Archive for: July 10, 2009

Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday announced it will transfer operation of its wireless and wireline networks to Swedish telecommunications equipment maker LM Ericsson. The seven-year deal, valued between $4.5 billion and $5 billion, will transfer about 6,000 Sprint employees to an Ericsson-owned subsidiary, based near Sprint’s Overland Park, Kan., headquarters. Sprint officials stressed that the nation’s third-largest wireless provider will maintain ownership and control of its network, including future investment and strategy, while Ericsson provides day-to-day maintenance and monitoring of the network of cell towers and call switching equipment. “This is about improving the customer experience,” Steve Elfman, Sprint’s president of network operations and wholesale, told reporters. “While we get the benefits of Ericsson’s expertise and the tools and best practices they bring to the table, we can focus our attention on bringing great devices, great services, great applications to (customers).” Elfman said the company expected to save money on employee and other operational costs with the agreement but declined to give details on how much. Sprint laid off 8,000 employees earlier this year, which it said provided $1.2 billion in savings. The employees are expected to switch over to Ericsson in late third quarter, after which it will take 12-18 months to fully shift operations to Ericsson. Elfman said Sprint will retain about 2,000 employees who have network-related jobs, such as budgeting. Jan Frykhammar, head of Ericsson’s Global Services unit, told reporters the company was “excited” by the contract, its first network operation deal in North America. The company already manages global networks that serve 275 million subscribers. “This is really a proof point of a long-term partnership between Sprint and Ericsson,” Frykhammar said. The deal, which has been rumored for months, came following a “vigorous bid process” that lasted up to a year, Elfman said. “Our judgment over ...

South Korean Web sites were attacked again Thursday after a wave of Web site outages in the U.S. and South Korea that several officials suspect North Korea was behind. Seven sites — one belonging to the government and the others to private entities — were attacked in the third round of cyber assaults, said Ku Kyo-young, an official from the state-run Korea Communications Commission. Earlier in the day, the country’s leading computer security company, AhnLab, had warned of a new attack after analyzing a virus program that sent a flood of Internet traffic to paralyze Web sites in both South Korea and the United States. About two hours after the latest assault, all but one shopping site were working normally. The Yonhap news agency had earlier reported that the Web site of the leading Kookmin Bank was down for about 30 minutes. Twelve South Korean sites were initially hit Tuesday, followed by strikes Wednesday on 10 others, including those for government offices. The U.S. targets included the White House, Pentagon, Treasury Department and the Nasdaq stock exchange. Like previous ones, the latest assault was also caused by so-called denial of service attacks in which floods of computers try to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server, the commission official said. Some South Korean sites hit in the past few days remained inaccessible or unstable on Thursday, including the National Cyber Security Center, affiliated with the main spy agency. No major disruptions, however, were reported. “The damage from the latest attack appears to be limited because those sites took necessary measures to fend off the attack,” Ku said. Seoul’s main intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service, informed members of parliament’s intelligence committee Wednesday that it believes North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces were behind the cyber attacks, ...

There’s one more way to watch online video through a home TV with the announcement Thursday that Netflix will stream movies directly to Sony’s Bravia Internet-capable HDTVs. Beginning this fall, some subscribers to the popular movie-rental service will be able to watch any of 12,000-plus movies and TV episodes on these Net-connected sets, as well as on earlier Bravia models that are compatible with Sony’s add-on, the Internet Video Link module. The offer will be extended only to Netflix members who are on an unlimited plan, which starts at $8.99 monthly. The Bravia sets will require a software update. Netflix Remains ‘Important’ Netflix has been busy striking deals to stream movies to a wide variety of consumer devices designed for the home, as more consumers watch programs and films via the Web. Previous arrangements with consumer electronics companies have included Microsoft for the Xbox 360, LG Electronics, Roku, Samsung, TiVo and Vizio. Roku makes a $99 Digital Video Player for this purpose, and the deals with LG and Samsung involve Blu-ray high-definition DVD players. A key consideration is the user experience. Netflix’s streaming video quality on the various devices is reported to be good, and the movies start within 30 seconds. There is also an auto-resume feature so a viewer can continue viewing from a stop, even on another device. Multiple devices can be used on a single Netflix account. Josh Martin, an analyst with industry research firm Yankee Group, said it’s “interesting that Netflix continues to remain important” in the digital distribution of movies at a time when Apple’s iTunes Store, Amazon, TV networks, and other big players are moving quickly into this area. Sony Not Focusing on Streaming This is also an interesting development for Sony, he said, as the company has “not been focusing on streaming,” but ...

