IE8 gains market share at Microsoft's own expense

Gains made by Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) since its launch last Thursday have come at the expense of the older IE7, according to data from Irish metrics firm StatCounter.

And while IE7's market share has fallen by 2.6 percentage points since last Wednesday, the day before Microsoft Corp. released IE8, most rival browsers showed significant gains, giving credence to the idea that Microsoft's newest venture has not pushed users of its competitors to switch.

As of Monday, IE8's market share stood at 2%, an increase of 0.7 of a percentage point since the final code was released. IE7, meanwhile, accounted for 36.9% of the browsers that reached the sites StatCounter monitors for its 2 million users, down from last Wednesday's 39.5%.

Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox 3.0, on the other hand, boosted its market share by 0.5 of a percentage point, to 25.7%, over the same period, while the older Firefox 2.0 grew by 0.05 of a percentage point. Apple Inc.'s Safari 3.2 increased its share by .05 of a percentage point as well since Wednesday, and Google Inc.'s Chrome grew by 0.03 of a percentage point.

Only Opera Software ASA's Opera 9.6 posted a decline in share: The Norwegian-made browser's market share fell by 0.01 percentage point since last Wednesday.

Ironically, it was Microsoft's now-ancient IE6 -- a browser first launched in 2001, prior to the release of Windows XP -- that increased its share the most in the last five days. Since Wednesday, IE6's share climbed 1%; as of today, it accounted for 23.5% of all browsers.

Numbers for IE8 from Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Net Applications Inc. echo those of StatCounter. As of midday, IE8's market share was 2.1%, up from Friday's 1.9% but down from Saturday's 2.3% and Sunday's 2.5%, according to Net Applications' hourly tracking of the new release.

IE8's fall-off from the weekend is not unexpected. Net Applications has repeatedly noted that browsers not sanctioned in the workplace -- in other words, all but IE6 and IE7 -- typically posts gains on weekends, after work hours and on holidays. The theory is that users, freed from being told what browser they must use at work, turn in larger numbers to Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera at those times.

IE8, having just been released in final form, is unlikely to have been approved for use in many business environments.

StatCounter's browser data can be found on its Web site, as can Net Applications' tracking of IE8's market share.

Taken from Computer World

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DC Tech Arrests Raise Security Issues

After being arrested on bribery charges Thursday, the District of Columbia's top information security official is being held without bail, partly because of uncertainty about whether he still has the ability to access the district's IT systems.

That's just one of many potential security issues facing D.C. government officials after the FBI raided the district's IT offices and arrested Yusuf Acar, its acting chief security officer, and a second man in connection with an alleged bribery scheme.

For instance, Acar had access to personnel data and other confidential information in the district's systems as part of his job. Court documents submitted by the FBI claim that several other district employees were also involved in the bribery scheme. Security analysts warn that Acar and his alleged accomplices could have created backdoors into systems. And since the alleged scheme included misdoings on a purchase of security software, there may be questions about the quality of the district's security tools.

From an IT security standpoint, municipal officials in Washington have a nightmare on their hands, said Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer at the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center in Bethesda, Md.

As a security official in the IT department, Acar would have had widespread access to the district's networks and probably also its databases and password files, Ullrich said. In addition, he would have been privy to details about its user-access-control procedures. That level of access and knowledge could have enabled him to do a variety of things, virtually undetected, if he so chose, according to Ullrich.

Without a thorough forensics investigation, there's no telling whether anything nefarious was actually done to the district's systems, Ullrich noted. He said some of the classic rogue-insider actions that D.C. officials should look for include installing backdoors, stealing data and planting logic bombsdesigned to destroy data after a specified period of time has elapsed. Another is tricking other users into installing malware or compromised devices on their systems.

At Acar's arraignment in U.S. District Court Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Hibarger cited a number of reasons why the IT worker should be held in jail pending a bond hearing scheduled for next Tuesday. First and foremost, Hibarger said there was a "serious risk" that Acar, who has relatives in Turkey, would try to flee the country. But Hibarger also pointed to Acar's broad system-access privileges and said prosecutors didn't know for sure that he would be blocked from accessing the district's network.

Federal investigators haven't said whether they think any of the data in the district's systems was compromised as part of the alleged bribery scheme. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said Friday that he couldn't comment on the investigative steps being taken.

