Tag Archives: Computerworld
First $1,337 Prize Given Out by Chromium Team
Posted on 19. Mar, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 
0 Comments
As mentioned previously, the Chromium team is giving out cash awards to researchers who are able to find vulnerabilities in the browser’s software. While most awards given out are in the $500 range, there is another tier for those who are able to find very serious flaw. Finally, someone has won the top award, getting $1,337 from Google for finding what must be a serious exploit. Although we cannot see what the flaw is because not all browsers have been updated, I’m Sergey Glazunov, who won the award, is happy to be receiving some recognition since most of the time these folks don’t get the appreciation that they deserve.
This is coming at a good time, and there is no doubt that the recent rash of updates to Chrome’s stable build has to do with the upcoming Pwn2Own contest which pits hackers against browsers and operating systems in a contest to see who can compromise a system the fastest. Charlie Miller, one of the past winners, has gone on record to say that he thinks Google Chrome is one of the most secure browsers along with Windows 7 being the most secure operating system.
Although it appears that smartphone operating systems will be a big focus of the year’s Pwn2Own, it will still be interesting to see which browsers are the most secure. Computerworld is predicting that Chrome will last the longest which is a promising sign and shows how much effort has been put into a browser that has only been around since 2008.
Report: Tablet Sales Will Top 4 Million in 2010
Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Computerworld is touting a recent report released by ABI Research, Inc. predicts that tablet sales will be over four million this year, and by 2015 will be at 57 million sold per year. That seems to me like a huge number of devices sold in a market that barely exists. Yet.
ABI is defining a tablet as a device that is between five and eleven inches, has wi-fi and video capability. That certainly fits into the Apple iPad and Chrome OS tablet specifications perfectly. The interest in these devices is high, but we shall see whether this amount of tablets are actually sold. The major concern for a tablet is how much in terms of creation you will really be able to do. Without a keyboard or other input devices such as a camera (for now) the iPad along with other low-cost tablets popping up in the news are lacking the tools needed in order to create content for the web and otherwise.
That begs the question: are users going to be hooking up an assortment of other devices to tablets in order to make them function more like a regular PC? If that were the case, it would totally defeat the purpose of even having a tablet in the first place. Of course with Apple, they control the hardware specifications of the iPad, and can limit the number of ports thus the number of accessories that could be attached. Expect to see Google, which has already been adamant about Chrome OS hardware specifications, to do the same thing.
While this technology seems interesting, I’m not completely convinced that a tablet fills a specific need that I have unless it is for quick information retrieval. In that case, the device better be pretty low-cost.
