Microsoft drops Windows Security Essentials 4 beta -- pick it up now!
Microsoft has released a public beta version of its Windows Security Essentials package, giving users a sneak glimpse of what to expect from future releases. There are not a huge number of changes to speak of, but the release is an important advancement for a home-user friendly security suite that has gained a large following since it debuted. Windows Security Essentials 4 beta is available right now to anyone with a Windows Live ID.
There are some minor interface tweaks to be seen in the application, but it is the improvements to performance and the detection process that are most interesting. One of the concerns with running any security software is the potential for it to impact on system performance -- and this is one reason why many people simply do not bother installing security software. Performance tweaks help to reduce the strain on your system while it is protected.
Windows Phone 7 needs a Christmas miracle
I've got a soft spot for Windows Phone. The operating system is classy, vibrant, intuitive and refreshing -- the latter particularly compared to Android and iOS. Windows Phone also is a bleeding failure, as I predicted it would be in February 2010 -- when calling the platform a "lost cause". I grudgingly admit to being right. Ah hum. Only Nokia can save Windows Phone now. They swim for land or drown together.
Yesterday, Nielsen released US smartphone operating system share at end of third quarter. For Android and iOS: 42.8 percent and 28.3 percent, respectively. Windows Phone: 1.2 percent, which is less than Symbian (1.7 percent) -- the operating system WP will replace on Nokia handsets, which have far less visibility than does WP7 in the United States; that's sadist commentary of all. Windows Mobile share is 6.1 percent, and that's a good place for Microsoft to really target. Imagine if all those customers could convert to smartphones running the newer software.
United Nations hacked! Passwords posted!
The United Nations finds itself resecuring its network Wednesday following a hack that resulted in the login details of the employees of several divisions being posted to the Internet. Calling itself TeaMp0isoN, the group calls the UN "a Senate for global corruption" and "sits to facilitate the introduction of a New World Order and a One World Government".
TeaMp0isoN hacked accounts belonging to employees of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) among others. Some of the fault for the hack may lie in the users themselves: TeaMp0isoN notes that several of the user IDs contained no password at all.
Spotify Platform launches in beta, lets devs create music apps in Spotify
Music streaming service Spotify on Wednesday unveiled the Spotify Platform, which lets third party developers build apps into the popular Spotify streaming music service.
The platform launches with apps from thirteen partners, including Billboard, Fuse, Last.fm, The Guardian, Moodagent, Pitchfork, We Are Hunted, Rolling Stone, Songkick, Soundrop, and TuneWiki. The apps can be accessed through Spotify's App Finder, which launches in beta today.
That was fast -- TeamViewer 7 goes from beta to gold in a week
It’s barely a week since the first public beta, but the Windows version of TeamViewer 7 was still released in full earlier today. And this is no cosmetic upgrade. The popular remote access tool has been revitalized with some major features that open it up to an entirely new audience.
Top of the list is TeamViewer’s new ability to hold online meetings for up to 25 people. Despatch email invitations to your prospective attendees, and when the time arrives they’ll be able to join you via smartphones, tablets or computers. The program provides just about all the functionality you’d expect from this kind of group collaboration tool, with everyone at the meeting able to view the same screen, see and hear everything you’re doing, exchange text chat, use a white board and share files. And it’s even possible to record a video of the event for convenient reference later.
Researcher uncovers keylogging 'rootkit' in Android phones
Earlier this month, Android developer Trevor Eckhart looked into an always-on process in his HTC Android phones called Carrier IQ, and discovered the application was actually capturing all user actions (ostensibly for the purposes of "mobile service intelligence") without providing users the ability to opt out or shut off the process.
In fact, Eckhart suggested the only option to escape the keylogging behavior of the application was for users to root their phone and install new firmware without it. For this reason, Eckhart classified Carrier IQ as a rootkit.
Black Friday consumers buy 555 Xbox consoles per minute
Today, Microsoft reported record Black Friday week Xbox console sales -- 960,000 units. That works out to roughly one per minute, assuming six-and-a-half days of sales (reduced for Thanksgiving Day). It's a phenomenal achievement for an aging console and demonstrates how Kinect and lower-entry cost 4GB models extend Xbox vitality as a platform. Microsoft describes the milestone as the "biggest week of sales in Xbox history".
However, the sales per minute is much higher for Black Friday -- well, presumably. Microsoft says that 800,000 consoles sold in one 24-hour period, which I assume means day after Thanksgiving. That works out to 555.5555 Xboxes per minute. Consumers also snatched up 750,000 Kinect sensors -- that's standalone and bundled -- during the whole week.
