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Tue, 31 Aug 10
Veeam VM Backup Boasts Speedy Path to Resurrection
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70719.html
Veeam Software on Monday demonstrated its new vPower technology for backing up and restoring virtual machines when disaster strikes. The technology's capabilities include restoring an entire virtual machine within minutes; recovering individual items from any virtualized operating system; and verifying the recoverability of every backup of every VM. The vPower technology is the backbone of Veeam Backup & Replication version 5, which will be available in October. Veeam demonstrated the technology at VMWorld 2010, being held in San Francisco through Thursday.

Tue, 31 Aug 10
Hybrid Apps: The Art of Being in Two Places at Once
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70716.html
Like any other winner-take-all industry, the digital music world is not immune to trendy tech solutions that come and go. Hybrid apps, however, are one trend that's here to stay. Software developers in almost every industry have been meeting their customers' needs for years with early versions of hybrid app technology and in the next few years, hybrids will reign on tablets and mobile phones. I've spent a significant amount of time investigating what exactly a hybrid app is, and the best technologies to build one.

Tue, 31 Aug 10
Next: The Smartphone and Tablet Wars
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70708.html
This week, Apple is expected to announce a refresh of several iPod products (including the touch) and possibly the Apple TV. The real drama remains with its higher-profile offerings -- the iPhone and iPad -- and last week, Qualcomm gave a credible look at their compelling future. However, with phones running on Google's Android platform passing the iPhone in shipments, there is some doubt whether Apple can hold onto this lead, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 product is starting to pull some positive comments. What is fascinating is that this battle is increasingly defined by false information.

Tue, 31 Aug 10
The Kernel Bug, the Missing Patch and the 6-Years-Later Fix
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70714.html
So widely acknowledged are the security advantages of Linux that on those rare occasions when a bug is found, it tends to makes quite a splash. Such, in fact, is just what happened recently when news broke of the Linux kernel bug that -- it turns out -- had been around since 2004. A fix was actually supplied back then by SUSE maintainer Andrea Arcangeli, apparently; for some unknown reason, however, it never got incorporated into the Linux kernel. That, fortunately, has now been corrected. Nevertheless, even the most ardent Linux supporter can only wonder what happened to delay the fix this long.

Tue, 31 Aug 10
Civil War App: Mostly a Great Teacher With a Few Sub-Par Subs
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70710.html
Move over, Ken Burns. The Civil War has come to the iPad. The $4.99 app, Civil War: America's Epic Struggle, created by MultiEducator is a cornucopia of information about the war between the states. What's more, it deftly uses the iPad's unique features to bring history to life in an engaging and exciting way. The app is organized into categories. They include general subjects, such as causes of the war, medical care and economics. They also include categories that slice and dice the material in the app into special information sets.

Sun, 29 Aug 10
HP, Dell and 3Par: The Art of the Hustle
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70712.html
Last week, Dell cranked its wallet wide open and announced its intention to buy up a company called "3Par" for $1.15 billion. Putting 3Par under the Dell umbrella would buff up the high-end storage and large-scale backup side of its business and give companies like IBM and HP a new competitor to worry about. The purchase looked similar to a deal it cut in 2008, when it forked over $1.4 billion for EqualLogic, as well as its Ocarina Networks buy just last month, though the terms of that one were left undisclosed.

Sat, 28 Aug 10
Dark Matter Detector Poised for Magical Mystery Tour
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70707.html
A cosmic ray detector designed to search for antimatter made its way to the Kennedy Space Center Friday in preparation for a February launch that will take it to the International Space Station on the final space shuttle flight. The detector, called the "Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer," was flown in from the CERN Labs in Switzerland. CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. "All but two of the scientists who collaborated on AMS are located at CERN," NASA project manager Trent Martin, who oversees the AMS project, told TechNewsWorld.

Sat, 28 Aug 10
IBM's X-Force: No Telling How Many Unpatched Web Threats Are Out There
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70709.html
During the first half of 2010, more than 4,300 new disclosures of software security issues came to light. That's according to the mid-year report issued by IBM's special X-Force security research team. What's perhaps a bit more disturbing is how many of those vulnerabilities remain unfixed. More than half of the vulnerabilities identified during the report period, 55 percent, had no vendor-supplied patch at the end of the first half of the year, IBM researchers found.

Sat, 28 Aug 10
Life in Technology's Invisible Panopticon
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70704.html
Technology is a wonderful thing. It has given us many good things, including the pacemaker, the radio, TV, prosthetic limbs and eyes that help the lame and the blind, instant communications by way of the Internet and mobile phones. Proponents of technology point to all this as evidence that technology gives us freedom. But technology has also made it easier to limit our freedom in ways few realize. For example, Apple was recently awarded a patent for technology that could identify users of iPod touches, iPads or iPhones by their heartbeats, voiceprints and mug shots.

Fri, 27 Aug 10
Garmin Directs Users to Send GPS Units Home
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70701.html
Garmin on Wednesday recalled 1.25 million Nuvi GPS navigation units worldwide due to a battery problem. Of those, 765,000 were sold in the United States. The recalled units may overheat, leading to a fire hazard, Garmin said. The models affected are some units of the Garmin 200W, 250W and 260W families, and a few in the 7 series. Although the fire hazard was identified in only 10 GPS devices from these families, Garmin is recalling all possibly affected models because "We want to make sure we get all the ones that could possibly be affected," Garmin spokesperson Jessica Myers said.

