Hewlett-Packard announces new tablet aimed at enterprise customers

PALO ALTO -- Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) introduced its new entry into the tablet market Monday morning, announcing the launch of an enterprise-focused mobile device dubbed the HP ElitePad 900.

The Palo Alto tech giant, the world's No. 1 personal computer maker, has struggled to break into the mobile-device market that has made Apple (AAPL) the most valuable company in the United States. HP attempted to jump into the field with its $1.2 billion purchase of Sunnyvale-based Palm in 2010, offering smartphones and eventually a tablet based on the webOS platform developed by Palm. The devices did not catch on with consumers, however: HP announced less than two months after the TouchPad tablet launched in July 2011 that it would cease production of hardware based on webOS, which it decided to offer as an open-source operating system.

Instead of making another attempt to enter the consumer mobile-device market, HP CEO Meg Whitman is instead targeting businesses with the HP ElitePad 900, hoping that the Windows 8-based tablet will appeal to companies that want to have more IT control over the mobile devices employees carry.

Businesses used to face a tough purchase decision: How to find a product that will delight employees and help them be more productive, while also making sure IT can secure and manage it. The HP ElitePad meets all those tests," Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's division focusing on PCs and printers, said in Monday's news release.

Whitman has given hints that the company would be jumping back into the market for mobile devices, saying in an August conference call with investors, analysts and journalists that HP was working on a new tablet offering, and telling the Fox Business Channel in a September interview that the company has also been working on a smartphone.

After the later interview, Moor Insights and Strategy principal analyst Patrick Moorhead predicted that HP would aim for the enterprise with any new mobile offerings, explaining that the bring-your-own-device trend will peter out a bit as workers attempt to perform more advanced functions than just accessing email.

"Email is one thing, but gaining access to confidential corporate data and true enterprise applications and being able to lock down and encrypt the data ... will become much more important," Moorhead said in an interview with the Mercury News last month.

The 10.1-inch tablet is powered by an Intel (INTC) mobile processor, part of the Santa Clara chipmaker's efforts to also push into the mobile market, and will run Microsoft's newest operating system, which has been developed with a focus on marrying the company's desktop operating system with mobile offerings. It is expected to launch in the U.S. in January 2013; pricing was not announced.

HP has focused on its enterprise offerings as the consumer PC and printer market has dwindled. In the meantime, Whitman has worked to trim down the company, with the biggest round of employee layoffs and buyouts in its history. HP announced last month that an additional 2,000 workers will be leaving the company, increasing the cutbacks to 29,000 through Oct. 31, 2014.

Hewlett-Packard stock moved higher Monday morning after the announcement, gaining as much as 3.3 percent higher by 9:30 a.m. Pacific time, when shares were trading for $17.41, a 2.1 percent gain from Friday's closing price. HP stock fell to an 8-year low in late August, hitting a low point of $16.77 on Aug. 30.

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HCL launches mobility products in UAE with ME G1 tablet PC

IT hardware company HCL Infosystems today announced the entry of its mobility products in the UAE with the launch of 3G-enabled 9.7 inch HCL ME G1 tablet PC.

NEW DELHI: IT hardware company HCL InfosystemsBSE 7.16 % today announced the entry of its mobility products in the UAE with the launch of 3G-enabled 9.7 inch HCL ME G1 tablet PC. 

The tablet PC has been launched in the GITEX Shopper, 2012 fair in Dubai. 

Other tablet PCs in the ME range will also be available at the fair and all leading consumer electronics outlets in the UAE, the company said in a statement. 

The products are also available across Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Egypt. 

"The ME series of tablets have proved to be an instant hit since its launch...We are confident that the advanced connectivity, innovative features and pre-installed applications will make it very appealing to consumers in this region too," HCL Infosystems Middle East and Africa CEO Shivkumar Gopal said.

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Fix the iPhone 5 WiFi bug

Apple’s iPhone 5 arrives: The new iPhone 5 draws long lines Friday at Apple stores around the world. The latest version of Apple’s smartphone is expected to break first-day sales records.

