Shorten URLs with an Automator service - by Bonaire DOT.COM 06/09/2010 @ 13:45 

Twitter and other online services have made shortening URLs a regular chore; such URLs are handy not only on social networks, but anytime you need to share links (especially long ones). There are plenty of ways to shorten URLs, some of them built into social networking apps. But if you'd like to have a shortening tool available almost anywhere, MacOSXHints users renaultssoftware and yesiamnhoj found a way to build a service in Automator that lets you shorten any URL in any app with one click:

Open up Automator and make a new service. In the top bar, set Service Receives to URLs and In to Any Application. Drag over the Run AppleScript action (from the Utilities section) and paste the following code into its entry window, replacing anything that was already there:

on run {input, parameters}

return (do shell script "/usr/bin/curl 'http://qgf.in/api.php?url=" & (item 1 of the input) & "'")

end run

Below that, drag the Copy to Clipboard action. Save the Service as Shorten URL or whatever else you want.

That done, you should be able to Control-click on any URL in any program and select Shorten URL from the Services submenu; the shortened URL should then be available in your clipboard, ready for pasting into Twitter, e-mail, or wherever you need it.

This hint uses the lesser-known shortening service QGF.in. You can use other services too, as long as they have APIs. To use another service, replace http://qgf.in/api.php?url= in the script above; the syntax is usually http://shortener.name/api?url=.


by Whitson Gordon

 

GoGear Connect plays music and movies, runs Android - by Bonaire DOT.COM 05/09/2010 @ 16:42 

 Philips introduced the GoGear Connect, an Android-powered device that can play music and movies, take pictures and surf the web, during the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.

To view a video of the GoGear Connect, click here.

The device ships with preloaded applications including Android Market, Google Talk and Google Maps. It will run Android 2.1 initially and be upgraded to Android 2.2 in early 2011, according to a Philips product manager.

It includes 16GB of built-in storage to which another 32GB can be added with a MicroSD card. GoGear Connect also includes Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and a 2-megapixel camera that can capture video at VGA resolution.

It has a 3.2-inch touch-screen with a resolution of 480 by 320 pixels and weighs 128 grams, or about 11.5 ounces.

The battery can play up to 25 hours of audio or 5 hours of video, according to Philips.

It has many features similar to Apple's iPod Touch, but it differs in that the GoGear Connect employs a resistive touch-screen, unlike the iPod Touch's capacitive touch-screen. That means a bit more pressure has to be applied to activate the on-screen buttons. The media player includes a trackball as and alternative input method.

The GoGear Connect will be available in the U.S. and Europe in the coming weeks for 249€ or about US$320.

Nick Barber covers general technology news in both text and video for IDG News Service. E-mail him at Nick_Barber@idg.com and follow him on Twitter at @nickjb.

Gmail promo for Priority Inbox creeps out Chrome users - by Bonaire DOT.COM 01/09/2010 @ 20:10 

 Chrome users yesterday bombarded Google's Gmail support forum with complaints about music suddenly playing in the background when they reached their inboxes.

Some feared that their machines had been infected with malware.

"Those sound effects are quite unnerving when you first hear it," said a user identified as "goz3" on the Gmail support board . "I really thought it was some sort of twisted virus."

"I thought it was a virus, too," echoed "bradleyctclarke" on the same thread.

The cause, said a Google representative on the support forum, was a video promoting the e-mail service's new Priority Inbox feature.

Although the Google support rep said that the company was "working on fixing this" and apologized for the bug, Computerworld confirmed that the background video and its ragtime-style music was still affecting Chrome users on Tuesday.

Other browsers, such as Safari and Firefox, did not automatically fire up the video and its tune.

"I thought my account had been hacked -- especially when I heard the scrunching of paper," added goz3 in an earlier message Monday. "I thought, oh sh*t, my mail is being eaten up."

The unwanted music played only on machines running Chrome, and then only for users who have had the Priority Inbox feature enabled by Google. The new tool, designed to automatically rearrange messages to put the most important at the top of the inbox, is being rolled out in stages by Google, which yesterday said that it would reach everyone within the next week.

The gaffe is reminiscent of one Google made last May when a JavaScript-based version of the 1980 video game Pac-Man freaked out Firefox users , who heard siren sounds and offbeat music in the background when they were at the search engine 's home page.

"MAKE IT STOP!" shouted someone tagged as "bleepo" on Monday. "If I get some annoying sound or ad every time I open Gmail on Chrome it will be enough to make me not use it."

To quell the music, Chrome users should click on the Priority Inbox link in the upper right, then stop the video play in the pop-up window.

Some Chrome users thought their machines were infected with malware when Gmail suddenly started playing music.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .

Read more about internet in Computerworld's Internet Topic Center.


 

Microsoft revives Windows 7 Family Pack discount - by Bonaire DOT.COM 01/09/2010 @ 19:10 

 Microsoft today said it will revive last year's multi-license Windows 7 Family Pack in early October for U.S. customers.

The Family Pack gives consumers three upgrade licenses from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7 Home Premium. The $150 price tag is the same Microsoft put on the package last year when it offered the deal for several weeks after the Oct 22, 2009, launch of the new operating system.

This year's offer will likely be short-lived, too: Microsoft spokesman Ashley Brown said it would run "while supplies last," the same phrase the company used in 2009.

U.S. customers can purchase the Family Pack starting Oct. 3, while consumers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K. and other markets will be able to buy it on or after Oct. 22, Brown said.

At $50 per upgrade, the Pack is a bargain compared to Microsoft's usual pricing, which pegs a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade at $120. Retailers often knock $10 or so off that price; Amazon.com , for example, sells the stand-alone upgrade for $109. Even at that price, the Family Pack represents a per-license discount of 54%.

In 2009, Microsoft let retailers take pre-orders on the Pack several days before its Oct. 22 launch.

Last year, Microsoft ran the special to no later than Dec. 1, although some users reported that they had seen the Pack disappear from the company's online store as early as Nov. 26. If Microsoft sticks to the same schedule this time, it could end the deal by Nov. 7.

The sudden disappearance of the Family Pack in 2009 raised hackles as customers complained that there was no warning the offer would vanish. "[I] am frustrated as I had planned on picking up the Family Pack in December," said someone identified as "TonyB" on an Answer.com message thread last year.

Microsoft did not specify when it would end 2010's offer.

Family Pack will be sold at select brick-and-mortar and online retail outlets, as well as through Microsoft's own e-store and the small number of retail stores the company now operates.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .

Read more about windows in Computerworld's Windows Topic Center.

 

Facebook Places just too much information? Here's how to opt out - by Bonaire DOT.COM 29/08/2010 @ 17:44 

 With the launch of Facebook Places, users need to figure out if this service is a cool new tool or an overbearing feature best avoided.

The social networking site's new location-based feature , dubbed Places, was unveiled last week. The smartphone -based service is designed to let users tell their friends where they are, while also helping them track their own friends. The service also enables users to give away their friends' current location.

While a portion of the social networking world will think it's fun and cool to chart their travels around town, another segment of users thinks it's a sign of Big Brother watching.

"If someone isn't familiar with geolocation-type services , if they're not a Foursquare user or a Gowalla user, they should disable Places and then explore it," said Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis. "Always be cautious with anything that could get you in trouble."

Dan Olds, an analyst at The Gabriel Consulting Group, said there are a many reasons why someone might be hesitant to use Facebook Places.

"Would you want a wide number of people to know that there's no one home at your house?" Olds asked. "And, couple that information with Facebook posts about how you put your dog in a kennel while you're on a two-week trip, that's just too much information to put out there. Many people think they're only sharing it with their friends, but they have to assume that they're sharing it with anyone who can access their friends' computers or Facebook accounts."

While Places can be an entertaining tool, no one should use it blindly, the analysts said. Consider the consequences of some location information getting out past your immediate circle of friends.

"If you play hooky from work, or go to the beach rather than your mom's birthday party, you might want to steer clear of using Places at least for those days," Olds said.

Some privacy advocates are concerned that Places was rolled out with users opted-in by default. That means it's running automatically, rather than allowing the user to decide to run it.

One of the criticisms of Places is that opting out isn't as simple as clicking on a "no thanks" kind of button.

To shut off Facebook Places, here's how to do it:

First, go to the pull-down "Account" tab on the top right of your Facebook homepage. From there, click on "Privacy Settings" and then look under "Sharing on Facebook." Click on "Everyone" and then click on "Customize Settings," which is slightly below in blue. Then click on "Places I Check Into," and check "Custom." Then under the pull-down tab, "These People", click on "Only Me" and hit "Save."

In that same area, you'll want to make sure that "People Here Now" is not enabled.

OK, you're part way there. Now, you'll need to go back and take a few more steps. Here's what you should do:

Go back to the "Account" pull-down on the top right of the page and click on "Privacy Settings." Next, scroll down to bottom of the page and under "Applications and Web Sites," click on "Edit Your Settings." Then, under "Info Accessible Through Your Friends," click on "Edit Settings." At that point, make sure "Places I check Into" is not checked.

