BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 15, 2010 — Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the next generation of Windows® Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series. Partners have already started building phones; customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.
“Today, I’m proud to introduce Windows Phone 7 Series, the next generation of Windows Phones,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences.”
Designed for Life in Motion
With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software. Smart design begins with a new, holistic design system that informs every aspect of the phone, from its visually appealing layout and motion to its function and hardware integration. On the Start screen, dynamically updated “live tiles” show users real-time content directly, breaking the mold of static icons that serve as an intermediate step on the way to an application. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.
Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.
Windows Phone 7 Series creates an unrivaled set of integrated experiences on a phone through Windows Phone hubs. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:
> People. This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos. It also provides a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one step.
> Pictures. This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step. Windows Phone 7 Series also brings together a user’s photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view a person’s entire picture and video collection.
> Games. This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.
> Music + Video. This hub creates an incredible media experience that brings the best of Zune, including content from a user’s PC, online music services and even a built-in FM radio into one simple place that is all about music and video. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers. The playback experience is rich and easy to navigate, and immerses the listener in the content.
> Marketplace. This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.
> Office. This hub brings the familiar experience of the world’s leading productivity software to the Windows Phone. With access to Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents. With the additional power of Outlook Mobile, users stay productive and up to date while on the go.
Availability
Partners from around the world have committed to include Windows Phone 7 Series in their portfolio plans. They include mobile operators AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, and manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc. The first phones will be available by holiday 2010. Customers who would like to receive additional information about Windows Phone 7 Series and be notified when it is available can register at http://www.windowsphone7series.com.
To watch the full replay of Steve Ballmer’s press conference at Mobile World Congress, and to experience Windows Phone 7 Series through an online product demo, readers can visit http://www.microsoft.com/news/windowsphone.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.
(Microsoft.Com)
Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series
Hands on with google Buzz
Google lobbed a salvo at Facebook on Tuesday, adding Google Buzz, a new social networking capability to its popular Gmail Web e-mail service. Though Google Buzz is somewhat integrated with Twitter, along with a few other services – Flickr and Picasa, most notably – there's no integration with the social network of record, Facebook. And that's a hole Google will have to fill.
For now, Google is rolling the Buzz service out to all its users over the next few days, so sit tight if you don't have it yet. Check buzz.google.com to see if your account is activated. In the meantime, PCMag put the new service through its paces.
Once Google activates Buzz on your account, your Gmail will have a new Buzz icon right below the Inbox on the left panel. The icon is labeled as you might expect – "Buzz" – and sports the new social network's colorful Chrome-like logo. Alternatively, you may get a full welcome page when you log in, touting the new feature. You can either try it out or ignore it and go to your regular Gmail inbox.
Social networking with Google Buzz
The first time you enter your Buzz-enhanced Gmail inbox, you'll see the contacts Google has found for you. Alas, I only had one at first, my boss. Most users will likely see more proposed contacts, since I was using an account I use for testing rather than a personal one (I've stuck with Yahoo Mail for my personal email.)
Next, I got a chance to follow other users. Who better to follow than Google's Sergey Brin, and the product's manager, Todd Jackson. Like Twitter, and unlike Facebook, Google Buzz lets you follow anyone you want and view their public posts. This is one aspect I really like about Buzz, and one that takes something good from both Facebook and Twitter: its ability to create a public, Twitter-like feed, and a private one like Facebook for folks you really know.
Related StoryIs Google Buzz just a social version of Google Wave? Brian Heater weighs in on Google's new opportunity.
Once I have my account and my contacts, it's time for posting. The options aren't as fleshed out as those in Facebook, but they are richer than a Twitter post, which isn't surprising. I pasted a couple thousand characters into the posting area (a text box), so there didn't seem to be any limit on the length of a text post. My absurdly long status update showed as a single line with an "expand" link. There's also a collapse link.
Posting with Google Buzz
Choosing whether to post to your private social network instead of the public at large is a simple matter of clicking the big, obvious "Private/Public" dropdown right next to the "Post" button. Facebook has just added an option to post to "Everyone on the Internet"; most people expect that only mutually approved Friends will see their updates. Twitter is what people associate with public announcements anyone on the Internet can see. In fact, it gets annoying when tweeters you've followed to learn from their expertise engage in personal back-and-forths; in Facebook it's expected. Buzz is trying to offer a two-in-one service – private and public.
The only post options aside from text at this point are "Link," and "Photo". I was disappointed to find that inserting a YouTube link didn't add the video to the post, but rather just an image of the video. On another try, I did get a video entry with a play button, but a notice said embedding was disabled. But the third try was the charm; I saw the embedded video.
After you post, you have a few choices from a right-hand menu: you can edit your post, delete it, or email it. You can also create a link to it, which actually creates a standalone Web page for the post—neat! Another choice is Mute, which shows up whether you or someone else is the creator of the post. Hitting this makes the post slowly disappear from view. Other choices for posts not from yourself are "view all buzz from [User name]", "follow," and "report abuse".
Others can comment on your post and, just as in Facebook, "Like" it. The comment interface is pleasing, and somewhat reminiscent of Google Wave (as is the "mute" option) without all the confusion. The service hides some comments, showing a link such as "2 more comments" so that the post doesn't take up too much space.
