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<title>Haaze.com / maxx8888 / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Xbox's original beast of a controller making a comeback]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=xboxs-original-beast-of-a-controller-making-a-comeback</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=xboxs-original-beast-of-a-controller-making-a-comeback</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maxx8888</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=xboxs-original-beast-of-a-controller-making-a-comeback</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Jeff Bakalar/CNET)Anyone who purchased the originalXbox during its launch window quickly came to know its behemoth of a controller, now nicknamed &quot;Duke.&quot; This massive beast was barely capable of being handheld because of its anti-ergonomic dysfunctions and wacky button placement. With Microsoft's announcement that a remastered HD version of Halo: Combat Evolved would be hitting the Xbox 360, we were instantly transported to that awkward time of figuring out which one of our fingers was supposed to reach for those black and white buttons. Apparently we weren't the only ones. According to Giant Bomb, 343 Industries (the team pushing out the remake) has been in talks with entities that could very well bring Duke back for another go around. Don't expect anything available in stores anytime soon, but it's possible the controller could make an appearance at this year's Halo Fest game show. For those of you who experienced Duke first hand, what memories come to mind<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Netflix's shares soar on Android, Nielsen news]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=netflixs-shares-soar-on-android-nielsen-news</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=netflixs-shares-soar-on-android-nielsen-news</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:10:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maxx8888</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=netflixs-shares-soar-on-android-nielsen-news</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Today is one of those days when investors who sensed Netflix's potential years ago but didn't buy in may be kicking themselves. The Web's top movie-rental service today saw its shares soar 7 percent to $247.55, and set a new all-time high for the company. Netflix shares have steadily risen since January 26, when the company posted fourth-quarter earnings that featured big gains in profits and subscribers. Since then, Netflix shares have climbed more than 30 percent. Sure, the news today about how Qualcomm will help enable Android handsets to playback Netflix's streaming video had something to do with the stock spike. But that's just one of the company's gold stars recently. Netflix is riding a wave of positive headlines during the past two weeks. &amp;149'&amp;nbsp'On Friday, Nielsen reported that Netflix became the first paid Internet video service to break into the top 10 list of most visited Web sites.  &amp;149'&amp;nbsp'In December, Whitney Tilson, of hedge fund T2 partners, slammed Netflix's management and the company's prospects for competing for viewers but last week said surveys showing Netflix's high customer satisfaction helped change his view and he has now stopped shorting the stock. &amp;149'&amp;nbsp'In fourth quarter, Netflix added more than 3 million subscribers and surpassed the 20 million total-subscriber mark earlier than many on Wall Street had anticipated.  But investors should pay careful attention to how successful Netflix is at acquiring movies and TV shows for the company's burgeoning streaming service. Some executives from film studios and TV networks argue that supplying Netflix with content only serves to lower the value of content and undermines distribution partners that pay more to content creators, such as cable pay TV services. Some of the predict Netflix could see the flow of content slow to a trickle. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Super Bowl: The tech winners and losers]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=super-bowl-the-tech-winners-and-losers</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=super-bowl-the-tech-winners-and-losers</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 06 Feb 2011 08:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maxx8888</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=super-bowl-the-tech-winners-and-losers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I know there will be some who were devastated not to see Google advertising during this year's Super Bowl.And yet tech companies decided to see and be seen, with all the consequences that might entail.What we should remember is that ads can help a product, they can hurt a product. Or, indeed, they can have very little effect if the product itself is deeply desirable.Which must give some hope to the folks at Motorola, who finally revealed all of their Apple-is-Big-Brother-let's-all-get-organic affair. The ad suggested that those who own iPads are dupes, lifeless fools who are numb, dumb, and stunned into torpor.It might have left many wondering why, if the Xoom exists to help you create a new world, it has taken so much longer to bring to fruition than theiPad. It might make some pondering why the &quot;1984&quot; Apple spot should be referenced in a damp squid boy/girl drama.The Xoom might be a wonderful product, but this ad won't have done much to help people think it is anything other than a sweet little copy.On the other hand, the folks at Volkswagen not only produced a lovely &quot;Darth Vader&quot; spot but managed to make the Beetle seem, yet again, acar worth feeling good about.This was something Chevy was striving for, and yet, while some ads seemed plain old, the Cruze ad offered a slightly