Posted 03/11/10 at 07:22:21 AM by Paul Lilly

What a difference an OS makes. Whereas those in charge of IT took a very cautious approach to Vista, Windows 7 is enjoying a much warmer reception and more rapid adoption rate.

"We have 50 percent of our users, that's 2,500 machines, deployed on Windows 7 in 2010," said Jim Thomas, CIO at Pella.

By the end of next year, Thomas says that number will likely rise to 90 percent. That's quite the contrast to Vista, in which some 80 percent of IT organizations shunned, according to Gartner.

There are big benefits to be had in moving to Windows 7, suggests Thomas, who says that upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 has resulted in a 80 percent reduction in the number of system images he'll need.

"It has to do with drivers and Windows 7 being able to understand and adapt to them versus having a specific image built," Thomas explained.

IT execs are also drawn to Windows 7's faster boot times, though the redesigned task bar can go either way, depending on who you ask.

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Posted 03/09/10 at 08:26:42 AM by Paul Lilly

In the not too distant future, you'll start to see netbooks running Google's Chrome OS. How popular the OS turns out to be remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure - Google appears to be taking a pretty serious approach to system security.

According to Will Drewry, a Google software security engineer, all of the Google Netbook products will ship with the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) installed to ensure security in key storage and multi-factor authentication. This in addition to the "trusted bootpath."

By keeping Chrome OS open source, Drewry said it allows for constant feedback from developers about its security design. He also referred to Chrome as a "hardened" OS, pointing out the auto-updating and sandbox features, both of which are intended to keep malware at bay.

Will Chrome OS live up to the hype? We'll find out soon enough, as the first Google Netbook is expected to ship later this year.

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Posted 03/05/10 at 07:58:01 AM by Paul Lilly

This upcoming Patch Tuesday won't be anything like the one last month, in which Microsoft plugged 26 security holes with 13 bulletins, some of which included critical vulnerabilities for Windows.

Those numbers are way down, according to Microsoft, who announced on Thursday it will issue two bulletins to fix just eight vulnerabilities, all of which are being rated as "important."

"We recommend that customers review the Advance Notification webpage and prepare to deploy these bulletins as soon as possible," Microsoft wrote in an official blog post. "To provide additional guidance for deployment prioritization, customers should note that both bulletins will address issues that would require a user to open a specially crafted file. There are no network based attack vectors."

In addition, Redmond said it is continuing to monitor a VBScript issue disclosed on Monday. The software maker said there are currently no known attacks, but is "encouraging" customers to apply the suggested workarounds in the advisory nonetheless.

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Posted 03/05/10 at 07:34:52 AM by Paul Lilly

Do you download updates and plug up your Windows install every 5 days? According to security service vendor Secunia, such is the burden the average Windows user faces.

"It's completely unreasonable to expect users to master so many different patch mechanisms and spend so much time patching," said Thomas Kristensen, the chief security officer of Secunia

Secunia came by its numbers by analyzing the results of its Personal Software Inspector (PSI), a free tool that scans PCs and compiles a list of potentially vulnerable software. According to Secunia, half of those who ran the program in January had 66 or more programs from 22 or more different vendors on their machines, which was also concerning to the company.

"That's why we called for software vendors to create a unified patching standard last year," said Kristensen. "A few vendors said 'We want to hear more,' but a lot just ignored us or turned down the idea outright."

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Posted 03/01/10 at 03:12:49 PM by Bart Salisbury

Microsoft, for the time being, is being a bit of a stickler over the hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7. If a smartphone doesn’t meet the minimum requirements, it won’t be getting Microsoft's new mobile platform OS.

Case in point is HTC’s highly regarded HD2 touchscreen smartphone. A nice little device with a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, a high resolution capacitive touch display, and a five megapixel camera. But, the HD2 has five buttons--Windows Phone 7 says three and no more. No Windows Phone 7 for the HD2!

It is suspected, perhaps, that the HD2 fails in some other ways as well. It’s hard to say, exactly, because the Microsoft hasn’t made public the hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7. That’s expected to happen this month at the MIX developer conference in Las Vegas. Whatever the case, any legacy hardware that doesn’t meet these requirements is going to be left behind.

What little solace Windows Mobile 6.5 users have is that Microsoft says it won’t abandon them. An upgrade, to version 6.5.3, is expected before rebranding to Windows Phone Classic. And Windows Phone Classic will stick around for the “budget-minded smartphone buyer”.

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Posted 03/01/10 at 02:53:02 PM by Paul Lilly

It remains to be seen what kind of market exists for handheld tablets, but the general consensus is that even at $499 -- the cost of Apple's entry-level iPad -- tablets are going to be a tough sell. Enter Archos, who just announced a pair of large-screen Android-based tablets that cost less than half as much.

First up is the Archos 7 Home Tablet. As the name would suggest, this one comes with a 7-inch touchscreen display. It also sports a slim form factor measuring just 12mm thick and weighing less than a pound.

Keeping things modest, you'll find an ARM 9 processor inside clocked at 600MHz. Other features include built-in Wi-Fi, a USB port, and up to 7 hours of video playback or up to 44 hours of music playback, Archos claims. This will be available in April in 4GB ($193) and 8GB ($223) configurations.

The Archos 8 Home Tablet boasts the same specs, only with a larger 8-inch screen and slightly heavier frame (0.9 pounds versus 0.8 pounds). Look for this one to start shipping in May in 4GB form for $193.

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Posted 03/01/10 at 07:52:59 AM by Paul Lilly

For awhile there, things were looking pretty grim for T-Mobile G1 owners (aka HTC Dream). There was a lot of talk that insufficient internal memory would halt OS updates at Android 1.6 (Donut), where the only workaround would be to take matters into your own hands and hack/root the G1. According to Taylor Wimberly of Androidandme.com, that's no longer the case.

"I have maintained that the full version Eclair (Android 2.x) mat not be possible on the T-Mobile G1. After talking with several inside sources familiar with the matter, I would like to report that every Android phone currently released in the United States will be receiving an upgrade to Android 2.1," Wimberly writes.

There are a couple of caveats, however, such as missing features. Wimberly says that live wallpapers may not work even though the Android 2.1 firmware is installed. But the biggest downer is that "select Android phones will require a wipe when they are upgraded to Android 2.1." Wimberly went on to say that all Android phones might fall into this category, but that remains to be seen.

As scheduled, most of these updates will take place in the second quarter of this year.

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Posted 02/24/10 at 04:02:34 PM by Bart Salisbury

An OS memory hog is a thing to fear, especially in a system where memory is fixed, like the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Sony initially gobbled up 120MB of the available memory, spread across both the XDR and DDR ram, which was later reduced to 96MB. But that still looked pretty chunky in comparison to the Xbox’s OS svelte 32MB. Oink, oink.

Sony’s put the PS3 OS on an even stricter diet, and has reduced the memory footprint to 50MB, at the same time Sony has upgraded the OS’s capability. Now game developers have 70MB of memory more to play about with than when the PS3 was first introduced, and the PS3 is a more capable console--a win-win.

Mark Wilson at Gizmodo likes seeing the OS trimmed down, and handing over to developers what’s best left under their control. But, he doesn’t see this as remaking the PS3 into something it already isn’t. Wilson says about the best that will come from this are “slightly nicer lighting effect[s]”. Still, it's a start.

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