Industry News

There are a number of reasons why Mac OS X's Spaces feature hasn't taken the Mac-using world by storm. But one of the most frequent criticisms I hear is a simple one: You can't assign a different Desktop background to each Spaces workspace. It's an obviously useful feature--the more visually distinct each workspace is, the more mentally distinct your workspaces become, making Spaces easier to integrate into your workflow.

Back in 2008, I covered a then-promising utility, Hyperspaces, that includes just such a tweak to Spaces (along with many other features); since then, Hyperspaces has improved significantly, and is worth a look if you use Spaces. I've also come across, but not tested, SpaceSuit. But today's Hint describes a way to get a different-desktop feature in a way that's both frugal with system resources and free.

This system tweak, SpaceStation, is a clever combination of an OS X launch agent and a background process that updates your Desktop image whenever you switch spaces. It was created by Ars Technica forum guru serversurfer; you can download the 29k .zip archive here.

After you unzip the SpaceStation folder, double-click SpaceStation Installer.app, a handy AppleScript installer that does most of the dirty work for you, and click Install. The installer places the background process in /Library/Application Support/SpaceStation, the launch-agent .plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, and a preferences file--which I'll get to in a moment--in ~/Library/Preferences. Then log out and back in to ensure the launch agent is running. (If you want to use SpaceStation in multiple accounts on your Mac, you'll want to run the installer from within each account.)

Next you need to configure SpaceStation. Open your Preferences folder (~/Library/Preferences) and double-click the preferences file named com.beardedllama.SpaceStation.plist. If you don't have Apple's Developer Tools installed, the file will open in your default text editor; if you have the Developer Tools installed, the file will open in Property List Editor. (You could also use a third-party utility such as PlistEdit Pro.)

In either case, you'll see a list of 16 numerical keys--preference values--along with a Default key. Each of these settings corresponds to a workspace. More specifically, each numbered setting hosts the path to the Desktop image for that workspace: key 1 determines the image for workspace 1, key 2 for workspace 2, and so on. (The Default key determines the image used for any workspace to which you haven't assigned a specific Desktop image.)

In other words, instead of a nice graphical-interface method for assigning a different image to each workspace, you must manually change the setting in this preferences file. If you're using a text editor, type or paste, in between <string> and </string> on the line just below <key>1</key>, the path to the image you want to use as the Desktop background for workspace #1 (for example, /Library/Desktop Pictures/Nature/Clown Fish.jpg). Here's what the two lines representing workspace #1 might look like:

<key>1</key>

<string>/Library/Desktop Pictures/Aqua Blue.jpg</string>

If you're using Property List Editor, instead double-click the Value field to the right of String for Picture 1, and then type or paste the path to the desired background image for workspace #1. (You can drag an image file into the Value field to have the image's path entered automatically.)

Whichever method you use, repeat the procedure for each workspace you use regularly; I use only four workspaces, so I needed to assign an image to only keys 1 through 4. (Note that the lines are sorted alphabetically, rather than numerically, so 2 comes after 16.) Then save your changes.

To force SpaceStation to use your new settings, you can either log out and then back in, or you can launch Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities), type killall -2 spacestationd and then press Return. The latter approach immediately quits the SpaceStation process, which is then automatically relaunched using your new settings.

From this point on, whenever you switch to a different workspace, the SpaceStation background process notices the switch, checks to see which workspace is active, and then sets the Desktop image accordingly. By default, SpaceStation checks for workspace switches every 0.1 seconds, but you can modify that interval by changing the value for ScanInterval in the same .plist file you previously edited.

With the default interval, I found the SpaceStation background process used only 0.2 percent of CPU overhead and approximately 5MB of RAM under Snow Leopard. If you ever want to remove SpaceStation, just launch SpaceStation Installer.app again, but this time click the Uninstall button.

The biggest limitation of SpaceStation, as opposed to a product such as HyperSpaces, is that if your Mac has multiple displays, SpaceStation works only with the primary screen (the one with the menu bar); other displays keep the same Desktop background you manually assign them in System Preferences, regardless of which workspace is active.

Broadcast giant CBS has long been a proponent of iPhone-viewable content: Apps like March Madness on Demand and TV.com, developed by its CBS Mobile arm, allow iPhone users to watch much of the network's content. Now, thanks to a few enterprising Mac bloggers, we have a few hints about CBS's plans for the iPad.

The Other Mac Blog broke the story on Wednesday, discovering "iPad" tags on some of the network's online content. Those particular videos, according to MacRumors, were still Flash-encoded--but if a user were to visit that same site using the iPad simulator that Apple provides to developers, they would find an iPad-friendly version of the video, delivered using HTML5.

The setup is obviously not fully operational yet, so don't get too excited. However, 9to5 Mac, while poking around the network's website, found several properly encoded videos--though those may just be the ones already tied to CBS's iPhone-specific apps and sites.

So whether Hulu gets its ducks in a row, or Netflix figures out a way to offer iPad streaming, it looks like--at the very least--we'll be able to count on one network to deliver some good, clean, Flash-free entertainment.

For the first time security researchers have spotted a type of malicious software that overwrites update functions for other applications, which could pose additional long-term risks for users.

The malware, which infects Windows computers, masks itself as an updater for Adobe Systems' products and other software such as Java, wrote Nguyen Cong Cuong, an analyst with Bach Khoa Internetwork Security (BKIS), a Vietnamese security company, on its blog.

BKIS showed screen shots of a variant of the malware that imitates Adobe Reader version 9 and overwrites the AdobeUpdater.exe, which regularly checks in with Adobe to see if a new version of the software is available.

Users can inadvertently install malware on computers if they open malicious e-mail attachments or visit Web sites that target specific software vulnerabilities. Adobe's products are one of the most targeted by hackers due to their wide installation base.

After this particular kind of malware gets onto a machine, it opens a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) client, a DNS (Domain Name System) client, a network share and a port in order to received commands, BKIS said.

Malware that poses as an updater or installer for applications such as Adobe's Acrobat or Flash are nothing new, said Rik Ferguson, senior security advisor for Trend Micro.

Decent security software should detect the malware, but those people who do become infected could be worse off even if the malware is removed, Ferguson said.

"They will lose the auto-updating functionality of whatever software is affected even after the malware is cleaned up," Ferguson said. "That could of course leave them open to exploitation further down the line if critical vulnerabilities don't get patched as a result."

