Browser developers team up to thwart hackers

Security developers representing four of the major browser firms have met up to discuss how to combat security threats.

The Register reports (23 November) that techies working on Internet Explorer, Mozilla/FireFox and Opera teamed up with the folks from Konqueror to discuss how to combat security risks posed by phishing, aging encryption ciphers and inconsistent SSL Certificate practices.

According to The Register, a surprising amount of consensus emerged through the informal meeting, hosted by Konqueror's George Staikos in Toronto last week.

The publication reports that all agreed to push ahead with plans to introduce stronger encryption protocols. "With the availability of bot nets and massively distributed computing, current encryption standards are showing their age," Staikos writes.

"Prompted by Opera, we are moving towards the removal of SSLv2 from our browsers. IE will disable SSLv2 in version 7 and it has been completely removed in the KDE 4 source tree already."

The Register reports that colour coding the address bar on browsers, to indicate whether the digital certificate of a site has been validated, and Microsoft's development of an anti-phishing plug-in for its upcoming IE7 browser also got an informal thumbs up.

{mospagebreaktitle=Gartner 'clarifies' Windows Vista advice}Gartner 'clarifies' Windows Vista advice

According to The Register in a 23 November report, a misunderstanding of meaning has forced Gartner to restate earlier advise apparently telling customers to postpone upgrading to Microsoft's planned Windows Vista operating system.

Gartner is reportedly now telling users who are still running Windows 2000 that they should upgrade as soon as possible to Microsoft's latest client operating system.

The Register says that the analyst firm felt its earlier recommendations had been "misinterpreted in some instances". Gartner reportedly advised users they shouldn't rush to upgrade to Windows Vista - due in 2006 - and most could "safely" hold back until 2008.

The publication says that the incriminating note responsible for that misinterpretation, called Ten reasons you should and shouldn't care about Microsoft's Windows Vista client, had pointed out planned features such as antivirus and spyware that offered only "incremental, evolutionary improvements" over predecessors like Windows XP.

Gartner urged customers to follow a strategy of "managed diversity", by bringing Windows Vista machines online in 2008.

The Register says that, clarifying its stance, Gartner cited the fact Microsoft's support for Windows 2000 is due to expire in 2010, and ISVs are releasing applications not supported on Windows 2000. Users of Windows XP can apparently wait a little longer.

{mospagebreaktitle=European phone shipments jumped 16% in Q3}European phone shipments jumped 16% in Q3

Mobile phone makers pumped 39.5 million handsets into Western Europe during Q3, 16 per cent more than they did in Q3 2004 and five per cent more than Q2 2004, market watcher IDC has reported.

The Register reports (23 November) that the number of 3G handsets shipped almost doubled between Q3 2004 and Q3 2005, rising from 2.38 million to 4.74 million, respectively seven per cent and 12 per cent of the total.

The publication says that many of the 3G handsets came from Nokia, which also contributed significantly to the rise in smart-phone shipments, courtesy of its increasingly broad-based Series 60/Symbian software combination. According to IDC, smart-phone shipments accounted for seven per cent of third-quarter Western European handset shipments, up from four per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Smart-phone shipments grew 103.7 per cent year on year, from 1.36 million units to 2.77 million, IDC's numbers show. Shipments were up three per cent sequentially. Again, much of that growth was Nokia's doing, as it continued to push Series 60 into the mainstream.

The Register says that  Motorola and Samsung continued their battle to be the biggest mobile phone shipper after Nokia, which unsurprisingly retained its leadership of the market by a long margin. Samsung nosed ahead of Motorola, shipping 6.2 million units to Motorola's 6 million, and grabbing 16 per cent of the market in the process. Motorola quit the quarter with a market share of 15 per cent - both companies' shares were less than half Nokia's dominant 36 per cent share.

According to the Register, Samsung and Motorola nonetheless experienced the biggest year-on-year growth among the top-ten vendors, with unit shipments rising 100 per cent and 71 per cent, respectively. Nokia's growth was a more modest but still above-average 20 per cent.

The best Sony Ericsson could manage was five per cent growth, which left it with 12 per cent of the market, down from 13 per cent a year ago.

{mospagebreaktitle=BlackBerry maker lowers subscriber forecast}BlackBerry maker lowers subscriber forecast

Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry phones and pagers, lowered its forecast for new subscribers yesterday as product releases are delayed and a lawsuit threatens to shut its service.

The New York Times reports (24 November) that subscriber growth will be 8 percent less than the 680,000 to 710,000 new users the company expected this quarter, Research in Motion said. The company, which is based in Ontario, reiterated its forecast that third-quarter revenue would be US$540 million to US$570 million.

A delay of about a month for some new BlackBerry models caused clients to put off orders, the company said. But analysts said users are more concerned about a lawsuit brought by NTP, which says BlackBerry breaches its patents.

The newspaper says that slowing growth may put pressure on Research in Motion to settle the lawsuit, brought by NTP, a patent-licensing firm. If Research in Motion loses the case, the company may be forced to halt BlackBerry sales in the United States, where it gets almost 70 percent of its sales. The company is seeking to delay the suit in case United States patent officials decide the NTP patents are invalid.

