Raspberry Pi display drivers go fully open-source

The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced Wednesday that the Broadcom display hardware used in its flagship Raspberry Pi system board is now the first ARM-based system-on-a-chip to use open-source drivers provided entirely by the vendor.

MORE RASPBERRY PI: Raspberry Pi now packs 512MB RAM

What this means, as a matter of practicality, is that developers will have an easier time translating popular open-source software into versions for the Raspberry Pi. The source code is now available at a new GitHub repository.

"We've been excitedly following the progress of FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan9, RISC OS, Haiku and others. All these projects could now potentially port these libraries and make use of the full hardware accelerated graphics facilities of the Raspberry Pi," wrote the foundation's lead Linux developer, Alex Bradbury, in an official blog post.

Bradbury also thanked Broadcom "for being the first vendor to take this step forward," characterizing the move as an important one for embedded Linux as a community.

Even some of the most notable open-source projects contain some proprietary code. One example is Google's Android mobile OS - while the operating system itself is open, some of Google's own apps are proprietary, as are the hardware drivers used on stock devices.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation was also recently in the news for upping the amount of RAM included on the credit-card sized system board from 256GB to 512GB, while keeping the price tag the same. With open architecture and more memory, the group seems to be intent on continually evolving the product.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.

Windows XP turns 11, still not dead yet

On the same day Microsoft loudly proclaims Windows 8 in New York, the aging-but-still-going Windows XP today quietly celebrated its 11th birthday.

On Oct. 25, 2001, Microsoft launched Windows XP, unknowingly unleashing its most successful operating system ever.

If they only could do the same today, the company's executives must think as they assemble for a day-long Windows 8 launch party.

"It was a good operating system," said David Johnson, an analyst with Forrester, in an interview today. "It was a very, very good operating system ... a superb OS because it removed a lot of pain."

So superb, in fact, that it continues to run on an enormous number of PCs across the globe. According to Web metrics firm Net Applications, Windows XP powered about 41% of all personal computers -- 45% of those running one form or another of Windows -- in September.

Only the much newer Windows 7 has a bigger share, and that only recently: It wasn't until this August that Windows 7 passed XP to take the top spot.

By Forrester's count, said Johnson, 48% of enterprise PCs now run Windows 7. But 38% of their systems continue to rely on Windows XP.

That last number is one Microsoft desperately wants -- has wanted, in fact, for over a year -- to drive to zero, preferably by getting customers to dump old hardware, upgrade to new machines and devices, and pick Windows 8 as their OS.

As far back as June 2011, a Microsoft manager claimed it was "time to move on" from XP, while even earlier that year an executive on the Internet Explorer team belittled XP as the "lowest common denominator" when he explained why the OS wouldn't run the then-new IE9.

What's the rush to dump the old XP?

On April 8, 2014, less than 18 months from now, Windows XP exits all support when it receives its final security update. From then on, most users of the OS will be exposed to attack from hackers exploiting new vulnerabilities that Microsoft simply won't patch.

That's not the only problem. ISVs, or "independent software vendors," tech-speak for third-party developers, already have or will soon drop support for their XP programs.

But with so many machines still running the venerable XP, what's the chance that all users, particularly those in enterprises, will be off the OS in 18 months when Microsoft puts it out to pasture?

Little or none, said Michael Silver, an analyst with Gartner.

"There's a good chance that 10% or 15% of organizations' PCs will still be on XP after support ends," said Silver in a Wednesday interview. "That wouldn't be atypical, actually, for a Windows operating system."

Forrester's Johnson said his firm's numbers were similar, although it posed the question differently to enterprises.

"We asked 'What are you deploying now on new PCs?' and enterprises are saying the 76% are deploying Windows 7. But 16% are still going with XP," said Johnson.

"When we ask them what they'll be deploying 12 months from now, their answer is Windows 7, with 60%, Windows 8, at 26%, and Windows XP, 3%," Johnson continued. "But enterprises are notoriously optimistic about future deployments, so I'd say that by the time it reaches retirement, XP will still be on 15% to 20% of PCs."

That's actually lower than projections run with Net Applications' data, which estimates the percentage of PCs worldwide running each version of Windows. If the trend tracked by the measurement company over the last 12 months holds true going forward -- not a certainty; XP's decline has accelerated in the past year by about 8% -- more than a quarter of the planet's PCs will be running XP in April 2014.

