Welcome to Computer Future!: 02/19/11

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Quark plans big announcement on February 23

Quark announced that on February 23, will host a special event, worldwide online in order to make "a significant announcement, for the product".

This event is open to all interested parties and can be accessed online through a short registration process. Once registered, participants will receive instructions on how to access the event.

To the North and South America, registration is at this link.

In this region, the event starts from 8: 00 pm Pacific time; 9: 00 a.m. Mountain time; 10: 00 a.m. Central time; and 11: 00 a.m. Eastern time.

For Asia, Australia and New Zealand, registration is at this link.

For this region, the event starts at 4: 00 pm Eastern Daylight Time and 10: 30 a.m. standard time of India.

For Europe and Africa, registration is at this link.

For this region, the event starts at 11: 00 central European time; and 10: 00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time.

There has been a whirlwind of activity recently from Denver Headquarters of Quark. Less than a month ago, Quark announced its new Studio App, a module for the Quark Publishing System that makes it easy to publish iPad for medium and large enterprises. That same day, Quark made a variation of that software--called iPad publishing service for QuarkXPress--available for smaller operations that do not use the enterprise publishing system.

Quark's flagship product, QuarkXPress is currently at version 8.5, and runs on Mac OS X 10.4 or higher on PC or Mac PowerPC or Intel.

Sandy Bridge error shows how Intel is important

It escaped your notice that Sandy Bridge processor microarchitecture Intel has made an impact. A look at our PC reviews will soon show that the performance of your PC by Sandy Bridge are head and shoulders above the rest.

Alas, that's not the whole story: in the weeks of launch Sandy Bridge, Intel announced it had found a design flaw in her series 6 ' Cougar Point's chipset, forcing a warning to be issued. You can find out exactly what happened and what you should do if you intend to buy a PC, in our history: Intel Sandy Bridge recall: what you need to know.

Suffice it to say that it is an error of $ 1 billion and one that Intel will struggle to survive. It'll take at least three years for the dust to settle, but perversely, recall and its fallout illustrate where Intel dominates the PC industry.

There is nothing wrong with AMD, of course, and the growth of mobile computing means companies as arm grow increasingly important. But Intel is the single most important hardware player in the PC market, and Sandy Bridge is an update of the game change.

Even after Intel pulled ahead its date of supply Cougar point, the first OEM will receive sufficient boards updated is the end of March. If suppliers had decided not to sell PCs with contaminated chipsets, there would be a six-week period where could be sold only obsolete Intel or AMD PCs. At the same time, PC manufacturers ought to remind all laptops and PCs have got flogged, replace motherboards and send them back. Intel may have to pay the Bill at the end, but in the medium term would be disastrous.

Given Intel's market share and profit margins thinner bear PC OEMs, only the largest of the latter could survive this crisis. It is no exaggeration to suggest that the existence of independent UK computer industry was threatened by lack of simple design of Intel.

Make care buying public, about the processor in your PC? Not directly, perhaps, but a dealer UK recently told me that it is much harder to sell a PC that does not carry the Intel branding-largely because of the all-pervasive advertising it undertakes and five-note ear-worm contains its TV ads.

If you ask me for buying tips I recommend a PC model or brand rarely, but remember what specific to search for. In today's market, which typically means an Intel processor.

Windows 8 will run on ARM processors, System-on-a-chip and mobile, as well as Intel and AMD chips. This is part of the Microsoft way of spreading the risk of having a single partner, over-influential hardware. Because, as the company worked a long time ago, the best way to make a fortune in the PC does not make the PC, but to design the public part of a PC you recognize and demand every time.

See also: latest reviews components/Upgrades

Open Office Dilemma: OpenOffice.org vs LibreOffice

OpenOffice.org is one of the main competitors to Microsoft Office suite of Office productivity applications. Originally developed as StarOffice in the 1990s, the suite had managed in recent years by Sun Microsystems as an open source project. But when Oracle acquired Sun in April 2009, the future of Sun's software offerings--especially free like OpenOffice.org--has been called into question. Long before the start, the leading developer of OpenOffice.org, unhappy with the status quo in Oracle, defecting spy from the project.

The result was LibreOffice, a new fork of the code of OpenOffice.org base which is maintained by a non-profit organization called the foundation document. LibreOffice looks like OpenOffice.org, and works like OpenOffice.org. Also reads and writes OpenDocument file format of OpenOffice.org. The difference is that LibreOffice was developed fully based on the Community, without supervision by Oracle. (The "libre" in the name of the suite is derived from a root meaning "freedom erudite.")

[Also on InfoWorld: "10 great free desktop productivity tools that aren't OpenOffice.org" | Track the latest trends in open source with open sources blog and InfoWorld Technology: Open Source newsletter. ]

The question is, which suite should you use? OpenOffice.org is LibreOffice recently announced version 3.3.0 of their goods. Both are available as free download (although Oracle also sells a version of OpenOffice.org which includes commercial support). What will be the best bet for now or in the near future? I installed both to discover.

installation and Language SupportOpenOffice.org and LibreOffice each consists of six questions, called Writer, Calc, Impress, Base, Draw and math in both suites. The modules provide word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphic design business, database management and amending formula, respectively.

Both suites are available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (Intel and PowerPC). You can also get OpenOffice.org for Solaris (Sparc and Intel). Because I wanted to test the most typical scenario for Office-replacement, however, I ran both suites on a Intel PC running Windows 7.

Executable installers for both suites are similar; They ask the same questions and the installation scripts seem identical, even if the installation of LibreOffice is a bit slow. I chose to install typical for both.

LibreOffice has support for a wide range of languages than OpenOffice.org.

PowerPoint alternative: Showdown presentation tool

PowerPoint has long set the standard in presentation software, as it is through the ubiquitous productivity suite to Microsoft Office. Many alternatives have emerged in recent years, however, many of them at prices well below the cost of $ 280 Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business--or even free.

We zeroed out of five of the most interesting online alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint and kept them together to compare features and examine its compatibility. If you're in the market for a new presentation creator, it would be wise to keep your wallet in your Pocket until you've read what we found.

Because Google Docs is probably the name most commonly used in cloud-based office software, let's start there. Free service users can import existing presentations or create new ones from scratch and then access, edit and share from anywhere through a Web browser.

Google Docs is well-known for its excellent sharing and collaboration features, which include simultaneous editing by up to 10 people and sharing with over 200 people. You can publish presentations to a unique URL or embed them in a Web site (included in the LinkedIn profiles). Although you cannot change the presentations on a smartphone, they can be viewed on a mobile operating system that supports HTML.

Export features include PowerPoint, PDF and text formats, although not all features are retained. Presentations created in Google Docs can be up to 10 MB, or about 200 slides in size.

For businesses, Google presentations is part of the service paid Google Apps, including Gmail, Google Calendar and more.

hands-on: Google presentations has a Spartan interface, fairly basic, and you must first select and convert presentations imported from elsewhere. When we imported a PowerPoint presentation, have not been kept the transitions, but everything else seemed to make the move intact.

A fairly limited selection of themes and wallpapers is available for presentations, but the collection of models of Google Docs that compensates somewhat with a variety of user-created options. A nice touch is that when you indicate that you would like to insert a video, Google Docs automatically presents a list of options from YouTube with keywords similar to those of the slide in which you're working on. You can then preview these options by clicking on them.

An interface more rudimentary is a trademark of Google Docs, including its presentation component.Most options on Google Docs feel pretty basic but solid. Google Docs provides no support for transitions, which is too bad, even if you have an option to reveal incrementally text and objects. Audio files are not accepted. We are also not crazy about the fact that, even in fullscreen mode, slide shows, actually don't play full screen; a toolbar remains at the bottom.

price: Free, or $ 50 per user per year as part of Google Apps for business

Languages: Many

licence: Specialty

Import/export: PowerPoint import from, export to PDF and PowerPoint

Unique features:

Good for usedIntegrates sharingWidely and collaboration with other Google Tools, including Picasa and YouTube Mobile viewingSupport for multiple languages

Missing pieces:

Competing bids were more interface nicetiesSupport for audioSupport for transitionsOffline accessMetrics and analytics

Better uses for Google Docs:Frequent travellers and groups working together will appreciate great collaboration features of Google Docs, but its functionality is rather limited. We recommend it for those that don't make heavy use of presentations, and does not need to process functions.

Next page: a presentation tool that doesn't use slides

Record phone calls to your PC

Question I'm looking for a reasonably economical for record conversations on a mobile digital cordless telecommunications (Dect). I tried Googling for answers, but the many suggestions have left me puzzled. I need to be able to hook it up to your PC for transcribing conversations. gengiscant

Response of HELPROOM DECT telephones encrypted signals (even if a weak method, 35 and 64 bits), so that any type of device sniffs out ' the signal ' is out of the question.

