Newsfactor Technology
Main
Technology
Army TechnologyCyberwars
Military Technology
Newsfactor Technology
Technology World
Yahoo Technology
Random Feeds
Archives
| Mar 2010 | Feb 2010 | Jan 2010 | Dec 2009 | Nov 2009 | Oct 2009 | Sep 2009 | Aug 2009 | Jul 2009 | Jun 2009 | May 2009 | Apr 2009 | Mar 2009 | Feb 2009 | Jan 2009 | Dec 2008 | Nov 2008 | Oct 2008 | Sep 2008 | Aug 2008 | Jul 2008 | Jun 2008 | May 2008 | Apr 2008 | Mar 2008 | Feb 2008 | Jan 2008 | Dec 2007 | Nov 2007 |Fri, 29 Feb 08
Spammers Get Past Security Into Google's Gmail
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58602
When you sign up for an e-mail account at Google's Gmail, you have to navigate past a CAPTCHA -- squiggly words and letters that need to be typed into a box to prove you're human and not an automated system looking to send spam. But in the war against spammers, CAPTCHAs are not holding up well and the latest attacks let spambots into Gmail.
CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." Typically image files, the challenge-and-response system has been fairly successful in preventing spammers from opening e-mail accounts on popular Web domains like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail. Those accounts are prized by spammers because Web administrators can't simply blacklist the popular domains.
Spammers have found ways to break CAPTCHAs, according to Stephan Chenette, manager of Websense Security Labs. "What we're seeing is the technology on the hacker side has surpassed the simple CAPTCHAs," Chenette told us. "In the public domain there are several tools available right now for everyone to use to break simple CAPTCHAs."
Chenette said organized attackers are using automated tools to sign up for Gmail and other Web-mail accounts. When the CAPTCHA image appears, it's automatically sent off to a large and low-paid workforce, typically in another country, where a worker enters the code and sends it back so the account can be created.
This type of attack has been used against other Web-mail sites, Chenette said, but in the attacks on Gmail there's a new wrinkle. "One of the more interesting things about the Gmail CAPTCHA breaking is that we believe that this might be happening through an automated process, which is the next step to breaking CAPTCHAs as opposed to hiring a large workforce to break them," he said.
In fact, Chenette believes these are two-pronged attacks. The...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
More Chinese Dissidents Claim Harm by Yahoo
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58601
As if Microsoft's takeover bid wasn't enough, Yahoo now faces two more lawsuits from Chinese dissidents. In November Yahoo settled with the families of journalists Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao, who were jailed on information provided by Yahoo China.
Zheng Cunzhu and Guo Quan filed the suits in federal court in California, although neither has been arrested by Chinese authorities.
Zheng alleges he lost control of his business investments in China that included factories and a trading company. He was a member of the China Democracy Party, as was dissident Li Zhi, and Zheng moved to the U.S. in early 2006 after Li Zhi's arrest on information provided by Yahoo.
Since Zheng used a Yahoo e-mail account to join the CDP, he was afraid to return to China and lost "the real control of the two factories, and his investment and property were under danger of being defrauded by others," his suit says.
Guo Quan, on the other hand, isn't complaining about Yahoo's e-mail policies. Guo, a former associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, lost his job after calling on Chinese leaders to allow multiparty democracy. Guo complains that Yahoo blocked his name and his company's name from the Internet -- or as much of it as is available in China.
Li Zhi is also part of the suit, which claims that at least 60 other people were "arbitrarily imprisoned" in China for advocating free elections, democracy and human rights, and they were possibly identified when Yahoo turned over user information. Li has served four years of an eight-year sentence for working on behalf of the CDP.
"By providing Internet user identification information to the People's Republic of China, [the] Defendants knowingly and willfully aided and abetted in the commission of torture and other major abuses violating international law that caused Plaintiffs severe...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Nokia Retains Lead as Mobile-Phone Sales Soar
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58600
Worldwide sales of mobile phones skyrocketed to 1.5 billion in 2007, according to research firm Gartner, a 16 percent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million. Sales at the end of the year matched a trend that has demand spiking in the fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter sales reached 330 million.
"Emerging markets, especially China and India, provided much of the growth as many people bought their first phone," said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner. "In mature markets, such as Japan and Western Europe, consumers' appetite for feature-laden phones was met with new models packed with TV tuners, global positioning satellite functions, touch screens and high-resolution cameras."
Nokia continues its global leadership with a 40 percent market share in the fourth quarter, when it sold slightly more than 133 million phones. Samsung maintained second place and, although its market share slipped slightly, the gap widened between Samsung and third-place Motorola.
The problems that beset Motorola in the third quarter continued in the fourth quarter. The company recorded global sales of 39 million for the quarter, taking 11.9 percent of the market.
