Microsoft Dives Head-First Into Mobile Hardware With Two 10.6-Inch Tablets

By Jon Phillips

LOS ANGELES — Forget about operating systems. Forget about mice, keyboards and snoozy computer accessories. Microsoft is now a full-fledged, no-excuses mobile computing manufacturer. On Monday a team of excited executives showed off Microsoft Surface — a pair of Windows tablets accompanied by clever keyboard covers that aspire to true innovation in the mobile space.

“It’s a PC that is a great tablet, and a tablet that is a great PC,” said Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows and Windows Live Division.

Sounds simple enough, right? No, most decidedly not. Surface is much, much more than a new tablet platform. It’s also Microsoft’s first fully branded computing device — an ambitious new development direction after years of making only simple computer peripherals. And Surface is also a challenge to every hardware partner in Microsoft’s OEM stable.

“Its a bold move on the part of Microsoft,” says Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg. “This is a real change in strategy for them, and it’s certainly a vote of no confidence for their partners. This shows how high the stakes are. There is competitive pressure from Apple that is clearly a threat to their business. Steve Ballmer seemed to be channeling Steve Jobs on stage, saying hardware and software have to be designed to together.”

We covered the new Surface tablets in exacting detail in our live blog of Monday afternoon’s event. But here’s the cheat sheet if you just want the quick, hard facts.

Microsoft Surface comes in two iterations: One running Windows 8 Pro on top of Intel Silicon (an Ivy Bridge chip with yet-to-be-defined specs), and one running Windows RT on top of Nvidia silicon (perhaps the next iteration of Nvidia’s Tegra family — neither nVidia nor Microsoft is currently sharing specifics). The two tablets share a common industrial design language, including bezeled edges angled at 22 degrees, and physical chassis made of “VaporMG,” a fancy-schmancy new material that aims for a tactile finish worthy of a high-end, luxury watch.

“When you put it in your hands, it feels elegant,” said Panos Panay, the general manager of the newly announced Surface division. “When you touch it, you’re going to want to hold it, I promise you.” VaporMG can be molded down to a thickness of 0.65mm — thinner than a credit card and comparable to a hotel room key, as Panay demonstrated at the event.

The two tablets also share 10.6-inch screens, front- and back-mounted cameras, integrated kickstands (also made of VaporMG), full-sized USB ports, and dual Wi-Fi antennas to ensure seamless media streaming. But beyond that, the specs diverge significantly between the two models.

The Windows RT device is the thinner of the two tablets at 9.3mm (and it’s also exactly 0.1mm thinner than Apple’s new iPad). Surface for Windows RT is also the lighter of the two Surface tablets at 676 grams, and runs a “ClearType HD” display of an unreported resolution. Data I/O is supported by microSD, USB 2.0, and Micro HD Video ports. Storage can be configured to 32GB and 64GB.

Surface for Windows 8 Pro is beefier all around. Aside from its Intel Ivy Bridge processor, the tablet is thicker at 13.5mm, and heavier at 903 grams. But it also comes with a ClearType “Full HD” display capable of 1080p video playback. Data I/O is also gussied up — you’ll get microSDXC, USB 3.0, and a Mini DisplayPort video connector. Storage can be configured to 64GB and 128GB.

Oh, and how’s this for productivity options: The Windows 8 Pro version comes with a stylus that lets you write in digital ink with 600dpi precision. All told, Microsoft is pitching the Windows 8 Pro tablet as a no-excuses productivity machine (that DisplayPort lets you hook it up to desktop monitors). The Pro version was even demoed with Adobe Lightroom at the Monday event.

Everything described above is certainly exciting for Microsoft, but it’s not an earth-shatteringly new assortment of hardware. Microsoft’s new tablet covers, however, look truly innovative, and we’re excited to learn more about them.

First there’s the Touch Cover, a 3mm, magnetically attaching cover that includes an integrated pressure-sensitive keyboard. Microsoft says each keystroke is an individual gesture, and the resulting performance is faster than anything we currently experience with on-screen, virtual keyboards. If the Touch Cover isn’t quite snazzy enough for you, you can opt for the Type Cover. It’s 5mm thick, and includes (get this) physical keys. Each key includes 1.5mm of travel, and the Type Cover even boasts a full multi-touch trackpad.

