Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-388199.html
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Expert sees security issues with the Apple iPad
Apple's new iPad device looks like it will have some of the same security issues that affect the iPhone, such as weak encryption, said a mobile security expert. by Elinor Mills CNET News
Checks to curb latest SEO tricks
Unethical tactics employed by companies utilizing SEO tactics such as link farms and loading Web pages filled with irrelevant keywords, are not welcomed by search engine operators. by Kevin Kwang ZDNet Asia
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-388348.html
Adobe Plays the Porn Card in Flash Campaign Against iPad
Apple has clearly hurt Adobe’s feelings. When Steve Jobs demonstrated an iPad at Wednesday’s tablet event, its Safari browser clearly did not support Flash. Adobe has published a blog post calling Flash the Apple iPad’s “broken link.” And now Adobe’s platform evangelist Lee Brimelow has compiled an illustrative montage (partly screengrabbed above) in an effort to illustrate what the lack of Flash means for the iPad.
Note row two, column two. Adobe has included a porn site. Though porn is certainly relevant to many people’s web experiences, that’s kind of a desperate move. My friend Matt Drance, Apple’s former iPhone evangelist, summed up what this means on Twitter: “Adobe has resorted to playing the porn card. It’s over.”
Update: Brimelow has updated his post to remove the porn image, explaining it was a joke ? not something we disputed. He also notes that he is only speaking for himself and not on behalf of Adobe. However, we consider him a representative of Adobe because he is the company’s Flash evangelist, and his post is related to his work at Adobe.
Meanwhile, DaringFireball’s John Gruber has posted his response to Brimelow’s montage with an interesting observation:
Flash evangelist Lee Brimelow made his little poster showing what a bunch of Flash-using web sites look like without Flash without actually looking to see how they render on MobileSafari. Ends up a bunch of them, including the porno site, already have iPhone-optimized versions with no blue boxes, and video that plays just fine as straight-up H.264. iPhone visitors to these sites have no idea they?re missing anything because, well, they?re not missing anything. For a few other of the sites Brimelow cited, like Disney and Spongebob Squarepants, there are dedicated native iPhone apps.
Kendall Helmstetter Gelner put together this version of Brimelow?s chart using actual screenshots from MobileSafari, the App Store, and native iPhone apps. The only two blue boxes left: FarmVille and Hulu.
See Also:
- Apple Video Shows iPad Flash Support, But Don’t Believe It
- Ten Things Missing From the iPad
- Hands-On With the Apple iPad
- Flash Lands on iPhone ? One App at a Time
- iPhone Users: There Will Be No Flash Soup For You
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/pVkQfwOXsy8/
Apple iPad Raises the Stakes for E-Readers
Apple’s much-awaited iPad tablet is a good looking, multipurpose e-reader but it is no Kindle slayer, say publishing executives and electronic-book enthusiasts. Instead, the iPad is likely to raise the stakes and help traditional e-readers evolve into more sophisticated devices.
“The iPad is for casual readers and people who favor an all-in-one type of device, while dedicated E Ink-based e-readers are for avid readers,” says Wiebe de Jager, executive director with Eburon Academic Publishers, a Netherlands-based publishing service.
“The iPad is a great device for casual reading, especially magazine-like articles and textbooks, and to a lesser extent for e-books, but there is no way you can compare the iPad’s backlit LCD screen to low-power e-readers’ screens today,” he says.
Apple on Wednesday launched the iPad, a lightweight tablet with a 9.7-inch touchscreen display that brings together web surfing, books, movies and music in an easy-to-carry device. The iPad, which will start shipping in about two months, ranges from $500 to $830 depending on storage and connectivity.
But that’s still almost twice the price of a 6-inch e-reader with half the convenience, says James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research.
“Now that we have seen the iPad, we don’t feel that the e-reader market is going to be hampered by it,” he says. “Smaller sized e-readers are half the price of an iPad and great for reading.”
