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Spy Schools?

Sunday, February 21, 2010

In Pennsylvania a high school student’s parents are suing the school district for spying on their family at home through the built-in Web cam on the school-provided laptop. The laptops which are given to all students have software installed that allows the school administration to remotely turn on the built in camera to watch the user. The family suing the school district first discovered they were being spied on when the student was called out by an assistant principle for engaging in improper behavior at home with photos from the Webcam used as evidence. The school district has acknowledged the use of remote Web cam monitoring but only to track lost, stolen, and missing laptops.

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News from MWC

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Mobile World Congress was held in Barcelona Spain last week, and companies involved in the mobile phone industry traveled from far and wide to attend and show off their latest technologies. Among the highlights from the event were some major announcements that promise to propel the industry forward by increasing competition between the big players in the smart phone industry.

Perhaps the biggest revelation from the MWC was the unveiling of Microsoft’s new mobile OS. Microsoft’s new version of Windows for smart phones, throws out the old name, Windows Mobile, along with its design and starts fresh. Windows Phone 7 is being promoted as a phenomenal phone experience, that provides a collection of integrated software hubs rather than thousands of unrelated apps. Windows Phone 7 claims to be a new beginning for smart phones that breaks through the barriers confronted by all the other smart phones on the market. It provides an experience that allows users to keep their lives in motion. A YouTube search on “life in motion” will get you Microsoft’s promo video of its new platform.

Microsoft anticipates dozens of new handsets running its Windows Phone 7 by the end of the year. They will face tough competition though, from dozens of new phones running Google’s Android OS. HTC, the manufacturer of Google’s Nexus One handset, presented three brand new impressive models at the MWC: the Legend, the Desire, and the HD mini – each improving on the features offered on the Nexus One. Also, Intel and Nokia announced a partnership that will provide yet another platform to entice Smartphone shoppers. They are calling the platform Meego, and its based on Linux to run on robust smart phones and lightweight netbooks.

So the big players in the mobile industry are geared up for major competition in the coming months and years. In one corner there is Apple’s iPhone, which in many ways started the smart phone craze but will have to follow up with some new innovation to maintain its popularity – or perhaps it will move on to jump start a new craze with its soon to be released iPad. In another corner is Google Android which claims to be shipping 20,000 handsets per day. Analysts anticipate that Android will take over the market with the many new handsets running on all the carriers, coming out this year. Then there’s Palm and its Web OS that is struggling but staying afloat. Now we have Microsoft Windows Phone 7. Until last week, everyone had pretty much written Microsoft off in the Mobile market, but now Microsoft has regained everyone’s attention. And finally there’s the new Intel-Nokia alliance and Meego which promises to be a powerful force in this competition. By the end of the year there will be bo shortage of smart phones to choose from, and with the heated competition, new and exciting features will be emerging, and prices are sure to come down.

Filed in Industry News, Mobile Tech, New Tech | Tagged | Comments (0)

The Buzz on Google Buzz

Sunday, February 14, 2010

This past week Google unveiled its own social network: Google Buzz. This isn’t Google’s first attempt at being social, Google Orkut, Open Social, and Latitude, are previously released applications designed to support online social engagement, but none have garnered much attention. Google Buzz, on the other hand, has made quite a splash in its first week, and is looking like a contender for social network giant Facebook.

Google Buzz works hand in hand with Gmail. Like Twitter tweets, and Facebook status updates, users post comments and share information, links, photos, and videos throughout the day. Posts can be directed at a specific person, groups of people, or the general public. Like Facebook, Google Buzz provides a user profile page to tell the world all about who you are and what you like. Like Twitter, Buzz users have followers and follow other users. Posts from those that you follow stream into your Buzz window. Posts that are directed specifically at you, and responses to your own posts are delivered to your gmail account so that you are aware of their arrival. Buzz also includes posts that it thinks you may be interested in from users that you are not following. Over time, Buzz gets to know your interests and provides more relevant information.

Buzz is also accessible from smart phones, where it can use GPS information to let your friends know your current location. As with anything posted to buzz, you control who can access it.

Google Buzz has been fairly successful in its first few days of operation with millions of people trying it out, posting more than 9 million comments, and hundreds of posts per minute from mobile devices. However, many people were quick to point out some serious privacy issues with Buzz. Fortunately, Google was quick to react to those concerns and implement improvements. Buzz no longer forces all gmail users to use it – now there’s the ability to turn off Buzz. Buzz no longer automatically assigns friends to follow based on your gmail buddy list, but instead it makes suggestions. Buzz no longer automatically shares your public Picassa photos and Google Reader articles with your friends. Buzz no longer provides all of your friend’s email addresses to the general public.

