Firefox survives first round of surgery

Mozilla's three months into an ambitious plan to bolt a long list of features into its browser. Competitors left it no choice.

by Seth Rosenblatt  March 30, 2012 7:49 PM PDT

Firefox to change its look--again

After years of tough competition from dominance-seeking Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, Mozilla faces a second year in a row of forced adaptations. Its aggressive Firefox 2012 development plan calls for surgeries both minor and radical to integrate many new pieces into the browser, but it may not survive post-op. At least, not as you know it.

So far, the changes have resulted in a Firefox which, simply put, runs better. Two of the most tangible new tools have changed add-on behavior. The addition of add-ons to Firefox Sync let you mirror the same add-ons at work and at home, and you won't have to reinstall them manually if your computer crashes.

A second add-on change marks around 80 percent of add-ons as compatible by default with each new version of Firefox. This prevents the browser from worrying about the "maximum version compatibility" issue that was relevant back in Firefox 3, when updates were annual, but is much less of a problem when updates come every six weeks.

Other early 2012 victories for Firefox include Chrome migration; a new design for HTML5 media controls; better developer and Web platform tools; and a Firefox "hotfix" system for pushing out minor updates that don't require a browser restart. Granted, these are the equivalent of medicating a patient to lower a fever while the virus still infects the body, but they're good starts. They're just more about keeping up with the competition than they are about forging ahead.

The second quarter of 2012 doesn't look particularly life-saving, either. Some of the highlights of what Mozilla wants to achieve before the end of June include an improved Home Tab and New Tab experience; in-location bar search that ensures user privacy; automatic browsing session restore with tabs-on-demand; a panel-based download manager; and silent updates. These are achievements that Firefox is not boldly leading on. Some of them, such as the Home Tab and New Tab, and silent updates, are already in the Firefox Aurora development build, which means that they're well on their way to reaching most people.

Of course, there are basic feature improvements planned for the second half of 2012, too, such as preventing default search engine hijacks by add-ons. This will kill off one of the browser's biggest remaining annoyances. The Options menu will be changed from a pop-up to a menu in the main browser window, not unlike how Chrome presents its Preferences. Also following the footsteps of others will be a click-to-play option for plug-ins, and integrated language translation.

But the second half of 2012 is also when Mozilla anticipates that many of its loftier goals will mature. These include integrating a social sharing tool called Firefox Share; an interface update code-named Australis; its next-generation JavaScript engine called IonMonkey; a feature-ready beta version of Firefox for Windows 8; and an e-mail-based identification system that would allow people to log in to Firefox and pull down all their settings, bookmarks, add-ons, and passwords from a secure server.

This could be a Holy Grail for Mozilla's independent, open-Web initiatives, if it's able to successfully tie the browser login with its broader, site-based Mozilla Persona login plans to compete with Facebook and Google. Think about it: Mozilla competing with Facebook on logins. That's as big a David-and-Goliath scenario as Firefox 1.0 versus Internet Explorer 6.

It's not an idea I disagree with; on the contrary, I think Mozilla is one of the few organizations that has the public's trust and the technical background to pull something like this off. But I'm equally skeptical of its ability to make it happen this year, even on the browser level, because of the enormous resources it will take. Remember, the add-on sync that just debuted earlier this month came a year after sync shipped in-browser. These are not easy technical victories to win.

Further ahead lie other next-gen projects like a new kind of RSS called Push have yet to be added to the public calendar.

At a core level, Mozilla says, the plans call for reminding people that Mozilla is a nonprofit that takes seriously its mission statement of pursuing an open, accessible Web, and it's those core values that are dictating Firefox's direction. Of that, there is little doubt.

Just last year, though, we saw Firefox finally follow Chrome with a less-obtrusive interface, faster JavaScript engine, restartless add-ons, synchronization, more accessible development channels, and a rapid release cycle which barely caused a blip when Google debuted it, but became a source of much sturm und dang among a vocal but definite minority of Firefox users. Browser development is uneven, with the five major browsers often leapfrogging past each other, but the larger point of Firefox appearing to lag behind when it used to aggressively lead was not lost on the people using it.