"You can see that it's not straightforward and it's not simply an on-and-off button," said Shimmin. "[Facebook] could have done a better job of explaining what it means to opt in and letting people turn it off entirely."

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com .

Read more about web 2.0 and web apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.

 

Microsoft leaks IE9 look, reveals 'Chromifying' - by Bonaire DOT.COM 25/08/2010 @ 19:35 

Microsoft's Russian Web site today revealed details about the new Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) user interface, touting new features such as quick-release tabs and a Chrome-like address-cum-search bar.

Although the company has issued several developer previews of IE9 since March, those builds have lacked any user interface (UI), and instead have presented the rendering and JavaScript engines in a wrapper that lacks even the most basic navigational aids, such as a Back button.

IE9's user interface will look a lot like Google's Chrome if Microsoft Russia's site is accurate.

Until today, Microsoft had kept quiet about IE9's look and feel.

Microsoft Russia's press site published a screenshot of and additional information about IE9. The page has since been pulled, but as of noon today, remained available in Bing.com's cache .

ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley reported on the IE9 details earlier today.

The IE9 interface shown in the screenshot sported a Firefox-esque design to the Back/Forward buttons -- the former is larger than the latter -- dispensed with traditional menus, put tabs atop the browser window and combined the address and search bars, a move taken from Chrome's playbook.

At the far right, IE9 displays a trio of icons -- one is clearly Home -- that likely lead to more menus and the browser's bookmark manager.

The text on the page supported the hints provided by the screenshot that Microsoft will "Chromify" IE9's interface by mimicking that browser's UI.

"Your browser is not overloaded with navigation elements, and compared with other browsers leaves more space for the site," a machine translation of the promotional copy read. "Now the user sees only what is necessary for navigation."

The changes shouldn't come as a surprise. Other browser makers, notably No. 2 Mozilla, have headed in that direction, too, as they follow the lead of Google and its cleaner-composed Chrome. Mozilla's next major upgrade, Firefox 4, will feature tabs on top and will eliminate the traditional Windows menus above the browser's content area, two features popularized by Chrome.

IE9's marketing material also described a way to pin sites to the taskbar -- much like a local application -- by dragging a tab to the Windows taskbar. Those sites can then be accessed with a single click without first having to open IE9. "Anchored sites are seamlessly integrated into [the] navigation system [of] Windows 7," the copy said. "Thus, the work of such sites [is] as simple and familiar as with other Windows applications."

 IE9 will also leverage the Aero UI of Vista and Windows 7 with a feature dubbed "quick release tabs." By dragging IE9's window to the side of the screen, Aero's "Snap" feature will automatically display two tabs in equally-sized, side-by-side frames.

The new browser will run only on Vista and Windows 7, not the much more popular Windows XP.

Microsoft declined to confirm the details leaked by its Russian press site or comment on its IE9 interface plans.

IE9's first beta will be available for download on Sept. 15 , when Microsoft will host a launch event in San Francisco. The company has not revealed a final ship date, although some have speculated that an April 2011 release is likely. That would coincide with MIX, Microsoft's annual Web conference, slated for April 12-14, 2011, in Las Vegas.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .

Read more about browsers in Computerworld's Browsers Topic Center.

 

How to Claim Your Place on Facebook - by Bonaire DOT.COM 23/08/2010 @ 11:11 

Your business will have a Facebook Place whether you set it up or not, so you may as well claim it and manage it.
by Tony Bradley

If your business is a brick and mortar location that customers visit in person, odds are good that it will end up in Facebook Places whether you put it there or not. Even if you don't choose to take advantage of Facebook Places to promote business, you should still claim ownership of your place to ensure the information is accurate.

With half a billion Facebook members, odds are good that at least a few of them are your customers. That means there is a likelihood that someone will "check-in" to Facebook Places at your place of business and your establishment will have a Facebook Places page whether you intend to use it or not.

You don't have to bother claiming your Place. But, if it's going to be there anyway, you may as well at least manage and maintain the basic details. By claiming the Facebook Place you are able to edit the address, business hours, profile picture, contact information, and other settings such as designating admins authorized to alter the Places page.

If your Facebook Place doesn't exist yet, you can use the smartphone Facebook app to check-in at your business to create it. Once your business has a Facebook Place, there is a link at the bottom that says "Is this your business?" Click that to begin the verification process.

Claiming your Place requires some supporting evidence--so random strangers should be prevented from claiming your Facebook Place. Aside from basic information like the name, URL, and address of the business, the Claim Place page also asks for the Federal EIN (Employee Identification Number), and requires that you upload a scan of official documents.

You can choose from articles of certificate of incorporation, certificate of formation, local business license, or Better Business Bureau accreditation. Once you submit the necessary information, the Place still does not automatically become yours. You receive a message stating "Thanks, your inquiry has been forwarded to the Facebook Team." You also receive an e-mail confirming the submission and notifying you to "Stand by as we should be back with you soon."

According to the Facebook Help Center, you can also advertise your Facebook Place on Facebook. The Help Center FAQ explains "To advertise your Place, click "I want to advertise something I have on Facebook" in the ad creation flow and choose your Place from the drop-down menu."

Facebook Places is new to the location-based check-in game. Some elements--like the ability to target marketing at Facebook users who have only checked in to your business--don't exist yet (although I am fairly sure they will be tacked on sooner rather than later). However, you can target specials and promotions at Facebook users who "Like" your Facebook Place page.

I recommend that businesses embrace the location-based check-in concept and use it as a powerful tool for marketing and to build repeat customers. But, even if you don't plan to advertise your Facebook Place page, or target promotional specials at Facebook fans that have checked-in to your business, if the Facebook Place for your business is going to be out there anyway, you better take ownership of it and at least make sure the information it reflects is accurate.

 

BlackBerry Phones Getting Mobile Ads? - by Bonaire DOT.COM 19/08/2010 @ 16:52 

RIM is apparently in the market to buy its own mobile ad network to compete with iAd and AdMob.
by Daniel Ionescu

 

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) is shopping around for a mobile ad network, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The move comes after both Google and Apple bought their own ad networks, AdMob and Quattro Wireless, which serve advertisements for their smartphone platforms.

RIM is still the leading smartphone market, but has seen its share declining recently to iPhones and Android phones. With millions of users accessing the Internet through their mobile devices, the big money is now moving to mobile advertising, and RIM wants a chunk of that as well.

RIM has reportedly tried to acquire Millennial Media, according to "people familiar with the matter" quoted by WSJ. The report says Millennial asked up to $500 million for the acquisition, but RIM was not ready to pay such a price for its own mobile advertising network. RIM and Millennial did not comment on the report.

Matching Google and Apple

Google paid $750 million for the AdMob network in November 2009, and Apple paid a reported $275 million for Quattro, after it tried to snatch AdMob before Google. Apple then transformed Quattro's technology into the iAd mobile advertising platform earlier this year, available exclusively on the iOS platform.

To secure its top spot in the mobile industry, RIM is under pressure to respond to Apple and Google's acquisitions, but thinks its competitors overpaid for their mobile advertising acquisitions, according to the WSJ.

Meanwhile, RIM also has other things to worry about. The BlackBerry encrypted e-mail service is facing closure in several countries because of security concerns. At the same time, the company's latest flagship BlackBerry device, the Torch, has received only mixed reviews, and is yet to make a killing in sales.

 

Facebook Warns of Clickjacking Scam - by Bonaire DOT.COM 18/08/2010 @ 19:11 

A disguised button causes unsuspecting poll-takers to share unwittingly -- including their money.

Security firm Sophos recently discovered a new clickjacking scam on Facebook that spreads via the social network's "share" feature and could be costing you $5 a week.  The new malware is similar to a so-called "likejacking" worm discovered last May. But instead of exploiting Facebook's "Like" button, the new scam uses the "Share" feature that posts content to your profile wall where your friends are encouraged to click on it.

This is the second Facebook scam reported on by Sophos in recent days. On Monday, the security firm alerted Facebook users to an enticing scam that allowed you to add a "Dislike" button to your profile.

Here's how the "Share" button scam works:

The Sharejack

You see a link to a Facebook page for "10 Funny T-Shirt Fails" or something similar. Once you arrive on the page, a message tells you that you have to go through Facebook's new three-step human verification process in order to see the content.

On the second step, you are asked to click the "Next" button, and that's where the scam really begins, according to Sophos. That's because the "Next" button doesn't actually have any functionality and is just a dummy. But hidden underneath the "Next" button is a functional "Share" button. So while it looks like you are just clicking on "Next" to get to the final step, what you are actually doing is posting that page to your profile wall using the Share function. (Click on the image for a large view of the screen.)