Apple has released information on how to fix a particularly bad iPhone 5 bug that burned through the data plans of some Verizon customers.

Those who bought the new smartphone noticed that they were being charged for using cellular data even when they were using their phones on WiFi networks. That quickly ate through their monthly data quotas and, in some cases reported on Apple’s support forums, nearly cost some users hefty overage fees.

On Sunday, the company posted a page on its help center telling users how to fix the problem.

To do so, users should head to the “About” menu in the general settings menu of the iPhone. An alert should pop up with a message saying that your carrier settings have been updated. Hit the “okay” button to get the update. Once it’s installed, turn the phone off, and then on again to activate the update.

Once your phone is back on, head to the same menu. If the problem’s been addressed, the words “Verizon 13.1” should be in the “Carrier” field.

If you were affected by the glitch, Verizon has said that it will work with its customers to fix the situation.

In a statement to 9 to 5 Mac, Verizon Wireless said that it will not be charging users for “unwarranted cellular data usage.”

Verizon hasn’t released how many iPhone 5 units it sold in the first push, though the company’s Web site shows that the iPhone 5 will not ship until Oct. 26, 2012.

Verizon iPhones shipped “unlocked,”meaning that the same device could be taken to other phone networks. While Apple sells unlocked versions of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, this is the first time that a carrier has done so. Verizon said that it will not relock the iPhone, meaning that users will have the option to take their phones to a competing network after their initial two-year contract with Verizon expires.

The unlocked iPhones will not, however, work other carriers’ high-speed 4G LTE networks.

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Zuckerberg Dresses Up for Medvedev Meeting

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc. FB +1.19% (left) shakes hands with Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister, at the Gorki residence near Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012

Facebook Inc. co-founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, decided against his casual apparel and wore a formal suit Monday to meet his high-placed fan, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Mr. Zuckerberg came to Russia to boost Facebook’s position in the Russian market and encourage local engineers and programmers to work for the company. He said he was honored to have been invited to see Mr. Medvedev. He presented the prime minister a T-shirt with Mr. Medvedev’s Facebook page address.

Mr. Zuckerberg didn’t meet Russia’s leader, President Vladimir Putin, whose attitude towards social networks differs from Mr. Medvedev’s.

Facebook and other social networks were pivotal in mobilizing tens of thousands of anti-Kremlin protesters last winter and remained the main platform for opposition opinion making and discussion, in contrast with the country’s mainstream media.

Mr. Putin and some of his conservative supporters have repeatedly played down the role of social media in Russia, portraying opposition leaders as stooges of the West. Unlike Mr. Medvedev, Mr. Putin has no Facebook page.

Black-tie meetings aren’t the only items on Mr. Zuckerberg’s Moscow agenda. On Sunday, he did some sightseeing, taking pictures of St. Basil Cathedral, the Red Square, and even a local McDonald’s restaurant.

He’s giving a lecture at the Moscow State University on Tuesday.

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Apple eyes India stores, but laws may hold it back

Apple is reportedly subject to a law that requires 30 percent of a company's products to be sourced locally.

Apple's store in Hong Kong.

(Credit: Apple )

Apple's retail stores are expanding their footprint globally. But now, their move into India could be held back.

Earlier today, the Economic Times reported that Apple is currently considering opening stores in India. However, The Wall Street Journal reported today, citing sources, that the company is subject to a law that requires all foreign retailers to source 30 percent of their product sales from local companies. In other words, 30 percent of the products sold in the stores must have come from an Indian partner.

For Apple, that's a problem. The company currently relies on companies like Foxconn and others to produce its products in China. Apple does have some outsourced activities in India, which could help the company bring its stores to the country. However, one Journal source says that such a relaxation of the laws could take "a couple of years" to be completed.

Such changes are by no means unprecedented. Late last year, India nixed a rule that would allow companies selling their own products to own at most, 51 percent, of the operation. Now, they can own it all.

