Google and Yahoo going to combine their resources of webmail encryption

New security tactics are intended to keep hackers, the government and the websites themselves from prying. Both Yahoo and Google have promised their mail service users that their respective inboxes will gain an additional perspective of security. Right now, there are over 425 million Gmail users and approximately 273 million Yahoo Mail users.

Come next year, Yahoo Mail users can expect their messages to be vastly more secure.
On Thursday, Alex Stamos, a security researcher for Yahoo YHOO 0.48% announced the company would develop an encrypted email system that will let users send messages to other Yahoo users, as well as Gmail users, that only the sender and recipient can read. This enhanced form of security will begin rolling out as an option for users in the fall.

Yahoo’s security measures follow on the heels of recent steps by Google GOOG 0.92% to encrypt users’ email. According to The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo will rely on a kind of PGP encryption, which hasn’t been cracked. Previously, most email services stored data like user names and passwords, but PGP goes one step further by storing unique security keys on users’ actual devices.
Yahoo and Google offer the two most widely-used email services on the Web today, accounting for 600 million-plus users combined, according to ComScore.

Google, Microsoft and Facebook Inc moved to encrypt internal traffic after revelations by Snowden that the spy agency hacked into their connections overseas. The companies have also smaller adjustments that together make sweeping collection more difficult.

The news that both companies plan to encrypt email marks a significant effort to ramp up security after Edward Snowden leaked information from the National Security Agency last year revealing — among other eye-opening secrets — the vulnerabilities in tech companies’ data practices. Yahoo and Google’s so-called “end-to-end” encryption efforts will help protect users’ sensitive data from the prying eyes of hackers, the government, even the Webmail services themselves. Web companies are increasingly competing for users based on security and publicly bragging about their extra protections to gain an advantage, or at least keep those in place from defecting.

Read More

NASA’s Hubble Finds Supernova Star System Linked to Potential “Zombie Star”

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has spotted a star system that could have left behind a “zombie star” after an unusually weak supernova explosion.
A supernova typically obliterates the exploding white dwarf, or dying star. On this occasion, scientists believe this faint supernova may have left behind a surviving portion of the dwarf star -- a sort of zombie star.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.

While examining Hubble images taken years before the stellar explosion, astronomers identified a blue companion star feeding energy to a white dwarf, a process that ignited a nuclear reaction and released this weak supernova blast. This supernova, Type Iax, is less common than its brighter cousin, Type Ia. Astronomers have identified more than 30 of these mini-supernovas that may leave behind a surviving white dwarf.

“Astronomers have been searching for decades for the star systems that produce Type Ia supernova explosions,” said scientist Saurabh Jha of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. “Type Ia’s are important because they’re used to measure vast cosmic distances and the expansion of the universe. But we have very few constraints on how any white dwarf explodes. The similarities between Type Iax’s and normal Type Ia’s make understanding Type Iax progenitors important, especially because no Type Ia progenitor has been conclusively identified. This discovery shows us one way that you can get a white dwarf explosion.”


The team’s results will appear in the Thursday, Aug. 7 edition of the journal Nature.
The weak supernova, dubbed SN 2012Z, resides in the host galaxy NGC 1309 which is 110 million light-years away. It was discovered in the Lick Observatory Supernova Search in January 2012. Luckily, Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys also observed NGC 1309 for several years prior the supernova outburst, which allowed scientists to compare before-and-after images.
Curtis McCully, a graduate student at Rutgers and lead author of the team’s paper, sharpened the Hubble pre-explosion images and noticed a peculiar object near the location of the supernova.
“I was very surprised to see anything at the location of the supernova. We expected  the progenitor system would be too faint to see, like in previous searches for normal Type Ia supernova progenitors. It is exciting when nature surprises us,” McCully said.
After studying the object’s colors and comparing with computer simulations of possible Type Iax progenitor systems, the team concluded they were seeing the light of a star that had lost its outer hydrogen envelope, revealing its helium core.
The team plans to use Hubble again in 2015 to observe the area, giving time for the supernova’s light to dim enough to reveal any possible zombie star and helium companion to confirm their hypothesis.
“Back in 2009, when we were just starting to understand this class, we predicted these supernovae were produced by a white dwarf and helium star binary system,” said team member Ryan Foley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who helped identify Type Iax supernovae as a new class. “There’s still a little uncertainty in this study, but it is essentially validation of our claim.”
One possible explanation for the unusual nature of SN 2012Z is that a game of seesaw ensued between the bigger and smaller of the star pair. The more massive star evolved more quickly to expand and dump its hydrogen and helium onto the smaller star. The rapidly evolving star became a white dwarf. The smaller star bulked up, grew larger and engulfed the white dwarf. The outer layers of this combined star were ejected, leaving behind the white dwarf and the helium core of the companion star. The white dwarf siphoned matter from the companion star until it became unstable and exploded as a mini-supernova, leaving behind a surviving zombie star.
Astronomers already have located the aftermath of another Type Iax supernova blast. Images were taken with Hubble in January 2013 of supernova 2008ha, located 69 million light-years away in the galaxy UGC 12682, in more than four years after it exploded. The images show an object in the area of the supernova that could be the zombie star or the companion. The findings will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

