Sherbango soup - posts tagged 'News'

Android Spyware: Millions Downloaded Thievish Wallpaper App

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:14:10 GMT

Mobile security firm Lookout announced today at the Black Hat security conference that millions of Android users had downloaded a wallpaper app that sends user information to a unknown site in China, reported VentureBeat. Concerns about app access to private information were raised last month, but this may be the first instance of Android malware in the wild. Android's enterprise-readiness has been controversial in analyst circles.

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The app, Jackeey Wallpaper, transmits a users' SIM card number, subscriber identification, and, if it's been programmed into the phone, voicemail password to www.imnet.us, a web site owned by someone in Shenzhen, China. It had been reported that the app also collected browsing history and text messages, but Lookout has clarified that this is not correct.

The app asks permission to access users phone calls, but does not disclose that the information would be sent to a third-party. Lookout found the app as part of its App Genome Project, an ambitious project to track the behavior of 300,000 applications.

Lookout may also be announcing other Android security risks at the conference.

Another mobile security company, Smobile Systems warned against this very scenario last month in a report titled Threat Analysis in the Android Market.

Analysts have been split over the enterprise-readiness of Android 2.2. Jack Gold, of J. Gold Associates, has argued that the lack of support for enterprises to manage what apps users install on their Android handsets should be one of many deal-breakers for Android adoption in the enterprise. This would seem to validate his claims.

Perhaps in response to the Smobile report, Google released a kill switch function to remotely delete malicious applications. The company hasn't announced whether Jackeey Wallpaper has been scheduled for termination.

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Apple iPhone Shipments Surpass Motorola

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:02:41 GMT

Oh, the days when mobile phone veteran Motorola was hawking the slim Razr while competitors had bricks. Darn these young whipper-snappers like Apple and their iPhone doo-hickeys. Motorola, maker of the Verizon Droid, now finds itself being outsold by Apple. The Cupertino, Calif. company sold 8.4 million iPhones compared to 8.3 million handsets for the [...]

Android App Sends Personal Data to China

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:19:11 GMT

Is your voice mail password now the property of some Chinese hacker? Millions of Android users who downloaded an innocuous wallpaper app from Google’s Android Market may be nodding their heads ‘yes.’ Turns out, that wallpaper app was sending voice mail passwords and many other bits of personal data to someone in Shenzhen, China, according [...]

iFixIt Performs A Magic Trackpad Teardown

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:03:33 GMT

Our favorite Mac vivisectors over at iFixit have torn down the Magic Trackpad, cutting it apart for access to its hidden hardware secrets. Unfortunately, there really weren’t many, short of the news that the Magic Trackpad uses the same touchscreen controller trip as the iPhone and the same Bluetooth chip found in the Magic Mouse. It’s [...]

Standing in line for iPhone 4 international launch?

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:33:31 GMT

TiPb international, are you getting ready to stand in line for the iPhone 4? Apple’s set to launch in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland on July 30, which for some readers is only a few hours away…

iPhone 4 will be available from Apple Retail Stores, carrier stores, and carrier resellers (from the big boxes to the franchises). We’ve heard some store are opening at the stroke of midnight, others at 7am, others only at regular hours. Be sure to check with the store you’re going to so you aren’t surprised. (If it’s in a mall, check what time the mall opens as well.)

Carrier plans, hardware upgrade pricing, and what-not is, as usual, sparse so be prepared for last minute announcements, customer service reps who haven’t yet been told about them, and carrier computer systems crashing often and hard. In other words, be prepared to be patient and persistent.

iPhone 4 requires a MicroSIM, so you might want to swing by your carrier early, get one, and have it activated on your line — if they’ll let you — now before things get hectic later.

Many countries will also have iPhone 4 available SIM-free and unlocked so if you’re willing to pay the ~$650 to ~$750 unsubsidized price you can just buy one and go. Given previous years where early upgrades were $100 off for a 1 year contract extension, it’s something to think about.

Let us know where you are and what the line’s like, and add your photos to our forum gallery, and if you’re already camping out — good night and good luck!

Standing in line for iPhone 4 international launch? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Mossberg Reviews iPhone 4 Voice Calls

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:19:47 GMT

Listen up, iPhone 4 owners: get thee to a strong AT&T cell. That’s the advice of Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg on Apple’s latest handset. Mossberg said the iPhone 4 works best in areas with “average or strong AT&T coverage”, however, he said the iPhone 3GS is a better choice for users living, working [...]

