Gone in 2 minutes: Mac gets hacked first in contest

Slashdot It! It may be the quickest $10,000 Charlie Miller ever earned. He took the first of three laptop computers -- and a $10,000 cash prize -- Thursday after breaking into a MacBook Air at the CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest. Show organizers offered a Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810 and the MacBook as prizes, saying that they could be won by anybody at the show who could find a way to hack into each of them and read the contents of a file on the system, using a previously undisclosed "0day" attack. Nobody was able to hack into the systems on the first day of the contest when contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages. The MacBook was the only system to be hacked by Thursday, however, the word on the show floor is that the Linux and Vista systems will meet with some serious challenges on Friday. Miller, best known as one of the researchers who first hacked Apple's iPhone last year, didn't take much time. Within 2 minutes, he directed the contest's organizers to visit a Web site that contained his exploit code, which then allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers cheered him on. He was the first contestant to attempt an attack on any of the systems. Miller was quickly given a nondisclosure agreement to sign and he's not allowed to discuss particulars of his bug until the contest's sponsor, TippingPoint, can notify the vendor. Contest rules state that Miller could only take advantage of software that was preinstalled on the Mac, so the flaw he exploited must have been accessible, or possibly inside, Apple's Safari browser. Last year's contest winner, Dino Dai Zovi, exploited a vulnerability in QuickTime to take home the prize. Dai Zovi, who congratulated Miller after his hack, didn't participate in this year's contest, saying it was time for someone else to win. By late Thursday, Apple engineers were already working on patching the issue, said Aaron Portnoy, a TippingPoint researcher who is one of the contest's judges. Miller's $10,000 payday may sound sweet, but it's not the most Miller has been paid for his work. In 2005, he earned $50,000 for a Linux bug he delivered to an unnamed government agency. Last year's contest winner, Dino Dai Zovi, exploited a vulnerability in QuickTime to take home the prize. Dai Zovi, who congratulated Miller after his hack, didn't participate in this year's contest, saying it was time for someone else to win. Shane Macaulay, who was Dai Zovi's co-winner last year, spent much of Thursday trying to hack into the Fujitsu Vista laptop, at one point rushing back to his Vancouver area home to retrieve a file that he thought might help him hack into the system. But it was all in vain. "It's one thing to find a vulnerability, it's another thing to make working exploit code," said Terri Forslof, TippingPoint's Manager of Security Response. Forslof said that a number of "high quality" researchers have said that they will attempt to hack the machines on Friday, the last day of the conference. She expects both systems to be hacked on Friday, when contest rules will be further eased, and hackers will be able to attack popular third-party software that can be installed on the systems. "I don't think we'll have to take any home," she said. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Legal battle over Warcraft 'bot'

Slashdot It! The makers of World of Warcraft are locked in a legal battle with a firm that has produced a tool to automate many actions in the virtual world. Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically, such as fighting. Both sides have submitted legal summaries to a court in Arizona. Blizzard says Glide is a software bot which infringes the company's copyright and potentially damages the game. In its legal submission to the court last week, the firm said: "Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time." 'Infringed agreement' Blizzard argued that Michael Donnelly's tool also infringed the End User License Agreement that all parties have to adhere to when playing the game. More than 100,000 copies of the tool have been sold, according to Mr Donnelly. More than 10 million people around the world play Warcraft. Mr Donnelly said the first time had had been aware of potential legal action over his program was when a lawyer from Vivendi games, which publishes Warcraft, and an "unnamed private investigator" appeared at his home. In his legal submission, he detailed: "When they arrived, they presented Donnelly with a copy of a complaint that they indicated would be filed the next day in the US District Court for the Central District of California if Donnelly did not immediately agree to stop selling Glider and return all profits that he made from Glider sales." "Blizzard's audacious threats offended Donnelly," according to the legal papers. Mr Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard's copyright because no "copy" of the Warcraft game client software is ever made. Blizzard has said the tool infringes copyright because it copies the game into RAM in order to avoid detection by anti-cheat software. The two parties are now awaiting a summary judgement in the case. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

