SugarSync 2.0 is a complete facelift of content-sharing service

SugarSync today released the public beta of a complete revamp of its cloud storage and content-sharing service that replaces its file directory-style look with a GUI-style menu along with drag and drop file transfer features.

SugarSync 2.0 also offers new search functionality that will initially allow users to search by file name and later by file content.

"That was the top requested feature by users: search," said SugarSync spokesman Robb Henshaw. "It's like having Google Desktop or Spotlight Search on your computer."

The previous SugarSync version used the user's native file directory for searches, but that didn't work well with mobile devices, Henshaw said.

Henshaw called the new user interface "very DropBoxesque" but with more powerful features. Henshaw was referring to DropBox, another cloud storage service.

A before and after look at SugarSync's user interface

SugarSync also added drag-and-drop sharing of content to contacts or to social media sites, giving users a faster method of sharing and collaborating.

"You can share by dropping the target file into a list of contacts' email addresses, or you can just drop a file to one specific email address on a list," Henshaw said.

The Sharing Tab displays what's being shared with you by others, and a second tab shows what you're sharing with everyone else. Another feature allows users to select when they want to break the file-sharing link with another user or users.

SugarSync 2.0 also introduced the new "SugarSync Drive," a virtual drive that displays all content synchronized to SugarSync's cloud storage service. The SugarSync Drive allows users to see all of their folders in the cloud from any device, and allows users to manage that content from their system's native file system.

Previously users had what SugarSync called its Magic Briefcase, a proprietary user interface. Customers can continue using the Magic Briefcase if they're more comfortable with that, or the new SugarSync Drive. New users will only be offered the SugarSync Drive cloud management feature.

Files and folders stored in SugerSync Drive display to users on which device they were originally stored as well as on what other devices the content has been synchronized.

When a user scrolls down a file directory, a green check mark will appear if it is stored locally.

"With the new version, you can keep a local copy on one device so that you can work on the file when you're offline, and pull down another copy from the cloud on all your other devices [when you're online]," Henshaw said. "Or you can just have one copy in the cloud, and no copies on any device."

A new "activity tab" also displays everything a user has been doing in the cloud. "So if you're wondering if that folder or photos got uploaded, it will display that. It shows you information by day and time," Henshaw added. "We will also let you know when files were changed and by whom. This shows you who's accessed a file you shared and who has downloaded it. It's a good collaboration tool."

The new beta of SugarSync 2.0 desktop, Web and Android apps are available for download now on SugarSync's site.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.

See more by Lucas Mearian on Computerworld.com.

Read more about cloud storage in Computerworld's Cloud Storage Topic Center.

How to restore data from Time Machine in Mountain Lion

Now that you've been using Time Machine regularly to back up your computer, you should be fully prepared if your Mac crashes or if you need to move data from one Mac to another. Restoring data from Time Machine is just as easy as backing things up in the first place.

Restore a single file or folder

If you're just looking for a certain file or folder, start by connecting the external drive you use for Time Machine backups or making sure you can connect to your Time Capsule. Click on the Time Machine item in the menu bar at the top of your screen (it looks like a clock with an arrow running counter-clockwise) and choose Enter Time Machine. Here, all of your saved backups appear in chronological order. Use the visual timeline on the right hand side to scroll through your backups and look for specific items or folders. Older dates are indicated in pink on the timeline; the most up-to-date data on your Mac is indicated in white. (You'll see the word "Now" in bold, white letters on the timeline.)

Not sure which backup might hold the last copy of your missing file? Try a Spotlight search in Time Machine based on keywords. You'll see a search field in the corner of each Finder window in the Time Machine view. Type in the file name or keywords from the file, and Spotlight will search through your backups to find the latest copy.

Once you think you've found what you're looking for, use OS X's Quick Look to make sure--select the file and then press the spacebar to view the file without having to launch its parent application.

