Buffalo Adds Remote Access to Network Drives
Your data--anytime, anywhere. That seems to be the trend these days in network storage. And, notably, these features are migrating down to the the realm of even the less complex, single-drive network storage devices.
Buffalo Technology has introduced a firmware update for its line of LinkStation Live network-attached drives. The update adds remote access via a Web browser; you won't need drivers or software to share content. You access your content via www.buffaloNAS.com; the site lets you establish a secure connection to your drive (available in 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, and 750GB varieties, ranging in price from $229 to $649). The connection is unidirectional, though; you can only stream content or download content remotely, but not upload content.
USB Drive for Badass Geeks
Do you need a Hummer to pick up a quart of milk at your suburban grocer? Do you need a USB thumb drive that can withstand being run over by an 8000 lbs. forklift and can be submerged 200 meters under water to bring your PowerPoint presentation to work? The folks at Corsair think you might.
Memory maker Corsair unveiled its "extremely rugged" line of USB 2.0 flash drives called Flash Survivor. The drives are constructed from milled aluminum (as found in aircraft part production) and designed for geeks with a "Bring It On" attitude, Corsair says.
The Corsair Flash Survivor GT 8GB model runs $130 and Flash Survivor 4GB model runs $60. For non-badass geeks like myself, as long as the Survivor drive makes it through the washer and drier in one piece I'm sold at 8GB for $130.
Click here for more information on where to buy the drives available today.
e-gold Indicted for Money Laundering
If you follow online security news, you've heard of e-gold.com. The digital currency service purportedly allows users to transfer money without any real ID verification, which seems to make it popular with online crooks and fraudsters, like those behind last year's Cryzip extortion malware.
To recap, Cryzip ordered its victims to deposit a ransom into an e-gold account if they wanted the password to unlock their zipped-up files. It appeared to be a very clumsy extortion attempt, and I hope that few people fell prey.
The Department of Justice says it has more examples of use of e-gold accounts for nefarious purposes. According to our friends at IDG News Service, a grand jury in D.C. indited e-gold and others on Friday on charges of money laundering.
The IDG story also says the DOJ has seizure warrants for more than 55 accounts the department says are involved in money laundering.
I haven't seen hard evidence myself. But I do hear over and over how hard it is to successfully prosecute any of the bad actors in the thriving online fraud business. So if e-gold is found guilty, it could be a relatively rare win for the good guys.
I would like to encourage your readers to review the hyperlinks in our original Press Release on the e-gold.com News page. I am particularly interested in independent asessment of the transcript from the emergency hearing before Magistrate Judge Facciola of 12/29/05 and the emails between myself and the USSS circa 11/04 - 1/05. The cryzip thing by the way... our investigators busted it before there was a single victim or payment.
E-gold isn't guilty of money laundering because it doesn't deal in "money" (i.e., any national currency), but with buying and selling actual gold. It is therefore outside of any laws governing money laundering. The USSS has passed up opportunity after opportunity to go after real bad actors (child porn and wire fraud) because it meant cooperating with e-gold and making use of its vast database of transactions and IPs. This is nothing more than an attempt by the DOJ and USSS to circumvent due process and run e-gold out of business, when the company has cooperated with EVERY request to assist government investigators for over a decade, without court orders. Certain bureaucrats in the DOJ and Treasury just don't like an unregulated company using the trading of a precious metal in a fashion that "smells" like currency, because it edges in on their exclusive "turf" (money). All this talk of facilitating criminals is so much smoke screen designed to obscure the real money trail.
Sounds Like Vudu: P2P Video Direct to the TV, Fast
The New York Times this morning spends a good amount of real estate on a small Silicon Valley company called Vudu, which is selling a free-standing, streaming video set-top box. The device is similar to Apple TV, but requires no connection with a PC to operate. The Vudu box connects directly to the Internet via an Ethernet port.
Vudu says its box will allow viewers to begin watching movies in the living room immediately after order, without having to wait for a significant portion of the file to download in advance.
I hear P2P for real-time streaming and I'm immediately skeptical.
Like BitTorrent's movie service, Vudu relies on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to push video quickly down to the set-top box. But the BitTorrent service is testament to the fact that without a critical mass of "peers" or "seeds" for a given title, downloading can be very slow going. Two friends in the digital content world say BitTorrent, the poster child of P2P, is now getting help from a content delivery network (CDN) (like Akamai) to speed video distribution.
Vudu is not the first company to serve video directly to a box on the TV. Akimbo began selling such a box in 2004. Moviebeam's set-top box catches videos broadcast over the digital frequencies used by public radio stations. Neither of these products has caught on with consumers.
Vudu will also compete with hybrid IP video devices like Microsoft's Xbox, which downloads movies from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Tivo downloads movies from Amazon's Unbox movie service. Apple TV relies on a PC running iTunes to download the video.
In the NYT article, Vudu boasts that Hollywood has seen the light on its product. It has signed content deals with all the major studios except Sony.
Big deal. Hollywood is increasingly willing to sign up for online distribution, provided the normal, paranoid digital rights management (DRM) controls are in place. What have they got to lose? It's a great way for them to make some money back on lame or otherwise unpopular titles that are rarely rented at the video store or sold as DVDs.
The studios seem far from making Internet video a primary means of distributing their content, as DVDs are now. While some big movies like Borat and Pirates of the Caribbean have shown up relatively quickly on the online services, the majority of the videos you find there are Hollywood no-names and direct-to-DVD releases circa 2000-2006.
The idea of bringing video directly to the TV via the Internet without stopping at the PC is a good one. But services like Vudu will have to deliver new, big-name movies consistently in order for consumers to even consider paying $300 for yet another piece of hardware in the living room.
A resource about satellite TV is at http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/
An excellent resource about satellite TV is at Direct TV satellite, Dish Network satellite
More information about satellite TV by Direct TV can be found at
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/Direct-TV.html
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/Dish-Network.html
Corel VideoStudio 11 Edits HD Camcorder Footage
A few weeks ago I reviewed Panasonic's nifty HDC-SD1, a high-definition camcorder that records to Secure Digital Cards. I liked the camcorder, except that you can't edit the footage from it, because it records in AVCHD format, which no video-editing software recognizes.
At least, until now: today Corel released Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus, which supports AVCHD and HDV (the other high-definition camcorder format, used by ones that record HD to MiniDV tape). It can also import .VOB files--the type that DVD-based standard-definition camcorders use.
VideoStudio doesn't yet support burning to Blu-Ray drives (Corel's MovieFactory product does, though, and Corel says Blu-Ray support for VideoStudio is in the works). However, you can use it to burn 30 minutes of HD video to a standard DVD that will play in an Xbox HD DVD drive, an HD DVD player, or a PC with a DVD player and the upcoming version of Intervideo WinDVD. Corel/Intervideo will also release a plug-in for the current version of WinDVD that will allow playback of these discs, though it hasn't announced a release date for it yet.
[Note to readers: I previously wrote that VideoStudio 11 Plus didn't output HD; please note corrections in the previous graph--Ed.]
VideoStudio 11 Plus is the one of the first Ulead products to bear Corel's name. Corel's acquisition of Ulead and InterVideo (which had been involved in merger talks) only closed in January.
Corel says the list price for VideoStudio 11 Plus is $130, and a version that doesn't do HD editing costs $90. Both should be available now.
Battery Woes Hit Apple
Another week, another laptop maker announces bad battery news. Apple says batteries in its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks may have performance problems. The good news, the batteries do not pose a safety risk.
The notebooks in question were sold between February 2006 through April 2007. Apple says a software update may fix the issue, but if that doesn't work you can request a free replacement battery even if you notebook is out of warranty. Here is a link to the Apple battery information page.
How do you know if your MacBook or MacBook Pro is effected? Apple recommends installing the update first and then says watch for the following symptoms:
* Battery is not recognized causing an "X" to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
* Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
*Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
* Battery pack is visibly deformed
Why All the Battery Problems?
Last week Acer America recalled 27,000 batteries stating certain batteries could overheat and potentially cause a fire. The Apple notebook battery issues appear to be separate. However it raises the question: why is the industry having so much trouble with laptop batteries?
I asked battery expert Robert Spotnitz, president of Battery Design, a small firm that develops battery management software. He says the industry is in a race to build a higher performance battery for the cheapest amount of money. "The pressure to have really high energy cells (batteries) pushes things to the edge," Spotnitz says. He says the industry could build more reliable batteries, but naturally the cost of a notebook would have to rise. And no notebook makers are ready to be the first at raising prices, he says.
Spotnitz adds, even the recalled Sony batteries suspected of overheating and possible combustion, passed the industry safety standards with flying colors. The type of battery testing needed to avoid future recalls just doesn't exist today, he says.
The industry needs better more comprehensive testing of batteries, Spotnitz says. He says high profile battery recalls will likely spur that change.
I've seen all these stories of of charger fires and I think the product I'm developing can prevent them.
It is a power strip with smoke detecting shutoff. You can see it at ExactProductsInc.com
I haven't started manufacturing it (I'd prefer to license it to manufacturers and let them sell it).
I'm looking for feedback. Let me know what you think.
Mike Dayoub
I've seen all these stories of of charger fires and I think the product I'm developing can prevent them or at least prevent damage from them.
It is a power strip with smoke detecting shutoff. You can see it at ExactProductsInc.com
I haven't started manufacturing it (I'd prefer to license it to manufacturers and let them sell it).
I'm looking for feedback. Let me know what you think.
Mike Dayoub
Google Ad Attack Captured on Video
Exploit Prevention Labs put up a video that explains the attacks they found in Google sponsored links and shows an exploit in progress.
Google has pulled the ads, and says it canceled the AdWords accounts behind the ads. I asked the company if it could provide particulars about the processes they might (or might not) have in place to prevent this kind of attack ahead of time, but I didn't get anything beyond this response.
are you guys for real? This is nothing more than an info-mercial for LinkScanner... Is PC World getting paid to link this advertisment? I'm not normally mean spirited, but this is just over the top. Please spare us in the future from this commercial tripe. I expect better from you guys.
Foolishly I downloaded Exploits free version program. 3 hours later I finally managed to get it removed from my PC. System crippler? That's putting it lightly. Avoid this monster.
I'm having a very positive experience with my trial of linkscanner. when is the general public going to wake up and realize the internet is the wild west. bad guys are gaming Google, gaming affiliate programs and ad networks. Unfortunately consumers have to react as microsoft, or using firefox or a Mac, isn't going to solve the problem. why would google want to ad filters to adwords accounts? they want as much money as they can get. don't ask, don't tell. Internet brands are becoming too trusted and it looks like 3rd parties must police them.
Here Comes the Xbox 360 Elite
So, Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite officialy goes on sale in the U.S. this Sunday.
The Elite is an upgraded version of the original 360 gaming console, but with a black exterior, 120GB hard disk drive, High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port, and a high definition video cable. It also includes a matching wireless controller and Xbox Live headset.
Here are PC World Senior Editor Melissa Perenson's initial thoughts on the game console.
And our colleagues at sister pub GamePro have an interesting take on the Elite: Eight Reasons Why the Xbox 360 Elite Isn't Elite.
Are you looking forward to this iteration of the Xbox?
Apple's Jobs Lobbies Labels to Ditch DRM
Apple is pushing its record label partners to sell DRM-free music at iTunes.
Apple sent letters to that effect to its record label partners Wednesday, according to the Apple-watchers over at MacRumors.
It should be no surprise, says Gartner analyst Mike McGuire. When Apple's Steve Jobs sent out his now-famous open letter suggesting the abandonment of DRM, he said half the music available at iTunes would be DRM-free by 2008.
So far only one label, EMI, has signed up to sell DRM-free songs at iTunes. "So now Jobs is out selling," Gartner's McGuire says.
Jobs is confident other labels will follow suit. "There are a lot of people in the other music companies who are very intrigued by it," he told Reuters Wednesday. "They're thinking very hard about it right now."
Smaller independent labels like the idea of DRM-free, but the majors remain hesitant. EMI is the third largest of the four major record label conglomerates, leaving three others to be persuaded: Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.
Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), reiterated the major labels' love for DRM Thursday at a conference speech in Nashville. But he also left open the possibility of discussions on the matter.
EMI's move away from DRM might end up being a good thing for those of us whose MP3 players aren't made by Apple.
EMI's motivation for selling DRM-free music is to take a larger share of online music revenues, and there's no exclusivity in its agreement with Apple and iTunes. So EMI could easily (and probably will) sell DRM-free tracks on music services that compete with iTunes, like Microsoft's Zune Marketplace for instance.
