Thursday, October 31, 2013

Tech titans say, restrain NSA

from post-gazette.com



Industry leader backlash follows findings of Google, Yahoo user information collection

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WASHINGTON -- Mounting revelations about the extent of NSA surveillance have alarmed technology leaders in recent days, driving a renewed push for significant legislative action from an industry that long tried to stay above the fray in Washington.
After months of merely calling for the government to be more transparent about its surveillance requests, tech leaders have begun demanding substantive new restraints on how the National Security Agency collects and uses the vast quantities of data it scoops up around the globe, much of it from streams of U.S. companies.
The pivot marks an aggressive new posture for an industry that often has trod carefully in Washington -- devoting more attention to blunting potentially damaging actions than to pushing initiatives that might prove controversial and alienate users from its lucrative services.
Six leading technology companies -- Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL -- sent a letter Thursday to Senate leaders reflecting the sharpening industry strategy, praising the sponsors of a bill that would end bulk collection of phone records of millions of Americans and create a privacy advocate to represent civil liberties interests within the secretive court that oversees the NSA.
"Transparency is a critical first step to an informed public debate, but it is clear that more needs to be done," said the letter, sent to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., one of the bill's sponsors, as well as three other senators. "Our companies believe that government surveillance practices should also be reformed to include substantial enhancements to privacy protections and appropriate oversight and accountability mechanisms for those programs."
Although historically wary of Washington, the technology industry has been bulking up its political operations in the nation's capital for several years. It took a public stand against the Stop Online Piracy Act with a massive Internet protest last year. More recently, tech leaders made a high-profile push in the immigration debate, calling for more visas for foreign-born workers.
The tone of industry reaction to the NSA revelations has grown more aggressive since the first stories appeared in The Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper in June. Companies that initially were focused on defending their reputations gradually began criticizing the government and challenging it in court. Some companies also have worked to harden their networks against infiltration.
A turning point came with Thursday's Washington Post revealing an NSA program that collects massive amounts of user information from Google and Yahoo as it moved among data centers overseas. To some, this amounted to a degree of intrusiveness that -- though speculated about by privacy activists -- was beyond what many in the industry thought possible.
"Clearly, this is something new and different," said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based think tank that receives substantial industry support. Mr. Hall said technology leaders are weary of the revelations. "Right now, it's like, 'Please make it stop!' "
The technology industry backlash is especially striking in light of its once-cozy relationship with President Barack Obama, who got money and votes from Silicon Valley at historic rates last year.
Although Google general counsel David Drummond issued a statement Thursday expressing "outrage" and "the need for urgent reform," a longtime Google security engineer better captured the industry's mood in a post on Google Plus, a social networking service. "Even though we suspected this was happening, it still makes me terribly sad. It makes me sad because I believe in America," wrote engineer Brandon Downey, after cautioning that he was speaking personally, and not for Google.
National security officials have rejected criticism of NSA's collection of communications, particularly any suggestion that the agency had scooped up data under presidential authorities to avoid the greater oversight required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. "NSA conducts all of its activities in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and policies -- and assertions to the contrary do a grave disservice to the nation, its allies and partners, and the men and women who make up the National Security Agency," said a statement the agency issued late Thursday.
For all the mounting frustration within the tech industry, the path ahead is murky. Most surveillance bills getting wide Capitol Hill circulation would not address NSA collection operations in other countries.
"To reform this is going to require passing a law that regulates NSA's operations overseas, and none of the bills do that now," said Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.
There also are unanswered legal questions. Some scholars say NSA data collection from Google, Yahoo and their users might violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on illegal search and seizure, even if it happens in foreign countries.
Some privacy activists said tech firms share at least some blame for the extent of the government surveillance program. They collect detailed user data -- much of it used to target advertising that generates company profits -- that the NSA covets. The companies also have lobbied against laws that would limit data collection in Europe and elsewhere.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Ballmer's successor must tackle Microsoft's Google problem

from usatoday


Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer has wrestled with the Google Problem throughout his tenure, and it's not going away.