“SN 2012Z is one of the more powerful Type Iax supernovae and SN 2008ha is one of the weakest of the class, showing that Type Iax systems are very diverse,” explained Foley, lead author of the paper on SN 2008ha. “And perhaps that diversity is related to how each of these stars explodes. Because these supernovae don’t destroy the white dwarf completely, we surmise that some of these explosions eject a little bit and some eject a whole lot.”
The astronomers hope their new findings will spur the development of improved models for these white dwarf explosions and a more complete understanding of the relationship between Type Iax and normal Type Ia supernovae and their corresponding star systems.

source: http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/august/nasa-s-hubble-finds-supernova-star-system-linked-to-potential-zombie-star/#.U-UbL0BgruE

Read More

WordPress or on Drupal are Vulnerable in DoS ATTACK

Self-hosted WordPress or on Drupal  Vulnerable in DoS ATTACK are strongly recommended to update their websites to the latest version immediately.

A moderately critical vulnerability was discovered in the way Drupal and WordPress implement XMLRPC, which can lead an attacker to disable your website via a method known as Denial of Service (DoS).

UPDATE NOW

The XML vulnerability is present in WordPress versions 3.5 to 3.9.1 (the latest version) and works on the default installation. The same vulnerability affects Drupal versions 6.x to 7.x (the current version) and also works on the default installation.

Both WordPress and Drupal have released an update today to address this problem and all users should upgrade to the latest version as soon as possible.

WordPress 3.7 introduced automatic updates which allows security patches, such as this one, to get rolled out to users automatically.

WORDPRESS AND DRUPAL USED BY MILLIONS OF WEBSITES

The issue is actually serious because WordPress and Drupal is being used by millions of websites. The recent statistics from the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3) says that WordPress alone powers nearly 23% of the web, and over one million websites used by Drupal.

WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) with more than 30,000 plugins, each of which offers custom functions and features enabling users to tailor their sites to their specific needs, therefore it is easy to setup and use, that’s why tens of millions of websites across the world opt it.

VULNERABILITY RESULTS IN DoS ATTACK

The latest update of WordPress 3.9.2 mainly addresses an issue in the PHP’s XML processor that could be exploited to trigger a DoS (denial of service) attack. The vulnerability affects all previous versions of WordPress.

The XML vulnerability was first reported by Nir Goldshlager, a security researcher from Salesforce.com's product security team, that impacts both the popular website platforms. The issue was later fixed by Michael Adams and Andrew Nacin of the WordPress security team and David Rothstein of the Drupal security team.

ATTACK MAKES YOUR WEBSITE COMPLETELY INACCESSIBLE

The vulnerability makes use of a well-known cyber attack, XML Quadratic Blowup Attack. When executed, it has the capability to take down the whole website or server almost instantly, with the use of only a single machine.

The XML vulnerability can cause complete CPU and memory exhaustion and the site’s database to reach the maximum number of open connections, and as a result, the vulnerable site and server become unavailable for a period of time, hence affecting Availability of your website.

In short, when the vulnerability is exploited, your website and web server can become totally inaccessible.

HOW EXPLOIT WORKS

As explained earlier, the XML vulnerability makes use of an XML Quadratic Blowup Attack, which is almost similar to a ‘Billion Laughs attack’ that allows a very small XML document to completely disrupt the services on machine in a matter of seconds.

The XML Quadratic Blowup Attack exploits the use of entity expansion, instead of using nested entities inside an XML document, it replicates one large entity with tens of thousands of characters over and over again.

