Read the Original Article at InformationWeek

Several free and open source tools are available to create word lists that can be used for brute-force attacks to obtain passwords of social network users. They include:

>> Custom Word List Generator: Security researcher Robin Wood created CeWL as a way to create a custom word list based on spidering a Web site. This functionality is perfect for quickly determining unique words on a social network profile. CeWL is available for download from Wood's Web site, in the Samurai Web Testing Framework, and within the popular BackTrack 4 penetration testing distribution.

>> RSMangler: Robin Wood's RSMangler complements word-list-generating utilities like CeWL. It takes a word list and generates mangled combinations and manipulations of those words. For example, from "tom, eston, social" RSMangler would output: tomeston, tomsocial, estontom, socialeston, socialtom. It can be downloaded from the RandomStorm site.

>> Associative Word List Generator: This site generates word lists based on search terms that are queried from the Web site using typical search engine techniques. For example, if you search for "tom, eston, agent0x0, zombies, spylogic, security, justice," AWLG will search the Internet for those terms and give you back a listing of relevant keywords.

>> Common Users Password Profiler: Muris Kurgas created this word-list-generation script that uses information gathered online to answer a series of questions CUPP asks. Based on those answers, CUPP generates a custom word list. This tool can be quite handy if an attacker has already found out significant information about a potential victim from a social network profile. CUPP is preinstalled in the BackTrack 4 penetration testing distribution.

>> Userpass.py Script: Created by Mark Baggett, this script automatically generates customized word lists for specific targets. For example, a Google search is launched to find LinkedIn profiles of employees at a target company. Then the script spiders any Web sites found in a user's LinkedIn profile. It pulls the user's profile picture and checks a Web site called "tineye" to determine if the picture matches others on the Internet. If it does, those sites are spidered for keyword information. Finally, all the spidered sites are run through CeWL to generate custom word lists. Userpass.py script can be downloaded from the PaulDotCom Web site.

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By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Fri Oct 29, 4:18 pm ET

Yet another major publication is coming forward claiming confirmation that the long-rumored Verizon iPhone is real. But don't get your hopes up for an iPhone 4 that's compatible with the carrier's soon-to-be-launched 4G network.

In its lengthy profile of Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Fortune says it has confirmed that Verizon will get the iPhone in early 2011—indeed, it's a "fait accompli," claims the magazine, although neither Apple nor Verizon will go on the record and say so.

Fortune says that Verizon will get its "own version" of the iPhone 4 (sorry, no surprise iPhone 5 quite yet) and that it'll run on the carrier's existing 3G network—disappointing news for anyone hoping that the new iPhone would support Verizon's budding 4G LTE data network, which is set to go live in a few dozen U.S. markets before the year is out.

Don't expect a dual-mode GSM/CDMA "world phone" either, Fortune adds, although the story suggests that Verizon FiOS subscribers might get their own iPhone app for live TV streaming.

Rumors about an iPhone on Verizon are nothing new, but the flames have been fanned in recent weeks by articles in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

And then there's the fact that Verizon Wireless just began selling the iPad (bundled with the MiFi Wi-Fi hotspot) in its retail stores, a clear sign that relations between Apple and Verizon have been warming up.

Indeed, Verizon has apparently been courting Apple since before the iPhone even launched. Fortune says Verizon's Seidenberg pleaded his case before Steve Jobs as early as the spring of 2007, a few months before the original iPhone went on sale, asking Jobs why Verizon was "in your doghouse" as far as the iPhone was concerned. The answer: because an iPhone compatible with Verizon's CDMA network wouldn't function on worldwide GSM carriers. (AT&T runs a GSM cellular network.)

Well, uh ... isn't that still the case? Yep, it is, but apparently Jobs had second thoughts about Apple's "one phone for the world" strategy after AT&T's network began buckling under the pressure of all those data-hungry iPhones. He told Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam in a follow-up call that Apple had "missed something" in its earlier discussions with the carrier, Fortune reports.

So, are you convinced by the latest reports of a Verizon iPhone, or will you believe it when you see it? And if Verizon does get the iPhone, will you switch to the "can you hear me now" network?

* Fortune: Get ready for Verizon's 'Dream Phone'

— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.

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By W. David Gardner
Read the Original Article at InformationWeek

Verizon Wireless’ launch of its initial Long Term Evolution (LTE) installation, in West Virginia, indicates that the rollout of the 4G service may be a drawn-out affair.

The capital city of Charleston can expect to get the robust service soon, but other metropolitan areas are not likely to get it until 2013, the company said.

At a showcase dedication in Charleston attended by Senator Jay Rockefeller, a key player on the national telecommunications scene, Verizon Wireless outlined its deployment schedule for the much-awaited robust service.

No other cities have received a Verizon LTE deployment schedule, though prepaid mobile phone provider MetroPCS has begun to offer LTE service in Las Vegas, Dallas and Detroit.

Carved out of the 700-MHz spectrum -- the old TV channels -- LTE is widely anticipated because Verizon expects it will offer from 5Mbps to 12Mbps on the downlink and 2Mbps to 5Mbps on the uplink in real world non-laboratory network environments.

Rockefeller, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, hailed the coming LTE deployment for its economic opportunities and for giving the West Virginia’s citizens “the ability to earn a degree from home, to apply for a job, and to do business in West Virginia and across the globe.”

The LTE spectrum has been an important part of Rockefeller’s effort to provide public safety and first responders with reliable communications channels. He has argued forcefully to allocate a portion of the 700-MHz band for public safety use.

Verizon Wireless’ deployment schedule for West Virginia is the only state schedule outlined by the carrier to date. It has said that some 38 regions will begin to get the service by the end of the year, typically in USB cards and dongles. Handsets with voice calling capability are scheduled to arrive in mid-2011.

“Senator Rockefeller made a compelling case that West Virginians should be among the first in the nation to get the benefits of 4G service,” said Tony Melone, senior vice president and chief technical officer of Verizon Wireless. He added that the deployment will begin in Charleston by the end of the year.

