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October 27, 2004
IDC sees continuing decline in PDA market
By Tom KrazitIf a handheld device doesn't have voice capabilities, a growing number of users around the world aren't interested, according to IDC. For the third straight quarter, shipments of handheld devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) fell as some prominent vendors decided to pull back from the market, IDC said Wednesday. Worldwide shipments totaled 2.1 million units in the third quarter, down 8.7 percent from last year's third quarter. IDC defines a handheld as a device that does not include telephony but may include Internet connectivity. This includes devices traditionally known as PDAs but excludes a growing category of devices known as smart phones, such as PalmOne Inc.'s new Treo 650.
PDAs are in decline as mobile phone vendors have substantially improved the personal information management (PIM) capabilities of their phones. Most people don't want to carry two separate devices to manage their personal contacts and make phone calls, which has led to increased interest in devices such as PalmOne's Treo 650 and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s iPaq h6315. Attendees at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association's Wireless IT and Entertainment show in San Francisco this week flocked to booths from PalmOne and HP that had the new smart phones on display.
Vendors who fail to evolve their handheld devices beyond the core PIM capabilities will not succeed in this market unless they are willing to tolerate low margins, said David Linsalata, an analyst with IDC, in a release Wednesday. Companies such as Dell Inc. and Mitac International Corp. have made inroads into the market with low-cost, low-margin devices, but companies such as PalmOne, with higher cost products, have seen declines in their shipments.
PalmOne remains the overall shipment leader with 34.7 percent of the market, but its shipments declined 12.7 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. HP's non-phone iPaq devices bucked the overall trend in recent quarters with shipment growth of 11.7 percent in the third quarter, putting it in second place. HP has steadily gained market share in recent quarters as PalmOne has devoted more resources to getting its Treo smart phone products up and running.
Sony Corp. decided this year to pull back from the international PDA market to focus on the Japanese market. Sony had long occupied the third position in this market, but its shipments fell a staggering 81.5 percent in the third quarter. Even with that decline, the company still made the top five vendors worldwide, ranking fifth.
Dell Inc. ranked third on the worldwide list and Mitac was fourth. Both companies are relatively recent entrants into the market and are gaining share with low-cost handhelds, IDC said.
IDC, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, is a division of International Data Group Inc., parent company of The Industry Standard.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 11:32 PM
October 25, 2004
AOL survey finds rampant online threats, clueless users
By Paul RobertsA survey conducted by Internet service provider America Online Inc. (AOL) found that 20 percent of home computers were infected by a virus or worm, and that various forms of snooping programs such as spyware and adware are on a whopping 80 percent of systems. Despite that, more than two thirds of home users think they are safe from online threats. The survey of home computers and their owners reveals a gap between users' perceptions and the prevalence actual threats on the Internet. That gap causes many home computer users to forgo security precautions such as antivirus and firewall software, and could pose a threat to the integrity of sensitive personal and financial information, which survey respondents said they are increasingly using their computer to manage, according to a statement released by AOL.
The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a nonprofit group that seeks to raise public awareness of cybersecurity issues, also helped conduct the survey. Technical experts examined 329 home computers connected to the Internet with either broadband or dial-up connections in September and October. Participants were interviewed about their awareness of online threats. Following their interview, AOL technicians examined the firewall and antivirus settings on participants' computers and looked for virus infections and for the presence of spyware and adware.
More than 70 percent of those who participated in the survey falsely believed they were safe from viruses and online threats, even though almost 20 percent of those were currently infected by a virus and two-thirds (63 percent) acknowledged being infected in the past, the survey found.
Spyware was an even more common and under-appreciated problem than viruses, the survey showed. Spyware or adware programs were found on 80 percent of the computers analyzed, with an average of 93 spyware or adware components on the infected machines.
Spyware is a broad term that describes a category of programs, such as keylogging software, that illegally monitors a computer user's activity, often capturing and transmitting that information. Adware describes legally installed software, including Web page "cookies," that track user behavior such as Web surfing, often for the benefit of online advertisers.
