These updates add some new features, correct some bugs, and broaden device support.

Lightroom 4.1 is the first major version update since Lightroom 4 was released in March, and it includes the ability to process HDR TIFF files (16, 24, or 32-bit,) and adds more color fringing corrections to address the issue of chromatic aberration, or the presence of thin bands of color or ghostly borders on super high contrast parts of photos (Shown in picture above, Adobe explains the phenomenon in this blog post.)
Photobooks created in the Book Module can now be saved as JPEG files, and photos can be published to Adobe Revel with the aptly-named Publish plugin.

Camera Raw 7.1 adds similar features, including the ability to read 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit HDR files (TIFF/DNG,) and new Defringe controls for the aforementioned chromatic aberration phenomenon. Defringe has been woven into the Lens Correction panel. Customers of previous versions of Photoshop can utilize DNG Converter 7.1 for raw file support for newly added cameras, which includes:
• Canon EOS 1D X
• Canon EOS 5D Mark III
• Canon EOS 60Da
• Canon PowerShot G1 X
• Fuji FinePix F505EXR
• Fuji FinePix F605EXR
• Fuji FinePix F770EXR
• Fuji FinePix F775EXR
• Fuji FinePix HS30EXR
• Fuji FinePix HS33EXR
• Fuji X-Pro1
• Leica M Monochrom (DNG)
• Leica X2 (DNG)
• Nikon D4
• Nikon D800
• Nikon D800E
• Olympus OM-D E-M5
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF5
• Pentax K-01
• RICOH LENS A16 24-85mm F3.5-5.5
• Samsung NX20
• Samsung NX210
• Samsung NX1000

Lightroom 4.1 for Windows and Mac is available as a free download for Lightroom 4 customers, and the Camera Raw plug-in is available as a free download for Photoshop CS6 customers.

The news and specualtion around Win32/Flamer is extensive and complex. While it is understandable that what appears to be a sophisticated threat found in several regions, some of them particularly politically sensitive, has excited so much interest. Conflicting conjecture and confusion over the "ownership" of the detection is muddying the waters somewhat.

According to the Iran National CERT, it had detection (but not removal) for the malware in early May, but Kaspersky claims it’s been in the wild since March 2010. This seems to be the same malware theat that the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS) in Budapest calls sKyWIper (which they believe may have been active for 5-8 years or even longer).  However, it looks as if those assumptions on timing are incorrect: module compilation dates have been manipulated, presumably in order to hamper researchers in some way.

Nonetheless, the Budapest lab has some interesting initial analysis, which shouldn’t be overlooked. While I’m reluctant to add to the confusion, it seems to be of interest that the malware has been reported not only in the Middle East/Western Asia (including Israel, curiously enough), but also in Eastern Europe (notably Hungary and Austria) and even Hong Kong.

Whether it’s actually targeting a specific country is not clear: after all, Stuxnet is nowadays assumed to have been targeting Iran, but was originally detected over a very wide area. While there’s speculation that Flamer is linked in some way to Stuxnet and Duqu, that seems to me to be -- well, speculative, as most of the code seems very different.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is that the Iran National CERT (Maher) has volunteered to share samples with security vendors even though many software vendors (notably those headquartered in the US) are unable to trade legally with Iran. (Bizarrely, these malicious programs are running in Iran on an operating system that Microsoft can’t export to Iran.) This restriction may have hampered initial detection of the malware by security vendors outside the region, but samples have subsequently trickled into the mainstream via secondary sources.

The whole episode seems strangely reminiscent of the excitement back in 1990 about Whale. This was a very large, very complex, heavily-armoured virus that attracted a great deal of detailed analysis: as Alan Solomon said later, far more analysis than was really necessary to write detection for the thing. I guess researchers had more spare time in those days.

There is a difference, though: Whale was significant because of the array of interesting techniques it contained, but as malware it was barely functional. Flamer, however, looks to be too effective to be ignored, even though detection for it is already widespread. In that respect, it is like Stuxnet: no-one will be happy until we have a better idea of the who, the whys and the wherefores behind it.

Reprinted with permission.

Photo Credit: kentoh/Shutterstock

David Harley BA CITP FBCS CISSP is an English IT security researcher, author/editor and consultant known for his prolific blogs and articles and his books on and research into topics like malware, Mac security, anti-malware product testing and management of email abuse. He works closely with ESET, where, since 2011, he has held the position of Senior Research Fellow.

Xbox Live Gold members have had access to Netflix and NBC Universal content on their 360s for nearly four years, and in that time, the service has grown to include ESPN, Crackle, Epix, SyFy, Hulu Plus and more. Today's addition of Amazon Prime on Demand adds approximately 17,000 titles to the mix.

Amazon Prime Instant Video has already launched on the Playstation 3, Roku set-top boxes, and a number of other connected televisions and media players, but the Xbox 360 launch is the exclusive TV-connected device to get the Watchlist feature. Watchlist, which is essentially a playlist for TV shows and movies to be watched later, is available today on the Kindle Fire and in desktop browsers as well.

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

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

"One of the most alarming facts is that the Flame cyber-attack campaign is currently in its active phase, and its operator is consistently surveilling infected systems, collecting information and targeting new systems to accomplish its unknown goals", Kaspersky Lab chief security expert Alexander Gostev says.

Flame is quite large in size -- about 20 megabytes. This would make it over 20 times the size of the Stuxnet worm.

Given that Flame appears to be targeting Middle Eastern governments, suspicion that this may be the work of hackers connected to the Israeli government is high. While the Jewish state has not taken responsibility for the attack, the comments of Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon did little to quell speculation otherwise.

"Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat is likely to take various steps, including these, to hobble it", Yaalon is reported to have said on Israeli Army Radio Tursday. "Israel is blessed with high technology, and we boast tools that open all sorts of opportunities for us".

Even with Yaalon's comments, it is still important to note that Kaspersky found Flame on computers in Israel as well, although nearly every other country that Flame has been detected in -- Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Sudan -- do not have the best relations with Israel.

Flame evaded detection for two years as it was successfully able to morph itself by attempting to detect what antivirus software was running. From there, it would hide itself in files that the antivirus software would not expect to be holding malicious code.

That is the biggest problem here, say experts. Traditional antivirus techniques failed, and Flame is successfully exploiting these holes.

"The reality here is that threats, regardless of whether they are crafted by nation states or not, find their way into networks", SourceFire development chief Alfred Huger said of the news. "Most technology focuses on stopping threats yet gives us little recourse if they fail to do so. This is the area that needs attention when we talk about threats like Flame. The gap that presents itself in the 'what if' and 'what now' is best summarized by a lack of visibility and a lack of control".

Photo Credit: BESTWEB/Shutterstock

Google and Samsung couldn't have done more to hide the second-generation Chromebook and new Chromebox during Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in January. They're cloaked no longer, as I explain in my "Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 first-impressions review". The products launched today, and they're worth a look. But is the new Chromebook worth buying?

Everyone should ask first about performance, because by the specs Samsung's new Chromebook is an under-performer -- Celeron processor in an Core i-processor world. But there are different measures of performance, and only one really matters: Is it good enough for what it's meant to do? I partly answer the question in my review, but the topic is so important for this computer I've dedicated another post just to it. Quick answer: Performance is good enough. However, price-performance is another matter.

An Air Comparison

For two months last summer, I used the original Samsung Series 5 Chromebook as my primary PC, in the first weeks and as my only one later on. The cloud experience was refreshing, no liberating, but Chromebook grated the longer I used it, because of performance. There was too much lag, and video playback was too choppy. At the least, Chromebook needed 4GB of memory, rather than two, faster processor and better graphics chip. The new model has the memory chops and perhaps good-enough processor and graphics chips, by the aforementioned measure. I use "perhaps" because the real test is time -- performance a month from now or longer.

