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| Oct 2008 | Sep 2008 | Aug 2008 | Jul 2008 | Jun 2008 | May 2008 | Apr 2008 | Mar 2008 | Feb 2008 | Jan 2008 | Dec 2007 | Nov 2007 |Thu, 31 Jan 08
Air Your Security Gripes on TSA Blog
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58138
Frustrated by long airport-security lines? Certain those screeners aren't paying attention? Wondering why your grandma always gets frisked? The federal government wants to hear -- or at least read -- your gripes at the "Evolution of Security" blog the Transportation Security Administration introduced Wednesday. And it promises those complaints and suggestions won't vanish into thin air.
The blog, at http://www.tsa.gov/blog, is getting a rather "blah" response from aviation analysts and passengers advocates who say it will do little to improve process or perception.
"This will just make it easier for them to receive complaints for them to ignore in the name of national security," said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association.
In the blog's initial post, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said the goal is to provide a forum for the agency to explain why travelers must go through certain steps at checkpoints since interaction at airports is often harried and halted, resulting in "feedback and venting ... circulating among passengers with no real opportunity for us to learn from you or vice versa."
"We will incorporate what we learn in this forum in our checkpoint process evolution," Hawley wrote. "Our postings from the public will be reviewed to remove the destructive, but not touch the critical or cranky."
Terry Trippler, a Minneapolis-based airline expert, applauded the idea but said TSA "was in the right church, just not the right pew yet."
And that church could become anything but sacred. Trippler said he envisions the blog quickly degenerating into an online vacuum where a handful of habitual complainers force TSA officials to respond to them, while other self-appointed security "experts" pontificate on the best ways to improve the process.
Even worse, he said some travelers will avoid the blog for fear of retribution from the government.
The TSA already is fighting an uphill battle in the court...
Thu, 31 Jan 08
Mock Disaster Drill: Trains, Planes, Bloggers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58134
It is the government's idea of a really bad day: Washington's Metro subway trains shut down. Seaport computers in New York go dark. Bloggers reveal locations of railcars with hazardous materials. Airport control towers are disrupted in Philadelphia and Chicago. Overseas, a mysterious liquid is found in the Tube, London's subway.
And that was just for starters.
The fictitious international calamities were among dozens of detailed, mock disasters confronting officials in rapid succession in the U.S. government's biggest-ever "Cyber Storm" war game, according to hundreds of pages of heavily censored files obtained by The Associated Press. The Homeland Security Department ran the exercise to test the America's hacker defenses, with help from the State, Defense and Justice departments, the CIA, the National Security Agency and others.
The laundry list of fictional catastrophes, which include hundreds of people on "No Fly" lists arriving suddenly at U.S. airport ticket counters, is significant because it suggests what kind of real-world trouble keeps people in the White House awake at night.
Imagined villains include hackers, bloggers, even reporters. After mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified "major news network" airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the government. Other simulated reporters were duped into spreading "believable but misleading" information that worsened fallout by confusing the public and financial markets, according to the government's files.
The $3 million, the invitation-only war game simulated what the United States described as plausible attacks over five days in February 2006 against the technology industry, transportation lines and energy utilities by anti-globalization hackers. The government is organizing another multimillion-dollar wargame, Cyber Storm 2, to take place in early March.
"They point out where your expectations of your capabilities may be overstated," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the AP. "They may...
Thu, 31 Jan 08
Web Video Company Tackles YouTube
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58133
One of Big Media's most controversial executives is back after a
period of quasi-forced retirement.
Stephen Chao was fired from a top position at News Corp. after,
in separate incidents, he hired a male stripper to disrobe at a
company meeting and nearly drowned Rupert Murdoch's dog at a party.
Now he is forming a Web video company that he hopes to build into
an educational alternative to YouTube.
The site, WonderHowTo.com, aggregates how-to videos, from the
mundane, (like "how to tie a tie" and "how to market your lawn-care
business in the winter") to the strange ("how to do Criss Angel's
vanishing toothpick trick") and the off-color ("how to train your
cat to use the toilet") and beyond.
Chao says the business melds his two primary interests: a
fascination with the bizarre -- he worked as a National Enquirer
reporter after graduating from Harvard -- and the media frontier.
"I'm a video freak and I love turning over rocks and finding
stuff," he said by telephone in advance of a formal announcement
Wednesday. "What I started to notice is that there is a lot of how-
to information out there that is fabulous but kind of hard to find.
We set out to make it easy."
Chao's resume includes his high-profile stint at the News Corp.,
where he helped create "America's Most Wanted" and "Cops" for Fox,
as well as time at media companies run by Barry Diller. But Chao,
52, is perhaps best known for one of corporate America's most
spectacular flame-outs.
In 1992, Murdoch fired Chao, considered a gifted but quirky
executive, after Chao engaged a man to remove all of his clothes
during a speech being delivered at a company management retreat.
The purpose was to drive home a point about decency, but Murdoch,
seated in the audience next to Dick Cheney, then the U.S. secretary
of defense, was not amused.
Now, after spending the better part of the last decade doing
consulting work and surfing near...
Thu, 31 Jan 08
It's a Phone! A GPS! It's Nuvifone, Not iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58132
On Wednesday, Garmin International unveiled the nuvifone, a slim, all-touch-screen device that combines a 3.5G phone, a Web browser and a personal navigator with an appearance similar to Apple's iPhone.
"The Nuvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device," said Cliff Pemble, Garmin's president and COO. "This is the breakthrough product that cell-phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for -- a single device that does it all."
When powered on, the 3.5-inch screen displays three primary icons -- Call, Search and View Map. Users initiate a call by tapping the Call button and selecting a name from the contact list or using the on-screen keypad.
When the Nuvifone is docked onto its vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling so the user can begin routing to a destination.
The nuvifone's personal-navigation features include preloaded maps of North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or both, and allows drivers to find a specific street address, an establishment's name or search for a destination by category using the nuvifone's built-in database with millions of points of interest.
Turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions guide the user to a destination. If the user misses a turn along the route, nuvifone automatically recalculates a route and gets the user back on track, speaking the names of streets along the way.
The nuvifone includes Google local search capability. Nuvifone users can search for locations like "coffee shops" and Google will sort the results based on the user's current location and relevance. The nuvifone also provides e-mail along with text and instant messaging.
A "Where am I?" feature lets users touch the screen at any time to display the exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and...
Thu, 31 Jan 08
Gateway's New PCs Pack a Lot of Power
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58130
Gateway has two new quad-core computers -- and one of them features a dual HD/Blu-ray optical drive and a terabyte drive.
The GM5664 and GT5662 will bring AMD's Phenom processor, as well as DirectX 10 Technology, to the company's GM and GT series. Just as the high-definition DVD format war may be winding down, the GM5664 offers what the company calls a Hybrid-SuperMulti drive so users can enjoy either Blu-ray or high-definition (HD) DVDs. It also can write any kind of DVD or CD.
Glenn Jystad, Gateway's senior manager for consumer desktops, said the new quad-core machines marry "high-performance with affordability." The new models are designed as entertainment hubs for watching live TV and offer heightened realism for video games. Both machines feature the ATI Radeon HD 2400XT graphics card with HDMI high-definition output, and both ship with the Windows Vista Home Premium operating system.
The GM5664 is being touted by Gateway as an entertainment powerhouse for extreme gaming, digital photo and video editing, watching TV or movies, and storing media assets. Sporting an AMD Phenom 9600 Processor at 2.3 GHz, 3GB of memory and a 2MB L3 cache, it also contains an integrated TV tuner with remote control and HD capability. It can act as a TV or digital video recorder with viewing, pausing and recording.
A standard one-terabyte hard drive gives even the biggest collector a lot of space to fill up, and a SmartCopy button enables easy photo filing and transfers.
The GT5662 isn't exactly a slouch, either. It has an AMD Phenom 9500 at 2.2 GHz, 3GB of memory a 2 MB L3 cache and a half-terabyte SATA II hard drive running at 7200 RPM. Both Phenom processors are part of the AMD LIVE series designed for entertainment.
With the GT5662 retailing at about $750 and the...
Thu, 31 Jan 08
Amazon.com Acquires Audible's Bookstore for $300M
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58129
On Thursday, Amazon.com said it inked a deal to acquire Audible, the leading online digital audio bookstore.
Amazon.com will purchase all of Audible's outstanding shares for $11.50 per share and assume Audible.com's outstanding stock-based awards. That values the deal at $300 million.
"Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry," said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com's senior vice president for worldwide digital media. "Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience."
Audible has made a name for itself in the digital world by peddling digital audio editions of books, newspapers and magazines, television and radio programs and original programming. Its Web site, Audible.com offers more than 80,000 programs, including audiobooks from well-known authors such as Stephen King, Thomas Friedman and Jane Austen.
The company also offers spoken-word audio content from sources including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Fresh Air and Charlie Rose. Audible is a major provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple's iTunes Store. Content from Audible is downloaded and played on personal computers, CDs or AudibleReady computer-based and wireless mobile devices.
"Audible has done a good job. Audible has got some good licenses. The company is trusted by the publishers to avoid situations that would result in piracy of the content," said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. "But the problem is Audible is a small part of what people have on their iPods. Most people really want music."
Amazon.com's recently introduced Kindle, a wireless portable reader that provides instant wireless downloads of more than 90,000 books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a high-resolution electronic display, could be the difference maker for Audible.
"Amazon already sells Audible content, but now Amazon can be more aggressive about integrating the...
Thu, 31 Jan 08
Cut Cables Slow Internet in India
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58128
Fallout spread Thursday from a cut in two undersea Internet cables off Egypt's coast, with India waking up to half of its bandwidth disrupted and widespread outages still hampering a wide swathe of the Mideast.
Officials said it could take a week or more to fix the cables, in part because of bad weather. Officials in several countries were scrambling to reroute traffic to satellites and to other cables through Asia.
In all, users in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain were affected. Israel was unaffected by the outages because its Internet traffic is connected to Europe through a different undersea cable, and Lebanon and Iraq were also operating normally.
The biggest impact to the rest of the world could come from the outages across India -- where many U.S. companies outsource back-office operations including customer service call centers.
The outage also raised questions about the system's vulnerability. A Gulf analyst called it a "wake-up call" while an analyst in London cautioned that no one, including the West, was immune to such disruptions.
They could have a "massive impact on businesses," said Alex Burmaster, from Nielsen Online in London, and ordinary people "probably couldn't imagine" a life without the Internet.
Large-scale disruptions are rare but not unknown. East Asia suffered nearly two months of outages and slow service after an earthquake damaged undersea cables near Taiwan in December 2006. That repair operation also was hampered by bad weather.
So far, most governments in the region appeared to be operating normally, apparently because they had switched to backup satellite systems. However, the outages had caused slowdown in traffic on Dubai's stock exchange Wednesday.
