provider. In July, the company promoted Brian Fink to executive vice president of managed and cloud services. Fink brought with him two decades of experience in managed services. Since then, the company has continued to make some high profile cloud hires, including the appointment Thursday of former Concentric Cloud president Michael Toplisek to vice president of IT services.

In late April, the company announced partnerships with Microsoft, VMware, and Zimbra on virtualization solutions for customers, and products aimed at bringing businesses into the cloud. The hosted desktop offering builds upon that announcement.

Cloud Workspace will offer redundant data storage and routine back-up and disaster recovery protection, and the infrastructure is SSAE 16 compliant, a standard developed for the protection of corporate accounting data.

"Cloud Workspace simplifies manageability, increases protection and delivers data and applications securely from the cloud, allowing users the convenience of using any device to access and run applications and data as if local to them, even while moving between devices", managed services product management vice president Mike Fuqua says.

Enterprise IT turns to cloud storage to fight data loss

Publié: mai 16, 2012, 10:02pm CEST par Ed Oswald

If you're worried about data loss, turn to the cloud. That's what a new survey commissioned by CA suggests. Fifty-five percent of all US businesses expect usage of the cloud to increase to meet continuity objectives. That's an important statistic considering every one of the 300 businesses participating in the study experienced some type of data loss event in the past year.

Among the most common reasons for data loss are IT system failures (76 percent); human error (41 percent); and external threats and attacks (35 percent). An earlier CA study suggests that data loss events cost companies an average $160,000 every year.

Business continuity plans are crucial to ensure critical processes remain available in the event of a crisis. Cloud backup and storage is an attractive option as it provides for a place offsite to store mission-critical data, and in the event of a catastrophic IT failure could be a lifesaver. It is for this reason why IT administrators have increased spending on the cloud.

Nearly half of the 300 businesses will increase cloud spending on data protection measures over the next year, compared to only 14 percent who will cut spending. The results indicate the market for enterprise cloud storage is about to enter a period of rapid growth.

"This survey reveals that one of those benefits is improved data protection—which remains a huge challenge in conventional, non-cloud environments", data management chief Bill Mann says of the study's results.

Once in the cloud, IT administrators seem to be satisfied that their data is protected. Four out of every five (86 percent) companies with data in the private cloud feel that it is adequately protected, while 73 percent of those with data in the public cloud feel their data is safe.

"It is broadly acknowledged that cloud computing can offer many benefits to organizations that require more agile and cost-effective ways of delivering IT services", Mann says.

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Get ready for Commerce-as-a-Service: NetSuite takes selling to the cloud

Publié: mai 16, 2012, 5:25pm CEST par Ed Oswald

You've heard of Platform-as-a-Service, and Infrastructure-as-a-Service; maybe even Gaming-as-a-Service, too, from BetaNews' reporting on Tuesday. Get ready for the latest X-as-a-Service, thanks to a new Commerce-as-a-Service (CaaS) initiative from NetSuite.

The company debuted the initiative on Wednesday, saying CaaS will help partners manage both business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions regardless of device.

CaaS uses NetSuite's Enterprise Resource Planning as its backbone, built upon a new platform called SuiteCommerce. SuiteCommerce manages all aspects of the sales process from developing the e-commerce site itself to process management. The platform can even run the POS systems in retail stores themselves, which may explain why the company on Wednesday also announced a partnership with payment processing company Square.

"Over the next decade, NetSuite will transform how businesses operate with other businesses and with their customers through NetSuite Commerce as a Service", CEO Zach Nelson says. "By transforming the NetSuite business application into a commerce-aware platform, we enable our customers to extend the richest set of cloud operational capabilities available anywhere directly to their customers, regardless of the device those customers are using".

The rapid rise of e-commerce has caused a disconnect between a company's online and offline presence. Backend applications like SAP and Microsoft Dynamics are cobbled together with e-commerce software. This makes a mess of the supply chain, and the path from supplier to retailer to customer has rarely been a straight one. Obviously, this leads to inefficiency.

SuiteCommerce, and its comprehensive take on all aspects of commerce management, is marketed as a solution to the issue. Connecting to the ERP NetSuite's backend, the process becomes streamlined, and the need for human CRM (client relations management) is significantly lessened. "The human as a CRM system is going to be a thing of the past" thanks to tools like SuiteCommerce and others, Nelson said Tuesday at the SuiteWorld 2012 conference in San Francisco.

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Nvidia's GPUs in the cloud will shake up virtualization, gaming industries

Publié: mai 16, 2012, 1:20am CEST par Ed Oswald

GPUs first revolutionized visual computing, and now may revolutionize cloud computing as well. Nvidia introduced its GPUs for the cloud Tuesday at the annual GPU Technology Conference, an innovation it calls the third important milestone for the industry since the introduction of the GPU in 1993.

Nvidia's cloud GPUs are based on the company's Kepler architecture and has been in development for the past five years. The virtualization capabilities of Kepler make it ideal for use in large datacenters, and allows it to be shared by multiple users at the same time. Lag is reduced by built-in streaming capabilities, and Nvidia claims power efficiency and processing density enhancements will keep costs down.

"Kepler cloud GPU technologies shifts cloud computing into a new gear. The GPU has become indispensable", president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says. "The cloud GPU will deliver amazing experiences to those who work remotely and gamers looking to play untethered from a PC or console". Indeed, these two markets seem to be the most logical fit for Kepler.

For remote computing environments, Kepler allows for the remote virtualization of the most demanding applications. In gaming, a whole new market could be opened up as a result. Modern games require a lot of graphics processing power, and the ability to deliver these games over a streaming connection may revolutionize how they are delivered.

"Using a graphics-optimized cloud GPU eliminates some of the final barriers that stand in the way of a truly immersive, truly exciting cloud-based gaming experience and could change the business model for how games are played and delivered", Gartner analyst Brian Blau argues.

This implementation is being dubbed GeoForce GRID. At the conference, Huang showed off a game that was streamed between two players both using just a television and tablet computer. No tablet was required -- the entire gaming environment was hosted in the cloud.

We've heard about just-about-everything-as-a-service. Nvidia's product could herald the start of Gaming-as-a-Service, and completely disrupt the current video game industry in a way that likely was not envisioned a few short years ago.

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As Red Hat Enterprise Linux turns 10, focus shifts to the cloud

Publié: mai 16, 2012, 12:18am CEST par Ed Oswald

Red Hat celebrated the 10th anniversary of its flagship Enterprise Linux product, but reaffirmed the decision to shift focus to cloud computing, pledging that open-source roots would be key to success in the new business venture.

The company plans to release Enterprise Linux 7 in in late 2013, but offered little during a Tuesday press conference on what to expect. What may play a large part in the new release is a focus on the cloud. For all intents and purposes, Red Hat believes Linux is in the past and the cloud is the future.

Intel is a part of this, and in congratulating Red Hat on its milestone noted the two companies' work in datacenter virtualization. "Intel and Red Hat have collaborated for years on Linux and open virtualization, bringing innovative datacenter technologies to market", Intel Systems Software Division vice president Doug Fisher says in a statement. "We look forward to our continuing collaboration and innovation in key areas such as open, trusted, and federated clouds, as well as mission-critical platforms based on open source software and Intel Architecture".

Red Hat believes open-source will help it build a dominant cloud business. Competitors VMware and Microsoft rely heavily on their own proprietary technologies, with little support from the developer community at large. Red Hat's embrace of open source has allowed the company to rely not only on its in-house developers but the ingenuity of the community.

Some may see it as a way of making money off the backs of others, but Red Hat has no regrets on embracing open source. Engineering chief Paul Cormier credits the decision to move to an open-source subscription model in 2002 as the decision that made Red Hat into the Linux powerhouse it is today.

That same concept will be used as RedHat moves to the cloud, and will give the company more mobility in adapting to the needs of developers. While it takes a little bit of hubris to say at such an early stage in cloud computing that your company will lead the industry, Red Hat certainly has its work with Enterprise Linux to back up its words.

Dell adds secure application data synchronization to cloud portfolio

Publié: mai 15, 2012, 9:47pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Less than a week after announcing a major Desktop-as-a-Service product in Simplified DaaS, Dell said Tuesday it would offer methods to securely sync sensitive data across disparate cloud services. Called Integration Packs, Dell initially is offering synchronization services between Salesforce CRM and the software version of QuickBooks.

An integration pack for synchronization between the online version of QuickBooks and Salesforce CRM and Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce CRM is due in June. All three packs have a $65 monthly service charge, Dell says.

Dell created the services from its in-house Boomi technology, which it acquired from a company of the same name back in 2010. Boomi specialized in data transfer between different cloud applications. The process of setting up synchronization is handled through wizards during the setup process and do not require third-party installation services.

All synchronization is done automatically and without user intervention. Order and invoice creation can be streamlined, as well as productivity and speed in collecting accounts receivable, Dell says.

Much of Dell's cloud portfolio is aimed at the small and medium-sized business segment, and data synchronization between applications is a useful service. With often limited staffing, SMBs benefit most from services like this which save time and manual labor from negating the need to synchronize accounts manually. SMBs turn to the cloud in order to save time and money, and Dell may have a valuable service here to offer these potential customers.

"Our customers tell us integration is a core requirement to successful adoption of cloud applications", cloud business software chief Paulette Altmaier says of Tuesday's announcement.

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VMware woos developers with Java cloud development platform

Publié: mai 15, 2012, 7:15pm CEST par Ed Oswald

VMware is known for its work in virtualization. The company aims to change that, and announced on Tuesday a new product to assist in the automation, deployment and management of complex applications on its cloud infrastructure. vFabric Suite 5.1 is a new product that takes code acquired through VMware's acquisition of SpringSource and adds additional functionality to make it more attractive to developers.

Application deployment automation, PostgreSQL and SQLFire support, and enterprise support have been added to the SpringSource code. VMware says that the service will help provide developers with the core application services they need to run Java Spring applications either on-site or in the cloud.

"The cloud era is driving a transformation in applications", Cloud and Application Services vice president Jerry Chen says. "This is driving a real transition in the type of technologies our customers are using to build, run and manage these new applications". The initial release of vFabric suite last year led to a doubling of VMware's cloud business during 2011.

vFabric suite's new version will be available within the next month or so for $1,500 per virtual machine. SQLFire is available at a rate of $2,500 per VM. The company says that it decided to sell vFabric Suite in this manner so that customers would only pay for what they need, rather than purchase excess licenses that may never be used.

That said, VMware has a large mountain to climb when it comes to actually attracting developers. SpringSource's Java development framework is somewhat popular, it does have competitors in the space from Oracle and the open-source Eclipse project. And then there's Microsoft.

The Redmond, Wash. company's .NET framework remains quite popular among developers, and Amazon recently added .NET support to its Beanstalk Platform-as-a-Service offering. Given AWS' strong position in the market, and .NET's comprehensive set of development tools, VMware has its work cut out for it if it wants to become a true player in the development space.

It's likely going to require a good deal of marketing and cajoling on the company's part to convince that its own tools are on the level of Microsoft's, say analysts.

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SAP combines enterprise core with ready-to-use cloud

Publié: mai 15, 2012, 7:01pm CEST par Ed Oswald

SAP aims to show that it is a serious player in the cloud computing sector today, announcing several new cloud initiatives under what it calls an "accelerated" strategy. The company's deeper commitment to the cloud stems from its $3.4 billion merger with human capital management service provider SuccessFactors several months back.

Former SuccessFactors CEO Lars Dalgaard is now head of SAP's cloud unit, and he is tasked with turning the company's cloud business around. At the Sapphire Now Conference -- SAP's annual gathering in Orlando -- Dalgaard is showing off a line of solutions arranged around four different themes: people, money, customers and suppliers.

"The cloud is a completely new paradigm", Dalgaard argues. "We will provide integration among the cloud solutions and external content out-of-the-box with on-premise business software. We are passionate about bringing creative and innovative first-in-class applications to market with a beautiful user experience".

On the people and money front, SAP is integrating SuccessFactors' human resources services -- Employee Central -- with its own in-house cloud based payroll solution. Financials OnDemand is now integrated with Employee Central, which allows for companies to better manage cash flow. SAP says its Travel OnDemand service is also slated for integration in the near future.

Sales OnDemand will now receive quarterly updates, an obvious move to bring it more in line with rivals like Salesforce.com. A new application called Social Customer Engagement OnDemand will manage social reach, good news given a large majority of companies these days seem to be wasting money on social CRM initiatives.

For suppliers, SAP is investing in its Sourcing OnDemand and Information Interchange OnDemand solutions that will assist in supply acquisition and invoice management, respectively.

SAP's moves Tuesday are getting good reviews. "Today’s announcements show SAP combining its core strength of large enterprise applications with a ready-to-use cloud strategy for the first time", Forrester analyst Stefan Ried says. "SAP’s long-term cloud strategy needs to be a triple play: SaaS applications, an application-centric platform to extend them, and a new platform for the next generation of social business networks".

While Ried may be correct in saying SAP has finally got it right with the cloud, its track record so far has been pretty poor. The last major foray into cloud software back in 2007 was a major failure. SAP spent $500 million to introduce Business ByDesign, an effort aimed at making its management tools more manageable and affordable to small and medium sized business.

Even after an attempted relaunch in 2010, the service was only able to garner about 1,000 customers, which came nowhere near to recouping its costs.

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HP pushes OpenStack cloud services into public beta

Publié: mai 10, 2012, 8:50pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Today, HP made OpenStack available in public beta, announcing general availability of three services to customers: Cloud Compute, Cloud Object Storage and Cloud Content Delivery Network; they're available on a pay-as-you-go basis.

In September, the Palo Alto, Calif. company started offering the services to a limited number of customers. HP's move can also be viewed as a strengthened commitment to OpenStack itself. Competitor Citrix is going the opposite direction -- last month relinquishing to open source CloudStack code received as part of the acquisition of Cloud.com last year.

Both HP and Citrix were some of the earliest members of OpenStack.

"We will continue to build, integrate and deploy developer-focused features, designed to support a world-class cloud that enables our customers and partners to run and operate web services at scale, on a global basis", HP Cloud Services chief Zorawar Singh says of Thursday's move.

HP Cloud Compute allows IT administrators to deploy virtual servers on demand, while Cloud Object Storage is the company's data storage in the cloud offering. The Cloud Content Delivery Network is HP's service that allows for fast data transfer by caching data on HP and Akamai's servers worldwide. Like Dell and other companies who have made a business out of selling hardware initially, HP too is focusing on the cloud for additional sources of revenue at a much higher profit margin.

Over 40 companies have already announced their support of HP's cloud service initiative, including CloudOpt and Xeround in databases and Panzura, TwinStrata and Zimanda in storage. The company envisions a virtual marketplace of cloud services in the not too distant future where HP customers will be able to access and purchase both its cloud services and partner applications through a single account.

"Any cloud platform is only as good as the ecosystem and solutions it enables", HP marketing director Karen Reynolds says.

If you're wondering if all this action by HP and others is in response to Amazon's growing clout in cloud services, you're probably right. OpenStack is built to be completely independent of Amazon Web Services, and could be considered one of the true alternatives to Amazon's offering. Citrix in its move to open source CloudStack is touting its AWS support, which has rankled some industry watchers.

"AWS APIs are fine… for Amazon", Sam Johnston, Director, Cloud & IT Services at Equinix tweeted last month. Johnston may be right: supporting AWS may be akin to handing over the keys to a sector that is sure to play a huge role in computing over the next decade.

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Dell looks to the cloud to stay relevant in the enterprise

Publié: mai 10, 2012, 6:25am CEST par Ed Oswald

Dell continued to expand outside of its traditional PC-based business this week, making two separate announcements that symbolize a larger emphasis on services -- especially for the cloud. The Allen, Texas based company has introduced a Desktop-as-a-Service offering through a partnership with Desktone, as well as a new offering aimed at moving their SAP solutions to the cloud.

The moves signal a bigger business shift for a company that for most of its 26-year history has focused on physical hardware. At the same time, it's a sign of the times in enterprise environments, a move towards virtualization and cloud-based services.

Dell Simplified DaaS will work with both Citrix and VMWare virtual machines, but is different from traditional virtualization in that the instances themselves are provided over the Internet from Dell's own data centers. A web-based console allows IT administrators to manage the desktops employees create. The technology behind this is from Lexington, Mass.-based Desktone.

Simplified DaaS is being marketed towards remote workers, call center staff, seasonal employees, or any other IT environment where there is a need for rapid scaling of a virtualization infrastructure. The fact that it is delivered through the cloud puts much of the administrative requirements on Dell itself, making it an attractive option for small and medium sized businesses.

“Organizations are quickly realizing the value of DaaS, providing a full-featured desktop experience with the security benefits of a virtual desktop, and the scale and cost efficiencies of cloud computing, all in a way that can increase worker productivity", End User Computing Solutions chief Steve Lalla says of the product.

Dell's DaaS product is set to become available beginning in late may here in the US, and in June in Europe. Announcements on availability in other regions will come later in the year, the company says.

In concert with the DaaS announcement, Dell also announced a new effort to entice SAP users to the cloud. Its Cloud Starter Kit will offer 60-day access to Dell's cloud environment, offering computing power of up to 8,000 SAP units of measure and is powered by Dell's VMware-based datacenter service. From there, users can upgrade to the Cloud Development Kit, which offers up to 32,000 SAP units. The package there includes one year of access to Dell's cloud.

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Android malware woes look a lot like Windows'

Publié: mai 9, 2012, 5:56pm CEST par Ed Oswald

McAfee says that Android malware is taking a worrisome turn, with cybercriminals mimicking popular strategies used against Windows. The latest attacks tap IRC bots, where the malware gets further operating instructions from an Internet chatroom.

Called Android/Multi.dr, the attack masks itself as the game Madden NFL 12. Multi.dr is comprised of three separate components, including a root exploit, an IRC bot, and SMS Trojan.

The first method of attack is the root exploit, which "roots" the device and allows code to be executed as an administrator and allows code to be executed from a remote server. This is vital for the next component, the IRC bot, to do its dirty work. Once the device is rooted, the IRC application is executed, hidden as a PNG image file.

Research specialist Arun Sabapathy says this file is actually an .ELF file, which is Android's version of an executable. Once executed, the IRC channel stays open and receives and executes commands on the device.

Potentially more serious in terms of security is the SMS Trojan. Infected users will find themselves being charged by texts to premium numbers worldwide. That isn't the least of it: there is code within the Trojan that scans all SMS messages received to see if any of these premium numbers are already used. If by chance one of these numbers is used by a legitimate company and the message exists on your phone, it is sent to the attackers.

"This alone tells us how serious this attack can be", Sabpathy says. "However we are not sure, at this point, what purpose they collect and use some of the data for as we are not sure about what their server side code is and does". With attackers increasingly turning to mobile to launch their attacks, Sabpathy all but says these more desktop-like attacks are bound to increase in the not too distant future.

What can be done to protect yourself? Limit downloads of apps from little-known or suspicious app repositories. While the advantage of Android is not being limited to Google Play, the store remains one of the safest places to find new apps.

With the increasing amount of malware appearing on the Android platform, knowing what and from where you're downloading is becoming increasingly important.

Fire all the lawyers

Publié: mai 8, 2012, 11:22pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Could it be true? Are the courts finally tired of the never-ending patent disputes in Silicon Valley? If the statements made by two judges over the past week are an indication, yes.

This frustration was on display Monday in a Seattle court room as Federal Judge James Robart accused both Microsoft and Motorola of "hubris" and "arrogance" in their ongoing patent dispute, and using the courts to gain the upper hand in licensing negotiations, according to GeekWire's Todd Bishop, who was on hand for the proceedings.

Motorola and Microsoft are enaged in a bitter battle over video and wireless patents owned by Motorola. Motorola demands royalties of 2.25 percent on a range of products Microsoft produces, including Windows 7 and the Xbox console, which amounts to a royalty payment of about $4 billion per year. Microsoft sued Motorola over this, claiming the device maker attempted to rake it over the coals on patents that were essential to industry standards, called FRAND -- "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" licensing.

Sue First, Negotiate Later

Motorola won a judgement in Germany last week regarding two of the video patents it is asserting against Microsoft here, and won an injunction essentially blocking the sales of the Xbox and Windows PCs. That move was blocked by a restraining order here in the US though, with Robart (the same judge accusing Motorola and Microsoft of hubris and arrogance Monday) arguing it would put Microsoft in an unfair negotiating position with the threat of a crippling injunction over its head.

That's the key -- these companies use the courts to negotiate rather than sit down and hammer it out. Robart says it best with this comment during Monday's hearing: "The court is well aware that it is being played as a pawn in a global industry-wide business negotiation". These cases are being used as leverage, and the court of law has become a pawn.

Lawyers now run the process, and are aided by judges who have all but failed to stand up to these companies until now. That seems to be changing and another good example is another case, this time between Motorola and Apple. Both sides are filing motions to gum up the process, and the judge there finally said enough is enough. "I've had my fill of frivolous filings by Apple", US District Judge Richard Posner wrote in a recent ruling.

The way I see it, these continuous patent litigation cases are as good of an argument for judicial restraint that I have ever seen. No one says every single patent case in front of a judge needs to be ruled upon: that judge has the power to dismiss the frivolous cases, of which there seems to be a bunch of lately. The court system bears some responsibility for making this issue worse.

Stop Legitimizing The Strategy

Judges need to start dismissing some of these cases, and remand these folks to the boardroom where the real patent negotiations should happen. Since standard operating practice in defense of patent litigation is a motion to dismiss, that option is there. Allowing these cases to move forward gives the impression that it is a worthwhile effort to push any possible infringement case through the courts for leverage in negotiations. That is an abuse of the courts that cannot stand.

Am I arguing against all patent litigation? Of course not: in some cases these companies have legitimate claims. That said, for whatever reason the courts are taking on increasingly suspect cases and allowing the two sides to hammer out the settlement in court. These days, it's sue first, and negotiate later.

Here's hoping that these two fine federal judges are the start of a broader judicial trend: judges not afraid to question the legitimacy of these arguments, or the reasons behind them. Until the courts stand up and force the industry back to the table, the courtroom will continue to be the venue of choice to get the settlement terms you want, not what you deserve.

That's the sad state we're in now, and it should have never gotten like this. Maybe Shakespeare was right in Henry VI, when he suggests "the first thing we do, let's kill off the lawyers" after all.

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Half of enterprises waste money on social CRM initiatives

Publié: mai 4, 2012, 9:36pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Is your business getting good value from customer relationship initiatives, or are you even able to quantity it? Gartner says unlikely. Only half of all Fortune 1000 companies are expected to see a positive return on investments in social CRM through the end of the year. The findings call into question the effectiveness of using the social web to further business objectives, or whether companies even have the capability to measure success.

Of those failing to achieve positive ROI, only one-fifth can actually measure these failings. That means an overwhelming majority of enterprises are losing revenue through failed social initiatives and don't even know it, the analyst firm argues.

"Social data, such as numbers of fan pages and weekly Tweets, is not enough to correlate with the contribution of top business objectives", Gartner research director Adam Sarner argues. "ROI, measurable business value and budget justification for social projects are becoming unavoidable topics for many organizations".

Gartner says the next two years will be vital. If companies are unable to tie true business objectives to social ones, it may spell trouble for the social CRM industry. That's why the firm expects over three-quarters of new social CRM initiatives that are funded will be tied to some form of measurement that can ensure positive ROI. As this need has increased, so has the demand for CRM services and software.

The worldwide market for such services and software will total $2.1 billion this year, up from $850 million in 2011. Also behind this increase is an expansion outside of the typical marketing uses for the social web: companies are increasingly using social initiatives to better sales and customer support initiatives. B2B relations also make up an increasing portion of these revenues: Gartner says by 2015 such uses will account for 30 percent of social CRM spending by 2015.

This presents a challenge for the social CRM vendors themselves, who will be challenged to think outside the box when it comes to development. "Vendors that can assemble a full set of social CRM functions and make progress in two or more areas, such as marketing and customer service or sales and marketing, will be best-positioned for success", Sarner says.

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One in 10 US Facebook users don't protect privacy

Publié: mai 3, 2012, 8:02pm CEST par Ed Oswald

About 13 million Facebook users in the United States either do not use or do not know about the social network's privacy controls, sharing private information they would not have otherwise. This amounts to one out of every 10 users in the country.

Consumer Reports' study of what we are posting on Facebook should give pause to chronic oversharers. For example, 4.8 million posted publicly where they were going for a day, possibly tipping off a burglar to an empty house; 4.7 million liked a page on a specific health condition or treatment for a disease, which may pique the interest of a prying health insurer.

"Facebook really is changing the way the world socially communicates and has become a successful service in part by leveraging copious amounts of personal data that can be spread far wider than its users might realize", the publication's technology editor Jeff Fox says.

Poor choices and ignorance are the biggest issues when it comes to Facebook privacy. Right now is a good time to check that your own settings are such that you aren't disclosing private information outside of your circle of friends. It might also be a good time as well to ensure those on your friends list are people you'd really want to share your life's details with.

The easiest privacy tip? Set your profile to private unless the person is a friend. Limit your exposure and watch who you add as a friend.

Consumer Reports also found evidence of people not happy with Facebook privacy and taking matters into their own hands. In order to keep identifiable information out of the hands of the wrong people, a quarter of respondents to Consumer Reports' survey say they lie about some portion of their identities.

That's technically a violation of Facebook's terms of service. With so many questions surrounding how the social networking site uses our information though, it's likely seen as one of the only ways Facebook will not know everything about us, what we're doing, or what we like.

What else can you do to protect yourself on Facebook? Consumer Reports recommends regularly checking how your page appears to others. This can be done by clicking the gear icon near the upper right of your profile and "View As...". This will show your profile as seen by the public who is not your friend. Obviously, review your privacy controls and if all else fails and you're still not comfortable, deactivate Facebook altogether.

Yes, there is life without Facebook.

To its own defense, Facebook appeared to dismiss the study and point to the 900 million users who share information over its service as validation, and currently existing privacy controls already in place. "As part of our effort to empower and educate consumers, we always welcome constructive conversations about online privacy and safety", the company says in a statement.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words/Shutterstock

Why are Amazon Kindles vanishing from Target?

Publié: mai 2, 2012, 6:43pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Target confirmed on Wednesday earlier reports that it is discontinuing sales of Amazon products, most notably the Kindle, starting in Spring 2012. First reported by The Verge overnight Wednesday, the move is a hit to Kindle's retail store strategy overall and effectively ends a long-term partnership between the two companies.

Amazon powered Target's website up until last year, and Target was the first to carry the Kindle at retail back in June 2010. The Kindle Fire was Target's best selling tablet on Black Friday last year, but that didn't stop the retailer from kicking Amazon to the curb.

Target will no longer replenish stock of Kindle devices in store after May 13, an internal memo sent to stores reads. The Kindle already is no longer available for sale online, and Kindle's brand shop on Target's website is completely empty. So why the sudden change of heart? Target refers to the issue as a "conflict of interest".

A statement from the company doesn't provide much more information: "Target continually evaluates its product assortment to deliver the best quality and prices for our guests. Target is phasing out Kindles and Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012. We will continue to offer our guests a full assortment of ereaders and supporting accessories including the Nook".

So why are Amazon and Target parting ways after years of what looked to be a successful relationship? Here's four possibilities.

1. Barnes & Noble and Microsoft. The fact that Target mention's Amazon's strongest competitor in the statement just seems a little too serendipitous. On Monday, B&N got a $300 million influx of cash from Microsoft. Who's to say that the bookseller isn't using some of that cash to focus on the Nook and offer its retail partners more lucrative deals?

2. Apple. Target has a deepening relationship with Apple. In January, the two companies announced a pilot program that would put Apple's store-within-a-store concept in 25 Target locations nationwide. We know from the ongoing ebook price fixing case that Amazon and Apple are increasingly not seeing eye-to-eye. Could Apple have pressured Target to ditch Amazon to further its own agenda?

3. Android partners. My colleague Joe Wilcox has noted the damage that Amazon does to the Android ecosystem for months now. Agree with it or not, it's very hard to argue that the Kindle brings the most skinned version of Android yet. I've argued many times that fragmentation will be the death of Android eventually, and just maybe these partners are beginning to worry. Are Amazon's competitors actively campaigning against the Kindle to protect their own best interests?

4. Target itself. Despite the two companies' tight relationship over the years, Target's web presence has grown on its own. Additionally, the company sells books within its stores, and Amazon's efforts to undercut book retailers with rock bottom ebook prices directly affect Target's bottom line. The "conflict of interest" may just really be the fact that Target has come into its own, and supporting an increasingly direct competitor doesn't make good business sense.

Any of these reasons are equally possible. The Kindle, and especially the Fire, have done much to disrupt the ebook and tablet space. There's a lot of folks gunning for Amazon because there's so much at stake. Which of these reasons do you think is the most likely, or might you suspect a completely different reason? Let us know in the comments.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Crocodoc uses HTML 5 to solve the riddle of online document viewing

Publié: mai 2, 2012, 12:15am CEST par Ed Oswald

If you ever viewed a document on Dropbox, LinkedIn, or Yammer, you have already used Crocodoc. The San Francisco-based company offers an HTML5-compliant document viewer that allows for the embedding and viewing of documents as they were intended, and is making the service available for licensing starting Tuesday.

Google Docs and similar competitors have offered online document viewing for some time. Google Docs' transcoding isn't perfect and documents often lose a portion of their original formatting. While this may not be an issue for the average consumer, enterprise usage typically requires a more accurate reproduction.

This is where Crocodoc comes in. While not an online productivity suite akin to Google Docs, it's closer to Scribd in that it allows for the embedding, viewing, and even searching of documents through a web-based interface. Where Crocodoc differs from Scribd is in its ability to be integrated into an IT deployment's own set of applications versus a standalone product.

To integrate the viewer within an app, Crocodoc says all that is required is a few lines of code: either a simple IFRAME or JavaScript library in the web app itself. The company says documents using Crodoc as a viewer load much faster than its competitors, and is compatible for use on mobile devices built on iOS 4 and Android 2.2 or later due to its use of HTML5 and CSS3. The result: documents that look more accurate in formatting, with better support for common features like cutting and pasting.

What makes these features work better is differences in the rendering of text. Competing services render text as an image, but in Crocodoc text is rendered as text. This allows for better accuracy in displaying the document, and speed in loading. From there, device-specific font smoothing ensures text appears clear.

"It’s critical for companies to build web applications that provide similar functionality as desktop apps", founder and CEO Ryan Damico says. He notes that document previewing technology has become more important than ever. Such a demand can be noted by interest in Crocodoc's technology itself: a year ago the company wasn't even considering licensing the technology out.

Crocodoc cannot edit documents however, something Damico told All Things Digital was "the holy grail" for cloud-based document viewing services. If the company is able to figure out how to keep its accurate formatting in a WYSIWYG environment, Crocodoc could pose a serious competitive threat to market leading online productivity suites like Google Docs and Office 365.

Crocodoc is available immediately from the company's website at a price of "pennies per document", with discounts available for volume customers.

Photo Credit: WonderfulPixel/Shutterstock

Flashback Trojan generates $10,000 per day for attackers

Publié: mai 1, 2012, 8:26pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The attackers behind the Flashback Trojan for OS X may be making as much as $10,000 per day through a click fraud scheme involving Google AdWords, Symantec says. The Trojan intercepts all queries made specifically to Google's search engine and will redirect the user to a page of the attacker's choosing. Every time this occurs, the attackers make about 0.8 cents per click.

"Flashback uses a specially crafted user agent in these requests, which is actually the clients universally unique identifier (UUID) encoded in base64", explains Symantec. "This is already sent in the 'ua' query string parameter, so it is likely that this is an effort to thwart 'unknown' parties from investigating the URL with unrecognized user-agents". In other words, the attackers are going to great lengths to cover their tracks.

Flashback could have been generating quite a bit of revenue for its creators based on analyses of previous Trojans using similar click fraud techniques. As many as 700,000 Macs were believed to be infected at its height, making Flashback "a very profitable enterprise indeed, and all the more reason to keep your Mac fully patched and your virus definitions up to date", the company writes in a blog post.

How did the Trojan spread so quickly? It tricked hundreds of thousands of users into downloading what they believed was Adobe's Flash plugin for Mac. Once installed, the Trojan took advantage of a hole in Java to install itself and generate fake search engine results and run other malicious code on the infected Mac.

Symantec criticized Apple for taking so long to patch the issue and letting Flashback become as big of a problem as it is. Oracle had patched the hole in Java responsible in February, but it took an additional six weeks for Apple's patch to make it to the end user. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Macs were unwittingly infected -- many not running any antivirus protection at all.

Apple has made it a signature part of its strategy in attracting converts to boast that Macs do not get viruses. In turn this creates an false sense of security, and most do not bother to install any kind of antivirus protection. Hopefully that has begun to change as it is now clear attackers are turning their attention to the Mac OS X platform.

Photo Credit: Gunnar Pippel/Shutterstock

Security software market shows steady growth as threats explode

Publié: mai 1, 2012, 12:54am CEST par Ed Oswald

Faced with an ever-increasing number of threats, IT administrators continue to increase spending on security software, a new survey suggests. A recent report from Gartner shows revenue in the sector increased 7.5 percent in 2011 over the year previous. The gains come even as IT spending overall has stagnated due to uncertain economic conditions worldwide.

Altogether, revenues totaled some $17.7 billion last year, with market leading Symantec making up a fifth of that total. Gartner says the company's success in the sector is due to a continuing expansion outside of the antivirus software market and into other sectors, including storage and encryption. Coming in a distant second and third were competitors McAfee and Trend Micro, both making up about seven percent of the market.

"Growth in the 2011 security market reflects a continuation in demand for consumer and enterprise security tools", Gartner research director Ruggero Contu says. That demand seems in direct correlation to the increase in threats, especially from so-called 'hacktivist' groups like the now-defunct LulzSec and Anonymous.

Contu also believes the security market in general is undergoing a switch from the traditional software-based model to one where security is seen as a service. This probably has much to do with the increasing number of software developers -- antivirus and otherwise -- who are turning to the cloud as a method of application delivery.

Photo Credit: Kheng Guan Toh/Shutterstock

LG enables real-time content sharing via new cloud service

Publié: avril 30, 2012, 8:03pm CEST par Ed Oswald

LG will enter the cloud on Tuesday, debuting a new service aimed at sharing content across multiple devices. LG Cloud consists of apps for the Android and PCs, as well as LG's own line of smart televisions.

LG Cloud is part of a broader effort by the company to focus on both services and hardware. The offering will become part of a new LG division called the Smart Business Center, which is tasked with developing content and other services for its smart devices.

It's a wise move: content and services have much lower overhead compared to hardware. Low-margin services can lift hardware sales.

"Most companies today only see the cloud as a storage device or in the case of YouTube or Flickr, only for one type of content", LG Home Entertainment president and CEO Havis Kwon says. He argues that consumers wish to get their content from a single location, and that was the genesis behind LG Cloud. "Our solution is about making life more convenient".

Unlike other cloud services, the transcoding to produce content for various devices occurs in real-time. This means videos on one device that are shared in the cloud are almost instantaneously available on any other device connected to the cloud. LG says that no other streaming cloud service currently offers such a feature.

Transcoding is a serious issue when it comes to cloud media streaming. Video on one screen may not look good (or be compatible) with another. This has traditionally been done after the fact though, and not automatically. LG hopes that such a feature will attract consumers to its offering. It will also be able to successfully transcode 3D content for viewing on 3D-compatible devices, LG says.

LG Cloud will be available as both free and premium services, with pricing and storage varying depending on the market. The company did not say whether it plans to make a version of its mobile app compatible with the iOS platform.

Photo Credit: Toria/Shutterstock

Walmart lets online shoppers pay with cash

Publié: avril 26, 2012, 6:05pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Cash as a form of payment is rare these days as plastic takes over, and online it is all but nonexistent. Not anymore, though -- Walmart now allows online customers to pay for their orders with the good ol' Greenback.

Here's how it works: customers place their orders on the website, and select "Cash" as the payment option. They then have 48 hours to take a printed-out copy of the order form and pay at any local Walmart store. Walmart's demographics seem to support such an offering, so it is obvious why the retailer would offer cash as a form of payment.

The Bentonville, Ark. retail giant notes that only 15 percent of its in-store transactions are paid in true credit, while the rest are paid in cash or cash equivalent. A larger portion of its customer base lives paycheck to paycheck and may not have the means or desire to access a bank account or credit card. In a recent study, Walmart found that nearly two-thirds of "underbanked" customers would use such a feature if it was available.

"[Pay with cash] makes it easier for our customers to shop the way they want, where they have access to a broader product selection at Walmart.com coupled with the convenience of payment and shipping as they want", Walmart.com president and CEO Joel Anderson says. Anderson believes this is a huge opportunity for the company.

Low-income customers are likely not the only ones to use such a system either: some consumers prefer to not share payment information over the Internet. A pay with cash system is likely very attractive to these consumers as well.

Photo Credit: Redstarstudio/Shutterstock

VMware source code leak: 'IT equivalent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill'

Publié: avril 26, 2012, 12:21am CEST par Ed Oswald

VMware has confirmed that a portion the the source code for its ESX hypervisor was compromised, although the code dates back as early as 2003. That said, a fairly significant portion of the company's customers are still using the platform as VMware works to push them towards its newer hypervisor called ESXi.

A hypervisor in the simplest terms is a virtual machine management platform on which several virtual machines can run concurrently. The hypervisor controls the sharing of virtualized hardware resources. ESXi has a far smaller attack surface, which limits the available avenues of attack on a installation.

The code was posted to Pastebin by a LulzSec-related hacker who goes by the handle "Hardcore Charlie" on April 8. The breach was part of a larger effort by the hacker which compromised the servers of the Beijing-based China National Import & Export Corp (CEIEC). The hacker says he was looking for information on the US military's efforts in Afghanistan.

Adding insult to injury, VMware says it is aware that additional code disclosures may occur, but attempted to downplay any damage. "VMware proactively shares its source code and interfaces with other industry participants to enable the broad virtualization ecosystem today", the company's Security Response Center director Iain Mulholland says.

Given the sometimes glacial pace the enterprise moves when it comes to updating software, this week's confirmation of the breach should provide some impetus to those still using the ESX hypervisor. While this particular code may check out and be free from holes, there's no assurance future code disclosures will be equally bug-free.

Mulhollland says the company is conducting both an internal and external investigation of the breach, and will share further details as they become available.

Paul Roberts, blogger with Kaspersky Lab's ThreatPost, calls the breach the "IT equivalent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster", pointing to the fact that VMware itself cannot rule out that its own source code repository may have been hacked.

Roberts is not referring only to the VMware code, but a chunk of other sensitive data that has "bubbled up" from the CEIEC breach, including sensitive information on US military operations in Afghanistan, and a host of internal communications from Chinese companies through an associated breach of Chinese e-mail hosting company Sina.com.

Photo Credit: US Coast Guard

Apple's WWDC starts June 11, Mountain Lion and iOS 6 expected

Publié: avril 25, 2012, 6:55pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference will take place June 11-15 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, but forget about going. That's because tickets sold out in only two hours, the fastest in the conference's history. In 2010, this took 10 days to occur, and in 2011 eight hours.

Like last year, 2012's event is expected to focus on software. Mountain Lion should be released during the event, which brings more iOS-like features to the desktop. Conversely, iOS 6 is also expected to debut at WWDC, although we seem to know a lot less there.

The proof of what's to come at this year's event comes from the statements of marketing chief Philip Schiller. "We have a great WWDC planned this year and can’t wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers", he says in a statement.

Apparently neither could the developers, if the fast sellout was any indication -- even though WWDC costs $1,600 per ticket, and the announcement was made during the middle of the night Silicon Valley time. Have no fear though: Apple says it will post videos of the more than 100 educational sessions in the developer section of its website.

SkyDrive user? You're about to lose two-thirds of your storage space

Publié: avril 24, 2012, 1:27am CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft on Monday launched a new version of SkyDrive, bringing the cloud-file sharing service to the desktop. This move did not come without a cost -- new users will have far less space, and current users only have a "limited time" to keep the generous storage the Redmond, Wash. company provides. But more on that a bit later.

The enhancements address problems with SkyDrive's browser-based interface which irk critics and customers. With desktop integration, cloud storage becomes a drag-and drop-process.

Microsoft is also pushing management and sharing enhancements to its mobile apps for iOS and Android. The desktop functionality comes via an application that sits on the system tray of OS X or in the taskbar on Windows.

Early adopters will welcome the changes, but many will make sacrifices to get them. Every user is now limited to 7GB of space by default, versus the 25GB of space the service launched with. That is a cut of more than two-thirds. If you want additional space, you're going to pay: an extra 20GB of space is $10 yearly, 50GB is $25, and 100GB is $50 per year.

"Since the current base of customers using SkyDrive tilts towards enthusiasts, we are confident that, as we expand the range of people using SkyDrive, this 7GB free limit will prove to be more than enough for even more people", Windows chief Steve Sinofsky says.

Sinofsky claims that 99.94 percent of current users use less than 7GB of space in order to justify the decrease. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority use 2GB or less. Right, but if most people use so little, why take it away. Microsoft loses little offering 25GB, but gains much from positive perceptions. After all, that huge amount raises Microsoft's cloud storage well above most competitors.

Not happy with the change? Users will be able to upgrade their storage for free back to the 25GB limit for a limited time, but must do so manually. Sinofsky nor Microsoft gives any timeline as to the expiration of the offer, but after that more storage will cost you. And if you aren't a current SkyDrive user -- or perhaps a Windows Live Mesh tester -- 7GB is all you're getting. Sorry, no extra free space for you.

"One of the challenges in building personal cloud storage for billions of people is scaling capacity and managing costs, while also meeting the needs of both enthusiasts and mainstream users", Sinofsky argues, deflecting the criticism towards unlimited storage services "with lots of strings attached". Microsoft seems to think that the freedom of use, such as the capability to upload file sizes up to 2GB, is what sets the service apart from the competition.

How does SkyDrive compare? Dropbox only offers 2GB of storage for free: 50GB of space is available for $99 annually and 100GB for $199. Google's rumored cloud storage service Google Drive is believed to offer only 5GB of free space. Microsoft is definitely ahead of the curve.

Despite SkyDrive's advantages, it does seem somewhat disappointing that Microsoft has decided to make its SkyDrive product only marginally more attractive than competing options. Sinofsky's long-winded post announcing the changes to the product seem like a lot of extra words just to say our service will have much less storage.

The question is: Wouldn't 25GB of storage now be more useful considering desktop integration is a key new feature? I think it's a safe bet people are about to use a whole lot more space now that it is easier than ever to share files to the SkyDrive cloud.

Photo Credit: Ovchynnikov Oleksii/Shutterstock

Adobe Creative Suite 6 takes to the cloud

Publié: avril 23, 2012, 7:52pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Adobe took the wraps off Creative Suite 6 on Monday, introducing the largest release to date of the content-creation platform. CS6 now includes up to 12 programs and two companion applications, Bridge and Encore, and is available in four editions: Design Standard, Design and Web Premium, Production Premium, and Master Collection.

The CS6 beta is one of the most successful in the company's history, with one million downloads over the past month of availability alone, a record for Adobe. The move was slightly unusual considering the company typically does not offer large-scale betas of its products.

Photoshop gets notable upgrades including content-aware editing tools and video-editing capability, as well as performance enhancements that should speed the image-editing process. Photoshop Extended includes several new 3D image and new 2D design tools and an overall "darker" look: the user interface now uses blacks and greys versus the white UI of previous versions.

While Flash continues to be a part of the Creative Suite, Adobe seriously begins the transition to HTML5 in this release. Two new development applications take center stage, dubbed Muse and Edge. Muse will automate the process of developing HTML5 websites, while Adobe Edge assists in the creation of animated web content.

Creative Suite 6 packages range in price from $1,299 for Design Standard to $2,599 for the Master Collection. Customers can pre-order starting today with availability planned within 30 days, the company says.

Consider the Cloud

Those that find CS6 too costly might consider Adobe's push towards the cloud as alternative. For $49.99 per month, subscribers gain access to all 14 applications in the suite plus some additional benefits.

The idea of subscriptions is nothing new to Adobe, but the cloud aspect of the service is. Adobe is integrating its tablet app suite into CS6, and using the cloud to sync workflows between the desktop and tablet versions of applications -- 20GB of online storage is included in the monthly fee. The cloud will also deliver new functionality and updates before the general public has access, and assist in mobile app submission to the Apple App Store and Android marketplaces.

All in all, the focus on the cloud will make Creative Suite much more affordable for a broader segment of Adobe's customer base. That is welcome news for a company that has struggled in recent years to produce stable financial results.

Creative Cloud is perhaps the most intriguing part of CS6 as it signals the beginning of a shift towards cloud-based delivery of Adobe products. It also saves the end user a good deal of money. All 14 applications are available through the service. Considering CS6 Master Collection retails for $2,599, and Adobe's average release cycle is 12-18 months, a user who selects Creative Cloud over the physical media would save as much as $2,000 depending on what applications they download and the next major release of Creative Suite.

Creative Cloud will also sync work between desktop versions of CS6 and companion touch tablet apps. Creative Cloud Connection will save the necessary work in the cloud using the 20GB of space included with each account. Adobe does plan to make additional storage available in the future, it says.

Those interested should note that the $49.99 monthly fee is available to those agreeing to an annual contract. Those preferring month to month service will pay an extra $30 each month. As an incentive to owners of previous Creative Suite versions, Adobe is offering promotional discount pricing.

Owners of CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 will be able to register for Creative Cloud for $29.99 per month if they agree to a one-year contract, according to the company's website.

Photo Credit: Sergej Khakimullin/Shutterstock

RIAA's Waterloo? Anonymous Looks to set streaming music free

Publié: avril 20, 2012, 8:53pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Streaming music content is too restrictive, believes hacktivists Anonymous. Six members of the group have released Anontune, a web-based application that aims to aggregate streaming music online and place it in a central location. AnonTune currently accesses the catalogs of YouTube and SoundCloud, although the developers plan to add content from other services including Yahoo Music, Myspace Music, Bandcamp and others in the future.

True to the groups name, users will be able to listen to tracks anonymously, and Anonymous itself will not store the tracks. Instead it depends on the catalogs of the services it aggregates, thus leaving the sticky copyright issues to those sites. Recording Industry Association of America's Waterloo, indeed. The next one, if Napster wasn't enough a computing generation ago.

"The legal responsibility for ensuring its removal is in the hands of these services, not Anontune", the developers say in a whitepaper released this week. "Anontune will include the means to interact with multiple music networks on one platform".

Users will be able to search for music and create playlists based on what is available through Anontune's sources. While the user interface leaves a lot to be desired, and often you'll not get the music video itself but rather whatever result Anontune's "music engine" finds first, it certainly is a start.

Anontune provides an answer to a sometimes frustrating problem. One streaming service may have the track available, but another not. As it stands now you're forced to bounce from site to site to find what you need. There's no one-stop shop to search and play these videos (Google's video search comes close). These six hackers believe Anontune is the solution that will answer that need, and will in turn set streaming music free.

Make no mistake, this is not necessarily bad news for RIAA, as it may actually serve the group's interest. Anontune could pull music off of officially sanctioned channels, such as Vevo's (it already does), and exclusively stream content from these sources. There would be no grounds for RIAA's displeasure as Anonymous is distributing content that its own members have given their blessing to.

There's something to be said about Anonymous pulling in the seedier stuff as well. I cannot tell you how many times I've found a hard to find track on YouTube that is next to impossible to find through legit services. The 100 percent legal method doesn't work every time.

We couldn't get RIAA to comment on Anonymous' moves as of press time.

One final point: some may find Anonymous' use of Java to power the site a little unsettling considering the many security issues the platform has had over the years. If you're truly worried about its security, I'd recommend running Anontune on a virtual machine until someone goes over this with a fine-toothed comb.

Anonymous says this is not necessary, though. "Why the hell would we harm our users? That would really be a little counter-intuitive to our cause, correct?" it says, adding the media is crying wolf here. Call me crazy, but the "causes" have led to some improper behavior in the past. Until proven wrong, I'm still skeptical.

What do you think of Anontune? Does it have promise? Do you trust Anonymous to "set music free"? Let us know in the comments.

AppSense's DataNow answers demand for corporate cloud file sharing

Publié: avril 19, 2012, 9:25pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Aiming to become the Dropbox of the enterprise, New York City-based AppSense has introduced DataNow, a cloud-based service aimed at giving companies a method to securely share documents across multiple platforms. The company says that its solution lessens the risk of the loss of sensitive information.

File sharing services like Dropbox have already been in the news for just that. Like Facebook and Draw Something, Dropbox has been found to store access tokens in plain text. Last June, a flaw in the software allowed anybody to log in to any account with any password. In the corporate world, such a breach is possibly devastating.

AppSense looks at corporate file sharing in the cloud differently. Unlike the more consumer-centric services, DataNow stores the data in a private cloud within the enterprise's own IT environment using a virtual appliance created to enable the flow of data.

This prevents sensitive files from being stored in a potentially insecure environment, and dramatically reduces the chances of a breach. It also gives the enterprise greater control over what their users can share, and how they share it.

"IT Managers have deep investments in their existing storage systems in terms of architecture, capacity, and security", says chief technology officer Harry Lebana. "It makes sense to leverage these investments first to empower users now, and introduce cloud-based storage systems as they mature and meet corporate IT requirements".

Users share files to their mobile devices by dragging files to the DataNow application, which is available for both Windows and Mac OS. These files are then accessible from authorized mobile devices on either the iOS or Android platforms, as well as any additional desktop platforms the user may have. IT administrators have the capability to develop specific policy controls for data usage, including the capability to restrict local caching or the power to remote wipe in the event of data loss.

Enterprise file-sharing has become hot, but most employ a similar strategy to Dropbox. AppSense competitor Vaultize on Thursday introduced its own file-sharing solution, which encrypts data both at the source and in the cloud to protect it from theft, however the standard offering uses RackSpace hosting. Options are available for private or hybrid deployments, although it is not standard.

AppSense is currently accepting beta applications to test the DataNow product. IT environments will need virtualization capability in order to run DataNow's Intelligent Data Broker and an accessible Microsoft Active Directory domain controller.

The company did not give details on final availability of the product nor its price. A call to AppSense for comment was outstanding as of press time.

Photo Credit: Yabresse/Shutterstock

Nokia's short-term pain is the result of long-term problems

Publié: avril 19, 2012, 6:10pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Point. It's always fun to point the blame at someone, and everyone loves to blame CEO Stephen Elop for Nokia's woes. As the Finnish phone manufacturer began to burn, Elop came aboard and made a deal with his former employer, Microsoft, to adopt the Windows Phone platform. Pundits thought he was insane, and have criticized him repeatedly for the move.

These criticisms grow louder as Nokia reports a $1.3 billion euro ($1.76 billion) loss in the first quarter of 2012. According to the financial statements, the company burned through 700 million euros in cash during the same quarter, and has a little under five billion euros in cash left. The company may face bankruptcy in two years.

What's to blame? Poor phone sales. Device revenues plummeted 29 percent year-over-year. Smartphone revenues were cut in half, while sales in feature phones fell a third. The launch of the Lumia 900 was just two weeks ago, so it's still too early to judge if that device was able to stop the bleeding.

Cue The Windows Phone Haters

But there's one thing that I'd like to stress here: criticizing Elop once again over Windows Phone after these results is foolish: one Nokia Windows Phone existed in the first quarter of this year. How can we call this a success or failure yet?

Elop can do nothing to change Nokia's position in the market. From the top, it gets pressure on smartphones through Apple's iPhone and a host of upper-end Android manufacturers. On the low end, budget featurephone makers like ZTE eat its lunch. Since Nokia has hands in both pots, growth on either end gives the company little wiggle room.

To break out, Nokia had to do something drastic. Releasing an Android device wouldn't make much sense: Nokia's devices would be competing with established players like Motorola and Samsung. Renewing focus on the low end was equally unwise: while the market remains large, it is contracting as more consumers choose to move up to smartphones.

What was left? Windows Phone. The adoption of the platform (and a partnership with Microsoft) gives Nokia two advantages. First, it cements position early as a leader on the platform. Second, it enables Nokia to produce stand-out devices and rebuild reputation.

I'm Not Dead Yet

The strategy paid off: the Lumia 900 is Windows Phone's top selling device to date, and has received generally positive reviews. Nokia placed itself back in the forefront by making a gamble. There was no path forward for the company without some short-term pain.

Doing nothing is no answer. Featurephones are a dying breed, and would result in a slower but inevitable death. Sticking around with Symbian is equally foolish: third-party support for the platform is dwindling, and development requirements sucked away precious resources that Nokia increasingly does not have.

Can and should Nokia eventually adopt Android? Of course, and such a move is wise as few manufacturers depend on a single platform. But first, Nokia needs to reestablish its brand, and Windows Phone is helping to do just that.

That said, Nokia must solidify its position in the featurephone market once again. Yes, I did say the market is dying earlier, but the high-volume nature will at least generate revenue for Nokia in the short term as it restructures its smartphone strategy. Elop says this is a focus during the current quarter, and I tend to believe him.

As CEO, Stephen Elop does shoulder the blame for the failures of his company. Windows Phone however is not the reason, and doesn't belong in the discussion at this point. Talk to me next quarter when Windows Phone plays a part in the bottom line -- maybe then I'll be willing to admit Nokia + Windows Phone was a failure.

Right now, the jury's still out on that one.

Editor's Note: Ed Oswald and Joe Wilcox wrote opposing positions about Nokia's Windows Phone strategy, independently today (we didn't want one directly responding to the other but to circumstances). Please read Joe's "Nokia does the Windows Phone death dance".

Microsoft refreshes Windows Intune, debuts cross-platform mobile device management

Publié: avril 18, 2012, 8:41pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Tuesday at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas the topic was the private cloud and the public availability of System Center 2012. Microsoft switched gears on Wednesday and revealed details on the next version of Windows Intune, its public cloud offering.

Wednesday's Intune release is a beta version limited to 10 PCs. It will support all versions of Windows after XP Service Pack 3, but is currently incompatible with Windows 8, and "will not support Windows 8 until after it is generally available" according to the company.

Intune is targeted towards small and medium businesses, and offers hardware, software, and security monitoring in the cloud. In some ways, Intune is the browser-based version of System Center at a far cheaper price. IT administrators can deploy Intune for $11 per seat.

Microsoft wants to adapt Intune to the realities of today's workplace, where users bring their own devices into the workplace. "Whether corporate or user-owned, one of our goals with Windows Intune is to help manage and secure mobile devices without adding onerous cost and complexity", Intune marketing chief Eric Main says. As a result, the option to manage up to four mobile devices per seat is now included at no additional cost.

Integration with both Windows Server Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange Server is included in this release. This permits IT administrators to manage policies for devices even if they are not owned by the organization, and allow for security functionality such as remote wipe to be activated in the event a device is lost.

These features will work on any device that has Exchange ActiveSync support, meaning Intune will be able to manage both iOS and Android devices in addition to any Windows-powered devices in the organization. Microsoft says it will support Windows Phone 7, iOS 4.0 and later, and Android 2.1 and later for mobile device management.

The third refresh of Intune includes enhancements in user management. From the web-based console, administrators can now manage software for individual users through connectivity with Windows Azure's Active Directory. This will also keep user accounts and security groups synchronized with Intune for easier administration.

Azure Active Directory is described by Microsoft as a platform to "bring your applications to the cloud easily. You can enable single sign-on, security enhanced applications, and simple interoperability with existing Active Directory deployments using Access Control Service (ACS)".

Finally, Microsoft is enabling a self-service portal that permits users to download and use apps and tools authorized for use on the network. What apps the user has access to can be tailored based on the user group the account belongs to. "This enables IT to post apps that users might want to use, rather than push out to their PCs", Main explains.

"With Windows, our goal is to give end users the experiences they love and offer enterprise grade solutions that organizations need", Main says. "The next release of Windows Intune will do just that – it will help solve the consumerization challenge that businesses are facing today, and because Windows Intune is cloud-based, partners and customers get to take advantage of innovations as soon as they’re available".

Photo Credit: Digital Storm/Shutterstock

Microsoft releases System Center 2012 to manage private clouds

Publié: avril 17, 2012, 7:54pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Microsoft is pushing the cloud heavily at this years Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas, and its private cloud offerings are taking center stage. The company announced the general availability of System Center 2012, its private cloud management platform.

Private cloud deployments are exactly what the name entails -- for consumption internally -- and can be hosted either internally or by a third-party provider. System Center's public cloud equivalent is Windows Intune, which launched last March.

System Center is made up of eight parts. Among them: System Center Configuration Manager gives users the ability to manage non-Microsoft devices within the private cloud, while Virtual Machine Manager will manage virtualization deployments within the cloud. Additionally, System Center App Controller will assist in management of the cloud itself.

Other components include:

Operations Manager, a datacenter management tool
Data Protection Manager
Service Manager, aimed at helping IT deployments to increase productivity with the private cloud
Endpoint Protection, a cloud anti-malware and security solution
Orchestrator, Microsoft's cloud workflow management application

"Microsoft cloud solutions such as System Center 2012 are also helping IT address the consumerization of IT", corporate vice president Brad Anderson says. "We take a 'people-centric approach' that empowers end-users to employ any device, anywhere, boosting productivity while providing you with governance and control".

System Center already has some successes under its belt. Anderson highlights three companies that see efficiencies as a result of System Center and Microsoft's private cloud. New York-based luxury car service Empire took its dispatch to the cloud and saved 50 percent in datacenter costs; Apartments.com uses the private cloud to power its apartment search capabilities and saved 75 percent in licensing costs.

"There is a feeling of optimism in IT and excitement about the benefits of cloud computing", Anderson writes in a TechNet blog post. "What I hear now is you are still worried about the challenges, but you see how cloud computing can help you and your IT departments deliver more business value to your companies than ever before".

Two versions of System Center are available. Standard will support two operating environments, while DataCenter supports an unlimited number. The software is generally available starting Tuesday. A 180-day trial of System Center is available, and pricing begins at $1,323 for Standard and $3,607 for DataCenter.

Photo Credit: Alexander Kirch/Shutterstock

Boeing phone to take flight with Android later this year

Publié: avril 13, 2012, 2:22am CEST par Ed Oswald

A company more known for its work in the aerospace industry is now Android's newest partner. Boeing this week announced plans to release a smartphone aimed at those requiring super-secure communications, yet the convenience of a widely used mobile operating system. Calling it the "Boeing phone", the device is slated to launch by the end of the year.

What business a company like Boeing has in hawking smartphones is unclear, but it has the market. Most of Boeing's current clients are in sectors where confidentiality and security is at a premium. Similar devices cost $15,000 to $20,000, but the Chicago based company plans to come in at a price point below that. Not something you or I could afford, mind you, but definitely more reasonable.

In an interview with National Defense Magazine, Boeing secure infrastructure group chief Brian Palma believes there will be significant interest in the defense, intelligence and even in the commercial sector. The company chose the Android operating system because it thinks clients want to use popular applications while keeping communications secure.

Palma may have not seen the latest news this week on the Android security front, though. Leviathan Security found that Android puts users at risk of having their information pilfered even if the application has no permissions to system resources. Then there's also the fact that Android is increasingly the target of malware as of late, and you have to wonder if Boeing really knows what it's getting into.

One company who might be disappointed by Boeing's announcement is Microsoft. The two companies have worked together closely over the years, and Boeing uses Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud computing platform in its manufacturing process. Could Windows Phone have provided the functionality the company desires? Probably, but it doesn't have the mass market reach of Android.

So now, if Boeing's making planes and smartphones, do we now need to worry about texting and flying. We already worry enough as it is about our pilots getting a bit too sloshed at the airport bar, but I do digress.

Photo Credit: Ilin Sergey/Shutterstock

Amazon out-searches Google

Publié: avril 12, 2012, 6:52pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Amazon set its sights on Google Thursday by introducing CloudSearch, a feature that allows customers of its Amazon Web Services offering to implement search capabilities to their websites. The technology behind CloudSearch is the same that Amazon uses on its retail site.

Access is billed based on the number of running search instances, anywhere from 12 cents to 98 cents per hour, with a 98 cent per gigabyte charge for the storage of search data. Running continuously, the search functionality could cost as little as $90 per month, and in some cases a cheaper alternative to Google's Site Search offering.

Google charges by the query on an annual basis. 20,000 queries a year will cost $100 annually, but this increases to $2,000 per year for 500,000 queries. For sites with a good deal of internal search traffic CloudSearch seems a more cost-effective option, although smaller sites will find Google Site Search a better deal.

"Amazon CloudSearch will have democratization effect as it offers features that have been out of reach for many customers", chief technology officer Werner Vogels says. "It will allow developers to improve functionality of their products, at lower costs with almost zero administration".

Amazon aims to make CloudSearch easy to implement and use. Vogels points out that setup is as simple as creating the search domain, uploading the data it would like to be searchable, and begin querying the database. Additional data can be uploaded through the AWS console, or by sending their own HTTP POST requests to the upload endpoint. Google uses a sitemap to control what is indexed through its search offering.

"You don't have to write your own indexing, query parsing, query processing, results handling, or any of that other stuff," AWS evangelist Jeff Barr explains. "You don't need to worry about running out of disk space or processing power, and you don't need to keep rewriting your code to add more features".

Of course, you need to be hosting your site on Amazon's cloud platform in order to take advantage of its search platform -- Google's solution allows you to maintain your own hosting. That said, two major AWS customers are already using CloudSearch in its applications, including photo-sharing site SmugMug and music site ex.fm.

"Each day, ex.fm users add more than a hundred thousand new song links to the platform", ex.fm chief technology officer Lucas Hrabovsky says. "With a small team of engineers, we can't afford to dedicate resources to manage our search infrastructure". Hrabovsky says the company has gotten positive feedback since the switch to CloudSearch and users note improved search speed and accuracy.

Photo Credit: Quackdesigns/Shutterstock

With the states suing over ebook price fixing, Apple needs to surrender

Publié: avril 12, 2012, 2:01am CEST par Ed Oswald

Attorneys General in 16 states filed suit against Apple and three publishing companies Wednesday, following a similar suit filed this morning by the US Justice Department. Unlike the federal suit, the states action also looks for monetary compensation in addition to the end of the collusive agreements between Apple and the publishers.

Connecticut and Texas lead the action, and are joined by Attorneys General in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

The states' suit names Apple as well as publishers Macmillan, Penguin Group USA, and Simon & Schuster. Hachette and HarperCollins are settling out of court, says Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, and will pay a combined $52 million in restitution.

"Publishers deserve to make money, but consumers deserve the price benefits of competition in an open and unrestricted marketplace", Jepsen says. "Those interests clearly collided in this case and we are going to work to ensure the eBook market is open once again to fair competition".

In the federal case, Hachette and HarperCollins settled almost immediately after the suit was announced, as did Simon & Schuster. Why Simon & Schuster did not settle with the states is unknown, but it very well could have to do with the monetary demand in addition to the move away from the so-called "agency pricing" model put in place by Apple's deals.

Apple is in trouble, that is now clear. Like the antitrust case built against Microsoft in the 1990s, the Cupertino, Calif. company faces a several-pronged assault from users, the federal government, and the states. Microsoft decided to fight the allegations against it, and lost.

With ebooks such a small portion of Apple's business when it comes to the iOS platform, is it really worth spending what could be millions to defend a contract with shaky legal basis? Experts agree that publishers are within their rights to have some control over the pricing of content. Apple does not have the right to dictate what that price may be though, or prevent competitors from undercutting its pricing.

That's where Apple went wrong, according to noted antitrust lawyer William Markham. The company saw Amazon in the rearview mirror, panicked, and made a legally questionable move as a result.

"Amazon poses a threat to Apple’s entire business model, its iPad line of products in particular, and its interest in making profits from selling ebooks", Markham told me last month. "Indeed, Apple explicitly wants to make profits by inducing prospective customers to purchase iPads and commit themselves by contract to its closed world of available ebooks, and Amazon stands between Apple and this profitable ambition".

Consumers were overcharged $100 million as a result of the price fixing, the suit claims. These attorneys general are not satisfied with the Justice Department's effort to control the ebook marketplace for five years to prevent collusion. They feel this profit was illicitly gained, and should be forfeited.

Apple gains nothing by standing its ground. Raising the white flag now and paying up will be far less expensive than fighting. Remember back to my piece last month where I showed that Apple has already admitted to the key allegations in the case. Apple said this in a legal filing:

It would make perfect sense as a rational and competitive business strategy for Apple not to enter as a retailer incurring losses, but instead as an agent on commission with a competitive offering – which is exactly what the agency agreements negotiated by Apple accomplished.

Is the ebook industry important enough for Apple to lose its head? I think not. The company makes far more money from other iTunes content. Ebooks, while a source of significant revenue when it comes to digital content, is nowhere near the revenues from music and video. I fail to see how the iBookstore will really mean that much in the end to Apple's bottom line.

Apple stands to lose far more by playing a game of Russian roulette with federal regulators. This isn't a battle worth fighting, and it is time to walk away before the damage is worse.

Photo Credit: Carsten Reisinger/Shutterstock

Is your Lumia 900 Windows Phone defective? Nokia has a remedy

Publié: avril 11, 2012, 5:25am CEST par Ed Oswald

Late today, Nokia confirmed the Lumia 900 suffers from an Internet connectivity problem, confirming reports first seen on its own message boards earlier this week. The company's US arm blames a software glitch for the problem. What is stunning, however, is the company's mea culpa: it makes Apple's response to "Antennagate" look stingy in retrospect.

"Software update coming soon to Nokia Lumia 900 addressing memory management", a tweet from Nokia US reads. "Customers receive automatic $100 credit". The update is due April 16, with the $100 credit valid through April 21. Affected users will be able to switch their device out for no charge instead if they prefer, and any new customer will get the device for free, since it retails in store for $99.

The issue surrounds how the phone manages memory and affects a small subset of Lumia owners. Those with the problem have had to remove their SIM card, turn the device off, turn it back on with the SIM removed, turn off the device, replace the SIM and then boot the device again. In some cases this will fix the issue.

In a tweet exchange with my colleague Joe Wilcox this evening, Bob Egan, Vice president of Mobile Strategy at Mobiquity, confirms seeing the problem and using the SIM-removal fix. Egan says the problem is "random as in some phones, not others. Seems to be a small percentage & may actually hv some relationship to a bug in provisioning...one of 900s I have just stop talking to the LTE network. Phone reset. Power cycle phone w/ SIM out. Problem gone".

AT&T started selling the Lumia 900 on April 8th, making the bug a potential marketing disaster, just two days later. Nokia is taking no chances.

"As a proactive and prudent measure, we decided, together with AT&T, to take immediate action", Nokia's US chief Chris Weber says. "We have identified the issue, and have developed a solution".

Nokia is already manufacturing devices with the software update included, and is shipping them to AT&T stores. The company did not specify when the updated Lumia would arrive in stores for affected customers, but told All Things Digital it was focused on "how do we do something unprecedented for any inconvenience, (and) pleasantly surprise the customers".

April 21 seems to be a date selected on purpose, though, as the white version of the device will become available on the 22nd. If the iPhone is any indication, white could be a popular color for the Lumia. Why not diminish any negative financial effects of the all-but recall by ending the deal before the white model launches?

Regardless, Nokia made a bold move here, and is getting some praise from industry professionals close to Microsoft. "Apple give users a $10 free case due to reception issues and Nokia fixes the issue and give you $100 cash", Microsoft Group Policy MVP Alan Burchill tweets.

Editors note: We should correct Mr. Burchill, though: the cases handed out by Apple for Antennagate were worth $29, not $10.