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NEW YORK — Microsoft's next CEO will have to solve a problem. And that problem won't be the effect of the Internet on the company's products, or the fact that Apple just made its business software package free, or that there may be no place to sit down in Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., executive suites thanks to predecessor Steve Ballmer's penchant for tossing chairs across rooms when he got angry. That problem is Google.
The Google Problem was something Ballmer wrestled with throughout his tenure, without success, and it's not going away. No competitor has devoted more resources to hollowing out the market for Microsoft's core products, or achieved more success in the process.
The news about Apple's challenge to Microsoft's Office only highlighted this, because in targeting that enormously successful bundle (which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook), Apple is only following Google's lead — and Google hasn't had to give away a product for free to do it. One of the under-reported highlights of Google's earnings results last week was the 85% growth it showed in "Other Revenue, which rose to $1.23 billion. "Other" at Google means primarily its Enterprise software division and its own suite of productivity Apps, which has been slowly but steadily carving away at Microsoft's bread-and-butter revenue source: the bulk seat licenses it sells to corporate customers who want to install its software across hundreds or thousands of PCs.
Meanwhile Google's success at making Android the default smartphone operating system for the non-Apple handset manufacturers has done far more damage to Microsoft than to Apple, with Windows Phone struggling below 5% of the U.S. market. With tablets and other mobile devices fast supplanting PCs for many users, Microsoft's ownership of the dominant desktop platform thus becomes less relevant every day.
But of course Google hasn't stopped there, using its Chrome OS and Chromebooks to attack the bottom of that still-huge desktop market, offering insanely cheap machines to lure even more consumers away from Windows.
Just because the next Microsoft CEO needs to solve this problem, however, doesn't mean a solution actually exists — unless that person is willing to make a far more dramatic gesture than Ballmer ever contemplated. And yet dramatic gestures have been a hallmark of previous technology industry rebound, and Microsoft doesn't have to look very far into its own past to find examples.
Twenty years ago, Lou Gerstner transformed himself into a turnaround legend at IBM through his response to a similar competitive challenge that was then eating Big Blue from within: the Microsoft Problem. IBM had spent most of the '80s and early '90s watching the desktop PC take over the corporate computer world, helping Microsoft (via IBM's own decision to make MS-DOS and its successor Windows OS into a standard by putting it on the original IBM PC) gain control of the computer industry. IBM, when it belatedly realized its mistake, had tried to regain control of the desktop by introducing a competing (and by most accounts, technically superior) operating system, OS/2. But like Windows Phone today, OS/2 could never command more than a small slice of market share.
So shortly after his arrival at IBM, Gerstner killed it — and a legend was born. The death of OS/2 came to symbolize Gerstner's transformation of the company from monolithic platform owner to nimble, customer-focused service provider.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 (re-assuming the CEO title from Gil Amelio in 1997) he needed to solve Apple's own Microsoft Problem: the long-standing legal fight between the two companies over whether Windows had too-closely copied the "look and feel" of Apple's Macintosh OS. With Apple on life support and in risk of running out of cash, Jobs' dramatic gesture was to call a truce. Apple agreed to work out a settlement to the lawsuit and accepted a $150 million investment from Microsoft along with (ironically) a commitment from Bill Gates, delivered via a satellite appearance during a Jobs presentation at the MacWorld trade show, to keep supplying Microsoft Office on the Mac platform for the next five years. Apple's fanatic fans who stoked themselves on Microsoft screamed, but Apple survived and prospered.
What could the new Microsoft CEO do that would have a similar impact? The obvious move is to ape Gerstner and kill Windows Phone. That would be an awkward choice given Ballmer's recent decision to acquire Nokia and make its devices the Windows Phone leaders, but it's not like Microsoft doesn't have the cash to paper over yet another failed acquisition. It did that in 2012 with its writedown of its deal for online advertising giant AQuantive.
Maybe there's room to mimic Jobs, too, and seek an accommodation with Google as well. Microsoft obviously doesn't need an investor. But if it kills Windows Phone, it would need a mobile operating system … well, just don't say you're surprised when Larry Page makes a satellite appearance and Google representatives, who were all too recently banned from it, are once again allowed to attend an upcoming Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.
Chip Bayers is a N.Y.-based journalist covering technology and business. He has been an editor at Adweek, Newser and Wired Digital, and was previously a staff writer for Wired Magazine.
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Monday, October 21, 2013