In India, major outsourcing firms, such as Infosys and Wipro, and U.S. companies with significant back-office and research and development operations in India, such as IBM and Intel, said...
Thu, 31 Jan 08
The Doc.Com Revolution Begins
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58123
Sit down, plug yourself in, look at the screen. The virtual
doctor will see you now.
The future face of healthcare was unveiled yesterday, a virtual-
reality doctor's office in a box -- a dramatic breakthrough in
telemedicine, currently being trialled in a Scottish hospital, which
is set to revolutionize the delivery of healthcare.
Within the next few years the diagnostic booth could be fully
functioning and serving Scotland's remotest communities,
transforming the way that patients in the country's most isolated
areas can be assessed by both doctors and specialist consultants
without ever seeing each other face to face.
Using the latest advances in computer and medical technology,
doctors will be able to examine and diagnose the conditions of
patients living hundreds of miles away -- monitoring a patient's
heartbeat, their temperature, blood pressure, and carrying out a
number of detailed medical examinations without having to leave
their surgeries.
And eventually it is hoped that the virtual-reality surgeries
could be housed in dedicated booths available for use by the public
in community hospitals, community centers, and even supermarkets -
improving the triage assessments currently being made by the out-of-
hours NHS 24 service.
The system, known as "Health Presence", has been developed by the
leading American technology company Cisco and is being assessed in a
series of world-first patient trials at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in
partnership with the Scottish Center for Telehealth and NHS
Scotland.
Currently the system is being tested in a small room within the
accident and emergency center at the Royal Infirmary with the
"virtual-reality" doctor in a separate room only a few yards away.
The first fully fitted booth is expected to go on trial at a more
remote location later this year -- probably within a dedicated
medical facility in Aberdeen -- but eventually it is hoped that
hundreds of virtual-reality GP pods could be used to cover
the country .
Mr James Ferguson, an emergency consultant and a leading
specialist in telehealth,...
Thu, 31 Jan 08
Startup Snags LinkedIn Names, Email Addresses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58121
Jim Ambras tried to keep his expectations reasonable. Ambras, a veteran of Web companies including search engine AltaVista, was preparing to unveil a company called NotchUp at the DEMO conference in Palm Desert, Calif. His goal was to have 1,000 people signed up in time for his Jan. 29 presentation at the annual showcase for new products and services. NotchUp takes a novel approach to online job search, matching potential employees who are willing to be paid for a job interview with companies willing to pay.
A week before taking the DEMO stage, NotchUp had attracted a meager 200 users. Pressure to add to those ranks was high in the runup to DEMO, the storied launchpad of such tech legends as the original PalmPilot and Salesforce.com. It didn't help that the company was only just emerging from so-called stealth mode, the phase when startups try to stay off the radar screen of potential copycats. The site is password protected, and the only way to join NotchUp was to get invited by a member. "Our goal was obviously too high," Ambras says.
So NotchUp came up with a quick, seemingly easy, way to boost its membership: enabling users to instantly recruit contacts from business social network LinkedIn. The membership drive underscores the benefits and pitfalls of doing business in an online arena where, with a few mouse clicks, a Web surfer can instantly share information, some of it unwanted, with scores of fellow Netizens. Fallout from the move has generated media buzz and lured investors' interest -- but it could also tarnish the company's reputation and incite a row with LinkedIn.
NotchUp had its membership "Aha" moment after a former colleague of Ambras' joined, then proceeded to invite 100 of his own friends. The new member complained at having to type in...
Wed, 30 Jan 08
Yahoo Plans 1,000 Layoffs, Sees Growth as Profits Fall
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58097
Yahoo said it will cut 1,000 jobs in February as it announced profits fell 23 percent in its fiscal fourth quarter.
It said Tuesday that net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31 fell to $206 million, or 15 cents a share, from $269 million, or 19 cents a share, for the year-ago period. Stock-based compensation and other expenses contributed to the decline. Operating income for the quarter fell 38 percent to $191 million from $308 million a year ago.
Revenues climbed 8 percent to $1.8 billion from $1.7 billion a year ago. Marketing services, which includes online advertising revenue, climbed 7 percent to $1.6 billion from $1.5 billion. And revenue from Web sites owned by Yahoo grew 23 percent as sales on affiliate sites rose 13 percent.
Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang said this is a pivotal time for the business, and the company has an opportunity to make investments that will help it capture a significant piece of the growing ad market and create long-term value for its shareholders.
"We are executing aggressively against Yahoo's three big strategic priorities and that hard work is starting to bear fruit, as evidenced by the 20 percent year-over-year growth in O&O marketing services we achieved in the fourth quarter," Yang said. "While we will continue to face headwinds this year, we believe that the moves we are making will help us exit 2008 stronger and more competitive and return to higher levels of operating cash flow growth in 2009."
Yahoo President Sue Drucker said the steps Yahoo has taken over the the past year represent fundamental changes to virtually every aspect of Yahoo's business. She expressed confidence that they will drive Yahoo's growth.
"Even as we increase investment in key areas of our business, we're making tough but necessary decisions to streamline...
Wed, 30 Jan 08
EBay Announces Incentives, But Sellers Want More
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58096
While a University of Maryland study reports eBay saved buyers $19 billion in 2007, the online auctioneer's PowerSellers want more savings.
EBay announced this week it would lower fees for listing items, raise minimum selling standards and offer its best sellers incentives and discounts.
On the heels of eBay CEO Meg Whitman's retirement announcement, John Donahoe, president and CEO-elect, announced the changes during his keynote address at the company's third annual eCommerce Forum.
"Consumers have more choices than ever, and they expect more when they shop online today," Donahoe said. "We're serious about making eBay easier and safer to shop."
EBay is making changes in three major seller areas: fee structure, seller incentives and standards, and feedback. The fee changes, which vary by country, aim to encourage sellers to list more items and use more pictures. Starting Feb. 20 in the U.S., eBay is reducing its fees to list items by 25 to 50 percent.
EBay is balancing that change by increasing the fees it charges when an item is sold. Sellers prefer this structure, eBay said, because it lowers their risk if an item doesn't sell. Donahoe said, "Put simply, we will make more of our money when sellers are successful."
The company is also eliminating fees in the U.S. for its Gallery option, which it expects will spur sellers to include more photos of the item for sale.
Coupled with the fee changes, eBay is shifting the way it works with sellers. The company said it is making its minimum standards more stringent for sellers, primarily to discourage behavior that causes buyer dissatisfaction, such as excessive shipping fees or not describing items accurately.
To this end, eBay will begin decreasing search exposure for the listings of sellers who have high rates of customer dissatisfaction. The company also...
Wed, 30 Jan 08
Valentine's E-Mails Ruin Lovin' Feeling
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58093
Two new computer worms are making their way through cyberspace,
using Valentine's Day messages to infiltrate the systems of
unwitting users. The self-replicating worms, dubbed Nuwar.OL and
Valentin.E, send copies of themselves to other computers and
drastically slow operating systems.
"Year after year, we see the appearance of several malware
strains that use Valentine's Day as bait to attract users," said
Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs Security, based in
Glendale. "This indicates that cyber-crooks are still reaping the
benefits of this technique and many people still fall into the
trap."
Nuwar.OL reaches computers by e-mail with subjects like "I Love
You Soo Much" or "Inside My Heart," according to PandaLabs. The text
of the e-mail includes a link to a Web site that downloads the
malicious software.
Valentin.E is similar, with subject lines like "Searching for
True Love" and an attached file called "friends4u."
If the targeted user opens the file, a copy of the worm will be
downloaded. The malicious code installs on the computer as a file
with the .scr extension. If the user runs it, Valentin.E shows a new
desktop background to trick the user, while it makes several copies
of itself on the computer. Finally, the worm sends out e-mails with
copies of itself from the infected computer to spread and infect
more users.
Corrons warned users not to open e-mails from unknown sources or
click to links included in e-mail messages, even from reliable
sources. Instead, type them in the address bar.
PandaLabs Security offers several free tools for scanning
computers for malware. You can use them from www.infectedornot.com.
Wed, 30 Jan 08
Voyager: LG's Second-Place Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58090
My problem with touch screens is they're not like buttons. They are, of course, much better looking than buttons, especially on cramped devices such as cell phones, but when I'm typing, be it on a computer keyboard or a handheld, I like the sensation of pressing something solid. Without that tactile feedback, I just don't feel my device and I are communicating.
LG Electronics seems to understand. The designers behind LG's Voyager VX10000 clearly took pains to make this touch-screen phone not only beautiful, but delightfully user-friendly. At $300 with a two-year Verizon contract, the Voyager is fairly pricey compared with most cell phones. But it's also more wallet-friendly than many BlackBerrys, Treos, and iPhones -- devices with higher-end features the Voyager also offers.
When you press Voyager's external touch screen, which measures nearly 3 in. diagonally, it vibrates slightly beneath your finger. This reaction from LG's VibeTouch technology lets you know the device has registered your tap in the same way you've been conditioned to expect from any keyboard or keypad -- by feel. It's a little thing. But for high-end phones, it's the little things that matter.
Voyager has plenty of features that make it easy for push-button people to join the minimalist, mobile future. In particular, this device opens like a clam to reveal a pearl of a keyboard. This full QWERTY board's keys are big and not jammed together. There's also a mini-mouse for scrolling and clicking on the large inner screen's commands and links.
The keyboard is particularly important in this device because the touch screen has some frustrating failings. For starters, it doesn't share the multi-touch capability of Apple's iPhone, which lets you swipe a finger across the screen to see the other side of a Web page or the lower half of...
Fri, 25 Jan 08
Virus Found in Some Best Buy Digital Frames
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58040
You can add to the growing list of things you need to do to keep your computer safe -- scan the digital picture frame.
Best Buy has confirmed that some units of its Insignia 10.4-inch Digital Picture Frame, purchased over the holidays, had a computer virus. Last weekend, the retailer noted an advisory from its private label, Insignia, which stated that "a limited number" of the frames, model number NS-DPF-10A, were "contaminated with a computer virus during the manufacturing process."
According to news reports, Best Buy is not recalling the frames, but it has pulled the remaining units. It said this was the only Insignia frame product affected, and the product has been discontinued.
The company said that once it was informed of the contamination, it "immediately" withdrew the product from stores and Web sites "as a precautionary measure to protect our customers." Best Buy did note that "some affected units" were purchased from either its brick-and-mortar stores or from the retailer's Web site before the virus was detected.
Best Buy reportedly learned of the infection after customer complaints, but there is no indication of how the virus was acquired during manufacturing, or what the consequences may have been for customers.
The company pointed out that the virus can only get to a computer if the digital frame is connected. The frames connect to PCs as well as cameras so photos can be downloaded for display. But Best Buy said cameras, USB drives and memory cards cannot be infected by the virus.