The entire Charleston downtown area is scheduled to be up and running with LTE by mid-2011. By the end of 2013, the expansion is expected to cover Huntington, Parkersburg, Wheeling, Weirton, Beckley, Clarksburg, Morgantown, Fairmont and Martinsburg.

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By Thomas Claburn
Read the Original Article at InformationWeek

Google on Wednesday said it plans to introduce Place Search, a geo-centric format for search results. The idea is to organize search results around a specific location, a service that's particularly valuable for those conducting searches through mobile devices.

Mobile search is becoming an increasingly important business for Google. During its recent Q3 financial call, SVP Jonathan Rosenberg revealed that the annual run-rate for mobile advertising at Google had reached $1 billion.

Google will be presenting Place Search results when its systems determine that the user is looking for local information or when the user explicitly selects the new Places pin icon in Google's left-hand column search refinement menu.

Place Search results include a pin icon that takes the user directly to a Google Maps Place Page, alongside traditional links that lead to a specific Web site. A Google Map showing the location of each place in the search results list runs on the right-hand side of the search results page.

The Place Search launch follows Google's announcement on Tuesday that images taken as part of its pilot project to gather interior photos of businesses are now available on Place Pages. While Google's effort to gather exterior images for its Street View service continues to provoke privacy complaints, the company's assembly of images of the interiors of businesses hasn't proven to be nearly as controversial.

In a draft blog post provided by Google, product manager Jackie Bavaro says that Place Search includes fewer search results than a typical results page and that it saves users about two seconds of searching on average.

Google plans to roll out Place Search globally over the next few days in over 40 languages.

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RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis and Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch shared the stage on Monday at AdobeMAX and talked about Adobe's AIR platform and the BlackBerry PlayBook. The PlayBook, which is rooted in QNX, has a user interface that is derived entirely from AIR.

During the on-stage demo, Lazaridis shows off the multitasking powers of the PlayBook, as well as select applications, such as the media player and video player. Based on the video from the event, RIM imagine's multitasking similar to the way Palm does, and assigns "cards" to each running application. Users can then swipe through the cards to access different applications, leaving the others running in the background.

Lazaridis also showed off the PlayBook's browser, which of course has Adobe's Flash Player Mobile 10.1 baked in. He navigated to the full HTML version of YouTube and was able to play back a promotional video with no problems, and without loading a separate media player to handle the Flash content.

It looks pretty slick, in all. The user interface was fluid and smooth, and takes obvious cues from today's best touch-based platforms. It's one thing to make a demo look good, it's altogether different to bring a working product to market.

RIM took the opportunity at the same event to launch the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR. RIM says of the new developer tools, "This SDK enables developers to quickly and easily create AIR applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using Adobe's powerful, familiar and industry-leading development tools. Adobe AIR developers can start building their applications today for BlackBerry PlayBook and will be able to start submitting their AIR applications for BlackBerry PlayBook to BlackBerry App World by end of this year."

The SDK is already available for download.

If the PlayBook is to have any chance of success, it will need developer support, and particular Adobe's as the UI is based on Adobe tech.

Here's the video in question so you can get a sense for how this new enterprise tablet will really run:

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Monday marks the start of certification for WiFi Direct devices, which means that in the near future it could become a lot easier to link your digital devices.

WiFi Direct, which is being developed by the WiFi Alliance, uses traditional WiFi technology to connect devices quickly, seamlessly and securely. WiFi Direct has been described as a Bluetooth killer but, while it certainly could replace the need for Bluetooth, it also has many more applications and capabilities than Bluetooth.

WiFi Direct uses standard WiFi technology but its application is very different. First, no existing WiFi network or router is needed; the technology uses peer-to-peer connections. Also, the process of connecting devices is much simpler than trying to use current tethering or ad hoc networking for laptops and smartphones. It is designed to be as simple to set up as a Bluetooth connection.

WiFi Direct also makes good use of existing WiFi devices. For example, any PC or laptop that already has standard WiFi 802.11x hardware can connect to a WiFi Direct-enabled device. That means that if you bought a WiFi Direct printer this holiday season, it could instantly connect to your PCs and other WiFi-enabled devices.

Also, since it is essentially a full WiFi connection, WiFi Direct devices can connect over a much greater range than Bluetooth and with greater data connection capacities. Also, it gets rid of the need for a device to have both Bluetooth and WiFi hardware, thus cutting down on hardware and power requirements.

I can definitely see a lot of potential uses for WiFi Direct-enabled devices. On the consumer side, it becomes much easier to synchronize content between digital cameras, entertainment devices and PCs within a household. On the business side, especially for road warriors, hooking up to devices at partner sites and hotels becomes a much simpler task.

Of course, there are potential issues. WiFi Direct uses WPA2 to secure the connection, which is fairly secure but not ironclad. Plus, how devices connect to each other and whether there are measures to prevent unwanted persons or devices from connecting to your WiFi Direct devices will be a big issue. After all, you probably don’t want just anyone in the airport to be able to download all the pictures from your vacation from your digital camera.

Still, I’m excited to see devices that use this standard, and, with certification starting, there’s a good chance we’ll see these devices by the holidays. It’s important for both people and devices to stay connected. And WiFi Direct should make these connections easier.

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Although small businesses are still spending more on search advertising than in the previous year, growth is slowing down, according to the latest quarterly report from WebVisible released Thursday.

"The triple-digit growth numbers from previous quarters have leveled off," according to the interactive advertising technology services firm's Q3 2010 report.

Jon Robinson, the company's chief revenue office, noted that the report reflects WebVisible's own customers' experiences, but, said Robinson, "We feel what we are seeing is representative of the industry overall."

The average advertiser spent $2,327 on paid search advertising in Q3 2010, an increase of 43 percent over Q3 2009, according to the company. This represents a slower growth rate than in previous quarters, when year-over-year (YoY) spending was up 159 percent in Q2 2010, 91 percent in Q1 2010, and 111 percent in Q4 2009. The survey queried more than 12,000 small-business advertisers.

