Facebook adds posts, status updates and more to Graph Search

Facebook's Graph Search is being updated to include more information from the social network. The personalized search engine previously allowed for searching of people, photos, places and interests when it was launched back at the beginning of the year. Now posts from you and your friends as well as status updates can be included in searches allowing you to get even more specific about what you're looking for.

Also included in the update is the ability to search for status updates, photo captions, check-ins and comments. There are various ways in which searches can be used to hone in on the content you're looking for, and natural language searching is the order of the day. Want to see the posts your online contacts have made about Microsoft's latest operating system? Just search for "posts about Windows 8.1 by my friends". Results can be limited by date as well, so you could search for "posts about Nexus 7 from the last month".

As with the previous incarnation of Graph Search, this updated version will not enable you to see content that has not been shared with you. Just as before, the tool respects privacy settings so -- in theory at least -- your searches should only return results that include data that has been shared with you or made publicly available. The announcement comes hot on the heals of another addition to Facebook which makes it possible to edit statuses after they've been posted.

The initial roll out of Graph Search back in January was a beta that gradually spread across the network. This time around, the updated options are only being made available to "a small group of people who currently have Graph Search". Facebook says that improvements will be made based on user feedback.

Test out the tool at the Graph Search page.

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Facebook makes statuses editable… but is this open to abuse?

It's extremely irritating. You change your Facebook status and immediately notice that you've made a stupid spelling mistake. This could come as a result of a slip of the finger, or your phone's autocorrect might be to blame. You could, of course, simply delete the status update and recreate it without errors. But what about if you've already managed to amass dozens of comments that you don’t want to lose?

Now there's no need to fret because Facebook has made it possible to make edits to statuses. At least this is the case if you're using the Android app or the website -- iOS app users will have to wait a little longer for an update This is great news! No more stupid typos! No more statuses that sound like they were written by someone with their eyes closed after an evening of heavy drinking! Or is it such great news?

Just as the ability to edit comments is open to abuse, so is the editability of statuses. It would be perfectly possible to post something innocent as a status update… I don’t know… "I love rainbows". You might well gain a number of likes, and perhaps a few supportive comments. But how will your friend feel when they see that their response of "Yes, they're beautiful, aren’t they?" is now attached to a status that reads "My friends love monkey butts"?

The way the system works at the moment means that someone who leaves a comment on a status is not notified of any changes that may be made to it. Scroll through your timeline to a status that has been edited and you will see a tiny gray label that reads "Edited" -- in fact this is a clickable link that shows you the history of any changes that have been made.

At the moment, the status editing feature is not available to company pages, but there are plenty of businesses who use regular pages to promote themselves. It is here where Facebook users need to take care. There is currently no way of knowing whether your innocuous comment could later be seen to be attached to something offensive. Sure, people will be able to see -- if they bother to dig -- that the status was changed, but is that enough?

It may be businesses that need to take care with the new editing feature. It is not unknown for companies to interact with customers by posting messages on their walls. If a well-known brand becomes accidentally associated with an unsavoury status update, there could be serious repercussions.

Is there an ideal solution? Will you take more care before commenting on posts now you know it could be changed?

Photo Credit: DM7/Shutterstock

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Why iPhone 5s and 5c make sense

Today, third quarter ends, and in about three weeks Apple will reveal during its earnings call smartphone shipments. The data is a lens for truly assessing what iPhone 5s and 5c sales could be during the holidays. Already, complaints are loud and obnoxious across the InterWeb that the fruit-logo company offers little true innovation in either device -- that the magic is gone. I disagree. CEO Tim Cook is smarter than many critics think.

The smartphone market in late 2013 resembles portable music players seven years ago: Rapidly saturating, particularly in mature markets like Europe and the United States and among wealthier purchasers in countries like China, India and Russia. This release is very much about preserving and extending the Apple brand in a slowing sales segment, while preparing for what comes next. That's absolutely the right approach.

Shifting Smartphone Sales

The smartphone market changes as it matures. In a report released today, Juniper Research identifies five smartphone segments and the likelihood that manufacturers other than leaders Samsung and Apple will rise to seize share in, for example, "ultra-low cost smartphones". The premium category, where the South Korean and American companies dominate, has started its slow decline. Juniper predicts that ultra-low cost smartphone shipments will rise from 10 million to emerging markets next year to 200 million in 2018.

