Microsoft Unveils a New Look

In advance of one of the most significant waves of product launches in Microsoft’s history, today we are unveiling a new logo for the company.

It’s been 25 years since we’ve updated the Microsoft logo and now is the perfect time for a change. This is an incredibly exciting year for Microsoft as we prepare to release new versions of nearly all of our products. From Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 to Xbox services to the next version of Office, you will see a common look and feel across these products providing a familiar and seamless experience on PCs, phones, tablets and TVs. This wave of new releases is not only a reimagining of our most popular products, but also represents a new era for Microsoft, so our logo should evolve to visually accentuate this new beginning.

The Microsoft brand is about much more than logos or product names. We are lucky to play a role in the lives of more than a billion people every day. The ways people experience our products are our most important “brand impressions”. That’s why the new Microsoft logo takes its inspiration from our product design principles while drawing upon the heritage of our brand values, fonts and colors.

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Apple-Samsung Patent Case : Consumers the real losers?

Published on Aug 22, 2012 by AssociatedPress : Jurors began deliberating Wednesday in a multibillion dollar patent infringement case pitting Apple against Samsung over the design of iPhones and iPads, but few experts were expecting a quick verdict. (Aug. 22)

Shamoon the Malware in Aramco Attack?

While researchers continue to dig into the Shamoon malware, looking for its origins and a complete understanding of its capabilities, a group calling itself the Cutting Sword of Justice is claiming responsibility for an attack on the massive Saudi oil company Aramco, which some experts believe employed Shamoon to destroy data on thousands of machines. 

The attack on Aramco occurred on August 15, taking the main Web site of Saudi Aramco offline. Officials at the company said that the attack affected some of the company's workstations, but did not have any effect on oil production or on the main Aramco networks. The attackers claiming responsibility for the incident dispute that, saying that they deployed a destructive piece of malware that erased data on infected machines and then made them unusable.

"As previously said by hackers, about 30000 (30k) of clients and servers in the company were completely destroyed. Symantec, McAfee and Kaspersky wrote a detail analysis about the virus, good job. Hackers published the range of internal clients IPs which were found in the internal network and became one of the phases of the attack target," the group said in a post on Pastebin shortly after the attack.

The first indications that the attack might be connected to the Shamoon malware came in the group's original Pastebin post, which included a start time for the attack on Aramco, 11:08 a.m. local time in Saudi Arabia on August 15. Researchers who dissected Shamoon found that the same time was hard-coded into the Shamoon malwareas a kind of checkpoint. The attackers claiming responsibility for the operation said that the attack ended a few hours after it began, but that plenty of damage was done.

1. "In the first step, an action was performed against Aramco company, as the largest financial source for Al-Saud regime. In this step, we penetrated a system of Aramco company by using the hacked systems in several countries and then sended a malicious virus to destroy thirty thousand computers networked in this company. The destruction operations began on Wednesday, Aug 15, 2012 at 11:08 AM (Local time in Saudi Arabia) and will be completed within a few hours," the post says.
   
   
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Facebook returns to No. 2 spot among U.S. video sites

beating Yahoo, Vevo | 17 Aug 2012 

Facebook is once again the second largest video site in the U.S., according to ComScore.

The social network saw 53 million unique video viewers in July. That’s about a third of Google’s audience, but higher than the number of unique viewers on Yahoo sites and Vevo, both of which were ahead of Facebook in May.

Although Facebook’s viewers are up from 44 million in May, average minutes watched per user is down from 27 to 21.7. That’s fewer minutes per viewer than any other site in the top 10 besides Amazon. Google sites, by comparison, averaged about 525 minutes per viewer. However, ComScore’s data only looks at U.S. video views, so Facebook’s global reach is not reflected in the chart below.

With YouTube, Google still dominates the U.S. web video space, but Facebook could possibly capitalize on its own reach if it ever pushed more in that direction. It seems the social network is heavily focused on photos first, but a number of video sites and apps, including Vevo, Socialcam, Viddy and Chill, have seen positive results from integrating Facebook Open Graph.

With advertisers constantly pushing for new ad formats, we wonder whether Facebook might introduce more video advertising opportunities. With the page post ads now being tested in News Feed, advertisers have more prominent ad space than ever. We could see some companies, particularly movie studios, pushing video ads in this spot.

Among online video ad properties measured by ComScore, Facebook doesn’t even rank. Google, Hulu and a number of video ad networks and exchanges make up the top properties in terms of total ads and minutes viewed.

