Amazon: A tale of two tablets

By JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter

For months, analysts have been expecting an iPad-like device worthy of taking Apple head on. Now it seems Amazon may have cooked up something very different -- and that shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

FORTUNE -- For months, analysts and technology pundits have been expecting Amazon to release a tablet capable of going toe-to-toe with Apple's dominant iPad. With its massive e-commerce reach, robust ebook sales and rapidly expanding Kindle business, Amazon would succeed where others -- like Hewlett-Packard and Research in Motion -- failed miserably. Turns out, it may not be anything of the sort.

Unconfirmed reports from popular technology blogs TechCrunch and GDGT paint a very different picture. Both sites claim that, later today, the technology giant will unveil a next-generation Kindle. But instead of the long awaited uber-tablet, Amazon (AMZN) may be readying a stop-gap measure it can have out the door in time for the holidays. Dubbed the Kindle Fire, the device is thought to sport a 7-inch color touch screen and run a modified version of Google's (GOOG) Android operating system. The unit's design has reportedly been outsourced to Quanta, a company responsible for the design of BlackBerry's (RIMM) much-maligned PlayBook. If true, the move would mark an about-face for the company, which has relied upon the Cupertino-based hardware development division Lab126 for Kindle development.

Amazon appears at a crossroads. I can either create a full-featured tablet design to take on the iPad or, alternatively, build an incremental device aimed at guarding its market share and not letting another quarter go by without a color unit. If it indeed unveils a less ambitious model, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise given the company's past moves. Amazon has shown time and again it's more than willing to course-correct.

Today's Kindle is radically different than the model introduced in November 2007. The first Kindle donned a boxy form factor with sharply angled keys and buttons. After the shape received mixed reviews, Amazon's Lab 126 -- led by ex-Apple (AAPL) vice president Gregg Zehr -- churned out a friendlier set of designs.

The company has also aggressively shifted gears on pricing. The original Kindle retailed for $399, but thanks to competition from Barnes & Noble's (BKS) Nook and decreased manufacturing costs, the Kindle now starts at $114 for a basic WiFi version with ads. The same goes for book pricing. Until last year, Amazon called the shots: it bought books at wholesale and set the prices. Increasing pressure from the iPad and its iBookstore however caused Amazon to shift over to a so-called "agency model," where book publishers set the price. "They're selling the hardware at a loss, and they are making some money on the ebooks," explains BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis. (Amazon does not publicly disclose detailed numbers for Kindle sales.)

But perhaps nothing better exemplifies Amazon's willingness to change than the adoption of a color backlit display, something the Kindle Fire is almost certain to have. For years, Bezos has championed the black-and-white e-ink screens found in the Kindle and publicly brushed off the success of the tablet. "It's really a different product category," he told Fortune last year. Last fall, the company blasted the iPad's readability in a TV ad pitting the two devices side-by-side. Still, even Bezos can't ignore the iPad's success.

At stake is an ever more complicated market for tablets and reading devices. Citigroup's Mark Mahaney estimates Amazon will sell 17.5 million devices this year and a whopping 26 million in 2012. That would, according to Maganey, generate generate $6.1 billion for the company, or almost 10% of overall sales. Of course, the iPad currently dominates the tablet market with at least 68% market share, according to the Massachusetts-based consulting group IDC. Gartner Research expects the iPad to sell nearly 47 million units this year and overall tablet sales to increase year-over-year through 2015. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts overall growth in the e-reader category, which Amazon dominates with a reported 52% market share, to generally slow down during the same time frame. In other words, which market Amazon's Kindle Fire is intended for exactly could have dramatic consequences for its bottom line.

Of course, nothing will be certain until Amazon takes the wraps off the new device. One near certainty: it will offer deeper integration with the various services Amazon has built over the years, from Android apps to movie streaming and music downloads. Whichever market the device plays in, it will have to be a compelling enough upgrade to move current, devoted Kindle owners to upgrade. Another certainty? Amazon has shown it'll move aggressively to stay ahead -- even if that means changing course.

Microsoft releases Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update

New Windows Phone 7.5 mobile operating system, codenamed Mango, is now available free to existing owners.

By Matt Warman, Consumer Technology Editor

Microsoft has begun to roll-out the latest version of its Windows Phone operating system. Originally codenamed ‘Mango’, version 7.5 includes enhanced social network contact and calendar integration, as well as improved multitasking.