Most commercial telephone recording products rely on desktop phones connection using a microphone connected to the phone's speaker or a USB device that has placed ' in line ' between your phone and laptop.

Some Dect phones have a built-in call-recording option, but always these calls off the phone and the PC would be almost-impossible, I suspect. The easiest and fastest method is to buy a phone device-registration-how this device £ 12 from Maplin-and the Slave PC line in socket.

See also: how to fix everything: the definitive guide to fixing technology

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Phone Windows Reloaded: can we trust promises of Ballmer?

For now a couple of years, Microsoft's CEO has made bold promises about the company making a serious effort to be a player in the mobile. He criticized the effort of Windows Mobile 6.5 Windows Phone failed and promoted as a Game-Changer. Then Windows Phone 7 shipped with fewer capabilities than any mobile OS competitors (while having a nice user interface) and quickly became a joke and a flop. Similarly, Ballmer made promises about Windows tablets a year ago that the company never even tried to satisfy.

Yesterday, Ballmer announced that Windows Phone 7 would be updated late this year to make Internet features a "first-class citizen" (his words, not mine, even though it's nice to see it agree that the first version was the second or third class). Ballmer promised that Microsoft would address the functions currently missing from Windows Phone 7, as HTML5 support and multitasking.

[Get all the details on why can't Windows Phone 7. | Continue on key developments and insights with mobile blog Mobile Edge and mobilize newsletter. ]

Microsoft said earlier will add cut and paste for Windows Phone 7 this year. Not so clear is whether Microsoft will fill in all the security holes and management who reject its use in corporate networks, as lack of VPN and encryption on the device, as well as poor support for Exchange ActiveSync policies specific to Microsoft (supports fewer of these than any platform competitor).

What is Ballmer promising to deliver--multitasking and HTML5 support--is the basic functionality that should have been in Windows Phone 7 right from the start. Apple iOS, Google's Android OS, Hewlett-Packard WebOS and Research in Motion BlackBerry OS 6 (introduced with the torch last summer) all do. This is just the basic Microsoft finally in place, not a progress that should get people excited.

The basics matter--especially if Nokia adoption of Windows Phone 7 is to have a prayer of work (I think this is a suicidal move). But not in the competitive mobile market where Apple continues to set the pace and Google continues to follow fast, simply staying on track is good enough.

And given that as Microsoft routinely broken promises Ballmer makes mobile space, I can't help but believe that when Windows Phone 7 multitasking support HTML5, and cut and paste, it cannot offer the standard of competition.

They are all to admit mistakes and expect to be forgiven, as long as the actual error is addressed and not repeated. Maybe this time that Ballmer means what he says and Microsoft will deliver on it this fall. But with the track record, I wouldn't bet on it.

In this article, "Windows phone reloaded: can we trust Ballmer promises this time," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of the Mobile Edge blog of Galen Gruman and follow the latest developments in mobile technology at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

Republican lawmakers Rip net neutrality rules

Republicans members of the House of representatives on Wednesday urged the Federal Communications Commission us to cancel your order of net neutrality since last December, but the President of the Agency defended its decision.

During a hearing of the Subcommittee, several Republicans on the House energy and Commerce Committee criticized the FCC for overstepping his authority when you pass rules that would prohibit broadband providers to block or slow down Web traffic selectively.

The Democratic majority at the FCC has defended the rules required because Internet traditionally worked without gatekeepers, noted Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, a Republican. "They are not simply doing Government gatekeepers in this particular case?"

That is not the goal of net neutrality rules, said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "Are you saying simply that certain behaviour by companies that control access to the Internet are not consistent with the freedom of the Internet and should not be allowed," he said.

FCC support entrepreneurs and innovators, Genachowski said. The rules will create jobs, Web-based, he added.

"I believe that preserve the transparency and freedom of the Internet is essential for maintaining American leadership in the field of technologies that rely on the Internet, as well as the role of this nation as a beacon of political freedom and freedom of expression of the world," Genachowski said. "And I think a sensible framework of open Internet promotes significant private investments throughout the broadband economy, both by companies creating Internet content, applications and services and those that provide the broadband networks, wireless and wired and infrastructure".

Rules of the FCC's network neutrality, passed by a vote of 3-2, Court challenges by Verizon Communications and MetroPCS Wireless, a mobile carrier. House Republicans suggested that the FCC could end uncertainty on backtracking.

Net Neutrality, the FCC order is "full of ambiguity," said representative Phil Gingrey, Republican of Georgia. "They say keep the Internet free of charge, that we need to regulate it," he said. "To ensure that no one needs permission to innovate, everyone will have to ask the FCC for permission to innovate. To create certainty, as few as three Commissioners can now decide what kinds of trade agreements and traffic management techniques are reasonable ".

More uncertainty of doing business on the Web would exist if the FCC had not passed the net neutrality rules, said representative Anna Eshoo, Democrat of California. At least four broadband carriers or furniture, including Comcast, have sought to limit certain types of Web traffic, since 2005, he said. "There is a record of violations," he said. "You know that these violations are against?"All of us.

The Subcommittee hearing came one day after Rep. Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican and Chairman of the energy and Commerce's Internet Subcommittee of the Committee, said he offered an amendment to a package of U.S. Government's budget that would prohibit the use of funds from the FCC to implement net neutrality rules.

Resolutions introduced in the House and the Senate prohibits the FCC to move forward with the rules. Republican efforts to block the rules difficult to pass the Senate democratic control.

"The FCC's recent attempts to regulate the internet through the imposition of net neutrality is a solution in search of a problem," says Walden. "At the end of that these issues are best determined by network engineers, entrepreneurs and consumers acting in a vigorous market, not subjective politicized Federal Agency judgments."

Grant Gross covers technology and telecommunications policy in the Government of the United States for the IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. E-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com of Grant.

Otellini: News Nokia made me swear as Yahoo CEO

When Intel CEO Paul Otellini, received a call from Nokia head Stephen Elop on Nokia moves to Microsoft, he used a word that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz "is often used."

Reference of Otellini reputation Bartz to blaspheme elicited a hearty laugh from audiences who have gathered to listen to him and others in a discussion panel at the Mobile World Congress on Wednesday. The other panelists were Bartz, Cisco CEO John Chambers and CEO Masayoshi Son Softbank.

Nokia said last week that it will drop and your operating system of Symbian and Meego OS based on Linux is started at Intel with a year ago. Instead, it is said, will build Smartphone using Microsoft Windows phone OS.

Otellini, asked her reaction to the announcement of Elop said: "I understand why they did it. I guess if I was in his position would have done the same or a similar call. "

The move follows a long-term trend in the industry of PC, Otellini said. "You're seeing the last manufacturer fully integrated phone become more horizontal, exactly what we saw in the PC model where people focus on what is good for: chip or software or deployment," he said.

But the net result of move by Nokia will be more innovation, competition and players over time, Otellini said.

Still, the defection of Nokia is great for Intel in the short term. The chip maker has tried to move into the growing market for Tablet PCs and Smartphones, are both dominated by processors designed by arm. Intel said Monday that his chip low-end smartphone, called Medfield, is in production and will ship later this year.

The production of chips is one thing: get the phone manufacturers to use them, another. Otellini confirmed that Intel will processors in smartphones later this year, marking the first entry of the chip maker in a growing market which has been significantly absent. He refused to say who will use the chip, but said, "I think that is going to be pretty exciting."

Otellini said that plans also make an announcement soon about moving production of chips at 22 nanometer fabrication process. That will allow Intel to make faster and more energy-efficient chip as it seems to push its processor Atom in the markets of Tablet PCs and Smartphones.

Such a move will be important to your business: sales of smartphones exceeded shipments of PC and the Tablet PC "has come out of nowhere and he commanded the attention of the industry," Otellini said.

Notebook computers continue to be the main driver, though, with growth of 25 percent last year and expectations of growth of 20 percent this year. PC sales grew 17 percent, with more than one million units sold per day for the first time ever, he said.

"I don't see any development environment any time soon where a machine meets all needs," Otellini said. "But I think at least for the next four or five years, there are likely to see more devices, more form factors simply because people want to do different things with computers.

"And in this world, not win a single device," said Otellini.

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com

Qualcomm has high hopes for Augmented Reality Gaming

Qualcomm is showing a series of augmented reality games for Android-based Smartphones at the Mobile World Congress. The games were developed using the software development kit SDK AR.

Augmented reality refers to the way in which computer-generated content are superimposed on a camera view live in the real world, "increase" the vista with additional information. Augmented reality platform of Qualcomm is detection of images based on vision, using computers to identify the elements of the view that may increase. Other systems may use a telephone receiver GPS, compass and accelerometer to determine where they are and in which direction you are facing in order to add location information.