Select the file or folder and press the Restore button. The file will automatically be copied to your desktop or to the file's original folder. This may take some time, depending on the size of the transfer.

Restore an entire system

Sometimes you may want to restore your entire system from a backup, say in event of a crash or when your computer is acting badly and you'd like to dial back the clock to a kinder, gentler time. If that's the case, first connect your Time Machine drive. Then, start up your Mac from the Mountain Lion recovery partition by pressing (and holding down) Command-R at startup. This launches Recovery Mode, which is a portion of your drive that Mountain Lion treats as a separate volume. It includes a few essential utilities for restoring files in case of an issue. For this to work, you must have a complete Time Machine backup that includes all system files.

The Mac OS X Utilities window appears. Select Restore From Time Machine Backup. This command will erase the destination drive--your Mac--so only use it if you're restoring an entire volume to its original source or to a replacement drive. (Read the next section for setting up a new Mac or transferring data between Macs).

Click Continue until you reach the Select a Backup Source window. Select your Time Machine drive and click Continue. In the Select a Destination window, select your Mac's hard drive. (Using Recovery Modeerases your Mac's hard drive before restoring from Time Machine, but once the process is finished, you'll be able to log in and use your Mac normally).

Transfer data between Macs

Let's say you bought a new Mac and want to transfer all the data from your old system to it. Or, say you simply want to transfer data from one Mac to another. Time Machine can help here too, but with the assistance of another built-in Mountain Lion utility called Migration Assistant.

Once your backup drive is connected, launch Migration Assistant (in your /Applications/Utilities folder). A Migration Assistant window will appear and ask how you want to transfer your information. Choose the From another Mac, PC, Time Machine backup, or other disk option and then click Continue. You may be prompted to enter your administrator's password. Do so, if necessary, and click Continue.

Next, you'll be asked to quit other applications. Do so, and click Continue. In the next window, select the From a Time Machine backup or other disk option and click Continue.

Select your backup drive and enter a password for it, if necessary. Then, choose which items you'd like to migrate (chances are, this will be everything). Click Continue, and your files will begin to transfer. For more tips about using Migration Assistant, see "Move data from an old Mac to a new Mac."

WD releases Mac desktop drives with USB 3.0, 4TB capacity

Western Digital today introduced a new version of its My Book Studio desktop drive for Mac OS X systems that offers USB 3.0 connectivity and as much as 4TB of storage capacity in a single drive.

Drives with USB 3.0, also known as Super-Speed USB connectivity, are coming out in droves even as computer systems with 480Mbps USB 2.0, called Hi-Speed USB connectivity, cannot take advantage of the additional I/O bandwidth.

The My Book Studio drives come pre-formatted for Mac OS X, but users can reformat them for use with Windows systems and the file allocation table (FAT) file system.

In August, WD released the My Book VelociRaptor Duo desktop backup drive with 10Gbps Thunderbolt I/O connectivity and the My Passport for Mac with USB 3.0.

WD touted the VelociRaptor Duo, with 2TB capacity, as king of the heap for performance. The performance of the VelociRaptor Duo is at least as good as any consumer SSD, WD said.

WD could not say when the My Book Studio will have Thunderbolt capability. WD's new My Book Studio desktop drive comes in 1TB, 2TB, 3TB and 4TB of capacity. The drive is compatible with Apple Time Machine and offers 256-bit hardware-based encryption for added security against unauthorized access to the drive and its contents.

"WD's My Book Studio with USB 3.0 delivers extreme transfer speeds while maintaining the standard USB and FireWire connections computer users prefer," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD's branded and CE products. "Its large capacity, combined with a premium aluminum enclosure, hardware-based encryption, and compatibility with Apple Time Machine, provide Mac users with a fast, secure and complete system for preserving their valuable content."

WD continues to offer its My Book Studio drive with USB 2.0 and FireWire800 connectivity for legacy systems.

