Twitter Rises, Facebook Falls as Enterprise Cracks Down on Social Media

Social networking behemoth Facebook is suffering due to limited access companies impose on employees while using the Web at work, according to Zscaler’s first-quarter 2012 state of the Internet report.

The report found Facebook traffic continues to decline as a percentage of total social transactions, while Twitter activity continues to increase. The most common reason for being exposed to malware is outdated software, according to the study.

Facebook shows a continual decline in the percentage of transactions. Facebook application was 40.54 percent in March, down from 41.72 percent of overall traffic in January and down from over 52 percent in the first quarter of last year. LinkedIn also declined in the quarter (from 1.55 percent to 1.45 percent). However, Twitter transactions increased from 7.05 percent to 7.44 percent. A significant reason for the declines is that "enterprises appear to have been increasingly limiting access to Facebook but have been less concerned about Twitter," the report noted.

Facebook still has a commanding lead and accounted for more than 40 percent of Web application transactions in the enterprise, followed by Gmail (18 percent), YouTube (8 percent) and Twitter (7 percent). The next most popular app (MSN Messenger) had less than 2.4 percent share. Mobile browsing, while a smaller percentage of the overall enterprise traffic handled, continues to rise. BlackBerry and Android traffic declined as a percentage. Apple iOS had the highest usage and ended the quarter accounting for more than 50 percent of the mobile browser traffic observed, according to the report.

A common threat on the Web comes from a series of exploit attempts against known vulnerabilities in browsers and browser plug-ins. By far, Adobe Reader was the largest client-side vulnerable attack surface for enterprise customers for the quarter, with more than 60 percent of Adobe Reader users running an outdated version. Outdated Adobe Shockwave plug-ins were running on about one-third of the users’ devices. All other plug-ins were less than 8 percent, including (in descending order) Microsoft Outlook, Java, Flash, SilverLight, QuickTime, Windows Media Player and Real Player.

Zscaler also reported results from the company's Zulu service, which allows anyone to submit a URL, and receive a risk score. The company found malware in 9.55 percent of the sites submitted by users. A site is classified as benign, suspicious or malicious based on scores generated from reviewing the Web page’s content, hosting, Domain Name System (DNS) and other information.

LinkedIn snaps up SlideShare service for $120m

Professional networking giant LinkedIn is to acquire business presentation-sharing site SlideShare for $118.8m, as it looks to boost its content services.

SlideShare provides a repository for users to share business presentations, with more than nine million uploaded to date, covering topics from job advice to in-depth technical talks on IT.

“These presentations also enable professionals to discover new connections and gain the insights they need to become more productive and successful in their careers, aligning perfectly with LinkedIn’s mission,” said Jeff Weiner, chief executive of LinkedIn.

“We built SlideShare to help professionals share presentations and connect people through content,” added Rashmi Sinha, chief executive of SlideShare. 

The two firms posted a presentation outlining the rationale for the deal on the SlideShare site.

LinkedIn will pay $53.4m in cash for SlideShare, with the remaining amount being made up with stock. 

LinkedIn has been on the lookout for ways to broaden its appeal to users in recent months, as well as providing reasons for regulars to make more use of the social network.

It recently floated the idea of offering intranet applications for businesses, to allow staff to collaborate with colleagues in a more user-friendly manner.

The deal for SlideShare is expected to close with the next few months.

Microsoft plans big May patch slate for next week

Microsoft today said it would ship seven security updates next week, three critical, to patch 23 bugs in Windows, Office and its Silverlight and .Net development platforms.

The number of patches -- nearly two dozen -- is higher than usual for an odd-numbered month; for some time, Microsoft has used an even-odd schedule, patching more vulnerabilities in the even months, when it also regularly updates Internet Explorer.

"May has been a light month, historically, very light," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security, who tracks the number of patches and updates Microsoft issues each month.

In May 2011, Microsoft shipped two update that patched three vulnerabilities. The year before, it delivered two updates that patched two bugs.

"So, this is a big number," said Storms.

The pace so far this year -- Microsoft's collections during the first five months have included seven, nine, six, six and seven updates -- puts to rest the idea that Microsoft still hews to a wave-and-trough practice.

"Certainly for bulletin count, it looks like a pretty flat line to me," said Storms, using the term "bulletin" -- Microsoft's label -- to describe security updates. "This year, it looks like the up and down pattern has ended."

Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys, agreed with Storms.

