Facebook moves to ban Google Ads from its apps

Facebook will soon require that app developers only use in-app advertising from approved vendors. Not on the list: Google.

It’s no secret that Facebook and Google don’t like each other. In the last few months, the two Internet giants havepoached one another’s employees and warred over open email standards. On Wednesday, Facebook took its latest silent shot at Google.

In a developer blog post, the social network said it has modified its rules and now requires that apps with in-app advertising can only use Facebook-approved companies, or companies willing to sign off on the company’s Advertising guidelines. However, the list has two glaring omissions: Adsense and Double Click, both owned by the largest advertising company on the Web: Google.

Why Google is not on this list, we don’t know, nor do we know precisely how many games and applications have Google advertising in them, but any that do will be forced to switch to a Facebook approved advertising partner by Feb. 28.

“If your ad provider is not on this list, we encourage you to contact them to determine if they are planning on signing our terms,” writes Allison Hendrix of the Facebook app verification team.

Google rolls out 007-style ‘two-step verification’ security

Google has added a new "two-step verification" security option for all accounts, allowing users to implement much greater security for private data.

Many of us go about our day, logging into online accounts from home, work, the library, the Apple store, and wherever else in order to read that inspirational story Mom e-mailed us about a kitten befriending a dog, and everything is hunky dory. Someone, on the other hand, is currently becoming the person you read about who had their password stolen, and their bank account hacked using the information they e-mailed themselves “that one time.” (Almost two thirds of all Americans have been affected, according to a study from Internet security giant Symantec. This type of digital information theft is easier than many of us realize.)

Security concerns have grown steadily over the last several years as users continue to put more and more private data behind the security vault door that is a Google account login. But perhaps these concerns are finally being laid to rest. Google is rolling out a new solution for those desiring additional protection that will make Google as the Alfred to your Bruce, the M to your James, the home base secret-keeper to your mobile, private data-accessing lifestyle.

You can now activate a “two-step verification,” which will will require you to login with your username and password as usual, and then, on a second page, fulfill a request for a verification code before admitting you to your account. This verification code, randomly generated by Google, is only valid for the few seconds while you are completing the login process, and provided to you upon your request. Anyone who steals your password, or even this secret code, will not be able to login to your account later and steal all of the details of your “girls night out” planned for next Thursday night.

Google is providing a variety of ways for you to obtain this temporary password. According to a beta tester at over at TechCrunch, you can request it via a new mobile app called Google Authenticator (for your Android, iPhone, or Blackberry), text Google for it, or have them company call you. You can also authenticate a second phone if you lose access to your primary one, or use a pre-printed list of one-time use passwords (which you will inevitably keep hidden in the sole of your shoe), if you need a fail-safe backup.

To ease the burden of this process for the numerous times a day you access your Google account, you can input a one-time authentication code for devices you use all the time. A little trickier is the requirement to generate and store app-specific pass-codes for programs like Apple Mail and iCal, which often automatically login to your Google account and regularly pull down new data for your preferred method of interface.

We’ve been on the old username-and-password system for some time now, but this new, second-tier authentication approach is starting to spread. You may have seen it on bank websites, with their periodic prompt of security questions, or a “call and answer” system with unique images tied to your account, so that you can verify the page you’re on before inputting your password. You may even have received a portable, random password-generating key fob for your corporate or securities-trading account. Yahoo has taken steps to protect users by helping team them up with Norton’s Internet Security product.

We can’t say your information is now invulnerable, but Google, as usual, has taken another promising step towards solving a big consumer problem. Google’s Accounts Help Center has details on how to get your own Google account set up with two-step verification.

HP snubs Windows, plans to integrate webOS into PCs

Hewlett Packard had a historic day today. First it announced several new devices and then dropped a bomb: it plans to integrate WebOS into its printers, PCs, and notebooks, giving it one universal platform for all its devices.

Today, HP has shown that it plans to stand behind Palm’s WebOS in a monumental way. After announcing three new WebOS products–the HP Veer, Palm Pre 3, and HP TouchPad tablet–and reaffirming its dedication to WebOS, HP dropped a bomb; the world’s largest computer manufacturer will be putting WebOS on its printers, laptops, and desktop PCs next year.