IBM Takes Stake in Open Source Database Vendor

Slashdot It! For more than a decade, PostgreSQL has been a cornerstone of the open source database market. In recent years, EnterpriseDB has emerged as a leading vendor supporting and driving PostgreSQL forward. It will now continue its efforts thanks in part from a little help from IBM (NYSE: IBM). EnterpriseDB is also re-branding and expanding its PostgreSQL efforts to take even more direct aim at its rival MySQL on the open source side and Oracle on the proprietary side. IBM is joining EnterpriseDB's C round of venture financing which in total raises $10 million for the open source database vendor. Andy Astor, CEO of EnterpriseDB, noted that IBM's was one of four groups participating (including Charles River Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, Valhalla Partners) in this current financing round. To date, EnterpriseDB has raised $37.5 million in venture financing. Astor told InternetNews.com that IBM called EnterpriseDB and the discussions went from there. Astor added that the discussions with IBM pre-dated the $1 billion acquisition of MySQL by Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA) earlier this year. Via Internet News Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Icahn Files Suit, Intensifying Battle With Motorola

Slashdot It! The activist investor Carl C. Icahn said that he was suing Motorola to force it to hand over documents related to its loss-making mobile devices business. Mr. Icahn, Motorola’s second-biggest shareholder behind the asset management firm Dodge and Cox, is engaged in a proxy battle with the company. He is seeking the documents to determine if the board failed in its duties. He has proposed a slate of four directors to the board of Motorola, whose market share has plummeted in the last year. Motorola said this year that it was looking at its options, including a separation of its mobile devices business, after Mr. Icahn pressured for the move. The Icahn Group said it had filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court, seeking documents, including board discussions, about the potential spinoff of the mobile devices business and the unit’s performance. “We demanded these materials for the purposes of enabling us to investigate whether and to what extent the board of directors of Motorola failed in their duties as directors,” Mr. Icahn said in a letter to Motorola shareholders. Mr. Icahn also asked for documents, if any, showing use of Motorola’s aircraft and property by senior management, directors and their families. Mr. Icahn holds about 6.3 percent of Motorola, according to March 5 data. He also questioned whether Gregory Q. Brown, recently appointed as chief executive, was qualified to do the job after more than a year of missteps by his predecessors. A Motorola spokeswoman, Jennifer Erickson, said the company had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit. Shares of Motorola were up 44 cents Monday, to $9.69 on the New York Stock Exchange. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

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Free Web version of Photoshop launches

Slashdot It! The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop launched a basic version available for free online. San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems Inc. says it hopes to boost its name recognition among a new generation of consumers who edit, store and share photos online. While Photoshop is designed for trained professionals, Adobe says Photoshop Express, which it launched in a "beta" test version, is easier to learn. User comments will be taken into account for future upgrades. Photoshop Express will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. And, once they register, users can get to their accounts from different computers. Web-based software is increasingly popular, and Adobe knows it's got to get on that train, said Kathleen Maher, an analyst at Jon Peddie Research. Many kinds of software are available for use online in a trend known as "software as a service," or "cloud computing." The earliest were e-mail programs, but they now include services to create and manage content and even whole operating systems. And they don't require time-consuming upgrades because they're maintained by the service provider. Google Inc. provides a host of such services, as do Microsoft Corp. and others. "This is the battlefield where Adobe and Microsoft and Google are going to fight some pretty big battles," Maher said. Photoshop enters the online photo-management arena many years after such services first appeared. Some companies have already made a big name for themselves, like 9-year-old storage solution Shutterfly Inc., photo-editing service Picnik or image-sharing site Photobucket Inc. Adobe says providing Photoshop Express for free is part marketing and part a strategy to create up-sell opportunities. It hopes some customers will move from it to boxed software like its $99 Photoshop Elements or to a subscription-based version of Express that's in the works. Ron Glaz, a research analyst at IDC, says the move was necessary for Adobe to keep pace. Users are less likely to switch to a software they aren't familiar with, he said. "They have a whole market that they are missing out on, and they need to make sure that the market is aware there is a Photoshop solution for them. As that market grows and becomes more sophisticated, hopefully it will generate money," Glaz said. "It's one of those things, if you can't beat them, join them," Glaz said. "If they don't join them, the long run could be really painful." Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Microsoft vs. Apple: Who patches 0-days faster?

