Behind Microsoft’s ‘Apple tax’ gambit

Microsoft (MSFT) raised the stakes in its anti-Apple (AAPL) PR offensive Thursday by issuing a 10-page “white paper” that puts a price tag on what it calls the “Apple tax” — the premium paid by consumers who choose Apple computers over those that run Microsoft Windows. It’s a theme that was first raised last month by CEO Steve Ballmer, who told a Business Week-sponsored forum last month that Mac customers were paying an extra $500 to get the Apple logo on what is essentially the same hardware. And it has been repeated with slightly more subtlety every week since in a series of 60-second TV mini-dramas in which ordinary price-conscious Americans choose PCs over Macs. (The third is pasted below the fold; for more on the first two, see here and here.) But the white paper, written by Endpoint Technologies Associates‘ Roger L. Kay and entitled “What Price Cool,” goes a few steps further. Not only does it slap a considerably higher tax on that Apple logo — $3,367 for two computers over five years — but it turns up the rhetorical temperature to something approaching the boiling point. The white paper is available here as a pdf file and summarized as a faux U.S. tax form by Brian LeBlanc at Microsoft’s official Windows Blog. “What Price Cool” is a curious document. “White paper” is a term of art in business and politics for an authoritative report that lays out facts clearly and concisely to help readers make informed decisions. But no one would mistake Roger Kay’s white paper for objective statement of the facts. It’s a tendentious piece of work, dripping with sarcasm. Take, for example, this paragraph from the section that briefly summarizes the history of personal computers: “All during this time, even in the darkest of ages, when Apple hung onto a 2% share with its fingernails, the Mac community held vigil. Their inner belief was sheltered against the cold wind of market sentiment by secret thoughts that they were, well, better. Fewer crashes, less clutter, and, as time wore on, fewer viruses. But it was more than that, the Mac was just more elegantly done, nay, cooler.” Kay seems obsessed with what he perceives as Apple’s “cool,” a word he uses in various forms 25 times — an average of 2.5 times a page — culminating in his conclusion: “Macs are pretty cool, Jack thinks, but at a $3,367 premium over five years? Now, that’s not cool!” It’s an odd approach, especially given the fact that the Apple premium is quite real. Macs do indeed carry higher sticker prices than PCs with comparable specs. You would think that for an industry watcher with Kay’s experience, making side-by-side comparisons would be relatively easy. But as several of Apple’s defenders have pointed out, Kay seems unable to keep his fingers off the scale. Technologizer’s Harry McCracken, who worked with Kay at IDG and describes him as a “friendly acquaintance,” says that Kay’s spreadsheets are riddled with errors, comparing old versions of Apple computers to current versions of Windows PCs. (McCracken has done his own cost comparisons and come to very different conclusions.) Similarly, Ina Fried at CNet found several instances where Kay added in the cost of software on the Mac side — for example, $70 and $149 for Quicken and Office, respectively — but not on the PC. In his defense, Kay says that he took great pains to make sure his charts were correct. Some of the errors, he says, were due to changes Apple made in its specs after he wrote his piece; others to Microsoft’s in-house production team grabbing the wrong versions of his charts. “I don’t think the main theme is destroyed by what is essentially a production error,” he says. “But this is the methodology of the Mac brownshirts. They find a discrepancy and use it to invalidate the entire thesis.” Kay stands by his piece, and his rhetoric — in particular the games he plays with the word “cool” — although he admits that he would not have called it a white paper. “White papers are boring. You have to have pity for the poor reader.” “I actually believe most of this stuff,” he says. Although he adds that Microsoft did call for changes in his text — particularly in those place where he praised Apple. For example, he wrote in his original draft that Windows “copied” Apple’s graphical user interface. That raised legal red flags for Microsoft’s lawyers. In the final version, the word was changed to “followed.” Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by any of this. After all, Microsoft paid Kay to write this paper and it’s unlikely to have released anything it disagreed with. Kay, for his part, is hardly a disinterested observer. He’s been consulting for Microsoft since 2006, offering among other services, according to his webpage, “message tuning, spin management, press release support [and] high quality writing.” In the past he has written, in reference the Mac’s apparent immunity from computer viruses, that “those living in shiny houses of self-righteous glass often end up surrounded by shards of their former sanctimony” — predicting (incorrectly so far) that Macs and iPhones would soon be infected. And he is often quoted by the press as an independent Apple expert, as when he said this to Wired about Steve Jobs: “I think he has cancer. They talk about digestive this and digestive that, but … forget all the buzz you’re hearing. Just look at the photos.” Kay's notebookYou can read more of Kay’s previous work here and here. For me, one the most revealing pieces is his paean in Business Week to his 10-year-old Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) Jornada notebook, which he dusts off every year to take notes at the Consumer Electronics Show in Los Vegas. “Every time I open this device,” he writes, “I of course have to endure the mockery of my peers.” Now that’s not cool.

