 Critical Windows fix rushed out
As expected, Microsoft has issued a patch two weeks early to plug a security hole that has been exploited by cybercriminals
Microsoft issued a "critical" security fix for Windows on Tuesday, two weeks before its scheduled release date.
The company is breaking with its monthly patch cycle to fix a flaw that cybercrooks have been using to attack Windows PCs via Internet Explorer. Malicious software can be loaded, without the user's knowledge, onto a vulnerable Windows PC when the user clicks on a malicious link on a Web site or in an email message.
"An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by constructing a specially crafted Web page or HTML email that could potentially allow remote code execution if a user visited the Web page or viewed the message," Microsoft said in security bulletin MS06-055. Email messages that use HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, look like a Web page.
The vulnerability does not apply to IE 7, the upcoming version of IE that is available right now in a pre-release form, Microsoft said.
Microsoft typically releases fixes on each second Tuesday of the month, which has become known as Patch Tuesday. The last time the software maker rushed out a fix was in January, when another image-related flaw in IE was being used to compromise Windows PCs through malicious Web sites.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 27, 2006, 4:45 pm
News Source : ZDNet
 Napster for sale
Napster, which started its life as an illegal MP3 sharing service created by a college student in Visual Basic has evolved into a $100 million plus corporation. Despite the vast increase in revenue, the company is still losing money according to Napster's financials.
Napster's subscription model, which differs from Apple iTunes pay per song model, still revolves around the fact that the profit margins are incredibly slim. As more competitors enter the market, Napster is now looking for a partner or to sell out entirely according to an article on Ars Technica.
Napster's subscriber base is roughly half a million users, far smaller than Rhapsody and iTunes is increasing its share as more users get iPods and compatible devices (the recent release of Microsoft Zune and Urge make things even murkier).
Will Napster get bought out? Some feel that the Napster brand is still strong enough to be enticing to a major player looking to enter the market quickly.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 21, 2006, 2:36 pm
News Source : Ars Technica
 iTunes Movies: One Week, One Million Dollars
In only one week, Apple's iTunes Store has generated $1 million in movie sales for Walt Disney, and that's "just the beginning," the head of Disney said Tuesday.
By the end of this year, Disney expects to reap $50 million in movie sales through the iTunes Store "at no marketing expense to us at all," said Robert Iger, Disney CEO, at a conference put on by The Goldman Sacks Group and Webcast over the Internet.
Disney became the first company to offer movies through the iTunes Store last week. Disney's selection comes to a total of 75 films including new titles such as "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," and older classics such as "The Incredibles" and "Cinderella."
The initial success of the venture, with more than 125,000 Disney titles sold in a week, should help boost confidence in the Internet as a lucrative place for entertainment companies to deliver content to users. It should also help allay fears over movie piracy, an issue the movie and recording industry has fought a tough battle against.
"We are very, very bullish on consumption over electronically delivered media and we're taking a very optimistic view of technology as a friend, or a great enabler, and not a great predator," Iger said.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 21, 2006, 2:34 pm
News Source : PC World
 AMD chip socket makes room for others
AMD will let computer makers pop specialized coprocessors into sockets that otherwise would house an AMD primary processor such as Opteron or Athlon. It's an expansion of the Torrenza initiative which provides a way for others to connect their technology directly to AMD chips, via the company's HyperTransport interface. The program initially let companies plug in their coprocessors via an external connection called "HTX." Now it is licensing the processor socket design as well.
That means a computer maker doesn't have to develop a separate design if it wants to use a coprocessor--a special-purpose chip for handling tasks such as graphics, mathematical calculations or security. "Now an OEM only has to develop one infrastructure," said Marty Seyer, senior vice president for AMD's commercial business.
AMD is pushing HyperTransport as one of its competitive advantages against rival Intel, but Intel processors once again are competitive, and Intel is working on a HyperTransport rival called the "Common System Interface." It's not yet clear whether Intel will let others directly connect chips to its own via CSI.