Even if a consumer does attach a contaminated frame to a computer via a USB cable, Best Buy said, any up-to-date antivirus software, such as Norton, McAfee or Trend Micro, should be able to detect and remove the infection. It added that the units contained "an older virus...
Fri, 25 Jan 08
Gates Calls for 'Creative Capitalism,' Pledges Farmer Aid
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58039
Bill Gates, who will formally resign from Microsoft later this year, took the spotlight at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Friday as he pledged $306 million to improve agriculture in Africa.
In announcing the grants, Gates called on wealthy companies to engage in "creative capitalism."
"If we are serious about ending extreme hunger and poverty around the world, we must be serious about transforming agriculture for small farmers, most of whom are women," Gates said. "The challenge here is to design a system including profit and recognition to do more for the poor."
Gates told the summit, "Thirty years, 20 years, 10 years ago, my focus was totally on how the magic of software could change the world." But he said technology innovation is not enough to solve problems and change lives in the third world. "If we are going to have a serious chance of changing their lives, we will need another level of innovation. Not just technology innovation -- we need system innovation."
Noting that capitalism tends to benefit people in "inverse proportion to their need," he offered a refinement of the capitalist model, one that reflects the human desire to help others as well as the drive to make money. In the current schema, wealthy nations donate money to poor countries, but there's never enough money to meet the need.
"Such a system would have a twin mission: making profits and also improving lives for those who don't fully benefit from market forces. To make the system sustainable, we need to use profit incentives whenever we can," he said.
Since profits are hard to come by when serving the very poor, Gates suggested another "market-based incentive" -- recognition. Because recognition for good work attracts customers and employees, it "triggers a market-based reward for good behavior," he said.
Gates described...
Fri, 25 Jan 08
Google's Big Mobile Move in Japan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58030
Google is on a roll in Japan. On Thursday, the 800-pound gorilla of Internet search joined NTT DoCoMo onstage to announce plans to wed elements of Google's search technology and other online services with the No. 1 Japanese wireless operator's i-mode mobile Net service. The deal is the second major partnership with a carrier since the Mountain View [Calif.] company formally launched its Google Mobile services in Japan with KDDI back in July 2006.
By cozying up to the two carriers, which combined account for 80 percent of Japan's 100 million cell-phone users, Google improves its chances of being the leader in mobile search. Though not everyone in Japan has a handset that works on the fast third-generation, or 3G, wireless broadband airwaves, more than 70 million DoCoMo and KDDI subscribers do.
It's obvious Google's brain trust isn't just trying to rack up more search queries and e-mail traffic. Ultimately, they want a huge audience of cell-phone users they can target with online advertising relating to their searches. There's lots of earnings potential in that: Worldwide mobile-search ad revenues could top $1.1 billion by 2010, growing seventeenfold from around $63 million last year, according to researcher eMarketer's estimates.
And Japan will be a key early battleground. Consumers in Japan are just as likely to surf the Net from a cell phone while riding a train as they are from a PC on a desk at home. DoCoMo Executive Vice President Kiyoyuki Tsujimura told journalists one of the goals of the tie-up with Google was to boost DoCoMo's shared search-related ad revenues to $94 million "as soon as possible." [Executives from neither company would say how the bounty would be divvied up.]
Brace yourself for every e-mail, map and Web page to be clogged with ads, right? Not so fast. Google takes...
Fri, 25 Jan 08
Database Will Mine 9 Federal Sources to Assist Police
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58027
A massive new database program that culls information from more than nine federal sources will help law-enforcement agents link possible terrorists or other suspected criminals with associates whose records are in the system, federal officials say.
The program's goal is to close gaps in information-sharing identified in The 9/11 Commission Report, which chided law enforcement for failing to piece together the hijackers' terrorist cell. Critics say it raises privacy and accuracy concerns.
"The system will make connections for us," says Jason Henry, who runs the information-sharing program at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Other federal, state and local law enforcement will be able to access the ICE Pattern Analysis and Information Collection System, dubbed "ICEPIC." It will collect information from databases that track foreign students, visitors and immigrants as well as criminals and suspected terrorists.
Among the databases is the government's terrorist watch list. More than 15,000 people have appealed to have their names taken off that list, saying it contains incomplete or inaccurate information.
ICE declined to identify all the databases "because that becomes a road map for a terrorist or a member of a criminal organization," Henry said.
Investigators previously searched 10 to 15 databases manually for people who met "suspicious criteria," a process that could take as long as three days per person, Henry said.
Civil liberties and privacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union say they worry investigators will arrest innocent people based on information from flawed databases.
"The difficulty is if you have bad data," ACLU attorney Tim Sparapani said. "Then that bad data migrates from one database to another database. You end up with all sorts of innocent people getting stopped or tagged as being suspicious."
James Dempsey of the Center for Democracy & Technology said if the agency builds in safeguards to protect innocent people, the data can be...
Thu, 24 Jan 08
Yahoo Considers Online Music Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58022
Yahoo is in early discussions with major record labels about offering unprotected MP3s either for sale or for free as part of an ad-supported service, two record company executives familiar with the talks said Wednesday.
The talks, held as recently as last month, were preliminary because Yahoo is still working out the details, said the executives, who requested anonymity because the discussions were confidential.
Yahoo hopes to launch the service this year, they said.
Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group PLC have in recent months begun licensing their music for sale as MP3 files online through retailers like Amazon.com.
Unlike music files that come with copy protections embedded, MP3 files are compatible with most portable music devices, including Apple Inc.'s market-leading iPod media players, Microsoft Corp.'s Zune and mobile phones that play music.
Carrie Davis, a spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, said the company has often said it wants to offer music without copy protections and the subject has been part of its ongoing talks with record labels.
But Davis denied that discussions with record labels on the matter have stepped up in recent weeks or that anything is imminent.
Representatives for the labels declined to comment.
Yahoo offers free streaming audio, music videos and Web radio. It also operates a music subscription service and a premium Internet radio service.
The company's management said last fall it had begun to de-emphasize its subscription model in favor of an advertising-supported music service. Yahoo also expanded its online music pages by adding song lyrics.
The Internet pioneer recently announced plans for a multiyear restructuring plan that calls for the elimination of some of its existing areas of business.
Last fall, the company inked a licensing deal for user-created video content with Sony BMG that calls for the record company to receive a share of advertising...
Thu, 24 Jan 08
Digital Sales Up, But Global Music Drags Down
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58021
The world music market fell 10 percent in 2007, faster than in 2006, but digital music sales continued to soar, rising 40 percent, according to figures released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The association represents the recording industry in 75 countries.
The strong global sales of digital content might be good news for Apple, the dominant purveyor of online music, but it wasn't enough to offset the rapid fall in CD sales, the IFPI said.
Online sales now account for 15 percent of the global market, the IPFI said, up from 10 percent a year ago and zero in 2003. Even more impressive, digital sales make up 30 percent of the U.S. market.
"Apple is clearly one of the main beneficiaries of this trend. But piracy is clearly still rampant and has had an effect on CD sales," said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies.
The industry responded to the numbers by focusing on piracy, as it has since P2P (peer-to-peer) networking first appeared with Napster a decade ago. The latest strategy is to try to defeat piracy at the network level by calling on Internet service providers to take action against customers who repeatedly violate the law.
The industry was encouraged recently when French President Nicolas Sarkozy moved to block Web access to frequent illegal downloaders.
"It is hard to persuade anyone to be a pioneer, but what we have with the French government is a very energetic government understanding how important the French music industry is to French business and culture," IFPI Chief Executive John Kennedy told Reuters. "That leadership shows that it's not as dreadful or as problematic as people think."
And in Belgium, a court ordered a service provider to block illegal file sharing; that decision is on appeal. In the United States, AT&T...
Thu, 24 Jan 08
eBay Policies May Change with New CEO
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58010
Wednesday marked the beginning of the end of an eBay era. The online auctioneer announced that Meg Whitman will step down as president and CEO on March 31. She will remain on the company's board of directors and John Donahoe will become president and CEO.
Whitman joined eBay in March 1998. At the time, eBay was a U.S.-only, auction-based trading site with 500,000 registered users, 30 employees, and $4.7 million in revenue. Today, the company has hundreds of millions of users worldwide, more than 15,000 employees, and nearly $7.7 billion in revenue.
Whitman led eBay to become one of the fastest-growing companies in history. Over the last 10 years, she has built a portfolio of brands and a thriving business that enables millions of people to trade, pay and communicate online.
"Meg's passion for all things eBay changed the world," said Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and chairman of the board. "With humor, smarts and unflappable determination, Meg took a small, barely known online auction site and helped it become an integral part of our lives. We're all enormously grateful that Meg dedicated herself to stewarding eBay through its 10 most formative years."
eBay's board of directors voted unanimously to make Donahoe president and CEO. Donahoe came to eBay in February 2005 from Bain & Company, where he had served as worldwide managing director since 1999.
For nearly three years, Donahoe has been president of eBay Marketplaces, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the company's global revenues. In this role, Donahoe has been responsible for the growth of eBay and its other e-commerce businesses around the world, and during the time he has managed this business unit, both revenues and profits doubled.
"During the last three years, John and I have worked very closely together to arrive at this day,...
Thu, 24 Jan 08
New IBM Tools Enhance Mashups, Social Networking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58009
Several Web 2.0 tools unveiled by IBM have advanced the growing options for business-based social networking and data mashups.
On Wednesday at the Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Fla., the company showed its Lotus Mashups application and updated versions of Lotus Connections and Lotus Quickr 8.1.
First previewed last fall, Lotus Mashups allows nontechnical users to "mashup," or combine, various data in ad hoc ways. Using a browser, out-of-the-box widgets, a catalog for finding and sharing widgets and mashups, and a builder for accessing enterprise systems, Lotus Mashups enables what the company described as visualizations that can blend enterprise and Web-based data "to solve real business problems."
"We're seeing a real trend happening," said Oliver Young, an analyst with industry research firm Forrester. He noted that Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and other companies have also been releasing mashup tools for consumers and businesses, and now "a lot of companies are seeing value in mashups."
The value, Young said, is in enabling knowledge workers to create their own dashboards, where "they can see lots of different data sources in one view." Lotus Mashups is interesting, he said, in that it enables the user to connect the portlets (views), so that data changes in one portlet affect the data in another.
For many people, mashups mean data overlays on maps, such as all the pizza shops in your city overlaid on a Google map. Young noted that this is only one type of mashup, and that the term means taking multiple data sources and combining them so they can be viewed at the same time.
Eventually, he predicted, we're going to see mashup tools widely adopted, because "the business value is tremendous," but he expects that won't happen for at least a year.
Young pointed out that social-networking tools for business, such as Lotus Connections,...
