Microsoft Claims Xbox 360 Sales Double in Europe

Coming to you from Budapest, Hungary, this story caught my eye whilst speed-scanning a few feeds in a smoke-choked coffee shop (yeah, they actually still have those over here). According to Microsoft (by way of Pocket-Lint), sales of the Xbox 360 have more than doubled in Europe.

“Xbox 360 is truly the next-generation console of choice among consumers, and today’s numbers are proof that we are delivering on our commitment to achieve critical mass in Europe,” said Microsoft Europe VP Chris Lewis.

“The highly competitive ERP, coupled with entertainment content that’s appealing to everyone in the home, makes Xbox 360 the ultimate high-definition entertainment choice, and it’s clear that we’re already seeing this resonate with consumers.”

Microsoft's also claiming the Xbox 360 is officially the number one next-gen console in Europe, with 42 percent of the market in life-to-date revenue.

Microsoft cut the price of the 360 last month, dropping the Arcade to £160, the Pro to £200, and the Elite to £260. It looks like the company's hopes that those cuts would drive sales up dramatically have been momentarily realized. Now it's down to whether upcoming exclusives like Ninja Gaiden 2 -- plus a marketing team that's been working overtime to convince the public the 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV will rate superior to the PS3 version -- can maintain the system's formidable software sales momentum.

Alright, more soon, but right now I have to get out of this place. My eyes are beginning to feel like they've been tumbled in a bin of charcoal dust.

Form :http://blogs.pcworld.com/

Apple Ends Stealth Safari Installs Via Software Update For Windows

Apple has revised the way it sends software updates to Windows PCs via its Software Update service in response to charges that it was sneaking its Safari Web browser onto users' desktops without their permission or knowledge.

The latest version of the Software Update tool for Windows, version 2.1.0.110, now clearly lists software that can be downloaded via the service and groups the updates into those for applications already on the user's computer and updates for new software.

The new version of Software Update also gives users the ability to turn off the service.

In modifying Software Update, Apple was clearly responding to widespread criticism that the service downloaded Safari 3.1 onto users' systems surreptitiously.

The company included the browser as a stealth update for users of the Microsoft Windows versions of its iTunes and QuickTime software. Mozilla CEO John Lilly likened the strategy to tactics used by hackers to insert malicious code into downloads.

"Apple has made it incredibly easy -- the default, even -- for users to install ride along software that they didn't ask for, and maybe didn't want," said Lilly, in a recent blog post. "This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices."

Safari competes with Mozilla's Firefox product in the Web browser market.

Safari 3.1 has been hit with other problems since it launched in March.

Researchers at software security firm Secunia last month reported finding two "highly critical" vulnerabilities in the browser.

In one instance, files with long names downloaded via the browser "can be exploited to cause memory corruption," according to Secunia. That could result in the host computer becoming vulnerable to arbitrary code execution -- a situation where intruders can remotely execute commands on the targeted machine.

The other vulnerability lets hackers display their own content in pages loaded into Safari 3.1 without changing what's displayed in the browser's URL address bar.

There's also been reports that Safari 3.1 tends to crash on computers running Windows XP .

Form : http://www.informationweek.com/

Mac Clone Maker Psystar Shuts Online Store Again

A Miami-based system integrator that's selling an unauthorized Macclone has closed its onlinestore for the second time this week.

A note on the site Friday said the store "is temporarily down" but
offered no further explanation. The company said it would honor
existing orders from customers who've already paid for their systems.

Psystar blamed a closure earlier in the week on the failure of its credit processing system, and not legal pressure from Apple.

"Midday yesterday [Wednesday] our store was not receiving any
orders. This was due to the fact that our merchant gateway, Powerpay,
dropped the ball on us and refused to process any more transactions
from our company," Psystar said in a note on its Web site.

"We have reverted to PayPal until we can find a high-volume merchant," Psystar said.

A spokesman for Powerpay told News.com that the company dropped Psystar for unspecified violations of its customer agreement.

Also this week, Psystar introduced a new system called OpenPro.
It's a beefed up version of its Open Computer clone. The company claims
it will ship either with a choice of pre-installed operating systems
that includes Ubuntu Linux 8.04, Windows Vista, Windows XP or Apple's
OS X 10.5 'Leopard.'

Ubuntu is free. Vista or XP costs an extra $150, while Leopard costs an additional $155, according to Psystar's Web site.

Psystar claims its Mac clones cost about one-quarter of what
Apple branded systems go for. The company charges that Apple marks up
the cost of the hardware on which its operating systems reside by as
much as 80%.