Apple has two challenges: Expanding into markets where smartphones haven't yet replaced feature phones and preserving and extending into regions where "ultra-premium" handset sales are slowing. All this, while fighting off the Android Army. During calendar second quarter, Google's mobile OS captured 79 percent smartphone share, based on actual sales, according to Gartner. iOS share fell to 14.2 percent from 18.8 percent a year earlier. Actually, that puts Apple's share where it was same quarter three years earlier.

iPhone is Apple's most-important product, accounting for 51 percent of revenues during calendar second quarter -- that's up from 20 percent four years earlier. However, when adding so-called "halo" sales of other products, the real number is 65 percent or more. So how then to expand and extend iPhone without upsetting the, ah, Apple cart? iPod foreshadows the future and makes sense of the present.

iPod, iKnows

During calendar second quarter 2006, iPod accounted for 34 percent of Apple revenue, up from 31 percent a year earlier -- driven in part by the hugely successful iPod nano, which released autumn 2005. That device was Apple's last major revision in the category, everything that followed refined existing product lines. Rather, with iPhone, the company recast music players as something more.

Then Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced iPhone in January 2007, six months before sales started. "This is a day I've been looking forward to for two-and-a-half years", he told Macworld attendees. "Every once and awhile a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything...Today we're introducing three revolutionary new products. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device". All were the same. "These are not three separate devices. This is one device". iPhone.

Rather than stretch out iPod, Apple subsumed it, rolling core features into something else. The company continued selling the music player, and remains market share leader even today, while offering core capabilities -- and more -- as part of a new category. That's the future Cook and Company should deliver the next release cycle, a device that's more than iPhone. Now isn't the time.

Platform Preparation

Apple would have asked too much of many customers, app developers and other partners by radically changing iPhone and iOS at the same time. The operating system gets the big makeover this release cycle in preparation for what comes next. You can guess what that might be, because it should be more than a phone. Maybe Apple's long-rumored wearable computer is the next thing -- that opens a new category, while iPhone continues, much as iPod did.

Consider the iOS 7 makeover, with focus on flat design, or Apple sticking to 4-inch display when the rest of the market goes larger. Both things could foreshadow a device where screen is even smaller and where flat design is the best motif for it. Like a wearable. I won't guess further, but make a point. If Cook and Company are as smart as I think, there's a fundamentally different Apple device coming next that subsumes iPhone's core capabilities and takes them somewhere else.

Meanwhile, Apple keeps iPhone designs rather staid, focusing on customer experience and emphasizing benefits more appropriate for maturing markets. Many geeks caught up in device specs or those people demanding another Apple revolution miss the point. Color is a benefit. Fashion is very important to many people. How devices are dressed says something about the owners. So for iPhone 5s the big thing is gold and for the new 5c five bold colors.

Brand Building

Brand is Apple's most valuable asset. Today, Interbrand labels Apple the world's most-valuable brand, displacing Coca-Cola. Apple rose from second to first, while Google from fourth to second. For this release cycle, Cook chose to make brand the priority, preserve margins rather than radically cut prices as many arm-chair pundits predicted and give existing (and some new) customers reasons to buy -- color, particularly that gold iPhone.

That's the right thing to do, while seeding the radically changed iOS 7 to market and preparing for what must come next. I'll eat my words, if Apple doesn't deliver something quite unexpected next release cycle -- and fault the company for not doing so.

A word for the regular rabble that poisons BetaNews comments: This post does not contradict "iPhone 5s is a failure", from last week, as some of you will accuse. I purposely look at product launches, among other high-tech doings, from different viewpoints -- a writing approach explained many times previously and ignored by many commenters.

Apple's handling the iPhone 5s and 5c launches warrant the skewing I gave last week. But from a different perspective, the company's larger approach to iPhone in a rapidly changing smartphone market deserves recognition. How much that recognition is deserved depends on what comes next. If Apple stays the course next release cycle, I'm wrong to praise. The company takes great risks holding fast now, as I explain in my book The Principles of Disruptive Design . But on further reflection, I see the sense of iOS 7 as first step to something bigger.

