Adobe Launches Online Photoshop Beta

The well-known company's entrance into online photo editing and sharing is likely to be felt by competing services like Picnik, Phixr, and Splashup.

By Thomas Claburn

Online photo enthusiasts can now get their photo fix and fix their photos in one place.
Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) on Thursday announced the commencement of public beta testing for its free online Adobe Photoshop Express photo editing service and community.

Some of the editing options included in Adobe Photoshop Express include: Crop & Rotate, Auto Correct, Exposure, Red-Eye Removal, Touchup, Saturation, White Balance, Highlight, Fill Light, Sharpen, Soft Focus, Hue, Black & White, Tint, Sketch, and Distort.

Adobe's entrance into this space is likely to be felt by other online photo editing services like Picnik, Phixr, and Splashup, to name a few.

Though Adobe faces at least half a dozen competing online photo editing services, it's likely to benefit from its strong brand name and from fortuitous timing: There's considerable worry at the moment among users of Yahoo's Flickr, one of the leading online photo sharing communities, about the service's future following its likely acquisition by Microsoft. (One Flickr competitor, SmugMug, is offering discounts to those "fleeing Flickr.")

Adobe Photoshop Express is not likely to be meaningful to its professional Photoshop CS3 customers. The service offers up to 2 Gbytes of online storage, and that's only one or two pictures for many serious photographers. Adobe Photoshop Express also limits uploads to 10 megabytes and 4000 pixels in height and width.

Professional photographers often use hundreds of gigabytes of storage and tend to rely on third-party Photoshop plug-ins that aren't available through Adobe Photoshop Express.

But Adobe is clearly aiming at photo hobbyists, at least at this point. In additional to its variety of image adjustment and filtering tools, Adobe Photoshop Express emphasizes photo sharing and online galleries. It includes links to social networking and photo sharing sites Facebook, Photobucket, and Picasa, though Adobe's ambition is clearly to bring more people to Adobe Photoshop Express.

Adobe Photoshop Express requires Windows XP or Vista, or Mac OS 10.4+; a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768; 512 Mbytes of RAM; Internet Explorer 6 or 7 (Windows), Safari 3.0.4+ (Mac), or Firefox 2+ (Mac or Windows); and Adobe's Flash 9.

At some point, Adobe Photoshop Express should be available as a desktop application, like Apple's iPhoto, once Adobe gets around to developing an offline client using its AIR technology.

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Windows Vista SP1 Complaints Draw Free Support From Microsoft

By Paul McDougall

Microsoft has responded to numerous complaints about its new service pack for Windows Vista with an offer of free support for anyone having trouble installing or running the update.

According to Microsoft's support Web site, the company is offering no-charge Vista SP1 help for all users via e-mail and online chat. The wait time for an online chat session as of mid-afternoon Monday was about 20 minutes, according to the site.

Microsoft is also offering free Vista SP1 support via telephone for customers of its Software Assurance, TechNet, MSDN, and partner programs.

Microsoft ordinarily directs Windows users with support issues to the PC makers from whom they purchased their systems. It typically provides direct support only if the user bought a boxed, standalone copy of the operating system.

But Microsoft manager Brandon LeBlanc revealed in a blog post that the free support is available to all Vista SP1 users -- regardless of how they acquired the software. "We are offering free-of-charge support to *anyone* who is having issues installing Windows Vista SP1," LeBlanc confirmed.

The move is an apparent response to widespread criticisms from would-be Vista SP1 users who say they can't get the software to install or run on their computers.

"I downloaded it via Windows Update and got a blue screen on the third part of the update," wrote Iggy33 in a comment posted last week on the Vista team blog.

Iggy33 was just one of dozens of posters complaining about Vista Service Pack 1's effect on their PCs. "What a disaster," wrote SeppDietrich of the update. "It exiled all my Nvidia drivers to the Bermuda Triangle."

Other troubles reported by Vista SP1 users ranged from a simple inability to download the software from Microsoft's Windows Update site to sudden spikes in memory usage.

It's not uncommon for major software patches to cause problems when first released. Windows XP Service Pack 1 inflicted numerous glitches on host computers when it shipped in 2002. Microsoft fixed many of the problems with subsequent patches.

