Mozilla Shooting for Record Books With Firefox 3 Release

The company started a campaign asking users to pledge to download the next full release of its browser on the day it is available so the release can set a Guinness World Record

Mozilla Shooting for Record Books With Firefox 3 Release

Mozilla is aiming to create what may be the geekiest world record ever with its upcoming Firefox 3 browser release.

The company on Wednesday started a campaign asking users to pledge to download the next full release of its browser on the day it is available so the release can set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours.

Mozilla has not yet unveiled exactly when Firefox 3 will be available, but expects it could be as soon as mid-June. A test release of Firefox 3 is currently available online.

The company is deeming the day of its release "Download Day" and is asking fans to not only pledge to download Firefox 3, but to host parties to encourage friends to download with them, and place "Download Day" buttons on their Web sites as reminders of the big day.

Currently there is no world record for software downloads; Mozilla is trying to create one with Firefox 3 and its Download Day festivities.

According to the campaign's Web site, once Download Day is over, Mozilla plans to provide the Guinness Book of World Records a signed statement of authentication from its judges showing that it followed rules for breaking records; the company also will confirm download numbers.

Mozilla also plans to send video footage and photographs of Mozilla users hosting download parties as well as download logs for a sample size of Firefox 3 downloads to prove it has set a world record.

While the fanfare may seem a bit geeky, Firefox -- released in November 2004 -- has inspired a significant and rather fervent fan base. This is in part because it was the first browser in years to give Microsoft's Internet Explorer viable competition. The browser even has its own fan page (sign-in required) on the Facebook social-networking site, with 79,174 fans signed up and counting.

According to Mozilla, there are more than 175 million users of Firefox, which is available in more than 45 languages and used in more than 230 countries.

More information about how users can participate in Download Day is available on the campaign's Web site.

Windows 7 to Include Multitouch

Microsoft is finally opening up about when Windows 7 will ship, but the company continues to share just a few, yet tantalizing details of what the eagerly anticipated OS update will be all about.



Microsoft Windows 7 to Include Multitouch Features

The latest tidbit to drop is multitouch interface support. At the Wall St. Journal's D Conference Tuesday evening in Carlsbad, Calif., company founder and chief software architect Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer are scheduled to unveil a laptop with a touchscreen that accepts multiple, simultaneous touches. The effect is quite reminiscent of what's possible with the world's most popular, commercially available gesture-based interface device: the iPhone.

Officially, Windows 7 is scheduled to ship three years after the general availability of Windows Vista, according to Microsoft. Vista's business editions launched on Nov. 30, 2006, which would mean the software could ship as early as that date in 2009, with a beta release in advance. Vista's editions for the home market launched Jan. 29, 2007.

To be fair, this is not Microsoft's first foray into the multitouch arena. The company's innovative "Surface" computing platform, which combines cameras to sense the gestures and touches of either a single user or multiple users, allowing them to interact with a table-top full of digital objects. Surface then uses a projector to project the image onto a screen. Windows 7 would use touchscreen technology to achieve similar effects.

Microsoft would not say specifically whether the OS will support gestures as well as multitouch support, like Surface does. Given the gesture support in Apple's products, however, something similar is likely.

A video posted on Microsoft Windows Client Communications Team Director Chris Flores' blog shows the interface on a laptop and table-mounted LCD screen. During that demonstration a user edits and manipulates photos with his fingertips, navigates a map and plays a virtual piano.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said the company is "working closely with OEMs, IHVs and ISVs to bring the best touch experiences to Windows PCs. The Windows and Surface teams are also working together closely to deliver the best and most innovative touch experiences to customers."

"Touch is quickly becoming a common way of directly interacting with software and devices," Flores wrote on his blog, in something of a validation of the touch and gesture based platform introduced on Apple's iPhone. "Touch-enabled surfaces are popping up everywhere including laptop touch pads, cell phones, remote controls, GPS devices, and more."

LaCie Doubles Blu-ray Burner Speed

The d2 Blu-ray Drive features dual FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces and is compatible with the Mac and Windows


LaCie Doubles Blu-ray Burner Speed

LaCie has introduced a faster version of its d2 Blu-ray Drive, available now for US$649.99.

The d2 Blu-ray Drive features dual FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces and is compatible with the Mac and Windows. It ships with Roxio's Toast Titanium software for Mac OS X and Easy Media Creator for Windows, and it lets you burn Blu-ray, DVD and CD media.

In addition to the faster drive mechanism -- which now operates at 4x Blu-ray burning speed -- LaCie has also augmented the drive with an updated aluminum alloy case and better software.

Blu-ray Disc is the high-capacity optical medium used by the Sony PlayStation 3 and other high definition drives. It's the successor to DVD and the heir apparent to the HD throne following Toshiba's withdrawal of HD DVD from the market earlier this year. Double-layer Blu-ray Discs can store up to 50GB, more than 10 times the capacity of a single-layer DVD disc.

Future Apple Devices May Be Solar-Powered

Employees at Apple have filed a patent for integrating solar cells into portable devices


Future Apple Devices May Be Solar-Powered

Employees at Apple have filed a patent for integrating solar cells into portable devices by placing them underneath the layers of a touch-sensitive display, according to the filing.

Solar power could help make devices truly portable, freeing from the need for wires to connect them to a power supply.

When generating electricity from solar panels, the larger the panel the better -- but as the patent "Solar cells on portable devices" warns, after allowing space for buttons, screens and a way to hold the device, only a small area is left on most devices for solar cells.

One of the ways around that suggested in the patent is to stack a touch-sensitive layer, a display and solar panel on top of one another. That could make Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch good candidates for such a power supply, as the display occupies almost the entire face of those devices.

The use of solar powered charging in portable devices is starting to get more attention, for more immediate consumer use as well.