Thu, 24 Jan 08
AT&T to Raise Internet Speeds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58003
HOUSTON -- AT&T announced Wednesday that it will boost Internet speeds for customers of its phone, television and Internet service, and will start offering free access to the company's 10,000 wireless hot spots to nearly all of its broadband customers.
Starting next month, for $55 a month as part of a bundle that includes its U-verse TV service, customers will have a 10 megabit-per-second download option. The speed increase better positions AT&T in its ongoing battle with cable companies, which have made similar announcements recently, independent telecommunications industry analyst Jeff Kagan said.
"The speeds customers are using online are getting faster and faster," Kagan said.
As of October, U-verse was available to about 400,000 homes in the Houston area. AT&T has added more to its footprint but declined to give updated numbers. Earlier this year, the company began marketing standalone DSL Internet access, but the new 10 Mbps service is not offered without the U-Verse package.
As traditional phone companies have started offering television service, and cable companies have added phone service, the two sides are racing to sign up customers for so-called "triple play" bundles of phone, TV and Internet.
Comcast, which has about 750,000 customers as the cable provider for most of the Houston area, and AT&T offer various service tiers with different pricing. The cable company's closest comparison to AT&T's new offer is 8 Mbps for $60 a month. With Comcast's PowerBoost feature, which increases speeds when the network isn't busy, speeds can reach 16 Mbps.
"We welcome competition, but the fact is we deliver more speed to more customers at a better value than any other company in the U.S.," Comcast spokesman Michael Bybee said.
Comcast also is on the verge of rolling out new wideband service over the next two years with speeds of 100 Mbps, he said.
"The high-speed connections are not...
Thu, 24 Jan 08
Book Probes Web as Moneymaking 'Machine'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57995
Could wiki-wisdom be wrong? Maybe the Internet isn't about freedom, information and community. Maybe it's really about entrepreneurs making money. And could our frantic clicking simply be an attempt to distract ourselves from the limits of being mortal? Inescapable stuff like loneliness, sexual rejection and death?
In his new book, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob, cultural critic Lee Siegel casts an aggressively contrarian eye at some of the mythology surrounding the Web. The author of two earlier books, he accepts that the Web makes life marvelously convenient. And he's not a Luddite, living off the power grid. The former art critic for Slate.com, Siegel was suspended from The New Republic for posting anonymously about his own articles on the magazine's Web site. (He explains his actions.)
The best aspect of this well-argued book is the pugnacious Siegel's willingness to be labeled a change-hating elitist by pointing out certain unpleasant realities. Yes, there are more than 70 million blogs in existence today. But, he writes, "Not everyone has something meaningful to say. Few people have anything original to say. Only a handful of people know how to write well."
And there's more: Self-expression isn't art. Online anonymity allows people to behave in destructive ways, with the Web resembling a cruel digital high-school slam book obsessed with popularity. He also argues that living online lets people become more isolated and narcissistic, less engaged with messy reality and the satisfactions of actual human contact. The Web also allows instant and unprecedented access to pornography.
Others have raised these issues. What makes Siegel's book so thought-provoking is the way he delineates the economic forces behind the Web. Its visionaries are businesspeople. They want to make money. That's fine.
But Siegel exhorts readers to recognize that the Web is primarily about creating consumers,...
Wed, 23 Jan 08
Where's Your Kid? Check the GPS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57983
Though I try to keep close tabs on my family, it's sometimes hard to know exactly where they are when. For example, when my daughter is on a play date or school trip, or my husband is traveling for work. For those who find moments like these unsettling, there are a growing number of services and devices that use satellite GPS signals and wireless networks to track the exact locations of your loved ones more closely. Many of these products are being integrated with cell phones, while others are stand-alone tracking devices.
One of these new devices, the AnyTrack GPS-100, is a lightweight pager-like device that fits in the palm of your hand. AnyTrack says the $229 device is designed to track people, pets, packages, cars, boats and other items. My family agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to let me track them over a recent weekend.
On Friday afternoon, my daughter was invited to play at a friend's house and to then go to Lovejoy's Tea Room in San Francisco for hot chocolate, scones and jelly sandwiches. The mother supervising the outing -- someone I trust implicitly -- said it was OK to track the play date. Getting started was incredibly simple. I just charged the AnyTrack GPS-100 by plugging it in, and it was ready to go after several hours. In addition to satellite signals, AnyTrack uses cellular signals to calculate locations so the device can be tracked indoors as well.
When I logged onto www.anytrack.net, the site displayed the map I would use to track where the device was located -- or presumably located, that is. After pressing the "locate now" button, the map showed the device to be located about a mile from my home in San Francisco. About half an hour later, the map finally placed the device...
Wed, 23 Jan 08
BlackBerry Gets Enhanced Communication Features
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57976
Looking to keep its position in an increasingly competitive landscape, Research in Motion (RIM) announced Tuesday new e-mail and other features for its popular BlackBerry device.
The company based in Waterloo, Ontario, said the new features, unveiled at the Lotusphere 2008 conference in Orlando, Fla., and scheduled for release throughout the first half of this year, will "enable organizations to increase mobility, productivity and return on investment." The features include enhanced messaging and collaboration, simpler management, enhanced security, and expanded application development support.
The features require updates to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and device software, and offer new capabilities for document downloading and editing, remote searching for messages, easier calendar lookup, HTML and rich-text e-mail, and advanced instant messaging. RIM has also announced that it will preview today a native application for providing access to Lotus Connections social software for businesses, offering the same access that is currently available on the desktop.
For documents in formats such as Microsoft's Word, PowerPoint and Excel, the integration of the DataViz Documents to Go software will enable editing on a BlackBerry smartphone. E-mail searching has been enhanced to allow users to search and retrieve messages from the server, even when they are no longer available on the smartphone.
With the new calendar functionality, users can check colleagues' availability before requesting a meeting. For instant communications, companies running IBM Lotus Sametime and Microsoft Live Communications Server can have improved address-book integration, "click to call" functionality and more emoticon support.
New BlackBerry administration features include an enhanced Monitoring Service as part of the next release of the company's Enterprise Server. A new Web Desktop Manager simplifies software upgrades, the company said, by allowing users to install software on their computer and manage their device via a browser. In addition, software updates to the device can be handled...
Wed, 23 Jan 08
Apple 2Q Outlook Spooks Investors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57975
As investors pummeled Apple Inc.'s stock over a disappointing financial outlook, a key question remained about the results: Just how badly will the company be hurt by slowing economic activity in the United States and fears of a recession?
Wall Street interpreted the Cupertino-based company's guidance for the current quarter, released after the market closed Tuesday, as a sign that weakening consumer spending will hurt Apple in 2008 and that even a hot company like Apple isn't immune from the broader economic pressures weighing on the stock market.
Apple executives noted, however, that the company's forecast for the fiscal second quarter calls for sales growth of 29 percent, which is faster than in previous years, even if it is slower than Wall Street was expecting. The company said that because of booming holiday sales, Apple notched the highest quarterly revenue and earnings in its history.
"Our business performed very well in the December quarter, and we remain very confident in our products and our strategy," said Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.
Still, disappointed investors punished Apple, sending its shares down $17.71, or more than 11 percent, to $137.93 in after-hours trading Tuesday.
Apple's stock, seen as a refuge from the market's turmoil during the second half of 2007, has declined sharply, wiping out more than $40 billion in shareholder wealth since the end of December, when shares hit their 52-week high of $202.96.
Shareholders had hoped Apple's first-quarter results, which cover the last three months of the year, would be a high point in a market otherwise marred by bad news. Instead, the company became emblematic of Tuesday's broader market tumble, which saw the tech-laden Nasdaq composite index fall 2 percent.
Some analysts said fear about slowing consumer spending was overblown in response to Apple's results and the company may have been a victim of its...
Wed, 23 Jan 08
Symantec Reports Real Drive-by Pharming Attack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57972
According to Symantec, the first drive-by pharming attack has become reality. Symantec warned of the concept almost a year ago, and now has reported such an attack against a Mexican bank.
In a drive-by pharming attack, victims only have to view a web page or open an e-mail. Embedded malicious code could change the DNS (Domain Name System) settings on a victim's router. From that point on, Symantec reports, all future URL requests would be resolved by the attacker's DNS server, which means the attacker effectively controls the victim's Internet connection.
"At the time we described the attack concept, it was theoretical in the sense that we had not seen an example of it in the wild. That's no longer the case," said Symantec security expert Zulfikar Ramzan.
In one real-life variant that Symantec researchers observed, the attackers embedded the malicious code inside an e-mail that said it had an e-card waiting at the Web site gusanito.com.
However, the e-mail also contained an HTML IMG tag that resulted in an HTTP GET request being made to the victim's router. The GET request modified the router's DNS settings so that the URL for a popular Mexico-based banking site, as well as other related domains, were mapped to the attacker's Web site.
"Now, anyone who subsequently tried to go to this particular banking Web site -- one of the largest banks in Mexico -- using the same computer would be directed to the attacker's site instead," Ramzan said. "Anyone who transacted with this rogue site would have their credentials stolen."
Symantec said the first real-life instance of drive-by pharming was even more devastating than the researchers' original concept because the particular brand of router involved has a substantial vulnerability that makes the attack far more potent.
"In its original incarnation, the drive-by pharming...
Wed, 23 Jan 08
World of Warcraft Hits 10M Subscribers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57992
Blizzard Entertainment announced today that subscribers for World of Warcraft, its award-winning MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), have continued to climb, passing 10 million worldwide. Interest in the game has remained high in all regions, with thousands of new and returning players signing up through the holiday season.
World of Warcraft now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia.
"It's very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we're looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead."
Since debuting in North America on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG around the world. It was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006 worldwide, and finished behind only World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the first expansion pack for the game, in 2007.
In addition to being the best-selling PC game of 2007 in both North America and Europe, The Burning Crusade holds the record for fastest-selling PC game of all time, with nearly 2.4 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of availability and approximately 3.5 million in its first month. Development is underway on World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, which was unveiled at the company's BlizzCon gaming festival in August 2007.
World of Warcraft is currently available in seven languages, with a Russian version in development and scheduled for release later this year. In addition to North America and Europe, World of Warcraft is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and...
Wed, 23 Jan 08
Apple's iPod Touch May be the Future for Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57990
Despite the hammering Apple's stock took because iPod sales did not meet analysts' expectations, its new iPod Touch may have a bright future.
iPod sales for Apple's year-end quarter totaled 22.1 million, below Wall Street's estimate of 24.7 million. Unit sales increased just 5 percent, which is practically flat compared to historical growth in iPod sales.
However, iPod revenue rose 17 percent to $4 billion, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said during the company's quarterly conference call Tuesday. The difference was largely due to higher prices for the iPod Touch, "the most expensive iPod we've introduced in some time," Oppenheimer noted.
