May 12, 2010

Iomega hard disk drives recently got a technology boost in the form of the Iomega v.Clone, a software developed by EMC utilizing VMware technologies that enables users to create clones of their PCs onto an Iomega HDD. By using this software, a user can take everything he needs from his primary computer practically anywhere he goes, allowing him to use all the files and apps he needs in another PC as if he were working on his primary system. Iomega v.Clone copies the operating system, files, settings, and applications in the user’s primary computer and stores them in his Iomega portable HDD.

It also allows the user to edit and save files to his Iomega hard drive. When he plugs the Iomega drive into his primary computer, he simply needs to sync the data. Iomega v.Clone keeps files secure because even as the user runs his files on another computer, his data stays on the drive, leaving nothing on the secondary computer. The software likewise provides quick access to the user’s PC in case of an emergency or a system crash.

Iomega is distributed in the country by MSI-ECS.

By JR Raphael
November 3, 2009

Watch out, Vista: Windows 7 may soon put your sales to shame.

Microsoft’s new operating system is showing strong early growth compared to past releases, some new data suggests. About 3.6% of Net-connected computers were sporting Windows 7 over the weekend — less than two weeks after its launch — according to the analysts at Net Applications.

Windows 7 Market Share
For only 10 days into Windows 7′s life, 3.6% isn’t too shabby of a number. Compare for yourself: More than a month after its debut, Vista claimed only 2.04% of the operating system market, gauging by Net Applications’ measurements at the time. It didn’t hit 3.74% until May of 2007, four months into its release. And that’s following a launch absolutely jam-packed with “wow.”

Granted, the new Win 7 data is based only on computers that accessed the Web over Saturday and Sunday, and that number may rise or fall as the week moves forward. Still, it’s the first time the software has cracked the 3% mark, so it’s a milestone well worth noting.

Personally, I suspect all those wild Windows 7 launch parties had something to do with it. Plus, you’ve gotta imagine plenty of people dressed up as “unspecified errors” for Halloween — that’s free marketing right there.
All joking aside, though, let’s hope the “Save Vista” campaigns don’t kick in anytime soon.

By David Coursey
October 12, 2009

A serious flaw in Apple‘s Snow Leopard OS appears capable of wiping user data after the user opens and closes the “guest” account on the afflicted Macintosh.

According to reports, when the user first opens the guest account, closes it, and later logs back into their own account, their Home folder data has been erased.

Although the fault cannot be repeated at-will, it has occurred often enough to result in several threads on Apple’s online support forum.

Apple has not yet commented on the problem, according to Apple Insider. A simple preventive measure would be to disable the guest account (done in the “Accounts” System Preferences pane).

Users who suffer data loss–and are running Apple’s Time Machine back-up application–can restore their Home folder from the backup. This is done by pressing and holding ‘C’ during start-up and selecting “Restore from Backup” from the “Utilities” menu.

Introduced in August, Snow Leopard has apparently suffered this problem from the beginning, apparently on machines that already had the guest account enabled before the OS upgrade.

The recent 10.6.1 upgrade did not solve the problem. A fix is hoped for 10.6.2, now in beta testing by developers.

In the meantime: Unless you really, really need that guest account, just turn it off. And make sure Time Machine, or some other backup application, is turned on.

Opera has released the first beta of Opera 10, the newest version of the company’s industry-defining Web browser. Opera 10 beta sports a surprising array of new features, a fresh look and feel, and enhanced speed and performance. Discover a better way to enjoy the Web by trying Opera 10 beta. It is completely free for Windows, Mac and Linux users from http://www.opera.com/next/.

“Your Web browser is the most important piece of software you will ever use,” says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “We think Opera 10 will redefine how you can enjoy the Web. We have more surprises on the way, but when you try the features, enjoy the acclerated performance and get a glimpse at our shiny new wrapping, I think Opera 10 beta will excite both long-time users and those new to Opera.”