That means that users would need to manually download the software again, which they may be unlikely to do if they don't know the effect of the malware.

Nokia knows it has to win the U.S. market if it wants to be successful with its forthcoming Symbian smartphones -- but it admits that its lackluster offerings have kept it from making headway here in the last few years.

"We have to address the availability of compelling devices in the U.S. market," David Rivas, a vice president at Nokia, said during the CTIA conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday. "I don't disagree that we have work to do with respect to devices."

Winning over the U.S. market is particularly important now that developers have the most momentum here. "We have a concentration of activity in mobile development in the U.S. now," he said.

Developers are drawn to the "coolest" devices with good user and development experiences, he said. While Nokia thinks that it can offer those experiences, it's lacking on the compelling device front, Rivas said. "We need devices in the market where the developers are," he said.

Nokia has been talking for years now about how important the U.S. market is, but despite opening research offices here and talking about its interest in the market, it has made little headway. While Nokia is still the number one mobile phone maker in the world, its market share in the U.S. is tiny.

A lack of compelling phones was not the only thing that Rivas was hard on Nokia about. He admitted that Nokia shouldn't be playing catch up in terms of offering an attractive smartphone platform and application development environment.

Five years ago Nokia had an app store for its S60 phones, before many other phone makers supported third party apps. "Shame on us to be sure for not being front and center" now that loading apps onto phones has become more mainstream, he said.

Nokia expects to begin offering its first phone based on the revamped Symbian OS in the first half of this year. However, despite Rivas' comments about the importance of the U.S. market, he was quick to specify that the first phone won't necessarily be available in the U.S.

The Symbian Foundation released the code for the updated version of the OS earlier this year. In 2008, Nokia bought out Symbian and created a foundation around the OS with the intent of making it open source.

Nokia also bought a company called Trolltech and is using its QT application framework on top of Symbian. With that comes a new user interface for the OS. Users of Nokia's phones running S60 Symbian, its former smartphone platform, had complained about its outdated user interface.

Rivas believes that Nokia will attract developers because of the improved development environment and an improved end product. QT offers an advanced development environment in which developers can use familiar tools, he said. So far, the response from developers has been positive, he said.

In addition to the improved user interface, Nokia has worked hard to fix some other issues that plagued its Symbian phones in the past, he said. For instance, Nokia has worked to dramatically reduce the number of clicks required by users to perform many actions.

Rivas said Nokia is confident in its choice of Symbian to run the bulk of its smartphones. "We're pretty happy with the choices we've made," Rivas said. But Symbian will be playing catch-up with other smartphone platforms that have gained momentum over the past few years, including the iPhone and Android phones.

Symbian Foundation leaders think that the market is young enough that the platform will have plenty of opportunity to compete. "The market is still in its infancy," said John Forsyth, who runs technology and strategy for the Symbian Foundation. "It's only at a tiny fraction of the size it will be."

Still, he said that following Google's marketing blitz around Android, Symbian faces tough competition. "I think the fundamentals are good. We have work to do on perception especially in the U.S. That's a big mountain for us to climb," he said.

That perception will be based on the devices when they actually come out and he's confident that the market will respond well to them.

In addition, Symbian has some advantages over competitors, he said. Because it has been in the mobile OS market for many years, it knows how to handle platform updates, he said. So when Symbian releases a new version of the OS, end users shouldn't face some of the fragmentation issues that users of other platforms face when their applications don't work on updated software, he said.

Also, the Symbian OS was designed for high-end smartphones but can scale down. That's important for phone makers that are constantly trying to fit a wide array of features on the lowest-cost hardware. "This is where Symbian's advantage of being built for mobile from day one makes a big difference," Forsyth said.

While it's notable that Symbian has the world's largest phone maker using the software, it could gain more momentum if it had many licensees. Sony Ericsson has said it will use the operating system but Motorola, which was once a Symbian supporter, has been noncommittal.

"We do think the opportunity in others coming along translates into real value for Nokia," said Rivas. With more vendors comes greater phone volume which attracts developers to make great products that attract more users, he said.

French police in cooperation with the FBI earlier this week arrested a 25 year-old man believed to be responsible for stealing corporate documents from Twitter in 2009. The police did not reveal the suspect's name, but confirmed the man operated online under the pseudonym "Hacker Croll," according to Agence France Presse. Croll gained notoriety in 2009 after he successfully hacked into the Twitter accounts of several users including several high profile celebrities as well as gaining access to Twitter's internal corporate documents stored in a Google Apps account.

Hacker Croll: A Profile Emerges

Little is known about Hacker Croll's actual identity, but he is reportedly a 25 year-old unemployed man from the French city of Claremont-Ferrand who lives at home with his parents. Croll is due to appear in French court on June 24.

The Twitter Corporate Hack

The police description of Croll confirms the basic profile details that TechCrunch reported last summer after e-mail discussions with the hacker regarding over 300 internal Twitter documents forwarded to the technology blog. TechCrunch later reported on the contents of some of these documents. At the time, Croll told TC he did not break into Twitter's Google Apps account out of malice, but only to highlight how easy it is to gain access "to sensitive information without too much knowledge."

Several months before Croll accessed Twitter's information, the hacker also claimed responsibility for breaking into the private Twitter accounts of several users including Twitter employee Jason Goldman, Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher. In early 2009, another hacker named GMZ had also gained access to Twitter accounts including Bill O'Reilly and CNN's Rich Sanchez.

The AFP is reporting that Croll may face up to two-years in prison.

Connect with Ian on Twitter (@ianpaul).

After months of speculation and alpha gameplay footage leaks, Polish games developer CD Projekt RED finally rolled out its official announcement for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings yesterday. Sequel to the bestselling fantasy roleplaying game The Witcher, it should ship sometime...well, sometime. The press release only confirms Atari will publish the game for PC in North America, though the design team says the game's been designed from scratch to eventually support console versions.

Remember The Witcher? It dropped like a thunderclap out of the blue back in October 2007. I wasn't expecting much. Another European-themed PC-only medieval hack-and-slash? By a company previously known for doing localizations of other developers' games? Derived from BioWare's clunky Neverwinter Nights "Aurora" game engine? Can you blame me for thinking "turkey"?

Except that it wasn't. And while CD Projekt RED didn't then (and still doesn't today) have the Western brand recognition of a publisher like BioWare, The Witcher was light years ahead of games like Baldur's Gate and Jade Empire and Neverwinter Nights 2, anticipating the whole gritty "HBO of RPGs" angle Dragon Age: Origins wouldn't attempt for two more years.

