What's new with the all new iPad??

If you are concern about this iPad, you are probably still wondering if you should spend your 500 bucks or $500 or more on an iPad, and you are looking for answers. In this review, I will try to tell you what the iPad does (or does not), and how good (I think) it really is. Many aspects of the iPad are covered: design, display, books, videos, cool apps, productivity, gaming, web, battery life... its on your's. After reading this, you probably have an idea about this new apple product. It depends on your lifestyle whether it is perfect for you or not?. So let's dive in..

Intro

We all perceive the usefulness of these devices differently depending on our lifestyle, so let me tell you where I came from. I spend most of my time using a powerful desktop computer (a PC) with a very large display. If I need to get some real work done outside of the house, I use my laptop (Fujitsu- Siemens Amilo Pro, or Sony Vaio Netbook + Win7). On the go, I keep track of emails with a smartphone like my samsung i550w or my iphone 2g but I tend to reply only moderately from a cellphone because typing long emails is painful (even more so on a touchscreen phone). I check news websites a lot, and I often use a laptop in my couch. Now you know my techie life.

The iPad External


I dont want to spend a whole time describing what the device looks like coz my fingers are tired typing and typing! haha. LOL's (check out the iPad unboxing photo gallery). There are a few highlights:

The build quality is excellent. The aluminium back feels great under the finger and nothing feels cheap. There is an audio jack connector for headphones, and a microphone for apps that need it. The speaker is on the bottom of the device where the "Home" button is. The audio quality is so-so and the maximum speaker volume is too soft as on I've reviewed. My advice: use headphones whenever possible. The volume button is accessible and active whenever the iPad is playing something and the iPad is not fully designed to jazz you up and so it is not build to suit your rock style!.

Other than the standard 3.5mm audio jack, the only external connector is the proprietary Apple connector, which seems similar to the one found on the iPhone.A number of accessories can be connected to that, and this is the only wired way to connect to the outside world.

The iPad is heavier than most people expect: at 1.5lbs to 1.6lbs (3G), it is heavy enough so that your wrist would possibly get tired after less than 30mn of firmly holding it. $499 is a good amount of money, but making something with this build quality at that price is not easy. iPad technical specifications on Apple's website

Display (Very good)



The display deserves its own section: with a resolution of 1024x768, it has a seemingly low pixel density compared to select high-end smartphones. That said, everything looks sharp and colorful. The contrast and colors are very nice (dare I say "Amazing"?). Plus, the brightness distribution is very stable regardless of the viewing angle.


User Interface (Easy)



For those who have used an iPhone or an iPod touch, there is no learning curve whatsoever. It's the same look (with many additions) and feel and you'll be productive right away. If you are not familiar with it, this is arguably one of the best touch interface out there, and I expect most people to be able to ramp up fairly quickly.



Media Consumption (Very good)

The iPad promises us to "revolutionize" how we consume media, in a "magical" way, according to Apple. "Magic" is an exaggeration, but yes, this is going to shake some habits to us.

iBook



Books: I like the user interface of the Apple book reader, it's simple and readable, it has a search feature and most importantly, most books (if not all) come with a free sample. Overall, I don't think that there is such a big difference between the Apple book reader and the Kindle reader when it comes to the act of reading but... Amazon seems to be a better book provider.

Kindle for iPad : Amazon has done a good job of making its Kindle app available on many platforms. As a result, it is possible to buy a book from Amazon on the iPad (on amazon.com) and bypass Apple completely. The great thing about the Kindle app is that once you own a book, you can re-download it on as many devices as you want (PC, iPhone, etc...). Kindle also lets you take notes, if you care about that. Finally, Amazon has about 450k book versus Apple's 60k - oh and Amazon eBooks are getting cheaper too. ( Goodluck Apple)^^.

Music

The user interface is a little different from the iPhone version, but music playback basically works well, there's not much to report on that front. it's an iPod after all.

Productivity (Below average)


Virtual keyboard: after reading some user's feedback on it for some time, here's my feedback: it is so much better than a smartphone in either portrait or landscape mode. However, this is not as fast as a 10" Netbook keyboard, or a full-sized keyboard. Personally, I think that the iPad is great for casual typing (one paragraph email replies), but I don't like sustained typing (10mn+) on the virtual keyboard.

Core features of the iPad


Email: Some users tells that Email Application is nice with the iPad, in some ways, more so than on a Netbook. Because the Mail application user interface is tailored to a small display, it is better than it would be on a 10" Netbook with Outlook or Gmail. Emails are easy to read and it's also easy to switch from one account to the next.

