Friday, October 19, 2012

Sony to reduce workforce in Japan by 2000.

Struggling Japanese tech giant Sony has detailed restructuring plans for its Japan-based business as it seeks to slim down operations by closing a lens factory and shedding 2,000 jobs via an early-retirement scheme.

The company says that it is making the changes to “revitalize and grow” its electronics business and it says that it is expecting to save $378 million (30 billion yen) annually from next year. The basis of the changes was laid back in April when the firm announced that it would reduce its headcount by 10,000 — including 3,000-4,000 in Japan — as it implements a $945 million (75 billion yen) restructuring program.

The Minokamo-based plant produces lenses for digital SLR cameras, lens blocks and mobile devices, and — alongside customer support — the 56,713 metre squared site houses some 840 employees. As part of its focus on mobile — which saw it buy out former partner Ericsson for $1.29 billion earlier this year — Sony will transfer some activity from Minokamo to other sites but others will be laid to rest. The company is not detailing precisely what will kept just yet though

The early-retirement plan is set to have the greatest impact on the gaming giant’s head office, where it says that 20 percent of the workforce will have departed by the end of the year – thanks to a series of streamlining initiatives.

The effects of the organizational changes, which has consolidated the firm and cut excess services and divisions, have also prompted it to establish Sony Corporate Services (Japan) Corp, which it says will provide ‘horizontal’ operations support for its businesses in Japan.

The restructuring hasn’t just been about slashing budgets and the firm ploughed $644 million into Olympus, in a move that will consolidate the two firm’s camera technologies and focus on opportunities in the medical imaging industry.

The first streamlining measure that impacted its home market came when it announce in August that it would cut 1,000 global jobs from its handset division, which is relocating to Japan from Sweden.

The PlayStation-maker is haemorrhaging cash and its most recent financial results, published in August, saw income before tax plummet 59 percent to hit $118.5 million (9.4 billion yen). Net losses for the three-month period grew to $310 million (24.6 billion yen), up from $195.3 million (15.5 billion yen) a year previous.

Sony sold its chemical products business for $730 million in June.

Image Credit: Koichi Kamoshida/Getty

FB updates its Android app.

Facebook doesn’t yet have a native app for Android — well, not native in the true sense of the word — but that doesn’t mean they aren’t pushing out regular updates to improve the app as it is currently.

Yesterday the company pushed out another photo-centric update, this time making it easier to tag photos. You can now also choose a previously-created or new album when uploading individual or grouped photos, something that was previously possible only through the iPhone Facebook Camera app.

For an app build almost entirely in HTML5, Facebook for Android is actually quite spritely, especially when run on more modern hardware. We’re excited for the day when Facebook for Android is built on native code, but for the time being enjoy your improved photo uploading experience.

Facebook also made the “biggest overhaul of [its] Android SDK so far,” making it easier for developers to integrate the social network into third-party apps. These features include the Friend Picker and Places Picker, which apps can use to access the Open Grap in more comprehensive ways.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Google releases quarterly results draft early.


(Reuters) - Google Inc inadvertently released its draft quarterly results hours ahead of schedule, missing expectations on both revenue and earnings and wiping 9 percent off the market value of the Internet search and advertising leader.
Google said its financial printers, RR Donnelley, filed its draft results statement without authorization. The company said it was working now to finalize the statement.
The surprise announcement, which had been expected after the market close, pushed its shares down 9 percent to $687.30 before trading was halted by Nasdaq.
Google, which has been struggling to turn around loss-making cellphone maker Motorola Mobility that it bought for $12.5 billion, reported a 20 percent dive in net income to $2.18 billion. Excluding certain items, it earned $9.03 a share, vastly underperforming the $10.65 analysts had expected, on average.
"We have been saying this thing was ripe for a pullback. It's not like they're Google not being Google, but you still have some major issues," said BCG analyst Colin Gillis.
"Click prices declined for the fourth consecutive quarter after rising for eight consecutive quarters before then. That's a negative. This is the mobile problem.
"The other bit is the Motorola millstone had been ignored by the market, and - boom - now you've got weak revenue from Motorola. When you acquire a business and you're about to whack all kinds of people and close offices, you know what happens to the employees? They take their eye off the ball. Sales are down."
Google reported net revenue - excluding traffic acquisition costs - of $11.3 billion for the third quarter, below Wall Street's expectations for about $11.9 billion.
For the fourth consecutive quarter, the company reported a decline in average cost-per-click, a critical metric that denotes the price advertisers pay Google.
Average CPC declined 15 percent from a year ago and 3 percent from the second quarter of this year. Analysts say that Google, like many of its peers in the Internet industry, has been struggling to adapt to the rapid consumer uptake in mobile devices. Advertisers pay far less for adds on smartphones and tablets than for similar ads on desktop computers.
"The core business seems to have slowed down pretty significantly, which is shocking," said B. Riley analyst Sameet Sinha. "The only conclusion l can look at is, search is happening more and more outside of Google, meaning people are searching more through apps than through Google search."
"That could indicate a secular change, especially when it comes to ecommerce searches. The big fear has always been, what if people decide just to go straight to Amazon and do their searches? And potentially that's what could be happening."
Google, which recently overtook Microsoft Corp to become the second-largest U.S. technology company by capitalization, had been due to release its results after the market close.
The second paragraph of the press release merely read "Pending Larry quote," suggesting that space was reserved for comment from CEO Larry Page.
"Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization," Google said in a statement. "We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document. Once it's finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PM PT."
Shares of RR Donnelley, the U.S. printing service company, slid as much as 5 percent. They were down 2.2 percent at $10.61 in afternoon trade.
(Reporting by Gerry Shih in San Francisco; Editing by Bernard Orr)

What is truth. It's knowing what happened, but admitting it? Who will collar the trackers?

TOKYO - Japan's most senior policeman began an embarrassing climbdown Thursday after his officers arrested four people over cyber threats issued when their computers were apparently hacked.

Emails containing threats to attack targets including a school and a kindergarten attended by Emperor Akihito's grandchildren were sent from infected computers in different parts of the country.

The computer owners were arrested and held, in one case for several weeks, in a system where custody conditions are harsher than those in other developed countries and where police rely heavily on confessions.

Two of the suspects reportedly admitted sending the emails before a broadcaster and a lawyer received an anonymous message containing information investigators conceded could only have been known by the real culprit.

The message said its sender had taken control of several personal computers to send other threats.

"There is a high possibility that we have arrested people who are not actually criminals," Yutaka Katagiri, the head of the National Police Agency, told a news conference, while adding their innocence was not certain.

"If it is found to be so, we will take appropriate action, including issuing apologies to those who were wrongly arrested," Katagiri said, adding that police would introduce "more cautious measures" for tracking down cyber crime culprits.

Japan's legal system prizes confessions, and prosecutors are generally unwilling to take on cases without the suspect having first acknowledged his guilt.

Suspects can be held for a total of 23 days before they must be charged or released.

It is not uncommon for police initially to arrest someone on a lesser charge and then re-arrest them on suspicion of a more serious crime just before the 23 days is up.

Critics charge that this system is open to abuse and gives police the right to hold people without charge for long periods. They also say the use of intimidatory tactics by officers is not uncommon.

The harsh realities of global competition.

You name it, and they are walking in. They are pretty much all very well-educated, global company experience, white collar workers

WATERLOO, Ont. — Former employees of Research In Motion who were laid off during the BlackBerry-maker’s sweeping cutbacks this year are getting a hand from the City of Waterloo.

This week a jobs centre opened at City Hall designed to help the newly unemployed workers find positions at other local technology firms.

It’s part of a partnership between the Ontario and municipal governments as well as other local groups, including tech industry lobbyist Communitech.

Together, they’re hoping to help funnel an estimated 3,000 laid off workers in the region into new jobs at other companies.

RIM announced in June that it would cut 5,000 employees worldwide as part of an effort to save $1 billion by the end of its fiscal year in February 2013.

More than half of the company’s 16,500 employees — about 9,000 — work in the Waterloo region.

Iain Klugman, the chief executive of Communitech, says the jobs centre is a unique project because jobs programs are typically reserved for massive layoffs at auto plants and mining companies.

He says the former RIM employees all have very specific skill sets, ranging from developers and quality assurance representatives, to sales and marketing people.

“You name it, (and they) are walking in,” Klugman said. “They are pretty much all very well-educated, global company experience, white collar workers.”

We’re seeing a bunch of technology companies outside the country who are saying ’We really would love to have access to some of that great talent that’s coming out of RIM

But Klugman says he’s confident there are many other opportunities for those job seekers at more than 1,000 other technology companies in the region.

Communitech says the Waterloo region has also seen a burst of startups since RIM began its layoffs, with more than 100 new companies registering with the organization since July.

Klugman said the community has also started to get more attention from international firms who are looking to capitalize on the rush of job seekers.

“As people put a different kind of spotlight on RIM, they’re also starting to also look a little deeper into Waterloo region,” he said.

“We’re seeing a bunch of technology companies outside the country who are saying ’We really would love to have access to some of that great talent that’s coming out of RIM. We’re thinking of putting a development team up in your area.”’

Meanwhile, RIM is focusing on becoming a leaner operation as it pushes ahead with the launch of its much-delayed new BlackBerry smartphones and operating system, expected early next year.