A big part of the problem is that Firefox is not the only patient that Mozilla is working on. It's also attempting to give birth to a new mobile operating system called Boot to Gecko and marketplace that will host Web apps which can work across multiple platforms including Boot to Gecko. To top it all off, the company faces a brain drain of many of its high-profile, long-time employees.

Assuming Chrome stays on schedule, its high-end graphics and security tech called Native Client will debut in a few months. The powerful Internet Explorer 10 will come with deep integration into Windows 8 around October, and it looks like it will be harder than it is now to switch browsers. Plans for Safari and Opera aren't as open, but it's hard to imagine they're passively observing all these changes.

The combination of internal and external pressures facing Firefox have put it in a position where it must simultaneously adapt and lead to stay ahead of competitors -- if it wants to stay relevant. This is one case where admonitions of "Doctor, heal thyself!" can't go ignored.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57407398-2/firefox-survives-first-round-of-surgery/?tag=nl.e776

Apple gadget maker has 'significant' labor issues: audit

AFP – 8 hours ago

Workplace abuses were uncovered in an audit that equated to "a full body scan" of three Chinese factories pumping out coveted Apple gadgets, independent investigators reported on Thursday.

Employees at each of the factories exceeded a work-week limit of 76 hours set by Chinese law and, in some cases, worked more than seven days straight without a required 24-hour break, according to the Fair Labor Association.

"The Fair Labor Association gave Apple's largest supplier the equivalent of a full-body scan through 3,000 staff hours investigating three of its factories and surveying more than 35,000 workers," said FLA president Auret van Heerden.

"Apple and its supplier Foxconn have agreed to our prescriptions, and we will verify progress and report publicly."

Along with excessive overtime and not always compensating workers properly for extra hours that were put in, the nearly month-long investigation uncovered health and safety risks and "crucial communication gaps."

Foxconn has pledged to bring factory conditions into full compliance with Chinese law and FLA standards regarding working hours by July of next year, according to the report.

"If implemented, these commitments will significantly improve the lives of more than 1.2 million Foxconn employees and set a new standard for Chinese factories," van Heerden said.

The report was released as Apple chief Tim Cook paid a visit to China, where state media said the man tipped to be country's next leader had told him foreign firms should do more to protect workers.

International labor watchdog groups have said workers in Chinese plants run by major Apple supplier Foxconn of Taiwan are poorly treated, and have blamed a string of apparent suicides on the conditions.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang, who is likely to be China's next premier, met the new Apple chief executive on his visit to Beijing on Tuesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Li told Cook multinational companies should "pay more attention to caring for workers," the report said.

Cook on Wednesday visited a Foxconn plant employing 120,000 people in China's central city of Zhengzhou, where he viewed the production line, Apple said.

California-based Apple is wildly popular in China, where its products such as the iPhone and iPad are coveted by wealthy consumers.

Apple agreed in January to allow inspections by the independent labor watchdog following reports that employees were overworked and underpaid at Foxconn factories in China.

Apple expected the FLA team to inspect manufacturing areas, dormitories and other facilities, and conduct an extensive review of documents related to procedures at all stages of employment.

Besides Foxconn plants, FLA teams will also inspect factories owned by two other Taiwan-owned manufacturers, Quanta and Pegatron, which also make Apple products.

"When completed, the FLA's assessment will cover facilities where more than 90 percent of Apple products are assembled," Apple said earlier this year.

Apple stock price slid slightly after release of the report, inching down to $608.18 in after-hours trading that followed close of the market in New York.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/apple-gadget-maker-significant-labor-issues-audit-215038438.html

The future of the PC

By Kevin Fogarty

March 28, 2012 06:00 AM ET

Computerworld - For the first time since computers became a normal part of office life, end users won't be able to predict what their "PC" will look like in 10 years. That's partially due to the expansion of IT-as-a-service technologies that are making it possible to give users secure, reliable access to data and applications no matter where they are or what device they're using.

