Apple totally turns iPhone 3.0 into a game platform
The iPhone's operating system has secured the fourth-largest share of the global smarphone OS market, and has been increasing fourfold annually. While it has won the hearts of many, it has done so despite a prominent lack of certain built-in functions. The "Top 8" of these absent features are: MMS support, Adobe Flash support, video recording, Bluetooth modem tethering, push notifications, SMS forwarding, background applications, and -- an old favorite among the Mac faithful -- cut-and-paste.
While cut-and-paste functionality, and roughly four of the top eight needed functions were indeed added, they were piled under no less than a dozen other new abilities intended to advance videogaming on iPhone.
US Defense Dept. goes public with some open source plans
As a next step in open source, the DoD is teaming up with the Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) on a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) that will allow over 50 federal administration applications to be publicly distributed under an open source license.
In a presentation at John Hopkins University on Monday, DoD officials said that, under the deal, users in other federal agencies -- along with state and local government, and the general public -- will be able to reuse code developed by the agency's Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for its Corporate Management Information System (CMIS).
The end of the PC pothole, for everyone but Apple
The news from the latest NPD report on PC retail unit sales in the US last month was surprisingly very upbeat, for nearly all manufacturers but one. If you were to place a flat two-by-four stretching across the PC unit sales figures for February 2009 over to February 2008, you'd find the incline tips down...toward the older year. Windows-based PC unit sales rose by a fabulous 22% annual rate, NPD estimates, although the firm is declining to provide exact numbers to the press.
If you walked across that two-by-four, though, you'd want to avoid falling into the deep chasm that was the fourth quarter of last year.
After years in eclipse, fresh L0phtCrack version released
A Windows password-auditing tool acquired by Symantec only to be shelved when the lawyers got a look at the thing has been re-acquired by its original authors, who have released a long-awaited Version 6 to the public. L0phtCrack languished for years after the company decided that the tool, popular with hackers, could raise liability issues.
Once upon a time, Mudge, Dildog, and Weld Pond released L0phtCrack, which can be used as a password-auditing tool or, if you're playing offense, a tool for cracking passwords on systems not belonging to you. In 2000, the Boston-based L0pht Heavy Industries hacker collective (est. 1992, and famous for telling Congress they could take the Internet down in 30 minutes) morphed into @stake, becoming a marginally more mainstream security consultancy. In 2004, Symantec acquired @stake.
Not to be outdone by Cisco, Dell launches Xanadu II servers for clouds
With Sun and newly initiated server market competitor Cisco also rolling out data center servers this week, Dell has made its own announcement of XS-23 II servers, formerly codenamed Xanadu II. Dell launched the new high-end x86 servers on Monday in celebration of the second birthday of Data Center Solutions (DCS), a division producing servers aimed at easy customizability for cloud computing and other data center applications.
Forrest Norrod, Dell's VP and general manager of DCS, contended today that DCS "isn't a one-size fits all approach." Dell's new XS-23 servers, for example, come with a choice of several different processors, including the new Intel Nehalem chip that will also show up in Cisco's first servers, although those machines will be offered in blade configurations with a built-in fabric architecture.
Microsoft in an IP deal with manufacturer that brought DMCA case
Early this afternoon, Microsoft and printer maker Lexmark jointly announced that they had entered into a cross-licensing agreement, which gives both companies access to each other's portfolios. Their statement basically said that such agreements are necessary in tough economic times, in order to shorten their own development lifecycles.
Conceivably, Microsoft could use this deal to craft better printer drivers for Windows, especially drivers that are capable of testing such statistics as cartridge fluid level, without relying on printer manufacturers to craft the software for themselves. Notoriously, Lexmark's biggest competitor Epson produces its own printer drivers, but to this day has yet to resolve issues concerning its photo printers and 64-bit Windows Vista.