The company, which posted a quarterly loss of US$235 million in its second quarter, anticipates a further operating loss in the third quarter as it works through the transition.

J.K Rowling. MacBook Air changes her life.

You know how Apple is always calling its products “magical?” Well, it turns out that it may be right. Harry Potter author J.K Rowling not only uses a MacBook Air to write, but says that it has changed her life.

While you might expect the world of wizards, muggles and Hogwarts to have been scratched out onto parchment with ink and a quill, the reality is that most writers (not all these days use computers. And seeing as Harry Potter started life in an Edinburgh coffee shop, it makes sense for the author to be using Apple’s lightest non-tablet writing machine.

Publishers Marketplace:

In a rare product endorsement, Rowling proclaimed, “The MacBook Air changed my life.” She added, “I’ve written everywhere, including some very strange places.”

Sadly, there ends the interview. I would ask what software she uses, and which model she prefers (11 or 13-inch?) Then again, I’m a tech nerd and procrastinator, whereas she’s a successful writer who has published a bunch of great books. She probably writes in (ugh) Microsoft Word and doesn’t even care. Still, even Word is better than Cormac McCarthy’s typewriter.

Apple gets a slap down in U.K. court ruling.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost a U.K. court appeal ruling over whether Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy tablet infringed the design of the iPad as a judge criticized divergent rulings in the global intellectual property fight between the two companies.

A three-judge panel in London upheld an earlier decision by a U.K. judge that said several of Samsung’s Galaxy tablets weren’t “cool” enough to be confused with the iPad. The ruling called a German judgment from July granting Apple a Europe-wide injunction preventing Samsung from selling one model “extreme.”

The ruling is the latest in a long line of disputes in courts across the globe as rivals including HTC Corp. (2498), Apple and Samsung fight for dominance in the smartphone and tablet computer markets. The cases in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands and Spain often lead to conflicting rulings as judges apply diverging national laws.

“If courts around Europe simply say they do not agree with each other and give inconsistent decisions, Europe will be the poorer,” Judge Robin Jacob said in the written ruling.

Samsung said in an e-mailed statement that it continues “to believe that Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners.”

“Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited,” the company said.
Alan Hely, a spokesman for Apple, didn’t immediately respond to a call requesting comment.

Apple must also publish notices in U.K. newspapers with details of the U.K. ruling, Judge David Kitchin said today.

Jacob said a publicity order was necessary to avoid consumer confusion because of the news coverage of the “not as cool” judgment in the U.K. and the contrasting German court’s decision.

A link to the notice must appear on Apple’s website for one month and the company must publish it in the Financial Times and Daily Mail newspapers.

Apple has agreed to ask the German court to “discharge” the injunction, Jacob said.

If Apple’s registered design ‘‘has a scope as wide’’ as the Cupertino, California company says, ‘‘it would foreclose much of the market for tablet computers,’’ Jacob said.
Courts around the world have issued divergent rulings in patent cases between the two companies.

In August, Apple won a $1.05 billion U.S. jury verdict in a patent case between the companies, while a week later a Tokyo court ruled Samsung products don’t infringe an Apple invention for synchronizing music and video data with servers.

Australian and Dutch courts have also issued rulings that contrasted with decisions in the U.S. case.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeremy Hodges in London at jhodges17@bloomberg.net

AnandTech weighs in on iPhone 5

“The iPhone 5 embraces a taller, 4-inch, 16:9 1136 x 640 display opting to lengthen the device instead of increase its area in both dimensions. The result is a device that is distinctly an iPhone, albeit a modern one. The taller display doesn’t do much to make desktop web pages any easier to read as a result of the width staying the same,” Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug and Vivek Gowri report for AnandTech.

MacDailyNews Take: You’re holding it wrong. Turn the iPhone into landscape for reading Web pages, the way it’s meant to be used.

“Reading emails and typing are both improved though as there’s now more room for lists and the keyboard no longer occupies as much of the display. The taller device can be more awkward to use if you have smaller hands, but the added screen real estate is honestly worth it. Once you get used to the iPhone 5’s display, going back to the older models is tough,” Lal Shimpi, Klug and Gowri report. “The taller chassis went on a diet as well. The iPhone 5 is now considerably thinner and lighter than its predecessor, which is yet another factor that contributes to it feeling more modern.”

Lal Shimpi, Klug and Gowri report, “The move to LTE alone is a big enough reason to upgrade for any heavy user of mobile data. The larger/improved display, much faster SoC and 5GHz WiFi support are all icing on the cake – and this is one well iced cake.”

Speculation on Google's Oct 29 event in New York.

Google has just set an Oct. 29 event in New York centered on its Android mobile software. “The playground is open” is all it says, so we are left to figure out what might land on that playground.

The most likely products to come out at the event are the new Nexus phone rumored to be manufacturing by LG. Also possible is a Nexus 7 tablet with more storage, 32 MB vs. the top-end 16 model currently available. Some folks are speculating that Google might drop the price of its low-end 8 MB Nexus 7 to just $99, which would really shake up the 7-inch tablet business–especially since Apple is expected to weigh in with the similarly sized iPad Mini on Oct. 23.

Then again, the invitation for the event, which will be streamed at YouTube.com/Android, singles out Android itself. So while Google already has a relatively new version of the operating system, maybe there will be some new features updates announced.

“Playground” seems likely to refer to Google Play, the Android apps and content marketplace, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see updates or new content deals announced. One interesting note, which may mean absolutely nothing: The artwork on the invitation closely resembles the drawings associated with its Google Now automated personal assistant on Android.

Or the announcements could be some combination of any of those. More to come as it develops.

Schumacher to give up racing completely. Complete retirement eminent.

The seven-times World Champion announced in Japan two weeks ago that he would be quitting F1 for good following November's season finale in Brazil as his energy levels were "in the red zone again" after three years back in the sport.

Although Schumacher has always insisted that competing in other forms of four-wheeled motorsport holds little interest for him, the 43-year-old did take part in some motorcycle races after retiring from F1 for the first time at the end of 2006.

However, asked by Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport if he might re-appear in another racing category this time, Schumacher replied: "No, it's not in my plans.

"Formula 1 offers the maximum as far as emotions, speed and work completeness are concerned. Another type of car wouldn't give me the same feelings. I'm stopping here completely."

In his initial period of retirement Schumacher, in addition to competing on two wheels, also acted as an advisor to former team Ferrari and appeared on the pit wall at a number of grands prix.

A similar offer to serve as an ambassador or advisor to Mercedes is believed to be on the table this time round but the German remains light-lipped on what he might do next.

"From now on life will offer me plenty of new possibilities. I'm looking forward to them," he added.

Having come out of retirement after three years to spearhead Mercedes' new works team in 2010, Schumacher had hoped to challenge for an eighth world title but looks set to exit the sport again without adding to his record 91 wins, with his best finish to date a third place in Valencia in June.

Some pundits have suggested that the underwhelming nature of his on-track return may affect his legacy but Schumacher, despite the disappointing results, says his 'second' career has actually taught him how to accept defeat, and all in all, he's happy with his two decades in the sport as a whole.

"If I look into my life's rear-view mirror, I find myself happy and smiling," he explained.

"I've had two distinct careers: one where I won everything, and a second one where I discovered what losing means.

"Yes, I've learned how to lose, but this has made me more mature and more patient too, partly thanks to my age.

"Today I have to consider what I have done overall and I'm satisfied with myself."

Newsweek sheds print, goes completely digital.

Newsweek, the American weekly news magazine published in NYC, is going all-digital from the start of 2013, marking the end of an era for the almost 80-year-old publication.

The last print edition in the United States will be its December 31 issue, and the company will look to grow its tablet and online presence, as well as its global partnerships and events business.

Newsweek Global, as it will be called, will be a single, worldwide edition supported by paid subscriptions. It will be available through e-readers for both tablet and the Web, with select content available through The Daily Beast.

Newsweek was launched in 1933 by Thomas J.C. Martyn, formerly of Time Magazine, with the first issue dated 17 February, 1933. Today, it is among the biggest-selling weekly magazines in the US, behind Time, and is published in four English language editions, as well as twelve local-language global editions.

Newsweek merged with online publication The Daily Beast back in 2010 in a 50/50 joint venture called The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. The magazine underwent a big redesign last year, which followed an announcement a couple of years previous where it laid out its plans to reinvent the magazine after losing readers to online publications. Indeed, on its 75th anniversary, the magazine finally slipped into the red, and the publication reduced its workforce by 160 people to around 400, mostly through a voluntary retirement program.

So perhaps this isn’t entirely surprising, and it is the way many publications are going. The focus, it seems, will be on building a strong digital revenue model moving forward, and it will be interesting to see what becomes of Newsweek when the final prints roll out later this year.

“Our business has been increasingly affected by the challenging print advertising environment, while Newsweek’s online and e-reader content has built a rapidly growing audience through the Apple, Kindle, Zinio and Nook stores as well as on The Daily Beast,” explains Tina Brown, editor-in-chief and founder of The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, and Baba Shetty, CEO, in a joint statement.

“Tablet-use has grown rapidly among our readers and with it the opportunity to sustain editorial excellence through swift, easy digital distribution—a superb global platform for our award-winning journalism. By year’s end, tablet users in the United States alone are expected to exceed 70 million, up from 13 million just two years ago.”