About 90 percent of those whose computers were infected with spyware didn't know about the infections and didn't know what spyware programs are, the survey showed.
In addition to widespread ignorance about computer threats, the AOL technicians found lax security on many of the systems they inspected. While 85 percent of those surveyed installed antivirus software on their machine, 67 percent of those surveyed lacked up-to-date antivirus signatures that could stop the latest threats, AOL said.
A majority of users, 67 percent, also go without firewall software that can protect Internet-connected machines from attacks, AOL said.
Confusion about the purpose and necessity of security programs may be part of the problem. A majority of users said they did not understand what a firewall is or how it works, and 58 percent of those interviewed couldn't explain the difference between a firewall and antivirus software, the company said.
Users surveyed also were confused or unaware of the symptoms of infections by spyware and other malicious code. For example, 63 percent of those with pop-up blocking software said they still receive pop-up messages. Around 40 percent of those surveyed reported their Web browser's home page or search results being changed without their permission -- all classic symptoms of spyware or virus infection.
While those sobering numbers appear to suggest that security software makers aren't reaching technically unsophisticated users, an NCSA representative said that user "complacency" was the biggest problem.
"A lot of people believe it's not going to happen to them," said Ken Watson, president of the NCSA. "It's like thinking that you're never going to get in a car wreck either, or get sick -- they have the same attitude towards computer security. Computer security is a shared responsibility."
Computer software makers are doing their part to make software products more secure, he said, citing the recent security improvements in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Service Pack 2 release.
The NCSA is backed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and leading security software makers including Microsoft, RSA Security Inc., Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc. The group published a list of 10 cybersecurity tips on their Web site and is hoping that news of the survey prompts more users to visit the site and follow its guidance on protecting Internet-connected machines, Watson said.
Better security on home machines is becoming more urgent as more individuals use computers for managing sensitive information such as financial and health data, AOL said.
As with the introduction of any new, widely adopted technology, increased computer use requires users to become more threat savvy, Watson said.
"It's like the introduction of cars and new roads in the last century -- people need to use them wisely and safely," he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 02:28 PM
October 19, 2004
US states using e-voting in Nov. 2 election
| State | # of counties using e-voting | Systems in use | Comments |
| Alabama | 3 out of 67 counties | Shouptronic 1242 | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Arkansas | 5 out of 75 counties | Shouptronic 1242, Microvote | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| California | 10 out of 58 counties | Diebold AccuVote-TS, Sequoia AVC Edge, ES&S iVotronic, Hart Intercivic eSlate | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE in this election but voters must be given paper ballot alternative to using DRE. |
| Colorado | 7 out of 64 counties | Hart Intercivic eSlate, Sequoia AVC Advantage, Diebold AccuVote-TS, ES&S iVotronic | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Delaware | 3 of 3 counties | Danaher ELECTronic 1242 | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| District of Columbia |  | Sequoia AVC Edge | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Florida | 15 out of 67 counties | ES&S iVotronic, Sequoia AVC Edge, | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE, recounts on touchscreens will not be possible, in violation of state law mandating them in close elections. |
| Georgia | 159 out of 159 counties | Diebold AccuVote-TS | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Indiana | 43 out of 92 counties | MicroVote MV-464, Voting Technologies VotWare, ES&S iVotronic, Diebold AccuVote-TS | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Iowa | 16 out of 99 counties | MicroVote, Fidlar EV 2000, ES&S iVotronic, MicroVote, Sequoia AVC | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Kansas | 4 out of 105 counties | Diebold and MicroVote | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE; paper available if malfunctions. |
| Kentucky | 113 out of 120 counties | Danaher ELECTronic 1242, MicroVote MV-464 | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Louisiana | 14 out of 64 parishes | Sequoia AVC Advantage, ES&S iVotronic | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Maryland | Statewide | Diebold AccuVote-TS | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Michigan | 1 out of 83 counties | MicroVote MV-464 | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Mississippi | 4 out of 82 counties | Shouptronic 1242, ES&S iVotronic, | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Nevada | Statewide | Sequoia AVC Edge | Has voter-verifiable paper trail; state chose Sequoia partly because paper trail was offered. |
