This article was written on April 21, 2007 by CyberNet.
Hack a Mac was an offer that was put out to anybody who thought they could do it. The prize? A new MacBook, and potentially $10,000. The point? Macs aren’t as secure as everybody thinks and Apple needs to pay more attention to this.
The contest was started at the CanSecWest Security Conference. Originally it was going to be open only to those attending the conference, but then they decided they’d open it up to anybody, and the machines were placed online. On day two of the contest, the hack occurred on a MacBook while surfing to a malicious site using Safari.
Besides a new MacBook, the person who was able to do this will also be eligible for a $10,000 “bug bounty” that TippingPoint announced on Thursday if it was an unknown bug.
While Apple hasn’t been a major target to security threats, a point was definitely made and Apple needs to pay more attention to this before it becomes a wide-spread problem. It’s also ironic that on Thursday, Apple just released 25 different patches for vulnerabilities is OS X.
Just relaxing with a paper-thin tablet and smartphone, at some point in the theoretical future. Image: Microsoft
How do you see yourself living a decade from now? For many of us, it’s difficult to picture how technologies will change and evolve in that time span. But for some folks at Microsoft, it’s their job to figure out where technology is headed, and how to make it happen. And a recently released video shows just what they envision.
The video, titled Productivity Future Vision, shows us a world much like our own, but cooler. Microsoft sees touchscreens and holographic displays dominating our daily experiences. Flat surfaces of any kind are transformed into useful, interactive displays as well.
“The video explores what productivity experiences might plausibly look like five to ten years in the future,” David Jones, director of Microsoft’s Envisioning Team, told Wired.com in an interview. The concepts presented in the video don’t necessarily communicate plans for future Microsoft products, though.
In an interview with GeekWire, Microsoft GM of technical strategy Chris Pratley said, “It would be relatively trivial to do a kind of Hollywood thing, where you just say what would be cool, and you whip it up and put it on the screen. But everything in the video, we could footnote everything about where it’s coming from, who’s working on it, why we think it’s going to happen.” Essentially, Microsoft’s video isn’t just a bunch of hot air.
The video was produced by the Microsoft Office team, and is a follow-up to a “Microsoft 2019″ video that the company created in 2008. It builds on several themes established in the earlier video, even using a few of the same actors.
Microsoft heavily emphasizes how thin they think future displays will be. Smartphones, tablets and desktop monitors all measure in at wafer-like thicknesses, slabs of white, blank slates that images and video can be pawed, swiped and manipulated.
On-screen images can be holographic, so tilting the angle of your phone, for instance, could show you a 3-D rendition of a bar graph. And images aren’t confined to the dimensions of the touchscreen you’re using.
And the technology goes even further in the kitchen: A tap on the refrigerator door reveals its contents, and tapping on a food item can bring up recipes relating to that item.
“Many of the technologies in the video, such as stereoscopic-3D displays … speech recognition, real-time collaboration, and data visualization are already part of products available today,” Jones told Wired.com. The video just expands on their capabilities to where they could be sometime in the next decade.
There’s one big thing that’s missing from the piece: Paper. A woman peruses a magazine on a large legal-pad sized tablet. A child seated at a kitchen table draws and plays a game on another touchscreen device. A dad moves a virtual Post-It note from one spot to another on an interactive wall calendar. Hand gestures pass data from a slate to the countertop. For all intents and purposes, papyrus is virtually extinct.
There are also a number of user experience aspects in the video that would also make our computing experiences more comfortable. For example, around the 3:30 mark, a man at a desk opens up a video (or video chat) with a woman, and as he scoots his chair back, her image enlarges proportionately. This could feasibly be accomplished using facial recognition and some IR sensor technology to measure the distance of the face to the screen.
“In the future, productivity software will work to extend our human capabilities, transitioning from the role of a passive tool to that of an active assistant,” Jones said.
And Microsoft isn’t the only one who’s released conceptual videos of what the future could be like. In the late 80s, Apple famously released a set of videos illustrating a concept called Knowledge Navigator, a concept we’re moving closer to these days with Siri and touchscreen iOS devices.
“Microsoft understands the vision of what consumers need in the post-PC era. What they need to demonstrate is that they can execute this vision before their competitors do,” Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said of the video via email.
The video is below if you want to check it out. Would you enjoy this world? Is there anything missing? Sound off in the comments.