Slashdot It! Apple's teasing commercials that imply its software is safer than Microsoft's may not quite match the facts, according to new research revealed at the Black Hat conference. Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology looked at how many times over the past six years the two vendors were able to have a patch available on the day a vulnerability became publicly known, which they call the 0-day patch rate. They analyzed 658 vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft products and 738 affecting Apple. They looked at only high- and medium-risk bugs, according to the classification used by the National Vulnerability Database, said Stefan Frei, one of the researchers involved in the study. What they found is that, contrary to popular belief that Apple makes more secure products, Apple lags behind in patching. "Apple was below 20 [unpatched vulnerabilities at disclosure] consistently before 2005," Frei said. "Since then, they are very often above. So if you have Apple and compare it to Microsoft, the number of unpatched vulnerabilities are higher at Apple." It's generally good for vendors to have a software fix available when a vulnerability is disclosed, since hackers often try to find out where the problem is in order to write malicious software to hack a machine. For a vendor to have a patch ready when the bug is detailed in public, it needs to get prior information from either its security analysts or external ones. Otherwise the vendor has to hurry to create a patch, but that process can be lengthy, given the rigorous testing needed to test the patch to ensure it does not conflict with other software. Apple only started patching 0-day vulnerabilities in late 2003, Frei said. "We think that Apple had fewer vulnerabilities early on, and they were just surprised or not as ready or not as attentive," Frei said. "It looks like Microsoft had good relationships earlier with the security community." Over the past few years, Microsoft has tried to cultivate a closer relationship with the security community in order to encourage researchers to give it a heads-up about software problems. Apple, however, doesn't appear to have that same sort of engagement yet, and, "based on our findings, this is hurting them," Frei said. Curiously, both vendors' abilities to have 0-day patches ready at disclosure seemed to dip in the six months before a major product release. That trend was most pronounced in 2004 and 2005. Frei theorized that the buildup to big software releases took away software engineering resources. Andrew Cushman, director of Microsoft's Security and Research, said he couldn't pinpoint what might cause that trend. But in 2004 and 2005, Microsoft had a rash of vulnerabilities pop up in its Office products that it did not get advance notice of, which may have contributed to a higher percentage of unpatched publicly disclosed bugs. However, the study proved to be such a glowing affirmation of Microsoft's increased focus on security in the past few years that it prompted Cushman to ask Frei, "Did Microsoft fund this research?" "This is independent academic research," Frei replied. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Evidence mounting: Windows 7 going modular, subscription

