RIM disappointed but hopeful with BlackBerry 10

TORONTO (AP) - The CEO of embattled BlackBerry maker Research in Motion says he isn't satisfied with the company's performance, but he's excited about its prospects with the upcoming BlackBerry 10 system.

Thorsten Heins said during a shareholders meeting in Waterloo, Ontario, on Tuesday that the past year has been very difficult.

He says the company has spent the past several months reorganizing operations to help reverse its fortunes. It's also working hard to get devices running BlackBerry 10 out early next year, months behind schedule, to help it compete better with the iPhone and Android devices.

Research in Motion Ltd.'s stock has since been trading near a nine-year low. Two weeks ago, it announced disappointing quarterly earnings, plans to cut 30 percent of its workforce and the latest delay in BlackBerry 10.



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Apple will start selling iPad in China July 20

NEW YORK (AP) - Apple will start selling the iPad in China on July 20 after settling a dispute over the ownership of the tablet computer's name.

Apple Inc. says it will begin selling its latest iPad starting at $499 and the older iPad 2 starting at $399.

The tablet computers will be sold online, at Apple stores, and through approved resellers.

Apple paid a Chinese company $60 million to gain the rights to the iPad name, a Chinese court said on July 2.

China is Apple's second-largest market after the United States, and it is the source of much of the Cupertino, Calif., company's sales growth.

BlackBerry marketing head undeterred by share loss

NEW YORK (AP) - The new marketing chief for BlackBerry smartphones isn't dejected by perceptions that his products look ancient next to iPhones and Android devices.

Frank Boulben is four weeks into his job as chief marketing officer for Research in Motion Ltd. He promises to impress people when phones running the company's new BlackBerry 10 software are released in early 2013, at least a year later than analysts had expected.

He told The Associated Press in a Monday interview that RIM will tout features that current devices lack. That includes better ways to run multiple programs at once.

But touting new features is just part of the challenge. BlackBerry devices will be handicapped because, compared with rivals, they have fewer games, utilities and other apps available to extend the phones' functionality.



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Behind the threat: FBI Internet server shutdown

NEW YORK (AP) - On Monday, the FBI turned off servers that had allowed thousands of malware-stricken computers to continue using the Internet. The personal computers - both Windows PCs and Macs - are corrupted by a virus known as DNSChanger. Without the servers, the machines wouldn't know how to locate websites and send email.

Q. What happened?

A. Years ago, scammers managed to trick millions of people into installing the DNSChanger software, which changed certain computer settings. With the change, your computer went to a rogue server rather than a legitimate one at your company or Internet service provider. From there, the scammers were able to send you to websites containing rogue ads from which they profited.

Q. How were the servers supposed to function?

A. Databases known as domain name servers translate Internet addresses such as 'ap.org' into a series of numbers your computer needs to locate other Internet-connected machines. Think of it as the Internet's version of directory assistance for telephone numbers. If you need the number for Acme's Flowers, you call '411' to ask for it.

Q. How did the scam work?

A. In the simplest terms, think of it as '411' calls that were rerouted to a directory-assistance service operated by the scammers. You call it to ask for Acme's Flowers, but the service gives you the number for a flower shop run by the mob. The shop still fulfills the order, so you don't suspect anything, but it might use stolen flowers and baskets.

According to federal authorities, there were variations on how the scammers profited.

In some cases, only the ads were changed. For example, authorities say, people who went to ESPN's website saw an ad for a timeshare business rather than the Dr. Pepper ad that was supposed to be there. In such cases, those people were still going to ESPN's website. Normally, your computer would grab the ad displayed on ESPN from a separate, legitimate ad-placement company. Authorities say the affected computers were tricked into grabbing the scammers' ad instead.

In other cases, authorities say, people searching through Google or Yahoo were sent to a fake search engine. They got search results that looked like Google's or Yahoo's but contained links to unauthorized sites. For example, people trying to reach the IRS site instead got H&R Block's, without the tax preparer's knowledge. Authorities say scammers got payments for referrals.

The FBI said the scam netted at least $14 million.

Q. If this has been going on for years, why did it become a problem Monday?

A. Authorities busted the ring in November and arrested six suspects. The rogue databases were replaced with legitimate ones, but they were always meant to be temporary and did nothing to change the settings on individual computers. In other words, the troubled computers were still looking for databases at the rogue locations, but legitimate databases were set up at those rogue locations.

Those databases were turned off Monday with the expiration of a court order, so infected computers are now looking for databases that don't exist. Without the information, computers don't know where to find websites.

Continuing the phone analogy, the '411' calls during the transition period didn't go to the usual directory-assistance service but one operated on behalf of the FBI. You'd get the correct Acme's Flowers, not the mob operation. Since the temporary service shut down Monday, '411' calls essentially go to a disconnected line.

Q. Are the infected computers now offline?

A. Not really. If your computer is corrupted, you can still reach websites if you know their numeric Internet address. But chances are, you don't. So you are effectively offline. Imagine if all your contacts in your cellphone got wiped out. How many people would you be able to call?

In addition, some service providers are redirecting traffic on the back end so that they still reach legitimate databases.

