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Being smart about webmail

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:44:18 +0100

There was an interesting article recently in The New York Times about getting locked out of a Gmail account. In August, blogger Alan Shimel of StillSecure wrote about his problems regaining access to a Yahoo email account. Suffice it to say, that if someone learns your Webmail password, it's a very difficult situation, and one that may not end well.

For one thing, the Webmail provider may not know enough about you to determine the true account owner. Worse still, anyone using a free Webmail account from Google (Gmail), Yahoo or Microsoft (Hotmail) can't expect to talk to a human being to resolve a problem with their account. Talking to person at Google requires a subscription to Google Apps Premier Edition for $50/year. Microsoft and Yahoo similarly offer telephone support only to "premium" customers.

If you care about a Webmail account, then some homework may be in order.

Alternate Email Address

One thing Webmail users should have associated with their account is an alternate email address. This is typically optional, but can be critical should you get locked out. I think you're safer not using an address from the same provider as your alternate. That is, don't provide a Gmail email address as the alternate for a Gmail account. Too many eggs in one basket.

If you're like me, with no recollection or notes about the alternate email address associated with your Webmail account, here's how to check (after first logging in to your account):

Gmail: Click on the "Settings" link in the top right corner, then go to the "Accounts" tab and click on the link in the "Google Account settings" section.

Classic Hotmail: Click on "options" in the top right corner, then View and Edit your personal information. Your alternate e-mail address is displayed along with a link to change it.

Classic Yahoo: Click on "Options" in the top right corner, then "Mail Options", then (on the left) click on "Account Information" and re-enter your password. Yahoo will then display "Alternate Email 1" and "Alternate Email 2". Yahoo supports two alternate email addresses, a great safety net, since our email providers change over time.

Secure Connections

Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo mail all offer secure connections when you initially logon and enter your password. Hotmail and Yahoo then switch back to unsecured, HTTP, connections. Gmail offers an option to always use a secure HTTPS connection, even when reading and writing email. Highly recommended. To enable this feature, Gmail users should click on "Settings" in the top right corner, then on the default "General" tab, scroll to the bottom of the page and turn on the radio button to "Always use https".

Truthiness

Webmail may be one of the those places where little white lies are acceptable. The Governor of Alaska, who recently had her Yahoo email exposed to the world, set herself up for failure by truthfully answering some questions.

Every Webmail system asks for personal information as a means of identification should you lose your password. The problem is that this personal information can also be used by a bad guy to learn your password.

Yahoo and Hotmail limit their secret questions to a handful of pre-selected questions. The straw that broke the camel's back for the Governor of Alaska was the question of where she met her spouse. Being a public figure, it didn't take much guessing for someone to correctly answer this question and fool Yahoo into thinking they were the Governor. There were some other canned questions too, but they were also easy to answer using public information.

Public figure or not, there is no reason to answer Webmail security questions truthfully. After all, who are you really lying to? A potential bad guy trying to learn your password.

So, when asked the name of your favorite teacher, feel free to respond "xyz" or with any random word or sentence that no one will guess. Then, of course, write it down in a safe place. The price for making up random answers is the burden of recovery. This is the eternal relationship between security and convenience. More security always entails less convenience.

Gmail is the most flexible of the major providers. They let you chose your own secret question, thus giving you a fighting chance of picking a question that no one else knows the answer to. Still, if you have a safe place for storing passwords, a totally random answer can't be guessed.

To review your security question in Gmail, click on the "Settings" link in the top right corner, then go to the "Accounts" tab and click on the "Google Account settings" link in the section of the same name. Finally, click on "Change security question". You will have to re-enter your Gmail password.

Users of the classic Hotmail system can review their security question by clicking on "options" in the top right corner, then clicking on "View and edit your personal information".

Yahoo email users may be in for a surprise. Simply knowing your password is not sufficient to view, let alone change, your security question. As described in How do I update my secret question? Yahoo requires you to "verify the Answer to your current Secret Question in order to update it." I'm screwed.

Does Someone Already Know Your Password?

If someone learned your Webmail password, would you know? It's one thing to have your email read, but another to have it read over and over, day after day, by someone that knows your password and is smart enough not to tip their hat by changing it.

Potentially, there is much that Webmail providers can do to let account owners know that someone else is logging into their account when they're asleep. As far as I can tell, Hotmail and Yahoo mail do absolutely nothing in this regard. Gmail, however, offers an audit trail, if you know where to look.

When Gmail users first login, they should scroll down the bottom of the initial page and look for a message such as:

Last account activity: 22 hours ago at IP 66.88.111.222. Details
or
Last account activity: 22 minutes ago on this computer. Details

If you didn't last login to your Gmail account when the message indicates, then someone knows your password.

IP addresses can be linked to both an ISP and a country for sure, and maybe even to a city within the country. For more on this see my earlier posting What does your IP address say about you?

Clicking on the "Details" link offers a longer history of Gmail account activity and an indication of whether the account is currently logged on at another computer. Letting one person login to a Gmail simultaneously from two different computers strikes me as a design mistake. But given that design, Gmail users can log off other computers that are currently logged into the same account. Needless to say, this too can alert you that someone knows your password.

Information about the most recent Gmail account activity is presented on the bottom of every Gmail web page. For more, see Last account activity in the Gmail Help.

Test Password Recovery

Anyone involved in backing up computer files knows the importance of testing the recovery process and the same applies with Webmail. The best way to insure that you can recover or reset your password is try it.

Yahoo password recovery (thanks to the Governor of Alaska, it's now the infamous Yahoo password recovery) starts out by asking for your birthday, country of residence and postal code. Without this gatekeeper information, knowing the secret question is useless. Even something as simple as your postal code needs to be saved rather than remembered because, as Yahoo points out, it may be from your home, your office or a prior residence or prior work location.

