Windows 8 to Leverage USB 3.0, Bluetooth 3.0, Facial Login, 3D Display DirectX

Nautilus Technology & Science News
By: Marco A. Ayllon
June 28, 2010

Software:  OEMs given an an early update on Windows 7's successor


Not wanting to rest on the laurels of Windows 7, the best-selling operating system in its storied history, Microsoft is racing to develop its successor, code-named Windows 8. That upcoming product is rumored to be slotted for a late 2011 launch.

A Microsoft enthusiast blog called Microsoft Journal has posted some leaked pieces of information from a presentation Microsoft gave OEMs about the upcoming OS. The site, run by Francisco Martin, quotes Microsoft as writing, "Windows 8 PC's turn on fast, nearly instantly in some cases, and are ready to work without any long or unexpected delays. When customers want to check e-mail, sports scores, or play media they love to reach for their PCs because they can get to what they want quickly."

Along the lines of improving startup times, Microsoft wrote that it wants to work with OEMs to focus on improving POST performance, S3 resume performance, and general performance optimizations for each of the Off states. All of these improvements would ultimately yield a system that is ready for action faster.

The blog also cites Bluetooth 3.0 and USB 3.0 as critical tools in Windows 8's drive for fast computing.

The OS reportedly will also integrate hardware sensor-driven improvements found in smart phones into desktops and laptops. The leaked text states, "Windows 8 can adapt to changes in ambient light, so that the display is always easy to see."

It also talks about facial recognition-based login technology, stating, "Camera integration will likely be ubiquitous in 2010: Windows 8 could detect my presence and log me automatically."

The post also mentions potential 3D-TV/graphics improvements, including a 3D-display-ready version of DirectX. Hard drive encryption performance improvements also appear to be on the agenda.

iOS 4 Folders: Usable, but Poorly Implemented

Nautilus Science & Technology News

By: Marco A. Ayllon
June 23, 2010

Folders are essentially collections of apps. That concept appeals greatly to people (like me) with screenful-upon-screenful of apps; by grouping similar apps together, you can clean up your many home screens and spend less time swiping.


But there are two elements to iOS 4 folders that are--to use the technical term--really, really annoying.

Annoyance #1

iOS folders can only hold 12 items. That's dopey.

Ignoring the four permanently docked apps at the bottom of each Home screen, you can store 16 apps per page on your iPhone. I imagine I'm not the only person on the planet who, prior to the launch of the new folders feature, organized his apps by screen. My first Home screen was devoted to the apps I use the most often, a few others to my favorite games, and one screen to apps for my kids.

The common factor on each of those organized screens? They all included 16 apps. Apple's design decision to limit folders to 12 apps requires that I reorganize my apps a lot--which isn't just unpleasant, it's unnecessary. Look at the "full" folder pictured to the right.

Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Namely, that nearly 80-pixel-tall region at the bottom of my screen where all you can see is my cobblestone wallpaper? You know what would fit just perfectly there?

Four more apps, that's what. I'm thinking that Apple feared putting any "non-dock" and non-fast-app-switching apps along that bottom row might confuse folks, but I disagree with that hypothetical decision I just invented. As is, even if you're not a former adherent of the "organizing by screenful" mentality, this folder layout involves a bizarre use of wasted space.

I can even explain further why Apple went with the 12-app limit, though that doesn't excuse the choice. The picture at left shows what happens when your folder is in, say, the second row.

Aha! Since this folder was in the second row, the iOS bumps it up a bit to make room to display the full contents, splitting the just-under-80-pixel difference between the top and bottom of the screen. Now there really isn't enough room, sucker!

Except, of course there is.

I'd much rather see folder icons always slide up to the very top or very bottom when opened, to allow space for 16 apps, instead of settling for this overly-constrictive approach.

Of course, limiting the number of apps per folder isn't Apple's only math problem. To wit--

Annoyance #2

Quick! How many apps are in this folder?

If you guessed nine, you could not be more wrong--but don't worry, it's not your fault. This is a bigger challenge to solve than Annoyance #1, but Apple's good at handling big challenges. (The company employs Steve Jobs, for crying out loud.)

Since the folder icon only shows a 3-by-3 grid of the apps it contains, it's currently impossible to look at a folder's icon and tell:

a) whether said folder is full (i.e., contains Apple's current foolish maximum of 12 apps, and thus will ignore any more apps you attempt to drag into it), or
b) precisely how many apps said folder contains, if that number is greater than or equal to nine.

