Gmail and Google Apps Finally Leave Beta

Google finally takes its Google Apps suite out of beta - mainly to persuade the enterprise market that it is 'serious'.

By Asavin Wattanajantra

The applications that make up Google Apps – Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk – have finally been taken out of beta for both consumers and enterprise.

The word “beta” is now removed from the product logos for apps like Gmail, which has worn the tag for more than five years.

Google said that it realised having its applications constantly in beta confused some people, especially those who thought of ‘beta’ as being not ready for ‘prime time’ use.

However, it seems that Google’s movements in the enterprise space was the real motivation for the company to get rid of the label, to make sure that it was thought of as a ‘mature’ product suite.

“We’ve come to appreciate the beta tag just doesn’t fit for large enterprises that aren’t keen to run their business on software that sounds like it’s still in the trial phase,” said Google Enterprise product management director Matthew Glotzbach.

“So we’ve focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have now met that mark.”

Glotzbach said that 1.75 million users around the world use Google Apps since it was released for businesses two years ago.

In the UK, the Guardian News and Media group is one of the high-profile organisations that already use Google Apps, which we reviewed earlier in the year.

Google Apps has also has two new features. One is email delegation, which allows IT staff to screen and send others' email.

The other is email retention, which gives administrators the ability to set up policies and comply with regulations, so they can determine what email is purged from the system.

In May, Google Enterprise's Dave Armstrong claimed that Google were well positioned to offer consumer tools better than ones found in the workplace.

Source Content : ITPRO

First Patch for Firefox 3.5

Mozilla has only just released the latest version of Firefox, and the browser needs a fix.
By Stuart Turton

Mozilla has announced its first patch for the recently released Firefox 3.5, as it looks to stamp out persistent bugs in the TraceMonkey rendering engine.

Firefox 3.5.1 is slated for release in mid-July and will include fixes for three significant bugs and "topcrashes" that have shown up since launch. Topcrashes is the term given to any frequently reported crashes within the browser.

Chief among these topcrashes is a problem affecting TraceMonkey, the new JavaScript engine that debuted in Firefox 3.5.

Though considered the browser's headline new feature, TraceMonkey has proved something of a millstone around Firefox's neck and was one of the major causes of its six-month delay.

However, delays are not on the agenda for Firefox 3.5.1: "[The] goal of this release should be a quick turnaround that fixes topcrashes and bugs we almost held ship for," Mozilla wrote in its developer's notes.

Mozilla recorded around 6.5 million downloads of Firefox 3.5 in the first 36 hours of release, a far cry from the 8.3 million downloads of Firefox 3 in its first 24 hours. However, that browser was backed by a huge, if ultimately ill-fated, PR campaign that encouraged so many people to download it the servers crashed under weight of numbers.

Source Content : ITPRO

Could AVG Start Working on The Apple Mac Platform?

Does AVG, well known for its free security software product, look to provide Apple anti-virus?
By Asavin Wattanajantra

Security firm AVG is advertising for a senior developer who is an expert in Mac OS X systems, raising the possibility that it is looking to offer anti-virus for Apple technology.

In a description of the job requirements, the developer would be required to adjust basic system architecture for Mac OS X conditions and port AVG technologies to the Mac OS X environment.

AVG and Apple have not commented by the time of writing on what this job ad could mean, but it recently has become more common for Apple users to encounter the type of malware usually targeted at Windows users.

Apple quietly admits the need for anti-virus software on Macs, while in April security researchers discovered the first Mac botnet, which was created via a trojan infecting pirate downloads of iWork 09.

Only last month, security experts found two new worms targeting the Mac OS X, targeting users who downloaded a Trojan horse after clicking on a video promising hardcore porn.

Source Content : ITPRO

Facebook Trials New Privacy Tools

Facebook has announced it is trialling a system to simplify its privacy settings. By Jennifer Scott

Facebook is simplifying its privacy tools for users of the site.

A blog post from Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, has outlined new features for the dominating social network that will reportedly make it easier to decide which information, if any, gets shared.

Kelly said: “The power to share is the cornerstone of Facebook. Privacy and the tools for tailoring what information is shared with whom are at the heart of trust.”

“That's why in the coming days, we'll be improving privacy on Facebook by launching a series of tests that guide people to new, simpler tools of control and connection.”

Normally every new feature of Facebook asks the user what privacy settings they want but this will now become standardised across the board and be available to see, and adjust, on just one page.

Kelly also promised that overlapping settings will be removed and combined to turn the process into “one decision” rather than several.

It will also launch a “Transition Tool” so each user can confirm what they want their privacy settings to be after the roll out.

These moves follow the launch of a beta last week called the “Publisher Privacy Control” so you can decide how you want each post to be displayed individually every time you chose to post something.

The new privacy features and Transition Tool will be tested by a small group of users over the coming weeks before the final version is rolled out.

Kelly said: “Our goal is to ensure that people understand the changes to our privacy settings and make choices that reflect their comfort level.”

The announcement comes in the same week as the hiring of Richard Allan to lobby the EU government on issues such as privacy.

Facebook got in trouble earlier this year over privacy issues surrounding proposed new terms and conditions from the site but things settled once it put the rules to a vote for its users.

Source Content : ITPRO

Google: Are spammers running out of new ideas?

Spammers might be using old techniques, but that isn’t to say there aren’t new players looking to make money.

By Asavin Wattanajantra

With its latest report suggesting the resurgence of old-style spam attacks, Google has raised the possibility that spammers could be running out of original ideas.

The second quarter of 2009 saw a substantial 53 per cent increase in average spam levels from the first quarter. However, Google said in a blog post that many of the new attacks were simple rehashes of attacks that occurred in the past.

“Like Hollywood, are we now starting to see spam ‘remakes’, based on originals of a few years ago?” asked Amanda Kleha, of the Google message security and archiving team.

For example, on 18 June, Google saw a new attack that released 50 per cent of a day’s spam volume in two hours. Yet Google said it used a simple ‘newsletter’ with malicious links and images inserted in the content, which Kleha said was “old school by today’s spam standard".

Kleha also said Google had seen another ‘retro’ technique reborn in a sudden wave of image spam, which most anti-spam filters have learned to block.

She suggested that it was designed to test the defences of the different spam filters, so that spammers could analyse what subject lines and content had the highest probability of success.

She added: “Another is that there may some new players entering the spam game, following the McColo and 3FN takedowns, and these new players are opening with well-tested techniques.”

Source Content : ITPRO