Newsfactor Technology
Main
Technology
Army TechnologyCyberwars
Military Technology
Newsfactor Technology
Technology World
Yahoo Technology
Random Feeds
Archives
| Oct 2008 | Sep 2008 | Aug 2008 | Jul 2008 | Jun 2008 | May 2008 | Apr 2008 | Mar 2008 | Feb 2008 | Jan 2008 | Dec 2007 | Nov 2007 |Fri, 30 Nov 07
FBI Helps Bust International Botnet Ring
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57005
It's 10:00 p.m. Do you know what your teen is doing online? Hopefully, the answer is not "attracting the unwelcome interest of the FBI for operating an international botnet ring that infected millions of computers and stole approximately $25 million from the bank accounts of unsuspecting victims."
That's the grim news received by the parents of an 18-year-old New Zealand man, identified in press reports only by his online ID "Akill." A collaborative investigation by the FBI and New Zealand authorities resulted in the search of Akill's residence earlier this week.
The teen was questioned about his role in the botnet operation, codenamed the "A-team," but was released without being charged. If police do file charges, Akill could face up to 10 years in prison.
A "bot" is a small, specialized computer program designed to perform a particular function. Many, like a search engine's webcrawler, are benign, but they can be designed to track user activity surreptitiously and communicate it to a third party.
Some are also designed to use a computer's spare processing power to send out spam or infect other computers. A "botnet" is a collection of commonly compromised computers; the individual controlling the "botnet" is typically referred to as the "botherder" -- an appropriate metaphor for Akill, as sheep still outnumber New Zealanders by about 12 to one.
The investigation in New Zealand was part of a broader FBI operation, "Bot Roast," that targeted the criminal use of botnets. According to an FBI statement about the two-phased operation, the investigation has uncovered over $20 million in economic losses and at least one million affected computers.
"Today, botnets are the weapon of choice of cyber criminals," FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III, said in the statement. "In Bot Roast II, we see the diverse and complex nature of crimes...
Fri, 30 Nov 07
Talks for Offering iPhone in China Stall
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57003
Is Apple's strategy of exclusive carrier deals for the iPhone unraveling? Events in China and Germany this week suggest that CEO Steve Jobs might have to rethink the strategy, at least in parts of the world.
A Chinese newspaper reported Thursday that talks between Apple and China Mobile, China's largest wireless carrier, have stalled over the issue of revenue-sharing.
And in France and Germany, laws prevent the kind of monopolistic deal Apple has carved out with AT&T in the U.S. Apple and the carriers have responded by selling unlocked iPhones for roughly three times the cost of locked phones.
On Tuesday, virtual mobile operator Debitel, which resells minutes it buys from Apple partner T-Mobile, said it would refund the difference between a locked and unlocked German iPhone.
"China is an important market for cell phones and overall has to be figured into Apple's worldwide strategy for the iPhone," Tim Bajarin, principal analyst for Creative Strategies, said in an e-mail. "But it is a difficult market to penetrate and Apple would need China Mobile if they want to gain any serious traction in this emerging market."
China Mobile president Wang Jianzhou revealed several weeks ago that the company was negotiating with Apple for the iPhone. But Wang signaled he wasn't particularly interested in sharing subscriber revenues. "We still think we can maintain the operator-centric model because we have the customers," Wang said at an Asian wireless conference.
Apparently that was the message Wang delivered to Jobs this week, as a Chinese newspaper reported that the talks had stalled, although China Mobile denied the reports. Apple is reportedly planning on selling the iPhone directly through Apple stores while it works on other carrier deals.
"It will probably take serious compromises on the part of Apple and China Mobile or even a second-tier vendor if a...
Fri, 30 Nov 07
Google Officially Bidding in Spectrum Auction
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57002
After months of leading a lobbying effort to promote open access for the 700-MHz frequencies that will be auctioned in January, Google formally announced on Friday that it will bid in the auction.
Google had been the leading participant in an alliance of public interest groups and companies, which earlier this year had asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to require that the winner of the so-called C Block of frequencies provide open access to some of the spectrum.
Open networks include the ability for any outside, compatible device and nonmalicious software to be used on those frequencies, a requirement that the FCC eventually adopted.
The Google-led alliance made other requests, such as requiring that the winner make the bandwidth available on a wholesale basis to third-party resellers. Google had indicated it would participate in the auction if there were sufficient open policies in place. But after the "wholesale provision" was not adopted, there was some speculation that the search giant would pass.
In a statement on Friday, however, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said it was important "to put our money where our principles are," adding that consumers deserve "more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world."
Those principles have a hefty price tag. The FCC said that there is a $4.6 billion minimum for participation in the auction, and that it might drop the open provisions it adopted if no winning bid is submitted.
Additionally, many observers have noted the obvious fact that Google is not a wireless network company. This has led to speculation that it might partner with one or more experienced wireless networking companies for the bidding, but Friday's announcement indicated that it would file its application alone.
There also has been speculation that Google might partner with another company if...
Fri, 30 Nov 07
Is Greg Brown the Answer for Motorola?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57001
Ed Zander is stepping down from his position as CEO of Motorola. On Friday, the mobile phone manufacturer announced that his successor, Greg Brown, will take the reins on January 1. Zander will remain chairman of the board, at least until the annual meeting of stockholders in May 2008.
"Next year marks my 40th year in the technology industry. This is the right time for me to move on to the next phase in my life and spend more time with my family," Zander said. "I am grateful I had the opportunity to lead Motorola over the last four years. It's been a wonderful experience."
Zander commended Brown for his vision and experience, calling him an "invaluable partner" and expressing confidence in his abilities to lead Motorola through a multiyear transformation.
"Ed Zander's been under tremendous pressure," said Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst at Current Analysis. "I'm eager to hear some details on what prompted this." What is known is that shareholder Carl Ichan has been complaining about Zander's leadership. Some equity analysts have been predicting Zander's departure for months.
Zander was once Motorola's hero. He helped reinvigorate the company with the Razr handset release. But he was unable to follow up with another model that turned heads in an increasingly competitive market. Motorola fell to third place in global mobile phone sales during Zander's tenure.
"Motorola has lost some mojo to companies like Apple and even RIM and HTC," Greengart said. "These companies are setting the pace while Motorola comes out with a new color of the Razr."
Since March 2007, Brown has served as president and COO of Motorola and was elected to the company's Board of Directors earlier this year. Previously, he headed four different businesses at the company. He also led the $3.9 billion acquisition of...
Fri, 30 Nov 07
Google's 'My Location' a Threat to Privacy?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57000
In light of recent reports that federal agents routinely request cell phone tracking data from cellular companies, the announcement by Google of its new "My Location" feature for the mobile version of Google Maps raises some serious privacy concerns.
On Wednesday, Google announced that users of version 2.0 of Google Maps for mobile would be able to see their approximate location on the mobile map. Rather than rely strictly on GPS, which is not available in all phones and can drain mobile batteries quickly, Google uses cell tower ID information to calculate the device's location.
The accuracy of the mapping depends to a large degree on how far away the device is from the nearest cell towers. In a quick test in the Burlington, Vermont area yesterday, the "My Location" feature was very accurate on the University of Vermont campus but was off by three blocks in the downtown area.
According to the Google press release, the "My Location" feature is anonymous: "Google does not gather any personally identifiable information or associate any location data with personally identifiable information as part of the My Location feature." The company also said that anyone who does not want to use the feature can disable it.
But some privacy advocates remain unconvinced. "Google's mobile maps creates an unnecessary privacy risk," Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in an e-mail.
In his view, it is safer and more private for consumers to use a standalone GPS device for location information. "A typical GPS device leaves the user in control of mapping data and search histories are easy to delete," Rotenberg said.
A query to Google for more specific information about its "My Location" feature was unanswered at the time this article was filed, but the company's own "Mobile Privacy Policy" raises more...
Fri, 30 Nov 07
Outcry Prompts Facebook Privacy Changes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56999
Facebook has drawn the ire of thousands of its users, and has once again bowed to the pressure of the political campaign against its advertising techniques. Facebook has made significant changes to its recently launched Beacon advertising platform after 50,000 Facebook members signed a MoveOn.org petition over a 10-day period, asking the site to respect user privacy.
Beacon sends messages to Facebook members' friends about what they are purchasing online. If a member booked a trip to Japan on Travelocity.com, for example, friends on Facebook would know it. If the member purchased a ticket to "American Gangster," that would also be known among friends.
But the social-networking site now says it won't send messages about members' Internet activities without getting approval each and every time. Members will opt in to the program.
When Facebook launched the program on November 6, it certainly wasn't positioned as the Big Brother scenario that privacy advocates have criticized it for being. The new advertising solution was positioned as an option to share actions on other sites with friends on Facebook.
"Just as Facebook shares your on-site interactions with your friends through News Feed, we now give you an option to let News Feed share your off-site actions with your friends as well," explained Leah Pearlman, the product manager for Facebook ads, in the company blog.
She figured adding the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to your queue on Blockbuster.com might be something you want your friends to know about. Pearlman promised members complete control over the information. The only problem, as far as privacy advocates were concerned, is that members had to opt out instead of opting in.
MoveOn.org launched its petition on November 20, saying Beacon was an invasion of privacy. "Site like Facebook must respect my privacy," the petition reads. "They should...
Fri, 30 Nov 07
Verizon Wireless Readies 4G Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56998
In its second big announcement this week, Verizon Wireless said that it would develop its fourth generation mobile broadband network using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. This means that the company, co-owned by Verizon and by European carrier Vodafone, will move to the GSM camp from its current residence in the CDMA crowd.
Earlier this week, Verizon Wireless announced that it was moving toward an open network on which outside devices or software could be used. This declaration of openness followed the company's initial opposition to a similar open policy for 700-MHz frequencies to be auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission in January. The FCC eventually adopted an open devices policy for the auction.
For users, the future is promising very fast wireless transmission. Verizon's announcement means that the company will begin testing network equipment as it moves to LTE technologies, which can provide downlink speeds for data as high as 100 Mbps, and uplink speeds as high as 50 Mbps.
But the biggest potential impact for device owners in the U.S. will be the ability to use Verizon-supplied devices, without adaptation, in the many countries that support GSM. An estimated 80 percent of the world's mobile devices use GSM technology, and so do AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and other European carriers.
Chris Hazelton, an analyst with industry research firm IDC, said that this leaves Sprint and Alltel as the only major CDMA carriers in the U.S. Some carriers in South America and South Korea use CDMA. He also said that the move to LTE will continue the trend of embedding wireless data access in consumer devices, not just in phones or mobile business devices.
