China Bans Windows 8 on Government PCs (PCMagazine)

Until further notice, all desktops, laptops, and tablets put to use by central state agencies cannot run Windows 8.

Microsoft is facing another hurdle in its bid to encourage adoption of Windows 8: China has reportedly banned Redmond's latest OS on government computers.

As reported by the official Xinhua news agency, all desktops, laptops, and tablets used by central state agencies must run on an OS other than Windows 8, according to China's Central Government Procurement Center.

"All computer products are not allowed to install [the] Windows 8 operating system," says a translated post on the center's website.

The center did not specify why it was banning Windows 8, but Xinhua said the country wants to avoid losing support for an operating system like it did recently with Windows XP. Last month, Redmond stopped providing support for the aging operating system, despite the fact that many public and private users were still using it.

The ban applies only to government offices; the personal computer market remains unaffected.

"We were surprised to learn about the reference to Windows 8" a Microsoft spokesman told PCMag in an email. "Microsoft has been working proactively with the Central Government Procurement Center and other government agencies through the evaluation process to ensure that our products and services meet all government procurement requirements."

In the wake of the XP support shutdown, some local industry leaders are making a push for a new home-cooked OS, likely based on Linux, Xinhua said. So far, the few Linux-based operating systems already in place in China, including KylinOS and StartOS, have not made much of an impact.

But Redmond will continue to provide Windows 7 to the Chinese government, while the company is also "working on the Windows 8 evaluation with relevant government agencies," the spokesman said.

For more, see PCMag's review of Microsoft Windows 8.1 Update and the slideshow above. Also check out 8 Things You Need to Know About Windows 8.1 Update.

Editor's Note: This story was updated Wednesday with comment from Microsoft.

Hackers Devise Wireless Methods for Stealing ATM Users' PINs (BusinessWeek)

By Jordan Robertson May 08, 2014

Pilfering the personal identification numbers of financial accounts, a potential jackpot for hackers, is tougher to pull off thanks to data encryption and other security technologies. Yet the arms race continues: Hackers are devising more creative methods to intercept PINs at ATMs, the clearest path to instant cash. “It just blows you away how sophisticated these folks are in thinking this stuff up,” says Bryan Sartin, director of the team at Verizon Communications (VZ) that investigates data breaches.

Schemes to steal PINs from ATMs and similar machines now include Hollywood-style corporate espionage, Sartin says. Crooks have long fitted ATMs and gas pumps with phony number pads and card readers to retrieve debit card PIN data. That was a risky approach, because they had to set up the equipment and then come back to remove it without getting caught. Now, with banks using wireless Internet connections to monitor ATM cash flow and update software, hackers can filch PINs remotely, according to a Verizon report. Fraudsters are also taking an Ocean’s Eleven approach—getting jobs with technical-support companies that give them access to ATMs, then installing malware that can transmit PIN data to an e-mail address or a phone.

Regulators at the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council warned in April that the ATMs of small and midsize banks are preferred targets for criminals who hack bank Web pages to boost ATM withdrawal limits and then clean out people’s accounts. Remote hacks of Web-connected ATMs are a fast-growing problem, says Avivah Litan, an analyst at researcher Gartner. In March, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced charges against 17 people in an alleged skimming scheme that the FBI says stretched from Bulgaria to Chicago.

STORY: Iranian Hackers, Getting More Sophisticated, Target U.S. Defense Companies

The memory chips and transmitters that enable PIN hacking are also getting thin and light enough to avoid setting off security equipment that card companies have installed at retail stores in the past few years, says David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, a newsletter focused on the payment industry. Often, the hackers’ gear can’t be detected by the software that remotely monitors the weight of point-of-sale terminals, Robertson says: “They’ve done it in a way that suggests a very serious effort to try to crack this industry.”

Although it’s tough to estimate the total lost to these attacks, the U.S. Secret Service estimated annual losses from ATM skimming at more than $1 billion in 2008, its most recent published figure. Sartin says U.S. companies were frequently the targets of the 130 skimming breaches his team studied from last year for its report.

