Google drops Wave because of lack of users

Rory Cellan-Jones talks to the developers of Google Wave in 2009.

Google is waving goodbye to Wave, a product which the company said would transform the way people communicate online.

It blamed poor take-up by users of the service, which was launched to great fanfare just one year ago.

At the time Google described the tool as "how e-mail would look if it were invented today".

It combined e-mail, instant messaging and features that allowed people to collaborate on documents in real-time.

Users could see edits and comments written by other "Wavers" as they were typed.

"Wave has not seen the adoption we would have liked,"

"We don't plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects."

The product was created by two brothers Jens and Lars Rasmussen, who were also behind Google Maps.
 
'Clever product'

Last year Lars Rasmussen acknowledged to BBC News that the success of the platform depended on how many people were willing to join and use the tool.

"Without other people adopting Wave, it will never take off," he said.

"I have been accused of being pathologically optimistic about it but I can't see why people wouldn't want it."

Google has not said how many people signed up for or used Wave.

 

They were trying to do many things in a new way that people weren't accustomed to”

Speaking at Techonomy, a technology conference in Lake Tahoe, California, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said it was hard to say why Wave did not strike a chord with a majority of users.

"It's a very clever product. You never know why it didn't work.

"Our policy is we try things. Remember we celebrate our failure. This is a company where it is okay to try something that is very hard and not have it be successful."

Mr Schmidt said that Google will take what it has learned and apply it to something new. He refused to be drawn on what products the technology will be used in.

Many people who tried Wave complained that it was too hard to use or that they did not understand why they would use it.

"It was just too ambitious of an idea for mainstream popularity," said MG Siegler of the technology blog TechCrunch.com told BBC News.

"They were trying to do many things in a new way that people weren't accustomed to. And while it may it have been great as a productivity tool, I don't think Google pitched it well when they introduced it.

"That said, it would have taken a long time for the idea to gain any kind of popularity."

Google Street View accused of Congress 'snooping'

Ms Harman's home was one of five where the wifi network was tested

Google's popular Street View project may have collected personal information of members of Congress, including some involved in national security issues.

The claim was made by leading advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog which wants Congress to hold hearings into what data Google's Street View possesses.

Google admitted it mistakenly collected information, transmitted over unsecured wireless networks, as its cars filmed locations for mapping purposes.

Google said the problem began in 2006.

The issue came to light when German authorities asked to audit the data.

The search giant said the snippets could include parts of an email, text, photograph, or even the website someone might be viewing.

"We think the Google Wi-Spy effort is one of the biggest wire tapping scandals in US history," John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog told BBC News.

Drive-by spying

The group conducted an experiment to highlight the vulnerability some users expose themselves to by retracing the same routes, used by Street View cars, to detect unencrypted or open networks.

The Street View car takes photos for the service

This practice is often described as "drive-by spying" and is favoured by criminals who trawl the streets to find houses or businesses using unencrypted wifi, so they can steal financial information.

Google has stressed all along that someone would need to be using the network as their cars passed by and that the in-car wifi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second.

Consumer Watchdog focused on a number of high profile politicians whose homes appear on Google's Street View maps.

It found that Congresswoman Jane Harman, who heads the intelligence sub committee for the House's Homeland Security Committee, has an open home network that could have leaked out vital information that could have been picked up by Street View vehicles.

Ms Harman's office has not responded to calls for comment on the issue. Consumer Watch said it did not collect any information but did pinpoint where unsecure networks could be found.

"Our purpose was to show that members of Congress are targets just as much as every other citizen in the land" said Mr Simpson.

'Concerns'

The experiment found that a further four residences it checked had vulnerable networks in the vicinity that may belong to members of Congress.

This included the home of Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over internet issues.

The ability to tap into open networks is a major security issue

His office told BBC News that "Chairman Waxman has previously raised concerns about Google" which were contained in a letter sent to company chief executive Eric Schmidt in May.

At that time, Mr Waxman said the Committee was "interested in the nature of this data collection, the underlying technology your fleet of Street View cars employed, the use of the information collected, and the impact it could have on consumer privacy".

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, CCIA, said the tactics used by Consumer Watchdog left a lot to be desired.

"What Consumer Watchdog did was not a useful contribution to what could and should be a broader online privacy debate," said CCIA president Ed Black.

"They detected unsecured wifi networks that anyone, including neighbours, can pick up. It proves nothing about what, if anything, a person or company like Google might have done to intercept and record data."

'Major progress'

Consumer Watchdog wants Congress to hold hearings on the issue and ensure that Google boss Mr Schmidt be made to testify under oath.

In a statement, Google wrote "as we've said before, it was a mistake for us to include code in our software that collected payload data, but we believe we did nothing illegal. We're continuing to work with the relevant authorities to answer their questions and concerns".

That includes German authorities who said it was still waiting to receive a copy of data gathered by the Street View cars.

The office of Johannes Caspar, the head of the Hamburg Data Protection Authority, told the BBC that a deadline set for earlier this week was extended at Google's request because of the recent 4th of July national holiday.

"We expect some - and hopefully major - progress early next week," said spokesman Ulrich Kuhn.

