Volume 17, Issue 46        Atari Online News, Etc.       December 11, 2015   
                                                                           
                                                                              
                  Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2015
                            All Rights Reserved

                          Atari Online News, Etc.
                           A-ONE Online Magazine
                Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
                      Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
                       Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor


                       Atari Online News, Etc. Staff

                        Dana P. Jacobson  --  Editor
                   Joe Mirando  --  "People Are Talking"
                Michael Burkley  --  "Unabashed Atariophile"
                   Albert Dayes  --  "CC: Classic Chips"
                         Rob Mahlert  --  Web site
                Thomas J. Andrews  --  "Keeper of the Flame"


                           With Contributions by:

                                Fred Horvat



      To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
                log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
                       and click on "Subscriptions".
      OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org
          and your address will be added to the distribution list.
      To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
    Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
                              subscribe from.

        To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
                              following sites:

                http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
                               Now available:
                          http://www.atarinews.org


                 Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
                   http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/



                                  =~=~=~=



A-ONE #1746                                                 12/11/15

   ~ DNS Root Servers Hack! ~ People Are Talking!    ~ Firebee Update News!
   ~ COPPA Keeps Kids Safe? ~ HTTPS Encryption Suit! ~ ISIS Trolling Day! 
   ~ FF7 Remake Episodes!   ~ MS Security Bulletins! ~ PC Sales Falling? 

                  -* France Looking at Tor, WiFi  *-
               -* Sony Unlocks PS4's Seventh CPU Core *-
           -* Konami Bans Kojima From Game Awards Show!  *-



                                  =~=~=~=



->From the Editor's Keyboard              "Saying it like it is!"
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""



There's a reason why I despise talking religion and politics, and
a bigger one as to discussing a combination of the two!!  Everyone
has his own opinion, and neither is necessarily wrong.

Last week, I briefly mentioned Obama's lame speech from the Oval
Office with regard to the terrorist attack in California.  All
that came out of his mouth was pure BS.  One came away from listening
to him, and scratching your head with the conclusion of "what was
all that about?"  Just more of the same Obama rhetoric that we've
been listening to for years.

Love him or hate him, right or wrong - you have to give Donald
Trump some credit for having the cajones to speak his mind.  I
don't agree with everything that he has to say, but it's obvious
that he's not pussy-footing around.  Forget political-correctness
for the moment - there are a number of major issues in today's
world that need attention.  Toes are going to get stepped on.
Some people's feelings are going to get hurt.  Things are still
interesting in the world of politics!

Until next time...



                                  =~=~=~=



                       FireBee Update (Sort of)


By Fred Horvat
	

Well folks it's been a few weeks since my last FireBee installment.
Besides the holidays and work I have been spending most of my free
time getting my main computer back up to speed again which for now
is done.  Next installment I will be back where I left off with
working further to find out why my FireBee does not want to run
supported software on it.  I did the Firmware and TOS upgrades but
no luck with that helping.  It doesn't hurt to be up to date so it
was not a waste of time.  I can just cross that off the list of
possible reason(s) why for now.  Next up will be to check the DIP
Switches to see what they are set at.  That's where I am at until
next time.



                                  =~=~=~=



->In This Week's Gaming Section  - Each FF7 Remake Episode: Huge!
  """""""""""""""""""""""""""""    Sony Unlocks PS4's Seventh CPU Core!
                                   Kojima Banned From Game Awards!
                                   


        
                                  =~=~=~=



->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News   -  The Latest Gaming News!
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""



         Each Final Fantasy 7 Remake Episode To Be
               As Big As A 'Full-sized Game'


According to Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Producer Yoshinoro Kitase
and Director Tetsuya Nomura, the game is simply too big for a
single release. As a result of this, Final Fantasy 7 will be
seeing an episodic release, similar to the likes of Telltale
games.

This revelation left they community wondering exactly how big FF7
Remake is and how many episodes will be released. Square Enix
didn't spare the community any details on this, in fact, they
wouldn't even hint at how long fans would have to wait between
episode releases.

However, Square did clarify something to Kotaku:

    "It means instead of concluding in one entry, multiple entries
are being considered in development. Each entry will have its own
unique story. As a gaming experience, each entry will have the
volume of content equal to a full-sized game."

It's not the most detailed oriented statement, but at least it
offers a little more context. It's interesting to note that Square
Enix decided to take the episodic approach to the new Hitman game
as a digitally released episodic game. When the story arc for
Hitman releases, a physical version will be released. 

