How the two flavors of Windows 8 will be different

One thing was made crystal clear today by Microsoft. Windows 8 on ARM will not be the same experience as Windows 8 on Intel-AMD.

Windows 8 ARM devices will run on processors from Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Nvidia--marking the first time that a mainstream Windows operating system will run on processors from ARM chip suppliers in addition to those of Intel-AMD.

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky said today that Windows 8 on ARM (WOA) will launch at the same time as Windows on Intel-AMD (X86)--though he didn't say when--and that ARM-based devices (such as tablets) will run the desktop version of Office 15. But there are some key differences.

Here are the major ways that Windows 8 on ARM and Window 8 on Intel-AMD are different:

•ARM will not run Windows 7 stuff: While Windows 8 will run on older Windows 7 PCs because everything is more or less standardized on the X86 platform, this is not the case for ARM. "The approach taken by ARM Holdings, the licensor of ARM products is, by design, not standardized in this manner," wrote Sinofsky. If you need to run a lot of existing X86 software, then you will need to have an X86 device. Period.

•No virtualization or emulation: And along these lines, WOA will not support any type of virtualization or emulation and "will not enable existing x86/64 applications to be ported or run." Why? "Supporting various forms of emulation runs counter to the goal of delivering a product that takes a modern approach to system reliability and predictability...Virtualized or emulated software will consume system resources, including battery life and CPU, at unacceptable levels."

•ARM uniqueness: Device makers work with ARM partners to create a device that is "strictly paired with a specific set of software (and sometimes vice versa), and consumers purchase this complete package, which is then serviced and updated through a single pipeline." Again, this is different from standardized X86-based devices. "In these ways, this is all quite different than the Windows on x86/64 world," Sinofsky said.

•Labeling to "avoid confusion": When a consumer buys a Windows on ARM PC, it will be "clearly labeled and branded" so as to avoid potential confusion with Windows 8 on x86/64. The PC will come with the OS preinstalled, and all drivers and supporting software. WOA will not be available as a software-only distribution, "so you never have to worry about which DVD to install and if it will work on a particular PC."

•Windows on ARM devices don't turn off: You don't turn off a WOA PC, according to Sinofsky. WOA PCs will not have the traditional hibernate and sleep options. Instead, WOA PCs always operate in the Connected Standby power mode, similar to the way you use a mobile phone today.

•Office 15: While WOA includes desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, these are "Office 15" apps that "have been significantly architected for both touch and minimized power/resource consumption" while also being fully-featured and providing "complete document compatibility." WOA supports the Windows desktop experience including File Explorer, Internet Explorer 10 for the desktop "which have been significantly architected for both touch and minimized power/resource consumption."

•And WOA and X86/64 are the same in important ways, too: Out of the box Windows on ARM will feel like Windows 8 on x86/64. Sign in, app launching, Windows Store access are the same. And, like X86/64, there is access to Internet Explorer 10, peripherals, and the Windows desktop with tools like Windows File Explorer and desktop Internet Explorer.

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Apple in 'crunch mode' preparing apps to demo iPad 3

In the wake of iPad 3 launch rumors, Apple is reportedly scrambling to prepare for the tablet's expected debut event next month.

The company is in "crunch mode" to drum up apps to demonstrate the tablet both onstage and in TV advertising, according to The Next Web tech site, which cited unidentified sources with knowledge of the matter.

The report notes that Apple usually spends weeks handpicking apps to showcase the tablet's capabilities during its introduction. Apple's selection process, which is moving along at an "increased rate," is placing special emphasis on graphics-oriented apps to show off the new iPad's rumored Retina display, The Next Web reported tonight.

Apple is said to be sending the apps it is most impressed with to its longtime advertising agency, TWBA/Chiat/Day, for possible inclusion in TV ads.

Apple is expected to unveil its next-generation iPad at a event in San Francisco scheduled for the first week of March, according to an AllThingsD report.

The design of the new iPad is expected to resemble the iPad 2 but run with a faster chip, an improved graphics processor, and better resolution. The new tablet is expected to feature a 2048x1536 Retina Display that would bring its pixel density in line with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

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Three years on, Chrome at last arrives on Android

Google today released a beta version of its Chrome browser for Android, a momentous step that marries two of Google's most important programming projects.