Google got what could have been a disastrous luck of the draw, sending me a Chromebook to use ahead of today's launch. I moved form a smoking MacBook Air, which places high measure for comparable user experience performance.

MacBook Air specs: 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 processor; 11.6-inch glossy display (1366 x 768 resolution); 256GB flash memory; Intel HD graphics; 4GB SDRAM; webcam; two USB ports; Thuderbolt port; WiFi N; Bluetooth 4.0; iLife '11; and OS X Lion.

Chromebook 5 550 specs: 1.3GHz Intel Celeron 867 processor (dual-core); 12.1-inch matte display (1280 x 800 resolution; 300 nit); 16GB solid-state drive; Intel HD graphics; 4GB SDRAM; webcam; two USB ports, DisplayPort; WiFi N; 3G (one some models); Gigabit Ethernet; 4-in-1 media card slot; and Chrome OS. The operating system stack supports Bluetooth, which therefore can be added by dongle.

Smooth Operator

Based on the specs, I absolutely prepared for huge letdown, but didn't get it. Instead, I'm surprisingly satisfied with my first week using the new Chromebook. Always. My first open tab went to Hulu, so I could see if video streaming had improved. Considering that through Google's subscription program, education is a target market, video streaming needs to be excellent. Students will demand it for leisure and study. Video also is excellent measure of overall performance, without benchmarking, which I never do since it's often poor measure of real-world usage and primary value is comparing devices. Verdict: Video delivers.

Overall operation is smooth, even with a dozen or more tabs open. In fact, BetaNews website opens much faster on this machine than the Air. We've got a couple banner ads running recently that just slog down main site opening, or so I experience on the Apple computer but not the Samsung.

Bottom line: For the last week, the new Chromebook wasn't just my primary machine, it was my only one. I'll spend all of June using this computer, unexpectedly beginning a repeat of last summer's two-months with its predecessor. The switch is easier because so much of what I do is in the cloud, compared to last year, and the overall experience is so improved -- and that's because of software as much as hardware.

The 550's specs generate strong gut "this can't be good enough" reaction, but my experience is satisfaction. Remember, I came from using MacBook Air and expected a dim user experience by comparison.

The Xbox Analogy

Techdom is too obsessed with specs, something vendors perpetuate in their product marketing. I could use many examples to refute the more-is-better myth, but for this audience Xbox 360 works. Microsoft started selling the game console in November 2005 and there have been no major platform updates since. Today's Xbox 360 is much the same as the original; yes, Microsoft tweaked hardware along the way. Gamers pine for more, but who complains the console underperforms?

Rather, the games keep getting better as does the overall user experience. Microsoft improves Xbox 360 by way of software updates and cloud services. Then there are platform extensions, with Kinect top of list. The motion sensor radically improves the overall user experience without changing the core platform. This is how you should see Chromebook, as a category.

Google has set a hardware baseline, with the big benefits coming from improvements to software and services, similar to the Xbox and Xbox Live ecosystems. New Chrome OS versions closely track browser development, which revs a new version about every six weeks. Chromebook Series 5 550 ships with v19, but v20, which is in the beta channel, offers Google Drive integration. Last month, my colleague Tim Conneally aptly observed that the newly launched Google Drive is "perfect for a Nexus tablet". The feature is as good, if not better, for Chromebook.

Price to Performance

But there's another consideration -- price to performance and how it compares to other choices. That's where Chromebook crumbles for many potential buyers. The newer Samsung sells for more than its predecessor when released -- $449 vs $429 for the WiFi model and $549 vs $499 for 3G. Compared to MacBook Air, which starts at $999 and the model I have $1,649, price to performance is quite favorable. But, by the specs, there are plenty of lower-cost options. Hell, in my local Best Buy on Saturday, I saw an ASUS laptop (not netbook) discounted to $249.

Then there are the tablets. San Diego school district is readying 25,000 iPads for classrooms in the autumn. Education is one of Google's primary target markets. iPad 2 sells for $399 and newer Apple tablet starts at $499. New iPad's high-res display, 2048 x 1536, decimates Chromebook 5 550 for readability and overall user experience. Even compared to many other currently selling laptops, screen resolution lacks and will, by comparison, look less appealing when new Windows 8 laptops ship in a few months.

That's perhaps the important distinction when making the Xbox comparison. The 360 was state of art in November 2005. The 550, as flagship second-generation Chromebook launch model, falls behind even as it starts. Much depends on how far Google can extend the user experience with ever-more and quickly-improving software and services. I'm confident Chromebook 5 550 will satisfy most of my computing needs through the end of June. But the computer is not for everyone -- whatever is, eh?

What Price is Right?

On Sunday, my father-in-law bought a used car for my daughter. The financial guy processing our paperwork turns out to be a Cr-48 Chromebook user. The topic came up after he commented about my Androids skateboarding Tee. Knowing that I would be writing about the Series 5 550 and looking for reaction to Chrome OS 19, I asked for Chromebook user experiences on Google+. Pricing must have leaked, because teacher Brian Fay commented:

Did you see the price? $549 is way, way, way beyond my price range for such a thing. If that will be the final price, I'll likely buy a cheap notebook and throw Linux on it instead. Not as good as a Chromebook (fast boot, no maintenance) but good enough. I always thought that these things would end up being $200 or so. Oh well.

So did I.

Fay is a good measure being an educator and education being one of Chromebook's primary target markets. As a long-term performance investment, $549 is potentially quite rich. As previously stated, much depends on Google making more of what buyers have got.

However, for businesses or schools, pricing is different. Google launched the original Chromebook with a multi-year monthly subscription plan, but that goes away today. Under the new scheme, businesses buy the device at the manufacturer's suggested retail price plus $150. For schools it's MSRP plus $30 per device. The extra fee covers maintenance and other service fees.

Performance is there today and hardware upgrades promise continued performance for price in the future. Chromebook subscription looked like a good value, now it's gone.

Demand will drive down selling prices, as Samsung and other Chromebook OEMs increase production and economies of scale kick in. Looks to me like even second-gen Chromebook buyers will pay a price premium for being early adopters. What else can explain price increases for a category many people expected declines?

My mom uses the Cr-48 Chromebook, and I planned on buying her a new one. But even $449 is rich. Mom's worth spending that much, of course. My concern is rapidly diminishing value over time. How I feel after a month using the Series 5 550 Chromebook will weigh in my decision for her and final recommendation to you. For now, I'll say that performance satisfies. I am less encouraged about price-to-performance value now and in the future. However, I see huge price-to-performance value in $329 Series 3 Chromebox, which also launched today.

Today, Google and Samsung officially launch the second-generation Chromebook, starting with the Series 5 550, which like its predecessor comes in WiFi-only and 3G combo models. I had the pleasure of using the new Chromebook for the past week as my only PC. The overall user experience is surprisingly satisfying and refreshing.  In a computer market dominated by Mac and Windows, Chromebook is freedom from duopolies that define the experience within walled gardens and around desktop applications. But changes introduced with Chrome OS 19 make the user experience much more desktop-like, as Google cedes some of the browser motif for familiarity and usability, with multitasking being high among the reasons.

If you read no further, the answer to your question is this: Yes, you can use Chromebook Series 5 550 as your primary, and only, PC. Google has succeeded offering online and offline capabilities balanced to most computing needs, while keeping cloud benefits primary but seamlessly integrated. For two months last summer, I used the original Samsung Series 5 Chromebook as my primary PC, in the first weeks and as my only one later on. I'll repeat the experiment at least through the end of June, and I might not go back -- strange, considering new OS X and Windows versions debut within months. That commitment says much about my positive first impressions.