I wonder if the two games will share a similar nature.



                 Sony Unlocks PS4's Seventh CPU Core


Sony is giving developers further access to the PlayStation 4's
CPU resources, potentially paving the way for enhanced performance
in future games, if the latest documentation from a middleware
company is to be believed.

Buried within the most recent update details for the audio tool
FMOD, which was released mid-November, a note reads: "PS4-Added
FMOD_THREAD_CORE6 to allow access to the newly unlocked 7th core."

The data, which was unearthed on the Beyond3D developer forum, has
become the subject of speculation across numerous online game
communities such as NeoGAF.

Unless it was written in error, FMOD's note suggests that Sony has
made a crucial back-end change to the PS4 system software that,
in theory, allows the platform's games to draw from further
processor resources.

The PS4 is assembled with an eight-core AMD Jaguar, clocked at
1.6GHz. Two of those cores are reserved for system operations,
along with about 3.5GB of its memory. In January, Microsoft began
to allow developers to use the Xbox One's seventh CPU core, at
least partially, which is believed to be one explanation for the
enhanced performance of games released in 2015 compared to the
year prior.

Differences between PS4 and Xbox One resolution and frame-rates
have been less pronounced in 2015, with often no meaningful
difference between both systems, as some examples below
demonstrate:

    Battlefield Hardline: PS4 900p, Xbox One 720p
    Star Wars Battlefront: PS4 900p, Xbox One 720p
    Batman Arkham Knight: PS4 1080p, Xbox One 900p
    Metal Gear Solid 5: PS4 1080p, Xbox One 900p
    Call of Duty: Black Ops 3: PS4 1080p, Xbox One 1080p-900p (dynamic)
    Project CARS: PS4 1080p, Xbox One 900p
    Evolve: PS4 1080p, Xbox One 900p

Whether the enhanced CPU access on PS4 could result in a widening
of that gap is a matter for debate.



Konami Bans Metal Gear Solid 5 Creator Kojima From Game Awards


Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima was instructed he was not
permitted to attend The Game Awards 2015 ceremony to accept any
awards for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, host Geoff
Keighley has revealed.

As you noticed Hideo Kojima is not here with us tonight and I
want to tell you a little bit about that, explained Keighley.
Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight but
unfortunately he was informed by a lawyer representing Konami
just recently that he would not be allowed to travel to tonights
awards ceremony to accept any awards.

Hes still under an employment contract and its disappointing,
and its inconceivable to me that an artist like Hideo would not
be allowed to come here and celebrate with his peers and his
fellow teammates.

Metal Gear Solid V won best action/adventure game during the
show. The award was accepted on behalf of Kojima and the Kojima
Productions team by Kiefer Sutherland, voice of Snake in MGSV.

It was reported in October that Hideo Kojima had finally parted
ways with Konami after a long-running saga between the two,
although Konami officially denied Kojima had left, insisting
Kojima remained listed as a company employee.



                                  =~=~=~=



                           A-ONE's Headline News
                   The Latest in Computer Technology News
                       Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson



    France Looking at Banning Tor, Blocking Public Wi-Fi


According to leaked documents France's Ministry of Interior is
considering two new proposals: a ban on free and shared Wi-Fi
connections during a state of emergency, and measures to block
Tor being used inside France.

The documents were seen by the French newspaper Le Monde. According
to the paper, new bills could be presented to parliament as soon as
January 2016. These proposals are presumably in response to the
attacks in Paris last month where 130 people were murdered.

The first proposal, according to Le Monde, would forbid free and
shared Wi-Fi during a state of emergency. The new measure is
justified by way of a police opinion, saying that it's tough to
track people who use public hotspots.

The second proposal is a little more gnarly: the Ministry of
Interior is looking at blocking and/or forbidding the use of Tor
completely. Blocking people from using Tor within France is
technologically quite complex, but the French government could
definitely make it difficult for the average user to find and
connect to the Tor network. If the French government needs some
help in getting their blockade set up, they could always talk to
the only other country in the world known to successfully block
Tor: China, with its Great Firewall.

Forbidding the use of Tor through legislative means is another
option: France could simply make it illegal for people to access
Tor. The difficulty there, though, is in the policing of that new
law: the country's ISPs would have to snoop on its users to find
out who is using Tor, and then report back to the police. In the
UK, where the new Snooper's Charter may require ISPs to log the
last 12 months of user activity, a lot of resistance is being met.