If/when that happens, the other big labels will be under heavy pressure to follow.
Google Deletes Rogue Ads, Dangers Persist
Google has removed ads that appear alongside Google search results that re-directed users to malicious sites. But, according to security experts, the fix is temporary and search engine users should not assume sponsored links are all trustworthy.
"Search engines are just too easy a target for bad guys," says Roger Thompson of Exploit Security Labs. On April 25, Exploit Prevention Labs reported that malware distributors were using advertisements placed via Google's automated AdWords system to infect unsuspecting end-users with spyware designed to capture bank login user names and passwords.
Thompson says Google's removal of the ads is a temporary fix and that Google and other search engines need to overhaul their automated advertising systems.
McAfee Data Confirms Risky Ad Trend
Other research by security firm McAfee's SiteAdvisor division found in a December report that 8 percent of sponsored results from top search engines AOL, Ask.com, Google, MSN, and Yahoo can often lead to Web sites that contain spyware and scams, and are operated by people who love to send out spam.
SiteAdvisor reports 0.13 percent of all links on major search engines results contain browser exploits. AOL and Ask.com, it reports, have a slightly higher number of dangerous links with 0.17 percent linking to sites with browser exploits.
"Sponsored links are 2 to 4 times more likely to contain risky sites including those with exploits," says Shane Keats, a McAfee research analyst.
The report also puts into question Google's own interstitial warning page designed to prevent Google users from visiting dangerous sites. In SiteAdvisor's tests it says Google warned consumers for only 18 percent of Google general search results containing browser exploits.
McAfee SiteAdvisor, it should be pointed out, sells a browser security toolbar SiteAdvisor Plus ($20) and also gives away a reduced feature version of the toolbar.
Latest Threat is New and Nasty
According to Thompson, the way the exploit found within Google's sponsored links worked is, when someone searched on Google for "BetterBusinessBureau", for example, a list of sponsored links appeared alongside search results. If someone clicked a booby-trapped sponsored link they were the ad would redirect their browser through URLs that attempted to automatically download a virus program (MSO6-014) onto their computers before passing them along to the actual sites that were advertised.
Exploits buried in the normal search results (not sponsored) have long been a problem for search engines. The challenge scammers have had is getting their rigged sites and links seen within search results. By purchasing ads that appear at the top of search results scammers get the visibility they need to drive traffic to their exploited sites.
"People assume a level of trust when they visit a sponsored link," Thompson says. He says until search engines do more to vet the ads that are submitted all bets are off as to a sponsored link's legitimacy.
Protect Yourself
To protect yourself you should consider downloading either XPL's Linkscanner, Scandoo's toolbar, or McAfee's SiteAdvisor, all available in free versions.
Mozilla Updates Firefox 3 Release Schedule
Mozilla will be releasing monthly alpha versions of the Firefox 3 browser, followed by a planned first beta at the end of July, according to an updated release calendar.
Looking through the list of planned features for version 3, a few juicy-sounding ones catch my eye.
Continue reading "Mozilla Updates Firefox 3 Release Schedule"
New AOL Home Page Shows Yahoo Influence
If imitation truly is the greatest form of flattery, as the saying goes, then Yahoo should feel quite flattered right now. AOL's beta of its new home page looks remarkably similar to that of Yahoo's current home page design. The similarities between the two separated-at-birth sites are evident in the two screen captures seen below.
I've always respected Yahoo's home page--most notably for its generally clean look and feel. In an era of too-many pull-down menus and advertisements winking at me from every which way, Yahoo's comparatively Spartan page is like a welcomed oasis amidst the chaos of the Web.
AOL has taken Yahoo's design, and improved on it with subtle interface tweaks that enhance usability and readability. Both designs pack a similar configuration of information. Both have a modular design with a directory nav bar at left, and featured news and headline news (including basic stock market info) components stacked in the middle; at right are quick-launch buttons for key services, with an advertisement beneath that.
I like some of the tweaks AOL has made. For starters, the left nav bar panel lacks the Yahoo panel's graphical texture and uneven font sizes, making it slightly easier to read. Furthermore, by identifying the nav panel as a "Directory," AOL makes it clearer to its audience that this your launch pad to subsections within the AOL site.
Yahoo offers more variety in its top center module: You can choose from four tabbed categories--for featured stories, entertainment stories, sports stories, or life (a catch-all for lifestyle pieces ranging from recipes to HDTV facts) stories. For now, AOL's top viewer teases top stories in different sections, with a five-page feature viewer that automatically scrolls through
Overall, I think the AOL page--though not perfect--looks even cleaner than the Yahoo page. Sure, I get annoyed by plugs for AOL services I won't use, but the local section--with local info, traffic, and gas prices, is more meaningful to me as a user than Yahoo's "Pulse-What Yahoos Are Into" component, placed in a similar location on that page's real estate. Likewise, AOL's Shopping section has a broader appeal than Yahoo's "Today's Search Highlights."
Then again, I question just how much the home page matters anymore. Personally, I hardly ever stop at Yahoo's home page; instead, I just rely on the My Yahoo page I've already customized and tweaked to suit my interests.
Bill May Save Net Radio
On Thursday a bill that could save Internet radio was submitted to Congress. The bill, Internet Radio Equality Act, would stop a new royalty scheme that Internet broadcasters say will shut them down because it will cost them too much money.
U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) filed the legislation Thursday. The bill reverses a recent decision of the federal Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to nearly triple the amount of royalties Internet radio broadcasters pay to copyright holders for playing a song.
The Copyright Royalty Board earlier this month approved a rule that would force commercial Internet radio stations, regardless of their size, to pay a new, higher flat fee to the record labels each time a song is played. Royalty rates for Web-casters - starting retroactively at $0.0008 per song in 2006 will climb to $0.0019 per song in 2010. As it stands now, the rates will go into effect May 15.
In a press release Inslee states: "This Titanic rate increase is simply untenable for many Internet radio broadcasters."
"The Internet has provided us with amazing opportunities to enjoy music, and this unfair action by the CRB threatens to take it all away," Manzullo states in the press release. "Our legislation overturns the huge rate increases and sets up a system that is fair to Web-casters, Web users and the artists whose music we all enjoy. And most importantly, it will keep music playing on the Internet."
SaveNetRadio , which is made up of Net broadcasters, applaud the bill.
The Inslee-Manzullo Internet Radio Equality Act vacates the CRB's March 2 decision and proposes Net radio stations continue paying a percentage (7.5) of revenues through 2010. Alternatively, the bill would allow Net broadcaster to choose to pay 33 cents per hour of sound recordings transmitted to a single user.
That's a far cry from the estimated 60 percent of revenue that some Web broadcasters say they'll have to pay under Copyright Royalty Board plan.
The bill faces approval and vote in the House of Representatives. The bill must also pass a Senate vote before it could be signed into law.
A PDF copy of the bill can be downloaded here.
Google's Search Experiments
Looks like Google is trying out some new ways of presenting search results, including giving separate results for blog posts, news archive stories and related searches.
When I did a search for "Sheryl Crow", for instance, I saw this at the bottom of the first page of results:
Under "Searches related to: sheryl crow" were suggestions like "sheryl crow lyrics," "sheryl crow lance armstrong" and "john mayer" (apparently the two are touring together).
Below the list of related searches is a section with three blog posts about Crow. If Google sticks with this approach, I wonder what it'll mean for the inclusion of blog entries in the main listing of search results. There were no blog entries in the main search results on this page, though there was one on the next page.
I've found it frustrating in the past to have a lot of blog entries listed in Google's search results, since many blog entries don't have the kind of comprehensive and unbiased information I'm frequently looking for when I search.
I tried another search for "Bruce Springsteen" and got a similar related searches block. Below that, was a listing of news archive results for The Boss, two stories from 2006 and one from 2005.
Whether you'll see any of these changes seems to be a crap shoot. I Googled Sheryl Crow on another PC and got the related searches list, but no separate list of blog entries. One search on "Karl Rove" yielded a block of blog entries at the bottom of the first page, but the next few times I tried the same search I got only the traditional Google results. A search for "wi-fi networking" returned plain vanilla results. One for "Web 2.0" offered related searches and a separate listing of blog posts.
Let us know if you see the changes in your browser and what you think of them.
Below are results of a few trials. If there's a pattern, it's not immediately apparent to me. Perhaps the fact that when a prominent name is entered last name first, these new results at the bottom of the page are missing, but the same name entered first name first often brings up the new results, but not always the same categories. In all cases, though, the result was consistent when I repeated the exact entry. The "--" below indicates no "extra" results:
pelosi: --
pelosi nancy: --
nancy pelosi: Searches related to
brenner paul: --
paul brenner: --
linux os: --
os linux: --
microsoft linux: News archives results
linux microsoft: New archives results
bush: Searches related to
bush george: News results for - and - News archives results
george bush: Searches related to - and - News archives results
george w bush: Searches related to - and - Blog posts about
reid harry: --
harry reid: Searches related to - and - Blog posts about
potter harry: --
harry potter: Searches related to
$1 Billion Anti-SPAM Lawsuit Filed
A Utah-based anti-spam company has filed a $1 billion lawsuit on behalf of 20,000 Internet users with the goal of ferreting out individuals who "harvest" email addresses for spammers.
The company, Utah-based Unspam Technologies, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Virginia Thursday under Virginia anti-spam law and the federal CAN-SPAM Act. Unspam consults with private companies and government agencies on spam control tactics. It filed the lawsuit on behalf of its customers in 100 countries under the name "Project Honey Pot."
Here's why. Unspam and its customers have been using a clever method of tracking email harvesters and their spammer customers. Unspam provides its customers with a software tool that sets up Web pages, called Honey Pots, which make fake email addresses available to the automated email gathering programs used by the harvesters. Those email addresses are later used (like marked bills) by investigators to track both the harvesters and the spammers who use the addresses.
This has been going on for some time now, and the project has already collected a good deal of data. Honey Pot now believes it has enough data to start the legal process, hence its action today. The group will also ask the court for permission to subpoena records from the ISPs used by suspected harvesters and spammers.
Identifying the offenders might be the easy part. Actually prosecuting them has proven a tough job in the past. The main reason is that many of spammers operate from overseas beyond the reach of U.S. laws. But Unspam believes that a large number of harvesters operate in the U.S., many of them in Virginia. Unspam believes the lawsuit is the first to directly target the email harvesters.
The $1 billion in damages Unspam/Honey Pot is asking for would be the largest fine levied for spam violations so far by a U.S. court. What if they win? Who gets the $1 billion? From the group's Web site:
"Obviously a large chunk would go to paying legal fees. Intriguingly, though, since we will know what Project Honey Pot members provided the data that ends up winning the case, maybe we'll be able to send them a little bonus. :-)"
I wish Unspam and its customers luck. Spam now accounts for as much as 80 percent of total email traffic traveling over the Internet. Even if the Project Honey Pot suit manages to shut down just a few email harvesters and their spammer friends, it could be enough to raise some public ire against these parasites.
Acer Battery Recall: A Closer Look
Six months after Acer America told laptop owners they would not be impacted by a massive recall of batteries manufactured by Sony, on Wednesday Acer recalled 27,000 batteries in the U.S..
Acer did not return phone calls or e-mail inquiries requesting to know why it changed its tune on recalls. It did, however, publicly acknowledge on Wednesday the recalled batteries were manufactured by Sony. It has also set up an information Web site listing notebooks with bad batteries. The site also offers instructions on how to get a replacement.
Here is what Acer President Gianfranco Lanci said at an investors conference last October:
"We do not rely on Sony for batteries," Lanci said. For the small number of Acer laptops that do use Sony materials in their batteries, Lanci added, Acer's battery-charging mechanism ensures the batteries will not have problems.
Here is a link to the original story posted to sister publication InfoWorld.
We first started hearing about notebook recalls traced back to Sony with Dell last year. Next laptop maker Lenovo, Apple, and Sony itself. Over 9.6 million laptop PC batteries have been recalled so far.
Acer confessed that the rechargeable lithium ion batteries contain cells made by Sony Energy Devices that could overheat and potentially cause a fire.
What causes the problem?
All the lithium ion batteries recalled have one thing in common. That is a manufacturing defect (see the diagram) that led to rare instances where batteries overheated and even caught fire. Here is our explainer on the topic: Should Laptops Come With a Fire Extinguisher?
