HP Wants To License webOS To 'Special' Partners (NewsFactor)

As Hewlett-Packard works to capitalize on its inherited webOS by installing it on more products, the technology giant will also seek out select hardware partners to license the operating system.

Two company executives indicated Wednesday that they believe webOS, which became HP's property when it bought the foundering Palm last year, can still generate interest in a PC market dominated by Microsoft's Windows and a mobile market dominated by Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

Outstanding System

"I happen to believe that webOS is a uniquely outstanding operating system," HP CEO Leo Apotheker said Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. "It's not correct to believe that it should only be on HP devices. There are all kinds of other people who want to make whatever kind of hardware they make and would like to connect them to the Internet. We'll make it available to enterprises and to SMBs. It will run on lots of HP devices."

Apotheker's comments about webOS, published in an online transcript by the Journal, came in a discussion with the paper's Walt Mossberg and in response to questions from an audience member.

The CEO, who took charge of HP last September, said he regretted the company did not try to market webOS sooner, saying, "It would have made life easier."

Speaking on the same day at a different conference, the top HP executive in charge of webOS, Jon Rubinstein, said "HP is more than willing to partner with one or two special companies," but ruled out making it open source for anyone who wants it.

At Qualcomm's Uplinq conference, Rubinstein, a former Apple vice president, said "if someone wants to put a real focus on contributing and building the webOS ecosystem, that would be something we're interested in," PC World reported.

HP plans to install webOS on its high-end printers as well as on computers -- initially working in conjunction with Windows -- and on the company's TouchPad tablet due this summer. It also runs on a selection of smartphones, including the Pri, Pixi and Plus.

A Long Shot

But HP may face a tough road in boosting interest from manufacturers, app developers, and customers.

According to the latest U.S. smartphone data from Nielsen Mobile Insights, webOS commands just a four percent share of the market, tied with Nokia's Symbian and trailing market leader Android (36 percent), Apple (26 percent), and Research In Motion's BlackBerry (23 percent).

"If they do have a shot, it's a long one," said Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT. "The smart money seems to be on Android and Apple, with entrepreneurial mobile vendors embracing Google, and Microsoft coming up from behind via Windows 8."

The idea of licensing webOS to others, King said, "is intriguing, but for that to be compelling, HP will first have to drive market interest/momentum with products of its own."

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Apple Updates Mac OS X To Battle Malware Threats (NewsFactor)

Responding to a widespread fake antivirus program targeted at Macs, Apple released Tuesday an update that will warn users and remove the threat. The update is available for Macs running Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6, as well as Mac OS X Server 10.6.

In its Security Update 2011-003, Apple said the update, available via Software Update or from Apple Downloads, refreshes the malware definition on File Quarantine to include MAC Defender, the fake antivirus malware, and provides for automatic, daily updating of known definitions. Automatic updating can be disabled by the user. The update also removes MAC Defender and known variants if the malware has already been installed, and an alert will notify the user of that action.

Reports on the web Wednesday indicated that malware makers have already circumvented Apple's update by changing the name of the malware file to mdinstall.pkg. The move could be short-lived if Apple adds the file name to its new daily update of malware definitions.

'Give Apple Credit'

Apple said files downloaded via Safari, iChat or Mail are checked against a list of known malware that includes viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other malicious software. If a file is found to be on the list, the Mac OS X update displays a dialog prompting the user to move it to the trash. The list is stored on the computer and, with the update, refreshed daily.

For years, Macs have enjoyed the reputation that they weren't susceptible to the many kinds of malicious software that have plagued Windows machines, because of the inherent strength of Mac OS X. Many observers have also argued that, because the installed base of Macs was so small, it wasn't worth the effort for a self-respecting hacker.

Chris Christensen, an analyst with IDC, said the myth of the Mac's invulnerability to hacking attacks "still largely stands in public perception," although they were "never technically invulnerable." Rather, he said, it was because their installed base was too small, but now the Mac's usage, transactional functions, and larger installed base present a tempting target to attackers.