"In prior years we have seen much stronger differences [in the number of updates each month], ranging from 2 to 17," Kandek said in an email. "We are not sure this [flattening] is intended, but it makes the workload much more predictable and is preferable to the more bursty release mode."

Of the seven updates, Microsoft tagged three as "critical," the highest threat ranking in its four-step system, and the other four as "important," the next-most serious score.

Four updates will address vulnerabilities in Windows; four will impact Office, Microsoft's popular application suite; and one will affect the Silverlight development framework. That count exceeds seven because one of updates tackles bugs in all three of those lines.

The large number of Office updates caught Storms' eye: Three of the pending bulletins are Office-only, while one is shared with Windows and Silverlight. The trio of Office-only updates will patch flaws in Word, Excel and Visio. The latter is a little-used commercial diagramming program that's considered part of the Office family.

"There's a heavy lean toward Office here," Storms noted.

Storms pointed his finger at what Microsoft labeled Bulletin 2 as the most likely to rise to the top of the to-do list next week. His reasons: It was pegged critical, impacts virtually every edition of Windows, applies to all currently-supported versions of Office on Windows and also patches one or more bugs in Silverlight.

Although today's advance notification for next week's Patch Tuesday was the usual bare-bones outline, Storms suspected that Bulletin 2 would fix bugs in the .Net development framework, which is included by default with Windows, and is also used by Office programmers.

".Net could be the common ground," Storms speculated.

Others, including Kandek and Marcus Carey of Rapid7, didn't call out a single update for special attention, but instead noted that the three critical bulletins, as well as two labeled important, should be patched as soon as possible next week.

Both updates rated important can result in what Microsoft calls "remote code execution" -- meaning attackers could hijack a PC if they successfully exploited the vulnerabilities -- and were aimed at Excel and Visio.

Two of the four Office updates will apply to the 2008 and 2011 editions of Office for Mac.

Storms also commented on Microsoft's apparent quickened bug-patching tempo so far this year. When next week's 23 are added to the mix, Microsoft will have issued 70 patches so far this year; the company had fixed only 59 flaws by the end of May 2011

Microsoft will release the seven updates at approximately 1 p.m. Eastern time on May 8.

Cisco to acquire data analysis software provider Truviso

Cisco has announced its intention to buy real-time network data analysis and reporting software provider Truviso for an undisclosed sum.

Cisco said that Truviso, which is a privately held organisation founded seven years ago, will integrate with its network management platform, Cisco Prime, which collects and analyses streaming data.

"With the growth of end-user devices and applications, and in turn the proliferation of large amounts of network data, service providers and enterprise customers are looking for ways to better understand usage and differentiate their service offerings," Hilton Romanski, vice-president and head of corporate business development at Cisco, said in a blog post.

"Truviso's continuous query technology allows companies to get detailed information and visibility of network use and services in real-time, with its analyse-first, store-later capability," he added.

Jamie Lerner, vice-president and general manager of Cisco's network management technology group, said that he believed that end users wanted to be able to better analyse data on their networks.

"Customers want to be able to tap into and better analyse the enormous volume of data traversing their networks to identify ways to enhance services and generate new revenue opportunities.

"Embedding Truviso's real time business intelligence into the network will help customers unlock these capabilities at the speed of the network," he added.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in July and will see Truviso's staff integrated into the Cisco network management technology group.

HP, Oracle Dispute Over Itanium Headed to Court

Oracle executives, already wrapping up their high-profile court case with Google over the use of Java, most likely will soon find themselves back in the courtroom wrangling with former longtime partner Hewlett-Packard over Intel’s Itanium platform.

The judge presiding over the bitter dispute has rejected efforts by both companies to throw out key parts of the case, and an Oracle lawyer reportedly said in court May 2 that there was no possibility of settling with HP, which apparently is seeking $4 billion in damages as a result of Oracle’s decision last year to no longer develop software for Itanium-based servers. HP officials have blamed some of the revenue loss in its Business Critical Systems Group in recent quarters on Oracle's Itanium decision.

In the court hearing in San Jose, Calif., Oracle attorney Dan Wall said that a settlement “isn’t going to happen,” Reuters reported. “In this case, it’s not going to work out.”

Oracle executives claim there is no evidence to support the damages that HP is claiming.

The case is set for trial May 31.

At issue is Oracle’s decision a year ago to end software development for the Itanium platform. Company executives said they made the decision based on conversations with Intel engineers, who they said told them that Intel was planning to end development of Itanium soon in favor of its x86 Xeon server chip line.