One version of Psystar's Open Computer features Apple's Leopard
OS X 10.5 operating system ported onto generic PC hardware that
includes anIntel (NSDQ: INTC) Core2Duo processor at 2.66 GHz, a 250 GB hard drive and an Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT graphics card.

The system is priced at $804.99. A similar, Apple-branded computer would cost more than $2,000.

The problem: Apple's end user license agreement expressly forbids
installation or sales of its operating systems on third-party hardware.

Psystar changed the name of its Mac clone from OpenMac to Open
Computer earlier this week--perhaps in response to anticipated legal
pressure from Apple. "The name "Open" has been selected to reflect the
fact that ANY consumer operating system can be installed and run on
it," said Psystar.

Form : http://www.informationweek.com/

Nintendo Wii Tops March Video Game Console Sales In US – NDP Group

The data released Friday by the Port Washington, New York based
leading global market research company, NPD Group revealed that
Nintendo sold more high-end video game consoles in the U.S. in the
month of March than Sony and Microsoft combined.

According to NPD, Nintendo sold 721,000 units of Wii, Microsoft sold
262,000 units of Xbox 360, and Sony sold 257,000 units of PlayStation
3. Nintendo Wii sales surged due to the launch of the hit game Super
Smash Bros. Brawl -- a Wii exclusive. The game sold 2.7 million copies
in March, which made it the month's top selling title. God Of War:
Chains Of Olympus, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII were two other
Wii titles that were listed among top five games sold in March.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 and Army Of Two, the two Xbox 360
titles grabbed the second slot among top sellers, but neither crossed
the one million sales mark.

The global market research firm articulated that Nintendo also
dominated the portable system market. It sold 698,000 Nintendo DS
units. Sony's PlayStation Portable counted sales of 297,000. Sony also
sold 216,000 PlayStation 2 systems in March.

http://www.topnews.in/

VIEWER: Vision to Reality announces V2R PhotoViewer for Windows Mobile Pocket PC

V2R
today announced the availability of its V2R PhotoViewer for Windows Mobile 5.0
and Windows Mobile 6 Classic and Professional devices, which is fully graphical
animated photo and image viewer. PhotoViewer lets you quickly view all your
photos in a clear structured way by generating your own photo album and even
allows you to easily add and remove albums to your gallery. Another main feature
is the fact, that it was designed for thumb-use (which makes it even more
attractive for HTC Touch users but not only) since it also works with the
device's D-Pad. Other features are album thumbnail preview, photo detail
scroll view and smooth photo animation:

V2R PhotoViewer is now available for 7.95 Euro and supports QVGA Windows
Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6 Pocket PCs and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices.
A limited trial version of PhotoViewer is also available.

http://www.theunwired.net/

Synchronising desktops and Windows Mobile devices

I use GoodSync to synchronise my two laptops to our Windows Home Server, and today I was notified of an updated versions - not unusual as it seems the team released an updated GoodSync every week or second week.

But this time one of the changes immediately jumped on me:

- Add syncing with Windows Mobiles phones and Pocket PC devices.

I haven't tested this yet because I first posted here - but it looks promising. If it allows more than one folder to be synchronised to Windows Mobile devices, it's great!

Form : http://www.geekzone.co.nz/

iPhone on Vodafone India by September?

At least that's what folks supposedly in-the-know are saying. While the US the Europe are waiting eagerly for the 3G iPhone to make its global debut, Indians on Vodafone could have an iPhone 8GB to look forward to later this year. More specifically, the 8GB iPhone is purportedly slated to drop on Vodafone India in September, with the iPhone 16GB launch scheduled for 2009, "based on buyer response."

But, legitimate iPhone hopefuls in India (there are plenty of unlocked iPhones apparently running in India) will have to muster a heft Rs 28,000 entry fee. That would put the Indian iPhone at a $700 USD price point! And that's not even for the 3G iPhone.

An iPhone launch on Vodafone India is a lock for this year (according to rumors), it's just a matter of when the launch will happen.

[Via: TUAW]

Albany beta box fails to threaten

THE VOLE ANNOUNCED today that it would be releasing what the
company has been internally referring to as a "value box" of low-end
productivity software, dubbed Albany, on some sort of a subscription basis,
after having been beta tested recently.

The set includes Office Home and Student 2007; Office Live Workspaces;
Windows Live Mail, Messenger, photo sharing software and more, in a bid to
compete with its bitter rival, Google, who offer their Google Docs for free
online.