Now that's staying power.

But not a smart strategy for enterprises, Johnson and Silver said.

"If they haven't started migrating from Windows XP at this point, they're far behind," said Silver. "They need to get their act together."

Both Gartner and Forrester have recommended, and continue to recommend, that organizations still running Windows XP migrate not to its successor, Vista, or to the brand-spanking-new Windows 8, but to 2009's Windows 7.

"There's safety in numbers," Silver noted. "Would you rather be on Windows 7, where everyone else is, or with the 20% of those running Windows 8 [in 2014]?"

The two research firms have urged the XP-to-Windows 7 migration on clients for over two years, once it became clear that the latter was stable, successful -- meaning it would be widely supported by third-party developers -- and secure.

Microsoft has said exactly the same, although that drumbeat, once loud, has quieted considerably as Windows 8 moved towards final.

But as Silver said, firms that have left things to the last minute may be in for a world of hurt. "If [an enterprise] hasn't made any progress toward Windows 7, the time to test, verify and move from XP in just 18 months, well, that has a low probability."

Even a year after the 2014 deadline, up to 5% of enterprise PCs could still be running XP, said Silver. Among the worst offenders in that potential camp: health care.

"Health care is one of the worst," said Silver, "simply because so many vertical market health care developers drag their feet so much."

The image of a hospital, doctor's office, even a dentist's, running an out-of-support operating system isn't reassuring.

Johnson was a bit more bullish on the chances of firms winning the race. "Yes, it's still possible," he said. But to pull it off in 18 months, an organization will have to dispense with an attritional strategy -- where only new machines are deployed with Windows 7 -- and tackle an everything-at-once chore.

Companies, or even consumers, who continue to think XP is "just good enough" to handle their computing needs can take steps, of course, to reduce some of the risk of running an out-of-date OS.

Gartner has a 10-item list it uses when it talks to clients who won't, or can't, leave XP.

"They have a number of choices, they can buy Custom Support from Microsoft, they can move applications that require XP to a Remote Desktop Services Server, they can segregate XP PCs on a separate network," said Silver, ticking off three.

Custom Support is the name of the after-retirement support plans Microsoft sells to businesses to cover some products, including Windows. Among the benefits of Custom Support: Microsoft continues to provide security updates graded as "critical" for a product, say XP, after it exits general support.

One tactic everyone can use, including consumers, is to switch browsers when XP falls off the support list.

"IE8 won't be supported [after April 2014] on Windows XP," Silver noted.

Because Microsoft has refused to support IE9 or the even newer IE10 on XP, when IE8 support ends, XP users will have to dump the latter to run a secured browser.

It's likely that other browser makers -- Google and Mozilla in particular -- will continue to support their Chrome and Firefox on XP up to and well past the 2014 cut-off. Mozilla, for example, dropped support for Apple's OS X Leopard, an OS that Apple itself abandoned in June 2011, only this month.

Also off the support list when XP retires: 2001's IE6 and 2006's IE7.

Gartner has that covered on its list as well, suggesting that enterprises who worry about in-house or third-party Web applications written for IE6 and IE7 move to Windows 7 -- where those browsers are not allowed -- but turn to a third-party product that lets customers run the creaky browsers on the newer OS.

One that fits Gartner's bill is Browsium's Ion, the follow-on to the company's earlier Unibrows, or the same firm's just-released Catalyst, a browser management tool.

Silver was doubtful that Microsoft would ever repeat the longevity of Windows XP, if only because it's under pressure to pick up the OS release pace, which would make it much less likely that any single edition of Windows would gain the 85%-and-up share that XP accumulated in its salad days of 2006.

"We do think Microsoft will pick up the pace, at least for the next release," Silver said. "We think that will be a 'polishing' release, and come within about two years. It will smooth out all the rough edges of Windows 8. That's when we think a lot of folks will move [from Windows 7]."

Forrester has the same future in mind for Microsoft. On Monday, a colleague of Johnson's, Frank Gillett, predicted the Redmond, Wash. developer will shift to a schedule that, if not annual, will certainly bebrisker than the every-three-years its used since 2006.

"In the face of Apple and Google, they have to figure out how to release Windows faster than every three years," Gillett said Tuesday.

Somewhere, XP is laughing.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.