Slashdot It! When Windows 7 launches sometime after the start of 2010, the desktop OS will be Microsoft's most "modular" yet. Having never really been comfortable with the idea of a single, monolithic desktop OS offering, Microsoft has offered multiple desktop OSes in the marketplace ever since the days of Windows NT 3.1, with completely different code bases until they were unified in Windows 2000. Unification isn't necessarily a good thing, however; Windows Vista is a sprawling, complex OS. A singular yet highly modular OS could give Microsoft the best of all possible worlds: OSes that can be highly customized for deployment but developed monolithically. One modular OS to rule them all, let's say. Mary Jo Foley is wagering that one of the big changes coming with Windows 7 is that it might be "available in pieces." That is to say, Windows 7 could be a modular OS. I'll go further. Windows 7 will be a modular OS, and we can already see the clues in Windows Vista, because it, too, is a fledgling modular OS. What we're talking about and why it matters (= software subscriptions), follows... A modular Windows 7 is a lock The first reason Foley gives is that Windows Server 2008 has "server roles" which can automagically determine which packages are installed and how the system in configured (more here). Foley suggests that this approach on the server side would translate well to the client, but the process of modularization has already begun on the client side. Windows Vista was designed so that all three consumer editions—Basic, Premium, and Ultimate—can be installed off of one DVD and can be upgraded in place from one version to another. The changes can be "deep," since (for instance) Home to Premium can enable Aero Glass, and Premium to Ultimate can add BitLocker drive encryption, etc. My point is that Microsoft is already selling a "modular" OS, and the modules currently map to Windows Vista SKUs. Microsoft is also developing other modules around its Live efforts. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft already has a patent on a "modular operating system" concept. A "core function" module, which includes the kernel, features a "license validation module" that authorizes the use of all additional modules, and uses DRM-like technology to prevent the use of unauthorized modules. Windows Vista uses part of its anti-piracy arsenal to validate and monitor changes to the OS for this reason. So, Windows 7 will be modular, but to an unknown degree. I personally expect the modularization to focus on value-adds, as did Anytime Upgrade on Vista. It allows Microsoft to draw lines between what is and isn't "in" the OS for DoJ compliance issues. Whether it be Live Services, Windows Media Player, or even Internet Explorer, Microsoft could roll those into modules and then say, "Hey, look, that's not part of Windows, we're charging extra for that!" Foley says that she's heard from sources that Microsoft is working on a Photo + Mail + Video module that would exist apart from the OS, for instance. I've heard less specific groupings myself. A brave, modular world (might not be so great) Is a modular world a better one? For those of us having to manage software rollouts to scores of desktops, this would be yet another tool in the toolbox. Microsoft could create "desktop roles" like "information kiosk" that includes a stripped-down feature set, for instance. Microsoft can also add/remove functionality module by module. New modules could be sold post-launch, keeping revenue streams strong. In fact, modules could be maintained independent of OS versions. Microsoft could create a "Live Services" module that is maintained by a dedicated team, designed to work across multiple OSes, yet provide a completely consistent experience. A modular approach could also allow the company to make functionality available on a time-limited basis, potentially allowing users to "rent" a feature if it's needed on a one-off basis. Note that Microsoft is already testing "pay as you go" consumer subscriptions in developing countries. The software+services side of modularization is what is surely driving this change at Microsoft. As I argued last summer, this is all a critical piece of Microsoft's software subscription dreams. In "2010, a 'Windows 7' software subscription odyssey," I noted that Microsoft has been reinventing its approach to Windows in order to facilitate the continued sales of multiple levels of the Windows "experience." Microsoft has confirmed that there will be multiple SKUs for Windows 7 and that there will be different subscription services built around the OS. Whether or not this is a good thing is difficult to predict. Generally, we're very much in favor of package-based setup routines, much like you find with popular Linux distributions. Why run a web server when you don't need it? Why start device drivers that aren't going to be used? Why install a library on a system that doesn't need it? But just imagine a Windows 7 install that allowed you to install only what you wanted. Don't like Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Windows Mail, Windows Firewall, etc.,? Don't install them or their supporting code. You've got to like that, if you're a Windows user. Does this mean that Microsoft will ask you to subscribe to the next version of Windows, as opposed to buying it? That's unlikely, unless you're in business. The next consumer release will likely be a standalone OS stocked with an array of built-in and subscription-only modules. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Windows XP: Going, going ... gone?