But McQuivey expects the iPad to hurt the large-screen readers category, which includes the Kindle DX and the Plastic Logic Que. The Kindle DX features a 9.7-inch black-and-white screen and is priced at $490, while the 10.5-inch Plastic Logic Que with E Ink costs $650 or $800 depending on the storage offered.
An iPad Screen for All Seasons?
The fundamental difference between digital-book readers and their electronic peers, such as laptops and phones, is display technology.
Smartphones and laptops use LCD screens that offer vivid color images but are difficult to read in sunlight. Electronic-ink displays, as seen in the Kindle and other e-book readers, are currently stuck in a black-and-white world but they claim a better reading experience. Take a Kindle or a Sony Reader to the park on a sunny weekend and you could have a daylong picnic with just the e-reader.
The iPad can’t offer the same advantages. Vinita Jakhanwal, an analyst with research firm iSuppli say an LCD screen is not as sunlight-friendly as an E Ink display.
The LCD screen also consumes more battery: An iPad promises 10 hours of battery life compared to a Kindle, which doesn’t have to be charged for at least a week. The Kindle’s E Ink screen consumes power only when the page is turned; turn off the wireless and you can go for a week without plugging it in. By comparison an LCD display is said to drink anywhere from 40 percent to 60 percent of the device’s overall power consumption. Backlighting in LCDs can drain power, though companies are trying to use LEDs for the backlight to save on power.
An LCD screen can also be harsher on the eyes. “Reading for a few hours on a handheld LCD screen can be quite a strain,? says Jakhanwal.
Where the iPad does score is in its ability to offer a color display and the ability to embed audio and video files in books. That may not be an advantage for too long. Both E Ink and Qualcomm are working on offering color screens that consume very little power and can be used both outdoors and indoors. At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, Pixel Qi showed a LCD display that can switch between a full-color video mode and a low-power black-and-white display.
A Better Look for E-Books
The Kindle and the Nook’s black-and-white screens may have reduced eye strain but they also stripped the aesthetics out of books. Shorn of the usual typographic tools, e-books on these devices have turned into monotonous blocks of characters.
The iPad will offer publishers a chance to come up with enhanced e-books that contain images, links, background material, embedded audio and even video. It’s a move that’s likely to prompt other traditional e-reader makers to offer tools that will improve the layout of books, says McQuivey. And upcoming color screens for e-readers could help level the playing field between the iPad and other e-readers.
“What the iPad does is say that you don’t have to give up the reading experience when you get the device,” he says.
But some die-hard e-reader fans like Len Edgerly, who hosts the weekly Kindle Chronicles podcast, say pretty e-books aren’t as big a draw as some would think.
“When I am reading, I don’t want to be too distracted,” he says. “It’s about the words, and when I read the Kindle, it seems to bring me closer to the author’s words. That’s essence of reading to me.”
Publishers Battle for the Best Deal
Ultimately, the fight for dominance in the e-reader market is likely to be fought among two giants: Apple and Amazon. And the key to this war will be pricing.
Amazon has been battling publishers to offer electronic best-sellers in its online store for $10. So far, though, Apple hasn’t announced pricing for books in its iBooks store. Reports indicate that it is likely to be in the $14 to $15 range.
“It’s going to be a titanic struggle with publishers trying hard to get Amazon to abandon the $10-bestsellers pricing,” says Edgerly. “But they are unlikely to succeed.”
For Amazon, the success of the Kindle as a hardware platform is secondary to the company’s desire to sell more books, and pricing is the key to the latter.
As a consumer, Edgerly says even if Apple books come with a few extra videos or audios, he won’t pay for it.
“Why would I pay an extra $3 to see a video or hear audio when I get the same book for much less on Amazon?” he says.
Reaching Out to the World
Though Apple’s Steve Jobs has said that books in the iBooks store will be based on the open standard EPUB, which is supported by all e-book readers but the Kindle, he hasn’t talked about digital rights management (DRM).
