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Paul Allen sues Apple, Google, Facebook, others over Web patents |
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Written by Randy Davis
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Monday, 30 August 2010 10:24 |
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A firm owned by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen today sued Apple, Facebook, Google, YouTube, and seven other companies, charging them with infringing patents filed more than a decade ago.
Google and Facebook blasted the lawsuit as "unfortunate" and "without merit."
The complaint, filed Friday morning in a Seattle federal court, named AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and Google's YouTube.
AOL, Apple, Google and Yahoo were each charged with four claims of patent infringement, while Facebook was hit with one. The other eight companies were charged with two claims each.
The suit does not name Microsoft, which Allen co-founded with Bill Gates in 1975 but left in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Microsoft did not reply to a request asking whether it had licensed some or all of the applicable patents from Allen's firm.
Story in ComputerWorld |
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It's Official — AMD Will Retire the ATI Brand |
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Written by Randy Davis
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Monday, 30 August 2010 07:26 |
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A little over four years have passed since AMD purchased ATI. In May of last year, AMD took the remains of the Canadian graphics company and melded them into a monolithic products group, which combined processors, graphics, and platforms. Now, AMD is about to take the next step: kill the ATI brand altogether. The company has officially announced the move, saying it plans to label its next generation of graphics cards 'AMD Radeon' and 'AMD FirePro,' with new logos to match. The move has a lot to do with the incoming arrival of products like Ontario and Llano, which will combine AMD processing and graphics in single slabs of silicon.
Story on TechReport |
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Infected USB drive blamed for '08 military cyber breach |
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Written by Randy Davis
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Thursday, 26 August 2010 08:01 |
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It was a USB drive loaded with malware.
That's how U.S. defense networks were compromised in 2008, according to U.S Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who today offered the first official confirmation of a data breach that led to restrictions on the use of removable USB drives in the military.
In an article written for Foreign Affairs magazine, Lynn said the breach occurred when a single USB drive containing malicious code was inserted into a laptop computer at a U.S. base in the Middle East. The malware, placed on the drive by a foreign intelligence agency, was uploaded to a network run by the U.S. Central Command.
The malware then spread -- undetected -- on both classified and unclassified systems, essentially establishing a "digital beachhead" from which data could be transferred to servers outside the U.S, "It was a network administrator's worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary," Lynn wrote.
He did not say whether the malware allowed any classified or unclassified data to be stolen from U.S. Defense networks. Nor did he offer clues as to which foreign intelligence agency may have been behind the intrusion.
Story on ComputerWorld |
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25% of new worms are designed to spread through USB drives |
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Written by Randy Davis
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Monday, 30 August 2010 07:30 |
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Following a report that a USB drive was used to compromise US military networks in 2008, a security company has claimed that 25% of all new worms are designed to spread through the portable storage devices.
Security firm Panda says 25 percent of all new worms are designed to spread through portable storage devices such as USB drives.
"Much of the malware in circulation has been designed to distribute through these devices," said Luis Corrons, the technical director of PandaLabs, the research arm of Panda Security. "Not only does it copy itself to these gadgets, but it also runs automatically when a USB device is connected to a computer, infecting the system practically transparently to the user."
Story on TechWorld |
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Apple's 99-Cent TV Rental, iTunes Event Set for September |
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Written by Randy Davis
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Thursday, 26 August 2010 08:02 |
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Apple has sent invitations to media for a Sept. 1 event in San Francisco. According to a new online report, the company could use its September event to debut the new "iTV," along with other refreshed products.
That report comes from Bloomberg, which also suggested that Apple is negotiating with content providers, including CBS and News Corp., to offer television shows for rental via iTunes. Rented episodes would cost 99 cents and last for 48 hours, according to unnamed sources close to those negotiations. Such a service would allow Apple to better compete against Hulu and Netflix, which offer growing libraries of television episodes.
Apple has a tradition of hosting September events, which it uses to unveil media- and music-centric products. This year's rumor mill has churned busily over the prospect of a revamped Apple TV, possibly dubbed "iTV," that according to tech blog Engadget will cost $99 and feature the ability to run apps.
Although Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook famously referred to Apple TV as the company's "hobby" during a Goldman Sachs technology conference in February, the tech industry's rising focus on the television as a digital hub—as highlighted by the recently announced Google TV—has possibly goaded Apple into a second look at the product. As it stands, the current Apple TV offers 160GB of storage and costs $229.
Story on eWeek |
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Facebook to pull IE6 plug for Chat |
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Written by Randy Davis
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Thursday, 26 August 2010 08:00 |
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Facebook on Wednesday said it will drop chat support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 in three weeks, the latest effort to stamp out the nine-year-old browser.
In a message on its Web site that also said it was dealing with complaints about the reliability of its instant-messaging Chat feature, the popular social networking site announced that it would stop supporting IE6 on Sept. 15. It urged consumers to upgrade to a newer browser, and pointed them to Microsoft's site for the newer IE8.
"We've decided to make rapid improvements and provide the best Chat experience possible, which means we will no longer support Internet Explorer 6 browsers," said Facebook software engineer Rodrigo Schmidt on the company's blog.
Facebook has been prompting users to ditch IE6 since February 2009, and other major Web sites and services, including YouTube, Gmail and Digg, have told people to switch or confirmed that they would no longer support the browser in key areas.
Story on ComputerWorld |
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