(Click here to enlarge)
In short, all battery recalls traced back to Sony stem from impurities (usually tiny pieces of metal) trapped within a defective battery. Those impurities got there, battery experts says, when they were manufactured by Sony. As those impurities work their way out to the edge of the anode or cathode they can cause the battery to short circuit. A short circuiting in a notebook battery can raise the temperature of the battery and cause the case to melt. Worse, if the temperature rises to fast it may generate enough pressure to create a small explosion.
According to an earlier PC World report Dell has confirmed six cases batteries either overheated or caught fire and Apple has reported nine.
Problems with Google Personalized Home Pages?
Some Digg readers, as well as our IDG News Service, are reporting that their personalized Google home pages are showing up without all the bookmarks, RSS feeds and widgets that the users spent time adding to the pages.
I just checked mine and didn't see the problem. (I did see this minor gaffe in the Wired News feed, though.
That kind of thing happens somewhat regularly, but as an editor who's made similar boneheaded moves in the past, it made me wince.)
Anyway, anyone seeing problems with your Google home page?
all settings gone back to defaults. poof!
My personalized google page loads up but then immediately closes and disappears from the sreen. This has been going on since last Thurs. with no sign of a fix. Very frustrating. Google classic loads up and functions fine, however.
I just lost all my content on my personalized Google page. I'm not sure if it's because of iGoogle but it was available for last couple of hours and now it's gone. Has anyone else witnessed this problem?
Software Pirate Faces 10 Years in Brig
Hew Raymond Griffiths, 44, a British national, pleaded guilt in a U.S. federal court to being the kingpin of the of the oldest and most renowned Internet software piracy groups called DrinkOrDie. Griffiths could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for distributing an estimated $50 million worth of pirated software, movies, games, and music.
Sentencing for Griffiths is June 22, according to the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia where he was prosecuted. Griffiths was living in living in Bateau Bay, Australia, and was extradited from Australia in February 2007 to face charges of criminal copyright infringement. Griffiths had fought the extradition orders for nearly three years.
Authorities say Griffiths extradition is unique because it marks one of the first times someone has been extradited based on an intellectual property offense.
"Software pirates think they can evade U.S. copyright infringement laws by moving their operation outside the U.S.," says John Wolfe, director of Internet enforcement for the Business Software Alliance. The Griffiths extradition proves they can't, he says. "Pirates now know you can't run from U.S. copyright laws."
Griffiths and dozens of other DrinkOrDie members around the world organized and ran "Warez" groups. Warez groups specialize in the illegal distribution over the Internet of copyrighted software programs, computer games, movies, and music.
According to a U.S. Justice Department press release DrinkOrDie was founded in Russia in 1993 and expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. The group was dismantled by the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of Operation Buccaneer in December 2001, with more than 70 raids conducted in the U.S. and five foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Australia, the Justice Department release states. Operation Buccaneer has resulted in more than 30 felony convictions in the United States and 11 convictions of foreign nationals overseas, according to the Justice Department.
Other DrinkOrDie members have already faced jail time. In 2002 Christopher Tresco, a then 24-year-old member of DrinkOrDie, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for conspiring to violate criminal copyright laws. In 2003 four men with ties to DrinkOrDie pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in New Haven, Connecticut, to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.
Fellow software pirates in the United Kingdom Andrew Eardley and Mark Vent were arrested in 2005. Eardley and Vent, who both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud in 2005, were given 18-month jail sentences.
DrinkOrDie pirates first made their name when they released Microsoft Windows 95 two weeks before it went on sale.
Vonage Becomes a 'Cause'
Fresh from a small victory in court Tuesday, Vonage is trying to make some public relations hay from its potentially life-threatening patent infringement tussle with Verizon.
The VoIP company Wednesday announced a new Web site called FreeToCompete.com, where it invites consumers to rally behind it in its fight against Verizon.
Vonage says consumers will pay higher prices if Verizon is allowed to sue Vonage out of existence. Studies are cited. Loving Vonage customers are quoted.
The new site comes complete with raised fists holding telephones, a petition and email links to Big Bad Verizon. Visitors to the site are greeted with this line: "Al Gore invented the Internet; Now Verizon is trying to patent it."
But Vonage as a grass roots social "cause"? Will this new tactic win Vonage new customers where its bulging ad budget could not? Does Vonage vs. Verizon have real David vs. Goliath appeal?
Or has Vonage finally jumped the shark?
Why We Need Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs may have some answering to do about backdated stock options, if his former CFO is on the level. Who knows, he might actually have to do more than apologize this time. But Apple needs Jobs, and so do you. And here's why.
Jobs of course co-founded Apple back in 1976, and with Steve Wozniak introduced the first Apple computer, and then the first Macintosh. It was the heady early days of personal computers. I had an Apple IIe. It rocked.
In '85, Jobs lost a power struggle with Apple's board of directors and left the company. He went on to found Next.
Over the next 12 years without Jobs, Apple went on to ship Macs, and lots of them. Mac Classics, Mac Quadras, Mac LC's. Powerbooks, the Mac in laptop form. Some good stuff, some not-so-good stuff, but most thought of Apple during these days as a relatively lackluster one-trick pony, beloved by graphic artists and fanatics looking for a cause but settling firmly into the back seat. Though of course, there's no overlooking the fantastically successful Newton.
In '97, Jobs came back as Apple's CEO after Apple bought Next. The very next year, the innovative iMac launched and proved that yes, many people do actually care whether their computer looks nice.
But it didn't stop there. We got iPods in 2001, which weren't the first digital music players but quickly came to define the market. (I have an iPod. It rocks.) In 2003 iTunes released for PCs as well as Macs, and its companion online store proved that you can actually make money selling digital music online, without driving a stake through the heart of every band, record company and music professional on the planet.
We of course can't forget the major shift to Mac OS X, which delighted techies and die-hard Mac fans alike with its unix-like core and clean interface.
Now, analysts say that if streaming video is going to make it into the everyday living room, it will be through Apple TV. The iPhone has gadget nerds panting worldwide with anticipation, and Leopard, the next-gen Mac OS X, promises plenty of enticing goodies.
With Jobs, Apple has turned into a digital life powerhouse, albeit one that at times seems a little secrecy-crazed. So, if it turns out that he got shady with the options, let justice be served.
But like it or not, we need him at Apple. And clearly, the company knows it.
Thanks for that really balanced presentation Al. Nicely done. "It rocked." Really.
Back here on earth, I'm glad to see that Jobs, if the info presented is correct, will not be allowed to destroy other people's lives and reputations by making them the "fall guy-or gal." And if he's done nothing wrong, he'll have the opportunity to finally and completely clear his name.
And if you think the success of Apple is tied up in one man ... then god help Apple. It doesn't portend well for the future. Only a cultist could possibly believe only one man has the "vision" to sustain Apple. That same vision, if true, participated in shady stock maneuvers and co-signed the scapegoating of others. Quite the vision,eh?
I guess I'll vote for the cult of mac over the cult of Steve.
Cool-aid anyone? It really rocks.
Your Next President @ MySpace
MySpace said Wednesday it will launch a new reality TV show in which TV viewers and MySpace users will choose an independent candidate for president.
The new show, called Independent, will be something like American Idol for politics. The nominees will be selected from entries at MySpace Video, and the winning candidate will be given a million bucks to spend on his or her campaign. The winning candidate, MySpace says, will "best reflect the voice of young Americans."
I suggest this guy.
"Independent represents a giant leap in the re-democratization of American politics," says MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe in the press release.
Week to week on the show, the contestants will be shown making their rounds in public, interacting with supporters, protestors, activists, and anybody else touched by the campaign. They'll get feedback from viewers both on the show and at MySpace.
The "Independent" probably won't win the presidency (what independent does?), but the show probably can't lose. MySpace has teamed up with reality TV producer Mark Burnett, whose company brought us the reality TV classics Survivor, The Apprentice, and, notably, Rock Star: INXS.
MySpace and Burnett have yet to find a network to run the new series, but that probably won't be an issue. MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns Fox Broadcasting.
Independent is expected to air in early 2008.
TJX Data Breach Gets Even Uglier
What is it going to take to make companies better protect our data? I'm not convinced lawsuits are the solutions. But they sure make me feel better.
Retailer TJX is getting sued by a group of Massachusetts banks ticked off that the retailer is costing them millions of dollars in covering costs associated with what is considered the biggest data breach ever. TJX says hackers may have stolen more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers from it over an 18-month period. Banks are furious that now they have to replace credit cards and spend even more to protect customers who complain of fraudulent charges.
The Massachusetts Bankers Association filed the suit against TJX Tuesday. TJX owns T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, A.J. Wright, and HomeGoods. Here is a link to the lawsuit file (Acrobat).
I spoke to Massachusetts Bankers Association's spokesperson Bruce Spitzer. He gave me an earful. "Major retailers have not stepped up to the plate and protected their customer's financial data," he told me. "These companies have not been held accountable. We plan on setting an example with TJX."
Go get 'em Spitzer. But you'll have to get in line.
TJX is already being sued in a class action lawsuit filed in January in a US District Court in Boston. It accuses TJX of negligence for failing to maintain adequate security of customer credit and debit card data and not disclosing the breach for a month. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also launched an investigation into TJX. In addition Mass. Attorney General Martha Coakley will lead a civil investigation by dozens of states into the security breach.
At this rate TJX is going to have to spend more money on legal fees than upgrading its IT department and better protecting customer data.
I have zero sympathy for TJX. According to news accounts, the company's data breach occurred in 2006, but it waited until mid-January 2007 to tell its customers that they might be at risk. TJX says that it delayed telling its customers, not (as I suspect) to avoid hurting holiday sales, but in order to notify law enforcement first.
No, I don't think lawsuits will, in the end, benefit anyone but the lawyers who are handling the cases. Check out "A Chronology of Data Breaches," posted at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's site. It puts the total number of records containing sensitive personal information that have been involved in security breaches since January 10, 2005, at 104 million. Clearly companies aren't learning from mistakes.
I put more trust in tougher data protection laws. California's privacy laws are a good place to look. Its' privacy law requires companies that maintain data on California residents to inform individuals of any security breaches that result in their personal information being stolen.
Meanwhile the TJX fiasco has been fodder for Mass. Rep. Michael Costello to promote identity theft legislation. He's behind a bill that would make companies liable their security systems are hacked and credit card data or personal information is stolen.
According to Costello, the law would be one of the first of its kind in the United States, forcing retailers and other companies along with government agencies and nonprofit groups to pay for losses if financial data is stolen.
Regarding TJX, I was impacted by last years data breach because I bought a shirt at Marshalls in 2006 with a credit card. Yes, I am worried my credit card number is being swapped on some Web site.
I'm still wondering what the true cost of that shirt is. I'm not holding my breath things are going to get better for consumers anytime soon. I just hope the next time I check my bank ballance a hacker hasn't wiped my account clean leaving me with only the shirt on my back.
Verizon To Offer a BlackBerry for World Travelers
Verizon will soon sell a BlackBerry that will support the carrier's CDMA/EVDO network in the U.S. and can also roam on GSM networks overseas.
The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition is Research in Motion's first device to support both CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks. Due in stores May 28 (and through Verizon's business sales channels two weeks earlier), the 8830 is somewhat similar in appearance to the 8800--but oddly, does not include a GPS receiver.
Here are some images that Research in Motion sent along:
To support the 8830, Verizon on May 14 will introduce a Global BlackBerry service that will enable voice calls in more than 150 countries and e-mail/data services in 60 countries. Subscribers will get a SIM card to enable GSM service on the same phone number they use in the US (the device will automatically operate on the appropriate network).
Global BlackBerry subscribers will also have access to 24/7 tech support, and will receive a calling card they can use to call Verizon for support free of charge if their BlackBerry 8830 is broken, lost, or stolen.
All of this doesn't come cheap. Verizon will sell the 8830 for $400--or $300 to new customers who sign up for a two-year plan. The Verizon news release says an additional $100 credit towards the purchase of the device will be available to customers who sign up for "qualifying" voice and data plans at time of purchase (no details on what qualifies).
The Global BlackBerry service will set you back $65 a month for unlimited e-mail if you also get a voice plan, or $70 a month if you don't get a voice plan. It's not clear from the news release whether this also includes data; Verizon does say that voice plan subscribers can opt for a pay-as-you-go data plan at a rather pricey-sounding $20 per megabyte.