By the specs, Samsung's second-generation Chromebook is hugely underpowered: 1.3GHz Intel Celeron 867 processor (dual-core); 12.1-inch matte display (1280 x 800 resolution; 300 nit); 16GB solid-state drive; Intel HD graphics; 4GB SDRAM; webcam; two USB ports; DisplayPort; WiFi N; 3G (one some models); Gigabit Ethernet; 4-in-1 media card slot; and Chrome OS. The operating system stack supports Bluetooth, which therefore can be added by dongle.

The WiFi model sells for $449, a $20 increase over the original Series 5 and the 3G 550 is $549 -- or 50 bucks more. Price increase surprises, particularly considering what's inside. Performance and price are so important, I pulled them out of this review into a separate, 1,500-word exploration. Quickly stated: Performance is there, but $549 is a bit rich. If you want more than that, please read the companion post.

What's It Like?

Before continuing, trackpad is priority mention. Users of the Cr-48 test model and commercially available Acer and Samsung Chromebooks complained about the trackpad, with good reason. Expect  better now. Google rewrote the driver, and the 550 trackpad works! That said, no computer should ship with trackpad performance as bad as Google and its partners delivered last year.

Out of the box. In January, based on specs and photos my colleague Tim Conneally collected during Consumer Electronics Show 2012, I called the new Samsung Chromebook a "cheap, plastic MacBook". Well, it's not all plastic. The rest bar is metal, and it's quite comfortable. Overall, the 550 feels sturdier than the original Series 5, and it's surprisingly handsome -- not cheap, or imitation after all. This has much to do with contours and curves.

Setting up the Series 5 550 is similar to its predecessor. Open the lid, wait a few seconds for boot up and walk through language, keyboard layout and connection prompts to Google account login, and that's it. Setup complete. During my May 25 briefing with Googlers Linus Upson, vice president of engineering, and Caesar Sengupta, director of Chrome OS, I praised the trackpad performance but complained about the space bar, which consistently required multiple taps. Uh-oh, that can't be right, they said. Google sent a second 550, presuming the first was defective out of the box. So I had the pleasure of second setup. Changing computers was never easier -- just log in, baby. The point: Setup is one of Chromebook's primary benefits.

The second Chromebook is better in other ways. The overall typing experience is smoother, and the spacebar works just fine. My typing speed is quite good, in fact. Keyboard comfort is hugely important in any laptop, and I worried about lag while typing. There is none.

Closing the lid puts the laptop to sleep, while opening is instant-on. Seriously instantly. I used a Core i7 MacBook Air before the Series 5 550, and the Apple computer is nearly instant-on from sleep when connected to electricity, while taking 4-to-7 seconds to start when on battery. Samsung's Chromebook immediately starts whether connected to power or using battery. Truly instant-on is another Chromebook primary benefit.

The screen doesn't exactly wow me. At 300 nit, it's bright enough, but text is typical, meaning just okay, for a 1280 x 800 display. Google can't magically improve viewable dots per inch without a hardware upgrade, but an optimized, customized font could go far to improve the visual experience. I compare to my Galaxy Nexus, where text is crisp, by comparison. Microsoft did wonders with ClearType. Google should do something similar.

Still, the display offers one big benefit: matte versus glossy finish. Contrast isn't as sharp, but there's no glare, making the new Samsung Chromebook a much better outdoor companion than most other laptops sold today.

Chrome OS. While hardware modestly improves over original Series 5, the software dramatically changes. Google introduced new window manager Aura with Chrome OS 19. While the browser motif dominates the desktop, it's not the only landscape. There is a bottom toolbar that is something of a cross between those available on OS X and Windows 7, plus there's a desktop now. OS X and Windows fans looking for a reason to diss Chrome OS should enjoy changes easily characterized as a big fail for the browser OS concept.

The changes aren't so much concession as extension. The full-screen browser remains, but simply as option. Users can have it both ways, while gaining something else: Better multitasking, a capability the tabbed motif limited. Separate windows allow users to work more freely. In theory. I find the desktop motif to be superfluous. Tabs work just fine for me.

Something else: there's an app launcher, which presents applications in grid-like fashion, reminiscent of Android. The launcher is unexpected, since these are web apps after all. But the motif works and makes the experience more familiar to everyone that has used popular mobile or PC operating systems. In the lower right-hand corner is a clock behind which there are some pop-up settings presented, and they take visual cues from Android 4.x. Actually, many of the UI changes subtly remind of Ice Cream Sandwich. Perhaps there is yet a future where Google combines Android and Chrome OS, something I would recommend.

BTW, translucency is a design element, another similarity to Android. But Google adds translucency as Apple and Microsoft largely or completely abandon it in their operating systems. I'm a big fan of the motif.

Chrome 19 is the stable build, as I write, but v20 offers additional benefits, with Google Drive integration being biggest. Chrome OS development closely follows the browser, which revs a new version about every six weeks. So Google will improve the Chromebook experience fairly frequently, within every few months compared to several years for OS X or Windows. The point: Chromebook improves with age, which is another benefit.

Down to work. Chromebook critics often point to the cloud as foible -- that the computer is a brick without Internet connection. That hasn't been true for sometime. Chrome OS supports offline apps, even games, and Google consistently extends such capabilities. The search and information giant has done well making the online-offline experience/capabilities transparent. There are more offline, desktop PC capabilities -- albeit many still limited.

The file manager is one, while photo viewer, with barebones editing capabilities, is another. There's an audio player, too, basic as it may be. I keep my permanent music library (about 13,000 songs) on an external, FAT32-formatted 1TB drive. Plugged into the 550's USB port, the drive is fully accessible, and I can play music using the audio player, which produces rich tones. Streaming is my preferred option, using Google Music.

However, while audio fidelity satisfies, volume doesn't. When using Bose Companion 5 speakers or Grado Reference Series RS1i headphones, I need to crank up the volume near full on the Series 5 550, whereas I rarely pass one-quarter volume on the MacBook Air. Perhaps a better software driver will fix that. Something else: On both new Chromebooks, connected speakers blast feedback/loud buzz when the computer sleeps. The noise scares the crap out of the cat, if he's napping. The audio problems are simply unacceptable for a computer selling for more than $500.

Google Docs and Gmail are available online or offline. There's little new to discuss here, other than I had no real problems working either way. However, most of my writing is done in HTML in a browser, so my testing Google offline apps is limited.

As a cloud computer, Series 5 550 Chromebook is meant to be mostly connected. WiFi performance is excellent, with better range than the MacBook Air. The 3G model has excellent coverage, from Verizon, which offers 100MB per month free data for two years. Google and Samsung could have really set Chromebook apart from OS X or Windows laptops by offering LTE, which would better justify the $549 price. Verizon activation is supposed to be pretty fast, and was on the original Series 5, but I couldn't get it to work at all yesterday; five fails.

Streaming video delivers handsomely, which hugely improves over the original Series 5 out of the box. However, the volume problem is pronounced on some sites, with Hulu being a big, glaring example. Google really must fix this.

I've only done modest battery testing, but got more than 6 hours with heavy usage -- as in more than a dozen tabs open and music streaming. I expect consistent battery life to be close to 7 hours, which is a good hour less than what the original Series 5 Chromebook delivered. Granted, there's more overhead with GUI changes and dual-core processor. That said, battery life is a big Chromebook benefit. On a good day, I only get four hours from MacBook Air.

Will I Use It?