We managed to grab enough time with the Lumia 800‘s retail innards here at Nokia World, revealing some welcome extras including a flexible rubberized case for that affectionate lump of polycarbonate. The requisite data cable, power adapter and headset are all accounted for inside the packaging, which is covered in shots of this dark, not-so-mysterious phone. It’s all a bit more vibrant than the packaging of its other 2011 phone, but is still coated in that unmistakable Nokia blue. We expect to get our excitable digits on a review model very — very — soon, but until then check out more shots of what we can expect to get alongside Nokia’s premier Windows Phone handset.
In a smartphone ecosystem dominated by Apple and Android-based products, Nokia and Microsoft are a lot like those two kids who are always picked last for kickball: They’re clearly in the line-up, but seen as bloated, out-classed choices nobody really wants.
Though Nokia remains the leader in global mobile phone sales, most of those handsets are lower-end “feature” phones, and the company’s market share dropped by close to a third of what it was in 2010. Similarly, Microsoft continues to dominate the desktop software space, but its Windows Phone software holds only 1.6 percent of the global mobile OS share, according to the same Gartner report.
Both Nokia and Microsoft are massive companies with huge economies of scale — and both have the most tenuous of grasps on the burgeoning smartphone market.
However bleak their smartphone fortunes may be, though, Nokia and Microsoft aren’t giving up. This Wednesday, Nokia announced the Lumia 800 and 710, two Windows Phone-powered devices that mark Nokia’s first legitimate forays into the modern smartphone space.
Gone is the near-obsolete MeeGo operating system, and its place is an OS with all of Microsoft’s marketing muscle — not to mention likely synergy with Windows 8, Redmond’s next desktop OS.
So, no, Nokia’s failure in the smartphone space isn’t a fait accompli. But the company will have to rally support around three key initiatives — and this is how I see it all going down.
Focus on Design. And Be Very, Very Different
In its Lumia phones, Nokia is delivering a design sensibility that is markedly different than that of its competitors. Like an item lifted straight off the F.A.O Schwarz showroom floor, the Lumia 800 oozes with child-like whimsy. Wrapped in a polycarbonate casing that comes in a color palette best described as “candy-coated,” the phone stands in stark contrast to the blatantly techie stylings of Android handsets, and the sui generis look-and-feel of Cupertinian design.
It’s a point of differentiation that sets off Nokia from its competitors to an extreme degree, and it’s a well-warranted move. After all, no company can really keep up with Jony Ive’s meticulously designed iOS devices, so Nokia has much more to gain by exploring an completely different design language.
And while there’s a plethora of Android handsets for consumers to choose from, most models lack any real conversation-stopping wow factor. We’ve seen a few close calls — the new Motorola RAZR, for example, is indeed remarkably thin, if not also handsome — but when was the last time people went nuts over an Android phone, just because it was going to be released in a white chassis?
That’s right — never. People don’t buy Android phones for their industrial design.
Which is why the vibrant, bold process colors of the new Lumia 800 should be perfect for capturing consumer eyeballs once the phones hit carrier shelves. “Nokia has shown it can still capture attention with attractive and distinctive hardware,” Ross Rubin, an analyst for NPD Group, told us in an email.
Specs-wise, Nokia’s new Lumia 800 isn’t a dominant piece of hardware. The Qualcomm chip that powers it is a single-core Snapdragon — underwhelming in a smartphone space where dual-core processing is quickly becoming the new baseline. And while the Lumia 800 comes with 16GB of on-board storage, there’s no SD expansion slot, because Nokia wanted to keep the phone’s slick polycarbonate case free of seams and ugly port openings.
But specs are for nerds. Or so the Nokia strategy would seem to state. Android fanatics are the ones who geek out over faster processors, fatter expansion possibilities, and ports galore. Nokia’s target audience just wants a phone that “works great,” the company says.
“There may be devices out there that have faster processors, more memory and what have you, but we have a faster experience,” said Marc Kleinmaier, Nokia senior manager of developer evangelism, in an interview. Kleinmaier added that Nokia and Microsoft worked together to improve hardware/software integration, and the fruits of this labor yielded a phone that performs well beyond what its raw specs may suggest.