“I’m excited to announce our plans to bring the WebOS to the device that has the biggest reach of all: the personal computer,” said Todd Bradley, head of HP’s clients group. “Do the math on two PCs per second. You easily exceed 100 million devices with WebOS deployed annually. That’s the start of something pretty big.”

HP claims it has 1 billion computer customers worldwide and sells 2 PCs every second, which means more than 170,000 HP PCs are sold per day. The company claims it is about “delivering experiences” and will modify WebOS for the personal computer and begin shipping it, presumably, on all or a majority of its laptops.

HP made no mention of Windows or if the company will still sell Microsoft’s operating system, which is a vital resource for many businesses. Though many consumers could switch operating systems on a dime, most businesses cannot. It’s likely that HP will continue selling Windows in some fashion, for the time being.

HP Touchsmart 9300 and 610 recline the touch PC

HP has unveiled the Touchsmart 9300 Elite and 610, two touch PCs capable of reclining up to 60 degrees, allowing a more natural feeling touch experience on the desktop.

Who says desktop PCs are dead? Today, Hewlett-Packard unveiled the TouchSmart 9300 Elite, a business-class touch PC that can recline up to 60 degrees, tilt forward 5 degrees, and swivel 180 degrees to make touch gesturing much more ergonomic for users. The PC has a 23-inch LED backlit widescreen, multitouch capabilities, and a 1080p HD display. Its consumer PC counterpart, the Touchsmart 610, will also have an upgraded recline. HP describes its new line of PCs as a “revolutionary” leap in touch technology.

The 9300 Elite will replace HP’s current touch PC, the 9100, which has a 30 degree tilt. Under the hood, the desktop can pack as much as 16 GB of RAM. It runs on Windows 7, has up to a 1TB hard drive, an optional 160GB solid-state drive, and Intel’s latest generation of Core i3-i7 processors. Unfortunately, both run on an integrated Intel graphics card, meaning that if you were hoping to do some gaming on the devices, think again. HP has also partnered with Dr. Dre’s Beats Audio to offer an upgraded sound experience on the 610 line, which also has a built in HDTV tuner and access to HP’s apps library, while the 9300 will come with the ability to be easily mounted on the wall, enabling a wider range of business use scenarios. Both computers have a Blu-ray Combo Drive, SD card reader, a dual microphone array, and 2MP webcam.

The HP Touchsmart 610 will be available beginning Feb. 9 for prices starting at $899.99. No pricing information has been released for the Touchsmart Elite 9300, but it will be modestly more expensive from what we gather. It will be available in the United States by the end of May. HP will unveil its newest line of notebook PCs tomorrow.

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Google Chrome 9 update adds more speed, Chrome Web Store, WebGL functionality

oogle Chrome 9 update leaves beta with speed improvements, WebGL support, Chrome Instant and the Chrome Web Store.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox Web browsers have long been the standard for the net-connected folk of the world… which is to say, just about everyone, everywhere. However, Google’s Chrome browser, released in late 2008, has quickly become a viable alternative to the other two Web surfing platforms, with users praising its stripped-down interface, improved speed and less demanding memory restrictions. The latest update brings Chrome to version 9, adding a fresh boost of speed and then some.

Perhaps the most exciting addition is support for WebGL, which allows hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to run right in your browser. You’re not going to see Call of Duty levels of visual complexity in your browser window, but there a range of demos available at ChromeExperiments which give an idea of what the newly added functionality offers. Looking at the longer term, WebGL support offers plenty of potential for higher-end in-browser gaming. Even if it isn’t Call of Duty.

Also new is Chrome Instant. Spun off of Google Instant, which updates the results of a web search in real time as you type a phrase in, Chrome Instant puts the functionality directly into your browser bar. In addition to real time search updates in Google, Chrome Instant will also begin loading frequently visited webpages as soon as you start typing the address into the omnibox (Chrome’s multi-functional address bar). In order to use this, you’ll have to enable it in the browser’s settings.

