Pc News

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Microsoft Enters PC Security Market

Retailers begin stocking Microsoft Corp.'s new antivirus and computer security software suite today, marking the debut of a major competitor in the PC security market.

Microsoft's OneCare product was available yesterday as a download from a company Web site. For $49.95, it will protect up to three computers with antivirus and anti-spyware software for a year, a price that undercuts much of the competition.

While Microsoft's move has generated speculation about whether the software giant could take over this industry in the same way it has dominated the browser market for years, Wall Street was easy yesterday on rivals McAfee Inc. and Symantec Corp. Both companies' share prices rose slightly, and both promised to roll out new products with multiple features and subscription pricing. AOL is also rolling out a beta, or test, version of its own PC protection suite, to be called TotalCare.

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Top 10 Best Selling PC Games

Yep, things are pretty slow today. Stuff will pick up tomorrow provided Episode One is released on time. Otherwise we're all doomed! Here are the top-10 best selling PC games for the week ending May 20th:

1. World of Warcraft (Blizzard)
2. Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (Microsoft)
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games)
4. The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff (Electronic Arts)
5. Guild Wars Factions (NCsoft)
6. The Sims 2 (Electronic Arts)
7. The Sims 2 Open For Business (Electronic Arts)
8. Age of Empires III (Microsoft)
9. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)
10. Civilization IV (2K Games)

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When is a PC like a notebook?

Dell is further blurring the lines between notebook and PC with its newest offering, which it calls a "mobile entertainment device." The concept that was shown off at CES is now a reality.

The most notebook-like feature of what really is still a PC is the articulated hinges that can turn it into a portable computer. It has a detachable keyboard, but other PCs can make that claim. It also has a touchpad in the keyboard itself, which you can use instead of carting around a mouse. The 20-inch screen is also portable, but then so are most monitors if you're careful in transit. End result: Without working a whole lot harder, you can take it with you.

That's on the XPS M2010. The other model, the XPS 700, is a desktop that offers more of everything, including a greater focus on gaming. Guess that Alienware merger is having effects far and wide.

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Windows Live OneCare Software Ships Early

Microsoft will release a fully supported version of its Windows Live OneCare software tomorrow, marking the software giant's entry into the security software market.

OneCare will be available for download as of May 31 on Microsoft's Web site, a day earlier than expected. By Thursday, the software is expected to be widely available in U.S. retail stores, said Microsoft's Samantha McManus, a business strategy manager with Windows Live OneCare.

The software will begin shipping outside of the U.S. "within the next year," she said, while declining to say which country would be the first to follow the U.S. launch. The software, which will cost about $50 annually for up to three PCs, may be purchased from Microsoft's OneCare site.


What's Included
OneCare includes firewall, antivirus, and backup software, as well as Microsoft's Windows Defender antispyware technology, which is still in beta form. The product also handles routine maintenance tasks such as defragmenting the hard disk and cleaning up unused temporary files.

Microsoft's entry into the market shakes things up for security vendors like Symantec and McAfee, which are now scrambling to deliver security products that have the same back-up and PC tuning features as their new competitor.


Competitors' Offerings
Symantec expects to ship a OneCare competitor, code-named Genesis, by year's end. And on Tuesday, McAfee said it would deliver its own backup and security product, code-named Falcon, by September. A beta version of Falcon is expected within the "next few weeks," according to a McAfee spokesperson.

With the release of the final version of OneCare, users can now get telephone support for the software. As noted, Microsoft is selling OneCare subscriptions at $49.95 per year under a novel, three-user plan that is designed to simplify things for home and small-business users.


Vista Beta Coming
The OneCare beta program, which has been running since November, will be phased out over the next few months, and beta users who want to continue to run OneCare will have to purchase the product, McManus said.

However, a new beta program, designed to test the upcoming Windows Vista version of the software, will start up later in the year. Windows Vista is expected to ship in early 2007, and OneCare for Vista will be available at around the same time, McManus said.