Adobe Buys ECM Vendor (and Apache Contributor) Day Software

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:16:38 GMT

Adobe today announced it has reached a deal to acquire ECM vendor Day Software. In a telephone interview, Erik Larson Senior Director of Product Management at Adobe, cited Day's technology's scalability and social features and the company's support for open-source software as the primary factors driving the acquisition. According to Day's website, "Day Chief Scientist Roy Fielding was co-founder of the Apache Software Foundation, author of the Apache Software license, and creator of the Apache web server." Day has contributed to 12 Apache projects and 25 other open-source projects.

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Day, founded in Basil, Switzerland in 1993, is a somewhat lesser known player in the ECM market - and Gartner predicted last year the company's market position would decline. However, it has an impressive portfolio of clients including GM, Audi, McDonald's. Larson praises the company for its early recognition of the potential of the web and for designing software that was built from the ground-up for scalability and interactivity.

Larson says Day's content management and content repository software will compliment Adobe's enterprise software offerings LiveCycle and Omniture (which it acquired last year) to create a full suite of enterprise technologies.

Larson's vision for the enterprise revolves around "customer experience management," which combines the discipline of user experience design, interaction design, process management, content strategy and customer service into a unified field for web-based customer experience. Larson predicts in the near future, if this isn't the case already, customers will expect to have most of their interactions with companies online - and citizens will have most of their interactions with governments online as well. To this end, Adobe hopes to position LiveCycle, Omniture, and Day's offerings as a customer experience suite to compliment its existing web development technologies.

What the acquisition means, if anything, for Apache remains to be seen. The Apache Software Foundation is of course a very independent entity, but it's hard not to see this acquisition by Adobe as a play to get closer to the world's most popular web server.

Discuss

Study: Droid Takes Data Hog Prize from iPhone

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:00:22 GMT

For some time, the iPhone has been saddled with the award for data hog. So much so, data usage has become an excuse by AT&T to explain poor network performance and a recent cap on data usage by iPhone owners. But it turns out the iPhone is second to Verizon’s Droid, a new study released [...]

Report: Foxconn Making Half of World’s Electronic Devices

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:07:31 GMT

Despite all the headaches over a rash of worker suicides, Foxconn should be resting easier today. Instead of headlines about overworked iPod assemblers jumping to their death, the electronics factory is being hailed as manufacturing half of the world’s electronics. The company, officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industries, seems to have caught a ride [...]

Apple Adds HTML5 Extensions to Safari

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:29:07 GMT

To further promote HTML5 as the future of web graphics, Apple has swung open the door for extensions to the public. While introduced in June to developers, Safari 5.0.1 now can be downloaded. The Cupertino, Calif. company also opened its Safari Extensions Gallery, joining the ranks of Firefox and other browsers extending the basic browser. Bing, [...]

Apple Accused Of Censorship After (Terrible) Erotic Novel Pulled From Bestselling iBook Spot

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:07:23 GMT

According to the Daily Mail, Monday’s best-selling ebook was Blonde and Wet: The Complete Story on the UK iBookstore. It wasn’t exactly an exposè about gossamer-haired scuba divers: it was an erotic novel, one of two by author Carl East that populated the top ten list of downloadable iBooks. Another collection called Six Sexy Stories by [...]

Another Camera-Equipped iPod Touch Found… Without FaceTime

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:39:41 GMT

We’ve seen a good few next-gen iPod Touch leaks in the past few months, but the most recent rumors pretty strongly indicate that the next updatewill bring a FaceTime camera to the device. What to make, then, of this latest prototype, supposedly found in a Californian “recycling place” and running iOS 3.1.3. It has no front-facing [...]

Under New Rules, Newspapers Increase Circulation by 400% Without Gaining Any Readers

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:24:45 GMT

Newspaper circulation could soon jump wildly, thanks to new standards the industry recommended for itself.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations announced major changes to the way it counts digital readership today that will likely affect media that still rely on print very favorably. The new rules will allow newspapers to count a single subscriber multiple times if he or she pays or registers to access content via a print subscription, web site, mobile reader or e-reader edition, among other changes to the way digital access is counted.

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The changes could massively increase circulation numbers at outlets such as the New York Times, which has multiple mobile readers including a glossy iPad app, requires registration in order to access parts of its web site and plans to start charging for digital content next year.

Circulation was historically measured as the number of print subscriptions plus newsstand sales of newspapers, magazines and other publications, and was the basis for pricing ad space and attracting advertisers. However, this definition of circulation got murky as the Internet drew more readers away from dead-tree editions, making it harder for publishers to explain the size of their readership to advertisers.

The ABC, an organization that verifies circulation numbers of publications on behalf of advertisers, made the changes based on recommendations from a task force made up of its members and representatives from the Newspaper Association of America in order to "study the evolution of newspapers and the rapidly growing channels available to advertisers," who still pay much more for print ads even as more readers demonstrate a preference for digital formats.