FB intro's more value to its advertising relevance.

Facebook Introduces Global Pages, Adding Toes to Brands' Global Footprint

Socialbakers > Blog >

Facebook just announced “Global Pages”, which resolves three, seemingly mutually exclusive problems international brands have faced using the social network.

The first is local relevance. Brands with a global footprint needed to appeal to a lowest common denominator for their marketing campaigns, generalizing their content for a world audience, losing local relevance and missing local or regional opportunities as a result. The second is brand consistency. To get around the first issue, many brands created localized or region and language-specific pages. This is harder to manage and metric and runs the risk of diluting a brand’s image across markets. The third is split communities. Brands with multiple pages had split communities, defeating the purpose of being a global brand with a global reach.

With “Global Pages”, these issues are resolved by merging local pages with localized material into a single global page, with a single URL that behaves differently in different markets. The single URL can be used globally, streamlining campaigns; users will be automatically directed to the best (most relevant) version of the Page for them. The pages will still have local metrics in addition to global stats, allowing you to monitor the performance of individual markets while maintaining a consistent brand identity.

According to Facebook: “Facebook users will be directed to the best version of a Page based on the country those users are in, enabling them to see localized cover photos, profile photos, Page apps, milestones, “about” information, and news feed stories from Pages – all the while remaining a part of the global brand community.” This results in the best of both worlds, resolving and reconciling all three issues at once.

They continue, “This structure works for brands that historically have managed one single Page with geo-targeted page posts, as well as for brands that have managed multiple, country-specific Pages.”

Third quarter results for Nokia. RIM take note.

This is what happens when you make a good phone, but its too bulky and heavy. Has to be mobile! Better luck to the former number one manufacturer.

The former world number one mobile maker Nokia has announced its Q3 financial results today, reporting yet another quarterly loss — posting an operating loss of €576 million ($754 million). Net sales for the quarter were €7.239 billion ($9.49 billion).

Nokia said sales of its Lumia line of Windows Phone 7-based smartphones decreased quarter-on-quarter to 2.9 million units (down from four million in the previous quarter) — attributing this decline to the looming launch of Windows Phone 8-based devices, due next month.

Total smartphone sales were 6.3 million (down from 10.2 million in the previous quarter). While sales of mobile phones totalled 76.6 million during the quarter, of which 6.5 million were its Asha full touch phones.

The company also noted shrinking cash reserves. Nokia’s net cash fell to €3.6 billion ($4.7 billion) by the end of the quarter, down from €4.2 billion in June.

Commenting on the results, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said in a statement:
As we expected, Q3 was a difficult quarter in our Devices & Services business; however, we are pleased that we shifted Nokia Group to operating profitability on a non-IFRS basis.

In Q3, we continued to manage through a tough transitional quarter for our smart devices business as we shared the exciting innovation ahead with our new line of Lumia products.
In our mobile phones business, the positive consumer response to our new Asha full touch smartphones translated into strong sales. And in Q3, our mobile phones business delivered a solid quarter with sequential sales growth and improved contribution margin.

In Location & Commerce, we made progress establishing our platform offering with customers like Amazon. This is in line with our plan to expand our location offering to more customers.

And, Nokia Siemens Networks had a remarkable quarter in which we achieved record profitability on a non-IFRS basis and the Nokia Siemens Networks cash balance increased for the fourth quarter in a row.

While we continue to focus on transitioning Nokia, we are determined to carefully manage our financial resources, improve our competitiveness, return our Devices & Services business to positive operating cash flow as quickly as possible, and ultimately provide more value to our shareholders.

Nokia said it expects the fourth quarter to be “challenging”, despite being able to start selling WP8-based Lumias in Q4 — “with a lower-than-normal benefit from seasonality in volumes, primarily due to product transitions and our ramp up plan for our new devices”.

It said it expects its non-IFRS Devices & Services operating margin in Q4 to be approximately negative 6 percent, plus or minus four percentage points.
Commenting on the results, IHS Screen Digest analyst Ian Fogg noted that the WP8 launch timetable will continue to cause Nokia pain in Q4.

“Given the November Windows Phone 8 availability, Nokia’s smartphone results will not see much uplift in 2012. Q4 results will be v tough,” he tweeted.
Fogg also noted how the results highlight Nokia’s failure to drive Windows Phone into the North American market — with just 300,000 handsets shipped in Q3.

While Nokia’s -64 percent year-on-year decline in China — attributed by Nokia to its move away from Symbian — is also equally down to “lack of take up of Windows Phone Lumia devices”, said Fogg.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Apple acquired Color Labs? Why?

Color Labs, the photo-and-video-sharing social network that received much criticism over its pre-launch $41 million funding round, is about to be acquired by Apple.

We’ve heard through trusted sources that the startup was nabbed for a price that is in the ‘high double digits’, as in millions, and that the deal is ‘done’, though papers have yet to be signed.

From what we know, founder Bill Nguyen has been away from the office for three months, after a period of intense strain between him and the board.

Some of that has come out in stories so far. But what you may not know is that Nguyen actually designed the first user interface for the Color app. And, even before his relationship with the board soured, he was looking for a way to sell the company. For that, he turned to a previous relationship he had with Apple’s Senior Vice President Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue.

Nguyen started building prototype apps to show to Cue and to other potential suitors, using the resources of the Color team.

Those apps were then abandoned after he showed them off. An entirely new version of the Color broadcasting app was built and never released. Apparently, the technique worked as the deal is said to net everyone at Color, including investors, a return on the initial funding.

Yes, we know, it seems crazy. But this wouldn’t be Apple’s first time buying one of Nguyen’s startups. They snagged Lala for $80 million in December, 2009.

As to why they’d want Color Labs? We would look to Color’s patents, which may include one for a file format that they were working on to record HD video. Color said that it had six patents pending at the time of its funding, including its ‘elastic’ social graph and patents related to GPS location and battery saving. Or its software engineering team could be the target, if Apple was impressed by their work.

If true, and our sources are very well placed, the acquisition helps end a tumultuous period of Color’s existence. From its launch, Color has undergone some different transformations. First, as an application some would consider to be innovative where the premise was that phones would group photos taken with nearby devices through the app, and now its most recent incarnation where it is focused on sharing videos on Facebook (and recently signed a deal with Verizon).

Many became skeptical over Color’s introduction to the scene when it was announced that investors like Bain Capital Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and Sequoia Capital had poured in millions of dollars to this unproven company. It was started by serial entrepreneurs Nguyen and Peter Pham, but quickly unraveled over the next couple of years. Pham left the startup in June 2011 over unknown reasons and went to work at Los Angeles incubator Science.

More conflicting news emerged this week as it was reported that the company was going to shut its doors, something that was quickly refuted.

We’ve reached out to Apple and Color for more information and will update this post if we receive it.

Socware

“Malware on Facebook seems to be hosted and enabled by Facebook itself,” Michalis Faloutsos, a professor of computer science and engineering, said in a statement “It’s a classic parasitic kind of behavior. It is fascinating and sad at the same time.”

All about screen protectors and how to put one on, properly.

How to choose and apply a screen protector, bubble-free

October 17, 2012 | Sharon Vaknin

Find out how to choose the right screen protector, and the key to a bubble-free application.

Through rigorous torture testing, we've learned that not all phones are equipped to stand up against trials of everyday life. OK, so, the Nokia Lumia 900 can take a hammering (literally), but even Gorilla Glass-donning phones are prone to unsavory hairline scratches.

For many people, these scratches are a-OK, but if you plan to sell or trade in your phone in the future, keeping it in tip-top shape is key to getting a good deal.

But screen protectors serve purposes beyond scratch-control -- some act as privacy screens, while other attempt to reduce glare. From buying to applying, follow this guide to getting the most out of your screen protector.

Buying the right screen protector

There are essentially three types of screen protectors, each with their own benefits and quirks. Choosing the right protector is entirely dependent on your needs versus how much you're willing to sacrifice. Let's compare:
Clear. This is the most practical and traditional option. Here, the only purpose of the screen protector is to take the beating of day-to-day life. When shopping, you'll notice that some products include multiple protectors, while others include just one.

If you purchase a pack of two or three protectors, you'll get thin protectors that (when applied properly) are hardly noticeable. They protect your phone against scratches just like other protectors, but will wear over time -- you'll eventually replace your scuffed protector with another one in the pack.

Solo screen protectors are usually a little thicker, and their heavy-duty builds will stand up to scratches for an extended period of time. Some of these products can even be removed and re-applied, should bubbles form.


GreatWhiteGear
Matte. These screen protectors offer the promise of reducing glare while also protecting your device from scratches. Like the clear ones, these protectors also come in packs of one or three, depending on the build.

However, there is one drawback to using an anti-glare protector: distortion. The material used in these matte protectors often produce a rainbow effect and/or a look that can be compared to pixelation. That being said, those who value graphics will have to decide between glare and distortion.

Privacy. Often applied to computers, privacy screen protectors limit the viewing angle of your device, ensuring that only you can view the active screen. These protectors also shield your screen from scratches, but like the matte screens, distortion is apparent.