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Symantec battles the ZeroAccess botnet

Information security specialist Symantec has announced on its Security Response blog that it has taken the first steps towards combating the ZeroAccess botnet. The company has "sinkholed" more than half a million bots -- making a serious dent in the number of bots under attacker control. Symantec is actively working with ISPs and CERTs (Computer Emergency Readiness Teams) worldwide to help get infected machines cleaned up.

ZeroAccess has a highly technical and sophisticated infrastructure. It uses a peer-to-peer architecture giving the botnet a high degree of redundancy with no central command and control server. It also uses various advanced methods to survive on infected machines. It uses click-fraud and Bitcoin mining to carry out two revenue generating activities potentially earning millions of dollars a year.

Symantec engineers have been studying ZeroAccess since March which allowed them to identify a weakness that offered a way to sinkhole the botnet. Sinkholing is a technique that uses DNS servers to give out false information preventing infected PCs from communicating with each other. When a new version that addressed this flaw began to roll out at the end of June Symantec decided to act.

"Having seen the changes beginning to roll out, and with a viable plan in place, we were faced with an option: start our operations now or risk losing the initiative. On July 16, we began to sinkhole ZeroAccess infections. This operation quickly resulted in the detachment of over half a million bots and made a serious dent to the number of bots controlled by the botmaster," the blog entry says.

Disrupting peer-to-peer botnets is hard since they're designed to be resilient, but Symantec has shown that it is possible, which is good news for the future. Just how much of an economic impact ZeroAccess has you can see on the infographic below.

Photo Credit: Pavel Ignatov/Shutterstock

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Go straight to the desktop after closing apps in Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 is a massive improvement over its predecessor, and allows you to pretty much ignore the Modern UI if you have no need for it, or Windows apps in general. It lets you boot straight to the desktop now, and the new Apps screen works fine as a Start menu, in my opinion (sure it’s not as good as an actual Start menu, but you soon get used to it).

But just because you rarely use the Modern UI doesn’t mean you won’t ever want to use apps, and if -- like me -- you occasionally leave the desktop and dip into an app or two, you’ll have noticed that when you’ve finished with your apps and close them Windows will return you to the Start screen.

To avoid that, right-click the Taskbar and go to Properties. Click or tap the Navigation tab. Under "Start screen" you’ll see an option that says "When I sign in or close all applications on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start", tick this and the problem will be solved.

From the here you can also display your desktop wallpaper on the Start screen (which makes switching between desktop and Modern UI modes less grating), and select the Apps screen as your default.

There’s also an option which will "List desktop apps first in the Apps view when it’s sorted by category" which I find pretty useful.

It’s little touches like this which make Windows 8.1 more appealing for the desktop user, although the fact you have to spend a while customizing everything to make it less annoying won’t win Microsoft many friends.

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A quarter of businesses to lose competitiveness due to digital incompetence

Digital business incompetence will cause a quarter of firms to lose competitive ranking by 2017, according to research group Gartner. The results of a survey of 151 business decision makers in the second quarter of 2013 show that 90 percent of respondents think that competition for talent will contribute to digital success or failure.

"The next decade will move beyond the notion of using technology to automate businesses and toward positioning technology as revenue builder, market maker and customer finder," says Diane Morello, managing vice president at Gartner. "When companies have those targets in mind, digital business becomes real. The impact of digital business will be undeniable: It will introduce new business models, cause industries to be 'digitally remastered' and change the way that businesses put great minds to work".

A strong digital business strategy doesn't stop at automating tasks, it goes further in order to transform processes and improve customer experiences. In order to exploit this Gartner recommends that CIOs identify key players and learn to orchestrate their talent to build digital expertise.

The quest for digital business expertise provides an opportunity for CIOs and HR executives to create a robust alliance that helps them meet their objectives. Leading-edge CIOs become leading edge because their colleagues in HR and employee development support them.

"Together, CIOs and HR talent executives scour the globe for qualified experts and talented people and bring them into their work streams, no matter their locations or their employment arrangements," says Ms Morello. "Relying solely on tactics of yesterday to find, acquire and develop digital business knowledge, skills and competencies will cause many businesses to fall behind as other businesses advance".

