Public test next week for Vista SP1 | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com
Microsoft on Tuesday said that it has reached the "release candidate" with the first service pack for Windows Vista, with plans to make the test software available publicly next week.
It is releasing the test code this week to the 15,000 or so people who have been beta testing SP1 already, and will also make it available on Thursday to those in the MSDN and TechNet developer programs.
"We feel really good and we look forward to receiving feedback from our larger set of testers," said David Zipkin, a senior product manager on the Windows Client team.
Microsoft also said on its Vista blog on Wednesday that it will make available a "blocker" that will allow customers who have Vista and use Windows Update to block SP1 upon its final release to allow for further testing. Microsoft offered a similar option with Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Service Pack 1 is mainly designed as a collection of bug fixes and performance improvements rather than an attempt to add new features. Among the changes that are more feature-related is the ability to use BitLocker encryption on multiple hard drive volumes as well as changes to the desktop search feature, which were made to satisfy antitrust concerns from Google.
Microsoft also said this week that it will change the way its antipiracy features work in SP1, eliminating a system in which Vista machines found not to be genuine are relegated to a near-unusable "reduced functionality mode." In its place, Microsoft will show prominent warnings and prompt those with non-genuine software to get a properly licensed copy. The new antipiracy approach will be in the final version of SP1 but is not part of the release candidate version.
The software maker has made some changes to SP1 since it began testing it earlier this year. In particular, the company has worked to reduce the size of the update as well as the amount of free space required to perform the update.
Vista still requires up to 4.5GB of free space for a typical user, but that's down from the 7GB required in earlier beta versions. Most of that space is returned back to the user. For some people, though, particularly those with ultramobile machines or running Vista in a partition on their Mac, the free space limit can be an obstacle.
Microsoft has also significantly reduced the file size of the Windows Update and full versions of the service pack, Zipkin said.
The release candidate version of the Vista service pack comes just as the Windows Server team issues a public release candidate for Windows Server 2008. Development of Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 have been fairly closely aligned and both are slated for release in the first quarter of 2008. However, Zipkin said it is conceivable the release of the two products could vary, particularly if quality concerns arise for either one.
Public test next week for Vista SP1 | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com
Facebook's Overblown Privacy Problems - Forbes.com
Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook users to know that he cares about their privacy. In fact, he may care far more than the users themselves.
In a blog post, the 23-year-old founder of the social networking site apologized Wednesday for privacy violations by its controversial Beacon advertising program, which broadcasts users' online purchases to friends in their networks. Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will add a Beacon opt-out button to the site's privacy settings, caving to the demands of a protest group created by MoveOn.org called "Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy!"
"We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it," Zuckerberg wrote. "While I am disappointed with our mistakes, we appreciate all the feedback we have received from our users."
But just how many of the site's users had actually demanded Zuckerberg's bowing and scraping? Though MoveOn's privacy protest group has been gaining about 10,000 users per day, Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang points out that the group's 70,000 members still represent less than 0.2% of the site's 50 million users.
That means that despite the grand gestures, Beacon isn't going away. Aside from a vocal minority, Owyang says, most members will hardly notice the new opt-out function. "A majority of users don't know what Beacon is, nor do they care. So a majority won't turn it off," he says.
Since the new advertising program was announced earlier this month, the number of Facebookers visiting the site's privacy settings page has risen by less than 100,000 users a week, according to Web traffic analysis firm Compete. By comparison, weekly visitors to the privacy settings page jumped by 600,000 users per week immediately following Facebook's October announcement that user profiles would be open to public search engines.
All of that means Facebook users are already in the habit of sharing or concealing their personal details and activities with other users on the site by default, and only opting out of the sharing functions for certain actions they want to keep private, says David McClure, an adviser to start-ups and guest lecturer at Stanford who teaches a class on Facebook. So Beacon's opt-out for broadcasting of purchases represents only a minor shift in the community's tell-all mindset.
"Most people on Facebook are used to this opt-out lifestyle transparency," says McClure. "When they don't want to share, they opt out in a case-by-case basis. The default is that their life is transparent."
So why is Zuckerberg backpedaling? McClure argues that the contrite message was more about appeasing vocal news outlets and advertisers than responding to users' wishes. In the wake of a media dog pile on the Beacon controversy, Coca-Cola, Travelocity and Overstock.com have all suspended advertising on Facebook. "Whether the site's users care about privacy or not, Facebook needs to manage PR and avoid scaring advertisers," McClure says.
Still, some privacy advocates took Zuckerberg's blog post as a victory for users' rights. In a statement, MoveOn called the change "a big step in the right direction," and Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center added that "Facebook is learning that privacy matters. It's signaling that it does care about how it's viewed and how important trust is to online businesses."
But McClure is more skeptical about whether users will use the new opt-out function. "Most people don't change the default," he says. "If the default is 'on', they'll never turn it off."
All-In-One Wonder LG Touch » Yanko Design
LG Touch introduces an entirely new user interface based on a revolutionary multi-touch display and pioneering new software that allows users to control LG Touch with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. Hmmm this sounds awfully familiar. LG Touch combines four products into one small and lightweight handheld device—a revolutionary mobile phone, dual LCD for quick view, internet applications on a mobile phone for email, web browsing and a charging cradle with QWERTY keypad for easy shopping and e-mailing.
Have a look at the All-In-One Wonder LG Touch » Yanko Design
Translation Smartpen
Fly Fusion is a digital pen combining the ease of writing with the power and knowledge of advanced computing. Perfect for students, casual gamers or serious note-takers, FLY Fusion offers an intuitive connection to PCs to painlessly transfer hand-written notes and drawings. Users can then use a word processor to catalogue, spell-check or review their work, and even email their creations as text.
Sony Mylo - First Look (by a real user)
If I had a chance to evaluate the Mylo before I purchased it, I would have waited for the next generation.
Microsoft Surface: Hands-on First Look
The software giant has built a new touchscreen computer—a coffee table that will change the world. Go inside its top-secret development, then forget the keyboard and mouse: The next generation of computer interfaces will be hands-on.