Privacy screens will make your display appear hazy and video sharing difficult. Forget about gathering friends around your phone for a funny YouTube video -- you'll be the only one laughing.

Applying the screen protector (bubble-free)

There are many methods for applying screen protectors, from the outlandish steam room method to the classic credit-card-and-patience method.

Though many swear by their water or steam-based methods, I recommend against it. Unless the product guide prescribes using such procedures, it's best to keep your new screen protector away from liquids, as minerals in tap water will leave residue between the screen protector and the phone, and the adhesive will deteriorate.

The key to applying a screen protector sans bubbles is patience.

It's also imperative that you apply the protector immediately after purchasing your device,

as even hairline scratches will produce unavoidable bubbles.

The video above shows the step-by-step process, but here's how it's done:

You'll need:
Credit card, club card, gift card, etc.
Microfiber cloth
Screen-cleaning solution (like this homemade one)
Clear tape

Set up your workstation. If you have a clean, non-slip mat, lay it down on your surface to prevent your phone from moving around while you apply the protector.

Finally, clean your hands with soap and water to remove any lotion or dirt.

Using an LCD cleaner and microfiber cloth, clean your screen, removing every last speck of dust. Avoid touching the screen.

Remove the backing from the screen protector, and hold it along the edges.

You may start from the top or bottom of your device, but a good rule of thumb is to start with the end that will require the most precise alignment. (For example, on the iPhone, it would be the home button.) Once you've aligned the protector, adhere it to the screen, following with the credit card to push out any bubbles.

If there are any bubbles apparent, there are two possibilities: your screen is already scratched, or there is a fleck of dust stuck to the protector. If that's the case, use one piece of clear tape to lift the screen protector, and another to remove the dust from the adhesive side. Then, reapply the protector using the method in step 3.


Sharon Vaknin

iPhone 5 already passing other Os's despite short time on market.

iPhone dominates smartphone Web traffic with 46% share, report says

By Mikey Campbell

Apple's iPhone lineup accounts for nearly half of all internet traffic generated by smartphones in the U.S. and Canada, beating out the market share of next-closest competitor Samsung by over 30 percent, according to research provided by ad network Chitika.

Source: Chitika

In an update to its report last week, Chitika Insights found that Apple's iPhone accounted for 46 percent of North American smartphone based internet traffic, with the new iPhone 5's 3 percent share representing more than that of BlackBerry and Windows Phone combined.

On Friday, the ad network's research arm released data pitting Web traffic generated by the iPhone 5 against that of Samsung's Galaxy S III, finding that Apple's newest handset passed the Korean company's flagship device after being available for only three weeks.

Wednesday's update digs deeper into Chitika's ad impression data to put the iPhone and Galaxy S III numbers in context, breaking down Web use by device manufacturer.

As mentioned, iPhone 5 accounts for 3 percent of all smartphone Web traffic, compared to the 2 percent seen from the Galaxy S III. Apple's other iPhone models, like last year's iPhone 4S and legacy handsets, took 43 percent of traffic, followed by "other smartphone" makers including RIM and Nokia. Samsung claimed second place with a 15 percent share, excluding the Galaxy S III.

Going further, Chitika's Internet Access Platform Tracker shows that iOS accounts for 48.67 percent of all mobile traffic in the U.S. and Canada, while Android trails with a 48.27 percent share despite owning 52.2 percent of the smartphone market.

Spartan or micro? Which would you prefer

Me thinks it depends on where you live. Big city center equals micro for a new home investor. Is it practical?

Tiny homes pose a dilemma: How can you make a pocket-size space comfortable and stylish?

The issue has special relevance in San Francisco right now, as the Board of Supervisors gears up for a November 2012 vote on a proposal to allow the construction of microunits as small as 220 square feet.

Small-space living can be an economical choice, but it’s also a lifestyle choice, says Felice Cohen, who has lived in a 90-square-foot apartment in Manhattan for almost five years. “If you adjust your thinking on what is ‘enough,’ you’ll find that you’ll enjoy having the city as your backyard,” she says.

Here, professionals share strategies on how you can live a full life in the tiniest of spaces.
More: How Downsizing Can Make You Happier at Home

Look for Opportunities to Customize
JPDA Creative Director Darrick Borowski applauds density and supports living on a smaller footprint. “I don’t think the microunits necessarily have to equate to a reduction of living standards,” he says. “It can certainly lead to that, but it doesn’t have to.

Although the skeptic in me is concerned how these units will benefit landowners and people with money, another part of me looks at this as an opportunity to create small homes that are bespoke and reflect the way people are living in cities like San Francisco.”
Borowski points to Michael Pozner’s studio, here, as a great example of a space with hardworking multiuse and disappearing furnishings. “His desk space determined so much of the design around it and really reflected the client’s needs,” he says. “He worked there, had meetings there, but its professional function could also disappear, and the space could turn into an entertainment center, a bar for food and drinks.”

These graphics illustrate how Borowski might custom design a 220-square-foot microunit for a client. “We distill our clients’ basic functions — the eat, sleep, cook, entertaining graph — into a clear priority set and turn the priorities into space requirements — the second/middle graph,” he says. “The third graph investigates the overlaps and inevitably informs the design.”

Borowski thinks that what’s not shown on the plan is equally important: public or communal space.
“The microunits should include a public or communal space allotment,” he says. “For example, they could be in buildings with an interior courtyard or a garden. [The city of San Francisco] can make this work and enable people to really wrap their heads around living in 220 square feet by building units within a three- to five-minute walk to a park.”

Felice Cohen, who has since moved from her 90-square-foot unit (this photo) into a 500-square-foot apartment just two blocks away from her old home, thinks that microunits and tiny homes in general enable people like herself to achieve their goals.

“Microunit living can actually contribute to a better quality of life if your quality of life isn’t rooted in what’s inside your apartment, and if you know that you won’t be in the space forever. The city was and still is my backyard: I go to shows and meet friends at restaurants instead of staying at home watching TV on the couch,” she says.

Cohen is quick to point out that there isn’t anything wrong with staying home and watching TV, but that microunit living forced her to “find a reason to get up and go,” she says.

Is it about style, or do some people value true versatility?

The day had finally arrived: My two-year cell phone contract was up, and I could finally ditch my BlackBerry. It also happened to coincide with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S II, the first Android that reviewers said could compete with the iPhone. I gleefully took the plunge. Like those ashamed BlackBerry users profiled in yesterday's New York Times, I was sick of the "mockery and derision" directed at the last remaining holdouts, and was excited for all the possibilities of my new Android.

Two months later, I switched back to my BlackBerry.

The primary reason I went back is the physical keyboard. I always had trouble using a touchpad to type when I would borrow friends' iPhones or Androids, but foolishly believed their assurances that "It get's easier" and "You'll get used to it in a few days." It didn't.

On my BlackBerry, I could easily write entire articles (which I often had to do on the road as a Middle East correspondent). On my Samsung, I struggled to write a standard email. I found myself waiting until I got back home to my laptop to type anything that was more than a sentence or two. Downloading a SWYPE keyboard (which is weirdly lacking on iPhones) improved things significantly, but I still had to pause in between each word, which made typing on a touchpad remain an awkward and frustrating experience.

The other dealbreaker for me is the horrible battery life. On my BlackBerry, I could go two days without recharging. On my Samsung, I was lucky to get to dinner without a recharge -- and on busy days, I often needed to recharge twice. (I hear similar complaints from honest iPhone users.) And I was not a heavy user, most days averaging a few short phone calls and a few emails. I resorted to carrying both a charger and a spare battery around with me. This is not acceptable for a smartphone in 2012. I don't care how fancy a phone is -- if it can't make it through the day without a recharge, it's not worth it.

A related complaint is that, while Android does have a setting for "push email" -- meaning that emails get delivered to my phone in real time, rather than checking for new emails every few minutes -- it is a huge battery drain. One of the main reasons I have a smartphone is so that I can get emails immediately. I shouldn't have to choose between push email and battery life.

One of the vaunted advantages of Androids is that the open-source software allows develops to correct flaws or weak programming in the system. For example, I hated that my Android played a loud jingle whenever it booted up -- so thankfully I found an app that disabled the sound for that.

But there is not an app for everything. I could not find an app to turn off the sound when I shut down, or get rid of the boot up animation altogether. Yes, you can always "root" your phone (an operation that seems to crack open the entire operating system to hacking), which seems to vastly increase the number of ways you can tweak your phone. But it is pretty complicated to do for an average user like me, and also invalidates the phone's warranty.

There are other minor annoyances that, independently, would be tolerable, but do add up to considerable limitations. For example, the alarm clock does not work if the phone is off. I turn my phone off at night, so that made the alarm clock useless. (In the interim before I switched back to my BlackBerry, I actually used my BlackBerry as alarm clock for this reason.) And no, I couldn't find an app for that.

I also found the lack of external LED light to be surprisingly inconvenient. I had to turn on my screen every time I wanted to see if I had an email -- as opposed to the BlackBerry, that has a red blinking light I could see from the top of my pocket. I did find an app that simulated this feature by making colored squares appear on the screen whenever I had an email or a text message. But that was far less useful than the BlackBerry light -- and, yet again, became such a battery drain that I had to disable it.