File management: Outside of iTunes, there's little to no way to manage files. Apps are so sandboxed that their access to files are severely limited. If you email yourself a PDF file, you will be able to open it, but not save it. I don't think that you can even create a folder to dump stuff. Photos from emails can be saved in the "photos" directory, but not elsewhere. Whether it is for security (sandbox) or simplicity reasons, I don't like it. I want a "user" folder that I can organize the way I want, and access it like a USB key - most other devices work that way. In the meantime, Someone tells me that he use Memeo Connect Reader (free) and Google Doc files to work around this. It works pretty well, but it's a little more work than just dragging and dropping to a folder.

iWorks: Microsoft has announced that there would not be a version of Microsoft Office for iPad, but Apple has its own productivity suite, that is getting rave reviews. In the end, I think that the question is: how much typing can you really do on this platform? For me, the answer is "not much", so regardless of how good the software is, you ultimately are the limit.

Gaming (Getting better, but...)

Hardcore gamers might consider the iPhone platform to be a sub-par gaming system, but commercially, it is quickly becoming huge. Recent 3D games do look great on the iPad and this is only the beginning. The thing that I dislike about iPad gaming is the tactile controls. You will just prefer a game controller, a keyboard+mouse or a wheel. You might or might not like it better - there's only one way to find out: try playing on an iPhone or an iPad.

There have been reports of iPad overheating, but at the moment, I still have no idea about this issues, despite playing 3D games for more than 30mn - 45mn.

Web browsing (Good but incomplete)




There are a few Ajax issues and it lacks Flash support, but it's good enough

The web browsing experience is very like the one on the iPhone/iPod touch, but a little faster, and with a much more comfortable display. Now, there is no need to zoom much and this feels very much like browsing on a computer but, they are some significant hiccups:

1/ Page loading is still noticeably slower than on a computer

2/ There's no flash, and many flash-heavy sites like local restaurants or entertainment sites won't work properly (if at all). See: fleurdelyssf.com, jpchocolates.com and starz.com/originals/spartacus

3/ Google docs won't let you edit documents, and I've noticed issues with some Facebook widgets as well. Expect some difficulties with edgy Web 2.0 sites.

Overall, it's not a real problem but I want to make sure that you realize that these issues do exist, and that they might not be fixed in the near future.

Misc Apps

Adobe ideas (free): There is a ton of apps, but this one caught my eyes. It's a fun finger painting program that lets you sketch things. Autodesk has a much fancier, but paid application that does something like this too.

Memeo Connect Reader: lets you synchronize Google Docs files to the iPad. Because built-in iPad file management could be improved, this little program can be very handy.

WiFi chip faster than the iPhone 3GS

The 3G model isn't available yet, but the good news is that the WiFi chip of the iPad is faster than the iPhone's - if you can find a network fast enough to saturate both chips... It is not surprising thought, because Apple has less power and thermal constraints with the iPad WiFi chip, they can crank it up.

Just as we predicted, the $499 iPad is the one that has been selling out,

Battery Life (Excellent)

Thanks to progress in low-power designs, testing the battery life of computers is becoming seriously long. The custom iPad A4 processor consumes very little power, so in most cases, the display will be the largest drain factor on the battery.

* Local storage video: 10+ hours
* Streaming video (Netflix): 10+ hours
* Book reading:11-12hrs
* Music (display off): (too long, if I want to publish this week)

A typical day: the iPad will stay alive for about 1.5 days, and possibly 2 days if I stop trying all the apps with shiny icons.

Sleep mode: most gadgets continue to drain power when they are in sleep mode. In the case of the iPad, I noticed that it lost about 1% per night (7hr), which is quite low. This might be a positive effect of not having too much stuff running in the background...

USB charging incompatibility: although it is mentioned that the iPad can be charged from a computer USB ports, it turns out that this is true mainly for Mac computer USB ports because they have a little more juice. It doesn't work on most PC computers, or USB HUBs.

Battery replacement: the battery is not user replaceable, and like most batteries, it might lose its charge capabilities or simply die (after a while). Right now, the cost of replacement is $105.95. For more info head to Apple's iPad battery replacement page.

What could be better? (Plenty)

As good as the iPad is, it is not perfect. Here's a short list of things that iPad critics usually complain about:

* No camera
* No USB ports
o We're stuck with that iPhone port for everything
* No background execution (multi-tasking) for third party applications
o No always-on IM
o No app-based music in the background
o No data crunching in the background
* Virtual keyboard is not as productive as a real one
* No Flash (see our Web Browsing section)
* AT&T-only (in practice)
* No widescreen
* Closed application market (iPad has been jailbroken)
* Can't create a list of apps/files to buy/download
* And more...