If the iPod Touch is skewing revenue numbers that much, Apple must be racking up some substantial sales for the top-of-the-line model. Despite the name, it's clear the Touch is not an iPod in the traditional sense.
With Wi-Fi capability, a touch screen and the ability to browse the Web and run applications -- but no requirement that customers be locked into an exclusive carrier contract -- the iPod Touch is a multimedia-rich PDA (personal digital assistant).
"We view the iPod market as bigger than the market for simple music players," Oppenheimer said. "We believe one of the iPod's future directions is to become the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform."
"The iPod Touch is really just an iPhone without the AT&T requirements," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research. "That's a weakness as well as a strength, because there's no widely available Wi-Fi network you can just tap into."
As long as the iPod Touch is limited to Wi-Fi, it will have limited appeal, Sterling said. He added that while Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T may preclude offering a data plan from, for instance, Sprint, such a deal could make the iPod Touch a "ubiquitous mobile device."
"Touch is the iPhone...
Wed, 23 Jan 08
Microsoft Prepares To Push Windows Mobile for Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57987
Microsoft is ready to expand its marketing for Windows Mobile. On Wednesday, the company said it has hired Todd Peters as corporate vice president of marketing for its Mobile Communications Business (MCB). Peters will be responsible for marketing Windows Mobile, as well as other mobility brand offerings.
Peters most recently was a vice president at the office-supply company Staples, responsible for brand management and all U.S. retail technology marketing. He was behind the development of the Staples "easy" brand concept that was instrumental in driving sales. It was also Peters' idea to create the Easy Button, which was sold through retail outlets to raise money for charities.
Before joining Staples, Peters spent six years at Intel, where he was responsible for setting global brand strategy. He developed the brand architecture for the Intel family of processors that helped upgrade the company's market image. Before Intel, Peters spent 11 years in advertising agencies, including Hal Riney & Partners in San Francisco, where he led the launch of Sprint's PCS service.
"Microsoft is gaining a real foothold with its mobile products and services in the consumer world," Peters said, adding that he is looking forward to helping make Windows Mobile a brand that people not only recognize, but that they seek out when choosing the phone that's right for them.
Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst at Current Analysis, declined to comment on the move. However, he did note some opportunities and weaknesses for Windows Mobile that Peters may address.
In terms of sales, Windows Mobile has been growing at a healthy clip. In terms of mindshare, however, Microsoft has been somewhat eclipsed by Apple and Google.
There's no question, Greengart said, that drawing more attention to the success that Microsoft has had will be the key to moving forward.
"Microsoft absolutely needs to keep...
Tue, 22 Jan 08
Yahoo's Biggest Purge in Seven Years
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57967
After seven months as chief executive, Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang has concluded hundreds of employees will have to be fired to help the slumping Internet icon recover from years of misguided management.
The Sunnyvale-based company's biggest purge since the dot-bust most likely will be announced next week, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The person asked not to be identified because the exact number of jobs to be cut is still under discussion.
Yang and his management team already have committed to jettisoning at least several hundred jobs to help boost Yahoo's profits and placate investors demanding more action to reverse a steep decline in the company's stock price.
Securities analysts are betting Yahoo will trim its 14,000-employee payroll by about 5 percent -- or 700 workers. If that many people are dumped, Yahoo could save about $100 million (EU69 million), JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan estimated in a Tuesday note.
Besides trimming Yahoo's expenses, job cuts could help buy Yang more time to carry out his strategy to re-establish Yahoo as a main entry point to the Internet and create a more compelling online advertising network.
Many investors had been questioning whether Yang was too emotionally attached to the company that he started in 1995 to make the tough decisions needed to turn it around, said Standard and Poor's equity analyst Scott Kessler.
"A lot of what drives the market comes down to perception and, rightly or wrongly, there is a perception that Yahoo needs to be repaired," Kessler said. "To gain credibility, you need to make hard choices like this."
From Wall Street's perspective, the layoffs are long overdue. Through September, Yahoo generated just under $364,000 (EU251,138) per employee, well below an average of nearly $565,000 (EU389,816) per employee at six other major Internet companies, including Google Inc. and eBay Inc., Khan...
Tue, 22 Jan 08
EMC Offers Secure Online Backups
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57965
Companies such as Salesforce.com have been delivering software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for customer relationship management and other business needs for years. And while some I.T. professionals have been cautious about relying on such hosted applications, that could soon change.
On Tuesday, EMC announced EMC Fortress, described as a secure development platform, and its first application, an online backup service called MozyEnterprise. The release follows EMC's acquisition of Berkeley Data Systems last October.
"Our strategy is focused on bringing new software-as-a-service offerings to market, powered by EMC," said Tom Heiser, senior vice president and general manager of EMC's new SaaS unit.
EMC said MozyEnterprise automates secure online backup and recovery over the Internet for "consistent and reliable" offsite data backup.
The release indicates a "growing acceptance of software-as-a-service offerings," Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, said in a telephone interview. "Salesforce.com has turned the corner on the traditional reticence."
The cornerstones of SaaS adoption are expense and simplicity, King added. "Software as a service plays well where there's an enterprise-class product that's easier to use and more cost-effective than running the solution in-house," he said.
The timing of this product intersects with the rapidly expanding amount of storage available in employee laptops and desktops. "EMC really hit the note here," King said, "because business employees are storing more and more data on laptops than ever before."
Most businesses, King went on to say, realize that the "information being stored on employee laptops constitutes valuable corporate data and that adequate backup is important."
King expects MozyEnterprise to conquer lingering concerns about storing corporate data offsite. "There have been some issues around whether businesses are willing to store data in a data center with other businesses' information," King said. With MozyEnterprise, though, "not only is data encrypted on backup, it's also stored in an encrypted...
Tue, 22 Jan 08
New Mobile Phone Has a Foldable Screen
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57946
If mobile phones are getting too small for your fingers or eyes, a Dutch company called Polymer Vision has a unique solution. It announced a phone with a foldable screen that offers a display larger than the device itself.
Called Readius, the device has a five-inch, black-and-white display that unfolds and folds. The screen can display only 16 shades of gray, but the company says it is twice the surface area of the largest mobile-phone display. When closed, the device is the size of an average mobile phone.
Polymer Vision is a spinoff from electronics giant Philips, and the Readius will be available by the middle of this year. No price has been announced.
Polymer said the Readius introduces a "whole new mobile-phone category," combining the "'reading friendly' strengths of e-readers with the 'high mobility' features of mobile phones." The Readius can run for up to 30 hours on a single battery, is a HSDPA tri-band phone with standard POP3 and IMAP support for e-mail, and has microSD High Capacity storage.
Users do not want to deal with problems that result from the small device-versus-screen size tradeoff, said Polymer CEO Karl McGoldrick in a statement. Such devices have either small screens or are too bulky to carry in a pocket, he said.
To solve the problem, Philips spent years working on foldable displays. In 2002, after more than 10 years of research into what it called organic electronics, Philips announced the world's first flexible display. In 2004, Polymer, which was then part of Philips, announced the first rollable display that was as thin as paper. The first prototype of the Readius was presented in 2005.
Chris Hazelton, an analyst at industry research firm IDC, remembers when the prototype was announced. "It sounds like a very innovative device," he said, adding that he...
Tue, 22 Jan 08
Are IP Addresses Personal Information?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57941
IP addresses, strings of numbers that identify computers on the Internet, should generally be regarded as personal information, the head of the European Union's group of data privacy regulators said Monday.
Germany's data protection commissioner, Peter Scharr, leads the EU group preparing a report on how well the privacy policies of Internet search engines operated by Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others comply with EU privacy law.
He told a European Parliament hearing on online data protection that when someone is identified by an IP, or Internet protocol, address "then it has to be regarded as personal data."
His view differs from that of Google, which insists an IP address merely identifies the location of a computer, not who the individual user is -- something strictly true but which does not recognize that many people regularly use the same computer terminal and IP address.
Scharr acknowledged that IP addresses for a computer may not always be personal or linked to an individual. For example, some computers in Internet cafes or offices are used by several people.
But these exceptions have not stopped the emergence of a host of "whois" Internet sites that apply the general rule that typing in an IP address will generate a name for the person or company linked to it.
Treating IP addresses as personal information would have implications for how search engines record data.
Google led the pack by being the first last year to cut the time it stored search information to 18 months. It also reduced the time limit on the cookies that collect information on how people use the Internet from a default of 30 years to an automatic expiration in two years.
But a privacy advocate at the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC, said it was "absurd" for Google to claim that stripping out the...
Tue, 22 Jan 08
Microsoft Takes Virtual Step Forward
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57940
Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced several moves it says will help its business customers take advantage of a technology called virtualization, and in the process help the software maker catch up with VMware Inc., the frontrunner in that area.
Virtualization allows one physical computer to house multiple "virtual machines," each one acting like a separate computer with an operating system and all the software that runs on top of it.
For office workers, virtualization might mean that "their computer" is actually a virtual machine running on a server -- not the actual hardware on their desks -- and can be accessed from any work station. That, in turn, could make it easier for IT workers to install new applications across an entire company network or back up an individual's computer with all its settings, and would make losing a laptop much less disastrous. What's more, older hardware that would have been replaced can have a longer life connecting to virtual desktops housed on more powerful servers.
To help move the virtual desktop scenario forward, Microsoft said Monday it plans to acquire Calista Technologies Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based startup founded in 2006. Calista's technology makes logging on to a virtual desktop feel more like working on a physical Windows computer, Microsoft said. No financial details of the agreement were disclosed.
Microsoft also said it will expand an alliance with another virtual desktop computing company, Citrix Systems Inc., that will help their respective products work well together.
Redmond-based Microsoft also announced it will cut the cost of licensing Windows for use on virtual machines to $23 from $78 per year for its big business customers.
Reversing its previous policy, the company said all versions of Windows Vista, including the least expensive Vista Home Basic, can be virtualized.
Microsoft is set to launch the next generation of its...
Tue, 22 Jan 08
A Warm Welcome for Google's Android
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57936
Nikita Ivanov and his 14 employees are working on an application that would harness the processing power within millions of cell phones to create one big supercomputer. The idea is to enable companies and government agencies to exploit all the idle computing power in their employees' mobile phones and perhaps even handsets belonging to non-employees who have agreed to lease that spare capacity.
To create this "grid" computing application, Ivanov's startup firm has chosen a mobile software platform that doesn't yet run on a single commercially available phone. Rather than Windows Mobile or the Symbian operating system, GridGain is using Android, a platform spearheaded by Google that has drawn scores of software developers with its promise of flexibility to create unusual applications.
