Samsung launches Windows 8 ATIV line with new smartphone, three tablets

Samsung announced an ambitious line of Windows 8 mobile devices using the ATIV name on Wednesday, including an ATIV S smartphone with a 4.8-in. HD display and three tablet PCs.

The lineup, unveiled in Berlin, Germany during a webcast, also includes an ATIV Tab that runs Windows RT and two Windows 8 x86 tablets that have magnetically attachable keyboards called the ATIV Smart PC and the ATIV Smart PC Pro.

The company didn't offer pricing or availability information.

Samsung also showed off an array of diverse products atop the Android-powered Galaxy line at the event, announced a slightly larger Galaxy Note II, and unveiled a Galaxy Camera that works over cellular networks and Wi-Fi.

Samsung said it wants to stay ahead of the pack of mobile device manufacturers, and sees Windows 8 products as a way to do so.

"We have an unrivaled range of products in the Windows 8 environment," said Damian Cusick, general manager of Samsung UK. "The Samsung ATIV line-up of Windows 8 products is simple, powerful and beautiful."

The ATIV Smart PC Pro, with an 11.6-in. touchscreen and an Intel Core i5 processor, targets professionals, Cusick noted. He also called attention to the Windows RT tablet, the ATIV Tab with pre-installed Office productivity applications to allow Office and Word document sharing. "Nothing will change from the PC documents you share with co-workers," he said.

The ATIV S smartphone is also Office compatible, with "various Windows-based content that [runs] in an optimized environment," he added.

All four Windows ATIV devices "blend the device and content ecosystem perfectly...so [users] can get things done," he said.

The ATIV S smartphone has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and will work over HSPA networks like those offered by T-Mobile USA and AT&T.

The ATIV Tab offers a 10.1-in display and an 8,200 mAh battery, which is at the high end of tablet batteries.

The ATIV Tab runs Windows RT.

The ATIV Smart PC and Smart PC Pro are equipped with a digital stylus, called the S Pen, that Samsung has updated from its original appearance with the Galaxy Note. It now has 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity and is slightly thicker.

Both are 11.6-in. Tablets, and each has a detachable keyboard dock that allows it to be used as either a clamshell laptop PC or a tablet PC. The Smart PC has a battery life of 13.5 hours, while the Smart PC Pro runs up to eight hours.

The Galaxy Note II, which ships in October globally, has a 5.5-in. display, larger than the original 5.3-in. display, and will come with redesigned S Pen. Its larger screen stays in the same sized body, however, although the increase in screen size bumps it up slightly to a 16:9 aspect ratio.

The ATIV Smart PC is slightly thinner and lighter than the Smart PC Pro. The Smart PC is 11.96 x 7.5 x .38 inches and weighs 26.4 ounces. The Smart PC Pro has the same height and width but is .46-inches thick and weighs 31.2 ounces. The ATIV Tab is 10.4 x 6.6 x .35 inches and 20.1 ounces. The ATIV S smartphone is 5.4 x 2.8 x .34 inches and weighs 4.7 ounces

(computerworld.com)

Facebook agrees to tighten its privacy policies

Facebook has agreed to tighten its privacy policies after it settled a long-running dispute with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The social network was accused by the regulator last year of introducing "unfair and deceptive" changes to its privacy policies in 2009, including settings that made users' confidential profile information public without their consent.

Facebook also shared personal information including status updates, geographic location and marital status with advertisers and third-party applications without telling users, the FTC said.

News of the settlement, which ties Facebook to biannual privacy inspections by an independent watchdog for the next 20 years, came just a day after Google was fined a record $22.5m (£14.4m) by the FTC for circumventing privacy protections on Apple's Safari web browser.

The allegations laid bare by the FTC about the two internet giants will heighten concern about the security of peoples' private data in some of the most popular digital destinations. Facebook boasts more than 955 million active monthly users, according to its latest figures. Google controlled two-thirds of the US search market in June and its share is even greater in most European countries, said the metrics firm ComScore.

The FTC said Facebook was liable for "a broad range of deceptive conduct" relating to what it tells users about their private profile information.

The bulk of the charges against Facebook relate to its overhaul of users' privacy settings in November 2010. The FTC said that Facebook failed to tell users that it changed the settings so they could no longer restrict access to their name, profile, picture, gender, friend list, pages, or networks.

"Facebook's failure to adequately disclose these facts, in light of the representation made, constitutes a deceptive act or practice," the FTC said.

The social network also made public users' photos and videos even after their accounts had been deactivated.

The five , commissioners were split over whether to settle the dispute, with three voting in favour, one abstaining, and Commissioner J Thomas Rosch dissenting on the basis that Facebook had denied liability for its actions. He argued that it should at least be required to take the position that it neither confirmed nor denied liability – a position he also argued in dissenting from the 4-1 verdict over Google's fine. Google denied liability to the FTC; it was fined because it was already the subject of a consent order similar to that now tying Facebook.

(guardian.co.uk)

Cloud Computing: Same Weakness Found in Seven Cloud Storage Services

Cloud storage services allow registration using false e-mail addresses and Fraunhofer SIT sees the possibility for espionage and malware distribution.

Security experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) in Darmstadt have discovered that numerous cloud storage service providers do not check the e-mail addresses provided during the registration process. This fact in combination with functions provided by these service providers, such as file sharing or integrated notifications, result in various possibilities for attacks.

Better Security for Web and Mobile Applications

Harvard computer scientists, including two undergraduate students, has developed a new tool that could lead to increased security and enhanced performance for commonly used web and mobile applications.

Called RockSalt, the clever bit of code can verify that native computer programming languages comply with a particular security policy.

Presented at the ACM Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) in Beijing, in June, RockSalt was created by Greg Morrisett, Allen B. Cutting Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), two of his undergraduate students Edward Gan '13 and Joseph Tassarotti '13, former postdoctoral fellow Jean-Baptiste Tristan (now at Oracle), and Gang Tan of Lehigh University.

"When a user opens an external application, such as Gmail or Angry Birds, web browsers such as Google Chrome typically run the program's code in an intermediate and safer language such as JavaScript," says Morrisett. "In many cases it would be preferable to run native machine code directly."

The use of native code, especially in an online environment, however, opens up the door to hackers who can exploit vulnerabilities and readily gain access to other parts of a computer or device. An initial solution to this problem was offered over a decade ago by computer scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, who developed software fault isolation (SFI).