Microsoft announces Windows tablet PC plans

 

Steve Ballmer showed off a slate device by HP in January 2010

Tablet devices which run the Windows 7 operating system will launch in the coming months, according to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

Asus, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, and Sony are among the manufacturers working on Windows slate PCs, he told delegates at a company conference.

Mr Ballmer said the area was "terribly important" to Microsoft, but did not mention any specific release dates.

Apple's iPad touch-screen device sold 3 million units within 80 days of launch.

"This year, one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates," Mr Ballmer said at the firm's annual World Partner Conference.

The devices will come in various forms, some dockable and some with keyboards, he added.

In April 2010, Microsoft shelved development of the Courier, a dual-screen tablet device, and rumours have swirled about the future of HP's slate, which was revealed by Steve Ballmer at technology fair CES in January 2010.

The device has not been brought to market, but Mr Ballmer did name HP as one of the manufacturers working with Microsoft on Windows tablet devices.
 
Cloud looming

Tim Danton, editor on PC Pro magazine, said that the challenge for Microsoft in the tablet market was that the Windows operating systems were not designed for a touch screen format.

"They are fundamentally built for a mouse and keyboard - trying to develop everything for touch is very different," he said.

"Windows 7 has some touch functionality, but it is still not a core part of the operating system.

Microsoft would be better looking at its Windows 7 phone operating system and using that."

Mr Ballmer also said that cloud computing, in which devices use internet-based programmes and storage rather than hardware, is a priority for Microsoft.

"We are at an inflection point in technology history," he said.

"For customers, cloud computing creates tremendous value, which translates to massive opportunity for Microsoft and its partners."

Robert Wahbe, Microsoft's Vice President, Servers and Tools, wrote in a blog post that the firm was "investing deeply" in cloud computers with products such as Windows Azure, a cloud-based platform.

However, while some market analysts are predicting that the area will continue to grow in terms of popularity and investment, others are more cautious.

"The amount of cloud computing is quite small at the moment, so even if it does double that is not such a big deal", said analyst Laurent Lachal at rival research firm Ovum.

iPhone 4 signal fault leaves Apple 'stunned'

Apple says a fault on its new iPhone 4 is causing it to incorrectly display the phone's signal.

Users who gripped the phone - which went on sale on 24 June - on the lower left-hand side noticed the signal strength and reception fell away.

Apple says the problem relates to an error on how the signal bars are displayed, rather than the signal.

However, some industry experts say that there may be a deeper signal problem than a cosmetic design flaw.

Apple is promising a patch fix "within a few weeks". Users may also choose to get a full refund within 30 days of purchase, the firm has said.

In a statement, Apple said the iPhone 4 had been "the most successful product launch in Apple's history" and that all phones gripped in "certain ways will reduce its reception by one or more bars".

"We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising," the statement read.

Stuart Miles Editor, Pocket-Lint

"Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong.

"Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays two more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display four bars when we should be displaying as few as two bars.

"Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying four or five bars.

"Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place."
 

Another way
Apple said it was going to adopt AT&T's formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength.

The theory now is that, once the patch update has been applied, iPhone's bars will report signal strength "far more accurately" providing users a better indication of the reception in a given area.

But Stuart Miles, editor of technology site Pocket Lint, was sceptical.

Speaking to BBC News, Mr Miles said the news raised a few questions.
 

 

The iPhone 4 integrates the antenna into the case
"Why, for the first time, has Apple released a bumper for their phone, and why does no one else have this problem," he asked.

"HTC makes metal phones, but they seem to work just fine.

"Changing the display may make some people feel better, but it doesn't really fix the problem," he added.

Apple said the new software to fix this would be released in a few weeks, claiming that as the problem also existed in the original iPhone, it would also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

However, there have been few - if any - complaints about older iPhones losing signal strength when held in a certain way.

Apple's previous advice for iPhone 4 owners to overcome the problem of the device losing signal was to not place your hand on the lower left corner.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said: "Just avoid holding it in that way."

This latest approach is an unusual admission from the company, which has apologised for "any anxiety we may have caused".

The iPhone 4 went on sale on in June, with hundreds of people queuing Apple's flagship stores across the globe.

Many new owners reported that signal strength dropped when the phone was held.

The casing of Apple's latest phone is made of stainless steel, and also serves as its antenna.

The problem is thought to be particularly acute for left-handed owners who naturally touch the phone in the sensitive area.

Apple sells a rubber "bumper" that shields the sensitive area, as do many other firms.

When Mr Jobs introduced the iPhone 4 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, he described the integrated antenna as "really cool engineering".

Apple iPhone 4 Review !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW YORK: Apple’s new iPhone, its fourth in four years, reached stores this week. Ordinarily, this is where you’d expect to find a review of it. But honestly -- what’s the point?

The iPhone 4 is already a hit. AT&T says it received 10 times as many preorders as it did for the iPhone 3GS last year. On the first day of taking orders, Apple processed 600,000 requests -- before its ordering system, and AT&T’s, descended into chaos.

In short, the public seems to be perfectly capable of sniffing out a winner without the help of tech critics.