Bryson Gordon, a Mighty Soft Product Manager, swears blind that the software
isn’t just productivity play, saying that it offers everything that Volish
customers have called "essential" products for their computers.

Albany does seem to pack in rather a lot. As well as Word, Excel and
PowerPoint, the package also includes a plug-in for Office Live Workspaces so
that users will be able to save and share documents online from inside the
Office interface. Microsoft has also added its firewall and antivirus programme,
Windows Live OneCare, as well as basics like mail, instant-messaging and
photo-sharing applications.

The main advantage of Albany is that it lets users install all the products
in one go – instead of having to do them all separately – as is the case when
each is bought individually. But it remains to be seen what the package would
set you back, because the Vole is staying tight-lipped about Albany’s pricing.
It’s also not saying whether a subscription to the "value box" would be a yearly
or a monthly fee. Google will just have to wait with baited breath (not) until
the end of the year to find out. µ

http://www.theinquirer.net/

PayPal Plans to Block Safari and Old Browsers

PayPal, eBay Inc.'s
payment service and the frequent target of fraudsters, plans to block
browsers that don't include anti-phishing features from accessing its
site.

Under PayPal's plan, Apple Inc.'s Safari would be banned completely, while only older versions of its rivals Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox would be barred.

"This is a good move, if [PayPal] can get away with it," said Avivah Litan, an analyst with Gartner Inc.

PayPal
spelled out the idea in a paper (download PDF) released at last week's
RSA Conference. "It's critical to not only warn users about unsafe
browsers, but also to disallow older and insecure browsers," said
Michael Barrett, PayPal's chief information security officer, in the
paper. "Letting users view the PayPal site on one of these browsers is
equal to a car manufacturer allowing drivers to buy one of their
vehicles without seatbelts."

The two features that Barrett said
browsers must have to be considered safe by PayPal were an ability to
block known or suspected phishing sites, and support for Extended
Validation (EV) certificates. EVs, which are given to companies only
after more stringent background checks than the commonplace SSL (Secure
Socket Layer) certificates, are supposed to reassure users that the
online site is legitimate. Browsers that support EVs typically shade
the address bar green as a signal that the site is safe.

But
while the current or soon-to-be-released versions of IE and Firefox
support both of PayPal's must-have features, Safari includes neither.

PayPal's
mentioned that before: in February, Barrett said users should steer
clear of Apple's browser because it wasn't up to snuff. "Apple,
unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do to protect their
customers," Barrett said then. "Safari has got nothing in terms of
security support, only SSL, that's it."

Under PayPal's plan,
users running browsers lacking an anti-phishing blocking tool and
support for EVs would first be only warned. Later, PayPal would block
such browsers from accessing its site.

"PayPal's having to take
dramatic measures," said Litan as she ticked off recent moves by the
payment company and its parent, eBay, to limit fraud. "They're
desperate to do something, because the [level of fraud] has even hurt
their revenue picture."

Litan said that PayPal's decision was
smart, but smacked of too little, too late. "They're really anxious to
bring more shoppers to eBay, but consumers are staying away because of
the fraud," she said. "They're right in trying to ensure the safe use
of PayPal on the seller and the buyer side, but this is something they
should have done a year ago."

According to Barrett's plan, older
browsers such as IE3 and IE4 would be among those blocked. Conceivably,
the no-longer-supported Firefox 1.x would also be kept off the site. In
the paper, however, Barrett didn't call out either Firefox or Safari by
name.

"I don't think it's really an issue," said Litan, referring
to Safari. "How hard would it be to add those features? And I would
think that most Mac users also have Firefox anyway."

PayPal did
not specify a timetable when it would switch on its browser blocking,
and did not reply to request for one on Friday. Apple also did not
respond to an e-mail asking for comment.

Form : http://www.nytimes.com

Technorati Tags: Paypal, Safari, Block, IE, Firefox

PayPal considers blocking browsers

PayPal is seriously considering blocking some browsers from accessing its site, according to a
paper (PDF) available to shareholders.

Titled "A Practical Approach to Managing Phishing," the paper admits
that there's no one silver bullet to prevent fraudsters from making
money on the Internet. However, authors Michael Barrett, PayPal's chief
information security officer, and Dan Levy, the company's senior
director of risk management for Europe, say companies could and should
start addressing five specific areas:

1. Prevent fraudulent e-mail from getting into users' in-boxes

2. Prevent phishing sites by shutting them down

3. Authenticate users so that stolen credentials can't be used on PayPal

4. Prosecute fraudsters to the full extent of the law

5. Focus on brand and consumer recovery

Of these, the paper focuses mainly on e-mail prevention and
phishing-site blocking. For e-mail prevention, the authors cite Yahoo
Mail as an example and point to its use of domain keys to identify
legitimate and illegitimate mail marked as coming from PayPal.