Besides ensuring that Acar is locked out of the network, D.C. officials should also review network and systems logs to check on his activities, Ullrich advised. He also said that passwords and other access-control mechanisms need to be reset and that the district's security tools should be evaluated in light of the FBI's claim that one of the alleged bribery incidents involved a purchase of software from security vendor McAfee Inc.

In that incident, according to the FBI, a Washington-based outsourcing and IT services vendor named Advanced Integrated Technologies Corp. (AITC) bought 500 licenses from McAfee on behalf of the district's IT department but then charged the government for 2,000 licenses. Sushil Bansal, AITC's CEO, was the second person arrested by the FBI in connection with the alleged scheme.

It's possible, Ullrich said, that some of the security technologies bought through AITC aren't best-in-class or the best fit for the district's needs. "There probably are questions about the quality of the [security] infrastructure," he said. "Who knows what they bought? Who knows if they took money for selling access to the network or the data?"

Gartner Inc. analyst John Pescatore called the situation a "huge mess" for D.C. officials. "So far, the major issues that have been raised publicly are financial shenanigans," Pescatore said. But like Ullrich, he said that a major computer forensics effort is going to be needed to find out what else, if anything, the alleged perpetrators may have been up to.

Because AITC also has done work for the district's Department of Motor Vehicles and its human resources office, there potentially was "a lot of opportunity for data snooping or selling of citizen and employee data," Pescatore added.

Alan Paller, the SANS Institute's director of research, said there's also the possibility of security problems resulting from acts of omission on the part of Acar and Bansal. "The main negative here might be that they weren't paying attention to the job but were more interested in lining their pockets," Paller said. But until an investigation is completed, it's impossible to know for sure, he added.

The alleged scheme was complex, according to the charging documents disclosed at the arraignment hearing. Acar submitted purchase orders for higher numbers of products than were actually delivered, resulting in the district being charged for goods it never received, the FBI said in an affidavit. He also added "ghost employees" to the district's payroll and created timesheets for the fictitious workers so payments could be made to them, the FBI claimed.

The bribery case is getting even more attention than it normally would because President Obama last week appointed Vivek Kundra, who until then was the district's chief technology officer, to be the federal government's first-ever CIO.

There were no indications in the court documents that Kundra had any knowledge of the alleged illegal activities. But the White House confirmed Friday that Kundra is taking a leave of absence from the CIO job following Thursday's arrests. That calls into question whether his vision of leading a "technology revolution" at the federal level will ever come to pass.

Taken From PC World

Posting By WELLEN COMPUTER

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Sources confirm Apple laid off salespeople last week

Despite public statements to the contrary, Apple did lay off around 50 enterprise salespeople last week, CNET News has learned.

Sources who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal confirmed reports by Valleywag and 9to5Mac.com that roughly 50 salespeople were let go by the company for "business and economic reasons," according to one source. An entire sales group based in Austin, Texas, was let go as well as workers in Cupertino, Calif., where Apple is headquartered. Those affected were given severance packages and the opportunity to apply for other jobs inside Apple.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling, when asked Tuesday about Valleywag's report regarding the layoffs in the sales group, declined to comment. An unnamed Apple spokesman then told Silicon Alley Insider on Wednesday that the Valleywag report was not true, the same language Dowling used on Friday in a brief interview with CNET News to describe another report that Apple had laid 50 people off in its Mac Hardware and Pro Applications groups as well as the original report involving the sales group.

Reached on Monday, Dowling declined to comment on the situation beyond the statements provided last week.

However, the layoffs in the sales group did happen, according to several sources who were brought into conference rooms in Austin and Cupertino last Tuesday and given white manila envelopes informing them that they had been laid off, amid plainclothes security officers. It's still not clear whether the Mac Hardware layoffs occurred on Friday.

The seeds for the layoffs began last year, when Apple began de-emphasizing its direct enterprise sales force in favor of a sales strategy that embraced resellers and channel partners as ways of getting its products into the hands of businesses. That shift, believed to come directly from Apple COO Tim Cook, started when former the Apple senior vice president of enterprise sales, Al Shipp, left the company. Shipp, now the CEO of software start-up 3VR, did not return a call seeking comment.

