This One’s for the Ladies: Verizon & HTC Unveil a Female-Targeted, Purple Android

This one's for the ladies: Verizon & HTC

Every couple years, we womenfolk get a pink or purple gadget made especially for us; this time around, it’s HTC’s new Rhyme. 

As announced today by HTC execs, the phone will retail for $199 with a Verizon contract and sports a 3.7-inch screen, a 1GHz processor, and a 5-megapixel rear camera. 

In other words, it would be a perfectly standard Android handset, except for the fact that it’s purple, features a stable of feminine wallpaper options, and comes with a light-up charm. 

According to recent research, between 73 and 63 percent of Android owners are men. In one survey, males showed a preference for Android, women in the same study showed a strong preference for the iPhone — something that we attribute entirely to marketing.

So Verizon and HTC apparently thought a female-targeted phone and marketing campaign would help bring new consumers into the Android fold. 

The Rhyme will not support Verizon’s 4G LTE service, but it will come in a bundle with the aforementioned charm (also purple, it is designed to clip to your purse and comes with an LED that flashes when you have a notification), a speaker dock and matching purple earbuds. 

While we do understand that the Android OEM community might want to tap into the female demographic to extend their reach, we’re not sure a purple, light-up phone with mid-range specs and girlie wallpaper is the right way to do that. 

In fact, it might take an even greater commitment: several years of gender-neutral marketing that emphasizes features everyone can use and enjoy rather than Verizon’s current Android marketing, much of which positions the device at the center of a dystopian machine shop. 

The HTC Rhyme will be available for pre-order starting September 22. 

HP employees to get 'last chance' at TouchPads starting Sept. 28

HP earlier said that it would be building and releasing a new run of TouchPads, its soon-to-be late, but perhaps not too lamented webOS tablets, but did not say exactly when, although it said it would be sometime in HP's fiscal Q4 2011, which ends October 31.

With an announcement that the TouchPad will be returning to its EPP, can that new set of TouchPads be far away?

According to employees who have been sent an email by Stephen Dewitt, Stephen DeWitt, SVP & GM of HP webOS global business unit PSG (Personal Systems Group), the company will release a final batch of HP TouchPads to employees starting September 28th at 9:00 a.m. PDT. The pricing for the tablets will be the same as the fire sale prices ($99 for 16GB, $149 for 32GB) that spurred the demand that HP wanted at its original prices.

TouchPads will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, with only one TouchPad per employee (not one of each storage tier). Orders may take as long as 10 days to ship due to warehouse load. Orders will only be taken via the online EPP store, no phone orders.

One might expect that a number of these will end up on eBay. A number of TouchPads are selling on the online auction site for $200 instead of the $99 fire sale price for the 16GB model, meaning a 100 percent profit for a seller who managed to get one at the low, low price.

Although HP's earlier statement indicates that regular consumers should be able to get their own opportunity at the next run of TouchPads, it's unclear if that set of devices is already spoken for by those who managed to get unfulfilled orders in at the fire sale prices.

That said, we would recommend that folks start looking closely at sites such as HP's online store, Best Buy and Amazon.com in the days just prior to and just following Sept. 28.

Is there a cure for Internet addiction?

Internet addicts: There's help for you.

There's a cause-and-effect between online withdrawal (or use) and problem behavior.

There are skeptics out there who aren't ready to label more hours spent online than sleeping or working as being as addictive or as detrimental as traditional vices, but if crack is wack, what would you call gaming or chatting so much you neglect your kids or flunk out of school?

The Atlantic's Rebecca Rosen wrote a story about treatment centers that are springing up for this problem. That reminded me of a piece I saw on ABC last night (which MSNBC did earlier), featuring the story of a middle-aged guy so addicted to chatting online with a teen girl, he pleads guilty to a real-life shooting of an online rival for her affections.

Extreme "treatments" for Internet addiction also get publicity: Two years ago, a 15-year-old was allegedly beaten to death at an addiction camp in China.

These cases may be the stuff of "Law & Order"(SVU) episodes and prime-time news specials, but the real problem, facing real people, is being considered for inclusion in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders' fifth edition, due out in 2012. 

This does not come without its share of controversy. One trouble with the diagnosis of "Internet addiction" is that definitions of it vary widely.

A recent study of Connecticut high school students found one in 25 "who reported an 'irresistible urge' to be on the Internet and tension when they weren't online were more likely to be depressed and aggressive and to use drugs than their peers."

Yet that doesn't mean there's a cause-and-effect between online withdrawal (or use) and problem behavior.

Two years ago, reSTART, the first residential treatment center for online addicts opened in a suburb of Seattle. From the center's website, several treatment options are now available: Parent workshops, counseling and SMS coaching services, in-home assessments and a 45-day detox program at its retreat center.

On the reSTART site is a list of "Signs & Symptoms of Computer & Internet/Gaming Addiction" as determined by a Dr. Hilarie Cash, PhD. of Internet and Computer Addiction Services. Three to four yes responses suggest abuse; five or more suggest addiction:

• Increasing amounts of time spent on computer and internet activities

• Failed attempts to control behavior

• Heightened sense of euphoria while involved in computer and internet activitie

• Craving more time on the computer and internet

• Neglecting friends and family

• Feeling restless when not engaged in the activity

• Being dishonest with others

• Computer use interfering with job/school performance

• Feeling guilty, ashamed, anxious, or depressed as a result of behavior

• Changes in sleep patterns

• Physical changes such as weight gain or loss, backaches, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome 

• Withdrawing from other pleasurable activities

People who feel like they might have an addiction can also turn to resources such as Helpguide.org.

It breaks down Internet addiction into sub-categories like Cybersex Addiction, Information Overload (compulsive Web surfing) and Cyber-Relationship Addiction ("Addiction to social networking, chat rooms and messaging to the point where virtual, online friends become more important than real-life relationships with family and friends.")

Here are some of the site's self-help tips:

• To help you see problem areas, keep a log of how much you use the Internet for non-work or non-essential activities. Are there times of day that you use the Internet more? Are there triggers in your day that make you stay online for hours at a time when you planned for just 5 minutes? 

• Set goals for when you can use the Internet. For example, you might try setting a timer, scheduling use for certain times of day, or making a commitment to turn off the computer at the same time each night. Or you could reward yourself with a certain amount of online time once you’ve completed a homework assignment or finished the laundry, for instance. 

• Replace your Internet usage with healthy activities. If you are bored and lonely, resisting the urge to get back online can be very difficult. Have a plan for other ways to fill the time, such as going to lunch with a coworker, taking a class, or inviting a friend over. 