Qualcomm has demonstrated a basketball game played with a print of a basketball backboard fixed to the wall. The software identifies the backboard in images and draw on a verge virtuale and the ball: the aim of the game is to score. As players move their phones around, you can shoot from different angles. Allowing players to move around in the real world, with adapting to those movements, augmented reality is what adds experience to mobile gaming, Qualcomm business development manager Roy Lawrence Ashok Inigo said.

Qualcomm announced the winners of its 2010 Augmented Reality Developer Challenge at Mobile World Congress. The competition began in July, when the company first publicized its plans for an augmented reality platform and SDK.

Developers have been using the beta version of Qualcomm SDK, released in October of last year. Were about 50 questions, which is good for such a short period of time, said Inigo. This shows that there is an interest among developers for augmented reality, he said.

The winner of the challenge is a game called Paparazzi, where the player becomes a paparazzo. Second place went to inch high Stunt guy, where the player organizes various obstacles to allow a stuntman jump successfully his motorcycle through a circle. Danger Copter won third prize in a game where the player becomes a pilot of helicopter maneuvers a chopper water-blow on a virtual city to extinguish fire and rescue of people.

Besides games, Qualcomm provides the technology used to improve the listings, product packages and education.

The 1.0 version of the SDK should arrive at the beginning of the second quarter, according to Inigo.

Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com

Rumor: Sony planning ' s1 ' PlayStation game Tablet

Take Android, honeycomb, a listing of 9.4 inches and Sony PlayStation brand, and what do you get? Because a game Playstation certified tablet, what else!

Imagine: Android 3.0 ("honeycomb") on a tablet of 9.4 inches with a 1280 x 800 pixel display, an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, front and rear cameras, USB and infrared ports (plus the ability to Guide Bravia TV), a sprinkling of buttons (volume on/off), tie-ins with his Qriocity download games pre-loaded Sony PS One, a Bravia Media Remote, a price of $ 600, and a (possible) date of September 2011 for shipment.

Think music on demand and video games through Qriocity plus courtesy Sony PlayStation Suites, a device-independent software framework announced last month alongside Sony PSP successor, codename NGP (Next Generation Portable). And all this, the cumulative efforts courtesy from Sony VAIO (lead reported), PlayStation, Sony Reader and Sony Ericsson product groups.

Thank you Engadget the scoop (if their sources of Sony are not fibbing--Hey, gave the phone PlayStation). Of course everyone was speculating about Sony PlayStation certified tablets just confirmed the game Xperia, but this would be the first evidence of a quantifiable and intimate Engadget one was in the offing for awhile now.

The mock up above is Engadget, designed to capture what you are asking a design "wrap" intended to make you feel like you're toting around a magazine or a book with a bunch of pages folded back. I know, the "bulge" or "fold" seems pretty strange, but Engadget claims that he had to move the center of gravity, making it easier to keep one hand on the tablet. Kind of reminds me of the very first Ultraportables VAIO, that something like a decade ago were only slightly thicker than the Apple Macbook Air, save to their cylindrical, removable batteries edgewise (and incredibly VAIO-violet).

If this thing makes the alpha or beta (or anywhere) it'll be fascinating to see, especially if Sony put the thing in head to head with Apple's iPad. All that is missing? A PSPgo style gamepad.

Who knows, maybe Sony got this angle covered (somehow), too.

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New Zero-day surfaces of Windows as a researcher Releases attack code

A security researcher reported yesterday a new unpatched bug in Windows that some experts believe that could be used to hijack a PC remotely.

Microsoft said it is investigating the flaw, but did not provide information about any analysis is conducted so far.

"Microsoft is investigating public claims of a vulnerability in Windows SMB [Server Message Block]," said Jerry Bryant, a group of managers with the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), in an e-mail Tuesday. "Once we're done studying, we will take appropriate measures to protect customers. This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process, an out-of-cycle update or additional guidance to help customers protect themselves. "

The researcher, identified only as "cupidon-3005," posted the exploit code for vulnerabilities on Monday, which is reported in the function "BowserWriteErrorLogEntry ()" inside the Mrxsmb.sys driver ". The driver processes the requests to the Server Message Block Protocol used by Windows for network communication.

SMB is primarily used to provide file and printer sharing-for Windows machines.

According to the French company Vupen security, which rated the bug as "critical", a successful exploit might "cause a denial of service or take complete control of a vulnerable system." The former would crash Windows and produce the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" which presents a serious breakdown of the operating system.

Danish vulnerability Tracker Secunia, the flaw which has classified as "moderately critical"--the Central threat level in its system of five stages--said that hackers could exploit this bug to compromise a computer.

"Successful Exploitation could allow arbitrary code execution," warned Secunia.

Secunia has added that it could be started in a buffer overflow by sending a Server name string too long in a request packet invalid Browser election. In this context, "browser" doesn't mean a Web browser, but it describes other Windows components, such as access service browser OS '.

Vupen confirmed that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Windows Server 2003 SP2 are vulnerable to attack, while Secunia reported that may be interested also other versions of Windows.

Cupidon-3005 taunted Microsoft in a message sent to the mailing list for Security Full Disclosure. "Sorry if this puts a downer on Valentine's day MSRC sausage fest", read the message.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday is scheduled next-8 March, but if the company maintains in the same timeline, it is unlikely that releases a fix since then, unless a large number of attacks in the wild exploiting vulnerabilities-appear over the next three weeks.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and General technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @ gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

To learn more about security in Computerworld Security Center topic.

Rivals Munch in revenue for Apple App Store, report says

Apple in its huge advantage in the global mobile applications last year thanks to its simple billing system but will most of the Earth by 2014, market research firm IHS Screen Digest said in a report.

The Apple App Store, which opened in 2008 and sells mostly iPhone users, earned more than $ 1.8 billion in 2010 to 82.7% of the total market despite hardware moves from the makers of rival smartphones, according to the report published Wednesday. The total market of apps was worth $ 2.2 billion last year, up from 828 million in 2009.

"Apple ... was able to maintain the advantage by exploiting its ecosystem is tightly controlled," IHS media mobile analyst Jack Kent said in research note.

A "trusted, integrated and simple service through iTunes, billing" is situated in the Centre of this ecosystem, Kent said.

Release of Apple's iPad last year boosted revenues as applications for the tablet that PC cost more than those sold for iPhones, says the report.

But the sharing of applications for Apple's mobile devices declined to 92.8% in 2009 as competitors via ate market. This trend will continue, leaving Apple half the market share as soon as 2014, based on Los Angeles IHS said.

Applications--essentially mobile device software--for Nokia, Research in Motion BlackBerry and Google Android models led the market Apple last year. Ranked No. 2 RIM and Nokia came in third place.

"Apple's competitors, despite their struggles, you managed to do some market share inroads in 2010," says the report.

Android market saw revenue climb a percentage 861.5 particularly steep last year to take share 4.7 percent revenue application store for mobile devices, said IHS.

Remains of the Day: subscription Dance

Look, there, up in the air: it's a bird, it's a plane, it's good, it's me on an airplane. Yes, this installment comes to you from high above the State of Michigan--this is now the State of technology. But I think the "most amazing it will be when the MacBook have 3 G, iOS apps have subscriptions and AT&T admits that the Verizon iPhone is a good thing. In fact, if the remains for Tuesday, February 15, 2011 are any indication, you couldn't wait very long at all.

Apple customer survey sparks hope for brawnier MacBook Airs with built-in 3 G(AppleInsider)

As they say in Latin: surveyo, veritas. Well, maybe it's a bit loud "truth". A recent customer survey--which Apple occasionally runs on his site--asking a series of questions relating to the MacBook and 3 G data connections are presumed. A prodigy of things to come? Please refer to the previous survey of Apple, which bring customers the important question: "what would you do for a Klondike bar?"

June 30 Deadline for subscriptions to Apple(All things D)

No doubt you've already heard of the new subscription plan from Apple, but the company was Matera on exactly when all this magic Subscriber will take place. However, according to an alleged leaked memo, Apple wants publishers on board by 30 June 2011. What happens after that? All I can tell you is that it brings new meaning to "publish or perish".

iBook 1.2.1 finds some Jailbreaks, disable iBookstore purchases in response(Mac Rumors)

Apparently, jailbreaking your iPhone will lose, provides access to all e-Book that you bought from the iBookstore. Holy cow! As you will never find a way aroun--never mind.