Hotmail password recovery starts with the option to either "Use my location information and secret answer to verify my identity" or to "Send password reset instructions to me in e-mail". If you go the first route and answer the questions correctly, you get to chose a new password. The location information is the same as Yahoo's - country, state and zip code. If you go the second route, an email message is sent to the alternate email account with two links, one for confirming the request and resetting the password and another for doing nothing.

Gmail error handling isn't limited to just password recovery, they deal with a whole host of problems accessing your account including:
I forgot my password
I forgot my username
My account has been compromised
My password doesn't seem to be working
Loading issues
Another error or problem

If you forget a Gmail password, you're taken here where, as with the other two systems, you enter the userid and get through a captcha. At this point there are no options, Google sends an email to the alternate email address. They don't tell you the alternate email address (Hotmail, in contrast, does), but they do report the domain name.

If you no longer have access to the alternate email address, Google advises you to "... try the 'Forgot your password?' link again after five days. At that point, you'll be able to reset your password by answering the security question you provided when you created your account."

David Kernell, the alleged hacker of Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:45:49 +0100

According to Ars Technica there sead.

David Kernell, the alleged hacker of Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account, has been indicted by a federal grand jury and will be arraigned today by US Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley. The indictment alleges that Kernell gained access to Palin's account by resetting the account password by correctly answering a series of security questions. This type of identity authentication is used widely across the 'Net; the questions themselves are typically designed to be both easily answered and personal to each registrant. Common examples include: "What was your mother's maiden name," "What was the name of your first pet," and "What was the name of your elementary/junior high/ high school." There's no way to know which of these Palin chose, as most web sites allow the user to select from a range of questions, but the original 4chan post that kicked off the scandal implied that cracking the e-mail account required only basic research.

In fairness to Yahoo, these types of security measures do not anticipate that the user might be a public figure, particularly a public figure who has suddenly found herself under a white-hot spotlight of media attention. In this case, it was Governor Palin's private account that was hacked, and not the other Yahoo e-mail address she was apparently using for government business, but again, Yahoo doesn't advertise itself as a service in that way.

According to some reports, Kernell (or whoever "Rubico" was at 4chan) realized soon after his indiscretion that "if this sh*t ever got to the FBI I was f—ed." Smart thinking, kid—too bad you didn't realize it before you posted a screenshot with a URL in it from an easily traced email at 4chan of all places.

Copyright © 2008 Ars Technica

Google launches Yahoo 'facts' site

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:28:21 +0100

Google is launching a new website aimed at countering critics of its impending advertising deal with Yahoo.

The Yahoo-Google Facts site provides the company's argument for the deal, and hits back at anti-competition claims made by others within the advertising and regulatory industries.

Containing Google's own arguments for the deal as well as supporting quotes from various sources, the site aims to counter the parade of companies that have come out against the deal in recent days.

The new site is the latest in a public relations push by Google to drum up support. Earlier this week, the company launched a blog offensive by its executives.

The site also lashes out at Microsoft. Google has accused the firm of launching "political attacks" on the deal in retaliation for its own failed attempt at a Yahoo deal.

"This agreement, unlike Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo, means that Yahoo will remain an independent company in the business of search and advertising," reads the site.

"Yahoo has stated that it will reinvest the additional revenue from this agreement into improving its user services and competing vigorously against Google, Microsoft and other companies."

US advertising and international publishing groups have voiced concern over the deal, and the US Department of Justice is also said to be taking a hard look at the proposals.

Google noted on the site that it will be voluntarily delaying proceedings on the deal to allow regulators to taker a closer look.

© Incisive Media Ltd. 2008 Incisive Media Limited

Nokia to unveil touchscreen phone next week

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:46:24 +0100

Reuters is reporting that Nokia will unveil its first touchscreen phone at a media event next week in London.

The phone, whose leaked pictures were posted on this blog earlier this week, is the result of plenty of market pressure since the iPhone’s debut more than a year ago. According to a Gartner analyst in the article, Nokia’s position as the leader of the mobile market has got the world waiting for their next move.

That move is reported to happen Oct. 2.

Nokia announced back in July that it would introduce its first touch-screen phone this year, and that it would be sold for a cheaper price than rival touch-screen models in order to tap into a higher-volume market.

Of course, the pressure’s on ever since HTC and T-Mobile introduced the Google Android-powered G1 this week, which retails for $179, slightly cheaper than the iPhone.

Would you buy a touchscreen Nokia phone? And for that matter, will touchscreen smartphones replace standard cell phones altogether? Tell us in TalkBack.

New clickjacking affects all browsers; cause remains unknown

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:29:01 +0100

Jeremiah Grossman and Robert "Rsnake" Hansen initially planned to reveal details on a new browser-agnostic clickjacking exploit at the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) in New York City this week, but voluntarily pulled the presentation after discovering that the 0-day flaw affected an Adobe product. The term "clickjacking" refers to a process by which a user is forced to click on a link without his or her knowledge—the link itself may be nearly invisible or visible for only a fraction of a second.

Clickjacking isn't a new attack vector, but according to Grossman and Hansen, it's one that is "severely underappreciated and largely undefended." What makes the attack noteworthy, in this case, is that it appears to be completely browser-agnostic, and affects both Firefox 2 and 3, all versions of IE (including 8), and presumably all versions of Opera, Konquerer, Safari, and whatever other extremely marginalized and/or FailCat type of browser one might use to surf the web. The only browsers currently immune to whatever it is the two men discovered are text-based products, such as Lynx.

In this case, "whatever it is," actually is the only appropriate label for this new attack method; Grossman and Hansen have released virtually no information on how one would actually exploit the vulnerability. Grossman and his teammate appear to have held off publishing after Adobe requested they do so, rather than as a favor to the browser market. In his blog, Grossman writes: "At the time, we believed our discoveries were more in line with generic Web browsers behavior, not traditional “exploits,” and that guarding against clickjacking was largely the browser vendors' responsibility."

