(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has fixed a problem that made it difficult for users of the most recent Windows Mobile devices to synch with PCs running Vista.

Tuesday night, Microsoft launched Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1, an upgraded version of the software that lets Windows Mobile users manage their phones.

The Mobile Device Center was designed for Vista users as a replacement for ActiveSync, the software that let's PC users synchronize content like calendar items and transfer content like music between their Windows Mobile phones and PCs.

However, early users of Windows Mobile 6.0 devices have complained that the Device Center doesn't synch files at all or in some cases it may lose updates to files.

"In the past, some users reported installation and compatibility issues with Windows Mobile Device Center [WMDC]," said John Starkweather, group product manager in Microsoft's mobile communications group, in an e-mail statement. "We have released an update to WMDC intended to improve the overall user experience."

Mobile Device Center 6.1 supports file synchronization for all Windows Mobile 6.0 devices including smartphones, according to Mel Sampat, a program manager for Windows Mobile who blogged about the new version.

Other new features in Device Center include synching HTML-formatted mail, allowing data connections on the phone when connected to the PC and automatic device authentication.

Microsoft also announced that in the third quarter Windows Mobile will be compatible with Office 2007. That means users of Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Standard devices as well as Mobile 5.0 touch screen phones will get a free update that will let them read and edit Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Also in the third quarter, device makers will be able to start shipping Windows Mobile 6 devices with Office Mobile 2007 preinstalled.

(InfoWorld) - Apple may have a jones for secrecy, but that doesn't mean it can keep its partners quiet.

On stage Wednesday in Washington D.C., Sun Microsystems Inc. CEO Jonathan Schwartz revealed that his company's open-source ZFS file system will replace Apple's long-used HFS+ in Mac OS X 10.5, a.k.a. "Leopard," when the new operating system ships this fall.

"This week, you'll see that Apple is announcing at their Worldwide Developers Conference that ZFS has become the file system in Mac OS X," said Schwartz.

ZFS (Zettabyte File System), designed by Sun for its Solaris OS but licensed as open-source, is a 128-bit file storage system that features, among other things, "pooled storage," which means that users simply plug in additional drives to add space, without worrying about such traditional storage parameters as volumes or partitions.

"[ZFS] eliminates volume management, it has extremely high performance.... It permits the failure of disk drives," crowed Schwartz during a presentation focused on Sun's new blade servers. Apple's operating system currently relies on HFS+ (Hierarchical File System Plus), a 1998 extension of 1985's HFS.

ZFS was touted by many as a possible successor to HFS+ last summer, immediately after Apple's CEO Steve Jobs first showed off Time Machine, the new backup feature planned to debut in Leopard.

In the intervening months, however, the ZFS-Time Machine connections were downplayed or dismissed by most observers. Even today, after Schwartz talked up ZFS, bloggers seemed skeptical about the file system's place in Leopard.

"I'll stick to my prediction that Apple, as with HFS+, will put ZFS on OS X Server first before bringing it out later for the great unwashed," said Robin Harris on his StorageMojo blog.

Most objections centered around the short time between now and Leopard's October release, and the implications of such a major makeover. Others at Sun, however, seemed to confirm that ZFS would be the default file system.

"Jonathan noted that Apple will announce this week that the ZFS file system from OpenSolaris will become Apple's new default file system," said Marc Hamilton, Sun's director of technology for global education and research, on his company blog.

"So how does that help Sun? It is pretty simple, now every Apple developer will know ZFS and how to use it on our SunFire x4500 storage server and other Sun products." A Sun spokeswoman would not confirm or deny that ZFS would be Mac OS X 10.5's default file system.

"I can't tell you anything more than what Jonathan [Schwartz] said today," she said.

Apple does not comment on unannounced products or product features. Schwartz may have unwittingly stolen some of Jobs' thunder for next week, since Apple watchers expect the Apple CEO to tout Leopard -- especially features previously not made public -- during his WWDC keynote next Monday.

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Windows Vista has seen significant changes to its security model, networking capabilities, storage support, and more. In our continuing technical exploration of Vista, we explain and assess these improvements, plus we look at what didn't make the cut, and why.

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AP - Sony's U.S. video-game unit is cutting jobs to become more competitive, the company said Thursday, as the PlayStation 3 machine struggles against rival offerings from Microsoft and Nintendo.

Filed under: Windows Mobile, Office, Microsoft

(InfoWorld) - Mozilla's security chief Tuesday panned a pair of Firefox bugs revealed Monday as low-level threats but hours later changed her mind and said that when used together, they could pose a greater risk.

The researcher who disclosed the vulnerabilities agreed with her. Mostly.

Michael Zalewski, who regularly publishes browser flaw findings, on Monday posted details on the Full-disclosure mailing list about four browser vulnerabilities, including two affecting Firefox. He categorized one as a "major" threat, and he saw the other as only a "medium" threat.

In an entry on the Mozilla security blog -- which debuted last week -- Window Snyder, the company's chief security officer, said the more serious of the two bugs found by Zalewski was no more than a spoofing vulnerability and deserved only a "low" rating. "This is unsafe because it could be used to lure a user to enter content into the spoofed frame but does not result in code execution," said Snyder. "[For example] this might be used with phishing attacks."

Her take doesn't jibe with Zalewski's contention that the flaw can be used to stick malicious code onto the victimized computer. "By my book, [this is] more serious than just spoofing, so I marked it as 'major,' whereas Mozilla still considers it to be a typical case of spoofing ('low')," said Zalewski in an e-mail interview Wednesday. "But it would be inaccurate to say that Window's assessment contradicts my analysis."

Later Tuesday, Snyder updated her blog, saying that after further review, "these two bugs may be used together to allow an attacker to access any file the user has access to on the system. If this is the case, that may change the severity rating to 'medium'."

Zalewski dismissed the idea that he and Mozilla's Snyder were at odds and instead turned attention to what he thinks is most important. "All in all, I think we pretty much agree here," he said. "The big issue [of the four vulnerabilities] was the Microsoft Internet Explorer flaw. The other three are important, but not critical."

According to entries in Mozilla's Bugzilla, the more serious of the two Firefox flaws has not yet been assigned to someone for a fix. Snyder, meanwhile, said that the Mozilla security team is looking into changes to improve content handler management, the root cause of the bug she pegged as "low."

Zalewski on Monday noted on the Full-disclosure mailing list that it appears Apple's Safari browser is also vulnerable to same bug he found in IE6 and IE7 and labeled "critical." Tuesday, Kevin Finisterre, a researcher known for the "Month of Apple Bugs" project in January, confirmed Zalewski's Safari suspicions.

Apple officials did not reply to a request for comment.