LTE is the "best technology with global scale" to deliver on the promise of "embedded wireless in virtually every piece of electronics you buy in...
Fri, 30 Nov 07
China Disputes Cyber Warfare Report
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56996
The Chinese government on Thursday disputed a report labeling it the world's most aggressive offender in probing for holes in other nations' Internet security and encouraging a looming global cyber showdown.
The report, issued Thursday by security software vendor McAfee Inc., said government-affiliated hackers in China are at the forefront of a brewing "cyber Cold War" still in its infancy.
Within two decades, according to McAfee, the scuffle could erupt into a worldwide conflict involving hundreds of countries attacking one another's online networks with sophisticated software.
McAfee said about 120 countries are developing cyber attack strategies and most are merely testing them to determine the risks involved in certain tactics -- though devastating international attacks could come one day.
Based on McAfee research and input from security experts with NATO, the FBI and other intelligence outfits, the report said hackers in China are believed responsible for four out of five major cyber attacks on government targets in 2007.
The biggest intrusions appear to have targeted a Pentagon computer network and government agencies in Germany, India and Australia and New Zealand.
"The Chinese have publicly stated that they are pursuing activities in cyber espionage ... they speak of technology being a large part of war in the future," the McAfee report read.
McAfee said that in 2007, there were more attacks reported on critical national infrastructure than ever before. Targets included financial markets, utilities and air traffic control machinery, and the attacks were believed to have been launched by governments or government-allied groups.
Another large attack occurred in April, when severe and well coordinated cyber attacks struck Estonia's banks, government institutions and media outlets. Estonian officials have claimed the attacks originated in Russia. Russian authorities have denied any involvement.
China has steadfastly denied it is engaged in any cyber crime and said its networks too have been targeted.
"China has also...
Fri, 30 Nov 07
New Zealand Questions Hacker Kingpin
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56994
Police questioned the suspected teenage kingpin of an international cyber crime network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers and skimming millions of dollars from victims' bank accounts, officials said.
Working with the FBI and police in the Netherlands, New Zealand police raided the home of the 18-year-old in the North Island city of Hamilton and took him into custody along with several computers, said Martin Kleintjes, head of the police electronic crime center.
He was later released without charge after being questioned, though police said he was still part of the investigation.
The case is part of an international crackdown on hackers who allegedly assume control of thousands of computers and amass them into centrally controlled clusters known as botnets. The hackers can then use the computers to steal credit card information, manipulate stock trades and even crash industry computers, authorities say.
Eight people have been indicted, pleaded guilty or have been convicted since the investigation started in June. Thirteen additional warrants have been served in the U.S. and overseas in the investigation.
The FBI estimates that more than one million computers have been infected and puts the combined economic losses at more than $20 million.
The New Zealander, known by his cyber identification as "AKILL," was "head of an international spybot ring that has infiltrated computers round the world with their malicious software," Kleintjes told National Radio.
Kleintjes told The Associated Press the teenager, whose name was not released because he was under 18 when the alleged offenses began, was cooperating with investigators in telling them how the crime system works.
"We have seized a number of computers and are talking with him," he said. "We are going for evidence and the case will develop from there. We're still in the early stages of the investigation."
Detective Inspector Peter Devoy, the senior investigator in the case, said the...
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Study: Cost of Data Breaches Rising
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56983
According to a study released on Thursday by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy and information management research firm, each customer record lost or compromised in 2007 cost companies $197, compared to $182 in 2006. That represents an increase of more than 8 percent.
This is the third year that the Ponemon Institute has conducted its "U.S. Cost of a Data Breach" survey; the average per-incident cost has climbed each year. The increase between 2005 and 2006 was particularly steep, clocking in at over 40 percent.
The precise number of consumer records compromised by security breaches each year is difficult to determine. However a running estimate compiled by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse lists incidents in which at least 216 million customers have had their data security compromised. On the basis of that figure, lost and compromised data is costing U.S. businesses tens of billions of dollars each year.
"And keep in mind," said Beth Givens, the director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC), in a telephone interview, "in many cases the number of people affected is unknown. So that figure (216 million) is very conservative. The real total could easily be twice as high."
The Ponemon Institute reported that the total per-incident cost increased more than 30 percent, from $4.8 million to $6.3 million, and that nearly two-thirds of the cost in each incident was lost business opportunities from disgruntled customers.
Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, said in a statement announcing the study results that corporate data security remains a persistent problem. "The data from 2007 suggests that although companies are responding to data breaches more efficiently," Ponemon noted, "consumers seem to be less forgiving when their personal information is compromised."
Part of their impatience might stem from the fact that companies share private information too easily or without sufficient safeguards....
Thu, 29 Nov 07
HP Offers New Suite of I.T. Automation Tools
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56982
HP announced this week a suite of I.T. automation tools to simplify a range of administrative tasks, from the desktop to the data center. The offering is a "key pillar," the company said, of its strategy to integrate technology acquired during an aggressive buying spree.
HP's Business Optimization Portfolio pulls together assets from the acquisitions of Peregrine, Mercury, and Opsware. Automated Operations 1.0 combines solutions for I.T. service management, business service management, and business service automation.
"We have been aggressively expanding our software portfolio in the last two years to broaden and deepen our capabilities to help customers improve their top and bottom lines," said Tom Hogan, a senior vice president with HP Software, in a statement.
While business automation solutions might not be the sexiest part of the industry, it is an area where companies -- especially midsize and enterprise organizations -- feel real pain, and if HP can help with that, customers will appreciate it, Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, said in a telephone interview.
"It's something they've been working up to and it's a natural offering with the acquisitions they've been making," King said. The space includes such tasks as managing and updating software and software licenses.
Dell has moved in a "similar direction," King said, with the recent acquisition of Everdream, which provided service management and help-desk solutions for desktop and mobile devices. While not a big deal for smaller companies, update and license management for organizations with hundreds of thousands of desktops and servers "can be a logistical nightmare," King said. "There's a broad understanding that tools like these are a real benefit."
HP now competes with IBM, Computer Associates, and BMC in automation. Each vendor will approach this space in a slightly different way, King said. "The expertise that a vendor...
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Into Verizon's Secret Cellular Garden
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56975
As the dust settles on Verizon's surprise announcement that it will open its network to third-party devices and applications, some analysts are raising questions about just how groundbreaking the development will be.
Verizon dubbed its widely publicized initiative "Any App, Any Device," offering third-party hardware and software manufacturers the tempting possibility of marketing their products to the cellular company's 60 million subscribers.
But with the precise technical details for accessing Verizon's network some months away, it is difficult to know just how many third-party products will be allowed into Verizon's secret cellular garden.
Greg Sterling, the principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said he believes that there are some legitimate concerns about the sincerity of Verizon's commitment to cellular openness.
"Although we don't know the exact specifications yet," Sterling said, "some skepticism has emerged about how strongly Verizon will support real openness. It looks, for instance, like Verizon is creating a two-tiered network, with one tier for its subscribers and another for third-party apps and devices. That's not exactly 'open.'"
Sterling also said that Verizon might not provide much support for devices or apps that it does not offer to consumers directly, which could make consumer use of the "open" network more frustrating.
At the same time, at least one analyst has suggested that the "open" network model might potentially pose problems for Verizon itself. In a guest entry for "Over the Air," an InformationWeek blog, Frost & Sullivan VP Gerry Purdy noted that Verizon, like other cellular companies, has been largely successful in keeping the adult entertainment industry off its proprietary systems. The decision to open up those networks, Purdy suggested, might make it easier for the adult industry to roll out its own mobile applications.
Despite his questions about Verizon's approach, Sterling said he thinks that...
Thu, 29 Nov 07
3G iPhone: 'You'll Have It Next Year'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56974
This was surely not how Steve Jobs intended to announce the monumental news that an iPhone capable of running on 3G networks would be available. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson didn't even say, "oh and one more thing" before leaking the news.
Speaking to reporters in Santa Clara, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, Stephenson responded to a question about a 3G iPhone. But instead of vague assurances or deferring to Apple, the CEO of the No. 1 carrier said, "You'll have it next year," Bloomberg reported.
At least he didn't talk price or get more specific about timing. Jobs "will dictate what the price of the phone is," he said.
Since the iPhone launched in June, many consumers have complained that AT&T's EDGE network makes Web browsing on the phone a painfully slow experience. An iPhone that runs on the fast 3G network would be substantially more attractive as an Internet device. Even so, Apple has sold 1.5 million iPhones.
Will the news of a 3G iPhone cause would-be buyers to hold off? Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said any procrastinators wouldn't be "enough to make a difference."
But the slowness of the EDGE network, along with the lack of a hardware keyboard, has been "the big complaint," Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Marketing Intelligence, said in a telephone interview.
"The timing of this may be regrettable from Apple's point of view," he said. By addressing the issue, Stephenson "may cause some number of people to wait" on buying an iPhone. On the other hand, the news may push some interested buyers to purchase now.
How likely is it that the CEO of one of the U.S.'s biggest companies just slipped up? Sterling speculated that Stephenson might have been "trying to assert some measure of control over this device."
While AT&T...
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Yahoo Inks PDF Ad Deal with Adobe
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56973
Adobe and Yahoo on Wednesday inked a deal to put ads in a place they've never been before -- PDF files. Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo is a service that lets online publishers include contextual ads beside PDF-based content. The program is currently in beta.
Publications and publishers already committed to participating in the beta program include Infoworld, Wired, Pearson's Education, Meredith Corporation, and Reed Elsevier.
"This partnership with Adobe creates a previously untapped opportunity for advertisers to connect with qualified audiences, while opening new revenue streams for publishers, and helping deliver additional relevant content to consumers," Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo Publisher Network, said in a statement.
Publishers upload their PDF content so it can be ad-enabled. Ads can be displayed only within Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat in a panel adjacent to the content so they do not disrupt the viewing experience.
Every time the PDF content is viewed, contextual ads are dynamically matched to the content of the document. The publisher can monitor performance through detailed reports.
Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo is a free service. It does not require the purchase or installation of software. The program, which is open to U.S. publishers who produce content in English, supports PDF content created in Adobe Acrobat 8 and earlier versions.
Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, described the initiative as putting Internet-based advertising into a static document. Just as an article might appear on a trade journal's Web site with contextual ads along the side, the Yahoo-Adobe plan is to run contextual ads alongside PDF content.
"There's an appetite on the part of ad networks and companies to distribute advertising anywhere and everywhere they can. There is a corresponding appetite to make money wherever that's possible,"...