Apple has been quickly expanding its retail presence around the world. Last week, in fact, the company opened a second store in Hong Kong. Apple currently doesn't have any stores in India.

Originally posted at Apple

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Navy devs cook up Android spyware to map your location - in 3D

Indiana students working with the US Navy have demonstrated malware capable of mapping a room and creating a 3D-navigable space to help information thieves find what they're looking for.

The Indiana University team, which includes a representative from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, created PlaceRaider – smartphone software which covertly takes snapshots every two seconds and then runs those snaps through existing analysis software to create a 3D model, which enabled users to find bank details, snatchable property and even when the residents were likely to be out.

The idea is that the software, called PlaceRaider, could be embedded into any of the camera-enhancement applications already available in the mobile app marketplaces, providing it with all the permissions it needs to carry out the attack. Once installed, PlaceRaider runs in the background, covertly taking snaps opportunistically as the user moves around the room with the phone. The malware mutes the volume before every snap to prevent the shutter sounding. Along with the pics, the camera records its orientation to help it build the 3D model later.

Obviously useless snaps are then discarded – which amounted to almost three-quarters of them in testing – and the rest are sent back to the miscreant along with the orientation data. All that data is then run through the Bundler toolkit - a stitching package following on from Microsoft's legendary Photosynth application, which glues together unrelated photos of the same subject. The result of that is run though the open-source Patch-based Multi-view Stereo Software to create a 3D navigable space.

It's not quite that easy, in the detailed write-up (PDF, detailed and well written) the team points out that Photosynth can rely on most pictures being horizontally aligned (as they come from Flickr, or are at least deliberately taken) while their samples were at all sorts of angles though they did have the orientation data to help address that.

The point of the process was to make it easier for the miscreant to find stuff worth seeing, so the team set a room with a decent amount of data on display (cheques on the desk, a wall calendar carefully noting foreign travel, and so forth). Twenty students were then asked to complete normal mobile-phone takes on an infected HTC Amaze, without knowing the true purpose.

Once the data had been gathered, another group of students were asked to see if the data contained anything useful, with half being given the raw images (between 800 and 1,400 of them per sample) and the other half getting the 3D experience. Unsurprisingly those able to visualise the space made a much better job of finding the data, showing the analysis was worthwhile.

That's nothing to panic about right now, the process was complicated and the threat indeterminate (take a look around you now, decide what in the vicinity would be of value to a thief, and realise the threat isn't really credible just yet), but that will change as the processing power of the phone increases (enabling it to filter out more information) and more bandwidth becomes available.

It was lack of bandwidth which prevented the team from using video, but the implications are obvious. Web cams have been hijacked many times, but they generally point in one direction and thus have limited value for snooping. A mobile-phone camera gets a decent sweep of the room every time a call is answered, increasing the risk hugely.

The PlaceRaider team recommend removing the ability to mute the shutter sound (which they do by reducing the volume, as Android already insists in playing it every time a photo is taken) and limiting access to orientation data, though they also admit that a PlaceRaider-detector would be trivial to write and that anti-malware software might become increasingly necessary as the cameras we carry around start being used against us.

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Attacks on 6 Banks Frustrate Customers

Six major American banks were hit in a wave of computer attacks last week, by a group claiming Middle Eastern ties, that caused Internet blackouts and delays in online banking.

The targets of last week’s computer attacks included Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank. Some, including Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, have pointed accusations at Iran in the attacks, and one expert said Iran must at least have been aware of them.

Frustrated customers of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and PNC, who could not get access to their accounts or pay bills online, were upset because the banks had not explained clearly what was going on.

“It was probably the least impressive corporate presentation of bad news I’ve ever seen,” said Paul Downs, a small-business owner in Bridgeport, Pa. “This is extremely disconcerting.”

The banks suffered denial of service attacks, in which hackers barrage a Web site with traffic until it is overwhelmed and shuts down. Such attacks, while a nuisance, are not technically sophisticated and do not affect a company’s computer network — or, in this case, funds or customer bank accounts. But they are enough to upset customers.

