Pc News

[Rasputin]

New Skype Phones

Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV has announced a new phone that allows users of the Skype Internet telephony service to make calls without having to boot up their PCs.

The Voice over IP phone, the VOIP841, is the first such phone to be based on Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications technology, Rudy Provoost, chief executive officer of the Philips Consumer Electronics division, said Thursday at a news conference at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.

On Thursday, Skype separately announced that Netgear will also deliver a Skype phone that operates without a PC.

Dual-Purpose Cordless Phones
Typically, Skype phones work through a computer or a laptop. The new Philips and Netgear phones plug into a broadband connection jack and a standard home phone jack. They can send and receive Skype calls over the Internet as well as calls from a regular home phone number.

The VOIP841 will be available in December, Provoost said. He gave no pricing information.

Availability and pricing details about the Netgear phone were not immediately available.

The new generation of phones could help Skype reach a larger group of consumers who are not tech-savvy and tend to shy away from phone gadgets that require computer knowledge.

In July, Skype announced that several manufacturers, including Netgear, planned to deliver Wi-Fi phones preloaded with the VOIP service provider's software client. The phones were slated to hit the market in the third quarter.

[Rasputin]

Extension on Microsoft Antitrust Settlement?

The U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft filed formal paperwork Wednesday to extend part of an antitrust judgment against the company for at least two years.

The extension of U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's November 2002 antitrust settlement would give Microsoft more time to complete work on technical documentation for licensees of its communications protocols. The Justice Department and Microsoft filed a joint request Wednesday for Kollar-Kotelly to approve the extension, which the Justice Department proposed in May.

The antitrust order had been scheduled to expire in November 2007. If the judge approves the two-year extension, the Justice Department and 17 state plaintiffs in the antitrust case can ask for an additional three-year extension if they still have complaints about Microsoft documentation. Microsoft has said it will not oppose a second extension.

Continuing Problems With Documentation
Under the settlement, Microsoft is required to license the communication protocols to other IT vendors interested in developing server software that works with Microsoft's Windows operating system. But as of May, hundreds of bugs in the technical documentation remained.

A technical committee working with the antitrust plaintiffs identified 575 bugs in the technical documentation as of Feb. 8. By March 16, Microsoft had whittled the bugs identified by the technical committee down to 307, but the number of high-priority bugs grew from 68 to 71 in that period.

By May 8, the number of high-priority bugs with a 60-day deadline grew to 79, and the total number of bugs identified by the technical committee was 414.

[Rasputin]

Tested: Core 2 Duo Notebooks

PC World's exclusive tests show that Core 2 Duo laptops offer an improvement over current Core Duo-based systems, but the increase isn't nearly as dramatic as it was between PCs using Intel's older dual-core desktop chips and ones using the new Core 2 Duo desktop CPUs.

We tested three notebooks using the new Intel chips, formerly code-named Merom. (Intel formally announced the new mobile processors on Monday.) The top performer, Gateway's M685-E desktop replacement system, earned a score of 109, which beats by 3 points the previous high-score for notebooks with 1GB of RAM. The $2059 system featured the 2.16-GHz Core 2 Duo T7400 chip, 100GB drive, nVidia's GeForce Go 7600 graphics chip set with 128MB of RAM, a 17-inch LCD and Windows XP Professional.

We also tested the $1906 Dell XPS M1210, an ultraportable system using the 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 chip, and the $1499 HP Pavilion dv6000t mainstream system, which came with the 1.83-GHz Core 2 Duo T5600. These two systems earned nearly identical scores: the Dell garnered a 102 result on WorldBench 5, the HP a 101. Both came with 1GB of RAM, 120GB hard drives, and nVidia's GeForce Go 7400 graphics chip set with 256MB of RAM. The Dell had a 12.1-inch screen and ran Windows XP Media Center Edition, while the HP had a 15.4-inch screen and ran Windows XP Pro.

Look for battery test results within the next week, and reviews of the individual systems to follow shortly after. We don't expect a significant boost or drop in overall battery life with the new chips, however.

It doesn't look like systems with the new mobile chips will seriously challenge desktop processing might. For example, the Velocity Micro Vector GX Campus Edition, which came with the mainstream 2.13-GHz Core 2 Duo E6400 CPU and 1GB of RAM, earned a score of 117 on WorldBench 5. All other Core 2 Duo systems we've tested earned much higher scores, ranging from 138 to 181 (note that these systems had 2GB of RAM).