With these corrections, and Google’s apparent willingness to address its user’s concerns, Google Buzz has some promise. There are still a few issues that may hold it back. First, Buzz is integrated with Gmail, so people that don’t care for Gmail, probably won’t want to use Buzz. Secondly, while Buzz can connect with Twitter feeds, it cannot connect with Facebook, so users will have to decide to use either Facebook or Buzz, it’s doubtful that anyone would want to use both. And finally, Buzz still requires users to take extra steps to keep their data private. By default, everything you share on Buzz become public, with the exception of GPS location data. The “opt out” approach is one that shows little respect for user’s privacy, and a lot of interest in advertising dollars.

Filed in Internet, Mobile Tech, New Tech, Social Issues, Tech Reviews, privacy | | Comments (0)

eBook Power Struggle

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Amazon has had its hands full since the announcement of Apple’s upcoming iPad tablet computer. The iPad is expected to compete strongly against Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader. Besides the many and varied applications that will run on the iPad, it will also offer a robust iBookstore that will feature titles from popular publishers that include Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, MacMillan, and Hachette. The deal that Apple has made with these publishers is significantly better than their deals with Amazon. Apple is allowing the publishers to set their own price for ebooks and will take 30 percent, while Amazon pays publishers a flat $15 per book and sells the ebooks at a subsidized rate of $9.99.

The publishers are using their new association with Apple’s iPad to leverage a better deal with Amazon. Last week, Amazon made the headlines for pulling all MacMillan books from its online shelves in retaliation of MacMillan’s demand for variable pricing on its ebooks. Amazon complained that MacMillan was imposing a pricing model that was bad for consumers and the ebook industry. MacMillan, which has considerable influence in the publishing world, began advertising its books as “Available at booksellers everywhere except Amazon.” The tiff didn’t last long as Amazon gave in to MacMillan’s demands within days. Shortly there after, two other publishers, Hachette and HarperCollins made the same pricing demands of Amazon. That leaves only Penguin and Simon & Schuster, who are expected to jump on board any day now.

So, it would appear the days of $9.99 ebooks are over. Best sellers are likely to sell for $14.99, while other, less popular titles will retain their $9.99 price tag. This is essentially what happened in the digital music industry in 2007 when Apple iTunes, under pressure from the music industry and Amazon’s new MP3 store, moved from a 99 cents per track model to variable pricing. Now its Amazon’s turn to buckle under pressure.

But Amazon isn’t taking its recent hardships lying down. This week Amazon acquired Touchco, a manufacturer of touchscreen displays. Meanwhile, PVI, the company that makes the Kindle’s e-ink display announced that it will soon be capable of producing color e-ink displays, and even flexible models. It’s feasible that Amazon could come back later this year with a new Super Kindel featuring a color e-ink touchscreen, and additional applications. As color e-ink displays enter the market, it will be interesting to see if consumers prefer them over the led displays of the iPad and the upcoming generation of tablets.

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Tracking Web Fingerprints

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has discovered a new way for Web hosts to track user’s movements around the Internet without using cookies or IP addresses. Each web page request that arrives at a server contains detailed information about the user’s computer such as browser type and version, and the plugins that are installed. That information can be compiled to create a unique fingerprint for most computers. Computer fingerprints can be used to compile information about a user’s interests and habits which are valuable commodities for Internet advertisers.

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Introducing the iPad

Sunday, January 31, 2010

After months of speculation and anticipation, Apple’s latest creation is finally unveiled. Last Wednesday, with a packed amphitheater of journalists poised on the edges of their seats, Steve Jobs and colleagues showed off Apple’s new tablet PC, the iPad. Since then bloggers and journalists have been filling pages with there impressions of the iPad ranging from ecstatic to skeptical. Here’s a short overview of the iPad and the world’s reaction to its arrival.

The iPad is a 9.5 by 7.5 inch, half-inch-thin tablet PC, with an aluminum case, and a 10-inch LED multi-touch display. It has a custom-designed 1 GHz processor for high performance and a long 10 hour battery life.

Not unlike a giant, thin and sleek iPhone, the iPad has the same button and port configuration as an iPhone, and runs all of the iPhone apps at a larger, higher resolution. It also runs software specifically designed for it including Apple’s iWork word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications. The iPhone OS and interface that runs on the iPad has been updated to take advantage of the large display.

The iPad has most of the features of an iPhone 3GS including an accelerometer, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth, portrait or landscape viewing modes, and a software keyboard. Users can purchase a regular external keyboard which connects to the iPad dock. The iPad can then act like a notebook, utilizing the touchscreen in place of a mouse. There is also an optional case that doubles as a stand for convenient movie viewing, and laptop computing.

The iPad connects to the Internet over Wi-fi networks or over AT&T’s 3G cellular network. Unlike the iPhone, there is no subscription plan required. Two prepay options are available. One provides 250 MB for $14.99/month. The other is unlimited data for $29.99/month. Users are free to use the iPad exclusively over Wi-fi to eliminate monthly fees altogether.