Another key feature of the BlackBerry for me is the international data plan, which I have yet to find for any other smart phone. T-Mobile offers a $20/month add-on for unlimited emails overseas, only for BlackBerries, which is a lifesaver for someone who travels as much as I do. With my Android, I was stuck paying criminally expensive roaming charges for even minimal international email usage. For a while, I would use my Android at home and move my SIM card to my BlackBerry for when I traveled; after one such trip, I was too busy to switch back to my Android -- and after a few days, realized that I didn't even want to.

The saving grace of the Android is supposed to be the apps. That was what compelled me to stick with my Android for as long as I did. But when I looked through all my Android apps, I realized that almost all the ones I used with any frequency (such as Pandora, Our Groceries, Zipcar, Google Maps, and Twitter) all had BlackBerry versions -- and for some, the BlackBerry version were even better (such as the NextBus app).

To be sure, some BlackBerry apps are pretty weak (like Evernote, which doesn't allow you to edit notes, only view them). And some of my most used apps don't exist for BlackBerry (like Pocket, Instagram, or a Car2Go locator). But the majority of those apps I downloaded on my Android I have barely used more than once or twice.

With all that said, the decline of BlackBerry will become a self-fulfilling prophesy. As more users flock to iPhones and Androids, fewer new apps will become available on the BlackBerry. Eventually, the gap in availability will become a significant drawback for the BlackBerry. When that time comes, I will reluctantly dust off the Galaxy S II sitting on my shelf (not to mention the extra batteries and travel charger). But until then, I will remain a proudly uncool BlackBerry user.

FB reaches for new heights. More apps or more ads?

Two months into testing a program for promoting sponsored applications in Facebook’s iOS and Android applications, the social network has opened the service to all developers.

Now officially titled “mobile app install ads,” the units allow application makers to buy prominent exposure for their apps in the mobile News Feed.



The ads appear in the stream with a subtle “sponsored” label (as pictured right), and allow Facebook members to click through to Apple’s App Store or the Google Play marketplace to purchase or download a promoted app.

“With these new ads, mobile apps and games of all sizes across any category can reach the right audience, at scale,” Facebook engineer Vijaye Raji wrote in a blog post Wednesday. “TinyCo saw 50% higher CTRs and significantly higher conversion rates compared to their current mobile channels, as well as a significant increase in player engagement.”

Raji said other beta partners such as Kabam, Fab, Big Fish, and Nanigans also experienced higher engagement rates and better reach to more relevant users.

Now that the units are openly available, they will either allow the social network to address its mobile monetization issues or alienate members who’ve not yet noticed a stream of ads cluttering their mobile News Feeds. The task at hand is especially important now that nearly 20 percent of Facebook’s mobile users skip the website altogether. Facebook has 600 million monthly active mobile users.

Facebook today also promised developers substantial improvements to the ad units in the coming months. The ability for end users to install apps without leaving Facebook’s app, the option to customize the ad based on audience type, and the choice to show ads to people who have not installed an app were all cited as examples.

Housing in the US rebounds.

By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)

U.S. home builders broke new ground in September at the fastest pace in more than four years and permits also rose sharply in the strongest sign yet that recovery in the construction trade is becoming firmly entrenched.

Construction on new homes accelerated by 15% to an annual rate of 872,000 last month from a revised 758,000 in August, the Commerce Department said. The increase easily surpassed the 770,000 estimate of economists surveyed by MarketWatch.

ECONOMY AND POLITICS

Obama regains footing
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney hold a spirited debate in their second matchup, with the president giving a more feisty showing than in their first duel.
• Home building surges
• Consumer inflation jumps
• Builder sentiment at 6-yr high
• Political Watch blog
• U.S. economic calendar
• Global economic calendar
• Columns: Nutting | Delamaide
• Follow @MKTWEconomics
Work on new single-family homes, which account for about three-quarters of the housing market, rose 11% last month.

Construction on multi-dwelling units such as condos and townhouses climbed an even faster 25%, but that’s a category that can swing sharply from month to month and is thus less an indicator of overall housing demand.

The number of permits requested, however, underscores the likelihood that the housing market’s recovery is finally for real after a nearly six-year slump.

Building permits also shot up to a four-year high, rising 11.6% to an annual rate of 894,000. August’s permits were revised down slightly, to 801,000.

Permits for single-family homes rose 6.7% to an annualized 545,000 rate last month, while multi-dwelling permits increased 20.3% to 349,000.

The version of Adobe Flash Player required to view this interactive has not been found.
To enjoy our complete interactive experience, please download a free copy of the latest version of Adobe Flash Player here.
Housing party is just getting started
PNC Financial Services Group chief economist Stuart Hoffman takes a look at the housing starts and permits gains with Alisa Parenti in MarketWatch News Break.

In September, housing starts rose in all regions except the Northeast, with construction strongest in West and South. Both regions saw about a 20% jump in new construction.

Before this year the nation’s construction industry had been stuck in its worst slump in the modern era, following the collapse of a housing bubble in 2006.

Super-low interest rates, a modestly improved economy and a receding foreclosure crisis have all contributed to the upward shift in the demand for new homes.

Yet even though the pace of construction is nearly 35% higher compared to a year ago, construction activity overall remains considerably shrunken from its pre-bubble heyday. Before the bust, housing starts surpassed 2 million a year; they would probably top 1.5 million annually if the economy were fully recovered.

Going forward, home sales and construction could still be partly depressed by a slow growing U.S. economy and a high unemployment rate that limits the number of prospective buyers. The jobless rate is 7.8%.

“How far can the rebound go with unemployment where it is?” asked Steve Blitz, chief economist of ITG Investment Research. “From our perspective, not much farther.”

Apple makes a move, removing Java applet from OSX.


Further pushing toward the idea of a plugin-free internet,

Apple has issued an update to Java for OS X that removes the Java applet plugin. Attempting to use a Java applet through any OS X web browser will now prompt users to download the latest version directly from Java maker Oracle.

This is not the first time Apple has stopped shipping a specific browser plugin with their computers. With OS X Lion, users discovered that their Macs no longer came with Adobe’s oft-derided Flash Player plugin due to its instability and security issues. Apple has long held browser plugins in contempt, especially following the success of iOS, which hasn’t supported browser plugins at all in the past six years.

Just about every Mac Trojan/vulnerability over recent months and years has been related to outdated Java code. This move should close off those attack vectors.

iOS 6. Some things to keep in mind.

Posted by David Harley
Stop me if you’ve heard this before…

Bill Ray points out for The Register that Apple has quietly reintroduced user tracking for advertisers in iOS 6, though Identification For Advertisers (IFA), which allows advertisers to improve their targeted advertising, isn’t quite the same as UDID (Unique Device IDentifier) and is easy enough to turn off if you know where to look for it. (Unlike UDID, which couldn’t be toggled by the user.) Assuming that you prefer to avoid targeted advertising, of course, which is apparently the preference of 66% of Americans. It depends, I guess, on how much you want those services that are economically dependent or semi-dependent on their advertisers. It’s hard to be sociable online these days without using those services. Maybe I’ll come back to that in a future blog.

IE 10 is almost here.

Microsoft says it will provide a preview version of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 users in mid-November. The software maker has been suspiciously quiet about its Internet Explorer plans for Windows 7, always promising that the latest version, available in Windows 8, would make its way to the operating system.

In a company blog post, Microsoft's Rob Mauceri explains that a final version will follow after the company has collected developer and customer feedback. "IE10 brings improved real-world site performance and additional standards support to Windows 7 that Web developers have been asking for," says Mauceri. "IE10 on Windows 7 has the same standards based platform for developers to target as IE10 on Windows 8."

It's not clear why the company has opted to ship a preview version instead of final code for web developers. Initial reaction from the comments on Microsoft's blog post suggest that some developers were expecting a final release soon, rather than a preview. "Why preview?" asks one. "We want to develop optimized sites now!" Another says "I thought IE10 rtm would be out on 26th oct along with windows 8. Not happy microsoft!"

More EV's. More Toyota.

The question is, are other car manufacturers paying close enough attention?

Toyota to bring Scion iQ EV to U.S.
Toyota is bringing its Scion iQ EV battery- electric four-seater city commuter car to the U.S. for car-sharing programs.

The iQ EV features Toyota’s newly developed high-output lithium-ion battery which delivers an electric power consumption rate of 104 Wh/km in a compact and lightweight package. In ideal stop and go driving conditions, the 12 kWh battery provides an estimated range of up to 50 miles on a full charge. The vehicle can be fully charged in approximately three hours at 240V. Its 78-inch wheel base and 13.5 foot turning radius makes the iQ EV highly maneuverable in congested areas where streets are narrow and parking is at a premium.

“Approximately 90 iQ EVs will be available for fleet and car-sharing applications,” said Hostetter. “These programs will further expand Toyota’s comprehensive portfolio of advanced technology vehicles which includes the recently-released RAV4 EV, the Prius Family of gas-electric hybrid vehicles, including the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, and the FCHV-Adv (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle-Advanced).”

The iQ EV is replete with energy conserving features such as regenerative braking, heat pump air conditioning with a pre-conditioning option, LED high-mounted stop light, heated front seats, and a heated windshield defroster.

