5 Reasons Why New Macs and iPhone are Lacking

This is sure to get a LOT of comments...
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5 Reasons Why New Macs and iPhone are Lacking
7:41 PM - June 8, 2009 by Tuan Nguyen

(from tomshardware.com posting)

Today at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference, many things were unveiled.

The new MacBook specs and MacBook Pro, slashed prices, the new iPhone 3G S, and of course, Apple's next installment of OS X, Snow Leopard. Despite the fanfare however, Apple's announcements were largely non-exciting.

Yeah it's true. I do use Macs. But it's true too I have several custom built PCs at home. The announcements shown off today however, reveal that Apple is indeed not a hardware company. It's a software company at heart, and monetizes those products through its hardware sales. One of the most obvious proofs of this is the company's iPhone. Just about the only good nugget of today's presentation was Apple's talk about Snow Leopard. Indeed the next-generation of OS X with its BSD underpinnings has great features going for it. In fact, installing Snow Leopard will free up 6 GB of space if you upgrade from Leopard.

But anyway, let's move on to my top 5 reasons why Apple's hardware is really still lacking and behind the curve.

1. Hardware Support
2. Price / Evolution Strategy
3. Odd Hardware Adoption
4. Small Steps Appear Big
5. Sometimes Removing Hardware Support

Here's the complete posting and detailed information for each of the 5 sections.

Spammers find new ways to flood corporate networks

From Computerworld.com posting.

Spammers find new ways to flood corporate networks

By Robert McMillan
June 1, 2009 12:01 AM ET

Computerworld - Unsolicited e-mail accounted for 90.4% of all messages received on corporate networks during April, an increase of 5.1% from a month earlier, according to a report released May 26 by Symantec Corp.'s MessageLabs Intelligence unit.

The monthly MessageLabs report on threat trends also found that nearly 58% of all spam can be traced to botnets.

Adam O'Donnell, a researcher at Cloudmark Inc., a provider of antispam tools, noted that in addition to using botnets, spammers in recent months have been experimenting with a new way to sneak unwanted e-mail past corporate filters.

Often, he said, a spammer will rent legitimate network services, often in an Eastern European country, and then blast a large amount of spam at the network of a specific ISP. The idea is to push as many messages as possible onto the network before any kind of filtering software detects the incident. O'Donnell estimates that hundreds of thousands of such messages are sent each day without detection.

Social networks are also becoming an increasingly important tool for spammers.

Security experts note that social-networking spam can't be filtered at the corporate firewall and appears to come from friends of the recipients.

2009 Webware 100 Winners!

Webware 100 Winners!

Welcome to the 2009 Webware 100! Below you'll find 100 Web apps in 10 categories voted to be the best of the best by Webware readers and users of the apps themselves.

Be sure to also see the new 11th category, Editors Choice, for a list of 12 products that we feel merit inclusion in this year's awards program, even if they weren't big enough to win the popular vote.

Congratulations to the winners of the Webware 100! Here's the complete list of the 2009 100 Webware winners!

BlackBerry Curve outsells iPhone: research group

Blackberry Curve outsells iPhone: research group
Mon May 4, 2009 4:21pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry Curve moved past Apple Inc's iPhone in the first quarter to become the best-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S., research group NPD said on Monday.

RIM, which already dominates the corporate smartphone market in the United States, also had three of the top five best-selling consumer smartphones in the period, with the Storm at No. 3 and the Pearl at No. 4, NPD said.

T-Mobile's G1 ranked No. 5.

The iPhone was the top-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S. in both the third and fourth quarters of 2008. The Curve was second and the Palm Inc's Centro was third.

NPD credited a "buy-one-get-one" promotion by Verizon Wireless -- a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc -- for helping push the Curve past the iPhone.

"The more familiar, and less expensive, Curve benefited from these giveaways and was able to leapfrog the iPhone, due to its broader availability on the four major U.S. national carriers," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD, in a news release.

The iPhone is only available through AT&T Inc. Apple launched its second-generation 3G iPhone last July.

Entire posting.

D.C. First in Line for Free Digital TV On the Go, but Technology Isn't Ready

D.C. First in Line for Free Digital TV On the Go, but Technology Isn't Ready

By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Washington area residents could soon get "American Idol" and "30 Rock" on the go through a pilot program to bring free mobile digital television to cellphones and other wireless devices.

But seeing "Oprah" on the commute home comes with a caveat: Currently, there are no commercial mobile devices capable of carrying digital television broadcasts.