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Unlocked iPhones Go on Sale in France
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56972
Those distant clicking sounds are Apple's iPhones being unlocked in Europe. On Wednesday, mobile provider Orange began selling unlocked iPhones, without a long-term contract, for the translated price of $1,106. T-Mobile is already offering unlocked iPhones in Germany.
Orange stores stayed open late Wednesday night to kick off the sale of locked and unlocked iPhones. As unlocked devices, the iPhone can connect to carriers other than Orange, a unit of France Telecom. Didier Lombard, France Telecom CEO, had promised earlier this week that Orange's unlocked price would be lower than the unlocked price T-Mobile is charging in Germany -- about $1,471.
When locked to a service plan, the purchase price in France is $589. Orange will unlock any iPhone that has been purchased with a 12- or 24-month contract for $148 more during the first six months. After that, French law stipulates that unlocking be done for free.
The carriers have not been unlocking the phones out of choice. In Germany, a court had ruled in favor of Vodafone Group PLC, which had sued to demand that T-Mobile open the iPhone to other service providers. The suit was based on a German law prohibiting retailers from requiring consumers to buy one product in order to get another.
In France, carriers are required by law to offer unlocked phones. In the UK, where O2 launched the iPhone, the device is still sold locked.
In the U.S., the number of iPhones that have been unlocked by hacking might amount to more than early estimates. According to news reports, Apple executives said last month that about 250,000 of the 1.4 million iPhones sold in the U.S. have not yet been registered with the only official carrier, AT&T.
But that proportion of unlocked phones is low compared to Orange's breakdown. Chris Hazelton, an analyst with...
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Google Takes Mobile Maps to the Next Level
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56971
On Wednesday, Google released the second iteration of its Google Maps for mobile phones, a mobile mapping and local search application that sports several new bells and whistles. The new version features Google's "My Location" technology, which uses cell tower information to provide users with their approximate location to help them determine where they are and what's around them.
The most common source of location information to date -- GPS technology -- is supported on fewer than 15 percent of the mobile phones sold in 2007. With Google's My Location technology, users who don't have GPS-enabled mobile phones still can have Google Maps position their location on the map.
According to Google, the My Location technology will complement GPS-enabled devices by delivering a location estimate more quickly than GPS can and providing coverage inside buildings where GPS signals can be unreliable. Google promises its technique doesn't drain phone batteries as quickly as GPS does.
"We've all been there: You're out and about, and you need to figure out where you are, what's around you, and how to get there. Google Maps for mobile can help you do all that, but first you have to enter in a starting point using the keypad. And let's face it -- entering things into your phone using the keypad is so 2006," Mike Chu, a software engineer on the Google mobile team, wrote on the Official Google Mobile blog.
With Google Maps loaded, users have only to press zero on the keypad to fire up the My Location service. The map then automatically indicates the approximate location information by centering on a blue circle. Of course, Chu admitted, the technology is still in beta. That means it might not be 100 percent accurate and it is not supported on every mobile device.
Google has noted...
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Google's China Chief Sees Future Boom
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56967
If U.S. Internet companies are maturing, China's are still reveling in the kind of party atmosphere their U.S. rivals enjoyed during the late 1990s, with copious capital and enough engineering talent to keep growing for a while.
Executives including Kai-Fu Lee, president of Google Greater China, warned participants in an industry conference in Beijing this week against a get-rich-quick mentality.
But the executives said that between strong investor interest and an education system churning out information technology graduates by the thousand, the groundwork is solid for years of continued steady growth in China.
"For many Chinese young people and young students, they have a very strong desire for innovation, for being successful, for starting their own businesses," said Lee.
About 300,000 students receive high-tech degrees in China annually, said Zhang Ya-Qin, chief executive of Microsoft in China and its research development group. But he said Chinese graduates need more curiosity and more ideas.
Pony Ma, whose QQ system dominates the Chinese market for instant messaging, said China's Internet and mobile information industries are just getting off the ground, leaving plenty of room for growth in the more traditional Web fields.
"Generally speaking, it has been developing in a very healthy way. In the past one or two years, it was sort of crazy ... but now it has become much better," Ma said.
Most of the Internet businesses developing in China are likely to cater to local interests and local online needs, which remain largely unmet, the executives said.
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Feds Must Release Telecom Records
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56963
An electronic privacy group challenging President Bush's domestic spying program scored a minor victory after a judge ordered the federal government to release information about lobbying efforts by telecommunications companies to protect them from prosecution.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation in January 2006 filed a class-action suit against AT&T Inc., accusing the company of illegally making communications on its networks available to the National Security Agency without warrants.
Congress is now considering changing the law to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that would protect them from such court challenges.
"Any attempt for immunity is aimed at getting these very important cases swept back under the rug," EFF spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke said Wednesday.
The EFF wants to know about "discussions, briefings or other exchanges" telecommunications companies and members of Congress have had recently with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, according to Tuesday's court order.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said "all responsive, non-exempt documents" or anything required to be released under the Freedom of Information Act must be turned over by Dec. 10.
While EFF lawyer David Sobel acknowledged he's unsure what he'll learn from the documents, he said they should shed some light on why the companies believe they need protection.
"If you're a telephone company executive and you feel like you need this grant of immunity and you're contacting the director of national intelligence about it ... you're going to explain why it is you feel so strongly that you need this protection," he said.
Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the intelligence director, said the department doesn't comment on pending litigation, but "of course we comply with court orders."
The EFF suit against AT&T is just one of about two dozen suits against telecommunications companies over the wiretapping program. Those cases have been consolidated...
Thu, 29 Nov 07
Robots.txt System Set for Major Revamp
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56961
The desire for greater control over how search engines index and display Web sites is driving an effort by leading news organizations and other publishers to revise a 13-year-old technology for restricting access.
Currently, Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other top search companies voluntarily respect a Web site's wishes as declared in a text file known as "robots.txt," which a search engine's indexing software, called a crawler, knows to look for on a site.
The formal rules allow a site to block indexing of individual Web pages, specific directories or the entire site, though some search engines have added their own commands.
The new proposal, to be unveiled Thursday by a consortium of publishers at the global headquarters of The Associated Press, seeks to have those extra commands -- and more -- apply across the board. Sites, for instance, could try to limit how long search engines may retain copies in their indexes, or tell the crawler not to follow any of the links that appear within a Web page.
The current system doesn't give sites "enough flexibility to express our terms and conditions on access and use of content," said Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council, one of the groups behind the proposal. "That is not surprising. It was invented in the 1990s and things move on."
Robots.txt was developed in 1994 following concerns that some crawlers were taxing Web sites by visiting them repeatedly or rapidly. Although the system has never been sanctioned by any standards body, major search engines have voluntarily complied.
As search engines expanded to offer services for displaying news and scanning printed books, news organizations and book publishers began to complain.
The proposed extensions, known as Automated Content Access Protocol, partly grew out of those disputes. Leading the ACAP effort were groups representing publishers of newspapers, magazines,...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
Google's Storage Plans Raise Plenty of Concerns
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56956
In the wake of this week's buzz about Google's plans for a new online service for file storage, Internet privacy specialists are raising concerns about the potential vulnerability of such data to government investigations. Such fears have been heightened by a variety of high-profile attempts by federal investigators to retrieve user information from online companies, including Amazon, Yahoo, MSN, and Google itself.
The buzz this week seems to have started from a report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, saying that Google is developing an integrated service that would allow users to store and organize their own information on Google's servers. According to the WSJ story, users of the service could store any and all of their files -- from business letters to family photos -- on Google's servers, and then access or share those from any computer or mobile device.
Although Google has declined to comment on the report, privacy watchdogs as well as competitors in the data storage industry have some concerns.
"Whenever information is in the hands of third-parties, it changes the protections available for that information in a qualitative way," said Lauren Weinstein, an Internet privacy expert and co-founder of the People for Internet Responsibility. "E-mail, for instance, that is in the hands of an ISP typically has less protection than the same e-mail on your home computer."
When consumers store data on devices in their home, Weinstein noted, law enforcement is generally required to obtain a search warrant, which requires presenting sufficient facts to a judge or magistrate to demonstrate probable cause for the issuance of the warrant. But data in the hands of a third party can be disclosed under a variety of other theories, some of them with lower standards of protection.
"Remotely stored information might be subject to a national security letter, for instance,"...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
One Laptop Per Child Accused of Patent Infringement
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56955
Nigeria is really not getting along with Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child initiative these days. First, OLPC spokesman Walter Bender got into a war of words with Nigeria's education minister, who questioned the need for the groundbreaking computers. Now a Nigerian company is claiming the laptop's multilingual keyboard violates its patents.
"What is the sense of introducing One Laptop per Child when they don't have seats to sit down and learn; when they don't have uniforms to go to school in, where they don't have facilities?" Education Minister Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachuku asked during a BBC interview Tuesday.
"We are more interested in laying a very solid foundation for quality education which will be efficient, effective, accessible and affordable."
That led Bender to accuse Nigeria and many other countries of "small thinking." He said that education in many developing world countries is failing and that "change has to be dramatic."
"You've got to be big, you've got to be bold. And what has happened is that there has been an effort to say 'don't take any risks -- just do something small, something incremental'. It feels safe but by definition what you are ensuring is that nothing happens," Bender told the BBC.
On Wednesday, Lagos Analysis Corp. filed with the Nigerian High Court a patent infringement suit against OLPC, saying the organization had reverse-engineered its patented four-language keyboard. CEO Adé Oyegbola called for OLPC to reach a settlement, saying he might file an additional infringement suit in the United States.
OLPC could have "sought a license and gotten it for a minimal fee," he said. "We're hoping ... they can come to their senses, and we sit down and come to a reasonable settlement." Despite attempts, Oyegbola said, Lagos has not received a "reasonable response" from OLPC.
In a statement,...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
AMD Losing More Ground Against Intel
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56953
Move over AMD. Sony and Toshiba have bumped you off the top-10 list -- and Intel remains king of the chipmakers. According to iSuppli's preliminary 2007 global semiconductor market share estimate, Intel is the top of the heap. Intel's chip revenue is expected to rise 7.7 percent in 2007 to reach $33.97 billion, up from $31.5 billion in 2006.
Intel exceeded the overall semiconductor industry growth rate of 4.1 percent in 2007 and massively outperformed its PC microprocessor rival AMD, whose sales are expected to decline by 22.7 percent for the year.
"Throughout most of the year, Intel successfully defended much of the market share that it won from AMD in the first quarter in the PC microprocessor segment due to the success of its lines of dual- and quad-core chips," Dale Ford, vice president of market intelligence for iSuppli, said in a statement. "This represents a major reversal of fortune compared to 2006, when AMD had the advantage with its popular dual-core microprocessors, allowing it to gain share from Intel."