The iQ EV is equipped with a timer to match charge completion time with the time the vehicle will actually be driven, to help reduce battery degradation. In addition, there are three driving modes to select from: D range controls the vehicle to use the least amount of power during city driving; S range increases acceleration performance for brisker driving; and a B range that maximizes regenerative braking efficiency. Maximum output from the drivetrain is 47 kW (63 hp) with a maximum torque of 120 lbs.-ft. In S range the iQ EV accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 13.4 seconds, and from 30 to 50 mph in seven seconds. Its top speed is 78 mph.

The iQ EV’s styling resembles something from Lego Land. The front bumper contains the charging port lid which emphasizes the EV’s iconic lack of an upper grille. Two exterior colors are available: Silver and Super Red.

The interior features a high-contrast black and white color scheme with metallic and ice-blue accents. There is a leather wrapped steering wheel and white steering pad cover, the contoured center console symbolizes the battery mounted below the floor and the plug patterned seat fabric with blueish-grey and white stitching completes the iconic theme.

Are tablets alive and well? Yes I should think so.

The world of PC's might come to a standstill.

Computerworld - Microsoft has exhausted its initial supply of the lowest-priced Surface RT tablet, which now is backordered by three weeks.

On Wednesday, the company's pre-order website noted, "Order now for shipment within 3 weeks" for the $499 32GB tablet.

That model lacks a cover-cum-keyboard.

Microsoft yesterday kicked off pre-orders for the Surface RT, its first entry into tablet design and manufacturing. The Surface RT comes in three configurations: a 32GB model at $499, a 32GB device with a Touch Cover for $599, and a 64GB model with that same cover at $699. Touch Covers are also available separately for $119.99, and the Type Cover, a slightly thicker keyboard with key travel more like that of a lightweight notebook, costs $129.99.

Microsoft's Surface RT pricing 'aggressive,' 'mystifying,' say analysts
Why Acer is wrong about Microsoft Surface
Microsoft 10-K confirms Surface will ship on Oct. 26
Microsoft acknowledges Surface may trigger OEM hostility
First release of Surface tablets to be Wi-Fi-only, sources say
Microsoft Surface tablets may not match iPad battery life
FAQ: What we don't know about Microsoft's Surface tablet
QuickPoll: Can the Microsoft Surface successfully take on the iPad?
Microsoft's Surface tablet no threat to Apple's iPad
LG puts tablet development on hold
More on Surface
The two higher-priced SKUs, or stock-keeping units, remain available for delivery by Oct. 26, the official launch date for Windows 8, its spinoff Windows RT, and hardware powered by both new operating systems.

Although the entry-level Surface RT was out of stock Wednesday, the Type Cover -- which one might expect would be ordered alongside the keyboard-less tablet -- was not. Orders for the Type Cover will be fulfilled by Oct. 26, Microsoft said.

Customers may be opting for the lowest-priced model -- and passing on a keyboard -- simply to save dollars.

"The entry-level product includes no typing solution and is pretty transparently an opening price point gambit," said Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group. "But there's no way to know how many people bought, or didn't buy, one of the covers."

In other words, Baker continued, don't read too much into either the backorder or the fact that the two covers are still available.

Even so, he was surprised that Microsoft offered a cover-less Surface RT. "To some extent, without a [Touch or Type] Cover, then the Surface is just another tablet," Baker said. "With a cover, it's both a consumption and creation device."

Ever since June, when Microsoft unveiled its Surface project -- which also includes a Windows 8 Pro-powered tablet set to ship in late January 2013 -- the company has aggressively promoted the cover-slash-keyboard. In its opening television advertisement for the Surface, which ran Monday night in the U.S., Microsoft almost exclusively focused on the cover.

"Given the focus of the product, Microsoft's concept was, 'This is a new kind of tablet, a new kind of notebook. It's either one and both at the same time,'" said Baker. By offering a Surface RT minus a cover, Baker argued, Microsoft was muddying that message.

"They could have set $599 as the opening price," Baker said, referring to the 32GB Surface RT that does include a Touch Cover.

He was also dismissive of any interpretation of the quick sell-out of the $499 model. "[Sell-outs] don't ever really mean anything," he said. "They could have made just 10 of them, then said, 'We're out!'"

Nonetheless, out-of-stock reports are not uncommon, especially for new devices. Availability of Apple's products, particularly the iPhone and iPad, sometimes even its Mac notebooks, are regularly tracked by the technology media and bloggers as one of the few available clues to sales.

Microsoft may mention the Surface RT, and perhaps hint at early sales, during its upcoming quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts. The conference call, which will cover the quarter that ended Sept. 30, is slated to start Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

In case you wondered. Hacker stats.

Hackers Exploit Software Bugs For 10 Months On Average Before They're Exposed
SHARE:




Symantec's chart shows a distribution of zero-day exploits based on how long they persist before being discovered. The average is close to 10 months. (Click to enlarge.)
Software vendors are constantly on the watch for so-called “zero day” vulnerabilities–flaws in their code that hackers find and exploit before the first day companies become aware of them. But the term “zero-day” doesn’t capture just how early hackers’ head-starts often are: Day zero, it seems, often lasts more than 300 days.
That’s one of the findings of a broad study of hackers’ zero-day exploits by two researchers at the antivirus firm Symantec that they plan to present at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Computer and Communications Security conference in Raleigh, North Carolina this week. Leyla Bilge and Tudor Dumitra used data collected from 11 million PCs running Symantec’s antivirus software to correlate a catalogue of zero-day attacks with malware found on those machines. Using that retrospective analysis, they found 18 attacks that represented zero-day exploits between February 2008 and March of 2010, only seven of which were previously known to have been exploited prior to their public discovery. And most disturbingly, they found that those attacks continued 312 days on average–up to 2.5 years in some cases–before the security community became aware of them.
“In fact, 60% of the zero-day vulnerabilities we identify in our study were not known before, which suggests that there are many more zero-day attacks than previously thought—perhaps more than twice as many,” the researchers write. And they add that their estimate for the average time to discovery of those vulnerabilities may be conservative, too. “While the average duration is approximately 10 months, the fact that all but one of the vulnerabilities disclosed after 2010 remained unknown for more than 16 months suggests that we may be underestimating the duration of zero-day attacks.”
One aspect of zero-day exploits use that’s made them tough to track and count has been how closely targeted they are. Unlike the mass malware infections that typically infect many thousands of machines using known vulnerabilties, the majority of the exploits in Symantec’s study only affected a handful of machines–All but four of the exploits infected less than 100 targets, and four were found on only one computer.
That careful use of zero-day exploits, often reserved for stealthy espionage tactics rather than credit-card harvesting or other for-profit crime, reflects their price. As I reported earlier this year based on conversations with brokers of zero-day exploit code, a single zero-day exploit can cost as much as $250,000, and the fees are often paid in installments based on the vulnerability remaining secret and unpatched.
Unsurprisingly, the study shows that hackers target common software like Microsoft Word, Flash and Adobe Reader. Sixteen of the 18 zero-day exploits discovered and analyzed in the study affected Microsoft and Adobe software.

Symantec's study shows that hackers grab onto new exploits, using them hundreds or thousands of times more often, around the time of their revelation to the public. (Click to enlarge.)
Once a certain vulnerability does come to public light, Symantec’s study shows that hackers quickly pile on to exploit the flaw before it can be fixed by the software’s vendor. In some cases tracked by Symantec, a single exploit jumped from a handful of cases to tens of thousands within days of a bug’s disclosure. (See chart at left.)
Those findings lend some numbers to an issue that’s been a subject of fiery debate in the security community: Whether security researchers should expose vulnerabilities they find to the public or report them privately to the company whose software is affected. Broadcasting bugs to the public, a strategy researchers have labelled “full disclosure,” leads to that spike in attacks before users have access to secure software, as Symantec’s study shows. But in other cases, researchers argue that companies don’t have an incentive to patch bugs reported to them until their users are at risk of being widely attacked. In August, for instance, Oracle waited until thousands of users had been attacked via a bug in its Java program before patching it, despite the fact that Polish researchers had reported the flaw to Oracle four months earlier.
One clear conclusion of Symantec’s study, regardless of that full-disclosure debate, is the value of the benevolent hackers who find and report bugs in software before they’re exploited. Without someone to dig them up and demand they be fixed, those hackable flaws are far more common, and remain secret far longer, than anyone may have realized.

Will it work? Social media steps into the spotlight.

With retailers ringing up unusually high sales using Pinterest

—arguably the year’s biggest digital-platform sensation

—marketers are getting ready to pin holiday gift ideas and seasonal content like glittering ornaments to a virtual Pinterest Christmas tree.

“We will post a sharable, interactive gift guide and offer how-to videos and tutorials for looks to help [customers be] party ready,” said Bridget Dolan, Sephora’s vp, digital media. “Pinterest has great potential for the holidays.”
Sephora counts 64,000 followers on Pinterest, a sizable audience for any brand on the young platform—but still not much in terms of social media scale. In contrast, Sephora has 2 million Facebook fans and 712,000 Twitter followers.

But it doesn’t seem to matter how many Pinterest followers brands have; retailers simply hope the buying propensity they’ve seen in recent months continues.