Sophos notes that browsers running No Script are alerted to the hidden "Share" button. No Script is a Firefox add-on that prevents a Website's Java, JavaScript, and Flash functions from executing without your permission.

But the scam doesn't end there. The whole point is to get you to the third step where you fill out a revenue-generating survey for the scammers. The surveys ask you to provide your personal information to enter a contest to win money, a computer, or other prize. The survey Sophos examined asks for your cell phone number among other things. But down in the survey's fine print it says providing your information will end up tacking an extra $5 per week onto your cell phone bill for a service called "The Awesome Test."

Protecting Yourself

Facebook responded fairly quickly to Sophos' report and removed all the fan pages involved in the "sharejack." Nevertheless, if you think you might have fallen prey to the scam you should check to make sure any links associated with the phony pages have been removed from your profile wall. If they haven't, hover your mouse over the link and then click the "Remove" button in the upper right corner of the wall post.

If you went so far as to fill out the survey, then you should contact your carrier immediately to see if you have any excess charges on your cell phone bill.

by Ian Paul

Choice domain names pitched as investments - by Bonaire DOT.COM 18/08/2010 @ 19:03 

Forget real estate, the stock market or Internet startups, the new way to make fast money is to invest in domain names, argues a domain name brokerage that will auction off a passel of domain names on Wednesday in New York.

Stocks.com, Rate.com, Quotes.com, Reggae.com, Cable.com, Artist.com, Alcohol.com and voters.com are among the 934 names up on the block at this auction. Oversee.net, through its SnapNames service, will oversee the auction, which it expects to bring in millions of dollars.

While registrars such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions offer the ability for anyone to own an previously unclaimed Internet domain name, usually for less than US$20, a secondary market of already claimed but seemingly valuable domain names has long existed. And now the brokers in the field are pitching these domain names as an investment opportunity.

For companies that wish to increase their online presence, the appeal of buying a premium domain name is to "own the category" that the business is in, said Jeff Kupietzky, the CEO of Oversee.net. He referred to how Barnes & Noble owns books.com and Johnson & Johnson owns baby.com. Such names can generate immense traffic just by the virtue of being a commonly used word with an attached .com that curious people will type into browsers.

In addition to targeting companies slow to realize the value in a choice Web address, Oversee.net is also hoping to attract buyers who may not even have business interest in a particular domain name itself. Just buying a domain name, Kupietzky noted, can be a good investment opportunity.

"Domains, really, are almost like commercial real estate. They're investments on their own," Kupietzky said. He called them "Internet real-estate." Purchasers can buy a name with no intent on attaching it to some enterprise, but rather hold on to it, or perhaps run some ads on the site, and then resell it a few years later, hopefully at a profit.

"People could be buying, either for the sake of development, or because they expect to sell the name to somebody else," Kupietzky said. Verisign estimated that there are about 193 million top-level domain names registered across the Internet.

The domain name aftermarket seems to be a growing one. Another domain name broker, Sedo, has estimated that domain name resales generate about $500 million a year, and that the market grew in the second quarter of this year by 38 percent. At least one investment fund has been started ostensibly devoted only to investing in domain names.

Founded in 2000, Oversee.Net now owns over a million domain names itself. The company developed computerized algorithms to determine which as-of-yet unsold domain names have potential value, by scouring the Web for frequently used words and search terms. "It's much more art than science for evaluating the domain name for the purpose of reselling," Kupietzky said.

In May, the company sold Slots.com for $5.5 million, and dating.com for $1.75 million, both on the same day. On Tuesday, the company sold a set of t-shirt related domain names (Tshirt.com, T-shirt.com, T-shirts.com, Tee-shirts.com) for $1.265 million.

The company also offers a set of management services for other domain name brokers, including appraisals and escrow services.

Thus far, the company has held about 10 auctions over the past four years. This week's auction will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. eastern time. Bids can also be submitted online, via a simulcast. A live caller, who has auctioned homes, cattle and all manner of other physical assets, will oversee the proceedings.

"The benefit of the live action is to allow everyone in the room, and on the Internet, to immediately know the value of a domain name through the auction process," Kupietzky said. The reserve, or the minimum bidding price, for the highest profile names, such as stocks.com, will likely start at $1 million or more.

Bidders are required to preregister, so Oversee.net can check to see if they have the financial wherewithal to purchase a name. Through a partner, Oversee.net can offer financing for up to 80 percent of the cost of the name, using the name as collateral.

Some of the domain names will also come with complete businesses as well. "We're seeing a model where the domain name has all the value and [the business] just comes with it," said Kupietzky.

"Think of it like commercial real estate. If I sold you a property on Columbus Circle in New York, there may be an old apartment building on it. While you know the apartment building brings in some rent, the real value is the location. Ultimately, you will tear that down and build a much more expensive property," he said.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

Twitter launches the Tweet Button - by Bonaire DOT.COM 12/08/2010 @ 19:45 

Twitter has launched its Tweet Button, whose goal is to simplify the sharing of Web links on Twitter both for Web publishers and for end users.

Web publishers who adopt the Tweet Button will let their visitors share links on Twitter without leaving their sites, which should benefit both publishers and visitors, according to Twitter.

The Tweet Button triggers a pop-up of a box that automatically incorporates a shortened URL of the page or item to be shared, Twitter said in a blog post on Thursday.

Publishers can also preconfigure the custom text they want each Tweet Button box to display to all users, as well as suggest to users other Twitter accounts they may want to follow, such as the ones from the site's writers. "The Tweet Button will help publishers grow traffic and increase their Twitter following," reads Twitter's announcement.

Adding the Tweet Button to sites is a process Twitter describes as simple and requiring only a few lines of code.

"You have complete control over the suggested text of the Tweet Button, who the Tweet should be attributed to and recommendations of who to follow. All of this is possible through a line of javascript and a few URL parameters or data attributes of a link," wrote Twitter developer advocate Matt Harris in the official discussion forum for Twitter developers.

Other companies have provided similar capabilities, including TweetMeme, which is phasing out its popular "retweet" service, assisting Twitter with the rollout of the Tweet Button and moving on to provide other Twitter-related services.

"We have grown to more than 750 million daily retweet button impressions, which for a tiny team is an amazing achievement. That said the market requires an official solution that can accelerate this growth. So today Twitter is launching its own Tweet Button and we are very pleased to be partnering with them to continue to grow the overall Twitter ecosystem," reads a TweetMeme statement.

Some of the sites that already have adopted the Tweet Button out of the gate include CNN.com, YouTube, Time.com, Hulu and USA Today.

Providing Web publishers with this type of sharing tool has become common for social media and social networking sites, as Facebook did a few months ago with the launch of its now ubiquitous "Like" button.

by Juan Carlos Perez

 

Linux Foundation offers open source compliance checklist - by Bonaire DOT.COM 11/08/2010 @ 03:09 

Organizations that are interested in using open source in their own products but are wary of intellectual property issues might want to examine a new, mostly free, assistance program just launched by the non-profit Linux Foundation.

The Open Compliance Program includes an assessment checklist, training programs and software tools to monitor open source software usage.

Especially in the growing field of mobile device and consumer electronics manufacturers, software development often involves use of multiple programs -- many open source -- in a single stack, said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation.

"You have a really complicated supply chain, where you might get source code coming from lots of different places, whether it is a chipset vendor, a mobile handset provider or embedded software vendor," he said. "Managing open source license compliance is complicated."

Many companies are unaware of how different software licensing works with open source, or their executives fear being forced to divulge their own software code because it was intermingled with some open source code under the Gnu Public License (GPL). SAP, for instance, has set up an open source office and program specifically to deal with such issues.

"What we were looking for is [a way] to solve this complexity and to prevent needless lawsuits," Zemlin said. "Our community has the exact same goal that the industry has, to make using open source as low-cost and as easy as possible."

The Linux Foundation's program provides a range of tools and services to get such companies up to speed, Zemlin said.

The program includes a self-assessment check-list (available in late 2010), training programs, software tools that check programs for open source licensing or other issues, a community workgroup, a compliance directory of companies using open source software, and a new standard, called the Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX), that can be used to create a packing list of all supporting software components within an application.

All these services, except for the training courses, will be free, Zemlin said.

Organizations such as Adobe, Advanced Micro Devices, Cisco Systems, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Novell, Samsung, the Software Freedom Law Center and Sony Electronics have endorsed this program.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

Ink Supplies - by Bonaire DOT.COM 11/08/2010 @ 02:59 

MTV gets its first Twitter Deejay - by Bonaire DOT.COM 10/08/2010 @ 18:59 

Remember when MTV debuted in 1981 with VJs, the on-air music equivalent of record-spinning deejays?

If you do -- you child of the 80s with your leg warmers and Commodore 64 - then take note: After a three-month competition, MTV's viewers chose a 23-year-old woman to serve as the company's first Twitter Deejay, or TJ.