Q. How many computers are affected?

A. At the time of the arrests in November, the FBI said about 4 million computers had the rogue settings, including about 500,000 in the U.S. Some were home computers, while others were on employees' desks at major businesses and government agencies, including NASA. Many of the computers had been fixed since then, with the settings restored to reach normal, permanent databases. As of late Sunday, just before the temporary databases were turned off, the FBI believes about 211,000 were still affected worldwide, including 41,800 in the U.S.

Q. What has been done to fix the computers infected with DNSChanger?

A. For months, the FBI and private companies have been sending general warnings about the deadline. Some Internet service providers and the social-networking service Facebook Inc. also have been directly notifying people they believe still have infected computers. Some Facebook users, for instance, got a message on their screen warning them that access to websites, emails and chat would end Monday if they didn't correct the problem. They were given a website with more information on detecting and fixing the problem.

Nonetheless, many computers remained infected. Many users didn't understand what was going on, let alone how to fix the problem. And some thought the warnings themselves were scams, or at least an effort by the government to spy on them.

Q. What happens if my computer is still infected?

A. Several security companies have free tools to scan your computer and remove this and other threats. Chances are if you are reading this on the Internet after Monday, your computer is OK. You can go to http://www.dns-ok.us to make sure. Even if your computer is clean, it's a good idea to have it scanned regularly or install security software that does it automatically on a regular basis. More details on fixing your computer can be found here: http://www.dcwg.org/fix .

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Online:

Site to test computer settings: http://www.dns-ok.us

Consortium on DNSChanger: http://www.dcwg.org



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Windows 8 computers to go on sale in October

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Computers running on the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system will go on sale in October.

Microsoft Corp. announced the time frame for Windows 8's mass-market release Monday in Toronto. A specific sales date in October wasn't provided.

Most industry analysts expected Windows 8 would go on sale in the fall to ensure that the machines running on the operating system would be available for the holiday shopping season. Consumers and businesses who don't want to buy new computers will be able to buy Windows 8 and upgrade their systems.

New versions of Windows typically come out every three years, but this update is the most widely anticipated overhaul of the software since 1995.

Applications will appear in a mosaic of tiles on Windows 8. Microsoft also designed the operating system so it can run on personal computers or touch-based tablet computers.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., plans to make its own tablet running on Windows 8 to compete against Apple Inc.'s hot-selling iPad. The company hasn't yet announced a price for its tablet, which will be called the Surface. It also will be competing against a variety of other tablets, including the Kindle Fire from Amazon.com Inc. and the Nexus 7, which is being released later this month by Google Inc.

As part of its efforts to develop more touch-based software, Microsoft also announced the acquisition of Perceptive Pixel Inc. The deal gives Microsoft access to technology used in large multi-touch displays for TV broadcasters, as well as government, defense, engineering and educational markets, Microsoft said.

Terms of the Perceptive Pixel purchase weren't disclosed.

Windows 8 is being counted on to help revive demand for laptops and other personal computers.

The operating system's versatility is expected to encourage leading PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. to release hybrid machines that are part laptop, part tablet computer. Both HP and Dell have also indicated they plan to release tablet computers powered by Windows 8, thrusting them into competition with Microsoft's Surface.

Microsoft is releasing Windows 8 computer manufacturers during the first week of August.

The high hopes riding on Windows 8 is the main reason that Microsoft's stock has climbed by about 15 percent so far this year. The shares fell 28 cents to $29.91 in Monday's early afternoon trading.



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Click it: Remember to check computer for malware

WASHINGTON (AP) - Internet users scanning their Twitter feeds or Facebook accounts Sunday might want to add one more quick click to check their computer for malware.

Thousands of people around the country whose computers were infected with malicious software more than a year ago faced the possibility of not being able to get online after midnight EDT.

At 12:01 a.m. EDT, the FBI planned to shut down the Internet servers set up as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months. The court order the agency obtained to keep the servers running expired, and it was not renewed.

The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.

In a highly unusual move, the FBI set up the safety net. The bureau brought in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to take over for the malicious servers so that people would not suddenly lose their Internet.

The FBI arranged for a private company to run a website - http://www.dcwg.org - as a place where computer users could go to see if their computer was infected and find links to other computer security business sites where they could find fixes for the problem.

From the onset, most victims didn't even know their computers were infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

Many computer users don't understand the complex machines they use every day to send email, shop, and cruise for information. The cyberworld of viruses, malware, bank fraud and Internet scams is often distant and confusing, and warning messages may go unseen or unheeded.

Also, some people simply don't trust the government, and believe that federal authorities are only trying to spy on them or take over the Internet. Blogs and other Internet forums are riddled with postings warning of the government using the malware as a ploy to breach American citizens' computers. That's a charge the FBI and other cybersecurity experts familiar with the malware quickly denounce as ridiculous.

Still, the Internet is flooded with conspiracy theories:

'I think the FBI just wants everyone to go to that website to check our computers so they can check our computers as well. Just a way to steal data for their own research,' one computer user said in a posting on the Internet.

Another observed: 'Yet another ploy to get everyone freaked out ... remember Y2K.'