Anyone who views a post can also e-mail it using a full Web e-mail editor rather than the simple no-editing option we're used to seeing on web sites' "e-mail this" options. This editor includes fonts, attachments, and all the rest. It's like Gmail within Buzz, within Gmail.
Connecting your Buzz stream to other Internet services is limited to just a choice of five at this point: Picasa Web Albums, Google Reader for RSS feeds, Google Chat status, Flickr, and Twitter. And the Twitter integration is one-way: You can only funnel your tweets into buzz, not the other way around. Rivals, such as Yahoo, have already pointed out the weaknesses of Google Buzz.
Can Buzz beat Facebook or Twitter?
One of the key advantages Google claims with Google Buzz will take more time for a full appraisal: its ability to filter out the noise. I'll only be able to guage that after months of use and quite a few more follows. At this point, I'm afraid I don't see that the Buzz page is any less cluttered than Facebook, which also lets you hide posts that don't interest you.
It's certainly a good implementation, with a few advantages over Facebook. But that may not matter. Facebook has the audience, to the tune of a half billion users; no matter how nice a Facebook clone you make, people will likely stay on Facebook. Sure, lots of people use Gmail, but not for social networking. Microsoft and Yahoo have both incorporated social status updates to their very popular webmail services, but that hasn't pulled people off Facebook and onto their social systems. Buzz has a long way to go to catch up with Facebook, not only in user numbers, but in hot applications (Google says there will be an open API), and things like groups and fan sites.
Still, this time Google has unveiled a much stronger social offering than its previous attempts, which include Orkut and Jaiku. Facebook might be invulnerable, but Buzz may just lure away the Twitterati, who may be wearying of their service's limitations and frequent outages. After that, the masses may follow. At least now they'll have a choice between Web powerhouses. (PCMag - Michael Muchmore)
The Symbian Foundation offers free code to everyone to enable them to contribute openly to the future of mobile
The Symbian Foundation offers free code to everyone to enable them to contribute openly to the future of mobile
SAN FRANCISCO, US, and LONDON, UK, 4 February, 2010 - The Symbian Foundation today completed the open source release of the source code for the world’s most widely-used smartphone platform. The Symbian platform, which has been developed over more than 10 years and has shipped in more than 330 million devices around the world, is now completely open and the source code is available for free. The transition of this market-leading platform from proprietary code to open source is the largest in software history. The move has been completed four months ahead of schedule and provides the basis for unlimited mobile development based on innovation and openness.
Any individual or organization can now take, use and modify the code for any purpose, whether that be for a mobile device or for something else entirely. This strategic move provides the Symbian ecosystem with greater potential for innovation, faster time-to-market and the opportunity to develop on the platform for free. Symbian’s commitment to openness also includes complete transparency in future plans, including the publication of the platform roadmap and planned features up to and including 2011. Anyone can now influence the roadmap and contribute new features.
Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, comments: “The development community is now empowered to shape the future of the mobile industry, and rapid innovation on a global scale will be the result. When the Symbian Foundation was created, we set the target of completing the open source release of the platform by mid-2010 and it’s because of the extraordinary commitment and dedication from our staff and our member companies that we’ve reached it well ahead of schedule.”
IDC Analyst John Delaney remarks: "It's increasingly important for smartphone platforms to offer developers something unique. The placing into open source of the world's most widely-used smartphone platform emphatically fits that bill. It will be exciting to see where this takes the industry."
All 108 packages containing the source code of the Symbian platform can now be downloaded from Symbian’s developer web site (tiny.symbian.org/open), under the terms of the Eclipse Public License and other open source licenses. Also available for download are the complete development kits for creating applications (the Symbian Developer Kit) and mobile devices (the Product Development Kit). These kits are compatible with Symbian^3, the very latest version of the platform, which is now fully open source and will be “feature complete” during Q1 of this year.(Symbian.Org)
Linux, Windows or both? Doesn't matter to virtual desktop vendor Ulteo
Linux, Windows or both? Doesn't matter to virtual desktop vendor Ulteo
Ulteo is poised to offer commercial support for its free virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) software, which the open-source start-up says will cost companies a fraction of established offerings from Citrix Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp. and VMware Inc., while offering, in some cases, more choice in platforms.The Paris-based company has already released a second version of its Open Virtual Desktop software, which lets companies host Windows and Linux apps on the same server and then stream them to remote desktop or laptop PCs.
The software has been downloaded by tens of thousands of users, mostly IT managers who have been testing OVD as a less expensive, more flexible substitute for Microsoft's Terminal Services or Citrix's XenApp (formerly MetaFrame Server), according to CEO Thierry Koehrlen.
Neither the Microsoft nor the Citrix product can deliver Linux apps, according to Koehrlen. VMware's technology, like Ulteo's, can support either Windows or Linux, he said.
Dual operating system support is something cost-conscious IT managers are seeking, Koehrlen said, since it enables them to reserve the pricier Windows for power users and then offer Linux to the rest.
"We have several dozen users who are using OVD today to manage several hundred users each in production and are itching to go into the thousands," Koehrlen said in a phone interview.
Ulteo hasn't finalized prices for its enterprise support plan, though Koehrlen said it "will be very cheap compared to Citrix or VMware. We want it to be a no-brainer in terms of cost compared to the big guys."
Ulteo was co-founded by Gael Duval, founder of Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva), and Koehrlen, who co-founded Intalio, which makes open-source business process management software.