Slashdot It! The approaching death of Windows XP may upset you, but it shouldn't come as a surprise. Microsoft Corp.'s product life-cycle guidelines have foretold the fate of XP since 2001. In fact, Microsoft has been killing off one version of a product as it is replaced with another for years now. But this time around, the approaching demise of XP is getting more attention than, say, the final passing of Windows 2000. Why? For a couple of reasons: XP is the most widely used operating system on the planet, and its long-delayed successor, Windows Vista, is not proving to be universally popular. The companies that make up the enterprise market for Windows are dragging their feet about upgrading, and on the consumer side there are signs of a rebellion against Vista. Microsoft has already made changes in its timetables. Last year, the company extended the sales life cycle -- the time during which PC manufacturers and system builders could sell computers with XP installed -- to June 30, 2008. It will stop selling XP altogether on Jan. 31, 2009. And it extended the mainstream support period for XP to April 14, 2009, in an effort to reassure customers made nervous by the long delays in shipping Vista. The result of all this tweaking is that Microsoft will stop selling XP long before it stops supporting it. You may be able to run XP for as long as you want, but before too long you may not be able to buy a legitimate copy of XP to run. So will there be any way to get a copy of XP after June 30? If you want to continue using XP, what problems will you face? If you buy a PC with Vista installed and decide you want XP instead, what are your options? The product life-cycle guidelines Microsoft's product life-cycle guidelines grew out of two sets of needs: Microsoft's need to make a profit, and its customers' (particularly enterprise customers) needs for some certainty about the products they were committing to. The policy was an attempt at transparency, a promise that new products would be supported for a definite period and that as they aged Microsoft wouldn't just abandon them. Instead, the company would withdraw support in a series of scheduled steps that corresponded to the pace of technological change, allowing customers time to transition to newer products. (The guidelines apply to all Microsoft products, not just operating systems.) The problem is that what sounds like a promise to some (particularly enterprise customers) can sound like a threat to others -- particularly consumers. And they're not taking it well. Via CW Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

YouTube Feature Tells Video Creators When and Where a Clip Is Being Watched

Slashdot It! In a move to provide better data to its users, YouTube formally announced that it had added a free feature that will show video creators when and where viewers are watching their videos. With this, the company hopes to turn YouTube from an online video site into a place where marketers can test their messages, Tracy Chan, YouTube product manager, said. This program, called YouTube Insight, provides a detailed view of a video’s popularity, both over time and geographically, broken down by state. (Internationally, YouTube Insight is not as insightful, providing only popularity by country.) YouTube has provided basic analytical information to creators of videos since its introduction, including the number of views, the viewers’ ratings of the video, and the number of comments left. Advertisers received a slightly more sophisticated summary. With the Insight information, video creators can dig into the specifics of a video’s performance and find, for example, that it peaks on Fridays in winter months, or it has taken several weeks to get traction — information that can help better promote their work. The information, presented as a color-coded map and a graph of a video’s popularity, is accessible through a link from a video creator’s account page on YouTube. The company will update the data once a day. But it is likely that marketers rather than casual users will be clamoring for these tools the most. YouTube executives suggest that marketers can use the tools in several ways. A movie studio might run several versions of a trailer to see what is catching on where, and if a humorous spot is catching fire in Texas, might start running that trailer as a TV ad in the state. A political campaign could test spots of a candidate discussing the environment or the economy; if an environmental spot is popular in Pennsylvania, that might help decide what the candidate stumps about there. During a YouTube test of the feature, a band uploaded its music performances, determined which states it was popular in via Insight, and planned a tour around that. “Effectively, YouTube has become an ad-effectiveness, or an insight-effectiveness, tool,” Mr. Chan said. In a couple of weeks, Mr. Chan says, YouTube will start providing even more information, showing video creators where their viewers have come from, whether it is Google, which owns Youtube, or a link on Gawker. “YouTube has millions of viewers every single day, and has become the world’s largest focus group,” Mr. Chan said. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