Intel's market share rose to 12.5 percent in 2007, up from 12.1 percent in 2006.
After rising into the top 10 rankings for the first time ever last year, AMD's revenue decline is expected to cause it to drop back to 11th place in 2007, down from eighth place in 2006. AMD's semiconductor revenue in 2007 is set to fall to $5.8 billion, down from $7.5 billion in 2006.
The root of the issue might be AMD's quad-core bets. AMD took a fundamentally different approach to quad-core development than Intel. While Intel pressed forward into the quad-core market by combining two dual-core chips on a single piece of silicon, AMD focused on developing what it calls a native quad-core.
"Intel got a nearly yearlong jump on the quad-core market when AMD slipped its delivery...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
Gullible PC Users a Threat to Security
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56952
One of the biggest security vulnerabilities for computers and networks is sitting in front of the desk. According to the SANS Institute's annual report on the Top 20 Internet security risks, released Tuesday, "users who are easily misled" ranks with custom-built applications as the top targets for attackers.
The report cites several cases, based on real events, that illustrate the real-world implications of today's security challenges.
In one instance, hundreds of senior federal officials and business executives visited an infected political think-tank site, and their computers became zombies. Keystroke loggers installed on their machines captured user names and passwords for their personal bank accounts, their stock trading accounts, and their employers' computers, and sent them to the attackers in various countries. Money and sensitive data was lost.
In another case, a teenager simply visited a Web site with an old version of a media player. A video started to play as soon as she entered the site, helping to install a keystroke logger on the machine -- the same computer her father used for his online bank account. The account was emptied by the attackers. Although the bank later reimbursed him, U.S. law enforcement officials discovered that the money went to a terrorist group that recruited suicide bombers.
In a third case, a custom-made program had a programming error that allowed criminals to take private patient records from a hospital. The hospital had to choose between paying extortion or having the records disseminated on the Internet.
These and other horror stories illustrate the security landscape as presented by the SANS Institute report, the collective effort of 43 security experts from government, industry, and academic in several countries. The Institute, founded in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization, conducts information security training and certification.
The Institute's report presents a...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
Amazon Wins Privacy Battle with Feds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56951
A federal magistrate in Madison, Wisconsin has harshly criticized the FBI for its aggressive efforts to force Amazon.com to reveal the identities of more than 24,000 individuals who purchased used books from Robert D'Angelo, the subject of a tax fraud investigation.
In the summer of 2006, a grand jury investigating the allegations issued a subpoena to the online bookseller, ordering it to produce the information requested by government agents. The government hoped to contact individuals who had purchased books from D'Angelo and obtain information that they could use as evidence against him. Amazon refused to provide the identities of specific purchasers to the FBI and moved to quash the subpoena.
"It sounds like, once again, the government's request for information was overbroad," said Lauren Weinstein, an Internet privacy expert and cofounder of the People for Internet Responsibility. "It's unfortunately the case that law enforcement goes into these cases asking for the moon in the hopes that they'll simply get the information."
In a June opinion that was just unsealed on Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Stephen L. Crocker said that the case raises a legitimate First Amendment issue. While acknowledging that neither the FBI nor the grand jury had any particular interest in what Amazon customers were reading, Crocker said that the information request was still troubling.
"It is an unsettling and un-American scenario," he wrote, "to envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding citizens while hunting for evidence against someone else."
Pointing to recent well-publicized reports about the USA Patriot Act and litmus tests for employees at the Department of Justice, Judge Crocker said the public would have legitimate concerns about why the information was requested.
"Rational book buyers would have a non-speculative basis to fear," he said, "that federal prosecutors and law enforcement agents have a secondary political agenda...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
Greenpeace Ranks Big Tech Companies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56950
On Tuesday, Greenpeace released the sixth edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics. The latest report, which includes televisions and video games, ranks consumer electronics companies on the basis of how they deal with two issues: corporate recycling and removing toxic chemicals from their products.
According to Greenpeace, Microsoft, Nintendo, Philips, and Sharp rank at the bottom of the list of environmental performance. Nintendo is the first company to score zero out of a possible 10 points. Philips and Microsoft scored only 2 and 2.7, respectively.
"While it's encouraging to see Sharp and Microsoft providing timelines for the complete elimination of vinyl plastic and all brominated flame retardants across their entire product range, makers of TVs and computer games have a long way to go," said Iza Kruszewska, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace International.
The new edition of the quarterly guide reveals changes at the top of the ranking. Sony Ericsson has taken over the top spot from Nokia while Samsung and Sony have surged ahead to occupy second and third positions.
However, Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson each received penalty points for not fully honoring their own recycling take-back policies in the Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Russia, and India. As a result, Nokia falls from top position to ninth and Motorola drops from ninth position to fourteenth.
"Companies shouldn't be under any illusions that Greenpeace won't check up on their claims of green greatness," warned Kruszewska. Greenpeace tested implementation of product take-back programs in the U.S., the Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Russia, and India.
Apple, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba recently indicated that they now produce PCs, LCD panels, camcorders, and digital cameras -- or at least major components of these items -- free of vinyl plastics or brominated flame retardants.
Firms that have improved their ranking in the Greenpeace...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
Verizon Wireless Says Open, Open, Open
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56949
In a surprising move that may have a major impact on the U.S. wireless industry, Verizon Wireless announced plans Tuesday to open its wireless network to third-party devices and applications toward the end of 2008. What that means for consumers is that they will be able to use non-Verizon cell phones, smartphones and other wireless devices over the Verizon nationwide network.
Whether consumers will ultimately be able to use any phone and any application though, remains to be seen. Some analysts are warning consumers not to get caught up in the hype, since not all the details are clear.
Still, it does appear that the U.S. wireless industry is moving toward the European model, where mobile phone users can use almost any wireless carrier with just almost any unlocked device.
For now at least, it seems that Verizon won't be supporting the Apple iPhone.
Michael Gartenberg, a wireless analyst at Jupiter Research explained that the iPhone uses a technology that is totally incompatible with Verizon. That means, "you are not going to be able to take your iPhone to Verizon -- no matter what," he said.
Gartenberg also pointed out that it is still too soon to tell what types of devices Verizon is going to support and who is going to make open devices for its network. "It is a tantalizing announcement," he said, "but we'll have to wait for all the details."
Industry watcher Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence, tells us the announcement does indeed come as a surprise. He said the move shows Verizon has recognized the direction of the market, including Google's recent launch of Android, an open platform for mobile phones. "It's also a response to consumer reaction to the iPhone," he said.
Perhaps more important is the signal this announcement sends to...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
Google Invests Millions in Green Energy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56948
Google will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to jumpstart alternative energy technology, cofounder Larry Page announced Tuesday. Google will focus efforts on solar thermal power, wind power, and enhanced geothermal systems, the company said in a statement.
Google plans to spend tens of millions of dollars in 2008, as the project hires engineers and energy experts. Capital expenditures on renewable energy projects will reach hundreds of millions of dollars, the company said.
What does Google know about renewable energy? Page said the company has learned quite a bit about through "designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive" data centers. "We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal."
Clearly the first line of attack will be solar thermal technology, which Page said "provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal." In addition, Page said, Google is "aware of several promising technologies, and believes there are many more out there" with the potential to deliver cost-effective green energy.
"With talented technologists, great partners, and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward," Page said. "Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal." Google said a gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco. "We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades."
Google's investment would represent a sizable percentage of total investment in alternative energy. Wednesday, the National Venture Capital Association announced that total VC investment in the first three quarters of 2007 reached $2.6 billion, on track to double 2006's full-year investments of $1.8 billion. Clearly Google is considering its investments to be good business as well as good deeds.
"If we meet this goal," said...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
New Cybercrime Laws Face Uphill Battle
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56938
Government has been limited in fighting cybercrime for several reasons: scant knowledge among officials, heavy industry pressure against proposed laws and a free-market ethos on Internet issues.
Congress has either failed to pass bills or sent ineffective legislation to the president. Agencies have shied away from imposing regulations. Leaders have not bothered to make sure computer users understand the problem -- if the officials themselves even comprehend the threats.
"Overall, I was amazed at the lack of knowledge, not only among presidential staff, but at the Cabinet level, and the Senate and House," McAfee Chief Executive Dave DeWalt said after meeting in the summer with senators, Congress members and Cabinet secretaries about information security.
The threats aren't easily grasped: U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D- Calif, whose district includes much of Silicon Valley, is one of Capitol Hill's most Internet-savvy legislators. Yet even Lofgren, when asked in August if she knew what a botnet is, responded only with, "Sort of." Her spokesman said most other members of Congress likely could not even make that claim.
Security experts say the naïveté of her colleagues is one cause of Congress' lumbering response to Internet crime. Dozens of bills aimed at outlawing phishing, botnets and many forms of hacking have stalled short of the House floor. This session, two anti-spyware bills -- one sponsored by Lofgren -- are stuck in Senate committees.
Those bills that survive are often watered down. Spam has only gotten worse since passage of a much-hyped 2003 law that was supposed to control it.
The problems are complicated by corporations fighting laws and regulations that might hurt their bottom line. "There's no question that financial services and retailers have been obstacles" to some bills moving forward,' said Tim Bennett, president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a trade group that includes...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
Supreme Court Hears Maine Internet Case
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56932
The Supreme Court will consider today whether federal law bars Maine from imposing handling requirements on delivery companies, a case that could undercut similar laws in other states. When Maine officials tried to crack down on Internet tobacco sales to children, the outcry from shipping companies that bring cigarettes to consumers' homes was deafening.
The companies must comply with onerous delivery and labeling instructions to ensure that buyers are at least 18 years old, the companies complained.
The Maine attorney general's office argues that the state must protect the health of its children and that Internet and telephone sales of tobacco products have become a serious problem.
Two lower courts ruled against Maine. But if Maine officials prevail in the Supreme Court, "any number of states will impose different standards on any number of different products that they deem unhealthy or unsafe," say the three New England transportation company associations that filed suit.
Intricate national delivery networks have been able to speed $6 trillion worth of packages to their destinations every year because Congress mandated that cargo carriers not be subject to an inefficient patchwork of state laws, the shipping companies argue.
Like other states, Maine has imposed steep increases in cigarette taxes. So smokers nationwide increasingly are going online for bargains, and underage smokers are among them, according to anti-smoking groups.
A 2002 study concluded that Internet vendors sold 400 million packs of cigarettes annually, 2 percent of the cigarettes consumed in the United States, a figure that anti-smoking groups say is growing.
