Those iPhone applications in your collection might soon cost you more to use if you tap into an array of new features coming your way.

Apple (AAPL) on Tuesday gave a sneak peek of 100 forthcoming software updates for the iPhone, including a feature that lets software developers build in additional charges within an application.

Currently, consumers buy software at the iTunes App Store for a fixed, flat rate.

But beginning this summer, when Apple releases a new version of software for the iPhone and iPod Touch, developers can bring in extra revenue with sales of extra levels of game play; magazine, newspaper and e-book subscriptions; even music purchases that can be played within the game.

“There are other business models developers want to support, and we’ve been listening,” says Apple senior vice president Scott Forstall.

ost of the apps offered through the App Store today are free—and developers won’t be able to sell premiums within those apps. Extra charges only work in apps that cost money to own, Forstall said.

The iPhone has been a smash hit for Apple. The company says some 17 million iPhone have sold since its introduction in 2007, along with 13 million iPod Touches. The Touch is basically the feature-packed iPhone without the phone.

The App Store opened in July with some 3,000 applications. It now has 25,000. More than 800,000 apps have been downloaded, Apple says.

Other new features coming to the iPhone :

—Cut and paste. Blocks of text will be able to be copied from an e-mail or document, like on a computer, and pasted elsewhere. That’s something iPhone users have been requesting for some time.

—Peer to peer. The technology will allow iPhone apps to connect to one another wirelessly. A game app might search for people nearby area playing the same game. Or, two professionals could point their iPhones together and share contacts.

One application came from a company called Smule, the brainchild of Stanford University professor Ge Wang, who uses the iPhone as a musical instrument hybrid.

Wang and a colleague used the peer to peer feature to play a slide trombone duet from Phantom of the Opera. Over a backing track, the duo hummed into the iPhone microphone, recreating the sound of a harmonic duet.

—Push notification. Forstall says Apple has spent the last six months rewriting its server system to enable instant “push” notifications to iPhone users. Push technology proactively sends information to users. For example, TV sports powerhouse ESPN showed how customers could sign up and get instant sports game results sent directly to their iPhone.

“To get it now, you’d have to visit our website and pull it down,” says Oke Okaro, a senior director at ESPN. “Now, we can bring it right to you.”

—Spoken word. A new voice memo feature which lets you record memos—or even do interviews—on the iPhone and save them as audio files.

—Search. The Spotlight search tool, a feature of Apple computers, is coming to the iPhone home screen to search within the phone.

When the new software is released, it will be free for iPhone users, and $9.95 for iPod Touch users.

“This is the upgrade Apple needed to do to get people even more interested in the iPhone,” says Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies.

Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner, says he believes Apple will have a new iPhone model this summer to go with the new software. Apple declined comment.

“If there are at least a few signs of some optimism economically, then they’re in a good position for a good summer and fall.” source

So little. And yet so much.
The new iPod shuffle is jaw-droppingly small. It’s half the size of the previous generation. Yet there’s room for so much more. With 4GB of storage, it now holds up to 1,000 songs,1 and lets you enjoy multiple playlists, too.

It speaks for itself.
Introducing VoiceOver,2 the feature that gives iPod shuffle a voice. With the press of a button, it tells you what song is playing and who’s performing it. It can even tell you the names of your playlists, giving you a new way to navigate your music.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL LIST OF FEATURES

Personally I don’t really see how people would even bother wasting money on these little pieces of plastic.

SEATTLE — A single check box deep in the guts of the next version of Windows is giving Microsoft watchers a peek at how the software maker plans to keep European antitrust regulators from marring a crucial software launch.

Windows 7, the successor to the much-maligned Vista, isn’t expected to reach consumers until next year, but more than a million people are already testing early versions. A pair of bloggers tinkering with settings stumbled upon one they hadn’t seen before: The ability to “turn off” Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft lost a long-running battle with EU antitrust regulators in 2007 over the way it bundled media player software into the Windows operating system. The dust had barely settled when a similar claim was filed, this time over Internet Explorer’s place inside Windows. Opera Software ASA, a Norwegian competitor, claimed the practice gives Microsoft’s browser an unfair advantage.

In a preliminary decision in January, the EU agreed. Since then, makers of the open-source browser Firefox and Google Inc., which entered the browser market six months ago, have offered to provide more evidence that Microsoft is stifling competition.

In the media player dispute, the EU heavily fined Microsoft and forced it to sell a version of Windows without the offending program installed. This time, Microsoft appears to be offering the check-box solution as a way to head off a similar ending.

The company declined to comment Friday on the connection between the check boxes and the EU’s preliminary decision. But in a recent quarterly filing, it said the European Commission may order PC makers to install multiple browsers on new PCs and force Microsoft to disable parts of its own Internet Explorer if people chose a competing browser.

