From The Editor
By Jeff Caruso, Site Editor
- Cisco backdoor still open, and other Black Hat news #BlackHat
- In another memorable Black Hat security conference this week, vulnerabilities were found in products ranging from Cisco to Microsoft to Wi-Fi, and beyond.
Cisco backdoor still open
The...
- Resources for helping Haiti
- In the horrible aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti, many people in IT and elsewhere want to do what they can to lend a hand without getting scammed. Our sister sites at IDG passed...
- Tell us about your favorite IT gear
- Do you have a favorite enterprise IT product you can't live without? Tell us about it and we'll share your raves with our readers.
Please send your submissions to Ann Bednarz at Network World by...
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Cisco, Juniper focus on mobile; Adobe apologizes for flaw fix failure Listen now!
- HP app preserves SharePoint for the ages
- Hewlett-Packard has updated its records management software so it can now capture for legal posterity Microsoft SharePoint files and even entire SharePoint workspaces, the company announced.
- Researchers warn of likely attacks against Windows, PowerPoint
- Some of the bugs Microsoft patched today will be exploited by hackers almost immediately, security researchers predicted.
- PayPal: India payments suspended for 'at least a few months'
- PayPal said a ban on personal transactions to and from India will continue for "at least a few months" while the online payment service tries to resolve a problem with local regulators.
- NASA Endeavour set to dock with, expand International Space Station
- NASA's Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the ISS shortly after midnight Wednesday. Once docked the shuttle and ISS crews will begin removing from the space shuttle’s storage bay and docking the life support module known as Tranquility.
- Critical Windows Fixes For Network-based Attacks
- Today's Patch Tuesday update release from Microsoft ships out a bevy of high-priority fixes, including five rated critical. Many of the vulnerabilities are likely to be attacked, according to Redmond.
- Box.net upgrades iPhone app, announces new API
- Box.net provides cloud-based file-sharing and collaboration tools aimed at business users. A variety of iPhone apps already integrate with the service.
- Gmail gets social with Google Buzz
- Google has given Gmail a social networking component with its introduction of Buzz, a service built inside of the Web mail product that lets users post and share content in similar ways as they do in sites like Facebook and Twitter.
- Gmail Goes Social With Google Buzz
- Google introduced a social networking tool called Google Buzz Tuesday that allows sharing of status updates, images, and videos via a new Gmail tab called Google Buzz. The Google Buzz features will also be available on Android based phones as well as the iPhone (via a Web-based application) allowing for real-time updates to your Google Buzz feed that can show up on a new version of Google's mobile maps.
- iPhone and Android Market Share on the Rise
- New statistics from comScore show that Apple and Google are both gaining ground in the battle for smartphone market share in the United States. Perhaps, as Google indicated when introducing the Nexus One, the iPhone and Android platforms are really next-generation "superphones" and the comparison with "normal" smartphones is unfair.
- Google brings Buzz social networking to Gmail, mobile
- You've got to hand it to Google: when they take on a project, they don't do things by halves. On Tuesday, in an event at the company's Mountain View campus the company announced Google Buzz, its newest entry into the social-networking arena.
- LinkedIn Quick Tip: How to Reorder Profile Sections
- This new LinkedIn feature allows you to customize the display of your profile, enabling you to prioritize certain sections over others.
- Enable some missing Snow Leopard Services
- When Snow Leopard first came out, I wrote about the new-and-improved Services feature, including what seemed to be a bug regarding which Services do and do not show up in the contextual menu. For example, try this experiment on your 10.6 machine. Select some text in TextEdit, then Control-click on the selection. In the contextual menu that appears, you should see three entries at the bottom of the menu: New Note With Selection, New Email With Selection, and Make New Sticky Note.
- Ubisoft's master plan: pushing quality, multiplayer modes
- During the Q&A section of Ubisoft's earnings call today, the company outlined its master strategy for the next 10 years. In addition to pumping out more franchise games like Prince of Persia and resurrected Driver, they're working on crafting more multiplayer modes, and totally pushing for new in-house technology and piracy protection.