Opera Turbo cures the bandwidth blues
If you have ever waited on dial-up, slammed hard into a bandwidth cap imposed by your ISP, or gotten stuck on a crowded Wi-Fi hot spot, Opera Turbo is here to rescue you. Using state-of-the-art compression technology, Opera Turbo unclogs your connection so you can get to your content. Opera Turbo easily delivers three to four times the speed of slower connections and can offer broadband-like speeds on dial-up.

An interface-lift
World-renowned designer Jon Hicks joined Opera to spice up our user interface design. “Initially, we were just going to clean-up some elements and focus on the interface for new features,” said Jon Hicks. “But, over time, the new user interface elements became so different that we decided to update everything. Mac users in particular should enjoy this update to the default Opera skin.” The new skin is a work in progress and will continue to evolve before the final release of Opera 10.

Tabbed browsing update from the original pioneers
The tab bar is now resizeable, but with a twist. Pull down the tab bar (or double-click the handle) to reveal full thumbnails of all your open tabs.

Opera Speed Dial just became your Speed Dial
Speed Dial has been a favorite of Opera fans since its introduction, and now you can personalize it. Have a large monitor? Super-size your Speed Dial with a 5×5 grid. Want to see your family or friends in every new tab? Add their smiling faces as a background image. Our new Speed Dial is now as flexible for you as it is fast.

The application integration trifecta
Opera comes standard with an e-mail client, newsfeed readers and BitTorrent support within the browser. In Opera 10, you can now easily choose to use a variety of Web-mail providers, online feed readers or other BitTorrent clients as your default choice.

Performance and Web standards: Opera’s cornerstones
Even without Opera Turbo, Opera 10 is now much faster on resource intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook and is more than 40% faster than Opera 9.6. Web developers can enjoy Web Fonts support, RGBA/HSLA color and new SVG improvements.

Web developers can also take advantage of the new features in Opera Dragonfly, our set of on-board Web development tools. Opera Dragonfly alpha 3 now allows you to edit the DOM and inspect HTTP headers and comes in more than 36 languages.

But wait, there’s more…
Opera 10 beta also improves upon existing features in the Opera 10 alpha. The inline spell-checker now supports 51 languages, using the popular open source Hunspell dictionary format. Opera 10 beta also updates automatically, although you can choose to allow completely automatic updates or to be notified when an update is ready to install. We always let you stay in control.

The e-mail client is also improved with rich text editing including inline images, styled text, links, and full HTML. You can also have Opera automatically delete e-mails from your POP server after a specified amount of time to keep your inbox nice and neat.

Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is now available to accelerate the mobile browsing experience for Windows Mobile-based phones. Speed is at the heart of this beta release due to the addition of Opera’s recently launched technology for faster surfing, Opera Turbo. Opera has also included its newly upgraded browser engine, called Opera Presto 2.2, for faster page loads and better overall performance. With the added bonus of Opera Widgets, Opera Mobile 9.7 gets you the Web content you want in fewer clicks and less time.

“There are other mobile browsers on the market that claim to be faster and more Web site-compatible on Windows-based phones, but I challenge users to take Opera Mobile for a test drive and discover a new standard for speed and compatibility. Opera Mobile 9.7 leaves other “sluggish” and “painfully slow” browsers in the dust,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software.

Opera Mobile 9.7 beta features a mobile version of Opera Turbo. This turbo-charged technology is made possible by:
- Server-accelerated rendering – Opera Mobile unburdens the mobile phone of its full rendering responsibilities by off-loading this task to Opera servers. This frees device resources, thus improving download rates and overall performance.
- Compression technology – Opera Turbo uses advanced compression technology to speed up data transfer and to reduce the amount of data that needs to be downloaded by up to 80 percent. This means that despite network shortcomings or in the absence of a powerful device, Opera Turbo enables a fast and rich browsing experience that is even faster than the most advanced 3G phones.

