MS Office 15 gets technical preview, public beta due this summer

The next version of Microsoft Office has reached a new development milestone, allowing a handful of privileged individuals to sample the pre-release software. The technical preview is currently limited to a "select group of customers under non-disclosure agreements" -- in other words, folks who can keep their traps shut about new features while providing Microsoft with valuable feedback. As such, you shouldn't expect a full rundown on the revamped suite until later this year, though some leaks are possible.

Penned by PJ Hough, CVP of Development, Microsoft's announcement also lacks substantive details, saying only that Office 15 "is the most ambitious undertaking yet for the Office Division."

The post also notes that this will mark the first simultaneous update for Microsoft's cloud services, servers as well as mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project and Visio. "Quite simply, Office 15 will help people work, collaborate, and communicate smarter and faster than ever before."

One way or another, you can expect more information about Office 15 (presumably launching as "Office 2013") as we approach the public beta's launch this summer.

Considering the emphasis on cross-platform synchronicity and mobile-friendly interfaces, we wouldn't be surprised to see some form of Metro-like UI in the next Office. We also assume that the latest productivity suite will launch alongside Windows 8, which is expected to enter public beta in February and launch in the fourth quarter of 2012.

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Analyst: Amazon sold six million Kindle Fires last quarter

A financial analyst has offered further confirmation of Amazon's Kindle Fire sales -- in case there was any doubt. In a note to investors Sunday, Jordan Rohan of Stifel Nicolaus wrote that Amazon shipped as many as six million Kindle Fires through the holidays, about a million more than he previously estimated. That jibes with figures released by Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente, who pegged shipments at 5.5 million earlier this month, also a one million increase over his previous estimate.

Amazon is generally shy about sharing precise numbers, but the company said it moved more than four million of its tablets and e-readers through December alone. The Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch and regular old Kindle were the three best-selling electronics on Amazon through the holidays, with the new tablet being the top sold, gifted and wished for product. It remains the number one electronics item on Amazon today and it's been in the top 100 for 125 days, or since preorders opened.

Although it's commonly viewed as a rival to Apple's iPad (and feature-wise, there's admittedly plenty of overlap between them), the Kindle Fire seems more like it's catering to a different crowd -- one that prefers a smaller, cheaper, Android-based solution with strong ties to Amazon's ecosystem. If the above sales are accurate, the Kindle Fire represented over half of all Android tablet shipments last quarter. Hopefully this is clarified during Amazon's fourth-quarter earnings report tomorrow.

Some iPad sales have surely been "stolen" by the Kindle Fire, but you wouldn't know it by looking at Apple's performance. The company shifted 15.43 million iPads in the fourth quarter, up 111% on-year and beating expectations of 13 million units. For reference, HP, the world's largest PC maker, sold 14.7 million systems in the same period, according to Gartner. Apple's success is likely to continue through 2012, with the iPad 3 due to launch around March with a high-def screen and LTE 4G.

Mobile phone users to be punished as "war criminals" in North Korea

According to the country's government, North Koreans caught using a mobile phone will be deemed as war criminals and punished accordingly, The Telegraph reports. The same punishment also extends to those attempting to flee the country's borders, an offense that historically has landed one-time offenders in labor camps and repeated offenders a death sentence. 

News of the authoritarian cellphone ban comes during the 100 days following Kim Jong-il's death, North Korea's former leader. The period of 100 days following Kim Jong-il's demise is intended to be a nationally observed length of time for North Koreans to mourn his passing. Meanwhile the deceased leader's son, 29-year old Kim Jong-un, will be working to continuing the dynasty's reign.

It is thought that the ban exists to quell any chance of "Arab Spring" style protests during this transitional and symbolic time. Even so, North Korea's 3G cell phone network is said to impose severe limitations, allowing access to only a handful of nationalist websites and even then, only to a select few.

The country's previous cell phone network was short-lived, abruptly shut down in 2004 without any official explanation. North Korea's current cellular network has been in operation since 2008 and was developed by an Egyptian telecommunications company.

Just a few months ago, North Korea was projected to have over 1 million cell phone users before the the start of 2012. Although that's a large number by most measures, that six digit figure accounts for roughly five percent of the total population. The country's current network reaches about 94 percent of the population, but covers roughly 15 percent of the country's surface area.

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Symantec reveals Counterclank malware threat for Android

Symantec revealed via blog post that they have identified multiple publisher IDs on the Android Market that are being used to host malware-infected apps. The threat is being classified as the largest distribution of malware to hit Android this year.

The specific threat is known as Android.Counterclank, a slightly modified version of Android.Tonclank that was discovered last summer. The recently discovered Counterclank is a Trojan horse that steals information from infected devices and is being included in the main application in a package called “apperhand”. When the package is run, a service with the same name may be seen running on an infected device. Another sign of infection is the presence of a Search icon on the home screen.

Symantec notes that three publishers were flagged for distributing Counterclank as a package inside apps: iApps7 Inc., Ogre Games and redmicapps. A total of 13 apps between the three distributors are known to be infected, including titles such as Counter Elite Force, Stripper Touch Girl and Balloon Game. The combined apps have a download count of nearly five million.

But not everyone believes that Android.Counterclank is malicious in nature. Lookout Mobile Security openly disagrees with Symantec’s ruling that Counterclank is malware. Instead, they feel that the code is better described as an aggressive ad network that is pushing the lines of privacy. Lookout notes that most users likely wouldn’t want Counterclank on their handset and it should additionally be taken seriously.

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Mandatory Facebook Timeline update coming in the next few weeks

Facebook has announced that over the next few weeks, their Timeline profile layout will be pushed out to all 800 million members of the social network. Users are being given seven days to preview Timeline and make any changes before it goes public for everyone to see.

Those who have not already switched to Timeline will see a notification at the top of their profile in the coming weeks regarding the change. Up to this point, the switch to Timeline view has been optional but moving forward, all users will be migrated to the new layout whether they want it or not.

Timeline was first announced at the Facebook f8 conference in September 2011 alongside Open Graphs. The new profile layout is described as the next step in telling your personal life story with all of your social network updates available to view on a single page. Timeline was made available immediately to those who signed up as a developer for the site with plans to launch publically not longer after the announcement but that was delayed based on a lawsuit from Timelines.com over use of the “Timeline” name.

Timeline officially went live worldwide last month with Facebook even giving away 200,000 sets of Timeline business cards to help promote the new layout. Last week Facebook introduced 60 new Open Graph partners including TripAdvisor, Ticketmaster, Digg, Zynga and Buzzfeed, just to name a few. The new Open Graphs allow users to better interact with apps rather than just being able to “like” them. Examples shown included “listened” and “watched” when referencing Spotify, Netflix and RDIO.

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