AMD expects the first socket-based coprocessors to arrive in 2007, spokesman Phil Hughes said. He declined to reveal payment terms for the licensing.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 21, 2006, 2:34 pm
News Source : CNet
Wait another year to buy high def DVD player
Digital Home is advising readers to purchase neither a HD-DVD player nor a blue-ray player based on the existing sales of both players. Early adopters have only purchased 25,000 HD-DVD players in the last 150 days resulting in a market too small for content providers to bother with. Even if Disney managed to get one in five HD-DVD owners to purchase the $15 HD-DVD edition of the Lion King, it would still result in gross sales of only $75,000. Sales results for Blue-Ray devices were not available but the assumption was that they lag behind even HD-DVD sales making the argument to wait even more compelling.
Digital Home suggests that, even if HD-DVD sales increase by a ten-fold magnitude, it still make take a year before one million units ship. As such a high definition DVD player may not be a wise gift until Christmas 2007 or even possibly Christmas 2008. In the meanwhile, they recommend watching high definition movies on cable since a monthly subscription to a high definition movie network is generally less than the cost of purchasing one HD-DVD or Blue-Ray movie per month.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 18, 2006, 7:22 pm
News Source : Digital Home Canada
Apple and Google Mull Video Alliance
Apple and Google are in discussion over video content for the Cupertino company's video products, including the not-yet-available iTV device. Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off iTV (which won't be called that when it is launched in the first half of next year) during his Showtime series of iTunes and iPod announcements last week.
This week, Newsweek is reporting that Apple and search engine giant Google are trying to reach an agreement that lets the latter firm supply video clips for Apple's products. iTV is a box which will let users stream movie and video content held in their iTunes collections to their TV.
"The breakthrough came when we realised that we didn't have to replace the set-top box," Jobs told Newsweek. "It's OK if we adopt the DVD player as our model. Then you can hook up to anything - and just be like a DVD player that happens to play internet videos."
When the Apple boss demonstrated the product last week he showed how it works with an Apple Remote to let users navigate video content stored on networked Macs. Jobs also showed that it can be used to access Apple's movie trailer library and to explore music on the iTunes Store. Now it appears that a new menu item may debut that permits users to access Google Video clips on their front room TV.
A Google spokesperson confirmed the two companies are in discussion.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 18, 2006, 7:13 pm
News Source : Macworld UK
Intel Builds New Laser Based Processor
Researchers with the University of California at Santa Barbara, working in conjunction with Intel, are preparing to announce today the next step in their joint plans to produce an entirely solid-state photonic processor assembly - a chip which processes data as light waves, without the need for microscopic, yet movable, parts.
Early indications are that today's announcement will deal with an automatic passive alignment system for use in coupling electronic with fiber optic components, which will effectively complete the working prototype for a fully passive photonic processor.
Intel announced last November, along with the UCSB team, that it had developed a recipe for a ceramic material based on indium phosphide, which produces a monochromatic wavelength of laser light when electricity is applied to it, and could also be produced as a wafer that bonds to a silicon substrate. That major development eliminated the need for movable gratings that refract laser light from a multiple-wavelength source, so that a single wavelength could emerge.
A single-wavelength light source is critical, because modulations to that beam of infra-red light will be interpreted as data, so it needs to be a simple and regular as possible.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 18, 2006, 7:13 pm
News Source : Betanews
 Microsoft Unveils Details of First Products Under Zune Brand
Available this holiday season in the United States, Zune includes a 30GB digital media player, the Zune Marketplace music service and a foundation for an online community that will enable music fans to discover new music. The Zune device features wireless technology, a built-in FM tuner and a bright, 3-inch screen that allows users to not only show off music, pictures and video, but also to customize the experience with personal pictures or themes to truly make the device their own. Zune comes in three colors: black, brown and white.
