News Common PC Mac CUCUG
The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, November 20th, at 7:00 pm, at the First Baptist Church of Champaign in Savoy. The Linux SIG convenes, of course, 45 minutes earlier, at 6:15 pm. Directions to the FBC-CS are at the end of this newsletter.
The November 20 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. Richard Rollins will be showing PortableApps to the PC SIG. Portable Apps allows you to carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you on a thumbdrive. You can use them on any Windows computer. All without leaving any personal data behind.
The Macintosh will be open for anything anyone wants to bring in.
ToC
We'd like to thank Ed Serbe for renewing his membership at last month's meeting.
We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Run across an interesting item or tidbit on the net? Just send the link to the editor. Have an article or review you'd like to submit? Send it in. Have a comment? Email any officer you like. Involvement is the driving force of any user group. Welcome to the group.
ToC
It's that time of year again to renew your membership in CUCUG. We rely on our members and their talents for our strength and vitality. You can renew at any of the meetings remaining this year or through the mail at our local address given at the end of the newsletter. We sincerely hope to have you with us in the new year.
ToC
By way of a recap, CUCUG will be electing officers for next year. The offices of President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Corporation Agent are open. Nominations will be accepted from the floor at the November meeting. The actual election will take place at the December "Annual" meeting. If you'd like to serve your club, or know of someone who you would like to see in a position of leadership in CUCUG, be considering your nominations. For the specifics, The election guidelines appeared in the October newsletter.
ToC
By Julian Sanchez
Published: November 06, 2008 - 05:26PM CT
URL: <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081106-change-gov-you-can-believe-in.html>
Only time will tell whether President-Elect Barack Obama will be able to deliver on his promise to bring change to government, but the Illinois senator has already brought it to the dot-gov domain. Obama's transition Web site, Change.gov, went live today, soliciting suggestions from citizens and providing a guide to the people and procedures behind the transfer of executive power.
In many ways, the site -- fairly clearly still a work in progress -- resembles that of any other government agency, with biographies of the transition team, backgrounders on the incoming president's policy priorities, and links to information about the cabinet offices to be filled when the Obamas move into the White House on January 20. But the speed with which the site was launched may nevertheless be an attempt to signal that Obama is serious about his pledge to bring greater transparency to government, and to put more data online more rapidly for public comment. A Change.gov blog, for instance, promises regular updates on the transition process.
There are also several sections on the site that invite user feedback. "Your Story" asks visitors to explain "what this campaign and this election means to you" -- and is sure to be a source of Touching Anecdotes from Ordinary Americans in future speeches. And there's an online suggestion box where citizens can share their "vision" for America.
Perhaps most surprisingly, there's a jobs page where visitors can submit
applications for non-career positions in the new
administration -- including, apparently, some that "require Senate
confirmation." Forgive us if we're a bit doubtful that the next
Secretary of Defense will be chosen from the pool of online applicants,
however.
The Government Accountability Office launched its own transition site today as well, outlining 13 challenges facing the new administration. Among these is the move from analog to digital television broadcast, which GAO warns could "undermine the public's confidence in government" if it isn't carried out smoothly.
While change may have arrived rapidly, there is no sign -- as yet -- of hope.gov.
ToC
JR Raphael, PC World
Nov 14, 2008 5:01 pm
URL: <http://www.pcworld.com/article/153934/.html?tk=rss_main>
The man who built a high-tech campaign out of the concept of "change" is already bringing Internet technology into his administration. President-elect Barack Obama has announced plans for a presidential YouTube channel, along with plans for thorough social network and blog screenings as part of potential staffers' background checks. If you've so much as left a questionable comment on a blog somewhere, you might be disqualified. Think you could pass?
First up, the YouTube channel. The Obama administration revealed plans Friday to broadcast the weekly presidential addresses to YouTube -- the first time such addresses have been delivered in a video format. (President Bush put audio of his speeches on the White House Web site, but video was never included.) The Webcasts will begin this weekend with the Saturday Democratic address and will continue once Obama takes over the presidency. The videos will also be posted on Obama's transition Web site, Change.gov. Question-and-answer sessions and interviews are expected to eventually be offered as well.
Now, onto those tests: The New York Times obtained a copy of a seven-page, 63-question application (PDF) Obama's office is sending to all prospective members of the administration. Those seeking cabinet positions and "other high-ranking posts" are all included. There's plenty of traditional background information requested in the form, but what makes it particularly unique are the Internet-focused items. Some examples:
"Writings: Please list and, if readily available, provide a copy of each book, article, column or publication (including but not limited to any posts or comments on blogs or other websites) you have authorized, individually or with others. Please list all aliases or 'handles' you have used to communicate on the Internet."
Yes, every single blog posting and every single Web comment you've ever made. Think you could catalog all that info? And would there be anything -- say, an off-the-cuff comment you left on an ex's profile, or an angry remark you made on a blog -- that might make you look less than honorable? We won't even get into why you used to post under the handle "BigPoppa68."
"Electronic communications: If you have ever sent an electronic communication, including but not limited to an email, text message or instant message, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect if it were made public, please describe."
This could get messy. In our modern society, is there anyone left who hasn't sent some sort of e-mail, text, or IM that could be a "possible source of embarrassment"? The ex factor could prove fatal here once again -- just think how many not-so-PG texts could still be sitting on your former flame's phone. Or how about that nice note you sent you to your old boss after your last day on the job?
"Please provide the URL address of any websites that feature you in either a personal or professional capacity (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, etc)."
Wait a minute -- so, are drunken party pics considered a problem, or are those okay? This one could get dicey.
"Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect."
This last request isn't necessarily tech-related, but it sure could be. Have you considered all the crap your parents/siblings/children have on their social networking profiles? I'd say we all have some family member with something embarrassing online.
If you answered all those items without any red flags, I'm impressed. Now just get through the other 59, and maybe -- just maybe -- you've got a shot.
As for me, I'm in tip-top shape. Well, almost. I just need to go, uh, delete a few things, and I'll get right back to you.
Related link:
<http://www.youtube.com/barackobama>
ToC
Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
URL: <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/10/BUUL141M0B.DTL&type=politics>
(11-10) 17:48 PST -- Handicapping who will be appointed chief technology officer in President-elect Barack Obama's administration is the latest parlor game in Silicon Valley.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt is just one of many names mentioned for the job, although he has denied any interest.
During his campaign, Obama pledged to appoint a chief technology officer who would oversee technology policy and adoption by the federal government. The newly created Cabinet-level post would be part of a larger plan by his administration to ensure that the country remains competitive in the 21st century as technology becomes an even more central part of everyone's lives.
Whoever accepts the post will become a high-profile voice for promoting everything from innovation (getting agencies to use the latest technology) to open government (Webcasting meetings) to spreading broadband (to bridge the digital divide).
When he takes office, Obama will be the most technologically savvy president ever, according to many in the technology industry. His use of online fundraising and social networking during his campaign, along with his penchant for carrying a BlackBerry to check his e-mail on the road, makes him someone who understands technology, they said.
Speculation that Schmidt would get the job was perhaps inevitable given his support for Obama and his success helping build Google, in Mountain View, into a global Internet powerhouse. Schmidt campaigned for Obama during the campaign and is among his 17 economic advisers, a group that is playing a key role given the president-elect's focus on the financial crisis.
"He is someone who is genuinely on top of the new technologies," said Geoffrey Bowker, executive director of Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology and Society. "If Schmidt has the time and energy to do it, obviously he would be a good choice."
But asked Friday on CNBC whether he would accept the chief technology officer job, Schmidt said, "I love working at Google, and I'm happy at Google, so the answer is no."
In any case, Schmidt in taking such a post would almost inevitably raise questions about potential conflicts of interest in response to Google's increased dealings with federal regulators, particularly over antitrust matters, Bowker said. Furthermore, Google's investors would probably not react well to Schmidt's departure and send the company's shares reeling, said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with Collins Stewart.
Schmidt's colleague Vint Cerf, a Google vice president and chief Internet evangelist, was mentioned as another possible candidate for chief technology officer, according to many in the technology industry. Cerf, who endorsed Obama for president, is named as one of the Internet's founding fathers for co-designing some of the Web's underlying architecture while an assistant professor at Stanford University in the 1970s.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.
Other potential candidates include Julius Genachowski, a former executive with Internet company IAC who attended Harvard law school with Obama and is part of his transition team; John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox PARC; and Ed Felten, a computer science professor at Princeton University.
Obama's transition team did not respond to requests for comment.
Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Nucleus Research, doubted that Schmidt and other prominent Internet executives would be a good fit for U.S. chief technology officer. The job, she said, requires someone versed in bureaucracy and politics to have any chance of overcoming opposition by chief information officers from various federal fiefdoms, not someone enamored with flashy new online features.
"They don't need a person who is excited about shiny new objects, but someone who is successful delivering on complex projects," she said.
E-mail Verne Kopytoff at <vkopytoff@sfchronicle.com>.
[This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle]
Related link:
Google's CEO on the Chief Technology Officer and the Internet Presidency
ToC
Timothy Karr, Campaign Director for Free Press and SavetheInternet.com
Posted November 14, 2008 | 02:51 PM (EST)
URL: <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/net-neutrality-on-deck_b_143923.html>
There's been heavy traffic over the Net Neutrality wires since the November 4 Election of Barack Hussein Obama, and it's not just because the president-elect was so outspoken in support of the principle while on the campaign trail.
There has been a sea change in Washington since then, as the wonks, tech pundits and lobbyists align themselves with new leadership and the likelihood that Net Neutrality could become law soon.
Within two days of the election Obama's transition team laid out his science and technology agenda at www.change.gov, prominently highlighting the work that Net Neutrality advocates have prioritized for more than two years now.