Lifehack also had these suggestions for solving Internet addiction:

• For the web-workers – get a virtual assistant. They can be fairly cheap and every hourly rate spent on them is one hour that you can shave from your computer time. This won’t solve the problem on its own, but web-workers will have a harder time defeating internet addiction and need to spend as little time as possible online when not completing essential work, at least until the addiction is dealt with. 

• Modify your routine. If you trap yourself by checking email first thing in the morning or heading straight for the computer when you get home from work, intending to get off and do other things but never quite getting there, change your routine a bit and get other things out of the way first. It’s much easier to get off the computer if you don’t get on it! Wait until you’ve done your household chores and got time spent with the kids (or pets, if that’s more your thing) out of the way, then give yourself some net time. Reward yourself, in small amounts, for holding out. 

• Don’t use the computer for recreational purposes. Remove the emotive feel-good incentive to use the computer by using it for business and email. Get it done and get off. Uninstall computer games, and vow to stay away from social networks and other recreational web destinations for at least a month or two.

As we carry around more smartphones and tablets and expand our access online, do you think Internet addiction is going to get worse? Do you think we're there already? How do you unplug and get back to what's real?

Author uncovers John Lennon's letters

More than 250 letters and cards sent by John Lennon to his family and friends are to be published for the first time.

Scores of letters written by John Lennon have been sold at auction over the years

Author Hunter Davies, who wrote the only official biography of The Beatles in the 1960s, is trying to track down every missive written by the singer.

"I've found a lot of letters that nobody's ever seen," he said.
Davies, whose book comes out next year, said it was the first time Lennon's widow Yoko Ono had given permission for his private letters to be published.

The author said there were "no dramatic revelations" but that the letters gave an insight into Lennon's life and his humour.

"You see him as a tortured soul," he said. "You see him being funny, you see him showing off, you see him depressed, you see him in different stages."

Davies has tracked down some correspondence through auction houses that have sold Lennon memorabilia over the years.

Relatives, members of the Beatles inner circle, memorabilia dealers and collectors have also given access to letters.

"His first reaction to any emotion, whether it was fury or amazement or hatred, was not really to go to the piano or the guitar," the author said of Lennon.

"He was just as likely to pick up a pen and write it. And he wrote such amusing letters.

 

"When he wrote a letter or a postcard to somebody, he saw it as a challenge to write a unique piece for them and to amuse them and respond to their humour."

Mr Davies was speaking at the annual Beatles Convention in Liverpool, part of International Beatle Week, which drew fans from around the world for tribute bands, talks, tours and a memorabilia fair.

A letter to Lennon's first wife Cynthia was auctioned at Christie's in 2006

The speakers also included Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird, who wrote the story of their family in her memoir Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon.
She said she had to set the record straight after being confronted by inaccuracies in accounts by Beatles experts.

"When I die I will know that I didn't let my mother's name be sullied and do nothing about it," she told the BBC.

"I was exasperated for a long, long time, and then I thought, you've got to do something with that energy. So I decided to write."

The event also saw John Lennon's original band return to the high school where they founded the group that would become The Beatles.

On Saturday, The Quarrymen performed in the school hall at Quarry Bank School, now called Calderstones School, where they played with Lennon as teenagers in the 1950s.

Banjo player Rod Davis - who was replaced by Paul McCartney in the band - said: "It was great fun.

"The school hall looks even better than I remember it 50-odd years ago. We actually played on that stage for a couple of school dances. So it was pretty authentic really."

Learn to cook on Google+ with a virtual, casual culinary class

Google+ Cooking School is the intersection of social media and the kitchen

When Google+ debuted, we here at Tecca were delighted with Hangouts, the new social network's dynamic video chat feature.

While Hangouts have great utility for virtual office meetings and catching up with friends who might be far afield, one New York foodie had a big idea: Why not host a cooking show?

Plenty of cooking shows have entertained popularity and even gone viral on YouTube, but Lee Allison's Google+ Cooking School opens up the kitchen to a group and broadcasts live. Hangouts can host up to 10 members, so each laid-back culinary session can have active participants without there being too many cooks in the (virtual) kitchen. So far, the social media culinary experiment has tackled a diverse menu ranging from from gnocchi and crab rangoon to paella.

Of course, the nature of Hangouts means his cooking show can't explode in viewership the same way a YouTube phenomenon would, but he's already looking forward. Allison got his start on Google+, but plans to actually launch the idea into a business venture called Social Skillet, which will necessitate that he leave Google+ for WebEx, a paid video conferencing software tool.

To keep up with Allison's cooking school, you can follow his Google+ profile and get social about all that simmering and sautéing.

Mars: Nasa images show signs of flowing water

Striking new images from the mountains of Mars may be the best evidence yet of flowing, liquid water, an essential ingredient for life.

Mars show signs of flowing water

The findings, reported today in the journal Science, come from a joint US-Swiss study.

A sequence of images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show many long, dark "tendrils" a few metres wide.

They emerge between rocky outcrops and flow hundreds of metres down steep slopes towards the plains below.

They appear on hillsides warmed by the summer sun, flow around obstacles and sometimes split or merge, but when winter returns, the tendrils fade away.

This suggests that they are made of thawing mud, say the researchers.

"It's hard to imagine they are formed by anything other than fluid seeping down slopes," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Scientist Richard Zurek of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but they appear when it's still too cold for fresh water.

Salty water

"The best explanation we have for these observations so far is flow of briny water, although this study does not prove that," said planetary geologist and lead author Professor Alfred McEwen of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona.

Saltiness lowers the temperature at which water freezes, and water about as salty as Earth's oceans could exist at these sites in summer.

"This could be the first flowing water," said Professor McEwen. This has profound implications in the search for extraterrestrial life.

"Liquid water is absolutely essential for life, and we've found life on Earth in pretty much every moist niche," said Dr Lewis Dartnell, astrobiologist at University College London, who was not involved in the study.
"So perhaps there could be hardy microbes surviving in these short periods of summer meltwater on the desert surface of Mars."

This was echoed by an expert on life in extreme environments, Professor Shiladitya DasSarma of the University of Maryland, also not involved in this study: "Their results are consistent with the presence of large and extensive underground salty lakes on Mars."

"This is an exciting possibility for those of us studying salt-loving (halophilic) micro-organisms here on Earth, since it opens the possibility that these kinds of hearty bugs may also inhabit our neighbouring planet," he said.

"Halophilic microbes are champions at withstanding the most punishing conditions, complete desiccation and ionising (space) radiation."