Conficker wakes up, updates via P2P, drops payload

The Conficker worm is finally doing something--updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday. Researchers were analyzing the code of the software that is being dropped onto infected computers but suspect that it is a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data off the machine, said David Perry, global director of security education at Trend Micro. The software appeared to be a .sys component hiding behind a rootkit, which is software that is designed to hide the fact that a computer has been compromised, according to Trend Micro. The software is heavily encrypted, which makes code analysis difficult, the researchers said. The worm also tries to connect to MySpace.com, MSN.com, eBay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com as a way to test that the computer has Internet connectivity, deletes all traces of itself in the host machine, and is set to shut down on May 3, according to the TrendLabs Malware Blog. Because infected computers are receiving the new component in a staggered manner rather than all at once there should be no disruption to the Web sites the computers visit, said Paul Ferguson, advanced threats researcher for Trend Micro. "After May 3, it shuts down and won't do any replication," Perry said. However, infected computers could still be remotely controlled to do something else, he added. Last night Trend Micro researchers noticed a new file in the Windows Temp folder and a huge encrypted TCP response from a known Conficker P2P IP node hosted in Korea. "As expected, the P2P communications of the Downad/Conficker botnet may have just been used to serve an update, and not via HTTP," the blog post says. "The Conficker/Downad P2P communications is now running in full swing!" In addition to adding the new propagation functionality, Conficker communicates with servers that are associated with the Waledac family of malware and its Storm botnet, according to a separate blog post by Trend Micro security researcher Rik Ferguson. The worm tries to access a known Waledac domain and download another encrypted file, the researchers said. Conficker.C failed to make a splash a week ago despite the fact that it was programmed to activate on April 1. It has infected between 3 million and 12 million computers, according to Perry. Initially, researchers thought they were seeing a new variant of the Conficker worm, but now they believe it is merely a new component of the worm. The worm spreads via a hole in Windows that Microsoft patched in October, as well as through removable storage devices and network shares with weak passwords. The worm disabled security software and blocks access to security Web sites. To check if your computer is infected you can use this Conficker Eye Chart or this site at the University of Bonn.

Windows 7 beta upgrade won't be easy

Those who want to move from the beta version of Windows 7 to the upcoming "release candidate" version will be able to do so, but it is going to take some work. In a blog posting on Tuesday, Microsoft said that it is offering two options for going from the beta to the newer test version, which is due shortly. Neither is all that easy. The recommended approach, Microsoft said, is to go back to Windows Vista and upgrade from that. Microsoft asked testers to follow this approach as it will help the company get more feedback on the experience that the typical user will have in going from Vista to Windows 7. Those who really want to upgrade directly from the beta to the release candidate will be able to do so, but only using a series of convoluted steps. "We know many people (including tens of thousands at Microsoft) are relying on the pre-release builds of Windows 7 for mission critical and daily work, making this step less than convenient," the company acknowledged in its blog. "We're working hard to provide the highest quality release we can and so we'd like to make sure for this final phase of testing we're supporting the most real world scenarios possible, which incremental build to build upgrades are not. At the same time everyone on the beta has been so great we wanted to make sure we at least offered an opportunity to make your own expert and informed choice about how to handle the upgrade." The company also cautioned that the same hassles will apply for those moving from the release candidate to the final version of Windows 7.