According to the agenda, an Obama administration will hold to its campaign promises and "protect the openness of the Internet."
"A key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history. It needs to stay that way," Obama's agenda states. "Barack Obama strongly supports the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet."
<http://www.youtube.com/v/g-mW1qccn8k>
Soon thereafter, former Vice President Al Gore told CurrentTV that he was "all for" Net Neutrality.
<http://www.youtube.com/v/EdEtD2bhCqo>
And just yesterday, a top staffer for Sen. Byron Dorgan told the media that the senator plans to introduce Net Neutrality legislation in the new Congress.
"We feel that legislation is definitely necessary," Frannie Wellings, telecom counsel to Dorgan said during a conference in Washington. (Disclosure: Wellings worked with me at Free Press before joining Dorgan's staff)
Dorgan is influential as one of the highest-ranking members of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Obama, Gore and Dorgan's support is no surprise. What's "mind blowing" according to some in the media, is AT&T's apparent change of heart.
At the same conference, AT&T's lead policy VP, James Cicconi, said, "There's a lot of people who now believe that companies like AT&T are not plotting to overthrow the open Internet concept."
"It's against AT&T's economic interest to block or slow Internet content, because customers demand an open Internet, he added. "Our core asset is our network," he said. "We get paid for carrying bits."
This is from the same company whose former CEO called all of us "nuts" for wanting to use his "pipes" without paying a special access fee.
"There has been no larger, stauncher opponent of Net Neutrality," a surprised Jason Lee Miller writes about AT&T recent rhetorical change up.
"Hasn't [Cicconi] heard his bosses speak about it?" Miller asks, describing their earlier "desire to discriminate between content providers," as well as their willingness to spend tens of millions of dollars on "K" Street firms that "actively lobbied against any such openness."
That was then. This is now.
ToC
Producer - Stevie Converse
Asst. Producer - Candace Clement
Media Minutes 10-24-08
URL: <http://www.freepress.net/node/45262>
Text: <http://www.freepress.net/files/MM 10-24-08 Transcript.doc>
Audio: <http://www.freepress.net/audio/download/45261/MM+10+24+08.mp3>
The Federal Communications Commission released an engineering report last week that may clear the way for new technology using empty TV channels known as "white spaces" to connect millions of people to the Internet. Public interest groups and tech innovators cheered the long-awaited study, calling it a victory for consumers.
Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, says that channels 2-51 have been used only for broadcast TV. But in many communities most of those frequencies go unused.
Ben Scott - There are some places, particularly rural markets, where there are only three or four TV stations. So you're talking about 40-plus stations that are white spaces that are open for public use.
Scott says the sky's the limit in terms of what's possible for using the white spaces, especially when it comes to delivering high-speed broadband to areas that need it most.
The FCC has scheduled a vote on Nov. 4 that would authorize the manufacture of white space devices to be used in those frequencies. The National Association of Broadcasters -- along with wireless microphone companies and the cell phone industry -- are lobbying against opening up the channels. They claim the FCC tests weren't conclusive, and they say they're worried about interference from the devices.
Scott - In their minds that spectrum belongs to them, and they don't want anybody else in it.
The FCC study was ordered in 2004 by then-FCC Chairman Michael Powell, and the testing has lasted 18 months.
Scott - The FCC's engineers spent months and months and months studying. So we're quite confident that over-the-air television subscribers are not going to see interference from white space devices, and actually these two services can quite peacefully co-exist.
If the white spaces are opened up, Scott says, it will create enormous opportunities for economic growth.
Scott - You can hardly turn on your television - if you live in a swing state - without seeing one of the presidential candidates talk about the policies they're going to enact in order to jumpstart the economy and trigger investment in new jobs and new markets. What better way to get a head start on that than to open the white spaces, which everyone believes will be a magnet for investment.
Related Stories:
ToCFCC Says White Spaces Are OK
- NAB Launches Shrill Attack on Public Interest Groups
<http://www.freepress.net/node/45228>- The Future of the Internet on Nov. 4
<http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2008/10/22/the-future-of-the-internet-on-nov-4/>- A Win for White Spaces
<http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2008/10/16/a-win-for-white-spaces/>
Producer - Stevie Converse
Asst. Producer - Candace Clement
Media Minutes 11-07-08
URL: <http://www.freepress.net/node/45671>
Text: <http://www.freepress.net/files/MM 11-07-08 Transcript.doc>
Audio: <http://www.freepress.net/audio/download/45670/MM+11+07+08.mp3>
While most Americans were focused on the presidential elections on Nov. 4, there was another historic vote happening -- at the Federal Communications Commission. The commission voted to open unused portions of the television spectrum, known as "white spaces," for public use and unlicensed devices.
The powerful National Association of Broadcasters tried to stop the vote by rounding up Broadway theater producers, sports franchises and entertainers like Dolly Parton to put pressure on the FCC.
But a strong coalition of the nation's leading consumer, media and public interest groups - along with technology giants Google and Microsoft - urged the Commission to heed the scientific evidence that white space devices would not interfere with TV programming or other live events.
The FCC expressed confidence in those findings. Commission Michael Copps said the agency has to balance usage with innovation.
Michael Copps - In setting responsible spectrum policy, the FCC must always recognize that technology cannot stand still, and that even as we protect existing users from harmful interference, we also have an obligation to promote innovation. Because until someone finds a way to make more electromagnetic spectrum, it is only innovation that can improve the wireless choices available to consumers.
Chairman Kevin Martin outlined the kinds of devices that consumers can expect to see in the future that will make use of white space spectrum.
Kevin Martin - Consumers across the country will have access to devices and services that they may have only dreamed about before. I expect that everything from advanced home broadband networks to intelligent peer-to-peer devices and even small communications networks will come into being in this TV white spaces.
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein sees white spaces as one of the keys to getting the country back to economic health.
Jonathan Adelstein - White spaces are the blank pages on which we'll write our broadband future. This is a consequential decision because our country's future depends on wireless broadband to improve our economy, our quality of life, even in the most remote and rural areas of the country. Let's hope it's not just Wi-Fi on steroids but Wi-Fi on amphetamines, as well, because it will be that fast.
For more information on white spaces, go to freepress.net/whitespaces
Related Stories:
ToCFCC Opens White Spaces
- Public Wins with White Spaces
<http://www.freepress.net/node/45595>- FCC Expands Use of Airwaves
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/04/AR2008110403425.html>- FCC OKs Use of White Spaces to Deliver Broadband
<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i71TfQiY7yNOSAkdFiHkTdXGKZ8AD948EHA0>- FCC Hearing Video Archive
<http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/agendameetings.html>
By Kevin Cho
URL: <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aySl176ldrZo&refer=asia>
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- LG Display Co., Sharp Corp. and Chunghwa Picture
Tubes Ltd. tumbled in Asian trading after the three
liquid-crystal-display makers agreed to plead guilty and pay $585
million in fines for conspiring to fix prices.
LG Display, based in Seoul, dropped 11 percent to close at 20,100 won on the Korea Exchange. Osaka-based Sharp lost 8.4 percent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Chunghwa Picture fell by the 7 percent daily limit to an eight-year low in Taipei.
The fines will further undermine the LCD makers' earnings at a time when a glut in the $82 billion industry is driving down prices and forcing manufacturers to scale back production plans. The $400 million that LG Display, the world's second-largest LCD maker, agreed to pay is the second-highest criminal fine the U.S Department of Justice's antitrust division has imposed.
"This adds to the negative sentiment that's already plaguing the industry," said Jason Kang, an analyst at Daewoo Securities Co. in Seoul. "The fine is bigger than expected and it will be difficult to predict favorable results from other regions such as the EU."
Sharp will pay $120 million and Taoyuan, Taiwan-based Chunghwa Picture Tubes will pay $65 million for conspiring with LG Display and other unnamed companies, the Justice Department said yesterday.
Regulators in the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Europe first disclosed in December 2006 that they were investigating LCD makers, including industry leader Samsung Electronics Co., of price fixing.
Japan's Fair Trade Commission is still conducting a separate investigation into price-fixing activities in the country, Toshiyuki Nanbu, director of management and planning at the regulator, said today, declining to say when a ruling may be made.
South Korea's antitrust regulator is also continuing its probe, Kim Dae Young, an official at the Korea Fair Trade Commission' International Cartel Division, said today.
Miwako Suetsune, a spokeswoman at the European Commission Delegation in Tokyo, wasn't immediately available for comment.
LG Display, Chunghwa and others met several times from 2001 to 2006 in so-called "crystal meetings" to set prices on desktop computer, laptop and television screens, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett, who heads the antitrust division, said yesterday.
Under the plea deal, Sharp Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Katsuhiko Machida and other company directors will give back 10 percent to 30 percent of their compensation for three months beginning in December.
"Sharp understands the gravity of this situation and will strengthen and thoroughly implement measures to prevent the recurrence of this kind of problem," it said in a statement.
LG Display will pay the fine over five years from 2009 and reflect the entire amount as non-operating expenses this quarter, said Park Sang Bae, a spokesman for the company. The panel maker said in a statement it doesn't expect its relationship with customers and future sales to be affected.
"We haven't engaged in any meetings nor communications on the matter with other LCD makers since the lawsuit started, and we will ensure we won't do so in the future," James Wu, chief financial officer of Chunghwa Picture, said by telephone.
Wu said the $65 million fine won't be booked as a one-time expense because the company had set aside special funds for legal expenses every month for some time.
Samsung, AU Optronics Corp. and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. were among companies that said in 2006 they were being investigated for price-fixing.
"Samsung has pledged full and continuous cooperation with the DOJ's ongoing investigation," James Chung, a spokesman for the Suwon, Korea-based company, said today.