Microsoft last week made Vista SP1 widely available for the first time. The update is designed to increase Vista's speed, security, and reliability. But the company has admitted SP1 isn't perfect.
The service pack will not install on computers that use device and system drivers that Microsoft has deemed incompatible. The list includes audio and display drivers made by Realtek and Intel, as well as drivers from several other manufacturers.

Microsoft said it's working to resolve the compatibility issues.

Gates Predicts Big Technological Leaps

By MATTHEW BARAKAT

WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Thursday he expects the next decade to bring even greater technological leaps than the past 10 years.

In a speech to the Northern Virginia Technology Council, Gates speculated that some of the most important advances will come in the ways people interact with computers: speech-recognition technology, tablets that will recognize handwriting and touch-screen surfaces that will integrate a wide variety of information.

"I don't see anything that will stop the rapid advance," Gates said, noting that technological change driven by academia and corporate researchers continued even after the Internet stock bubble burst in 2000.

Gates also said the coming years will bring rapid changes in media as television increasingly becomes a targeted medium, where viewers can select niche content for news, sports and entertainment.

"TV will be based on the Internet; it will be an utterly different thing," he said.

Gates' speech came after he testified to Congress on Wednesday advocating greater investment in math and science education and more relaxed immigration rules that would allow foreigners who obtain college degrees in the United States to work here after graduation.

Current policy, he said, forces many bright, capable students to return to their native countries after the U.S. has invested in their education.

Gates said Thursday he was optimistic that policy makers would make the right decisions about investing in technology and human capital, though he acknowledged that such investments don't pay off immediately.

"Historically the United States has done a fantastic job of making the right investments," he said. "I think other countries, having seen that, are starting to duplicate those elements."

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Hackers At Harvard! University Admits Security Breach

Once they put their mind into it, hackers are perfectly capable of breaking even the most ‘secure’ databases. This time, it was Harvard University’s turn to suffer such an attack just last month, when an unauthorized person gained access to personal information of over 10,000 Harvard students and applicants.

The breach was discovered on February 16 and the university immediately opened an investigation. At the same time, all students and applicants whose data may have been compromised have been notified. The information on the web included Social each applicant’s name, Social Security number, date of birth, address, e-mail address, phone numbers, test scores, previous school attended, and school records.

After the incident, the Harvard University took 5 days to investigate on the source of the attack. The investigators said they couldn’t tell whether similar information has also been accessed, but the University is offering support for identity theft (monitor credit cards and receive alerts in case of fraud).

“Protecting personal information is something Harvard takes seriously, and we are truly sorry for the inconvenience and concern this incident may cause,” said Margot N. Gill, administrative dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). “We are … apologizing to the affected individuals and making identity theft recovery services available to them at our expense. Please be assured that we are taking steps to do what we can to prevent future incidents of this kind.”

Harvard representatives also said that they couldn’t rule out the possibility that all the information stored in the server was accessed and copied, and so they continue to notify all persons whose personal information might have been compromised, and will continue to support expenses for identity theft and credit-monitoring activities.

Apple to iPhone devs: Keep on developing for Jailbroken iPhones guys!

Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt is reporting that Apple has delivered a mighty slap across the face to many potential iPhone and iPod touch developers and turned what was good PR last week into what could be a PR headache this week.

By week’s end, almost everyone who had downloaded the SDK and offered to pay the $99 ($299 for enterprises) to become an official iPhone or iPod touch developer had received Apple’s polite but firm rejection letter:

“Dear Registered iPhone Developer, Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. As this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. Thank you for applying.”

What stings for the developers who got what reads like a pink slip is that they know Apple has already let its favorite partners under the tent. In addition to the companies that demoed at the March 6 event (EA, Salesforce, AOL, Epocrates, Sega) Apple quoted a quite a few more the press release (Intuit, Namco, Netsuite, PopCap, Rocket Mobile, Six Apart and THQ Wireless).
Hmmm. I’m disappointed, but not all that surprised.

