As Ballmer Praises Apple, EFF Cites Stiff App Store Rules
With the stakes high in Microsoft's bid to add its search engine to the iPhone, a few words of praise by the software giant's CEO have drawn a considerable amount of attention.

"Apple's done a very nice job that allows people to monetize and commercialize their intellectual property" in the App Store, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told a University of Washington audience last week.

Playing Bing-o

Although Ballmer was stating the obvious, observers and analysts quickly surmised that he was trying to sweeten the waters in advance of Apple's decision on whether to replace Google with Microsoft's Bing as the default search engine on the iPhone operating system.

Business Week reported in January that the two giants were in negotiations for that deal. Asked by Reuters about the prospects after unveiling the Windows 7 Phone Series last month, Ballmer said, "I hear the same rumors you do."

The App Store has more than 130,000 products for sale or free, fueling the sale of iPods and iPhones and creating a user experience that other smartphone manufacturers have tried to emulate. Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile has less than 1,000 apps.

No Denying It

"It would appear that Microsoft is no longer in denial about what Apple has accomplished," said Michael Gartenberg of the Altimeter Group, a technology consulting firm. "The question is, will Microsoft be able to drive a wedge between Apple and Google and find a new and unlikely ally in the mobile space?"

As Ballmer praised the App Store, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a San Francisco-based nonprofit, launched a broadside against Apple by publishing the company's 28-page developer licensing agreement on its web site.

Since NASA now has an iPhone app, the group cleverly filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the agreement that the government agency signed with Apple.

'Major Shift'

"The entire family of devices built...

Facebook Reported Ready To Let Users Share Locations
Facebook may join other Internet companies in offering location-based services. The social-networking site plans to let its users to share their location and see the locations of friends, according to published reports.

Facebook could use the service to provide advertisers with targeted information such as the nearest ATM. The feature is expected to be similar to Foursquare, a location-based social network that enables users to "check in" with one another and meet up.

Some Internet users have accepted location services as a way to gain information they feel is valuable, such as a coupon for a nearby restaurant or personalized weather services. But others fear it's another example of Big Brother watching and, in this case, knowing where they are.

User Control

Facebook has been working on the feature for more than a year and is expected to make it available to its millions of users, reports say. The company also plans to provide application programming interfaces to third-party developers who want to add location features to their Facebook applications.

The company is tight-lipped about the service. "We are constantly experimenting with new ideas and products internally," said Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokesperson, in an e-mail. "We don't have anything more to share at this time."

Facebook may want to announce the feature at its F8 Conference next month.

U.S. companies offering location-based services must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act, which requires users' consent. Under the 2003 act, companies have given users control of location services on web sites and in mobile apps.

In Europe, the European Union has taken steps to protect users from information gathered through location-based services.

Some companies have taken extra steps by adding privacy-enhancing technologies.

The Rummble Example

Companies hoping to give advertisers ways to target audiences have been implementing location-based services for some time. Rummble, a location-based social network,...

Remote-Code Vulnerability Being Exploited in IE 6 and 7
Older versions of Internet Explorer are under attack. Microsoft warned Tuesday afternoon that cybercriminals are actively exploiting a security vulnerability that lets attackers execute malicious code from remote locations.

Microsoft's internal investigation reveals that the latest version of the browser, Internet Explorer 8, is not affected. Likewise, Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 is not affected.

Here's a quick list of affected versions for IT administrators looking to implement a workaround to mitigate the risk: Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7.

"In addition to Microsoft's Patch Tuesday updates today, the company also issued an advisory for a new zero-day vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer," said Josh Talbot, security intelligence manager for Symantec Security Response. "Symantec has observed exploitation of this vulnerability in the wild and has created Trojan.Malscript!html and JS.Downloader detection to mitigate this attack."

The Root of the Problem

Microsoft said the vulnerability exists due to an invalid pointer reference being used within Internet Explorer. Under certain conditions, it's possible for the invalid pointer to be accessed after an object is deleted, according to a March 9 Microsoft security advisory. In a specially-crafted attack, in attempting to access a freed object, Internet Explorer can be caused to allow remote code execution.

