NetFlipper.com

The problem with being a social-networking site is that, when successful, it can become a part of people’s daily routines. The growing backlash from Facebook users over the site’s new interface shows some of the consequences of disrupting people’s routines.

More than 640,000 comments have filled the Vote on the New Facebook Layout application offered by the company, and many are resoundingly negative. And about 1.7 million Facebook users have joined Petition Against the New Facebook, a new user group. But, as large as these numbers are, they represent only a fraction of the site’s 175 million members.

‘Improved News Feed’

“I dislike it thoroughly,” writes user Cherie Hrynchyshyn in a comment posted Monday morning in the Vote section. “It gives you a lot less features than we used to have and takes much longer to find what you would like.”

Antoni Corone wrote that he has “sooooo many ‘FRIENDS’ that I care very little about keeping up with on a minute-to-minute basis.” And Ricardo Vila-Roger wrote that “it’s not as fun anymore. If I wanted Twitter, I’d have joined it.”

The interface changes were made earlier this month. On the company blog, Facebook’s Peter X. Deng wrote that “we want you to be able to find out everything that is going on in the world around you at any given moment, or shape the stream of information most relevant to you.”

Deng added that “the biggest part of the new home page is your improved News Feed, or the stream of content that’s most relevant to you.”

Competing with Twitter?

Many observers have commented that the changes were designed to capture the kind of immediacy offered by Twitter, with its constant stream of updates.

But Brad Shimmin, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said if Facebook feels “a need to compete with Twitter…

White-hat security experts attending the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver this week have succeeded in exploiting previously unknown vulnerabilities in fully patched versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer 8 and Safari. According to Tipping Point, which sponsored the contest at CanSecWest, only Chrome remained impervious to assaults on Wednesday and Thursday.

The primary goal of the annual Pwn2Own contest is to responsibly unearth new vulnerabilities within computing systems so that the affected vendors can address them, noted TippingPoint, which manages the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) program team responsible for awarding prizes to this year’s winning contestants.

“All winners are asked to sign and agree to the general ZDI nondisclosure agreement, and the bugs will be turned over directly to the affected vendors,” said Terri Forslof, TippingPoint’s manager of security response.

Rock-Star Performance

The contest’s first winner was Charlie Miller, who took down Safari on Mac OS X within two minutes — winning free computing gear and a $5,000 cash prize in the process. Contestant Julien Tinnes also successfully exploited both Firefox and Safari, but “unfortunately his efforts fell outside the contest criteria and therefore could not be rewarded,” Forslof observed.

However, the most impressive performance of the day came from the contestant known simply as Nils — “You know, like ‘Prince’ or ‘Madonna,’” said Forslof. Nils “ran a sleek exploit against IE8, defying Microsoft’s latest built-in protection technologies — DEP (Data Execution Prevention) as well as ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization).” He won $5,000 for his efforts.

Even better, Nils’ successful IE8 exploit was just the warm-up exercise for what turned into a trifecta. He picked up another $5,000 by quickly taking down Apple’s Safari browser, then ended the day with a flourish by cracking Firefox, which boosted his total cash winnings to $15,000.

The Microsoft Security Response Center notified Forslof on Thursday morning that it had…

Longtime PDA manufacturer Palm lost $98 million, or 89 cents a share, in its third fiscal quarter. That’s a substantial increase from its $57 million, or 53 cents a share, loss in the same quarter last year.

“We’re proceeding through a challenging transitional period,” said Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer. “However, our current results shouldn’t overshadow the tremendous progress we’ve made against our strategic goals. We’re poised to usher in a new era at Palm.”

Wall Street wasn’t particularly fazed by the earnings report. Analysts had anticipated the company would fall short of profitability, although not as severely as Colligan reported. Palm share prices were up slightly in afternoon trading.

Vague Palm Plans

Potentially more problematic is that Colligan was unable to say exactly when Palm’s corporate life raft, the eagerly awaited Pre smartphone, will float into Sprint stores. During a conference call to discuss the company’s financial results and upcoming plans, Colligan said Palm planned to “deliver this product into the hands of consumers within the next 15 weeks.”

This lack of specifics could prove problematic for a couple of reasons.

First, expectations for the new device have been high ever since it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The anticipation has eaten into sales of Palm’s existing devices as consumers elect to wait for the new hardware. The longer it takes for the Pre to arrive, the greater the lost sales will be.

Sour Apples?