Fri, 27 Aug 10
Pentagon: Yep, We Got Hacked
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70699.html
A "significant compromise" of U.S. military networks has been acknowledged by the Pentagon two years after the breach was reported in the press. "In 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense suffered a significant compromise of its classified military computer networks," Deputy Secretary of Defense William S. Lynn III wrote in an article in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs. "It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East," he explained.

Fri, 27 Aug 10
The Rise of 4G
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70698.html
Today, there is a significant deployment of 3G/3.5G networks, supporting a whole range of bandwidth-intensive applications such as audio and video streaming. Consumers are looking to replicate their Internet experiences from wired broadband services even while they are on the move. The phenomenal success of smartphones, netbooks and tablet PCs has resulted in a sudden surge in data bandwidth usage on the wireless operator's access networks. Wireless operators are strategically exploring the next-generation, or 4G, wireless technology to help alleviate this data tsunami in the long term.

Fri, 27 Aug 10
Redmond Doth Protest Too Much, and Wherefore the Intel-McAfee Deal?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70696.html
Say what you will about Microsoft's products, but there's no denying the company's entertainment value. Where else, after all, could a Linux fan find reason to laugh, cry, scream and commit various violent acts, all neatly wrapped up in one little package? That, indeed, is a fair approximation of the emotions that ran through Linux Girl's mind when she read about Redmond's latest attempt to ingratiate itself with the FOSS community.

Fri, 27 Aug 10
Waiting for a Clearer Picture From AirDisplay's PC Beta
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70691.html
The iPhone's screen is well-proportioned for a pants pocket, but you wouldn't want to use it all day as a dedicated computer monitor. Not if it was your main screen, anyway. But having a small screen off to the side can be surprisingly useful in a lot of situations. There's a company called Mimo that specializes in these kinds of micro-monitors. Use them for chat, a color palette -- anything that doesn't need a whole lot of space yet tends to get in the way when it's on top of the main window you're looking at.

Thu, 26 Aug 10
Dell's Aero May Crash and Burn
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70687.html
Another day, another new smartphone coming to market. In this case, it is Dell's Aero, a device retailing for $99 with a two-year contract with AT&T. Features include a 5 MP camera, a 3.5-inch display, and Flash Lite support for streaming audio and video content. It also has WiFi connectivity, giving users access to AT&T's 20,000 hotspots, as well as Bluetooth and GPS. It runs on Android. There the story would usually end -- a value-priced phone with some high-end touches -- save for this: It is Android 1.5, which came out in April 2009.

Thu, 26 Aug 10
The Fast Track From Code to Cloud
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70690.html
Over the past decade, software development has undergone several transformations that have led to the new practices and methodologies such as agile development. Combining emerging technologies -- including dynamic language platforms, cloud computing, and agile development practices -- offers a paradigm shift away from traditional software development methods. Current industry trends related to agile development are likely to evolve in the next several years to accelerate the time to market for software development projects.

Thu, 26 Aug 10
2 Task Manager Apps: Choose the Features You Can Live Without
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70682.html
Today, if you're in need of a task manager application, you're looking at a category filled -- perhaps even overfilled -- with options. If you carry a smartphone, you probably have a to-do list app in your pocket already. Gone are the days when Linux users had to panic over finding a suitable clone for Microsoft Outlook like Evolution. Web-based services like Google provide calendars and to-do lists that sync with multiple computers and smartphones. That said, I prefer a desktop to-do app that is easily transported to my multiple computers.

Wed, 25 Aug 10
Toshiba Making Passes at 3D TV Without Glasses
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70685.html
Toshiba has reportedly confirmed it is working on technology for a 3-D television set that won't require viewers to use special glasses. However, details are scant, and the company declined to say when such TVs will hit the market. Toshiba isn't alone in working on technology that will let viewers watch 3D TV without glasses. "Every major manufacturer will be working on auto-stereo, or glasses-free, 3D TV," David Mercer, a vice president and principal analyst at Strategy Analytics, told TechNewsWorld.

Wed, 25 Aug 10
The Ultimate Jailbreaker, Part 1
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70679.html
Many a techie is looking at the cloud and seeing the shape of the future -- but that shape is often starkly defined by the data center, leaving little room for visions of mobile. Yet the cloud will undoubtedly shape-shift mobile devices in fascinating and often unexpected ways. "The cloud is the perfect ying to mobile devices yang," said Oxygen Cloud CEO and founder Peter Chang. "The evolution of mobile devices is tightly tied to the evolution of the cloud, creating a quintessential positive feedback loop."

Wed, 25 Aug 10
How iTV Will Kill Cable: The Long, Slow Way
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70678.html
I'm a big fan of sunshine and the outdoors, but I'm anxiously awaiting September and the indoor tech gadget screen time it now represents to me. Why? Since Apple first introduced the iPad nano in September of 2005, the company has delivered a new iPod and some raging new features to its iTunes ecosystem around that time every year. Big announcements. This September will be no different. We'll inevitably see a cool new addition to the iPod lineup, most certainly an iPod touch with a built-in camera -- finally!

Tue, 24 Aug 10
Intel Doubles Down on Netbook Processors
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70675.html
Intel on Monday announced that 12 new netbooks based on its dual-core mobile Intel Atom processors, code-named "Pine Trail," are now available. These are available from eight vendors, including Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba. Other vendors will announce their new netbooks running the N550 soon, Intel said. Netbooks built around the Atom N550 are aimed at heavy online use and at gamers. The netbooks released Monday are built around the Intel Atom N550 CPU. This is a 150 GHz processor that runs on two physical cores with two threads each.