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Two new social sites launched – Medium and Branch

Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone have launched two new social networking sites, Branch and Medium Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

They inspired a boom in self-publishing with Blogger, then turned the world to 140 characters with Twitter. Now Ev Williams and Biz Stone have launched two new websites – Medium and Branch – in what they hope will prompt an "evolutionary leap" in online sharing.

Williams and Stone are still directors of Twitter, but are involved in the new ventures through their San Francisco-based incubator fund, The Obvious Corporation.

Like Twitter, both Medium and Branch are publishing platforms where users can share pictures, articles and text. And both are more or less splinter services to Twitter.

But what are Medium and Branch?

Medium

Medium is built around collections. For now Medium is invite-only, but soon anyone will be able to start a collection and publish their own photographs or writing.

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Password Dos and Don’ts

There’s a saying when it comes to online passwords: they’re like a toothbrush. That’s because you want a good toothbrush (just like a password), you should change it often (just like a password) and you should never share it (just like a password!).

There are some key dos and don’ts that can help:

DON’T

• use personal information that could be easily guessed or accessed, like your birthday (which happens more often than you might think) — it’s easy for you to remember, but easy for someone shady to find 
• use actual words that you can find in actual language (any language) 
• use the same password for all of your accounts

DO

• use a different password for each account 
• combine capital letters, numbers and special characters 
• change your password once every three months or so — and immediately if a site notifies you of a security breach 
• use the Master Password feature in Firefox (more on that here.) 

By now you’re probably thinking, “I can’t remember my keys in the morning. How am I supposed to remember all these new passwords all the time?”

Here are a few steps to creating easy-to-remember passwords that are still secure.

1. Choose a phrase — let’s try “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” 
2. Use the first letter in each word and capitalize the first one: Tqbfjotld 
3. Make it stronger by adding a special character: Tqbfjotld! 
4. Now, associate it with each website you log in to. For example, you could use YT for YouTube, FB for Facebook, your bank’s initials — you get the point. So your password would now look like this: 

YTTqbfjotld! (for YouTube)
FBTqbfjotld! (for Facebook)
and so on, and so on…

Choosing secure passwords will go a long way to keeping you safe online.

Original here | 7 Aug 2012

The ABCs of Apple v. Samsung

There are five drama-laden days of hearings coming up this week in the patent battle between the two tech titans. Here are some bite-sized takeaways to help keep you in the know.

To casual observers, patent disputes too often prove impenetrable -- with their arcane legal arguments and mind-numbing technical detail.

Apple v. Samsung, however, has been as good a courtroom drama as Silicon Valley has to offer.

We've seen lawyers snapping at the judge. One of Samsung's lawyers literally begged the court to reverse a ruling. A steady stream of juicy trade secrets has flowed out of both companies in the form of courtroom exhibits. And somewhere just offstage waits a third powerful player.

CNET broke the news last week that Google, the company that isn't a party to the suit but has plenty at stake, is lending aid to Samsung as well as other Android partners that Apple has named in similar patent suits.

Related posts

• All of Apple's patent claims against Samsung in one chart
• iPhone owned 63 percent of smartphone marketshare at AT&T
• Samsung goes on offense, aims to bust Apple patents
• Judge tosses trio of Samsung phones from Apple case
• Samsung exec: Don't copy, 'learn the wisdom of the iPhone'
• 
  

Trust us, as we go into a full week of new courtroom testimony, there's still plenty of action left. Here are some key facts to help you stay on top of it all.

How did this start? You can trace the clash back to January 9, 2007, when the iPhone debuted. Apple said in a lawsuit it filed against Samsung in April 2011 that within a couple of years of Apple's releasing the iPhone, Samsung had created iPhone clones that ripped off Apple's technology and designs. Apple also claims Samsung did the same thing after the iPad came out. Samsung responded by countersuing Apple for patent infringement.

What's at stake? Apple wants $2.5 billion if it wins. Samsung is also seeking monetary damages. What this case is really about, though, is stopping Google and its Android operating system. Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder and CEO, said before dying last October that he wanted to destroy Android because he considered it a "wholesale" ripoff of the iPhone.

If Apple wins, the company's lawyers will first be able to force Samsung to stop shipping some of its handsets and computer tablets in the United States but more importantly, Apple will have a nice precedent with which to attack HTC and other companies that use Android. If Apple loses, then the decision will obviously work against Apple's larger anti-Android strategy.

Why doesn't Apple sue Google?: One likely reason is that Android is free and Google doesn't profit directly from sharing the OS with phone makers. Samsung, on the other hand, chooses to use Android and is generating revenue upon which Apple can calculate damages.

Samsung also makes for an easier target. Apple can compare the iPhone with Samsung's handsets side by side.