HP takes on Amazon, launches public cloud

Publié: avril 10, 2012, 7:12pm CEST par Ed Oswald

In a move aimed at unseating Amazon's dominance in the space, HP on Tuesday launched a cloud service known as HP Converged Cloud that allows companies to take advantage of the company's expansive data centers. Converged Cloud is very much like Amazon Web Services, which is by far the largest provider of public cloud access.

HP will offer on-demand instances and virtual machines, and users will pay for the resources they use starting May 10. In addition, two Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings will launch: one a storage service that assists in moving data from one instance to another, and the other a relational database tool for MySQL.

New CEO Meg Whitman believes that cloud computing is one of the sectors that will return Hewlett Packard to a position of strength. By increasing cloud computing revenues, it is hoped that will lessen the financial pain of falling PC and printing revenues.

The Palo Alto, Calif. company already provides private cloud services as well as running data centers for select partners. However, HP did not make a big play for public cloud services until it started its public cloud effort last September.

HP is not abandoning the private cloud, and instead points to internal research that says there is a demand in IT for a mix of public and private deployments. The new features launching in may will help manage hybrid cloud deployments, and HP is also offering to manage private cloud deployments for those wishing to outsource.

"HP Converged Cloud enables enterprises to incorporate a blend of public, private and managed cloud services with their existing IT to create a seamless hybrid environment that rapidly adapts to their changing requirements", software chief Bill Veghte says.

Whether this public cloud computing push will change the game remains to be seen. Amazon is believed to hold a commanding lead in the space, and other Silicon Valley companies are making plays for what's left. IBM, Dell, and RackSpace are also staking a claim.

With cloud computing growing by leaps and bounds as of late there is space for new competitors. A 2011 survey by Morgan Stanley found that 28 percent of those surveyed were using the public cloud in their deployments. The firm expects that number to increase to half of all businesses by 2015.

Those entering the market better be prepared to tackle Amazon head on, both in price and in service offerings, however. AWS was responsible for about $1.1 billion of Amazon's total $48 billion revenue for 2011, of which about $100 million was profit.

Photo Credit: Tom Wang/Shutterstock

Draw Nothing: Popular app opens up your Facebook to data theft

Publié: avril 6, 2012, 8:32pm CEST par Ed Oswald

50 million people downloaded OMGPOP's Draw Something over the past two months, and it's at the top of the App Store charts. But for those of us who connected our Facebook accounts to the app, there's an even bigger problem: it stores a Facebook access token in plain text.

Want that in plain English? A hacker gets this little file, and he's got access to your private data.

The issue was discovered by Web developer Gareth Wright while investigating how mobile application developers handle security. He found that due to Draw Something requesting offline access to your account, he was able to perform a few FQL (Facebook's version of SQL, a database query language) queries and pulled private information from his Facebook account.

The access tokens are good for 60 days, but still cause for concern. "Aside from that a simple .net tool could easily snaffle this info and grab a fair whack of confirmed email addresses and marketing info", Wright mused in a blog post.

Users of both stock and jailbroken iPhones are at risk for this security issue. Those who have jailbroken are more at risk due to the security measures of the device being compromised, and the fact that jailbroken apps do not have as much oversight for malicious code as apps downloaded through the App Store do. Code could be written to find this access token and send it to a hacker, who then would be able to do the same things Wright did.

Draw Something is not the worst offender by far: that honor actually goes to Facebook itself. Wright found stored in the data files of the social networking company's app not only the same access token, but an authorization key which is the key to log into your account. This file is also in plain text, and can be used on another device to login to your account and post as you.

Unlike the desktop version, Facebook does not throw roadblocks when your account is accessed from a location it deems suspicious. Thus, with an iOS device (or even an emulator), your account is an open book.

Facebook confirms it is aware of the issue, but only says "we are working to fix it". No further information is given as to when the hole might be closed. Wright has several proof-of-concept exploits already produced, and has been able to collect over 1,000 vulnerable access tokens and authorization keys.

"Unless app developers follow suit and start encrypting the 60 day access token Facebook supplies, it’s only a matter of time before someone starts using the info for ill purpose…if they aren’t already", he writes.

Apple, two publishers resist ebook settlement

Publié: avril 5, 2012, 8:15pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The Justice Department is nearing a settlement with publishers over allegations of ebook pricing, but finalizing the deal is proving problematic as Apple and two publishers are balking at the terms of the deal. Amazon will be permitted to once again discount ebooks to its customers as a result.

Penguin Group and Macmillian have joined Apple in resisting the settlement, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deal voids the contracts Apple signed with publishers in 2010, and permits a return to "wholesale pricing", where the retailer determines the price.

Such terms are likely unpalatable to the publishers as prices would drop significantly on ebooks and give retailers broad power on determining value. For Apple, it would force the Cupertino, Calif. company to drop its own prices in response to Amazon's moves, and likely sell some ebooks at a loss.

In court documents Apple indicates it has no desire to do this, and may exit the ebook business as a result of a return to wholesale pricing. While a settlement certainly seems closer at this point, WSJ sources call the situation "fluid", and the Justice Department could still file suit at any time.

The DOJ is joined by the EU's antitrust division in its investigation, which has already publicly signaled its willingness to settle. But European regulators want the same concessions, so it's likely the two sides are no closer to a settlement there.

Publishers have suggested keeping the current pricing model but scrapping the so-called "most favorite nation" clause in an attempt to appease Justice Department officials. As we reported last month, this portion of the deals between Apple and the publishers is the most controversial, and also quite possibly illegal.

"The book publishers had an obvious motive -- to preserve the profit margins on the sale of hardcover and paperback books, which were threatened by the much lower prices for ebooks that were offered by Amazon", antitrust lawyer William Markham told BetaNews at the time. "The book publishers enlisted the aid of Apple, which agreed to offer ebooks on its iBook platform only at approximately $15 per ebook".

This isn't satisfactory to the DOJ, the WSJ says, and wants some type of "cooling off" period before the publishers could reinstitute agency pricing. Regulators seem to believe the only way this could be done is under another collusive type arrangement.

Requests for comment from the book publishers and Apple on the situation went unanswered as of press time.

Photo Credit: Daniilantiq/Shutterstock

5 ways my small business benefits from the cloud

Publié: avril 5, 2012, 7:08pm CEST par Ed Oswald

We have talked a lot about cloud computing recently here on the pages of BetaNews. That's not surprising since it is one of the fastest growing segments of the tech industry today. Missing, however: A more personal story on how we're using the cloud in our day-to-day business.

I run a small freelance writing and media consulting business out of my home, Oz Media Inc. While being my own boss is fun, it also requires me to be owner, CEO, CFO, IT administrator, and employee. It's a company of one. Cloud computing has definitely paid off and made running my business a lot easier, and here's why.

1. Cloud computing reduces my technology expenses. I do not have a large budget, nor room for error when it comes to technology purchases. I can buy only what I truly, truly need, and this is common across every small business. If I can push something to the cloud, say backups or files which I've done with iCloud it is generally much cheaper than purchasing physical hardware and has freed up revenue for other necessary expenses.

In fact, the iCloud free storage at 5GB is enough to store a good majority of my work file backups. That's a huge benefit.

How much money am I saving as a result of the cloud? It's difficult to quantify, but I would venture to guess in my small outfit it's into the hundreds if not thousands every year. That is more profit in my pocket, which is the ultimate goal of any business owner (see #5 for some specifics).

2. My data is accessible anywhere. Going "to the cloud" gives me mobility. As I've expanded out to a multi-device solution -- desktop, laptop, and tablet -- I am running into issues about data being on one device but not the others. Using the cloud allows me to start the work on one and finish it on another.

I write some of my stories using Google Docs. I can submit them to my editors wherever they may be and we can collaborate on the document in real time, saving a good deal of time over sending edits via email.

3. I scale my IT needs as needed. The great thing about depending on the cloud for your IT needs is the fact that there isn't a commitment. When you buy hardware and software, there is a set price you pay whether you use it until you break it, or once and never again. With cloud services, the choice is there to stop using something you don't need at any time, and limit costs.

For example, before I could afford QuickBooks software, I used a combination of Freshbooks and Outright to handle the tracking of invoicing and bookkeeping. Together these two services cost me less than $10 per month.

4. It's a breeze to manage. Large-scale IT deployments require an administrator to keep everything in tip-top shape. In small businesses, you're a man with many hats. Cloud services have made managing aspects of my business, like collaboration services (Google Apps), easy enough for somebody who isn't a true expert on IT. More money saved.

5. It's platform independent. As stated previously, I run several devices. Here's the thing though -- these devices run three different platforms. The desktop is a Mac, the laptop a Dell, and the tablet an iPad. Cloud services like Google Apps are platform agnostic, which eliminates the need for multiple versions of software for the same program.

Let's use productivity software as an example here. If I had to purchase the software for each of the platforms, it would cost me $60 for the Mac for iWork, $30 for iWork for the iPad, and at least $150 for Microsoft Office for the Dell if it was not included already. That's $240 for software -- and with Google Docs, which works on every platform, its completely free.

This short list doesn't cover all the benefits to working in the cloud. I'd like to open this up to other small business owners who are using the cloud in their day-to-day work, though. What are the biggest benefits for you? Let us know in the comments.

Photo Credit: Digital Storm/Shutterstock

iPhone to appear on three more regional carriers April 20

Publié: avril 4, 2012, 8:00pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Where can you get the iPhone other than AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint? Plenty of places, as long as you're not on T-Mobile.

A host of regional wireless carriers announced Wednesday that they will carry the iPhone in a move that may surprise some industry watchers. This includes Waynesboro, Va.-based nTelos, Green Bay, Wisc.-based Cellcom, and Anchorage, Alaska's Alaska Communications. The regionals will offer the iPhone 4 and 4S at a $50 discount to the major carriers, and join southern US regional carrier C Spire, who has offered the iPhone since October of last year.

The 16GB 4S will sell for $150, the 32GB for $250, and the 64GB for $350, and the iPhone 4 for $50. On all three carriers, the phone debuts on April 20. Apple typically holds strict control over pricing, so the discount strategy is surprising.

nTelos is a regional carrier that has about 400,000 subscribers across Virginia, West
Virginia and portions of Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. nTelos offers an unlimited smartphone plan with voice, text, and data for $90 per month, and an unlimited family plan for two lines for $10 more. Additional lines are $30 each.

Cellcom provides service to subscribers across Michigan and Wisconsin. It offers an individual unlimited calling plan for $70 per month, with additional lines available for $50 per month. The carrier offers a bundle of unlimited texting and data allotments of 75MB, 300MB, 2GB, and 5GB for $15, $30, $40, and $65; for family plans it's either 2GB or 5GB for $40 and $120 for up to four lines.

Finally, Alaska Communications is the smallest operator of the three, serving less than 100,000 customers across Alaska. Its Nationwide Unlimited plan (without texting) includes 2GB of data for $90 per month: for $11 more you get 5GB of data and unlimited texting.

The regional carrier's ability to offer the iPhone $50 cheaper now may signal an impending price cut across the majors as well. If this happens, such a move would be unprecedented in Apple's history. The Cupertino, Calif. company adjusts prices upon the debut of a new model, not midstream.

On the other hand, the mobile phone sector is extremely competitive and Apple's stick-to-your-guns strategy isn't as effective here. Manufacturers and carriers always play with price to keep sales up. This could be the first signs of a change at Apple with Cook at the helm: willing to play on the same turf its competitors have been doing for years: price.

Still missing is any plans on when or if the iPhone will come to T-Mobile: the nation's fourth largest carrier is left out in the cold once again. Much of this is the carrier's fault itself as it uses the AWS bands for its 3G/4G service, a setup uncommon in worldwide cellular deployments. That will be remedied soon.

The company has announced that as part of its rollout of LTE services next year, and the spectrum gained from the failed merger with AT&T, T-Mobile USA will begin to reassign 3G spectrum to the common frequency bands used by AT&T and others. LTE would then use the AWS spectrum. This will allow the carrier to fully support the iPhone, as well as many other popular devices.

Until then, T-Mobile is forced to continue to wait while customers of smaller carriers eat its lunch. For executives of a company that needs a shot in the behind, it has got to be maddening.

Citrix aims to become the Red Hat of cloud computing with CloudStack

Publié: avril 3, 2012, 9:28pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Citrix is making its mark on open-source cloud computing, following CloudStack software's release to the Apache Foundation. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based technology company acquired the rights to CloudStack with last year's Cloud.com acquisition. Citrix is a significant contributor to another open-source cloud computing platform called OpenStack, and one of the earliest members.

RackSpace and NASA jointly created OpenStack in 2010. Since that time, the project has amassed nearly 150 contributors including Dell, AMD, Intel, HP and AT&T. It aims to be an alternative to Amazon Web Services, which is a popular platform for IT deployments looking to embrace the cloud.

CloudStack differs from OpenStack in that it offers Amazon Web Services support, which Citrix sees a necessity. The company also aims to become the Red Hat of cloud computing by offering a commercially supported version of CloudStack.

As we've seen from Red Hat's recent announcement of becoming open source's first $1 billion company, those subscription revenues can play a big part in generating revenue.

"We believe the biggest winners in the cloud era will be clouds built on a platform that is designed from the ground up with a true Amazon-style architecture, proven at scale in real production clouds, compatible with the Amazon architecture and fully committed to open source", Citrix's cloud platforms head Sameer Dholakia says.

He believes the move puts CloudStack in a good position to become an industry standard for cloud computing. The project already has some big names behind it: GoDaddy and Zynga both use CloudStack in their own IT deployments.

Dholakia says that OpenStack is not stable enough to handle large scale deployments, and points to the fact that CloudStack is about one to two years ahead of OpenStack when it comes to development. Partnering with Amazon for the cloud API makes sense because AWS has already become all but a standard in the industry.

OpenStack will continue to push its own cloud APIs, which certainly seems as if it will put it at a competitive disadvantage. Citrix will continue to support OpenStack, but it appears to be in a backhanded manner. The company plans a "seven figure investment" in engineering, community involvement, and marketing for CloudStack, so any contributions to OpenStack are likely to be minimal.

Not everyone is happy with the move, as Citrix treating Amazon's cloud APIs as gold could amount to giving the company license to define the cloud computing industry. "AWS APIs are fine… for Amazon", tweets Sam Johnston, Director, Cloud & IT Services at Equinix.

Photo Credit: Tom Wang/Shutterstock

Consumer Reports whores for pageviews (again), recommends new iPad after calling it hotter than hell

Publié: avril 2, 2012, 8:03pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Consumer Reports does it again. Lo and behold, after causing a media firestorm over its blatant attempt at whoring for pageviews, the supposedly impartial source for product reviews is now actually going to recommend the new iPad as the top tablet available.

You read that right. "Heatgate" was supposedly a big enough issue to cause the company to write several posts on it, without quantifying that the iPad is not hotter than other competing tablets or (basically) every laptop on the market. CR is doing an about face, now saying the device's heat generation is no longer a problem.

"The high-resolution screen of the new iPad establishes a new benchmark in excellence, providing the best rendering of detail and color accuracy we've ever seen on a tablet display", reviewer Donna L. Tapellini quips. "As a result, the iPad tops our new tablet Ratings, posted today".

Well Donna, that's nice. Nearly two weeks ago your outfit was telling us that "Heatgate" was a major issue. Looks like you're leading the charge by CR to pull back on those comments by this next excerpt.

"Responding to consumer comments on the new device, and to coverage from other reviewers, we also carried out further tests that confirmed the new iPad is warmer in its hottest spots than the iPad 2", she says. "But we didn't find those temperatures to be cause for concern".

Tapellini touches on the whole charging issue briefly as well, but says neither of these issues affected CR from giving the device high marks. Color me confused as to why in the first place "Heatgate" was even necessary. At least with the iPhone 4, you guys didn't recommend it? Ugh.

You may notice I have not linked their report in this response, and that's completely on purpose. Consumer Reports has lost a lot of credibility here in the past several weeks, and it has come across as blatant pageview whoring. I absolutely refuse to give them any more pageviews for a manufactured problem.

The rest of the media should too. Consumer Reports is getting nothing here that it doesn't deserve. Maybe this will send a message to those folks what is appropriate when it comes to being supposedly impartial, which I'd argue it now appears they are not.

As Instapaper founder Marco Arment says on Twitter this morning: "I'd link to today's Consumer Reports contradiction of their previous sensational garbage, but it's just not worth sending more pageviews".

Amen.

Photo Credit: Mary_L/Shutterstock

SMB cloud adoption begins to acclerate, study finds

Publié: avril 1, 2012, 6:06am CEST par Ed Oswald

Small and medium sized business are quickly moving to the cloud to reduce IT costs, a new study shows. The number of cloud services is expected to double over the next five years, and the number of small business using at least one cloud service will triple during that same period.

Cloud computing offers small business the opportunity to access the computing power of much larger corporations at a fraction of the cost. In fact, the survey shows that half of all SMBs see the cloud as becoming more important to their business.

"The cloud levels the playing field for SMBs, helping them compete in today’s quickly changing business environment, by spending less time and money on IT and more time focused on their most important priority —- growing their businesses", argues Microsoft operator channel vice president Marco Limena.

Microsoft commissioned the study of 3,000 small and medium sized businesses in 13 countries. The survey was conducted by Wayland, Mass.-based research firm Edge Strategies.

The most commonly used cloud services are email, instant messaging, voice communications, and backup. Edge also looked at SMB cloud plans over the next three years and the same cloud services also are in the IT plans of those embracing the cloud.

From this data, it certainly could be argued that SMBs seem to be quick to embrace the cloud in order to enhance communication. It makes sense: in small business, communication is key to ensure rapid growth.

The biggest motivators for migration to the cloud among SMBs is to save money (54 percent), followed by increases in productivity. Decision makers also mentioned flexibility as a fairly common response. Of those already using the cloud, 59 percent reported productivity increases as a result.

Such an increase in productivity is vital in an economy where revenues are hard to come by. Even in this environment, cloud-enabled SMBs are expected to do well. 63 percent report that they expect to increase sales within the next 12 to 18 months, with 58 percent believing the cloud makes them more competitive in the marketplace.

"Gone are the days of large enterprises holding the keys to enterprise-class IT and services", Limena says.

Photo Credit: nopporn/Shutterstock

Infograph: Microsoft

President Obama is RIM's last hope

Publié: mars 30, 2012, 8:44pm CEST par Ed Oswald

As Research in Motion begins to circle the drain, there is one last bright spot for the company that may prevent an all-out collapse: US President Barack Obama. While it may seem somewhat silly, Obama's continued use of his BlackBerry is indicative of a large group of core users that have not abandoned the platform by and large: government.

Obama came from a generation of politicians that found their BlackBerries indispensable tools in the day-to-day business of politics. The smartphone has become so commonplace in Washington that our President famously refused to give up his own device upon taking office in 2009.

While RIM has lost a few of these contracts in recent months, it still is a dominant force. This widespread use extends to state-and-local government agencies as well. I can share from personal experience that a good portion of our municipal government here in Sinking Spring, Pa. uses the platform.

Something that my colleague Tim Conneally did not point out in his piece late yesterday was the fact that as part of its restructuring, RIM will focus on business consumers. This was the core customer base for the company. While some may be ready to sound the death knell for RIM today, it is a bit to early.

Let's think about it. Consumers are a fickle bunch. We upgrade our phones every one or two years, and follow the trends. BlackBerries, once the must-have accessory of the who's-who of society, have fallen by the wayside. The numbers show we have moved on. In business and government it's different.

These segments of the market are not -- and cannot be -- as fickle. Migrating from one platform to another is not as easy for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people. Thus changing from one platform to another is much more difficult.

Hate to turn back to the Borough of Sinking Spring again, but if you want evidence of the glacial pace that government moves, look at the computer systems they use: on average five years old, running Windows XP, and in some cases software that's far outdated (Quickbooks from 2003, for example)! By the way, yes I am advocating them getting with the times, in case you are wondering.

Government will save RIM, just like it did with iDEN and Nextel. iDEN is a technology far past its prime, yet has survived on for years due to entrenched use among government and first responders. I have a Nextel phone here for emergencies: when there's an issue in the borough, we use Direct Connect to keep communication lines open.

RIM is getting the same treatment. It will be many years before the company could die just due to use in government alone. President Obama is RIM's last hope, and the minute he puts down the CrackBerry, that's when I'd start to worry.

That has not happened yet.

Editors note: Ed Oswald is a councilman in Sinking Spring, Pa. He was elected to a four-year position in November 2009.

Photo Credit: The White House

Red Hat: Open source's first billion dollar company

Publié: mars 29, 2012, 7:27pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Shares of Red Hat rose 17 percent to $60.12 in heavy midday trading. Yesterday, after the bell, the company reported $1.13 billion revenues for fiscal 2012, ended February 29. Red Hat is the first open-source based company to post $1 billion in revenues

Quite a feat for a platform Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once called a "cancer" and has repeatedly questioned the security of. One has to wonder if Ballmer might be reconsidering the parnership Microsoft penned with Red Hat back in February 2009.

Much of the company's revenue comes from its subscription products: $952 million in fact. Red Hat says it sees a high rate of renewals, and its top five customers have over $1 million in subscriptions, with one exceeding $5 million dollars.

Red Hat successfully fended off challenges from Oracle, which had taken the strategy of offering support for Linux at half the price. While Oracle has done a good business with its offering, by and large IT decision makers appear to have stuck with Red Hat even at a higher cost.

"This achievement will finally put to bed the argument that 'nobody can make money with open source'," Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin writes in a blog post. "Credit where credit is due: Red Hat has worked extremely hard and extremely smart to leverage open source to make a billion dollars".

Zemlin notes that the collective investment in Linux surpasses $10 billion dollars, and top tech companies like Facebook have leveraged the platform to build businesses worth tens of billions of dollars. Is Linux coming of age? You could argue that it is.

Red Hat has certainly spurred much of this development. Since its software is offered under the General Public License (GPL), competitors have been free to pillage its work. That taken into consideration, Red Hat's $1 billion in revenue is all the more astounding.

"The open source technologies which we provide are being selected by more customers every day as they re-architect the infrastructure of their data centers for greater efficiency, agility and cloud enablement", CEO Jim Whitehurst boasts of the company's achievement.

2012 is LTE's 'breakout' year

Publié: mars 23, 2012, 9:55pm CET par Ed Oswald

While the buzzword in mobile in 2011 was LTE, consumers by and large did not respond to the hype. Only 6.8 million LTE devices sold worldwide -- a small drop in the bucket of annual phone sales. Strategy Analytics says that's about to change in a big way.

The firm predicts shipments will increase by a factor of ten to 67 million units in 2012. The firm expects markets in the United States, Japan and South Korea to spearhead this growth, with a broader range of devices from manufacturers including Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Pantech and Fujitsu giving consumers more options.

Apple is expected to include LTE in the next iPhone following the inclusion of 4G in the new iPad. iPhone is the top-selling phone model worldwide, and LTE compatibility will contribute a significant portion of the standard's growth in 2012. Why is Apple finally biting the bullet and joining the ranks of its competitors? It's all about adoption.

"Multiple operators and multiple phone vendors will be launching dozens of LTE models across numerous countries worldwide", Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston argues. "LTE has quickly become a high-growth, high-value market that no operator, service developer, device vendor or component maker can afford to ignore".

In 2011, LTE deployment was limited to a few carriers worldwide. Here in the states, Verizon Wireless was the only carrier to have a network of any consequence, although AT&T started their rollout later in the year. In 2012, things are much different: AT&T will continue to build out its network, and Sprint is expected to join the fray.

T-Mobile is a bit behind, with a rollout expected in 2013, however it's not out of the question we'll see LTE-capable devices early. In any case, the marked increase in coverage will in turn spur manufacturers to release more LTE-capable phones, increasing overall sales.

There are a few factors that will work against LTE adoption during the year, Mawston says. One of these is cost: both plans and phones will remain relatively expensive. Another is a number of kinks surrounding the technology that have yet to be rectified. "Consumers will be concerned about LTE usability issues, such as shortened battery life, excessive device weight, or sudden bill shock caused by high data consumption", he explains.

Even with a ten fold increase in sales, overall LTE phones will still be a small fraction of total phone sales worldwide: in 2011, Gartner says some 1.77 billion phones were sold.

Facebook bans employers from snooping on job seekers' profiles

Publié: mars 23, 2012, 5:10pm CET par Ed Oswald

Reports of prospective employers asking for Facebook passwords during the hiring process or as terms of employment has the social networking site upset. Facebook says asking for your password is a violation of privacy, and very well could set up the employer for legal action.

Criticism of the practice came to a head earlier this week following an Associated Press story detailing several individuals who had been subjected to disclosing their passwords to either obtain or to keep a job. Employers' attempts to peer into your social life has the attention of lawmakers too: in both Maryland and Illinois legislation is being considered to make the practice illegal.

Legislation at the federal level is sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). That bill would make it a violation of federal law for employers to use Facebook accounts as a condition of employment. He told Politico on Wednesday that he saw it as an "unreasonable invasion of privacy" and would have a bill ready soon.

Facebook argues that disclosing your password to employers not only breaches your own privacy but that of your friends. The site notes that sharing or soliciting passwords violates Facebook's terms of service.

"As a user, you shouldn’t be forced to share your private information and communications just to get a job", chief privacy officer Erin Egan writes in a Friday blog post. "And as the friend of a user, you shouldn’t have to worry that your private information or communications will be revealed to someone you don’t know and didn’t intend to share with just because that user is looking for a job".

Facebook notes that using the site to gather information for employment may put the employer at risk of being sued. For example, the Facebook user may be a member of a protected group, and by the employer not hiring the individual after accessing her profile could now be open to a discrimination claim. Egan also said that it's likely companies are not providing the right training on how to handle personal information.

Egan has a word of warning for those who continue to use Facebook in this manner: "We’ll take action to protect the privacy and security of our users, whether by engaging policymakers or, where appropriate, by initiating legal action, including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges".

Egan emphasizes: "While we will continue to do our part, it is important that everyone on Facebook understands they have a right to keep their password to themselves, and we will do our best to protect that right".

Photo Credit: Joachim Wendler/Shutterstock

AT&T scammed Feds for Nigerian scammers, DOJ says

Publié: mars 22, 2012, 9:04pm CET par Ed Oswald

The US Justice Department accuses AT&T of defrauding the government, alleging the carrier improperly billed for services intended for the hard of hearing. The system has become a method through which scammers, many from Nigeria, make purchases using stolen credit cards and fraudulent checks.

Called IP Relay, the service allows the hard of hearing to place phone calls to a hearing individual relayed by messages sent over the Internet. A call center operator then relays the message to the called person. A former worker in one of AT&T's call centers had already filed a whistleblower suit over the matter.

In an effort to prevent fraud, the federal government requires telecom operators to register users of the system. The Justice Department says that AT&T failed to set up this system, and as a result as much as 95 percent of calls handled by the company may have been fraudulent.

The DOJ is suing to recoup the $1.30 per minute it reimbursed AT&T for these calls. It is not clear how much the federal government may have lost as a result of the telecom operator's alleged negligence, although the suit claims it may be in the millions of dollars.

AT&T says that it had no knowledge of fraudulent calls on the system, and made all efforts to follow policies. "FCC rules require that we complete all calls by customers who identify themselves as disabled", an AT&T spokesperson says.

That's not what the Justice Department is saying though. "Taxpayers must not bear the cost of abuses of the Telecommunications Relay system", says David J. Hickton, US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. "Those who misuse funds intended to benefit the hearing- and speech-impaired must be held accountable".

Stand in line to beat Apple senseless

Publié: mars 21, 2012, 11:54pm CET par Ed Oswald

There are pageviews to be had when it's time to criticize Apple: probably as much if not more than writing about the latest iGadget. It is the same pattern over and over. First, Apple debuts its latest creation, and the press fawns. Next, a blogger or journo with an ax to grind finds some obscure problem affecting a small segment of users and makes it into a showstopping defect.

Without much thought, the rest of the media jumps on this report, and hundreds if not thousands of stories tell us how Apple's at the beginning of the end, lost its edge, blah blah blah. Same story every time -- from Antennagate, to Batterygate, and now Heatgate.

Heatgate is only the most recent of these tempests in a teacup, turned into a malestrom by the folks at Consumer Reports. In preliminary testing, CR found that new iPad runs 10 degrees hotter than iPad 2 -- as much as 116 degrees.

Here we go again.

This latest firestorm (no pun intended) is yet another unnecessary distraction for Apple. To its credit, this time Apple quickly responded to the issue by saying the iPad performs "well within our thermal specifications" in statement to Jim Dalrymple and The Loop shortly after CR's findings.

Good move Apple in cutting the issue off at the head and not letting it fester. It is probably why the conversation this time is much different, and more favorable to the Cupertino, Calif. company.

Call Us Skeptical

While Consumer Reports certainly deserves some flak here for once again taking an issue and overplaying it, the rest of the tech media does too: most of us did not take any time to verify those findings or do some research ourselves. In the age of blogs, it has become too much of "me too".

You may all find this shocking, but our own investigation into CR's (and Tweaked.net's to be fair) claims were performed by my colleague Joe Wilcox. Say what you want about his stories and alleged anti-Apple biases, Joe did smell something afoot with this considering Apple's past "gates". He pulled out his family's new iPad. While we aren't using fancy gadgets to measure the temperature, from an impartial assessment he knew right away CR's claims were an exaggeration.

In our newsroom discussions, Joe reported to us that his hands didn't burn off. "Not that I can tell", he mused over the device running any hotter. Through thinking this out, we chalked this up to places like Consumer Reports not doing their due diligence in testing across multiple scenarios. We reported it as such, even though some of our commenters still took it as a hit piece on Apple. It wasn't. In my eyes, we defended the company.

Look back to Joe's post on the Daisey controversy. He writes that we steer away from the feeding frenzies and rumor stories that pervade the tech media, which is true. This is exactly what Heatgate is: a feeding frenzy. Consumer Reports put itself in the news with a post that told half the story, and thus was a story in search of a problem.

Rerun, Rerun

Apple has now found itself over the past two years subject to at least three of these types of hit jobs. First was the iPhone 4 Antennagate. Somebody held their phone and watched the signal indicator go down, and all of a sudden the company found itself playing defense. Just to calm the ravenous appetites of the tech media and the anti-Apple crowd, Apple had to remind us how to hold a phone and on top of that, give a free case to people who can't do it right.

Next came the battery controversy with the iPhone 4S. Yes, there were some issues, but it was software related. At the time, I argued that the problems were overblown. Guess what? They're all but gone now and you don't hear a peep about it. Another story in search of a problem.

Now we've come to Heatgate. Same gist but with a different cast of characters. There's one unifying force here though, and that's pageview seeking outfits like Consumer Reports. To be fair, Consumer Reports did say on the iPhone 4S that it couldn't find evidence of significant battery issues, but it has placed itself in the middle of news stories before and overplayed them. The outfit is not the only one, but certainly is becoming the most prominent of those whoring for pageviews on practically non-existent issues.

Will it ever stop? Probably not. I've been saying this week about the situation that "it sucks to be on top". Apple is not the first company to be subject to overzealous reporters and critics. Microsoft went through the same thing over a decade ago. Every release or product was subject to such oppressive scrutiny that there was no possible avenue for success.

There's an argument here that this attitude only exacerbated honest issues at the Redmond, Wash. company and created an even more stagnant environment that Microsoft is still to this day trying to dig itself out of.

The only difference here is the 24-hour news cycle, blogs, and social media. What took months if not days to build back then can take days, weeks and even hours now to spiral out of control. Are we setting Apple up for failure just like we did to Microsoft so long ago?

I think you can say we are. It's a shame, and needs to stop.

Photo Credit: National Library NZ on The Commons

Woz defends the indefensible -- Mike Daisey

Publié: mars 20, 2012, 4:33pm CET par Ed Oswald

Disgraced playwright Mike Daisey has support from an somewhat unexpected source: Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak. In an interview with CNET on Monday, Wozniak says that he saw "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" last year and believes that Daisey is not anti-Apple. Woz also claims he said this to Steve Jobs before he passed away last October.

"A lot of performing arts...what actors do is to try to dramatize issues and events that are real", Woz says. "When you're watching Stephen Colbert and 'The Daily Show' not everything they say is factual but what they're presenting is real. It's a method of presentation that brings issues and ideas more to your awareness".

Woz avoids discussion on the issues surrounding the journalistic viability of Daisey's lies, or why the man decided to market them as fact to "This American Life". It is here where Wozniak looks extremely foolish for sticking up for somebody who has played loose with the truth.

As I said yesterday, the central problem here is that Daisey took a real-life problem and made such massive fabrications that it muddied the true issue. He then marched around promoting the show -- like on Real Time with Bill Maher -- where he continued to spout these same lies and presented them as fact.

This isn't the first time either that Daisey has taken way too much poetic license in his performances. I learned yesterday from an Amazon co-worker that Daisey's show on his time at Amazon, "21 Dog Years", most likely contained some significant misrepresentations of truth as well.

When I read that last night, I couldn't believe it. This guy has all but made a career on doing the same thing we're accusing him of now? After that, I didn't feel so bad about criticizing him, since "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" is apparently just par for the course.

Woz looks foolish comparing this to Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart. When we watch those programs, we know its satire. You know some of it is made up before you even watch. At no time has Daisey ever in his show warned the audience of the same, and his public statements up until he was confronted did not either.

It is not clear to me why Wozniak would stick his neck out and look completely foolish as a result. I know he cares about the issues when it comes to China and Apple, but read this statement and you have to wonder where he's been the past half decade or so:

"I think his monologue has influenced Apple to take steps in that direction the best they can ...I applaud Mike Daisey because of the attention and understanding he has brought to this".

I am floored by this one. Hey Woz, have you been paying attention to the news? Apple addressed this in 2006 -- over a half-decade before Daisey started cheapening the issue of workplace conditions in China. He has nothing to do with this. Actually it was the media back then that did proper journalistic investigation to get Apple to cave.

Supporters of Daisey -- especially Steve Wozniak -- have to begin to understand the damage that lying does to a true issue. Hiding behind theater or art to do so is not an excuse. There is a difference between "Pirates of Silcon Valley" (Woz specifically mentions this movie) and "The Agony & Ecstasy of Steve Jobs".

The former tells the story pretty much correctly, but obviously fills in some of the personal interactions with dramatization. The latter fabricated a first-person account and presented it as fact to unsuspecting audiences. Half-truths are still lies. Apple took damage to its reputation as a result, and has a right to be upset.

Why Steve Wozniak of all people is now defending him is beyond me, but I'd imagine poor Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave.

Photo Credit: Ed Schipul

Mike Daisey's lies cheapen the whole issue of working conditions in China

Publié: mars 19, 2012, 7:14pm CET par Ed Oswald

Taking artistic license on such a serious subject like Foxconn's working conditions disgusts me.

When National Public Radio aired a segment of Mike Daisey's popular stage show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" during its current events program "This American Life", little did NPR know the implications of its piece. The show set off a firestorm of criticism, putting Apple in even a worse light than it already is.

Daisey's show tells us that the Chinese workers at Foxconn don't know what they're making. Many of the workers are underage, working 70 hour weeks for low pay in poor conditions. Daisey claims to have met these workers in his own trip to Foxconn's Shenzen plant, and is there when a worker dies after a supposed 34-hour shift. There's a lot more in the piece, but there's a huge problem.

Most of it is not true.

"The American Life" host and producer Ira Glass asked Daisey to record a modified version of his stage show for the program, which Daisey agreed to do. The segment aired in January, but was pulled last week after "Marketplace" uncovered discrepancies in Daisey's accounts.

It appears from the speed at which Glass and others are running away from the segment, no fact checking was done -- at least before the program aired. Apple as a result received a lot of flak for things that never actually happened, all because of sloppiness in checking facts.

Make no mistake: there are issues with Apple when it comes to Foxconn. Working conditions at the plant are less than stellar, and the Cupertino, Calif. company admitted to such a long time ago and is working to make things right. The last thing Apple needed, however, was somebody like Mike Daisey exacerbating the situation for the sake of what he considers to be good theater.

"I stand by my work. My show is a theatrical piece whose goal is to create a human connection between our gorgeous devices and the brutal circumstances from which they emerge", Daisey argued on Friday. "It uses a combination of fact, memoir, and dramatic license to tell its story, and I believe it does so with integrity". Integrity? Are you frickin' kidding?

This is a serious topic, one that engenders significant emotions. Daisey's argument is bullshit and as manipulative as he was in getting "This American Life" to run his trash. You have no integrity at all when you embellish a serious subject with lies, and then on top of this make money from it. For this Daisey deserves every bit of public flogging he's getting.

His most recent statement is even worse. Read this: "If people want to use me as an excuse to return to denialism about the state of our manufacturing, about the shape of our world, they are doing that to themselves", he bemoans.

Wait a minute. You just lied to the American public, cheapening the entire argument over working conditions in Chinese high-tech factories. This is your fault and not the media or anybody else's. Lying to get your point across is not an excuse. You took a real world situation and made a mockery of it, and it's offensive.

Don't blame your mistakes on anybody else, Mr. Daisey. They are your own. Be a man and own up to them, sir.

To any playhouse thinking of allowing Daisey's show to run in its building following the end of its run in the Public Theater of New York on Sunday: don't. Unless you're going to hang a huge banner across the entrance to the theater warning all who enter that what they're about to hear is pretty much a lie.

While I've spent much of this post criticizing Daisey, in the end it's Public Radio that really failed here. Think what you want about the politics, but its reporting has always been stellar. For "This American Life", producer Chicago Public Radio, distributor Public Radio International and US syndicator National Public Radio, to fail to do basic fact-checking here really blows my mind. As Poynter points out:

"'This American Life' is one of the great journalistic storytelling institutions in the world. But they somehow didn’t verify the facts that underpinned this remarkable first-person story. It’s ultimately a failure of storytelling".

A failure in storytelling, a failure in the most basic precept of journalism: checking your facts. This should not only be a teaching moment for those creating theater out of current events, but also journalists out there who put getting a hot story out in front of making sure all your ducks are in a row first.

Hopefully we learn from this.

NetZero transforms the Internet once again

Publié: mars 19, 2012, 6:04pm CET par Ed Oswald

When NetZero burst onto the scene with the promise of free Internet for all in 1998, it was a transformative moment. No longer was the Internet a playground for the privileged: all you needed was a computer and a phone line, and you were online. The company is about to do the same for mobile data.

Starting today, NetZero is offering 200 megabytes of data free to anyone who purchases a dongle or hotspot from them. The dongle retails for $49.95, while the hotspot sells for $99.95. The service is provided through a partnership with Clear. With the purchase, NetZero's free plan will remain in effect for a period of one year.

Unlike the original NetZero, there are no ads while using the free service -- the company is using the free plan as a "loss leader", aimed at building a user base quickly.

Following the first year, free plan subscribers will be required to sign up for one of NetZero's premium plans, which range from $9.95 monthly for 500MB of data to $49.95 for 4GB. There will be no contractual requirement, NetZero says.

The company seems to not be aiming at corporate users, the demographic that is the most likely consumers for wireless data. Instead, NetZero aims at the legions of everyday users who frequent Wi-Fi hotspots, and liberalizing mobile data.

NetZero hopes that the year of free data will prove to the average consumer the utility of mobile data, and most will convert to paying subscribers. By keeping the monthly charges low, it gives the user an incentive to do so, since they only have to pay for what they need.

There is no overage charge either: if a subscriber goes over their monthly allotment, they will have the opportunity to purchase a new bucket of data.

All of us can only hope that NetZero's move puts pricing pressure on mobile data just like it did for dial-up Internet. It could be argued that the company's free offering helped drive down the cost of Internet access, and the same is certainly needed in the mobile space.

Carriers are not exactly jacking up prices, but they're putting limits on the amount of data you can use that are lower and lower. The effect is the cost per MB jumps, which is a price hike by a different name. NetZero's mobile data offering could put pressure on other providers to make their plans more competitive.

Of course there are limitations. Clear's 4G network is fairly limited, available only in metropolitan areas. This may not be a bad thing though for NetZero: as broadband got cheaper, the company lost customers in urban areas first since it was here where broadband is the most prevalent.

Whether this is a winning strategy remains to be seen. In any case, it's exciting to see a company aim to bring mobile data to the masses.

Photo Credit: De Mango/Shutterstock

Antitrust lawyer: Apple ebook deals are illegal

Publié: mars 15, 2012, 8:19pm CET par Ed Oswald

Steve Jobs left behind a legal mess for Apple chief executive Tim Cook. Decisions the former CEO made when brokering ebook distribution deals haunt Apple, as a civil price-fixing case moves forward and the specter of a federal antitrust investigation approaches. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates left Steve Ballmer in similar straights in early 2000. Look what happened to Microsoft since.

Apple is alleged to have colluded with major publishers to fix ebook prices, in violation of US antitrust law. There has been little analysis from legal experts on whether or not Apple is actually in danger of criminal complaint. I sat down with William Markham, a partner with San Diego-based law firm Maldonado & Markham, to understand the basics of the civil ebook case and possible federal criminal action. It seems like Apple may find itself a target of antitrust claims in short order, if Markham is right.

Markham has 15 years of experience in the fields of antitrust and real estate and commercial disputes, and has several successful high-profile antitrust cases ruled in his favor under his belt. We chatted earlier this week.

BetaNews: Before we start on Apple itself, could you explain the basic premise of price-fixing and how it relates to Apple's deals with the book publishers?

William Markham: Thanks very much. Price fixing is any concerted effort to raise, lower or otherwise manipulate the prices for a given good or service, but only if it is undertaken by two or more independent entities that directly compete with one another. At issue in the Apple case is an alleged instance of horizontal price-fixing: The publishers, who are direct competitors, have acted in concert with a major distributor, Apple, in order to raise or otherwise manipulate the prices of ebooks and printed books.

BN: Does the class-action complaint meet those standards to be considered an antitrust violation?

WM: It is very well done and easily meets the standard for stating actionable antitrust claims: It alleges specific facts of a conspiracy undertaken by the named defendants to frustrate and undermine competitive prices and distribution outlets for ebooks, causing customers to pay higher prices for ebooks and printed books while harming ebook sellers such as Amazon that wish to sell ebooks at lower prices.

BN: Why would either Apple or the book publishers do such a thing? Isn't that blatantly illegal?

WM: The book publishers had an obvious motive -- to preserve the profit margins on the sale of hardcover and paperback books, which were threatened by the much lower prices for ebooks that were offered by Amazon. To preserve these prices, the book publishers had to "discipline" Amazon by obliging it to raise the prices that it charged for ebooks. To enforce this threat upon Amazon, which is an enormous electronic retailer, the book publishers enlisted the aid of Apple, which agreed to offer ebooks on its iBook platform only at approximately $15 per ebook.

It is not overly difficult, however, to discern Apple’s motives for participating in the conspiracy, and the complaint alleges the matter clearly: Apple’s core business is selling computer hardware that uses proprietary software applications, such [as] iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Mac computers. Its business model relies on its ability to earn wide margins on its hardware products.

BN: So what we have here is Apple feeling threatened, and attempting to control the market as a result.

WM: Yes. Amazon poses a threat to Apple’s entire business model, its iPad line of products in particular, and its interest in making profits from selling ebooks. Indeed, Apple explicitly wants to make profits by inducing prospective customers to purchase iPads and commit themselves by contract to its closed world of available ebooks (iBooks), and Amazon stands between Apple and this profitable ambition.

But takes no rocket scientist or Nobel economist to discern Apple’s interest in undermining Amazon’s position as the preeminent seller of ebooks: Amazon makes these sales, which in turn have a network effect and induce ever more readers to purchase the Kindle readers and ebooks from Amazon while discouraging ever more customers from purchasing iPads and ebooks, iTunes and the data from Apple’s closed world of offerings.

BN: Sounds like a serious case. It also sounds like the class-action suitors may stand to benefit greatly if Apple is found to be in violation of the Sherman Act?

WM: The damages could be immense: What harm has befallen rival distributors and booksellers disfavored by the scheme and harmed by its anti-competitive character? How much more have readers paid for their books? Multiply this figure by three (treble damages), add attorney’s fees calculated according to the “lodestar” method, throw in the odd injunctive relief, and you have your possible if not probable result after an indignant jury is properly instructed by the court.

BN: So through iBooks, Apple is coming dangerously close to the next big tech antitrust case of our time, no?

WM: By this conspiracy they have apparently raised and fixed the prices of ebooks so as to preserve Apple’s sales of iPads, improve its share of sales of ebooks, allow the old publishers a few more years to exact profits that their own honest services can no longer produce, and harm the fortunes and progress of the new Wal-Mart of our era, Amazon, whose own practices likely deserve scrutiny, but not a price-fixing scheme so clumsy and blatant in its implementation that I am surprised the case has not yet settled.

BN: Is it a sure thing, though?

WM: There are a series of restrictive doctrines in federal court these days that make it increasingly more difficult for a private plaintiff to obtain redress under federal antitrust law. Apple has invoked one of these doctrines –- the Twombly pleading standard –- to argue that the class plaintiffs in the ebooks case have failed to allege a plausible conspiracy in which it participated. If this complaint fails to allege a plausible conspiracy, it is only because its authors apparently overlooked the fundamental maxim that anyone can write a decent, overly long brief, but only a talented advocate can write a convincing, spare one. Even so, the complaint is thorough, and the court should find that it states actionable claims under the Sherman Act.

BN: Any final thoughts on the case and your personal take?

WM: An avid reader, I used to love to browse for books in bookstores, but life is change, and people have changed the way that they look for, purchase, and even read books. Our laws say that you can compete vigorously and imaginatively for their custom, or fail to do so and fail to win it, but even venerable book publishers must not collude to raise the prices of their offerings, and if they do so they must pay treble damages and attorney’s fees.

It is a fascinating case -- a test for e-commerce and the future of antitrust law, and battle of two titans -- a brutal Wal-Mart-style retailer versus a brutal sweatshop producer that jealously covets everything it uses.

BN: Thank you for your time and insight.

Photo Credit: JustASC/Shutterstock

AT&T will cut you off if your throttling case wins in court

Publié: mars 14, 2012, 10:54pm CET par Ed Oswald

Smarting over its loss in court -- a customer awarded $850 for shady throttling practices -- AT&T has taken the brazen step of threatening that person with termination of service if he doesn't agree to a settlement. Matthew Spaccarelli of Simi Valley, Calif. won his case in late February, and possibly laid the groundwork for thousands of other suits.

In a letter on Friday, AT&T uses Spaccarelli's own admission of tethering his device as grounds for termination if he does not agree to settlement talks. The carrier promises no additional compensation above the $850 already due and asks for confidentiality that settlement discussions are underway.

Taken aback by AT&T's offer, Spaccarelli refused and instead sent the letter to the Associated Press, which on Wednesday reported on the carrier's attempt to settle. AT&T has some impetus to shut him up: Spaccerelli is guiding others' affected by AT&T's throttling practices on how to sue the company successfully.

I can't say I feel bad for AT&T's position, or disagree with Spaccarelli's decision to expose the company's tactics in attempting to get him to sit at the table. AT&T's move comes after losing the case, and actually seems to me like something that could be seen as a run-around the US judicial system.

How do you think a judge would react to a company that lost its case attempting to strongarm the winning party into settling an already decided matter? I bet you can guess which side the judge is going to come down on, and it's not AT&T's.

We don't know why AT&T is doing this, either: the company is not commenting. I personally would like an explanation from their legal team on how a threat like this is even legal, but I doubt I'll get that. Ah yes, the hubris of corporate America...

Photo Credit: HomeArt/Shutterstock

Laptops and tablets are on a high-speed collision course

Publié: mars 14, 2012, 9:51pm CET par Ed Oswald

As tablets become more popular among consumers, our functionality requirements also increase. The rise of this sector contributes to the blurring of the lines between notebooks and tablets, says NPD's Ross Rubin. Things will only get murkier when Windows 8 releases later this year, its Metro interface built with touchscreen interfaces in mind.

NPD and Rubin see the entire industry encroaching on one another's turf. Android has found its way onto dual-boot devices like ViewSonic's Viewpad tablet. On the flipside, Windows 8 makes it enticing for manufacturers to add tablet-like features as the OS was built with mobile in mind.

Once the next-generation of Windows releases, the core of the operating system will be shared across both desktop and mobile platforms. Apple is already on this path, adding features of iOS into its most recent releases of Mac OS X.

Physical functionality is another point of convergence. Notebook consumers clamor for features found in tablets, such as touch and gesture functionality, while tablet users look towards features commonly found on laptops. "We see very strong sales of Bluetooth keyboards" for tablets, Rubin says in an interview with BetaNews on Wednesday.

“The lack of a keyboard has been a defining characteristic of most tablets on the market", he adds. "As tablets expand from content consumption to content creation, consumers are seeking a broader array of input options and screen sizes".

Rubin speaks of the need among manufacturers to begin to consider multiple usage patterns, especially in light of Windows 8's embrace of a user interface that plays well with touch. "Among consumers who are looking to purchase a new tablet, screen size and keyboards, two main components of a PC, are important characteristics for these future purchases", Rubin says.

This makes sense: while the Kindle Fire has certainly carved out its niche in the market, the tablet does not seem to be at the expense of the iPad itself. Sales of the device have not decreased since the Fire's debut, and the market only seems to have grown. This suggests a significant portion of tablet consumers look at their purchases as an alternative to laptops, and validates Rubin's argument.

With the meeting in the middle of the notebook and the tablet, where does that leave the ultrabook? Arguably, the platform has been seen as the middle ground here. Intel's own reference designs for the next generation of ultrabooks incorporate tablet-like functionality.

I brought up the possibility that the ultrabook might get squeezed out as a result of this convergence, but Rubin disagrees. He says the ultrabook as the catalyst for this whole blurring of the definition of tablets and laptops, and mentions Intel's work in the sector.

"Intel is planning to enable a lot of the capabilities seen in tablets today", he argues. "The company is positioning ultrabooks as apart of the PC world that's going to overlap".

So Rubin thinks that the line is blurring. Do you? Are tablets and notebooks headed on a collision course? Will one win over another? Let us know in the comments. I would also like to hear from those who have replaced your laptop with a tablet, and why. We'll report on your experiences in a future story.

Photo Credit: CLIPAREA l Custom media/Shutterstock

Apple vs. Google: FTC asks one monopoly to tattle on another

Publié: mars 13, 2012, 11:10pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple may find itself on the precipice of an antitrust lawsuit over its handling of ebooks, but on the flipside is quickly becoming a key witness in the US Government's continuing investigation into Google's business practices. The Federal Trade Commission has asked the Cupertino, Calif. company to detail Google's integration into iOS.

Google has been the default search engine for the iPhone since its debut in 2007, and on the iPad since 2010. While consumers do have the option to change the setting to Yahoo or Microsoft's Bing, from the factory it's all Google. Google Maps also is the basis for iOS' navigation functionality, with no other options provided.

The FTC wants to see the agreements between Apple and Google, Bloomberg reports, and is trying to determine whether the Mountain View, Calif. search giant is leveraging its dominant position in search to muscle its way into mobile advertising.

In recent years, the relationship between the two companies has become increasingly cold as both Apple and Google move onto one another's turf. Google's Android OS is the dominant smartphone platform, while Apple has made forays into Google's signature businesses, including its iAd mobile advertising platform. That said, Google still enjoys prominent placement in iOS as the platform's default search.

According to the report, Apple is only one of several companies to receive subpoenas from the FTC: other phone manufacturers as well as the wireless carriers are also being asked to detail their agreements with Google. The investigation only seems to make the march towards a Microsoft-like antitrust case, an increasing certainty in the near future.

Google and the FTC already have a history together: in March of last year, the regulatory body handed down a judgement that subjects the company to 20 years of audits over privacy blunders surrounding its Google Buzz service.

Photo Credit: yampi/Shutterstock

Apple looks like an angel after Motorola's outrageous patent demands

Publié: mars 13, 2012, 6:29pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple and Motorola held talks late last year to settle the patent row between the two companies but Motorola's demands blew up the deal, legal filings now indicate. The revelations are part of documents from the European Union's review of the merger between Google and Motorola, and essentially flips the argument that Apple is the patent bully in this mess.

Motorola gets a pass in the patent row that has become a crippling plague in the technology sector, while Apple is continuously beat up by pundits with an ax to grind. But Motorola's demands are so out of line it's almost comical: for Apple to gain access to Moto's standards-essential patents, it has to license all of its own porfolio.

That's right: every single patent Apple owns. Computing, software, its music-related patents -- all technologies Motorola would never ever use. Naturally Apple told them to shove it, because such a demand is absolutely ludicrous.

"Apple also argues that its refusal to accede to this demand led Motorola Mobility to sue Apple in an attempt to exclude Apple's products from the market", the document reads. So who becomes the patent bully now? It's certainly not Apple in this case.

These patents are supposed to be licensed under so called "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" terms (FRAND). FRAND was set up by standards bodies to prevent abuse of intellectual property that is included within established standards. There's nothing 'FRAND' about what Motorola demanded. In fact, it makes a mockery of the whole process.

You may be asking, why would the European Union then approve Google's merger with Motorola, knowing full well of the way in which the wireless pioneer acted? Competition Commission regulators did not find reason to believe the search giant influenced the proceedings. "In this context it must be noted that those proceedings were instigated by Motorola Mobility prior to this transaction taking place," the agency found. "The Commission has no evidence to demonstrate that Google has determined (or indeed made worse) Motorola Mobility's conduct in existing litigation".

That's all well and good, but it does now seem like with Google behind it, Motorola's hyperagressive patent strategy will only kick into overdrive. From the statements of Google on top of this, that doesn't look to change: Google's already said it will maintain Motorola's patent defense strategies. This patent row is only about to get worse.

Photo Credit: Yayayoyo/Shutterstock

EU ready to settle with publishers over ebook price-fixing, but no talks yet

Publié: mars 12, 2012, 5:42pm CET par Ed Oswald

European Union antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia says that the Competition Commission is open to a settlement with publishers in the increasingly high-profile ebook price fixing case, but only if the companies address key regulatory issues. Almunia says regulators are coordinating with the Justice Department, which is also investigating the industry.

Apple's activities are still central to the investigation, with Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster's deals with the Cupertino, Calif. company being questioned. Like the US Justice Department investigation, Apple's efforts to restrict how ebooks are sold to competitors is a key issue.

While a Wall Street Journal report last week indicated that settlement talks between several publishers and the Justice Department were already underway, Almunia says none of the publishers had initiated discussions with the European Commission over the antitrust concerns. Regardless, the EC expects the parties to come to the table prepared to make concessions.

"This possibility of a settlement is only open in the case the publishers will be ready to remove all our objections", he is quoted as telling reporters. Almunia believes the issue is an important one due to the fast growth of the sector and the Commission's desire "to avoid collusive practices".

Publishers may find settling in their best interests. As reported on Friday, filings in a concurrent class-action lawsuit show that Apple already has admitted to at least two key allegations, and antitrust experts say Apple's actions do raise antitrust concerns, especially considered in context of Amazon's success in the marketplace.

"Amazon's success [in ebooks], which has been revolutionary, has definitively undermined the business models of the old publishers of hardback and paperback volumes", antitrust attorney William Markham of San Diego-based Maldonado & Markham tells BetaNews. "It directly threatens Apple’s core products and its ambition to sell e-books".

Photo Credit: Daniilantiq/Shutterstock

Apple admits to two key allegations in ebook price fixing case

Publié: mars 9, 2012, 10:31pm CET par Ed Oswald

While Apple and book publishers may find themselves on the precipice of an antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department, filings in a concurrent civil class-action lawsuit obtained by BetaNews indicate that Apple has already admitted to two of the most damaging allegations in the case that the federal government is likely to include.

According to reporting Thursday by the Wall Street Journal, at the heart of the case is the agreement struck with publishers which changed the way ebooks are sold to retailers. This in turn caused prices to increase dramatically, critics argue. Apple is also accused of further controlling the market through a clause in its own contract for iBooks that forbade publishers from permitting competitors to sell books at a cheaper price than the iBookstore.

Statements by Apple's lawyers in the civil case in an attempt to have it dismissed seem valid in light of the possible Justice Department action. The Cupertino, Calif. company has already admitted to the central facts of the case, which could strengthen the government's position should Apple lose in civil court, although it attempts to argue its decisions were for competitive and financial reasons.

Apple Didn't Want to Lose Money

In the complaint against Apple, lawyers for the plaintiffs detail meetings between the publishers and Apple ahead of the iPad launch. Apple agreed to adopt a model where the publisher sets a price and Apple receives a 30 percent cut, called "agency pricing". The plaintiff's attorneys argue that previous to Apple's entrance, ebooks were sold at wholesaler and the retailer itself set the price.

"Apple knew that if Amazon were allowed to continue to solidify its position in the ebook market, these network effects would make it nearly impossible for Apple to dislodge Amazon in the near term", the filing reads.

Apple responds to these allegations by admitting that meetings did occur between the two parties, however, the company entered the market with zero market share and sales. It made a conscious business decision not to lose money on the sale of ebooks and agreed to agency pricing as a result.

"It would make perfect sense as a rational and competitive business strategy for Apple not to enter as a retailer incurring losses, but instead as an agent on commission with a competitive offering – which is exactly what the agency agreements negotiated by Apple accomplished", Apple responds.

'Most Favorite Nation'

While that argument might be sufficient to appease an antitrust judge, where the picture gets cloudier is the clause in which Apple essentially forced the publishers to renegotiate its contracts with competing retailers. Called "most favorite nation" status, the practice is coming under increasing fire from antitrust regulators who see it as anticompetitive.

"The effect of the MFN Clause ... was to increase prices and reduce competition for the ebooks of the Publisher Defendants", the plaintiff's filing reads in part. "This resulted in increasing and stabilizing ebook prices and eliminated competitive pricing".

Apple admits to using the strategy in its filing, but pushed it back on the publishers. "The agency agreements left it to each Publisher to set its eBook prices based on competition among the various book titles, with a proviso that if certain eBooks were being sold at a lower retail price elsewhere, the Publisher would match those prices at Apple’s iBookstore", the filing argues.

In the end, that doesn't answer the concerns of the Justice Department and antitrust regulators that the MFN clauses are anticompetitive, and begins to build the case that Apple may have played a part in "fixing" the price of e-books.

Settling Out of Court May Be The Wisest Move

With Apple all but admitting to what it's being accused of, the bar is higher to prove that its actions are not illegal. Especially in the area of MFN clauses, Apple is already fighting from a position that government antitrust regulators have already attempted to have invalidated in other antitrust cases. Such a case is also likely to be lengthy and damaging to Apple's reputation among consumers, should it occur.

Another certainty is with the amount of regulatory scrutiny, ebook prices look likely to fall some. Publishers are obviously more apt to avoid an antitrust suit, which could have the undesirable effect of these companies losing control over the pricing of its content. Settling out of court would allow them to maintain some control over pricing. In the end, that appears to be what the publishers want.

Coming Monday: An antitrust lawyer talks about the implications of the case and the government's chances of success.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Prepaid credit card purveyor Green Dot scoops up Loopt

Publié: mars 9, 2012, 6:44pm CET par Ed Oswald

Marginalized by bigger competitors such as Foursquare and Facebook, mobile location company Loopt was acquired by Green Dot, a major provider of prepaid banking services on Friday. The deal is said to be worth $43.4 million and results in the shuttering of Loopt's current service at an unspecified future date.

Loopt's technologies will be folded into Green Dot's own services. In a statement, Green Dot says Loopt's technologies will form the basis of its planned mobile wallet offering. Loopt's patent portfolio is also of interest to Green Dot, which includes technology related to mobile marketing through real-time location-based messaging. The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.

"It's been exhilarating to see mobile become such a critical part of our collective daily lives. As this technology truly reaches the masses, I believe we're going to see the banking and payments industry fundamentally reshaped in a way that’s better for everyone", Loopt CEO and co-founder Sam Altman says.

With check-in apps becoming so commonplace, and only a few apps garnering a large portion of the market, Loopt found itself on the outside looking in. It now appears that Loopt plans to differentiate itself by using location for payments rather than check-ins. Altman and the team's plans are not exactly clear, but it would be something fundamentally different than what is available in the marketplace at the moment.

The timing of this announcement is not by coincidence. Next week starts the SXSW conference in Austin, where it is fairly likely we'll see a few new location-based services enter the fray. Had Loopt waited till after the conference to shop around for a suitor, it would have likely been a much less valuable acquisition target. Here at least the company has the spotlight to itself and steals the buzz from whatever may be announced.

Steve Jobs' last big deal is Apple's biggest headache

Publié: mars 8, 2012, 6:52pm CET par Ed Oswald

Before his death in October of last year, one of Steve Jobs' last big moves was Apple's foray into electronic books. The company announced the platform in March 2010, but the method in which Apple handled its deals with publishers has caught the eye of regulators.

The Justice Department plans to sue Apple and the five biggest book publishers -- including Simon & Schuster Inc, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group USA, Macmillan, and HarperCollins -- and accuse them of colluding to raise prices of books. Apple is alleged to have struck an agreement with the publishers that allowed them to change the way they sold ebooks, and in turn allowed the publishers to take more control over pricing.

DOJ investigators consider the arrangement as a violation of the Sherman Act, and see Apple's deal as a method of price fixing. Collusion to fix prices ranks among the most egregious acts under US antitrust law.

At the onset of the ebook revolution, companies like Amazon structured its deals with publishers to get wholesale pricing for ebooks. Under this method, the retailer is then free to charge whatever it wants. Using Amazon as an example again: to quickly gain market share for the Kindle, Amazon sold these titles at a loss.

Publishers hate this strategy because it in turn cheapens the price of books and teaches the consumer to expect lower prices. That all changed as Jobs planned iBookstore. Jobs' own biography tells the story: Apple agreed to "agency pricing" for books, where the price of the book is set by the publisher and the seller gets a commission, in Apple's case 30 percent.

In order to get the rest of the industry under the same pricing model, a clause was placed in Apple's agreement forbidding the publishers to allow other retailers to sell the books at a cheaper price. In turn, this forced the entire industry to the agency pricing model, which caused end prices to consumers to go up.

BetaNews suspected price fixing in ebooks as early as December 2010, less than a year after the launch of iBooks. My colleague Joe Wilcox had also argued that Apple should play a part in stabilizing ebook prices overall, but I don't think he imagined at the time the lengths the Cupertino, Calif. company went in order to muscle its way into the market.

The Wall Street Journal reports that several of the parties involved are in settlement discussions. Terms of the settlement could change how the industry works, and possibly lead to lower ebook prices overall. One thing is certain: a court case could be damaging not only to Apple and the publishers, but the late Steve Jobs as well.

Jobs' key role in these negotiations will be hashed out in court, and the testimony will undoubtedly place him in a bad light. Apple is keen to protect the image of its late leader, so a settlement seems fairly likely. Also, in many antitrust cases the companies are more likely to settle out of court in an effort to save face. That said, the WSJ warns that negotiations have already taken several turns and may not lead to a deal.

European Union antitrust regulators are also said to be looking into the deals, and based on past history could be the first to strike. A class-action suit is also ongoing in New York federal court accusing Apple of collusion, which it already has filed motions to have dismissed saying its iBookstore provided more competition in the ebooks space.

Neither Apple nor any of the publishers involved responded to requests for comment on this story.

Photo Credit: Tischenko Irina/Shutterstock

Apple debuts the 'all new' iPad with few surprises

Publié: mars 7, 2012, 7:53pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple on Wednesday debuted the new iPad, the third generation of the bestselling tablet with few surprises. While the name is missing the HD that everyone expected, it does include the Retina Display that has been rumored for months. Resolution comes in at 2048 x 1536, which is equivalent to 3.1 million pixels.

In demoing the new device, marketing chief Phil Schiller says it is the best display ever in a mobile device. In fact, it has a million more pixels than an 1080p high definition television set, which has a resolution of 1920 x 1080. At a distance of 15 inches or more, the human eye will not be able to distinguish separate pixels, the company says.

As a result of the resolution change, Apple has also optimized its stock apps for the better display, and will upscale current apps for the iPad in the same manner it did for the iPhone 4 when the Retina Display made its debut there.

Apple is also including the A5X processor, which it claims is twice as fast as Nvidia's Tegra 3 with four times the performance. A higher-quality rear-facing camera is also included: at five megapixels, it includes autofocus and white balance, essentially the same camera functions found on the iPhone 4S.

Not surprisingly, Apple is bringing other iPhone 4S features to the new iPad, including voice dictation. Where it will surpass the 4S is with 4G LTE, signaling the Cupertino, Calif. company's embrace of the net-generation technology and making LTE in the iPhone 5 a practical certainty.

The new iPad will support 21Mbps HSPA+ and 42Mbps DC-HSDPA, but its LTE capabilities will allow for theoretical speeds of up to 73Mbps. Both Verizon and AT&T models will support LTE, along with Canadian partners Rogers, Telus, and Bell. All iPads will be 3G-world ready however, meaning the device can roam on just about any network.

Schiller refers to the iPad as having the "most bands ever", but does not specify which ones. What remains to be seen is whether or not the device supports the AWS bands -- the only thing preventing iOS devices from operating fully on networks such as T-Mobile USA.

Pricing is as follows: 16GB for $499, 32GB is $599 and 64GB for $699. 4G models come in at $629, $729, and $829 respectively. All models will be available on March 16 in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, although pre-orders will begin today.

LightSquared future in doubt as Sprint heads for the exits

Publié: mars 7, 2012, 6:39pm CET par Ed Oswald

LightSquared has struggled with the issue of GPS interference for much of its existence. It is this unfixable issue which threatens the company's entire business, and has its chief backer Sprint set to yank its support as early as next week according to sources.

A March 15 deadline (with unspecified conditions) looms for LightSquared in its deal with Sprint. While the companies will not disclose the terms of the deal, it's not out of the question to expect that this had something to do with its interference issues, as well as a clear way forward. With no strategy in place, Sprint has an opportunity to cut its losses now and move on.

LightSquared's 4G network uses LTE technology that employs a hybrid system of terrestrial and satellite repeaters. The frequencies used come very close to those used by GPS systems however, and due to the fact that many GPS receivers have poor filtering have shown to cause interference that render a significant majority of current devices unusable.

Bloomberg reports that one of these conditions was getting regulatory approval for its network plans. The original deadline was in December, but got pushed back to March as the interference issue remained unresolved. At this point, there still is no solution.

Last July, Sprint signed a 15-year agreement worth some $14 billion with the aspiring 4G network operator. LightSquared was to pay Sprint $9 billion to deploy and operate the LTE network that hosts the L-band spectrum licensed to LightSquared. This negated the need for the company to build out the network itself, an expensive proposition.

If Sprint pulls out, funding dries up quickly. Combined with the fact that it looks near impossible to get regulatory approval any time soon, the entire company's future is now in doubt. The FCC says that it will block any attempt to build out the network due to the GPS issues, so LightSquared is running out of options.

Other partners have pulled out as well: Nokia-Siemens confirmed Wednesday that it halted construction of the network last year per LightSquared's request while the interference issues were rectified. LightSquared has also cut its workforce and halted some payments to partners in an attempt to keep the business afloat.

Amid all this, the upstart LTE provider is also searching for a new CEO. Following the FCC's move to block the network last month, Sanjiv Ahuja stepped down but retained his position as chairman: to date no successor has been named. In a statement at the time of Ahuja's announcement, principal investor Phillip Falcone reaffirmed the company's strategy and said LightSquared was committed to finding a resolution to its many issues.