In early October, I ended a long run -- from July 31 -- using the original Series 5 Chromebook as my primary PC. In June I return, and quite unexpectedly. On May 20, I posted to Google+ about plans to go Android tablet:

I considered Chromebook, given the more desktop-UI enhancements coming, but there's no new hardware out there. What about Android? My Galaxy Nexus is so fast and responsive, surely there's a case for trying out an Ice Cream Sandwich tablet as primary PC for a month. Apps are plentiful, which appeals over Chrome OS.

Obviously, new iPad would be contender, too, and I seriously considered experimenting that way. But that kind of thing has been done and written about often enough. Besides, Android tablet promises more challenges and so something more interesting to write about.

I purchased the ASUS Tranformer Pad 300 and keyboard for the purpose. Someone at Google must read my posts, because later that Sunday came the offer for Chromebook and Chromebox loaners and briefing, three days later as Google+ Hangout using the 550's webcam. The Samsung Series 3 Chromebox also launched today.

I was enthused about getting the Chromebook but apprehensive. Android seems more viable a long-term investment, given its popularity, huge app ecosystem and better hardware. Those are major reasons why I prepared to go Android tablet for a month, or at least attempt to. I also snubbed nose the specs, particularly based on last year's Chromebook experience. So I was remarkably surprised how satisfying is overall performance and usability as primary PC replacement.

That's not to say Chromebook is for everyone or even most anyone. Businesses or individuals dependent on Office or other desktop apps should look elsewhere, for example. But the second-generation is ready for public consumption, which is coming soon. Right now, laptops running Chrome OS are available only for online purchase. Next month, Chromebook arrives in Best Buy, so that people will be able to try and buy. Between time, I'll offer ongoing updates about my next and unexpected Chromebook adventure.

Chrome OS is taking up new residence. Today Google and Samsung launch Chromebox, a Mac mini-like computer to which buyers attach keyboard, mouse and monitor. The idea isn't novel: Users keep their existing peripherals while upgrading hardware and migrating to a spanking new operating system. For anyone looking to get off the OS X or Windows train, Chromebox proves to be an affordable alternative running Google's browser-boasting, cloud-connected Linux-based OS.

Samsung Series 3 Chromebox joins Samsung's second-generation Chromebook, the Series 5 500, also launched today, and it's a bargain by comparison -- $329 versus $449 for WiFi-only laptop and $549 for 3G combo. The chromebox also sports a faster processor, 1.9GHz vs 1.3GHz for Chromebook. The cloud-computing device, now with loads of local functionality and storage, is well-suited for educational institutions and small businesses.

However, new pricing plan could make Chromebox costlier for some businesses or institutions. Google launched the original Chromebook with a multi-year monthly subscription plan, but that goes away today. Under the new scheme, businesses buy the device at the manufacturer's suggested retail price plus $150. For schools it's MSRP plus $30 per device. The extra fee covers maintenance and other services. That said, one institution or small business could deploy a single Chromebox for many users, making $479 or $359 a smart, managed investment.

That's in part because of the cloud box concept. Chrome OS development closely follows the browser, which revs a new version about every six weeks. So Google will improve the Chromebox experience fairly frequently, within every few months compared to several years for OS X or Windows. Google dispatches these updates automatically, as it does with other cloud products or services, providing low- to non-touch IT management.

Meanwhile, starting with Chrome OS 19, Google changed the user experience, so it's more desktop-like. There is a window manager now, taskbar, app launcher and other new features. Additionally, Chromebox is meant to be used in always-connected environments, removing concerns about cloud access. If the network is done, every user is, whether they use PC, Mac or Chromebox. All are equal on the network.

Google already touts customer wins: Dillard's, which the search and information giant claims will deploy "hundreds of Chromeboxes in more than half of their US stores", while Kaplan, working with Genesys, is moving its New York City call center to WebRTC and Chromeboxes.

Samsung Series 3 Chromebox specs: 1.9GHz Intel Celeron processor (dual-core); 16GB solid-state drive; Intel HD graphics; 4GB SDRAM; webcam; six USB ports; two DisplayPorts; DVI port; WiFi N; Bluetooth 3.0; Gigabit Ethernet; and Chrome OS. Device measures 7.6 x 7.6 x 1.3 inches and weighs 2.45 pounds. Buyers use their existing peripherals, although Samsung sells wireless mouse and keyboard, too.

As part of the ongoing development process, Google is focusing more on simplifying setup and management, including auto-update and auto-enrollment controls. Additionally, Chrome Remote Desktop, currently in beta, allows educational institutions or businesses -- and consumers, too -- to tunnel into their Mac or Windows desktops to run older apps. Yes, Virginia, you can have Chrome OS and use your legacy stuff, too.

I have strong reservations about Chromebook's long-term performance-to-price value, because of the slower processor and much higher price. Chromebox, by comparison, offers lots more for lots less.

I have a Chromebox and will soon publish a review. But I've got to ask here and now: Will you buy one?

Pavel Durov, the outspoken founder and CEO of popular Russian social network VKontakte says the site's initial public offering has been indefinitely postponed due to a chilling effect caused by the Facebook IPO, which has been called the worst performing IPO of the last decade.

VKontakte (VK) is not nearly as large as Facebook in membership, but it has remained one of the top 50 most popular sites in the world for several years, and is Russia's fourth most-popular site altogether.

Today, Russian Internet group Mail.ru announced it will turn over the voting rights associated with its 39.9 percent stake of VKontakte to the social network's CEO Pavel Durov.

The Mail.ru Group said the two companies had "agreed on coordination and cooperation" strategies that would help them both moving forward.

Durov's first move after the announcement was to squash any talk of a potential IPO.

"Facebook IPO destroyed the faith of many private investors in social networks, and the VK IPO [is] postponed indefinitely," Durov said in response to a question on Twitter.

Today, just under two weeks after Facebook floated its IPO at $38 per share, the social network's shares are trading at under $30. Rating agency Standard and Poor's Capital IQ gives Facebook shares a "sell" rating.

Now, I understand why some of you would consider this to be pure fantasy. Intel has been trying to pry its way into the smartphone and tablet markets for five years now, and until this year the company has had little to show for it.

One reason for the slow start is that Intel has had to retool itself in order to compete in these markets. The performance-per-Watt tradeoffs are necessarily different for smartphones and tablets than they are for notebooks, desktops and servers. Intel has been learning that, and also discovering what else smartphone and tablet designers want.

That’s all understandable. Anytime you attack a new market, you don’t know what you don’t know until you dig in and get your hands dirty. Intel’s hands now are finally dirty. And now, finally, Intel has a competitive part in Medfield, the latest Atom iterant. Design wins are beginning to materialize as a result.

OK, Atom is now better than it was. It’s in the stable of options. So what? That’s not going to get Apple’s attention.

Apple will want a solution that stands out from the field, not one that’s just now making its way into the lineup of viable options. And Apple will want custom variants made exclusively for its devices. Building custom parts isn’t a problem for the high-volume, standard parts manufacturer, Otellini says. He told investors that Intel is slowly bringing up a foundry business, and would entertain the notion of producing made-to-order chips for "strategic customers".

Apple likely would fall into that category, yes? Yes.

That could be a strategic move for Apple, as well. Today, Samsung builds the custom processors inside Apple’s smartphones and tablets. And it’s no secret that Apple views Samsung’s smartphone and tablet operation as possibly its fiercest competitor. The two are employing battalions of lawyers as they sue each other in courts around the globe.

Apple can’t be happy with the situation. But for the time being, it doesn’t have much of a choice. Because Apple wants its chips made at a leading-edge facility, and right now, the choice is down to two. One of those is Samsung.

And the other is Intel.

But Intel’s not an option for Apple’s processors. Not today, anyway. Because while Apple is a strategic customer, the processors inside its iPads and iPhones are not. They’re ARM-based. And Atom, along with most every processor Intel builds, is x86.