The number of Internet cigarette vendors has risen sharply from 88 in January 2000 to 772 in January 2006, says Kurt Ribisl, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina's school of public health who has spent the past eight years studying the issue.
"This is big business for some of the companies,"...
Wed, 28 Nov 07
IBM Updates Free Enterprise Search Platform
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56954
IBM, in cooperation with Yahoo, has released a new update to IBM OmniFind Yahoo Edition -- a free search platform for enterprise use. IBM's latest search update comes hard on the heels of Microsoft's unveiling of Search Server 2008 Express, a rival offering that will likewise be made available for free when it launches in the first half of 2008.
"The timing of IBM's latest announcement is not at all coincidental," noted Jim Murphy, research director at AMR Research. "They want to remind people that Omnifind is already available for download" as well as differentiate its qualities from what Microsoft expects to offer, Murphy explained.
Omnifind enables knowledge workers to search Web sites and local or remote file systems at rates of up to 500,000 documents per instance, as well as separate content into different searchable document collections. Support is on tap for detecting and removing "near-duplicates" from search results.
One obvious question is how Microsoft and IBM expect to generate revenue from the launch of free utilities. "Clearly, both expect to garner revenue through upselling," Murphy noted.
In Microsoft's case, the upgrade would be to the full version of Microsoft Search Server (MSS) first, and then to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, he said. "In IBM's case, it's an Omnifind Enterprise product and service, including the higher scaling Omnifind Enterprise Edition, the natural language-based Omnifind Discovery Edition, and services for text mining and data analysis called Information Insight Offerings."
Microsoft often receives a good deal of criticism about its conception of "free" because its products often presume existing investments in Microsoft software, including SQL Server, Exchange, or Office. With Search Server Express 2008, however, "Microsoft has extracted the enterprise-class search capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and made them available" as an independent, stand-alone server "that includes an instance...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
In Stunning Move, Verizon Will Open Its Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56924
Verizon Wireless stunned the wireless world on Tuesday when it announced it would open up its wireless network to third-party devices and applications toward the end of 2008.
"This is a transformation point in the 20-year history of mass market wireless devices, one which we believe will set the table for the next level of innovation and growth," said Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless president and chief executive officer. "Verizon Wireless is not changing our successful retail model, but rather adding an additional retail option for customers looking for a different wireless experience."
In a statement, Verizon said it would publish minimum technical standards for devices to operate over the Verizon network. "Any device that meets the minimum technical standard will be activated on the network," the statement said.
Verizon said it had pumped investments into a $20 million state-of-the-art testing lab to gear up for the anticipated new demand. Any application the customer chooses will be allowed on these devices.
"It's a surprise," Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence, said in a telephone interview. He said the move shows Verizon has recognized the direction of the market, including Google's recent launch of Android, an open platform for mobile phones. "It's also a response to consumer reaction to the iPhone," he said. "They're wisely embracing the direction of the market."
While the move might help Verizon acquire some more customers "on the margins" in the short term, "it's not entirely clear that openness on its own will win them customers. What this does at the margins is it tips the scales," Sterling said, noting that this announcement is targeted more at developers than customers.
What's more important is the signal this sends to the wireless industry, Sterling said. "It puts pressure on others to open up. It's a continuation of something that...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
Elections 2.0: ABC News and Facebook Sponsor Debates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56923
In the early days of 2008, ABC News and Facebook will offer their version of Elections 2.0. The two companies are jointly sponsoring back-to-back debates by Republican and Democratic presidential candidates on January 5 at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. A coin toss will determine which party goes first.
Thanks to the new partnership, old media again will share the stage with new media. The two 90-minute debates will be broadcast live on ABC News starting at 7 p.m. According to a statement issued by the two companies, Facebook users will be able to participate in online debate groups before, during, and after the broadcast.
ABC News President David Westin applauded the new partnership and touted the significance of the New Hampshire debates. "Coming on the heels of the Iowa Caucuses," Westin said, "these back-to-back primetime events will let voters in New Hampshire and throughout the country see the candidates challenge each other at a moment in the campaign when the stakes couldn't be higher."
The debate groups will be located on the new joint Facebook page created by ABC News and Facebook. The page features a "US Politics" app that Facebook users can install on their own profile pages, as well as ongoing surveys and debates about various controversial issues, links to politician Facebook pages, video clips, and links to pages by ABC News reporters.
Among other things, the US Politics page offers a running summary of voter preference in a section of the page titled "Facebook Election Pulse." Among those who expressed a preference for a Democratic candidate, Barack Obama has a huge lead, nearly 60 percent, with Hillary Clinton second at just under 20 percent. That's the reverse of other polls, where ABC News polls show Clinton with a 49 percent to 26 percent...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
Server Shipments Rise at Healthy Clip
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56922
Worldwide server shipments in the third quarter totaled 2.2 million units, an 8.7 percent increase in comparison with the year-earlier period, Gartner analysts said. Moreover, server revenue rose by 2.6 percent to $13.4 billion in the quarter, driven by demand for x86-based systems.
The difference between the third quarter's revenue and volume growth numbers is primarily due to a shift in mainframe activity, noted Gartner principal analyst Lillian Avarado. "Unix and x86 servers had higher revenues than you see overall because the total statistic is influenced by mainframe sales," which soared in last year's third and fourth quarters.
"We are seeing strong server demand, though U.S. growth is lower than in other regions, which are being helped by the weak dollar," Alvarado explained. "And we have the emerging markets, which are still growing strong."
IBM continued to lead the field with respect to worldwide server revenue. According to Gartner's latest figures, Big Blue's System z mainframe led servers priced at $250,000 or more with a 31 percent worldwide revenue share in the latest quarter. "IBM introduced its System z servers in the second half of last year, so it had a huge revenue increase in those two quarters," Alvarado explained. But since then, mainframe sales have returned "to more normal patterns."
Hewlett-Packard, which retained its No. 1 position with respect to worldwide server shipments, racked up the most dramatic quarterly gains. Server unit shipments grew by 20.2 percent year-over-year, giving the company a 26.5 percent market share. In particular, Gartner said HP was able to cut into IBM's lead in server revenue by making important gains in the market segment centered on pricey, upscale servers.
The investments HP has been making in its account coverage and go-to-market activities finally appear to be paying off. "When you look at...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
McAfee: Vista Likely a Hacker Target in 2008
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56913
Windows Vista is being relegated to the doghouse again this week for being slower than XP, and security experts are warning that Vista might face more serious malware in the upcoming year.
New tests show that Windows XP, coupled with the forthcoming Service Pack 3, performs twice as well as Vista with SP1. Devil Mountain Software discovered that a preview version of SP3 for Windows XP offered a 10 percent performance boost. The software development firm said that performance gains with SP1 for Vista were negligible.
However, slower speed is one issue, security is another. Considering the probability that more businesses will begin migrating to Vista in 2008, security analysts say that the security of Microsoft's latest operating system might be a larger problem than performance.
The release of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is likely to accelerate the adoption rate of Redmond's latest operating system and have a corresponding impact on the bottom lines of malware writers, who have largely continued to target Microsoft's earlier operating systems. According to McAfee, if professional malware authors begin to see an impact on their businesses as Vista becomes more popular, they might expand their efforts to find holes in the new operating system.
Of course, the antivirus firm added, that doesn't mean older threats to Windows XP will disappear. It was several years after the Java vulnerability named in Microsoft Security Bulletin M503-011 was patched before exploits targeting that vulnerability fell off the list of McAfee Avert Labs top 10 threats to consumers. The old threats will persist, McAfee warned, but a new crop is on its way.
The National Vulnerability Database reported 10 Vista vulnerabilities in the first nine months after the OS was released. This compares with 16 XP vulnerabilities during the same length of time. The number...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
OLPC's XO Faces Many Challenges
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56911
"Give One. Get One." That's the slogan for the two-for-one program by One Laptop Per Child, an organization set up to promote and distribute the innovative, low-cost, Linux-based XO laptop computer developed by former MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte and other members of the school's Media Lab.
In early November, OLPC announced a two-week program to allow members of the general public to purchase two XO laptops for $399; one laptop is shipped to the purchaser, and the second is donated to a child in a developing nation. In addition to getting an XO laptop, the purchaser also receives a $200 tax credit for the donation of the second laptop and, thanks to T-Mobile, a year of free Wi-Fi access.
Due to interest in the program, OLPC announced that it is extending the offer through December 31, 2007. After that date, consumers will be able to obtain a laptop for themselves or their children only by donating 100 or more XO laptops.
Despite the laudable effort, the OLPC initiative has run into some challenging economic and political roadblocks that might hobble Negroponte's bold vision of millions of meshed computers in developing nations.
From the start, the OLPC program has faced daunting challenges in persuading government officials to invest in the laptops. Many of those challenges have stemmed from a classic Catch-22 manufacturing problem: Negroponte originally billed the XO as a $100 laptop, but the low number of orders so far has prevented the program from realizing economies of scale. Mass production of the device (spurred in part by the "Give One, Get One" offer) began just three weeks ago.
The XO's cost is still remarkably low -- just $188 -- but still high enough to cool the interest of possible large-volume purchasers such as Nigeria and Libya, both of which were considering purchasing a...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
Google Reportedly Planning Online Storage Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56910
Google, whose stated mission is to organize the world's information, is reportedly developing an integrated service that would allow users to store and organize their own information on Google's servers.
According to a report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, users of the service could store any and all of the files currently on their computer's hard drive, from business letters to family photos, and then access or share them from any computer or mobile device.
Google has declined to comment on the report.
The as-yet-unnamed service would allow some free storage, with additional storage levels available at different, as-yet-unannounced fee levels. The Journal said that, internally, the service was known at one point as "My Stuff."
Such an online storage service would join a growing array of vendors, such as IBackup, Xdrive, and eSnips. Many larger companies, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, also offer Web-based storage. Google itself is a veteran of the online storage industry. Its Web-based tools, such as Picasa, Gmail, and Docs, already provide free storage and additional levels of paid storage.
The Journal said that while Google's current online storage can be shared between Gmail and Picasa accounts, and soon with Docs, the new service would be more integrated, behaving as just another hard drive, with a single sign-on and a single search.
If the search giant did add such an integrated, virtual hard drive to its suite of services, it would increase its growing momentum as a business alternative to Microsoft, with online office apps, collaboration, and now a virtual storage server.