Microsoft’s Windows Division has a new leader. Steven Sinofsky, a 20-year veteran at the software giant, will take on his new role as president of the division this week, the company announced Thursday. Sinofsky, known for directing the Windows and Windows Live engineering teams at the Redmond, Wash.-based company, will lead both the engineering and marketing of Windows, Internet Explorer, and Windows Live. The executive previously oversaw the development of Microsoft Office’s system of programs, servers and services. He was responsible for the development of Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office XP, and Microsoft Office 2000. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also credits Sinofsky with getting Windows 7 ready for its expected Oct. 22 shipping date. “Steven Sinofsky has demonstrated the ability to lead large teams that deliver great products,” Ballmer said in an e-mail to Microsoft employees. “With this transition, we want to ensure we are setting up the next release and continue the market leadership and momentum that we have with Windows today.” Getting It Right Sinofsky’s new role is no doubt recognition for getting Windows 7 on the right track after its predecessor, Windows Vista, received poor feedback from users and became the butt of rival Apple’s jokes in TV commercials. “Windows 7 is receiving terrific feedback from customers, partners, analysts alike, and the entire Windows team has done a great job,” Ballmer wrote in the e-mail. Along with positive reviews about Windows 7’s functionality, Microsoft is also getting high marks for its recent promotional discounts for the operating system. Leading up to its October launch date, Microsoft has announced discounts, including for pre-orders from retailers, including Best Buy, Amazon.com and the Microsoft Store. The company is also offering upgrades. Consumers who buy a PC from a participating OEM or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, ...

In a move that could help counter some of the criticism of its pricing plan, Microsoft appears to be preparing a Windows 7 Family Pack/Home Premium upgrade. According to reports surfacing on the Web, the software giant has assigned a product number and UPC code to the Family Pack, along with pricing of about $135-$140. No Formal Announcement Yet Microsoft hasn’t announced such a Family Pack upgrade, but the term is referenced in the license agreement for the most recent beta release of Windows 7. The agreement says a Family Pack user can install the upgrade on as many as three computers in a household. During the current two-week Pre-order promotion in the U.S., an upgrade from Windows Vista or XP to Windows 7 Premium is $49.99. The promotion ends July 11, and includes an upgrade to Windows 7 Professional for $99.99. The company said the normal purchase price for the Home Premium upgrade will be $119.99, compared to $129.99 charged for Vista. If a Family Pack/Home Premium upgrade begins after the pre-order promotion, it could provide a major discount. The normal price for the Professional upgrade is $199.99, and the Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade costs $219.99. The scheduled release date for Windows 7 is Oct. 22. Retail prices for the full versions are $199.99 for Home Premium, $299.99 for Professional, and $319.99 for Ultimate. A variety of industry observers have complained that the upgrade prices are too high, at a time when Microsoft should want to move as many users as possible from Vista or XP into the new OS. Upgrading with New Machines Some have said the regular upgrade price is much too steep for the current economic environment, most notably for consumers, although it is lower than Vista’s. Others have noted that Microsoft should be doing everything ...