On the other hand, the new model won’t do anything for people who detest the iPhone. It wouldn’t matter if the new iPhone could levitate, cure hepatitis and clean your gutters; the Cantankerous Committee would still avoid it.

Despite the strong initial, positive reaction, this must still be a nerve-racking time to be Apple; the iPhone is no longer the only worthy contender. Phones running Google’s Android software are gaining rave reviews and packing in features that iPhone owners can only envy.

The Android app store is ballooning, multiple phone makers are competing, and Google updates the software several times a year. Apple releases only one new model a year, so the new iPhone had better be pretty amazing to compete. It is.

The first thing you notice is the new shape. Despite a beefier battery (16% more likely to last a full day), a faster processor and upgraded everything, the new model is still noticeably thinner and narrower than before.

How is that possible? In part, the trick was squaring off the back. It’s no longer gracefully curved -- a design that, if you think about it, created wasted space around the rectangular components.

The new iPhone is two glass slabs, front and back, wrapped by a stainless-steel band. The result is beautiful, and since there’s no more plastic, it feels solid and Lexus-like. But it no longer feels like a soothing worry stone, and it’s now impossible to tell by touch which way it’s facing in your pocket.

The new metal mute and volume buttons are much stiffer. Still, Apple says the iPhone 4 is the world’s thinnest smartphone, and most people will approve of the trade-offs.

Apple issues advice to avoid iPhone flaw

The iPhone 4 integrates the antenna into the case

Apple has released official advice for iPhone 4 owners to overcome the problem of the device losing signal when held by the lower left corner.

Steve Jobs responded to a query about the problem from one owner by saying: "Just avoid holding it in that way."

The official advice is to "avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band".



Alternatively, said Apple, customers could buy a case to shield the antenna.

The iPhone 4 went on sale on 24 June, with hundreds of people queuing outside Apple's flagship store in central London for the launch.

Many new owners reported that signal strength dropped when the phone was held.

In a statement, Apple said: "Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas."

Steve Jobs issued his response in a message responding to an e-mail from the Ars Technica news site.
Mr Jobs wrote that "All phones have sensitive areas".

The problem is thought to be particularly acute for left-handed owners who naturally touch the phone in the sensitive area.

The casing of Apple's latest phone is made of stainless steel, which also serves as its antenna.

Apple sells a rubber "bumper" that shields the sensitive area as do many other firms.
Richard Warner, one of the first to buy an iPhone 4, contacted BBC News, saying that he thought the phone was "useless in its current state".

"Apple have created a phone that has an antenna on the bottom left-hand side of the phone."

"This means that when you hold it in your left hand, the signal bars slowly fade until there is no signal," he wrote.

'Complaints'

A number of videos have been posted on video sharing site YouTube complaining about the reception issue.

One video had an American user running a speed test, with hands on and hands free.

In it, the user 'awington' says that, while holding the phone "it won't even run the test when I am holding the phone... once I let go, it makes a connection and runs the test.

"Hold it a second time, and the upload test will not start."

Social networking site Twitter was full of chatter, with numerous tweets on the reception problems.

The issue might stem from the way the integrated antenna is constructed. One section provides mobile reception, while another is for wi-fi.

Some users have speculated that touching the bottom of the phone bridges this gap, affecting signal strength.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone 4 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, he described the integrated antenna as "really cool engineering".

German TanDEM-X satellite returns first images

 

Choppy Indian Ocean waters (yellow) contrast with the calm Baie de Diego (blue)

Germany's new radar satellite, TanDEM-X, has returned its first images.

The spacecraft was launched from Kazakhstan on Monday on a mission to make the most precise 3D map of the Earth's surface.

The pictures demonstrate the platform is in excellent health and ready to team up with the TerraSAR-X satellite launched in 2007.

Together, the pair will trace the variation in height across the globe to a precision of better than two metres.
 

The runways at Moscow-Sheremetyevo airport are strong reflectors

This digital elevation model (DEM) will support a multitude of applications, such as the programming of navigation computers in military jets to enable them to fly ultra low. The data will also be given to relief workers to show them where an earthquake has wrought most damage in a city.

Infoterra GmbH, the company with exclusive rights to commercialize the TanDEM information, says the market for radar products is steadily growing.

The new images depict a landscape in Ukraine, the north of Madagascar, and Moscow.

The pictures illustrate neatly the particular specialism of using radar to sense the planet's surface.

In the Madagascan data, for example, the choppiness of the waves in the open stretches of the Indian Ocean can be contrasted with the smooth reflection of the radar signal from the enclosed, clam waters of the Baie de Diego.

And in the image of Moscow-Sheremetyevo airport, the flat concrete surfaces of the runways appear as black lines because the radar beam has been very efficiently reflected away from the satellite.

TanDEM-X is flying in a polar orbit that is ever so slightly inclined to the one occupied by TerraSAR-X, some 514km above the planet.

The intention is to make TanDEM-X fly an extremely tight helix around its more established sibling.

This should be achieved by October. At times, the two satellites will be separated by as little as 200m.
 

Fields and forests in Ukraine
The pair's radars work by constantly bouncing microwave pulses off the ground and sea surface. By timing how long the signal takes to make the return trip, the instruments can determine differences in height.