The check boxes, which were described on Microsoft enthusiast blogs http://www.aeroxp.org and http://www.chris123nt.com, also give Windows 7 users a way to disable the media player and hard-drive search programs, among other components, both of which have drawn scrutiny from regulators.

After Windows Vista landed with a thud, Microsoft needs a hit, said Michael Cherry, an analyst for the research group Directions on Microsoft. Beyond appeasing the EU, he said he didn’t see much use for the Internet Explorer check box.

“Windows 7 is becoming more and more important for Microsoft,” he said in an interview. “You don’t want anything that gives anyone even a doubt as to whether or not they should upgrade.” SOURCE

Pirate Bay’s co-founder has pleaded for hackers to stop attacking the sites of those organizations lined up against him. Peter Sunde is on trial with Pirate Bay’s three other founders for allegedly distributing copyrighted material. The trial is about to enter its fourth day, and in a gesture of support for the four men hackers have begun assaulting plaintiff websites, beginning with that of the The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The campaign has caused concern in the Pirate Bay camp, prompting Sunde to write a post entitled ‘We’re winning, stop hacking, please’ on his blog.

Jailbreaking an iPhone constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, says Apple in comments filed with the Copyright Office as part of the 2009 DMCA triennial rulemaking. This marks the first formal public statement by Apple about its legal stance on iPhone jailbreaking.

Apple’s iPhone, now the best-selling cellular phone in the U.S., has been designed with restrictions that prevent owners from running applications obtained from sources other than Apple’s own iTunes App Store. “Jailbreaking” is the term used for removing these restrictions, thereby liberating your phone from Apple’s software “jail.” Estimates put the number of iPhone owners who have jailbroken their phones in the hundreds of thousands.

As part of the 2009 DMCA rulemaking, EFF has asked the Copyright Office to recognize an exemption to the DMCA to permit jailbreaking in order to allow iPhone owners to use their phones with applications that are not available from Apple’s store (e.g., turn-by-turn directions, using the iPhone camera for video, laptop tethering).

Apple’s copyright infringement claim starts with the observation that jailbroken iPhones depend on modified versions of Apple’s bootloader and operating system software. True enough — we said as much in our technical white paper describing the jailbreak process. But the courts have long recognized that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software, a body of law that Apple conveniently fails to mention.

As for the DMCA violation, Apple casts its lot with the likes of laser printer makers and garage door opener companies who argue that the DMCA entitles them to block interoperability with anything that hasn’t been approved in advance. Apple justifies this by claiming that opening the iPhone to independently created applications will compromise safety, security, reliability, and swing the doors wide for those who want to run pirated software.

If this sounds like FUD, that’s because it is. One need only transpose Apple’s arguments to the world of automobiles to recognize their absurdity. Sure, GM might tell us that, for our own safety, all servicing should be done by an authorized GM dealer using only genuine GM parts. Toyota might say that swapping your engine could reduce the reliability of your car. And Mazda could say that those who throw a supercharger on their Miatas frequently exceed the legal speed limit.

But we’d never accept this corporate paternalism as a justification for welding every car hood shut and imposing legal liability on car buffs tinkering in their garages. After all, the culture of tinkering (or hacking, if you prefer) is an important part of our innovation economy.

Of course, many iPhone owners will be happy to choose solely from the applications that Apple is willing to approve, just like many Ford owners are happy relying exclusively on their local Ford dealer. But if you want to pop the hood, the DMCA surely shouldn’t stand in your way.

SOURCE

The Pirate Bay is the world’s largest source for BitTorrent trackers, while they do not host illegal content they do provide a means of finding such content. In May 2006 the company was raided by Swedish police who seized their servers and in January of last year the owners were charged with the copyright infringement.

The International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) which is representing the case of music and film producers, made a statement about the case on Friday. Stating, For people who make a living out of creativity or in a creative business, there is scarcely anything more important than to have your rights protected by the law. Copyright exists to ensure that everyone in the creative world from the artist to the record label, from the independent film producer to the TV programme maker – can choose how their creations are distributed and get fairly rewarded for their work. The operators of The Pirate Bay have violated those rights and, as the evidence in Court will show, they did so to make substantial revenues for themselves. That kind of abuse of the rights of others cannot be allowed to continue, and that is why these criminal proceedings are so important for the health of the creative community.

The criminal prosecution of The Pirate Bay is about protecting creators from those who violate their rights and deprive them of their deserved rewards. The Pirate Bay has hurt creators of many different kinds of works, from music to film, from books to TV programmes. It has been particularly harmful in distributing copyrighted works prior to their official release. This damages sales of music at the most important time of their lifecycle.” said John Kennedy the CEO and Chairman of IFPI. The evidence in this case will show that The Pirate Bay is a commercial business which made substantial amounts of money for its operators, despite their claim to be only interested in spreading culture for free.”