For many users, a key concern about online storage is security. Ray Wagner, a Gartner analyst, said that a Google online storage service "could be as secure as your hard drive" -- unless you are a power user or...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
Business Software Alliance Cracks Down on Small Biz
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56909
The Business Software Alliance announced another crackdown on software piracy last week. The BSA said that as part of an effort to deter California businesses from using unlicensed software, two California-based companies will pay the software piracy watchdog more than $175,000 to settle claims that they had unlicensed software on their computers.
The companies agreed to delete all unlicensed copies of software, acquire any necessary replacement licenses, and commit to implementing stronger software license management practices.
"Since 2004, California settlement dollars have increased by a total of 32 percent," Jenny Blank, senior director of legal affairs for the BSA, said in a statement. "We are concerned about these increases and hope to continue to raise awareness about the many risks associated with software piracy in order to deter businesses from using unlicensed software."
The companies in question are two small businesses: Chef Works of San Diego and Roger's Gardens of Coronoa Del Mar. Chef Works paid $102,000 to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Microsoft, and Symantec software. Roger's Gardens paid $73,368 to settle claims that it had unlicensed copies of Adobe, Microsoft, and Symantec software.
Small businesses feeling the wrath of the BSA is common, according to an analysis by Associated Press writer Brian Bergstein. His research shows 90 percent of settlement revenue comes from small businesses. The AP reported that the BSA collected $13 million in settlement proceeds for companies such as Microsoft and Adobe Systems last year alone.
The BSA could not immediately be reached for comment, but Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of intellectual property policy and enforcement at the Software Piracy Association (SPA), shed some light on the matter.
"The BSA's numbers are very different from ours. I can't say for sure why the BSA goes after small companies. Presumably, it's a product of...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
Web Retailers Report Cyber Monday Success
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56898
Online shoppers snapped up bargains, and Web retailers found reason to cheer Monday as traffic to many of the largest shopping Web sites soared 37 percent over last year's so-called Cyber Monday, says Akamai Technologies, which helps online retailers handle large crowds.
The National Retail Federation says cybermonday.com, a Web site it set up for store promotions, had three times as much traffic the Monday after Thanksgiving as it did last year.
Driving the online push: More than 70% of retailers surveyed by BizRate Research planned to offer Cyber Monday promotions this year, up from 43% last year. There were discounts on products from toys to digital cameras to flat-panel televisions and computers.
So many people rushed to the Web sites for Costco, Toys "R" Us and CompUSA that slowdowns hampered the sites starting Monday morning, says Matt Poepsel, vice president of performance strategies for research firm Gomez. Yahoo's payment processing for retailers also experienced periodic outages. But unlike last year, when overwhelming traffic shut down sites for Wal-Mart and Amazon, no major outages were reported.
Even with the boost this year, Cyber Monday -- started by the retail federation in 2005 as the ceremonial kickoff to the online shopping season -- was not likely the biggest shopping day. Internet market research firm ComScore reports that last year Dec. 13 took that honor. Dec. 12 was the busiest in 2005.
Cyber Monday is really just "symbolic," says Internet Retailer magazine editor Kurt Peters. The notion that people wait until they get to work Monday to shop online "is somewhat outdated, especially given that at least two-thirds of American homes now have broadband Internet access."
Debbie Virgin Shook of Chicago had never even heard the term "Cyber Monday" until Monday, while listening to a radio promotion. Still, Shook bought several things online, though not at any of...
Tue, 27 Nov 07
Best and Worst Consumer Electronics
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56847
Every year there are winners and losers in the consumer electronics business. But rarely are they so acutely divided as they appear to be in 2007. Those products deemed winners not only won -- they won big. Those that lost tended to lose big, too.
Some winners will come as no surprise. Apple continued to dominate the mobile media player business, its iPod brand still a synonym for the entire category. The clear loser in this market was pretty much any company that dared challenge Apple on turf it has owned in an undisputed manner since 2003.
Microsoft's Zune player, despite a heavily hyped release and a respectable spurt of purchases when it first hit the market in late 2006, had generated sales volume of just 1.2 million units from launch through mid-2007, according to market research firm NPD Group. Apple sold more than 17 times that many iPods during last year's holiday quarter alone.
Still, as this year's holiday season was getting under way, the newly redesigned Zune player was in surprisingly short supply at online retailers including Amazon. Of course, while higher-than-expected demand may be the culprit, such shortages could easily be the result of either poor planning or deliberate strategy. There's nothing like an artificial shortage to build a buzz and create the illusion of strong demand.
But despite Apple's ongoing dominance in handheld music players, there was another winner in the consumer electronics business: SanDisk. The maker of memory chips and storage devices managed to retain its distant No. 2 slot behind Apple in the U.S. market, capitalizing on the cost advantage of being its own flash memory supplier. NPD estimates that SanDisk sells about 10% of the MP3 players sold in the U.S.
But Apple didn't dominate in every market segment it entered. Selling downloadable...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
ABC News Reaches Out to Facebook Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56896
With 56 million users and a rapidly growing pool of new applications (including some controversial new ad services), the social-networking site Facebook is proving to be a compelling target for content producers on and offline. Now one news agency is betting that it can lure Facebook users away from the site's movie quizzes, photo-sharing, and various types of virtual slap-and-tickle games.
The New York Times reported on Monday that ABC News is entering into a partnership with Facebook to provide the site's subscribers with breaking news about the 2008 presidential campaign. According to the Times, the new partnership will enable Facebook users to follow ABC News reporters on the campaign trail and view video of their political coverage. The partnership will tap in to the social-networking capabilities of Facebook by running polls and surveys, and conducting debates.
Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, expressed concern over what type of information-sharing might take place between the two companies.
"Will Facebook provide Disney/ABC with the kind of personal information it is turning over to its advertisers (using the Beacon system, for example)?" Chester asked. "ABC and Facebook say no money is changing hands; yet if part of the deal involves user data and possible targeting (before or after the debate), the public needs to know."
The most visible evidence of the new partnership is on Facebook itself, where ABC News and Facebook have collaborated on their own profile page entitled "US Politics." At the top of the profile page is a button for a "US Politics" application that adds a new section to the individual profile page of Facebook users.
The new section allows Facebook users to "browse politicians" that they support, as long as the politicians have set up a Facebook page. The entry for Hillary Clinton, for instance,...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
Attention Shoppers: Here's Cyber Monday
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56892
Black Friday shoppers, meet Cyber Monday. The first Monday after Thanksgiving has now become a day when many online retailers offer sales comparable to their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
According to Shop.org, a trade group for online retailers, about 72 percent of its 120 members are offering special sales or promotions on Monday. Two years ago, that number was 42 percent.
"Online retailers consider Cyber Monday a virtual Black Friday," said Shop.org Executive Director Scott Silverman in a statement. His organization said it invented the term Cyber Monday in 2005 after some online retailers noticed a jump in online shopping in the Monday after Thanksgiving.
Shop.org said Internet retailers have stepped up their sales this year with "an assortment of one-day specials to send shoppers online."
This year's specials will include specific deals, one-day sales, or free shipping. Home Shopping Network online, for example, is offering free shipping as part of its "Cyber Monday Savings."
HomeDepot.com is having a "1-Day Online Savings Event" with several markdowns, while eToys.com is promoting a "special CyberMonday.com savings" of $5 off an order of $35 or more. Other retailers participating in Cyber Monday include Circuit City, JC Penney, Lands' End, and Sears.
To promote Monday's consumer delights, Shop.org features a guide to some of the online sales through its cybermonday.org site. Launched last year, the site now features more than 550 retailers.
According to Shop.org, those sales are targeting the 72 million consumers who will shop online on Monday from home or work, an increase from the 60.7 million in 2006 and the 59 million in 2005. Those figures come from a survey conducted for Shop.org by BIGresearch, which polled nearly 8,000 consumers over the last few weeks.
Some employers might eventually consider Cyber Monday to be a Black Monday in terms...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
No Escaping Apple's New Store Design
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56891
Apple is gearing up for a boffo year at the cash registers this holiday season. The recent price cuts in the groundbreaking iPhone, the fall release of the innovative iPod touch, a stellar launch for the new Leopard OS, along with renovations of Apple Stores and just-in-time launches of the iPhone in several European countries, Apple is looking forward to a stellar shopping season, despite a dragging economy.
"I believe Apple will have a record-breaking holiday season and we predict they will sell at least 30 million iPods during this quarter," Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said in an e-mail. "We also expect them to have strong sales of iMacs and laptops as more and more consumers discover the ease of use of the Macs, especially for managing digital lifestyles."
Apple is ready for the holidays with renovations of its 201 stores. The latest changes include the removal of cash registers and the addition of concierges who greet customers as they walk in the door. Employees are equipped with scanners that take credit cards and e-mail receipts to customers.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reported on Monday that Apple stores exert a "gravitational pull" on shoppers, with 27 percent of people coming within a 25-foot range entering the store. Most people leave without purchasing, but the high interest suggests a serious long-term benefit to Apple, Munster said.
"The important point is this gravitational pull highlights that consumers' future buying intentions could be shifting to Apple from PCs," he explained. "If materialized, this shift should benefit Apple in 2008 and 2009."
Last week, Munster predicted that Apple would sell 24 to 25 million iPods this quarter, up from 21 million iPods a year ago. The analyst had predicted sales of 23.5 million, but based on October sales data from...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
Can Kindle Be iPod of E-Book World?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56887
For all the pundit opinions about the Kindle, Amazon.com's just-introduced e-book reader, MarketIntelNow is offering up the voices of consumers in a new report that drills down into reasons why these devices might or might not take off.
During the first week of November, MarketIntelNow polled 5,000 online consumers about the buzz-making gizmo. The overarching conclusion: E-books will take off when the right device is introduced. Could that device be the Kindle?
Peeking into the survey results, 38 percent of respondents chose "lack of a cool design" as their main objection to buying a handheld e-book device. Only 21 percent cited cost as the barrier. Twenty-one percent also noted reading on a screen was an objection.
Amazon's Kindle might fare well against its competitors on the design side of the equation. Analysts have given the Kindle good reviews against the Sony Reader and the iRex iLiad, which no doubt is coming as good news to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who has said the company has been working on Kindle for more than three years with the top design objective being that Kindle would disappear in the consumer's hands so people can simply enjoy reading.
The Kindle's features include paperback-size dimensions, being able to change font size into an instant large-type edition, and the ability to hold several shelves' worth of books, plus hundreds more on a memory card and a limitless amount in virtual library stacks maintained by Amazon.
