Firefox 4 is now out for Android and Maemo devices

Firefox 4 is now out for Android and Maemo devices

Final version of Firefox 4 is now out for Android and Maemo devices. The official Mozilla blog says users are empowered to tweak Firefox to their whims and fancies through their mobile devices while on the move.

Apparently, the new version of this mobile browser is thrice as fast as the stock browser on Android. The JavaScript engine has got a major overhaul to proffer better page load speeds and graphics. What really makes Firefox for Android and Maemo different is its streamlined interface. With all the attention centered upon Web content, it sports attributes like one-touch bookmarking, tabs and a host of browser controls. The Mozilla team further assures privacy and security issues are taken care of. Complete with secure end-to-end encryption, the browser includes syncing across multiple mobile devices and computers. The list of personalization options seems limitless as well with the wide functions, Add-ons and features on offer. Current tools for developers like CSS, Canvas and SVG have also been enhanced. Available in over 10 languages, Firefox is available from the Android Market and downloadable on Maemo devices too.

Epsilon breach: hack of the decade

Get ready to be spammed by phishing scams. When it's all said and done, the Epsilon hack may be the largest name and email address breach in the history of the Internet. Although Epsilon didn't name clients, it handles more than 40 billion emails annually and more than 2,200 global brands. If you are thinking you are safe because you opted-out of marketing emails, think again.
Epsilon is one of the world's largest providers of marketing-email services. Epsilon issued a statement, "On March 30th, an incident was detected where a subset of Epsilon clients' customer data were exposed by an unauthorized entry into Epsilon's email system. The information that was obtained was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only."

The scope of major corporations affected is somewhat mind-boggling. Krebs on Security warned, "Among Epsilon's clients are three of the top ten U.S. banks - JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and U.S. Bank - as well as Barclays Bank and Capital One."
After searching through the many articles covering the Epsilon hack, these are the companies that have sent out warnings to their customers:
Best Buy, Capital One, JPMorgan, Citibank, Kroger, Barclays Bank of Delware, Visa, American Express, US Bank, TiVo Inc. and Walgreen Co, Robert Half, Kraft, Home Shopping Network, QFC, Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Ameriprise Financial, LL Bean Visa Card, Brookstone, Dillons, the College Board, McKinsey & Company, New York & Company, Disney Vacations, Staples, TIAA-CREF, Verizon, Borders, Smith Brands, Abe Books, Lacoste.
TechEye reported that the largest traditional grocery retailer Kroger, "employs more than 338,000 associates with stores in 31 states under two dozen local banner names including Kroger, City Market, Dillons, Jay C, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer, Fry's, King Soopers, QFC, Ralphs and Smith's. Potentially anyone who has given their email to any of these places could have had their data half inched."
In some cases, more than just e-mail addresses and names were disclosed -- both Marriott Rewards and Ritz-Carlton Rewards had member rewards points disclosed, along with names and e-mail addresses. This could give scammers more leverage when they attempt a targeted campaign."
That doesn't exactly match up with Epsilon's statement of only names and email addresses, does it? What more I wonder will be disclosed in the next week or so?
According to Paul Ducklin of Sophos Naked Security, it is "moderately comforting" that only names and email addresses were stolen. "Epsilon is, if you like, a 'cloud provider' of electronic direct marketing services, so a security breach of the Epsilon system is, effectively, a breach of all its customers' systems, too."
Personally, I find the Epsilon hack moderately aggravating as there will be countless people duped by phishing attacks.
Reuters claimed "it could be one of the biggest such data breaches in US history". Indeed, it certainly appears to be one of the largest heists of its kind.
Be on the lookout for spear phishing campaigns and don't nibble on them. Keep your security software updated. If you feel like you really must open an email from one of these companies, then mouse over the link to see if the domain name matches the company. Check for HTTPS. Don't give out sensitive personal information unless you are 100% sure you are dealing directly with the company as these emails can open the way to identity theft.
Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of law at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, told Brian Krebs, Epsilon was lazy in its security. "Worse, customers who specifically asked to opt out of marketing emails were also affected. Opting out should mean genuine removal from the database, rather than retention in the database with a marker indicating that someone has opted out.”
More companies may come forward to alert customers of their names and email addresses being stolen. This list keeps swelling and this may be the outsourcing hack from hell. It's ridiculous.