Tue, 24 Aug 10
The New Threats, Part 1: The Bad Guys Up Their Game
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70670.html
Computer users today face a new round of attacks that pose new challenges to both consumers and businesses. These new attack vectors often sidestep traditional security defenses. Hackers, supported by international crime gangs with deep pockets, are accosting consumers and office workers with sophisticated technology. The threat landscape is changing. Hackers are more determined than ever to steal valuable data, credit card and banking account credentials and much more. Computer hackers are determined to hit the mother lode of sellable business and personal information.

Tue, 24 Aug 10
Jailbreakers Smell Trouble in New Apple Security Patent
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70673.html
Apple has apparently filed a patent for technology that might make its mobile devices more secure, though it's also raised pointed questions about how privacy would be impacted if the company opted to implement the technology in its products. The technology could identify an unauthorized user, which would include hackers, jailbreakers and users who change out the device's SIM card. It could also erase sensitive data on the device. In addition, it could transmit identifying information about the unauthorized user.

Tue, 24 Aug 10
The Problem at HP: The Glass Ceiling Was Never Broken
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70664.html
I just finished both reading The Big Lie, a fabulous book if you are into board room dynamics and disasters, and doing massive coverage on the HP Mark Hurd scandal. It is, however, a little unnerving to see some of the most powerful people in the world behave worse than six-year-olds. My own management training forces a process that focuses on the cause for problems rather than the people to blame for them. I still think this to be a better method and one of the only ways to avoid repeating stupid mistakes.

Tue, 24 Aug 10
MindMeister: A Sturdy Mind Mapper With a Route to the Cloud
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70667.html
Mind mapping is one of those kinds of applications that fits the iPad like a velvet glove. The tablet's combination of tactile response and large, high-resolution display closely emulates the analog experience of making a map with paper and pencil -- only the results are more legible. One of the most prominent mind-mapping programs available for a variety of computing platforms is MindMeister, which has recently extended its reach by creating a version for the iPad.

Sun, 22 Aug 10
Where Would You Be Without Facebook?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70662.html
Facebook already knows what you like, who your friends are, what you're thinking right now, so what the hell does it matter that it knows where you are too, right? The king of social networks has finally revealed its much-anticipated location-awareness features. Facebook Places will let users with Facebook apps on their mobile devices "check in" at various locations to let their friends know they've arrived. It sounds very similar to existing networks like FourSquare and Gowalla, except for the small detail that Places is backed by a network with more than half a billion members.

Sat, 21 Aug 10
Mastering Places Privacy Can Be Tricky, Facebook Critics Charge
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70665.html
Facebook rolled out its Places feature this week to much fanfare -- so much, in fact, that the official Facebook Blog has an update note posted that users who are unable to access the service should try back soon to see if they can check in. The app, available on the iPhone as part of Facebook for iPhone and available to all other mobile users through the touch.facebook.com website, allows people to indicate their location in the physical world to all their Facebook friends in the virtual world.

Sat, 21 Aug 10
Higher Learning, Higher Speed: Campuses Graduate to 802.11n
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70655.html
In the March 2010 Aberdeen benchmark report "Multi-Site and Campus-Area Wireless LANs: Advantages of the Centralized Approach," 163 institutions were surveyed regarding their use of multi-site and campus-area wireless local area networks. This article provides an analysis into the pressures driving the higher education sector to 802.11n WLANs and how this affects the strategies and actions that they choose in response. The demographics of the student population are accelerating this demand for full-speed wireless access throughout every corner of campus, both indoors and out.

Fri, 20 Aug 10
Facebook Places Just Became the Hottest Spot in Town
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70656.html
Foursquare began nudging social networks out of the virtual world and into the real one when it launched its "location-awareness" service roughly a year ago. On Wednesday, Facebook pushed real-world social networking smack into the mainstream by unveiling a location awareness service of its own. The new service, called "Facebook Places," allows Facebook members to check in via mobile devices when they arrive at a specific location -- a restaurant, a store or any other venue. This lets their Facebook friends know where they are, and if any of them are nearby, they can join them.

Fri, 20 Aug 10
DoD Slaps Down WikiLeaks' Offer to Review War Docs
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70654.html
An overture by WikiLeaks to the U.S. Defense Department to collaborate on sanitizing classified documents on the Afghan war before the whistleblowing website makes the material public has been spurned by the federal agency. "[T]he Department of Defense will not negotiate some 'minimized' or 'sanitized' version of a release by WikiLeaks of additional U.S. government classified documents," Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson wrote in a letter dated Aug. 16 to an attorney, Timothy J. Matusheski, claiming to represent WikiLeaks.

Fri, 20 Aug 10
Facebook and the Scammers: We Know Better
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70651.html
Once again this week, users of the enormous social networking service Facebook have fallen prey to unscrupulous people scamming them for information and money. It's beginning to be a familiar story: A seemingly innocuous link is sent from a friend, a company asks for personal information, and mysterious charges show up on a credit card -- or, in this case, a mobile phone bill. Internet security experts, and Facebook itself, would have us rely on that old adage, "there's a sucker born every day," as we shake our heads and joke about how ignorant people will fall for anything.

Fri, 20 Aug 10
Canonical Teaches Ubuntu to Phone Home Every Day
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70652.html
Well it's been an eventful few weeks here in the Linux blogosphere, what with all the various scandals that have erupted recently over Digg and Ubuntu's off-and-on romance with Dell, to name just two. Then there was Debian's birthday on Monday! Happy 17th, Debian! By far the hottest topic in recent days, however, was news that Canonical has begun tracking Ubuntu installations. It's true! The new "canonical-census" package apparently sends an "I am alive" ping to Canonical each day as a way to help the company track the users of OEM Ubuntu installations.