“It is our belief in One Web that challenges us to develop technology such as Opera Turbo.” von Tetzchner states. “Not everyone owns a 3G phone and not everyone needs to. This is why Opera’s focus is on improving our browser so that your EDGE network feels like you’re surfing 3G style or better.”

Opera’s latest rendering engine, Opera Presto 2.2, is under the hood of Opera Mobile 9.7 beta, Opera Presto 2.2, is Opera’s rendering engine that helps display Web pages on your phone up to 25 percent faster. Opera Presto 2.2 is the same rendering engine used in Opera’s desktop browser.

Currently available for Windows Mobile-based phones, you can download Opera Mobile 9.7 beta at http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/ while the Opera Widgets SDK is available for developers to download at http://dev.opera.com/sdk/.

Today, the Philippine market is flooded with different solutions to solve these dilemmas. Unfortunately, most were unable to tear down these higher level threats. Luckily, the long-trusted antiVirus and content security solution, eScan is now in a whole new level to address these problems.

eScan, is a comprehensive antiairus, antispam and content security solution that safeguards computers from viruses, spyware, adware, malware, keyloggers, hacking, spam, phishing, objectionable content and many other digital hazards. It provides real-time virus protection with the revolutionary technology called MicroWorld Winsock Layer (MWL) that blocks security threats effectively at the Windows socket layer itself and scans for restricted content in emails, removes malicious attachments and filters websites. MWL is revolutionary because unlike the other products and technologies currently available, MWL tackles a threat before it reaches your applications.

Serving at its best, eScan is now offering the following features that make itself outstanding among others:

• New user friendly graphic user interface
• Faster on-demand scanning
• Web protection- built-in parental control and privacy protection
• Proactive protection- monitors the system registry for any changes and warns the user on detecting any changes in the system registry.
• Endpoint Security- prevents data thefts and virus infections through USB/ Firewire based portable devices
• Firewall- monitors and logs both incoming and outgoing network activities in the system and protects it from all network based attacks.
• eScan Management Console- Client Live Updater
• Asset Management- more detailed description on machine such as installed software and memory to mention a few.
• Logs and Extensive Reports- showing network activities of all connected clients within the network

Furthermore, it is the only anti-virus here in the country that offers real 8/5 onsite, free Philippine- and international-based chat and e-mail support. Also, it offers new high-level features at a very affordable price, making it a worthy investment.

For more details, visit www.escan.ph or call eScan Sales at 230-8755 / 230-8711 or email escan@npi.ph.

Developer of secure content management solutions, Kaspersky Lab, recently announced that Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009‘s proactive protection has once again received top marks from the authoritative AV-Comparatives test lab. The Kaspersky Lab product demonstrated high-level heuristic detection of new malware with a minimal amount of false positives. 

The Austrian antivirus test laboratory AV-Comparatives has published the second part of its report on testing conducted in February 2009 in which 16 popular antivirus products took part. The second part of the report contains test results for proactive, heuristic detection. Kaspersky Lab was also awarded a top rating of Advanced+ for the first part of February’s test. 

Proactive detection allows new malicious programs whose signatures have not yet been added to antivirus databases to be detected. This functionality is becoming increasingly important due to the increasing numbers of new malicious programs and their modifications. A vital criterion when evaluating an antivirus solution today is the level of heuristic detection: the percentage of new malware detected without the use of signatures and without the launch or imitated launch of questionable software.  

During testing by AV-Comparatives, the antivirus solutions were evaluated on criteria such as their level of heuristic detection and number of false positives generated. The malware samples used during detection level testing were collected during the February 9-16, 2009 – the week after the products’ signature databases were last updated. Testing for false positives was conducted using a collection of clean files. Any technology that enabled the use of global resources or “in-the-cloud” protection was turned off. 

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 received AV-Comparatives’ top rating of Advanced+, after demonstrating excellent heuristic detection of malware and a negligible amount of false positives. Only two other products apart from Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 received an Advanced+ rating.  