Ulteo is small -- it has just 10 employees -- though Koehrlen said that development and testing is aided by hundreds of contributors.
Koehrlen said the current version of the software, though called Open Virtual Desktop, is neither true desktop nor application virtualization.
Rather, Open Virtual Desktop's "session virtualization" technology rides on top of simple streaming technology such as Terminal Services to paint the screens of users with Java-enabled Web browsers running on their clients, said Koehrlen. Applications can be hosted at Amazon.com Inc.'s EC2.
Ulteo is working on offering true application virtualization, but Koehrlen said it's not urgent. Companies won't start adopting application virtualization en masse until they start planning their upgrades from Windows XP to Windows 7, he said. (Computerworld - Eric Lai)
Internet Explorer 8 Officially Becomes World’s Most-Used Browser
Internet Explorer 8 Officially Becomes World’s Most-Used Browser
This week, Net Applications released their January browser market share report. Their report shows that Internet Explorer 8 is not only the most popular browser on Windows with 27.9% usage share, but that it now has 25.6% of market share across all OS’s on a worldwide-weighted usage share basis (data provided by Net Applications). We launched just less than a year ago, so it’s both humbling and thrilling to see so many people choose our product so quickly – making it the most popular browser of choice worldwide.There are many reasons people choose which browser to use. Most people want to know and trust the company behind their browser. And people are looking a browser that protects them – and their privacy online. In an August 13th, 2009 post on the IEBlog, we announced Internet Explorer 8’s SmartScreen Filter had hit over 80 million malware blocks. But that was back in August. As of today, Internet Explorer 8 has done over 350 million malware blocks. You can see Internet Explorer 8’s SmartScreen Filter in action in this blog post. Internet Explorer 8’s SmartScreen Filter blocks malware over 2 million times a day.
Phishing is a very serious threat to people browsing the Internet today – a criminal attempt to secure people’s personal information online, generally spread through email directing unsuspecting consumers to fake websites and asking them to enter sensitive information . With Internet Explorer 7, we introduced the Phishing Filter, and have continued to improve on it in Internet Explorer 8. Together, Internet Explorer 7 and 8 have blocked a total of over 125 million phishing sites.
You may have recently heard about organizations including Google recommending that people update their browsers and move off older versions, such as the nearly decade-old Internet Explorer 6. Think about what technology and the Internet were like in the year 2000 – and consider how they’ve evolved since then. In 2000, “phishing” was something that happened at the lake, not online. There was no social networking, no RSS feeds, and no real blogs. It was a different time – and people’s browsing needs were different. Today’s Internet calls for more.
We support this recommendation to move off Internet Explorer 6. Modern browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 bring benefits for customers and developers alike. We realize there are some customers today who depend on Internet Explorer 6, and while we continue to support them through the lifecycle of the product, we are also investing in the tools and training to help them upgrade as well. (WindowsteamBlog-Brandon Le Blanc)
It's the Ipad
$499 price and optional keyboard make the tablet a big winner, says analyst
Apple CEO Steve Jobs today unveiled the iPad, calling the tablet a "magical and revolutionary" addition to the company's existing lines of Macs
, iPods
and the iPhone
.Priced starting at $499 but with the top-end configuration listed at $829, the iPad will be available within 60 days. The tablet sports a 9.7-in. LCD display, putting to rest rumors of a smaller-sized display that would supposedly use the more advanced, power-saving OLED technology.
"This is a true personal computer with the first radically different operating system since the original Mac in 1984," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. "This is absolutely the right answer by Apple to netbooks. If you want the Apple experience, but don't want to pay $1,000 for a MacBook, here it is."
Jobs also announced what he called a "breakthrough deal" with AT&T to provide 3G connectivity for the iPad using two pre-paid plans: a $14.99 plan that allows up to 250GB of data monthly, and a $29.99 unlimited data plan. iPad users do not have to sign a contract with AT&T, Jobs added, and can cancel at any time without penalty.
iPad models with 3G capability will be priced $130 more than their WiFi-only cousins: The 16GB iPad without 3G costs $499, for example, while the 16GB model with 3G runs $629.
Ship dates will also vary depending on whether consumers want a WiFi-only or 3G-capable iPad. The former will go on sale in 60 days, said Jobs, or near the end of March, while the latter will follow 30 days after that, in late April.
After claiming that Apple is the world's largest mobile devices company -- by adding iPod, iPhone and Mac notebook revenues -- Jobs rhetorically asked the question that many analysts have tried to answer.
"Is there room for a third category of device in the middle?" Jobs asked. "Something that's between a laptop and smartphone?" If there was, Jobs continued, it needed to be more than either. "This device needs to be better than a laptop or a smartphone ... or it has no reason for being."
Gottheil said he thought Apple nailed it. "We're getting what I was hoping, something that's not a Mac, not a Windows PC, something that isn't complicated to use. I don't have to know about folders, I just want to use it."
Key, said Gottheil, was Apple's decision to use a variation of the iPhone OS for the iPad. "Some 40 million people have figured out how to use [that OS] without much handholding," he noted. "I want this to be simple, and with the iPhone OS, it is. That's the killer feature."