According to the report, Research in Motion wants Federal District Judge James Spencer to halt all legal proceedings until after the Patent and Trademark Office issues a final determination on the validity of NTP's patents. In a hearing 9 November, the judge said it was "highly unlikely" that he would grant such a request.

This week, NTP argued that Research in Motion is trying to delay the case improperly. If Judge Spencer decides that the original deal is unenforceable, he will hold hearings on whether to shut the service.

{mospagebreaktitle=Memorex offers bigger capacity drives}Memorex offers bigger capacity drives

The New York Times reports (24 November) that the race to cram more data into less space has led Memorex to increase the capacity of its tiny Mega TravelDrive hard drives from four gigabytes to as much as eight gigabytes.

The newspaper says that the Mega TravelDrives, measuring 1.75 by 1.96 by 0.56 inches, have built-in USB connectors that can be folded in protectively when not in use, and blue- light-emitting diodes that flash during data transfers.

The drives are color-coded: platinum for the original four-gigabyte model (US$120), metallic charcoal for the six-gigabyte (US$150) and metallic black for the eight-gigabyte (US$200).

According to the NYT., each drive comes with a USB extension cable and a protective carrying pouch.

The eight-gigabyte size, Memorex says, can store more than 16,000 digital photos, 2,400 songs in MP3 format, or more than 100,000 typical text files. That's more data than you could cram into any briefcase, let alone one you could lift while racing for a plane, says the newspaper.

{mospagebreaktitle=GameCube sales zap Nintendo profit}GameCube sales zap Nintendo profit

Nintendo has said its first-half operating profit plunged 51 percent as sluggish GameCube sales outweighed currency-related gains, but it kept its forecast for the full year.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (24 November) that Nintendo, known for games featuring characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, is expected to report a decline in revenue for the full year as GameCube console and software sales taper off and as it is hurt by a price cut for its DS portable game machine, which it launched about a year ago.

The second half could get tougher as Microsoft takes the spotlight in the game industry with its new Xbox 360, the first of the next-generation game consoles, says Reuters.

Xbox, which launched in the United States on Tuesday, sold out at most stores in the first day. Nintendo will be the last company to roll out its newest game console, code-named ''Revolution,'' following Sony, which plans to release its Playstation 3 next spring.

Reuters reports that Nintendo said last month that it believed GameCube's life was nearing an end, while margins have been hurt by hefty development costs for Revolution.

Consolidated operating profit for the April-to-September period came to 19.6 billion yen (US$1.65 billion), compared with 40 billion yen a year earlier and slightly lower than its forecast of 20 billion yen, which it gave last month.

Reuters says sales fell 6.2 percent to 176.4 billion yen from 188 billion yen a year ago and compared with its own forecast of 175 billion yen.

Net profit fell to 36.63 billion yen, compared with 46.45 billion yen a year earlier and slightly higher than the company's forecast of 36 billion yen.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft reports isolated Xbox glitches}Microsoft reports isolated Xbox glitches

Microsoft said Wednesday it had received isolated reports of technical problems with its popular new Xbox 360 videogame system.

The Associated Press reports in The new York Times (23 November) that some owners complain that their systems were crashing during game play, sometimes with error messagespopping up. On www.xbox-scene.com, a site dedicated to Xbox gaming, a member called jsgongwon reported that he could not finish the first lap of ''Project Gotham Racing 3.''

AP says that gaming fanatics in the US lined up for hours Monday to be among the first to purchase the next-generation system, which was in short supply despite its starting price tag of US$299.99. Microsoft hopes to sell 2.5 million to 3 million of the new systems in the first 90 days.

{mospagebreaktitle=Hollywood hopes to reduce movie downloads}Hollywood hopes to reduce movie downloads

Hollywood hopes that an agreement with the creator of BitTorrent software, popular for downloading pirated movies over the internet, will reduce illegal traffic in online films.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (23 November) that the agreement negotiated Tuesday requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to remove web links to pirated versions of movies from his web site, bittorrent.com, effectively frustrating people who search for illegal copies of films.

The agreement involves connections to content owned by the seven studios that are members of the Motion Picture Association of America.

The AP/NYT  report says that the deal will not prevent all illegal copies from being swapped using the BitTorrent technology. Cohen said during a news conference that even after links to files are removed from his search engine, some files could still be found using other means such as google.com.

The agreement means bittorrent.com will comply with procedures outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Cohen's site will not prevent links to illegal files from being posted. But after a studio complains about the file, BitTorrent will notify the offending computer owner and remove the link from its search engine.

{mospagebreaktitle=Bogus e-mails contain new 'Sober' worm}Bogus e-mails contain new 'Sober' worm

Austria's equivalent of the FBI said Tuesday that it is investigating a flurry of bogus e-mails sent in its name to people in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

The Associated Press reports (23 November) that the Federal Criminal Investigations Office said the e-mails warn recipients that they are illegally in possession of pirated software, and that the messages contain the computer-crippling ''Sober'' worm.

The agency warned people who receive the e-mails not to open the attachments, and said it has nothing to do with their circulation.