The compact orbital dance will give the pair "stereo vision", by enabling them to operate an interferometric mode in which one spacecraft acts as a transmitter/receiver and the other as a second receiver.

Three-dimensional image acquisition is expected to start in earnest in January.

The seamless DEM of the Earth's surface will be built up over three years of joint operations.

Ultimately, it should have a vertical resolution of 1-2m and a spatial resolution of 12m - far superior to any previous global data set.

The TerrSAR-X/TanDEM-X venture is operated on the basis of a public-private partnership. The Germany's space agency (DLR) owns the hardware; satellite manufacturer EADS Astrium has developed and built the technology; and Infoterra GmbH processes and sells the data.

Sperm whale faeces 'offset CO2 emissions'

 

Sperm whales may put a gentle (and unwitting) brake on climate change

Sperm whale faeces may help oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the air, scientists say.

Australian researchers calculate that Southern Ocean sperm whales release about 50 tonnes of iron every year.

This stimulates the growth of tiny marine plants - phytoplankton - which absorb CO2 during photosynthesis.

The process results in the absorption of about 40,000 tonnes of carbon - more than twice as much as the whales release by breathing, the study says.

The researchers note in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B that the process also provides more food for the whales, estimated to number about 12,000.

Phytoplankton are the basis of the marine food web in this part of the world, and the growth of these tiny plants is limited by the amount of nutrients available, including iron.
 
Faecal attraction

Over the last decade or so, many groups of scientists have experimented with putting iron into the oceans deliberately as a "fix" for climate change.

Not all of these experiments have proved successful; the biggest, the German Lohafex expedition, put six tonnes of iron into the Southern Ocean in 2008, but saw no sustained increase in carbon uptake.

 

The Lohafex expedition was the latest to probe iron fertilisation

Although 40,000 tonnes of carbon is less than one-thousandth of the annual emissions from burning fossil fuels, the researchers note that the global total could be more substantial.

There are estimated to be several hundred thousand sperm whales in the oceans, though they are notoriously difficult to count; and lack of iron limits phytoplankton growth in many regions besides the Southern Ocean.

So it could be that whale faeces are fertilising plants in several parts of the world.

Crucial to the idea is that sperm whales are not eating and defecating in the same place - if they were, they could just be absorbing and releasing the same amounts of iron.

Instead, they eat their diet - mainly squid - in the deep ocean, and defecate in the upper waters where phytoplankton can grow, having access to sunlight.

Releasing the iron here is ultimately good for the whales as well, say the researchers - led by Trish Lavery from Flinders University in Adelaide.

Phytoplankton are eaten by tiny marine animals - zooplankton - which in turn are consumed by larger creatures that the whales might then eat.

The scientists suggest a similar mechanism could underpin the "krill paradox" - the finding that the abundance of krill in Antarctic waters apparently diminished during the era when baleen whales that eat krill were being hunted to the tune of tens of thousands per year.

Nintendo unveils 3D game gadget

Nintendo has unveiled its new 3D handheld gaming system at a briefing in Los Angeles at the E3 games show.

Called 3DS, the system can display 3D images that can be seen without using special glasses.

Nintendo said the novel handheld is designed to replace the existing DS and is scheduled to be on shop shelves in late 2010.

The gaming giant said it had overhauled the graphics system on the DS to bring it into the 21st Century.
 
Playing Mickey

The 3DS handheld has two camera lenses which enables owners to take and view photographs in 3D.

One difficulty Nintendo faced in creating the gadget was the incompatability between creating a 3D screen and a usable touch-screen interface.

Consequently on the 3DS only the top screen displays 3D while the lower screen is a functional touch screen.

At its briefing Nintendo showed the first game that will be released for the 3DS called Kid Icarus Uprising.

One other feature new to the 3DS is an always-on wi-fi connection that will automatically feed levels and updates to players. Nintendo said the net service behind the always-on updates will be free to use.

Nintendo said several 3DS titles were in development including DJ Hero 3D, Saints Row: Drive-By, Resident Evil Revelations, Batman, Assassin's Creed Lost Legacy and Metal Gear Solid.

At the event Nintendo also showcased a number of new titles that included Donkey Kong Country Returns, a new Legend of Zelda called Skyward Sword, Mario Sports and, after a 13-year gap, Goldeneye 007 for the Wii.

Veteran game developer Warren Spector was also at the event to show off his new game Disney Epic Mickey - a 3D action adventure with a heavy Role-playing element set in the Disney universe.

Gamers play as Mickey Mouse who travels around a dynamic 3D world in which he can use paint or paint thinner to create or destroy the environment which will have a direct effect on how the game plays out.

Mr Spector has developed a number of classic gaming titles in the past such as Deus Ex and System Shock.

Microsoft slims down Xbox console

Microsoft has launched a slimmer and more powerful Xbox 360.

Slimmer Xbox 360 going on sale this week

The new console - to be launched this week - will have the same price as the old system, but comes with Wi-Fi and a 250 GB HD.

It follows a similar move by Sony, which released its own slimmer edition in August 2009.

The announcement was made ahead of the E3 games convention in Los Angeles, at which the firm showcased its range of forthcoming games.

