Portfolio Mobile - Windows 7 Beta Leaked on BitTorrent

Windows 7 Beta Leaked on BitTorrent









The first beta of Windows 7, Microsoft's coming replacement for Windows Vista, is due to arrive at January's Consumer Electronics Show, but already leaked version are circulating on popular BitTorrent sites.

Early reports suggest that there is little difference between the coming beta and early builds released to developers back in October. If the first beta of Windows 7 will have features not found in earlier releases, it appears you're going to have to wait for the official release to find them.

That said, ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes reports that the latest build is, if nothing else, much more stable than its predecessors, going to far as to say that "this is the kind of code that you could roll out and live with... [it] exceeds the quality of any other Microsoft OS beta that I've handled."



One thing to note, if you're hoping that Windows 7 will save you from your Vista woes, from everything we've seen, Windows 7 is clearly evolutionary, not revolutionary. Windows 7 is about fixing and refining Vista, not starting over from the ground up (Vista itself might see some significant improvements in the coming SP2 update).

Among the most noticeable changes are the new taskbar which acts not unlike OS X's dock application (though it looks more like KDE 4's taskbar), allowing to you see running applications alongside "pinned" icons for launching other apps. While some feel that the new taskbar tries to do too much and becomes confusing in the process, I've actually found it a very nice improvement -- switching and launching apps from a central location makes sense, but that could be due to my OS X work habits.



One thing you won't find in the task bar is the ability to get an XP-style single column start menu. You can customize the start menu of course, but it takes up quite a bit of screen real estate no matter how minimalist you make it.

When it comes to speed the jury is still out. Some early benchmarks suggest significant speed gains over Vista, especially on less powerful PCs, but other tests have been less conclusive. Given that beta software is generally not known for having massive speed boosts, the fact that early betas can at least match Vista's performance could be a good sign -- especially if Microsoft can continue to optimize Windows 7 as the beta testing period progresses.



Windows 7 beta 1 may be available via BitTorrent, but we don't recommend spending the time to download it. Still, if you just can't help yourself and you've already grabbed a copy and installed it, be sure to let us know what you think of beta 1.

by Scott Gilbertson for Wired.com

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Reuters - Facebook ban of breast-feeding photos sparks protests

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Facebook ban of breast-feeding photos sparks protests

Tuesday, Dec 30, 2008 5:57AM UTC

By Belinda Goldsmith

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Are photographs of a mother breast-feeding her child indecent? The social networking site Facebook has sparked a massive online debate -- and protests -- and after removing photos that expose too much of a mother's breast.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said the website takes no action over most breast-feeding photos because they follow the site's terms of use but others are removed to ensure the site remains safe and secure for all users, including children.

"Photos containing a fully exposed breast (as defined by showing the nipple or areola) do violate those terms (on obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit material) and may be removed," he said in a statement.

"The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain."

But Facebook's decision to ban some breast-feeding photos has angered some users, including U.S. mother Kelli Roman whose photograph of her feeding her daughter was removed by Facebook.

Roman is one of the administrators of an online petition called "Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" which has picked up speed in the past week after protesters organized a virtual "nurse-in" on Facebook and held a small demonstration outside Facebook's office in Palo Alto, California.

The petition has now attracted more than 80,000 names and over 10,000 comments, reigniting the old debate about the rights or wrongs of breast-feeding in public.

Organizers of the petition said some women had been warned not to repost photographs that had been removed from their pages or they would face being kicked off Facebook.

One breast-feeding mother, called Rebekah, said Facebook removed a photograph of her feeding her child.

"I find it offensive that (Facebook) can remove my photo but not the close up picture of a thonged backside I (have) seen on a friend's page or remove the "what kama sutra position are you?" quiz application," she wrote.

Facebook, which has more than 120 million members, is standing by its decision.

Schnitt said the company had called many U.S. media groups during the course of the protest to ask to place an advert related to breast-feeding that showed a woman breast-feeding her child with a fully exposed breast. None agreed.

