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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

For a pioneer of technology, 100 years of "Think" (AP) : Technet

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For a pioneer of technology, 100 years of "Think" (AP) : Technet

For a pioneer of technology, 100 years of "Think" (AP)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 09:13 PM PDT

By MICHAEL HILL and JORDAN ROBERTSON, Associated Press Michael Hill And Jordan Robertson, Associated Press – 8 mins ago

ENDICOTT, N.Y. – Google, Apple and Facebook get all the attention. But the forgettable everyday tasks of technology — saving a file on your laptop, swiping your ATM card to get 40 bucks, scanning a gallon of milk at the checkout line — that's all IBM.

International Business Machines turns 100 on Thursday without much fanfare. But its much younger competitors owe a lot to Big Blue.

After all, where would Groupon be without the supermarket bar code? Or Google without the mainframe computer?

"They were kind of like a cornerstone of that whole enterprise that has become the heart of the computer industry in the U.S.," says Bob Djurdjevic, a former IBM employee and president of Annex Research.

IBM dates to June 16, 1911, when three companies that made scales, punch-clocks for work and other machines merged to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Co. The modern-day name followed in 1924.

With a plant in Endicott, N.Y., the new business also made cheese slicers and — significantly for its future — machines that read data stored on punch cards. By the 1930s, IBM's cards were keeping track of 26 million Americans for the newly launched Social Security program.

These old, sprawling machines might seem quaint in the iPod era, but they had design elements similar to modern computers. They had places for data storage, math processing areas and output, says David A. Mindell, professor of the history of technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Punch cards carted from station to station represented what business today might call "data flow."

"It was very sophisticated," Mindell says.

The force behind IBM's early growth was Thomas J. Watson Sr., a demanding boss with exacting standards for everything from office wear (white shirts, ties) to creativity (his slogan: "Think").

Watson, and later his son, Thomas Watson Jr., guided IBM into the computer age. Its machines were used to calculate everything from banking transactions to space shots. As the company swelled after World War II, IBM threw its considerable resources at research to maintain its dominance in the market for mainframes, the hulking computers that power whole offices.

"When we did semiconductors, we had thousands and thousands of people," says Donald Seraphim, who worked at IBM from 1957 until 1986 and was named a fellow, the company's highest honor for technical achievement. "They just know how to put the force behind the entrepreneurial things."

By the late '60s, IBM was consistently the only high-tech company in the Fortune 500's top 10. IBM famously spent $5 billion during the decade to develop a family of computers designed so growing businesses could easily upgrade.

It introduced the magnetic hard drive in 1956 and the floppy disk in 1971. In the 1960s, IBM developed the first bar code, paving the way for automated supermarket checkouts. IBM introduced a high-speed processing system that allowed ATM transactions. It created magnetic strip technology for credit cards.

For much of the 20th century, IBM was the model of a dominant, paternalistic corporation. It was among the first to give workers paid holidays and life insurance.

It ran country clubs for employees generations before Google offered subsidized massages and free meals.

"The model really was you joined IBM and you built your career for life there," says David Finegold, dean of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. Transfers to other cities were still common enough that employees joked IBM really stood for "I've Been Moved."

The origins of the company's nickname, Big Blue, are something of a mystery. It may simply derive from IBM's global size and the color of its logo.

IBM's gold-plated reputation was based in part on ubiquity and reliability, as well as a relentless sales force. But its fortunes began to change as bureaucracy stifled innovation. Information-technology managers used to joke that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM. But by the 1980s, Big Blue found itself adrift in a changing technology environment.

IBM had slipped with the rise of cheap microprocessors and rapid changes in the industry. In an infamous blunder, IBM introduced its influential personal computer in 1981, but it passed on buying the rights to the software that ran it — made by a startup called Microsoft.

IBM helped make the PC a mainstream product, but it quickly found itself outmatched in a market it helped create. It relied on Intel for chips and Microsoft for software, leaving it vulnerable when the PC industry took off and rivals began using the same technology.

The PC's casing wasn't as important as the technology inside it, and IBM didn't own the intellectual property inside its own machines. In addition, the rise of smaller computers that performed some of the same functions as mainframes threw IBM's main moneymaking business into disarray.

With its legacy and very survival at stake, the company was forced to embark on a wrenching restructuring.