But it's mostly due to increases in the power, connectivity, ease of use and stylishness of a whole range of nontraditional computing devices -- primarily smartphones and tablets -- and to heavily networked applications such as social networking, software as a service and cloud computing services that are easy to get, easy to use and often free to consumers.

Clouds, virtual servers and SaaS are the kinds of infrastructure technologies that would normally be invisible to end users.

Five years ago, few commercial applications were available by subscription; now it's surprising when one isn't.

End users have been trying to consumerize IT since the 1980s. They started by sneaking in PCs, then they surreptitiously set up LANs and later brought in laptops, PDAs, cell phones, BlackBerries, tablets and other gadgets that IT either couldn't or wouldn't support.

When users can buy sophisticated data services to support not only gadgets, but also applications, the economics of the IT vendor's business change -- as do the role and goals of IT.

Rather than being "just say no" organizations intent on standardizing and cost-cutting, IT shops have had to start collaborating with end users, who want to choose the devices they use at work, says Dave Bucholz, principal IT engineer in charge of evaluating new end-user technologies at Intel.

Intel -- like Kraft, CarFax and a range of other companies -- has adopted a bring-your-own-device policy as a way to match the workstyles of individual end users with the devices that enable them to be the most productive.

The freedom to choose your own device, one that suits both your work and personal style, will have as much impact on "PC" design during the next 10 years as Moore's Law -- or, even more important, Metcalfe's.

What those devices look like depends on the needs of the people using them. The same is true of winter coats: Computing devices and coats both supply a non-negotiable set of key functions. But there are a million variations on the basic coat to meet the needs of people in climates with snow, sleet, cold sunshine and warm rain; it would be impossible to identify only one garment as the definitive "coat."

In 10 years, a "personal computer" will be the totality of an end user's computing environment -- including the applications he or she uses both at work and at home, personal data and work data, network access, security and identity management. But it won't be a box sitting on a desk.

As our knowledge and access increase, the value of being more connected than the next guy declines, and the value of being able to do more with the information we all have becomes greater.

That may drive the next big wave of IT development, in artificial intelligence or quantum computing or other disciplines that promise to deliver not just data, but knowledge.

The look of the machines we use to access that knowledge will likely vary from user to user. Most people will probably call them phones.

Kevin Fogarty writes about enterprise IT. Follow him on Twitter (@KevinFogarty).

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/353522/The_future_of_the_PC?source=CTWNLE_nlt_emgtech_2012-03-28&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+computerworld%2Fs%2Ffeed%2Ftopic%2F128+%28Computerworld+Emerging+Technologies+News%29

Govt to keep info on Americans with no terror ties

Mar 22, 9:36 PM (ET)

By EILEEN SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. intelligence community will now be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration guidelines.

Until now, the National Counterterrorism Center had to immediately destroy information about Americans that was already stored in other government databases when there were no clear ties to terrorism.

Giving the NCTC expanded record-retention authority had been called for by members of Congress who said the intelligence community did not connect strands of intelligence held by multiple agencies leading up to the failed bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas 2009.

"Following the failed terrorist attack in December 2009, representatives of the counterterrorism community concluded it is vital for NCTC to be provided with a variety of datasets from various agencies that contain terrorism information," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement late Thursday. "The ability to search against these datasets for up to five years on a continuing basis as these updated guidelines permit will enable NCTC to accomplish its mission more practically and effectively."

The new rules replace guidelines issued in 2008 and have privacy advocates concerned about the potential for data-mining information on innocent Americans.

"It is a vast expansion of the government's surveillance authority," Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said of the five-year retention period.

The government put in strong safeguards at the NCTC for the data that would be collected on U.S. citizens for intelligence purposes, Rotenberg said. These new guidelines undercut the Federal Privacy Act, he said.

"The fact that this data can be retained for five years on U.S. citizens for whom there's no evidence of criminal conduct is very disturbing," Rotenberg said.

"Total Information Awareness appears to be reconstructing itself," Rotenberg said, referring to the Defense Department's post-9/11 data-mining research program that was killed in 2003 because of privacy concerns.

