Nokia on Thursday reported its worst quarterly profit in more than a decade. Nevertheless, the cell-phone maker’s shares rallied in the wake of optimism expressed by CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.The Finnish company said its profit declined to 122 million euros (US$160.7 million), from 1.2 billion euros (US$1.6 billion) a year earlier. Sales fell 27 percent.
Nokia’s Devices & Services unit saw net sales decline 33 percent year-on-year to 6.2 billion euros (US$8.2 billion). Still, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, one of its flagship devices, sold 2.6 million units in the quarter and more than three million since it launched in late November. But its services division saw a five percent decline over the same period last year.
Nokia remains the largest mobile-device maker in the world with a market share of 37 percent in this year’s first quarter. However, that’s down from 39 percent in the year-ago period. Nokia expects industry sales to continue to decline this year, estimating a 10 percent overall slide from 2008.
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April 17th, 2009
In what has emerged as Web 2.0′s latest phenom, Twitter’s membership is growing by leaps and bounds. According to comScore Media Metrix, Twitter saw 9.3 million visitors in March. That’s an increase of more than five million visitors, or 131 percent, from February.What’s causing Twitter’s exponential growth? Is it the media attention? The Google acquisition rumors? The viral nature of Web 2.0 technologies? All of the above?
“One interesting theory alluded to by several people in last week’s discussion was that the mainstream media attention on Twitter is really helping fuel its growth. And there may certainly be some merit to that,” said Andrew Lipsman, a senior industry analyst at comScore. “It seems you can’t get through a typical newscast anymore without some mention of Twitter.”
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April 17th, 2009
In the wake of a stalled IBM 
acquisition deal, Sun Microsystems on Tuesday unveiled new products and technologies in its Open Network Systems strategy. The products aim to maximize the economics of computing for data centers and clouds and include an advanced blades architecture, new networking technologies, and seven new systems based on the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series.As John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun’s Systems Group, said today’s IT customer is looking for three things — speed, simplicity and savings. He said Sun’s Open Network Systems approach offers all three: “Our new x64 systems with integrated networking technologies, advanced thermal management, open software, and (Sun) Open Storage enhancements will give the data center an extreme makeover, boosting efficiency and maximizing IT investment.”
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April 17th, 2009
A week ahead of Earth Day, McAfee is offering insights into spam’s impact on the environment. McAfee’s research reveals that spam is not only a nuisance that hinders business productivity, it also damages the environment and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.On Tuesday, McAfee released a study, Carbon Footprint of Spam. The study spells out the findings of climate-change researchers and spam experts: Globally the annual energy used to transmit, process and filter spam totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours, or 33 terawatt hours. That’s equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes, with the same greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using two billion gallons of gasoline.
“As the world faces the growing problem of climate change, this study highlights that spam has an immense financial, personal and environmental impact on businesses and individuals,” said Jeff Green, senior vice president of product development and McAfee Avert Labs. “Stopping spam at its source, as well investing in state-of-the-art spam-filtering technology, will save time and money, and will pay dividends to the planet by reducing carbon emissions as well.”
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April 17th, 2009
Microsoft on Tuesday issued eight security updates to fix 23 security holes in its software, 10 of which are rated critical. Attackers have already used six vulnerabilities and four have a proof of concept or attack plan published.This marks the largest release of security patches since October 2008 and addresses issues in Windows, Internet Explorer, DirectX, Excel, Word and in the company’s security software.
One of the four critical vulnerabilities that address issues with Internet Explorer is of particular concern, according to Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager for Symantec Security Response.
“Vulnerability CVE-2009-0554 appears to be the easiest of the bunch to take advantage of by an attacker and also happens to be the one that requires the least amount of involvement by a user to exploit. An attacker can simply lure a victim into viewing a Web page that contains malicious content and that individual’s computer can then be taken over,” Greenbaum said.
“This collection of Internet Explorer patches released today is a positive step, since the Web has become the primary conduit for attacks against end users. Many browser vulnerabilities, such as these announced by Microsoft, allow attackers to gain complete control over everything a user has permission to do on an exploited machine. You can imagine how dangerous this can be, especially if the user has administrator rights.”
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April 16th, 2009
In another attack against social networks, a malware author targeted Twitter over the weekend — and the worm was still spreading in mutated form on Monday. Security experts warn that Twitter may be battling variants of the worm throughout the week.The micro-blogging service was struck with a computer virus that plagued tweeters with unwelcome messages on Saturday. Dubbed “Mickeyy,” the latest Twitter worm spreads when tweeters click on an affected page linked from a message posted by another infected user. That click sets off a chain reaction that automatically starts posting annoying tweets to other Twitter members. It’s a vicious cycle that has the ability to spread rapidly among users not aware of the worm.
Richard Wang, a U.S. manager for SophosLabs, isn’t surprised to see attacks against Twitter. Malware creators have a tendency to target popular software and services, he said, and the more people who use a site, the more attractive it is for those who want to spread their message — or worse, their criminal software.
“Currently this worm is an annoyance to Twitter users, sending bogus tweets and attempting to gather their username and browser cookie,” Wang said. “The worm will spread rapidly within the Twitter community until Twitter closes the cross-site scripting hole in their profile code. Of the three sites that have hosted versions of the worm’s code, one is still active.”
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April 15th, 2009
