Wire Service

Microsoft is set to brief resellers and white box manufactures on the performance specifications of their new Vista OS. They are also set to roll out channel marketing programs so that system manufacturers can develop their own solutions.

The World Cup will be a testing ground for TV on mobile phones, says a report.

The football tournament will give phone owners a taste of what the technology promises and let operators work out how their networks will handle demand. The report by analysts Informa predicts that more than 210 million people will be watching TV on their mobile by 2011.

By that date, the technology behind mobile TV should have settled down and handsets that can handle the shows will be widely available.

Cup challenge

Mobile phone operators across the world are planning to use the World Cup as a way to get customers more interested in watching TV on their mobile phones, says the report from Informa Telecoms and Media.

The report predicts that up to $300m in revenue will come from fans downloading and watching clips on mobile phones.  TV is a medium that everyone understands, and so is mobile

Dave McQueen, Informa

Dave McQueen, principal analyst at Informa and one of the authors of the report, said 2006 will see mobile TV begin to take off. As well as clips of matches, so-called “mobisodes” of shows such as Desperate Housewives and 24 are being prepared for watching on phones. Pop bands such as the Sugababes are also preparing material just for fans’ handsets.

But, said Mr McQueen, the technology pumping programmes to phones needs to be stabilised for the technology to support large audiences.

His comments were echoed by Robin Kelly, spokesman for T-Mobile, which is planning to offer subscribers a package of highlights after World Cup matches.

“We expect that to be pretty popular,” he said.

“But it’s not a mass market product yet. I don’t think anyone would say it was.”

This was because, he said, the clips will be streamed to people across the network and there could cause “bandwidth issues” if too many people subscribed.

Many operators are planning to use the World Cup to show off mobile TV. For instance in the UK 3 has set up three mobile TV channels that will be free to customers and will show match highlights, the best action of the day and a magazine show created just for phones.

Better phones

Data from South Korea, where mobile TV has been on offer since May 2005, showed there was a real appetite for it, said Mr McQueen from Informa.

 
Pop band Sugababes are creating mobisodes
Many Koreans were now watching up to 90 minutes of TV on their mobiles every day, said Mr McQueen. By contrast participants in UK trials of mobile TV were watching 180 minutes per week.

By the Olympics in 2008 and next World Cup in 2010, mobile TV technology will be well established, said Mr McQueen.

He predicted that 10% of handsets in 2010 will be able to handle broadcast mobile TV signals. Battery life will also have improved to the point where watching for a few hours does not completely drain a phone.

“TV is a medium that everyone understands, and so is mobile,” said Mr McQueen

“Combining the two in the imagination of consumers is not as great a challenge as it is for other forms of mobile entertainment.”

Researcher David Baker believes the key to an AIDS vaccine or a cure for cancer may be that old PC sitting under a layer of dust in your closet or the one on your desk doing little else but running a screen saver. Those outdated or idle computers may be just what Baker needs to turn his ideas into scientific breakthroughs.

Baker, 43, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, realized about two years ago that he didn’t have access to the computing horsepower needed for his research – nor the money to buy time on supercomputers elsewhere.

So he turned to the kindness – and the computers – of strangers.

Using software made popular in a massive yet so far fruitless search for intelligent life beyond Earth, he and his research team are tapping the computing power of tens of thousands of PCs whose owners are donating spare computer time to chop away at scientific problems over the Internet.

Baker’s Rosetta@home project is attracting PC users who like the idea of helping find a cure for cancer and admire the way Baker has involved regular people in his research that aims to predict how protein structures unfold at the atomic level.

“We’re getting these volunteer virtual communities popping up that are doing wonderful things,” Baker said. “People like to get together for good causes.”

Baker’s work could one day lead to cures to diseases from cancer to Alzheimer’s. The project takes a more direct approach to other diseases, including the search for an HIV vaccine. In that case, his team hopes to develop a way to help the body recognize critical parts of the virus’ proteins so that it can no longer hide from the body’s immune system.

The project sends work to computers that have installed the necessary free software. When the machine is idle, it figures out how an individual protein – a building block of life – might fold or contort, displaying the possibilities in a screen saver. When the PC is done crunching, it sends the results back to Baker’s team and grabs more work.

More than 60,000 people are donating computer power to Baker’s research – equivalent to the power of one supercomputer. He hopes to increase that number by at least tenfold – enough to lead to major scientific breakthroughs.

The technology, known as distributed or network computing, isn’t new. In the late 1990s, a project at the University of California, Berkeley started inviting people to donate their computer power to scan distant radio signals for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Millions of people have participated in the SETI@home project.