The new browser, unlike the stock Android browser, is available in the Android Market so that people don't have to wait for handset makers to offer it through an operating system upgrade. But its reliance on newer hardware acceleration interfaces means it only works on Ice Cream Sandwich, which despite emerging last year on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone remains a rarity in the real world.
Chrome comes to Android, but only ICS

Chrome for Android (review) includes the desktop version's V8 JavaScript engine, has gesture-based controls for moving among multiple tabs, synchronizes with the desktop version of Chrome, and shuts out plug-ins including Adobe Systems' Flash Player and Google's own Native Client. With its performance and features, Google expects Android users to increase their browser activity.
"In general, we have seen usage go up," said Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Chrome and Apps. "I expect to see more people use the mobile Web."

It's unfortunate that it's limited to Ice Cream Sandwich, but Chrome doubtless will take off widely among those with Android 4.0. Even in beta, it's a compelling browser at least on the Galaxy Nexus I tried it on, and it's and a much better match for Apple's Safari on iOS. And eventually, its success is all but assured when it simply becomes what ships with Android.
Google tried to examine every aspect of browsing and if necessary adapt it for the mobile world. "The intent was to reinvent mobile browsers," said Arnaud Weber, engineering manager for Chrome. "We went through every feature of Chrome and brainstormed every feature."

Peas in a pod
Android and Chrome are made for each other. Each arrived for the public to use in the closing months of 2008. Each started as small, rough projects that exploded in usage and became top priorities for the company.

Each project isn't actually an end in itself, but rather a means to an end: get more people to use the Internet and Google's services on it. Android and Chrome are vehicles to carry people to Google search, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google+, and doubtless many future online services. Not coincidentally, Chrome and Android are set up to work better if you're signed into a Google account.

With so much to gain from each other, it's somewhat surprising that it took more than three years for the Chrome chocolate to get stuck in the Android peanut butter. But Google wanted to make sure Chrome for Android would be good enough, Pichai said.

"We really wanted to get the full capabilities of a desktop browser--stuff like V8--in a highly capable browser that's optimized for the mobile experience," Pichai said. "It was a challenge."
And Google didn't want to brand the stock Android browser with the Chrome name. It wasn't based on Chromium, the open-source foundation of Chrome, and Google wanted to ensure the "underlying mobile platform could run things you're used to in desktops," Pichai said.

Feature frenzy
Among the features in the browser:

• The browser shows multiple tabs like overlapping pages when you tap the tabs button. Swiping one of the pages to one side or the other close it in much the same way that you can sweep away notifications on Ice Cream Sandwich. Once you click a page, it expands to fill the whole screen, at which point you can switch to new pages by sliding your finger from one edge or the other.

• The browser can preload pages in advance when Google has high confidence that you'll likely tap its link. That means pages don't have to wait so much for the network.

• Chrome for Android has hardware acceleration for tasks such as scrolling. It also uses it for slick visual feedback effects like browser tabs.

• It supports a wide range of Web standards, including Web Workers for multiple computing processes, Web Sockets for fast server-browser communciations, HTML5 video and audio, and IndexedDB for offline storage.

• The browser is rejiggered for tablets. "On tablets, we realize consumers expect a similar experience to what they get on a laptop," Pichai said, so for example the tab strip looks like what you'd see on a personal computer.

• You can synchronize data such as bookmarks and Web address autocomplete suggestions with your desktop browser, with passwords arriving in a later upgrade. As with Firefox for Android, tabs you had open on your laptop or desktop can be opened from a list in Chrome for Android. To use sync, you must be signed into your Google account.

• The browser has incognito mode that doesn't leave traces such as cached images, cookies, and browsing history on the phone. It's walled off into a separate stack of tabs; if any incognito tabs are open, you can move between them and the ordinary stack of tabs by tapping the tab button and then tapping the appropriate stack.

• Programmers can use their PCs to remotely debug Web pages that don't work properly on Chrome for Android. A command on the PC will open the mobile browser's Web pages for scrutiny.

Web apps or native apps?
Chrome for Android increases a certain tension within Google: should software run natively on a particular computing device or as a Web app within a browser?
For Android, the answer clearly has been largely the former as Google has pushed the Android Market and worked to improve programming tools and interfaces. But part of Chrome's raison d'etre has been to spur Web-app innovation, a subject near and dear to Google's heart. Because browsers run on so many devices, Web apps span them and at least theoretically offer programmers the promise of cross-platform development.

Naturally, with Chrome on board, Android becomes a much more powerful foundation for Web applications. That's especially true since Chrome will be on the Android Market and therefore Android users will be able to upgrade it even when their handset manufacturers can't be bothered to keep up with newer Android releases.

