Microsoft launches Forefront Protection 2010

November 10th, 2009

by Elinor Mills

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Microsoft launched its new Forefront Protection 2010 antimalware for Exchange on Monday.

The company also announced at the TechEd Europe conference in Berlin the availability of Forefront Online Protection for Exchange designed for enterprise customers who want Microsoft to host the security solution.

Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange incorporates malware engines from Microsoft and various partners, providing 38 times faster malware detection and decreasing spam to the point where only one out of 250,000 spam messages gets through, said Joel Sider, senior project manager for Microsoft’s Infrastructure division.

Integration with Exchange provides the ability to scan messages and documents simultaneously, while built-in information protection with Active Directory rights management services give users and IT administrators more control over what e-mail and documents can do and who can receive them, he said.

The announcements were made in conjunction with the scheduled launch this week of Exchange 2010, the new version of Microsoft’s e-mail and communications server.

Meanwhile, Microsoft said last month it was delaying the release of its Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 for Windows desktops until the second half of next year.

The company will be rolling out over the next year all the pieces of its Forefront Protection Suite, formerly code-named “Stirling.”

Update at 10:09 a.m. PST with comments from Microsoft.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex

Microsoft’s Windows 7 Could Disappoint Netbook Users, Says Survey

November 10th, 2009

By: Nicholas Kolakowski


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Microsoft’s Windows 7 Starter Edition, primarily meant for low-power PCs and ultra-portable netbooks, could disappoint some users who want features such as desktop personalization and DVD playback, suggests a new survey by online electronics marketplace Retrevo. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has suggested in the past that Microsoft will try and steer consumers away from netbooks and toward higher-priced “ultra-thins” that presumably run higher-margin versions of Windows 7.

Microsoft’s version of Windows 7 for netbooks may disappoint some users, according to a new survey released by online electronics marketplace Retrevo.

Retrevo’s survey found that 79 percent of the 1100 respondents surveyed were not planning on purchasing a netbook this year. Of the remaining 21 percent, 54 percent knew that Windows 7 came in different versions—such as Starter and Ultimate—but only 39 percent knew that the Windows 7 Starter edition lacked some Windows XP features such as desktop personalization and DVD Playback.

“Retrevo was not surprised to discover that 61 [percent] of consumers intending to buy a netbook computer were not aware of limitations in Windows 7 Starter Edition,” explained a Nov. 5 posting on the Retrevo Blog. “When Retevo pointed out the differences, 56 percent of those respondents said they would not be satisfied if their net netbook came with Windows 7 Starter Edition.”

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Sony to Offer Film on Internet TV, Then DVD

November 10th, 2009

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Columbia Pictures

“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” will be priced at $24.95 for Internet TV and Blu-ray players.”

In a nod to its vision of the future, Sony will make its animated hit “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” available to consumers directly through Internet-enabled televisions and Blu-ray players before the movie is released on DVD.

It is the latest experiment in Hollywood’s effort to find a way to compensate for the steep decline in profits from home entertainment.

The move is significant because it represents the latest tinkering with the movie industry’s release windows, something Hollywood has long been reluctant to do out of fear of upsetting the profitability of DVD sales and angering its most important retailer, Wal-Mart. But with the decline in DVD sales, off as much as 25 percent at some studios, finding new ways to distribute movies has become a necessity.

The price of the film, $24.95, is high enough not to alienate retailers, Sony said.

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Google’s ‘Caffeine’ Super Search Is Almost Here

November 10th, 2009

by Michael Muchmore

Last August, Google announced a new technical underpinning for its search engine results – a pretty fundamental move for the search giant’s business. The new infrastructure wouldn’t affect the look of Google’s home page or even results, but it would have an impact on site developers, so Google made a test, or “sandbox” version of its search site for them.

In the wee hours of this morning, our astute colleagues over at Mashable noticed that the sandbox site was no longer working like a search site, but instead bore the following message:

We appreciate all the feedback from people who searched on our Caffeine sandbox.

Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.

The move shows that the overwhelming search leader isn’t sitting still, given the welcome reception Microsoft’s Bing has received. According to the original blog post, Google engineers claim that the new engine will “push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”

In typical Google fashion, the company has given no advance notice about when the technology may go live.

Originally posted to AppScout.

The end of US Internet freedom looms

November 4th, 2009
All in the fine print

WHILE MANY HAVE WELCOMED the unfettered reign of the Internet service providers (ISPs) coming to an end in the US in favour of network neutrality, a team of learned legal minds has warned that all might not be as it seems.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided that it will police the Internet to make sure that the large ISPs – telecom and cable companies, mostly – do not force a two-tiered Internet on the American public.

However a group of prominent law professors has warned the FCC that buried in the fine print of its proposed Net Neutrality rules are potential loopholes that if left open could be exploited by the ISPs in connivance with the entertainment cartels to undermine the future of Internet freedom.

Columbia University Law School professor and Free Press board chair Tim Wu told the Washington Post about the letter (PDF) after submitting it to the FCC.

Wu’s co-authors included Stanford Law professor Barbara van Shewick, Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig, Yale Law School’s Jack Balkin, South Texas College of Law professor John Blevins and University of Louisville School of Law’s Jim Chen.

They said that the FCC’s proposed rules don’t sufficiently define what the commission means by its use of the terms “non-discrimination” and “reasonable network management”.

The law professors agree that the FCC should police the ISPs, but it wants them to have a set of rules that the telecoms and cable firms can’t slip out of like the slippery eels that they are.

Using these loopholes the ISPs could block subscribers in the same way that occurred in 2007 when Comcast secretly blocked and stifled its customers’ Internet access, effectively preventing or hindering subscribers’ use of filesharing applications such as Bit Torrent, the letter warns.

If ISPs have too much leeway that will effectively eliminate Net Neutrality, so it is important that the FCC should be clear as to what it believes the standards should be, they wrote.

Indeed, the devil is in the details, we reckon, so it will be crucial that the FCC get this right.

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