When Vodafone announced its plan in April to reduce its emissions of the greenhouse gase CO2 by 50 percent by 2020, it also announced plans for solar-powered phone chargers and universal phone chargers for Vodafone-branded handsets.

At the recent ITU Telecom Africa 2008 conference, Ugandan Minister for Communications and Information and Communication Technologies Ham-Mukasa Mulira talked about trials of solar-powered charging conducted there, which had showed promise.

Newest Firefox Beta has Critical Flaws

Mozilla has identified 10 high-priority bugs in Firefox 3.0 but won't decide until next week whether to release the browser or issuing a second release candidate (RC2).


Newest Firefox Beta has Critical Flaws, Mozilla Admits

Mozilla has identified 10 high-priority bugs in Firefox 3.0, three of them pegged "critical," but won't decide until next week whether to release the browser anyway or restart the final stretch by issuing a second release candidate (RC2).

"We are making a go/no go decision early next week, as we are still collecting feedback [on Release Candidate 1]," Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, said in an e-mail Thursday.

Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) launched a week ago, but Mozilla has not yet committed to RC2. Previously, the company has only said it is targeting June as the release window for the final code.

On the "mozilla.dev.planning" newsgroup, Schroepfer also said that on May 27 Mozilla will either call Firefox 3.0 finished with RC1, or build RC2 with fixes for the 10 bugs that have been collected.

In the meantime, testing will begin on the 10 bugs. "If we need to do an RC2, they'll be ready to go," he said. "If we ship RC1, we can get them in the 3.0.1."

The bug list includes three marked "critical" on Bugzilla, Mozilla's bug-tracking database and management system. Eight of the bugs affect Firefox on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, while two afflict only Linux.

One of Linux bugs has caught the eye of some Firefox users, in part, because of a short blog post that garnered attention on Digg.com . The blogger, Jason Clinton, who works for Advanced Clustering Technologies Inc., a Kansas City company that specializes in cluster-based systems and Linux servers, took Mozilla to task.

On Tuesday, Clinton called Mozilla's support for Linux "second-class" and blasted the open-source developer over a bug. "Release managers just made the call that Firefox 3.0 will release with a known bug which brings Linux systems to their knees."

The bug Clinton referenced, tagged as "421482" in Bugzilla, is one of the 10 on the list that Mozilla's using to decide whether to release Firefox 3.0 as is or craft RC2 for another go towards final code.

In Bugzilla, developers argued over the extent of the problem -- which some Linux users said seriously affected Firefox's performance, as well as their systems overall -- and where the fault lay -- in the browser or in SQLite, the database Firefox uses for its revamped bookmark and history feature, dubbed "Places."

On Wednesday, in a separate e-mail, Schroepfer said that Mozilla developers were looking into the bug and were confident a solution had been found. "You can see that a couple different issues have been accidently confused," he said. "Overall, I think we have some good options to make this work well."

Firefox 3.0 will be the first major upgrade to the browser since October 2006. But Mozilla may ship another version before the end of the year, Schroepfer has said, in order to add features that weren't ready in time for Firefox 3.0.

Firefox 3 RC1 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 41 languages from Mozilla's site.

Google Steals Search Share From Rivals

Extending its dominance in the search market, Google grew its share of queries in April at the expense of rivals Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and Ask.com.


Google Steals Search Share From Rivals

Google's U.S. search query share in April grew to 61.6 percent, up from 59.8 percent in March, comScore announced Thursday. Google accomplished this although the number of search queries dropped 2 percent overall in April to 10.58 billion, compared with March, comScore said.
So even with the overall monthly decline, Google managed to increase its search queries by 1 percent, from 6.44 billion to 6.51 billion.

Meanwhile, the other four major search-engine players saw their queries and their market share drop in April, compared with March, not a great situation for them to be in, considering that search advertising accounts for about 41 percent of U.S. online advertising, according to the latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Yahoo's market share of queries dropped to 20.4 percent, and its number of queries fell 6 percent. Microsoft's market share shrunk to 9.1 percent, while its queries fell 5 percent. AOL, down to a 4.6 percent share, saw its queries drop by 6 percent. Ask.com, whose share slid to 4.3 percent, had the biggest fall in queries percentage-wise with 9 percent.

A desire to improve its position in search was a primary driver for Microsoft's now-abandoned acquisition bid for Yahoo. However, Microsoft is reportedly trying to strike a search deal with Yahoo, which is also in similar negotiations with Google. It's not clear whether Yahoo would be open to selling its search-advertising business outright or instead seek a deal to outsource part of it to Microsoft or Google.

Whatever happens, comScore's figures for April leave no doubt that Microsoft and Yahoo have resoundingly failed to slow down Google in search, and that Google remains well-positioned to use its search dominance to continue boosting its revenue and profits.

In a research note commenting on the comScore report, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney wrote: "As Google continues to take share, we continue to believe a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft would be necessary -- though not sufficient -- to compete effectively with Google."

Yahoo Postpones Board Meeting, Director Resigns

Facing a battle for its board, Yahoo on Thursday pushed back its annual meeting until the end of July and announced the resignation of a board member.


Yahoo Postpones Board Meeting, Director Resigns

The annual meeting, during which the entire board is up for re-election, had been scheduled for July 3. Yahoo did not yet set a particular date for the annual meeting but said that it will be around the end of July.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has been scooping up Yahoo shares and has told the company he is nominating 10 candidates to replace the entire board. He has said that in doing so he hopes to reignite talks with Microsoft, which recently pulled its acquisition bid for Yahoo.

In addition to the change in the annual meeting, Yahoo said Edward Kozel resigned from the board. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Yahoo said Kozel had planned to leave the board in February but decided to stay on following the acquisition proposal from Microsoft.

As a result of his resignation, Yahoo has reduced the size of its board to nine directors, it said.

ODF Wins the Office Document Format War?

Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will bring improved XML support to the office suite -- but it will be ODF, and not Microsoft's own format.


