We Fix Windows & Other Teky Stuff Too.
How Google updated Android without releasing version 4.3
May 22nd
Could there be a light at the end of the fragmentation tunnel? Google I/O didn’t give us the Android update we were expecting—or did it??
by Andrew Cunningham - May 16 2013, 4:50pm PDT
Google covered a lot of ground in its three-and-a-half-hour opening keynote at Google I/O yesterday, but one thing it didn’t announce was the oft-rumored next version of Android. However, persistent rumorsinsist that the elusive Android 4.3 is still coming next month—if that’s true, why not announce it at I/O in front of all of your most enthusiastic developers?
The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it’s trying to fix the update problem.
Consider the full breadth of yesterday’s Android-related improvements: you’ve got an update to the Android version of Google Maps, due this summer, that incorporates some of the features of the iOS version and the new desktop version . There’s a WebGL-capable version of Chrome for Android and an entirely new gaming API . A shotgun blast of improvements are coming to the Google Play Services APIs . And that’s to say nothing of the products that affect Google’s services across all supported platforms: Google Play Music All Access (say that five times fast), Hangouts , and Search improvements. More >
Patent Trolls – Who pays the bill in the long run?
May 2nd
Melville, New York-based CopyTele Inc. (CTI) said that subsidiary Secure Web Conference Corporation has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The company claims that Skype, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion (and conveniently has around 250 million active monthly users), infringes on its encryption technology. More >
IBM Takes a Beating – Shares Plunge 8% as Revenue Drop Rattles Investors
Apr 20th
All winning streaks come to an end. For International Business Machines Corp., IBM -8.28% the moment came this week.
After reporting profits that at least met Wall Street’s expectations for 31 straight quarters dating back through the financial crisis to early 2005, IBM stumbled late Thursday. It posted a 1% dip in profit and a 5% drop in revenue that rattled investors and sent the stock down more than 8% Friday.
It was the biggest decline for IBM’s shares in eight years and a setback for new Chief Executive Virginia “Ginni” Rometty, who took over the job early last year. The company said the weakness came from poor execution by its sales force—an area the CEO used to run. More >
Is Samsung Stringing Microsoft Along on Windows Phone 8?
Mar 13th
Is Samsung’s interest in Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 on the level, or is it a ploy intended to slow the platform’s market penetration? Boutique research house Detwiler Fenton believes it may be the latter, a concerted effort by Samsung to hamstring Windows Phone 8 as it ramps up development of its own Tizen mobile OS.
If that all sounds a bit too evil-genius for the smartphone industry, consider this. Samsung’s Windows Phone road map is not elaborate by any means. The Ativ Odyssey, the company’s first Windows Phone 8 handset, is a bland offering by any metric, and one that’s not doing particularly well in the free-with-contract market for which it was intended. Detwiler Fenton analyst Jeff Johnston figures it has claimed barely any sales share at Verizon. And, interestingly, Samsung has made no effort whatsoever to boost sales. Which is all a bit odd. One could argue that if Samsung were truly committed to Windows Phone 8, it would be out in the market pushing the Ativ Odyssey and working hard to flesh out a full portfolio of devices based on the platform. More >
Seagate to Discontinue 7200rpm 2.5″ Drives Later This Year
Mar 3rd
Earlier today X-bit Labs reported that Seagate will stop the production of their 7200RPM 2.5″ drives by the end of this year and I just got a confirmation from Seagate that this is really the case. Seagate currently offers four 7200RPM 2.5″ lineups: Momentus 7200.4, 7200.2, Momentus Thin 7200, and Momentus XT. The latter is Seagate’s hybrid drive, which couples the spinning platters with 8GB of SLC NAND for caching purposes. More >
Cloadflare – Today’s Outage Post Mortem
Mar 3rd
This morning at 09:47 UTC CloudFlare effectively dropped off the Internet. The outage affected all of CloudFlare’s services including DNS and any services that rely on our web proxy. During the outage, anyone accessing CloudFlare.com or any site on CloudFlare’s network would have received a DNS error. Pings and Traceroutes to CloudFlare’s network resulted in a “No Route to Host” error.
The cause of the outage was a system-wide failure of our edge routers. CloudFlare currently runs 23 data centers worldwide. These data centers are connected to the rest of the Internet using routers. These routers announce the path that, from any point on the Internet, packets should use to reach our network. When a router goes down, the routes to the network that sits behind the router are withdrawn from the rest of the Internet. More >
Analysis: The near impossible battle against hackers everywhere
Feb 24th
By Joseph Menn – SAN FRANCISCO | Sun Feb 24, 2013 3:04am EST
(Reuters) – Dire warnings from Washington about a “cyber Pearl Harbor” envision a single surprise strike from a formidable enemy that could destroy power plants nationwide, disable the financial system or cripple the U.S. government.
But those on the front lines say it isn’t all about protecting U.S. government and corporate networks from a single sudden attack. They report fending off many intrusions at once from perhaps dozens of countries, plus well-funded electronic guerrillas and skilled criminals.
Security officers and their consultants say they are overwhelmed. The attacks are not only from China , which Washington has long accused of spying on U.S. companies, many emanate from Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Western countries. Perpetrators range from elite military units to organized criminal rings to activist teenagers. More >