Security software is commonly distributed with new hardware, or included with Internet access services, but so far, Microsoft has said little about how it plans to distribute OneCare beyond its Web site and retail avenues. "We're still pretty early with this service," McManus said. "We're definitely investigating a number of ways we could make this more broadly available."

Microsoft is also considering the idea of including an online backup service with OneCare, similar to that planned for Symantec's Genesis, McManus said. At present, OneCare can back up to external hard drives, CDs, or DVDs.

[Blade951875]

All microsoft programs' security is pretty sad camparing them to their rival mac that is. BUt the thingabout vista is that their 2nd beta is so unstable it has a 10:1 crash ratio, this means for every ten people using the beta, one of them will crash through the course of one day.

I have the beta, but I still prefer to use the mac. Anyways I still use XP.

[Blade951875]

Dell is pretty asad one what it does, also more of the software for their new products , sorry I mean the ahardware comes from other major companys. Like Sony, Panasonic, Gateway ect.

P.S. the Longhorn code name for Cista, was made when they used a persons skin, named longhorn. Microsoft ripped tyhe skin from a designer of mine, and he filed a complaint, but they replied saying that their designers have the same taste.

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Flaw Found in Windows XP, Server 2003

A new flaw found in Microsoft's software could be exploited to cause a denial-of-service attack on certain applications, although the bug isn't viewed as being severe.

The flaw could be exploited through a buffer overflow attack, security vendor Secunia reported this week. A buffer overflow occurs when excess data flows into an area of memory, spilling over so that it overwrites data in adjacent areas or causes unintended code to execute.

For the attack to occur, a user would have to be lured into visiting a malicious Web site with a overly-long URL, or else opening an Internet shortcut that leads to such a site.


No Attacks Yet
Microsoft said today that it was investigating the flaw and that it wasn't aware of any attacks yet taking advantage of it.

Secunia rated the vulnerability as "less critical," the second-lowest severity rating on its five-level scale.

The flaw could be used to crash applications, but a hacker might not be able to run malicious code thanks to a prevention mechanism in Windows, the company said.

The problem affects the Home and Professional editions of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, and four versions of Windows Server 2003: Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard and Web edition, Secunia said.

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HP Hit With Funlove Virus Again

Hewlett-Packard yesterday pulled a printer driver from its Web site after security vendor BitDefender reported that the software was infected with the same computer virus that infected HP's drivers more than five years ago.


A BitDefender partner notified the security vendor of the infected driver software earlier this week, and the company's security researchers soon determined that it had the same Funlove virus that had plagued HP in December 2000.

BitDefender notified HP of the problem on Wednesday and the infected printer driver was removed from HP's Web site early Thursday, said BitDefender spokesman Vitor Souza.

Until then, the virus was being distributed with the Korean version of the Windows 95/98 driver for HP's Officejet g85 All-in-One printer. HP no longer sells the all-in-one printer, and the current antivirus products are able to block it. So while the oversight is an embarrassment for HP, it's unlikely that many users were affected by Funlove.


Similar Situation
Previously, HP had inadvertently distributed the Funlove virus in Japanese printer drivers that were made available on the company's Web site. Souza believes that HP most likely neglected to remove this particular infected driver back in 2000. "Its just like nobody had run a test against antivirus [software]," he said.

Even for users who fall prey to the virus, the consequences are not severe.

When it gets installed, the Funlove pops up a text message that reads "Fun Loving Criminal," and then attempts to reboot the PC. On Windows NT machines, it attempts to change system settings so that files that can normally be seen only by administrators are visible to all.

HP executives were not immediately available to comment for this story.

BitDefender is owned by Softwin SRL, based in Bucharest, Romania.

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Toshiba Claims Highest-Density Hard Drive

Toshiba today released a 2.5-inch, double-platter hard drive that it said features the highest density yet of any such component.