In part, Robertson says, that’s because U.S. consumers carry antiquated magnetic-stripe cards that are more vulnerable to PIN capture than cards with RFID chips, which verify that the original card is present for every transaction. “There’s nothing about PINs in 2014 that’s different than PINs in 1994,” he says. “ATMs are in need of even more defense.”

STORY: The First Windows XP Security Problem Microsoft Won't Fix

The bottom line: Hackers are taking advantage of wirelessly connected ATMs and other card readers to pull off smoother PIN data thefts.

Robertson is a reporter for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.

Fast, Furious & Safe? Porsches and Other Elite Cars Don't Get Crash-Testing (BusinessWeek)

By Kyle Stock                              May 13, 2014

First responders gather evidence near the wreckage of the crash involving Paul Walker, Roger Rodas, and a Porsche Carrera GT on Nov. 30, 2013

The death of Fast and Furious film star Paul Walker has veered into the courts. The widow of the driver in the incident sued Volkswagen’s Porsche division on Monday claiming design flaws in the 2005 Carrera GT caused the fatal November accident.

The civil lawsuit filed by Kristine Rodas, the wife of driver Roger Rodas, makes nine claims against the automaker, including false advertising and wrongful death. Rodas alleges that the suspension system failed before it careened off the road and argues that the Carrera GT lacks a proper crash cage and a fuel tank designed to contain spills.

Her lawsuit also disputes an investigation by police agencies and Porsche that found the car was going at least 80 miles per hour when it crashed. “Speed and speed alone” was the problem, according to the report. Rodas contends it was going far slower. Porsche did not immediately respond to questions about the lawsuit on Tuesday.

STORY: Volkswagen Pockets $23,000 When You Buy That New Porsche

To be sure, the car in question is a powerful machine—that’s its raison d’etre. Its 10 cylinders generate 605 horsepower and can propel the vehicle at 205 miles per hour. The deceased likely appreciated the performance, no matter what speed they were traveling at the time of the crash. Walker and Mr. Rodas were partners on a car-racing team and, according to the complaint, Mr. Rodas owned 5 to 10 Porsches at any given time.

The equation for a sports car is not complicated: engine – weight = speed. Safety features often fall into the weight category. Airbags, for instance, typically weigh between 5 and 8 pounds—tiny numbers that add up quickly if the units are going in dashboards, roof pillars, and door panels. Reinforcing steel is even heavier. What’s more, aggressive drivers often customize cars, stripping out certain features after purchase.

The crashed Carrera GT did, in fact, have dual front airbags and supplemental safety bars, offset by Porsche engineers with that powerful alloy engine block and a hair-trigger ceramic composite clutch. The car’s carbon-threaded chassis weighed only 220 pounds. Was it a safe car? Not really if compared with a Volvo wagon. But it wasn’t particularly reckless compared to other road rockets costing more than $300,000.

STORY: In Germany, the Company Car Is a Porsche

Whether the Carrera GT carrying Walker and Rodas malfunctioned is a different question. Ultimately, the people who buy Porsches and other high-end vehicles have to take the manufacturer’s word on questions of safety. These vehicles usually don’t have an accepted measure of crash safety. The two U.S. groups that carry out extensive crash-testing—the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety—rate only vehicles that sell in relatively high volumes, and the European New Car Assessment Programme doesn’t crunch Porsches either.

Cost is a major factor. The Euro NCAP pays for some of the cars it tests and allows manufacturers to “sponsor” certain other models. NHTSA and IIHS, meanwhile, make a point of buying every car they test, which makes the return on a Porsche review pretty crummy considering the limited number of buyers. Ironically, the driving masses who can’t afford such an opulent ride have far more assurances about the safety of their more mundane vehicles.

Now that Porsche is gaining a bit of momentum with mainstream consumers thanks to two models starting around $50,000—the Boxster and the tiny Macan SUV— Volkswagen’s blue-chip brand may make it onto the crash-test list before too long.