Most of the critics are pretty legitimate, but many people don't factor in the cost that they would induce in terms of form factor, power consumption or dollars. The reality is that there's not a whole lot of competitors out there and by and large, the iPad is "good enough" for a certain crowd. Joojoo, a Tablet that supports Flash in the browser has apparently pre-sold 90 units...

How bad is it to not have multitasking? Not being able to leave apps running in the background is annoying sometimes... Personally, I'd like to get some sort of notification if someone sends me an Instant Message (IM). Right now, even that is not possible. This is really the only thing that bugs me, although I do understand that others will want to do more things that require multi-tasking. I suspect that iPhone OS 4.0 might address that, to some extent.


What is the iPad great for?

You have to realize that I have not tried every possible applications on the platform, but in some case here's what the iPad is great for:

Web browsing, Email: I tend to use my laptop in my couch/bed, and for most of the web browsing and email that I do, the iPad some users says that it is great. The battery lasts much longer, it's lighter and most importantly, it is "instant-on" - no boot, no shut down. As I said earlier, some sites aren't accessible because Flash is not supported, but 95% of the time it's not a problem.

Read news & comics: Reading comic books is truly awesome, it is so much better to me than the paper experience... Some news apps are great too. They are faster than going to the website, although I'm not quite sure if the web won't win in the long run. It's too early to tell. Books are good too, but I feel that the display could use a higher resolution and a higher size before I can truly love it. That said, I would chose the iPad over the Kindle any day.

Watching movies : Because of its size, the iPad is very good at displaying movies in cramped environments like cafe's but you will need some kind of stand, because it is not comfortable to hold it for a while. Movie playback is something that recent netbooks can deal with, but most of them will run out of battery after 3-6 hours while the iPad can go on for 10 hours.

Maps: the Map application looks great on the iPad. At the moment, they have not tested it on the 3G+GPS enabled, but it would be interesting to take it for a ride. Using the iPad as a personal navigation sounds cool.


It's (really) instant-on: unlike my laptop, the iPad turns on and off instantly and in situation where I would turn things on and off a lot (in my couch) it's pretty handy and convenient. Plus, it prolongs the battery life. This is just like an iPod where you can pause, play, stop what youre doing and go on with it if you're free.


Okay, Is the iPad good for me? or for everyone?

What the iPad is "useful for" will evolve with new apps and ideas, but in the end, it is just a tool that should help you do what you usually do... more easily and in a better way. You have to ask yourself why it would be useful to you. Actually, if you think "what is the purpose of this?", then there's probably no reason for you to get one.

For those who know what they will use it for, I hope that this review has clarified some things and provided enough information to make an educated decision.

Let's be real: most people currently don't *need* an iPad in the way they do "need" a phone or a computer. Right now, it is an entertainment device that could make one's computing life a little better if you find the right apps. It has a lot of great qualities: portable, pretty, responsive, tons of apps, great display, excellent battery life... But it also costs $499 in its simplest form, and this is not pocket change (people are buying the 16GB for $700+ on eBay). If you can afford it, and if your usage model is compatible with its design, the iPad is a great device. Love it or hate it, but let's all live in peace.

Thank you!

Microsoft is now in battle for piracy

The Company Microsoft is now in battle with their anti piracy technology. Microsoft is slamming a lawsuit that claims it misled millions of Windows XP users about that company's anti-piracy software, calling the lawsuit "fictional," "demonstrably false" and from an "alternate universe."

The company said last week that it also opposes a move to grant the case class-action status, court documents show.
he three-year-old lawsuit accuses Microsoft of duping consumers by labeling its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software a critical security update, and failing to tell them that WGA collected information from their PCs and frequently "phoned home" that data to its servers.

In June 2006, Microsoft began pushing WGA to Windows XP users via Windows Update, the company's default update service, as a "high priority" update that was automatically downloaded and installed to most machines. Shortly after that, Microsoft acknowledged that WGA transmitted information whenever a user logged on to Windows XP. Under pressure from an intense user backlash, it later reduced the frequency of the piracy checks.

Microsoft relies on WGA to detect bootlegged copies of Windows; if the software sniffs out a counterfeit, WGA posts constant nagging messages on the screen.

In documents filed with a Seattle federal court on Sept. 22, Microsoft asked that a request for class-action status -- a move that would open the case to millions of Americans, and open up Microsoft to significant damages if it loses -- be denied.