In this type of attack, a medium-sized XML document of nearly two hundred kilobytes in size could require within the range of hundreds of megabytes to several gigabytes of memory. That if exploited by an attacker, could easily bring down an entire website or web server.

"If an attacker defines the entity "&x;" as 55,000 characters long, and refers to that entity 55,000 times inside the "DoS" element, the parser ends up with an XML Quadratic Blowup attack payload slightly over 200 KB in size that expands to 2.5 GB when parsed. This expansion is enough to take down the parsing process," Nir Goldshlager wrote in his blog.

VIDEO DEMONSTRATION

Goldshlager has also provided a video demonstration as a proof-of-concept to the WordPress Denial of Service attack.

 

Read More

Mozilla accidentally leaks 76,000 email ids and 4000 password hashes of its developers on a public web server

Mozilla is the foundation behind popular Firefox Web Browser. Its web browser is very popular among testers, pen testers and developers.  Yesterday Mozilla Foundation issued a warning that it had mistakenly exposed information on almost 80,000 members of its Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) as a result of a botched data sanitization process internally.

Stormy Peter, Director of Developer Relations at Mozilla Foundation said that Mozilla issued a public statement via its Mozilla Security Blog on Friday.

As per the Blog, Mozilla Developer Data Exposed “Starting on about June 23, for a period of 30 days, a data sanitization process of the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) site database had been failing, resulting in the accidental disclosure of MDN email addresses of about 76,000 users and encrypted passwords of about 4,000 users on a publicly accessible server.”

The data was leaked on to a public server but it doesnt necessarily mean that all the cyber users had access to it.  But it also means that if some person with a mala fide intent has downloaded the date before it was cleaned up, those 76000 developers are in for a lot of hell in future.  Though Peter said that Mozilla hasn’t seen any malicious activity the server, but also noted they can’t rule it out as of now.

As for the data downloads, it has been download only a small number of times according to a comment posted by Julien Vehent on Y Combinator's Hacker News.

"We traced back as much as we could. Access logs, netflow data, etc.," the user wrote. "We found that the tar.gz containing the DB dump had been downloaded only a small number of times. Mostly by known contributors. But we can't rule out that someone with malicious intentions got access to it."

According to Peter, the encrypted passwords were salted hashes and they by themselves cannot currently be used to authenticate with the MDN. However, Peter warned that MDN users may be at risk if they reused their original MDN passwords on other non-Mozilla websites or authentication systems. Peter further clarified in comments on the blog that the exposed passwords included salts that were unique to each user record.

Mozilla Foundation has sent notices to all the affected developers and suggested that those who had both email and password information exposed change any similar passwords they may be using elsewhere.

Read More

Hacking Airplanes is Possible Using Android

A year ago, at the ‘Hack In The Box’ security summit in Amsterdam, a security researcher at N.Runs and a commercial airline pilot, Hugo Teso presented a demonstration that it's possible to take control of aircraft flight systems and communications using an Android smartphone and some specialized attack code.

Quite similar to the previous one, a security researcher claims to have devised a method that can give cyber criminals access to the satellite communications equipment on passenger jets through their WiFi and in-flight entertainment systems.

Cyber security expert Ruben Santamarta, a consultant with cyber security firm IOActive, will unveil his research and all the technical details this week at a major Las Vegas hacker convention, Black Hat conference, showing How commercial airliner satellite communication systems can also be compromised by hackers, along with the evidence of satellite communications system vulnerabilities that questions the standards these systems are using.

Santamarta research paper titled “SATCOM Terminals: Hacking by Air, Sea and Land” explains that ships, aircraft and industrial facilities are all at risk of being compromised — perhaps with catastrophic results.

“We live in a world where data is constantly flowing. It is clear that those who control communications traffic have a distinct advantage. The ability to disrupt, inspect, modify or re-route traffic provides an invaluable opportunity to carry out attacks,” Santamarta wrote in his paper.

Till now, it’s just a claim, but if confirmed, could prompt a comprehensive restructure of aircraft security and other SATCOM terminals, and cast review on the way its electronic security have been managed in the past.

According to the researcher’s abstract of the talk made public, he will explain how devices sold by the world’s leading SATCOM vendors contain significant security flaws. IOActive also claimed to have determined that “100 percent of the devices could be abused” by an array of attack vectors.