A hacker group calling itself Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters — a reference to Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a Muslim holy man who fought against European forces and Jewish settlers in the Middle East in the 1920s and 1930s — took credit for the attacks in online posts.

The group said it had attacked the banks in retaliation for an anti-Islam video that mocks the Prophet Muhammad. It also pledged to continue to attack American credit and financial institutions daily, and possibly institutions in France, Israel and Britain, until the video is taken offline. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were also targeted.

On Friday, PNC became the latest bank to experience delays and fall offline. Customers said they had been unable to get access to PNC’s online banking site, and those that visited the bank’s physical locations were told it was because PNC, and many others, had been hacked.

Fred Solomon, a PNC spokesman, said Friday afternoon that the bank’s Web site was back online, but that it was still working to restore online bill payment. Asked why the bank was not better able to withstand such an attack, he said that while PNC had systems in place to prevent delays and disruption from hacker attacks, in this case “the volume of traffic was unprecedented.”

Representatives for other banks also confirmed that they had experienced slow Internet performance and intermittent downtime because of an unusually high volume of traffic.

Security researchers said the attack methods were too basic to have taken so many American bank sites offline. The hackers appeared to be enlisting volunteers for the attacks with messages on various sites. On one blog, they called on people to visit two Web addresses that would cause their computers to flood banks with hundreds of data requests a second. They asked volunteers to attack banks according to a timetable: Wells Fargo on Tuesday, U.S. Bancorp on Wednesday and PNC on Thursday.

But experts said it seemed implausible that this method would create an attack of this scale. “The number of users you need to break those targets is very high,” said Jaime Blasco, a security researcher at AlienVault who has been investigating the attacks. “They must have had help from other sources.”

Those sources, Mr. Blasco said, would have to be a group with money, like a nation, or botnets — networks of infected computers that do the bidding of criminals. Botnets can be rented through black market schemes that are common in the Internet underground, or lent out by criminals or governments.

Last week, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview on C-Span that he believed Iran’s government had sponsored the attacks in retaliation for Western economic sanctions. The hacker group rejected that claim. In an online post, it said the attacks had not been sponsored by a country and that its members “strongly reject the American officials’ insidious attempts to deceive public opinion.”

The hackers maintained that they were retaliating for the online video. “Insult to the prophet is not acceptable, especially when it is the last Prophet Muhammad,” they wrote.

It is very difficult to trace such attacks back to a particular country, security experts say, because they can be routed through different Internet addresses to mask their true origin.

But experts said they had seen an increase in such activity from Iran and in the number of so-called hacktivists, hackers who attack for political purposes rather than for profit, based in Iran.

“We absolutely have seen more activity from the Middle East, and in particular Iran has been increasingly active as they build up their cyber capabilities,” said George Kurtz, the president of CrowdStrike, a computer security company, and former chief technology officer at McAfee. “There is also a strong activist movement underfoot, which should be concerning to many large companies. The threat is real, and what we are seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg.”

James A. Lewis, a computer security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that in this case, the attack methods used were “pretty basic” to have been state-sponsored. But he added that even if the attacks were not the work of Iran’s government, the state would be aware of them because Iran monitors its networks extensively.

For Mr. Downs, the small-business owner in Pennsylvania, such half explanations were of little consolation.

“A major bank has a problem and gives no indication of what’s happening, when it started or when it will stop,” he said. “That’s pretty freaky if it’s your own business’s money and you need to do things with it.”

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Graphene may soon replace silicon for tech industry

Norwegian researchers are the world's first to develop a method for producing semiconductors from graphene. This finding may revolutionise the technology industry. The method involves growing semiconductor-nanowires on graphene. To achieve this, researchers "bomb " thegraphene surface with gallium atoms and arsenic molecules, thereby creating a network of minute nanowires. 