Christensen added that he has to "give Apple credit" for its quick response to this vulnerability.

According to Mac security firm Intego, MAC Defender targets Mac users primarily through "SEO poisoning attacks," in which web sites with malicious code use search-optimization tricks to rank at the top of search results. A user who clicks on a malicious search result is sent to a web site that shows a fake screen and a fake malware scan, after which it tells the user that the computer is infected.

A Variant: MacGuard

JavaScript on the page automatically downloads a compressed ZIP file. If the user has been using Safari and the "open safe after downloading" option in Safari is enabled, the file is unzipped and the user is presented with an installer window for which the user's administrative password is required.

If the user proceeds with installation, MAC Defender launches. Intego describes the application as "very well designed," with a professional look, a number of different screens, attractive buttons, and correct spelling.

Once installed, MAC Defender indicates the computer is infected and opens web pages for pornographic sites every few minutes. To counter the "virus," the user is prompted to buy MAC Defender's "antivirus" protection service.

After a credit-card number has been entered into a license-purchasing page, the virus warnings stop. But there is no service, and the user has just given the malware authors his or her credit-card information.

Intego recommends not installing the application to begin with, of course, and to uncheck the "open safe" option in Safari or other browsers.

A variant of MAC Defender, called MacGuard, has also been reported. It's placed in a user's Applications folder -- which doesn't require an administrator's password -- instead of the normal location in the system-level folder.

If a user has set Safari to automatically launch downloaded files -- the "open safe after downloading" option -- the malware's installer will launch. If not, users will see a downloaded ZIP archive and may double-click on it to find what's in it, which leads to the installer.

Mike Kent also contributed to this story.

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Mango Phone 7 Update Enhances User Experience (NewsFactor)

Ramping up its effort to break into a smartphone market that seems to be passing it by, Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled the first major update to Windows Phone 7, seven months after the software giant introduced the revamped mobile operating system. Nicknamed Mango, the update will enhance the social-media connectivity of Windows phones, an effort in which Microsoft failed terribly last year when it briefly featured a series of Kin phones centered on quick-share options.

In a series of media events around the world Tuesday, Microsoft officials demonstrated enhancements to its live-tiles system allowing dedicated space for updates from groups or individuals as well as localized search for Bing; smart camera operation through Bing Vision that allows scanning of bar codes or searching based on pictures or text; and Music Search, which allows users to hold up their phone to listen to, identify and download songs, as users of Verizon's VCAST can do.

Pushing Boundaries

In the biggest nod to the social-media addicted, Mango will allow threads to incorporate texts, Windows Live Messenger messages, and Facebook chats into a single conversation.

In all, Mango has 500 new features the company says will "push the boundaries of the smartphone experience around communications, apps and the Internet."

The timing for updates of existing phones wasn't announced, but a new Phone 7 devices are due this fall from Fujitsu, Acer and ZTE that will ship with Mango, as will upcoming Nokia devices.

Finland-based Nokia recently signed a deal estimated to be worth $1 billion to replace its Symbian operating system with Phone 7 on many devices.

Currently, Phone 7 is available on a handful of smartphones made by HTC, Samsung, LG and Dell.

Microsoft also announced added support for additional languages, and expanded access to Windows Phone Marketplace in 19 new countries. The beta software developer kit for creating Mango apps is also available now.

"Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more," said Andy Lees, president of the mobile communications business at Microsoft. "With Mango, Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort."

Still Trailing

According to Gartner Research, sales of Phone 7 devices made up 6.8 percent of the global market in the first quarter, almost unchanged from the previous quarter and still trailing Symbian (44.2 percent), Research In Motion's BlackBerry (19.7 percent), Apple's iOS (15.3 percent), and Google's Android (9.6 percent.)

Can Mango give Phone 7 a boost?

"It's always hard to judge when you have not actually played with the device, but certainly it looks like on paper they are improving the experience in social, Internet and apps -- three core aspects of what users do with smartphones," said Gartner Vice President Carolina Milanesi. "It's good to see that [the] Nokia [deal] has not put off vendors and new licensees were announced today. Not sure this is much about hardware, to be honest. This is about delivering a stronger experience on whatever hardware you have, and having had hardware at the launch might have taken away from what matters, which is the software."