STORY: Tesla's 2014 Model S Keeps Its Five-Star U.S. Safety Rating

Stock is an associate editor for Businessweek.com. Twitter: @kylestock

With Big Obstacles Ahead, Tesla Still Isn't Checking Its Rear View (BusinessWeek)

By Kyle Stock  May 08, 2014

Tesla (TSLA) has a number of fairly huge challenges ahead. It has to build out a worldwide network of charging stations, entirely change the way cars are sold, produce a crossover SUV from scratch, and build a giant factory to crank out batteries that are 30 percent more efficient than anything else on the market.

One thing, however, the company doesn’t appear to be the slightest bit concerned about: Whether people will stop buying its cars.

That’s typically what keeps most car executives up at night. All the other stuff—the cost of building materials, dealership infrastructure, exchange rates—falls a little further down the list of worries.

STORY: Five Models That Will Matter at the New York Auto Show

But Elon Musk argues that traditional supply/demand forces don’t apply to his baby car company. On a conference call yesterday, Musk spent more time talking about door gaskets on Tesla’s coming Model X than he did about any threat from BMW (BMW:GY) or Cadillac (GM), or the possibility that the vector for Tesla fever would narrow.

Here’s the guiding principle of Teslanomics as explained by Musk: “Deliveries and demand are not the same thing for Tesla. They are for other car companies, but not for Tesla.”

Translation: Tesla will keep selling cars as fast as it can make them. The sky’s the limit, particularly in China, where Musk says people are waiting up to five months for delivery of their sleek sedans.

STORY: Tesla Maneuvers Another Store Into Ohio—and Leaves Roadblocks for Rivals

Most notably, Musk didn’t mention BMW’s i8, a carbon-fiber spaceship that runs on both a battery and a tiny, 3-cylinder combustion engine. When it tears out of dealerships next month, the i8 is expected to get as much as 135 miles per gallon. Anyone who spends $136,000 on a such a machine likely won’t mind that a trip from Boston to Washington, D.C., will cost about $13 more than it would in a Tesla.

There was also no discussion of the Mercedes (DAI:GR) B-class Electric Drive, which journalists in California got to drive for the first time last week. Its range is less than half of Tesla’s, and it doesn’t look nearly as sexy, but with a starting sticker price of $41,450, it’s also almost half the cost.

We get it. Musk is right, nothing is really like a Tesla: a long-range, all-electric luxury vehicle at a price comparable to gas-powered counterparts. But by the time Musk builds his giant battery factory and rolls out its next model—by the time Tesla plans to be cruising, finally, into the black—something may be pretty close.

STORY: Test Driving an iTesla: What Apple and Elon Musk Can Do for Each Other

Stock is an associate editor for Businessweek.com. Twitter: @kylestock

Microsoft abrirá el centro más grande de EE.UU en Miami (Mercado de Dinero)

Lunes, Mayo 5 2014 11:44 | Escrito por Carolina Vélez

El ‘gran’ Microsoft se prepara para abrir un centro de innovación de última generación en la ciudad de Miami, siendo esta la primera instalación de este tipo en los Estados Unidos.

El anuncio de este nuevo centro de innovación, fue hecho durante la conferencia eMerge America Techweek.

La empresa trabaja en conjunto con autoridades de la ciudad y del condado para que el proyecto inicie a mediados de año.

El centro se ubicará en el Downtown de la ciudad, en el instituto para empresas Venture Hive y ofrecerá servicios relacionados con tecnología para nuevas empresas locales, gobiernos, estudiantes y profesores.

El anuncio fue hecho durante la conferencia eMerge America Techweek, con el fin que inversionistas, empresas tecnológicas y compañías globales se unan a este esfuerzo por promover la tecnología y la innovación en la región.

Microsoft cuenta con unos 100 centros de innovación distribuidos en 80 países alrededor del mundo
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Japan Prepares to Enter the Arms Market (BusinessWeek)

By Bruce Einhorn and Matthew Philips                                    May 01, 2014

Keenly aware of the trouble that came with ambitious generals and an expanding munitions industry, the Japanese government has long banned most weapons exports. That policy helped buttress Japan’s pacifism, but it also hindered the growth of the country’s defense industry. Because it couldn’t sell parts overseas, Japanese defense companies missed out on chances to develop tanks, fighter jets, and other weaponry with the U.S. The ban “has resulted in an isolated Japanese defense industry that produces very small quantities at very high cost,” says Lance Gatling, president of Nexial Research, a defense consulting company in Tokyo.