new perspective on the guy who wanders obsessively around Facebook trying to find girls who can tolerate him.Audi's TV spot wasn't half as engaging and amusing as the longer teaser videos.Salesforce.com ran two spots around halftime for something called Chatter.com. I wish I could tell you more, but I have no idea what these ads were about. I wonder if anyone did.E-trade carried on with the babies, Cars.com carried on being there, as did GoDaddy and CareerBuilder. Best Buy went with Ozzie Osbourne and Justin Bieber in a spot that seemed to flash by but not flash BestBuy.While LivingSocial stuck to a delectable cross-dressing gag, many seems already to have railed against Groupon's inversion of the traditional charity appeal.Some might not see the ads' virtues, but the frank admission that Americans love a deal more than anything else on earth is curiously refreshing in advertising. It could have been written by Dudley Moore from &quot;Crazy People&quot; and that's a good thing.Perhaps the finest contrast to Groupon wasn't LivingSocial, but the Daily. Here is a product that wants to be of tomorrow. Instead it cobbled together an ad that looked and felt like something from 1987. As lifeless a presentation of an interesting product as there could be.Everyone will have their favorites. Some might even be in love with GoDaddy's amusement with Joan Rivers. She will be grateful for that. But, by the end, will any of these ads truly change the brands' businesses in two or three weeks' time Not many. It's a tough business, advertising. Much tougher than tech.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Survey: iPhone owners most loyal to their brand]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=survey-iphone-owners-most-loyal-to-their-brand</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=survey-iphone-owners-most-loyal-to-their-brand</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maxx8888</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=survey-iphone-owners-most-loyal-to-their-brand</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Zokem)Despite the surge in Android phones,iPhone owners are still by far the ones most loyal to their devices, according to a study out this week by mobile analytics provider Zokem.Based on results from Zokem's U.S. Mobile Life panel in 2010, the iPhone took home a loyalty score of 73, far surpassing the score of 40 given to its closest competitor Android.Gauging the loyalty that smartphone owners have for their current devices, the score looks at whether people will stick with the same brand for their next purchase as well as other factors. Even among non-iPhone users collectively, the No. 1 preference for their next phone is an iPhone.Though sales of Android phones were hot in 2010, the few iPhone models available sell more than any one specific Android device, according to Zokem.&quot;As a platform, however, Android is a fair competitor--and in certain numbers, bigger than iPhone--but the industry attention is still geared towards the iPhone as the leading smartphone platform, particularly in the U.S.,&quot; noted the report.Lower on the loyalty charts were Research In Motion's BlackBerry with a score of 30, and Windows Mobile and thePalm Pre OS, with scores of 10.Looking specifically at which phones people are most likely to repurchase, Android actually beat the iPhone by a narrow margin. Among those polled, 89 percent of current Android users are likely to stick with the same brand, while 85 percent of iPhone users plan to stay with Apple.(Credit:Zokem)&quot;The figures suggest clearly that iPhone is the top performing platform in terms of user loyalty, and therefore, it is an increasingly likely pick for a repurchase,&quot; Zokem CEO Hannu Verkasalo said in a statement. &quot;Android is a good No. 2 in the U.S. market, even though the loyalty score is not nearly as high as it is for iPhones, but it seems that people who are using Android are also very likely to buy an Android-based device as their next smartphone too.&quot;To compile its study, Zokem questioned more than 1,500 members of its Mobile Life panel each quarter of 2010.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Yahoo Mail singled out as Windows Phone 7 data vampire (updated)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-mail-singled-out-as-windows-phone-7-data-vampire-updated</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-mail-singled-out-as-windows-phone-7-data-vampire-updated</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maxx8888</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-mail-singled-out-as-windows-phone-7-data-vampire-updated</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Windows Phone 7 users can blame Yahoo Mail for their mysteriously high 3G data usage, the company revealed to Windows Phone Secrets yesterday.Microsoft didna4a4t admit Yahoo was the problem until Within Windowsa4a4 Rafael Rivera did some sleuthing and confirmed that Yahooa4a4s mail server was sending around 25 times as  much data as it needed to. Previously, Microsoft would only say that an unnamed third-party was the root of the issue.Many  thought that Microsoft was only covering for its own software issues by  blaming a third-party, but now ita4a4s clear that Yahoo is indeed guilty.  