Some of the more compelling evidence that Apple has shown to the jury includes side-by-side comparisons of the two company's icons and graphics. Apple has also presented internal e-mails and documents that show Samsung closely studied the iPhone and knew that its own handsets were inferior to Apple's. Apple argues that these documents prove Samsung was trying to mimic the iPhone.Has Apple landed any punches? Apple seems to have the edge when it comes to which side the court favors. In June, the presiding judge in the case granted preliminary injunctions against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. In addition, Samsung has received four sanctions mostly related to failure to turn over evidence.

Read Full Report :

NYPD and Microsoft launch "spying" partnership.

Published on Aug 10, 2012 by PressTVGlobalNews : The new technology partnership between Microsoft and the New York Police department will pair America's largest municipal law enforcement agency with one of the worlds largest developers of computer software and hardware. The mayor of New York has billed the collaboration as a new tool for fighting crime.

9 Things You Absolutely Must Do to Keep Your Online Identity Secure

We've been reeling a bit ever since Mat Honan was the victim of that ruthless social hack that wiped all his devices. Sure, that was an extreme case. But it's also one that could happen to anyone, at any time. So we put together a list of the best ways to make sure your internet self—your accounts, your cash, and your information—stays secure.

Fortify Your Passwords

Password strength is vital to your frontline defense. Obviously your password should be a combination of letters and numbers, but don't stop at the bare minimum. Use uppercase letters in random spots. Subsitute numbers for letters. Mash multiple word phrases together. Deliberately misspell those words. Space them out. If you're feeling particularly hardcore, you can just create a random string of characters. In fact, XKCD's excellent comic sums this up in a way more eloqent than any words could. 

Oh, and for the love Woz, don't use the same password for everything. Particularly not your most sensitive (read: banking) accounts

All HTTPS, All The Time

Many of the vital online services (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), allow you to only connect to their servers via an HTTPS connection. This will encrypt any stream of data between you and the service, ensuring that anyone using Firesheep or a packet sniffer on a (usually public) Wi-Fi network can't glean your login data. Never work at a coffee shop without it.

Secure Those Security Questions 

Just the security questions are a backup doesn't mean you shouldn't put the same thought into them as you password. Use numbers instead of letters. Mash entire phrases together into one word. Deliberately misspell things. Or best of all, Kaspersky Labs expert Dmitry
Bestuzhev explains, don't directly answer the security question at all:

1. The tips are quite simple but effective. Since all social engineering attacks work based on the information of interest for the victim or the information related to the victim, it's important to provide secret questions with the answers absolutely not related to it.
2. For example, for the question "What is the name of your first pet?" I would register an answer like sw3SwuTu 
3.  When I bought my last car... The vendor provided me with a list of secret questions and I had to provide them with the secret answers they registered in their systems. So, instead of providing real answers I provided a password like the [aforementioned] one. They said I was the first customer to do this and they congratulated me.
4.  ... So, basically the rule is never provide real answers for the secret questions."

Facebook next? FB agrees to tighten its privacy policies

Social network settles dispute with FTC over 'deceptive act' of making confidential information public without consent

The FTC said Facebook, which went public earlier this year, was liable for 

'a broad range of deceptive conduct'. Photograph: Handout/Getty Images

Facebook has agreed to tighten its privacy policies after it settled a long-running dispute with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The social network was accused by the regulator last year of introducing "unfair and deceptive" changes to its privacy policies in 2009, including settings that made users' confidential profile information public without their consent.

Facebook also shared personal information including status updates, geographic location and marital status with advertisers and third-party applications without telling users, the FTC said.

News of the settlement, which ties Facebook to biannual privacy inspections by an independent watchdog for the next 20 years, came just a day after Google was fined a record $22.5m (£14.4m) by the FTC for circumventing privacy protections on Apple's Safari web browser.

The allegations laid bare by the FTC about the two internet giants will heighten concern about the security of peoples' private data in some of the most popular digital destinations. Facebook boasts more than 955 million active monthly users, according to its latest figures. Google controlled two-thirds of the US search market in June and its share is even greater in most European countries, said the metrics firm ComScore.

The FTC said Facebook was liable for "a broad range of deceptive conduct" relating to what it tells users about their private profile information.

The bulk of the charges against Facebook relate to its overhaul of users' privacy settings in November 2010. The FTC said that Facebook failed to tell users that it changed the settings so they could no longer restrict access to their name, profile, picture, gender, friend list, pages, or networks.

"Facebook's failure to adequately disclose these facts, in light of the representation made, constitutes a deceptive act or practice," the FTC said.

The social network also made public users' photos and videos even after their accounts had been deactivated.