I’ve been toying with the HTC Magic and my verdict has been telltale of expectations that were basically preconceived with a “Google OS.” Apparently Android may be too early in its stages to support a couple of things, especially with the Mac. I’ve been having bad trouble trying to do two things: 1. First, a total free sync solution to the HTC Magic with my iCal and Address Book. If there existed one, the telco where I got it from didn’t really elaborate on the apps. Apparently, not all Androids are created equal and the version for the Philippines packed into the HTC Magic doesn’t even have the online marketplace or Google sign in. Sad! 2. Second, although my USB port recognizes the HTC Magic as a device and charges it, I can’t use it as a target drive to store data. I can’t even detect the microSD card inside it. Transferring photos and vids can be such a pain. I’ve Google’d. I’ve even Yahoo’ed. Has anyone found a solution to these? Post from: Cellphone9

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How do you sync the HTC Magic to Mac OS X

Microsoft plans to combat Internet attacks under way by plugging three critical Windows security holes in next week’s Patch Tuesday. Apple also fixed some bugs with an update to its Safari Web browser. One of the Patch Tuesday updates will plug a zero-day vulnerability within Microsoft TV Technologies that can be exploited through Internet Explorer. Microsoft TV Technologies is an ActiveX control that comes with Windows XP and is installed by default. The exploit files are detected as Downloader.Fostrem (previously detected as Downloader). The downloaded files are detected as Trojan Horse, Backdoor.Trojan, Infostealer and Downloader. Thousands of Sites Compromised Initially, there were limited attacks. However, Symantec has since reported new evidence of the flaw being exploited widely in China and other parts of Asia. Reports indicate thousands of Web sites have been compromised and are now hosting the exploit for this issue. Another update will patch a DirectShow vulnerability. Microsoft has reported limited active attacks using booby-trapped QuickTime files. Windows XP users with Internet Explorer 6 and 7 are at risk, but those with Internet Explorer 8 installed are not vulnerable. Preliminary testing shows that computers running Windows Vista are not affected by the vulnerabilities. Microsoft said the third critical patch affects all versions of Windows. It provided few details in its advance report designed to give IT administrators time to prepare. Other updates to be released Tuesday rated important will fix vulnerabilities in Microsoft Publisher, the Internet Security and Acceleration Server, and Virtual PC and Virtual Server. Safari Update On Wednesday, Apple released an update to Safari. Safari 4.0.2 fixes two bugs in the browser’s WebKit. The first bug fixes an issue with the WebKit’s handling of parent and top objects that could open the door to a cross-scripting attack if a user visited a malicious Web site. The ...

Apple and Microsoft are grappling with bugs this week. On Wednesday, Apple released an update to Safari. Safari 4.0.2 fixes two bugs in the browser’s WebKit. The first bug fixes an issue with the WebKit’s handling of parent and top objects that could open the door to a cross-scripting attack if a user visited a malicious Web site. The second bug is a memory-corruption issue in the way the WebKit handles numeric character references. Apple said visiting a maliciously crafted Web site could lead to the browser shutting down unexpectedly or an attacker executing arbitrary code. “Exactly one month after releasing Safari 4.0, Apple delivered the first set of patches for its brand-new browser application. The updates offered apply to both Mac and Windows, but as of yet it isn’t clear if the iPhone is affected,” said Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle. “Unlike Apple’s past patch releases that included a plethora of bug fixes, this release only addresses two flaws,” he added. “Either these bugs are more severe than usual, or perhaps Apple is falling into line and is beginning a regular monthly release cycle like many other software vendors.” IE’s Zero-Day Woes Meanwhile, security researchers have discovered a zero-day vulnerability within Microsoft TV Technologies that can be exploited through Internet Explorer. Microsoft TV Technologies is an ActiveX control that comes with Windows XP and is installed by default. The exploit files are detected as Downloader.Fostrem (previously detected as Downloader). The downloaded files are detected as Trojan Horse, Backdoor.Trojan, Infostealer and Downloader. Initially, there were limited attacks. However, Symantec has since reported new evidence of the flaw being exploited widely in China and other parts of Asia. Reports indicate thousands of Web sites have been compromised and are now hosting the exploit for this issue. Windows XP ...