- Papershow for Mac makes interactive presentations possible
- Papershow, a tool for interactive presentations from Canson, will soon be available for the Mac. The kit, which is making its debut at Macworld Expo this week, includes a Bluetooth-equipped pen, a USB key for your computer, and special paper that transmits your handwriting to a screen.
- Microsoft delivers huge Windows security update
- Microsoft today shipped a record 13 security updates that patched dozens of vulnerabilities in Windows.
- Company offers video-chat technology to app makers
- Some hurdles remain to using your iPhone for holding iChat-like video confabs--not the least of which is that the phone's camera is on the opposite side of the display. But one company is looking to remove some of the technical hurdles, releasing its video chat technology to iPhone developers on Tuesday.
- Oracle launches worldwide cloud-computing tour
- Oracle has officially put both legs on the cloud-computing bandwagon, recently launching a roughly 50-date global road show on the topic for developers and system administrators.
- Virginia firm files encryption lawsuit against tech giants
- TecSec, an encryption vendor based in McLean, Virginia, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against several large tech vendors, including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, eBay, Oracle and Adobe Systems.
- E3 2010 registration now open to industry attendees, media
- With the show returning to its former glory in 2009, industry interest in the Electronic Entertainment Expo is likely at its highest point in years. For folks who're hoping to stamp their ticket to E3 2010, the trade show's official website is now accepting registration from industry-affiliated and media attendees.
- Digital music sales growth slowing since variable pricing
- The nature of cause and effect is sometimes surprising--at other times, it seems so blindingly obvious that all you can do is say "duh." If you'd ever predicted that raising the price of a product might cause some consumers to think twice before purchasing, then congratulations: a winner is you!
- Startup opens offshoring alternative in distressed Michigan
- Systems in Motion is taking advantage of an educated, available workforce and state incentives in opening an IT services operation in Ann Arbor, Mich., that it hopes will employ 1,100 people in five years.
- Rome trial tackles piracy responsibility of telecom carriers
- A trial is due to open in Rome Wednesday that pits a major antipiracy organization against Telecom Italia and the national Privacy Authority over who is responsible for policing the Internet.
- Researchers use nanobubbles to burst cancer cells
- Scientists are using nanoparticles and lasers to kill cancer cells by blowing them up from the inside.
- Google Nexus One fee cut follows broad FCC inquiry
- Google has seemingly acknowledged that $350 is a bit too much to charge consumers for ditching its Nexus One smartphone.
- Ubisoft's big news: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
- Ubisoft announced today that the new Ghost Recon game -- previously known as Ghost Recon 4 -- has a name and is due out during the Holiday 2010 season. "Future Soldier" makes more sense than "Advanced Warfighter," doesn't it?
- Ubisoft's big news: 7 franchises returning, including Driver
- In conjunction with the company's quarterly financial report, Ubisoft revealed that seven franchises and two new IPs would be coming between April 2010 and March 2011, with Driver and one mystery title comprising the former.
- Windows 7 Rollout Lessons Learned by Early Adopters
- Now's the time to learn from early adopters as you plan your Windows 7 rollout. As you deal with issues from timing to training, consider these five best practices Forrester has culled from work with Windows 7 earlybirds.
- Most smartphones now have touchscreens, research finds
- Several market research outfits have released a bevy of interesting smartphone data this week, highlighted by the Canalys research group's finding that a majority of smartphones now have touchscreens.
- iPhone 4G: Rumored Parts Suggest a Slightly New Design
- An iPhone repair shop claims to have replacement parts for the iPhone 4G, which leave open some interesting possibilities about the rumored device.
- Judge dismisses Windows anti-piracy software lawsuit
- A federal judge has dismissed a three-year-old lawsuit that accused Microsoft of duping customers when it fed them company anti-piracy software as a critical security update, court documents show.
- AMD details speed, power saving features of Fusion
- Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday offered more details about its forthcoming Fusion processor, including the speed, power consumption and plans to begin shipping samples in the first half of this year.
- Nook Is Available Again, But is it Worth it?
- After a long wait and gobs of frustration, Barnes & Noble's Nook e-book reader is finally available. Online stock of the $259 e-reader disappeared over the holiday season as consumers sopped up the much-anticipated device that was hailed as strong competition against the current king of the heap, Amazon's Kindle. The Nook is also expected to make a physical appearance at some Barnes and Noble stores by midweek (scope out locations using the Nook in-store locator). But after all the hubbub and hair-pulling, is the Nook worth it?
