Lenovo carves up Chinese server pie

Posted on September 30, 2014 by - News

lenovo-logoAs we reported yesterday, Lenovo will acquire Intel’s X86 server business this week and that means it will be the biggest server company in mainland China.

Market research firm IDC released its figures for server sales in China for the first half of this year and Lenovo – which includes prior IBM system business – comes out the leader at 23.91 percent (see chart).

IDC said that the Lenovo/IBM X86 server line and IBM’s System x mainframes are highly complementary and Lenovo will use that synergy to sell more X86 systems into large organisations.

But Dell has been highly competitive in the Chinese market, and Lenovo’s entrance into this space is likely to lead to even more competition.

IDC thinks that Lenovo will integrate channels to market of IBM’s System x machines with its own routes to market and the entry of Lenovo as a player is likely to lead to better cooperation with Microsoft and VMWare.

And in the global market, Lenovo shows up as a leader with a market share of 11.7 percent.
Global X86 server market 1H 2014
China X86 server market H12014

Zuckerburg buys a stately pleasure dome

Posted on September 30, 2014 by - News

Mark Zuckerberg - WikimedaIt seems that all empire builders at some point have a crack at building their personal Xanadu, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg is no different.

He has written a cheque for a 357-acre beachfront plantation on the island of Kauai in Hawaii — a space zoned for 80 well-appointed homes.

According to Pacific Business News, Zuckerberg dropped $66 million on Kahuaina Plantation on the northeast corner of Kauai. The estate is billed as one of the last large beachfront parcels on the rainforest-filled island, “a vast and pristine oceanfront property that offers the rare opportunity to create a stewardship to last for generations,” according to its brochure.

The property has all necessary permits, a wide variety of development options, and access to nearly 2,500 feet of white sand beach. Zuckerberg will have 27 acres to grow “organic crops including ginger, turmeric and papaya” if he should want it.

Of course this is not as good as Larry Ellison who bought pretty much all of the island of Lana’i in June 2012, but then Ellison has got pots more money than Zuckerburg.  On the other hand Ellison is 70 years old and Zuckerburg has more time to catch up.

Of course neither Ellison or Zuckerburg can match Bill Gates who never bothered creating Xanadu for him and his rich chums, but gave it all up to help humanity survive and Olivia Newton John is not involved.

StealthGenie about to be bottled

Posted on September 30, 2014 by - News

idreamofjeannie1-300x193The US government has arrested the chief executive officer of a mobile spyware maker  and charged him with allegedly illegally marketing an app that monitors calls, texts, videos, and other communications on mobile phones “without detection”,

Hammad Akbar, 31, of Pakistan, was the first person to be banged up in connection with advertising and the sales of mobile spyware targeting adults—in this case an app called StealthGenie.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell said in a statement that selling spyware is not just reprehensible, it’s a crime. Apps like StealthGenie were expressly designed for use by stalkers and domestic abusers who want to know every detail of a victim’s personal life—all without the victim’s knowledge.

We guess that is the government’s job.

Akbar, as CEO of InvoCode marketed the spyware online, produced an app that works on the Blackberry, the iPhone, and phones running Android.

He faces charges of conspiracy, sale of a surreptitious interception device, advertisement of a known interception device, and advertising a device as a surreptitious interception device. He was arrested in Los Angeles on Saturday. The spyware was hosted on servers run by Amazon Web Services in Ashburn, Virginia, the government said.

StealthGenie could record all incoming/outgoing voice calls and intercepted calls on the phone to be monitored while they take place. It allowed the purchaser to call the phone and activate it at any time to monitor all surrounding conversations within a 15-foot radius monitor the user’s incoming and outgoing e-mail messages and SMS messages, incoming voicemail messages, address book, calendar, photographs, and videos.

All of these functions were enabled without the knowledge of the user of the phone in real time.

The app required “physical control” of the phone, but the purchaser could then review communications intercepted from the monitored phone without ever again needing to touch the phone again, the government said.

While parents may use surveillance software to monitor their minor children’s mobile phones, InvoCode also marketed the spyware to “potential purchasers who did not have any ownership interest in the mobile phone to be monitored, including those suspecting a spouse or romantic partner of infidelity.”

Apple suffers more iCloud woes

Posted on September 30, 2014 by - News

stormNot satisfied with a security hole which allowed 4Chan users access to minor celebrities’ porn stashes, the Fruity Cargo cult Apple has some more problems with its cloud.