So what about pricing and availability? We don’t know much, save that Surface for Windows RT will launch when Windows 8 launches, which we expect to happen in the third quarter of this year. Surface for Windows 8 Pro should launch three months after the RT iteration. As for pricing, Microsoft isn’t saying, but Gartenberg weighs in:

“I’m guessing somewhere between $600 and $1000 — Microsoft was very vague. This the problem you encounter when you launch something so far ahead of delivery,” he said. “For a launch like this, it’s all about the details. Everything about this event, the mysterious invitations, the presentation — Microsoft is trying to be Apple. But the only company that has successfully been like Apple, is Apple.”

More privacy fears as Facebook buys facial-recognition startup for undisclosed sum

By Daily Mail Reporter

Facebook is bringing one of its long-term vendors, a facial-recognition technology company Face.com, in-house.

The Israeli company's technology helps people tag photos on the Web by figuring out who is in the pictures.

The deal bolsters one of Facebook's most popular features - the sharing and handling of photos - but the use of the startup's technology has spurred concerns about user privacy.

Media reports in past weeks have pegged the size of the transaction at between $80 million to $100 million, but two people familiar with the terms of the deal said the actual price was below the low-end of that range.

Other sources suggest the deal is closer to $60m.

Facebook, which will acquire the technology and the employees of the 11-person Israeli company, said in a prepared statement that the deal allows the company to bring a 'long-time technology vendor in house.'

A Facebook spokesman said: 'People who use Facebook enjoy sharing photos and memories with their friends.

'Face.com’s technology has helped to provide the best photo experience. This transaction simply brings a world-class team and a long-time technology vendor in house.'

Face.com founder Gil Hirsch said on his company's blog: 'Our mission is and has always been to find new and exciting ways to make face recognition a fun, engaging part of people’s lives, and incorporate remarkable technology into everyday consumer products.

'We love building products, and like our friends at Facebook, we think that mobile is a critical part of people’s lives as they both create and consume content, and share content with their social graph.'

Face.com, which has raised nearly $5 million from investors including Russian Web search site Yandex, launched its first product in 2009.

The company makes standalone applications that consumers can use to help them identify photos of themselves and of their friends on Facebook, as well as providing the technology that Facebook has integrated into its service.

Faceboook uses the technology to scan a user's newly uploaded photos, compares faces in the snapshots with previous pictures, then tries to match faces and suggest name tags.

When a match is found, Facebook alerts the person uploading the photos and invites them to 'tag,' or identify, the person in the photo.

Responding to inquiries from U.S. and European privacy advocates, Facebook last year made it easier for users to opt out of its controversial facial-recognition technology for photographs posted on the website, an effort to address concerns that it had violated consumers' privacy.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Facebook in recent months, including the $1 billion acquisition of mobile photo-sharing service Instagram.

U.S. antitrust regulators are currently undertaking an extended review of the Instagram deal, which Facebook expects to close by the end of the year.

Shares of Facebook, which continue to trade below the price at which they were offered during the initial public offering in May, were up 5.5 percent at $31.66 in midday trading on Monday.

Researcher: CIA, NSA may have infiltrated Microsoft to write malware

Did spies posing as Microsofties write malware in Redmond? How do you spell 'phooey' in C#? 0 32 0Reddit1Submit2Email

By Kevin Fogarty

A leading security researcher has suggested Microsoft's core Windows and application development programming teams have been infiltrated by covert programmer/operatives from U.S. intelligence agencies.

If it were true it would be another exciting twist to the stories of international espionage, sabotage and murder that surround Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame, the most successful cyberwar weapons deployed so far, with the possible exception of Windows itself.

Nevertheless, according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of antivirus and security software vendor F-Secure, the scenario that would make it simplest for programmers employed by U.S. intelligence agencies to create the Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame viruses and compromise Microsoft protocols to the extent they could disguise downloads to Flame as patches through Windows Update is that Microsoft has been infiltrated by members of the U.S. intelligence community.

Having programmers, spies and spy-supervisors from the NSA, CIA or other secret government agencies infiltrate Microsoft in order to turn its technology to their own evil uses (rather than Microsoft's) is the kind of premise that would get any writer thrown out of a movie producer's office for pitching an idea that would put the audience to sleep halfway through the first act.

Not only is it unlikely, the "action" most likely to take place on the Microsoft campus would be the kind with lots of tense, acronymically dense debates in beige conference rooms and bland corporate offices.

The three remarkable bits of malware that attacked Iranian nuclear-fuel development facilities and stole data from its top-secret computer systems – Flame Duqu and Stuxnet – show clear signs of having been built by the same teams of developers, over a long period of time, Hypponen told PC Pro in the U.K.