The My Book Studio external hard drive comes with a 3-year limited warranty and has a suggest retail price of $160 for the 1TB; $190 for 2TB; $240 for 3TB and $300 for 4TB version.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.

See more by Lucas Mearian on Computerworld.com.

Read more about data storage in Computerworld's Data Storage Topic Center.

Internet Explorer 10 Preview available for Windows 7 users

Although Windows 8 users have been enjoying IE10 since the new OS launched, this is the first time Windows 7 users can give the new browser a try.

For Windows 7 users, Internet Explorer 10 won't be a major upgrade over IE9. Microsoft mainly focused on Windows 8 for this version, building a new Modern-style interface with optimizations for touch and support for Windows 8 features, such as sharing and search from the Charms bar and Start screen app pinning. Aesthetically, the desktop version of IE10 looks nearly identical to IE9.

Still, there are a few reasons to check out Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 7 devices. Let's take a look at the main new features.

Flip ahead

Internet Explorer 10 can detect when an article on the Web has multiple pages, and offers a "Flip Ahead" function to turn to the next page. It's useful if you're reading through an article and can't find the "next page" button on the website; just hit the "Forward" button in IE10's navigation bar to flip the page. This feature is disabled by default because it sends your browsing history to Microsoft. To enable it, go to Internet Properties > Advanced > Browsing and check "Enable Flip Ahead."

Security enhancements

Microsoft says Internet Explorer10 builds on the security features of its predecessor, with improvements such as full support for HTML5 Sandbox technology.

The main new feature, however, is an optional " Enhanced Protected Mode," which locks down parts of the operating system that the browser typically doesn't need to access. For instance, with this mode enabled, the browser can't access your Documents folder unless you're performing a specific action, such as choosing a file through Explorer dialog. The idea is to keep documents safe even if an attacker has exploited a vulnerability in the browser or an add-on. This feature can be enabled through Internet Options > Advanced > "Enabled Enhanced Protected Mode."

Default Do Not Track

Do Not Track is enabled by default in Internet Explorer 10. This setting asks websites not to track the user's browsing behavior for the purpose of serving targeted ads, but it's still up to those sites to actually comply with the request. Microsoft's decision to enable Do Not Track has caused a controversy, since advertisers believe users should have to opt out of tracking. As a result, some companies have said they'll ignore Internet Explorer 10's Do Not Track settings .

Under-the-hood improvements

Internet Explorer 10 is largely about performance improvements rather than big features. The browser has support for more standards-based features, such as 3D transforms, transitions and animations in CSS, and HTML5 spell-checking. Microsoft has also worked on improving JavaScript performance. Lately Microsoft has shown off its browser's performance chops with Web-based games like Atari Arcade and Contre Jour (though, to be fair, the games work well in other browsers).

To download the preview of Internet Explorer 9, head to Microsoft's website.

FileLocker offers 25GB free end-to-end encrypted cloud storage

If recent cloud storage breaches have you wondering if the web can be trusted with your files a new service launched Tuesday called FileLocker, that provides encrypted cloud storage, may give you new faith.

FileLocker, a folder sync and collaboration service, claims to provide end-to-end military-level encryption of files stored on its servers. That means that data is encrypted at its source (on your desktop), in transit (256-bit SSL), and in the cloud. Typically, web storage services offered to consumers don't encrypt data at all three of those stages.

Although primarily targeted at small and home businesses, the service, which offers 25GB of free online storage for up to five users, can be a good deal for consumers, too.

(See Related: How to encrypt your cloud storage for free)

Paid accounts start at $5-per-user a month, with unlimited storage space for a minimum of 5 users and maximum of 10. Accounts include an app for the desktop and for mobile devices running iOS or Android, as well as administrative and reporting tools.

According to the company, files are protected before leaving a device with a personal passphrase known only to you. You can designate a folder and just drag-and-drop files where they're sent to the cloud using a 256-bit SSL connection, encrypted again and stored in the FileLocker cloud.

