How to Collect $10 From Facebook

If Facebook used your likeness in Sponsored Stories, an advertising feature introduced in early 2011, you may be eligible for your share of a $20 million settlement in a class action privacy lawsuit.

Sponsored Stories used either a user's name or profile picture as an endorsement of the product or service in the ad, without the users' consent. You could not opt-out of the feature, which advocacy groups and users considered a violation of privacy. Facebook decided to settle rather than fight the allegations in court.

The settlement that Facebook agreed to in October sets aside $20 million for affected users. If you're one of them, Facebook will pay you up to $10. Here's what you need to do to cash in.

How to Collect the Cash From Facebook

If you were affected by Sponsored Stories, check your inbox and spam filter for an email from Facebook-excerpted below-notifying you of the class action settlement. The emails were sent out the week of January 21, and many people disregarded them as a hoax.

If you received the email, you have until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on May 2, 2013 to file an electronic or postmarked claim form, which you can find on the Fraley v. Facebook website. It will ask you for your name, email address, Facebook user ID and the claim number provided to you in the email.

Once you submit your claim, you're done: Payments will be cut after June.

But, according to the settlement notice, there is one major stipulation: If too many Facebook users file a claim, the money will go to charity.

There's nothing to lose by filing a claim-best-case scenario: Facebook buys you lunch.

Kristin Burnham covers consumer technology, social networking, social business and enterprise collaboration for CIO.com. Follow Kristin on Twitter @kmburnham. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Kristin at kburnham@cio.com

Read more about consumer in CIO's Consumer Drilldown.

Google stakes Pwnium hacking contest to $3.14M in potential prizes

Google today announced it would again host its Pwnium hacking contest at a March security conference, but boosted the maximum amount it will pay to $3.14 million and changed the target to its browser-based operating system, Chrome OS.

Dubbed Pwnium 3, the challenge will pit researchers against its still-struggling-for-relevance Chrome OS, rewarding those who can hack the operating system with individual prizes of $110,000 and $150,000.

Google capped the total up for grabs at $3.14159 million, giving multiple researchers a chance at prize money. The "3.14159" comes from the first six digits of the value of .

Each hacker able to compromise Chrome OS or the browser that is its foundation -- Chrome -- from an exploit-serving website will receive $110,000 said Chris Evans, an engineer with the Chrome security team, in a Monday entry on the Chromium project's blog.

Researchers who manage to accomplish what Evans called a "compromise with device persistence," meaning that the hijack survives a reboot of the Chrome OS-powered notebook, will receive the larger award of $150,000.

"We believe these larger rewards reflect the additional challenge involved with tackling the security defenses of Chrome OS, compared to traditional operating systems," said Evans.

Pwnium 3 will take place March 7 at CanSecWest, the Vancouver, British Columbia, security conference where Google will also partner with HP TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) bug bounty program to host Pwn2Own. That contest, with $560,000 in total cash prizes, will focus on Web browsers, including Chrome, Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla's Firefox, as well as plug-ins from Adobe and Oracle.

The contest cooperation at CanSecWest will be quite different this year than in 2012, when Pwn2Own and Pwnium were rivals. Google inaugurated Pwnium then after it withdrew its financial support from Pwn2Own after it and HP couldn't agree on the rules -- specifically, whether researchers would be required to divulge full exploits and hand over all the vulnerabilities they used to hack a browser.

"This year, we've teamed up with ZDI by working together on the Pwn2Own rules and by underwriting a portion of the winnings for all targets," said Evans about the new understanding between Google and HP TippingPoint. "The new rules are designed to enable a contest that significantly improves Internet security for everyone. At the same time, the best researchers in the industry get to showcase their skills and take home some generous rewards."

Both Pwn2Own and Pwnium will require winners to provide functional exploit code and details on all the vulnerabilities put into play.

Pwnium 3's $3.14 million cap is more than three times the $1 million Google said it would pay if necessary in 2012, and more than 50% above the $2 million it staked at a second challenge that took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last October.