The report said, "The slower growth rate could indicate that small business search advertisers are closing in on the optimum level of spending they need to achieve their desired results. Additionally, service providers are refining their ability to determine efficient spend amounts in order for advertisers to achieve the highest return on spend."

"We're coming off the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and all ad budgets went down, yet search marketing in 2008 went up," said Robinson. "In 2009 and 2010, you've seen recovery quarter-over-quarter."

Online ad spending is still growing. For example, WebVisible noted, automotive advertisers are spending 41% more (annualized) than a year ago. Roofing and air conditioning advertisers showed seasonal spending increases -- "mostly likely due to the hot summer months and simultaneous preparation for winter."

Other metrics noted in the report include:

-- Keyword counts increased in Q3 2010, up 41% from Q3 2009 to an average of 78 root keywords per advertiser.

-- Spending on Bing increased by 37% from Q2 2010 to Q3 2010, resulting in a gain of 3.7 percentage points of share. Yahoo! and Google lost 1.3 and 5.8 percentage points in share respectively.

-- Click through rates converged in Q3 2010, with Bing CTR dropping 27% from Q2 to match Google CTR, which dropped 4%. Yahoo!’s CTR increased by 28% QoQ, and is now only 22% less than Google and Bing."

-- Average keyword prices rose on Google (+4%), Yahoo! (+14%) and Bing (+19%) in Q3 2010, with Yahoo! CPC only 13% less than Google’s cost per click.

Web advertising isn't the only thing that's up, WebVisible also observed: "Nearly 30 percent of all advertisers included video on their landing pages in Q3 2010, more than double the number of advertisers using video a year ago. Viewing video was the second most popular conversion action after clicking through to the advertiser's website."

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Google's effort to marry Internet and television content through its Google TV platform is starting to look like a family melodrama, replete with bitter arguments over attention and money.

The major broadcast networks have decided that to prevent Google TV users from viewing the TV shows that they've posted online, in effect allowing only chosen devices and operating systems to access their Internet content.

ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking their online TV shows from being viewed through Google TV, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. News Corporation is reportedly considering a similar block for Fox content.

The block has no affect on the ability of Google TV users to view network content received through cable, satellite, or broadcast signal connections. It only affects network content on the Internet that is viewed through Google TV's Chrome Web browser.

Google TV users who happen to be sitting with a laptop can access the blocked Internet content through that computer's browser without any problems.

By limiting access only to approved technologies, the networks join Hulu, jointly owned by Disney, NBC Universal and News Corporation, which is also blocking its online content from being seen by Google TV users. Hulu is reportedly negotiating a deal with Google to carry Hulu Plus as a paid subscription service.

Google is talking with representatives from the networks to remove the block, according to a source familiar with the matter.

"Google TV enables access to all the Web content you already get today on your phone and PC, but it is ultimately the content owner's choice to restrict users from accessing their content on the platform," a Google spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.

Google TV hardware from Logitech and Sony has only been available for about a week, but in that time users managed to find a way to play blocked Hulu content. Google TV displays Web content using a version of Google's Chrome browser and by changing the user-agent string in the advanced browser settings menu, users were able to bypass the block.

But Hulu saw that this was happening and turned to blocking against Google TV through either the user-agent string in the Flash Video Player or the measurement of lower level network metrics that aren't easily spoofed. It remains to be seen whether Google TV users will figure out a way around Hulu's latest roadblock.

Harold Feld, an attorney and consumer advocate with Public Knowledge, said in a phone interview that while this isn't a network neutrality issue, it does raise a number of concerns that fall under the FCC's jurisdiction. The issue came up during the Comcast-NBC merger, he said, when Rep. Rick Boucher wrote a letter calling for the merger to be conditional upon the merged company's willingness to make its programming available in a non-discriminatory way.

With the recent Fox-Cablevision spat, this marks the second time in a week that discriminatory distribution has made headlines, and Feld expects that the issue will get more attention.

"This issue has now been raised from obscurity to something people will spend a lot of time talking about over the next year," he said, noting that government agencies tend to spend a lot of time talking before any action is taken.

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Does the world really need another set of development tools? There's Visual Studio from Microsoft, Oracle/Sun's Java Studio Creator, Zend Studio for PHP, and dozens of others. Every developer, it seems, must have a studio of one's own.

WSO2, an open source company in Mountain View, Calif., and Columbo, Sri Lanka, now offers Carbon Studio for developing applications for its lightweight, web services-oriented Carbon middleware, now in use at eBay and major enterprise sites, such as Deutsche Bank, Prudential, and Kaiser Permanente.

Carbon Studio plugs into the Eclipse Programmer's workbench, giving its users the familiar Eclipse integrated development environment with code editing, debugging, and source code control. The emergence of its Eclipse tooling after two years in development allows WSO2 to reach a wider audience for its middleware.

The tooling helps those "who don't have time to fool around" with specialist, lightweight Java application servers and web services standards, said Sanjiva Weerawarana, CEO of WSO2 and a former developer for IBM who helped write the standard for Business Process Execution Language or BPEL. It's now possible for any programmer familiar with Eclipse to start building Carbon applications that automatically work with WSO2 middleware, he said.

That middleware specializes in its use of a small footprint and efficient performance in web services and Java services settings. It includes WSO2 Application Server, Enterprise Service Bus, Governance Registry, and Identity Server, as well as an across-the-board management console, Carbon 3.0, that can assemble an integrated set of such products making use of shared services, such as security, clustering, logging operational data, and tracking deployments.

The Carbon Studio tools allow developers to test and debug application code inside the Eclipse IDE. The Carbon Archive format allows an application to be saved in multiple versions and exported into a production environment, with the different versions of services involved tracked in the deployment.

Weerawarna said the tooling reflects "WSO2's commitment to continuously search and destroy the hassles that developers and IT staff encounter and help businesses fully realize the contributions of SOA to the bottom line."