Fri, 20 Aug 10
ClearCam Will Give Your iPhone 11 Megapixels ... if You RTFM
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70645.html
The iPhone's camera is improving with each new model, and the color and clarity of the shots you can get out of an iPhone 4 are amazing, considering it's still a cellphone shooter. However, while its backlit-illuminated sensor can improve image quality, it does nothing to increase image size. Five megapixels puts iPhone firmly in the middleweight class. The Droid X, for example, has eight. Apparently, software can help. I'm not talking about digital zoom, which basically just crops an image while giving the false impression of a zoom lens.

Thu, 19 Aug 10
Will Google Drop a Chromlet on Black Friday?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70649.html
Google will launch a Chrome OS tablet on the Verizon network Nov. 26, know to retailers as "Black Friday," according to the Download Squad. The device is being built by HTC, a company that's made several Android devices in the past. If true, the move will fulfill Google's announcement earlier this year that it would launch Chrome OS tablets in time for the holiday season. However, it's not yet clear how Chrome OS tablets will coexist with those running the Android operating system, which is also offered by Google.

Thu, 19 Aug 10
School Spies Had No 'Criminal Intent,' Say Feds
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70647.html
Roughly six months after it launched an investigation into the allegations at the heart of the Blake Robbins v. the Lower Merion School District school spying case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced on Tuesday that no charges will be filed. There was a lack of evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt" that school officials acted with criminal intent, said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger -- something that's required in order for the government to prosecute a criminal case.

Thu, 19 Aug 10
New Chip Startup Plays the Odds on Probability Processing
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70640.html
Lyric Semiconductor, a spinout from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced on Tuesday a new approach to a technology called "probability processing." Probability processing uses probability bits, which calculate the probability of an event happening. This technology required the company to redesign processors to natively process probabilities from the ground up and to write a new programming language to express probabilities. Sampling of Lyric's general-purpose programmable probability processing platform is scheduled for 2013.

Thu, 19 Aug 10
VLC Media Player: The Cone Knows Its Formats
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70637.html
The world of open source software has ample choices for editing and manipulating audio and video media files. But when you just want put your feet up and relax, fewer really ideal options are available. One solid choice is the Gxine is a media player. The VLC Media Player is a cross-platform media player that runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, QNX and PocketPC. One of its coolest features is the built-in streaming server. VLC Media Player streams in unicast and multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. You will not find this combination in most other media apps.

Wed, 18 Aug 10
Bogus Dislike Button Plagues Hapless Facebook Users
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70639.html
How many times have we all seen comments like this on a Facebook status update: "Not like, but dislike," or "I'd press Dislike if there was a button." It's a common complaint about the social networking site's comment options; one can press the "Like" button to give a thumbs-up to a friend's post, but there is no analogous "Dislike" button. Now, enterprising scammers have taken advantage of that desire and built a Facebook app that gleans personal information and even adds a $5-per-month surcharge to unsuspecting users' mobile phone bills.

Wed, 18 Aug 10
Social Engineering: Why Employees Are Your Security
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70629.html
Imagine this situation: A coworker calls you in a panic. He's facing a fast-approaching deadline, and you are the only person who can help him succeed in getting some critical task done. This hypothetical coworker explains to you what he's working on and how it's critical to the success of the organization in some way; he's at his wits' end in trying to accomplish a portion of that task, and he's asking you in desperation to help him out. Would you help him? Of course, right? Most of us wouldn't even stop to think about it.

Wed, 18 Aug 10
Snuffing Out OpenSolaris Dims Oracle's Light in FOSS Community
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70633.html
Just a day after Oracle filed suit against Google for its use of Java in Android, the FOSS community received another blow at the hands of the tech giant in the form of news that it plans to kill the OpenSolaris project. "This is a terrible sendoff for countless hours of work -- for quality software which will now ship as an Oracle product that we (the original authors) can no longer obtain on an unrestricted basis," wrote OpenSolaris contributor Steven Stallion in a blog post. "This is truly a perversion of the open source spirit."

Wed, 18 Aug 10
Android's Racking Up Points, but Is iPhone Even Playing the Game?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70632.html
So I've been watching all the latest smartphone and mobile device and operating system numbers come in from various analysts, and they've basically been saying the same thing: The Android horde is here. The NPD Group reported that Android accounted for 33 percent of all smartphones purchased in Q2, ahead of RIM and Apple. Gartner says the Android OS has overtaken Apple to become the third most popular smartphone OS in the world. Google CEO Eric Schmidt even put a more interesting spin on the numbers when he said about 200,000 new Androids are making it into the hands of consumers each day.

Tue, 17 Aug 10
Next-Gen Battery Tech Could Help Power Plants Go With the Flow
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70626.html
Green tech company A123 on Monday launched a spinoff, 24M, which will commercialize next-generation energy storage systems based on its technology. 24M has received funding from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, as well as venture capitalists. The company will work with MIT and Rutgers University to commercialize A123's technology. Both 24M and A123 revealed little information about the "breakthrough technology" that would be commercialized, apart from saying that it combines attributes of rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, and flow batteries.

Tue, 17 Aug 10
Stuxnet: Dissecting the Worm
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70622.html
The Stuxnet worm is one of the most sophisticated bits of digital malware security researchers have come across in a long time. Now, those researchers want to know where it came from. Was Stuxnet the product of a den of hackers working on their own accord, or did a national government somewhere in the world have a hand in its creation? "Given the sophistication and organization behind it, we highly suspect it has nation-state involvement rather than being a tool for competitive intelligence," said Kaspersky Lab's Roel Schouwenberg.