Norwegian researchers are the world's first to develop a method for producing semiconductors from graphene. This finding may revolutionise the technology industry.

The result is a one-micrometre thick hybrid material which acts as a semiconductor. By comparison , the silicon semiconductors in use today are several hundred times thicker. The semiconductors' ability to conduct electricity may be affected by temperature, light or the addition of other atoms. Graphene is the thinnest material known, and at the same time one of the strongest. 

It consists of a single layer of carbon atoms and is both pliable and transparent. The material conducts electricity and heat very effectively. And perhaps most importantly, it is very inexpensive to produce. "Given that it's possible to make semiconductors out of graphene instead of silicon, we can make semiconductorcomponents that are both cheaper and more effective than the ones currently on the market," explains Helge Weman of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Dr Weman is behind the breakthrough discovery along with Professor Bjorn-Ove Fimland. 

"A material comprising a pliable base that is also transparent opens up a world of opportunities, one we have barely touched the surface of," says Dr Weman. 

"This may bring about a revolution in the production of solar cells and LED components. Windows in traditional houses could double as solar panels or a TV screen. Mobile phone screens could be wrapped around the wrist like a watch. In short, the potential is tremendous." 

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New apps for Windows 8 is the only way for Microsoft to sustain in smartphone market

BANGALORE: Microsoft may have marched into the record books by bringing together the largest-ever number of developers for a coding marathon in Bangalore, but the jury is still out on whether Indian app makers will wholeheartedly embrace its Windows 8platform for mobile devices.

Creating new apps for Windows 8 is vital for Microsoft if it is to make a dent in the smartphone market, where it has a 4 pc share.

Creating numerous new applications or apps for Windows 8 is vital for Microsoft if it is to make a dent in the global smartphone market, where it has a meagre 4 per cent marketshare. Most analysts believe a part of the reason for the tepid response to the earlier Windows-based phones is they had fewer apps-only 1,00,000 or so, compared with more than 5,00,000 for Google's Android and Apple's iOS operating systems.

For Microsoft, which dominated in desktop space, Indians will be crucial to the success of Windows 8 and its attempt to be a significant force in the mobile era. A sizeable chunk of all software code-as much as a third, according to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer-is written by Indian developers.

More than half of the 2,567 attendees at the 18-hour application development marathon in Bangalore were college students. Of the 700 applications developed, some 300 passed the App Excellence Lab quality tests of Microsoft but only a handful have made it to the App Store yet.

Full coverage of Apple iPhone 5

"The only measure of success would be the number of apps developed and hosted on the platform," said Sanchit Vir Gogia, senior research analyst at Forrester Research.

Many apps developed by Indians have hit the one-million download mark. Cricket Worldcup Fever by Indiagames and Parking Frenzy by Games2win stand out. In last month alone, Parking Frenzy had 10 million downloads on the Google Play store.

Microsoft India, which spent more than a year's developer-engagement budget for the event, collaborated with colleges in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Jaipur to evangelise the engineering students. "We trained 2,000-plus engineering students and also organised webcasts and chat sessions prior to the event," said Harish Vaidyanathan, director of evangelism at Microsoft India.

To sweeten the deal, Microsoft has promised to give developers 70 per cent of the first $25,000 in revenue the app generates and 80 per cent thereafter. In comparison, both Google and Apple give developers about 70 per cent.

Some e-commerce companies are hedging their bets by having a presence on the Microsoft platform. Flipkart's music store Flyte has already uploaded a beta version of its app on Windows 8 phone store.

"Microsoft has made the procedure easy for app developers. We do see a big market for them here and expect to see a lot of tablets and other devices with their new OS," said Gaurav Lochal, engineering manager at Flipkart's Flyte.

AV Krishnan, head of software development at app developer PurpleTalk, said he was getting many enquiries from clients, but only a couple of them have placed orders for an app on the new platform so far.

