Perfect PC 24/7

Take Back Control

2012-04-07T16:58:00.001-07:00

It’s the 21st Century and it’s utterly mind blowing how so many sheeple [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She...] are just plain outright unwilling to accept the fact that PCs can live without Anti Virus Software [it is possible]. I guess what I am saying is you don’t have to rely on it like you think you do. With all the options for cloud based backup services, it’s a wonder [or shame] how and why some of us still do not have all of our precious data backed up. External Hard Drive prices have dipped dramatically, so price cannot be an excuse. It’s has to be something else.

My comments on the answer to “If the technology exists (and it does) to keep your PC 100% free of viruses/spyware, why wouldn't…” [http://b.qr.ae/HBcgR0] have been met with the utmost skepticism and biased disbelief [some of my comments you will read below as well]. I welcome the dialogue, comments, and arguments against what I am saying. It’s almost natural when our society has been led to believe that there is no hope; that you absolutely have to have Anti-Virus Software and there is no other way to combat the problem besides buying their products and/or taking your PC to Geek Squad, Staples, or Comp USA at $200 a pop.

The brainwashing of the masses by Anti-Virus Giants & the Media has been quite successful if the ability to apply plain old common sense has been thrown out the window. When you think about it, and I mean really think about it [1]…the Hard Drive on any PC can be and IS controlled with permissions; control the permissions, and you control the machine. Multiple software programs exist [2] that allow specific permissions to be controlled by the user effectively [as well as transparently], eliminating the need to cough up $200 every time your computer gets attacked.

With this technology comes the ability to set up and return to a clean baseline snapshot [3], the ability to boot to Windows even with the BSOD, and [my personal favorite] the ability to return to any point in the timeline of snapshots even if your hard drive is accidently reformatted [4]; plus a host of other features and settings. It’s really a fairly simple process in the sense of protection. The software functions at the sector level of the hard drive and restores every bit of data. Chances are very high that you have already experienced this technology.

I can get into the nuts & bolts of it per anyone’s request, but there isn’t a scenario out there that I have not heard yet that this software cannot handle [5]. Hint…it works below the OS, on the sector level of the hard drive. All the “what ifs” I’ve ever heard have been OS based, at the Operating System level. If your “what if” question involves the OS or anything on the OS level, then chalk one up for the software and a goose egg [zero] for yourself.

I know this software sounds too good to be true, I do, but it works, rather well. It does not need to reserve any portion of hard disk for “protected data”. The program data structure takes 0.07% of disk space to create up to 60,000 snapshots [sector mapping below the OS level]. You can even mount your snapshots as a virtual drive and recovery individual files/folders.

This software is all about recovery from viruses and or spyware/malware/trojans, not taming or policing them [6]. Virus and Malware attacks are a given, so why not be protected under any circumstance, without repeat payments? [7].

Take back control.

[1] Do take the time to think about this point after reading this sentence, then proceed to the rest of the posting.
[2] Some have existed for more than a decade.
[3] Nothing at all like Windows System Restore, so don’t even go there, nor Mac’s Time Machine. Think > kid on a skateboard versus NASCAR…no comparison.
[4] I do not know of any other software that can do this. Do you?
[5] Not that you would need it, but in all of my scenarios of recovery, I assume the user has a complete back up of his/her entire system; entire hard drive including all partitions, BIOS, etc.
[6] You can recover from any virus/spyware/malware/trojan/worm invasion, user error, botched installation or update, BSOD, even a reformatted hard drive.
[7] Buy the software once, no subscriptions, you are protected for life.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

bit.ly — Sheeple (a portmanteau of "sheep" and "people") is a term of disparagement in which people are likened to sheep , a herd animal.

Copying Leads To Competition, Competition Leads To Innovation

2012-03-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

Marco Arment, the creator of the popular read-it-later tool Instapaper, has an excellent blog post discussing copying, innovation, and the best ways to react to competition. Arment discusses a new Instapaper competitor called Readability, which launched last week and received a lot of praise for including custom fonts, something Instapaper lacks:

I could have interpreted this defensively and complacently: “Georgia and Verdana are great, versatile, highly screen-readable fonts! I don’t need to do what competitors do! Newer isn’t always better! My crusty old fonts have some technical advantage that you don’t care about!” And so on.
That would have just made me look stubborn and out of touch, failing to understand (in fact, trying very hard not to understand) why newer fonts could be attractive to customers, and failing to admit that I should have done it first.
Instead, I’m taking this misstep as a wake-up call: I missed an important opportunity that’s necessary for the long-term competitiveness of my product. So I’ve spent most of the last week testing tons of reading fonts, getting feedback from designers I respect, narrowing it down to a handful of great choices, and negotiating with their foundries for inclusion into the next version of Instapaper. And the results in testing so far are awesome. I wish someone had kicked my complacent ass about fonts sooner.
Reacting well to competition requires critical analysis of your own product and its shortcomings, and a complete, open-minded understanding of why people might choose your competitors.

This is someone who understands how innovation and iteration really work. Interestingly, when Readability was announced last year, it had a different focus and was actually going to work in conjunction with Instapaper, but then it morphed into a direct competitor. At the time, other developers tried to shame them for that, but Arment himself was unsurprised and untroubled, saying "this is a very big and increasingly crowded market, and there’s no reason why we can’t respectfully share it."

He never tried to claim that copying was wrong or even unneighborly—not then, and not today. Arment clearly respects his competitors, recognizing what they bring to the table and using it as motivation to improve his own product. That's the mark of a true innovator.

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Police Academy actor explores the history of video game SFX

2012-03-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

From Pong to Portal, actor/comedian Michael Winslow looks back on the history of sound effects in video games as only he can.

Actor Michael Winslow is probably best-known as the guy who made all of those crazy sounds in the Police Academy movies, but he recently contributed his noise-making talents to a short video looking back on the evolution of video-game sound effects.

Produced by G4TV, the two-minute video has Winslow beep-bop-booping his way from Pong to Portal, and offering a timeline of sorts for some popular games’ use of SFX. There’s an extremely short list of games represented (only six?!), so the video is clearly aimed at providing a showcase for Winslow’s talents rather than a comprehensive analysis of SFX history.

Still, it’s nice to see hear Winslow’s talents put to good use as he recreates the soundtrack to Ms. Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros.

By the way, if you don’t remember him from the Police Academy films, maybe you’ll recall his part as the radar-monitoring guy in Spaceballs who has trouble finding “the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps.” Now that is comedy gold.

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Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Apple Because Siri Doesn't Always Work Right

2012-03-16T14:09:00.001-07:00

Technology doesn't always work quite as well as the advertisements claim. But is that any reason to sue? Apparently, yes. Some guy is trying to kick off a class action lawsuit against Apple because Siri doesn't work quite as well as it does in the TV ads. I imagine this lawsuit is going nowhere fast. Perhaps next time the guy should try asking Siri for legal advice...

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The new iPad has CIOs quaking in their cubicles

2012-03-08T10:43:00.001-08:00

Apple’s newest iPad has some new elements that could make it a (bigger) hit in the enterprise, such as a higher-resolution screen for video conferencing and presentations as well as taking dictation. But it has become increasingly clear to corporations that their networks can’t handle the iPad or, really, most of the devices employees are bringing into their walls.

We have done a lot of coverage on how iPads have made inroads into the enterprise, with 64 percent of mobile workers now carrying a tablet, and that will rise to nearly 80 percent within the next six months, according the Mobile Workforce Report (you can see the iPad breakdown below). In general, the number of mobile devices coming into corporate networks has grown to 3.5 devices, up from 2.7 in 2011, according to the same report, which was released earlier this week.

So many devices, such a static network

But the problem with iPads and mobile devices in general is that they move, and so your network resources have to move too. Or at least adapt to ensure that when someone has an impromptu meeting by the water cooler, there is enough network capacity to serve those devices. Before, when people computed and connected from their desks, it was much easier to predict where the network needed to have the most capacity.

