Verizon Wireless cuts international data charges
Verizon Wireless announced that its data prices Monday will drop dramatically -- to $25 for 100MB -- for U.S.-based customers traveling abroad.
Currently, Verizon's monthly charges for U.S. based users traveling to any of 130 countries $30 for 50MB, $75 for 150MB or $125 for 300MB.
The new pricing plan does eliminate the 50MB tier, but customers can now get 100MB of data for for 33% of the existing cost of the former low-end 50MB offering. Read more...
Microsoft goes global with System Center 2012 at MMC
Microsoft announced the global release of System Center 2012 at its 10th annual Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas this morning, and has confirmed that the server version of Windows 8 will be released as Windows Server 2012.
As with the beta, the new System Center 2012 is now available globally in standard and data center editions.
Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of the Management and Security Division, used his keynote to extoll new automation and provisioning features. Pricing structures have also been simplified down to two, he said, adding Microsoft wouldn't "tax" increases in virtualization like others in the industry. Read more...
The hidden danger of Windows 8 Microsoft Accounts
If you've been using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, no doubt you've toyed with the idea of using a "Microsoft Account" log-in -- most commonly a Hotmail or Windows Live email address. But have you stopped to consider what happens if your Hotmail account gets hijacked?
I'm not concerned about computers connected to the domain. I'm worried about the mobile folks, the ones who work off the grid. They face an interesting challenge in Windows 8.
Windows 8 stacks the deck, trying to convince people to log on with an email address. Microsoft has rebranded many old accounts -- Windows Live ID, Hotmail ID, Zune, and Xbox Live IDs
-- into a shiny new "Microsoft Account." Read more...
Google warns the operators of thousands of hacked web sites
The head of Google's Webspam team, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter that Google has sent out a message to the webmasters of 20,000 sites informing them that their sites may have been hacked. In the email message, the company warns operators that the affected sites appear to be being used to redirect visitors to a malicious site. Read more...
15-year-old hacks 259 websites in just 3 months
If you’re looking for a gauge as to how good or bad web security is at the moment, look no further than the case of a 15-year-old from Austria who, over the course of 3 months, managed to hack 259 company websites and databases.
The young man (boy?) was anti-social and turned to the Internet for “praise and affirmation.” He found a hacking community that rewarded successful attacks, downloaded the tools he needed, and set about bypassing the security of different websites. Read more...
Website predicts your next tweet … kinda
There's a website that claims to predict your future tweets based on past ones. Unfortunately, it doesn't always produce the most coherent results. What it does consistently do is spit out hilarious combinations of your favorite phrases and words. Read more...
Google CEO Page returns to stand in Oracle trial
Google CEO Larry Page returned to the witness stand Wednesday in Oracle's patent and copyright case against the Internet search leader over its popular Android operating system for phones and tablet computers.
Page sported a suit and a tie, a departure from his usual casual attire. The Oracle lawyer questioning him was David Boies, who had gone after Bill Gates in the federal government's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. Read more...
Chinese PC Market Will Grow 12% In 2012
If you were wondering where all the PC growth was, look East, young person. IHS, formerly iSuppli, expects that desktop sales will rise 8% and Ultrabook sales will take up 15 to 20 percent of notebook shipments. Windows 8 and Intel’s Ivy Bridge are to be driving factors in PC growth this year.
In comparison, IDC found that 2011 PC shipments shrank in Europe and the United States by 9%. Read more...
Mozilla blocks Java in Firefox for some Mac users
Mozilla this week began blocking outdated versions of a Java plug-in in Firefox for some Mac users after calling the threat posed by the Flashback malware "evident and imminent."
The move came two weeks after Mozilla disabled unpatched versions of Oracle's software on Firefox for Windows.
Although Mozilla said on April 2 that it might add the Java plug-in to Firefox for Mac's blocklist -- a list it maintains of add-ons and plug-ins that the company disables because they're infected with malware or have been targeted by attackers -- it didn't follow through until Monday. Read more...