Can CD Projekt RED pull it off again? We can hope. The game hasn't been outsourced (a good sign) and as far as I can tell, the same design team's running the show. Concerning story and theme, the press release confirms the sequel will remain "mature," while adding that it'll also be "non-linear," which is interesting, because The Witcher wasn't.

With rare exception, your progress through the original game was measured in chapters tied to modular areas. Some farmland. A village. Part of a city. Another part of a city. Sewers. A swamp. (And so on.) You could sometimes transit between these, but for the most part, you ticked off quests and worked over each area before progressing to the next location without looking back.

According to the press release, The Witcher 2 "is built upon completely new technology, designed from scratch by CD Projekt RED to develop role-playing games with non-linear plot." Maybe they're cracking the world open at last then? Giving the go-between area links more flex and long-range continuity? Hey, no need to go all Oblivion-kitchen-sink-crazy, guys, but more latitude to explore at leisure? Sign me up.

As for "mature," here's what I wrote about the original:

Friends can be duplicitous cult members, guards are (shockingly) guilty of sexual assault, witches sell poisonous suicide solutions and craft voodoo dolls to compel siblings to kill each other, barmaids (and plenty others) will sleep with you for booze, religious fanatics turns out to be distastefully misogynistic, and for all the bosky monsters, the worst aren't the ones with ten or twenty consonants crowding a single vowel, but other humans, just like you.

So yes, more of that too, please.

One of the best aspects of The Witcher? It's combat system, which required timed clicks of the mouse to execute combos and let you select from upgradeable, visually elaborate fighting styles. Defeating enemies hinged on matching styles to enemy types. "Strong" sword-slinging worked great against tallish thugs, but did less damage to smaller foes. Likewise "Fast" jabs and slashes barely fazed jumbo combatants, but quickly crippled pint-sized pugilists. The Witcher 2's new combat system "smooths" those mechanics, while "guarantee[ing] a greater variety of tactical possibilities."

CD Projekt RED says it'll demo the game publicly later today (check for video updates here, or view the official debut trailer here). The official website for the game debuts April 7.

Follow Game On on Twitter.

Don't say you haven't been warned. Whether or not you recognize or sanction the Apple iPad tablet device as a legitimate business tool, your employees will soon have them in hand and invade your business. Now is the time to begin considering how you plan to address assimilating the primarily consumer-oriented tablet into your business environment.

When the iPhone initially launched in 2007, it was understandable that businesses and IT administrators were caught off guard by the user demand to connect the smartphone with work. Businesses relied on professional smartphones built on the BlackBerry or Windows Mobile operating systems, not consumer gadgets from Apple--so it only made sense to simply ban the iPhone. Just curious--how did that plan work out for you?

The reality is that the iPhone upset the natural order and shifted the corporate culture. It didn't hurt that the "users" demanding iPhone integration often had the word "chief" at the beginning of their title. The bottom line is that the line between corporate tool and consumer gadget has not just been blurred; it has been completely erased in many cases.

While the corporate technical environment has reluctantly accepted the iPhone, the relationship is not without its issues, and those issues foreshadow the issues you can expect with the iPad. iPhones present the greatest smartphone security risk to the enterprise, according to a recent survey from nCircle, a network security and compliance auditing firm.

The online survey of 257 security professionals, conducted between February 4 and March 12, 2010, found that 57 percent believe that the iPhone is the smartphone representing the greatest security risk. The survey also found that 42 percent have no corporate smartphone security policy, and that 35 percent of those that do have one don't enforce it.

Apparently, the perception is valid. Just this week two security researchers succeeded in hacking and compromising a fully-updated iPhone 3GS in under two minutes to win the 2010 Pwn2Own contest and capture the $15,000 prize.

"The general consensus is that Apple continues to do only the absolute minimum to address enterprise security and supportability requirements," noted Andrew Storms, Director of Security Operations for nCircle in an emailed statement. "We haven't seen any new enterprise iPhone security features from Apple since the summer of 2009 when they introduced their new hardware level encryption, which was almost immediately subverted. This is not the kind of behavior security professionals want to see in vendors."

That doesn't bode well for the coming iPad invasion. While Apple has targeted the iPad primarily as a media consumption gadget, a recent survey shows that users have a different purpose in mind. A Zogby International poll commissioned by Sybase "uncovered that the number one reason U.S. consumers would use a device such as the Apple iPad is for working on the go."

Another key finding of the survey is that "three-quarters of smartphone users surveyed believe that smartphones and forthcoming devices like the iPad make people more productive at work, with one-third of those feeling that the productivity impact is significant."

Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can simply ban the iPad from your business environment. Instead, develop policies and procedures that address the rules of engagement for integrating the iPad with your network resources.

As you develop the policies, keep in mind that the iPad is unique in that it delivers notebook-like functionality on a smartphone OS platform. That may confuse things as you determine whether it falls under the computer usage and security policies, or the smartphone usage and security policies.

Of course, if you don't actually have any such established policies, now is your opportunity to create a policy that simply addresses mobile devices as a whole--regardless of whether it's a notebook, netbook, smartbook, tablet, or smartphone.

Make sure that the policy accounts for allowing or denying the storage of confidential or sensitive information on the iPad, or how e-mail, instant messaging and other communications conducted through the iPad fit within archiving and compliance requirements.

And remember, the iPhone OS platform that the iPad runs on was just hacked in under two minutes.

Tony Bradley is co-author of Unified Communications for Dummies . He tweets as @Tony_BradleyPCW . You can follow him on his Facebook page , or contact him by email at tony_bradley@pcworld.com .

Sprint Nextel has stopped its advertising claim of having "America's most dependable 3G network" after a complaint by Verizon Wireless and a review by a panel of the National Advertising Review Board (NARB), the ad industry's self-regulatory body.

The NARB, in a report released Wednesday, found that Sprint had relied on two older independent network performance drive tests to bolster its advertising claim when, in fact, Verizon was superior itn network dependability on a more recent test. The panel conducted the review Feb. 9.

Sprint said it "respectfully disagrees" with the panel's findings, but would stop using the slogan and take the NARB decision into account in future advertisements.

Sprint had argued that the most recent test favoring Verizon didn't take into account wireless strength inside buildings, to which Sprint claims it is superior. But the NARB panel said there was not enough scientific support to show that Sprint's reliance on outdoor signal strength resulted in reliable indoor signal strength.