These Core 2 Duo mobile chips do share the same microarchitecture as the desktop Core 2 Duos. And like previous mobile chips, they're part of Intel's Centrino platform (now called Centrino Duo), which encompasses the chip set, processor, and wireless solution. Unlike the previous generation, the high-end Core 2 Duo models boast 4MB of shared L2 cache versus 2MB, which should help them perform better than older CPUs.

The new chips range from the entry-level 1.66-GHz Core 2 Duo T5500 with 2MB of L2 cache, to the 2.33-GHz Core 2 Duo T7600 with 4MB of shared L2 cache.

The new chips use the same 945 Express chip sets as Core Duo CPUs; the chip sets have a 533-MHz or 667-MHz front side bus. The older and newer processors all share the same wireless solution as well, which supports 802.11 a/b/g.

[Rasputin]

Test Report: Mobile Core 2 Duo Okay, Not Great

Eight months ago Intel rocked the mobile processor world with its first dual-core CPUs, which boosted the speed of a notebook performing two tasks simultaneously by 30 percent. Now comes Core Duo's successor, Core 2 Duo, accompanied by Intel claims of even better performance and support for the coming era of 64-bit computing. Should you kick yourself for buying that Core Duo notebook in May?

PC World tests suggest you shouldn't sweat it too much. Notebooks get only a small performance boost with Intel's new processor, formerly code-named Merom, and battery life appears to remain about the same.

The five new Core 2 Duo mobile chips (Intel earlier released five Core 2 Duo desktop processors) are the latest descendants of Intel's Centrino-brand processor and wireless chip set combo.

Core 2 Duo comes in two lines: the T5000, which includes the 1.66-GHz T5500 and 1.83-GHz T5600, and the T7000, featuring the 2-GHz T7200, the 2.16-GHz T7400, and the 2.33-GHz T7600. Intel isn't saying when we'll see a version of the Core 2 Duo for ultraportables.

Core Duo Vs. Core 2
The Core 2 Duo chip has many of the same features as its Core Duo predecessor: a 667-MHz frontside bus, the 945 chip set, the 3945ABG wireless chip set, and similar clock speeds. The two biggest improvements are the doubling of Level 2 cache to 4MB in the T7000 line, and support for 64-bit processing. The latter brings Intel back on par with AMD's Turion 64 X2 chip and means users can take advantage of upcoming 64-bit applications, including the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. Core Duo can't do 64-bit computing.

Core Duo 2 Notes for All Purposes
PC World tested three shipping notebooks with different Core 2 Duo processors and 1GB of memory: a $1906 Dell M1210 with a 2-GHz T7200 chip, a $2059 Gateway M685-E with a 2.16-GHz T7400 chip, and a $1498.99 HP Pavilion dv6000t with a 1.83-GHz T5600 chip.

The biggest performance increase over notebooks outfitted with same-speed Core Duo CPUs was only 7 percent, enough to shave a few seconds off of day-to-day operations but not much more.

The Windows XP Media Center Edition-equipped Dell M1210 turned in a WorldBench 5 score of 102, 5 percent better than the 97 earned by the average Media Center Edition notebook using a 2-GHz Core Duo T2500. The Gateway M685-E scored 109, 7 percent better than t 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600-equipped HP Compaq nx9420's score of 101. The HP Pavilion dv6000t scored 101, 6 percent better than a 1.83-GHz Core Duo T2400-equipped Toshiba Satellite P105-S921's 95 with the same 2MB of Level 2 cache.

In sum, Core 2 Duo systems are a tad faster than Core Duo notebooks at handling everything from mainstream applications such as spreadsheets and e-mail to watching DVD movies. And they are just as impressive (and significantly faster than Pentium-Ms) at juggling multiple tasks, like ripping a CD while surfing the Net, for instance.

Battery Life a Washout
Core 2 doesn't appear to significantly affect battery life. The Dell M1210, a 12.1-inch multimedia wide-screen model, lasted the longest: 4 hours and 23 minutes with its 9-cell battery upgrade. The Gateway M685-E, a bulky 17-inch wide-screen, lasted 3 hours and 41 minutes thanks to a 12-cell battery upgrade. That's better than the 2.3 hours we got with a 2-GHz Core Duo T2500 version of the M685-E tested earlier this year, but the older unit had a less powerful 8-cell battery upgrade.