Finally, Verizon is also offering unlimited U.S.-only e-mail service on the 8830 for $50 a month.
Joost Still Working Out the Kinks in Beta
I spent some time last weekend watching Joost, the new (and much-hyped) Internet video service from Kazaa founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. I came away with a (mostly) good impression, but noticed some basic problems that still need work.
Joost is in "limited" beta right now, which means you have to receive an invitation from the company or a current Joost user to download the application and start watching.
The first question I had about Joost concerned the look of the video itself, which its creators claim is "broadcast quality." I found Joost to be something less than broadcast quality much of the time.
Services like Joost are inevitably dependant on the speed of the user's broadband connection. Using my 1 Mb/sec DSL connection, the Joost video looked clean and performed reliably during times of low Internet traffic -- like very early Sunday morning. When traffic levels were high, like on Friday evening, Joost's picture often looked pixilated, and the stream cut off completely on several occasions.
I was impressed with the breadth of Joost's channel line up, which includes content from VH1, National Geographic and, soon, CBS.
However much of the video Big Media has made available at Joost so far isn't exactly prime-time stuff. For instance, the Comedy Central channel features 18 episodes of three shows: Freakshow, Dog Bites Man and Stella. I also saw many "special interest" and regional channels like "Bite TV", "BoomChicago" and "IndyCar Series".
Not that there's anything wrong with more specialized, non-prime time shows. That type of "long tail" programming, if there's enough to choose from, might prove to be the real niche of Internet video. I admit to watching several of the seven Ren and Stimpy (Nickelodeon) episodes available at Joost. I also found most of the 10 or so (older) National Geographic shows to be worth watching.
Research shows that TV viewers' main problem is this: "What do I watch when I don't know what to watch?" I give Joost kudos for providing several tools to help answer that question. You can use a key word search to find content you like. Your Joost-watching friends can invite you to watch, rate and chat about new shows in real time. Below is a screen grab of the "My Joost" page, where Joosters find their IM, invite, show rating and other "interactive" tools.
At Joost, the term "channel" means something different than it does in the cable TV world. Joost channels are just groupings of on-demand videos, the content of which is related in some way. For instance, there is a "Lassie" channel, and one called "Joost Suggests." Once you choose a channel from the Main Channel Menu, a show menu appears:
The screen shot below shows the Joost interface you see while watching a show. Actually, the graphics around the video appear only when you first select the show or after you move the mouse; they fade away neatly when you're done with them.
The graphic at the top shows you what channel you're watching. Once it's clicked, more information about the channel appears on the screen. The dashboard at the bottom is used to select and navigate through the video or move on to the next show in the channel. "My Channels" is a list of the channels you've told Joost you like.
I also noticed that Joost has already begun running advertisements in the beta version of the service. The ads usually consist of a short banner ad at the beginning of a show, then a single 10-30 second video ad every 20 minutes or so during the show. The ads don't last long enough to be annoying, however.
Joost, like Kazaa and Skype before it, relies on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to distribute video. P2P networks typically cache small bits of content (in this case video) on the hard drives of end users to help speed the delivery of video to users nearby. So, in theory at least, as more people begin using Joost the video packets will be delivered faster and more reliably. We'll check in with Joost again after it graduates from beta.
Is Joost disruptive? In some ways the service looks inferior, and that's ok because most successful market disruptors look inferior in the early days.
I can see why Joost would appeal to CBS and Viacom... These companies need help. But is Joost solving an important problem for consumers? Not so clear.
How would you rate Joost using The Disruption ScoreCard?
Details:
http://www.ondisruption.com/my_weblog/2007/04/television_disr.htm
Mike
www.OnDisruption.com
send me an invite to darrenwest06@gmail.com i want to join joost
Booby-Traps Hide in Google Sponsored Links
Roger Thompson of Exploit Security Labs posted today about finding poisoned Google sponsored links that surreptitiously direct searchers through malicious sites that attempt to surreptitiously install malware on your PC.
According to Thompson, if you ran a Google search for "BetterBusinessBureau" from April 10 through about 11am EST this morning, you'd have stood a one in three chance of seeing a top sponsored link with green link text that read www.bbb.org - just like the real search result. If you clicked that sponsored link, you'd even end up at the regular BBB site as per normal.
But before you got to the bbb.org site, you'd invisibly pass through a malicious site that would try to exploit an Internet Explorer browser hole. The site wouldn't have shown up in your browser, and you wouldn't have had any way of knowing about the redirection ahead of time. Unlike with real search results, you don't see the destination URL if you pass your mouse over a Google sponsored link.
Our colleagues over at InfoWorld have some more background on this in a story called: Experts: Google Doesn't Police Advertisers.
Continue reading "Booby-Traps Hide in Google Sponsored Links"
Credit Card Company Calling? Think Again
Last month Jefferson City, Missouri was hit with a phishing scam that appears to be growing in popularity. The scam is a varient of what is known as a "vishing" scam which combines VoIP services and a phishing attack that attempt to pry personal and finantial information from unsuspecting victims.
In March Jefferson City residents were bombarded with over 1000 phone calls proporting to be from "Central Trust Bank." Calls to residents included the caller ID information of the local Central Bank. Messages left on voice mail directed Jefferson City residents to call a toll-free number in order to avoid "account deactivation."
According to a report by the Jefferson City News Tribune over two dozen people called the 800-number with only a few sharing their bank account numbers.
I found news outlets around the country warning of similar phishing scams that couple caller ID spoofing with phishing.
Caller ID Spoofing Scams
All the I found scams take advantage of a controversial telephone capability called caller ID spoofing. Caller ID spoofing allows someone to use either specialized equipment or online services to make any number appear on a call recipient's caller ID system.
Mozilla Ending Support for Firefox 1.5 in Mid-May
Today was supposed to be Firefox 1.5's end-of-life farewell, with no more security or stability patches. But Mozilla just pushed back the date for ending support for the older version to mid-May.
If you haven't yet upgraded to version 2, you may as well get around to it before the now-delayed goodbye date. You're safer browsing with Firefox than with IE, sure, but the open-source browser isn't invulnerable by any means. Mozilla just released a security patch about a month ago for both 1.5 and 2, and it's essential to keep your browser - whichever you might use - up to date.
What's more, version 2 doesn't introduce any radical changes that would take a lot of getting used to, but does have some nice new features like upgraded RSS feed support and built-in antiphishing.
Download the latest Firefox version from getfirefox.com.
Vonage Sees Signs of Hope in Appeals Court
Vonage made its debut appearance in a D.C. appeals court Tuesday, and things went about as well as the VoIP company could have hoped for.
First off, the court extended a stay on a lower court's decision to bar Vonage from signing up new customers.
The judges gave no sign of their leanings during the two-hour hearing Tuesday, but called Vonage Tuesday afternoon with the good news.
The most promising aspect of Tuesday's hearing may be the line of questioning followed by the appeals court judges.
In its appeal Vonage must convince the court that the judge in the lower court, U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton, applied over-broad definitions to Verizon's VoIP patents. Vonage believes, and some experts agree, that under the Hilton definitions just about anybody selling VoIP service could be infringing on Verizon's patents.
Stifel Nicolaus analysts, who attended the hearing Tuesday morning, say the appeals court judges had a lot of questions about Hilton's definitions.
"Judge Dyk, who we believe is one of the intellectual leaders of the court, took over and dominated the bulk of the oral argument by digging deeply into the issue of whether district court Judge Hilton gave the correct jury instructions on the scope of Verizon's (VZ) patent claims, particularly on the 'translation' claim which is included in the '574 and '711 patents that go to the core of Vonage's service," writes Stifel Nicolaus analyst Blair Levin in a brief Tuesday. (Verizon's '574 and '711 patents describe technology that moves VoIP calls back and forth between VoIP networks and circuit-switched phone networks.)
The appeals court, mind you, didn't decide the case Tuesday, only whether Vonage deserved to be protected from the lower court injunction for the length of the appeal.
Still, the hearing and the resulting order may suggest that the appeals court is receptive to Vonage's main arguments.
The appeals court is expected to begin hearing oral arguments on June 25. The court has said that it will "accelerate" the trial and hopes to render a decision in about two months.
Apple Leopard, Blu-ray Disc, and Planet Earth
Ars Technica points to some speculation on Spymac that Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard), delayed until October of this year, will support the Blu-ray Disc high-definition video format. Ars Technica's article also speculates that Apple will introduce Blu-ray Disc players into lower-priced consumer level Macs as well as professional Mac Pro and MacBook Pro hardware.
Apple joined the Blu-ray Disc Association back in March 2005. Spymac says that Apple's DVD Studio Pro disc authoring software currently supports HD DVD but not Blu-ray Disc.
On a sort of related note, engadgetHD reports that High-Def Digest just published reviews of Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD versions of BBC's Planet Earth series. Have you been watching it? The DVDs, released initially in the U.K., are narrated by David Attenborough and are phenomenal. The Discovery Channel is airing an edited version in the United States.
Hi-Def Digest raves about the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions: "...simply put, this disc delivers the kind of breathless demo material that early adopters have been craving."
This production is personally probably the only thing that could get me to shell out for Blu-ray or HD DVD. What about you?
OpenDNS Adds Browser Shortcuts to Free Service
OpenDNS added a new shortcut feature today to their useful free Internet service that lets you create extensible bookmarks accessible from any browser.
Steve Bass has previously suggested the OpenDNS service for potentially speeding your Internet connection a bit and helping with typos like "pcworld.cmo," and I've been using it at home for a while. Until today, the service was essentially invisible, doing all its work in the background while you use the Internet.
To use shortcuts, you first have to create a free OpenDNS account at opendns.com (you don't need an account for the basic OpenDNS service). Then you can create shortcuts using a bookmarklet that assigns keywords for regularly visited sites.
Type the keyword into the browser's address bar, and you'll go to that site. For example, you could create a shortcut called 'pcw' that would take you to pcworld.com.
Continue reading "OpenDNS Adds Browser Shortcuts to Free Service"
Google Web History: Very Cool, Very Creepy
What were you thinking about on November 30, 2006? If you'd asked me that question yesterday, I would have had no clue. Today, I know the answer: I was wondering about how to make international calls, checking on the definition of temperate and planning to work late. I know that because today, I set up Google Web History.
This disturbingly thorough new service keeps track of everywhere you go, what you search for and what you view on the Internet, as long as you're signed into your Google account.
While Google asks you to opt in to the Web History service, it's got a history of your Google searches already. As soon as I signed up, Google showed a history of my searches back to Dec. 22, 2005, which is probably when I first signed up for my Google account.
Now that I've signed up for Web History, Google's keeping track not only of my searches, but every page I visit while I'm signed in. (If you're like me and have checked "Remember me on this computer" on the Gmail home page, then signing in once can keep you logged into the system for as long as two weeks.)
Web History's efficiency is a little creepy. I visited thecoolhunter.net on one tab, then clicked over to the tab with Web History, clicked refresh and coolhunter appeared at the top of the list. I always knew that what I did on the net wasn't secret and was likely being tracked by one or more cookies, but seeing the tracking happen immediately hit me in a visceral way.
Of course, there are lots of handy and interesting uses of Web History. You can search your history, making it much easier to find information you remember seeing a while ago, but can't remember where. You can see what sites you visit most often, what you most often search for and even on what days and months you do most of your searching.
But one discovery about Web History made me decide to turn it off once I finish this post. The service gave me a list of the sites I most frequently clicked on. At No. 1 was a Disney site about fairies. No, I'm not stalking Tinkerbell, but my 9-year-old daughter loves the site and visits obsessively. Since my daughter frequently uses our home PC after I've checked my Gmail account, her tweaking of her online fairies goes into my browsing history. So do my wife's web searches and son's browsing. All of which makes Google Web History a sort of backdoor way for me to monitor my family's web activity. And in the end, that just seems too creepy to me.
It's becoming more and more evident that lack of reading comprehension and/or research is driving people's comments. In order for the Web History tool to be used, you have to sign in and chose what elements YOU wish to save. It is completely VOLUNTARY.
And if you're just asking now if you have the capability to reverse the onsite collection and accumulation of data you yourself volunteered to hand over ... maybe the phrase "look before you leap" would be beneficial.
crescentdave, if you have a google account, your web history is being recorded regardless of whether you choose to sign up for G Web Histroy. Signing up merely gives you access to that data.
to delete ur google web history, log on to ur gmail account
on the top left corner there will be a "my services". click on that and choose "edit" under my services. now u can delete the history service.
