Microsoft Investigating Bing Ads Redirecting to Malware - The Next Web

Last month, we reported Microsoft was investigating claims that some ads on Bing were redirecting users to malware. Security firm ThreatTrack Security Labs has once again discovered fraudulent ads on the search engine, after its Labs team identified numerous files named "Snapchat.exe."

As before, we contacted Microsoft to let them know of the claims. "We appreciate you letting us know about the malware activity on Bing Ads," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "We are investigating the claims of fraudulent ads and will take any and all appropriate action to help ensure our customers are protected."

Last time, ThreatTrack found malware after clicking on ads on the search page that comes up when you type in the query "youtube." The company noted, however, that the scammers could of course be targeting other keywords; we agreed – the more popular the keywords, the bigger the potential for infection.

Now ThreatTrack has found suspicious activity when searching for Snapchat on Bing. Notice the ad from videonechat(dot)com that comes up at the top:

We have confirmed this ad comes up for us as well when we query Bing. The website the ad links to is quite dodgy: it talks about installing Snapchat, while also listing the program as "Dorgem" in small letters.

ThreatTrack explains what happens if you install it (see the VirusTotal ranking for this threat):

The install offers up a number of ad serving programs, media players and additional software offered up with no relation to Snapchat whatsoever. During testing, we saw Realplayer, GreatArcadeHits, Optimizer Pro, Scorpion Saver and Word Overview. Legitimate programs being bundled with Adware is a common enough tactic, but this is an Optimum Installer bundle where a website serves as clickbait for a deliberately misrepresented app – you most definitely do not get what you're promised in return for installing numerous pieces of ad-serving software.

For the record, Snapchat is only available for Android and iOS. In general, please make a point to install apps from official sources such as Google Play and Apple's App Store.

Top Image Credit: George Crux

Microsoft looks to sell 16M Windows tablets over holidays - CNET

One of Microsoft's biggest retail goals for holiday 2014 is to sell 16 million Windows tablets, according to alleged Microsoft strategy documents obtained by Paul Thurrott, editor of the Windows SuperSite.

To achieve this goal, the Softies are going to be increasing retail spending, according to Thurrott's report. Last fiscal year (ending June 30, 2013), Microsoft spent $241 million on its retail Windows efforts. This year, that amount will jump to $405 million, according to Thurrott's information. Of that $405 million, $131 million will be spent on incentives and offers, with the remaining $274 million going toward direct marketing and operating expenses.

Microsoft also is going to try to move the public perception meter about Windows devices. The idea is to make the Windows experience a "loved part of people's lives," not just something functional and utilitarian. Yes, this is all part of Microsoft's push to increase its appeal to consumers, since they've already got many business users sewn up.

I'm assuming Windows tablets here means not only Surfaces but also Windows tablets from other vendors. I'm not sure what Microsoft's desired mix might look like.

Microsoft has not released publicly the number of Surface sales it has made to date. Surface revenues (which are reported into Windows client) for Microsoft's most recent quarter were $400 million. Microsoft officials said they sold double the number of Surfaces this quarter that they did in the previous calendar quarter. (Note: We don't know what either of those numbers are.) Surface RT sales were better than anticipated, officials said, while some potential Surface Pro customers held off, waiting for the Surface Pro 2.

So is 16 million a lot of tablets? A very modest goal? Again, I'm not entirely sure. Gartner recently estimated that 184 million tablets will be sold worldwide by all vendors in calendar 2013.

One way Microsoft can sell more Windows tablets is to hurry up and get those promised Microsoft stores inside Best Buy up and running. I stopped by a couple of New York City's biggest Best Buy retail stores this week. The situation is not pretty. There's still nowhere for those interested in Windows PCs and tablets and the new Surfaces to go to do side-by-side comparisons.

The only Microsoft brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan remains a very small kiosk in the Time Warner Center mall. Here's hoping for some new/more Microsoft holiday pop-ups and/or specialty stores in the not-too-distant future.

This story originally appeared as "Microsoft's holiday goal: Sell 16 million Windows tablets" on ZDNet.

Microsoft offers full disclosure amid Kinect surveillance fears - Computerandvideogames.com

The Xbox One Kinect sensor identifies users by measuring the arrangement and length of certain facial features and calculating that into a number, Microsoft has revealed as part of a detailed disclosure about its privacy policies.

Zoom

In what could be a crucial clarification amid growing paranoia and distrust over Microsoft's privacy policies, the corporation explained that this unique number - even if passed onto government officials - could not be retroactively used to build an image of the user's face.

With this clarification, Microsoft is promising that it is not technically possible for security agencies and state officials to access images of players.

The company also clarified that, while game software can read player expressions and respond accordingly, that data is not sent to Microsoft.

"It stays on the console and is destroyed once your session ends," the company claimed.

Microsoft has come under significant scrutiny regarding its privacy policies. In July it was discovered that the corporation supplied email and Skype details to the NSA. Microsoft said it was legally bound to not discuss the matter openly.

Doubts and suspicions over Microsoft's handling of personal data has not abated. Late in September, a former Microsoft privacy adviser said he no longer trusts the company after reading about the NSA mass-surveillance operation.