Yawen Hsiao, an AU spokeswoman, said she couldn't immediately comment, while Denis Chen, a finance director at Chi Mei, declined to comment.
LG Display said last month its third-quarter net income fell 44 percent while Samsung also posted a 44 decline in profit from LCDs because of falling panel prices. AU Optronics, the world's third-largest LCD maker, reported a bigger-than-estimated decline in quarterly profit.
Under EU rules, companies can be fined up to 10 percent of annual revenue for breaking antitrust laws. In Japan and South Korea, penalties may be as high as 10 percent of the related product's sales during the period of the offense.
Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA, Asahi Glass Co., and a Nippon Sheet Glass Co. unit were fined a record 1.38 billion euros ($1.7 billion) this week by the European Union over claims the companies fixed the price of car windows. Saint-Gobain, Europe's largest building-materials supplier, was fined 896 million euros, the highest against a single company, the European Commission said in a Nov. 12. statement.
In 2006, consumers sued LCD makers over price fixing, citing enforcement raids and investigations in Asia and Europe and a criminal grand jury investigation in San Francisco. Lawsuits filed in various states allege that the companies illegally conspired to fix prices for computer laptop and desktop monitors. The complaints, consolidated in San Francisco, seek unspecified damages and a refund for consumers.
In August this year, a federal judge refused to fully dismiss consumer claims against the companies.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Cho in Seoul at <kcho2@bloomberg.net>.
Last Updated: November 13, 2008 05:16 EST
ToC
By ASHLEE VANCE
Published: November 14, 2008
URL: <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/technology/15tech.html?th&emc=th>
The technology industry, which resisted the economy's growing weakness over the last year as customers kept buying laptops and iPhones, has finally succumbed to the slowdown.
In the span of just a few weeks, orders for both business and consumer tech products have collapsed, and technology companies have begun laying off workers. The plunge is so severe that some executives are comparing it with the dot-com bust in 2000, when hundreds of companies disappeared and Silicon Valley lost nearly a fifth of its jobs.
October "was like turning a switch," said Robert Barbera, chief economist at the Investment Technology Group, a research and trading firm. "Everything pretty much shut down."
After industry leaders like Intel and Nokia warned of slowing sales this week, investors aggressively sold technology stocks. On Friday, the Nasdaq composite index, which is full of technology names, fell 5 percent. Advanced Micro Devices and eBay both dropped more than 10 percent.
Tech companies directly account for about 4 percent of the nation's employment. And globally, companies and governments spend about $1.75 trillion on technology a year, according to Forrester Research. But the industry's importance to the world economy is larger than its size might suggest. Technology has fueled many of the productivity gains of the last two decades. And about half of the capital spending by corporations goes toward technology products, according to Moody's Economy.com.
As struggling businesses cut back on spending of all kinds, a slowdown in tech proved inevitable.
During the dot-com crash, technology companies were victims of Internet hype that they helped create. Once the enthusiasm faded, so did the boom-era sales on software and infrastructure equipment.
However, consumer enthusiasm for products like video games, wireless phones and high-definition televisions helped the industry recover.
This time around, the tech sector finds itself at the mercy of a double-barreled slump in both corporate and consumer spending caused by the housing decline and the economic crisis on Wall Street. Technology companies are also feeling the effect of frozen credit markets as business and government customers struggle to finance computer and software purchases that can run to millions of dollars.
"We have never seen anything like this in history," said William T. Coleman III, a Silicon Valley veteran who founded the software maker BEA Systems and is now chief executive at a start-up called Cassatt.
Best Buy, the leading electronics retailer, declared this week that "rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior" had fostered the worst conditions in its 42-year history, and its main rival, Circuit City Stores, filed for bankruptcy protection. Nokia, the world's largest maker of cellphones, predicted Friday that global sales of handsets would fall in 2009, which would be only the second decline ever.
Technology giants like Intel, which makes chips for personal computers and servers, and Cisco Systems, which makes network equipment, warned that revenue was plummeting at rates last seen in 2001.
Dozens of start-ups, like the messaging service Twitter and the electric carmaker Tesla Motors, have been cutting staff members as they prepare for a slow economy.
And on Friday, Sun Microsystems, a leading maker of computers used by financial services companies, announced that it would lay off as many as 6,000 employees, or 18 percent of its work force.
The turnaround has been as sudden as it is severe. Until late September, a number of large technology companies maintained an optimistic stance, despite the obvious distress in the global economy.
Cisco was the first large technology company to reveal its sales data from October, noting a 9 percent fall in sales compared with the same month last year. On Nov. 5, Cisco, which is based in San Jose, cautioned that because of a "completely different environment," revenue in its current quarter could plummet as much as 10 percent - a major reversal from the 7 percent growth that Wall Street had been expecting.
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, followed this week, warning that sales in the fourth quarter could fall as much as 19 percent compared with the same period last year.
Even Google, an advertising juggernaut that many analysts said they believed would weather a downturn better than other companies, is now feeling the impact.
About eight weeks ago, the company's chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, told reporters, "My guess is that the drama is in New York and not here." A month later, Google surprised Wall Street when it reported strong financial results for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, sending its shares up 10 percent.
But Google's stock has dropped 16 percent since, as the same analysts who were upbeat about its results have since cut their revenue and profit forecasts. This week, its shares dipped below $300 for the first time in three years, well below their $742 peak. And the company, known for its torrid hiring and free-spending on employee perks, has begun the most serious belt-tightening in its 10-year history.
"We don't know as managers how long the crisis goes," Mr. Schmidt said last week.
For all the gloom, the tech industry is still far healthier than Wall Street. Unlike the banks, many technology companies are flush with cash. Cisco has close to $27 billion; Google, $14 billion; and Apple, $24 billion. It is likely that some of these funds will go toward acquiring struggling competitors. "The guys that aren't as strong will be good pickings," Mr. Coleman said.
Powered by technology, Silicon Valley has stood out as a bright spot for jobs in the United States, with employment growing at about 2 percent a year while national employment slowed. Through 2007, the region continued to add 20,000 jobs, although that positive trend has started to change.
"With this now having become a worldwide event, it's clear that the job losses will come," said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.
Given the unpredictability of the current economy, the industry's past experience will only go so far, said Chris Cornell, an economist with Economy.com. "It would be a tragic mistake for C.E.O.'s who did a great job fighting the last recession to think the same tactics will work this time," he said.
(Miguel Helft contributed reporting.)
ToC
Oct 23rd 2008
From The Economist print edition
Computing is about to face a trade-off between sovereignty and efficiency
URL: <http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=12471098>
WORRYING about the next big thing in high-tech may seem otherworldly just now. The world is flirting with recession and IT is likely to suffer badly as a result (see article). Yet this will not stop a shift that promises to affect everyone (see our special report this week). Computing is fast becoming a "cloud"-a collection of disembodied services accessible from anywhere and detached from the underlying hardware. The chances are that much of business and everyday computing will one day be mediated by this ethereal cloud.
This presents a paradox. On one hand, computing will be a borderless utility. Technically, it need not matter whether your data and programs are stored down the road or on the other side of the world; everything will look as if it is happening on the screen in front of you. On the other, geography still matters. The data centres that contain the cloud, each often the size of several football pitches, cannot be built just anywhere. They need cheap power, fibre-optic cables, a chilly climate and dry air (otherwise you have to remove heat and humidity, which do horrible things to electronics). Good sites are scarce. Iceland fits the bill. Google is even thinking of building floating data centres, cooled by seawater and powered by the waves.
The legal and political issues are thornier. Even more than previous cross-border utilities, such as the telephone and the internet, the cloud will be a cosmopolitan prisoner to laws that are mainly local. Personal information will be nowhere and everywhere, but most privacy laws still assume that data resides in one place. It is the same with obscenity, hate crime and libel. And online crooks can easily jump from one jurisdiction to another, whereas the authorities from different countries have yet to learn how to co-operate.
The danger is less that the cloud will be a Wild West than that it will be peopled by too many sheriffs scrapping over the rules. Some enforcers are already stirring up trouble, threatening employees of online companies in one jurisdiction to get their employers based in another to fork over incriminating data for instance. Several governments have passed new laws forcing online firms to retain more data. At some point, cloud providers may find themselves compelled to build data centres in every country where they do business.
There is a balance to be struck here between sovereignty and efficiency. If democracies decide to ban certain types of speech or to protect their citizens' data, they must be able to enforce their rules. Yet at the same time, the more the cloud is lassoed with regulation, the more its costs will grow. That would be a loss. The cloud's main promise is to make computing cheaper using huge economies of scale. Such savings promise to help countless smaller firms in developing countries, say, to benefit from IT and the productivity gains it creates.
It will not be easy to strike the balance, but at the very least governments can enhance efficiency without threatening their own sovereignty. Countries could sign up to a global minimum standard in areas such as privacy. Law-enforcement agencies from different countries could foster the habit of co-operation. Governments need to be sure that standards are not just an underhand way of keeping the data business within their own borders. Even then, some national differences are bound to endure, so cloud-computing services will have to take place on systems designed to cope. For instance, Microsoft, which is building a global computing platform, is designing a system that can accommodate some regulation, such as keeping data within national borders. The cloud may be global, but the climate will sometimes be local.
ToC
by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#950/20-Oct-08
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9821>
Since 2006, Apple's "Get a Mac" ad campaign featuring Justin Long as a relaxed, hip Mac and John Hodgman as a stuffy, stressed-out PC have poked fun at the PC industry and Windows in particular. For years, Microsoft ignored the campaign, but in September 2008, Microsoft launched what is reportedly a $300 million ad campaign aimed at, to quote the internal Microsoft email about the campaign, telling "the story of how Windows enables a billion people around the globe to do more with their lives today."