Every Zune device creates an opportunity for connection. Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing lets consumers spontaneously share full-length sample tracks of select songs, homemade recordings, playlists or pictures with friends between Zune devices. Listen to the full track of any song you receive up to three times over three days. If you like a song you hear and want to buy it, you can flag it right on your device and easily purchase it from the Zune Marketplace.
Zune makes it easy to find music you love ? whether it?s songs in your existing library or new music from the Zune Marketplace. Easily import your existing music, pictures and videos in many popular formats and browse millions of songs on Zune Marketplace, where you can choose to purchase tracks individually or to buy a Zune Pass subscription to download as many songs as you want for a flat fee.
To get started with great music and videos out of the box, every Zune device is preloaded with content from record labels such as DTS, EMI Music?s Astralwerks Records and Virgin Records, Ninja Tune, Playlouderecordings, Quango Music Group, Sub Pop Records, and V2/Artemis Records.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 15, 2006, 1:18 pm
News Source : Neowin
Software Pirate Gets Record Sentence
The owner of iBackups.net, Nathan Peterson of California, was sentenced to 87 months in prison, the longest sentence ever given for software piracy. He also forfeited nearly all of his assets and agreed to pay more than US$5.4 million in restitution. This restitution is eight times the average fine paid by convicted software pirates. He will begin paying the fine off 60 days after his release from prison, at a rate of $200 per month. The average damages resulting from pirated software are around $9 million compared to the $20 million caused by iBackups.
In December, Peterson pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal copyright infringement when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) called Backups.net "the largest for-profit software piracy site ever shut down by law enforcement." Peterson's site used Google.com text ads to find customers: buyers should be aware of the possibility that software being sold through text ads might be illegal.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 11, 2006, 6:38 pm
News Source : Infoworld
The next step - Industry takes aim at 450mm
The semiconductor industry faces challenges without end, and one of the major issues looming on the horizon is the move to 450 millimeters, and all the questions and challenges that involves. When the issue was recently broached with Archie Hwang, who became chairman of SEMI in June, Hwang emphasized that production platforms within the fabs would have to change, and change dramatically, if they are going to handle the relatively huge size of 450mm. Concerning the R&D costs, Hwang indicated that there's a tendency these days for the equipment makers themselves to have to bear a proportion of those costs.
Charles Kau, president of DRAM maker Inotera, pointed out that the industry may split on the 450mm issue, between those bigger players that wish to scale up on a faster schedule, and suppliers who don't want to make the move too fast. The big players will aim to increase revenues and profits by transitioning to larger wafers. For smaller companies, it will be a question of survival, since many of them will hardly be able to afford the cost of transition. The danger there is that suppliers of materials and equipment may lose their customers.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 11, 2006, 6:37 pm
News Source : DigiTimes
Security Projects Lag Five Years After September 11
Following the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, the government launched a robust, and oft-criticized, electronic surveillance program, but other IT-related security projects designed to thwart terrorism have seen little advance.
Better cybersecurity leadership, more scanning of cargo going on airplanes and ships, and interoperable communications networks for emergency response agencies have all developed slowly. In some cases, fights in Congress have slowed progress, or the federal government has focused on other priorities. In other cases, the cost of IT projects has been an issue.
The fifth anniversary of the attacks will focus attention as much on what has not been accomplished to protect the U.S. from future attacks as on what has been, chiefly the surveillance system. In recent months, civil liberties groups have protested the shadowy electronic surveillance program run by the National Security Agency (NSA), with alleged cooperation from large telecommunications carriers. President George W. Bush has defended the program as necessary and legal, even as critics point out that the NSA is spying on U.S. citizens and residents without court orders.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 11, 2006, 6:36 pm
News Source : PCWorld
Napster UK to give away free MP3 players
Napster UK is giving away free MP3 players to all new subscribers of its portable music service. Anyone taking out a three-month Napster to Go subscription from 14 September will receive a 512MB Sandisk Sansa m230 that stores up to 240 tracks at a time.