HP and Intel officials quickly disputed that claim, saying that Intel’s product road map for Itanium showed development plans through the rest of the decade. HP eventually sued Oracle, claiming that the software maker’s decision violated an agreement between the two companies to continue supporting products used by joint customers. HP estimates that at least 140,000 customers run Oracle software on Itanium-based servers from HP.

Forrester Research analyst Richard Fichera last year estimated that upwards of half of HP’s high-end Superdome systems that have been sold are running Oracle database software.

HP executives said the two companies reached their agreement as part of the settlement of another legal dispute in 2010, over Oracle’s decision to hire Mark Hurd as president after Hurd had resigned as HP’s CEO over questions about his personal conduct. Oracle officials have disputed HP’s claim of a contractual obligation to support Itanium, and have argued that they are being honest with customers about the future viability of the platform.

Oracle countersued HP, claiming among other things that HP was guilty of false advertisement for not telling Oracle or its customers that HP paid Intel $440 million to continue development of Itanium through 2012. The chip is aimed at high-end systems that compete with Unix servers and mainframes, and HP is by far the largest user of Itanium chips. The company has standardized its high-end Integrity and NonStop systems on Itanium.

In March, both companies sought pretrial wins in the case. HP filed requests asking the judge to rule that Oracle was contractually obligated to continue developing software for Itanium, and to dismiss Oracle’s countersuit. Oracle in a filing disagreed with HP’s claims.

In his 20-page decision May 1, Santa Clara County Judge James Kleinberg declined to dismiss any of the points of contention in the lawsuits, saying there was enough merit in all of them for them to go to trial.

The longtime relationship between Oracle and HP began to crumble when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems in 2010; Oracle inherited Sun’s hardware business, putting it in direct competition with HP. It further deteriorated when Oracle hired former HP CEO Hurd, and then soon after when HP named Leo Apotheker, former CEO of Oracle enterprise software rival SAP, to replace Hurd as CEO.

Top sales talent leaving Groupon as its woes mount

According to a former salesperson at Groupon, top sales talent is leaving the company as its troubles mount. As of this morning, Groupon reached another all time low, trading on the NASDAQ at $10, half off its $20 IPO price. In just the month of April, the stock lost 42% of its value.

Sales people are leaving for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest is that volumes on each deal are declining. This is something I’ve noticed lately. It’s not uncommon for a deal in the San Francisco area to sell fewer than 100 units.

“As a rep at Groupon, you pay attention to every single deal you run every week,” said the source. “Since about November of 2011 onward, all of my peers in sales were just like ‘Deals aren’t selling worth a shit anymore.’ And management ignored it. I think about deals for hair salons that would bring in $10K in 1 day in late 2010, and since then, the same salon has been featured on Groupon 12 times and now brings in $1K when it runs. This was happening across ALL merchant categories.”

Top sales people are often among the first to leave troubled companies: they are easily employable, and the troubles directly affect their compensation.

Groupon sales reps are paid a low-base wage (about $32,500 annually) plus commissions on each deal based on how profitable it is for Groupon.

As fewer deals sell, they make less money. Merchants are demanding a better revenue share, which also cuts the commissions.

Overly optimistic targets also hurt.

“The declining volumes really did hurt comp; especially since management’s revenue projections did not factor in declining volumes and sales people there were paid a percentage based on their monthly percent to quota, so if a deal runs and it doesn’t sell as many units as management projects beforehand, its the sales rep who loses beccause she doesn’t hit quota,” the source said.

Declining per-unit sales should worry Groupon investors, because this trend makes each deal less profitable and less appealing to prospective merchants. At 30, 60, or even 100 units, it’s not worth the time or effort to negotiate a deal. The effort to do a deal is relatively fixed; lower unit volume means that Groupon will be less profitable. (Or, more accurately, lose even more money.)

Even before Groupon’s IPO, we saw signs that this was a concern. In Q1 2011, the average sales per sales rep was $172,000. In Q2 2011, this dropped to $138,000.

Groupon did not respond to a request for comment.

Intel-McAfee developing cloud-security strategy

Intel, which last year acquired McAfee for its security expertise, today described work it is doing to provide enterprises with a way to secure data stored in public or hybrid cloud environments.

Jason Waxman, general manager of Intel's Cloud Infrastructure Group, joined with Greg Brown, vice president of network security at McAfee, to describe the strategy that's being pursued to let IT managers gain better understanding about the security of their cloud workloads.

McAfee's ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) management console, which has long been a workhouse to aggregate multi-vendor security information in addition to McAfee's own products, is well-positioned to audit cloud environments.