Much like the networking trends happening inside the data center or out on the cellular networks, where scale and flexibility are becoming essential ingredients, the networks inside companies are due for their own tune-up, driven in part by devices like the iPad. As our computing has become more mobile and varied depending on the device, the once-staid world of networking has had to adapt — everywhere. The best explanation so far of this trend comes from Pradeep Sindhu, the director, vice chairman of the board and CTO of Juniper. In an interview with Om last year, Sindhu said:

The nature of traffic today is increasingly dynamic. And so the old ways of addressing and building networks, with very statically provisioned technologies, like circuit switching, is essentially dead. So you have to rethink this architecturally. Point number two is that I believe that the traffic is going to get a lot more stochastic in nature. In other words, unpredictable, both with respect to any given circuit and with respect to the sources and destination the amount of usage will continue to explode and they will get more and more dynamic and unpredictable.

Companies also have to figure out how to revamp their corporate device policies to ensure data is kept secure. Aruba, a wireless equipment firm, offers this slide to explain all the considerations an enterprise must think about.

The iPad and the big enterprise networking shift

As the new iPad launches with better screens and better video conferencing and presentation capabilities, those responsible for corporate networks are a wee bit concerned. Depending on whom you ask, some are very concerned. Brocade, which on Tuesday launched a series of products that makes corporate networks programmable and flexible, polled 120 IT managers and found that about half ~~are worried in some way about~~ anticipate traffic changes thanks to the coming iPad.

And even if the iPad isn’t mentioned by name, the trend of bringing in consumer devices to the network is leading to opportunities not just for firms making tablets such as Apple but also those on the back end charged with building and securing corporate networks. Companies like Brocade, Aruba, Cisco and others are watching today’s launch and hoping it drives a few more CIOs to ring up their salesmen.

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Don't Buy Antivirus Software, Vendor Says

2012-03-07T17:31:00.001-08:00

By Howard Dahdah, computerworld.com.au

Trend Micro's consumer security product manager has recommend people not to buy antivirus products, including his own. But there is a method to his madness, he assures.

David Peterson, consumer segment director for Trend Micro's ANZ business, said only a handful of the top 10 security threats these days are viruses, with downloaders, Trojans, keyloggers and phishing scams filling up the list.

As such, he believes standalone antivirus software is best suited for infrequent users of the Internet such as dial up users, or those who want protection from nasties on USB keys.

"There is a niche for it but there are also people outside that niche who are buying it."

He said standalone AV products are there because the market demands it. "I wish they wouldn't. I don't recommend buying antivirus products," he said, referring to Trend Micro's and its competitor's products.

What is important is complete protection. "You are better off get Internet security suites," he said.

Peterson has support.

"Trend is correct," said Neil MacDonald, vice president and Gartner Fellow.

"Standalone AV is no longer sufficient for protecting endpoints; however, this does not mean that signature-based mechanisms don't provide value. They just don't provide the value they used to and the vendors haven't adjusted pricing models to reflect the diminished effectiveness of standalone AV," he said. "The ideal endpoint security product is an endpoint security platform that provides organizations with a variety of styles of protection for endpoints -- firewalls, AV, anti-spyware, application control, device control, behavioral monitoring and so on. This enables organizations to pick and choose the styles of protection appropriate to the endpoint -- which will likely be different combination for desktops, laptops and servers. Even among severs this will vary by role. "AV is just component of the endpoint security platform."

Trend Micro joins a swag of security companies to release security suites this month. It's claims Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security Pro 2009 is significantly faster than last year's effort. Others released in September include BitDefender Total Security 2009 and BullGuard Internet Security 8.5

View Original article here.

Anti-Virus Company Sued for Scare Tactics

2012-02-17T15:52:00.001-08:00

Greg Tito | 12 January 2012 7:15 am

The makers of Norton Antivirus are accused of running fake scans and bullying customers into purchases.

We've all seen the messages pop up on our screen. "Malware detected!" "Your computer is infected!" "Download this software now or cybercriminals will invade your privacy, steal your identity and obliterate your soul!" These are the tactics of third-rate scams, designed to have you click on them and - ironically - install viruses and malware on your machine, but I've always wondered how somewhat "trusted" antivirus companies like Symantec and McAfee got away with using similar methods. A new lawsuit alleges Symantec's Norton Antivirus performs scans that don't actually scan your computer but still warn of non-existent dangers in order to get you to pay $29.99 to upgrade. Further, the plaintiff James Gross contends that even if you pay the fee, Symentec's applications don't really do anything to help your computer at all.

"The scareware does not conduct any actual diagnostic testing on the computer," reads Gross's complaint filed in Northern California. "Instead, Symantec intentionally designed its scareware to invariably report, in an extremely ominous manner, that harmful errors, privacy risks, and other computer problems exist on the user's PC, regardless of the real condition of the consumer's computer."

Gross said he bought the upgrade based on the prompt and afterwards hired IT experts to look at his machine. They told him that the scans almost always returned a negative report and that the software could not fix what it said it could. The complaint continues, "The scareware does not, and cannot, provide the benefits promised by Symantec. Accordingly, consumers are duped into purchasing software that does not function as advertised, and in fact, has very little (if any) utility."

Symantec responded to the lawsuit with the following statement:

[Symantec] does not believe the lawsuit has merit and will vigorously defend the case. The Norton and PC Tools solutions at issue are designed to improve the system performance of our customers' devices in terms of speed, maintain the health of their machines, and protect our customers' information. The optimization and privacy functions of these solutions fix registry errors, wipe computer usage, and shred deleted items. Some include additional functionality such as recovery tools to restore lost items. Several independent third parties have tested and reviewed these products very favorably, verifying the effectiveness of their functionality.

I've certainly been unimpressed with so-called security suites for a long while. Freeware alternatives such as AVG do the job just as well, and are devoid of such fear-mongering messages. Gross's claim that the antivirus programs don't do anything at all is pretty daring, but I wonder if there's not some merit to it. Part of me wants to believe that virus-makers and antivirus companies are more in cahoots than they'd like to admit.

Source: Forbes

Rumor: Amazon building brick-and-mortar store to stay competitive with iPad and Nook

2012-02-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

A rumor is floating around about an upcoming Amazon move into the physical brick-and-mortar space. Is this a move to focus on the Fire and stay competitive with Apple and Barnes & Noble's physical tablet support?
Amazon is reportedly pushing further into the physical realm with plans to build brick-and-mortar boutiques which will showcase the company’s e-readers, tablets and other products.
While talk of an Amazon retail store has been heard before (patent D593,208), the recent rumors have taken form from details in a report by the Good E-Reader tablet and e-reader news site. Citing unnamed sources, Good E-reader says that Amazon will be starting its brick-and-mortar foray with a retail store in Seattle, where the e-commerce giant has its headquarters. The company apparently contracted the design for the store through a shell company in order to avoid the prying eyes of competition. The Seattle store is supposed to materialize within a few months; before the 2012 holiday rush.

Amazon seems to understand the dissonance consumers may perceive in an e-commerce giant which forced brick-and-mortar companies to compete online, now competing in the physical realm. The Seattle store is intended to be a pilot project in order to test whether a retail chain would be profitable. Amazon plans on keeping the store boutique-sized, and will focus on “high margin and high-end items;” meaning the Kindle readers as well as the bestselling Kindle Fire tablet and complementary accessories. The company will also be selling a few select print books, and may possibly be creating a hub for customers to browse e-books on their readers in the boutique; perhaps going for the appeal of browsing within a book store chain, without the bulk that you get with a Barnes & Noble.