"At this time, we are aware of targeted attacks attempting to use this vulnerability. We will continue to monitor the threat environment and update this advisory if this situation changes," Microsoft said. "On completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, which may include providing a solution through our monthly security update release process, or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs."

Mitigating Factors

IT administrators can take heart in the mitigating factors that may protect their...

Cisco Unveils Much Faster CRS-3 Router for Net Growth
The wait is over. Cisco Systems on Tuesday finally took the lid off its hype machine to reveal ... a new router. Cisco is positioning its CRS-3 Carrier Routing System as the foundation of the next-generation Internet that will pave the way for rapid growth of video transmissions, mobile devices, and new online services.

The CRS-3 offers three times the traffic capacity of the its predecessor, the CRS-1, Cisco said, and promises to accelerate the delivery of new experiences for consumers, new revenue opportunities for service providers, and new ways to collaborate in the workplace. That's a lot of hyperbole, but analysts said it's believable.

"It's too bad Cisco led up to this router announcement with so much hype. People were expecting Armageddon or something. They had this countdown timer as if something big was going to happen," said Zeus Kerravala, a vice president at Yankee Group. "At the end of the day what Cisco announced was a big, fast router. But that's what Cisco does. We expect Cisco to release bigger, faster routers. It's what they built their company history on."

Lighting-Fast Router

The Cisco CRS-3 can handle up to 322 terabits per second. To put that speed into perspective, this router would allow the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just more than one second. Or every man, woman and child in China to make a video call -- simultaneously. And every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.

The Cisco CRS-3 makes possible unified service delivery of Internet and cloud services. A Network Positioning System provides layers three to seven application information for the best path to content. And a cloud virtual private network for Infrastructure as a Service lets customers "pay as you go" for computing, storage and network...

Sony, Samsung Join Campaign To Push 3-D TV Sets
On the heels of the big 3-D television presence at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Sony and Samsung are joining Panasonic, LG Electronics, and others in promoting the new technology. On Tuesday, Sony said it is aiming for 10 percent of its TV sales within the next year to be 3-D models, and Samsung announced a range of HDTV sets and Blu-ray players will ship later this month.

At a press conference Tuesday in New York City, Samsung announced what it described as the "world's first available full HD 3D LED TV," as well as a variety of related 3-D home entertainment products.

'World's First HDTV App Store'

Under a new promotion, buyers of a Samsung 3-D TV and 3-D Blu-ray player or home theater system will get a "3-D starter kit" with two pairs of 3-D glasses and a 3-D version of DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs Aliens. The manufacturer also said it plans to make available a 3-D version of the studio's popular Shrek film series.

Samsung's 3-D offerings include 46- and 55-inch LED TVs being released this month, and others to be rolled out over the next several months. It also touted the 240-Hz refresh rate and Internet connectivity in the new models, as well as access to the "world's first HDTV app store," Samsung Apps.

On Wednesday, Panasonic will start selling its first 3-D TV in the U.S. in a partnership with Best Buy, while Samsung is also launching a 3-D TV and Blu-ray player offer with that retailer. LG said Tuesday it will begin offering its new 3-D sets in India.

Sony's first sales will be in June in Japan, and the company hasn't announced launch plans for the new products in the U.S. It has also said it will be releasing a software update for the PlayStation 3,...

HP Swipes at iPad as 'Watered Down' as Rivals Line Up
Competitors in the fast-moving tablet-computer category are lining up to take on Apple's iPad. Hewlett-Packard is the latest to preview its upcoming slate product, and other companies like Lenovo, Sony, Dell and Acer are similarly positioning their products.

The HP tablet runs Windows 7, and was first previewed by Microsoft at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. HP published some details on its company blog last month and updated the information with a posting Monday that includes two promotional videos. The videos show a tablet device running Flash and responding to hand gestures.