But she said what devices use Windows is secondary to making the user experience more sexy as an interface, an area where Android and iOS have excelled. "This is what Mango is trying to address," she said. "Having had this at launch would have made (Phone 7) a stronger proposition from the get-go."

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Strong PlayBook Sales Threaten Tablet-Less Microsoft (NewsFactor)

RBC said Wednesday that Research In Motion appears to have sold approximately 250,000 PlayBook tablets in the first month of availability, with the BlackBerry maker on track to sell 500,000 PlayBooks by the end of the current quarter. If the financial firm's estimates are accurate, it would suggest that RIM has been successful in leveraging the widespread enterprise presence of its BlackBerry smartphones -- and to a higher degree that anyone expected.

The RBC forecast is also surprising given the mixed reviews the PlayBook received last month, in part because the Playbook is expressly designed to function in tandem with a BlackBerry handset. If RIM's dual-device strategy is succeeding, it raises questions about the extent to which Microsoft can recover the mobile-market share it lost in recent years without launching its own tablet platform.

Gartner analysts strongly believe there is a tight link between smartphones and tablets in the minds of users. "They want a similar experience, a tight ecosystem and applications and content that run across devices," explained Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi. So Microsoft and Nokia "need a tablet strategy sooner rather than later," she said.

A Strategic Mistake

Microsoft's current focus is on bringing enterprise-class capabilities to its next-generation Windows Phone 7 mobile platform, and a tablet platform is not expected anytime soon. But Milanesi believes that waiting for Windows 8 may be a strategic mistake.

It may be too late for Microsoft "to catch up with competitors and allow Windows Phone 7 to grow -- not just in the enterprise but also in the consumer space in the high end, where users will be looking for that link," Milanesi explained. "As with any new products, I think we should wait and see what RIM does next quarter. Even Motorola sold a similar amount of Xoom [tablets] to start."

However, other wireless analysts believe Microsoft still has time to establish a strong tablet presence.

"Right now, in terms of sheer volume, between the two device types smartphones easily have the lion's share of the installed mobile-device base," noted Lisa Pierce, an independent wireless analyst with the Strategic Networks Group. "Tablets are complementary to smartphones, not competitive," as opposed to the "growing degree of cannibalization between tablets and notebooks/laptops."

Time To Catch Up

What Microsoft needs to do is really bring the full weight of the PC ecosystem into the tablet world, noted Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC. "That can be done with the right changes to Windows and its programming model to make sure that it accommodates touch apps better," Hilwa said. "We are really in the early stages [and] I don't blame Microsoft for taking its time to get [its mobile-platform] formula right."

Pierce also believes Microsoft still has plenty of time to launch a worthy mobile OS rival that can compete with the tablet platforms launched by Apple and RIM. "In the future, I fully expect Microsoft will release a platform for tablets that has business features, with a very high degree of interworking between Mango and the future tablet platform," Pierce said.

Still, Apple continues to command the lion's share of tablet sales and is expected to blow away the competition this year and beyond. Piper Jaffray, for example, is currently pegging Apple's sales "at seven million iPads in the June 2011 quarter and 31.7 million in calendar year 2011."

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Sony Fixes Another Security Vulnerability on Web Site (NewsFactor)

As the Sony networks slowly come back online, a security issue that could have led to another break-in has been fixed. The company said the vulnerability was on the page where users had to reset their passwords for Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity music service.

The security hole enabled any user with the date of birth and e-mail address of an account holder to reset the password. Birth dates and e-mail addresses of up to a hundred million users were among the unencrypted data that Sony believes may have been stolen in the original break-in.

Accounts 'Unsafe'

After the first network breach, the company was criticized by industry observers and some members of Congress for not quickly revealing that users' personal data may have been taken. The initial breach was noticed by Sony on April 19, the PlayStation Network was shut down on April 20, and users were notified of the breach and possible loss of personal information on April 26.

