Daily Archives: 9 November, 2010
Microsoft Readies Office 2010 Patches
Microsoft last week said it will ship three security updates next week to patch 11 vulnerabilities, including the first in Office 2010 pegged “critical.”
The just-released Office for Mac 2011 will also be patched for the first time on Tuesday.
Just one of the three updates was marked critical, the highest threat ranking in Microsoft’s four-step system. The remaining updates were rated “important,” the second-highest threat label.
Two of the trio will apply to Office, while the third will affect Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 , the company’s VPN (virtual private networking) platform that lets enterprise workers connect with corporate applications when outside the office.
Obama in India: U.S. offshoring fears are outdated
IDG News Service – The perception that Indian call centers and back office operations cost U.S. jobs is an old stereotype that ignores today’s reality that two-way trade between the U.S. and India is helping create jobs and raise the standard of living in both countries, U.S. President Barack Obama told a gathering of business executives in Mumbai on Saturday.
President Obama’s remarks come after some moves in the U.S. that had Indian outsourcers worried that the U.S. may get protectionist in the wake of job losses in the country. The state of Ohio, for example, earlier this year banned the expenditure of public funds for offshore purposes.
U.S. exports to India have quadrupled in recent years, and currently support tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S., he said in a speech that was also streamed live. In addition, there are jobs supported by exports to India of agriculture products, travel and education services.
Indian investment in the U.S. also runs into billions of dollars, and supports jobs in the country, he said.
Google searches for Windows Phone 7
Google and Microsoft may be fierce rivals on the search engine front, but that hasn’t stopped the Redmond based company from allowing its competitor’s search engine onto its new mobile platform.
The Google search app has gone live in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, and when downloaded will appear as the Google favicon on your home screen.
8 useful Google Android resources
If you’ve found yourself playing catch-up on Google Android, here’s a selection of resources from Network World and our sister publications to get you up to speed quickly.
How Android conquered the mobile market
This is our big picture look on how the heck Android snuck up on everyone, when three years ago it was very unclear whether Google’s mobile bet would go anywhere. Since January, Android has doubled its total market share in the mobile operating system market,
Microsoft Kind of Denies Kinect Hack Claims
No modification to hardware or software equals no hack in Microsoft’s book.
Despite what you might have heard, Kinect has not been hacked, at least, not by Microsoft’s definition anyway. The company is splitting hairs over what actually constitutes a “hack,” saying that a recent video – seen to the right – showing Kinect working on a computer doesn’t cut the mustard.
Kinect’s launch in the US prompted a challenge from Adafruit Industries, who offered a $1,000 bounty for the first person to get the sensor to output video and distance information to something other than an Xbox 360. When Adafruits learned of Microsoft’s displeasure at the contest, it upped the prize to $2,000, and threatened to take it ever higher. Whether motivated by money, the desire to tweak Microsoft’s nose, to even just by the challenge of it, it only took a few days before someone got Kinect working with Windows.
Savvy entrepreneur sees school cell phone bans as opportunity – runs mobile rental space for gadgets
School bans on cell phones are dialing dollars for one savvy entrepreneur.
Vernon Alcoser has cornered the mobile market at two Bronx schools, where students pay $1 a day to keep their cell phones in the trucks he parks nearby.
“It’s better than trying to sneak your phone in,” said Tatyana James, a freshman at Herbert H. Lehman High School who pays Alcoser’s company, Pure Loyalty Electronic Device Storage, to baby-sit her BlackBerry during class.
As far as Alcoser knows, his phone storage trucks are the city’s first. Parked across from Lehman on E. Tremont Ave. and DeWitt Clinton High School on Mosholu Parkway, they serve more than 700 students each day.
“It makes the students and parents feel better to know their phones are safe,” said Alcoser, 38, a correction officer who lives on Webb Ave. in the Bronx.
