Verizon Communications is looking toward big cities as the next big opportunity for its Fios broadband and TV service. "Our plan is to cover all of the 3.1 million households in all five boroughs in the next five to six years," Verizon's COO Denny Strigl said.
Verizon is also working to get video franchise approval for the Fios TV service in other large cities. Verizon sees cities as a huge opportunity for the Fios service, which provides high-speed Internet service, telephony, and cable TV service over a super-fast fiber connection.
The company has also doubled the upload and download speeds of its lowest-tier Fios broadband service. The service will now offer 10Mbps downloads and 2Mbps uploads.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Mozilla tries to set world record with Firefox launch
After nearly 3 years in development, the much anticipated release of Firefox version 3 should be available on June 17. As part of the launch the Mozilla Foundation has announced that they'll be attempting to set a world record for the most software downloads in a 24 hour period. They're also suggesting that fans of Firefox host parties celebrating the launch.
The good news for Mozilla is that they don't seem to have any competition for the record. According to the FAQ on the website created to promote the launch, "This is the first record attempt of its kind so there is no set number. We'd really like to outdo the number of Firefox 2 downloads on its launch day, which was 1.6 million. Let's shoot for 5 million--the sky is the limit!"
The good news for Mozilla is that they don't seem to have any competition for the record. According to the FAQ on the website created to promote the launch, "This is the first record attempt of its kind so there is no set number. We'd really like to outdo the number of Firefox 2 downloads on its launch day, which was 1.6 million. Let's shoot for 5 million--the sky is the limit!"
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Mozilla Firefox 3.0 RC2 released
Mozilla unveiled the second release candidate of Firefox 3.0 and said all of the issues that remain are on the server or site side, not in the application itself.
Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) fixed about 40 bugs identified after Mozilla issued the first release candidate three weeks ago.
Mozilla made the decision to go with another release candidate last week, rejecting the option of shipping Firefox 3.0 as is, then following up with a bug fix update later. Mozilla executives assured users that the additional RC would not delay the expected launch date, which has been set for mid-month.
Firefox accounts for 18.4% of the browser market, according to the most recent data from Net Applications Inc. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer remains the most widely used browser, with a 73.8% share, while Apple Inc.'s Safari comes in third with 6.3%.
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Firefox 3.0 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) fixed about 40 bugs identified after Mozilla issued the first release candidate three weeks ago.
Mozilla made the decision to go with another release candidate last week, rejecting the option of shipping Firefox 3.0 as is, then following up with a bug fix update later. Mozilla executives assured users that the additional RC would not delay the expected launch date, which has been set for mid-month.
Firefox accounts for 18.4% of the browser market, according to the most recent data from Net Applications Inc. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer remains the most widely used browser, with a 73.8% share, while Apple Inc.'s Safari comes in third with 6.3%.
Full Story
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Safari Flaw Worse Than First Thought
Microsoft is warning that a previously disclosed flaw in Apple's Safari browser could have dire consequences for Windows users.
The Safari bug, originally disclosed on May 15 by security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani, allows attackers to litter a victim's desktop with executable files, an attack known as "carpet bombing."
It turns out that if this flaw is exploited in combination with a second unpatched bug in Internet Explorer, attackers can run unauthorized software on a victim's computer. For the attack to work, a victim must first visit a maliciously crafted Web page with the Safari browser, which in turn will trigger the carpet bombing attack and exploit the IE flaw.
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The Safari bug, originally disclosed on May 15 by security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani, allows attackers to litter a victim's desktop with executable files, an attack known as "carpet bombing."
It turns out that if this flaw is exploited in combination with a second unpatched bug in Internet Explorer, attackers can run unauthorized software on a victim's computer. For the attack to work, a victim must first visit a maliciously crafted Web page with the Safari browser, which in turn will trigger the carpet bombing attack and exploit the IE flaw.