Gabi Gregg , a 2008 cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College, was named the network's first TJ Sunday night at the conclusion of the "Follow Me: The Search for the first MTV TJ" competition. The woman behind the popular blog "Young, Fat and Fabulous," Gregg will be focused on engaging MTV's young audience with tweets .

"I cannot express my gratitude in 140 characters. I love all of you so much. Follow me at @mtvtj!," Gregg tweeted Sunday night after her big win.

Gregg's job will be to tweet about MTV with behind-the-scenes information, as well as offer up music and celebrity links and answer followers' questions.

Today, the TJ tweeted about having to sign a lot of paperwork for her new job, the fact that she started her new job wearing "skinny jeans" and how her day has been filled with interviews.

Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group and a man who does remember the Commodore 64 and the advent of MTV videos, said this is a good experiment for MTV, a network trying not to show its age .

"We're going to see a lot of these types of experiments down the road," said Olds. "I don't know if it's going to catch on or not, but it's cheap and easy to try and definitely worth a shot. The name of the game is to attract eyeballs and hold on to them. With things like Twitter and Facebook , the cost of trying new things is very low -- so we're going to see a bunch of things thrown up against the wall to see what sticks."

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com .

Read more about web 2.0 and web apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.


 

Adobe Scrambles to Fix PDF Flaw - by Bonaire DOT.COM 10/08/2010 @ 00:36 

Adobe is rushing to develop a patch for a vulnerability in Acrobat Reader revealed at the Black Hat security conference. The update--expected the week of August 16--will be the third time this year that Adobe has been forced to fix flaws outside of its regularly scheduled quarterly update pattern.

Adobe published a security bulletin announcing the upcoming update for Adobe Reader 9.3.3 for Windows, Mac OS X, and UNIX, and Adobe Acrobat for Windows and Mac, as well as Reader and Acrobat version 8.2.3 for the same platforms to resolve a number of security issues. Adobe noted "that these updates represent an out-of-band release. Adobe is currently scheduled to release the next quarterly security update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat on October 12, 2010."

Microsoft also released an out-of-band patch for the Windows shortcut vulnerability--only a week ahead of the planned Patch Tuesday updates. The rapid turnaround by Adobe from vulnerability discovery to patch is commendable, but the rise in zero-day exploits forcing both Adobe and Microsoft to frequently provide updates outside of the normal patch release cycle threatens to negate the benefits of having a regularly scheduled patch release system.

The issue being addressed by Adobe is a vulnerability in Adobe Reader which was unveiled at Black Hat by security researcher Charlie Miller. Miller has made a name for himself by repeatedly winning the Pwn2Own contest at the CanSec West security conference.

A Secunia advisory related to the Adobe flaw explains "The vulnerability is caused due to an integer overflow error in CoolType.dll when parsing the "maxCompositePoints" field value in the "maxp" (Maximum Profile) table of a TrueType font. This can be exploited to corrupt memory via a PDF file containing a specially crafted TrueType font."

Summed up in plain English that IT admins and users who are not developers can understand, Secunia adds "Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code." Bottom line: an attacker could exploit the Adobe Reader flaw to take control of a vulnerable system and install or execute other malicious software.

Interestingly, it is a flaw in the way fonts are rendered in PDF documents that allows the JailbreakMe Web site to circumvent iPhone defenses and alter the core functionality of the smartphone OS. However, according to Miller the flaws are unrelated to one another. Thankfully, Apple is hard at work updating iOS to address that issue.

IT admins concerned with being exposed to potential exploit of this vulnerability pending the update from Adobe can always look into alternative PDF readers such as FoxIt Reader and Nuance PDF Reader.

 

Microsoft sets stage for IE9 beta - by Bonaire DOT.COM 06/08/2010 @ 22:51 

Microsoft on Wednesday updated its bare-bones preview of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) for the last time, saying that the next release would be a beta build.

on Wednesday updated its bare-bones preview of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) for the last time, saying that the next release would be a beta build.

Although Microsoft hasn't named a release date for IE9's beta, the six-to-eight week stretch between each Platform Preview may provide a clue: If the company sticks to the same gap between the fourth preview and the beta, the latter should show on or after Sept. 15.

In IE9 Platform Preview 4, Microsoft has integrated its new JavaScript engine into the browser , finished its work on hardware acceleration and boosted performance in several areas, including the Acid3 test, said the IE team's leader.

"The IE9 platform is nearly complete," said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of IE, in a detailed post on the browser's blog Wednesday.

Last updated six weeks ago , the IE9 Platform Preview is not a full-fledged browser, but instead consists of a minimalist interface wrapped around Microsoft's newest rendering and JavaScript engines.

When Microsoft debuted IE9 in mid-March, the company committed to updating the IE9 preview approximately every eight weeks until it issues a public beta. That beta is slated to ship next month , according to comments made last week by Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer.

The fourth preview includes fixes for previously reported bugs, wraps up the graphics processor-powered audio, video and text acceleration, and moves Microsoft's new "Chakra" JavaScript engine inside the browser for better performance, Hachamovitch said.

"One aspect of [meeting our goals] is integrating the JavaScript engine natively inside the browser, rather than bolting it onto the side to support multiple JavaScript engines as some other browsers do today," Hachamovitch said, taking a shot at rivals such as Mozilla's Firefox. "How a JavaScript engine is integrated into the browser is as important as the engine itself for real-world HTML5."

Although Microsoft once downplayed JavaScript speeds -- Hachamovitch dismissed the contest for fastest browser as just a "drag race" during IE8's development -- it's aggressively touted Chakra's performance.

According to Hachamovitch, IE9 Platform Preview 4 scores better on the SunSpider JavaScript test suite than all rivals except Google 's Chrome and Opera Software's Opera. Microsoft's SunSpider results differ from Computerworld's latest, which pegged Apple's Safari as the fastest on Windows, with Opera and Chrome close behind.

On the Acid3 benchmark, which checks how closely a browser follows certain Web standards, the IE9 Platform Preview 4 scored 95 out of a possible 100, the highest ever for a Microsoft browser. The score was a 14% improvement over Platform Preview 3.

Hachamovitch hinted that the score of 95 would be IE9's best effort, arguing that the standards which prevent it from acing the benchmark are "in transition" and thus unlikely to get full support from Microsoft.

IE is on a two-month upswing in usage share, according to the most recent data from Net Applications, and Microsoft has to hope that when it ships in final form, that IE9 will be able to turn around the browser's long-term decline.

The 16MB Platform Preview 4 can be downloaded from Microsoft's site.

Unlike production versions, the IE9 preview can run alongside other editions, such as IE7 on Vista or IE8 on Windows 7 . However, neither the Platform Preview nor the final version of IE9 will run on Windows XP, a sticking point with some users of that nine-year-old operating system.

by Gregg Keizer

Why Apple's App Store Needs an Overhaul - by Bonaire DOT.COM 06/08/2010 @ 22:48 

Apple has rolled out some tweaks to fine tune the App Store shopping experience. The effort is commendable, but is woefully inadequate. Try Before You Buy and a Genius feature are both great ideas, but what both Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market really need is a fundamental overhaul.

Imagine trying to shop at a store that sells more than 200,000 items, but has no rhyme or reason to its layout, or any semblance of organization. Just 200,000 items scattered randomly in a warehouse for you to sift through looking for the proverbial "needle in a haystack".

The App Store isn't quite that bad. Apple has at least segregated the chaos into smaller piles of semi-related apps. Apple provides a variety of categories to shop through. Current categories include New and Noteworthy, What's Hot, Bank On It, and Staff Favorites. There are also links on the side for Apps for Kids, Free on the App Store, Summertime, New Home, Zombies!, and more.

It might seem like there is enough variety in Apple's classification of apps to suit most user's needs, but the kitschy categories are still quite limited and don't provide any intelligent means of sorting and searching through the vast library of apps when trying to fill a specific need.

There comes a point where having more apps is more a curse than a blessing. Finding decent apps in the Apple and Google app stores is an absurdly cumbersome process that doesn't benefit users, doesn't help developers effectively market and sell the apps they have created, and doesn't reflect well on the respective smartphone platforms as a whole.

The Apple App Store should be redesigned to make shopping simple and intuitive. If Apple needs a model to follow--try a site that is built to maximize the shopping experience, like Amazon.com. Amazon provides a logical organization of categories, and clicking on those categories reveals an extended list of equally logical sub-categories. I can surf to Electronics, then Cell Phones & Accessories, then drill down by various categories, or by brand. I can sort the results to show me best selling items, or order the items from low price to high, or high price to low, or list them based on customer review ratings.

The App Store does have a search capability, so I can narrow the field of options by typing "task lists" for example rather than surfing aimlessly through all business-related apps. However, the search results yield an array of choices which may or may not include all "task list" oriented apps, and which require me to click on each one individually to see how other App Store customers rate the app.