The second and perhaps greater concern is the changes Apple announced earlier this week for its iPhone operating system. Many of the features Apple is adding to version 3.0 are features that gained oohs and aahs when the Pre’s webOS was deomonstrated at CES. Each day that the Pre is not on shelves is another day closer to the media and consumer frenzy that will…

Fresh out the door, users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 are complaining of glitches one day after the IE8 final build was made available at noon Eastern time on Thursday. Dozens of posters are complaining about printing from Web sites, search functions, and disappearing images.

The browser, which was supposed to make navigating a Web site easier and faster by adding a new favorites bar, address bar, and tabs bar, is instead making the user experience not so easy.

“I have just installed IE8 and still the search option doesn’t work; all I get is a blank line with no search box, so what and where is the problem?” asked Aviramof on Microsoft’s feedback discussion board.

Facebook Problems

A poster writing as Dexus said his toolbar, including all the File menu items, went completely black. And another poster wasn’t happy about a “dragging Facebook applications bug” that had not been fixed. Multiple users complained that they weren’t able to drag photos on their Facebook pages in IE8.

A post by Bessler listed a few problems with the IE8 install. Bessler said the boot-up time doubled, the application used an additional 4GB of hard-drive space, and the calendar was outlined in violet.

Kris Krueger, the test lead for IE8, said that Microsoft fixed many of the top issues identified by beta testers, and those issues were prioritized based on votes by the community.

IE8 is currently available from Microsoft’s main download center as a manual download and on the IE8 page. Microsoft said it plans to begin automatically installing the new browser on machines running IE6 or IE7 in the future.

Requests for information from Microsoft weren’t returned in time for publication.

Losing, Then Gaining, Market Share

Microsoft needed to get this release right, as the software giant’s browser was under scrutiny for losing market share. According to Net Applications, which…

The video-game industry is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise grim economic environment. According to figures compiled by market research firm NPD Group, sales of games and hardware were 10 percent higher in February compared to a year before, bringing in a robust $1.47 billion in revenue.

That good news follows a similar increase in January, when U.S. retailers reported a 13 percent rise. Altogether, the industry has generated nearly $3 billion in sales in the first two months of this year.

In an e-mail to media late Thursday, NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier said that despite the tough economy, “the U.S. video-game industry continues to post strong year-over-year comps. Unit sales increased even more than dollar sales did, reflecting a slightly lower average retail price for all categories as compared to last year.”

Wii Remains Ahead

The leader of the pack in the game-console battle once again was Nintendo, which sold a remarkable 753,000 Wiis in February alone. The company was also strong in the handheld market, selling 588,000 DS devices.

Microsoft finished in second place for the month, moving 391,000 Xbox 360 units, while Sony once again brought up the rear with 276,000 PlayStation 3 sales.

Taken together, hardware sales increased slightly more than the video-game sector as a whole, rising 11 percent over the same period last year.

Sony’s solid position at the back of the console pack has lent credibility to rumors that the company is planning a price reduction (estimated to be $100 off the PS3′s $399 price) to regain market share. News on whether the company will go through with a price drop and how much it will be is expected at the end of next week.

America Getting in Shape?

Nintendo also took top honors in the software segment — the Wii Fit with Balance Board sold 644,000…

After all the controversy about unlocking Apple’s iPhones, AT&T has made it moot by agreeing to sell iPhone 3Gs without a two-year contract. The company confirmed an Associated Press report that it will begin selling unlocked iPhones next Thursday for $599 and $699, depending on memory configuration.

Consumers can still purchase iPhone 3Gs for $199 and $299 with the two-year contract, or purchase a refurbished model for $149 from AT&T or Best Buy.

An unlocked iPhone has been on AT&T’s agenda since at least July. When Apple released the iPhone 3G last summer, the wireless carrier said it would sell a contract-free iPhone in the U.S., but didn’t give a date. The unlocked iPhone can be used on T-Mobile or AT&T networks, but it’s not compatible with Verizon or Sprint networks.

A Stampede Is Unlikely

AT&T’s announcement brings the iPhone into line with standard procedures for every other phone on the market, according to Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst at Current Analysis. AT&T has always been willing to sell the phones it offers unlocked without a contract if consumers ask and are willing to pay for it, he said, but the iPhone has been an exception.

“One of the reasons AT&T hadn’t sold the iPhone unlocked is because there was a kickback to Apple for service revenues,” Greengart said. “The ability to get an unlocked phone is less of a threat to Apple’s goal of getting carrier distribution in multiple markets with the second-generation iPhone. Consumers can buy iPhones from local carriers in Europe and parts of Asia.”

Despite the availability of an unlocked iPhone, analysts don’t expect a rush on AT&T. That’s because, for most people, there’s no need for an unlocked iPhone. For consumers who intend to use the iPhone in the U.S., it makes better financial sense to allow AT&T to…