But if past practice holds true again this year, Google won't write checks totaling anywhere near $3 million. At the first Pwnium of March 2012, the search giant paid out $120,000 to two researchers for exploiting Chrome; the Malaysian edition's single award was a $60,000 payoff to "Pinkie Pie," one of the two hackers who took home the same amount seven months earlier.

Chrome OS has never been a contest target before, although Pwn2Own offered a Chrome OS notebook as one of four laptop prizes in 2011.

Although Chrome OS continues to struggle to gain share -- metrics company Net Applications, one of the most-cited market scorekeepers, hasn't even bothered to measure the operating system's usage -- but several major computer makers have recently gotten behind the open-source operating system. Earlier this month, Lenovo joined Acer and Samsung when it introduced a $429 ThinkPad laptop that's scheduled to ship in February.

Acer's C7 "Chromebook" -- a term often applied to notebooks powered by Chrome OS -- costs just $199, while Samsung's line starts at $249.

Google has not yet posted the official rules for Pwnium 3, but they will probably appear on theChromium Security page.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.

Read more about cybercrime and hacking in Computerworld's Cybercrime and Hacking Topic Center.

FTC Online Privacy Protection Campaign Kicks Into High Gear

As the Federal Trade Commission continues its work in evaluating the privacy practices of businesses in the Internet age, agency staffers are focusing not only on what personal information companies are collecting and how they're using it, but also on the security measures in place to keep that data out of the hands of would-be identity thieves and other bad actors.

Speaking here at an event to mark Data Privacy Day, an annual initiative led by the nonprofit National Cyber Security Alliance, Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen stressed that the FTC's privacy work is closely coupled with its consideration of industry security practices.

When businesses fail to implement or enforce strong security practices, they run the risk of suffering a major data breach that can expose sensitive information about their customers, severely damaging the firm's brand and inviting an enforcement action from federal authorities, Ohlhausen warns.

"Data is an increasingly vital asset and companies need to protect their ... customers' personal information from theft and unauthorized access that can hurt customers and harm the business's reputation. That's where data security comes in. Data security is part of the broader topic of data privacy," she says. "Regardless of how one feels about the use of consumer data for marketing or targeting purposes, I believe we can all agree that failure to take reasonable precautions to secure data identity thieves and other malicious parties hurts consumers and legitimate businesses alike."

The timing of Ohlhausen's keynote address was apt. Earlier today, the FTC announced that it had reached a settlement with Cbr Systems, the operator of a cord blood bank, concerning allegations of a data breach that may have exposed sensitive information of nearly 300,000 consumers.

The FTC's complaint against Cbr Systems, which stores umbilical cord blood and tissue, dates to December 2010, when unencrypted backup tapes, a laptop and other equipment were stolen from an employee's car, according to the commission. As a result, sensitive health information, credit card and Social Security numbers and other data were compromised, and the laptop and a hard drive that were stolen included passwords and protocols that could have provided access to Cbr Systems' internal network.

13 Healthcare IT Trends and Predictions for 2013Top Challenges Facing Healthcare CIOs

The FTC based its complaint on its authority under the section of its charter statute concerning unfair or deceptive practices, maintaining that the company violated its own privacy policy by failing to have in place reasonable policies and procedures for safeguarding its customers' information, and that it courted further risk by carelessly transporting portable storage devices.

Under the settlement agreement, Cbr Systems submitted to 20 years of independent audits of its data-management practices.

The FTC has brought more than three dozen complaints against companies concerning data breaches, Ohlhausen said. Many of those cases had little to do with the technical protections in place to safeguard data, but instead were the product of soft policies, uneven implementation or a weak chain of custody.

"This really seems very simple, but many of the data security cases that the commission has brought involve companies who engaged in careless practices, such as dumping sensitive medical or financial information into open trash bins, and not even shredded," Ohlhausen says.