China's Baidu to compensate songwriters for music downloads

China's largest search engine Baidu said it will start paying an agency representing songwriters for every music download on the site, after years of being criticized for providing links to pirated music downloads.
On Friday, Baidu announced that it had made an agreement with the Music Copyright Society of China to establish a partnership to protect legal digital music, and will pay copyright holders to use their music. This will encompass any song that is downloaded from Baidu's music search site, said company spokesman Kaiser Kuo.
The payment will go to the Music Copyright Society of China. However, the money is only meant to compensate the songwriters behind the lyrics to the music, and not any major record labels as that would have to be made under a different agreement, Kuo said.
"We will also provide the [Music Copyright Society of China] playback and download data, so that they will be able to have some idea of what's actually being downloaded," Kuo said. Baidu also plans to establish a licensed content page on its music search site.
For years, Baidu has been accused of promoting piracy through its MP3 search service. Music groups have complained and said the service offers users "deep links" to free pirated music on third-party hosted sites. The Chinese search giant has faced lawsuits as a result, and even been named a "notorious market" by recent a U.S. government report.
Some experts say Baidu's MP3 search was a major factor behind the company's rise in China, becoming one of its most popular services. Baidu now has a 75.5% share of the country's search market, with Google a distant second, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.
The Music Copyright Society of China has spent years trying to push Baidu to protect copyright holders, even taking legal action against the company, said Liu Ping, the vice general secretary for the group. But late last year, Baidu and the society began working an agreement to protect copyright holders.
"The changes Baidu is making could create a really wide-reaching music platform through the Internet that will lead to profits for those in the music industry," Liu said. "This has never happened before in China."
Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting, said of the new partnership, "It would certainly be good for the music industry and it would be beneficial for Baidu's reputation."
It's not yet clear how this will affect users, and if all the music downloads on the site will continue to be free. Local Chinese media reports have said Baidu will offer free and paid downloads in the near future.
Baidu could choose to shoulder the costs and make all the downloads free, in order to maintain the traffic volume on its MP3 search site, Natkin said. "The site is a very valuable for Baidu as an entry point. People will come there to search for music, and then use Baidu for Web search," he said. "It's an entry point to other Baidu properties that are monetized very well."

China's Baidu to compensate songwriters for music downloads

China's largest search engine Baidu said it will start paying an agency representing songwriters for every music download on the site, after years of being criticized for providing links to pirated music downloads.
On Friday, Baidu announced that it had made an agreement with the Music Copyright Society of China to establish a partnership to protect legal digital music, and will pay copyright holders to use their music. This will encompass any song that is downloaded from Baidu's music search site, said company spokesman Kaiser Kuo.
The payment will go to the Music Copyright Society of China. However, the money is only meant to compensate the songwriters behind the lyrics to the music, and not any major record labels as that would have to be made under a different agreement, Kuo said.
"We will also provide the [Music Copyright Society of China] playback and download data, so that they will be able to have some idea of what's actually being downloaded," Kuo said. Baidu also plans to establish a licensed content page on its music search site.
For years, Baidu has been accused of promoting piracy through its MP3 search service. Music groups have complained and said the service offers users "deep links" to free pirated music on third-party hosted sites. The Chinese search giant has faced lawsuits as a result, and even been named a "notorious market" by recent a U.S. government report.
Some experts say Baidu's MP3 search was a major factor behind the company's rise in China, becoming one of its most popular services. Baidu now has a 75.5% share of the country's search market, with Google a distant second, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.
The Music Copyright Society of China has spent years trying to push Baidu to protect copyright holders, even taking legal action against the company, said Liu Ping, the vice general secretary for the group. But late last year, Baidu and the society began working an agreement to protect copyright holders.
"The changes Baidu is making could create a really wide-reaching music platform through the Internet that will lead to profits for those in the music industry," Liu said. "This has never happened before in China."
Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting, said of the new partnership, "It would certainly be good for the music industry and it would be beneficial for Baidu's reputation."
It's not yet clear how this will affect users, and if all the music downloads on the site will continue to be free. Local Chinese media reports have said Baidu will offer free and paid downloads in the near future.
Baidu could choose to shoulder the costs and make all the downloads free, in order to maintain the traffic volume on its MP3 search site, Natkin said. "The site is a very valuable for Baidu as an entry point. People will come there to search for music, and then use Baidu for Web search," he said. "It's an entry point to other Baidu properties that are monetized very well."