Flame used a counterfeit Microsoft security certificates to verify its trustworthiness to Iranian users, primarily because Microsoft is among the most widely recognized and trusted computer companies in the world, Hypponen said.

Faking credentials from Microsoft would give the malware far more credibility than using certificates from other vendors, as would hiding updates in Windows Update, Hypponen said.

The damage to Microsoft's reputation and suspicion from international customers that it is a puppet of the CIA would be enough to keep Microsoft itself from participating in the operation, even if it were asked.

That doesn't mean it didn't happen.

"It's plausible that if there is an operation under way and being run by a US intelligence agency it would make perfect sense for them to plant moles inside Microsoft to assist in pulling it off, just as they would in any other undercover operation,” Hypponen told PC Pro. "It's not certain, but it would be common sense to expect they would do that."

The suggestion piqued the imaginations of conspiracy theorists, but doesn't have a shred of evidence to support it.

It does have a common-sense appeal, however. Planting operatives inside Microsoft would probably be illegal, would certainly be unethical and could have a long-range disadvantage by making Microsofties look like tools of the CIA rather than simply tools.

"No-one has broken into Microsoft, but by repurposing the certificate and modifying it with unknown hash collision technologies, and with the power of a supercomputer, they were able to start signing any program they wanted as if it was from Microsoft," Hypponen said. "If you combine that with the mechanism they were using to spoof MS Update server they had the crown jewels."

Hypponen is one of a number of security experts who have said Stuxnet and Duqu have the hallmarks of software written by traditionally minded software engineers accustomed to working in large, well-coordinated teams.

After studying the code for Duqu, security researchers at Kaspersky Labs said the malware was most similar to the kind of work done by old-school programmers able to write code for more than one platform at a time, do good quality control to make sure the modules were able to install themselves and update in real time, and that the command-and-control components ahd been re-used from previous editions.

"All the conclusions indicate a rather professional team of developers, which appear to be reusing older code written by top “old school” developers," according to Kaspersky's analysis. "Such techniques are normally seen in professional software and almost never in today’s malware. Once again, these indicate that Duqu, just like Stuxnet, is a 'one of a kind' piece of malware which stands out like a gem from the large mass of “dumb” malicious program we normally see."

Earlier this month the NYT ran a story detailing two years worth of investigations during which a range of U.S. officials, including, eventually, President Obama, confirmed the U.S. had been involved in writing the Stuxnet and Flame malware and siccing them on Iran.

That's far from conclusive proof that the NSA has moved its nonexistent offices to Redmond, Wash. It doesn't rule it out either, however.

Very few malware writers are able to write such clean code that can install on a variety of hardware systems, assess their new environments and download the modules they need to successfully compromise a new network, Kaspersky researchers said.

Stuxnet and Flame are able to do all these things and to get their own updates through Windows Update using a faked Windows Update security certificate.

No other malware writer, hacker or end user has been able to do that before. Knowing it happened this time makes it more apparent that the malware writers know what they are doing and know Microsoft code inside and out.

That's still no evidence that Microsoft could be or has been infiltrated by spies from the U.S. or from other countries.

It does make sense, but so do a lot of conspiracy theories.

Until there's some solid indication Flame came from inside Microsoft, not outside, it's probably safer to write off this string of associative evidence.

Even in his own blog, Hypponen makes fun of those who make fun of Flame as ineffective and unremarkable, but doesn't actually suggest moles at Microsoft are to blame.

In the end it doesn't really matter. The faked certificates and ride-along on Windows Update demonstrate the malware writers have compromised the core software development operations at Microsoft. They don't have to live there to do it; virtual compromise on the code itself would do the job more effectively than putting warm bodied programmers in the middle of highly competitive, highly intelligent, socially awkward Microsofties with a habit of asking the wrong question and insisting on an answer.

The risk of having any such infiltration discovered is far too high to expose the cyberwar version of Seal Team Six to the perils of Redmond.

Obama's Harvard law professor says 'President MUST be defeated in 2012' (even though he's the man Barack used to have on speed dial)

* Roberto Unger, 65, is respected author and Brazilian politician
* Taught Obama about 'reinventing democracy' at Harvard Law School
* Professor was an adviser during the 2008 election campaign

By Daily Mail Reporter

A former professor of Barack Obama has turned against his one-time student and publicly urged voters not to re-elect him.

Roberto Unger posted a video on YouTube detailing the reasons why he believes the President does not deserve a second term in the White House.