At&T CEO says industry earnings lost IPhone Hold(BusinessWeek)

Brace yourself: AT&T CEO "Macho Man" Randall Stephenson said in an interview that Verizon iPhone will help the industry. Whaaaaaaaaaa? According to Stephenson, that is why the launch promotion is free for the iPhone. Sooooo, good for AT&T, right? That sounds more like Randall Stephenson we know.

Secret to the success of Zynga: connect random friends

While fun to play for many, the overwhelming success of online games from Zynga can largely be attributed to how they gather acquaintances who otherwise would not have much to say to the other game, Chief Designer of the company, said on Tuesday.

"The games are about keeping in touch with people you care about," said Brian Reynolds, who spoke at the Conference Engage digital game that will be held this week in New York, in conjunction with Toy Fair 2011.

And while close friends certainly play Zynga with one another, the average user interacts more about FarmVille or MafiaWars with acquaintances "does not normally have conversations with," said Reynolds, in an interview, promising to reveal the secrets of success of Zynga.

Since it was founded in 2007, Zynga has been a runaway success, earning over 360 million users monthly games like FarmVille, Mafia wars and CityVille.

Hardcore gamers may scoff at the easy playability of Zynga Games, but Reynolds stated that Zynga is the future of the gaming industry, one where the games are created for a mass audience. Reynolds "games are not just for geeks anymore," he said.

The idea seems to have some support: The Wall Street Journal reported that the investment firm has estimated that the company could be worth $ 9 billion. If true, this lightweight service provider social games would be worth more than what is traditionally regarded as the largest digital game, Electronic Arts, which currently has a market capitalization of approximately $ 6.6 billion.

Zynga has focused on the development of games that "anyone can play," said Reynolds, dismissing the games as World of Warcraft as targeted for "hardcore" gamers. The trend is towards game concepts, such as executing a city or a company, which can be enjoyed by a wider audience, if more casual, he said.

The most powerful of these games, he said, is that they provide a way for people to communicate with one another, especially those that otherwise might not have much to say.

Reynolds points to the composition of the list of friends, most people on Facebook, where a considerable number of Zynga Games you played. While a couple of people on the list of friends from any person's close friends, most are more distant acquaintances, as ex-employees, distant relatives, friends from college or high school. These are people who probably cares about a person, though not enough to engage in a conversation with daily.

Social games casual acquaintances enables such a way to interact, working on a joint text, said Reynolds.

It is also important for the success of Zynga to the asynchronous nature of the games. Role playing games like World of Warcraft requires that a group of friends all meet on the service at the same time, should they want to play together, said Reynolds.

On the contrary, friends can play Zynga at any time, and still feel like they are working. Zynga Games are well-suited to fill the time between random stretches daily activities. Users can play for a minute or two in the morning, waiting for a plane, or between the activities in the workplace.

"While you're watching me, your employees are playing our games," Reynolds joked.

Reynolds noted that Zynga enjoyed some advantages compared to traditional games. Because its games are lighter, they can be developed more quickly than the three-year cycle that is the norm in the industry. Fewer designers are needed for each game and stakes are lower for each release, a game that fail to capture the public's imagination.

Also, because the graphic is bound by limitations of bandwidth online, designers must concentrate on the game, rather than e-aspect of the game.

A key to the success of Zynga is that games allow people to express themselves, said Reynolds. The game should both be open quite late and include sufficient creative elements so that when users complete certain objective or create something, it becomes an expression of their personality.

An example of expressivity, Reynolds finds Zynga Games allow players to marry characters their spouses imaginary. Consequently, more than 646,000 of these unions are homosexual marriage. By comparison, has noticed that there are only about 150,000 same-sex unions lawfully recognized in the United States.

The games should also provide a mechanism to share their creative works. He admitted that the Zynga seeds its status messages that get shared on Facebook with provocative statements modestly, like for example "Margaret needs some good screws", or "Scott just wood," in the hope that users will share these with a knowing wink-and-a-nod.

"Yes, this is what we do, make stupid jokes with one another," he said. "People want ways to begin a conversation with one another."

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and General technology breaking news for the IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @ Joab_Jackson. E-mail address of Joab is Joab_Jackson@idg.com

New subscription model of Apple: the advantages and disadvantages

Apple recently said it wants a cut of 30 per cent of all subscriptions sold on iOS devices, including services that offer music, video, newspapers and magazines. But go Apple cannot make digital publishers and content providers such as Amazon, Netflix and Hulu think long and hard to continue to offer apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

Music subscription service Rhapsody has already vowed to fight, arguing that cut 30% of Apple would make iOS apps to Rhapsody "economically unsustainable". "We will collaborate with our peers in the market to determine a proper legal and working on this latest evolution," the company said in a statement.

Apple's new policy

Under the new in-app subscription model Apple announced Tuesday, all companies that offer content subscriptions on iOS apps should use the new subscription service from Apple. This means that Apple Gets a cut of 30 per cent of all subscription transactions that occur on a device of iOS.

As a trade off, digital publishers can still deliver content within an application of iOS existing subscribers free of charge as long as they also offer a "subscribe" button within the application of iOS.

But the part that has the potential to disrupt digital publishers is that all links to make purchases outside an app iOS must be removed. This means that links such as "Shop in Kindle store" button on Amazon, which starts from the Kindle app and mobile Safari for the purchase of books, can be removed.

What are the implications for the new mandatory subscription model of Apple? Let's take a look.

Easy to buy

For the average user of iOS, new model of Apple's subscription will allow you to purchase a subscription within your favorite applications with a few clicks. You won't have to worry about entering your credit card information, or by filling out a form on a screen of the iPhone since Apple has already cramped all your information.

Seamless experience

Although buy Kindle e-book on a device iOS is a pretty good experience, is quite a bit of a hassle. You have to go to the Amazon site, buy your book, and then reopen the Kindle app and go to the store to download the new element. Of course, purchase a book of Kindle is relatively easy once you get the hang of the system, but is far from a perfect experience.

Compare buying a Kindle book with getting a comic on Comixology iOS app. Let's say you want to buy an issue of The Green Hornet. All you do is hit the link buying, enter your account password and the Apple begins downloading. Two steps instead of four.

Apple "Blowing it" with the key for subscription App, analyst says

We know that the subscription application for Apple mobile devices is unpopular with publishers, but now CEO of analyst firm Forrester is overview too.

In a blog post on the official website of Forrester CEO George Colony suggests that Apple is letting the success of its iPhone and iPad devices go to his head and that there is a risk of massive hubris if it does not reduce drastically the subscription fees that charge publishers.

BACKGROUND: EU publishers blast Apple iPad subscription plan

Competition: Google payment system for publishers on Apple's competitors

Apple caused a furore among publishers and developers this week when it announced that it would be held 30% of all revenue generated from subscription sales through the iTunes Store. Publishers can still sell their subscription-based content for the iPhone and iPad regardless of Apple, but they are not permitted to undercut the price that Apple showed up on the iTunes store.

Cologne thinks that Apple is wildly overestimate the pricing of content to mobile devices and says that the correct fee for the subscription-based applications should be about 5%, or a sixth of what Apple plans to charge publishers. By charging them high subscription fees for access to the iTunes Store, Apple risks developers guide into the arms of rival mobile operating system Android, Cologne supports.

"Apple blows it," he writes bluntly. "Threatens the PC wars of the early eighties when Microsoft accepted all over their world development while Apple remained «pure» and frightened by his allies … playing this time around Apple's hostile position could result in a market of 2014 Internet that seems App something like this: 80% 10 Android, Apple, 10% other."

Mobile applications have become an increasingly popular feature of Smartphones over the past two years, especially with the high profile launch of shopping malls in application such as Apple's App Store and Google Android Market. The latest survey data from research firm ChangeWave shows that 14% of smartphone users said that applications were what they liked better than new smartphones, followed by the ease of use (12%) and Internet access (12%). In addition, a recent survey by Forrester showed that 45% of users of Tablet PCs that spend about the same time using mobile applications as they spend on a web browser, with 39% saying they spend more time on most browser applications.

Research in Motion, which traditionally has been much more selective in applications that allows its BlackBerry devices, apparently is considering whether to allow its upcoming Tablet run PlayBook applications designed for the Google Android platform. If the Android App market is used on edge devices, could give Android a boost in its efforts to get developers to spend more time developing for Android, rather than the iPhone.

Read more about anti-malware in anti-malware Network worldwide.

iPhone Nano Rumor becomes journalistic Slapfight

The overall cycle of Apple Rumors tends to be fairly predictable. A mainstream publication breaks a story, and other publications of great over time, with slight variations in the item itself, roughly approximate the product that Apple will announce a few months later.

But the current and back on a rumored iPhone Nano is rare. Do you see the New York Times often directly refutes rumors of Apple that appear in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. And certainly do not see the type of clash undertone that ooze in his scoop.