For now, iBooks are expected to be available only in the United States. That could be because Apple may be using its own DRM system, Fairplay, says de Jager. The iBooks DRM will not be compatible with that of Adobe’s.
“So all those people, mainly in Europe, buying Adobe DRM’ed books will not be able to read them in the iBooks app and vice versa,” he says. “It seems that Apple is trying to create their own e-book ecosystem, just like Amazon did with the Kindle store, Kindle e-book format and Kindle DRM.”
The future of e-reading lies in open e-book systems without DRM, and it is not clear how Apple or Amazon will take to that.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
See Also:
- 10 Things Missing From the iPad
- Live Coverage: Apple’s Special Tablet Event
- Hands-On With the Apple iPad
- Would You Buy an iPad? Wired Readers Weigh In
- Can Apple’s iPad Save the Media After All?
- With iPad, Apple Still Has a Fatal Attraction for AT&T
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/e4QP-MYMLtw/
?Ransomware? can hold your PC hostage
Turning hijacked computers into cash is hard work for most computer criminals. It's much easier to just demand cash directly from infected users ? a crime that's the Internet's equivalent of kidnapping.�
Full story at http://redtape.msnbc.com
Cosmic Log: Space on your phone
Full story at http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/29/2189736.aspx
Mental Health Disaster Relief Not Always Clear Cut
In the coming months hundreds upon hundreds of mental health professionals will flood Haiti, eager to tend to the psychologically wounded victims of the earthquake. But the role of a mental health professional in the aftermath of a major disaster like Haiti's isn't always well-defined.
» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
Full story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122981850&ft=1&f=1001
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Expert sees security issues with the Apple iPad
Apple's new iPad device looks like it will have some of the same security issues that affect the iPhone, such as weak encryption, said a mobile security expert. by Elinor Mills CNET News
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-388199.html
Checks to curb latest SEO tricks
Unethical tactics employed by companies utilizing SEO tactics such as link farms and loading Web pages filled with irrelevant keywords, are not welcomed by search engine operators. by Kevin Kwang ZDNet Asia
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-388348.html
Adobe Plays the Porn Card in Flash Campaign Against iPad
Apple has clearly hurt Adobe’s feelings. When Steve Jobs demonstrated an iPad at Wednesday’s tablet event, its Safari browser clearly did not support Flash. Adobe has published a blog post calling Flash the Apple iPad’s “broken link.” And now Adobe’s platform evangelist Lee Brimelow has compiled an illustrative montage (partly screengrabbed above) in an effort to illustrate what the lack of Flash means for the iPad.
Note row two, column two. Adobe has included a porn site. Though porn is certainly relevant to many people’s web experiences, that’s kind of a desperate move. My friend Matt Drance, Apple’s former iPhone evangelist, summed up what this means on Twitter: “Adobe has resorted to playing the porn card. It’s over.”
See Also:
- Apple Video Shows iPad Flash Support, But Don’t Believe It
- Ten Things Missing From the iPad
- Hands-On With the Apple iPad
- Flash Lands on iPhone ? One App at a Time
- iPhone Users: There Will Be No Flash Soup For You
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/pVkQfwOXsy8/
Apple iPad Raises the Stakes for E-Readers
Apple’s much-awaited iPad tablet is a good looking, multipurpose e-reader but it is no Kindle slayer, say publishing executives and electronic-book enthusiasts. Instead, the iPad is likely to raise the stakes and help traditional e-readers evolve into more sophisticated devices.
“The iPad is for casual readers and people who favor an all-in-one type of device, while dedicated E Ink-based e-readers are for avid readers,” says Wiebe de Jager, executive director with Eburon Academic Publishers, a Netherlands-based publishing service.
“The iPad is a great device for casual reading, especially magazine-like articles and textbooks, and to a lesser extent for e-books, but there is no way you can compare the iPad’s backlit LCD screen to low-power e-readers’ screens today,” he says.