ODF Wins the Office Document Format War?

Good news for those of you who have been following the XML office document standards battle. Microsoft today announced that Office 2007 will support ODF (Open Document Format), the document standard used by OpenOffice.org and other open source productivity suites, with the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2, due sometime in early 2009.

Even more surprising, however, was the corollary to the announcement. While the Office programmer bees are busy buzzing away at ODF, OOXML (Office Open XML) is being put on the back burner. Don't expect Office to support a fully ISO-compliant version of OOXML until the next major release of the suite, currently codenamed Office 14, release date unknown.

Exactly why Microsoft is backpedaling its support for OOXML is not known. But open standards maven Andy Updegrove blogs that it may have something to do with Microsoft's current regulatory troubles in Europe and with the standards bodies that now govern OOXML. It appears likely that Microsoft actually can't implement a fully-compliant version of the standard just yet.

Instead, according to reports, users of Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will have the option to make ODF the default file format for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents, the same way they can choose Office 2003 or several other formats. Office users can already import and export ODF files using third-party filters, but it doesn't make sense when only a small number of users have installed the filters or even know that they exist. Having support for ODF "baked in" to the Office suite will mean that everyone will be able to save and access these files with no extra effort.

Any way you slice it, this is a big step toward shaking off Microsoft's dominance of the office software market and ensuring that we can all preserve our files for years to come.

Phishers Point Scam at Apple's iTunes

Phishers have targeted users of Apple's music store with sophisticated identity theft attacks for the first time


Phishers Point Scam at Apple's iTunes

Phishers have targeted users of Apple Inc.'s iTunes music store with sophisticated identity theft attacks for the first time, a security company said Tuesday.

People began receiving spammed messages Monday telling them that they must correct a problem with their iTunes account, said Andrew Lochart, an executive with e-mail security vendor Proofpoint Inc.

A link in the spam leads to a site posing as an iTunes billing update page; that phony page asks for information including credit card number and security code, Social Security number and mother's maiden name.

The theft attempt is a new twist on the usual phishing attack, said Lochart. "We've gotten used to seeing the usual companies and brands attacked," he said, "like PayPal, eBay and Citibank. But we've never seen Apple as the target."

In a way, said Lochart, the phishing campaign is almost a compliment. "It's probably indicative that the bad guys see Apple's online presence as large enough to be a target. It's part and parcel of the success that Apple has enjoyed lately."

Lochart also speculated that the identity thieves aimed the new attack at iTunes users because of the service's perceived demographics. "I wonder if the bad guys are thinking that [iTunes users] are younger than those for some of the other phished sites, like banks and eBay," said Lochart. "The way that teenagers and young adults use the Internet, they show a certain level of trust or openness when they post their name and age and school on MySpace."

On one hand, Lochart added, young people who grew up with the Internet are considered technologically savvier than their elders. "But then you see the way they use something like MySpace in a way that's considered risky behavior."

Although the phoniness of the link to the bogus iTunes account page might be overlooked in the spam e-mail, the URL is clearly not part of the official iTunes domain. "They've actually done a pretty poor job," Lochart, said of the phishers.

Google Holds Meeting on Microsoft-Yahoo Deal

Executives of Google Inc. held an emergency meeting last night to discuss the implications of revived talks between Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.



Google Holds Meeting on Revived Microsoft-Yahoo Deal

Executives of Google Inc. held an emergency meeting last night to discuss the implications of revived talks between Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., according to a report in The Times in the U.K.

Over the weekend, Microsoft said it might be interested in buying part of Yahoo, but not all of it.

For the past month or so, Google has been in talks with Yahoo to extend a two-week test whereby Yahoo would deliver Web advertising from Google alongside its own search results. According to various reports, that deal could be solidified this week.

Google and Yahoo could not be reached for comment at deadline. Microsoft declined comment

Speaking at the Google Zeitgeist conference in Hertfordshire, which was hosted by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company CEO Eric Schmidt said, "After this press conference, the three of us will meet and decide what our response is," according to The Times.

The renewed talks between Microsoft and Yahoo come as billionaire investor Carl Icahn gears up to launch a proxy fight to replace Yahoo's board of directors. Icahn and other investors are angry that Yahoo snubbed Microsoft's initial offer to purchase the company for US$44.6 billion.

In addition, according to The Times, Brin said Monday that he would give Yahoo's CEO, Jerry Yang, "refuge within Google" if he were forced out of the company. Brin also said Google had not yet ruled out a deal with Yahoo, The Times said.

source:
For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld.

GTA IV Sales Set Guinness Record

A week after Take-Two announced that GTA IV had broken launch day records, the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed.


GTA IV Sales Set Guinness Record

According to Guinness, Grand Theft Auto IV sold an impressive 3.6 million units in its first 24 hours, totaling a record-setting US$310 million in gross sales.

The figures easily push the Rockstar game above all other entertainment record holders, including Halo 3 with $170 million in day one sales, Spiderman 3 with $60 million, and Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows at $220 million.

"The record establishes GTA IV as the most profitable entertainment release of all-time, far surpassing other video game, film and book releases," said Guinness.

Last week, GTA publisher Take-Two purported, "we believe [GTA IV] retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date."

Microsoft Puts New Yahoo Deal on the Table

Microsoft said on Sunday that it has raised the possibility of a new deal with Yahoo, one that may involve buying a part of the company but not all of it.



Microsoft Puts New Yahoo Deal on the Table

"Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo," Microsoft said in a brief statement.
The company did not elaborate on the proposal. It said it did not plan at this time to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo, but that it was continuing to explore its options to expand its online services and advertising businesses.

Microsoft withdrew its offer to buy Yahoo on May 3 after the two sides failed to agree on a price. Since then, the activist investor Carl Icahn has said he will launch a proxy battle to replace Yahoo's board and force it back to the negotiating table with Microsoft.

