Filed under: Culture, Messaging, Vodafone, Studies

Although it should be painfully obvious, we can’t deny that chatting about sensitive information in public takes place practically everywhere. To that end, a new study commissioned by Vodafone UK found that over 70-percent of all workers “talk business on their mobile phones in public, with one-in-five talking about business-critical subjects such as sales leads.” Worse still, 15-percent admitted to “openly discussing confidential new products or services whilst traveling,” while 26-percent admitted that they have actually followed up on a lead in which they received via listening in to another’s public call. Not surprisingly, the company recommends that individuals utilize more discreet methods of communicating in public, suggesting texting and emailing in particular. Of course, it’s a good bit more difficult to tell a story through those two methods, but it’s a lot better than having your most promising client snatched out from under you, yeah?

[Via textually, image courtesy of Miloh]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Culture, Handsets, Software, Nokia

Considering that some countries are mulling the idea of making texting a recognized subject and allowing students to use text-speak on exams, we suppose it’s not too outrageous to hear of handsets being used as educational tools and not seen as a hindrance. Nokia has teamed up with Mindset Network in order to spearhead the M4Girls pilot project, which utilizes Nokia 6300 handsets loaded with educational material to “help improve the mathematics performance of Grade 10 girl learners.” Reportedly, the initiative will be piloted in two South African schools, and students lucky enough to take advantage will have access to educational games and other material created to meet the needs of the national curriculum. No word on whether the program will filter out to other locations if it proves successful, but here’s to hoping that eventually gets answered with a resounding “yes.”

[Via textually]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Cops doing computer forensic work already have a ton of tools to choose from, but Microsoft is doing its part to help out as well — the company just revealed that it’s been distributing a special thumb drive to cops in 15 countries to help them identify and extract information from suspects’ computers. The drive, called COFEE for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is in use by more than 2,000 officers, including some in the States, and Microsoft is giving it away for free, saying that its doing it not for profit but to “help make ensure the Internet stays safe.” COFEE contains more than 150 commands that can be used to collect information, decrypt passwords, and poke through network activity, which helps alleviate the problem of having to remove and transport a suspect’s computer for evidence purposes — officers can just plug in the drive. There’s no word on when Microsoft will start widely distributing the drives, but we’d assume it’ll be soon.

[Thanks, Yoshi]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Nilay Patel

Microsoft finally releases its highly anticipated Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP today. But not without some hiccups.

SP3 was found to be incompatible for users running Microsoft Dynamics RMS, hence, an official release on Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update is not available at this time.

But, you can still grab the service pack from their download.windowsupdate.com domain:
Chinese (Hong Kong), Czech, English, French, German (Deutsch), Hebrew, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Simplified (Chinese), Spanish, and Traditional Chinese.

As long as you are not running Microsoft Dynamics RMS, it is perfectly safe to install SP3 now. But, beware of undiscovered bugs that often haunts any major software updates.

Windows XP SP3 Overview

SP3 includes the hundreds of updates and fixes released since SP2. And it includes four features that are backported from Windows Vista. Nothing too exciting for the average consumers though.

• NAP is a policy enforcement platform meant for enterprise use that blocks systems attempting to access a network until they meet whatever security criteria the corporation has in place.
• “Black Hole” Router Detection helps detect and protect end users from a router that drops packets without returning the specified Internet Control Message Protocol response.
• Microsoft Kernel Cryptographic Module incorporates cryptographic algorithms in a single module other kernel mode drivers are capable of hooking into and accessing.
• The new Product Activation module allows users to install XP without entering a product key at installation.

Other new features include:

• A more descriptive Security Options control panel user interface.
• Enhanced security for Administrator and Service policy entries.

For more in-depth details on SP3, download Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3.pdf from Microsoft.

Original post by Leon

Filed under: Misc

Asshats, jerkfaces, and garden-variety idiots have finally stirred the sleeping giant — and though the FCC doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation of coming down hard on offenders, we can only hope something good happens here. All cellphones, tied to active accounts or otherwise, are required by law to be able to place calls to emergency services; by and large, that’s a sound policy and something that’s probably saved dozens of lives over the years. Sadly, though, folks have seen fit to abuse that capability, in some cases utterly overwhelming call centers and taking away service from others who genuinely need it. A number of states have banded together and formally asked the FCC to do something about it, and this is where it gets a little messy. Does the commish repeal the clause requiring access to 911? Sounds like the wrong move, but without any sort of account linkage, prank calls from inactive handsets are difficult at best to stop, simply because they can’t be traced. There doesn’t seem to be any guidance yet from the feds on exactly what action they may take — and with an issue this tricky, we don’t really expect action any time soon.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Handsets, ATT, Apple

According to Fortune, AT&T will subsidize the cost of the new, 3G iPhone by as much as $200, bringing the price within the $199 range. Apparently, a “person familiar with the strategy” claims that the provider will create this bargain bonanza for customers signing new, two-year contracts. Of course, the author of the story also says that the new phones will be available in “8-gigabit-memory and… 16-gigabit-memory” versions (for $399 and $499, respectively), so take that as you like. In addition to these discounts, the source says the new iPhone will be 2.5mm thinner than the previous iteration, although we understand that right after telling Fortune this information, the “person” burst into a cloud of rainbow-colored sparkles and went flying off into the night sky.

[Thanks, Penny]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve seen plenty of attempts to mimic spiders in robot-form, but that’s not the only bit of inspiration arising from our eight-legged friends, with a number of other researchers also doing their best to artificially replicate the way a spider spins silk. Now, according to the BBC, it seems that a team from the Technical University of Munich has made some significant progress on that front, which could one day lead to a new means of manufacturing strong but lightweight materials. Specifically, the team created a “device” consisting of three channels etched into a piece of glass, which allows for different combinations protein and salts to be mixed together and extruded as a fiber. They are quick to point out, however, that the resulting fiber is not of “particularly high quality,” and that while it’s a step forward, the whole idea is still “a very big puzzle and there are many pieces missing.”

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: MVNOs

Hold on to your seats, chaps — Blyk has just surpassed that magical 100,000 subscriber mark in Britain that it’s been aiming for ever since the company got off the ground last fall. For those curious as to why “just” 100k is a milestone worth celebrating, this particular MVNO — which rents airtime from Orange and utilizes equipment from Nokia Siemens Networks — issues its customers a free pool of minutes / text messages in exchange for them accepting advertisements. In other words, a totally ad-funded service is somehow managing to go over at least decently well. According to the outfit, it reached the aforesaid goal a full six months ahead of schedule and is currently seeing ad response rates of 29-percent. Kudos, Blyk — way to quiet those naysayers.

[Via textually]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph