Microsoft Baidu Deal, Android Royalties Marked Week - eWeek

Microsoft continued its Android march this week, with a report that the company plans on demanding $15 from Samsung for each Android smartphone produced by the manufacturer.

That information apparently came from unnamed industry officials speaking to the Seoul-based Maeil Business Newspaper, and found its way into a July 6 Reuters report. Were Samsung to enter some sort of royalties deal, it would become the latest in an increasingly long string of companies paying Microsoft an "Android tax." Microsoft insists that Google's Android platform violates a variety of patents it holds.

So far, most of those companies have been small: Wistron Corp., Onkyo Corp., Velocity Micro and General Dynamics Itronix have all agreed within the past 10 days to a royalty agreement. However, both Amazon and HTC pay Microsoft, suggesting that some big enterprises are also in Microsoft's sights.

And some companies have fought back. Motorola retaliated to a Microsoft patent-infringement suit with an intellectual-property complaint of its own. And Barnes & Noble, whose Nook e-reader uses Android, filed a countersuit against Microsoft after the latter sued it for patent infringement.

"Microsoft is misusing these patents as part of a scheme to try to eliminate or marginalize the competition to its own Windows Phone 7 mobile-device operating system posed by the open-source Android operating system and other open-source operating systems," read the bookseller's counterclaim, filed April 25 with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle. "Microsoft's conduct directly harms both competition for and consumers of eReaders, smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile electronic devices, and renders Microsoft's patents unenforceable."

Even as Microsoft pushes for Android royalties, there are indications that its own smartphone market share is in serious trouble. For the three-month period between the end of February and the end of May, research firm comScore estimated Microsoft's U.S. share dipping from 7.7 percent to 5.8 percent. That comes despite the marketing push behind the Windows Phone platform.

During the same period, adoption of Android rose from 33 percent to 38.1 percent, while Apple enjoyed a slight uptick from 25.2 percent to 26.6 percent. Research In Motion continued its market slide, declining from 28.9 percent to 24.7 percent.

The top mobile OEMs, in descending order of market share, included Samsung, LG Electronics, Motorola, Apple and RIM.

Microsoft can only hope that its upcoming Windows Phone "Mango" update will increase the platform's appeal to consumers and businesspeople. As Microsoft executives demonstrated for a small group of media and analysts during a May press event in New York City, Mango's new features include a redesigned Xbox Live Hub, home-screen tiles capable of displaying up-to-the-minute information, the ability to consolidate friends and colleagues into groups, and visual voicemail?more than 500 new elements in all, if Microsoft is to be believed.

Mango is due for release sometime this fall. Samsung, HTC, LG Electronics and Nokia have all committed to building new Windows Phone devices preloaded with Mango. Meanwhile, Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE have apparently agreed to produce Windows Phone units for the first time.

Microsoft's issues with Google also extended to the search realm, with news that Redmond is pairing with China's largest Internet search provider, Baidu, to provide users with search results for English-language queries.

Although Google continues to dominate the worldwide market for Web search, the company's run-ins with the Chinese government over issues like censorship are well known. Following a hack of Google servers in early 2010 that exposed Gmail accounts of human-rights activists, Google ceased censoring search results in the country and redirected users to the Google.hk domain in Hong Kong. In March, the company accused the Chinese government of disrupting Gmail service.

A spokesperson for Shanghai MSN Network Communications Technology, also known as MSN China, told the Wall Street Journal July 4 that the results would be labeled as coming from Bing. The deal holds substantial benefits for both companies: Baidu is looking to expand its user base, while Microsoft has made no secret of its desire for inroads into the Chinese market.

The question is whether the Chinese government will demand Microsoft censor those English-language results. "Microsoft respects and follows laws and regulations in every county where we run business," a Microsoft spokesperson told The New York Times July 4. "We operate in China in a manner that both respects local authority and culture and makes it clear that we have differences of opinion with official content-management policies." 

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IBM's 'Watson' Computer to Air on Jeopardy in February - eWeek

IBM?s ?Watson? computer will finally make its appearance on ?Jeopardy? in February, taking on two of the show?s all-time winners over a three-day span.