The main problem with such a ban on Tor is that it wouldn't
achieve a whole lot. Would-be terrorists could still access Tor
from outside the country, and if they manage to access Tor from
within France I doubt they're concerned about being arrested for
illegal use of the network. There is evidence to suggest that the
recent Paris attacks were planned via unencrypted channels, too:
the Bataclan "go" message was sent in the clear via SMS.

On the other hand, criminalising and/or blocking Tor might affect
many other legitimate users of the network, such as
whistleblowers, journalists, and anyone else who wants to surf
the Web privately.

The proposal to block Wi-Fi hotspots during a state of emergency
is slightly more feasible, and you can see where the French
government is coming frombut again, it would be technologically
very difficult to implement, and the collateral damage would be
huge. Millions of people would have to go without public Wi-Fi
access, potentially for weeks at a time.

On November 20, a week after the attacks in Paris, France
introduced new legislation that extended the current state of
emergency to three months. At the same time, new laws were also
introduced to make it easier for the Minister of the Interior to
block any terrorism-related website, and to dramatically increase
police powers for searching seized devices. The French prime
minister suggested that they may soon make it illegal to merely
visit a terrorism-related website, too.

Come January 2016 we'll see if the French government actually
goes ahead with these new Tor and Wi-Fi blocking measures.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail: France is one of the most
powerful and influential Western democracies, but it's also
rapidly becoming one of the most illiberal. If France rolls out
its own Great Firewall, it would then be whole lot easier for
the UK, Germany, and other neighbouring countries to do the same
thing.



              Anonymous Celebrates ISIS Trolling Day


If youve been looking for your chance to make fun of ISIS, nows
the time.

Social media sites are abuzz on Friday with users targeting the
Islamic State, better known as ISIS or ISIL. Web users around the
globe are posting images and videos poking fun at ISIS. A
surprisingly large number of people have edited images of the
militant groups members, replacing their faces with ducks. The
hashtags #ISISTrollingDay, #trollingday, and #Daeshbags have also
gone viral. The #Daeshbags hashtag is a reference to the term
Daesh, another name for ISIS that the militant group reportedly
views as derogatory.

The social media posts are part of what hacking collective
Anonymous calls ISIS Trolling Day. Earlier this week, Anonymous,
which has claimed to have taken down hundreds of social media
accounts attributed to ISIS as part of its cyber war against the
militant group, called on all Internet users to join its members
in ISIS Trolling Day.

We ask you to show your support and help against ISIS by joining
us and trolling them, the hacking collective wrote on
file-sharing website Ghostbin. Do not think you have to be part
of Anonymous, anyone can do this and does not require special
skills.

Anonymous added that it wanted users to take to Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, and anywhere else in the real world to troll
ISIS.

Trolling is an Internet term used to define abusive or
sometimes-threatening comments. Trolls, as theyre called, often
use inflammatory language on forums and comment areas, but have
in recent years set up shop on social media.

While its unlikely that ISIS Trolling Day will do much to
disrupt the militant groups plans, it represents an important
show of solidarity against ISIS.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for two tragic attacks in Paris
and San Bernardino in the last two months. Anonymous declared
cyber war against ISIS after the Paris attacks. Meanwhile, ISIS,
which called Anonymous idiots, has used social media to
celebrate the attacks.

Indeed, ISIS has an extremely sophisticated digital apparatus it
uses to recruit new members and share propaganda. ISIS uses
social media, as well video-sharing sites like YouTube, to
spread its content. While those companies have worked to remove
those accounts and scrub ISIS from their services, the militant
group is still active online. The militant group has its own
smartphone app and uses encrypted messaging service Telegram to
communicate.

Lawmakers, including President Obama, as well as major
technology executives, like Eric Schmidt, say that more work
needs to be done to fight terrorist activity online. Schmidt
said in an op-ed in The New York Times earlier this week that
the best way forward would be for governments, tech companies,
and Internet users to come together and find ways to safeguard
the web against hate and harassment.

For now, no solutions have been presented. Still, ISIS Trolling
Day aims at getting more people invested in combating ISIS
online. And at least so far, it seems to be working.