The report questions why Amazon would decide to lay down roots by building retail stores and face new taxes, when the e-commerce giant has been at the forefront of the online taxation debate. US states have been trying to work around federal law, which currently says that online sellers with no physical presence in a state don’t have to worry about sales tax. California recently went after Amazon’s lack of “physical presence” by putting the obligation of sales tax on Amazon’s affiliates in the state–Amazon subsequently threatened to completely pull out of the state, and the legal tiff was dropped.
However, the legal battles may be too much of a strain on the company, and Amazon’s ferocity may be dwindling. The company came to Washington in December of last year in order to discuss the creation of a standard Internet sales tax. Perhaps higher on the decision-making agenda isn’t the taxes, which they may not be able to run from, but instead, the competition from Apple as well as Barnes & Noble.
Barnes & Noble may have used the Nook to deflect the bullet that killed its Borders Books competitor, but that move put the book retailer in a whole new competitive field. Barnes & Noble understands the looming competition it faces with Amazon as we’ve seen with the digital comics controversy as well as the recent refusal to stock physical copies of books from Amazon’s publishing platform.
While Amazon has built its business on carrying “every kind of random product you could imagine,” as eBooknewser points out, the company is consolidating much of its focus on digital media and the Kindles. Though Amazon disappointed Wall Street with its 2011 fourth quarter results, the company reported record Kindle sales over the holidays, with an estimated six million Kindle Fire tablets sold; which could make the Fire a serious iPad competitor.
With the Kindles becoming increasingly important to Amazon, the company may be shifting to stay competitive with Barnes & Noble and Apple. The Nook takes center stage when walking into B&N stores, with a display area and support that Amazon probably can’t match right now. Apple, of course, is famous for the success of its stores with Genius Bar support. Though, it’s interesting that Amazon is going for its own boutique on the first try, rather than mini-display attached to a larger box store like B&N or Apple’s mini-store deal with Target. What do you think? Would you hang out at an Amazon brick-and-mortar shop? Or would this be a throwback waste of effort on Amazon’s part?
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Mini Apple Stores may be headed to Sam’s Club

2012-02-16T17:46:00.000-08:00

Apple and Sam's Club are reportedly working out a deal to open mini Apple Stores in Sam's Club locations.

When you think of Apple, what likely comes to mind is well-designed high-end electronics that may or may not be worth the hefty price. When you think of Sam’s Club, you probably think something more along the lines of bulk packages of individually wrapped pickles, and free samples of teriyaki chicken on a toothpick. But those two worlds may soon combine. According to 9to5Mac, Sam’s Club (a subsidiary of Walmart) and Apple are in early negotiations to open mini Apple Stores inside Sam’s Club locations.

As members know, Sam’s Club already sells Apple’s lines of iPods, iPads, and iPhones. If the deal goes through, Apple will have a larger “store-in-store” setup, which would offer Mac desktops and laptops, in addition to Apple’s mobile devices. A backup plan is also reportedly in place, which includes Sam’s Club simply selling Macs, without the addition of a bigger Apple setup.

As with everything Apple, this report remains in the realm of speculation. But there are a few reasons this story carries a high likelihood of truth. First, Apple already has such store-in-store setups at Best Buy locations, so this would only be an expansion of something Apple is already doing. Second, Sam’s Club already sells Apple products; simply expanding its product offering isn’t much of a stretch.

In addition to all this, both Sam’s Club and Apple stand to make money from an expanded partnership — which is really all that matters here. Sam’s Club sells a wide range of electronics, so it’s not inconceivable that customers would go their to buy a Macbook Air, especially in areas that don’t have a dedicated Apple Store. At least, that’s the theory.

Would you go to Sam’s Club to buy a high-end Apple laptop or desktop PC?

[Image via BestBuy.com]

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iPhone Data Debunks Recording Industry's Report On How French Three Strikes Law Increased Sales

2012-02-16T12:34:00.001-08:00

The annual Digital Music Report (pdf) of the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is a curiously conflicted production. On the one hand, it must celebrate "a healthy 8 per cent increase in our digital revenues in 2011 -- the first time the annual growth rate has risen since records began in 2004 "; on the other, it must continue to push the party line about how the industry is being destroyed by piracy.

The IFPI has a stab a reconciling that contradiction, writing: "The truth is that record companies are building a successful digital music business in spite of the environment in which they operate, not because of it." However, it desperately needs some proof of that statement, because otherwise the simplest explanation is that piracy is not a serious problem, and that the recording industry is thriving, just like the rest of the creative industries.

The IFPI probably thinks it has found some proof in the French HADOPI experience, which, according its report, demonstrates that introducing three-strikes measures against unauthorized sharing boosts digital sales.

A new academic study -- The Effect of Graduated Response Anti-Piracy Laws on Music Sales: Evidence from an Event Study in France, by Danaher et al -- has also found evidence that Hadopi has had a positive impact on iTunes sales in France. The authors studied sales of digital singles and album downloads on iTunes from July 2008, before the law was adopted, until six months after the start of notices. They developed an estimate of what French iTunes sales would have looked like in the absence of Hadopi by studying a control group of similar markets.
The analysis found that French iTunes sales saw a significant uplift at exactly the period when awareness of Hadopi was at its highest, in Spring 2009, when the law was being debated in the National Assembly. This effect was maintained throughout the period studied. French iTunes sales were 22.5 per cent higher for singles and 25 per cent higher for digital albums than they would have been, on average, in the absence of Hadopi.

Taking a look at the study (pdf) provides some details of how the research was carried out:

For this study, we obtained a panel of total weekly iTunes sales units for a number of European countries including France. Our data extend from July 2008 to May 2011, and we observe separately both track unit sales and album unit sales. The data were obtained directly from the four major music labels -- EMI, Sony, Universal, and Warner -- and aggregated to reflect total iTunes sales for the majors.

In an attempt to observe the effect of HADOPI, these sales were compared with a control group of five other European countries that didn't introduce similar legislation: the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Belgium. By looking for differences between these two data sets, the researchers hoped to observe the effects of the three-strikes legislation on sales of digital music, using a Google Trends graph of searches for the word "HADOPI" as a proxy for awareness of that legislation, both before and after it was passed.

The graph of iTunes sales for France clearly diverges from that of the control group, lying consistently above it. The divergence begins around about the time that HADOPI was first presented to the French National Assembly, increases slightly, and then decreases a little after the first warning letters were sent out. From this, the researchers deduce that the discussion around HADOPI caused significantly increased sales of iTunes compared to the control countries:

these estimates indicate that French track sales units rose about 25.5% in the control group after March 1, 2009 but by 48% in France, indicating that French iTunes track sales were 22.5% higher on average than they would have been in the absence of HADOPI. Similarly, album sales units rose by 42% in the control group but 67% in France, indicating that HADOPI increased iTunes album sales an average 25% per week in France.

That's a plausible explanation if you believe that piracy is stopping people from buying digital music, but it's not the only one. The French newspaper Le Monde decided to use the same technique of comparing the rise in iTunes sales with Google Trends, but with a different search term. Since iTunes is intimately bound up with Apple's products, Le Monde thought to take a look at the trend for "iPhone" searches on Google.

What it found were five very pronounced peaks in the French searches that corresponded exactly with five (smaller) peaks in iTunes sales, and also to five well-defined external events: the launch of the Iphone 3GS and iPhone 4, and three Christmas seasons. The effect was so marked in France because it was starting from a lower base: according to the researchers, the average sales of iTunes in France were 450,000 per week, while in the UK they were 2,900,000 per week. So an alternative explanation for those impressive increases in sales is simply the uplift in iPhone ownership generated by new launches and the holidays in an immature market with plenty of room for growth.

The researchers do offer one other piece of evidence for the uplift in sales being due to the crackdown on piracy:

EMI surveys of French citizens show that that Rap and Hip Hop are the most heavily pirated genres, even relative to popularity in legal sales channels. While Rock and Pop experience average levels of piracy, the data also indicate that genres such as Classical, Christian, Folk, and Jazz experience significantly lower levels of piracy.

Therefore, they argued, if the increase in sales were due to reductions in piracy, they would expect "the increase in Rap sales to be larger than that for Rock and Pop and the increase for Classical, Christian, etc. to be quite low." And that is precisely what is observed. Conclusive proof? Maybe not.

As the Le Monde analysis points out, another explanation is that many recent iPhone purchasers are younger people, who are generally the most interested in acquiring the latest technology as soon as it comes out. And younger people, by and large, listen to more Rap than Classical or Christian music, which would explain the difference in the increase across genres.

Spending so much effort here on exploring one research report might seem excessive, but it matters. The IFPI is already branding this supposed increase in digital music sales -- quantified by the researchers at $18.6 million annually for France -- the "HADOPI Effect". In the months to come, you can bet that the recording industry's representatives and lobbyists will be visiting governments and showing them this "proof" that three-strikes really "works" -- and demanding they follow suit to "protect" the artists.