Otellini loves to say that Intel gets collections margins twice for every chip it builds: once for the manufacturing work and second time for the chip itself. Pure foundry work, or contract manufacturing, would mean no double-dipping. So as long as Intel can keep its fabs filled with x86 chips, any foundry business the company takes on would cut into profits.

Otellini says that Intel can keep its fabs busy with x86 through the 22nm generation now ramping -- and possibly 14nm as well. Which means he won’t consider building someone’s ARM chips for quite some time.

Alright, so it’s reasonable to assume now that a compelling offering from Intel will get Apple’s attention. So when might that happen?

That could be as early as next year. Intel hopes to outpace the competition by pulling Atom up sooner into its leading-edge manufacturing processes with each generation. In 2013, Atom chips will be made on Intel’s 22nm manufacturing lines. And in 2014, Intel plans to bring Atom to 14nm.

One of those just might be prove to be the tipping point. Or not. Nothing’s assured here, obviously.
But nothing more than a pipedream? No, not hardly.

Mike Feibus is principal analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies, a Scottsdale, Ariz., market research firm focusing on client technologies. You can reach him at mike at techknowledge-group dot com.

At first glance, it didn’t look as though Space Invaders OpenGLwas going to do much to change our views. A portable game, its single executable is only 662KB in size, which doesn’t exactly leave much room for extras. (To put that in perspective, Civilization V’s music files alone require more than 1,500 times as much hard drive space.)

But, how wrong we were.

Launch Space Invaders OpenGL and you’ll find an attractive recreation of the original arcade game. The alien ships are blocky, but still look good; the controls worked just as we expected (arrow keys to move left and right, Ctrl to fire); and the soundtrack is appealing, at least for a while (and if you get bored you can turn it off, or even replace it with your choice of MP3s).

There are gameplay surprises, too. As well as avoiding the missiles, there are power-ups to collect, and one of the first will transform your fairly basic cannon into a sleek dual-laser spacecraft, which will quickly blast a very large hole in the approaching alien forces.

And presumably because the developers wanted to show off the advantages of OpenGL, there are some neat graphic touches. You can run the program full-screen or in a window at your choice of resolutions and quality settings, for instance. By clicking and dragging with the mouse you’re able to rotate your view of the screen, for an interesting look (check the capture here). And the game itself uses similar effects at key moments. When you “power-up”, for instance, the new spacecraft doesn’t just appear: the whole display spins and rotates for a much more dramatic effect.

Of course, for all of this, it’s still just space invaders, and all you’re doing is moving left and right and hammering the Ctrl key. If you like depth from your gameplay then you’re probably going to be a little disappointed.

If you enjoy these old arcade favorites, though, Space Invaders OpenGL is definitely worth a look. There are occasional irritations -- it really needs a “pause” key, for instance -- but otherwise there’s more than enough here to keep you entertained for an hour or two.

If you live in parts of Europe, the Middle East or Asia, arguably the hottest smartphone on the planet is selling out fast, and, whoa, it's not iPhone 4S. May 29 dawned on the continent to a new day for Samsung smartphones and sunset for Apple's flagship, which is oh-so similar to the one released in early 2010. Buyers looking for freedom from the walled garden or simply stunning software innovation can choose to "think different", borrowing the long-discarded Apple marketing phrase.

Twenty-six days ago, I asked: "Is iPhone 4 obsolete?" Nearly 2,000 of you answered "Yes" -- that's 65 percent -- by saying you will buy Galaxy S III. Now remains the question: How many of you planning to buy, really will do so?

Samsung unveiled its flagship smartphone on May 3, with plans to sell it through 297 carriers in 147 countries. The phone launched today in 28 countries.

Americans can either order the Galaxy S III now, unlocked, or wait until it officially launches on these shores. Current rumors put the date in late June. Unlocked prices range form around $694 to $820, here.

Samsung offers the phone in two colors, white and pebble blue. However, concurrent with today's launch, the South Korean electronics giant issued statement:

Samsung's Galaxy S III Pebble Blue version comes with a newly invented blue color and special hyperglaze material. In order to meet the highest internal quality standards and to provide the best quality Galaxy S III to customers, a short supply of Pebble Blue version is expected in some regions in the next 2-3 weeks. Samsung is working hard to ensure that customers will get the Pebble Blue colored devices as soon as possible.

I sure hope you like white. Apparently some Pebble Blue models splotch.

Is the S Before or After the Number Better?

It's hard to discern a way that Galaxy S3 isn't superior to iPhone 4S. The specs:

Galaxy S III: 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display (306 ppi) with 1280 x 720 resolution; 1.4GHz quad-core processor; 1GB RAM; 16GB or 32GB storage (64GB in future), expandable with microSD card; HSPA+ 21Mbps (850/900/1900/2100), 4G LTE, GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900); 8-megapixel rear-facing and 1.9MP front-facing cameras; LED flash; zero shutter-lag; 1080p video recording; accelerometer; ambient-light sensor; gyroscope; GPS; proximity sensor; digital compass; NFC, Bluetooth 3.0; WiFi N; 2100 mAh battery; carrier locked; Android 4.0 and TouchWiz "nature" UI. Measurements: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133 grams.

iPhone 4S: 3.5-inch multitouch display (326 ppi) with 960 x 640 resolution (800:1 contrast ratio); 1GHz dual-core processor; 512MB RAM; 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage; UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz), GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); 8MP rear-facing and VGA front-facing cameras; LED flash; image stabilization; 1080p video recording; accelerometer; ambient-light sensor; gyroscope; GPS; proximity sensor; digital compass; Bluetooth 4.0; WiFi N; 1432 mAh battery; carrier locked; iOS 5. Measurements: 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm, 140 grams.

In many ways, Samsung out-Apples Apple. The original iPhone stood apart from all other phones, not just smart ones, for its humanness. Touch, and its intimacy, and the way the handset responded to your proximity gave it a human quality. Suddenly the phone wasn't an inanimate object but more living thing. Apple extended humanness with each new model. Samsung seeks to bring this quality to Galaxy S III, and it's centerpiece to the product marketing.

Other than Siri, Apple did little to add humanness to iPhone 4S. Still, Siri provides personality and responsiveness for those people who use it. Samsung promises much more, by extending different sensors' functionality around stunning software enhancements. Galaxy S III responds to your movements, seemingly anticipating your needs.

The big benefits are software and services. Among them:

• Front camera detects whether the user is looking at the phone and keeps the screen lit. How many times has your display gone dark while reading a website or ebook?
• The phone can automatically turn on, if recognizing your face.
• You're in the middle of texting someone and decide to call instead. Lifting the phone to your face places a call to the recipient.
• Facial recognition identifies friends, tagging their social networking accounts. Right, Facebook and Twitter.
• Voice commands are available in 8 languages.

S Voice is the feature causing lots of excitement among Android users, so I ask: If you've used Siri and S Voice can you offer up some comparison in comments? Better: Email joe at betanews dot com, and I'll publish your comparative review with your name, photo and bio. Even better: I would love to publish your Galaxy S III review. We love reader-submitted reviews, and it would be an honor to publish yours.

How much tax are you going to be paying over the coming year? It’s not always the happiest news, but it’s the sort of things that it is certainly best to know in advance -- rather get the bad news now than get a nasty surprise further down the line. HMRC Tax Calc is a free app for iOS from HMRC which can be used to work out how much tax you’re going to be paying from your wages each week or month as well as showing you what this means for your annual tax bill.

The app is designed for people whose tax situation is fairly simple -- if you have anything other than a tax code of 810L or a National Insurance letter A, you’re going to have to look elsewhere to have your tax calculations done for you. All you need to do it tap in your gross pay or wages along with how many hours a week you work, and everything else will be done for you. At a glance you can see how much of your earnings are tax free and where all the rest goes.