Over the coming year, the FTC intends to ramp up its scrutiny of data brokers, a sector that the agency has ide ntified as an area of concern for consumer privacy. In December, the FTC sent letters to nine leading brokers asking for detailed information about their data-collection practices, with responses expected next month. At that point, Ohlhausen says, the FTC's in-house economists and other agency staffers will review the information with an eye toward recommendations for reforms within the industry, and potentially legislation authorizing new regulations.

In the meantime, lawmakers could move to pass a bill to establish a nationwide requirement for notifying customers whose information might have been compromised in a data breach. National data-breach notification legislation, long supported by many in the tech sector, would preempt the patchwork of requirements across the 46 states with data- breach laws on the book.

"Although some of the laws are similar, they are not identical. And this means that companies need to comply with separate state notice requirements, and consumer may get notifications that are different and are triggered by different kinds of breaches," Ohlhausen says, adding that she believes there is a good chance that Congress will pass a bill this year. "I believe a single standard would let companies know what to do and let consumers know what to expect."

Ohlhausen also advises business to take steps to limit their risk of a data breach with common-sense measures like incorporating security and privacy protections in the design phase of their products and systems, securing storage, and promoting privacy through education and training programs across business units.

Then, too, they must ensure that they are living up to the security and privacy assurances they make to their customers.

"It's also really critical that businesses honor the promises they make to protect consumer privacy, and this is really at the heart of the commission's law enforcement against deceptive practices," Ohlhausen says. "But because breaches may still occur even in the most security-conscious company, it's also critical to have a plan for responding to data breaches before they happen. So putting together a response plan now may help reduce the impact of a data breach on a business and its customers later."

Kenneth Corbin is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who covers government and regulatory issues for CIO.com.

Apple TV 5.2 update adds Bluetooth keyboard support, AirPlay sending, and more

iOS 6.1's Monday release may capture most of day's attention, but Apple's favorite hobby got a little love as well with the release of Apple TV Software Update 5.2. The set-top box gains a variety of new features related to iTunes in the Cloud, Bluetooth keyboard support, AirPlay sending, and more.

The new iTunes in the Cloud support means that you can browse and stream iTunes-purchased music from iCloud, without needing to stream it from another computer on your network. And this feature works even for customers without iTunes Match.

The new Bluetooth keyboard support allows you to pair your wireless keyboard with the Apple TV, thereby simplifying the process of entering text into search boxes, password fields, and the like. You can pair the keyboard under Settings > General > Bluetooth, as Apple explains in this new support document.

Though Apple TV has long been able to receive AirPlay audio and video, it now gains the ability to sendAirPlay audio as well. You can send the audio from movies, TV shows, and other content you play back on Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices including the AirPort Express and other Apple TVs. You can insert your own Apple TV singularity or Inception joke here, as desired.

Finally, Apple says that the 5.2 update addresses performance and stability improvements with the iTunes Store, AirPlay, Netflix, iTunes Match, and wired ethernet connections. The update addresses a pair of security vulnerabilities as well. You can install the update directly from your Apple TV.

Seagate, Virident team up on PCIe SSDs for data centers

Seagate Technology and Virident Systems today announced a strategic partnership to jointly deliver NAND flash-based storage for data centers.

Under the agreement, Seagate will immediately offer a complete line of rebranded, flash-based PCIe products to its system manufacturer and distribution partners. The PCIe flash modules are a first for Seagate, which has focused on serial-SCSI (SAS)-based solid-state drives (SSDs) for the enterprise and hybrid drives, which combine spinning disk with NAND flash, for the consumer market.

In addition, the two companies said they plan to leverage their "mutual strengths" to create next-generation hardware and software products for the solid-state storage market. In conjunction with the agreement, Seagate has made a $40 million equity investment in Virident, and will appoint one member to the Virident board of directors.