Japan’s Asian neighbors have taken advantage of its absence from the export scene. South Korea exported $3.4 billion worth of arms in 2013, up from $1.2 billion in 2010. China last year passed France and Britain to become the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, behind only the U.S., Russia, and Germany, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

In April, the government of Japan’s conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, lifted a ban from the 1970s that restricted arms exports. The country’s contentious relations with China, which claims Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, made getting rid of the ban politically much easier for Abe, even though a recent poll suggests most Japanese citizens don’t support loosening export restrictions. The old policy “was too strict,” says Tsuneo Watanabe, director of policy research and senior fellow at the Tokyo Foundation. “The voice of pacifism is getting lower because of tensions with China.”

STORY: U.S. Defense Contractors Focus on Foreign Buyers

Abe’s policy change is part of a larger strategic shift. Since 1945, the Japanese have focused on the defense of their home islands. The task of policing the rest of Asia fell to the U.S. Now, Japan sees itself as an active participant in the region’s effort to thwart China’s expansion. It considers the Southeast Asian states as potential partners in this stand-off with China, and it wants to be able to sell arms to those countries, too.

The opportunities for Japan to grab market share won’t be in building entire weapons systems such as jet fighters or aircraft carriers. Japanese companies have a competitive edge in building high-end components, particularly electronics. “You may have fighter jets and warships from different manufacturers, but the electronics inside those ships and planes have to be able to communicate and share data with each other,” says Robbin Laird, a defense industry consultant with International Communications & Strategic Assessments in Arlington, Va. “What you really care about are the electronics inside, and that’s what Japan does best.”

One of the most important tests of Japan’s new role will be the F-35 program, the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons project ever. The country is buying 42 ofLockheed Martin’s (LMT) joint strike fighters. Almost all will be assembled at aMitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011:JP) plant being finished in Nagoya. Japan now has the chance to make components for the F-35 that other countries may be able to use.

VIDEO: Inside Japan's Medieval Fight Club

One interesting opportunity for Japanese arms exports is India, now the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. arms and possibly the world’s largest market for weapons over the next 20 years. The country has had bad experiences buying Russian and French weapons. The Japanese could compete, especially if they do better by the Indians, says Dean Cheng, an East Asian military analyst for the Heritage Foundation. “It sounds funny, but customer service matters just as much when you’re buying weapons as it does when you’re buying a car.”

STORY: An Arms Race Gets Into Gear and Other Predictions for Asia in 2014

The bottom line: Japan plans to be a competitor in the crowded global arms industry, but China and Korea have a big head start.

Einhorn is Asia regional editor in Bloomberg Businessweek’s Hong Kong bureau. Follow him on Twitter @BruceEinhorn.

Philips is an associate editor for Bloomberg Businessweek in New York. Follow him on Twitter@matthewaphilips.

Gowex refuerza extiende sus redes WiFi en Miami (Mercado de Dinero)

Viernes, Abril 25 2014                 Escrito por Carolina Vélez


Gowex, la empresa líder en redes WiFi empezará a ofrecer este servicio gratuito a la ciudad de Miami a partir del mes de mayo.

Lo que pretende con esta estrategia es reforzar su presencia en Estados Unidos, después de haberse ubicado en Nueva York y San Francisco en 2013.

La red española cubrirá los principales distritos de la ciudad y las calles más emblemáticas de la capital, lo que en números suma 400 puntos de red gratuita para los locales y turistas que buscan una opción de comunicarse.

Con este acuerdo, la firma ha señalado que, al igual que en San Francisco o Nueva York, la clave para el desarrollo de Gowex en Miami será la colaboración entre diferentes agentes y socios locales, tanto públicos como privados, que “fortalecen” el modelo de negocio y las vías de ingreso de Gowex.

Su expansión internacional, pretende llegar a las 300 principales ciudades del mundo para 2020.