The Pirate Bay is currently run by Gottfrid Svartholm (anakata), Fredrik Neij (TiAMO) and Peter Sunde (brokep). On 15 November 2008, The Pirate Bay announced that it had reached over 25 million unique peers. The Pirate Bay has about 3,400,000 registered users so far. It’s the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker and is ranked as the 109th most popular website by Alexa Internet.

SOURCE

Software giant Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of hackers behind a powerful computer virus that could lead to millions of PCs being hijacked.

Experts have so far been baffled by the true purpose of the Conficker or Downadup virus, but have described its spread as one of the most serious infections ever seen.

The worm exploits a bug in Microsoft Windows to infect mainly corporate networks, then — although it has yet to cause any harm — it opens a link back to its point of origin, meaning it can receive further orders to wreak havoc.

Microsoft has issued a patch to fix the bug, however if a single machine is infected in a large network, it will spread unchecked — often reinfecting machines that have been disinfected.

The threat from the virus prompted Microsoft in collaboration with other technology industry names to this week announce a $250,000 reward for information to track down those behind Conficker.
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“As part of Microsoft’s ongoing security efforts, we constantly look for ways to use a diverse set of tools and develop methodologies to protect our customers,” said George Stathakopoulos, of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at anti-virus firm F-Secure says the true scope of the virus is not known, but in the past 24 hours his company monitored Conficker signals from two million Internet protocol addresses.

“That’s a lot,” he told CNN. “And one IP address here does not mean one infected computer, it means at least one infected computer.

“Many of those IP addresses are obviously company proxies or firewalls, hiding hundreds of more infections behind it. Unfortunately this also makes it impossible to estimate the total count of infected systems.

“So it’s still big. Very big.”

Microsoft has previously paid out similar rewards to informants who helped identify the creator of Sasser, another notorious worm let loose in 2004. The perpetrator was tracked to Germany, where he was sentenced a year later.

CNN

Here’s the link to the guide on how to do it. It is the tethered version which in simple terms means you have to do everything manually while connected to the computer. You do everything through windows command prompt and iPod Touch in DFU mode.

It goes by code name redsn0w and was developed by the iPhone Dev Team. Jailbreaking allows one to fully customize their iPod Touch’s interface (icons, wallpaper, etc.) and also allows one to install paid apps for free. The site I usually go to most of the time to stay up to date on all things iPod Touch/iPhone is iPod Touch Fans. It has a great forum and is always current.

Bill Clinton sent only two e-mail messages as president and has yet to pick up the habit. George W. Bush ceased using e-mail in January 2001 but has said he’s looking forward to e-mailing “my buddies” after leaving Washington, D.C.

Barack Obama, though, is a serious e-mail addict. “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,” he said in a recent interview with CNBC. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”

One reason to curb presidential BlackBerrying is the possibility of eavesdropping by hackers and other digital snoops. While Research In Motion offers encryption, the U.S. government has stricter requirements for communications security.

“Without more details I would have to say that putting sensitive or classified information on a BlackBerry is a risky proposition,” said Greg Shipley, chief technology officer at Neohapsis, a governance, risk, and compliance consultancy.

Fortunately for an enthusiastic e-mailer-in-chief, some handheld devices have been officially blessed as secure enough to handle even classified documents, e-mail, and Web browsing.

The Sectera Edge, a combination phone-PDA that’s been certified by the National Security Agency as being acceptable for Top Secret voice communications and Secret e-mail and Web sites.
(Credit: General Dynamics)

One is General Dynamics’ Sectera Edge, a combination phone-PDA that’s been certified by the National Security Agency as being acceptable for Top Secret voice communications and Secret e-mail and Web sites. Through three separate interchangeable modules, it works with Wi-Fi, GSM, or CDMA networks, and is dust-proof, waterproof, and rugged enough to survive repeated 4-foot drops onto concrete. Physically, it’s a chunkier second cousin to the Palm Treo 750, though with an additional LCD display below the keyboard.

The price is $3,350 with a two-year warranty, a princely sum that’s reflected in the Pentagon-worthy price tags for accessories: a simple adapter for a lighter plug costs $100. (Never again should you complain about how much your civilian analogue costs.)

The Sectera runs a mobile version of Microsoft Windows, including versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Windows Media Player. The NSA claims that the installed versions of Internet Explorer, WordPad, and Windows Messenger are good enough for data that’s classified at a level of Secret. Presumably the federal spooks have found a way to protect IE from the numerous security flaws that continue to plague the Internet’s most popular browser.

The NSA declined to comment on Monday.

L-3 Communications’ Guardian, still in development, is similar, but sports a chunkier antenna and a slightly less conventional keyboard shaped like a V. It, too, runs Windows, boasts a stylus and QWERTY keyboard, supports desktop synchronization, and can be used on secure data plans with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and, internationally, Worldcell. Files stored locally are encrypted.