'Not a Watered-Down Internet'

The positioning by tablet makers comes a few weeks before the iPad goes on sale in early April. On Sunday night, Apple showed its first iPad TV ad during the Academy Awards. It showcased the device's ease of use for e-mails, movies, music, photos, news reading, and web searching.

But the iPad is being criticized for several shortcomings, and the posting on the HP blog by Personal Systems Group Chief Technology Officer Phil McKinney emphasized some of those differences.

The HP slate product, McKinney wrote, gives "a full web browsing experience in the palm of your hand," not a "watered-down Internet." In particular, he noted, it has full support for Adobe's ubiquitous Flash technology.

Not coincidentally, Apple's mobile devices do not support Flash, which is used for most of the animation and much of the video shown on the web. In addition to being Flash-less, the iPad also doesn't have a webcam, HDMI high-definition output, GPS or multitasking.

Tablets from Smartphone Makers?

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, noted that the apparent rush of competition following the iPad announcement in January is really the latest in a "long history of tablet-based computing devices." To date, no tablet product has been particularly successful, so...

Google Testing Personalized Search for TV Programs
As Internet and television continue to converge, Google is actively testing a new television-programming search service with Dish Network, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The service reportedly runs on TV set-top boxes that host Google software and enable viewers to find shows on Dish and video on web sites like YouTube. The Journal cited people familiar with the matter who said the service will allow viewers to personalize a lineup of shows.

The report follows TiVo's launch last week of digital video recorders that combine broadcast and web content. Microsoft and Apple are also looking for their place in the hybrid broadcast-web space. Google's experiment offers the search giant access to 14 million Dish viewers, signaling the potential to yield valuable results.

Consumer Experience and Advertising

As Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, sees it, there are two overlapping angles here: Consumer experience and advertising.

"Obviously online Google satisfies consumer search queries and serves targeted ads against those. This would appear to extend the same model to TV," Sterling said. "But the ad component would also feature a behavioral element -- viewing history -- as part of the targeting."

Television seems like a natural extension of Google ads, especially as set-top boxes combine the ability to search and view content from traditional and Internet broadcasters. Google is intent on pushing its Android operating system beyond mobile devices to set-top boxes, buddy boxes, and TVs, a Journal interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt in January suggested.

A New Search Frontier

Google has the lion's share of Internet search and is actively battling for mobile search. Can Google succeed in translating its search dominance to yet another screen? That remains to be seen, especially in an ultracompetitive market for set-top boxes. But Google sees the potential -- and so does Sterling.

"As the...

Smartphones Transforming Business Travel
Business traveler Mike Monroe no longer rummages through his bag at the airline counter fishing for his flight ticket or confirmation number.

The consultant from Lakeland, Fla., has gone paperless, thanks to Continental Airlines' electronic boarding passes. Once he checks in online, the carrier e-mails a bar code to his phone. That code is scanned at security checkpoints and gates instead of a boarding pass. "It takes away a lot of annoyances."

Monroe also uses his BlackBerry for airlines' flight-change alerts, routing all calls into one number provided by Google Voice, turn-by-turn driving directions when he's behind the wheel and watching TV on Slingbox when he has downtime. He also carries an iPod Touch -- like an iPhone but without the phone -- to make international calls using Skype, get the latest sports scores and weather from Viigo and access Urbanspoon's reviews of nearby restaurants. "Nothing really cutting edge," Monroe says, "but I'm just trying every day to reduce the stress."

Monroe is a member of a growing army of tech-savvy travelers whose smartphones are transforming their travel habits. Beyond online maps and travel guides, travelers are turning to their phones to look up aircraft seat configuration, track taxis, reply to early hotel check-in requests, order room service and locate nearby colleagues.

Few Americans remain untouched by the effects of the mobile Internet. But the tech industry's core mission of getting people to lead untethered lives inevitably invites road warriors such as Monroe as early adopters of all their bells and whistles. The travel industry has responded with some of the most innovative applications available on smartphones. And more are coming.