Most controversial is the idea of blocking "unsafe" browsers, or
browsers that do not currently include antiphishing tools. PayPal says
it would first notify users when they log in if they are using an
unsafe browser. Later, PayPal would simply block the use of the browser
entirely.

PayPal is interested in enforcing new Extended Verification
SSL certificates used by Internet Explorer 7 and the upcoming Mozilla
Firefox 3. EV SSL highlights the address bar in green when the site has
been certified. Other browsers, such as Apple Safari and Opera, do not
currently include these protections.

Browsers not on the desktop could also be barred. On Monday, researchers cited
the Apple Safari browser on the iPhone and Nintendo's use of the Opera
on its DS and Wii gaming systems as lacking adequate antiphishing
protection.

Form : http://www.news.com/

Technorati Tags: security, PayPal, Mozilla, Firefox, Internet Exploer, Apple, Safari, Opera, SSL

Microsoft quietly offering ad-funded Works

After years of exploring the matter, Microsoft has finally started offering an ad-funded version of Microsoft Works in some countries.

Users who run the software see a small ad as they are writing their document or editing their spreadsheet. Although the program has the ability to update its set of ads online, today it runs mostly ads for Microsoft and a few partners, all of which ship with the product itself.

Works SE (which stands for Sponsored Edition) is free to PC makers, though they don't get a cut of the ad revenue. Large computer makers typically only pay a buck or two for the low-end version of Works, though.

The ad-funded Works falls into a category of several products the company is exploring, rather than a significant new source of revenue, said Microsoft Vice President Chris Capossela.

"This is a trial," he said. "This is a pilot. This is a 'Can we build software that will do this?' "

Microsoft has been considering such a product for some time, with many inside the company arguing that Microsoft could make significantly more money for Works by selling advertising than it gets in revenue from computer makers for the product.

Capossela said the early response to the free product has been positive. "People have liked the price," he said with a laugh, adding that it has also not been perceived as that intrusive, something Microsoft had worried about.

Last August, Microsoft said that it would start piloting Works SE, but the company gave few details on where or how the product would be offered.

Microsoft remains cagey on the details of where you can find Works SE. The company has been testing Works SE in 5 countries: The United States, France, Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom. It is available only through select computer makers and Microsoft won't say which computer makers those are.

According to its Web site, Packard Bell offers the software on some of its models in the United Kingdom. Using the same sleuthing technique (a search engine), it appears Sony is one of those offering it in the U.S.

Capossela put Works SE in the same category as several other new approaches, including the Albany subscription service that Microsoft detailed this week. Also in that camp would be the prepaid Office cards that Microsoft has been selling in some countries for more than a year now.

Response to that last product, which sells Office in six-month increments for around $20, has been mixed. The cards were a hit in South Africa, but bombed in Mexico.

None of these areas are significant new channels as yet.

"There's no business here yet," he said. "These are all experiments."

The one area where Capossela said Microsoft has seen significant sales is the download and purchase of Office over the Web. Customers either download a trial version of Office directly from Microsoft or get it with a new PC. After 60 days of use, they are prompted to buy a full version from Microsoft or a partner (partners typically sell the product cheaper than Microsoft).

Microsoft was not quick to seize on selling directly over the Web, Capossela said.

"We're late," he said. "If you look at Symantec and Intuit, they have huge businesses here."

Capossela also stressed that Microsoft is focusing its efforts on new ways of selling Office and creating online products that complement Office, not replicating the suite on the Web. He said that Microsoft still doesn't see much competition from Google Apps.

"We haven't seen them yet," he said. "We've seen a love affair in the press. We haven't seen customers embracing Google Apps."

As for Albany, Capossela said the main idea is to try and have a product that can be pitched by the Geek Squads of the world when people buy a new PC at retail. Tech benches, as these services are known generically, have become an important avenue for consumer software sales.

"This is designed for a certain sales motion and if that sales motion didn't exist, this product probably wouldn't exist," he said.

That said, Microsoft has yet to sell the product to those retailers or determine how much it will charge for the subscription product, which combines Office 2007 Home and Student Edition, Windows Live OneCare security, and other free Windows Live services.

Have you seen the ad-based Works on a PC? If so, drop me a note at ina dot fried at CNET dot com and let me know which model.

Form : http://www.news.com/