Coming Soon to a Gas Pump Near You: TV Ads
If you're fond of fast-forwarding through TV commercials at home, visiting the gas station is about to lose some of its appeal. The gas pump is the latest milieu in which you'll be a member of a "captive audience" for ad serving. While you fill up the car with unleaded, an LCD atop the pump will play a five-minute segment of news, sports and entertainment in an attempt to fill you up with advertisements.
Westinghouse Digital, the manufacturer of LCD TVs, and AdtekMedia today announced plans to roll out the appropriately named PumpTop TV at more than 75,000 gas station pumps. The narrowcast network delivers the programming wirelessly to 19-inch LCD screens on both sides of a pump. The displays purportedly have technologies that increase brightness and improve daylight viewing. The companies are installing them in Los Angeles, and will follow suit in northern California, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston.
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Hackers Crack Mac OS X. Big Whoop
Two hackers reportedly broke into a MacBook Pro laptop at the CanSecWest conference in Canada by exploiting a previously unknown flaw in the Safari Web browser, according to the Security Fix and Zero Day blogs.
Mac OS X has a strong reputation for security, so on the surface this sounds like a big deal. But while a zero-day flaw in a popular Web browser is nothing to ignore, this particular episode is no surprise. None at all.
We Chose Our Favorite Antivirus Today. What's Yours?
Our latest ranked review of top Vista-compatible antivirus programs just hit the wires this morning. It's a roundup of standalone apps, the kind that let you choose your own firewall and other security software, rather than the more expensive do-it-all suites.
To see who came out on top in our rankings, take a look at Virus Stoppers. The scores you'll find there resulted from plenty of testing and analysis - but we'd also love to see what you think.
Vote for your choice of the programs we tested below, or type in your own personal favorite. If you add your own, please keep in mind that this is for standalone apps rather than suites, and for programs that work under Vista as well as XP.
Wondering why McAfee isn't on the list? The company no longer sells a stand-alone antivirus app (its VirusScan Plus programs include a firewall). Also, F-Secure's standalone app wasn't Vista-ready in time for inclusion in our testing.
Ditch eWaste on Earth Day
Retailers and environmental organizations around the nation are teaming up to take your e-waste, which translates to your old cell phones, computers, peripherals, media, and other electronics that will polute the ground and air if not properly disposed of.
I've compiled a very short list of advertised places you can go on Sunday, April 22--aka Earth Day. There are many others. Check eRecycle.org to search by geographic location (although most places are in California) and type of material.
California: Wal-Mart and Sam's Club
They'll be teaming up with the California Integrated Waste Management Board and local organizations to set up drop-off spots in their parking lots.
Washington D.C.: Dell and the EPA
Between 11am and 3pm, Dell and the EPA will take back all sorts of electronics (televisions, stereos, PC, DVDs) in Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington D.C. Dell's press release says that the entrance to the site is on 13th and E streets.
Nationwide: Nokia's Phone Take-Back
If you go to one of Nokia's experience centers or flagship stores (New York and Chicago), you can pick up a pre-paid envelope for recycling any cell phone, cell-phone battery, or cell-phone accessory. If you don't live near one of these locations, you can go to Nokia's recycling Web page to print a paid postage label to mail items in.
Nationwide: Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation
This one's only for recycling batteries. Type in your zip code and how far you're willing to travel and the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation database will spit back take-back locations, which include many Radio Shack and cell-phone retail stores.
Sub-$300 HD Disc Player Coming to Wal-Mart
Engadget is reporting that Wal-Mart will soon begin selling a $299 high definition video disc player.
Problem is, Engadget's source, the Japanese tech site Akihabara News, isn't sure if the new player is HD DVD or Blu-ray. The Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats are vying to be the sole successor to standard-definition DVD format.
Or perhaps the new player is a hybrid device like the BD-UP5000 player Samsung says it will bring to market this year.
Anyway, Engadget and Akihabara News say Wal-Mart has purchased 2 million of the low-cost players from a Chinese manufacturer called Great Wall Corporation. The technology inside the player reportedly is made by the Taiwanese company Fuh Yuan, with some help from Japan's TDK.
At $299, the new player comes in at $100 less than the least expensive HD DVD player on the shelves today -- the Toshiba A2. The new player is half the price of Sony's $600 BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player, Engadget points out.
Exactly when the new $299 player will hit Wal-Mart's shelves remains unclear, but the manufacturer says the whole 2 million-unit order will be delivered to the retailer by the end of 2008.
I actually was faced with such a situation recently. My mom wanted my help picking out her first laptop. I quickly realized that Vista was then on all the new machines so I headed straight for the (Dell) refurb store (where I probably would have ended up, anyway) and picked out a nice 17" Core Duo with XP on it -- with a 3 year/nxt day/onsite/ spill & drop warranty for just about a thousand. Worked for me.
To the above commenter. If you have a PC or laptop with XP, keep it - Vista is a nightmare.
StumbleUpon Launches a New Way to Waste Time
I say this with affection: StumbleUpon is one of the great time wasters of the Web. You probably know the concept: You install the StumbleUpon toolbar in your browser, click the button and you're taken to a random web page that was recommended by another Stumbler. Once you get started, you can pretty much count on at least an hour being vacuumed from your life. You can no more click that button just once than you can eat just one chocolate chip.
Now the folks at StumbleUpon (who are denying rumors that they're being bought by eBay) have launched a new way of abducting your afternoon. Called StumbleThru, the new feature lets you restrict your random Web hopping to one site. Choices include YouTube, CNN, Flickr, Wikipedia and more. You can get the new feature by updating your Firefox or IE toolbar extention or you can go here if you'd like to try it without loading the toolbar. I'd have posted this item this morning if they hadn't added The Onion to the list. Damn you, StumbleUpon!
Skype User Numbers Grow, But Slower
New data from eBay shows that its Skype VoIP service is still picking up lots of new users, but at a slower rate than in previous quarters.
At the end of March, 196 million people had registered to use Skype. eBay isn't saying how many of those users became regular Skype users after they signed up. Still, it's a big leap from the 95 million people who had registered by end of March last year.
But the rapidly increasing popularity of cable "digital voice" service from companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable could be taking its toll on Skype's growth.
Skype added 25 million users in the first quarter of 2007, a growth of 14 percent over the previous quarter. In the last quarter of 2006, Skype added 35 million new users for a growth of 26 percent over the previous quarter.
Growth in the number of calling minutes used by Skypers also slowed. Skype users talked for 7.7 billion minutes using the free Skype-to-Skype service during the first three months of 2007. That's up only slightly from the 7.6 billion free minutes used in the last three months of 2006.
Skypers also placed 1.5 million minutes of for-pay SkypeOut calls during the first quarter of 2007. That's the same number of SkypeOut minutes Skype sold during the last quarter of 2006. No growth. The SkypeOut service connects Skype calls with regular (non-IP) land line phones and cell phones.
What's Hot at Dell? Everything but Vista
There's back and forth on whether Vista is selling poorly or well, but if recent announcements from Dell are anything to go by, the buzz is on other operating systems.
In its announcement yesterday that it is bringing XP back as an option for people buying select new Inspiron laptops and Dimension desktops, Dell said it heard its customers "loud and clear."
And before that, more than 100,000 people were just as loud and clear about wanting Linux on Dells as well, according to an announcement (scroll down) at the end of last month. The computer giant is still mum on which Linux distributions it will offer pre-installed, and on which PCs, beyond saying it will be both desktop and notebook models.
The only option for a factory-installed Linux computer from Dell right now is a high-end workstation, according to a spokesperson.
So which OS would you get on a Dell? Weigh in here:
I was shopping for a laptop for my wife yesterday and looked at Gateways. All of the machines on their site are configured with Vista but, if you talk or chat with a sales rep, they'll build one with XP and you can forego the extra gig of ram and industrial graphics.
As it happened though, I found a loaded Lenovo 3000 at Tech For Less...new, factory sealed Core 2 Duo T5500 with a gig of ram and a 120GB hard disk and XP Home...900 bucks including shipping. Bad news? I got the last one. :)
I purchased a Dell laptop just as Vista was released. Since Vista was under development for years I expected there to just the Vista learning curve to deal with. WRONG! It's no wonder Dell has gotten so much negative feedback. When Vista and the apps are working together, it pretty nice. Unfortunately most software was having a problem of one type or another. Dell support was completely clueless to help. So was the software mfr that Dell pre-foisted upon me. So I ended up using my own years of experience to rip out most of the malfunctioning software. I've gotten rid of error msgs and nag msgs which was good enough. Clearly Vista needed a few more months of compatibility testing by vendors!!
Offering OSX would be superb!
Note that if Dell sends you an OS you didn't want (like Vista) you can ask them for a refund. They've honored such refunds in the past; and apparently even if they refuse the license agreement say you can return the OS if it's unused.
For some info on the process:
http://ideastorm.com/article/show/66143/Switching_from_Vista_to_XP_dont_use_Vista_and_you_can_get_it_refunded
De-Crapify New PCs
I just read about a little software gem called "The PC Decrapifier" on the Security Fix blog - a free download that will remove at least some of the load of trialware crap that comes installed on most every new PC, without your having to manually uninstall each one.
Love the sound of it, though I haven't yet tried it myself. Security Fix says it nixed a fair amount of the unasked-for software clutter, but ran a little slow.
Head to the PC Decrapifier site to download it, and to see a list of trialware it will remove.
I thought this was a nifty tool, too, when I read about it on PCWorld's site last year (Yardena Arar's Consumer Watch article 7/24/2006).
Ouch.
aside from the fact I'll never match the neatness of little chicken's post, I'd still like to respond to eklarkin' about ... so, as a matter of fact, you cede first rights to other, less professional blogs and then you'll hoover up what strikes your fancy?
That good enough for PC World? Not to bust your balls, but ... unless you're an volunteer intern, this kind of performance puts your job on the endangered species.
A little too little and a little too late is the norm here. The norm.
Google in Privacy Hot Seat, Again
Google is in the hot seat again. It's faced this time with privacy advocates white knuckled and anxious over its proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. Privacy groups are worried a Google DoubleClick combo will turn Google into Big Brother - or worse the Thought Police.
In a joint complaint filed today to the Federal Trade Commission by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group the privacy groups are calling for an investigation into the potential threat to consumer privacy posed by Google's planned acquisition of DoubleClick. Here is a link to the copy of the complaint(Acrobat file). And here is a link to our news story.
I think the complaint is worthy and I applaud those behind it. Whether or not the complaint to the FTC derails the acquisition or not, Google needs to be monitored closely for what it is today and what it is quickly becoming.
Google, to me, seems a lot like a nuclear reactor. There are obvious pluses (great Web services) and worrisome cons. For example what happens when something goes wrong at Google?
As Google has grown, so has the amount of data it can collect from you. In so doing, with each new product offering (Google Desktop, GMail, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets) it has upped the privacy ante in the amount of data it collects. If Google suffers a privacy screw up it has the potential of being the digital equivalent of the nuclear nightmare at Three Mile Island. If Google gobbles up DoubleClick the stakes are raised to the Chernobyl level.
What Will Google Do With Your Web Tracks?
A combined DoubleClick and Google would have an unprecedented ability to profile you and me. In 2005, more than 60 million American adults used search engines on a typical day, according to the complaint filed today. DoubleClick reaches an estimated 80 to 85 percent of the users of Internet with its ads, according to the complaint.
To me it seems Google's desire to own DoubleClick contravenes its "Don't be evil" policy. DoubleClick has a sordid history with privacy activists. In 2000 the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint to the FTC accusing it of violating a section of the law forbidding "unfair and deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce."
EPIC was concerned about DoubleClick when it bought access to a trove offline data when it acquired Abacus Direct, a marketing firm. EPIC's complaint centered on DoubleClick's "Abacus Online," a group of DoubleClick's clients for which the advertising company tracks Web surfers' habits using online data, such as IP addresses, with off line data such as names, postal addresses, and catalog purchase histories.
In March of 2000, DoubleClick's CEO Kevin O?Connor released a statement that said that the company made a ?mistake by planning to merge names with anonymous user activity across Web sites in the absence of government and industry privacy standards.? Since then DoubleClick has been on a watch-list of privacy activists.
For me, the jury is out on whether DoubleClick puts my privacy before its business model of selling ads.
Possible Future Privacy Meltdown
Today's joint complaint points to concerns it has with Google's search engine.