So, Apple--thanks for Try Before You Buy, and thanks for Genius recommendations, but if you could hire some Amazon talent and build a better App Store from the ground up you would be doing your customers, and the developers that support the iPhone and iPad platforms a huge favor. It would be a win-win-win for all.

by Tony Bradley

Google drops Google Wave - by Bonaire DOT.COM 05/08/2010 @ 02:10 

A little more than a year after the service was launched, Google is pulling the plug on its Google Wave social-networking service, the company said Wednesday.

"Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked," wrote Urs Hölzle, Google senior vice president for operations, in a blog post. As a result of the public indifference, "We don't plan to continue developing Wave as a stand-alone product," he said.

The company will maintain the service through the end of the year, and the technology will be rolled into other Google projects, Hölzle said. Some features are already available as open-source components, and Google will offer tools to let users "easily 'liberate' their content from Wave," he said.

Hölzle implied that Wave might have been too radical of a concept for mass adoption, despite the company's many attempts to explain it to the public.

A "Web app for real time communication and collaboration, it set a high bar for what was possible in a Web browser," he said. "We weren't quite sure how users would respond to this radically different kind of communication."

The decision seems to have been made rather speedily. As recently as Monday, the company posted information about upcoming Wave developer talks in Washington D.C. and Michigan.

At the O'Reilly Open Source Conference last month in Portland, Oregon, Google Wave developer Dan Peterson admitted, in a Wave tutorial, that early versions of the service were slow and tended to crash. Subsequent work improved performance and made the product more stable, he noted.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

Windows 7 wins, Mac OS X loses July battle for share - by Bonaire DOT.COM 02/08/2010 @ 13:34 

Microsoft's Windows 7 reached a major milestone in July, while Apple's Mac OS X lost ground for the fourth straight month, a Web analytics firm said Sunday.

According to California-based Net Applications, Windows 7 passed Vista for the first time last month by posting a usage share of 14.5%, versus its predecessor's 14.3%.

Net Applications uses data acquired from the 160 million unique visitors who browse the 40,000 Web sites it monitors for clients.

Windows 7 has been on a fast pace to supplant Vista as Microsoft's -- and the world's -- No. 2 operating system, behind the nearly-nine-year-old Windows XP. By Net Applications' calculation, Windows 7 needed just nine months to hit a mark that Vista took more than 21 months to match.

Vista's share crested at 18.8% in October 2009 and has been in decline since: Vista has lost 4.5 percentage points, or 24% of its peak share, since Microsoft launched Windows 7.

Microsoft has not been shy about flaunting Windows 7's success, calling it the firm's fastest-selling operating system with more than 175 million licenses sold , and claiming that Windows 7 runs 16% of the world's personal computers.

But the rate of Windows 7's increase during July -- just 0.8 of a percentage point -- was the smallest since the new edition's debut.

And for all its success at selling Windows 7 , Microsoft has not had as much luck in moving users off Windows XP.

The aged XP accounted for 61.9% of all operating systems used last month, Net Applications said, a decline of six-tenths of a percentage point from June and down 5.9 points since the first of the year. But Windows XP's slide has slowed: In the second quarter of 2010, the operating system lost two percentage points, compared to 3.3 points in the first quarter. At that rate of decline, XP won't drop under the 50% share mark until January 2012.

Combined, all editions of Windows ran on 91.3% of the machines that connected to Net Applications' sites last month, a decline of just over one-tenth of a percentage point. Windows 7's growing use appears to have been key to that small slip and in a slowing of Windows' gradual decline: In the second quarter of 2010, Windows lost only one-fourth as much share as it did during the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Net Applications reported that Apple's OS X recorded its fourth consecutive month of share decline in July, losing nearly two-tenths of a percentage point, the largest single-month drop in over a year and a half.

Since the beginning of 2010, Mac OS X has lost share in five of seven months. It now stands at 5%, the same number as in February 2010 and off the operating system's peak of 5.3% in October 2009, the month Microsoft debuted Windows 7.

Net Applications' numbers don't equate to sales -- two weeks ago Apple reported it sold a record 3.5 million Macs in the second quarter -- but they do show that Windows 7 is fueling an even bigger PC sales boom relative to last year's usage share standings. Windows 7, for example, now powers three times the number of machines than does Mac OS X.

Not all is gloomy for Apple . According to Net Applications, the iPhone 's operating system accounted for seven-tenths of one percent of all OSes online in July -- not just mobile operating systems -- a 19% jump from the month before.

July was the first full month that the iPhone 4 was available in the U.S. and several other countries.

In a note on its Web site, Net Applications pointed out that the gain came amid reports of antenna and reception problems in the iPhone 4 throughout much of July. However, the company also said that the jump in share was "typical prior to the release of a major upgrade" as buyers delay purchases until a new version of an operating system or device is available.

Net Applications had a point. The first full month after the introduction of the iPhone 3G in the summer of 2008, iPhone usage share leaped 63%. Two months after the debut of last year's iPhone 3GS, its share was 20% above pre-launch levels.

Net Applications' operating system share data can be found on its Web site.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .

'Unhackable' Android can be hacked - by Bonaire DOT.COM 30/07/2010 @ 12:55 

LAS VEGAS -- Once thought to be unhackable, the Android phone is anything but, according to researchers presenting at Black Hat 2010.

FBI details worst social networking cyber crime problemsNot only has malicious software cloaked in a wallpaper application stolen personal information from infected phones and sent it to a Web site in China, but researchers from Lookout Mobile Security have found a way to take the phones over completely – including top-of-the-line models hawked by major wireless carriers.

In one presentation, Lookout's CEO John Herring said the Jackeey Wallpaper app, which has been downloaded millions of times, can gather passwords, browser history, the subscriber ID and SIM card numbers and text messages.

In a separate presentation, researchers said top-of-the-line Android phones used by Sprint and Verizon can be taken over completely by attacking known flaws in the Linux operating system that underpins Android, researchers reported at Black Hat 2010. "It gives you root control, and you can do anything you want to do" with the phone, says Anthony Lineberry, a researcher for Lookout Mobile Security.

The company says Android's reputation for security may be exaggerated. "It survived the recent pwn2own slay fest unscathed, but this does not mean it is safe by any means," the company said in describing Lineberry's talk.

The best way to distribute malware that could exploit the flaw – known as CVE-2009 1185 – is via Android applications that customers might acquire free or buy from the Android Market. Installing the booby-trapped application would give root control of the device, Lineberry says. "Root is kind of God mode in the context of Linux. Once you have that, you have pretty much any system privilege."

CVE-2009 1185 has been known for more than a year and can be patched, but so far the carriers have not issued patches, Lineberry says. The root-control exploit has been successfully carried out in Lookout labs on EVO 4G (Sprint), Droid X (Verizon), and Droid Incredible (Verizon) as well as older models G1 and Hero, he says.

But root control is unnecessary in order to carry out the type of attack executed by Jackeey Wallpaper, according to another Lookout researcher, Tim Wyatt. Applications require permissions in order to access features of the phone, and these permissions can be exploited. So, for instance, an application that tells the customer the nearest Chinese restaurant would need access to the phones GPS capabilities.

When selling applications, developers must list all the permissions the application requires to work, and the customer must sign off on allowing those permissions. An application that sorts SMS messages but requires Internet access may seem suspicious, and customers might bail out of buying the application.

But some permissions sound innocuous, Wyatt says. Customers might not know what the permission "Import Android log" means, but approve an application that requires it because the name of the permission doesn't sound threatening. But the logs can reveal browsing histories, passwords, phone numbers and a wealth of other data, he says.

Malicious applications with Internet permissions can be crafted to send the data in the background or display innocuous Web sites to mask where the data is being sent, Wyatt says.

The best course for users is to beware the applications they buy and if they are suspicious, not to download the apps, Lineberry says.

Lookout has carried out a study it calls the App Genome project that examined Android and iPhone applications for what permissions they have and what malicious activity they might carry out with the set of permissions they have. An application might use the permissions legitimately, but in the hands of a hacker could cause mischief, the company says.

Part of the permission system in Android allows applications to tap each other's resources, so an application without permission to access the Internet might have access to an application that does and so use the Internet anyway, the researchers say.

Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section.

by Tim Greene

ATM hack gives cash on demand - by Bonaire DOT.COM 29/07/2010 @ 18:55 

Barnaby Jack hit the jackpot at Black Hat on Wednesday. Twice.

Exploiting bugs in two different ATM machines, the researcher from IOActive was able to get them to spit out money on demand and record sensitive data from the cards of people who used them.

He showed the attacks on two systems he had purchased himself -- the type of generic ATM machines typically found in bars and convenience stores. Criminals have been hitting this type of machine for years, using ATM skimmers to record card data and PIN numbers, or in some cases simply pulling up a truck and hauling the machines away.

But according to Jack there's an easier, much more alarming way to get the money out. Criminals can connect to the machines by dialing them up -- Jack believes a large number of them have remote management tools that can be accessed over a telephone -- and then launching an attack.