The Washington Post first reported the new rules Thursday.

The Obama administration said the new rules come with strong safeguards for privacy and civil liberties as well. Before the NCTC may obtain data held by another government agency, there is a high-level review to assure that the data "is likely to contain significant terrorism information," Alexander Joel, the civil liberties protection officer at national intelligence directorate, said in a news release Thursday.

The NCTC was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to be the central U.S. organization to analyze and integrate intelligence regarding terrorism.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120323/D9TLT6VG0.html

Sarkozy: Jail those who browse terror websites

Mar 22, 3:00 PM EDT

By RAPHAEL SATTER Associated Press

PARIS (AP) -- France's president proposed a sweeping new law Thursday that would see repeat visitors to extremist web sites put behind bars - one of several tough measures floated in the wake of a murderous shooting spree.

The proposed rules, unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy after the death of an Islamist fanatic wanted for a horrifying series of execution-style murders, have alarmed journalists and legal experts, who say they risk pulling the plug on free expression.

Sarkozy, who is only a month away from an election, argued that it was time to treat those who browse extremist websites the same way as those who consume child pornography.

"Anyone who regularly consults Internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison," he told a campaign rally in Strasbourg, in eastern France. "Don't tell me it's not possible. What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too."

French law calls for up to two years in prison and (EURO)30,000 (roughly $40,000) in fines for repeat visitors to child porn sites, although whether the proposed anti-terror rules would carry similar penalities isn't clear.

When asked, Sarkozy's office directed a query seeking details to the Ministry of Justice, which didn't immediately offer clarification.

Journalists and lawyers are concerned.

"Trying to criminalize a visit - a simple visit - to a website, that's something that seems disproportionate," said Lucie Morillon, who runs the new media bureau of journalists' watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.

"What's especially worrying for us is how you are going to know who's looking at what site. Does this announcement mean the installation of a global Internet surveillance system in France?"

Media lawyer Christophe Bigot seconded her concerns, saying that any such law - if passed - would be a serious blow to the democratic credentials of a country that considers itself the home of human rights.

"I don't see how you can assume that a person who connects (to an extremist website) not only shares the ideas that are being expressed there but is ready to act on them," Bigot said. "That seems to be a very dangerous shortcut - a real step back in terms of individual liberty."

Bigot said it wasn't clear to him to what degree Sarkozy's proposals were serious. In any case, France's Parliament isn't in session, but could be called back for urgent legislation. Otherwise, an eventual law would be contingent on Sarkozy's reelection.

The tightening presidential race has been upended by the shooting rampage blamed on Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent who allegedly killed three French paratroopers, three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi before dying in a violent confrontation with police in the southern French city of Toulouse earlier Thursday.

Sarkozy has France's far-right nipping at his heels, so he's been under pressure to appear tough. A poll released Thursday by the CSA firm suggested that Sarkozy may benefit politically from a hardening of attitudes toward extremist violence.

Morillon said she understood the emotional appeal of a crackdown on online radicalization in the wake of such atrocities.

Still, she said, "you have to be careful not to attack the wrong target."

"Once more it's the Internet that's being blamed, as if the Internet was the source of all evil."

---

Online:

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_TERROR_INTERNET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-03-22-15-00-37

NetZero 4G HotSpot

March 19, 2012

· 

·         Pros

Cost effective data plans for smaller amounts of data. Long battery life. Large, informative LCD. Speed management option.

·         Cons

Larger amounts of data are less expensive from other carriers. Limited network availability. Bulky.

·         Bottom Line

The NetZero 4G HotSpot offers a couple of appealing plan options, but if you use a lot of data, you can get better deals elsewhere.

Alex Colon
Junior Analyst, Mobile

·         Net Zero, the free ISP you may remember from back in the dial-up days, is back, and this time it's bringing the broadband. And yes, there is still a free option, as you surely must be wondering. The NetZero 4G HotSpot is a solid cellular modem, and features good data speeds and a few tiers of pricing that will satisfy the contract-free mobile broadband needs for some. But overall, you can find better deals elsewhere.