She advises CIOs to focus on hiring, developing and deploying versatile and multi-disciplined teams of people. Once teams are hired, the organization should promote employee engagement in order to make it more attractive to prospective employees and increase talent retention rates throughout the shift toward the digital strategy.

More detailed analysis is available in the report Talent on the Digital Frontier: The Stakes Rise in Digital Business, available from Gartner's website.

Photo Credit: Peter Bernik/Shutterstock

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New Windows 8.1 ad shows off return of the Start button

We asked and Microsoft delivered. The removal of the Start button from Windows 8 was seen by many as a huge mistake on Microsoft's part. We've known for some time that this familiar component of the operating system is to make a comeback, and now Microsoft is showing it off in a new commercial. The latest ads also highlight the ease of switching between desktop and Modern UI modes and the unified experience Microsoft is looking to create across devices.

More than the absence of the Start button perhaps, being thrown in to Modern UI (or Metro as it was at the time) was something that put a lot of people off Windows 8. In the "Windows 8.1 Everywhere" ad, Microsoft tries to get across the idea of choice. Now rather than being a portal to your apps, the Start button is described as the means by which users switch between modes.

There's a strong emphasis on touch -- which makes sense following the launch of the Surface 2 -- and disembodied hands are shown switching desktop mode and rearranging tiles on the start screen (there's still no sign of the Start menu -- you'll have to look elsewhere for that). If there is one thing that Microsoft seems to be really pushing in the ad, it is that Windows 8.1 is more flexible and customizable than its predecessor.

We're not only shown how the Start screen can be customized and how we can skip between desktop modes until our fingers hurt, but also that there is a new way of tiling windows so you can focus on "work, or play, or even both at the same time". But the kicker is that we're meant to take away is that there is a uniform experience across tablets, PCs and Surfaces -- or "one experience for everything in your life". Apart from Windows Phone devices, that is.

So, do you already have Windows 8.1 installed or are you holding off for the official release?

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Microsoft reveals 37,000 data requests from law enforcement agencies

Just about every company with an online presence is getting into the sharing game. It's something we’ve already seen from other companies. Facebook has already shared information about the data requests it has received from governments, and LinkedIn, Microsoft and Google all want to be able to tell us more. Now Microsoft is sharing what it can about the requests for information it has received from law enforcement agencies around the world.

The company's second Law Enforcement Requests Report covers the first six months of 2013 and reveals the requests received for data about users of all of Microsoft online services. There is no particularly detailed breakdown of the figures, but they do include requests made for information about Skype. Despite collating figures for all Microsoft services, it looks as though the number of requests is in line with the figures from last year. In the first six months of 2013, Microsoft received a total of 37,196 requests relating to 66,539 accounts. This compares to 75,378 requests impacting 137,424 accounts throughout the whole of 2012.

These do seem to be very small numbers, and Microsoft says that fewer than 0.01 percent of accounts were affected. And it looks as though very little data has actually been released.in around 21 percent of cases, no data whatsoever was handed over, and in 77 percent the information that was handed to law enforcement agencies was "non-content data". Microsoft goes as far as revealing just what it meant by this term, explaining which details it encompasses.

In addition to the username associated with a Microsoft account, "non-content data" also includes a Personal User ID which is a unique code associated with each account. Microsoft also hands over details of the IP address used to create the account, the IP address last used to access it, name and limited address details. This differs to "content data" which could include the files stored on SkyDrive or the content of emails.

As we have become used to, the figures do not include requests that come from national security agencies, but the company would like to be able to share more. One interesting section reveals that Microsoft has disclosed information believed "necessary to prevent an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to a person". In the first six months of 2013, Microsoft received 346 requests relating to "imminent emergencies" and "content data" was released in almost a third of case (32.4 percent).

Browse through figures at the Law Enforcement Requests Report page.

Photo Credit: Robert Buchanan Taylor /Shutterstock

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The most popular stories on BetaNews this past week -- September 22-28

Microsoft held an event in NYC to launch the Surface 2 and Brian was live-blogging. The full video of the launch is available to view online as are advertisements that show off the tablets' versatility. Microsoft is pinning a lot on the updated product after the first generation suffered from poor sales. There were no great new features, but there is a redesigned kickstand, a healthy speed boost, new dock and updated covers -- Brian was particularly impressed by the Blades.