GridGain is one of thousands of Android-based projects in the works. Another would enable users to record and share audio tours of museums or galleries. One is a music player that can connect a cell-phone user with people who have similar musical tastes and happen to be nearby. All underscore the ways that developers hope to use Android to take phones in new directions with greater ease than today's prominent wireless platforms. To succeed, though, they, along with Google and its partners, will need to work some kinks out of the system.
It's telling that Android, first unveiled by the Google-led Open Handset Alliance in November, is spurring all this interest among developers even though no wireless carriers have definitively agreed to allow such handsets on their networks. Or that Android is still missing many key capabilities such as support for Bluetooth wireless connections to headsets and other devices.
Nearly 200 industry movers and shakers recently surveyed by Chetan Sharma Consulting said they believe Android-based mobiles won't make even a small dent during 2008 in the smartphone market, which...
Tue, 22 Jan 08
Apple's iPhone Gets Ready for Work
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57933
The iPhone is getting ready for work. On Monday, AT&T announced business plans for Apple's popular touch-screen device, and there are reports that IBM soon will announce Lotus Notes e-mail for the iPhone.
When the iPhone first was released in June, the criticisms leveled at it centered around its lack of support for enterprise requirements. For instance, anyone who was already a business customer of AT&T and wanted to get an iPhone had to get the consumer plan.
The new business plans, announced on AT&T's Web site, require a two-year commitment -- as does the consumer version -- either as a new service agreement or as a renewed agreement for existing customers.
Three plans are available: the Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone 200, the Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone 1500, and the Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone Unlimited. All three offer unlimited data access and visual voicemail in the U.S.
The plans differ in the number of short message service (SMS) communications that are allowed. The iPhone 200 plan, for instance, offers 200 SMS messages monthly for $45, the iPhone 1500 is $55, and the Unlimited plan is $65. There are also step-ups for global data plans, which cover 29 countries.
The next step toward welcoming the iPhone into corporate I.T. departments, according to an Associated Press report last week, could be an announcement from IBM that will come later this week. IBM reportedly will offer Lotus Notes e-mail for the iPhone, free to users with a current Lotus Web-access license, and $39 a year for new users.
"Right now," said Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, "the iPhone is still a consumer device." No matter what functionality or plans are added to it, he said, it has been designed to be the best entertainment...
Mon, 21 Jan 08
New Dell Blades Offer Management Tools
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57918
On Monday, Dell sharpened its blades, so to speak, with the launch of all-new PowerEdge M-Series blade servers.
Dell boasts 30 industry patents in its latest design that taps Dell Energy Smart technologies to help customers deal with environmental concerns in the data center.
The new M1000e blade enclosure sells for $5,999 and other blades start at $1,849.
According to Brad Anderson, senior vice president of the Dell Business Product Group, blade offerings have been long on promises and short on helping customers address the growing costs and complexity in their data centers.
"The PowerEdge M-Series delivers on those promises with unmatched energy efficiency, flexibility, performance and manageability," Anderson said in a statement. "It enables customers to achieve the computing performance they need while lowering their overall power consumption and reducing data center complexity and server sprawl."
Anderson's boasting is not all puffery if Dell's numbers hold up. The server maker reports its PowerEdge M-Series consumes up to 19 percent less power and achieves up to 25 percent better performance per watt than the Hewlett-Packard BladeSystem c-Class1.
Compared to the IBM BladeCenter H, the M-Series consumes 12 percent less energy and achieves up to 28 percent better performance per watt. The M-Series also provides lead-free configurations, delivering a "green IT" solution that aims to help customers minimize their environmental impact.
The PowerEdge M1000e, a 10U-sized enclosure, supports 16 blade servers. It is optimized for Dell's PowerEdge M600 and M605 blade servers and supports up to two quad-core Intel Xeon and quad-core AMD Opteron processors, respectively.
Dell's PowerEdge M-Series incorporates FlexIO switch technology, making it the only blade solution providing snap-in scalability all the way down to the switch interconnects. Dell said this feature helps protect and maximize a customer's server investment by eliminating the need for wasteful "rip-and-replace" upgrades.
"I wouldn't...
Mon, 21 Jan 08
HBO Goes Beyond TV with Downloads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57916
For years, HBO has been saying it's not TV. Now, with reports that it will be offering downloads of many of its movies and shows, many viewers may not even watch the cable-channel's offerings on that device.
According to news reports, the pioneering pay-cable channel will launch HBO On Broadband on Tuesday with about 400 hours of downloadable movies and original TV series. The download service will be available only to HBO subscribers, and initially only to those in the Milwaukee or Green Bay, Wis., areas. There will be no extra charge for the service beyond the cable-channel subscription, and it will be marketed through cable companies.
Eric Kessler, HBO co-president, told news media that the new service will enhance the value of a subscription. In 2001, HBO offered a video-on-demand service for movies and original series, which the cable service has said helped retain subscribers. HBO On Demand reaches about one-third of HBO subscribers.
Some technological barriers for the download service may restrict its adoption. It will be PC-only, is not compatible with Apple's iPods, and cannot be offered to subscribers who receive HBO through satellite transmissions. Downloaded content cannot be transferred to another device, and the user has a four-week window in which to view the content.
But there are some added values as well. The download service will enable users to set their computers as they would a digital video recorder, including automatically downloading new movies or series episodes, and user accounts can be established for different family members. There is also parental control by rating, and viewers in the Eastern time zone will be able to watch a live feed of the service.
The service will require a separate application, which will be distributed to subscribers in Wisconsin via CD-ROMs from the Time Warner cable operator. The...
Mon, 21 Jan 08
Novell Suit Against Microsoft Cites Decline of WordPerfect
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57915
WordPerfect, a once-popular software program, is making something
of a comeback -- this time as Exhibit A in Novell Inc.'s
multibillion-dollar antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp.
The lawsuit is a byproduct of the U.S. government's landmark case
against Microsoft that was settled more than six years ago, after
the world's biggest software maker was declared an illegal
monopolist. A handful of other private suits against Microsoft still
await resolution, and no claim is bigger than Novell's.
Novell briefly owned WordPerfect in the mid-1990s and says
Microsoft's anti-competitive tactics undermined the product.
WordPerfect's share of the word-processing market fell to less than
10 percent in 1996 from almost 50 percent in 1990.
While Novell no longer owns WordPerfect, it is pursuing the
lawsuit in what experts say is a long-shot bid for a big windfall.
The company, whose revenue has fallen 18 percent in the past five
years, is struggling to develop its business as a seller of Linux
operating system software.
"Novell felt they had a lottery ticket they didn't want to rip up
until they knew how much it was worth," said Bill Whyman, head of
technology research for International Strategy and Investment, a
Washington-based investment advice firm.
Microsoft asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to quash the
lawsuit.
In the aftermath of the federal antitrust suit, Microsoft has
paid almost $5 billion to settle claims it damaged competitors such
as Sun Microsystems Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and
RealNetworks Inc. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., also agreed to
issue more than $2.7 billion in vouchers for software to end claims
it overcharged consumers for the Windows operating system that runs
95 percent of the world's personal computers.
Microsoft says Novell's claims, filed in 2004, lack merit because
the company was neither a competitor nor customer in the operating-
software market when it owned WordPerfect.
Novell, based in Waltham, Mass., doesn't comment on pending
litigation, said John Dragoon, a senior vice president for
marketing.
While the government suit against Microsoft in the United States
was...
Mon, 21 Jan 08
EU Tries To Get Its Members Together Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57910
Once a year, Kresimir Alic walks to one of 50 stationery stores in Zagreb where Croatians can buy the forms needed to file their income-tax returns.
Two years ago, the Croatian Finance Ministry updated its Web site to let citizens download spreadsheets to calculate their taxes. But taxpayers like Alic, a 31-year-old research analyst, still cannot download all the necessary forms or file a return online.
"We could really use an online filing system," said Alic, who works for International Data Corp., a research company.
"EGoverment options have improved over the last two years, but as is the case in most Eastern European countries, there is still a long way to go."
A decade after some of the first government Web sites went live, the quality of eGovernment in Europe varies greatly, experts say, with some countries, like Sweden and Denmark, already providing many services to citizens and businesses online, while others, especially in southeastern Europe, are still creating Internet portals.
But regardless of the level of national wealth or political commitment, one problem still affects nearly every European eGovernment initiative, experts say: The sites built by the governments tend to use different technical and organizational standards and usually cannot communicate with each other.
Part of the problem is the patchwork of software standards, a result of competition between proprietary software makers like Microsoft and makers of open-source software, which some EU governments are beginning to use to avoid reliance on a single supplier.
Software vendors spend considerable time and money courting government clients. Microsoft, for example, is holding a two-day seminar for European government executives in Berlin, beginning Tuesday. The keynote speeches Wednesday will be delivered by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
But often, the obstacles to seamless eGovernment, experts say, are not with software but are more basic. For example, governments...
Mon, 21 Jan 08
Oracle, Sun Deals Muddle Middleware Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57908
The tech world is still buzzing about announcements by Sun Microsystems that it will acquire MySQL AB and by Oracle that it will acquire BEA Systems. The deals muddle the middleware market, according to some analysts.
Sun's acquisition is front and center, and Sun believes it has two strategic advantages. First, it accelerates the company's position in enterprise IT to now include the $15 billion database market. Second, it gives Sun a stake in the popular LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL Perl/Python/PHP) open-source software stack.
"MySQL's employees and culture, along with its near ubiquity across the Web, make it an ideal fit with Sun's open approach to network innovation," said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun CEO and president. "And most importantly, this announcement boosts our investments into the communities at the heart of innovation on the Internet and of enterprises that rely on technology as a competitive weapon."
With millions of global deployments, including Facebook, Google, Nokia, Baidu and China Mobile, Sun is confident MySQL will bring synergies that will change the software industry by driving new adoptions of MySQL's open-source database in more traditional applications and enterprises. Sun is betting that integrating MySQL into its offerings will extend the commercial appeal of the open-source database.
MySQL is already widely deployed across all major computer operating systems, hardware vendors, geographies, industries and applications. More than 100 million copies of MySQL's high-performance database have been downloaded, and an additional 50,000 copies are downloaded daily.
According to Oracle, the addition of BEA's products and technology will significantly enhance Oracle's Fusion middleware software suite. By acquiring BEA assets, including its WebLogic application server products, Oracle looks to enhance its position as a provider of unified middleware solutions for enterprise data centers.
Anyone who thought 2007 was the high-water mark in IT acquisitions and industry consolidation may...
Mon, 21 Jan 08
Vendors Hope To Extend Adobe's AIR Bridge
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57840
Vendors are preparing wares designed to capitalize on the arrival of Adobe's AIR system that builds a bridge between online and offline applications.
Supporters say AIR, expected to arrive in the spring, will provide a flexible working platform that takes advantage of collaborative Web capabilities when connectivity is available, while letting work continue when it is not. Other advantages are the ability to have rich-media capabilities and scope for very small applications that can be regularly updated.