During the 90-minute unveiling, Jobs and other Apple executives demonstrated the iPad's capabilities to prove their point that the tablet is better than either a laptop or a phone, at least at a host of applications, ranging from Web browsing and games to movie watching and e-books.
"But this isn't the Kindle killer than some were expecting," said Gottheil. "It's portable and a useful size, but I think it's too heavy and too thick to be an e-book reader killer."
In many ways, the iPad resembles an overgrown iPhone -- the "iPod Touch on steroids" that some analysts, including Gottheil, had predicted last year -- down to the touch-enabled display and the appearance of only one button, the Home button, on the device.
The iPad weighs approximately 1.5 pounds, is about half an inch thick, and is based on a 1GHz Apple-designed processor, which Jobs dubbed the Apple A4. "It's powered by our own silicon," said Jobs, "[and] it screams." Although Jobs did not specifically say so, the chip was likely created by P.A. Semi, the Santa Clara, Calif. boutique microprocessor design company Apple acquired in 2008.
Multiple models of the iPad will be available, with prices dependent on the amount of flash memory. Apple will sell the tablet in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models for $499, $599 and $699, respectively with WiFi only, but for $629, $729 and $829 with both WiFi and 3G.
Jobs claimed that the iPad's battery would last approximately 10 hours while playing video, and remain in standby mode for up to a month without recharging. "I can take a flight form San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole way," he said.
As many had predicted, including a metric firm that detected dozens of unidentified devices running at Apple's Cupertino, Calif. campus since last October, the iPad runs a variation of the iPhone OS. Apple will release a modified iPhone SDK (software developer kit) later today that has been enhanced to support iPad development, said Scott Forstall, the senior vice president of iPhone software.
Most existing iPhone applications can run as is on the new iPad, Forstall added, in either an expanded mode or in a small, iPhone-sized frame.
The iPad's e-book capabilities, which Jobs compared with Amazon's Kindle, come courtesy of a built-in app named iBook. Tablet users can download electronic books -- they're in the ePub format -- from an iTunes-like bookstore that's populated with titles by major publishers including Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Penguin. To flip a page, readers simply tap anywhere on the right (to go forward a page) or on the left (to go back) side of the iPad screen.
Apple has also created an iPad-specific version of its iWork productivity suite, which includes a word processor, presentation maker and spreadsheet. Each of the three applications -- Pages, Keynote and Numbers -- will cost $9.99 to download from the iPad's App Store, said Philip Schiller, Apple's head of marketing. For text and data entry in iWork's applications, the iPad uses what Jobs and Schiller called an "almost life-sized" on-screen keyboard.
Apple will also sell iPad accessories, including a Kindle-style cover, a docking/recharging station and a keyboard dock that offers a full-sized Apple-style keyboard.
"The price and the keyboard, that's what puts the iPad over the top," Gottheil argued. "For some, this can be a full-fledged MacBook substitute. There will be some chewing away of the iPod Touch below and the MacBook above, but the net is that this greatly expands Apple's market.
"This has the potential of bringing in even more people into the Applesphere," Gottheil concluded. (ComputerWorld - Gregg Keizer)
Smartphones on Wi-Fi vulnerable to security attack
A new report from a mobile security vendor details how the most popular smartphones, including the iPhone, are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks, carried out via public Wi-Fi connections.
The tests used a laptop with software tools to intercept communications between smartphones connecting to a Wi-Fi access point, and then to bypass SSL. That information was then used to access a variety of e-mail accounts. The same information could be used to access an online banking account or other information. More detail on the attack is found in the full report.
Smobile tested the Nokia N95, HTC Tilt running Windows Mobile, HTC G1 running Android, and the iPhone 3GS with the latest firmware. In each case, the user would have had no idea that their information had been compromised.
Examples of the tools used are Arpspoof, which redirects packets from a target host on the LAN to the intended host on the same LAN, by forging Address Resolution Protocol replies to the target host; SSLStrip, to hijack HTTP traffic; Ettercap, a utility for sniffing, intercepting and logging; or Wireshark, a network protocol analyzer used as a packet sniffer. Another tool, webspy, lets the attacker sniff out and open any Web pages accessed by the victim.
"Utilizing this method, the attacker has effectively told the victim device to route all traffic through the attacker's machine [laptop], and the attacker machine then forwards the requests to the Wi-Fi hotspot." The attack computer captures all the traffic and can modify or kill active connections. With SSL bypassed, as soon as the victim accesses an e-mail or other account, the login credentials will appear in plain text on the attack computer.
The authors of the study warn smartphone users to "seek out and identify applications that provide adequate encryption technologies to protect confidential or private information." Applications for doing so exist, but are still rare, the authors note. The goal should be end-to-end encryption between the client application and the target server. Lacking that, users need to be aware that their information can be visible to a snooper.
For enterprises, the key issue is to treat smartphones with Wi-Fi as if they were corporate laptops with Wi-Fi. That means client security software, for firewall and antivirus. (Network World - John Cox). 
The Trends That Will Shape 2010
Tablets, 3D TV, smartphones—which products will really define the first year of the new decade?
2009, thankfully, is behind us. It was a tough year for many people, and while the tech industry fared better than most, sales of PCs and other electronics were down. Things appear to be looking up, however. The mood at CES was upbeat, and while no one reasonably expects 2010 to be a banner year, most of the tech insiders I talk to genuinely believe that the industry will rebound in the new year.
