China set to surpass U.S. in PC purchases
When it comes to IT, China likes to build big, whether it's the world's largest supercomputer or city-size complexes dedicated to cloud computing. Now, China is near to adding something else to its list of big tech things: the world's largest market for PCs.
China is set to surpass the U.S. in PC shipments either this year or the next, according to market estimates by analysts.
When that PC market line is crossed, it will be one more benchmark illustrating the increasing spending power of China's 1.3 billion people. But China's growing PC market will also matter to U.S. companies, particularly Microsoft.
More than 95% of Chinese PCs today run Windows, and well over 80% of enterprises PCs are using Microsoft Office, Stuart McKee, the national technology officer in Microsoft's public sector, told a special U.S. House hearing Monday by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on high-tech growth policies. Read more...
Verizon: Advanced persistent threat is overblown
When Google admitted last year that it had been targeted by sophisticated hackers, possibly from China, it introduced a new term into the high technology lexicon -- the advanced persistent threat. These attacks are sophisticated, targeted, and almost impossible to stop. But according to Verizon, they're also a lot less common than most people think.
In fact, nowadays it's easier for some companies to say they were the victims of an advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks than to admit that their security systems failed, said Bryan Sartin, Verizon's director of investigative response. "It's out there," he said of the APT. "It's just so extremely overhyped."
Sartin, whose team gets called in to find the cause of data breaches, says that he's seen a tendency to label any hacking incident an APT attack play out several times since Google went public with the issue in January last year. Usually it happens about a month or two after his team finishes its analysis. "I get a link sent to me from one of my investigators saying, 'You're not going to believe this.' I open the link and get a statement from the company blaming advanced persistent threat." Read more...
In reversal, Yahoo will store user search data longer
In a move that is unlikely to win it any new friends in the privacy community, Yahoo has announced that it will retain consumer search data for a substantially longer period of time than it does today.
Starting sometime in mid-July, Yahoo will hold raw search log file data, including IP addresses, cookies and search-related information, for up to 18 months. It currently retains such data for 90 days.
Yahoo's chief trust officer, Anne Toth, said in a blog post that the change, announced on Friday, was designed to give consumers a more robust and personalized search experience while also bringing Yahoo into closer alignment with industry-wide data retention norms.
"We will hold raw search log files for 18 months and we will be closely examining what the right policy and time frame should be for other log file data," Toth wrote. "In announcing this change, we have gone back to the drawing board to ensure that our policies will support the innovative products we want to deliver for our consumers." Read more...
Apple vs. Microsoft by the numbers
A little less than a year ago, Wall Street reached a Microsoft vs. Apple milestone: for the first time, Apple's corporate value surpassed Microsoft's.
And Apple's market cap (the total value of all of its shares) topped Microsoft's even though the latter company had more revenue and double the profit margins. Clearly, Wall Street was looking at growth potential, not current income statements and balance sheets, in anointing Apple the more compelling buy.
What has happened since? With Apple due to report its latest quarterly earnings tomorrow -- Microsoft reports its numbers next week -- we look at some recent numbers, as well as data over time. Read more...
Nero Releases Free Kwik Media Organizer App
Nero Software, maker of popular disc-burning utilities and media suites, has launched a free downloadable app, Kwik Media, intended to give consumers control over digital media.
The software let users do things like listen to iPod playlists on Android phones or other devices; organize, share, and touch up digital photos; and upload content to sites like Facebook and YouTube. It also includes its own app store and can play music and video as well as burn discs from that media. Read more...
Adobe Platform Will Stream Videos To Apple’s iPad
Adobe Systems' Flash Media Server platform is poised to embrace new HTML5 capabilities that will enable content publishers to stream protected video to more mobile devices, including Apple's iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. To make this happen, Adobe will add support for HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) -- a technology developed by Apple as part of the company's QuickTime X and iOS software.
Demonstrated last week at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas, Adobe's HLS-enabled Flash Media Server (FMS) promises to deliver a compatible MPEG2 transport stream to mobile devices lacking Adobe Flash support, which is welcome news, observed Al Hilwa, director of applications program development at IDC. Read more...