Two years ago, as Baker was realizing his project’s limitations, the Berkeley group developed new software and opened it to other research that could benefit. The SETI work continues and remains its biggest beneficiary, with donated computer time from nearly 953,000 computers.

Baker’s project now has participants from around the world, but the earliest donor of idle computer time came from across campus at the university’s Housing and Food Services.

“I knew the kind of power that personal computers could have if you pulled them all together,” said Ethan Owens, 27, an employee who first offered his department’s 200 computers to the Astronomy Department before taking his offer to Baker.

Soon, dormitory front desks, computer labs, maintenance offices and kitchen business centers became part of Rosetta@home.

By the time school started last fall, the two organizations were working together to recruit students to put the networking software on their PCs.

The project has grown both on and off campus ever since.

Many of the most active volunteers are cancer survivors or people who have lost close friends or relatives to the disease.

Philip Williams, 53, who writes computer software for the federal government in Washington, D.C., said he started pulling old Macs out of the closet when he learned more about the Rosetta project. The two-time Hodgkin’s survivor plans to add more computers soon.

Although he continues to contribute computer time to a few other projects, Williams’ loyalty clearly is with Baker.

“Baker’s group has a way of making people think that they are part of the project,” said Williams, who has also volunteered to help diagnose problems other participants are having with the software.

Baker said users don’t just think they are important to the project, they really are.

“As a scientist, one of the things you’re supposed to do is outreach. Outreach has become fundamental to solving the problem,” Baker said, pointing out that his team has received some ideas about new research angles by involving the public. Some were generated on the project’s message boards.

The volunteers also have recruited more people to help, have made useful suggestions about software issues and have helped test new software versions before they are sent to everyone using Rosetta@home.

Williams said Baker’s participation in project message boards has made Rosetta much more than a quirky project of the month.

David P. Anderson, director of the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, said Baker’s lab has done a particularly good job of connecting the participants to the science, including sharing the potential medical impact of the project.

“Hopefully, Rosetta is setting a standard that the other projects will have to live up to if they want to hold onto their participants,” Anderson said.

Mark Pottorff, 40, a computer programmer in Rochester, Minn., was contributing computer time for the search for extraterrestrial life when he heard about Rosetta@home and decided to switch.

“The outcome is much more beneficial,” and more likely to get results than a search for ET, Pottorff said, adding, “If you reach him, he’s still 100 million light years away.”

Microsoft has released seven security updates to address 18 separate flaws in its Windows operating systems and Office software, including 13 problems that earned a “critical” severity rating.

Microsoft labels a security hole as “critical” if it can be used to hijack vulnerable machines without any action on the part of the user. All but two of the flaws addressed in today’s patches can be exploited on some version of either Microsoft Office or Windows to let attackers seize total control over a vulnerable system.

Three of the patches mend flaws in Microsoft Office, including eight specific to Microsoft Excel. As Security Fix noted in recent posts, software blueprints showing would-be attackers just how to exploit two of these Excel flaws are already available online.

The most serious of the Excel vulnerabilities affect versions found in Microsoft Office 2000. Unfortunately, patching this older version of Office takes a few more manual steps These users will need to fire up Internet Explorer and mosey on over to Microsoft’s Office site and click on “Check for Updates” in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

If you are an Office 2000 user and have never installed an Office update before, you are in for a real treat. There are no fewer than three service packs (bundles of patches) worth of updates to install, and you will need to have your Office installation CD handy, as the Office patch installer will prod you to drop it into your CD-Rom drive at some point. Remember, if you’re using Windows 2000, even if you have Windows configured to download and install patches automatically, the Office updates won’t be installed. Whatever you do, don’t put off installing these important fixes: Microsoft has acknowledged that hackers already are exploiting at least some of them to break into computers or steal information from victims.

Users of Microsoft Office XP or Office 2003 have it much easier — they can quickly download the updates from Microsoft Update, the same place where Windows patches are made available. These vulnerabilities also are present in Microsoft Works Office 2004 for Mac systems, as well as in Office v. X for Mac. Users of those products can download the fixes directly from this link here.

One critical vulnerability fixed today that appears very serious is a critical flaw in the Windows DHCP service, which handles assigning the computer an Internet address when it first boots up or connects to a network. This vulnerability is present in fully patched versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Another dangerous security hole resides in the Windows “Mailslot” function, which handles certain communications traffic between Windows machines on the same network. Computer security company Symantec said it considers this flaw the most critical of today’s security bulletins, as it could be used to rapidly compromise multiple systems within a network. This problem exists in all Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 systems.