"We are, furthermore, committed to working with the appropriate entities to find a solution to the recent regulatory issues. We, of course, agree that it is critical to ensure that national security, aviation and the GPS communities are protected", he says in a statement. "I am confident that working together, we can solve this problem and bring the American consumer the lower priced 4G wireless alternative they need and deserve".

Whether the company has the money -- or time -- left to do so is doubtful.

Photo Credit: AND Inc./Shutterstock

5 things to expect from March 7 iPad event

Publié: mars 7, 2012, 12:28am CET par Ed Oswald

All eyes are on Apple, as the company prepares for its iPad event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco Wednesday. It is widely expected to debut the next-generation model of the market leading tablet, but like always the Cupertino, Calif. company is bound to have some surprises in store.

What can we expect to see? I've compiled some of the most likely things the next iPad will have, as well as anything else Apple will show off at the event. Let's hear from you. What do you think Apple's going to do Wednesday? Let us know in the comments.

Moving on to the predictions:

1. LTE. At long last, Apple will embrace LTE in the new iPad. At this point, LTE deployments are mature enough and chipsets efficient enough that releasing devices are worthwhile. Apple has shown a tendency to be on the late side of things with iOS devices, and now seems a good time to charge ahead. Just about every rumor about the new device says it has LTE, so this is all but a certainty.

2. Retina Display. Rumors indicate that the next iPad will drop the numerical nomenclature and go with "HD". This is due to the Retina Display that first debuted in the iPhone 4 coming to the iPad. Resolution is expected to be four times that of the iPad 2. I need to stress that the "iPad HD" is not really high definition in the true sense of the word: the tablet still keeps the 4:3 aspect ratio versus the 16:9 ratio of true high-definition displays.

3. No major design changes. I've seen nothing that indicates the iPad HD will have any major design change. There has been talk of the home button disappearing: a Chinese site who claims to have pieces of the iPad's casing show the button intact. About the only thing different here is a bit more tapering, and a slightly thicker design. Apple likely had to sacrifice a bit of its svelteness in order to fit in that fancy new display.

4. The changes are on the inside. Apple has been taken to task by its critics for failing to keep up with the arms race that has become mobile device specifications. I'm a little bit skeptical of the necessity of it -- many mobile apps don't need much processing power -- expect Apple to pay some lip service to these folks. The iPad HD should have a slightly faster processor, and quite possibly some additional memory. Will it make a huge difference? I doubt it.

5. Apple TV gets a refresh. There's always "one more thing". Rumors indicate that Apple is prepping an update to its Apple TV product for Wednesday. Unlike the iPad HD, what's exactly in store here is much less clear; 1080p support may be one thing as Apple moves towards "HD" across its other iOS lines. Like the iPad, it also could gain a faster processor. What I'd really like to see is some blockbuster content deals, and a more Roku-like platform, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I'll circle back after the event and see how the rumors did. Until then, what do you think Apple will debut on Wednesday?

Consumers win as AT&T backs off on data throttling

Publié: mars 1, 2012, 8:08pm CET par Ed Oswald

AT&T is publicly conceding defeat after treating its long-time customers like second-class citizens, merely because they have an unlimited data plan. On Thursday the company announced changes to its throttling policy, boosting the throttling level to 3GB for customers using the HSPA+ network, and 5GB for those on its LTE network.

There is no other way to describe this than a win for consumers. AT&T was left to defend an untenable position where current customers paid $30 for 3GB of unthrottled data, yet long-time customers paying the same price were essentially cut off at 2GB. The position has already gotten the company sued once, and a judge found AT&T's practice unfair and awarded the plaintiff $850.

By changing its policy, AT&T is likely aiming to curb any further lawsuits and ongoing criticism -- and just move on. There still will be throttling -- which I think in the end is a load of crap -- but the discriminatory practice is dead and for that we should all be thankful.

The company has launched a website which now formalizes this policy and aims to give users "in the top 5 percent" strategies to prevent throttling and explaining its position much clearer than it ever has before.

Anecdotal reports indicate that AT&T has also adjusted the throughput speeds once a user has been throttled. There are videos out on the web that show just how useless a throttled phone became under the carrier's old policy.

I would have been pretty pissed if this happened to me.

It now appears that the phones are at least usable, which is acceptable. While full unlimited data may never be coming back, at least consumers are still able to send a message to these folks that we've given you enough money to at least be treated equally as those who've just signed up.

Regardless of what happens here, carriers will be forced to deal with more bandwidth in short order. 5GB should be good enough for LTE for now, but eventually even that is not going to be enough.

Looks like this issue isn't going away any time soon.

Photo Credit: Lorelyn Medina/Shutterstock

You can trust Google to spy on you

Publié: mars 1, 2012, 7:10pm CET par Ed Oswald

Google's new privacy policy takes effect today, March 1. There are significant changes on how your data is handled across the Google family of sites, and that's enough to raise the concern of privacy regulators in both the European Union and Japan.

Their concern should be yours, too. Who's that looking over your shoulder online? Google.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding told BBC Radio Four Thursday that the new privacy policy violates EU law. In the interview, Reding says the policy breaks the law in "numerous respects" and accuses the company of making it easier to hand over user data to third parties.

Japan warns Google that the methods the company chooses to store and use consumer's data likely runs afoul of that country's own privacy laws. The Tokyo Times says the Japanese government is directing Google to "prepare clear explanations of the new rules and be ready to answer promptly user questions".

They're Not the Only Ones

These are only the latest in a string of governments and privacy advocates calling on Google to more clearly explain its position: last month, South Korea says the way Google combines user data to be used across all its services violates the country's laws. Google has also found itself defending its moves to the US Congress.

We expect the EU to be the toughest nut to crack, but this time the pushback is coming from elsewhere. Is this reason to worry? I say yes, because I'm finding issues with Google's new policy that should concern all of us. Here's what you need to know.

Information is shared across Google's network of sites. Google says:

We may use the name you provide for your Google Profile across all of the services we offer that require a Google Account. In addition, we may replace past names associated with your Google Account so that you are represented consistently across all our services. If other users already have your email, or other information that identifies you, we may show them your publicly visible Google Profile information, such as your name and photo.

What this means: This is different in that your information was kept separate across Google services previously. Here's an example: you post as yourself on Google+, but prefer to post under a psuedonym on Blogger. These services acted separately before, but now that Google has linked your user information together, you're forced by default to be associated with an account you deliberately kept separate.

That's bound to piss off quite a few people, especially those who took issue with Google's real names policy for Google+.

All your information belong to us. Google says:

We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content – like giving you more relevant search results and ads.

What this means: Now that the search giant is aggregating all of your personal information, expect the ads to get even more intrusive. Google will now know a lot more about you than it simply could peering into your Gmail inbox. Microsoft's got to have the marketing crew at the ready here. There's a treasure trove of information available, as many of us (myself included) use more than just one Google service.

Google attempts to step back and comfort you by saying it won't tailor information based on "race, religion, sexual orientation or health" but still, that leaves a wide range of topics for them to bait you with.

Google is starting to sound like Facebook. Google says:

After you delete information from our services, we may not immediately delete residual copies from our active servers and may not remove information from our backup systems.

What this means: This is taken out of context, but let me explain. Google does say before this that it aims to protect your information from "accidental or malicious destruction". At the same time it does not specify at all as to when your information is finally deleted. When Facebook got caught doing the same thing, it gave a similar answer -- making it easy for you to reactivate your account and whatnot.

Users should be able to know when their data has been purged from Google. When we want out, we want out. This ownership of our online personal lives has really become a sticking point with a lot of companies. When will they finally learn it is just not appropriate to take the stance that since we've shared this data with you, we're selling the rights to it?

It's just too damn difficult to get around this policy. Google says:

If you don’t think information sharing will improve your experience, you can use our privacy tools to do things like edit or turn off your search history and YouTube history, control the way Google tailors ads to your interests and browse the web "incognito" using Chrome. You can use services like Search, Maps and YouTube if you are not signed in. You can even separate your information into different accounts, since we don’t combine personal information across them. And we’re committed to data liberation, so if you want to take your information elsewhere you can.

What this means: This excerpt came from Google's blog post defending the new policy. What's missing is an opt-out. There is no way to do so. Essentially, like in the Blogger psuedonym situation I listed above, the only way to prevent your identity from being linked here is to create a seperate account.

This is a chore. Yes, Google has made it easy now to switch between accounts, but trust me from somebody who has two Google Apps and one Google account, that's a pain in the ass. Add the fact Google has made the account such a necessary part of the experience in some cases that using services "signed out" degrades the overall experience. These suggestions sound more to me like a cop-out.

Deflect and Defend, But Where's the US?

It's not surprising that Google is doing all it can to defend itself against the criticism. In a blog post Thursday announcing the changes taking effect, the search giant says there is a lot of misunderstanding over the changes.

"The new policy doesn’t change any existing privacy settings or how any personal information is shared outside of Google. We aren’t collecting any new or additional information about users. We won’t be selling your personal data", it stresses. That's kind of doublespeak though, they are collecting additional information in a way.

When you combine information across dozens of services, Google's file on your online persona just got a whole lot bigger. Now its ad platform has a great deal of information to attempt to grab your attention. I know I keep hitting on the advertising portion here, but this is big business for Google, and stands to gain the most here.

Where's the US Government in this? I expected the European Union to take on Google over its changes. The competition and privacy laws across the pond are way stricter. But to see Japan and South Korea join the chorus is surprising. I think there is more than enough to start an honest investigation of Google.

Could this be rolled into an antitrust investigation? I would think so. But why wait for that? In March 2011, Google agreed to 20 years of Federal Trade Commission oversight, regarding Buzz privacy problems. This is much worse. Where's the FTC now?

Again, (beating a dead horse) the company's advertising platform will be valuable to companies looking to get the word out. Targeted advertising works. The company gets a higher-click through, and Google is able to attract a higher fee because of the better success rate.

What other company will be able to provide a platform like this? The answer is nobody.

Photo Credit: Lakhesis/Shutterstock

Eight reasons why Steven Sinofsky is Microsoft's next CEO

Publié: février 29, 2012, 8:00am CET par Ed Oswald

As Windows chief Steven Sinofsky takes the stage in Barcelona Wednesday to debut the Consumer Preview of Windows 8, there's a sense that a new era is dawning at Microsoft. Windows is about to take a dramatic turn and Sinofsky is very much responsible for that.

On top of this, Windows is coming out on time (AGAIN!), a real change in Microsoft's track record of missed deadlines. With current CEO Steve Ballmer's time at the helm arguably less than stellar, you have think there must be someone waiting in the wings at Microsoft to take his place.

That man is Steven Sinofsky, and here's why.

1. He doesn't take crap from anybody. While Sinofsky is apparently a pleasurable person to talk to, working with him is something completely different. He is demanding and asks for 100 percent loyalty to his vision. If you're not on board, you're brushed aside. It is a quality that both Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and Ballmer lack. While the two men have vastly different public leadership styles, in private they're two in the same.

Neither has solid control of the company, which leads to interdepartmental bickering and inefficiencies. Outside of its successes in Windows -- Sinofsky's department -- what has Microsoft done well in? Not a hell of a lot.

2. He can deliver products on time. I believe this is the most important thing to Microsoft at the moment. When there was only one player in the game, the Redmond, Wash. company had all the time in the world to react. Being late was not that much of an issue. Now with competition from all directions -- Google, Apple, and others -- being late has long-term consequences.

Since taking over Windows development in 2006, Sinofsky has overseen two Windows releases, 7 and 8. Neither have been late. For a company that could never seemingly keep itself on track, that's a huge accomplishment.

(You could argue that he should share some blame for the Vista debacle, but he had assumed control of Windows development long after much of Vista's development had already been done.)

3. He will change the culture of Microsoft. Microsoft's culture has always been one of "groupthink", where everyone has a say in what happens. This way of doing business either slows down or completely halts innovation, and makes the company far less nimble. That's bad news in tech these days.

Under Sinofsky, the company will have far less middlemen (Look at the Windows division, there is no middle management anymore). This results in decisions being made quicker, and the company acting faster to market pressures. Will some hate this? Of course. But the reality is Microsoft's business culture doesn't work well in modern day corporate America.

4. He understands Microsoft. Sinfosky went to work for Microsoft right out of college in 1989. He's seen the company through its best times in the 1990s, and its low points last decade. He knows what works and doesn't. He also has seemingly found a way to make Microsoft's corporate culture work for him, and from his time in Office to his current tenure with Windows impresses with the productivity his departments produce.

5. Like Apple's Mac OS, Windows' paths on desktop and mobile will converge. Microsoft's next CEO should understand the convergence of desktop and mobile. With Windows Phone 8, Sinofsky seems to have done so, as the kernel is same as desktop OS. While the facts are disputed, it appears he has begun to exert control over the Windows Phone division. His code will run Windows mobile devices, and development from here on out will be concurrent.

There is no reason to believe Sinofsky will not have his hands in on whatever happens.

6. He's the closest thing Microsoft has to Steve Jobs. Microsoft's next CEO needs vision and gravitas. While Ballmer likes to have a tough exterior, there's no indication his public persona transfers to the way he manages Microsoft. Jobs' way was the way, and there was no way else. While people may hate this, he was able to get things done.

There's little room to argue that Jobs' attention to detail and a specific vision is what brought Apple back from the dead. While Sinofsky is no Jobs, he does share a lot of the same leadership qualities. Microsoft needs this type of leader.

7. He is meticulous. Sinofsky's focus is arguably one of his best traits: it is said he values quality over quantity. If a feature is not coming along fast enough, that feature gets cut. Underpromise and overdeliver. For a long time, Microsoft did exactly the opposite, and looked foolish as a result. In a Sinofsky Microsoft, this just wouldn't happen.

Microsoft needs a CEO that is heavily involved, not one that is sitting back in his office administrating. A hands-on approach is needed.

8. There's nobody else qualified or ready. Probably the best thing going for Sinofsky is there is nobody qualified or ready to run Microsoft other than him. Bill Gates? No way in hell he's coming back. The rest of the executives of the company just don't stand out. Hiring outside of Microsoft? Another mistake. Change in the company has to come from within.

Steven Sinofsky is this person. While people may be looking for somebody with the smarts of Gates, or the amusing public persona of Ballmer, but neither are right for what Microsoft needs. Sinofsky can deliver this, and if he sets the world on fire with Windows 8, he's certainly earning it.

Apple preps next iPad for March 7 event

Publié: février 28, 2012, 7:01pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple sent out event invites to selected members of the press Tuesday for a March 7 event to be held at Yerba ay Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Calif. at 10 am PT, reportedly to launch the iPad 3. The location is significant because it is where Apple has unveiled the last two iPad models.

The invitation reads "We have something you really have to see. And touch". The reference could indicate that the Retina Display that has long been rumored to be part of the iPad 3 is coming. The resolution is thought to come in at 2,048 by 1,536 pixels, twice the 1,024 by 768 screen found on the iPad 2.

Financial news network CNBC suggested in a tweet that the event would take place in New York, sent out moments before Apple's official invites. In the moments following Apple's official announcement, reporter Jon Fortt clarified on air that New York will be a "key location" for the iPad announcement, but failed to disclose any further details.

One aspect of CNBC's scoop that has not been debunked yet is its claims of the iPad 3 supporting 4G LTE networks. That has been a continuous claim of those purporting to have details of the next generation device and appears to be a reality.

In addition, AppleInsider reports that the iPad 3 may already be shipping to the United States, indicating a near immediate availability of the device. Close Apple partner Best Buy cut the price of all iPad 2 models by $50. Other iPad 2 retailers have also begun cutting prices in anticipation of a new model.

Mozilla is about to shake up the smartphone industry

Publié: février 27, 2012, 8:42pm CET par Ed Oswald

While smartphones are commonplace in the developed world, market penetration in developing countries remains poor. Mozilla aims to change that, and is leaning on two international wireless carriers to make that happen. Both Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom are pledging varying degrees of support for its Boot-to-Gecko (B2G) initiative.

Boot-to-Gecko is Mozilla's browser-based mobile operating system. It uses Web standards like HTML5 at its core peppered with borrowed code from the Android operating system. The end result is an open platform that requires little in the way of raw power to provide users with a full smartphone experience -- perfect for producing phones cheaply.

Some of you may be saying, "I can get an Android device for free, so why would I need B2G"? Here's the thing: that cheap smartphone isn't actually free. The reason why the phone is free is due to subsidies, a distinctly American wireless marketing strategy. In many other parts of the world, carriers do not subsidize phone cost, thus consumers pay full retail price for the phone.

That free phone is actually $200 or $300, or more, you're just not paying for it. In the developing world, that's a lot of money, so these folks turn to feature phones. Much of Telefonica's customers are in Latin America, and it says in much of this region feature phones outsell smartphones by significant margins.

It is for this reason that Telefonica has decided to support the B2G initiative. "From our experience in Latin America we know that a huge part of the market is not being catered for by current smartphones", product development and innovation director Carlos Domingo says. "With new open Web devices we will be able to offer a smartphone experience at the right price point for these customers".

Price is key, and these phones must be manufactured cheaply to be sold to the customer in turn at a cheaper price. Domingo told reporters at a press conference on Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that a B2G phone would be "ten times cheaper than an iPhone", highlighting the cost savings to the end user through Mozilla's platform. He expects the first B2G devices to debut later this year.

In addition to Telefonica, both Adobe and Qualcomm have pledged support. While it does not appear to be releasing phones immediately based on B2G, Deutsche Telekom plans to offer development resources to the project. DT has an international presence as well, including in less developed countries. The two carriers together gives Mozilla a solid presence across Europe and Latin America.

"It has long been our mission to deliver advanced Web technologies that eliminate roadblocks for users and developers", Mozilla chief technology officer Brendan Eich says. "We did it first with Firefox, and now we’re doing it again in creating the first Open Web Devices".

Photo Credit: Tonis Pan/Shutterstock

Guess what? Tiered cellular data plans don't reduce usage!

Publié: février 24, 2012, 10:02pm CET par Ed Oswald

The practice of data speed throttling and the reasons behind it look less sanguine now following the results of a study showing that on average there is little difference between the data usage of the top five percent on both tiered and unlimited plans. So now what's the excuse?

I have been beating the drum against throttling for much of this month on the pages of BetaNews. First was my response to AT&T's unfair treatment of long-time customers. Then Cisco came out a week later with a study that shows consumers are using more data than the carriers lead us to believe. AT&T of course responded to this, blaming you for its bandwidth issues.

Validas, a firm that specializes in cell phone usage analysis and plan recommendations for its customers, looked at about 55,000 wireless bills from 2011. What it found goes against yet another carrier reason for throttling you: making you pay for additional data instead of offering an unlimited plan will limit your data use. It doesn't.

"It’s curious that anyone would think the throttling here represents a serious effort at alleviating network bandwidth issues", the company writes in a blog post. "After all, Sprint gets by fine maintaining non-throttled unlimited data to its customers".

Such a shocker. Let's look at Validas' data. For the purposes of brevity, we'll focus on AT&T and Verizon Wireless, two of the more agressive throttlers. On Verizon, average data usage is nearly identical between the two among the top five percent: 3.59GB for those on unlimited plans versus 3.57GB for those on a tiered plan.

There's a bigger difference for AT&T, which very well may have to do with being the most agressive throttler among the big four. But even here the difference isn't substantial: tiered heavy data users were still using 3.19GB, with their unlimited counterparts using 3.97GB.

I could not ask for better data to prove my point that this is all a ruse to get you to fork over more money to the coffers of the carriers. There's just too much data out there now that shows the problem of bandwidth is more one created by the carriers, and us as consumers are bearing the brunt of it.

AT&T is a perfect example of this. With the new tiered plan, the average top five percenter is going to fall outside of the 3GB bandwidth allotment. While the base plan is $30 per month (the same as the old unlimited plans), each additional gigabyte is $10. So under the new structure, the average heavy data user is paying extra.

There's a problem here: all of us are using more data. Eventually it will not just be the top five percenters paying extra, but an ever bigger portion of everyday users. Just wait until videoconferencing becomes popular. With video, 3GB of bandwidth is nothing.

Like I said earlier this month, the carriers pushed smartphones on all of us, including a lot of people who really don't need them. Why was this done? Money. Look at the difference between a wireless bill for a "dumb" phone and that for a smartphone. It's pretty staggering. There's money to be made.

All I am asking here is for the carriers to come clean about the real reasons for the end of unlimited data. But why would you ever admit you're taking advantage of the customer to increase your bottom line?

That will never happen.

Photo Credit: Leigh Prather/Shutterstock

As Google pulls out of Clearwire, is there anybody left to save it?

Publié: février 24, 2012, 6:21pm CET par Ed Oswald

Google plans to unload its stake in WiMAX venture Clearwire, selling its 6.5 percent stake at $1.60 per share or about $47 million. As a result of the sale, Google will take a substantial hit on its initial investment: the Mountain View, Calif. search company dumped about $500 million into Clearwire in 2008.

With Google headed for the exits, Clearwire is now sent scrambling to find new investors to continue bulding out its planned LTE network. At the moment it appears that fellow investor Intel will grab up some of the shares, but in the end a large portion may make it back on to the open market.

News of the action sent shares tumbling over six percent in midday trading Friday.

Friday's announcement is only the latest in a string of bad news coming from Clearwire. The company said in a regulatory filing from February 16 that it needed additional funding to operate. "We believe that we will require substantial additional capital to fund our business over the long-term and to further develop our network, which capital may not be available on acceptable terms or at all", the company says in an Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

It looks inevitable that Clearwire needs to make a decision on the viability of its business. Cash infusions are what is keeping Clearwire going as losses widen and the company still struggles to gain footing. The problem really could be the technology it uses, WiMAX.

While WiMAX seemed to be a viable technology when Clearwire began building out the network in 2007 and 2008, the industry as a whole has moved away from the standard. Even Sprint, the first to adopt WiMAX here in the United States, now is looking to transition to LTE sometime this year.

WiMAX is like a dead man walking at this point. Problem is, it's Clearwire's primary technology. A transition to any other platform is not going to be easy, and certainly not cheap. Thus, Clearwire is stuck, with no clear path ahead.

Apple shareholder meeting signals the start of a new Apple

Publié: février 24, 2012, 12:36am CET par Ed Oswald

Apple's annual shareholders meeting is providing little in the way of juicy news, but there appears to be an undercurrent of change in both the statements of executives and the votes of shareholders. Could this be a sign of a change in how Apple operates? It certainly seems so.

In his first Q&A with shareholders since becoming CEO, Tim Cook yet again acknowledged that Apple has "more [cash] than we need to run the company". At close to $98 billion, it's quite the chunk of change. Cook failed to specify, however, what the company plans to do with the money, only sharing that there are "active discussions" among the board on Apple's next steps.

Apple is Primed for a Big Move

That Cook mentions this frequently raises questions about whether or not Apple is ready for something else, such as an acquisition or distributing long-awaited dividends to shareholders. The cash pile is not as big as it seems, as some is tied to overseas investments and equities, but there is still a good deal of money to play around with.

With Apple apparently set to enter the television business this year, an acquisition to give them better footing in the sector might be wise. It could also buy a host of other companies, and still have money left over -- you might remember my piece on ten companies that Apple could buy in cash from July. Its hoard has only grown since then, so the options are even greater.

Make a move, Apple. There's plenty of solid companies out there that would bolster your positions in already established businesses or open doors to new ones. There's no sense in sitting on money you don't really need.

There's another option for Apple, and it's much easier to do -- pay a dividend. I know the thought was all but considered blasphemous under Steve Jobs, but Cook seems open to it. To say he is "thinking very deeply" about doing so goes further than Jobs ever did on giving back to those investors who took a chance on Apple. That's a start.

Giving Shareholders More Control

In a rare acquiescence to the desires of investors and critics, Apple will now put unopposed directors up for a vote. Shareholders last year voted for a similar proposal despite Apple's recommendation to vote against. This seems like common sense, but for a top-down controlled company like Apple it was unthinkable.

This seems to suggest that Cook is more interested in decentralizing power under his stewardship. At the beginning of the year, I gave 10 resolutions Apple should be make in 2012. One of them was for Cook to assert his leadership, the other to decentralize power and delegate.

I took quite a bit of flak from BetaNews commenters (and Apple apologists who stumbled on our piece) on that one, but with what we've seen so far I was completely right to mention both. And guess what? They've done both. I know among some of the fanatic Apple fans it's nothing short of heresy to question the way Apple runs its business, but I am not the only one. I kind of feel vindicated after Thursday's meeting on this one.

Ignoring Foxconn

While protestors outside held up signs and chanted slogans decrying apparent worker abuses in Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn's Shenzen, China plant, any mention of the issue was missing at the meeting. Cook did not bring it up on his own, and no shareholders asked any questions regarding this issue.

Doing so was probably a smart move. The situation is still quite fluid, and it's not clear how Apple will make out in this. As much as Apple's critics may want the company to come clean, sometimes silence is golden. All too often we see executives open their mouths, only to regret what they say and play damage control later. Let's see how this plays out first and not push Apple to make any rash moves that may make the situation worse.

Am I justifying the working conditions at Foxconn? Of course not. But at the same time, I believe a lot of the issues at Foxconn are overblown, and Apple is unfairly targeted by the media when so many companies use Foxconn for manufacturing. Yes, Apple is one of the most progressive companies in Silcon Valley but a partner's labor issues are not all its fault.

Change is in the Air

Save for the Foxconn drama, while on the exterior things seem to be the same, in the end Apple is laying the groundwork for serious change. Steve Jobs died six months ago, and we all need to stop assuming nothing will change at Apple. Much has changed in the corporate world over the past few years, and Apple's style of business was anthathemic to those best practices.

As a process man himself, Tim Cook understands this. So I fully expect Apple to operate much differently under his leadership, and modernize Apple's way of doing business. This means more pre-briefings for journalists. This means more candid comments from executives. This means more openness. Will it take some getting used to? Sure, especially for a company built on secrecy since its inception.

But the time has long past where a company can completely control the message from top to bottom. For some reason, Apple got away with it longer than any other company could. Is this the fault of the pro-Apple apologist media, as some like to put it? Maybe. But people are now asking questions, and Steve Jobs is not there anymore to deflect them with the Reality Distortion Field.

Change is coming to Apple.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words / Shutterstock

Losing customers fast, T-Mobile USA looks to calm investor's nerves

Publié: février 23, 2012, 6:50pm CET par Ed Oswald

With the AT&T merger in the rear view mirror, T-Mobile USA faces new problems: mounting customer losses and a lack of clarity on its future path. This uncertainty is a negative for the company, and the carrier attempted to allay some fears on Thursday.

Late Wednesday during its earnings release, T-Mobile blamed the launch of the iPhone 4S from its three biggest competitors as the primary reason behind a massive number of defections in the fourth quarter. The carrier lost a net of 706,000 customers, which also dragged revenues down 3.3 percent to $20.6 billion.

While being the odd man out is likely the reason for a significant number of those losses, at the same time the uncertainty about the carrier's future also plays a part.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Olbermann tries to put a positive spin on disappointing results by focusing on the future. "Though we are not satisfied with the contract customer losses and the decreased total revenues, the quarterly margin improvement year-on-year was impressive", he says.

"The spectrum gained through the break-up fee empowers T-Mobile USA to start LTE-based services in key US markets and strengthens its competitiveness", Olbermann concludes. As part of the breakup fee, T-Mobile received spectrum in 128 markets, including 12 of the top 20. A generous roaming agreement was also signed.

It could be argued that without these vital concessions as part of the breakup on AT&T's part, T-Mobile would have collapsed not long after the merger's failure because it would have no way to truly compete.

So where does T-Mobile USA go from here? LTE, it says. In conjunction with the earnings release, the carrier released a strategy to remake the business. The strategy will include a $4 billion investment in the network -- not ironically the breakup fee paid by AT&T to T-Mobile -- including the launch of LTE in 2013.

LTE will be available in a majority of the top 50 markets, T-Mobile says. The move seems like a last ditch effort to make the US arm of the business viable, which Deutsche Telekom has not been all that quiet about its desire to walk away from in some way or another.

Questions still remain as to how committed T-Mobile USA's German parent company is to the company's future. The money being thrown into the network improvements is money kicked in by AT&T and not Deutsche Telekom. There is obviously still more work to be done.

By 2013, it's likely that T-Mobile's competitors will be well into their LTE deployments, and likely have the next-generation wireless technology in many more markets than just the top 50. That will still put T-Mobile behind, and make it a less attractive choice to consumers, even though it may have much improved coverage thanks to a new roaming agreement.

These questions are ones that CEO Rene Olbermann and the rest of the Deutsche Telekom board are going to have to discuss sooner rather than later, as T-Mobile USA is still dangerously close to teetering on the brink of collapse.

Photo Credit: Jonnystockphoto/Shutterstock

Adobe puts Flash out of our misery

Publié: février 22, 2012, 7:25pm CET par Ed Oswald

Flash is dead. Well, maybe that wording is a bit strong, but Adobe's roadmap for the platform released on Wednesday officially codifies the company's plans to scale back development efforts as new web standards take Flash's place, like HTML5.

As announced last year, development on mobile is officially over, as is direct development for Linux flavors of the Flash player. Adobe will focus its efforts on two key areas where Flash has a significant presence: video and gaming. The effort is aimed at making the technology viable "for the next decade", the company says.

Gaming is an obvious choice for Flash. Since the platform's inception, Flash has seen heavy use in this market. Adobe says it plans to create a formal game development program as well as game services to support developers who use Flash to create their games.

"Adobe believes that the rapid innovation and consistent reach uniquely possible via Flash will continue to make it exceptionally well suited for gaming", it says.

Video is another area where Adobe (and Macromedia before it) found surprising success. Flash allows website developers to deliver video content across operating systems without the need for an external player. Here Adobe sees opportunities in "premium" video, as more entertainment providers take to the web.

Much of its future efforts will focus on bringing better content protection controls to Flash in order to make it a viable option for those wishing to bring premium content online. "Online video is still in its infancy and Adobe believes we will see more broadcast and premium content available online", it argues.

On the platform side, Adobe will officially only continue development on Mac and Windows platforms. Linux development is being left to Google, whose Pepper plug in API will now control Flash on the platform. The company plans to support its own in-house efforts for another five years.

Mobile is also scrapped, as previously announced. On the Mac and Windows side, the company plans to release Flash Player 11.2 in the next month or so, with mouse compatibility and video playback enhancements. Players codenamed "Cyril" and "Dolores" will debut in the second quarter and then the second half of the year, bringing enhancements necessary to support Adobe's plans to refocus on gaming.

With all this, we return to the first sentence of the story. Is Flash really dead? No. Is it weakened? Yes, but only due to the path the market is already taking. Technologies like HTML5 are doing the things that once only Flash could provide. It can be argued that this refocusing was something that Adobe should have done a long time ago.

Did Apple win? If you're looking at it from a HTML5 vs. Flash perspective, then yes. But there are still things that HTML5 cannot do, such as protected content. This is why Adobe has made the conscious decision to stick it out in web video. There is still a niche for them here, and Flash can fill that hole nicely.

Verizon 4G LTE is down again

Publié: février 22, 2012, 5:40pm CET par Ed Oswald

Verizon Wireless customers coast to coast are taking to social media and the company's support forums to complain about yet another nationwide 4G LTE outage, at least the fourth in the past three months. The issues started sometime early Wednesday morning and continues through press time.

"VZW is investigating customer issues in connecting to the 4GLTE data network. 3G data, voice and text services are operating reliably", the company writes in a tweet mid-morning on Wednesday. Reports are widespread: outages are reported in Detroit, Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Columbus, Ohio among other locations.

In most cases 3G appears to still be operational, but LTE service is down. Some users report poor signal quality, while others say they are without service at all. These service issues seem to be less common but still as widespread, disputing Verizon's claims that affected users still have service.

So without knowing a cause, it looks like there's a major issue with Verizon's LTE network once again.

One user reports on Twitter from Los Angeles of "little or no 3G service" on his RAZR. Another user reports that 3G data also went down in Ohio, but has since returned.

"OK my @VZWnews iphone is also now an expensive ipod touch. WTF", David Shen of Palo Alto, Calif. tweets to Verizon's official Twitter account.

"There's nothing "reliable" about the 3G... Unless you count being slow and crappy", Steve from Florida tweets in response to Verizon's 4G woes.

Issues with Verizon's service architecture were the primary issue causing previous failures. The company said in the weeks following the initial outages that it made changes to better isolate outages in the LTE network when they occur.

Obviously that's not the case, because this outage is just as widespread as every one before it. Why can't Verizon keep its LTE network up? That's becoming a serious question.

Do you have Verizon LTE? Please report service issues (or if you have working service, too) in comments. We'd like to hear from you.

Microsoft goes for Google's throat

Publié: février 22, 2012, 12:50am CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft is stepping up its anti-Google campaign, in a couple new moves clearly intended to generate FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about its rival's products, corporate image and credibility. In the past two days, Microsoft launched at least two separate offenses: one against Google Apps, which competes with Microsoft's key businesses -- productivity software -- and the other an attempt to capitalize on the news surrounding Google's apparent circumvention of Safari privacy controls.

Google must defend against attacks from Microsoft on multiple fronts -- they're opportunistic and follow a pattern of attempting to cash in when Google is vulnerable. It also happens with increasing frequency. Consider Microsoft's attempts a year ago to justify copying Google results by turning around and accusing the Mountain View, Calif. company of click fraud.

Then there was the time Microsoft hid behind a group working for "fairer search" to accuse Google of unfair competition. But that's the past. Present offenses achieve new lows only surpassed by political candidates. (Say, Microsoft, did you add former campaign managers to the payroll?)

'Googlighting' or Overused Marketing Schtick?

In the above video, posted yesterday, Microsoft parodies 1980's ABC comedy-drama Moonlighting to show Google is "new to the game", and sees corporate customers as beta testers for productivity apps. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, "moonlighting" is the practice of having a secondary job in addition to your primary one. In most cases, you're not as good at that second job, and that's the point Microsoft tries to make.

This isn't the first time Microsoft personified a Google feature into a person. Last summer's "GMail Man" poked fun at Google's use of the content of your email messages in order to serve advertisements. Funny thing, Microsoft's Hotmail slaps ads alongside your messages, too.

I'll admit to finding GMail Man (as did many other people) interesting and original. The video brought up a valid point about Google's advertising strategy. At the same time, a style of marketing can be overused. In two separate video campaigns Microsoft portrays Google as being pretty sleazy. At best, Microsoft certainly toes the line on this one. At worst, the videos are so dirty, the company should hire out staff to run negative political campaigns.

Kicking 'em when They're Down

As expressed earlier, Microsoft executives seem to relish in piling on when Google's not having a good day. Take for example Monday's post by Internet Explorer vice president Dean Hachamovitch. He claims that Google uses similar tactics to the Safari exploit in order to bypass the browser's privacy settings. IE uses a technology known as P3P to protect users from malicious cookies, and the site must present a statement to the browser explaining how the cookie is used, and that statement cannot include user tracking.

"We've found that Google bypasses the P3P Privacy Protection feature in IE", Hachamovitch writes. "Google's P3P policy causes Internet Explorer to accept Google’s cookies even though the policy does not state Google's intent". If an invalid P3P policy is encountered, the policy is accepted by default. This means the cookie has free reign to do as it pleases, regardless of privacy settings. Microsoft has made the conscious decision to follow W3C specifications, which renders its privacy controls partially useless. Hachamovitch says that the company is investigating the option of ignoring invalid P3P policies, which makes sense. So do it!

From there the post takes an opportunistic tone, urging users to upgrade to IE9, which includes an additional anti-track feature called Tracking Protection.

The feature isn't based on P3P and isn't susceptible to the workarounds that do exist. The charge against Google is doubly low: P3P is far from secure, and in most cases not even enforceable; the push towards Tracking Protection is a bait-and-switch tactic, by using accusations against Google to cajole Windows users to adopt IE9.

Microsoft's timing reveals much about its intentions. Hachamovitch posted his Google-privacy accusations on a US holiday, when news was otherwise light. By late day yesterday, there were blog posts and news stories everywhere. (Well, not at BetaNews. The stink from Microsoft's blog post filled the newsroom. We intentionally waited.)

Half-Truths and Damn Lies

Google is shooting back, calling P3P "impractical" for providing modern web functionality (Microsoft introduced P3P in 2001 with Internet Explorer 6 -- right, the browser the company wants everyone to finally stop using). "Today the Microsoft policy [on using P3P] is widely non-operational," Google communications and policy senior vice president Rachel Whetstone says. Whetstone points to a 2010 study indicating as many as 11,000 websites were not issuing valid P3P policy statements.

"The reality is that consumers don't, by and large, use the P3P framework to make decisions about personal information disclosure", she argues.

Facebook strengthened Whetstone's argument, telling ZDNet Tuesday that it also ignores P3P. "While we would like to be able to express our cookie policy in a format that a browser could read, P3P...is not effective in describing the practices of a modern social networking service and platform", the company says in a statement.

There are bigger problems in Redmond -- like making the company truly competitive. Microsoft executives need to focus less on raking Google over the coals every chance they get, and more on how to advance their own company. With a share price that has been stagnant for much of the past decade, shouldn't that be job number one? Or advancing release of new Office and Windows versions?

While at it, Microsoft should rethink its browser privacy control strategy, since it has little, if any, support among the Web's biggest players.

PlayBook OS 2.0: A Lesson in tech humility

Publié: février 21, 2012, 4:32pm CET par Ed Oswald

Say you are building a mobile operating system. What are the major applications you build into that OS? Email, calendar, and contacts apps right? Not Research in Motion. The company that built its business on business productivity failed to include that in the original PlayBook OS.

Fast forward to today. RIM attempts to right the sinking ship and fix the disastrous initial release of Playbook OS 1.0 with the second version of that mobile operating system. You guessed it: the signature additions to the operating system are those native email, calendar, and contacts apps missing from RIM's first try.

"Building on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet's proven web browsing, multimedia and multitasking strengths, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements as well as expanded app and content support", mobile computing senior vice president David Smith says.

A little confused here: shouldn't your strengths in any device your company releases be about keeping in touch, something you've made millions on over the past decade or so, not basic features that should be expected out of any device? Let's not beat up RIM too much here though, at least the company is making an effort to answer critics.

Hold the presses, there's still something missing yet: BlackBerry Messenger. I would call that a glaring omission, as the application is popular among the CrackBerry set. I guess RIM will fall back on its excuse to connect your PlayBook to your phone, but this was the strategy that got them into trouble with the technorati the first time.

Maybe we'll see that feature in PlayBook OS 3.0? Oh RIM, you are so fun to pick on.

There is some cool stuff to report: calendar and contacts include social integration, which pulls in information from friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are also enhancements to BlackBerry Bridge -- the application that connects the BlackBerry to the PlayBook -- offering faster file transfers and the ability to use the BlackBerry as a wireless keyboard and mouse.

If you're interested in finally getting the features that you should have had back in September, PlayBook OS 2.0 is available immediately as a free download. Now go and get that update, all ten of you (I kid, I kid).

Google gets caught with its hand in the cookie jar

Publié: février 17, 2012, 6:44pm CET par Ed Oswald

Are you shocked that Google is back in the news again for behaving badly? This latest "evil" is hard to excuse as being accidental. Several online advertising outfits, including Google, ignored the privacy settings of iPhone users and embedded tracking code in mobile advertisements, the Wall Street Journal finds. The code allowed Google and others to track browsing behavior across many different websites. Supposedly Google stopped the practice after being contacted by the Journal.

The browser breach raises important questions about the search and information giant's commitment to user privacy, and more importantly the lengths the company will go to build its advertising business. Considering that the Mountain View, Calif.-based company made such a big deal in its early years that "you can make money without doing evil", each successive report of Google acting just like any other company is ever more disturbing.

Independent researchers found that of the top 100 websites, 22 installed the tracking code on a desktop computer, while on 23 sites code was successfully installed on the iPhone. What makes this revelation even more surprising is the fact that Safari blocks such code by default. That means these advertising companies had to be pretty crafty in getting their code onto the iPhone.

As I said previously, Google was not the only ad company to track users through similar code: Vibrant Media, Media Innovation Group, and PointRoll Inc. were all found to be using similar code.

All companies confirmed their use of the tracking code, except for Media Innovation Group, which declined to comment. In a statement, Google called the WSJ report a "mischaracterization" of its activities, stressing it did not collect any personal information as a result.

Microsoft took the opportunity provided by the disclosure of Google's tracking to slam the company. "This type of tracking by Google is not new", Internet Explorer senior director Ryan Gavin writes to The Windows Blog. "The novelty here is that Google apparently circumvented the privacy protections built into Apple’s Safari browser in a deliberate, and ultimately, successful fashion".

Of course Gavin recommends people use IE9, which he boasts as being "recognized as some of the strongest privacy protection in the industry".

Apple did not immediately respond to comment from BetaNews, but did say in response to the WSJ story that it is "working to put a stop" to developers from getting around Safari's privacy settings. Surely Apple itself shares some blame in this latest mess, then. For whatever reason, Safari's privacy settings are not strong enough.

Fixing these loopholes should be a priority for the company: if legitimate companies are able to get around Safari's privacy settings, who is to say would-be attackers aren't doing the same thing? That is a worrisome thought to the millions of iOS users out there.

This is not the first time Google has been in hot water over its actions. Just last month it fought allegations that Search Plus Your World violates user privacy, and last March it was forced to settle with the FTC over its botched Google Buzz launch.

Photo Credit: Mincemeat/Shutterstock

Mountain Lion: Apple's 'Gatekeeper' to Mac malware

Publié: février 16, 2012, 7:08pm CET par Ed Oswald

Has Apple finally admitted Mac OS X has a malware problem? If you consider the implications of its Gatekeeper feature within v10.8 "Mountain Lion", the answer is yes.

Apple finally admits (although in a roundabout way) that malware exists for Mac. "While malware is one of the biggest security challenges on personal computers, it’s hardly an issue on a Mac", Apple says on a page describing Gatekeeper. "Apple is working hard to see that it won’t be".

Give the Cupertino, Calif.-based company some credit for coming clean. Even with such a milestone admission that should generate some plaudits from some Apple critics, the solution is not going to be popular among those who hate the walled garden approach.

It's fairly simple: each Apple developer will now receive a digital signature to "sign" apps, which in turn will allow Mac OS to determine if an app comes from a trusted developer.

New options within the Security & Privacy section of the System Preferences tab allows for tight control of where apps can be installed from. The user can choose to only allow apps from the Mac App Store, from the Mac App Store and "identified developers", or everywhere.

Mountain Lion will only allow users to install apps from the Mac App Store by default. With the new digital signature requirement in place, which seems an extension of the sandboxing requirement announced last year, this is the most secure option. But why is Apple taking such a step to lock down Macs?

With a digital signature embedded into every app, Apple now has full control over whether or not an app can run on its platform. Take for example: A Trojan is discovered in an app that was formerly deemed "safe". With a click of a button, this app is now unusable on the majority of Macs which owners probably never bothered to change the default setting.

This method is sure to invite criticism, but is indicative of a larger move in the industry towards curation. Microsoft is doing something similar for Windows 8 on ARM. Users will not be able to run any apps on the platform unless they are delivered through Microsoft's official channels.

Like I said last week, it's harder to argue against a controlled environment when it comes to security. We techier types need to accept the cold fact that a significant portion of computer users are pretty careless when it comes to protecting ourselves. Curation is a necessary step to prevent larger security problems.

NSS Labs chief research officer Bob Walden makes this point in a post on curated app stores from last year. "From the point of view of the user - particularly the non-computer savvy user -- all of this just works. Couple of clicks to search for your app. One click to purchase, download and install. And, most important of all, Trojan-free once it arrives", Walden argues in the post.

"Curated app stores are essential to the well-being of the ecosystem", he concludes. Is he right? From the looks of the moves of the industry over the past several months, it appears the gatekeepers agree, no matter what power users may think.

Photo Credit: mlorenz/Shutterstock

Many Motorola devices will wait one year for Ice Cream Sandwich

Publié: février 15, 2012, 7:24pm CET par Ed Oswald

Did you think that the marriage of Motorola and Google meant your pre-Ice Cream Sandwich Moto device would see an update quicker? Wrong. The company on Wednesday updated its upgrade roadmap for devices slated to receive the new software, and some devices available here in the United States could wait up until a year for ICS (Android 4.0). Imagine the outcry if Apple had an upgrade cycle like this.

The issue of device obsolescence plays a role at that point. Furthermore, with Jellybean probably not too far off, software obsolescence may also come into play -- your upgrade may be out-of-date the day it comes out.

Either way, only one Motorola device in the United States, the XOOM, has received the ICS upgrade.

Motorola does not expect to upgrade the Atrix 4G, the Photon 4G, and the XYBOARD until the third quarter of the year. Remember XYBOARD released in December, making it considerably newer than XOOM. The company says the upgrade is in the second or "development" phase, where Motorola tweaks the operating system to work on a specific device.

There are several US-sold devices that have not made it out of the first or "evaluation and planning" phase (Motorola has no release date for an upgrade, or even a final decision whether one will be made available). Those include quite a few devices: Admiral, Droid 3 and 4, the Bionic, Razr, X2, Electrify, Milestone, Pro+, and the 3G version of the XOOM tablet.

There's no reason given for the delays, but it sure seems like a long time to wait for an upgrade. It's also unusual considering Google is finalizing its Motorola Mobility purchase, following this week's European and US regulatory approvals: it seems only logical that Google works extra hard to keep these folks on the cutting edge.

Maybe it's a ploy to get you to buy a new more Google-ized Motorola device faster than you planned to? Who knows, but for those waiting, good luck. I've got iPhone 4S.

AT&T's excuse for data throttling: You

Publié: février 15, 2012, 6:45pm CET par Ed Oswald

Cisco's release of its study on mobile data usage proves that throttling at 2GB is not going to work. AT&T's response to it? Woe is us! Data's increasing exponentially, and we're trying!

AT&T says that its data traffic increased 20,000 percent since 2007, with the amount of bandwidth consumed doubling every year since then. "The growth is now driven primarily by smartphones", senior executive vice president John Donovan writes in a blog post. "Add to that new customer additions and the continuing trend of upgrades from feature phones to smartphones, and you have a wireless data tsunami".

Let's translate this out of marketing speak. "Hey, we paid Apple millions for the exclusive rights to the iPhone. We told you all how much you can't live without it, and it was true! Then we added a full line of Android phones to the mix. Now we can't keep up!"

The "data tsunami" is completely AT&T's own doing. It sold us on expensive smartphones with equally expensive data plans, and consumers bit hard. Then on top of this, the carrier told us: "Hey, you can use all the data you want, we'll look the other way".

Never at any point do I remember any of the carriers publicly acknowledging this would be impossible to maintain forever. Is that the consumer's fault?

AT&T's backdoor move to start throttling on as little as 2GB of monthly data showed how serious the carrier is in doing away with any unlimited data plan left. And Fox News' Shepard Smith couldn't have put it any better.

Even if you hate Fox, please watch the video. Smith is one of the "top five percenters". His frustration with the plan sums up what a lot of us long-time AT&T customers feel: that we were lied to and the rules of the game have been changed midstream.

As I said Tuesday, it's not the responsibility of the user to fix the bandwidth problem. This was created by the carrier's insistence on pushing smartphone plans on every user it could, and all of a sudden realizing "wait, we can't handle the traffic". This problem was created by the carriers, not consumers.

I hear lots of excuses, but little in the way of solutions.

One last thing that deserves mention: Wi-Fi is not an acceptable solution to this mess. Donovan mentions the work to add more hotspots to AT&T's network as part of "enhancements" to service. It's not. The whole purpose of a cell phone is to use it just about anywhere. We shouldn't have to run to the nearest hotspot to use the thing.

Expanding Wi-Fi doesn't deal with the problem; it's kicking the can down the curb and letting the Internet deal with the problem that AT&T says you created. AT&T, you got yourself into this mess. Now it's your responsibility to find a way out. This isn't Google giving away service for free. We pay you for data. We keep up our end of the agreement, how about you keep up yours.

Photo Credit: zwola fasola/Shutterstock

Obama's 2013 budget: SOPA rises from the grave

Publié: février 14, 2012, 10:31pm CET par Ed Oswald

While the White House in January signaled deep concerns about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), President Barack Obama's 2013 budget proposal suggests that he still plans to push for wider enforcement of intellectual property, a concession to the entertainment industry that could prove critical to his reelection efforts in 2012.

Last month, coordinated protests erupted across the Internet as prominent websites, Wikipedia among them, blacked out for 24 hours. Protesters argued that either bill, if passed into law, would greatly impede free speech and give the Justice Department unprecedented powers to censor the Internet. Those hailing victory over SOPA and PIPA should have a look at back-door enforcement championed by the White House.

The Justice Department's overall budget will remain flat at $27.1 billion in "discretionary spending" for 2013. Enough funds have been moved around, however, to allow the Administration to ask for $5 million to hire 14 new employees -- nine of those attorneys -- to focus on intellectual property issues.

Obama made a similar request last year, asking for $3 million for six new hires. While seemingly an about-face on an issue that has been front and center in Washington recently, the amount of money that makes it into the campaign coffers of the President and Congress suggests a correlation.

Industry executives said in January that they were ready to tighten up the purse strings over Obama's stance on the issue. "There’s been no greater supporters of him than we’ve been from the first day and the first fundraisers continuing until he was elected", an industry executive tells Deadline. "We all were pleased. And, at its heart institutionally, Hollywood supports the Democrats. Now we need the administration to support us".

How else to support your campaign donors by stepping up efforts to combat what they see as a major issue that they expect progress on? It's not too hard to believe.

Obama's apparent bow to industry pressure seems to reflect this political reality. Either way, the Justice Department is spinning it as an overall increase in intellectual property cases. "We think this is an area that really needs some focus and some efforts and increases in the future", Deputy Attorney General James Cole says.

The question now is whether a divided and acrimonious Congress will go for Obama's request. Congress cut out the request for more intellectual property enforcement last year, and being an election year both sides are looking to score political points.

It looks likely that any budget coming out of the Obama Administration is sure to be altered dramatically. Case in point? While Democrats were applauding the more progressive aspects of Obama's plan, Republicans shot it down in no uncertain terms.

"Somebody asked me if this budget was 'dead on arrival'", Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) told reporters at a press conference held Monday. "No, no it's not dead on arrival, it's debt on arrival".

Photo Credit: Fer Gregory/Shutterstock

Cisco shows why mobile data throttling is a load of crap

Publié: février 14, 2012, 6:45pm CET par Ed Oswald

If you hate wireless data throttling, thank Cisco for making your argument against the practice that much easier. The telecommunications company says it expects at least 100 million smartphone users to exceed one gigabyte of data monthly in 2012. That is a large group of users with significant data needs.

But wait -- wasn't I just told that the average user doesn't need gigabytes of data, you ask? Yes you were: I wrote about it last week as part of the bigger story of AT&T's plan to screw its longtime customers with unlimited data plans, and the topic has been covered ad nauseum by the tech media at large for years.

Lies, Damn Lies

The carriers are in no way being up front with what's really happening with mobile data usage, and Cisco's study proves it. Time to start facing the music, because there is not much time for them to act, without throttling becoming the target of public outcry.

By 2014, the average data speed will eclipse 1MBps. At these speeds, video becomes much more reliable (and demonstrably clearer) and thus more useful for extended periods of time. There's one problem here: nothing eats up your bandwidth faster than video. Add to this the fact that we're heading for an inflection point overall: the number of mobile devices will surpass the world's population this year. That means people will only be using more data, or even (gasp) demanding shared data plans for their disparate devices!

And what about those damn top-five percenters AT&T claims hogs up all the data? Also increasingly it's untrue, and an exaggeration as the strain on the network spreads out. In 2011, the top one percent of data users consumed 24 percent of the bandwidth, down significantly from 35 percent in 2010.

Band-Aid on a Festering Wound

What does this tell us? Data usage among the average Joe is skyrocketing. The disparity between those top-five percenters and regular consumers is shrinking. Early adoption of data-demanding functionality among heavy data users drove up the data divide artificially.

As these bandwidth-hungry apps hit the mainstream, its having the obvious effect of causing average data usage to skyrocket. 2GB of data is not going to cut it shortly, and within a year or two -- possibly even less -- throttling is going to become a major issue as more regular consumers hit these limits and see their devices become all but unusable.

This is not for the consumer to fix. The responsibility lies on the carriers themselves to ensure the network can handle the traffic. In essence, the concept of throttling is a band-aid placed on a festering wound. It does not solve the problem, just masks it as things get worse and worse.

Yes, there is the issue of spectrum. But in the end, are carriers doing more bitching about the problem rather than moving towards an actual solution? Maybe it's time to stop spending those millions lobbying Washington lawmakers and start building out networks.

Cisco is showing us clearly why throttling will not work. Throttling will only result in a lot of pissed off people, and the inevitable class action lawsuits for their uneven application of its own rules. This story is not going away anytime soon, and the carriers don't have much time to figure out what else to do.

Photo Credit: Julien Tromeur/Shutterstock

BitTorrent's effect on movie ticket sales is greatly exaggerated

Publié: février 10, 2012, 10:50pm CET par Ed Oswald

Despite the protestations of the movie industry over the harm BitTorrent incurs to its bottom line, there is an ever increasing amount of evidence that this is not true -- at least here in the United States. University of Minnesota and Wellesley College's study does show that internationally there is a correlation, but this is likely more to do with the considerable lead time the United Stats enjoys in movie releases.

The study finds a seven percent decrease in box offices revenues on average as a result of piracy. The amount of loss widens as the lead time increases, indicating there is some relation between the two. Essentially, the power to reduce losses as a result of BitTorrent lies within the industry itself.

Shorten these lead times, and the problem lessens. "We find that the longer the lag between the US release and the local foreign release, the lower the local foreign box office receipts", a draft of the study reads. "Importantly, this relationship is larger after widespread adoption of BitTorrent than before".

While pirated copies of in-theater movies are typically available days after its release here in the States, researchers could not find any correlation between the appearance of the movie on sites like BitTorrent and decreases in ticket sales.

"In short, we do not see much evidence that piracy displaces US box office sales in our data, although this result should be taken cautiously as the 'experiment' for examining US piracy is less clean than that for international piracy", researchers write.

This data may give opponents of the entertainment industry's hard-nose strategy some evidence to use in the argument against further regulation. If the industry itself can play a pivotal role in tamping down piracy, a change in strategy certainly appears warranted.

Photo Credit: Leigh Prather/Shutterstock

Microsoft brings the walled garden to Windows on ARM

Publié: février 10, 2012, 8:36pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple's strategy concerning third party applications on iOS is the target of a good deal of criticism: it's either the App Store or nothing at all. Like it or not, Microsoft will bring the same approach to Windows as it ports the platform to the ARM architecture.

Microsoft has said that Windows on ARM will not support virtualization nor the porting of applications build for the x86 platform. There are solid reasons for this, including system performance and lack of a keyboard and mouse setup in most WOA deployments. Windows and Windows Live president Steven Sinfosky mentions these issues as part of a broader discussion on WOA development.

Microsoft will tightly control the Windows-on-ARM application ecosystem. "WOA only supports running code that has been distributed through Windows Update along with the full spectrum of Windows Store applications", he writes.

Why the top-down approach? It's all about security. Microsoft has long been criticized for problems keeping malware under control in Windows. Much of these issues surround Microsoft's insistence on backwards compatibility, which allows the user to run just about any compatible code on current Windows machines.

Such a strategy requires extra (and possibly dated) code to support the feature, bloating the OS itself and making it more difficult for Microsoft to track down and squash bugs and flaws that can invite hackers in. Windows on ARM is a cleaner slate. The OS may look similar to Windows 8, but in the end it's a largely different animal under the hood.

By only allowing software delivered through the Windows Store and Windows Update to be installed on WOA, Microsoft assumes a direct role in managing security for all users. The result is a much more reliable and safe experience. It may irk some of us who enjoy the freedom to install what we want from wherever we want, but it's an unfortunate concession in this day and age to ensure an acceptable level of security.

(I can only hear the howls from some BetaNews readers about "personal responsibility" in what we're putting on our devices. Lets face it, a majority of users don't really give it much thought. The unfortunate truth, no matter what we think.)

"Our focus on delivering a new level of security for consumers using WOA is paramount", Sinofsky says. "In one public event, we were asked if we would 'make it easy for existing viruses and malware to run.' Now you can see the answer is decidedly, 'no.'"

Yes, the criticism of Apple's system is valid, but only when it comes to how the Cupertino, Calif. company controls the content of applications through the walled garden. It's much harder to argue against a controlled environment when it comes to security.

Maybe the walled garden isn't such a bad idea after all.

Photo Credit: Kate Connes/Shutterstock

Hackers break into Foxconn servers, usernames and passwords stolen

Publié: février 9, 2012, 6:11pm CET par Ed Oswald

With criticism of working conditions in its factories increasing, Foxconn now faces a new problem: hackers. In a series of posts, a group calling itself Swagg Security boasted on Twitter that it had hacked Foxconn's services, posting the results to Pastebin and torrents available on The Pirate Bay.

Apple enthusiast blog 9to5Mac reported that before external access to the company's intranet was cut off, it was able to verify several of the login credentials as legitimate. This includes credentials for company CEO Terry Gou. It is not immediately clear if any sensitive information has leaked.

"So Foxconn thinks they got 'em some swagger because they work with the Big Boys from Intel, Microsoft, IBM, and Apple? Fool, You don't know what swagger is", the group taunts. "We got somethin' served up good...real good. Your not gonna' know what hit you by the time you finish this release. Your company gonna' crumble, and you deserve it".

Swagg Security makes direct reference to Foxconn's working conditions, but says the hack is not a direct response. Instead the group appears more interested in causing trouble, including the release of login credentials for its manufacturing partners. This may have allowed for fraudulent orders to be placed on behalf of those partners by people using passwords pilfered by the group.

Foxconn is a key partner for Apple, Microsoft, HP, Dell, IBM and Intel. This is only a small segment of the companies the Chinese manufacturer has a working relationship with though; the full list numbers in the dozens.

Foxconn cut off access to services.foxconn.com late Wednesday, apparently one place where these logins work. "Guess you guys made one too many orders", Swagg Security tweets.

A request for comment from Foxconn was not returned as of press time, although the company has told other outlets it "does not comment on matters of internal network security".

Photo Credit: Gunnar Pippel/Shutterstock

Windows 8 Consumer Preview can be yours February 29

Publié: février 8, 2012, 9:46pm CET par Ed Oswald

Beta testers, get ready: Windows 8 is coming on Leap Day. The first public beta release that is, which keeps it on track for an October release. My colleague Joe Wilcox details the timeline in this post on Windows 8, which hints at Microsoft's announced date -- calling it "six or more weeks later" than the early January release of Windows 7's public beta. I'd say he was pretty close.

Microsoft is celebrating the release of the Customer Preview with an event in Barcelona, Spain on February 29, which is being held there to coincide with Mobile World Congress, also taking place during that week.

That Microsoft is using MWC as its platform to launch a traditionally desktop OS reinforces how important the Redmond, Wash. company sees a merger of its desktop and mobile efforts. I won't be shocked if the majority of the presentation has a decidedly mobile feel to it.

Despite Microsoft being a little later in its public release than Windows 7 was, the company still has six months to work out the beta bugs before a release to manufacturing in August.

If it can make that August time frame, Microsoft could leverage the back-to-school shopping season by giving OEMs the opportunity to offer guaranteed upgrades to consumers purchasing PCs during that time (which traditionally occur over the summer). Microsoft could also opt to include the Consumer Preview on these machines, but it seems that an arrangement along the lines of the former is more likely.

This will prevent the bastardization of PC purchases over the summer months. It also solves the issue of missing the back-to-school season, and holdouts. And the most important aspect of making that August RTM goal? An October release, and Windows 8 on computers for the holidays.

With an insurgent Apple figuring out ways to sell more and more Macs each quarter, getting Windows 8 into partners' hands for the second biggest computing buying season of the year is pretty darn important.

We'll monitor Mobile World Congress for Microsoft's announcement, and will have a first look at the Consumer Preview as soon as we can get our hands on it. Stay tuned.

Hacker taunts Symantec, releases pcAnywhere source code, promises others

Publié: février 8, 2012, 6:46pm CET par Ed Oswald

Source code for Symantec's pcAnywhere software is now out in the wild, following failed negotiations between a hacker and the company. Emails published to Pastebin on Monday indicate that the hacker demanded $50,000 from the company to prevent the source code's release, a conversation Symantec confirms is legitimate.

The company says it did not handle the negotiations, which were done in conjunction with law enforcement. "YamaTough", the hacker behind the extortion attempt, tells Reuters in his own defense that even if the money was paid, he still intended to release the source code to Symantec's remote desktop software.

Symantec disclosed that its code had been compromised in late January. At the time, users of the software were told to stop using the software completely until Symantec released a patch that would prevent unauthorized access to computers using the software.

About a week later, the company said it released a patch to remedy the issue and advised that the software was once again safe to use. It now looks like these negotiations -- whether faked or not -- were crucial in giving Symantec enough time to develop a fix.

In a statement, Symantec says that it "was prepared for the code to be posted at some point" and reminded users that patches are available to prevent unauthorized access. At the same time, a spokesperson acknowledged that it expects hackers to release code for other products, including Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition and Norton Internet Security.

That said, the release will have little effect. Unlike pcAnywhere the base code of those programs has changed significantly since the theft of the code in 2006, Symantec says.

In a chain of tweets, YamaTough remained defiant, and at times mocked the company. "What's funny they valued their most precious intel property at 50k", the hacker said in one tweet. "All the Symantec source codes are now on sale! PcAnywhere, System Works, Internet Security and Norton GoBack with Utilities, NAV", another tweet reads.

Photo Credit: OleGunnarUA/Shutterstock

Has the 'App Economy' landed you a job?

Publié: février 7, 2012, 11:08pm CET par Ed Oswald

A new study from CEO network TechNet suggests that the surge in smartphone and device app development has created 466,000 jobs since 2007, welcome news for those looking for positives in an otherwise tough economy. But has it landed you a job?

The study, conducted by former chief economist for BusinessWeek Dr. Michael Mandel took into account not only the "pure" app development firms like Zynga, but also companies where apps have become a necessary secondary business such as Electronic Arts or Amazon, and even those providing infrastructure and platform support for the App Economy including Google, Apple, and Facebook.

"On an economic level, each app represents jobs -- for programmers, for user interface designers, for marketers, for managers, for support staff", Mandel contends. "Conventional employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are not able to track such a new phenomenon".

Mandel argues further that the growth in jobs is not limited to traditional areas for tech: New York (arguably a fast-growing tech hub) accounted for 9.2 percent of help wanted ads for app development. This was followed closely by the San Francisco area at 8.5 percent and San Jose, Calif., Seattle and Los Angeles.

In other words, there's a lot of app jobs everywhere, he claims.

"Probably one reason for New York’s prominence is the concentration of media, advertising, and finance in the region. These are all sectors where major companies have been virtually forced to create apps or be left behind", Mandel says. "Indeed, the App Economy may be playing a key role in keeping the New York City economy afloat during the downturn".

That makes sense. Still, it seems like the definition used here is overly broad. Are all 466,000 jobs Mandel claims created truly as a result of the rise of the app? That sounds a bit too good to be true. To be fair though, Mandel does estimate that 155,400 of those jobs were created as a direct result of app development.

Considering the nearly one million apps out there, that may be close to accurate. But let's ask the question the title of this story does. We have quite a few developers who are regular readers of BetaNews. I want to know, have you found a job as a result of the App Economy?

It's time to put Mandel's argument to a real world test.

Photo Credit: NinaMalyna/Shutterstock

Screw you, too, AT&T

Publié: février 7, 2012, 12:52am CET par Ed Oswald

Long-time iPhone users, take note. If you have unlimited data, you want to read this: the company will throttle you for more than 2GB of usage in any given month. Do you feel better now about the thousands you've handed over to AT&T for the past several years?

Users are alerted to the throttling via text message. "Your data usage is among the top 5 percent of users. Data speeds for the rest of your bill cycle may be reduced", it reads.

In a phone call to AT&T customer service, BetaNews has confirmed that the nation's second biggest carrier considers 2GB-plus data customers in the "top 5 percent". The company warned of its plans in July of last year, but didn't enforce it until October 1. It now appears that what AT&T considers excessive has fallen dramatically from when the program started.

I can tell you this firsthand because my own data usage exceeded 2GB after that October 1 cutoff. In December, I used 3.1GB; in January 1.9GB. In neither month have I received any warning of throttling. So AT&T has made a change in what it considers "excessive".

Don't forget AT&T just introduced a 3GB plan for $30, the same price most long-time iPhone customers pay for their unlimited plans. But the AT&T representative we talked to pointed out a key difference, which is sure to piss off a lot of people. While that new customer is still cruising along at 3G speeds, paying the same price, your data is now slower than EDGE. There is no throttling for the 3GB plan, just overage charges when the data allotment is exceeded, the representative tells us.

That seems patently unfair. Unlimited data users -- including myself -- are getting ripped off.

iPhoneHacks illustrates this point in a recent post. It placed two phones side by side and performed a series of tests. While the unthrottled phone was able to download at speeds eclipsing 1Mbps, the throttled phone at times was downloading content at speeds of .06 Mbps. That sounds more like GPRS speeds to me!

The most key point in their findings? "For everyday applications like Maps and Safari, there was a stark difference between the load times. These apps were effectively unusable on the throttled connection". In other words, congratulations, your shiny new iPhone is all but a useless brick.

AT&T is screwing the customers that it has profited from most. At this point the company has made quite a bit of money on you, even with phone subsidies. And the claims that the top 5 percent use 12 times the data of the customer base at large is laughable.

If the new throttling point is 2GB, then that means the average iPhone user consumes a paltry 170.6MB of data. It is extremely hard to believe with the amount of data-hungry apps for iOS that a majority of users consume so little data.

What AT&T's super-agressive stance indicates is that the company wants you to ditch your unlimited plan. There's a benefit to this: if you continue to be a heavy data user, then you're gonna pay for it. This doesn't sit well with me, nor with others who have been loyal AT&T and iPhone customers.

"I don’t know what AT&T thinks they’re doing here", technologist and iPhone user John Cozen writes in his blog. He was throttled at 2.1GB. "I’ve experienced nothing but excellent service over the years up until this fiasco. I wonder how people are liking Verizon these days".

We're trying to get AT&T to comment on why unlimited data users are being handled in a manner different from other customers paying the same price, but have not heard back. If we do, we'll certainly update this story.

BetaNews is looking for reports from AT&T iPhone customers with unlimited data plans. If you have been throttled, please tell your story comments below. Also please include the amount of data you used during the month that throttling occurred.

Photo Credit: valdis torms/Shutterstock

Facebook's IPO is light on guarantees, heavy on risk

Publié: février 1, 2012, 8:10pm CET par Ed Oswald

So Facebook is set to go public today. It's the most anticipated initial public offering since Google in 2004, and may net the Menlo Park, Calif. social network between $5 billion and $10 billion, according to estimates. That said, I am still lost as to how Facebook's going to be able to wow Wall Street from quarter to quarter, and we all know that's what investors (and the tech press) are looking for.

The IPO will cause pandemonium on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as investors attempt to cash in on one of the most successful Web companies in history. This type of market hysteria is prone to pitfalls: fellow social networking site LinkedIn saw its shares skyrocket to nearly $95 in the first day of trading from an IPO of $45, but it has since given back about half of those gains.

IPO or not, does it matter to Facebook? Not really -- as a private company Facebook is a huge success, and made CEO Mark Zuckerberg a billionaire. With an estimated net worth of $17.5 billion, he is the 14th richest person in the world according to Forbes as of 2011. An IPO only will greatly increase his wealth, and those around him.