After experimenting with his own machines, Jack developed a way of bypassing the remote authentication system and installing a homemade rootkit, named Scrooge, that lets him override the machine's firmware. He also developed an online management tool, called Dillinger, that can keep track of compromised machines and store data stolen from people who use them.

Criminals could find vulnerable ATMs by using open-source "war-dialling" software to call hundreds of thousands of numbers, looking for those that respond by saying they have the vulnerable management software installed. Criminals have already used a similar technique over the Internet to break into vulnerable point-of-sale systems.

Jack's tools are just proof-of-concept software, designed to show how vulnerable the machines really are, he said. "The goal of the talk is to spark discussion on the best ways to remediate," he said.

"It's time to give these devices an overhaul," Jack said. "Companies who manufacture the devices aren't Microsoft. They haven't had 10 years of continual attacks against them."

The machines Jack hacked were, however, based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system.

In an dramatic on-stage demonstration at Black Hat, he connected remotely to an ATM and ran a program called Jackpot that caused the ATMs to spit out cash, while playing a tune and splashing the word "Jackpot" across the screen of the machine.

In a second demo, he walked up to the machine, opened it with a key he had obtained on the Internet, and installed his own firmware. A single, standard key can open many different types of machines, he said, presenting another serious security problem.

Jack had planned to deliver the talk at last year's conference, but it was pulled after ATM vendors asked for more time to patch the issues he'd discovered.

Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com

USB 3.0: Five Things You Need to Know - by Bonaire DOT.COM 27/07/2010 @ 02:26 

USB-perhaps the most successful, versatile computer interface yet-is getting a major overhaul. The third version brings big improvements, including higher speeds and better power management. The first devices began hitting stores this year, and a flood of new products is expected to follow. Adoption of USB 3.0 could bring an end to interfaces that use serial ports like e-SATA, which, while fast, require an additional power cable.

IT'S FAST. USB 3.0 features an extra set of pins that creates a faster data bus capable of supporting real-world speeds of between 3.2 and 4 gigabits per second. That makes it about 10 times as fast as today's USB 2.0 and comparable to using serial ports. A fully Ã'­bidirectional bus means that data can be sent and received at the same time, further boosting performance. To reflect this, equipment makers have dubbed the new version "SuperSpeed."

IT'S BACKWARD COMPATIBLE. USB 3.0 sockets are designed to accept today's plugs and cables, they'll just operate at USB 2.0 speeds. To get the faster performance, you'll have to use new cables between compatible devices. Consequently, USB 3.0 will take over the external-drive market by 2013 and ship in 225 million flash disks in 2014, predicts In-Stat.

IT'S SMART ON POWER. USB 3.0 increases the power available via a USB connection by 50 percent to 150 milliAmps, but that doesn't necessarily mean your laptop battery will run down faster. Whereas the current USB protocol keeps devices powered and ready at all times, USB 3.0 has superior power-management capabilities that allow unused devices to enter idle, sleep and suspend modes, cutting down on power consumption.

IT'S NOT EVERYWHERE. Support for USB 3.0 was added to the Linux kernel last September, and the first hardware controllers and devices appeared at this year's Consumer Electronics Show show in January. But it's still an emerging technology. Microsoft hasn't implemented it in Windows yet, though it's rumored to be coming soon in the first service pack for Windows 7. Intel doesn't plan to support it until 2011.

Read more about peripherals in CIO's Peripherals Drilldown.

Mozilla re-patches Firefox 3.6 to fix plug-in problem - by Bonaire DOT.COM 26/07/2010 @ 01:17 

For the second time in two months, Mozilla on Friday rushed out a fix for Firefox to patch a problem with a browser update issued just days before.

Mozilla shipped Firefox 3.6.8 on Friday to patch a single security problem and deal with what Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox, called "a stability problem that affected some pages with embedded plug-ins."

The company had released Firefox 3.6.7 two days earlier .

Mozilla patched one critical security bug in the newest update, according to an advisory also published Friday. "In certain circumstances, properties in the plug-in instance's parameter array could be freed prematurely, leaving a dangling pointer that the plug-in could execute, potentially calling into attacker-controlled memory," the warning read.

The bug surfaced in one of the 16 patches that Mozilla applied to Firefox earlier in the week.

Details of that vulnerability, and the stability problem that Beltzner mentioned, were not available to the public as of Saturday.

Several Firefox users, however, had filed numerous reports to the browser's support forum of problems with Adobe's Flash Player plug-in after updating to Firefox 3.6.7.

"I updated Firefox from 3.6.2 to 3.6.7 and I REGRET IT!," wrote a user identified only as "Steve" in a support forum message posted Friday morning. "I can't watch YouTube. Every time the video is about to start Firefox freezes and I can't do nothing besides going into Task Manager and killing it from there. THIS SUCKS!"

Friday's patch-and-release was the second in two months for Mozilla. Just three days after updating Firefox to version 3.6.4 in late June, Mozilla delivered another update because people playing Farmville complained that their browser was shutting down the Facebook game. The company said that a new "out of process plug-ins" feature, designed to keep the browser running when a plug-in crashed, was kicking in too quickly.

The older Firefox 3.5 browser, which was upgraded to version 3.5.11 last Tuesday, is not affected by the security bug or the plug-in stability problem.

Users can update to Firefox 3.6.8 by downloading the new edition or by selecting "Check for Updates" from the Help menu in the browser.

Read more about browsers in Computerworld's Browsers Topic Center.

BlackBerry Apps: Four Types to Avoid - by Bonaire DOT.COM 23/07/2010 @ 01:11 

It's never been easier to find quality BlackBerry applications. That's due largely to RIM's own app store, BlackBerry App World--which sees right around 1 million downloads a day, according to the company--as well as third party application marketplaces like Mobihand's BlackBerry store. Both online destinations are one-stop shops for valuable BlackBerry apps.

But the flip side to this explosion in BlackBerry software is that many less-than-valuable apps make their way into App World, Mobihand and elsewhere, crowding the virtual "shelf-space" and making it more challenging to find the true, must-have BlackBerry apps.

I'm talking about applications that simply don't do what they promise. Apps that cost too much. Or software that's plain ol' useless.

I've been recommending BlackBerry apps to my readers for years--just check out my BlackBerry Bible page. Now it's time to call out the apps that don't make the grade.

What follows is a list of four application types I've identified that aren't worth the space on my BlackBerry. You'll notice I'm not spotlighting specific applications, but types. Of course, you can make up your own mind; why not try an application if it's free? You can always delete it any time you want, right? The idea here is to save you time, effort, frustration, and in some cases, dollars.

Keep moving for my quick list of BlackBerry apps you're better off avoiding.

BlackBerry Application Type: "Flashlight" Apps

Reason to Avoid: BlackBerry "flashlight" apps typically employ your BlackBerry's camera flash as a tiny flashlight. Some of these applications let you change the color of your "flashlight," but they mostly do the same thing: Keep your flash lit up like Vegas after dusk. Some of these applications are free, and if you're looking for advanced features on top of a simple, "white-colored" flashlight, and you're not low on BlackBerry storage space, they may be worth a look. But whenever I need a flashlight, and all I have on-hand is my BlackBerry, I simply open up my video-camera application and click the space bar. Click the space bar again to disable the flash.

Voila. You've got a BlackBerry flashlight, no app required. The only catch is that the video-camera flash disables itself when your screen dims, so you'll need to repeatedly click a key to ensure your screen is lit while you need a light. Also, you should be aware that keeping your BlackBerry flash lit up for extended periods of time, whether you do it yourself or via an application, will likely drain significant battery-life.

BlackBerry Application Type: Memory Management Apps

Reason to Avoid: A plethora of applications exist to help you monitor and free up memory on your BlackBerry. Dubbed memory "boosters," "managers" and "monitors," most simply offer interfaces for gauging your current BlackBerry memory usage, along with tools that supposedly help to "free" memory.

Problem is, in my experience, none these apps really do anything that you can't do on your own. For example, you can get a quick idea of your smartphone's current memory status by simply opening up your BlackBerry Options menu, which looks like some sort of wrench in default BlackBerry themes. Within that menu, scroll down to and click Memory. You'll see a listing for Application Memory. And if you're aware of the total app memory in your devices--either 256MB or 512MB in most new BlackBerry devices--you can easily figure out the percentage of free app memory, no app required...well, maybe the default BlackBerry calculator app.

Logging into the "My World" section of BlackBerry App World will give you a quick estimate of your free memory.

You can also use a BlackBerry shortcut to invoke the BlackBerry "Help Me!" screen, which displays addition information on memory use. Just simultaneously click your ALT, Left Shift and H keys. (Learn more expert BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts here.)

The best way to free up BlackBerry application memory is to delete unused or underused application, and no app's going to help you with that.