Starting in October, publishers can claim another "paid subscription" for every reader who accesses content online at least once every six months, as long as the subscriber has to register to see the content or pays at least 5% of his or her print subscription cost in order to access the digital version. In October 2011, readers must access digital content once per quarter to count as a paid subscription, and in October 2012, readers must access digital content once a week in order to be counted.

The rapidly-scaling standard suggests newspapers are playing catch-up to monetize an audience that started migrating to the web a long time ago. The Internet makes it possible to know more about your readers than ever before - how many you have, what they look at, and who they are - but the old circulation auditing system seems to be struggling to adapt to the needs of advertisers and media in a digital world.

Image courtesy ShironekoEuro

ReadWriteWeb is a syndication partner of The New York Times.

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Using Light, Intel Confirms Data Will Be Sent Wayyy Faster in the Near Future

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:00:11 GMT

Intel announced a prototype technology today capable of moving data at 50 Gbps, comparable to sending an entire HD movie in one second - foreshadowing faster, longer data connections that could be revolutionary for consumers and data center users.

The prototype represents an important advance in Intel's research into silicon photonics - using lasers instead of electrons to send data - which the company has been working on for years. Intel hopes to scale up the technology until it reaches speeds close to a terabit per second - fast enough to transfer a copy of the entire contents of a typical laptop in one second, the company said.

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Data transmission speeds over wire-based connections are limited by bandwidth and distance. Intel turned to silicon-based photonic devices in order to transcend these physical limitations and continue to make more powerful chips.

With the new process, electrical signals are translated into light at different-colored wavelengths, which are combined and travel down a single fiber. Then the light is separated back into wavelengths and converted back to electrons. The speeds are so high that processors, memory and other computer components will no longer need to be placed inches from each other, implying vastly different computer designs in the future, the company said.

Image courtesy Intel

"Tomorrow's datacenter or supercomputer may see components spread throughout a building or even an entire campus, communicating with each other at high speed, as opposed to being confined by heavy copper cables with limited capacity and reach," according to Intel's press release.

Such quantitative increases in the power of data transmission could lead to qualitative changes in the way we use computers and the web. From telepresence to large data set distribution and analysis, the use cases are only beginning to be imagined. "At these data rates, one could imagine a wall-sized 3D display for home entertainment and videoconferencing with a resolution so high that the actors or family members appear to be in the room with you," Intel said.

What would you do with that much bandwidth? From telepresence to the distribution and analysis of large data sets, the use cases are only beginning to be imagined. Light-based bandwidth could be a platform for a whole new world of such innovations we didn't even know we wanted, although we may soon find out - the technology may be available as soon as five years from now, Intel said.

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How Long Before Magic Trackpad Replaces The Mouse? [Poll]

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:31:05 GMT

Apple’s Magic Trackpad Ambitions: The Mouse Is Dead

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:27:17 GMT

Apple’s Magic Trackpad looks like an optional peripheral for now, but it’s much more than that. It’s several nails in the mouse’s coffin. It may even be a stake through its heart. Apple’s intent for the Magic Trackpad is clear: it’s a replacement for the mouse that brings multitouch gestures to the desktop. As more and [...]

Apple Unveils New 12-Core Mac Pro 50 Percent Faster Than Previously

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:51:45 GMT

Apple has refreshed its Mac Pro, giving the desktop workhorse up to 12 processing cores for a top speed of 3.33GHz, boosting performance by up to 50 percent. The refresh also provides users the option of four 512GB solid state drives. “The new Mac Pro is the most powerful and configurable Mac we’ve ever made,” said [...]

Apple Updates iMacs With Intel’s i3, i5, i7 Processors

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:02:55 GMT

Apple Tuesday updated its all-in-one iMacs with Intel’s Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors, confirming rumors that the Cupertino, Calif. company would completely replace the Intel Core Duo line of chips powering the desktop machines. The low-end 21.5-inch iMac now sports a 3.06GHz i3 processor for $1,199. The mid-range 21.5-inch iMac is powered by [...]

Apple Unveils Feature-Packed 27-Inch LED Display for $999

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:24:23 GMT

Have you lusted after those new iMacs with the 27-inch LED screens, but already have a MacBook – or even Mac mini? Well, Apple must have heard your pleas, because Tuesday the Cupertino, Calif. company unveiled a 27-inch LED display compatible with all Macs — for just $999. Along with a 2560×1440 resolution, the Cinema Display [...]

Lawsuit Claims iPad Just Can’t Stand the Heat

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:51:58 GMT

Maybe it was the recent high temps which struck the U.S. East Coast, but a lawsuit now claims Apple’s wildly-popular iPad tablet device just can’t stand the heat. In a complaint filed July 23, lawyers claim the iPad “overheats so quickly under common weather conditions” and “does not live up to the reasonable consumer’s expectations [...]