Yes, the Times ' Miguel Helft and Nick Bilton writes, Apple wants to broaden the appeal of the iPhone with a cheaper model (and more voice commands), but no, there is no iPhone. The article goes on to take the iPhone Nano rumor piece by piece: a small device would not necessarily cheaper to manufacture, says one source, and it would be more difficult to operate. Also would force developers to rewrite their applications, causing fragmentation that Apple doesn't want it.

The nail in the coffin is the Times ' final paragraph, which calls out the Wall Street Journal (but not by name) to trip the codename of iPhone smaller as "n97." In fact, the Times says, that has been designated the codename for Verizon iPhone 4. Ouch.

I am persuaded by the Times ' version of the story, but I don't know if there is one big takeaway is different from the fact that sometimes the Apple Rumors are wrong (and I'm guessing most people I know already). Still, there's another Nugget in the report the Times ' which seems plausible: a cheaper iPhone reportedly would be a way to Apple to penetrate the market, in particular pre-paid telephone outside of the United States where the carrier grants and contracts are rare. I hadn't thought of that when I said carrier subsidies are the key to profits of Apple.

A ' come out ' internal audit

Before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002--the Government's response to the infamous Enron and WorldCom Adelphia--the internal audit function focuses largely on compliance and financial reporting. "It was not surprising," says Paul Sobel, chief audit executive with Georgia-Pacific and a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors, and executive Director. While the internal auditors can offer a range of skills, he says, "are known to be well versed in financial controls and reporting."

But while those skills remain critical, several other problems are increasing in importance in recent days, shifting the focus of many of the responsibilities and accounts that require some slightly different skills. These are the conclusions of a report from the IIA Research Foundation, based on input from over 13,500 survey participants in 107 countries.

Interviewees identify several areas that will assume greater importance in the next five years: corporate governance, corporate risk management, strategic review, ethics audits and the migration of International Financial Reporting Standards. Regulatory compliance and audits of financial risks and internal controls remain important, they've decreased some. Many companies have become more skilled in these areas, reduce the level of care needed by internal audit, Sobel says.

' Follow ' risks

These movements reflect the ongoing need to align internal audit with the risks that companies face, notes Richard Chambers, of the IIA President and CEO. "The trends that we see are indicative of what we consider the large enterprise and public sector business risks". While many people assume that the internal audit is essentially an extension of the external audit process, which is not necessarily the case, he adds.

Given the financial crisis of the past two years, investors and creditors increasingly expect companies to implement sound corporate governance policies, together with the strategies for managing operational risk. Internal auditing is set fire to help companies meet these needs. For example, internal auditing can verify that the company's processes for issuing contracts incorporate adequate controls. Chambers "is the mantra that marry, ' Follow ' risks," he says.

How these shifts have occurred, the internal auditor's profile grew, says John Higbee, a member of the audit committee with Rex Energy Corp., headquartered in State College, PA. A few decades ago, the internal audit was rarely considered members of the leadership team of the company. No more. Higbee "you're watched from the audit committee as their eyes and ears," she says.

What's more, because analyze processes between departments and watch "in the bowels of the Organization", internal auditors can help businesses operate more effectively, says Mary Beth Vitale, Chairman of the Audit Committee with CoBiz financial, a Denver based financial services. "Have a unique view of society".

No more independent

At the University of Colorado, the change was significant, says Joseph Tinucci, Assistant Treasurer. Until a few years ago, the role of internal audit was to review after the-reality, remain the length of the arm away from any processes or procedures that have reviewed – namely, does not give any advice – and identify problems ". More recently, the audit function has adopted a consultative approach; for example, have contributed to setting up security and internal controls as new systems have been implemented. "This change of perspective – from internal consultant company policeman – was refreshing and for a long time," says Tinucci.

If these changes occur, however, the skill set at the request of the internal audit staff has changed as well. While knowledge of accounting is important, it is no longer sufficient, Chambers says. Experience is key in the activation of accounts offer sound insight in risk management and operational processes. Strong interpersonal skills are also key; with them, internal auditors are better able to guide their colleagues in the right direction, rather than focus on the resolution of problems after they have occurred, adds Vital.

Sobel offers his thoughts on what these changes mean for CFOs: "CFOs and CEOs can raise the bar for internal audit executive and say ' given the challenges in the business environment continues to evolve, we will need more from you and your facility in the coming years." "

As violence escalates, Libya cuts off Internet

With the escalation of violence, Libya is pulling the plug of your Internet connection.

Major Internet service providers of Libya, General Post and telecommunications company, has begun to cut off access to the Internet on Friday, said the Earl Zmijewski, Managing Director with Internet monitoring Renesys Corporation. "Began to pull the plug about 23: 00 UTC today and are currently largely out of the air," said via e-mail. That was 1: 18 a.m. Saturday, local time.

Libya looks to be inspired by Egypt, which has cut off all access the Internet at the end of January as it has been roiled by street protests calling for political reform.

Similarly, thousands of Libyan took to the streets of the city of Benghazi this week in protests that led to 46 killings in the past three days, according to Amnesty International.

As the situation worsened, Internet traffic was cut off, making it difficult to get a picture of the situation on the ground.

The Libya is much smaller than Egypt, with fewer networks to disconnect, and it seems that this has made the job of cutting much easier access to the Internet.

Agence France Press reported Friday that Facebook was inaccessible from capital of Tripoli, Libya, and that "access to Internet was intermittent."

Posts about Twitter and the blog TechCrunch reported similar problems. Publisher of software usable NeoSmart, citing "friends" in Libya, said that the Government ordered ISPs to block most Web access. "Currently, most Web sites are not available and access to the Internet in General, has been locked," the company said in a blog post.

Robert McMillan covers the security of your computer and General technology breaking news for the IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @ bobmcmillan. E-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com, Robert

Broadband Falls Short in the United States

Large swaths of Western and southern United States do not have access to broadband fixed wireless or wired, according to a new national broadband map released by two US agencies on Thursday.

First national broadband map the nation show that between 5% and 10% of the US population has no access to broadband that supports basic applications, including downloading of Web pages, photos and video, said information Administration (NTIA), and United States ' national telecommunications. The NTIA released the map in collaboration with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

The broadband map was developed using open source software, such as the OpenGEO Suite, WordPress and agencies will provide the map API (application programming interface) for all developers and entrepreneurs who want to offer services related to the map, NTIA and FCC officials said. The agencies will update the data in the map every six months, and the map includes a feature where users can report information about broadband provider in their area.

The map will help broadband providers and Government agencies to target areas where broadband services and service consumers compare and speed, Julius Genachowski, said Chairman of the FCC. The first version of the map is "just the beginning," said during a press conference.

"Millions of Americans live in areas where they cannot get broadband even if they wanted to because the infrastructure is not simply there," he added.

The NTIA has also announced new information broadband adoption Thursday. Approximately 68.2% of residents of the United States now Subscribe to broadband, compared to 63.5% a year ago, said Rebecca Blank, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Commerce, NTIA's parent Agency.

Growth is "good news, but when you dig deeper into the data, it is clear that we still have work to do," Blank said.

White families have an adoption rate of around 20 percent higher than families African-American or Hispanic, he said. The adoption rate in rural areas is about 10 percent behind urban areas, he added.

The broadband map also shows that schools and libraries slower broadband speeds they need, added Larry Strickling, administrator of NTIA. Schools with 1000 students should have broadband speeds from 50 to 100 Mbps, but two thirds of schools in the United States have speeds of less than 25 Mbps, he said. Only 4 percent of libraries have speeds of up to 25 Mbps, he added.

Some critics of the American recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed by Congress in early 2009, said that the draft law must have authorized the NTIA and the rural utility service of the United States to award approximately $ 7 billion in grants for broadband deployment and loans before the map was successful. The legislation required the two agencies to award the money by the end of 2010, while the deadline for the map will be available was Thursday.

Strickling said he suspects the map broadband will confirm that the choices of NTIA facts, even if the Agency more focused on building access middle-mile broadband and bringing to the Community institutions with respect to residential broadband service map exhibition.

The map allows users to search for address. The map that shows the area around the FCC's headquarters in southwest Washington, D.C., has 14 wired or wireless broadband providers that offers download speeds of 768 Kbps or faster, but only one provider that offers 10 Mbps at 25 Mbps and no one offering speed.

Fessenden, North Dakota, a rural community with approximately 600 residents have two wired and two mobile telephony providers, although one wired service provider offers 25-50 Mbps, according to the map. Riverside, a city with about 60 residents in South-central Wyoming, has a speed of broadband provider offering 1.5 to 3 Mbps.

The project map, which will cost approximately $ 200 million in five years, includes money for States to update their data. Data from broadband providers around 1600 are included in the map, officials said.