Snap2HTML: Record Windows file and folder trees
When you’re trying to troubleshoot a friend’s PC then it’s often useful to know more about what’s on their hard drive: installed programs, the \Windows folder, temporary folders maybe, and more. If you’re sitting in front of the system then you can just launch Explorer and take a look. When the friend is far away, though, this becomes rather more difficult, as Explorer provides no way to for your friend to, say, save a report on the contents of the \Windows folder.
And while you could try a command line trick or two – dir c:\windows /s > \report.txt, maybe – that won’t exactly produce the most readable of file listings. Fortunately this isn’t necessary, though -- not if you have a copy of the free Snap2HTML, which makes it very simple to record the contents of any folder tree.
Are Windows 8 tablets DOA?
That's my question for you to ponder and to comment and debate about. Yesterday, a Forrester Research analyst proclaimed "Microsoft has missed the peak of consumer desire for a product they haven't yet released" -- it's already too late for Windows 8 tablets. He's absolutely nuts, I say. Or is he?
The analyst, JP Gownder, contends that "Windows 8 is going to be very late to the party" and Apple and Samsung tablets "will likely be into their third generation by the time Windows 8 launches". Microsoft is a late-starter to the tablet market. Meanwhile consumers have lost interest. "In Q1 2011, Windows was by far the top choice of consumers" with 46 percent US consumers pining for a tablet running Microsoft's OS. "By Q3 2011, that picture had changed dramatically...interest among consumers dropped to 25 percent". It's recipe for failure, he contends. I'm not sure what Forrester pays Gownder, but, hey, my more competent analysis is free.
Facebook agrees to FTC security audits after it 'deceived customers'
Leading social networking service Facebook has agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on charges that its privacy settings were deceptive to customers, and that it made privacy promises that it didn't keep.
The FTC's original complaint (.pdf here) against Facebook cites eight different cases where Facebook "made promises it didn't keep." These were: deceptive privacy settings, unfair and deceptive privacy changes in 2009, misleading scope of platform applications' access to user information, disclosure of user information to advertisers, deceptive verified apps program, contrary or improper disclosures about retention of user photos and videos, and improper compliance with the US-EU Safe Harbor Framework.
Columbia researchers show remote HP printer hijack [video]
Columbia University's Intrusion Detection Systems Lab has found a significant core vulnerability in certain networked HP printers that lets a remote system infiltrate print jobs, remotely inject malware into the printer's firmware that takes control of the machine.
The lab, headed by Professor Salvatore J. Stolfo, has been doing research on the vulnerabilities of embedded systems for the last year, identifying more than 540,000 publicly accessible embedded devices configured with factory default root passwords: this includes routers, VoIP phones, webcams, digital energy systems, and IPTV/Cable boxes.
What recession? Sony enjoys record holiday shopping weekend
Europe may be plunging the world into another recession but American shoppers apparently don't care. In yet another validation of the surge in consumer spending we witnessed during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumer electronics goliath Sony also enjoyed a sales spike and -- here's the kicker -- without slashing prices.
The Sony experience, along with a similar one enjoyed by Apple, must have economic forecasters scratching their heads. Jeesh, are we heading for a third Great Depression -- the second in three years? Or are the cluckers just screeching about another hunk of heaven dropping on our heads?
FCC lets AT&T pull back from T-Mobile wireless license acquisition
In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it will grant the request for AT&T and T-Mobile to withdraw their applications to transfer control of wireless licenses in AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile.
The commission will also release a redacted version of the staff report that examines the pros and cons that would arise if AT&T acquired T-Mobile.
Small businesses embrace Microsoft's cloud, while enterprises wait and see
If you live in Seattle, it's hard not to think about clouds. The mean number of cloudy days a year is 255.5, with another 81.6 partly cloudy. That's a whole lot of overcastness (go ahead, tell me that's no word). Perhaps the skies above remind Microsoft employees below about the importance of "the cloud" to the company's future. Today, Microsoft reminded everyone with some stats on its cloud computing progress and updates to Office 365 and SkyDrive. However, beneath today's announcements there are signs of drought, with only a small number of enterprises embracing Microsoft's cloud.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company is enhancing both services and has broadened availability, 22 more countries -- including Argentina, Iceland, Indonesia, South Africa and Taiwan -- for Office 365. SkyDrive gets a modern makeover, including HTML5 enhancements that are in line with broader Microsoft development objectives for Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 8.
Windows 8 tablets: dead on arrival, too late to market
Microsoft's window of opportunity when it comes to tablets is closing. Release of Windows 8 is expected well into 2012, and businesses and consumers pine for tablets running the next-generation software - or they did. That is longer the case, Forrester analysts JP Gownder and Sarah Rotman Epps claim: Microsoft is too late to the party.
Windows 8 tablets will come in fifth after a host of other platforms, including the iPad and Android tablets, the struggling RIM PlayBook, and now defunct WebOS. Gownder and Epps say the tablet market is not forgiving to latecomers, which equals bad news for Microsoft.
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