- KEMP Technologies Offers Load Balancing For SMBs
- Most small businesses typically outsource their Web and e-commerce hosting needs to a dedicated hosting operation rather than host it on-site, because it's cheaper and more reliable than hiring someone full-time to do it themselves. However, small businesses that instead choose to bring their own Web servers, or have other application and terminal servers prone to overloading, might want to look at a dedicated load-balancing appliance that can help them deal with more traffic while minimizing service slowdown and outages. Enter the LoadMaster 2000, a $1590 load balancer by KEMP Technologies aimed at SMBs with overworked servers.
- Five Ways Early Adopters Have Been Screwed
- Apple executives have hinted that an early price drop for the $500-and-up iPad may be in the works. A Credit Suisse analyst who reportedly met with Apple executives learned that Apple may slash the price of the iPad if demand for the new device is low.
- EC's Reding faults Facebook on protecting children
- Social networking sites need to tighten up their privacy settings to protect children, European commissioner for the information society Viviane Reding said Tuesday at the launch of the Safer Internet Day initiative.
- Why most antivirus doesn’t work (well)
- Almost everybody runs AV, or at least they think they do. On Windows, over 90 percent of all people are running AV, and the number of people who think they are is even higher.
- Why antivirus software is slow
- Even a bad AV technology can be valuable, because protection against, say, 30 percent of all threats is still a lot better than protection against 0 percent of all threats.
- Oracle revises plan to shut down Project Kenai
- Java.net is the destination for projects being moved off the Kenai hosting site set up by newly acquired Sun
- 'Political hacktivism' surged in 2009, says report
- Last year, the web saw a surge in 'political hactivism' or politically-motivated attacks on the internet, says McAfee.
- British Library to offer 65,000 free eBooks
- The British Library has joined forces with Microsoft to offer Amazon Kindle owners access to 65,000 free eBooks.
- Cure an Insomniac PC and Other Tips
- As you probably know by now, I just love a good keyboard shortcut. This week I've got a few new ones for you--but first I'll solve The Case of the Mysterious Waking Laptop.
- Australian airports to deploy body scanning technology
- The attempted terrorist attack aboard a US-bound Christmas Day flight has prompted the Federal Government to introduce body scanning technology at international airports, as part of a $200 million airport security boost.
- 25% think retailers should be responsible for web security
- A quarter of Brits think retailers should be responsible for making online shopping safer, says CyberSource.
- Violence and Video Games gets the ProCon treatment
- Nonprofit public charity ProCon.org adds a "violence and video games" section to break down the debate for the public. So far, they've got 15 Pros (as in "yes, games do cause violence") to 14 Cons.
- Astronaut tweets photos of Earth from space
- An astronaut aboard the International Space Station yesterday used its newly souped up wireless connection to Twitter Twitpics of various cities on earth.
- Exetel stops disconnecting pirates
- Exetel will stop blocking customer accounts linked to copyright infringement as a result of last week's failed lawsuit against Internet Service Provider (ISP) iiNet.
- Microsoft launches Surface touch PCs
- Microsoft has officially launched its Surface line of touch computer units in Australia with a focus on retail, education and finance markets.
- Plug-in shows how Adobe Flash will look on iPad
- A Google Chrome plug-in shows how Apple iPad users will see Adobe Flash on Apple's new iPad.
- App Popular points out free downloads of paid apps
- The best things in life are free. The trouble is tracking down all those wonderful free things.
- Rumor: Core i7 Coming Soon to MacBook Pro?
- Rumors are hinting that an upgrade to Apple's MacBook Pro notebook line could be coming in the near future. The rumor comes courtesy of French site Nowhere Else, which claims that Apple will reveal updated Macbook Pro's featuring Intel's newest Core i7 chips. '
- SAP to split user conference between Europe, US
- SAP's annual Sapphire user conference will run simultaneously this year, in Orlando and Frankfurt, the company announced Tuesday.