Verizon Communications has praised the broadband map, saying it will be beneficial to consumers.

But some critics have challenged the accuracy and usefulness. NTIA has created a "good map" with a lot of useful information, but no solid data on broadband speeds, said consultant broadband Community settles Craig.

"It's a shame that the potential value of the map is severely crippled by the incumbents ' refusal to provide the unique element of data that are the key to the primary reason for having the map--accurate speed," he said. "In general, this map will always be incomplete. The two pieces of data needed from Governments federal, State and local to create useful broadband policy and spending money effectively for broadband projects are actual speeds plus a true picture of the competitive landscape within any given area. "

Crowd sourcing capabilities of the map will update slowly Settles added. "More importantly, if a community does not have a broadband connection crowd sourcing data from them will be a bit difficult," he added.

IBM Watson brain similar to the human being

IBM Supercomputer, which Watson shellacked higher human samples of danger during the exhibition game news this week, is powered by a 90-cluster server and attacked the network storage (NAS) with 9 .6TB of data.

In the end, though, his brain has only 80% of the processing power of a human brain.

Tony Pearson, master inventor and senior consultant at IBM, he explained that Watson uses only about 1 TB to process real-time answers to the questions of danger after configuring its storage back-end as RAID and then killing over data to be loaded into memory the system server in the cluster.

Pearson cited estimate technology futurist and author Ray Kurzweil that the human brain can hold approximately 1.25TB of data and performs approximately 100 teraflops. In comparison, Watson is an 80-teraflop with 1 TB of memory.

"So is 80% human," said Pearson. "Yes, we could have dealt with many other information. We could have put more memory on each server, but once we have the answers to three seconds, we don't need to go beyond ".

Pearson explained that reach the threshold of three second response was only a matter of simple math.

The original algorithm identified threaded on a single core processor took two hours to scan and memory to produce a response. So IBM technologists divided only two hours to 2880 CPU, who produced the ability to answer questions in three seconds.

If IBM Watson were only a few other human Jeopardy contestant, viewers probably would have tuned in using such an overwhelming victory. However, interest in the man vs machine battle gave the show its highest ratings in nearly six years.

Competition between humans and computers have long captured the imagination of the public. Remember that the chess match between the 1996 computer Deep Blue IBM and world champion Garry Kasparov?

In this case, however, Watson has more in common with humans more Deep Blue. Like us, he uses only a small percentage of its huge storage capacity to answer questions.

Behind Watson simple scribble in front of the monitor that used it as a competitor of danger are 90 IBM Power 750 Express powered by 8-core processors--four on each machine for a total of 32 processors per machine. The servers are virtualized by using an implementation KVM (kernel-based Virtual Machine), creating a server cluster with a total processing capacity of 80 teraflops. A teraflop is a trillion operations per second.

On top of processing power, each server has 160 GB DRAM to provide the complete machine with nearly 15 TERABYTES of memory.

On the backend of the computer is a general parallel File System SONAS (GPFS from IBM). SONAS, or NAS, scalability is a Linux-based cluster system files that IBM released almost exactly a year ago.

The clustered storage model provides massive throughput due to a larger port count that comes from the compilation of many archiving servers together into a single pool of drives and processors all work on a similar task and everyone can share the same data through a single global namespace. In other words, all disk drives appear as a large pool of storage capabilities from which they can draw Watson.

Watson SONAS is populated with 48 450 GB serial ATA (SATA) hard drives for a total of 21.61TB capacity in a RAID 1 (mirrored); that leaves 10 TB of raw data that is used by Watson every time it starts. Three terabytes of which, however, is used for the operating system and applications.

But this is not the disk-based storage that makes Watson SONAS so darned fast; This is CPU and memory. Each time you start Watson, 10.8 TB data is automatically loaded in RAM 15 TB Watson and that, only about 1 TB is parsed for use in answering questions of danger, said Pearson.

In case you're wondering, 1 TB of capacity is still fairly significant; It can hold 220 million pages of text or 111 DVD.

"The remarkable thing is that you can get all the answers with such a small set of data," said John Webster, an analyst with research firm Evaluator Group. "After more iterations of load and test and test and loading and updating the database on IBM SONAS, came up with a version of the database that would generate the dataset that you have loaded into memory."

Enter the Australian and SAMBA developer programmer Andrew Tridgell.

Tridgell created the algorithm of computers that are running on top of Watson that culls out hardware for data set. Tridgell developed an open source Database clustering (CTDB) banal, that the SAMBA file protocol uses to access the memory between 90 server Watson.

More importantly, the CTDB ensures that none of the server are stepping on each other as they also update the information after a show of danger.

During the show, Watson is read-only-meaning that backend SONAS gets written anything. After the show, Watson is off and the computer scientists go to work to update information and debugging--trying to figure out why gave incorrect answers, such as the choice of Toronto as the answer to a question about American city.

"I'm sure they're scratching their head about that," said Pearson.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, the infrastructure of the financial services and healthcare IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter @ lucasmearian or Subscribe to the RSS feed of Lucas. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.

Learn more about mainframes and supercomputers in Computerworld Mainframes and supercomputers topic Center.

Tech plays a leading role in the elections of Uganda

Technology has taken a central role in the electoral process in Uganda, with SMS campaigns, websites, so-called robocalls and even a rap Presidency on YouTube play a part in political campaigns conclude this week before the elections of today.

At the beginning of the election campaign, President Museveni did a rap song in one of the main local languages. An amateur video of Museveni by rap made its way to YouTube, with the aim of attracting young people to vote for him and has now over 1.8 million views. Was constantly connected to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The national resistance movement (NRM), the Party of Musveni, used an automated system "robocall" pre-recorded message delivery to ask people to vote for "the old man in a hat." Is an expensive method to get out the vote that until now has been used mainly in elections in the United States.

Mass SMS broadcasts were also widely distributed as a tool for messaging campaign, public information campaigns and direct requests from candidates asking users to vote them into Office.

Organizations that have been asking for election violence-free SMS messages is also used to call people to honor the voting rights of citizens. Such an organization, a coalition of citizens for the electoral democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), uses its website to spread its message of tolerance.

The major political parties have used websites and social networking sites to communicate with voters and offer interactive means of communication. (For a history of elections online, see 12 more dirty tricks of the Web ").

The members of the party, for example, were able to follow the activities of their candidates on the campaign trail across the country, using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Visitors of the websites were also able to listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, and view still images out of the Flickr Web site.

Blogs, RSS feeds and mailing lists were also actively used in the electoral process. The key role that technology has played in the elections of Uganda should be reflected in the elections of the continent as tele-density grows and broadband Internet access and more becoming reality. With elections set for Nigeria in April, will be put to the test these expectations.

Google Chrome 10 speed Ups

Yesterday Google released the first beta of Chrome 10, touting the fastest JavaScript engine of the new version.

According to tests run by Computerworld, Chrome 10 is 64% faster than its predecessor V8 JavaScript benchmarks on Google's own. Google has sent the stable version of Chrome 9 earlier this month.

Google maintains three separate "channels" of Chrome--stable, beta and dev--that illustrate increasingly editions with rougher edges.

But in another JavaScript benchmarks--widely quoted WebKit SunSpider--10 Chrome beta was not faster than Chrome 9. WebKit is the open source project that develops the browser engine with the same name; both Chrome and Apple Safari are based on the WebKit engine.

Google debuted a new optimization technology, dubbed "crankshaft," in December, when it was added to JavaScript rendering engine Chrome V8. Press release yesterday was the first beta build to crankshaft features.

Computerworld ran Chrome 9 and 10 three times each through V8 and SunSpider on a PC with Windows 7, then the three scores on average.

Chrome 10 beta was 64% faster than Chrome 9 V8, but only a statistically-insignificant 0.1% faster in SunSpider.

Two months ago, Google engineers explained why SunSpider scores for a crankshaft equipped Chrome show little, if any, improvement on browsers that do not include the optimization technology.

"The idea [in crankshaft] is heavily optimize the code that runs frequently and not lose time, optimizing code that is not," said engineers. "Because of this, benchmarks that end in a few milliseconds, e.g. SunSpider, will show small improvement with crankshaft. Make an application more work, the greater the gains ".

Other additions to 10 Chrome beta includes hardware accelerated video, a change to the way you view your browser options, automatic password synchronization and a new security feature that automatically disables the older plug-ins.

The new hardware acceleration moves some of the videos on your computer's graphics processor, thus reducing the impact on the CPU in the system. Google said the new technology was still under construction, and feature 10 Chrome beta an implementation of "preliminary".

Passwords are now synchronized by default synchronization tool with integrated Chrome, which also keeps your bookmarks, extensions, applications, and other settings consistent through copies of chrome running on different machines.

