Kindle Fire 'sold out' as new model looms

Consumers aiming to buy Amazon's current Kindle Fire are out of luck, but a new model may be just around the corner.

The retail giant said today that its popular tablet is officially sold out after becoming the top-selling product since its debut almost a year ago. Amazon wasn't shy in bragging about the Fire, calling it the "most successful product launch in the history" of the company, one that has garnered more than 10,000 5-star customer reviews.

"Kindle Fire is sold out, but we have an exciting roadmap ahead," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. "We will continue to offer our customers the best hardware, the best prices, the best customer service, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best content ecosystem."

Back to the future: Apple and Microsoft on collision course, again

The players: Microsoft, Apple, Google Android

Two decades and four U.S. presidents ago, Apple vs. Microsoft was worth watching. Since then it's been a snooze.

That's about to change.

This fall consumers will be able to choose from the widest-yet assortment of smartphone andtablet devices because Microsoft, a company that has been an also-ran in mobile computing for too long, has picked itself off the mat.

In a Lazarus-like revival, Microsoft is winning acclaim for its latest mobile operating systems for tablets and smartphones. No. 1 Apple is not sweating any of this now as it preps for the presumed iPhone 5 and iPad Mini launches this fall. But for the first time in a long while, Microsoft is making a game of it and merits consideration as an alternative to Google's Androidfor those who eschew Apple. Given recent history, how many of you really thought this day would arrive?

Apple: Up, down, up
When these two companies first locked horns at the dawn of the PC era, Apple and Microsoft more or less were on equal footing, though that did not last long. By virtue of going with Microsoft's DOS operating system, IBM and the clone makers effectively decreed which company was destined to become the tech industry's top dog.

The 1984 introduction of the Macintosh, which Apple hoped would be its breakout consumer computer, made things interesting for a while, but Apple lost its way after sending Steve Jobs packing in 1985. The company proceeded to knock out more expensive computers that people other than creative souls simply did not want to buy.

Before long, Microsoft surged far ahead and the so-called operating system war between Windows and Mac was mostly in the minds of headline-happy magazine editors. In reality, Microsoft had trounced Apple in the desktop business and the only unanswered question was how long it was going to take before Apple went out of business.

Steve Jobs

By 1997, Jobs was again CEO of the company he co-founded and Apple was back in business, but with a small "b" compared to Microsoft. At the end of its fiscal year for 1997, Apple had lost $1 billion on $7.1 billion in mostly hardware sales. For itsfiscal year, Microsoft posted revenues of $11.36 billion with $3.45 billion in net income selling software bits.

But the tables turned with the advent of what Jobs would later describe as the "post-PC era." It was a crucial time period and Microsoft missed the significance of the iPod and later, the arrival of iTunes. Microsoft was also missing in action when Apple unveiled the iPhone in January 2007 -- and then another game-changer in the form of the iPad in March 2010.

While Microsoft continued to dominate the desktop and business markets, Apple went on to lead the pack in mobile, which is where the proverbial puck was heading.

Apple has sold more than 85 million iPhones since its inception, including 26 million in the second quarter of 2012, good for a 16.9 percent share of the worldwide market, according to IDC. Even though it doesn't have the biggest share of the global smartphone market -- that title goes to Google's Android with 68.1 percent, according to IDC -- Apple still extracts enormous profits compared with Samsung and other rivals.

When it comes to the iPad, it gets even better. Apple has more than double the share of the competing Android tablets, according to Gartner. Gartner expects Apple will finish out the year with a projected 73 million units, which would be good for a 61.4 percent share. That, by the way, is in a market segment Apple did not invent (though it certainly made it relevant and wildly profitable.)

But in this second decade of the new millennium, Apple will be in for stiffer competition. Google has armed its partners in a bid to slow the company's mobile momentum. With the iPad Mini allegedly in the wings, Google has even advertised its Nexus 7 tablet on its sacred, advertising-averse home page. Amazon is about to launch a new Kindle Fire tablet, and now, the big dog Microsoft is entering the field with its armada of partners and marketing machine.