Motorola retained second place in annual sales, Gartner reported, largely thanks to the inventory it disposed of in the first half of the year. Nevertheless, the extent of Motorola's troubles can be seen in the 9.7 percent drop in its market share in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2006.
Sony Ericsson ended 2007 with another positive performance, growing its market share on a quarterly basis to nine percent from 8.7 percent. And LG's mobile-phone sales totaled 23.5 million in the fourth quarter, maintaining its 7.1 percent market share despite a sales increase of more than 3 million..
The market saw three new players in the top 10 for the fourth quarter...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Task Force Will Seek Tools To Protect Children Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58599
A new Internet Safety Technical Task Force will be led by the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The task force includes Internet businesses, identity-authentication experts, nonprofit organizations, academics and technology companies. Among the members are AOL, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google, the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), Second Life's Linden Lab, Microsoft, Symantec, Verizon and Yahoo.
The task force will prepare quarterly reports and submit a final report at the end of the year. It intends to focus on identifying effective online safety tools and technologies, said Berkman Executive Director John Palfrey.
"The safety concerns posed by the Internet are part and parcel of the safety concerns that arise in human interactions in the physical world," Palfrey said. "These concerns are not unique to any one service or technology platform; they are shared by the companies that provide Internet services and the individuals who use these services."
The group is charged with the implementation of safety principles for social-networking sites that MySpace and the attorneys general of 49 states and the District of Columbia posed in a joint statement in January.
"The principles we have adopted set forth what the industry needs to strive toward to provide a safer online experience for teens," said MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam. "The Berkman Center's past research on the challenges and opportunities offered by the Internet makes it the ideal leader."
The task force will review some of the authentication tools available for verifying age requirements "alongside whatever other techniques they can come up with, both things that exist right now and what they can hypothesize," a spokesperson said.
Since few minors have credit cards or driver's licenses, new identity-authentication tools must be developed. "We hope to see technology like this implemented on all social-networking sites," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Judge Questions Request to Shut Down Wikileaks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58598
The latest stage in the ongoing saga of Julius Baer v. Wikileaks was to take place Friday morning as a federal judge considered whether to extend a temporary injunction against the whistle-blowing Web site.
The case started in early February when the Swiss banking conglomerate Julius Baer asked the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to take down the Wikileaks.org domain. Baer said Wikileaks had posted "stolen and forged bank records" provided by a "disgruntled ex-employee who has engaged in a harassment and terror campaign."
Wikileaks says the documents are five to 10 years old and show the bank was setting up shell structures to funnel money through the Cayman Islands.
Judge Jeffrey White issued a "ex parte" permanent injunction requiring Wikileaks' domain registrar, DynaDot, to "disable the wikileaks.org domain name" and prevent it from pointing to any Web site other than a "blank park page." The judge also issued a temporary restraining order against Wikileaks itself, blocking it from "displaying, posting, publishing, distributing, linking to" or providing information on how to access the documents.
Wikileaks -- which says it is "developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis" -- protested that the injunctions amounted to "prior restraint" of the press -- the most offensive restriction of the First Amendment. Wikileaks compared the court's orders to injunctions against The New York Times in the landmark Pentagon Papers case. These orders are the "equivalent of forcing the Times' printers to print blank pages and its power company to turn off press power," it said.
Hardly, said Eric Goldman, director of Santa Clara University Law School's High-Tech Law Center. "I would put it in the bucket of judicial freak-out, but we run into those every day," Goldman said in a telephone interview. "This is a judge who just doesn't like...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Air Force 'Big Brother' Blocks Blogs, Content Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58597
A large organization decides that blogs cut productivity, provide misleading information and could compromise security. It discontinues access for its personnel, even though information is a key weapon in competition. The question is whether this is a smart policy for a large organization, especially the U.S. Air Force.
According to a report this week in Wired, the Air Force is eliminating access for its troops to virtually any site that uses the term "blog." Sites are also being blocked because of a negative review of content by supervising personnel. The move comes, according to the publication, as the Cyber Command of the Air Force Network Operations Center (AFNOC) takes over control of what sites Air Force personnel can visit, a responsibility previously borne by each major command.
Maj. Henry Schott of AFNOC is quoted by Wired as saying that the Air Force personnel can still access "primary, official-use sources," such as established media like The New York Times. The basic idea is that non-legitimate sources of news shouldn't be read during work time because of credibility, security risks, and loss of productivity.
The Air Force will block other, less-established sources on the basis that they provide less credible information. The policy, according to one Cyber Command spokesperson, is to "block first and then review exceptions." This means that Air Force personnel posting to or reading from sites that might relate to technical or military subjects have found themselves caught in the filters.