According to MacRumours there is a serious bug with the “Reset All Settings” option in iOS 8, causing users who activate the feature to lose all of their iWork documents stored in iCloud Drive.

Using the “Reset All Settings” option under General –> Reset has caused documents to be permanently deleted from iCloud Drive.

The “Reset All Settings” option explicitly says that “No data or media will be deleted,” which means that Apple was lying when it told users they were safe. It is meant to reset all user preferences to the default out-of-the-box settings not kill the documents.

MacRumours tested the bug and found that “Reset All Settings” deleted all iWork documents stored in iCloud Drive on the iPhone and on iCloud.com.

“After allowing time for syncing to a Mac running OS X Yosemite, all of the documents disappeared from that machine as well. Preview and TextEdit documents, which cannot be accessed on the iPhone, remained untouched on the Mac,” the magazine said.

HP says “Don’t cross the Streams”

Posted on September 30, 2014 by - News, Products

gb_pee-764695The maker of expensive printer ink, HP, seems jolly keen on putting Google’s Chromebook out of business.  This week it announced several new stream notebooks.  For those who came in late the Stream series is HP’s version of the low cost Windows laptop, meant to compete head to head with Chromebooks on price.

The difference between the two is that the Streams still offer a fully fleshed out operating system. The Stream 14 is available to purchase now for only $299, and comes with an AMD A4 APU, 2 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of eMMC storage.

Now HP has fleshed out its range and announced two additional laptops, and two tablets.

The laptops come in two screen sizes with the smallest being 11.6” and the mid-size being 13.3” and these are to compliment the already released 14” model.

HP is not saying what the exact specifications have not been disclosed yet, but both units will be powered by an Intel dual-core Bay Trail Celeron processor. This means that it is a fanless device, and both come with 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of eMMC storage. The 13.3” device has an optional touchscreen to go with the 1366×768 resolution that both laptops share. The 13.3” model also is available with optional 4G connectivity. HP is including 200 MB of free data every month for the life of the device. As another value add, HP is offering one year of Office 365 personal, which includes 1 TB of online storage and 60 Skype minutes per month.

Battery life is eight hours and 15 minutes for the 11.6” model, and seven hours 45 minutes for the 13.3” model.

The HP Stream laptops are available in several colours, and will be priced at $199.99 for the 11.6” model and $229.99 as the starting price for the 13.3” model.

HP also announced the HP Stream 7 Tablet, which is a 7” Windows 8.1 that comes in at only $99.99. There is also the HP Stream 8 which has a starting price of $149.99. Both tablets are powered by Intel Atom quad-core processors, and 1366×768 screens. Like the larger of the two laptops, the 8” tablet, if equipped with the optional 4G, comes with 200 MB of data per month for the life of the device, and both also come with Office 365 personal for one year.

Apple is no longer shellshocked

Posted on September 30, 2014 by - News

tim-cook-securityApple has finally released updates to protect Mac OS X systems from the dangerous “Shellshock” bug.

The osxPatches are available via Software Update, or from the following links for OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, and Lion.

What is amazing is the amount of time that Apple has taken to get the patch to its users. Given that it was given a patch by open sources weeks ago.

Sources within Apple suggest that the company did not want to trust any outsider when it came to the patch and ordered its software engineers to come up with a version of its own. This resulted in a long delay.

It was also not helped by Apple claiming that it was invulnerable to the Shellshock bug.

“With OS X, systems are safe by default and not exposed to remote exploits of bash unless users configure advanced UNIX services,” an Apple spokesperson said last week, adding that the company is “working to quickly provide a software update for our advanced UNIX users.”

Shellshock has been built in to every version of bash since the system’s inception in 1989. A remote attack, nefarious users could potentially issue commands to an affected computer with the intent of gathering information modifying system files and more.

Mac owners running Mavericks can download the 3.4MB patch through Apple Support website, as can users operating Mountain Lion and Lion. For Mountain Lion, the fix comes in at 34.3MB, while the Lion download clocks in at 3.5MB. Alternatively, the patch is available through Software Update.

Cisco gets into cloudbusting

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

Clouds in Oxford: pic Mike MageeNetwork giant Cisco said it has added 30 partners to its Intercloud initiative.

Customers want the cloud to be less hazy less than it is and Cisco believes it can help itself and them by developing standardised cloud apps as well as very secure hybrid clouds.