- Microsoft unveils child-friendly version of IE8
- Nearly two thirds (64 percent) of under 18s have been contacted online by a stranger, says Microsoft.
- Keep Clear of Craigslist Scams
- Given everything from the "Craigslist killer" to Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal's campaign against the site to the escalating battle over prostitution ads, you'd have to live under a rock to miss Craigslist's sensational presence in the media. Lost in the discussions of illicit or criminal activity, though, are the everyday scams--and every category on the site has them.
- ZoomMediaPlus announces SD storage for iPhone
- ZoomMediaPlus has announced the ZoomIt, a dock-connector accessory that lets you use SD memory cards with the iPhone and iPod touch.
- MobileNavigator 1.5.0 adds personalized routes
- If you demand more from your GPS turn-by-turn directions app than simply finding the way to your destination, Navigon is here to oblige with the latest update to its MobileNavigator iPhone app (which, as you might recall, was one of the top-rated entries in our recent roundup of navigation apps). In addition to all the standard features you know and love from earlier iterations, version 1.5.0 adds three major new features: In-App Social Media, MyRoutes, and Panorama 3D.
- Touchscreen smartphones up 138%
- For the first time ever, smartphones with touch screens accounted for more than half of all smartphone shipments globally in Q4 2009, taking 55 percent of the market.
- Touchdown! Google's Top Super Bowl Searches
- Was your smartphone or notebook by your side during the Super Bowl? And were you tweeting your reactions to the TV ads, or trying to pull up Drew Brees' season completion percentage?
- Nvidia Unveils Optimus Switchable Graphics Technology
- Does your laptop have switchable graphics? You know, both an integrated graphics chip that sips energy and gives you long battery life along with a discrete GPU (graphics processing unit) that offers better 3D graphics and video performance? Notebooks with switchable graphics have been shipping for years, but they haven't lived up to user expectations. Nvidia hopes to change that with their new Optimus technology.
- Motorola Droid Goes Android 2.1 This Week
- The Motorola Droid will be upgraded to the Google Android 2.1 software this week, the company announced on its official Facebook page. The over-the-air software update will bring the Droid software on the par with the Google Nexus One, albeit with some features missing.
- Cisco, Juniper push new mobility-focused products
- The two biggest router companies are focusing their attention on mobility this week with products to address operator needs for rich 4G multimedia services.
- Apple releases Aperture 3
- Apple may not be at Macworld 2010 this week, but the company still managed to announce a new product just in time for the trade show. On Tuesday Apple announced Aperture 3, the latest version of the company's $199 pro-level photo-editing and management software.
- 5 Hopes for a More Social Gmail
- Google on Tuesday is reportedly going to unveil a new social service that will incorporate a stream of "media and status updates" into Gmail. These streams would not be public, but would require you to connect with your fellow Google users and may eventually incorporate other Google services like YouTube and Picasa, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- Juniper to integrate mobile networks and edge routers
- At next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Juniper Networks will launch products that integrate mobile networks into its MX 3D Universal Edge routers and let third party vendors integrate their applications into mobile networks.
- US National Climate Service to manage world of climate change
- In announcing the intent to form a National Climate Service, the Commerce Dept. said the service will provide critical business and community planning information about climate changes.
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- Seagate doubles capacity of data center hard drive
- Seagate released a 2.5-in SAS drive today that doubles the amount of capacity over previous drives and offers lower power consumption while increasing drive reliability.
- Protectionism worries Indian outsourcers
- India's leading software trade body said on Tuesday that protectionism in key markets could affect the growth prospects of the country's outsourcing industry.
- Ksplice debuts zero downtime service for Linux
- Ksplice officially launched its no-reboot patching service for Linux servers.
- Cisco picks up where Starent left off
- Cisco on Tuesday will show just how serious it is about mobile data with the introduction of its first product derived from its Starent acquisition, the ASR 5000.
- Microsoft offers Visual Studio 2010 release candidate
- Both the Visual Studio 2010 IDE and the accompanying .Net Framework 4 programming platform are being readied for a late-April launch
- Websense debuts unified security architecture
- Websense Tuesday announced Triton, a unified security architecture, which merges its data-loss prevention and e-mail security products, keeping much of the security-as-a-service approach it already supports, but with a common management and reporting console.