By using McAfee ePO with Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) in TXT-enabled Intel servers, it's possible to establish a baseline determination of assurance and confidence when undertaking tasks such as transferring workloads from server to server , for instance, using VMware's VMotion, they said.

"It's a hardware-based root of trust," said Waxman, noting the technology allows servers to be defined as "trusted" or "untrusted." When combined with McAfee's MOVE AV anti-malware for use in virtualized environments, it's possible to also learn if the server has any "issues identified." In addition, the McAfee Cloud Security Platform, which has been available for some time to allow IT departments to apply access and security policies in the cloud, is being developed further to provide integrity assessment, asset control and protection, and broader auditing capabilities, Intel said. Other McAfee security products, such as Identity Manager and Deep Defender, are also seen as contributing to the security assessment and protections under the strategy.

The end goal is to give IT managers a way to perform a wide variety of security checks on both the servers, usually virtualized, and the data they make use of in public cloud and hybrid cloud arrangements.

"We believe we have a pathway to deliver that vision," said Brown. He noted today the Cloud Security Platform can secure data traffic between the enterprise and the cloud. He said in the future, the goal is to enable perform a wide range of security assessments.

When asked whether the Intel/McAfee strategy for enterprise-to-cloud security will rely on Intel/McAfee products alone, Waxman replied TXT might work with other solutions, but "we'd like to see best practices where people use all of these technologies together." He said other announcements related to the Intel/McAfee cloud security strategy are soon expected in terms of product support.

'Smishing' Attacks Are on the Rise

Text messaging is the most common non-voice use of a mobile phone. There are trillions of text messages received around the world each day, and an increasing number of them are spam, or phishing attacks of some sort.

A report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project claims that 73 percent of adults with a mobile phone use text messaging--sending and receiving an average of 41.5 messages per day. That average jumps to a startling 110 messages per day for individuals between 18 and 24.

Cyber criminals are good at identifying lucrative markets and targeting weak links. Users are conditioned to recognize suspicious messages and security threats on PCs, and there's generally security software in place to detect and prevent attacks. But, many people assume mobile phones are inherently safe, and don't realize that malware and phishing attacks are a concern for mobile devices as well.

People are used to receiving text messages, and are not likely to think twice about the security implications of clicking on a link in a text. The major Web browsers have phishing protection built in to alert the user to suspicious sites, and users can generally hover over a link to display the true URL on a PC, but mobile phones aren't equipped to help users avoid malicious text messages.

Tim 'TK' Keanini, CTO of nCircle, explains, "In some ways 'smishing' [the term used to describe SMS phishing] is a more promising tool for cyber criminals than phishing (email) because at the moment users have fewer defensive technology tools."

Jeff Wilhelm, senior analyst with Symantec Security Response, agrees that smishing is a growing security concern for mobile phone users. "Just like with email, attackers can use text message spam to spread malware, phishing scams and other threats among mobile device users.

Webroot Threat Research analyst Armando Orozco says that users can protect themselves from smishing by adopting the same security practices applied for traditional email phishing attacks. "Never click on links in, respond to and never install an app from unsolicited SMS messages. If you receive a suspicious link from a contact, check with that person to see if they sent it."

Keanini offers this advice: "Everyone needs to take a hard line with text messages; don't trust anything. If you have the slightest doubt about the authenticity of the message, don't even think about clicking."

You might also consider adding security software for your mobile device. You may think of it as a mobile phone, but smartphones are just smaller computers loaded with gigabytes of sensitive information that attackers want. Use the same tools and common sense with your mobile phone that you use to avoid malware and phishing attacks on your PC.

Researchers use diamonds to boost computer memory

Johns Hopkins University engineers are using diamonds to change the properties of an alloy used in phase-change memory, a change that could lead to the development higher capacity storage systems that retain data more quickly and last longer than current media.

The process, explained this month in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), focused on changes to the inexpensive GST phase-change memory alloy that's composed of germanium, antimony and tellurium.

"This phase-change memory is more stable than the material used in current flash drives. It works 100 times faster and is rewritable millions of times," said the study's lead author, Ming Xu, a doctoral student at the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

"Within about five years, it could also be used to replace hard drives in computers and give them more memory," he suggested.

GST has been in use for two decades and today is widely used in rewritable optical media, including CD-RW and DVD-RW discs.

IBM and others are already developing solid-state chip technology using phase-change memory, which IBM says can sustain up to 5 million write cycles. High-end NAND flash memory systems used today can sustain only about 100,000 write cycles.