A phishing scheme may have exposed 700 Comcast customers
A document that appeared on the online sharing service Scribd appeared to show thousands of comcast.net accounts, along with their passwords. It was probably posted there as a display of somebody's phishing prowess, though it would appear it took two months or more before anyone finally noticed.
Well, someone finally noticed. As it turns out, only about 700 of those 4,000 or so addresses were for real Comcast subscribers, the company confirmed to Betanews this morning, which creates some doubt as to whether the would-be phisher stole these account names from Comcast itself or from a really bad screen-scraper routine.
Encouraging notebook anorexia: Dell launches Adamo
View images of the Dell Adamo up close
Dell's fashion-first Adamo notebooks are now available for pre-order on the company's site. The super thin notebooks may offer reduced computing power, but they are the current apogee of Dell design.
AMD to Intel: We'll come clean if you will
Yesterday in an interview with Betanews, Intel corporate spokesperson Chuck Mulloy requested that AMD lift its veil of secrecy regarding the redacted portion of a cross-licensing agreement between the two companies. The unseen portion, we're told and Mulloy believes, includes the list of technologies that AMD is currently licensing to Intel -- Mulloy himself has not seen that list.
It's the list of technologies whose licenses AMD is threatening to cancel if Intel goes through with its plan to cancel its part of the cross-licensing agreement.
Analysts: Where is (and isn't) SaaS headed?
SaaS is now moving toward greater success in online backup, Web conferencing, and some other areas, but not really in either integration or business intelligence, say Forrester Research analysts.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) originally got off the ground with customer relationship management and human resources applications, Forrester notes in a new report. But although SaaS will keep gaining ground in those two areas, SaaS will also pick up considerable momentum in online backup, Web conferencing, collaboration, and IT systems management, the analysts predict.
Apple Macs get Carbonite online backup, with free trials
After a beta test, Carbonite, a major provider of online backup services to consumers and small businesses, this week opened its first backup service for Macs.
Carbonite's new service provides automatic online backup for Intel-based Macs running Mac OS 10.4 or 10.5, backing up files to Carbonite's cloud-based servers in the background while users work at their computers. Secure socket layer (SSL) encryption is used for privacy.
Nintendo avoids yet another patent infringement suit over controllers
Nintendo prevailed in yet another patent infringement lawsuit about its controllers for the Wii and GameCube. A 2007 suit from Fenner Investments Ltd. sued Nintendo and Microsoft for the joystick ports on their consoles.
The patent held by Fenner (#6,297,751) is for a low-power interface with standard 5 volt peripherals that "includes a bi-directional buffer circuit and a pulse generator which, together, generate a digital pulse signal, representing a joystick coordinate position, based on an input analog measurement signal."
IRS servers in need of hebdomadal malware scans
A report released last week by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) after a year-long audit states that servers at the Internal Revenue Service are in need of hebdomadal malware scans, after the agency's Cybersecurity Computer Security Incident Response Center noted a 45% increase in malware infections between 2007 and 2008.
Michael Phillips, deputy inspector general for audit at TIGTA, issued four recommendations for the IRS, all in line with statutory requirements that the agency get a good look from auditors on a regular basis.
Nokia continues its cost-cutting plan with more layoffs
Late last month, Nokia announced that it would be scaling back its operations, and instated a voluntary resignation program for 1,000 of its employees.
Today, Nokia announced further workforce reductions will take place, affecting devices and markets, corporate development, and global support divisions that would be overlapping after the company completes its acquisition of Symbian.
Cisco: Intel Nehalem-based servers part of long-term data center 'vision'
With a sweeping data center initiative that includes Cisco-produced servers, Cisco is still only part way through a just revealed long-term strategy to stand at the center of network-based cloud computing, said John Chambers, CEO of the network equipment company, during a customer and press event today.
Cisco's emerging network-based data center architecture is designed to provide a variety of benefits to customers. "The first challenge is complexity," said Prem Jain, senior VP of engineering, who equated data center operations with "buying a car and assembling it yourself."
Most Commented Stories
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.