Citi Mobile iPhone App Security Flaw Means Customers Should Update Now

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:48:33 GMT

If you bank through Citibank on your iPhone, you might want to update it now: the Wall Street Journal is reporting that there is a security vulnerability in the last version of the Citi Mobile app that saves personal account information in a hidden file. This hidden file contains information about account numbers, security access [...]

Discover by Cooliris: Wikipedia Never Looked This Good

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:48:47 GMT

Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, but the sparse design of the service isn't likely to win awards. On the iPad, on the other hand, we are now seeing a trend towards beautiful apps like Flipboard, which combines design and functionality. With Discover, Cooliris is now launching a free Wikipedia app with a magazine-like interface that allows users to browse and search Wikipedia on the iPad in a whole new way.

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Note: The app is currently still waiting for Apple's approval. Cooliris expects it to be available soon. For the time being, you can sign up here to receive an alert when Apple approves the app.

The first page users will see when opening the app features large images and links to Wikipedia's featured article and image of the day. From anywhere in the app, users can swipe down to bring up the search menu and swipe up to bring up their search history. In landscape mode, Cooliris generally uses the wider screen to display additional information like related articles or a more detailed list of your search history.

Articles are generally broken down by sections and currently come in three different layouts that the app chooses randomly. In later iterations, Cooliris hopes to offer more templates. The team behind the Discover app also told us that it hopes to get to the point where the app can choose themes that match the topic of a given article.

In order to focus on the reading experience, Cooliris decided to hide links. Instead of seeing underlined text, users can simply click on any word in the text. If the word isn't linked to another Wikipedia page, the app will bring up a dictionary definition and if the text was linked, users can choose to open up the respective Wikipedia article.

There are, of course, a few things that Cooliris could still do to improve the app. Currently, for example, you need to have an Internet connection as the app doesn't cache any content (pages are rendered on the fly). According to Cooliris, this is due to licensing issues. Also, while browsing articles, you can't quickly skip between sections. Instead of highlighting related articles, it would be more user-friendly to allow readers to see the different sections of an article. The app is also currently unable to render tables in Wikipedia articles, which is not a major problem in most cases, but becomes an issue when reading articles about highly technical subjects.

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Apple’s Official Response To DMCA Jailbreak Exemption: It Voids Your Warranty

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:11:07 GMT

I just got a call from Apple’s PR department to discuss today’s historical DMCA exception ruling that makes iPhone jailbreaking legal. Unfortunately, because of the legal issues involved, the Apple spokeswoman would only provide me with the following statement on the record: “Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with [...]

Google Apps for Government Addresses Cloud Security Concerns

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:36:49 GMT

The LA Times reported over the weekend that Google had missed its deadline for implementing a the city's new email system, in part because it had not fully responded to some of the LA Police Department's security concerns.

But Google announced this morning that it was introducing a new edition of Google Apps, Google Apps for Government, an indication that Google is still committed to making inroads into enterprise, schools, and now government.

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Google Apps boasts Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification from the U.S. Government - the first suite of cloud computing applications to receive it. The FISMA law applies to all systems utilized by federal government agencies, and Google's accreditation means that the federal government has reviewed Google's security controls. "This review," says Google in the blog post announcing the Apps for Government edition, "makes it easier for federal agencies to compare our security features to those of their existing systems; most agencies we have worked with have found that Google Apps provides at least equivalent, if not better, security than they have today. This means government customers can move to the cloud with confidence."

Google Apps for Government stores Gmail and Calendar data in a separate storage system housed state-side, one designed exclusively for Google's government contractors. Google Apps for Government is available to any federal, state or local government in the U.S., and according to Google "should give governments an even stronger case for making the move to the cloud."

Whether or not it's a strong enough case for the Los Angeles Police Department, and other skeptics, remains to be seen.

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Fair Use Legalized, Says EFF

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:53:21 GMT

New exemptions have been added to the the Digital Millenimum Copyright Act (DMCA), a U.S. copyright law that criminalized attempts to bypass copyright, access control technologies or digital rights management (DRM) measures. The exemptions now provide protections for "fair use" in several different circumstances, the most notable of which is the (now legalized!) process of jailbreaking a phone, a popular activity among iPhone owners in particular.

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The term jailbreaking refers to hacking a smartphone in order to gain access to additional features or install unapproved applications. However, it is only one of the many new protections announced today. Also included are protections that would allow owners to use their mobile devices on different wireless networks - a practice known as "unlocking" a phone - plus exemptions that allow breaking of copyright protection mechanisms on both videos and games, exemptions that make e-books more accessible, and finally, exemptions that allow bypassing external security measures on computers in specific circumstances involving dongles.