By using diamond-tipped tools to apply pressure to the GST, the researchers found they could change the properties of the alloy from an amorphous to a crystalline state and thus reduce the electrical resistivity by about four orders of magnitude. By slowing down the change from an amorphous state to a crystalline state, the scientists were also able to produce many varying states allowing more data to be stored on the alloy.

GST is called a phase-change material because, when exposed to heat, an area of the alloy can change from an amorphous state, in which the atoms lack an ordered arrangement, to a crystalline state, in which the atoms are neatly lined up in a long-range order.

An illustration of how the diamond-tipped tools were used to compress GST

The two states are then used to represent the computer digital language of ones and zeros.

In its amorphous state, GST is more resistant to electric current. In its crystalline state, it is less resistant

The two phases of GST, amorphous and crystalline, also reflect light differently, allowing the surface of a DVD to be read by tiny laser.

While GST has been used for some time, the precise mechanics of its ability to switch from one state to another have remained something of a mystery because it happens in nanoseconds once the material is heated.

To solve this mystery, Xu and his research team used the pressure from diamond tools to cause the change to occur more slowly.

The team used a method known as X-ray diffraction, along with a computer simulation, to document what was happening to the material at the atomic level. By recording the changes in "slow motion," the researchers found that they could actually tune the electrical resistivity of the material during the time between its change from amorphous to crystalline form.

"Instead of going from black to white, it's like finding shades or a shade of gray in between," said En Ma, a professor of materials science and engineering, and a co-author of the PNAS paper. "By having a wide range of resistance, you can have a lot more control. If you have multiple states, you can store a lot more data."

Adobe patches new Flash zero-day bug with emergency update

Adobe today warned that hackers are exploiting a critical vulnerability in its popular Flash Player program, and issued an emergency update to patch the bug.

"There are reports that the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in active targeted attacks designed to trick the user into clicking on a malicious file delivered in an email message," the Friday advisory said.

Although all editions of Flash Player contain the vulnerability and should be patched, the active exploit is targeting only users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).

Flash Player for IE is an ActiveX plug-in, the Microsoft-only standard; other browsers, including Firefox and Chrome, use a different plug-in structure.

The update was pegged with Adobe's priority rating of "1," used to label patches for actively-exploited vulnerabilities or bugs that will likely be exploited. For such updates, Adobe recommends that customers install the new version within 72 hours.

Adobe disclosed relatively few details about the vulnerability -- its usual practice -- other than to label it an "object confusion vulnerability," note the Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures ID of CVE-2012-0779, and acknowledge that triggering the bug "could cause the application to crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system."

It's unclear how extensive the active attacks are, although Adobe's calling them "targeted" hints at a low volume of attempts aimed at specific individuals or companies.

Today's Flash Player update was the fourth this year -- the latest before Friday was on March 28 -- putting the frequently-patched program on about the same pace as last year, when Adobe issued a total of nine Flash security updates.

In March, Adobe addressed the frequent updating pain point -- at least for Windows users -- by shipping Flash Player 11.2, which uses a silent, background update mechanism. The silent update is supposed to kick in in some situations to automatically patch the plug-in in IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera on Windows without notifying or bothering users.

At the time, Adobe said it would switch on silent updates " on a case-by-case basis," but hinted that the service would primarily be used to distribute patches for zero-day vulnerabilities, such as today's.

Friday, Adobe confirmed that it has, in fact, enabled Flash silent updates for Windows in this instance.

A Computerworld Windows 7 system, however, was not silently updated to 11.2.202.235, the patched version within an hour of booting the PC, the interval the tool uses to check for new updates. Adobe's explanation: It did not begin serving Flash Player via silent update until about 10:30 a.m. PT, after the Windows 7 machine had pinged Adobe's servers. If the silent updater receives no response from Adobe, it waits 24 hours before trying again.

The current stable version of Chrome -- Google's browser is the only one that includes the Adobe software in its updates -- reports running the patched 11.2.202.235 edition of Flash Player. Google shipped that version of Chrome, 18.0.1025.168, on Monday, April 30, giving it a four-day jump on Adobe's plug-in patching.

It was Chrome's largest-ever lead: previously, Google has beaten Adobe to Flash Player patching by hours, or at most a day.

Adobe today again explained Chrome's faster Flash patching by noting that it hands Flash updates to Google as "soon as we updated the code," but needs more time on its part to test fixes on scores of operating system and browser combinations before it's confident enough to ship the update to all users.

