30011253
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
NEW YORK — A U.S. senator has urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate reports that applications on the Apple and Google mobile systems steal private photos and contacts and post them online without consent.
Democrat Charles Schumer's request comes after iPhone maker Apple tweaked its privacy policies last month after prodding from other lawmakers.
The distribution of third-party applications on iPhones and phones running on Google's Android system has helped create a surge in the popularity of those devices in recent years.
Related story: Android apps can snoop photos, too
However, Schumer said on Sunday that he was concerned about a New York Times report that iPhone and Android applications can access a user's private photo collection.
He also referred to a discovery last month that applications on devices such as the iPhone and iPad were able to upload entire address books with names, telephone numbers and email addresses to their own servers.
"These uses go well beyond what a reasonable user understands himself to be consenting to when he allows an app to access data on the phone for purposes of the app's functionality," Schumer said in a letter to the FTC.
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The lawmaker said it was his understanding that many of these uses violate the terms of service of the Apple and Android platforms. He said "it is not clear whether or how those terms of service are being enforced and monitored."
Related story: iPhone flaw allows apps access to your contacts
As a result, he said, "smartphone makers should be required to put in place safety measures to ensure third party applications are not able to violate a user's personal privacy by stealing photographs or data that the user did not consciously decide to make public".
Schumer said phone makers have an obligation to protect the private content of their customers.
"When someone takes a private photo, on a private cellphone, it should remain just that: private," said Schumer.
29914393
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
Not bad for a day's work. A day after Microsoft posted its Consumer Preview of Windows 8, users have downloaded it 1 million times.
Microsoft broke the news in a tweet on Thursday: "One day later...one million downloads of the consumer preview," it said via its BuildingWindows8 account.
Microsoft unveiled the Windows 8 preview in Barcelona during the Mobile World Congress show, alongside the Windows Phone platform. Windows chief Steven Sinofsky took to the stage at a press event to talk up the "bold re-imagining of Windows."
"Our goal with Windows 8 is to deliver PCs without compromise," Sinofsky said, which means that the OS scales with you depending on how you want to use the OS and with what gadget — tablet, PC, or touch-based PC.
27879292
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
Eastman Kodak Co., the unprofitable 131-year-old camera maker, is weighing options including a bankruptcy filing because of concerns raised by possible buyers of its patent portfolio, said three people with direct knowledge of the process.
Some potential bidders for the patents are wary of proceeding because a purchase may amount to a so-called fraudulent transfer if Kodak is insolvent, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Kodak confirmed that it hired Jones Day to advise it on considering options and said it doesn’t plan to seek bankruptcy protection.
“As we sit here today, the company has no intention of filing, and there is no change in our strategy to monetize our intellectual property,” Gerard Meuchner, a spokesman for Kodak, said yesterday. “We’re not concerned about fraudulent conveyance in regards to the sale of our IP portfolio.”
The company will make a $14 million coupon payment due today, he said. Meuchner declined to comment on whether the company had discussed a potential filing with law firms, saying that Kodak is “focused on the fourth quarter and on delivering on our strategy to become a profitable, sustainable digital company.”
A number of suitors, such as Google Inc., have signed confidentiality agreements to examine the assets, said the people. If a sale was judged fraudulent, creditors may sue for more money, said one of the people. A bankruptcy filing may help clear the way for a patent sale, said the people. The sale could fetch about $3 billion, MDB Capital Group estimates.
26706092
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
Microsoft said Sunday night that it plans to launch its fall update for its Xbox 360 game console, complete with voice search via Xbox Kinect, this week.
Microsoft also announced a significant number of related content partnerships, bringing most major services to the Xbox platform this week or by early 2012. On Dec. 6, Starting Dec. 6, a free Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone will let also let users find, learn more about and control content from popular entertainment services on Xbox LIVE.
26703330
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
Microsoft will push out an update to Xbox consoles Tuesday, designed to get consumers to turn on the device every time they flip on their televisions, not just when they want to play games.
Though most gamers will notice a dramatically different interface, and some will take advantage of more advanced voice-recognition controls, the real significance of the update is how boldly the software giant is putting itself at the core of the TV entertainment experience. Microsoft is partnering with 40 content providers from around the globe to significantly increase the amount of live and on-demand content available on Xbox.
Over the next month, Microsoft will add content in the United States to the Xbox from Verizon's FiOS TV, ESPN, and the Syfy channel among others. Next year, HBO Go and Comcast's Xfinity on Demand will come to U.S. customers. Many of the apps from partners are only available to customers who purchase an Xbox Live Gold Membership.
Microsoft is also adding new programming to the Xbox experience abroad. Canadian customers will get content from Rogers Media, Maple Leaf Sports, and TMZ, among others. And new programming will roll out in Europe, Australia and Asia.
25696068
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
It no longer belongs to the wizarding world of Harry Potter: A scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas has created his own invisibility cloak.
"We really can hide objects. ... We can switch for a short moment and make it disappear," said Ali Aliev, a physicist at UTD.
His "cloak" right now is small several strands of what look like thread.