Still, Microsoft isna4a4t completely blameless, as it could have provided  users some relief earlier by admitting Yahoo was the problem and  offering some tips on how to minimize the issue. For now, Microsoft  recommends changing your Yahoo Mail account to manually update, and reducing the time range of emails synchronized.Microsoft  says that it has worked together with Yahoo to fix the issue, and a  software update will be coming in the next few weeks. Additionally,  Microsoft says that it has found a problem with its Exchange ActiveSync  protocol that could affect Outlook and Gmail users. A fix for that is  one the way as well.Update: Yahoo has responded to the news with the following statement, which pushes the blame back to Microsoft:Yahoo! Mail is widely available on tens of millions of mobile phones, including those running on Apple iOS, Android, Nokia Symbian, and RIM. The issue on the Windows Phones is specific to how Microsoft chose to implement IMAP for Yahoo! Mail and does not impact Yahoo! Mail on these other mobile devices. Yahoo! has offered to provide Microsoft a near-term solution for the implementation they chose, and is encouraging Microsoft to change to a standard way of integrating with Yahoo! Mail, which would result in a permanent fix.Next Story: Ask the accountant: Do I need to reincorporate when I move Previous Story: Call of Duty Black Ops map pack keeps Activision&amp;'s hot franchise rollingPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: bugs, email, smartphones, Windows Phone 7, Yahoo MailCompanies: Microsoft, YahooPeople: Rafael Rivera          Tags: bugs, email, smartphones, Windows Phone 7, Yahoo MailCompanies: Microsoft, YahooPeople: Rafael RiveraDevindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How secure is the smart grid]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-secure-is-the-smart-grid</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-secure-is-the-smart-grid</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maxx8888</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-secure-is-the-smart-grid</guid>
<description><![CDATA[What if aburglarcould browse data which reveals which houses in an area are empty, or a cyberattack could create an electricity blackout What if you unwittingly paid for your neighbour&amp;'s electricity, or a hacker could hijack control of your washing machineThese are all possible scenarios in an insufficiently secured electricity grid, and in particular in the emerging smart grid.Smart grid is a bionic upgrade to power generation and distribution that will let our energy network diagnose and heal itself, dynamically integrate renewable energy and local power sources and automatically lower electricity demand. The source of those new superpowers is information technology. But increasing automation and communications within the electricity grid potentially has a dark side' increased vulnerability to attack.The Stuxnet worm, which attacked nuclear power plants in Iran, suddenly thrust a subject which was previously the domain of a small group of experts, the security and automated control of industrial systems, into the limelight. The systems used to control nuclear power plants are very similar to those which run the power grid. &amp;''The idea that industrial control systems of infrastructure can be penetrated in a clever way like that has really opened the eyes of the community and the general public.&amp;'' says Jeff Meyers, a smart grid executive at Telvent.While security experts always knew that an attack like Stuxnet was possible, the general view was &amp;''the threat is going to be an external one. It&amp;'s going to come from hackers&amp;''. In fact Stuxnet was delivered as part of a Siemens industrial control system, an internal threat rather than an external one.Markus Braendle is the cyber security manager at ABB, a leading vendor to utilities. He asks &amp;''How do you put a price on what happens if we lose power in a small distribution grid Anywhere from a couple of people being annoyed because they can&amp;'t watch TV to, if it&amp;'s a cold winter, people losing their lives.&amp;''The Government Accountability Office (GAO), which audits government activities, recently released a report on smart grid cybersecurity which reveals significant problems. The report concluded that there are gaps in cybersecurity regulation and problems with jurisdiction and that even when regulation exists utilities are focused on regulatory compliance rather thancomprehensive security. Utilities are governed by a complex set of national, state and municipal regulators who set compliance rules and can impose fines if they are not met. Many state regulators have not imposed any formal requirements on utilities, and even when there are requirements, they are usually limited to smart metering.Currently NERC (North American Electric Reliability corporation) defines national standards on cybersecurity for utilities, but according to several of the experts I spoke to, the NERC CIP standards are not sufficient to ensure robust security in the smart grid. Making sure the standards are implemented correctly via testing and monitoring is also an area of concern.The smart grid presents unique security problems. When a power grid operator talks about security, he means reliability of electricity supply. Keeping the electricity flowing is the primary concern of every operator. In the IT world, security means cybersecurity.Braendle explained that&amp;''in the end what we are trying to secure is a physical process and not a piece of information.&amp;'' Most security techniques like encryption or authentication were developed for environments like banking which manipulate pure data. They don&amp;'t take into consideration the delays required to open a valve or switch a feeder and conversely often cannot operate fast enough for grid applications like protection where the local grid must be isolated from a malfunction in less than two milliseconds.Bob Lockhhart, who wrote Pike Research&amp;'s smart grid cybersecurity report, told me that something as simple, from the IT point of view, as &amp;''pinging&amp;'' a device to see if it is running can sometimes bring down a legacy system. Adding monitoring can disrupt real-time processes on the grid. For a grid operator reliability of supply is all. Braendle points out that &amp;''we have systems which have an allowed down time of 5 minutes per year.