Different era, a different Microsoft
Just as this is not the Apple of yore, neither is this the same Microsoft, which has suffered through what Vanity Fair described in a company profile as a lost decade. No kidding. Settling into a complacent middle-age, Microsoft bore little resemblance to that once-scary company that demolished Netscape. Mocked for its slow-paced updates to its core operating system -- for good reason -- Microsoft has been been a joke line when it came to personal technology's two most important and fast-growing markets: tablets and smartphones. Even worse, it was being ignored in the conversation, as per this 2010 think piece about the eventual winner of the "great mobile war."

But persistence is an attribute that has served Microsoft well. This was always a company with deep pockets that won by staying at it through many failing iterations of a product, such as the Xbox, which took years to pay off. History may be repeating. Despite the ne'er-do-well caricature, Microsoft has responded with incarnations of its operating system for phones, tablets, and the desktop that so far has escaped the usual crucification from the tech elite. Some of this may be nothing more than the residue from years of lowered expectations. Also, Microsoft has been out of the leadership discussion for so long that it benefits from being the underdog to Apple's iOS platform and Google's Android.

But this is more than a case of Microsoft engineers inventing products that don't suck. Based on the early reviews, Microsoft's mobile OS is shaping up is a winner. Users will have final say but the early look reveals good technology that's fresh, new and -- very important in our increasingly litigious times -- appears nothing like iOS or Android.

Microsoft's Surface tablet

(Credit: Microsoft)

The build-up in advance of Windows Phone 8 -- the next major version in Microsoft's mobile reboot -- began Wednesday at the IFA show in Berlin. Samsung showed off what officially was the first Windows device to run the newer software. Next week Nokia is expected to show off some of its own upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices, (AT&T is rumored to be the lead carrier for them.) AndZDNet reports that HTC is expected to have its own Windows Phone 8 handsets by mid-September.

Not to be ignored is Microsoft's Surface tablet, Microsoft's answer to the iPad, and the ever-growing sea of tablets that run Android. The device, which was introduced at a flashy press conference in Hollywood earlier this year, will land on the same date as Windows 8. One version is expected to be a more price-friendly version running Windows RT on top of ARM chips. The other, likely a bit pricier, will run Windows 8 Pro on top of Intel "Ivy Bridge" processors.

Undoubtedly, the Surface was as much a wake-up call to partners to invent better designs as it was a demonstration of Microsoft's own technology chops. Microsoft might eventually throttle back if its OEMs do engineer Windows 8 devices that are as good -- if not better. But like Apple, Microsoft is confident that it has a winner on its hands.

It's too early to tell how the new Windows will resonate with customers, but this fall is shaping up to be a lot of fun. Apple is well armed in the next few quarters to maintain its momentum. In its last fiscal quarter, ending June 30, Apple had $35 billion in revenue and $8.8 billion in net profit, as well as more than $117 billion in cash and securities. With the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini expected to have fall debuts, Apple will likely have its greatest quarter ever.

This much is clear: the two most important technology developers in the history of the technology industry are set for another collision course. Just like old times. And, the new kid on the block -- Google -- is hoping they are too busy battling each other to notice Android incursions. Get out the popcorn and pull up a seat.

Dell at IFA: Windows tablet to 27-inch touch-screen PC (pictures)

Microsoft may be getting into this market, but Dell isn't deterred. It announced its XPS 10 Windows RT tablet at the IFA consumer-electronics show in Berlin. It's got a detachable keyboard. Aongus Hegarty, president of Dell Europe, shows off the XPS 10 at a press conference at the IFA show in Berlin. The tablet, with a detachable keyboard, runs Windows RT, a variant of the operating system for low-power devices built with ARM processors. Burd shows off the XPS Duo 12, a convertible laptop-tablet design running Windows 8. The screen can be flipped around within a frame so it works as either a laptop or a tablet. The Dell XPS One 27 touch screen can be used with a conventional keyboard like a normal all-in-one machine, or it can be tilted closer to flat for easier touch-screen operation. The Dell XPS Duo 12 with its screen midway in conversion from laptop to tablet.