"Obviously, a newspaper and Facebook are different things but the underlying motivation for the content policies are the same," he told Reuters.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

NYTimes.com: Music Games for iPhone Give Artists New Spotlight

This page was sent to you by:  bombastic4000@gmail.com TECHNOLOGY   | December 21, 2008 Music Games for iPhone Give Artists New Spotlight By JENNA WORTHAM A start-up company called Tapulous has turned a simple game for the iPhone into an Internet-age mobile stage for musicians. 1. The Energy Challenge: No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’ 2. Bargain Hunting for Books, and Feeling Sheepish About It 3. Editorial Observer: Four Decades After Milgram, We’re Still Willing to Inflict Pain 4. Op-Ed Columnist: Fifty Herbert Hoovers 5. Digital Domain: What Carriers Aren’t Eager to Tell You About Texting »  Go to Complete List Advertisement The Wrestler Nominated for 3 Golden Globe Awards, including Best Actor-Mickey Rourke. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Now playing in select theaters. Click here to view trailer Copyright 2008  The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy

Reuters - Websites could get cinema-style ratings

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Websites could get cinema-style ratings

Monday, Dec 29, 2008 3:32AM UTC

LONDON (Reuters) - The kind of ratings used for films could be applied to websites in a bid to better police the Internet and protect children from harmful and offensive material, Britain's minister for culture has said.

Andy Burnham told The Daily Telegraph newspaper, published on Saturday, that the government was planning to negotiate with the administration of President-elect Barack Obama to draw up new international rules for English language websites.

"The more we seek international solutions to this stuff -- the UK and the U.S. working together -- the more that an international norm will set an industry norm," the newspaper reports the Culture Secretary as saying in an interview.

Giving websites film-style ratings would be one possibility.

"This is an area that is really now coming into full focus," Burnham told the paper.

Internet service providers could also be forced to offer services where the only sites accessible are those deemed suitable for children, the paper said.

Any moves to censor the Internet would go to the heart of a debate about freedom of speech on the World Wide Web.

"If you look back at the people who created the Internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that governments couldn't reach," Burnham told The Telegraph. "I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now."

He said some content should not be available to be viewed.

"This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it."

Burnham, who has three young children, pointed to the example of a 9 p.m. television "watershed" in Britain before which certain material, like violence, cannot be broadcast, and said better controls were needed for the Internet.

The minister wants new industry-wide "take down times" so that websites like YouTube or Facebook would have to remove offensive or harmful content within a specified time once it is brought to their attention.

He also said Britain was considering changing libel laws to give people access to legal help if they are defamed online.

Reuters - YouTube dispute underscores music labels weak hand

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YouTube dispute underscores music labels weak hand

Wednesday, Dec 24, 2008 6:37PM UTC

By Yinka Adegoke - Analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - First it was MTV, then it was Apple, and now it's YouTube.

The music industry, faced with declining CD sales, has repeatedly tried to find new income streams only to see its partners thrive with minimal benefit to the labels themselves.

So in the new battleground of online video, music companies are desperate to avoid past mistakes, but they are finding it tough to negotiate with a powerful new Internet partner.

Warner Music Group's decision to pull thousands of music videos from Google Inc's YouTube last Saturday, after the collapse of contract negotiations, shows just how far music companies may have to go to gain any leverage.

Some of the major labels are even considering forming a joint music video site to boost their bargaining power, said one music executive, as the dispute between Warner and YouTube underscores the limitations of relying on outside partners.

Such a joint venture could look similar to NBC Universal and News Corp's Hulu.com for putting TV shows online, and it could include YouTube in the partnership, said the executive, who declined to be identified as talks were still at a very early stage.

As CD sales plunge and the growth of digital songs slows, music labels increasingly consider online video to be key to revenue growth. But they do not have a strong hand in licensing negotiations with YouTube, which along with News Corp's MySpace.com, has become one of the most important music discovery tools for young fans.