“Our Pinterest referrals spend 70 percent more than nonsocial channels, including search,” said Jane Carpenter, media rep for home furnishings e-retailer Wayfair, which has 1,800 Pinterest followers. “They are 10 percent more likely to purchase when compared to other social channels. And we are on everything—Twitter, YouTube, Facebook.”

Two-and-a-half-year-old Pinterest, per comScore, hit 25 million unique users in September, compared to just 2 million a year ago. Pinterest “is the fastest stand-alone site in U.S. history to reach that [users] level,” said comScore rep Andrew Lipsman.

“It’s been established that more than any other social channel, Pinterest is where folks go to buy stuff,” added Chad White, research director at online marketing firm Responsys. “People don’t go to Twitter to buy products. And it’s well-established that they don’t go to Facebook to buy things.”

Meanwhile, in addition to Sephora’s multimedia pinning plans, merchants have channel-exclusive contests and wish-list tactics in store for the picture-friendly website. Kate Spade New York has 88,000 Pinterest followers and is amped to add the site to its holiday social media mix of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram, said Kristina DiMatteo Fields, digital marketing director for the firm. “We will pin content daily,” she said.

Though not just female-skewed brands are looking to Pinterest for yuletide revenues. MLB Shop, the online store for Major League Baseball (11,000 Pinterest followers), is bolstering resources for the social site. “We are going to put bodies on it to make sure our products and promotions are always there,” said Noah Garden, evp of revenue for Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the digital arm of the pro sports league. “What we are seeing right now are good conversion rates.”

And even the Boston Celtics (4,000 followers) believe Pinterest is a slam-dunk for attracting female holiday shoppers. “Our other digital platforms are roughly 75 percent male, so it lets us target a new fan base,” said Shawn Sullivan, CMO for the NBA franchise. “On average, a Celtics item is repinned 17 times. [That viral] allows us to extend the reach of merchandise to fans who otherwise would not have come to our Pinterest page or online store.”

Mobile security. The inevitable comparisons with PC's.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Security experts haev warned for years that our smartphones are due for a major cyberattack. Like PCs back in the early days -- the 1990s -- mobile phones are largely unprotected by antivirus software, and they're a treasure trove of valuable information.

So why hasn't the smartphone Armageddon happened yet?

Basic economics is one reason. Cyberthieves are making so much money attacking Windows PCs that there hasn't been much incentive to change tactics. It's hard to track down exact statistics on how much money is stolen each year through cyberattacks, but most security experts put the dollar figure in the billions. Once single, recent hack that Verizon (VZ) investigated -- debit card numbers stolen from merchants through secretly installed keyloggers -- resulted in a loss of $20 million.

Microsoft (MSFT) Windows is still the low-hanging fruit. With 92% share of the PC market and a two-thirds share of all Internet-connected devices, Windows is the obvious target to attack if you're a hacker looking to make money.

We're about to hit a tipping point, though. ost people still do their online banking and shopping on their PCs, but those transactions are happening on mobile phones more frequently. Where the money goes, cybercrooks follow.

Here are the scary numbers: Cyberattacks on mobile phones rose by a factor of six this year, according to Intel (INTC) subsidiary McAfee. Four in 10 mobile users will click an unsafe link on a smartphone this year, according to Lookout Security.

Yet less than a fifth of the devices run any antivirus software, according to security research organization SANS. And RSA study shows we're much more likely to click on phishing attacks on mobile devices than we are on PCs.

Still, not even one major cyberattack has hit smartphones. What's up?

The good news is that developers learned from the indtustry's long history of cubersecurity debacles. Smartphone operating systems were built from scratch fairly recently -- not much legacy code here -- and wer designed with strong security protections. Though it's possible, int's incredibly difficult to attack a dvice thorugh one program and then own an entire phone.

Fragmentation is also an unexpected protection. With so many different varieties of Google's (GOOG) Android operating system out there, it's hard to write the right code for a swath of devices.

Even users of Android -- the target of almost all mobile malware -- are far less susceptible to attack than PC users. The growth in mobile threats is dramatic, but the 13,000 different kinds of mobile balware McAfee has found this year is still teeny compared with the 90 million threats it detected for PCs.

Still, experts say it's just a matter of time before mobile catches up.

"The money is in mobile, and that's where they're moving," said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4, a security training company. "Malware on mobile phones is going to be as prevalent as on the PC. It's inevitable, unfortunately."

Smartphones have become personal computers that travel around with us at all times. Mobile attacks are difficult, and the smartphone space may never be as homogeneous as the PC market, but crooks follow the cash. As smartphones become our primary devices, the cybercriminals' motivation for targeting them grows. All it will take is one slip up by Apple (APPL) or Google.

"What will happen is one of these smartphone makers will release a new OS or browser, and there will be a hole," said Alan Wlausk, the managing partner of WDDInc., a software development company. "An attacker will exploit that. That's going to happen for sure."

Oh Google. What now?

Google told to fix privacy policy by EU data regulators

CNIL's president said Google might face legal action if it did not make the requested changes
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

EU demands Google privacy rethink
Google to pay record privacy fine
Privacy watchdog to meet Google
EU watchdogs have said Google must revise its privacy policy.

It follows the firm's decision in March to consolidate 60 separate privacy policies into a single agreement.

The move allowed it to pool data from across its products, including use of its video site YouTube, social network Google+ and smartphone system Android - potentially helping it target adverts.

French data privacy regulator CNIL - which led the inquiry - said the US company had "months" to make changes.

Google has been told it should give clearer information about what data is being collected and for what purpose. It has also been told to give users more control over how the information is combined.

It has been warned that if it took no action, CNIL would "enter a phase of litigation".

Google said it needed more time to provide a detailed response.

"We have received the report and are reviewing it now," said Peter Fleischer, its global privacy counsel.

Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent
Google had a lot riding on the decision from the EU data protection watchdogs.

The revised privacy policy, which came into force on 1 March, gives its advertisers access to a much richer pool of data from users across its many services.

Now CNIL has issued a critical report on the policy, and called for changes, with a warning that there could be litigation if Google does not respond.

But the search giant has gone into spin mode, pointing out that that its policy has not been ruled illegal and it hasn't been asked to roll it back.

A spokesman was also eager to point out that Microsoft had unveiled a similar privacy code this week.

But Google - like Microsoft before it - is now firmly in the sights of the world's regulators, with an EU competition ruling the next hurdle to clear.

The search firm insists that everything it does is in the interest of its users - its problem is that the world is no longer quite so inclined to see it as a big friendly giant.

"Our new privacy policy demonstrates our long-standing commitment to protecting our users' information and creating great products. We are confident that our privacy notices respect European law."

Although Google has not been directly accused of acting illegally, it has been accused of providing "incomplete and approximate" details raising "deep concerns about data protection and the respect of the European law".

French investigation
CNIL carried out the investigation into Google on behalf of the 27 members of the European Union. Although Greece, Romania and Lithuania have yet to sign up to the findings, non-EU states Croatia and Liechtenstein have done so.

After studying Google's revised policy in depth, the agency said it believed Google had failed to place any limit on the "scope of collection and the potential uses of the personal data", meaning it might be in breach of several of the bloc's data protection principles.

Specifically, CNIL said it was unhappy that users were unable to determine or control what kinds of data were being processed and for what use.

It noted that the revised privacy policy did not distinguish between search engine queries, typed-in credit card numbers or telephone communications.

Furthermore it highlighted the wide range of potential uses Google might have for the data including product development, security, advertising and academic research.

It said that EU data protection laws place limits on such activities and proposed the following changes:

Google must "reinforce users' consent". It suggests this could be done by allowing its members to choose under what circumstances data about them was combined by asking them to click on dedicated buttons.
The firm should offer a centralised opt-out tool and allow users to decide which of Google's services provided data about them.
Google should adapt its own tools so that it could limit data use to authorised purposes. For example, it should be able to use a person's collated data to improve security efforts but not to target advertising.

Auke Haagsma, from Microsoft-funded lobby group Icomp on the Google decision
CNIL's president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin said the company had "three or four months" to make the revisions, otherwise "authorities in several countries can take action against Google".

'Important step'
UK-based privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch welcomed the news.

"It's absolutely right that European regulators focus on ensuring people know what data is being collected and how it is being used," said the organisation's director, Nick Pickles.

"Unless people are aware just how much of their behaviour is being monitored and recorded it is impossible to make an informed choice about using services.

"This ruling is an important step to putting consumers in control of their personal information and ensuring that companies like Google are not able to easily disregard people's privacy in pursuit of more information and greater profits."

The news coincides with Google's test of a new unified search tool that works across several of its products.

Users involved in the trial are able to check through the contents of their Gmail, Google Calendar and Drive cloud storage services through the main search tool on the site's Google.com homepage.


Participants in a trial can do a unified search of Google's Drive file storage service and other services
The pilot is being limited to participants in the US at this time.

Google still faces the results of a separate investigation by the EU into whether it has abused its position as the most popular internet search tool by directing users to its own services by placing them high in its results.

News site Search Engine Land has also reported that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is "strongly considering" its own investigation into whether Google and others have complied with guidelines for the disclosure of information about how paid advertisements appear in search results and whether the rules should be updated.

Really a security chip? For what?