Further information about the new generation of Kaspersky Lab personal products can be found on the Kaspersky Lab site at www.kaspersky.com/homeuser. In addition, free trial versions of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 are available at www.kaspersky.com/trials.

Aside from banks, the global retail industry has been hit hard as consumer spending decreased because of the effects of the global economic crisis. The world’s biggest consumer, the US, spent 9.4% less from last year, and companies are working hard to effectively address the low inventory-to-sales ratio, currently at 1.43. However, Asia is gaining ground in consumer spending, and Chinese consumers are taking the lead with increased retail spending of 15.9% in 1Q09. For the Philippines, leading economists from the University of Asia and the Pacific are predicting a steady increase in private consumer spending of 4% in 2009.

Global luggage retailer, Samsonite, recognized the Asian market early, and began strengthening its e-commerce and inventory platforms worldwide, but most strategically, in Asia. The world leader in luggage design and distribution partnered with Supply Chain Consulting to roll out SAP modules enhanced by the Supply Chain Software Factory, which includes inventory management, and logistics planning, with a final roll out in April 2009. The investment was a timely move that addressed inventory issues for Samsonite, and flew in the face of IDC predictions that the Asian IT industry will decrease by 7.3% against earlier forecasts. It was previously estimated that spending by companies in the Asia Pacific to reach US$23.4 billion, up 2.9% from 2008.

Jan Biezepol, Supply Chain Consulting managing director for Asia said, “Despite the new realities brought about by the economic downturn, companies in resilient industries such as retail should invest IT that maximize performance, especially in terms of inventory and supply chain management. These allow them to ride out the crisis and position them further for success through long-term reduction on business costs.”

Samsonite Asia’s partnership with Supply Chain Consulting includes the implementation of a SAP system, business process workflow system design, document procedure, and staff training for its Asian operations. The roll out proceeded smoothly beginning October 2009, immediately following the beginning of the crisis. Samsonite Project Atlas, as it is called, has resulted in significant cost reductions for Samsonite in Asia, taken from reductions in time-to-market and information sharing.

“It took a lot of the stress out of the decision for us at a crucial point in time. The solutions we acquired from Supply Chain Consulting enabled a disciplined approach to our scope of works and guaranteed a fast track implementation. Its framework meant we did not get carried away implementing functions that would provide minimal business return and substantially slow down the roll-out. I don’t think many people understand just how much hard work goes in to make a success like this happen so professionally,” Steve Clifford, CIO/ATLAS programme Manager of samsonite Asia stated.

The indictment, announced this week, was returned by a federal grand jury for U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in November. Christopher Loring Walters, 28, of Newport Beach, California, and Matthew Thomas Purse, 32, of Gilbert, Arizona, were charged with conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, criminal copyright infringement, and trafficking in counterfeit labels, packaging or containers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix.

Convictions for mail and wire fraud carry a maximum of 20 years in prison, while the other charges carry a maximum of five-year sentences. All the counts carry a maximum US$250,000 fine.

Purse has appeared in court in Phoenix and was released pending trial. Walters remains a fugitive.

From September 2004 to February 2006, Walters and Purse created several eBay merchant accounts and other commercial Web sites where they sold counterfeit software, according to the charges. The two men, doing business as SoftwareDiner.com, Thesoftwareyard.com, Argyleequity.com, Eagletronics.com, Tekdealer.com, and other business names, advertised that they were authorized distributors of numerous brand-name software packages.

Among the software they sold were copies of packages from Apple, Corel, McAfee, Symantec and other companies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The companies lost more than $500,000 in sales through the men’s operations, the agency said.

The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) praised the indictments. The trade group worked with investigators on the case, it said.

“Our goal is to do whatever is needed and appropriate to shut down these sites and to cease the sale of counterfeit software via the Internet,” Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA’s senior vice president for intellectual property policy and enforcement, said in a statement.