Tue, 17 Aug 10
Hurd Follows Fiorina and Learns Karma Is a Bitch
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70616.html
I spent last week on Mark Hurd's firing, er involuntary resignation, and watched the backstory develop, and it isn't pretty. Hurd was likely the third-hardest guy to fire in Silicon Valley behind Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison -- and yet, at least initially, he seemed to be fired as a result of a false accusation of sexual harassment leading to a global WTF moment. Ellison, the next guy up on that invulnerability list, wrote a flaming letter to The New York Times and inadvertently seemed to remind folks that with Hurd gone, both he and Steve Jobs could be vulnerable.

Tue, 17 Aug 10
Diggs, Damn Diggs and Censorship: R.I.P. Linux?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70624.html
It's not often that wildfires spread from other parts of the blogosphere into the main Linuxy downtown, protected as it is by all the surrounding free and open lands. In the past week or so, however, that protection wasn't enough. A fire broke out on AlterNet the Thursday before last -- that's part of the blogosphere's progressive territories, just east of Huffington -- and within a day it was blazing out of control here in the land of Linux as well. The cause of the conflagration? An undercover expose of Digg that's enough to make even the cheeriest Facebook fan swear off social media altogether.

Tue, 17 Aug 10
FileMaker Go Gives iPad a Strong, Sharp Number Cruncher
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70620.html
For managing personal information on the iPad, it's hard to beat Bento, a database application targeted at consumers and single-handed businesses. Heavy-duty data crunchers, though, have a different set of needs, not the least of which is working with databases created by Bento's big brother, FileMaker Pro. To meet those needs, FileMaker, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple, has introduced FileMaker Go for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as the iPad. It allows users of those machines to work on databases created with FileMaker on those devices.

Sun, 15 Aug 10
So Google Thinks It Can Dance With the Devil?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70617.html
When reports surfaced last week that Verizon and Google were privately working out a deal that more or less flew in the face of what we thought was Google's stance on Net neutrality, the company was eager to issue denials. At least, it denied that things were playing out exactly as they'd been reported in The New York Times. It turns out that Google was in fact hammering out an agreement with Verizon, an ISP that's mostly maintained the service provider party line when it comes to Net neutrality: Let us manage our networks the way we choose.

Sat, 14 Aug 10
Speedy Chrome 6 Beta Ventures Onto Bumpy Broadband Road
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70615.html
Google released an updated version of its Chrome Web browser into beta this week. Chrome 6 sports increased speeds and a user interface with multiple changes, said James Hawkins, Google software engineer, in a post to the Google Chrome Blog. "Compared to our previous beta release, our newest beta hits a 15 percent speed improvement on the V8 benchmark, and a 15 percent improvement on the SunSpider benchmark, both of which measure JavaScript performance," wrote Hawkins.

Sat, 14 Aug 10
Technology Is Never Neutral
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70610.html
Earlier this month, Intel entered a settlement with the United States Federal Trade Commission to resolve charges that the company unfairly used its market clout to hurt competitors. You could sum up the agreement by saying Intel agreed not to use its weight to squash the competition. The chip giant has a long history of bullying its rivals and forcing itself on unwilling customers. Back in 2005, Japan's Fair Trade Commission issued a warning against it over allegations that the chipmaker tried to force Japanese companies to stop using chips from its competitors.

Sat, 14 Aug 10
Closing the Server-Storage Virtualization Gap
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70614.html
Server virtualization technologies for Linux have advanced at a rapid pace of innovation with VMware and Citrix initially leading the way. They are now being joined by significant strategic investments by Red Hat. Unfortunately, the storage side of the equation has lagged behind. Several trends, such as the explosion of unstructured data and the emergence of cloud computing, have shined a spotlight on the gap and woken many to the realization that it is holding the industry back from achieving a fully virtualized data center.

Sat, 14 Aug 10
iOS Patch Draws Fast Action From Jailbreakers
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70613.html
Apple has issued a patch for the two iOS vulnerabilities that allowed iPhone owners to jailbreak their devices via the Web through the site JailbreakMe.com. It triggered a variety of reactions. Comex, the coauthors of the JailBreakMe exploit that leveraged the iOS 4 vulnerabilities to jailbreak the iPhone, promptly posted the code for the exploit on the Web. Though the JailbreakMe site used the exploit to hack the iPhones of willing users, others could use it for malicious purposes.

Fri, 13 Aug 10
India Latest to Pump RIM for BlackBerry Access Info
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70608.html
India has joined the list of countries putting the squeeze on Research In Motion, citing security concerns as reason to give them access to the encryption technologies protecting corporate email and messaging services on the BlackBerry platform. The Indian government has reportedly given RIM until Aug. 31 to provide its security agencies access to BlackBerry services or face being cut off. RIM has reportedly capitulated to similar demands from Saudi Arabia, Russia and China and is facing demands from the United Arab Emirates to provide access to BlackBerry services.

Fri, 13 Aug 10
Report: Apple to Press Set-Top Reset Button With iTV
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70606.html
Apple's foray into the TV set-top box arena has been one of the company's few non-success stories in recent years. Now, it appears Apple is pushing the reset button on that effort, with plans to upgrade and relaunch its set-top device. A new version of the Apple TV box -- which will be rechristened "iTV" -- is expected to debut in the fall. The "iTV" moniker is a logical choice for the new product, but it's too early to tell whether the success that Apple has enjoyed with the iPhone, iPod and iPad and iTunes can be duplicated on boxes connected to television sets.