The new software is available free to customers who have already bought Windows Phone 7 handsets, such as the HTC Trophy. New hardware is eagerly awaited, however, and Nokia is set to launch its first Windows devices at the end of October.

The new software was also accompanied by the launch of a new web marketplace for apps, allowing users to buy from their PCs as well as their phones.

Mango also offers enhanced access to Microsoft Office, as well as better gaming options and the ability to handle multiple email inboxes. It also includes enhanced local search options, called Local Scout and faster web browsing.

Microsoft launched Windows Phone over a year ago, to a mixed critical reception. An HTC source said that new devices would be the first that will allow manufacturers to claim the platform now offers real competition to rivals from Google and Apple. Microsoft claims Mango will deliver more than 500 new features.

Combined with announcements about availability in new languages and the company’s partnership with Nokia, the update will see Microsoft aim to get Windows Phone into a range of new markets that are currently not yet dominated by Google Android and Apple’s iOS.

At the time of the update’s original announcement, analysts were sceptical. Ovum principal analyst Tony Cripps said that “Mango will provide a worthwhile upgrade for both existing and new users of Windows Phone devices once it arrives in the autumn. However, Microsoft needs to do better if it is to persuade the market that it has the most user friendly - and desirable - mobile platform in the market today.”

Cripps said that manufacturers new to the UK, such as ZTE, “can be expected to take advantage of the more achievable hardware specs now being touted by Microsoft - plus carriers' desire for low cost alternatives to Android smartphones. That said, Mango still lacks the potential for customisation and brand differentiation that some manufacturers are looking for.”

Apple dispatches 'Let's talk iPhone' event invitations

by Steven Mostyn

It would appear the recent rush of misty rumour and speculation connected to Apple’s unveiling of the next generation iPhone was largely on the money.

Moreover, the Cupertino-based giant has this week officially announced a vaguely mysterious October 4 media event by emailing “Let’s talk iPhone” invitations to technology outlets.

Although Apple has not said exactly what it will reveal during said presentation, the iPhone’s annual refresh is (over) due and industry watchers believe the San Francisco spotlight will indeed showcase the iPhone 4’s successor.

Of course, whether the smartphone in question arrives as merely a tweaked upgrade (i.e., the iPhone 4S) or a completely new handset (i.e., the iPhone 5) remains to be seen.

Associated features long-rumoured to be aboard the device include the likes of a slimmer and lighter chassis, a dual-core A5 processor, version 5.0 of Apple’s iOS operating system, an 8.0 mega-pixel camera, up to 64GBs of data storage, and support for iCloud services.

News of Apple’s event comes after AT&T and Sprint (both of which carry the iPhone) instructed employees that no vacation time is to be granted during the first two weeks of October—which suggests an impending major device launch.

We expect Apple’s new iPhone to be ready for retail by the middle of October.

More activity likely as solar storm continues

by Kate Taylor


The Earth is enveloped in a strong-to-severe magnetic storm, following a large solar eruption yesterday morning.
At 8:15am EDT yesterday, a coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from sunspot 1302, sending charged particles streaming in our direction.


The Goddard Space Weather Lab reported a strong compression of Earth's magnetosphere. And simulations showed solar wind plasma penetrating right into geosynchronous orbit, meaning that satellites could be directly exposed to solar wind plasma and magnetic fields.


Lucky viewers with clear skies may have seen auroras last night, and there's a chance of more tonight.


Sunspot 1302 has been particularly active over the last few days. On Saturday, it unleashed  an X1.9-category flare, followed by M8.6 and M7.4 flares later the same day and an M8.8 flare early on Sunday.


"None of the blasts have been squarely Earth-directed, but this could change as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the days ahead," says NASA. "AR1302 is growing and shows no immediate signs of quieting down."


It's possible that GPS systems could be affected today. The NOAA says that solar activity's exected to remain moderate during the course of the day, tailing off over the next few days.


And, it warns, another CME could be on the way, with the sunspot showing no signs of quietening down - indeed, it may be getting more lively.


"The spot on the sun that produced Saturday's coronal mass ejection remains active and is well positioned to deliver more storm activity in the next several days," it says.