Grossman and Hansen have, however, released a bit of information on what won't protect a user from the exploit. Turning Javascript off is apparently useless—the attack doesn't use it. Instead, it takes advantage of what the two call a "fundamental flaw" inherent to all modern browsers, and an issue that cannot be fixed with a quick patch. Using a frame buster script will protect a person from assaults that utilize cross-domain scripting, but will not prevent the attack from operating normally if it's on a page the user is visiting.

As exploits go, this particular one seems a tempest in a teapot. The vulnerability in question may affect all web browsers, but the total dearth of publicly available data means anyone wanting to utilize it has their work cut out for them. Grossman states that this particular attack is capable of some "pretty spooky," things, but that's all the detail we get. I'm not a fan of security through obscurity, but that's not what anyone is advocating—Adobe has acknowledged the problem, and the dev teams on both Firefox and IE are undoubtedly aware of the flaw's existence. Hopefully they also received a bit more information than the public did.

It's Official: Windows 7 at PDC, WinHEC

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:33:54 +0100

Microsoft has confirmed that attendees of its two forthcoming developer conferences get an early version of Windows 7, the next version of its desktop client.

The company made the news official on a blog for the Professional Developer Conference (PDC), which takes place in Los Angeles from October 27th to the 30th. The following week will be the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), also in Los Angeles, and those attendees will also get the early beta.

"At this year’s PDC, keynote attendees will be among the first to receive the pre-beta build of Windows 7. Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity to attend 21 different sessions that drill down into the details of developing for Windows 7," wrote Denise Begley, a Microsoft marketing manager.

InternetNews.com first reported two weeks ago that Microsoft was aiming to release a beta at the PDC show, and that internally the company was aiming for a June 2009 final code release. Publicly, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has said Windows 7 will be released in the first half of 2010.

Vista, launched in early 2007, has become a PR problem for Microsoft due to numerous compatibility and performance issues since it hit the market. Microsoft has worked on the operating system over the past 18 months and released one Service Pack, but it has not been enough to counter overwhelming negative consumer sentiment.

Windows 7 won't be a radical departure from Vista. It will feature the same kernel technology, which has been upgraded with the first Service Pack and the release of Windows Server 2008. It will use the same device drivers as Vista as well.

Microsoft also announced more keynote speakers for PDC. Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the tools and servers division at Microsoft, will join Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie on the first day keynote to discuss a new Cloud Computing platform.

In a second keynote, Ozzie will talk Windows 7 with Steven Sinofsky, the senior vice president who is heading up the Windows 7 development. Scott Guthrie and David Treadwell will join Ray and Steven to dive deep on the latest Win32 and .NET platform advances.

The company has also announced its keynotes for WinHEC. Day one will feature Sinofsky again, plus Jon DeVaan, senior vice president of the Windows core operating system division. Day two will feature Bill Laing, corporate vice president of the Windows Server division. Clearly Microsoft intends for a strong operating systems push over these two weeks.

Copyright 2008 Jupitermedia Corporation All Rights Reserved.

Larry Page calls white space tests rigged

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:26:01 +0100

Google, along with several other companies including Microsoft, have been hoping the FCC will make available TV white space frequencies for wireless broadband purposes. Unfortunately, there are several organizations trying to shut down those efforts.

Those that feel threatened by the prospect of this coming to fruition include TV broadcasters and wireless microphone companies — and according to Google, it’s unfortunate, but those companies have decided to “inject politics” into the testing process. Page told lawmakers today in a presentation, that these tests to determine if using white space would cause any issues, were “rigged”.

He said that during these tests, wireless microphone operators decided to improperly transmit their signals on the same frequencies that were being used by white space devices. The stronger signals generated by the devices being tested naturally drowned out those of the weaker signals coming from wireless microphones.

If you have not yet signed the petition to free these airwaves, do it now. The FCC will be making a decision soon, and any little bit helps.

Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the cellular and electronics industry. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

Internet service providers want to set industry guidelines for online privacy

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:58:58 +0100

Internet service providers called for industrywide guidelines to protect privacy online in testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday. But they want to set the guidelines themselves.

"We ought to go forward with this self-regulatory approach," said Tom Tauke, executive vice president of Verizon Communications Inc.

Executives for Time Warner Cable Inc. and AT&T Inc., the biggest Internet service provider in the nation, also testified before the committee.

Among the proposed guidelines was a requirement that consumers give permission before their Web-browsing habits could be tracked for targeted advertising.

In June, Charter Communications Inc. halted plans to track customers' Internet use for a targeted advertisement campaign after Connecticut's top legal officer said the practice might be illegal.

Last month, members of the House wrote to 33 companies expressing concerns about such ads' potential effect on consumer privacy.

"We want to make sure our Internet service providers are protecting the privacy of consumers," said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.).

"There may well be" a need for legislation to ensure that, Dorgan said.

Gigi Sohn, president of the nonprofit group Public Knowledge, said legislation was needed because not all providers would adhere to the guidelines discussed at the hearing.

"Gaps in the law have allowed the privacy of some Internet users to fall between the cracks," Sohn told lawmakers.

The Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner Cable executives said their companies were not delivering ads based on consumers' Web-browsing habits.

Tauke told lawmakers that online companies and Internet service providers were privately negotiating a code of conduct.

Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times

Google's G1 Takes On iPhone and Mobile Web

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:23:32 +0100

Move over iPhone, the Gphone has arrived. After months of Internet-fueled speculation and hype, T-Mobile Tuesday unveiled the G1 mobile phone powered by Google's Android operating system and bundled with Google software including search, Gmail, Maps, and YouTube.

With a large touch screen and a raft of features, the new phone takes direct aim at the iPhone but will be priced lower at $179 when it goes on sale in the U.S. Oct. 22, with a two-year voice and data plan. Unlike the rival Apple device, it adds a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.

The G1 also comes loaded with a version of Amazon's digital music store offering more than 6 million DRM-free tracks to compete with music powerhouse iTunes.

At a splashy launch event in New York, however, executives from Google, T-Mobile and handset maker HTC of Taiwan emphasized that innovative new applications built on the open-source-based Android platform would be key to the device's success over time.

