Microsoft to patch 49 vulnerabilities on Tuesday |
- Microsoft to patch 49 vulnerabilities on Tuesday
- PayPal to soon become option for Android Market purchases
- NCR reaches DVD distribution deal with Universal
- Sony agrees to 28-day window on new DVD releases via Netflix
- Amazon planning Android App Store?
- Adobe shares lift after Microsoft buyout reports
- Finnish P2P hub operator gets suspended sentence, large fine
- Net Applications: 66 percent of Windows users still running XP
- Ofcom tells BT to open fibre network to rivals
- Man jailed for refusing to give police decryption key for computer
- Weak demand for TVs, computers hits Samsung
- New SandForce controllers to beef up SSD security & speed
- Verizon to launch in LTE in 39 cities
| Microsoft to patch 49 vulnerabilities on Tuesday Posted: 07 Oct 2010 10:19 PM PDT  Microsoft will release 16 security bulletins on "Patch Tuesday," marking the second time in 2010 the software giant has released a record amount of fixes. In August, the record was set at 14 bulletins, which covered 34 security holes across a range of products and operating systems. On Tuesday, the 16 bulletins will fix 49 vulnerabilities, mainly in Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office and the .NET framework. Four of the bulletins are dubbed "critical," another ten are dubbed "important" and the rest are "moderate." All of the critical bulletins will address vulnerabilities that can be exploited to run remote code. Total vulnerabilities patched for 2010 after Tuesday will number 86.
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| PayPal to soon become option for Android Market purchases Posted: 07 Oct 2010 09:54 PM PDT  According to TheStreet, PayPal will likely soon become an option for Android Market purchases. Users have complained about the current checkout system (especially if you are not a Google Checkout user), and adding PayPal and its user base of 220 million will certainly make the system more fluid, or at least as easy as rival iTunes. Google and eBay (the parent company of PayPal) have been working on a deal for months and a launch of the payment system for the Market should happen this month. The two companies have grown closer to an agreement in the past weeks and unnamed sources say it is a done deal. eBay is hosting the PayPal developers' conference in San Francisco on October 26th.
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| NCR reaches DVD distribution deal with Universal Posted: 07 Oct 2010 09:14 PM PDT  NCR, which rents DVDs via 7000 Blockbuster Express kiosks, has reached a deal with Universal that will block the kiosks from offering new Universal releases for the first 28 days after release. The company is looking into similar deals with the other major studios, Sony, Fox and Warner. Part of the deal, however, is the new addition of "premium rentals," through the NCR kiosks, where users can pay more than the standard $1-a-night to rent a new Universal film right from launch. "Premium rentals" are an experiment and will continue only if user feedback is positive. "Our agreement to test premium day-and-date offers and new DVD sales will help us identify new outlets for our movies while giving our customers the flexibility and choice they want in their entertainment purchases," added Craig Kornblau, president, Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The NCR kiosk deal is Blockbuster's best chance at staging any type of comeback. The company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month after facing $900 million in debt.
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| Sony agrees to 28-day window on new DVD releases via Netflix Posted: 07 Oct 2010 07:52 PM PDT  Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has made a new deal with rental giant Netflix that will block the company from getting new releases for the first 28 days after launch. The deal follows similar agreements with the other major studios Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. Jackie Chan's "The Karate Kid" is the first film to fall under the restriction, as it was released earlier this week. For now, the 28-day policy is only on certain titles, but it is likely Sony will eventually extend the same deal to all new releases. Sony's deal does not affect Redbox, however, while all the other studio's deals impose the same restrictions on the kiosk chain. The deal works for Netflix as it significantly reduces DVD costs, leaving more money free for the company's push into digital media. The peak sell-through period for new films is in the first thirty days.
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| Amazon planning Android App Store? Posted: 07 Oct 2010 07:41 PM PDT  The Wall Street Journal has reported that Amazon.com is planning to open an applications store for the Android mobile platform. Such a store would mimic Apple's App Store for iPhones and iPads. Google's Android Marketplace currently has about 80,000 applications, compared to 270,000 available in the Apple Store. An Amazon spokesman told Reuters in an e-mail reply that the company has not made any such announcement yet, while Google declined comment completely, reminding the news outlet that it does not comment on rumor or speculation. According to the WSJ, Amazon will offer developers 70 percent of the revenue from any sales, which is the same Apple offers app developers for its own platforms. Android is being used in mobile devices such as Motorola's Droid and Samsung's Galaxy S, and is quickly gaining popularity in the smartphone market.