Apple on Wednesday launched the iPad, a lightweight tablet with a 9.7-inch touchscreen display that brings together web surfing, books, movies and music in an easy-to-carry device. The iPad, which will start shipping in about two months, ranges from $500 to $830 depending on storage and connectivity.
But that’s still almost twice the price of a 6-inch e-reader with half the convenience, says James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research.
“Now that we have seen the iPad, we don’t feel that the e-reader market is going to be hampered by it,” he says. “Smaller sized e-readers are half the price of an iPad and great for reading.”
But McQuivey expects the iPad to hurt the large-screen readers category, which includes the Kindle DX and the Plastic Logic Que. The Kindle DX features a 9.7-inch black-and-white screen and is priced at $490, while the 10.5-inch Plastic Logic Que with E Ink costs $650 or $800 depending on the storage offered.
An iPad Screen for All Seasons?
The fundamental difference between digital-book readers and their electronic peers, such as laptops and phones, is display technology.
Smartphones and laptops use LCD screens that offer vivid color images but are difficult to read in sunlight. Electronic-ink displays, as seen in the Kindle and other e-book readers, are currently stuck in a black-and-white world but they claim a better reading experience. Take a Kindle or a Sony Reader to the park on a sunny weekend and you could have a daylong picnic with just the e-reader.
The iPad can’t offer the same advantages. Vinita Jakhanwal, an analyst with research firm iSuppli say an LCD screen is not as sunlight-friendly as an E Ink display.
The LCD screen also consumes more battery: An iPad promises 10 hours of battery life compared to a Kindle, which doesn’t have to be charged for at least a week. The Kindle’s E Ink screen consumes power only when the page is turned; turn off the wireless and you can go for a week without plugging it in. By comparison an LCD display is said to drink anywhere from 40 percent to 60 percent of the device’s overall power consumption. Backlighting in LCDs can drain power, though companies are trying to use LEDs for the backlight to save on power.
An LCD screen can also be harsher on the eyes. “Reading for a few hours on a handheld LCD screen can be quite a strain,? says Jakhanwal.
Where the iPad does score is in its ability to offer a color display and the ability to embed audio and video files in books. That may not be an advantage for too long. Both E Ink and Qualcomm are working on offering color screens that consume very little power and can be used both outdoors and indoors. At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, Pixel Qi showed a LCD display that can switch between a full-color video mode and a low-power black-and-white display.
A Better Look for E-Books
The Kindle and the Nook’s black-and-white screens may have reduced eye strain but they also stripped the aesthetics out of books. Shorn of the usual typographic tools, e-books on these devices have turned into monotonous blocks of characters.
The iPad will offer publishers a chance to come up with enhanced e-books that contain images, links, background material, embedded audio and even video. It’s a move that’s likely to prompt other traditional e-reader makers to offer tools that will improve the layout of books, says McQuivey. And upcoming color screens for e-readers could help level the playing field between the iPad and other e-readers.
“What the iPad does is say that you don’t have to give up the reading experience when you get the device,” he says.
But some die-hard e-reader fans like Len Edgerly, who hosts the weekly Kindle Chronicles podcast, say pretty e-books aren’t as big a draw as some would think.
“When I am reading, I don’t want to be too distracted,” he says. “It’s about the words, and when I read the Kindle, it seems to bring me closer to the author’s words. That’s essence of reading to me.”
Publishers Battle for the Best Deal
Ultimately, the fight for dominance in the e-reader market is likely to be fought among two giants: Apple and Amazon. And the key to this war will be pricing.
Amazon has been battling publishers to offer electronic best-sellers in its online store for $10. So far, though, Apple hasn’t announced pricing for books in its iBooks store. Reports indicate that it is likely to be in the $14 to $15 range.