The tools used by the Air Force have included Secure Computing's SmartFilter software, running the Web Security Appliance platform from Blue Coat software. According to a press release on Blue Coat's site, SmartFilter's international control list "continuously categorizes millions of Web sites into content groups, including pornography, gambling and MP3."
The Air Force has also banned some sites...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Microsoft Will Slash Retail Prices for Vista With SP1
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58582
Microsoft said on Thursday it plans to slash prices on its Windows Vista operating system sold through retail channels. The company wants consumers to upgrade to the latest version of its flagship product.
The price changes will take effect globally with the retail release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 later this year. In the U.S., Microsoft will cut the price for Windows Vista Ultimate from $399 to $319 and for an upgrade version from $259 to $219. Vista Home Premium will drop from $159 to $129.
Vista has been on the market for more than a year, with more than 100 million licenses sold in its first year. While Microsoft sees those figures as progress, the company also sees an opportunity to grow its business even more with some of the new editions, according to Brad Brooks, vice president for Windows consumer product marketing at Microsoft.
"Today, the vast majority of Windows licenses are sold with PCs. Retail stand-alone sales, in contrast, have been primarily from customers who value being early adopters and those building their own machines," Brooks said. "We've observed market behavior, however, that suggests an opportunity to expand Windows stand-alone sales to other segments of the consumer market."
Microsoft has conducted promotions in several markets combining various marketing tactics with lower prices on versions of Vista. One constant emerged -- an increase in demand among consumers that went beyond tech enthusiasts and build-it-yourself types. Brooks said these promotions inspired Microsoft to change its pricing structure.
Traditionally, the vast majority of Windows licenses are sold through PC makers, and Brooks said that won't change. Microsoft is positioning the price reductions as a "great opportunity" for its retail partners to sell more stand-alone copies of Windows, and help grow a "small but important part" of its business, he said.
It's...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Apple Ready To Open iPhone to Third-Party Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58580
Apple has scheduled an event to present the Software Development Kit (SDK) that can open up its iPhone to third-party native applications. It also will present new iPhone features for the enterprise.
Press invitations went out this week for the iPhone Software Roapmap on Thursday, March 6, at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. The original launch date for the SDK had been in February.
The SDK will allow thirty-party developers to create applications for the iPhone. Up until now, outside developers' offerings have had to run within the Safari browser on the iPhone, not on the iPhone itself.
The invitation promises "some exciting new enterprise features." Some observers have speculated that Apple will position the iPhone as a competitor to the BlackBerry, which would require Apple to address a variety of compatibility, application and security issues.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis, noted there are also issues about how Apple expects developers to use the SDK. For instance, he said, "can a developer post the application on their Web site, or does it have to go through iTunes?" There are also questions about how users will load third-party apps onto iPhones, whether Apple gets a cut of apps revenue, and whether certain kinds of apps are off-limits because Apple reserves them for itself.
Until we know the answers to these and other questions, Greengart noted, it isn't possible to estimate the impact that the much-awaited SDK might have on opening up the iPhone.
Apple may also be open to new carrier arrangements. COO Tim Cook has been quoted in news media as telling investors that "we're not married to any business models."
Some observers take this to mean that Apple is reconsidering its exclusive-in-the-U.S. relationship with AT&T, but Greengart said there isn't "any indication that Apple is reconsidering that deal." He characterized...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Yahoo, RealNetworks Cut Music Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58575
Yahoo will turn off its subscription music service and refer customers to RealNetworks' Rhapsody, the companies announced Monday.
Music remains an important area for Yahoo and its users; its music site gets about 22 million unique visitors each month, noted Ian Rogers, vice president of video and media applications at Yahoo. But in the fall, the company decided to de-emphasize its service, dubbed Yahoo Music Unlimited, he said.
Yahoo decided it could have a music interest and information site without actually running a music store or subscription service.
"This is about focusing in the right places," Rogers said. "The whole point is we wanted to get resources for working on different things."
The move will happen in the first half of this year. The companies also plan to work together on a download-to-own music service, Rogers said.
Company executives did not discuss the financial details of the agreement, other than to say that it is a multi-year deal.
Yahoo made a big splash when it launched its subscription service in 2005. The company attempted to undercut competitors such as Rhapsody with lower prices and integrating the service with other popular Yahoo products. But subscription services in general have proved to be a tough sell with consumers, and Yahoo's was no different. Despite years of effort, RealNetworks has just 2.75 million subscribers for all its various music offerings, including Rhapsody.
Yahoo doesn't disclose how many Music Unlimited customers it has.
After Yahoo shuts down Music Unlimited, basically three such services will be left standing in the United States: Rhapsody, Napster and Microsoft's Zune Marketplace.