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MacBook Air

Apple launched on Wednesday an 11.6-inch MacBook Air, adding a smaller version of the company's thinnest and lightest notebook.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs introduced the new Air, along with a refresh of the 13.6-inch version, during a news conference at the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. Along with the new laptops, Apple also introduced the next version of Mac OS X, called Lion.

Apple's latest laptops are a marriage between the iPad and a notebook. In coming up with the new MacBook Airs, engineers and execs asked themselves, "What would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up," Jobs said.

The two models are similar in look, in that both have aluminum unibody designs and are 0.68 of an inch at their thickest point, tapering down to 0.11 of an inch. Neither MacBook has a hard disk drive, but rather use solid-state drives, which provide instant-on capabilities, faster performance and longer battery life. Both systems have full-size keyboard and come with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Nvidia GeForce 320m graphics. However, the 11.6-inch model is lighter, 2.3 pounds versus 2.9 pounds, while the larger model has a higher resolution LED backlit display: 1440 x 900 pixels versus 1366 x 768 pixels. The resolutions on the new MacBook Airs are greater than on the 15-inch and 13-inch MacBook Pros, respectively. In addition, the battery life on the larger Air is longer, seven hours versus five hours, but both have a standby time of 30 hours.

Apple made both models available as of Wednesday. the 11.6-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 with a 1.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of system memory and 64 GB of flash storage. The 13.6-inch model starts at $1,299 with a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of memory and 128 GB of flash storage.

Many industry observers expected Apple to introduce an 11.6-inch Air to compete at the high-end of thin-and-light laptops offered by Windows PC makers. In a hint of what Apple has planned for the rest of the MacBook line, Jobs said the Air represented the future in notebooks. "We see these as the next generation of MacBooks," he said.

Introducing Lion, Job said Apple had brought features from the iPhone and iPad into the new version of the Mac OS X. For example, the company introduced the Mac App Store, where people can download apps for free or a fee set by developers. Payment will be the same as for Apple's other devices. Developers get to keep 70% of the revenue and Apple keeps the rest.

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Just days before Google plans to launch its Chrome Web Store to distribute Web applications, Mozilla has decided that it wants to see more Web app stores.

The open-source software organization, which just announced a new CEO, said on Tuesday that it wants to create a way to simplify the discovery, acquisition, installation, and use of Web apps while simultaneously helping developers monetize said apps.

Mozilla is not the first organization to come to the realization that software distribution needs to be rebooted. There are currently dozens of stores hoping to replicate the success of the iTunes App Store, mainly for mobile apps.

In a post on the Mozilla blog, VP of products Jay Sullivan announced the availability of technical documentation for a proposed open Web App ecosystem, which is intended to work with any modern desktop or mobile Web browser.

Such browsers include Firefox 3.6 and later, Firefox for mobile, Internet Explorer 8, Chrome 6, Safari 5, Opera 10 and WebKit mobile.

Web apps are applications that run in the user's Web browser; they may or may not require network access or local storage. The installation process is akin to making a Web bookmark, though the experience has been reimagined in a way that makes it feel more like installing a desktop application.

Mozilla isn't planning to open a Web app store of its own or to provide payment infrastructure. Rather, it wants to create the code necessary to support free and paid Web app installation by individuals and distribution by developers.

Mozilla motivation for doing this is because the vertically integrated experience pioneered by Apple in its iTunes ecosystem presents "problems such as an opaque approval processes, lack of choice for developers, platform lock-in, [and] high(er) development cost when going cross-platform," the company explains on its Web site.

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A recent survey of 1,948 users found Windows edging out Unix as the top operating system that Linux replaces in migration projects.

Linux's presence in the data center has grown rapidly alongside Windows' -- together the two have been the fastest growing data center operating systems, frequently at the expense of Unix. Now a new survey by the Linux Foundation suggests that, at least among large Linux users, Linux is growing at the expense of Windows, too.

It's hard to get a precise picture of Linux's position in the data center. No one company owns it, and various versions are readily available through free download, which no one claims to track. The Linux Foundation turned to known Linux users, the members of its End User Council, and 1,900 other enterprise and government Linux users selected by the Yoeman Technology Group.

When Linux growth has been tracked over the past decade, much of it was attributed to migrations from the former Sun Microsystems' Solaris, IBM AIX, and HP-UX and other Unixes. In the recent survey, "migrations to Linux from Windows are surpassing those from Unix," the report said, with 37% coming from Windows and 31% from the Unixes.

It says that 76% of companies plan to add more Linux servers over the next 12 months, compared to 41% that plan to add Windows servers. Over a five-year period, the shift accelerates: 79.4% plan to add more Linux; 21% more Windows. Forty-four percent said they were planning to maintain their existing number of Windows servers, or decrease them over the next 12 months.

The survey contains the bias of being submitted to existing Linux users motivated to fill out a survey from the Linux Foundation. Nevertheless, previous foundation reports and anecdotal evidence had revealed preferences for Linux and Windows, not a favoring of Linux over Windows, its spokesmen said.

In addition, 66% say their current Linux deployments are new server deployments rather than replacements for existing systems, showing Linux is at the forefront of new application implementations. "This greenfield market-share grab is a good indicator of a platform's future performance," claimed the Yeoman Technology Group report.

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Looking for an edge over retailers that now sell Apple's iPad and rival Verizon Wireless, AT&T on Friday announced it will target sales of Apple's hit tablet computer directly to business users.

The iPad will go on sale at AT&T and Verizon retail stores on the same day, Oct. 28. But only AT&T will carry the version that has both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Verizon will sell the Wi-Fi version bundled with a mobile Wi-Fi hot spot that enables the device to work anywhere, much the same as a 3G iPad. It will sell a gigabyte of data per month for $25, compared to AT&T's $15 and $20 plans for 500 megabytes and 2GB.

The prices for both types of iPads will be the same: $629 for the 16GB model, $799 for the 32GB, and $899 for the 64GB.