Days later it was revealed that Microsoft handed over the personal information of more than a thousand customers to Australian government agents in the first half of 2013.

In response, Microsoft has launched a privacy policy disclosure web page, detailing its rules and limitations.

Standout Xbox privacy policies include:

• Players can turn Kinect off at any time.
• When Kinect is used with certain games and apps, a user's skeletal movements can be used to estimate exercise stats. Microsoft says "you can decide how your stats are managed and whether they are shared".
• Kinect's facial-numeric identifiers, as described above, "stays on the console and is not shared with anyone".
• Microsoft can share user info "with companies we've hired to provide services on our behalf". Those companies must pledge to keep the information confidential.
• Microsoft can share user info "to comply with the law or respond to legal process or lawful requests, including from law enforcement and government agencies"
• Aside from these exceptions, the company "will not disclose your personal information to a third party without your consent".
• For games that enable in-game communications, the game publisher may also have access to the content of in-game communications when users are signed into their account with the publisher.
• Xbox applications built by partner companies, from Netflix to Sky, have their own separate terms and conditions with regards to privacy.
• Microsoft will read player data to serve better targeted advertisements, which users can opt out of.
• If customers link their Microsoft account with a partner company, "Microsoft may share limited account information with that company". That information may include name, address, email and date of birth, but not credit card or other payment information.
• Xbox applications using Windows Phone that require location data "will only collect and store the approximate location of your phone"
• Payment data is stored and used for "detection and prevention of fraud". In support of these uses, "Microsoft may share your payment data with banks and other entities that process payment transactions or other financial services, and for fraud prevention and credit risk reduction."

The Gold iPhone Famine Is Real And Ongoing - Business Insider

TLDToday

Want a gold iPhone? Check eBay, it's sold out everywhere else.

For some reason, Apple can't seem to keep the gold iPhone 5S on shelves.

As the first of the aluminum-and-glass smartphones out of Cupertino to deviate from the binary black/white options that have been available since the iPhone 4, the new gold option has gotten people really excited.

Business Insider's Megan Rose Dickey got hold of one a few weeks back and couldn't get over how beautiful it is.

Apple's television ad for the gold iPhone made it look sexy and luxurious.

Yet Apple, a company famous for its industry-leading supply chain, hasn't been able to keep up with demand.

We've heard reports of the gold iPhone instantly selling out in China and Hong Kong. Others have pointed out that major carriers in Europe (and the entire continent of Australia) went through a period of literally having zero units of the gold model.

There are a few possible explanations for this.

It could be that Apple has been overwhelmed by the sheer demand for gold objects in status-obsessed Asia. It could be that Apple is artificially boosting demand with "velvet rope" marketing.

Either way, the shortage has led to reports that the gold iPhone 5S has sold the least units of the three available color options.

Today I visited the Apple Store here in Berkeley, where a manager told me that they received two gold iPhones when it launched and still sold out on the same day that they receive any more.

Now, Apple Stores deal with an insane amount of customers every day. In fact,  they average well over 200,000 customers per store per quarter. If the gold iPhone is in such low supply that most customers who show up wanting it are turned away, that could quickly add up to millions of potential customers becoming unhappy in a very short amount of time.

Not exactly the best practice for a company that charges a premium for quality products and top-notch customer service — or Apple's style. That's why I don't think Apple is artificially raising demand or sending all of its supply of the gold iPhone to Asia. I think that it *is* a supply issue, and it's awfully similar to a situation Apple has previously faced when introducing a new color iPhone.

Remember the launch of the original white iPhone?

It was supposed to ship at the same time as the black iPhone 4, back in June 2010.  But as CNN's Mark Millan reported in April of 2011, manufacturing the white iPhone at scale caused a number of unforeseen issues for the company — among other things, the design team's favorite white paint interfered with the phone's proximity sensor.

The white iPhone ended up being delayed for 10 months, and Steve Jobs even made a self-deprecating jab about making sure that there would be a white iPad 2 from day one at its announcement.

I'm guessing that Apple is facing some kind of trouble ramping up the process for integrating gold-hued anodized aluminum into its manufacturing supply chain. While they've gotten better at handling such things — as Dan Frommer notes, Apple has gone from being a company that can sell 9 million phones in a quarter to a company that can sell 9 million in a weekend in a mere three years — they're still only able to get thin shipments out to stores, if any.

Rather than repeat the white iPhone debacle and face another faux-crisis (I bet the tech press would call it "Goldgate," since everything Apple does wrong is a buzzword-gate worthy mistake at this point), Apple is making the smart choice of getting something to market. 

Judgment day for Android: Apple, Microsoft file lawsuit against Google, Samsung - VentureBeat

This is what Steve Jobs meant when he threatened to go nuclear against Android.

Yesterday, on Halloween, a consortium of companies including Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Ericsson, and BlackBerry filed lawsuits again Android manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei, Asustek, and ZTE, as well as other Android manufacturers. All the lawsuits target Google as well, if only indirectly, and one mentions the company by name, saying its core money-maker, Adwords, violates a 1998 patent.