Consumers just need to be educated a bit more about the value of subscription services, argued Dan Sheeran, Real's senior vice president of business development. The marketing that Yahoo will provide Rhapsody should help "enormously" on that front, he...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Industry Teams To Fight Viruses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58574
There are tech products most gadget reviewers and I are not equipped to review. Primary among them is antivirus software. If you're only dabbling in the effort, it's easy to go in the wrong direction. But PC Magazine's Neil Rubenking does a good job actually figuring out what sorts of "malware" each software package can block.
I know the features antivirus software should have, including ways to stop e-mail phishing, block spyware, eliminate viruses, update its list of known malware, protect passwords and offer warnings about suspicious Web sites and risky behavior. Lastly, it should do all of that without slowing your computer to a crawl. In short, it should keep you out of trouble and avoid annoying you at the same time.
The makers of antivirus software have noticed this shortcoming of reviewers. Back in September, Symantec wrote a letter expressing concern about the quality of an antivirus software review in Consumer Reports. Now the industry is getting together as a group to create standards for evaluating antivirus software. David Cole, director of Symantec's Norton Group, says a parallel for this is the crash test dummy.
"The testing industry has to evolve to keep up with safety features," Cole said. "It's not one size fits all. You used to be able to throw malware on a disk and scan it."
For those who do testing, one of the typical tasks is to scan a computer to see whether the antivirus software will pick up any viruses on the machine. Antivirus software must scan for the signatures of known threats and eliminate them. But that's simply the last line of defense these days.
The best antivirus software stops a lot of viruses and other malware before they have a chance to mess up your computer. For instance, antivirus software should...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
HP Looks to Stores for Inkjet Expansion
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58572
Two decades ago, Hewlett-Packard Co. launched a printer that would create global demand for what would become one of its most profitable products: ink.
HP marks the 20th anniversary of the Deskjet on Thursday and is seeking new markets for its printers and ink, including retail chains and corner drug stores where Americans are increasingly turning to have their digital photos put on paper.
Printer supplies -- ink, paper, photo books -- provide 60 percent of the revenue at HP's printing division, according to analysts. And that division delivers almost half the company's profits, which totaled $7.26 billion last year.
In 1988, the Deskjet was a clunky 14 pounds costing a hefty $1,000, but it turned hugely popular after dropping below $500 in the early 1990s: Office managers could typically buy supplies that cost under $500 without approval from a higher up.
Now, inkjets cost less than $100 and provide all-in-one services, including high-quality photos. HP has sold more than 200 million Deskjet printers, each with a big hunger for ink.
But with home-based photo printing on the decline, HP is now marketing its inkjet technology to retailers like Target Corp. and Costco Wholesale Corp., urging them to scrap their old "wet lab" chemical-based photo printing and go with "dry lab" inkjet machines that shoot out 1,500 prints an hour.
As Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's printing division, puts the company's strategy: "Instead of thinking of printers, think of printing."
While HP holds 46 percent of the printer market, Joshi is eyeing the printing market -- books, magazines, newspapers -- where HP grabs only a 1.8 percent share of total pages printed.
Joshi sees HP growing its printing business 4 percent to 6 percent per year, with a 14 percent to 15 percent operating margin, by converting some of the traditional analog printing market to digital...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Bill Gates Links Up with LinkedIn
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58571
Microsoft Corp.'s big bet on Facebook's online social network isn't stopping Chairman Bill Gates from promoting other popular Internet hangouts.
Gates is helping out LinkedIn Corp.'s online professional network by setting up a profile on the service and posing a question to help draw more attention to a makeover of the Web site's front page.
The question, scheduled to be posted Thursday, will solicit suggestions on the best way to encourage more young people to pursue careers in science and technology.
Meanwhile, LinkedIn will encourage its 19 million members to try out a new tool that will let them broadcast their daily activities to their connections. The "status" feature copies one of the top applications on Facebook's site, which revolves around a more playful premise than LinkedIn's buttoned-down atmosphere.
Gates plans to use LinkedIn's status feature, although he decided against listing "trying to buy Yahoo" as his current activity. He instead will start off by letting everyone know "Bill is checking out LinkedIn."
The decision to take a closer look at LinkedIn might please a few industry analysts who have argued Microsoft would be better off buying several up-and-coming Internet startups like LinkedIn instead of pursuing its current bid to acquire slumping Yahoo Inc. for more than $40 billion.
Although LinkedIn is frequently mentioned as an attractive takeover candidate, the Mountain View-based company so far has indicated it is more likely to make an initial public offering of stock during the next year or two. LinkedIn spokeswoman Kay Luo declined to comment on Microsoft's possible interest.