The event also saw the first public viewing of Call of Duty: Black Ops, the latest edition in the popular Call of Duty series.

The new edition is set during the Vietnam War and takes the players through the tunnels of South Vietnam and into the jungles of Laos.

The game will hit the shops on 9 November this year.
 

 

The slimmed down console has 130GB more storage than present models

Microsoft said a new deal with Call of Duty's publisher Activision would see all add-on and map packs for the game being released on Xbox 360 first, and that this deal would last for the next three years.

The event, less than 12 hours after it unveiled the final version of its hands-free control system Kinect, also had offerings from Hideo Kojima, the man behind the Metal Gear Solid series with Metal Gear Solid: Rising; Gears of War 3; Fable 3; and Halo Reach, the latest in the long running series.

Microsoft also fleshed out details of the games, as well as software that will be supported by Kinect.

After the success of Wii Sports from rival Nintendo, it was unsurprising that Microsoft are to follow suit, with Kinect Sports boasting six different events, from javelin, to boxing and volleyball.

The firm also demonstrated Kinectimals, a virtual pet that allows users to adopt and play with their favourite animals.

Kinectwill launch on 4 November 2010 in North America, with Europe expected to follow a few weeks later. Microsoft said there will be 15 different Kinect titles at launch.

The firm hopes these new games will help it stay ahead of its arch-rival, Sony PlayStation, which has seen a resurgence in sales over recent months.

Last year, the firm unveiled a number of games that were once the sole domain of the PlayStation, such as Grand Theft Auto and Assassins Creed.
 
Exclusivity

An exclusive title can mean a significant lift to hardware sales, as gamers are forced into a single platform if they want to actually play it. Halo did much to boost the Xbox 360 when it was launched, as did Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation 3.

However, the price difference between the two systems at the time meant that there were more sales for Microsoft's system than Sony.

Since the two systems launched, an unofficial price war has been waged between the two firms, with Sony reducing the price of the PS3 from £420 at launch to £249.99 ($299 in the US) and Microsoft now selling its Xbox 360 Elite for £199 (down from its original £299 price tag at launch).

Both firms say that their price cuts are not influenced by competitors decisions.

Sony has denied there will be any further reduction in price for the PlayStation 3 at E3, with Sony's
UK Sales Director - Mark Howsen - telling the British games industry magazine MCV that there had been "no discussion internally about that at all".

"We're enjoying good year-on-year growth and as long as that continues we'll keep on going I think".

Microsoft unveils Xbox 'Kinect' motion controller

Microsoft has revealed final details of its Xbox 360 hands-free motion control system, which it has rebranded Kinect.

The device, which was originally codenamed Project Natal, was showcased ahead of the opening of the E3 games expo, which starts on 15 June in LA.

Microsoft has said Kinect will hit shelves before the end of the year.

It will face competition from Sony's PlayStation Move controller and Nintendo's upgraded WiiMotion Plus.

Both are expected to feature at the E3 expo, which runs from 15-17 June.

Kinect was shown off at a glitzy event alongside compatible games, which support the new hands-free interface and, in some cases, the facial and voice recognition capabilities.

These ranged from jumping and flying games to a yoga simulator and Star Wars shooter, in which players control a virtual light sabre and use hand gestures to control action on the screen.

There was also a virtual pet, which can be controlled and played with using Kinect. Microsoft says it will release the full details of its games at another media event on 14 June.

Another Kinect game that was demoed on the night was Dance Central from MTV Games which allows the player to coordinate their dance moves in time to an on-screen prompt.

Although less than two minutes of it was shown, with No Doubt's Hella Good track thumping in the background, it illustrated the various new markets that Microsoft hope its new controller will expand into.

Although an exact release date for Kinect has yet to be announced, some retailers have already published web pages in anticipation.

Game says it will be available on pre-order from 13 June 2010.

'Shady' porn site practices put visitors at risk

Visitors to porn sites are at serious risk of being exploited by cyber criminals, a study has suggested.

It found that many sites harboured malware or used "shady" practices to squeeze money out of their visitors.

 
Intense competition means porn sites compete for visitors 
 
By creating their own porn sites researchers found that many consumers were vulnerable to known bugs and loopholes.

Competition among porn sites makes the online adult industry ripe for abuse by hi-tech criminals.

"They have almost inadvertently created a whole ecosystem that's easy to abuse for cyber crime on a large scale," said Dr Gilbert Wondracek, a computer security expert from the International Secure System Lab, which led the study.
 
Hidden danger

Dr Wondracek said the team embarked on the study to find out the truth of the widely held view that porn sites are dangerous to visit.

"There are studies looking at the profitability and economics of the industry but we are the first to come at it from a security and more technical point of view," he said.

Statistics suggest that approximately 12% of all websites offer pornography of one sort or another and that 70% of men under 24 browse these sites.

As a first step the researchers trawled pornographic sites to classify what they found and how the industry was structured.

 

For the average user it might be hard to tell an honest porn site from a dishonest porn site

Dr Gilbert Wondracek International Secure System Lab

The big distinction was between free sites and those that charge for access. Typically pay sites produce content they give to free sites to drum up traffic.