Microsoft's vulnerability research group reported the Flash vulnerability to Adobe.

The patched versions of Flash Player for Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris can be downloaded from Adobe's website. Windows users can wait for the silent updater to kick in, run Flash's update tool or wait for the software to prompt them that a new version is available.

Android users will be able to download the new version from Google Play, formerly the Android Market, later today, said Adobe.

To determine which version of Flash Player is running in any particular browser, users can steer to this Adobe page.

ASUS Releases the Dual-GPU GeForce GTX 690

ASUS unleashes its GeForce GTX 690 graphics card.

Image source: ASUS

Debuting 28nm dual-GPU performance, the card features smarter fabrication, so its power demands are relatively modest for energy-conservative operation. With two GeForce GTX 680 cores mounted on the board, the ASUS GeForce GTX 690 fields a staggering 3072 CUDA cores, providing for massive computing power for graphics as well as parallel processing alongside the CPU. The core runs at 1019MHz in boost clock, while the 512-bit memory interface links the system to 4GB of 4096MHz GDDR5 video memory.

Packing a modest 300W TDP, ASUS includes the exclusive GPU Tweak graphics card tuning suite, so users can boost clock speeds, set power targets, and configure fan revolution settings to make adjustments and experiment with performance gains. Users who wish to set up an NVIDIA SLI configuration can pair two ASUS GeForce GTX 690’s for instant quad-SLI and even more massive compute capabilities.

In addition, new ultra-fast anti-aliasing technologies TXAA and FXAA help game developers and designers deliver smoother and more visually appealing experiences to rival high end professional graphics rendering.

Basic Specifications

Model	GTX690-4GD5
Graphics Engine	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
Video Memory	4096MB GDDR5
GPU Boost Clock	1019MHz
GPU Base Clock	915MHz
CUDA cores	3072
Memory Clock	3004MHz (1502MHz GDDR5)
Memory Interface	512-bit

Read on for the full press release.

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First 28nm graphics card with two GPUs on a single PCB offers dedicated gamers the fastest, smoothest, and most detailed PC entertainment currently available

Singapore (May 3, 2012) ― the ASUS GeForce GTX 690 graphics card debuts 28nm dual-GPU performance, presenting the most powerful card of the generation thus far. It enables gaming with superior speed, smoothness, and detail. Due to smarter fabrication, its power demands are relatively modest for energy-conservative operation. This promotes easier quad-SLI setups with paired ASUS GeForce GTX 690s. ASUS continues to offer gamers the best overclocking experience with the exclusive GPU Tweak utility, which goes well together with DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.2, plus technologies such as NVIDIA GPU Boost, advanced anti-aliasing (TXAA/FXAA), and Adaptive Vertical Sync.

Raw 28nm graphics processing power

The ASUS GeForce GTX 690 has two GeForce GTX 680 cores mounted on the board, fielding a massive 3072 CUDA cores and representing truly staggering computing power for graphics as well as parallel processing alongside the CPU. The core runs at 1019MHz in boost clock, while the 512-bit memory interface links the system to 4GB of 4096MHz GDDR5 video memory.

Benefits of leaner fabrication come into play

Despite all that power, the ASUS GeForce GTX 690 has a modest 300W TDP. Gamers therefore tap greater processing capacity while conserving energy thanks to efficient 28nm manufacturing, thus lowering electricity bills and contributing to more environmentally-responsible gaming.

Intuitive graphics controls and tuning with GPU Tweak

ASUS once again includes the exclusive GPU Tweak graphics card tuning suite in the box. Overclocking-inclined buyers can easily go into boost clock speeds, set power targets, and configure fan revolution settings to make adjustments and experiment with performance gains. GPU Tweak offers built-in guards to ensure all modifications are safe, maintaining optimal stability and card reliability. The utility also provides a convenient on-screen monitoring widget and live driver/BIOS updates to ensure the ASUS GeForce GTX 690 remains up to date.

Moving closer to complete gaming immersion

The ASUS GeForce GTX 690 presents the most graphics power ever available to consumers, and as such makes even better use of recent developments in software engineering. It furnishes unmatched DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.2 performance, by that guaranteeing considerable future-proofing. Users who wish to set up an NVIDIA SLI configuration can pair two ASUS GeForce GTX 690’s for instant quad-SLI and even more massive compute capabilities.