<http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/>
<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0519043/>
<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1894655/>
As "an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to viewers in a consumer context," Microsoft made a set of ads featuring Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld (whose character in his eponymous TV series was a highly visible Mac user). The ads were, at least for me and nearly everyone I've talked with, essentially inscrutable. The first featured Gates and Seinfeld buying shoes, and the second showed them living with a supposedly stereotypical American family. Perhaps I'm just not sufficiently sophisticated about advertising or utterly not the target audience, but they made no sense to me. (Clearly I wasn't alone, since Microsoft pulled the campaign abruptly - after having reportedly paid Seinfeld $10 million for his work.) The followup "I'm a PC" ads were far more powerful and effective, and at their best make Apple's ads seem smug.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz6amk3P-hY>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgi8WW3Cx9g>
It's not unusual for one company's advertising to take on the competition directly, but it's far more so for the target to respond with its own ad campaign. Doing so risks cementing the negative points made by the initial campaign. But we're stepping into even more rarified advertising territory now, since Apple has just released a new "Bean Counter" ad that tweaks Microsoft for spending $300 million on advertising rather than putting it into Vista development.
Although there's a risk that Apple's "Bean Counter" ad could be seen as relying on a reference that only loyal Apple fans would possibly understand, the ad continues to hammer home Apple's criticism of Windows Vista, and I suspect that anyone not following the Apple/Microsoft ad wars will see it purely in that light. And that, I'm sure, is just fine with Apple.
ToC
By Sam Costello, About.com
URL: <http://ipod.about.com/od/restoreandreformatipod/a/ipod_reformat.htm>
Since iPods are basically big hard drives with special software and a screen, the hard drive in your iPod needs to be formatted. Formatting is essentially the process of prepping the drive to talk to the computer it connects to.
Luckily, you usually don't have to worry about formatting your iPod. Formatting happens automatically when you first set up your iPod. If you use your iPod with a Mac, during this process it becomes Mac formatted. If you use it with Windows, it gets Windows formatting.
<http://ipod.about.com/od/tes1/ss/setting_up_ipod.htm>
But what if you used to have a PC and just bought a Mac, or vice versa, and want to use your iPod with it? Then you have to reformat your iPod.
Also, if you have two computers - one Windows and one Mac - and want to use your iPod with both, you may need to reformat your iPod.
NOTE:
Before you even think about reformatting an iPod, make double sure that you've got your iTunes library backed up, because formatting the iPod means erasing everything on it and reloading it with songs, movies, etc.
If you have a Mac-formatted iPod and want to use it with a Windows computer, you will need to reformat it. If you have a Windows formatted iPod and want to use it with a Mac, you won't. That's because Macs can use both Mac and Windows-formatted iPods, whereas Windows can only use Windows-format iPods.
<http://ipod.about.com/od/filetypes/g/hfsplus_define.htm>
<http://ipod.about.com/od/filetypes/g/fat32_define.htm>
In order to reformat iPod to work on both Mac and PC, connect your iPod to a Windows computer. Then follow the steps in the how to restore your iPod article. This will reset your iPod and format it for Windows.
<http://ipod.about.com/od/restoreandreformatipod/ss/restore_ipod.htm>
Now, resync your iPod with the computer that contains your iTunes library. ITunes will ask you if you want to erase and sync the iPod. If you say yes, this will redownload your iTunes library to the iPod.
At this point, you may also need a way to easily move your iTunes library to the second computer. A quick way to do this is with software that copies the contents of your iPod to a computer. Learn more about iPod copy and backup software here.
Each time you sync your iPod, you can check what format it is. In the iPod management screen in iTunes, there's some data at the top of the window next to the image of your iPod. One of those items is "Format, " which tells you how your iPod is formatted.
by Glenn Fleishman <glenn@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#950/20-Oct-08
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9822>
I've had my hands on the T-Mobile G1 with Google this last week, the first release of a smartphone using the Open Handset Alliance's Android platform - a platform initially developed and still heavily influenced by Google. The T-Mobile phone was made by HTC, a leading Windows Mobile handset maker, and while it has many drawbacks, it shows a lot of potential. The phone starts shipping 22-Oct-08 from T-Mobile in the United States, and next month in the UK. (For more background on Android, see the now somewhat inaccurately titled, "Google's View of Our Cell Phone Future Is an Android, Not a GPhone," 2007-11-12.)
<http://www.t-mobileg1.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9291>
Over at Ars Technica, I wrote up a first impressions article which largely compared the G1 with the iPhone (both the first and second generation models). The G1 lacks a lot of the polish that the very first iPhone had out of the box in June 2007, not to mention the refinements that have come since.
<http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/android-g1-review.ars>
But it's also clear that - given that Android will run on any hardware that makers choose to design, and that Android can be expanded in ways that Apple doesn't and will never allow - there's a lot of room to fix and grow.
The iPhone is a closed platform, with developers needing to use Apple as a gatekeeper for constrained applications. Android, by contrast, is all about openness: open source (not the whole platform yet, but that's the goal), with a commitment by carriers to allow any phone running any software accessing any service. (There are some limits to make sure networks aren't overrun, but the intent is that those limits are slight compared to most current carrier restrictions.)
The components that come with the G1 are quite similar to the iPhone, and some BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phones. The G1 pairs a touch screen with a slide-out keyboard, a combination that's found on very few phones. It also has the laundry list of radios - 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth - and what seemed to me a very decent 3-megapixel camera with auto-focus. Despite all these components, the G1 and Android currently seem unexceptional, but I don't expect them to remain so. (The touchscreen only allows single finger gestures, by the way: slide and tap, notably. Apple has patents on multi-touch technology, and that might be constraining HTC.)
For instance, a persistent irritation I had with the G1, echoed by most other reviews, was dealing with the orientation of the phone for basic tasks. You can use the G1 in a portrait mode, with the touchscreen and a few buttons dominating the action, or in slide-out mode, with the keyboard exposed and the screen automatically changing to landscape orientation. This part makes perfect sense.
But despite having a built-in accelerometer, no software I used (including the main multi-page screen, which is rather clever) detected changes in motion. If you want to view a Web page in landscape mode, you must slide open the keyboard; and portrait mode requires the keyboard be closed. (I downloaded an application from Market, Google's in-beta and currently all-free software store, that let me confirm the accelerometer was on and active. It was.)
There's more. The touchscreen has no glass keyboard, which is the only way of entering information on an iPhone. So when you're browsing in portrait mode and need to enter even a word or two on the browser, you must slide open the keyboard, which changes the browser's orientation to landscape, and then type in what you want. This is tedious and something I also expect can be easily changed: even if the Open Handset Alliance doesn't opt for a glass keyboard addition, a developer could add such support, or a Web browser maker like Opera could add the feature to a browser they offer as an alternative.
Clearly, adding support for seamless orientation changes will be something we see in revised Android releases for its built-in apps, and it's something developers could add in third-party programs right away.
It's funny how much the initial iPhone seemed like a complete release, even with all the subsequent software releases and the critical addition of 3G to the second model and the App Store for third-party programs. (With regard to the most glaring omission in the iPhone, the G1 does have a copy and paste feature. Alas, I haven't yet figured out precisely where it works! Apparently it's active only within certain text fields and requires a keyboard shortcut.)
Android and the G1 so far seem more like an interesting prototype, and as such a lot of reviewers cut the phone slack in anticipation of what's to come. I'd rather review the phone I have in front of me, but it's easy to see how Google and its partners could move light years beyond this first release by the middle of next year.
ToC
By Noah Shachtman
October 24, 2008 | 10:32:00 AM
URL: <http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/10/terrorist-cell.html>
Could Twitter become terrorists' newest killer app? A draft Army intelligence report, making its way through spy circles, thinks the miniature messaging software could be used as an effective tool for coordinating militant attacks.
For years, American analysts have been concerned that militants would take advantage of commercial hardware and software to help plan and carry out their strikes. Everything from online games to remote-controlled toys to social network sites to garage door openers has been fingered as possible tools for mayhem.
This recent presentation -- put together on the Army's 304th Military Intelligence Battalion and found on the Federation of the American Scientists website -- focuses on some of the newer applications for mobile phones: digital maps, GPS locators, photo swappers, and Twitter mash-ups of it all.
The report is roughly divided into two halves. The first is based mostly on chatter from Al-Qaeda-affiliated online forums. One Islamic extremist site discusses, for example, the benefits of "using a mobile phone camera to monitor the enemy and its mechanisms." Another focuses on the benefits of the Nokia 6210 Navigator, and how its GPS utilities could be used for "marksmanship, border crossings, and in concealment of supplies." Such software could allow jihadists to pick their way across multiple routes, identifying terrain features as they go. A third extremist forum recommends the installation of voice-modification software to conceal one's identity when making calls. Excerpts from a fourth site show cell phone wallpapers that wannabe jihadists can use to express their affinity for radicalism.
Then the presentation launches into an even-more theoretical discussion of how militants might pair some of these mobile applications with Twitter, to magnify their impact. After all, "Twitter was recently used as a countersurveillance, command and control, and movement tool by activists at the Republican National Convention," the report notes."The activists would Tweet each other and their Twitter pages to add information on what was happening with Law Enforcement near real time."
Terrorists haven't done anything similar, the Army report concedes - although it does note that there are "multiple pro and anti Hezbollah Tweets." Instead, the presentation lays out three possible scenarios in which Twitter could become a militant's friend:
Scenario 1: Terrorist operative "A" uses Twitter with a cell phone camera/video function to send back messages, and to receive messages, from the rest of his [group]... Other members of his [group] receive near real time updates (similar to the movement updates that were sent by activists at the RNC) on how, where, and the number of troops that are moving in order to conduct an ambush.