Virident produces a line of high-end, PCIe-based flash modules called FlashMAX. FlashMAX modules are available in both single-level cell (SLC) and less expensive multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash and range in capacities from 550GB to 2.2TB. The MLC-module can generate 325,000 random read IOPS (using 4K blocks) and one million IOPS using 512-byte blocks). The SLC card is able to generate up to 340,000 IOPS using 4K blocks and 1.4 million IOPS using 512-byte blocks

"Seagate is thrilled to team with Virident, a technology leader in one of the fastest growing markets in enterprise and cloud computing," Gary Gentry, general manager of solid state drives at Seagate, said in a statement. "We believe that this strategic agreement immediately strengthens our leading position in the enterprise storage market by adding a broad line of Seagate flash-based PCIe solutions powered by Virident to our portfolio."

In other news, Seagate today reported its second quarter financial results. Seagate, whose quarter ended December 28, 2012, reported revenue of approximately $3.7 billion, a gross margin of 27%, net income of $492 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.30.

"Seagate is executing well in an environment where customer demand forecasting is challenging," Steve Luczo, Seagate's CEO, said in a statement.

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 storage hardware in Computerworld's Storage Hardware Topic Center.

Sen. Durbin plans to press for H-1B restrictions

WASHINGTON - The comprehensive immigration proposal being fashioned in the U.S. Senate may give new opportunity for H-1B critics to try to impose new restrictions on the visa. Then again, it may not.

The situation is murky.

The Senators who developed the chamber's latest comprehensive immigration effort outlined their framework at a press conference Monday, but offered few details about how their plan would actually work or what will be included in their bill.

A leading critic of the H-1B visa, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), one of the eight senators drafting the comprehensive plan, said he didn't know whether the H-1B visa will be included in the bill.

Durbin, along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), have sought a number of restrictions on temporary worker visas.

The pair has offered bills in previous Congressional sessions that include a so-called 50/50 provision that would limit the number of visas available to a company to half of its workforce. Indian outsourcing firms are especially concerned about a 50/50-like provision in an immigration bill.

Durbin, meeting with reporters in a hallway after the press conference, said that if the H-1B visa is taken up as part of comprehensive reform, "I would certainly want to sit down with Chuck and offer this (Durbin and Grassley's previous bill) as an amendment because I think what we're doing there is reasonable."

Durbin said that he and Grassley want provisions that would "give Americans the first chance for the job."

The debate over the H-1B and STEM green card is embroiled in details.

Questions about prevailing wage levels, preference for U.S. workers in hiring, and limits on the number of any H-1B visas a company may use as well as the overall cap number would be critical issues in any immigration bill.

"We are only a part of the way done -- there are loads of pitfalls," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), at the press conference, of the comprehensive effort.

Schumer, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and some of the other senators speaking today said little about how their efforts at reform could impact technology companies.

The framework released Monday explicitly calls for green cards for advanced degree graduates of U.S. universities, but doesn't mention the H-1B visa at all.

Sen. Marco Rubio, who is part of the Schumer-led bipartisan group on immigration reform, is one of the senators behind an effort to raise the H-1B cap to a minimum of 115,000. Under an escalator clause,the cap could reach 300,000.

Rubio was asked at the press conference how his tech immigration proposal squares with the comprehensive effort.

Rubio's yet-to-be introduced bill includes a green card STEM visa plan similar to what the comprehensive framework calls for.

"Let's be clear this is outline of principals," said Rubio, the details yet to be crafted. "The principals quite frankly are very similar if not the same," in the comprehensive framework to the bill he is part of.

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov, or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed . His e-mail address is pthibodeau@computerworld.com.

Read more about gov't legislation/regulation in Computerworld's Gov't Legislation/Regulation Topic Center.

Yahoo's revenue climbs 2 percent, though profit sags

Yahoo's revenue climbed 2 percent in the fourth quarter, though its display ad business shrank and profit was down from a year earlier.

Yahoo's revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 was US$1.35 billion. Subtracting commissions and fees paid to advertising partners, revenue was $1.22 billion, an increase of 4 percent, Yahoo announced Monday.

Net income declined 8 percent to $272 million, or $0.23 per share, compared with $296 million, or $0.24 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2011, Yahoo said.

CEO Marissa Mayer said she was "proud" of the results. "We achieved tremendous internal transformation in the culture, energy and execution of the company," she said in a statement.