eBay's early backer to leave board of directors

Slashdot It! eBay said that early venture capital backer and longtime board member Robert Kagle plans to step down as a director of the company at its next annual shareholder meeting. Kagle made one of his earliest investments in eBay of between $5 million and $7 million as a partner with Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark Capital. The value of this investment multiplied many times over during the dot-com era and was worth upward of $5 billion at its peak. It is believed to be one of the most lucrative VC investments ever made, according to reports at the time. He notified the company on Tuesday that he would not go up for reelection at the stockholders meeting in June, but will continue to serve as a director until the meeting. The company said in a U.S. regulatory filing that Kagle was leaving solely for personal reasons and time considerations and his departure did not involve any disagreement with the company, the company's management, or the board of directors. He sits on the board of a variety of Silicon Valley start-ups, including Mint.com and Prosper. Kagle did not immediately reply to an e-mail requesting comment. In addition, eBay named Phillip DePaul as a vice president and its chief accounting officer, effective April 14. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

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Take-Two Rejects Bid From Electronic Arts

Slashdot It! Take-Two Interactive Software told shareholders to reject a $2 billion hostile bid from a rival video game publisher, Electronic Arts, as too low, but said it had begun to explore a sale or other options. Take-Two said it was still open to a combination with Electronic Arts or another company, but not before the April 29 release of its Grand Theft Auto IV, widely expected to be the best-selling video game this year. Electronic Arts responded by saying its offer was “full and fair” and reflected the value of Take-Two’s game franchises, employees and improving operations. “By advising its stockholders to reject the offer, Take-Two’s board is exposing them to further delays which may reduce the value and the certainty of a potential transaction,” Electronic Arts said. Take-Two said its board had begun considering strategic alternatives and preparing materials that any potential buyer would need to conduct due diligence. It said it had indications of interest from other companies since Electronic Arts made its $26-a-share offer, but had not held any substantive talks. Take-Two also adopted a 180-day shareholders’ rights plan, or poison pill, to guard against Electronic Arts’ hostile bid and delayed its annual meeting in New York to April 17 from April 10. The Electronic Arts offer expires on April 11, although the company can extend it. Electronic Arts, the world’s largest video game publisher, took its all-cash bid directly to stockholders this month. It faces stepped-up competition from a rival, Activision, which is merging with the video games unit of the French conglomerate Vivendi. Many analysts expect that the bid by Electronic Arts will ultimately succeed, but that the company may have to raise its offer. “This thing is very much in play, and we’re seeing public bargaining,” said Todd Mitchell, an analyst with Kaufman Brothers. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Yahoo Is Joining an Alliance on Social Networks

Slashdot It! Yahoo said that it would join an alliance organized by Google, its principal rival, that will try to make it easier for programmers to write software that can run on the pages of many social networks and other Web sites. Google announced on Tuesday that it would give up control of the alliance and turn it over to a nonprofit foundation. Google, Yahoo and MySpace, another member of the group, will be among founding members of the group, the OpenSocial Foundation. The addition of Yahoo broadens the potential reach of the foundation. The group is working on standards that will let developers create programs that can run on any social network or Web site that embraces them. Such programs might, for example, allow users to let friends know the music or movies they enjoy. The creation of the OpenSocial alliance last fall was widely seen as a response by Google and others to the growing power of Facebook, which has persuaded thousands of outside developers to build applications for its site. Those applications have helped bolster Facebook’s popularity. The creators of many of the most popular Facebook applications have since said they plan to adapt their programs to be compatible with OpenSocial. Although Google is not a major force in social networking, its rivalry with Facebook appears to be intensifying. Facebook, for instance, has signed an advertising partnership with Microsoft and has recruited several prominent programmers and executives from Google, including Sheryl Sandberg, who became Facebook’s chief operating officer. A Facebook spokeswoman, Brandee Barker, said it would not be part of OpenSocial. “Facebook is not joining this foundation, but the company remains focused on advancing Facebook Platform to benefit the developer community and help users communicate and share information more efficiently,” Ms. Barker said. Yahoo considered joining the alliance for months, according to a person with direct knowledge of its plans. But Yahoo executives worried that Google might exert too much control over the evolution of the alliance and over any intellectual property it created, that person said. In a conference call with reporters, Google and Yahoo executives dismissed the idea that the decision to put OpenSocial in the hands of a foundation was a response to Yahoo’s concerns. Joe Kraus, director of product management at Google, said the foundation represented “more an evolution of where OpenSocial is heading” than a response to concerns raised by any one member. And Wade Chambers, vice president for platforms at Yahoo, praised Google’s stewardship of the standard so far. The foundation, to be created within 90 days, will “ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the Web,” the companies said. Yahoo gave no details on when or how it would adopt the OpenSocial standards. So far, only MySpace and Orkut, Google’s social network, have introduced OpenSocial, Mr. Kraus said. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Microsoft offers free support for Vista SP1 installs