The browser also now automatically disables out-of-date plug-ins to keep users safer--plug-ins have become an important goal of hackers seeking to exploit vulnerable versions. Almost 80% of browsers used by consumers require patching, a security company said this week, with most flaws unfixed residing in plug-ins like Java to Oracle and Adobe Reader.

Mozilla Firefox includes similar protection, alert users when they are about to use an obsolete plug-ins.

Users can download Chrome 10 beta from the Google site.

If Google keeps its usual calendar six-to-eight weeks, most if not all features in the beta will make it into the stable version at the end of March or early April.

Chrome 10 beta was 64% faster than the "stable" Chrome 9 in V8 JavaScript benchmark tests of Google's own. (V8, high scores are better).

To learn more about browsers in central topic browser of Computerworld.

US launches first national broadband map

The Department of the national telecommunications and information Administration (NTIA) Commerce has unveiled the national broadband map for the United States. The map is the first public map, searchable nationwide availability of broadband Internet: its goal is to help expand broadband access and adoption in Communities at risk of being left in the economy of the 21st century, as well as aid to businesses and consumers who seek information about their high-speed Internet options.

The NTIA created the national broadband map in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), using data that every State, territory and the District of Columbia (or their delegates) collected from broadband providers, or other data sources. The result is more than 25 million searchable see records where the broadband Internet service is available, the technology used to provide the service, the maximum advertised speed of service and the names of service provider. Users can search by address, display data on a map or compare broadband in different geographic areas (States, counties or districts of the Congress).

The map shows that between 5-10 percent of Americans do not have access to broadband at speeds that support a set of applications, including the downloading of Web pages, photos, videos and use simple video conferences. This is a rather confused, as the FCC defined broadband in July 2010 as throughput 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream to support these applications. The NTIA only data collected in the intervals between 3 .6Mbps and 6 to 10Mbps download speeds advertised, which means that all connections were grouped in category 3Mbps broadband. The FCC found in December 2010 that 68 percent of us broadband connections were not really broadband.

"The national broadband map shows there are still too many people and institutions lack the level of broadband service, needed to fully participate in the Internet economy."We are pleased to see the increase in broadband adoption last year, particularly in light of the difficult economic environment, but a digital divide remains, Lawrence e. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for communications and information and NTIA administrator, said in a statement. "Through the program opportunities NTIA's broadband technology, digital literacy activities and other initiatives, including the instruments that today we are releasing the Obama administration is working to address these challenges."

The NTIA has also published a new report preview of data collected through the survey on the use of the Internet of 54,000 households, conducted by the U.s. Census Bureau in October 2010. Here are a few highlights:

Broadband Internet access at home continues to grow: 68 percent of households have broadband access compared to 63.5% last year. (In the survey, broadband is defined as the Internet access service that uses DSL, cable modem, fiber optic, mobile broadband and other high speed Internet access).Significant disparities between demographic groups: people with low income, disabled, elderly, minorities, the less educated families, not family and non-employed tend to other groups in home broadband use.While since 2007, has reduced the digital divide between urban and rural areas, remains significant. In 2010, 70 percent of urban households and only 60 percent of rural households accessed broadband Internet service. (Last year, those figures were 66% and 54%, respectively).Overall, the two most commonly cited reasons for not having broadband Internet access at home are that it is perceived as unnecessary (46%) or too expensive (25%). In rural America, however, the lack of broadband availability is a big reason for non-adoption than in urban areas (9.4% vs. 1%). Americans also cite the lack of a computer as a factor.Despite the growing importance of the Internet in American life, 28.3 percent of all persons do not use the Internet anywhere, down from 31.6% last year.

If you want to read the report in all 28 pages, check it out here: February 2011 digital nation (PDF).

IBM Watson makes it official: mankind is Toast

"For one welcome our new feudal lords computer--" that is a quote from Ken Jennings, the guy who used to be egghead "danger" world's largest, until IBM Watson supercomputer waxed the floor with him and his colleague Brad Rutter, puny humans.

He was kidding, but not much. In a piece commissioned by Slate, the winner of 74 lots of consecutive danger (until he met his match in Watson) writes:

[Also on InfoWorld.com: to take a hilarious shenanigans of the tech industry, Subscribe to notes from Robert x. Cringely from underground newsletter.]

Watson seems to represent a giant leap forward in the field of natural language processing--the ability to understand and respond to the UK newspaper, the Ask Jeeves has done (with uneven results) in the dot-com boom. Clues for "danger" cover a open domain of human knowledge--every topic imaginable--and are full of traps for computers: puns, slang, wordplay, oblique allusions. But in a few years, Watson has learned--Yes, learn--to address some of the complexity of a myriad of English. When you see the word "blondie", is very good at knowing if "Risk" means the cookie, the comic or the new wave band.

Yes, of course, it helps that success "danger" is highly dependent on how fast you can press a buzzer with the thumb--and there is no thumb faster than an "electromagnetic solenoid trigged by a shock microsecond-accurate." And Yes, we can take some small solace in the fact that very occasionally things wrong Watson--confusing the city of Chicago and Toronto, for example, "The elements of style" with author Dorothy Parker. (The New Atlantis has a detailed analysis of how lost Watson and why--presumably written by a human being.)

But above all, we are Toast, and not necessarily also catch a supercomputer with 2880 CPU and a 15-terabyte database to spread the butter. As uber geek mathematics that emphasizes Stephen Wolfram, you will make your media search engine.

While competitors "danger" medium--almost all of them already among our species best and the brightest--answer correctly the 60 percent of the time (and Jennings pulls off an impressive 79 percent), Google is not too bad either: 66 percent of the time the correct answer to a question of "danger" can be found in the first search result on every page. Bing was 1 percentage point behind but (perhaps because--ahem--uses the Google search results as "signals" to their algorithms), with a few points behind which to ask.

Wikipedia, created and modified by humans? accuracy of 29 percent. Ouch.

What does this mean for the rest of us? For each Jennings:

IBM ... sees a future in which fields such as medical diagnosis, business analytics and support are automated by software question answering as Watson. Just as factory jobs were eliminated in the twentieth century by new robot of assembly line, Brad and I were workers of knowledge-industry first put out of work for the new generation of machines "thought." "Quiz show contestant" could be the first work in excess of Watson, but I'm sure won't be the last.

IBM is already planning to roll out a cybernetic "physician's Assistant" that will help with diagnosis--think of Dr. Gregory House without the sardonic humour or dependence on valium.

Next in the list of endangered species: professional journalist/blogger. Is already in progress. Companies like demand Media already use algorithms to determine which "stories" garner more eyeballs and advertising revenue. It is a very short step to churn as well as the content.

As someone who has been abused on the stories of science fiction where machines suddenly wake up one day and think, "what we need humans, exactly?" this is not surprising nor welcome news.

Will make the new our life easier in the long run of releasing our gray matter for most creative efforts, automation will free our bodies from manual work? Or are we all just end up working for computerized boss--or, worse, as lackeys to keep machines up and running? (I'm sure at least some of my readers already feel that way.)

The machines are winners. Scratch cards that have already won. We only hope that don't realize for a while.

There is still hope for humanity? Illuminate my weekend with some optimistic words below, or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.

Apple planning Major product launch next week

A lineup of portable MacBook Pro may debut next week, according to a report Friday from AppleInsider. Never-Barfly, citing "people familiar with the matter", a blog focused on Apple says that Cupertino is mulling whether to start the upgraded notebooks by the end of February. If so, Apple is running out of time to issue party invites.

Refurbished MacBook Pro rumors have swirled for weeks, with some bloggers predict an early March-the ship date for newer laptops Apple. Since the last update MacBook was almost a year ago, in April of 2010 (in addition to a firmware upgrade in November), the series is definitely ripe for an update.

Other signs indicate that a change is due. Supplies of 15 and 17-inch MacBook Pro are reportedly running out at Apple stores and retailers-party in Japan and United States. While the new notebooks will feature new Intel Sandy Bridge processors, they do not include design widely reported defect chipset that could hamper the performance of storage devices. (Intel has since fixed the glitch chip).

Of course, the new MacBook Pro specs remain a mystery. That is the reason not to speculate, however. ISpazio Italian blog tech says that we can expect five new models with screens 13, 15 and 17 inches. The other observers believe Apple-that new Mac can sport solid-state drive, rather than conventional hard drives.

This is all great, but where is iPad 2?

The voices of Motorola entice

The Motorola Xoom was the most advanced tablet that we got to try at the Mobile World Congress. Other tablets, including the Flyer of HTC, certainly look promising, but the Xoom is the kicker for the Google Android OS Honeycomb core--the version of Android developed specifically for tablets--and the devices on display at MWC were fully functional, those used for live demonstrations.