The game will test Watson?s abilities to think in a human-like way, not only being able to retrieve information when requested?as is done with a normal Google search request?but also to go through its vast database of information, make the necessary connections and pick up on the subtle nuances, puns and riddles necessary to answer questions in Jeopardy.

IBM?s goal in building Watson?named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson?is to create a system that can answer questions posed in natural language, and to do so quickly and correctly, according to company officials. IBM over the past few months have been running Watson through a series of 50 or so mock Jeopardy games at its Hawthorne, N.Y., research facility against some former game show participants. The question-answer machine reportedly has won some games and lost others.

?After four years, our scientific team believes that Watson is ready for this challenge based on its ability to rapidly comprehend what the Jeopardy clue is asking, analyze the information it has access to, come up with precise answers, and develop an accurate confidence in its response,? David Ferrucci, the scientist leading the IBM Research team that has created Watson, said in a Dec. 14 statement. ?Beyond our excitement for the match itself, our team is very motivated by the possibilities that Watson's breakthrough computing capabilities hold for building a smarter planet and helping people in their business tasks and personal lives." 

The Jeopardy challenge echoes the chess match in 1997, when an IBM computer called Deep Blue beat chess champion Garry Kasparov. At the time, IBM officials said Deep Blue could calculate 200 million chess moves per second based on a fixed problem.

Watson will have to work differently, however. IBM researchers want it to be able to hear the question posed in natural language and?using massively parallel processing capabilities to understand the complex questions?figure out the subtext of the request, zero in on exactly what its being sought and then find the answer.

Competing against Watson will be Ken Jennings, who broke the Jeopardy record for most consecutive games played with 74 during the 2004-2005 season and won more than $2.5 million, and Brad Rutter, who won more than $3.2 million, the most ever by a contestant. The winner will take $1 million, with second place earning $300,000 and third place $200,000. Rutter and Jennings will donate half of their winnings to charity; IBM will donate all of its winnings.

While the Jeopardy show?which will air Feb. 14-16?will be entertaining, IBM researchers say question-answer systems like Watson will have real-life impacts on business in a variety of fields, including health care, online self-service desks, and tourism, according to IBM. The computer?s ability to quickly sort through vast amounts of data and return precise answers?and then rank the confidence in those answers?also will be key to IBM?s ongoing Smarter Planet initiative, which is driving to improve the world?s infrastructures?from roads to waterways to electrical grids?by putting more intelligence into the systems.

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WikiLeaks Emerging as Hydra-Like Web Entity That`s Hard to Kill - eWeek

WikiLeaks Emerging as Hydra-Like Web Entity That`s Hard to Kill
( Page 1 of 2 ) WikiLeaks keeps finding ways to stay online even as it gets hit with repeated denial-of-service attacks aimed at keeping people from accessing the site and despite decisions by technology and financial companies to terminate essential services. 

With each passing day it?s getting harder to shut WeakiLeaks down, according to technology experts. ?The harder you hit them, the bigger they get,? wrote James Cowie, CTO at Internet monitoring firm Renesys. 

In the past ten days since WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of leaked U.S diplomatic messages, Amazon has cancelled its hosting service, everyDNS terminated its domain name server services, and PayPal, PostFinance, MasterCard and Visa Europe have frozen its accounts.  

WikiLeaks continues to be hit by DOS attacks to shut down the site with the first attack hitting hours before it published the first batch of diplomatic messages. Instead of relying on just one domain name service provider, the site currently has 14 name servers from 11 different providers in eight different countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Canada, and Malaysia, listed in its WHOIS information.  

WikiLeaks has a number of other top-level domains in case WikiLeaks.ch gets knocked off line, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Iceland. The geo-diversification makes it very hard to take WikiLeaks down, wrote Cowie. 

Shortly after US-based DNS provider everyDNS terminated service, easyDNS CEO said the company would be willing to work with WikiLeaks provided certain conditions were met. As the company was based in Toronto, easyDNS would not be subject to U.S. laws ?with respect to takedown requests,? said Mark Jeftovic.

As of Dec. 8, WikiLeaks.ch listed two easyDNS name servers. EasyDNS is also serving other WikiLeaks domains, according to Jeftovic. Last week, WikiLeaks.nl listed Nevada-based Rollernut for DNS, which has been replaced by EasyDNS. 