For geologist Joe Levy of Portland State University, a specialist in Antarctic desert ecosystems, who did not contribute to this work, they represent "a truly tantalising astrobiological target".

These small and mysterious tendrils could then be the best place to look for Martian life. Professor McEwen says that "for present-day life, these are the most accessible sites".

Countries brace for The Code War

LAS VEGAS -- Repeated and constant cyber attacks against the United States have turned the country's assessment of national security threats on its head.

Just five years ago, the CIA was mostly worried about physical threats like bombings or chemical warfare. But now, the CIA thinks cyber attacks have the second greatest potential for national destruction behind only a nuclear attack.

"Cyber will be part of any future conflict -- whether it's a nation state or terrorism," said Cofer Black, former director of the CIA's counterterrorist center, at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

It's not just that cyber will become part of warfare. It already has.

McAfee, a cybersecurity company owned by Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), announced late Tuesday that it uncovered a wide-ranging, global cyber attack that impacted 72 organizations.

A total of 36 corporations, 12 non-profits and 22 government organizations were affected, including 15 U.S. government agencies and the United Nations.

The broad-based nature of the attack means that every country and company must assume that they have been compromised, an executive at McAfee argued.

"You can't just deploy a firewall and assume you're safe," said Toralv Dirro, security strategist at McAfee. "Someone one way or another will get into a computer and attack your system."

McAfee found that a country launched a sponsored cyberespionage scheme, but it didn't go so far as to pin down the nation responsible. Though McAfee informed the companies and agencies that were spied on, most of those attacked didn't want the security company to name them publicly.

How they hack you

The scariest part of the scheme wasn't that it impacted so many organizations around the world, but that it has been going on, undetected, for the past five years. McAfee actually discovered the attack when the hackers finally made a mistake -- they left logs of their attacks on a command and control server that McAfee uncovered in 2009.

Cyberespionage poses a great threat since it gives the nations sponsoring the attacks a leg up in diplomacy, business competition and, should a conflict arise, warfare.

Countries have already shown how cyberattacks can be used to mitigate rivals' defenses.
In September 2007, Israeli F15s and F16s bombed a nuclear reactor construction site in Syria, but Syrian radars never picked up the planes crossing the border. That's because Israel had hacked Syria's radar software.

The most infamous example is Stuxnet, a bug so sophisticated that it significantly delayed Iran's nuclear program. The worm, which was likely loaded into the system on a thumb drive, ordered the centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear facility to spin out of control, ultimately destroying it. While that was happening, Stuxnet made all the readings tell Iranian engineers that everything was normal.

"I am here to tell you, and you can quote me, the Stuxnet attack is the Rubicon of our future," said Black. "Physical destruction of a national resource is huge."

It might not just be nations sponsoring these attacks one day, however. Black said Al Qaeda's abilities to launch physical attacks against the United States have largely been neutralized, but the group's potential ability to commit cyber warfare could wreak havoc on our resources.

"The natural inclination for Al Qaeda would be to fall back and enter the cyber world," he argued.

Though nations are unlikely to attack our systems for fear of response from the United States, terrorists wouldn't hesitate. That's a worry, since our government is woefully unprepared for such an event.

"Like the terrorist threat before 9/11, our leaders hear it but they don't believe it," Black said to the room of about 8,500 hackers and security professionals. "We're counting on you. The Code War is your war." 

Android conquers almost 50 percent of smartphone market

A model demonstrates a Nexus One smartphone, the first

mobile phone Google will sell directly to consumers based

on its Android platform, after a news conference at Google

headquarters in Mountain View, California January 5, 2010.

Google's Android platform has taken almost 50 percent of the global smartphone market, dominating in the Asia-Pacific region, research firm Canalys said on Monday.

Android, which Google acquired in 2005 and launched on phones in 2008, is used by almost all the major phone makers including HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung.

It was the number one platform in 35 of the 56 countries Canalys tracks, resulting in a market share of 48 percent, the research firm said.

By comparison, Apple, which shipped 20.3 million iPhones, is a distant second with a market share of 19 percent but it overtook ailing Finnish handset maker Nokia as the world's largest individual smartphone vendor.

Samsung also overtook Nokia but Canalys said the South Korean handset maker could have done better.
"Samsung has failed to fully capitalize on Nokia's weakened state around the world, as the Finnish company rides out a challenging transitional period," Canalys analyst Chris Jones said.

"It's the best placed vendor to grow at Nokia's expense, taking advantage of its global scale and channel reach, but it hasn't yet done enough to capitalize on this, particularly in emerging markets."

Samsung, which sells Android smartphones as well as its own bada branded devices, shipped some 17 million devices, a rise of 421 percent versus a year ago.

Android's success however comes with a headache for Google and its vendors.

Its Android mobile software has attracted a lawsuit from Oracle, while handset makers using the software have also been sued by both Apple and Microsoft, which claims an existing, perpetual license to Nortel patents.

Microsoft, whose own presence in the smartphone market is a mere 1 percent, receives money from deals reached with some Android handset makers but is pressing for more.

Last month, Apple, Microsoft and Blackberry maker RIM teamed up with three other companies to outbid Google at an auction for Nortel's wireless patents, which could result in big licensing fees for Google.

That move may run into legal obstacles.

The Wall Street Journal, quoting people familiar with the matter, reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is intensifying an investigation into whether Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion could use the recently acquired trove of patents to unfairly hobble competing smartphones using Google's Android software.

Unfazed by its failure to acquire the Nortel patents, Google, which has been hampered by a lack of intellectual property in wireless telephony, is said to have held talks about buying U.S. wireless chip technology company InterDigital to boost its patent portfolio.

InterDigital, which has a market value of $3.11 billion and 2010 revenues of $395 million, said earlier this week its board was evaluating strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company or of its patents.

GIT: What should spaceships look like?

GIT: What should spaceships look like?: "As the next generation of spaceships is being conceived, should shuttle designers take their inspiration from sci-fi illustrators? Genera..."

What should spaceships look like?

As the next generation of spaceships is being conceived, should shuttle designers take their inspiration from sci-fi illustrators?

 

Generations of schoolchildren, openly, and many adults, perhaps more guardedly, have delighted in fantastical depictions of space travel.

 

 

 

Sci-fi art and space reality

• Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun worked with Chesley Bonestell to illustrate his concepts of space technology.
• Nasa artist Robert McCall illustrated for Isaac Asimov and worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• Nasa commissioned space and aerospace illustrator Vincent Di Fate to create the official painting of the International Space Station in 1985.
• Before a man walked on the moon, Norman Rockwell provided a depiction of what the first step on the moon would look like

From Star Wars back to 2001: A Space Odyssey and even further back to comic hero Dan Dare and Victorian illustrations for the stories of Jules Verne and HG Wells, the way spaceships should look has been an important issue - before the first rocket booster ever fired.