The iPad went on sale Friday at the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, and was already available at Best Buy and Target stores.

They'll Build Your App

To get a leg up on the competition, AT&T is not only selling the iPad and post-paid mobile broadband price plans through its business-account representatives but also offering support to create new applications for businesses that use the devices.

"iPad is a great fit for all our enterprise customers across a wide range of industries who are looking for ways to increase business productivity and offer greater flexibility," said Michael Antieri, president of AT&T's Advanced Mobility Business Solutions.

Earlier this week, Good Technology, which provides server access for businesses, reported that the Apple iPad was the third most popular new device utilizing its systems between June and October. (The company doesn't provide access for BlackBerry devices).

And a report on Friday by research firm Gartner said the iPad is fueling a trend that could push media tablet sales to 19.5 million next year, with such devices serving as companion devices to notebooks for travel or for fast access to e-mail, calendars and other applications, as well as for presentations using Microsoft's PowerPoint.

But the report noted that since tablets don't yet replace the functions of laptops and cell phones, "most organizations will not buy that third device," though many business users are paying for them out of their own pockets.

AT&T's Advantage

Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said the wireless carrier debut shows that both AT&T and Verizon "recognize that this is an important product." But he said AT&T holds a sales advantage with its exclusive on 3G coverage.

"They have integrated the AT&T radio into the device," said Gartenberg. Using the Wi-Fi iPad with a mobile hot spot, he said, is "a little more cumbersome. You have to carry both devices and charge both devices, which is never as elegant as having one solution."

As for speed, Gartenberg said that while it depends on where you are and what you are doing, "you're probably going to get more throughput from using 3G directly as opposed to using the Wi-Fi connection first."

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How To Manage Mobile Devices

Ning, a platform for creating customized social networking websites, has launched Ning Everywhere, an application programming interface (API) for network creators and third-party developers.

With Ning Everywhere, Ning Networks now can be digital hubs, integrating with cloud and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Seesmic, accessible from multiple devices and extensible for developers that want to create custom applications, according to Ning.

“Consumers have changed their expectations on how and where they will consume social,” said Jason Rosenthal, CEO of Ning. “Ning Everywhere gives our customers new and deeper ways to customize their Ning social experience and make it accessible on any device.”

Ning Everywhere now has three paths for the creation of communities. With the API, network creators can build their own custom apps with the help of other developers.

Via Ning extensions, Ning creators and members have access to seamless integration with leading cloud services, letting users and creators tap new features and extend the reach of their Ning communities. By clicking a button, Ning creators can enable Seesmic, Constant Contact, Aviary, CafePress, heyZap, and Skimlinks on Ning Networks, providing new ways to monetize and connect, according to Ning.

“Constant Contact and Ning share a common passion and commitment to making social media simple and accessible for our customers,” said Steve Johnson, vice president of partners at Constant Contact. “The combination of our complementary technology platforms helps small business customers extend the reach and impact of their Ning communities through the power of email marketing.”

Finally, through partnerships with several mobile application creation platforms, Ning has simplified the way in which developers can create branded mobile apps for Ning Networks. Under the premium program, Mobile Roadie and Double Dutch offer a simple way for network creators to build sophisticated mobile apps for Ning communities, while the Do it Yourself program provides AppMakr and Double Dutch with cost-effective ways to create mobile apps, Ning said.

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Mozilla Corporation on Thursday said Gary Kovacs will be the organization's new CEO as of November 8th, 2010.

Kovacs formerly held the title of senior VP of markets, solutions, and products at Sybase and then, after its acquistion, at SAP. He worked previously for Adobe, IBM, and Zi Corporation.

John Lilly, Mozilla's current CEO, will step down to join venture capital firm Greylock Partners later this year.

"Gary brings a deep understanding of the mobile space and rich media from his time at Macromedia / Adobe and Sybase," said Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla Foundation, in a blog post on Thursday. "Both of these areas are critical to the future of the Web."

Lilly in a blog post also stressed Kovacs's "deep background in mobile."

Mobile browsing has proven to be a difficult market for Mozilla. The organization has opted not to try to produce a mobile version of Firefox for Apple's iPhone because of Apple's iOS developer rules. And Mozilla only just released the first Firefox 4 beta for Android and Maemo devices earlier this month.

Mozilla's trouble replicating its desktop success in the mobile arena is compounded by the furious pace of desktop browser development. Since the release of Google's Chrome Web browser in September, 2008, Firefox's share of the browser market has remained more or less flat, with a market share ranging from 22% to 24%, according to NetApplications. Google's Chrome browser meanwhile has seen its market share climb to 8%.

At the same time, Apple and Microsoft have stepped up efforts to make their Web browsers, Safari and Internet Explorer, more competitive.

And the competition is only going to increase. In the next month or two, Google is planning to introduce a new operating system, Chrome OS, based on its browser. And Google continues to be Mozilla's largest source of revenue.

With Apple, Microsoft, and Google all building their respective platforms beyond the browser to include mobile, desktop computing, and cloud services, Kovacs faces the challenge of developing a strategy that will allow Mozilla to thrive amid the Internet's giants.

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Microsoft and its partners will have to develop lower-cost versions of Windows Phone 7-based devices if they're to be competitive with offerings from rival Google, according to one industry watcher.

Microsoft's Windows 7 Phone Revealed

Gartner's Carolina Milanesi, in a blog post, said the debut rosters of Windows Phone 7 phones from AT&T and T-Mobile, most of which will sell for about $200 with a contract, do not offer enough variation in price and lack options for the budget minded.

"At launch starting out with high-end devices will guarantee a higher level of appeal and help drive on the visceral appeal," wrote Milanesi. "However, in order to grow market share Microsoft will have to come down on ASP (average selling price) to be able to compete more directly with Android-based products," wrote Milanesi.

AT&T will offer three Windows Phone 7 devices, staring next month. Its lineup includes the HTC Surround, the Samsung Focus, and LG Quantum. Each sells for about $200 with contract. T-Mobile's portfolio includes the HTC HD7 and the Dell Venue Pro. T-Mobile has not announced prices, but its Windows Phone 7 phones are also expect to sell for roughly $200 with contract.