More than 90% of the 35,000 pornographic domains analysed in the study were free sites.
The researchers analysed the 269,000 websites hosted on the 35,000 domains to see which hosted malicious software. About 3.23% of these sites were booby-trapped with adware, spyware and viruses.

Many others used "shady" practices to keep visitors onsite. These included javascript catchers that made it hard for people to leave a page.

Others use scripts that re-direct visitors so when they click on a link they do not see the video or image they were expecting but are passed to an affiliate site.

The vast majority of sites engage in this trading of traffic or clicks, said Dr Wondracek.
"Visitors are being abused as click bots," he said.

As most sites were free, the only resource they could exploit as a revenue source was this traffic.

"It's cut-throat competition," said Dr Wondracek. "Everybody tries to get as much traffic as possible."
 
Finding victims

Traffic is used in many different ways. Popular sites sell it to those looking for an audience, some is used to direct visitors to affiliates who provide content and sometimes it is used to boost rankings in search engine indexes.

It could also be a great way for hi-tech criminals to get a ready source of victims, said Dr Wondracek.

To test this idea the researchers created two adult sites of their own, populated them with free content from porn producers and spent $160 (£108) to get traffic piped to these sites.

Analysis of the 49,000 visitors sent to their sample sites showed that 20,000 were using a computer and browser combination that was vulnerable to at least one known exploit.

"As an attacker you want to make your life easier," said Dr Wondracek. "If you can have these 20,000 people come to a place instantly, why not?"

With many porn sites appearing in the top 100 most popular sites on the web this could mean that huge numbers of people are caught out when they browse for adult content.

While relatively few porn sites were infecting visitors, it is difficult to spot good from bad, he said.

"For the average user it might be hard to tell an honest porn site from a dishonest porn site until you click on something," he said.

Dr Wondracek recommended that anyone visiting porn sites keep their security software up to date and use the "safe browsing" modes found in many browsing programs.

The researchers presented their results at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security held at Harvard from 7-8 June.

Adobe fixes 'critical' Flash flaw

Adobe has fixed a "critical" security flaw that had the potential to allow hackers to take control of affected computer systems.

Adobe's Flash software has become a favourite among hi-tech criminals

The bug was first spotted in early June week following a small number of targeted attacks.
The security update is one in a bumper update package that fixes a total of 32 documented vulnerabilities.

Adobe's Flash and Reader software have emerged as prime targets for hi-tech criminals in the past year.

Users running Windows, Macintosh or Linux were all thought to be vulnerable to attack.

Security firm Websense said the flaw was being exploited via e-mails that prompted recipients to open booby-trapped websites seeded with malware.

Users visiting the websites would have their computers infected with trojans and other malicious programs that opened a backdoor into the machine.

Adobe urged users to apply the update as soon as possible.

Adobe said it would release an update at the end of June for its Reader and Acrobat programs which addresses a similar bug that makes it possible to booby-trap PDFs.

Adobe is reportedly considering patching its applications more frequently after a quarterly update cycle for its Acrobat and Reader programmes last year.

In 2009, Adobe announced an aggressive programme to beef up security after hackers increasingly focused on finding holes in its products.

'Huge release'

The security update came in the release of version 10.1 of the Flash player.

"Don't let the version number fool you! Flash Player 10.1 is more than a 'dot upgrade'," said Paul Betlem of Adobe's Flash Player engineering team.

Mr Betlem said the update was a "monumental undertaking" that made significant changes to the architecture of the software.

Adobe estimates that more than 95% of computers worldwide have Flash Player installed. Many sites use it to show off multimedia content such as videos and games.

Wired called the latest release "significant" and said the underlying code has been largely re-written to address the platform's key shortcomings, most notably battery problems and security issues.

"This is obviously a huge release for Adobe, as it comes at a time when the company is under attack for its platform's pitfalls," said Michael Calore at Wired.

Chief among Flash's critics is Apple boss Steve Jobs who wrote an open letter explaining why he refused to have Flash on products such as the iPhone and iPad.

He claimed that it was "the number one reason why Macs crash."

Google Dumps Microsoft Windows Company-Wide -- Blames Windows For China Hacking Attack

Well, Google has taken the next step in its world domination plan, banning Microsoft Windows from internal use.

Employees will be given the choice between Apple's Mac OS and Linux.

Adding insult to injury, Google is also publicly citing Windows security problems for the decision and blaming Windows vulnerabilities for the China hacking incident.

So that's 20,000+ Windows licenses that won't be sold and renewed at Google in future years.

Given that Google is in the process of introducing a competitive platform and operating system (Android/Chrome), this move isn't surprising.  The important question for Microsoft is whether other companies will follow suit.

Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.

The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google’s Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally.

“We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” said one Google employee.

“Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks,” said another.

New hires are now given the option of using Apple’s Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system. “Linux is open source and we feel good about it,” said one employee. 

“Microsoft we don’t feel so good about.”

How Important is Body Language !!!