Wi-fi-only models of the iPad range in price from $499 to $699 depending on the size of the hard drive, while iPads that support both wi-fi and 3G start at $629 and run up to $829. Wi-fi only models will be available at the end of March with Wi-fi+3G models arriving a month later.

What distinguishes the iPad from previous Windows-based tablets is the user interface and software. The iPad comes instantly out of sleep displaying the home screen. Swiping across the display reveals pages of applications. Apples implementation of the multi-touch user interface looks very elegant, intuitive, and easy to use. While the iPad runs all iPhone software, it’s large hi-def display will serve some applications better than other. Movies, books, newspapers, magazines, and photos look beautiful on the iPad display even at extreme angles. This makes it easy for two or three people to view simultaneously. Maps and GIS applications are sure to be popular on the iPad. Games will take on a whole new aspect viewed on the iPads large display and controlled via the accelerometer. Apple’s iWork software supports more productive activities while the Web browser and social network applications provide user’s favorite online activities. Without doubt, software developers will be using the iPad’s software development kit to design many applications that take advantage of the iPad’s unique form factor. There should be many more enticing apps available by the time the iPad hits the market.

The reviews of the iPad are mostly favorable, with some well known silicon valley journalists practically gushing over it. However, there are points of dissatisfaction as well. The iPad has no camera, and is unable to function as a phone over AT&T’s network. The iPad does not support multitasking to the level where multiple applications can run in multiple windows. So when switching between applications, the user must always return to the home screen and relaunch the application. The iPad does not support Flash, so some Web content will not be viewable. The iPad is extremely limited on ports. Besides its headphone jack, it has only its one Dock connector for connecting to a PC. Perhaps the largest concern expressed over the iPad is it’s lack of open standards. It appears that all media content on the iPad will be locked down with digital rights management. Movies, television programs, books, magazines, and newspapers will have to be purchased from Apple partners. DRM is the norm for ebook readers like the Kindle, and video services like netflix. However, an iPad-like tablet based on Google’s open Android or Chrome OS platforms, could garner a fan base of users who feel Apple commands too much control over its users.

No matter what level of success the iPad achieves, its impact on the market will be considerable. While the iPad doesn’t have enough power or features to compete with regular notebook computers, it is likely to make life difficult for ebook readers like the Kindle, and netbooks. It’s lower-than-expected price, is already causing other tablet manufacturers to drop their prices in order to better compete when the iPad hits the market. Just as 2008 was the years of the smartphone, and 2009 was the year of the netbook, it is likely that the iPad will make 2010 the year of the tablet.

Filed in Digital Media, Industry News, Mobile Tech, New Tech, Tech Reviews, computer | Tagged | Comments (0)

Weak Passwords

Saturday, January 23, 2010

A recent hack of RockYou.com made 32 million user passwords available to the public. A security firm analyzed the passwords and found that for the most part, they are easy to guess. About a third of the passwords are less than 6 characters, and half use common words that could be easily hacked using a dictionary attack. The most common password on the system was 123456. The research has caused concern over people’s ability to use strong effective passwords to protect their own accounts and network infrastructures.

32 million passwords show most users careless about security [Ars Technica]

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Zombie Kids?

Saturday, January 23, 2010

A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average young american spends practically every waking moment, outside of school, on the computer, watching TV, playing video games, or tuned in to some other electronic device.

If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online [NYTimes]
Kids consume media as a full-time job—many getting overtime [Ars Technica]

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Secretary Clinton Addresses Internet Freedom

Saturday, January 23, 2010

This week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on the importance of freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet. The speech coincidentally follows last week’s announcement by Google that it and 30 other companies and organizations were hacked by what it claims must have been the Chinese government. Google threatened to close its China operations unless China abandons the censorship requirements it has placed on the company’s China division.

Secretary Clinton spoke about the tremendous advantages that the Internet has provided to countries around the world, reiterating President Obama’s statement that “the more freely information flows, the stronger societies become.” She said that “access to information allows citizens to hold their governments more accountable, generates new ideas, and encourages creativity and entrepreneurship.”

She voiced concern that the Internet is being exploited by some governments to undermine human progress and political rights. She named China, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan as countries that are censoring the Internet for their citizens. She also criticized Vietnam, Egypt, Iran, and North Korea, for censorship and in some cases for imprisoning bloggers.

Secretary Clinton stated that the U.S. stands for a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas. She referred to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights citing that all people have the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media. She also compared Internet censorship in some countries to the iron curtain of the cold war era, referring to the practice as an “information curtain” where virtual walls are placed on the Internet. She asked the world’s population and governments to consider the kind of future we want. A world with one Internet, where cultures freely share information, or a fragmented globe where access to information is dependant on where you live. The Secretary pointed out that asymmetrical access to information leads to misunderstanding and international disputes.