  Someone Just Tried to Take Down Internet's Backbone
               With 5 Million Queries/Sec


Someone just DDoSed one of the most critical organs of the
Internet anatomy  The Internet's DNS Root Servers.

Early last week, a flood of as many as 5 Million queries per
second hit many of the Internet's DNS (Domain Name System) Root
Servers that act as the authoritative reference for mapping
domain names to IP addresses and are a total of 13 in numbers.

The attack, commonly known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
attack, took place on two separate occasions.

The first DDoS attack to the Internet's backbone root servers
launched on November 30 that lasted 160 minutes (almost 3 hours),
and the second one started on December 1 that lasted almost an
hour.

The DDoS attack was able to knock 3 out of the 13 DNS root
servers of the Internet offline for a couple of hours.

The request queries fired at the servers were valid DNS messages
addressed towards a single domain name in the first DDoS attack,
and the second day's DDoS attack addressed towards a different
domain name.

According to the analysis published by the root server operators
on Tuesday, each attack fired up to 5 million queries/second per
DNS root name server that was enough to flood the network and
cause timeouts on the B, C, G, and H root servers.

There is no indication of who or what was behind the large-scale
DDoS attacks because the source IP addresses used in the attacks
were very well distributed and randomized across the entire IPv4
address space.

However, the DDoS attacks did not cause any serious damage to the
Internet, but a mere delay for some of the Internet users who
made DNS queries through their web browser, FTP, SSH, or other
clients.

The motive for such attacks is still unclear because disabling or
knocking down a root server won't have a severe impact on the
Internet as there are several thousand of other DNS servers
managing DNS queries.

    "The DNS Root Name Server system functioned as [it's]
designed, demonstrating overall robustness in the face of
[massive] traffic floods observed at numerous DNS Root Name
Servers," Root Server Operators says (PDF), referring to the
backup system employed by DNS servers.

Like the Internet, DNS is constructed on a mesh-like structure,
so if one server doesn't respond to a request, other servers
step in and provide a DNS query result.

According to the DNS root server operators, the attack was not
the result of a reflective DDoS attack in which open and
misconfigured DNS is used to launch high-bandwidth DDoS attacks
on the target.

Despite all the facts, any attack on the critical infrastructure
of the Internet is taken extremely seriously.

The DNS root server operators recommended the Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) to implement Source Address Validation and
BCP 38, an Internet Engineering Task Force standard that helps
defeat IP address spoofing.



At School And At Home, How Much Does The Internet Know About Kids?


Children's personal information isn't supposed to be an online
commodity. But whether kids are using Google apps at school or
Internet-connected toys at home, they're generating a stream of
data about themselves. And some advocates say that information
can be collected too easily and sometimes, protected too poorly.

Last month, a hacker stole personal information and photos of
more than six million children after breaking into the computer
records of a educational toy company, VTech.

VTech says that they've since hired a security company to deal
with the breach. That might not be enough to convince Congress 
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) sent a
letter to VTech, wanting to know if the company is complying with
a law called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

The issue, of course, spans beyond VTech. In the toy world,
there's the new Internet-connected Barbie doll, which has also
been found to have security flaws, for example. And privacy
advocates have long waged a battle against cookies and other
data collection based on kids' Internet activity.

Google is one of the companies that have come under fire. A
nonprofit advocacy group called Electronic Frontier Foundation
has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over
Google's data mining practices. More than half of classroom
computers in the U.S. are Chromebooks and many students and
teachers are using Google Apps For Education, a group of tools
that include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and the
purpose-built Google Classroom.

Anya Kamenetz of NPR's Ed Team and Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai,
a staff writer for the tech news website Motherboard who has
reported on the VTech data hack, spoke to All Things Considered
about the issue of children's privacy. Here are a few takeaways.

LORENZO FRANCESCHI-BICCHIERAI

On the VTech hacker's motivation

He realized their services were really easy to break into. And
he just took a peek in and found there was a lot of personal
data and he was like, whoa, I should not be able to get this.

On what the hacker discovered

He analyzed it (the data) a little bit further, and he realized
that you could actually link the two databases, and basically
figure out who the kids were. The children database only had
their first names, so you couldn't really identify the children
because you only had Mike, Lucy, Sarah, whatever. But from some
other data in the files, Troy Hunt (an Internet security analyst)
realized that you could actually link the two databases and
figure out who the kids were, who were their parents, and
effectively find where the kids lived and all this creepy
information.