The service should be particularly attractive to collaborators because all versions of files are kept for an unlimited amount of time. FileLocker, brought to you by the makers of SOS Online Backup, allows you to designate any folder on a PC as synced folder. Simply drag-and-drop files you want to share or store online.

Crowded Cloud Storage Space

With so many clouds storage services popping up on an almost daily basis, consumers may be reluctant to subscribe to yet another one -- even one that offers end-to-end encryption. Those consumers might be interested in Ensafer, now in public beta

Unlike FileLocker, Ensafer is designed to work with existing popular storage services, such as Dropbox, iCloud and Google Drive. It, too, encrypts files locally on a consumer's device and can only be decrypted there.

Of course, if you're a hands-on type person you can encrypt your files manually before sending them to the cloud with a program like BoxCryptor or TrueCrypt.

Nokia debuts Here, cross-platform location service

Nokia plans an ambitious expansion of its mapping and location-based services platform beyond its own smartphones to competing devices running OSes other than Windows Phone 8, it said Tuesday.

The move is being backed with the acquisition by Nokia of Earthmine, a California-based provider of street-level 3D imaging data, and will see Nokia going head-to-head with Google, Apple and dedicated mapping companies like TomTom.

"We want to give everyone with any type of device to ability to use this, the best location platform in the industry," said Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, speaking at an event in San Francisco.

Nokia will use the "Here" brand name across its location platform.

The company hopes that by expanding its platform beyond its own handsets, it will benefit from the greater scale of the service and in turn make its own service better.

Nokia's platform includes mapping and satellite data, 75 million searchable points of interest, car and foot navigation data, and public transport information.

Nokia has already taken some steps towards opening up its mapping database. It has worked with car navigation system makers and other IT companies including Amazon and Oracle to license its maps, said Elop.

"We will do much, much more of this," he said.

As a first step, Nokia will launch on Apple's iOS in the coming weeks, said Michael Halbherr, head of Nokia's location and commerce division. The iOS version will be based on HTML5 but will appear to users like a native application, he said. It will offer maps, navigation, live traffic, public transport information and more.

Nokia has already submitted it to Apple's App Store, where the company plans to offer it for free.

The iOS version will offer turn-by-turn navigation for pedestrians but not for car drivers.

"When we look at turn-by-turn, we look at it in a different way," said Thom Brenner, vice president of Nokia's location and commerce business, in an interview. "Safety is very important and we don't think HTML5 is good enough for what we want."

Brenner didn't say if Nokia was developing a native iOS app.

A Here SDK (software development kit) for Android will be available in the first quarter of 2013. That will allow developers to embed Here Maps and make use of Nokia's location information in their own applications.

However, while software makers will be able to develop Android apps that make use of the location services, the services will only be available on handsets from companies with which Nokia has a licensing agreement, said Brenner.

That means Nokia's platform will only expand to Android devices if other handset makers -- the company's rivals in the competitive smartphone market -- license the technology.

Nokia will also work with Mozilla to bring a Here Maps app to the Firefox OS.

"People today already own multiple connected devices, so to have a proper solution for the consumer we need to make sure it works everywhere," said Halbherr.

Internet users can check out Nokia's new platform by looking at here.com, a freshly launched website that offers maps, satellite images and data on landmarks and shops. In a demonstration, Nokia showed a map of San Francisco that included 3D buildings and allowed the user to zoom and rotate the map in a similar fashion to Google Earth.

A mobile version of the site is available for cellphones.

Nokia also said it will open up the augmented reality platform used in its Nokia City Lens software. Called LiveSight, the data and software engine allows cellphone users to hold up their phones to see a live view of the world around them through the phone's camera with locations marked and overlaid on the image.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address ismartyn_williams@idg.com

Dropbox claims 100 million users

Dropbox today announced that it has passed 100 million users, and said its customers now save 1 billion files every day.