The advocacy group EFF has been lobbying for these changes for some time due to the overly broad language used previously in the DMCA legislation, which seemingly requires an ongoing list of "exceptions" for so-called fair use activities in order to stay current with the rapidly-changing technology of the Internet era.

"The Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have taken three important steps today to mitigate some of the harms caused by the DMCA," said Jennifer Granick, EFF's civil liberties director, in regard to today's changes. "We are thrilled to have helped free jailbreakers, unlockers and vidders from this law's overbroad reach." (We believe she means "video creators" there - "vidders" is a new one for us, too.)

Specifically, today's exemptions include the following:

Permission for cell phone owners to break access controls on their phones in order to switch wireless carriers or "jailbreak" their device
Permission to break technical protections on video games to investigate or correct security flaws
Permission for college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy-protection measures on DVDs so they can embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos
Permission to enable an e-book's read-aloud function or use a screen reader with the e-book, even when built-in access controls prevent this
Permission for computer owners to bypass the need for external security devices called dongles if the dongle no longer works and cannot be replaced

This is Bigger than iPhone

Apple claimed that jailbreaking an iPhone allowed people to install unapproved (and often pirated) applications and therefore should not be permitted. The Copyright Office rejected this claim saying that jailbreaking is actually fair use.

Although the EFF reports that over 1 million iPhone owners are suspected of having jailbroken their devices, the bigger (though initially less glamorous) news may be the new permissions for creative types to break copyright in order to include clips of other works into their videos and films. By previously not permitting this activity (legally), the law has stifled the ability for artists to tell their stories and for educators to simply do their jobs without fear of repercussions. Although at first this may mean a lot more "fan-made" videos don't get yanked down from YouTube as quickly as before, we expect to see in the near future, as the EFF does, some "amazing works" of art resulting from this change.

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Library of Congress adds iPhone, iPad Jailbreaking exception to DMCA

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:16:21 GMT

Did the Library of Congress just add a DCMA exception for Jailbreaking? Why yes they did:

Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

Engagdet lays out what it means and — more importantly — what it doesn’t:

you should know that this in no way requires Apple to jailbreak your phone for you, or lay down its arms in this ongoing fight. Basically, they just can’t sue you for the specific act of breaking their protections, but there’s nothing stopping from putting those protections in there in the first place, or for suing you for an infringement not covered in this exception — like using Apple code in a non-Apple-approved way, or installing illegal software. Not that any of you jailbreakers would ever do that.

Rooting Android is also covered, and both firmware and software are now in the language.

Head on over to our Jailbreak Forum for more.

[Engagdet]

Library of Congress adds iPhone, iPad Jailbreaking exception to DMCA is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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YouTube Begins Experimenting With HTML5 Embedable Player

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:39:38 GMT

The battle between Adobe Flash and HTML5 will extend into YouTube video players embedded around the web, now that Google has announced a developer preview of video iFrames that use HTML5 when viewed in a browser that supports it. The move seems to represent a big shift in policy from multiple statements the company made just last month criticizing HTML5.

Google began experimenting with HTML5 players on the YouTube site itself in January, but offering HTML5 for the embedded players all over the web is a big step. For users, each new publishing platform that supports HTML5 instead of Flash-only means Apple devices will be able to display that content, that advanced capabilities of the new format will be available and that, according to Flash critics, our devices will run faster and with fewer crashes.

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Users of Chrome on a Mac may also be able to view embedded YouTube videos without wanting to throw our computers into the street in front of oncoming traffic in frustration.

A 180 Degree Turn?

Alex Chitu at the blog Google Operating System points out that it was just a month ago that a YouTube spokesperson said Flash was the only format that supported the kinds of security features that the company considered essential.

Last month YouTube engineer John Harding argued against HTML5 as well. Our own Mike Melanson summarized his arguments like this:

HTML5 video doesn't have the more robust features like camera and microphone access, content protection... HTML5 also lacks the 'robust video streaming' necessary for streaming full movies and live events, as has become more and more common on YouTube. Beyond these features, Flash offers a single video format, whereas the battle over HTML5 video formats (for which Google's recently introduced WebM as one solution) has not yet been won. This means Flash video can be used wherever Flash is installed, while HTML5 depends on video format and browser - an unacceptable condition for YouTube's vast user base.

There's a large ecosystem of development and streaming software built up around Flash as well, not to mention the huge amount of content already published in Flash. The battle between these formats is far from over.

Apparently something has changed and YouTube decided to give it a shot after all.

YouTube says it is testing the feature with developers before offering it to the public at large, and seeks feedback. The announcement included the following example of a video displayed with its new one-line embed code that displays in HTML5 first, if your browser supports it. Update: I'm not clear why, but for some reason this demo video appears to be playing in Flash and not HTML5 after all. Odd.