Body Language Speaks Volumes

 

• Up to 93 % of communication is non-verbal. Including tone of voice, eye movement, posture, hand gestures, facial expressions and more. The pressure of body language can especially be felt in emotional situations. Body language usually prevails over words. Are you good at reading body language?
• The eyes communicate more than any other part of the human anatomy. Staring or gazing at others can create pressure and tension in the room. Gangs have fought over the way someone looked at them. Researcher suggests that individuals who can routinely out gaze another develop a sense of control and power over others not so inclined. Maintained eye contact can show if a person is trustworthy, sincere or caring. Shifty eyes, too much blinking can suggest deception. People with eye movements that are relaxed and comfortable yet attentive to the person they are conversing with are seen as more sincere and honest.
• Eyebrow muscle draws the eyebrows down and toward the center of the face if someone is annoyed. If someone is empathetic and caring during dialogue the eyebrows will not show the annoyed facial grimace.
• The smile: There are 50 or so different types of human smiles. By analyzing the movements of over 80 facial muscles involved in smiling, researchers can tell when a smile is true. Look for the crinkle in the skin at the middle, outside corner of the eyes and if it is not there, the smile is probably fake. Authentic smiles are smiles that "crest" or change rapidly from a small facial movement to a broad open expression.
• Bodily cues are the most reliable of all nonverbal signals of deception to help you read body language. This is because a person generally has less conscious control over these than other signals. (Springer, 1996; Ekman & Friesen, 1974). Hand-to-face gestures and shrugs are strong markers of deception. Playing with or touching things nearby during conversations has been found to be associated with deception (Cody & O'Hair, 1983). Deceivers also are likely to have increased illustrator activity--quick and animated use of hands/arms during speech.
• Vocal cues can predict deception. More and lengthier pauses during conversation; a lot of such sounds as "uh," "um," word repetitions; intruding sounds not part of the actual speech, less lengthy answers or explanations where they would be expected to be.
• Space is important. Personal space is needed and if it is invaded intentionally and at times by oversight can cause an individual to feel uncomfortable or threatened. Studies have shown that individuals that do not respect others space are less popular and often rejected by others.

•  

• Gestures communicate. Hand signals can communicate without the use of any speech. Touching communicates. Touching can be friendly or it can be aggressive. The way a person stands reflects their level of confidence and comfort level. If a person stands tall so to speak they are seen as more confident. If someone is standing with their hands on their hips that can indicate aggression or alertness. 
• When you interact socially develop your listening and observations skills. The above are a guide for looking for the clues to deception they are not fool proof.
• Watch your body language. Avoid shifting eyes and head quickly during conversation when someone asks you a question. Do not look down or to the side. Look directly at the person with a sense of confidence but not overbearing or threatening in nature.
• Note: If you want to win someone over a good rule of thumb is to mirror his or her body language. Read their body language and follow their lead.

Make your Firefox faster

"Pipelining" trick

If you use broadband, you can make webpages load even faster in Firefox by using this "pipelining" trick. Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which can speed up page loading.

Steps:

- Type about:config into the address bar and hit Enter, and then hit I’ll be care full, I promise!

- Type network.http in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):

1. Set network.http.pipelining to True
2. Set network.http.proxy.pipelining to True
3. Set network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at one time.

- Right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it nglayout.initialpaint.delay and set its value to 0. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

China aims to be become supercomputer superpower

                                 The US owned Jaguar has a top speed of 1.75 petaflops

China is ramping up efforts to become the world's supercomputing superpower.

Its Nebulae machine at the National Super Computer Center in Shenzhen, was ranked second on the biannual Top 500 supercomputer list.

For the first time, a second Chinese supercomputer appears in the list of the top ten fastest machines.

However, the US still dominates the list with more than half the Top 500, including the world's fastest, known as Jaguar.

The Cray computer, which is owned by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, has a top speed of 1.75 petaflops.

One petaflop is the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

It is used by scientists conducting research in astrophysics, climate science and nuclear energy.

How fast is the Jaguar Supercomputer?

The Jaguar supercomputer performs 1,750 trillion calculations a second. How long does it take an average PC to match its performance in different time periods?

By comparison, China has 24 machines in the list. Its fastest has a top speed of 1.20 petaflops, more than double the speed of its previous top supercomputer. However, it has a theoretical top speed of nearly 3 petaflops, which would make it the fastest in the world.

The fastest machine in the UK - which has 38 supercomputers on the list - is housed at the University of Edinburgh. It has a top speed of 0.27 petaflops.

"The Top 500 list definitely has an element of flag waving," said Dr Jon Lockley, manager of the Oxford Supercomputing Centre.
Quick thinking
He said China was rapidly becoming a "player" in high performance computing.
Dawning, the company behind the fastest Chinese machine, is reportedly building an even faster machine for the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin. In addition, it is also developing home-grown silicon chips to power the behemoths.

   

 

"Their use of high-performance computers is really systematic of their industrial emergence," Dr Lockley told BBC News.

The machines tend to be used for industrial research, such as aircraft design and petroleum exploration.

Dr Lockley said this was becoming increasingly common around the world.
"Whenever possible, everything is done in a supercomputer," he said.

"Look at Formula One - it's getting rid of all of its wind tunnels and replacing them with supercomputers. It's the same in the aerospace industry as well.

"It means you can all the modelling in the supercomputer and then do just one real world test."

Many of the US machines, by contrast, are owned by the government and are used to monitor the nuclear weapon stockpile.

