Silent update speeds Firefox 14 uptake
In the seven days since its debut, Firefox 14's share of all Mozilla browsers went from 3% on July 17 to 46% on July 23, according to usage data collected by Irish analytics company StatCounter.
At the end of their first week, version 12 accumulated a 30% share of all Firefox browsers and version 13 accounted for 31%. Read more...
Skype: Nearly half of adults don’t install software updates
A new survey commissioned by Skype reveals that 40 per cent of adults do not always update their software when prompted to do so, and that 25 per cent skip software updates because they think they offer no real benefit.
The survey was offered on Skype's behalf to some 350,000 individuals in the US, UK, and Germany by internet pollster YouGov.
A quarter of the adults surveyed said they did not understand the benefits of software updates or what they were supposed to do.
About the same number said they didn't know how to check for updates, and another quarter said they'd need to be prompted to upgrade their software at least twice before they would do it. Read more...
Cisco apologizes for privacy ‘confusion,’ makes cloud service an opt-in feature
Cisco Systems has taken a step back from its Cisco Connect Cloud service, removing it as the default setting for management of its Linksys EA Series Wi-Fi routers after a firestorm of complaints from customers about automatic firmware updates and the service's terms of service.
The default method for managing the high-end Linksys routers has been changed to traditional setup and management over the local network, Cisco said in a blog entry posted on Thursday. When the company brought Cisco Connect Cloud online last week, it made the Internet-based administration service into the default tool for the routers. Read more...
Where’s IE10 for Windows 7?
While Microsoft has regularly touted the improvements in Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8, the company has said next to nothing about the browser and Windows 7, the operating system that powers 44% of all Windows PCs.
Last year, when Microsoft first introduced Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), it promised that the new browser would run on not only the new Windows 8's desktop mode, but also on 2009's Windows 7.
Even though the company has updated the previews of IE10 for Windows 8 six times, most recently May 31 when it shipped Windows 8 Release Preview, it stopped serving sneak peeks for Windows 7 more than a year ago.
The last preview capable of running on Windows 7 was issued June 29, 2011. Read more...
Don’t buy a new MacBook Pro right now, slimmer 15″ notebook on deck
Apple is a company that launches products like clockwork, so it's safe to assume we aren't exactly reading the rumor-steeped tea leaves when it comes to its regular hardware updates. According to reliable Apple blog AppleInsider, some major authorized resellers have found themselves suddenly shorthanded when it comes to stock of Apple's mid-sized high-end laptop, the 15" MacBook Pro. When Apple stops shipping a given product, it's the telltale sign of a refresh just around the corner. Read more...
Mozilla nixes Firefox 11 delay, will launch upgrade today
Mozilla on Monday announced it was postponing the release of Firefox 11, but changed its mind today, saying that the browser upgrade would go out on schedule.
Yesterday, Johnathan Nightingale, senior director of Firefox engineering, said Mozilla was delaying Firefox 11's launch to examine a bug unveiled at last week's Pwn2Own hacking contest and to give developers time to scrutinize Microsoft's security updates, set to release today at approximately 1 p.m. ET.
On the last day of Pwn2Own, a two-man team -- Vincenzo Iozzo and Willem Pinckaers -- exploited a Firefox vulnerability to take the contest's $30,000 second-place prize. Read more...
FBI seeks Big Brother-’Minority Report’ hybrid
Recognizing just how powerful a tool social-networking sites have become in orchestrating protests, rallies, and riots in the United States and beyond, the FBI is in the early stages of designing a complex system for monitoring tweets, Facebook status updates, Google+ posts, and the like in real time, all in the name of identifying and heading off potential security threats.
The FBI wouldn't be the first organization to sift through troves of public social networking data for discovering and predicting trends, such as health outbreaks or box-office sales. However, privacy advocates may well be concerned by the prospect of the government building a system that's one part Big Brother from "1984" and one part PreCrime Unit from "Minority Report" -- especially if the FBI (or any other organization, really) were to combine the public social media data with user data it could acquire in any numbers of ways through other channels. Read more...
Microsoft slates 22 patches for Windows, IE next week
Microsoft today said it will ship 13 security updates next week to patch 22 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, Windows, Visio and Visual Studio.