Pricing and Design
Before getting into any detail about the HotSpot itself, the most important feature to highlight is price. There are five plans available. Let's start with that free plan, which is likely the reason you're reading this in the first place. Sure, NetZero offers a plan for free mobile broadband, but it's only for a small amount of data, and it isn't really free, since you need to purchase a NetZero device to use it. The free plan lasts for 12 months, and you get 200MB of data per month. That's definitely enough for email access on the go, provided attachments aren't included. And it actually works out to be cheaper than you'd spend for the same amount of data using the pay-as-you-go TruConnect MiFi ($99, 3 stars). But again, this plan is only good for a year, and that amount of data is likely too little for most users.

The rest of the prices are as follows: $9.95 per month for 500MB, $19.95 for 1GB, $34.95 for 2GB, and $49.95 for 4GB. That $10-20 range is where the NetZero HotSpot shines. The only comparable plan in that price range is from Virgin Mobile, which offers 500MB of data for $20 per month—double the price of NetZero. So if all you need is light email and Web access, NetZero's HotSpot is a good deal indeed.

But for the same $34.99 that gets you 2GB on NetZero, the Clear Spot 4G Apollo ($99.99, 4 stars) gets you unlimited data, albeit at capped speeds. But $49.99 gets you unlimited data from both Clear and Virgin Mobile, with no preset speed caps. Even Sprint offers 3GB of 3G or 4G data for $34.99 per month, 6GB for $49.99, or 12GB for $79.99, though those plans require a contract. So the larger your data needs are, the better off you are going with a different carrier. Additionally, NetZero offers its broadband through Clear, which is only available in a limited number of areas, so make sure you're covered before buying in.

As far as I can tell, the NetZero 4G HotSpot is the same exact device as the Clear Spot 4G Apollo , only with a different logo. Physically, the HotSpot is a big black box, measuring 3.4 by 3.4 by .7 inches (HWD) and 4.4 ounces. It probably won't fit into your pocket, but it'll easily slip into your bag. On the plus side, all of that space allows for a large 2200 mAh battery, which makes for some excellent battery life. I was able to get 6 hours and 23 minutes of solid 4G streaming on one charge.

The HotSpot has just two buttons: a Power button on the left, and a Mute button on the right. They're easy to mistake for one another, and the Mute button isn't necessary; that function could have been included on the Web-based management console. There's also an external antenna port on the bottom of the device for boosted reception, though I got a good signal without one. The best feature is the 2-inch LCD on the front of the HotSpot. It tells you the device's battery life, amount of data transferred, number of devices attached, password, signal strength, SSID, and the time connected. It's a lot of information, and it's all large, clear, and easy to read.

Setup and Administration
To connect, simply turn the HotSpot on, and use your computer or device's wireless connection manager to connect to the HotSpot using the SSID and password displayed on its screen. Since this is a mobile hotspot, you don't need any drivers for it. You can connect up to eight devices this way; I connected three at once, and they worked fine. You can also tether the modem to a computer via USB. I tethered the HotSpot to a laptop running Windows 7 and got speeds that were about on par with Wi-Fi. You can also connect to the device while it's charging, which is a feature many hotspots lack.

There's a nice Web-based management console, which you can access by sending a connected device to http://netzerohotspot. From there, you can monitor signal strength and battery life, check out who's connected to the router, and control a wide range of router settings. It's fairly comprehensive, allowing you to change the screen backlight, set your Wi-Fi options, enable port forwarding and firewalls, and modify a host of security options. There's also a neat feature that lets you control the speed at which your data is used. Choosing Lightspeed caps your downloads to 1Mbps, while Warpspeed allows you to reach 10Mbps. Free and $9.95 plans are already set to Lightspeed, while plans that cost $19.95 are automatically set to Warpspeed. These settings can be changed at any time, and are a good way to help conserve precious data.

Performance and Conclusions
I tested the HotSpot in New York City. We didn't have another WiMAX hotspot on hand to test it against, but since this is the same hardware as the Clear Spot 4G Apollo, I expect it to perform similarly. That's a good thing, since the Apollo outperformed aNovatel Wireless MiFi 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot 4082 from Sprint (Free, 4 stars) when I tested it.