Google is getting into the 'Like' business

Google's new +1 feature challenges Facebook's 'Like' for the future of influence

Google announced this week a new social search feature called +1. The new offering competes in some ways with Facebook's "Like" button.
By clicking on an optional new +1 button on your Google search results, you can tell family and friends that you recommend certain links.
Big deal, right? Well, actually, it could soon be a very big deal.

What Google's +1 adds up to

Google's +1 isn't what Google would call a "shipping" product. It's a "Labs" experiment, a cross between a beta program and a trial balloon. But it's available to everyone and easy to use. You just go to the Google Labs page and click "Join this experiment" in the section about +1. Once you've done that, when you're searching on Google, you'll see a +1 button on every search.
All your +1 recommendations are retained on a new tab viewable on your Google Profile. You can choose to make them public or keep them private. When your Google contacts conduct searches of their own that bring back links you've flagged with +1, they'll see your recommendation on the results page.
For now, the feature is limited to Google Search. Google plans to roll out the feature for websites of all kinds, including blogs.
Google also says it plans to "record information about your +1 activity in order to provide you and other users with a better experience on Google services." That could mean just about anything, although Google says +1 activity does not affect search rankings.

How +1 is like, and unlike, 'Like'

Once Google offers the ability for website owners to add +1 buttons on their sites, the service will be a lot like Facebook's "Like" feature. With Facebook, everything you "Like" anywhere on the Web is viewable by friends on Facebook. And that's one of the differences.
With +1, your recommendations are currently unlikely to be encountered "in the wild" by contacts. It requires both opt-in by contacts, plus the unlikely event that the other person searches for something you've already flagged.
Google +1 is currently useful only for seeing someone's preferences after you've run across them on your own, while Facebook "Like" is better for discovery. Both could be a lot better for discovery. What's missing from both Google's and Facebook's recommendation engines is the ability to pool all that data in a single space. The ultimate application would be open APIs by both parties, with some scrappy startup building the ultimate Digg replacement site where both systems are combined into a single popularity contest for content.
One advantage of +1 over Like is that it lets you recommend things without appearing to approve of them. When I encounter a blog post headlined "Tickets for Apple's Developer Event Selling for $3,500 on eBay" and click the Facebook "Like" button, it appears on my Wall above the phrase "Sachin Jagtap Likes this." It makes me look like a sociopath. Google's +1 is more neutral.
Google currently has two incompatible systems. You can click +1 on search. But on Buzz, where the +1 could really find some use, Google uses the word "Like" in a system that's disconnected from the +1 recommendations. This is especially awkward because Google went to great pains to connect Profiles and Buzz. But +1 recommendations show up in Profiles, and "Likes" remain in Buzz. It's a fractured mess. Meanwhile, Facebook's "Like" system is unified.

Why +1 and Like matter

Social recommendation tools like +1 and Like can potentially help users do things such as the following:
• Get and give recommendations to friends (replacing link sharing).
• Bring attention to cool stuff (replacing or enhancing Digg and Reddit).
• Bookmark and remember things (replacing browser bookmarks, Instapaper and StumbleUpon).
• Set up popularity polls (replacing poll plug-ins on blogs).
• Engage in social science research (replacing text-based voting on American Idol).
The exciting thing about the Like-button concept is that it can, and probably will, spill over into the real world. Within a few years, you'll probably be able to "Like" TV shows, locations (via existing location-based services like Foursquare, Google Latitude or Facebook Places.
Smartphone app-based services are getting better and better at recognizing songs and TV shows (by the sound), and soon they'll be able to recognize objects that you photograph with the camera in your phone. So you'll be able to "Like" all kinds of content and objects in the real world.
Google's +1 system is new and experimental and therefore isn't changing the world yet. Facebook's "Like" system is becoming influential, but it's still overshadowed by Twitter, link sharing and other ways of sharing and recommending content.
The reason this is a big deal is this: History tells us that obscure, trivial services like Twitter and Facebook and even Google itself can rise to dominate user attention, and make billions for the entrepreneurs who get it right. Whoever dominates "Like"-type services could end up making enormous amounts of money.
The whole "Like" idea is potentially superior to link sharing, bookmarking, social bookmarking, polling and other technologies that millions of people use every day. If the concept really takes hold, it could become the primary way for people to share content, links, opinions and much more.
And don't even get me started on the marketing potential. Once companies get us to start "Liking" and recommending the products and services we buy, they'll have found a lucrative enhancement to advertising and marketing campaigns.
Google +1, Facebook "Like" or some other service we don't know about yet could one day rise to dominate the lucrative new world of social influence.