When Nokia made it known that the Meego-running N9 wouldn’t be making any official tour to the US, the sound of crushed dreams could be faintly heard in households across the nation. Would the newly-announced Lumia series suffer the same fate somehow? Might Uncle Sam’s invitation to the family BBQ get lost in the mail a second straight time? Thanks to Nokia’s US website, we know that at least one of the two Windows Phones will leave Espoo and land somewhere between sea and shining sea, as the budget-conscious Lumia 710 appears front and center on the OEM’s home page while the 800 is nowhere to be found. We’re not giving up just yet — if absence makes the heart grow fonder, we don’t want to get enamored with the AWOL phone this fast.
Update: Dampen down those hopes and dreams, kids. Nokia has said that it will be making a splash in the USA at the start of next year, but it won’t be with the Lumia phones. The page went up just for your information.
This article was written on March 28, 2007 by CyberNet.
Microsoft can hardly keep a secret which is why information on a secret black Xbox has been floating around for quite some time. If you’re an Xbox fan then April 29 (in U.S. and Canada) is going to be the date for you to remember. That’s when they will be releasing the coveted Xbox 360 Elite that is complete with a 120GB hard drive, HDMI port, black case, and black controller.
If you want to purchase such a system it will run you $479. Albert Penello, the Director of Global Marketing for the Xbox 360, says that this will be seen as the “future proof” solution for people who are buying the Xbox 360 for the first time. He says that they probably won’t see many people buying a completely new console just for the black finish and 120GB hard drive, but there will definitely be some people who jump all over it.
The 120GB hard drive will also be available as a separate offering for those who want the increased storage capacity. The 120GB hard drive will cost $180 and will include the necessary migration cable and software so that you can move your data over to the new drive.
Here is the interview with Albert Penello on the Xbox 360 Elite:
And here are a bunch of pictures of the Xbox 360 Elite (click to enlarge them):
We’ve already seen Tango video calling demonstrated on a Windows Phone Mango handset, and the company has now confirmed that it will indeed be the first video calling service available for the OS. The app is slated to roll out on November 7th, and it will include both some tight integration with the operating system (aided by some input from Microsoft) and hardware acceleration for smoother video calls. It will also apparently come pre-loaded on at least some of the forthcoming Mango-based handsets, although Tango isn’t ready to specify exactly which just yet. Naturally, all of this now puts some considerable attention on Skype, which Microsoft acquired earlier this year for the tidy sum of $8.5 billion, but it still has some catching up to do with Tango on the Windows Phone front — a spokesperson tells Forbes that it “does not have anything to announce at this time regarding Skype on Windows Phone.”
Oh, Nokia. Earth mother and founding father of the mobile industry. At last, we have your newest creation nestled amidst our clammy palms: a 3.7-inch slab of polycarbonate Windows Phone wonderment, fronted by a ClearBlack AMOLED display. Has that sweet breeze off the Nokianvirta River worked its special magic? Or is this just another Windows Phone? Well, first impressions are that it… feels just like an N9. Read on for our detailed impressions.
Sure, you may be fast asleep in your warm comfy bed back stateside, but we’re here at Nokia World in London, gearing up for a Windows Phone-packed keynote with CEO Stephen Elop. The excitement begins at 9AM local time (translated to your time zone below), so tune in just before for the play-by-play.
Psst… and toss your own time zone / day in comments below!
10:00PM – Hawaii (October 25th) 01:00AM – Pacific (October 26th) 02:00AM – Mountain (October 26th) 03:00AM – Central (October 26th) 04:00AM – Eastern (October 26th) 09:00AM – London (October 26th) 10:00AM – Paris (October 26th) 12:00PM – Moscow (October 26th) 05:00PM – Tokyo (October 26th)
You’ve probably already gathered from our liveblog teaser and early look at one of tomorrow’s announcements, but we’re just settling in at Nokia World. And it really does feel like we’re a world away from the conference’s host city on London — the venue Nokia selected to host its growing event is quite a distance from Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and that famous big clock tower downtown. Stay tuned for plenty of Windows Phone (and perhaps even Symbian) coverage throughout the week, and don’t forget our liveblog of today’s keynote!
Pro tip: Use the “nokiaworld2011” tag for direct access to this week’s Nokia news!
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Hack a Mac was an offer that was put out to anybody who thought they could do it. The prize? A new MacBook, and potentially $10,000. The point? Macs aren’t as secure as everybody thinks and Apple needs to pay more attention to this.