But the fanciful reputation of sci-fi novels and films aside, the illustration of spacecraft might actually have a realistic place in the design of future vessels.

The line has often been blurred between the realm of the sci-fi artist and the real spacecraft designers.
Often referred to as the father of modern space art, Chesley Bonestell had a significant impact on not only science fiction illustration, but the whole of the American space programme.

German rocket developer and champion of space exploration Dr Wernher von Braun, who was inspired by the works of Verne and Wells, commissioned Bonestell to illustrate his spaceflight concepts in a 1952 issue of Collier's Weekly magazine.

The combination of von Braun's technology and Bonestell's artistic vision made the science come alive for the layman readers. Of course, the tax dollars and votes of those inspired layman readers would be needed to realise ambitious space projects.

The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists now honours work in the sci-fi and fantasy art industry with its annual Chesley Awards.

“An enterprising company might achieve success by offering spaceships that resemble the unique visions of Chris Foss”

Harry Lange was a German artist who got his start in military flight manual illustrations and was appointed to lead the future projects section for Nasa. He and his team found themselves illustrating von Braun's ideas to promote his vision of a US space station. Lange ended up as production designer on Stanley Kubrick's 2001.

On the other hand it's hard to imagine the designs of Chris Foss, the subject of a new retrospective book, Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss, easily crossing the line into the real world of space travel. With Picasso as an inspiration, Foss created book covers that pioneered a new style of space art, featuring prominently placed gigantic colourful craft in swirling spacescapes.

Marked with mysterious symbols and complex patterns, his illustrations have breathed life into sci-fi writings of everyone from Isaac Asimov to EE "Doc" Smith and AE van Vogt. Foss was also commissioned to do work for Alien, Superman and Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade film version of Dune.

Seeing Kubrick's 2001 made a lasting impression on his work, as did the Cold War years and the bleakness of some of the derelict areas of post-war Britain. "People were really looking for a new kind of explosion," says Foss. "Humans want hope. They want something to believe in."

So is it fanciful to imagine Foss's ships - or those of equally florid artists - being like Bonestell's and infiltrating real design?

Perhaps not if a new age of privately-financed space travel needs to rally support in the same way von Braun and Bonestell did.

The end of the space shuttle programme presents a new challenge for spacecraft engineers and designers - one that could even benefit from collaboration with artists.

With government funding constricted, many will be looking to private investors to lead the future of space vessels.

More and more, the aim of companies, such as Boeing, will be to entice consumers to pay for space travel. Just as airlines have done, they will have to appeal to potential passengers - and investors - in order to establish their brands against the competition.

"An enterprising company seeking to attract government and private passengers might achieve success by offering them spaceships that resembled the unique visions of Chris Foss," says science fiction academic Dr Gary Westfahl.

Exotic design might play a part similar to that of airline insignia - from Alaska Airlines' themed craft to Aer Lingus's shamrocks. The goal is to establish brand recognition and visual appeal.

"Foss made his spaceships beautiful not by streamlining them but by adding bright, decorative colours," says Westfahl.

Some might find it strange that a Nasa worker like Lange could make the jump from a deep space project to Hollywood and end up with Oscar nomination for the art direction on The Empire Strikes Back.

But space is a particularly romanticised part of our vision of exploration, says Dr Eric Rabkin, a professor of English at the University of Michigan who specialises in science fiction.

It's because of the unknown, he says. Trains must go where tracks have previously been laid down and planes have to fly where they can ultimately land.

"Ships are inherently romantic because they can go where no one has before. Ships are associated with freedom and conquest," says Rabkin.

The Next MySpace: Facebook

What ever happened to loyalty?





A shiny new social-networking site comes along and before you know it, we're all flirting with the frisky startup, leaving our dates back at the table to pay the check. At least, that's how it seems with Google+, the latest competition for our Facebook affections.

In just a few weeks, Google+ has enticed roughly 20 million people to join, according to Comscore. And that's before it's even officially debuted; you still have to be invited to go to this dance. Furthermore, while the service is still in pre-release mode, many of us using it have found it to already be simpler, slicker, and generally better at the social-networking waltz than Facebook (and it always lets you lead).

Uber-venture capitalist Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners recently argued that the social network war was over.

"The last 500 social companies funded by the venture capital community are all worthless," McNamee said during a presentation to a crowd of media types. As far as McNamee is concerned, the social platform has been established, and it's Facebook. He may be right. He has nearly 30 years experience investing in tech, including an early bet on Facebook. And Facebook, according to the company's own tally, has 750 million members.

Plenty of people have offered excellent reasons for abandoning Facebook, however. Some of my FB friends have already switched because changing networks is as simple as a mouse click, and there's no exit cost whatsoever -- indeed there may be several benefits.

Many FB friends, for example, would rather switch than fight Facebook's ever-evolving privacy settings. Purposively convoluted, Facebook's pages of inscrutably marked multiple boxes have made it about as friendly as Windows Millennium Edition. So one day your chat line is closed, the next you're open online for everyone to see. It's created Facebook fatigue.

Then there's the grandma factor: If everyone is on Facebook, not only is it no longer cool but it also means I can't say anything without fear of retribution -- or being outed for playing beer pong by my boss or mom.
That's no fun at all, and Google+ at least makes it easier to compartmentalize friends, acquaintances, and business associates (unlike Facebook's lists, which are a pain in the you-know-what). Some Google+ members are even creating "frenemy" circles (now there's an idea that's bound to get you in trouble).
There are two other important undercurrents to the rising tide boosting Google+: momentum and the nature of social circles.

The first issue looks ominous for Facebook when one looks back at the fall of MySpace. The switch from MySpace to Facebook seemed predicated on a number of factors. There was the sheer clutter of MySpace, which looked like something out of an early GeoCities blog. It became a blinking, flashing, honking mess. And Facebook connected people and conversations more seamlessly.

Perhaps more critical was the sheer momentum of Facebook as it picked up speed, sucking in more and more friends until it became an irresistible social vortex. Now, Google+ looks poised to possibly do the same to Facebook, draining away members and eyeballs.

The second point is a lesson about social behavior. Switching from one network to another may just be an inevitable part of our social habits. Every once in a while, we simply need a change. No one can eat the same meal every day, and we can't visit the same bar or coffee shop every day without getting bored. Some folks have been on Facebook for nearly 7 years; that's a long time to be hanging out at the same watering hole. And what is it they say about the 7-year itch?