"In certain cases no user interaction is required to exploit the vulnerability, just sending a simple SMS or specially crafted message from one ship to another ship can do it." Santamarta wrote in the description to his talk. He told Reuters, "These devices are wide open. The goal of this talk is to help change that situation."

Many of SATCOM vendors systems have hardcoded log-in credentials — same credentials used in multiple systems — giving hackers potential to steal credentials from one system and use them to access other systems, as a result of it, hackers can disable the communications and can interfere with the plane’s navigation.

The researcher discovered the vulnerabilities by "reverse engineering" the highly specialized software known as firmware, used to operate communications equipment made by Cobham Plc, Harris Corp, EchoStar Corp's Hughes Network Systems, Iridium Communications Inc and Japan Radio Co Ltd.

Meanwhile, he discovered a theory that a hacker could leverage a plane's onboard Wi-Fi signal or in-flight entertainment system to hack into its avionics equipment. This could allow them to disrupt or modify the plane's satellite communications, potentially interfering with the aircraft's navigation and safety systems.

However, it is really important to note that just because a security researcher can perform the hack, doesn't mean hackers are doing it or can easily perform it, too. Santamarta has also acknowledged that his hacks proving the theory have been carried out in controlled test, and he is not sure how practical the hack would be in the real world.

Furthermore, in the abstract of his talk, we are not provided any technical details or any specific details of the exploit, so we are required to wait until Santamarta's presentation later this week.

Still, a good news for those companies that make such equipments is that the researcher plans to reveal all the possible details of the exploit in his presentation to help them fix the issues in their vulnerable equipment.

Source: THN

Read More

Ebola virus the Forrest Deadly Virus

EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
kahit Doctor at Nurse namamatay..
Symptoms typically start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pains, and headaches. Typically nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea follow, along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. At this point, some people begin to have bleeding problems


Alam nyo ba ang Ebola Virus ay pinangalanan sa isang River sa Africa kung saan eto ay nag simula at natuklasan sa Zaire (Now ay tinatawag nang Congo) noong 1976  at kumalat sa ibang area na malapit sa ilog Ebola . Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) unang tawag kasi nilalagnat muna ang unang sintomas tapos kalaunan naging  Ebola virus disease (EVD)

Sa ngayon mukhang may bagong Kamag anak yung si Ebola 
Uri ng Ebola  Filoviridae viral family of RNA viruses  katangian neto ay mahaba at payat.

Ang tagal na no 1976 ? at wala pang Vaccines  dahil walang interesadong kompanya na gusto gumawa ng gamot dahil daw isolated case lang yung sa mga Rain Forrest or Tropical Region example. Subalit ang mga Scientist at doktor sa ibat ibang bansa nag susumikap makatuklas ng pang lunas sa nakakamata na Virus.

Ebola disease—also called Ebola hemorrhagic fever or Ebola fever—is a rare and often fatal illness that humans and nonhuman primates (such as monkeys and gorillas) can contract.

Sinasabing sa Fruit bat  daw nag mula ang Virus na eto ang natural host di siya na iinfect at nasasalin sa pamamagitan body fluids  tulad ng laway  dugo sipon or sariwang karne. (bakit body fluids? review ko noong high school dead organism sila pag walang host ) at sa Tao at lahi ng Ungoy lang eto nakakamatay.

ALAM NYO BA ?
Crab-eating macque that were imported from the Philippines to Reston, Virginia in 1989 were found to have a virus similar to Ebola.
(Famliar ba sa isang pelikula ) Pero Good News Safe naman yung EBOLA galing sa Pinas hindi eto lumilikha ng sakit.

Yung unang  Experiment nila nag salin ng dugo  ng may common cold dahil meron natural na taglay na antibodies . sa Isang Nurse na nahawaan ng Virus. Kinontrahan eto ng Belgium Doktara.. pero iginiit ng Nigerian Doktor  na mas maganda mag try ng bago paraan at pumayag at pumirma  naman yung Nurse na i try sa kana yung experiment.. at gumaling naman siya.. at nag ry pa sila ulit ng 8 walong pasiyente  ,  isa sa walong pasiyente  lang ang binawian ng buhay.. 

There are five subtypes of Ebola virus name by where they Found:

• Ebola-Zaire
• Ebola-Sudan
• Ebola-Ivory Coast
• Ebola-Bundibugyo
• Ebola-Reston

 All of these subtypes are found in Africa, except for Ebola-Reston, which is found in the Philippines. The Ebola-Reston virus is also the only subtype that will not cause illness in humans—it only affects animals.