With Chrome 9 now out of beta, the Chrome Web Store is now open and operational for all U.S. customers. The update sees a number of new apps added to the store, including offerings for BBC GoodFood, Sesame Street and Marvel Comics.

Google vs. Bing: The war continues

oogle's Amit Singhal takes to the official Google blog to back up claims that Bing is stealing Google results, calling Microsoft's search engine a "cheap imitation."

The war of words between Google and Bing hit a fevered pitch Wednesday, with Google search engineer Amit Singhal blasting Microsoft in a post on the official Google Blog for allegedly stealing search results, calling Bing’s results a “cheap imitation.”

“However you define copying,” writes Singhal, “the bottom line is, these Bing results came directly from Google.”

The public battle between the online search competitors began Tuesday after Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Landreported that Google had staged an undercover “sting operation” to trick Bing into copying bogus search results after engineers noticed Bing results for an obscure eye surgery, called tarsorrhaphy, looking suspiciously similar to their own.

In Google’s newest presentation of evidence, Singhal further explains how they came to discover that Bing was copying Google spelling corrections and search results:

We noticed that URLs from Google search results would later appear in Bing with increasing frequency for all kinds of queries: popular queries, rare or unusual queries and misspelled queries. Even search results that we would consider mistakes of our algorithms started showing up on Bing.

Microsoft has denied claims that it copied Google’s data about what people search and click to fine-tune Bing’s search results, telling ZDNet unequivocally that Bing does “not copy Google’s results.”

Bing VP Harry Shum continued the Microsoft line on the official Bing blog, saying: “To be clear, we learn from all of our customers. What we saw in today’s story was a spy-novelesque stunt to generate extreme outliers in tail query ranking. It was a creative tactic by a competitor, and we’ll take it as a back-handed compliment. But it doesn’t accurately portray how we use opt-in customer data as one of many inputs to help improve our user experience.”

This exchange was followed by a heated (and highly entertaining) back-and-forth on Twitter between Googlers and Microsoft’s communications chief Frank Shaw, who claimed that Google was the “pot calling [the] kettle black” because “Google collects customer data from Chrome and Android,” among other refutations.

The Google vs. Bing confrontation has sparked a wave of criticism — aimed at both sides — from the tech community. But to Google’s critics, Singhal says that the company’s goal is simple: “We would like for this practice to stop.”

Microsoft puts H.264 video back into Chrome

Microsoft is bringing h.264 video back to Google's Chrome browser, announcing its own HTML5 video extension for Windows 7 users.

Google raised hackles in the Web video community last month when it announced its Chrome browser would be dropping support for H.264-encoded video in favor of Google’s own WebM standard. Now, of all people, Microsoft is firing back, announcing it is bringing H.264 video back to Google Chrome for Windows 7 users, by way of a free downloadable Windows Media Player HTML5 Extension for Chrome.

“At Microsoft we respect that Windows customers want the best experience of the Web including the ability to enjoy the widest range of content available on the Internet in H.264 format,” wrote Microsoft’s Claudio Caldato, in the company’s interoperability blog. “H.264 is an excellent and widely-used video format that serves the web very well today. As such, we will continue to ensure that developers and customers continue to have an optimal Web experience.”

Google’s decision to drop H.264 video centers around patent issues; it believes its WebM format is less encumbered by patents going forward and is thus a better choice for an open online video format. However, the net result of Chrome dropping support for H.264 video—since few other mainstream browsers currently support WebM video—is that video-heavy sites and services are reverting away from H.264 and back to Flash-based video—in other words, they’re abandoning a reasonably open and available standard for a completely proprietary technology, effectively reducing the openness of online video.

Microsoft’s release follows shortly on another free add-on for FireFox that enables Windows 7 users to play H.264 video using Windows 7′s built in media capabilities. Microsoft has long offered a Windows Media Player plug-in for Firefox.