One of its major achievements turned out to be re-engineering itself during the upheavals of the 1990s. Viewed as too bureaucratic to compete in fast-changing times, IBM tapped an outsider as CEO in 1993 to help with a turnaround.

Louis Gerstner, a former executive with American Express and RJR Nabisco, had little knowledge of technology or IBM culture. In his first meeting with top IBM executives, he was the only one in the room with a blue shirt.

But he broke up old fiefdoms, slashed prices and eliminated jobs. IBM, which had peaked at 406,000 employees in 1985, shed more than 150,000 in the 1990s as the company lost nearly $16 billion over five years.

Gerstner resisted pressure to break up the company and instead focused on services, such as data storage and technical support. Services could be sold as an add-on to companies that had already bought IBM computers. Even barely profitable pieces of hardware were used to open the door to more profitable deals.

The shift allowed IBM to ride out two recessions: When times are tough, businesses pay IBM to help them find ways to cut costs and handle technology chores that would be more expensive to perform in-house.

The change in strategy was risky for a company that helped create the PC industry, yet IBM rose to become the world's biggest technology services provider.

With around $100 billion in annual revenue today, IBM is ranked 18th in the Fortune 500. It's three times the size of Google and almost twice as big as Apple. Its market capitalization of around $200 billion beats Google and allowed IBM last month to briefly surpass its old nemesis, Microsoft.

Though transformed, IBM remains a pioneer, the envy of the technology industry. Hewlett-Packard Co.'s new CEO, Leo Apotheker, says one of his primary goals is to strengthen the company's software and services businesses to compete better with IBM.

Some things haven't changed. The company still spends heavily on research, about $6 billion a year. It still comes up with flashy feats of computing prowess, most recently when its Watson computer system handily defeated the world's best "Jeopardy!" players.

And, just as in 1911, it's still in the business of finding data solutions.

While IBM's Watson attracted buzz by beating two human "Jeopardy!" champions, the company wants to put it to real-world use as a medical diagnostic tool that can understand plain language and analyze mountains of information. That's in line with IBM's focus on other big data projects, such as analyzing traffic patterns citywide to predict and stave off traffic jams.

The company that built its success making sense of millions of punch card records sees future innovations in the analysis of the billions and billions of bits of data being transmitted in the 21st century.

"The scale of that enables you to do discovery, whether it's in the case of drugs, medicine, crime — you name it," says Bernard Meyerson, IBM's vice president for innovation.

___

Robertson contributed from San Francisco.

Nielsen: Online video viewers watch less TV (AP)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 09:03 PM PDT

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima, Ap Business Writer – 18 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – Americans who watch the most video online tend to watch less TV, according to The Nielsen Co., a finding that overturns a longstanding belief that people are watching more programming over all devices.

The ratings agency said Wednesday that starting last fall, it noticed a segment of consumers who were starting to make a trade-off between online video and regular TV. The activity was more pronounced among people ages 18-34.

The finding could be troubling to television networks that have been putting shows online in order to reach new audiences. The hope was they wouldn't diminish viewership on television, where they still make most of their advertising revenue.

Nielsen polled about 2,600 people who said they watched videos online in the first three months of the year, and divided them into fifths based on how much they watch. The fifth that watched the most video online consumed nearly 19 minutes a day, and also watched the least amount of television, at about four hours and 32 minutes a day. The fifth that watched the least online video — at less than a tenth of a minute a day — watched the most TV at 4 hours and 50 minutes.

Nielsen said such a finding doesn't indicate that people are about to drop their pay TV packages to watch video only online, a notion known as "cord cutting." About 91 percent of TV households still paid for a TV subscription in the first quarter, and most of the changes had to do with people switching between cable, telephone and satellite companies.

Overall, TV viewing crept up by 0.2 percent from a year ago to 158 hours and 47 minutes a month, while video watching on the Internet jumped 35 percent to 4 hours and 33 minutes per month. Watching on mobile devices such as smartphones rose 20 percent to 4 hours and 20 minutes a month.

Jack Wakshlag, chief research officer at Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting System, said the decrease in TV viewing made by the heaviest watchers of online video was relatively small and "not something we view as destructive or damaging."

He noted that overall viewing went up on all platforms, meaning that Time Warner's "TV Everywhere" strategy of making content available to subscribers on multiple devices was the right one.

Nielsen also found differences based on the ethnicity of audiences.