The attractions of AIR have led to firms from eBay to AOL, Nasdaq and Nickelodeon developing applications. Enterprise software developers including Business Objects also plan to support AIR.
U.S. startup Instacoll is preparing an AIR-based suite of productivity applications that can be accessed from users' desktops or via the Web.
Instacoll chief executive Sumanth Raghavendran said he envisages smart Web-enabled clients that allow users to seamlessly switch between the desktop and browser versions while automatically taking care of synchronisation and version-control aspects without requiring any manual actions.
"We see our AIR app as providing an alternative to users who want to collaborate from the desktop, running any OS, and use the app in offline mode without requiring any Microsoft software," he said.
Raghavendran added that the AIR suite will also provide improved usability through capabilities that would not be possible within a browser, such as access to the local file system, clipboard support and file drag-and-drop.
Much of AIR's success will depend on Adobe's ability to distribute the AIR runtime very widely, as it has done with Acrobat readers and Flash players.
"We are counting on Adobe's proven record of being able to push out their runtimes to a ubiquitous level," said Raghavendran.
Gartner analyst Toby Bell said, "Given the investment by Adobe in its development and promotion, I would have to bet on strong initial interest from the developer community. Enterprises...
Mon, 21 Jan 08
Utilities at Risk for Cyber Attacks, CIA Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57924
The nation's utilities are at risk for cyber attack, the CIA's top cybersecurity expert, Tom Donahue, told a gathering of utility security experts, The Washington Post reported this weekend. Attackers have hacked into utility companies' computer systems overseas, in one case causing a power outage that affected multiple cities.
"We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet," Donahue said at a trade conference in New Orleans. "We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of the attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge." The hackers are using the attacks to demand money from utilities.
Security experts said the CIA's acknowledgement of the problem indicates how seriously they are taking it. CIA policy had been not to disclose such things. "The CIA wouldn't have changed its policy on disclosure if it wasn't important," Alan Paller, research director at the SANS Institute, told the Post. "Donahue wouldn't have said it publicly if he didn't think the threat was very large and that companies needed to fix things right now."
"These statements of threats and risks to the nation's infrastructure are not
new," Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle Network Security, said in an e-mail. "In private meetings with the CIA and FBI, information-security personnel have heard time and time again that the nation's utility systems are at risk and are a likely target by cyber attackers."
The key concern with utility security is centered on so-called SCADA devices, Storms said. A SCADA system is a computer that monitors real-time controls for utility systems. "These are the computers that acquire data and control the physical workings of damns, power plants, water-treatment systems and almost every modern manufacturing plant," Storms explained.
The problem is that utilities aren't applying best-practices network security to these highly networked...
Mon, 21 Jan 08
Does Google Really Want To Buy Prime Spectrum?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57923
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission will auction off what industry observers call the "sweet spot" of the wireless spectrum -- the 700-MHz block formerly occupied by television broadcasters. Among the bidders are some 214 companies, including Verizon, AT&T and, most famously, Google.
Since Google announced last year that it intended to participate in the auction -- which the FCC estimates will rake in about $10 billion -- technology watchers have speculated about what Google would do with the choice spectrum. Would it really compete directly with the cell-phone carriers? Partner with a carrier? Or use it to blanket the nation with wireless Internet?
The latest speculation comes from Jeff Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein, who wrote in a research note over the weekend that Google may be "bidding to lose" the auction. He noted that with estimates of $10 billion for the auction and $5 billion a year to build a network, plus the fact that running a wireless network would be a radically different business, it may be too much for Google. Thus, he said, Google may be participating mostly to push the issue of openness.
Other observers disagree. "They're as serious as anybody," said Mark Gibson, senior director of operations at spectrum consultancy Comsearch, in a telephone interview. "Most of us don't believe they'll build the network themselves; they'll partner with a provider who's not participating, such as T-Mobile."
In any case, the auction price may be overstated, Gibson said. With the collapse of Frontline Wireless and its plan for a universal public-safety network, some observers think the FCC won't get $10 billion.
Google's participation in the auction is intriguing because of the company's commitment to open networks. Google pushed the FCC to adopt open-access rules that were weaker than Google proposed, but strong enough to generate opposition...
Fri, 18 Jan 08
Sprint Nextel Cuts 4,000 Jobs, Closes 125 Stores
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57901
As part of its effort to turn its fortunes around, wireless phone company Sprint Nextel announced today that it will "streamline its business" by cutting 4,000 jobs and closing 8 percent of its stores.
The company, third among U.S. mobile-phone services, has been battling a continual loss of subscribers.
In addition to the cuts in company positions, which include both management and non-management positions, Sprint Nextel will reduce its utilization of outsourced services and contractors, and eliminate more than 4,000 third-party distribution points out of a total of 20,000. The 8 percent reduction in stores is about 125 company-owned retail locations, out of a total of nearly 1,400.
The employee reductions are expected to be completed in the first half of this year. Employees will be offered a voluntary separation plan, with separation pay and outplacement services.
The company expects the cutbacks to save as much as $800 million through the end of this year. The cost-cutting measures are intended to reduce the company's losses, even as it reported a net loss of 683,000 post-paid subscribers, considerably more than observers had predicted. The company also has had a variety of customer-service woes and bad press.
In the summer, for instance, the company came up with a unique way to handle customers who made too many calls to customer support -- it fired them. At the end of June, it sent letters to about 1,000 subscribers, saying their service had been terminated because of the number of inquiries they made to customer service.
Sean Ryan, an analyst with industry research firm IDC, said this belt-tightening "has been a long time coming." He added that Sprint Nextel had issues of customer service and network quality that were causing it to lose customers while its competitors were adding them.
Bill Ho, an analyst...
Fri, 18 Jan 08
Stocks Rise After Strong Outlook from IBM
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57882
Wall Street rose sharply Friday as a strong outlook from IBM encouraged investors to buy back into stocks after their huge drop this week.
The market remains extremely skittish, however. The Dow, having suffered its worst three-day plunge in over five years, has fallen to levels not seen since last March.
Some companies are weathering the economic slowdown well -- like International Business Machines Corp., which told Wall Street late Thursday to raise its 2008 profit estimates for the tech company, and General Electric Co., which posted a fourth-quarter profit rise Friday.
But others are struggling. Washington Mutual Inc. reported a steep loss late Thursday for the fourth quarter, just as Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch did earlier in the week. With the banking industry trying to fix its shrinking portfolios and preparing for more distress in consumer debt, the economy may only have the government to fall back on.
Federal Reserve monetary policymakers meet Jan. 29-30, and the market widely expects them to lower the key interest rate, perhaps by a half-point. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said Friday that more rate cuts are "quite possible."
And at 11:50 a.m. EST (1650 GMT), President George W. Bush is expected to speak on the U.S. economy and discuss a plan to stimulate the economy through tax rebates and other strategies. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday on NBC's "Today" show he was confident a temporary stimulus package can be agreed upon quickly.
In the first hour of trading, the Dow shot up 122.34, or 1.01 percent, to 12,281.55.
Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 10.44, or 0.78 percent, to 1,343.69, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 19.65, or 0.84 percent, to 2,366.55.
Government bonds fell as stocks rallied. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite...
Fri, 18 Jan 08
Europe Might Cut Cost of Mobile Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57878
Europeans are paying high prices to send cell-phone text messages or use mobile Internet services outside their own country, the European Union's telecoms chief said Thursday, just months after the EU capped roaming charges for calls.
The charges that tourists and traveling executives pay for making cell-phone calls outside their home countries have dropped by as much as 60 percent since the European Commission capped fees last September.
But no such price limit exists for the 202 billion text messages that were sent in western Europe last year, according to research firm Gartner, nor for business travelers who check e-mail on a BlackBerry from a foreign airport.
EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said she was concerned about the high level and wide range of prices for text messages and data roaming listed in a report from the European Regulators Group, which collected data from 150 European operators from April to September last year.
"We will watch developments very closely and respond appropriately by the end of 2008," she said.
These words are similar to the early warnings she gave phone companies to reduce their call fees, saying their roaming charges for voice calls were unjustifiably high and discouraged people from using their phones when they crossed the border.
Citing telecom firms' refusal to budge, she eventually won EU government and European Parliament backing to introduce a Sept. 1 ban on charging more than 49 euro cents (67 U.S. cents) a minute for making calls, and 24 euro cents (32 U.S. cents) for receiving calls, outside travelers' home countries.
The EU price ceilings will drop further by 2009.
Before the EU price cap, a four-minute call from France across the border to Germany would cost a traveler 4 euros ($5.92) even though a similar call made within France over a much longer distance could cost just a few cents.
Telecom...
Fri, 18 Jan 08
UK Wants To Ban Extremist Content from Web
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57877
Britain's top law-and-order official wants extremist content off the Web, saying Thursday she intends to deny Islamist ideologues the use of a key recruitment tool.
But Internet service providers and experts say they could be accused of corporate censorship and face a spate of lawsuits if they carry out any government order to aggressively police the Internet.
British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, giving the keynote speech at a conference on radicalization and political violence, said "the Internet is not a no-go area for government." She compared her government's plan to counter extremism on the Internet to its long-standing campaign against pedophiles and child pornography online.
"If we are ready and willing to take action to stop the grooming of vulnerable young people on social-networking sites, then I believe we should also take action against those who groom vulnerable people for the purposes of violent extremism.
"Where there is illegal material on the Net, I want it removed," she said.
But how? And who would do the removing? Smith did not go into details, saying only that she was working closely with the communications industry.
Service providers, for their part, were not enthusiastic.
Britain's Internet Service Provider Association, which represents major service providers such as BT Group PLC and the U.K. arms of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL and Yahoo Inc., said the most troublesome Web sites were hosted abroad, beyond the government's legal reach in any case.
And even if sites suspected of inciting terror were hosted in Britain, the ISPA said its members had neither the competence nor the desire to rule on whether a particular site was illegal.
Attempts to do so, the group said, would amount to corporate censorship and would subject service providers to lawsuits and accusations of breaking free-speech laws.
Unlike the case with child pornography, which is often easily recognizable by sight, policing terror-related Web...
Fri, 18 Jan 08
Nintendo Tops Game Sales in 2007
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57875
Fueled by the success of Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft's "Halo 3," more video games were sold in the U.S. in 2007 than in any other year, with retail sales hitting $17.94 billion, according to the NPD Group.
The market researcher said total video game sales grew 43 percent, up from $12.53 billion in 2006. In December, historically the industry's strongest month, Americans spent $4.82 billion on video games, up 28 percent from a year earlier and up 83 percent from $2.63 billion in November.
Video games sold well during the holidays even as jittery consumers were cutting back spending on clothes and other items.