The reason I’m disappointed is that this would have been a big opportunity for new and upcoming developers to get an opportunity to showcase apps for the iPhone and iPod touch in front of a large audience. I’m pretty sure that given the quality of apps that I’ve seen for jailbroken Apple devices that these apps would have been high quality and, most likely free (or near-free). However, I’m not surprised at Apple’s “greet and toss” tactic - greet the high-profile big-name commercial companies and invite them in under the velvet rope, and toss out the riff-raff who were going to make their products available at a price (or lack of a price) that would mean that Apple wouldn’t be making money off the products. To be fair though, demand was so high that it would almost impossible for Apple to cater for every developer, but remember who was whipped up that frenzy in the first place - Apple. Overpromise, generate lots and lots of hype, and then underdeliver.

Even when the great unwashed are allowed in, you can be guaranteed that a two-tier system will operate - one for the big names and one for everyone else. A level playing field it won’t be. It’s not just Apple’s ultra-secret nature that will hamper developers. Overdemand and control-freakery comes into the equation too.

This move is likely to send a message out to the dev community that could be harmful to Apple, one that says ”Keep on developing for Jailbroken iPhones guys!” I’m pretty sure that there will always be a huge demand for “unofficial” third party apps. So far Apple isn’t doing a good job of trying to convince jailbreakers to walk the straight and narrow.

Thoughts?

Five reasons why the H-1B visa cap will increase

Two bills were introduced this week to raise the H-1B visa cap. They follow Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates' visit to Washington and his push for a H-1B cap increase. The opposition faces a daunting task in challenging the push to increase the H-1B visa.

H-1B proponents in Congress acted quickly to take advantage Gates brought to the issue. U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced legislation Friday that would retroactively increase the 2008 visa cap to 195,000, as well as set that level for the fiscal year, 2009, that begins Oct. 1. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arz.) introduced legislation the same week to increase the cap to 130,000 a year. The current cap is set at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 for holders of advance degrees.

Here are five reason why opponents face a very difficult, if not impossible task, in stopping a visa cap hike:

One: H-1B opponents have no clout
If H-1B visas weren’t part of the larger immigration reform issue in Congress, the H-1B cap would have been increased long ago. The opponents have been piggybacking on the broader immigration debate and they know it. But the H-1B opposition is in decline even as the debate grows more intense. Five years ago, tech workers in Connecticut – many working or connected to the financial services industry (the first industry to really embrace offshoring) – organized a lobbying group, the Organization for the Rights of American Workers (TORAW). By 2003, Connecticut's congressional reps had introduced several bills – all affecting the H-1B issue. The legislation went nowhere, but Connecticut tech workers proved that an organized effort can have impact. It’s all part of history now. TORAW has disbanded, out of money and members. The broader base of opponents are alert, well connected and can fire off thoughtful, well researched emails to lawmakers at an instant, but TORAW is illustrative of the anemic state of the opposition. Opponents lack lobbying muscle in Washington.

Two: The Gates effect
Bill Gates is, obviously, a powerful proponent of the H-1B visa. But where is the opposition’s star power? Lou Dobbs isn’t it. The Programmers Guild has been effective in raising issues, but the real heavy weight organization, with true lobbying ability, is the IEEE-USA, and it has scaled back its opposition to H-1B visas. This group has staked out a position focused on visa reform and improving access to permanent residency, the Green Cards. The IEEE-USA was once more direct about the impact of the H-1B visa: In 2004, when the cap was scaled back to 65,000 the IEEE-USA pointed out: The number of unemployed U.S. high-tech professionals dropped sharply from the first quarter of 2004 to the third quarter. The decline mirrors the reinstatement of the H-1B visa cap to its historical level of 65,000 in Fiscal Year 2004 from 195,000 in FY 03. That was a strong message to send to Congress. But the IEEE-USA also represents many academic institutions that depend on the H-1B visas. Although universities are exempted from the cap, foreign enrollments may suffer if students feel they have little chance of remaining in the U.S. longterm. Universities also have strong ties to tech companies. It is probably safe to say that the IEEE-USA, as an organization, is getting pulled in different directions.