So switching social circles may be preordained. And Google+ is simply the next hot hangout.

Mozilla challenges Android with new web OS

Throws down challenge with Boot to Gecko

Mozilla has announced an audacious project to build an open source smartphone and tablet operating system to rival the increasingly cosy three-way domination of Android, Apple’s iPhone and Windows Phone.

Under the name of Boot to Gecko (B2G), the new OS will take the Gecko HTML rendering engine of Mozilla’s Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client and build around it a wholly open source project capable of running atop Android-compatible hardware thanks to re-use of a few nuggets of low-level code from that OS.

The B2G project is still at a very early stage but the outline of something complex and unusual can be discerned form the blog comments that announced it.

Its foundation will be to use open web standards rather than “single-vendor stacks”, risky given the immaturity of that environment, but consistent with Mozilla’s open web vision.

The development team announced four areas that are needed to get Boot to Gecko off the ground, including new APIs to tie the underlying Android hardware layer to software for interfaces such as telephony, storage, cameras, and networking comms. Security design is also a key issue; source code resulting from all development will be released in real time.

“This project is in its infancy; some pieces of it are only captured in our heads today, others aren’t fully explored. We’re talking about it now because we want expertise from all over Mozilla - and from people who aren’t yet part of Mozilla - to inform and build the project we’re outlining here,” announced the Mozilla project team.

As is the nature of open source, the exact direction of future development will depend to some extent on those who contribute to it.

Whatever B2G turns into, perhaps its biggest challenge isn’t to Android itself but to Google’s model for developing that operating system, which sees source code released at the company leisure in a way that some believe has fragmented application development across different versions. The pointed release of source code as development proceeds is a backhanded reference to frustrations at Google’s approach.

“We want to do Boot to Gecko the way we think open source should be done. In the open, from day 1, for everyone to see and participate,” said Mozilla project leader, Andreas Gal.

Boot to Gecko is also a way of proposing not just a market alternative to established proprietary mobile operating systems, but a different direction altogether, one centred on web applications.
It has some similarities to Google’s own ChromeOS – in other words the belief that web applications will be the foundation of future operating systems – and could turn into a slightly different version of the same thing minus the association with a single commercial interest.
Boot to Gecko will attract a lot of interest but hurdles remain. The pace of development will be watched very closely on the gitub project repository.

They also claim that Facebook has "no penetration into the search market" which ignores Facebook's close ties with Microsoft and integration with Bing, never mind the recent partnership between Bing and Baidu.


Productivity and communication

Google has a plethora of online productivity and communications services: Google Docs, Gmail, Google Chat, Google Voice, etc. Google+ and Google+ Business Profiles will ostensibly give Google an opportunity to integrate these into a cohesive whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Fair enough, but Facebook has Microsoft and Skype (soon to be one and the same). Facebook is already integrated with Microsoft Office Web Apps for productivity, and with Skype for video chat. I don't know the actual numbers, but I am fairly sure that Microsoft Office has a few more users than Google Docs, and my experience with Google Docs left a little something to be desired when trying to work in a Microsoft Office world.


E-Commerce

Mitaru and Wenzel cite the Google Checkout payment system as a factor in favour of Google+ Business Profiles as an e-commerce platform. I see it as limited, and an opportunity for Google to lock businesses in to using Google Checkout.

My peers go on to point out that Facebook only offers e-commerce through third party tools like TabJuice, and paint that as a negative. The e-commerce landscape is much larger than TabJuice, including other vendors such as Payvment, and Facebook has e-commerce ties with both eBay and Amazon who are two of the biggest names in online commerce. The scope and variety of e-commerce options give Facebook the advantage.


Advertising and analytics

Google has a dominant pseudo-monopoly in online advertising to rival its dominant pseudo-monopoly of online search. Google AdWords, and the growing empire of Google online and mobile advertising services, are a force that businesses can't ignore. However, the points made by my peers only explain why Google AdWords will remain a tour de force, they don't have any relation to Google+ Business Profiles.

The same is true for Google Analytics. It is a great service and a valuable tool. It is more mature and has broader reach across the web than Facebook Pages Insights, but the Facebook Pages Insights offer tremendous analytics for all it is intended for: Facebook Pages.


Don't hold your breath

The article by Mitaru and Wenzel has some other questionable points. For example, it speculates that Google will simply integrate Google+ Business Profiles and Google Places, while Facebook is allegedly struggling to get businesses to merge Facebook Places and Facebook Pages to achieve similar synergy.

I don't doubt that Google will just do that, which is part of what makes Google+ creepy and undesirable. Google will take bold liberties in merging and integrating services whether you like it or not, while Facebook leaves it up to each business to merge services, or grant permission to third party services on a case by case basis.

Facebook has the audience with over 750 million users. Facebook has services in place equivalent to virtually everything Google can throw into Google+, some of it just needs to be tweaked or repackaged to shift the focus. If there are gaps, Facebook has can form partnerships and alliances as it has done with Microsoft, Skype, Amazon and eBay.

From a business perspective, Facebook Pages trumps Google+ Profiles because businesses are already invested and established there. Facebook also has an advantage because of its close ties with Microsoft. Google+ is impressive on some levels, and it will most likely be the primary competitor for Facebook for the foreseeable future. But don't hold your breath waiting for Google to crush or trump Facebook any time soon.  

How to digitise your music collection, Rip CDs, records and tapes to high quality audio files

In my lifetime, music has been delivered on vinyl, cassettes, eight track tapes, CDs and audio DVDs. How do I listen to it now? Usually with a PC or a smartphone, and occasionally with an MP3 or other media player. I downloaded much of that music or ripped it from CDs, but the rest of it came from LPs and cassettes.

If you have an analogue turntable, digitising 33-rpm LPs and 45-rpm single re­­cords is straightforward. Old school turntables require grounding and a preamp, so you can't plug them directly into most PC audio interfaces. Instead, connect the turntable to a stereo receiver's phono jacks and the ground wire to the ground screw on the receiver. Then run the re­­ceiver's tape or line out to the line input of your PC's audio interface (normally the light blue mini-stereo jack on the back). You'll need an RCA-to-mini-stereo converter cable.

Tape players (aka tape decks), whether they are cassette, eight-track or reel-to-reel, have line-level outputs that you can attach directly to the line inputs of your computer's audio interface. To convert music from these players, too, you must have an RCA-to-mini-stereo converter cable.