{mospagebreaktitle=China: number of mobile phone users up}China: number of mobile phone users up

China's population of mobile phone users, already the world's biggest, has grown to 383 million, according to a government report.

The Associated Press reports (23 November) that the total at the end of October represents a 14 percent increase since the start of the year, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday, citing the Ministry of Information Industry.

There are 29 mobile phones users for every 100 Chinese, compared with 27 fixed line accounts per 100 people, the report said.

AP reports that the volume of mobile phone text messages being sent in China also has soared, rising at an annual rate of 40 percent to 247 billion in the first 10 months of this year, Xinhua said.

{mospagebreaktitle=Canon develops printer for digital tv broadcasts}Canon develops printer for digital tv broadcasts

Canon said on Thursday it has developed a printer that can print information from digital TV broadcasts and aims to expand the business to 100 billion yen in five years.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (23 November) that Canon plans to launch the ink jet printer in Japan in the autumn of next year ahead of the nationwide rollout of terrestrial digital broadcasts late next year, estimating the domestic market for it will reach 4.8 million units by 2011.

The printer will likely cost about 50,000 yen in Japan and will be launched in the US and Europe at a later date, it said.

Reuters says that the world's top maker of copiers and cameras is aggressively investing in the development of new products, keen to cultivate new growth drivers as competition in the office equipment market intensifies and growth in the digital camera market slows.

Canon, which competes in the ink jet printer market with Seiko Epson, Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark International, said the printer would be used primarily to make hard copies of information related to a TV program rather than still images of what appears on the screen.

{mospagebreaktitle=Verizon wireless files suit in phone spam case}Verizon wireless files suit in phone spam case

In the US., telco Verizon Wireless has said it has filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against a Florida firm that it charges with sending thousands of unsolicited text messages to Verizon customers' mobile phones.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (23 November) that the wireless venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group said it filed the suit in US District Court in New Jersey after 98,000 spam messages were sent on behalf of Ormond Beach, Florida, firm Passport Holidays telling Verizon customers they had won cruises to the Bahamas.

According to Reuters in the NYT report, while there have been relatively few cases of illegal spamming to mobile phones in the US., all of US wireless operators are being more vigilant about such incidents, which could cost users and carriers dearly, said Ovum.

Verizon Wireless, which has already filed several privacy-related lawsuits this year, accused Passport of illegally using automatic dialing equipment to send large numbers of spam text messages to sequential phone numbers in a short space of time.

Reuter reports that the No. 2 US mobile service, which had 49.3 million customers at the end of the third quarter, said the defendants, which also include ``currently unknown individuals,'' had also tried to avoid Verizon's spam filters and hide their identities.

{mospagebreaktitle=S.Korea delays Microsoft ruling}S.Korea delays Microsoft ruling

South Korea's anti-trust agency said on Wednesday it was delaying a long-awaited ruling on Microsoft's business practices to next week, after the review committee failed to reach an agreement.

Reuters reports in The new York Times (23 November) that the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) began its investigation in 2001 when Daum Communications, South Korea's top Internet portal, complained Microsoft had breached antitrust rules by incorporating its Internet Messenger and Media Player services into the Windows operating system.

Despite Microsoft reaching a US$30 million settlement with Daum over the antitrust allegations in early November, the commission has said it would rule on the case.

Reuters reports in the NYT that Microsoft has previously said the complaint was without merit and that it would cooperate fully with the probe.

The deadline for the final ruling has been pushed back to 30 November 30, when the committee meets again.

{mospagebreaktitle=Opteron boosts healthy server market in Q3}Opteron boosts healthy server market in Q3

During the third quarter, customers were rushing to get their hands on AMD's dual-core Opteron chip. Sales of Opteron-based servers more than doubled in the period, according to new figures from Gartner.

The Register reports (23 November) that an impressive 174,000 Opteron-based servers left the shipping docks during the third quarter. That compares to just 76,000 systems in the same period last year. Still, however, vendors moved far more Intel-based systems with sales increasing to 1.56 million units from 1.44 million, Gartner said.

"AMD is showing some really strong growth," said Gartner analyst Joe Gonzalez. "But you have to realise that AMD is not suddenly going to knock Intel off the top. AMD could grow like this for quite awhile and still not seriously challenge Intel."

The Register says that AMD has managed to claim more than 10 per cent of the worldwide market for x86-based systems in just two years.

Overall, the server market grew 5.6 per cent, according to Gartner, to US$12.5 billion. Sales of x86 systems jumped 12 per cent, while sales of RISC/Itanium boxes fell 2 per cent.

According to The Register, as usual, IBM and Dell enjoyed strong quarters, pushing their total server sales higher by 9 per cent. HP grew revenue as well by 6.6 per cent, and Fujitsu kicked up sales by 5.7 per cent. We'll give you one guess as to which of the Tier I server vendors saw its sales drop in the period.

The publicaton says that IBM remains the top server seller with US$4.1 billion in sales, followed by HP with US$3.5 billion, Dell with US$1.3 billion, Sun with US$1.1 billionn and Fujitsu with US$690,000.