African-Americans watched the most of any ethnic group on TV and over mobile devices, at nearly 213 hours a month on TV, and 6 hours and 30 minutes on mobile devices. Asians watched the least TV at 100 hours and 25 minutes, and the most online video at 10 hours and 19 minutes.

Hispanics were the most likely to have a smartphone, at 53 percent, followed by Asians at 48 percent, African-Americans at 39 percent and whites at 30 percent.

Nielsen's senior vice president of insights and analysis, Pat McDonough, said the study suggests that advertisers have to cast a wider net to make sure they're reaching the audiences they want.

"The real implication for advertisers is you need to think broadly," she said. "You need to think about reaching people on the screen that they're available on at that time."

Report: Facebook users more trusting, engaged (AP)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 09:05 PM PDT

– 16 mins ago

NEW YORK – A new survey is countering views that social networks isolate people.

According to the study from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, Facebook users are more trusting, have more close friends and get more social support than their non-networked counterparts.

The survey released Thursday found that, when all else is equal, people who use Facebook have 9 percent more close ties in their overall social network than other Internet users.

Facebook users are also more politically engaged than people who are not on Facebook, says the survey, conducted among 2,255 adults from Oct. 20 to Nov. 28, 2010.

Social networks are more prevalent than ever. Of U.S. Internet users, 59 percent use at least one social network. That's up from 34 percent in 2008.

NATO analyzing tweets to plot path of Libyan air strikes (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 07:48 PM PDT

By Taylor Hatmaker, Tecca taylor Hatmaker, Tecca – 1 hr 32 mins ago

Sure, a 140-character indiscretion might draw some bad press, but a tweet could also lob a missile your way — that is, if you've got blood on your hands in war-torn Libya. In a turn of social media-savvy intelligence gathering, NATO confirmed that it will treat Twitter just as it would more traditional sources of wartime information, utilizing geo-tracked tweets to zero in on potential targets.

The violent clash for power in Libya began back in February, pitting eccentric tyrant Muammar Gaddafi against a national rebellion calling for him to step down. NATO has since deployed air strikes in the area and scans Twitter for scraps of information leading to the whereabouts of Gaddafi and his loyalists. Without "boots on the ground", the international military alliance must rely on carefully vetted intelligence to guide its air-based attacks.

While no one tweet will launch a missile, relevant tweets will be woven into a greater picture of the situation on the ground in Libya. Any snippets gleaned from Twitter will be subject to the same level of scrutiny as other forms of military intel — specialists analyze a tweet just as they would a wiretapped phone conversation or an intercepted letter in decidedly less digital days.

[Image credit: expertinfantry]

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Chinese workers who leaked iPad 2 specs sentenced to 18 months in prison (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 02:46 PM PDT

By Mike Wehner, Tecca mike Wehner, Tecca – Wed Jun 15, 5:46 pm ET

A trio of Chinese workers from the Foxconn manufacturing facility that produces Apple's iPad 2 tablets will pay fines of up to $23,000 and spend up to 18 months in prison for leaking information regarding the device 6 months before its debut. The employees were charged with leaking Apple trade secrets, and convicted in China yesterday.

The individuals allegedly leaked the case design and dimensions to a China-based iPad case maker who was looking to get a leg up on the competition. For their services, the employees had been paid roughly $3,000, along with discounts on merchandise from the case maker.

$3,000 might not sound like a lot when the penalty is many months in jail and, of course, losing your job. However, Foxconn workers currently make less than $300 a month, and that figure is after a pair of rate hikes last year. Before that, assemblers at the plant in China made less $150 per month.

A typical work week at the factory — which also builds popular electronics for companies like Dell, Sony, and Nintendo — can top 80 hours of labor. Most Foxconn employees actually live at the plant, spending their nights in dorm-room sized living quarters with other workers.

With those types of conditions, it's easy to see why the prospect of a quick $3000 would appeal to the employees, as it's almost a year's worth of pay. But for the next 18 months, they'll spend their days in the Chinese prison system, which seems to have some issues of its own to deal with.

[Image credit: Jason Woodhead]

(Source)

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There's an Anthony Weiner Doll, And It's Apparently Selling Like Hotcakes (Mashable)

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 06:08 PM PDT

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Tue Jun 14, 9:08 pm ET

People just can't seem to get enough of Anthony Weiner. A website selling action figures of the embattled politician has received a lot of extra attention recently. According to the LA Times, HeroBuilders.com has barely been able to stay online due to high interest in its recreations of the congressman. We've been able to load the website with limited success, and we're greeted with "Service Unavailable" warnings every few clicks.