The HP Pavilion dv6000t, a 15.4-inch multimedia wide-screen unit and the only one in the group equipped with a standard six-cell battery, ran out of juice after only 2 hours and 10 minutes. An HP Pavilion dv2000t equipped with a 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600 that we also tested this month lasted over 7 hours--but that notebook had a 14.1-inch wide-screen display and its battery was twice as strong as the dv6000t's.

Intel is pricing the Core 2 Duo the same as Core Duo chips, which means the new processors won't drive up overall notebook prices.

Get a Deal on Older Duos
In fact, shoppers can soon expect a fire sale on Core Duo notebooks, said Samir Bhavnani, director of research for Current Analysis in San Diego. "It's going to be hard for people to tell the difference between retail Core Duo and Core 2 Duo because the names and the processor speeds look so alike, so you're going to see Intel get very aggressive with Core Duo pricing."

Given also that Core 2 Duo's support for 64-bit applications won't be important for at least another year, consumers should think long and hard about paying a premium to get a Core 2 notebook instead of a Core Duo. "Buying a 64-bit capable Core 2 Duo notebook right now is like buying a Playstation 3 when there won't be any games for another two years," Bhavnani said.

[Rasputin]

Microsoft Downplays Malware Warnings

With security vendors warning of new malware that exploits a recently patched flaw in Windows, Microsoft is saying that attacks are not on the rise.

Earlier this week, two new malicious programs popped up, both of which took advantage of the MS06-040 Windows Server service vulnerability. This prompted Symantec to raise its ThreatCon rating to 2 on Thursday, an indication that users should be at a heightened level of security awareness.

No Rise in Attacks Seen
But on Friday Microsoft said that even with these new variants, the total number of computers being attacked was unchanged. "We're not seeing an increase in attacks, just minor variations," said Stephen Toulouse, security program manager with Microsoft's Security Response Center.

Symantec's Oliver Friedrichs agreed that "the overall volume of attack attempts is fairly consistent," but he said that the fact that hackers had continued to pound away at the MS06-040 vulnerability is troubling. "The fact that we are seeing more threats exploiting these vulnerabilities, that in itself is disconcerting," said Friedrichs, a director of emerging technologies in Symantec Security Response.

Symantec has counted six variants of the MS06-040 attacks to date. Symantec rates the two new programs spotted this week, W32.Dasher.G and W32.Spybot.AKNO, as low risks.

U.S. Infrastructure at Risk?
The MS06-040 patch has to do with Windows' Server services, which are used for a variety of networking tasks, such as file sharing and printing. Because the flaw relates to widely used and network-enabled features, security experts have warned that it is a likely candidate for a widespread worm. Shortly after the patch was released, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took the unusual step of warning users of the flaw, saying it could put the nation's infrastructure at risk.

To date, however, no widespread outbreak has appeared.

[Rasputin]

First Windows Vista Release Candidate Available

Microsoft took a big stride today toward finalizing Windows Vista by issuing a first release candidate for its next-generation operating system.

A release candidate is a near-final version of the OS that is supposed to be changed only to fix bugs and tweak performance. The arrival of Vista RC-1 keeps Microsoft on track for shipping the OS in November as planned.

Jim Allchin, Windows Platforms and Services copresident, announced the completion of RC-1 in a blog posting to some 20,000 business and IT users in Microsoft's Technical Beta and Technology Adoption Program. Code was made available to these testers today, but Allchin promised it would go out to the additional 500,000 IT pros and developers in the Microsoft Software Developers Network and Technet next week.

"You'll notice a lot of improvements since Beta 2," Allchin wrote. "We've made some UI adjustments, added more device drivers, and enhanced performance. We're not done yet, however--quality will continue to improve."

"The operating system is in great shape with RC1," Allchin added in his message to Microsoft's core beta testers, "but there's still a lot of testing to do. You've come through for us so far, and I'm asking you to once again put the pedal to the metal and send us feedback."

In addition to members of the technical community, some 1.5 million general users have received Beta 2 since its release last May by signing up for the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program. At the time, Microsoft said these users would have access to RC-1, but there was no immediate word on how the company would be servicing them.

Microsoft officials say RC-1 will time out on May 31, 2007, meaning that people who install it will have to upgrade to the shipping OS by then. It's not clear whether they'd be able to roll back to Windows XP.

What's New Since Beta 2?
Christopher Flores, group product manager for Windows Marketing Communications, said one area in which RC-1 is most visibly different from Beta 2 is in its handling of User Account Control technology, which seeks to improve system security by requiring approval, even from people logged in with administrative privileges, for software installations or settings changes.