But sure enough, in a video of his experiment, you see the strands and then, a second later, they disappear.
The threadlike material is made of carbon nanotubes, Aliev said. He discovered that the material becomes so hot when heated up that it can bend light around an object, making it look as if it has disappeared. (The phenomenon is similar to the way desert heat can create a mirage.)
Right now, the technology is limited to Aliev's lab, but in time the material could easily hide large objects, such as military tankers, he said.
Scientists in the United Kingdom are working on similar technology.
There, inventors have created plates that can stick to an object such as a tank. The plates can heat up or cool down very quickly, matching the temperature outside. When the scene is viewed with a thermal infrared imaging system — for example, night vision goggles the object seems to disappear.
Experts said both technologies are years away from being on the market. Still, what once seemed like science fiction could now be science fact, Aliev said.
"So it's interesting for ordinary people, because usually [scientists] show something microsized under some microscope ... but here, in real time, real objects [were] disappearing," he said.
24469178
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
Microsoft's proposed $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype has earned the approval of the European Union, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
The European Commissioner for Competition, Joaquin Almunia, is expected to rule that the acquisition won't harm competition or turn Skype into a Microsoft-exclusive platform.
The decision ignores accusations that Microsoft is simply bundling services on Windows to drown out smaller competitors, as argued by Italian Skype rival Messagenet last week. Messagenet also urged the Commission to require Microsoft to unbundle Skype from its Windows Office Suite.
The FT reports that Microsoft "promised" the Commission it would keep Skype interoperable and supported on rival operating systems.
"We're committed to the Skype user base," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer back in May, addressing antitrust concerns at the time. "We want to continue to build and engage that base. Part of that commitment is continuing to support Skype on non-Microsoft platforms."
24162644
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
When Google rolled out the beta of their "magical and revolutionary" social network (oops, sorry — that's Apple's line), I dutifully signed up like everybody else in the tech industry. I played around with it and found some features I really liked — and some that made me scratch my head and think "Why in the world can't I do that? I can do it on Facebook." I circlified my friends and acquaintances, followed a few people I knew only by reputation, thoroughly enjoyed the "instant upload" feature for smart phones despite its scary aspects, got thoroughly annoyed while trying to navigate the interface a few times, and then ... headed back to Facebook. It seems as if most others are doing the same thing; I've noticed a drop-off in posts on G+ lately (when I bother to go there). I haven't given up on it, but it's an afterthought, whereas Facebook is a part of my life. It's not that Facebook is technically better — in many ways, it's not (although Facebook as been hard at work, making improvements to give people the functionality they've found and like on G+). Ultimately, social networking is about the people, and in general, the people I care about and enjoy "hanging out" with (to borrow a G+ term) are on Facebook. I'll log onto G+ if I want to get into a technical discussion or a political argument. Many of my colleagues are there. But my friends are on Facebook.
23235458
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
When it comes to blocking malware, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 seems to come out on top, by leaps and bounds, over other browsers.
Tests by NSS Labs to "examine the ability of five different web browsers to protect users from socially-engineered malware" showed that IE9 was able to block this kind of threat 99 percent of the time, beating out Apple Safari 5, Google Chrome 12, Mozilla Firefox 4 and Opera 11.
The closest another Web browser got to that blocking-the-bad stuff rate was Chrome, at a very distant 13.2 percent. At the low end of the blockers was Opera, with a 6.1 percent rate.
NSS also tested socially engineered malware targeted at users in Asia Pacific and in Europe and found IE9 again seemed to blow the others away, with a 95 percent mean block rate in Asia and 92 percent in Europe. Chrome was again second, with a 15.4 percent block rate in Asia being its highest score. Opera again finished last.
23094310
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
The Apple Mac is steadily grabbing market share, but Windows-based systems continue to dominate the worldwide personal computer market, according to a new Gartner study.
The report is good news for Microsoft, which has taken its licks lately in the mobile computing market. Redmond's well-received but slow-selling Windows Phone 7 OS has yet to catch on among consumers, who are snapping up Apple iOS and Google Android handsets like crazy.
Windows 7 has proven a big hit on the desktop, however: 42 percent of PCs worldwide will run Win 7 by the end of 2011, Gartner reports. And nearly 635 million new PCs are expected to ship with the OS by the end of the year.
After a slow start, corporations are finally migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7. "Many enterprises have been planning their deployment of Windows 7 for the last 12 to 18 months, and are now moving rapidly to Windows 7," said Gartner research director Annette Jump in a statement.
However, Windows 7 will likely be the last version of Microsoft's iconic OS that gets deployed via massive, enterprise-wide migrations. The move toward virtual and cloud computing architectures in the next five years will change how upcoming versions of Windows are deployed, the study says.
Another long-term issue for Windows is the rise of "OS-agnostic" applications for both consumer and enterprise PCs. As early as next year, half of enterprise apps won't be tied to any particular operating system. In the consumer market, the proportion of OS-agnostic apps already exceeds Windows-specific apps, Gartner estimates.
What About Mac and Linux?