That's the only guarantee here surrounding Facebook's debut on Wall Street.

Going public has its drawbacks. As a private company, Facebook is able to do as it pleases -- only having to answer to itself internally. This changes when you're dealing with investors. They demand results, and you may find yourself making decisions to keep them happy, and to pad the results you're now required by law to publicly release every quarter.

That in mind, here's a point to ponder: with Facebook now home to over 800 million users, how much bigger can the site really get? Facebook is going to hit that mythical "brick wall" sooner or later. There are quite a few people who aren't interested in sharing their life's details. The site's growth is finite.

This may not be more vividly illustrated than by the growth of its competitors. Google+ reached 100 million users in just six months, a feat that Facebook took four years to accomplish. That shows the fickleness of Web users: no Web properties' success is perpetually guaranteed.

One last issue, and that's revenues. While Facebook has a significant user base and has focused on generating a steady revenue stream through its growing advertising business, few options remain for additional sources of income.

A good deal of time has been spent on developing new methods of advertising, but as a rule of thumb social ads have poor click-through rates. Unless Facebook finds the holy grail of social advertising, it's unlikely that Facebook will grow revenues here dramatically.

Another possibility? The company could also move into the entertainment business, selling and/or renting content to users. Such a setup will keep users on the site even longer, however it requires a great deal of work and overhead to be done properly, with no guarantee of success. There's also the 800-lb. gorilla in the room -- iTunes -- which controls a good portion of the digital entertainment industry.

Are Zuckerberg and Co. willing to take such a risk for something that seemingly has a high chance for failure, and could cost more money than it's worth? That looks doubtful.

I'm curious: BetaNews readers are generally a thoughtful and opinionated bunch. Now that Facebook's headed for life as a publicly traded company, revenues are extremely important. What do you think the world's biggest social network can do to generate more revenue? Let us know in the comments.

Howard Stringer steps down, Sony looks to Kazuo Hirai to stop the bleeding

Publié: février 1, 2012, 5:18pm CET par Ed Oswald

Sony will promote Kazuo Hirai to president and CEO in April, ending Sir Howard Stringer's six year reign as the company's chief executive. Hirai was Stringer's personal recommendation to succeed him, and Stringer will continue to serve in an executive capacity with the company as chairman of the board beginning in June 2012.

"Three years ago, I started to work with the Board on succession plans, and in February, 2009 we named a new generation of leaders to be my management team", Stringer says. "Among them was Kaz Hirai, who had distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation® and networked entertainment businesses".

Hirai's promotion to CEO was widely expected among industry watchers considering the PlayStation business is one of Sony's few solidly performing businesses. With Sony in the red for all but two years of Stringer's tenure, Hirai certainly has his work cut out for him.

Stringer had attempted to streamline power in 2009, taking over as both president and CEO during the height of the financial crisis. However, his efforts failed and the company continued to falter, with a series of events including the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami exacerbating the situation.

"As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position", he says. Hirai called Sony's future path "clear", focusing on its core electronics business, innovation, and turning around its television efforts.

Televisions are Stringer's biggest failure. With $2.3 billion in losses projected in the fiscal year 2012 alone, the company is faced with making up those losses plus another $6.3 billion accumulated since 2004. Hirai was successful in turning around the gaming division, but investors are skeptical he could do the same for TVs.

Sony has yet to make money selling televisions, unlike competitors LG and Samsung. Hirai technically did not make that much money selling PlayStations either: the devices are sold at a loss or for a small profit in hopes the difference is made up through consumers purchases of games, a "loss leader".

With televisions, there is no attach rate.

Sony will report its earnings on Thursday. The company is widely expected to report yet another quarterly loss, so Wednesday's announcement of a new CEO may be designed to deflect attention away from the company's continued struggles.

MegaUpload users may gain temporary access to their files

Publié: janvier 31, 2012, 8:41pm CET par Ed Oswald

Users of MegaUpload may have a brief window to retrieve files from the site after the law firm representing the file sharing service says it is negotiating a solution with the US Government. While the primary function of the negotiations is likely to gather evidence so that MegaUpload's lawyers can build their defense, it is possible the general public may temporarily gain access to their accounts.

In the United States, the file sharing service uses two hosting providers to store data, Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications. When US authorities shut down the service two weeks ago, it also froze MegaUpload's assets, leaving it no money to pay bills.

Lawyer Ira Rothken announced the agreement on Twitter Monday night. "Carpathia and Cogent agreed to preserve consumer data for additional time of at least two weeks so #Megaupload can work with US on proposal", the tweet reads. The process of deletion is expected to begin February 2, according to U.S. District Attorney Neil MacBride.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is also stepping in to assist MegaUpload users in data retrieval. On Tuesday it announced a partnership with Carpathia called MegaRetrieval that will work with users to retrieve legal content on MegaUpload's servers.

"EFF is troubled that so many lawful users of Megaupload.com had their property taken from them without warning and that the government has taken no steps to help them", EFF attorney Julie Samuels says. "We think it's important that these users have their voices heard as this process moves forward".

Rothken says that the hosting companies are willing to hold onto MegaUploads data while his firm negotiates with the government. In the end Rothken is looking for the government to free up some funds to pay the hosting providers, which he believes will help the company defend itself.

Photo Credit: mojito.mak[dog]gmail[dot]com/Shutterstock

Go ahead, use pcAnywhere again -- after you update

Publié: janvier 31, 2012, 7:13pm CET par Ed Oswald

A week after telling users to disable its pcAnywhere, Symantec says the remote computing software is now safe to use, with a few caveats. First, the app must be upgraded to version 12.5, and a critical software patch applied to plug the hole.

In a statement posted to its website, Symantec says that it had patched all versions of the software back to 12.0. A patch for 12.0 and 12.1 was released on January 27, following a patch that was released for 12.5 on January 25.

"At this time, Symantec recommends that customers ensure pcAnywhere 12.5 is installed, apply all relevant patches as they are released, and follow general security best practices", the statement reads. "If customers are unable to adhere to this guidance and have not installed the latest version with current patches, we recommend that they contact pcanywhere@symantec.com for additional assistance".

Reuters reports that Symantec will offer those on versions of pcAnywhere prior to 12.5 free upgrades to the latest version, regardless of whether or not the software qualifies for support. It did not specify how it plans to handle the upgrade process.

Photo Credit: Kheng Guan Toh/Shutterstock

Amazon cloud services see dramatic growth in 2011

Publié: janvier 31, 2012, 6:53pm CET par Ed Oswald

Usage of Amazon's cloud services skyrocketed in 2011, with the company reporting that its cloud storage service Amazon S3 played host to 762 million objects as of the fourth quarter of 2011. This was up by 500 million objects over last year, year-over-year growth of 192 percent and the biggest expansion in the service's five year history.

Amazon credits the large jump in making it easier for users to get data into the system via a host of new features introduced over the past year. It also says the jump in cloud usage requires manpower, and it is hiring for software engineers, product managers, and other management postions for the S3 team.

Meanwhile, 2012 is expected to be a big year for cloud computing, with Forrester analyst Holger Kisker predicting the sector to generate $61 billion in revenues by the end of this year. Gartner is even more bullish, expecting spending on public cloud services to reach $89 billion this year, and $177 billion by 2015.

Apple, the enterprise, and the marginalization of the cultists

Publié: janvier 28, 2012, 6:45pm CET par Ed Oswald

For a company left for dead a little over a decade ago, Apple's return to relevancy and in some cases supremacy is stunning. Love or hate the company, few others have accomplished a similar feat. Now one of the last dominoes left to fall -- the enterprise sector -- is set to embrace the platform.

Forrester Research finds that one out of every five IT employees use one or more Apple products at work. This is not completely by their own request: half of all corporations of 1,000 employees or more now issue Macs to at least some of their work force, with an average of a 52 percent increase in deployments slated for 2012.

The more money you make, the more likely you are to use an Apple device for work, following a similar pattern among consumers. Forty-one percent of those making over $150,000 are using Apple products, while 19 percent of those making under $50,000 do so. You are also more likely as an executive to have an Apple device, at 41 percent for those with a position of Director or higher: this drops off to 14 percent for the average employee.

Understanding Apple's Success in IT

At first glance the numbers are not impressive, but looking at these numbers alone without taking into account the past tells half the story. I'm sure if this same survey was done five years ago these adoption numbers would have been in the single digits, and in the lowest income brackets all but negligible. Apple's real success has come in short order.

Here's another important point from the Forrester survey, which echoes a point I've stressed before: Apple's strength among youth is key. The firm finds that younger IT workers are twice as likely to use Macs as their older counterparts, only furthering the argument that the younger generation is driving -- and will drive -- Apple's success for much of the foreseeable future.

Apple seems to be taking the enterprise market seriously. There is a significant number of job listings for sales and marketing positions outside of the consumer sector. Whether this is a function of the change in leadership to Tim Cook -- Steve Jobs disliked having to "cater" to the specific needs of businesses -- or just forced realization that the enterprise really does matter is unknown.

The reason doesn't really matter as it just means more Macs out the door for the Cupertino, Calif. company. This newfound success in any case will only further marginalize the "Mac cultists" that are too-often mentioned when criticizing the company or its products.

Why the Apple Cult No Longer Matters

My colleague Harry McCracken touched on this topic in his column for Time earlier this week. Already with the success in the consumer space, Apple is moving beyond this vocal and obtuse group. Add a healthy dose of enterprise into the mix. Now how important is this group, really?

The argument against the company using the "Apple cult" excuse is less convincing as Apple continues to grow. Every company has a group of core fanatic users or "fanboys". In the Microsoft world, they're called MVPs. In many cases they're just as bad, and just as blind. It just so happens Apple fanboys are more organized.

Oh, and the argument that these Apple cultists have taken over the tech media, generating overly positive coverage? There's a few prominent MVPs/journalists (many you already read) doing the same thing for Microsoft. This argument reminds me of my diatribe on bias in the tech media from last September. The whole tech media is pretty much a mess, but I do digress here.

Either way, the point is that Apple's customer base is becoming so large that these folks really do not matter anymore. Forrester's findings -- as well as other studies and market share numbers -- indicate that Apple is moving into the mainstream. For a company that just had a $46 billion quarter, the implications of this jump to enterprise are huge.

Apple's revenues and profits are only set to grow even more with this untapped market. This in turn will create a positive feedback loop: those that get used to using Apple in the workplace will be more apt to purchase an Apple product for personal use. The benefits here for the Cupertino, Calif. company are just too great to pass up.

I argued (to a good deal of criticism) that Cook needs something to hang his hat on earlier this month. Call me crazy, but making a solid commitment to the enterprise sector is it. The benefits will be long-lasting.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words / Shutterstock

Microsoft invests $1 billion to sell a million Nokia Windows Phones

Publié: janvier 26, 2012, 11:22pm CET par Ed Oswald

At face value, Nokia's results for Windows Phone are solid. One million Lumia devices sold in just its first quarter of availability. The sales add a bright spot to an otherwise gloomy Nokia calendar fourth-quarter earnings report, where smartphone sales slid 31 percent amid a 21 percent year-over-year drop in revenues.

The real story here though is the cost to Microsoft to ensure that success. Microsoft agreed to pay Nokia $1 billion to abandon Symbian as primary operating system for Windows Phone, according to reports soon after the deal was announced in February 2011. The Redmond, Wash.-based company paid Nokia $250 million in the fourth quarter for "platform support payments", meaning each device cost Microsoft about $250 before any royalty payments received. That's a run rate of a billion dollars per year. So just how much is Nokia giving back to Microsoft?

Not much it appears. "We have a competitive software royalty structure, which includes minimum software royalty commitments", Nokia says in its earnings statement. "Over the life of the agreement, both the platform support payments and the minimum software royalty commitments are expected to measure in the billions of US Dollars".

Microsoft has never publicly disclosed the royalties it charges for Windows Phone 7, although reports claim the company receives around $15 for each device sold. Nokia is key to Microsoft's strategy to make Windows Phone relevant, so it's likely if that number's true the Redmond company had no choice but to accept a smaller payment.

With Lumia's early success apparent through Nokia's quarterly results, and the disclosure of the payments Microsoft is making you have to wonder if it's all worth it. While a high cost, it's paying early dividends. Not everyone's impressed, but Microsoft arguably stole the show at CES 2012 thanks to the Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II.

This excitement has lead to positive press: IHS iSuppli wireless analyst Wayne Lam says Windows Phone will become the second biggest mobile platform in 2015. While a boisterous claim, it keeps Windows Phone in the headlines -- and in a positive light.

On the flipside, there are pitfalls to this strategy. By giving Nokia such favorable terms, it is preventing itself from getting terms more favorable to it with other manufacturers. That may force the company to make a decision in the not too distant future to end the royalty structure and "give away" Windows Phone much like Google does with Android.

(That will also destroy one of its key arguments in demanding royalties from Android manufacturers -- that Google's strategy puts it at a competitive disadvantage.)

There's also more expenditures to worry about: as BetaNews first reported during Consumer Electronics Show 2012, Microsoft is planning a huge ad blitz to surround the launch of the Nokia Ace (otherwise known as the Lumia 900). With $100 million being spent on launching that device alone, and as much as an additional $100 million to be spent on the marketing of other devices.

It's a lot of money, that's for sure.

Symantec tells users to stop using pcAnywhere amid security breach

Publié: janvier 26, 2012, 7:47pm CET par Ed Oswald

It's not often when a developer tells you outright not to use its software, but that is exactly what Symantec is forced to do in light of the theft of source code. Last month, Hacktavist group Anonymous bragged that it had possession of code that powers several applications, including Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security; Norton SystemWorks and pcAnywhere.

Symantec says the code theft originally occurred in 2006. While at first security experts believed the theft to only be a black eye for the company's reputation, it now appears that the incident is far more serious. Symantec recommends users of pcAnywhere stop using the software immediately until there is a solution to address any security concerns.

Why didn't Symantec disclose the breach immediately? The security software vendor claims "inconclusive" evidence that hackers had made away with anything valuable at that time. Only when Anonymous showed what it had were investigators able to confirm the hack.

"Malicious users with access to the source code have an increased ability to identify vulnerabilities and build new exploits", Symantec says. "Additionally, customers that are not following general security best practices are susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks which can reveal authentication and session information".

Symantec did not say when it expects to release an update to the software.

The source of the flaw is unknown, however. It may be due to an oversight on Symantec's part. The company makes reference to encrypted keys in the report. If these are hardcoded in, hackers could easily find the key and use it to launch unauthorized remote sessions. At that point, anything on the user's computer that is not password protected is accessible.

Other software products affected by the code breach are not at risk because the underlying code is considerably different than the 2006 versions, apparently closing any attack vectors. In the case of pcAnywhere, there hasn't been as much change, leading Symantec to take the unusual step of telling customers not to use its product.

"It is recommended that customers understand the current risks, ensure pcAnywhere 12.5 is installed, apply all relevant patches as they are released, and follow the general security best practices discussed herein", Symantec says, referring to the report which can be accessed here.

Symantec's Norton suite of antivirus products have repeatedly been the target of criticism, ranging from accusations that the company's representatives misinform users their computers are infected and require remote assistance for an additional fee, to cooperation with the FBI in whitelisting Trojans aimed at tracking the online activities of suspected criminals.

There is disconnect between the company's statements and actions when it comes to pcAnywhere. While in the report Symantec explicitly says not to use the software, neither on its front page nor the software's own page does it state this as of Thursday afternoon.

The statement currently on Symantec's front page is its old position, where it had claimed there was no risk to users.

Art Credit: dohtoor/Shutterstock

What are the top domains used for spam?

Publié: janvier 25, 2012, 8:29pm CET par Ed Oswald

It's likely that most will expect domains belonging to popular web-based e-mail services are at the top of the list for the mountains of spam we receive everyday. That's not the case: the most common spam domains according to Chelmsford, Mass.-based security firm AVG are social networks.

Facebook tops the list at 7.3 percent, followed by Twitter at 4.2 percent. Considering these are the top two social networking sites, that's not too surprising. How about Google+? Hard to say since it doesn't have its own domain, nor did google.com appear in the list AVG supplied us. LinkedIn also appears, but way down in eighth at 1.5 percent of all spam.

Webmail services do show up in the third spot, with gmail used in about 3.1 percent of all spam. Two other webmail domains show up, yahoo.com and hotmail.com, in the fifth and sixth spots with 2.4 percent each.

Spam isn't just originating from what most of us likely consider to be the most common sources. Akamai.net, associated with the company who delivers up to a fifth of all Internet traffic, sees about 2.7 percent of all spam originate from its servers.

Chtah.com is another domain where spam finds a home: 1.7 percent of spam originates from the domain. It belongs to CheetahMail, an established e-mail marketer owned by Experian. Even the cloud is getting into the act: rounding out the survey is amazonaws.com, Amazon's Web Services domain. It seems you can't go anywhere without being spammed these days, no?

The top-10 web security threats you should avoid

Publié: janvier 25, 2012, 7:30pm CET par Ed Oswald

The compromised website is still the most effective attack vector for hackers to install malware on your computer with 47.6 percent of all malware installs occurring in that manner, says security firm AVG. Another 10.6 percent are tricked into downloading exploit code -- many times, without their knowledge -- by clicking on links on pages to sites hosting malware.

The Chelmsford, Mass. company announced its findings as part of a broader study of threats detected by its software. It also found that faked pharmacy sites are a popular attack method, seen in about 10.4 percent of all attacks.

Fake antivirus scanners remain a popular malware injection method at 8.4 percent. The news is timely considering just yesterday Microsoft announced its newest defendant in the Kelihos botnet case was a former antivirus vendor employee. Kelihos used fake antivirus to install itself on unsuspecting victims.

"'Old habits die hard': cyber criminals are up to their old tricks, apparently the use of fake antivirus product is still successful", the firm says in its report. It adds that a significant portion of these rogue antivirus installs are coming through whats called a "Second-Click Redirect Mechanism".

A faked image gallery is a good example. Clicking on the first image will behave as expected, however going back to the gallery and clicking on a second thumbnail will trigger the script. The user is redirected to download antivirus software after a popup claims viruses were "found".

Fake antivirus is nothing new, but this attempt to bury it is: the attackers want it to look more legitimate.

That's not all, though: AVG warns that the security issues plaguing desktops are migrating to mobile devices. "While consumers are going mobile, so are the cyber criminals," the company writes. "We have witnessed the use of the same malicious intent tactics targeting mobile devices: social engineering, stolen or fake certificates to sign malware, rootkits and other tactics".

MPAA chief Chris Dodd fights off allegations of bribery

Publié: janvier 24, 2012, 8:29pm CET par Ed Oswald

Opponents of the Motion Picture Association of America are using the US Government's recently created "We The People" online petition service to force the Obama Administration to take a position on some controversial comments by former Conn. Senator-turned MPAA chief Chris Dodd to Fox News last Thursday.

By Tuesday afternoon, the petition had already passed the 25,000 person threshold to trigger a response from the White House. With over 27,500 signatures, it is gaining about 1,000 signatures an hour. Stop Online Privacy Act and PROTECT IP Act protesters are not satisfied with killing the bill alone: they want heads to roll.

"Candidly, those who count on 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake", Dodd told Fox News' Ed Henry. "Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake".

On its face, the comments appear to threaten to cut off campaign donations from the MPAA to those politicians who don't support SOPA or PIPA, two pieces of legislation Dodd has a vested interest in. "Don't take us for granted", he quips.

Several politicians got cold feet following a successful online protest on Wednesday, January 18. Thousands of sites either went dark completely, or censored portions of their sites to illustrate the point that either piece of legislation may change the Internet forever.

Following that protest, the bill lost several of its sponsors and Congressional leadership decided to shelve the bill. For all intents and purposes, a defeat for Dodd and his compatriots; a win for those that worked so hard to stop the bill.

Dodd's opponents are not about to rest: in the petition, they ask the Obama Administration to investigate him for breaking the law. "[Dodd's comments are] an open admission of bribery and a threat designed to provoke a specific policy goal", the petiton states. "This is a brazen flouting of the 'above the law' status people of Dodd's position and wealth enjoy".

With the crossing of the threshold on We The People, the ball is now placed in Obama's court. It has pledged to respond to every petition that crosses the threshold, save for select circumstances. SOPA and PIPA are hot topics, and ignoring it might not be wise for the Administration politically.

A request for comment is outstanding. The Administration may defer comment until February 20, however: petitioners have 30 days to collect the necessary signatures.

Don't believe me about the iTunes hack? Just check Twitter

Publié: janvier 23, 2012, 10:56pm CET par Ed Oswald

In my most recent story about Apple's hacking problems within iTunes, I was not surprised to see the same criticisms as eight months ago: there's no evidence of it, it's all the users' fault for their crappy passwords, it's a small problem.

Okay, I'll give you the possibility that this could be partially the user's fault in some way. Like saying the guy run down by a speeding vehicle shouldn't have been driving during rush hour. That does not answer how these hackers are getting in -- which from BetaNews' research on this, is mainly an in-app purchase mechanism issue -- nor the true scope of this problem.

So, I turned to Twitter to answer that question. Frankly, I am shocked with what I found. A simple search just for "iTunes hacked" through Twitter provides hundreds of results just in the past few weeks alone.

If you don't believe me that this hack is a major problem for Apple, you really need to start searching around the social networking services because they reveal a substantial amount of affected users: enough that Apple owes us some type of public acknowledgement of the issue.

Frankly, I find Apple's silence insulting: not only to myself in an attempt to fairly cover this issue and present both sides of the story, but also as a victim of the hack itself. Me, like many others across the Web are only asking for some kind of assurance from Apple that its working on the problem.

I don't think that's asking too much.

One of my followers over on Google+, Jake Weisz, says it best on Apple's maddening strategy when it comes to negative publicity: "It's probably pretty similar to Apple's behavior with regard to the Mac Defender virus they got last year. Rather than admit they had a problem, they told their employees to deny it's existence until they had a fix".

My iTunes acct got hacked Sun. They say they will refund the $60+ of in-app purchases but haven't yet. Now my acct is suspended. #stabmyself

— kristen m stewart (@kristenmstewart) January 19, 2012

Could it be Apple doesn't know how to fix this problem, and that's why the company pretends it doesn't exist? If so, that's pretty worrisome and anyone using iTunes should be concerned about their account security, poor passwords or not.

Crap, someone hacked into my iTunes and bought $42 of stuff using my store credit. Come on Apple, I thought you were better than that!

— Patrick (@Traincrossin) January 20, 2012

Add what we're seeing on the social media sites with the dozens of reports that I've received personally in writing the story and I think the argument that this isn't widespread is completely blown up.

#iTunes account hacked overnite and credits drained with fraudulent charges.First #Zappos account, now this. Makes ya want to go off grid

— Robert Neill (@rdntx) January 21, 2012

Are you a victim. Has someone made unauthorized purchases to your iTunes account?

Android, not iOS, will win over developers

Publié: janvier 23, 2012, 7:01pm CET par Ed Oswald

Android will replace iOS as the most important platform to developers within the next 12 months, British analyst firm Ovum says. It also notes an increased interest in Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS, and sees a move towards web standards in development over proprietary technologies.

Timing is surprising. Tomorrow, Apple will announce fourth calendar quarter earnings, where analysts expect record iOS device sales. Despite these platform gains, developer attention shifts to Android.

"A smartphone platform's success is dictated not only by the pull of consumers and the push of handset vendors and mobile operators but also by a healthy economy of applications delivered by third-party developers", devices and platforms practice leader Adam Leach says of his findings. Leach's research should come as no surprise given Android's strength in the marketplace.

Save for the holidays, Android smartphones have been outselling the iPhone by as much as a two-to-one margin for much of the past year. It was only a matter of time before developers took notice of this fast growing market and develop for it.

"It is important for all players in the smartphone ecosystem to understand the choices developers are making today and the downstream impact of those choices," Leach says.

Indeed, the survey shows a marked move away from once important platforms such as Symbian and WebOS. Developers' confidence in BlackBerry OS is surprising, however, given the platform's struggle in the market, and the internal turmoil plaguing the company. Windows Phone is not as surprising, given Nokia's big gamble on the platform and the building interest in its partner's devices.

"The growing momentum behind Windows Phone indicates that Microsoft has managed to convince developers that its platform is worthy of investment, its challenge now is to persuade consumers", Leach argues.

Developers also are showing a desire to develop their applications using web-based standards. This allows for an even cross-platform experience without the need for recoding. HTML5 is favored, while older more platform-specific technologies like Java, Flash, and WAP fall by the wayside.

Even with this move towards standards in development, the developer still leans on vendor-specific distribution -- Google's Android Market or Apple's App Store -- in order to distribute their work. This is likely a function of the developer's desire to reach the largest possible audience, Ovum says.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

After MegaUpload raid, FileSonic cuts off file sharing

Publié: janvier 23, 2012, 6:19pm CET par Ed Oswald

In a move that seems in response to the shuttering of MegaUpload last week, UK and Hong Kong-based file storage site FileSonic removed all file sharing capabilities over the weekend.

"All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally", a message reads on the front page of its website.

No reason for the change was given, but its likely the MegaUpload situation spooked FileSonic's owners, which then took action to prevent a similar fate.

Like MegaUpload, FileSonic has no physical presence here in the United States. However if the arrests in New Zealand are any indication, international authorities are set to cooperate with US law enforcement in apprehending those profiting off of illicit file sharing.

FileSonic appears to be making some effort in cleaning pirated material off its servers. In December, it announced that it was using a product called vCloud9 which scans files to see if they contain copyrighted content.

The company does say in its terms of service and takedown policies that it has a "zero tolerance policy" towards copyright infringement, and will ban users who are "repeat offenders". That said, it still appears much of the policing is the responsibility of the copyright holder and not FileSonic.

Photo Credit: mojito.mak[dog]gmail[dot]com/Shutterstock

'We need an app store for root apps'

Publié: janvier 21, 2012, 1:00am CET par Ed Oswald

An Android developer is looking to provide a home for apps that are otherwise verboten on the Android Market. Independent software engineer Koushik Dutta is in the final stages of developing such an app repository, recent posts on Google+ indicate. He first detailed his plans earlier this month.

Dutta is one of the developers behind CyanogenMod, replacement firmware for Android devices based on the Gingerbread OS. Over one million Android users have already downloaded his firmware with about 8,000 new installs every day. Obviously he has a vested interest in these types of apps, and having an integrated app store will help attract consumers considering rooting their devices. The question now is: does Android need an app store for rooted apps?

The Apps Google bans are Legal

"We need an app store for root apps", Dutta says in a past post. "We also need an app store for apps that are getting shut down for no good reason, other than carrier, or some random corporation doesn't like it". While the apps he believes will fit in with his plans may not necessarily be "banned" in a sense, the subject matter may be unpalatable to carrier and manufacturer partners.

Rooting apps are frowned upon by Google as they may open up functionality within Android that carriers may have locked out, and the same goes for tethering and visual voicemail apps. Emulator apps have also been given the boot for copyright infringement claims by gaming manufactuers. But Dutta says that these apps need a home.

"These are all completely legal", he argues. "Nintendo emulators are fine, ROMs are NOT, there is a distinction".

CyanogenMod users hailed Dutta's work. "I'd love this and I'm sure so would many other users, Android should be open, apps should be available to all android users, carries should not be able to remove apps for no reason", commenter Aaron Reider opined. Others were more cautious. "I support the idea, so long as it's well executed", Burkan Mustafa added. "I'm just worried about it becoming a breeding-ground for malicious apps".

A Security Issue in the Making?

Mustafa will not need to worry as Dutta and the team are adding additional levels to prevent this from occurring. "We are adding more security to Superuser, and apps that use Superuser permissions need to have developers whitelisted/approved by us", Dutta tells BetaNews.

For those not familiar with Android and rooting, the Superuser is essentially the same as the Administrator on a desktop computer OS. When a user gains this access -- to the root of the phone's OS -- they are given access to all features available to the operating system. Dutta's comments suggest that any application needing such access will be vetted first. While the Cyanogen App Store will certainly give more freedom to developers, it by no means will become a free-for-all.

Of course just like jailbreaking and unlocking an iPhone, the user understands they're on their own if anything goes wrong. Buyer beware as they say.

Google did not respond to requests for comment as of press time. Its Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement does seem to suggest however that it is the carriers that are calling the shots. Among the apps prohibited are those "that interfere with, disrupt, damage, or access in an unauthorized manner the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator".

Don't look now, but 5G may be right around the corner

Publié: janvier 20, 2012, 7:24pm CET par Ed Oswald

Even with a majority of wireless consumers not even using 4G technology yet, the wireless industry is already looking to next-generation technologies. The International Telecommunications Union this week awarded both LTE-Advanced and WiMAX-Advanced the "official" designation of IMT-Advanced.

The last major update to the standard was in 2000, when the ITU adopted the umbrella standards for 3G. In order to be designated 3G, a service had to provide peak data rates of at least 200Kbps. With IMT-Advanced speeds increase at least one hundred times, says the governing body.

"IMT-Advanced marks a huge leap forward in state-of-the-art technologies, which will make the present day smart phone feel like an old dial up Internet connection", Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré says. "Access to the Internet, streaming videos and data transfers anytime, anywhere will be better than most desktop connections today".

In order to win the designation, at a minimum it must deliver speeds of 100Kbps at high rates of speed. In a fixed position, the network should be able to support speeds of 1Gbps. IMT-Advanced also calls for more efficient use of spectrum, absolutely necessary in these times where data usage is increasing faster than the carriers can supply additional bandwidth.

What remains to be seen is whether or not the ITU refers to this as "5G". Under its current specifications, HSPA and LTE are still technically considered 3G standards. However, since December of last year the ITU has considered them 4G given they provide "a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed".

Whatever it's called, one thing is for sure: it's going to be pretty damn fast.

Photo Credit: cartoon11/Shutterstock

Apple's iTunes education gamble is about building loyal consumers early

Publié: janvier 19, 2012, 8:57pm CET par Ed Oswald

Two months ago, I argued here on BetaNews that despite the ever-increasing chorus of negativity surrounding Apple, its best days are ahead. One of my reasons for my belief is the young consumer, where the Cupertino company is building a considerable amount of brand equity.

Today's education-centric announcements only strengthen that argument. While there wasn't much pomp or circumstance, the significance is not the immediate announcements but what they mean for the future.

With the help of textbook publishers, high schools and universities, Apple's brand will be front and center among high school and college-aged students: these are impressionable consumers who are likely just coming into an increasing amount of disposable income.

Remember the Harris Interactive data I shared in November. The firm polled young consumers aged eight to 24. They found that Apple had strong brand equity in this key group -- in fact, it is the top brand in computers, phones and tablets among those 13 to 24. Apple beat out a long-established brand in HP, one of the biggest phone manufacturers in HTC, and dusted the floor with the Motorola XOOM.

As I said then, kids are growing up Apple. Now in high school and college, they find themselves logging onto iTunes to download their books and courses. Apple couldn't ask for anything more: it's a part of these kids' lives from childhood to adulthood.

The fact that so called "Generation Y" (born 1977-2000) eclipses the size of the "Baby Boomers" is another positive for the company. The collective buying power of Generation Y is going to be huge, much bigger than those before it, and Apple is uniquely positioning itself to ride that wave.

I know that the initial announcement involves high school students, but I don't see how this does not extend eventually to college texts. Think about it: the average college text can cost $75, $100, or more. If Apple can bring this same discounted pricing to textbooks there, it will be a massive draw for those living on ramen noodles.

Why wouldn't publishers go for it? Gone are the days of used textbooks: these cannot be bought and resold. Every student must purchase a new textbook, meaning the publisher makes money every time. Yes the initial cost is lower, but the publisher now has tighter control over the market. It will make far more money.

The iTunes U redesign is only the icing on the cake. After seemingly losing its mojo in the education market, Apple seems ready to recommit to a portion of its business that for a long time kept it afloat as it languished in the consumer space.

Love or hate the company, you have to complement them on their long-term vision. Most companies these days are focused on short term gain. Apple has the the patience to realize that the real fruits of its labors come far later. Shareholders and Apple enthusiasts alike should appreciate that.

Photo Credit: Darko Zeljkovic/Shutterstock

iTunes hacked! Apple ignores it

Publié: janvier 19, 2012, 4:48pm CET par Ed Oswald

It is now over eight months since I first reported to you my experience of getting hacked on iTunes. Last June, hackers found a way into my iTunes account using Sega's Kingdom Conquest -- a game I never downloaded. I was bilked out of $95.30, which the hackers stole from my account through iOS' in-app purchase mechanism.

Within hours of posting that story, I was flooded with dozens -- if not hundreds -- of similar stories. Initially, they were similar to mine and involved Kingdom Conquest, but additional reports indicated other games are being used to break into iTunes accounts worldwide.

Those other games are Storm8's World War, and Kamagame's Texas Poker.

New reports received by BetaNews indicate that attacks using the hack are once again on the rise. While the volume of emails to me was generally steady since the June story, in the past two weeks there is a marked increase in the number of reports.

Users write that they have not had any trouble in recovering funds -- myself included -- however, Apple has not responded to their requests for more information on how they were hacked. BetaNews contacted Apple for comment on this story Wednesday afternoon, and like the three previous times we were ignored.

What is happening here? BetaNews believes that this particular hack affecting iTunes is likely sourced to an exploit existing in Apple's in-app purchasing mechanism. It is the only similiarity between every report received over the past eight-plus months.

While a majority of users reporting in as victims have had their iTunes credit balances drained, some also saw fraudulent charges to linked credit card and PayPal accounts. While an issue may exist there as well, it's likely not the primary cause of the hack.

In any case, Apple's insistence on ignoring both victims and the press not only keeps everyone in the dark as to why this continues to occur -- from our research, now going on nearly a year -- but also provides little solace to those hacked that these hackers do not have a way in that we may not be able to protect ourselves by password alone.

That's simply irresponsible. How many people need to be hacked before Apple thinks it's the right time to speak? The company gains nothing by sitting on the sidelines ignoring the problem, and it is a problem.

Are you a victim of this hack, or a similar one on iTunes? Please let me know, I continue to compile your reports, and will continue to attempt to get Apple to talk. Contact me at ed at ozmedia dot com. Sooner or later, Apple is going to have to own up to this.

Photo Credit: pzAxe/Shutterstock

Koobface hackers are easily found on Facebook, elsewhere

Publié: janvier 18, 2012, 2:09am CET par Ed Oswald

The attackers behind the Koobface worm are not doing much to cover their tracks, say security researchers with Facebook and several security firms. Hackers are living a comfortable life in St. Petersburg, Russia, and have been posting freely to social networking sites such as Facebook and Foursquare.

Facebook and law enforcement have reportedly known their identities for several years. At least one of the members of the gang has repeatedly broadcast the location of the group's offices via Foursquare, including pictures of members at work -- presumably spreading Koobface around the world.

Koobface has made this group quite a bit of money since its creation in mid 2008. The attackers made their money through tricking infected users into downloading faked antivirus software. At its height in 2010, Koobface and its variants may have been on as many as 800,000 PCs.

The apprehension of international criminals is difficult due to poor cooperation between the law enforcement entities of different countries, as well as a lack of resources in those countries to fight cybercrime. So companies like Facebook are taking on a different tact: public shaming.

Starting on Tuesday, Facebook plans to start sharing the identities of the Koobface hackers with security researchers and other Internet companies. The company has already shared the identities of those responsible to law enforcement. Why law enforcement has so far failed to apprehend those responsible is not clear -- it probably has to do with those aforementioned issues -- the FBI failed to respond to requests for comment.

Photo Credit: Photosani/Shutterstock

Zappos hack exposes personal information of 24 million customers

Publié: janvier 16, 2012, 9:16pm CET par Ed Oswald

Data on up to 24 million customers of online shoe retailer Zappos was compromised according to an email sent by its CEO Tony Hsieh on Sunday. While Hsieh says that full credit card information is safe, hackers may have the last four digits of the cards.

Hackers accessed names, email addresses, physical addresses, and phone numbers. Passwords were also compromised, however in encrypted form. As a result, the company sent out an email to all its customers, advising them to change their passwords as a protective measure. Zappos is also asking customers to reset their passwords elsewhere where it may be the same.

A menu option has been added to Zappos pages urging customers to "Create a New Password". The company is trying its best to get as many of its users to change their passwords as soon as possible.

The danger from this hack is the increased risk of a compromise of other online accounts. The typical Internet user has only one password that is used across a multitude of services. For example, if hackers are successful in breaking Zappos' password encryption, they may try to access the customer's email account using the Zappos password.

"We've spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers. It's painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident", Hsieh writes. "I suppose the one saving grace is that the database that stores our customers' critical credit card and other payment data was not affected or accessed".

Zappos is owned by Amazon.com. The retailer had no immediate comment on the attack.

Photo Credit: OleGunnarUA/Shutterstock

Motorola fends off Apple's patent attack, Microsoft next

Publié: janvier 16, 2012, 7:18pm CET par Ed Oswald

Is Apple a victim of its own success? After a considerable string of patent wins in the courts against Android through much of 2011, the tide has turned. The International Trade Commission ruled that Motorola Mobility does not infringe on three patents that Apple sued over in October 2010.

Motorola filed an ITC complaint at that time targeting the Macbook, iPad, and iPhone. Apple retaliated by filing a suit of its own, accusing the Libertyville, Ill. phone manufacturer of infringing on its own patents, two of which deal with touchscreen technology.

Administrative Law Judge Theodore Essex wrote in a notice that he had found no infringement by Motorola on the referenced patents, which effectively ends the case. Apple may appeal the ruling, but with an outright rejection it appears unlikely that the company will have much success.

"We are pleased with today's favorable outcome for Motorola Mobility", general counsel Scott Offer says in a statement.

All is not necessarily lost for Apple. It did win a mixed judgement from the ITC over its patent claims, and is waiting for additional rulings against HTC as well as Samsung.

Motorola finds itself still entangled in a patent battle with Microsoft. There, Motorola is accused of not paying royalties for licensed technology. Both companies filed claims with the ITC, and an administrative judge found last month that Motorola infringes on one Microsoft-held patent while clearing it of claims on seven others.

Both companies are appealing the decision. A judgement for the Redmond, Wash. company will give Microsoft a stake in almost every Android phone sold today: it holds licensing agreements covering 70 percent of current devices on the platform.

That said, with Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility, Android's patent position has become considerably stronger. Motorola holds one of the strongest mobile patent portfolios in the industry, and has so far successfully used these patents to fend off Apple and Microsoft's patent attacks.

Now with the courts siding with the company, Motorola's position becomes stronger. Is it Apple's and Microsoft's patent Waterloo?

Maybe.

Photo Credit: mary416/Shutterstock

People in China would kill for iPhone 4S

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 8:11pm CET par Ed Oswald

The Chinese are clamoring for the iPhone 4S as it released across the country on Friday, but crowds at its flagship Beijing store became so unruly that law enforcement was called in to disperse the crowd and Apple was forced to halt sales of the the device in its retail shops.

According to press reports, "hundreds" of people began lining up for the device overnight in freezing temperatures for a chance to purchase the device. When the store failed to open at 7 am, some in the crowd became violent and began to pelt the store with eggs and yelled at employees through windows.

In a move to guarantee the safety of those involved, the crowd was informed that the sale was cancelled and police moved in to disperse crowds and cordon the area off with yellow tape. Signs were placed on windows stating the phone was "sold out".

"We were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being", Apple said in a statement.

Those in China wishing to get their hands on Apple's newest device are now forced to purchase the device online, or through China Unicom, the only official distributor of the device in the country. Either way, the excitement over iPhone shows the importance of the country to Cupertino's success.

China accounted for 16 percent of total revenue in the quarter ending September 30, 2011 -- a massive jump from the two percent the country's sales contributed to Apple's bottom line in 2009. Gartner estimates that about 10.4 percent of smartphones sold in the first nine months of 2011 were iPhones, also up dramatically year-over-year.

With such success, China's black market has proven lucrative for Apple devices, and those who procure them. The Financial Times relays the story of one of these scalpers, who was reportedly still fighting with security guards at noon because she had to "deliver the merchandise".

Photo Credits: Elizabeth Phung

Murdoch on MySpace: 'We screwed up in every way possible'

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 5:13pm CET par Ed Oswald

While his wife's Twitter account was fake, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch's is indeed real -- and on Thursday evening his followers got some real talk on his feelings over the failures of MySpace. When the company bought MySpace for around $580 million in 2005, it was thought to be the gateway to expanding Murdoch's empire to the web. Remember at the time, MySpace was the leading social network and Facebook wasn't open to the public.

That was not to be. Almost immediately following the transaction, criticism began to build. Then upstart Facebook began to catch fire, eventually matching MySpace's traffic three years after the merger.

Since then, Facebook hasn't looked back, and MySpace languished. The value of the site fell dramatically, and was sold last June for $35 million -- a 94 percent discount of the original purchase price.

Murdoch lamented the failure in a tweet from the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. "Many questions and jokes about My Space", he writes. "Simple answer -- we screwed up in every way possible, learned lots of valuable expensive lessons".

How exactly News Corp screwed up with MySpace is up for debate. Some may argue that the company failed to innovate on top of its platform, while Facebook was busy enhancing the service and finding ways to keep users on the site and maintain user interest. Others may debate that MySpace's failure to find an identity may have contributed to its downfall.

Then again, the Internet has a short attention span -- and the simplest answer is that MySpace just fell out of style with the Web consumer.

Either way, Murdoch is determined to learn from his failures. "Last day here", he writes as he, prepares to leave Consumer Electronics Show 2012. "Most top Newscorp execs will huddle to review their own digital efforts and plan forward".

Those comments sure sound like News Corp is willing to try again, but it appears they'll be much more careful this time.

Photo Credit: stocklight/Shutterstock

Privacy group demands FTC investigate Google search changes

Publié: janvier 13, 2012, 4:59pm CET par Ed Oswald

The chorus of opposition to Google's recent search changes grows louder, with Electronic Privacy Information Center urging the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into whether or not Google is violating users' privacy with the new feature.

Google settled with the FTC in March over its failed Buzz service, submitting to privacy audits for a period of 20 years as a result. EPIC is specifically concerned with personal data, photos, posts, and contact details being included in search results.

"Google's business practices raise concerns related to both competition and the implementation of the Commission's consent order", EPIC executive director Mark Rotenberg argues in a letter to the FTC.

Despite the backlash, Google continues to maintain that its social search additions are only to make searches more relevant to the user. While this may be true, the company has arguably handled the situation in the worst way possible, only exacerbating the criticism through public statements that at times seem combative at best.

Following Twitter's comments slamming Search Plus Your World, Google CEO Eric Schmidt seemed uncomfortable answering questions over claims that the company did not have the necessary permissions to add the data of its competitors.

When SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan told Schmidt that the data needed was already publicly available, he shot back "That's your opinion", without explaining why this data would not be useful to the user.

Indeed, anecdotal evidence shows that Facebook and Twitter results have been suppressed as the search engine favors Google+ results, only adding to the chorus of criticism.

Photo Credit: Santiago Cornejo/Shutterstock

Microsoft signs patent deal with LG over Android, boasts on Twitter

Publié: janvier 12, 2012, 8:20pm CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft now has licensing agreements with Android manufacturers covering 70 percent of all phones on the market following an agreement with LG over Android and Chrome OS announced Thursday. The Redmond, Wash.-based company has long maintained that "Android isn't free", and aggressively pursues licensing deals with manufacturers.

For the most part it has been successful, and already has deals with HTC, Samsung, Suanta, Copal Electronics and Wistron. Motorola resists Microsoft's efforts, but an International Trade Commission ruling finds the company is infringing on at least one Microsoft-owned patent, making an eventual deal more likely.

"We are pleased to have built upon our longstanding relationship with LG to reach a mutually beneficial agreement", deputy general counsel for intellectual property Horacio Gutierrez says. "We are proud of the continued success of our program in resolving the IP issues surrounding Android and Chrome OS".

The licensing agreements give Microsoft a cut from each Android-powered device sold. In the case of HTC, it is $5 per, and it's too much of a stretch to believe that deals with other manufacturers aren't similar. It is believed that Microsoft is making hundreds of millions of dollars in just Android licensing deals alone.

Microsoft officials took to Twitter after the deal was announced to rub it in, using the hashtag #anotherandroidlicense. Corporate communications chief Frank Shaw used a reference to the Occupy movement to make his point.

"Hey Google -- we are the 70 percent", he chided. The comment did not go over so well on Twitter, with some calling it "classless".

Shaw wasn't the only one, as general counsel Brad Smith kept up the Occupy meme. "It's time to recognize that in #patent world, lawsuits are the 1 percent; license agreements are the 99 percent", he tweeted.

Now there's advice that Apple should perhaps take -- settle rather than sue.

Criticism grows over Google's social search transition

Publié: janvier 11, 2012, 7:41pm CET par Ed Oswald

Google faces an increasing tide of criticism over its decision to tightly weave Google+ into its search results, with at least one legal expert saying that its behavior may be grounds for antitrust action. Twitter is the most vocal critic so far, with General Counsel Alex Macgillivray describing the Mountain View, Calif. company's move as "a bad day for the Internet".

"For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results anytime they wanted to find something on the Internet", Twitter says in a statement to All Things Digital. "We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users".

Indeed, Google's social results pull from no other social networks except for the company's own. While the search giant might not any longer have access to real-time tweets after the expiration of an agreement last July, publicly available feeds should be enough to populate Google's social search features at least at a high level.

But it may have been Twitter who ended the agreement, Google maintains. "We are a bit surprised by Twitter's comments about Search plus Your World, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer, and since then we have observed their rel=nofollow instructions", the company shoots back in a Google+ post. It also says that it didn't have the permission from other services to use their content.

In plain English: Twitter allegedly asked Google not to use links included in tweets to influence Google's rankings.

Facebook, potentially the other aggrieved party here, so far has made no public statements on the matter.

When SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan pointed out through public feeds Google would have any permission that it needs, Google CEO Eric Schmidt responded "that's your opinion". Schmidt also appears uncomfortable with the line of questioning in a YouTube video posted to the site, and at times combative.

Regardless of Google's defense, at least one legal expert says the actions of Google here may rise to the level of exclusionary conduct, which makes it an antitrust issue. Max Kennerly of The Beasley Firm in Philadelphia previously suggested Google's moves to favor Chrome in its search results also raised antitrust concerns.

"[Google Plus Your World] -- a mixing of search with Google verticals, or church and state, so to speak -- raises the antitrust stakes considerably", Kennerly says. "Did Google make that change as part of, in the Supreme Court's words, 'the willful acquisition or maintenance of that power as distinguished from growth or development as a consequence of a superior product, business acumen, or historic accident?'"

From that definition of exclusionary conduct, Google is definitely skirting the line. Kennerly does say that Twitter and Facebook's failure to allow the search giant to crawl either service as deeply as it can with Google+ could offer some protection.

"That might convince a judge that the new move was intended to improve user results, not to exclude Twitter and Facebook", he argues. "It’s an aggressive move, one without considerable risk".

T-Mobile USA expands HSPA+, won't 'move very fast' on LTE

Publié: janvier 11, 2012, 7:01pm CET par Ed Oswald

With its planned merger with AT&T now dead, T-Mobile USA must find ways forward to continue as a viable entity. The company late Tuesday announced that it had completed HSPA+ network upgrades in new markets, further expanding its "4G" footprint. That said, it appears in no rush to move to 4G.

T-Mobile now offers 42Mbps HSPA+ in 175 of its markets, covering an estimated 186 million people. Its slower 21Mbps HSPA+ service has also expanded, now covering 217 markets. This will likely widen shortly, as the carrier receives spectrum due as part of the merger breakup with AT&T -- but it first must gain regulatory approval.

While T-Mobile USA CEO Phillip Humm called its HSPA+ "good enough" in an interview with All Things Digital Tuesday, it still does not change that the carrier does not have a clear path to LTE, which its three larger competitors do. Humm says that LTE is in the long-term plan, but it "doesn't see a need to move very fast".

T-Mobile also debuted two 4G devices -- the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, and the Nokia Lumia 710 -- at Consumer Electronics Show 2012. "While Android powers the majority of T-Mobile smartphones, the company expects Windows Phone to also play an important role in its 2012 portfolio", according to an official statement.

Lumia 710 is the first Nokia Windows Phone to go on sale in the United States, starting today, from T-Mobile -- $49.99 with contract. On Monday, during his final CES keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the Lumia 800 is coming as well. At CES, Nokia unveiled its flagship Windows Phone, the Lumia 900, which will come to AT&T later this year.

Don't expect PlayStation 4 at E3, or any time soon

Publié: janvier 11, 2012, 5:20pm CET par Ed Oswald

Well, here's a strange Consumer Electronics Show announcement. Typically participants tout what products they will release. Sony has taken a different tack, announcing what's not coming.

The consumer electronics giant is sticking to its guns, and maintains that PlayStation 3 is a product with a 10-year life cycle. If you were hoping to see the PS4 at E3 this year, don't hold your breath. Former video game chief and now Sony chairman Kazuo Hirai told reporters at a roundtable discussion at CES that the company will not unveil a new console at the yearly conference.

Sony debuted the PS3 at E3 2005, with a release the following year. If the company stays true to its word, we may not see Sony's next generation console until 2015 at the earliest. This is a change from the typical replacement cycle for consoles, which had occurred about every five years.

Hirai's comments back up earlier statements by new video game head Andrew House, which also said no console was forthcoming. It is still unclear whether Microsoft plans to release a new console at the show: it so far has refused to make any public statements on its E3 plans: earlier reports had suggested 2014 as a possible release date.

Google's new personalized search raises antitrust concerns

Publié: janvier 10, 2012, 9:23pm CET par Ed Oswald

Google is diving deeper into personalized search results, debuting a feature called "Google Plus Your World". But the debut of the service, which pulls results from your own content plus social circles from Google-owned services may catch the ire of regulators.

The company is fighting off calls on Capitol Hill over antitrust claims, and in September found itself testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. Senators wanted to gauge the power the Mountain View, Calif. company has over the search industry, and favoring Google's own service is sure to raise questions.

Personalized results are nothing new for Google. Starting in 2005, the company began ranking search results based on personal behaviors. This expanded two years later as the company integrated Google Account with its search functionality, and in 2009 Google began to integrate social results into the mix.

These social results are now intermixed with web results, and Tuesday's changes take it to the next level. Google now pulls from the user's own social accounts on Google as well as those people connected to him or her. Google+ gets tighter integration into the new search page, with relevant profiles and pages showing up in autocomplete as the user types a query.

By making Google+ such a large part of search -- as well as Picasa -- Google certainly is toeing the line of a company using monopoly to extend its reach into adjacent markets. Consider Microsoft's moves with Internet Explorer, which was bundled with Windows starting in 1998. Microsoft used its monopoly on PC operating systems to nudge into the browser market, where Netscape had overwhelming market share lead. How is what Google is doing different?

Consider this quote from Google Fellow Amit Singhal, and it sure seems like what's being introduced Tuesday is just the tip of the iceberg: "Search is simply better with your world in it, and we’re just getting started".

Such a feature is sure to accelerate usage of Google+. According to Hitwise, traffic to Google's social networking site was up 55 percent in December month-to-month. It's not clear exactly what caused this massive uptick, however, the holiday season may have resulted in the gifting of quite a few Android devices, which in turn may have resulted in increased usage of Google+.

Users will not be forced to use the new page layout. Results minus social connections can be seen by clicking the world icon button found on the upper right of results, and social results can be toggled back on by clicking the person icon also at the upper right. If a user so chooses, they can also search entirely within their own social circle, Singhal notes.

When social results are included, those results are indicated by a blue person icon to the left of the listing. Also, certain queries such as those on music or sports for example will generate a sidebar on the right hand side of the results. This sidebar displays relevant posts from Google+ within the user's circle of friends.

"You can connect with them on Google+, strike up meaningful conversations and discover entire communities in a way that simply wasn’t possible before", Singhal argues.

It's important to note that the social aspect of the new Google is completely dependent on Google+. Content from other social networks is not included, however, Google is not ruling out adding these networks in the future. Singhal says the terms of service prevent the company from crawling deeply enough to make the new personalized search results relevant, so it's up to those companies to reach out to Google.

That may not be enough for regulators who are looking at Google as the next big monopoly.

Get smoked by Windows Phone, win $100

Publié: janvier 10, 2012, 6:48pm CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft is eager to prove itself in the mobile space, and is putting down $100 at Consumer Electronics Show 2012 betting Windows Phone can "smoke" the competition. Microsoft evangelist Ben Rudolph is roaming halls of the show this week, angling to duel with any willing participant. You win? You get $100 on the spot. You lose? Well, you have to admit defeat at the hands of Microsoft.

You got to admit, at least Microsoft isn't fading away into the CES night without a good fight or two first to prove it's still relevant.

"I’m so confident that Windows Phone makes things faster and easier that I’m willing to put a hundred bucks on the line to prove it", Rudolph writes in a blog post announcing the competition.

Participants are allowed any means necessary to perform the tasks, and pretty much any phone. Rudolph plans to be at the booth on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, but says he will spend the rest of the time roaming the streets of Las Vegas looking for challengers.

So, if you're in Las Vegas this week, and think Windows Phone is inferior to your smartphone and its operating system, head on over to Microsoft's booth and prove it. Who knows, you might just win $100 for it.

Of course, we'll let you know if we find out if anyone actually beats Rudolph.

Sony aims to shake up HDTV with Crystal LED technology

Publié: janvier 10, 2012, 5:00pm CET par Ed Oswald

These days, innovation in HDTVs is hard to come by. However, Sony is ready to change the industry with its new crystal LED displays on display this week at Consumer Electronics Show 2012. While the technology is nowhere near ready for production, the Japanese electronics maker made it one of its key announcements during a keynote Monday night.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer saved no rhetorical flourish while describing picture quality: "Your eyes will pop, your mouths will water, you'll tell your friends 'I have seen the future, and it's a Sony'". The company claims the color reproduction is far superior to an LCD television set, the technology powering a significant portion of HDTVs.

The light source in Sony's LED displays is mounted on the front of the television versus the backlit setup of LCD. This improves light use efficiency, which in theory results in a brighter and more vivid picture. While LED HDTVs have so far been relegated to smaller sized sets, Sony says crystal LED will allow it to produce larger screened models.

Indeed, the prototype set on stage with Stringer measured in at 55 inches, far bigger than any current LED set on the market. Like a lot of new technologies shown off at CES, there's no timetable for commercial release. Sony only offers that it "will work conscientiously to bring the 'Crystal LED Display' to market".

The HDTV market could definitely use a shot in the arm. Sales of 3D HDTVs more than doubled over last holiday season, however even with such impressive results it was not enough to keep the overall sector from flatlining year over year.

Is crystal LED 'it', though? Or could it be OLED, a competing technology with similar benefits that comes out on top? That's an unknown at this point. LG is set to have a 55-inch model on the market by the middle of this year, but so far the technology has proven expensive to size up beyond the smartphone and tablet screens where it is most commonly found.

Ahead of CES, health of the consumer electronics industry questioned

Publié: janvier 9, 2012, 8:01am CET par Ed Oswald

As the technology industry gears up for its yearly confab in Las Vegas this week, new data suggests the consumer electronics industry is primed for significant contraction. Research firm NPD says sales fell 5.9 percent in the five weeks ending on Christmas Eve. This data confirms news out of various retailers indicating weak sales in electronics last month.

Sears Holdings used poor sales of consumer electronics in both its Sears and Kmart stores as part of a reason behind closing underperforming locations. Target and Costco warned of disappointing numbers due to slower than expected sales, and Best Buy reported same-store sales down 1.2 percent year-over-year for the month of December.

It's difficult to pinpoint an exact reason for the weakness. One possible argument is the replacement cycles for consumer electronics is becoming longer now that consumers have less disposable income. Another possible reason along those lines could be a larger number of budget conscious shoppers, waiting for the maximum discount before making a purchase. Best Buy's data shows this "wait and see" attitude: the company reports sales picked up in the final week before Christmas.

Regardless, this is not the news you want out right before the Consumer Electronics Show. A glut of new products is about to hit the shelves soon: these companies are facing a substantially smaller market.

Last year CES was awash in tablets, leading several pundits -- including myself -- to speculate that the holiday season would be filled with closeout inventory. Were were right. This year though the price slashing may run far deeper, though.

NPD reports that the hardest hit sectors were camcorders, down 43 percent year over year. Digital picture frame sales also plummeted, down 38 percent. GPS sales were down a third, while MP3 players fell 20 percent and Blu-ray players 17 percent.

PC and TV sales are also down slightly (four percent), but this is a sector that has been underperforming for several years now. "2011 was the first year in quite awhile where the real drags on the core (consumer electronics) marketplace were not TVs and PCs", NPD industry analysis chief Stephen Baker adds.

What are consumer electronics manufacturers to do? The simplest answer is to make compelling products. Like any retail business, when sales fall those in charge of buying will buy less and be much more discerning in what they carry.

This could have the unintended benefit of far less crap making it to store shelves, but it will likely create the domino effect of causing further contraction in the industry, I'd think. One thing is certain: even as the US economy shows signs of improving -- finally -- the real pain for the tech sector is still to come.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Vizio aims to disrupt the crowded budget PC market, but can it?

Publié: janvier 7, 2012, 11:33pm CET par Ed Oswald

Aiming to get out ahead of the the news crush that is the Consumer Electronics Show, Vizio on Saturday made the rounds of the major news outlets hawking its latest line of products: computers. While the company all but created the budget market when it comes to HDTVs -- building a considerable amount of positive brand equity as a result -- the PC business is much different.

Vizio will debut two desktops and three notebook computers at CES. While an official announcement has yet to appear, we do know that the desktops will come in 24- and 27-inch sizes, with the PC components tucked behind the display in an all-in-one design that looks quite similar to Apple's iMac desktops. A wireless keyboard and mouse are included with the package, along with a subwoofer and remote control.

While on the subject of Apple one has to wonder if Vizio's design will catch the attention of lawyers in Cupertino. Apple has shown a propensity to sue when its competitors release products that look similar to its own, and Vizio's new desktops fit that bill. Look at the pictures, I'm sure you can see the similarities. It's pretty stunning.

Simply, the desktops look like iMac, and the laptops like MacBook Air. Even down to the aluminum unibody casing. Somebody's not going to be happy.

Anyway, I do digress. The notebooks will come in two sizes, 14 and 15.6 inches. Described by Vizio chief technology officer Matt McRae in press interviews as "thin and light", these two models appear targeted for the average consumer while an additional 15.6-inch model is aimed at those looking for additional performance.

Vizio will give these PCs the capability to send media to Vizio speakers and televisions, it says. Software to make this a reality is currently under development and will probably ship around the time of launch.

Pricing has not been disclosed, although McRae tells Bloomberg it will be at "a price that just doesn’t seem possible", whatever that means. The PCs go on sale in June.

While budget PCs may seem like a natural progression for Vizio considering its moves into other electronics sectors -- including tablets -- the industry is completely different than HDTVs. Vizio has built its brand around value, and much of its share in the market (now competing with market-leading Samsung for the top spot) is due to that strategy.

The PC market is not the HDTV market. First off, budget PCs have been around for much of this decade, with already established players. Second, the market is already crowded. Why do you think HP flirted with ditching its own PC business? Finally, the sheer competitiveness of this industry has driven down margins quite a bit which makes profiting a difficult proposition.

In other words, Vizio coming in and accelerating the race to the bottom may end up hurting everybody in the end, including itself. There is only so low you can go before a market no longer is viable. We'll see how well Vizio's newest product line is received, and we will report more from the floor of CES next week.

Broadcom debuts next WiFi standard at CES 2012

Publié: janvier 5, 2012, 7:06pm CET par Ed Oswald

Broadcom says it is using the platform of the Consumer Electronics Show next week to debut fifth generation wireless networking technology, dubbed 802.11ac. The wireless standard promises speeds of up to 1.3Gbps, which would make 802.11ac about three times as fast as 802.11n. It will also be about six times as power efficient, perfect for portable devices.

802.11ac promises greater range than its predecessors. While like previous technologies, top speeds are only attainable less than 10 meters from the transmitter. However, due to the speed bump alone 802.11n speeds are still theoretically attainable 60 meters away. This obviously makes wireless networking more viable in larger spaces.

Increased speed allows for devices to transfer a greater amount of data in a shorter time, which conserves battery power. In most portable devices, WiFi connectivity is one of the biggest draws on the battery. By eliminating the need for long connection times to download data, battery life of these devices will then increase, Broadcom argues.

The company will release four chips initially: the BCM4360, BCM4352, BCM43526, and BCM43516. Samples of these chips have been sent to manufacturers for testing, and Broadcom plans to demonstrate the capabilities of 802.11ac to CES attendees.

Several electronics companies including Asus, D-Link, Huawei, and LG have announced plans to integrate the technology into future products. No announcement has been made on a time frame for consumer availability, however.

Photo Credit: 21thDesign/Shutterstock

Logitech Cube might be CES 2012's ugliest product

Publié: janvier 5, 2012, 6:32pm CET par Ed Oswald

In a move that looks more like a clever ploy to attract bloggers and journalists to their booth at next week's Consumer Electronics Show than a product with any actual hope of success in the marketplace, Logitech on Thursday introduced the Cube. The rectangular shaped device is a mouse primarily, although it doubles as a presenter.

The square shape sure will take some getting used to, especially considering the design of the mouse has all but been unchanged in its three decades of existence. Why? Because it works. Remember Apple's circular mice that came with the original iMacs? They were derided for one reason -- ergonomics -- and the Cube seems destined for a similar fate.

I just don't see this thing being comfortable, and that's a big issue.

Scrolling is performed by running the finger across the top of the Cube. Lifting the device off the table will activate "Presenter Mode", and clicking the top will advance to the next slide. Logitech is also throwing its Unifying 2.4GHz wireless receiver into the package, allowing the user to connect up to six compatible devices to the receiver without the need for multiple dongles.

Logitech will begin selling the Cube this month in both the United States and Europe for $69.99, however it has decided to only sell it online. Maybe that's because this seems more gimmicky than anything? I do digress.

Windows Phone partners will spend $100M, not $200M, launching Nokia Ace

Publié: janvier 4, 2012, 6:49pm CET par Ed Oswald

I was right and stand by my reporting.

Following BetaNews' report of Microsoft and its partners $100 million ad bonanza surrounding the launch of the the Nokia Ace in March, additional misinformation has surfaced about the Redmond, Wash.-based company's plans to push Windows Phone to the forefront after languishing for so long at the back of the pack -- that the number is higher.

Paul Thurrott of WinSuperSite claims this morning that BetaNews' original story is incorrect, stating that the marketing effort behind Windows Phone is $200 million. Okay then, but that wasn't the point of my reporting.

His blog post is a misrepresentation of our original report, so let's set the record straight here.

Nowhere in the piece did I say anything about Windows Phone's entire budget, that was not the story. For the Ace, it's $100 million. Period. I've circled back to our sources, and was told the same. Thurrott's presentation of the numbers themselves are inaccurate.

One source put it to me this way, which says it better than I could. "Of course if you add up every single phone launched in 2012 it will end up being more than $200 million", he says. "This holiday if all goes well, even Verizon will get in on the act". So there's a good chance that Thurrott's numbers themselves are inaccurate because at this point we do not know how successful the Nokia Ace launch will be.

From everything I've put together here, marketing for Windows Phone overall is highly dependent on the performance of the Ace. If this marketing blitz works, the folks in Redmond are going to spend more money. If it does not, it will be status quo.

Here's the thing: in this world of scoops, sometimes people get a little bent out of shape when they're beaten to the punch on a particular story. But misrepresenting the work of somebody else to trump their scoop is not appropriate in the slightest.

Shame on you Paul, I certainly expected a little more courtesy than that.

Windows Phone partners bet $100M on Nokia Ace

Publié: janvier 4, 2012, 3:41am CET par Ed Oswald

The importance of the Nokia Ace to Microsoft's mobile plans is apparent as sources tell BetaNews of a major marketing push for the smartphone in the second quarter of this year. The Ace will launch in late March, sources confirm, along with a marketing campaign that will run in the neighborhood of $100 million. However, sources were reluctant to say exactly how that $100 million spend might be divvied up among the principals -- AT&T, Microsoft or Nokia.

The Ace will launch first on AT&T, where Microsoft has reached an agreement with the carrier to give it "hero" status. This means that AT&T itself will promote the device in its advertising, through its retail channels and direct store associates to push the device within its stores.
Such a move is a first for a Windows Phone here in the United States, a place where the platform has languished behind larger competitors. The most recent market share data from comScore indicates that Microsoft's mobile platform has only been able to manage a 5.4 percent share. Compare this to market-leading Android whose 46.3 percent share leads all other platforms.

From that, it's perfectly clear why Microsoft is betting so much on the Ace -- it needs a hero, and it needs one soon. "Finally", was the reaction to the news by one source close to Microsoft.

"Microsoft will be spending heavily to promote Windows Phone, and that will likely include marketing subsidies for the coalition of the willing, in this case Nokia and AT&T", Roger Kay, Endpoint Technologies president, conjectures. "So, in some sense, it's not a fair measure. You'd have to ask whether these two would be doing all this without Microsoft's help. Maybe they would".

Ace's success will likely play a significant role in later marketing plans for Windows Phone devices. One source indicated that Microsoft hopes to get carriers to "hero" another future device for the holiday season, but that will depend on sales of the Ace through the second and third quarters of this year.

"The real measure is going to be whether other hardware OEMs/carriers take up the cry", Kay says. "We've seen a number of times when a single ODM or OEM backed a product heavily promoted by a supplier, only to have that be the last we heard of it".

Only time will tell whether Nokia's soon-to-be newest Windows Phone will be Microsoft's ace in the hole, so to speak.

Photo Credit: Hirurg/Shutterstock

Windows Phone steps up its game in 2012 with new devices at CES

Publié: janvier 3, 2012, 8:28pm CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft is betting on Windows Phone and is leaning on close partner Nokia to execute that strategy. Details have leaked of the latest Windows Phone-powered device from the Finnish phone maker, dubbed the Lumia 900. To be sold in the United States as the Nokia Ace, the device will be the Windows Phone flagship.

Smartphone news site Pocketnow says that the smartphone will sport a 4.3-inch WVGA screen, 512MB of RAM, 8-megapixel camera, and 1830 mAh battery. Compared to the Lumia 710 and 800 -- which were Nokia's first Windows Phone powered devices launched in October -- the screen is much larger although its camera is the same resolution as the 800.

The site posted leaked pictures purportedly of the Ace last week, which also shows that the phone will have a front-facing camera. These specs seem to match up well with a phone pictured in a promotional ad for the Microsoft-Nokia partnership posted to YouTube in November.

Obviously, Nokia and Microsoft are acknowledging the trend in smartphones these days for bigger screens, and ensuring Windows Phone is a player in that space.

Pocketnow does not specify what processor powers the Lumia 900, although the previous two Windows devices ran on a Qualcomm 1.4GHz mobile processor. What is certainly different is the addition of LTE, which likely contributes to the additional weight of the device.

Nokia is likely to make both CDMA and GSM variants of the smartphone, although from the news it's apparent that AT&T will get first dibs. T-Mobile is also likely to eventually see the 900 as most newer Nokia handsets contain the 1700MHz AWS band necessary to allow phones to operate on the carrier.

AT&T will debut at least two other Windows Phone devices in 2012 sporting LTE according to reports: the HTC Radiant and Samsung Mendel. Windows pundit Paul Thurrott claims the Ace has a release date of March 28, but did not specify release dates for either the Radiant or Mendel, saying "before the middle of 2012".