Slashdot It! Vista users encountering problems when they upgrade to Service Pack 1 can breathe easier: the company is giving away free support for those installing the service pack. The transition to the service pack has not been problem-free for many users, some of whom have seen their computers fall into endless reboot cycles and struggled with broken applications after installing the upgrade. Normally, only Windows Vista users who bought the retail product would be eligible for free support but, for SP1 installation, even users with an original-equipment-manufacturer copy of Vista on their computer can get Microsoft's help, according to the official Vista blog. "We are offering free-of-charge support to anyone who is having issues installing Windows Vista SP1," Microsoft blogger Brandon Le Blanc said. Unlimited installation and compatibility support is available at no charge until March 18, 2009, according to the Microsoft Service Pack 1 support site. There are three options available under the free support plan for U.S. users: e-mail support, which will be answered within one business day; online chat, which has a current waiting time of around 40 minutes; and call, available only for users who have a software-assurance agreement, professional contract, TechNet subscription, or MSDN subscription, or for those who come under the Microsoft Partner Program. Support will be handled on a case-by-case basis, a Microsoft spokesperson said, and the user will always be advised if costs are involved. Whether enterprise customers will also receive support without cost will depend on their agreement, the spokesperson added. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Microsoft likely to raise Yahoo offer

Slashdot It! Citigroup said it is likely Microsoft will raise its $31-per-share offer for Yahoo, and upgraded Yahoo shares to "buy" from "hold." The brokerage also raised its price target on Yahoo's stock to $34 from $31, saying it believed Microsoft remained committed to its offer and "is capable of and willing to" increase that bid to conclude the deal. "While we continue to see no other competing bidders, we believe Yahoo is aggressively pursuing strategic alternatives," analyst Mark Mahaney said in a note to clients. One possibility is a tie-up with Time Warner, whereby Time Warner would contribute its online content assets to Yahoo in exchange for a stake, the analyst said. "We believe this could serve as a forcing function to a higher Microsoft bid." Citigroup said it continues to view a Microsoft-Yahoo deal as the most likely outcome. Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

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Slashdot It! Here is the video review of the Evercool fan Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