"We're going to embrace third parties that have really driven the creation of the Internet to create new compelling applications for the mobile Internet," said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer at T-Mobile USA.

T-Mobile joined with Google and phone manufacturers including HTC last November to create the Open Handset Alliance, an effort aimed at transforming the mobile landscape by promoting open standards and cross-platform development. Besides T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel was the only other major U.S. carrier to sign on.

Neither Verizon Wireless or AT&T have ruled out developing Android phones, but Verizon is also working on a rival open operating system called Linux Mobile that it said in May would be the preferred software for its phones.

To help spur the growth of third-party applications, Google recently announced the Android Market, similar to Apple's App Store, where consumers can buy and download content for its mobile platform. Among the apps highlighted Tuesday was ShopSavvy, a comparison shopping tool involving use of the phone's camera, and Ecorio, which lets users monitor their carbon footprint.

With only 16% of U.S. mobile customers browsing the mobile Web, Google wants to use both its own Internet tools and outside applications to boost that figure and create a vast new audience for its ad-supported businesses. With the G1, mobile analysts suggested the search giant was off to a strong start in conquering the mobile Web.

Eric Bader, co-founder and CEO of mobile consultancy said Android's open platform represents a "seismic difference" for an industry built on walled gardens and closed operating systems. "Android will lead to larger audiences and bigger reach, which is what media buyers have been waiting for," he said.

One of the biggest barriers to growth has been the need to develop content and ad programs for different platforms. "That forces working media dollars to be used in production and ad serving and kills ROI," said Bader, formerly managing director of MediaVest Digital.

Whether other carriers and handset will jump on board, though, is a big question. "Android is a platform which ideally should branch out beyond T-Mobile," said William Ho, a wireless services analyst for Current Analysis. "For me the next thing to watch is what will happen with Sprint since they also signed up for the Open Handset Alliance."

For now at least, T-Mobile -- the fourth largest U.S. wireless operator -- has gained unprecedented attention as the carrier offering the first Android phone. "It definitely raises T-Mobile's profile," said Greg Sterling, who leads the local mobile search practice for Opus Research. "It's a great sort of PR move for them."

Indeed, Brodman said the company was rolling out its biggest marketing blitz ever for a T-Mobile device to launch the G1. On a more technical level, T-Mobile is also rolling out a high-speed network nationwide to insure fast, reliable Web browsing and back up all the hoopla surrounding the phone.

To that end, Brodman said the carrier's new 3G network is now live in 16 cities and will extend to 27 by mid-November, covering most major markets and 80% of its 30 million U.S. subscribers. The phone also offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS capabilities.

While all the involved parties need to deliver on the G1's promise, Sterling said its success still rests mainly with Google. "If I had to single out one factor, the Google brand would be the biggest driver," he said.

Google's imprint is seen not just in the phone's name and its suite of popular programs like Gmail and Maps, but in a dedicated button for Google Search on the keyboard as well.

The link between the desktop Internet and the mobile Web was underscored in a surprise appearance at the press conference by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. "A big element of this is having computer-like functionality on a phone," said a G1-toting Page. "That means being able to run different applications and having an open eco-system ... to do really creative things."

He mentioned in particular the potential for location-based services, naturally suited to an on-the-go medium like mobile.

As smartphones increasingly turn into feature-laden mini computers, the G1 phone will compete not only with the iPhone but the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile devices, and a host of so-called iPhone killers from the major carriers.

But because the iPhone has set a new standard for user-friendly design and boosted mobile Web use, the Apple device is the one the G1 will most likely be judged against. Like the iPhone, Brodman said the T-Mobile device could be adopted by business users but is mostly aimed at the wider consumer market.

Indeed, the G1 isn't compatible with Microsoft Exchange, the suite of productivity tools featured on the business-oriented BlackBerry. "But that's a perfect opportunity for a third-party developer," said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms for Google.

And at $179, the G1 aims to undercut the iPhone's $199 price tag. The data portion of the service plan is only $25 per month for unlimited data, unlimited SMS, unlimited email, and 400 text messages or $35 for unlimited data and messaging.

"That's $5 less than Sprint's unlimited data plans and $5 to $15 cheaper than AT&T's iPhone 3G plans," said Avi Greengart, research director for mobile devices at Current Analysis.

In terms of the hands-on experience, Greengart said he found the interface to be well organized and the touch screen "extremely responsive" following a demo on Tuesday. If not as elegant as the iPhone, the G1 maximizes simplicity.

Whether consumer respond as favorably remains to be seen. Research firm Strategy Analytics has predicted the Gi could sell 400,000 units by the end of 2008, accounting for 4% of the smartphone market.

Intel Releases Its New Dual-core Atom 300 Processor

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:09:46 +0100

Intel introduced today its new dual-core Atom 300 processor, which retails for $43. It has two 1.6 GHz processor cores and 1 MB of Level 2 cache, being designed for desktop computers.

It also supports 667 MHz DDR2 memory and the single-core 1.6GHz Atom 230 chip version supports slightly slower 533MHz DDR 2 memory. The Atom 230, which is designed for low cost desktop computers, will still be available for $29. The price for the single-core Atom processor designed for laptop computers, the 1.6GHz Atom N270, will also be found for the same price of $44 -- $1 more than the dual-core desktop chip.

At this point technical specifications for the Atom 330 are not available, but they should be released in the days to come. One thing is for sure, the use of faster memory reduce the bottlenecks that occur when the data stored in the main memory is accessed by the multiple processor cores.

So far the company has not announce any plans for a dual-core Atom processor designed for laptops but looking at the general trend in the development process, such a move should not come as a surprise in the future. Intel is looking to consolidate its number one market position and there are several ways of making sure that its customers are always satisfied, one being linked to the release of new offers.

The Intel Corporation is known as the world’s largest semiconductor company, with its x86 series of microprocessors found in most of the personal computers everywhere.