Hardware sales jumped 54 percent to $7.04 billion in 2007, while software sales climbed 34 percent to $8.64 billion. In December, hardware sales rose 17 percent to $1.83 billion, and software sales grew 36 percent to $2.37 billion.
"I think the industry has become much more generally accepted as a mainstream form of entertainment over the last couple of years, and that sets it up well for future expansion," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in an e-mail.
Much of this growing acceptance has been attributed to the Wii, groundbreaking when it launched in 2006 for its motion-sensitive controller that lets players mimic movements for bowling, tennis or sword-fighting.
Even so, the portable Nintendo DS was by far the year's best-selling gaming system with 8.5 million units sold, 2.5 million of them in December. In short supply all year, the Wii still sold 6.3 million units, 1.4 million of them last month.
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said the company expects to sell more Wiis this year than it did in 2007. To deal with the high demand, Nintendo raised Wii production twice since last April, the last time to 1.8 million units a month. Though the consoles are still selling out...
Fri, 18 Jan 08
Google Philanthropy Targets World's Ills
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57874
Google Inc.'s philanthropic arm is making more than $26 million in new grants and investments in organizations and companies devoted to causes that the Internet search leader believes will help make the world a better place.
The financial commitments announced Thursday are the largest made by Google.org since the Mountain View-based company launched its altruistic effort with $90 million in funding in 2005.
Pasadena-based eSolar Inc., a startup specializing in solar thermal power, is getting the most money from Google.org so far -- $10 million investment.
Google.org also is contributing toward fighting health and environmental threats, improving public services and supporting small businesses. The foundation also plans to back efforts to accelerate the use of plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can be recharged from a regular home socket.
The philanthropic arm evolved out of a commitment made by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they took their company public in August 2004.
The men, now both 34, committed to creating a foundation that "may eclipse Google itself in terms of overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems."
Google has pledged to donate 1 percent of its prized stock and 1 percent of its steadily rising profits to Google.org. Those assets are currently worth about $2 billion.
Other foundations are much larger, but Google.org has attracted tremendous attention because of its connection to one of the world's most powerful companies as well as an unusual structure allowing it to operate as a corporate division rather than a separate nonprofit entity.
The hybrid approach lets Google.org make money off investments like the one it made in eSolar, as well as lobby politicians.
Fri, 18 Jan 08
Upbeat AMD Report Pleases Investors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57873
Considering the devastating two years Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has endured, investors braced themselves for more bad news in the fourth quarter after rival Intel Corp. disappointed Wall Street with lackluster results.
The slowdown they feared didn't materialize.
Instead, Sunnyvale-based AMD managed to post a much narrower loss than analysts expected, jolting its stock on signs that AMD is driving down costs and protecting its share of the microprocessor market from an Intel onslaught.
"Obviously, they turned in a truly excellent quarter," said JoAnne Feeney, senior research analyst with FTN Midwest Securities Corp. "They've continued the progress they began making a couple of quarters ago. It should assuage the fears of a lot of investors about the company's ability to execute."
Still bleeding from the costly acquisition of a graphics chip company, AMD absorbed heavy charges connected to the deal in the fourth quarter that dragged down its results.
However, AMD executives stoked shareholder optimism by reiterating their pledge to return the company to profitability by the second half of this year. In addition, they said the flaws plaguing AMD's new line of server chips have been fixed and samples will ship to customers in two to three weeks.
AMD's new Opteron server chip, critical to its financial recovery, launched in September. But technical glitches delayed a full release.
In after-hours trading, AMD shares rose 26 cents, or more than 4 percent, to $6.60. During the regular session, before the results were released, AMD shares closed down 23 cents at $6.34.
AMD's losses in 2007 were staggering, capping a brutal two-year stretch in which the company's market value has plunged from more than $20 billion to $3.5 billion today. The stock has fallen from over $40 a share in early 2006 to nearly $5 in recent weeks.
For the full year, AMD lost $3.38 billion, $2 billion of which...
Thu, 17 Jan 08
Scrabble Makers Lose Points in Online Fuss
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57865
"C-E-A-S-E" and "D-E-S-I-S-T" aren't particularly high-scoring Scrabble words -- just 7 points each -- but in the real world they carry some clout.
Last week, game companies Hasbro and Mattel, who own the rights to the venerable board game Scrabble, sent legal notices to Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, the developers of an online version of the game called "Scrabulous." The corporations believe Scrabulous violates their copyrights and want the game taken down.
"We are not surprised that fans have thoroughly enjoyed playing Scrabulous on Facebook.com," Hasbro and Mattel wrote. "What consumers may not realize, however, is that Scrabulous is an illegally copied online version of the world's most popular word game."
There's little question about the similarities between the two games. Both use letter tiles with numerical values and a game board with squares containing bonus values. The rules and colors used by Scrabulous are identical to the board version. If the Agarwallas had simply printed a copy of Scrabulous and sold it as a board game, there would be little controversy about whether it constitutes a copyright violation.
But in the age of the Internet, as Hasbro and Mattel are discovering, the legal principles may be the same, but the public-relations challenges are far different.
Last June, the Agarwallas created a version of Scrabulous that can be embedded as a Facebook application. In just six months, Scrabbulous has become one of Facebook's 10 most popular apps, with an estimated two million people playing it each day. The application's elegant simplicity and compelling game play have given rise to a number of Facebook groups that sound more like advertisements for 12-step programs: "Help I cannot stop playing Scrabulous!," "Scrabulous Is Crack and I am a Junkie," and "Scrabulous Anonymous (well, until you join!)."
Hasbro and Mattel, however, are not amused, and...
Thu, 17 Jan 08
HP Trumps Dell in 2007 PC Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=57864
Two new reports by leading industry research firms, Gartner and IDC, show the PC market is still strong, following a good fourth quarter.
The report from Gartner, released Wednesday, that Hewlett-Packard had regained its first-place position for computers shipped worldwide in 2007, with Dell coming in second. In 2006, both companies had been in a virtual tie for first.
HP landed at No. 1 with nearly 50 million units shipped, which accounted for 18.2 percent of PC shipments -- a result of a 30 percent growth over 2006. HP had a "solid No. 1 position" and the strongest growth among the top five PC vendors in the fourth quarter, Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner's Client Markets group, said in a statement.
Dell posted a 14.3 percent market share, and Acer, in third place, had 8.9 percent. The next two positions in the Gartner report were occupied by Lenovo, with 7.4 percent, and Toshiba at 4 percent.
The Gartner report noted that Dell's growth was only 1.7 percent for 2007, in part because of the company's reorganization, but by the fourth quarter Dell's worldwide PC shipment grew by 17 percent. The report said the fourth-quarter results were driven by Dell's retail and channel partner expansion.
Acer's growth, notably in consumer mobile PCs in the combined Europe-Middle East-Africa region and the United States, was boosted by its acquisition of Gateway's consumer business. The Gartner report cited Lenovo for a "relatively good performance" despite a weak consumer market presence. Lenovo has embarked on a campaign to increase its market presence and brand recognition.
PC shipments overall grew by 13.4 percent in 2007 over the previous year, and about 271 million units were sold during the year. Nearly 76 million units shipped in the fourth quarter alone accounted for a 13.1 percent increase over the...
Thu, 17 Jan 08
Will Antitrust Probes Spread Beyond Microsoft?
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The European Union is challenging Microsoft on antitrust laws again, but legal experts warn the ongoing investigations against Redmond could trickle down to other U.S. companies.
European Commission regulators on Monday said they have initiated two formal antitrust investigations against Microsoft. The investigations fall under two separate categories of alleged infringements of European Commission treaty rules. The first case deals with interoperability. The second relates to tying separate software products together. Specifically, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office have fallen under scrutiny.
Microsoft's initial reaction was a statement of full cooperation with the commission's investigation. The company said it plans to provide any and all information necessary. Microsoft pledged its commitment to ensuring the company is in full compliance with European law and its obligations as established by the European Court of First Instance in its September 2007 ruling. But do Microsoft and other technology companies have reason to be concerned about how the EU is interpreting and enforcing antitrust law?
The First Instance ruling seems to have left European regulators with new boldness. European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes made a statement last September that could hint at the EU's future plans for dominant companies.
After the court ruling against Microsoft, Kroes noted that the software giant holds 95 percent of the market for desktop operating systems and said she would like to see that number reduced. "You can't draw a line and say exactly 50 percent is correct, but a significant drop in market share is what we would like to see," she said.
Another example is Google's intent to acquire DoubleClick, which is also under scrutiny by the European Commission. The BEUC, Europe's top consumer group, wrote a letter to the EC in December, warning, "The Google-DoubleClick merger would harm consumer welfare by creating a structure that almost certainly...
Thu, 17 Jan 08
Products and Politics Mix at Macworld
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Amid iPod upgrades, movie deals and Apple TV price cuts, there was a tinge of politics at the Macworld Conference & Expo.
But it didn't come from Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs. The man electing to wade into political waters Tuesday was the musical guest, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Randy Newman.
Newman and his piano were rolled out on a moving stage and he quickly launched into his song, "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country."
"I'd like to say a few words in defense of our country, whose people aren't bad, nor are they mean. Now the leaders we have, while they're the worst that we've had, are hardly the worst this poor world has seen," Newman sang to a packed conference hall.
His performance briefly injected a serious tone to an otherwise upbeat presentation by Jobs, and the audience of Mac faithful applauded -- though not quite as loudly as they had for the unveiling of Apple's new online movie rental service.
Out on the exhibitor floor, political messages were few, though a small startup called Budclicks, a Poway, Calif.-based company, jumped in.
To the snap-on charms it makes to gussy up the ubiquitous iPod earbuds, it has added nuggets bearing the names of presidential candidates -- at least the ones still in the game. Right alongside skulls, daisies and pink pineapples.
"They're dropping out like flies right now. Currently we've got Obama, Mitt, Hillary, Ron Paul," said Budclicks owner, Brian Johnson. "All the candidates want to get to the youth, and all the youth have the iPods. They're kitschy."
Not to mention catchy.
Thu, 17 Jan 08
PC Shipments Post Double-Digit Rise
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The rapid growth curve for computer shipments in last year's third quarter extended into the year's final months, two technology research firms reported Wednesday.
The U.S. growth rate beat predictions, countering recent forecasts that spending growth in the broader U.S. technology sector would slow this year, and eventually hurt overseas tech markets.
And Hewlett-Packard Corp. maintained its slight edge over Dell Inc. as the world's largest computer maker, with little change in market share.
The fourth quarter's increase in computer shipments was roughly in line with the third quarter, when shipments rose at the fastest rate in nearly two years.
Framingham, Massachusetts-based research firm IDC said shipments in October through December rose 15.5 percent, to 77.4 million units, up from 67 million a year earlier.
Gartner Inc., of S