Electrobike Pi: the pricey hybrid electric bicycle

McAfee: Most Consumers Overestimate PC Safety (PC World)

What's interesting, though is how many people think they are protected: 93 percent according the survey, which is set to be released Monday. "There's… a troubling perception among the vast majority of consumers that they're well protected. And they're not. " McAfee says. Translation: buy more of our products. Maybe on Monday we'll learn then what percentage of the people who are not protected *think* they're safe. By the way, the percentage of protected computers hasn't improved much over the past two years. In 2005, the study found that 81 percent of PCs were not protected. These are big numbers and the fact that not a lot more people are becoming protected seems to show that consumers feel they're doing all they can to be safe.

Apple’s top lawyer leaves (AP)

Oracle Corp. general counsel Daniel Cooperman will replace Rosenberg on Nov. 1, Apple said Friday. Rosenberg joined Apple last November, when the maker of iPod players and Macintosh computers was in the thick of a stock options scandal. His predecessor there, Nancy Heinen, is now fighting civil charges that she fraudulently backdated stock-options awards to the executive team and a grant to CEO Steve Jobs. Jobs has a reputation as a tough boss, and his Cupertino-based company maintains an overflowing plate of legal work. In addition to shareholder lawsuits, Apple stays busy building and defending a large portfolio of patents and faces copyright concerns and anticompetitive complaints from a string of European agencies over its iTunes-iPod franchise. Rosenberg, who spent more than 30 years at International Business Machines Corp. before joining Apple, is jumping to another general counsel post brimming with challenges. San Diego-based Qualcomm, the world’s second-largest provider of cellular phone chips, is under investigation in the U.S., Europe and Asia for antitrust claims. It also faces major legal battles with rivals Nokia Corp. and Broadcom Corp. over its patents. Qualcomm’s most recent general counsel, Lou Lupin, resigned in August after a string of legal setbacks and an embarrassing rebuke by a San Diego judge who said Qualcomm was dishonest and committed ‘legal malpractice.’ Apple did not disclose why Rosenberg left. “We thank Don for his contributions to Apple during the past 10 months and wish him well in his future endeavors,” Jobs said in a statement. Cooperman “will be an excellent addition to our team and will fit right into Apple’s fast-paced culture.” Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment further, and she said Rosenberg and Cooperman were both declining interviews. Cooperman, who became Oracle’s general counsel in February 1997, is chairman of the Software & Information Industry Association, the software industry’s largest trade group. Prior to Oracle, he was a partner with the San Francisco-based law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen. At business software giant Oracle, Dorian Daley, corporate counsel since 1992, will become the new general counsel, Oracle said. Shares of Apple closed Friday at $153.47, down $1.03, while Qualcomm rose 3 cents to $42.26 and Oracle gained 2 cents to $21.65.

Gap job applicants’ data stolen (AP)

The laptop stored Social Security numbers and other data from people in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada who applied online and by phone between July 2006 and June 2007 for jobs at Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Outlet stores. The incident came on the heels of a finding this week by the Canadian government that another international retailer, TJX Cos., hadn’t sufficiently encrypted data it stored from customer transactions, and that failure enabled hackers who intercepted wireless communications to steal data on millions of customers. The break-in gave hackers undetected access to TJX’s central databases for a year and a half, exposing at least 45 million credit and debit cards to potential fraud. Data about job applicants — who must often provide Social Security numbers, job histories, home and e-mail addresses and other information — is a favorite target of hackers. A security breach last month at online job site exposed the confidential information of 1.3 million people looking for jobs. Gap said the laptop was lifted from the offices of a third-party vendor that manages job applicant data for the San Francisco-based clothier, but the company would not provide the vendor’s name or other details of the theft. The company said job applicants have not notified it of any instances of identity theft or fraud related to the incident. Storing data without encrypting it to protect it from hackers is contrary to Gap’s agreement with the third-party vendor, Gap said Friday. “What happened here is against everything we stand for as a company,” said Gap Chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy. “We’re reviewing the facts and circumstances that led to this incident closely, and will take appropriate steps to help prevent something like this from happening again.” Multiple outside companies manage job applicant data for Gap so not everyone who applied for retail work with the company had confidential data compromised.And the laptop did not contain Canadian applicants’ Social Insurance Numbers. Gap is notifying the affected applicants and offering a year of free credit monitoring services with fraud resolution assistance. The company has also set up a 24-hour help line. Gap, which operates more than 3,100 stores in the United States and five other countries, is working with law enforcement officials to investigate the theft.