There are a number of Google Android phones that are similarly priced, but there are also models that cost significantly less. AT&T, for instance, offers the Samsung Captivate for $60 with a contract. Apple fans, meanwhile, can purchase an iPhone 3GS for $99 with an AT&T contract.

Gartner predicts the release of Windows Phone 7 will help bump Microsoft's share of the worldwide mobile OS market from 4.7% in 2010 to 5.2% in 2011, but says the company's share will ultimately decline to just 3.9% by 2014.

For that forecast to improve, Milanesi said Microsoft needs to come down on price, roll out a richly populated app store, and develop phones that are not just functional but also cool. "Microsoft-based products need to move from hitting consumers at a functional level to hitting consumers at a visceral and reflective level," she said.

"The Windows Phone brand needs to be seen as a cool consumer brand rather than something that only a business user would find interesting," Milanesi added. Microsoft formally introduced Windows Phone 7 on Monday. AT&T's devices will hit the market Nov. 8, while T-Mobile's Windows Phone 7 offerings will be in stores shortly thereafter.

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Image Gallery: 12 Worst Government Websites

As part of an ongoing effort by federal agencies to foster more public engagement and transparency, the FBI has unveiled the most comprehensive redesign of its website since it was launched 15 years ago.

The revamped site is more news-oriented and allows people to more easily find information on the latest crime statistics, the FBI's top fugitives and notable cases the agency is working on, according to information about the redesign on the FBI website.

The agency said it made changes to the site -- first launched in 1995 and which has more than 30 million visitors annually -- based on user feedback. The site features a new homepage with a focus on breaking news and other current event-related content. Navigation for the homepage is now on the top of the page with site destinations organized into eight categories, a tab for each across the top of the page, according to the FBI.

The agency also has added an alphabetical index to help people find what they are looking for on the site more easily, it said.

Specific pages on the site also have been redesigned to be more user-friendly as well. The FBI's Most Wanted site has a new search engine so people can submit queries on fugitives by name, gender, rewards, locations and wanted or crime categories, according to the agency.

The "About Us" page also has been revamped to provide more news-oriented information and direct people to investigations on topics that are relevant to their daily lives, such as identity theft and healthcare fraud. The FBI has added an "In the News" section to the page including links to recent cases and events.

In addition to updating existing pages, the FBI has added new pages to the site. The Intel-Driven FBI page provides a detailed look at the agency's mission after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and showcases intelligence tools and capabilities the agency has developed. Another new page, Partnerships and Outreach, shows how the FBI works with other agencies and organizations to achieve its goals.

The FBI will use site pop-up surveys to garner user feedback on the redesign so the FBI can continue to make user-friendly changes, the agency said.

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Mozilla has launched Firefox 4 for mobile in beta, bringing many of the web browser's desktop features to Android smartphones through a major redesign.

While Mozilla has added some important mobile features, such as Sync and the Awesome Bar, the most dramatic change is under the covers. The open-source browser includes two big architectural changes, which Mozilla calls Electrolysis and Layers.

Electroysis lets the browser interface run as a separate process from the one rendering web content. The architecture makes Firefox 4 much more responsive as a mobile browser, Mozilla said.

The other big design change, Layers, involves how the browser handles graphics in regards to such functions as scrolling, pinch-to-zoom and animations. The Layers architecture allows for hardware acceleration in driving graphics-related functionality, Mozilla mobile engineer Matt Brubeck said in his blog.

The latest Firefox for mobile also contains features not found on other browsers for phones based on Google's Android operating system, Mozilla says. Those features include the ability to sync bookmarks, tabs, history, passwords and form data between the mobile browser and version of Firefox on a desktop or laptop.

Another unique feature, the Awesome Bar, launches a separate screen where users can access recent history, bookmarks and tabs.

Like the desktop browser, add-ons built by third-party developers will be available for the new mobile browser. Add-ons are an important differentiator for Firefox, because it enables users to customize the browser with a broad range of additional features.

The beta version of Firefox 4 is being offered primarily as a test drive for people interested in providing Mozilla with feedback in developing the final product. Besides Android, Firefox 4 mobile beta also is available for Maemo, a software platform developed by Nokia and used primarily in that company's smartphones. Maemo is based on the Debian Linux distribution.

But the Android platform offers Mozilla the best chance of gaining a foothold in the smartphone market. OSes from other major smartphone makers, such as Apple and Research In Motion, favor the manufacturers' proprietary browsers. In the Apple iOS found in the iPhone, it's Safari, while RIM's browser is found in the BlackBerry smartphone.

Android, on the other hand, is an open platform that's growing fast within the smartphone market. In August, 32% of people buying smartphones in the U.S. bought Android phones, versus 26% and 25% who bought BlackBerries and iPhones, respectively, according to Nielsen.

Mozilla has said that it won't build a version of Firefox for the iPhone, due to "technical and logistical restrictions" that make such a development effort nearly impossible.

By Antone Gonsalves
Read the Original Article at InformationWeek

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Microsoft is set to unveil Windows Phone 7 on Monday at events in New York City, London, and other locations. Make no mistake, the launch is a big deal for Microsoft, which badly needs recapture mindshare and relevancy in the smartphone space.

Though few people outside of Microsoft and its handset and network operator partners have handled the new operating system, many are offering their thoughts on it, including Google's Andy Rubin. Rubin is the mastermind behind Google's own Android platform.

In an interview with PCMag, Rubin said, "Look, the world doesn't need another platform. Android is free and open; I think the only reason you create another platform is for political reasons."

Microsoft has spent several years and millions of dollars to completely overhaul Windows Phone. Microsoft has long been a player in the enterprise market, but has seen its market share erode to competitors RIM, Apple, and Google. Microsoft can't afford to lose out in the smartphone space. It is more vital than ever, especially with the rise of cloud-based services.

