Apple slow to fight Chinese fakes, according to Wikileaks cable

Apple did not have a global security team, including in China, until March, 2008, when it hired employees from drug company Pfizer, to counter rampant counterfeiting of its products in China, according to a cable leaked by activist group, WikiLeaks.

Apple had not so much as registered its trademarks in China or Hong Kong until Don Shruhan, one of the Pfizer executives, joined the company, the September, 2008 cable from the U.S. embassy in Beijing said.

Apple was relatively unknown in China before the introduction of its iPod music player in 2001, and subsequently the iPhone. Now those products are so popular worldwide that China's notorious counterfeit markets are filled with knock-off versions, according to the cable.

Early evidence suggests nearly 100 percent of Apple products in unauthorized mainland markets are knock-offs, while factories in Guangdong province are exporting enough counterfeits to single-handedly supply the world with fake Apple products, the cable said.

The cable said that after recognizing the threat from counterfeiting, Apple hired in March, 2008 the team from Pfizer that had formed and led a multi-year crackdown on counterfeit production of its Viagra drug in Asia.

The cable, marked as unclassified but "sensitive", was among a large number of messages that WikiLeaks released recently, and was discovered by CNN.

Shruhan was hired from Pfizer in March as senior director of security for Asia Pacific to design and launch the company's security strategy, including anti-counterfeiting efforts, while his boss at Pfizer, John Theriault, was also hired by Apple for a global role, according to the cable.

Shruhan is said to have observed that customs seizure data definitively shows that there is enough counterfeit production of Apple products in Guangdong to effectively make China the single source for the world's fake iPods and iPhones, many of which are routed through Hong Kong to points onward.

While ruling out production of counterfeits by its own contractors working a "third shift", Shruhan attributed the poor-quality fakes to independent operators without links to the licensees, though he acknowledged the manufacturing molds for iPods or iPhones could be removed from licensed factories and used in illegal production, according to the cable.

Apple did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment. Theriault is listed as Apple's vice-president for global security on Linkedin, while Shruhan is senior regional director for security and investigations at Apple's operations in Hong Kong.

Apple's problems with counterfeits in China have however not been resolved, according to analysts. The company discovered recently that not only its products are counterfeited, but at times entire stores are fake. The Chinese city of Kunming has stopped 22 fake Apple stores from illegally using the company's trademarks after Apple lodged a complaint with authorities, according to the city government.

Apple locks in new CEO Tim Cook through 2021

Apple's board of directors last Friday moved to lock in new CEO Tim Cook through mid-2021 by awarding him 1 million shares of the company's stock.

"In connection with Mr. Cook's appointment as Chief Executive Officer, the Board awarded Mr. Cook 1,000,000 restricted stock units," Apple said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Half of the 1 million "restricted stock units," or RSUs, will be awarded to Cook in August 2015 if he is still with Apple, while the second half will be given to him in August 2021, again only if he is still employed by the company.

At Friday's closing price, the 1 million shares would be worth over $383 million.

Restricted share units are not awarded at the time of the grant, but instead are given when they're vested. The shares will be worth their then-current price, which could, of course, be dramatically different than their value Friday.

Apple's SEC filing also noted that former CEO Steve Jobs had resigned , but would continue as an Apple employee; that Jobs was named chairman of the board of directors; and that Cook has been promoted to CEO from chief operating officer.

For 2010, Cook's total compensation, including his $800,000 salary as COO, a $5 million bonus for his work while Jobs was out on a medical leave during 2009, and various stock awards, totaled just over $59 million.

According to a January 2011 filing with the SEC, Cook's 1 million-share award will eventually give him a stake in the company almost one-fifth that of Jobs.

At Apple's current share price, Jobs' holdings of 5.5 million shares are worth $2.1 billion.

Jobs' resignation last week and Cook's promotion were not unexpected. Last January, after Jobs went on his second medical leave in two years, several analysts, including Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co., predicted that Jobs would step down during 2011 , and that Cook would be elevated to the CEO slot.

Cook, 50, has been with Apple since 1998. He is also a director on the board of Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike.

Google TV 'coming to the UK'

Google TV could make its way to UK shores within the next six months, the Telegraph has reported.

According to the newspaper, Google TV, for the UK will be announced by Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt during this year’s MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival.

The service will let you watch content from catch-up services such as iPlayer and other web video services like YouTube on your TV. It uses the Android operating system and content is accessed via the Chrome browser.

Android phones will be the remote controls for the service, and it'll run through set-top boxes that will be available in the UK within the next six months, it is claimed.

Mozilla defends "rapid release" of Firefox versions

The release of a version of the Firefox browser every six weeks is found to be disconcerting, and at times potentially unmanageable by enterprises, the chair of Mozilla Foundation, which maintains the browser, said in a blog post.

The compatibility of add-ons with new versions is also another issue, said Mitchell Baker, chair of the nonprofit organization.

But quicker releases of new versions ensure that new capabilities are not delayed for nearly a year before they can be delivered to people, Baker said.

Mozilla recently adopted a "rapid release process" that it said would allow a new release of Firefox every six weeks.

"Before Mozilla instituted the rapid release process, we would sometimes have new capabilities ready for nearly a year before we could deliver them to people," Baker said. Web developers would have to wait that year to be able to make their applications better, she added.

A browser is the delivery vehicle for the Internet, and the Internet moves very quickly, Baker said. But if the browser is to be the interface for the Internet, it has to be more like the Internet. That means delivering capabilities when they are ready, through a rapid release process, she said.

There is however work to be done to make the rapid release process smoother and hopefully more useful to more of the user base, Baker said.

Users have however been asking for a middle ground between frequent releases of versions, and the delay in addition of new capabilities by almost a year. Kees Grinwis, commenting on Baker's blog post, for example, suggested a long time support (LTS) version of Firefox.

Mozilla could release an LTS version as a major release, say Firefox 7, and then release the versions between the LTS versions as 7.x versions, said Aashish Arora in his comment. "Make consumer installations silently auto update in the background while disabling auto update for enterprises," Arora added.

Others are dismissive. Users are finding that broken add-ons, and UI (user interface) changes are making Firefox difficult to use, commented Dan. "All of these people are turning their attention to alternatives," he added.

Mozilla acknowledged in June that a key challenge for enterprises is that they need to certify their websites, apps and add-ons each time Firefox is updated. "This can take weeks or months. Security is also paramount, enterprises need access to a version that includes all known security fixes," it said in a blog post.

Mozilla said it was exploring solutions that balance these needs, with active discussion in the community. The foundation however made clear that its focus was on consumers. "The Mozilla Community has focused our efforts on the needs of the individual user, and prioritized the product roadmap and features accordingly. However, as is the case with many technologies, loyal Firefox users and their IT departments have sought to bring Firefox into their places of work," it said.

Remembering the last time Apple was without Jobs

Just how visionary is Steve Jobs? It’s a loaded question that’s hard to answer. When Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak cofounded Apple computers in 1976, it would have been impossible to tell that their computers would—at least in the first decade of the 21st century-- remake the way the world interacts with technology. But for at least a decade in its storied life, Apple was on the brink of becoming a second-tier brand, if not collapsing completely.

After the success of the Apple II in the late 70’s and early 80’s, Jobs’ imprudent spending and inexperienced management of his company led the Apple Board of Directors to request that a more experienced CEO run the company. The Board and Jobs chose John Sculley, a former president of Pepsi, to manage the rapidly growing company in conjunction with Jobs. But Jobs struggled with the new role, causing the board to oust him in 1985. On his way out, Jobs sold all but one share of his Apple stock: essentially a vote of no confidence in the company.

From that point on, Apple took hits in popularity and lost considerable ground to Bill Gate’s growing juggernaut throughout the 90’s. Sculley wasn't very successful, but after him, Apple hired two more CEOs who were even bigger busts: Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio.

Jobs and Apple were estranged until 1997, when Apple bought out Jobs’ personal computer company NeXT, and brought Jobs into the fold along with it. From 1997 on, Apple has been the golden calf of the computer industry, from hardware like the iBook in the early 2000s and the iPhone, to revolutionary concepts like the App Store. But what happened to Apple without Jobs and can that happen to Apple again?

Good Products, Bad Management

Looking back, there were a number of Apple products that came out in the Jobs-less era that theoretically should have been very good for the company, but were either poorly managed or not marketed well enough to gain ground. In these examples we can see how losing Jobs today bodes ill for Apple investors. Perhaps without Jobs telling us what we want before we want it, even the best, most revolutionary products will go unnoticed.

1993's Newton is a a good example of a strong Apple product that never found its following. The Newton was to be a revolutionary Personal Digital Device—one of the world’s first consumer PDAs. It had a touch screen and a pen stylus and almost no competition in that market. But it flopped despite its revolutionary design and "luxury" pricing (two of the things Apple enthusiasts tout as reasons for the iPhone’s success). One problem: Apple allowed Motorola, Sharp, and Digital Ocean to manufacture devices that ran the Newton OS, and ultimately the lack of uniformity may have been a turnoff to adopters (you hear that, Android?). Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury poked fun at the device’s learn-to-read-your-handwriting software, and although tablet enthusiasts still cite it as a great early mobile device, Apple announced it would discontinue the Operating System in 1998, a year after Steve Jobs returned to the company.