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Report: Hong Kong Goes ‘Crazy’ over iPad

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:03:26 GMT

Okay, demand for the iPad in Hong Kong may not match New York City, but for Apple, it could be an important precursor to how the device will be accepted in the all-important Chinese market. Friday was the first day the tablet device officially went on sale in Hong Kong. How’s it going? Ask [...]

LG Unable to Keep Up with iPad Demand

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:36:11 GMT

Apple has a tiger by the tail with its iPad and suppliers are now complaining they can’t push them out the door fast enough to meet demand. The head of LG Display, a division of LG Electronics, told Reuters “Apple may have to delay launches of the iPad for some countries due to tight component [...]

White iPhone Delays Continue as Apple Points to Manufacturing Snag

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:35:49 GMT

Continued manufacturing problems with the white iPhone 4 prompted Apple this morning to announce another delay in the model’s availability. In a statement, the Cupertino, Calif. company said the white model won’t be available until “later this year.” “White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected,” Apple added. [...]

Drupal Gardens Offers Drupal-as-a-Service

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:26:21 GMT

Drupal software, support, and hosting company Acquia announced that its Drupal Gardens leaves private beta today. Drupal Gardens is a content management & social publishing system, offering "Drupal-as-a-service" and greatly simplifying the creation and management of Drupal websites.

Prior to Drupal Gardens, those wanting to utilize Drupal to build their sites had to download and install the code themselves.

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In some ways then, Drupal Gardens is the Wordpress.com for Drupal, although Drupal and Drupal Gardens are feature-rich, offering more than just a blogging platform. But like Wordpress.com, Drupal Gardens may be an avenue that facilitates the open source platform's adoption. Drupal Gardens is hosted on Acquia's servers; there are no downloads or installation, and there are multiple templates for users to design and customize their own site layouts.

Drupal's adoption has been on the rise with its implementation by a number of high-profile websites, including NASA, The Onion, and the White House. More than 500,000 websites are now registered with drupal.org.

The Drupal Gardens project has been in development for more than a year and already boasts over 12,000 sites. One of the features as part of today's release is simplified site duplication. This allows users to clone an existing site, including its design, functionality, information architecture and content. This is a play for the enterprise, says Acquia co-founder and Drupal creator Dries Buytaert, as it will allow site builders to quickly roll out new microsites.

Drupal Gardens will be free for all users until the end of 2010, when it will implement a pricing structure based on site size and traffic. The platform also features a one-click export button, so there is no lock-in to Drupal Gardens.

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Apple's Software for Windows Ranked # 1 in Total Number of Security Vulnerabilities

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:15:08 GMT

A report from Secunia shows that Apple has passed Oracle in the total number of self-reported software security vulnerabilities in its Windows XP and Vista products, such as iTunes and Safari. The report does not rank companies by severity of vulnerabilities, only number, so this does not mean Apple's software is the highest risk - other sources indicate Adobe Reader may be the most dangerous. The report highlights the lack of improvements made by the software industry as a whole and the difficulties facing IT managers and consumers face in keeping software patched.

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The top ten third party applications, ranked by total number of reported vulnerabilities:

1. Mozilla Firefox
2. Apple Safari
3. Sun Java JRE
4. Google Chrome
5. Adobe Reader
6. Adobe Acrobat
7. Adobe Flash Player
8. Adobe AIR
9. Apple iTunes
10. Mozilla Thunderbird

Apple has consistently come in higher than Microsoft, but this is the first year since Secunia started tracking vulnerabilities that Apple has topped Oracle. We've previously reported that Apple is beefing up its anti-malware capabilities in OSX.

According to F-Secure, Adobe Acrobat Reader and Microsoft Word were the most commonly attacked applications in 2009. Others report that Reader exploits are on the rise in 2010. This week, Adobe announced it will implement "sandboxing" to make Reader more secure.

According to the report, a typical user has more than 66 programs from more than 22 different vendors installed. The report says 3rd party software is being increasingly targeted, yet most vendors don't do automatic updating - they leave that to end users. "It appears that most vendors do not take signicant steps to secure their users and customers before active exploitation takes place on a larger scale where it starts to threaten the overall reputation of the business," the report says.

Secunia plans to update its free personal tool Secunia PSI to actually update software and not just scan for potentially vulnerable software. Meanwhile, IT managers should look into enterprise patch management solutions. Patch management is one of the most time consuming and tedious IT security activities, but enterprises should make patching third party software a high priority.