The Secretary gave many examples of the benefits of a connected world, and the dangers of the Internet being abused to promote violence, and hate speech. She acknowledged the challenge of balancing anonymous Internet use with accountability for illegal online activities, but said that these issues must not become an excuse for governments to systematically violate the rights of citizens.

Secretary Clinton addressed the issue of state-sponsored Internet attacks saying that countries and states that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation. Regarding the recent Google attack, she called on Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review of the cyber intrusion and to announce its findings in a transparent way. She acknowledged the difference of opinion between the US and China regarding Internet freedom, and said that the US will address those differences “in a candid and consistent manner in the context of our positive, cooperative, and comprehensive relationship.”

The Secretary declared that the US government is committed to helping promote Internet freedom. She said that the US government is helping to create new tools that can assist people in circumventing politically motivated censorship. She announced a new program to partner with non-governmental agencies to apply what she refers to as “connection technologies” to aid in meeting the countries diplomatic goals.

Also in her speech Secretary Clinton touched on the responsibility of Internet firms to respect their user’s privacy and exercise ethical behavior when working with foreign governments. She said that not only is it the right thing to do but its also the smart thing to do.

She called on the world powers to utilize Internet connections to pool resources to help the global economy, improve the environment, defeat terrorists, and help people realize their potential. We cannot stand by while people are separated from the rest of humanity by walls of censorship, she said. We cannot be silent about these issues simply because we cannot hear the cries.

China reacted to Secretary Clinton’s speech by lambasting the U.S. for “attacking other cultures by trying to impose its own values.” The Chinese government has warned that the US attitude of “information Imperialism” will damage US-China relations.

Google says that it is still in the process of investigating the impact of the cyber-attack. Its investigation includes members of its Chinese work force. Google has postponed its launch of two Android phones in China, and plans to hold talks with the Chinese government in coming weeks.

Meanwhile Europe’s primary security and human rights watchdog has accused Turkey of blocking some 3700 Web sites for what it claims are arbitrary and political reasons.

You can listen to or read the Secretary’s speech at blogs.state.gov.

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Google Takes On China

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Google shocked the world this week by announcing that it would rather shut down its China operations than comply with China’s censorship laws. The announcement was applauded by human rights organizations around the world, with bouquets of flowers being laid across Google’s sign at the entrance to its large Beijing headquarters. Meanwhile Google investors are stunned speechless by the prospect of Google snubbing the country with the 2nd largest, and most rapidly growing economy.

Google’s decision was prompted by a cyber attack on Google servers last month that originated in China. Google’s investigation of the attack shows that it was not the only target. Twenty other large businesses and government agencies were also hacked. In each case, the attackers were seeking information related to human rights activists with a history of attacking China and its practices. While it is not possible to prove the attack was government sponsored, investigators believe that the level of sophistication involved point to government sources.

China has responded to the allegation by downplaying the incident and reiterating that all businesses in Chine are bound to uphold China laws. As it appears China will not budge on its censorship requirements for Internet companies, everyone is waiting to see if Google will stay true to its word and close its China operations. Meanwhile the US government intends to make a formal demand of China to investigate the incident and report back its findings.

Yahoo!, who has previously found its own Chinese operations caught between China’s censorship and human rights groups, was also a target in the recent attack. Yahoo! released a statement supporting Google’s stance against China. The statement stirred up contempt from Yahoo’s China partner, Alibaba, who called Yahoo’s response reckless. Yahoo owns a 40 percent share of the giant Chinese online company that runs Yahoo! China. Meanwhile, Microsoft, who was also hacked, is downplaying the incident stating that it has no plans to change its business strategy in China. Microsoft has partnered with the Chinese government to crack down on software pirating in China. To criticize China might destroy the progress Microsoft has made in its efforts.

The hackers were able to infiltrate the corporate networks utilizing a security hole in Internet Explorer. The method of the attack was recently made public and is already being used by hackers in more recent attacks. Security experts are cautioning INternet users from using Internet Explorer, although Microsoft says that Vista and Windows 7 users should be safe if they run IE in Safe Mode. Microsoft is scrambling to create a patch for the vulnerability. Meanwhile Google announced that it is adding HTTPS encryption to all gmail services to help protect user’s privacy.

So, like a soap opera on a global scale, we will have to wait to see how this story plays out…

  • Will Google really pull out of China?
  • Will other companies follow Google’s lead?
  • How will China respond to U.S. demands for an investigation?
  • Will Yahoo and Alibaba kiss and make up?
  • Will Microsoft patch Internet Explorer before many others are hacked?

Tune in next week to find out!

Filed in Industry News, Info Security, Social Issues, eCommerce, global | | Comments (0)