Bad Products, Period

But for the most part, Apple’s history without Steve Jobs is not of one of good products that can't find an audience. Instead, it’s a history of unfocused management, unable to make good products at all.

One example: In 1991, Apple joined forces with IBM and Motorola to create a company called Taligent to develop and license an operating system on IBM’s PowerPC architecture. The idea was to give Microsoft a run for its money. Apple put considerable resources in making the unholy triad work, and hoped it would streamline hardware, software, and design by creating a strategic alliance of the best companies in the electronics industry.

But around the time Apple was trying to lean on its friends, and the Apple, IBM, and Morotola Group (otherwise known as the AIM partnership), was trying to get the PowerPC chip into its Personal Computers, Apple’s worldwide market share fell from 12% to 3%, and Apple struggled to stay relevant in anything. Even worse, Apple refused to license its OS that worked with PowerPC, so IBM and Motorola lost any chance to make money on the product.

Another big problem was that the CEOs of Apple saw splintering the brand and partnering with other companies (like the PowerPC deal) as viable methods of competing in the world of PCs. In the early 90s, Apple was pushing both Apple II and Macintosh computers to two different audiences and even after the Apple II was laid to rest, Apple started producing lots of Macintoshes that were too similar to each other, and confused consumers. At the same time Windows, was becoming more average-user -friendly, and eventually the integration of Internet Explorer into all versions of Windows (helping regular Joes "get on the internet") gave Windows an upper hand.

Jobs needs Apple like Apple needs Jobs

But just because Jobs’ second term as CEO was so successful doesn’t mean that everything he ever did was successful. After he was ousted from Apple, Jobs went on to found NeXT, a company that came out with "The Cube", an expensive but elegant computer. It totally flopped in the marketplace and Jobs got a sort of bail-out when he was hired as a consultant in 1996 for Apple and they agreed to buy NeXT for $427 million.

When he returned to his company as CEO in 1997, he had learned from his mistakes and from the mistakes of Apple over the previous decade. According to Brian X. Chen’s book Always On, one of Jobs’ first and best decisions upon his return was to stop "cloning" Macintosh computers. Since 1995, Apple had been allowing the Power Computing Corporation to make Mac –compatible computers. The arrangement was cutting into Apple's bottom line and diminishing the quality of Mac computers in the marketplace. The same story applies for the Newton. With the OS being rented out to anyone who could create a device for it, the products lacked the uniformity and the quality control that Apple products are now known for.

Jobs came back and taught Apple that in-house products are the way to go, and Apple has been the world’s most successful "walled garden" ever since.

Bloomberg’s special on Jobs’ career also noted that after his stint at NeXT, he learned that he got more attention from being secretive, and although he burned through capital too quickly to make the company profitable, his mums-the-word techniques were honed there, and to this day drive the media wild, and probably amp up the hype for Apple products.

Today, as Jobs prepares to step down as CEO for the first time since 1997 (excluding a number of leaves-of-absence for medical reasons in which he remained in control of major decisions in the company) Apple investors are looking back on his career, and hoping the company can survive without him. Certainly Jobs as a "product impresario" had a vision, but it was a vision to get Apple back on the right track, and he taught the company lessons that it won’t forget.

Opinion: Why RIM's BBM Music service is destined to fail

Research In Motion (RIM) today made official the rumored "BBM Music" service, which is meant to enable "social and viral music discovery by allowing users to build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared amongst their BBM Music friends."

In short, BlackBerry users will pay RIM $5 a month, select 50 songs from RIM's cloud-based music catalogue, and then stream and share those tunes with their BlackBerry-Messenger-using friends.

The sharing means that BBM Music users gain access to every individual BBM friends' 50 songs. Basically, though you only get to select 50 songs a month for yourself, in reality, you have access to and can listen to many more tunes, since every one of your BBM-Music-using friends adds all of their selections to your shared library. You can also "swap out" 25 of your specific 50 songs, once a month.

BBM Music is currently available in beta-form, and only a select few have access to the service at this point. But RIM says it will become widely available "later this year."

Sounds interesting enough, right? Unfortunately, BBM Music is fundamentally flawed, and I'm already questioning its long-term viability. Here are a few reasons why.

BBM Music Focus is on Sharing

BBM Music is really a music sharing service, and not a traditional online music retailer like Apple's iTunes or Amazon MP3. And I'm not really sure consumers are willing to pay for the privilege of sharing digital tunes, even if the cost is only $5 per month, since plenty of other free methods for song-sharing and music discovery already exist.

For example, many of my online friends often share information on who or what they're listening to via social networks like Twitter or Facebook--and even BBM, thanks to a "Show What I'm Listening To" feature within RIM's mobile IM app. If I'm interested in something one of my connections is listening to, I'll pop on over to Amazon, have a quick listen of the song preview and buy it if I like what I hear. If the song isn't brand new, I'll often check YouTube or other music sites to see if the entire track is available for free streaming before I buy. And this works fine for me.

Also, I feel that popular music today mostly sucks. And I'm guessing that despite RIM's partnership with four leading music companies--Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMIand the "millions of available songs," many of my favorite, obscure tunes from lesser-known bands won't be available. (And I already own those tunes anyway, but more on that in the next section.)

You're Only "Renting" Songs on BBM Music

BBM music users won't really purchase music via the service, since the songs are all stored on the BBM Music servers; you'll only "rent" them for a month or sothough RIM says you can download some tracks for offline listening each month. If you want to physically own a track or an album, even if you discovered it on BBM Music, on your own or through a shared library, you'll probably still hit up iTunes or Amazon or whatever digital music shop you've used in the past for your purchase.

So in a way, BBM Music users could end up "paying twice," for songs, after shelling out the $5-a-month fee for BBM Music and then the dollar or so it take to purchase a song of interest. You could look at the $5 BBM Music fee as the cost of new-music discovery, but again, I don't really think your average BlackBerry user is willing to pay for that particular service.

Then there's the fact that you probably already own at least a few of your favorite songs, and since they're your favorites, you'll want to include them in your monthly allotment of 50 songs, so your friends can see them. In doing so, however, you actually reduce the number of "new" or unfamiliar songs you can add to your library, and in turn, you reduce the value of BBM Music overall.

BBM Music is Available Only to BlackBerry Users

You can only use BBM Music with other BlackBerry users, and it's unlikely that all or even the majority of your friends use BlackBerry smartphones, so the service is really only available to a small subset of your friends and other connections. In other words, you won't be able to use BBM Music with any of your iPhone- or Android-toting friends. Past rumors suggest RIM may bring BBM to other platforms, but until that happens, BBM Music is restricted to BlackBerry users. And I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for BBM to hit other mobile platforms.

BBM Music Could Reduce Overall Value of BBM

To get the most out of BBM Music, you'd want to have a lengthy list of BBM contacts, since each of those contacts could potentially add as many as 50 new songs to your shared BBM Music library. But that goes against everything that makes BBM valuable to me.

I purposefully don't have too many BBM contacts, because the value in BBM, for me, is that it provides my closest friends and colleagues with a way to contact me that's separate from e-mail, separate from IM, and separate from SMS text. And my BBM contacts know that if they message me, they'll get a speedy response.

I literally receive hundreds of e-mail, IM and text messages every day, and as such I don't always rush to read every new message that arrives. But when I see that BBM new-message indicator, I immediately check it, because I know that I'm connected to people who will only message me if it's important. (Read my recent "BlackBerry Messenger Best Practices" for more details)

Adding tons of random BBM contacts simply so I'd have access to their BBM Music libraries would drastically reduce the overall value of BBM to me.

I'll end this post by stressing that I'm really not trying to condemn BBM Music before I even get to test the service. I'd love for BBM Music to succeed, and I'm anxious to get my hands on it. But until then, I remain very skeptical.

Find more official details on BBM Music on RIM's website.

Steve Jobs' resignation 'end of an era'

Steve Jobs announced Wednesday that he is resigning as Apple CEO. Steve Jobs' resignation Wednesday as the CEO of Apple will not disrupt the company's product plans in the short-term, but could dull its ability to dazzle consumers down the road, according to one analyst.

"Apple is fine, and will be," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. "Apple knows what it's doing for the next big thing, maybe the next two next big things. They lose the showmanship of Jobs, but [the company's executives] have their marching orders."

Shortly after Jobs submitted his resignation , the Apple board of directors took his advice and named Tim Cook, formerly the chief operating officer, as the new CEO. Also on Wednesday, Jobs was named chairman of the board.

But to some long-time Apple observers, the departure of Jobs is a potential pitfall for the company.

"Apple will be a changed company without Jobs," said Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group. "It will be a very different Apple."

Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, was forced out of the company in 1985, a year after the launch of the original Macintosh, by then-CEO John Scully and the Apple board. Jobs founded NeXT that same year.

He returned to an Apple in early 1997 when the company acquired NeXT, first as an advisor and then interim CEO. Jobs was named permanent CEO in 2000.

Jobs departure, the analysts agreed, will certainly affect how Apple markets itself and ultimately, how customers view the company.

"Longer term, Apple won't pull off the miracles it did during one of the great leadership careers in business," said Gottheil, citing the iPhone, which Jobs personally launched in 2007, and then the iPad in 2010.

Enderle was more blunt.

"Companies that lose an iconic leader, whether IBM when Thomas Watson Jr. stepped down, or Disney when Walt Disney was gone, or even Microsoft without Bill Gates, firms that went through that transition largely lost the magic," said Enderle.