Yahoo & Microsoft Said to Be Weighing Ad Pact

Yahoo and Microsoft, which held a marathon series of fruitless merger and partnership negotiations last year, have restarted discussions, this time over a possible advertising agreement, a person briefed on those discussions said Friday. Skip to next paragraph Related Times Topics: Microsoft Corporation | Yahoo! Inc. Conversations between the two sides have been scant since Carol Bartz was named Yahoo’s chief executive in January. But they have started anew recently, and Ms. Bartz met with Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, last week, said the person briefed on the discussions, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential. Yahoo and Microsoft declined to comment. The discussions are in early stages and may not lead to any agreement, the person said. They have centered on ways for the companies to pool their advertising efforts, including a possible partnership under which Microsoft would sell search ads for Yahoo, and Yahoo, in turn, would sell display ads on Microsoft properties, this person said. After merger and partnership talks collapsed last year, Microsoft continued to make sizable investments in its search business to better compete with Google. Those investments included the hiring of a string of top search executives and engineers, some of whom had previously worked at Yahoo, including Qi Lu, a well-regarded technologist who is now in charge of Microsoft’s overall online business, including search. Microsoft is expected to release the results of its latest research and development efforts in search technology this summer when it plans to introduce a major overhaul of its search engine. Microsoft executives are bullish about the capabilities of the new service. But they readily admit that it does not address one of the principal challenges the company faces in competing with Google: Microsoft’s audience and its base of advertisers are tiny compared with Google’s. That makes Microsoft’s search business, in which advertisers bid against one another in an auction, less lucrative than Google’s. A partnership that would pool Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s users or advertisers could go a long way toward addressing that problem, and could help create a more powerful No. 2 competitor to Google in search.

Mobile Phone Tracking

Pernah terpikir untuk mencari posisi atau melacak seseorang melelui NO Mobile / HP?? Andai suatu saat anda ingin mencari tau posisi kerabat / pasangan anda..tapi anda ingin orang yang ingin anda cari tidak tau klo anda sedang mengintainya...Atau mengintai pasangan anda yang sedang selingkuh.. Dengan teknologi makin maju..Sekarang itu bisa dilakukan.. Dengan memanfaatkan teknologi INTERNET dan Satelite GPS ( Global Positioning System ).. Caranya mudah..tinggal koneksi keInternet... Klik alamat ini ... http://www.themobiletracker.com/english/index.html Kemudian pilih negara dari posisi yang anda carii...Misal Indonesia.. Masukkan kode area dan nomor telepon... Misal..Untuk Esia = 021..Fren = 08888, IM3 = 0856,..Simpati = 0813.. Baru masukkan Nomor teleponnya... Kemudain klik Start Searching... Tunggu beberapa detik atau menit..tergantung kondisi Server dan koneksi Internet anda... Hasilnya dapat dipastikan 99%, bila tidak terjadinya putus Koneksi..

Mobile Phone Location n U ?