Sprint told the panel it had included a footnote in its advertisements that identified the time span of the two tests used to bolster its "most reliable" claim, but the panel disagreed. "Consumers will reasonably interpret a 'most dependable' network claim as indicating the current status of the network, not its performance in tests that have been superseded by more recent tests..."

Asked why the report as issued during the semi-annual CTIA wireless conference, and weeks after the panel hearing was held, an NARB spokeswoman said the time frame between the panel hearing and the issuance of a report was typical .

Verizon had initially complained about Sprint's claims to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which recommended that Sprint discontinue its claim. Sprint disagreed with the NAD and appealed to the NARB.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld . Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .

Read more about mobile and wireless in Computerworld's Mobile and Wireless Knowledge Center.

The NBN Co is claiming strong industry support for its layer two network design and choice of Ethernet or Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology for delivering high speed broadband as part of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

In issuing its response to industry submissions on proposed wholesale fibre bitstream products given during a recent consultation process, the NBN Co said it also planned to provide Ethernet point-to-point services at the wholesale level.

"Most respondents were supportive in principle of the positioning of points of interconnect (PoI) where there is contestable backhaul, but wanted to see more detail to determine the competitive impact," the NBN Co response document reads. "NBN Co will release a PoI paper in late March with more detail on proposed locations."

It went on to say there was support for Local Ethernet Bitstream and Aggregated Ethernet Bitstream as access products and majority support for IP multicast capability over an RF overlay.

"NBN Co is pleased that the industry supports its proposal to price access and connectivity links separately to allow flexibility in the services they can offer to end users."

Under 50 submissions were received including from: AAPT, Alcatel-Lucent Australia, Telstra, Vodafone Hutchinson Australia, iiNet, Huawei Technologies, Singtel Optus, Nextgen Networks, Motorola, Macquarie Telecom, Juniper Networks, Foxtel, Australia Post, Primus Telecom and Vocus Group among others.

Although NBN Co has not made a final decision on the placement of Optical Network Termination (ONT) devices at premises (inside or outside a building), it committed to undertaking device and configuration tests as part of the roll out and subsequently release this information. It will, however, offer ONT battery back-up capability as an option when requested by the retail service provider or end user.

"As NBN Co continues to develop its product offering, it will consult with the Government on policy issues taking into account input from the Implementation Study," the NBN Co document reads. "As these discussions progress, NBN Co may modify the thinking outlined in this document to reflect this additional input"

NBN Co's full response can be viewed in the company's website

Encouraged by early results on Windows, Intel said today it will add a beta version of popular Intel AppUp Center for Linux.

The Intel AppUp Center has a wide range of apps for netbooks, which often don’t have the horsepower to run most PC applications. These apps are tuned to run without a lot of bells and whistles. That’s why they can run on any netbook, adding very little cost.

To help the market take off, Intel introduced a Windows version of its app store at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Now it will add an Intel AppUpCenter beta for Mobilin version 2.1.

Intel is also making the existing AppUp Center available in 27 European cities on March 31.

The buzz over new, super-fast 4G networks is louder than ever here at the CTIA 2010 show. Everybody from handset makers to network infrastructure makers to app developers to network testing companies is talking about what they are doing to prepare for or participate in the movement of the entire ecosystem of wireless companies toward fast 4G service.

4G technology differs from 3G service in that it handles all services--voice, internet access, etc.--in the same way, as packets of data. 4G also uses different, and better, wireless spectrum than 3G service does, and is capable of providing far better speeds to far more people at the same time.

The two competing flavors of 4G wireless technology-WiMAX and LTE (long-term evolution) are actually very similar technology-wise, but they operate in two different kinds of wireless spectrum.

Of course much of the buzz here is just marketing bluster, especially in the LTE world: No 4G-capable smartphones exist in the wild today, although that will not be the case by the time the wireless industry meets here next year.

On the network side, despite some infrastructure suppliers (Samsung, for example) touting ready-to-deploy LTE network gear, it may be another five years before we see a fully deployed LTE network in this country.

Still, the rapid growth in consumer demand for smartphones and the data service they use has created a sense of urgency in wireless to move quickly toward 4G technology. The wireless carriers, of course, all have their own approach toward moving to 4G, and some are moving faster than others.

Sprint's Big Lead in 4G

Sprint has a substantial lead over the other large U.S. carriers in the move to 4G. Sprint made early moves to adopt the WiMAX flavor of 4G, purchasing a controlling interest in Clearwire, which owns impressive amounts of wireless spectrum, and now operates commercial-grade WiMAX networks in 27 U.S. cities. Sprint 4G mobile broadband service runs on Clearwire's networks.

Sprint announced here at CTIA on Tuesday that its 4G would soon become available in Los Angeles, Miami, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City. Sprint and Clearwire earlier announced that WiMAX would be coming to New York City, Houston, Boston, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Denver, Minneapolis and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Clearwire says it is improving its existing networks by doubling the number of transmitters and receivers at each of its cell sites. PCWorld performance tests have shown that WiMAX networks can pump out speeds that are 10 times faster than 3G, but that the reliability and consistency of that performance still lags behind that of 3G.

Sprint has already released a 3G/4G wireless hotspot device, the Overdrive, and just announced that its highly-anticipated 3G/4G phone--the EVO 4G by HTC--will begin selling this summer.

Verizon Moving Quickly Toward 4G

Verizon is also moving quickly to 4G, sticking to its promise of lighting up LTE networks in 25 to 30 U.S. cities by the end of 2010. The company isn't saying what those cities will be, but it says its LTE network will reach 100 million people by the end of this year.

Verizon says it will double the size of that deployment in early 2012. By 2013, Verizon's LTE coverage map will look similar to its popular 3G coverage maps today. In fact the 4G network may reach further than the existing 3G network, because Verizon owns 4G wireless spectrum (in the 700 MHz band) in more parts of the country than it does 3G spectrum.

The company is now testing the 4G LTE technology in Boston and Seattle. Verizon CTO Tony Malone said that, in those test markets, the 4G network is pumping out average download speeds of 5-12 megabits per second (mbps) and upload speeds of 2-5 mpbs. Verizon says it's seeing peek download speeds of 40-50 mbps.

Why the rush to 4G now? Verizon believes that new high-bandwidth apps like real-time multi-player gaming, video conferencing, and HD video streaming will increase in popularity, quickly obviating the need for faster networks.