The DNS for WikiLeaks is ?confined? to the Prolexic anycast nameserver, said Jeftovic. The four servers, deployed in ?London, Hong Kong and on the east and west coasts of North America,? were selected because Prolexic specializes in ?soaking up DOS attacks? and they do that ?very well,? he wrote. Even anticipating that WikiLeaks will be attacked, everyDNS is ?confident? that there will be ?little effect? on other customer domains or even on WikiLeaks, Jeftovic said. 

Now that WikiLeaks is ?spreading in a multi-mirrored fashion, it?s really gone hydra now,? he wrote. ?There?s no center of gravity? for attackers to take out, he said. 

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Apple's iPad Refresh: 5 Features It Needs Now - eWeek

Apple's next-generation iPad will add a front-facing camera and the ability to operate on both GSM- and CDMA-based networks, according to new reports circulating online.

Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair wrote in a recent research note that the new iPad "is thinner than the existing model and is essentially made from one piece of metal with no pins needed," according to AllThingsD. Meanwhile, a Nov. 19 report in Taiwan-based Digitimes postulates that the second-generation iPad is "expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2011."  

Apple currently holds around 95.5 percent of the worldwide tablet market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, but faces a rising tide of competition from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Research In Motion's PlayBook. Whether the newest reports about the iPad turn out to be true (if the rumors surrounding the first iPad proved anything, it's that any "news" preceding Apple's actual unveiling should be taken with a dump truck worth of salt), Apple may do well to consider integrating the following features into its next-generation tablet?if only to blunt the impact of rival devices poised to flood the marketplace:

Dual Cameras

The first iPad lacked camera modules, a detail its competitors immediately seized upon to differentiate their own upcoming products. With other tablet PCs emphasizing their video-conferencing ability (along with Apple itself, via FaceTime for the iPhone 4 and latest-generation iPod Touch), Steve Jobs and company will almost certainly feel compelled to give the next-generation iPad front- and rear-facing cameras of its very own.

Thinner and Lighter

Apple digs thin and light: the newest MacBook Air, for instance, along with the ever-slimmer iPhone and iPods. The trend is thoroughly baked into Apple's design language, and its engineers are likely examining how to winnow the form factor without sacrificing its performance or the quality of the materials. To do so, Apple may have to develop a new manufacturing process, which Jobs will doubtlessly "tout" as magical at whatever future unveiling event.

Multiple USB Ports

Soon after the first iPad's release, some users complained about the lack of USB slots. Again, Apple's competitors incorporated that feature into their own tablets as a differentiator. While Apple may publicly tout the simplicity and ease of porting documents via the iPad's 3G and/or WiFi connection, it could also consider incorporating a pair of USB ports.

Retina Display

Apple has promoted the ultra-sharp Retina Display as a vital feature of the iPhone 4 and latest-generation iPod Touch. Retina Display features pixels some 78 micrometers wide, or 326 per inch, in order to make images and text look continuous. If Apple's engineers can figure out a working method, the Retina Display could very well find its way into the next version of the iPad?or if not into this version, a subsequent one.

Three-Axis Gyroscope Sensor

If Apple integrates a three-axis gyroscope sensor into the next-generation iPad?similar to the one already present in the iPhone 4?it could increase the device's appeal to developers and consumers as an apps and gaming platform.

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Verizon, ATandT, T-Mobile Join to Launch Isis NFC Payment Service - eWeek

Rival carriers Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile will be working together to create a ?national commerce network that aims to fundamentally transform how people shop, pay and save,? the three announced Nov. 16.

The venture, called Isis, relies on smartphones and near-field communications (NFC), which uses short-range, high-frequency wireless technology to pass encrypted information between devices. In countries such as Japan, consumers have used such a service, which essentially turns one?s smartphone into a wallet, for several years now.

Michael Abbott, formerly with GE Capital, has been tapped to lead Isis, which is expected to roll out its service to ?key geographic markets? over the next 18 months.

?Our mobile commerce network, through relationships with merchants, will provide an enhanced, more convenient, more personalized shopping experience for consumers,? Abbott said in a statement. ?While mobile payments will be at the core of our offering, it is only the start. We plan to create a mobile wallet that ultimately eliminates the need for consumers to carry cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards, coupons, tickets and transit passes.?