Airlines and hotels are refining their mobile Web sites and creating applications, or "apps," for downloading to popular phone models, such as iPhones, BlackBerrys and Google Android phones. Entrepreneurial software developers are rolling out...

Tech Titans Create Content-Gadget Ecosystems
You may not know it, but your gadgets have a hidden agenda. Think about the electronics you own. No doubt there's a digital music player such as an Apple iPod or a Microsoft Zune. Then there's a smartphone -- perhaps an iPhone or a Droid that sports the Google-inspired Android operating system. For games, your family may have an Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, or Nintendo Wii. For books, there's the Kindle from Amazon, among others. When the iPad hits stores on Apr. 3, you'll want that, too.

Each device contains its own widening universe of services and applications, many delivered via the Internet. They are designed to keep you wedded to a particular company's ecosystem and set of products.

A battle looms, and it's not about selling new gadgets -- it's about using devices to lock you into a content ecosystem. In an ironic evolution of the World Wide Web that once promised consistent access to all of the globe's information, corporate giants are now striving to wall off sections of content and charge you for access.

Apple's Issue with Adobe's Flash

The Internet is splitting into a series of content portals. The front door is your iPod. Consider some of the current gadget trends:

-- iPad versus Flash. When Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled his sexy tablet in January, it soon was clear that the iPad wouldn't support Adobe Systems Flash software. That might seem a remarkable oversight, since Flash supports most videos on the Web -- until you realize that Jobs might prefer you to pay for videos at his iTunes store.

-- Kindle in Color. On its Lab126 career board, Amazon recently placed ads in search of engineers who have design expertise in color LCD screens and Wi-Fi. The listings suggest Amazon may be planning a color upgrade for...

Building Your Own Computer: Not Just for Nerds
Buy a standard off-the-shelf computer and you're probably making compromises. It's rare to find a pre-configured system that meets your needs to a tee.

The simplest way to make sure that every piece of technology in a new desktop PC fits your requirements is to build it yourself. You don't have to be a nerd to manage the task anymore, either. The key thing is to enter into the planning stage by ensuring that the individual pieces -- the components -- are compatible with one another.

The key components of any PC are the case, power supply, motherboard and processor (including fans and heat conductive paste), memory, graphics cards, optical drive, and hard drive.

"Once you have these components, you can create a PC system that would suffice for most users," says Christian Kissinger from German electronics specialists Conrad Elektronik.

Each one of the components listed above is available in hundreds of variants. Deciding which one should grace the inside of your new creation is largely a matter of determining what kind of tasks the computer will be performing. A computer being used just for email messages and surfing the net doesn't require the horsepower under the hood that a gaming PC needs, for example.

Evaluating the individual components is thus a relatively important part of the process, says Josef Reitberger from the computer magazine Chip, but it can also be fun. He suggests checking the top products lists in well-known magazines.

Reitberger feels the challenge of physically constructing the PC itself is often overblown. "Good cases are constructed so that amateur tinkerers just have to tighten a few screws," he notes. And those even usually come included with delivery.

The process is a key part of the PC.

If you've already decided on a specific model, then the next step is finding a suitable motherboard. Once that...

IT Workers on Leave Amid School Webcam Probe
Two information-technology workers at a suburban Philadelphia school district that secretly activated webcams on students' school-issued laptops are on paid leave amid an FBI wiretap investigation.

Lower Merion School District officials have said the webcams were only activated to locate missing laptops, and not for any rogue purpose.

"Placing them on administrative leave with pay is not a reflection of any wrongdoing on their part. It is a standard, prudent step in an investigation such as this one," the district said in a statement Friday, confirming a Philadelphia Inquirer report.

Technician Michael Perbix and systems coordinator Carol Cafiero went on leave two weeks ago, after a student's lawsuit revealed the district practice of taking webcam photos and screen shots when laptops were reported lost or stolen.

The district remotely activated 42 webcams in the last 14 months, successfully locating 18 of the computers. School officials have declined to describe the resulting photographs, or say if any were taken inside student homes. The district has halted the practice amid the lawsuit and resulting state and federal criminal probes.