AT&T Not Rushing Toward 4G

After so much talk about LTE and 4G here at CTIA, when you listen to AT&T's executives talk, you might think that AT&T is falling behind in the race to next-generation wireless networks. At a luncheon event with AT&T's top wireless people, the term "4G" wasn't mentioned even once, until somebody asked about it in the Q&A session at the end.

AT&T just finished a broad software upgrade of its cell sites to the faster HSPA 7.2 technology, and does not seem to be in a big hurry to upgrade the network further in the near term. And AT&T's existing network is performing very well now: Our recent 3G performance tests showed that AT&T's network is now more than 60 percent faster than competing networks in the 13 cities we tested.

AT&T broadband speeds improved more than 80 percent over the speeds delivered in our 13 testing cities when we tested just 8 months prior. This dramatic improvement took place even as AT&T signed up more smartphone subscribers, and those users used unprecedented amounts of wireless broadband service.

At a luncheon here today, Ralph De La Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, said his company has enough wireless spectrum holdings nationwide to migrate them to LTE, even if an interim step to the faster HSPA+ is deemed necessary. While HSPA 7.2 maxes out at 7.2 mbps, HSPA+ can deliver speeds of more than 10 mbps on a consistent basis.

HSPA+ is a software upgrade allowing the radios on the cell towers to pump out speeds of 10 mbps or more to individual subscribers--that is, if the subscriber is using a device that can handle those speeds.

As for LTE, AT&T has said that it will begin testing the new testing technologies in two cities by the end of 2010, but will not name the cities and will not detail its LTE plans beyond that. Nor will it comment on its 4G wireless spectrum holdings relative to those of its competitors.

Next: T-Mobile's Plans

T-Mobile Moves to HSPA+

While the other major U.S. wireless carriers invest (some heavily) in migrating their networks to 4G wireless technology, T-Mobile is investing in upgrading its existing 3G network.

T -Mobile turned on the new HSPA+ service in Philadelphia in the fall of 2009, and, the company says, has since then turned on the service in Washington DC and New York City. Los Angeles will soon get the new faster service, the company says. T-Mobile announced Tuesday that it will upgrade its 3G network to the faster HSPA+ cellular technology in 100 U.S. cities by the end of 2010.

The company says its upgrade will come at a cost of between $200 and $300 million, while Verizon, Sprint and AT&T will spend between $8 million and $10 million on the move to 4G networks.

T-Mobile isn't getting specific about the average speeds the network is pumping out in Philadelphia, New York City and Washington DC, but it claims that its HSPA+ technology delivers speeds that are three to five times faster than 3G service. T-Mobile also claims that its HSPA+ networks are faster than Clearwire 4G WiMAX networks.

What's It All Mean?

So what does all this technical stuff mean to me? Well, not a lot right now unless you happen to live in one of Sprint's 27 WiMAX cities.

But there is a paradigm shift going on. Just as we don't like to leave the house without the ability to make a phone call when we're out, one day soon we will feel the same way about the ability to access the Internet.

As this shift takes place, wireless networks will be increasingly taxed by more smartphone users using more and more bandwidth-hungry mobile applications. Wireless carriers are doing their best to stay ahead of the coming demand.

Telstra has disagreed with the NBN Co's proposal to have only 100 to 200 points of interconnect (PoI) in the National Broadband Network (NBN), saying the move is "neither pro-competitive nor pro-choice".

In its submission to a NBN Co consultation process on proposed wholesale fibre bitstream products, Telstra also said the move to not offer Local Ethernet Bitstream (LEB) products where it offers Aggregated Ethernet Bitstream (AEB) products -- which enables users to gain access to one or more fibre serving areas over an aggregated link -- will also limit competition and commercially disadvantage companies that have "deployed or are deploying contested backhaul infrastructure to areas that NBN Co is proposing to be subject to aggregation".

"It will not facilitate differentiation and innovation by Retail Service Providers (RSPs), nor will it promote maximum end-user choice, which is contrary to NBN Co's stated objectives," the Telstra submission reads. "It will effectively mean that NBN Co will become the sole, exclusive provider. This is not consistent with the Government's aim for the NBN to deliver better and fairer access to infrastructure, nor will it meet the Government's objective to improve the competitive market in regional Australia. Instead it will remove the ability of NBN Co's customers to acquire services from an existing infrastructure provider, thereby limiting choice that would otherwise be available. There is no basis for NBN Co imposing this restriction on competition."

Telstra went on to say it would be contrary to the policy objectives of the Regional Backbone Blackspots Program and discourage further investment in regional infrastructure.

"Additionally, Telstra believes that there are several hundred exchange service areas in regional areas that are currently or could be served by more than one fibre owner, and that this number will only increase under the Government's backhaul blackspots program. The number of PoIs should be progressively increased to reflect this high level of competitive investment."

In short, Tesltra contends that the PoI and product offering proposals will prevent wholesale customers who have "already deployed or wish to deploy their own infrastructure, or who have purchased or wish to purchase backhaul from another provider, from using that infrastructure".

"It also tilts the competitive playing field in favour of those who have not invested or purchased capacity on regional routes, and risks NBN Co's ability to deliver the most cost-effective solution for the industry," Telstra said.

Aside from these arguments, Telstra expressed support for the Layer 2 approach being taken by NBN Co and agreed in principle with the choice of Ethernet and Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technologies.

"Telstra recommends NBN Co adopt a transparent and robust process for determining the location and number of PoIs, and provide wholesale customers with the ability to acquire either the LEG or the AEB in regional areas."

Telstra's full response can be read on the NBN Co website.

Overall, NBN Co has claimed industry support for the majority of its network decisions.

Google built an empire out of serving consumers ads matching exactly what they were looking for at exact right moment in time. But people develop desires over months or years, so the search giant, along with a whole host of competitors like Facebook, are trying to prove their mettle in ads that generate demand.

The problem — and goldmine — is in having the right metrics that prove that these ads work.

Today Google unveiled remarketing, which lets advertisers reach consumers long after they’ve initially made contact with a online site or brand. It comes on top of two other big changes the company made in search ad targeting and metrics earlier this year (described below). All of these changes appear incremental on the surface, but are really quite profound in terms of their impact on privacy and in how Internet companies can influence consumer behavior.

Remarketing is pretty simple in concept. It lets brands continue marketing to potential customers even if they’ve left your site.