[More from Mashable: Obama Suggests Weiner Resign After Twitter Scandal [VIDEO]]

The dolls come in two flavors: a standard doll for $39.95 and an "anatomically correct" adult version for $49.95. Both version wear briefs that compel you to "tweet this."

The site is also responsible for other politically-oriented action figures, including dolls for Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and George W. Bush.

[More from Mashable: HOAX: McDonald's Official Statement Condemns Racist Sign [UPDATED]]

What do you think of HeroBuilders.com's newest action figure?

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Hackers attack Malaysian government websites (AFP)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 09:20 PM PDT

– 17 mins ago

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Hackers have attacked Malaysian government websites, authorities said Thursday, following a threat by the "Anonymous" activist group which accused Malaysia of censoring the Internet.

Fifty-one government websites were targeted, causing disruptions to at least 41 of them, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement.

It said the attacks on websites with the .gov.my domain started shortly before midnight Wednesday and lasted several hours, but appeared to have caused little damage.

"The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission confirms that there were indeed attempts to hack several websites," it said.

"However, we do not expect the overall recovery to these websites to take long as most websites have already recovered from the attack," it added.

The commission said it would work with enforcement agencies, security experts and service providers to keep the situation in check.

Malaysian authorities had Wednesday braced themselves for cyber attacks after Internet activists Anonymous warned on a website that they would target the government portal www.Malaysia.gov.my.

The website was still down on Thursday. MCMC did not specify which websites were hacked, only saying its own site was targeted but that the hacking attempt was unsuccessful.

Anonymous sabotaged Turkish sites last week to protest against Internet censorship.

Its Malaysia attack plan threat followed an order by the MCMC to Internet service providers last week to block 10 file and video-sharing websites that it said violate copyright laws.

The hackers explained the rationale for the attack in a YouTube clip, claiming that Malaysia's censorship was an erosion of human rights.

Malaysia's media operate under strict censorship laws but websites have remained relatively free -- despite occasional raids, bans and government criticism -- due to an official pledge not to censor the Internet.

The Internet freedom commitment was made in the mid-90s to attract foreign investment to the high-tech sector.

Anonymous, an international hackers group, rose to fame with a series of attacks on websites linked to the Church of Scientology.

The group gained further prominence after launching retaliatory attacks on companies perceived to be enemies of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.

NYPD probing online post on Tupac shooting in '94 (AP)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 09:15 PM PDT

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook: Hands-on pictures (Digital Trends)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:45 PM PDT

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Wed Jun 15, 7:45 pm ET

Samsung Series 5 Google Chromebook: Rear case with screen open


It's finally here: The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook. With its stark white chassis and sleek, petite build, Google's Chrome OS notebook emobodies its minimalist intentions. Stripped free of software and your typical laptop storage system, the Series 5 is a mere 3.3-pounds of Web-optimized goodness that relies entirely on 3G and Wi-Fi connections. Its full-size QWERTY keyboard and 12.1-inch LED display bring some familiarity to the thus-far foreign device. One thing's for sure: Opening up the Series 5 and seeing what should be a desktop peppered with file folders and program icons replaced by the Chrome browser is an unsettling experience – but one you might just be able to get used to. Given its extreme portability, speedy processing, and undeniable good looks, we're at least willing to give the foremost in cloud-computing a try. We won't judge a book by its cover, but we're sure happy to take it for a spin.

Android Users Get Data Protection from Sprint and Lookout (NewsFactor)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 01:54 PM PDT

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Mark Long, newsfactor.com – Wed Jun 15, 4:54 pm ET

Sprint Nextel is partnering with Lookout Mobile Security to help protect the personal information that the carrier's Android-based smartphone and media-tablet users store on their mobile devices. The goal is to protect mobile users from privacy invasions, identity theft, and financial fraud.

Lookout recently added a new safe-browsing feature to the premium edition of its mobile-security app that examines every web site in real time to verify its authenticity and alerts the user if it detects any phishing attempts or unsafe sites, according to Lookout Mobile Security CEO John Hering.

"Safe Browsing leverages our global threat-detection network that already protects millions of users from malicious apps," Hering said Wednesday. "By extending protection with safe browsing, mobile consumers can feel safe surfing the web, accessing e-mail and entering other personal information on their mobile device."