Between them, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon offer wireless service to more than 200 million customers, who will have access to Isis. Currently, Isis is working with Discover Financial Services? payment network to develop an infrastructure for the program. Barclaycard US is expected to be the first issuer on the Isis network, offering mobile payment products.

?We believe the venture will have the scope and scale necessary to introduce mobile commerce on a broad basis,? said Abbott. ?In the beginning, we intend to fully utilize Discover's national payment infrastructure as well as Barclaycard's expertise in contactless and mobile payments. Moving forward, Isis will be available to all interested merchants, banks and mobile carriers.?

The day before the Isis announcement, Google CEO Eric Schmidt ? while showing off a device expected to be the Nexus S at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco ? explained that Android 2.3, or ?Gingerbread,? will leverage NFC technology, working with an embedded chip in the phone and a mobile application.

"The theory of the case is that you'll be able to take these mobile devices from everybody, and you'll be able to walk into a store and do commerce and be able to figure out where you are, again with your permission," Schmidt said. "It could eventually literally replace your credit card."

He added that NFC uses a higher level of authentication than the traditional credit card magnetic stripe, making it more secure.

Google competitor Apple is also preparing to get in on the action, and in August hired an NFC expert as its new product manger for mobile commerce, as well as published a number of NFC-related patents over the summer. In addition, Nokia ? no stranger to NFC, having launched a trial NFC payment plan in China in 2006, among other efforts ? plans to push out an upgrade to its Symbian 3-running C7 smartphone in early 2011, enabling the device to handle NFC tag reading, Near Field Communications World reported Nov. 14, citing the French site Teknologik.

?Anytime major industry players agree on a step forward, it's a great step for all involved, especially consumers,? Nokia spokesperson Joseph Gallo told eWEEK. ?In this case, with regards to NFC, it adds further value to the handset and ultimately the consumer by allowing access to new services and digital content on their mobile easily and conveniently.?

The ability to easily share content such as business cards and photos, or to use an NFC mobile device as a travel card, ticket, or loyalty card, Gallo explained, ?adds to the consumer's emotional attachment to the device.?

Bling Nation, a company that uses contactless stickers, called Bling Tags, on the back of mobile phones, has recently been running a mobile payment trial with PayPal and will roll out its solution in early 2011, Forbes reported Nov. 15. The Bling technology is compatible with NFC technology, and so will work with NFC phones, Forbes reports, adding that the company is currently in negotiations with handset manufacturers to incorporate the technology directly into their handsets.

Isis, effective as of Nov. 16, will be based in New York.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab Doesn`t Have Be an iPad Killer to Succeed - eWeek

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By: Wayne Rash
2010-11-13
Article Rating: / 7

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Samsung Galaxy Tab Doesn`t Have to Be an iPad Killer to Succeed
( Page 1 of 2 ) Samsung?s Galaxy Tab landed in stores with a lot of fanfare, and a lot of speculation as to whether this device will be the long anticipated ?iPad Killer,? and if it is, to what degree. So having spent time looking at these devices (along with some others) let me say right up front that it?s not an iPad Killer. But that?s kind of like saying that a BMW 328 isn?t a Dodge Minivan killer. In both cases these aren?t the same kind of device; they?re not aimed at the same markets and while they seem similar, they really aren?t. 

Because of this, the Galaxy Tab can be successful even if it doesn?t dent the iPad?s sales at all. They?re two different devices, aimed at different types of users. It?s unlikely that someone seriously thinking of buying an iPad will be diverted to the Galaxy Tab. The same thing is true for people seriously considering the Samsung device. In this the situation is somewhat different from what it is in the smartphone world. 

When people shop for smartphones there are several factors that matter. They care about the applications that the device runs, of course. But in the case of iOS and Android devices, there are lots of applications for both. They care about the carrier, but it?s unlikely that anyone is buying an iPhone just so they can get AT&T service. With tablets, it?s a different story.  

When people are thinking about tablets, applications matter a lot, and those applications have to meet their needs while also functioning usefully in a tablet form factor. Both the Android tablets and the iOS tablets have such applications, although the iPad has a lot more that are designed for that device because it?s been around longer. But people also buy a tablet because they find the device comfortable to use, and they find that it meets their needs in other ways, such as by having a data plan that makes sense. And they choose because they like the form factor. 