Microsoft late last year invested $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc., whose 66 million members make it the Internet's second largest social network behind News Corp.'s MySpace.
Gates is among Facebook members, although he reportedly stopped using the site recently because he was tired of sifting...
Fri, 29 Feb 08
Google Releases Health Service Details
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58567
Google Inc. will not use advertising to support its new Internet health service, CEO Eric Schmidt said Thursday in the search company's first detailed public comments about a venture raising concerns among privacy advocates.
Schmidt said the service was merely a platform for users to store their medical information. It will be an open system inviting third parties to build direct-to-consumer services like medication tables or immunization reminders. But Schmidt emphasized no data would be shared without the consumer's consent.
"Our model is that the owner of the data has control over who can see it," Schmidt said at the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. "And trust for Google is the most important currency on the Internet."
Schmidt described the service as helping doctors and the increasing numbers of patients who use the Internet for their own medical research. He said surveys show more people trust what they find online than what they hear from physicians, and the service will give people control over their own health.
For example, they will be able to store X-rays taken at any number of facilities all on one online account, accessible from any computer.
The company is testing the service with about 1,370 volunteers at the Cleveland Clinic, a not-for-profit medical center. The service is not yet available to the public, and Schmidt wouldn't say precisely when it will be. However, he said the company was working hard to release it soon.
"The current trial is a couple of months. It seems to be doing extremely well in its first week," he said.
The interface demonstrated at the conference has menu sections for several areas: health notices, drug interactions, health conditions, medications, allergies, immunizations, procedures and test results. It connects the user with online research published about any condition they might have and notifies them...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Sun CEO Defends Purchase of Open-Source MySQL
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58559
Sun Microsytems closed its acquisition of Swedish open-source database company MySQL AB, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz announced on his blog Tuesday. He also announced a global marketing and support program.
Sun will start "rolling out global programs to raise awareness and adoption of MySQL among more established enterprises," Schwartz said. The main targets will be "institutions and independent software/service vendors looking to standardize on open-source architectures." With enterprise support programs for MySQL, Sun is "going all-out to sign up new customers, extending MySQL's reach," he said.
But Schwartz also took the opportunity to snap back at some "snarky" comments that have been made since the acquistion was announced a month ago.
"There are still folks in the world who don't believe there's an economic model behind open source -- they thus believe $1 billion is an outlandish price to pay for MySQL. The most extreme among them see Linux, OpenSolaris or companies like SugarCRM as nothing more than playgrounds for hobbyists," he wrote.
Open source is a solid business model, Schwartz declared. "Companies that freely distribute their products, rather than limit access via pricing or proprietary licensing, are simply prioritizing adoption over immediate revenue." He pointed to Microsoft's recent announcement that it would make developer tools free to computer-science students.
"It's interesting that weeks after the MySQL deal was announced that Schwartz feels the need to defend the acquisition," said Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, in an e-mail. "Such sensitivity -- from an executive and company that have often demonstrated a 'my way or the highway' approach to public relations -- suggests that Sun has been having trouble articulating its overarching MySQL strategy."
Schwartz cited Marten Mickos, MySQL's CEO, who he said describes the business market as a spectrum from those with more time than money to those with more...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Unknown Glitch Blocks Millions of Windows Live Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58558
An unexplained glitch left many Internet users unable to access Microsoft's Windows Live Mail and other online services most of Tuesday. The problem was resolved as of Tuesday evening, according to Microsoft, but there is no word on what the problem was.
Microsoft's Windows Live ID (the most recent incarnation of Microsoft's single sign-on service once called Passport) allows users to enter a host of protected sites, including the Live Mail e-mail client, the Messenger instant-messaging client, and SkyDrive, the company's online file storage. Those services were unavailable to many around the world, leaving frustrated users unable to access their e-mail and other online information.
Windows Live Product Manager Samantha McManus said in a statement to NewsFactor, "Early Tuesday morning we had an unforeseen event on our network, which caused a service disruption of our authentication services. During this time, some consumers worldwide experienced difficulty logging in to their Windows Live accounts."
"Microsoft worked aggressively to resolve this problem as quickly as possible and normal service operations were restored by 1:30 p.m. PST," McManus said. "Our infrastructure is designed for strength, resilience and security and our customers have come to expect a high level of service reliability. ... We apologize for any inconvenience."