Mr Unger, a prominent Brazilian politician and an adviser to Obama in 2008, said: 'President Obama must be defeated in the coming election. He has failed to advance the progressive cause in the United States.'

The 65-year-old academic was in frequent contact with Mr Obama on his Blackberry throughout the last election campaign but has since decided that he no longer agreed with the President's decisions.

His list of complaints against the President is a long one in the video entitled 'Beyond Obama'.

The esteemed philosopher is scathing of Mr Obama's plans to salvage America's ailing economy, saying that his policy solely consists of 'financial confidence and food stamps'.

He adds: 'He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices.'

The politician admits that if Republican candidate Mitt Romney wins the election 'there will be a cost... in judicial and administrative appointments'.

However his most barbed remarks he reserves for the Democrat leader saying that Mr Obama has 'evoked a politics of handholding, but no one changes the world without a struggle'.

His summary of the past four years is equally scathing: 'Give the bond markets what they want, bail out the reckless so long as they are also rich, use fiscal and monetary stimulus to make up for the absence of any consequential broadening of economic and educational opportunity, sweeten the pill of disempowerment with a touch of tax fairness, even though the effect of any such tax reform is sure to be modest.'

Most of Mr Unger's comments seem to be politically to the left of Mr Obama, but he insists that the Republicans would be no more destructive than the Democrats as 'the risk of military adventurism' would remain the same.

And some would doubtless strike a chord with the President's GOP opponents, including the academic's attacks on Mr Obama's efforts to reform healthcare.

Mr Unger argues: 'He has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to health care in the mistaken belief that he would be spared a fight.'

He also suggests that, despite their fierce rivalry, the Democrats' agenda is little different to that of the Republicans, saying the party aims 'to put a human face on the programme of its adversaries'.

The professor concludes his video by saying: 'Only a political reversal can allow the voice of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life.'

Mr Unger is a renowned politician in his native Brazil. He has twice has run for president of Brazil and has served as Minister of Strategic Affairs.

Unger was one of the founding members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party and drafted its founding manifesto.

He has also advised on politics throughout Latin America.

The professor is a respected author having published dozens of books on economics, philosophy and politics.

In philosophy, his arguments are said to focus on some the greatest problems of the human existence.

The video, which was posted three weeks ago, has been viewed 22,000 times.

Mr Unger has taught at Harvard Law since 1976.

Obama studied jurisprudence and reinventing democracy with the professor. 

The President attended Harvard Law School in 1988 and was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year.

Last week Obama announced that young immigrants who were brought into the U.S. illegally will no longer be deported.

The Obama administration said the policy change announced on Friday will affect as many as 800,000 qualified immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation.

The President also came in for sharp criticism last week after he combined fundraising events with an official event - and charged the bill to the taxpayer.

Obama raised a total of $4.5million at the fundraisers, one at Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker's house and the other at the five-star Plaza Hotel.

However, the President's re-election campaign will not have to pay the full cost of his jaunt to the Big Apple, because he scheduled a short visit to the World Trade Center site.

Developing nations should prepare for 'Lehmans moment', says World Bank chief Robert Zoellick

Developing nations must be ready for a severe global financial crisis should the eurozone fail to cope with its current problems and suffer a "Lehmans moment", outgoing World Bank chief Robert Zoellick has said.

By Reuters

Policymakers and investors are nervously awaiting the outcome of this weekend's Greek election, which could empower radical leftists threatening to tear up the terms of a bailout deal and send shockwaves through financial markets.

Developing countries needed to "prepare for the uncertainty coming out of the eurozone and the wider financial markets", Zoellick told the Observer.

"It will be better if they can avoid piling up short-term debts that can come due in volatile periods and look to the fundamentals of future growth - infrastructure and human capital," he said.

The World Bank had been increasing its lending to support Bulgaria's banking system - one of the most exposed to Greece - and acting to prevent a credit crunch in southeast Europe, the paper reported Zoellick as saying.

The bank was also taking unspecified measures to protect countries in north Africa that were vulnerable to Europe's debt crisis and trade finance facilities were being strengthened for francophone west Africa, the newspaper added.

"Uncertainty in markets is now starting to increase costs for developing countries," Zoellick said. "The ripple effects are making everybody's life harder."

In a reference to tensions in the eurozone over Greece's future, Zoellick said: "Europe may be able to muddle through but the risk is rising. There could be a Lehmans moment if things are not properly handled."

The bankruptcy of US bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008 triggered a global financial slump that indebted Western nations are still struggling to recover from.