"Search terms entered into the main Google search engine alone may reveal a plethora of personal information such as an individual's medical issues, associations, religious beliefs, political preferences, sexual orientation, and investments monitored."
Privacy concerns don't just stop with search. Google's tentacles now extend to a number of different areas as Ed Albro points out in a recent blog How Paranoid Should You Be about Google?
The fear among privacy activists is the acquisition of DoubleClick will permit Google to track both your Internet searches and the Web sites you visit.
The complaint also points out that Google stores your search activity marrying it with your IP address. Last month Google announced that it would soon begin to ?anonymize? the data linking search terms to a specific IP address after 18 to 24 months. Big whoop, I say.
Will "anonymizing" (only identifying the user by a number) be enough? I agree with privacy activist that say no.
Last year 658,000 anonymous AOL users had their search records picked through by a New York Times reporters who quickly matched a number of people with anonymous search data.
Take a look at this site called AOL Search Logs that stands as a lasting reminder of an Internet behemoth's screw up. The site is dedicated to making it easy to profile people based on "anonymized" data.
As the complaint points out "Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick will give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world."
Like a nuclear reactor, we must have complete trust that the people behind Google know what they are doing. Do you?
Want to Beta Test the Next Media Center?
Microsoft put out the word today that it's looking for brave users to beta test forthcoming updates to Windows Media Center. If you're a serious Media Center fan, this might be an interesting opportunity to help shape future versions of this home media app.
The sign-up page keeps mum on which new features Microsoft has planned for the upcoming release, but Charlie Owen's blog and the Media Center Sandbox--two of my favorite feeds from the Media Center dev team--often share interesting tidbits on all things Media Center. Check out the sign-up page if you're interested.
AT&T IPTV Spreading, Doing New Tricks
Buying TV service from the telephone company still sounds a little strange (in North America at least), but new numbers from AT&T suggest that the idea might be catching on.
AT&T began offering its U-verse IPTV service in 2006, but spent much of the year slowly learning how to serve high-bandwidth video (reliably) over a converted telephone network. The company said in January that it had signed up only 3,000 U-verse customers by the end of 2006.
But in a new statement Wednesday AT&T says that number has now grown to about 18,000. The company says it's now installing the new service in roughly 2,000 new households per week; that's about five times the rate it was managing in January.
AT&T also said Wednesday it will begin offering the U-verse video service to customers in Los Angeles in the next few weeks. U-verse is already available in selected parts of San Francisco and San Jose, California.
In the first three months of 2007, AT&T launched U-verse in Milwaukee, Kansas City and Dallas. The service launched last year in Indianapolis, Indiana; Hartford, Connecticut and San Antonio and Houston, Texas.
Big phone companies like AT&T, Verizon and Qwest are betting that selling video service will answer the cable companies, which have moved aggressively into selling (IP) telephone service. The telcos also know that their video services must be better than--not just comperable to--those of the cable companies.
The promise of IPTV has always been the cool stuff that might result when video is blended with other IP services like Internet access, telephony and wireless service. For instance, AT&T said Thursday that U-verse users can now access their TV listings and program their DVRs remotely using either a Web browser or a cell phone.
Hopefully, that's just the start. Other, more interesting service "mashups" might be offered in the future. For instance, while watching your (IP)TV, a text message might arrive on your screen from your kid's cell phone. Or, you might be able to open a "collaborative viewing" session with a cross-country friend in which you watch TV and talk in real time.
IPTV, the phone companies say, is also bi-directional, so TV watching might become a far more interactive experience than it is now. In services like U-verse, video packets are sent down to the set-top box in the living room, and the set-top box can also send messages back.
I'm not talking about just voting for American Idol here. New software companies are showing up with add-on products that will allow IPTV watchers to play games together and even vote for political candidates.
Now if they could just figure out how to put everything on ONE remote. Stay tuned.
Intuit to Refund Some TurboTax E-File Charges
Intuit today said it will automatically refund any credit card charges incurred by TurboTax e-file customers who experienced long delays or were unable to file Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, when the company's overloaded servers malfunctioned.
?We deeply regret the frustration and anxiety this caused our customers,? Steve Bennett, president and chief executive officer of Intuit, said in a statement. ?This is not the experience customers have come to expect from Intuit. It?s not acceptable to us, and we will do right by our customers who were impacted by this delay.?
The Internal Revenue Service yesterday gave individuals and accountants who use Intuit's TurboTax, ProSeries and Lacerte products until midnight tonight to file electronically after record volumes of last-minute filers choked the company's back-end electronic filing systems.
Intuit said it would work directly with the impacted ProSeries and Lacerte customers--accountants and accounting firms--to make amends, and would automatically refund any credit card charges incurred by individual TurboTax customers between 3 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, April 17 and 4 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, April 18.
Intuit also pledged to pay any other penalties--presumably from state tax authorities--that any of its customers incur as a result of the delays. No details have yet been provided on how the company will do this.
Intuit said its investigation of the problems showed that the company had sufficient capacity in place to process the record volume of last-minute returns. It blamed the delays on "an intermittent database problem in the company's e-filing system."
Cingular Offers International Data Roaming Plan
If you've ever activated a Cingular--I mean, AT&T--smartphone for overseas roaming and used its data features with any frequency, you've probably encountered the kind of sticker shock I got after my recent 10-day trip to Barcelona for 3GSM (and a brief post-show holiday). Instead of the usual monthly $120-$130 bill for the family plan my husband and I share, I had to pay in excess of $700!
So when I got an e-mail earlier today saying that the carrier was introducing international PDA data rate plans, I was excited--at first. I had looked closely at my bill, and most of the additional charges were for data roaming, not voice calls.
AT&T had previously introduced international data plans for BlackBerry and for laptop users with PC Card or embedded modems. But today's announcement extends such services to smartphones and handhelds.
For $45 a month (if you have a smartphone with a traditional numeric keypad) or $70 a month (if your device has a QWERTY keyboard), AT&T will give you unlimited domestic data (normally $20 or $45 a month for smartphones and full-keyboard devices, respectively) plus up to 20MB of data in some 30 countries abroad.
A one-year commitment is required, so the offer won't help me--I just don't travel overseas that often. And if you routinely transfer big files (such as images or, heaven forbid, video) you'll quickly run into the 20MB limit; after that, you'll have to pay 1/2 cent per kilobyte, which comes to $5 a megabyte if my math is right. So heavy usage still probably wouldn't be cheap.
Oh well. I have to go on a data diet when next I travel abroad.
MySpace Turns On the News
MySpace went live with a beta version of its news site Thursday. (Not that anybody would know it--there's no sign of the new site at the MySpace homepage.)
MySpace News uses an "aggregator" model, meaning that it produces no original content, but rather gathers up news from other outlets all over the Web.
At the time of this writing, MySpace News featured articles from the Washington Post, Time, IMDb News, Fox Sports and a Hollywood gossip site called PopBytes. Oh, and this breaking AP story: "Donkey Testifies in Dallas Noise Complaint Trial."
Readers can register their opinions of stories using a 5-point scale from "hated it" to "loved it". The stories that get the most positive votes appear at the top of the news page. It's easy to tell how many votes a story has already received, but I found it difficult to tell how many of those votes were thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
Anybody--Myspace members or not--can access the news page, but only members can vote on articles.
Digg.com is probably the best known example of this sort of news-aggregation-and-rating site, although a growing number of lesser-known sites (Reddit, Newsvine) do the same thing in one flavor or another.
Also, many of the stories at MySpace News appear to be hosted at MySpace's servers. When a story link is clicked, the browser usually goes to a page with a MySpace News header at the top and the story below. The URL indicates a MySpace domain. Other story links take the browser directly out to the sites where the story originates.
Users can also suggest their own RSS feeds, blogs and Web sites to MySpace for inclusion in the MySpace news. If their news passes muster, they get to post this fancy logo at their site:
Since its launch, MySpace has slowly added new things for its roughly 170 million users to do at the site, other than just social networking. The site features everything from local event listings to horoscopes to viral video, and will soon launch a gaming area. The longer MySpace members stay at the site, the more "views" the banner ads get.
Ubuntu Servers Overwhelmed
Typically, when a company's web site is down that's a bad thing -- a very bad thing. But according to one web monitoring site, Ubuntu.com has been down more than it's been up today, and in this case, that's a good thing.
The Linux developers released their new version 7.04 today, also known as Feisty Fawn, and it appears there's so much interest in the new OS that Ubuntu's servers just couldn't handle it. When I looked at Pingdom.com this morning, it reported the site had been up only 44 percent of the time. It was unavailable for more than 11 hours (Pingdom is located in Europe, so their day starts earlier than ours.) When I went to Ubuntu.com, I got a single page with links to mirror sites for downloading the OS and this note:
"Ubuntu 7.04 - Well Done
Thank you to everyone who has helped make Ubuntu 7.04 a reality. Thousands of you have helped code, test, translate and promote Ubuntu and everyone can celebrate today's release.
If you are looking for general information about the Ubuntu project, the main site will be back shortly."
One of the things Linux has needed to be more mainstream, I think, is more of a consensus on what the best distribution is to use. That makes it easier to share tips and tweaks and makes distributing software easier. Ubuntu seems to have locked up the designation of best distro for individual users and that should be positive.
Our Free Agent columnist, Matthew Newton, has been testing Feisty Fawn for quite a while and has lots of insight and tips for you. Go here for information about Feisty Fawn's new features and read today's column for seven things you've got to do once you've installed the new version.
I'll bet you here's why these servers had trouble. Those of us who've been using truly free software for years understand you're supposed to figure out what you want and get it from the nearest mirror site. But Ubuntu is reaching the rest of humanity who never heard of mirrors. So they all tried to get the file from Canonical's own servers, instead of monsters like mirrors.kernel.org and ftp.nluug.nl that can take the loads. Betcha betcha betcha.
Ads Coming to YouTube Sooner or Later
The party, or at least the free party, may be coming to an end at YouTube. The rumor coming out of the Net 2.0 conference in San Francisco Wednesday is that the wildly popular viral video site is very close to running ads around its videos.
Variety quoted Wallstrip founder Howard Lindzon as saying YouTube could begin running ads as soon as next week. Lindzon denies saying it, but says in a note to PC World that he believes the ads are coming at some point. Wallstrip regularly posts its stock analysis videos on YouTube.
Here's the official line from Google/YouTube: "We are actively exploring a variety of ways to help the community to monetize content, and expect to announce something in the coming months that users will embrace," a spokesperson said Wednesday afternoon. "We will not comment on further speculation on programs we haven't yet announced."
Lindzon says he's in favor of a system where YouTube gives vloggers (video bloggers) the option to have ads wrapped around their videos, the revenues being shared 50-50 between the two parties.
It's no secret that Google is trying to figure out the right formula for turning YouTube's massive traffic numbers into massive profits. That's what Google does. YouTube says it serves up more than 100 million videos every day, yet the site brought in only about $15 million in revenues last year, analysts estimate. Weigh that against the $1.65 billion Google paid for YouTube and you can see why the ad-minded Google people are looking to get some ad revenues going. The trick is doing that without alienating too many of YouTube's loyal fans.
Here's a bit from the YouTube Fact Sheet: YouTube is pursuing advertising as its business model, and is exploring a range of possibilities including PVAs (participatory video ads) promotions, sponsorships, contextual-based advertising, traditional banner advertising, etc.
Undetected Warezov Worm on the March Again
I came in this morning to find nine e-mails with a subject of 'Mail server report' sitting in my inbox. They're of course malware, with the same type of subject and message body as previous malware blasts.
Thing is, I immediately recognized them - but the anti-spam and antivirus at my work network and my desktop didn't. They all made it through to my inbox no questions asked.
What's more, I uploaded the .zip file attachment - Update-KB4901-x86.zip - to Virustotal.com, a site I've been using more and more lately. Virustotal runs anything you upload through 31 different antivirus scanners. None of them caught this variant.
F-Secure put up a post today saying it recognizes this blast as the Warezov worm, but it didn't recognize the file I uploaded on Virustotal's scan.
Part of the reason for this universal blind eye may be that the attachment is in .zip form. It's entirely possible that many of these scanners might recognize the worm if I unzipped the file (which would give me an executable .exe file, according to F-Secure's post).
But I'm not going to test that on my work desktop - even saving the inactive .zip file to my desktop (so that I can upload it to Virustotal) gives me the willies. I know that the .exe shouldn't do anything unless I double-click it, but I'm playing it safe. Sort of.