Emerging Mobile Threats

Lookout's free trial app will block viruses, malware and spyware as well as pinpoint the exact location of a lost or stolen phone on a map. Sprint customers can download the app from Android Market by clicking on Lookout Mobile Security within Sprint Zone or the Sprint tab in the Android Market.

In addition to the new safe-browsing feature, the premium edition of Lookout's app combines privacy protection with the capability to remotely lock and wipe a device, as well as back up and restore personal contacts, photos and call history from secure cloud-based storage.

Malware and phishing are threats that users should be concerned about, but so far Forrester Research hasn't seen many widespread incidents -- barring the Droid Dream attack last March that affected 260,000 Android phones, noted Forrester Vice President Chenxi Wang. "We do anticipate more phishing apps to occur as more and more transactional sites are becoming mobile-ready," Wang said.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, believe mobile users are more vulnerable to phishing attacks because users have become accustomed to entering their passwords in familiar, repeated settings. "If users frequently encounter legitimate links whose targets prompt them for private data, then users will become conditioned to reflexively supply the requested data," explained Adrienne Porter Felt and David Wagner. "Forty percent of smartphone users enter passwords into their phones at least once a day."

Enterprise Advice

The Sprint-Lookout deal is designed to protect users' private information, whereas the subject of the UC Berkeley study is app spoofing -- the method behind the Droid Dream episode last March, Wang observed. So the two types of attacks on mobile phones are related but different, he said

"Lookout has this app called privacy adviser, which audits which apps are accessing and transmitting users' private information," Wang explained. "Lookout's solution may be able to detect rooting malware, but would do very little for the phishing scenario [presented in the UC Berkeley study], I believe, because the user credential, such as log-in information for a bank, is not the type of private information Lookout audits."

Enterprises will need to implement measures to protect against emerging mobile threats, such as managing mobile endpoints in the same manner that they would manage traditional PC endpoints -- meaning whatever protection they have on the PC endpoints should be replicated on the mobile endpoints, Wang advised.

"For example, if you encrypt PCs, you should encrypt mobile phones and tablets," Wang said. "If you run AV on the PC endpoints, you should expect to have some form of antivirus/malware capabilities on mobile endpoints at some point in the near future."

Facebook's photo app: Dissecting the latest details (Digital Trends)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 05:24 PM PDT

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Wed Jun 15, 8:24 pm ET

This morning, the world got a hold of an early look at Facebook's photo-sharing app. Being the social networking giant it is, Facebook is poised to take the mobile world by storm with what could easily be the photo app to rule them all. Even the brief glimpse and limited information we've had about the project have been enough to yield praise and excitement over the forthcoming application. Now TechCrunch has revealed more thorough insights about its early look at the Facebook mobile photo app that could make a convert out of even the most loyal Instagram addict. Here are some of the initial impressions we can gather from what's available thus far, as well as a couple of the most intriguing features.

More than just a photo app?

There's the distinct possibility this is more than just a photo-sharing app. It could very well be an entirely redesigned Facebook application, something that mobile users have been petitioning for. The depth of what this app seems to offer also makes us wonder whether it's being designed with the iPad specifically in mind (there currently is no official Facebook app for the iPad). Whether it's a redesign for smartphones or Facebook's first go at a full-blown iPad app, some of the images make it look like there's more than photo sharing at play here.

facebook photo appAt the same time, we're not ready to rule out the possibility that Facebook is ready to offer its own specific photo app. It is far and away the most popular photo-sharing platform out there, and it's only natural that the site will further capitalize on this eventually. The other possibility (maybe the most likely) is that these ideas are both true and Facebook is redesigning its app(s) to focus on photos. The Facebook mobile-optimized site is more used than its app for many purposes, except for photos. If Facebook could take the attention it gets for this one feature and simply create a new concept for the mobile Facebook experience it could have some major success on its hands. Instead of the Facebook-lite version you get in the app, the software may be totally reformatted to focus on how people use their smartphones and the mobile-social experience – much of which revolves around photo-sharing.

But our questions in general: Will it stand on its own? Is it an official app redesign? Is it integrated into the Facebook app's current photo function? Only time will tell.