Testers had complained that the OS popped up windows requesting approval for changes that were trivial or that clearly came from trusted sources (such as Microsoft itself, in the case of Windows updates). Microsoft eliminated some of these prompts, such as those seeking approval to view firewall settings, open the Scanners and Camera control panel, or perform Media Player's Express setup. Also, UAC requests no longer appear as windows that steal focus from applications, which can be distracting. Instead, they appear on the taskbar as flashing buttons.

The OS also now uses less system memory to run, which should speed up overall performance. And it includes support for both of the high-definition video media formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Vista's underlying WinFX graphics system (now called .NET 3.0) is installed by default; previously it had to be user-installed.

Media Center viewers now recognize user-applied tags to photos and videos, and can filter content accordingly. System pop-ups are automatically suppressed when using presentation settings. Additionally, Flores says this version of Vista comes with drivers for thousands more devices than were included with Beta 2.

Microsoft still plans to release final code to volume license customers (primarily enterprises) in November. Systems with Vista preinstalled and upgrade versions of the OS at retail are slated to follow in January.

[Rasputin]

Mozilla Updates Firefox 2.0 Beta

Mozilla has released a new test version of Firefox 2.0, which will be the next major version of its popular open-source browser.

Firefox 2.0 Beta 2, released yesterday, features an improved user interface and a limited version of the phishing protection feature that Mozilla is developing for the browser.

More information on the Beta 2 release can be found online.

Beta 2 also comes with improved search capabilities, a spellchecker for Web forms, and jazzed-up tabbed browsing capabilities.

Final Version Coming Soon?
This second beta release will probably be the last beta version of Firefox 2.0. Developers are now planning to ship a nearly final "release candidate" edition of the browser on September 19, with the finished product going out the door by the end of October.

Mozilla had been hoping to have Firefox 2.0 finished by September, but that date was pushed back recently to give developers more time to squash the growing list of bugs in the beta code.

Both Mozilla and Microsoft are rushing to finish major updates to their browser software. Late last week Microsoft posted the first release-candidate version of Internet Explorer 7, and it is expecting to ship the final version of the next-generation browser by year's end.

The release candidate can be found on Microsoft's Web site.

Research company OneStat.com estimates that about 13 percent of Web surfers now use Firefox. The Netherlands-based company pegs IE users at 83 percent.

[Rasputin]

Test Report: Mobile Core 2 Duo Okay, Not Great

Eight months ago Intel rocked the mobile processor world with its first dual-core CPUs, which boosted the speed of a notebook performing two tasks simultaneously by 30 percent. Now comes Core Duo's successor, Core 2 Duo, accompanied by Intel claims of even better performance and support for the coming era of 64-bit computing. Should you kick yourself for buying that Core Duo notebook in May?

PC World tests suggest you shouldn't sweat it too much. Notebooks get only a small performance boost with Intel's new processor, formerly code-named Merom, and battery life appears to remain about the same.

The five new Core 2 Duo mobile chips (Intel earlier released five Core 2 Duo desktop processors) are the latest descendants of Intel's Centrino-brand processor and wireless chip set combo.

Core 2 Duo comes in two lines: the T5000, which includes the 1.66-GHz T5500 and 1.83-GHz T5600, and the T7000, featuring the 2-GHz T7200, the 2.16-GHz T7400, and the 2.33-GHz T7600. Intel isn't saying when we'll see a version of the Core 2 Duo for ultraportables.

Core Duo Vs. Core 2
The Core 2 Duo chip has many of the same features as its Core Duo predecessor: a 667-MHz frontside bus, the 945 chip set, the 3945ABG wireless chip set, and similar clock speeds. The two biggest improvements are the doubling of Level 2 cache to 4MB in the T7000 line, and support for 64-bit processing. The latter brings Intel back on par with AMD's Turion 64 X2 chip and means users can take advantage of upcoming 64-bit applications, including the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. Core Duo can't do 64-bit computing.

Core Duo 2 Notes for All Purposes
PC World tested three shipping notebooks with different Core 2 Duo processors and 1GB of memory: a $1906 Dell M1210 with a 2-GHz T7200 chip, a $2059 Gateway M685-E with a 2.16-GHz T7400 chip, and a $1498.99 HP Pavilion dv6000t with a 1.83-GHz T5600 chip.

The biggest performance increase over notebooks outfitted with same-speed Core Duo CPUs was only 7 percent, enough to shave a few seconds off of day-to-day operations but not much more.