Apple's Lightning Cable Contains Possible Security Chip

Wired News | October 16, 2012

Apple?s migration of the iPhone from the 30-pin connector to Lightning connector hasn?t been without its issues. Even with the 30-pin adapter, some older high-end peripherals may not work. Plus, Apple has beefed up the rules for third-party vendors hoping to sell their own Lightning cables. Now a teardown reveals that Apple is getting serious about security or just wants low-quality cables off the market.



More Google

Celebrating Dart’s birthday with the first release of the Dart SDK

A year ago we released a technology preview of Dart, a project that includes a modern language, libraries and tools for building complex web applications. Today, after plowing through thousands of bug reports and feature requests from the web community, a new, more stable and comprehensive version of Dart is now available and ready to use.

With this version of the Dart SDK, we’ve made several improvements and added many features:

A faster Dart Virtual Machine that on some Octane tests outperforms even V8.
A new Dart to JavaScript translator that generates fast and compact output.
An HTML library that works transparently on modern browsers.
A library to interoperate with JavaScript code.
An easy to use editor.
Pub, a new package manager
Dartium, a Chromium build with native Dart support.
A server-side I/O library.
A language specification describing the Dart semantics, including new features.

Over the following months, we will continue to work hard to evolve the SDK, improve Dart’s robustness and performance, and fine-tune the language while maintaining backwards compatibility.

You can download the Dart Editor from dartlang.org. It comes with a copy of the open-source SDK and Dartium. Thanks again for all your feedback - keep it coming.

Now for Google. Gmail search + Google Drive

10/15/12

Find your stuff faster in Gmail and Search
(Cross-posted on the Official Gmail Blog)

When you’re looking for something, you should be able to find what you need quickly and easily without needing to think about where it might be, whether it's in your email or out on the public web. That’s why this past August we opened a field trial allowing you to sign up to get information from Gmail right from the Google search box.

We’ve gotten very positive feedback from those of you testing it out -- such as this note: “The Gmail results feature is awesome! The fact that it's all integrated into one screen is huge.” Many testers have requested being able to find Drive files as well -- as one of you put it, “It would be awesome if I could search my google drive from google search as well :)”.

So starting today, you can sign up for a new and expanded field trial that makes it easier to find your stuff across Google, whether you’re searching on Google.com or searching in Gmail.

In Gmail, as you begin to type into the search box, you'll instantly start seeing relevant emails from Gmail as well as results from Google Drive, Google Calendar, and more:

Similarly, when you search on Google.com, your results will include relevant information and messages from Gmail (something familiar to those who joined the original field trial) and now -- new in this field trial -- also files, documents, spreadsheets and more from Google Drive:

To give this a try, please visit the updated field trial page and select Join the field trial. Please note that this trial is only accessible in English and for @gmail.com addresses (not available on Google Apps accounts). And keep the feedback coming!

Posted by Bram Moolenaar, Software Engineer

FB again.

As the social media company prepares to influence policy, Facebook's political action committee has raised a sizable amount of money. It has doled out more to Republicans, $140,000, compared with $127,000 to Democrats through the end of September, according to a CNNMoney review of federal records released Monday.

Many companies, much like special interest groups such as trade unions, form PACs to collect funds that they contribute to election campaigns of political candidates.
Some technology companies like Microsoft stayed away from influencing Washington politics in the early days of their formation. But Facebook (FB) has shown a desire to be a political player by creating a PAC last year, even before it became a publicly traded company in May.

It's a recognition on Facebook's part of the influence that Washington politics could play on its business. Any new legislation that could restrict Internet companies from collecting and using members' information would hurt Facebook's ability to turn a profit from its 1 billion-plus users.

"Part of Facebook's value is the information it collects on users,"

said Alex Daley, chief technology investment strategist at Casey Research, an investing research group. "Privacy is the number one concern."
Facebook isn't alone among top technology companies that are giving more to Republicans this election.
For the first time since 2006, the technology industry's corporate giving has doled out more to GOP candidates, $2.78 million, compared with $2.45 million to Democrats, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500) and eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) have all given more to Republicans, according to monthly filings through the end of August.
Google has given out a total of $652,000 almost equally to both parties, with Republicans edging out Democrats by $500.
Facebook's corporate PAC gave entirely to congressional candidates and did not weigh in on the presidential race.

One reason for heavier Republican giving could be that GOP House members outnumber Democrats.
Facebook would not discuss the company's corporate political giving. Spokesman Andrew Noyes said the PAC supports "candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected."
The company's employees, however, are heavily favoring Democrats. Personal contributions from Facebook employees have totaled $116,300 for Democrats and $53,700 for Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg alone has given $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee and $5,000 to President Obama, and dozens of smaller contributions to congressional Democrats. Sandberg was a top adviser to Treasury Secretary Larry Summers during the Clinton administration.

FB gets sued for want.

FLINT, MI -- Facebook is being sued by a Michigan company that claims the social networking giant ripped off one of its ideas.

Farmington Hills-based company CVG-SAB is suing Facebook in Flint federal court over its new "Want" button.

Users who click Facebook's want button are taken to non-Facebook sites where they can purchase merchandise.

CVG-SAB claims the feature closely resembles a service it already markets through its website, wantbutton.com, and that it is already causing confusion in the digital marketplace.

CVG-SAB claims it began marketing its own want button in September 2010 to allow consumers to keep a universal list of desired products and services, according to the lawsuit.

Tommy Bahama, Burlington Coat Factory and various other high-profile companies are current customers of CVG-SAB, which claims more than 160 million want-button views.

The lawsuit claims CVG-SAB has received multiple inquires into whether the new Facebook platform has any relationship with its own want button since the trial launch of Facebook's new platform earlier this month.

Monday, October 15, 2012

A new 911 GT3?

Spy Shots Confirm that New Porsche 991 GT3 will get a PDK Dual Clutch Transmission

We had heard the rumors that Porsche was evaluating a PDK dual clutch transmission for the new 991-generation of its hardcore 911 GT3 in place of the traditional manual gearbox that has been around ever since the series was introduced in 1999, but now we have the first photographic proof of it.
A member of the Gearstage forums spotted prototypes of both the Porsche 918 Spyder and 911 GT3 somewhere in San Francisco, USA, and was able to get close enough to nab some pictures of the 991-series GT3's interior.

Positioned between the leather and Alcantara sport seats on the center console is Porsche's PDK dual-clutch automatic transmission (see more photos in the links below), which sources state will have seven gears.

We still do not know for sure if the German company will offer both a manual gearbox and a PDK transmission, but for better or for worse, the grapevine says it will only be the latter.

As a reminder, the new 911 GT3 will continue to be sport a rev-happy, normally aspirated flat six, though this time, instead of the current model's 4.0-liter engine, it will use the 991's newer 3.8-liter unit tweaked by Porsche Motorsport's division to produce somewhere between 450 and 500 horses.

We expect the 991 GT3 to launch sometime next year.

Raspberry PI.

@Raspberry_Pi: Today's 512MB announcement means the Raspberry Pi has the same amount of RAM as a PS3 or the XBOX360.

Perhaps people don't want to give their money away.

We've all heard the story: Electric cars are a flop despite efforts from the government to help.

But new sales data suggests this may not be true after all.

Electric and hybrid cars are now the second-best-selling vehicle class in America behind the Ford (NYSE: F) F-Series. Year to date, a whopping 351,703 hybrid and electric cars have been sold. That's significantly more than the 229,521 Toyota (NYSE: TM) Camry's that have been sold. And the Camry is practically in the dictionary under "sales king." Fortunately for Toyota it also makes up 67% of the hybrid and electric market, so it shouldn't lose sleep over this development.

In addition hybrid and electric cars are the fastest-growing segment of the car market. That 351,703 figure is 73% bigger than a year ago. That's almost a doubling within a year in a large segment!

Yes, all these numbers include hybrids. But the line between electric and hybrid cars has gotten harder to define. The Chevrolet Volt is generally seen as the poster child of "electric car" despite its gasoline range extender. The new plug-in Toyota Prius, on the other hand, is generally touted as a hybrid despite it's ability to go 11 miles on electricity (versus 38 for the Volt). Both these classifications seem somewhat arbitrary and heavily influenced by marketing.

But even unequivocally pure EVs are doing OK. The Nissan LEAF -- which has no gasoline component at all -- has sold 5,212 units this year. That doesn't sound like much, but that's actually better than both of Honda's (NYSE: HMC) hybrid models (the Prius-fighting Honda Insight and the CR-Z), as well as iconic gasoline cars like the Mazda MX-5 Miata, the Porsche Boxster, and the Audi TT.

Despite its success, however, LEAF sales are lagging behind a year ago (down 28%).

Fortunately General Motor's (NYSE: GM) Chevy Volt is more than picking up the slack. Sales of Volts are up 328% to 16,348 units. That's better than the somewhat similarly priced BMW 1-Series or Lexus GS. That's also better than more pedestrian cars like the MINI Countryman, the GMC Yukon XL, or the Nissan Quest. As well as significantly better than the Nissan LEAF and the cars it beats.

The market seems to be saying it will tolerate electric cars, but that it prefers ones with gasoline assistance (like the Volt) to alleviate the much ballyhooed "range anxiety." It will be interesting to see if that preference disappears as very long range EVs -- I'm thinking of the Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) Model S -- become more affordable. Based on what we've seen so far my bet would be yes.