Mobile phone tracking services work by identifying the physical location of a mobile phone or other mobile device. This could be your own mobile phone or the mobile phone of a relative, friend or work colleague. A wide range of new services are possible using location services including telling you how to get to the nearest cash machine or chemist; allowing a parent to identify the location of his or her child; making it easier for friends to meet up for an evening out; and assisting firms with the security of lone workers. All mobile phone tracking services are subject to the legal requirements of the Data Protection Act. To see this in action view our demonstration here. For consumers this means that mobile tracking information can be used only after consent is provided by the user of the phone being located. For business users, employers must explain to their employees how mobile tracking information will be used before it is collected. The Data Protection Act requires that customers are made aware of: · who their mobile tracking company is; · the purposes for which personal data - including location information - will be collected and processed; · whether data will be sent to a third party for the purpose of providing the location service and length of time for processing data, including storage, will be. In addition to data protection legislation, participants in the UK location services industry - including both location service providers and mobile phone operators - have agreed a Code of Practice for the provision of location services. This Code of Practice sets out additional requirements for different types of mobile tracing services. This includes requirements relating to: · registration of individuals and organisations using location and mobile tracing information; · provision of reminders on location services operating on a mobile phone;; · how customers can stop a locating service which is running on their phone and prevent tracking of a mobile; and · responsibilities of a locating business or other organisation. While details vary, all mobile tracking services depend on the disclosure of where you are to companies or to other individuals. This offers you significant opportunities to use new services. However, these services should be used with the same care as you would take in telling other people your location in a phone call or SMS. Further, unlike a phone call or SMS, they can provide information on your location over a period of time. Only consent to the use of your mobie phone being tracked if you would be willing to provide the same company or individual with details of where you are in a phone call or SMS. Be aware that your consent may apply for a period of time. Don’t forget that you can withdraw your consent to the mobile phone tracking at any time. If you have any concerns about your safety which relate to the operation of our mobile tracing service then you should contact us as soon as you are able on 0871 425 4422 or email us at imconcerned@followus.co.uk. Only consent to the use of your location information if you would be willing to provide the same company or individual with details of where you are in a phone call or SMS. Be aware that your consent may apply for a period of time. Don’t forget that you can withdraw your consent to being located at any time. If you have immediate safety concerns then you should, as in other circumstances, contact the police by dialling 999 or 112. If a user of a location service believes that the industry Code of Practice isbeing breached by the location service provider, he or she may contact the Mobile Broadband Group by e-mail at mobilebg@btopenworld.com or write to The Secretariat, Mobile Broadband Group, PO Box 34586, London SE15 5YA.

Sky's The Limit: Time Warner's $150 Unlimited Bandwidth Plan

Time Warner Cable unveiled a new pricing structure for broadband Internet access to quell customer criticism questioning the service provider's plans to cap bandwidth usage. In a statement, Time Warner COO Landel Hobbs said early criticism of the provider's plans to trial bandwidth consumption limits was "premature." "We realize our communication to customers about these trials has been inadequate and we apologize for any frustration we caused," Hobbs wrote. "We've heard the passionate feedback and we've taken action to address our customers' concerns." To that end, Time Warner unveiled new pricing tiers for bandwidth usage. According to Hobbs, light Internet users will receive a low-price option offering 1 GB per month for $15 with speeds of 768 KB/128 KB and overage charges of $2 per extra GB. In addition, Hobbs said Time Warner is increasing the bandwidth tier sizes included in all existing packages in trial markets to 10, 20, 40 and 60 GB for its Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard and Turbo packages. Prices for those packages, which range from $30 to $75 per month, will stay the same and overage charges will be $1 per GB per month. For high-volume users, Hobbs said Time Warner will launch a 100-GB Road Runner Turbo package for $75 per month with speeds of 10 MB/1 MB with a $1-per-GB overage charge. Lastly, Hobbs said all overage charges will be capped at $75 per month, meaning that for $150 per month "customers could have virtually unlimited usage at Turbo speeds," Hobbs wrote. According to Hobbs, capped bandwidth pricing structures have become a necessary evil as Internet usage continues to grow. "With the ever-increasing flood of content on the Internet, bandwidth consumption is growing exponentially," Hobbs wrote. "That's a good thing; however, there are costs associated with this increased Internet usage." In Time Warner's case, Hobbs said, consumption among its high-speed users is increasing by roughly 40 percent per year, which raises costs as the company builds out the network to support growing usage. Like Time Warner, Hobbs said network providers worldwide, including AT&T, have started consumption-based trials. Others, such as Charter and Cox, are using methods to monitor and manage bandwidth consumption. Time Warner rival Comcast also caps bandwidth usage, charging users just more than $40 for 250 GB per month for basic service. "Internet demand is rising at a rate that could outpace capacity within a few years," he said, adding reports indicate that current infrastructure may not be able to accommodate the explosion of online content by 2012. "This could result in Internet brownouts. It will take a lot of money to fix the problem. Rather than raising prices on all customers or limiting usage, we think the fairest approach is to move to a tiered model in which users pay more if they use more." Hobbs said "sitting still is not an option," and if providers do nothing customers' Internet experience could suffer. Hobbs stressed that the tiered pricing models are just trials at this point and customers won't be immediately billed or impacted. Instead, Time Warner will provide two months of data usage and then a one-month grace period in which overages will be noted on customers' bills, but they won't be charged. That model, Hobbs said, gives customers a chance to access their usage and pick the right service package before charges are applied. Initial trials will start in August in Rochester, N.Y., and Greensborough, N.C. Further trials will launch in San Antonio and Austin, Texas, in October. "The Internet is dynamic and continually evolves, so our plans will evolve as well and aren't set in stone," Hobbs concluded. "We'll look forward to more dialogue as we progress in these trials."