New partners include Deutsche Telekom BY, NTT Data and Equinix and said it will put up $1 billion for cloud financing using its equity arm, Cisco Capital.

Cisco claims that its announcements will expand the reach of its cloud initiative across 250 datacentres in 50 countries.

Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s president of sales and development said that his company is in a position to connect different cloud services by using a common stack.

Cisco signed a number of providers to build a channel programme using Comstor, Ingram Micro and Tech Data.

The firmis offering Cisco hybrid cloud bundles – a combination of tech and services – to help enterprise customers to build different kinds of cloud environments.

IBM Lenovo sale is a done deal

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

A not so mobile X86 PCLenovo’s offer to buy the remainder of IBM’s X86 business is likely to be concluded this Wednesday.

IBM is disposing of the deal to the Chinese manufacturer for $1.8 billion and when the acquisition is complete, it will finally have washed its hands of all of its X86 business.

That doesn’t mean its out of the hardware business completely, of course.  It will carry on selling its mainframes and a number of other high profit and enterprise standard appliances.

It was the first to launch an X86 personal computer back in the 1980s but its exclusive hold in the market was swiftly dented by competition from clone makers such as Dell and Compaq.

The deal will be completed because it waited approval from the European Union, China and the USA. But authorities in these territories have raised no objections to the sale.

When the deal is complete, it will catapult Lenovo into the major league of X86 players and will let it diversify its business by targeting the lucrative high end of the market.

China clamps down on iPhone smugglers

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News, Products

gala_appleApple is not set to launch its iPhone 6 family in mainland China for a while, but that’s just created a smuggling racket as crooks try to cash in on demand for the devices.

According to the Taipei Times, crooks are selling imported iPhone 6s for as much as $3,000 – but authorities have made several seizures of the machines in the last week.

Some have tried to import the iPhones by using speedboats into mangrove swamps while others have taken the more direct route of stuffing their suitcases with contraband Apple phones.

The same report said that “hundreds” of devices had been taken from passengers who sought to import a phone without declaring them.

Greed for Apple iPhones is apparently so high that authorities are suggesting that people despise rather than envy those who have one of the overpriced devices.  The Taipei Times report is here.

Microsoft turns on the heat on notebooks

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

Microsoft campusA report said Microsoft is cutting the licence cost on Windows 8.1 in a bid to offer notebooks costing $250 or less.

Digitimes Research said manufacturers will be offered Windows 8.1 with Bing with a tentative release date of February next year.

Microsoft has the problem that people who already produce notebooks running the Windows 8.1 operating system can’t compete with tablets at retail prices of $250 or lower.  So it is aiming to mollify its partners by limiting the cheap version to notebooks with screen sizes 14-inches and below.

That’s unlikely to mollify manufacturers of notebooks – their margins are already cut to the bone.

Microsoft has been pursuing this strategy since the Computex show in June last year, but so far there hasn’t been much sign of progress.  It is worried about Google with its Chromebook device but Microsoft’s core revenues depend on fat Windows licensing fees.

HP intros ARM into datacentres

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

HPIn a sign that things wont be what they were in the past, HP said it has announced two servers based on ARM architecture, rather than the old fashioned Intel stuff.

The two enterprise class servers use 64-bit ARM microprocessors which it said “offer value choice in their compute strategy”.  Translated out of marketing speak, this means ARM based chips are much cheaper than Intel X86 chips.

HP is also offering a production platform letting software developers create, test and port applications to the ARM server.

The servers belong to HP’s Proliant Moonshot family –  the company claims that they will let companies scale to any workload, and are specifically aimed at datacentres.

The HP Proliant m400 server is part of a strategy the company has developed over some years to fit high engineering standards.

“ARM technology will change the dynamics of how enterprises build IT solutions to quickly address customer challenges,” said Antonio Neri, senior vice president and general manager, Servers and Networking, HP. “HP’s history, culture of innovation and proven leadership in server technology position us as the most qualified player to empower customers with greater choice in the server marketplace.”

The servers will support Ubuntu, Metal as a Service (MAAS) software preinstalled, and also offers IBM Informix.

HP customers already include Sandia National Labs, the University of Utah and Paypal.  The servers are available today.

Yahoo kills off Yahoo

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

blazing-saddles-655Yahoo has decided to kill off the product which started it all off.