It's impossible to guess how many users were locked out of online services. "Microsoft claims more than 400 million Live IDs, but doesn't say how many unique users that represents," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. "Undoubtedly, some of those are duplicates for the same individual."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Todd Bishop wrote on his blog that Microsoft told him that the problem at first affected "the majority of customer log-in attempts worldwide" but that number decreased to "less than 30 percent of log-in attempts." That could still put the number of those impacted in the...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Microsoft Launches Server 2008 with 'Heroes' Theme
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58547
"HEROES happen {here}" was the theme for Microsoft's launch Wednesday of its Windows Server 2008 operating system. The heroes, of course, are the IT workers who have been waiting through the many announcements for the final release and, sometimes, helping in the beta testing.
Today's sold-out event was scheduled for the Los Angeles Convention Center, followed by similar events in succeeding weeks in New York, San Antonio, Chicago, Boston, Denver and nine other cities, as well as online virtual launches.
The final technical preview of the release candidate for SQL Server 2008 was also expected Wednesday. The public launch is expected in the third quarter.
Server 2008 could have a major impact, said Laura DiDio, an analyst with industry research firm Yankee Group. Its features include enhanced security, virtualization, increased power, a smaller footprint, and advancements in management and remote access.
The impact on virtualization, she said, is going to be "huge," although she noted that the virtualization wave encompasses not only servers but storage, clients and other areas.
Server 2008 has some virtualization built-in, but enhanced virtualization will be offered by Microsoft's Hyper-V, a hypervisor. A hypervisor is a layer of software that operates between the hardware and the operating software. DiDio said there was disappointment about the delay of Hyper-V, which will be released 180 days after Server 2008, but "customers are used to delays from Microsoft."
Microsoft has said that Windows Server 2008's virtualization is highly scalable, permitting multiprocessor guests, memory allocations of more than 32GB per machine, and integrated virtual switch support. Supported storage protocols include iSCSI and fibre-channel SAN.
Another potential "huge sea change," she said, is the increased adoption of 64-bit technology. DiDio added that one of the reasons why the 64-bit Windows Server 2003 did not have larger adoption is that "it...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Verizon Leads a New Era of Open Wireless Networks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58546
A new era in open wireless networks is dawning in the U.S., and an announcement by Verizon Wireless this week about the upcoming release of its "Any Device, Any App" technical specification is one of the milestones.
The carrier said version 1.0 of its specs will be released at its Open Development Device Conference beginning March 19 in New York City. It said the conference will "focus on how traditional device and consumer electronics companies and entrepreneurs new to the wireless ecosystem can bring new wireless devices to the marketplace" under its Open Development Initiative.
Verizon Vice President Anthony A. Lewis said the specs will provide a "road map for wireless-device visionaries and tinkerers, as well as existing device makers," to create products not offered by Verizon but which can run on its network.
He said input from developers at the conference could be used to refine the specs, and 1.0 will be the foundation for device certification by Verizon. A new "network-only" option will be available this year so non-Verizon wireless devices and applications can run on its service.
The open network represents a "new era" for consumers and businesses, said Chris Hazelton, an analyst with industry research firm IDC.
He noted that, with the release of the open-source mobile platform Android from the Open Handset Alliance last year, and the lobbying effort that resulted in open-network provisions for some of the 700-MHz bandwidth currently being auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission, the major carriers in the U.S. are embracing openness.
Hazelton pointed out that, although Verizon will issue the specs and provide certification, there will be no support. For the consumer, this means there could be an explosion of choices in third-party applications, services and devices -- and possibly independent vendors for support.
Hazelton said the consumer smartphone market...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
EC Fines Microsoft $1.35 Billion for Stifling Innovation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58545
The European Commission has fined Microsoft a record $1.35 billion for noncompliance with its March 2004 antitrust decision. Commissioner Neelie Kroes said the fine is in response to the software giant's continued stifling of innovation by charging other companies prohibitive royalty rates for the essential information they need to offer software products.
"Charging such an unreasonable price effectively rendered the offer of the information pointless," Kroes said.
The EC's 2004 decision had required Microsoft to disclose complete and accurate interoperability information to developers of server operating systems on reasonable terms. Initially, Microsoft had demanded a royalty of 3.87 percent of a licensee's product revenues for a patent license and 2.98 percent for a license governing access to secret interoperability information.
The EC concluded that Microsoft's royalty rates were unreasonable before October 22, 2007 -- the date when the software giant agreed to accept a 0.4 percent royalty for a worldwide patent license and a one-time payment of $14,240 for access to its interoperability information.
"Microsoft's behavior did not just harm a few individuals or a handful of big companies," Kroes said. "Directly and indirectly this had negative effects on millions of offices in companies and governments around the world."
Kroes also said the record fine contains lessons that Microsoft and any other company contemplating similar illegal actions will need to learn.
"We don't want talk and promises -- we want compliance," Kroes warned. "If you flout the rules you will be caught, and it will cost you dear."