It is understandable that you would want to know what is happening to any of your pay that does not end up in your pocket or bank account. HMRC Tax Calc also includes a section that reveals just how your taxes are being spent – this is a nice touch that makes for interesting reading regardless of whether you use the app for its main purpose of estimating your tax bill.

In reality, this is a very basic app, and the HMRC web site is a far better source of tax advice. However, it’s a helpful tool to have to hand when you are looking around for a new job as you can quickly see what a base salary translates into when tax and National Insurance are taken into account. The capabilities of the app are going to be expanded, and there is scope for this to be transformed into something very impressive, but it is still worth taking a look at in the meantime.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the HMRC Tax Calc review page. Note, this app is only suitable for UK tax payers.

Locating these files manually can be tricky, but fortunately there are some very capable tools around which can do most of the hard work for you. And VisiPics is one of the most interesting. It’s not been updated for a very long time (the current release dates back to 2008), but the program worked just fine on our Windows 7 test PC and still has the power to clean up your photo library.

The process starts by defining a few of the basics.

Click the Loader tab, say, and you can choose the size of pictures you’d like it to compare. By default this ranges from 50×50 to 4000×4000 pixels, but you should adjust this to the minimum range that works for you. (Comparing many thousands of images takes a long time, so the more you can reasonably exclude here, the better.)

And clicking the Filter tab allows you to define how similar images must be for VisiPics to define them as “duplicates”. Selecting “Strict” means the program will link only pictures which are identical or very slightly different, but if you opt for “Loose” then it’ll accept more variations (images which have had some minor edits, say).

Once you’ve set up VisiPics to work the way you’d like, then you’ll need to tell the program where to search. You could simply point it at your system drive, say, but that means it’ll pick up images in your browser cache, your program folders and more, significantly extending the comparison process. If you don’t need a full drive check then choose your Pictures folder (and any other folders where your main images are stored) and the scan will be much quicker.

With preparations complete, just click Start and VisiPics will snap into action, looking for duplicate images and displaying any it finds. You can then view and delete these manually, or leave the program to finish and allow it to automatically select what to keep, and what to ditch.

If there’s an issue here, it’s probably with the documentation. We found it wasn’t always clear how every VisiPics option worked, and the Help file is on the sparse side: it doesn’t always tell you what you’d like to know.

This wasn’t a big problem for us, as VisiPics did a good job of locating duplicate images on our system, and making sensible decisions about which ones were unnecessary, and which were surplus to requirements.

However, as VisiPics could be processing some of the most important files on your PC, it’s sensible to be cautious. Try experimenting on a single folder with just a few images, first, to make sure you understand how the program works. And only use VisiPics on a system which is fully backed up, just to give yourself some protection in case of problems.

Photo Credit: Petr Jilek/Shutterstock

TED Notepad is a little different. It’s not short on developer-friendly options -- it’s easy to play around with indents, search and replace supports regular expressions, you can even add custom scripts or programs to process text according to your own rules -- but you don’t have to get into these complexities, unless you really want to. And so the program is just as appealing to regular users who want something like Notepad, but a little more powerful.

There’s true multi-level undo and redo, for instance. You get nine mini-clipboards, ideal when you need to paste in common words or phrases into documents. It’s easier to select text with the mouse by just clicking more times (twice selects a word, three times a line, 4x selects the paragraph, x5 the document). And you can save important documents in a Favourites list for speedy access later.

TED Notepad is more intelligent than the average Notepad replacement, too. It understands all the main text file types and encodings, so will for instance automatically recognise a UTF-8 document when you open it (although there’s direct support for a host of specific encodings, too). There’s also useful auto-indentation, and the program can even automatically complete the current word (or line) based on what you’ve entered so far in the current document. If you’re typing in some long surname over and over again, say, just enter the first couple of characters, press Ctrl+Space and Ted Notepad will probably finish it for you.

There are plenty of other thoughtful features, everywhere you look. It’s easy to insert the date and time in a variety of formats, for instance; the program saves your work every few minutes, enabling it to recover documents if your PC crashes; and you can easily set Ted Notepad to stay on top of other windows, very convenient if you’re using it to take notes about what’s happening in other applications.

If you want the more advanced text processing options, there are plenty of those, too. You’re able to tweak the case of lines, for instance; remove duplicate lines; reverse text in various ways; sort lines, remove lines, unwrap lines or paragraphs and a whole lot more. And a host of keyboard shortcuts makes it quick and easy to access whatever program feature you need.

What’s most remarkable, though, is that all of this comes in a free and portable tool which consumed a mere 256KB on our test PC. Ted Notepad is a great little text editor which really does have something for everyone, and if you currently need a Notepad replacement then you should probably try this one first.

Photo Credit: Kongsak/Shutterstock

This past week saw the release of WikidPad 2.1_01, a wiki-style text editor that can be used to capture thoughts and ideas -- stored locally or exported as an HTML file to upload to the web. If you need to store reminders of things you need to do and appointments you need to attend, PNotes 9.0.107 is a great sticky note tool that may be able to help you out. There’s also PNotes Portable 9 for anyone who likes the idea of running the same program from a USB drive. If pictures are more important to you than words, Juicebox 1.0.2 can be used to create a stunning gallery to show off your digital photos -- all in HTML5 glory.

The week was than usual on the browser update front, but there there were still important advancements for Chrome and Pale Moon. Google Chrome 20.0.1132.17 Beta hit the download servers as the browser’s march up the version numbering system continues, but there is little to report aside from a range of bug fixes -- if you want to keep your browser on a USB drive, look no further than Google Chrome Portable 20.0.1132.11 Beta. If you want an even more up to date version of Google’s browser, the Dev channel is for you and Google Chrome 21.0.1145.0 Dev and Google Chrome Portable 21.0.1145.0 Dev are the latest releases in this area.

The Firefox 12-based browser Pale Moon has also seen an important update this week which brings in smoother scrolling, better memory handling and improved stability. Various versions of the browser are available -- Pale Moon 12.1, Pale Moon x64 12.1, Pale Moon 12.1 Portable and Pale Moon x64 12.1 Portable.

O&O is a company that produces a large number of handy utilities and if you have a few of them installed, O&O LaunchPad 3.0.107 is a great way to access them all. The famous system cleanup tools CCleaner has received a couple of updates, CCleaner 3.19 and CCleaner Portable 3.19, which eliminates User Account Control warnings and adds support for new applications. While you’re looking at cleaning up and optimizing your computer, take a look at Defraggler 2.10413 and Defraggler Portable 2.10, both of which offer speed improvements of up to 30 percent on previous versions.

To help you to keep an eye on your hardware, Acronis Drive Monitor 1.0.0.566 can be used to check the health of your hard drives, and ESET Rogue Applications Remover 1.0.1.1b (32-bit) and ESET Rogue Applications Remover 1.0.1.1b (64-bit) are valuable tools for looking after your system and protecting it from malicious software.

If you have a keen interested in privacy and security, Free Hide IP 3.7.9.8 is a simple way to help stay anonymous online by masking your real IP address. Privacy concerns also exist offline, and Encryption Wizard 3.3.3 is an easy to use yet powerful utility that enables you to encrypt files on OSX, Windows and Linux machines, while Eraser 6.0.10 can be used to ensure that the files you delete cannot be recovered.

To help you to manage the files you do want to keep, Total Commander 8.0 FINAL is an advanced alternative to Windows Explorer that can handle local and remote files and has been updated to include an improved image viewer. If you want to store your important files online, Wuala “Wollishofen” build 401 enables you to do so securely, with the latest version adding customizable filters for synchronization and backup as well as numerous other bug fixes and improvements.