Fri, 13 Aug 10
Samsung Gives 3D TV a Push
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70600.html
Samsung on Wednesday announced a portable Blu-ray disc player with 3D capabilities for the United States market. This was one of a slew of Blu-ray announcements that included new products and an expanded selection of 3D Blu-ray content. Samsung also announced a line of 3D-capable high-definition television sets that included a very competitively priced 50-inch TV set coming in at under $1,100. Samsung claims a world's first with its BD-C8000 portable Blu-ray player.

Fri, 13 Aug 10
What Tweaks Could Make Linux Even Better?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70603.html
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the old saying goes, and it goes without saying that those of us in the Linux community see plenty of it in our favorite operating system. Maybe that's why it's been so hard to wrap our brains around the topic of a recent poll on TuxRadar entitled, "What would you change about Linux?" At first, Linux Girl's mind drew a huge blank. Then she read on. "If you had the resources, what single thing would you change? Would you merge KDE and Gnome? Would you introduce a new package manager? (eek!) Would you find all mentions of 'Linux' and replace it with GNU/Linux?"

Fri, 13 Aug 10
Looking for the Perfect Beat? Try NanoStudio
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70602.html
The creative applications found in the App Store often offer some small twist on what's really a basic functionality of the phone. This image editor makes your photos look like they were taken with an old camera. That sound recorder can function as a four-track recorder, and look, here's a camera app that can do sepia, or a negative image, or make you look fat. Not saying any of this stuff is bad. It's just that if you want to create something entirely on the iPhone, it's usually not going to be a painstaking and detail-oriented process.

Thu, 12 Aug 10
Dell's Streak May Stall at the Starting Gate
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70597.html
Dell's latest product, the Streak, will make its U.S. debut on Friday, with consumers able to place pre-orders for the device starting Thursday. When Dell unveiled the Streak in May, it immediately grabbed the attention of tech-watchers. It sports a 5-inch color, multitouch screen, runs on the popular Android platform and is powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Other features and capabilities include 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth wireless support; integrated GPS; a 5 MP camera with flash; and Micro SD memory that is expandable to 32 GB.

Thu, 12 Aug 10
Rogue Android Devs Plant SMS-Crazy Trojan in App
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70598.html
Android smartphone users in Russia have been hit by a Trojan that, once installed, starts spouting off SMS text messages to premium numbers, Kaspersky Labs revealed on Tuesday. The attack is sent through a fake codec -- a media player application -- that users are asked to download and install. Once it's been installed, the Trojan begins sending SMS messages to premium rate numbers, racking up charges on the user's account. The attack may be a proof of concept test by the malware authors because it appears to be limited to Russia.

Thu, 12 Aug 10
To Pilot or Not to Pilot Enterprise 2.0?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70596.html
To drive productivity and organizational effectiveness, a new approach to Enterprise 2.0 is required -- one that puts the business user and business problem at the epicenter to tap an organization's innate social intelligence. In order to reach that level of efficiency and effectiveness, it is necessary to encourage acceptance and adoption across the organization. This raises the question: To pilot, or not to pilot? Better yet, is a pilot the best way to prove the value of E2.0 solutions within your organization?

Thu, 12 Aug 10
AWN Ekes Out a Win in the Battle of the Dock Apps
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70591.html
My newfound favorite computing app is the desktop dock. Over the last few weeks, I freed myself of dependence on the desktop icon to find and launch the programs I use every day. My search for the ideal docking app came to a halt with Avant Window Navigator, also known as "AWN." I was ready to settle down with GNOME Do and its handy Docky option. But I decided to check out AWN and Simdock first. The additional effort was time well spent. SimDock was a big disappointment. AWN is very similar to GNOME Do. But its few more bells and whistles pushed me into choosing it over GNOME Do.

Wed, 11 Aug 10
Verizon and Motorola Do the Droid Dance Again
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70588.html
Motorola and Verizon Wireless jointly announced the Droid 2 smartphone Tuesday, confirming weeks of speculation and leaks in the media. The Droid 2 will be available online on a pre-sale basis starting Wednesday, and it will arrive in stores Thursday. Pricing will be $199 with a two-year contract after a mail-in rebate. Purchasers must also get a data plan. The release of the Droid 2 closely follows that of another Verizon smartphone made by Motorola: The Droid X, a device with several similar characteristics, was released to the market less than one month ago.

Wed, 11 Aug 10
And the Job Goes to ... the Candidate With the Right Keywords
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70584.html
Wondering why you never get the job despite sending a flurry of resumes that you spent days -- maybe weeks -- perfecting? A little-known, behind-the-scenes hiring secret could be the problem. Search engines, not actual people, select the top job candidates from piles of resumes. That's right, the process is automated. If your resume does not contain the perfect mix of keywords, you will not make the cut. "If this sounds like applicants are applying to a machine instead of a person, that's correct," said Rob McGovern, founder of CareerBuilder.com.

Tue, 10 Aug 10
Critics Charge Craigslist Functions as Bulletin Board for Child Prostitution
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70583.html
Richard Blumenthal, attorney general of Connecticut, has called for classified advertisement service Craigslist to shut down its adult services section. In addition, Blumenthal stated that he intends to call for his fellow state attorneys general to make similar demands of Craigslist. No particular legal action has been filed, however. "The continued prevalence of prostitution ads belies Craigslist's promises to combat them," Blumenthal said. "I am calling on Craigslist to abolish the adult services section -- and I will be urging my fellow attorneys general to join me."