Dropbox, a cloudstorage company, also has paying users in more than 200 countries, it said.

As of June, about 7% of personal data was stored in the cloud, but that number is expected to climb to 36% by 2016, according to market research firm Gartner.

The biggest reason for the cloud storage increase is mobile data capture. Camera-equippedsmartphones and tablets are driving the need to store greater amounts of data outside internal device drives or desktop drives, Gartner stated. The firm also projected that average storage per household will grow from 464GB in 2011 to 3.3 terabytes in 2016.

Even with only 7% of personal data stored in the cloud today, that represents more than 329 exabytes, Garter said. That figure will soar to 4.1 zettabytes (a zettabyte is 1 trillion gigabytes) of data by 2016.

"Local storage will become further integrated with home networking, presenting opportunities for local storage providers to partner with home networking and automation service providers," Shalini Verma, principal research analyst at Gartner, wrote in the June report.

"Cloud storage will grow with the emergence of the personal cloud, which in turn will simplify the direct-to-cloud model, allowing users to directly store user-generated content in the cloud. As storage becomes a part of the personal cloud, it will become further commoditized. Therefore, online storage and sync companies need to have a strategic rethink about their future approach," she added.

Dropbox is inviting users to share their stories about how they're using the online services and awarding its 10 favorites 100GB of data capacity for life.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.

See more by Lucas Mearian on Computerworld.com.

Read more about data storage in Computerworld's Data Storage Topic Center.

AMD denies reports company is for sale

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is denying reports that executives have taken steps that could lead to the company's sale.

Speculation began to spread Tuesday afternoon after Reuters reported that AMD has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to explore business options, including a potential sale. According to Reuters, which cited unnamed sources, AMD is not focused on an outright sale of the company but could be looking to offload its patent portfolio.

One of the world's largest chip makers, AMD has been struggling in recent years against competitors like Intel, as well as a PC industry that has been pummeled by the growth in sales of tablets and smartphones.

Just last month, the chip maker announced it was laying off 15% of its workforce.

However, late this afternoon, AMD said it's not looking to sell. "AMD's board and management believe that the strategy the company is currently pursuing to drive long-term growth by leveraging AMD's highly-differentiated technology assets is the right approach to enhance shareholder value," the company said in an email to Computerworld. "AMD is not actively pursuing a sale of the company or significant assets at this time."

Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, said he wouldn't be surprised if AMD was looking into different sale options.

"I think selling off parts of the business would make sense," he said. "Raise some cash and then get laser focused in the higher growth areas.... Sell off some of the dead parts of the business and focus on gaming, mobile, etc. -- the high growth areas. Ditch PCs."

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 it industry in Computerworld's IT Industry Topic Center.

Google gives cloud-based database a performance boost

Google's Cloud SQL database has gained more storage, faster reads and writes, and now offers users the choice of running their instances in data centers based in either the U.S. or Europe.

The performance upgrade allows enterprises to run bigger, faster MySQL databases on Google's cloud, Joe Faith, product manager for Google Cloud SQL, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

Faith and his team have increased the available storage on Cloud SQL by a factor of ten to 100 GB, according to the blog post. Faster reads and writes are also possible thanks to instances with more memory and optional asynchronous replication, it said.

The maximum amount of RAM is now 16GB, quadrupling the amount of data users can cache to increase read speeds.

Asynchronous replication results in faster writes to the database, because the system doesn't have to wait for the replication to finish. However, users might lose their latest updates in the event of a data center failure within a few seconds of updating the database, according to Google's FAQ.

Besides improving performance, Google now allows Premier customers to choose if they want to store data and run their Cloud SQL database instances in U.S or European data centers.

Google's update comes just two days after Amazon Web Services announced two new instance types for its Relational Database Service: the Extra Large DB Instance and the Medium DB Instance, which have 15GB and 3.75GB of memory, respectively. Both of them can be used to run SQL Server and Oracle's database, while the medium instance can also be used to run MySQL.