In any case, it's a good bet that these devices (if not all) will make an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show next week. BetaNews will have a crew in Las Vegas next week, and finding the Lumia 900 is on the to-do list.

10 resolutions Apple should make for 2012

Publié: janvier 1, 2012, 4:31pm CET par Ed Oswald

This is the first year Apple will operate without its co-founder and leader Steve Jobs. To move forward without him, what does the company need to do in the new year? While I've never fancied myself a prognosticator, I do have a few suggestions on what the Cupertino, Calif. company needs to do.

Some have to do with changing the way Apple works and does business; others require some hard decisions on Apple's product lines. Either way, 2012 will give us the first glimpse whether or not Apple can move on from its past and iconic leader.

1. Tim Cook asserts his leadership. While Cook has pretty much handled Apple's day-to-day operations since Jobs' first medical leave in 2009, he was not able to truly act as Apple's CEO till after the cofounder's resignation in August.

The year 2012 needs to be the year that Cook makes Apple his own. While Jobs has been dead for almost three months now, the company still lives in his shadow. The best thing Cook could do is make his mark in 2012: it would do a lot to alleviate concerns that the company cannot survive without Jobs.

2. Pick its legal battles with Android wisely. Android and Apple seem to be locked in an ever increasingly ridiculous patent battle. While some of these are arguably legitimate -- involving functionality concerns -- a lot of these are not. My favorite so far is Apple's suit against Samsung over cases (yeah, really). It's not very often where I agree with my colleague Joe Wilcox, but this is definitely one of those occassions. Stop wasting time on such meaningless litigation.

3. Expand iPhone distribution. With AT&T's deal to acquire T-Mobile now dead, Apple needs to bring the device to the carrier. There is anecdotal evidence that the iPhone 4S (and the 4, too) can support it. It also should work hard to strike more deals with regional carriers like it did with C Spire Wireless. Apple may never be able to jump ahead of Android in smartphones, but it can certainly continue to tread water. Distribution is key here.

4. Adopt LTE sooner rather than later. Apple has good reasons for waiting on 4G LTE: only one carrier in the United States (Verizon) has a robust 4G network, and LTE phones are only now starting to get a grip on the battery life issues that plagued most devices before them. Either way, LTE is set to have a big year and Apple will soon be behind the 8-ball.

Apple should push to have the iPhone 5 out much quicker than the end of the year, and during the summer if at all possible.

5. Make a decision on iPod. What to do with Apple's once signature line? The iPod seems to be aging rapidly now, and sales are continuing to fall. It seems close to the time that Apple needs to decide how much longer it wants to commit to the market here, given its business now revolves around the iPhone and iPad. All in all, it looks likely that the iPod lineup shrinks in 2012.

6. Go big. The iPhone 5 cannot maintain the current form factor. Today's mobile phone users demand larger screens -- it's just the nature of what we're using these devices for these days. Apple should not take it to an extreme, such as the five-inch monstrosities that we've seen out of Android manufacturers lately. But at a minimum, the next iPhone's screen needs to be four inches, probably a little more.

7. Go small. Apple needs to look at its iPad line and seriously consider a smaller device. While 7-inch tablets have largely been poo-pooed by most analysts (and rightfully so, these devices just don't sell well), the Kindle Fire has proven that one can if it's done right.

iOS still is superior to Android when it comes to use on tablets, although Ice Cream Sandwich has all but erased that advantage. There's no doubt in my mind that an "iPad lite" will do well, even if its just to the company's loyal consumer base.

8. Reconsider pricing strategies. Apple does not discount, but it does sometimes play games with pricing to make products appear cheaper. It has already shown a willingess to play with its Free/$99/$199 iPhone pricing structure, and all reports indicate it has worked well. Bring this to the iPad and take away one of Amazon's biggest advantages: price.

Sooner or later Apple's going to have to do it, and 2012 seems like as good of a time as ever. Don't cede any more ground to Android, that's what I say.

9. Decentralize power and delegate. Steve Jobs was all but a megalomaniac. When it came to running Apple, it was his way or the highway. While he may have thought this was the best way to run a company, we all know it's not. Tim Cook and company must change the way Apple operates and distribute power out to the rest of its officers.

Apple arguably has one of the top tier executive teams in Silicon Valley. Under Jobs, these folks were being underutilized. Phil Schiller has a great marketing mind; Peter Oppenheimer understands how to make money. And some could argue that Scott Forstall is the closest that Apple has to the second Steve Jobs. Which leads me to my next point...

10. Utilize Scott Forstall. He is the future. No matter what Tim Cook does, I just do not see him as the future of the company. While he is the perfect person for the immediate post-Jobs era, giving Apple the structure and discipline it needs right now, long term I think he lacks the vision. This is where Scott Forstall comes in.

Forstall carries himself much like Jobs did. You could also credit a lot of the success around the iOS platform -- now Apple's key business -- to him. If Apple is looking long-term for another Steve Jobs, I'd certainly argue that Forstall is the closest to it.

While I believe this list is pretty exhaustive, I'm sure some of our BetaNews readers have suggestions on what resolutions they think Apple should hold itself to in 2012. What are they? Let us know in the comments.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words / Shutterstock

Critical ASP.NET security patch means extra hours for IT over the holiday weekend

Publié: décembre 30, 2011, 8:32pm CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday is not until January 10, but the company is not waiting to patch a critical flaw in computers with the ASP.NET framework installed. The issue affects all currently supported versions of Windows, according to a security bulletin from the company.

According to Microsoft's description of the flaw, an issue exists in how the framework handles certain web request. If an attacker sends a request in a certain way, it could allow for elevation of privilege that may result in the execution of arbitrary code. The flaw is not easy to exploit, however, as the attacker needs to know some information about the victim.

"In order to exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must be able to register an account on the ASP.NET site, and must know an existing user name", Microsoft says. Regardless, it means IT administrators may find their holiday weekends a bit shortened as they rush to deploy the fix. Hackers know that IT monitoring is lax over the holidays, making this time of year perfect to launch attacks.

The issue also appears to pose a Denial-of-Service risk. Exploiting the vulnerability correctly may result in 100 percent of available CPU processes to be used up, which will allow for the attacker to take down an unpatched site in short order.

"The vulnerability exists because of the way that ASP.NET hashes specially crafted requests and inserts that data into a hash table causing a hash collision. When many of these collisions are chained together, the performance of the hash table is greatly degraded leading to the denial of service condition", Microsoft explains.

This out-of-cycle patch follows a rather busy Patch Tuesday in December where the company issued 13 separate patches, including three critical fixes. Those patches fixed code execution risks in the Windows kernel, ActiveX, and Windows Media.

Photo Credit: gualtiero boffi/Shutterstock

Verizon blames 4G network outages on 'growing pains'

Publié: décembre 30, 2011, 7:52pm CET par Ed Oswald

Verizon's claim of being the nation's most reliable network sure took a hit this month. At least three separate outages occurred during December, frustrating customers. The carrier's statement, however, could not be more non-committal, as it blames the outages on the perils of building out its 4G LTE network.

"Being a pioneer comes with growing pains", the carrier says in a statement. "The recent issues that affected our customers' 4GLTE service were unforeseen despite careful, diligent planning, deployment and ongoing upgrade programs". Each of the three outages were blamed on different issues, which engineers have since remedied to prevent those issues from occurring again.

In all cases, LTE customers maintained some level of service, often being redirected to Verizon's 3G network. Despite the three incidents during December, Verizon's LTE network recorded a 99 percent uptime during 2011, it stresses.

The carrier has been agressive in its LTE rollout, and was the first major carrier to offer the technology in the United States when the 4G network launched in December 2010 (MetroPCS was first overall, launching LTE in Las Vegas in September of that year). Since then, its network has expanded to cover about 200 million people in 190 markets. Compare this to AT&T's LTE network, available in only 15 cities.

It is possible that this aggressive rollout may have contributed to Verizon's issues, but without specifics on the nature of the network issues it's hard to say. Another possibility could be sourced back to its LTE push itself. Verizon has had two major LTE device rollouts in the past two months alone: the Galaxy Nexus and the Motorola Droid RAZR. Anecdotal data indicates that both have sold well.

Verizon also has seven other LTE smartphones in its lineup -- the HTC Rezound and Thunderbolt, the Samsung Stratosphere and Droid Charge, the Pantech Breakout, Motorola's Droid Bionic, and the LG Revolution. Since the launch of its network last year, the company released just about one new device per month since the Thunderbolt, Verizon's first LTE phone that launched in March.

Add this to a host of tablets, hotspots, and USB modems also now in Verizon's portfolio, and it's not too much to deduce that a significant segment of Verizon's smart device users moved over to the LTE network during 2011. Was the network ready for it? Maybe not.

Regardless, the company is taking steps to ensure reliability which is a hallmark of its marketing.

"Among the numerous measures we have taken or will take are: geographic segmentation, which enables us to isolate, contain and rectify network performance issues, and maintain service to the majority of customers when an issue does develop; and software fixes that we have developed, tested and applied regularly -- and will continue to do so".

"We will not rest until our 4GLTE network performs at the very highest levels that our customers have come to expect from us", the company concludes.

Got new Apple toys for Christmas? Don't get taken by phishers

Publié: décembre 27, 2011, 7:35pm CET par Ed Oswald

There were quite a few new iPods and iPhones under the Christmas tree this year, so that makes a new phishing scam making the rounds this week all the more dangerous. Security firm Intego says that it is receiving reports of faked Apple emails asking users to update their billing information. They started around Christmas Day.

The message comes with the grammatically incorrect title "Apple update your Billing Information". The email itself though looks almost identical to a genuine message from the Cupertino, Calif.-based company, complete with a grey page-like background with the Apple logo in the upper right hand corner. The email warns that the user's billing information is out of date and needs to be updated, also with uncharacteristic bad grammar.

"Failure to update your records will result in billing termination", the faked message warns. The link provided is a numerical address, and not from apple.com like it should be. Intego says clicking on the link will take the user to a page that looks like a sign-in for Apple, and after signing in the page asks for updated account information, including credit card numbers.

Obviously, filling this out will not only compromise your iTunes account, but your credit card information as well. "We hope you’ll be careful if you’re new to Macs and Apple products", Intego writes in a blog post from Monday.

As with any email requesting account information, always take all steps to verify that it is legitimate. Links should point to a website on the company's server, and the security certificate should be assigned to the company in question. Many modern browsers -- including Firefox and Chrome -- already check for this, and will warn of possible issues or known phishing sites.

Hey, Santa, which tech execs were naughty or nice this year?

Publié: décembre 22, 2011, 7:01pm CET par Ed Oswald

Christmastime is coming soon, Santa's on his way. As jolly old St. Nick makes his rounds of Silicon Valley this weekend, which tech CEOs will be on his "Naughty" and "Nice" lists this year? We here at BetaNews are secret elves, and we'd like to help out the man in red by giving our opinion on who should get what they asked for, and who needs a big lump of coal.

Some of our picks are pretty obvious, while others may surprise you. Our list is intended to make you think and to spur some discussion on the trends in tech during 2011. Either way, we want to hear from you on who you think deserves to be on this list. We'll follow up Friday with your responses.

On The "Naughty" List

Leo Apotheker, former HP CEO: Oh, Leo. You came in with blazing glory to replace shamed CEO Mark Hurd. But I gotta say, you left with about as much shame but for different reasons. You attempted to ditch your company's signature consumer PC business, and tossed out TouchPad before it even had a chance to establish itself. This all while HP found itself missing sales targets. Not a way to get on Santa's good side, eh?

Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazardis, co-CEOs of RIM: Before I start, is it too much to ask for a single CEO at RIM? Two of them certainly aren't cutting it. RIM as a company is failing, with trouble in meeting deadlines for its BlackBerry 10 OS, and an inability to produce compelling devices. Its flirtation with the tablet market has been a disaster, and so has its stock price, which is down a staggering 80% percent from its February high. It's time to face the music here...

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft: Everyone knows we love to pick on Mr. Ballmer here at BetaNews in our commentaries, but it's well deserved. As CEO of your company, you're expected to perform. Ballmer's record isn't too stellar. Since he took the helm of Microsoft in 2000, the company has had few successes. Look at its stock price, too: essentially stagnant at or around $25 for the past decade. What other chief executive would be able to get away with such crappy share performance?

Reed Hastings, Netflix: No CEO is more deserving of being on our naughty list this year than Mr. Hastings. First he and his company jacked up the rate for keeping both DVDs by mail and streaming by 60 percent. Then Hastings decides to spin off the DVD business into something called Qwikster, but quickly takes that back. That's not it: after all this he goes on YouTube and admits he really screwed up. This while customers begin to second guess their Netflix subscriptions. Not building a good case for a big gift there, Reed!

Steve Jobs, late CEO of Apple: We are saddened to give Mr. Jobs this distinction posthumously. But it's deserved. Why? Apple's relentless patent attacks against competitors licensing Android. Take this quote from his biography: "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this". All these patent lawsuits aren't play-nice behavior. How could Santa approve?

On The "Nice" List

Meg Whitman, HP CEO: Color us surprised. Fresh off her not too successful run for governor of California, we think Santa's happy with Meg this year. She's hit the ground running with HP, making the right decision in keeping the company's consumer PC business in house, and at least giving WebOS a chance by spinning it off into open source. Her hints at a possible WebOS tablet again in 2013 make us think that she's ready to completely repudiate Apotheker's leadership.

Jack Dorsey, Square CEO: Mr. Dorsey deserves Santa's attention just for what his company has done to credit card processing. Once a luxury of big business, now anyone can process credit cards and at a reasonable rate. Offering features like next-day deposits makes it all the better. There's no wonder that Square now processes some $4 million in transactions per day in less than a year in existence.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon: To his shareholders, Mr. Bezos couldn't be anything but nice. He understands that it's just not the product itself, but the ecosystem around it. This is why Kindle Fire will be so successful, and Amazon likely will soon be the de-facto Android device manufacturer. While Kindle Fire is certainly getting a little bit of pushback over some growing pains and quality issues, Amazon as a whole is doing extraordinarily well for its first entry into the tablet sector. Besides, we've heard from unnamed sources, Mrs. Claus bought a Kindle Fire for Santa's stocking.

We'd love to publish a second list from you. Please tell us which tech CEOs you think were naughty or nice this year, in comments.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Can CES survive without Microsoft?

Publié: décembre 22, 2011, 12:55am CET par Ed Oswald

It is a move sure to change the dynamics of the Consumer Electronics Show, and one the tech media may not have expected so soon. Microsoft announced Wednesday that CES 2012 is the last it will maintain a significant presence. After this January? No keynotes, no booth. Attendees won't even know the Redmond, Wash.-based company is there in 2013. If you want to gawk at a CEO Steve Ballmer CES keynote, next year's show is your ticket, and the last.

"We won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing", says Frank Shaw, head of corporate communications at Microsoft. "It feels like the right time to make this transition".

Shaw extends the typical pleasantries to the Consumer Electronics Association for their two-decade relationship and how Microsoft looks forward to working with the organization "for many years to come". But the writing is on the wall here: CES is outliving its usefulness.

Microsoft is by no means the first company to end its relationship with a conference like CES. Apple long was the signature exhibitor at IDG's Macworld Expo, as well as the keynote. Cofounder Steve Jobs and Apple used the event to launch new products, which during the company's rise made the event a must-go on many a tech journalist's calendar.

That ended in 2009, when, after Apple announced in December 2008, that year's Macworld keynote was its last. The Cliff's Notes of its reasoning? The company could do such events better on its own, and on its own terms.

Shaw seems to follow this reasoning in his own explanation of Microsoft's move. The company was essentially forced to plan its product rollouts around the CES keynote, when the tech press expects them to make major announcements. This puts unnecessary pressure on the company.

This year's keynote was a good example of this problem. It was a bore and upstaged earlier in the day by a big Microsoft announcement -- that Windows 8 would support ARM processors. If the journalists in attendance are unenthused, what do you think they're going to write?

As I said earlier, CES as an event has outlived its usefulness. In my seven years covering tech, I've been to one CES (that's in 2006). It wasn't a good experience. In the fewest words possible, it was too big, too crowded, and too confusing. But don't take my word for it -- listen to other tech journalists who have gone many more times than me.

I am hearing my own observations repeated by those long-time CES-goers. It's a problem for CES with no easy fix. And it's not going away any time soon.

The dynamics of the tech news media have changed since CES' humble beginnings. While years ago a yearly confab made sense, in these days of the 24-hour news cycle it doesn't work. Wait all year to make that big splashy (and expensive) CES announcement, and you run the risk of some blogger blowing your cover wide open. These companies can get a bigger bang out of their own events where they are the show, and the focus is on them.

I am not saying that CES is dead. But Microsoft's exit is a sign of the times and the start of a shift in how technology companies get their products out in front of the media and consumers. I can't say I blame them.

Verizon's LTE network returning to normal after second outage

Publié: décembre 21, 2011, 6:56pm CET par Ed Oswald

Verizon 4G customers are experiencing issues with connectivity for the second time this month as the carrier struggles to restore the network. Issues are being reported throughout the company's nationwide 4G LTE network, although the cause is not immediately known.

"Verizon Wireless 4G LTE service is returning to normal this morning, after company engineers worked to resolve an issue with the 4G network during the early morning hours today", the company says. "Throughout this time, 4G LTE customers were able to make voice calls and send and receive text messages. The 3G data network operated normally".

Wednesday morning's downtime follows another incident two weeks ago where LTE customers also were blocked from using data, although voice and texting remained operational. It is not immediately clear whether the two incidents are related, but it certainly gives a black eye to the carrier that prides itself on its coverage and service through its advertising.

In both cases, the entire network did not fail. The issue appeared to be extensive though, with posters to Verizon Wireless' support forums reporting outages in places such as Cleveland, Denver, New York City, Minneapolis, Raleigh-Durham, NC, and Washington, DC among other places.

More recent posts indicate that the network is slowly returning, but some remained out as of midday Wednesday. "Still down in OKC", poster SeaJohn reports. "My dissatisfaction with Verizon is sadly growing greater with each week".

Google is Firefox's Christmas Miracle

Publié: décembre 20, 2011, 10:44pm CET par Ed Oswald

It's no secret that Mozilla needs Google. The Mountain View, Calif. search company provides a significant source of revenue for the software company, as it is the default search in Firefox. That deal has been extended an additional three years, the two companies announced on Tuesday.

"Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come", Google's search chief Alan Eustace says. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it may be safe to assume that it will contribute somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million yearly to Mozilla's bottom line.

In 2010, the Google partnership accounted for 84 percent of Mozilla's $123 million in revenues or about $103 million. Losing such a lucrative partnership would spell trouble for the company considering its weakening position in the browser market.

Google's Chrome is making significant inroads in terms of market share, quickly growing to near parity with Firefox according to recent surveys. With Chrome quickly closing in, now is not the time for Mozilla to rock the boat.

Putting it simply: Google pulls out, and Mozilla collapses. That said it still poses an interesting dichotomy, where Mozilla's biggest benefactor is also now its biggest competitor. How much longer does Google let Firefox stick around, or better yet -- how much longer does Mozilla depend on Google for its well-being?

Photo Credit: Gorilla/Shutterstock

T-Mobile USA customers are big winners in failed merger

Publié: décembre 20, 2011, 8:49pm CET par Ed Oswald

With details emerging on what exactly T-Mobile USA gets as a result of the dissolution of the merger between it and AT&T, it appears in at least the short term the struggling carrier will receive a much needed boost. AT&T is entering in to a seven year roaming agreement with T-Mobile that dramatically increases the carrier's coverage area.

"Coverage will be extended to many regions of the U.S. in which T-Mobile USA previously had neither its own high-speed mobile communications network nor the associated roaming agreements", Deutsche Telekom says. AT&T will award T-Mobile USA a significant amount of AWS spectrum, which will help T-Mobile USA dramatically accelerate its 4G deployment.

That spectrum is in 128 different markets, and in 12 of the top 20 markets in the country. This includes Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Baltimore and Seattle, according to the company.

With additional spectrum and a generous roaming agreement, the real winner is the T-Mobile customer. Long-time customers know of the carrier's struggles, whether it be poor rural service or lack of spectrum (especially in major metropolitan areas). Access to AT&T's robust network could also make T-Mobile more competitive in the end, as consumers will need to worry less about coverage concerns than they had to before the roaming agreements.

All of this is in addition to a $3 billion breakup fee that AT&T is now forced to pay Deutsche Telekom, one of the highest payments for a termination of a merger in history.

That said, the German telecommunications company seems grateful for the work AT&T did in trying to salvage the difficult deal, even though it ended up being for naught.

"Deutsche Telekom would like to express its gratitude to AT&T and to Randall Stephenson and his team for the positive cooperation over the past few months", DT says. "Our working relationship was characterized by fairness and respect at all times".

Samsung serves up Ice Cream Sandwich

Publié: décembre 20, 2011, 7:40pm CET par Ed Oswald

Owners of Samsung's Galaxy line of tablets and smartphones won't wait long for Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich", according to an announcement the company made today. Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note will receive ICS in the first quarter of next year, followed by other Galaxy devices throughout 2012.

The new version of Android's operating system is a significant upgrade over previous releases, including enhancements such as "face unlock", improved multitasking and notifications support, and a updated user interface.

Other Galaxy devices eligible for the upgrade include the Galaxy R Phone, as well as all current iterations of the Galaxy Tab, including the 7.0 Plus, 7.7, 8.9, and 10.1. In each market, Samsung says it will make a separate announcement alerting customers to when it expects to make the update available.

However, Samsung will not update the original Galaxy Tab tablet or Galaxy S smartphone.

Samsung was the first manufacturer to announce an Ice Cream Sandwich device when it debuted the Galaxy Nexus back in October. The device did not ship in the United States until this past week, however. It is available through Verizon Wireless for $299.99 with a two year contract.

The AT&T T-Mobile merger is dead

Publié: décembre 20, 2011, 1:14am CET par Ed Oswald

AT&T ended its nine month bid to acquire T-Mobile on Monday, but not before taking parting shots at both the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice in a tersely worded statement. Those agencies' actions "do not change the realities of the US wireless industry", the company says, and do not address the biggest issue facing all carriers -- spectrum -- a problem that must be addressed "immediately".

The deal hit its first major roadblock in August, when the Justice Department said it was suing to block the merger. The FCC added fuel to the fire in November with chairman Julius Genachowski proposing hearings on the deal, and an unnamed official leaking a comment to the media saying a combined entity "would result in a massive loss of US jobs and investment".

Facing the realities of a deal gone awry, AT&T took a $4 billion charge in the current quarter to cover breakup fees due to T-Mobile late last month. It then took the unexpected step of joining with the Justice Department last week to ask for a postponement of the planned trial, a sure sign that the company was giving up.

On the subject of spectrum, AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson does not mince words. "First, in the near term, they should allow the free markets to work so that additional spectrum is available to meet the immediate needs of the U.S. wireless industry, including expeditiously approving our acquisition of unused Qualcomm spectrum currently pending before the FCC", he urges. "Second, policymakers should enact legislation to meet our nation’s longer-term spectrum needs".

Where does this leave T-Mobile? The company gets a much needed cash infusion, as well as a favorable roaming deal that answers its coverage issues. But at the same time, it may only be a temporary fix on a larger problem for T-Mobile USA and its parent company, Deutsche Telekom.

The German telecommunications company says it is not in favor of making the necessary infrastructure investments T-Mobile needs, and will likely shop around for another suitor. In the end, T-Mobile may find itself broken up into smaller bits that carriers that don't have the equity AT&T has could afford.

While a Sprint deal is still possible, the fervor with which the FCC and Justice Department have fought to prevent the combination of AT&T and T-Mobile makes that seem difficult. Many of the arguments it has made against the joining of these two companies will apply to a Sprint deal as well.

T-Mobile CEO Phillip Humm maintains a positive tone in an internal e-mail sent to company employees and obtained by the Wall Street Journal. "We have an opportunity to write our own future," he writes. "The leadership team and I will be meeting intensively in the next few weeks on our go-forward plans for the business".

What future T-Mobile USA has -- at least for the moment -- is not exactly clear.

Microsoft will push automatic updates to Internet Explorer, starting January 2012

Publié: décembre 15, 2011, 5:18pm CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft is set to get a little more pushy ensuring you have an up-to-date browser and will automatically update Internet Explorer to the latest version on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 beginning in January. This will occur for those who have enabled Automatic Updates within Windows Update, the company says.

The move echoes a trend started with Google's Chrome, which automatically updates itself by default: other browsers (such as Firefox and Opera) prompt before updating. Chrome's update strategy is why a previous version loses market share quickly when a new version comes out.

For Windows XP, this means the update will deliver Interner Explorer 8, while Vista and Windows 7 browsers will get the latest version of IE9. Those who have specifically declined IE8 or IE9 in the past are opted-out.

Microsoft provides the IE8 or IE9 Automatic Update Blocker to prevent the update from occurring, an option many businesses choose to use. Microsoft plans to integrate automatic update blocking into the the browser in future versions.

"The Web overall is better – and safer – when more people run the most up-to-date browser", Internet Explorer Business and Marketing manager Ryan Gavin writes to The Windows Blog. "Our goal is to make sure that Windows customers have the most up-to-date and safest browsing experience possible, with the best protections against malicious software such as malware".

Microsoft has made a big deal about upgrading IE at the consumer level. Earlier this year it launched a public relations campaign to get users of Internet Explorer 6 -- a decade old browser -- to upgrade. At the time, some 12 percent of Web surfers still used it: that has since fallen to about eight percent according to Net Applications.

Australian and Brazilian Windows users will be the first to receive the automatic updates, which will be scaled up over time. Microsoft will not change any settings or personalization as a result of the update, it claims.

Microsoft releases SkyDrive, Kinectimals for iOS

Publié: décembre 13, 2011, 11:20pm CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft debuted two new apps for Apple's mobile platform. The new apps are iOS versions of popular Kinect game Kinectimals and Windows Live SkyDrive, its online storage service.

SkyDrive is free, although Microsoft is charging $2.99 for Kinectimals. The game is the only app that the company currently charges for. The two apps follow the release of an Xbox Live app earlier this month and OneNote for the iPad, and Lync for the iPhone.

It's not clear why Microsoft has suddenly taken such interest in the iOS platform, especially considering Android has taken a commanding lead in market share. Why hasn't Redmond started developing in earnest for that platform? That's a question Joe Wilcox asks today in post "What is Microsoft's problem with Android apps?"

The move to focus more development on mobile platforms outside of Windows Phone can be seen as an acknowledgement by Microsoft of its market position. It is already making a significant amount of money through licensing agreements with Android device manufacturers, and it might see iOS app development as a way to cash in on the still considerable number of smartphone users on Apple's platform.

FBI denies FOIA request about its alleged use of Carrier IQ

Publié: décembre 13, 2011, 8:24pm CET par Ed Oswald

Carrier IQ is once again making headlines, this time over reports that it is giving information to law enforcement. Complicating matters more, the FBI denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last week asking about its own use of Carrier IQ technology, saying the release of such documents "could reasonably be expected to interfere with law enforcement proceedings".

The FBI's admission in the letter that documents do exist raises concerns that Carrier IQ is using its technologies more than just for customer experience purposes, but actual spying as it is being accused of by many pundits. The company is moving quickly to quell this latest round of criticism.

"Just to clarify all of the media frenzy around the FBI, Carrier IQ has never provided any data to the FBI", the company says in a statement.

While some may want to jump on the Carrier IQ bashing bandwagon quickly, the company may actually be telling the truth. Are some reading too much into the FBI's denial? Here's a possible explanation.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has already launched a Congressional inquiry into the activities of Carrier IQ, asking the Federal Trade Commission to get involved. This may be the reason for the denial over "law enforcement proceedings", rather than actual use of the technology by the FBI.

The actual answer may be more convoluted, though. A Carrier IQ source told VentureBeat that any request by law enforcement is forwarded to the carriers, since they own the data and not the company. Thus, Carrier IQ may have had contact with the FBI and others, but does not deal with them directly.

"Carrier IQ’s data is not designed to address the special needs of law enforcement", the source tells VentureBeat's Jolie O'Dell. So we're essentially back at square one, still unsure if law enforcement is actually spying on us thanks to Carrier IQ.

Amid all this, the company is attempting to get on offense by publishing a 19-page document on its website detailing its technology. The document lists the metrics that Carrier IQ shares with its clients, and stresses its purpose as a network management tool.

"Carrier IQ has built software that allows Network Operators to better understand how mobile devices interact with and perform on their network", it reads in part. "Today our technology is used in two specific ways: network management and customer care".

It repeatedly points out -- often in bold text -- that the information captured are actions and not content. It states further than the log file shown by Trevor Eckhart "is a result of debug settings remaining in production devices and should be classified as vulnerability".

Carrier IQ at the beginning of the report even goes as far as to thank Eckhart for his work, someone it sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action to just a few short weeks ago.

Photo Credit: martan/Shutterstock

Court grants AT&T's request to stay T-Mobile merger trial

Publié: décembre 12, 2011, 11:11pm CET par Ed Oswald

AT&T's deal to purchase T-Mobile appears all but dead. The carrier joined with the Justice Department to ask for a stay of a planned trial until mid January, which US District Judge Ellen Huvelle granted on Monday. The extra time allows for a "Plan B" to be considered, and for AT&T to "evaluate its options".

"AT&T is committed to working with Deutsche Telekom to find a solution that is in the best interests of our respective customers, shareholders and employees", the company says in a statement. "We are actively considering whether and how to revise our current transaction to achieve the necessary regulatory approvals so that we can deliver the capacity enhancements and improved customer service that can only be derived from combining our two companies' wireless assets".

A revised deal appears the only way that AT&T will be able to win regulatory approval, with the Federal Communications Commission actively working to stop the merger and the Justice Department suing to block it. US District Judge Ellen Huvelle had criticized AT&T last week for playing the system by withdrawing its application to the FCC for merger approval while it fights its case with the DOJ.

What form a new deal may take is unknown, but it seems certain that T-Mobile will need to maintain some sovereignty in order for regulators to allow it to happen. AT&T may opt to purchase T-Mobile's network assets, effectively making the nation's fourth biggest carrier a "mobile virtual network operator". It may also attempt to purchase a smaller portion of the carrier, but it likely will need to find another buyer to purchase the remaining assets.

MetroPCS and Leap Wireless have been named as possible participants in such a deal but it appears neither will be able to purchase the amount necessary to make it work. Hanging over AT&T's head is a large breakup fee -- the reason why the company is taking a $4 billion charge in the current quarter -- so something must happen, and quick.

AT&T and T-Mobile must file by January 12, 2012 to notify the court of their plans.

Photo Credit: JustASC/Shutterstock

EU halts Google-Motorola merger review, asks for more info

Publié: décembre 12, 2011, 9:53pm CET par Ed Oswald

The European Union has stopped its review of the planned merger between Motorola Mobility and Google, a filing posted to the European Commission's website on Monday says. The EU is asking for more information, and will continue its review once it is received.

EU officials halted the merger review on December 6, according to the website. Both companies said they expect the merger to be completed in 2012, and even with this delay there should be no trouble in meeting that deadline. Google describes the request as "routine", so it seems likely that the merger will still go through without any issues.

Google sees its acquisition of Motorola Mobility as vital to fighting off increasing litigation threats from Microsoft and Apple over what they claim is infringement of patented technologies within the Android operating system. The Motorola acquisition would give Google access to about 17,000 patents.

Motorola also provides Google with a hardware business. While the Mountain View, Calif. company has remained coy on its plans for any "Google phones", Motorola certainly gains an advantage that other Android manufacturers do not have.

Photo Credit: ojka/Shutterstock

Motorola wins iPhone sales ban in Germany, Europe is next

Publié: décembre 9, 2011, 9:47pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple's impressive streak of courtroom victories is over as the company was dealt a serious blow in its patent fight with Motorola. A German court on Friday sided with Motorola, saying Apple's cellular-enabled devices -- the iPhone and iPad -- infringe on GPRS patents held by the company. The ruling may result in an injunction that would prohibit sales of Apple's products within the country.

Since it involves GPRS -- a 2.5G technology -- this means every iPhone produced is impacted by the preliminary injunction, as are both iPad 3G models. It also may give Motoorola leverage elsewhere in the European Union to seek a broader injunction against Apple products. While the ruling is against Apple's European arm, it initially only impacts Apple products within Germany.

Motorola needs to post a $134 million bond before seeking a broader sales injunction. This is significantly less than the $2 billion Apple was looking for, but still by no means small change. The company had not posted the bond as of Friday afternoon; Apple will likely ask for a stay of the injuction pending appeal.

Motorola's statement gives little indication of the company's moves. "We are pleased with the court’s ruling. Today’s decision validates Motorola Mobility’s efforts to enforce its patents against Apple’s infringement", the company says. "We have been negotiating with Apple and offering them reasonable licensing terms and conditions since 2007, and will continue our efforts to resolve our global patent dispute as soon as practicable".

Apple did not respond to requests for comment on the ruling but tells the BBC that it plans to appeal the ruling "right away", and that "Holiday shoppers in Germany should have no problem finding the iPad or iPhone they want".

Photo Credit: Seamartini graphics/Shutterstock

Amazon will pay you $15 to shop the mall, then buy online

Publié: décembre 8, 2011, 10:54pm CET par Ed Oswald

Amazon wants you to shop on its website this Saturday. How much so? It is enticing users of Amazon Price Check with up to $15 savings on items they scan in stores and end up buying through the retailer. Users can earn up to a $5 discount per purchase (five percent) on electronics, toys, sports, music and DVDs.

The company is using those scanning to effectively spy on brick-and-mortar retailers for them by enabling a share price function in the app. Amazon says it will use this data to keep its prices competitive. To earn the discount, customers would need to use the checkout function within Price Check.

Why is Amazon giving the discount? It saves them a lot of time in doing research on the competition itself. "During the promotional period, we are offering through the Price Check by Amazon application a discount based off the Amazon Price as an introduction to sharing in-store advertised prices with us," the promotional page reads. "In-store price submission and location confirmation are optional".

It is not surprising that retailers are none too happy with Amazon's move to steal away sales right within their own stores. The Retail Industry Leaders Association calls it an unfair use of traditional retail stores as a "showroom" for Amazon.

"Central to this tactic is Amazon's continued practice of using a pre-Internet loophole to avoid state sales tax collection", the group says -- alluding to the e-retailers continuing fight against states attempting to levy sales taxes on purchases, especially if Amazon has a distribution point within the state.

The Alliance for Main Street Fairness agrees with the RILA's position, saying Amazon's "special treatment" (again, regarding sales tax) makes it hard to compete.

Photo Credit: JCREATION/Shutterstock

Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone comes to T-Mobile USA

Publié: décembre 8, 2011, 7:29pm CET par Ed Oswald

T-Mobile is the first stop in the United States for Nokia's Windows Phone line, as a Federal Communications Commission filing and an invite sent to the media confirm the nation's fourth largest carrier plans to bring the Lumia 710 to its network. The FCC filing can be seen here.

The 710 sports a 3.7-inch screen and 1.4 GHz Qualcomm processor with 512MB of RAM. It has 8GB of on-board storage and integrated 5-megapixel digital camera. Nokia produces GSM and WCDMA models, running Windows Phone 7.5.

The Finnish handset maker debuted the Lumia 710 along with the higher-end Lumia 800 at a press event in October. At the time, Nokia announced no US carrier partners. The 710's proposed manual filed with the FCC clearly shows a T-Mobile logo on the phone, which jives with other information uncovered this week.

Both companies are sending invitations for a joint event to be held in New York on December 14. The layout of the invite itself is reminiscent of Windows Phone's tiled interface, which suggests they are preparing to officially launch the Lumia here.

Pricing is unknown, nor whether the Lumia 800 is headed to the carrier: so far the required filings with the FCC have not yet appeared.

Amazon's cloud extinguishes Kindle Fire?

Publié: décembre 6, 2011, 1:17am CET par Ed Oswald

A number of Kindle Fire users are reporting Internet connectivity issues that are preventing them from browsing the web, according to posts to Amazon's community forums. Devices connect to WiFi but not to the Internet, or speed drops dramatically.

The trouble was widely reported today and attributed to WiFi. However, based on a cursory technical review and thorough exploration of forum posts, BetaNews sees a likely different cause: Some kind of breakdown between Amazon's Silk browser, Amazon's supporting web services and local ISP connection -- relating to server caching, we suspect.

If this was a WiFi issue, Kindle Fire wouldn't connect at all. Common theme among the reports: WiFi connects, Internet doesn't. That suggests a different problem, either with the network (such as IP assignment failure) or something else.

Kindle Fire uses the cloud in order to speed up the mobile browsing process. Using what Amazon calls a "split architecture", Silk makes on-the-fly decisions about how to route incoming and outgoing traffic, whether it be in the typical fashion or through the cloud.

That dependence on the cloud to make the web work will cause the Kindle to appear as if it has limited or no connectivity in the event of a failure of one of these channels.

"We got the Kindle Fire today and have had a very hard time establishing a connection to our home Wi-Fi network", one user reports. "We have never had problems w/ other device, but the Fire will not connect -- it times out".

Even more strange? The problem comes and goes. "Mine was not working for an entire day, and the next morning, poof...working again", another user laments.

Many ISPs cache content to speed up delivery, particularly for commonly accessed pages. We suspect that for some Kindle Fires the practice interferes with Silk's cloud-dependent architecture. If a certain route Silk uses fails, the caching server will continue to have issues until that cache expires. This could explain the issue where browsing works poorly one night, and seemingly fixes itself the next morning.

Another user reports the speed issue mentioned above. "I seem to be having an issue where my Fire can connect to my router, but my internet's speed immediately plummets down to where it can only download at 1.0 kb/s", the post states. "As soon as I make my Kindle forget my network the speed jumps right back up".

A breakdown with Amazon's cloud, again focusing on ISP caching, could again explain performance problems.

BetaNews could not reproduce the issues on our in-house Kindle Fires. There's no official confirmation of the issue either: Amazon has not responded to our requests for comment.

Is there a way to fix the problem? That's not clear. Some Kindle Fire users report updating their software to the most recent versions -- 6.1 or 6.2 -- fixing the problem, while others say they must physically reset their routers. On the software updates, it is not clear whether the issue is addressed as Amazon only states that the updates "provides improvements to the operation of your Kindle Fire". Additionally, the threads in the forum show that this method has not worked for everybody.

Router reset lends some credence to the theory there is breakdown between Silk, Amazon's cloud and the ISP. When the router resets, it acquires a new IP address from the ISP, which in turn may route the path to Amazon's cloud servers differently.

User Cindy G explains how she fixed her problem by using these solutions. "What did finally work was this -- I manually downloaded/installed the 6.1 update, and then pushed the reset button on my router -- this finally made it work", she said. "Power cycling the router didn't help, I had to actually reset it".

Regardless, until Amazon speaks up its hard to say what is going on -- although the company's silence may indicate that even they are befuddled by Fire's connection issues.

Kindle is second-best selling tablet

Publié: décembre 2, 2011, 7:23pm CET par Ed Oswald

So says IHS iSuppli, which released projections for fourth-quarter tablet shipments on Friday. The firm predicts Kindle Fire will take about 13.8 percent of the market after having no share in the previous quarter. Kindle Fire went on sale at the end of September, with Amazon taking preorders right away but shipping November 14.

iSuppli expects Amazon to ship about 3.9 million units during the quarter, taking second place and all but tripling Samsung tablet market share. Kindle Fire's success comes at the expense of Apple as well as Samsung, however.

While iSuppli predicts Apple will hold the top spot, its share will drop 4.1 points to 65.6 percent. Samsung also takes a considerable hit, falling three points to 4.8 percent of the market. Despite the disruption, Kindle Fire's success will contribute to an overall increase in tablet shipments of 7.7 percent during the quarter.

"Nearly two years after Apple rolled out the iPad, a competitor has finally developed an alternative which looks like it might have enough of Apple’s secret sauce to succeed", iSuppli tablet research head Rhoda Alexander says. "Initial market response strongly suggests that Amazon, with the Kindle Fire, has found the right combination of savvy pricing, astute marketing, accessible content and an appropriate business model, positioning the Kindle Fire to appeal to a brand-new set of media tablet buyers".

Indeed any competitor looking to have any success against the iPad must have exactly what Alexander says: appeal to new buyers. Apple and Samsung have some of the most loyal customers, so marketing to this set is not going to win a new entrant much.

The drop in market share is likely less consumers switching from their Galaxy Tabs and iPads to the Fire, but more so new tablet consumers entering into the market at an affordable price: $199.

Amazon's pricing creates problems for its fellow Android brethren though, Alexander argues. "Most other Android tablet makers must earn a profit based on hardware sales alone. In contrast, Amazon plans to use the Kindle Fire to drive sales of physical goods that comprise the majority of the company’s business", he explains. "As long as this strategy is successful, the company can afford to take a loss on the hardware, while its Android competitors cannot".

This willingness to be a "loss leader" puts pressure on the entire industry at large, especially now that a bargain-priced tablet is enjoying so much success at retail. Who will be the first to respond? That remains to be seen.

United Nations hacked! Passwords posted!

Publié: novembre 30, 2011, 11:24pm CET par Ed Oswald

The United Nations finds itself resecuring its network Wednesday following a hack that resulted in the login details of the employees of several divisions being posted to the Internet. Calling itself TeaMp0isoN, the group calls the UN "a Senate for global corruption" and "sits to facilitate the introduction of a New World Order and a One World Government".

TeaMp0isoN hacked accounts belonging to employees of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) among others. Some of the fault for the hack may lie in the users themselves: TeaMp0isoN notes that several of the user IDs contained no password at all.

"The suspicion is that the hackers were able to take advantage of a vulnerability on the United Nations Development Programme website to extract the IDs, email address and passwords of users", Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley explains.

This is certainly not TeamPoison's first hack. The group was also behind the hack of Research In Motion's company blog back in August, done in retaliation over police response to the UK riots. That hack exposed the personal information of RIM employees to rioters.

It also is aligned with Anonymous in an effort known as "Operation Robin Hood", which aims to target financial institutions.

While the hack appears to be serious, the UN says that the information obtained is not current and of little value. In fact the hacked information could be four-plus years old, with the current systems intact. "The current server of the United Nations Development Programme has not been compromised", a UNDP spokesperson claims.

TeamPoison hacked into an old server, and the 100 or so accounts obtained are no longer active, the UNDP claims.

Photo Credit: Radar_Mark/Shutterstock

Windows 8 tablets: dead on arrival, too late to market

Publié: novembre 29, 2011, 7:51pm CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft's window of opportunity when it comes to tablets is closing. Release of Windows 8 is expected well into 2012, and businesses and consumers pine for tablets running the next-generation software - or they did. That is longer the case, Forrester analysts JP Gownder and Sarah Rotman Epps claim: Microsoft is too late to the party.

Windows 8 tablets will come in fifth after a host of other platforms, including the iPad and Android tablets, the struggling RIM PlayBook, and now defunct WebOS. Gownder and Epps say the tablet market is not forgiving to latecomers, which equals bad news for Microsoft.

Gownder argues that for a product to stand a chance of being successful, it needs to be a "fast follower". This means a competing product must come out quickly following its competitor to be able to have a good chance of toppling the incumbent.

"While Windows’ product strategists can learn from these products, other players have come a long way in executing and refining their products -- Apple, Samsung, and others have already launched second-generation products and will likely be into their third generation by the time Windows 8 launches", he says.

There's also other issues for Microsoft. Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which have combined the features of tablets with traditional e-readers, are examples. This muddies what is considered a tablet, while also putting significant price pressure on the entire industry.

All these factors contribute to a drop in consumer interest in Windows-based tablets. While some 46 percent were interested in such a device in the first quarter of 2011, that has since fallen to 25 percent. Gownder argues that Microsoft has missed the peak for consumer desire for its not-even-released product.

"For product strategists, Windows 8 tablets provide a cautionary tale: To be a fast-follower, you must amp up the experience -- and do so quickly, before the market changes beyond recognition", he says.

Photo Credit: forestpath/Shutterstock

RIM begins smartphone exit with cross-platform device management software

Publié: novembre 29, 2011, 6:35pm CET par Ed Oswald

Research in Motion is accepting to the realities of the smartphone industry, saying Tuesday its new Mobile Fusion device management software will work with iOS and Android devices in addition to BlackBerry smartphones. The announcement suggests RIM might be ready to concede the market to its bigger rivals.

The Canadian phone manufacturer has watched its share of smartphones plummet from a third of the market this time last year to 18 percent in the most recent quarter, due to the lack of any blockbuster device release. Most of these users shifted to Android, which has more than doubled its market share over the same period.

Mobile Fusion allows IT administrators to manage a company's smartphone deployment. Security and configuration can be set across multiple devices, and the administrator can remotely lock or wipe devices in the event of loss or theft.

"BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings together our industry-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology for BlackBerry devices with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices, all managed from one web-based console", enterprise product chief Alan Panezic says.

RIM declined to offer pricing specifics but has said it will be competitive with similar solutions from its competitors. Mobile Fusion is currently in limited testing, and the company will begin accepting applications for a closed beta to begin in January. A general release is expected in March.

The company's newfound love for its competitors stems from its acquisition of Ubitexx in May. The German company already had a multi-platform device management solution, and RIM folded Ubitexx's technologies into Mobile Fusion.

Whether or not it's a solution that will stop the bleeding is uncertain. It may be too little, too late -- RIM enters a crowded market with nothing but its name to sell itself to potential customers.

Photo Credit: sgm/Shutterstock

AT&T takes $4 billion charge as it pulls T-Mobile merger application with FCC

Publié: novembre 25, 2011, 12:10am CET par Ed Oswald

It's a working holiday for many involved with the proposed $39 billion merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. Representatives for AT&T informed the Federal Communications Commission through its online filing system late Wednesday that it had pulled its application for merger approval. The move signals an apparent surrender at the nation's second biggest carrier, and throws the entire merger into serious doubt.

It also suggests that AT&T feels the oncoming battle with the FCC is one that it cannot win. Chairman Julius Genachowski has put forth an order for its own hearings on the deal, but it was a statement from an anonymous FCC official that struck many: "The record clearly shows that -- in no uncertain terms -- this merger would result in a massive loss of US jobs and investment".

AT&T cannot pull its application on its own: it must receive the blessing of the FCC, which has several options:

First, it could approve it without prejudice, meaning AT&T could refile a new deal
Second, it could deny the request and move on with Genachowski's hearings
Third, it could approve it with prejudice -- meaning any deal would be permanently killed

In preparation for failure of the deal, AT&T plans to take a $4 billion charge in this quarter to cover dissolution costs. This covers the cost of breakup fees due to Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile USA.

"AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG are continuing to pursue the sale of Deutsche Telekom’s US wireless assets to AT&T and are taking this step to facilitate the consideration of all options at the FCC and to focus their continuing efforts on obtaining antitrust clearance for the transaction from the Department of Justice either through the litigation pending...or alternate means", AT&T says in a statement.

AT&T will likely seek to settle with the Justice Department before a trial begins in February, and use that settlement to reapply for merger approval with the FCC. The $4 billion charge is likely an effort to prevent an unforeseen financial hit to the company's books.

Regardless of the end game, it appears that a deal for a combined AT&T and T-Mobile will look drastically different than it did just eight months ago.

One possibility posed by Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins to Barron's earlier this week was for AT&T to purchase only T-Mobile's network assets, but not its customer base. This would turn the carrier into the nation's largest "mobile virtual network operator".

"The structure would facilitate a stronger path for AT&T to improve the quality and capacity of its network, and to quicken its migration to offer 4G LTE services, while achieving net synergies that we estimate would be accretive to AT&T’s current valuation under our analysis", he argues.

Photo Credit: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock

The Chinese are coming, and they're taking your smartphone

Publié: novembre 23, 2011, 9:35pm CET par Ed Oswald

Highlighting the increased clout of the Chinese consumer in today's high-tech marketplace, research firm Strategy Analytics released results of a study Wednesday that finds smartphone shipments to China eclipsed the United States for the first time last quarter. At 24 million units, China is now the largest smartphone market in the world.

The findings show why phone manufacturers have increasingly turned their attention to the Far East. Apple began selling the iPhone in China in 2009 on China Unicom, and other manufacturers increasingly are looking to the country and its TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE homegrown networking technologies.

Smartphone sales are going in two different directions, depending on the country. In China, sales were up 58 percent over the second quarter, while in the United States they fell by 7 percent. In other words, there's a lot of money to be made across the Pacific.

"China's rapid growth has been driven by an increasing availability of smartphones in retail channels, aggressive subsidizing by operators of high-end models like the Apple iPhone, and an emerging wave of low-cost Android models from local Chinese brands such as ZTE", Strategy Analytics director Tom Kang explains.

Whereas in America HTC leads all smartphone manufacturers with 24 percent share, in China the leader is Nokia. The Finnish phone maker's strength here can be seen as nothing but good news, considering its weakness worldwide. Capturing a third of the market just a year ago, Strategy Analytics found its worldwide share cut by over half to 14 percent in the third quarter.

"China is now at the forefront of the worldwide mobile computing boom", executive director Neil Mawston adds. "China has become a large and growing smartphone market that no hardware vendor, component maker or content developer can afford to ignore".

Photo Credit: Koshevnyk/Shutterstock

Is Microsoft preparing another Yahoo bid?

Publié: novembre 23, 2011, 8:24pm CET par Ed Oswald

The stage is set for an eventful holiday season at Yahoo. Sources close to the struggling Sunnyvale, Calif. search company tell the New York Times that Microsoft has signed a non-disclosure agreement which allows it to look into the media giant's books. The Redmond, Wash.-based company joins Silver Lake, TPG Capital and several others as potential suitors.

Talk of a Yahoo sale has increased since September, when a memo from former CEO Jerry Yang leaked to the press. "Our advisers are working with us to develop ideas that we will pursue proactively. At the same time, they are fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options", the note reads.

Yahoo's NDA forbids those pursuing the company from talking to other potential bidders. Microsoft may have found a way around that provision though, as it has already held discussions with some of the bidders including Silver Lake, according to the Times.

Microsoft does have a business interest in Yahoo. In July 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo signed an agreement outsouring search. Thirteen months later, Bing started serving up Yahoo search results. The agreement has helped make Microsoft search a viable alternative to Google; combined Microsoft and Yahoo US search share was 30 percent in October, according to comScore. Not playing a part in where Yahoo ends up could prove detrimental to Microsoft.

The company appears to be mounting an effort to purchase Yahoo outright rather than take a minority stake. Other potential suitors will likely take that route. There are other companies also considering bids including Alibaba, which Yahoo owns a 40 percent stake in.

This would be Microsoft's second shot at Yahoo. The software giant mounted a $44.6 billion hostile takeover in February 2008, which failed. Neither company responded to BetaNews' request for comment. The NDA would likely prohibit Microsoft and Yahoo from confirming any new bid.

Can 'Buffy' slay Facebook Phone rumors?

Publié: novembre 22, 2011, 11:33pm CET par Ed Oswald

Rumors persist over the mythical "Facebook Phone". This time it's Ina Fried and Liz Gannes of All Things Digital, claiming sources say the social network is working with HTC on an Android powered device -- codenamed "Buffy" -- to launch in about 12 to 18 months. It deeply integrates Facebook services into the experience, and relies on HTML5 as a platform for applications.

But Fried's and Gannes' report may not be accurate. In a "He Said, She Said" response, Inside Facebook followed up saying its own sources call Buffy a "trainwreck". Reporter Kim-Mai Cutler says that the phone would have a host of issues, including always being one step behind the latest version of Android due to the deep customization that Buffy would require.

Mobile is key to Facebook's business: data shows that increasing numbers of social networking users access there accounts while mobile. A recent study from comScore shows that in August of this year some 72 million users accessed social networking sites or blogs on their phones, an increase of 37 percent year over year.

"This behavior is even more prevalent among smartphone owners with three in five accessing social media each month, highlighting the importance of apps and the enhanced functionality of smartphones to social media usage on mobile devices", comScore senior vice president for mobile Mark Donovan said at the time.

The AllThingsD bloggers claim HTC won out over Samsung, which was also considered as a possible partner, to build Buffy. HTC as manufacturer isn't surprising. The Taiwanese smartphone maker announced the Status back in June, one of the first devices to come with a dedicated Facebook button and integrated functionality. AT&T offers the phone free with a two-year service contract.

Cutler debunks this scenario, observing that 12 to 18 months would put the Facebook phone two-and-a-half years behind laggard Windows Phone 7. The only reason Facebook has stayed on the project is because "they don’t know what to do", claims one of Inside Facebook's sources. More: "Buffy 'was an interesting story six months ago', says the source. 'But it isn’t anymore'".

Other jounralists are sniping at Fried's and Gannes' reporting. MG Seigler took issue with the fact that the story made no reference to a piece by TechCrunch posted a year earlier, and a post he wrote in September on Facebook's continuing denials that the device exists.

"Facebook [is] playing a bullshit game of semantics. And I’m sure that will continue right up until the day they release the phone, at which point it won’t matter anymore", he writes to his personal blog. "So no, there’s no Facebook Phone. Until a year from now when there is one. Consider it fait accompli".

Arbitrators tell Western Digital to pay Seagate $525 million in trade secret spat

Publié: novembre 22, 2011, 7:46pm CET par Ed Oswald

Western Digital is liable for $525 million in damages to Seagate following an arbitration decision regarding the misappropriation of trade secrets. The ruling stems from a court case brought by Seagate in 2006 against Western Digital and one of its former employees who had taken a job with its competitor.

That employee is accused of sharing information with his new employer, although court proceedings were stayed while the two sides entered arbitration in 2007. The arbitrator sided with Seagate in the matter.

"We do not believe there is any basis in law or fact for the damage award of the arbitrator", president and CEO John Coyne says in a statement. "We believe the company acted properly at all times and we will vigorously challenge the award". Coyne claims the judgement will not affect Western Digital's business operations or its planned acquisition of Hitachi's hard drive business announced in March.

Seagate also announced an acquisition of its own in the space -- Samsung's hard drive division in April. The mergers put the two companies in control of a large portion of the hard drive market, with third-place Toshiba fighting for what's left.

If Western Digital is forced to pay Seagate, it should have no problem doing so: at the end of last quarter it had nearly $3.7 billion in cash on hand.

That said, many hard drive makers, including Western Digital, are recovering from devastating floods that struck their Thailand plants during the summer. That alone could cost the hard drive company hundreds of millions to recover from, exacerbating the financial hit of the arbitrator's ruling.

AT&T discloses 'organized and systemic' hack to steal customer information

Publié: novembre 22, 2011, 7:00pm CET par Ed Oswald

AT&T is alerting affected customers to an "organized and systematic" attack on its website that attempted to steal their data. The nation's second-biggest carrier says in a letter to those customers that it "[does] not believe that the perpetrators of this attack obtained access to your online account or any of the information contained in that account", but decided to warn users "out of an abundance of caution".

Less than one percent of the carrier's 100.7 million customers are affected, but that still puts nearly one million at risk due to AT&T's size. Hackers employed an automated script to see if cellular numbers were linked to AT&T accounts, which the script tried to pair with logins. All attempts appear to be unsuccessful.

"No accounts were breached and our investigation is ongoing to determine the source or intent of the attempt to gather this information", AT&T spokesperson Mark Seigel says.

AT&T advises customers to remain vigilant and do not respond to suspicious text messages or e-mails seeking personal information. Seigel declined to elaborate on any possible attack vector.

This is not the first time AT&T has found itself the target of online attacks. Two men were charged in connection with a hack that exposed the email addresses of 114,000 iPad users in June 2010. One has since pled guilty, and the other has been granted additional time in order to make a plea deal with prosecutors.

Monday's hacking disclosure also follows news of another serious hack involving a small water utility in Illinois. The attack -- believed to have originated from Russia -- caused a water pump to fail by rapidly turning it on and off. While no serious damage was done to the plant, it highlights the increasing threat IT departments face as hacking attempts escalate.

Photo Credit: Mikael Damkier/Shutterstock

eBay buys Hunch to better guess what you will buy

Publié: novembre 21, 2011, 8:01pm CET par Ed Oswald

In an effort the provide better personalized recommendations, eBay has acquired privately-held Hunch, a two-year-old service that suggests content on the Internet based on personal tastes. The auction service expects Hunch to integrate into a variety of its offerings beyond recommendations.

Hunch founder Chris Dixon will lead eBay's existing recommendations team, reports indicate. "We’ll be tackling all kinds of interesting challenges as part of eBay including predictive merchandising, interpreting unstructured data and creating merchant insights", he writes in a blog post announcing the acquisition. "We can’t wait to get started".

Dixon says Hunch will continue to operate as a standalone site, and all employees will remain with the company, which stays in New York City.

"With Hunch, we’re adding new capabilities to personalizing the shopping experience on eBay to the individual relevant tastes and interests of our customers", eBay's chief technology officer Mark Carges says. "We expect Hunch’s technologies to benefit eBay shoppers as they browse and buy, and to bring sellers on eBay new ways to connect the right products with the right customers".

Hunch uses information from the users' activities on social networks, people they friend or follow and answers to a set of questions the service asks. From there, Hunch matches users with products it thinks they may be interested in.

eBay hopes that Hunch move it beyond traditional recommendation services, which often are merely aggregated from previous sales of similar items but have little to do with the interests of the users themselves.

The companies didn't disclose terms of the deal, however earlier Monday Michael Arrington wrote that eBay paid $80 million for Hunch.

Photo Credit: goldenangel / Shutterstock

Mobile Flash isn't dead yet -- it's coming to Ice Cream Sandwich

Publié: novembre 21, 2011, 7:17pm CET par Ed Oswald

Early Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" adopters must do without Flash, as Google confirms that current versions are incompatible. However, Adobe says they won't wait long: a compatible Flash release should be available by the end of the year.

Adobe announced earlier this month that it would end support for mobile versions of Flash, a move that acknowledges the shift towards HTML5 among mobile developers. Indeed, Adobe confirms that its port of Flash for ICS will be its last: future versions of Android will not be compatible.

There is one reality that Adobe must face with Android, and that's fragmentation -- thus some users could still be on versions of the OS that are still Flash compatible. Adobe will still provide updates for those users, but only to address "critical" bugs and security issues, it says.

In related Flash news, the company remains committed to Adobe AIR, its application runtime used to create Internet-based applications. That platform uses a variety of technologies -- including Flash -- and Adobe still plans to support it for the foreseeable future. The company also intends to support Flash for desktop applications, but even there HTML5 has made inroads.

A survey released in September by JavaScript and HTML5 consulting firm appendTo claims 84 percent of developers plan to employ HTML5 within the next six months. Another survey conducted by Appcelerator and IDC found that 66 percent of mobile developers are "very interested" in developing for the platform.

Doctors can compel you to remove negative reviews from Angie's List

Publié: novembre 20, 2011, 4:41pm CET par Ed Oswald

It's time for your yearly physical. Walking into the doctor's office is like any other visit: the same corny elevator music, the same outdated magazines, and that stack of paperwork the receptionist always hands you to fill out. But there's something new in that paperwork. Your doctor is asking you to sign a new agreement. What it asks for surprises you.

Your doctor wants you to turn over the rights of what you may say about him or her online. Sound ridiculous? It's not and is the newest method medical professionals use to protect their reputations. One company is spearheading this effort, and has become the target of criticism for its practices.

The Doctor Owns What You Say

The company is Medical Justice, a North Carolina-based outfit behind what is called a "Mutual Agreement". Used by an undisclosed number of the 3,700 doctors nationwide represented by the company (Medical Justice claims it "doesn't keep track"), signing the agreement hands over the copyright of your Internet posts on ratings sites to the doctor. If a physician considers your posting "egregious", then you must remove it.

"We don’t want your practice to be judged by two or three patients", Medical Justice founder and CEO Jeffery Segal says. He argues that the increasing criticism over its practices result from first efforts more than two years ago to combat negative reviews.

Medical Justice then supplied its clients with a much stronger agreement -- which opponents liken to a gag order -- giving the doctor free reign to compel removal of any post for any reason.

Segal, who is a MD, claims the company's "revised" agreement is far less hardline, and is designed to be used sparingly. "I can't guarantee that some doctors may be abusing it", he admits.

The Reliability of Doctor Ratings May Be At Risk

Medical Justice's failure to guarantee its clients are not sugar-coating their reputations has ratings sites upset. Of the three ratings sites that responded to BetaNews' requests for comment for this story -- RateMDs.com, Angie's List, and HealthGrades -- all say they have had contact with Segal's company.

RateMDs.com and Angie's List are fighting back, however. RateMDs.com maintains what it calls the "Gag Contract Wall of Shame", while Angie's List places an "Unfriendly Consumer Practices" tag on doctor’s profiles that it knows uses such waivers.

"We've been alerting consumers to [the posting agreements] and opposing them everywhere we can", Angie’s List spokesperson Cheryl Reed tells BetaNews. RateMDs.com co-founder John Swapceinski says it's an issue of free speech.

"The contracts ask sick patients to trade their freedom of speech for medical treatment", Swapceinski argues. "It is reprehensible".

While Segal claims in our interview that he does not contact the sites demanding removal of bad reviews, HealthGrades tells BetaNews that the company heard from Dr. Segal himself on several occasions including threats of legal action, according to spokesperson Marsha Austin. These contacts occurred as recently as the end of 2010, a year after Medical Justice claims to have changed its policies.

All three ratings sites say they have never removed any reviews that Medical Justice has contacted them over. Doctors using Medical Justice may find themselves paying for a service with a very low rate of success, and puts the firm's business model into question.

Is Medical Justice Gaming The System?

Segal and Medical Justice may realize the shortcomings of their strategy. He tells BetaNews that the company has an internal system in development where patients can review their doctors at the office itself. These reviews are not shared publicly right away: the doctor will see them before Medical Justice attempts to post them online.

This raises a whole new set of issues. What's the benefit to Medical Justice in posting negative reviews that patients may give? While Segal points out that the company does not edit reviews, one ratings site shared with BetaNews data that shows a pattern of extremely positive reviews coming from IP addresses traced to Medical Justice.

Between November 5, 2010 and March 29 of this year, RateMD.com noted 86 positive reviews for 38 doctors in 14 states. In every review, the doctor was rated five out of five stars in every category. RateMD banned those IPs and removed the suspicious reviews.

It is not clear whether these reviews were the result of a test of the new system described by Segal. Due to patient privacy laws, it is impossible to confirm anything about these patients' reviews.

Ratings sites may have the most to lose with this new system since accurate reviews may be harder to ensure given there are companies like Medical Justice that allegedly could game the system.

Gag orders on Internet reviews may seem like a clear affront to free speech but according to noted First Amendment lawyer Lawrence Walters, the agreements are completely legal. "People are free to give up their right to post negative comments by signing contractual agreements with private companies, containing such restrictions", he says.

Walters does believe the practice its questionable. "Requiring a patient to give up his or her right to communicate about the quality of a physician's services as a condition of treatment raises some ethical concerns, even if it is not illegal".

Patients are responsible to know what they are signing. If a doctor asks you to sign away free-speech rights, legally the only recourse you have is to find another doctor.

Medical Justice is undeterred and will move forward. "Our goal is to provide a more accurate online picture of a doctor’s practice that also contributes to an enhanced patient-physician feedback system with better checks and balances", Segal argues.

"This system will not only encourage more reviews, but will create a feedback loop to drive quality practice improvement and faster resolution of patient concerns -- all while fortifying the patient-doctor relationship", he emphasizes.

Photo Credit: ZouZou/Shutterstock

Amazon loses about $3 on each Kindle Fire

Publié: novembre 18, 2011, 8:49pm CET par Ed Oswald

Amazon is leaning on its strengths in procurement in order to make the Kindle Fire as cheaply as possible, IHS iSuppli says. The firm has begun its teardown of the device and says that the components inside offer little surprises from the virtual teardown it released in September. Each Fire costs Amazon $201.70 to build, meaning the company loses $2.70 on each device.

Previously, IHS guessed that the Fire had cost $209.63 to build, but that was based on what it new of Amazon's suppliers and not an actual teardown of the device.

The most expensive part of the Kindle Fire is the display and touchscreen, with a $87.00 cost. The PC board is the next biggest expense at $64.45, and includes $22.10 in memory, $14.65 in application procurement costs, $4.50 in wireless equipment costs, and $23.20 in various other peripherals.

"Amazon makes its money not on Kindle hardware, but on the paid content and other products it plans to sell the consumer through the Kindle. This is a similar business model to wireless companies such as AT&T or Verizon", senior teardown director Andrew Rassweiler says. "They sell you a phone that costs them $400 to $600 or more to make for a price of only $200. However, they expect to more than make up for that loss with a two-year service contract".

IHS found that Texas Instruments plays a big part in the innards of the Kindle, contributing the applications processor, power management device and the audio codec. It also uses a new touchscreen control from Ilitek and WLAN module from Jorjin. Both supplier's parts cost significantly less than its competitors, allowing Amazon to produce the Fire cheaper.

The company also said the device ships with only 4Gb of low-power DDR2 DRAM memory. It had originally thought the device had 8Gb of memory, also shaving some cost off its initial estimates.

iPhone overtakes BlackBerry as top workplace smart phone

Publié: novembre 18, 2011, 1:22am CET par Ed Oswald

Research In Motion's BlackBerry has lost its long held position as the top smartphone among business users, a new study finds. Mobility services company iPass found that the iPhone is now the most commonly used smartphone in the workplace, with the Android platform also showing impressive growth.

The survey of 2,300 workers found that 45 percent use iPhones, up from 31.1 percent a year ago. BlackBerry usage fell to 32.2 percent from 34.5 percent a year ago. Android now is 21.3 percent of the market, up from 11.3 percent a year ago. Overall, RIM market share isn't collapsing as much as other platforms are gaining acceptance in the workplace.

iPass findings verify those of Enterprise Management Associates, which said in October that 30 percent of enterprise BlackBerry users plan to switch to another platform within the next 12 months. The firm expects a significant decrease in RIM's market share, especially in larger companies where it lays claim to half of the market.

The increase in Apple and Android market share "is reflective of more choice in the enterprise", iPass explains.

Android's clout in the consumer sector is sure to extend to the enterprise eventually, but will likely not happen in the immediate future. iPass found among those receiving or purchasing phones, 18 percent say the iPhone and 11.2 percent Android. Microsoft's Windows Phone platform continues to struggle, with only 3.6 percent of survey respondents saying they will obtain a Windows Phone in 2012.

RIM's troubles in the enterprise are only indicative of its market share erosion in the broader smartphone market. Data from Gartner released this week found Android commanding 52.5 percent of the market in the third quarter of this year, double its share a year ago. iOS essentially treads water at 15 percent, but RIM fell from 15.4 percent a year ago to 11 percent this past quarter.

"Continued pressure is impacting RIM's performance", Gartner says.

Malware on Android begins to spiral out of control

Publié: novembre 18, 2011, 12:59am CET par Ed Oswald

Malware aimed at the Android platform has increased five-fold since July, raising questions on the open-door policy Android has in installing apps. IT company Juniper Networks says the reason for this is the Mountain View, Calif. company's own lax attitude when it comes to oversight.

"With no upfront review process, no one checking to see that your application does what it says, just the world’s largest majority of smartphone users skimming past your application’s description page with whatever description of the application the developer chooses to include", it says. Of course, Juniper's description of how the review process works in Android is generalized and somewhat inaccurate.

It's not that no one's watching the hen house: the process is just different. Whereas Apple puts apps through a fair amount of testing before they are approved, Google allows developers to post their work without any interference. The company does review content and removes apps for a variety of reasons, including malicious intent, but only for the Android Market.