New ultra-fast anti-aliasing technologies TXAA and FXAA help game developers and designers deliver smoother and more visually appealing experiences to rival high end professional graphics rendering. Additional technologies that promote faster and more attractive gaming include NVIDIA Adaptive Vertical Sync and hardware-based framerate metering, both ensuring games keep moving at an optimized pace with no slowdowns. The ASUS GeForce GTX 690 supports NVIDIA GPU Boost for immediate auto clock speed adjustments as needed, and easily powers four-screen displays via NVIDIA Surround. Its single-PCB NVIDIA 3D Vision performance sets new milestones, enabling unmitigated full HD 3D gaming.

VMware ups its collaboration offering with Lithium integration

VMware Thursday announced that its SocialCast sharing tool will now work with Lithium Technologies tools to capture and integrate external customer data.

Last year VMware purchased SocialCast, a startup that encourages enterprise collaboration using activity streams that are tailored for individual users.

"This [integration of the technologies] takes a customer's tweet on Twitter or a post on Facebook that is captured by the Lithium platform and, based on certain triggers, moves that inside the company on to the SocialCast platform," says Tim Young, SocialCast's founder and now VP of social enterprise at VMware. "This takes customer insight and brings it into the business' full workflow for employees to take action on."

SocialCast is one of a number of social collaboration tools on the market, including those from Jive Software and Yammer. But the next evolution of the social tools, some analysts predict, will be integrating external data into the enterprise's internal collaboration platform. This social customer relationship management (social CRM) is already done in contact centers and by players like Lithium. Gartner says that the social CRM market will grow from $850 million in 2011 to an expected $2.1 billion market by the end of this year.

SocialCast and Lithium support the integration of the two systems using each of the company's rest APIs, Young says. To take advantage of the integration, the SocialCast customer must already have a Lithium account. SocialCast, meanwhile, is offering Lithium customers a one-year trial membership for free for up to 99 users. VMware announced the news at the Lithium Network Conference (LiNC) 2012, but the offering will be rolled out in the third quarter.

Also at LiNC, Lithium announced Lithium Responses, which uses analytics tools to identify and prioritize customer interactions for responses. It also introduced enhanced features to allow for marketing on popular social media sites.

Google fixes five flaws in Chrome 18

Google has released a new version of Chrome 18 that fixes three high-severity flaws and two medium-severity flaws. You can update to the latest version using the software’s built-in silent updater, or you can download the latest version of Chrome directly from google.com/chrome.

Here are the five security vulnerabilities fixed in Google Chrome 18.0.1025.168:

• [106413] High CVE-2011-3078: Use after free in floats handling. Credit to Google Chrome Security Team (Marty Barbella) and independent later discovery by miaubiz.
• [117110] High CVE-2012-1521: Use after free in xml parser. Credit to Google Chrome Security Team (SkyLined) and independent later discovery by wushi of team509 reported through iDefense VCP (V-874rcfpq7z).
• [117627] Medium CVE-2011-3079: IPC validation failure. Credit to PinkiePie.
• [121726] Medium CVE-2011-3080: Race condition in sandbox IPC. Credit to Willem Pinckaers of Matasano.
• [$1000] [121899] High CVE-2011-3081: Use after free in floats handling. Credit to miaubiz.

This round of patches in Google Chrome is one of the rare occasions when the company didn’t have to write many cheques to reward researchers who reported vulnerabilities. Only the last bug, a use-after-free flaw, earned a reward of $1,000. Miaubiz has netted quite a number of bug bounties from Google in the last couple of years.

The $1,000 pay out is really just a drop in the bucket for Google given that the search giantrecently quintupled its maximum bug bounty to $20,000. The company has so far received over 780 qualifying vulnerability reports that span across the hundreds of Google-developed services, as well as the software written by 50 or so firms it has acquired. In just over a year, the program has paid out around $460,000 to roughly 200 individuals.

Microsoft to retire Windows Live brand ahead of Windows 8 launch

Microsoft will retire the Windows Live brand as it gets ready to release what it describes as a more connected set of online consumer services with the launch of its Windows 8 operating system.

Its vision for a set of tightly woven services and desktop applications that Microsoft outlined when it unveiled Windows Live in 2005 hasn't been fully realized, the company said on Wednesday.

Right now, services like its Hotmail webmail service, SkyDrive storage service and Messenger IM service aren't as closely meshed as they should be with Windows Live desktop software like Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, nor with the Windows Live ID account service, Microsoft said in a blog post.