Microsoft could not immediately be reached for comment, although published reports said the company is not discussing its plan further in public.

"There of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions," Microsoft said in its statement. It said it reserved the right to reconsider its decision not to buy Yahoo outright, depending on any future talks with Yahoo, third parties or the shareholders of either company.

Meanwhile, Yahoo issued a statement later on Sunday confirming that Microsoft isn't at this time interested in acquiring the entire company.

"Yahoo and its Board of Directors continue to consider a number of value maximizing strategic alternatives for Yahoo, and we remain open to pursuing any transaction which is in the best interest of our stockholders," the statement said. "Yahoo's Board of Directors will evaluate each of our alternatives, including any Microsoft proposal, consistent with its fiduciary duties, with a focus on maximizing stockholder value."

That Microsoft is discussing a new deal could be a sign that Yahoo's leadership wants to avoid the spectacle of a proxy battle ahead of its annual meeting on July 3, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Yahoo responded to Icahn's threats on Friday, arguing that its own board has gave Microsoft's offer fair consideration, and that the current board, led by Chairman Roy Bostock, can best manage Yahoo's future.

It was unclear Sunday what type of alternative deal Microsoft has in mind. It said it issued its statement "in light of developments" that have taken place since it withdrew its offer.

Microsoft indicated earlier that it had moved on from the deal and that it was looking for other ways to grow its online business, internally or through smaller acquisitions.

Wii Expected to Beat Xbox 360 U.S. Sales in May

With Nintendo's 714,200 units sold in April it would need to sell only 500,000 consoles this month to surpass Microsoft's self-imposed milestone


Wii Expected to Beat Xbox 360 U.S. Sales in May

It appears as though the Wii will surpass the Xbox 360 in North America a bit earlier than expected, as Nintendo announced last week that 9.5 million units have sold in the U.S. alone since launch.

The announcement puts a new light on Microsoft's peculiar chest-thumping press release from earlier in the week, when that company said it had reached an arbitrary 10 million unit sold boundary and would therefore "win" the console war. With Nintendo's 714,200 units sold in April, according to NPD, it would need to sell only 500,000 consoles this month to surpass Microsoft's self-imposed milestone, in less time. The Xbox 360 launched a year before the Wii or Sony's PlayStation 3 console.

A total of 188,000 Xbox 360s were sold in April, meaning that Nintendo would need only sell approximately 688,000 units in May to equal its rival's numbers. WiiFit also launches this month, and many analysts believe the balance board peripheral it is bundled with will inflate Nintendo's sales number even more. The console outsold all non-Nintendo systems in April, combined, according to NPD.

Overall, hardware sales were healthy at US$426 million, which was up 26% from $339 million in April 2007.

source: www.pcworld.com

Flash Player 10 Available for Public Testing

For those of you who love your cutting-edge Flash content, Adobe made a prerelease test version of the Flash 10 Player


Flash Player 10 Available for Public Testing

For those of you who really, really love your cutting-edge Flash content, Adobe made a prerelease test version of the Flash 10 Player available today. You can download an installer for Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux from the Adobe Labs Web site.

Because this is a testing version, you're not likely to see any content that requires the new player in the wild just yet. But if you design or maintain Web pages yourself, it might be a good idea to give them a whirl with the beta player, just to make sure that all your old content still renders the way it should with the new version.

Among the new features in this edition of Flash Player are support for new 3D rendering effects, Adobe Pixel Blender filters, new drawing APIs, and an advanced text rendering engine. What's more, Flash Player 10 has expanded use of hardware graphics acceleration, so Flash content should be a little snappier.

Don't expect it to be completely without bugs, though. In fact, it's safe to assume that not everything will work exactly as expected -- this is a public beta release, after all. When you do encounter abnormal behavior, be sure to submit feedback to Adobe and/or discuss your issues in the public forums.

As for when we can start authoring content for use with Flash Player 10, expect an announcement from Adobe regarding the next version of Creative Suite on May 27.

Birthday Post: Pokemon Platinum Version Leaked

A low-resolution cell phone photo appears that announces Pokémon Platinum that features Giratina.

Pokemon Platinum Version Leaked

A low-resolution cell phone photo appears to show a page from the June issue of CoroCoro that announces Pokémon Platinum, a new Nintendo DS game that features Giratina. Because the magazine has not yet been released, the authenticity of the photo has not been confirmed.
The page offers screen shots from the game that show a new overworld scene and a new in-battle scene for Giratina. The male protagonist from Diamond and Pearl is wearing a blue outfit.
According to a rumor quoted by blue skY, the game will be released in Japan in September. Those who reserve the game in advance will receive a ticket to get an egg that will hatch into a Shinx that knows a special move. The eighth gym leader, Volkner, will be replaced, and a Battle Frontier-like area will be added.

EA Games Plans to Develop for Wii

Special versions of Madden football, NBA Live and others are in the works for the Wii.


EA Plans New Sports Games for Wii

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc unveiled two initiatives last week to breathe new life into its sports business by making games that are easier to play and customized for Nintendo Co Ltd's popular Wii console.

Key games such as "Madden" football, "NBA Live" and "FIFA" soccer will come out in special versions for the Wii, which has become the best-selling game system by drawing in older and female players with friendly graphics and simple motion-sensing controls.

EA is also starting a sub-brand dubbed Freestyle that will be home to a new set of games not tied to any existing league and therefore free of expensive licensing rights. The first game will be "Facebreaker," a cartoonish and whimsical boxing game due out in September.

"We can't be blind to the fact that different consumers are coming into games now and shame on us if we can't evolve and develop something for that crowd," Peter Moore, head of EA Sports, told Reuters.

EA expects to have sold about $1.3 billion worth of sports games in its fiscal year just ended in March, accounting for more than a third of total revenue.