The final updates for this week’s roundup are for anyone looking to run virtual copies of operating systems -- VirtualBox 4.1.16 includes a range of minor fixes, and VirtualBox Extension Pack 4.1.16 adds even more options to an already powerful virtualization tool.

Remember to keep one eye on Downloadcrew Giveaway, Serif PagePlus 11, previously sold for $99.99, which ends May 27.

That’s it for this week. We’ll be back in about seven days’ time with another roundup.

Photo Credit: corepics/Shutterstock

Now, finally, the tide of public opinion on Internet privacy begins to flow in the other direction. Consumers are becoming more hesitant to share their data and are less tolerant when those with access to their data violate trust. That presents a tremendous threat to some of the titans of our day -- and an equally monstrous opportunity for others. Apple, Google, are you listening?

Honestly, I’m amazed that the issue was ever able to germinate and flower, particularly here in the United States, a country that distinguishes itself on the right to privacy. And a country that spent much of the last century wringing its collective hands over the Orwellian nightmare that awaited us down the road of technological advancement.

Discount Cards and the Dystopian Vision

Then in the 1990s -- the decade after the one in which George Orwell set his oppressive dystopian vision -- grocery stores kicked off their discount card programs, which enticed consumers to surrender personal information in exchange for lower prices. Consumers by and large agreed.

Privacy became a bit more of a concern in the "oh-oh's" with the explosion of social networking. To be sure, there’s no shortage of tussles along the way between consumers and the likes of Facebook, for example. For the most part, though, consumers have continued to participate.

I’m not sure exactly when the perception started to turn, though I suspect it was sometime last year. Maybe it had something to do with persistent reports that reveal what Apple and Google know about us. Or maybe it was the outcry over the discovery of Carrier IQ’s tracking software on smartphones from US carriers.

But you don’t need a tidal chart to see that the waves now are crashing closer to shore. A survey released a few weeks ago by University of California-Berkeley professors found that 79 percent of Americans "definitely would not allow" their phones to share information with stores they visit but don’t buy anything. Another 17 percent said they would "probably not allow" it.

Smartphones Make Privacy Personal

Nielsen earlier this month released a study on smartphone attitudes and behaviors that suggests consumers are quite concerned about privacy. According to the report, 73 percent of smartphone owners worry about the issue of personal data collection. That’s up a bit from an already high 70 percent in 2011.

Even if we can’t determine exactly when the tide changed, it’s not difficult to pinpoint why.

In a word, smartphones.

Our loyalty cards are basically walled gardens of personal information. We know exactly what we are divulging. Even Facebook is a walled garden to an extent. Obviously, the walls encompass far more than what you buy at a single store. But we still exercise control over what’s published and shared about us.

There’s nothing penned in, though, about what our smartphones know about us. Our calls pass through them. So do our texts, IMs and emails. They know where we are and where we’ve been. And the more useful our smartphones become, the more we integrate them into our lives.

The more we integrate them into our lives, the more they know about us. And the more they know about us, the larger and more hostile the waves of anger become. Count on it.

This sentiment should be top of mind for every strategist and decision-maker in the smartphone ecosystem. For Apple and Google, yes. But also for hardware vendors, carriers, app developers -- even cloud services. If your goods or services have the ability to collect or store our data, then you should consider your sales and profits to be on the tsunami hazard map. So prepare.

Gain More by Collecting Less

One of the better suggestions I’ve heard for tackling this issue proactively comes from Ian Chen, a longtime colleague and friend now at Sensor Platforms in San Jose: establish an Office of Privacy. Hire a big-name lawyer to head it up, and have him or her report to the CEO.

Establishing an Office of Privacy is an opportunity for a company to distinguish itself as a sentry for consumer data. The company that succeeds in building that perception will have an inside track against its competition. It will be the provider that consumers trust at a time when trust in the smartphone ecosystem is eroding.

Here are a couple other things to consider:

• Develop a privacy policy that is more restrictive than the competition’s. Don’t share consumer data, for example.
• Even better, don’t allow your product to collect any personal information at all. Someone will notice, and spread the news. That will more than offset the sacrifice you’ll make to your data mining efforts.
• Develop a way to have apps tap a sandbox of personal data that’s housed on the smartphone itself rather than in the cloud -- and prove to consumers that app developers can’t gain access. This can be at the platform level, or on the hardware itself.

Whatever you choose to do, do something. Smartphones are becoming our companions, our confidants. And the closer they get, the more virulent our reaction will be when they violate our trust.

Photo Credit: Viorel Sima/Shutterstock

Mike Feibus is principal analyst at TechKnowledge Strategies, a Scottsdale, Ariz., market research firm focusing on client technologies. You can reach him at mike at techknowledge-group dot com.

Wikis are normally all about group collaboration, but it doesn’t have to be that way. WikidPad is a simple text editor that allows you to construct a custom personal wiki on your own PC, perfect for organizing thoughts, ideas, to-do lists, contacts and more.

How does it work? Suppose you need to buy a few birthday presents for someone. Just enter BirthdayPresents in the start page, and because that’s a mixed-case “wikiword” it’ll be automatically underlined; double-click it and a new page called “BirthdayPresents” will appear in the navigation pane. You can click this and enter new text there; you might add subpages below that one with, perhaps, possible present ideas; and if you type BirthdayPresents on some other page then it’ll automatically act as a link to your new page.

Repeat this process with a few other keywords and you’ll soon have a tree showing how your topics are organized. If you’ve named and organized the tree sensibly then this will be easy enough to browse, although if you still can’t find something then a powerful search tool (with regular expression support) may be able to help.

Of course you also get plenty of text styling options to ensure the pages look as you’d like.

And while this is a personal wiki tool, if you’d like to share your work with others then WikidPad does provide some useful HTML options: in just a click or two you can export and publish the wiki as one, or maybe several HTML files.

Unfortunately, figuring out how to make all this happen isn’t as easy as you might expect. The program does come with a detailed Help file (presented in a wiki itself, of course), but it’s more about explaining individual features in detail than walking beginners through their first steps, and so it might take you a while to figure out what’s going on.

Once you have mastered the basics, though, creating and maintaining a wiki with WikidPad is relatively easy. Just type in a wikiword (such as BirthdayPresents, above) which already has content and it’ll automatically turn blue to indicate a link, no other syntax required. And so you’ll be able to extend your wiki quickly and with the minimum of hassle.

Photo Credit: Anna Chagoika/Shutterstock

Cloudyn estimates that some cloud adopters are wasting on average 40 percent of their annual expense on AWS resources they don't use. The reasons why vary: resources are often over-allocated, instances are left running after they are no longer needed, or even failing to take advantage of Amazon's own cost-cutting offerings.

Forrester Research principal analyst James Staten argues long-standing beliefs in IT are what causes us to so dramatically overestimate our needs. "The first rule we learned about capacity planning was that it's more expensive to underestimate resource needs and be wrong than to overestimate, and we always seem to consume more resources eventually", he says.

With the cloud this overplanning isn't as beneficial, and effectively erases one of the platform's biggest advantages, cost savings, if you don't get rid of what you don't need. This seems to indicate most cloud users could be saving a lot more if IT administrators just took a few minutes to review their cloud strategies and usage, Staten suggests.

A common error among AWS users seems to be a general pattern of allocating large or extra large instances when a small or medium instance would do. This led to a 17 percent utilization among the 400,000 instances Cloudyn monitored. Worse yet, among the extra large instances that utilization dropped to four percent, which are eight times as expensive as the small instances.

Cloudyn also found that many instances are left running and unused for days or even months at a time, even worse than underutilization because they aren't being used at all.