Echoing the success of Viacom Inc's MTV Networks in the 1980s, or Apple Inc's iTunes since 2003, YouTube has in three years grown to become the largest online video site with more than 100 million U.S. viewers in October, according to Web audience measurement firm comScore.

"The first thing kids do when they hear about a band now is go on YouTube to find out more, according to our focus groups," said an executive at one of the major music labels, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Warner, the world's third-largest music company, was the first major media company to sign a licensing deal with YouTube in 2006, permitting the site to stream music videos from artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers and rapper T.I.

That deal, which expired months ago, was signed before YouTube was bought by the deep-pocketed Google. Warner's larger rivals, Vivendi's Universal Music Group and Sony Music, only agreed to deals with YouTube as it was about to be bought by Google, and would likely have brokered more favorable terms, industry insiders said.

0.5 CENTS PER STREAM

Warner wants more money from YouTube for streaming rights, but YouTube has refused to budge from the previously negotiated terms, according to two people familiar with the talks.

YouTube pays record labels every time a video is streamed, or the label can get a share of advertising revenue around the video. The per-play fee is usually around half a cent per stream and the label gets paid the higher of aggregate per-play revenue or advertising revenue.

Warner has made less than 1 percent of its total digital revenue of $639 million in fiscal year 2008 from YouTube, according to a source close to the company.

Meanwhile, Universal Music, the world's largest music company, is likely to make just under $100 million from all its online video partners in 2008, said a person familiar with the company's plans. YouTube will account for "tens of millions" made in revenue by Universal, said the person.

"The labels have to find a balance between how much money they can make from YouTube itself or if they can make more money from promoting their artists on YouTube," said Ethan Horwitz, an intellectual property lawyer at King & Spalding.

Warner Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman faces extra pressure as his is the only publicly traded music company and will need to start showing shareholders a material return on deals with partners like YouTube. Warner's share price has fallen nearly 60 percent since the start of 2008.

Warner had thought that YouTube would be a significant advertising force by now, but instead the site has focused more on building audience than on increasing revenue.

"They made all these early promises of implementing audio fingerprinting while in the meantime we were losing revenues and they've been lagging behind other competitors," said a person close to Warner Music, pointing to MySpace and Time Warner's AOL as offering better rates.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Reuters - RIM sues Motorola for blocking job offers

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RIM sues Motorola for blocking job offers

Wednesday, Dec 24, 2008 7:45PM UTC

BOSTON (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd is suing Motorola Inc, alleging that the mobile phone company improperly blocked the BlackBerry maker from hiring current and laid-off Motorola employees.

The suit, filed in state court in Chicago on Tuesday, comes three months after Motorola alleged that RIM violated an agreement reached in February that the two companies would not solicit each other's employees.

RIM asked for a court order to invalidate the agreement, saying in its complaint that the pact had expired in August and was no longer enforceable.

The Canadian company is also seeking unspecified damages for what it called "unfair competition" practices by Motorola.

Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Weyrauch-Erickson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

"RIM entities continue to grow and hire new employees within the United States and globally against a backdrop of recent public announcements by Motorola that it has and will continue to make massive layoffs," said RIM's lawsuit.

In the lawsuit filed by Motorola on September 4, the Schaumburg, Illinois-based company asked a judge to bar RIM from using Motorola's confidential information, or soliciting or hiring any Motorola employees.

RIM officials could not be reached for comment.

The lawsuit, Research in Motion Corp vs Motorola Inc, was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Chancery Division, Case Number 717-200S.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Sharon Lindores and Matthew Lewis)

Reuters - Nokia eases access to Internet services

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Nokia eases access to Internet services

Sunday, Dec 21, 2008 10:23PM UTC

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia on Sunday removed one of the key obstacles for takeup of its new Internet offering, combining sign-ins for its overall services site Ovi.com and for its media sharing service.

Nokia has bought a dozen companies -- including an $8.1 billion acquisition of mapping company Navteq -- to jump-start its Internet business as growth in the mobile phone market stalls.