Here’s an example the company gave: Say a customer is looking to make a vacation to the Caribbean and they visit your site. But it’s too expensive, so they leave for now. However, they may eventually end up making the trip. How do you reach them? The remarketing program lets the business serve ads to them on other Google content sites (like the one pictured to the left). This is sure to raise a number of privacy concerns. Google is trying to assuage those by offering an opt-out but as others point out, it’s hard to find and put in effect.

The new remarketing feature comes on top of two serious developments we’ve seen over the last few months that expands Google’s advertising influence beyond a single search.

Earlier this week, the company unveiled search funnels, which are a way of tracking searches that users make up until they make a conversion (or click on the search ad you bought). Normally, Google counts the very last ad before a click as the one that makes a conversion. But users often do multiple searches before they finally decide to click on an ad. The new feature will show advertisers the path of searches a user makes on the way toward reaching and clicking through that ad.

Another development we saw earlier this year was a switch Google made from targeting ads based on a single search to targeting ads based on hours of search history.

All of these efforts are meant to demonstrate and boost the power of demand-generating ads that come before the point of conversion.

Angel investor and Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon explained the idea really elegantly in a post that’s worth reading today:

“Cost-per-click search ads are extremely good at harvesting intent, but bad at generating intent. The vast majority of money spent on intent-generating advertising — brand advertising — still happens offline. Eventually this money will have to go where people spend time, which is increasingly online, at sites like Facebook. Somehow Coke, Tide, Nike, Budweiser etc. will have to convince the next generation to buy their mostly commodity products. Expect the online Starbucks of the future to have a lot more – and more effective – ads.”

Google’s remarketing program is about starting to make these ads happen, and to prove that they’re worth it.

Tags: ads, online advertising, targeting

Companies: Google

Google's upgraded version of its automated Web application scanner, SkipFish, has received glowing reviews from local security experts.

The free tool designed by Google software engineer Michal Zalewski, and launched late last week, scans for web application vulnerabilities.

Penetration testing firm HackLabs director Chris Gatford said the tool is "blazingly fast" and accurate.

The revamped SkipFish outperformed other free and commercial offerings during HackLab tests. Gatford said some full-featured web application scanners return HTTP request at a rate of about one or two a second.

"SkipFish fired more than 400 requests per second, that's under less than ideal conditions, on a standard broadband connection and using its default settings," Gatford said, adding it did return some errors.

Security blogger and RedSpin consultant jhaddix said the application returned 600 requests per second over a 10Mb connection, but reported some problems.

The massive request rate means the tool can also be used for malicious Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Such an attack would require less compute-power -- roughly 20 servers according to estimates -- to crash a small corporate site.

Malicious users could employ the tool to discover application vulnerablilities for exploitation, but that possibility is available through many existing tools.

Gatford said SkipFish is a "smart move" by Google as it represents an attempt to improve online safety, a suggestion echoed by IBRS security analyst James Turner.

Zalewski has been quick to introduce fixes as testers report them. He fixed six flaws discovered by Gatford within hours of their publication on Twitter.

SkipFish is targeted for people who typically do not test web applications, but security experts say some knowledge or research is requirement to locate vulnerability fixes that Zalewski has reportedly planned, but not yet incorporated into the tool.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has taken to his iPhone and iPad to respond to several customers' e-mail messages, according to multiple reports over the past weeks. In at least nine instances so far, Jobs has sent brief replies to customer concerns over the iPhone, the iPad, and MacBook laptops.

In less than two weeks, the CEO of one of the most tight-lipped tech companies to date, used his iPhone and, of course, iPad, to reply to e-mail from a select few customers asking questions about Apple products.

Jobs' e-mail spree, seen as a replacement to reported controlled leaks from the Cupertino company, sheds some light over Apple's future moves, without giving too much away to its competitors.

All the e-mail headers disclosed suggest that the e-mail replies are indeed from the man himself, so here's a round-up of Jobs' e-mails:

"Yep," replied Jobs from his iPad to an e-mail asking whether we can expect a universal mailbox on the iPhone. A unified inbox on the iPhone, and perhaps also the iPad, is one of the most requested Mail application features since the phone launched in 2007.

"No" is the answer to iPad and iPhone tethering (sharing the iPhone's Internet connection) Jobs sent from his own iPhone to a Swedish DJ. Jobs also said "Not to worry" to a customer expressing concerns over Apple's vision for its MacBook and Pro lines.

"No, but iPhoto on the Mac has much better Faces and Places features," the Apple CEO said in a reply from his iPhone to a U.K. customer asking whether the iPad will be compatible with Google's Picasa library format.

"Yes" is Jobs' answer (from his iPad) when asked whether users will be able to transfer Google Docs to iWork.com or iDisk. "Yep" is also his answer to the iPad being able to sync free books in the ePub format on iBooks through iTunes.

While still on the iPad topic, Jobs reportedly said in an email from his iPhone that the Apple tablet will be available "Initially at Apple Retails and online store and Best Buy," keeping AT&T stores out of the equation so far.

Steve Jobs also gave slightly longer answers to a developer over the legal implications of his application's name and to a customer complaining about his water-damaged laptop.

Eye-Fi recently took the wraps off its Eye-Fi Pro X2 lineup of wireless SDHC cards that let you upload images directly from your camera via Wi-Fi to your computer or more than 25 photo sharing sites.

The new wireless photo storage cards include three different models starting at $50, with a 4GB or 8GB storage size, and all three use the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard for faster upload times. Eye-Fi has also increased the number of public Wi-Fi hotspots avaiable to Eye-Fi subscribers from more than 10,000 to over 21,000 locations across the U.S. including Starbucks and HarborLink Network hotspots. To use Eye-Fi's new wireless cards you'll need an SDHC-compatible camera.

Here's a breakdown of the latest SD cards from Eye-Fi:

Eye-Fi Connect X2: The most affordable X2 model is priced at $50, has 4GB of storage space, and will upload JPEG images and videos to more than 25 sites such as Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and Picasa. Photo Geotagging service and Wi-Fi hotspot access can be purchased for an extra fee.

Eye-Fi Explore Video: The Explore costs $100, has 8GB of storage, offers automatic lifetime geotagging and one year of free Wi-Fi hotspot access at any of the 21,000 locations across the U.S. Just like the Connect X2, the Explore uploads JPEG images and videos only. At the time of this writing, the Explore X2 was on back order, according to Eye-Fi's Website.