There are a slew of new products on the horizon, including tablets, next generation e-book readers, better netbooks, more powerful notebooks, and 3D TVs. There's a mounting excitement around these products, but even with all of the positivity surrounding these product launches, it's important to keep things in perspective. Here's how I see these key categories shaping up in the year to come.
The first big trend to watch this year is tablets—or "slates," depending on who you ask. As you likely already know, this is by no means a new space. Originally called "pen computers," these devices debuted in 1992. They failed miserably. The category reemerged in 2001, when Bill Gates introduced the Windows Tablet program, confidently stating that they were the future of mobile computing. Since then, tablets have failed to achieve mainstream adoption. They're primarily used by select industries, such as medical, public safety, transportation, and some sectors of manufacturing.
According to market researcher IDC, $950 million in tablets were sold in 2009. With all of the tablets being rolled out this year, 2010 may well be the year the space really comes into its own. In fact, some think that an Apple tablet could sell as many as two million units, jumpstarting the market for such devices. Pricing is a huge issue, however. If tablets are really going to take off, I think they'll have to be priced under $299. This isn't likely to happen in 2010. So, while there will continue to be a lot hype around such devices, I don't expect them to be huge sellers this year.
3D TVs were also incredibly hot at CES, but I also expect this space to be slow to take off. Sony and most other TV vendors believe that, by 2011, 25 percent of their HDTVs will be 3D TVs, but most will likely be too expensive for the masses. There are also very big standard issues that must be dealt with before the technology can really gain ground. The other important issue is content. Sony recently cut a deal with ESPN to broadcast this summer's World Cup in 3D in the US. I expect that some soccer fans will use this as incentive to buy 3D sets this year, but getting 3D content more regularly will take time.
There was, however, an announcement at CES that bears watching. Toshiba introduced Cell TV, which uses an eight-core processor to convert 2D content into 3D on the fly. Know as up converting, I suspect that set top vendors might attempt to introduce similar technology. Even if they do, however, I don't think 3D TV will become a mainstream product until 2013, at the earliest.
Smartphones are poised to take off rapidly. They already represent 17 percent of the 1.2 billion cell phones sold each year. We're estimating that, by the end of 2013, they'll comprise at least 60 percent of the cell phones sold in the US. With this sort of growth, smartphones are seeing a plethora of innovation. Still, I was amused to see big news organizations referring to Google's Nexus One as an "iPhone killer." I have been playing with the phone for a while now, and I see it as more of a threat to Motorola's Droid than the iPhone. The iPhone is still the gold standard for smartphones. Apple always tries to stay two years ahead of the competition. The company continues to innovate, and the competition will likely always be left behind. The competition is likely to really heat up this year, though, as more cell phones transform into pocket PCs.
Ultrathin laptops, meanwhile, will drive a big part of the notebook market this year. Such devices used to be called thin-and-lights, carrying price tags of more than $2,000. These device now sport lower voltage processors, are even thinner and lighter, and cost between $599 and $1,199. Netbooks will also continue to be in high demand, as the category sees a lot of innovation.
There was a product introduced by Lenovo at CES called the U1, which may have a dramatic impact on the laptop market in the next few years. Considered a hybrid of sorts, the U1 looks like a normal laptop. However, the screen pops out and turns into a tablet. While in notebook mode, the device runs an Intel Core Duo processor with Windows 7. Pop out the screen, and the U1 turns into a tablet running a Qualcomm SnapDraon processor and a version of the Skylight Linux interface. The U1 is slated to be released in May for $999. Standalone tablets will also gain ground, especially if Apple really innovates in the space, but this hybrid concept will be highly influential on the notebook market in the future. PC vendors took note of the design, and I wouldn't be surprised to see copycats by year's end.
These categories seem to be the primary focus for innovation in the new year. It will be interesting to see how such products actually impact market growth. Take note that, aside from 3D TV, all of these products are mobile. This is significant. Mobility will be what drives most of the industry's real growth in 2010. (PCMAG - Tim Bajarin)
Attack code used to hack Google now public
The code was submitted for analysis Thursday on the Wepawet malware analysis Web site, making it publicly available. By Friday, it had been included in at least one publicly available hacking tool and could be seen in online attacks, according to Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications at McAfee.
The attack is very reliable on Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP, and it could possibly be modified to work on more recent versions of the browser, Marcus said. "The game really changes now that it's hosted publicly," he said.
A hacker could use the code to run unauthorized software on a victim's computer by tricking them into viewing a maliciously crafted Web page.
That's apparently what happened at Google late last year, when hackers were able to get into the company's internal systems. According to people familiar with the incident, 33 other companies were also targeted by the attack, including Adobe Systems.
On Thursday, Symantec and Juniper Networks said they were investigating the incident, and Yahoo, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical have also been named as victims in published reports.
Microsoft issued a security advisory on the IE flaw Thursday and has not ruled out the possibility of rushing out an emergency "out-of-cycle" patch to fix it. Microsoft's next set of security patches is due Feb. 9, giving hackers more than three weeks to exploit the flaw.
Security researchers say it would be very hard to exploit the flaw reliably on Windows Vista or Windows 7 systems, however, because of their advanced memory protection technology.