Android users have the option to install apps outside of Google's official app repository -- the Android Market. This makes oversight more difficult. "Most of the growth in Android threats comes from applications that are available from sites not associated with Google’s Android Market", spokesperson Danielle Hamel told BetaNews.

Is either way the "right way"? The answer may not be clear cut -- malware has also made it into the App Store. A security researcher has already proven that, and that got him banned from the Cupertino company's developer program as a result.

What may occur soon is Google itself reigning in on who may peddle apps to its users to protect them from malware and hacks. This is something that many Android users will find anathemic to Android's open-source roots.

To put the rapid increase in Android malware in perspective consider these numbers. From 2009 to mid 2010, malicious Android apps increased 400 percent. Compare this with the past six months where malware has increased some 472 percent. Juniper's data shows an increasingly larger problem.

Hamel declined to specify the number of malicious apps it has detected due to competitive reasons. "We are unable to provide more specifics around the baseline malware numbers other than saying we’ve moved from hundreds to the thousands ranges of known Android malware samples", she responds.

The real danger is in the types of apps Juniper is detecting though, Hamel argues. Spyware was the single biggest type "by far", putting users' personal data at risk of transmission to a third party. Almost all Android malware is leveraging one of several platform vulnerabilities that allowed malware to gain root access on the device.

The data may be damning, but Juniper stresses that its findings do not necessarily indicate that Android is less secure. "Across Juniper customers globally, infection rates of between five to six percent are common across a mix of all types of mobile devices," Hamel says.

Facebook says it knows who is responsible for image spam attack

Publié: novembre 17, 2011, 6:40pm CET par Ed Oswald

Facebook says that it identified those responsible for an attack earlier this week that spammed Facebook users with pornography and violent imagery, and will investigate its options to prosecute those responsible. The attack is believed to have been exploited through a browser vulnerability, BetaNews is told.

"During this spam attack users were tricked into pasting and executing malicious JavaScript in their browser URL bar causing them to unknowingly share this offensive content", spokesperson Andrew Noyes explained. "Our engineers have been working diligently on this self-XSS [cross-site scripting] vulnerability in the browser".

Noyes told BetaNews it had shut down the Facebook pages from which the hackers launched their attack, and offered assistance to those affected on how to protect themselves from future attacks.

The attacks began this past weekend and quickly escalated by Monday and Tuesday, when the amount of offensive images on news feeds appeared to reach their peak. The imagery depicted acts of violence, pornography, mutilation and bestiality. It is believed to be one of the largest coordinated spam attacks on the site in its seven year history.

Sophos senior security researcher Chester Wisniewski explains how the vulnerability that hackers exploited works. "Cross-site scripting essentially allows an attacker to execute JavaScript code in your browser that can access and control the website you are interacting with", he says. "Facebook says that users were being enticed to copy and paste the offending JavaScript into their address/location bar in the affected web browser".

It is not known which browsers were vulnerable to the cross-site scripting flaw. Facebook users are reminded to exercise increased caution when confronted with suspicious offers or links. Additionally, users shouldn't click any links sent by friends, especially those that appear shortened.

Photo Credit: Fer Gregory/Shutterstock

Boxee begins cord-cutting Live TV USB dongle preorders

Publié: novembre 16, 2011, 10:29pm CET par Ed Oswald

Boxee confirms it is working on an USB dongle add-on for its Boxee Box set-top box that allows an antenna to be connected to the device to recieve "over-the-air" HD television signals. Pre-ordering opens Wednesday in the United States and Canada for $49, and the dongle will ship in January.

Those with unenecrypted basic channel service -- called clearQAM -- would also be able to connect the cable to the Boxee Box device. Either way, the set-top box itself still requires an Internet connection in order to use the signature functions of the Boxee service.

"If you are like us then the way you watch TV has changed", CEO and founder Avner Ronen says. "You end up watching less traditional TV, but continually pay more for it, which doesn’t make much sense". Ronen talks up the benefits of OTA digital television, but of course, one needs to be within range of the television transmitters in order to get the maximum benefit.

Users of Boxee's Mac and PC based platforms are currently incompatible with the dongle, Boxee says. The company didn't indicate plans to support it, even though an update for the desktop version is due in the coming months.

PETA's anti-fur campaign takes on Mario

Publié: novembre 16, 2011, 9:36pm CET par Ed Oswald

Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a new enemy: Mario. Yes, that lovable overall wearing plumber of Nintendo fame. His crime? Wearing fur in Nintendo's latest Super Mario franchise title for the Nintendo 3DS, Super Mario 3D Land.

To point out Mario's sins, PETA launched a new online campaign called "Mario Kills Tanooki". The Tanooki is a Japanese raccoon dog, and during gameplay in 3D Land Mario dons the coat of a Tanooki, much like he did in Super Mario 3 for the original Nintendo system. The suit allows Mario to fly.

"Tanooki may be just a 'suit' in Mario games, but in real life, tanooki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur", PETA says on a site for the campaign. "By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur".

PETA's efforts come complete with a game titled Super Tanooki Skin 2D, where the object is to help the Tanooki reclaim his skin from Mario's grip. In what has become typical of PETA's anti-fur campaigns, the site includes graphic imagery of the animals being abused by Japanese fur traders.

Nintendo has not responded directly to PETA's campaign, but stressed that nothing more than entertainment should be read into its games.

The latest Apple apologist meme: the post-spec era

Publié: novembre 15, 2011, 11:42pm CET par Ed Oswald

I ask you to remain seated for what you are about to read, for I fear you may fall over and injure yourself from shock (BetaNews assumes no responsibility for injuries that occur while reading our stories). The spec is dead. No more gigahertz or dual-core comparisons. No more comparing LTE to HSPA+ to 3G. If you read TechCrunch today, that's exactly what MG Seigler argues. Who's leading us to this spec-free world? Apple.

"Apple is the company which has ushered in this post-spec era", Seigler insists. "We’re starting to see backlash against reviews of products that just do spec-by-spec rundown. Because really, who cares how the device sounds on paper? It’s how it feels that matters".

That's right, we don't care about how powerful our computers, smartphones and tablets are: all that matters is a name. How it feels. Pay no attention to the fact that those feelings are completely driven by the specifications itself, and you realize how ludicrous this argument is.

You have got to be kidding me. To Mr. Seigler -- from one 'Apple apologist' to another -- you are off your damn rocker.

Apple Does Care about Specifications

His claims on Apple are the most off base. In his own words: "They’ve flourished in recent years despite (and maybe because of) being cagey with most spec information on their newer devices". Not true at all. "Apple is more traditional with the Mac when it comes to specs (undoubtedly due to legacy), but they still mostly bury that information". That's not accurate, either.

If Apple truly did not care about specs, I might still be writing this on a PowerPC iMac. That switch was all about what was on the inside.

Yes, part of Apple's reason in moving to Intel had to do with issues in keeping PowerPC chips cool in the company's ever-shrinking form factors. But the reasons for the switch also had to do with performance. Bottom line: the PC was killing the Mac in this department, and Apple was forced by the market and consumers to build a computer with better (you guessed it!) specifications.

Specifications still do rule the day in Cupertino. What's left out of Seigler's argument is Apple's keynotes themselves. Find me one presentation on hardware where Apple doesn't make a big deal about how much faster their new iMac is or how much better iPhone does versus the competition: there's not many. Apple knows consumers are very much interested in what's on the inside. His claims of Apple being cagey does not match with the facts.

Oh and by the way, Apple doesn't bury the information either: Here are iPhone 4S specs, just two clicks in from the front page, and look at all that talk about specs on the page for the MacBook Air.

iPhone 4S Just isn't That Great

Seigler moves on to Consumer Reports. With little in the way of solid evidence other than the fact that they like Android devices more, he slams them for being irrelevant. "Why? Specs", he complains.

A total misread of what Consumer Reports attempts to do in its reviews -- looking at the whole picture -- and contradictory, too.

"For example, they love the LG Thrill’s ability to capture stills and videos in 3D", he complains. "This is one step short of knocking the iPhone 4S because it doesn’t have frickin’ laser beams mounted on the top of the device. And such comparisons show just how clueless Consumer Reports has become".

"Consumer Reports now matters just as much as specs do. Which is to say, not at all", he says. His beef with the publication seems to stem over Antennagate -- which he blames for starting that mess. But wouldn't an issue like that be important to an overall review and recommendation? He goes on to state: "Does anyone really think that the LG Thrill is going to outsell the iPhone 4S this quarter? What about the Motorola Droid Bionic? Maybe the Samsung Galaxy S II?"

I understand Seigler is trying to be funny, but in his attempt at a joke he misses what's obvious to most of us. The iPhone 4S is not the best phone out there, and you could argue it is still behind competitors in a number of respects. RAM, screen size, and battery life are just some of its shortfalls -- oh, yeah, specs. Earlier today, Gartner reported third-quarter smartphone sales. Samsung easily eclipsed Apple, selling (not shipping) 24 million smartphones to Apple's 17 million. Gartner gave credit to Galaxy S II. Consumer Reports isn't alone putting the S2 above iPhone 4S. Maybe Seigler would care more about specs, if iPhone 4S could compete on them.

I may be considered an Apple apologist by some here at BetaNews, but I sure don't have blinders on. The iPhone 4S will sell well. But there's one caveat: it will sell predominantly to Apple's fiercely loyal consumers. Cupertino's continuing stranglehold on distribution, the device's well-publicized faults, and a design and specification list that is behind the curve among others in its class will keep it from being a blockbuster device. Like the 3GS, it is a placeholder for something better.

A recent survey of iPhone 4S buyers by Piper Jaffray found a staggering 73 percent of purchasers upgrading from a previous iPhone model. That's a huge number, and shows the device likely has little traction at the moment outside of Apple's core consumer base. These consumers are opting for better phones.

No Understanding of Modern Consumers

I applaud Seigler for pointing out (albeit at the end) that the consumer does choose a product these days on a wider array of factors: "What matters is how the device performs, the ecosystem, and the price", he says. But the rest of his piece says little as to why this is occurring.

As James Carville famously said, "It's the economy, stupid". We have very little discretionary income to play with these days, thus purchase decisions are better thought out. It's not that we're blind to specifications, it's a perception of value. Some devices just don't have that.

You can have some great new device have top-notch specs, yet a crappy support system -- either by the company or in content. Consumers won't touch it. Inversely, a crappy device is not going to sell even if it has great content and services behind it. We look at the whole picture these days rather than just the name on the box. If there's anything good about this recession, I'd argue it's that.

There is no evidence that what we're buying these days has nothing to do with a perception of quality or value. It seems like some people read a bit too much into marketing, and in turn think consumers are not smart enough to make educated decisions on their own. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Porn, violent imagery flood Facebook profiles

Publié: novembre 15, 2011, 4:51pm CET par Ed Oswald

Facebook users report seeing large amounts of image spam in their news feeds, depicting acts of violence, pornography, mutilation and bestiality. The site says it is investigating the issue, but did not give any possible cause for the problem.

BetaNews has received reports of spam messages typically sent with the word "YUKKY" and including a shortened link, although it is not immediately clear whether this has anything to do with the graphic imagery. The images show up in victims profiles as being "liked".

The imagery is disturbing. "It looks like I am boycotting Facebook till they get this hacking worked out", actress Courtney Zito tweets. "The images I have seen today were enough to make me ill".

BetaNews has seen some of this imagery firsthand. One image that was sexual in nature portrayed an act of gross mutilation; several others included various sex acts.

A check Tuesday morning by BetaNews of known victims found the images removed from their profiles, indicating Facebook is acting swiftly. This week's attack appears to be one of the largest and most coordinated in the site's history, however.

"It's precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site", Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley says. "Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again".

Facebook was the target of click spam attacks in the past, but this event seems far larger in scale. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, although some people blame Anonymous. The hacktivist collective was rumored to be planning an attack on the social networking site for November 5, however, it never occurred.

Until Facebook assures users that the issue is under control, users should exercise increased caution. Additionally, users shouldn't click any links sent by friends, especially those that appear shortened. At this time, that appears to be the most likely vector for the spread of the attack.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words/Shutterstock

Developers are hot for Kindle Fire

Publié: novembre 14, 2011, 9:29pm CET par Ed Oswald

Amazon's Kindle Fire is just starting to ship today, but it already is the most popular Android tablet among developers. IDC and Appcelerator say the Fire edges out the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and interest in the device is similar to that seen before the launch of Apple's iPad in April 2010.

IDC's study confirms BlackBerry's continuing fall from grace, as Windows Phone moved into the third spot among most popular mobile operating systems for development. Nokia's new lineup of Windows-powered phones are the reason, as developers expect market share for the platform to rise as a result. Half of those who expressed interest in Windows Phone cited the Microsoft/Nokia partnership as the reason.

"Amazon has shown exceptional early success in appealing to developers with the Kindle Fire showing that price and differentiation are keys to competing in the crowded Android tablet space, rather than simply chasing the iPad market", says IDC mobile and connected consumer platforms research head Scott Ellison.

Forty-nine percent of developers say they are "very interested" in developing for the Fire, four points shy of the iPad's mark pre-launch. Kindle Fire's low price is a factor and one that has brought Android development into focus in recent months.

In positive news for Microsoft, 38 percent of developers say they were very interested in developing for Windows Phone. IDC says this is a record for the platform and could help the Redmond, Wash.-based company's Nokia gamble pay off. Oftentimes consumers will look to application support in making decisions, and for a large part of Windows Phone's existence, it just has not been there.

Developers are not concern-free though when it comes to Android or the Kindle Fire. Fragmentation was cited as a concern, IDC finds. That should in turn concern Google and those partial to Android, who at times have argued that so many different versions of Android running on various devices is a non-issue. Fragmentation presents an issue to developers in that they must consider not only the capabilities of the device but also issues surrounding a particular version of an OS.

In terms of platforms themselves, iPhone continues to garner the most interest among developers, with 91 percent citing they are very interested in development for the device. This is followed by the iPad at 88 percent, Android phones at 83 percent and Android tablets at 68 percent.

IDC notes that interest in development for Android phones and tablets fell four and six points, respectively, but surmised it had to do with renewed interest in iOS coinciding with the release of iOS 5.

Intel debuts six-core Sandy Bridge 'Extreme' CPU, Maingear first to launch

Publié: novembre 14, 2011, 7:36pm CET par Ed Oswald

Intel pushed the speed envelope on its Sandy Bridge-based Core processor line Monday, debuting its new six-core Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition flagship CPU. The chip runs at a speed of 3.3GHz, although using less cores through Intel Turbo Boost technology can clock as high as 3.9GHz. In tandem with the announcement, Maingear updated its Shift and F131 systems to use the chips.

Intel markets the 'Extreme' lineup of chips to enthusiasts: hardcore gamers, programmers and the like. These consumers will pay a premium for their hardware and expect flexibility. Intel provides it through unlocking, allowing the enthusiast to overclock.

The 3960X requires a X79 chipset-compatible motherboard with an LGA2011 socket. Those motherboards cost between $250 and $450 depending on manufacturer, adding considerable cost to what is an already pricey chip at $1,050. Intel is offering a slower model -- the Core i7-3930K -- at 3.2GHz with 12MB of cache (the 3960X has 15MB). That model retails for $550.

Users will also need some type of cooling system, as Intel is not shipping any integrated cooling system with the chip. It recommends its in-house liquid cooling solution, the RTS2011LC, which retails for about $100. In other words? If you want power, be ready to pay for it.

"Remember these numbers: 3930K, 3960X and X79 because if you are a serious gamer and/or computer enthusiast into photo, video or music creation you are gonna want one", Intel senior technical marketing engineer Donald Bowden says.

The first manufacturer to use the new 3960X in a commercial system is Maingear. The company said Monday that it is updating its Shift and F131 systems to use the new processor. The cheapest option is the F131, retailing for $2,712. It includes the 3960X processor, 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory, NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 1GB GDDR3 graphics card, and 1TB hard drive.

The processors are available through retailers such as Newegg.

iPhone 4S battery problems are overblown

Publié: novembre 14, 2011, 2:02am CET par Ed Oswald

There is no denying that the iPhone 4S has battery issues. Despite Apple claims to the contrary, there is a significant number of users with problems, based on what I have seen in both my own experience and across the web. It is an issue that deserves Cupertino's full attention.

Is it really as bad as it seems? Has 'Batterygate' taken on a life of its own, far surpassing the true weight of the situation? There is tendency in this era of the 24-hour news cycle to overhype, and Apple's battery woes are no exception.

I experienced iPhone 4S' poor battery life firsthand. What started as a full charge in the morning had me running to the charger by bedtime. If I didn't charge the phone before hitting the hay, I woke up to a dead phone. It was an annoyance that needed fixing.

Apple did so, at least for me, when releasing iOS 5.0.1 on Thursday. The difference was clear within hours. Battery life is much improved, dramatically so in fact. Now with three full days on 5.0.1, I can report at least a 40 percent improvement in battery life overall. Whereas I got maybe 20-24 hours before -- now around 36 hours. My iPad 2 (which had no battery life issues under iOS 5) maintains its battery life in iOS 5.0.1.

Apple gets passing marks from me in the "fix my battery life" department. Could Apple do better? Of course, but after my initial experiences, I will take that extra 12 hours.

Read Joe Wilcox rebuttal "Of course iPhone 4S battery life matters"

Not everyone is so lucky. The update receives mixed results depending on who you talk to. Some say the update is a godsend, like myself. Others say that they see no change at all. A vocal contingent complains 5.0.1 makes things worse.

What happened here? The fact that some see dramatic improvements in battery life -- or the inverse -- lends credence to Apple's explanation of the issues as a "bug" within iOS 5.

You cannot mask a hardware problem with a software update without affecting performance, and that has not occurred. What is the evidence of this? I don't know if you truly can prove that without a good deal of supposition. The only hardware-related explanation that is plausible are variations in component manufacturers. Some phones may have parts sourced from a different supplier. Again a software update won't mask a hardware problem, so is this a likely cause?

PCWorld's Jared Newman writes an excellent analysis on battery life. He points out that the iPhone 4S is not the first smart device to suffer from battery life problems, because smartphone batteries "suck" in general. Look at the HTC Evo 4G. The Droid Charge. Any LTE phone. Battery life is not a selling point with these devices!

Furthering my point: the Droid Incredible is known for battery life issues following an update to Android OS 2.2 "Froyo". I had a friend who experienced that one first hand. She is not a happy camper. That just proves the point that software can be everything.

Hardware problems? Come on.

iPhone 4S is nothing different from any smartphone , and if you're going to return it, then you should return them all. Battery life is not a showstopping defect. It's an issue the industry needs to address overall, and without a breakthrough will only get worse as Newman says.

The tech press shares some responsibility here in reporting this story accurately. While there is a battery life issue, there is nothing but anecdotal evidence to understand its extent. Like Antennagate before Batterygate -- which required phones to be held in a certain manner that most do not -- we have a tendency to overdo it.

Photo Credit: Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock

Apple lets consumers choose: unlocks entire line of iPhones

Publié: novembre 11, 2011, 9:55pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple added contract-free unlocked versions of its iPhone lineup, including the iPhone 4S, to its online store on Friday. The 8GB iPhone 3GS is available for $375.00, 8GB iPhone 4 for $549.00, and 16, 32, and 64GB iPhone 4S for $649, $749, and $849 respectively.

Unlocked iPhones will only work on GSM networks, including the iPhone 4S, which is a dual mode phone. Furthermore, the GSM network will need to support the same frequencies as AT&T in order for 3G data to work. Potential iPhone users on T-Mobile's network and other carriers that use AWS would be limited to slower EDGE data rates.

"If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone is the best choice", Apple says in its description. That said, you're still paying up to a $450 premium for that privilege.

Customers must supply a carrier supported micro-SIM card, and some functions of the device will not work if the carrier does not support it natively, such as visual voicemail.

Friday's announcement follows one from Sprint saying that it will begin to SIM lock all devices beginning today. The CDMA carrier had shipped phones since the 4S' launch last month without locking the micro SIM down. The activation process will now add the lock and an iPhone software update will lock down previously sold devices.

Sprint will, however, unlock the SIM port for international use for customers "in good standing", it says.

It also follows one day after Apple released iOS 5.0.1, aimed at fixing battery problems that plague a large number of 4S owners. Apple did not list the Sprint SIM lock as one of the 'fixes' in the update.

China Telecom sets its sights on a US wireless network

Publié: novembre 10, 2011, 10:05pm CET par Ed Oswald

The Chinese are coming, and their first target is your wireless phone. China Telecom announced Thursday that it plans to offer wireless service in the United States beginning early next year. The state-owned communications company is aiming its services at Chinese-Americans, students and tourists who frequent both countries.

Customers will have two numbers for their phones, a Chinese and American number. Pricing has not been disclosed, but China Telecom Americas president Donald Tan told Bloomberg that it will be "competitive".

China Telecom is in the process of finding a partner, which indicates the early iteration of the service will operate as a reseller. It appears though that the company is looking into purchasing its own wireless network depending on its success.

That could be problematic: Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei was blocked from participating in an national emergency communications network due to homeland security issues. Undoubtedly, an effort aimed at building a Chinese-owned wireless network here in the United States will face a good deal of scrutiny.

China Telecom's move is not without precedent: Japanese carrier DoCoMo already has a service offering here, targeted at Japanese consumers who travel between Japan and the US.

Photo Credit: Alex Wolf/Shutterstock

Apple releases iOS 5.0.1, promises better iPhone 4S battery life

Publié: novembre 10, 2011, 8:03pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple on Thursday released iOS 5.0.1, aiming to fix one of the biggest issues with iPhone 4S. The company claims the update addresses poor battery life in the device, as well as remedying a host of other issues.

Many 4S users complain they need to charge the device far more than they should, leading some to find creative ways to conserve battery life. Apple maintains that the battery issue is the result of "bugs" within the initial release of iOS 5. The company insists battery issues only affect a small number of users, although a cursory look around the web indicates a widespread problem.

In addition to the battery life fixes, Apple adds multitouch gestures to the original iPad and fixes issues with documents over its iCloud service. Australian iPhone 4S users should also see improvements in voice recognition with this update.

iOS 5.0.1 is currently available through iTunes and over-the-air updating. To force the update over-the-air, tap "Settings", then "General", and then "Software Update". Click the button towards the bottom to start the process. Apple recommends that the device be connected to a power source during the process to conserve battery life.

A BetaNews check of the over-the-air process had the update downloaded and installed on iPhone 4S in about ten minutes. We will report on any battery life improvements this weekend. We also ask readers with iPhone 4S to report their experience in the comments. How does the update affect your 4S battery life?

Searching for stolen content, Warner steals from Hotfile

Publié: novembre 10, 2011, 6:14pm CET par Ed Oswald

Entertainment company Warner Bros. is defending its anti piracy efforts following allegations of abuse, including removing content that it did not own the copyrights to. The claims raise serious questions as to whether current anti-piracy efforts making its way through Congress may punish innocent parties if this is a common occurrence.

File hosting service Hotfile sued Warner in September, claiming that after granting server access to Warner to remove copyrighted content, the media giant not only removed its own but also content it owned no rights to.

Hotfile alerted Warner to the issues, but the movie studio ignored those complaints. Running out of options, Hotfile sued Warner for fraud and abuse.

The real rub comes in Warner's own description of its practices, which can be found in a filing with the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Warner admits that it took down files that it didn't own the copyrights to, and typically searched for files on keywords alone.

Worse yet, Warner instructs employees to take down software that enables faster download of pirated content. These files are open-source, so no one owns those rights.

The courts must now decide if Warner is within its rights, although any legal observer should expect the judge to ban Warner from removing files other than its own: the law doesn't allow for vigilante copyright protection.

That said, everyone should worry if these methods are widespread in the industry.

Two companion bills are snaking through Congress, the PROTECT-IP Act in the Senate, and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. Critics have lambasted both bills for what they see as blatant censorship.

Why? In SOPA the legislation would create a legal basis for the Attorney General to cut off websites from the Internet, even without notice. With that in mind, think of the story of Hotfile and Warner. What if an entertainment company like Warner mistakenly claimed pirated files on a company's web server?

That website could lose Internet access -- no questions asked. In some cases, it gives the power to the corporations themselves to ask for blacklisting, which could strip the websites of their legal right to be innocent before proven guilty.

In the bill's defense, that only appears to be for payment processing, but nevertheless the website could be stripped of its revenue stream for days while fighting to prove its innocence.

"The potential for rampant abuse is obvious: whether it’s a frivolous claim that wouldn’t withstand the scrutiny of the official process or an attempt to put an emerging competitor at an extreme disadvantage", Electronic Frontier Federation activist Trevor Timm says.

Warner and Hotfile's saga should serve as a wakeup call to those in Congress pushing for the current forms of these bills.

It is clear that an industry's overzealous effort to curb piracy has gone too far and is negatively impacting a business as a result. Washington's effort could add a whole new dimension to that, especially considering Warner's alleged carelessness.

Photo Credit: CURAphotography/Shutterstock

Developer exposes critical iOS flaw, Apple revokes App Store privileges

Publié: novembre 9, 2011, 10:51pm CET par Ed Oswald

After you read this story, ask yourself: what would be the public response if Microsoft did this?

Apple is apparently unhappy with the security researcher who snuck a malicious app onto its App Store to expose a flaw in iOS, and has kicked him out of its developer program. Accuvant Labs researcher Charlie Miller published financial app InstaStock -- connected to a server that he operated. Miller effectively had complete control of that device, once the user installed the app. The proof of concept is in the YouTube video shown above.

The app was downloaded only a "few hundred" times since its September App Store approval. While Miller had the capability to install software on devices with InstaStock installed, he chose not too. He also had the capability to steal data, send text messages and even delete information on the devices -- all without the users' consent. In other words, he exposed a very big security vulnerability.

Apple did not receive Miller's work well. Although he says he informed Apple of the issue three weeks ago, the Cupertino company decided to remove his developer access over a terms of service violation. "Apple has good reason to believe that you violated (the iOS developer agreement) by intentionally submitting an App that behaves in a manner different from its intended use", Reuters quotes an Apple e-mail addressed to Miller as saying. He is banned from the Developer Program "for at least a year".

Apple shares some culpability here: its much ballyhooed App Store review process failed to detect the malicious intent of Miller's app, and the flaws within iOS are Cupertino's responsibility alone. Either way, the speed at which Apple moved to cut off the researcher is surprising, even to him.

"First they give researcher's access to developer programs, (although I paid for mine) then they kick them out...for doing research", he laments in a tweet on Monday. "Me angry". In a later tweet he adds: "For the record, without a real app in the App Store, people would say Apple wouldn't approve an app that took advantage of this flaw".

Miller's findings may have protected iOS users from legitimate threats. So why is Apple's response so heavy handed? That is unknown -- Apple is not responding to requests for comment on the matter.

What should Meg Whitman do with webOS?

Publié: novembre 9, 2011, 5:47pm CET par Ed Oswald

It was all hands on deck at HP Tuesday night: new CEO Meg Whitman wants to decide what to do with WebOS. HP is keeping its PC business, but there is no decision yet on the mobile platform, and some thought this would come last night.

According to The Verge -- although we can't pin down who their source is -- Whitman only kicked the can down the street, saying "it's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision". Regardless, she is said to have promised a final word within the next three to four weeks.

So what are Whitman's options? Here are five possible scenarios from the most to least unlikely in our eyes. We will return to these in those "three to four weeks" to see if we are right.

1. Sell it. With HP having no immediate plans for WebOS, it should not be shocking that it's generating some interest among possible suitors. We've reported about rumors Samsung is interested in the platform here on BetaNews, and Reuters on Tuesday claimed the company is being advised by Bank of America on its options, also naming Oracle as a possible suitor.

This seems like the most reasonable of the five options. HP recovers some of its investment in Palm, and also gets a nice influx of cash. WebOS is saved, which in turn could keep all those new HP TouchPad owners happy, because the platform itself is not dead.

PROBABILITY: MOST LIKELY

2. Keep it and invest. The ultimate in saying "F-U" to ousted CEO Leo Apotheker may be keeping the unit altogether. It would indicate that Apotheker's plans to change HP were not shared by the rest of the company. But it also will require HP to get serious about WebOS, and Whitman knows this.

The Verge claims she said this on Tuesday night. "If HP decides [to keep webOS], we're going to do it in a very significant way over a multi-year period". Whitman believes that "HP can make that bet", and the fact she's saying this raises some eyebrows.

For that reason we don't know which way to go on this one, but it certainly gives hope to those wishing HP would stand by WebOS.

PROBABILITY: EVEN CHANCES

3. Partner up. What may make WebOS less expensive for HP is some type of partnership. It has not been talked about in the tech news rumor mill, but should be considered a possibility. Take this for example: HP has expertise in hardware. By partnering up with another company to develop WebOS itself, the burden is shared and the cost lessened.

This partnership could also decentralize WebOS itself, licensing it out to other manufacturers. This seems like a win-win situation for all and gives WebOS a stronger presence in the marketplace. That said, the fact that nobody is talking about this option makes us think it's probably not going to happen, no matter how much it makes sense.

PROBABILITY: SEEMS UNLIKELY

4. Spin it off. Wouldn't that be crazy. A little over two-and-a half-years after making a big deal about buying Palm, let it go. Then again, the merger has not been a great one, and bad mergers have been reversed before (can anyone say AOL Time Warner?). HP could take a minority stake in the spin-off company and attempt to recoup some of its investment in Palm.

While it makes sense on paper, a spin off would require a good deal of work and expense. It also seems like selling webOS outright or getting serious about webOS would be a wiser course for HP, and probably cheaper too. We don't think this has a good chance of becoming reality.

PROBABILITY: NOT LIKELY

5. Shut it down. In the day following HP's announcement, The Guardian reported that its sources said that the company plans to shut down the division completely, cutting some 500 jobs. This would all but make its acquisition of Palm worthless, save for the patents the company may have held.

For this reason, this option is the least likely of the three. HP dumped $1.2 billion into Palm, and the residual value of the business after you take out the hardware and software is nowhere near that. HP needs something from webOS.

PROBABLITY: NOT LIKELY

We want to hear what BetaNews readers think will happen to webOS. Give us your guesses and your reasoning in the comments, and we'll share them with readers in our followup story when HP makes its decision on the fate of webOS.

Ice Cream Sandwich coming to eight HTC phones in early 2012

Publié: novembre 7, 2011, 6:34pm CET par Ed Oswald

HTC will upgrade eight current devices to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in the first wave of updates, the device manufacturer said on Monday. The latest version of Google's mobile operating system was announced in mid-October along with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus -- the first Android phone to run ICS natively -- but current Android phones will have to wait several months for the upgrade.

Relying on its partnerships with carriers, HTC will upgrade the following devices to ICS: the EVO 3D and Design 4G on the Sprint Network, the Vivid on AT&T, and the Amaze 4G and Sensation on T-Mobile. For the Sensation, the XE and XL variants will also get the upgrade. In addition, the upcoming HTC Rezound will be upgraded to ICS. That phone will launch on Verizon's network on November 14.

"We're continuing to assess our product portfolio, so stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about HTC and Ice Cream Sandwich", the company writes in a post to its Facebook page Monday morning.

Devices will begin to receive the updates in "early 2012", although the manufacturer did not provide specific dates.

Other phone manufacturers have also announced their plans to upgrade devices in the new year. Motorola says its RAZR and Bionic will get ICS, while Samsung will bring the update to its Galaxy S II and Note.

Verizon aims at AT&T, doubles LTE data caps

Publié: novembre 7, 2011, 5:47pm CET par Ed Oswald

Verizon Wireless wants its customers to upgrade their phones and take advantage of the carrier's next-generation LTE network, and is sweetening the data pot to get them to do so. Beginning Tuesday, Verizon will double the data allotments for customers for the same price as its traditional data plans.

The $30 2GB plan is now 4GB, the $50 5GB plan will have 10GB allotment, and the $80 10GB plan a cap of 20GB. A Verizon spokesperson confirmed the offering, first reported by CNET, saying it will last "through the holidays", but declining to offer specifics.

Motorola will launch the Droid RAZR on Friday, which includes LTE data. Despite its gimmicky launch date -- 11/11/11 at 11:11am -- Verizon may hope the new LTE data caps give the launch an extra boost. While not unlimited, the carrier is still offering data plans that are highly competitive in the market for the price.

New customers can sign up for the plans when purchasing a LTE device. Current LTE-capable device owners must request new data caps via customer service or My Verizon.

Verizon's move is obviously aimed at attracting consumers away from AT&T's LTE network. The nation's second biggest wireless provider announced its first LTE phones -- the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II -- last week. The data plan caps are the same as its 3G offerings, however.

Photo Credit: Verizon

Forget analysts and pundits: Apple's best days are ahead

Publié: novembre 5, 2011, 8:52pm CET par Ed Oswald

Have investors, analysts, and pundits lost their minds? Reading some recent Apple analysis you could make that case. The company is still wildly successful financially, yet perusing the news sites and the blogs will make you think the company is in some danger of failure. That couldn't be further from the truth.

There is too much focus on the present, take for example Apple's most recent quarterly results. The Cupertino company had its second best quarter ever, yet investors focused on analysts sky-high expectations. Apple paid for it, and still hasn't recovered two weeks later.

Apple is on a path for sustained success, and there is building evidence of that through its financials and the market overall. Failing to look at the big picture is a mistake.

The Writing on the Wall

First off, Wall Street's reaction was without merit. iPhone shipments missed for an obvious reason: consumers expected a new iPhone, and held off on their purchases. iPads remain strong and close to consensus. Most importantly the Mac business is thriving, surpassing consensus.

My colleague Joe Wilcox gave us an early preview of the Mac results in his story on quarterly PC sales numbers from IDC and Gartner in mid-October. Gartner placed Apple's US share of the market at 12.9 percent, IDC at 11.3 percent -- based on unit shipments (not actual sales). Both were the best numbers for the company in decades, and Joe referred to the gains as "shocking".

Now take what I just shared, and add to it to Apple's own projections for the upcoming quarter. The company expects to rake in $37 billion -- its best quarter ever (by some $10 billion in fact!). Apple regularly beats its projections, so I'm expecting a blowout quarter for the company.

Company executives in the most recent conference call said more than once it expects "record shipments" for both the iPhone and iPad lines. They're very confident in Cupertino.

The data makes the reaction of hypersensitive investors and knee-jerk pundits and analysts look ridiculous. Here is a company that is doing almost everything right and running on all cylinders, yet investors punish it. It makes no sense. Analysts only analyze on what they know, and how much can you really know about the most secretive company on the planet? Can we really trust these analysts have the full picture? I think those answers are obvious.

Analysts Are Not the Gospel

Analysts get things wrong all the time, and sometimes en masse. Count the number of analysts that following the PlayStation 3's lackluster launch kept projecting it would end up in first place overall? Too many to count, and it's still in third place a half decade later, according to compiled sales numbers from VGChartz.com. How many actually had the Nintendo Wii selling as well as it did? Almost none, and it nearly sold the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined! So much for analysts' predictions!

They have been wrong before about Apple too: the iPad is a shining example. Look at this compilation of sales forecasts for the original iPad from Asymco. Not a single analyst came within half of the 14.8 million units the company actually sold in 2010. Even your "Apple-favoring" analysts -- Shaw Wu and Gene Munster -- were way off.

On predicting the financial health of Apple, analysts also made a significant change to the way they figured their predictions, Bullish Cross' Andy Zaky points out in a post for Fortune.com. Whereas in the past analysts typically placed their expectations at about a five to ten percent premium to Apple's forecasts, this quarter that jumped to an average of about 19 percent. So when Apple beat its guidance within the typical margin of 12 to 18 percent that it had over the past several quarters -- 13 percent here -- it was seen as a miss.

The San Jose Mercury News' Chris O'Brien wrote on how these analysts screwed up on understanding the consumer market when it came to waiting for the new iPhone (what did I tell you?). One of them actually admitted they were quite overzealous.

"We really missed on the transition", Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro told O'Brien. "People just stopped buying iPhones". (I'd also note that Fidacaro was way off on the iPad too.)

Thus, the "Apple stumbles" meme in the media is more a function of analysts inexplicably changing their forecast formulas. This would have been considered a great quarter otherwise. How do you figure that?

What an analyst says should never be taken as gospel or hell, even taking my word as gold on this issue. Many of us use what these experts say to further our own biases. It is human nature for us to do so, thus there's no need to lay blame.

Tomorrows Consumers Are Apple's Ace

While I have laid out for you my argument for why Apple's already in good shape, we really haven't seen anything yet. Evidence of this comes from a recent study by Harris Interactive. The firm polled young consumers aged eight to 24. They found that Apple had strong brand equity in this key group -- in fact, it is the top brand in computers, phones and tablets among those 13 to 24. Apple beat out a long-established brand in HP, one of the biggest phone manufacturers in HTC, and dusted the floor with the Motorola Xoom.

The fact that Apple is curating such loyalty across the board among the youngest of consumers is very significant. These kids are growing up Apple, and when they get to the age where they're making purchasing decisions independently the company will benefit. This is something Apple has never enjoyed during its three decades of existence.

Why is this? Today's older tech generation comes from a time where Apple computers sat aside of PCs with a sixfold premium, our only exposure to Apple was in the school computer lab, and we used Napster to download our music. Contrast that to today's generation: They know Macs as the premium brand in computers, but without much of the so-called "Apple Tax", many of them have exposure to Apple through their iPods and iPads -- that so called "halo effect" -- and iTunes is the place for them to go for digital music.

This consumer group is huge, too. "Generation Y" (born 1977-2000) eclipses the size of the "Baby Boomers". By 2017, it will exceed the elder group's buying power, according to marketing researcher Kit Yarrow, PhD and retail expert Jane O'Donnell, authors of Gen BuY. Apple has significant brand presence here. It is really difficult to argue that this will not translate into increased sales -- or at least the opportunity.

The company has an envious position now that few of its competitors will ever enjoy. This is why Apple is in no trouble regardless of the bumps in the road it has encountered this past year.

I think it's quite dangerous to make judgements based on the present of a company's overall health. Many analysts, pundits, and investors alike have done so with Apple. But the argument can be made that Apple's best days are ahead of it, and the stars are aligning to keep the Cupertino company relevant for the years -- if not decades -- to come.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words / Shutterstock

US blasts China, Russia over 'extensive' cyberspying

Publié: novembre 4, 2011, 5:43pm CET par Ed Oswald

China is in the spotlight again after a US intelligence report accused the country of cyber espionage. The country is using the data stolen as a result to strengthen its own economy, and is a threat to both American progress and the economy overall, the report says.

"Many states view economic espionage as an essential tool in achieving national security and economic prosperity", the report reads. "Their economic espionage programs...could give these states a competitive edge over the United States and other rivals".

While China is accused of the majority of cyberspying, the report also states that Russia has set up an "extensive and sophisticated" network on its own. China is likely using its efforts to bolster an already booming economy, however, Russia's reasons for cyber espionage stem out of a need to diversify its economy and fight back against an economic system it sees as Western-biased.

Spies turn to the Internet for several reasons. There is a lower risk of detection than attempting to collect the data in person. Spying becomes much faster and far cheaper as a result, because broadband networks allow for the instantaneous transfer of massive amounts of data in just seconds, instead of delivering the files in physical form.

Finally, it's much easier for the spy to hide his or her physical location through using a complex system of proxies and the like, hiding their true identity from the victim. With so much of our world's business now on the Internet, it's just there for the taking, the report says.

"Losses of sensitive economic information and technologies to foreign entities represent significant costs to US national security", it argues. The theft of military technology could endanger the US military, the theft of government economic data could harm the country's affairs, and the theft of trade secrets could hurt our businesses efforts to remain competitive in a global marketplace.

The report expects both Russia and China to remain major players in cyber espionage, although it warns that new threats may be on the horizon, and there is an increasing threat from decentralized players.

A great example of this would be the hacktivist group Anonymous, which is affiliated with no government body but has broken into government servers worldwide and published the information it has found on several occasions.

China slammed the report for targeting the country for spying. "Identifying the attackers without carrying out a comprehensive investigation and making inferences about the attackers is both unprofessional and irresponsible", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news briefing. "I hope the international community can abandon prejudice and work hard with China to maintain online security".

Photo Credit: Kheng Guan Toh/Shutterstock

Apple's Mac App Store security lockdown has developers fuming

Publié: novembre 3, 2011, 9:58pm CET par Ed Oswald

Apple will require all apps in the Mac App Store to employ sandboxing beginning in March 2012, aiming to make apps safer from malicious attack. The Cupertino company informed all registered developers in an e-mail sent on Thursday. Apple had planned to mandate sandboxing beginning this month, but for undisclosed reasons delayed the requirement.

Sandboxing is a method which developers use to limit exposure to system processes. The application is run in a protected environment and given a limited set of resources. This in turn makes it much harder for attackers to break in. "The vast majority of Mac users have been free from malware and we're working on technologies to help keep it that way", Apple argues.

While the move is aimed at protecting Mac OS users, it presents a host of challenges for developers. When building programs, Apple has allowed access to a select list of system processes, called "entitlements". Here's that full list:

Read-only access to the user’s Movies folder and iTunes movies
Read/write access to the user’s Movies folder and iTunes movies
Read-only access to the user’s Music folder
Read/write access to the user’s Music folder
Read-only access to the user’s Pictures folder
Read/write access to the user’s Pictures folder
Capture of movies and still images using the built-in camera, if available
Recording of audio using the built-in microphone, if available
Interaction with USB devices
Read/write access to the user’s Downloads folder
Read-only access to files the user has selected using an Open or Save dialog
Read/write access to files the user has selected using an Open or Save dialog
Child process inheritance of the parent’s sandbox
Outgoing network socket for connecting to other machines
Incoming network socket for listening for requests from other machines
Read/write access to contacts in the user’s address book
Read/write access to the user’s calendars
Use of the Core Location framework for determining the computer’s geographical location
Printing

Mac App Store apps would not have access to other processes. Access for applications not distributed through the App Store would be unaffected. Regardless, this change has some developers upset.

"The obvious counterargument is that it’s Apple’s store, they make the rules, and nobody forces developers to submit their apps", software developer Pauli Olavi Ojalaw wrote Thursday to his personal blog. "However, the Mac App Store is increasingly the place where Mac users discover apps. Apple’s big push with making Lion and the pro apps exclusive to the App Store has guaranteed this".

Access to select other non-sandboxed processes will be permitted, but Apple says it will gradually phase those out "over time", and developers must request access or face rejection. Either way, it appears that the functionality of many Mac App Store apps may be greatly reduced, which in the end could force developers to attempt to promote their apps elsewhere.

Amazon sweetens Prime with Kindle book lending

Publié: novembre 3, 2011, 6:45pm CET par Ed Oswald

Is Amazon Prime the best deal in tech? It just may be: Amazon now offers the capability for customers to loan out over 5,000 books for their Kindle or Kindle Fire devices. The Kindle Owners' Lending Library will allow for one book per month to be lent out, and there are no due dates.

To borrow a new book, the Kindle user "returns" the title on their device by lending out a new book: the older book will disappear.

Publishers negotiated different terms to allow their titles to be included in the library, Amazon says. For some titles, a fixed fee has been paid to include the book. In other cases, the company is purchasing the e-book at a wholesale price in order to lend it to the Prime subscriber.

"The Kindle Owners' Lending Library is a great new benefit for Kindle owners and an entirely new growth opportunity for authors and publishers", Kindle Content vice president Russ Grandinetti says. Grandinetti notes that Prime Instant Video has already led to broader relationships with movie and television studios.

With the addition of the lending program -- not including the two-day preferred shipping that Prime launched with -- Prime subscribers will now have access to 5,000 books and nearly 13,000 television programs and movies at no additional cost. The service costs $79 per year and can be shared with up to four Amazon accounts (presumably in same household).

None of the six biggest publishers in the US are participating in the program initially, however. The Wall Street Journal reports that there has been pushback over any type of lending program out of fears that it will hurt future sales or damage relationships with other retailers.

While bigger publishers may be scoffing at Amazon's latest offering, smaller retailers seem quite content. "We're excited about any program that helps readers discover our authors and their books", F+W Media chairman and CEO David Naussbaum says. "We think this will lead to more people reading F+W's books, and more profit for our authors".

Photo Credit: Dmitry Lobanov/Shutterstock

Facebook users make their personal data easy to retrieve, researchers say

Publié: novembre 2, 2011, 8:47pm CET par Ed Oswald

Here's a story that will make you think twice about what you share on Facebook. Researchers with the University of British Columbia's NetSysLab let loose what are called "socialbots" on Facebook, and came away with 250 gigabytes of personally identifiable data. The results of the study show that Facebook users need to be much more cognizant of exactly what they share, and who they add as friends.

A socialbot is a bot that comes in the form of a faked user profile. The bot friend requests users on the site, and then once the requests are accepted, it downloads the personal information on the profile. NetSysLab researchers report a success rate of up to 80 percent in tricking Facebook users into adding the fake profiles and making matters worse, Facebook's protective measures did little to detect or prevent the researcher's infiltration.

Three years ago the social network created the Facebook Immune System, which has since evolved into a complex set of algorithms that inspects nearly every status and action on the site. It is intended to detect suspicious patterns of behavior, but NetSysLab researchers say it did little to prevent their efforts.

Researchers found that one in five Facebook users it initially targeted accepted friend requests from the bots even though they had no mutual friends. This increased to a 60 percent success rate among its friends of friends, allowing the 102 socialbots on the network to amass 3,000 friends within just the first few weeks of the eight week study.

About 46,500 Facebook users were affected, with 14,500 of them also having their physical address mined from their profile. The success with which these researchers had in not only adding Facebook users at random -- but also retrieving personal details -- should raise a red flag.

Security firm Sophos recommends that users practice caution in who they add on Facebook, and only share personal information with their closest friends. "You can choose to make people 'limited friends' who only have access to a cut-down version of your profile if you wish", the firm says. "This can be useful if you have associates who you do not wish to give full friend status to, or feel uncomfortable sharing personal information with".

Moral of the story? Don't add people you don't know.

Photo Credit: De Mango/Shutterstock

Stuck in iPhone 4S battery hell? Here's a way out

Publié: novembre 2, 2011, 5:14pm CET par Ed Oswald

Just like many other iPhone 4S users, I am experiencing poor battery life that has left me running for the charger far more than I would like to. The issues are a black eye on what has been an otherwise stellar experience with Apple's latest smartphone.

Although I never owned the iPhone 4, I am told by those who have used both that there is a definite decrease in battery performance. We should have known, though -- in the slides of the keynote introducing the 4S, astute observers noted the standby time advertised by Apple (200 hours) was a full 100 hours less than its predecessor.

What's the cause? Is it the dual-core processor? Perhaps iOS 5's heavy dependence on Location Services? Maybe Siri, even? We really don't know. Apple has been pretty much silent on the issue.

My iPhone 3GS was piss poor when it came to battery life, generally requiring a recharge at least once a day. At points it certainly seems like the battery drains on the iPhone 4S far faster, and for a heavy smartphone user like myself that is a problem.

Frustrated users have started a thread in Apple's support forums that now has surpassed 3,000 replies and has nearly 200,000 views as of midday Wednesday. Like myself, they complain of 3GS-like battery life: "Seems to lose 1 percent every 3-4 minutes, even when locked/asleep". The posts also have users engaging in crafty tactics to conserve battery power.

What can you do in order to squeeze more life out of the 4S' seemingly bum battery? Here are five tips to keep you away from the phone charger which I have already been using.

1. Turn off features. Location Services will run continuously. Crappy battery or not, this will significantly reduce battery life regardless. Look through the list in Location Services and turn it off for apps which make no sense to have it (for example, Angry Birds actually uses your location. WTF?) Bluetooth should also be shut off if you're not using it.

2. Do you really need those emails right away? Some of us are truly connected to our e-mail accounts at the hip. But, every time our phones go out to check for new messages, it's sucking a bit of your battery. Set it to longer periods of time, or on demand -- meaning you have to tell it to check. Don't worry, those who email you can wait a few extra minutes for a reply.

3. Your screen doesn't need to be that bright. Just like a laptop, screen brightness plays a direct role in overall battery life. Just turning the brightness down by a quarter of what it is will give your 4S a bit of a power boost.

4. Forgo WiFi sync. While it's certainly cool that you can sync that iPhone without wires, it's a battery drain. Using WiFi (or heck, 3G) to transfer large amounts of data is a battery drain. Just connect your device to computer via USB like you used to. Your battery will thank you.

5. Maintain your battery. While batteries these days suffer far less from "memory" issues from being recharged before being fully depleted thus shortening battery life overall, it still happens. Every once in a while it's a very good idea to let your battery drain completely, and then recharge completely. Some on the support forums have even reported this simple process has resulted in a noticeable increase in battery life. It may be worth a shot.

Are you a disgruntled iPhone 4S user, perturbed over its battery life? Sound off below. We'd also love to hear your own tips that you may be using. In any case, we can all hope that Apple fixes this problem soon.

Photo Credit: Ed Oswald

Samsung plans to make flexible screens a reality in 2012

Publié: novembre 1, 2011, 9:12pm CET par Ed Oswald

After years of promises and demos both from Samsung and a host of other companies, the flexible screen is set to finally become a reality in 2012. Samsung confirmed plans during its quarterly conference call.

"The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012", company spokesperson Robert Yi says. The company aims to introduce the first flexible screen device in the early part of the year. He adds that it would "probably start from the handset side".

Following the debut of the technology in handsets, Yi says to expect the company to bring flexible handsets to other products over the rest of the year. The company has already shown concepts of an OLED screen that has technology embedded in the individual pixels allowing it to generate light.

That said, Samsung is not allowing those who have seen it to play with the screens: the screen is locked up in a case which keeps the screen bent. How far along Samsung really is in producing working production models of these screens is not really known.

If Samsung can meet its goals, it certainly would give the company a leg up on its competitors, including Apple which has proven to be its strongest -- both in the marketplace and in the courts.

Is Apple working on similar technologies? It is hard to tell given the company's secretive nature. Samsung is a parts vendor to Apple, so it is within the realm of possibility that Apple may purchase screens from the company. Apple is working on some flexible device technologies itself, however. Patent applications have surfaced showing that the Cupertino company might have plans to add a flexible display within its Magic Mouse.

Photo Credit: Brian Bilek

Google wants you to mobilize your site

Publié: novembre 1, 2011, 6:12pm CET par Ed Oswald

Let's face it: these days, a lot of us are accessing the Internet via smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices. It makes good sense that website owners respond to this trend, and ensure their sites play nice with mobile browsers.

Google knows this, and is launching a new initiative called "Go Mo", aimed at assisting developers in optimizing their content for mobile devices. The Mountain View, Calif. company has included site testing tools, best practices for creating mobile sites, and information to assist companies in locating qualified mobile web site designers.

"Millions more people are using mobile devices to get online every day", the front page of the site reads. "Does your business have a mobile-friendly site? If not—or if you're not sure—you've come to the right place to get started".

Google says that by 2013, more people will use mobile devices than PCs in order to get online. By 2015, there will be one mobile device for every person on earth -- all 7 billion plus of us. The search giant cites its own research claiming 95 percent of smartphone users have searched on their devices for local information, with 61 percent of those calling the business, and 59 percent visiting that business.

The 'GoMoMeter' allows the website owner to enter his or her site to be analyzed for mobile compatibility. We attempted to load BetaNews, however it didn't work. That could be due to the fact that the GoMo Initiative hasn't been officially announced yet and the site may not be fully operational.

Google even goes further and provides advertising agencies with a best practices guide to sell the idea of mobile to their clients. Called the GoMo Playbook, the document guides agencies in answering their client's questions about mobile as well as how to build an effective mobile site itself.

Don't be a statistic: tips to prevent or recover from laptop theft

Publié: octobre 29, 2011, 4:51pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Did you know that a laptop is stolen every 55 seconds in the United States?

I joined those ranks two weeks ago. While out on the road I made a stopover in Center City Philadelphia. Not thinking and in a rush to get to my destination, I left my laptop bag on the front passenger seat. I returned to my car to find the drivers-side window broken and the bag gone.

How could this be? In a downtown area of all places! Worse yet, that laptop's my livelihood! Isn't yours?

Yes, this was my own fault. Since then, I have done much thinking about what I could have done better to protect myself, and other steps I could have taken to prevent this unfortunate event from being such the inconvenience it was.

I've decided to share my research here to help prevent the same thing from happening to you, or if it has and that's why you're here, how to recover.

Before it Happens: Preventing Theft

1. Ensure your equipment is out of sight at all times. This is common sense, but is commonly overlooked (I'm an example!). At home, don't place anything near windows where potential burglars may be able to see it. If in a car, consider storing your equipment in your trunk. While placing it under your seat may seem good enough, if the burglar breaks in he or she may not have enough time to check underneath that seat. Don't send an open invitation, and don't assume any area is "safe".

2. Consider storing your stuff in a non-standard bag. Thieves know what a laptop bag looks like: don't make it easy. Put the laptop in something less appealing. Obviously still follow my previous suggestion, but you're giving yourself a little more protection.

3. Use a login password. Many computer users fail to set a login password because they don't share the computer. A password will protect your personal information from most basic burglars who are more interested in reselling your stuff than stealing your identity.

4. Never, ever store identifiable information on your PC. We store all kinds of things on our computers, but on portable devices we need to be more careful. Don't store tax returns or anything that would give a burglar a clear picture of your identity. Don't store passwords either. Keep those in a safe place, and not on your computer.

5. Always have a backup. The loss of a laptop could mean disaster if you rely on it for your line of work. Ensure that you have a backup of your most important files. Consider backing up to the cloud as well -- this will allow you to access your most important files from anywhere easily, especially in the hectic days following any theft.

6. Consider insurance. If the computer is your livelihood, insure it against theft, damage, or other calamities. Companies such as State Farm or Safeware provide insurance specifically for this reason. That theft's going to happen when you can't afford it.

Recovering from Theft

1. Use identity theft protection. While you may have done everything right to protect yourself, the worst can still happen. Having credit monitoring is a good idea period, and will prevent further problems for you if that burglar turns out to be an identity thief as well.

2. Track it. If you want to have the last laugh against those bastards, use some type of tracking software. With Mac OS 10.7.2 and iOS 5, this comes with iCloud called "Find my Device." Ensure it is set up on all your mobile equipment: it will allow you to lock the device remotely and even wipe it, protecting your sensitive information. For Windows computers, there are services such as GadgetTrak or the open-source Prey. These solutions will help the authorities find your stuff much easier, and dramatically increase the chances of recovery.

3. Change all passwords and make some phone calls. If the laptop is stolen, the first thing you need to do is change your passwords to all critical accounts: banks, e-mail, instant messaging, PayPal, etc. right away. If sensitive information from your employer was on this device, they will need to be contacted. File a police report: you will need this for any insurance claims you intend to make, and obviously if you intend to try to recover it.

4. Check with local pawn shops or Craigslist. Some thieves will attempt to turn over their stolen goods as soon as possible. Alerting local pawn shops of the stolen equipment may be a good idea, and it might also be worth it to check online classified ad sites and local eBay listings. Contact the authorities if you happen to locate it: don't attempt to recover it yourself.

Have you had your computer equipment stolen? Did you learn anything in the process that could help others that we may have missed here? Please share it with us in the comments.

Photo Credit: zimmytws/Shutterstock

HP pardoned PC biz, but WebOS is still on death row

Publié: octobre 28, 2011, 11:44pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Just a day after HP announced that it wouldn't be spinning off its PC division, with its new CEO Meg Whitman citing "together we are stronger", the same feeling does not extend to WebOS. British newspaper The Guardian reports on Friday that the company plans to shut down the division and more than 500 jobs could be cut.

HP acquired the rights to WebOS through its acquisition of Palm in April 2010. The software was meant to power HP's line of Palm smartphones and the TouchPad, but following the scrapping of both lines in August, the future of WebOS was uncertain.

Both the ditching of the PC division and the end of WebOS were the swan song of ousted CEO Leo Apotheker. The appointment of Whitman led some to believe that there may be some chance that Apotheker's moves would be reversed. The surprising success of the TouchPad at $99 also added to the chance that WebOS may still have a chance.

Top-level executives in the WebOS division have been fleeing the company, The Guardian notes, with the general consensus of the department being that it would be closing down by the end of the year. HP has apparently also attempted to find a suitor, but there appears to be no interest in the mobile operating system.

This could be due to the fact that both Android and iOS have become so dominant in the mobile space: the two platforms control a large majority of the market, with RIM's BlackBerry stumbling and Microsoft's Windows Phone platform unable to gain traction in the market. WebOS would likely struggle to make any appreciable dent in the dominance of Apple and Google in the space.

HP didn't respond to our requests for comment on the status of WebOS were as of press time.

Photo Credit: clearviewstock/Shutterstock

Got Google Apps? Now you can get Google+ too

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 9:51pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Nearly four months to the day after Google first unveiled its social network to the masses, the search giant on Thursday opened up Google+ to users of its Google Apps platform. While users of standard Google accounts have been able to sign up for the service without an invite since late September, those registered under a Google Apps account remained logged out.

Google claims that technical issues prevented a faster rollout for Apps customers, but did not specify the exact cause of the delays.

The process is not automatic: each Google Apps administrator must turn on Google+ within their administration panels. However, once activated users will be able to sign up from the Google+ front page when logged into their accounts like any other users.

"Google Apps fans, today we’re ready to add you to our circles", product manager Ronald Ho says. He adds that Google Apps users on Google+ would gain additional benefits over the standard user. For example, in addition to the standard Public and circle-based sharing options, the Apps user will also be able to share within their organization.

Ho says the company is working on a tool that would assist Google+ users who used their personal accounts to gain access to the service to migrate them to their Google Apps logins. "We expect this migration option to be ready in a few weeks", he says.

First an outage, now a lawsuit: US, Canadian Blackberry users want compensation

Publié: octobre 27, 2011, 8:26pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Research in Motion will now need to fight off class action suits in both the United States and Canada, following a four-day outage earlier this month which started overseas but quickly spread worldwide. The outage left some without email, web browsing, and instant messaging for several days.

RIM apologized for the issues and offered free apps and enterprise tech support for its customers' troubles, but that was not enough. The US effort was filed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana, and the Canadian suit in the Quebec Superior Court. Both efforts seek class-action status.

Sherman Oaks, Calif. resident and BlackBerry user Eric Mitchell brought the US complaint. In it, his lawyers accuse RIM of breach of contract, negligence and unjust enrichment. While Mitchell did not pay RIM directly for service, he paid for BlackBerry services through his Sprint wireless contract.

The suit says that the plaintiffs were unsatisfied by RIM's efforts to placate affected users, and that the company did not take full responsibility for the outages. It says that RIM earns about $3.4 million a day in providing these services, and that the plaintiffs should be compensated for services they did not receive.

Along with seeking class-action status, the suit seeks damages including cash compensation for the service outage as well as payment of all associated court costs.

If the US suit becomes a class action its size could be 2.4 million in the state of California alone. That said, class-action efforts have failed before simply because the class would be too big -- most recently a sexual discrimination suit against Wal-Mart that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

There, the class would have been about 1.4 million. Here, it could easily run into the tens of millions, and depending on what compensation the plaintiffs are seeking, the monetary cost into the hundreds of millions.

RIM could not immediately be reached for comment.

Photo Credit: sgm/Shutterstock

T-Mobile debuts low-cost 4G Android smartphone -- no contract required

Publié: octobre 26, 2011, 8:21pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Three weeks after T-Mobile introduced a cheap no-contract 4G data plan through Walmart, the carrier on Wednesday revealed the promised 4G-capable phone to sell at the retailer: the Samsung Exhibit II 4G. The phone runs Android 2.3 "Gingerbread", and is exclusive to Walmart starting October 27 before being available nationally November 2.

The main attraction to the Exhibit II is T-Mobile's aggressive pricing. Consumers can purchase the device with no commitment for $199.99, and those choosing to add a two-year service plan would be able to pick up the phone for $79.99, not including the $50 mail-in rebate offered by the carrier.

Considering that most no-contract smart devices will set you back $600 or more, the Exhibit II certainly is a bargain.

As far as specs go, the Exhibit II is clearly not setting the world on fire. That said, for the price it's a worthy mid-range smartphone: 1GHz Snapdragon processor powers the phone, which is HSPA+ 21Mbps capable. A 3.7-inch WVGA TFT screen graces the front where there is a forward-facing camera for video conferencing, and a 3-megapixel camera on the back is included.

There is Wireless-N support, Bluetooth 3.0, Swype text entry, and a microSD slot. T-Mobile will include a 4GB card, but the Exhibit supports capacities up to 32GB.

"The Samsung Exhibit II 4G is the perfect device for consumers desiring a smartphone with robust 4G entertainment and Web browsing experiences – at a price they can afford", product management chief Andrew Morrison says.

It is not known whether there are any plans for Samsung or T-Mobile to offer Exhibit users an upgrade to Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich", launched earlier this month. It's unlikely though, considering the somewhat average specs of the device.

Additional Specs

Size: 4.54 x 2.35 x 0.45 inches
Weight: 4.1 ounces
Included battery: 1500 mAh Li-ion
Talk time: Up to 5.5 hours
Standby time: Up to 15 days
Band (frequency): 850 MHz;900 MHz;1800 MHz;1900 MHz;UMTS: Band IV (1700/2100);UMTS: Band V (850);Band II (1900)
Hearing Aid Compatibility: M3 & T3

Reanimated Linux Trojan haunts Mac OS X

Publié: octobre 26, 2011, 6:11pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Mac users need to be careful of what they're installing on their computers following the discovery of a new Trojan making its rounds. Security firms ESET and Sophos both say the malware is actually a port of a Linux "backdoor Trojan" that has been around for nearly a decade.

"In terms of functionality, the Mac variant of the backdoor is similar to its older Linux brother, with only the IRC server, channel and password changed," ESET malware researcher Robert Lipovsky says.

Backdoor Trojans are slightly different from your standard Trojan horse. While the Trojan itself just piggybacks on apparently legitimate software to infect a computer, the backdoor Trojan also opens up a security hole from which additional malware and instructions can be sent to the infected computer.

Referred to as "OSX/Tsunami-A" by Sophos, the Trojan connects to a preset list of IRC servers and channels to look for commands. From here, the hacker could launch denial-of-service attacks, and even attempt to access files on your computer.

It is not immediately clear what vulnerability OSX/Tsunami-A may be exploiting to allow the backdoor to open, if any.

The year 2011 has been a landmark year for Mac malware. May brought what is arguably the most successful Mac-based malware outbreak to date in Mac Defender, and there is a definite increase in the amount of Mac malware in the wild according to security researchers.

"We fully expect to see cybercriminals continuing to target poorly protected Mac computers in the future," Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley says. "If the bad guys think they can make money out of infecting and compromising Macs, they will keep trying."

Both ESET's Cybersecurity for Mac and Sophos' antivirus platform will detect the Trojan.

Photo Credit: Fer Gregory/Shutterstock

iPod inventor's next revolutionary device? The thermostat

Publié: octobre 25, 2011, 11:45pm CEST par Ed Oswald

You would think the inventor of the iPod's next gadget creation might be some new consumer electronics gadget that will revolutionize the world once more. What if I told you Tony Fadell's latest creation is a new twist on something far, far less revolutionary -- the thermostat?

Fadell's new venture, Nest Labs, aims to create greener technologies. While it may seem somewhat odd for the company's work to begin with the thermostat, it actually makes sense. In our quest to stay comfortable in our homes, constantly fiddling with the thermostat actually wastes a lot of energy.

Take for example keeping the heat or cooling on overnight, or pushing the thermostat up sky high or low to heat or cool our houses faster. How about your heater or air conditioner running while nobody's home? All of these scenarios are adding to our home heating bills, and heating and cooling makes up about half of the single family home's $2,200 annual energy bill.

"Together with the team, Co-Founder Matt Rogers and I set out to reinvent the thermostat using advanced technologies, high-quality manufacturing processes and the thoughtful design elements the iPhone generation has come to expect," Fadell says. "We hope it will not only save money and energy, but that it will teach and inspire people to think more about how they can reduce home-energy consumption."

For a thermostat, Nest's creation is about as revolutionary as it comes. First, the device learns your heating and cooling patterns, and soon will adjust the temperature of the house on its own in a way that best conserves energy. It also guides you to use less energy by warning you when your temperature setting is outside of what will require excessive energy use to attain.

When you're not at home, the device uses sensors to detect that the house is empty, and will automatically turn off the heater or air conditioner until your return. Integrated WiFi allows for automatic updates, and allows for remote monitoring and temperature adjustment via a website or mobile app.

Apple's influence on Fadell shows in the design of the thermostat itself -- the metal finish and glass casing will remind users of Apple's line of iPhone devices. Apple has nothing to do with the product though: Fadell left the company back in 2008.

The biggest question is whether Fadell and his company will be able to convince the public to fork over $249 for something as basic as the thermostat when it begins shipping November 14. Does the cost benefit outweigh the initial investment? For those of us trying to save money on our heating bills in these rough times or those of us dreaming of the "smart home," it just might be.

Sprint iPhone owners want answers why slow data speeds

Publié: octobre 25, 2011, 7:58pm CEST par Ed Oswald

iPhone 4S users on Sprint's network have flooded the carrier's support forums with complaints of slow data speeds, leading some to consider returning the device before Friday to avoid the $350 early termination fee.

Complaints appeared on support forums on October 14, the day the iPhone 4S launched at retail. Tests indicate that in some cases data throughput was as slow as .25Mbps -- only a little faster than a 2400 baud modem. The issue also seems mostly limited to the 4S itself: other Sprint phones tested side-by-side are unaffected although scattered reports of bandwidth issues are appearing elsewhere.

Frustration over the problem has put some customers at their wit's end. "I had enough and finally brought the phone back today," poster ZachR214 writes on the company's forums. "I was really sad to let go of Sprint....but I'd rather pay a little more to have a reliable carrier, then have a brick."

The story is the same over the rest of the 64-plus page thread on iPhone 4S data woes. Poor data speeds, customer service representatives not giving direct answers to what's exactly going on. That adds up to many frustrated Sprint iPhone owners.

What is causing the issue? It could involve the carrier settings file in the iPhone, which directs the device how to connect with the network. TheNextWeb said on Monday that an internal e-mail calls the issue "nationwide," and that Sprint and Apple were working together to remedy the issue.

No timeframe for repair or direct explanation is offered for the issue, although the e-mail apparently makes reference to some type of 'service settings update.' This likely means that the fix will require a tweaking of that aforementioned carrier settings file.

Sprint said it was watching the reports of data issues, however did not specifically comment on them. "Overall, iPhone performance on the Sprint network is consistent with our expectations and the rest of our high-end portfolio," it says.

"We do see opportunities to optimize performance, specifically in high network capacity areas. We see this as typical optimization work and do not have any specific area of concern. Sprint is committed to providing the best possible experience for our customers."

The issues follow a move by the company last week to end unlimited data for all data offerings except the phones themselves. Beginning with the next billing cycle, mobile broadband users will lose unlimited 4G data. These changes will also affect those who use their smart devices as mobile hotspots, the company says.

While it is not directly stated, these changes could have to do with the expected strain on the network as a result of the launch of the iPhone. Within only a few hours of the iPhone's launch on the carrier, it had already begun setting records for one-day device sales.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Sssh, Apple silently upgrades MacBook Pros ahead of Intel's Ivy Bridge

Publié: octobre 24, 2011, 9:16pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Facing increasing competitive pressure, Apple silently pushed performance enhancements to the MacBook Pro line of laptops. The changes include better processors and additional storage, and on higher-end models better graphics cards.