Scenario 2: Terrorist operative "A" has a mobile phone for Tweet messaging and for taking images. Operative "A" also has a separate mobile phone that is actually an explosive device and/or a suicide vest for remote detonation. Terrorist operative "B" has the detonator and a mobile to view "A's" Tweets and images. This may allow "B" to select the precise moment of remote detonation based on near real time movement and imagery that is being sent by "A."
Scenario 3: Cyber Terrorist operative "A" finds U.S. [soldier] Smith's Twitter account. Operative "A" joins Smith's Tweets and begins to elicit information from Smith. This information is then used for identity theft, hacking, and/or physical [attacks]. This scenario has already been discussed for other social networking sites, such as My Space and/or Face Book.
Steven Aftergood, a veteran intelligence analyst at the Federation of the American Scientists, doesn't dismiss the Army presentation out of hand. But nor does he think it's tackling a terribly seriously threat. "Red-teaming exercises to anticipate adversary operations are fundamental. But they need to be informed by a sense of what's realistic and important and what's not," he tells Danger Room. "If we have time to worry about 'Twitter threats' then we're in good shape. I mean, it's important to keep some sense of proportion."
Related links:
Army Intelligence on the Twitter Threat
<http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2008/10/twitter.html>
<http://counterterrorismblog.org/2008/10/twit_or_tweet.php>
<http://counterterrorismblog.org/mt/pings.cgi/5508>
<http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/mobile.pdf>
ToC
from a couple of friends of mine
Here is a link to a site with sounds of Hard Drives in need of replacement.
In cause you were wondering about your own.
<http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php>
And please, friends, do a couple of things:
Paul Thurrott
URL: <http://www.wininformant.com/>
If you're in the market for a new PC and can actually afford such a thing, now is the time to buy. PC makers are offering discounts of about 25 percent on new PCs right now in a bid to jumpstart what is suddenly a very moribund pre-holiday market. How bad is it? PC sales have risen about 12 percent year-over-year in each of the past three quarters, but analysts now expect a 1 percent drop in the coming holiday quarter, compared to previous estimates of a 6 percent jump. And let's not forget the bankruptcy of PC retailer Circuit City and the dire economic warnings that Best Buy just issued. Even microprocessor giant Intel is getting into the game, warning that sales will be "sharply lower" than it previously projected. If I had to place the blame on a single thing, I guess I'd point my finger squarely at Windows 7. That new OS looks so good that people simply don't want to buy a new PC until it ships next year. I hear you, people. I really do.
A court filing that was unsealed this week as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit over Microsoft's purportedly deceptive "Vista Capable" logo program suggests that Microsoft changed the program to appease Intel. Apparently, Intel CEO Paul Otellini complained to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that Microsoft's original plans for the program would mean that millions of Intel chipsets--and thus PCs--wouldn't qualify for the sticker that compatible machines get. Microsoft changed the requirements to shut up Otellini, but angered many of its own executives as a result. "We are going to be misleading customers," then-Windows chief Jim Allchin complained at the time. "We must avoid confusion. It is wrong for customers." Well, it looks like Allchin hit the nail on the head with that one.
This would have been the funniest thing to happen this week if it weren't for Jerry Yang, but the Interwebs are all alight with news that Microsoft is considering switching its Internet Explorer Web browser to the WebKit rendering engine used by Google Chrome and Apple Safari. The reason we're even discussing this bit of silliness is that Steve Ballmer supposedly suggested this was a possibility during a Q & A session in Australia. But here's what really happened. Someone asked Ballmer if IE was becoming irrelevant because of the speed of Web standards developments and whether the company should simply save its money and use a faster-moving Web standards rendering engine. Ballmer was quoted as saying that the guy was "cheeky" for asking that. But he didn't say that, at least not first: The talk moderator said it, and then Ballmer repeated it for comedic effect. (He then said he didn't know what "cheeky" means.) He was also quoted as saying that WebKit was "interesting" and that Microsoft might need a new rendering engine for IE. He didn't really say that either. What he said was this. " I think there's going to continue to be a lot of proprietary innovation by us and by other people inside the browser ... It's important that we have a browser that embraces standards but also allows us to provide innovative extensions that allow you to do things even before a standards body gets there." In other words, IE having its own rendering engine isn't just beneficial, it's superior because it lets Microsoft move more quickly than the Web standards the questioner was so worried about. As for WebKit, Ballmer said the following, but he was addressing open source software more generally. "That's an interesting thing." He then added, about WebKit specifically, "Apple has embraced WebKit. But that's a thing, from time to time, we may take a look at, but right now we feel very confident in our browser team and its ability to execute, and what it's doing in rendering, and in a lot of the amazing extensions that we've done in IE 8 and have planned into the future." In case it's not obvious, the lesson here is a classic. Don't believe everything you read on the Interwebs. Because as with statistics, you can apparently warp a quote to mean anything you want it to mean.
There continues to be confusion surrounding the release plans for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, two products that Microsoft continually notes are being developed hand-in-hand. The confusion stems from the fact that the software giant is trying to mask the real release dates. Though Windows 7 and Server 08 R2 are, in fact, based on the exact same code base--Microsoft even refers to R2 as "Windows 7 Server" sometimes--they're not shipping at the same time. Microsoft is currently targeting 2009 for Windows 7, but doesn't expect to ship R2 until the second quarter of 2010. Of course, that's not what they're saying publicly. "We are planning to ship [R2] on the same day as [Windows 7]," Microsoft senior vice president Bob Muglia told ZD's Mary Jo Foley this week, for example. For this to happen, R2 will need to ship 6 to 9 months earlier than anticipated or Windows 7 has to ship a similar amount of time later than expected. Neither will happen, from what I can tell.
The past several years haven't been great for Windows. Part of the problem, of course, is Windows Vista. Despite having sold well north of 250 million copies of the OS, Microsoft is coping with irrational feelings that Vista is a failure, and the company has completely revamped its Windows Division in an attempt to turn things around. Well, if PDC 2008 proved anything, the makeover is working. Not only do the Windows guys exhibit not a little bit of well deserved swagger, but the product they're now touting--Windows 7--is so universally recognized as being excellent that it's quite clear they've already got a hit on their hands, a year before the thing ships to customers. That's quite a feat, and if they're smart, Microsoft will rush Windows 7 to market. No one is going to actively seek out Vista now knowing that such a superior follow-up is waiting in the wings.
Speaking of Windows 7, let's reflect for a moment on what it is that makes this upcoming Windows version so special. Strictly speaking, it's just a fine-tuned versions of Windows Vista, a fact that should make people who are already on the fence about Vista a little nervous. But in use, Windows 7 is Vista done right. It's smaller, faster, lighter, and prettier than Vista. It's much less annoying, with much fewer UAC pop-ups, yes, but also fewer other interruptions, thanks to an effort to keep tray notifications under strict control. It will run on systems as unimpressive as a netbook--yes, yes, it really will--and scale up to systems with 256 processor cores. What makes 7 so interesting, ultimately, is the surface stuff, though. It's just nicer looking. And it works better, thanks to hundreds of little UI tweaks that just delight people. Again and again at PDC, I watched as jaded and weary developers moused around with Windows 7: As they discovered a little feature, like Aero Snaps, where dragged windows latch onto to the edges of screens, or the pop-ups on the new taskbar, their faces would just light up with instant smiles. That's exactly the kind of reaction Microsoft wanted--and needed--with Windows Vista. But they're getting it now with Windows 7. I know it sounds like a small thing, but it's not. It's this type of experience that will drive excitement in Windows 7. People at PDC 2008 were perceptively impressed. It was a nice turnaround.
While Windows 7 was the standout smash hit of PDC 2008, the rest of the show was kind of a let-down. The reason has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with a complete lack of communications skills on the part of the software giant. During each keynote, Ray Ozzie would drone on and on for 30 minutes about absolutely nothing before getting to the heart of the talk. And then the discussion about what the product was went over everyone's heads. Seriously, I don't think there was a single person in the audience on Monday who walked out of keynote hall with any idea what Windows Azure really was, and it's even worse that I later sat through a 45 minute talk on the subject and still don't get it. OK, maybe I'm an idiot. But let's just pretend the truth is somewhere in the middle. To this day, I don't get how the various Microsoft online services fit and work together. I'm not even sure Microsoft gets it.
Does this qualify as ironic, or is it just hypocritical? There's been a public outcry in China over a recent change in Windows Vista and XP that causes systems suspected of being pirated to move into a mode where the desktop turns black and the user is regularly alerted about the issue. This mode, which does not reduce the functionality of Windows in any way, has been implemented around the world and hasn't caused any kind of reaction elsewhere. In China, an estimated 50 to 75 percent of all software is pirated, while legitimate versions of Windows and Office are much less expensive than in other places. For example, a retail copy of Windows Vista Home Basic costs about $73 in China right now, and Office Home and Student can be had for roughly $29. So what's the outcry? You only see the black screen when you're using pirated software, guys. It's time to pony up.
ToC
Paul Thurrott
URL: <http://tinyurl.com/5d8vqo>
During a day two keynote at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2008 in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, Microsoft unveiled Windows 7, the successor to the best-selling but curiously reviled Windows Vista. Vowing to overcome criticisms of Vista, Microsoft promised that Windows 7--due sometime in late 2009 or early 2010--would be prettier, faster, and less annoying than its predecessor.
"With our new approach to planning and development we now have a great foundation for our partners to start learning and innovating on this exciting new version of Windows," Microsoft senior vice president Steven Sinofsky said. "We are excited to be delivering a pre-beta developer release of Windows 7 today at PDC2008."