Director of marketing, Motorola Tom Satchwell gave us an indepth tour of the device, occasionally pulling out his own Xoom to demonstrate a feature that he actively uses it.

The Xoom certainly makes a compelling case for Android Tablet PC platform. 10 .1in screen device is being launched by Motorola as a showcase for the honeycomb "multitasking operating system" and cruises along on a 2 GHz Tegra 2 chipset and 1 GB of RAM.

The 16 GB Tablet has a 16: 10 aspect ratio, but the viewable area is 16: 9--the same as Blu-ray movies. A further portion of the screen has been reserved for what Motorola terms a "persistent navigation bar". This saves the user continually stabbing a hardware button to return back, back and forth through the menu screens. If you want to use the Xoom to viewing a television program, the navigation is turned off so as not to be distracting.

Other aspects we took really to include support for 3D maps that Google has added to the honeycomb and the Motorola Media link function that "sucks DRM-free content from iTunes, for example and for the device." Motorola is not the only manufacturer to recognize the power of Apple's iTunes and reassurance necessary that consumers that they don't lose what they have invested in their music library in iTunes by choosing a Android or non-iOS Tablet PC.

However, we were the Xoom impressed, however, was the 4 G smartphone Motorola Atrix showing where mobile technology could really be the next item.

Atrix 4 G first caught our eye on the stand, where the smartphone arm with its dock had pride of place. The concept is that the smartphone is now the power and other elements on the screen, keyboard, mouse and remote speakers--are subservient to it. Atrix 4 G dominates the screen that serves its docking station, so that the display attractive ultraportable is known only in direct reference to it.

The smartphone is pushing the content of any host device and flutters like nimbly between them, to resume automatically on a device where it last left the final, including display the last page view or a web photo album. We don't just mean the screen screen. You can move easily from Atrix Xoom to another connected device without missing a beat. And is the Atrix, rather than the Tablet, which says that Motorola is key here. The device will have its accessories in the form of a speaker dock for entertainment--James Bruce of the arm is an aftermarket already announcers of responsible party speaker leaping here to build compatible docks.

If your smartphone is truly today's computers--a mantra, Nokia has been chanting for at least three years and that Motorola and others also join--it seems strange to hide it behind a screen.

As well as 4 G connectivity--with Verizon put 4 G LTE networks in major cities in the United States this year, mobile broadband is on a big jerk extra power--the Atrix has as much memory as the classmate Tablet PC. The 16 GB already on board can be further enhanced with the inclusion of a 32 GB SD Card, taking him for a mighty global 48 GB. If the Nand flash memory can be used to increase the virtual memory, as you can on Windows laptops, this could be an interesting statement.

The Motorola Atrix 4 G has 1 GB of dual-core computing power nVidia Tegra 2, touts a 4in screen, 960 x 540 pixels thick and has an overlap of MotoBlur for direct access to Facebook, email, SMS and social media. Access to the device can be controlled fingerprint recognition or use a pincode (like Xoom). At launch, says he, as soon as next week in the United States, the Motorola Atrix 4 G will run Android 2.2 Froyo.

Motorola bullish about Tom Satchwell was why anyone would need specifically the version 2.3 Android gingerbread found on Google Nexus S smartphone, rejecting the power management and NFC (near field communications) of the updated OS. However, he also added that "naturally work Gingerbread later."

Microsoft Windows flaw: don't worry

Microsoft ignored the threat to Windows users from vulnerability revealed recently, saying that it was unlikely that the bug can be exploited to compromise a computer.

Artwork: Dlite Chip defect in network Windows Server Message Block (SMB) file sharing protocol and was disclosed Monday by someone identified only as "Cupidon-3005" on the mailing list for Security Full Disclosure. Cupidon-3005 posted code Proof-of-concept to the list.

The French and Danish researchers said the latest hacker may be able to exploit this bug to hijack Windows PCs. (see also "25 years: Windows ' worst moments")

Last week, Microsoft said it was not so.

"Based on our initial investigation of this vulnerability cannot be exploited for remote code execution (RCE) on 32-bit platforms," said Jerry Bryant, a General Manager in the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). "We are studying the possibility of execution of code on 64-bit platforms, but so far haven't found one likely scenario that would result in reliable code execution."

An attack that exploits the bug SMB instead would result in a denial of service, "said Bryant, using the term that describes a crash of a window that requires rebooting the PC. Windows hangs often informs users of the terrible situation with the infamous "blue screen of death."

In an explanatory blog post, MSRC engineer Mark Wodrich echo take Bryant likely remote code execution, saying that it was impossible on a 32-bit version of Windows due to memory limitations, and feasible on Windows 64-bit only if more than 8 GB of memory was present.

Even then, said Wodrich, "we feel that the trigger any such condition reliably timing will be very difficult".

HD Moore, head of security at Rapid7 and the creator of the open source Metasploit penetration toolkit, played well.

"We have not seen any solid examples of code execution, even if it turns out to be possible," Moore said in an e-mail reply to questions Wednesday. He added that a researcher Metasploit was also looking at the bug and published attack code Cupidon-3005 to see if he could be a form of reliable exploits for Metasploit.

All versions of Windows contain the bug, said Wodrich, but servers running as the primary Domain Controller (PDC)--the system that controls the network domain--are more vulnerable.

Microsoft exploitability index pegged the vulnerability scores a "3", which means that the company does not expect reliable attack code will appear in the next 30 days.

Some researchers doom diminish Microsoft threat.

"Microsoft is now called any hard-to-exploit vulnerabilities (e.g., SMB) a "Denial of Service"! What's next? ", asked the French firm Vupen security in a tweet earlier today.

"Have been doing this forever, MSRC is about managing incidents of PR, improves safety," said Tavis Ormandy in a reply to the tweet of Vupen.

Ormandy, Google security engineer, Microsoft heads with pipes has before--especially last summer, when he released exploit code for a bug in Windows Help and Support Center after he said Microsoft has refused to set a deadline of patches.

Microsoft Bryant said MSRC researchers are willing to investigate the bug, and I will release a patch or workaround to protect users.

Although Tuesday's next scheduled Patch-is three weeks away, it is unlikely that a fix will be delivered then unless a large number of attacks in the wild exploiting vulnerabilities-are displayed.

To learn more about security in Computerworld Security Center topic.

BlackBerry Gets the Gist for contacts Apps

Complete PCWorld coverage

More than a decade ago, before becoming a mainstream phenomenon and about when "smartphone" have started to become a Word, the BlackBerry was a novel device for those of us who were far away from the Office, but wanted to make it seem that we were at our desks (or in my case, while doing other things for fun, how to play basketball in Northern New Jersey, or sailing while pretending to be working).

But since the advent of Android, iPhone and other smartphones which compete head-to-head with Research in Motion-legendary device, the giant laptop based on Canada is struggling to maintain market share and has been at odds to offer something completely new and must have again.

Trying to offer some interesting features to its applications pre-loaded, RIM BlackBerry earlier this week said it has acquired Gist, a startup that offers software that aggregates e-mail contacts and helps you keep tabs on what they are doing. The purchase does not trigger a mad rush to buy new build BlackBerries tablets or if the application is preloaded, GIST is still able to offer a promise of new types of applications that RIM could offer in the future.

RIM has not communicated many details about the terms of your purchase of Gist. Without saying when app of Gist may be preinstalled on blackberries, RIM posted on his blog earlier this week:

"Today we are pleased to announce that it has joined Gist Research In Motion (RIM). We are pleased that the Gist team is joining RIM and bringing their experience in providing customers with an optimized and contextualized, view consolidated information about their contacts to the BlackBerry platform. "

If you are mulling trashing your Blackberry for the iPhone, Android, or another smartphone, but you are curious to know what could offer Gist, you can try it for free with your Gmail account.

Among other things, Gist provides access to contact information when you enter their e-mail address. On a side window next to your e-mail list, a window offers a profile of each contact you specify, which includes information such as their importance on a scale from one to 100, a Notes tab where you make comments on contact and access to their latest Tweets. You can also access a list of recent messages in Gmail and Facebook who sent you the contact, and a photo of the contact that opens if available.

At a minimum, can Help to understand the Gist if you are e-mailing the right contact, or if you have forgotten that one of your contacts. This is a useful feature of Gmail. Maybe one day that could help avoid having to fumble with search function not-so-great Blackberry folder. I wouldn't describe what Gist offers as a killer app by any means, but hopefully, Gist will be among many new and interesting applications to come pre-installed on generation Blackberries in the near future.

Bruce covers technology trends in the United States and Europe and tweets at @ brucegain.

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