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BSNL and WishTel to launch tablet PC IRA ICON targeted at youth, professionals

Mumbai-based electronic goods manufacturer WishTel and government owned BSNL will launch a tablet PC IRA ICON featuring 3G, Wi-Fi and bluetooth connectivity on October 1, celebrated as BSNL Day, said a Wishtel statement.

AHMEDABAD: Mumbai-based electronic goods manufacturer WishTel and government owned BSNLwill launch a tablet PC IRA ICON featuring 3G, Wi-Fi and bluetooth connectivity on October 1, celebrated as BSNL Day, said a Wishtel statement. The device is capable of delivering voice, video and data services using 3G and Voice Over Internet Protocol ( VoIP) services.

The Triple Play 7 inch Tablet PC, IRA ICON is a 800X480 pixel full angle TFT LCD capacitive multi-touch screen that runs on Android 4.0 with 1.2 GHz processor and a non-standard 1GB of RAM. It is powered by built in 3G Sim Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The IRA ICON supports calling features 3G, Wi-Fi and bluetooth connectivity and also comes with built-in stereo speakers and a microphone. The IRA Icon is slim and weighs less than half a kilo.

It has a 0.3 MP front web camera and 2.0MP rear-facing documentation camera to support image capture, video conferencing and collaboration. It comes pre-loaded with applications that include Wish Learning, Wish Studio, Wish TV, Wish News, Wish video calling, among others. The tablet comes engineered with a 4000 mAh battery, which can give users browsing time of approximately 4-5 hours.

The tablet PC has an internal storage of 4GB (expandable to 32GB - MicroSD (TF)). The IRA ICON Triple Play Tablet PC will be available from early next month and is likely to be made available at a highly competitive price of Rs 10,500. IRA Icon is available through a national network of value-added resellers and distributors of BSNL and WishTel.

"The tablet PC has been designed to suit the needs of avid tech - savy youngsters, business environments, multi-tasking homemakers and the student fratenity alike. The BSNL Value added services like Video streaming, Mobile TV and various other applications under BSNL LIVE shall be extended to our valued customers in an increased screen at a very affordable price," said a WishTel statement quoting BSNL CMD, R K Upadhyay.

"WishTel continues to offer enhanced technologies that help Android business users experience the performance and productivity offered by tablet PCs. It is tailored to the needs of business users in markets that depend on high performance mobile workforces" said Milind Shah, CEO of WishTelO.

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Samsung wins appeal on Galaxy Tab ban

A US appeals court ruled on Friday that a lower court should reconsider a sales ban against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 won by Apple in a patent dispute with Samsung.

That injunction was put in place ahead of a month-long trial that pitted Apple against Samsung in a legal battle that ended with a victory for Apple last month.

The decision comes just a month before the Samsung is expected to unveil the second generation of the stylus-equipped Note.

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Campaign against cancer from Oct 2

To check the menace of cancer in the state, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday gave his nod to the launch of a month-long door-to-door campaign to create awareness among the people about the disease.

The project — State Wide Awareness and Symptom Based Early Detection Door to Door Campaign — will begin in Faridkot district from October 2 on a pilot basis. This will later be extended across the state in December. The project will cater to more than 1.25 crore people and involve over 50,000 personnel.

Expressing satisfaction over the recently held mega medical camps in Malwa belt, Badal said that such camps will be replicated in the border and Kandi areas, where the people were living in extremely difficult conditions especially owing to inaccessible medical services.

Badal also directed Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa to immediately release funds to the health and family welfare department so that medical colleges across the state can ensure quick treatment to cancer patients.

Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Vinni Mahajan said: “There were certain bottlenecks in the disbursement of Mukh Mantri Cancer Rahat Kosh Funds. Necessary steps to make it more patient-friendly and hassle free have been initiated... There will now be no gap in treatment between the time when cancer is diagnosed and the start of treatment, as the amount from Rahat Kosh will be granted from the date of final diagnosis.”

The department has also prepared a plan to drastically reduce the cost of cancer drugs by inviting tenders for generic versions of the requisite drugs.

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