John Brandon, formerly the head of Apple's sales for the Americas resellers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, assumed control of the group when Shipp left and began making changes. Under Brandon, Apple began to shift away from a sales strategy where representatives built personal relationships with business customers in favor of a channel business that will depend on resellers like Ingram Micro and possibly CompUSA to sell Apple products to business customers.

The decision does not seem to have been prompted by falling sales or poor performance within the group, rather a change in philosophy embraced by Brandon and Cook. But the enterprise group has never been the hot group inside Apple, famous for its consumer retail empire and led by Steve Jobs, a man who disdains much of the entrenched corporate IT mindset.

Apple's shift in its enterprise sales strategy isn't all that remarkable, but Apple's willingness to publicly deny that layoffs took place is another blow to its credibility, already having taken a hit this year over its handling of disclosures involving the health of its CEO, currently on a medical leave of absence until June.

Confirming that a few dozen enterprise salespeople had been laid off as part of a strategic shift--and not a downturn in business--probably would not have made that much of a ripple in the tech media, currently more interested in Apple-related topics such as Netbook rumors and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's debut on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" later on Monday.

Although Apple has been considered one of the more resilient companies in tech after posting strong earnings in January, the continued economic decline is believed to be affecting Mac sales and has prompted some analysts to reduce their expectations for Apple's current quarter. Perhaps the company felt that anything that might be perceived as bad news could hurt its stock price, and since it didn't have to report the layoffs to the Securities and Exchange Commission because they made up a small fraction of Apple's workforce, it didn't have to acknowledge them, period.

Taken from news.cnet.com

Posting by WELLEN COMPUTER

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Amazon's Kindle Secret is in the Software

A year ago I wrote a column titled "E-Book Readers Can Do Better" that outlined what products like the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader series would need to add before they truly appealed to mainstream consumers. One year and one tremendous endorsement from Oprah later, Amazon's Kindle 2 incorporates a lot of my suggestions. Still, it isn't the latest Kindle that's cemented Amazon's leadership role in the e-book market. It was today's announcement of a free Kindle reader for the iPhone, because it shows that Amazon really understands what e-books are: software.

As a serious book lover, that's difficult for me to admit. My first edition copy of Ernest Hemingway's Winner Take Nothing is one of my most prized possessions. Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T.E. Lawrence, complete with its fold-out maps of the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the best things I've read in my life. Carrying my entire book collection up to my fourth-floor walk-up apartment required a fair amount of sweat and even a few tears. Yet despite the vast potential energy of my hundreds of books, their contents would likely fit inside a single Kindle 2. It can, after all, hold 1,500 titles. Good or bad, this is the world we now live in. And Amazon gets it.

Amazon has been wildly successful in the e-book biz. Last year, Kindles literally sold out. But this hasn't kept the company from supplying Kindle for iPhone, a move that's guaranteed to cut into Kindle 2 sales. The thing is, it will also help Amazon sell a lot more e-book titles, and will go a long way toward making Kindle the de facto e-book publishing platform in the U.S. Amazon's not just selling razors, after all—they're also selling the blades. 

The move also indicates that Apple has ceded the e-book market to Amazon. That is probably best, since the iTunes franchise is already stretched thin distributing songs, music videos, TV shows, movies, podcasts, and iPhone apps. "iTunes Store" has become a misnomer; it seems like a name change is overdue. Still, to see Kindle as merely an e-book platform is to miss the forest for the trees. Kindle doesn't just mean books. It is a secure content delivery platform that can be used by every blog, magazine, and newspaper on the Web.

Most of these companies already publish on the Web, but the Kindle platform offers several key advantages. The first, naturally, is DRM protection. Amazon says it is up to content providers to choose or refuse DRM, but so far almost all of the book publishers have chosen to lock up their books. Given what's happened with the music industry, can you blame them? I would love to see a more open format, like ePub, supported by the Kindle, but given Amazon's current success that won't likely happen anytime soon. 

For newspapers, magazines, and blogs, the issue is less DRM than it is fulfillment and subscriber management. As many of you know, PCMag.com recently went 100 percent digital, ceasing to print a paper magazine to focus exclusively on the Web and Zinio digital edition. One of the reasons we partnered with Zinio was so we would have a company that could bill subscribers and manage their accounts. Not many people have managed to do that on the Web, but platforms like the Zinio and Kindle offer a way for readers to get service and for publishers to get paid. 