What's ironic is that the IFPI report spends many of its pages discussing a much more sensible way of reducing unauthorized sharing: offering high-quality music streaming services instead, as recent market research from Scandinavia indicates. Unfortunately, the recording industry is so obsessed with punishing pirates that it can't see that its future lies in promoting innovation, not legislation.

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Windows Phone 8 details leak: Huge changes ahead

2012-02-16T09:56:00.001-08:00

A leaked video has shed light on Microsoft's upcoming plans for Windows Phone 8 including deep Skype integration, the elimination of the Zune PC software, BitLocker encryption, NFC, multicore processor support, and a fundamental rewrite of the core of Windows Phone, better aligning its code base with Windows 8.

We’ve been speculating about the next versions of Windows Phone since 7.5 (Mango) came out in late 2011, and it looks like it might be worth the wait. PocketNow claims to have intercepted an official Microsoft video intended for Windows Phone partners like Nokia. In it, Windows Phone Manager Joe Belfiore goes over a lot of new features of the upcoming “Apollo” update, which appears to somewhat merge the Windows Phone OS with the core of Windows 8. Details below.

Multicore processors: Dual-core and, presumably, quad-core processors will be supported.microSD: Finally, Windows Phone will add support for SD storage devices.Higher screen resolutions: 4 new resolutions will be offered outside of 480×800 (current standard). We don’t know what they are yet, unfortunately.NFC: Near-field communication will be supported, allowing users to make mobile payments or connect to other devices by simply tapping their phone. He made special mention of the mobile “Wallet experience,” which will replace credit cards with a phone app.Skype integration: Finally, Windows Phone will get deep Skype integration that lets it act more like an extension of the phone than an actual app. This makes sense since Microsoft now owns Skype. DataSmart: Like Android 4.0, WP8 will have a feature that lets you view how much data you are using in a given day or month.Local Scout Wi-Fi search: This isn’t entirely clear, but it looks like WP8 will more easily find and join available Wi-Fi hotspots offered by wireless carriers or other safe entities. Using the Local Scout app, you’ll easily be able to find nearby hotspots.Web page compression: Like Amazon’s Silk browser or Opera Mini, Microsoft will use its servers to help compress Web sites to help them load “30 percent” faster on mobile. Using the core of Windows 8: This has been hinted at for a while now, but it looks like Microsoft may swap out a good portion of the core Windows Phone OS for a modified version of Windows 8. We do not know how this will affect app development or if the 50,000 current apps will work on Windows Phone 8. It appears to be a huge shift. Windows 8 developers will be able to “reuse, by far, most of their code” when porting an application to Windows Phone 8.

No more Zune PC software: The Zune software is going away and will be replaced by a new application. What that is, we don’t know. Hopefully users don’t lose all of their song data or playlists they’ve made on Zune. Xbox Companion App for Windows 8: The Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone will get its own companion that will work for Windows 8 PCs. What exactly it will do, we don’t know, but Belfiore mentioned the ability to instantly have access to your music collection on your PC without the need for syncing.BitLocker encryption: That 128-bit full-disk encryption in Windows 8 will now be in the phone OS as well.

These new features sound great, but they raise more questions than they answer. For example, if Microsoft is ridding itself of Zune and syncing, does it plan to completely revamp its music services? Will it still offer a subscription-based Zune Pass-like service or will it move to a cloud downloading service like Google Music or AmazonMP3? The way users consume movies, podcasts, and other media will be greatly impacted by how Microsoft handles its new software. Will the PC client still deliver updates to Windows Phone users? We just don’t know. The Skype integration is also a big question since wireless carriers do not like the idea of letting users make phone calls without using minutes on a $40+ calling plan. Finally, Microsoft is essentially rewriting a good portion of the Windows Phone OS now. This will likely have many broad implications for developers and possibly users.

We’ll let you know when we find out more. The next version of Windows is rumored to arrive sometime later this year.

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Why Does The Recording Industry Complain When It's Often Its Own Worst Enemy?

2012-02-11T04:29:00.000-08:00

We received an interesting email recently from Bilal in Dubai, explaining just how difficult it is to purchase legal music online from the Middle East, and wondering why it is that the recording industry keeps complaining that not enough people are buying, when it does nothing to allow them to buy in large parts of the world:

I am a frustrated music listener, who is tired of hearing the music industry weep of low sales.
I've been living in the Middle East for the past 5 years, specifically Dubai, and apparently we are not worthy of buying music online as all the legitimate online music stores (iTunes, Amazon MP3, etc...) are not available in this region.

I don't understand how the music industry claims that it's suffering, and yet they forbid paying customers such as myself from buying their content. This region is not lucky enough to be part of the online music community, and I would like to know why. I always hear the answer that "the rights are not available", but the record labels are the rights owners, they control the switch! I hate to pirate music, but I don't have any other choice.

I'm guessing the answer has to do with the fact that the major labels likely have "sold off" the regional rights to third parties in these parts of the world. But it seems like they really should be doing something to get those services available globally. It's pretty ridiculous that it's so limited already.

Update: Worth pointing out: apparently iTunes did recently open in UAE, though its unclear how complete it is or why it took so long to open there. Update 2.... And, no. Turns out, despite the confusing article, the "store" in question is only for physical Apple products (iPhones/iPads). iTunes software is available but no music downloads.

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Why Piracy Is Indispensable For The Survival Of Our Culture

2012-02-11T00:40:00.000-08:00

Last Year Techdirt wrote about the case of the huge collection of historic jazz recordings that had been acquired by the US National Jazz Museum. The central problem is that even if the recordings can be digitized before they deteriorate, very few people will hear them because of their complicated copyright status.

But as this eye-opening article from Benj Edwards explains, bad as that situation is, it's even worse for the entire category of software creations. For example, consider the earlier generation of floppy-based programs:

Floppy disks, which were once used as the medium du jour for personal computers, have a decidedly finite lifespan: estimates for the data retention abilities of a floppy range anywhere from one year to 30 years under optimal conditions.
A floppy stores data in the form of magnetic charges on a specially treated plastic disc. Over time, the charges representing data weaken to the point that floppy drives can’t read them anymore. At that point, the contents of the disk are effectively lost.

This becomes particularly troubling when we consider that publishers began releasing software on floppy disk over 30 years ago. Most of those disks are now unreadable, and the software stored on them has become garbled beyond repair. If you’ve been meaning to back up those old floppies in your attic, I have bad news: it’s probably too late.

Actually, the situation is even worse than that, because software publishers in the 1980s spent a huge amount of effort trying to make it impossible to copy their programs, through the use of things like hardware dongles that had to be plugged into the computer, or intentionally-corrupt sectors on the discs. That makes the creation of backups a non-trivial matter.

Fortunately, getting around such schemes is just the kind of challenge that hackers enjoy, and this has led to efforts by enthusiasts to preserve these fast-disappearing cultural artefacts by transferring them from the old media to more modern storage. As Edwards explains:

For the past decade, collectors and archivists have been compiling vast collections of out-of-print software for vintage machines (think Apple II, Commodore 64, and the like) and trading them through file sharing services and on "abandonware" websites. Through this process, they’ve created an underground software library that, despite its relative newness, feels like the lost archives of an ancient digital civilization.

That's great, apart from one slight problem: under today's copyright laws, all these wonderful backups that will probably ensure the programs' survival while civilization itself is still around, are illegal. The choice is stark: follow copyright law, and watch decades of computer culture literally fade away on their unreadable floppies, or save them for posterity - and break the law.

Nor is this is a problem that only concerns antediluvian forms of computing. Our cool, smartphone- and tablet-based approach is no better:

take a look at the iTunes App Store, a 500,000 app repository of digital culture. It’s controlled by a single company, and when it closes some day (or it stops supporting older apps, like Apple already did with the classic iPod), legal access to those apps will vanish. Purchased apps locked on iDevices will meet their doom when those gadgets stop working, as they are prone to do. Even before then, older apps will fade away as developers decline to pay the $100 a year required to keep their wares listed in the store.