There also is an underlying sense that this will be much ado about nothing, such as the approach of 2000. The transition to that year presented technical problems and fears that some computers would stop working because they were not set up for the date change. In the end there were very few problems.

Considering there are millions of Internet users across the country, several thousand isn't a big deal, unless you're one of them.

Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and co-founder of Congress' cybersecurity caucus, said computer uses have a responsibility to practice good sense and make sure their computers are not infected or being hijacked by criminals.

'These types of issues are only going to increase as our society relies more and more on the Internet, so it is a reminder that everyone can do their part,' he said.

FBI officials have been tracking the number of computers they believe still may be infected by the malware. As of Wednesday, there were about 45,600 in the U.S. - nearly 20,000 less than a week ago. Worldwide, the total is roughly 250,000 infected. The numbers have declined steadily, and recent efforts by Internet service providers may limit the problems on Monday.

Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent, said many Internet providers have plans to try to help their customers. Some may put technical solutions in place that will correct the server problem. It they do, the Internet will work, but the malware will remain on victims' computers and could pose future problems.

Other Internet providers are simply braced for the calls to their help lines.

By Monday, if you can't read this online, those customer support lines will be your only solution.

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Lolita C. Baldor can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lbaldor



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Yahoo, Facebook strike patent truce, ad alliance

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Facebook and Yahoo have agreed to settle a months-long patent dispute, averting a potentially expensive battle over the technology running two of the Internet's most popular destinations.

In dropping the lawsuits, the companies agreed to license their patents to each other and form an advertising and content-sharing alliance that expands their existing partnership. Friday's settlement involves no exchange of money.

Now that the antagonism is dissolving into an accord that could benefit both companies, the hundreds of millions of Web surfers who use both Yahoo and Facebook should find even more common ground on the two services..

The advertising alliance could help Yahoo recover some of the revenue that it has been losing as marketers shift more of their spending to a larger and more engaged audience on Facebook's online social network. Facebook, in turn, gains the opportunity to show the ads tailored to fit the individual interests of its 900 million users in other heavily trafficked areas besides its own website.

The truce ends a conflict provoked by Yahoo's short-lived CEO, Scott Thompson, who was dumped from the job two months ago after misinformation on his official biography raised questions about his integrity.

Under Thompson, Yahoo filed the patent lawsuit in March, wielding it as a weapon against a company that Thompson believed had been prospering from the ideas of its older rival. The complaint alleged that Facebook infringed on 10 Yahoo patents covering Internet advertising, privacy controls and social networks. Yahoo Inc. later added two more patents to the lawsuit.

But Thompson's attack on Facebook Inc. quickly turned into a public-relations disaster. Much of the technology industry railed against Yahoo's tactics. Critics viewed the lawsuit as a financial shakedown by a desperate company whose well of innovation had run dry.

New York venture capitalist Fred Wilson summed up the enmity toward Yahoo in an acerbic blog post that ended with this denouement: 'I am writing this in outrage at Yahoo. I used to care about that company for some reason. No more. They are dead to me. Dead and gone. I hate them now.'

When Yahoo replaced Thompson in May with interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, it opened the door for the company to settle the dispute under a reshuffled board of directors. Six of Yahoo's 11 directors joined the board after the patent suit was filed.

Yahoo's legal assault had exposed Facebook's vulnerability to patent claims as it prepared to complete the biggest initial public offering of stock by an Internet company. Facebook insulated itself by buying 750 patents from IBM Corp. for an undisclosed amount and spending $550 million to acquire another 650 patents that one of its biggest shareholders, Microsoft Corp., had purchased from AOL Inc. Armed with its own arsenal of intellectual property, Facebook signaled that it wasn't backing down and filed its own patent infringement lawsuit against Yahoo in April.

With Thompson out, Levinsohn quickly began working on a deal with Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg. The two issued statements Friday praising each other for working toward an agreement.

Yahoo already had been tying many of its services and content to Facebook before the lawsuit was filed. Now the two companies plan to display ads on each other's sites, while Yahoo plans to feed even more of its coverage of major events to the social network.

Although it has been growing at a robust clip, Facebook is still trying to win over skeptical investors. Doubts about the company's revenue potential have weighed on Facebook's stock, which has remained well below its IPO price of $38. The stock gained 26 cents, or nearly 1 percent, to close Friday at $31.73.

Yahoo is trying to snap out of a long-running financial funk brought up by Facebook's success and Google Inc.'s dominance of Internet search and advertising.

Yahoo has gone through four fulltime CEOs in five years in the hopes of engineering a turnaround and sparking revenue growth. The foibles have depressed Yahoo's stock, frustrating shareholders still angry about a squandered opportunity to sell the entire company to Microsoft in May 2008 for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share.

The stock dipped 7 cents to close at $15.78 Friday.

The Facebook pact may have pushed Levinsohn closer to being anointed as Yahoo's permanent CEO. Jason Kilar, CEO of online TV service Hulu, had been under serious consideration for the top job at Yahoo, but Hulu said Friday that he had decided not to pursue the position. The statement was issued in response to several published reports citing unnamed people who described Kilar as Levinsohn's primary competition for the Yahoo post.

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Ortutay reported from New York.



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