Path shares photos--oh, and uploads your contacts, too
But Chrome's arrival doesn't herald a new age when Web apps rule on Android.
"The mobile ecosystem is evolving at such a rapid pace that native apps will always be there, while the Web works its way there," Pichai said.

Chrome for Android doesn't yet overwrite the stock Android browser. The latter is still used, for example, by other Android apps that need a browser engine.

Android 4.0 only
Google stuck required Ice Cream Sandwich because it has necessary interfaces such as those for hardware acceleration. It sure is convenient, though, that it means Google doesn't have to worry about a lot of problems with compatibility and performance of a lot of older phones.
In fact, Google passing over earlier Android versions is almost exactly what Microsoft chose to do with Internet Explorer 9 when it dropped Windows XP support, in part because it lacks newer graphics interfaces. That cuts off a lot of people but simplifies engineering and support.
"ICS represesnts a big leap forward," Pichai said of Google's choice. "It made sense to aim there, to build for the future."

Likewise, don't expect Chrome on other mobile operating systems, most notably iOS. Apple permits other browsers on iOS only if they use its WebKit engine to render Web pages; although Chrome stems from the same WebKit lineage, it's a different bundle of bits with, for example, a different JavaScript engine.
"On iOS, we can't run V8 or our multiprocess architecture," Pichai said. "There are a lot of limitations."
Chrome for Android is based on Chrome 16, the current stable release of the browser for computers. Google plans to update Chrome for Android every six weeks, just like the desktop version, and eventually the browser version numbers will sync up, Pichai said.

"Our intent is to have the smallest possible gap" between the desktop and mobile versions of Chrome, Weber said.

Chrome for Android won't support Flash, Pichai said. Google has been a tight Flash ally with its creator, Adobe Systems, but Google was spared a tough choice when Adobe scuppered its attempt to extend Flash from desktop to mobile last year.

Google's own Native Client, for running Web apps compiled to run at native speeds, also isn't an option, said Dave Burke, the Android engineering director. For that sort of software, programmers will simply write native Android apps, he said.

But Google loves the mobile Web--and it's a big deal financially.
"We believe one in every seven searches on Google comes from a mobile device," said JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth in a research report yesterday.

Advertisers pay only a half to a quarter the amount for each ad when people click on them compared to what they pay on personal computers right now, but more mobile usage likely will mean more advertisers bidding and therefore higher cost-per-click payment rates for Google, he said.
But overall, a lot of Google's excitement seems to be just about finally giving a top company brand a prominent place in a fast-moving, important market.

"I think mobile browsing is in its infancy. As phones are getting more powerful, as screen sizes are getting larger and higher-resolution, and as connectivity is getting better going from 3G to 4G, I think mobile browsing can be huge," Pichai said. Now using Chrome on Android, "my browser usage has sky rocketed."

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Startup Soraa lights up with 'LED 2.0'

To build a better light fixture, startup Soraa started right at the foundation with a different kind of LED chip inside.

The Fremont, Calif.-based company tomorrow will come out of stealth mode and launch its first product, a spotlight which uses efficient LEDs (light emitting diodes). The MR 16 bulb replaces a 50-watt halogen and uses 12.5 watts and it offers a better beam and light quality, said Soraa CEO Eric Kim.

The bulb from Soraa, which has raised more than $100 million in venture capital, is the first in a planned line of LEDs for general lighting and lasers for projector displays.

The company was founded by a team of scientists renowned for their contributions to LEDs and lasers, notably Shuji Nakamura from University of California at Santa Barbara. In 2008, investor Vinod Khosla approached Nakamura and his colleagues Steven DenBaars and James Speck to commercialize research they had done on new materials for LEDs.

White LEDs use gallium nitride (GaN) as the active semiconductor material that gives off light when current is passed through it. Most companies make LED chips where a gallium nitride crystal is grown over a substrate of sapphire or, in the case of Cree, silicon carbide.

Soraa's LEDs are made with an active material layer of gallium nitride and a gallium nitride substrate. Having a single material leads to LEDs that can take more current and thus produce more light on a package of a given size. It also means that there's less wasted heat, which can degrade the life of LED lighting.

For the most part, the LED industry has tried to bring down the cost of LED lighting by scaling up manufacturing, Kim said. Competitor Bridgelux intends to make crystals on a silicon wafers to take advantage of existing silicon manufacturing equipment.

Kim said that the performance improvement that comes from the new material will help bring costs down quicker than ramping up volume production with existing materials. That will make LEDs more compelling for general-purpose lighting.