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| Adobe shares lift after Microsoft buyout reports Posted: 07 Oct 2010 07:41 PM PDT  Adobe stock jumped on Thursday following reports in the media that Microsoft has identified it as an acquisition target. The New York Times reported that Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer met with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen in San Francisco recently to talk about Apple's dominance in smartphones. According to the report, which cited employees and consultants familiar with the situation, the two discussed several options to deal with the situation, one of which would see Microsoft acquiring Adobe. Adobe stock rose 17 percent to a high of $30 before settling back to close up 11.5 percent at $28.69 on the Nasdaq. A Microsoft acquisition of Adobe would cost $15 billion or more based on Adobe's current market value. It would provide Microsoft with control of Adobe's flash player, used all over the web for video and graphics. Wall Street analysts see it as a possible way for Microsoft to integrate graphics and video capabilities into software it develops for phones and tablet computers. "It's certainly possible," said Morningstar analyst Toan Tran of a potential deal. "It may be a case of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' and both Microsoft and Adobe have a common enemy in Apple. The Flash platform in Microsoft's hands might be an interesting competitive weapon against Apple." Microsoft already has its own Silverlight media platform, but it has failed to gain prominence in the market.
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| Finnish P2P hub operator gets suspended sentence, large fine Posted: 07 Oct 2010 07:00 PM PDT  A 33 year old man has been handed a suspended sentence for operating a P2P hub using DirectConnect in Finland. The man received a four month suspended sentence after he was found to be the operator of a DirectConnect hub where he was also sharing a considerable amount of music. His computers and equipment were originally seized in June 2007 and were found to contain a significant amount of "infringing music" files. He later restarted the hub with new computers, which were seized yet again in October 2007. Records showed that up to 2,000 people were using his hub to share about 80 terabytes of content. The 33 year old must now pay €307,450 in compensation to rights' holders in addition to the four months suspended sentence. The decision was made yesterday by a Finnish District Court. "Imprisonment is the right penalty for this type of deliberate, planned and very harmful conduct in which the administrator facilitates widespread unauthorised file-sharing," said Antti Kotilainen of CIAPC.
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| Net Applications: 66 percent of Windows users still running XP Posted: 07 Oct 2010 07:00 PM PDT  According to data released by research firm Net Applications, users of Microsoft's Windows operating systems still predominately use Windows XP. The data showed that XP had a market share of about 60.03 percent, down from 60.89 percent the previous month. Windows 7 gained 1.25 points to 17.10 percent while Windows Vista dropped from 14.00 percent to 13.00 percent. Of all machines running Microsoft's Windows operating system software, approximately 66 percent were still running Windows XP, down from 76 percent before Windows 7 launched. During September, Windows Vista had a share of 14.66 percent among will Windows users, down quite a bit from its peak at 20.35 percent. Windows 7 has a 19 percent share among all Windows users. The results are not very surprising, but it does show that the overall decline in Windows market share (albeit slight) is not being made up by the growth of Windows 7. It also shows that computer users are probably reluctant to invest in a new computer to support Windows 7 if their XP machine works just fine, or even if they could upgrade, are unwilling to risk running into compatibility and other issues. Net Applications' data showed that MacOS X stayed stable at around 5.03 percent market share in September, and so did Linux installations at 0.85 percent. The only other operating system showing gains is Apple's iOS, at 1.18 percent. As usual, different firms have different figures. StatCounter reports Windows XP market share at 53.99 percent, Windows Vista's market share at 16.59 percent and Windows 7's market share at 22.04 percent. The overall trend of StatCounter's figures generally reflects that of Net Applications' data.
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| Ofcom tells BT to open fibre network to rivals Posted: 07 Oct 2010 06:04 PM PDT  UK communications regulator Ofcom is now requiring BT to provide competitors with access to its fibre network. Ofcom believes the move will promote the take-up of high-speed broadband services throughout the UK. BT also has to give rivals access to its underground ducts and telegraph poles to build their own fibre networks. The regulator will allow BT to set its own prices for access to its networks. The British government wants all homes in the UK to have basic 2Mbps Internet access available at least by 2015, while all European Union member states are looking to make basic broadband service available to all citizens by 2013, and then 30Mbps services by 2020. "In areas where BT invests in fibre, the remedies will enable other providers to offer competing services, based on BT's facilities," it said. "Elsewhere, access to BT's ducts and poles should encourage investment by other providers, enabling the provision of superfast services and increasing competition." BT is the largest provider of broadband Internet access in the UK. TalkTalk, which comes in second place and will be one of the first ISPs to sell high speed broadband connections that rely on BT lines, welcomed the new regulations but said there is still "room to improve" the deal. BT has committed £2.5 billion to next-generation broadband, with a goal of reaching 17 million homes by 2015. It announced last week it would roll out fibre to up to 90 percent of homes in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The project, which is partly funded by the European Union, will be completed in 2014.