Security Firms Begin Poking New Conficker Variant

Reports are all over that a new and interesting version of the Conficker worm is around, and that it is pushing rogue anti-malware to its users. Thus a purpose to the whole endeavor begins to emerge: Money. But the vendor analyses of this new variant are not yet in synch; they disagree on some points and are confused on others. ESET calls this new variant Win32/Conficker.AQ; the names are really beginning to diverge among the vendors. The new variant is split into client and server components. The server, a Windows device driver, attempts to perform the infections of other systems through the MS08-067 vulnerability in Windows that made Conficker famous, but which had actually been removed from the previous variant. It also sets up an HTTP server on a random TCP port. Curiously, after May 3 the server part of the program will remove itself from the system as of the next reboot. The client program is a newly-obfuscated version of the old, familiar Conficker program. ESET says the new version dumps the domain name distribution scheme; this seemed clever, but was too susceptible to organized resistance by the industry and authorities. The new version attempts only to communicate through the already established peer network. They also suspect that the Autoun propagation system has been removed from it too, but haven't completed analysis on that point. ESET has a removal tool for this variant. Symantec is reporting that the driver patches tcpip.sys in order to increase the number of concurrent connections on the system. They call this variant W32.Downadup.E. Symantec describes the DLL portion as the C variant and that the purpose of the infection is to install that C variant. This isn't exactly what ESET says. Symantec also doesn't say that the Autorun propagation has been removed and they still recommend in their technical description disabling Autorun, but the description of E variant doesn't mention Autorun anymore. The Microsoft description has more details than most others: * Before it spreads itself it appends a stream of randomly generated garbage to itself to confuse file identifiers, but this won't be too hard to defeat. * It establishes the server by using SSDP to find an Internet gateway device and then issues a SOAP command to set up port forwarding to itself. This is UPnP, and router configuration program often do similar things. Kaspersky's Threatpost then follows through on the business model of Conficker: pushing rogue anti-malware. They report that infected systems are getting popups with warnings that push a $49.95 scam product, SpywareProtect2009. Kaspersky has their own disinfection tool.

YouTube, Universal to launch 'Vevo' music video site

Vivendi's Universal Music Group and Google Inc.'s YouTube have reached a deal to create a new premium music video service. The service, which is expected to launch in the coming months, is a bid to boost revenues from YouTube's phenomenal global usage. YouTube also gained an extension on the rights to feature content from Universal's catalog including U2 and 50 Cent, within YouTube videos. The new service will be called Vevo, and it will offer higher quality music videos, as opposed to the typically lower quality content uploaded by users. The premium service, exclusive to Universal content, may also attract more big name advertisers who have been reluctant to advertise alongside user-generated content. A boost in advertising rates will boost revenues for the content, which will be shared among Universal and YouTube.

