Conficker time bomb ticks, but don’t expect fireworks | Security – CNET News

There’s been lots of hype about the fact that the latest variant of the Conficker worm is set to start communicating with other computers on the Internet on April 1–like an April Fool’s Day time bomb with some mysterious payload.

But security researchers say the reality is probably going to be more like what happened when the clocks on the world’s computers turned to January 1, 2000, if that.

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to see some large cyber event on April 1,” Dean Turner, director of the global intelligence network at Symantec Security Response, said on Wednesday.

It’s likely that the people behind Conficker are interested in using the botnet, which is comprised of all the infected computers, to make money by distributing spam or other malware, experts speculate. To do so, they would need the computers and networks to stay in operation.

“Most of these criminals, even though they haven’t done something with this botnet yet, are profit-driven,” said Paul Ferguson, an advanced-threats researcher for Trend Micro. “They don’t want to bring down the infrastructure. That would not allow them to continue carrying out their scams.”

via Conficker time bomb ticks, but don’t expect fireworks | Security – CNET News.

IE8 Users Downgrade To Explorer 7 — InformationWeek

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 appears to be losing market share, even though the browser has been on the market for less than a week.

As of 8:00 am Monday, IE8 — released Thursday — held 1.86% of the browser market, down from a high of 2.59% on Sunday, according to market watcher Net Applications. The most likely reason for the decline is that early adopters of IE8 are switching back to the more familiar, and –at this point — reliable Explorer 7 browser.

Explorer 8 includes a number of new tools, like a feature called Web Slices that lets users grab dynamic content such as stock quotes or auction results from third-party sites, that, while potentially useful, may take some time getting used to.Additionally, Explorer 8 uses default support for some new Web publishing standards that aren’t supported by a number of major Web publishers. As a result, some IE8 users have reported problems viewing some sites. “After downloading IE8 I cannot print any card from American Greetings. The message I get is, ‘An error occurred during the operation,’” a user named Bob complained last week on Microsoft’s IE8 forum.

Some IE8 adopters reported that even pages built with Microsoft’s own Web publishing software, Microsoft Publisher, failed to render properly in the new browser. “I created my company’s Web site using the MS Publisher 2007 template. After upgrading IE7 to IE8 my menu tabs and many important images no longer show,” wrote a user named Phil Wheeler.

The news wasn’t all bad for Microsoft, as some IE8 users said they were more than happy with the product.

Microsoft needs Explorer 8 to be a hit, as the company’s Internet Explorer franchise has been losing ground to competitors. Explorer’s overall share of the market has fallen from 75% to 67% in just the past 12 months, according to Net Applications, while competitors such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox have gained ground.

via IE8 Users Downgrade To Explorer 7 — InformationWeek By Paul McDougal.

Twitter tweaks page titles, breaks out on Google | Webware – CNET

Twitter has changed its HTML title tags on user profile pages to make the site more search engine friendly. Instead of displaying its previous title of Twitter/”username,” the site’s new title displays the person’s name, followed by his or her Twitter user name in parentheses and “on Twitter” after that.

The decision to change title tags is already working out to Twitter’s advantage. I performed a vanity search on Google to see where my Twitter profile ranked in results for “Don Reisinger.” For the first time, it was on the first results page. CNET News and Webware editor Rafe Needleman’s Twitter profile is also displayed in the first Google results page when you search for his name.

I tested the new pages with random followers on Twitter to see if their profiles were on the first page of Google results. They were. In fact, I couldn’t find one Twitter user who didn’t have his or her profile in the first page of Google results. Even Britney Spears’ and Barack Obama’s profiles were displayed on the first page of their results.

Twitter hasn’t commented on the new title tags, nor has it released any traffic data showing the impact of having Twitter profiles in the first page of Google results, but search pages are coveted territory, especially on celebrity queries. They can drive heavy traffic into a site. It wouldn’t surprise me if Twitter is witnessing a spike in traffic because of this.

via Twitter tweaks page titles, breaks out on Google | Webware – CNET.

Facebook changes coming in response to user complaints | Digital Media – CNET News

Facebook users haven’t exactly been reticent about their dislike for Facebook’s recent redesign. And Facebook staff want you to know they’re listening.

Facebook has been deluged with feedback on its new layout, much of it negative but constructive, according to a blog posted Tuesday by Product Director Christopher Cox. Hundreds of thousands of people gave the redesign a thumbs-down in a user poll. And groups like “MEMBERS WANT THE OLD FACEBOOK BACK!” have formed to voice their discontent.

While the social network isn’t reverting back to the old page design, they are making a handful of changes to appease some of the outraged masses, according to Cox, who has also worked as director of human resources and software engineer at the company.

Some of the changes already in the works include:

* Live updating: Users will have the ability to turn on auto updating so they don’t have to refresh the page to see what’s new.

* Photo tags: Facebook will add photos tagged with a person’s friends to her stream.

* Applications: Users will have the ability to cut down on the application-related content that’s showing up in streams.

* Highlights: This section in the right-hand column will update more frequently and show more content so it’ll be more like the old News Feed.