FBI offers child safety
smartphone app
The FBI has launched its first
smartphone application,
designed to help parents
store their children's details
in case they ar needed in an
emergency.
The free iPhone app, Child
ID, stores pictures and
physical attributes such as
height and weight in a
format can be easily emailed
to authorities.
"You can [also] show the
pictures and provide physical
identifiers such as height and
weight to security or police
officers on the spot," the FBI
said.
It also offer tips on what to
do in the "first few crucial
hours" after a child goes
missing.
Apparently aware of privacy
concerns that the app might
prompt, the FBI pledged that
"the FBI (and iTunes for that
matter) is not collecting or
storing any photos or
information that you enter in
the app. All data resides
solely on your mobile device
unless you need to send it to
authorities".
Support for other
smartphones such as Google
Android devices will be
added "in the near future",
the FBI said.
British authorities are yet to
release a similar official app.

'Spam King' arrested for
hacking 500,000 Facebook
accounts
A notorious spammer known
as the “Spam King” has
surrendered to the FBI on
charges of bombarding
Facebook users with
unwanted messages after
breaching the security
500,000 accounts.
Sanford Wallace, 43, also
known as "Spamford
Wallace" and "David
Frederix", was arrested in Las
Vegas on Thursday.
Wallace is accused of
hacking into 500,000
accounts to harvest friend
lists between November 2008
and March 2009. He allegedly
used the compromised lists
to make more than 27
million unsolicited postings
on Facebook walls that
appeared to come from
friends.
If targets clicked on links
within the messages, they
were presented with a
website designed to fool
them into handing over their
full name, email address and
password, prosecutors said.
Finally they would be
redirected to affiliate
websites that would allegedly
pay Wallace “substantial
revenue” for traffic.
The scheme relied on
vulnerabilities that Wallace
discovered in Facebook’s
spam filters, according to the
indictment.
“To accomplish his scheme,
Wallace first tested his
spamming capabilities
between two Facebook
accounts,” it said.
“[He] used a fake Facebook
account of ‘David Frederix’
and his legitimate ‘Sanford
Masterwb Wallace’ account
to test variations of spam
messages in order to evade
Facebook’s filtering
mechanisms.
“Once Wallace evaded
Facebook’s spam filters he
employed an automatic
scripting process to sign into
a compromised Facebook
user’s account, retrieve a list
of all the user’s friends, and
then post a spam message to
each of the user’s friend’s
Facebook walls.”
Wallace is now indicted on a
total of 11 charges of fraud,
intentional damage to a
protected computer, and
criminal contempt.
The contempt charges relate
to an earlier civil case
brought against Wallace
by Facebook itself .
A federal judge awarded the
dominant social network
$711m in damages in
October 2009. The firm did
not expect Wallace to pay,
but the judge also ordered
him not to log in to
Facebook. According to
Thursday’s indictment he
“wilfully and knowingly”
breached that order.
Wallace, who first gained
notoriety as a spammer in
the 1990s and also lost a civil
case brought against him by
MySpace in 2008, was
released on $100,000 bail. He
faces up to three years in jail
and a $250,000 fine for each
of the six fraud charges and
up to 10 years in jail for each
of the three charges of
intentional damage to a
protected computer.
Facebook welcomed the
arrest.
“We applaud the efforts of
the US Attorney’s Office and
the FBI to bring spammers to
justice,” said Chris Sonderby,
its lead security and
investigation counsel.
“Two years ago, Facebook
sued Wallace and a federal
court ordered him to pay a
$711 million judgment for
sending unwanted messages
and wall posts to people on
Facebook. Now Wallace also
faces serious jail time for this
illegal conduct.”