Eye-Fi Pro X2: Eye-Fi's premium X2 model costs $150, stores up to 8GB worth of material, and can upload JPEG or RAW images, as well as video. The Pro X2 can also create an ad hoc connection to your computer to load photos onto your hard drive (the Connect and Explore need to connect to your computer through a Wi-Fi router). The Pro X2 also comes with lifetime geotagging and a one year subscription to Wi-Fi hotspot access. At the time of this writing, the Pro X2 was also on back order, according to Eye-Fi's Website.

Endless Memory

While Eye-Fi's wireless cards are a great idea for those who are near a Wi-Fi hotspot and want to upload photos quickly, one problem the X2 lineup doesn't solve is Eye-Fi's small storage space. The storage size has increased from a maximum 4GB to 8GB with the X2 lineup, but that's still relatively tiny considering that SDHC cards can have maximum storage sizes of 32GB.

To get around this problem, Eye-Fi cards include an Endless Memory feature that automatically deletes older pictures that have been already been uploaded once the card nears its maximum storage capacity. Endless Memory doesn't need a Wi-Fi connection to work, and the new feature will not delete photos that haven't been uploaded.

While this sounds like a great idea, you may not want to enable the Endless Memory feature on your new card right away. Eye-Fi is not clear on what "uploaded photos" means. Does this mean only photos that are sent to your computer, or will Endless Memory delete photos uploaded to sharing sites as well? I can't help wondering, for example, if you upload some photos to Facebook -- where uploaded photos are usually unfit for printing -- is there any way to stop the Endless Memory feature from deleting those shots so you can make prints later on? Eye-Fi isn't clear about that.

Regardless, the new X2 cards and expanded Wi-Fi hotspot access will make it even easier to share and store photos without the hassle of tangled USB cords. What do you think? Do you plan on getting a new Eye-Fi X2 card or is wireless uploading directly from you camera not worth the price for you?

Connect with Ian on Twitter (@ianpaul).

TiVo Premiere is the first true overhaul of the TiVo experience since the company changed our TV-watching world over a decade ago. True, TiVo didn't invent the DVR, but the company did such a good job making it usable that the word "TiVo" has become a verb, one that's synonymous with all DVRs, just as Kleenex is to tissues. This fourth-generation TiVo features cosmetically -tweaked hardware, but it has significant changes under the hood and, more important, it introduces a redesigned interface and new features optimized for high-definition TV and a Web-connected era.

The new interface makes TiVo all the more appealing; however, cost remains the primary barrier to adoption. TiVo Premiere is $299 for the basic 320GB model, plus monthly service fees that start at $12.95, with discounts for long-term contracts (price as of 3/24/2010). (For more recording capacity, there's the $499 1TB TiVo Premiere XL, which can record 150 hours of high-def video.)

If you're a fan of the current TiVo models, the interface changes in the Premiere will be immediately obvious. Gone are the stretched, low-res screens formatted for standard-definition TVs. In their place are high-def-resolution graphics and a snazzy design that presents top-level menus on the left side of the screen and drill-down submenus on the right (previously, these submenus were presented as separate screens entirely). By bringing the submenus up a level, a lot more information can be presented on a screen, with a far less wrangling with the remote control. Fonts are smaller and clearer, and the design has a more dramatic use of color. The upper-right corner displays the current TV channel while you're digging around in the menus, and a beautiful "Discovery Bar" populates the top of the screen with all sorts of content related to whatever it is you currently have selected.

The new TiVo Premiere units are slimmer and sleeker than previous revisions, with simple, colored circular lights on the front to show you if the unit is on or recording a program, or what actions you may be performing with the remote. Sadly, the handy OLED screen from the Series 3 that displays the time and names of the shows being recorded has been excised. Older TiVos could record two channels at once from cable or over-the-air, but required two single-stream CableCards to receive two cable channels.

By contrast, Premiere has a single CableCard slot, but supports multistream cards (M-cards), so it can still record two channels at once, even while you watch a previously-recorded show. Though the menus have slightly altered names and a new look, navigation in general will be familiar to anyone who has used TiVo before. The channel guide can be switched between the excellent two-pane Live Guide view and the familiar Grid view you find on most other DVRs.

The ergonomic, comfortable-to-use peanut-shaped remote is still here, and looks much as it always did; those "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" buttons, whereby you tell TiVo which programs you like so it can learn to automatically record stuff it thinks you might want to check out are still there. So are the satisfying "bla-bloop" sounds. Want to interact with the screen more? An optional remote, to be available later this year, will have a slide-out keyboard (it will retain the peanut shape, but will be stouter).

Though many core features are the same, others have been tweaked for the better. If the show or actor you're searching for doesn't have any programs in the guide, it's easier than ever to set up a WishList search so you don't miss it in the future. The skip-forward button can be toggled between the old functionality (skipping forward to the end of a show) and a new 30-second scan feature that very rapidly moves forward 30 seconds for each press of the button. You'll catch a glimpse of the ads this way, but the movement is so fast you'll hardly notice them. (Users pining for the old "30-second skip" Easter egg remote code will be happy to know it still works.)

Your recorded library, formerly known as "Now Playing" and now renamed "My Shows," finally displays exactly how much space you're using on your TiVo's hard drive. Search results are displayed in order of popularity by default, so you're more likely to find what you're looking for without laboriously typing in long strings of text with the remote.

The Discovery Bar is perhaps the best feature of the new TiVo. Hover over "My Shows," and it presents a combined list of TV shows and movies that are similar to the things you like. Select a particular show, and the bar narrows down recommendations to programs that are similar to that show, or are given the "thumbs-up" by other TiVo users who also like that program. In the options menus you can customize the Discovery Bar to show more or less of certain types of content. If you don't want as many movie recommendations, premium paid content, or "showcases" of a particular genre or actor, you can lower those priorities and raise others.

In my use, this feature worked well and can easily turn you on to things you might not have otherwise tried. In some ways it's reminiscent of the philosophy behind the latest Zune software, which emphasizes discovering new stuff just as much as consuming the stuff you already know and love. TiVo is using its rich database of statistical info on user behavior and preferences to help you find new content, and it's a welcome breath of fresh air.