USB-connected audio recording

USB turntables and cassette decks make digitising your LPs, 45s and cassettes a bit simpler by performing the analogue-to-digital conversion onboard, and then transferring the results to your PC via USB cable. If you're not picky about audio quality, these devices work fine. However, none of the units that I tested could create sound files that were up to rigorous audiophile standards.

Crosley Radio's products have a distinctive, appealingly retro look. The CR2413A Memory Master that I tested in­­cludes a turntable (33, 45 and 78 rpm), a cassette player, an FM radio, a CD player and auxiliary line-level stereo audio inputs for other audio devices such as MP3 players, all of them recordable to your PC via a USB connection.

Alas, the quality of the unit's components (especially the turntable) was a tad disappointing. The digitised sound was decent, but again, it did not approach audiophile quality.

Ion LP 2 CD is a turntable with USB connections for analogue-to-digital audio conversion, the unit subsequently transfers digitised recordings to your PC via USB cable. The quality of Ion Audio's LP 2 CD turntable, in contrast, was im­­pressive, offering the anti-skate and tracking pressure adjustments missing from the Crosley CR2413A. The sound from its pre-amped analogue line outputs was very good, but its USB output sounded little better than the Crosley's.

Another Ion product, its Tape 2 PC cassette deck, created middling audio recordings in my tests, regardless of whether I connected it via the USB or via the analogue line outputs.

Editing your sound files

Once you've connected your hardware, use a program such as Audacity to record, edit and save your newly digitised music.

Don't bother trying to separate each song during the recording process, record wholes sides of records and cassettes. Any audio editor or recording app worth its salt lets you select and save individual sections of an audio file. The start and end points of songs are easy to spot by the changes in the visual wave form. The editing software will let you se­­lect and save each individual track to a file that you create on your PC.
You can ditch the larger file once you've split it up. If you intend to apply noise reduction, don't trim your recordings until after you've cleaned them up. Noise reduction software can use the spaces between tracks to "profile" noise for more effective processing with less loss of dynamic range throughout the spectrum.

If you're not especially concerned about the sound quality, saving your recordings to compressed MP3, AAC or WMA is fine. Experts differ on which bit rate sounds best for each format. I use at least 192 kilobits per second for MP3 and AAC files, and 160 kbps for WMA files. For classical music, I bump those rates up to the maximum (320, 256 or 192 kbps, depending on the format) or use the free FLAC lossless codec. For devices that don't support FLAC, and many do not, I use Windows' or Apple's lossless formats.

If you want audiophile quality sound and your audio interface supports doing so, you should record at something higher than the CD-standard 44.1kHz/16 bits, and then save your recordings as uncompressed WAV files. Recording at 24 bits or 32 bits, and at 48kHz or even 96kHz can alleviate the "sterile sound" that audiophiles complain about. It also yields better results when you apply effects and noise reduction. You can always export the files later as MP3, AAC or another format. If you don't have enough drive space to accommodate these larger files, get a bigger hard drive.

De­­spite manufacturers' touting of high definition, surround sound and high bit-rate features, most PCs don't output sound that's audiophile quality. Nor do they handle the analogue-to-digital conversion of in­­put content very well. For dramatically better analogue transfers, use a USB audio interface such as Presonus's Audiobox USB, Avid's Pro Tools Mbox Mini or Focusrite's Saffire 6. Internal sound cards are available, but USB devices are portable and are suitable for use with laptops.

Cakewalk Pyro Audio Creator 1.5 is a program designed specifically for digitising analog music. If the above-mentioned Audacity is a little too geeky for your taste, you can find a number of affordable recording/editing programs such as Cakewalk's Pyro Audio Creator 1.5 and Bias's SoundSaver that are designed specifically for digitising analogue music. Both of these products also offer easier, more effective noise reduction than Audacity.

Noise reduction

The biggest problem with analog audio is noise, which gets digitised along with the music. Vinyl suffers from clicks, pops and scratchiness, while hiss plagues tape.

Recording apps such as Audacity include restoration features that can help remove the noise, but they're difficult to use and can kill the dynamic range of your music if you use them improperly. Most commercial high end sound editors such as Adobe's Audition 3 provide effective noise removal.

If you want the best restoration software, however, you should look to either Bias's SoundSoap 2 or iZotope's RX 2. In my tests, I found SoundSoap 2 simple to use and the audio files that I created with it sounded great. Nevertheless, I got even better results from RX 2, which created audio that blew me away, especially during quiet passages.

Audio and video transfer tips

Clean It

Before digitising your audio, don't forget to clean your vinyl, turntable needle or the playback head of your tape deck (audio or video). Cheap accessories and fluids are available for removing the dust and grunge from your LPs, but Q-Tips and isopropyl alcohol will work just fine for a cassette deck. Eyeglass cleaning cloths also work well on record/playback heads.

Old cassettes and tape (music, video, or data) can be finicky, especially if they haven't been used in a while. Richard Corsello, a professional engineer and transfer specialist of 30 years who currently works with Sonny Rollins, recommends a quick fast forward and rewind through the entire tape to respool and loosen the mechanism before transfer, as well as every couple of years in storage.

Also, believe it or not, giving the tapes an overnight stay in a food dehydrator can pull out the mold or other moisture-related gunk. I did that recently with some old reel-to-reels from the 70s, and it worked like a charm.

Cables

Make sure your audio cables are in good shape, and that there's no rust, corrosion, or junk on the connectors. However, don't go crazy with "pro" audio cables. Vendors play on the subconscious perception that the more valuable the metal, the better anything made with it must be.

To a slight extent this is true. Gold tips reduce oxidation, and the softness of the metal makes for slightly firmer connections. However, in the chart below, look where platinum winds up. According to every blind test ever done, you'll hear no difference between a £5 cable and a £50 cable, as long as they are reasonably well made. In other words, the cables that came with your equipment are most likely all you need.

Metal, specific resistance per cubic centimetre, in micro-ohms*
Silver, annealed, 1.50
Copper, annealed, 1.62
Gold, annealed, 2.05
Aluminum, annealed, 2.91
Zinc, pressed, 5.61
Platinum, annealed, 9.04
*A lower number means less resistance and better conductivity.

Turntables, needles and 78s

There's a ream of information about turntables out there, the features and sound of these marvels were an obsession with audiophiles long before boutique cables, oversampling of CDs and so on. Any decent turntable should do, but tracking and pressure adjustments will reduce degradation of your vinyl and help with records that skip. If the turntable has seen a lot of use, a new needle and/or cartridge might be in order.
However, I've never heard any difference after changing these, but that's with my ears. If there's a problem with warbling (regular pitch changes), the belt might need to be replaced.