Regulators shut online bank NetBank (AP)

The federal Office of Thrift Supervision said it appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as a receiver for Alpharetta, Ga.-based NetBank Inc. The FDIC said $1.5 billion in insured deposits will be assumed by ING Bank, part of Dutch financial giant ING Groep NV. NetBank, which had no physical branches, “sustained significant losses in 2006 primarily due to early payment defaults on loans sold, weak underwriting, poor documentation, a lack of proper controls, and failed business strategies,” the OTS said in a statement. The FDIC said NetBank had $2.5 billion in total assets and $2.3 billion in deposits as of June 30. The last major thrift to be closed by regulators was Superior Bank of Hinsdale, Ill. It had total assets of $1.9 billion and was shut down in July 2001. NetBank had reached a deal to sell its deposit accounts and other assets to privately held EverBank of Jacksonville, Fla., but EverBank announced this month that the deal fell through. EverBank in July completed its acquisition of NetBank’s mortgage servicing business, and the FDIC said Friday that EverBank will purchase about $700 million in mortgage loans. “Customers of NetBank should have confidence and security knowing that they will have access to their insured funds in a timely and orderly manner,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in a prepared statement. The FDIC insures bank deposits of up to $100,000 NetBank had $109 million in deposit accounts that exceeded the FDIC limit. Those customers will become creditors in NetBank’s receivership, the FDIC said.

Internet tax moratorium stalls in the Senate (InfoWorld)

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chairman Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, yanked the Internet Tax Freedom Extension Act from a list of bills scheduled to be amended and approved Thursday. Inouye, in a statement, said "further negotiations are warranted." Inouye called for senators to work out a reasonable compromise so that the committee "will be able to take swift action in the future." There are disagreements in the Senate about how long the moratorium on access taxes and other taxes unique to the Internet should be extended. A group of senators, including Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, want the moratorium, in effect since 1998, made permanent. Another group of senators, many of whom have opposed any extension of the moratorium in the past, have proposed a four-year extension. The Internet Tax Freedom Extension Act, sponsored by Sens. Thomas Carper, a Delaware Democrat, Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, and others, would extend the moratorium until late 2011. Opponents of a permanent moratorium say a temporary extension keeps ISPs from attempting to sneak other services such as VoIP into the tax ban. Some senators have also argued the tax ban hurts states' ability to raise revenue. The moratorium prohibits state and local governments from creating new Internet-based taxes. Governments are not prohibited from imposing taxes that companies or customers face offline, such as property tax or sales tax. There also continues to be disagreement about changing definitions in the tax ban intended to separate traditionally taxed voice services from Internet services, said a Democratic Senate staffer familiar with the discussions. A group of senators are more interested in pushing a permanent ban than coming to a compromise that will pass the Senate, the staffer said. "The worst of all worlds is for something so extreme to pass [through the committee], that it will not get done," the staffer said. Sen. John Sununu, New Hampshire Republican, blasted the committee for stalling the tax ban. "The Democratic Leadership in the Senate appears uninterested in protecting Internet users from higher taxes," he said in a prepared statement. "We introduced a bill to permanently ban Internet access taxes back in January. I just don't understand the continued delay in action. The clock continues to tick, placing Internet tax freedom in real jeopardy." But the Democratic staffer noted that the tax ban lapsed for more than a year before it was last extended in 2004. "As far as I can tell, the world didn't stop spinning," he said.