That did not stop the nation's biggest broadcasters from announcing yesterday at a trade show in Las Vegas that they would roll out the service to more than two dozen television markets by the end of the year, beginning with the District.

Broadcasters said wireless devices will be available to Washington area residents to purchase when service launches late this summer; several vendors such as LG, Samsung and Dell yesterday displayed prototypes of cellphones, notebooks and automobile entertainment systems outfitted for the real-time programs.

Entire posting.

Windows 7 RC to Ship April 30, Sept possible full release

Windows 7 RC To Ship April 30

Microsoft is moving a step closer to releasing a final version of its new operating system.
By Paul McDougall InformationWeek

April 27, 2009 03:35 PM

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) plans to release a nearly final version of its Windows 7

"I would like to thank all of our beta testers for helping us get to this point," wrote LeBlanc, noting that the

software maker was receiving user feedback messages every 15 seconds at one point during the beta period. "Since then, the engineering team has been busy analyzing the feedback, fixing bugs, and working hard to improve the overall experience," LeBlanc said.

Complete article.

Experiencing an Open Source World

So, I decided it was time to experience running Linux and only open source software in everyday life and see what the good things were and the not so good.

I purchased a Dell Mini for $199 (amazing) and decided to go with Linux pre-installed.

So far so good, running Mozilla browser... nice.

BUT, first major issue. No streaming from NetFlix. Big time bummer!

Tried a NetBook (mini laptop) yet?

There are new processors coming out. Take a look at this article from CNET.

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Minilaptop CPU showdown: Atom vs. Neo vs. Nano

For a long time, Intel's Atom CPU ruled the minilaptop universe, powering Netbooks from Asus, Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, and others. After all, who wouldn't want an inexpensive processor capable of powering an almost-pocket-size laptop? Especially one perfectly suited of handling basic coffee shop chores such as Web surfing, e-mailing, or blogging.

But when you're on top, everyone else wants a piece of your action. Two new potential Atom-killers have launched recently, each looking to steal some market share from Intel with variations on the Netbook theme. The contenders, in brief, are:

Intel Atom
The smallest processor currently made by Intel, the Atom is found in a majority of Netbook-style laptops. The most common versions are the Atom N270 (1.6GHz) and Atom N280 (1.66GHz), and popular Atom-powered systems include the Asus Eee PC 1000HE and Acer Aspire One AOD150.

AMD Athlon Neo
Intended as a step up from Atom-style Netbook processors, AMD's Athlon Neo will be seen in ultrathin laptops such as the new HP Pavilion dv2. That particular system has a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 CPU and a 12-inch display.

Via Nano
Chipmaker Via has replaced its older low-power CPU, the C7-M, with the new Nano, specifically designed for Netbooks. The 1.3GHz Nano U2350 was first seen in the Samsung NC20 Netbook.

So, how did laptops with these CPUs fare when pitted against each other? To start with, it's important to note that these are different Netbook-style systems from different vendors, so this is not an exact comparison--many other factors besides the CPU affect performance--but it's similar to the choices you'll face when shopping for a low-cost, low-power laptop.

As one might expect, there's no clear winner.

Complete article....

Twitter Worm, Happy Easter Weekend

Reported by Sophos security blog:

"The Easter weekend didn't pass peacefully for Twitter, as it was struck by a series of worm attacks taking advantage of cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in the popular micro-blogging site. Viewing an affected profile would infect your own Twitter account, and cause you to spread the hackers' bizarre messages to others. Find out more about the threat from Sophos.

(Cyber) Spies Penetrate U.S. Electrical Grid

Spies Penetrate U.S. Electrical Grid
National Security Officials Say System Is Under Attack From Russian And Chinese Cyber Spies

April 8, 2009

(CBS/ AP) The U.S. electrical grid is under attack from Russian and Chinese cyber spies who have inserted software that could disrupt the system, current and former national security officials tell the Wall Street Journal.

So far, these spies have not tried to damage the system, but the possibility remains likely should a war or national security crisis hit the United States, the officials said.

"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," a senior intelligence official told the newspaper. "So have the Russians."

In addition to electrical systems, nuclear power plants and financial networks; water and sewage systems are also at risk, officials said.

"There are intrusions, and they are growing. There were a lot last year," a former Homeland Security official told the newspaper.

The report follows a Pentagon announcement Tuesday which showed more than $100 million was spent in the last six months responding to and repairing damage from cyber attacks and other computer network problems, military leaders said.

Complete posting.