Multi-picture mode

multi modeOne of the most annoying things about sharing photos on Facebook as it currently stands is the inability to share more than one photo at once. Whether you create an album on your smartphone or simply upload photos to your Status, you can't select more than one photo at a time. And in an age where the smartphone is responsible for more than a sampling of the images uploading to Facebook, there's some serious convenience being sacrificed. From the looks of it, the app would allow users to take multiple pictures at one location or event or what have you that would then be instantly shared at once. The "leaked" images show photos folding atop each other as they are collected, and an icon showing many you have to share. Combine this with your location via Facebook Places, include a description, and share in one fell swoop instead of at painstaking intervals.

multi mode

Photos and comments – at the same time!

commentsNot sure about you, but we despise how you have to click the comment bubble icon to see who's liked or commented on an image. The action takes away the very photo you're interested in seeing described, which seems downright unintuitive. The app would transparently lay the caption over the photo as well as show how many comments and likes there are. This could expand to show you the individual comments, all while keeping the photo in question in plain sight. It's a small improvement, but a much-appreciated one and something we'd hope to see woven into the official Facebook app's photos, regardless of whether this particular software is bound for the current app or not.

Adobe To Patch Flash Player on PCs and Android Devices (NewsFactor)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 01:53 PM PDT

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Mark Long, newsfactor.com – Wed Jun 15, 4:53 pm ET

Adobe Systems issued a security bulletin Tuesday concerning the discovery of a critical vulnerability in Flash Player 10.3 and earlier versions. This memory-corruption flaw may cause computing devices to crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the operating system. "There are reports that this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks via malicious web pages," the software maker said.

Adobe expects to release a Flash Player update later this week for computers running the Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris operating systems. It noted that Chrome browser users will automatically receive the new update since Google's browser includes Flash Player as a built-in feature.

Adobe's advisory was unusual in that it also covers smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices running Google's Android OS. Still, vulnerability patching is "a fact of life for any software that runs on connected machines today," noted Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC.

A Mobile Exploit

Heavily used online software like Flash and web browsers get more than their fair share of issues in this space, Hilwa observed. Moreover, exploits are "often platform-specific and with most attacks targeted at desktop platforms, which have the greatest deployments and surface area," he said.

By contrast, mobile devices are more locked down and susceptible to different forms of malware, data corruption, and theft, Hilwa noted. "Having said that, Android -- which is the only mobile platform cited in this vulnerability -- has a variety of issues today."

As Sprint's new deal with Lookout Mobile Security demonstrates, U.S. wireless carriers are paying attention to the security issues that their mobile subscribers may face. However, Hilwa doesn't see Adobe's forthcoming critical patch for Android mobile devices having any effect on how the carriers and mobile-device makers perceive Flash.

"I think carriers and OEMs understand the risks of the general maturity of mobile-device software and the trade-offs they present," Hilwa said. "I don't think this affects Flash in a unique way."

New AIR Tool

Adobe also issued a separate security bulletin Tuesday covering a number of critical vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader X for machines running Windows and Apple's Mac OS X. Users are advised to update to the latest available version of Adobe Reader now available on the software maker's web site. "These vulnerabilities could cause the application to crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system," Adobe noted.

Meanwhile, Adobe has just released optimized versions of its AIR runtime -- a multi-platform development tool available for desktops, most new tablets, and both Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile operating systems. Though Flash doesn't run on iOS, Flash developers have actually been catering to iOS for some time through the AIR runtime, Hilwa observed.

The Adobe folks are truly persistent in continuing to improve Flash and AIR for mobile platforms, Hilwa observed. "Even in a world of quickly multiplying platforms and form factors, they appear to be broadening their reach to as many platforms as makes sense, thereby slowly but surely carving Adobe a place as a leading multi-platform mobile development environment," he explained.

Top 10 jailbroken iPhone apps (Appolicious)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:00 PM PDT

LightSquared gets more time to file GPS test results (Reuters)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 05:42 PM PDT

By Sinead Carew Sinead Carew – Wed Jun 15, 8:42 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Regulators have granted Harbinger Capital-backed LightSquared another two weeks to explain GPS interference issues related to a high-speed wireless network it wants to build, according to the FCC's website.

Earlier on Wednesday, the company had asked the Federal Communications Commission to extend the deadline to July 1.

Before LightSquared can go ahead with its proposed network, it must show the FCC that it can avoid interference with GPS devices, which use wireless airwaves next to those licensed to LightSquared.

LightSquared, which was formed by hedge fund manager Philip Falcone, was due to file a related report with the cooperation of other companies in the GPS and cellular industries June 15.