The Windows XP Media Center Edition-equipped Dell M1210 turned in a WorldBench 5 score of 102, 5 percent better than the 97 earned by the average Media Center Edition notebook using a 2-GHz Core Duo T2500. The Gateway M685-E scored 109, 7 percent better than t 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600-equipped HP Compaq nx9420's score of 101. The HP Pavilion dv6000t scored 101, 6 percent better than a 1.83-GHz Core Duo T2400-equipped Toshiba Satellite P105-S921's 95 with the same 2MB of Level 2 cache.

In sum, Core 2 Duo systems are a tad faster than Core Duo notebooks at handling everything from mainstream applications such as spreadsheets and e-mail to watching DVD movies. And they are just as impressive (and significantly faster than Pentium-Ms) at juggling multiple tasks, like ripping a CD while surfing the Net, for instance.

Battery Life a Washout
Core 2 doesn't appear to significantly affect battery life. The Dell M1210, a 12.1-inch multimedia wide-screen model, lasted the longest: 4 hours and 23 minutes with its 9-cell battery upgrade. The Gateway M685-E, a bulky 17-inch wide-screen, lasted 3 hours and 41 minutes thanks to a 12-cell battery upgrade. That's better than the 2.3 hours we got with a 2-GHz Core Duo T2500 version of the M685-E tested earlier this year, but the older unit had a less powerful 8-cell battery upgrade.

The HP Pavilion dv6000t, a 15.4-inch multimedia wide-screen unit and the only one in the group equipped with a standard six-cell battery, ran out of juice after only 2 hours and 10 minutes. An HP Pavilion dv2000t equipped with a 2.16-GHz Core Duo T2600 that we also tested this month lasted over 7 hours--but that notebook had a 14.1-inch wide-screen display and its battery was twice as strong as the dv6000t's.

Intel is pricing the Core 2 Duo the same as Core Duo chips, which means the new processors won't drive up overall notebook prices.

Get a Deal on Older Duos
In fact, shoppers can soon expect a fire sale on Core Duo notebooks, said Samir Bhavnani, director of research for Current Analysis in San Diego. "It's going to be hard for people to tell the difference between retail Core Duo and Core 2 Duo because the names and the processor speeds look so alike, so you're going to see Intel get very aggressive with Core Duo pricing."

Given also that Core 2 Duo's support for 64-bit applications won't be important for at least another year, consumers should think long and hard about paying a premium to get a Core 2 notebook instead of a Core Duo. "Buying a 64-bit capable Core 2 Duo notebook right now is like buying a Playstation 3 when there won't be any games for another two years," Bhavnani said.

[Rasputin]

Extension on Microsoft Antitrust Settlement?

The U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft filed formal paperwork Wednesday to extend part of an antitrust judgment against the company for at least two years.

The extension of U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's November 2002 antitrust settlement would give Microsoft more time to complete work on technical documentation for licensees of its communications protocols. The Justice Department and Microsoft filed a joint request Wednesday for Kollar-Kotelly to approve the extension, which the Justice Department proposed in May.

The antitrust order had been scheduled to expire in November 2007. If the judge approves the two-year extension, the Justice Department and 17 state plaintiffs in the antitrust case can ask for an additional three-year extension if they still have complaints about Microsoft documentation. Microsoft has said it will not oppose a second extension.

Continuing Problems With Documentation
Under the settlement, Microsoft is required to license the communication protocols to other IT vendors interested in developing server software that works with Microsoft's Windows operating system. But as of May, hundreds of bugs in the technical documentation remained.

A technical committee working with the antitrust plaintiffs identified 575 bugs in the technical documentation as of Feb. 8. By March 16, Microsoft had whittled the bugs identified by the technical committee down to 307, but the number of high-priority bugs grew from 68 to 71 in that period.

By May 8, the number of high-priority bugs with a 60-day deadline grew to 79, and the total number of bugs identified by the technical committee was 414.

[Rasputin]

Windows Vista Versus XP Pricing

Earlier this week we ran a news story explaining that Amazon.com was taking pre-orders for the consumer versions of Windows Vista.

While the online shopping giant's listings haven't been denied by Microsoft, they haven't been confirmed either, so they should be viewed as far from definitive. Even so, we thought it'd be interesting to have a quick look at how the initial pricing of Vista may compare against the launch pricing of Windows XP (that Microsoft advises remains largely the same today as it was at launch on October 25th, 2001).