Apple's slice of the global PC pie may be small, but Mac adoption is growing above the market average. The Mac OS shipped on 3.3 percent of new PCs worldwide in 2008. That figure climbed to 4 percent in 2010, and to 4.5 percent this year--and it's projected to grown to 5.2 percent by 2015, Gartner says.
The Mac's popularity varies by region, however. Its strongest support is in North America and Western Europe, but its fastest growth may occur in some emerging countries where its current base is small. Gartner attributes the Mac's rise not only to its easy-to-use interface, but also to its integration with Apple mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Gartner is less optimistic about Linux, which it predicts will remain a niche OS over the next five years with a global share below 2 percent. In the consumer market, Linux will be a non-entity with less than 1 percent of the PC market. End users didn't take to Linux-based mini-notebooks, or netbooks, and today few mini-notes ship with Linux.
23006864
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
Microsoft bashers fooled again. In what has become overly obvious, Microsoft's pundits will believe anything as long as it is anti Microsoft.
Stupid is as stupid does with IE user hoax 'study'
A silly hoax 'study' claiming that Internet Explorer users have below-average IQs makes some people happy as pigs in slop.
The other day I was reading through the CNN site when I came across an article entitled "Are Internet Explorer users dumb?" It references a Vancouver, B.C.-based psychometric consulting company — which was revealed today to be a hoax — that claims to have given an IQ test to 100,000 people, and the results indicated that IE users scored less than average compared to users of other browsers, who tested as slightly above average.
I mulled this over for a day or two and wanted to respond in my column but decided to drop it. I thought, "This is exactly the kind of tabloid tech journalism that I've spoken out against for years. Why bother with a trip to the gutter?" — until my InfoWorld colleague Robert X. Cringely decided to jump on the "IE users are stupid" bandwagon. It must have been a slow week for technology that he would champion this prejudicial and utterly idiotic study. It's offensive. And the fact that so many tech journalism sites played up this story without verifying the alleged consulting company's existence shows who's really stupid.
22928872
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
Thanks to Microsoft Kinect, Boeing doesn't have to lug around a real 737 to trade shows.
The commercial aircraft giant is using the software giant's technology to create a virtual tour of the next-generation Boeing 737 plane, using Kinect, Silverlight Deep Zoom, and Windows 7 Touch and Azure.
Digital marketing agency Wire Stone created Boeing 737 Explained, an interactive marketing tool to help Boeing pitch the aircraft to potential buyers. While Wire Stone is based in the Silicon Valley, the Boeing Kinect work took place at the agency's Seattle office.
In what is being billed as an early commercial non-entertainment use of Kinect, Wire Stone says it integrated Kinect and other Microsoft technology for Boeing to use in trade shows and other venues that can support massive displays where Boeing 737 Explained can be viewed in real-world dimensions.
From selling jetliners to training surgeons, it is already apparent that Kinect has applications beyond games.
The 737 project uses the technology behind Kinect motion controller for Xbox 360 to let a viewer move around and explore the 737.
With Kinect, Boeing is able to turn a dry, technical pitch into a virtual tour of the aircraft.
"If we look at all the approaches that we use to communicate about the 737, most of them are very analytical, enabling us to talk about the financial operating costs, maintenance costs and other attributes," Diana Klug, Director of Marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a statement. "We wanted to take the marketing for the 737 to the next level, and the set of tools that we had did not allow us to convey the full range of new features and improvements that we've made to the product."
Using Kenect and other Microsoft technology, [wire] stone created Boeing 737 Explained, an interactive marketing to help Boeing to pitch the aircraft to potential buyers.
22661390
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
Apple has shipped new versions of its Safari browser to fix numerous security holes that expose Windows users to malicious hacker attacks.
The Safari 5.1 and Safari 5.0.6 addresses gaping security holes in Safari and WebKit, the open-source browser rendering engine. These updates are available for Safari users running Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
According to Apple’s advisory, some of these vulnerabilities could lead to drive-by download attacks, full system compromise, denial-of-service conditions of cross-site scripting attacks.
22539582
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
You now have another reason to check your privacy settings. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Social Intelligence Corp, has been given the legal thumbs up to archive seven years worth of your Facebook posts. These archives will be used by SIC (oh the applicability of the acronym) as part of their background checking service for job applicants.
There are a couple sides to this argument that have been hashed out many times over. A hiring manager could say that they were glad they discovered that Johnny the master of the great resume also drank heavily every night and posted all his parties on Facebook — so they could avoid hiring him. The other side of the argument has been that if someone is functional, professional and sober at work, then why is it fair to factor in what they do outside of work when deciding if you should schedule an interview? As long as they are not a violent criminal or addicted to hard drugs, who cares?
22337878
submission
Pigskin-Referee writes:
The Mozilla Foundation has released Firefox 5.0.1 to address an issue with Mac OS X 10.7 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 5. These issues could cause Firefox to crash.
US-CERT encourages users and administrators to review the Mozilla Foundation Firefox 5.0.1 Release Notes and apply any necessary updates to help mitigate the risks.