Rubin, of course, was sure to talk up Android's benefits over that of competing platforms, "Why doesn't the whole world run with [Android]? They don't like the people who developed, or "not invented here," but [Android] is a successful, complete, vertically integrated free platform. I encourage everybody to use it."

Rubin, however concedes that more choices for consumers is a good thing. "Competition is good for the consumer and if somebody has an an idea for a feature or a piece of functionality in their platform and Android doesn't do it, great. I think it's good to have the benefit of choice, but in the end I don't think the world needs another platform. What Android is particularly good at that I think some of the other platforms lack, besides being open, is it's really a platform that's enabling a bunch of services."

May the best platform win...

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On Wednesday, Verizon Wireless announced the 38 markets in which it plans to launch LTE, its 4G network. Verizon's LTE network will get off the ground a full six months ahead of AT&T's, which has targeted a launch by the middle of 2011.

You know what Verizon Wireless isn't doing? Upgrading the speeds of its CDMA EVDO 3G network (according to AT&T). Verizon's CDMA EVDO Rev. A network tops out at 3.1Mbps, and that's where it will stay.

AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom said in an email to InformationWeek, "Verizon is moving straight to LTE and not increasing their 3G speeds, so their customers will have a jarring drop-off in performance when not in an LTE service area – speed, sure, but also simultaneous voice/data, etc."

AT&T believes that Verizon's approach will lead to customer service problems, and that its own slow-and-steady speed improvement approach is superior.

Bloom continued, "In contrast, because we are building LTE while at the same time continuing to increase 3G speeds, our customers can expect to have a much better experience when they’re not in a 4G area. [This] will be vitally important for the customer experience no matter the carrier."

Verizon Wireless' LTE network will reach download speeds between 5 and 12Mbps, and upload speeds of 2 to 5Mbps. While 12Mbps is surely faster than 3.1Mbps, I think AT&T is overstating the performance issue a bit. Sure, speeds will drop as Verizon customers move between LTE and EVDO, but Verizon's EVDO network is solid as hell, and fast enough for most professionals' business needs when not under LTE coverage.

AT&T also happened to beat Verizon to announcing actual LTE hardware. Where Verizon said hardware announcements are forthcoming, AT&T announced an HSPA+ and LTE-compatible laptop dongle that can access the fast network speeds.

When asked for comment about plans to upgrade its 3G network speeds, Verizon Wireless spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson dropped this knowledge, "We have a proud history of meeting and exceeding market demands on our wireless networks. We build our networks for success right from the start and aren't surprised when we succeed in the marketplace. And we constantly improve them. It's just not enough to address your network problems by promising to do better down the road."

"When choosing a wireless company, people want more than promises. Customers value our long-term track record for leading on network reliability, speed, coverage and capacity. By moving aggressively and becoming the first company on the globe to build a large-scale LTE network, we'll gain first-to-market advantages in the US, with a head-start of at least 18-24 months."

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Motorola on Wednesday announced that it has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and other devices infringe on Motorola patents. The lawsuits were filed in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida.

Based on what Motorola claims, the patents cover a range of technologies mostly to do with wireless and radio antenna behavior. That includes technology related to WCDMA, GPRS, 802.11, and antenna design.

It also applies to software. Interestingly Motorola singles out Apple's MobileMe and iPhone App Store as two products that infringe on Motorola intellectual property. Those patents concern wireless email systems, proximity sensors, software application management, location-based services and how devices can sync with computers.

At this point, nearly every smartphone maker is suing its competitors over a wide range of wireless technology patents. Apple is embroiled in lawsuits with RIM, HTC, Motorola, and Nokia. Microsoft recently sued Motorola.

With the fierce competition between these companies for consumer and enterprise dollars, pricing pressure, and near full saturation of the mobile market, finding ways to wrangle every last ounce of profit from products -- and their patents -- is becoming an important strategy.

Motorola is asking the ITC to prevent Apple from importing the questionable products into the U.S. It is also looking for compensation, though it didn't spell out how much.

Kirk Dailey, corporate vice president of intellectual property at Motorola Mobility, said, "Motorola has innovated and patented throughout every cycle of the telecommunications industry evolution, from Motorola’s invention of the cell phone to its development of premier smartphone products. We have extensively licensed our industry-leading intellectual property portfolio, consisting of tens of thousands of patents in the U.S. and worldwide. After Apple’s late entry into the telecommunications market, we engaged in lengthy negotiations, but Apple has refused to take a license. We had no choice but to file these complaints to halt Apple’s continued infringement. Motorola will continue to take all necessary steps to protect its R&D and intellectual property, which are critical to the company’s business."

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Apple has asked a federal judge to toss out a $625.5 million award by a jury that found the Mac maker had violated three patents related to how documents are displayed on a Mac, iPhone and iPod Touch.

The U.S. District Court jury in Tyler, Texas, found on Friday that Apple had infringed on the Mirror Worlds patents in developing Time Machine, Spotlight and Cover Flow. The jury awarded the plaintiff $208.5 million on each patent.

Time Machine, Spotlight and Cover Flow allow people to scroll through files in a way that's like flipping through a deck of cards. Cover Flow is for scrolling through album cover art when looking for music in the iTunes library in Apple devices, Time Machine makes backup copies of files and Spotlight is used to search for files. The latter two are in the Mac.

On Sunday, Apple filed an emergency motion asking U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis for a stay of the jury decision, saying that the damages awarded on each patent amounted to Mirror Worlds "triple dipping." In addition, Davis had said that he would reconsider the evidence regarding infringement of two of the patents and could reverse the jury's ruling, Apple argued. The judge's decision on the request is pending.

The patents reflect the work of Yale computer scientists Eric Freeman and David Gelernter, who in the mid-1990s recognized that the desktop metaphor has its limits and proposed to organize computer documents in a time-ordered stream.

Mirror Worlds, which sued Apple in March 2008, began operating in 1997 and shipped its first enterprise software product, Scopeware, in March 2001. In 2002, it released a desktop product called Scopeware Vision. The company closed its doors on May 15, 2004.