“It’s going to be a titanic struggle with publishers trying hard to get Amazon to abandon the $10-bestsellers pricing,” says Edgerly. “But they are unlikely to succeed.”
For Amazon, the success of the Kindle as a hardware platform is secondary to the company’s desire to sell more books, and pricing is the key to the latter.
As a consumer, Edgerly says even if Apple books come with a few extra videos or audios, he won’t pay for it.
“Why would I pay an extra $3 to see a video or hear audio when I get the same book for much less on Amazon?” he says.
Reaching Out to the World
Though Apple’s Steve Jobs has said that books in the iBooks store will be based on the open standard EPUB, which is supported by all e-book readers but the Kindle, he hasn’t talked about digital rights management (DRM).
For now, iBooks are expected to be available only in the United States. That could be because Apple may be using its own DRM system, Fairplay, says de Jager. The iBooks DRM will not be compatible with that of Adobe’s.
“So all those people, mainly in Europe, buying Adobe DRM’ed books will not be able to read them in the iBooks app and vice versa,” he says. “It seems that Apple is trying to create their own e-book ecosystem, just like Amazon did with the Kindle store, Kindle e-book format and Kindle DRM.”
The future of e-reading lies in open e-book systems without DRM, and it is not clear how Apple or Amazon will take to that.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
See Also:
- 10 Things Missing From the iPad
- Live Coverage: Apple’s Special Tablet Event
- Hands-On With the Apple iPad
- Would You Buy an iPad? Wired Readers Weigh In
- Can Apple’s iPad Save the Media After All?
- With iPad, Apple Still Has a Fatal Attraction for AT&T
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/e4QP-MYMLtw/
Two-thirds of government web sites now on Directgov
Tom Young, Computing, Friday 29 January 2010 at 14:38:00
Government web sites consolidated into one
The government has closed almost two-thirds of its web sites as it moves In 2006 The government has since revised this number up to 1,700 after departments In a letter to parliament, Mark Lund, chief executive of the Central Office "Of the 1,700 web sites identified by departments by 31 December 2009, 907 The intention is to make Directgov the The project reflects the vision of the Transformational Government agenda, Since launching in April 2004, the service has gone from being a purely
information onto its central site Directgov.
Sir David
Varney's review of public service transformation found that there were 1,499
government web sites, many with overlapping or conflicting information.
carried out a number of web site reviews.
of Information, wrote:
were closed with a further 479 still open but committed to be closed."
single
point of contact for all public information and services, enabling citizens
to find what they need easily.
which aims to centre public services around the citizen rather than vice versa.
online offering to being available on teletext and digital TV - accessible on
Freeview and Sky.
Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2257019/two-thirds-government-web-sites
?Ransomware? can hold your PC hostage
Turning hijacked computers into cash is hard work for most computer criminals. It's much easier to just demand cash directly from infected users ? a crime that's the Internet's equivalent of kidnapping.�
Full story at http://redtape.msnbc.com
Cosmic Log: Space on your phone
Full story at http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/29/2189736.aspx
Cafeteria Credit Unions Teach Students Money Skills
The recession has revealed how clueless many Americans are when it comes to personal finance. Some credit unions and educators hope establishing in-school branches will help students develop saving habits and general fiscal responsibility.
» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
Full story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123125031&ft=1&f=1001
Friday, January 29, 2010
Kayak.com lets you book 'Lost' flight
Buzz started spreading around on Twitter that you can find something awfully funny on travel search site Kayak.com: search for a one-way flight from Sydney to Los Angeles by Caroline McCarthy CNET News
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-388183.html
Expert sees security issues with the Apple iPad
Apple's new iPad device looks like it will have some of the same security issues that affect the iPhone, such as weak encryption, said a mobile security expert. by Elinor Mills CNET News
Full story at http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-388199.html
Apple Change Quietly Makes iPhone, iPad Into Web Phones
Apple updated the iPhone software development kit on Wednesday to allow internet telephony apps to work on the 3G network. The little-noticed move effectively unlocks the ability for the iPhone — and the upcoming iPad — to be used as web phones.