Could the Kindle be the iPod of the e-book reader world? According to Boyd Peterson, a consumer media analyst at Yankee Group, there are several questions to ask with any new technology: Does the technology offer a better way to do what you were going to do anyway? Does it introduce a degree of difficulty that keeps you from wanting...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
Diller's Online Conglomerate Expanding
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56881
Media mogul Barry Diller said Friday his Internet conglomerate, IAC/InterActiveCorp, will invest $100 million to expand in China by creating services designed for local users.
IAC also will launch its Ask.com search engine in China within two years, Diller told reporters in a meeting over breakfast.
IAC is looking for opportunities to develop or buy businesses geared to Chinese users, Diller said. He said it wants to avoid the fate of Internet outfits that have struggled in China with offerings developed for the United States and other foreign markets.
New York-based IAC's 30 Web brands include dating site Match.com, directory service Citysearch and portal Excite.
"I think what we're going to try and do is completely different than any of the other processes," Diller said. "I know that we have learned a methodology of starting Internet businesses and relating Internet ideas one to the other and having a different kind of discipline."
With 162 million people online, China has the world's No. 2 population of Internet users after the United States. But foreign companies have struggled to win market share. Yahoo! Inc. and eBay Inc. both have turned to local partners to run their China operations.
IAC is ready to invest $100 million in its new China ventures, according to Diller, its chief executive officer.
"We've certainly got enough capital to do damage," he said.
Successful business ideas developed in China might be exported for use in the U.S. market, Diller said.
IAC bought a Chinese online travel service, ELong Inc., in 2005. But Diller said it mishandled the business early on and is trying to recover after falling behind Chinese rival Ctrip.com International Ltd.
"I think we, in our imperialistic way, made some early dumb decisions and hopefully we're making smarter ones now," he said.
IAC announced this month it will spin off its HSN home shopping network, Ticketmaster ticketing...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
BSA Targets Small Business for Software Piracy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56876
Michael Gaertner worried he could lose his company. A group called the Business Software Alliance had written him to claim that his 10-person architectural firm in Galveston, Texas, was using unlicensed software.
The letter demanded $67,000 -- most of one year's profit -- or else the BSA would seek more in court.
"It just scared the hell out of me," Gaertner said.
An analysis by The Associated Press reveals that targeting small businesses is a lucrative strategy for the Business Software Alliance, the main global copyright-enforcement watchdog for such companies as Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Symantec Corp.
Of the $13 million that the BSA reaped in software violation settlements with North American companies last year, almost 90 percent came from small businesses, the AP found.
The BSA is well within its rights to wring expensive punishments aimed at stopping the willful, blatant software copying that undoubtedly happens in many businesses. And its leaders say they concentrate on small businesses because that's where illegitimate use of software is rampant.
But technology managers and software consultants say the picture has more shades of gray than the BSA acknowledges. Companies of all sizes say they inadvertently run afoul of licensing rules because of problems the software industry itself has created. Unable or unwilling to create technological blocks against copying, the industry has saddled its customers with complex licensing agreements that are hard to master.
In that view, the BSA amasses most of its bounties from small businesses because they have fewer technological, organizational and legal resources to avoid a run-in.
In Gaertner's case, some employees had been unable to open files with the firm's drafting software, so they worked around it by installing programs they found on their own, breaking company rules, he said. And receipts for legitimate software had been lost in the hubbub of running his company.
"It...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
SIP Services: $150 Billion by 2012
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56875
IP networks deployed by fixed and mobile operators will lead to an explosion of mainstream VoIP and SIP services worth $150 billion by 2012, experts predict.
ABI Research forecasts a huge increase in SIP services driven by the increasing popularity of 'smart' devices such as PDAs and smartphones.
"New affordable price points and ease of use will allow consumers to benefit from SIP services such as instant messaging, video sharing and conferencing, which will join VoIP as it takes over from circuit-switched voice," said ABI Research principal analyst Ian Cox.
"We have seen the start of a revolution, as mobile handsets become the product of choice not just for voice and simple text messaging, but for any task that users can perform on a PC. And as networks are replaced by 'flat architecture' all-IP with SIP application servers in the core, all forms of communications become possible."
Cox added that SIP services will develop into "the norm" after 2010 and rapidly begin to dominate the world's telecoms markets.
Almost half of all telecoms users will be using at least one SIP service by 2012, but will have many services from multiple devices able to communicate with other users and services across the Web and between enterprise and public networks.
This market will generate over $150 billion in service revenue annually with cumulative infrastructure capital expenditure of over $10 billion by that date.
"Using SIP, telephony becomes another Web application which can be integrated into other Internet services," said Cox. "It enables service providers to build converged voice and multimedia services."
ABI Research expects that almost 1.2 billion VoIP users will be active by 2012, with most users also subscribing to several forms of messaging and video sharing driven by interest in user-generated content.
Additional services supported by SIP will include presence, click-to-dial, buddy lists, e-mail and Web access, which...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
New Zero-Day QuickTime Vulnerability Emerges
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56895
Apple's QuickTime is vulnerable to malware disguised as streaming video, and attack code has been published on the milw0rm.com Web site, security researchers have warned. So far, while the vulnerability affects Windows XP and Windows Vista, the jury is still out on whether Apple's own OS X is affected.
Apple programmers apparently made two mistakes. First, according to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, QuickTime versions 7.2 and 7.3, and perhaps earlier versions, contain a buffer-overflow bug. "Apple QuickTime contains a stack buffer overflow vulnerability in the way QuickTime handles the RTSP Content-Type header," US-CERT said. "This vulnerability may be exploited by convincing a user to connect to a specially crafted RTSP stream."
RTSP is the Real-Time Streaming Protocol, which QuickTime supports. When users click on a link for a malicious RTSP stream, an attacker might be able to execute arbitrary code on the compromised system, US-CERT said.
Apple's popular iTunes software uses QuickTime, so the risk could be quite widespread. While attack code has been published, no actual in-the-wild attacks have been reported.
There are no direct solutions to such attacks prior to Apple issuing a patch, but US-CERT recommended several practical steps to reduce the risk of attack, including blocking RTSP, disabling the QuickTime ActiveX component for Internet Explorer and QuickTime plug-in for Mozilla, and disabling JavaScript. Finally, US-CERT recommended that users simply not access streaming QuickTime from untrusted sources.
Symantec offered some additional recommendations for network administrators. Enterprises should deploy intrusion-detection systems to monitor network traffic for malicious activity or signs of anomalous activity, the security firm said. Administrators should be on the lookout especially for unexplained incoming and outgoing traffic.
In addition, Symantec said, administrators should run all software as nonprivileged users with minimal access rights and implement multiple redundant layers of security. Symantec also said that...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
Hotmail Cofounder Challenges Microsoft Office
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56894
The latest challenger to the market dominance of Microsoft Office was unveiled in India last week, and the irony is that Microsoft played a major role in funding the rival effort.
The seed money for the new Live Documents platform launched by Bangalore-based Instacoll came from Hotmail's cofounder, who received a substantial slice of the $400 million that Microsoft paid in 1997 to acquire the online e-mail site. "I believe that Live Documents does for documents what Hotmail did for e-mail," said Instacoll chairman and Hotmail pioneer Sabeer Bhatia.
Although Microsoft owns most of the market for productivity applications today, the office productivity market in the Web 2.0 world is still very open, said Gartner Client Computing vice president Michael Silver. "Every innovation is a threat to Microsoft," he noted.
Live Documents employs rich Internet applications (RIAs), such as Flash and Flex, to emulate the feature sets and functionalities of traditional desktop programs. What's more, the technology is being made available as an optional desktop client application that plugs in to Office and can connect Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to the Internet for online collaboration.
Silver said he thinks a plug-in method could be very effective in addressing the components lacking in Microsoft Office. "Where Microsoft Office is strong (content creation and formatting) Google Docs is generally weak," Silver noted. "For organizations that own recent copies of Microsoft Office or have Enterprise Agreements or Software Assurance, having an add-on to Microsoft Office makes sense," he said.
The new platform challenges Microsoft's plans for Live Office Workspace, which enables Office documents to be stored and shared online but requires any editing to take place on the desktop.
With Live Documents, any document changes made on the desktop or over an Internet connection are automatically synchronized to ensure that the online...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
Feds Routinely Seek Cell Phone Tracking Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56893
Most people are oblivious to the fact that they carry a real-time tracking device with them throughout the day: their cell phone. Now the Washington Post is reporting that federal agents are routinely requesting court orders to compel cell phone companies to release the information to them.
In many cases, Post reporter Ellen Nakashima said, the court orders the release of the information without the legal safeguards typically required for a search warrant. But now some courts are taking a closer look at the requests for tracking information.
In a brief telephone interview, Justice Department spokesperson Dean Boyd stressed that federal agents are not illicitly obtaining cell phone data. "Federal agents can only obtain data when it's authorized by a judge," Boyd said. "It's the courts that make the determination as to whether the requested data should be released."
Following the publication of the Washington Post article, Boyd issued a lengthy statement defending the actions of federal agents. "Law enforcement has absolutely no interest in tracking the locations of law-abiding citizens," Boyd said in the statement. "What we're doing is going through the courts to lawfully obtain data that will help us locate criminal suspects, sometimes in cases where lives are literally hanging in the balance, such as a child abduction case or a serial murderer on the loose."
Under the U.S. Constitution, governmental agents are typically required to show that their warrant request is based on "probable cause" that a crime is taking place, or that the requested information will help produce evidence of a crime.
But in some instances, federal prosecutors and agents have filed their requests under two federal laws, the Stored Communications Act and the Pen Register Statute, which provide a lower standard than "probable cause." Under those statutes, a subpoena for electronic information can be granted if...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
OLPC Extends 'Give One Get One' Until Year's End
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56889
It's the season for giving and getting, and a good time for the One Laptop Per Child's Give One Get One program. Because of reported sales averaging $2 million per day, OLPC announced late last week that the G1G1 program is being extended through the end of this year.
In mid-November, the nonprofit OLPC launched what was then described as a limited, two-week program for individuals in the U.S. and Canada to buy two of its XO laptops. The buyer gets one, and the other is donated to a child in a developing country, such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Mongolia, or Rwanda.
Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC's founder and chairman, said in a statement that the public response to the program has been "truly gratifying and encouraging." He added that the G1G1 program will transition in the new year to "a program of giving only."
Although OLPC has not posted numbers of laptops sold, one observer estimated that, at the current pace, the organization could sell nearly half a million units by December 31. For buyers of those units, half of the $400 is tax deductible, and donors get one year of free T-Mobile Wi-Fi access at over 8,500 locations in the U.S.