Marcus said that, judging from the amount of concern McAfee is hearing from corporate customers, an out-of-cycle patch is a strong possibility. "My gut tells me that they're going to go with an out-of-cycle," he said. "It's too good of a vulnerability for most of the bad guys to overlook."
The problem is serious enough that on Friday, Germany's federal IT security agency, the Federal Office for Information Security, advised users (in German) to use an alternative browser until Microsoft fixes the issue. (ComputerWorld - IDG News Service - Robert Mc Milan)
McAfee Labs researchers have seen references to the code on mailing lists and confirmed on Friday that the code was published on at least one Web site. The exploit code is the same code that McAfee Labs had been investigating and shared with Microsoft earlier this week, resulting in a security advisory from Microsoft that was published on Thursday.
The public release of the exploit code increases the possibility of widespread attacks using the Internet Explorer vulnerability. The now public computer code may help cybercriminals craft attacks that use the vulnerability to compromise Windows systems. Popular penetration testing tools are already being updated to include this exploit. This attack is especially deadly on older systems that are running XP and Internet Explorer 6.
As reported on Thursday by McAfee and confirmed by Microsoft, the security vulnerability affects Internet Explorer on all recent versions of Windows. An attacker could gain complete control over a vulnerable system by tricking a user to visit a rigged Web page. New versions of Windows make this exploitation harder, but not impossible.
McAfee Labs has been working around the clock, diving deep into the attack we are calling “Operation Aurora” that hit multiple companies and was publicly disclosed by Google on Tuesday. In our investigation of the attack we discovered that one of the malware samples involved in this broad attack exploits a new, previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Many people are taking the matter seriously. The German government, for example, has recommended that its citizens stop using Internet Explorer and use alternative browsers instead.
One of the areas I continue to get questions on is how to stop zero day attacks. One technology is white listing, such as products from our Solidcore family (application control) help to protect against 0-day attacks without signatures and without applying a patch. This is especially important in cases like this, where patches have yet to be released.
McAfee continues to work closely with Microsoft, the government and others to investigate the attacks. Stay tuned to my blog and my Twitter account for more details. (siblog.mcafee - George Kurtz)
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg causes stir over privacy
Zuckerberg told an audience at the 2009 Crunchies Awards ceremonies in San Francisco on Friday that social norms are changing and people don't expect or want nearly as much privacy as they have in the past.
"When we got started, the question people asked was, 'Why would I want to put any information on the Internet?'," he said during the presentation of awards to top online startups and makers of innovative technology.
"In the last five or six years, blogging has taken off in a huge way. People have really gotten comfortable sharing more information and different kinds but more openly and with more people," Zuckerberg added.
Zuckerberg went on to say that Facebook has been changing its privacy structure to conform to users' changing preferences. "We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and updating our system to reflect what the current social norms are," he said.
The blogosphere and industry pundits today were lit up with stories about criticizing Zuckerberg's statements on online privacy.
Facebook contends Zuckerberg's statements were blown out of proportion and were "mischaracterized" and "sensationalized" by some pundits.
"He observed that social norms on the Internet are changing and that Facebook is responding, including by offering people more and better tools to decide what to share and with whom," wrote a Facebook spokesperson in an e-mail to Computerworld. "Clearly, people are sharing much more information far more broadly than ever before through blogs, comments on stories, Facebook, Twitter and many other services. A core part of Facebook's mission has always been to deliver the tools that empower people with control over their information."
Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Computerworld that he was surprised and concerned about Zuckerberg's statements, especially since Facebook itself has been helping to erode the sense of privacy of its users.
"I think it's rather disingenuous [to talk about how social norms are changing] rather than take responsibility for how Facebook's actions shape social norms," said Bankston. "Facebook is pushing those social norms in a direction more profitable for Facebook."
Bankston contends that Facebook's latest privacy policy in fact opens user information to more prying eyes. The social network, which has more than 350 million users, has removed controls on information deemed public, like user names, their city of residence, profile pictures, fan pages and friend lists, according to Bankston.
Dan Olds, an analyst with the Gabriel Consulting Group, said Zuckerberg's comments were a bit startling but users should be savvy enough to know how to better protect themselves.
"I think Zuckerberg's comments show him to be a bit tone deaf," said Olds. "The majority of Facebook users are more concerned about privacy than he seems to think. This will become clear to him in the coming days and weeks as he sees the reaction to his remarks. However, the success of Facebook can't be argued with, and in that context, his comments are a pretty accurate description of current reality."
Olds noted that Facebook may be pushing the whole "public life" trend by making it easy for anyone to see anything someone posts on the site, but users aren't being tricked into posting intimate details about their lives.
"People are embracing it," he added. "They can just as easily choose to not participate. Zuckerberg's argument that privacy isn't that big a deal anymore seems to ring true, as witnessed by the millions of people posting what might once have been considered private details of their lives on the Internet.
"While some people, like me, aren't that comfortable with all the details of their boring lives being on the Web, others seem to be," Olds added. "We already hear stories of people who suffer negative consequences from these disclosures, but I don't know if this particular genie can be put back in the bottle." (ComputerWorld - Sharon Gaudin)
ACER RECALLS ASPIRE NOTEBOOK
Cisco acquired Rohati System, Inc
Cisco has acquired Rohati according Prashant Gandhi, the President and CEO of Rohati, who was been working on Cisco Systems for 8 years.
