Facebook to Get More Social, McAfee Crashes PCs
The travel industry wasn't the only one affected by the volcano that erupted in Iceland. Mobile-phone vendors and suppliers adjusted shipping methods to get handsets from Asia to Europe. Some McAfee corporate clients most likely cursed the company after a security update crashed the computers of hundreds of thousands of users. If you're a financial and technology wonk, then read on for highlights on this week's earnings reports from major IT vendors. Facebook's efforts to make the Web more social may result in some lost user privacy. But perhaps the site should bolster its security first. A hacker claims to have the log-in information to more than 1 million accounts, a security research company said.
Fri, April 23, 2010
IDG News Service — The travel industry wasn't the only one affected by the volcano that erupted in Iceland. Mobile-phone vendors and suppliers adjusted shipping methods to get handsets from Asia to Europe. Some McAfee (MFE) corporate clients most likely cursed the company after a security update crashed the computers of hundreds of thousands of users. If you're a financial and technology wonk, then read on for highlights on this week's earnings reports from major IT vendors. Facebook's efforts to make the Web more social may result in some lost user privacy. But perhaps the site should bolster its security first. A hacker claims to have the log-in information to more than 1 million accounts, a security research company said.
1. Few answers after McAfee antivirus update hits Intel, others: A buggy antivirus update from security vendor McAfee caused corporate customers' Windows XP machines to endlessly crash and reboot. Hundreds of thousands of machines were affected, including those used by chip maker Intel (INTC), a U.K. IT outsourcing company, and local government and police forces in some U.S. states. McAfee on Thursday attributed the snafu to the update misidentifying a Windows file as a virus.
2. Facebook wants the Web's default to be social: Facebook used its developer conference to announce application development platform changes that either make the Web more social or decrease user privacy, depending on your perspective. Facebook and other Web sites will integrate user information and use this data to offer a more personalized Web experience. A person visiting a Facebook partner site would see content based on the preferences previously stated on Facebook. The social-networking site is also releasing iFrame plug-ins that will allow Web developers to place Facebook functions, such as the "Like" button, on their sites, allowing Facebook and its partners to know the type of content a user prefers. Analysts said Facebook could pull off this endeavor, but questioned if the measure would turn off some users over privacy concerns.
3. Phone manufacturers learn to cope with ash cloud: In addition to airlines, the ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcano also affected the IT industry. Some cell phone manufacturers, which ship their products from Asia by plane, developed innovative routing methods after the ash cloud shut down European air space for several days. A Swedish phone retailer had the phones flown to countries with open airports and then used trucks to complete the shipment. A European mobile-phone service provider said the air cargo conundrum hindered the availability of two already popular handsets, while a Taiwanese phone maker said the volcano's overall impact depends on when planes can resume flying in Europe.