YouTube, Universal to launch 'Vevo' music video site

PARIS (Reuters) - France's parliament rejected a bill on Thursday that proposed disconnecting Internet users if they download music or films illegally, with the ruling UMP party failing to turn out in force to approve the law. Backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, the legislation was meant to quell the flow of free songs and films on the Internet that has hurt the revenues of artists and production companies. However, opposition politicians managed to defeat it at a final vote in the National Assembly on Thursday when only a small number of UMP lawmakers turned up for the session, handing the center-right government an embarrassing defeat. Sarkozy said he was determined to see the law passed and accused the opposition of parliamentary maneuvering. "Nicolas Sarkozy does not intend to give up on it, whatever the derisory maneuvers that only serve to harm creative diversity," his office said in a statement. Socialist parliamentarians broke out in applause after the vote went their way. The government said it plans to re-submit the bill later in April. "(The law) will only be delayed by a few weeks," said Roger Karoutchi, the minister in charge of relations with parliament. UMP party discipline has been severely tested this year, from a controversy over France's return to the military command structure of NATO, to a bill to ease restrictions on Sunday business hours -- which was postponed indefinitely. The Internet bill, which is heavily supported by the music industry, would give users caught illegally downloading files two warnings and then, after a third violation, have them disconnected from the Internet for up to a year. Socialist parliamentarian Patrick Bloche called the bill "dangerous, useless, inefficient, and very risky for us citizens." Others urged the government not to re-submit it. Under pressure from a struggling music industry, governments have long been trying to crack down on online file-swapping. "The proposed law is an effective and proportionate way of tackling online copyright infringement and migrating users to the wide variety of legal music services in France," said John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of IFPI, a music industry group. Some consumer groups have said that the proposed law could hit the wrong people, and that honest users risked being unfairly punished and forced to prove their innocence if hackers hijacked their computers' identity. Others worried it would pit artists against their audience. The music industry has been lobbying for similar laws to be introduced around the world. In January, Irish Internet provider Eircom agreed to disconnect users who download music illegally in a settlement with four major record companies.

Conficker worm finally stirs -- removal advice

The (bad) April Fool's scare caused by the widely spread Conficker variety of malware has been followed by a spring to life by the Conficker worm, according to security firm Trend Micro. The firm has tracked Conficker updates to infected machines over the past few days, hinting that the authors are trying to cash in on their global botnet. Rather than instruct the worm to cause global chaos, it has started downloading fake anti-virus tools to nag users about phony infections and scam them into buying the "product". It is estimated that as many as 12 million PCs worldwide are infected. The use of bogus software to extort money from uninformed users is nothing new at all, but it can be very profitable to the individuals behind the scam and a total nightmare for anyone who falls into the trap and pays for a clean-up that never happens. The spread of Conficker emphasizes just how many Windows machines are running without Automatic Updates enabled or adequate security software. DETECTION & REMOVAL To figure out whether you are infected with the Conficker worm is to try the usual tricks. Firstly, check the websites of common security tools like Symantec, AVG and Avira. If none of those would load, you may be infected, as Conficker blocks access to the sites. Another good test is to check the status of several services (Start -> Run -> services.msc). If Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service, Error Reporting Service or Windows Defender (or other security services you did not disable yourself) have been disabled without your knowledge, or cannot be started, this could be another sign of infection. If you have any concerns after these checks, then downloading and running a removal tool might be a good idea. Removal Tools McAfee AVERT W32/Conficker Stinger - Download! Symantec W32.Downadup Removal Tool 1 - Download! (CNET) Sophos Conficker Cleanup Tool (Stand-Alone Computer) - Download! Sophos Conficker Cleanup Tool (Network Removal) - Download! Eset Win32/Conficker Worm Removal Tool - Download! (CNET) Anti-Virus Avira AntiVir Personal - Download! AVG Free Edition - Download! Microsoft Patch MS08-067 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 958644) - Download!

Tornado roars through Arkansas town, kills 3

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and two dozen injured on Thursday night when a tornado smashed through Mena, Arkansas, officials said on Friday. "About half the injuries were reported as serious," said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management at North Little Rock, Arkansas. Mena, with a population of 5,600, is the seat of Polk County, on the Arkansas border with Oklahoma, and is about 130 miles west of Little Rock, the state capitol. The storm roared through the small town shortly after 8 p.m. CST on Thursday night (0100 GMT on Friday morning). Damage but no death was reported in several smaller, nearby communities. The number of homes damaged or destroyed had yet to be determined, Jackson said. But he said there was extensive damage to the Polk County courthouse and municipal buildings, and to the downtown business area. Shelters were set up in two Mena churches for the displaced. Governor Mike Beebe dispatched 30 National Guardsmen to the town to assist local officials in providing security. Entergy, the state's primary electricity provider, said more than 10,000 customers were without power in three counties closer to central Arkansas because of damage to lines from high winds. "It's still far too early to determine how extensive the damage is," Jackson said.