Rohati System, focus on transaction policy and enforcement data center across all applications with high secure quality and compliance based on requirements.It was found in 2006 with headquarter in SunnyVale California. Most of the management team of Rohati System with working background in Cisco with at least eight to nine years.
Their product are Rohati TNS 100, 500 and CMS which provide breadth of coverage with common protocols and accomodate custom with unique control, compliance and security control between user-machine and machine-machine transactions. They also provide platform management policy with graphical interface. Beside that, they come out with technology solutions and innovations for their market.
With this acquisition, the Rohati's System will help Cisco to improve and establish entittlements with layer 7 methode and cloud-based technology with their experince for Cisco. The technology details with this acquisiton will be available soon.
Packt Publishing Open Source CMS Awards 2009
Linux Deepin 9.12 Final Released
Today Linux Deepin 9.12 has released on schedulle by Hiweed,with key features on the following list below :
> Lightweight :
- software has been carefully selected and repeatedly pour Zhuo, lightweight, easy to use is our selection criteria
> Easy to use :
- a large number of packages optimized (the source code for full disclosure)
- Many of the details has been carefully adjusted (such as "Start" menu, File Manager, right-click menu, etc.), with a smoothly
> Enough :
- provides the greatest possible number of commonly used software such as OpenOffice and so on, enough for daily work
Another changes are :
- customised system installer with only two steps that need manual intervention
- streamlined post-install configuration
- various enhancements in Mozilla Firefox, such as replacement of rarely-used search engines with more popular ones
- addition of several pre-configured add-ons, Flash Player 10 and multimedia plugins; graphical configuration tool for ADSL (PPPoE) and other high-speed and mobile Internet providers
Find out the distro packages now on their website !
SuperOS(Super Ubuntu) released version 9.10
Super OS or Super Ubuntu is a Linux distribution with following applications and features which has been modified version of Ubuntu 9.10 (with the goal of making it more usable and trying to remain compatible with Ubuntu and enhanced with various extra software and features for improved out-of-the-box usability).
Features compared to Ubuntu:
* Patched with 169 updates released for Ubuntu 9.10
* Better Multimedia Support: VLC, support for DVD-playback, MP3 support and for other formats, like QuickTime video, Real video, Windows Media Video, Flash Video, DivX, Xvid, (.mov, .wmv, .flv, .avi, etc...) etc...
* Internet software: aMSN, Opera, Google Chrome, Skype, Firefox with Flash and Moonlight
* Portable Applications available (RUNZ included)
* Programs are easier to run: App Runner is included
* Mount tar.gz/.zip/.rar/.iso files with File mounter
* Other software: Java, Ubuntu Tweak, GParted (+ NTFS support)
* System beep is disabled
* Super OS now has it's own repository, in addition to the official Ubuntu repositories
* Live USB creator (cd2usb) right from the DVD menu (see second image)
* Most commonly used KDE and QT libraries included (for easier deployment of software and portable apps)
Here are some links to download :
Link1 or Link2 or Link3 or you can download from torrent link
SystemRescueCD has released the version 1.3.4
SystemRescueCd is a Linux system rescue disk available as a bootable CD-ROM or USB Stick for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It comes with a lot of linux software such as system tools (parted, partimage, fstools, ...) and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It requires no installation since you just have to boot on the CD-ROM. It can be used to perform admin tasks on both linux servers, linux desktops or windows boxes. The kernel supports most of the important file systems (ext2/ext3/ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, btrfs, xfs, jfs, vfat, ntfs, iso9660), as well as network file systems (samba and nfs).
The changes are :
> Updated the standard kernels to linux-2.6.31.9 with btrfs update from 2.6.32
> Updated the alternative kernels to Linux-2.6.27.41
> Updated xorg-server to version 1.6.5 (graphical server and drivers)
> Updated ntfs3g from 2009.04.04-AR21 to 2009.11.14 (standard release)
> Updated gdisk to 0.5.1 (gdisk is a GPT partition table manipulator)
> Updated fsarchiver to 0.6.2 (default: stable version)
> Added fsarchiver-0.6.3-beta10 (alternative: beta version)
> Added sys-block/scsiadd which allows to add and remove scsi devices
> Added /usr/sbin/suspend-usb-device script to safely disconnect usb disks
> memtest+ 4.00 is now booted as a kernel to fix issues (thx to argonavis)
> Replaced aida with hdt-0.3.6 (Hardware-Detection-Tool floppy disk image)
Click SystemRescueCD1.3.4 to download !
Windows user are able to download at here !
Adobe Will Be Top Target for Hackers in 2010
Adobe Systems' Flash and Acrobat Reader products will become the preferred targets for criminal hackers in 2010, surpassing Microsoft Office applications, a security vendor predicted this week.
By James Niccolai
December 29, 2009, Adobe Systems (ADBE)' Flash and Acrobat Reader products will become the preferred targets for criminal hackers in 2010, surpassing Microsoft (MSFT) Office applications, a security vendor predicted this week.
"Cybercriminals have long picked on Microsoft products due to their popularity. In 2010, we anticipate Adobe software, especially Acrobat Reader and Flash, will take the top spot," security vendor McAfee (MFE) said in its "2010 Threat Predictions" report (PDF).
Hackers usually target the most widely used products in order to achieve the maximum impact. For a long time that has made Microsoft their primary target. But the software giant has tightened security in its recent OS releases, leading hackers to look for additional targets.
