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Microsoft uncovers, fixes 1,800 bugs in Office 2010

Microsoft uncovered more than 1,800 bugs in Office 2010 by tapping into the unused computing horsepower of idling PCs, a company security engineer said today. Office developers found the bugs by running millions of "fuzzing" tests, said Tom Gallagher, senior security test lead with Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing group.

Fuzzing, a practice employed by both software developers and security researchers, searches for flaws by inserting data into file format parsers to see where programs fail by crashing. Because some crash bugs can be further exploited to successfully hack software, allowing an attacker to insert malicious code, fuzzing is of great interest to both legitimate and criminal researchers looking for security vulnerabilities.

"We found and fixed about 1,800 bugs in Office 2010's code," said Gallagher, who last week co-hosted a presentation on Microsoft's fuzzing efforts at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. "While a large number, it's important to note that that doesn't mean we found 1,800 security issues. We also want to fix things that are not security concerns."

Microsoft seen unveiling mobile phones

Microsoft Corp. is expected to unveil a pair of mobile phones geared for younger users at a public event scheduled for next Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Microsoft phones are expected to feature touch screens and keyboards, and will represent an evolution of the "Sidekick" devices offered by Danger Inc. -- a company that Microsoft acquired in 2008.

Messaging and social-networking applications will be featured prominently on the phones. According to media reports, they will be available for use on the Verizon Wireless network. A Microsoft representative did not respond to a request for comment. Microsoft has long been expected to start releasing tailored mobile devices that feature the company's software and services, in order to keep pace with similar undertakings by rivals including Google Inc. and Apple Inc.)

Lenovo ThinkPad T410i Core i3-equipped laptop starts selling

Lenovo has went under the radar and introduced its cheapest 14-inch ThinkPad model, the T410i powered by the 2.13 GHz Core i3-330M CPU. Starting at $829, the portable PC has a 14.1-inch (1280x800/1440x900) LCD screen, Intel integrated graphics, and can be configured with 2/3/4GB of RAM, a 250/320/500GB HDD or 128GB SSD, a DVD writer, a 2 megapixel webcam, and a 4-, 6- or 9-cell battery.

New HP Slate promo: Camera and iTunes and ports

HP's rolled out another promotional video for their Slate, again—not surprisingly—highlighting its advantages over the iPad. Like a camera! A built-in USB port and SD slot! And... iTunes. Well, we'll call that last one a wash. The previous HP promo video hit hard on its Flash capability, and this one does an equally nice job of showing off some very basic attributes that people might notice missing from their iPads.

Google gets Quake II running with HTML 5, WebGL

Khronos' WebGL working group has now been around for a little over a year, and we're getting to see the fruits of their labor. To be specific, Google staffers have updated the official Google Web Toolkit Blog with news of an HTML 5- and WebGL-enabled port of id Software's Quake II that runs right in your browser. Check it out:

This isn't the first Quake game to run in a browser, of course—id's own Quake Live has been publicly accessible since February 2009. However, that game relies on a custom browser plug-in that only ran on Windows at first, perhaps because it contained some pre-compiled game code. Google's browser port of Quake II, meanwhile, uses open libraries and already runs in the latest Chrome development builds for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

iPad jailbroken just hours after launch

As was the case for the iPhone, we all knew it would be just a matter of time before Apple's iPad would get the jailbreak treatment; but maybe not this quickly!

It's been accomplished in a matter of hours beyond the launch by a bunch of cluey folk' from the iPhone Dev Team which gives the ability to bring Cyndia onto the device; an unofficial app distribution system that allows for the installation of titles that Apple won't approve for the App Store.

Intel holding off new ultra-thin notebook CPUs

Intel has recently decided to hold off the launch of new ultra-thin notebook processors until the third quarter as Acer has halted the production of its ultra-thin notebooks and has turned to work on its new Calpella-based TimelineX ultra-thin notebooks, according to sources from notebook players.

However, whether Intel will launch its new ultra-thin notebook processors will still depend on market demand in the third quarter, the sources noted. Since most notebook players saw their ultra-thin notebooks account for only 10-15% of their total shipments in 2009, lower than original predictions of 20-30%, the players are reducing their orders to digest existing inventories.

Asustek Computer vice president Tony Chen pointed out that ultra-thin notebook demand from Taiwan and China is strong and the line currently accounts for about 40% of Taiwan's notebook shipments. However, worldwide, Asustek's ultra-thin notebooks only account for about 15% of total shipments.