Amazon has also reduced prices by up to 14 percent in the US East (Northern Virginia) and US West (Oregon) regions.

For example, a standard deployment of a large instance now costs US$0.365 per hour, which is 5 cents cheaper than what Amazon used to charge.

Similar to Amazon's existing free tier, Google has introduced a new trial offer for Cloud SQL. Users get to test one instance with "a small amount of RAM" and 500MB of storage until June 1 next year.

Users who want Cloud SQL with 16GB of memory pay either $46.84 per day, which includes 10GB of storage and 32 million requests, or $3.08 per hour plus $0.10 for every one million requests and $0.24 per month for 1GB of storage.

Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com

iPhone 6 rumor rollup for the week ending Nov. 9

The U.S. presidential election hangover seems to have had a dampening effect on iOSphere rumors for iPhone 6.

Will Ferrari finally bring some Italian glamour to the Germanic frigidity of iPhone designs? Can a 13-year-old youtuber shed light on Apple's path forward? Can Apple really create an iPhone theft detector?

You read it here second.

MORE SCUTTLEBUTT: iPhone 6 rumor rollup for the week ending Nov. 2

__________

"I'm just wondering how a little Italian pizazz would fit with Apple's otherwise Braun-influenced designs."     -- Dwayne Madden at AutooMobile.com, wondering about the design ramifications for iPhone 6 because an Apple executive now sits on the board of directors for Italian automaker Ferrari

__________

iPhone 6 design will be created by Ferrari

This is what makes Apple rumorology such a great sport: An obscure event is analyzed obsessively for the teensiest clues to the Mind of Apple. It's not the reasoning, which is nonexistent, nor the conclusions, which are usually nonsensical. It's the process.

Italian car maker Ferrari announced this week that Apple's Eddy Cue has joined the Ferrari board of directors.

Cue is Apple's vice president of Internet software and services, a 24-year veteran of the company, and a Ferrari owner himself for nearly one-fifth of his tenure there. In a statement, he affirmed that he is "pleased and proud to become a member of the board. I continue to be awed by the world-class design and engineering that only Ferrari can do."

So are we all. Here's the current-model Ferrari awesomeness in all its testosteronic glory. 

Every day, executives from one company are picked to sit on another company's board. No one knows. No one cares. But this is an Apple executive. Wired's Damon Lavrinc can't say enough about the "ramifications" of Cue's ascension.

"Apple has long been rumored to be interested in the automotive sector, and has in recent months announced partnerships with nine automakers to bring a new breed of advanced voice control, dubbed Siri Eyes Free, to vehicles in the next year," Lavrinc notes. "As for Ferrari, well, its cars are technological marvels under the hood, but their infotainment systems suck. Apple could help change that in a big way."

Un-sucking infotainment systems for those who can afford $229,825 for 2012 Ferrari 458 Italia. Talk about aspiration.

Ferrari CEO Luca di Montezemolo, who met with Apple CEO Tim Cook in April 2012, is delighted to have Eddy around. "I am delighted that Eddy Cue, one of the main driving forces behind Apple's range of revolutionary products, has now joined our board. His huge experience in the dynamic, innovative world of the Internet will be of great assistance to us."

In addition to iBooks, App Store and iCloud, Cue has recently taken over iOS Maps and Siri, after the recent management shakeup in Cupertino. "[H]aving Cue aboard could influence how Ferrari looks at the human machine interface and what steps it can take to bring its connectivity platform up to par with its exceptional drivetrains and chassis," Lavrinc enthuses.

Others were quick to draw the conclusion that Lavrinc overlooked: the way Ferrari could influence how Apple looks at the now-pedestrian iPhone design.

"Ferrari is of course known for their beautiful Italian designs," writes Dwayne Madden at AutooMobile.com, where his post is headlined "iPhone 6 Design May Have Some Italian Pizzaz [sic]."

