LinkedIn formally launched its developer network

LinkedIn formally launched its developer network Monday, and TweetDeck will be among the first to integrate the social networking site into its results. With the launch of the LinkedIn Platform, developers can now access the site's API and incorporate LinkedIn into their business apps and Web sites.


"At LinkedIn, we have always believed that business applications are better when they are built over a platform of professional reputation and relationships. In real life, our most valuable professional assets are the skills and experience we acquire and the trusted relationships we build," Adam Nash, vice president of search and platform products at LinkedIn, wrote in a blog post.

The upcoming version 0.32 of Twitter client TweetDeck will include LinkedIn capabilities, TweetDeck said Monday. Users will be able to add a LinkedIn column to the program and view updates that would normally be visible on the LinkedIn site.

"With the addition of Facebook and MySpace, TweetDeck has gradually gone from being just a great Twitter client to now being a true browser for the real-time web," Richard Barley, community manager for TweetDeck, wrote in a blog post. "With the addition of each new network it has become easier and easier to stay in touch with your social circle."

TweetDeck users can choose what updates they receive - status, Q&A, applications, groups, connections, profile, or recommendations. "And not only will you see updates from your network, but of course you will be able send status updates, add comments to status updates and view LinkedIn profiles within TweetDeck," Barley wrote.

Barley expects version 0.32 to be available "very soon."


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Android invasion

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THE GREAT ANDROID INVASION


Andy Rubin, the mastermind behind Google's Android, has had a pretty good few weeks, with major companies throwing their weight behind his operating system. Yet Rubin, 46, says he's just getting started. In the next few months he expects to unveil major enhancements to the programs available for Android phones, including some to make them more useful for business. He's also pushing Android beyond mobile phones: A half dozen other devices will soon come out with the software, including e-book readers, netbooks, and TVs. "There are still a lot of areas where we could do a lot better," he says.
There's good reason for the grand ambitions. Rubin doesn't think Google necessarily needs to eclipse the most popular mobile phone operating systems, like those used by Nokia, Apple, and Research In Motion. But he wants Android to be powerful enough that other phone makers and wireless companies feel pressure to come up with innovations--and to keep their devices open so users can access services like Google's search. "The worst thing would be one operating system," Rubin says.


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Another iPhone worm

A second iPhone exploit has been identified by security vendor F-Secure, which claims the new worm has botnet capability and is more threatening than its predecessor.


Mikko Hyponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, said in a blog post that the new worm, like the first, affects jailbroken iPhones with SSH (secure shell) protocol enabled and unchanged default passwords. The Finnish security company has yet to give a name to the new threat.

Ikee, another threat that was discovered earlier this month, is said to infect vulnerable phones in Australia. When Ikee strikes, it alters the iPhone's wallpaper to an image of Rick Astley with the message "ikee is never going to give you up".

"The worm is not widespread, but it is much more serious than the first iPhone worm as it seems to try to steal information from the devices," Hyponen said about the new worm in the blog post.


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Android takes twenty percent of market

AdMob, the mobile ad network that Google plans to acquire for $750 million, today released their October 2009 Metrics Report examining market share for top devices and the operating systems that run on them.


One stat in particular caught our eye. In the US, Android had 20 percent share of smartphone traffic, up from only seven percent six months before. Now that there’s proof that these phones are selling, Android may solidify its spot as a go-to operating system for device makers looking to get into the lucrative smartphone market.

In line with Admob’s findings, last month Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney highlighted for Computerworld a research report spotlighting Android Operating System would be the second most used OS, grabbing 14 percent of the global smartphone market share by 2012. That would be second only to the Symbian Operating System that is widely used by Nokia in countries outside the U.S.


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IE9 will again be faster

Microsoft's next browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), will offload image and text rendering chores to the PC's graphic processor, one way the company plans to increase the browser's overall performance, according to the firm's top IE manager.


But Microsoft won't be alone. Rivals including Mozilla, which makes Firefox, and Norwegian developer Opera, are working on ways to use a computer's graphics processor unit (GPU) to accelerate their browsers.

Microsoft last week revealed a few details about IE9, which has no set ship date or even a publicly-disclosed development plan. While acknowledging that the company had a lot of catching up to do, however, Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's president of Windows and Windows Live, said that early work on IE9 had already shown significant performance strides.


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Cloud services will have risks

Businesses should use caution when procuring cloud services, according to the European agency charged with promoting IT security good practice.


The European Network and Information Security Agency (Enisa) on Friday published advice and a checklist for organisations thinking of jumping into the cloud, outlining the benefits and risks of using online service provision.