"Ignoring the evidence, Plaintiffs tell an outrageously fictional tale of how Microsoft supposedly 'forced' WGA Validation onto more than 350 million Windows XP computers," Microsoft said in the opposition brief submitted to U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones. "Without any evidence, Plaintiffs assert that Microsoft achieved this distribution by threatening to withhold critical security updates and breaking into computers without their owners' consent."

Company lawyers also claimed that the plaintiffs had constructed an "alternate universe" that had no connection to the facts. "The fictional thesis on which Plaintiffs base their motion is demonstrably false," Microsoft attorneys argued.

Specifically, Microsoft denied that it had ever withheld patches from users running counterfeit Windows XP. "Despite Plaintiffs' assertions to the contrary, Microsoft never withheld any critical updates or security updates designed to improve the existing functionality of Windows XP, regardless of whether a user's copy of Windows XP was genuine," the company countered.

A class-action for the case is unfeasible, Microsoft said, because it would require inspecting "tens of millions of individual computers," an impossible task. "Each inspection would require a skilled computer technician and cost hundreds of dollars more than the $5 Plaintiffs seek for each proposed class member," said Microsoft.

If class-action status is granted, Microsoft could face serious damages, its lawyers acknowledged as they cast the plaintiffs as gold diggers. "Plaintiffs seek hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of tens of millions of persons for twelve forms of alleged damages," said Microsoft.

This case has had a relatively low profile in the press. Nearly a year ago, however, Computerworld reported that Jones had granted Microsoft's request to keep secret sections of the WGA software development kit (SDK). Making those details public, Microsoft argued, would give hackers inside information on how to break, or crack, WGA.

Microsoft's WGA, however, has often made news. In August 2007, a day-long server outage riled thousands of users who were mistakenly fingered for running counterfeit copies of Windows. More recently, Microsoft confirmed that it will not allow users with pirated Windows to install its free Security Essentials software.

According to the court docket, the case, which currently involves nine plaintiffs, including two companies, is set to go to trial Jan. 25, 2010.

LG unleashes full HD LED LCD HDTV

When LCD TVs first hit the market, we were bowled over by their apparent slimness compared to what we see in our living rooms dominated by fat, chunky CRTs. Well, times have definitely changed (for the better) as CRTs have been phased out since then, and LCD TVs are the de facto standard when it comes to your living room viewing experience. LG ups the ante further with their latest release of a full HD LED LCD HDTV which is more or less as thin as it gets, bearing the image of a single sheet of glass. Making a splash at CEDIA 2009, the new SL90 series of HDTVs from LG will come in 42″ and 47″ sizes, where they both will feature LED lighting and other stunning display technologies.

LG employs a single-layer design and a narrow bezel in order to develop a visually stunning set, where the main target is to maximize the viewing experience while increasing the market value of your home by a notch as whoever drops by for a visit will definitely note the good taste you have in furnishing your pad with nothing but the very best. A special film lamination technology is used for better color tuning, gradation and reduction of glare, where it is all squeezed into a sleek, minimalist package. The flat surface is achieved by the lamination process, where it virtually does away with the visible line between the screen and the bezel whenever no power is supplied to the set.

Sporting a maximum depth of just 1.5″, LG’s SL90 series’ usage of the LED LCD screen will produce an extremely high dynamic contrast ratio of 3,000,000:1 that results in ever truer blacks (this is where the philosophical question of whether truth is relative or not can be answered) and finer gradations between grays. Apart from that, the film lamination process adds anti-glare properties to the screen by reducing distracting reflections so that anyone who views it will always enjoy a cinema-quality experience. LG will release the 42″ and 47″ models later this Fall for $2,099 and $2,599, respectively.

Take a sneak preview on the latest Microsoft Office 2010

I heard about the latest office of Microsoft this is the all new Office 2010. Microsoft take a sneak preview of their latest office 2010 this will give you a powerful new tools to express your ideas and work together, wherever your life takes you. Microsoft® Office 2010 gives you rich and powerful new ways to deliver your best work - whether you’re at work, home, or school - on a computer, Web browser, or Smartphone. Grab your audience’s attention and inspire them with your ideas using enhanced tools, customizable templates, and photo editing capabilities. Work with multiple people from different locations at the exact same time using new co-authoring capabilities. By offering more ways to access your files from virtually anywhere, Office 2010 puts you in control.



The all new Office comes with their unbeatable powers in editing our documents or present a presentations and more!Now you can do everything at ease.