Skype 6 with improved social integration now available

New versions of Skype for Windows and OS X were released Wednesday by Microsoft. These latest versions add support for signing in through Facebook and Microsoft accounts.

For subscribers to Microsoft's services like Hotmail, Outlook.com, and Windows Live Messenger, the new Skype 6 will allow you to communicate with other subscribers of those services via instant messaging.

For Mac users, the new Skype now allows chatting in multiple windows and support for Apple's Retina display. Mountain Lion users, however, will find that the profile-picture picker doesn't work as well as it does in the Windows version. Recent images can't be seen, and effects can't be applied to the pictures.

Microsoft is also working to allow Windows Live Messenger subscribers to place audio and video calls to one another using Skype. That feature, Microsoft promises, will be available "in coming weeks."

Also for Windows users, the new Skype has been localized for six more languages: Thai, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Catalan, and Slovak. Microsoft has spruced up the user interface for the new Skype for both Windows and iOS users, making it simpler and less cluttered. The look of the instant messaging and SMS areas is also improved, and the online user counter has been removed so that more friends can be seen in the program's contacts window.

Additionally, the new Skype will show you all your previous profile pictures when you change your profile mug shot.

This latest release of Skype for the desktop comes on the heels of the new Skype app for Windows 8. That app appears as a Live Tile on the Windows 8 start screen. Within the tile, you can preview missed calls or new messages and, since the app runs constantly in the background, it will deliver notifications of new calls and messages as they happen.

Facebook's price tag for Instagram drops to $715 million

Facebook has paid far lower than the announced US$1 billion in cash and stock for photo-sharing app Instagram, following a drop in its share price.

The social networking company said in its Form 10-Q quarterly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that it accounted for the transaction as a business acquisition for a total purchase price of $521 million, consisting of the issuance of about 12 million vested shares of its Class B common stock to non-employee stockholders of Instagram and $300 million in cash.

It also issued about 11 million unvested shares of its Class B common stock to employee stockholders of Instagram on the closing date, with an aggregate fair value of $194 million , which will be recognized as they vest over a three-year service period as share-based compensation expense.

The value of the equity component of the purchase price was determined for accounting purposes based on the fair value of its common stock on the closing date, Facebook said.

Facebook closed the Instagram acquisition in August after receiving approvals from regulators including from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.K. Office of Fair Trading.

The company announced in April that it was buying Instagram in San Francisco for about $1 billion, including $300 million in cash and the rest through 23 million shares of its common stock. But as its share price slid, it became evident that the deal would be closer to $750 million.

Facebook's shares had closed at $19.50 -- a little over half of its $38 IPO price in May -- on the Nasdaq exchange on Tuesday, before Facebook released its quarterly results, but rose in after-hours trading after the company reported improvements in the critical mobile market.

During the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2012, Facebook also completed other business acquisitions for a total consideration of $87 million. It did not provide details. It also acquired $633 million of patents and other intellectual property rights. The largest deal was $550 million in cash to Microsoft over patents it had recently acquired from AOL.

Instagram is expected to enhance Facebook's photos product offerings and to enable users to "increase their levels of mobile engagement and photo sharing," Facebook said in the filing.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com

Windows 8 in the enterprise? Not next year, says Gartner

ORLANDO -- Enterprises will not be moving quickly to adopt Windows 8, and most will skip next year, according to market research firm Gartner.

Users at Gartner's Symposium/ITexpo conference tended to back up the view that was summarized by Gartner Research Director Peter Sondergaard. He told attendees here that "however good the prospects look for Windows 8 in the consumer market or for tablets, there are no compelling business imperatives to drive legacy devices in business towards Windows 8."

"Therefore, 90% of enterprises will bypass broadscale deployment of Windows 8 through at least 2014," Sondergaard said.

That does not mean Windows 8 is on the ropes as it is introduced at an event in New York City on Thursday. Large enterprises rarely move quickly to a new Microsoft operating system. Applications have to be tested on it, and some users believe in waiting for the release of the first service pack before considering an upgrade.

If enterprises don't like a Microsoft product, which is what happened with the Vista OS, they have shown a willingness to bypass it. Gartner isn't saying that this will be the case with Windows 8.