Yahoo signed key partnerships in the quarter with NBC Sports and CBS Television, Mayer said, and improved its mobile apps for Yahoo Mail and Flickr, its photo-sharing service.

The quarterly figures above exclude payments Yahoo received from its sale of shares in Alibaba, a Chinese Internet company. Including those payments, on a pro forma basis, Yahoo reported income of $370 million, a 20 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. Its pro forma earnings per share was $0.32.

Display advertising revenue, after subtracting partner commissions, was $520 million for the quarter, down 5 percent from a year earlier. Search advertising revenue, on the other hand, increased by 14 percent to $427 million.

Looking at the full year, sales for 2012 were flat at $4.99 billion, though they increased by 2 percent after subtracting advertising fees and commissions. It was the first time in four years that Yahoo's annual revenue had increased by that metric, Mayer said.

Twitter acquires mobile-app crash analyzer Crashlytics

Crashlytics, a year-old vendor of crash analytics for iPhone and iPad apps, says it has been acquired by Twitter.

"Today, we're excited to announce: we're merging with Twitter to take our platform to an entirely new level," Wayne Chang, co-founder of Crashlytics, wrote in a post on his company's blog.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Crashlytics and Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.

Crashlytics produces a software package that allows developers to collect and analyze data each time their apps crash on iOS devices. The mobile apps incorporate a piece of code from Crashlytics that, in the event of a crash, collects data and then sends it to a server for analysis.

"Developers gain instant visibility into the precise line of code that caused a crash, enabling them to more easily fix issues," Chang wrote.

Twitter already uses the company's software on its main app and on the new Vine video messaging application. Other customers include Yelp, Kayak, TaskRabbit, Square and Waze.

The acquisition will not change any of those relationships, the company said.

An Android version of the Crashlytics platform is promised soon.

Sierra Wireless to sell AirCard unit to Netgear for $138 million

Sierra Wireless will unload its AirCard mobile add-on business to Netgear for about US$138 million in cash and become a pure-play M2M vendor.

A big part of Sierra's business traditionally has been its AirCard family of add-on cellular modules, which users plugged into laptops via PC Card slots and, later, USB ports. The cards added 3G and later 3G/4G capability over a variety of mobile operators' networks. The company eventually added personal hotspots that could link with nearby devices via Wi-Fi instead of a hardware port. Sierra still sells some of all three types. The devices are sold under its own name and carriers' brands.

Now Sierra is backing out of that business so it can focus on machine-to-machine (M2M) technology, which links non-consumer devices such as electric meters and industrial equipment to wireless networks. Its offerings in that fast-growing field include embedded hardware modules as well as gateways, routers and cloud-based software.

The company plans to use the net proceeds from the sale, approximately $100 million, for more M2M acquisitions to expand the business and speed up its revenue and earnings growth.

Netgear, a maker of home and small-business networking gear, will acquire all the assets and operations of the AirCard business, including its intellectual property and business relationships and about 160 employees in Carlsbad, California, and Richmond, British Columbia. Netgear is based in San Jose, California. Customers can expect continued AirCard innovation under Netgear, Sierra said in a press release.

The deal is subject to typical closing conditions and is expected to close in March.

Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com

VMware to cut 900 jobs in 'realignment' as growth slows

VMware said Monday it will cut 900 jobs in a move to focus more on high potential businesses, as profits remained strong but growth slowed.

The company said the job cuts, revealed as part of its earnings release for last year, will come in areas such as SlideRocket, its online presentation software. VMware emphasized that it was still expanding, and said it planned to add a net 1,000 jobs in 2013.

CEO Pat Gelsinger called the move a "realignment of resources" on an earnings call. VMware has added about 6,700 workers over the last three years, and will focus on software-defined data centers and hybrid cloud services, he said.

"This includes shifting talent to new roles that support our growth opportunities as well as some targeted head count reductions," he said.

VMware currently has about 13,800 workers.