Setting aside the Android vs. iOS battle for a moment, mainly because it?s not that relevant for anyone but the fanatics on either side, the two devices are about as different as they can be for two lightweight tablets. The Galaxy Tab is relatively small?about the size of an Amazon Kindle. It?s about half the weight of the iPad. It has two cameras, one of which points at the user so they can do video conferencing. 

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Microsoft Security Patches Plug 11 Vulnerabilities - eWeek

A month after breaking its record for the largest Patch Tuesday update in history, Microsoft released a much smaller round of fixes Nov. 9 with just three security bulletins.

The bulletins cover a total of 11 vulnerabilities across Microsoft Office and Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG). Just one of the bulletins is rated "Critical" ? MS10-087, which addresses five vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. Among those five is a rich text format stack buffer overflow vulnerability Microsoft considers likely to be exploited.

?The bulletin is rated Critical for Office 2007 and Office 2010 due to a preview pane vector in Outlook that could trigger the vulnerability when a customer views a specially crafted malicious RTF (Rich Text Format) file,? explained Jerry Bryant, group manager of response communications for Microsoft Security Response Center, in a blog post. ?The update also addresses an Office vector for the vulnerability described in Security Advisory 2269637, which has been referred to as 'DLL Preloading' and 'Binary planting'.?

A second bulletin affecting Microsoft Office deals with two vulnerabilities in PowerPoint that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a malicious PowerPoint file, according to Microsoft. The bulletin is rated "Important" because user interaction is required to open the malicious file, Bryant blogged.

The final bulletin, also rated Important, plugs four vulnerabilities in UAG, which is part of Microsoft Forefront. The most significant of these bugs could allow elevation of privilege if a user clicks on a malicious link on a Website, Bryant noted, adding the update is only being offered through the Microsoft Download Center at the moment.

Josh Abraham, security researcher from Rapid7, said the critical bulletin should be at the top of enterprise patch lists this month.

"Based on the huge amount of patches from last month, some customers might be up to speed while others are still struggling to catch up ? this would depend on the unique customer and the strength of their vulnerability management program,? Abraham said. ?Another thing that is interesting is that Microsoft has been breaking their own records with the number of bulletins they are releasing in a given month. To help everyone overall, a better approach would be to keep a semi-constant rate of patches every month so that system administrators are not over burdened during specific months."

He added that administrators should also remain vigilant for attacks targeting the recently disclosed zero-day in Internet Explorer as well. That vulnerability has not been patched.

So far, Microsoft said, none of the vulnerabilities addressed in today?s update have been targeted by attackers.

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Dell's Windows Phone 7 Switch: Good for Microsoft's Enterprise Hopes? - eWeek

Is Windows Phone 7 slated to become the next big enterprise device?

That becomes a more pressing question following news that Dell plans on dumping Research In Motion's BlackBerry from its corporate offices, in favor of Windows Phone 7 devices manufactured by the company. Within hours of that news leaking online, RIM responded with some biting commentary:

"We find it highly unlikely that they will actually save any money with this move and far more likely they were looking for a little free publicity," Mark Guibert, RIM's senior vice president of corporate marketing, wrote in an e-mail to Dow Jones Newswires.

In a Nov. 5 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden indicated that the company's switch will save around 25 percent on mobile communication costs, and that negotiations had begun with T-Mobile to carry corporate voice and data.

Dell's Venue Pro includes a 4.1-inch multitouch display and sliding QWERTY keyboard. Fronted with ultra-durable Gorilla Glass, it closely resembles RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9800, which also includes a sliding keyboard. The difference, of course, is the Venue Pro's Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Whether Dell made the switch to promote its own smartphone line or if it decided that ejecting RIM indeed translated into substantial cost savings, other large businesses are likely to debate whether to embrace Windows Phone 7 for their executives and workers.

Some analysts believe that, while Windows Phone 7's tight integration with features such as SharePoint offers a lot to the enterprise, the platform does have an Achilles' heel. "It will be hard for apps to be ported unless they are already Silverlight-compatible or built-in standard .Net mobile protocols," Jack Gold, primary analyst for J. Gold Associates, wrote in an Oct. 11 research note. "The majority of enterprise apps are not."

