Computer Maker Claims Apple stole its iPad design

Nautilus Science and Technology
February 6, 2010
By: Marco Ayllon

The Shenzhen Great Loong Brother Company of China has alleged the Apple iPad design that CEO Steve Jobs triumphantly unveiled last week is based on its own P88 tablet and is threatening Apple with an injunction.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo has reported that the Chinese company’s president, Xialong Wu, said that if Apple releases the iPad in March it will report the company and seek an injunction because of the effect the device will have on its sales.

Wu said the P88 is not based on the design of the smaller iPod touch and said the P88 has entirely different functions.

Apple has refused to comment on the allegations. But could such a legal action succeed?

Wu said he presented the P88 at the International Electronics Fair in Berlin six months ago.

The P88 uses a resistive touchscreen, not the multi-touch screen of the Apple iPad and uses a 250GB hard drive compared to the iPad’s flash memory.

Wu has admitted he would find it difficult to sue Apple in the United States but has threatened that if the iPad enters China he will go to town on Apple.

Microsoft Warns of Record Patch Tuesday

Nautilus Science and Technology
February 6, 2010
By; Marco Ayllon

January was an exceptionally light month for Microsoft security bulletins, with only one released on schedule on Patch Tuesday. However, revelations about an Internet Explorer zero-day exploit being used to launch attacks against Google and other companies in China led Microsoft to also issue an out-of-band update addressing the vulnerability in the Web browser.

Tyler Reguly, senior security engineer for nCircle expressed some "sticker shock". "As an information security professional, the first word that comes to mind when I see this advanced notice is "yikes!". nCircle VERT works all night to deliver local and remote detection to customers and this many bulletins means a long night requiring plenty of caffeine."

Reguly added "I'm most intrigued by bulletin number nine in the advanced notification. I'm curious to know what issue it is that plagues only Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 in x64 configurations."

Jerry Bryant, senior security communications manager for Microsoft, described the upcoming Patch Tuesday in a blog post. "This month, we will be releasing 13 bulletins--five rated Critical, seven rated Important, and one rated Moderate--addressing 26 vulnerabilities. Eleven of the bulletins affect Windows and the remaining two affect Office."

Bryant's blog post also contains a table which lays out a grid describing Microsoft's guidance for urgency of deployment based on platform. Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the oldest operating systems tracked on the grid, are impacted the most by security issues rated as Critical.

Microsoft is scheduled to end all support for Windows 2000 and for Windows XP SP2 effective July 13, 2010. Bryant says "We encourage customers to upgrade to the latest versions of both Windows and Office. As this bulletin release shows, the latest versions are less impacted overall due to the improved security protections built in to these products."

Businesses still on Windows 2000 will be forced to upgrade to some other version of Windows, or an alternate operating system, or simply continue to rely on the archaic platform with the knowledge that Microsoft will no longer support or update it.

Companies that use Windows XP SP2 have a much easier solution because they can simply apply Service Pack 3. It is also worth noting that support for Windows Vista RTM ends April 13, 2010, so businesses that have deployed Windows Vista need to ensure systems are updated to Service Pack 1.

The Internet Explorer flaw identified in Microsoft Security Advisory 980088, released from Microsoft yesterday, will not be patched this month. Microsoft states in the security advisory that the vulnerability is not currently being exploited in the wild, and provides some steps to mitigate the threat and protect your systems pending an actual patch.

As Reguly suggested, IT administrators may want to start a pot of coffee and make sure the break room fridge is stocked with Mountain Dew. Next Tuesday will be the beginning of some long hours testing and patching.

Facebook Has Gotten Another Face-lift.

Nutilus Science and Technology News
By:Marco Ayllon
February 6,2010
Facebook Marks 6th Birthday With Redesign 05.02.2010
Popular social-networking site Facebook has spruced up its homepage again. A clever step to mark six years or a mid-life crisis comb-over?

This time, the redesign plants more of Facebook's core features and settings on the homepage, in order to prevent users from having to jump from page to page to access their favourite items.

The first group of Facebook members would have noticed the redesign on Thursday night - the day Facebook marked its sixth anniversary.

Facebook has another fix-up in the works, as well. The company is reportedly also ready to revamp its internal e-mail program and replace it with a full-featured web mail application.

The new e-mail system will support both POP and IMAP, so users can use it outside Facebook and be able to set up their own Facebook vanity URL as their address, for example, joe.smith@facebook.com.

The popular social-networking site has tweaked its home page yet again. This time around, the redesign puts more of Facebook's core features and settings right on the home page. The goal is to spare users from having to jump from one page to another to access their favorite features.

The redesign was rolled out to the first group of users on Thursday, Facebook's 6th birthday. As of Thursday evening, 80 million out of Facebook's 400 million customers should have received the new home page, according to Inside Facebook.

The top menu of the Facebook home page now displays icons for requests, messages, and other notifications. The icons turn into red bubbles when you've got new requests waiting for your attention. Just click on one of the icons, and a drop-down menu appears showing you all the items in that list.

The right side of the top menu now displays links that take you home or to your profile page. A new account menu lets you quickly access your account settings, help center, and related pages.

In the middle of the top menu is a new search field, through which you can find names, subjects, and other items of interest. Type the name of a friend, for example, and you'll find recent posts, photos, and other content for that person. Type the name of a subject, such as Haiti earthquake, and you'll also find groups and pages devoted to that cause.

The left side of the new home page offers links to your news feed, messages, friends, and photos. But there's a twist here as well. Click on the Friends link, and the Friends page pops up in the center. Click on the Photos link, and your own photo albums and those of your friends appear. The center of the home page essentially stays the same by displaying your news feed, though you can now bounce between top news and most recent news.

But a home page redesign isn't the only thing on Facebook's mind. The company is reportedly also ready to jettison its internal e-mail program and replace it with a full-featured Web mail application, according to TechCrunch.

Known internally as Project Titan, the new e-mail effort could please many Facebook users who have complained about the limitations and clumsiness of the current e-mail feature. TechCrunch says the new e-mail system will support both POP and IMAP, so you can use it outside of Facebook.