He also compared Jobs to P.T. Barnum, and traced a line from Barnum to Disney to Jobs, saying each was "magical" in his own way. "Apple with Jobs was magical," Enderle said. "And [without those leaders] you can't do the magic. And Tim Cook isn't magical."

Jobs was best as Apple's creative spark, said Gottheil; Enderle saw it differently.

"It's how he marketed, how he announced products and how he put them in the public eye," said Enderle. "The iPhone wasn't the first smartphone. It was a success because of the way it was packaged and delivered."

While Enderle believes that Apple could show dramatic changes within 24 months -- conceivably before the already-stocked product pipeline is exhausted -- Gottheil was more optimistic about its chances without Jobs.

"Three years out, Apple is less likely to dazzle, to explode," said Gottheil. "There will be more duds. But the product lines begun during the Jobs years will be executed very well."

The analysts disputed whether collectively, the executive team at Apple equaled Jobs, or could stand in his stead. Gottheil thought they could, and with the exception of Jobs' performance on stage during product launches, would.

"The real question is whether the people at Apple can execute the strategies he's set, and use the lessons he's taught," said Gottheil, who believes they are up to the task.

"Of course, after this when a product launches with flaws, people will say, 'If Jobs were there, that wouldn't have happened.' Well, Jobs was there when Apple launched products with flaws," said Gottheil.

Enderle wasn't as sure.

"Operationally, Tim Cook is great," Enderle said. "But like [Steve] Ballmer [the CEO of Microsoft], who is incredible operationally, he's not the visionary.

Jobs' resignation may have been a surprise, but it wasn't totally unexpected.

A survivor of pancreatic cancer, Jobs took a leave of several months' duration in 2009 during which he had a liver transplant. In January 2011 , he again stepped away for medical reasons.

In a letter he released today through Apple's public relations department, Jobs did not give an explicit reason for resigning, but intimated it was health related.

"If there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," Jobs said in the letter. "Unfortunately, that day has come."

Jobs has made few public appearances since January, among them the product launch of the iPad 2 in March and the keynote of Apple's annual developers conference in June. Also in June, he spoke before the Cupertino, Calif. city council to promote a new campus the company wants to build.

Gottheil and Enderle agreed that his resignation was related to his health.

"If he had the operational strength to run the company, he wouldn't have stepped down," said Enderle.

Both analysts bemoaned his departure.

"He was the CEO of the decade for an entire decade," said Enderle. "He was the iconic CEO that started off the century."

"It's the end of an era," said Gottheil.

Apple succeeds in getting Samsung Galaxy S, SII and Ace sales banned in EU

A court in The Hague banned the shipping of three Samsung Galaxy smartphones to Europe as of 15 October, ruling that the company has infringed an Apple photo management patent.

The Samsung Galaxy S, SII and Ace were banned because Samsung infringes on Apple's EP 2.058.868 patent, the court found. The patent is titled "Portable Electronic Device for Photo Management" and describes a way to scroll through a photo gallery using finger gestures on a touchscreen.

Samsung infringes the Apple patent by using Android 2.3 in the three phones, according to the ruling by Judge E.F. Brinkman. Android 3.x that is used for tablets does not infringe this patent. The patent issue can be fixed by updating the Android software on the phones to Android 3.x, Samsung said in court earlier this month and that point was also noted by the judge in the ruling.

If Samsung fails to do this, the consequences can be very big for the European smartphone market. The Dutch infringement could block the import of all Samsung phones to Europe, since Samsung's distribution centers are located in the Netherlands, Dutch ICT news site Webwereld revealed . That is the main reason why Apple is suing Samsung in The Hague.

The judge denied all the other grounds on which Apple tried to ban the import of Samsung products into Europe. Samsung does not infringe on two other patent claims about intellectual copyright and design, the judge ruled. Further, according to the court, Samsung does not "slavishly copy" Apple's iPad and iPhone.

Analysis: Are Motorola's patents enough to protect Android?

Google's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility will land it a vast portfolio of patents, but the legal obstacles facing its Android operating system are far from over, legal experts said.

Android has been beset with legal challenges from all sides, including a multibillion dollar lawsuit filed by Oracle, and complaints brought by Apple against Android device makers including HTC and Samsung. Meanwhile, Microsoft has been extracting license fees from Android device makers, saying it owns technology patents related to Google's mobile OS.

The Motorola acquisition, announced Monday, should help shield Google and its partners from future legal action by Apple and others. But it may be too late to help device makers facing lawsuits already under way, and it won't help Google to fight Oracle's Java patent infringement lawsuit, which is due to begin trial in October, legal experts said.

Google never put much value in building its own patent portfolio and was caught off guard by the "patent arms race" that has come to define the wireless industry. Last week it lashed out at competitors, accusing Microsoft, Apple and others of trying to impose a "patent tax" on Android to stifle its runaway growth.

So its announcement Monday that it will pay $40 per share for Motorola -- or 63 percent over Friday's closing stock price -- came as little surprise to some observers. The acquisition will "increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies," CEO Larry Page said in a blog post.

Alexander Poltorak, chairman and CEO of General Patent Corp., said Motorola's portfolio will serve as a deterrent to companies thinking of suing Google or its partners. "Now they will think twice before filing a complaint, because they can be guaranteed Google will strike back," he said.

The deal will give Google "a lot of heft," said Jonathan Goldberg, a research analyst at Deutsche Bank. Motorola is among the oldest wireless companies and has a strong and credible patent portfolio, he said. Motorola Mobility has said it owns about 24,500 patents.

'I think it's a big step and I expect there will be a big sigh of relief at Google once this deal closes," said David Mixon, a patent lawyer with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. "They were outbid in the Nortel patent auctions and that was a consortium led by Microsoft and Apple. They clearly were feeling some pressure."

If Google is targeted by another lawsuit, Motorola's patents will help it broker a settlement and secure a license for Android, Poltorak said. That license would cover Android device makers as well, under the "exhaustion doctrine," he said. "If Google obtains a license for the OS, then everyone else who uses that OS will be licensed as well."

If a company targets a Google partner instead, Google could transfer ownership of some the Motorola patents to that partner temporarily, so it can defend itself with them, Poltorak said.

Not everyone agreed that Motorola's patents will be an effective deterrent, however. Florian Mueller, author of the FOSS Patents blog, noted that Apple has already sued Motorola Mobility for patent infringement. Motorola's patents appear "too weak" to be a deterrent against lawsuits, he wrote in a blog post.

"This isn't going to be a protective shield for Android," Mueller said. "Motorola Mobility has already fired its best shots in its lawsuits against Apple and Microsoft, with little impact as it seems."

But Motorola fired the first shots in that battle, Poltorak noted. Motorola sued Apple in October for allegedly infringing 18 of its patents, and filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission. "Apple had no choice but to defend itself," Poltorak said.

Mueller argued that Motorola expected the lawsuit from Apple, and that its own lawsuit was a pre-emptive, defensive move. He sees Google's Motorola purchase as "buyer's desperation."

One thing observers did agree on is that buying Motorola is unlikely to help Google with its Oracle lawsuit. Google doesn't expect to complete the purchase until late this year or in early 2012, while the Oracle trial is scheduled to begin in 11 weeks. Oracle isn't in the wireless business, so Motorola's patents wouldn't be effective bargaining chips anyway. And Oracle is suing Google for copyright as well as patent infringement, Mixon noted.

Neither Goldberg or Mixon see the Oracle case as a deal-breaker for Android, however. Oracle wants Android to flourish so it can collect royalty fees from it, Mixon said. And Google has deep pockets, so it could afford to pay significant damages to Oracle if necessary, Goldberg said.

"To me, a bigger concern is what Google is going to do to protect the whole ecosystem," Goldberg said.

It's unclear if Motorola's patents will be able to help Android device makers fend off the lawsuits against them. It depends how fast Google closes the acquisition and exactly what patents Motorola owns, Mixon said.

Samsung has already been hit with an injunction that blocks it from selling its Galaxy Tab in much of Europe, and the company may feel pressured to settle with Apple before Google's Motorola acquisition closes, Poltorak said.

Still, Google has made a significant step in the right direction, according to some observers.

"I see this as a meaningful deal, but it's just one more step in the process," Goldberg said.

Smartphones stolen in riots turning up on auction sites

Smartphones stolen during the recent riots in London and other cities appear to be turning up for sale in large numbers, goods tracking company Recipero has found.

In the last week the company said that the number of stolen items being reported into its CheckMEND database - used by mobile networks, the police to check for stolen goods - had gone from 2,000 to 6,000 per day and rising, an unprecedented spike.

To be clear, these handsets are those detected as having been stolen, which offers some insight into the scale of the theft that occurred during the riots.

Some of these extra handsets were being entered by police forces after raids on those suspected of handling stolen goods, but others were being discovered after being offered for sale to phone recycling companies, cash converting businesses and the second-hand trade.

Recipero estimates the number of phones stolen during the disturbances may be "somewhere in the tens of thousands", with 430 smartphones reported stolen from one store alone. An unconfirmed report emerged in recent days of a suspicious batch of 40 smartphones being sold through a prominent online auction site.