Depending on your specific device settings, your BlackBerry very likely frees up memory on its own, as well, as part of a security safeguard. To determine or change these settings, again open up the BlackBerry Options menu, scroll down to and open up the Security Options then Advanced Security Options. Next, open up the Memory Cleaning menu.

On the following screen, you'll see a number of memory cleaning options, such as Clean When Holstered and Clean When Idle. Each option can be set to your own desired settings, unless you're on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) that locks the appropriate fields.

BlackBerry Application Type: Apps that Claim to Measure Cellular Radiation

 

Reason to Avoid: A number of new applications that boast the ability to measure cellular radiation have popped up in BlackBerry App World and elsewhere online in recent days. The point of such apps is to give you an idea of when your device is emitting the most cellular radiation, and the least radiation, so you can determine the "safest" places to make calls, etc.

Never mind the fact it's still not scientifically proven that cellular radiation is even potentially harmful& the idea sounds good, right? Sure. Until you employ the apps for a few days and notice that the purported radiation measurements correspond mostly with your cellular signal strength.

For instance, if you're in an area with poor 3G coverage--one or two bars--your device is probably emitting more "radiation" because it's constantly communicating with a nearby tower(s). And if you've got full 3G, without much deviation in bars, your device is probably likely producing less radiation. It's that simple.

So, the main lesson I learned from the couple of BlackBerry "radiation apps" I tried: You don't need an application to look at your signal-strength meter and determine if your device appears to be putting out more or less radiation.

BlackBerry Application Type: Apps That Stream TV Episodes, Video Content

Reason to Avoid: I'm a bit hesitant to lump all of the various television- and video-streaming applications for BlackBerry into one pile here. But honestly, my experience with the majority of services I've tried, including the brand new Bitbop app, Sprint TV, AT&T's Mobile Video, PrimeTime2Go, etc. has been much the same in each case: Unsatisfying.

Even while streaming content over my own home Wi-Fi network, which I must say, is fast, the quality of the streamed content was never satisfactory. Some services offer consistently better video quality. But here's the biggest problem I experienced with all of these apps and their corresponding services: The audio almost never syncs up correctly with the visual portion of the video. I know network speed has a lot to do with the video-quality on your device. But as stated above, I experimented with all of the services on various networks, with various speeds, and never really got consistently acceptable quality--though I'm admittedly picky and a bit OCD, so the audio/video discrepancy drove me nearly mad.

Since most TV streaming services are subscription-based, I simply cancelled my account or just deleted the apps after a few weeks of use. It wouldn't hurt to see for yourself, but I bet you'll come to the same conclusion, assuming you're like me and expect some degree of quality for $10 or more a month.

My advice: Stick with your PC and the free TV episodes on Hulu for streaming, at least until 4G wireless is the new standard, and/or simply transfer downloaded TV episodes and movies etc. onto your BlackBerry for mobile viewing.

 

Facebook eyes major milestone: 500M users - by Webmaster 21/07/2010 @ 22:18 

Facebook is hoping to hit a major milestone this week.

The social networking phenomenon is expecting to grab its 500 millionth user this week, according to Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman. With just about a half billion users, Facebook has become a social networking powerhouse that has helped to transform the way people use the Internet and the way people connect with each other.

"Half a billion users is quite a milestone no matter how you look at it," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "This obviously makes Facebook the numero uno social network, which is a quite an accomplishment. However, they can't rest on their pixel laurels. Their position guarantees them additional scrutiny in terms of user security, appropriate content and stability."

Rumors have been circulating online that Facebook has some big plans to celebrate its 500 millionth user, but Noyes declined to say what they have planned.

The expected milestone could be coming on the heels of what was a poor month for Facebook.

Earlier this month, Inside Facebook, a site that tracks Facebook usage, reported that the social network's growth dropped dramatically between May and June. Facebook picked up 320,800 new U.S. users in June, according to Inside Facebook, a far cry from the 7.8 million U.S. users it acquired in May. That follows news in March that Facebook replaced Google as the most-visited Web site in the U.S. for a full week.

The huge drop in new users led industry analysts to speculate that some people may be tiring of Facebook and social networking in general. Facebook's recent spate of privacy issues also may have put off some people who otherwise might have joined the site.

However, other studies have shown that some Facebook users are obsessive about the site. Many even call themselves social networking addicts.

Last week, a report from The Oxygen Media Insights Group, part of a company that focuses on television channels and Web sites for women, reported that a majority of women say they're addicted to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter .

But despite any obsession, Olds was quick to note that Facebook still is open to attack from rival companies that would like a piece of its social media pie.

"No doubt, being top dog also puts a big target on their backs," Olds added. "Every new social network will be gunning for them, looking to peel off users. They'll be looking to exploit every real or perceived Facebook shortcoming and turn it into the basis to drive their own new network."

At the end of last month, rumors began to spread that Google is working on what could be a Facebook-killer . There's still quite a bit of online chatter that Google is developing a social networking service, dubbed Google Me, that would compete directly with Facebook.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com .

Read more about web 2.0 and web apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.

Dell offering free Web browser security tool - by Bonaire DOT.COM 19/07/2010 @ 14:41 

Dell, through its Kace unit, is making available free Web browser security software that works by creating a protective "sandbox" on the desktop to isolate the user's desktop from malware or other harmful actions that might be encountered browsing the Web.

"Browsers, we all know, are a big target," says Bob Meinhardt, president of Dell Kace, the systems management vendor acquired by Dell earlier this year.

The top 10 "most wanted" spam-spewing botnets

Calling it simply Secure Browser, Dell Kace executives acknowledge the free browser security software works somewhat along the lines of that seen with browser sandboxing technology from GreenBorder Technologies, which was acquired by Google in 2007, and integrated into the Google Chrome product. Bob Kelly, senior product manager of Dell Kace, says Kace derives its technology, which it likes to call "application virtualization," from its acquisition of the company Computers in Motion two years ago.

The Dell Kace Secure Browser tool is said to use a kind of re-direction so that browser activity is shifted to an alternate area of the computer to isolate and contain harmful code. The 10MB security software, available for download from Dell's Kace site, is based on the current Firefox browser and Adobe Flash and Reader Plug-Ins.

The security tool also lets the user create what are called whitelists and blacklists of Web sites allowed to be visited. In a managed environment, the Dell Kace browser security software can be included as a managed application with the Dell Kace K1000 v5.1 Management Appliance, typically used in mid- to large enterprises.

Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section.

by Ellen Messmer

Microsoft confirms 'nasty' Windows zero-day bug - by Bonaire DOT.COM 18/07/2010 @ 20:21 

Microsoft on Friday warned that attackers are exploiting a critical unpatched Windows vulnerability using infected USB flash drives.

The bug admission is the first that affects Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) since Microsoft retired the edition from support , researchers said. When Microsoft does fix the flaw, it will not be providing a patch for machines still running XP SP2.

In a security advisory , Microsoft confirmed what other researchers had been saying for almost a month: Hackers have been exploiting a bug in Windows "shortcut" files, the placeholders typically dropped on the desktop or into the Start menu to represent links to actual files or programs.

"In the wild, this vulnerability has been found operating in conjunction with the Stuxnet malware," Dave Forstrom, a director in Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group, said in a post Friday to a company blog . Stuxnet is a clan of malware that includes a Trojan horse that downloads further attack code, including a rootkit that hides evidence of the attack.

Forstrom characterized the threat as "limited, targeted attacks," but the Microsoft group responsible for crafting antivirus signatures said it had tracked 6,000 attempts to infect Windows PCs as of July 15.

On Friday, Siemens alerted customers of its Simatic WinCC management software that attacks using the Windows vulnerability were targeting computers used to manage large-scale industrial control systems used by major manufacturing and utility companies.

The vulnerability was first mentioned on June 17 in an alert issued by VirusBlokAda , a little-known security firm based in Belarus. Other security organizations, including U.K.-based Sophos and SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center , picked up on the threat Friday. Security blogger Brian Krebs , formerly with the Washington Post, reported on it Thursday.

According to Microsoft, Windows fails to correctly parse shortcut files, identified by the ".lnk" extension. The flaw has been exploited most frequently using USB flash drives. By crafting a malicious .lnk file, hackers can hijack a Windows PC with little user interaction: All that's necessary is that the user views the contents of the USB drive with a file manager like Windows Explorer.

Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisory with Sophos, called the threat "nasty," and said his tests showed that the exploit works even when AutoRun and AutoPlay -- two functions that have previously been used by attackers to commandeer PCs using infected flash drives -- are disabled. The rootkit also bypasses all security mechanisms in Windows, including the User Account Control (UAC) prompts in Vista and Windows 7 , said Wisniewski in a blog entry Friday.

Attacks can also be launched without using USB drives, Microsoft and Wisniewski both noted. "Affected shortcuts can also be distributed over network shares or remote WebDAV shares," said Microsoft's advisory.

"[That makes] a very bad situation worse," said Wisniewski.

Microsoft did not set a timeline for patching the zero-day vulnerability; its next Patch Tuesday is not until Aug. 10.