Known for their sharp graphics and attention to detail, EA's sports games are among the industry's best-selling titles each year. But many gamers have criticized them for including few groundbreaking new features and increasingly complex controls that make them tough to play.

Showing off this year's lineup of sports titles at a new conference in EA's Vancouver studio, Moore said the company had not forgotten about its core fans who want the most realistic experience.

"While we have no intention whatsoever of dumbing down the experience that we all love and that drives this multibillion

dollar business ... we need to make sports games more approachable," Moore said.

Caught off guard by the Wii's success following its launch in late 2006, EA tried to adapt its sports games to the Wii, an effort Moore admitted amounted to basically tacking on the motion controls without changing the core game.

Moore, who joined EA from Microsoft Corp's games division to head up the sports business last September, said the new approach to the Wii marked a dramatic rethinking of what those players wanted from a game.

The model was "Wii Sports," a title from Nintendo included with every Wii that took bowling, baseball, golf, tennis and boxing and reduced them to a handful of simple motions.

"We learned some hard lessons. That was the type of sports experience they were looking for and we saw that and decided we needed to redefine what our sports games were about," Moore said. This year, EA's top sports games for the Wii will have "All-Play" added to their titles.

While versions for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 will be similar to previous years, the "All-Play" titles will have options to use simpler controls and quicker games.

"It's like how swimming pools have a deep end and a shallow end. EA Sports has really only built a swimming pool with a deep end. It's intimidating for a lot of people to jump right in the deep end. With All-Play, we're building a shallow end," Moore added.

(Editing by Andre Grenon)

Copyright 2007 Reuters.

Office 2007 SP1 Via AU

Microsoft's Automatic Update service will push out Office 2007 Service Pack 1 starting June 16, which adds stability to the office suite as well as a few new features including support for Windows Server 2008


Microsoft to Offer Office 2007 SP1 via Automatic Update

Microsoft's Automatic Update service will push out Office 2007 Service Pack 1 starting June 16.

What does this mean for Office 2007 and Microsoft users in general? Well, it obviously means that Microsoft is finally ready to say that the Office 2007 SP1 is ready for the masses. It's been available for months now, but the software giant has been reluctant to use Automatic Update to dump it to the masses. Late last year Microsoft accidentally distributed the massive Office 2007 SP1 update automatically confusing Vista and XP users.

The service pack adds stability to the office suite as well as a few new features including support for Windows Server 2008 and beefed up compatibility between 2007's native file format, Office Open XML and the formats used by earlier editions of the suite.

If anything, this also proves that Microsoft indeed knows that there are flaws releasing updates in an automatic update manner and is addressing that by almost testing the patches and service packs on voluntary downloaders before putting in on the Automatic Update service.

It will also reportedly come as a rolling release, meaning not everyone will have access to Office 2007 SP1 by way of Automatic Update at first. The first rollout will begin on June 16. Microsoft did a similar rolling release with Office 2003 SP3 which gave the customers time to provide feedback and Microsoft to make adjustments before further pushing out the release.

People rip on Microsoft pretty hardcore, but I think the company deserve at least a little credit for taking the necessary steps to ensure a successful software update. It won't always work, but Microsoft sure does try to do everything it can to make the roll-outs work.

Microsoft Won't Pursue Other Partnerships

Microsoft won't be pursuing tie-ups or takeovers to replace its failed Yahoo bid, Bill Gates said in Tokyo on Wednesday.


Microsoft Won't Pursue Other Partnerships, Says Gates

Gates, who cofounded the software maker and serves as its chairman, said Microsoft had "put a lot of effort into talking to Yahoo."

Referencing comments made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Gates said that "now at this point, Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy."

Microsoft spent three months courting Yahoo but dropped its pursuit on Saturday after the two sides failed to reach agreement on a takeover price. Microsoft had initially offered US$31 per share and raised it to US$33 per share to try and entice Yahoo but the search engine operator held out for $37 per share.

After final negotiations late last week Ballmer signaled to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang that it was throwing in the towel.

"We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo and the market as a whole. Our goal in pursuing a combination with Yahoo was to provide greater choice and innovation in the marketplace and create real value for our respective stockholders and employees," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a statement distributed early Saturday evening.

On Monday Yang, facing pressure from shareholders, signaled that Yahoo is still open to an offer from Microsoft or another company as long as the company is not "undervalued."

"We've always felt the Yahoo platform has been undervalued or underappreciated by the marketplace,'' he told Bloomberg News.

Gates was speaking in Tokyo and announced two programs from Microsoft Japan. One promotes Windows Media Center and the other will provide Microsoft's software development tools at no charge to student developers.

Photoshop Express Public Beta Update

Adobe Systems on Wednesday announced the pending release of an update to its Photoshop Express Web-based service for image editing.

Photoshop Express Public Beta Adds Flickr Support

Adobe Systems on Wednesday announced the pending release of an update to its Photoshop Express Web-based service for image editing. The update is expected to go live at 9:01 PM Pacific Time (12:01 AM Eastern Time).

Photoshop Express leverages Web 2.0 technologies like Adobe's own Flash software to provide users with an online service for store, sort, edit and show off digital photos. It's compatible with Safari, Firefox and other Web browsers. Adobe notes that more than 60,000 Web albums have been created using Photoshop Express during the first month of public operation. Users receive 2GB of online storage for free.

The enhancements to Photoshop Express include the ability to access to photos through the popular Flickr service. You can upload or download photos into Photoshop Express, edit and add effects then send them back to Flickr.

A new "Save As" feature has been added. It allows you to save multiple versions of an image. An embeddable player can now be used to post slideshows to Facebook MySpace and other social networking Web sites.

Firefox Plugin Shipped with Malicious Code

Because of a virus infection, the Vietnamese language pack for Firefox 2 was polluted with adware.


Mozilla: Firefox Plugin Shipped With Malicious Code

Mozilla warned Wednesday that a malicious program inserted adware code into a Firefox plugin that has been downloaded thousands of times over the past three months.