The base level 13-inch MacBook Pro now sports a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor with a 500GB hard drive, but remains at $1,199. The faster $1,499 13-inch model now includes a 2.8GHz i7 dual-core CPU with a 750GB HDD.

Apple's previous 13-inch models -- launched in February -- included a 2.3GHz i5 processor with 320GB hard drive, and 2.7GHz i7 processor with 500GB of storage space respectively.

Both 15-inch models got faster processors and upgraded graphics cards. On the $1,799 model, the 2.2GHz quad-core i7 CPU replaces the 2GHz chip, and the AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics card has been swapped out with the 6750M. The higher-end $2,199 version goes from 2.2GHz to 2.4GHz, and now sports the AMD Radeon HD 6770M as opposed to the 6750M.

For the top-of-the-line 17-inch laptop, a 2.4GHz quad-core i7 replaces the 2.2GHz, and the graphics card is now the AMD Radeon HD 6770M. The retail price remains the same at $2,499.

Specs other than what's listed here stay the same as when the updated line first hit shelves earlier this year.

Even with the enhancements, Apple's flagship laptop line remains priced above its competitors. For example, Dell's XPS 14z -- announced Monday -- is priced about $200 less than the cheapest MacBook Pro, and includes an additional 2GB of RAM.

(All of Apple's MacBook Pros come standard with 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM.)

Monday's performance boost is likely an effort by Apple to remain competitive while it waits for Intel's Ivy Bridge chips to ship in the spring of next year. The microprocessors are expected to ship in March or April, which means a major update to the line might not come until May or June.

That could put the debut of next-generation MacBook Pros around WWDC, Apple's annual developers conference. It wouldn't be unusual: the company debuted an update to the line there in 2009.

Ivy Bridge chips should provide significant performance enhancements through integrated GPUs, according to statements from the company.

Want to break into iPad 2? Get a Smart Cover

Publié: octobre 22, 2011, 2:50am CEST par Ed Oswald

iPad 2 owners need to reconsider just how secure their tablets are following the discovery of a flaw that allows attackers with Apple Smart Covers to unlock iPads, even if they are password protected. The issue was first disclosed in the forums of German Apple enthusiast site apfeltalk.de, and has since been replicated numerous times including in tests by BetaNews.

As opposed to an issue where Siri allowed access to phone features from the lock screen -- that actually can be disabled with Siri's settings -- the locking issue actually appears to be a legitimate flaw. The issue was verified by Betanews in iOS 5, however, Internet reports seem to suggest that it can also be recreated in iOS 4.3.

The procedure to break into a password-protected iPad 2 is pretty simple. First, lock the iPad as you normally would. After this occurs, hold down the power button till the slider appears on the screen. When this happens, close the Smart Cover over the iPad. Open the Smart Cover back up, and click cancel on the screen. With that, you now have full access to the device.

Betanews has sent out a request to Apple for comment on the matter, as well as asking for a timeframe on a possible fix.

In the meantime, Apple enthusiast site 9to5Mac has shared a stopgap fix in their own invesigation of the flaw. "We have discovered that you can temporarily fix this bug by disabling Smart Cover unlocking in the iPad 2 settings menu under the General tab," iOS developer and 9to5Mac contributor Mark Gurman wrote on Friday.

Comcast still throttles BitTorrent traffic, just not as much

Publié: octobre 21, 2011, 7:56pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Comcast is still throttling peer-to-peer traffic, but on a much smaller scale. Data provided by traffic analytics firm Measurement Lab and compiled by Syracuse University researchers this week provides verification of that.

While Comcast was slowing down half of BitTorrent traffic across its network in the second quarter 2008, it had decreased throttling efforts to about three percent of all BitTorrent packets by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

The data is part of a worldwide traffic management analysis spanning the second quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of last year.

Comcast was first accused of throttling BitTorrent traffic in August 2007 by BitTorrent news blog TorrentFreak. The provider initially denied it, although was found guilty of blocking BitTorrent traffic by the FCC in a split decision a year later.

No sanctions were ever enforced, because Comcast was able to successfully sue the FCC on the basis it had no right to regulate the cable company's network management policies.

The data does show that after the 2008 FCC decision, Comcast's throttling decreased. While the amount of traffic being throttled fell to 30 percent in the third quarter (the quarter that the FCC decision was issued), it fell to 11 percent in the last quarter of 2008 and then gradually into the single digits during 2009.

Cox was another big-time throttler, also putting the brakes on half of all BitTorrent traffic in early 2008. Cox showed the same dramatic fall and was also throttling about three percent of all traffic by the end of the period.

While most of the wireline Internet providers have significantly adjusted its traffic management efforts, WiMAX provider Clearwire has not. It actually peaked at two-thirds of all BitTorrent traffic in early 2009 before falling to about 17 percent as of the first quarter of 2010.

At that point, it was the only US carrier to throttle more than 10 percent of BitTorrent packets.

Since the data only goes through the first quarter of 2010, it fails to show the effect that the overturning of the FCC decision may have had on throttling. That data will come shortly as the Syracuse researchers continue to analyze MLab's data.

On a worldwide basis, there are still providers who are throttling a considerable amount of BitTorrent traffic. The worst offenders as of 2010 were Poland's UPC Poland (87%); South Korea's KT Corp (84%); Czech Republic's GTS Novera (80%); Canada's Rogers Communications (78%); and Ireland's UPC Ireland (71%).

You can see a comprehensive list of data on worldwide ISPs by clicking here.

Photo Credit: argus/Shutterstock

This (or any) website might spy on you thanks to an Adobe Flash flaw

Publié: octobre 20, 2011, 11:26pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Has your webcam turned on without your permission? You may be the target of a new Flash exploit.

Adobe is scrambling to fix a vulnerability that may allow an attacker to turn on your webcam and microphone to spy on you. Stanford University computer science student Feross Aboukhadijeh discovered the flaw, which is found in every version of Flash and can be exploited in Safari and Firefox on Mac OS X and some browsers within Windows (Chrome appears to be unaffected).

The attacker exploits the bug by using a form of "clickjacking". The term refers to a process where an attacker uses clicks on a seemingly innocuous webpage in order to perform malicious functions. Aboukhadijeh hid the Adobe camera settings within an invisible iFrame. From here, the clicks required to enable the webcam are hidden behind clicks in a simple Flash game.

"I’ve seen a bunch of clickjacking attacks in the wild, but I’ve never seen any attacks where the attacker iframes a SWF file from a remote domain to clickjack it — let alone a .SWF file as important as one that controls access to your webcam and mic", Aboukhadijeh says.

Here's how it's done: a page exists on the Adobe website called "Websites Privacy Settings Panel", which controls security settings for your webcam and microphone. Each of those clicks in Aboukhadijeh's game are in front of an element in the panel. While you think you're clicking as part of the game, you're actually changing settings on that panel.

Aboukhadijeh says that the flaw does not work on most Windows browsers and Chrome due to a bug that affects opacity within CSS files. "I discovered a workaround that involves multiple iframes, but haven’t implemented it yet since it’s a bit complicated", he explains. "But, I’m pretty sure that it’s possible to make it work everywhere, given enough time".

Adobe says it is in the process of fixing the issue, and it may not involve a fix to the software since the flaw uses a page on its own website to make the exploit work. It expects to have the issue resolved by the end of the week.

This week's discovery isn't the first time that Adobe Flash has had to deal with clickjacking issues -- a similar problem was discovered in October 2008. That issue required a software fix to remedy, however.

Photo Credit: Kheng Guan Toh/Shutterstock

Unemployed? Facebook might find you work

Publié: octobre 20, 2011, 8:05pm CEST par Ed Oswald

With unemployment remaining above nine percent, the government is getting more creative in getting people back to work. One of these initiatives is the "Social Jobs Partnership," a joint effort between the Department of Labor, several labor associations and Facebook.

Finding a job is proving to be hard in the months following one of the worst recessions in the country's history outside of the Great Depression. There's about three million job openings, but 14 million are unemployed.

Facebook is setting up a page on the social networking site that will provide resources for job seekers. It will use its targeted advertising capabilities to promote the page through public service announcements in areas with high unemployment, including highly affected states like California and Nevada.

The social networking site and other partner organizations -- including the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, DirectEmployers Association and the National Association of Colleges and Employers -- plan to commission a study to gauge how social networking can best help job seekers find employment, and share the findings in the coming months.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis hopes to expand it to other social networking sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn. "By leveraging the power of the social Web, this initiative will provide immediate, meaningful and ready-to-use information for job seekers and employers, and a modern platform to better connect them," she says.

Solis' effort brings together several public and private initiatives that job seekers may not know exist. They include job listings and tools to plan future career paths and match skill sets to the best fitting jobs.

In just the first few hours of being online, the page had already amassed about 800 likes.

Photo Credit: Tommaso79/Shutterstock

Los Angeles wants refund for Google Apps

Publié: octobre 20, 2011, 7:53pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Google may need to act quickly to salvage its $7.25 million deal to migrate the city of Los Angeles to its Google Apps platform, following news that the delayed rollout is still not completed. The city approved the deal two years ago, but in July 2010 it was disclosed that delays had prevented full implementation.

The issue surrounds the Los Angeles Police Department: officials there are not satisfied with Google Apps' security for some sensitive police data. Instead of the original planned 30,000 person rollout, only about 17,000 have been transitioned.

Advocacy group Consumer Watchdog released a letter from the Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sent to contractor CSC, the company tasked with the rollout of Google Apps across the city's IT deployment.

The letter includes a proposed amendment to the original contract between the two parties which asks for a refund of Google Apps costs associated with the LAPD. It also asks for compensation from Google for IT costs associated with the delays and operating the system Google Apps was intended to replace, Novell GroupWise.

In addition to the LAPD, the refund would also affect other portions of city government that may access criminal history data, including parking enforcement, recreation and parks rangers, LA Fire Department's Arson Investigation division, and others.

The amount of credit and/or refund requested has not been disclosed. It's probably safe, though, to guess that the requested refund would likely be close to half the original deal's value considering how many employees Los Angeles and CSC have been able to transition so far.

In a statement, CSC was coy in giving any details, however it did admit not being able to transition law enforcement to Google's platform. "CSC and Google worked closely with the City to evaluate and eventually implement the additional data security requirements, which are related to criminal justice services information, and we’re still working together on one final security requirement," it says.

Google was a little less reserved, accusing Consumer Watchdog of all but colluding with its competitors. "We are meeting our commitments to the City of Los Angeles," it said in an e-mailed statement to BetaNews.

"The City has acknowledged Google Apps is more secure than its current system. Along the way they’ve also introduced new requirements which require work to implement in a cloud computing environment, and we’ve presented a plan to meet them at no additional cost."

Those answers may not be good enough for Consumer Watchdog: the group sent a letter to Mayor Villaraigosa on Wednesday demanding he disclose the extent to which Google has failed to comply with its contractual obligations.

"Google's record with the city is nothing but broken promises and missed deadlines," the letter reads in part. "The Internet giant simply has not done what it said it would do and has tried to buy its way out of the mess it has made by covering the unbudgeted costs of the LAPD's GroupWise System that the department has been forced to continue using."

The mayor's office did not have any immediate comment as of press time.

Photo Credit: Helder Almeida/Shutterstock

Google secures search, but why?

Publié: octobre 19, 2011, 2:16am CEST par Ed Oswald

Google is expanding its use of the SSL encryption protocol, saying Tuesday it will begin redirecting all searchers to its secure search when signed in with their Google Accounts over the next few weeks.

"We’ve worked hard over the past few years to increase our services’ use of an encryption protocol called SSL, as well as encouraging the industry to adopt stronger security standards," product manager Evelyn Kao says. "As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver."

The Mountain View, Calif. search company began using SSL by default in January 2010 in GMail. It introduced encrypted search five months later, but users had to surf to [https:] to use it. Tuesday's change means that this is now the default for Google Account holders.

Those without a Google Account can surf to [https:] (the same encrypted search as the previous URL) to search securely. By default, searches from google.com itself are still unencrypted.

Google's increased emphasis on encrypted search affects webmasters the most. Unencrypted searches allowed webmasters to track Google referral traffic by the individual query. With SSL search, that will no longer be possible -- non-Google owned analytics software will only show that the traffic came from Google itself.

Obviously this is a boon for Google's own analytics products, including its Webmaster Tools offering. There the webmaster can view the top 1,000 queries that drove traffic to his or her site. Advertisers on Google's search pages will also still receive query information to aid in gauging advertising effectiveness, according to the company.

"We hope that today’s move to increase the privacy and security of your web searches is only the next step in a broader industry effort to employ SSL encryption more widely and effectively," Kao says.

Photo Credit: Franck Boston/Shutterstock

What can you expect from Nexus Prime?

Publié: octobre 18, 2011, 10:17pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Samsung is set to release the highly-anticipated Nexus Prime on Wednesday. The device was set to debut at the CTIA conference on October 7, but was delayed due to the passing of Steve Jobs. The new event takes place in Hong Kong on Wednesday at 10:00 am local time -- 10:00 pm tonight Eastern Time.

While it has never been confirmed that Samsung's event will be about the Nexus Prime, Google-Samsung teasers and loads of rumors surely point to the device's release, along with Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich." The Prime would be the first device to run the new version of the mobile OS.

So what will it look like? Based on what we've seen in the promo videos for the event, the most notable feature will be the curved form factor of the device. Prime predecessor Nexus has curved glass, which appeals for aesthetic, comfort and privacy reasons.

Android fan blog android.hdblog reportedly has obtained full specs for the Prime -- from a leak out of carrier NTT DoCoMo -- and those help to paint a clearer picture of the device.

Based on the leak, a Texas Instruments dual-core ARM chip running at 1.2GHz powers the Prime, which sports 1GB of internal RAM. Internal storage is 16GB or 32GB. On-board support for Micro USB, near-field communication (NFC), Bluetooth 3.0, and integrated GPS are included.

Samsung will bring both GSM and CDMA versions of the phone to the market, according to leaked information. The Prime also supports 802.11a/n.

One feature may leave some users disappointed -- the camera. If rumors are right, the rear-facing camera is only 5 megapixels; the front-facing 1.2MP. By comparison, the older Samsung Galaxy S II has an 8MP rear-facing camera, putting Prime behind in that respect.

The specs leaked by android.hdblog (confirmed by a similar scoop on Boy Genius Report earlier this month), don't jive with some others. As recently as October 6, GSM Arena reported that the device would have an 1.5GHz dual-core processor and an eight megapixel camera.

There is also the possibility, according to some sources, that the specs are confused with other upcoming devices, such as a variant of the Prime itself or a US version of the Galaxy S II HD LTE, launched in Korea last month.

Who is right? We'll have to find out. In the meantime, we've included the full spec list from android.hdblog, which seems to be the most likely at this point.

Dimensions (length x width x thickness): 136.0 × 68.0 × 8.8 fine piece - 11.5 thickest part
Weight: Approximately 135.0g
OS: Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich"
Chipset: Texas Instruments Omap4460 CPU: ARM Cortex-A9 MP Core SMP (Dual-Core) CPU operating frequency: 1.2 GHz
GPU: PowerVR SGX 540 Immage Technologies
Communication Systems (GT-I9250/GT-I9250M/GT-I9250M/SC-04D): W-CDMA, GSM phone (SCH-I515): LTE, CDMA2000 Packet (GT-I9250/GT-I9250M / GT-I9250M/SC -04D): HSPA, EDGE, GPRS (SCH-I515): LTE, EV-DO Rev.
Display: AMOLED HD: 4.65 inches Resolution 720 x1280) Maximum number of simultaneous colors Main Display: 16,777,216 color touch screen: capacitive (multi-touch)
Main camera: 5 megapixel CMOS camera with LED flash Video recording 1080pHD (1920 * 1080)
Front camera: 1.3 million pixels CMOS
GPS
NFC
Micro USB 2.0
Communications Bluetooth 3.0 + HS
Wireless LAN Communication: IEEE 802.11 a / b / g / n (2.4 GHz Dual-Band 5.xGHz)
Tethering
Wi-Fi Direct
RAM: 1GB
Flash Memory: 16/32GB
Battery Capacity: 1750mAh
Notification LED

What do you think of the leaked specs? Is this enough to get you to pull the trigger? Let us know in the comments.

Photo Credit: android.hdblog

No more bill shock: wireless carriers to alert on overages

Publié: octobre 17, 2011, 6:59pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The nation's wireless providers have announced a deal with consumer groups and the Federal Communications Commission that will set up a system to alert customers to overage fees. The FCC had been set to announce new rules to combat so-called "bill shock", which it introduced last year.

Under the terms of the deal, the wireless carriers agreed to set up a system to alert customers to voice, data, text, and roaming overages. Two of those four must be in place within a year, and the entire system ready within 18 months.

In return, the FCC would suspend its own efforts to pass new regulations. Both groups believe that the system will be implemented well before the deadline.

"These alerts will give consumers the information they need to save money on their monthly wireless bills", FCC chairman Julius Genachowski says in prepared remarks. "Consistent with the FCC's ongoing efforts, these actions harness technology to empower consumers, and ensure consumers get a fair shake, not bill shock".

While the FCC is allowing the industry to self-regulate, it would keep its own efforts open in case carriers fail to act. CTIA president and CEO Steve Largent said the process of getting the system set up would not be easy, and would take some time to implement.

Many carriers already offer overage alerts, but only on an opt-in basis. The deal would require that the system become opt-out.

President Barack Obama applauded Monday's move. "Our phones shouldn’t cost us more than the monthly rent or mortgage" he says. "So I appreciate the mobile phone companies' willingness to work with my Administration and join us in our overall and ongoing efforts to protect American consumers by making sure financial transactions are fair, honest and transparent".

Photo Credit: CREATISTA/Shutterstock

iPhone 4S first impressions review: awful activation experience

Publié: octobre 14, 2011, 11:33pm CEST par Ed Oswald

We planned here at Betanews to give you a good first impressions review of the iPhone 4S, but to tell you the truth just getting the phone to work has been one of the worst experiences setting up an electronics device I can remember. You saw our photos of the unboxing? Well, that was the highlight. Seriously!

To better grasp what the average person might experience, we followed the instructions as they were given. No shortcuts, nothing. I'm also new to this online activation thing, so that may have been smart on my part to follow the directions I'm being given. Apparently, that may have been the first mistake.

Turning the phone on and following the directions AT&T gives -- to visit an activation website -- only resulted in me being told I would have to activate it through iTunes. You know, it would have been really nice of you to correctly give instructions, AT&T. Guess that's difficult for this company.

iTunes only offered to restore the device from my iPhone 3GS, though never actually activating it. So basically I sat here for at least 30 to 45 minutes, restoring data onto a device that I only now have to re-restore because the most important step never occurred, or at least that's what these directions are telling me to do.

Meanwhile while trying to restore, I got an error "1654," which seemingly, can only be corrected by placing the phone in recovery mode.

For those readers having the same problem, you can do what I did to restore:

First disconnect the USB cord from the iPhone itself.
Then turn off the phone as you normally would (pressing the sleep/wake button, then swiping to shut off).
Hold down the Home button as you reconnect the iPhone, and do not release until "Connect to iTunes" appears.
Follow the on-screen instructions.

Anyway, so onto that second restore. Again no dice. I'm at a complete loss as to why this device refuses to activate itself, although Rebeccah Benoit, the AT&T customer service representative I contacted via online support offers this.

"Hello Mr. Oswald, I do extremely apologize you are having activation issues, Apple does have server issues going on which they are working to resolve right away," she writes. "Until it is resolved we won't be able to activate the device."

Okay fair enough. So Ms. Benoit offers this solution, which ended up solving my problem. "You can try the activation through email if you would like. This will not register iTunes but will activate the device with AT&T. The instructions are in the email that was sent when you placed the order. However iTunes probably still won't work after this until the server issue is resolved."

So I tried that, called AT&T, and now I finally have a working iPhone 4S, only two hours after I originally tried to get this device working. My lord, should have done this in the first place! Imagine the less technically savvy among us and the problems they must be having, they're probably already standing in line at the Genius Bar.

iTunes is working fine though, Ms. Benoit, I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to there. The problem is solely on the activation side, thus an AT&T problem.

Ah yes, the joys of being an AT&T customer.

iPhone 4S unboxing [slideshow]

Publié: octobre 14, 2011, 10:53pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The day has finally arrived: Apple's iPhone 4S appeared on my doorstep this morning. After having the iPhone 3GS for two years, it certainly was past the time to make the jump to a much better phone. Indeed the 4S is that phone, including a dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, and Siri, Apple's new personal assistant.

While I had initially planned to hold off upgrading until the iPhone 5, after Apple showed of Siri I was hooked. What follows here is my unboxing of the device, and as you can see, not too much is different from past iPhones as far as content. I also posted my first impressions, and a full review will follow this weekend.

It's indistinguishable from the iPhone 4, except for the "S".

Simplicity is its own beauty.

At least Apple provides earphones. US buyers of Samsung Galaxy S II got none.

Ed Oswald is upgrading from iPhone 3GS to iPhone 4S.

iPhone 4S isn't as wide as iPhone 3GS -- 58.6 mm compared to 62.1 mm, respectively.

The iPhone 4S is just 9.3 mm thick, compared to 12.3 mm for the iPhone 3GS.

Samsung loses to Apple in the Netherlands, avoids knock-out in Australia

Publié: octobre 14, 2011, 7:41pm CEST par Ed Oswald

It's a rare occurrence these days: neither Apple nor Samsung can claim victory in their ongoing legal battle, as courts in two separate countries pushed back on their efforts to bury each other in injunction hell.

Samsung was denied an injunction against Apple products in the Netherlands, while a court in Australia refused to issue an injunction preventing Samsung from releasing any future tablet devices before the current infringement case goes to court there.

Apple already has an injunction in the Netherlands which prevents Samsung from selling its line of Galaxy S smartphones there. In an attempt to retaliate, the Korean company asked for an injunction on Apple products over claims that those products infringe on Samsung's patents for 3G technology.

The court dismissed those claims, saying Samsung's patent claims could be licensed in "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" terms, or FRAND, as they are part of an "essential" standard. FRAND was set up by standards bodies to prevent abuse of intellectual property that is included within a certain standard.

As a result of this ruling, Samsung's efforts in Italy and France to block the iPhone 4S from sale may now be in jeopardy. Apple lawyers will likely use the judge's argument over FRAND to fight any injunction there.

Apple found itself on the losing end of the legal battle in Australia, where a judge denied the Cupertino, Calif. company's request for an injunction covering any future Samsung tablets until Apple's current claims are ruled on at a full trial, which will not occur until next year at the earliest.

Judge Annabelle Bennett also refused to allow Apple to view advanced copies of Samsung products, which the company had asked for in tandem with the injunction request. Apple won an injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on Thursday.

Bennett said that Samsung would likely pre-announce any of its products, and that should give Apple enough time to file requests with the court for injunctive relief.

Photo Credit: bhathaway/Shutterstock

Samsung's day of reckoning in Apple fight fast approaches

Publié: octobre 14, 2011, 4:43pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Samsung can breathe a small sigh of relief. While a US District Judge says that Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes on patents held by Apple, she refused to award the preliminary injunction the Cupertino, Calif.-based company seeks.

Lawyers for both companies appeared before US District Judge Lucy Koh in a long-anticipated court hearing yesterday. Samsung can continue selling Tab 10.1 as well as the Droid Charge, Galaxy S 4G, and Infuse 4G in the United States. For how much longer, with the holidays fast approaching, is uncertain.

Both Verizon and T-Mobile had filed legal briefs supporting Samsung. T-Mobile sells the Galaxy S 4G and plans to offer the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Verizon sells the Droid Charge and Tab 10.1, and they are among the crown jewels of the carrier's 4G LTE network. The companies argued that the injunction would cause"unnecessary harm" to both the carriers and its customers.

Apple asked for an injunction based on utility patents, which involve specific functions of the tablet itself, as well as design patents that involve the device itself.

Apple's Utility Patents

Specifically, the utility patents in question are:

#7,479,949 or "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics"
#RE41,922 "Method and apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display"
#7,863,353 "Cantilevered push button having multiple contacts and fulcrums"
#7,789,697 "Plug detection mechanisms"
#7,912,501 "Audio I/O headset plug and plug detection circuitry."

Koh hasn't thrown down the gauntlet on Samsung, unlike courts in some other countries. There may be good reason: a cursory scan of these aforementioned patents show that the technologies mentioned are a part in some form of just about every modern smart device.

Due to this, Samsung could argue in court that it is being singled out, being one of Apple's major competitors. If Koh issues an injunction against the South Korean electronics maker, it could set a precedent that Apple may use in filing injunctions against just about any electronics maker out there. Apple -- patent bully or not -- could use any precedents to gain an unfair advantage over competitors.

Design Patents, Apple's Ace?

Based on Koh's comments during yesterday's hearing, Apple will have to make its case on the design patents. This may be Apple's ace in the hole. Specifically, the design patents in question are #D558,757 and #D618,678, for iPhone and iPad, respectively.

The European Union has laws specific to protecting vendors from competitors copying products' look and feel. This is different from the patent cases here. A German court issued an injunction stopping the sale of the Tab 10.1 there -- despite Apple lawyers apparently doctoring images to make the Tab look more like the iPad 2, something that certainly brought on a good deal of criticism aimed at Apple.

On the subject of the similarities between the two tablets, made the point in one of the most poignant moments of Thursday's hearing. She held up both devices for Samsung's lawyers and asked which device was which.

Reuters court reporter Dan Levine summed up the scene in this tweet: "Koh just held both tablets above her head, one in each hand, asked Samsung lawyers to identify which was which. Took them a while to do so," he wrote.

Despite the demonstration, Koh didn't indicate whether or not she was inclined to grant a preliminary injucntion based on the design patents.

Defeat in Australia

Samsung may have had some good news Thursday in the United States, but a day earlier in Australia, that was not the case. There, Apple received a temporary injunction banning the sale of the Tab 10.1 in that country, and there the utility patent argument succeeded.

Justice Annabelle Bennett ruled that the touchscreen functionality of the Tab infringed on Apple's patents. Samsung attempted to settle with Apple earlier this month, but Apple chose to press on in court.

Apple also has a case in the Netherlands but there is no final ruling yet -- (there Galaxy smartphones are banned).

Our advice? Hold off upgrading to iOS 5

Publié: octobre 12, 2011, 11:42pm CEST par Ed Oswald

You've been waiting months to upgrade your iPhone 3GS or 4 to iOS 5. Today was supposed to be the day. If you don't mind sitting around waiting for downloads to drip, drip, drip bit by bit, we suggest doing something else more useful with your time.

Updating to iOS 5 is becoming quite the ordeal for some, as Apple's servers are struggling to keep up with demand. Betanews has received and seen numerous reports of unusually long upgrade times, or upgrades failing altogether.

Given that iOS 5 also requires users to install iTunes 10.5, those who didn't update yesterday are experiencing even slower upgrade times.

That's what we're doing here at Betanews: we're still stuck downloading the desktop update, which now have taken over an hour on its own! God knows when we'll get to the actual process of updating to iOS 5.

In some cases, iTunes users are seeing a popup saying "An internal error occurred (3200)." Referencing Apple's support documents, errors in 3000 range deal with issues in accessing Apple's upgrade servers.

"Error codes in the 3000 range generally mean that iTunes cannot contact the gs.apple.com server on ports 80 or 443," Apple says. Noted Apple jailbreaker Jay Freeman aka "Saurik" also says this is the case.

"To anyone getting 'An internal error occurred.' (3200) while installing iOS 5.0, Apple's servers are swamped, and failing half the requests," he tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

The failure seems to most commonly occur at the point when Apple requires iTunes to verify the download. Since it is unable to reliably reach the required server, the upgrade will then fail.

Apple did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation that its servers were failing due to the onslaught of upgraders. What's clear: The number actually completing the upgrade has been few and far between.

The best advice? Probably wait. "Just looking through tonight's tweets. Think I'll wait a couple of days to upgrade to iOS 5!" tweeted British tech blogger Dan Grabham earlier this afternoon. He might just have said the smartest thing about iOS 5 on the Internet all day.

If you insist on trying, iOS 5 FileForm download pages: iPhone 4 GSM; iPhone 4 CDMA; iPad 2 GSM. iCloud is accessible from the web and OS X 10.7.2 from Mac Software Update.

Photo Credit: Andresr/Shutterstock

You might be reading this story on your phone or tablet, says comScore

Publié: octobre 12, 2011, 1:59am CEST par Ed Oswald

Smartphones and tablet devices are increasingly becoming a more common way to access the Internet, says a new study from analytics firm comScore. As of August, 6.8 percent of all Internet traffic came from those devices, with about two-thirds of it coming from mobile phones.

comScore found some interesting trends, such as the increased use of mobile phones over a WiFi connection. About 37.2 percent of all digital traffic came from phones using WiFi, up three percent over the past three months. On the flipside tablets using mobile broadband are also on the rise, with 10 percent of tablet traffic coming from that type of connection.

The increasing number of hotspots in both the home and public spaces is driving phone usage over WiFi, while an increasing number of devices are now coming with mobile broadband connectivity by default, likely the cause of the rise in Internet traffic there.

Despite Android's best efforts, iOS still dominates in the tablet market, with 97.2 percent of all tablet traffic coming from the iPad and iPad 2. Apple tablets have also become a higher share of iOS traffic overall than the iPhone in August (46.8 percent vs. 42.6 percent).

Android's reach shouldn't be underestimated, though. In smartphones, Android devices made up 43.7 percent of traffic. When adding tablets, iOS leads overall with 43.1 percent of the market versus 34.1 percent for Google's mobile OS.

What are consumers doing on their tablets? It is certainly beginning to mirror their PC activities. comScore said that over half of tablet owners have already completed a purchase on their devices, and nearly three in five read news on them -- a quarter of those on a daily basis.

"The popularization of smartphones and the introduction of tablets and other web-enabled devices – collectively termed ‘connected devices’ – have contributed to an explosion in digital media consumption," mobile research chief Mark Donovan said. "Advertisers and publishers must learn to navigate this new landscape so they develop cross-platform strategies to effectively engage their audiences."

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Future Photoshop feature signals end of the blurry photograph

Publié: octobre 11, 2011, 9:38pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Adobe may have the solution for all those blurry photographs on your digital camera you were about to trash: a YouTube video of a presentation by the company at its annual MAX developers conference shows a prototype "deblurring" feature that may make it into a future version of Photoshop.

The so-called "blur kernel" attempts to decipher how the camera was moved in order to remove the blur from it. By doing this, it then will be able to remove the blur successfully, the YouTube video shows.

Removal is two separate steps: an analyzing process to understand the blur, and then the actual process of removal itself, but the results are outstanding. The plug-in even has a special feature to deal with blurry text, allowing the sharpening of those cell phone images of something you wanted to read but couldn't.

The user can either select to deblur an entire image or just sections of it. Obviously, in some cases selecting a smaller region may be ideal given the long processing times entire images may take to re-render.

The company's representatives on stage would not commit to a release date for the feature or if it would even ever appear in the software itself, but judging from audience reaction you would think they have certainly made a good first impression.

Delaying Nexus Prime-Android 4 launch -- because of "Steve Jobs' passing" -- lacks business logic

Publié: octobre 8, 2011, 2:17am CEST par Ed Oswald

Friday, Samsung and Google postponed what could be one of the most significant Android device launches in awhile -- likely the Nexus Prime -- scheduled for next Tuesday, October 11. The original statement was somewhat vague, but disclosed that both parties agreed that "it was not the appropriate time" to release the device.

"Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11. Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product. We would ask for the understanding of our clients and media for any inconvenience caused. We will announce a new date and venue in due course."

This was the statement e-mailed to all news outlets late this morning.

All well and good. As expected, the tech punditry began to speculate on the reasons why the Prime just wasn't ready for primetime. My colleague Joe Wilcox came up with several possible reasons, most of which make perfect sense. Maybe the hardware wasn't ready. Issues with the venue. The launch of the iPhone 4S. Maybe even the injunction hearing scheduled for two days after the launch. Those were the plausible ones.

Doing it for Steve

But Joe came up with one reason that seemed kind of far fetched at the time, and that was the passing of Steve Jobs. Shortly after he posted his story, an updated statement arrived in our inboxes. It had the same wording essentially, but a new line that completely changes things:

"We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs's passing."

Yes, that's right -- Google and Samsung just postponed the launch of a device for a reason that is completely unrelated to themeselves. The companies did this while Apple itself didn't skip a beat and continued on with its own plans, announcing the iPhone 4S likely while Jobs was on his deathbed (and they all knew the end was near), and began pre-orders on Friday.

Wouldn't you think if any company should postpone a launch, it would have been Apple, not Samsung?

Now I could understand the two companies postponing the launch if it would have had something to do with Apple itself, say a settlement and partnership, or something similar. Obviously you would want to give Apple time to grieve. Or even if Apple changed its own rollout schedule for the 4S. But Cupertino has nothing to do with this, and is all the while getting their new device out before you get yours.

I can only come up with two valid explanations as to why Google and Samsung would have done this. First off, we may be seeing some difference in corporate culture as well as personal beliefs. It could be quite possible that there is something in the Korean culture over honoring the dead that may have led to this -- Korean funerals last up to four days. But there's another (and more controversial) possibility.

Could the Prime simply not be ready, and combined with the death of Steve Jobs gave the two companies a good enough reason to back off on the launch altogether? It seems crazy, especially considering the amount of hype surrounding Samsung's device. But to solely place your reasoning for delaying a product based on somebody's death that really has no bearing to you rings hollow.

But would Steve do It?

It's just dumb from a business aspect. Too many of us on these tech news sites focus too much on the technical -- what operating system these devices run, whether it has 4G, and the design of it. The average consumer doesn't give a crap, frankly. They could walk in wanting an iPhone and walk out with a Droid Bionic, come in looking for the Samsung Galaxy II S, leave with an iPhone 4S. We really overblow the whole Android vs. iOS thing when it comes the average Joe (not Wilcox).

So any delay can and will hurt sales of your device. If you're going to hold off on its release, you better have a damn good reason to do it. I know there's a lot of us out there who respect Jobs -- this journalist included -- but even he would say business is business, and probably also told his people not to stop his own company's plans over his death.

I commend Samsung and Google for being respectful in a time like this, but I will most definitely scorn them for making a move that seemingly lacks in business logic. Sometimes you overreact in grief, and this is certainly one of those moments.

Art Credit: EtiAmmos/Shutterstock

Does easy iPhone 4S preordering mean nobody is buying?

Publié: octobre 7, 2011, 8:15pm CEST par Ed Oswald

After a rocky and even delayed start for iPhone 4S pre-ordering, a check by Betanews with the online stores on the Apple, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon websites show a much smoother process. At all three sites, delivery dates still remained at the October 14 launch date first announced on Tuesday.

It certainly was not smooth sailing this morning, though. All four sites experienced issues as Apple aficionados rushed to stake their claims to iPhone 4's successor, in some cases taking the sites down completely.

Apple's online store was "down for updates" until about 3:41am ET, some 40 minutes after the intended start time. AT&T's online store at first did not list the iPhone 4S available for pre-order, and then activated the pre-order link without the actual phone being available before finally ironing out its issues around 4:00am ET. Sprint's website crashed shortly after 3:01am ET and was intermittently available for much of the next hour, frustrating users.

The winner here? Verizon: the carrier actually opened up pre-orders a bit earlier than the announced start time, and experienced few periods of downtime during those opening minutes.

As of noontime on the East Coast, all sites appeared to have ironed out their issues and were operating normally save AT&T, which still seemed slow. Regardless, this was a definite difference from the pre-ordering for the iPhone 4 in June 2010. AT&T and Apple could not cope with the overwhelming demand and the process was a chore for much of the first day.

Given that, there are several plausible explanations for why pre-ordering for the iPhone 4S has gone quite a bit smoother this time around.

1. There is just not much demand. This is the reason most iPhone 4S critics will bring up first. The device is indeed an incremental release despite the significant enhancements to the iPhone's innards, intended to capture the millions of AT&T 3GS customers who have been long out of their contracts and are eager to upgrade. Add to that the fact that many were looking for a more drastic redesign, and it results in less demand.

2. Demand is spread out this time. Using the iPhone 4 pre-order process as an example, there were only two outlets where you could get the device: Apple and AT&T. Now, there are four. This would lessen the demand on any one site (except for Apple obviously), and spread it out.

3. The carriers have simply gotten good at this. The phone pre-order process is nothing new to any of these carriers. But for AT&T as well as the other carriers, they all have done this many times before with other devices as well. It should be much easier for them to keep their websites up based on their previous experiences.

It is quite likely that no one particular reason can explain why consumers are having an easier time getting their hands on an iPhone 4S. The best gauge of device sales in relation to past devices may actually come from the ship dates: when Apple or the carriers can no longer guarantee the device to arrive by October 14.

So far, all sites can "guarantee" delivery by that date.

Looking to pre-order your own iPhone 4S? Here's the direct link to the pre-ordering pages for Apple and each of the carriers.

Apple
AT&T (existing customers should pre-order through My AT&T)
Sprint
Verizon

Here's a driving tip: put the phone down

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 10:49pm CEST par Ed Oswald

You've been told over and over again: don't text and drive. Need more reason why? A recent study conducted by Texas A&M's Texas Transportation Institute indicates texting behind the wheel doubles your reaction time.

Distracted driving accounts for about one-fifth of all fatal car crashes, with cell phones the most common source of that distraction. One out of every five drivers has admitted to texting while driving but the true number is probably considerably higher.

According to TTI's study, non-distracted drivers were able to react to obstacles within one to two seconds on average. While texting, reaction times were at least three to four seconds.

To gauge the level of distraction, researchers placed participants on a test track with obstacles, and told them to navigate the course without texting. On the second run, participants were directed to text while driving. Their reaction times to a flashing light were also measured.

While we've covered the issues with reaction times, the results of the reaction to that flashing light were quite worrisome. Drivers were found to be 11 times more likely to miss the flashing light while texting, which could easily be equated to missing a traffic signal.

The results should serve as a wake up call to those of us who can't put the phone down.

"Most research on texting and driving has been limited to driving simulators. This study involved participants driving an actual vehicle," TTI associate transportation researcher Christine Yager says. "So one of the more important things we know now that we didn’t know before is that response times are even slower than we previously thought."

In addition to the reaction delays, researchers found impairment elsewhere: the ability to maintain lane position (especially on open non-barreled portions of the course) and the ability to maintain speed.

Researchers warn that the course was intentionally made simple to reduce the possibility of injury to those participating -- thus the dangers could be far greater than what this study suggests.

42 drivers in all aged 16 to 54 participated in the study.

Photo Credit: Poulsons Photography/Shutterstock

Get your iPhone 4 (and the best plan) on Sprint now

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 7:25pm CEST par Ed Oswald

While customers will not be able to get their hands on an iPhone 4S for another day, Sprint on Thursday began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4. Like the 4S, the phone would ship out for delivery on Friday, October 14 or Saturday, October 15.

The iPhone 4 on Sprint is the same as the Verizon model that's been available for much of this year, except the capacity reduced to 8GB. It would be compatible with the carrier's 3G service, but not "4G" WiMAX.

In addition to allowing pre-order of the device, Sprint also confirmed that it would be offering its popular unlimited plans for iPhone customers. This would give Sprint an advantage as both AT&T and Verizon have dropped their unlimited data offerings.

Unlimited phone, text, and data would cost $109.99 per month. Sprint also has a plan for 450 voice minutes with unlimited text and data for $79.99 monthly, and 900 minutes also with with unlimited text and data for $99.99.

Even at those rates Sprint is competitive. The closest "unlimited" 450 minute plans (both with 2GB data caps) from AT&T would cost $84.99 and Verizon $89.99, and with 900 minutes it increases to $104.99 on AT&T and $109.99 on Verizon.

Tech loses a visionary: Steve Jobs dead at 56

Publié: octobre 6, 2011, 1:52am CEST par Ed Oswald

The tech world has lost one of its greatest visionaries: Apple has confirmed that Steve Jobs died on Wednesday due to complications from pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. Apple confirmed his passing on its website, although immediately did not give any further details.

A statement from Jobs’ family said that he died peacefully surrounded by those he loved, and noted how much he cherished his family. They expressed their thanks to those that had passed on their well-wishes during his extended illness.

“We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief,” it read.

Jobs’ death comes just a day after the company he founded introduced the iPhone 4S, the fifth mobile device in what has become a defining product line for the company. He was a notable no-show, and any mention of Jobs himself were curiously absent.

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being", the company said. "Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple".

The tech word also shared in Cupertino’s grief, including Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates. "Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives". he said.

"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely".

Jobs’ health had seemingly been declining rapidly over the past several months, which caused him to resign in late August, handing over control of the company to Tim Cook. Pictures later surfaced of Jobs on entertainment site TMZ.com, which many at the time thought were faked, but in the light of Wednesday’s news were likely real.

It was Cook who broke the news to employees in a companywide e-mail earlier today.
While he did say the company would "soon" hold a celebration of Jobs’ life, he also took time to express his own grief and admiration for the man he succeeded.

"No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him". Cook wrote. "We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much".

(See the rest of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s e-mail on Jobs’ death)

Apple has invited members of the public to share their thoughts, memories and condolences on the passing of Jobs at a special email address, rememberingsteve@apple.com.

Details on funeral arrangements have not been made public.

Betanews will continue to add to this report as more details become available.

Is Zune a dead parrot? Microsoft can't decide

Publié: octobre 5, 2011, 8:04pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The Zune saga continues. Is the music player really dead? The drama got a little weirder today, as Microsoft seems to be making a concerted effort to erase any evidence that it said Zune hardware is finished. Passed on. No more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and has gone to meet its maker. It is a late media player. An ex-media player, if you will.

A support page which said that the company was focusing on Windows Phone for entertainment and "will no longer be producing Zune players" was deleted from its website (see the cached version here). Furthermore, in a tweet from the official Zune Support team, it continued the walk back.

"We are still supporting the Zune HD hardware. No official info has been released stating hardware is being discontinued," support representative "SM" said in a tweet. Thus, as official as it seemed being on Microsoft's Zune website, now we're being told that's not the case.

Moral of the story here? Not even Microsoft knows the status of its music player that seemingly is the tech world's equivalent of the Energizer bunny.

We contacted Microsoft and finally got a response nearly three hours after posting. And that post to the Zune site? Microsoft says to ignore it. When questioned by Betanews on its mixed messages this week and if the post to the support mistake was a mistake, Zune support representatives said yes. "It appears to be the case," tweeted "SM." "We apologize if you felt misled by this."

Misled? I'd say!

So what could be the reasons for the apparent confusion in Redmond?

The first may be that the page could have been released to the public before it was intended. It seems like a forgone conclusion that Zune hardware will be phased out, and this will eventually occur.

The second is that Microsoft does not want customers considering the Zune yet to skip purchases, which would create a glut of all-but useless players on the market. Yes, Zune Pass is getting cheaper, but the "cool" factor is arguably no longer there.

Finally, it could really signal an internal struggle within Microsoft itself. While there is no evidence this is happening, the company has spent millions on the platform and may want to give it another go.

Samsung seeks to block iPhone 4S sales in France, Italy

Publié: octobre 5, 2011, 6:45pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Samsung is using Apple's release of the iPhone 4S on Tuesday as a way to gain increased leverage in the heated patent battle underway between the two companies. On Wednesday, it filed requests for an injunction banning the sale of the device in both France and Italy.

The choice of these two countries is not by accident: patent laws in both allow for an affected company to request injunctive relief before an infringing product is officially released. That said, it's not unreasonable to believe that Samsung may look for injunctions elsewhere once the iPhone 4S ships.

"Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights and free ride on our technology," Samsung said in a statement announcing the effort. "We believe it is now necessary to take legal action to protect our innovation".

Samsung says the infringing technology, which involves the "reliable functioning of telecom networks and devices", is so egregious that it should be barred from sale. Two patents are listed in the legal filings.

The company is in dire need of some leverage in its battle with Apple. In Australia, Apple has rejected the company's efforts to settle there on the basis that Samsung was attempting to dictate terms for settlement when it was the infringing party; and in Europe Apple has generally prevailed in its efforts.

Samsung has had some help in the United States though: both Verizon and T-Mobile have come to its aid in defending it against a similar suit here which could halt the sale of the 10.1-inch version of the Galaxy Tab tablet and several handsets.

Photo Credit: JustASC/Shutterstock

I'll buy the iPhone 4S, and so should you

Publié: octobre 5, 2011, 2:52pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Woe is you.

You've waited 16 months for this announcement, and all you get is a stinking upgrade to the iPhone 4? You know, that doubling of processor speed and drastic increase in graphics handling isn't enough. The fact that CDMA customers will have worldphone capability thanks to dual-mode functionality? Pshaw.

Honestly folks, lets get real here. Apple certainly set the precedent with the iPhone 3GS that it plans to ride out designs for more than a year, giving them a speed bump mid-run. This is smart: it gives Apple more time to focus on creating truly innovative designs as well as separate features enough that each device can stand on its own.

I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not a big fan of the iPhone 4's design: I just think it does not reflect the true ingenuity of Apple's design team. But what they've put into the iPhone 4S in all honesty has made this a much bigger leap forward than we saw from the iPhone 3G to the 3GS, and has made it attractive enough to even myself.

Just look at the specifications: 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording capability. A combined GSM and CDMA phone. Up to eight hours talk time. Dual-antenna capabilities that push the limits of 3G to 14.4Mbps. Yes it's not real "4G," but it's going to be the fastest 3G phone out there.

Give Apple credit. They all knew LTE wouldn't be ready in time for the company to release a phone based on it, and battery life on LTE phones stink. Apple is going to squeeze as much as they can out of the 3G network before making the switch without much compromise.

Say "What?"

Siri is probably the biggest reason why you should upgrade, though -- it is for me. Watching the demonstration of this, I'm very excited about Siri. Android users are quick to argue that the platform has voice commands, too, but that's not what this is (iOS 4 did too, so what's it to you?).

Please read counterpoint: "You can have iPhone 4S, I'll take Samsung Galaxy S II"

Instead you are able to communicate with the device in a more natural manner. Ask it questions, tell it what you need. That's a real advancement in how we interact with our smart devices and sets the bar higher for its competitors. Is it gimmicky? Yeah probably, but hey if you can do mundane tasks without ever needing to touch a button I'm all for it.

Star Trek anyone?

Could Apple have reached for the stars here and given us our mythical teardrop wide-screened iPhone 5? Of course it could but it wouldn't have made sense. Why release a completely new design without a major advancement like LTE included? It would have cheapened the allure of any future device once it's announced, and probably also hurt potential sales.

LTE (or heck, WiMAX) doesn't matter my friends, as it's a gimmick at this point and inaccessible to the large majority of us. Apple is showing restraint by not releasing a half-baked product just to play tit for tat with Android.

Bottom line, the 4S returns Apple to a position among the best smartphones available whether it has 4G or not. While it's not what the technorati wanted, that really doesn't matter. Apple needs to focus on the average consumer first, rather than the gotta-have-it crowd: they're not dealing with multiple manufacturers here, just themselves.

Look at the announcement of a free iPhone 3GS and a $99 iPhone 4 (hey, wasn't Best Buy offering the 3GS free in August?). These are announcements aimed not at us, but your everyday consumer. Android can no longer claim the mantle of the cheap smartphone anymore. That's a wise business move.

In many cases, the iPhone 4 will surpass almost every competing Android device at the same price point. And the 3GS, while certainly aging, will be satisfactory for the basic smartphone user and still runs iOS 5.

There's really nothing to be disappointed about here. The iPhone 4S is a worthy phone, and if you have Apple as your horse in this smartphone race you should be applauding this strategy.

I am, and I will certainly be preordering my iPhone 4S this week. If you're eligible too, there's no good reason why you shouldn't either.

Editor's Note: Ed is upgrading from iPhone 3GS.

Here's the video game you should buy this holiday season

Publié: septembre 30, 2011, 12:16am CEST par Ed Oswald

If you have a gamer in your household, this is a story you might want to read before deciding what to buy them this holiday season.

First person shooters remain hot according to a survey of hotly anticipated upcoming video games, as the top two most sought after games fall in the genre. Research firm Nielsen found that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, available November 8, tops many gamer's wish lists: a quarter of respondents listed the title in their top five holiday games.

This was followed by the popular Xbox 360 franchise title Gears of War 3, which 19 percent of respondents placed in their lists. Gears of War was released on September 20.

Franchise titles also remain popular and out of the top 20 games on Nielsen's list, all but one game is part of a bigger franchise. Notable franchise titles in the top ten included EA Sports' Madden NFL '12, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and 2K Interactive's NBA 2K12.

"While Action/Adventure games hold the most spots in the Top 20, the list is a testament to the diverse interests of today’s gamers—from the intense action of First Person Shooters like Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, to the energetic enthusiasm of Music/Rhythm games such as Ubisoft’s Just Dance 3, to the epic sense of adventure in Bethesda’s RPG Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," the firm said in its report.

In addition to asking what titles gamers are seeking, Nielsen also attempted to understand why. The allure of the launch parties and apparent darker and harder storyline of Call of Duty 3 are among the reasons why gamers can't wait for its release; while downloadable previews and multi-player functionality are attracting gamers to the new Assassin's Creed.

The study was conducted between August 21 and September 17, and interviewed approximately 5,000 gamers who were asked to list five games that they're most excited about this holiday season. The buzz surrounding these titles come from over 417 million online conversations scanned by Nielsen's NM Incite division.

We've obtained the full 20 game list from Nielsen and are curious to hear whether any of these titles interest you. Any title not on the list that is on your top five games of the holidays? Speak up in the comments.

Nielsen’s Top 20 Games to Watch for Holiday 2011
Title	Genre	Platforms	Publisher	% Choosing as Top 5	Key Elements of Online Conversations
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3	Shooter	360, PS3, Wii, PC	Activision	27%	upcoming launch parties, changes in the new game, ‘darker mood’, hardened version vs standard
Gears of War 3	Shooter	360	Microsoft Game Studios	19%	high anticipation for launch, best prices at retailers, sharing info on codes and downloads
Madden NFL 12	Sports (Simulated)	360, PS3, Wii, PSP	Electronic Arts	19%	challenge matches, calling in sick in order to play
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations	Action / Adv	360, PS3, PC	Ubisoft	17%	downloadable previews, multi-player functionality
Batman: Arkham City	Action / Adv	360, PS3, PC	Warner Bros Interactive	15%	new villains in the game
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword	Action / Adv	Wii	Nintendo	14%	nostalgia for series brings back ‘old school’ gamers, similar feel to Ocarina Of Time
Battlefield 3	Shooter	360, PS3, PC	Electronic Arts	12%	many feel this title is superior to competing titles in the genre, differences in game performance by platform
Just Dance 3	Music / Rhythm	360, PS3, Wii	Ubisoft	12%	excitement for new tracks announced
NBA 2K12	Sports (Simulated)	360, PS3, Wii, PC, PSP	2K Interactive	9%	online demos, discussions of how to adjust schedule to allow more time to play
Need for Speed: The Run	Racing / Driving	360, PS3, Wii, PC, 3DS	Electronic Arts	9%	exclusive Porsche models in the game, anticipation as a holiday gift
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception	Action / Adv	PS3	Sony Computer Entertainment	9%	high expectations of this title being even better than the previous iterations
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games	Sports (Arcade)	Wii, 3DS	SEGA	8%	gaming experts mention this title alongside other titles announced at the 3DS conference
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7	Action / Adv	360, PS3, Wii, PC, PSP, DS, 3DS	Warner Bros Interactive	8%	sharing previews and speculation on the upcoming game
FIFA Soccer 12	Sports (Simulated)	360, PS3, Wii, PC, PSP, DS, 3DS	Electronic Arts	8%	FIFA vs Madden, desires for more pro and career mode options in the new release
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	RPG	360, PS3, PC	Bethesda Softworks	8%	M rating / graphic nature not a deterrent, daily countdown until release
Dead Island	Action / Adv	360, PS3, PC	Deep Silver	7%	looking for gaming partners for online co-op
Kinect Sports: Season 2	Sports (Arcade)	360	Microsoft Game Studios	6%	high expectations for the upcoming sequel, considerable attention from casual gamers
Resistance 3	Shooter	PS3	Sony Computer Entertainment	4%	franchise fans call it a ‘must have’ ‘game of the year’
Dance Central 2	Music / Rhythm	360	Microsoft Game Studios	4%	enthusiasm for the ability to import songs from the original title
Deus Ex: Human Revolution	Shooter	360, PS3, PC	Square Enix	3%	best prices at retailers, differences in game performance by platform
Source: Nielsen

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

T-Mobile joins Verizon to block Apple injunction against Samsung

Publié: septembre 29, 2011, 7:36pm CEST par Ed Oswald

With Apple's battle against Samsung heating up, T-Mobile is doing its best not to get burned. If Apple is successful in getting a preliminary injunction against Samsung, the nation's fourth biggest carrier could find itself in a bad spot. Verizon has iPhone to fall back on. T-Mobile mostly offers Android smartphones, and Samsung makes the flagship models.

On Wednesday, T-Mobile filed a legal brief with the United District Court for the Northern District of California asking a federal judge to reject Apple's request for preliminary injunction against four Samsung devices: Droid Charge, Galaxy S 4G, Infuse 4G and Galaxy Tab 10.1. A hearing is scheduled for October 13. If granted, Samsung would be barred from offering these Android devices in the United States.

T-Mobile would be affected by the injunction on only one of the four devices named: it currently sells the Samsung Galaxy S 4G. It will also sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 too, so the nation's fourth biggest carrier has a vested interest in ensuring this injunction isn't imposed.

All in all, T-Mobile's filing seems like an effort to protect itself more than any action intended to shoot back at Apple for its failure to work with the carrier. After all, T-Mobile's chief marketing officer on Monday publicly stated the company's interest in the iPhone, and said it had expressed that to the folks in Cupertino.

Its parent company is also a major partner internationally for Apple, and nearly every other T-Mobile division has the iPhone in their lineup.

T-Mobile's brief generally argues the same points as another filed by Verizon. It argues that an injunction would "unnecessarily harm" the carrier and its customers, and in the case of the Galaxy Tab they would have no replacement.

"These investments cannot be recouped easily," the filing states.

Virtualization makes sense for small and medium businesses

Publié: septembre 29, 2011, 2:01pm CEST par Ed Oswald

For small and medium businesses (SMB), the cost of IT can be sometimes prohibitive. Budgets are small and resources are thin: virtualization may be an attractive alternative to the server farm as it is easy to set up and less time consuming to maintain. Through virtualization, SMB IT deployments can be much more expansive and comprehensive due to cost savings typically realized as a result.

A recent survey by VMWare validates this. Of the 309 SMB IT managers surveyed using virtualization, nearly 73 percent saw a significant decrease in the amount of time spent on routine IT tasks. Over two-thirds also were better equipped to adapt to the changing needs of their businesses, and nearly the same number were able to significantly reduce their hardware costs.

Hardware costs can be reduced both directly and indirectly. The direct savings comes from the fact that multiple servers are no longer needed: instead one server can play host to several. The indirect savings add up too -- consider the lower maintenance and electricity costs, and even the square footage of the business freed up as a result of the elimination or capping of so-called "server sprawl."

That is not the only reasons why SMBs should consider virtualization. Unlike large Fortune 500 companies that are able to support deployments with multiple redundancies, SMBs often cannot afford extensive backup systems. This puts these companies' data at a higher risk of loss, whether it would be from hardware failure or in the event of a natural disaster.

One third of all small and medium business have likely experienced a significant outage as a result of hardware failure or natural disaster in the past two years, and one in five have lost data as a result of these issues. Of those losing data, three out of five will lose sales, the VMWare survey shows.

Since virtualization can provide redundancy in a simple and cost effective manner, the risk of data loss can be decreased significantly.

There are some steps to take if your small business is considering virtualization:

1. Assess if the IT department has the knowledge in-house to not only execute but maintain the deployment themselves. If this is not the case, it is smart to seek the assistance of a third-party.

2. It is also important to assess the readiness of your current hardware and software. Will the server hardware be able to support the additional computing power necessary to virtualize the number of servers that you may need? Does the software required to operate your business support virtualization? After researching the costs to move to a virtualized platform, does your business have the budget to do this?

If any of these are a no, then you may need to reconsider your virtualization plans. It may also be a good idea to consider the assistance of a third party to advise on your next steps to ensure whatever adjustments necessary are done in a cost-effective manner.

3. There is one other consideration when going virtual -- and that's measuring success. The easiest way to do this is to compare your budget and expenditures for IT both before and after the deployment, keeping in mind the startup costs may artificially inflate your IT costs initially. Since many SMBs are moving to virtualization in order to save money, it's important that you have some measurement of its success.

Some helpful virtualization primers:

Virtualization Security -- Cisco
vStart50: Ready to Run Virtualization for SMBs -- Dell
Small Business Solutions -- Microsoft
Virtualization for Small and Midsize Business -- VMWare

Photo Credit: James Thew/Shutterstock

FCC sued over leaving wireless data out of open Internet rules

Publié: septembre 28, 2011, 10:50pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Media reform group Free Press has filed suit in the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, asking the courts to review the Federal Communications Commission's "Open Internet Rules." Those policies were passed last December in an effort to create a formal code of conduct for broadband providers following accusations of unfair traffic handling.

These rules force providers to be transparent about how they handle Internet traffic and forbid the favoring of one company's traffic over another. But it's not the same for wireless data.

Instead, the new regulations there are much more lax, only calling for transparency in traffic handling as well as applications that delver voice and video telephony. Seemingly other types of apps could viability be throttled at the carrier's discretion.

Those final rules seemed to be a departure from what the FCC had first proposed, which suggested the agency was going to take a hard-line approach to dealing with the issue of Net neutrality. That wasn't the case, and interest groups like Free Press are crying foul.

"When the FCC first proposed the Open Internet rules, they came with the understanding that there is only one Internet, no matter how people choose to reach it," policy director Matt Wood said in a statement. "The final rules provide some basic protections for consumers, but do not deliver on the promise to preserve openness for mobile Internet access."

His group argues that there is no evidence to support the distinction between wireless and wired Internet traffic, and that doing so violates the Communications Act of 1934. It's vital to the Internet's future that the rules equally apply to wired and wireless, in Free Press' eyes.

"It's especially problematic because of the increasing popularity of wireless, along with its increasing importance for younger demographics and diverse populations who rely on mobile devices as their primary means for getting online," Wood argues.

Free Press is seeking the court to either throw the ruling out for being illegal in full or in part, or remand it to the FCC "for further proceedings."

A request for comment with the FCC is outstanding as of press time.

Photo Credit: Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock

Google+ market share grows 1,269% in one week

Publié: septembre 27, 2011, 11:44pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Website traffic analysis firm Experian Hitwise said Tuesday that traffic to Google+ grew some 1,269 percent from the week ending September 17 to the week ending September 24. This was good enough to catapult the site from the 54th most visited site in the Social Networking and Forums category to 8th in just one week.

Research director Heather Dougherty said Hitwise's analysis indicated Google+ had nearly 15 million total US visits in the last week alone, its first since opening up to the public. She also said the company's analysis indicates that a large portion of the services users still remain early adopters.

The company has some funny names it uses to describe the different categories of users it follows across the sites it tracks called Mosaic. Regardless, these are still the influencers and technologically savvy who were the first to jump on board when Google+ launched in late July.

"In comparison to the online population, Google + continued to over-index for and win a high share of its visits from Mosaic USA 2011 Types which contain 'Influencers,' 'Early Adopters' and the internet-savvy, like 'Bohemian Groove,' 'Gotham Blend' and 'Progressive Potpourri;' this indicates that 'Early Adopters' still account for a large share of Google+’s traffic," Dougherty writes.

However, the firm noted that the audience profile of Google+ was shifting to lower and middle-income groups, which likely indicates that the social network is beginning to move past the early adopter phase of its growth.

Apple will announce one iPhone, not two, on Oct. 4th

Publié: septembre 27, 2011, 7:17pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Patient (or impatient) iPhone aficionados will not have to wait much longer for that highly anticipated iPhone 5: Apple on Tuesday began mailing out invitations to journalists for an iPhone event on October 4, to be held at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Apple often drops hints in the graphic elements accompanying the invites about what's coming. The not-so-cryptic message: One iPhone will be coming, contradicting weeks of rumors about two -- the other being the so-called 4S.

It's not clear why Apple chose to have its event on-campus this time versus its typical launch venue, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The YBCA is showing no events for that day. In any case, Apple may be leaning towards a more intimate setting, hoping to maximize press coverage for the device by only inviting the most highly-read news outlets to the event itself.

The invitation is simply titled "Let's Talk iPhone," with an image showing the iOS icons for its calendar, showing the date of Tuesday the 4th, the clock, (showing the time of the event), the Map icon showing a pin where Apple's campus is located, and the phone icon.

If the visual clues extend to the phone icon, this may be the most important part of the whole invite. Notice that the "1" badge is on this image. For several months now, we've waffled between Apple releasing either one or two phones. In true Apple style, the company may have hidden its answer in the invitation itself. Those sneaky devils.

What is still unclear regardless of the number of phones Apple debuts next Tuesday is the release date. Using the iPhone 4 as a baseline for speculation, the announcement came on June 7, 2010, followed by preorders on June 16 (Wednesday) and in-store sales on June 24 (Thursday).

By that reckoning, presales would start October 12 and the phone would be in stores on October 21. But a more ambitious schedule would better rumors of October 15. In that scenario, Apple would begin presales on October 5 and have iPhone 5 in stores on the 13th.

USPTO denies Apple's 'multi-touch' trademark -- for the final time

Publié: septembre 27, 2011, 6:22pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Apple has made big brouhaha about its multi-touch user interface on iOS products like iPhone, and has for almost four years been attempting to trademark the term here in the United States. That effort is now for naught as a filing made public on Friday shows that the company's application was denied.

Apple originally applied for the trademark back on January 9, 2007, the same day the first iPhone was introduced at that year's Macworld Expo. Its application was initially denied by a US Patent and Trademark Office attorney on the basis that it was "merely descriptive of the applicants goods," but Apple pressed on.

In a resubmitted application, Apple attempted to prove "acquired distinctiveness," but the USPTO was not persuaded and denied it a second time. Running out of options, the decision was then appealed to the full board, which held a hearing in April and handed its decision down last week, again affirming its attorney's opinion on the matter.

The decision seems to reflect the opinion of the USPTO that multi-touch now has become a generic term to describe the interface between the user and most touchscreen devices. Since that is the case, it becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, to trademark the term.

"Simply because the applied-for term has been used in association with a highly successful product does not mean the term has acquired distinctiveness," the USPTO said in conclusion.

The full text of the decision can be viewed here.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

T-Mobile's Galaxy S II is a beast

Publié: septembre 27, 2011, 5:59pm CEST par Ed Oswald

T-Mobile won't deny its customers the best. With the AT&T merger in doubt over antitrust concerns, and what appears to be the increasing likelihood that the carrier will not offer iPhone 5 come October when its other large competitors likely will, T-Mobile needs to offer some truly innovative smartphone.

The carrier is showing the best comes to those wait. Its Samsung Galaxy S II variant may be the last to come to these shores, but it is by far most powerful of the three that were launched for Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile.

When Betanews was up in New York City last month for the unveiling of the device, T-Mobile curiously placed its S2 under glass and wouldn't let the media handle it for themselves. We now know why: the phone's specs exceeds any of its siblings.

While AT&T and Sprint S2 models have 1.2GHz dual-core processors, T-Mobile's version sports a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor. You really can't compare T-Mobile's data to Sprint's due to the differences between WiMax and GSM, but comparing it to AT&T's model is fairer: here T-Mobile's S2 maxes out at a top speed of 42Mbps versus 21Mbps for the AT&T variant.

T-Mobile is publicly claiming its field tests in four major markets showed the devices (the HTC Amaze 4G included) averaged download speeds of 8Mbps and peak speeds approaching 20Mbps. That performance would put these near the top of the fastest phones available on the market today, not only for the speed of the hardware but also data throughput as well.

T-Mobile is also enabling NFC on the device, allowing it to take advantage of the growing support for the technology for mobile payments. The carrier itself is part of a mobile payments effort called Isis, although it has been repeatedly delayed since its initial debut in late 2010, and is not expected to be live until next year.

Like the HTC Amaze, T-Mobile's Galaxy S II will also be available October 10 for an online presale, and October 12 in stores. T-Mobile says the phone will cost $279.99 with a two-year contract, but will come with a $50 mail-in rebate bringing the price down to $229.99. It's pricier than the AT&T and Sprint models, which go for $199.99 but without rebate. But they don't have that screaming Snapdragon processor.

Here's the specs we got from T-Mobile:

Size: 5.11 inches x 2.71 inches x 0.37 inches
Weight: 4.77 ounces
Battery: Rechargeable 1850 mAh lithium-ion battery
Processor: Qualcomm® Snapdragon S3 Processor with 1.5 GHz dual-core CPUs
OS: Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Outputs: DLNA, HDMI output (MHL adaptor required)
Memory
Internal storage: 16 GB
External storage: Micro SD Memory card slot (up to 32 GB)
RAM: 1 GB
Connectivity
4G: Up to 42 Mbps download speed
Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth® 3.0
Cameras
1080p HD video capture and sharing
8 MP rear-facing camera with flash, 2 MP front-facing camera
Display: 4.52" Super AMOLED Plus WVGA touch screen
800-by-480-pixel resolution

Photo Credit: Ed Oswald

Google+ sees explosive growth, 50 million-plus users in less than 3 months

Publié: septembre 27, 2011, 1:10am CEST par Ed Oswald

All that talk of Google+ becoming a "ghost town" seems premature. Paul Allen, founder of Ancestry.com and self-titled "Google+ unofficial statistician," said his model which attempts to estimate the number of Google+ users by counting unusual surnames shows that the social network grew some 30 percent just in the two days following its opening to the public.

It gets even better than that: Allen estimates that as of Monday ("plus or minus a few days"), the site had reached some 50 million users. Google+ would have achieved this feat in just 88 days. Compare this explosive growth to other services: MySpace took 1,046 days to reach that level; Twitter 1,096 days; Facebook 1,325 days; and LinkedIn 2,354 days. It's clear that Google's social networking service has captured the interest of consumers and continues to grow quickly.

"I think we are witnessing the most exciting battle in tech history as two well-funded, fast-growing, highly-profitable, genius-led Silicon Valley companies are competing from very different starting points to affect how we find information, how we connect with people, how we view the world, and how we spend our time," Allen said in a Google+ post highlighting the milestone.

He cautioned against assuming that this achievement isn't necessarily bad for competitors such as Facebook; instead he believes the competition will only make both sites better.

"Customers will benefit as these two innovative tech companies try to empower users with the best social tools," he writes. "Some people will choose one social network over the other and will evangelize their choice. Others will use both to communicate with different groups of people."

Indeed, we may have seen the first salvos in the coming social media wars through Facebook's announcements at its f8 developer conference. It made a significant change to the way profiles work by introducing Timeline, and strengthened its offering overall by partnering with entertainment providers.

At the same time, we may also have the first concrete evidence that Facebook's widely-criticized redesign may have pushed many to try out Google+ for the first time, as Allen describes the strong growth rates in the days following as not seen since the initial limited launch back in July and early August. Another explanation: Google+ opened to anyone last week, after being in invite-only trial.

Photo Credit: AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA/Shutterstock

mysql.com hacked and serving malware, stolen data sold on hacker forums

Publié: septembre 26, 2011, 8:34pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Users visiting mysql.com are being infected with malware, say security researchers. According to security firm Amorize, the hack is delivering malicious code through the use of an iFrame which in turn infects users with the Black Hole exploit.

