Filed under: Computers

Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.

 

Apple dating site Cupidtino pairs ‘Machearts’

cupid.jpgCupidtino founder Mel Sampat with his Apple laptop and iPad in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Associated Press | Apple Inc.’s ads used to challenge consumers to “think different.” Now a website wants to help fans of the iPhone and Mac computer maker date different, too.

Called Cupidtino — an homage to Apple Inc.’s home base in Cupertino, Calif. — the site aims to connect Apple aficionados with like-minded “Machearts.” The idea is that if you love the iPhone and Mac maker’s products you might be best suited to date a fellow Apple fan.

Get the full story »

FBI investigating AT&T security hole on iPad

Associated Press | The FBI says it is investigating a data breach at AT&T that exposed
the e-mail addresses of more than 114,000 owners of the Apple iPad,
including government officials. The agency said on Thursday that it is
looking into “the potential cyber threat” from the breach.

AT&T Inc. said it has no comment. The Dallas-based phone company
acknowledged Wednesday that it had exposed the e-mail addresses through
a Web site, and had closed the breach.

Get the full story »

Littelfuse ups its 2Q outlook, but warns about 3Q

Reuters | Circuit protection products maker Littelfuse Inc.
raised its second-quarter outlook as electronics demand continued to
grow, but said third-quarter sales would be hit by $2 million to $3
million due to lower production at its Taiwan facility. Equipment
failure caused a fire in a limited area at its factory in Taiwan that
was brought under control, the company said.

Get the full story »

IPhone on T-Mobile network as soon as fall?

Associated Press | The iPhone will be available on other cell phone networks as early as this fall and will likely come first to T-Mobile USA, one analyst who follows Apple Inc. closely said Thursday.

Get the full story: IPhone on the T-Mobile network as soon as fall.

AT&T security hole exposes iPad users’ e-mails

Associated Press | AT&T Inc. on Wednesday acknowledged a
security weak spot that exposed the e-mail addresses of apparently more
than 100,000 users of Apple Inc.’s iPad, a breach that could make those
people vulnerable to precision-targeted hacking attacks. The
vulnerability affected only iPad users who signed up for AT&T’s
“3G” wireless Internet service.

It involved an insecure way that AT&T’s website would prompt iPad
users when they tried to log into their AT&T accounts through the
devices. The site would supply users’ e-mail addresses, to make log-ins
easier, based on unique codes contained in the SIM cards inside their
iPads. SIM cards are used to tell cell phone networks which subscriber
is trying to use the service.

Get the full story »

Microsoft rolls out free Web version of Office

McClatchy-Tribune News | In a leap toward cloud computing Tuesday,
Microsoft started rolling out Office Web Apps, a free online version of
Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

Users can create, review and collaborate on Word documents,
spreadsheets, slide shows and notes without purchasing the software. The
applications run through a Web browser, which makes it accessible from
any computer, be it a Mac or a PC, with or without installed Office
software.

Launching a free version of Office is a major step for Microsoft.

Get the full story »

Pritzkers invest in local software provider Firm58

By Becky Yerak
|
Firm58, a Chicago-based software provider to the financial services
industry, has raised another $7 million in funds from a group led by
existing investors, including the Pritzker family’s early-stage venture
capital arm.

The latest funding round follows two record-setting quarters for Firm58, and brings its total funding to $19.2 million.

Get the full story »

Steve Jobs: iPad idea came before iPhone

ipad-jobs.jpgAssociated Press | Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs shared a secret
with his audience at a technology conference outside Los Angeles
Tuesday: The idea for the iPad came before the iPhone.

The idea to ditch the keyboard for what Jobs calls a multi-touch
display came about in the early 2000s, although the company was working
on a telephone at the time, he said. That’s when a prototype was
brought to him that used the device’s now-famous scrolling mechanism.

“I thought, ‘My God we can build a phone out of this,”‘ Jobs said at
The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Rancho
Palos Verdes.

Get the full story »

Do you know how fast your broadband is?

Reuters | Four of five U.S. broadband users are unaware of the
speed of their connections, the Federal Communications Commission said
Tuesday.

A similar survey conducted by Abt/SRBI and Princeton Survey Research
Associates International from April 19 to May 2 also found that one in
six American mobile phone users have been shocked by surprise fees and
charges in their monthly bills.

Get the full story »

IPad online usage more than doubles in May

ct-biz-ipad-online-web.jpgVisitors check out iPads at an Apple store in Madrid, May 28, 2010. (Reuters/Susana Vera)

From ComputerWorld | According to data from web metrics firm Net Applications, the iPad’s online usage share more than doubled in May, and spiked significantly over the weekend after Apple launched the tablet in Europe, Japan and elsewhere.

Net Applications announced Tuesday that the iPad’s share was 0.09% in May, about two-and-a-half times that of April. In other words, of every 10,000 devices connecting to the Internet, 9 were iPads. By comparison, Windows XP powered 6,253 of every 10,000 systems on the Web last month.

Get the full story: computerworld.com.

HP to cut 3,000 jobs as it aims for higher margins

Reuters | Hewlett-Packard Co said it aims to boost margins by cutting jobs and
reallocating spending to more profitable technology services, shrinking
its workforce by a net 3,000 jobs, or 1 percent, over three years.

The move, which will result in a $1 billion charge, comes as rivals like
IBM and Cisco Systems Inc vie for supremacy in the lucrative business
of fitting out corporate data centers that handle communications and
store huge amounts of information.

Get the full story »

‘It’s magic:’ Huge demand for iPad in Europe, Asia

iPad-Web-Two.jpgCustomers try out Apple’s new iPad in a shop in Barcelona on May 28, 2010. (AFP/Getty Images)

Associated Press | Technophiles mobbed Apple Stores in Europe and Asia on Friday in a quest to snatch up the hottest gadget of the moment — the iPad.

Long lines snaked down streets in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo as eager buyers vied to wield their credit cards. Screams and cheers rose from the crowd in central London as students, professionals and self-proclaimed computer geeks clutched boxes containing the slim black device.

“If I was a music fan, it would be like the launch of a Lady GaGa album in the U.S.,” said comedian Stephen Fry, known in Britain as a champion Tweeter.

Get the full story »

Businesses could use U.S. cyber monitoring system

Associated Press | A top Pentagon official says a government computer security system that can thwart cyber attacks should be extended to private businesses.

Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III says discussions are in the very early stages to allow the government to extend technology from the Einstein 2 and Einstein 3 computer defense programs to private firms.

The idea raises a myriad of legal, policy and privacy questions, including how it would work and what information would be shared between the government and businesses.

IBM picks up business software unit from AT&T

Associated Press | IBM Corp. said Monday that it is buying
AT&T Inc.’s Sterling Commerce unit, which makes software that helps
businesses buy and sell to each other, for $1.4 billion.

The deal would be IBM Corp.’s largest acquisition since it bought
business software maker Cognos in 2008.

Get the full story »

New malware uses search terms like ‘Lost’ as bait

By Wailin Wong | “Lost” fans searching for secrets of the ABC show’s final episode may be in store for a nasty surprise: An infected computer.

PandaLabs, a unit of computer security company Panda Security, said it has detected a new distribution method for a kind of malware called the MySecurityEngine fake antivirus. This malware and the way it infects a computer are not new, but the bait it uses does change according to current events and popular search terms.

Get the full story »