Before I coronate Amazon as the king of cloud-based content distribution, I'll point out a few places where the company could run aground. One problem revolves around Amazon's dual role as hardware and software vendor. First of all, it could cling too tightly to its closed format. Open-minded publishers like Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, have already balked at joining Amazon's single-source, single-file-format delivery system. As the market grows, so will the demand for alternatives. Even Apple supports multiple file formats on the iPod.

Hardware devices like the Kindle are also vulnerable on the price front. $359 is a tough sell in a miserable economy, especially when you can buy a netbook for around same price. A raft of more basic, less-expensive e-book readers are slated to hit the market this year. They won't likely be as easy to use as the Kindle 2 or feature its wireless content delivery, but they'll probably appeal to the cost-conscious consumer who wants to get into electronic books. 

My advice for Amazon is to push the books over the devices—the blades over the razors. The Kindle's competitive advantage isn't in its e-ink display or plastic keyboard, but in the 230,000 titles available at the click of a button. Amazon has become a real software publisher in the truest sense of the phrase.

Taken from pcmag.com

Posting by WELLEN COMPUTER

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Intel introduces Atom chips for new devices

Intel on Monday detailed plans to push its Atom processors into devices beyond just netbooks and mobile Internet devices.

The company introduced four Atom chips that will go into devices such as entertainment systems for cars, videoconferencing devices, robots and interactive kiosks, said Doug Davis, vice president of Intel's digital enterprise group.

These ultra-low-power chips can offer the rich multimedia performance and high-bandwidth Internet connectivity demanded by those devices, Davis said. The Z500-series Atom processors are integrated chips the size of a penny that draw little power and do not require fans to operate. The chips draw 2.5 watts of power or less and run at speeds of between 1.10GHz and 1.6GHz. The chips offer integrated 2D and 3D graphics and will be manufactured using Intel's existing 45-nanometer process. 

Atom chips to date have gone into low-cost laptops, also known as netbooks, and devices such as mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and smartphones. Intel has said it wants to integrate more capabilities into Atom processors that could help the company enter new markets.

With the new chips, Intel is ramping up efforts to dive into an embedded space dominated by chips made with Arm designs, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight64. "Now that they have their Atom processor in good shape, they are looking for new places where they can ship it," Brookwood said.

Some new markets being targeted by Intel with the new chips include entertainment systems in cars and desktop videophones. For example, the new Atom Z520PT powers an in-car infotainment system that can run video without compromising on performance, Davis said. 

Intel and OpenPeak also provided a reference design for a touch-screen videoconferencing phone embedded with a low-power Atom chip. Resembling a blown-up mobile Internet device, the OpenFrame home IP (Internet Protocol) phone design from OpenPeak also runs Internet-based video and social-networking applications, Davis said.

As part of the announcement, Intel also said Microsoft automotive applications would work with Intel's embedded Atom chips. Microsoft's auto division provides a software toolkit for developers to write in-car applic

s that include navigation and hands-free calling.

The new chips will be available in commercial quantities in the second quarter of this year. Pricing information was not immediately available.

Intel has taken a number of steps to develop integrated chips that could fit into devices such as set-top boxes and TVs. The chip maker in February said it was hurrying up the move to the new 32-nanometer process technology to produce faster and more integrated chips. To that effect, the company said it would spend US$7 billion over two years to revamp manufa

cturing plants. The 32-nanometer process will also help Intel make more chips at lower costs and add efficiencies to the production process. Intel will begin producing chips with 32-nm circuitry starting in late 2009.

Intel may also be looking for outside help to develop custom Atom chips for embedded devices. Earlier on Monday, Intel entered a partnership to share the Atom chip designs with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. TSMC customers will have access to the Atom intellectual property to develop customized chips.

The partnership with TSMC could result in the development of customized chips for Intel to access new markets it can't reach alone, Brookwood said.

If you needed customised GPS (Global Positioning System) or graphics technology on the chip, for example, you couldn't do it, as Intel doesn't provide the building blocks to do so, Brookwood said. The deal with TSMC makes that level of Atom chip customisation possible, he said.