The company instead asked the FCC for an extension until July 1 because all the information required for the report had not yet been submitted.

"We don't have all the data. This is a really complex thing and we want to make sure we get it right," said LightSquared spokesman Chris Stern, noting that eight different working groups were involved in putting the report together.

"Based on preliminary test results, LightSquared determined that additional testing, beyond what had been planned initially, including alternative frequency plans to support its network roll-out, was necessary to permit a proper evaluation," Jeffrey Carlisle, executive vice president, regulatory affairs & public policy, LightSquared, said in a letter to the FCC.

"That testing has been performed, and it has set back the timetable, particularly in some sub-teams in which data is still being processed and analyzed," Carlisle said in the request made to FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch.

INTERFERENCE CONCERNS

Global Positioning Systems are used in everything from airplane and car navigation to Department of Defense equipment and emergency response systems.

Companies such as Deere & Co and General Motors OnStar unit have said their tests showed interference problems. Trimble Navigation is another GPS technology company that has spoken out about interference problems.

General Motors' OnStar unit on Tuesday wrote to the FCC asking it to carry out a more in-depth review of the system as its tests showed LightSquared systems could interfere with OnStar gear used to notify emergency services of car crashes.

This followed a report last week from a government group, the National PNT Systems Engineering Forum (NPEF), that said all GPS receiver applications would be affected. That report also said it had not identified a way to solve the problem.

These statements, along with other complaints, including Deere's finding of "severe interference", should lead to a report that shows interference is a problem, according to Trimble, which opposes the proposed LightSquared network.

The only remaining argument is whether there is a feasible technology fix, Trimble's general counsel Jim Kirkland said in an interview.

"All these tests that have gone on in the last several months have shown substantial interference with GPS," he said.

Kirkland said he had seen no proof so far that there was a feasible technology solution to the interference and said the best outcome would be for LightSquared to use different wireless airwaves.

"LightSquared will make optimistic predictions about the possibility of a technical fix, but they'll only be predictions," he said. "The evidence is in. LightSquared can't operate in this band, and the FCC should find alternative spectrum for them."

Beyond interference concerns, LightSquared would need to raise billions more dollars in funding to complete the network.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Additional reporting by Dhanya Skariachan; Editing by Chelsea Emery, Lisa Shumaker and Carol Bishopric)

Dish makes bid for TerreStar (Investor's Business Daily)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 03:16 PM PDT

– Wed Jun 15, 6:16 pm ET

The satellite TV firm's $1.38 bil cash offer is also seen as a bid on behalf of an anonymous third party to ensure that TerreStar, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, doesn't fetch low offers. Dish Network's (NASDAQ:DISH - News) sister, EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS - News), is a TerreStar creditor and would be harmed by a low price. TerreStar's most coveted assets include wireless spectrum. A superior bid would have to top Dish's by $55.5 mil, based on bankruptcy procedures. Dish fell 1.2% to 27.80.

New MacBook Air to launch later this month (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 11:03 AM PDT

By Mike Wehner, Tecca mike Wehner, Tecca – Wed Jun 15, 2:03 pm ET

Last month, we gave you the heads up that a new version of Apple's ultra thin laptop, MacBook Air, was right around the corner. Now, news out of the company's Taiwanese supply chain suggests that the new model will be available for sale later this month. According to typically reliable sources out of Taiwan, 380,000 of the new notebooks are on their way stateside.

The "refresh" — a term typically used by Apple to signal incremental hardware upgrades and additions — is expected to bring the Thunderbolt high speed transfer technology to the Air for the first time. The new laptops are also expected to get the top-of-the-line "Sandy Bridge" microprocessors from Intel, which should provide a generous speed boost to the already speedy hardware.

The MacBook Air is the lightweight brother of Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks. It uses a solid state hard drive which doesn't spin like a typical disk drive, allowing the notebooks to be made much slimmer than a typical laptop, and also an order of magnitude faster. Apple hasn't officially announced the launch date of the refreshed Air line, but expect to hear more about it later this month.

More from Tecca:

Lookout Adds 'Safe Browsing' Feature for Android Devices (PC Magazine)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:58 AM PDT

Sara Yin - PC Magazine Sara Yin - Pc Magazine – Wed Jun 15, 7:58 am ET

Lookout Mobile, one of a handful of mobile security software makers, has added a safe Web browsing function for Android users to its premium package.