Because of a virus infection, the Vietnamese language pack for Firefox 2 was polluted with adware, Mozilla security chief Window Snyder said in a blog posting. "Everyone who downloaded the most recent Vietnamese language pack since February 18, 2008 got an infected copy," she wrote. "Mozilla does virus scans at upload time but the virus scanner did not catch this issue until several months after the upload."

Mozilla is now going to add additional scans of its software to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future, she said.

The malware in the language pack is from the Xorer Trojan, according to discussion on Mozilla's Bugzilla developer Web site, which indicates that Mozilla developers first discovered the issue on Tuesday.

"I think it (happened) just because the author's local network was infected with the virus, so it modified HTML files," wrote developer Hai-Nam Nguyen. "The infected code just display(s) annoying banner but it can't propagate."

The open-source browser maker does not know how many people were infected with the adware, but the plugin was downloaded more than 1,200 times in the past week and has been downloaded 16,667 times since November.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Web page for the plugin was off-line as Mozilla scrambled to come up with a new, adware-free version of the language pack. In the meantime, users of the software should disable the plugin, Snyder said.

HTC Beats iPhone with MS-based Phone

The new handset is the next generation of HTC's popular Touch smartphone, which has sold over 3 million units in the 10 months since its launch, beating rival Apple to the punch again.


HTC Beats Apple to 3G With Microsoft-based iPhone Rival

High Tech Computer announced the HTC Touch Diamond on Tuesday, a smartphone running Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and with a touch screen designed for one-handed use.

The new handset is the next generation of HTC's popular Touch smartphone, which has sold over 3 million units in the 10 months since its launch. The Touch Diamond updates the series to 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications), beating rival Apple to the punch again.

Last year, HTC launched its first Touch handset nearly a month ahead of the iPhone. The Touch Diamond will be available throughout Europe starting in June, followed by Asia and the Middle East. The handset will hit North and South America in the second half of the year.

Apple has not said when it will launch a 3G iPhone, but industry analysts expect one within the next few months.

The HTC Touch Diamond works on WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) networks and offers data rates up to 7.2M bits per second using HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) thanks to a chipset from Qualcomm.

HTC CEO Peter Chou is so excited about the Touch Diamond that he predicts it will be an even bigger seller than the original Touch. "This is going to be the biggest product of my life," he said by phone from London.

HTC's focus on improving touch-screen technology on the Touch Diamond's 2.8-inch, 640 pixel by 480 pixel display pays testament to how serious it is about competing against the iPhone.

The company revamped its TouchFlo software to make give a 3D effect to screen images. People can access photos, music, messages, use push-e-mail and more on the touch screen.

The company also upgraded the Web browser, which is built on an engine from Opera Software but was designed specifically for HTC. The browser fits the screen, and users can zoom and pan Web sites with one hand. Turn the device sideways, and the view automatically rotates as well.

The Touch Diamond includes customized applications for watching YouTube videos and using Google Maps for map and traffic data. The handset has a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver.

The 3.2-megapixel camera with auto-focus allows video-calling.

Despite the big screen size, camera and other features, the Touch Diamond is small, just 102 millimeters by 51mm by 11.33 mm.

The HTC Touch Diamond also boasts Bluetooth for wireless data transfer, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g for wireless Internet access. The battery on the device is rated for 4 hours of talk time.

One area where Apple's iPhone still has the edge is in data storage: the Touch Diamond has only 4G bytes of flash memory for storing music and videos, compared to the iPhone's 8G bytes or 16G bytes

source: http://www.pcworld.com/

XP SP3 Good to Go

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is now available for download from Microsoft's Download Center, and is also being released via Windows Update.


Windows XP SP3 Available for Download

Microsoft released the third service pack for Windows XP on Tuesday to the Web after last week delaying its scheduled release because of an incompatibility with one of its other software applications. It also resumed automatic distribution of Windows Vista, Service Pack 1 (SP1), which had been halted because of a similar problem.

Windows XP SP3 is now available through Windows Update and also on the Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft had expected to release the software on April 29; however, it discovered it conflicted with an application called Microsoft Dynamics RMS. The problem also affected Windows Vista SP1. Dynamics RMS is a retail-chain-management software for small and midsized businesses.

In announcing the release of SP3 for XP, Microsoft said it had addressed this problem by deploying a Windows Update filter that would keep the service packs from being offered to customers who use Microsoft Dynamics RMS, and advised these users to contact Microsoft's support services for more information.

Microsoft has also resumed automatic distribution of Vista SP1, which was suspended following discovery of the RMS incompatibility.

Microsoft still is not offering either service pack to Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers, having put in place a filter on Windows Update to prevent distribution to those customers. The company is still working on a fix it expects to have available later this month, it said.

Microsoft still recommends that Dynamics RMS customers running Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1 contact their Microsoft Customer Support Services for more information.

Microsoft Learns From Itself

Microsoft has delayed the release of the Windows XP Service Pack 3 indefinitely and Microsoft deserves a little credit for doing so.

Microsoft Learns From Itself By Delaying XP SP3

The third service pack was expected to be available to the consumers earlier this week, but that release has been suspended indefinitely due to flaws with Windows Dynamics Retail Management System.

Microsoft deserves some recognition, sarcastic or not, because this delay has proven that Microsoft is learning from its prior mistakes. Microsoft pushed Vista out the doors far too soon and has paid the price with a plethora of bad public relations, and now the software giant is making the right decisions ensuring that kind of a catastrophe doesn't happen again.

When SP3 is finally made available to the masses, it will hopefully come without a problem in the world, which will be a nicety for Microsoft, who has been known for not being able to handle software releases in the recent years.

What is Backscattering? Part 1

Because e-mail filters now just delete messages that come from nonexistent domains, the spammers like to make their messages look like they come from real e-mail addresses. That means, if your e-mail address has been published on the Web somewhere, you're a prime candidate for backscattering.