The disk uses perpendicular magnetic recording technology to hold 277.1 megabits per square millimeter, or 178.8 gigabits per square inch.

This density surpasses the current record, which Toshiba also holds, at 133 gigabits per square inch.

The drive itself is designed to hold 200GB.

Mass production of the disks will begin in August, the company said.


iPod Rival
The new technology may play a role in Toshiba's planned digital audio player to be developed in conjunction with Microsoft and Japan's NTT DoCoMo for the Japanese market.

Microsoft announced Friday it would work with Japanese partners to develop the device using a version of its Windows operating system, designed to take market share from Apple Computer's iPod.

The company did not provide a target release date for the product.

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Microsoft Readies a Dozen Patches

Windows administrators will be busy next week, as Microsoft plans to release a whopping 12 security patches for its products. The updates will include a fix for a widely reported vulnerability in Microsoft Word, as well as changes to the way Internet Explorer handles ActiveX that might cause headaches for some.


Nine of the patches will address vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system, some of which Microsoft rates critical, according to the security bulletin about the patches. There will also be one "Important" fix for Microsoft Exchange, and two patches for Microsoft Office, including software that repairs the Word bug.

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Word Hole Targeted

In May, hackers began e-mailing the Word malware to a handful of victims--mostly within government agencies or contractors--in a series of extremely targeted attacks, said Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute.

But as knowledge of the Word flaw has spread, researchers like Ullrich fear that it may be used in a more widespread attack. The vulnerability can be exploited to run unauthorized software on PCs, although users must first be first tricked into opening a maliciously encoded Word document.

Microsoft also plans to finalize changes to the way IE processes dynamic content using ActiveX. Microsoft is changing the way IE works in response to a 2003 patent lawsuit loss to the University of California and Eolas Technologies.

The changes will force developers to reprogram parts of their Web sites and intranets. Otherwise, IE will force users to click on a pop-up "tool tip" dialog box before being able to interact with things like Flash or QuickTime.

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Time to Update

Microsoft has actually been rolling these changes into IE for months, but has offered users a "compatibility patch" that allowed IE to work on Web sites that had not been reprogrammed. With Tuesday's updates, though, there will be no way to avoid the ActiveX changes.

The biggest headache, however, will come from the sheer number of updates being released Tuesday, said Susan Bradley, chief technology officer with Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn and Braun, Accountancy.

Complicating matters is the fact that these patches will be released in the middle of Microsoft's Tech-Ed user conference.

"I'll be at Tech-Ed in Boston and deciding if I remotely patch over the weekend or not," Bradley said via e-mail.

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Desktop Killers

With dual-core processors, speedy hard drives, and wide-screen displays, the latest notebooks are powerful enough to make your desktop PC unnecessary. Our PC World Test Center report will point you toward the best replacement for your tower.



Go on, admit it. You've been thinking about ditching your desktop in favor of a laptop. You're not alone--many people have already made the switch and now revel in the ability to pick up their computer and go. Thanks to dual-core processors, dual hard drives, multiformat DVD burners, powerful graphics, and brilliant 17-inch wide-aspect screens, the latest crop of high-performance portables stand ready to replace your desktop PC. Who wouldn't be tempted?

To help you decide whether to opt for a big, powerful laptop instead of a desktop PC, we looked at seven notebooks. Four of these were entertainment-focused: Alienware's Aurora m7700, Dell's Inspiron E1705, HP's Pavilion dv8000z, and Toshiba's Qosmio G35-AV600. We also tried two big business-minded laptops--the Gateway M-685E and the HP Compaq nx9420. The final model in our test group, Acer's TravelMate 8200, possesses both entertainment and business appeal.

To gauge how these notebooks stacked up against desktop PCs, we tested each model using our WorldBench 5 benchmark, conducted our regular battery life and graphics tests, and completed a thorough series of hands-on evaluations.