"Safe Browsing" is a new feature in Lookout Premium ($2.99/month or $29.99/year) that actively scans for malware as you surf the net.

Android users can upgrade to Premium from Lookout's free security app offered in the Android Market or its Web site. Existing Premium customers will need to update to version 6.0.1 and find it on their Lookout Dashboard. It's an opt-in feature, so you'll have to enable it by clicking the Safe Browsing button.

"Safe Browsing leverages our global threat detection network that already protects millions of users from malicious applications. By extending protection with Safe Browsing, mobile consumers can feel safe surfing the web, accessing email and entering other personal information on their mobile device," said CEO John Hering in a statement.

Lookout is offering a free trial of Lookout Premium for the next 14 days. Existing users of Lookout Free can also upgrade to Premium at a $5 discount by using the promotion code "STAYSAFE."

As the Android Market expands exponentially, so is the frequency of Android malware. On Monday, Google pulled 10 apps from the Android Market that appeared to contain malware, like the spyware program Plankton. Earlier this month, Lookout reported more than two dozen infected apps, which Google removed.

In early March, Google remotely deleted a series of applications from users' phones due to malware known as DroidDream and released a security update to rectify the problem. Unlike Apple, Google does not monitor its apps once they are in the Android Market, responding only to complaints.

Is your mobile phone protected? See PCMag's pick of the best 15 Mobile Security Tools for more information.

IBM succession chatter heats up near anniversary (AP)

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 09:04 PM PDT

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer Jordan Robertson, Ap Technology Writer – 17 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – As IBM turns 100 this year, the anniversary coincides with another milestone: CEO Sam Palmisano is turning 60, the typical age at which an IBM CEO retires.

With succession chatter growing, Palmisano has tried to tamp down speculation that he's ready to step aside, even as he's put a spotlight on his possible heirs.

Analysts say Palmisano is likely to steer the company for the time being. IBM appears to have hit its stride after recovering from a near-death experience in the 1990s. Today, it is a model for the information-technology industry.

"Sam is very much in charge and is having fun," says Bob Djurdjevic, a longtime IBM watcher and president of Annex Research Inc. "It's ridiculous to have some artificial deadline for someone to retire because creativity is not proportional to age."

Djurdjevic says Palmisano is in no hurry to leave, and "the board would be crazy to force the issue just because in the past that's been the tradition."

Palmisano has been CEO of the Armonk, N.Y.-based company since 2002. He succeeded Lou Gerstner, an outsider and non-techie who engineered the company's turnaround.

IBM's planning for Palmisano's successor was derailed when Robert Moffat, a top candidate for the CEO job, was ensnared in what federal prosecutors have called the biggest case in history involving insider trading at a hedge fund. Moffat, who left IBM after his arrest, was sentenced in September to six months in prison for passing along confidential tips about IBM's business.

The case was a rare smudge on IBM's reputation and narrowed the field of Palmisano's possible successors. Analysts and former executives say that when Palmisano does step down, IBM is likely to replace him with an insider.

Many analysts point to Ginni Rometty as a leading candidate. Rometty leads IBM's global sales operation and previously headed IBM's business services division. She oversaw IBM's $3.5 billion purchase of PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting business in 2002.

Djurdjevic calls Rometty an "effervescent leader" and says she would be an ideal advocate for the company. She would be the first woman to lead IBM.

A year ago, Palmisano engineered several changes to IBM's management structure that indicates Rometty is a top contender.

Along with adding marketing and strategy to Rometty's assignments, Palmisano increased the responsibilities of three other executives.

Mike Daniels, who led technology services, is in charge of all of IBM's services business. Analysts say Daniels is another top contender, with a style like Palmisano's.

Palmisano also elevated Steve Mills, who led IBM's software division, to be in charge of all of IBM's hardware business. Mark Loughridge, IBM's chief financial officer, got an expanded role in finance. Analysts say Mills and Loughridge are longer shots.

Another potential candidate is Rod Adkins, who is in charge of IBM's server, storage and semiconductor businesses, along with the supply chain. He took over after Moffat's arrest. Djurdjevic calls Adkins a "quiet overachiever."

In a rare public comment on the matter, Palmisano said last year that he's "not going anywhere" and that there's no formal policy at IBM dictating when a CEO should retire.

Investors appear hopeful that Palmisano will stay. IBM's stock has increased more than 25 percent since he made the announcement in September.
at 9:54 PM

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