Apple on Monday released a software update that addresses a pair of security problems in the company's latest AirPort Extreme base station.
The update, available for download from Apple's Web site, tightens the default configuration of the AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n, Apple said in a security alert. The update also fixes a security flaw that exposes file names on a password-protected disk attached to the device, Apple said.
The default configuration of the Apple base station allows incoming IPv6 connections. This may expose network services on hosts connected to the device to remote attackers, Apple said. IPv6 is the next version of the Internet Protocol designed to support a broader range of IP addresses as the IP version 4 addresses currently in use become scarce.
"This update addresses the issue by changing the default setting to limit inbound IPv6 traffic to the local network," the Mac maker said.
The second issue relates to AirPort Disk, a feature of which allows network users to share storage space on a USB disk connected to the base station. Airport Disk has a password protection feature, but that doesn't protect file names, Apple said.
"An issue in the AirPort Disk feature allows users on the local network to view file names--but not their contents--on a password-protected disk without providing a password," Apple said. The software update fixes that problem, the company said.
Both issues only affect the AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n, a wireless router Apple introduced in January at Macworld in San Francisco. The software download, which updates the device's firmware, can be installed through the Airport Utility.
CNET News.com
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Dell stops selling Axim handheld
Dell has stopped selling its Axim line of handhelds and is not planning a new product in the category, the computer maker said Monday.
"The Axim X51 family is no longer being offered, and we have no plans for a follow-on product at this time," Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said in an e-mail. Camden noted that the company does sell handhelds from other makers on its Web site, including GPS devices and smart phones.
Dell introduced its first Axim Pocket PC in 2002, helping to bring lower prices to a market in which customers had grown used to spending several hundred dollars. Over time, Dell expanded its lineup, adding features such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless technologies. The company debuted its most recent model, the X51, in the fall of 2005.
However, the market for personal organizers has stagnated as many users have opted for smart phones that combine such features as calendar and contact functions with telephony.
The demise of the Axim was noted by handheld enthusiast Web site MobilitySite.
Microsoft: 2007 China sales to rise 20 percent
Software giant Microsoft said on Tuesday it expects its China sales to rise more than 20 percent this year, boosted by new products and a national crackdown on software piracy.
Responding to complaints by Western governments and companies, as well as criticism from a growing field of domestic firms, China has been clamping down on piracy over the last two years to the benefit of software makers such as Microsoft.
As part of the campaign, most of the nation's top domestic PC sellers, including Lenovo and Founder, have pushed to boost their number of PCs sold with legal copies of Microsoft's Windows operating systems already installed.
Other major foreign players in the market, including global leaders Hewlett-Packard and Dell, are pushing similar policies in China.
Reflecting the trend, only about 30 percent of Lenovo PCs now being sold will ultimately contain pirated Windows systems, down sharply from 90 percent last year, said Timothy Chen, chief executive officer of Microsoft's greater China region.
"We've made great progress there," he told Reuters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. China is the world's second-largest PC market by unit sales, with more than 20 million units shipped last year, according to data tracking firm IDC.
Following the implementation of China's crackdown starting in late 2005, IDC estimated the number of PCs sold with legal copies of Windows reached about 50 percent in last year's first quarter.
Rampant piracy there previously made the market a difficult one for software makers like Microsoft, with many industry watchers estimating that most computers in the country used pirated copies of Windows.
Chen added that growth was also coming from new product sales, including the company's newly introduced Vista operating system, the next-generation equivalent of Windows, which Microsoft rolled out at the beginning of this year.
The company plans to launch seven new products in China this year, and another six in 2008, Chen said.
"It is a great year for the region," he said. "Vista is selling very well." Microsoft founder Bill Gates said in February that Vista had been well received and that PC vendors had seen a nice lift in their sales.
Story Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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