Under its support policy, today was to mark the last time Microsoft would ship security updates for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and WIndows Millenium Edition (ME) systems. As it happens, none of today’s updates address those older OSes, unless you count the vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office, which could be (and probably are) running on millions of Windows 98 and ME machines.

Earlier today, Security Fix posted the results of a series of tests on which security software titles still play nice with Windows 98/ME, so if you’re considering sticking with one of these operating systems for some time, you may want to check it out.

A device that measures stress levels over the phone is set to wreak havoc with punters who play up and lie to their spouses.

The Kishkish lie detector is set to be used by Skype on it’d VOIP service. According to Skype,  they can monitor (in real-time) the stress levels of a person who is talking on the phone.

It could be the perfect tool for suspicious spouses wanting to check whether their loved ones are playing away from home.

A new telephone lie detector system promises to pick up on tell-tale signs of stress in a caller’s voice whenever they tell a fib.

Available for free, the Kishkish lie detector can be easily downloaded from the web and used by those who make phone calls over the internet.

Scientists have found that frequencies in the human voice are sensitive to honesty, becoming higher when a person is lying.

This is because in moments of stress, such as telling a lie, our muscles tighten as our body prepares to flee or fight causing the pitch of our voice to alter.

The inventors of the lie detector claim the software mimics police technology by monitoring the stress levels of the person speaking on the phone to judge whether they are telling the truth.

Already 320,000 people have downloaded the lie detector system. Using the infamous example of Bill Clinton’s denial about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, the developers show on their website a graph which rises as he utters the lie: ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman.’

The software measures stress levels between one and 100, with a green light which shows when stress levels are normal, which then changes to red when they rise to high, allowing the user to gauge whether the other person is lying.

Many police forces across America use the controversial technology when interviewing crime suspects, and it has also been used by the US military in the ‘war on terror’.

The lie detector is currently available for those who make calls using Skype technology.

Skype, which has over 100 million registered users worldwide, is one of the best known of several internet-based phone systems which allow callers to make free calls around the world.

Using the communication software, calls to other computers are free, while other calls to landlines are charged at around 1p a minute.

Paul Amery, director of Skype developer program, said: ‘This is a really neat application, and the kind of thing we want to see more of. The Kishkish team has managed perfectly to integrate this unique application to meet the needs of our clients.’

‘Lie detector is the latest in a variety of products in our premium add-on program which greatly enhance the Skype communication experience. Extras are all about helping end users do more with Skype, and this will certainly encourage it,’ said Dr Zvi Marom from the programmes makers, BATM.

‘We are delighted to be able to introduce this unique software to Skype’s premium offering and will continue to work closely with them to develop new software-based communication applications.’

Apple is set to launch a new range of notebooks with backlight screens. The LED Blu technology will deliver a significant screen improvement but it could well lift the price of the notebooks.

With Apple recently confirming plans to launch Macs featuring LED backlight technology in 2007, sources in the industry said the notebooks will use components from AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), Coretronic and Kenmos Technology.

AUO and CMO are both having their samples of 13.3- and 15.4-inch panels certified by Apple, with shipments to officially commence in the second or third quarter of 2007, the sources noted.

In the meantime, backlight unit (BLU) makers Coretronic and Kenmos are also sending samples to be incorporated in the panels, with official shipments to also kick off around a similar period, the sources added.

The Taiwan-based makers all declined to comment, citing customer confidentiality.

Sources recently said AUO and CMO will enter volume production for LED-based LCD modules (LCMs) in the second and third quarter, respectively, of 2007, with CMO being more aggressive in the segment since it will launch more models than AUO.

Coretronic’s LED BLUs will be applied in the panels from AUO and CMO for use in Apple’s LED-based notebooks, the sources said. The BLU maker started developing LED BLU technologies in 2003 and is likely to see notebook-use BLU shipments form nearly 5% of its LED BLU business in 2007, sources said.

Component makers indicated Apple plans to use the LED V-cut light-guide panel technology from Japan’s Stanley Electric, which is a technology authorizer and major shareholder (11%) of Taiwan’s Kenmos. Therefore, CMO has decided to adopt Kenmos’ LED BLUs for the panels it will ship to Apple, the sources noted.

Of all LED backlighting applications, notebook will rise to account for 39.5% of the market in 2010, up from only 4.9% in 2007, according to Displaybank.

Mobile phone chipmaker Qualcomm has been found guilty of patent infringement and wacked more than US 19.6 million by a US court.