Members of the public should check any smartphone they are considering purchasing for £1.99 per item by entering the IMEI or serial numbers into CheckMEND, said Recipero managing director, Adrian Portlock.

"An iPhone 4 is the lowest-depreciating device on the market," said Portlock, who said that even a one-year old iPhone would still fetch hundreds of pounds second hand. This made Apple devices especially valuable with other high-end smartphones close behind.

Sites such as eBay were now recommending that consumers check IMEI numbers for sale goods using CheckMEND.

"As a force we are determined to track down as many stolen items of property as possible and we don't want members of the public purchasing them from looters," said the West Midlands Police Mobile Phone Crime Unit, which reports stolen device finds into a central database run by the police National Mobile Phone Crime Unit.

"We have therefore loaded as many of the serial and IMEI numbers of the stolen goods to the Recipero databases both so we can identify the stolen property but also to help the public avoid them by using CheckMEND."

Buying a stolen device in the UK will be futile; once processed as a stolen handset the device will be deactivated and unable to connect to any UK network. The assumption is that many deactivated smartphones will then be sent abroad for re-programming and connection to foreign GSM networks.

Researcher keeps Android app security flaws to himself

A security researcher is standing by the claim that his company has discovered security vulnerabilities in a dozen common Android applications, despite declining to reveal which applications are affected.

Riley Hassell of Privateer Labs had been due to give a presentation 'Hacking Android for profit' revealing the issues at last week's Black Hat security conference but called off the session after deciding that the absence of fixes for the flaws might allow attackers to exploit the research.

What remains are only vague descriptions of the issues, starting with the pre-session descriptions mentioning 'AppPhishing', a bogus app that scrapes a user's login using a fake screen, and 'AppJacking', where a malicious app hijacks the credentials of a trusted app.

"Some apps expose themselves to outside contact. If these apps are vulnerable, then an attacker can remotely compromise that app and potentially the phone using something as simple as a text message," Hassell told a third-party website by way of explanation.

What is unclear is the extent to which these or other issues found by him are original discoveries and whether they represent flaws in Android or only the apps themselves.

Jay Nacarrow of Google has reportedly said that the issues are not related to Android though without a fuller description this is hard to confirm.

What the minor controversy does suggest is that mobile operating systems, while more secure than the almost open door created by Windows XP in 2001, are turning out to be less secure by design than first assumed.

Serious exploits have been largely restricted to poor app vetting by Google and the re-engineering of applications posted to third-party download sites not covered by Google's Market, especially in China. Despite its low-key response to the issues apparently discovered by Privateer Labs, Google has appeared flat-footed when it comes to listening to feedback from security companies.

Security company Trusteer recently pointed out flaws in the security-reporting system on Google's Market.

4G LTE equipment shows up in US Apple Store

Even if Apple doesn't release a 4G LTE iPhone this year, the company sure seems interested in the technology right now.

Engadget has received what is supposedly a picture of 4G LTE equipment installed in "a major Apple Store." The purpose of this equipment is unclear, but it apparently supports only the 700MHz and AWS bands, which AT&T plans to use for 4G coverage if its acquisition of T-Mobile is approved.

The tipster also told Engadget that Apple is now trying to increase its sales floor staff by 30 percent, suggesting that a new iPhone is coming soon. Rumors peg the iPhone 5's arrival for September or October.

LTE, short for "Long-Term Evolution," is a wireless standard that promises to be up to 10 times faster than current 3G networks. It's considerably faster than HSPA+, which AT&T and T-Mobile currently advertise as "4G," as proven by a recent PCWorld speed test. Verizon's LTE network launched last year, and AT&T plan to roll out its own network in 15 markets by the end of 2011.

Apple is rumored to be testing 4G LTE iPhones, according to Boy Genius Report, but that doesn't mean that Apple's next generation of smartphones will support the speedier wireless standard. AT&T hasn't even launched its LTE network yet, although next week the carrier will begin selling a hotspot and a USB stick with future LTE support. Meanwhile, Verizon's LTE phones tend to drain battery when connected to the network.

It's possible that a next-generation iPad could support LTE, but new rumors suggest that Apple is holding off on these devices until next year. Apple will probably wait until the technology is available in more markets and battery issues are resolved -- but nothing's certain until you hear it from Apple.

OS X Lion thumb drive now available

Mac users without access to high-speed Internet or a local Apple Store can now order an OS X Lion USB thumb drive for £55 from Apple's online store. The drive ships in one to three business days and costs more than double the price of a £20.99 Lion download from Apple's Mac App Store.

Apple announced in July when Lion became available to the public that it would start selling Lion USB sticks for those unable, or perhaps unwilling, to use Apple's digital store front.

The flash drive requires 7 GB of free space on your hard drive as well as a minimum Core 2 Duo processor with 2 GB RAM. Apple also cautions that installing Lion with the USB thumb drive means you will not be able to use the Lion Recovery tool built into OS X Lion. Instead, you will have to use the purchased thumb drive should you need to reinstall the new Mac OS. Lion Recovery creates a separate partition on your hard drive with a bootable version of Lion to let you reinstall the OS by hitting Command-R at boot time.

If you've already downloaded and installed Lion through the Mac App Store, but wish you had a hard copy of the OS just in case, you can download the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant from Apple for free. The disk assistant provides an easier way to create an external drive loaded with a bootable copy of Lion.

Apple's decision to offer Lion via the Mac App Store appears to have paid off. The company said it sold more than one million Lion downloads during the first 24 hours the latest version of OS X was available.

Apple says it added more than 250 new features to Lion such as enhanced multitouch gesture support, full screen apps, automated document version history, and an iOS-inspired app icon grid called Launchpad.

Three reasons you should get the new LinkedIn app

LinkedIn already had one of the better iPhone apps, but it went back to the drawing board and developed a completely new app with more functionality--for both iPhone and Android. If you already have the LinkedIn app on your iPhone or Android smartphone, you should update it. If you don't already have the LinkedIn app, it's time you did.

When I first joined LinkedIn many moons ago, I looked at it as sort of a Monster.com job site with the added benefit of the sort six degree of separation that would allow me to leverage my network of contacts to find a new or better job if need be. I didn't really consider it a social network in the Facebook sense of the word, but really more of a professional networking and job hunting service.

A lot has changed since then, though--both in the evolution of social networking, and in LinkedIn itself. The site remains as a professional or business-oriented social network, but it has adapted and expanded to become a much more useful site that goes beyond job hunting. As a writer, it is a great source of expert commentary and insight for articles, and as a business professional it is an awesome tool for sharing information in a social network setting without the Zynga games, and other silly things that seem to come with other social networks like Facebook or Google+.

A blog post from LinkedIn unveiling the new mobile app(s) explains, "LinkedIn Mobile page views have grown more than 400% year-over-year, making it the fastest growing consumer service on LinkedIn."

With that in mind, LinkedIn has redesigned the mobile app to improve the experience. Here are three reasons you should be using the new LinkedIn app (assuming you use LinkedIn...and have an iPhone or Android smartphone):

1. Simpler and Faster. The previous LinkedIn app was already one of my favorites, but it had 12 different icons to choose from. The new interface is much cleaner, and more polished, and it reduces the number of options to four. LinkedIn also managed to streamline performance and boost speeds from two to ten times faster than the previous LinkedIn app.

2. LinkedIn Groups. The new app lets you access and interact with your LinkedIn Groups. You can read and participate in ongoing Group discussions, or add new discussions from the iPhone.

3. Updates. The old LinkedIn app had a button to access "All Updates", so this isn't entirely new. But, the Updates button on the new LinkedIn app delivers a more visually appealing experience and quick access to both Recent Updates from your own LinkedIn network, as well as the LinkedIn Today news headlines.

The new LinkedIn app seems to have taken a good thing and make it even better. Now, if LinkedIn would just take that same ingenuity and creativity and develop an equivalent iPad app I'll be all set.

Free training event from After Effects gurus

After Effects gurus Angie Taylor, Simon Cam, Ermesto Rogata and Macworld contributor Simon Walker will be inspiring creative individuals on 7 September, at Post Production Magic. The event, hosted by Red Giant and co-hosted by Adobe, is described by Red Giant as the place to be to "experience the best of design, animation, colour grading and visual effects created in After Effects and Premiere Pro, along with a networking and cocktail hour."

Angie Taylor, an art director, motion graphic designer and author of three books including "Creative After Effects", will be sharing tips and tricks for creating motion graphics in Adobe After Effects and giving animations a more distinctive style using Red Giant software.

Simon Cam from Superglue, a production company specialising in digital projects for with clients including Toyota, Google and The Sun, will be demonstrating how Adobe and Red Giant software was used in Toyota's "Get Your Energy Back" campaign.

Ernesto Rogata, an award winning video editor from BskyB, will be talking about integrating text and other graphic elements in sport pieces, stings and short title sequences with tight deadlines.

Simon Walker, an Adobe Certified Premiere Pro Instructor and creative director of WiltshireVideo.com, and a regular Macworld contributor, will be revealing the grading secrets of Plot Device, a new short film produced by Red Giant, as well as demonstrating how Red Giant's Magic Bullet Suite can bring to life a varied series of genres.

The event will be held at Ravensbourne University in Greenwich on Wednesday 7 September 2011, and will be streamed live by Adobe.

To book your free place, click here, but get in quickly, as there are limited spaces available.