Microsoft stands by decision to ban IE9 from XP

IE again loses share, but Microsoft won't second-guess move to limit newest browser to Vista, Windows 7

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) again lost ground to Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome last month, even as the company launched its newest browser, Web metrics data showed today.
But Microsoft stands behind its decision to limit IE9 to users running Windows Vista and Windows 7.
"It was a very deliberate decision," said Ryan Gavin, senior director of IE, talking about the move to exclude XP users from IE9. "You simply can't build on something that is 10 years ago."
According to California-based Net Applications, one of several companies that regularly publishes browser usage data, IE lost nine-tenths of a percentage point of share in March, falling to 55.9%, another record low.
IE9, which debuted more than two weeks ago, accounted for 1% of all browsers, a five-tenths of a point jump over February.
But older editions of IE dropped by more than what IE9 gained.
IE6, the browser Microsoft wants to kill, fell by four-tenths of a point to 11%, while IE7 slipped by two-tenths of a percentage point to 7.9%. And IE8, until last month Microsoft's current browser, dropped half a point to end March at 34.4%.
IE8's slip was the first for that browser since Net Applications began tracking it three years ago, a full year before it shipped in final form in March 2009.
Some rivals, meanwhile, continued to gain share at Microsoft's expense.
Google's Chrome grew its share by six-tenths of a point to account for 11.6% of all browsers used worldwide last month, a record. And Apple's Safari posted a gain of three-tenths of a point to end the month at 6.6%.
Even Mozilla's Firefox, which has lost share eight out of the last 12 months, managed a slight increase of one-tenth of a point, the first increase since December 2010, to account for 21.8% of all browsers.
The March 22 launch of Firefox 4 contributed to Mozilla's small turn-around. Net Applications' statistics show that Firefox 4 boosted its share to 1.7% last month, a 1.1-point increase over February.
Microsoft and Mozilla have each touted the number of downloads of their newest browsers, but the latter has clearly won that battle, claiming 7.1 million downloads on Firefox 4's first day of availability and a record 8.75 million the following day.
Gavin has argued that IE9's numbers should be calculated solely by its use on Vista and Windows 7, and its success or failure judged accordingly.
Net Applications put IE9's share of browsers running on Windows 7 at 3.6%, more than three times the overall average, a fact that Gavin stressed during an interview today. "That's about five times the rate of adoption in a comparable period for IE8," Gavin said.
But Net Applications' data also shows that the newest IE9 rivals -- Chrome 10 and Firefox 4 -- have significant chunks of the Windows 7 browser market. Chrome 10, which Google began pushing to current Chrome users via the browser's silent update mechanism almost a month ago, accounted for 10.2% of Windows 7 browsers in March. Firefox 4, on the other hand, lagged behind IE9 with a 2.8% share on Windows 7.
Ignore the numbers for now, Gavin said earlier this week when he blasted early comparisons as "premature at best, and misleading at worst" because of the differences in the upgrade mechanisms of IE, Chrome and Firefox.
Microsoft plans to add IE9 to Windows Update sometime this month -- today he declined to set a date -- from where it will be offered to Vista and Windows 7 users. Mozilla has yet to offer Firefox 4 to customers running older versions of its browser, but will do that soon, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
The roll-out of IE9 via Windows Update and its Automatics Updates option will wrap up by the end of June, Gavin said today.
While the numbers may not provide an unambiguous case for the success of any of the newest browsers, one thing is clear: Microsoft has bet on IE9 and won't back away from that bet.