Yesterday, the latest smartphone marketshare reports showed that Google's Android mobile operating system has attained a record 81 percent share, and that Google's app store, Google Play, now drives 25 percent more downloads than Apple's, and is catching up in revenue.

Essentially, having failed to compete in the marketplace, Apple and Microsoft are choosing to compete in the courts.

Apparently, they haven't learned anything from the recent past, in which Apple won a billion-dollar judgment against Samsung that has since been whittled down, reduced, appealed, and essentially stuck in legal limbo. One tremendous accomplishment of that lawsuit, however, has been that many lawyers have gotten much richer.

The lawsuit stems from over 6,000 patents acquired by Apple, Microsoft, and others from the bankrupt early mobile innovator, Nortel, for $4.5 billion in 2011, and amassed in a holding company that the companies' executives, in an adolescent fit of testosterone overdosing, dubbed Rockstar Bidco. Google was also bidding for the patent portfolio — it was the first bidder, at $900 million —  but lost that battle.

At the time of that bidding war, there were already 45 patent lawsuits against Android in various shapes and forms. Today, there are many more. And Google, probably, knew at that moment that this day was coming.

The Google lawsuit cites United States Patent No. 6,098,065, won by Nortel originally, for "matching search terms with relevant advertising." In other words, this is not just a fight against Android. Rockstar Bidco — and by extension Apple and Microsoft — are firing directly at the very basis of Google's existence, its very lifeblood, and the source of all the revenue that enables it to build and give away the world's best or second-best mobile operating system essentially for free: advertising.

It's genius, really. Why attack your enemy's toes when you can go straight for the heart?

And the companies say that by bidding on the Nortel patents, Google was essentially admitting that it was infringing them:

Google was aware of the patents-in-suit at the time of the auction.

Google placed an initial bid of $900,000,000 for the patents-in-suit and the rest of the Nortel portfolio. Google subsequently increased its bid multiple times, ultimately bidding as high as $4.4 billion. That price was insufficient to win the auction, as a group led by the current shareholders of Rockstar purchased the portfolio for $4.5 billion.

Despite losing in its attempt to acquire the patents-in-suit at auction, Google has infringed and continues to infringe the patents-in-suit.

That's really going too far — the patent portfolio includes many mobile-relevant patents that any company in the space would love to have — but it may play well in court. The Adwords-relevant patent was issued in December, 1998. Google was founded in September of that year, and currently earns $50 billion-plus annually based on technology that, on the surface, appears to infringe the patent.

(Of course, the patent may also be obvious — at least, it is in retrospect.)

The Samsung lawsuit cites seven patents that Rockstar Bidco, and by extension, Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and Ericsson, say Samsung infringes. They include U.S. Patent No. 6,765,591, on virtual private network technology, a user interface patent, and a seemingly impossibly broad U.S. Patent No. 5,838,551, which covers an "Electronic Package Carrying an Electronic Component and Assembly of Mother Board and Electronic Package."

The lawsuit is extremely comprehensive, citing no fewer than 118 claims of infringement on Samsung's part, and no fewer than 21 "prayers for relief," in the somewhat archaic language of the court. Those prayers, which Apple has been offering up fervently for years now, include that Samsung be found guilty of infringement, be forced to pay damages — including triple damages for willful infringement — and either a permanent injunction or a "compulsory ongoing licensing fee."

Products cited include the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy family of tablets, and others.

In other words, this is likely to be the definitive battle that shapes Android and the future of mobile technology in the U.S. and abroad. Google will likely strike back — every large enterprise has patents that just about every company could be conceivably infringing — and we'll likely enter a long, protracted, messing, and boring sideshow of legal shenanigans that advance the world of technology not a single bit, but continue to enrich lawyers.

And may, eventually, result in licensing fees on Android that will make the free operating system slightly less free.

Here's the Google lawsuit:

Here's the Samsung lawsuit:

HTC reports first ever quarterly loss - BBC News

4 October 2013 Last updated at 01:32 ET

Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC has reported its first ever loss as it continues to lose ground to rivals.

It made a net loss of 2.97bn Taiwan dollars ($100m; £62m) in the three months to September.

Its numbers are in sharp contrast with rival Samsung, which has forecast record profit for the same period.

HTC was one of the early market leaders in Android smartphones, but has lost market share to rivals such as Samsung and Apple in recent years.

It has launched new products, such as the HTC One, in an attempt to regain some of the lost ground.

While the firm has claimed that the response to those products has been encouraging, analysts have warned that prospects of a recovery continue to remain weak.

Laura Chen, an analyst at BNP Paribas, said that there were "no signs" of a recovery anytime soon.

The company's shares have fallen more than 50% over the past 12 months amid concerns over its future growth.

Amazon plans entry into smartphone market with HTC - Financial Times

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Amazon plans entry into smartphone market with HTC Financial Times By tapping HTC to help design the phones, Amazon is acting much like Google, which has partnered with brands such as Asus and LG to develop its own Nexus line of tablets and phones. Selling smartphones could help Amazon foster greater consumer loyalty ...