- Google Nexus One available for pre-order from Play.com
- Google's 'superphone' - the Nexus One - is available to pre-order from Play.com.
- London Stock Exchange appoints new CIO
- The London Stock Exchange has appointed Antoine Shagoury as chief information officer.
- Intel Atom netbooks get whole-disk encryption
- Netbook users worried about storing sensitive data on their portables are being offered the world's first whole-disk encryption that will run useably on Intel's Atom processor.
- Users dispute Microsoft's explanation of Windows 7 battery problems
- Windows 7 does not ruin notebook batteries or issue premature warnings that the power is exhausted, Microsoft's head of Windows said in response to customer complaints.
- 2010: Finally the year of the Mac?
- Apple was a bright spot in 2009 in terms of PC sales, but the signals are mixed as to whether the Mac can grow beyond its niche
- Microsoft, Google team with MediaTek in smartphone push
- Microsoft and Google have turned to Taiwanese chipset vendor MediaTek to boost their traction in smartphones aimed at China and other emerging markets.
- Toyota to recall Prius hybrids over ABS software
- Toyota plans to recall around 400,000 of its Prius hybrid cars to replace software that controls the antilock braking system (ABS), the auto maker said Tuesday.
- Windows 7 Just Being Honest About Battery Life
- Last week I wrote about reports that some Windows 7 users are experiencing anomalies with battery life, or at least how Windows 7 reports remaining battery life. The issue seemed worthy of exploring, but not big enough to cause any significant damage to Microsoft's flagship desktop operating system.
- Google now taking user phone calls about Nexus One
- That was fast. Just one week after Google posted an advertisement for a phone support program manager, the company is offering telephone support for Nexus One customers -- but will only answer questions about the status of their phone orders and shipments.
- Microsoft e-health research taps Xbox, mobile phones
- Microsoft is researching how gadgets like the company's Xbox game machine, surface computers and accelerometers in mobile phones could be used to improve health care.
- Riverbed releases gigabit-speed WAN optimizer
- Riverbed Technology announced new models of its network accelerator appliance, increasing the throughput for on-site and off-site backups to 1Gbit/sec.
- LG, Samsung go social with latest handsets
- South Korea's two biggest cell phone makers previewed on Tuesday handsets they plan to unveil at next week's Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona.
- NASA: Astronauts use robotic arm to check for damage
- NASA, astronauts, space shuttle, Endeavour, International Space Station, launch, blast off, liftoff, Sharon Gaudin, robot, robotic arm, heat shield, inspection, wing, nose cap, spacesuit, spacewalk, emerging tech, node, module
- NBN Co to up headcount as Kaiser appointment slammed
- The company responsible for rolling out the National Broadband Network (NBN) is expected to announce shortly some “first-release” sites to trial the high-speed fibre network infrastructure and test construction techniques.
- Indie dev causes a stir with 'games are not art' statements
- Independent developer Tale of Tales caused a stir at the Art History of Games conference this week in Atlanta, GA by saying that games are not art and largely a huge waste of time.
- Victoria to tip in $3M to spy on bushfires
- Victoria’s troubled bushfire alert system may be bolstered with a fleet of fire-detection cameras after a $3 million government trial announced today is completed.
- iHound aims to help you find your missing iPhone
- If you're outside Moscone Center for this week's Macworld Expo, and someone hands you a "Lost iPhone" sticker, don't toss it away. It could help you track down your phone, should it ever go missing.
- Apple lets partners hit up enterprise
- Apple has moved to boost its small business and enterprise operations with the launch of an Australian version of the Apple Consultants Network.
- Apple iPad Price Cut: Blunder or Brilliance?
- If Apple is really considering price cuts on its just-introduced iPad, the best advice is to make them before launch, not after.
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- EA announces new games, lower revenues in investor report
- EA recently concluded its quarterly investor conference call, revealing its performance for the final three months of 2009, as well as its outlook for the first quarter of 2010, as well as the entire 2011 fiscal year (which runs from April 2010 to March 2011). Along with its financial results, the company revealed a tentative release slate the next twelve months. The company's official press release is located here.
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