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| Man jailed for refusing to give police decryption key for computer Posted: 07 Oct 2010 05:46 PM PDT  A 19 year old man from Liverpool in England has been jailed for 16 weeks after refusing to give police a password required to access his computer. Oliver Drage was arrested in May last year by police "tackling child sexual exploitation," but police officers have not been able to break encryption to examine the contents of his hard drives. The police require a 50 character key to decrypt the content. Drage was conviced of failing to disclose an encryption key in September, and was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison on Monday at the Preston Crown Court. He was formally asked to disclose the required key but failed to do so, which is an offense under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. "Drage was previously of good character so the immediate custodial sentence handed down by the judge in this case shows just how seriously the courts take this kind of offence," said Det Sgt Neil Fowler, of Lancashire police. "Computer systems are constantly advancing and the legislation used here was specifically brought in to deal with those who are using the internet to commit crime. It sends a robust message out to those intent on trying to mask their online criminal activities that they will be taken before the courts with the ultimate sanction, as in this case, being a custodial sentence."
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| Weak demand for TVs, computers hits Samsung Posted: 07 Oct 2010 05:33 PM PDT  Shares of Samsung Electronics took a hit as South Korean consumer electronics giant estimated its July-September operating profit and sales to come below market consensus. The world's biggest maker of LCDs expects to see an end to its run of record breaking quarters as a stumbling world economy hits demand for computers and televisions. "LCD and TV performance appears to be worse than expected and the downward pressure on earnings will only grow as chip prices are also falling and TV makers increase price cuts," said Chung Young-woo, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities. "Usual uptick in seasonal year-end demand will be smaller this time and an earnings recovery is unlikely until early next year." Samsung has kept its No. 1 slot in television sales, ahead of Sony and Panasonic, and has also performed strongly over chip rival Micron. It is the most valuable technology firm in Asia, worth approximately $116 billion. Shares in Samsung after the dull news spread around closed 2.9 percent lower. "Earnings will slide further but the stock is looking attractive as the slowdown is already priced in and Samsung will benefit most from any demand recovery, being the No.1 in many areas," said Jung Sang-jin, a fund manager at Dongbu Asset Management. Samsung is taking direct aim at Apple Inc. with its Galaxy Tablet which analysts feel is the strongest rival to the iPad. It has also sold 5 million units of its Galaxy S high-end smartphone since June, powered by Google's Android software.
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| New SandForce controllers to beef up SSD security & speed Posted: 07 Oct 2010 05:32 PM PDT  SandForce, a pioneer of SSD (Solid State Drive) Processors, has announced a new line of controllers for enterprise-class drives that could dramatically improve performance and data security. It's new SF-2000 family of solid-state drive processors feature a 6 Gigabit-per-second SATA host interface, industry applauded DuraClass Technology, an unprecedented 60,000 sustained random read/write IOPS (Input-output Operations Per Second) and sustained sequential read/write performance of 500 Megabytes per second. "The market for SSDs is poised to experience rapid growth over the next few years," said Jeff Janukowicz, research manager for solid state drives at IDC. "Solutions, such as the SandForce SF-2000 Family of SSD Processors, that enable increased performance and higher reliability in a flexible design will enable SSD vendors to meet the demands of this fast paced market." Some features of the SF-2000 SSD Processors include:
"We are building on the success of our first generation product now in production with multiple Enterprise OEMs by introducing the SF-2000 family that offers significant feature and performance enhancements for our rapidly expanding customer base of trusted SandForce Driven Enterprise and Industrial SSD manufacturers."
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| Verizon to launch in LTE in 39 cities Posted: 07 Oct 2010 03:26 PM PDT  Verizon has said this week that their deployment of the world's first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network would hit 39 cities instead of the previously announced 30. The LTE network will cover 110 million Americans, says the carrier. Furthermore, Verizon says it is launching LTE in 60 commercial airports in the U.S. Verizon president Lowell McAdam says: "We are driven by the vision to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband connectivity and mobility to rural and urban Americans alike. With our initial 4G LTE launch, we will immediately reach more than one-third of all Americans where they live, right from the start. And, we will quickly introduce 4G LTE throughout the Verizon coverage area." The carrier says it expects average data rates on an LTE connection to reach 5-12Mbps downstream and 2-5Mbps upstream. Those average speeds would almost double Verizon's current 3G offering. Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Initial Major Metropolitan Area Deployment:
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