© 2008 - eFluxMedia

SanDisc's slotMusic: The New CD?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:58:37 +0100

Record labels EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music have joined forces with memory card maker SanDisk for a new form in which people can own tangible, physical music. The technology, called slotMusic, is basically an entire album on a MicroSD compact memory card. slotMusic cards will contain music in MP3 format without DRM (digital rights management). The cards will hold 1 gigabyte of data, which means they will contain a full album and related content such as liner notes, cover art and videos. Buyers will be able to use extra space on the cards to add songs and photos from their own collections which they can upload using a USB (Universal Serial Bus) adapter that comes with the card. slotMusic cards will be playable on any cell phone and MP3 player that has a MicroSD slot.

Wal-Mart and Best Buy are among the retailers that have already signed on to start selling the cards for the upcoming holiday season, though artists whose albums will be offered have yet to be announced.

The Web site slotmusic.org explains, "slotMusic cards enable consumers to instantly and easily enjoy music from their favorite artists without being dependent on a PC or internet connection. Users simply insert the slotMusic card into their microSD-enabled mobile phone or MP3 player to hear the music – without passwords, downloading or digital rights management interfering with their personal use. slotMusic cards will be bundled with a tiny USB sleeve ensuring seamless interoperability with all computers – Windows, Linux and Mac. The upshot is that slotMusic will enjoy an unparalleled, pre-existing install base at launch: hundreds of millions of multimedia-phones, virtually any computer with a USB connector and a growing number of in-car sound systems will be able to play slotMusic cards."

Google Project for Future of Mobile

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:09:46 +0100

The Internet has had an enormous impact on people's lives around the world in the ten years since Google's founding. It has changed politics, entertainment, culture, business, health care, the environment and just about every other topic you can think of. Which got us to thinking, what's going to happen in the next ten years? How will this phenomenal technology evolve, how will we adapt, and (more importantly) how will it adapt to us? We asked ten of our top experts this very question, and during September (our 10th anniversary month) we are presenting their responses. As computer scientist Alan Kay has famously observed, the best way to predict the future is to invent it, so we will be doing our best to make good on our experts' words every day. - Karen Wickre and Alan Eagle, series editors

There are currently about 3.2 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and that number is expected to grow by at least a billion in the next few years. Today, mobile phones are more prevalent than cars (about 800 million registered vehicles in the world) and credit cards (only 1.4 billion of those). While it took 100 years for landline phones to spread to more than 80% of the countries in the world, their wireless descendants did it in 16. And fewer teens are wearing watches now because they use their phones to tell time instead (somewhere Chester Gould is wondering how he got it backwards). So it's safe to say that the mobile phone may be the most prolific consumer product ever invented.

However, have you ever considered just exactly how powerful these ubiquitous devices are? The phone that you have in your pocket, pack, or handbag is probably ten times more powerful than the PC you had on your desk only 8 or 9 years ago (assuming you even had a PC; most mobile users never have). It has a range of sensors that would do a martian lander proud: a clock, power sensor (how low is that battery?), thermometer (because batteries charge poorly at low temperatures), and light meter (to determine screen backlighting) on the more basic phones; a location sensor, accelerometer (detects vector and velocity of motion), and maybe even a compass on more advanced ones. And most importantly, it is by its very nature always connected.

Project out these trends another ten years. You will be carrying with you, 24x7 (a recent study of Chinese mobile customers showed that the majority of them sleep within a meter of their phones), a very powerful, always connected, sensor-rich device. And the cool thing is, so will everyone else. So what are you going to do with it that you aren't doing now? Here are some possibilities:

Smart alerts: Your phone will be smart about your situation and alert you when something needs your attention. This is already happening today -- eBay can text you when you've been outbid, and alert services (such as Google News) can deliver news, sports, or stock updates to you. In the future these applications will get smarter, patiently monitoring your personalized preferences (which will be stored in the network cloud) and delivering only the information you desire. One very useful scenario: your phone knows that you are heading downtown for dinner, and alerts you of transit conditions or the best places to park.

Augmented reality: Your phone uses its arsenal of sensors to understand your situation and provide you information that might be useful. For example, do you really want to know how much is that doggy in the window? Your phone, with its GPS and compass, knows what you are looking at, so it can tell you before you even ask. Plus, what breed it is and the best way to train him.

Crowd sourcing goes mainstream: Your phone is your omnipresent microphone to the world, a way to publish pictures, emails, texts, Twitters, and blog entries. When everyone else is doing the same, you have a world where people from every corner of the planet are covering their experiences in real-time. That massive amount of content gets archived, sorted, and re-deployed to other people in new and interesting ways. Ask the web for the most interesting sites in your vicinity, and your phone shows you reviews and pictures that people have uploaded of nearby attractions. Like what you see? It will send you directions on how to get there.

Sensors everywhere: Your phone knows a lot about the world around you. If you take that intelligence and combine it in the cloud with that of every other phone, we have an incredible snapshot of what is going on in the world right now. Weather updates can be based on not hundreds of sensors, but hundreds of millions. Traffic reports can be based not on helicopters and road sensors, but on the density, speed, and direction of the phones (and people) stuck in the traffic jams.

Tool for development: Your phone may be more than just a convenience, it may be your livelihood. Already, this is true for people in many parts of the world: in southern India, fishermen use text messaging to find the best markets for their daily catch, in South Africa, sugar farmers can receive text messages advising them on how much to irrigate their crops, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa entrepreneurs with mobile phones become phone operators, bringing communications to their villages. These innovations will only increase in the future, as mobile phones become the linchpin for greater economic development.

The future-proof device: Your phone will open up, as the Internet already has, so it will be easy for developers to create or improve applications and content. The ones that you care about get automatically installed on your phone. Let's say you have a piece of software on your phone to improve power management (and therefore battery life). Let's say a developer makes an improvement to the software. The update gets automatically installed on your phone, without you lifting a finger. Your phone actually gets better over time.

