Microsoft to help C++ developers leverage parallel programming
Microsoft introduced this week technology for C++ developers to leverage GPUs (graphics processing units) for parallel programming.
The company's C++ AMP (C++ Accelerated Massive Parallelism) technology is expected to become part of the next Visual C++ compiler and integrated with Visual Studio, said S. Somasegar, senior president of the Microsoft Developer Division, in a blog post. It also will leverage Microsoft DirectX technology for multimedia capabilities in Windows. "By building on the Windows DirectX platform, our implementation of C++ AMP allows you to target hardware from all the major hardware vendors," Somasegar said. C++ AMP will become an open specification, Somasegar said. Read more...
Spam rates hit five-year low, but phishing is on the rise
Thanks to successful botnet shutdowns, the amount of spam oozing through the Internet has dropped considerably over the past year, driving the overall percentage of unwanted email messages to depths unseen since 2006. Phishing, however, is on the rise, according to Symantec's June 2011 "State of Spam & Phishing Report" (PDF).
Spam rates dropped 10 percent from April to May of this year. Between May 2010 and May 2011, spam rates plummeted 70.65 percent, according to Symantec. Those percentages appear a bit less impressive, however, when you consider that spam still made up 72.14 percent of all email messages in the month of May. Still, compared to spam rates of more than 90 percent witnessed repeatedly over the past three years, it's a heartening trend.
Less heartening, however: The overall phishing landscape increased by 6.67 percent between April and May, according to Symantec. Phishing websites built with automated toolkits jumped 24.82 percents, and the number of non-English phishing sites surged 17.73 percent, with Portuguese, French, Italian, and Spanish among the popular languages. Read more...
Update: RIM says Q2 forecast is lower than expected
Research In Motion missed analysts' lowered revenue forecasts for its fiscal first quarter and said its outlook for the second quarter was lower than expected, as it reported its first-quarter results Thursday.
RIM also revealed that the 4G version of its PlayBook tablet has apparently been delayed. On a conference call with press and analysts, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said PlayBooks with LTE (Long-Term Evolution), WiMax and HPSA+ (High-Speed Packet Access) would come out this fall. In the past, RIM has forecast those products for summer.
Revenue for the first quarter, which ended May 28, was $4.9 billion, below the consensus forecast of $5.1 billion from analysts polled by Thomson Financial. The analysts' forecasts reflected a cut in RIM's own forecast, which was announced in late April. Read more...
Obama’s CIO quits
The first person ever appointed as the CIO of the federal government, Vivek Kundra, is resigning after two and a half years on the job, the White House said Thursday.
There was no hint in the announcement made by Jack Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget, that Kundra's exit was prompted by a shift in the White House's view on IT.
Lew, who praised the CIO's work, said Kundra was leaving to take a fellowship at Harvard. Read more...
Does Apple Want to Stop You From Using iPhone Cameras at Concerts?
Many concerts ban attendees from taking photos or video footage. But increasingly sophisticated smartphones make it difficult for event security to enforce those rules. Apple, however, is reportedly developing software that would shut off your camera at concerts.
Patently Apple has uncovered a patent published on June 2 that would use infrared receivers to cripple your phone's camera when it's opened at live shows. The idea includes an image-processing system that would "determine whether each image detected by the camera includes and infrared signal with encoded data." Although the camera would be inactive, other apps on the phone would function normally. Read more...
Senate bill would add protections for mobile users’ location data
Sen. Al Franken isn’t happy about the prospect of mobile operating system developers like Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Research In Motion (RIMM) gathering users’ location data and sharing it without their permission.
The Minnesota democrat introduced the bill along with Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Wednesday, which would require mobile companies like Google and Apple and app developers to ask users for their explicit permission before sharing location data gathered by mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, with any third parties. Read more...
Exclusive: China software bug makes infrastructure vulnerable
Software widely used in China to help run weapons systems, utilities and chemical plants has bugs that hackers could exploit to damage public infrastructure, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The department issued an advisory on Thursday warning of vulnerabilities in software applications from Beijing-based Sunway ForceControl Technology Co that hackers could exploit to launch attacks on critical infrastructure.
Sunway's products, widely used in China, are also deployed to a lesser extent in other countries including the United States, DHS's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team said in its advisory. Read more...