NASA's UARS Satellite fell in the Pacific during fiery breakup

By TWS Space Reporter

(TheWeatherSpace.com) - NASA's UARS Satellite likely fell into the Pacific and is swimming with the fish, but we may never find out the final resting spot. 

Hoaxers are all over the place with photos and videos, one taken from Oklahoma which was debunked quickly, dubbed a fake. Yet the public is wondering what happened to the satellite.

A ton of e-mails have been received here at TheWeatherSpace.com but we do not have the answers either. Here in Los Angeles it was not visible on the passby, even on the horizon. It raises questions whether it fell before Southern California. There were no credible reports of a sighting anywhere else in the world, even in twilight conditions.

The last sighting was over Texas ... nothing after that. NASA was able to track the satellite yet does not know where it is with certainty. The public is questioning them. No credible evidence has come up on where the UARS Satellite landed. So how many days will it take to get to the center of the final destination? The world may never know. 

One thing is for certain we need to stop worrying about that and worry about the next re-entry, ROSAT ... due next month. 

TheWeatherSpace.com updates the main "homepage" at least two times a day with fresh news in science, natural disasters, weather and more ... 

Mysql.com infects visitors with malware

By Lucian Constantin

UNIDENTIFIED ATTACKERS have compromised Mysql.com, home to one of the world's most popular database engines, and launched a drive-by download attack against the web site's visitors.

According to researchers from web security firm Armorize, who detected the attack, the hackers managed to inject rogue Javascript code into one of the web site's legitimate .js files.

The malicious code redirected visitors through a third-party domain and landed them on a web page that was part of a Blackhole exploit pack installation.

Blackhole is a web crimeware toolkit used for drive-by download attacks. It exploits vulnerabilities in older versions of web browsers, operating systems and web plug-ins, like Flash Player, Adobe Reader or Java.

"It exploits the visitor's browsing platform [...], and upon successful exploitation, permanently installs a piece of malware into the visitor's machine, without the visitor's knowledge," warned Armorize's co-founder and CEO Wayne Huang.

"The visitor doesn't need to click or agree to anything; simply visiting mysql.com with a vulnerable browsing platform will result in an infection," he added.

The malicious code has been cleaned from the web site since Armorize's initial report, but it's estimated that it stayed live for around seven hours.

Given that Mysql.com is a very popular web site, ranking 637 on Alexa, and that the antivirus detection rate for the malware is still low at the time of writing this article, the total number of victims could be significant.

It's not clear what method the attackers used to compromise the web site, but security blogger Brian Krebs reports that root access to the server was advertised for $3,000 on a Russian underground forum almost a week ago.

The seller, who posted screenshots of what looked like a root login prompt, pointed out that the access could be used to plant a web exploit toolkit.

This is the second security breach registered on Mysql.com this year. Back in March, a hacker exploited an SQL injection vulnerability to obtain access to the web site's database.

Google+ already has 50 million users

By Dave Neal

SOCIAL NETWORKING TRACKER Paul Allen has revealed that by his estimates Google+ has already hit the 50 million user mark.

Allen, who is the founder of Ancestry.com, revealed the numbers on his Google+ account, of course, and explained that the big burst in users came since Google opened up its social network to the general public.

"Yesterday (give or take a few days) Google+ likely crossed the 50 million user mark. Since being opened to the general public (over age 18) last week, Google+ has been growing by at least 4 per cent per day, meaning that around 2 million new users have been signing up each day," he wrote.

"Given this momentum, it is hard for me to imagine a scenario where Google+ doesn't end up with hundreds of millions of users. It's just a matter of time."

Fifty million people is not all that many though, particularly when you compare it against the real people almanac that is Facebook. Allen said that Google might challenge that social network with Google+, but added that for now the increased competition should be taken as a good thing.

"None of this is necessarily bad news for Facebook," he added. "Competition can make companies much better... I think we are witnessing the most exciting battle in tech history as two well-funded, fast-growing, highly-profitable, genius-led Silicon Valley companies are competing from very different starting points to affect how we find information, how we connect with people, how we view the world, and how we spend our time."

It could be bad news for Facebook however, if more and more people start reacting to the increasing tide of bad press about that company, its changes and their impact on personal privacy. Google might already be capitalising on users' desire to move away from a social network that retains control over your data, or it might be making the most of its already massive user base. 