"When you have a very tight lattice match, light generation happens far more efficiently," said Kim who joined the company in 2010 after working at Intel and Samsung. "It really leads to LED 2.0 and a whole new disruptive technology curve."

Rather than supply LED lights sources to light fixture makers as is common in the lighting industry, Soraa is making its own LED fixtures as well. Being vertically integrated allows it to come to market faster with a light bulb and ensure supply of needed components for its LED chip platform.

Soraa's initial focus is commercial customers who use MR16 bulbs, which are typically used in restaurants, retail outlets, and museums. But it intends to make a set of products designed as replacements for existing bulbs, including those for consumers.

An executive from Soraa competitor Cree agreed that having the same active material as the substrate in an LED does lead to good efficiency, but the main limitation in this case is cost.

"A GaN (gallium nitride) wafer would be on the order of 50-100 times more expensive than an equivalent sapphire wafer. So while the wafer cost doesn't matter too much in the world of GaN-on-sapphire LEDs, it definitely would be a major expense for GaN-on-GaN," said Cree product marketing manager Paul Scheidt

Kim declined to say how much its new bulb cost, but said that the MR16, which will be available this quarter, will offer a payback in under a year, a benchmark it intends to target for future lighting products.

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Google to promise fair licensing for Motorola patents

Google is reportedly preparing a letter to standards organizations to reassure them that it will license Motorola Mobility's patents on reasonable terms if their planned merger closes.

The letter, which is expected to be sent in the next 24 hours, will promise that the company intends to license Motorola's patent portfolio in accordance with FRAND, or fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, people familiar with the letter told Bloomberg. The move is a timely one: European regulators are expected to decide the fate of the two companies' $12.5 billion merger by next week.

"Since we announced our agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility last August, we've heard questions about whether Motorola Mobility's standard-essential patents will continue to be licensed on FRAND terms once we've closed this transaction. The answer is simple: they will," a Google spokesperson told CNET.

Meanwhile, Apple has reportedly sent a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, asking that the standards body to create basic guidelines regarding how member companies license their patents. In the letter, Apple said the telecommunications industry lacks consistent patent licensing plans and offered suggestions for appropriate royalty rates, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Motorola has mixed it up with Apple in several courtrooms around the world, but the two recently clashed over patents in Germany, forcing the company to temporarily remove older iPhones from its online store in that country. The court later granted Apple a temporary halt on the ban.

Google announced its plans to buy Motorola in August for $12.5 billion. Google, which makes the mobile operating system Android, said it plans to run Motorola as a separate company. Google has said it is interested in the troubled cell phone maker mainly for its strong patent portfolio. Google and many of its handset partners that use the Android operating system have been fending off several lawsuits in the last few years for possible patent infringement.

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Hackers wanted $50,000 to keep Symantec source code private

As part of a sting operation, Symantec told a hacker group that it would pay $50,000 to keep the source code for some of the its flagship security products off the Internet, the company confirmed to CNET this evening.

An e-mail exchange revealing the extortion attempt posted to Pastebin (see below) today shows a purported Symantec employee named Sam Thomas negotiating payment with an individual named "Yamatough" to prevent the release of PCAnywhere and Norton Antivirus code. Yamatough is the Twitter identity of an individual or group that had previously threatened to release the source code for Norton Antivirus.

"We will pay you $50,000.00 USD total," Thomas said in an e-mail dated Thursday. "However, we need assurances that you are not going to release the code after payment. We will pay you $2,500 a month for the first three months. Payments start next week. After the first three months you have to convince us you have destroyed the code before we pay the balance. We are trusting you to keep your end of the bargain."
A Symantec representative confirmed for CNET the extortion attempt in this statement:

In January an individual claiming to be part of the 'Anonymous' group attempted to extort a payment from Symantec in exchange for not publicly posting stolen Symantec source code they claimed to have in their possession. Symantec conducted an internal investigation into this incident and also contacted law enforcement given the attempted extortion and apparent theft of intellectual property. The communications with the person(s) attempting to extort the payment from Symantec were part of the law enforcement investigation. Given that the investigation is still ongoing, we are not going to disclose the law enforcement agencies involved and have no additional information to provide.

However, after weeks of discussions regarding proof of code and how to transfer payment, talks broke down and the deal was never completed. A group called AnonymousIRC tweeted this evening that it would soon release the data. "#Symantec software source codes to be released soon. stay tuned folks!!! #Anonymous #AntiSec #CockCrashed #NortonAV."