Ultimately, we determined that two notebooks--HP's Pavilion dv8000z and Toshiba's Qosmio G35-AV600--deserved Best Buy awards. The dv8000z offers the best balance of speed, usability, and features, for a reasonable $2200, while the $2548 Toshiba Qosmio is the best audiovisual notebook on the market today.

Of the others, we liked the HP Compaq nx9420's 7.4-pound weight and the Acer TravelMate 8200's built-in Webcam. The pricey Alienware Aurora m7700 offers the option of dual hard drives and dual optical drives, while the Gateway M685-E is a good all-around small-business desktop replacement for graphics pros. The Dell Inspiron E1705's superb graphics results will entice gamers.

While the entry point for ownership is now remarkably similar for desktops and laptops--about $500--feature for feature, you'll still pay about 40 percent more for a notebook. You might spend $2400 on a portable with a dual-core CPU and a 17-inch screen, or you could invest $1400 in a faster desktop and a 20-inch flat-screen panel--and save $1000.

Desktops continue to have the edge in expandability, too, because of their size and the easy access to internal components they afford. Though you can replace a notebook's hard drive and upgrade its RAM, in most cases you can't swap out the graphics card yourself or add another internal hard drive or a second optical drive. Finally, desktops are usually the first to incorporate new technologies--whether a line of new processors, an improved drive interface, or bigger and faster hard drives. But notebooks also have an edge: Most now offer the added convenience of built-in Wi-Fi, and some support mobile broadband services, so you can work wirelessly almost anywhere.

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Netscape to Take On Slashdot

America Online is turning its Netscape.com portal on its head and embracing citizen journalism, in which the community votes on what's news--not Netscape.com editors. Netscape Communications, a division of AOL, says it will be ditching its current tickertape infotainment portal for the new format to attract new Netscape.com visitors and keep them there longer.

Netscape.com takes the wraps off of its beta today. Everyone is welcome to find current news stories, blog entries, or videos anywhere on the Internet and submit content to Netscape.com to be displayed on its front page. Visitors are invited to vote on current stories, with the most popular stories rising to the top of the list.

Netscape says that a link to the beta site is available today from its main page. The revved version of Netscape.com is slated to go live July 1. Users must register to submit and post stories. The site accepts users with existing Netscape, AOL, and AOL AIM log-ins and passwords.

The new Netscape.com strategy attempts to follow the success of social-bookmarking sites like Digg and Slashdot. Both of these technology sites rely on visitors to compile lists of links to interesting new articles.

Netscape General Manager Jason Calacanis says that, unlike competing social-bookmarking sites, Netscape.com has hired a mix of journalists and citizen journalists to comment on the day's top stories and fact-check them to make sure they are genuine. The group of Netscape Anchors, as they are called, will also give their editorial opinions on the most popular user-submitted stories and will add links to related Web content, Calacanis says.

Netscape.com will have 30 different content channels, including food, news, travel, sports, celebrity news, and health. The company says that overnight Netscape.com will become one of the largest social-bookmarking sites, with 12.5 million visitors a month.


Keeping Up With the Slashdots and the Diggs
"Think of this as Digg.com with fact checking," Calacanis says. He believes that Web sites that allow people to comment and create content garner more page views than sites that deliver traditional content.

According to estimates available from the Web site ranking firm Alexa, Digg has seen its daily page views jump from 80 million to 320 million since January 2005. By comparison, Netscape.com traffic dropped from 260 million to 180 million in the same time period.

Whether Netscape.com will be an overnight sensation is another question. It will certainly be entering a competitive market. Sites like del.icio.us, Newsvine, and The Personal Bee have launched in the past year. Each put visitors in the editorial driver seat as well.

Netscape hopes to offer more, with tie-ins to a nascent social-networking feature also part of the new Netscape.com plan. Users will be able to create simple profiles and create lists of "friends" with similar interests.

Down the road, an AOL spokesperson said, look for Netscape.com tie-ins to a version of the Netscape browser, Netscape.com toolbars, and direct links to AOL's MySpace-clone AIM Pages.