Microsoft has a long history of doing the absolute minimum -- or in this case, less than the minimum -- required by regulators, noted Linux Foundation spokesperson Amanda McPherson. "Hopefully this fine and the changes in the market will convince Microsoft to open up and comply with regulatory and market demand," McPherson said.
Wed, 27 Feb 08
New Sony Blu-ray Players Have Advanced Features
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58544
Now that the high-definition DVD war is over, the real innovation can begin. On Tuesday, Sony updated its Blu-ray Disc player line with two new models that will offer advanced interactive features, including trailers and games from the Internet. The new players will debut this summer.
The BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 models both support BonusView -- Picture-in-Picture -- featured on some of the new Blu-ray Disc theatrical releases. The BDP-S350 is BD-Live ready and features an Ethernet port for an easy firmware update and access to Internet-based interactive content. The BDP-S550 will be BonusView and BD-Live capable when it ships.
"Building on the exceptional picture and sound quality of previous players, Sony's next-generation Blu-ray Disc models bring exciting interactive features to life and offer consumers a groundbreaking experience," said Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for the Sony Electronics Home Product Division. "These new devices bring home movie experience beyond the cinema and into a whole new realm of entertainment."
The new players are compatible with most standard DVDs and feature quality upscaling through an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connection to capable HDTV sets. The upscaling automatically improves the picture performance of existing DVD libraries. Both models also feature an external port for local storage, so users can add an optional storage device. The BDP-S550 will include a 1GB storage device.
The BDP-S350 ships this summer for about $400 and the BDP-S550 will be available this fall for about $500. But some consumers are taking issue with the price, especially since Toshiba deep-discounted its HD DVD players to $99 during the holiday season.
"You can't equate the discounting that occurred for HD DVD and Blu-ray over the holidays with what these players cost to make," said Richard Doherty, a senior analyst at Envisioneering Group. "Toshiba's pricing was unreal. They were...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Apple's iTunes Store Is No. 2 in Music Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58543
Move over, Best Buy. Watch out, Wal-Mart. Apple's iTunes Store is now the number-two music retailer in the U.S., behind only Wal-Mart, based on the latest data from the NPD Group MusicWatch survey, which tallied the amount of music sold during 2007. Apple sold more than four billion songs, with 20 million sold on Christmas day.
According to NPD, the amount of music consumers acquired in the U.S. increased six percent in 2007. A sharp increase in legal digital download revenues could not offset declines in CD sales, however, which resulted in a net 10 percent decline in music spending (from $44 to $40 per capita among Internet users). That means only 42 percent of music acquired was actually paid for in 2007, down from 48 percent in 2006.
"The continued growth in legal download sites is encouraging, yet the industry struggles to improve the value of each digital customer," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group. "With so many baby boomers and gen-Xers entering the market, there are certainly opportunities to sell more digital albums, promote older catalog titles, or create bundles that will raise revenues."
In the near term, Crupnick continued, digital music sales will be the best means to narrow the gap on dwindling CD revenues. NPD estimates that 1 million buyers dropped out of the CD market in 2007, led by younger consumers. In fact, 48 percent of U.S. teens did not purchase a single CD in 2007, compared to 38 percent in 2006.
At the same time, peer-to-peer file sharing rose to 19 percent of U.S. Internet users last year. However, the number of files each user downloaded increased, and P2P music sharing continued to grow aggressively among teens.
The result is that legal music downloads now account for 10 percent of the...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Woomail Wants To Woo You Away from Spam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58541
Are you bugged by spam? Plagued by e-mail-borne viruses? Annoyed when an online merchant sells your e-mail address to e-marketers? Worried about the security of your messages?
If the answer to some or all of those questions is "Yes," then you might be interested in the new paradigm that John Halloran has to offer. It's called Woomail, and Halloran promises that it will put control over online communications in the hands of users.
Woomail is a Web-based e-mail client that's free for noncommercial users. From the perspective of a message sender, the interface is not that different from Gmail. But things get interesting when you send a message to someone outside the Woomail system: The recipient gets an e-mail saying, "I only read secure e-mail" and a link that takes the recipient to a reply page on the Woomail server, so that no part of the communication travels through cyberspace.
John Halloran, a Puerto Rico-based precious-metals dealer, created Woomail after struggling with the huge amount of spam his brokers and office staff were dealing with. He said that his goal was to put users in charge of their communications, inbound and outbound.
"The problem was that anyone in the world can send you communication from anywhere, and I can't stop them from sending it to my servers," he said. "If I can get them to come to me by typing in a URL or Woo to Woo message, then I can control communications on my server and so I can prevent fraudulent use." (A "Woo to Woo" message is one in which both parties have Woomail accounts.) Sending a message from within the site cannot be done without a challenge-and-response question, putting the kibosh on automated spammers.