The five , commissioners were split over whether to settle the dispute, with three voting in favour, one abstaining, and Commissioner J Thomas Rosch dissenting on the basis that Facebook had denied liability for its actions. He argued that it should at least be required to take the position that it neither confirmed nor denied liability – a position he also argued in dissenting from the 4-1 verdict over Google's fine. Google denied liability to the FTC; it was fined because it was already the subject of a consent order similar to that now tying Facebook.

Original report  >>

Google to Pay Millions for Latest Privacy Lapse

Published on Aug 9, 2012 : The Federal Trade Commission says it hopes its record $22.5 million fine against Google will force the Internet search behemoth to pay better attention to its practices. The FTC says Google duped Web surfers who use Apple's Safari browser.

Hackers Take Down WikiLeaks Website

WikiLeaks, the organization that came to fame by publishing confidential government and financial reports, has been the victim of a hacking that's left its website offline. 

The denial of service attacks happened over the course of the week, and at first, WikiLeaks, for some reason, thought the attacks were the caused by either of three things: "1. Olympics cover 2. Upcomng [sic] release. 3. Ongoing Syria, Stratfor releases." 

All three were wrong. The attacks were carried out by a hacker collective known as AntiLeaks. In a message posted to Twitter, the group explained why it targeted the rebel news organization: 

“We are not doing this to call attention to ourselves. We are young adults, citizens of the United States of America and are deeply concerned about the recent developments with Julian Assange and his attempt at aslyum [sic] in Ecuador." 

Assange is the head of a new breed of terrorist. We are doing this as a protest against his attempt to escape justice into Ecuador. This would be a catalyst for many more like him to rise up in his place. We will not stop and they will not stop us.”

All of this is pretty ironic when you consider the time the Anonymous hacker group came to WikiLeak's defense earlier this year and attacked a number of financial institutions like PayPal and Bank of America with denial of service attacks. 

WikiLeaks is currenlty raising money for more bandwidth and is instructing readers and supporters to head to a mirror site to donate money. 

[via Mashable] original report >>

Google extends online search to email boxes

SAN FRANCISCO — Google has begun allowing users to extend online searches to include messages stored in accounts at Web-based email service Gmail.

"Sometimes the best answer to your question isn't available on the public Web -- it may be contained elsewhere, such as in your email," Google search senior vice president Amit Singhal said in a blog post on Wednesday.

"We think you shouldn't have to be your own mini search engine to find the most useful information; it should just work."

Google invited people to visit google.com/experimental/gmailfieldtrial to sign up to take part in the new feature, which was still taking shape.

"We're developing a way to find this information for you that's useful and unobtrusive, and we'd love your feedback," Singhal said.

The trial was limited to English language searches and messages in Gmail accounts.

Enhancements under development include a feature for organizing air travel confirmation emails so that a query of "my flights" would serve up results that include a concise list of bookings.

"These are baby steps, but important ones on our way to building the search engine of the future," Singhal said.

Those steps include upgrading Google search to look beyond query words to figure out what people are actually seeking online.

Original report : >>

Baidu : China's 'Google-killer'.

... looks to build its brand worldwide

Baidu (pic), China's biggest search engine, has quietly and successfully extended services 

to other countries in the developing world.

BEIJING, China — Everyone in China knows Baidu — the country’s biggest search engine, its very own, home-grown Google-killer. But outside China it’s far from a household name.

That's something the company wants to change. In a quietly ambitious plan, Baidu is taking its hard-won lessons from the Chinese market abroad in the hopes of becoming a major player the developing world.

In the last year, Baidu has quietly rolled out localized products in Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt, and as of late July, Singapore and Brazil, with new offices being built in Sao Paulo.

So far, most of these are adaptations of Baidu services that cater to older or less sophisticated users. In Brazil, users now can visit a version of Baidu’s Hao123 directory, which features links organized by category — movies, email, weather, sports, shopping, and the like. In Egypt, users can find an Arabic version of Baidu’s question and answer site, “Baidu Knows.” In Vietnam, Baidu offers Hao123 as well as a recently launched version of Tieba, which allows users to search social media.

As a further measure of its seriousness, in July Baidu signed a partnership in Singapore to create a joint research lab on natural language processing for Thai and Vietnamese, as well as Arabic and Portuguese.

While it’s a modest start, Baidu’s billionaire founder, Robin Li says that the goal is to “become a universally recognized brand in over half the world’s countries.”

Original report  >>

Facebook Testing New Mobile-Ad Product

Published on Aug 8, 2012 by WSJDigitalNetwork : Is this what investors have been waiting for? Facebook is testing a new mobile ad product for app developers, the company said in a blog post Tuesday. George Stahl has details on The News Hub.