This is a deep and fundamental problem with not just computing culture, but all artistic expression that is locked down with DRM. The only way that its glories will be preserved for future generations is if considerate "pirates" make illegal back-up copies, stripped of copy protection. For DRM is a guarantee of oblivion: the term of copyright is so disproportionately long, few will care about breaking ancient DRM to make backups of long-forgotten digital creations when it eventually becomes legally permissible to do so.

Edwards concludes with a call to action:

If you see strict DRM and copy protection that threatens the preservation of history, fight it: copy the work, keep it safe, and eventually share it so it never disappears.
Some people may think ill of your archival efforts now, but they’re on the wrong side of history: no one living 500 years from now will judge your infringing deeds harshly when they can load up an ancient program and see it for themselves.

This is a crucial point: whatever qualms people might have about piracy now, posterity will have no doubts whatsoever. It's not simply that the supposed harms of piracy to culture are exaggerated, as more and more evidence suggests: it's that in the long term, piracy is actually indispensable for its preservation.

Follow me @Perfect_PC_24_7 on Twitter

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The Nokia Belle update is here, but is the end of Symbian hardware nigh?

2012-02-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

Nokia begins the rollout of its Nokia Belle software update, but the future of its devices running Symbian may draw to a close sooner than expected.

Nokia has announced that its latest update to the Symbian operating system, Nokia Belle, is now available for download. Announced in December last year, Nokia Belle caused controversy at the time due to its long gestation period, as well as for dropping the Symbian name.

Previous updates always used the Symbian name in the title — Symbian Anna for example — but not so with Nokia Belle, a move that at the time came without explanation. The company’s head of marketing later said it was a question of “flexibility,” and that the Symbian name would continue for developers rather than consumers.

It’s here now though, and Nokia promises phones will “feel like new” thanks to Belle’s performance improvements, plus the various new and updated features on show.

Here’s what users can expect to find with Nokia Belle. The number of homescreens has been upped to six, and as the real-estate has been boosted and the Live Widgets are now selectable in size, the OS will make better use of the space too. A new notification bar has been added, along with more information provided on the lock screen, plus tweaks to the application launcher, the camera interface and the web browser.

Provided your phone has an NFC chip — the C7 for example — Nokia Belle will add the software side to enable its use. Although wireless payments aren’t available, there are tap-to-share services, the ability to read NFC tags, accessory pairing and of course, Angry Birds Magic.

Nokia Belle is compatible with the Nokia N8, E7, C6, C6-01, X7, E6 or Nokia Oro, and the update begins rolling out today in various locations around the world. Due to its size, it’s not available as an over-the-air update, so you’ll have to use Nokia Suite on your PC to apply it to your phone. If you’re unsure of what to do, Nokia has some instructions on its support pages.

While new software updates are always good news, things may not be looking too rosy for new hardware featuring Symbian. The OS has been on life-support for a while now, following several years of bad press, changes to its licensing and eventual abandonment by Nokia in favor of Windows Phone.

Now though, Nokia has cancelled all but one new Symbian phone release, according to TheRegister.co.uk. CEO Stephen Elop said rapidly falling sales and increased competition from other low-end smartphones had caused the company to lower its sales expectations, lending more weight to talk of a Symbian hardware cull.

The final Symbian phone could be a good one though, as it’s suggested it will be a successor to the Nokia N8, which is still one of the very best camera phones on the market, despite it being more than a year old.

In addition to the leaked Nokia 803 from December last year, another possible candidate has recently appeared too. It’s being called the Nokia 801, and said to feature a body similar in style to the N9 and Lumia series, a 4-inch screen, a 1.4Ghz processor and a 12-megapixel camera.

Whether Nokia sticks to its initial plan of continuing to support Symbian software until 2016 remains to be seen, but even if they do, it’s looking like there may not be any new hardware on which to feature it.

View the original article here

The end of L and R markings is near, as new earbuds know in which ear they’re inserted

2012-02-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

A Japanese research team has come up with a set of prototype headphones that detect which ear they've been inserted in, then changing the channel accordingly, so users don't have to check first.

The one thing we all do before putting on a pair of headphones is check we’re putting the correct ‘bud in the correct ear, either with the little L and R markings, or by using another visual clue such as an in-line microphone to check which is which, thus ensuring the stereo separation is heard as the artist and audio mixer intended.

It’s a tried-and-tested but decidedly low-tech solution, however a Japanese team of researchers at the Igarashi Design Interface Project have come up with an far more high-tech alternative.

They call them Universal Earphones, and there’s a proximity sensor fixed to each earbud that knows which ear it has been inserted in, then adjusts the channel accordingly. With a 30mm detection zone in which to find either your ear or clear air, they work in a similar way to your phone’s proximity sensor.

That’s not all either, as another sensor is used to see whether both earbuds are being used by the same person, and if not, both the ‘buds get a mono signal. Why? So you don’t get just one side of a stereo track when you’re sharing a pair of earphones with another person.

Future plans for the Universal Earphones include a feature where the ‘buds know they’ve been removed from your ears, and pausing the music until they’re re-inserted, or even playing one track through the right earphone and another through the left.

At this stage, the Universal Earphones are in still in development and according to the BBC, there are no firm plans to mass produce them. However, the promo video reveals they would cost less than $1 per pair to manufacture, which could see them being snapped up in the future.

Of course, if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t check to make sure your headphones are in the correct ear, this won’t be of any interest. Just a quick question though, how can you be so blasé?

View the original article here

Nikon unveils D800 DSLR and yes, its pixel count is enormous

2012-02-10T09:30:00.001-08:00

Nikon unveiled its latest DSLR camera on Tuesday, the D800, confirming recent rumors that it would incorporate a huge 36.3MP sensor. Buyers of the device might also want to consider getting several extra-large external hard drives to hold all of their super-sized images. The D800 starts shipping in March.

Nikon unveiled the D800 in Tokyo on Tuesday, the latest addition to its DLSR range.

The new camera takes much from Nikon’s recently released D4 flagship model, though there are of course plenty of differences too.

The stand-out feature of the full-frame D800 device is its new 36.3MP CMOS sensor, which Nikon claims is capable of image quality “equal to that achieved with medium-format digital cameras.” If you’re fond of making big prints or always find yourself using your editing software’s crop tool, the D800 will give you more leeway than you ever thought you’d need.

The D800 incorporates a 51-point AF system with the viewfinder offering 100 percent coverage and 0.7x magnification. You’ll find twin memory card slots for SD and CF cards and a USB 3.0 port.

Video-wise this is Nikon’s most advanced camera to date and is capable of capturing 1080p full-HD movies at 30/25/24fps, and 720p movies at 60/50/25/24fps.

The new camera sports a magnesium alloy body and weighs 10 percent less than its predecessor, the three-and-a-half-year-old D700.

Its low frame rate of just 4fps at full resolution will come as a disappointment to some, and is the reason why Nikon is pitching the D800 at studio, wedding and nature photographers, as opposed to sports photographers.

Those who need more shots per second will continue to look toward the higher-end models, such as the D4, with its 11fps capability, though the hefty $6000 price tag of that device will be prohibitive for many. The only way users can increase the D800’s frame rate is by dropping down to DX mode (max 15 MP) and adding the MB-D12 battery pack, which’ll bump it up to 6fps.

Likewise, the D800 is also inferior to the D4 when it comes to shooting in low light, with a maximum ISO of 6400 (extendable to 25,600), compared to the D4’s 12,800 (extendable to 204,800), though we don’t want to think about how grainy things will be getting if an image is pushed that far.

Still, for those looking to upgrade from the D700 or D300S, or pro shooters in need of a back-up body (sports photographers excepted), the D800 will be very tempting.

The D800E was also announced on Tuesday, which is identical to the D800 except for the elimination of the anti-aliasing low-pass filter, enabling it to capture images with even more detail.

The D800 will hit stores in March with a price tag of $3000 (body only). The D800E body will be available in April for $3300. Both cameras will go on display for the first time at the Camera & Photo Imaging Show in Yokohama, which kicks off on Thursday.

[Images: NikonRumors]

View the original article here

Steve Jobs Bio: Its 6 Most Surprising Reveals

2012-02-09T13:30:00.001-08:00

By Christina Bonnington

Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs doesn’t go on sale until Monday, but advanced copies have been delivered to the New York Times, Associated Press and Huffington Post, all of which have been dribbling out telling insights and factoids about Apple’s former CEO.