Anyone buying a Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2 earns themselves a SkyDrive upgrade. Purchase a new device and your online storage gets upgraded to 200GB, but the same amount of space is available for $100 per year. Moving away from Surface-related news, Microsoft turned its guns on Google Docs, highlighting user complaints to demonstrate the superiority of Office 365.

After last week's launch, Apple's iPhone remained in the headlines. Selling 9 million units in the opening weekend seems impressive on the face of things, but all may not be as it seems. It came as no great surprise that the top of the range iPhone 5s proved more popular than its cheaper counterpart, but the device's fingerprint reader was shown to be "hackable" with a printer and some glue.

Back on the desktop, Apple launches four new iMacs and also lost a patent case relating to the click wheel on iPod Classics.

It has been a week of mixed news for BlackBerry. The beleaguered company found a potential buyer, and then went on to announce massive losses when its financial results were published. The figures had been widely anticipated and had been preceded by the cancellation of a previously scheduled conference call with analysts.

A few new tablets were announced or released this week including a cheap offering from UK supermarket Tesco. New Kindle Fires boasting faster performance and better screens were also unveiled. For owners of Android phones and tablets, Android Device Manager was updated to include the option of remotely adding password protection to a device, and Mihaita showed how to achieve the same in Windows Phone. A report suggested that Windows Phone is the most unusable mobile OS available was published and lead to some lively debate in the comments!

In the Linux world, Gnome 3.10 was released and SteamOS, Valve's take on home media streaming, was also unveiled. Sticking with the media streaming theme, Roku updated its line of boxes and Netflix boosted video quality.

There was quite a lot happening online over the last seven days: Google changed YouTube commenting to be Google+ powered and Yahoo's email recycling program backfired slightly when it resulted in private data being handed over to the wrong people. Gmail suffered an unscheduled outage, and it was also revealed that some people are perfectly happy to remain cut off from the web.

That's it for now. Here's to another seven action-packed days.

Photo Credit: vinz89/Shutterstock

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Microsoft highlights Reading List ahead of Windows 8.1 launch

There are only three weeks to go until the release of Windows 8.1 and Microsoft is laying the groundwork by highlighting some of the new features and apps that are to be found in the update. The latest app to be picked out is Reading List -- Microsoft's answer to the list of Pocket and ReadItLater. The app has been designed to make it easier to save online articles to read at a later time without the need to bookmark it.

Reading List differs from RSS readers such as Feedly in that articles are stored on an individual basis. And while it is well suited to "bookmarking" articles you find on websites that you would like to return to, it can also be used to bookmark content from other apps. Just like other "read it later" tools, the real advantage comes from the fact that content is synchronized between devices.

If you're catching up on the news on your home PC before heading off to work, lengthy articles can be added to your Reading List so you can finish it off on your laptop or Surface on your journey to the office. Using Reading List means taking advantage of Windows 8.1's Charm bar. Swipe in from the right -- with a finger or mouse -- select the Share option and then choose Reading List.

But it's not just a handy way to sync articles between devices -- Reading List is also a great way to collate related information when researching a project. It's not an option that is going to completely replace the traditional idea of bookmarking sites, but it serves as an excellent complementary method.

Are there any particular features you're looking forward to in Windows 8.1? If you've already updated you operating system, how does Reading List compare to other similar tools you've used in the past?

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Internet Explorer spellchecker Speckie adds support for IE11, improves touch

Versoworks has released Speckie 6.0, a major new version of its real-time spellchecking tool for Internet Explorer. The software, available free for personal use as well as in commercial form with additional features, adds support for the forthcoming Internet Explorer 11 with this new release.

Version 6.0 also comes with the promise of improved support for Rich Editors, and has updated the Settings user interface to be more amenable to touch-screen interfaces, despite the fact it doesn’t yet support 64-bit versions of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.

Other changes to the free version include updated spell check functionality so that words are no longer tagged on each key stroke in Internet Explorer 8 or older. The Speckie Dictionary installer has also been updated to allow users to remove dictionaries via the command line.