The problem lies with Windows desktop operating systems, which so far haven't been designed to fully interact with cloud services. Microsoft expects that situation to change with Windows 8, which is being designed to work not just with desktop and laptop PCs but also tablets and other devices. For example, Windows 8 features a new user interface called Metro, which uses a tile design and is optimized for touch interfaces.

"Windows 8 provides us with an opportunity to reimagine our approach to services and software and to design them to be a seamless part of the Windows experience, accessible in Windows desktop apps, Windows Metro style apps, standard web browsers, and on mobile devices. Today the expectation is that a modern device comes with services as well as apps for communication and sharing. There is no 'separate brand' to think about or a separate service to install -- it is all included when you turn on your PC for the first time," reads the blog post, authored by Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division.

Some of the changes in the pipeline for the coming months include a rebranding of Windows Live ID as Microsoft Account, along with back-end changes intended to make the account service the main door into a broad set of online services that can be accessed via Web browsers but also synchronized and replicated through Windows Phone devices and Windows 8 PCs and tablets.

In Windows 8 machines, pre-installed applications that will have both local and cloud components include Microsoft Account, SkyDrive, Mail, Calendar, People (contacts), Messaging and Photos/Videos.

Along the way, Microsoft will shed their existing names, including Windows Live ID, Windows Live Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Contacts, MSN Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker.

It will also be possible to link the Microsoft Account with third-party online services, like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, in a way that a single list of contacts is maintained not only across Microsoft products but is also augmented by contacts from these other sites.

Microsoft plans to provide more information about this initiative in the coming weeks, including more details about how Skype will fit in with this plan.

IBM To Acquire Analytics Provider Tealeaf

IBM has agreed to acquire Tealeaf Technology, which markets customer  experience analytics software  to large corporations and organizations. The deal's financial terms were not disclosed.

Tealeaf's patented technology  can be deployed into any business's current environment with no additional modifications required, said Tealeaf Technology CEO Rebecca Ward. "So they can begin capturing customer data and delivering optimal experiences immediately."

IBM's acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is intended to bolster Big Blue's smarter commerce initiative, which promises to give companies greater visibility into their supplier relationships. The goal is to provide clients with new insights into customer demand  that enable companies to respond faster to opportunities as well as potential problems.

"With these new capabilities from Tealeaf, we can not only provide chief marketing officers and other marketing leaders the qualitative insights into how customers actually experience their brands, but show them how to react in real time across marketing, sales and service," said Craig Hayman, general manager of industry solutions at IBM.

To truly manage customers' experiences, large enterprises and organizations must understand their customers' needs, how they intend to meet those needs, and how they are performing currently, said Forrester  Research analysts. They must also "have people, processes, and tools in place to use that insight in order to design and deliver the right experiences and continuously improve them over time," the firm's analysts wrote last August in a blog.

Tealeaf and other analytics software providers such as Adobe, Medallia and RightNow help clients with various aspects of the management process such as experience insight and delivery. "But they can't replace the overall discipline and activities required for a company to get customer experience right," Forrester's analysts said.

By adding Tealeaf to its smart commerce initiative, Big Blue intends to improve the extent to which it can help large enterprises and organizations develop the best methods for pursuing the requisite additional activities for getting the customer experience right -- and in a coordinated way.

Where Tealeaf's technology fits in to Big Blue's smart commerce initiative comes by way of the analytic software's ability to provide a more granular and richer view of any customer's experience by capturing and replaying his or her past Web and mobile  interactions. The technology is expected to complement the smart commerce initiative assets that IBM has already acquired through its prior deals for Coremetrics, Unica and DemandTec. 

Through the data delivered by Tealeaf's analytic software technologies, marketers are provided with the opportunity to learn more details about why customers interact with online Web and mobile resources in the ways that they do. Web commerce on a global  basis is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2014 and with mobile commerce reaching $200 billion by 2015, according to a report cited by IBM Wednesday.

Chief marketing officers will be able to use the information delivered by Tealeaf's software to ensure that their future online and mobile marketing efforts deliver a more optimized online experience that boosts customer satisfaction -- even as it improves clients' customer service productivity.

"Marketers must continuously deliver a better customer experience on both the Web and mobile devices to meet the expectations of today's empowered consumers," Hayman said.

Once the acquisition closes, Tealeaf Technologies will be integrated into IBM's enterprise  marketing and management group. IBM also said Wednesday that Tealeaf's existing clients -- which include Best Buy, Dell, DirecTV, Expedia, Geico and Wells -- would continue to receive support and enhancements for Tealeaf's customer experience analytics software.