The new Series 4 software is also more Web-connected than ever before. Services like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video on Demand, Blockbuster, and Rhapsody are well integrated to all aspects of the experience. Look up a movie, and if it's not coming on cable anytime soon, you can watch it directly from Netflix streaming or rent it from Amazon (if available). These services seem to run as their own applications, with slightly different interfaces than the main TiVo Central screen. Still, at least your searches pull in data not only from your cable TV programming, but from these services as well. One of the benefits of building the interface on Flash is that it will make be easier for TiVo to integrate additional services (for example, Pandora will be added later this year). The Web integration is far superior to what you get from a typical cable DVR.

For all the features that are well-executed, TiVo Premiere is not without its sore spots. If you dig into the menus beyond the basic "find and watch TV, movies, and music" functions, you're back into the old TiVo standard-def interface. This will be common in the first few days as you reorder your Season Pass priority list and futz around in the system menu, but it won't often be seen once you have everything up and running the way you like it. TiVo says many of these menus will be upgraded to the new HD look over the coming weeks and months. Also, it's still difficult to schedule a Season Pass to record only the shows that come on at a certain hour if new episodes are aired multiple times a day, or if a program always uses a generic description in the guide info (aka "The Daily Show problem").

Despite the old single-core 300MHz Broadcom processor being replaced with a dual-core 400MHz model, and the RAM being doubled (from 256MB to 512MB), I found that menu navigation could sometimes be a little slow and unresponsive. This happens especially in loading thumbnail graphics in the Discovery Bar. TiVo says that it is aware of this problem, and that it should be addressed in a software update that will be available when TiVo Premiere units start shipping to customers. I also found a few small text formatting problems as well; TiVo says these should be likewise fixed in a software update.

With TiVo Premiere, the company cements its reputation as the premier (if you'll pardon the pun) DVR experience on the market. The greatest obstacle to TiVo adoption remains its sticker shock: That $300 or $500 for a box, together with a recurring monthly fee or a big lifetime subscription fee, seems like a lot of money. But you'll almost certainly pay a fee to lease a DVR from your cable company, and over the years the TiVo approach may actually be cheaper. Still, laying out that much money up front just for a better experience may seem like a lot to ask.

Bottom line? Despite the cost of entry, I can highly recommend TiVo Premiere to anyone fed up with the sorry functionality of their cable DVR, especially those who make use of Web services like Netflix or Amazon Video on Demand. It's a small price to pay for a vastly better TV-watching experience.

New smartphones with ultrafast 4G wireless broadband are making headlines this week, particularly Sprint's slick HTC EVO 4G handset. But laptop manufacturers are getting in on the 4G action too.

Lenovo ThinkPad laptops in the U.S. will now support Sprint 3G and 4G (WiMax) wireless, the companies announced today.   ThinkPad models are already 3G-ready, and Lenovo will now offer 4G-enabled laptops like the business-oriented ThinkPad Edge.

Clearwire, the WiMax carrier backed by Sprint, says more than 30 computers now come with a 4G modem that works with its network.

In related news, Qualcomm today announced that its latest Gobi modem chipsets would support LTE (Long Term Evolution), a competing 4G technology favored by leading U.S. wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Major laptop makers, including Acer, HP, Dell, and Lenovo, already offer Gobi 3G modems, and the progression to 4G should happen shortly.

Muddled 4G

User confusion may slow the adoption of 4G broadband in laptops, however. In the U.S. market, two next-generation wireless broadband technologies--WiMax and LTE-- are "4G." Life would be a lot simpler with one global spec for high-speed mobile broadband, a goal advocated by none other than Clearwire chief executive Bill Morrow, Reuters reports.

What's so confusing? Here's an example: Lenovo's ThinkPads support Sprint 4G, which uses WiMax. A 4G-enabled Dell laptop with a Qualcomm Gobi modem will support LTE, a nascent technology that AT&T and Verizon Wireless plan to roll out over the next two years. However, some Dell laptops, including the Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, offer WiMax 4G modems too.

4G 101

Of course, if you're buying a 4G-ready laptop from your wireless provider, the problem is solved. The carrier would certainly sell only 4G laptops that are compatible with its service. But many home and business customers are used to buying laptops directly from PC manufacturers or consumer electronics retailers. For the latter group, a 4G crash course is necessary.

There's plenty of time for home and business users to study up on the finer points of LTE vs. WiMax, however. Both 4G networks are in their early stages of build-out, although WiMax has a significant head start. Sprint has rolled out its 4G service in 27 U.S. cities, and plans to add 15 more this year. But most AT&T and Verizon Wireless users won't see 4G access until sometime next year.

Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com.

If networks were perfect, you could access them without any configuration. Thankfully, this is usually the case. But if you've used the Internet in strange places, you know that some networks require special--and often bizarre--settings. Windows only allows one configuration for each network adapter, so you must manually change the settings each time you switch to or from such a network. Mobile Net Switch ($34; nag screens appear until license is purchased) automates this process, letting you quickly select between different "connection profiles."

A connection profile is a group of settings which Mobile Net Switch will activate. All the obvious network settings can be modified for each adapter, including the IP address, gateway, and DNS server. The DHCP server on my home router is broken, so I use Mobile Net Switch simply to cycle between static and automatic IP addressing. But even if you have more advanced needs, Mobile Net Switch can handle it. You can configure IP routes, dynamic hosts, drive mappings, and proxy servers. Personal settings such as screen resolution and default volume can be part of a connection profile too. Mobile Net Switch will even run scripts, if you can find anything that it doesn't already support.

To change connection profiles, just right click on the program's tray icon, and select the desired profile. A small progress window will pop up to show you which settings are actually being changed. After a few seconds, Mobile Net Switch will finish. It sure beats tedious navigation through the Control Panel.

Security vendor AVG has launched a free emergency boot-up CD.

The AVG Rescue CD will recover and boot PCs that are infected with a virus or unable to boot for another reason.

Any AVG customer, including those that use its free security software, can download a software package from its website, which can then either be burnt to CD or stored on a USB flash drive.

If needed the disk or USB drive can then be inserted into the machine and will boot the PC.

Once booted, the software will scan the hard drive for viruses and malware, as well as restoring a safe network connection to the computer.

Advanced users will also be able to make use of a Windows Registry editor, a TestDisk utility for recovering deleted files and lost partitions, a file browser for navigating folders and a Ping tool for basic network diagnostics, all of which also feature in the free software.

AVG is also offering a version of the Rescue CD for Linux-based PCs.

To download the software, visit AVG's dedicated webpage.

• Broadband speed test
• PC security advice
• Internet & broadband news

See also: AVG LinkScanner now includes shortened URLs