Windows XP Home Edition: $200 new, $100 upgrade

Windows Vista Home Basic
Price according to Amazon: $200 new; $100 upgrade
This is the entry-level edition of Vista targeting lower-end machines.

Windows Vista Home Premium
Price according to Amazon: $240 new; $160 upgrade
This version includes the new Windows Aero user interface, integrated OS-wide search, Media Center software, Windows Tablet PC utilities, and integrated DVD authoring.

Windows XP Professional Edition: $300 new, $200 upgrade

Windows Vista Business
Price according to Amazon: $300 new; $200 upgrade
This version is comparable to Windows XP professional. It doesn't include Media Center functionality, but has features like Remote Desktop and fax support.

Microsoft offers Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Media Center Tablet Edition, but those can only be purchased pre-loaded on PCs.

Windows Vista Ultimate
Price according to Amazon: $400 new; $360 upgrade
This edition includes all of Vista's features mentioned above, extra utilities such as Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption and advanced networking capabilities including Group Policy and Remote Desktop.

We've covered the different flavors Vista in greater depth in the past, but you can find more information about each edition from Microsoft itself here.

[Rasputin]

CA Antivirus Flagged Windows Component as Virus

CA Inc. caused some headaches this week after its antivirus software inadvertently flagged part of the Windows OS as malware.

The SANS Internet Storm Center reported the problem on Friday saying that an overnight update to CA's eTrust Antivirus signatures had caused the software to flag a security-related process in Windows as malicious. The faulty update caused some Windows 2003 servers to crash and become unusable, SANS said.

The problem was that eTrust Antivirus was mistakenly flagging the Windows Lsass.exe process, said Bob Gordon, a CA spokesman. "CA quickly discovered and fixed an issue which temporarily caused some customers to detect a problem in their Lsass.exe files," he said in an e-mail.

Problem Fixed Quickly
According to Gordon, it took CA less than 7 hours to fix the mix-up. The problem was introduced in the 30.3.3054 update, released at 2:53 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and fixed in the 30.3.3056 update, which was issued at 9:34 a.m. EST. Go to CA's site for the latest updates.

The Lsass.exe process is part of Windows' security mechanism. So users who had set their eTrust Antivirus to automatically remove malicious software may have found that their systems crashed and were unable to boot up Windows once Lsass.exe was removed.

Antivirus software like CA's uses digital fingerprints, called signatures, to identify malicious software. In this case, eTrust Antivirus apparently mistook Lsass.exe for the Win32/Lassrv.B virus.

Goof Reflects Poorly on Antivirus Vendors
It is not unheard of for signature files to mistakenly identify legitimate software as malware, but it is remarkable that CA's software made the mistake with a well-known Windows component, according to Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at SANS. CA should have been able to detect the problem in its quality-assurance testing, he said.

The mix-up apparently did not disrupt a large number of users, but it still reflects poorly on vendors like CA, Ullrich said. "It's another loss in trust toward the antivirus business," he said. "It tells you that the antivirus vendors don't do the testing."

[Rasputin]

Microsoft Downplays Malware Warnings

With security vendors warning of new malware that exploits a recently patched flaw in Windows, Microsoft is saying that attacks are not on the rise.

Earlier this week, two new malicious programs popped up, both of which took advantage of the MS06-040 Windows Server service vulnerability. This prompted Symantec to raise its ThreatCon rating to 2 on Thursday, an indication that users should be at a heightened level of security awareness.

No Rise in Attacks Seen
But on Friday Microsoft said that even with these new variants, the total number of computers being attacked was unchanged. "We're not seeing an increase in attacks, just minor variations," said Stephen Toulouse, security program manager with Microsoft's Security Response Center.

Symantec's Oliver Friedrichs agreed that "the overall volume of attack attempts is fairly consistent," but he said that the fact that hackers had continued to pound away at the MS06-040 vulnerability is troubling. "The fact that we are seeing more threats exploiting these vulnerabilities, that in itself is disconcerting," said Friedrichs, a director of emerging technologies in Symantec Security Response.

Symantec has counted six variants of the MS06-040 attacks to date. Symantec rates the two new programs spotted this week, W32.Dasher.G and W32.Spybot.AKNO, as low risks.

U.S. Infrastructure at Risk?
The MS06-040 patch has to do with Windows' Server services, which are used for a variety of networking tasks, such as file sharing and printing. Because the flaw relates to widely used and network-enabled features, security experts have warned that it is a likely candidate for a widespread worm. Shortly after the patch was released, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took the unusual step of warning users of the flaw, saying it could put the nation's infrastructure at risk.