The company said it had a strong fourth quarter, booking a net profit of US$206 million, up from $200 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 22 percent to $1.29 billion.

VMware, which claims its software is used by all of the Fortune 100 companies and 96 percent of the Fortune 1000, added the business environment in the U.S. has been difficult, and it faced a decline in contracts from the federal government in 2012.

The company faces increasing challenges from companies like Microsoft, which is moving into virtualization as part of the current shift toward "cloud-based" computing. VMware will also come up against allies like Cisco as it moves into software-defined networking through moves like the acquisition of Nicira.

For 2012, the company booked a net profit of $746 million, up 3 percent from the previous year, even as revenue rose 22 percent. In the current year, VMware said it targets a revenue increase of between 14 and 16 percent.

Gelsinger said the company would continue to pursue mergers and acquisitions, as well as strategic alliances.

VMware plans to exit some businesses and close some of its facilities as part of its realignment. Total costs of those moves are expected to cost the company up to $110 million

In 2012, VMware acquired Nicira, a startup working to simplify the creation of virtual networks and services that operate separately from physical hardware. VMware paid a total of $1.2 billion in the deal, announced in July.

Earlier this month, VMware lost its longtime Chief Technology Officer Steve Herrod, who left to become a managing director at the venture capital firm General Catalyst. Herrod joined VMware in December 2001, shortly after the company released its first product.

Motorola Solutions unveils MC45 mobile computer

Motorola Solutions believes workplaces will find value in rugged handheld mobile computers that cost several times more than consumer-focused smartphones, but last much longer.

The MC45 mobile computer from Motorola.

In that vein, the company Tuesday unveiled the MC45 mobile computer, a small but rugged handset targeted at field workers.

The device is priced from $1,345.

Sheldon Safir, director of global solutions marketing at Motorola Solutions, called the cost "aggressive pricing for full functionality" in a rugged device that can be used by small and medium-sized businesses for, among other things, sales and order tracking applications and for package pick-up and delivery activities.

"We believe that the construction of this device and the total cost of ownership over the life of the product bear out the initial investment," Safir said.

"It's built to withstand [five-foot] drops [that] some consumer devices are not built for. It has a three-year lifecycle, while consumer devices are made to last a year. This can give businesses a sense of security," he added.

The price of Apple's iPhone, a range of Android devices and other smartphones can start at $200 when subsidized by a carrier -- just a fraction of the initial cost of an MC45.

Motorola Solutions provides a range of rugged and semi-rugged handheld models for use in warehouses and other areas. Some can function over cellular radio networks as well over wireless LANs inside buildings.

A higher-end MC65 handheld sells for $2,295.

The MC45 comes with a 26 key numeric keypad, not a full alphabetical keyboard as seen on some other models.

The device has a 3.2-in. touchscreen, compared to the 4-in. touchscreen in the iPhone 5, and runs a 600 MHz ARM-based processor, and the Windows Embedded 6.5.3 professional edition operating system.

The MC45 measures 5.6-in. by 2.6-in. by 1.0 in. and it weighs 8.73 ounces.

Internal flash storage is 1 GB, but a 32 GB-capable microSD slot is included.

The touchscreen can capture signatures for package deliveries and there is a 3.2 megapixel camera for data capture which supports one and two dimension barcode capture. A one-dimensional laser scanner is also included.

Motorola Solutions also sells a variety of peripherals for businesses, including a 4-slot battery charger.

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

Read more about mobile/wireless in Computerworld's Mobile/Wireless Topic Center.

HP will jump on the Chromebook bandwagon: Report

Another week, another major PC vendor announcing that it's planning a Chromebook offering of its own. Last week, it was Lenovo; this week, according to reports, it's none other than HP.

Acer, meanwhile, is riding high on its own Chromebook sales, and Samsung's offering is currently the No. 1 top-selling laptop on Amazon.

As Windows 8 continues to lag, it's difficult not to envision rising anxiety levels at Microsoft in Redmond.

A 14-inch display

According to a PDFthat the Verge found earlier today on HP's site (since apparently taken down), the company is planning what's referred to as a Pavilion Chromebook.