Three: There is grass root support for the H-1B visa
A major use of H-1B visas is to help facilitate offshore outsourcing and even in this downturn outsourcing will continue to grow. That’s the broad outlook by industry analysts. The pressure for visas remains, even in a downturn. But the H-1B visa has a very broad, grass root constituency that extends beyond the tech sector. In the 2007 fiscal year, nearly 20,000 companies, academic institutions, hospitals, public schools and others received only one H-1B visa. These organizations send emails as well.

Four: The H-1B lottery is a big problem for tech firms
The forecasted demand for H-1B visas is going to force the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to hand out visas via a random lottery for the fiscal year 2009 that starts Oct 1. For the 2008 fiscal year, the USCIS received more than 123,000 visa petitions in two days for the 65,000 cap. Despite that number, the odds were still good that a petition would be approved in its lottery. The USCIS put all those visa petitions in a hat and selected about 100,000, rejecting the rest. The selection process works like college admission: The USCIS accepts more petitions then it has slots and expects a certain number of these applications to be withdrawn or disqualified. But this year there seems to be broad consensus that the number of visa petitions will exceed last year's total, and companies may face visa odds of two-to-one or higher. This makes the outlook for getting a visa very unpredictable and unacceptable to tech groups, which are now pushing for a cap increase with special urgency. But here is an important point to keep in mind: The people who receive visas under the 65,000 cap are more likely to only have a bachelor degree. They are the worker bees. The U.S. has a separate H-1B visa cap of 20,000 for foreign nationals who graduate with advance degrees from U.S. universities. But there was no lottery for these graduates because there was no sudden rush in demand. The USCIS filled those petitions on a first-come, first serve basis until April 30 that year. That may change this year.

Five: Congressional support for visa
Lawmakers have moved the cap up and down before and they will do it again. Congress will increase the cap this year or next and may make it retroactive as well. Had an immigration bill been approved last year the cap would have been 115,000. The open question is whether the H-1B visa will be reformed as part of a cap increase. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) last year pushed for a reform that set a limit on how the visa is used. One rule set a limit that no more than 50 percent of the U.S.-based employees at a company using H-1B workers can be visa holders. It was a measure aimed at making the India offshore firms a little less nimble and raising it as a trade issue for India.

U.S. Military Restricts Google Maps

The DOD took action when Street View images of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, appeared on Google Maps.

By Thomas Claburn

The U.S. Department of Defense put Google on the defensive last week when it issued a communique to make it clear that the roving photographic vehicles Google uses to acquire Google Maps Street View images aren't allowed on U.S. military bases.
In pursuing its mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google inadvertently ran afoul of the military's mission to maintain security for its personnel and sites.

The DOD took action when Street View images of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, appeared on Google Maps. Google introduced Google Maps Street View images for San Antonio in February.

Google removed the pictures at the request of the military. Fort Sam Houston is not open to the public.

Google spokesperson Larry Yu said it was against Google's policy to seek access to military installations or otherwise private facilities. "Our policy is to stay on public roads," he said. "A driver broke that policy."

Lt. Commander Gary Ross, a public affairs officer for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the U.S. Northern Command, said that the military had become aware that Google was requesting access to Fort Sam Houston and that the Pentagon issued a memorandum on Feb. 28 to clarify that Google's image capture efforts should not be allowed on military sites.

"It has operational risks for force protection and the safety of personnel who work on the base," Ross said.

Ross said that the directive doesn't apply only to Google as there are other companies that also acquire images for similar uses.

While security through obscurity is generally regarded as an inadequate strategy on the Internet, it remains a cornerstone of site security policies for governments around the globe.
London's Metropolitan Police recently launched a counter-terrorism campaign that warns citizens to be on the lookout for "odd" photographers. Posters promoting the campaign present the camera as if it were a weapon. The climate in the U.K. is such that the photographers there last year organized a photographer's rights petition out of fear that public photography might become a licensed activity.

In 2004, New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority considered a ban on photography in subway stations. It dropped the idea the following year.
In 2006, Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on photography in public places to attract more tourists; some restrictions remain, however.

In December 2005, the New York Times reported that the governments of India, Russia, and South Korea, among others, were worried that Google Earth's satellite imagery -- which comes from third-party providers -- might reveal too much about their military bases.