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Twitter chief executive Evan Williams stepped down on Monday, handing over the reins to Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo, who will now lead the company's effort to build a profitable business model.

On the company's blog, Williams said he would leave running the company to Costolo, so he could focus on product development at the micro-blogging site.

"I am most satisfied while pushing product direction," co-founder Williams said. "Building things is my passion, and I've never been more excited or optimistic about what we have to build."

Since taking the job of CEO two years ago, Williams has struggled with the challenges of growing an organization quickly. When he first took over, Twitter was generating about 1.25 million tweets a day, compared to 90 million today. During the same timeframe, the site grew from 3 million registered users to more than 165 million.

"Growing big is not success, in itself," Williams said. "Success to us means meeting our potential as a profitable company that can retain its culture and user focus while having a positive impact on the world. This is no small task."

Williams brought in Costolo as COO about a year ago to help with managing Twitter. During that time, Costolo has been "a critical leader in devising and executing our revenue efforts, while simultaneously and effectively making the trains run on time in the office," Williams said.

Costolo has been instrumental in moving Twitter toward profitability through an advertising program launched in April called Promoted Tweets. The ads, which are supposed to be relevant to search queries on Twitter.com, are placed at the top of results pages.

The company started the program initially with a select group of advertising partners: Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks and Virgin America. Twitter expected to add advertisers to the trial and later open Promoted Tweets to other advertisers and to Twitter partners, such as makers of Twitter clients.

In June, Twitter rolled out an extension of Promoted Tweets called Promoted Trends, which is a topic that is already a Twitter trend, but one that is not yet popular enough to have arrived on the Trending Topics list. Twitter is in the process of tuning its application programming interface to give developers access to the two ad mechanisms.

Last month, Costolo spoke at ExactTarget's Connections '10 user conference in support of the latter company's Interactive Marketing Hub that's designed to allow marketers to power all forms of real-time interactive marketing across email, social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook; mobile devices and websites. Costolo's addressed more than 2,000 marketers at the show.

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Best PC Games Of All Time

Electronic Arts has renamed the enemy forces opposing U.S. troop in the multiplayer portion of the upcoming 'Medal of Honor' game, dropping the name Taliban out of respect for the real-world soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.

Instead, EA will use the name "Opposing Force" for enemy troops battling U.S. soldiers. The game maker said it was making the game change after friends and families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan expresses concern over the inclusion of the Taliban in the game.

"This is a voice that has earned the right to be listened to," Greg Goodrich, executive producer of "Medal of Honor," said in the company's blog. "It is a voice that we care deeply about."

Goodrich said the change wouldn't have any effect on the functionality of the game. "We are making this change for the men and women serving in the military and for the families of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice -- this franchise will never willfully disrespect intentionally or otherwise, your memory and service."

"Medal Of Honor" is scheduled to be released Oct. 12, with the multiplayer portion to begin open beta Oct. 4. The latest version is the first time the first-person shooter game takes place in Afghanistan rather than World War II.

First released in November 1999, the game is available today for the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. The multiplayer portion can be played on a Windows PC or Apple Mac.

"Medal Of Honor" is one of the major releases heading to stores in time for the holiday shopping season. Other major releases include "Halo: Reach," the latest version of the hugely popular "Halo" games for the Xbox 360.

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10 Drivers For Microsoft Surge In 2010

Microsoft said Friday it has filed a lawsuit against Motorola with the International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington state. The suit alleges Motorola infringed on nine patents to produce its Android smart phones.

This is not the first patent suit filed against Android. The first suit was in March when Apple sued HTC, maker of the Nexus One, Touch Pro and Droid Eris handsets, among others. Apple claims the use of Android and DSP chips violates its iPhone patents.

A second suit against Android was launched Aug. 12 when Oracle sued Google, claiming the Android virtual machine, Dalvik, infringed patents that came to Oracle when it acquired Sun Microsystems.

Sun's Java engineers were concerned about the development of Dalvik as a virtual machine that didn't conform to the Java standard. But in its previous, weakened condition, Sun was in no position to take on the search engine giant, especially since it was controlled by CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt, former CTO at Sun. Once inside Oracle, the weakened condition changed.

It's easy to recall Sun's stout defense of Java in the 1990s, when it sued Microsoft for creating a Windows-specific version of the language. Sun said tailoring Java to Windows -- which Microsoft pointed out made it run faster -- diluted Java's value. Sun was claiming at the time it was a language in which any application could be built and then run anywhere. If Java never fully lived up to that promise, it was still the first modern language to often live up to it -- thanks to its ubiquitous Java Virtual Machine.

Now the shoe is on the other foot as Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system struggles to gain headway against an expanding Android ecosystem. Microsoft is suing Motorola for infringement of nine Microsoft patents in Motorola's Android phones.

Even if these suits don't succeed in their own right, they are throwing a pall over all the development efforts currently underway by independent, third party developers, who were rapidly making Android the best equipped mobile device environment for consumer applications. These suits are as much aimed at these developers' loyalty, as they are the protection of any specific mobile phone features or internal workings.

Microsoft, Oracle and Apple all have extensive patent portfolios pertaining to programming languages, operating systems and device interfaces. Google probably has one of the world's best patent portfolios related to hierarchical search results. When it comes to mobile device operation, the patent edge has to lie with the big establishment three, a new Tripartite Alliance to restrain the enfant terrible. But it must feel strange to those Sun engineers inside Oracle America -- the new name for the Sun business unit -- to look out the window in a competitive and conflict strewn world and see Microsoft standing there as a friend and ally.

For those of us who wish the Patent Office could be restrained -- it doesn't have the expertise to issue software patents, and until it does, it should be restricted from doing so -- there is no winner in this fight. But there will be potentially lots of losers, particularly the independent software engineers who develop for Android. Looks like Google is going to have to stop solving global warming for us and start paying attention to business.

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