We’ll be getting our own copy of the book — simply titled Steve Jobs — on Monday. Until then, enjoy these surprising peeks into the life and psyche of the 21st century’s most famous, if not celebrated, CEO.

Steve Wanted to go ‘Thermonuclear’ on Android
Jobs was livid when HTC introduced an Android phone that shared a number of iPhone features in early 2010. An excerpt from the book:

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.” He told Google’s Eric Schmidt, “I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.’’ [AP]

Interesting to note: Jobs’ vendetta is still going on full force — just look at litigation battles between Apple and Samsung over patents owned by Apple. One of the most recent developments could be seriously detrimental to the Android platform. An Australian judge issued a temporary injunction banning the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia because it infringes on two patents held by Apple relating to multitouch. Because multitouch is such a broadly defined technology, the injunction could impede any Android product release in Australia.

Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. Image: Barnes and Noble

Steve Expected to Die Young

Jobs confided to former Apple CEO John Sculley that he believed he would die young, and therefore needed to accomplish very much very quickly in order to make his mark on Silicon Valley history.

“We all have a short period of time on this earth,” he told the Sculleys. “We probably only have the opportunity to do a few things really great and do them well. None of us has any idea how long we’re going to be here nor do I, but my feeling is I’ve got to accomplish a lot of these things while I’m young.” [Huffington Post]

Jobs’ now famous 2005 Stanford commencement speech expanded on his views of life, death and our limited time on earth. At that event, he said, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

Steve Became an Expert on Cancer Treatment — If Only Too Late
Despite pleas from friends and family, Jobs initially declined surgery to treat his cancer, waiting nine months before going under the knife. As the book reports: “The big thing was that he really was not ready to open his body,” Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell, said. “It’s hard to push someone to do that.”

However, when Jobs finally did come around to traditional medical treatments, he did so with all the intellectual penetration of Apple product development. Or so reports the book:

“When he did take the path of surgery and science, Mr. Jobs did so with passion and curiosity, sparing no expense, pushing the frontiers of new treatments. According to Mr. Isaacson, once Mr. Jobs decided on the surgery and medical science, he became an expert — studying, guiding and deciding on each treatment. Mr. Isaacson said Mr. Jobs made the final decision on each new treatment regimen.” [NYT]

Jobs became one of only 20 people in the world to have all the genes of both his cancer tumor and normal DNA sequenced — a project that cost $100,000 at the time. The innovative treatments Jobs received would soon turn cancer into a “manageable chronic disease,” a doctor told him. Jobs told Isaacson that he felt that he was either going to be one of the first “to outrun a cancer like this” or be among the last “to die from it.”

Steve Was Intent on Setting Up Apple For Future Success
Acutely aware of his own mortality, Jobs wanted to ensure Apple remained strong in his absence.

“Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands,” Jobs told Isaacson. “But now it’s being dismembered and destroyed. I hope I’ve left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple.” [AP]

Jobs worked diligently to groom top talent, according to The Wall Street Journal, after his initial cancer diagnosis. Indeed, Apple reportedly has a program called “Apple University” that began in 2008 and acts like an MBA program to pass on Apple culture and business ethos to top executives — ensuring that Jobs’ ideals will live on long after he’s gone.

Steve Didn’t Think Apple Was Ready For Apps
The book shares that Jobs at first “quashed the discussion” when Apple board member Art Levinson attempted to persuade him that mobile apps would be the next big thing.

Apple board member Art Levinson told Isaacson that he phoned Jobs “half a dozen times to lobby for the potential of the apps,” but, according to Isaacson, “Jobs at first quashed the discussion, partly because he felt his team did not have the bandwidth to figure out all the complexities that would be involved in policing third-party app developers.” [Huffington Post]

Steve Was, Yeah, Sort of a Hippie
Jobs’ early experiences with LSD in the 1960s, along with a character-forming trip to India, are well documented. And it seems the effects of these experiences reverberated through the rest of his life decisions.

Jobs said that he tried a number of different diets, including solely of fruits and vegetables. When he named Apple, he told Isaacson he was “on one of my fruitarian diets.” Jobs had just returned from an apple farm. He believed the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”

Jobs also said LSD “reinforced my sense of what was important — creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.” [AP]

The Beatles were one of his favorite bands, and he always hoped to get the iconic group’s music on iTunes. This was eventually accomplished in late 2010.

View Original Article here.

Chilling video depicts all Japan quakes in 2011, including March disaster

2012-02-09T00:31:00.000-08:00

Next month will mark a year since the devastating earthquake and tsunami which struck Japan on March 11. One YouTube user has used available data to create an incredible visualization map showing not just the March event but all the quakes that took place in and around the country last year. It's a chilling watch, and shows that Mother Nature is never resting.

It may not be the kind of thing you want to watch just before going to bed—especially if you live on a major fault line—but these stunning videos really bring home just how volatile and violent things are below the Earth’s surface.

YouTube user StoryMonoroch has created two stunning visualization maps—one for Japan and one for the world—showing all of the quakes which took place throughout 2011 registering between magnitude 3 and 9 on the Richter scale, and whose epicenter was at a depth of between 0km and 700km (435 miles).

Now it’s true that many of the quakes shown will not have been detected by people on the ground, especially the tremors lower down the scale and hundreds of kilometers below ground, but many will have been felt, rattling crockery and nerves in equal measure.

StoryMonoroch most likely singled out Japan for two main reasons. Firstly, it’s the world’s most quake-prone country, with four tectonic plates—the Eurasian, the Pacific, the North American and the Philippine—meeting pretty much right beneath the Pacific nation.

Secondly, the news won’t have escaped you that there was a massive magnitude-9 quake in the country last March, an event which resulted in a devastating tsunami, thousands of deaths and the virtual destruction of a nuclear power station. It’s this megathrust quake, as well as its aftermath, which forms the chilling part of StoryMonoroch’s video.

Below are the two videos, beginning with the Japan visualization map. If you’re the impatient type, push the Japan sequence on to the 1:35 mark, which is just prior to where things really get busy. The size of the circle correlates with its Richter scale measurement.

[via Geekosystem]

View the original article here

Did Nokia accidentally reveal a white Lumia 900?

2012-02-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

Did Nokia accidentally reveal a white Lumia 900 on Facebook? If so, where is it going to be released, as without the AT&T branding, it could be about to make its international debut.

Yesterday, Nokia made a lot of noise about the impending release of a white Lumia 800 Windows Phone handset, trumpeting its arrival on its Conversations blog and on its official Facebook page.

We covered the news here and included a series of images from Nokia, however a subsequent snap of the virginal phone posted to Facebook has revealed something the previous pictures did not. It’s a forward facing video-call camera, and as we all know, the Lumia 800 doesn’t have one.

However, the Lumia 900 does. Except this phone doesn’t have the AT&T branding found on the currently US-only Lumia 900, leading many to believe the phone could be making its international debut soon. If so, it won’t be coming with its 4G LTE radio, as such services are still a rarity elsewhere in the world.

The Lumia 900 has never been confirmed for launch anywhere else, but has regularly appeared and quickly disappeared from various European online retailer’s websites since then. It has also been speculated that an international version of the Lumia 900 would be released under the name Lumia 910, a phone said to have a 12-megapixel camera instead of the 8-megapixel found on the 800 and 900.

Initially expected to be part of Nokia’s grand return to Mobile World Congress, this week the existence of the Lumia 910 has been refuted by Nokia’s imaging expert Damian Dinning, who tweeted that it “didn’t exist.”

So, is this phone the Nokia 800, 900 or a Europe-bound 910? Whichever it turns out to be, the white polycarbonate body looks absolutely flawless, something Nokia themselves say was extremely difficult to achieve. They call it “extreme product making” and admit the crisp color is the result of two years work.

White phones aren’t for everyone, but Nokia’s attempt is sure to win plenty of new fans.