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Monday, May 26, 2008
Samsung develops 256GB solid state drive
Samsung announced the development of a 2.5-inch, 256GB solid state drive (SSD). Typical solid state drives shipping in notebook PCs today have a storage capacity of 64GB.
With a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second and sequential write speed of 160MBps, Samsung is claiming some of the fastest SSD data transfer rates to date. Samsung is slated to begin commercial production of the SSD by year's end.
SSDs have no moving parts, which means they avoid both the risk of mechanical failure and the mechanical delays of hard disk drives.
With a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second and sequential write speed of 160MBps, Samsung is claiming some of the fastest SSD data transfer rates to date. Samsung is slated to begin commercial production of the SSD by year's end.
SSDs have no moving parts, which means they avoid both the risk of mechanical failure and the mechanical delays of hard disk drives.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Member of Online Piracy Group Faces Prison Term
A member of an online piracy group has been convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and faces up to five years in prison.
Barry Gitarts, 25, from New York, was convicted Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. In addition to up to five years in prison, Gitarts could face a fine of US$250,000 and three years of probation.
Gitarts was a key member of the Internet music piracy group Apocalypse Production Crew (APC) from at least June 2003 through April 2004. Gitarts paid for and administered a computer server located in Texas that APC group members used to upload and download hundreds of thousands of copies of pirated music, movies, software and video games.
The Gitarts case is part of an ongoing federal investigation into the organized piracy groups responsible for the distribution of movies, software, games and music on the Internet.
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Barry Gitarts, 25, from New York, was convicted Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. In addition to up to five years in prison, Gitarts could face a fine of US$250,000 and three years of probation.
Gitarts was a key member of the Internet music piracy group Apocalypse Production Crew (APC) from at least June 2003 through April 2004. Gitarts paid for and administered a computer server located in Texas that APC group members used to upload and download hundreds of thousands of copies of pirated music, movies, software and video games.
The Gitarts case is part of an ongoing federal investigation into the organized piracy groups responsible for the distribution of movies, software, games and music on the Internet.
Full Story
Monday, May 19, 2008
Google Health Goes Live
After months of speculation, the search engine giant on Monday unveiled its health-related Web site, Google Health.
Users can now log in to the service at google.com/health to import their medical records, fill prescriptions, and get lab results, set up text-based pill alerts, keep track of immunizations, and get pertinent news alerts.
Google stressed that the information entered into Google Health will remain completely private. When asked whether that information might be aggregated, Google said that any information that is shared will be done so in a way that is not identifiable.
Full Story
Users can now log in to the service at google.com/health to import their medical records, fill prescriptions, and get lab results, set up text-based pill alerts, keep track of immunizations, and get pertinent news alerts.
Google stressed that the information entered into Google Health will remain completely private. When asked whether that information might be aggregated, Google said that any information that is shared will be done so in a way that is not identifiable.
Full Story
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Google starts to blur faces in Street View photos
After privacy complaints, Google Inc. is beginning to automatically blur faces of people captured in the street photos taken for its Internet map program.
As specially equipped Google vehicles cruised city streets snapping panoramic images of homes and businesses, the resulting photos revealed people falling off bikes, exiting strip joints, crossing the street, sunbathing — everyday, in-public things but nonetheless, things they might not have wanted preserved for posterity.
This week, Google revealed it had indeed begun deploying a facial-recognition algorithm that scans photos for mugs to blur. The changes are happening first in scenes in New York, before slowly expanding to the other 40 cities in Street View.
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As specially equipped Google vehicles cruised city streets snapping panoramic images of homes and businesses, the resulting photos revealed people falling off bikes, exiting strip joints, crossing the street, sunbathing — everyday, in-public things but nonetheless, things they might not have wanted preserved for posterity.
This week, Google revealed it had indeed begun deploying a facial-recognition algorithm that scans photos for mugs to blur. The changes are happening first in scenes in New York, before slowly expanding to the other 40 cities in Street View.
Full Story
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