The handset maker has gathered access to all of the services to its Ovi.com site, but so far they have all demanded additional usernames and passwords, something analysts see as one of the major obstacles for takeup.

"We are pleased to announce that as part of improving your experience with Share on Ovi, we have merged our sign-in system with Ovi.com," Nokia said in a letter to clients.

"This is a key step in integrating Ovi," Nokia said.

Nokia said earlier this month it aims to make annual revenue of at least 2 billion euros ($2.79 billion) from Internet services in 2011, focusing on navigation, music, games, messaging and media -- but is battling with more established rivals such as Google, Apple and Yahoo.

Nokia has not unveiled user numbers for its Internet services, which created revenue of 115 million euros in July-to-September quarter.

($1=.7164 Euro)

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki, editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Reuters - Japanese group asks Google to stop map service

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Japanese group asks Google to stop map service

Friday, Dec 19, 2008 5:47PM UTC

TOKYO (Reuters) - A group of Japanese lawyers and professors asked on Friday that Google Inc stop providing detailed street-level images of Japanese cities on the Internet, saying they violated privacy rights.

Google's Street View offers ground-level, 360-degree views of streets in 12 Japanese cities and is also offered for some 50 cities in the United States and certain areas in Europe.

The service allows Web users to drive down a street, in a virtual sense, using their mouse to adjust views of roadside scenery.

"We strongly suspect that what Google has been doing deeply violates a basic right that humans have," Yasuhiko Tajima, a professor of constitutional law at Sophia University in Tokyo, told Reuters by telephone.

"It is necessary to warn society that an IT giant is openly violating privacy rights, which are important rights that the citizens have, through this service."

The Campaign Against Surveillance Society, a Japanese civilian group that Tajima heads, wants Google to stop providing its Street View service of Japanese cities and delete all saved images.

Google's office in Tokyo was unable to comment immediately.

Privacy concerns about Google's service have grown in Japanese media, especially after some people discovered their images on Street View.

Similar concerns have been raised in other parts of the world, including the United States and Europe.

In one case, a woman was shown sunbathing and in another a man was pictured exiting a strip club in San Francisco.

In March, Google said it would comply with a Pentagon request to remove some online images from Street View over fears they posed a security threat to U.S. military bases.

Web-based Google Maps and a related computer-based service called Google Earth have drawn criticism from a variety of countries for providing images of sensitive locations, such as military bases or potential targets of terror attacks.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Reuters - U.S. says go slow in expanding .com on the Web

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U.S. says go slow in expanding .com on the Web

Friday, Dec 19, 2008 6:19PM UTC

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government urged Internet standard-setters to move slowly on a proposal to relax rules on domain names such as .com or .edu, over concerns about economic costs and security.

The nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, earlier this year voted to relax the rules on so-called top-level domain names, or TLDs, the suffixes, such as the ubiquitous .com, .net and .org, among others.

Easing the rules could pave the way for companies or individuals to create an array of new addresses for the Web, but the U.S. government said Icann must ensure that introduction of a slew of new names "will not jeopardize the stability and security" of the Internet domain name system.

"It is unclear that the threshold question of whether the potential consumer benefits outweigh the potential costs has been adequately addressed," the U.S. Department of Commerce, said in a letter to Icann dated December 18.

Currently, there are more than 200 TLDs, which also include the two-character country codes used by Web sites, such as Britain's .uk.

Under the proposed system, individuals, companies or groups could apply to have any string of letters established as a domain name. It could be a vanity name, for example -- .smith -- or a category name like .sports or .perfume.

A company could also change its domain to reflect its brand, so Apple.com could become Apple.mac, for instance.

VeriSign Inc now owns the registry for .com and net domain names.

For a company to become such a registry, it would need to apply to Icann, which coordinates the Internet's naming system, at a fee expected to cost more than $100,000.

The U.S. said Icann needs to prove it can handle a potentially huge influx of applications and how it will police issues related to intellectual property rights.

(Editing by Andre Grenon)

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