Microsoft is one of many patent holders whose intellectual property is rolled into the H.264 video codec; however, the codec licensing terms are controlled by MPEG LA, not Microsoft, and the licensing terms have been well-defined for some time. Microsoft says it is also working with Google to bring WebM support to the WIndows platform.

Pirated Microsoft software funded Mexican drug cartel

unterfeit copies of Office 2007 helped fund notoriously violent Mexican gang La Familia Michoacana, fueling Microsoft's resolve to fight piracy.

And Microsoft thought its biggest problem this week was Google. According to the company’s lawyers, the sale of pirated Microsoft software has been lining the pockets of infamous Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana. The money from the counterfeit copies has funded the group’s extremely illegal activity, including kidnappings and drug and weapons trafficking.

La Familia Michoacana is an elite gang in Mexico and sees a profit of $800 million annually, much in thanks to the sale of pirated and counterfeit products. Microsoft associate general counsel David Finn wrote on the company’s blog that the criminals had been distributing the illegal material “through thousands of kiosks, markets, and stores in the region.” La Familia Michoacana also demanded that vendors carrying the software met sale expectations, enforcing “a ‘form of extortion’ on locals.” Finn revealed that Office 2007 discs bearing the “FMM” logo (Familia Morelia Michoacana) of the cartel not only hurt the consumers buying them, but Microsoft’s reputation.

In addition to the ring of extremely illegal and likely terrifying activity, Finn also adresses the possibility of the many computers now exposed to Microsoft software laden with viruses. “It’s not just the fact that they’re concerned that purchasing counterfeit software could contribute to violent gang activity; they’re also concerned that illegal software is infected with ‘malware’ – computer viruses, Trojan horses, or botware – designed to damage computers, destroy data, compromise security, and steal their identities.”

Last March, a string operation in Los Reyes turned up “rooms crammed with about 50 machines used to copy CDs and make counterfeit versions of software like Microsoft Office and Xbox video games. [Police] arrested three men on the spot,” The New York Times reported in November. One source who remained anonymous for fear of safety said that, “the entire operation was very complicated and risky.”

Microsoft is one of many software manufacturers taking a stand on piracy this year, claiming the continued profit loss and connected violence are escalating at unjustifiable rates. Google has taken subtle measures to prevent illegal downloading, Nintendo claimed this fad is on its way out, and Microsoft has made clear it will combat counterfeit software with a “team of 75 investigators, lawyers, engineers, and advisors [who] will continue to build new anti-piracy technology to keep ahead of these sophisticated operations.”

Google vs. Bing experiment: Half of search results are identical

In our own small, 10-word Google vs. Bing experiment, we found that about half of all search results on the first pages of Bing and Google featured identical links. Read on to learn about our method and see the real search results for yourself.

The gloves are off and Google has thrown the first punch. On Tuesday, Google released the results of a detailed investigation it conducted to prove that Microsoft’s Bing is stealing copying search results from the world’s largest search engine. Google claims that Bing is collecting Google search data from its Bing toolbar and using it to improve its own search results. In response, Microsoft fired back saying it does not copy results, but also admitted that it does look at Google results from its toolbar. In defense of that fact, Microsoft claims that Google’s results are only one of 1,000 input streams Bing uses to determine search results.

But pretend you’re Microsoft. Imagine that you own Internet Explorer, the browser 56 percent of all Internet goers use. Now imagine that one of the features you built into your browser gives you access to a constant stream of results from searches made to competitors to your own search engine named Bing. Most importantly, you have access to the search engine results of your biggest competitor, a search engine named Google that holds a dominant 68 percent of the search market. Your own search engine, Bing, has 28.2 percent of the market. You’ve already started using this stream of Google searches to benefit your own search. The question is: how far do you go? How much of Google’s search juice do you bottle and mix with your own?

The experiment

We know now that Bing uses Google results to augment its search. So the real question is: how similar are the results from these two search engines? To find this out, I decided to conduct my own investigation using 10 random terms I thought up from whatever was floating in my head earlier today. This is not a scientific study by any stretch of the imagination. My results may not be typical. They are simply the results Google and Bing provided.