Napster's portable music service allows people to fill an MP3 player with unlimited tracks from a library of two million songs for ?14.95 a month. Music fans can get a free MP3 player by signing up at Napster. Earlier this year, audiovisual media analyst Screen Digest said the majority of MP3 players sold in the UK are flash-based devices.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 11, 2006, 6:35 pm
News Source : The Reg
Vista tests leave us all in the dark
IT LOOKS like there is still a lot of confusion about what software and hardware combinations Microsoft?s super soaraway operating system Vista will run on. We have already mentioned how Vole has tried to be helpful and released a little program that scans your system and tells what you need to get an upgrade, and over the weekend we saw another one from ATI here.
However, both of them are confused about whether my new computer will be ready to take the top of the range version of Vista. The ATI software is easier to use and does not require any serious installation. It tells me that although I can manage to run the basic versions of Vista my system is let down by its Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS graphics card. Apparently, this is good enough for the minor versions of Vista - it is not good enough for the bells and whistles version.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 11, 2006, 6:34 pm
News Source : The Inq
Apple Goes Hollywood with Disneys Help
The clamour continues as press and pundits ponder Apple's 'Showtime' announcement next week, and the prospect of online movie sales through iTunes is the topic driving the debate. Apple is widely expected to be preparing to upgrade the products in its iPod family, possibly even to introduce a large-screen touch-activated device.
Apple may also announce a movie download service, possibly in the US only. The first iteration of the service may disappoint some. Reports claim Apple has been unable to agree terms with studios other than those in the Disney empire: Miramax, Touchstone, Walt Disney Pictures and, of course, Pixar.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs became the largest individual shareholder of Disney stock after selling his movie company, Pixar, to Disney. Other movie studios allegedly want more flexibility. Reports surmise they aren't happy with the company's set price structure, nor with its insistence that movies be released the same day as they debut on DVD, according to the Washington Times.
Some studios even believe Windows Media software offers better copy protection than Apple FairPlay - and studios want digital rights management to shroud their wares. The sole exception appears to be Lion's Gate Entertainment, which has agreed to make movies available through the service, which may, or may not, be announced next week.
Negotiations between Apple and other studios continue, reports explain, but it's not the first time the company has negotiated deals right down to the wire. When the iTunes Music Store originally launched, some labels didn't agree terms until the eleventh hour, Mac rumour websites reported at the time.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 7, 2006, 4:55 pm
News Source : MacWorld UK
Windows Vista RC1 Available to the Masses
One member's reaction was "Whooo!!! Thanks!!" Another said "transfer rates are pretty decent, i am getting 743kb/second i am sure later on the servers are gonna get hammered once the emails start flowing into inboxes" (source). Yes folks, it's finally here. The moment you've all been waiting for.. Windows Vista RC1, the same build testers received on Friday.
Microsoft notes on the website: Windows Vista RC1 is available for participants of the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program. Please go to the Customer Preview Program website to register and receive a Product Key, which is required to install and activate the software.
For those of you who are brave enough to update: Before upgrading from Beta 2 to RC1, please install any Critical Updates from Windows Update for Beta 2. Go to Start, All Programs, Windows Update, and click the ?Check for Updates? button.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 7, 2006, 4:55 pm
News Source : Neowin
Download : Microsoft Download Page
 Linspire Makes Linux Download Service Free
Linspire, the innovative Linux house founded by Internet entrepreneur Michael Robertson, has jettisoned the $20 annual subscription fee it was charging for its basic Click 'N Run open-source software download service. Users can now download any of the 20,000 titles offered by the service free of charge. The Click 'N Run (CNR) service has been the San Diego, Calif. company's main source of income, but according to the firm's, Linspire is doing well selling its higher-end products and services.
Users who purchased access to CNR's Basic Service within the last 60 days will be upgraded to a Gold Service account, Linspire said. CNR Gold, which will Linspire will continue to sell, costs $50 a year and offers additional benefits, including discounts on commercial Linux products. The company also announced it will release a new, open-source version of the CNR client later this year as part of the Freespire 1.1 Linux distribution.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 1, 2006, 6:35 pm
News Source : CRN
Support Grows for Blu-ray Disc
Key backers of the new Blu-ray Disc optical storage technology turned out in force at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin to announce a string of content and equipment offerings.