The spooks have got some pretty big machines

Jon Lockley Oxford Supercomputing Centre

The US has one other petaflop machine - owned by the US Department of Energy. Roadrunner, as it is known, held the top spot until Jaguar displaced it in 2009.

All others machines on the list run at so-called teraflop speeds.

A teraflop is the equivalent of one trillion calculations per second.
Spy machines
However, scientists are already thinking about so-called exascale machines which would be able to crunch through one quintillion (one million trillion) calculations per second.

An exascale computer has been proposed to process data from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a series of thousands of telescopes spread over 3,000km. The telescope will be based in either Australia or South Africa.

"At that sort of size the challenge is trying to programme the machines,"" said Dr Lockley.

"It has to be fault tolerant - you can't have a situation where an entire task falls over if one bit fails."

The top 500 list was published at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany.

It ranks machines by speed. However, according to Dr Lockley, determining which machine is the quickest is a difficult issue.

"It's measured against a theoretical benchmark - if you ran a real-world application you might get a very different answer".

It is also a voluntary list and therefore does not include all machines, such as those at the Oxford Supercomputing Centre and many classified machines owned by governments.

"The spooks have got some pretty big machines," said Dr Lockley.

Apple passes Microsoft to be biggest tech company

 

Apple's innovations and its founder Steve Jobs have inspired a vast following

Apple has pushed past arch-rival Microsoft to become the world's biggest technology company.

Changes in the share price values of the two in Wednesday's choppy trading left the total value of Apple at $222bn (£154bn).

Microsoft is now valued by investors at $219bn.

However, Microsoft still enjoys higher profits than Apple. Its most recent annual net profit was $14.6bn (£10bn), compared with $5.7bn for Apple.

Microsoft also reported bigger full-year revenues of $58.4bn, with Apple on $36.5bn.

iPod boost The value of a listed company, known as market capitalisation, is calculated by multiplying the number of shares in a company by the current share price.

Apple's shares closed Wednesday trading down 0.4%, while Microsoft fell by 4%.

Apple, which makes computers, iPods, iPhones and now iPads, almost went out of business in the 1990s.

Its growth is partly owing to the launch of the iPod in 2001.

Although the iPod also works with computers running Microsoft's Windows operating systems, it encouraged more people to to buy one of Apple's computers.

Hey-day Apple has to look back to late 1989 to see the last time it was ahead of Microsoft.

Microsoft, whose operating system runs on more than 90% of the world's personal computers, has not been able to match growth rates from its hey-day of the 1990s.

This week sees the launch in the UK and eight other countries of Apple's iPad tablet computer.

Next month will see the unveiling of the next generation of the iPhone, something that has brought internet access on the move to the mass market, and led to an explosion in downloadable mobile "apps" - applications that enable a huge range of activities, from map reading to booking restaurants.

Google Pac-Man eats up work time

A single and two-player version of the game was available.

The Pac-Man game Google put on its home page gobbled up almost five million hours of work time, suggests a study.

The playable version of the classic video game was put on Google's front page on 21 May to celebrate 30 years since the launch of Pac-Man in Japan.

The search giant reworked the game so the layout was arranged around letters forming its name.
The Pac-Man game proved so popular that Google has now made it permanently available on its own page.
 
Time delay
The statistics on how many people played and for how long were gathered by software firm Rescue Time. It makes time-tracking software that keeps an eye on what workers do and where they go online.
On a typical day, it suggests, most people conduct about 22 searches on the Google page, each one lasting about 11 seconds.

Putting Pac-Man on the page boosted that time by an average of about 36 seconds, the firm said based on the browsing habits of 11,000 Rescue Time users.

The firm believes this is a relatively low figure because only a minority realised that the logo was playable. To play, people had to click on the "insert coin" button which replaced the more familiar "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on 21 and 22 May.

Extrapolating this up across the 504 million unique users who visit the main Google page day-to-day, this represents an increase of 4.8 million hours - equal to about 549 years.

In dollar terms, assuming people are paid $25 (£17.50) an hour, this equates to about $120m in lost productivity, the firm said.
For that money, suggested Rescue Time, it would be possible to hire all Google's employees and put them to work for about six weeks.

Wave Gone Public - Google

Google Wave, a web collaborative and chat service launched by the internet giant mid 2009 is now available to the public as part of Google Labs according to a release on its official blog on Tuesday. The service when made debut was available only by invitation to individuals and a handful of Google Apps customers.

The service is now much more faster and stable than the preview version, making it easier for users. Added features include: email notifications, extensions gallery and permission management options.

Stephanie Hannon, Wave product manager, described the social platform as a place to get work done, particularly for team working on a project that involve close co-ordination.

Google Wave API for developer now have additional components and several other improvements according to the report. Beyond the API release, the wave code, including the rich text editor, is now open source. Developers can also extend the code to build their own alternative Wave clients.

The APIs are in Labs as a measure to stay flexible when creating a whole new paradigm in web based communication and collaboration according to Google.

Simply sign-in using your Google account goes the public invitation, and for Google Apps administrators at a business or school, you can now easily enable Google wave for all your users at no extra cost.