The commercial version, which comes with additional features aimed largely at business users, also gains a dedicated spell check dialog box for working with large bodies of text.

Once installed and enabled, Speckie will sit silently in the background, providing real-time spellchecking throughout Internet Explorer. Unrecognized words are highlighted using the familiar red squiggle and users can correct spellings by right-clicking the word to pick an alternative from those offered.

Speckie 6.0 is available now as a free-for-personal-use download for PCs running Windows XP or later. 32-bit support is universal, but 64-bit versions of Windows 8, 8.1 and Server are not supported, although 64-bit versions of Internet Explorer in other 64-bit builds are.

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Vet unsafe websites with WOT 2.0, out now for Chrome, Safari and Firefox

These days most browsers offer some form of basic protection against clicking a fake link and visiting phishing websites (facsimiles of genuine sites that attempt to trick users into giving up sensitive personal information like passwords and credit-card details). But they don’t offer much else protection against other dangerous sites.

This is where Web of Trust (WOT) comes in: it maintains a database of websites, rating them for safety, privacy and security and giving you a second opinion about whether or not a particular site is safe to shop at, share personal details with or even simply visit.

WOT has just launched a major new version of its plug-in for most major browsers. Web of Trust for Google Chrome 2.0 and Web of Trust for Safari 2.0 recently joined Web of Trust for Firefox in providing a number of major new features to improve the plug-in’s reputation for delivering accurate site ratings based on negative user feedback.

Once installed, you’ll notice a new WOT button appear next to the browser’s address bar. You’ll also see this icon appear in selected search engine results too. The site is rated by color: green is the safest, while red is the most dangerous. A grey icon indicates the site has not yet been reviewed, so should naturally be treated with caution if it’s unknown.

There’s also a fail-safe mechanism in WOT, whereby attempting to access a red-rated site results in a pop-up warning -- this is useful where you access the site by clicking a link or via another program.

What’s New?

Aside from delivering a new look to its ratings, WOT 2.0 now attempts to better educate its users when reviewing sites to provide less misleading reviews. Users are now expected to choose at least one category to support their ratings, with choices from positive/neutral, questionable, negative and opinions made by other users. Category ratings remain private unless the user also posts a comment to support their rating.

The ratings components have also been simplified to include just two basic ratings: overall trustworthiness and child safety. While depreciated, the vendor reliability and privacy components have been incorporated into the categories.

The reasoning behind these changes is that this will help other users make a more informed decision about whether or not to visit a specific site. To support this, the ratings window has also been overhauled so users can submit a rating and -- if applicable -- comments without having to visit the site’s scorecard first.

All of these changes also show up in a new warning screen and search pop-up, where more information about the site is now displayed, revealing key categories next to the overall rating and again saving the user a trip to the scorecard.

Web of Trust for Google Chrome 2.0, Web of Trust for Safari 2.0 and Web of Trust for Firefox are all available now as a free downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux users running the appropriate browser.

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Nokia lightning strikes Windows Phone

I am a big fan of thunder and lightning storms. There is nothing else in nature that is simultaneously fun, romantic and scary (depending on the situation and company). However, there is a very serious side to these storms -- death or injury by lightning. Yes, an electrical storm can end your life if you aren't careful.

Nokia does not seem too concerned though, as it announces it has charged a Windows Phone with the power of lightning. The company says, "wireless charging, in and of itself, is pretty darn cool. But imagine if you could charge your phone using lightning! Nokia has been working with the University of Southampton to do just that, and the results are nothing short of brilliant".

"We were excited by this challenge presented to us by Nokia...using an alternating current, driven by a transformer, over 200,000 volts was sent across a 300mm gap -- giving heat and light similar to that of a lightning bolt. The signal was then stepped into a second controlling transformer, allowing us to charge the phone", says Neil Palmer, a scientist at the University of Southampton in the UK.

The scientist further explains, "we were amazed to see that the Nokia circuitry somehow stabilized the noisy signal, allowing the battery to be charged in only seconds".

While this may sound like a trivial publicity stunt, there is actually value in this study. This can potentially lead to further advances in wireless charging, taking us past the boring (yet safe) charging pads we use today. However, please be warned, do not to try this at home -- leave the dangerous experiments to Nokia.

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