In the civil suit, Harriton High School student Blake Robbins accuses school officials of invading his privacy by photographing him in his bedroom without permission. A vice principal later approached him, he said, and warned that school officials -- based on webcam photos -- suspected him of selling drugs.

Robbins, 15, denies the drug allegation. He claims Vice Principal Lindy Matsko mistook Mike & Ike candies for illicit pills.

Lower Merion, a wealthy district on Philadelphia's Main Line, spent $21,600 per student in 2008-2009, the most in the Philadelphia region and nearly twice the $11,426 spent on Philadelphia children. The district issues the $1,000 Macintosh laptops to each of the 2,300 students at two high schools.

Robbins' lawyer hopes to win class-action certification, but nearly 500 district parents have signed on...

AMD Slashes CEO's Pay Package
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the world's No. 2 maker of computer microprocessors, reduced its CEO's pay package 14 percent last year. The company cut executives' pay in response to falling sales.

CEO Dirk Meyer received a package for the 2009 fiscal year that AMD valued at $4.5 million. That's according to Associated Press calculations based on a regulatory filing late Friday. For 2008, his pay package was valued at $5.3 million.

In AMD's 2009 fiscal year, which ended Dec. 26, Meyer received restricted stock and options of $3.7 million. In 2008, his stock-and-options package was $4.4 million.

Meyer, 48, has held AMD's top job for the past year and a half. He became CEO after Hector Ruiz left to become chairman of the spinoff company made up of AMD's chip-making plants.

In 2009, besides restricted stock and options of $3.7 million, Meyer received:

- A salary of $792,685.

- A bonus of $45,000 to restore his salary for three months of 2009 to its level before AMD cut salaries for its executives.

- Other compensation of $7,478, made up mainly of AMD's matching contributions to Meyer's 401(k) retirement account.

In 2009, $605,280 worth of Meyer's stock also vested.

In February, AMD cut Meyer's salary 20 percent in light of the sour economy. Other executives' pay was cut 15 percent. No bonuses were paid in 2009 to executives because of what the company called the "challenging business environment."

After customer demand and the company's finances improved later in the year, the salary cuts were restored. All AMD employees whose salaries had been cut received one-time payments that restored their full salaries for the September-November 2009 period.

When Ruiz left AMD in March of last year to head AMD's factory spinoff, GlobalFoundries, he received a retirement payment of $4.4 million. He also received $3 million for finishing the spinoff successfully.

In 2009, AMD's revenue...

In College, Is Better Education Just a Click Away?
The students in Michael Dubson's physics class at the University of Colorado fell silent as a multiple choice question flashed on a screen, sending them scrambling for small white devices on their desks.

Within seconds, a monitor on Dubson's desk told him that 92 percent of the class had correctly answered the question on kinetic energy, a sign that they grasped the concept.

Clickers -- not unlike gadgets used on television game shows -- first appeared in college classrooms over a decade ago and have since spread to just about every college and university in the country thanks to cheaper and better technology.

But as clickers have become commonplace, a divide has emerged over just how sophisticated they should be.

Some professors like Dubson endorse simple, straightforward devices that stick to multiple choice questions. Others embrace fancier models or newer applications for smart phones and laptops that allow students to query the professor by text or e-mail during the lecture or conduct discussion with classmates -- without the cost of purchasing a clicker.

Those preferring simplicity say pared-down remotes reduce distractions in a multitasking world, while others say fighting the march to smart phones and digital tablets is a losing battle.

Clickers first gained popularity in large science lecture halls as a way of gauging whether students understood the material. They have since migrated into smaller classrooms and can be found in nursing and other professional schools. Even middle schools and high schools are using them.

Research at the college level has found that students like using the devices and attendance often goes up. But results are mixed when it comes to learning. Some evidence suggests clicker use has led to only modest gains in retention and test scores, while other studies have detected little or no improvement, according to a November article in the North American...