View the original article here

Facebook may open source some of its back-end code this year

2012-02-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

Releasing some of its core C++ code would give developers a more thorough understanding of the site's infrastructure.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently described Facebook as embracing “the hacker way,” which is to say that the company has a sort of freedom and interest in constantly innovating, breaking, and creating without boundaries that limit other enterprise businesses. How much that applies to Facebook in practice has long been up for debate, but the company may be edging closer in that direction in the near future.

Facebook research engineer Andrei Alexandrescu recently told Server-Side Magazine that the site is planning to release some of its back-end C++ code in the next year. “This year may also see the launch of some of Facebook’s core C++ library code,” he says. “We’re quite excited about that; there is some really cool stuff in there, most of which is directly aimed at high-performance server-side computing. Definitely something to watch for.”

And that’s not all. “At Facebook we’re working on some quite cool performance improvements to Hadoop/Hive,” he says. “That work is not exactly ‘server-side’ in the sense it’s oriented more towards [sic] offline storage and retrieval, than traditional online server-side data access. We hope to open source the project some time this year.”

While Facebook opened its API long ago to developers so they could build applications on top of its product, the site is far from open-source. Advocates of the standard would cut your tongue out for saying so. The social network was built entirely using open-source software, but don’t go confusing that for its current status. What it has done is contribute to the open-source community by devoting some serious man power to the development and application of PHP, OAuth, HipHop (a system that translates PHP to C++), XHP, and HTML5 – and it releases bits and pieces of its infrastructure along the way, which is more than a lot of proprietary systems can say.

Facebook has also made steps to open-source its server and data structure via the Open Compute Project. But releasing its core code would be very different from all this and give developers new insight into the house that Facebook built.

View the original article here

Anonymous publishes email exchange with Symantec over $50K payoff

2012-02-08T12:07:00.000-08:00

While Anonymous continues to go after public governments and corporations, Internet security firm Symantec is the latest company to receive attention from the hacking collective.

Released in a Pastebin dump earlier today, members of Anonymous published a long series of emails between Anonymous member “Yamatough” and a representative of Symantec going by the name of Sam Thomas. While there’s no Sam Thomas listed on LinkedIn as working at Symantec, the IP address within the header of the exchange linked to the original “sam_thomas@symantec.com” email account can be traced back to Symantec’s Mountain View, California headquarters. Writing from a Venezuelan email address, Yamatough was eventually offered $50,000 by Thomas to deliver proof of pcAnywhere and Norton Antivirus source code as well as destroy the original code. Thomas also wanted Anonymous to release a statement that the group did not hack Symantec during 2006.

During the opening negotiations, Thomas shifted to a Gmail account on January 20, 2012 in an attempt to receive attachments related to the source code. Yamatough emailed proof of the source code as well as the directories where Anonymous discovered the files. In the next series of exchanges, Thomas stalled for time claiming that it took five days to setup a standalone FTP server for Yamatough to upload the files “securely”.

On Wednesday January 25, Yamatough told Thomas that he had until Monday to work out the details. During this exchange, Symantec released a public statement regarding the safety of pcAnywhere which said “At this time, Symantec recommends disabling the product until Symantec releases a final set of software updates that resolve currently known vulnerability risks.”

The conversation between Yamatough and Thomas continued on Monday, January 30 and the discussion shifted to money. Yamatough was pushing for Thomas to use a payment company called Liberty Reserve in order to wire money into an offshore account. While Thomas claimed to check with Symantec’s finance department, Yamatough also offered the option of a wire transfer to a bank account in Lithuania or Latvia. Thomas returned with more claims of difficulty in setting up the Liberty Reserve account and offered to send Yamatough a $1,000 payment through Paypal as a sign of good faith.

Yamatough turned down the offer of the Paypal payment, but waited on a decision with Liberty Reserve. Thomas responded by increasing the overall payment amount to $50,000 and attempting to negotiate the payment into $2,500 blocks over the next three months. The bulk of the payment would be offered on proof of the destruction of the source code for both pcAnywhere and Norton Antivirus as well as a public lie about the hacking attempt.

Yamatough responded with the claim that the people running the offshore account wouldn’t process payments less than $50,000 at a time and immediately became wary that Symantec was working with the FBI in the form of Sam Thomas. Thomas attempted to continue negotiating with Yamatough, but all discussion fell apart a few hours ago.

In a comment released by Cris Paden, Sr. Manager for Corporate Communications at Symantec, he stated “In January an individual claiming to be part of the ‘Anonymous’ group attempted to extort a payment from Symantec in exchange for not publicly posting stolen Symantec source code they claimed to have in their possession. Symantec conducted an internal investigation into this incident and also contacted law enforcement given the attempted extortion and apparent theft of intellectual property.”

Paden continued “The communications with the person(s) attempting to extort the payment from Symantec were part of the law enforcement investigation. Given that the investigation is still ongoing, we are not going to disclose the law enforcement agencies involved and have no additional information to provide,” within a public comment at Infosec Island.

Assuming Paden’s comment is true, it’s highly likely that the $50,000 offer came from a law enforcement agent posing as Symantec employee Sam Thomas in order to entrap Yamatough. After posting the email exchange on Pastebin, a link to the pcAnywhere source code was posted on the official AnonymousIRC Twitter account as well as being confirmed by TheRealSabu. Symantec has not confirmed that the released file is the pcAnywhere source code at the time of this article’s publication.

View the original article here

Chrome Beta for Android impressions: Even in beta, it’s our favorite new browser

2012-02-08T10:06:00.001-08:00

Our hands-on impressions of Google's new Chrome Beta Web browser for Android 4.0, which has almost instantly become our favorite new Android browser. Video, screenshots, and a roundup of new features explained.

Eventually Google’s Chrome Web browser had to come to Android. In my heart of hearts, I knew it would happen, but I never thought it would take so long. Senior Googlers have been quoted as far back as 2008, hinting that Chrome would come to Android. Today, it finally made the jump. This morning, Google released the first beta of Chrome for Android on all devices running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Since I happen to own just about the only Android 4.0 device on the market, the Galaxy Nexus, I downloaded the beta app from the Android Market and gave it a whirl. If you happen to have a device running ICS, you should be able to find Chrome Beta in the Market as well.

My hands-on impressions of the new browser are below.

Though most mobile browsers are trying really hard to get rid of any menus or items on the screen, the Chrome ‘omnibox’ combined Search and Address bar does not leave the screen at any time. It has a search box in it, a Refresh button, a tabs button, and that familiar elipsis button that indicates there are more options. In that menu, you can open new tabs, get to Bookmarks, and toy around with Settings. The new layout works pretty well. Oddly, the mobile browser that looks most like Chrome is Dolphin HD. The Dolphin team loved Chrome for PC so much that it completely copied almost everything about its appearance, right down to the way tabs look.

Tabs in Chrome Beta are a bit different from the PC. Moving between open tabs is one of the best parts about the new UI. You can swipe from the side of any page to auto-move to the next open tab (this is a useful feature commonly found in WebOS and the BlackBerry PlayBook). Hitting the tabs button brings up a full menu of open pages. These are displayed in a stacked view that you can push up or down, as if grabbing pieces of paper inside a folder. If you swipe a page to the left or right, it is discarded off the screen. New tabs also have recently visited pages and links to Bookmarks and synced tabs from your PC (this feature did not work for me).

Incognito windows are here from the PC as well. These are private tabs that don’t save cookies or your search history. They’re pretty great if you’re looking up embarrassing stuff, though please keep in mind that even if Google isn’t recording your searches and browsing history your service provider is, whether that’s a phone company or cable company or whomever. Like Patrick Stewart, your ISP has seen it all; it’s seen everything. There is no true privacy unless you go to extremes.

In any case, Incognito tabs are still useful and can be opened just as easily as a regular tab. To access them, you go to the tabs page and swipe from the right. The Incognito tabs are colored dark blue and bundled together, but slightly separated from standard tabs so that you don’t flip through them unless you would like to do so.

The first thing I noticed about the new Chrome browser was it’s speed. While it could be my imagination, the browser seems to open faster and render pages much speedier than any other mobile browser, and today I’ve tested most of them: Dolphin, Firefox, Skyfire, Opera Mobile, and the default Android browser. Though it’s only in beta, Chrome already breezes past most of the competition. It starts up quicker and loads pages much faster.