While you can play 78 rpm records with a 33/45 needle, 78s have a wider groove and require a specialised needle for best results as well as preserving the record. Needle Finder or Needle Doctor sell these for just about every turntable ever made.

If your turntable doesn't spin at 78 rpm, you may record at 33 or 45 rpm and increase the speed using the recording app. The free Audacity makes this particularly easy, all you have to do is pick the rpm you recorded at and the rpm that the record was made at, for example 33/78, press Enter and the recording will be changed to the proper speed.

Tape decks and belts

That vast majority of tape decks sold to consumers used belts as part of their drive system. These belts tend to stretch with age as well as usage, I've seen older, never used cassette decks come straight out of the box that still needed new belts. Most vendors who sold cassette or tape decks still have belts in stock, and you can buy belts by size at Studio Sound Electronics.

Caveat: While replacing a turntable belt generally requires nothing but lifting the actual spinning turntable that the records lay upon and slapping a new one on, changing the belts on a cassette deck can be more daunting.
Removing the outer case is easy, and many decks require removal of only one or two parts. However, some bury the belts beneath a Rube Goldberg-ian maze of interconnected components. It can be easier just to buy a new deck, though if you like puzzles, solving the order and disassembly methods can be rewarding.

Music OCR and Sheet Music From MP3s

There are some interesting ways to digitise and manipulate any sheet music or recordings you may have.

Hear your sheet music

If musical notation is Greek to you, but you still want to hear what all the sheet music your aunt left you sounds like, simply scan it and convert it to a MIDI file. MIDI files will play back using such readily available programs as Windows Media Player and QuickTime Player. The process is called music OCR.

The big players in music OCR are Neuratron with its PhotoScore Midi Lite 5 and PhotoScore Ultimate 6, and Musitek with its SmartScore Midi and SmartScore X Pro. They not only create MIDI files, but create notation and allow you to edit that notation.

Most users will be fine with the less expensive versions, and you can even get a free music OCR program, the Java-based Audiveris. Audiveris is pretty geeky, though, and you must come up with the required Maestro font on your own if you want to view the results as onscreen notation. The program will still save the results to a MIDI file whether you have the fonts or not.

If your granddad or aunt was an aspiring composer or orchestrator, you may even import the resulting MIDI file into a high-end notation program such as MakeMusic's Finale 2011, Avid's Sibelius 6, or Notion Music's Notion 3, and listen to it played by a full symphony orchestra. Who knows? Maybe Beethoven will finally have to roll over.

If you're interested in better notation editing than that provided by PhotoScore and SmartScore OCR applications, but don't need the sounds of a full orchestra or other advanced features of the pricey editors listed above, more affordable consumer versions are available: MakeMusic's PrintMusic, Avid's Sibelius First and Notion Music's Progression to name three.

Create sheet music from recordings

If you don't have sheet music, but do have audio recordings that you'd like to hear as MIDI files or see as sheet music, there are programs that transcribe your audio to MIDI and notation as well. Though the technology is far from perfect, Neuratron's AudioScore Ultimate 6 and the Intelliscore Ensemble 8 do a much better job recognising the notes in a recording than you might think possible.
The simpler the material and the more diverse the range of the instruments, the better the results, but you should be able to get a broad, usable sketch of just about anything, and maybe even turn that recording of the ditty that Uncle Joe used to sing at the family picnic into a top 10 hit. More likely, you'll wind up with a nice piece of sheet music with Joe's name on it. A treasure in any case, depending, of course, on how much you liked Joe.

By Jon L. Jacobi

Edited by Anthony Ian G. Etcobanez

Internet Explorer 9 hammers rivals in download blocking test

By John E Dunn
Edited By Anthony Ian G. Etcobanez

Firefox and Chrome bested by Microsoft's reputation system

The in-house reputation system used in Internet Explorer 8 and 9 is markedly superior at blocking social-engineering attacks than the Google equivalent used by Chrome, Firefox, Apple’s Safari, an independent test by NSS Labs has found.

Rating the browsers against a sample set of European malware URLs over 19 days in April, IE 8 achieved a mean block rate of 90 percent, leaving Chrome 10, Firefox 4 and Safari 5 in the dust on 13 percent each. Opera, which uses technology from antivirus company AVG, came in last on 5 percent.

When assessing IE 9 with application filtering turned on, the results were even more dramatic, taking that version to a mean blocking rate of 100 percent.

Internet Explorer’s positive showing appears to be thanks to two embedded technologies; Smartscreen URL Filter, a cloud-based system that checks URLs against a master database. This is present in both IE 8 and 9 and seems to work more or less identically in both.

In addition, IE 9 has added a second system, SmartScreen Application Reputation which on the basis of this test offers browser users a remarkably effective level of download block protection. Chrome, Firefox and Safari all use a rival URL checking system, Google’s Safe Browser Feed, which as previous NSS Labs tests have suggested, is now falling some way behind.

“The significance of Microsoft’s new application reputation technology cannot be overstated. Application Reputation is the first attempt by any vendor to create a definitive list of every application on the Internet,” the authors conclude.

“Browsers provide a layer of protection against socially-engineered malware, in addition to endpoint protection products; as this report shows, not all are created equal. The overall lower protection offered by Firefox, Safari, and Chrome is concerning.”

An extra but important dimension also tested was the ‘average response time to block malware’, basically the time it took each browser to add a problem site to the block list once it had been fed in to the test by NSS Labs.

Again, IE 9 with Application Reputation enabled gained a perfect score, adding a site without any delay, the only browser to manage such a feat. Interestingly, however, without the Application layer, IE 8 and 9 sank down the table, taking nearly 14 and 16 hours respectively, behind Safari’s five hours, Chrome’s nearly seven hours, and Firefox’s 8 hours.

Block time is worth paying attention to because the longer protection takes to be activated, the longer the window of possible exposure.

The limitation of the report is that it is only measuring one dimension of the threat users face when using browsers, that of attacks where the user can be tricked - ‘socially-engineered’ in security parlance - into downloading malware. This compares with what are called ‘drive-by’ attacks that seek to exploit specific vulnerabilities in software and which require no user intervention.

Which is more dangerous is a matter of debate although NSS Labs references a separate study by AVG that found socially-engineered attacks to be the most likely way for malware to find its way on to a user’s PC.

A social engineering attack has the advantage that it recruits the user to agree to a download event thereby potentially bypassing Windows controls such as User Access Control (UAC) and even the warnings of antivirus software. A drive-by attack, especially one manipulating a zero-day flaw, can sneak on to the PC without any of these defences being aware but requires more engineering effort to work.