Voice-to-text deal could spur new mobile services

Two vendors of mobile voice technology have teamed up to power carrier services that transcribe voicemail messages and conference calls into text.

Voice-to-text services pose obvious advantages for users who want to send a written message when they don't have access to a keyboard and to recipients who lack the time or inclination to listen to their messages. But accurately transcribing spoken words has been a serious computing challenge. Ditech said it believes SimulScribe has the best available translation technology, but even with it, the companies will be offering an operator-assisted system in addition to full automation.


Ditech Networks, which supplies gear that scrubs background noise from cell-phone calls, signed an exclusive deal with SimulScribe to resell that company's voice-to-text technology and integrate it into fledgling mobile Web-based services.



As a voice-processing equipment vendor, Ditech has relationships with mobile operators including Verizon Wireless and AT&T. It now wants to sell carriers the tools they need to offer their subscribers a voicemail transcription service that costs less than using call-center operators. As an add-on service, having operators listen to voicemails and type them out typically costs between US$5 and $25 per month, depending on the number of messages, according to Karl Brown, vice president of marketing at Ditech. A fully automated service would probably start out costing about $5 per month and fall in price, eventually reaching the point where carriers can bundle it for free, he said. Ditech will also make the technology available to enterprises to transcribe their own voicemails internally.

Ditech will integrate SimulScribe's technology with its own mStage voice-quality product platform, which will improve the accuracy of voice-to-text in typical usage environments, the company said. The company also plans to integrate SimulScribe's technology into a suite of tools, called Toktok, that it offers today in a beta test. Toktok, a set of mobile Web-based applications, includes capabilities such as voice-based call commands, "whispered" audio notifications of calendar entries and social-networking messages, and memo dictation over the phone. It probably will emerge from beta in the next two months, Brown said.

Ditech will immediately resell three SimulScribe services. SimulAuto is fully automated and designed to handle the kinds of words used in typical voicemail messages, offering the highest level of privacy because no operator listens to the message, Brown said. SimulHybrid can send parts of a message that the software isn't sure about to a human operator to ensure greater accuracy. ScribeAll is designed for real-time voice-to-text conversion of longer messages or conference calls, with or without an operator. SimulScribe's technology supports multiple dialects of English as well as Spanish and is available around the world, according to Ditech.

"People have been trying to do voice-to-text forever," or at least for the past 20 years, said mobile analyst Jack Gold, of J. Gold Associates. Accents are an issue, as well as background noise. "It works OK if you're going to do command and control. It's very hard to do if you're trying to do complete dictation," Gold said.

Trojan virus can now hides to google groups

Virus writers now developed a trojan program that can hide now their command and control instructions in legitimate Web 2.0 sites such as Google Groups and Twitter.

Recently,a security vendor SYMANTEC post its security bulletin that they spotted a Trojan Horse program that's been programmed to visit a private Google Groups newsgroup, called escape2sun, where it can download encrypted instructions or even software updates. Criminals used this "command and control" to keep in touched with the hacked PC's and update their malicious software. Symantec also seen that this criminals hide their message in a RSS feeds that are set up to broadcast Twitter messages.


The Google groups system appears to be a prototype, but they expect the virus writers will increasingly used social media sites for this purposes.



Today most bad guys communicate with their hacked machines via the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) servers, or by placing commands on obscure, hard-to-find Web sites. As system administrators are getting better at spotting and blocking these communications, the bad guys are "trying to hide these command and control messages inside legitimate traffic, so the presence of the traffic in and of itself doesn't raise a red flag."Symantec said.

System administrator can block this access to IRC but blocking Twitter or Google group is another matter to them.



The Google Groups Trojan appears to be Taiwanese in origin and was probably used to quietly gather information for future attacks. According to the data on Google Groups, the Trojan has not spread widely since it was created in November 2008. "Such a Trojan could potentially have been developed for targeted corporate espionage where anonymity and discretion are priorities," Symantec said in their Friday blog posting.

Toshiba will squeeze in a 160GB into a 1.8 inch drive for handhelds

Are you thinking for a hard disk about the size of your credit card?now we have! Toshiba introduced today their new Storage device a 1.8 inch hard disk drives (HDD) with up to 160GB capacity aimed at next generation portable media players, digital video cameras and other consumer electronic devices.

The new line of parallel ATA HDDs - about the size of a credit card -- come in thinner and lighter form factors and have the quietest seek operation and best power consumption efficiency of any of Toshiba's hard disk drives, the company said to press:

The drives' single platter, which spins at 4200RPM, has an areal density of 467Gbit per square inch. The drives have an average seek time of 15 milliseconds and a data transfer rate of 100MB/sec. The drives also come with 8MB of buffer memory.