One way to fight ballooning cloud costs on AWS for computing power you might not immediately need is the Reserved Instance program. This allows the user to purchase a block of instances ahead of time and at a reduced cost to save money. Cloudyn says that most of the deployments in its study were not taking advantage of this program.

"This one takes longer to assess, but once you know you will be staying in the cloud for a year or more, there's no excuse not to take advantage of this", Staten argues.

To further this point Staten brings up the deceptively low cost of the instances themselves. While a medium instance will cost you 32 cents per hour, over the course of a year that is $2,800. If an IT department is not making full use of that instance, that is a significant amount of money -- especially considering there will be dozens more instances just as equally unused.

"It heavily behooves you to give back what you aren't using," Staten says. "Because you are paying for what you allocated whether you are really using it or not".

Photo Credit: Ovchynnikov Oleksii/Shutterstock

If you have been put off using DTP software in the past because you have found that it is either too complicated for day-to-day use, or too simplistic for quick projects, this could be the program you have been looking for and you can get a copy for yourself without having to part with any money. Serif PagePlus 11 originally sold for $99.99.

Using a wide range of features, templates and wizard, even potentially complex documents, such as trifold menus, can be put together in a flash. Many of the wizards that are available can be completed in a matter of moments, and you are guided through the entire process. You can keep things very simple and just change the text to reflect your personal requirements, or you can get a little more hands-on and customize the stock images and logos that are used.

A great feature of PagePlus 11 is its support for layers. Just like in an image-editing package, you can store different parts of your document on different layers, showing and hiding them as and when required. A really useful option sadly lacking from many desktop publishing programs is the ability to work with PDF. PagePlus 11 enables you to not only export the documents you create to the popular PDF format, but also to import existing PDF so they can be edited.

While there is a strong set of utilities that are geared towards the graphic side of document creation, the text-editing and layout controls are also very impressive. You’ll also find that there is excellent image support both in terms of the range of different formats that can be imported and the selection of editing tools that are included.

There are just so many features for you to explore in this versatile program that it is difficult to know quite where to begin. You can find out more about this amazing piece of software by paying a visit to the Serif PagePlus 11 review page.

To take advantage of this great giveaway, you’ll have to head over to the Downloadcrew Giveaway page between Friday May 25 and Sunday May 27.

Photo Credit: Adem Demir/Shutterstock

One way of evaluating products is to rate how well they meet the individual requirements, and express that rating as a numerical score. Tally the individual requirement scores to calculate a product score, which is a single number that expresses how close a product is to your requirements. Rank products based on these scores, and the highest scoring product is the one that best matches your specific requirements.

Finding Products

While you usually have a few potential products in mind when starting an evaluation, it is a good idea to find others that may be worth evaluating. Online competitive reviews are a very useful source of product information, and a great place to start. Try doing a Google search on the products you do know about along with words like “review” and “comparison”. This can lead to reviews that include unknown products. Also, look at any reader comments because they can often alert you to new products not mentioned in the reviews.

Asking industry peers is another excellent source of product information. Other useful sources are communities like LinkedIn groups, Spiceworks etc. Again, reader comments below articles in technical publications can provide valuable nuggets of information.

Rating Products

To rate a product you measure how well they meets each particular requirement in turn. Ratings are more than just a simple “yes or no”, and should have something like the fields listed below. Arrange these on the evaluation spreadsheet as columns under each product.

Requirement Rating: Your measure of how well a product meets a particular requirement. See Requirement Rating List below.

Rated by Optional: If there are several people rating products, you can record who rates each requirement. Typically implemented as a drop down list of names.

Rating method: A drop-down list that describes how the product was rated. For example, this could be based on the product’s webpage, you could have seen a demo, or it could be a hands on test of the product.

Requirement Score: The requirements importance has a value associated with it, as does the requirement rating. The requirement score is the product of these two numbers, and is a calculated field.

Rating Comment: This is a field where you can comment on how well the product met a particular rating. This is particularly useful when you are looking closely at the final product candidates.

The Requirement Rating is usually implemented as a drop down list with three columns:

Value: A numerical measure of how well the product meets a particular requirement.

Rating: A textual label attached to the rating value. In practice it is much easier to pick from the rating list than to pick a number.

Description: An explanation of what the rating value means to ensure everybody is on the same page.

As you work through rating different products, you always uncover new requirements. Make sure you add them to your evaluation. This is one way of ensuring you capture all your requirements.

Comparing Products

As you rate products against requirements, they generate requirement scores that are tallied up into product scores. This number is compared to a reference product that “fully meets” every requirement and the product score is expressed as a percentage of the reference product score. If you collected requirements into groups, you can weight those groups and factor this into the product score. Typically, all groups get a default weight of 1.0, and this is adjusted up or down as required.

Properly evaluating products is significant work, and it is useful to have an idea of your progress. You can see this by calculating the number of requirements rated as a percentage of the total requirements. Our experience has been that once you have evaluated over 50 percent of the requirements, the product score tends to be fairly close to the final score. However, for your short list products you should rate at least 90 percent of the requirements to ensure an accurate evaluation.

You can make product scores more useful with a “projected score” that is calculated by comparing the rated product to the reference product using only rated requirements. This estimates the product’s final score, and the accuracy improves as you rate more requirements. The projected score lets you compare products without rating them against every single requirement.

You can think of the product score as its GPA, and it gives you an excellent idea of how close the product is to your specific requirements.  As a rough guide you can exclude products that score less than 50 percent as being unsuitable, while products that have an 80 percent  to  90 percent score are usually very good candidates.

Occasionally you might find some products that score more than 100 percent; typically these products cost more than you want to pay.

Bear in mind that the primary purpose of product evaluation is to find the product that best matches your specific requirements as fast and easily as possible. While you are unlikely to find the perfect product at the price you want to pay, with this process you can find the best product for the price you do want to pay.

Final Thoughts on Reducing Purchase Risks

Typically, the first version of an evaluation is based on product information from the web. You can improve your evaluation quality by selecting important and higher requirements (see Requirements Importance table in first article), and testing the product against those requirements to verify your initial ratings. Sometimes there are surprising changes. You can manage this with the “Rating Method” column.

Using a structured approach to selecting products speeds up the entire process, and reduces purchasing risks. While speed is always important to your business units, watch out for impossible deadlines. These can force you to take short cuts evaluating products that can later prove disastrous.

Any significant purchase needs several reference customers. If the vendor’s reference customers will not say anything bad about the vendor, that is a warning sign! If vendor is not well known, it may well pay you to visit them in person. Are they what you expect? Even if you do visit them, make sure they are what they appear to be. For example, it is all too easy to get a tour of a data center and come away impressed, when all the vendor has is a small cage inside the data center. Ask to visit their business offices as well. If they resist the effort that is another warning sign.

Conclusion

In these two articles, we have described a structured way to create and manage a comprehensive purchase requirements list, and how to evaluate products against these requirements. The result is a list of product candidates ranked by how well they meet your requirements.

The primary purpose of product evaluations is to find the one that best matches your specific requirements. While you are unlikely to find the perfect product, you will cut through aggressive marketing and sales pitches to find the product that works best for your specific requirements. You will do this much faster than with unstructured methods, and you will be a lot more certain that your final choice was the best. By using a structured approach to evaluate products systematically, you also calibrate your own expectations. When you make the actual purchase you know exactly what you are getting, and there is no buyer’s remorse.

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Chris Doig has personally seen the problems caused by poor technology purchasing in multiple companies. He co-founded Wayferry, a startup that created a free decision support tool for technology purchasing. Wayferry’s mission is to help IT people everywhere make better technology purchasing decisions.