That being said, Gold added, businesses could find a lot of benefit in the Windows Phone 7 platform. "Business users [are] at the core of the previous Windows Mobile constituency, but many have defected over the past year," Gold wrote. "It is unclear whether Microsoft can win them back, or even keep the existing, albeit significantly diminished, base of enterprise users." Despite that, he added, "the business hub on WP7 looks compelling (provided you are an Exchange/Outlook user)."

Microsoft seems aware of the need to push Windows Phone 7 as a business device, having announced at several points its intention to include productivity-centric features such as cut-and-paste into future editions of the software. It has also been encouraging developers to build work-style apps for the platform. 

"Critics have commented on the lack of specific features like copy & paste and lack of 100s of thousands of new applications," Arpan Shah, Microsoft's director for SharePoint, wrote in a Nov. 4 posting on his corporate blog. "And while both are true, copy & paste will be available as an update in a matter of weeks (early 2011) and as for applications, it's just a matter of time."

Shah's blog posting suggests the timetable for the feature's addition is still on track. While early critics focused on that missing cut-and-paste, Windows Phone 7's first iteration will also lack support for tethering, Adobe Flash and full multitasking.  

To be fair, despite its hold on the enterprise market, the BlackBerry also lacks a large number of apps?at least in comparison to the Apple iPhone or the growing Google Android family of devices. Businesspeople have traditionally gravitated toward RIM's offerings because of their messaging abilities and reputation for security. But Microsoft wants Windows Phone 7 to appeal on those fronts as well; a substantial part of the company's marketing push, particularly its television ads, portrays the smartphones as the ultimate timesavers?at least when it comes to using mobile features. And its "Office" and "People" hubs have been designed to feed information to users in a tightly integrated, streamlined way.

But whether Dell represents the first of many companies to jump to Windows Phone 7 remains to be seen. Microsoft doubtlessly hopes that's the case. RIM most likely doesn't.

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Apple iPhone Considered by Bank of America, Citigroup: Report - eWeek

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By: Nicholas Kolakowski
2010-11-06
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Apple?s iPhone is under consideration as a BlackBerry alternative by Bank of America and Citigroup, according to a Nov. 5 Bloomberg report. Unnamed sources suggested that both companies were testing the iPhone?s software security, and that Android was also under consideration as a corporate mobile platform.  

Both banking groups were reluctant to comment on any Apple iPhone or Android action, beyond a spokesperson for Bank of America telling Bloomberg: ?We continuously evaluate new and innovative technologies.? The four- to six-week testing at both companies reportedly involve 1,000 employees. 

Research In Motion?s BlackBerry, with its reputation for security, has long been the smartphone mainstay of many large enterprises.

Apple is making a more concerted push into the enterprise space. ?We?ve seen extraordinary growth from 60 percent to 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies,? Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said during the company?s Oct. 18 earnings call. He cited companies such as Procter & Gamble that had ?made iPhone available to their employees.? The iPad is also under heavy consideration by large enterprises? CIOs and IT departments.

To boost that enterprise push, Apple has reportedly struck a deal with Unisys to increase its corporate and government footprint. Under the terms of that agreement, Unisys will provide maintenance and support for Apple products in use by those enterprises.

?Most of those organizations are still heavily PC-based,? Gene Zapfel, a managing partner at Unisys, told Bloomberg in an interview published Oct. 25. ?Apple is going to crack the nut and clients are going to start buying a lot more.? Terms of the deal remain undisclosed; reports suggest, though, that Unisys will also begin constructing more Apple apps for government use.

With the rise of consumer-device use in the enterprise space, security and compatibility concerns among IT administrators has also sharply increased. ?Employees and employers both agree?a Device and App Revolution exists although perceptions regarding extent of that revolution differ,? reads a June report prepared by research firm IDC for Unisys. ?Younger employees (iWorkers) are not demanding change ? they are driving it [through] Consensus Usage (IT Shop and Corp liability issues be damned).?

That report also suggested that around 50 percent of workplace devices end up used in both personal and business contexts: ?Data is freely mingled.?

Which may not be the best situation for institutions such as Bank of America and Citigroup?hence the reported testing.

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