Apple's evidence flawed in European Samsung case

Apple and its lawyers have, perhaps inadvertently, misled the judge of a Düsseldorf court by filing flawed evidence of the similarity between the iPad 2 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets based on an inaccurate picture, an investigation by Webwereld.nl, a Dutch IDG publication, has found.

Last week, the German court ordered a preliminary injunction against the distribution of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in all of Europe, except the Netherlands, where a separate and broader case is under way, in what has become a global war between Apple and Samsung for intellectual property rights on their products and technologies.

But it appears that Apple has failed to provide the German judge with accurate evidence. At least one of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 pictures that Apple provided as evidence in the German case is either wrong or manipulated. Photographic evidence submitted by Apple, found on page 28 of the German complaint, shows two pictures: the iPad 2 and the alleged Galaxy Tab 10.1, accompanied by Apple's claim that the "overall appearance" of two products is "practically identical."

But the picture Apple submitted of the Tab is inaccurate and does not match with the real Galaxy Tab 10.1, Webwereld discovered. Further investigations have verified this assessment. The Galaxy Tab due on the European market is taller and more oblong than the iPad 2. However, the shape of what Apple's claims to be a Tab 10.1 resembles the iPad very closely.

The picture of the alleged Galaxy Tab provided by Apple is cropped and its aspect ratio is distorted. According to Samsung, the Tab measures 256.7 x 175.3 millimeters, which translates to an aspect ratio of 1.46. The Tab pictured in the complaint however has an aspect ratio of 1.36. The bottom is about 8 percent wider than the actual one.

As a result, the aspect ratio of the purported Tab is actually closer to the aspect ratio of the iPad 2, which is 1.30. In short: the shape of the alleged Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Apple's complaint matches the iPad 2 more closely than it matches the actual Tab.

Arnout Groen, a lawyer with the Dutch firm Klos Morel Vos & Schaap, specialized in intellectual property rights litigation, is baffled. "This is a blunder. That such a 'mistake' is made in a case about design rights can scarcely be a coincidence. ... The aspect ratio of the alleged Galaxy Tab is clearly distorted to match the iPad more closely. Inasmuch as this faux pas will have consequences for the case is of course up to the judge. But at least a reprimand by the German judge seems to be in order."

Groen explains that litigating parties are required by law to provide "complete and truthful" evidence to the judge. This applies regardless of whether flawed evidence is provided intentionally or mistakenly, says Groen, adding that this obligation is even more crucial in an ex parte decision, as the evidence presented to the judge is one-sided.

This requirement is the same in Germany, confirms Florian Müller, a German intellectual property consultant. He reckons the flawed visual evidence could have serious consequences for the case, "provided that any differences between the product shown in Apple's complaint and the actual product are outcome-determinative," says Müller.

He doubts that Apple's lawyers attempted to mislead the court. Müller argues the picture in the German complaint could be of a pre-release prototype, which showed up during discovery procedures in Apple's case against Samsung in the U.S. last April.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been available to reviewers at least since May. Apple's complaint in Germany is dated August 4. "But even if the picture they presented was merely obsolete as opposed to forged, this could raise the prospects of a reversal of fortunes at the August 25 hearing in the Düsseldorf district court," says Müller.

Webwereld has briefed Apple and its German counsel, Matthias Koch of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, on the results of the investigation, and submitted questions to confirm or refute the conclusions and to clarify the issue. They declined to respond. Samsung also declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

In Düsseldorf, Apple filed the case "ex parte": the judge decided on the infringement claims without a hearing or an opposition brief by the defendant, Samsung. The Korean company only filed a preemptive "protective letter"' without having seen the complaint. This also means that Apple's complaint was the principal evidence on which the judge decided to issue a temporary injunction.

Apple alleges infringement of registered models, so-called Community Designs. These registrations cover all European countries. What's more, a single judge from one E.U. member state can rule on infringement of these designs for the whole of Europe, as happened in Germany last week.

News wrap: Lion, iOS, and the Mac -- oh my!

Hear that sound? That’s the sound of autumn’s unceasing approach. If you spent much of the past week enjoying summery weather before fall’s inevitable arrival, we can’t say we blame you. And we won’t hold a grudge if you missed a slew of important and exciting Macworld stories because of it. Instead, we’ll fill you in on all the good articles that you missed.

The Lion Thing

Although we’ve very nearly exhausted our supply of headline-worthy Lion puns, that hasn’t stopped us from covering Mac OS X 10.7 in great detail. If you’d like to show Lion who’s king of your Mac jungle, we can help you tame Lion’s Mail and take control of Mission Control. If, on the other hand, you’re still looking to migrate some files from an older Leopard Mac, you don’t necessarily need a CAT-5 cable, but you’ll definitely want to check out Apple’s Migration Assistant update for Leopard users.

If you’re worried about a potential crash the next time your Lion installation roars to a halt, you’ll want to check out Apple’s freshly-released Lion Recovery Disk Assistant. Dan Frakes, who’s installed Lion at least as many as Steve Jobs has uttered the word "boom," went hands-on with the new assistant, which lets you turn a USB stick into a Lion book disk.

While our love for Lion knows few bounds, we stil came up with a few improvements we’d like to see. Steve, feel free to call us if you need further elaboration on those issues. Meanwhile, Ted Landau found a few more Lion compatibility issues.

We owe you iOS

When it comes to iPhone cases, contributor Marco Tabini is always on the case. Er, cases. He writes up a weekly roundup of iPhone cases each week, and then I write a weekly round-up of all our biggest stories each week, and if we stop, it’s worse than if Desmond doesn’t push the button.

We reviewed a slew of iOS apps:

• Photogram, which makes photo postcards, scored our stamp of approval, • Smail Stencil, for saving frequently sent messages, lacks much SMS finesse, • Zombie Gunship, a game focused on killing the undead, is to re-die for, • Ticket to Ride, an engrossing, train-focused board game, is worth choo-choo-choosing, and • Alarmed, a timer, reminder, and alarm clock app, is pretty beeping impressive.

Of course, now there’s more to the iOS ecosphere than true native apps. This past week, Vudu unveiled a new iPad optimized Web app, and Amazon took the wraps off its new Kindle Cloud Reader. Jason Snell went hands-on with the Web-based Kindle app, and he liked it, but he’s not ready to break up with the native Kindle app just yet. Yours truly spent some time (and a couple thousand words) ruminating on just what this slow, steady march of iOS-optimized Web apps really means.

We also wrote up an iOS copy-and-paste tutorial for beginners, the new Tweet Marker support in Twitterrific, Facebook’s new Messenger app for iPhone, and Boxee’s new iPad app. Elsewhere, contributor Joel Mathis reported on the iOS-integrated myTrek exercise monitor from Scosche, though in truth, he spent most of his time figuring out just how precisely you spell "Scosche."

Intern-turned-staff-editor Alexandra Chang reviewed the Olloclip three-in-one camera lens for iPhone, and also ended my streak as the sole member of the Macworld editorial team with an "x"-bearing name.

Back to the Mac

You don’t even need to bid a buck for eBay’s new desktop app; it’s available in the Mac App Store for free. We reviewed the iOS-inspired Sparrow email client, the HTML5-creation tool Hype, and task-management software Todo.

Apple unveiled a new, $999 education-only iMac, but Chris Breen says it’s too much, too late. Chris also explains just what the heck an OS X stationery pad is, and how to limit your kids’ Internet access. Watch for Chris’s series next week on "How to get kids off your darn lawn."

Serenity Caldwell pours one out for the soon-to-be-shuttered Walmart digital music streaming service. So if you’re one of the seven people making the switch from Walmart to iTunes—or one of the millions of folks who already use iTunes—here’s Kirk McElhearn’s piece on how to back up your iTunes media files. If you’d rather make your own kind of music, note that Apple released updates for Logic and Logic Express this past week.

Movie fans too may want to consider embracing iTunes, since DVD-streaming service Zediva has shut down after some legal wrangling. Speaking of legal wrangling, let Dan Moren take you Under the Gavel for another edition of our intermittent roundups of Apple-related court matters.

And if you’d rather write your own roundup of our stories, we suggest that you at least do so in plain text, and if you want to print it out, consider one of these new Mac-friendly printers. Then mail it to me and grant me permission to pass it off as next week’s Weekly Wrap.

iPhone, Windows 7, Android, Blackberry usability study causes a stir

A "minor" college class project intended to demonstrate how first-time users fared in doing basic tasks on different smartphones has triggered an Internet wave of mockery, condemnation and invective. In a 10-minute video, the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7 are rated superior to the Android-based HTC Thunderbolt and a RIM BlackBerry Storm.

The video was originally posted on YouTube this week by the students who made it, as part of a project for a Harvard University summer course, "Human Factors in Information Systems Design." It was later made private, but then reposted on YouTube from cache by Surur at WMPoweruser.com. His accompanying post had almost no details on the video's background.

The class is taught by Dennis Galletta, who is a professor of business administration at University of Pittsburgh. His main research areas are, according to his biography page, "human-computer interaction, with specific attention to user attitudes, behavior, and performance," and his teaching interests include human-computer interaction and electronic commerce. He's been an adjunct professor for the Harvard summer program for several years.

The six-week summer course focused on human factors and corporate website design. Galletta gave the students a menu of related class projects, including a usability comparison of the four smartphone platforms. That's the one they chose.