A gaming site, nyleveia.com, first brought the most recent security issue to light in a posting on May 17. It said that "despite the methods currently employed to force a password change when you first reconnect to the PlayStation Network, your accounts remain unsafe."

The site reported that a hack exploiting this weakness was "currently doing the rounds in dark corners" of the Internet. By Thursday, Sony reported it had fixed the problem.

In a video recently posted on the PlayStation Blog, Sony executive Kazuo Hirai noted that, as a new security feature, all customers are required to change their passwords.

'Welcome Back'

Hirai said "aggressive actions" were being taken to address the vulnerabilities that led to the unprecedented network outage. The actions, he said, include advanced security technology, increased levels of encryption, additional firewalls, and early warning systems.

Some Sony watchers have contended that the company failed to keep up with the most recent software, leading up to the initial break-ins. The hacker collective Anonymous, some of whose members may have been involved in the attack -- although the group has denied responsibility -- has distributed server scan logs from Sony's networks.

The logs reportedly show that the company used version 4.4 of the OpenSSH software instead of the most recent version, 5.7. Additionally, Sony was apparently using an older version of the Apache server software.

The company has initiated a Welcome Back Appreciation Program in North America for all registered PSN and Qriocity users. Two free games will be available for 30 days after the PlayStation Store is restored and "can be kept forever," the company said on its PlayStation blog. The PlayStation Store is expected to be back online by May 24.

Five titles are offered for PSN, and four for PSP. Other features of the package include 30 days of free PlayStation Plus membership for non-Plus subscribers, 100 free virtual items, and other benefits.

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New SAP StreamWork Aims To Boost Collaboration (NewsFactor)

SAP is amping up the competition against rival Salesforce.com with its latest release of StreamWork. The cloud-based collaborative application integrates with SAP business software.

Simply stated, SAP lets employees, teams and entire organizations collectively problem solve, brainstorm and make decisions within business applications using information they know and use every day -- without switching to another disconnected collaboration solution or having to rely on mountains of e-mail to drive projects forward.

"We are trying to solve a much bigger problem for companies than what a lot of the existing solutions in the market are doing," said Holly Simmons, senior director of marketing at SAP BusinessObjects. "Our customers have complex landscapes and are running many different types of applications. We are trying to address bringing social within the company and allowing them to work across all of the different software they are using internally."

No Islands of Collaboration

Simmons said the new integration capabilities expand StreamWork's reach so all types of people -- employees, clients, partners and suppliers -- can leverage secure social collaboration.

The enterprise edition of StreamWork integrates with several SAP applications, including the SAP Customer Relationship Management application for social CRM. The integration empowers sales managers to close sales more quickly. Sales teams can also collaborate directly with customers.

StreamWork also integrates with SAP's Strategy Management application, and the firm is currently planning for the integration of StreamWork with its Business Intelligence platform, which would give customers the ability to deliver collaborative BI throughout their organizations so end users can drive actionable insights.

"With some solutions, companies wind up with these little islands of collaboration and they don't want to use the products because they don't want to leave what they are doing and go sign in to a collaboration application and work in a very general way," Simmons says. "We are delivering all of the security and integration capabilities necessary to bridge the gap across applications."

Customer Case Study

The Toronto chapter of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers is a StreamWork customer. The organization reports increased communication and collaboration among its members. Within the application, board members conduct polls to approve board meeting minutes, vote on new initiatives, and gather feedback on committee work. When meetings run out of time, SAP StreamWork provides an avenue to keep discussions moving along while making sure everyone is informed.

"SAP StreamWork is intuitive and easy to use, and it brings structure to what could otherwise be unstructured communication," said Adrian Davis, president of the Toronto chapter. "We can also tie it into any project we're working on, both inside and outside of our organization. The Business Tools Catalog is particularly useful, because it helps give life to more fruitful collaboration and discussion around the decisions we have to make, which allows us to achieve better results and grow."

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