To date, however, no widespread outbreak has appeared.

[Rasputin]

AT&T Gets Into Municipal Wi-Fi

AT&T this week won its first municipal Wi-Fi deal. The service provider has changed its stance and is now all for becoming a supplier of free, ad-sponsored fixed wireless service on municipal networks.

In the past AT&T has fought against municipal Wi-Fi networks, saying the subsidies offered by local governments provided an unfair competitive advantage.

Free and Fee-Based Services
AT&T says it is bidding on dozens of municipal Wi-Fi network contracts across the U.S.

The carrier's first such network is being built in Springfield, Illinois, and will offer residents up to 260-kilobits-per-second Wi-Fi service. AT&T will also offering a faster service, up to 1 megabit per second, for a fee.

Springfield's city council still has to approve the deal.

The Wi-Fi network will cover about 25 to 30 square miles and will be constructed by deploying transmitters on utility light poles around the city.

San Francisco, New Orleans, and Philadelphia are in the midst of municipal Wi-Fi deployments. All of these networks are being constructed by EarthLink. The ISP has been the most active in the municipal Wi-Fi space to date.

[Rasputin]

Windows Vista Versus XP Pricing

Earlier this week we ran a news story explaining that Amazon.com was taking pre-orders for the consumer versions of Windows Vista.

While the online shopping giant's listings haven't been denied by Microsoft, they haven't been confirmed either, so they should be viewed as far from definitive. Even so, we thought it'd be interesting to have a quick look at how the initial pricing of Vista may compare against the launch pricing of Windows XP (that Microsoft advises remains largely the same today as it was at launch on October 25th, 2001).

Windows XP Home Edition: $200 new, $100 upgrade

Windows Vista Home Basic
Price according to Amazon: $200 new; $100 upgrade
This is the entry-level edition of Vista targeting lower-end machines.

Windows Vista Home Premium
Price according to Amazon: $240 new; $160 upgrade
This version includes the new Windows Aero user interface, integrated OS-wide search, Media Center software, Windows Tablet PC utilities, and integrated DVD authoring.

Windows XP Professional Edition: $300 new, $200 upgrade

Windows Vista Business
Price according to Amazon: $300 new; $200 upgrade
This version is comparable to Windows XP professional. It doesn't include Media Center functionality, but has features like Remote Desktop and fax support.

Microsoft offers Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Media Center Tablet Edition, but those can only be purchased pre-loaded on PCs.

Windows Vista Ultimate
Price according to Amazon: $400 new; $360 upgrade
This edition includes all of Vista's features mentioned above, extra utilities such as Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption and advanced networking capabilities including Group Policy and Remote Desktop.

We've covered the different flavors Vista in greater depth in the past, but you can find more information about each edition from Microsoft itself here.

Which edition of Vista interests you the most?

Comments

At the moment, NONE. MS has priced itself out of my consideration. Why should I pay the ridiculous cost of an upgrade when as fine or finer an OS- ie: OS X goes for $109 RETAIL. And there's no garbage marketing like vista- OS X is COMPLETE.

Only a monopoly could jack consumers around like MS does.

crescentdaveSeptember 01, 200611:03 PM PT

crescentdave: AMEN.

boofaSeptember 02, 20061:49 AM PT

crescentdave:

OS X Tiger (upgrade) = $129
Vista Home Premium (upgrade) = $160

Tiger can only be compared to Vista Home Premium. Besides Vista Home Premium has media center extender and Tablet PC utilities, which Tiger doesn't.

Now, XP was released 6 years back. So you would pay $160 once in 6 years. On the other hand, OS X has more frequent releases. So in the end, OS X is more expensive over a period of time.

Talking of monopoly,

MacWorld = Apple Software + Apple Hardware + no choices.

So apple fanboy, don't even talk about monopolies.

marhathodaSeptember 02, 20062:33 AM PT

"Tiger can only be compared to Vista Home Premium."

That's quite amusing because Tiger has been released and Vista hasn't

"Now, XP was released 6 years back. So you would pay $160 once in 6 years. On the other hand, OS X has more frequent releases. So in the end, OS X is more expensive over a period of time."

Case in point: Apple continuously innovate, Microsoft do not. Apple users don't have to upgrade, we choose to!