The result, and intent, of the project was a "fun initiation into usability testing but NOT a definitive or reliable test of the platforms," Galletta says. His project requirements were to "compare the usability of the four platforms in an objective way, with points taken off for being subjective" and "squish it into 10 minutes or less [on video]."

The project was simplicity itself: All the students owned smartphones and they lent them to each other to test the three tasks. Each tester had no previous experience with that phone or its UI. The intent was to see whether and how users could figure out each task, without any familiarity with the phone or operating system and without any instruction or guidance.

Each user was videotaped performing each task in sequence and the resulting video was edited to keep it the 10-minute limit imposed by Galletta. The on-screen narrator is one of the students involved in the project.

In the video, the ratings for each task on each phone seem loosely correlated with the number of touches and taps and the length of time each task takes. But the actual criteria are not spelled out. The demonstration is organized by task, so we first see each user trying to make a phone call, then in the same order trying to add a contact, and finally sending a SMS message. Each separate test by the different users shows a close-up of the phone on a flat surface, and the hand or hands of the user.

Taken at face value, the video is most intriguing when one tries to follow the thought process of the novice user, as revealed by his or her touches and taps to the phone's screen. For example, the first test shown is making a phone call with a Samsung Focus, running Windows Phone 7. The user taps correctly on an icon, or "tile," with the image of a phone's handset. But what next appears is the "History" page of recent calls. The user apparently doesn't readily see how to make call from that page, and presses the home button to go back to the homescreen. After trying out a number of other actions, the user taps the phone tile again, finds another soft button at the bottom of the history page and is finally able to type in a phone number and make the call.

That experience won the Samsung device 3 out of 5 possible stars. The iPhone 4, the BlackBerry Storm and the HTC Thunderbolt were all much faster, with just one or two touches needed to bring up the dial pad.

Adding a contact was better for the Samsung device, which earned 4 stars; the iPhone earned 3. The users of the Storm and Thunderbolt struggled for much longer to decipher the interface and the BlackBerry user actually failed to add a contact.

The iPhone and Windows Phone Samsung handset tied with 4 stars in sending an SMS message, the Storm got a 3-star rating, and the Thunderbolt came in last.

What's striking about the video is the contrast in user actions: Often they're actively scrolling, apparently searching for something that signals clearly to them what the next step in each process should be; at other times, they're often almost completely inactive with their hands, apparently studying the screen to decipher or interpret, and sometimes trying out the various icons or soft buttons presented to them.

The unscientific conclusion for the project: Novice users found iPhone 4 and Windows Phone 7 on the Samsung Focus somewhat more intuitive to use in the three tasks tested.

But for a legion of bloggers and commenters the project is an example of what's wrong with higher education in America. The denunciations fell on both the video comparison -- lame, stupid, fake, horrible, poorly executed, a conspiracy -- and the phone testers -- moronic and stupid.

"I find it quite concerning that such a supposed high brow university would throw together such a poor and unbalanced experiment ..."wrote Jay Oakesey, at Time's Techland blog, which offered Harry McCracken's Technologizer.com account of the video.

At WMPoweruser, one commenter, Tablewriter, wrote, "the research is so flawed that the guy deserves to lose his job over it. It's what I'd expect from a fourth grader. There is NOTHING of value here."

"Clearly this was RIGGED," wrote jwd0808 at YouTube. "The HTC Thunderbolt's home screen was not the default -- they removed both the people and the text messaging icons. They guy using the Windows phone was just an idiot ..."

Plenty of others joined in attacking the testers. "I think some of those testers are freaking stupid :|," posted cPTcAPSLOCK, at WMPoweruser.com. "I never knew people could be so dumb," posted Bloodoathjg on YouTube. "[A]nyone with half a f***ing brain can navigate these phones," wrote a user with the handle dicksoper.

More than few assumed Galletta was the narrator: He was excoriated for calling the iPhone the "iPhone 4G," though some posters said he probably meant "fourth generation," and the Samsung device a "Windows 7 phone" instead of "Windows Phone 7."

There were more considered responses. "Of course, the experiences of a handful of clueless newbies aren't a definitive verdict on these operating systems," wrote Harry McCracken, in his Technologizer blog.

(McCracken also updated his original post to note that this was a class project by students, not a research initiative by Galletta. "Personally, I'm less interested in how well neophytes fare with a phone than how efficient and intuitive it is for a more experienced user over the long haul.")

Galletta told his students the video could be made more useful by using a larger number of tasks and users, and a more scientific measurement process, or at least a documented one.

Maxon unveils Cinema 4D R13

Maxon has launched Cinema 4D Release 13, the next generation of its 3D motion graphics, visual effects, and animation software. The upgrade is due in September, and features new character tools, integrated stereographic capabilities, streamlined multi-artist collaboration and physical rendering.

As before, Maxon offers four versions of Cinema 4D: Prime, Visualize, Broadcast and Studio. Not all of the new features appear in every release.

Maxon says that creating photorealistic images is easier than ever with the new physical render engine. Based on real camera properties, this additional render engine accurately calculates 3D motion blur, depth of field and lens distortion based on the focal length, aperture and shutter speed of the camera. Users can efficiently create translucent materials such as milk, skin and wax with a new subsurface scattering shader included with both the new Physical Render and CINEMA 4D's standard render engines. Users can also now achieve higher quality anti-aliasing using the Mitchell and Gauss algorithms.

The new Shared Image Sampler is designed to saves lots of render time by combining sampling for multiple effects such as motion blur, depth of field, area shadows, ambient occlusion and blurry reflections. Sample options allow users to specify a fixed number of samples, apply an adaptive number of samples based on the geometry and shading complexity, or progressively render each frame within a given number of passes or amount of time.

Stereoscopic capabilities include stereoscopic camera conversion, which lets users convert any camera to a Parallel, On Axis, Off-Axis or Radial Stereoscopic camera. Stereo images can be previewed directly in the 3D editor using Anaglyph, Interlaced, Shutter or Side-by-Side methods.

Stereo rendering options allow artists to render the merged stereoscopic image or separate images for each individual camera to create a true 3D experience. Users can also review animated stereo renders, adjust parallax and export renderings as merged or individual stereoscopic files.

The new suite of character animation features are designed to simplify the process of building a rig, eliminating technical hurdles and allowing artists to quickly animate characters of all types. The new Character object includes an auto rigger, which simplifies the process of building a rig and applying it to a character. The CMotion System allows users to create their own or apply preset parametric walk cycles based on cyclic motion. Users can make characters walk along a spline and over terrain, or even manually place footsteps.

The new muscle system allows users to create custom-shaped muscles and anchor them to multiple joints within a rig. Includes deformer for skin stretching and sliding, while the collision deformer deforms surfaces based on collisions enabling characters to intuitively interact with the environment around them.

Cinema 4D R13 also features numerous minor improvements, including cursor-based navigation that automatically sets the point of interest for rotation and dolly movements based on where the user clicks to begin navigation. This also ensures the speed of camera navigation is smooth and consistent, regardless of the distance to the point of interest -- making it easy to pivot around any portion of a model or scene.

Sticky keys allows users to activate a tool only while its shortcut is pressed and immediately return to the previous tool. Attributes utilizing spline data that can now be edited much more precisely with additional spline types and the ability to view splines in a larger, separate window. A location indicator provides artists with a new indicator that hints at the location of selected objects outside the current view. Surface manipulation offers flexible options with a new Infinite Axis mode that lets users start manipulation from any point and easily snap surfaces to other objects in the scene. The rotation axis can now optionally display gimbal rotation, making it easy to visualize situations in which gimbal lock will occur, and can also transform multiple objects in a selection individually rather than as a group.

Improved collaborative tools include fully embedded XRef (External Reference) commands in R13 so referenced objects can be textured, animated, and included in expressions or simulations within the master file; plus improved C.O.F.F.E.E. and Python scripting language integration. Multi-pass files can now be stored in multiple channels within a single OpenEXR file. The popular FBX and COLLADA file formats have been updated facilitating easier asset exchange and interoperability.

Integration with After Effects has been bolstered with the introduction of stage object support, timeline marker exports and support for 29.97fps.Miscellaneous Productivity Boosting Features.

Cinema 4D R13 runs under Windows XP, Vista or 7, or Mac OS X 10.5/6/7.

Google claims Microsoft improperly showed Android code to expert

Google yesterday asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) to block the testimony of a Microsoft expert witness in the latter's 10-month-old action against Motorola over patents allegedly used by Android.

In a motion filed with the ITC Wednesday, Google asked that Robert Stevenson, an expert hired by Microsoft, be barred from testifying about the Android source code at an upcoming hearing because Microsoft violated a confidentiality agreement struck between Microsoft, Motorola and Google.

According to Google, Microsoft did not ask permission before showing Stevenson the Android source code.

"The protective order governing confidentiality in this investigation explicitly requires that Microsoft disclose to Google any consultant or expert seeking access to Google confidential business information or highly confidential source code before [emphasis in original] allowing a consultant or expert to review such information so that Google has an opportunity to object prior to disclosure," read Google's complaint.

A protective order in the case restricts access to the Android source code, limiting the number of people who can review the code and requiring that Microsoft and Motorola "give prior written notice" to Google before showing the source code to a technical advisor. Google is to have 10 days to object.