Next Tuesday's patch lineup is larger than July's on the update count, but matches that month's vulnerability total. That's unusual, since the company usually delivers a heavier load in even-numbered months.
"Twenty-two [vulnerabilities] is not a big month, it's more in the medium range, what with the larger numbers we've seen so far in 2011," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. Read more...
16 must-see downloads you may have missed this week
Sadly we can't feature every new and updated application, but that doesn't mean that some of the apps we haven't covered aren't worth rounding up. There are a number of interesting applications that are worth some investigation and we've rounded up some of them put live during the last week.
doPDF 7.2.363 is a powerful free tool you can use to produce a PDF from just about any Windows application. Instead of sending it to your printer, simply print to the doPDF device. Creating a PDF is the ideal way of distributing a document for download, by email or for commercial printing. Just about any printer will take a PDF as your master. Read more...
Analysts split on iPhone over-the-air-update buzz
Apple won't let iPhone users update the smartphone's iOS over the air because it wants people regularly returning to iTunes, an analyst said today.
But another countered that Apple will be forced into making the move to over-the-air updates.
Earlier this week, Apple blog 9to5Mac cited several unnamed sources who said that with iOS 5 -- the operating system slated for launch alongside the next-generation iPhone -- Apple will let some customers grab OS updates over carriers' data networks. Read more...
Apple’s iMac, MacBook Pro lines are SSD friendly
Apple's new iMac line-up, unveiled earlier this week, includes technology that better marries the popular all-in-one desktops to the speedy NAND flash storage that Apple is using in more and more of its computers.
The updated all-in-ones, which sport Intel's latest Core-series processors, are based on Intel's Z68 chipset for Sandy Bridge. That chipset allows the iMac to use a speedy solid-state drive (SSD) as a boot and application drive in tandem with a traditional hard disk drive, which is used for mass storage of files and data.
Once available only on the highest-end 27-in. model, the built-to-order SSD option is now available for all but the cheapest iMacs, including a 21.5-in. version that starts at $1,499. Instead of getting a single hard disk drive, you can order a 256GB SSD and either a 1TB or 2TB hard disk, for an extra $600 or $750, respectively. Read more...
Microsoft Admits to More Windows Phone Update Problems
Yet another problem has cropped up preventing some Windows Phone 7 users from getting two software updates, adding a new chapter to the update saga that started in February.
Microsoft acknowledged that some Samsung Focus owners in the U.S. haven't yet received notification that the updates are available for them. "They're looking into the situation, but I'm afraid there's not much to report yet," wrote Michael Stroh, a Microsoft employee who is answering questions posted to the comments section on the Windows Phone blog. Read more...
Adobe Updates Acrobat, Reader to Guard against Flash Zero-Day
Adobe is once again releasing software updates to address a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash. Adobe already unleashed an updated version of Adobe Flash itself, but today it is also releasing updated versions of Acrobat and Reader which both rely on a vulnerable component of Flash.
The updates arrived sooner than expected, perhaps in response to new exploits in the wild. The Adobe security advisory explains, "There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against both Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Reader and Acrobat, as well as via a Flash (.swf) file embedded in a Microsoft Word (.doc) or Microsoft Excel (.xls) file delivered as an email attachment targeting the Windows platform." Read more...
After Delays, Windows Phones Get Update
Microsoft on Tuesday started rolling out software updates to users of the Samsung Focus and LG Quantum, following more than a month of delays.
Microsoft and AT&T are still testing updates for the HTC Surround, the last phone model that still needs the updates.
Focus and Quantum users will get a message indicating that the updates are ready. They can then download the February update, which was designed to make the process easier, as well as the so-called NoDo update, which includes the capability to cut and paste. Read more...
Apple vs. Microsoft: A tale of two mobile updates
It's remarkable how much you can learn about a company from something as seemingly simple as a point update to its mobile platform. Two perfect examples: the latest updates to Apple iOS and Windows Phone 7.
On the one hand, you have Apple, which quietly rolled out iOS 4.3 with the precision of a Swiss watch. The update came a day earlier than expected, in fact. Clearly, Apple has its mobile act together. It has its partners in lockstep. And it has seemingly maintained its typical shroud of silence and censorship to perpetuate illusion of perfection. Read more...