What Gartner analysts see are more selective rollouts of Windows 8. The emergence of tablets andsmartphones as a primary device for some types of works, such as those in sales, means the days of massive, single standard platform enterprise-wide upgrades are over in many companies.

Derek Minnich, an IT program manager at a user company that he asked not be identified, said his company typically follows Gartner's guidance on deployments. Windows 7 has been running at his company for about two years and there is no reason to upgrade.

The only thing that might push a move to Windows 8 is "if tablets really do overtake the PC market rapidly," Minnich said. Users will want Office products on a tablet, and "that's where the entry point will be," he said.

Peter Nies, who works in information security at a company that he asked not be identified, said a concern about Windows 8 is its approach. With its tiles and new interface, he worries about the amount of training that may be needed.

"From a user perspective, it scares me because it is so radically different," said Nies.

Microsoft sponsored a customer panel here of some early adopters. One, Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., supplies students with laptops and has been testing tablets over the years.

Stephen Landry, the university's CIO, said that students like the iPad and tablets generally, "but you can't take away the laptop" or their need for Office. Students in the class of 2016 enrolled in science or honors program are receiving the Samsung Slate PC.

Read more about windows in Computerworld's Windows Topic Center.

iPad mini wins praise in initial "hands-on" reviews

The first slew of brief "hands on" experiences with the iPad mini - by reporters and bloggers at Apple'sunveiling Tuesday - give high marks to the smaller tablet for build quality, lightness, display and performance.

The latter two are especially important because iPad mini doesn't offer the high-end high resolution Retina Display in the full-size iPad released earlier this year, and uses an "older" Apple processor.

HEAD TO HEAD: iPad Mini vs. Nexus 7

FIRST LOOK: Apple iPad mini 

Apple's design to go with a 7.9-inch diagonal screen is very deliberate: it's nearly two inches shorter than the regular iPad, but also nearly one inch longer than popular 7-inch rivals such as the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire. That means, says Apple, the iPad mini has a screen area 35% greater than the 7-inch tablets. The impact is very obvious, according to launch event attendees who got to play with iPad minis afterwards.

"[C]ompared to something like the Nexus 7, it does feel more hefty in your hands, though the thinness of the device seems to make up for a bigger surface area," writes Joshua Topolsky for The Verge. "To be clear, it's an incredibly thin and light design, with a lean profile despite being larger than some of the devices it challenges."

The legendary Apple "build quality" - evident here in the aluminum unibody and diamond-cut chamfered edge that first appeared in the iPhone 5 and the fit of glass to body - also makes a strong impression. "By comparison, the Nexus 7 and Fire HD feel like toys," Topolsky says.

"The thinness and sleekness of the casing cannot be overstated," he says. "It feels as high-end as the new iPhone, but even sharper in the hand like a slice of solid aluminum."

Though the iPad mini LED-backlit screen has 1,024 x 768 resolution (the same as iPad 2), compared to the Retina Display's 2,048 x 1,536 in the newest full-size iPad, it looks "incredibly sharp," Topolsky says. The screen "looks fantastic," agrees Luke Peters, writing for the British tech website T3. "Colours are vivid, text is pin sharp, web pages render quickly and, because there's almost a 4:3 ratio going on, you get a lot of content on page."

Another benefit of using the iPad 2 resolution, says Peters: existing "apps all work without any letter-boxing."

One of the more obvious exterior changes compared to the full-size tablet is the narrower margins or bezels to the left and right of the mini. "At first glance, the narrow side bezels look somewhat odd, but they make far more sense when you actually pick the iPad mini up," writes Vincent Nguyen forSlashgear. 

"You can grip it comfortably in one hand, fingers wrapping around the edges just as we've praised Amazon's Kindles and other small e-reader tablets for in the past," he says. "That, together with the relatively light weight compared to the full-sized iPad, means holding the iPad mini one-handed for extended periods should be comfortable."

As with the display, so with the CPU. The mini uses Apple's existing A5 system-on-chip, which powers iPhone 4S and iPad 2, though it may be using a smaller fabrication process, 32 instead of 45 nanometers. The A5 is based on a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU, with a dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics processor. And it seems well chosen for the first iPad min model, even for demanding game titles.

"Applications I tried out seemed to run as snappily as anything on the 3rd generation iPad," Topolsky says. "Titles like 'Real Racing 2' seemed to take a little bit more time to boot up, but gameplay was fine and stutter-free."