In our 21-city tests last year, we got 3Mbps average download speeds on Sprint's 4G network, which is the same as Clear's. For downloads, the HotSpot averaged a solid 4.5Mbps down. Upload speeds weren't nearly as fast, at an average of .7Mbps up, but those speeds are near identical to what we saw on the Apollo. And either way, these are respectable numbers, especially when there's a data limit in place—you don't want to eat your way through a month's worth of data in 90 minutes. 

According to NetZero, the HotSpot should work within a 150-foot range. Speeds held up within at least 50 feet of the device, then started to drop off, which is common for most hotspots I've tested. It can still be used at 150 feet of distance, but speeds will be painfully slow.

The NetZero 4G Hotspot is a good choice for a very niche group of users. If all you need is 1GB or less of mobile broadband per month, the 4G HotSpot can't be beat. But if your data needs run deeper, you're better off looking elsewhere. Clear and Virgin Mobile are both good places to start. Both carriers offer unlimited data for $50 per month, which means you can even use those hotspots as a primary home internet connection. 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401690,00.asp 

The CIA wants to spy on you through your TV: Agency director says it will 'transform' surveillance

Devices connected to internet leak information

CIA director says these gadgets will 'transform clandestine tradecraft'

Spies could watch thousands via supercomputers People 'bug' their own homes with web-connected devices

By ROB WAUGH

PUBLISHED: 08:20 EST, 16 March 2012 | UPDATED: 08:55 EST, 16 March 2012

When people download a film from Netflix to a flatscreen, or turn on web radio, they could be alerting unwanted watchers to exactly what they are doing and where they are.

Spies will no longer have to plant bugs in your home - the rise of 'connected' gadgets controlled by apps will mean that people 'bug' their own homes, says CIA director David Petraeus.

The CIA claims it will be able to 'read' these devices via the internet - and perhaps even via radio waves from outside the home.

Everything from remote controls to clock radios can now be controlled via apps - and chip company ARM recently unveiled low-powered, cheaper chips which will be used in everything from fridges and ovens to doorbells.

The resultant chorus of 'connected' gadgets will be able to be read like a book - and even remote-controlled, according to CIA CIA Director David Petraeus, according to a recent report by Wired's 'Danger Room' blog.

Petraeus says that web-connected gadgets will 'transform' the art of spying - allowing spies to monitor people automatically without planting bugs, breaking and entering or even donning a tuxedo to infiltrate a dinner party.

'Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,' said Petraeus.

'Particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft. Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters -  all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing.'

Petraeus was speaking to a venture capital firm about new technologies which aim to add processors and web connections to previously 'dumb' home appliances such as fridges, ovens and lighting systems.

This week, one of the world's biggest chip companies, ARM, has unveiled a new processor built to work inside 'connected' white goods.

The ARM chips are smaller, lower-powered and far cheaper than previous processors - and designed to add the internet to almost every kind of electrical appliance.

It's a concept described as the 'internet of things'.

Futurists think that one day 'connected' devices will tell the internet where they are and what they are doing at all times - and will be mapped by computers as precisely as Google Maps charts the physical landscape now.

Privacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation have warned of how information such as geolocation data can be misused - but as more and more devices connect, it's clear that opportunities for surveillance will multiply.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2115871/The-CIA-wants-spy-TV-Agency-director-says-net-connected-gadgets-transform-surveillance.html#ixzz1pXU7001k

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2115871/The-CIA-wants-spy-TV-Agency-director-says-net-connected-gadgets-transform-surveillance.html

With tech breakthrough, Seagate promises 60TB drives this decade

Laptop hard drives could have up to 20TB of capacity

By Lucas Mearian

March 20, 2012 10:58 AM ET

Computerworld - Seagate announced it is the first hard drive maker to achieve a density of 1 terabit (1 trillion bits) per square inch on a disk drive platter.