The 160GB model provides enough capacity to store as many as 45,000 digital photos, 42,000 digital music files or 130 digital videos. Apple Inc. today announced its latest iteration of the classic iPod, which comes with a 160GB hard drive, but Toshiba declined to say whether its drive was being used in the device.

The MKxx34GAL hard drive series comes in 60GB, 80GB and 120GB models and are shipping now to consumer electronics manufacturer;

"With the increasing demand for anytime content access and capture, we continue to see healthy opportunity for 1.8-inch HDDs in portable devices," Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Device Division, said in a statement.

Now we should watch out and try to visit your nearest Toshiba Center. This is the latest and most portable hard disk drive ever with its about the size of your credit card. i wonder how TOSHIBA squeeze the 160GB in this 1.8 inch hard disk, maybe they made it with a magic tricks!

MALWARE BEYOND VISTA AND XP

Windows may be ubiquitous, but there’s a thriving variety of alternative operating systems for enterprise and home use. However, the alternatives aren’t as risk free as some people might think.

If you read online IT publications and message boards, you’ll know the story: as soon as a new Trojan is reported, there’ll be a flood of comments along the lines of "That would never have happened with Linux!" And let's be honest: at least 99 % of the time this is true. The fact is that the majority of malicious programs identified to date (well over 2 million) target Windows. Linux, on the other hand, with a mere 1898 malicious programs targeting the operating system, appears to be relatively secure. And to date, only 48 malicious programs for Apple's OS X have been identified.
Turbulent beginnings

In the early 1970s - long before the appearance of Microsoft - the Creeper virus was infecting computers running DEC's TENEX operating system. This malware could be seen as being ahead of its time, as it used the ARPANET – the forerunner of today's Internet – to spread. Creeper was followed by Pervade in 1975. Pervade was coded for UNIVAC systems and had been created in order to distribute a game called "Animal". Finally, in 1982, it was Apple’s turn; users had the dubious pleasure of dealing with Rich Skrenta's Elk Cloner, a virus that spread via floppy disks and regularly caused systems to crash.

Fig.1 Back in the day…message displayed by the BHP virus
Four years later, C64 users joined the virus victims - the BHP virus (believed to have been created by the German "Bayerische Hacker Post" group) caused the screen to flicker at irregular intervals, greeting the unfortunate victim with a message which read “HALLO DICKERCHEN, DIES IST EIN ECHTER VIRUS!” (which translates as "HALLO FATTY, THIS IS A REAL VIRUS!"). The text was followed by a serial number, which increased by an increment of one with each new infection. The virus also ensured it would be able to survive a system reset by hooking a number of interrupts.

It was only in 1986 that the first MS-DOS-compatible malware finally appeared. Brain was a boot sector virus; conveniently, the malware code included the names, addresses and telephone numbers of its authors. Amjad and Basit Farooq Alvi were brothers who asserted they had created Brain in an effort to determine the level of computer piracy in India. However, they subsequently had to admit that they had lost control over their experiment.
In the years that followed, the virus scene really started to flourish, and soon there were viruses for every operating system. Over 190 pieces of malware were identified for the Commodore Amiga, with another two dozen targeting the Atari ST. These included the "C't" virus [http://www.stcarchiv.de/am88/06_viren.php], which was actually published in 1988 in iX's sister publication C't as an assembler listing that readers could reproduce - proof indeed of the casual attitude towards malware still prevalent at the time.

An undesirable malware monopoly

Viruses, worms, and other malware only really started to flourish when private households gained access to the World Wide Web. Previously, malicious code had only been able to crawl slowly from floppy disk to floppy disk, but now malicious programs such as Melissa or ILOVEYOU were able to travel around the world in a matter of minutes. An increased variety of platforms was to play a deciding role. Malware which spread by email was only able to realize its full potential (and pose a threat to the majority of Internet users) once Windows and Outlook gained a significant market share. The largely heterogeneous system landscape, typical of the private sector during the 1980s, was replaced by MS-DOS and Windows. And something else changed with the arrival of the Internet: for the first time, there was a way in which malicious programs could communicate with their creators.