The "A5 processor powered apps, games and websites along very smoothly," says T3's Peters.

Others did see a performance difference, at least compared to the new A6X Apple chip in the unexpected upgrade to the full-size iPad, also announced yesterday. This fourth-generation full-size iPad offers double the CPU and graphics performance of the A5X chip in the third-generation iPad, which was released earlier this year. The upgraded iPad also has the smaller Lightning dock connector.

The A6 was introduced in the iPhone 5 in September and represents Apple's first system-on-chip that offers its own custom-designed ARM cores. For more details, see "iPhone 5 shows an Apple first: custom CPU core design."

"In terms of performance, there's a pretty noticeable difference between the A5 in the iPad mini and the A6X in the 4th gen iPad as you'd expect," says Anand Lal Shimpi, in a brief hands-on assessment posted at his AnandTech blog. "I do wish that Apple had brought the A6 to the mini, however something has to give in pursuit of the lower price point."

One of the most notable features of the iPad mini is its lightness (10.9 ounces), he says. "The build quality and finish both feel good as you'd expect, but the device is just considerably lighter than the iPad which results in superior in-hand feel," according to Lal Shimpi.

The larger screen and lighter feel create a tablet that's "even more portable than the standard iPad," he says, in a conclusion echoed by T3's Peters. "The smaller size, thinner shape and lighter weight makes for a much better mobile experience," Peters writes. "It's easy to hold and manipulate in the hand but feels durable and well-built enough to accompany you throughout the day."

Less impressed is Darren Murph, assessing the mini for Engadget, who was struck by what he saw as a lack of "breakthrough hardware."

"The device itself is precisely what you'd expect it to be: a slightly shrunken iPad, with a rear that resembles the new iPod touch," he says. "The volume rocker, orientation/mute switch and bottom-mounted speakers are graciously borrowed from the conventional iPad, while the rest of the exterior maintains a pretty familiar look." As he notes, there is no touch sensitive bezel, wireless charging or USB 3.0 support, which are found in some rival tablets, but in none of Apple's.

"If you were looking for breakthrough hardware additions, you'll be sorely disappointed," he writes, sounding sorely disappointed.

Murph has concluded that "the smaller iPad is clearly aimed at classrooms and readers -- two sectors where frills aren't exactly necessary." The small iPad "excels" in the tablet's "overall fit and finish" though it's "still not 'small'", and is "too big for your average pocket, and it's not going to save you a heck of a lot of room in your knapsack compared to the 9.7-incher."

The main attraction seems to be the price. "With a $329 starting point, it'll hit the sweet spot for many prospective consumers who weren't about to drop $500 on the 9.7-inch iPad," he says. And that includes, he says, schools and those users who are really more interested in e-readers than handheld computers. "[T]here's a subtle marketing push that's aiming this less at general computing users and more at readers," Murph says.

Sascha Segan, writing at PC Magazine, fulsomely praised the mini's "spectacular, nearly surreal build quality and its amazing array of apps." But he still thought the small tablet makes "two ergonomic missteps, though, which is surprising for Apple."

Onscreen buttons and icons are now smaller compared to the full-sized iPad. He found this a subtle but noticeable difference. "With the regular iPad, you don't have to move all that precisely; this little iPad demands a little more exactitude," Segan says. "It'll take some more time to find out whether this makes a noticeable difference in usability."

Second, the mini is "not a one-handed tablet," he says. "[L]et's remember that Apple is selling the iPhone 5 as better than the competition at one-handed use specifically because of how narrow it is," Segan writes. "Now here comes the iPad mini, which is a better one-handed tablet because ... it's wider than the competition."

That added width "makes a significant ergonomic difference, and it isn't in the iPad mini's favor," he says. He thinks that probably won't matter to Apple's prime target market: school kids, who won't see iPad mini as a one-handed device.

What is Social Media Marketing?

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing describes the use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis and any other collaborative media used to develop marketing ideas, generate sales, develop public relations or provide customer service.

Some of the most common social media marketing tools are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Wikipedia and YouTube.

Mediaspawn’s social media marketing strategy involves marketing your website or business through the various social media channels in an attempt to obtain links, attention and quite possibly massive amounts of traffic.

HOW CAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING HELP MY WEBSITE?

Primary Traffic – Visitors who come directly from social media websites to view your content.