Apparently after weeks of discussions, Yamatough's patience was wearing thin, leading to an ultimatum:

 "If we dont hear from you in 30m we make an official announcement and put your code on sale at auction terms. We have many people who are willing to get your code. Dont f*** with us."

The exchange gets contentious at times, with Yamatough suggesting that Symantec was trying to track the source of the e-mails.

 "If you are trying to trace with the ftp trick it's just worthless. If we detect any malevolent tracing action we cancel the deal. Is that clear? You've got the doc files and pathes [sic] to the files. what's the problem? Explain."

Another e-mail, with the subject line "say hi to FBI," accuses the company of being in contact with the federal law enforcement agency, a charge Thomas denied. "We are not in contact with the FBI," he wrote, falsely. "We are using this email account to protect our network from you. Protecting our company and property are our top priorities."

Yamatough demanded that Symantec transfer the money via Liberty Reserve, a payment processor based in San Jose, Costa Rica. But Thomas appears reluctant, calling it "more complicated than we expected." Thomas instead suggests using PayPal to transmit a $1,000 test as "a sign of good faith." Yamatough rejects that offer, saying, "Do not send us any money (we do not use paypal period) do not send us any 1k etc. We can wait till we agree on final amount."

Liberty Reserve did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The posted thread ends with an exchange today with the subject line "10 minutes" that threatens to release the code immediately if Symantec doesn't agree to use the payment processor to transfer the funds.

 "Since no code yet being released and our email communication wasnt also released we give you 10 minutes to decide which way you go after that two of your codes fly to the moon PCAnywhere and Norton Antivirus totaling 2350MB in size (rar) 10 minutes if no reply from you we consider it a START this time we've made mirrors so it will be hard for you to get rid of it."

Thomas' response, apparently the last of the discussion, is brief: "We can't make a decision in ten minutes. We need more time."

Symantec admitted in mid-January that a 2006 security breach of its networks led to the theft of the source code, backtracking on earlier statements that its network had not been hacked. The security software maker initially said a third party was responsible for allowing the theft of 2006-era source code for Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks (Norton Utilities and Norton GoBack), and PCAnywhere.

Symantec said that most of it customers were not in any increased danger of cyberattacks as a result of the code's theft but that users of its remote-access suite PCAnywhere may face a "slightly increased security risk."

Symantec instructed its PCAnywhere users in late January to disable the product until the company could issue a software update to protect them against attacks that could result from the theft of the product's source code.

The theft came to light in early January when hackers claimed that they had accessed the source code for certain Symantec products, which Symantec identified as Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) 11.0 and Symantec Antivirus 10.2. Evidence at the time suggested that hackers found the code after breaking into servers run by Indian military intelligence.

A hacker group calling itself Yama Tough and employing the mask of hacktivist group Anonymous in its Twitter avatar said in a tweet last month that it would release 1.7GB of source code for Norton Antivirus, but the group said in a later tweet that that it had decided to delay the release.

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Microsoft Bing page tips off new Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Microsoft has already cooked up a special Bing page tempting users to check out its upcoming Windows 8 "Consumer Preview."

The first clue is the video of a betta fish swimming from one edge of the screen to the other. Thought of as Microsoft's mascot for beta versions of new operating systems, that particular fish swam its way onto the desktop of the beta for Windows 7 in 2009.

But other more obvious clues are the hot spots and links scattered across the screen that refer specifically to Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Since the page is still a work in progress, most of the links don't yet work. The only two that do bring you to a page for developers eager to create Metro-based apps and another one for Microsoft's Building Windows 8 blog.

Due to launch by the end of the month, the Consumer Preview is Microsoft's newly-christened name for the beta of Windows 8, a follow-up to the Developer Preview unveiled last September. But the Developer Preview has triggered some complaints and concerns among the Microsoft faithful.

PC users in particular have been jarred by the emphasis on the Metro UI and touch-based devices, with some feeling that the new OS is less friendly to those relying on mouse and keyboard. Microsoft has been open about the changes in Windows 8 though its Building Windows 8 blog series and at the same time responsive to certain criticism.

The company has already tweaked Windows 8 since the Developer Preview to provide more flexibility to the Metro UI, Windows Explorer, and other key features.

Microsoft has also stressed that the Developer Preview was an early glimpse of the new OS and has promised that the Consumer Preview will be different.

Still, Windows 8 does represent a radical change over previous versions of Windows. Microsoft has taken on a risky bet of trying to make its next OS all things to all people, or rather, to all devices. The upcoming Consumer Preview should better answer the question of whether that bet will pay off.

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