Tue, 10 Aug 10
RIM's Capitulation to Saudis Could Set Off Domino Effect
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70581.html
As a deadline looms to decide the fate of the BlackBerry Messenger service in Saudi Arabia, Research In Motion is reportedly testing a series of in-country servers that would enable government monitoring of communications over the BlackBerry network. RIM is reportedly working with the kingdom's three mobile-phone operators to test the servers, which would support the government's stated desire to monitor user communication on BlackBerry devices so as to prevent terrorism and illegal activities.

Tue, 10 Aug 10
Seeking Clarity in the Cloud's Security Haze
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70576.html
Corporate execs and IT managers may soon get clearer answers to fuzzy questions regarding how secure or insecure cloud computing really is. In an effort to solve that lingering mystery, the non-profit Open Security Foundation late last month launched its cloutage.org website. The new website is aimed at empowering organizations by providing cloud security knowledge and resources. OSF officials hope that business and security users will be able to apply the independent data provided to better assess security risks related to the cloud.

Tue, 10 Aug 10
Google, Verizon and Avoiding the Communist Concept of Net Neutrality
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70570.html
Last week, there was uproar about a rumored secret negotiation between Google and Verizon that, if successful, would result in Google customers getting better bandwidth. At the core of this controversy are three things: a lack of adequate action by the sitting administration; a lack of consistent definition of the concept of "Net neutrality," and the communistic nature of the definition that appears to underlie this outrage. This core concept of "equal to all" is fundamentally flawed and should be objectionable under the capitalistic model that currently maintains the U.S.

Tue, 10 Aug 10
A Funny Thing Happened in the Shuttleworth Forum
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70578.html
Sometimes, what starts out as a simple conversation on the Linux blogs can lead to a momentous event. To wit: Mark Shuttleworth's recent treatise on "tribalism," which appeared on his blog late last month. "Tribalism is when one group of people start to think people from another group are 'wrong by default,'" Shuttleworth wrote. "It's the great-granddaddy of racism and sexism." The most dangerous kind of tribalism, Shuttleworth added, "is completely invisible: it has nothing to do with someone's 'birth tribe' and everything to do with their affiliations... ."

Tue, 10 Aug 10
Marvel Stands Triumphant in Epic Battle of iPad Comic Apps
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70572.html
Certain applications on the iPad seem almost native to the device. Reading electronic books, for example, falls into that category. So does reading comic books. Comic book apps first showed up on the iPad's little brothers, the iPhone and iPod touch, but the larger canvas that the tablet format offers adds immeasurably to the medium. After all, the iPad's display is close to the size of an actual comic book page. Numerous methods are being deployed to bring comics to the iPad.

Sun, 8 Aug 10
What's Google's Deal?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70571.html
This week, three of the biggest newspapers in the U.S. either exposed Google as a two-faced liar of a corporation, or published significant falsehoods that could seriously undermine the company and its investors. Or maybe it's somewhere in between. Honestly, nobody seems to be sure what the real story is right now, and the denials are flying fast and thick. This much we know: On Thursday, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post all ran stories asserting that Google was negotiating an anti-Net neutrality deal.

Fri, 6 Aug 10
Google Wave, We hardly Knew Ye
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70563.html
Google announced on Wednesday that it has killed off Google Wave, the sharing and communication Web app it kicked off last year. Wave "has not seen the user adoption we would have liked," wrote Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president of operations. Google won't continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but it will maintain the site at least through the end of the year so people can continue developing Wave apps. It will also use the technology in other Google projects, he said.

Fri, 6 Aug 10
Dish Aims Slingbox at iThings, BBs and Androids
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70560.html
Satellite television provider Dish Network plans to release a load of apps this fall that will allow its subscribers to watch its program offerings on Apple's iFamily of mobile devices -- the iPhone, iPad and iPod -- as well as Research In Motion Blackberries and smartphones running Google's Android operating system. Although the mobile service itself will be free, additional hardware acquisitions or upgrades needed to make the offering work could cost some subscribers as much as $400.

Fri, 6 Aug 10
Will HTC 'Glacier' Trigger Fastphone Wars?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70557.html
A tech enthusiast site says it has uncovered evidence of a dual-core HTC phone called the "Glacier" that may be headed for T-Mobile. The report by AlienBabelTech.com details a since-removed entry on benchmarking site GLBenchmark showing a phone called "HTC Glacier" being tested by a user whose LinkedIn social networking profile reveals he works for T-Mobile. The device in question clocks in on a processor test at three times faster than HTC's fastest device, according to AlienBabelTech, a feat that it says can only be achieved by a dual-core handset.

Fri, 6 Aug 10
Pondering the Potential of the $200 Linux PC
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70559.html
There must be something about the US$200 price point -- for the second time this summer, Linux bloggers have been pondering the notion of a $200 computer. Back in June, it was Phil Shapiro who kicked off the conversation by demonstrating how to configure an Ubuntu machine for less than $200. Now, just barely two months later, here we are again, this time contemplating ExtremeTech's recent post entitled, "Build a $200 PC." Linux was part of the picture this time around too, of course. So was a lively conversation.

Fri, 6 Aug 10
So You Want to Be a Jailbreaker?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70558.html
I wrote part of this article while flying with my four-year-old son. I saw something on the flight I thought was funny -- on the package of peanuts it said "Ingredients: Peanuts Roasted in Peanut and/or Canola Oil, Salt." Then the line right below that "Produced in a facility that processes peanuts and other nuts." Really? The peanuts were processed in a facility that processes peanuts? Who would have thunk? I guess that is a product of our overly litigious society, which often leads to dumb rules and overly complicated ways of doing things.