Secondary Traffic – Bloggers and other social media users link to you and send you visitors, after they come across your content through social media sites.

Viral Link Building – Building popularity on social media websites will bring you large quantities of high quality links. Adding high quality content to social media sites will bring numerous editorial links from other bloggers and social media participants. Editorial links are very attractive and cannot be bought. As the links to your website grow, so too will your visitors and repeat visitors, which will translate to an increase in your bottom line.

Viral Bookmarking & Sharing – Viral bookmarking starts with submitting high quality articles to social bookmarking sites. Visitors to these sites review, vote, and share your articles. The better articles will receive more attention and more positive votes, which will increase interest and exposure. Additionally, this effect is increased when visitors, bloggers or repeat visitors bookmark your articles to their favorite bookmarking sites.

Brand Awareness – Creation of brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising. In fact, brand awareness has influence on buying behaviour of a buyer. Our social media promotions will help expose your brand / products to the growing online community.

It Compliments Organic SEO – Social media websites are a great place to build links from social sites and other Internet users. These quality links will help to improve your organic search engine rankings.

In the experienced hands of Mediaspawn, social media marketing is a powerful tool that will increase traffic to your website, build back links to your website, increase your company’s exposure, and help you monitor your online reputation.

The biggest value of social media is viral sharing, when it is effectively promoted through highly trafficked social media channels. We develop marketing strategies that creatively expose your product / service to millions of social media users. We help you create high quality content that users will enjoy and want to share with others online.

The Top 5 Online Marketing Benefits of Facebook Timeline

Partly to stay one step ahead of pesky competitor Google+, Facebook introduced the controversial Timeline that automatically adds status updates, photos, and ongoing as well as “historical” events onto a member’s profile. Resurfacing all the content ever created on Facebook may be a prospect that many individual users find daunting, but the advantages to companies are indisputable.

Timeline will undoubtedly evolve swiftly as brands begin to explore new marketing and engagement territories and there will certainly be a number of “why didn’t I think of that first” facepalms among email and social media marketers when others leverage the new Facebook feature. For now though, you can concentrate on these top five marketing benefits while applying your own imagination and creativity to take Timeline to the next step:

1. Cover hero shot - The old style brand page limited brands to a fairly small profile image and five thumbnails while burying tagged images and photo albums underneath the Wall, but Timeline introduces a 849 x 312 pixel cover image positioned at the top of your profile which is a prime location for a hero shot.

2. Star click to full widescreen - By clicking on a star in the post, the specific image in thumbnail section of the Timeline will expand to full widescreen size, allowing companies to feature attractive graphics and layouts that were previously outside the capabilities of the platform.

3. Prominent top-positioned nav bar - The info tab is currently hidden on Facebook Fan Pages and if any of your followers stumble on it all they’ll see is the conventional layout format containing nothing but a mass of gray text. Timeline’s navigation bar at the top of the page places the info as well as the apps, map, and photos into much-anticipated prominence.

4. Infinite scrolling - The scroll now has no limits and can stretch to infinity and beyond. This feature allows businesses to place a much greater extent of product information that has the added advantage of being immortal. By prolonging the content’s lifespan, followers will have more time and selection possibilities for engagement now that posts don’t vanish below the event horizon of the Facebook Wall.

5. Substitute your blog or even your website - Timeline now presents a valid alternative to setting up a specific domain page or even a blog, an advantage that is of considerable significance to small businesses who can’t afford the time or resources of setting up and maintaining the massive online presences of the major brands. By making full use of the larger images and post size Timeline can take the place of a brand blog or product highlight, cleanly packaging a profile which portrays ongoing updates.

Trademark violation may present an obstacle

Not everything has been smooth sailing on the way to Timelineland. The introduction of this feature across the platform has seen ongoing delays and the rollout has been slower than many Facebook enthusiasts would like. Another factor is the lawsuit brought by Timelines.com which has a pre-existing registered trademark on a virtually identical service.

But beyond the copyright issues facing Facebook, if the company manages to launch business Timelines across the platform it could present a major boon to email marketing and social media marketers. Only time and the courts will tell how things will work out, but start tinkering with Timeline now to gain some branding points for your business.

Google Dart cracks Top 50 list of programming languages

Google's Dart programming language, envisioned as a JavaScript rival, has for the first time cracked a monthly Top 50 list of the most popular programming languages.