Safer software through trust and verification: Your phone will provide tools and information to empower you to decide what to download, what to see, and what to share. Trust is the most important currency in the always connected world, and your phone will help you stay in control of your information. You may choose to share nothing at all (the default mode), or just share certain things with certain people -- your circle of trusted friends and family. You'll make these decisions based on information you get from the service and software providers, and the collective ratings of the community as well. Your phone is like your trusted valet: it knows a lot about you, and won't disclose an iota of it without your OK.

Copyright © 2008 Google Inc. All rights reserved.

FBI searches apartment in Palin hacking case

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:50:27 +0100

WASHINGTON — The FBI searched the residence of the son of a Democratic state lawmaker in Tennessee over the weekend looking for evidence linking the young man to the hacking of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

David Kernell, 20, has not returned repeated phone calls or e-mails from the AP since last week. He is the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee. The father declined last week to discuss the possibility his son might be involved in the case.

"I had nothing to do with it, I had no knowledge or anything," Mike Kernell told the AP. "I was not a party to anything of this nature at all," he said. "I wasn't in on this — and I wouldn't know how to do anything like that."

A hacker last week broke into one of the Yahoo Inc. e-mail accounts that Palin uses, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate. The McCain campaign confirmed the break-in and called it a "shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law."

Palin used "gov.sarah" in one of her Yahoo e-mail addresses she sometimes uses to conduct state business. The hacker targeted her separate "gov.palin" account.

After the break-in, a person claiming responsibility published a detailed chronology of the hacking on the Web site where the break-in was first revealed. That person identified his e-mail address as one that has been linked publicly to David Kernell.

Experts said the hacker apparently left an easy trail for investigators.

"He might as well have taken a picture of his house and uploaded it," said Ken Pfeil, an Internet security expert. "He should have just set up a big beacon that said, 'Here's my house,' or confessed. If they can't catch this guy based on all the information posted on the Web then all bets are off."

The hacker described guessing correctly that Alaska's governor had met her husband in high school, and knew Palin's date of birth and home Zip code. Using those details, the hacker tricked Yahoo's service into assigning a new password, "popcorn," for Palin's e-mail account. What started as a prank was cut short because of panic over the possibility the FBI might investigate, the hacker wrote.

The FBI and Secret Service are now investigating.

The law enforcement officials confirming the search spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

In Washington, Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney confirmed Monday only that the FBI conducted "investigative activity" late Saturday and early Sunday in Knoxville related to the case.

David Kernell is an economics major at the University of Tennessee there.

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Web 2.0: Google Chrome To Support Add-Ons

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:49:35 +0100

Google's new Web browser eventually will support add-ons and user scripts à la Firefox Add-ons and Greasemonkey, Google engineer Ojan Vafai said during a panel discussion on the future of Web browsers at Web 2.0 Expo in New York on Friday.

"There's two different kinds of add-ons," Vafai said. "The Firefox things extend your browser, so to speak, and then there are user scripts. We intend to do both of those in Google Chrome." Greasemonkey's founder, Aaron Boodman, actually works on the Google Chrome team.

Google Chrome was released earlier this month and saw almost 2 million downloads in the first week alone, raising the visibility of Chrome as a strong new competitor to Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. It does a number of things differently from either, such as isolating browser tabs so that each one is treated almost like a separate instance of the browser for reliability purposes.

Vafai cautioned that Google will work hard to make sure its add-on paradigm keeps Chrome stable. "We hope to do them right," he said. "As many people notice in Firefox add-ones, there are problems with instability."

There have been some suggestions that Google was looking to eventually take on Windows with Chrome, but Vafai pooh-poohed that notion. "It's apples and oranges, comparing an operating system and a Web browser," he said. "They're in the end, two totally different things. There's a bunch of stuff built into Web browsers that are OS dependent, like font rendering. It's not even clear what it means to replace the OS with the browser."

Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich, joining the panel along with Vafai and Microsoft Internet Explorer platform architect Chris Wilson, said that Mozilla was looking at how Google treated tabs as a potential way to improve stability when dealing with browser add-ons. "There are good process-isolation tricks that Chrome does that we're looking into, so we're simply going to look at better isolation techniques for security and integrity," he said.

For Microsoft's part, Wilson noted that though Internet Explorer has long supported add-ons, they can "be challenging to write today." He said he'd like to make the add-on environment better for IE, but didn't give many details. He also questioned the use of user scripts as a privacy risk for typical users who aren't technically proficient.

Wilson, Eich, and Vafai all lent their support to the continued development of Web standards like HTML 5 and CSS 2.1, and pointed to features in those standards that each of their browsers support. This is especially a change of pace for Microsoft, which has until Internet Explorer 8 often resisted supporting some emerging Web standards in deference to backward compatibility.

One standard Microsoft isn't supporting in IE8 is a vector standard called Canvas in HTML 5. Earlier this year, then-Mozilla exec Mike Schroepfer criticized Microsoft's lack of support for Canvas, alleging that Microsoft was instead propping up support for its own proprietary technology in Silverlight. However, Wilson may have put that notion to rest, as he said Friday that "vector graphics support is the next thing we need to work on" in Internet Explorer. Wilson also said that future versions of Internet Explorer would also likely support geo-location, and he said other browsers likely will support it as well.

Copyright © 2008 United Business Media LLC, All rights reserved.

Google Co-founder Sergey Brin Blogs About His Parkinsons Risk

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:09:39 +0100

How would you react if you found out there are high chances that you develop a certain condition at some point in your life? Google co-founder Sergey Brin is in that position, and decided to share his experience with the public on this Too blog.

Brin’s wife, Anne Wojcicki, who is co-founder of a personal genomics and biotechnology company that is working on new ways of helping people become aware of their genetic information and what may result from that, first introduced Brin to genetic testing.

At first, 23andMe genetic testing started off with a certain dose of skepticism for Brin, but as he began assembling pieces of his DNA puzzle, he also became quite excited about the prospects of finding out his genetic risk for most diseases.