Adobe's CTO acknowledged recently that his company's software is being attacked more frequently, and said the company has stepped up its efforts to respond.
"We have absolutely seen an increase in the number of attacks, around Reader in particular and also Flash Player to some extent," CTO Kevin Lynch told reporters at the Adobe Max conference in October. "We're working to decrease the amount of time between when we know about a problem and when we release a fix. That used to be a couple of months; now it's within two weeks for critical issues."
Mozilla's Firefox browser and Apple's QuickTime software have also faced new attacks.
Among its other predictions, McAfee expects more sophisticated attacks next year against social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. "The explosion of applications on Facebook and other services will be an ideal vector for cybercriminals, who will take advantage of friends trusting friends to click links they might otherwise treat cautiously," the company said.
It also sees the emergence of a new vehicle for attacks in the form of HTML 5, an update to the Web markup language that will support delivery of online video and allow Web applications to run offline.
"HTML 5 will blur the line between desktop and online applications. This, along with the release of Google Chrome OS, will create another opportunity for malware writers to prey on users," McAfee said.
There was some good news, however. The security firm sees law enforcement having more successes next year in its pursuit of cybercriminals, thanks to closer cooperation and improved skills at international crime-fighting agencies.
Copyright 2009 IDG News Service, International Data Group Inc. All rights reserved.
IDG News Service-CIO.com
Audi A8 will stream Google Information Services
The drivers of Audi A8 will be able to search online using free text and retrieve information from the net using an optional integrated GPRS/EDGE modem in the MMI navigation plus module. Beside that the driver will also be able to plan navigation destinations using the Audi web portal in the office or at home, and retrieve them when you're driving your car.
To use this service, the drivers will have two option to implement by inserting a SIM card into the MMI Navigation plus module or can pair a mobile phone with the module using Bluetooth.
In early January, Audi will demo the features at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and in the middle of the year 2010, Audi will release a UMTS modem that will make it faster data transfer and able to integrate Google Earth in the eight inch LCD display inside.(TG Daily-C Shanti)
Twitter buys Mixer Labs(GeoAPI)
Twitter has acquired Mixer Labs. The creators of GeoAPI just excited to announce a major new step into the location-aware future about this. Now Mixer Labs is part of Twitter and will be working to combine the contextual relevance of location to tweets.
After previewed expanded location support for developers and launched Geotagging API with support from some of the top Twitter clients. The developers will be able to harness the GeoAPI engine to add relevant location information and with this service, user will also be able to search where an event is happening or searching your friend and local bussiness.
The Mixer Labs crew has been working on harnessing the power of local information for a couple years and just recently launched GeoAPI, a comprehensive service for helping developers build geolocation-aware applications. They look forward to building features together that will make Twitter even more interesting and relevant to your daily life, no matter where you are. The Mixer Labs crew will join to Twitter Headquarters in San Franciso, CA.
Mixer Labs team includes people who built major components of Google's infrastructure like iGoogle, and Google Mobile Maps. They are experience building scalable systems to make 100's of gigs of Geo data available with sub 50 millisecond response times.
Google races to speed up the Web
Google is in a really big hurry to make the Web experience faster.
That became abundantly clear in 2009, when the company unveiled a steady stream of projects, products and enhancements focused on increasing Internet speed.
The initiatives varied widely in scope and focus. They included optimization tools for webmasters to improve Web site performance. Others were speed-focused products like the Go programming language and Chrome OS. Google also pushed proposals to revamp aging Internet protocols and lobbied governments for broadband improvements.
The common denominator across the various heterogeneous efforts is an urgent desire to speed up the Web. This is rooted in Google's deeply held belief that a faster Internet is good for everyone, drives up online usage all around and boosts the company's business.
"The benefit of speed improvements is very substantial for the overall Internet. In the end, as the Internet gets faster, we benefit because people will use it more, which hopefully means they'll do more searches, which gets us more revenue," said Urs Hölzle, a Google fellow and senior vice president of operations.
At first pass, it's hard to argue with this reasoning, particularly when many of the Google efforts are free and available as open-source software, which anyone can adopt, modify and use.
Plus, Web latency remains a chronic, thorny problem with many improvement opportunities, and Google has the financial and talent resources needed to lead the way and tackle the bottlenecks.
"Google can afford to develop these projects in a way that's going to be strategic," said Sheri McLeish, a Forrester Research analyst. "Google has a luxury most companies don't. They're running a very successful business and what we're seeing is what that success affords them."
Still, as Google advances aggressively with its speed initiatives, it also indirectly increases its already considerable power and influence over people's and organization's Web activities, raising so-called "Goog-zilla" concerns.
For example, in early December, as part of this overall speed initiative, Google launched a new system to resolve DNS (domain name system) queries. It said its product improves on existing DNS resolver technology with faster, more efficient caching and additional security safeguards.
The thing is, those who switch to Google Public DNS will let the company know which Web sites they're visiting. This adds to the already massive amount of user data Google has access to via its search engine, online services and applications.
"Google definitely sees itself as being in a position to influence the future direction of the Web. From a business strategy perspective, it's smart of them, because clearly they're a major beneficiary of Web traffic," said Hadley Reynolds, an IDC analyst.(IDG News Service-Juan Carlos Perez)