While the spread of viruses and worms had previously been a matter of chance, and something that couldn’t be controlled, data could now be taken from a target computer or commands relayed to an agent on a remote hard disk. This created ideal conditions for DdoS attacks and mass spam mailings, and, in turn, created a golden opportunity to earn money by distributing malicious programs. Obviously, a person who earns their money from conducting attacks of this kind is always going to target which offers the greatest number of targets. For this reason, the millions of Trojans that are sent by email every day target Windows users - malicious code targeting BeOS or Plan 9 would be unlike to have the desired effect. Whether or not these systems are actually more secure than Windows XP is therefore a moot point - even if such a thing as an unhackable operating system existed, there would still be more than enough vulnerable applications on the hard drive with security loopholes that could be exploited for the purpose of attack.
The status quo

Microsoft Windows thus effectively became the standard for malware due to its high market share. Not only was the number of new malicious programs targeting Windows far higher than the number targeting non-Windows users, there was also a difference in the type of malware targeting each environment. Two distinct worlds were established.

No TCP/IP patches for XP

Microsoft late last week said it won't patch Windows XP for a pair of bugs it quashed Sept. 8 in Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

The news adds Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and SP3 to the no-patch list that previously included only Windows 2000 Server SP4.

"We're talking about code that is 12 to 15 years old in its origin, so backporting that level of code is essentially not feasible," said security program manager Adrian Stone during Microsoft's monthly post-patch Webcast, referring to Windows 2000 and XP.

"An update for Windows XP will not be made available," Stone and fellow program manager Jerry Bryant said during the Q&A portion of the Webcast (transcript here).

Last Tuesday, Microsoft said that it wasn't patching Windows 2000 because creating a fix was "infeasible."

The bugs in question are in Windows' implementation of TCP/IP, the Web's default suite of connection protocols. All three of the vulnerabilities highlighted in the MS09-048 update were patched in Vista and Server 2008. Only two of the trio affect Windows Server 2000 and Windows XP, Microsoft said in the accompanying advisory, which was refreshed on Thursday.

In the revised advisory, Microsoft explained why it won't patch Windows XP, the world's most popular operating system. "By default, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP SP3 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2 do not have a listening service configured in the client firewall and are therefore not affected by this vulnerability," the company said. "Windows XP SP2 and later operating systems include a stateful host firewall that provides protection for computers against incoming traffic from the Internet or from neighboring network devices on a private network."

Although the two bugs can be exploited on Windows 2000 and XP, Microsoft downplayed their impact. "A system would become unresponsive due to memory consumption ... [but] a successful attack requires a sustained flood of specially crafted TCP packets, and the system will recover once the flood ceases."

Microsoft rated the vulnerabilities on Windows 2000 and XP as "important" on Windows 2000, and as "low" on XP. The company uses a four-step scoring system, where "low" is the least-dangerous threat, followed in ascending order by "moderate," "important" and "critical."

The same two bugs were ranked "moderate" for Vista and Server 2008, while a third -- which doesn't affect the older operating systems -- was rated "critical."

During the Q&A, however, Windows users repeatedly asked Microsoft's security team to explain why it wasn't patching XP, or if, in certain scenarios, their machines might be at risk. "We still use Windows XP and we do not use Windows Firewall," read one of the user questions. "We use a third-party vendor firewall product. Even assuming that we use the Windows Firewall, if there are services listening, such as remote desktop, wouldn't then Windows XP be vulnerable to this?"

"Servers are a more likely target for this attack, and your firewall should provide additional protections against external exploits," replied Stone and Bryant.

Another user asked them to spell out the conditions under which Microsoft won't offer up patches for still-supported operating systems. Windows Server 2000 SP4, for example, is to receive security updates until July 2010; Windows XP's support doesn't expire until April 2014.

Stone's and Bryant's answer: "We will continue to provide updates for Windows 2000 while it is in support unless it is not technically feasible to do so."

Skipping patches is very unusual for Microsoft. According to a Stone and Bryant, the last time it declined to patch a vulnerability in a support edition of Windows was in March 2003, when it said it wouldn't fix a bug in Windows NT 4.0. Then, it explained the omission with language very similar to what it used when it said it wouldn't update Windows 2000.

"Due to these fundamental differences between Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 and its successors, it is infeasible to rebuild the software for Windows NT 4.0 to eliminate the vulnerability," Microsoft said at the time.

Google goes after Yahoo with marketplace for display ads

Google wants a bigger piece of the display advertising market currently dominated by Yahoo, opening a new online marketplace called DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

DoubleClick is a provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world's top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick's expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium.

Google handles the lion's share of search advertising, which matches text advertisements with search results when users look for information online. This type of advertisement accounted for 51.4 percent of all Internet advertising spending in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2009, according to IDC. By comparison, display ads, which include banner ads and video ads, represented 29.5 percent of advertising during the same period.