Primarily, organizations should beware of lock-in to cloud services, Enisa told ZDNet UK on Friday. "There is very little in the way of tools and standards for exporting data from one provider to another," said Enisa network security expert Giles Hogben. "That's one of the biggest risks."

Enisa risk management expert Daniele Catteddu told ZDNet UK that governance issues were also a major risk. "There are client code issues like patching, security testing, and policy enforcement," he said.

For more, read "Beware business cloud dangers, says EU agency" on ZDNet UK.


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Microsoft rolled out the beta of Office 2010

Microsoft rolled out the beta of Office 2010 and other productivity software, and made some key announcements about its Windows Azure cloud platform, during the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week. Even as Microsoft moves to embrace the cloud, the release of Google Chrome OS to open source for developers on Nov. 19 suggests that Redmond may eventually have to think even further about the cloud--and ways it could potentially move parts of its Windows franchise from the desktop to the Web.

Microsoft offered a first glimpse of much of its future this week, using its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles as a high-profile platform for the release of the beta versions of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Project 2010, Visio 2010, Office Mobile 2010 and Office Web Apps for businesses. Many of the keynote addresses at the conference also dealt with Azure, Microsoft’s major foray into the cloud.

As with Windows 7, which Microsoft released in a widespread public beta in order to generate massive amounts of user feedback, the public beta for Office 2010 and other applications will theoretically give Redmond’s developers the information they need for tweaks and improvements before a collective general-release debut in 2010


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EU extends Sun Oracle deadline until Jan. 27

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European Union regulators said Friday that they have extended until Jan. 27 a deadline to wrap up their antitrust review of Oracle Corp.'s planned $7.4 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc.


The European Commission said Oracle had asked for more time "in order to have the opportunity to further develop its arguments in response to the Commission's concerns."

The EU executive gave them an extra six working days.

Regulators sent a formal charge sheet to Oracle earlier this month laying out competition problems that they see with the deal, claiming Oracle's purchase of open-source database software MySQL could eliminate a crucial rival and hike prices.

The EU can block the takeover — which has already been approved by the United States — or demand changes to eliminate competition concerns. Officials complained that Oracle had not tried to offer any solutions — possibly selling off MySQL, which Oracle says it doesn't want to do.

Oracle has criticized the EU for not understanding the database market or open-source dynamics well enough.

MySQL is popular among Web-based companies and regulators say it will increasingly pose a threat to Oracle's market-leading database software as it adds features and attracts more customers. Sun paid $1 billion for it last year.

The EU objection ratchets up tension about the fate of the deal, which Sun badly needs to go through. It lost $120 million in the quarter ended Sept. 27 and is rapidly shedding market share to rivals like IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.


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Law firm investigating banned Xboxes from Live service

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Following the decision by Xbox 360 console maker Microsoft to ban users from the Xbox Live service, intellectual property law firm AbingtonIP began conducting an investigation into Microsoft’s business practices regarding the ban. “Microsoft has chosen to use one of the most indiscriminate "weapons" in its arsenal in an effort to combat piracy -- as a result, use of this "weapon" has resulted in a great deal of collateral damage -- many people were affected who had nothing to do with piracy,” the firm states on its Web site. “Furthermore, Xbox console functions that have nothing to do with piracy were also affected or disabled. Details aside, Microsoft's bans could (and should) have been more measured.” AbigntonIP posted a forum to allow Xbox 360 owners who felt their account had been unfairly terminated to voice their objections, first noticed by the gaming blog Inc Gamers.

An Introduction to Complex Event Processing and its Role in Modern IT Architectures
"As has been reported widely in the media, tens of thousands of Xbox owners have had their modified Xbox consoles banned from Microsoft's online gaming service Xbox Live. Although modification of Xbox consoles is “arguably” against the terms of use for Xbox/Xbox Live, Microsoft "conveniently" timed the Xbox console ban to coincide with the release of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game and less than two months after the release of the very popular Halo 3: ODST game,” the firm charges. “This ‘convenient’ timing may have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had these Xbox console bans taken place at some time before the release of [these games]. Additionally, sales of both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST would likely have been greatly diminished had the Xbox console ban occurred prior to the release of these games.”

Last week Microsoft banned up to 1 million consoles from the community online gaming service Xbox Live after suspecting the devices had been “modded”, or altered to allow downloads of pirated software, leading to a flurry of modded consoles for sale on eBay and Craigslist. The report came amid the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, one of the most highly anticipated game titles of the year. On November 4, Microsoft’s director of programming for the company’s gaming network Xbox Live, Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb, wrote a blog post acknowledging Microsoft has been actively banning modified Xbox 360 consoles that are able to play pirated games.

“Our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox Live community remains a top priority,” he wrote. “All consumers should know that piracy is illegal, and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs, violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live.”




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