The technology used to achieve the benchmark, which Seagate said it would introduce in products later this decade, will also lead to the production of 3.5-in. hard drives with up to 60TB of capacity.

Seagate reached the areal density milestone by using heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), which the company patented in 2006.

At the most basic level, HAMR adds a laser to the hard drive head and uses nanotube-based lubrication to allow the read/write head of a disk drive to get closer to the surface of a spinning platter in order to be able to write and read more bits of data.

A chief advance with HAMR is the switch from a cobalt platinum alloy, the coating used on today's disks for data bit recording, to iron platinum, a much stronger magnetic material that helps stabilize data bits at smaller sizes, according to Seagate.

Using HAMR technology, Seagate achieved a linear bit density of about 2 million bits per inch, resulting in a data density of just over 1 trillion bits, or 1 terabit, per square inch -- 55% higher than today's areal density ceiling of 620 gigabits per square inch.

"Hard disk drive innovations like HAMR will be a key enabler of the development of even more data-intense applications in the future, extending the ways businesses and consumers worldwide use, manage and store digital content," Mark Re, senior vice president of Heads and Media Research and Development at Seagate, said in a statement.

With an areal density of 620 gigabits per square inch, today's 3.5-in. hard drives have a maximum capacity of 3TB. Laptop drives, or 2.5-in. drives, top out at 750GB or roughly 500 gigabits per square inch.

The first generation of HAMR drives, at just over 1 terabit per square inch, will likely more than double the latter capacities - to 6TB for 3.5-inch drives and 2TB for 2.5-inch models.

HAMR has a theoretical areal density limit ranging from 5 to 10 terabits per square inch, enough to enable 30TB to 60TB 3.5-inch drives and 10TB to 20TB for 2.5-inch drives.

Prior to HAMR, the most significant breakthrough in drive density was perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), which Seagate and Hitachi use in their drives today. That technology was introduced in 2006 and is also used in magnetic tape cartridge production. PMR basically stood bits upright on a platter's surface so they could be packed closer together.

PMR technology is also expected to allow companies to reach the one terabyte per square inch milestone in the next few years, but that will also mark the technology's upper limits, Seagate said.

A mix of proven hard drive technologies and new physics, HAMR preserves perpendicular magnetics but beams a microscopic ray of laser to heat a nano-sized area on the surface layer of each disk, allowing its magnetic orientation to be encoded, or recorded, with data. When the spot cools, the magnetization is locked in a recorded bit.

For an analogy of how densely HAMR technology can pack data bits together, Seagate looked to the Milky Way, saying the technology can already store more bits per square inch than there are stars in the galaxy. It's estimated there are as many as 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.

Just as PMR had its challenges with overcoming disruptions caused by bit magnetization years ago, HAMR technology also faces significant hurdles. As drive manufacturers pack more bits per square inch on the surface of a disk platter, they also tighten the data tracks, the concentric circles on the disk's surface that anchor the bits. The challenge as those tracks tighten is overcoming magnetic disruption between the bits of data, which causes the superparamagnetic effect, causing bits to flip their magnetic poles resulting in data errors.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9225335/With_tech_breakthrough_Seagate_promises_60TB_drives_this_decade?source=CTWNLE_nlt_emgtech_2012-03-21

Sweden moving towards cashless economy

March 18, 2012 5:09 PM

(AP) STOCKHOLM - Sweden was the first European country to introduce bank notes in 1661. Now it's come farther than most on the path toward getting rid of them.

"I can't see why we should be printing bank notes at all anymore," says Bjoern Ulvaeus, former member of 1970's pop group ABBA, and a vocal proponent for a world without cash.

The contours of such a society are starting to take shape in this high-tech nation, frustrating those who prefer coins and bills over digital money.

In most Swedish cities, public buses don't accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices — which make money on electronic transactions — have stopped handling cash altogether.

"There are towns where it isn't at all possible anymore to enter a bank and use cash," complains Curt Persson, chairman of Sweden's National Pensioners' Organization.

He says that's a problem for elderly people in rural areas who don't have credit cards or don't know how to use them to withdraw cash.

