Apple hints of an 'iPhone2.1'
Although details are evidently still non-existent, Apple has intimated that the next generation of its iPhone smartphone might be known as the iPhone 2.1
A look inside the Apple's iPhone 2.x Firmware has shown developers a clear reference to a hardware model dubbed the "iPhone2.1." The same iPhone 2.x Firmware also describes Apple's original iPhone as the "iPhone1.1" and the current iPhone 3G as the "iPhone1.2."
Malicious users steal data on 4.5M British job-seekers
With the theft of confidential resume information from the UK's version of Monster.com, Great Britain has now undergone its biggest data theft in history, according to The Times of London.
The data on job seekers stolen by hackers from Monster.co.uk included names, passwords, phone numbers, birth dates, and ethnicity, for example, the Web site admitted earlier this week. Registrations on the job site have soared with the rising layoffs of the economic downturn. In an earlier large data breach in the UK, the British government lost the details on 25 million child-benefit recipients in 2007.
Mac Trojan hits pirated copies of Adobe Photoshop
Although Apple's Macintosh environment has long been touted by its fans as "more secure" than Windows, a Trojan enabling remote control of Mac machines struck a second time this week.
Earlier found only in illegal copies of Apple's iWork Suite, the Trojan has now turned up in pirated copies of Adobe Photoshop for Mac OS X. Actually, the Trojan doesn't even exploit any OS vulnerability. Instead, it disguises itself as part of the installer package for the application, so it is installed along with the application. Once installed, the malware launches a back door program, thereby allowing an attacker to remotely conduct misdeeds such as copying data.
Half of 2008 a good year for smartphones, the other half not
With the advent of Apple's iPhone 3G, HTC's Android-based G1, and a lot of other smartphones, 2008 might look on the surface like a good year for this particular genre of mobile device. But that's only a half-truth, says a report released today by the ABI Research analyst group.
Smartphones sailed along for the first six months of 2008 with a 14% year-over-year (YOY) growth rate. But in the third quarter -- the months from July through September -- sales slowed to 8%. Then, in the fourth quarter, the statistics sank straight into the red, amounting to a 10% loss YOY.
'Big Four' digital music standards board accepts indie advocate
DDEX has announced digital music distributor The Orchard has become a charter member, and will deal with marketing and promotion standards in the Web 2.0 sector.
The Digital Data Exchange (DDEX) was formed in 2006 under the "big four" major label record companies Sony, Universal, Warner, and EMI with the purpose of creating a single set of standard XML messages for the digital media trade. By doing this, the information on album and video streams and sales would be easier for participating companies to exchange, simplifying the flow of money among them.
Sony exec is visibly devastated by earnings news
In a special press conference this morning in Tokyo to update its financial condition, Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda literally looked ill. Associated Press cameras show Oneda physically struggling to present the news that final reports will likely show its net profit plunging as much as 95% annually in the quarter just ended.
"From the second half of September last year, there has been a sudden deterioration in the economy, and with the effects of foreign exchange it has had severe consequences on our business," the AP quotes Oneda as saying. A statement released to reporters at the same time read, "An operating loss was recorded due to factors such as the appreciation of the yen, deterioration of results at equity affiliates, slowdown of the global economy and intensified price competition."
AT&T and Comcast are surprise participants in RIAA anti-piracy plan
Ironically enough, ISPs Comcast and AT&T are reportedly supporting the RIAA's new three-strikes plan, a quietly emerging measure to thwart music pirating among US residents by disconnecting pirates from their ISPs.
Like music industry groups in Britain, France, and elsewhere, the US-based RIAA is now starting to abandon its previous policy of suing suspected pirates in favor of severing these users from the Internet.
Nintendo shrinks its outlook for the remainder of the year
Video game giant Nintendo has adjusted its outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, and forecasts a 33% lower profit than previously expected.
Nintendo's financial reports today showed the great impact of large changes in exchange rates. As the Japanese yen sharply climbed in value, sales in the European and American markets dropped in value. This is evidence that even if sales are high, their mitigating effect on profits is substantially lessened by global currency exchange.
U.S. News Weekly: Now how much would you pay?
This week, the publishers of U.S. News and World Report announced it's launching a publishing experiment that's been tried before: a weekly edition of its now-biweekly print news service in PDF format, for subscribers willing to pay about $20 per year.
Already, the concept has been given a lot of guff elsewhere on the Web. The prevailing word thus far appears to be that no one wants to pay for news any more, and why should they? Information, after all, "wants to be free."
Adobe claims 100 million AIR installs...Where's Silverlight?
Yesterday at a conference in Japan, Adobe announced it has received an independent assessment of the worldwide installed base for its Web platforms. A Millward Brown survey estimates that Flash has been installed on 99% of the world's Internet-enabled PCs, leading Adobe to estimate that Flash Player 10 by itself will break the 80% penetration mark by the end of Q2 2009.
Some 100 million PCs are believed to have successfully installed Adobe's AIR runtime platform -- and by "successfully," the company means, it's running and active and without trouble. That's based on the company's own statistics about downloads.
Intel backs first public alphas of Moblin Linux
Download the VMware image of Moblin Alpha 1 from Fileforum now.
Embedded Linux, with its smaller footprint and tighter code, is finding its way into smaller platforms where even a stripped down Windows XP couldn't possibly fit. Intel is fully aware of this, which is perhaps one reason why it's funding the development of an innovative new Linux distribution called Moblin. It uses the GNOME Mobile platform and features OpenGL support, and it's attracting the attention of companies such as netbook leader Acer.
IBM eyes cloud pacts in more places and industries
New open source partnerships between IBM and universities in Japan, South Africa, East Africa, and Qatar will be followed by more pacts in other geographic and around more application areas of cloud computing.
"A lot of the focus on the global stage is on making sure that as many geographic regions and industries as possible get exposed to cloud computing," said Dennis Quan, IBM's director of autonomic computing, in an interview with Betanews. "We also want to be able to train the next generation in development skills for cloud computing."
The economy and your next mobile phone
On Wednesday, Qualcomm -- like every other company that can afford two sheets of paper for a quarterly earnings report -- said that though economic times are bad, the company is well-positioned to be even stronger when things look up.
But in an era of complicated supply chains and tricky R&D cycles, what does that even mean right now?
Q2 "one of the most challenging ever" for WD
Swift action and a solid business model, said Western Digital executives on their earnings call Wednesday, were the only things that kept last quarter from being even worse than it might have been in the face of prevailing conditions.
On their Q1 call back in October, WD execs dialed back their guidance for the next quarter to anticipate 5% growth. It was the right idea -- historical norms for the are in the 7-10% range -- but it wasn't enough. WD in fact showed a 14% decline in hard-drive revenue from Q1 to Q2. Revenue for the quarter was $1.8 billion, down 17% year-over-year. Net income totaled $14 million, or 6 cents/share. Non-GAAP net income was $123 million, or 55 cents/share; that reflects charges related to the restructuring the company announced on December 17.
Watching the stimulus at work
It's not through Congress yet, but if and when the new stimulus package is ratified, it'll be one of the first items to get the new transparency treatment. The White House has reserved and posted a preliminary message on
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