Featuring a 1.1GHz Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 16GB solid-state drive, the device will also sport a 14-inch, 1366-by-768 display, the publication reports--considerably bigger than the 11.6-inch screens offered by most of its competitors, though apparently on par in terms of resolution.

Battery life is apparently another key differentiator, however, with the spec sheet listing just 4 hours and 15 minutes. Samsung's Chromebook, by contrast, offers closer to seven hours.

'Another nail in Microsoft's coffin'

Still, it's difficult not to marvel over the growing Chromebook phenomenon, particularly now that such major vendors are getting involved.

Acer President Jim Wong told Bloomberg that Chromebooks have accounted for 5 percent to 10 percent of Acer's U.S. shipments since November.

The Street, meanwhile, recently referred to Lenovo's Chromebook as "another nail in Microsoft's coffin." The success of Samsung's entry, of course, speaks for itself.

No love lost

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will always be famous for calling Linux a "cancer."

And it wasn't all that long ago that he expressed more concern over competition from Linux than from Apple. Soon afterwards, he also didn't hold back in expressing his views of Google's Linux-based Chrome OS.

With four key PC makers now jumping on the Chromebook bandwagon, is Microsoft in a fresh batch of trouble? Sound off with your views in the comments.

New Office suite for consumers available now

Microsoft will begin selling worldwide on Tuesday the new consumer version of the Office suite, making it available both via a subscription model and perpetual licenses.

Consumers have historically bought Office in the traditional way, which allows them to pay for the suite once and keep it forever, but Microsoft has made it clear it is partial to the subscription model, where licenses are renewed annually.

"We think the cloud is the future," said Oliver Roll, general manager of communications for the Microsoft Office Division.

The subscription version, called Office 365 Home Premium, will cost US$99.99 per household annually. The software is downloaded -- and later regularly updated -- from a Microsoft data center. The license lets the buyer install the suite on up to five Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs or tablets, and Mac OS computers. Multiple people in the household can use the suite, each with his or her own account.

The perpetual license version, called Office Home & Student 2013, can be installed on only one Windows or Mac OS computer. It costs $139.99. By comparison, Office Home & Student 2010 costs $149.99 for one household, and includes the right to install the software on up to three PCs.

Both Office Home & Student 2013 and Office 365 Home Premium come with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

However, Office 365 Home Premium includes other goodies, like 20GB of online storage in SkyDrive, 60 Skype world calling minutes per month, Publisher, Access and Outlook. Office Home Premium is available in 162 markets and 21 languages.

Microsoft is also announcing the availability of Office 365 University, which is for university students, faculty and staffers, and can be installed on up to two Windows or Mac OS computers for a $79.99 four-year subscription. It includes the same features and components as Office 365 Home Premium.

With the subscription model, Microsoft is moving away from the historical three-year release cycle of Office, and focusing instead on updating the suite regularly and pushing the changes down to users via the Internet.

"This is the new generation of Office, where it is a service first," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said back in July, when the company released the public beta of this new Office suite.

However, it should be noted that with Office 365 Home Premium most of the software still resides locally on users' machines. In that sense, it's not like its competitor Google Apps, whose applications are hosted on Google data centers and accessed by end users via browsers.

Microsoft does have a scaled-down version of Office that is web-hosted and accessed via browsers called Office Web Apps. Access to it is included as part of Office 365 Home Premium because it is part of SkyDrive.

Office Home & Student 2013 and Office 365 Home Premium have been redesigned to work best with the new tile-based Windows 8 interface, which is optimized for touch screens like those found in tablets but can also be used with keyboards and mice. Along the way, Microsoft has earned applause from analysts and reviewers for simplifying the suite's user interface, which in the past has been criticized for being cluttered and confusing.

Many improvements in the applications themselves have also been well received, including a "read mode" in Word designed to enhance the reading experience, and a PDF "reflow" capability for opening and editing PDF files. Excel's user experience has been made more friendly, and more powerful data analysis tools have been added.