On sharing addresses with toy companies

If you're a parent and you buy a V-Tech toy, put in a fake
address. If the company doesn't need that address, you might want
to not give it out. And that way, there's no damage there.

On planning for the future

The big takeaway here is that these things can happen, and as we
connect more stuff to the Internet, we're going to lose data.
That's unfortunate but that's the reality. So we have to accept
it and find ways to limit the damage if it happens  and also,
hold more companies accountable as well.

ANYA KAMENETZ

On what happens when you type a search into Google

When you or I are logged in to Google, whether we're using search,
or Maps, or gmail, we have one account and that's following us
around  sometimes literally in the physical world  and it's
collecting information. When you're logged in and using Chrome,
which is their web browser, Google can actually, with permission,
track your entire browsing history, every site you visit. And
Google uses all this data to better target ads and search results
and to improve its services, not only for you but for everyone.

On why that can pose a problem in schools

For students, the rules are supposed to be a little bit
different. When students are using the Google Apps for Education
and "Core Services" within them  gmail, docs, sheets, slides 
Google says that they don't collect personal data to target ads.
In fact, they stopped collecting student data for ad-targeting
last year after a California lawsuit questioned that practice.

But the EFF says that there's a little bit of a sliding door, a
back door: when students are logged into their student Google
accounts but they're using other Google services like YouTube
videos or they're searching Maps  that Google is collecting
that information after all. And when students are using Chrome
on these school-issued computers, they're browsing the web and
Google potentially has access to their entire browsing history
as well.

On legal implications of such data collection

Well, that depends on who you ask. Google denies any wrongdoing
here. They have signed a voluntary but binding pledge called the
Student Privacy Pledge, along with 200 other companies. And that
pledge says that Google will seek parental authorization before
collecting data that isn't being used explicitly for educational
purposes. And EFF told me that they're not necessarily digging
into what Google is doing with this information, they just want
Google to get permission.



Patent Troll  66 Big Companies Sued For Using HTTPS Encryption


Are you Using HTTPS on your Website to securely encrypt traffic?

Well, we'll see you in the court.

At least, that's what CryptoPeak is saying to all big brands that
utilize HTTPS on their web servers.

Texas-based company CryptoPeak Solutions LLC has filed 66 lawsuits
against many big businesses in the US, claiming they have
illegally used its patented encryption method  Elliptic Curve
Cryptography (ECC)  on their HTTPS websites.

Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is a key exchange algorithm that
is most widely used on websites secured with Transport Layer
Security (TLS) to determine what symmetric keys are used during a
session.

Encryption is on the rise after Edward Snowden made the world
aware of governments global surveillance programs. Today, many
big tech and online services are using encryption to:

    Protect the data transmitted to/from visitor to domain
    Lessen the risk of hacking

However, websites using the ECC key are now at risk of being
forced to court for using the protocol. As CryptoPeak snapped up
the Patent (US Patent 6,202,150) that describes "Auto-Escrowable
and Auto-Certifiable Cryptosystems," which the firm argues covers
elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).

The abstract of the US Patent 6,202,150 describes the invention,
which was granted in 2001:
patent-troll

Some of the biggest names CryptoPeak Solutions sued include:

    Yahoo
    Netflix
    Pinterest
    AT&T
    Sony
    Groupon
    GoPro
    Etsy
    Petco
    Target
    Costco
    Home Depot
    Expedia
    Barnes & Noble
    Multiple financial institutions and hotel chains

    "Defendant has committed direct infringement by its actions
that comprise using one or more sites that utilize Elliptic Curve
Cryptography Cipher Suites for the Transport Layer Security (TLS)
protocol (the Accused Instrumentalities)," according to the
lawsuits.

CryptoPeak can easily be categorized as a "Patent Troll," as it
is still unclear if the cases will be successful or not. Since
the patent describes some of the key tenets of ECC, which
includes generating and publishing of public keys, not obvious
corresponds directly to its implementation in HTTPS connections.

Some companies targeted by the firm are fighting the lawsuit that
seeks damages and royalties, and other like Scottrade are doing
out of court settlements, saying "all matters in controversy
between CryptoPeak and Scottrade have been settled, in principle."

Netflix, one of over 60 companies being dragged to court, called
CryptoKey's lawsuit "invalid" from the outset and filed a case to
be dismissed under FED. 