When a folder is full, it still darkens as you drag another app over it, as if to indicate that you're about to add that app to the folder. But since the folder is full to capacity, when you release your finger, the app just slides right back to where it was, and nothing changes.

It's thus imperative that folders reflect their fullness. I'm no designer, but I'm sure Apple could come up with a visual cue to indicate whether a folder is full or not. And again, I'd prefer that fullness only be reached when your folder hits 16 apps, which may only make the icon challenge tougher.

So those are my two objections to iOS 4's current folders implementation. I can admit that I'm happier with folders than I was without them, but my concerns are real, and I don't actually consider them especially picky. Clearly, Apple needs an overall slicker approach to iPhone app navigation, and folders are meant only as a temporary assist in a world fast approaching a quarter million iOS apps. Even as a stop-gap solution, though, this implementation of folders feels half-baked.

Google Eliminated Background Images on Home Page

Background images were the temporary default look for Google.com before being pulled earlier than expected.

Nautilus Science &Technology News

June 10, 2010
By: Marco A. Ayllon



Fourteen hours into a 24-hour experiment with background imagery, Google's home page is once again stark white.

Design guru Marissa Mayer confirmed that Google was ending the experiment early due to what she called a "bug," which erased a link underneath the search bar on google.com that explained why Google's famously spartan home page had taken on a colorful look. Apparently many searchers on Google.com Thursday morning missed the company's blog post Wednesday night, and were confused and annoyed at the change, turning "remove google background" into the seventh-most-popular search on Google Thursday.

Last week Google announced that it would begin providing its users with the option of setting their own background image behind the home page, but last night it forced an image to appear for all users signed into a Google account to highlight the feature. That didn't sit well with many grown used to Google's clean white design, especially when Google's explanation of why it was forcing this look vanished from the home page.

It also gave fans of Microsoft's Bing search engine a chance to crow, given that one of Bing's most noticeable features is a striking background image behind Bing.com that contains links to searches about the image.

'Brute Force' Script Snatched iPad e-Mail Addresses

AT&T confirmed that at least 114,000 people's private data had been compromised by the iPad security breach Wednesday.

Nautilus Science &Technology News
June 10, 2010
By: Marco A. Ayllon


The harvesting of over 100,000 iPad 3G owners' e-mail addresses was not a hack or a classic data breach, but a brute-force attack of a minor feature AT&T offered to Apple customers, experts said Wednesday.

According to New York-based Praetorian Security Group, which obtained a copy of the PHP script used to scrape e-mail addresses from AT&T's servers, the attack succeeded because the mobile carrier used poorly designed software.

A nine-person hacking group known as Goatse Security claimed responsibility for the script, which amassed 114,000 e-mail addresses.

"There's no hack, no infiltration, and no breach, just a really poorly-designed Web application that returns e-mail address when ICC-ID is passed to it," Praetorian said in a late Wednesday entry on its security blog.

An ICC-ID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier) is the unique number assigned to each SIM card. A mobile device's SIM stores information that identifies the specific wireless customer to his or her carrier. The iPad 3G contains a SIM card.

AT&T confirmed the nature of the attack to technology blog Gizmodo. Gawker, Gizmodo's parent Web site, first reported the e-mail harvesting Wednesday.

The script Praetorian made public was a "brute-force attack," according to AT&T's chief security officer Ed Amoroso, who spoke with Gizmodo.

When iPad 3G owners sign up for wireless data service with AT&T, the carrier detects the SIM's 19-digit ICC-ID -- essentially a serial number -- then asks for a contact e-mail address. AT&T uses the e-mail address to populate one of two log-in fields in the iPad's settings screen so that the user has to enter only a password to check his or her account status.

That same e-mail address was what the script harvested. E-mail addresses apparently belonging to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and top executives at Dow Jones, The New York Times Co. and Time Warner were among those collected.

AT&T turned off access to the feature Tuesday and apologized to customers in a statement it issued Wednesday. It also said that only e-mail addresses linked to each ICC-ID, not financial information or other personal data, was snatched from its servers.

AT&T did not respond to a request for further comment late Wednesday.

The disclosure of iPad owners' e-mail addresses was the second embarrassing story linked to Apple published by Gawker Media since April.

Two months ago, Gizmodo published photographs and an analysis of an iPhone prototype that it had bought from a California man who found it in a bar. Gizmodo was later denied a press pass to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference, where he introduced the already familiar-looking iPhone 4 on June 7.

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.