Up Front: Congress asks about AT&T iPhone exclusivity

Tuesday's tech headlines

Government Computer News

• The Center for Internet Security, which produces consensus security benchmarks for commonly used hardware and software, has released a set of security benchmarks for the iPhone -- the first smartphone thus honored. William Jackson has the details.

• Gimme a M-E-H: A new survey of federal information technology managers reveals that while 79% of managers work in an agencies that's implemented some form of virtualization (server, client or storage), only 50% say the implementation has been a success and four-fifths say the tech isn't being used to its full potential. Server virtualization is most commonly deployed according to David Hubler, with 59% of agencies doing so.

• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is still mulling the prospect of establishing a new major command to handle cyber-defense, William Jackson says. [Smart move, since it's not clear yet what the Commander-in-Chief has in mind for the broader picture. -- AG.] Whatever happens, Defense will stick with focusing on the .mil sphere, leaving .gov to the happy campers at DHS.

Wired

• As previously announced, Pirate Bay has launched the iPREDATOR Global Anonymity Service, a VPN. The crew of the Pirate Bay -- still facing those fines and that prison time after their trial -- say that 180,000 so far have signed up for the service, though the invitations for the first 3,000 to sign in only went out yesterday.

• Charlie Sorrel lists five 2009 gadget that have triggered massive buyer's remorse -- or should, anyway. We note that he's beating the rush by adding the iPhone 3GS to that list and suggest that he take a pass on reading his article's comments, which are full of wheezing and fail, not to mention people complaining about the political correctness of the word "hillbilly."

Los Angeles Times

• Jon Healey, taking his customary stroll over from the Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division, is excited about what yesterday's UK announcements from Virgin and Universal mean in the long retreat from DRM: "Although it's still vaporware and confined to the U.K., the new service strikes me as a big deal, with some equally large caveats." He throws a nice nod to history in there, mentioning that Shawn Fanning was trying to get the major labels to embrace the flat-fee model about eight years too early.

• To the surprise of no one over 15, Facebook has officially passed MySpace in the number of US users per month -- 70.28 million to MySpace's 70.26, according to comScore. Social networking use grew in the US by 12% last month, compared to 2% overall growth in Net users.

PhoneScoop

• RIM made its Tour announcement Tuesday, but Samsung and Nokia both beat the Canadians to press with a slew of announcements. PhoneScoop yesterday posted bulletins on the upcoming Jet (Samsung), the Omnia II for Verizon (also Samsung), and the Nokias E72, 5530 XpressMusic, and 3710 Fold.

• Samsung also announced a 2.0 versions of its Touchwiz interface. The new edition, which is accelerometer-aware, uses the visual metaphor of a six-sided cube.