BBM Finally Launches on iPhone and Android

from pcmag




bbm
It has taken much longer than many industry watchers predicted, but Blackberry has finally gotten around to releasing a BBM app for iPhone andAndroid. The company has had a tough time of it lately, but maybe software is the way to keep the lights on. The app is now live in the App Store and Google Play, but there a waiting list.
BBM leaked on Android a few weeks back when the company was preparing for launch. The influx of new users caused server issues for Blackberry and delayed the launch. This is the reason for the waiting list, which most users will be subjected to. Anyone who signed up ahead of time for the service on the BBM website can log right in, but otherwise you'll have to provide an email address and wait it out.
When you do get access, you'll make a Blackberry ID and add your personal information. If you've used BBM on a Blackberry in the past, your contacts will populate immediately. If not, you'll have to invite people. This process is different (and a bit counterintuitive) for first time users. BBM makes contact lists more secure, so you have to send the invite based on PIN, NFC pairing, or sending an email. You only get the contact added when the other party accepts the invitation.
BBM was the originator of the modern read receipt, and while that's been replicated in both iMessage and Hangouts, BBM still does it pretty well. You can also do group chats, share pictures, and send files. It basically does all the stuff the first-part messaging clients do, but it's running through Blackberry's servers. If you're worried about security, this should be on your radar.
The app is available for iPhone and Android phones. There isn't any tablet support at this time.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Tablet Makers Gear Up for Latest Skirmish

from nytimes




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SAN FRANCISCO — The race for the tablet market has become a full-blown sprint.
Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
An Apple store in Tokyo. In the second quarter, iPads had the largest share of the worldwide tablet market.
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Amazon’s Kindle Fire costs as little as $140, much less than Apple’s least expensive tablet.
The intense competition will be highlighted on Tuesday, as Apple, Nokia and Microsoft each introduce new tablets.
Those devices will be competing for consumer attention against several others recently released by other tech heavyweights, including Amazon, Google and Samsung Electronics.
The stakes are high, and getting higher, as demand for tablets has exploded in the last few years. About 120 million tablets were shipped in 2012, nearly seven times as many as in 2010, when the Apple iPad was first released and generated wide interest, according to Gartner, a market research company.
“Getting on an airplane it’s amazing the number of iPads that you now see that used to be either notebooks or portable DVD players,” along with smaller tablets and e-book readers that are replacing books and magazines, said Ross Rubin, an independent analyst for Reticle Research.
Apple has maintained a clear lead, but with the tablet offerings from manufacturers almost as abundant as those for smartphones, the market has become more fractured.
In the second quarter, iPads had the largest share of the worldwide tablet market, with 32 percent, according toIDC. Samsung, the No. 2 tablet maker, is quickly gaining traction, with 18 percent of the market in the second quarter, up from 7.6 percent in the period a year earlier.
Apple is expected to announce significantly upgraded versions of its iPad and iPad Mini devices on Tuesday. The iPad Mini is expected to have a higher-resolution display, while the bigger iPad is expected to have a slimmer design, weighing about a pound. Both iPads will also most likely get Apple’s new processors, but not the fingerprint sensor that is in the latest high-end iPhone.
On the same day, Microsoft will release new versions of its Surface tablets. Nokia, the mobile device maker Microsoft is in the process of buying much of, is expected to introduce a new tablet in Abu Dhabi.
Mr. Rubin said each manufacturer had developed slightly different approaches with tablets. Microsoft, for example, is largely going after professionals by offering tablets that double as PCs. Samsung sells a large variety of tablets, some that include a stylus for drawing and taking notes, to cater to different professions and interests. And Apple markets its iPads as versatile devices that can be used for both work and play.
Amazon offers low-priced tablets to get people to buy content from its stores — one of several less expensive tablets that have emerged to challenge the iPad. Amazon’s Kindle Fire costs as little as $140, and Google’s Nexus tablet starts at $230. Apple’s iPad Mini starts at $330.
Many new tablets have already failed or struggled. Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad tablet was killed after 48 days of slow sales. BlackBerry’s PlayBook was a dismal failure. And Microsoft’s first Surface tablets, released last year, sold so poorly that the company took a$900 million write-down for unsold inventory.
Some of the tablets may not be catching on because people are not finding them very useful. A Gartner survey found that 80 percent of people with iPads use their tablets at least 10 times a day, much more often than people with other kinds of tablets. That gives iPad owners more time to be exposed to buying more apps, movies and games. And the more apps they buy, the more likely they will keep buying Apple hardware in the future.
“Other tablet providers need to understand why owners of their tablets spent significantly less time on their devices,” said Annette Jump, research director at Gartner.
Despite the difficulties of breaking into the market, device makers push hard, knowing that future profits could depend in large part on tablet sales.
That is especially true for companies like Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, which have traditionally been closely tied to the PC market. Sales of PCs have softened considerably in recent years, and one reason is that consumers have turned to more mobile tablets for basic computing tasks, like Web surfing and casual game playing. That trend is expected to accelerate.
Gartner predicts tablets will outship PCs on an annual basis in two years. About 184 million tablets will be shipped in 2013, Gartner says, versus 303 million PCs. But by 2015, manufacturers will ship 331 million tablets and 272 million PCs.
Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, remarked on the rapid growth of the iPad in an earnings call last year.
“Just two years after we shipped the initial iPad, we sold 67 million,” Mr. Cook said. “It took us 24 years to sell that many Macs, and five years for that many iPods, and over three years for that many iPhones.”
For now, at least, Apple continues to be the standard to beat.
“It’s the reference point,” said Mr. Rubin of Reticle Research. “It was a pioneer in making tablets more popular and more accessible.”
Even Apple, though, faces challenges, particularly in emerging markets. In China, for example, generic unbranded tablets that are occasionally knockoffs sell for as little as $80 and are extremely popular. Yet there is a bright side for Apple in China: the Chinese are buying either the cheap white-box tablets or an iPad, not much in between, according to Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.
In such a fast-changing market, however, that could quickly change. What appears certain is that consumers will be hearing much more about tablets this fall, and particularly this week.
“A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet category,” Tom Mainelli, a research director at IDC, said in a statement. “And traditionally that has helped both Apple and its competitors.”