Google's strength in the search ad market gives the company a strong advantage over rivals. IDC estimated that Google had a 37.2 percent share of the gross Internet advertising market in the U.S. during the second quarter. Yahoo, Google's closest competitor, had a 13.4 percent share, it said.

While Google dominates the market for search ads, Yahoo is the leader when it comes to display ads with a 15.8 percent share of revenue during the second quarter, IDC said. Google trailed far behind, in fifth place with a 4.8 percent share of the display ad market.

With DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Google hopes that open prices set through auctions will attract publishers and advertisers, and create a more efficient market for display ads. "This improves returns for advertisers and enables publishers to get the most value out of their online content," Mohan said.

Google wants to make it easy for search advertising customers to use the DoubleClick Ad Exchange. The new marketplace will be accessible to AdSense and AdWords users through their existing interfaces, allowing them to buy and sell display ads alongside search advertisements.

Try to check out the latest marketplace of google and explore the benefits to us as a publisher, advertiser and a user.:)

Blue Microphone’s Eyeball

Iblue microphone eyeballn today's world of instant-messenger video chat, YouTube video comments, and Skype video calls, your computer needs more than a quality USB microphone; you need a great camera, too. The Blue Microphones Eyeball offers the best of both worlds, combining an HD-resolution video camera and high-grade microphone into a stylish, pocketable USB Webcam.

The Eyeball is a specially designed camera that takes after the Snowflake with its spherically shaped microphone. Its base is a clip-shaped thing that rests atop a laptop easily, and serves as a stand in case the user wants to put it on any flat surface.

There is a video of me giving a review of the Eyeball while being filmed by the Eyeball. Yeah, that’s awkwardly worded, but just watch it, and it will make sense.

The Eyeball has a camera lens that will pop in and out at a touch. This will insure that the lens stays covered when you don’t want to be filmed. I believe that is important in an age when many programs turn on the webcam automatically.

The Eyeball is compatible with many programs including Skype, iChat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Google Talk. It requires no special software for installing, and plugs right into a USB port.

Not many people were using a PDA mobiles considering the nature of the device because its too expensive, but selected industries and lines of work still require such a device, but ordinary builds won’t be able to last in those environments. One thing catch my attention when I was searching for the latest PDA mobiles. This is the NAUTIZ X7 PDA, this is differ from the other PDA's I know. It gets tougher and tougher.

This IP67-rated device comes with a speedy 806MHz processor and runs on Windows Mobile 6.1, accompanied by other features including 3G connectivity, a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth connectivity, 4GB internal memory, 128MB RAM, GPS navigation, a digital compass, an altimeter and a G-sensor. It can shrug off drops from 1.2 meters and complies with full MIL-STD-810F tests, being comfortable as long as it remains within the extreme temperature range of -30 degrees Celsius to 60 degrees Celsius. The Nautiz X7 PDA uses TMR technology (transmissive micro reflective) for its screen that offers full VGA resolution and touchscreen capability. It did'nt tells any price for now.

A bluetooth on your hands that can make your calls!

As I surf on the net today, 1 thing attracts my eyes on the net it is a bluetooth concept turns your finger phone into reality. For those of you who are sick of the convenience of Bluetooth earpieces and want to live your dream of talking to your fingers like pretend phone from your childhood should look into this concept device. It is designed by the BCK team from Argentina. The user talks to the hand using the yellow ring that fits halfway down the little finger, and then listens with the pink ring on the thumb. This is one concept that probably won’t catch on, ever. Unless you can make a display to put on the palm. Maybe there is some alternate reality where this technology came into fruition. This is the latest discovery on bluetooth family!. Hope you enjoy using this kind of bluetooth device. hehehehe! but still i don't know if this is out in the market. maybe tomorrow?haha! so just watch out for it and save your pocket now!.

-aRCie-

a wireless printing device?

hey guys! are you updated with the latest printer we have? this is the new HP Office Jet 6000 Wireless printer. It is ultimate printing device designed to give you the most you want. Portability, style and more. This can give you a high quality printing , fast speed and reasonably high quality output. This is built duplexer for 2-sided printing. All-in-ones (AIOs) have largely taken over the ink jet market, but if you don't need a printer that scans, copies, or faxes, you can get a lot more bang for the buck from one that doesn't do anything but print. Consider the HP Officejet 6000 Wireless Printer ($119.99 direct). It offers paper handling suitable for a small or home office, and a relatively low cost per page, all for far less than it would cost for an AIO with comparable features.