The claim that socially-engineered attacks are the more significant doesn’t entirely accord with the admittedly patchy evidence that exists on the subject.

A recent and revealing assessment by Qualys using its Browsercheck tool found that large numbers of browser users routinely run out-of-date plug-ins for interfaces such as Flash Adobe Reader and especially Java. Many of these have significant flaws that can be attacked by drive-by exploits.

It could be that both sides of this coin – social-engineering attacks and drive-by attacks – are equally perilous but in different ways.

A final qualification is that the test was conducted on Firefox 4, since supplanted by the rapid-development replacement, version 5.0, likewise Google Chrome, which has reached version 13. The URL-filtering systems used by these are, however the same as in the previous versions so would be unlikely to make a difference to their blocking performance.

Mac antivirus firm releases iPhone malware scanning app

By Gregg Keizer
Edited By Anthony Ian G. Etcobanez

VirusBarrier approved by Apple for limited virus protection

A French security company known for its Mac OS X antivirus software today released the first malware scanning app for the iPhone and iPad and iPod touch.

Intego's VirusBarrier for iOS has been approved by Apple, and debuted on the App Store for £1.79.
Because iOS prevents the program from accessing the file system or conducting scheduled scans, as do virtually all Mac and Windows antivirus software, VirusBarrier must be manually engaged and scans only file attachments and files on remote servers, said Peter James, a spokesman for Intego.

"Because of the sandbox, you can't scan the file system," said James. "Since you don't see the iOS file system, the only things you can scan are attachments sent by email or files in, say, your Dropbox folder."
Unlike software written for Android, such as Lookout, VirusBarrier cannot scan apps for possible infection.

When an email attachment is received by the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, the user can intercede by calling on VirusBarrier, which then scans the file for possible infection before the file is opened or forwarded to others.

"We've had enterprise customers say that although they know you can't do a full system scan of an iPhone, they don't like the fact that files go through these devices and end up on a Mac or Windows PC," said James. "They want their users to be able to check that an attachment is safe."

He characterised VirusBarrier for iOS as a way for iPhone and iPad users to prevent their hardware from spreading malware. "You don't want your iPhone becoming a 'Typhoid Mary,'" James said.

VirusBarrier for iOS can scan email attachments in a variety of formats, including Microsoft's Word, Excel and PowerPoint, PDF documents, JavaScript files and Windows executables, those files tagged with the .exe extension. It can also scan files in a Dropbox folder, those stored on MobileMe's iDisk or files downloaded via the iOS version of Safari.

The scanning engine and signatures, the digital "fingerprints" used to detect malware, in VirusBarrier for iOS are identical to those used by Intego's Mac OS X product line.

"It's important that people understand what [VirusBarrier] can and cannot do," said James, pointing to the malware scanner's limitations. "Although there is no malware written for iOS today, if attackers do try to exploit the PDF vulnerability, this is something we can scan for."

James was referring to the still unpatched vulnerability in iOS that can be exploited through a malicious PDF document, one of two bugs used last week to "jailbreak" iOS devices.

VirusBarrier for iOS can be downloaded to an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch from Apple's App Store. It requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Microsoft tells customers to dump Windows XP before support runs out

By Gregg Keizer
Edited By Anthony Ian G. Etcobanez

Aggressive move coincides with 1,000 days of support left

Microsoft on Monday made its most aggressive move yet to convince customers to drop Windows XP and adopt Windows 7, telling them that there were only 1,000 days of support life left in the older operating system.

Stephen Rose, the IT community manager for the Windows commercial team, noted the 1,000 days remaining for Windows XP support in a post to a Microsoft blog.

"Windows XP had an amazing run and millions of PC users are grateful for it. But it's time to move on," Rose said, adding that the operating system exits security support in "less than 1,000 days."

The 10-year-old XP actually has a little longer to live than that: Microsoft has promised to patch XP through April 8, 2014, 1,002 days from Monday.

"Bottom line, PCs running Windows XP will be vulnerable to security threats" after that date, said Rose. "Furthermore, many third party software providers are not planning to extend support for their applications running on Windows XP, which translates to even more complexity, security risks and ultimately added management costs for your IT department."

According to usage statistics and research firm surveys, Microsoft has its work cut out in moving users off XP.

Web metrics firm Net Applications now has Windows 7's usage share at 27%, for example, but XP still powers 51% of the world's personal computers. If the trends of each over the last three months continue, Windows 7 won't pass XP in the race for share until the second quarter of 2012.

Businesses are even more reliant on Windows XP, said Forrester Research when it recently estimated the aged OS's share at 60% of enterprise PCs.

Monday wasn't the first time Microsoft portrayed XP as yesterday's OS. Earlier this year, executives on the Internet Explorer (IE) team called XP the "lowest common denominator" as they explained why the OS wouldn't run IE9 or any future browsers.

And the company has taken firm steps to kill off other products it considers obsolete. Since mid-2009, Microsoft has urged users to give up IE6, the browser that shipped shortly before XP. Four months ago it upped the ante by launching a deathwatch website that highlights IE6's dwindling usage share.

The push to abandon XP coincided with the opening of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), the company's annual reseller meet. CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off WPC by celebrating another Windows 7 milestone, selling 400 million licences for the OS.

Tami Reller, head of product marketing for the Windows group, cited that number to compare Windows 7's uptake with XP's in the same span of time. "That is three times the pace of Windows XP," Reller said.
Unmentioned Monday was Windows Vista, the hapless 2007 version that has been called Microsoft's first OS failure since 2000's Windows Millennium. Customers agree. Vista peaked at just under 19% in October 2009, but has lost about half its share since.

Instead, Reller talked up not just Windows 7 as the replacement for XP, but also its successor, Windows 8, which most expect to ship next year. While Reller encouraged corporate customers to continue deploying Windows 7, she promised that Windows 8 would run on the same hardware.

"For our business customers, your customers," she said, speaking to the partners at WPC, "this is an important element because the ability of Windows 8 to run on Windows 7 devices ensures that the hardware investments that these customers are making today will be able to take advantage of Windows 8 in the future."

While neither Reller nor Ballmer mentioned Windows 7's lifecycle, the company will push consumers now running Windows 7 to upgrade to Windows 8, too. According to Microsoft's longstanding practice, it will support Windows 7 Home Premium, the most popular edition for consumers, for five years, half the time slated for enterprise support.

Windows 7 Home Premium will be retired from security support in January 2015.