At his wife’s suggestion, Brin looked into his genetic data for the G20195 mutation, to find out whether he might pose a risk to Parkinson’s disease. His mother suffered from this condition, and so did his mother’s aunt, which raised a few questions about such a possibility for him, although a hereditary inheritance of the disease has never been established.

To his surprise, he found out that both him and his mother carry the G20195 mutation. This leaves him with a 20 to 80 percent chance of developing Parkinson’s in his lifetime, much higher than an average person.

According to Brin, this puts him in a rather unique position: “I know early in my life something I am substantially predisposed to. I now have the opportunity to adjust my life to reduce those odds […] I also have the opportunity to perform and support research into this disease long before it may affect me. And, regardless of my own health it can help my family members as well as others.”

Parkinson’s disease or PD is a disorder affecting over 1 million Americans, 40% of which are under the age of 60. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the cause of the disease, or the cure. What scientists do know is that it starts from the degeneration of nerve cells in the mid-brain, and that as it progresses, it may ultimately become debilitating.

As the affected nerve cells in the brain stop producing the necessary amount of neurotransmitting chemical dopamine necessary for coordinated movement and muscle relaxation, the disease starts interfering with body movement, but some patients may develop depression and dementia.

Parkinson’s disease knows no sex or ethnic boundaries: “Parkinson’s does not discriminate. It afflicts people regardless of gender, race, background, behavior, lifestyle or geographic area. Despite the common perception that PD is the “old person’s” disease, the average age of diagnosis is 57 years, with many diagnosed in their 30’s and even 20’s” – Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation.

According to the World Health Organization, 100-180 people per 100,000 of the population are affected by Parkinson’s. Who also notes that there is a rising prevalence with age and a higher prevalence and incidence of PD in males.

Brin ended his blog with a positive statement, saying he feels fortunate to be in this position. “Until the fountain of youth is discovered, all of us will have some conditions in our old age only we don’t know what they will be. I have a better guess than almost anyone else for what ills may be mine – and I have decades to prepare for it.”

© 2008 - eFluxMedia

Palin e-mail hack details emerge

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:01:37 +0100

Details of how an e-mail account of US Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was hacked have emerged.

Following the hack, screenshots of Mrs Palin's messages, inbox, pictures and address book were posted to the Wikileaks whistle-blowing site.

It is thought the attackers exploited the password resetting system of Yahoo's e-mail service.

Details about Mrs Palin's life pulled from public sources reportedly helped defeat security questions.

Formal investigation

Information from Wikipedia and other online databases helped to establish Mrs Palin's date of birth, zip code and other personal information.

Armed with this, the attackers convinced the Yahoo password re-setting system they warranted access and allowed them to re-set the password and then get at the account.

In an official statement Yahoo said: "Yahoo treats issues of security and privacy very seriously."

It added: "To protect the privacy of our users, we are not able to comment on the details of a specific user account."

"Generally, if Yahoo! receives reports that an account has been compromised, we investigate for suspicious activity and take appropriate action," the company said.

The attackers broke into Mrs Palin's This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail account. This account and another, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , owned by Mrs Palin have now been deleted.

The FBI and the US Secret Service have now begun a formal investigation into the attack and who may have been behind it.

The hackers used the CTunnel proxy service which routes web browsing through an intermediary to obscure where the attackers were based.

However, the screenshots for the attack reveal the original web address used by the proxy which may help investigators track down the miscreants.

It has been reported that records from the CTunnel proxy service are being sought by the FBI.

The attack on the e-mail account comes as questions are being asked about whether Mrs Palin used her personal e-mail accounts to carry out state business.

US law states that all e-mails relating to the official business of government must be archived and not destroyed. However, it does allow for personal e-mails to be deleted.

Android-powered HTC Dream will sell for the same price as the 8GB iPhone 3G

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:24:53 +0100

The Android-powered HTC Dream will sell for the same price as the 8GB iPhone 3G, according to the latest reports. Also: T-Mobile looks to expand its new 3G network before the Dream hits stores.

If the Wall Street Journal is right, it's looking more and more like T-Mobile is taking square aim at the iPhone market with the Dream (a.k.a. the G1)—not only with the $199 sticker price, but also with an "aggressively priced" 3G data plan. Now, AT&T's data plan for the iPhone 3G goes for $30 a month; will T-Mobile undercut that figure? We'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile—which launched its 3G data network just a few months ago, far behind the other big U.S. carriers—says it hopes to have 27 markets set with 3G before the year is out.

Online so far: Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio and San Diego. By mid-October (when the Dream starts shipping), a few more markets will get the T-Mobile 3G treatment, including Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orlando, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle, with six others to follow by the end of the year.

Well, that's a start, but consider this: AT&T, which is catching flak from iPhone users for its spotty 3G data coverage, has more than 200 markets covered. So ... if you're thinking about getting the 3G-enabled Dream and you're not in one of the 27 markets listed above, bear in mind that you'll probably have to settle for poky EDGE data access. (Luckily, the Dream comes with Wi-Fi on board as well.)

Also of note: The WSJ reports that T-Mobile will stamp the "Google" brand directly onto the Dream/G1's shell—not exactly SOP for T-Mobile, which has yet to brand any Windows Mobile phones with the "Microsoft" moniker. (Can you blame them?)

In any case, T-Mobile is finally planning on unveiling its Android phone at 10:30 a.m. EST Tuesday in Manhattan; I'll be there, and I'll be filing a hands-on report soon afterward. Stay tuned.

Nvidia Cutting 360 Workers as Competition with Intel, AMD Intensifies

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:07:03 +0100

Graphics chip maker Nvidia announced that it will reduce its worldwide work force by more than 6 percent. The job cuts come at a time when Nvidia is struggling financially and is facing increased competition in the graphics chip market from the likes of Intel and AMD.

Nvidia announced Sept. 18 that it will cut 360 employees from its worldwide work force as the graphics maker is facing increasing competition from Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.