Launched in late-2011, Google has intended for Dart to be a Web programming language that addresses supposed shortcomings of JavaScript, such as difficulties in maintaining structure once a program grows beyond being a simple Web application. Dart ranked 43rd in the Tiobe Programming Community Index for October 2012.

[ Also read InfoWorld's interview with Lars Bak, the lead software engineer for Dart. | For more software news and analysis, subscribe to InfoWorld's Developer World newsletter. ]

That index, though, gave Dart a rating of just .189 percent, based on Tiobe's calculations. "It's Google's aim to let Dart replace JavaScript as the dominant programming language of Web development," Tiobe said in its report. But Tiobe questioned how much momentum Dart can build without support for it in major browsers.

A representative at Mozilla said Monday the company would not add support for Dart to the Mozilla Firefox browser. Microsoft also does not support Dart in Internet Explorer. But Microsoft last week revealed its own TypeScript project, which is intended to enable JavaScript to support the development of more complex applications. TypeScript features a subset of JavaScript capabilities for static typing, classes, and modularization.

The Tiobe index is gauged by assessing the number of skilled engineers worldwide, programming courses, and third-party vendors interested in a particular language. Search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo are examined, along with websites such as Wikipedia and Amazon, in calculating the ratings. 

Topping this month's ranking was the C language, which had a 19.822 percent rating, followed by Java, at 17.193 percent; Objective-C (9.477 percent), C++ (9.260 percent) and C# (6.530 percent). 

This article, "Google Dart cracks Top 50 list of programming languages," was originally published atInfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in business technology news and get a digest of the key stories each day in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

Read more about application development in InfoWorld's Application Development Channel.

Google upgrades Search Appliance, aims for large enterprises

Google has released a new version of its Search Appliance with new and improved features intended to make the enterprise search device more useful in large enterprises.

The Search Appliance, which is sold as a hardware device loaded with Google search software that is installed on customer premises, has historically been considered a good fit mostly for medium-size businesses that lack the money and in-house expertise needed for high-end enterprise search systems.

But with version 7.0 of the Search Appliance, Google is aiming higher, and seeking a stronger position against high-end rivals that in recent years have been acquired by larger vendors, including Autonomy, which was bought by Hewlett-Packard, and Fast Search & Transfer, which was acquired by Microsoft.

"We're doubling down on enterprise search," said Matthew Eichner, general manager of Global Enterprise Search at Google.

For starters, version 7.0's interface adapts to smartphones and tablets, which is increasingly important as enterprise users rely more and more on these mobile devices for accessing workplace documents, files and data.

Google also improved the product's query resolution speed as well as its results relevance algorithm, which now includes new signals that customize results for each user, the company said on Tuesday.

Version 7.0 also features improvements for dealing with multiple languages, in particular those whose grammar and syntax present special challenges for search engines, such as Chinese, German and Arabic, he said. In addition, the Search Appliance now has gained as a native feature the Google Translate technology, which will allow enterprises to translate content on the fly to more than 60 languages.

The product also can now be used as a search engine for the 2010 version of SharePoint, the collaboration server from Microsoft which is ubiquitous in enterprises where it's used for intranets, public websites, document and content management and workplace communities. For SharePoint, the Search Appliance provides features like query suggestions, clustering of results and identification of end user expertise.

Other new features in version 7.0 are assisted navigation for refining search results, document previews and the ability for users to add items to the index.

Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at@JuanCPerezIDG.

Google upgrades Search Appliance for enterprises

Google is upgrading its Search Appliance for the enterprise in an effort to help workers find information stored anywhere in their organization.

Google Search Appliance 7.0 was unveiled today and will be available Oct. 16 for sale or for customers to download. The new version would help employees in large enterprises find stored information whether they're using a desktop, tablet or smartphone.

" Google is really doubling down on enterprise search," said Matthew Eichner, general manager of Enterprise Search for Google. "We think that enterprise search is an unsolved problem ... We're really targeting now the world's largest organizations with great complexity problems."

The appliance is designed to enable administrators to add information from sources stored in thecloud, social networking sites, the public Web and secure storage. The new appliance also offers search for SharePoint 2010, Microsoft's collaboration tool.