Zaire Ebola virus has one of the highest fatality rates of any pathogenic virus affecting humans. In the 1976 outbreak, it killed 88 percent of patients, 81 percent in 1995, 73 percent in 1996, 80 percent in 2001-2002, and 90 percent in 2003, although none of these outbreaks were as large as the original. 

Sudan Ebola virus has a lower, yet still very dangerous, fatality rate of 53 percent in 1976, 65 percent in 1979, 53 percent in the over 400 patients infected in 2000, and 41 percent in 2004. It is clear the Sudan Ebola virus, although not as fatal as the Zaire strain, is still very lethal.

Ivory Coast Ebola virus was first discovered in 1994 when a scientist conducting autopsies on chimpanzees contracted Ebola hemorrhagic fever. This strain found was different than the Zaire or Sudan strains. However, this has been the only case of Ivory Coast Ebola known to have occurred in humans.

Most Ebola virus outbreaks have originated in Africa and have traveled only to other countries through shipment of non-human primates or through accidental contamination in testing facilities. Crab-eating macque that were imported from the Philippines to Reston, Virginia in 1989 were found to have a virus similar to Ebola. Over 150 animal handlers were all tested for Ebola and only 6 were found to have developed antibodies to it, none of which actually developed Ebola hemorrhagic fever. The Center for Disease Control concluded that this strain had a low infection rate for humans and it was later classified as its own strain named Reston Ebola virus.

The largest outbreak to date is the ongoing 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, which is affecting Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and likely Nigeria.As of July 2014 more than 1320 cases have been ididentified. Efforts are ongoing to develop a vaccine; however, none yet exists.

Read More

About Android You Should Know

#Android used to be a company that developed a new language/ programme of the same name. the owners of the company initially wanted its android programme aid the development of newer, and more intelligent cameras. oo, sa camera ito unang prinoposisyon. but the market at the time (mid 2000s) for smart cameras ay napakaliit. but google saw the potential in android so it bought the company as well as rights to the software programme. yung mga direktor ng android company became directors ng google. they then were able to roll out android in consumer telecom, along with the vision of telecom converegence noon, what resulted was the predecesso of the smartphone we know today. at the time, nandiyan na't namamayagpag ang RIM-BlackBerry. Akala ng lahat ang BB ay THE smartphone.

#With the growing frustration of programmers, users, dealers at channel reps sa mga telecom manufacturer na nangkokontrol ng media, software, distribution, at walang ka flexi flexibility sa ownership at functionality at distribution at manufacturing ng phone, tulad ng OKI, SE, Nokia, Philips, etc at tapos dagdagan pa ang clamor ng mga lagnat na lagnat sa OPEN SYSTEMS AND OPEN-TYPE ENVIRONMENTS, nagkaroon tuloy ng marriage between these supporters of open systems and the technology android.

#The original consortium of manufacturers ng Android programme ay 39 worldwide. sila rin ang original consrtium ng GSM/ USSD na may SS7 architecture.

 #All Android operating systems are named after desserts. And, just in case that wasn't nerdy enough for you, Google put these sugary names in alphabetical order. Here's the edible Android timeline: Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb. JellyBean at meron pang Kitkat. Google doesn't want to explain. It's kind of like an internal team thing, and Google programmers prefer to be a little bit inscrutable in the matter". The obvious thing is that the Android platform releases go by dessert names and by alphabetical order for the most part. "For the most part" because two versions of Android, 2.0 and 2.1, were both called Eclair.

#Whereas Google names are desserts; Apple names their programmes according to cat species: Apple has pretty much tapped out all the major big-cat names: Cheetah. Puma. Jaguar. Panther. Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard... and then MAC OS X Lion.

#Android devices are underrepresented on the Web. Android has an overwhelming share of the mobile market—almost 85 percent of smartphones shipped in the second quarter and almost 66 percent of tablets shipped in the first quarter, according to Strategy Analytics. But Android devices are not used that much on the Web. Another research firm, NetMarketShare, found that in June, more mobile Web users ran iOS (45.61 percent) than Android (43.75 percent). One common theory for that: Many low-end Android phones are used more like traditional “feature phones”—as in, their owners mainly employ them for phone calls. 