In a statement, Nvidia announced that it will eliminate about 6.5 percent of its work force by the end of October. The company then plans to take a restructuring charge of between $7 and $10 million related to the cuts when it reports its third-quarter financial results in a few weeks.

While Nvidia is still considered one the leading producers of GPUs (graphics processor units) and chip sets for desktop and notebooks, as well as high-end discrete graphics for gaming PCs, the company is facing increased competition from AMD and Intel.

In August, AMD released a highly touted discrete graphics card called the AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, which can deliver up to 2.4 teraflops, or 2.4 trillion calculations per second, of performance. The release of this discrete graphics card showed that AMD was still looking to make waves in the graphics market and would compete against Nvidia when it comes to high-end desktops.

Earlier this week, AMD also began an advertising campaign called “Fusion,” which will highlight the company’s ability to blend graphics with traditional processor technology.

Intel is also looking to make a difference in the graphics market.

Earlier this year, Intel began describing plans for its “Larrabee” processor, which will use more traditional x86 processing cores. Intel is hoping that will make it easier for developers to write applications based on the architecture. Intel is not expected to release the chip until 2009 or 2010, but it shows that the company is serious about entering the market where it has been weak and competing directly with Nvidia and AMD.

Nvidia has been struggling as of late financially as well. According to financial Web site Market Watch, Nvidia’s stock has dropped about 65 percent since January. The company also had to take a charge of about $150 million earlier this year to replace faulty graphics chips that it shipped to OEMs.

“Despite our reduction, we will continue to invest in selective high-growth opportunities like our revolutionary CUDA parallel computing technology and our Tegra mobile single-chip computer,” Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, wrote in statement.

Nvidia has also been making significant investments in high-performance computing. In addition to CUDA, a programming language that allows developers to program a GPU like a CPU, the company also released its Tesla 10 series chip, which uses 240 graphics processing cores and can offer up to 1 teraflop of performance.

Nvidia's announcement of the cuts comes the same week Hewlett-Packard announced it will eliminate some 24,000 workers who were part of Electronic Data Systems. HP bought the IT services provider earlier this year for $13.9 billion.

Copyright © 2008 Ziff Davis Enterprise Holdings Inc.

Microsoft to Pull Seinfeld TV Commercials

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:27:52 +0100

Microsoft is expected to announce Thursday that it will be suspending its ad campaign featuring Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and veteran comedy superstar Jerry Seinfeld.

Valleywag broke the news Wednesday, and Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw told the LA Times that the move was planned, despite the appearance that the company is reacting to negative reaction to the ads.

According to Mr. Shaw, the Seinfeld portion of the campaign, for which he was reportedly paid some US$10 million, was always intended to be just an introduction for the overall campaign -- a two commercial introduction for $10 million.

"All along we said we were having a teaser campaign," he told the LA Times. "We're getting ready to start the second phase. This was the plan all along."

The ads, which featured Mssrs. Seinfeld and Gates in ordinary situations discussing how Microsoft needs to get back in touch with its customers, have largely been panned (this reporter said they were great in the most recent Apple Weekly Report #132 podcast), with many people saying they didn't make sense.

Pundits and critics suggested the ads were an attempt by the company to counter Apple's successful "I'm a Mac" commercials starring Justin Long as the personification of the cool and hip "Mac" and John Hodgman as the stodgy "PC."

Microsoft said in the second commercial that it was trying to reconnect with customers, from whom the company, as personified by Mssrs. Gates and Seinfeld, had become distant. To most, the ads were just as distant as Microsoft itself.

Be that as it may, Big Redmond has planned on spending some $300 million on the broader campaign, which will presumably be taking a ~~new~~ different direction.

As of this writing, the ads are still featured on Microsoft's Windows Web page.

Yahoo testing livelier, more open home page

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:26:55 +0100

Clicking the mail tab on the dashboard reveals a miniature inbox. (Click to enlarge.) (Credit: Yahoo)

Yahoo has begun offering some users a more personalized home page that the company hopes will increase the usage and utility of a Web site that's widely used but elderly in Internet years.

The new home page features a dashboard on the left edge that reports activity with a variety of applications. For example, it can be set so users see e-mail from Yahoo Mail, AOL, and Gmail, and other applications notify users of comment on photos posted at Flickr, events on the calendar, and bids active on eBay.

The new page will be revamped later with more dramatic changes, such as the ability to house user-selected Web applications, but the company is starting with a relatively modest redesign to get baseline testing data for later comparisons.

The new page is being tested with a small subset of users in the United States, United Kingdom, India, and France. About 314 million people used the site in July, according to ComScore's estimates.

Yahoo already offers a customized home page, My Yahoo. It won't be phased out, the company said, but the regular Yahoo home page will look more like it.

"These two starting points are definitely converging," the company said in a statement. "To help people make sense of what's happening in their world, we're redefining the concept of a 'start page' away from either a broadcast view (Yahoo.com) or a personal view only (My Yahoo), and creating a homepage that blends the best of both approaches to deliver relevance for a mass market."

Although the Yahoo home page remains a major force on the Internet, much new activity has shifted to social networks, search engines, and other sites. Yahoo's ultimate hope is that Yahoo.com will become a more active part of people's online lives, not users will use Yahoo.com not just to check the latest headlines but also to check up on others in their social orbits.

People can't sign up for the test page, because Yahoo wants a random selection of users, the company said. The timing for broad release of the final version depends on how the tests go.

One major upcoming phase will be hand-picking the online applications at the site. "People will be able to customize the applications area in the coming months during future rounds of our ongoing testing process," Yahoo said. With its Yahoo Open Strategy, the company is trying to attract programmers to build applications on Yahoo properties, offering the promise of a large audience.

Yahoo is testing a new home page. The new site is more personalized and customizable. This version is a 'baseline' for user testing; Yahoo will add more features later. (Click to enlarge.) (Credit: Yahoo)