&amp;''The smart grid will be composed of an enormous number of devices of various types and vintages, from smart meters and solar inverters to electrical substation equipment and sensors on electricity lines. Many legacy devices in the grid have limited processing power, communicate using proprietary protocols over low-bandwidth connections and have no built-in security. Replacing older devices is often not an option for cost or reliability reasons. For this reason, building the smart grid has been compared to rebuilding a plane in flight.More devices also means more entry points into the grid which can be used as points of attack. As Rolf Adam, Cisco&amp;'s Director of utilities and smart grid in Europe says &amp;''From an IT environment security perspective, it&amp;'s a nightmare.&amp;'' He also told me that utilities are very reluctant to share information about security vulnerabilities due to liability issues.Ask a group of smart grid experts to name the major threats to the smart grid and you will get as many answers as people.According to Lockhart, when it comes to smart meters, utilities want smart meters to last for 20 year but this timeline is too long for IT companies. So they are concentrating on making the meters upgradeable. Upgradeability creates vulnerabilities. The threats include rolling back the meter to avoid billing, using the meter as an entry point to the rest of the network or even denial of service attacks on meters.Braendleasserts that customer privacy is a new problem for utilities. Data from smart meters can reveal all kinds of private information from the number of people in your household to when you are on holiday. Utilities have a legal obligation to keep this data private. &amp;''How do you protect the privacy of the customer so not everyone knows when you are taking a shower&amp;'' he asks.John Cooper, author of GridNet&amp;'s cybersecurity whitepaper, agrees on meters being a possible entry point to the grid but also points to the distribution grid (the part which connects to homes and businesses) where decisions which were previously manual are being automated and made locally.Cooper also considers renewables, in particular small-scale, local generation of renewable energy known asDistributed energy resources (DER), as a brand new area which doesn&amp;'t fit the current paradigm. Utilities are used to generating power in large-scale, centralised power stations. Distributed solar or wind farms, local electricity storage and even electrical vehicles add thousands of devices on the edge of the grid.&amp;''DER will require control&amp;'' Cooper maintains &amp;''and we will have much less control over the physical access to those locations as opposed to substations (A substation transforms high to lower voltage and acts as a local centre to distribute electricity to homes and businesses)&amp;''.Adams contends that physical security will be more important than cybersecurity in early smart grid deployments. &amp;''Doing physical damage to an infrastructure is much easier than damaging that infrastructure using cybersecurity&amp;'' he says. The best firewall in the world won&amp;'t stop someone from driving a bus into a substation. Adams also highlights the need to apply security to people, e.g. who gets access to a substation, and processes. Cisco is using RFID tags for utility employees and materials to track them in the field. It is also advocating the use of video collaboration tools so that more inexperienced, maintenance staff, who may inadvertently cause damage by flicking the wrong switch in a substation, can get expert advice.Meyers also mentioned physical security threats and small-scalepower generationbut added that there are threats everywhere that new communication and sensing technology is used.The good news is that cybersecurity standards and techniques or smart grid are being developed. &amp;''In North America right now the awareness (of cybersecurity) is higher than anywhere else&amp;'' assertsBraendle. One reason for this is the NERC CIP cybersecurity guidelines and the accompanying fines for non-compliance. Another is that all smart grid projects which receive stimulus money from the U.S. government must meet certain cybersecurity standards. Meyers and Cooper agree that a lot of good work has been done on defining cybersecurity requirements, but there are still many open questions related to regulation, testing and compliance. Meyers explained that the diversity in the devices in the grid and their age could be an advantage as well as a difficulty since it makes it more difficult to acquire the knowledge to do harm. He also wonders if hackers will think it&amp;'s as &amp;''sexy&amp;'' to take down a part of the distribution grid as, for example, a big bank.Cooper says that the ultimategoal of cybersecurity is not to make the smart grid impregnable, but to make it more costly, and therefore less attractive, to attack. However, his final words are clear.&amp;''The smart grid should not be built if it&amp;'s not built securely.&amp;''Next Story: The Internet is about to run out of addresses Previous Story: Why entrepreneurs dona4a4t care about the small business lending actPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: cyberattacks, cybersecurity, editors choice, energy, security, Smart Grid, SolarCompanies: ABB, Cisco, gao, GridNet, Pike Research, telvent          Tags: cyberattacks, cybersecurity, editors choice, energy, security, Smart Grid, SolarCompanies: ABB, Cisco, gao, GridNet, Pike Research, telventCiara Byrne is a full time techie and part-time writer. She has worked as a software developer, team lead, engineering manager and mobile standards expert. Ciara is based in Amsterdam and her interests include creative companies, useful technology, torture by piano and cycling in high heels. Follow her on Twitter at @deciara.  Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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