"With GSA 7.0, we've refined our relevance signals ...," Eichner wrote in a blog post. "Entity Recognition automatically identifies and suggests content you might be looking for, and GSA 7.0 also harnesses the "wisdom of crowds," allowing employees to add their own search results."

The update also includes a new interface and a new document preview feature that enables users to view thumbnails and flip through full-screen document previews alongside their search results. Google Translate offers automatic translations in more than 60 languages displayed in search results.

David Schubmehl, an analyst with IDC, said the appliance update is important for major enterprises that need to make their information stores available to employees.

"People are still dissatisfied with the way their internal search systems work," Schubmehl said. "Everybody wants it to be as good as the Web. If I don't find the answer, I at least want to find an answer... Google is trying to make internal search as good as Web search."

Schubmehl noted that there is a lot of lost productivity based solely on how much time workers spend searching for information stored within their own company.

An IDC study in 2009 found that the time spent searching for information that year alone averaged 8.8 hours per week per employee, adding up to a cost of $14,209 per worker per year.

"There's a generation of workers who are starting to leave the workforce, and they've created years or decades of information and that information could be very valuable if people knew about it," said Schubmehl. "Let's say I'm working in a pharmaceutical company doing drug research and I know there are seven groups doing research around the world. Who are these other researchers and are they doing the same work I am? It can be hard to get even that information."

He added that Google Search Appliance 7.0 still has challenges. For instance, Schubmehl noted that each kind of repository has a different access method so administrators have to create a custom program or control to read the data from each particular system.

However, the new appliance also has benefits, such as better navigation and more filters for different types of files.

"You might have information siloed in 15 or more different systems," said Schubmehl. "Being able to put all of that into one search index and letting people use that information and pull it up at need would be a tremendous improvement. The Google Search Appliance moves us further down the road of being able to do that kind of stuff."

took the wraps off its Google Search Appliance 7.0 today. It will be available on Oct. 16.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed. Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

See more by Sharon Gaudin on Computerworld.com.

Read more about internet search in Computerworld's Internet Search Topic Center.

Trend Micro takes aim at targeted attacks with custom-designed security service

Trend Micro has outlined a product-development strategy it calls "Custom Defense" intended to augment traditional signature-based anti-malware defense with custom-designed signatures to thwart stealthy, targeted attacks.

"We see hundreds of these targeted attacks every day," said Steve Quane, chief product officer at Trend Micro. Often called "advanced persistent threats," these APT attacks compromise employee PCs, often starting with a spoofed email with a malware-based attachment directed at a target. If the spear-phishing attack is successful, the hunt is on to get to sensitive information, such as what might be in a database. On compromised machines, there's often activity indicating the attacker is seeking to connect out to a command-and-control server for instructions or to send data, and Trend's Custom Defense concept is aimed at detecting that and stopping it.

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The Custom Defense strategy builds on Trend Micro's security appliance out earlier this year calledDeep Discovery, intended to watch for signs of intruders. Yesterday Trend added a capability it calls "Deep Discovery Advisor" that can take images of user computers and corporate servers and run them in the Deep Discovery sandbox to spot signs of stealth activity from intruders.

Quane said this capability is also tied into Trend cloud-based Smart Protection Network, the collection and distribution point for threat information and signature updates for several Trend anti-malware products. The Deep Discovery Advisor and the Smart Protection Network working together let the customer identify malicious URLs and IP address immediately, and "understand the characteristics of the attack group," said Quane.

As part of Custom Defense, Trend announced specialized sniffer tools that work watching for attempts by attackers to worm their way into a corporate network. One tool watches for signs of suspicious activity directed at a Microsoft Active Directory server -- hackers often try to go there first to see who has administrative rights so they can target that person. Another Trend tool is intended to watch an email server, or endpoint software to monitor browser behavior for signs of attacks or compromise.

Custom security updates are basically custom signatures related to specific IP address and domain blacklists that the enterprise can define based on APT-style attacks that are detected, said Quane, adding that by year-end, Trend Micro expects to have the ability to generate custom antivirus signatures as well.

The concept with custom signatures is to be able to add them to Trend's email protection product as well as its Web gateway, endpoint security and ScanMail for Exchange, as part of an APT defense strategy.

Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG publication and website, where she covers news and technology trends related to information security. Twitter: @MessmerE. Email: emessmer@nww.com.

Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section.