The real reason Microsoft won't bring Blu-ray to the Xbox: HDi

Slashdot It! Company executives may have already shot the notion down, but there's more to the story. With HD DVD, Microsoft had the opportunity to inject its own technology into the emerging high-definition video market. But now that the HD disc war is over, the company still has a viable group of HD video assets, including HDi and Xbox Live Marketplace. If you take a close look at these assets, and consider their potential, it's clear why Microsoft is snubbing Blu-ray for the Xbox: The company is gearing up for another HD video assault. First, a little backstory. Beneath the surface of the recent HD DVD/Blu-ray hardware war, a battle over programming platforms was waged. In this clash, the two camps were at odds over how to implement next-gen features like interactive menus, HD picture-in-picture, and Web-powered content such as online polls. The Blu-ray camp ultimately went with the Java-based BD-J platform, while HD DVD went with an XML dialect. Microsoft stepped up to deliver iHD (later renamed HDi), which was a trademarked implementation of HD DVD's XML markup language. Toshiba liked it. They made HDi functionality a standard for HD DVD players, and eventually partnered with Microsoft to expand HDi's reach by founding the Advanced Interactivity Consortium. The primary goal of this group was forging industry relationships to further promote HDi in emerging outlets like downloadable and streaming media. The deal gave HD DVD its competitive next-gen features, but here's the rub: Microsoft didn't need physical media to implement HDi. All of HDi's interactive bells and whistles could theoretically be applied to downloadable video content, as long as a runtime environment was available. Even as the disc format war raged on, elements of HDi's runtime environment showed up in Microsoft products like the Xbox 360 and Vista. HDi-on-a-disc may now be dead, but the technology certainly isn't. A Microsoft developer told me that the company's HDi crew hasn't been disbanded. Microsoft was apparently quite pleased with HDi's performance, and is currently exploring applications on other platforms. Meanwhile, Microsoft has been expanding the HD video capabilities of both Vista Media Center and Xbox Live Marketplace. The Marketplace's HD content library is modest today, but the software giant clearly has plans to change that. So, let's put everything together. Via The Standard Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post

Flash vs. hard drive battle heats up

Slashdot It! While munching on a reuben at Birk’s, a steakhouse in Silicon Valley, Seagate (STX) CEO Bill Watkins is explaining why he’s not too worried about a these trendy new laptops that have everything but a hard drive. On the surface, this would seem to be a big problem. Seagate, after all, is the world’s largest hard drive maker with expected sales of more than $3 billion this quarter – so Watkins likes to see his wares go into more gadgets, not fewer. It’s easy to see why he tends not to favor devices like Lenovo’s sleek ThinkPad X300, which is winning raves for its light weight and silent operation, and its 64-gigabyte flash storage drive. And the X300 isn’t the only laptop that’s doing without a hard drive in favor of a flash solid state drive, or SSD. A version of Apple’s (AAPL) MacBook Air also comes with 64 gigabytes of flash. And there are other defectors, like the diminutive Eee PC from ASUS. But the key thing, Watkins argues, is that SSDs are just too expensive, and will be for a long time. Just look at the MacBook Air. There are two versions of the Apple laptop, one with an 80 GB hard drive for $1,800, and one with a 64 GB SSD for $3,100. Why pay so much more for less storage? It’s not a difficult choice. “Realistically, I just don’t see the flash notebook sell,” Watkins says. “We just don’t see the proposition.” But in case flash prices continue to plummet and the flash drives really do catch on, Watkins has something else up his sleeve. He’s convinced, he confides, that SSD makers like Samsung and Intel (INTC) are violating Seagate’s patents. (An Intel spokeswoman says the company doesn’t comment on speculation.) Seagate and Western Digital (WDC), two of the major hard drive makers, have patents that deal with many of the ways a storage device communicates with a computer, Watkins says. It stands to reason that sooner or later, Seagate will sue – particularly if it looks like SSDs could become a real threat. Watkins might want to keep his lawyers on speed dial. The price of flash has been dropping so fast that it’s surprising even the pros. Intel CEO Paul Otellini had to promise investors earlier this month that he wouldn’t let the losses from Intel’s flash businesses sink the whole company’s profits, after flash prices greeted 2008 by dropping almost twice as fast as the company expected, leaving Intel saddled with a lot of devalued inventory. To shore up its flash business and boost sales volumes, Otellini said Intel will push more aggressively into the SSD market in the second half of the year – and it’s not hard to imagine what could result. If Intel starts pushing low-cost SSDs for laptops, rivals such as Samsung and SanDisk (SNDK) could easily respond with a price war, with all of them competing to get Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and other major laptop makers to buy up their flash inventories. Via CNN Get Daily Updates via Email Protect your computer with Windows Onecare Get paid $7.50 for reviewing my post