Black Hole exploits security holes within the user's browser -- including plugins -- to find a hole through which a piece of malware can be used without the user's consent. Users would not need to agree to anything: Amorize found that simply visiting the site will lead to an infection.

The firm has tracked the two malware-serving domains to Florida and Sweden. The attacker is unknown, and as of Monday afternoon the site was still serving malware to visitors. Obviously use of mysql.com is being discouraged as a result until the all-clear is given, which had not occurred as of Monday afternoon.

"There's a lot of potential damage here and we need answers from MySQL ASAP", Kaspersky senior researcher Roel Schouwenberg told Betanews. "User credentials may be compromised. People are strongly advised to change their passwords on other sites if the same password was used for mysql.com".

Making matters worse, in its own research Trend Micro found that root access to mysql.com is being sold in Russian underground hacker forums. For $3,000 USD, hackers are being permitted to use a shell console from the seller to gain access to mysql.com's servers.

"We contacted MySQL.com about this issue last week," Trend Micro's senior threat researcher Maxim Goncharov said. "We are making this public to stress the fact that hackers do not only profit from selling stolen data or by inserting bad links into spammed or phishing messages, websites and other possible infection vectors".

Schouwenberg emphasized: "People should be extra suspicious of phishing emails. If the bad guys managed to get access to email addresses we may see 'please install this MySQL update'-type emails shortly".

Samsung to release its first Windows Phone 7.5 mobile in Italy

Publié: septembre 26, 2011, 7:44pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Samsung unveiled a new smartphone based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango," the Omnia W on Monday. The Omnia W is the latest in a line of higher-end Microsoft-powered smartphones from the company, all which carry the "Omnia" brand.

The Omnia W features a 1.4GHz processor and HSPA capable of 14.4Mbps connectivity. The screen is a 3.7" Super AMOLED and features both front and rear facing cameras. It also features built-in Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, and LinkedIn connectivity through Microsoft's "People Hub."

"Mobile consumers increasingly expect to be socially networked through their phones anytime, anywhere, and instantly," Samsung's mobile communications chief JK Shin said in a statement. "They are looking for high-performance devices that are easy and intuitive to use, look great, and enable them to create and share rich multimedia content with ease."

Omnia W users would also gain access to Windows Live SkyDrive, giving them 25GB of online cloud-based storage. Mobile versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote are included, which would likely help Samsung attract business users.

The handset is slated to debut in Italy next month. According to Samsung, the Omnia would gradually be rolled out globally to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America next.

Samsung did not specifically mention a release in the United States. That could be due to the impending release of the Focus Flash this fall on AT&T, a device that appears to have nearly identical specifications to the Omnia W.

Specifications

Network: HSPA14.4/5.76Mbps 900/2100, EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
Processor: 1.4 GHz
Display: 3.7” WVGA(800X480), Super AMOLED
OS: Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango"
Cameras
Main(Rear): 5 MP AF with LED Flash
Sub (Front) : VGA for Video Call
Video
Codec: MPEG4/H.263/H.264/WMV
Playback: 720p @30fps
Recording: 720p@30fps
Audio
Codec: MP3/AAC/AAC＋/eAAC＋/WMA/AMR-NB
Zune Player
3.5mm Ear Jack, FM Radio with RDS
Value-added Features
Marketplace Hub – free and paid Apps
People Hub – Windows Live, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin built-in
Picture Hub
Music & Video Hub – Zune Experience
Game Hub – Xbox Live
Office Hub – Microsoft Office
Samsung’s Enriched Apps
- Now, RSS Times, Video Call(3G), Photo Studio, Mini Diary, All Share(DNLA),
Fun Shot, Wireless Manager
- Dictionary (downloadable, except US, Canada, Mexico), Photogram (downloadable),
Rubik’s Cube(downloadable)
Windows Live Skydrive® (Free 25GB Storage)
Tile-based Metro UX / IE9 mobile
A-GPS / Bing Map
Connectivity
Bluetooth® technology v 2.1
USB 2.0
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Sensors: Accelerometer, Ambient Light, Proximity, Magnetometer, Gyroscope
Memory: 512MB(RAM) ＋ 8GB Internal Memory
Size: 115.97 x 58.8 x 10.9mm, 115.3g
Battery: Standard battery, Li-on 1,500 mAh

Trapped in 'Facebook purgatory': new design pushed to accidental testers months ago

Publié: septembre 23, 2011, 1:55am CEST par Ed Oswald

When Facebook rolled out its new layout late Tuesday, like past redesigns it was met with a good deal of acrimony from users.

However, for some like Regina Shade, a self-described "Facebook challenged" mother of two, they had been dealing with the reworked popular social networking site for at least three months if not longer.

"It was like Facebook purgatory," she mused. Shade told Betanews that since June, she had seen the future of Facebook but didn't realize she was essentially a guinea pig for the social networking site's future plans. "I have hated this since about the middle of the summer. Oh, you ain't seen half of what I have seen over the last several months."

Unwilling Participants

Ms. Shade and others -- possibly as many as 30,000 to 40,000 -- have a similar story: changes to layout and functionality almost daily, features disappearing and reappearing, and absolutely no communication from Facebook on what was happening all without their knowledge or consent.

"We thought our accounts were broken," advertising executive Susan Leverentz recounted of her own experience. "At first you couldn't see anything that wasn't a top story." Things only got worse as time went on say those Betanews spoke to.

The issues ranged from the merely annoying -- the once often-malfunctioning (and now much maligned) ticker was moved around to several places on the page before finally working as it does now about a week ago -- to the downright bizarre.

"I had music coming from no where a couple of times when I only had Facebook open," Jen Robison, another one of Facebook's accidental testers said. "One time I was hearing a commercial for Purina One." The only way Robison could get it to stop was to close out Facebook outright.

These testers also reported seeing other wacky changes to their Facebook pages, including old statuses (sometimes several years old) appearing in their feeds, times where the news feed listed "no posts at this time" yet the ticker showed current activity, and content from people they weren't friends with showing up as "top stories" in their feeds.

Changes Made Facebook Nearly Unusable

With Facebook changing so frequently, some decided to close their accounts and re-register for the service. This was for naught: according to posts on several groups that were created by those affected, some actually saw their accounts morph back to the test design.

Enterprising users frustrated by the redesign then turned to workarounds to get their old profiles back. While these worked for the time being, Leverentz and others told Betanews that Facebook would typically close those holes within a matter of days or weeks.

"They treated us with absolute disregard," Leverentz argued. "We bitched for the past three months non-stop and they still did this?"

She also offered the only possible solution that may explain how Facebook users were selected. At some point in the past, she had agreed to beta test new Facebook features. After the changes begun to frustrate her and inhibit her usage of the site, she attempted to opt-out of beta testing, but the option had disappeared.

Others that Betanews had spoken to did not recall ever consenting to become part of any test, although they may have done so accidentally. Either way, it only deepens the mystery of how these people were chosen, and better yet why they weren't informed of what was happening.

Facebook so far is staying mum on its procedures surrounding the test, as well as whether these users did indeed give consent. The company has not responded to requests for comment on this report.

Frustration, But Is There A Solution?

"The monster is starting to show his true colors," Axel Traut said of the move on one of the "support" groups. "I am afraid it's either love it, hate it, limit your action on Facebook or quit altogether."

Moving away from Facebook is what some may now consider, and a few of these testers already have. Ironically, on the same day the social networking site began switching all users over to the new layout, the Google+ social networking service opened itself up to the public.

There's one issue, though. As some have already pointed out, Google+ still has a very long way to go before it becomes a useful alternative. Leverentz knows: she depends on Facebook not only to keep tabs on her friends, but also for her professional life in advertising.

"A lot of people are still so dependent on Facebook," she lamented. Leverentz has made the move to Google+ herself, but acknowledged its adoption issues. "For me, Facebook has stumbled so many times. They don't communicate up front, and jack with your stuff."

Shade seemed to agree. "Why wouldn't they want to let us know what they were doing; what they were trying to achieve?" she asked. "We could have given them feedback, either positive or negative, but without any idea of where they were going, [it was] all negative."

The simple fact that Facebook has become so ubiquitous in the social networking fabric of the internet makes complaining about it and threatening to quit practically a lesson in futility.

The company makes it fairly difficult to completely remove yourself from the social network, and has in the past asserted claims to ownership of content posted on Facebook. In the end, it seems as the argument may now center around whether or not the social networking site has a responsibility to its users.

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Léo Apotheker ousted at HP, Meg Whitman in as president, CEO

Publié: septembre 22, 2011, 11:16pm CEST par Ed Oswald

In what could only be considered a full rebuke of Léo Apotheker's leadership, HP's board of directors announced late Thursday that it had appointed former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as president and CEO of the company, and Ray Lane as executive chairman of the board.

Apotheker would be pushed completely out of the company, including giving up his seat on the board. The news confirms reports that first surfaced on Wednesday from several sources indicating a rumored executive shakeup.

A replacement for Apotheker's board seat was not immediately named, or whether Whitman would assume that position.

In speaking for the board, Lane voiced the typical niceties associated with a departing executive. However, he also seemingly criticized Apotheker for failing to move the company forward.

"The board believes that the job of the HP CEO now requires additional attributes to successfully execute on the company’s strategy," Lane said in a statement. "Meg Whitman has the right operational and communication skills and leadership abilities to deliver improved execution and financial performance.”

During his year at the helm of HP, Apotheker pushed for the company's exit from the consumer business and also killed the company's tablet efforts. At the same time, however, HP kept missing sales targets, further damaging Apotheker's position.

Where Whitman plans to take HP is not yet known, as her statement accepting the position was short in both length and details.

"I am honored and excited to lead HP," Whitman said. "I believe HP matters -- it matters to Silicon Valley, California, the country and the world."

During a conference call today, Whitman kept in place Apotheker's most controversial, recent strategies -- spinning off or selling off the PC business and killing TouchPad -- moves that would seem to have precipitated his ouster. "The initiatives taken on August 18th are right," she said.

But in Q&A that followed, Lane waffled on the fate of the PC division -- the Personal Systems Group: "Our intent all along was to look at whether there was a benefit to investors or customers. I imagined a PSG that would carry an HP brand with it...[that] would be stronger for customers outside. He emphasized: "If it cannot be better on the outside, it'll stay inside."

Photo Credit: Eugene Berman/Shutterstock.com

Verizon CEO gives blessing to AT&T T-Mobile merger

Publié: septembre 22, 2011, 8:41pm CEST par Ed Oswald

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom are busy scrambling to save their $39 billion dollar merger, assembling a top-tier legal team and getting support from an unlikely ally: Verizon Wireless.

Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam publicly voiced his support for AT&T's plans, although the company planned to "stay on the sidelines" while the Justice Department and AT&T negotiate a settlement. If regulators cannot provide the carriers with adequate spectrum to operate in a timely fashion, then these mergers must be permitted to occur, he argued.

McAdam did not rule out the company taking an official position at a later date, however.

“We need to be very thoughtful on what the impacts would be to the overall industry if this is a way to regulate the industry without actually passing regulation," he told attendees of an investor conference this week. McAdam had been in touch with regulators as well as government officials, asking them to "step up" and offer some guidance when it comes to the spectrum issue.

Some analysts believe that T-Mobile may struggle to remain relevant alone, due to both a lack of spectrum and decreased leverage in attracting the most sought after mobile devices. A merger with AT&T seems to make the most sense for the company.

With regulators and politicians alike seemingly leery of AT&T's plans, the company may sense that the deal itself may be in danger of rejection. To that, the carrier has assembled a team of high-profile lawyers to argue its case. The lawyers on its team include those who have worked in the Justice Department's legal division as well as those who have worked in high-level roles at the Federal Trade Commission.

Also on the team are lawyers with previous experience in antitrust negotiations as well as those with experience with Judge Ellen Huvelle, Reuters reports. Huvelle is the judge who has been tasked with overseeing the case.

The two companies are also reportedly shopping around to the regional carriers in an attempt to shed some assets that may be enough to win regulator's approval. Bloomberg reported on Sunday that AT&T had reached out to MetroPCS and Leap Wireless, and had also contacted Sprint, Dish Network, and CenturyLink to gauge interest.

HP board looking to Meg Whitman to solve its problems, say insiders

Publié: septembre 22, 2011, 1:01am CEST par Ed Oswald

The man behind the change in strategy at Hewlett Packard may be on his way out. Kara Swisher of All Things Digital reported on Wednesday that sources indicated that HP's board was considering replacing current CEO Leo Apotheker with former eBay chief Meg Whitman.

If true, the move could signal deep divisions within HP over its future. Apotheker was behind the company's move out of the consumer business and WebOS. The simple fact that the board now is looking for new leadership may indicate that abandoning the consumer market was not an opinion shared by all of HP's executives.

Swisher reports that a significant portion of the board wants Apotheker gone after what they see as mismanagement of the company. Indeed, his record is by no means stellar: he has cut sales forecasts for the company at least three times during his tenure, and has pushed the company towards a significantly smaller market.

While it is true that the enterprise sector offers higher margins, HP would find itself competing with already established players in the sector such as IBM and Oracle.

The company would have to build that business up on its own, and it probably would require significant shifts in how the company works internally.

While Whitman's hopes to become the next Republican governor came up short, her ten year tenure at eBay's helm should certainly be considered a success.

She led the company to become one of the web's premier e-commerce destinations, and while eBay had its share of mistakes Whitman was able to maintain that success. It is said that Whitman wants to return to management following a brief stint as a consultant with venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.

HP could not be immediately reached for comment on the report.

The move would also mean that HP would see its third CEO in two years. Apotheker replaced disgraced former CEO Mark Hurd, who was ousted in August 2010 over accusations of improper relations with an HP consultant. Before that was Carly Fiorina, who also had her share of troubles surrounding HP's botched merger with Compaq.

Apotheker at the time of his hire was seen as a "strategic thinker with a passion for technology, wide-reaching global experience and proven operational discipline" by the board. It now seems that even his previous experience did little to solve what appears to be deep structural issues in HP's overall business.

Photo Credit: Joe Seer/Shutterstock.com

Facebook, stop it, just stop it

Publié: septembre 21, 2011, 7:39pm CEST par Ed Oswald

On the same day that Google+ opened itself up to the masses, Facebook launched its latest redesign. The change seems almost ironic considering the opposite trajectories these two social networks are on: Google+ on the way up, Facebook on the way down.

Forget the hit piece that journalism professor Dan Reimold wrote earlier this week for PBS calling Google+ a "ghost town." Even if Reimold's premise was even remotely correct (he needs to remember that up until now, Google was invite-only so of course usage is sparse), that's about to be blown out of the water.

Why? The new Facebook layout sucks, period. While the last redesign split the news feed into a Facebook-decided "top news" feed and the live feed, the two have now been combined. There's a problem though: I've yet to figure out how the new system's supposed to work and now there appears no easy way to get back to the way things were.

Instead, that live feed has been replaced with an all-but seizure inducing ticker on the upper right hand corner of the page. If you're like me and getting close to having many hundreds if not thousands of friends, this thing can move so fast that it's useless.

But back to this new news feed. Like I said, I have no clue how it works. Facebook claims it places your top stories at the top, with chronological statuses below that. Uhh, at least for me this is not working: all I saw were top stories, now denoted by a blue triangle at the upper left of the status itself, and no recent statuses, at least on the first pageful.

I have been able to figure out how to get to what seems to be close to the old live feed, but I had to click away from the home page first and then come back. That's a pain in the rear.

The events list, which I always liked, is now condensed into your most recent event and pushed further down the column to make way for the new ticker, making that nearly useless, too. Ads are untouched though; isn't that a shocker?

I'm not Alone

Can you tell I am not a fan of the new Facebook? You don't have to take my word for it.

Harry McCracken of Technologizer is confused by the change. "Didn't understand how Facebook used to order things in my feed. Don't understand how it orders things in my feed now," he wrote in a recent status.

Over on Google+, the change may cause blogger Daniel Ionescu to use that service more: "I guess I should start using this more, since it's open for everyone and the new FB design is annoying to say at least."

Bloggers and journalists aren't the only haters. Among my own personal friends, finding fans of the new layout were very difficult to come by. "New facebook is freakin creepy," one said. "And you wonder why I was tellin everyone to get on Google+...enjoy your 'new and improved' Facebook lol," another mused.

It doesn't get much better from there: "I definitely prefer being able to toggle from most recent to top stories," complained a friend. I may have found a fan of the new system though: "I don't mind these changes. I like the activity feed. (I don't like the chat becoming archived as messages and continued conversation, that's broken). But it seems the biggest change is that every story in my feed has to do with Google+. Bet they didn't see that coming."

Google+ Benefits

Not entirely good news for Facebook after all.

See, the biggest winner here is indeed Google+. Facebook has a long and sordid history of making changes to its product that a majority of its users either are at best nonplussed by, and at worst downright angry about.

But there was a huge difference in the past. People had nowhere to go, so essentially Facebook could tell you to shut up and take it. With Google+ now becoming a viable option, and now available to anyone, that's no longer the case.

Facebook, you need to stop. Based on the reaction I'm seeing on my own news feed and across the web, there aren't many that care for this latest redesign. You can't tell me that this didn't come up in testing. There's just no way.

If Facebook continues to take advantage of its users like this, it will end up like MySpace. Customer satisfaction is now job #1 for Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook leadership team -- now with Google+ in the rear-view mirror, and they're doing an awfully crappy job of it.

Mac OS X Lion passwords super easy to crack, says researcher

Publié: septembre 20, 2011, 11:42pm CEST par Ed Oswald

A two-year old security issue in Mac OS X has reared its ugly head once again in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, allowing users of a computer to easily modify the passwords of other users.

Mac OS X stores encrypted passwords in what are called "shadow files." These files are placed in secure locations on the drive, which are intended to be only alterable by the user himself or the administrator, provided they authenticate themselves.

Security blog Defence in Depth, who originally found the issue in 2009 in Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6, wrote this week that the issue still remains in Lion.

However there is a crucial difference which makes the issue worse.

Whereas in the previous version of the flaw administrative privileges were required to make the hack work, with Lion that is unnecessary. Instead, the user only needs to look in Directory Services for the hash file (that is, the file needed to decode the encryption) which is accessible by any user.

"It appears in the redesign of OS X Lion's authentication scheme a critical step has been overlooked," Defence in Depth's Patrick Dunstan wrote. He did note that non-adminstrative users would still not be able to access the hash file directory, but the fact the hash data is stored in Directory Services makes the point moot.

What saves this from being a major issue is that it is only executable locally. This means a remote attacker would not be able to exploit the vulnerability. Still, it raises serious security concerns for those Macs used as shared machines.

Apple was not immediately available for comment on the issue. There are steps that can be taken in the meantime to protect Macs running Lion while Apple addresses the issue.

First, all guest accounts should be disabled. This will prevent the easiest route to hack the computer. Additionally automatic login should be disabled, thus requiring an administrative password at startup.

Users should also set a password for the screensaver and sleep states, thus preventing anyone from accessing the computer while the user is away.

Photo: Yellowj/Shutterstock

Seven attorneys general join fight to block AT&T T-Mobile merger

Publié: septembre 17, 2011, 12:39am CEST par Ed Oswald

The Justice Department's move to block AT&T's planned merger with T-Mobile gathered steam today with attorneys general from seven states signing on to the effort. An amended complaint was filed Friday, adding California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington as co-plaintiffs.

California was one of the first states to voice its concerns with the deal, and began an investigation in May. Officials in other states have expressed their unease with the combination of the nation's second and fourth biggest wireless carriers, all but ensuring that the deal will need serious alterations if it has any hope of being approved.

Not everyone is souring on the deal, and AT&T is finding newfound support elsewhere, including in some unlikely places. On Thursday, a group of 15 Democratic legislators sent a letter to President Obama asking for him to pressure regulators to approve the deal.

"I urge the President to strongly consider the vast benefits this merger will have on job creation and the economy and quickly resolve any concerns the Administration may have with the proposal," Rep. Health Shuler (D-NC), the author of the letter said in a statement.

The deal already counts about a dozen state attorneys general, as well as "hundreds" of federal, state, and local officials as supporters according to AT&T.

Officials for AT&T did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.

Questions still remain as to the merger's true effect, whether approved or denied. While opponents maintain that the deal would result in less competition and higher prices, there is also the question as to whether or not T-Mobile could survive a merger rejection.

"AT&T will have to raise money and build out their network if they want to compete with Verizon," business development consultant Shelly Palmer recently wrote for Seeking Alpha, arguing such moves would put its smaller competitors out of business. "AT&T will have to compete on price while it builds, and that will put so much pressure on T-Mobile and Sprint that they will not survive."

Photo Credit: stockpix4u/Shutterstock

Nintendo: We have 'absolutely' no intention to develop mobile games

Publié: septembre 16, 2011, 12:02am CEST par Ed Oswald

Nintendo made it clear that despite investor pressure to develop game titles for smartphone platforms, it had no intention to even consider the idea. The smack down came in the form of a bluntly worded response to questions from Japanese news outlet Nikkei.

"This is absolutely not under consideration," president Satoru Iwata told reporters. "If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength."

Iwata does not deny that in the short term, developing for smartphone platforms like iOS and Android would likely be a profitable venture. Regardless, the Japanese exec is looking mid and long term, and in his eyes smartphone games are not a wise investment.

So why is Nintendo being pressured to look outward? It comes from its struggles to sell its current handheld console, and its insistence on sticking it out with 3D.

Nintendo has already been forced to drop the retail price of the 3DS handheld console by $100 to $169, but even that does not appear to be enough to salvage the device: the 3DS is likely to miss its sales target of 16 million by at least 16 percent according to an average of analyst predictions compiled by Bloomberg.

Even after the price cut, sales have drifted back down to where they were after the launch, about a fifth of the average sales in the first three months of availability.

The starkest difference is found in comparing sales of the previous handheld console to the current one. Nintendo has sold about 150 million DS units since the launch in 2004 and had consistently high sales up until the debut of the 3DS, which only sold about 4.5 million units in the past six months.

There's also something else that the original DS had going for it that the 3DS doesn't: and that was a lack of solid competition. With mobile phone gaming now quite popular, consumers have little need for a separate gaming device.

PlayBook, TouchPad steal share from Android tablets

Publié: septembre 15, 2011, 12:56am CEST par Ed Oswald

Android's recent success in the tablet market seems to have hit a minor roadblock, as increased competition from RIM's PlayBook and now HP's fire-saled TouchPad chip away at its slice of the pie. Apple seems unaffected for the time being, with its market share increasing quarter-to-quarter.

Apple took a 68.3 percent share in the second quarter, up about 3 percent from the previous period, according to research firm IDC. Android tablet share on the other hand dropped significantly, falling to 26.8 percent from 34 percent in the first quarter.

Some of this drop could be explained by the release of the RIM PlayBook during the period. While sales of the device haven't been exactly what RIM was looking for, it still managed to grab about 4.9 percent of the market.

Making matters worse for Android is HP's decision to clearance its HP TouchPad inventory. IDC believes that this move will help HP's TouchPad garner a 4.7 percent market share in the current quarter.

As a result, Android would likely fall further to about 23 percent before making up some of those losses during the holidays. WebOS market share is also expected to drop to near zero in early 2012 given HP has no plans currently to license out the platform.

"We expect shipment totals to continue to grow in the third and fourth quarter, as additional vendors introduce more price-competitive Android products into the market and Apple works to maintain its dominance in the category," research director Tom Mainelli said.

While Amazon is expected to release its own Android powered tablet, IDC says the device expected to be launched later this year will resemble an e-reader more than a tablet and is not being included in their forecasts.

AT&T launches 4G Iconia Tab with oldest Honeycomb version

Publié: septembre 12, 2011, 9:34pm CEST par Ed Oswald

AT&T said Monday that it will begin selling the 10.1-inch Acer Iconia Tab A501, becoming the latest 4G-capable device on the carrier's network. Running Android 3.0 "Honeycomb," the tablet will be available in stores beginning on September 18.

As if Android fragmentation wasn't enough already, Android 3.0 puts Iconia behind the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (with v3.1) and Motorola XOOM (with v3.2), for example. Potential buyers must ask: Which matters more? 4G, or newer Honeycomb?

Customers will have the option to purchase the device outright for $479.99 with no contract agreement, or at $329.99 with a two-year contract which requires a $35 per month plan with 3GB of data.

Other plan options for both prepaid and postpaid customers include a $14.99 monthly 250MB plan and $25 plan for 2GB of data. AT&T offers similar priced plans for iPad 3G customers.

For those wondering, here's the specs, which are the same as the Iconia Tab A500, just adding the HSPA+ radio chip to enable 4G connectivity.

General Model Name: Acer Iconia Tab A501
Network: No Voice Communication, Data Transfers Only, 2G – GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G & 4G LTE
Size – Dimensions: 260 x 177 x 13.3 mm
Weight: 730 g
Display Type: LCD capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors display
Display Size: 10.1 inches
Display Resolution: 800 x 1280 pixels
CPU: Chipset – Tegra 2, Processor – Dual Core 1GHz
GPS: Yes, with A-GPS (Google Maps with Navigation)
Special Features: Accelerometer Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gyro sensor, Multi-touch input, HDMI output
Camera: 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Video Recording: Yes, 720p
Others: Secondary 2MP Camera
Features: Speakerphone, 3.5 mm audio jack
Memory: Internal Memory 16 or 32 GB storage, 1 GB DDR2 RAM
Memory Expandable: Yes, up to 32GB (microSD)
Battery Type: Standard battery, Li-Ion 3260 mAh (8hrs Gaming, 10 hrs over Wi-Fi)
Connectivity: GPRS / EDGE Yes / Yes, 3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
WLAN / Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth: Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
USB: Yes V2.0 (Type – microUSB)
Operating System: Android OS, v3.0 (Honeycomb)
Applications/ Organizers: Alarm, Calendar, Calculator, Notes, Google Maps, Latitude, Places
Java: Yes, via 3rd party software
Web Browser: Yes, Wap, HTML, xHTML Rendering
Games: Yes
E-Mail: Email with Push notifications, Gmail, MS Exchange Active Sync

Sprint offers the best mobile data value, study says

Publié: septembre 9, 2011, 6:51pm CEST par Ed Oswald

If you’re a data-heavy smartphone user, you belong on Sprint. That’s the findings of Validas, a company that specializes in tools to analyze cellular plan usage and spending. The average Sprint user spends about eight cents per megabyte, Validays says, which equals 12.5 megabytes for every $1 of data.

Sprint's numbers may be skewed though: its customers enjoy unlimited data plans, and a larger number are on its 4G network. Both factors likely contribute to higher data usage overall.

The worst deal in cellular data may surprise you, though. It’s actually T-Mobile, whose 23 cents per megabyte rate comes the worst of the big four. That equals about 4.3MB per $1 of data. While the carrier offers the least expensive data plans, T-Mobile’s coverage issues probably contribute to less data being used by its customers, resulting in higher overall data cost.

AT&T and Verizon are in the middle of the pack, with the former coming in at 18 cents per megabyte, and the latter 20 cents per megabyte.

"We think a usability issue like this may speak to a main reason why so many people are clearly not using nearly as much data as they’re buying: it’s not that people don’t want to use the data–it’s that they’re hampered by slow network speeds", the company said of the results in a blog post.

A year later, Bing+Yahoo still treading water against Google

Publié: septembre 9, 2011, 6:38pm CEST par Ed Oswald

It has been a year since Bing began powering search results for Yahoo. That pairing has done little to increase the overall market share of Microsoft's search engine entrant, increasing only four percent during the period.

In an even starker example of Bing's troubles, it still lags behind Yahoo in terms of searches launched directly from bing.com. A larger portion of Bing's overall share still comes from Yahoo, Experian Hitwise has found.

Google's search share in August was 65.09 percent, down a little under one percent from the previous month and down from 71.59 percent a year ago. Bing's total searches rose to 28.99 percent, up from a combined 24.56 percent one year ago.

Searches from yahoo.com itself made up 15.89 percent of that number, while Bing searches coming from bing.com made up 13.10 percent.

While it is clear that having Yahoo under Bing's belt is helping Microsoft overall, it appears as if overall consumers are still reluctant to make a change in their search habits.

Bing is also fighting a losing battle against Google in mobile search: Windows Phone continues to struggle against both iOS and Android, which default to Google for web searches.

As more consumers turn to their mobile devices for web searches, lacking a strong foothold in the market could hurt Bing in the future unless Windows Phone begins to gain traction in the marketplace.

Google bids big for Hulu, but to win or drive off competitors?

Publié: septembre 7, 2011, 5:13pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Fresh off its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility -- which by the way, was about both its patents and the hardware too -- the company is now said to be the high bidder in the race to acquire Hulu.

After being shut out in the bidding for Nortel patents, Google is suddenly willing to spend what's needed to get hot products/services or perhaps, with Hulu, end bidding altogether.

Peter Kafka of All Things Digital reported late Tuesday that Google has apparently proposed a "larger scale" acquisition than its counterparts. Hulu had already attracted bids of up to $2 billion including Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and DirecTV, but reports indicated that the Hulu board was not satisfied with those offers, and was ready to take itself off the market.

Tuesday's news seems to indicate that some consideration may be given to Google's offer. Details are not known, but it could be that in addition to a higher sales price the search giant could be looking for a longer period of exclusivity, something the networks don't appear to be willing to offer.

Why are talks continuing? Kafka suggests that Google may be willing to pay quite a bit to get more than Hulu's network partners may want to give, thus giving the site some pause in cutting acquisition talks off.

There's one more very plausible reason.

Google TV so far has not been all that successful, and Hulu could be a valuable piece in spurring device sales. Bringing a content provider in house could have benefits for the project and make it more attractive to the consumer, as currently it is much more search and advertising focused.

TechCrunch just exposed what is wrong with tech journalism today

Publié: septembre 7, 2011, 3:32pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Ed Oswald argues that TechCrunch embodies some of the worst ethics in journalism today. In counterpoint "AOL will ruin TechCrunch," Joe Wilcox argues that under Huffington Post management the tech site's good original reporting will greatly diminish.

I have been thinking about writing a story on the sorry state of tech journalism for a good part of my seven years in this business. Why's that? All too often objectivity, ethics and accuracy seem to have taken a backseat 'round these parts.

These three precepts are basic tenets that you learn from day one in journalism classes. Tell the story, and let your reader decide. Be forthcoming with your conflicts, and avoid topics you have a vested interest in. Having your facts straight and your nose clear is more important than being first or padding your own image.

For some reason, technology journalists seem to forget what they've been taught. Too often our biases come through in the stories we write, and we become defensive when we're called out on it. We often are not forthcoming on our potential conflicts, and there seems to always be the gold rush to have the earliest timestamp on our posts.

Case in Point: TechCrunch

The TechCrunch saga has brought all these warts we've been trying to cover up into the open, and too many of us are acting surprised that their modus operandi is so against everything journalism is supposed to be.

Come on guys, this is nothing new. We all know how the business works -- "pay-to-play" has been going on for years. Those businesses we cover have often developed relations with particular journalists who they know will cover them positively, and expect positive coverage.

Decisions on stories can often come based on advertising relationships: Harry McCracken's much publicized exit from PCWorld (the first time) was directly related to such an incident. Today with a blog anybody can become a journalist: even a millionaire investor like Mike Arrington.

Let's remember that TechCrunch started out as Arrington's own personal blog. Got to give him credit: his investing prowess, and his knack for writing persuasive content is top notch.

A problem arose, however, when TechCrunch made the switch from a personal blog to a "legitimate" news source, with a team of writers. At the helm was still an investor in many of the companies the site covered, and (for better or worse) the site's coverage seemingly is still overwhelmingly positive of Arrington's investments, no matter who is writing.

A Real Conflict of Interest

This is what made the idea of the CrunchFund so disgusting to some, because now that journalistically unpalatable arrangement was laid out in the open. It promised positive "deal flow," meaning TechCrunch would become a mouthpiece for those companies lucky enough to get venture capital from it.

In other words? In exchange for funding, you agree to break your news with TechCrunch first.

Good lord. So essentially what you're doing is using your financial clout to scoop your competition who is doing it the right way -- WORKING for that story -- and on top of it, likely sugar-coating your coverage so that others would link back. Wow, so not only were you inflating your page views, but the boss could make a pretty penny too!

Dang, there goes out the window nearly all those precepts I mentioned at the top of this commentary.

Making matters worse is watching writers of TechCrunch all of a sudden feign ignorance and act as if they are being unfairly attacked. Are you serious? You cannot tell me they didn't know what the standing operating practice of TechCrunch was.

Your boss made that bed, now you've all chosen to sleep in it. Sorry. And you can't tell me you aren't influenced in any way by him.

Somebody's Always Running the Show

See, there's a term media professors like to use called "gatekeepers." Without boring you with a lot of communications theory, essentially in any news organization there is always somebody watching the herd.

While Arrington may indeed not have interfered with actual stories, I find it hard to believe he did not have influence over his staff, helping to guide the overall brand. TechCrunch would not be as successful as it is if there wasn't somebody behind the scenes as the captain of the ship.

Kara Swisher of AllThingsD echoes this in a conversation I had with her Monday night over Twitter. "This line out of TC now reminds me of Rupe acting like he was not running the show at the PhoneGate hearings," she tweeted. It's true -- it is almost impossible to run a news organization without direction. Rupe refers to News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, of course.

Maybe this lesson in journalism ethics being played out before our very eyes will give some of us pause in how we're conducting ourselves. Honestly I don't have much hope for that though, because what is happening/happened at TechCrunch is happening elsewhere, too.

They're not the only ones folks. And that's a damned shame for objective journalists, and you the reader.

Photo Credit: marekuliasz/Shutterstock

Calm down, Final Cut Studio is back -- but for how long?

Publié: septembre 2, 2011, 11:45pm CEST par Ed Oswald

In what is most certainly a move aimed to silence critics of Apple's move to Final Cut Pro X, Apple has quietly made available again the previous version, Final Cut Pro 7. It's going to take a little work in order to get it, though: you need to call 1-800-MY-APPLE to order.

Apple will not offer Final Cut Studio 3 -- which includes Final Cut Pro 7 as well as Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, DVD Studio Pro 4, Color 1.5 and Compressor 3.5 -- in stores or online. There would be no discount for the old software either: it's still $999 for the package, or $899 for educational customers.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company released Final Cut Pro X in June, cutting the price of the new version to $299.99 and offering Compressor and Motion as $49.99 add-ons, all available through the Mac App Store.

Users of the software almost universally panned the release, in many cases accusing Apple of oversimplifying the application making it less useful in professional applications.

Betanews readers echoed these complaints.

"I am an editor with more than 25 years experience and compared to FCP 7 this is total crap. Sure it looks pretty and does some nice new tricks but as a pro this is not good," commenter danmarz wrote in a recent article. "My biggest gripe is I can't import previous projects, but there are many other problems that are too numerous to mention."

Barrettdb seemed to agree. "The real issue is the name, not the functionality. This is a completely new app. It is not an 'upgrade,' and that is why so many people are scathing."

Regardless, Apple's move feels more like a band-aid than a true fix. There are still no announced plans to continue to provide updates to Final Cut Pro 7, meaning users will be eventually forced to upgrade to Final Cut Pro X anyways.

'I was on the Apple board until I couldn't stand it anymore'

Publié: septembre 2, 2011, 8:26pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Former Google CEO and now Chairman Eric Schmidt offered some insight into his time on Apple's board to attendees of Salesforce.com's Dreamforce 2011 conference on Thursday, saying that while he was proud of his time with the company differences eventually caused him to leave.

Schmidt would not specify the reasons why he left the Apple board in 2009, although many believed it had to do with Google's involvement in Android. That is likely not entirely the reason: the search company purchased the rights to Android in 2005, and Schmidt joined Apple the following year.

"I was on the Apple board until I couldn't stand it anymore", he said.

Both companies have been slowly encroaching on each others turf. The most obvious battle is in mobile: Android vs. iOS. But there are several other areas where the companies are butting heads: Google through its moves into hardware, and Apple through its moves into advertising, for example.

Then Apple CEO Steve Jobs found that unpalatable and apparently a threat to his business, as his statement on Schmidt's resignation from the board states. "Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest", he said at the time.

Whatever truly may have led to Schmidt's departure is not exactly known, but it did not stop the Google CEO from praising Jobs for his work.

"What Steve has done at Apple is certainly the best performance of a CEO for over fifty years, maybe a hundred years. But not only did he do it once, he did it twice. We’ve all benefited from the tremendous innovation at Apple," Schmidt said.

At the same time, he pulled no punches in contrasting this with Microsoft and CEO Steve Ballmer, who have struggled in the spaces that Apple thrives in. "The difference is ability," he mused, causing some in the audience to snicker at what sounded like an obvious diss to Ballmer's leadership style.

He quickly corrected himself, though, adding "We're not talking about the people, but the corporations".

Lenovo Ultrabook moves in on MacBook Air's turf

Publié: septembre 2, 2011, 1:00am CEST par Ed Oswald

Aiming to fight Apple's MacBook Air on one of its primary advantages -- its size -- Lenovo on Thursday introduced its Ultrabook, claiming it is thinner than Apple's signature ultra-thin laptop.

Indeed, at .6-inches thick, the Lenovo Ultrabook U300S comes in slightly thinner than the Air's .68 inches. The laptop is part of a broader effort introduced by Intel in May to revive interest in laptops overall. The chipmaker is rightly worried about tablets, a device category Intel does not have a strong foothold in. Thus pushing these ultra-thin laptops has become a major part of its current business strategy.

Like the MacBook Air, the U300S uses a unibody construction. This allows manufacturers to shrink down the size of the casing while maintaining strength, and also reduces the weight of the laptop overall. The U300S weighs around 2.2 pounds, more than a half pound less than the Air.

Consumers will have the option of up to a 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 256MB of storage space using a solid-state drive; 4GB of DDR3 memory will come standard on the device.

Lenovo is also making some pretty hefty claims when it comes to battery life. It says the average user should be able to squeeze some eight hours of use, and a month on standby. The battery will also allow for rapid charging -- 50 percent of capacity in 30 minutes, the company claims.

While the U300S will come standard in a graphite grey casing, Lenovo says it plans to offer a limited edition Clemintine Orange model. Pricing starts at $1,199.99 and is slated to become available in November.

Samsung sweetens Galaxy Tab 7.7 with Honeycomb

Publié: septembre 1, 2011, 9:06pm CEST par Ed Oswald

In an age where our phones seem to be getting bigger and our tablets smaller, Samsung's latest addition to its Tab family is no exception. The Korean company introduced a 7.7-inch version of its popular tablet, complete with Android 3.2 and Super AMOLED Plus display.

The device is a followup to last year's original 7-inch Tab, but is the first tablet from the company to use Samsung's better display technology. It also features 1280 x 800 resolution, one of the best in its size class. Super AMOLED means the display will be viewable in sunlight.

As to pricing and availability, that's still up in the air. At its press conference at IFA Berlin, Samsung would only offer that the device would be available "in the next coming months". Tab 7.7 is among a small but growing number of smaller tablets running Honeycomb, which has been more common among 10.1-inchers.

While the device weighs in at about 12 ounces, its .31 inch thickness makes it just a hair thinner than Apple's iPad 2. A 1.4GHz dual-core processor powers the device, with size options of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. An included MicroSD slot allows for 32GB of additional storage.

For connectivity, Tab 7.7 supports Wi-Fi and HSPA+ capable of up to 21Mbps. Samsung is also claiming 10 hours of battery life for video playback, quite impressive for its class.

Other features include the company's proprietary TouchWiz user interface, universal remote functionality, support for Samsung's Hub entertainment services and voice and video support.

"The new Galaxy Tab 7.7 demonstrates Samsung's commitment to offering consumers the most choice in the mobile tablet market". Samsung mobile communications chief JK Shin says in a statement.

Is that the Samsung Galaxy S II in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Publié: septembre 1, 2011, 3:04am CEST par Ed Oswald

I had the pleasure of seeing the Galaxy S II up close last night at Samsung’s big reveal at their retail location in the Upper West Side of New York. Samsung has done good with this phone: bright beautiful screen, camera that actually takes worthwhile (and clear) pics, speedy interface, and very, very light and thin.

One thing stood out at me, and that was the size. It must be because I’m a long time iPhone user who is accustomed to the smaller-sized smartphone. This thing is big. Let’s be clear, though: AT&T’s version of the device has a 4.3-inch display, already making it quite a bit larger than the iPhone that measures just 3.5 inches. But then you come to the Sprint variant -- Epic 4G Touch -- and T-Mobile version, which is a damned monstrosity. With its screen coming in at about 4.52 inches, this thing just feels strange to hold. You might as well put a tablet up to your face.

Call me crazy but I could feel a difference in just that .22 inches. While the AT&T phone felt kind of big, I could still get my hand around it and grip it without too much discomfort. With the Sprint phone (and T-Mobile too, but only a guess there since it was under lock and key), that was a different story.

I honestly didn’t feel like I had a solid grip on the device, and that’s not a great feeling to have when you’re holding a cell phone. Yes, I understand the desire among these manufacturers to show off the increasingly impressive cell phone displays -- it really is beautiful. But do phones really need to be this big?

My iPhone 3GS measures 4.5 (height) x 2.4 (width) x .48 (depth) inches and weighs 4.8 ounces. iPhone 4's dimensions are 4.5 x 2.31 x .37 inches, and 4.8 ounces. Compare this to to the Epic 4G Touch, which comes in at a bulky 5.1 x 2.7 x .38 inches, and a weight of 4.55 ounces. It's lighter but larger.

While, yes, BlackBerries of the past have indeed been quite plump, those phones were also shorter top to bottom. This allowed you to cradle it in your palm a bit better, easing the discomfort of holding a large phone. With phones like the Epic 4G Touch that are made the same size as a regular smartphone -- just bigger -- that’s a different story.

Look, if you need a bigger display on a smart device, there are plenty of options that work much better like a small tablet. Heck, Samsung makes a great alternative itself -- the original, 7-inch Galaxy Tab!

I guess the argument is the entertainment side of things. But speaking from experience, trying to watch content on my phone for extended periods of time isn’t enjoyable. It’s just too small of a screen. Bump it up to a 7- or 10-inch screen and it's a much better experience.

Additionally, it’s not like applications are going to gain anything from the additional real estate. The difference is too small to give developers a reason to take advantage of it. So, I don’t really see the point.

Is it just because I’ve been using an iPhone too long? Am I being old fashioned? I don’t know, but I haven’t seen a valid argument yet for the tabletization of our mobile devices.

Photo Credit: Daniel Wiesheu

Is the AT&T T-Mobile merger dead?

Publié: août 31, 2011, 6:21pm CEST par Ed Oswald

In what could be a devastating blow to AT&T's efforts to acquire T-Mobile's US arm, the Justice Department on Wednesday said it had filed a civil suit to prevent the merger of the two companies.

"The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services," Deputy Attorney General James Cole, says in a statement. "Consumers across the country, including those in rural areas and those with lower incomes, benefit from competition among the nation’s wireless carriers, particularly the four remaining national carriers. This lawsuit seeks to ensure that everyone can continue to receive the benefits of that competition".

AT&T expressed surprise. "We are surprised and disappointed by today’s action, particularly since we have met repeatedly with the Department of Justice and there was no indication from the DOJ that this action was being contemplated", Wayne Watts, AT&T general counsel says in a statement.

Following the Justice Department's filing, the Federal Communications Commission suddenly shifted from its previous neutral position on the merger. "Although our process is not complete, the record before this agency also raises serious concerns about the impact of the proposed transaction on competition, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says in a statement.

What's at Stake

Lawyers for the Justice Department argue in the court filing what many opponents of the deal have cited most: AT&T would be eliminating the country's value provider. This would seemingly cause prices to rise. The Justice Department argues that AT&T felt competitive pressure from T-Mobile, making the merger a necessity.

Piece by piece, the Justice Department dismantled the two companies’ claims that competition wouldn't be hurt as a result. It noted that regional carriers cannot truly compete because they lack a national network, and to build one out could be prohibitively expensive. Lawyers also cast doubt on the claims of efficiencies created as a result of the pairing.

It also seemingly agreed with one of Sprint’s chief points in its opposition to the merger: AT&T could attain the same level of network enhancements by just investing in its own network. Acquiring a competitor is not necessary, Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Now What?

The news of the Federal opposition to the merger comes shortly after AT&T attempted to sweeten the deal by claiming efficiencies realized would allow it to bring 5,000 outsourced customer service jobs back to the United States.

It is not clear but the carrier may have released the jobs data in an effort to soften the blow of what its obviously very bad news. Wall Street is certainly taking it as such: AT&T’s stock was down more than four percent in midday trading.

The Justice Department has the capability on its own to reject the merger outright. The fact that it has chosen to file suit before rejecting it seems to indicate that there may be some room for negotiation.That said, the Justice Department may be looking for too much in concessions.

For it's part, AT&T will fight, and Watts made that intention unequivocally clear: "We plan to ask for an expedited hearing so the enormous benefits of this merger can be fully reviewed. The DOJ has the burden of proving alleged anti-competitive affects and we intend to vigorously contest this matter in court".

If the merger fails AT&T will owe T-Mobile spectrum, a "favorable" roaming agreement, and a breakup fee said to be $3 billion USD.

Photo Credit: Nito/Shutterstock

Amazon tablet will 'completely disrupt the status quo'

Publié: août 30, 2011, 3:00am CEST par Ed Oswald

If Amazon's rumored Android tablet ever indeed becomes a reality, it could quickly become one of the bestselling tablets on the market. That's the claims of Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, who expects the tablet to sell up to five million units in the fourth quarter of this year.

At that rate, sales of the Amazon tablet would surpass the 4.19 million iPads that Apple sold in the first full quarter of its availability from July through September 2010. Amazon would roughly be doing that in about two to three months.

Epps said that Amazon would need to sell the device below $300, something that has been rumored for some time. It's believed that the e-tailer could use the tablet as a "loss leader," selling it for less than it costs to manufacture in hopes to make up the loss in increased sales of content.

"Amazon’s quick ascension in the tablet market will completely disrupt the status quo," she argued.

The company's entrance onto the tablet scene could also have the effect of making Amazon the "iTunes of Android." Manufacturers could see partnering with the company as an easy way to provide content for its customers, since so far Google has no solid plans to do that itself.

Epps also believes the success of the Amazon tablet could also help the entire Android platform in attracting more application development. Currently about 100,000 apps are available in the app store said to take advantage of the iPad, whereas only 300 Android tablet apps exist.

"If Amazon’s Android-based tablet sells in the millions, Android will suddenly appear much more attractive to developers who have taken a wait-and-see approach," she says.

Could Samsung save webOS from HP executioners?

Publié: août 30, 2011, 12:44am CEST par Ed Oswald

Despite its denials, Samsung still appears to be making a move for HP in some form. Reports had surfaced last week that the South Korean electronics maker was interested in purchasing HP's consumer PC business. The company quickly denied the rumors in a terse statement, calling the reports "not true".

The same publication that first published those rumors -- Taiwanese technology daily DigiTimes -- has come back saying that Samsung has hired a former HP executive to head its PC business, and also may be interested in HP's WebOS platform.

Raymond Wah had served as HP's vice president of its Personal Systems Group, which includes the consumer PC business. DigiTimes claims that Wah would head up Samsung's personal computing arm, suggesting that, whether or not there is a HP acquisition, the company is planning to solidify its position in the consumer PC market.

Sources said that there was some concern that an acquisition could adversely affect Samsung's high profit margins in its display and DRAM chip divisions. This could be forcing the company to build out its own computer division rather than look to the outside.

As a result, the company could be looking to HP's webOS rather than its consumer PC division, which could generate better margins overall. DigiTimes' sources also said the move could be defensive following Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

While Google has repeatedly said that its move into the hardware business would not threaten the "openness" of Android, there has been some unease among partners over its implications.

Acquiring the rights to webOS would also give Samsung additional leverage in the mobile market. The company already has its own in-house smartphone operating system in Bada. Samsung would then be able to hedge its bets and have devices across four different mobile platforms: Bada, webOS, as well as Android and Windows Phone.

Android is already the top selling platform for Samsung. It has also seen dramatic growth in Bada, now outselling Windows Phone devices worldwide after less than a year on the market.

A diverse lineup protects Samsung from any changes in the relationship with Google over Android, or what could be a failure for Windows Phone to gain traction in the market, or even waning interest in Bada. It seems as if Samsung is intent in ensuring its mobile business will survive any possible detour in the mobile landscape.

HP's sudden killing off of webOS devices leaves the operating system's future in doubt. Surely it could do no better at Samsung than HP.

Some developers are joking that a purchase of webOS by Samsung could put the platform on better hardware than HP ever did, something it had roundly been criticized for.

"Imagine if Samsung bought webOS and paired it with some top-of-the-line hardware," software developer Joe Hewitt tweeted on Monday. "Maybe more than 3 developers would write webOS apps."

Photo Credit: Dmitry Vinogradov/Shutterstock

FCC restarts review of T-Mobile/AT&T deal

Publié: août 26, 2011, 7:14pm CEST par Ed Oswald

The Federal Communications Commission told AT&T Friday that it had received enough information on its proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile, and would restart the clock on its review. The agency had already spent 82 days of the 180 it typically takes for large deals.

FCC officials "stopped the clock" in July, saying they needed more information on the economic modeling of the deal vis a vis its possible anticompetitive effects. Competitors such as Sprint have been the most vocal about the negative effects, even equating it to the return of "Ma Bell."

While the FCC rarely hits its deadline, the 180-day timeframe is used as a guideline for companies to plan their merger process. If it is followed, we could see the merger complete as early as the end of the year, although most don't expect an approval -- if at all -- until early 2012.

Apple scoops up Jailbreakme.com developer as intern

Publié: août 26, 2011, 6:36pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. 19-year-old Jailbreakme.com creator Nicholas Allegra -- better known by his hacker handle "comex" -- has been hired as an intern by Apple, he disclosed on Thursday night.

Allegra had been searching for an internship while taking some time off from studies at Brown University. Up until recently he had continued to develop the website that thousands have used over the past few years to jailbreak their iOS devices. It appears in the end, however, that he felt like he had to move on.

"It's been really, really fun, but it's also been a while and I've been getting bored," he tweeted. "So, the week after next I will be starting an internship with Apple."

Obviously with Allegra working with the company whose products he's tried to hack for the past several years, Jailbreakme.com would likely be discontinued. It's not too much to expect that some of the first things he'd do in Cupertino is help close the holes he's exploited over the years.

It's a huge blow to the jailbreaking community too -- losing what could be considered one of its most effective hackers.

The practice of hiring those that hack you has been going on for years in the industry. Essentially the thinking is this: since they've been spending so much time exploiting your code, you might as well pay them to do it internally so that you'll be able to catch holes in your software before it is publicly released.

Allegra isn't the first hacker hire for Apple: two months ago the company hired Peter Hajas, who developed the jailbroken app MobileNotifier. It was thought that Hajas helped develop the refined notification system which has become a major part of iOS 5.

Google adds voice search to Maps for Chrome Users

Publié: août 26, 2011, 1:09am CEST par Ed Oswald

The days when we talk to our computers like something out of Star Trek are fast approaching. Google announced a new feature for users of its Google Chrome browser Thursday that will allow them to use voice on Google Maps to initiate location searches and get directions.

Google says this helps in searching for hard to spell locations, and in some cases saying where your looking for or wanting to go may be much faster than typing it.

To use the feature, users click a microphone icon that is located in the search text box to the left of the search button. You say what you’re searching for and Google’s voice recognition software does the rest.

Google had already turned on voice recognition for standard searches in June, and the functionality in Google Maps works the same. Here too though, non-Chrome users have been left out in the cold. The company has given no indication as to when we could expect the functionality on other platforms.

Voice search using Google Maps has been available on the company’s Android smartphone platform since last year, as well as in Google’s iPhone app. As Google itself has said, searching by voice on the phone seems to make sense -- after all, it is a phone.

Google+ forces Facebook to tweak sharing settings

Publié: août 25, 2011, 11:22pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Want evidence that Facebook is feeling the heat of Google+’s success? The company is announcing changes that give users more control over how content is shared. Facebook’s efforts seem to be a response to the most popular features of Google’s social network, praised for its tighter privacy controls.

Tagging has become a popular feature on Facebook, but many of us find ourselves tagged in posts, checkins, or photos that we’d rather not have been. The site now will give users the option to approve all tags before they appear on a user’s profile.

Facebook has made a curious change here, though: a user will be able to tag users that they are not friends with, however, in that case all tags would need to be approved by that person before appearing.

It was not immediately clear if the changes in how tags are processed extended to Facebook’s much-maligned facial recognition feature.

Sharing settings have been moved "in-line", meaning they now appear in the entry box to the left of the "Post" button. Each group that it can be shared to will be labled, but of course you’ll have to set up those groups in your privacy settings in order to get the maximum benefit out of the feature.

Facebook is also making it easier to take appropriate action on content that a user is tagged in if he or she finds it objectionable. When removing a tag, users will be presented with a dialog screen presenting three options -- removal of the tag, messaging the user to remove the content altogether, or blocking the individual who tagged you.

"Taken together, we hope these new tools make it easier to share with exactly who you want, and that the resulting experience is a lot clearer and a lot more fun", product vice president Chris Cox said in a blog post describing the new features.

Photo Credit: AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA/Shutterstock

German court: You can have iPad but not Galaxy Tab

Publié: août 25, 2011, 8:26pm CEST par Ed Oswald

A German court ruled on Thursday that the earlier issued injunction barring the sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch tablet in Germany will be allowed to stand. The ruling remains in effect until at least September 9, when the court plans to issue a final verdict.

The ruling means that Samsung will be barred from showing off the device at IFA 2011, Europe's biggest consumer electronics show slated to take place next week in Berlin.

That may not mean much though: it can rest easier given that the ban is still only for the German market.

Most of the hearing revolved around accusations that Apple altered evidence to support its case, such as shrinking and stretching out the Tab to make it appear more like the iPad. The judge in the case seemed to ignore that, citing overarching similarities between the two devices.

Regardless, Apple's choice of venue may have also assisted its case. According to German legal experts, the Dusseldorf court hearing the case is typically sympathetic to the plaintiff in patent infringement cases.

Given that the similarities between the two devices have indeed been called into question, Apple's decision to argue the case in Dusseldorf may have been its best option.

Neither Samsung nor Apple were immediately available for comment.

Lenovo takes preorders for business Android tablet

Publié: août 23, 2011, 10:06pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Lenovo said Tuesday it would begin accepting preorders for its
business-centric ThinkPad Tablet. The Android-powered portable begins shipping within a week and will start at $499 for the 16GB model.

The Chinese computer maker aims to market the ThinkPad Tablet to the business sector. It had previously announced the IdeaPad K1 -- its tablet for consumers -- and that device has been on sale in China since March.

Like the K1, the ThinkPad Tablet runs Android 3.1 "Honeycomb" and sports a 10.1" screen. The two also share some other features such as Nvidia's Tegra 2 processor, a 2-megapixel front and 5-megapixel back cameras, and mini-HDMI and USB 2.0 ports.

Users will be able to access wireless data through optional 3G, and the ThinkPad Tablet also includes a SD slot for additional storage. Lenovo has added remote wiping software through a partnership with Computrace, as well as layered encryption, McAfee security, and Cisco VPN support.

Two other capacities are also being made available: a 32GB version that retails for $569, and a 64GB model for $669. Those prices would be about $30 cheaper than the iPad.

Specs for the ThinkPad Tablet do compare favorably to the iPad 2 as well: it weighs only slightly more than Apple's device, although it does come in at about twice the thickness. The resolution does beat out the iPad though coming in at 1280x800: the iPad is capable of 1024x768.

For those who prefer stylus input, Lenovo is offering models that include a capacitive stylus for $30. A keyboard accessory would also be made available for $100. The stylus is sensible for sales in Lenovo's home market and other parts of Asia, because of the characters used for the languages.

In related news, Lenovo announced that Seton Hall University in New Jersey would deploy 350 ThinkPads to teachers and students in the school's sciences, honors and the School of Business Leadership Programs.

“This new technology represents the next evolution in Seton Hall University’s Mobile Computing Program to use technology effectively to support teaching, learning and institutional effectiveness while keeping pace with technology that appeals to our students," the university's chief information officer Stephen Landry said in a statement.

New Yorkers saw DC quake tweets before the ground shook

Publié: août 23, 2011, 9:53pm CEST par Ed Oswald

It is said by some that Twitter is the fastest way to get the word out about the news -- and in the case of the 5.8 tremblor that struck central Virginia on Tuesday afternoon, for some that may actually have been the case.

Shock waves from quakes travel at a high rate of speed, however not fast enough that there may be a delay in the ground shaking actually occurring.

According to the USGS, the rate of speed that a seismic wave travels can be anywhere from five to eight kilometers per second. The epicenter of Tuesday's quake was near Mineral, Va. As the crow flies, that would be about 300 miles or 482 kilometers to New York City.

As far as BetaNews can tell, the first tweet on the DC quake using the #earthquake hashtag was from Twitter user @NeimanMarcus757, who tweeted he felt it at 10:52, seconds after the quake. One of his New Yorker followers may have seen that tweet before actually feeling it his or herself.

Another twitter user, JesseCFriedman, claims that was the case: "I saw the tweets from DC about earthquake, then 15 seconds later felt it in NYC. Social media is faster than seismic waves!"

Doing the math, it would be completely plausible for a New York City Twitter user to see tweets on the earthquake before he or she feels it, because the seismic wave would have taken anywhere from 60 to 96 seconds to reach Central Park.

Cartoon Credit: XKCD

Hulu attracting bids of up to $2 billion, say reports

Publié: août 23, 2011, 12:45am CEST par Ed Oswald

It's no secret that Hulu is shopping around for a suitor: new reports indicate that process is well on its way. Bids are due by Wednesday, and it's expected they will range between $500 million and $2 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Several suitors are said to be in the running including Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and DirecTV. There also have been rumors that Apple may be interested too: the WSJ's sources have not confirmed that.

Hulu -- a joint venture of Walt Disney, News Corp, and Comcast-NBC Universal -- would be valuable to whomever buys it. Given it is the primary online distribution point for three of the US' four major broadcast networks, the owner would gain the rights to a wealth of content.

In any case, the agreement would need to be favorable to the networks, as they stand to lose the most control in a sale. Under new management, the broadcasters would have to treat Hulu as it would any other digital distributor of its content.

That important point is why many of the discussed deals have involved a licensing and or exclusivity clause, making a site more valuable to the buyer and ensuring positive terms for the content owners.

Due to these factors as well as what appears to be a disparity between what potential buyers want to pay and what Hulu executives were looking for, chances of a sale have been put at no more than 50 percent.

Best Buy offers free iPhone 3GS ahead of iPhone 5 launch

Publié: août 22, 2011, 8:01pm CEST par Ed Oswald

Likely aiming to clear its inventory of the now two-year-old iPhone 3GS model, Best Buy said Monday that it would offer the device for free with a two-year contract with AT&T. The 3GS had previously sold for $49.

The offer is available from Best Buy's website and in store. It is unclear what type of stock the retailer is working with, but it's likely supplies are limited.

Apple is widely expected within the next month or so to start shipping the iPhone 5. While initial reports placed the next-generation phone's release in September, more recent reports are suggesting Apple may launch the iPhone 5 in early October, possibly October 7.

Three weeks ago, Best Buy offered the Samsung Nexus S through its "Deal of the Day" program, giving the $99 device away for free with a two year contract.

At that time too, it was speculated that the retailer may be clearing its shelves for a new model. Rumors surfaced in June that a 4G model was in the works, possibly releasing in the Thanksgiving timeframe.

Can HP survive Leo Apotheker?

Publié: août 20, 2011, 9:48pm CEST par Ed Oswald

It has been a rough week for Hewlett Packard, which stock took a beating following Thursday’s announcement that the company was rapidly exiting the hardware business, all but killing off WebOS and its associated line of mobile devices, including TouchPad. Within a day, a fifth of the company’s value disappeared on Wall Street.

How much, you say? A staggering $16.2 billion — some $4 billion more than Google paid for Motorola Mobility. Analysts seem dismayed, and have downgraded the company’s stock. At least one of the credit rating agencies has threatened a downgrade of HP’s debt, and investors seem to doubt the company’s ability to make the switch.

Among long-time investors, CEO Leo Apotheker’s move may bring back memories of company executives of its recent past: Carly Fiorina. She pushed hard for a merger with Compaq, a move that created deep divisions within the company and likely contributed to her downfall.

There’s also Mark Hurd too, who was just as equally blemishing on HP’s standing as Fiorina was. While he spearheaded the company’s $1.2 billion purchase of Palm, most will remember him for his inappropriate relations with an HP contractor that lead to his ouster.

So we come to Mr. Apotheker, which I’d be willing to bet many investors hope was the right man for the job. I’m guessing there might be a few people who may be second guessing that.

In the past year under HP’s newest chief executive things have not gotten much better. He has cut sales forecasts for the company three times under, and is now proposing what amounts to the biggest shift in strategy in the company’s 76 year history. His aim? He wants to compete with IBM and Oracle.

For whatever reason, Apotheker decided to abandon the consumer. Investors’ reaction to this shouldn’t be surprising: According to IDC, HP is the #1 overall PC manufacturer with nearly a fifth of the market. This isn’t just some also-ran throwing in the towel: it’s the market leader simply giving up its crown.

It’s almost mind-boggling — almost as if Apotheker used the bungling of WebOS and its failure in the market place as an excuse to seismically shift HP’s business. While I could understand a gradual exit, completely cutting off its nose to save its face is not the answer.

So, can HP survive Apotheker? I don’t think it can, and I’d argue this strategy is his swan song. The enterprise market — while certainly profitable — is quite small. It’s already awash with a slew of competitors vying for a piece of the pie, and it’s very hard to establish yourself.

Yes, the profit margins in enterprise are much higher. But you need to have a foothold in the business to make money first. Add to this that the future of computing is going mobile, so why stop now?

WebOS had the chance to be good. The criticisms of its performance were more linked to substandard hardware than the actual platform itself. HP never gave it a chance to shine: six weeks on the market is not enough. You want to get into the software business, HP? What about the cloud then? Combine it with a solid mobile offering and you’re golden — and ahead of the curve.

Instead, Apotheker and friends have decided to run away with their tail between their legs — more a result of poor business planning and execution than an actual failure in the marketplace.

HP may think its name alone will carry the day, but we all know that’s not going to happen. This company seems to continually make knee-jerk decisions — the Palm buy, its tablet plans, and now this exit from the consumer market — without a lot of due diligence.

This schizophrenic way of doing business is the reason why its stock dropped 20 percent on Friday. Worst of it all, with this path there’s almost no way back. And if there is, its going to be a very, very expensive one, and HP will come out of it even weaker than it is now. Sounds like it may be time for a change of leadership in Palo Alto.

Apple does it again? Doctors Samsung images in court filing?

Publié: août 19, 2011, 8:48pm CEST par Ed Oswald

iPhone vs. Samsung Galaxy S
Apple may have just found itself in hot water again after a dutch technology news site spotted doctored images within a filing in Netherlands court surrounding Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphones. The Cupertino company is accusing Samsung of copying the iPhone’s design in its line of smartphones, and is seeking an injunction.

Webwereld.nl found that Apple had allegedly doctored the image of a Galaxy S smartphone by compressing it to make it the same height as the iPhone 3G, which Apple claims Samsung lifted the Galaxy S design from. By doing so, it also made the phone wider, which would further exaggerate the similarities.

Just a few days ago, another case of image doctoring involving Apple was circling the web. There, Apple had apparently stretched out the width of the Tab in order to make it appear more like the iPad 2. Why would Apple be pushing its luck yet again?

Samsung’s legal counsel has already complained to the Dutch courts about Apple’s apparent image manipulation, but failed to produce any evidence of it. It now appears from the work of the tech media that the Korean manufacturer may have some anecdotal evidence that their fears are indeed true.

Curiously enough, Apple does disclose in the filings that the Galaxy S has “slightly larger dimensions.” However, for whatever reason it has decided not to show that in the graphical evidence. Could be that Apple is not confident in showing the Galaxy S in its true dimensions, that doing so could seriously hurt its case?

AT&T executive appears to confirm October iPhone 5 release

Publié: août 19, 2011, 7:31pm CEST par Ed Oswald

AT&T executives are apparently talking up an October release of the iPhone 5, confirming earlier talk that the launch of the next generation phone from Apple would come later than many had initially expected.

AllThingsD was one of the first news outlets to report on an October launch date. No reasoning was given, but it indicated that reports of a two week blackout for employee vacations in late September was not related to the iPhone 5 launch.

It could be that employees will be working overtime for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S2, an Android device that is widely expected to sell well once it releases late next month. That may be what the unnamed VP cited by Boy Genius Report was alluding to in his comments.

“Expect things to get really, really busy in the next 35-50 days, so prepare your teams accordingly,” he said in a note to managers. That time frame would put the period in question from September 23 to October 8.

The S2 is rumored to be launching September 22, and the October 8 date seems to match with a report from TiPb, which said Apple was hoping it would be able to start shipping the device on Friday, October 7.

Either way, what is still missing is any announcement of a press event where the iPhone 5 would make its debut. BGR claims that such an event would come in late September. Using past history, that probably means we wouldn’t hear about an announcement of such an event until early September at the earliest.

Nielsen: Most Android apps used sparingly

Publié: août 19, 2011, 2:10am CEST par Ed Oswald

Apple and Google like to puff out their chest frequently on the number of apps in their respective app stores. But a new study from Nielsen suggests that may be irrelevant.

Android users spend 43 percent of their time on the top 10 apps, and 61 percent on the top 50. This means the over 249,000+ apps that make up the rest of the Android Market are fighting over that remaining 39 percent of user’s short attention spans on their mobile phones.

According to a check of the Android Market as of Thursday, top apps included Facebook, Kindle, YouTube, Google Maps, Pandora, and Skype. Given these apps are quite popular off of the mobile phone, it shouldn’t be too surprising that they’re equally popular in their mobile form.

Users also seemingly prefer to use the app version of a service over its mobile web counterpart. Nielsen said it found Android users spending an average of 56 minutes per day interacting with web and apps on their devices.

Of that time, 67 percent of it is spent on apps, and 33 percent of the time on the mobile web.

How much is a patent worth? By Google math $510,204.08

Publié: août 18, 2011, 8:42pm CEST par Ed Oswald

It appears as if Google is attempting to set a baseline for the value of a patent, according to some analysts who took a closer look of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Industry watchers widely believe that the Mountain View, Calif. search giant’s primary interest in the acquisition was the massive portfolio of patents that could be used in defending Android.

Motorola holds about 24,500 patents, and it gives Google a huge shot in the arm when it comes to intellectual property. It paid $12.5 billion for the phone manufacturer, but it appears that the hardware business had little to do with the company’s perceived value.

Last December, Novell sold 882 of its patents for $450 million. Frost & Sullivan analysts noted on a per patent basis, this would come to a little over $510,204.08 per patent. Compare this to the Motorola acquisition, and surprisingly enough, guess how much each patent comes out to? $510,204.08.

“In the Motorola acquisition, Google bought a patent portfolio and got a mobile phone business thrown in for free,” the analysts said in their research note.

The fact that those behind the deal appear to be using some kind of baseline shows that the company could be serious in its argument that patents are increasingly overvalued. Apply the same concept to the Nortel acquisition and you find those 6,000 patents came at a cost of $750,000 per patent.

That’s a 47 percent premium on the price Google paid for Motorola’s, and now seemingly bolsters its argument.

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