The decline of cash is noticeable even in houses of worship, like the Carl Gustaf Church in Karlshamn, southern Sweden, where Vicar Johan Tyrberg recently installed a card reader to make it easier for worshippers to make offerings.

"People came up to me several times and said they didn't have cash but would still like to donate money," Tyrberg says.

Bills and coins represent only 3 percent of Sweden's economy, compared to an average of 9 percent in the eurozone and 7 percent in the U.S., according to the Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella organization for the world's central banks.

Three percent is still too much if you ask Ulvaeus. A cashless society may seem like an odd cause for someone who made a fortune on "Money, Money, Money" and other ABBA hits, but for Ulvaeus it's a matter of security.

After his son was robbed for the third time he started advocating a faster transition to a fully digital economy, if only to make life harder for thieves.

"If there were no cash, what would they do?" says Ulvaeus, 66.

The Swedish Bankers' Association says the shrinkage of the cash economy is already making an impact in crime statistics.

The number of bank robberies in Sweden plunged from 110 in 2008 to 16 in 2011 — the lowest level since it started keeping records 30 years ago. It says robberies of security transports are also down.

"Less cash in circulation makes things safer, both for the staff that handle cash, but also of course for the public," says Par Karlsson, a security expert at the organization.

The prevalence of electronic transactions — and the digital trail they generate — also helps explain why Sweden has less of a problem with graft than countries with a stronger cash culture, such as Italy or Greece, says economics professor Friedrich Schneider of the Johannes Kepler University in Austria.

"If people use more cards, they are less involved in shadow economy activities," says Schneider, an expert on underground economies.

In Italy — where cash has been a common means of avoiding value-added tax and hiding profits from the taxman — Prime Minister Mario Monti in December put forward measures to limit cash transactions to payments under euro 1,000 ($1,300), down from euro 2,500 before.

The flip side is the risk of cybercrimes. According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention the number of computerized fraud cases, including skimming, surged to nearly 20,000 in 2011 from 3,304 in 2000.

Oscar Swartz, the founder of Sweden's first Internet provider, Banhof, says a digital economy also raises privacy issues because of the electronic trail of transactions. He supports the idea of phasing out cash, but says other anonymous payment methods need to be introduced instead.

"One should be able to send money and donate money to different organizations without being traced every time," he says.

It's no surprise that Sweden and other Nordic countries are at the forefront of this development, given their emphasis on technology and innovation.

For the second year in a row, Sweden ranked first in the Global Information Technology Report released at the World Economic Forum in January. The Economist Intelligence Unit also put Sweden top of its latest digital economy rankings, in 2010. Both rankings measure how far countries have come in integrating information and communication technologies in their economies.

Internet startups in Sweden and elsewhere are now hard at work developing payment and banking services for smartphones.

Swedish company iZettel has developed a device for small traders, similar to Square in the U.S., that plugs into the back of an iPhone to make it work like a credit card terminal. Sweden's biggest banks are expected to launch a joint service later this year that allows customers to transfer money between each other's accounts in real-time with their cell phones.

Most experts don't expect cash to disappear anytime soon, but that its proportion of the economy will continue to decline as such payment options become available.

Before retiring as deputy governor of Sweden's central bank, Lars Nyberg said last year that cash will survive "like the crocodile, even though it may be forced to see its habitat gradually cut back."

Andrea Wramfelt, whose bowling alley in the southern city of Landskrona stopped accepting cash in 2010, makes a bolder prediction: She believes coins and notes will cease to exist in Sweden within 20 years.

"Personally I think this is what people should expect in the future," she says.

But there are pockets of resistance. Hanna Celik, whose family owns a newspaper kiosk in a Stockholm shopping mall, says the digital economy is all about banks seeking bigger earnings.

Celik says he gets charged about 5 Swedish kronor ($0.80) for every credit card transaction, and a law passed by the Swedish Parliament prevents him from passing on that charge to consumers.

"That stinks," he says. "For them (the banks), this is a very good way to earn a lot of money, that's what it's all about. They make huge profits."

© 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

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