100 E-mail Bouncebacks? You've Been Backscattered

The bounceback e-mail messages come in at a trickle, maybe one or two every hour. The subject lines are disquieting: "Cyails, Vygara nad Levytar," "UNSOLICITED BULK EMAIL, apparently from you."

You eye your computer screen; you're nervous. What's going on ? Have you been hacked? Are you some kind of zombie botnet spammer?

Nope, you're just getting a little backscatter -- bounceback messages from legitimate e-mail servers that have been fooled by the spammers.

Spammers like to put fake information in their e-mail messages in order to sneak them past e-mail filters. Because e-mail filters now just delete messages that come from nonexistent domains, the spammers like to make their messages look like they come from real e-mail addresses. That means, if your e-mail address has been published on the Web somewhere, you're a prime candidate for backscattering.

The spammer finds your address, or sometimes even guesses it, and then puts it in the "from" line of his messages, sending them out to hundreds of thousands of recipients. When the spam gets sent to an address that is no longer active, it can sometimes be bounced back ... to you.

Although Sophos estimates that backscatter makes up just two percent or three percent of all spam, antispam vendors say these messages are on the rise lately.

Users often think that the backscatter may be a sign that their computer has been hacked and is sending out spam messages, said Brad Bartman, a global support manager with Text 100, a public relations consultancy. "They look at it and they're like, 'Whoa, is my PC infected with a virus?'" he said.

Backscatter rarely hits more than one or two employees at the same time, so it isn't particularly disruptive. But it does worry users, he said. "It's mostly a psychological thing."

With their e-mail addresses widely circulated on press releases, Text 100's PR specialists are the ideal candidates for backscatter.

Because backscatter comes from legitimate mail servers, it can cause special problems. In fact, some security researchers believe that the spammers have been intentionally sending messages that will be bounced back as a way to sneak around spam filters. That's because some mail servers bounce back the original message as part of their notice.

Continued

What is Backscattering? Part 2

Because e-mail filters now just delete messages that come from nonexistent domains, the spammers like to make their messages look like they come from real e-mail addresses. That means, if your e-mail address has been published on the Web somewhere, you're a prime candidate for backscattering.



100 E-mail Bouncebacks? You've Been Backscattered

Continued

Dan Wallach, like Text 100's Bartman, was hit with a flood of backscatter messages earlier this week. Wallach, an associate professor with Rice University's Department of Computer Science, said that many of the messages he received contained links to suspicious executable files hosted on different Web sites.

"I'll bet that some spammer is rationally thinking 'error messages! Maybe I can get my message through via error messages!'" Wallach said in an e-mail interview. "They don't need many responses before this sort of tactic could be considered to be a success."

At its worst the phenomenon can even wipe Internet servers off the map.

Last month, Stephen Gielda, president of Packetderm, upset a fraudster who was trying to use his anonymous Internet service. Soon his servers were inundated with a tidal wave of backscatter messages. At one point, he was being hit by 10,000 bounceback messages per second, enough to throttle the server's Internet connection.

Gielda had to take his site off-line for five days as he waited for the problem to abate. "I'm used to backscatter, but I'd never seen it at this level before," he said.

While backscatter is extremely hard to filter out, it is a problem that can be fixed.

Backscatter comes in three varieties: messages from mail servers, saying that there is no such user available; "out of office" automated reply messages; and so-called challenge-response messages, which tell the sender that his message will be delivered only once he responds to the bounceback and confirms that the e-mail is coming from a legitimate address.

Security experts say that people should simply stop using these last two types of bounceback messages.

As for "no such user" bouncebacks, that can be fixed too. There are a few e-mail standards that could help with the problem: Variable Envelope Return Path(VERP) and Bounce Address Tag Validation (BATV), for example.

But the problem would largely disappear if server administrators configured their mail servers to immediately reject mail that is sent to nonexistent users, rather than accepting it and then bouncing it back to the faked addresses. Some ISPs (Internet service providers), AOL for example, have done this and have largely eliminated their role in the problem.

If there is spam in the backscatter message, antispam software should filter it out, but if a message has an ambiguous subject line, like "Hey" and the spam message stripped out, the backscatter will look like a legitimate bounceback and is probably going to get through, said Dmitry Samosseiko, manager of Sophos Labs Canada.

"This is a serious problem that is hard to deal with, to be honest," he said. "We can blame spammers for causing the issue in the first place, but it exists because of the mail servers that are not configured to deal with spam."

Windows XP SP3 Delayed

Microsoft has delayed the release of a third service pack for Windows XP, blaming a "compatibility issue" between the software and a retail-chain-management application.


Microsoft Delays Release of Windows XP SP3

Microsoft had said last week that it completed development on Windows XP, Service Pack 3 (SP3), and that it would be available via its software-update services on Tuesday. However, incompatibilities discovered in the past several days between an application called Microsoft Dynamics RMS and both Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will force the company to hold off on releasing the software. Dynamics RMS is a retail-chain-management software for small and mid-sized businesses.

Microsoft said it is putting filtering in place to prevent its Windows Update service from offering both service packs to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS. Once that filtering is in place, Microsoft will release Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Download Center for users not running the application causing the problem. The company on Tuesday did not say how long putting in filters would take.

Microsoft is recommending that Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers not install Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1. For more information, those customers should contact Microsoft Customer Support Services, the company said.


A fix to the Dynamics RMS problem is being tested and "will be available as soon as that process is complete," Microsoft said. The company did not provide a time frame for completion of the testing and recommends customers visit its TechNet Forums for more information regarding Windows XP SP3.

Microsoft Abandons Yahoo Acquisition

Microsoft has dropped its pursuit of Yahoo, ending an acquisition attempt whose failure takes Microsoft back to square one in its quest to boost its online business to better compete against Google.