It may also be that, as often happens, the jerks behind Warezov are churning out new variants faster than the antivirus programs can react.
In any case, this just goes to show that no matter how many security tools you use (and you should at least use some sort of antivirus program and firewall), your own good sense is still your best protection. Stay sharp.
There are new malware threats coming out all the time, and unless you have a good security suite, like one from Anonymizer.com, you are going to have a lot of problems battling those threats. It can be scary out there, but if you have the right protection, it doesn't have to be.
WeeWorld Puts Faces to Names Online
WeeWorld is outfitting people for Web 2.0. I ran into the company at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco Wednesday.
At the WeeWorld site, you can create a cartoon-like alter-ego (called a WeeMee) that represents you in IM conversations, at social networking sites and in blogs.
WeeMees tell online contacts something about what you look like, dress like and feel like. Well, in broad strokes anyway.
Actually, WeeMees look a lot like South Park characters.
I wanted one. So WeeWorld general manager for North America Lauren Bigelow took me to her company's site to get my WeeMee on. After I quickly registered for an account, we began accessorizing.
Here's the result:
Note that I like pizza and soccer. Note how my tuxedo top, ripped jeans and pink shades perfectly set off the angsty, Web 2.0 expression I chose for my face.
Bigelow says WeeWorld has developed an API that allows other sites to host the WeeMee-building program. For instance, I could build my WeeMee at the sites of WeeWorld partners like MSN and AOL.
Now when I send someone an IM using AOL AIM, Skype, Windows Live Messenger or Excite, my WeeMee appears beside the text I send. I can also make my WeeMee do tricks like smile, laugh, cry, fall asleep or throw up (really), all for the entertainment (or disgust) of my IM buddies.
WeeMees recognize keywords in IM text, too. If you happen to type the word "sleepy" or "tired" in your IM, chances are your WeeMee will take a little nap. If you type in "angry" your WeeMee might begin to fume.
Bigelow says WeeWorld's purpose is to make online life a little more fun and expressive. WeeWorld's target demo is the thirteen to thirty-year-old crowd.
Not surprising; it's easy to see how the younger set would dig this stuff. Bigelow says 20 percent of WeeWorld members re-accessorize their WeeMees every day! Seventy percent change it once a week, she says.
Thunderbird 2 Released Today
The new version 2 of Mozilla's popular open-source e-mail client is now available for download.
Take a look at my recent review of the feature-complete release candidate for a rundown on the new features and changes. But in short, I like it. Version 2 doesn't introduce any earth-shattering new features, but message tags and other additions can make everyday e-mail work smoother and easier.
You can download the new version at http://www.getthunderbird.com. If you're using 1.5 already, it's an easy upgrade that will preserve all your e-mail, contacts and settings.
Apple iPhone: Arriving Later, Costing Less?
Is there any other tech device that is more of a magnet for rumors, many completely unfounded, than phones? Apple's iPhone is by far the champ, of course. There were avalanches of rumors about it before it was ever announced and they haven't slowed much since Steve Jobs's January announcement. You might of heard yesterday's batch about iPhone rebates. When Jobs first announced the phone, there was no talk of price breaks: If you wanted an iPhone, you'd have to pay through the nose -- $499 for a 4 GB version and $599 for one with 8 GB of storage. Now, there are rumors of the kinds of rebates you'd get with any other kind of phone, somewhere in the $50 to $150 range.
But that's not all. One report out of Australia says the iPhone may be delayed. The theory is that initial versions are a little lacking in the sturdiness department and that running OS X sucks your battery dry. But like most rumors that are said to come from handset manufacturers, this one should be taken with a big grain of salt. Apple recently sent customers an email promising the phone would ship in June. And since Apple recently delayed the release of Leopard, the next version of OS X, in order to devote engineers to the iPhone, slipping on the phone's release as well would be a major embarassment.
Want more phone rumors? Of course, you do. The last I have (for now) is more rumbling about a supposed Google phone. This rumor again comes theoretically from a handset maker, HTC, and says that the Google phone would launch at the end of this year, featuring EDGE and (naturally) Gmail and Google Maps. This one seems the most implausible to me. For one thing, a Google exec publicly stomped on the rumors last month (not that that necessarily changes people's minds). But mainly it just doesn't make much sense to me that Google would want to get involved in producing hardware.
The great thing about rumors, though, is we can all play along. So let me know which of the rumors is most plausible -- or make up your own!
It is more plausible that Google will join with a hardware company to design software for phones instead of producing the phone itself. They already bundle Google software with everything, even harddrives. seeing 'Google phone' isnt as likely to happen as say, 'The new Motorola Razr - with Google technology'
And, with Google's track record, you can't exactly have a phone in beta for three+ years.
Sony Replaces Some Copy-Protected DVDs
Sony DADC says it will replace copy-protected DVDs that are "incompatible" with a small number of DVD players. Sony says 20 DVD titles are affected including Open Season, Casino Royal, Stranger Than Fiction, Rocky Balboa, and The Holiday.
The Sony DVD disc incompatibility problem stems from Sony's use of the ARccOS copy protection system. Sony says the copy protection technology was used on a small number of DVDs that passed initial compatibility tests with DVD players. Sony estimates as many as 25 million DVDs have the incompatible version of the ARccOS copy protection technology on them.
One sign your DVD player may not be compatible with one of the 20 Sony DVD titles is when the DVD loads and displays the title screen but then freezes. After about 60 seconds the player turns itself off.
Sony says it has received complaints on less than 1000th of one percent of the affected discs shipped over the past few months--just a couple hundred complaints.
The vendor didn't supply a list of affected DVD players or say how many DVD players are impacted. The company would only say the number is very small. One of the DVD players impacted was a Sony DVD player model Sony DVP-CX995V, according to a Sony Pictures customer service repetitive.
Consumers who have purchased one of the 20 faulty Sony DVD movie titles can call Sony Pictures Home Entertainment at 1-800-860-2878 and request a replacement DVD. Sony says it has corrected the problem with ARccOS copy protection.
Here is Sony's official statement:
Continue reading "Sony Replaces Some Copy-Protected DVDs"
So where's the complete list of 20? Sony told me on the phone that if I didn't already have the list, they couldn't release that information to me. Chutzpah! They're the ones that screwed up. Now I have to dig for information?
CDRInfo plagiarizes again!!!!
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=20244
One thousandth of one per cent is a meaningless statistic if we don't know which players are affected. If those are new models, the numbers will change/swell dramatically. What it boils down to is: just because a disc works in my present equipment does not mean it will work in a new system. Will Sony still stand by a replacement 3 years down the road? Of course we're also not supposed to lend or trade DVD movies. This is a fiasco AGAIN!! Class action anybody??
Web 2.0: Tellme Goes Up Against Google 411
Tellme.com announced a free new cell-phone-centric business search service today at the Web 2.0 conference here in San Francisco.
You can call a number (1-800-555-TELL) and use an automated menu to get a business listing, much like Google's new 411 service. Tellme recognized my neighborhood in San Francisco when I asked for 'barbeque' listings and offered a number of them for me to choose from.
Also like Google's 411, you can ask the automated service to send you the details as an SMS message if you're on a cell phone. But where Google sends just an address and phone number, Tellme also sends a link to an interactive online map, useful if your phone has a Web browser and data plan.
Or you can send the request as an SMS message in the first place by texting 83356 (Google 411 is 466453). I found this option to be faster and easier, personally.
If that's not enough, Tellme showed me a downloadable cell phone app that lets you speak your request like you would with the phone service and then displays the results. It requires a data access plan with Cingular or Sprint, and it's only available for some phone models. Along with the number, address and map, you can request driving directions through the app.
In the noisy conference hall, the app had trouble recognizing some of my spoken requests, but you can also type in a search. Point your phone's browser to http://m.tellme.com to see if it's available for your phone.
Tried it. USELESS
Just wanted to let everyone know that there are more than these 2 players when it comes to free 411. 1-800-Free411 has been doing it for a long time, and while we don't have all the bells and whistles as the convoluted stuff above, we do now have category search (details: http://www.free411.com/about/pressreleases/p20070320). Searching by listing or by category, and getting your information for free, are all you really need.
Paul
Web 2.0: Picture Passwords Promise Better Security
Pick three pictures, and you're logged in. That is, if you're using the new login scheme announced today at the Web 2.0 conference by Internet start-up Vidoop.
Instead of typing a text password, with Vidoop's system you'll see a grid of pictures with super-imposed letters on each one. You find the pictures that match categories you've previously chosen, such as dogs pics or flower shots, and type the letters associated with three category-matching pictures.
Continue reading "Web 2.0: Picture Passwords Promise Better Security"
myVidoop.com has added functionality this week that allows myVidoop users to install a FireFox Plug-In that can safely store your Web 1.0 usernames and passwords securely behind Parent companies Vidoop solution Vidoop Secure TM. myVidoop users can manage their security levels, text ahead request to lock or activate manage their accounts using their registered mobile phone. Check it out. Oh, and the private beta is over so everyone can register for their very own myVidoop account. Enjoy!
NAB: Sneak Peek at Silverlight
Microsoft's made some waves with Silverlight, its new browser plug-in for video playback that could challenge Flash's Web supremacy. (See the Adobe CEO's view on that here.)
Formerly code-named WPF/E (Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere), the plug-in lets users play back video or interactive multimedia content in high-def or standard-def on the desktop for example, or view video optimized for mobile on their browser-enabled handheld of choice. It works with IE, Firefox, and Safari on both Macs and PCs (Opera support is not there yet, but should be coming). The beta should be available for download in about 2 weeks, with a final version out sometime this summer.
Like Adobe's Flash plug-in, when you go to an enabled Web site, you'd be prompted to download Silverlight and then you'd see a screen like the one below, and select among available clips.
Depending on the site, you may then be able to view the content in HD, as in the example below.
Silverlight supports the WMV, WMA, and VC-1 (used for in HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, for example) file formats. Content owners can also overlay ads or ticker tape-style information along the bottom of the screen.
Web and desktop content designers can use with Microsoft's Expression Studio Suite to create content for Silverlight. The suite has four major components: Expression Web, Expression Design, Expression Blend, and Expression Media (not all apps are currently shipping in the final version). One component in particular will be enhanced to work with Silverlight.
"Expression Blend will be extended to support development of interactive media experiences for Macs and Windows," said Sean Alexander, Director of Silverlight Media. These new interactive video files would then be played back through Silverlight.
Microsoft also previewed another product, the $299 Expression Media Encoder (shown below), which will make it easier for both pros and less experienced users to take say, a QuickTime file, and then easily convert it for Silverlight playback. The software is robust enough to scale the output for mobile on up to high-definition video.
Microsoft will release more information on Expression and Silverlight at its MIX 2007 conference at the end of April.
If Microsoft Redesigned the iPod's Packaging
If Microsoft were designing the iPod's packaging, what would it look like? Here's one idea...
NAB: Microsoft Debuts Interactive Media Manager
Microsoft has tailored a content management system and collaborative work tools for the entertainment industry, pulling technologies that existed in other Microsoft products, such as Windows Workflow Foundation, which is a set of tools for building workflow-enabled apps on Windows. The new Interactive Media Manager is a server based application with several customizable parts to aid content producers, such as the Media Library, shown below, with thumbnails of video assets in the first image, and a close up of the playback window with chapter thumbnails in the second.
Other parts of Interactive Media Manager include the Media Viewer, where you'll find the file annotations and time codes in industry standard form; the Media Annotator, which lets groups collaborate on the project, make notes to share, and discuss the work; the Media Import, which brings in new media files and starts prepping information gathering for the new project; and the Media Cart, which lets users essentially check out images to edit locally or send to specific other users in the group.
The product also integrates with Outlook, for example, so users can get notifications or forms required for the project's progress directly in their inboxes; you can also get such notices and forms via an RSS feed. Interactive Media Manager supports IE, Firefox, and Safari on both Windows and Macs.
The product is available now. It's an extension of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Web 2.0: Tim O'Reilly's Cautious Enthusiasm
Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, admitted in his address to the developers and marketers in the Web 2.0 Expo crowd yesterday afternoon that he and his company "cheerlead for you." O'Reilly (no relation to me) realizes that not every great idea translates into Internet riches. "There's definitely going to be failures of companies," he pointed out.