Taken from computernewsme.com

Posted by WELLEN COMPUTER

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Sixty Percent of the World Uses Cell Phones

Six in 10 people on the face of the globe have cell-phone subscriptions, and more than 60 percent of cell-phone users come from developing nations. 

So says a United Nations report published Monday. The report's findings suggest that mobile phones are the communications tool of choice in poor countries. 

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) reports an estimated 4.1 billion cell-phone subscriptions at the end of 2008. That compares to about one billion just six years ago. Fixed-line subscriptions grew by only one billion since 2002. 

Africa leads the way for developing nations' cell-phone use, with 25 percent of the population toting the devices. 

"There has been a clear shift to mobile cellular technology," the ITU said in its report. It noted that less than half of mobile subscriptions around the world were in developing nations in 2002. 

Faster Access 

In other findings, Internet use has more than doubled. The ITU figures about 23 percent of people globally used the Internet in 2008. That's up 11 percent from 2002. However, despite the double-digit progress, poor countries are still behind on Internet access and adoption. Only one in 20 people in Africa logged onto the Internet in 2007, according to the most recent figures available. 

While some citizens of the planet have yet to sign onto the Internet, more of those who do are using faster speeds. The ITU reports that fixed-broadband use increased to almost 20 percent in richer countries. Still, the statistics for poorer countries reflect the overall Internet usage trend. Broadband Internet access at home is available to only one in 20 people worldwide. 

Mobile broadband subscriptions are climbing the fastest. Mobile broadband technology lets people all over the world log onto the Internet at high speeds. That service is available to three percent of the Earth's population, 14 percent in developed countries. 

Moving Toward a Cashless Society 

The global growth is a boon for handset manufacturers long-term. Although most consumers in developing nations like Africa are not going to invest in iPhones and BlackBerries, the cost of building phones is coming down, making it possible to offer feature phones in developing nations at a profit. 

Some of these countries are starting to use mobile phones for micropayments, according to Mike Disabato, a senior analyst at the Burton Group. Rather than someone in a village in Africa carrying around coins and bills that are subject to theft, he says, they are carrying a mobile phone that transfers digital money back and forth. 

"People in Africa can get paid for the goods that they are selling, they can buy goods this way, and it's actually one step closer to the cashless society. In many respects they are ahead of us in that regard," Disabato said. "If you don't have a vested interest in maintaining folded money or coins in your wallet, why would you want to start?" 

Worldwide Mobile Implications 

Beyond pushing mobile payments to the fore in Third World nations, analysts said these regions of the world may also see GSM coverage sooner rather than later. That could ring the death knell for CDMA networks. Verizon has already signaled that its fourth-generation network would be LTE, which is GSM. That leaves Sprint as the only major carrier running on CDMA. 

"Over time you will end up with a true global handset. Probably by 2020, world-class global phones will be everywhere," Disabato said. "We are kicking out all the old proprietary operating systems, and you are either going to be Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, Apple or maybe the Palm OS if they survive long enough."

Taken from mobile-tech-today.com

Posted by WELLEN COMPUTER

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Phishers Target Facebook

Facebook users are being urged to be wary of third-party apps after it was revealed hackers have launched another hoax program designed to steal social networker's login details.

Sophos says that the 'F a c e b o o k - closing down!!!' app sends bogus emails to users' contacts, claiming they've been reported "for violating our Terms of Service". The message continues: "This is your official warning! - Click here to find out why you were reported!".


Artwork: Chip Taylor
However, any web user clicking the link will give hackers access to their profile and personal information. Clicking the link also forwards the fake message each user's friends.


"Fans of Facebook will no doubt be aware that the site has been under scrutiny over its terms of service, and these latest attacks are designed to take full advantage of that," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

The warning comes just days after it was reported that a number of users of the social network were downloading the 'Error Check System' program that sent messages to a user's friends claiming they had problems viewing their profile.

"One of the problems is that Facebook allows anybody to write an application, and third-party applications are not vetted before they are made available to the public. So, even as Facebook stamps out one malicious application, another can pop up like a poisoned mushroom with a different name."

Facebook has since removed the application, but there are reports that similar rogue applications with names such as 'My account' and 'Reported For Rule Breaking' are currently circulating on the popular social networking site.

Taken from pcworld.com

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