#The malware threat nearly vanishes if you stick to Google’s Play store. Apps that can steal your data are a real threat on all mobile devices. But the security firm F-Secure found that in the second half of last year, only about 0.1 percent of apps surveyed in Google’s Play store contained malware—lower than any other Android app store. Further, it noted, “The Play Store is most likely to promptly remove nefarious applications, so malware encountered there tends to have a short shelf life.”

#Google Wallet can store loyalty cards. Like NFC, this app was supposed to shine in mobile payments. In practice, however, we’ve found it more helpful as a way to replace frequent-customer cards and apps.

#You can take “Photo Sphere” panoramas. In about a minute, you can use Google’s camera app to assemble a 3D interactive panorama that viewers can then pan around not just left and right, but up and down. That’s kind of amazing, considering all the specialized tools you needed to create a QuickTime VR panorama in the ’90s.

#GPS still works in Airplane Mode. Unlike iOS, Android doesn’t shut down a phone’s GPS receiver in Airplane Mode. One neat trick this makes possible: If you’re on a plane, you can run an app like the free FlyoverGPS to detect your position and then plot your aircraft’s position, altitude, and speed.

#Chrome can impersonate a desktop browser. Tap the menu button in Chrome (the stack of three dots at the top-right corner), scroll down the menu and tap Request desktop site, and Chrome on an Android device will fetch a desktop version of the page. This is a great way to work around sites that would otherwise lock out Android—such as Apple’s “Find My Phone” tool.

Read More

XP Remains World's Second Most Popular Operating System

San Francisco, CA & Dublin, Ireland; Wednesday 2nd April 2014: With less than a week to go before Microsoft pulls the plug on general support for Windows XP, it remains the second most popular operating system in the world in terms of internet usage, according to the latest data from StatCounter, the independent website analytics company.

The company's research arm, StatCounter Global Stats finds that in March, Windows 7 was the global leader on 54.7% while XP remains in second place on 18.6%, more than double Mac OS X (all versions) on 8.6%.
"Despite the stark warnings and publicity surrounding the end of support in six days' time, it appears that significant numbers of people are still using XP and sleep walking into a potential minefield of security and virus risks," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter.

Despite the risks, XP remains the second most popular OS in terms of internet usage in Europe (15.9%); South America (17.8%); Asia (24.9%) and Africa (30.5%). It is third in North America (14.5%). Oceania, where XP has dropped to fourth on 8%, appears to be the most progressive continent in terms of upgrading from the almost 13 year old operating system.
In the US, XP is in third place on 15%. XP is also third in the UK with 8.4%.
Individual country stats may be accessed at: http://gs.statcounter.com/#desktop-os-ww-monthly-201403-201403-bar

StatCounter (www.statcounter.com), an independent web analytics specialist, is used by companies, bloggers, self-employed people, charities and anyone who wants to measure activity on their website, blog or forum. Key features include ease of use, independence and ability to view website data in real time.

StatCounter members can learn about visitors to their site with essential statistics such as incoming traffic (i.e. how visitors are finding the site), downloads (e.g. which brochures are being accessed) and exit links (i.e. which links people click as they leave the site).
StatCounter Global Stats data is based on over 15 billion page views per month to the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

On my Feedjit Live Traffic  Feed  I see same results.

Read More

Windows 8's uptake slower than Vista on Web metrics

Windows 8's uptake was stuck in reverse for the second straight quarter as the reputation-challenged operating system fell behind the pace set by Windows Vista six years ago, according to data released Friday.

StatCounter pegged July's Windows 8 and 8.1 usage share at 15%, Windows 7's at 55.3%, XP's at 15.2% and Vista's at 3.5%.

Less than a week to go and XP remains world's second most popular operating system - StatCounter

"Despite the stark warnings and publicity surrounding the end of support in six days' time, it appears that significant numbers of people are still using XP and sleep walking into a potential minefield of security and virus risks," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter.


Web metrics firm Net Applications' figures for July put the combined user share of Windows 8 and 8.1 at 12.5% of the world's desktop and notebook systems, a small drop of six-hundredths of a percentage point from June. That decline was atop a one-tenth-point fall the month before, the first time the OS had lost user share since its October 2012 debut.

Windows 8 accounted for 13.6% of the personal computers running Microsoft's Windows. The difference between the numbers for all personal computers and only those running Windows was due to Windows powering 91.7% of all personal computers, not 100%.