"With the iPhone 5 focusing on being lighter and thinner just like sports car strive to be, we wouldn't be surprised if some of Ferrari's design engineering can be shared with the folks over at Cupertino labs. With [Apple designer-in-chief] Jony Ive now in charge of iOS design as well, you can expect him and Cue to be working much closer together. I'm just wondering how a little Italian pizazz would fit with Apple's otherwise Braun-influenced designs."

That's Apple's real problem: too damned Germanic.

iPhone 6 will be transparent, according to 13-year-old tech reviewer

Sam Laghzaoui is either very industrious or has a lot of free time on his hands, possibly both. He's created what could be the first but undoubtedly and depressingly not the last iPhone 6 "concept art" video, which is posted on YouTube. 

The production values are pretty good, although AutooMobile's Madden would probably insist that it's more Braun than Ferrari. Laghzaoui says he's 13, and a "tech youtuber who does tech reviews, how-to's, unboxings, and the such. Follow me and I'll follow back!"

He favors a transparent iPhone 6 body, apparently unimpressed by Apple's expensive licensing of Liquidmetal's Wondrous Alloy, long rumored to be the next big thing for iPhone bodies. He's predicting a thumbprint scanner integrated into the display and possibly some kind of holographic technology.

Here's Laghzaoui on the bus, "very tired." We're not surprised.

iPhone 6 will have an anti-theft system built-in

Mobile anti-theft systems are seriously lacking. You can't really adapt a steering wheel lock for something that slips into your pocket, thought it might come in handy for your Ferrari.

But Apple has an eye on this problem, according to AppleInsider, which found a U.S. patent applicationby Apple for a theft detection system that uses "a portable device's accelerometer, in cooperation with a specialized controller, to detect whether a 'theft condition is present' and sound an alarm," according to AppleInsider's Mikey Campbell.

So what is a "theft condition"? This becomes a bit vague.

The controller is supposed to analyze the signals "generated by the movement of a device, which can determine whether the motion matches a set of parameters in which a theft scenario is likely. Just as important is the rejection of signal data for innocuous events."

The application is pretty clear what theft is not: "For example, the signal conditioning hardware and/or software should filter out those acceleration signals corresponding to shock or impact." So if you drop your iPhone and slam it against the table, the alarms won't sound.

But that still doesn't give us a sense of what "threat scenarios" actually are. "According to the application, theft conditions are likely to involve large-scale movements, like carrying the device in one's hand, which generate low frequency acceleration signals," Campbell writes.

If "carrying the device in one's hand" constitutes a threat scenario, we're going to be aurally smothered in wailing iPhones and iPads. That's why these are called "hand-held devices," after all. Perhaps a large-scale movement would be tearing an iPhone from someone's grip and jumping up and down waving it around as you run down the street shouting, "It's mine, mine, mine, MINE!"

"If a theft condition is detected, the user has a set amount of time to enter a numeric or alphanumeric passcode to disarm the anti-theft system before the alarm sounds," writes Campbell.

That sounds reassuring. Until one contemplates all the many ways in which that simple process could go so terribly wrong.

iPhone Informer's William Usher crosses the i's and dots the t's. "[It] could be possible to see the anti-theft alert available in newer handsets such as the iPhone 6 perhaps," he writes. 

John Cox covers wireless networking and mobile computing for Network World. Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnwcoxnww Email: john_cox@nww.com

Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.

Three simple rules for buying a new laptop

This is the time of year when friends, family members, casual acquaintances, and people in the street stop me to ask about buying a new PC.

"What should I get?" they ask. "What do I need?" Also heard with increasing frequency: "Should I get a tablet instead of a laptop?"

Loaded questions, to be sure, but not difficult ones. A tablet can take the place of a laptop if all you do is browse the Web and read e-mail. If you need to get any serious work done, whether for school or business or just everyday life, a laptop is still the smarter choice. It gives you a keyboard, a bigger screen, copious amounts of storage, and compatibility with all your favorite software.