Microsoft did not do that, Google alleged, as it moved to prevent Stevenson from testifying at the evidentiary hearing slated for later this month.

"The confidential source code improperly provided to Dr. Stevenson is highly proprietary source code that Google does not even share with its partners, such as Motorola," Google said.

Microsoft submitted its complaint against Motorola with the ITC last October -- and filed a lawsuit in federal court at the same time -- charging the smartphone maker with violating several Microsoft patents in its Android devices.

"We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market," said Horacio Gutierrez, a Microsoft deputy general counsel, in a statement Oct. 1, 2010. "Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones."

Yesterday's move by Google was little more than delaying tactic, said patent activist and analyst Florian Mueller today. Mueller writes the FOSS Patents blog, where he regularly posts analyses of the ongoing patent wars.

"This is a secondary theater of war," said Mueller in an email interview. "It's about procedural tactics, maybe hoping that this could cause a delay, but whatever the outcome may be, it won't change anything about the substance of this case."

He has a point: Microsoft was granted permission to show the Android source code to others besides Stevenson, according to Google's motion before the ITC, so it will not be bereft of expert testimony.

Mueller also noted that Google's motion was filed by the same law firm that also represents Motorola in the case with Microsoft, and defends Samsung, Motorola and HTC in those companies patent battles with Apple.

Google's filing was submitted by lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan's Los Angeles and San Francisco offices.

"It was always known that Quinn Emanuel was close to Google, and it was hardly a coincidence that all those Android device makers turned to that firm," said Mueller. "But the fact that they make a filing on Google's behalf here -- though they also represent Motorola in the same investigation -- is interesting. The latest motion is a more direct kind of intervention than anything they previously did on Google's behalf."

Earlier this month, Google's chief legal officer accused Microsoft, Apple and Oracle of waging a "hostile, organized campaign against Android" using patent claims, and promised it would stop "those who are trying to strangle it."

Mueller didn't give Motorola much of a chance in the Microsoft patent challenge, and believes the ITC action presents Google and Android with its toughest test.

"I think Google is extremely afraid of the outcome of this particular ITC investigation," said Mueller. "All of the infringement assertions that Microsoft brought relate to the Android codebase. If this investigation finds Motorola and, in fact, all Android devices to infringe various valid Microsoft patents, all of Google's hardware partners will have to pay royalties to Microsoft."

Several Android handset makers already pay Microsoft licensing royalties, including HTC and several lesser-known companies .

Microsoft today declined to comment on Google's motion before the ITC.

Apple to increase market share in key product lines - analyst

The Mac and the iPhone could double or even triple their respective market shares in the next few years, according to analyst Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee.

According to Apple Insider, Agee thinks that Apple's growth is the "ultimate platform adoption story" and that the company's key product lines will go from strength to strength in the coming years.

Wu said in a note to investors that Apple has plenty of room for further growth, with just a four to five percent share of the overall mobile phone market and a similar proportion of the personal computer market. Further growth will depend on increasing penetration in international markets such as Greater China, Wu said.

"We think the beauty with the Apple platform story is the company doesn't need to win over everyone to continue success. The company just needs to continue winning a fair share of its vast end markets as more users get the Apple advantage of 'it just works better,'" Wu said.

Apple is the best-placed company to take advantage of three key technology trends, Wu says. These trends are mobile web access, cloud computing and the consumerisation of technology.

Wu also thinks that the iPhone 5 will be a bigger upgrade than expected - he reckons we'll see a dual-core processor, a larger screen, smaller form factor and more powerful camera when the next-generation iPhone is unveiled in September.

iPhone 5 imitator 'hiPhone 5' emerges in China

A fake iPhone 5, based on leaked images of the next-generation iPhone and called the hiPhone 5, has been spotted for sale in China.

Reuters reports that the items are for sale on e-commerce platform Taobao for as little at 200 yuan (around £19 or $31).

However, the quality of the hiPhone 5s varies, and to get a top-of-the-range fake you'll need to part with 800 yuan (£76) or more. According to the Shanghai-based daily newspaper Metro Express the hiPhone 5 is thinner than the iPhone 4 with less rounded edges.

It's based on images that have supposedly leaked from supply chain sources and is said to be extremely lightweight, feeling almost like a plastic toy, the reports state.

Fake Apple products are hardly new in the far east, though more recently entirely fake Apple Stores have been springing up, as Macworld reported last month.

Meanwhile, more iPhone 5 fakery has been exposed this week when a video purporting to show the next-generation iPhone was found to be a hoax.

Sony London optical disc warehouse destroyed in fire

Sony's main optical disc distribution warehouse for the UK was hit by a large fire on Tuesday morning that has apparently destroyed most or all of the building.

Television images showed fire consuming the facility in Enfield, which is just to the north of London. The warehouse is one of six Sony has in Europe. It is operated by subsidiary Sony DADC and handles distribution of Sony Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD blank media, and movies and games for the UK.

The fire will almost certainly have an impact on supply of Sony entertainment products in the UK and Ireland, but the extent of the impact will depend on the damage caused.

Sony in Tokyo said no staff had been injured in the blaze, but other information including the cause of the fire was unknown. "We are trying to confirm the facts," said George Boyd, a spokesman for Sony in Tokyo.

It came as London endured a third night of rioting and looting with numerous fires being set across the capital. An eye witness told BBC Radio that he saw youths carrying petrol bombs shortly before the distribution center was looted and set ablaze.

Journalists on the scene of the Sony fire reported seeing people walking away from the warehouse with consumer electronics goods.

The warehouse is not a major consumer electronics distribution point for Sony so the number of products inside was likely low.

The Metropolitan Police said at least 334 people were arrested in disturbances in several areas of the city. More than 1,700 additional police officers were deployed onto the streets of London with extras being drafted in from nine police forces in areas around London. The trouble first began on Saturday evening in the Tottenham district and has spread over subsequent nights.

Police planning major switchover to cloud computing

Police across the UK are considering a major move to cloud computing, dumping on-premise IT in an aggressive bid to cut costs, ComputerworldUK.com can reveal.

In a move likely to be seen as controversial given the sensitivity of police data, the Metropolitan Police is planning how to run a variety of front-end systems - for managing patrols, operations, incidents and investigations, managing evidence and forensics, and collating information - in the cloud. It is understood that if the project goes ahead, the Metropolitan Police would be the lead customer, with other forces buying services through a framework deal.

Under the Strategic Cloud Programme the systems would be supported by to collaboration, knowledge management, risk management, information sharing and business intelligence analytics tools. The aim is for them to be standards-based and scalable, with strong security, consumption based pricing and high service level agreements.

On 27 July, London's Metropolitan Police held an event with suppliers and 50 police forces across the country, with a view to discussing the key requirements.

It plans to sign a seven to 10 year deal with a lead supplier or a consortium of suppliers, possibly splitting suppliers between those providing infrastructure and those supplying the connected software.

It hopes to replace 30 crucial systems and around 600 legacy applications, mainly based on Sun servers and a Microsoft Windows/Intel architecture.

The force insisted that security would be strong, with federated identity, a thorough audit trail, and a common assurance model across user forces and suppliers.

The Metropolitan Police last month created a specialist cloud computing team to deliver the early requirements. While the project is likely to go ahead, it is not yet definite.

The force said in a statement that it was "constantly looking at its future systems and IT infrastructure requirements and how they may best be delivered". Cloud computing was "one potential ser of options", it said. "We are working with both the Home Office and other policing colleagues, and the supplier market, on how these can be delivered in the most efficient, effective and collaborative manner."

The move is being motivated by the Metropolitan Police's view that many of its key systems are too complex and costly, and are reaching the end of their lifespan.

Any replacement would need to be agile, meet government and police standards, and exist in the context of operational cost cutting. The police are weighing up cloud computing as a potential solution to meet these challenges.

"We cannot afford not to simplify," the force told IT suppliers present at the event.

An agreement would see the provision of cloud computing services and applications, maintenance services and the appropriate middleware, it is understood.

"By 2014 to 2015, the Metropolitan Police Service needs to reduce spending by £600 million, compared to 2010 to 2011. To assist in this reduction, a number of change programmes are underway, focusing on reducing costs," the Metropolitan Police told suppliers.

"The Strategic Cloud Programme is looking to deliver a Next-Generation Cloud based replacement for current legacy MPS applications, focusing particularly on the high volume front end operational policing systems."

Microsoft former exec VanRoekel confirmed as US CIO

Longtime Microsoft executive Steven VanRoekel is set to become the nation's second federal CIO, replacing outgoing federal CIO Vivek Kundra.

The White House announced that President Barack Obama intends to appoint VanRoekel, who left his post as senior director of Microsoft's Windows Server and Tools Division in 2009 after 15 years at the firm to become managing director of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to the nation's top tech post.

Among VanRoekel's roles at the FCC was overseeing a redesign of the the commission's Web site. (The before and after looks of the FCC site). The new FCC site added a comment page , as shown here.

In April VanRoekel blogged about the FCC's Web site changes, which included an intuitive design and layout "optimized for the everyday citizen."

He added that the new FCC site was "built in the cloud, and developed with open source software, and that the new FCC.gov lowers barriers to future development as part of a long-term IT cost-cutting strategy."

After serving as federal CIO for two and half years, Kundra recently announced his intent to leave the White House in mid-August to take a fellowship at Harvard.