Looking not a little bit like Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Sinofsky provided the first major public unveiling of Windows 7 in a presentation that wowed a crowd eager for some excitement. Applause came early and often, and it was clear that show-goers were impressed again and again and Sinofsky rolled out new features.
From a high level, Windows 7 is very similar to Windows Vista. But virtually every nook and cranny of the system has been tweaked and polished in some way, resulting in a better overall experience. Windows 7 will boot and run faster than Vista, take up less space on disk, perform better, and will be more customizable. Sinofksy said that it would even run wonderfully on the low-end netbook computers that are now shpping with Windows XP: His day to day machine features a measly 1 GHz Atom processor and just 1 GB of RAM, he said to applause.
For consumers, Vista offers a slew of new desktop capabilities, simple sharing and home networking functionality, an enhanced media player than can remotely control devices around the home and a new version of the Media Center digital video recorder software. The user account control feature--the source of much anger by Vista users--has been scaled back dramatically and rarely prompts the user anymore. And multitouch features are imbued deeply into the system, letting people with next-generation hardware interact with the system in new ways.
"With Windows Vista, there is a feeling that we overpromised and underdelivered," Sinofsky told me in a briefing Sunday. "But we can't under-promise and over-deliver with Windows 7. That would be just as bad. We're going to promise. And then we're going to deliver."
From what we saw this week, that's exactly what Microsoft is doing. And after the debacle of Windows Vista, it's exactly what the company's customers are looking for.
I've been using Windows 7 for a few days now, and I've written a number of articles--and have posted numerous screenshots--on the SuperSite for Windows. <http://www.winsupersite.com/>
ToC
Posted by Ina Fried
URL: <http://tinyurl.com/6f4sxm>
LOS ANGELES--While Windows 7 has gotten plenty of attention over the past two weeks, there are some features in there that haven't gotten as much attention. I wrote on Friday about a new programming interface for location-based services. Here are seven more features that caught my eye.
Windows 7 treats cellular modems as a standard connection, much like a Wi-Fi network, popping them up in the same available wireless networks dialog.
Sierra Wireless has already said it will support the new approach, which should make life much easier for road warriors (myself included). One of my few gripes about the prebeta Windows 7 laptop I'm using is that it doesn't recognize my relatively new USB Sprint modem.
This was a little feature I discovered on my own. With many public Wi-Fi hot spots, once you connect to the network, you have to do something in your browser, such as agree to certain terms or enter a password. Windows 7 pops up a notification that tells you that, although you have to be connected to the network, more action may be needed and it gives you a direct link to open your browser.
When logging onto a Wi-Fi network that requires additional information via a browser, Windows 7 pops up this warning. (Click on image for a short photo gallery.)
Sure, it would be better if your computer worked problem-free. But, acknowledging that's not the case, Microsoft has added a central place in Windows 7 to try to figure out what went wrong and why.
Among the kinds of problems that Windows Troubleshooting aims to help solve are issues with networked printers, detecting hard drive problems, and even some proactive things, like figuring out how much life a laptop battery has before it will likely need to be replaced with a new battery.
Windows 7 adds base-level support for all kinds of sensors, from GPS, to ambient light sensors, to accelerometers. Light sensors, for example, can now be used not only to light up a keyboard, but an application could sense daylight and make type larger so that it's easier to read.
At WinHEC, Microsoft handed out 700 free sensor developer kits that included a light sensor, touch pad, and accelerometer. The kit was a big hit with the developers, prompting one of the only long lines of the show.
Microsoft is trying to do a couple things to make the DVD-playing experience better in Windows 7.
First and foremost, it has changed things so that DVD movies just start playing, as opposed to bringing up a long list of options.
Second, the company has worked to adjust power settings while playing back movies to enable better battery life.
"I'm hopeful it will have battery life equivalent to a portable DVD player," Microsoft's Jon DeVaan said in an interview. The issue is personal, he said. If Microsoft can reach its goal, he might be able to only bring a laptop on outings. "I hope to spare my back on family trips," he said.
According to a press release from fingerprint sensor make AuthenTec, the operating system features improved biometric support that should enable a more standard way for fingerprint management applications to work with fingerprint readers in Windows 7.
"This provides ease of fingerprint sensor integration for PC manufacturers and a more consistent user experience," AuthenTec said in its release.
Microsoft hasn't given up on its dream of having Windows gain a prominent spot in the living room and its main effort in this area--Windows Media Center--is back in Windows 7.
BetaNews has a look at some of the new features, including support for H.264 video, an on-screen keyboard, and better method of scrolling through large libraries.
No word on whether the new Media Center will offer the long-anticipated support for DirecTV.
ToC
Joseph Tartakoff
URL: <http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/153858.asp>
In late September, Microsoft began rolling out a new version of Hotmail (aka Windows Live Hotmail or MSN Hotmail).
All users will be switched to the new service this week.
According to Microsoft, the new Hotmail comes complete with a slew of improvements, including a new look, a new contact list, a new calendar, a new way to attach files, and a new spell checker.
The new Hotmail is also supposed to be faster. Two previous versions of Hotmail -- A lightweight version, known as "classic," and one better for faster Internet connections, known as "full" -- will also be combined.
Many users, though, don't seem pleased with the changes.
In total, more than 2,500 comments have been added to Microsoft's introductory post and a follow-up one, mostly along the lines of, "I am so disappointed in the new look and for the first time in 10 years of using Hotmail I am looking at other e-mail services to become my primary email account." Many complain about specific bugs in the new version that made it difficult to type e-mails.
On Friday, in another post announcing that all users would be switched to the new Hotmail this week, Microsoft's Mike Schackwitz acknowledged the feedback, saying, "Since our original announcement, we have read and analyzed several thousand comments, fixed several bugs, and released five updates to the code."
He then responded to the main question users have posed: "Why did you change?"
Here's his response:
When we asked our users how we could make Hotmail better, the majority of people said they wanted the experience to be cleaner and faster. The new experience was designed with this in mind.
Now, we understand that everyone has different tastes and computer configurations. Although the majority of people in our tests preferred the new look and themes, some people didn't. So, while most of you have seen Hotmail improve, some of you have not, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Schackwitz's entry quickly generated about 500 comments, mostly complaints.
Not quite Facebook-revolt sized, but still.
ToC
Paul Thurrott
URL: <http://tinyurl.com/5j6328>
In the latest edition of its twice-yearly Security Intelligence Report, Microsoft reports that the security gains it made in Windows Vista have paid off and that its operating system dramatically more secure than previous versions and competing products. However, electronic PC attacks still grew by 43 percent in the first half of 2008. The culprit? Windows applications made by other companies.
"Now we have a third-party problem and it's something we have to go solve," said Microsoft Security Engineering and Communications general manager George Stathakopoulos.
In a related report, H1 2008 Deskop OS Vendor Report, Microsoft security director Jeff Jones noted that of the major OS vendors--Apple, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Ubuntu--Microsoft fixed security bugs far more quickly than the competitors. And its latest OS, Windows Vista, had the fewest vulnerabilities in the first half of 2008. (Its previous OS, Windows XP, had the second fewest.) Vulnerabilities on rival Mac OS X and Linux systems were generally several times as voluminous, and Mac OS X suffered from the most problems by far. It had twice as many serious vulnerabilities as Vista and seven times the total vulnerabilities.
While Apple likes to talk up the quality of its products, the company is also the slowest to patch. And Microsoft patches vulnerabilities three times faster than does Apple.
"Combined, [OS] vendors fixed 585 vulnerabilities in H1 2008," Jones notes. "Red Hat fixed the most issues (292) across all of the products they support and Microsoft fixed the fewest issues (58). Roughly 90% of Microsoft issues were fixed within a day of public disclosure - relatively good news for Microsoft customers."
"While Windows Vista users saw the fewest vulnerabilities in 1H08 at 21, Windows XP SP2 users had cause for celebration as well," Jones continues. "With 26 vulnerabilities fixed in 1H08, Windows XP experienced a 25 percent reduction from the previous year. After excluding optional (and uncommon) components from the Linux distributions, Ubuntu was next lowest with 85 vulnerabilities, followed by [Red Hat] with 106 and Mac OS X 10.5 with the most at 138 vulnerabilities."
While Microsoft's success with Windows security--the result of a 2003 overhaul in which the company reengineered all of its products with security threat modeling as a core tenet--should be celebrated, electronic attacks on PCs still grew dramatically this year. What gives? It turns out that computer users are still succumbing to the so-called "dancing pony" problem, where an email arrives with a link to a malicious Web site. Microsoft has worked to secure its Web browser, Internet Explorer, as well. But increasingly, these attacks are taking advantage of third party application vulnerabilities, and not issues with the browser or OS. And the biggest culprits are companies like Apple and RealNetworks.
That's right: In addition to creating the most-often-patched operating system (which it then releases patches for at the slowest rate in the industry), Apple's insecure application software also affects users of the market leader, Windows. According to Microsoft, none of the top 10 vulnerabilities in Windows Vista this year were related to the OS or browser; they were all caused by third party applications. (Meanwhile, 5 of the top 10 vulnerabilities in Windows XP are browser or OS related.)
The new version of the Security Intelligence Report will be released sometime today, Microsoft says.
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[Editor's Note: My thanks to Kevin Hisel for submitting all the articles above in this section of the newsletter.]
[Editor's Note: My thanks to Jon Bjerke for submitting all the articles below in this section of the newsletter.]
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from Jon Bjerke
Paul Thurrott
URL: <http://www.wininformant.com/>
[Editor's Note: Jon picked some of the same Short Take topics that caught Kevin's eye. Here are the ones he chose in addition.]