* Requests: Friend requests and event invites will be moved to the top of the right-hand column so they’re more prominent.

* Friends lists: Users will be able to create a new list of friends with which to filter their streams.

via Facebook changes coming in response to user complaints | Digital Media – CNET News.

OnLive could threaten Xbox, PS3, and Wii | Gaming and Culture – CNET News

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, look out. Your traditional video game console business model may be in danger.

It’s too early to tell how much danger, of course, but a start-up called OnLive announced a brand-new game distribution system Monday night that, if it works as planned, could change the games game forever.

OnLive, which was started by WebTV founder Steve Perlman and former Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey, is aiming to launch a system–seven years in the works–that will digitally distribute first-run, AAA games from publishers like Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Atari, and others, all at the same time as those titles are released into retail channels. The system is designed to allow players to stream on-demand games at the highest quality onto any Intel-based Mac or PC running XP or Vista, regardless of how powerful the computer.

The system will also stream games directly to a TV via a small plug-in device, and players can use a custom wireless controller as well as VoIP headsets in conjunction with it.

via OnLive could threaten Xbox, PS3, and Wii | Gaming and Culture – CNET News.

Samsung’s NC310 netbook with claimed 11-hour battery

Oh look, a “new” netbook. New on the outside anyway. Within, Samsung’s NC310 offers the typical 1GB of memory, 10.1-inch LCD, 160GB disk, 5-hour battery, 802.11b/g WiFi, 1.3-megapixel camera, HSDPA data, and WiBRO (mobile WiMAX) too if you live in SoKo. A claimed 11-hour enhanced battery is certainly intriguing and perhaps Sammy’s got a surprise or two in store with the unannounced processor, graphics, and price when the NC310 goes global “pretty soon,” according to Akihabara News. Available in teal and mauve because country kitchens motifs never go out of style.

via Samsung’s NC310 netbook with claimed 11-hour battery.

Sanwa’s throat mic for city-bred sissies

Throat mics have been around for decades. However, unless you’re manning a tank or involved in black ops, you’ve likely never seen such a set beyond the reach of a typical paintball turret. Sanwa’s throat mic (pictured) is an urban take to the otherwise, combat-inspired gear design you’ll find at retail. Unfortunately, we can’t find any additional detail beyond the images. We can, however, drop in a hardcore video of the $50-ish US Special Forces Throat Mic (as it’s called) from Real Action Paintball. This rugged mic with voice-box positioned transducer is compatible with VOX-capable radios and features four styles of discrete listening devices (special forces, secret service, SWAT, and Socom) and a remote push-to-talk (PTT) switch that can be strapped to the index finger supporting your sniper rifle. Fake-war is so much fun.

via Video: Sanwa’s throat mic for city-bred sissies.

Please Stand By

Dare Obasanjo writes about Facebook’s news feed redesign and

decides it is a big mistake. He’s backed by some 94% of users responding to a Facebook application poll, and cites internal gossip that Mark Zuckerberg thinks user feedback is irrelevant. I think Dare is premature in this assessment.

First of all, Facebook is not copying Twitter; it’s copying FriendFeed, who originally copied Twitter. Where Obasanjo describes two different models – phone book and micromessaging – there already are three, including personalized aggregation or what I will call the micro-portal. Facebook already had part of the last functionality, so its opening of the micromessaging stream consolidates all three legs of the tripod.

In doing so, Facebook is counting on the same relative inertia that Twitter has so carefully cultivated. The calculation is that 175 million people are less likely to move away from something than they are to wait and see what is going to happen. Twitter decided they could stonewall third parties once a critical mass was reached, parrying attempts to build competitive subservices by slowing down API access. Today’s Twitter to FriendFeed delay: a reported 40 minutes.

via Please Stand By by Steve Gillmor

Watching Video on Windows Mobile and Nokia S60 Phones

Our goal is to provide you with a great YouTube experience wherever you want to watch videos — whether it’s on your computer, on your television, or on your mobile phone. While YouTube has been available for many mobile phones for over a year, today we’re taking a big step forward with a new version of our mobile YouTube application. It’s optimized for most Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 devices (a list of supported Nokia S60 devices is available here). In addition to providing YouTube on more phones than ever before, it’s also much faster — up to 90% faster starting up, searching, and video loading — and gives you better video quality that’s automatically optimized to your WiFi or 3G network.

To download the app, visit http://m.youtube.com from your device. More cool features and app improvements are on the way, and the app will alert you as updates become available and allow you to upgrade with a single click.

via YouTube Blog.

ASUS CEO: Fold / Unfold laptop will cost between $1,000 and $1,500

We had already heard that ASUS’ Fold / Unfold laptop concept — which we originally spotted at CES in January — would be shipping later this year, but that little fact just got a lot more official. In an interview with TechRadar, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen confessed that this very machine would be shipping in the September to October time frame, and that the end-user price would be “somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500.” Just make sure we’re not stuck with integrated graphics and we’ll be pleased as punch, okay Jerry?

via Engadget.