For now, Microsoft said users could block attacks by disabling the displaying of shortcuts, and turning off the WebClient service. Both moves require editing the Windows registry, a chore most people avoid for fear of crippling their computers. Disabling shortcut files also will make it more difficult for users to launch programs or open documents.

That advice is all the help that those still running Windows XP SP2, the service pack that was retired from all support last Tuesday, will get from Microsoft.

"Noticeably absent from [Microsoft's list of affected software] are Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 as they are no longer supported," said Wisniewski. "They are, however, definitely still vulnerable." Microsoft also retired all editions of Windows 2000 from support last week.

Wolfgang Kandek, the chief technology officer of Qualys, echoed Wisniewski's concerns about XP SP2 and Windows 2000 going patchless. "We assume the attack works against both of them and attackers will surely take advantage of this security hole ," Kandek said Saturday.

Microsoft said that all still-supported versions of Windows, including Windows XP SP3, Vista, Server 2003, Windows 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2, contain the bug. The betas of Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1, which the company released last week, are also at risk.

Windows XP SP2 users must upgrade to XP SP3 to receive a patch for the shortcut flaw when it eventually ships.

Web designer claims 84% ownership of Facebook - by Bonaire DOT.COM 15/07/2010 @ 21:57 

A lawsuit filed against Facebook Inc. is raising the question of whether Mark Zuckerberg is the owner of the phenomenally popular social networking site.

Paul D. Ceglia of Wellsville, N.Y., filed the lawsuit in New York Superior Court on June 30. The web site designer alleges that he signed a contract with Zuckerberg, the site's founder and CEO, in 2003 that entitles him to 84% ownership of the company.

According to court documents, Ceglia claims he had a written agreement with Zuckerberg to design and build the site that eventually turned into the wildly successful Facebook . He also alleges that he was paid $1,000 for the work and for a 50% stake in the site, along with an extra 1% for every day until the Web site was completed.

That, according to Ceglia's suit, adds up to an 84% ownership of the social network, which has more than 500 million users.

Facebook, however, says that's simply not the case.

"We believe this suit is completely frivolous and we will fight it vigorously," said Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman, in an e-mail to Computerworld.

After Ceglia filed the suit, a New York Supreme Court judge issued a restraining order prohibiting Facebook and Zuckerberg from transferring any assets. For its part, Facebook filed a motion to have the case dismissed.

The case has been moved to federal court, and Facebook has moved to have the restraining order removed, according to Noyes.

"These kinds of suits come with the territory whenever any business becomes wildly successful," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "These suits are usually dismissed or settled as nuisance suits. But because the judge issued an order, it may mean that there could be something there."

Olds added that he's highly skeptical about the claim. "But if he does have a case, and if he ends up owning 84% of Facebook, then it will make a hell of a movie."

This isn't Ceglia's first court dealings.

Late last year, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo obtained a temporary restraining order against a western New York wood-pellet fuel company, Allegany Pellets LLC. Ceglia and his wife, Iasia, own the company, which allegedly took more than $200,000 from consumers and then failed to deliver products or refunds.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com .

Read more about web 2.0 and web apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.

Women say they're increasingly addicted to Facebook - by Bonaire DOT.COM 12/07/2010 @ 22:15 

As if chocolate wasn't addictive enough, a majority of women who use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter say they re addicted to them, according to a survey.

More than half (57%) of the women polled said they communicate with people more online than they do face to face, and 39% people called themselves Facebook addicts, according to a report from The Oxygen Media Insights Group, which is part of a company that focuses on television channels and online sites for women. And 34% of those between 18 and 34 said checking Facebook is the first thing they do in the morning even before brushing their teeth or using the bathroom.

Oxygen Media commissioned Lightspeed Research to do the survey, which polled more than 1,600 social media users between the ages of 18 and 54.

Even more surprising is the 26% of women 18 to 34 who get up in the middle of the night to read text messages and the 21% who confessed to checking Facebook during the night, the report noted.

According to the survey, 31% of those polled said they are more confident about their online personas than they are about their real-life selves. Nineteen percent said they ve gotten into arguments with loved ones about how much time they spend using their cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants).

A full 37% of women between the ages of 18 and 34 reported falling asleep with their PDA in their hands.

This study echoes a poll of 1,000 Americans released in March which showed that many people appear to be obsessed with trading information with their friends, family and co-workers.

The study by Retrevo Inc., a consumer electronics shopping and review site, showed that 48% of those polled say they update Facebook or Twitter during the night or as soon as they wake up. It also found that 19% of people under the age of 25 say they update Facebook or Twitter anytime they wake up during the night.

A report earlier this year from the University of Leeds in the U.K. noted that people who spend significant time online are far more likely to suffer symptoms of depression . When people begin to substitute real-life, face-to-face interaction with online conversations in chat rooms and on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, there's often "a serious impact on [their] mental health," the study found.

In the Oxygen Media study, 42% of women reported that they think it's OK to post photos of themselves visibly intoxicated, while 63% of them say they use Facebook as a career networking tool.

The study also noted that while only 44% of women 18 to 34 trust Facebook with their private information, 56% of Twitter users think it's OK to tweet their current location.

Read more about web 2.0 and web apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.

by Sharon Gaudin

SIP trunking: A primer - by Bonaire DOT.COM 12/07/2010 @ 22:09 

TDM trunks have long served to connect corporate PBXs to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). But with more companies moving to VoIP, SIP trunking has become an increasingly popular technology companies can use to simplify their network architecture and save money. Here are the basics:

Top five SIP trunking gotchas

Just what is SIP trunking?

Let's take it one part at a time. SIP refers to Session Initiation Protocol, the standard developed in the 1990s by the Internet Engineering Task Force that is used to set up and terminate VoIP calls and generate dial tone. A SIP trunk, then, is a broadband Internet link that utilizes SIP to connect a company's IP-based PBX to an Internet telephone service provider (ITSP). Instead of terminating the trunk directly at the IP-PBX, for security sake companies tend to terminate the trunks at a SIP-capable session border control system that acts as a firewall.

How does a SIP trunk save money?

By drastically consolidating and simplifying your voice architecture. SIP trunks can support voice, data and video all over IP, meaning a single trunk can replace multiple TDM trunks.

"If you have multiple offices and have a highly distributed network, you're probably going to have a lot of TDM trunking going into those organizations," says Michael Leo, the director of enterprise solutions marketing at Acme Packet. "With SIP trunking you can reduce your traditional amount of TDM connectivity by better utilizing connectivity across the board."

SIP trunking also makes it possible to add capacity during times of high call traffic. If you rely on T-1 lines, for instance, you have to purchase 24 channels even if you only use five of them at any given time. With SIP trunking, if your provider supports the capability, you just assign bandwidth to locations as needed to deal with high call volume. "Without SIP trunking you have to buy extra lines and pay for them all year whether you need them or not," says Nemertes Research analyst Irwin Lazar. "With SIP trunking you can burst call access during special times."

How much money can it save?

Lazar estimates that on average companies that adopt SIP trunking save 20% to 60% from what they pay now for TDM trunks. Citing one particularly dramatic case study, Leo from Acme Packet said he knows of one company that used 1,500 SIP trunks to replace 2,250 trunks, a shift that reduced telecom expenses from $5.4 million per year to $945,000 per year.

What questions should I ask a SIP trunk service provider before investing?

The big one is simply whether SIP trunks will be available for all your branches. As Leo notes, businesses with offices in rural or remote areas could have difficulty finding a vendor that covers all their locations: "As service providers ramped up they have addressed large metropolitan areas first. But when you get to more remote locations it's lagging behind. It's only been in the last two years that SIP trunking has become available to enterprises."

The second big question has to do with interoperability, as many SIP trunking providers will only support a limited number of vendors. In other words, some SIP trunk providers may only support session border controllers from Avaya while others might only support session border controllers from Cisco.

And finally, you'll want to ask about pricing schemes, both in terms of overall installation costs and flexibility to quickly and cheaply add capacity. Since SIP trunks are still a relatively new technology, they don't really have standardized pricing schemes and can vary widely in the services they provide.

"You'll definitely want to ask them how quickly they can get a SIP trunk up and running," says Anne Coulombe, an Avaya executive. "Some of the tier-two service providers are extremely rapid in being able to ramp up SIP trunks, while the big carriers are a little slower."

Finally, is there any business where a SIP trunk is not worth the investment?

SIP trunks provide the most efficiency for businesses that have multiple locations spread out over a wide area. If you only have one central location, or if you have offices that are located in a very concentrated geographic area, then a SIP trunk will probably not be worth your time.

"If you're a company that's already oriented toward TDM and most of your calls go between one or another town, then you might not need SIP trunking," Coulombe says. "So a pharmacy with only two branches might not need it, but if that pharmacy grew to have 15 branches then SIP trunking would be really worthwhile for them."