Hat tip to Matt Asay and Ars Technica

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Apple to Target Small Business Through Retail Stores

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:57:34 GMT

Apple to Target Small Business Through Retail Stores

Long seen as a consumer-focused computer company, Apple reportedly now plans to use popularity surrounding the iPhone and iPad to go after small businesses. As part of the new drive, the Cupertino, Calif. company intends to hire more engineers at its Apple Store retail stores, along with offering conference rooms for local businesses, according to [...]

Analyst: Apple Earnings Will Surpass Microsoft

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:30:03 GMT

Analyst: Apple Earnings Will Surpass Microsoft

You may want to mark today as a turning point in the long-running rivalry between Apple and Microsoft. The Cupertino, Calif. company will likely emerge from Microsoft’s shadow, earning more revenue this quarter than the software giant, according to an independent analyst. “It’s likely that Apple will have surpassed Microsoft in revenue for the first time [...]

Report: AT&T Activates 3.2M iPhones – 10x iPhone 4s as 3GS

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:38:13 GMT

Report: AT&T Activates 3.2M iPhones – 10x iPhone 4s as 3GS

AT&T has had a love-hate relationship with the iPhone. Today, however, the mood at Apple’s exclusive U.S. carrier probably is unadulterated adoration for the iconic handset. Along with announcing $30.8 billion in second-quarter revenue, AT&T said it activated 3.2 million iPhones during the financial quarter just ended. As the late-night infomercials often say – ‘But, [...]

Facebook Deploying Salesforce.com as CRM Solution

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:54:12 GMT

Salesforce.com announced today that Facebook, citing scalability benefits, has selected Salesforce.com's Sales Cloud 2 as its CRM solution. Facebook's been growing fast: last year it took in $700 million and expects to reach $1 billion in revenue this year. In Q1 of this year, Facebook surpassed both Yahoo! and Microsoft in total ads displayed. The company is certainly in need of a scalable sales solution.

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According to Salesforce.com, Facebook replaced its own in-house CRM system Sales Cloud 2 after considering the benefits of using a SaaS CRM solution instead of maintaining its own system. Facebook has already deployed Sales Cloud 2 to its sales staff and integrated the software with six other existing systems.

Sales Cloud 2 is Salesforce.com's sales automation suite featuring its own social networking system Chatter, among other features. Salesforce.com has previously offered a Salesforce.com and Facebook mashup called originally called FaceForce and now called Facebook Connector, but it's not clear whether Facebook will be using either Chatter or Facebook Connector internally.

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Jive Gets $30 Million and the Market Sees a Glimpse of What's to Come

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:00:41 GMT

In preparation for what looks like an IPO, Jive Software announced yesterday it had raised $30 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It's a funding story of relative significance that documents one company's rise to prominence and a venture capital firm's growing commitment to the social enterprise and cloud computing space.

The Jive investment is the second major funding that we have seen in the past several days. Last week, Atlassian raised $60 million from Accel Partners.

That adds up to nearly $100 million in funding for the social enterprise space in just the past week.

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The news also marks Kleiner Perkins' second significant investment of recent note. Earlier this week, it invested $5 million in Puppet Labs, a company with a configuration framework for data center automation of management tasks.

For Puppet, its name is a metaphor works - it utilizes a puppet master to manage the configuration of thousands of nodes. Puppet works on a secure infrastructure with a dashboard environment and provides modules that organize the puppetmaster's configurations. Its technology manages the data centers that enterprise technology companies use to provide services.

Puppet illustrates a larger connection that's happening. The social enterprise and cloud computing markets share a common ecosystem. Kleiner Perkins recognized the potential of these markets and is making the investments to prove it.

The Atlassian investment also show that venture capital firms are confident in a new class of providers. Atlassian makes tools for product development. Cloud computing companies, software providers and Web-based services all build tools. Hammers, anyone? Atlassian is not a purely social technology company but it does have elements that puts them in a category that investors find attractive.

Jive's moves over the past several months have signaled its intentions. It hired Tony Zingale to run the company. Zingale has considerable experience in leading technology companies. He recently served as president and CEO of Mercury Interactive, a business technology optimization company. In 2006, Hewlett Packard purchased Mercury for $5.1 billion. He is recognized as having the experience to lead the company to a public offering.

Jive is a company that has done well by focusing on the social enterprise. Its competitors include a number of companies that are potential winners, too: Mindtouch, Box.net, Socialtext, Socialcast.

Companies like Salesforce.com and SuccessFactors have helped pave the way for Jive.

But Jive is just a glimpse of what's to come. The new wave is here. Social enterprise and cloud computing companies are here to stay.

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Weekly Poll: What is the Buzz at OSCON and Online About the Open Cloud?

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:20:00 GMT

The open cloud is dominating discussions that we are having with people at OSCON. And over the past week, the conversation online has accelerated as the conference approached.