Although Office 365 Home Premium isn't fully cloud-hosted nor browser-based, it is tightly integrated with SkyDrive, so that users are able to save files online. The suite also lets users save their settings and preferences to the cloud and synchronize them across different computers. There is also a feature called Office on Demand that lets users stream a full version of Office on the fly to PCs they don't own for use during one-time sessions.

Microsoft's Roll had no news to share regarding the possibility of a full Office version for iOS devices. He reiterated that Microsoft has developed individual SharePoint, SkyDrive, OneNote and Lync iOS applications, and that Office Web Apps can be accessed via any browser, including Safari on iPads.

Microsoft plans to begin selling the business editions of the new Office at the end of February, and will have full details then about those products.

It previously announced that Office 365 Small Business Premium will cost $149.99 per employee per year, for up to 25 employees. Each employee will be able to install the suite on up to five Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs and tablets, and Mac OS computers. Office 365 Small Business Premium includes all the applications in Office 365 Home Premium plus Lync Online and InfoPath, as well as Exchange Online -- shared calendars, 25GB mailboxes with virus and spam protection -- and SharePoint Online, which includes 10GB of cloud storage overall plus 500MB per user and tools to create websites.

Meanwhile, the perpetually-licensed Office Home & Business 2013 and Office Professional 2013, will cost $219.99 and $399.99, respectively. They include the same applications as Home & Student 2013 but they add Outlook, and Office Professional 2013 also includes Publisher and Access.

The company hasn't offered new pricing information for the new Office 365 suites for large companies. Like Office 365 Small Business Premium, the new Office 365 suites for enterprises will be based on the new 2013 versions of Exchange, Lync and SharePoint. The existing Office 365 suites for SMBs and enterprises are based on the 2010 versions of those products. Some existing Office 365 suites also offer the option of buying a full-featured Office 2010 suite via a subscription.

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.

Office 2013 costs just $9.95 for some

Microsoft today added Office 2013 to the Home Use Program (HUP), which lets employees of some companies and organizations buy the new suite for $9.95.

The deal had been tipped previously by several sources, including a Microsoft HUP marketing portal, which yesterday noted that promotional materials would be available to volume licensees on Jan. 17.Vanderbilt University had also told its faculty and staff that Office 2013 would be hit HUP no later than the middle of this month.

Enterprises and organizations with Software Assurance (SA) plans can enable HUP for employees, who register for the discounted copy of Office 2013 using their work email address and a program code obtained from their IT department. SA is an annuity-like program where firms pay Microsoft set fees per license over a multi-year span for the right to upgrade to any new versions of a particular product.

For $9.95, employees can download Office Professional Plus 2013, a volume license-only edition that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath and Lync.

Alternately, workers can purchase Office for Mac Home & Business 2011 for $9.95. That edition includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Software obtained through HUP is intended for use on workers' home PCs or Macs, and its use is tied to the company's or organization's continued SA payments.

Employees can obtain either Office Professional Plus for Windows or Office for Mac 2011, but not both. They can also purchase the suite on physical media for an additional $12; that DVD includes both the 32- and 64-bit editions and can be used to reinstall Office after, for instance, a hard drive disaster or a change of machines.

Those who had previously purchased an older copy of Office through HUP -- say, Office Professional Plus 2010 -- must again pay the $9.95 fee to buy Office 2013 as an upgrade.

The appearance of Office 2013 on HUP is another clue that the retail launch of the new suite is imminent. Based on previous Office release schedules, Computerworld has forecast a late-January or very early-February introduction.

As an aside, Vanderbilt University also said that it expected Microsoft to release an upgraded edition of Office for Mac -- the school called it "Office 2014" -- "during the second half of 2014." Previously, Microsoft has declined to comment on a timetable for the next iteration of Office on OS X.

Microsoft has published more information about HUP in a comprehensive online FAQ.

Microsoft today added Office 2013 to its Home Use Program, which lets workers pay $9.95 for a copy of the new suite.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.

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