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Rockstar Divulges Grand Theft Auto Online Details, Sets Launch Time

from time



Rockstar confirms that GTA Online should launch around 7 a.m. ET on Tuesday, October 1.
gta-v-may-2013-18
Rockstar
Ready for Grand Theft Auto Online, the ambitious multiplayer angle your copy of Grand Theft Auto V‘s been teasing with a “This area will be unlocked once GTA Online has launched” placeholder since the game debuted a few weeks ago? No? You’re still punching through the solo experience?
So am I, friends, so am I, and I probably will be for months to come. But hark, October 1 won’t wait, andwhile we teeter on the brink of a government shutdown, Rockstar’s about to destroy (or at least modestly cripple) the interwebs with a downloadableGTA Online update as who knows how many millions of players scramble to sign in and see what Rockstar’s been cooking.
In view of the launch tomorrow morning, Rockstar just published a primer on its blog, including the following explanation of how you’ll access multiplayer mode:
Access to Grand Theft Auto Online is free with your copy of Grand Theft Auto V. On October 1st there will be a small downloadable Title Update released on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE. Upon installation of that Title Update, direct access to begin GTA Online will be unlocked in your GTAV game menu. You will be able to jump right into GTA Online via the 4th (bottom) slot in your GTAV character wheel. We’ve received many questions asking for a specific confirmation of what exact time GTA Online will be available but of course this is contingent on both Title Updates becoming available on each console’s network. As a general timeframe, we do expect the Title Update to become available on PSN and Xbox LIVE starting around 7AM ET tomorrow morning, and your best bet is to stay tuned throughout the day here at the Rockstar Newswire and by following us on Twitter and Facebook where we will be keeping everyone updated.
We now know when GTA Online takes place, too: “a few months prior to the events of Grand Theft Auto V’s single player story.”