Thu, 5 Aug 10
Are Motorola and Verizon Building a Boob Tab?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70552.html
Motorola and Verizon may be working on a new tablet device on which users will be able to watch TV. The Android-based tablet will feature a 10-inch screen and will be closely linked with Verizon's FiOS digital pay-television service, according to "people briefed on the plans," the Financial Times reported. A U.S. launch for the new device could take place as early as this fall. "Clearly, the success of the iPad has unleashed the floodgates of competition from all sides," said IDC analyst Al Hilwa.

Thu, 5 Aug 10
Kaspersky: Sham Certificates Pose Big Problem for Windows Security
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70553.html
Microsoft Windows doesn't have a good way to handle digital certificates that have been tampered with, Roel Schouwenberg, senior antivirus researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said Tuesday at the company's North American Virus Analyst Summit in San Francisco. One problem is that it doesn't clearly indicate when such certificates have been tampered with, he said. This could make it difficult to stop malware that uses digital certificates that have been altered. That will eventually impact the reputation-based approach antivirus vendors are now taking to keep users secure.

Thu, 5 Aug 10
Testing the Waters Before Taking the Enterprise VoIP Plunge
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70548.html
Now, more than ever, businesses want to work smarter and outdistance their competition to gain an edge. As a result, many are adopting converged communications technologies such as VoIP, collaboration, workforce mobility, and unified communications to accomplish these objectives. Converged communications technologies provide many business benefits, including reduced operating costs, expanded voice services, and integrated business communications that improve employee productivity and support widely distributed "virtual" working groups.

Thu, 5 Aug 10
New Illumos Project to Reopen OpenSolaris
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70551.html
A new group announced Tuesday aims to create a community-built and -maintained version of Oracle's OpenSolaris operating system in which all portions of the code are open and fully available for use by developers. Called "Illumos," the new project will replace the closed portions of Oracle's OpenSolaris code with open versions, making it possible for developers to create their own solutions based on the software. "Right now, it's almost impossible to build derivative products from OpenSolaris," said Garrett D'Amore, tech lead for the Illumos project.

Thu, 5 Aug 10
GNOME Do Launcher Starts Apps on the Right Foot
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70541.html
I have a problem with Linux! It has too many cool ways to navigate the desktop and launch programs. I fell in love with the really awesome GNOME Do recently and started a feud with my other computing personas. One relishes the panel, and another is enamored with the desktop draped in icons of my always-used programs. The desktop icons fetish is a carry over from my earlier Microsoft Windows daze. It's easy to set up in Ubuntu Linux and similar distros with a right-click from the applications' menu. Launching apps from desktop icons is hard-wired into Puppy Linux.

Wed, 4 Aug 10
RIM Carries BlackBerry Torch Into Smartphone Fray
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70543.html
It has not been a great year for RIM, the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry device simultaneously loved and hated by millions of corporate employees. The company has seen its stock price slip by more than a third and its market share among new smartphone customers dwindle from 45 percent in the spring of 2009 to 33 percent a year later. Against that backdrop, it's no wonder that the long-anticipated launch of its consumer-friendly smartphone is a big deal for the company.

Wed, 4 Aug 10
Droid X: More Athlete Than Aesthete
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70536.html
As much as I'd like to review the Verizon Droid X from a perspective utterly unpolluted by bias, preconceptions and ingrained habits, that's just not going to happen. The problem is, I'm a human being. Not only that, but I'm also a human being who's been using a certain other smartphone of note as my daily driver for a few years. No matter how often I try out BlackBerries, WinMos, Palms and Androids, my constant use of that other phone has created a certain baseline in my mind. Comparison will be inevitable.

Wed, 4 Aug 10
iPhone Jailbreak App Tunnels Through PDF Flaw
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70545.html
JailbreakMe, the Web-based app that lets iPhone owners easily jailbreak their devices in order to install apps not approved by Apple, exploits a flaw in the way the iPhone renders PDF documents. The process consists of a one-two punch, according to Charles Miller, principal analyst of software security at Independent Security Evaluators. A remote exploit related to the way iOS renders PDFs lets hackers execute code on devices running the operating system, such as iPhone 4s, iPads and iPod touches, Miller told MacNewsWorld.

Wed, 4 Aug 10
iBooks Wins the E-Reader Race by a Nose
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70539.html
In two weeks, I've read more novels on my iPhone 4 than I have in the last 6 months -- on purpose, and not because I'm writing about electronic books right now. As I stumbled into this, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to care that much about them. I downloaded an iBook sample of the first Lee Child novel about Jack Reacher, a former military police major who drifts across America and somehow manages to get tangled up in all sorts of trouble that requires fists, elbows and guns to get out of.

Wed, 4 Aug 10
Linux Kernel Gets Multicore Muscle With Latest Upgrade
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70537.html
The latest version of the Linux kernel was released on Sunday, offering not just a host of bug fixes but also new features designed for multicore environments. Most notably, tapping technology contributed by Google, Linux version 2.6.35 includes Receive Packet Steering and Receive Flow Steering features that help to spread network handling across the CPUs available in the system. The addition of RPS and RFS technology "effectively emulates what a multiqueue NIC can provide, but instead it is implemented in software and for all kind of network hardware," said the Kernel Newbies website.

Sun, 1 Aug 10
The Week of Leaks
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/70528.html
Wikileaks this week let fly with a gusher of data, and at 90,000 documents strong, it's being called the biggest informational leak in the history of the U.S. military. The site has published tens of thousands of sensitive reports, memos and files regarding the war in Afghanistan, and analysts are just beginning to pick through them, digest them, and assess their full scope. The documents reveal details about the involvement of countries like Iran and North Korea, as well as uncensored accounts of friendly fire incidents and the killings of civilians.