Kundra, who had previously been CTO of the District of Columbia, shaped the federal CIO post into a highly visible role , and used his position as a bully pulpit to advocate an agenda of opposition to big government IT contracts, along with support for cloud computing and for IT consolidation.

Most of all, Kundra stressed visibility as a means to accountability in managing $80 billion in federal IT spending. For instance, he created the Federal IT Dashboard , where IT projects were rated agency by agency and photos of the CIOs were on display.

Kundra believes he has set the federal IT operation on a path toward lower costs and improved efficiency.

The White House announcement gave no hint about whether VanRoekel will make any changes in IT direction or steer away from Kundra's 25 point plan for IT, which includes the closing 800 federal data centers by 2015.

Just prior to Obama's appointment, VanRoekel had left the FCC to become the executive director of Citizen and Organizational Engagement at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

VanRoekel donated $50,000 to Obama's 2009 inauguration festivities, the donation cap set by the then-incoming administration.

Other Microsoft executives who also donated up to the inauguration limit were Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie Ballmer, as well as Bill and Melinda Gates, who each made donations, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Obama has fostered ties with some tech's most recognized figures.

Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, advised Obama's transition team and is now serving on the White House Office and Technology Policy board along with Craig Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft.

Ballmer and Gates have both been to White House meetings.

Ray Bjorklund, an analyst at FedSources, said VanRoekel "has obviously been well positioned in industry" and combined with his government experience, could be helpful.

But Microsoft competitors for federal contracts may feel a little apprehensive, noted Bjorklund.

"You can't take on major government positions like that and play favorites - that's not the right thing to do," said Bjorklund. "Industry may have suspicions, but they may not be well founded suspicions," he said.

Steve Jobs' speech ripped off by Ukrainian bureaucrat

The former republics of the Soviet Union are infamous for their callous attitude toward the intellectual property of other nations. That attitude apparently extends to the highest levels of government, as a recent incident in the Ukraine suggests.

That country's Secretary of National Security and Defense Raisa Bogatyreva gave a speech to students at Konvokatsii Kiev-Mohyla Academy that sounded familiar to reporters at the Ukrainian Truth. That's because it was. After some digging and translating, they discovered that the oration bore a remarkable resemblance to a speech given to Stanford University graduates by Steve Jobs in 2005.

Although the key points in Bogatyreva's speech appear fractured when translated into English, Russian publications and a translator for The Next Web agreed that the address bears more than just a passing resemblance to the one given by Apple's top dog.

According to a Google translation of a comparison of the two speeches appearing in Focus Ukraine, Bogatyreva said: "I am honored to be here with you today, the day when the graduates receive diplomas. In one of the best higher educational institutions of our country ... I want to share with you today the findings of [my] own life and [my] own political experience. There are three conclusions. Nothing is absolutely tremendous. There are three conclusions."

That, the publication noted, closely compares to Jobs' remarks: "I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.... Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories."

Bogatyreva also said: "Death approached me very closely. Closer than it is now, at my age.... Having lived through that moment, I can tell you-nobody wants to die."

That is close to Jobs' observations about the mortal coil: "This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die."

As Jobs did in his speech, Bogatyreva apologized for being dramatic: "Sorry for the drama, but it's true. Time [for] a person is very limited. And so the conclusion from [my] own experience suggest[s] the following-do not live someone else's life, do not waste your time. Do not fall into the trap of dogma, which advises live other people's thoughts. Do not let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and...your intuition. They miraculously know what you want in life."

The original address by Jobs went something like this: "Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

For its part, the Ukrainian Security Council appears to be a bit abashed by the incident. The Next Web reported that the council said that Bogatyreva "decides what she will say," although it acknowledged that the secretary "reads a lot" and may have been inspired by Jobs' speech.

Apple updates QuickTime security for Leopard, Windows

With much of the focus on Mac OS X Lion these days, it's easy to forget that some Mac users still run older versions of the Mac operating system--older as in Mac OS X 10.5.

But Apple hasn't forgotten: On Wednesday, the company released a software update for QuickTime aimed squarely at people still running Leopard on their Macs.

QuickTime 7.7 for Leopard is solely a security update. Apple provides few details about specific issues addressed by the 68.85MB download in its release notes, but it promises information "on the security content of this update" for users who want to dig into this support document.

As for Windows users, there's a QuickTime update for your operating system, too. QuickTime 7.7 for Windows promises security improvements for anyone running Windows XP (SP2 or later), Vista, or Windows 7.

Experts disagree on Android call recording 'Trojan'

According to some headlines, the sky is falling on Android. No, I am not referring to the headlines predicting that the iPhone 5 will double Apple's smartphone market share and leave Android in its dust. I am referring to reports that a new Trojan has infiltrated the Android ecosystem. Some experts, however, suggest this may not be malware, but simply an app working as intended.

A CA blog describes Android malware capable of recording entire phone calls. It also logs call and text activity, and possibly GPS location data. It sounds insidious if you are unaware that the activity is taking place. It also sounds a lot like perfectly legitimate apps like eBlaster Mobile.

So, is this app a malicious Trojan intent on tracking your Android activity, or is it just an app that tracks Android activity?

Irfan Asrar, an analyst with Symantec Security Response, explains, "Despite the fact there have been multiple reports of the app uploading the recorded voice conversations to a remote sever, our analysis has found no such functionality. It can record calls; however, physical access to the device is required in order to retrieve them."

The behavior of the app suggests that it's not malware. It clearly states what it's going to do and requests the appropriate permissions. Once installed, the icon shows up just like any other app. If it is malware, it does a very poor job of trying to hide. It seems like an app that a suspicious spouse or lover would install--intentionally--on a partner's Android smartphone.

Asrar acknowledges that the app has the ability to send GPS data, and call and SMS logs to a remote server--a server hosted by the app author. However, that data is then offered for a fee--ostensibly to the husband, wife, or lover who installed the app.

Armando Orozco, Webroot threat research analyst, sits somewhere in between malware and legitimate app. He points out that the app uses tools available in Android--a Java class called MediaRecorder--and that it is far from the only app that does so. Whether it is "malware" or just an app, its behavior is essentially indistinguishable from apps designed for spying on or monitoring Android smartphone activity.

Orozco says that an app like this blends into the background and may be easily missed by the Android smartphone owner. "Easily overlooked with 50+ apps installed, I don't think many users are aware of these surveillance apps; all it takes is an untrusting partner."

David Harley, Senior Research fellow for ESET, puts the "threat" in a even more tempered perspective. "It's an interesting item: perhaps more of a proof of concept than an epidemic in its own right, but nevertheless both technically interesting and significant. I see this as an indication that the bad guys are putting real research and development resources into exploiting the Android market."

Troy Gill, a security analyst with AppRiver, sums up the Android malware issue with this thought: "This is not the first and will certainly not be the last. Malicious apps are fast becoming the easiest way to infect a mobile device and the Android market has been the platform of choice as of late."

Harley agrees, "This may or may not be the "year of mobile malware" but I think the time has long gone when the concept of smartphone malware could be dismissed as security vendor hype around a few hobbyist Trojans."

Yes, the app exists. No, the Android malware sky is not falling--at least not yet.

Hackers have compromised 72 organisations since 2006 - McAfee

Security vendor McAfee published a detailed report on Tuesday about a hacking group that penetrated 72 companies and organizations in 14 countries since 2006 in a massive operation that stole national secrets, business plans and other sensitive information.

McAfee said the attackers are likely a single group acting on behalf of a government, differing from the recent wave of less sophisticated attacks from cyber activist groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec, according to the report.

McAfee did not say what country might have been working with the hackers, in contrast to companies such as Google, which as recently as last month blamed China for hacking into the Gmail accounts of several high-profile U.S. officials.

The intrusions, which McAfee called Operation Shady RAT, was discovered after the security vendor gained access to a command-and-control server that collected data from the hacked computers and logged the intrusions.

"After painstaking analysis of the logs, even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators," wrote Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee, and author of the report.

Alperovitch wrote that over the past five to six years there has been nothing short of a "historically unprecedented transfer of wealth" due to the hacking operation.

The data stolen consists of everything from classified information on government networks, source code, e-mail archives, exploration details for new oil and gas field auctions, legal contracts, SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) configurations, design schematics and more, Alperovitch said.

McAfee declined to name most of the organizations attacked, referring to businesses such as "South Korean Steel Company," "U.S. Defense Contractor #1" and "Taiwanese Electronics Company," among others.

Those that were named include the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency, the United Nations and the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Secretariat. Those organizations, however, were not of economic interest to hackers, and "potentially pointed a finger at a state actor behind the intrusions," Alperovitch wrote.

The hacking group gained access to computers by first sending targeted e-mails to individuals within the companies or organizations. The e-mails contained an exploit that, if executed, would cause the download of a piece of malicious software that communicates with the command-and-control server.

In 2006, eight organizations were attacked, but by 2007 the number jumped to 29 organizations, according to the report. The number of victimized organizations increased to 36 in 2008 and peaked at 38 in 2009 before starting to fall, "likely due to the widespread availability of the countermeasures for the specific intrusion indicators used by this specific actor," Alperovitch wrote.

The duration of the compromises ranged from less than a month to up to more than two years in the case of an attack on the Olympic committee of a unnamed nation in Asia.