General Dynamics’ C4 Systems boasts that the Sectera is rugged enough to survive repeated 4-foot falls onto concrete.
(Credit: General Dynamics)

Both PDA-phones owe their existence to a Defense Department project called SME-PED, meaning Secure Mobile Environment Portable Electronic Device. Because the SME-PED was explicitly designed to act as a classified-information-friendly replacement for a BlackBerry, it should be an easy switch for a President Obama.

That’s assuming he still feels like e-mailing after Inauguration Day. Even though President Bush enjoys the same access to NSA-certified handhelds, he has never resumed his daily e-mail habit from the days when he went by the humble moniker of G94B@aol.com. (On January 17, 2001, Bush sent out this sad farewell: “Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace. This saddens me. I have enjoyed conversing with each of you.”)

At the time, Karen Hughes, one of Bush’s closest aides, said that the president chose to abandon e-mail because of public records laws. That includes the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, and the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

Obama may find the convenience of wireless e-mail a pleasure difficult to give up. News reports during the presidential campaign described how he relied on his BlackBerry to bypass aides, which was even satirized by the Onion.

He checked e-mail during his daughter’s football games, e-chatted with actress Scarlett Johansson, and before the New Hampshire primary told CNET News that the BlackBerry was his favorite gadget. On the other hand, Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin’s e-mail breach is still within recent memory, as are the Bush White House’s legal troubles stemming from the use of Republican National Committee e-mail systems.

“It’s not just the flow of information,” Obama said in the recent interview. “I mean, I can get somebody to print out clips for me, and I can read newspapers. What it has to do with is having mechanisms where you are interacting with people who are outside of the White House in a meaningful way. And I’ve got to look for every opportunity to do that–ways that aren’t scripted, ways that aren’t controlled, ways where, you know, people aren’t just complimenting you or standing up when you enter into a room, ways of staying grounded.”

Federal law does explicitly exempt from disclosure any “personal records” that do not relate to the president’s official function. Those include electronic records that are “of a purely private or non-public character” and don’t relate to official duties; the law lists diaries, journals, notes, and presidential campaign materials as examples. Similarly, FOIA prevents files from being released if the disclosure would significantly jeopardize “personal privacy.”

In other words, Obama could choose to keep e-mailing judiciously, and trust his lawyers and the law to fend off overly nosy journalists and historians.

This secure PDA-phone from L-3 Communications is still being developed.
(Credit: L-3 Communications)

Wireless devices: What price convenience?
One thing that security experts can agree on is that despite RIM’s efforts, a BlackBerry probably isn’t up to the security standards for a leader of the free (or even unfree) world.

BlackBerrys can become infected with viruses that install spyware or turn the microphone on and record conversations, malware can be inadvertently downloaded, e-mail and text messages can be intercepted, and, of course, they can be lost or stolen, said Dan Hoffman, chief technology officer of SMobile Systems, which sells antivirus software for the devices.

The National Vulnerability Database, which is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division, lists 14 vulnerabilities for BlackBerrys. Those include ways that a malicious attacker can install malware, and perhaps crash the device through a so-called denial of service attack.

It’s not like snoopy computer utilities are difficult to find. Flexispy.com sells spyware that can be installed by someone with physical possession of a phone for 15 minutes. The creators boast that their software, once installed, can “bug a room or person” and “catch cheating husbands.”

The U.S. government uses special ciphers for secret information and they use different data networks from the public data networks, said Phil Dunkelberger, chief executive of encryption provider PGP Corp. “Unless you’re using point-to-point encryption technology…or the mail itself is encrypted, you would have exposure to people administering the network.” And, on a related note, we know that Obama’s cell phone records through Verizon were improperly accessed last year.

There’s also the risk of someone tracking the coordinates of a BlackBerry through the device’s built-in GPS or the carrier’s ability to triangulate on the signal–something that police, for instance, claim they should be able to do without a search warrant or evidence of criminal activity. Bush White House aides say that security concerns prompted them to disable the GPS feature on their BlackBerrys.

James Atkinson, president of Granite Island Group, an engineering firm that helps the government protect classified networks and equipment, pointed this out as a possible security vulnerability. “You can identify where a person is without gaining access to the cell phone network just by the timing of the signals, Atkinson said. “You can identify who is sitting in which seat in a conference room from a couple thousand feet away.”

Then again, it’s not like the president of the United States and his entourage travel incognito that often.

If nothing else works, Obama can always turn to Bush for some tips. Not his immediate predecessor, but former President George H.W. Bush, a late-in-life convert to the joys of e-mail. Bush the Elder has been quoted as saying: “I’m what you might call a black belt wireless e-mailer.”

CNET News’ Elinor Mills contributed to this report.