• 10 random words: adoxography (def: writing on a trivial subject), aromatherapy, arpu, best search engine, Digital Trends, “park place,” Sean Sheep (misspelling for Shaun the Sheep), The Rite, welk, and Will Wright. These words have been sorted alphabetically.
• The method: I searched each of these words simultaneously on Google (left) and Bing (right) and scanned the first page of results. Both engines default to 10 results per page, along with a varying number of social, map, news, and other widgets. I looked at Page 1 results in both search engines. Using colored boxes, I marked links that were shared across both Google and Bing.
• Preparation: To search, I used a Google Chrome browser in Incognito mode. I was logged out of both search engines and kept all settings at default. Both search engines seemed to know where I am (Chicago, Illinois), but I did not inform either of my location. I also ensured I was logged out of Facebook in Bing, which appears to have an effect on some results. Search histories on both engines were cleared.

Below are pictures of the actual searches I performed on Google and Bing. Shared links are colored and connected via lines. Browse them them yourself to see just how cozy Google and Bing get, or skip ahead for the conclusion and breakdown.

Word: adoxography

7 out of 10 results are identical. Adoxography means “to write on a trivial subject.” It was the first, and strangest, word that came to mind. The results were astoundingly similar.

Word: aromatherapy

7 out of 10 results are identical. This word was on a container of soap in my kitchen. Again, the results are in a different order, but are mostly identical. As seems to be the norm, both search engines add their own little image and news widget boxes around the search results to differentiate themselves. Bing was most helpful here.

Motorola and AT&T completely botched Atrix 4G Laptop pricing

The Motorola Atrix 4G and Laptop Dock was one of our favorite new devices at CES, but the company has priced it so high that it's hard to see anyone shelling out the cash to buy the phone and peripheral.

The Motorola Atrix 4G was one of our favorite devices at CES this year (pics and hands-on impressions here). The Android phone itself is sleek and powerful, but what separates it from the pack is the ability to dock with a laptop shell and become a full netbook, complete with Firefox and some productivity software. Better, the Laptop shell holds an 8 to 10 hour charge, and will actually charge the phone while it powers the dock. But the looming question has always been its price. In order for the Atrix 4G + Laptop Dock concept to make sense, it had to cost less to own than simply buying a phone and netbook separately. Unfortunately, as we feared, Motorola and AT&T have completely blown it. The Atrix 4G will hit shelves on March 6, but the Laptop Dock is too expensive to justify buying.

Assuming you’re looking to own a netbook and a smartphone, which is the market Motorola is targeting, here is what it costs to own a Motorola Atrix 4G and its accompanying Laptop Dock. For the purposes of picking plans that are actually usable, I have avoided AT&Ts 200MB data plans.

Cost to own an Atrix 4G + Wi-Fi Netbook

+ $200 for Motorola Atrix 4G (w/2-yr contract)
+ $600 for “DataPro 2GB smartphone data plan“ ($25/mo for 24 months)
+ $315 for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PE-MU27-WT 10.1-Inch Windows 7 Netbook
_________________________________________________________
$1,115 for two great devices with 2GB monthly data (find a way to tether the netbook yourself)

Cost to own an Atrix 4G + 3G connected Netbook

+ $200 for Motorola Atrix 4G (w/2-yr contract)
+ $600 for “DataPro 2GB smartphone data plan“ ($25/mo for 24 months)
+ $10 for Samsung Go Windows 7 Netbook from AT&T (w/2-yr contract)
+ $1,440 for “DataConnect 5 GB” ($60/mo for 24 months)
_________________________________________________________
$2,250 for two connected devices with 7GB of monthly data

Cost to own the Atrix 4G + Laptop Dock

+ $600 for Motorola Atrix 4G + Laptop Dock bundle  (w/2-yr DataConnect contract) 
– $100 mail-in-rebate (obtainable after 60 days of mailing)
+ $1080 for required “DataPro 4GB for Smartphone with Tethering plan“ ($45/mo for 24 months)
_________________________________________________________
$1,580 for one device that becomes a netbook and is limited to 4GB of data

The economics don’t make sense

Motorola is charging $500 to buy the Laptop Dock by itself without a plan. How on earth is it worth that much money? Most netbooks AT&T sells max out at $450, and netbooks outside of the carrier cost a lot less than that. Essentially, the Laptop Dock is a screen, a keyboard, and a battery. The device has no CPU, RAM, harddrive, or anything inside of it. This device should not cost more than $200 without a plan. That puts its price about $100 under the price of a standard netbook ($300-$350). Bundled with the Atrix 4G (and contract), it should cost about $300-$350. Bottom line, it should match the price of a netbook.