While in June Windows 8's user share came dangerously close to the sluggish uptake tempo of Windows Vista, in July Windows 8's pace fell below Vista's for the first time. (Computerworld erred in calling Windows 8's uptake slower than Vista's in the early stages of the former's lifespan based on incorrect comparisons.)

At the point in Vista's post-release timeline that corresponded to July, the 2007 operating system ran on 13.6% of all personal computers -- a larger percentage than Windows 8's last month -- and on 14.3% of all Windows PCs. The latter is the most credible, as it accounts for the slightly-greater dominance of Windows at the time. (When Vista was in its 21st month after launch, Windows powered 94.9% of all personal computers.)

That Windows 8's uptake performance has not matched Vista's is important because the latter, widely panned at the time, has earned a reputation as one of Microsoft's biggest OS failures. By association, then, Windows 8 looks to be the same.

While Windows 8 again lost user share in July, Windows 7 gained another seven-tenths of a percentage point to close the month with 51.2%. It was the fifth straight month that the 2009 operating system has grown its share. The surge has not been surprising, since most industry analysts have said that the recent uptick in computer sales has been due to businesses replacing the now-retired Windows XP with Windows 7.

Windows 7 has grown by nearly twice the amount of Windows 8 in the past six months.

Windows XP's user share fell half a percentage point in July, accounting for 24.8% of all personal computers, and 27.1% of only those running Windows. The decline came after a month where the aged OS remained flat. In the last six months, XP has contracted by 4.4 points.

Computerworld now projects that Windows XP will still be running between 20% and 22% of the world's personal computers at the end of 2014.

Another analytics company, Ireland's StatCounter, had different numbers for Windows. StatCounter's figures are typically at odds with those from Net Applications because they measure with dissimilar methodologies: StatCounter tallies "usage share" by counting page views to show how active users of each OS are on the Web, while Net Applications estimates "user share" by collating unique visitors, which more closely resembles user base than does StatCounter's data.

Read More

Samsung and Microsoft Contract Disagreement will settle on Court

Microsoft filed suit against Samsung on Friday, claiming the device maker has backed out of an agreement that requires it to pay licensing fees to Microsoft for the Android phones it sells.

It's not clear how a court will settle the disagreement between the two, although Microsoft apparently seeks royalties as well as a renewed commitment by Samsung to produce a Windows Phone. Whether that will be an effective marketing strategy remains to be seen.

In a blog post, Howard struck a neutral tone, citing Microsoft and Samsung's long history of partnering with one another. The statement referred to a 2011 agreement where Samsung and Microsoft agreed to cross-license each other's patent portfolio, with Samsung agreeing to pay Microsoft royalties for devices that used the Android operating system. Samsung also said at the time that it would develop and market Windows Phones--a pledge which Samsung largely abandoned after becoming the world's largest supplier of Android phones.

Samsung has not honored the agreement since at least last September, when Microsoft announced it was acquiring Nokia's devices and services business from Google, Microsoft alleged in the complaint.

Samsung changed?
Since Samsung entered into the agreement, its smartphone sales have quadrupled and it is now the leading worldwide player in the smartphone market. Consider this: when Samsung entered into the agreement in 2011, it shipped 82 million Android smartphones. Just three years later, it shipped 314 million Android smartphones. [Source: IDC, WW Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker – 2014 Q1, Published: May 2014] Samsung predicted it would be successful, but no one imagined their Android smartphone sales would increase this much.

"Samsung breached the license agreement last fall by refusing to make its Fiscal Year 2 royalty payment on time and then refusing to pay interest on its late payment, and is threatening to breach the License Agreement again with respect to its ongoing royalty payment obligations," says the complaint, which was filed Friday in federal court in New York.

Microsoft has struck several licensing agreements with technology companies, supposedly helping them to launch Android products without fear of litigation from Microsoft.

In September 2013, however, after Microsoft announced it was acquiring the Nokia Devices and Services business, "Samsung began using the acquisition as an excuse to breach its contract," Howard wrote. "Curiously, Samsung did not ask the court to decide whether the Nokia acquisition invalidated its contract with Microsoft, likely because it knew its position was meritless."

Microsoft is asking a court to "settle our disagreement," Howard wrote.