Microsoft's *ridiculous* pricing just shows how it is monopolizing the market. (It can over-charge because many people can't see the alternatives) And what's with the 'special' versions that cost more? Its all bull... go out to your nearest Apple Store and GET A MAC!... One OS price (Which Microsoft cannot compete with - especially in the educational market) and you'll get one complete OS that has all the features you could ever desire!

GET VISTA NOW!... The features are already here in Mac OS X! Or you could wait untill spring and get Vista 2.0 (Leopard)

samtherockerSeptember 02, 20063:52 AM PT

"...and you'll get one complete OS that has all the features you could ever desire!"

Except for the ability to play games, which the majority of PC enthusiasts like to do. Sure, I could dual boot Windows XP, but wouldn't that completely undermine the reason for getting a mac in the first place? I mean, why bother if you have to throw XP on it anyway?

Funny how the "Apple experience" isn't complete without Windows XP.

JohnColburneSeptember 02, 20064:15 AM PT

damn!!! i really do not understand why do ppl hate microsoft,,,they up to date has never cause harm to any one in real life(they harm only companies but that is in business competition)and at current google is harming them,,so you people says google is rite,,and all of you support google for that,,but in future when microsoft start to harm google you ppl would start blaming microsoft for not being good enough,,,,you ppl hate OS xp ,,,heck y??what is damn bad in it...i am very sure that most of you who hates OS XP have had used it more then any of the current you ppl r using...is that you ppl hate them because they are perfect or you hate cause being perfect how could thy do mistake,,,i guess you hate them cause they are rich company and so starting to support some another comapniese,,,i dont understand why u do what you like,,,and if dont like microsoft products why do u have to hate thm????strange...i guess if all of you who hates them,,think for a while that why do you hate thm

jaspSeptember 02, 20064:34 AM PT

damn!!! i really do not understand why do ppl hate microsoft,,,they up to date has never cause harm to any one in real life(they harm only companies but that is in business competition)and at current google is harming them,,so you people says google is rite,,and all of you support google for that,,but in future when microsoft start to harm google you ppl would start blaming microsoft for not being good enough,,,,you ppl hate OS xp ,,,heck y??what is damn bad in it...i am very sure that most of you who hates OS XP have had used it more then any of the current you ppl r using...is that you ppl hate them because they are perfect or you hate cause being perfect how could thy do mistake,,,i guess you hate them cause they are rich company and so starting to support some another comapniese,,,i dont understand why u do what you like,,,and if dont like microsoft products why do u have to hate thm????strange...i guess if all of you who hates them,,think for a while that why do you hate thm

[Rasputin]

Airlines Caught Between U.S. and European Union

A failure by the U.S. and the European Union to reach a new agreement next month on the provision of passenger data for transatlantic flights could ground up to 105,000 people each week, the International Air Transport Association's director general said Thursday.

The two sides need to reach a new accord by the end of September, after the European Court of Justice ruled in May that the current agreement is unacceptable. That agreement calls for airlines to provide U.S. authorities with the names, addresses, ticket payment details, and telephone numbers of passengers on U.S.-bound flights. The EU's highest court ruled that there was no "appropriate legal basis" for the deal, and said it would cease to be valid from October.

If a new agreement isn't reached before then, airlines will be forced to decide whether to continue providing the information in violation of European privacy law, withhold the information in violation of U.S. law, or ground flights to avoid breaking any law, said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and CEO of IATA, at a news conference in Tokyo.

"I hope that there will be an agreement because I know that the cooperation between [U.S.] Homeland Security and the European Union is strong and effective," he said.

"I think there is time to find a decision," Bisignani said. "It's not up to me to say which is the best decision. It's up to me to say I look forward to increased cooperation and increased discussion between the two parties because we cannot be in a situation on September 30 when we have to make the decision which law to break."

U.S. Wants Data Usage Rules Relaxed
Bisignani's comments came two days after U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff wrote in The Washington Post that the U.S. needs continued access to the personal information on passengers, and also wants the rules relaxed on how the information can be used.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection receives the information regularly, he wrote, but cannot share it freely with investigators in other Department of Homeland Security divisions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or with the Federal Bureau of Investigation--"never mind with our allies in London."

"This information might yet identify associates of those arrested in the plot in Britain, but the rules blind us in routinely searching for that connection," Chertoff wrote.

The U.S. says the data allows them to identify certain passengers for additional screening when they arrive in the U.S. while reducing the amount of time spent on screening low-risk passengers.