Google isn't unaware of the privacy issues surrounding its collection of images. "We've been pretty clear with people that if they're concerned with the imagery, we try to make it easier and easier to submit requests to get the imagery taken down," said Yu. "That's helped mitigate issues of privacy."

And if you represent a large army, you don't even have to bother with the Report Inappropriate Image link. Someone at Google will take your call.

Microsoft wants to freeze the Vista incapable lawsuit

EVER SLIPPERY, Microsoft asked that the "Vista Capable" lawsuit against it be stayed while it appeals the judge's approval of class action standing for the case.

The lawsuit, filed almost a year ago, claims that Microsoft misled punters in late 2006 by letting PC makers stick "Vista Capable" labels on lower power machines sold with Windows XP that were later found capable of running only the Home Basic version of Windows Vista rather than the full version that includes most of Vista's new features including the Aero eye-candy graphical interface.

It claims that PC buyers paid more for those machines than they would have parted with had they known that they wouldn't be able to support Windows Vista when that was released a few months later in early 2007.

Never mind that those PC consumers who bought "Vista Capable" machines are likely better off sticking with Windows XP instead of "upgrading" to Vista, seeing as how Vista has turned out to be even more of a pig on qualudes than all prior versions of Windows. The Vole probably won't be arguing that, but even if it did, that wouldn't let it off the hook for having misled customers who expected that "Vista Capable" actually meant "Vista Ready" when they coughed up the readies.

US District Judge Marsha Pechman granted the lawsuit class action status two weeks ago. Microsoft filed a petition to appeal that ruling with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, a day after it filed a motion before Judge Pechman to stay the lawsuit pending its appeal.

If the case is stayed, that would put off any further discovery by the plaintiffs until the appeal is decided, which could take up to three months or more. The delay would postpone additional revelations of potentially embarrassing emails and other documents by Microsoft and PC manufacturers, hardware suppliers such as Intel, and wholesalers and retailers.

Release of internal company emails last month disclosed that high level Microsoft executives anticipated the problems caused by the "Vista Capable" labels on PCs sold with Windows XP. Microsoft's OEM partners warned the company that the labels would confuse consumers, and even Microsoft's own executives got burned by buying PCs incapable of running the full version of Windows Vista.

In its motion to stay, Microsoft wrote: "Continued proceedings here would cost Microsoft a substantial sum of money for discovery and divert key personnel from full-time tasks...; would intrude on sensitive pricing decisions and strategies by OEMs, wholesalers, and retailers; and would jeopardize Microsoft's goodwill with class members -- all with respect to claims that might not proceed on a class basis at all."

Microsoft argued that, if its appeal is successful, any time and money it spends on additional discovery will have been wasted and any further negative publicity will have been raised unnecessarily. It also claimed that continuing discovery while its appeal is pending might needlessly impair certain business partner relationships.

"Plaintiffs' discovery almost surely will involve intrusion into the most sensitive pricing decisions of the OEMs, wholesalers, and retailers who sell the PCs at issue and set their prices," Microsoft wrote. "Continued discovery thus will disrupt Microsoft's relationships with its business partners, a disruption that will be unnecessary if the Ninth Circuit reverses."

The motion also raised the issue that continuing the lawsuit pending the appeal will require the plaintiffs to advertise nationally for class members to join the litigation, and that the class action search could damage Microsoft's reputation with its customers unfairly. "The result will be nationwide publicity that impugns the ['Vista Capable'] program," it said.

With typical Microsoft chutzpah, the appeal to the Ninth Circuit challenges Judge Pechman's basing her approval of class action standing on Washington state law because Microsoft is headquartered there. It also questions her approval of the plaintiff's theory that PC buyers might have paid more for the so-called " Vista Capable" PCs than they would have without those allegedly misleading labels.

Like many defendants, the Vole is seeking delay in the hope that the passage of time might work in its favour, as "Vista Capable" PC buyers get over having been taken in, witnesses change jobs, memories fade, documents get lost, and so on.

We'll see in due time whether Judge Pechman is fully confident in her rulings and believes the plaintiffs' case deserves to move forward timely, or decides that the potential harm to Microsoft should her rulings be reversed on appeal outweighs the plaintiffs' rights.