The success of G1G1 comes at a challenging time for OLPC. Begun in 2005, the OLPC project was intended to create a new, low-cost, low-power laptop for the world's poorest children, at the unheard-of price of $100. The OLPC team built an innovative laptop that uses a Linux-based operating system, mesh technology, a rugged design, and a high degree of energy efficiency.
But over the last year, the dream of getting millions of the devices into the hands of the world's poorest children has run into several problems. OLPC announced that the initial price tag would be just under...
Mon, 26 Nov 07
Windows XP Speed Boost Coming with SP3
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56872
After pronouncing Windows Vista SP1 a "performance dud" two weeks ago, Devil Mountain Software, a Florida-based software development firm, reported that an upcoming update for Windows XP will offer substantial performance gains.
Running an Office productivity test suite on a preview version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, Devil Mountain discovered a 10 percent performance boost over the current version of Windows XP, the company reported on its blog.
The news comes as a "nice bonus," the research staff said on the blog, because SP3 was expected mainly to deliver bug fixes and consolidate various patches. "In fact, XP SP3 is shaping up to be a must-have update for the majority of users who are still running Redmond's not-so-latest-and-greatest desktop OS," the company said.
These results run in stark contrast to tests conducted on Vista SP1. On November 18, Devil Mountain Software reported that performance gains under Vista SP1 were negligible and that Vista continues to be slower than XP.
"The hoped-for performance fixes that Microsoft has been hinting at never materialized," the testers reported. "Vista + SP1 is no faster" than out-of-the-box Vista, they said.
"If you've been disappointed with the performance of Windows Vista to date, get used to it. SP1 is simply not the panacea that many predicted. In the end, it's Vista's architecture -- not a lack of tuning or bug fixes -- that makes it perform so poorly on systems that were 'barn-burners' under Windows XP," the research staff said.
In comparable tests of Office tasks, Vista and Vista plus SP1 took approximately 90 seconds to complete the suite, while XP took only about 40 seconds and XP plus SP3 ran about four seconds more quickly than that.
For Office testing, the researchers ran Windows through a scripted set of productivity tasks, including creating a compound document...
Sat, 24 Nov 07
Teen's Suicide Spurs Anti-Cyberbullying Law
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56869
More than a year ago, in October 2006, a 13-year-old school girl named Megan Meier hanged herself in her home in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri. An investigation initially revealed that Meier, who had long battled depression, committed suicide after receiving some cruel messages on the MySpace.com social networking site. The messages were supposedly from a 16-year-old acquaintance named Josh Evans.
The two teens had been exchanging messages for about six weeks, but Evans's messages had grown steadily more hostile. According to reports, his last message to Meier was that she was "cruel" and a "bad person."
But then the case took a dramatic twist. It turned out that "Josh Evans" did not exist -- he was allegedly the invention of a woman named Lori Drew, the mother of another girl with whom Meier had been fighting. Law enforcement authorities contend that Drew created the online profile to communicate with and harass Meier online.
After discovering that "Josh Evans" was a fake profile, state and federal prosecutors searched for a law under which to charge Drew, but were unable to find one that fit the circumstances of the case.
Outraged by the absence of a law to punish the harassment of Meier, some Dardenne Prairie residents have meted out their own justice. According to reports from the Los Angeles Times, a wide range of personal information about the Drew family -- including photos, their home and e-mail addresses, and their home phone number -- has been posted on the Internet.
Some residents have even held protests on the sidewalk in front of the Drew home. In response, the Drews have installed surveillance equipment on their property.
Just last week, however, the community's Board of Alderman passed a new law that makes cyberbullying a crime. It is now a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine...
Fri, 23 Nov 07
T-Mobile Unlocks iPhone in Germany -- At A Price
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56868
Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile has bowed to the demands of a German court. On Monday, the court had ordered the company to change its marketing campaign for Apple's iPhone and issued a restraining order prohibiting the company from selling the Mac-maker's handset.
T-Mobile said on Wednesday that it would change the terms of the exclusive contract it forged with Apple and allow the iPhone to operate on rival networks. T-Mobile will sell the device for 999 euros (about US$1,477) without mandating a two-year exclusive contract, however the original deal for 399 euro ($590) with a contract attached is also still available. By way of comparison, the Nokia N95 sells for 199.95 euros ($295.63) with a contract, or 619.95 euros ($916.60) without one.
Vodafone's German unit was behind the action to stop T-Mobile from banking on its exclusive deal with Apple. The company petitioned the court to block sales of the iPhone in Germany until its complaints about an exclusive agreement between Apple and T-Mobile are addressed.
German customers who purchased the iPhone after the court's ruling can have their phones unlocked to work with any other operator, however, many of the functions will only be available to T-Mobile customers with the complete tariff package, according to published statements from the company.
Apple's exclusivity strategy has also faced challenges in France. When the iPhone goes on sale there next week, Apple won't be allowed to require customers to sign up with -- and only with -- service provider Orange. There has been yet no challenge to Apple's exclusive arrangement with O2 in Britain. The difference: Germany and France both have antitying laws that prohibit such restrictions.
Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T has ruffled plenty of feathers in the United States. Although other mobile carriers have not challenged the deal, consumers have attacked...
Fri, 23 Nov 07
Kindle Sells Out Despite Skepticism
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56867
The question over demand for a new e-book reader has been answered. Amazon.com's Kindle reader, just announced November 19, has sold out in the face of critics, skeptics and other nay sayers.
Amazon.com's Web site indicates "due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out. Because we ship Kindles on a first-come, first-served basis, order now to reserve your place in line." The Web page indicates the Kindle will be back in stock on December 5, at a retail price of $399 with free two-day shipping.
It's a promising start for what Amazon hopes will spark a Book 2.0 revolution. But what will it take to bring the Kindle from the early adopter phase to the mainstream mass market. In other words, what factors will lead to a true Book 2.0 revolution in which the Kindle is the superstar?
Kindle's features include paperback-size dimensions, being able to change font size into an instant large-type edition, and the ability to hold several shelves' worth of books, plus hundreds more on a memory card and a limitless amount in virtual library stacks maintained by Amazon. The device is not just for books: Users can subscribe to newspapers, including the New York Times, and magazines as well.
Amazon.com worked on developing the Kindle for three years before introducing its attempt to usher in the next era of book publishing to the masses. The Kindle is a perpetually connected Internet device that comes automatically configured to connect to the Kindle Store through Sprint's EVDO network. That means users do not need to be near a Wi-Fi hotspot to gain access. And there is no monthly fee for access to the wireless service.
THe Kindle Store offers the same shopping experience that Amazon.com customers are accustomed to, including customer reviews, personalized recommendations, and 1-Click purchasing. Additionally, Kindle...
Fri, 23 Nov 07
Semantra: Showcase for Corporate Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56845
Having corporate data is one thing; getting the most use out of that data is quite another story. That's the reason why Semantra's Semantic Enterprise Platform (SEP) digs into that data, finds what you need, and presents it to you in a variety of readable formats, from text charts to graphs to pie charts.
"We're not trying to change the world all by ourselves," said Chris Davis, CEO of Semantra, but the company is making sure that users can reap the full value of the data they already have. Semantra offers a unique solution that blends linguistics, concepts, and relational theory.
According to Davis, Semantra's SEP takes natural language requests (common language questions) and converts them into accurate queries against one or more enterprise data sources, and then returns accurate results in real time. Ultimately, the user can tap into data quickly and get key information for better decision making.
Critical information can be accessed from complex corporate databases through inquiries in the user's business language via a simple search box. Because the SEP does the "heavy lifting" in semantic technology, managers can generate their own questions and compile summaries in minutes; data workers can release reports in record time.
Dynamic SQL queries are generated from common language, and then Semantra's SEP powers the natural language. "It may not be sexy, but it will get you the right answers," said Davis. The semantic virtualization of enterprise data sources can integrate corporate information without physical data warehouses.
The state of Wyoming uses Semantra's SEP to access information across state databases, generating reports that can drill down into granular data, search for what's needed, and deliver reports that reflect the same depth and breadth. If the query is vague, the user will be asked to refine it after a "Did you mean" box...
Thu, 22 Nov 07
The Promise of Mobile Phone Payments
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56839
Instead of reaching for your wallet in the next few years, you'll be able to pull out your cellphone and wave it over a scanner to make a payment.
Convenient? You bet. Secure? Companies working on this new system say it is rock solid. Encrypted payment information travels through the air from the phone to the scanner. The system is based on "contactless" technology already in some smart cards -- credit cards and key fobs embedded with chips so they can be used instead of swiping a magnetic credit card. Chips are finding their way into driver's licenses, passports and other forms of identification, and contactless cards are used in many transit systems.
"It's relatively easy to make cellphones very secure devices," said Allen Weinberg, managing partner at Glenbrook Partners, a Menlo Park, Calif., financial services and electronic payments consulting firm. He said the encryption is "as good as or better than what you do with an ATM or at-home banking. No one is going to pick up your phone and start moving money around the world. It's just not going to happen."
MasterCard introduced contactless cards in 2002 under its PayPass program, which allows for transactions of $25 or less without a signature, said Simon Pugh, head of MasterCard's mobile group. With more than 19 million PayPass cards in use, MasterCard has simply taken the PayPass card proposition, in Pugh's words, and moved it to the phone.
PayPass is now available in cellphones in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, as well as in trials in the USA in Dallas, New York, Chicago, Wilmington, Del., and other cities. "We built security and encryption into the protocol," Pugh said. A cellphone transaction is "equally secure," he said.
The convenience of whipping out your phone as a payment mechanism is driving the transition. You wouldn't need...
Wed, 21 Nov 07
MoveOn Slams Facebook's Opt-Out Ad System
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=56860
Matthew Helfgott, a 20-year-old college student from Long Island, knows what his girlfriend is getting him for Hanukkah. Her purchase of a pair of men's gloves popped up on her Facebook page, via the social-networking giant's controversial new advertising feature.
The Beacon advertising feature displays a feed of items bought on Facebook partner sites. Whenever a Facebook users buys a product, signs up for a service, or adds an item to a wishlist on a participating site, Facebook displays a "story" about the action on the user's profile and in his or her newsfeed, another controversial Facebook feature that displays photos, posts, and other bits of information on friends' profiles.
When performing a Beacon action, users get a message allowing them to opt out of each story but not the service as a whole. Retailers can participate in the program simply by posting a few lines of code on a site.
The viral marketing scheme has upset enough users that the liberal advocacy group MoveOn has launched a campaign for changes in the program. And naturally it's using the power of Facebook to get the word out.
MoveOn has started a Facebook group for its petition to make Beacon into an opt-in system instead of an opt-out feature. "Facebook must res