Far EasTone may promote WiMax handsets, but not Skype (InfoWorld)

The Taiwanese company is the only major mobile phone service provider on the island to  and offer high-speed wireless Internet access to people in the southern half of the island. The conundrum it faces is the development of handsets designed to run over WiMax networks using VoIP, which bypass traditional mobile phone and landline networks to give users low-cost and sometimes no-cost calls. Such devices could cut into mobile phone service revenue for all companies. Far EasTone will support WiMax phones on the network, but if it decides to distribute a WiMax handset of its own, it will not put Skype on it, said Jan Nilsson, president of Far EasTone, during a news conference in Taipei. Earlier this year, he blamed VoIP phone calls for the first ever revenue decline in Taiwan's telecommunications industry in 2006, lamenting the fact that people on the island have turned to using free or low-cost long-distance calls over the Internet in place of traditional phone calls. Skype is the favorite VoIP software of Taiwan, due in large part to an agreement Skype inked with popular Internet portal operator PCHome Online to market and distribute its software in Taiwan. Nearly 20.5 million copies of Skype's software have been downloaded from so far, a huge number considering Taiwan's population is only around 23 million people. Far EasTone plans to have its WiMax network up and running by the end of next year or early in 2009, said Nilsson. The company plans to seek a partner in northern Taiwan in order to offer full-island service. Taiwan awarded WiMax licenses to six companies earlier this year, three each for the north and south of the island. Far EasTone won the right to build a WiMax network in southern Taiwan. It was the only one of the island's major phone service providers to win a license, edging out rivals Chunghwa Telecom, the biggest phone company in Taiwan, and Taiwan Mobile. WiMax base stations can send wireless broadband Internet signals far greater distances than the Wi-Fi technology used to deliver wireless Internet access in coffee shops and airports today. Although estimates vary on how far WiMax signals can go, in a densely populated place such as Taiwan, the distance should be between 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) and 4 km.

SCO gets reprieve from Nasdaq (InfoWorld)

The Unix vendor had said last week that had been set to be delisted on Thursday of this week but that the company would plan to appeal the decision, a move that would delay the delisting. On Friday, SCO's stock continued to be traded on Nasdaq, and by midday Friday, it was up nearly 4 percent, trading at $0.17. When asked about the Nasdaq situation, SCO's public relations agency said it would issue a statement later on Friday.  on Sept. 18 as a result of its bankruptcy, the company said. The bankruptcy filing followed a major legal setback dealt to SCO last August. That's when . This decision not only undermined , but it also raised the possibility that SCO would have to pay Novell as much as $30 million in licensing fees. SCO has about $10.4 million in the bank, according to its latest financial statement. "As a result of both the Court's August 10, 2007 ruling and the Company's entry into Chapter 11, there is substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a growing concern," SCO said in a

Apple software update disables hacked iPhones (AFP)

Renegade software wizards that devised ways to break into iPhone's jealously guarded inner workings and sever an exclusive link to AT&T are trying to work their magic anew on Apple's software upgrade. Engineers at iPhoneSimFree said Friday in a website posting that they tested the iPhone update and found the devices remain unlocked and operable as long as they use an original AT&T chip known as a "subscriber identity module" (SIM) card. "Unfortunately, currently there is no way to jailbreak/reactivate the phone for use with a SIM card other than the original AT&T card," an iPhoneSimFree posting said. "We are all looking into the jailbreak issue as it affects us all." Without the optional update, hacked iPhones can be made to work with SIM cards for other service providers. Thousands of open source developers who have put "cumulative tens of thousands" of hours into custom software applications and tools now have no way to get them onto updated iPhones, according to iPhoneSimFree. Apple did not return an AFP request for comment. Early in the week the iconic California-based company issued a warning that its iPhone update, the first since the devices went on sale in the United States in June, could disable phones hacked to link to users other than AT&T. The US telecom giant is the sole iPhone service provider authorized by Apple in the United States. The iPhone update patches holes in security and enables devices to connect to an iTunes music store designed for wireless connections from mobile devices. Apple this month cut the price of the popular eight-gigabyte iPhones to 399 dollars. Apple is to begin selling iPhones in Europe in November.

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