ICall, a voice-over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) calling company, said the latest revisions in Apple’s iPhone developer agreement and software development kit effectively enable the iPhone to make phone calls over 3G data networks. ICall promptly released an update to its app today, adding the 3G support.
Because the iPad includes a microphone and will run iPhone apps, that means the tablet will gain internet telephony, too.
The FCC on Thursday issued a statement applauding Apple’s policy change.
“I commend Apple’s decision to open its platform to 3G calling, an action that will create new opportunities for entrepreneurs and provide more choices for consumers,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
Previously, Apple’s policy had prohibited VOIP functionality on 3G networks ? Skype, for example, was crippled so that its voice calling capabilities would only work over a Wi-Fi connection. The only way to use VOIP iPhone apps over 3G was by hacking (i.e., jailbreaking) the device.
Apple and AT&T had a secret agreement to ban apps that would let iPhone users make phone calls using the 3G data connection to prevent cutting into AT&T’s profits. That agreement was revealed in summer of 2009 when the FCC asked Apple and AT&T to explain why Google?s Voice app was rejected from the iPhone store.
After the FCC announced it was planning to extend internet openness rules to mobile networks, AT&T in October 2009 announced it would extend VOIP to 3G networks for the iPhone.
It appears that AT&T’s policy change is only now coming into effect, beginning with iCall and a few other VOIP apps that can now work with 3G.
“I applaud Apple’s decision to allow iCall to extend its functionality beyond Wi-Fi and onto the 3G networks,” iCall said in a press statement. “This heralds a new era for VOIP applications on mobile platforms, especially for iCall and our free calling model. I hope that now more developers will begin using our VOIP as a platform to integrate VOIP into their applications.”
Though VOIP services offer cheaper calling plans to consumers, Tero Kuittinen, an MKM Partners telecom analyst, said the impact of VOIP on the telecom market won’t be immediate. He noted current VOIP technologies suffer from poor voice quality compared to traditional cellular calls, and with the current state of network congestion, it’s not going to get much better anytime soon.
“There’s a handful of kids who have always wanted to just make their voice calls on VOIP, but regular consumers have not been very excited about it,” Kuittinen said. “With voice over IP over 3G, the quality isn’t going to be there for quite some time.”
He added that VOIP will probably be much more popular when telecom companies roll out their faster fourth-generation networks, dubbed Long Term Evolution.
The move won’t necessarily change things for the famously rejected Google Voice app for the iPhone. Google Voice lets users channel all their calls through a single Google Voice number, which offers cheap international calls, free long-distance calls, free text messaging and voicemail transcription.
Google Voice is not a VOIP service. The calls are placed on a cell connection and use the minutes on a mobile phone. Circumventing Apple’s blockade, Google recently released a web-based version of Google Voice, which can be accessed through the iPhone browser. But that web-based version of Google Voice still depends on the iPhone’s telephone app to actually place the calls.
Google did not have an announcement regarding Google Voice in light of Apple’s new policy.
“We haven’t heard any updates regarding our native app for the iPhone,” a Google spokeswoman said.
Many have speculated that Apple would not allow Google Voice in its App Store to protect its partner AT&T’s profits. When asked why Google Voice was rejected, AT&T said it had no part in the decision, and Apple said it had not rejected the app and was still examining it.
Apple has been considering the Google Voice app since at least July 2009.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
See Also:
- AT&T Relents, Opens iPhone to Skype, VOIP
- Fring Announces First Video VOIP for the iPhone ? They’re Half Right
- Google Voice Web App Circumvents Apple’s Blockade
- Google Voice Speaks of World Domination
- Google Voice App Rejection: AT&T Blames, Apple Denies, Google Hides
iCall Download Link [iTunes]
Full story at http://feeds.wired.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/KjqQGFiASrE/
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