Microsoft Abandons Yahoo Acquisition

Microsoft has dropped its nearly three-month-long pursuit of Yahoo, ending a historic acquisition attempt whose failure takes Microsoft back to square one in its quest to boost its online business to better compete against Google.

"We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo and the market as a whole. Our goal in pursuing a combination with Yahoo was to provide greater choice and innovation in the marketplace and create real value for our respective stockholders and employees," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a statement distributed early Saturday evening.

Microsoft had raised its initial bid by about US$5 billion, but that didn't convince Yahoo to accept the revised offer, Microsoft said. "After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal," said Ballmer.

In response, Yahoo issued a statement reiterating its position that Microsoft's offer was too low, and saying that many Yahoo shareholders agreed with its position.

"Yahoo is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market," Roy Bostock, the chairman of Yahoo's board, said in the statement.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said that "with the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us" Yahoo can continue with "the most important transition in our history."

All parties with a stake in the deal had been waiting for Microsoft to announce its next move, after Yahoo failed to agree to a deal by last Saturday, the deadline Microsoft had set three weeks earlier.

But Microsoft stayed silent for days, as observers speculated whether it would walk away or prepare a hostile takeover. However, on Friday anonymously sourced reports in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times said that Microsoft and Yahoo had turned a corner and were for the first time negotiating merger terms in earnest.

Microsoft and Yahoo Reviews the Deal

Microsoft and Yahoo have turned a corner and are finally negotiating in earnest about their possible merger.



Microsoft and Yahoo Try to Work It out

Microsoft and Yahoo have turned a corner and are finally negotiating in earnest about their possible merger, although a deal is far from imminent, according to media reports.

In anonymously sourced stories published online midafternoon Friday, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that talks between the companies have suddenly gathered steam.

It has been three months since Microsoft announced its cash-and-stock bid for Yahoo, valued then at $44.6 billion but now worth about $42 billion because Microsoft's stock has lost value.

At the time, Microsoft's management sounded confident that the acquisition would proceed swiftly, but Yahoo's board threw back the offer in Microsoft's face, saying it undervalued the company.

Since then, talks between the companies have reportedly been few and unproductive, as Yahoo sought alternative deals and Microsoft threatened to go hostile or, lately, to walk away.

As Yahoo let lapse Microsoft's deadline to wrap up negotiations on Saturday, everyone with a stake in the deal has been anxiously awaiting Microsoft's next move.

As recently as Friday morning, consensus was that Microsoft would announce a hostile takeover strategy, such as launching a proxy fight to replace Yahoo's directors with its own slate of candidates that shareholders could elect at their next annual meeting.

However, now it appears that the companies have made progress over the so far apparently insurmountable disagreement over price, prompting Microsoft to stay at the negotiating table in the hopes of reaching a friendly deal.

According to The Journal, Microsoft indicated this week it would be willing to raise its bid to as much as $33 per Yahoo share, below the $35-per-share minimum that major shareholders are hoping for.

Microsoft's offer is currently valued at about $29.30 per share, according to The Times, whose sources said that a $34 per share offer could be a happy medium and get the deal done.

Blu-Ray Sales Still Low?

A Blu-ray win over HD-DVD in the bloody format war hasn't translated into a sales victory for the next generation DVD technology.


Consumers Not Buying Blu-Ray Format Despite Format Win

A recent study by the NPD Group has shown that Blu-ray sales only increased by 2 percent from February to March and that Blu-ray sales dropped 40 percent from January to February.

That's a big disappointment for supporters of Blu-ray. After all Toshiba announced in February that it would cease production of HD DVD players, essentially killing off the next-generation media format and leaving Blu-ray as the lone next-generation format.

One conclusion that could be reached is that despite the format war being over and a winner being crowned, people still aren't ready to ditch the traditional DVD in favor of the next-generation Blu-ray. Any hopes Blu-ray had of a giant sales increase due to the end of the format war proved otherwise.

At least now the focus in terms of promotion and advertising can be placed upon one format, which might resonate better with the general public and slowly begin to sway that public into the next-generation world.

Microsoft Board Meets Over Yahoo Bid

Microsoft's board is meeting to decide how to proceed in the company's bid to acquire Yahoo.

Microsoft Board Meets Over Yahoo Bid

Microsoft's board is meeting on Wednesday to decide how to proceed in the company's bid to acquire Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Quoting anonymous sources, The Journal reported that the meeting could yield a concrete announcement.

Microsoft's next move is something that all parties with a stake in the deal have been waiting for since Yahoo failed to agree to a deal by Saturday, the deadline Microsoft had set three weeks earlier.

Many observers had expected a reaction from Microsoft first thing Monday morning, but as the silence stretched into Wednesday afternoon, the media speculation mill has gone into overdrive.

The major stumbling block in the negotiations has been the price, which Microsoft is willing to increase to up to US$33 per share, but not to the $35 to $37 range that major Yahoo shareholders, management and board members want, The Journal reported. Microsoft's original cash-and-stock offer, made on Feb. 1 and valued at $44.6 billion at the time, stood at $29.12 as of Tuesday's market close, the paper said.

This week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been personally lobbying big Yahoo shareholders so they, in turn, will pressure the board to accept Microsoft's bid, since Microsoft would prefer not to have to launch a hostile takeover, The Journal reported.

In the meantime, Yahoo and Time Warner have continued exploring the possibility of Yahoo merging with AOL in exchange for a 20 percent stake in Yahoo for Time Warner, The Journal reported.

In addition to attempting a hostile takeover, Microsoft has other options, such as raising its bid to a level agreeable to Yahoo's board or walking away, a possibility first floated by Ballmer last week.

Certainly, Microsoft expected the acquisition process, now nearing its third month, to flow much more smoothly and quickly, given the company's urgency to boost its Internet unit so it can better compete against Google and capitalize on the growth of the online advertising market.

source: www.pcworld.com