| New Jersey | 16 out of 21 counties | Sequoia AVC Advantage, Shouptronic 1242, ES&S iVotronic | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE; though one county had wanted them, they could not be implemented in time. |
| New Mexico | About 30 of 33 counties | Sequoia, Danaher and ES&S | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE. State requires that machines aren't networked. |
| North Carolina | 40 of 100 counties | Sequoia AVC, Microvote MV-464 and Infinity, Danaher ELECTronic 1242, Unilect Patriot, Hart Intercivic eSlate, ES&S iVotronic, Diebold AccuVote TS, Fidlar Doubleday EV 2000 | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE. Hasn't been determined by state board. Waiting for federal voting standards prior to implementing anything new. |
| Ohio | 7 of 88 counties use DRE | ES&S iVotronic, Sequoia AVC Advantage, Danaher, MicroVote MV 464 | Ohio has mandated a paper audit trail for DRE machines by 2006. No system currently in use has voter-verifiable paper trail, though some older systems, like the MV-464 have internal printers that record ballot information for each machine. |
| Pennsylvania | 8 of 67 counties use DRE | Danaher, Sequoia, and Unilect | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| South Carolina | 36 of 46 counties use DRE -- 85 percent of registered voters. | ES&S iVotronic, Danaher ELECTronic 1242, Microvote 464, Microvote Infinity, Unilect | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE. iVotronic has three different memory locations where vote data is stored. |
| Tennessee | 49 of 95 counties use DRE | Danaher, Microvote 464 and Microvote Infinity, Diebold AccuVote-TS, ES&S iVotronic, Elex Voting Solutions. | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Texas | 13 of 254 counties use DRE | Diebold AccuVote-TS, ES&S iVotronic, Hart Intercivic eSlate | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Virginia | 46 of 134 counties and independent cities use DRE | Sequoia AVC Advantage and AVC Edge, Hart Intercivic eSlate, ES&S, Unilect, Advanced Voting Solutions | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| West Virginia | 1 of 55 counties use DRE | ES&S iVotronic | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE |
| Wyoming | 1 of 23 counties use DRE | Danaher ELECTronic 1242 | No voter-verifiable paper with DRE Wyoming is waiting for federal standards on security, etc. to make its decision. Most counties use punch card or lever machines. |
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 11:56 PM
October 14, 2004
Study: Mobile phone use increases brain tumor risk
Ten or more years of mobile phone use can dramatically increase the risk of developing a benign tumor on the auditory nerve, according to a study conducted by the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
The Institute found that the risk of developing the tumors, known as acoustic neuromas, almost doubled for persons who started using their mobile phone at least 10 years before diagnosis. What's more, the risk increase was confined to the side of the head where the phone was usually held, according to results of the study released Wednesday.
The study of around 150 acoustic neuroma patients and 600 healthy control patients could be used to confirm long-held fears that cell phones are bad for users' health.
Researchers pointed out, however, that only analogue phones had been in use for more than a decade at the time the study was conducted, and that they could not determine if the same results would apply to the long-term use of digital phones.
The institute's report was released as part of a larger international study known as Interphone, coordinated by the World Health Organization's cancer research institute. The results of the Swedish study need to be confirmed in additional studies before final conclusions can be drawn, the researchers noted.
The results, although preliminary, are concerning. In addition to a doubling of acoustic neuroma risk for long-term cell phone users, researchers said that when they took into account the side of the head, they found that the risk was almost four times higher on the side where the cell phone was normally used.
Acoustic neuromas usually grow over a period of years before being diagnosed and occur in less than one adult per 100,000, per year, the researchers said.
The Interphone study will take into account the study on acoustic neuromas, along with a number of other types of brain cancer in assessing the risk of low-level exposure to radio frequency magnetic fields. The research is being concentrated in countries that have the longest and highest use of mobile phones, such as Sweden, the U.K., Denmark, Norway and Germany.
By Scarlet Pruitt
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 02:08 PM