In 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo, graduate students at Stanford University, created a hierarchical directory of websites, “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. In March of that year, they gave it the name “Yahoo!” for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”

At the time, human-curated web listings were the bee’s knees and search engines were not exactly up to snuff. At the time, the web was a smaller place and in those golden times  children were respectful to their parents.

Directories were killed off as the web grew and Google, in particular, made search engines useful. The directory fell out of fashion. Yahoo kept its directory around with hundreds of thousands of sites listed, but fewer people use it.

Now it is for the chop. Yahoo has shut down more than 60 products and services in a bid to do fewer things better. The directory has escaped previous culls, but has finally been deemed surplus to requirements.

You will have until December 31 before the directory is switched off and joins the heavenly chorus of out-of-date tech.

“iPhone clone” faces cloning problems

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

OrphanBlacChinese phone maker Xiaomi, which faces continual attacks from the Tame Apple Press for daring to make a phone similar to Apple’s, is facing a cloning problem of its own.

Chief Communications Officer Li Lei at Xiaomi said that it was wrong that Xiaomi was an iPhone clone and the outfit created a masterpiece from scratch.

Where Xiaomi is similar to Apple is that it has a strategy of selling single models in large quantities.

“That is why Xiaomi products give such impression,” added Li. “We release very few models a year. As everyone knows iPhone 4 and 5, everyone knows Xiaomi 3 and 4.”

Li said that Xiaomi’s strong points were that its products reflect Chinese users’ unique characteristics or experiences. That is the same to other Xiaomi electronic products, including mobile phones.

Ironically Xiaomi’s biggest problem is knock offs. It has launched its products in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It plans to advance into 10 more countries within this year.

“The biggest problem of a fake is that it cannot guarantee the quality and also taints reputation of Xiaomi. Consumers may complain ‘How come a Xiaomi product is in poor quality,’ and give poor evaluation on Xiaomi products,” Lei said.

Of course, the Tame Apple Press thinks that is just one giant karma boomerang which they are praying is returning to bite Xiaomi.

Cops want “hands on” policing of the internet

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

1408707700441_wps_2_FILM_Carry_On_Constable_1London coppers have called for more state controls of the world wide web to prevent internet anarchy.

The City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit is a taxpayer funded security force for private companies who want to protect their content without having to spend too much.

According to PIPCU head Andy Fyfe, despite some successes,  more state interference may be needed to stop internet anarchy.

The unit uses a wide range of strategies, from writing to domain registrars and threatening them, to working with advertisers in order to cut off revenues from ‘pirate’ sites.

But Fyfe also believes that the Government may have to tighten the rules on the internet, to stop people from breaking the law.

He said he was interested in having a debate in the media about how much policing of the internet people want. At the moment, he does not see any regulation and or policing of the internet.

PIPCU’s chief believes that the public has to be protected from criminals including pirate site operators who take advantage of their trust.

He thinks that if things go wrong, the Internet becomes completely ungovernable, no one will dare operate on it at all.

“So should there be a certain level of … state inference in the interest of protecting consumers? I’m very keen to raise that as a debate,” Fyfe notes.

Tighter rules may be needed to prevent people from breaking the law in the future. This could mean that not everyone is allowed to launch a website, but that a license would be required, for example.

Fyfe  predicts that eventually the government will decide that it has had enough and it’s not getting enough help from those main companies that control the way we use the internet. Then it will imposing regulations, imposing a code of conduct about the way people may be allowed to operated on the internet.

Apple not worried about being Shellshocked

Posted on September 29, 2014 by - News

tim-cook-securityWhen the Shellshock security hole was revealed, Apple users were warned that it would affect all users of the Mac operating system.

Given that Apple can send out updates, and the Shellshock vulnerability is comparatively simple to fix, one would expect Jobs’ Mob to send out an update smartly.

Apple has made a statement that it was “working to quickly provide a fix” to the vulnerability. However, a company spokesperson said that most Mac OS X users have nothing to fear as Apple gear was invulnerable to any attack.

“OS X, systems are safe by default and not exposed to remote exploits of bash unless users configure advanced UNIX services. We are working to quickly provide a software update for our advanced UNIX users.”

Chet Ramey, the maintainer of bash, said in a post to Twitter that he had notified Apple of the vulnerability several times before it was made public, “and sent a patch they can apply” and “several messages”,

However Jobs’ Mob has not already packaged that fix for release and has largely ignored the problem.  The problem is that Apple refuses to trust anyone and is insisting that its own developers make modifications to the bash code.