The flurry of announcements came as the consumer electronics industry prepares for the important holiday shopping season, when manufacturers typically generate their highest sales. With content crucial to the successful take-up of high-definition players, recorders, and game consoles, Hollywood studio executives lined up at a news conference to list the number of movies they plan to launch in the Blu-ray Disc format beginning in November.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 1, 2006, 6:33 pm
News Source : PC World
Samsung readies rival digital music service to iTunes
Samsung is to take the digital music fight to Apple by launching its own song download service in the UK, France and Germany, the South Korean giant revealed today. Details of the service remain scarce, but we can say it will be operated by digital music distributor MusicNet, which also powers Virgin Digital, HMV, Yahoo!, iMesh and others.
Samsung is typing the debut if the download service into the arrival of its YP-K5 digital music player, which is getting its first public showing at the IFA consumer electronics expo in Berlin today. The YP-K5 is fitted with up to 4GB of Flash memory and plays the usual array of audio formats, along with Linux-friendly Ogg files. There's an FM radio on board too, and the player features Samsung's 3D audio Digital Natural Sound engine (DNSe) for "full basses and a full sound".
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 1, 2006, 6:32 pm
News Source : The Reg
 Samsung claims to have cracked 4G
Samsung is claiming to have cracked 4G, while most of the mobile industry couldn't tell you what it is yet.
The electronics giant says it will demonstrate the high-speed technology at the Samsung 4G Forum in Jeju Island in South Korea. Using a specially adapted bus, the company is promising wireless speeds of100Mbps (megabits per second). It also says it will demonstrate a handover between cells at up to 60 kilometers per hour.
Fixed speeds for technology will be even greater, getting up to 1Gbps (gigabits per second)--that is, 50 times faster than the current next-generation hype generator, mobile WiMax. Samsung will showcase the bandwidth-bloated technology by using it to download 32 high-definition broadcast TV channels, as well as maintaining internet access and video telephony, simultaneously.
Samsung expects 4G to get its official launch in 2010.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: September 1, 2006, 6:31 pm
News Source : CNet
VoIP Adoption in Contact Centers to Soar
Contact centers will dramatically increase the adoption of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology over the next few years, the Yankee Group projects. This long-awaited development will be driven in some part by related growth in the number of home agents.
The VoIP adoption rate in North American contact centers will grow from approximately 17 percent in 2005 to greater than 47 percent by the end of 2007, according to a new report by the research firm. The shift will take place largely in contact centers of 500 or more agent seats, although growth is expected throughout centers of all sizes.
The VoIP penetration rate of agent seats will increase from 16 percent in 2005 to more than 60 percent over the next three years, Yankee also predicts. The expected increasing levels of adoption are not likely to translate into a radical realignment of market share among the providers of this technology, though.
Traditional telecom companies and telephony hardware/software companies are poised to benefit more from this growth than systems integrators and value-added resellers, notes the report. Also, traditional contact centers are likely to remain the main provider of application sales in the near term.
What is changing is how contact centers are being used, said Ken Landoline, Yankee Group customer-centric strategies senior analyst. "More companies are adopting hybrid operations in which they outsource only specific pieces, such as outbound calls or those perceived to be of lower value to the company," he told CRM Buyer.
VoIP connectivity between the company and the outsourcer would facilitate the greater flow of data necessary to maintain such an operation, he said. It also would better support the use of home agents -- a group more likely to be employed in this scenario -- and is another trend that is shaping contact center operations.
"VoIP ultimately means a company is able to route an incoming call to the best available agent, whether he or she is at an outsourcer, in-house, or a home-based agent," he said.
News Posted by : GoogleFreak On
: August 25, 2006, 4:51 pm
News Source : Tech News
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