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
hands-on
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
is the best Android tablet to
date but is it better than the
iPad? Shane Richmond finds
out.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
went on sale in Britain earlier
this week. If you want a 3G
model then you’ll have to
wait another couple of weeks
but the Wi-Fi version is on
the shelves now.
Would-be buyers in Australia
have not been so lucky. The
imminent launch of the
Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been
postponed there because of
a dispute with Apple.
Samsung has been accused
of “blatant copying” of
Apple’s iPad in the latest
round of a global legal battle
between the two tech giants.
Apple sued Samsung in April
this year for infringement of
patents and trademarks; a
few days later, Samsung
issued a counter-claim.
Patent law is not my purview
but after a couple of days
with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, it’s
hard to ignore the
similarities. Like the iPad 2
it’s exceptionally thin and
unlike some competing
tablets I’ve seen, its edges
are not cluttered with ports
and buttons. There are some
tastefully-designed controls
on top - a sleep/wake
switch, volume controls, a
SIM-card port and a
headphone socket - a
charging socket underneath
and a speaker on each side.
It’s also slightly lighter than
the iPad 2, thanks to its
largely plastic back.
The back houses a 3-
megapixel camera, though
the Galaxy Tab 10.1V has an
8-megapixel camera. The
front is all screen - there
isn’t even an iPad-style
button - and the front-
facing camera is positioned
in the centre of one of the
long edges, making clear that
this is a landscape-first
device, unlike the iPad.
Inside, it offers higher specs
than Apple’s tablet. It has
1GB of RAM - double that of
the iPad 2 - and a slightly
higher screen resolution. It’s
a powerful and very nicely
designed tablet computer.
If I seem to be overly
concerned with how this
compares to the iPad, that’s
because it’s the iPad that
leads the way. The BlackBerry
PlayBook and the HP
TouchPad can’t hold a candle
to the iPad 2. The good news
for Samsung, however, is that
the Galaxy Tab 10.1 also
comfortably beats the tablets
from RIM and HP. It falls very
slightly short of the iPad,
though.
The weakness, which isn’t
entirely Samsung’s fault, is
Android Honeycomb, the
operating system that powers
the Galaxy Tab 10.1. It has
two very noticeable
problems.
The first is the
responsiveness of the
operating system itself. It’s
easily demonstrated by
holding the Galaxy Tab 10.1
in one hand and the iPad 2
in the other. When rotating
them between portrait and
landscape positions, the iPad
2 reacts immediately, almost
as if the contents of the
screen are being tipped and
poured into the new
position. The Galaxy Tab 10.1
takes a moment before it
responds. It’s not a delay that
makes the device unusable
but it is noticeable and it
detracts from the experience
of using the tablet.
The success of the iPad 2 is
that it feels as though you
are manipulating the content
directly with your finger. The
operating system is almost
invisible. On Samsung’s
device, it’s impossible to
ignore the OS. While Android
fans or those who really don’t
like Apple will tolerate that,
casual users will find it off-
putting.
The other problem is with
apps. The iPad has a head
start here, admittedly, but
there are still too few
Android apps. A few minutes
browsing in Apple’s App
Store will leave you almost
overwhelmed with choice.
The Android experience is,
sadly, underwhelming.
Prices for the Samsung
Galaxy Tab are identical to
those of the iPad. The entry-
level model, Wi-Fi-only and
with 16GB of storage, will
cost you £399 - matching
the equivalent iPad. And a
16GB, 3G version starts at
£499, also matching the
equivalent iPad.
This is the question the
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has
to answer: with £399 to
spend on a tablet computer,
why would you buy this one
instead of an iPad? The only
answer I can think of is
because you don’t want an
Apple product. Fair enough,
some people feel that way. If
you want an Android tablet,
this is the best one I’ve seen
to date.
If you want the best tablet,
however, the iPad 2 remains
the one to beat.

10 Simple ways to keep your
PC safe
1.) Updated your O.S.
2.) Anti Virus is must and
update is important.
...
3.) Use of internet (wifi) or
home network should be
secure.
4.) Always scan your email
attachments (avoid
unnecessary registration and
giving away your personal
information).
5.) Use anti spyware / adware.
6.) It is always advised to use
a firewall.
7.) Avoid going on untrusted
website.
8.) Disk Defrag is must (at
least once in 3 months).
(delete cookies & temp files)
9.) Back-Up your computer
Data Periodically
10.) Encrypt your data where
ever necessary.

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