Source: http://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2014/08/01/microsofts-samsung-action/

If you remember how  how Samsung pays Apple more than 30 trucks of 5 cents. How will Samsung pay Microsoft  now?..

http://blogmytuts.blogspot.com/2013/11/samsung-pays-apple-1-billion-sending-30.html

Read More

Facebook's Internet.org app offers free web access in Zambia

Mr. Zuckerberg's plans to bring low-cost internet access to the otherwise disconnected, and today, his social network announced plans to do just that in Zambia. The new Internet.org app allows users to browse weather, health and employment info at no cost.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to connect five billion more people to the Internet.

And that's not all Google Search, Facebook, Messenger and Wikipedia are available as well.

Right now, the option is available to Airtel subscribers in the country, but it will roll out to other parts of the world in the future. Cellular service blankets much of the globe, however the cost of the mobile web deters many from opting in. This will certainly help

Internet.org partners ..to make this possible

Today  15% of Zambia can access free basic web access.

Read More

Unlocking Your Cellphone is Now Officially Legal - Obama

President Barack Obama signed a bill into law Friday that aims to make it legal for consumers to “unlock” their cell phones in order to change their cell phone service providers without paying for a new phone.

The bill is known as the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, which orders the U.S. Library of Congress (LoC) to allow cell phone owners to "unlock" their devices – typically “locked,” to a specific service provider like AT&T or Verizon – for its use on other networks without the permission of their service provider.

"As long as their phone is compatible and they have complied with their contracts, consumers will now be able to enjoy the freedom of taking their mobile service - and a phone they already own - to the carrier that best fits their needs," the White House said in a statement.

UNLOCKING Vs. JAILBREAKING

Unlocking means the device can only access the network of a particular telecomm, like AT&T or Verizon.

When consumers buy a cell phone or tablet, the cost is often subsidized in exchange for a two-year contract with a network carrier. The operating system inbuilt in the phone encrypts or locks devices so that they cannot be used with any other network.

Jailbreaking, on the other hand, is the process of removing limitations on iOS devices. Jailbreaking permits root access to the iOS file system and manager, allowing a cell phone owner to install tweaks, hacks, and mods that aren’t allowed in the App Store. Rooting Android is almost the same thing as Jailbreaking iOS.
 

PRESIDENT OBAMA PRAISES

After Congress approved of legislation to make the action legal again, President Obama praised the move and is looking forward to sign it.

"The bill Congress passed today is another step toward giving ordinary Americans more flexibility and choice, so that they can find a cell phone carrier that meets their needs and their budget," the president said last week, when the bill cleared Congress. "I commend Chairmen Leahy and Goodlatte, and Ranking Members Grassley and Conyers for their leadership on this important consumer issue and look forward to signing this bill into law."

LoC MADE ‘UNLOCKING’ ILLEGAL

Under an amendment to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Librarian of Congress (LoC) made ‘unlocking’ illegal last year.

This new bill is made totally against the last year decision made by the LoC that said it was legal for customers to jailbreak a phone but illegal to unlock any devices, whether a smartphone or tablet. This gives legal authority to service providers to keep a consumer's phone "locked," in which the cell phone owner faces large costs in switching carriers or attempting to link to other carriers overseas while traveling.

THE BILL HELP PROMOTE CONSUMERS CHOICE

Many politicians and consumer groups have said the new bill into law will help promote consumer choice in the wireless market, since it now freely allows consumers to take their mobile phones to other carriers.

"This bill ensures that consumers will be able to do what they rightfully expect to be able to do with phones they have purchased: use them on whatever network they like," Laura Moy, an attorney at advocacy group Public Knowledge, stated after last week. Moy added that the bill will also "keep millions of devices out of landfills."

CARRIERS TO PROVIDE UNLOCKING CODES 

Though the law makes unlocking legal, it does not order wireless carriers to provide customers the unlock codes without a valid reason. Consumers who are still under a previously-signed service contract with their service providers, have to first satisfy the terms and period of that ongoing contract before being allowed to unlock their device.

“[This] effort began with a digital petition on the White House’s We the People site, an online platform where citizens can offer ideas for the Administration to take action on important issues facing our country,” Senator Patrick Leahy and President Obama’s economic advisor Jeff Zients wrote on the White House blog.

“The petition drew an extraordinary response, with more than 114,000 citizens making their voices heard. And within two weeks, the White House answered with a call to action, laying out steps the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), industry, and Congress could take to ensure copyright law would not undermine wireless competition.” he added.

 Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/08/01/answering-publics-call

Read More