Another example of Microsoft's poor communication skills surrounds Live Framework. This product sounds as if it must be the developer framework for Microsoft's Live Services platform, right? Well, not exactly. Turns out Live Framework is the developer framework for Live Mesh, which is sort of like Live FolderShare, and sort of like Live Sync, but not really. And as for how all these things fit into the wider picture, and with Windows Azure, hey, your guess is as good as mine. And really, this kind of confusion is exactly what Microsoft was looking for after a week of laying it all out, right? Anyway, regarding Live Framework, here's my favorite Microsoft quote: "It's not ready for shipping a production app," Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Treadwell told CNET this week. Indeed. Neither, apparently, is your marketing message, guys. It's time to rein this in. If you can't explain it, no one is going to care.
Let's get back to Windows Azure. The name is so unbelievably terrible that I'm begging Microsoft to take a mulligan and rethink it. The company has changed product names before (anyone remember Windows .NET Server?), and this time it's actually much more of a serious need. But branding is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to confusion about Azure. I mean, seriously, what the heck is this thing? From what I can tell, Azure is a version of Windows Server that will be hosted only on Microsoft Datacenter servers and thus, for the rest of the world, exists only in the cloud. Customers will be able to host applications, and run services, in and from this "cloud," and do so on what is apparently a subscription-type basis according to processor run-times and whatnot. Under the covers, it utilizes all kinds of virtualization technologies and automated failover, but these things don't actually matter to the end users, so let's just put it simply and note that Microsoft will promise customers "five 9s of uptime" (which is what I was told). For the near future, most Microsoft customers will continue to purchase on-premise servers, but the mix will change over time to favor hosted services. So, I think that's what it is. And I have to wonder: Why didn't Ray Ozzie just say it like that? Reading that paragraph above would have taken just a minute or two. Think about it.
Amidst all the Windows Mobile 7 delays, Microsoft will ship two semi-major updates to its current and lackluster Windows Mobile 6.1. First up is the previously announced Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows Mobile release, which will let smart phones render Web pages like they did almost a decade ago on traditional PCs, which in the Windows Mobile world is considered an impressive upgrade. Next up is something we didn't know about before PDC: Windows Mobile 6.5. This new OS version will ship in late 2009, according to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley. What we don't know, alas, is which features will actually be included in the release. My guess is that we'll see some of the features that were originally slated for Windows Mobile 7. And my opinion is that it doesn't matter: Late 2009 is too late, and Windows Mobile is doomed.
Given the nature of PDC, Microsoft usually schedules the event every two to three years as new platforms emerge from the belly of the beast. But get this: The software giant is planning the next PDC for November 2009. My guess is that this date will coincide with a lot of the cloud computing and server stuff that the company is planning, and of course Windows 7 will either be recently released or just about to be released, so it's a good time for that, as well. See you in November 2009!
I'll be working on finishing up my Windows 7 M3 Preview on the SuperSite for Windows over the next few days, but head on over and check out the first several installments. Windows 7 is a big deal, and I think you're going to be impressed, especially if you weren't so impressed by its predecessor. Oh, and happy Halloween!
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Paul Thurrott, thurrott@windowsitpro.com
InstantDoc #100610 - October 23, 2008
URL: <http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/100610/microsoft-to-rush-out-emergency-security-patch.html>
In a not quite unprecedented move, Microsoft on Wednesday will release a critical security patch outside of its normal monthly schedule. This isn't the first time Microsoft has done this--the last time was in April 2007--but it is an unusual step for the software giant, which has highlighted its carefully timed security releases as one of many benefits of the Windows platform.
While details of the patch are currently unavailable, it appears to concern an as-yet-unknown vulnerability that affects several versions of Windows, including Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft's latest Windows versions, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, are also affected, but the vulnerability is rated as less severe on those systems.
Microsoft will ship its patch at 10:00 a.m. PT (1:00 ET) on Wednesday, the company says. Users are advised to manually run Windows Update if they are not automatically prompted to download and install the patch.
You can find out more about this vulnerability on the Microsoft website.
<http://ct.email.windowsitpro.com/rd/cts?d=33-16300-794-208-24229-1726072-0-0-0-1-2-207>www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-oct.mspx
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by Paul Thurrott
InstantDoc #100755, November 10, 2008
URL: <http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/100755/microsoft-yahoo-drama-continues-but-why.html>
Not that Microsoft was asking, but I've got some advice for the company and its mercurial CEO Steve Ballmer: Don't do it. I'm referring to rumors of fresh interest in purchasing ailing Internet giant Yahoo!, which has spent the past year in a bizarre death spiral, sped up in no small part by the haphazard machinations of Microsoft. Let's be clear here: Buying Yahoo! now would be plain crazy.
Don't do it.
In January 2008, when Yahoo! was still worth $22 per share but saw its business dropping off faster than the demand for Teddy Ruxpin bears, Pet Rocks, and other inconceivably hot properties of years past, Microsoft made its epic $44.6 billion offer for the company. At the time, the software giant justified the heady $30-per-share offer for Yahoo! by explaining that only by combining the two companies could market leader Google be defeated.
Yahoo! responded, naturally, by rebuffing the offer and spending the next few months sabotaging any possible deal. Microsoft tried a second time to buy the company and tried to strike an advertising-only deal as well. Yahoo! finally ran into the waiting arms of Google-did I mention Google was the overwhelming market leader?-and struck a deal that, eventually, was slapped by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Apparently, even the corporate-friendly Bush administration couldn't overlook such an egregious antitrust transgression.
During this time, Yahoo!'s stock fell another $10 and is now hovering in the $12 range. Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang-the man most personally responsible for both Yahoo!'s poor market performance and for scuttling all three Microsoft proposals-last week announced that "Yahoo! is Microsoft's best option." Best option for what is unclear. Ballmer said he was uninterested in buying Yahoo! now, but he's said that before. Many analysts now speculate that his public disinterest is, in fact, yet another gambit aimed at lowering Yahoo!'s value even further so that the software giant can swoop in for the kill.
Don't do it.
Even at $10 per share, Yahoo! is a financial albatross. Its business is eroding, and the company is seemingly incapable of getting a crucial next-generation ad system off the ground. The company is also a technological albatross, and that's true at any price: The software it uses behind the scenes is completely incompatible with Microsoft's own systems, and it would take at least several years to make them work together seamlessly. In the meantime, the wider online industry will continue evolving and won't wait for Microhoo to catch up. Sorry.
Ballmer feels that he must make a blockbuster deal to show the industry and Microsoft's partners, competitors, and customers that Microsoft is serious about competing in the post-PC world that is rapidly unfolding. And its recently announced cloud-computing platform has landed with a thud, with many (myself included) wondering whether even Microsoft understands how everything fits together. But buying a company that is itself failing will only slow Microsoft's move to this new future. It's a deal the company must not make.
Mr. Ballmer, I'm begging you.
Don't do it.
P.S. Yahoo!, I know you're not interested in my advice either. But I have some ideas about a certain CEO of yours who has outlived his usefulness. Just a thought.
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by Paul Thurrott
November 17, 2008, InstantDoc #100829
URL: <http://windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=100829&feed=rss&subj=0>
Microprocessor giant Intel delivered its next-generation Core i7 chips to customers today. The i7 represents Intel's biggest architectural change since its mobile-oriented Core chips debuted almost three years ago. This time around, the base chips feature four processor cores, each of which is capable of executing two threads simultaneously, effectively providing the performance of eight processors in compatible applications.
The Core i7 chips-code-named Nehalem during development-have debuted to overwhelmingly positive reviews. But remember, so did the original Pentium, which was quickly found to have a small but crucial floating-point bug that necessitated a $400 million recall in 1994. Intel has completely overhauled the way it develops microprocessors since then, of course, but each new major architectural reworking triggers fears of another problem once the chips are out in the real world.
Intel's new chips are much more complex than the Core 2 Duo processors they'll eventually replace in the market, but they also provide dramatic performance benefits. There are several reasons for this improvement, including Intel's decisions to move the memory controller directly into the CPU die, bring back its hyper-threading technology from chips past, and speed the communication of data between the processor cores. The i7 can also selectively turn off as many as three of its processor cores and throttle the remaining cores up to turbo speeds, increasing performance yet again.
What the current i7 really delivers is a baseline for future PC performance, although the initial chips, as always, are aimed at the workstation and server markets. The current first-generation chips easily break the 3GHz barrier without any loss of power-management efficiency compared with Core 2 Duo chips. But they can also easily be overclocked to above 4GHz, suggesting even more impressive performance in the near future.
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Paul Thurrott, <thurrott@windowsitpro.com>
November 19, 2008, InstantDoc #100851
URL: <http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/100851/microsoft-kills-onecare-will-launch-free-security-solution.html>
Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it would retire its $50-a-year security subscription product, Windows Live OneCare, and replace it with a free solution code-named "Morro." Unlike OneCare, however, Morro will focus only on core antimalware features and not a broader set of PC maintenance functionality.
"Customers around the world have told us that they need comprehensive, ongoing protection from new and existing threats, and we take that concern seriously," says Microsoft Senior Director of Product Management Amy Barzdukas. "This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware."
Microsoft says that Morro will address the most common concerns about today's PC security solutions. That is, it will be free, lightweight, and non-resource-intensive, and will work automatically. That said, it will still be based on the same core antimalware engine that drives OneCare and the company's other client and server security products. This technology has won some important industry awards, but it has fared poorly in other tests as well.
Morro will also dispense with OneCare's non-security features, which include such things as online photo backup, local hard drive backup, and PC optimization tools. Microsoft says it wants to keep Morro as small and light as possible, but it's unclear if the company plans to offer these and other OneCare features elsewhere going forward.