Attempting to browse the Web on a phone has never been easy because it was originally designed for much larger screens. Each of the major Android mobile browsers attempt to help mobile users read text better on full Websites. Some of them load pages already zoomed in (Skyfire), while others attempt to wrap text so that it’s easier to read when you zoom in on a Web page. Chrome does modify text, but does so in a more elegant manner than most, simply upping the size of the text in every view, making it easier to read articles on a Web page from a zoomed out point of view and much easier once you zoom in with a double tap or pinch-to-zoom gesture. Zooming has a much smoother animation and flow to it as well. Did we mention that you can also search within a page to find a specific word or phrase? If you’re a journalist or blogger, you’ll love this feature — if you don’t already know about it. Try hitting CTRL+F in your PC browser. It’s awesome.

Privacy worriers, you don’t have to log in with your Google account, but you now have the option. Doing so will let you sync your bookmarks and even active tabs between your PC and mobile phone or tablet. I couldn’t get the phone to sync up my open tabs, but I did immediately see a benefit from logging in to my account. The mobile Chrome now knows all of my autofill data, my saved passwords, and my search history, allowing it to know that when I start typing “Digital,” I’m probably going to finish that with “Trends.”

After using the Chrome Beta for just a couple hours, I don’t think I’ll be switching to any other browser anytime soon. There are some good alternatives for Android, but the Chrome team has spent a lot of time optimizing this new browser for Android 4.0 and it shows. It allows me to easily multitask, it connects up to my PC browser, and it loads pages quickly and accurately. This browser may be in beta, but it’s already more polished than most of its competitors.

Below is a video run through of the new browser.

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Raspberry Pi $35 mini computer to ship in late February

2012-02-08T05:53:00.000-08:00

The first batch of Raspberry Pi computer units is near completion and will be available for purchase by the end of this February for just $35.

Want a $35 computer? Good news, your dreams are about to become reality! After a delayed release date, the low-cost USB computer units are finally leaving factories on February 20 and will be available on the market by the end of the month.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation team announced yesterday that since production began last month, manufacturing teams faced a short setback when they ran into problems sourcing a specific model of quartz crystal package.

“The quartz crystal package we had chosen when we thought we were manufacturing in the UK is readily available over here in Europe, and was the cheapest we could find,” the Foundation’s official blog said. “But it turns out that in China, that crystal package has been overtaken in price and size by a smaller, cheaper one, so the one we’d designed for has been a bit hard to find.”

The team has since been able to source the crystals and the first batch of units are expected to ship to the United Kingdom by the 20th for final inspections before hitting the consumer market by this month’s end. As we’ve previously reported, users can anticipate the $35 Model B version of the tiny PCs from this first wave while the cheaper and less advanced $25 Model A continues to undergo production. These deliciously named micro-boards are as technologically capable as some of the market’s latest slew of smartphones, but expect these mini-computers to be pretty bareboned as users will need to supply their own monitor, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse at the very minimum to get Raspberry Pi running.

Along with yesterday’s announcement, the Foundation also released a datasheet of the BCM2835 system-on-chip (SoC) integrated in the boards in the interest of more advanced Raspberry Pi users. The abbreviated datasheet is a mere 205 pages long, and details the components that allow Raspberry Pi to perform complex tasks such as playing HD-quality videos, supporting AirPlay and running Quake III. The datasheet will also be helpful for those who want to port their own operating systems, or are up for a long read on the boards’ Linux kernel sources.

What can you do with a $35 computer the size of a credit card? Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton originally envisioned kids using the machine to learn programming in cash-strapped high schools, but the project also has possibilities far beyond that original goal. The low power requirements mean it can be used for always-on applications, like powering a digital picture frame or virtual signage. The HDMI output and 1080p decoding capability mean it could be used as a compact, noiseless home theater PC. According to Raspberry Pi, there’s even plenty of interest in using the computer to build robots.

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Micron CEO Steve Appleton dies in plane crash

2012-02-07T17:25:00.001-08:00

Micron Technology chief executive Steve Appleton passed away Friday after crashing his "experimental" single-engine aircraft at the Boise Airport.
Steve Appleton, chairman and CEO of memory chip maker Micron Technology, died today after suffering fatal injuries in a plane crash at the Boise Airport in Idaho. He was 51.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Appleton, Micron Chairman and CEO, passed away this morning in a small plane accident in Boise,” the company said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to his wife, Dalynn, his children and his family during this tragic time. Steve’s passion and energy left an indelible mark on Micron, the Idaho community and the technology industry at large.”
According to the Idaho Press, Appleton was flying alone in “an experimental fixed wing single engine Lancair” aircraft. Just after takeoff from Boise Airport, Appleton told air traffic controllers that he needed to return.
“I’d like to turn back in… and land. Coming back in,” Appleton said, just before he lost control of the aircraft, according to NWCN.com.
Appleton was a known daredevil. According to his Wikipedia page, Appleton’s “hobbies include scuba diving, surfing, wakeboarding, motorcycles and more recently off road car racing. His aviation background includes multiple ratings and professional performances at air shows in both propeller- and jet-powered aircraft. He also has a Black Belt in Taekwondo.” In 2010, Appleton took 7th overall in the epic Baja 1000 race, with a time of 20:32:18.
In July of 2004, Appleton crashed one of his 20 planes while performing stunts over the Idaho desert. In that instance, he only sustained minor cuts and scrapes
Appleton began his career at Micron, which makes DRAM, NAND and NOR flash memory, back in 1983. He held a number of positions in the company before being named CEO in 1994. He was only 34 at the time, which made him the third youngest CEO in the Fortune 500.
Following news of Appleton’s accident, Micron, the largest memory chip maker in the US, suspended trading of its stock on Nasdaq. According to Dow Jones Newswires chip reporter Shara Tibken, Appleton’s death “comes at a time when the memory-chip market is going through a lot of changes. Prices have been falling and demand has been softening, largely due to PC and macro weakness, and some Asian rivals are struggling to stay in business. MU has been doing fairly well and is one of the stronger memory-chip makers, but it’s not immune to the market weakness. Meanwhile, [Micron] President Mark Durcan said last month he planned to retire at the end of August.”
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Study: Is Facebook more addictive than alcohol or cigarettes?

2012-02-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

While the addictive nature of checking social networks has only been escalated by more smartphone sales, one study has come to the conclusion that it may be even more addictive than popular vices.
According to a new study out of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the desire to check a social network like Twitter or Facebook is stronger than the need to smoke a cigarette or have an alcoholic beverage. As reported by The Guardian, test subjects between the ages of 18 to 85 were armed with BlackBerry smartphones and asked to send messages seven times a day related to recent desires. Splitting the messages up over 14 hours a day covering an entire week, respondents were asked to list any desire felt in the last 30 minutes and describe the level of strength of that desire. The 205 participants were also asked to describe how it interfered with other desires and if the desire was resisted.

After collecting over 10,000 responses from the group, approximately three fourths were related to some type of desire. Sexual activity and sleep ranked at the top of the desire list, but checking social networks and attempting to avoid work were very close behind.
However, respondents were able to resist the majority of sexual and spending impulses. In addition, addictive vices such as caffeine, tobacco and alcohol were much lower on the overall list of desires. Researchers also discovered that the ability to resist certain desires is much stronger at the start of the day and participants were more likely to give into a desire if they continually attempted to resist it throughout the day.
According to Wilhelm Hofmann, the University’s assistant professor of behavioral science, he stated “Resisting the desire to work was likewise prone to fail. In contrast, people were relatively successful at resisting sports inclinations, sexual urges, and spending impulses, which seems surprising given the salience in modern culture of disastrous failures to control sexual impulses and urges to spend money.”
Specifically regarding social media, he went on to say “The fact sleep and leisure were the most problematic desires suggests pervasive tension between natural inclinations to rest and relax and the multitude of work and other obligations. Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not ‘cost much’ to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist.”
The study has been submitted to Psychological Science and is scheduled to be published in the journal soon. Another recent study out of Utah Valley University explored the possibility that Facebook is making people sad due to the high amount of happy pictures and status updates found on the social network.
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