Open cloud computing is a big topic. At a more granular level, we are hearing lots of talk about the rise of "DevOps," and "NoSQL". Open government, APIs and standards are surfacing in panels, keynotes and hallway discussions.

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Here's the poll:

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In terms of open-source, everything is on the table. Standards processes are being questioned with Benjamin Black winning a debate at the Cloud Summit. He argued against standards. Here are his slides:

OSCON 2010 - Cloud Standards Debate

Rackpace and NASA announced on the eve of OSCON that they would reveal their code and technology as part of an open cloud initiative called OpenStack.

The DevOps movement is getting some buzz. According to Patrick Debois, DevOps is bridging the gap between projects and operations. Practitioners use Agile techniques in development, project management and system administration.
Companies in this space include Opscode and Puppet.

And NoSQL continues to gain momentum. The topic came up several times at CloudCamp. A number of vendors are here to present their offerings. NorthScale, for instance, released its latest version of membase.

So, what do you think? What is the buzz at OSCON and online about the open cloud?

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Microsoft Warns Webmasters: You Might Be Dropped From New Search Formats

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:33:37 GMT

Both Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that the two companies have begun testing the partnership originally inked a year ago, which will bring Bing search results to Yahoo.

The testing is currently affecting a quarter of Yahoo's search traffic and, while not site-wide, Microsoft is warning on its blog that webmasters should be diligent in making sure that their sites are showing up in search results correctly, lest they be left behind. To that end, Microsoft is releasing a completely redesigned version of its Bing Webmaster Tools.

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Microsoft is warning webmasters that, just because their site showed up as they wanted on Yahoo search does not mean it will be the same for Yahoo search when it is powered by Bing and there are a few steps they should take:

During this testing phase, it's important to look at how your site is showing up in search results on Yahoo! and Bing today, so you can assess if there are any tweaks you need to make or feedback you need to share with the team to make sure your site is accurately represented in Bing's results. In particular, now is a good time for you to review your crawl policies in your robots.txt and ensure that you have identical polices for the msnbot/Bingbot and Yahoo's bots. Just to note, you should not see an increase in bingbot traffic as a result of the transition.

The updated webmaster tools give webmasters control over three areas: crawl, index and traffic. Through the use of these tools, webmasters can control how and where their website shows up in Bing search results, as well as look at traffic on the search engine. Here's Microsoft's explanation:

Index Explorer gives you unprecedented access to browse through the Bing index in order to verify which of your directories and pages have been included. Submit URLs gives you the ability to signal which URLs Bing should add to the index. Other new features include: Crawl Issues to view details on redirects, malware, and exclusions encountered while crawling sites; and Block URLs to prevent specific URLs from appearing in Bing search engine results pages. In addition, the new tools take advantage of Microsoft Silverlight 4 to deliver rich charting functionality that will help you quickly analyze up to six months of crawling, indexing, and traffic data.

When we looked at this partnership a year ago, we posited that it could create some competition for Google. In the last year, Google has lost little ground in the search marketplace, but Yahoo and Bing both hold the number two and three spots in search engine popularity worldwide. We'll see if Bing-powered search results do anything to change the status quo. In the meantime, webmasters would be wise to heed Microsoft's advice and monitor their site in the search results.

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Slacker News: Slacker Radio Gets Streaming News with ABC

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:58:07 GMT

When we think "slacker", we think dirty jeans, video games, gas station food and couches. But now, a partnership between ABC News and streaming music service Slacker Radio is looking to redefine our knee-jerk association, bringing news to those who can't care enough to actively chose their music. (We jest.)

The partnership was first announced back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, but is finally going live today.

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Slacker Radio is a music recommendation engine much like Pandora, in that it lets you chose an artist or song and then creates a streaming music station based on that selection. The service also provides a number of pre-set stations to chose from, such as "Indie Hits" or non-vocal "Classic Jazz". The service is available on a number of devices, including iPhones, Android, Palm and Windows phones.

The partnership is the first we've seen between a streaming music service and a news service. ABC's content will be available in two ways - as a separate stream of news and as a top of the hour update, which will interrupt streaming music with a news update each hour. The service will initially be available to Slacker Radio Basic listeners for 14 days, while Slacker Radio Plus listeners, who pay a $3.99 monthly fee, will have unlimited access to the content.

According to the site, news will consist of "a mix of the day's most compelling news including Headlines, US and World news, Sports, Business, Politics and more" and will be added throughout the day. According to the release, the news station "features segments from ABC News programs, including "Good Morning America" anchored by Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Juju Chang and Sam Champion, "Nightline" anchored by Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden and Martin Bashir and much more." Users will have the ability to skip and queue stories just as they can with music.

Overall, we really like the idea of an hourly real-world interruption of our streaming music and hope to see a similar option make its way into other services.

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