Why can’t it cost more? Well, because it offers a lot less. As novel an idea as the Atrix 4G Laptop mode is, it makes a weak substitute for a full-fledged netbook. It has a Firefox browser, 15-inch screen, and some basic document editing software (very basic), but doesn’t have great stats for a laptop. The gigabyte of RAM and dual-core processor are great, but the 16GB of internal memory, lack of a Webcam, low desktop resolution, and lack of available applications and games leave a lot to be desired. Since it runs a variant of Android/Linux in its Laptop mode, there are few to no applications built for it yet. Motorola will likely release a few, but unless the concept takes off in a major way, browsing the Web on a big screen with a keyboard is the only major advantage of the Atrix 4G Laptop. But at its current pricing, you could buy a decked out netbook and do a helluva lot more with it for much less money.

Conclusion

While the Atrix 4G + Laptop Dock is definitely a better deal than buying an Atrix 4G (or other Android phone) and a 3G connected Netbook, I can’t see how anyone who wasn’t rich, lazy, desperate, or a combination of the three would choose either option at AT&T’s current data and device prices. The most economical way to go is to buy a $200 Android smartphone like the Atrix 4G and also buy a Wi-Fi netbook like the ASUS Eee PC Seashell Windows 7 Netbook for $315. With some ingenuity, you can find a way to tether your phone and netbook without AT&T’s crazy tethering plan. Even if you do decide to go legit and opt for the $45-a-month tethering plan, it works out to $1,595, a mere $15 for a fully functioning Windows 7 computer that doesn’t need a phone jammed into it to operate.

The Atrix 4G + Laptop is one of the coolest ideas we’ve seen, but the only way such a concept will take off is if it’s either A.) much better than a standard netbook and phone separately, or B.) cheaper than the alternatives. Sadly, The Atrix 4G + Laptop Dock is neither.

Microsoft sues TiVo for infringement – again

Microsoft has renewed its patent battle with TiVo, now claiming the DVR pioneer infringes on four Microsoft patents.

The legal battle between Microsoft and TiVo continues to slowly escalate: Microsoft has filed a new patent infringement suit against TiVo, claiming TiVo’s DVRs violate four Microsoft patents related to interactive TV and remote interfaces. The patents date back to the mid-1990s when Microsoft was beginning to experiment with technologies that would ultimately be folded forward into what become Windows Media Center. Microsoft is seeking an injunction barring TiVo from using the technologies as well as damages and court costs. In addition to the infringement suit, Microsoft has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission requesting that TiVo set-top boxes and other products using the allegedly-infringing technologies be barred from import into the United States.

The new suit is an escalation in a long-running feud between TiVo and Microsoft; a year ago, Microsoft sued TiVo claiming the DVR company violated Microsoft patents on secure payments and delivery of online programming. Microsoft’s original suit was largely seen as a response to TiVo’s suit against AT&T’s U-verse technology, which TiVo claims violates important TiVo patents, including the famous “time warp” patent at the heart of TiVo’s infringement victory over EchoStar. Microsoft asked to intervene in that case to challenge the validity of TiVo’s patents; AT&T’s U-verse service is based on Microsoft MediaRoom technology.

According to some sources, AT&T has played hardball with Microsoft over the TiVo suit, insisting that Microsoft pay any fees or damages if U-verse is found to be infringing on TiVo patents. Microsoft’s new suit against TiVo may be a ploy to gain more leverage in the case and push the DVR maker towards settlement talks.