"The defect in these claims is so glaring that CryptoPeaks only
choice is to request that the court overlooks the express words
of the claims, construe the claims to read out certain language,
or even correct the claims," Netflix said in a court filing.

Now, let's see what happens next.



Microsoft Sets Record With 135 Security Bulletins Issued in 2015


Microsoft released 12 security bulletins for the last Patch
Tuesday update of 2015, resolving a total of 71 vulnerabilities.
Importantly, nine of the bulletins are rated as critical,
including a zero-day flaw that hackers could use to pull off an
escalation of privilege exploit.

The critical updates affect multiple components, including the
VBScript and JScript engine, the Windows DNS server, .Net,
Microsoft Office, Skype for Business, Microsoft Lync and
Silverlight. Three of the updates also affect browsers, namely
Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, while a significant number
also impact the Windows operating system.

The latest Patch Tuesday brings up the total tally of bulletins
for the year to 135, which is a significant increase from the
average of recent years, noted Wolfgang Kandek, the CTO of
Qualys, in a blog post.

"New products by Microsoft only explain a small part of this
increase, for example the new Edge browser only added five
bulletins of its own this year," explained Kandek. "The
majority of the increase is due to new parts of the Windows
ecosystem that are being investigated for the first time, a
tendency that shows how much more important computer security
has become over the years."

Ultimately, the high number of critical updates means that
businesses will need to get affected systems patched as soon as
possible. Administrators can expect extra work this week,
considering how Adobe and Google also released their own updates
at the same time.

For its part, Adobe released a whopper of an update, resolving
78 vulnerabilities in Flash Player software, while Google also
released a security update for its Chrome browser.



           PC Sales Will Keep Falling, But Not for Long


A new report suggests that 2016 was a rough year for PC makers
with worldwide shipments falling by more than 10%.

PCs have had a tough year, as consumers continue to opt for a new
smartphone or tablet over a laptop or desktop computer. According
to market researcher IDC, worldwide PC shipments for 2015 will be
10.3% lower than last year. And in the all-important holiday
quarter, PC shipments are expected to fall 10%.

Its a discouraging forecast for PC makers, which had hoped on
Microsofts new Windows 10 operating system would encourage
people to upgrade their PC. Historically, a new version of
Windows has been a strong reason for enterprise and consumers to
replace old machines. But Windows 10 is a free upgrade for many
systems, and some users are opting to try a software update over
replacing their old computers.

The free upgrade to Windows 10 enables some users to postpone
an upgrade a little, but not indefinitely, said IDC research VP
Loren Loverde in a statement. According to Loverde, some
consumers will use the free operating system upgrade to test
their transition to Windows 10, but they may discover key
features, such as robust touchscreen support, that could induce
them to buy a new device.

Despite the substantial shift in spending and usage models from
PCs toward tablets and phones in recent years, very few people
are giving up on their PCthey are just making it last longer,
Loverde said.

But when Microsoft ends security updates for Windows 7, the PC
world may get a boost from enterprise users upgrading to newer
operating systemsthough thats not expected to happen until
2020.

Another bright spot for the PC market is increasingly
sophisticated laptops with touch screens, which IDC predicts will
continue to gain share from desktop as well as tablet-first
detachables. IDC calls these kind of devices convertibles, and
believes they will continue to grow, even factoring the rise of
tablets with keyboard accessories that can largely perform the
same tasks.

But one key product missing from IDCs forecast is Microsofts
Surface Pro tablet, which runs a full version of Windows and is
being marketed as a laptop replacement. IDC doesnt include
tablets in its tally, but a separate report suggested that the
tablet market would also decline 8% this year, compared to 2014.
However, if IDC were to include detachable tablets such as the
Apple iPad Pro in its forecast, it would only boost PC growth by
3 percentage points.

Meanwhile, rival research firm Gartner, which does include
tablets in its calculation, largely concurs with IDCs
pessimistic forecast, announcing in October that third quarter
PC shipments fell 7.7%.

But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for PC
makers. IDC analysts believe sales are expected to stabilize
by the end of 2016, with the market only shrinking by 3.1% in
2016, which is good for 268 million laptops and desktops
shipped worldwide.



                                =~=~=~=




Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted
at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for
profit publications only under the following terms: articles must
remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of
each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of
request. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org

No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial
media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or
internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of
Atari Online News, Etc.

Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