Facebook iPad App to be Announced Alongside Apple iPhone 5

It seems like Apple fans are getting even more reasons to get excited about the iPhone 5 announcement next Tuesday (Oct 4th), as rumour has it Facebook will also be taking the stage to make some announcements of its own.
According to Mashable, Facebook will be unveiling its long awaited iPad app to coincide with the latest release on iOS 5. As Ben Parr put it, the iPad app has been “in limbo” since it was leaked a few months ago.
It looked like the app was fully functional with a typical iOS design but for some reason it was immediately blocked and never heard of again after developers managed to hack Facebook for iPhone to use it.
Facebook have been much more tight-lipped about the new release with no recent screen shots or hacks being leaked. You can still see the old screenshots on Mashable if you want ideas of what the app will probably look like.
Parr also says that Facebook could be launching and improved iPhone app and even may unveil an HTML5-based mobile app marketplace. It’s uncertain whether Zuckerberg himself will make the announcements but we’re sure the combination of a new iPhone and the long awaited Facebook iPad app will be more than enough for attendees.

Spotify: 250,000 new users daily after Facebook deal

by Chris Davies
Spotify is reportedly seeing 250,000 new users join each day, in the aftermath of its deal with Facebook last week, with monthly active users leaping by 1m to 4.4m. The figures, shared by music industry consultancy MusicAlly, contrasts sharply with criticism of Spotify’s decision to tie new sign-ups up with the social network. Spotify currently offers six months of its unlimited access package free to new users.


However, to get that unlimited access package, you’ll need to have a Facebook account, since the company has merged its own login system and that of the social network. In a statement, also given to MusicAlly, Spotify described it as “like a virtual ‘passport’, designed to make the experience smoother and easier.”


Although that mandatory registration didn’t go down well with Facebook’s critics, the usage figures would suggest that people are quite content to register with the service if there’s free music to be had. After the initial six months of unlimited access, Spotify downgrades each account to 10hrs of access per month, obviously hoping users will stump up cash for what previously they got free.


“To us, this is all about creating an amazing new world of music discovery. As most of our users are already social and have already connected to Facebook, it seemed logical to integrate Spotify and Facebook logins. We already use Facebook as part of our backend to power our social features and by adopting Facebook’s login, we’ve created a simple and seamless social experience.


From today, all new Spotify users will need to have a Facebook account to join Spotify. Think of it as like a virtual ‘passport’, designed to make the experience smoother and easier, with one less username and password to remember. You don’t need to connect to Facebook and if you do decide to, you can always control what you share and don’t share by changing your Spotify settings at any time.


We’re constantly trying new things, always looking for feedback and we’re always going to listen to our users, making changes based on this feedback wherever we can.” Spotify statement

Microsoft employees walk out during Ballmer speech

By Lawrence Latif

SOFTLY SPOKEN Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer seems to be losing support from the firm's rank and file, according to reports emerging from one of its company meetings.

Ballmer's speech, which rattled through Microsoft's achievements and looked forward to upcoming products, left many employees heading for the door early. One Microsoft staffer said, "Steve, you've lost the support of your employees," adding, "when will you realise that you're holding this once great company back?"

Ever since Ballmer took over from Bill Gates there has been lingering doubt as to whether he really is the man for the job. Microsoft has continued to stutter with its online ventures and is all but invisible in social networking. Perhaps Ballmer's biggest win has been having an ex-Microsoft employee decide to load Windows Phone 7 on Nokia smartphones.

Apparently Ballmer didn't wow the Microsoft faithful with upcoming products, with the anonymous blogger concluding, "Is Win 8 tablet all we have left to be excited about? Has the morale across the company slumped so much that 20,000 of us together can't even generate a decent applause? Please someone tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I've just got a bad attitude and I completely misread the meeting."

Windows 8 will either make or break Ballmer. In the desktop and laptop market there's little doubt that Microsoft will get its OEMs and system builders to push the operating system aggressively in the hope of bumping up sales figures, but in the tablet market it's a whole different ball game.

Arguably Ballmer should be judged on how he manages to steer Microsoft into a new market. If Microsoft does manage to compete with established players such as Apple and Google, then Ballmer might be able to breathe a sigh of relief, but if not, Microsoft's board might show him the door.