But at the same time, he believes there are plenty of killer apps in the Web's future. "We're at the VisiCalc level," he explained, comparing the Web's maturity to that of the dawn of the PC era some 30 years ago, when Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston created the first electronic spreadsheet for the Apple II.
O'Reilly envisions a pervasive global network, one characterized by "persistent computing that happens to all of us, that is all around us," and that can "harness collective intelligence."
At events such as this week's conference, it's difficult not to get caught up in the excitement, wondering which three- or four-person operation will end up the target of a multimillion-dollar acquisition bidding war. Of course, for every Web success story there are hundreds of flameouts. What separates the former from the latter is anybody's guess.
Google Says Copyright Video Filter Almost Ready
Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Monday his company is just weeks away from activating a new system that will filter out copyright-protected videos on the Google Video and YouTube sites.
That's important because while sites like YouTube have proved wildly popular, they also provide ready homes for copyright-violating video. Examples might be clips from shows like Saturday Night Live and the L Word.
The big companies that own that content have been of two minds on the issue. On one hand they recognize that video sharing sites usually post only short bits of their shows, and may ultimately increase the visibility of their content. But on the other hand they don't like the idea of people watching their video for free and without ads.
Lately that second mindset seems to be winning out. Pressure has mounted on Google and others to provide a means of proactively finding and removing copyright-protected video content. The content owners have become increasingly frustrated that they are responsible for locating and pulling copyrighted video at the video sites.
That frustration led Viacom to file a $1 billion lawsuit against Google last month, claiming "massive intentional copyright infringement" on YouTube.
The lawsuit came after some long weeks of discussion between the two companies. "After a great deal of unproductive negotiation, and remedial efforts by ourselves and other copyright holders, YouTube continues in its unlawful business model," Viacom said at the time.
Google, of course, hopes its new filtering system will persuade Viacom to call off its lawyers so that the two media giants can play nice again. "With Viacom you're either doing a business deal with them or you're being sued by them," Google's Schmidt said Monday.
Viacom and other greed-pits should be required to either permit use of its programming or to create a site where subscribers can obtain important clips. As a case in point, I had no idea what Ismus actually said (re: ladies basketball team) until I played the remarks on YouTube. This time, I actually agreed that he should be disciplined, but I would have maintained my typical cynical view toward those who wish to remove our freedom of speech had I not seen the clip.
How Paranoid Should I Be about Google?
I'm not generally a member of the tin-foil hat society, but I have to admit that Google's plan to buy the DoubleClick ad network has me a little nervous. Google's competitors are worried that it's amassing an ad-serving monopoly, but that's not what bothers me.
Instead, I just started to think about everything Google could end up knowing about me:
What I search for: Google's cookie lasts for decades and could be keeping a record of every search query I submit.
Continue reading "How Paranoid Should I Be about Google?"
I don't understand why a lot of people are worried about this Google information.
1) If you don't have anything to worry about, then what's the complaint.
2) If you use any of the following, then the same liberal approach should be brought towards them:
Credit Card
Debit Card
Credit for purchases (Experian, Trans Union, Equifax)
Toll Tag
Check
You should be more worried about ID Theft than what Search's, Ad's, etc you use through Google.
In response to your "liberal" condemning comment, let me just say:
1. I am not worried that Google or any other corporation or government agency will correctly use information about me. I am worried that they will abuse the information process.
2. The fact that those five cited sources of potential abuse of my personal information exist does not reduce the concern about adding a sixth (and likely more encompassing) data gathering agency.
"Data Mining" has been happening for many years. I worked for a company in the Dal/FtWrth area that does this for many credit cards. Why do you think once you make purchase X, afterwards you begin receiving mail related to purchase X.
Someday, you'll be driving down the toll way and BAM an Ad for product X you've purchased in the past appears on a billboard!
Watch what you buy... hahaha
Web 2.0: Amazon Has IT in Its Sights
Amazon made its name nearly a decade ago as the world's largest bookstore, but founder and CEO Jeff Bezos also sees the company as a supplier of processor cycles to corporate IT departments. That's one part of Amazon's three-pronged strategy, as outlined by Bezos in a presentation and conversation with O'Reilly Media founder and CEO Tim O'Reilly at this week's Web 2.0 Expo.
The first part is what Amazon is famous for: Selling goods to consumers. Bezos told the audience of Web service vendors and developers that when looking to the future, it's important to consider what's likely to remain the same as well as what may change. People will continue to require that goods of all type be delivered to them, and Amazon is ready with on-demand warehouses offering businesses large and small places to store goods prior to delivery to customers.
In addition to its services to consumers, Bezos pointed out that Amazon allows Web developers to use its application programming interfaces to enhance Amazon's services. The company was one of the first to see its service as a platform for families of other services, created in house as well as by third parties.
The area with perhaps the most potential for Amazon is its business with large and midsize organizations. Its Simple Storage Service (S3) offers a flat rate of 15 cents per gigabyte of storage per month, and 20 cents per gigabyte transferred. The company is betting that its expertise in managing massive storage farms will extend to processing as well. The new Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2), currently in limited beta, offers the same on-demand capacity for an IT department's processing. Customers pay 10 cents per instance-hour used, or portion of an hour, in addition to their S3 storage and transfer fees.
Amazon isn't the only Web behemoth with sights on offering low-level Web services to IT departments. Google and Microsoft are among the big names building or planning massive processing and data-storage facilities, up to and including their placement near high-capacity energy generators such as hydro-electric dams. The companies hope to capitalize on their expertise in running server farms the size of Rhode Island.
(Note that the companies are focusing on relatively simple storage and processing, leaving the trickier application-level stuff for another day.)
So does this mean we'll soon be saying "bye-bye" to the specially-constructed IT departments found in nearly every company large enough to need its own parking lot? What are the implications of computer storage and processing becoming a commodity in the hands of a few large companies?
NAB: Adobe Previews New Media Player
Adobe gave its new free desktop media player one heck of an introduction on Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters show, with live demos at its booth and at its event on Monday night, which also showcased its updated Creative Suite products.
The player only works with Flash video files, but that's not a debilitating limitation given that standard's ubiquity in online video (though Microsoft would like to change that with its new Silverlight plug-in). Moreover, the player lets you easily download, store and playback Flash videos locally--not just stream them--and integrates a number of cool features that make it worth a look. The public beta will be out this summer, with a 1.0 release scheduled for fall, according to Mark Randall, Adobe's Chief Strategist for Dynamic Media.
The starter page of the media player (shown below) presents users with a number of options. On the left, you'll see new content that's become available since you last checked in--that content could be from an RSS feed you subscribe to and that downloaded in the background, or new videos that you've manually downloaded recently, for example.
(For a larger version of this screenshot, click here.)
On top of the main area, you can see selections from your local catalog, organized (for the moment since the player's UI is still a work in progress) either by genre, most recent, or channel. To the left of the viewing screen, you can also see friends' recommendations, and top-rated videos from services you subscribe to.
When you're playing a clip, the skin can change to reflect the content--so you'd get a Daily Show-themed skin if you're watching a video from that Comedy Central program, for instance. You do, of course, have the option not to allow the skin to change according to what you're viewing. And as with any other media player, you can get rid of all the catalog and recent videos sections if you just want to maximize the video you're watching.
One mixed blessing: The player lets content owners and service providers embed advertising and shopping tie-ins into the video file. So you could see an overlay ad--either a static image or a small video clip--on the bottom corner of the screen as you're watching the main attraction, even when you're offline.
And the player makes it very easy for sites to let you buy merchandize featured in the video you watch: You might see an icon of the potential purchase in the corner, say the CD of the artist whose music video you're watching, or a jacket a performer is wearing; if you want to buy it, you'd click the image, the main video would pause and you'd be taken to a shopping screen. This feature works whether you're online or off, though the specifics of the shopping engine--whether you'd then have to go online to complete the purchase or whether it would remember the order until you next log in, for example--will depend on individual sites.
The initial release will be for Macs and Windows PCs only, though Adobe's Randall expects that in the future the player could go onto mobile devices as well.
Adobe also announced shipment of its Creative Suite 3 in the Design Premium and Standard Editions as well as the Web Premium and Standard Editions, plus the public beta release of Premiere Pro (which will be available for Macs for the first time in years) and After Effects. Also check out our reviews of the previously released beta of Photoshop CS3 and Dreamweaver CS3.
NAB: Feds to Help Pay for Your Digital TV Changeover
On February 17, 2009, television stations will essentially stop transmitting analog signals and switch fully to digital broadcast. To continue to get your TV fix, you may need new equipment, and the government's ready to give you some money to buy it.
If you get your TV from a cable or satellite provider, for example, you should be set without the help: your provider should ensure that your set top box can handle the digital signals. However, if you have even one TV set that relies on old rabbit ears to get any TV reception at all, you'll need a converter to keep up with 24 and Grey's Anatomy.
Continue reading "NAB: Feds to Help Pay for Your Digital TV Changeover"
Internet Radio on Life Support Again
The Copyright Review Board dealt a serious blow to Internet Radio today, when it denied a request to reconsider its March ruling that would greatly increase fees broadcasters pay to copyright holders. The original ruling called for a serious escalation of fees, to the point where most small, medium, and even large Internet radio broadcasters would not be able to afford to continue broadcasting.
Most Internet radio experts I talked to back in March believed that this initial ruling was just a starting point--that sure, the CRB had basically adopted a fee structure proposed by SoundExchange (a.k.a. the people who would be collecting the fees), and that while that was unfortunate, things would work themselves out in the appeal process. This wasn't the first time Internet Radio had been declared dead, and this type of "negotiation" was just part of the process.
Continue reading "Internet Radio on Life Support Again"
idiots. the FREE internet is the only future for musicians past and present. old inactive acts should get a fee, related to a ratio of internet audio listenership% vs. radio listenership% vs. video viewership%, divided by standard billing rates.
current acts, which have the potential to earn way more $$$$, should have to make up the income shortfall lost to free internet more or less with increased ticket prices to LIVE shows- and people will ALWAYS PAY MORE $$$ to see their fave bands.
This is just another attempt for the big media mafia to control the airwaves and cram their shit music down our throats. I don't buy most music these days, because it's such BS. Internet radio at least afforded me the opportunity to listen to something other than what Clear Channel wanted me to hear. They can take their untalented hack artists and shove 'em where the sun don't shine. I'll find other ways of listening to better music.
Seems to me that if bands post songs with a free use sort of copyright that these songs would not fall under the new fee structure. So established bands may drop a few crumbs to listeners while new bands would likely put out a lot more music for free listening. This could get allot more bands internet airplay than ever before. People will listen to what is on, and people like to listen to free music from the internet. So if this pay structure stays in place people will just have to listen to bands with free songs. Or listen to off shore stations, or just download the mp3's illegally.
SoundExchange may be trying to make a quick windfall off this ruling, but likely the goal is to restrict the growth of internet radio. I would be interested to know their ties to traditional music distribution businesses, those currently loosing customers to the less homogeneous internet music sources.
TJW
Web 2.0: Viddler Lets Users Add Video, Text Comments to Movies
Viddler.com, a rapidly growing YouTube competitor, launched new features at the Web 2.0 conference Monday that allow users to add both text and video comments to videos at at any moment in the film.
Launched in December, 2006, the Bethlehem, PA site demonstrated the new features during the San Francisco event and can be seen at the company's demo site.
"Both the author and visitors can pop in a comment any where on the video's timeline," said Robert Sandie, the company's president. "You can see where this would be really valuable, if for example, you had a long video of your kid and you wanted to point out the highlight moments. You can place a comment as can the visitor," he said.
Sandie also said that the ability to place commentary, whether in the form of a video or text, could be very useful for businesses by allowing end users, both internal and external, to note the important points, weaknesses, and strength of the content at the places in the timeline where they choose.
In a sense, the new features mimic the popular Flickr.com tool that allows photo viewers to put comments directly on places in the picture they find of most interest.
Web 2.0: Adobe, Salesforce Team Up on Developer Tools
Salesforce.com and Adobe Systems announced Monday at the Web 2.0 conference that developers can now use the Adobe Flex Toolkit for Apex, a set of programming tools that combine the capabilities of Flex and salesforce.com?s Apex platform to create new Internet business applications.
The toolkit, now available at http://developer.salesforce.com, allows developers to use those Flex tools to extend and customize the Salesforce experience by giving end users the ability to drag-and-drop new components onto their applications, said Adam Gross, vice president, developer marketing, salesforce.com.
"This is really bringing ideas found first in consumer technology and taking them into business applications," Gross said.