Customers can still continue to purchase OneCare through mid-2009, and Microsoft says it will support the product going forward. Morro is currently slated for a late 2009 release.
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by TidBITS Staff <editors@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#950/20-Oct-08
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9814>
At first glance, Apple's new MacBook Pro is clearly a new professional laptop, sporting the company's first significant case redesign since the middle of the PowerBook G4 era. Apple has applied the manufacturing process invented for the MacBook Air to the rest of the laptop line, bringing a strong, unibody aluminum design that allows for more environmentally friendly manufacturing, and a stronger case that doesn't weigh significantly more.
<http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/>
The new 15-inch MacBook Pro measures 0.95 inches (2.41 cm) thick and weighs 5.5 pounds (2.49 kg) - just slightly thinner than its predecessor (which measured 1 inch thick) but actually 0.1 pounds (45 g) heavier.
(Apple bumped the 17-inch MacBook Pro to 4 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard disk, but it doesn't share the 15-inch model's design improvements. Apple is rumored to be updating the 17-inch MacBook Pro in the near future, possibly at Macworld Expo in January 2009.)
In the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, as with the new MacBook, Apple has gotten rid of the separate trackpad button. Well, sort of - the Multi-Touch trackpad now is the button - made of etched wear-resistant glass. Simply press the trackpad area to click (the entire area depresses). The result of this button-absorption is a trackpad area that is 39 percent larger than past notebooks offered. Apple is taking advantage of that expansion with the incorporation of even more Multi-Touch functionality - now accommodating four-finger gestures for more complex actions such as a downward swipe to trigger Expose. It's unclear yet as to how users will respond to this change - if the button proves too sensitive, too awkward, or too difficult to customize satisfactorily. Presumably, Apple engineers have spent a lot of time attempting to ensure its ease of use and intuitiveness so hopefully the transition will be an easy one for users.
The MacBook Pro's Core 2 Duo processor isn't dramatically changed from the previous version; the new models offer speeds of 2.4 GHz or 2.53 GHz; 2.8 GHz is a build-to-order option. The graphics processors, however, are another story.
The MacBook Pro (and MacBook) includes an integrated Nvidia GeForce 9400M chip with 256 MB of DDR memory. According to Apple, the GeForce 9400M is up to five times faster than the Intel integrated graphics found on the previous MacBook and Mac mini models, incorporating 16 parallel graphics cores for 54 gigaflops of processing power. In other words, it's fast.
But it also has company.
The MacBook Pro includes another Nvidia chip, the GeForce 9600M GT with either 256 MB or 512 MB of memory and 32 graphics cores. The laptop can use either one, but apparently not both at the same time. When you need more graphics processing power, you can switch to using the beefier processor. The option requires you to specify which graphics mode to use in the Energy Saver preference pane: Better Battery Life or Higher Performance. Then you log out and log back in; restarting the Mac would also work but isn't necessary. Switching to the 9600M drops battery life to four hours per charge versus five hours using the integrated 9400M (keeping in mind that those are likely optimal battery estimates).
This emphasis on graphics processing is likely to make professional creative users happy, as more high-end applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Apple's Aperture, and Final Cut Studio offload much of the processing workload to the GPU. It should also improve the MacBook Pro's standing among hardcore gamers. (At the same time, the MacBook Pro's glossy screen - the only option - is upsetting many pros; see "On the Way Out: FireWire and Matte Screens?," 2008-10-18.)
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9818>
Another significant feature new to the MacBook Pro (and also found in the new MacBook and MacBook Air) is the Mini DisplayPort that can drive external displays at up to 2560 by 1600 pixels, the resolution of 30-inch widescreen displays. DisplayPort is a relatively recent digital display interface standard put forth by the Video Electronics Standards Association. New adapters are available for using Mini DisplayPort with older generation VGA, DVI/HDMI, and Dual-Link DVI displays. The Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, priced at $29, connects the new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air to monitors with a DVI connector, such as the old 20- or 23-inch Apple Cinema Displays. The Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter is also priced at $29 and connects the new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air to a standard analog monitor, projector, or LCD that uses a VGA connector or cable. And the $99 Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter connects the new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air to an external display or projector using a DVI connector, such as the 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display.
Other changes to the MacBook Pro aren't as flashy, but are worth noting. Only one FireWire port is included, and it's a FireWire 800 port; you'll need to connect FireWire 400 devices using an adapter or a cable with a FireWire 800 connector at one end and a FireWire 400 connector at the other. The battery indicator now appears on the right side of the case instead of on the bottom. Gone, thankfully, is the annoying clasp latch of old, replaced by the magnetic latch introduced in the MacBook years ago. And if you've ever tried to swap the hard drive from a MacBook Pro, you'll be thrilled that the process no longer requires a Master's degree in engineering: the hard drive is easily accessible behind the battery door.
The new MacBook Pro is available immediately in two models:
For $1,999, the base model offers:
At $2,499, the added perks include:
After unveiling the new notebooks, Apple immediately released MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.2. The update - for only the new notebooks - "improves compatibility with external displays and includes a variety of software fixes," to quote Apple's release notes in their entirety. The update is available via Software Update or as a 45 MB standalone download.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookmacbookprosoftwareupdate12.html>
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by TidBITS Staff <editors@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#950/20-Oct-08
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9813>
Apple unveiled a redesigned MacBook last week, ending a more-than-two-year period with only minor updates to the company's most popular notebook (and indeed, the most popular Mac ever). The changes make the MacBook nearly identical in appearance to the new 15-inch MacBook Pro. The two share the same aluminum casing, LED backlit display, glass trackpad, and most of the same ports; the MacBook is just smaller and lighter. The biggest change is obviously the long-expected move away from a plastic body to one of aluminum and glass. The body has been cut from a single block of aluminum - a process intended to provide increased strength and durability, as well as slightly reducing the thickness and weight of the notebook. The new MacBook drops half a pound to weigh in at just 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg), and is 0.95 inches (2.41 cm) in thickness - the same thickness as the MacBook Pro, though 1 pound (454 g) lighter.
<http://www.apple.com/macbook/>
Another major design change for the MacBook is the new Multi-Touch trackpad introduced with the MacBook Pro: at 39 percent larger than the previous incarnation, the entire pad is now the button - just press down anywhere to click. The trackpad is made from wear-resistant etched glass and responds to a host of multi-finger commands. You can also designate click areas through a software interface.
The display remains the same at 13.3 inches, but is now LED-backlit, which allows it to be thinner and eliminates the need to use toxic mercury. It also stretches all the way to the edge of the case, over a black bezel, which makes it seem larger than it actually is. The graphics card inside the new MacBook is the same Nvidia GeForce 9400M being used in the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and it can now drive external monitors at resolutions up to 2560 by 1600, a very welcome addition that will become more welcome if Apple releases a 30-inch LED Cinema Display. A $99 Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter is necessary for connecting the existing 30-inch Cinema HD Display.
The primary drawback of the new MacBook is the lack of a FireWire port (perhaps to push some users up to the Pro line). Although FireWire is starting to become less common for external hard disks, it's still used by many digital camcorders and other peripherals. Moreover, for those of us who troubleshoot other Macs, the lack of FireWire means we can't mount a new MacBook as a drive on another computer using Target Disk Mode. For more on the controversy, see "On the Way Out: FireWire and Matte Screens?" (2008-10-18).
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9818>
The MacBook is available immediately in two configurations. $1,299 gets you a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB RAM (upgradable to 4 GB), a 160 GB hard drive, slot-loading SuperDrive, the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics card, and a 13.3-inch LED backlit display. For $1,599, you get a 2.4 GHz processor, a 250 GB hard drive, and a backlit keyboard. A 320 GB hard drive and a 128 GB solid state drive are available as options.
Apple is also keeping one configuration of the white plastic MacBook for the new low price of $999, which includes a 2.1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 120 GB hard drive, and integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor; this model retains the FireWire 400 port. Larger hard drives remain available for the white MacBook, as do the old 20-inch Apple Cinema Display and 23-inch Cinema HD Display.
After unveiling the new notebooks, Apple immediately released MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.2. The update - for only the new notebooks - "improves compatibility with external displays and includes a variety of software fixes," to quote Apple's release notes in their entirety. The update is available via Software Update or as a 45 MB standalone download.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookmacbookprosoftwareupdate12.html>
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by TidBITS Staff <editors@tidbits.com>
TidBITS#950/20-Oct-08
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9812>
As expected, the MacBook Air remained largely untouched during Apple's refresh of the rest of the MacBook line, receiving only a few small but welcome upgrades that improve the svelte laptop's specs. Included in these is an updated graphics card (a move to the Nvidia GeForce 9400M), the addition of a 120 GB hard drive, and the inclusion of the new Mini DisplayPort. Two versions, priced at $1,799 and $2,499, give you 1.6 GHz and 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors respectively - no changes there. The higher-end model comes standard with a new 128 GB solid state drive, though you can save $500 by dropping back to the 120 GB hard drive. The refreshed MacBook Air will not be immediately available, but will instead hit stores in early November 2008.
<http://www.apple.com/macbookair/>
The limited storage capacity in the MacBook Air, with a 120 GB hard drive or a 128 GB solid state drive as the only options, and no reasonable way to install a larger replacement drive, makes the machine most suitable for those looking for a small auxiliary Mac to supplement a desktop Mac with more capacious storage options. The MacBook Air's slim form factor means Apple must use a smaller hard drive than the 2.5-inch drives that are available in standard laptops; the 1.8-inch mechanisms (also used in hard-disk-based iPods) allow for the smaller laptop, but restrict Apple's supply choices - and so far, prices have remained high despite the limited capacities.
One notable improveme