So, what kind of laptop should you get, and with what specs and features? I can make this really simple:

1. Get at least 4GB of RAM.

That's "four gigabytes of memory" for those who don't speak PC. Anything less and your system will run like molasses--something to keep in mind as Black Friday deals roll around. Many "doorbuster" laptops will have only 2GB of RAM, and that's just not enough.

2. If you can afford it, get a system with an SSD.

That's short for "solid-state drive," which has no moving parts and therefore runs faster, generates less heat, and consumes less power than a traditional hard drive. You'll pay a premium for an SSD and end up with less storage space, but how much do you really need? Most folks I know rarely fill up more than 100GB.

Indeed, although a 128GB SSD may seem like a downgrade compared with, say, a 500GB hard drive, the speed benefits alone are worth the extra money.

3. Try before you buy.

Although brick-and-mortar tech stores are few and far between these days, there are still places where you can go and browse laptops in person. And that's something you should definitely do.

Sure, you can shop online based on specs and price, but you owe it to yourself to test-drive the keyboard. And the trackpad. Make sure they're comfortable and responsive. Likewise, check the screen: is it glossy and therefore heavy on the glare? Whenever possible, try to lay hands on a laptop before buying it.

One more "rule."

Notice that I didn't mention the procesor. Unless you're doing heavy-duty video editing or playing a lot of graphics-intensive games, the processor just isn't the big factor it used to be. They're all pretty fast nowadays.

As for brands, I have similar feelings: they're all pretty good nowadays. That said, it's always a good idea to do your homework, starting with PC World's Reliability and Satisfaction surveys.

What other advice would you give to someone shopping for a new laptop?

Cloud security vendor Crossbeam bought by private equity firm

Crossbeam has been bought by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, opening up the door for the securitycompany to expand its product line both in-house and via acquisitions.

Known for its high-end X-Series hardware that supports software of major security vendors -- among them Check Point, McAfee, IBM, Imperva, Sophos and Trend Micro -- the company promotes itself as producing products for public and private cloud networks.

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The company sells very specialized, high-end hardware to companies with high-performance needs, and the business has grown out of its initial support for Check Point security software, says Joel Snyder, senior partner of Opus 1 and a Network World tester. "They also offer folks like Trend and IBM/ISS on their platform, but fundamentally they sell firewall hardware."

Among its customers are BT, Cell C, Motel 6, NTT Globe Telecom, Telefonica and Volkswagen.

The companies didn't reveal how much Thoma Bravo paid.

They didn't share specifics about their future plans. "So it's a big unknown unless you talk to them, and even then it's a big unknown," says Snyder. "But probably for Crossbeam and its customers and Check Point, it's good."

Crossbeam's senior management team will stay with the company, which has more than 200 employees worldwide. It is headquartered in Boxboro, Mass.

"We look forward to working with Crossbeam's management to build off of that reputation and help them accelerate their growth through the buy and build strategy we have followed successfully many times before," says Seth Boro, a Thoma Bravo partner, in a press release.

"Thoma Bravo's support and expertise in the software and technology industries will allow us to pursue new products and services through strategic initiatives and potential acquisitions to enhance our offerings," says Mike Ruffolo, president and CEO of Crossbeam in the same release.

Thoma Bravo is known for buying up enterprise and infrastructure software and expanding them via strategic acquisitions. The firm bought WAN optimization company Blue Coat earlier this year. Blue Coat later appointed a new president and COO, David Murphy, who says the company will focus on adding security to its products.

Thoma Bravo says that in the realm of software it has bought 54 firms to merge with 25 platform companies and manages a private equity funds worth about $4 billion.

Tim Greene covers Microsoft for Network World and writes the Mostly Microsoft blog. Reach him at tgreene@nww.com and follow him on Twitter @Tim_Greene.

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