Halloran thinks the real benefit will be to corporate users. The enterprise version would be...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Pakistan Lifts Curbs on YouTube
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58529
Pakistan's telecommunications regulator said Tuesday it has lifted restrictions on YouTube that knocked out access to the video-sharing Web site in many countries for up to two hours over the weekend.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told Internet service providers to restore access to the site after the removal of what it called a "blasphemous" video clip, authority spokeswoman Nabiha Mahmood said.
Pakistan ordered the site blocked on Friday over a clip featuring a Dutch lawmaker who has said he planned to release a movie portraying Islam as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.
Mahmood said attempts to access the offending clip on Tuesday afternoon brought up a message explaining that it had been removed on ethical grounds.
She said the authority had posted a complaint through the Web site -- a facility open to any registered user -- but had not been in contact with the administrators of YouTube.com, which is owned by Internet giant Google, Inc.
While several other videos featuring the politician, Geert Wilders, would remain visible to Pakistani Internet users, Mahmood said the one which was removed had been "totally anti-Quranic" and "very blasphemous."
She said it promoted Wilders' upcoming movie, but provided no details about its content.
The authority aimed to restrict the site only in Pakistan, but the move inadvertently cut access for many of the world's Internet users for up to two hours on Sunday.
YouTube said the next day that it was caused by a network in Pakistan.
"We are investigating and working with others in the Internet community to prevent this from happening again," YouTube said in an e-mailed statement.
Mahmood said the Pakistani regulator carried no responsibility for "technical hitches" which may have lead to problems elsewhere. She said it was not clear how that occurred.
Pakistani officials hope to prevent a repeat of violent anti-Western protests that...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
IBM Rolls Out New Million-Dollar Mainframe
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58527
IBM Corp. rolled out a new mainframe computer Tuesday boasting a 50-percent performance boost and dramatically lower energy costs than its predecessor.
The new System z10, with a starting price at about $1 million, comes as IBM focuses on lowering the price tag for running its storied line of data-crunching workhorses.
The Armonk, N.Y.-based company said it designed the new machine to help companies and government agencies that rely on mainframes -- usually for critical data processing such as bank transactions or census statistics crunching -- save money on energy bills and better handle a flood of Internet information.
The size of IBM's investment -- the company spent five years and $1.5 billion developing the new mainframe -- also underscores its commitment to the long-term viability of the mainframe and efforts continue adapting the decades-old product line to the Internet age.
For years some IT experts predicted the demise of the mainframe, bulky and expensive machines that face competition from smaller, less-expensive servers. But IBM says mainframe revenue is growing, rising in 5 out of the last 7 quarters, thanks in part to interest from emerging markets like Brazil, China, India and Russia.
IBM says it incorporated a number of technological upgrades into the new machine to appeal to cost-conscious companies looking to consolidate the number of servers in their data centers.
The z10's capacity is equivalent to 1,500 servers based on the popular x86 design, IBM says, though it has 85 percent lower energy costs and takes up 85 percent less space than the batch of x86 servers.
The new machines also boast more processing horsepower, using 64 processors compared to the 54 processors used in its predecessor, the z9.
Those chips are better at multitasking -- the new machine is IBM's first mainframe to use so-called "quad-core" chips, or microprocessors with four computing engines on a...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
VMware Inks Virtualization Deals With Server Makers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58540
On Tuesday, VMware pulled a virtual rabbit out of its software hat, announcing agreements to embed its ESX 3i hypervisor in servers from Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP and IBM. The four vendors are expected to begin shipping VMware-embedded machines within the next 60 days.
Diane Greene, president and chief executive officer of VMware, outlined the agreements with representatives from Dell, HP and IBM at Tuesday's VMworld Europe keynote. Greene said the deal will proliferate virtualization and fast-track customers on the path to a self-managing virtual data center.
With customers able to get VMware configured into a server platform, virtualization came a step closer to fulfilling analyst predictions for installations. IDC has predicted server virtualization will be a $15 billion market worldwide by 2009.
VMware's ESX 3i is based on its core virtualization technology that more than 100,000 customers are already using. At 32MB, it is the industry's smallest hypervisor. ESX 3i is the only OS-independent virtualization platform and, VMware said, the first virtual machine that can operate within minutes of booting a server with optimized configurations.
"ESX 3i is a relatively small piece of code. It doesn't take up an enormous amount of space, so it really creates some interesting opportunities for server vendors to use virtualization to improve system performance," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "From a competitive perspective, it is going to make room for VMware to have its system on machines months ahead of Microsoft's own embedded Hyper-V virtualization."
Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP and IBM servers will also include access to an evaluation of the VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) suite, which delivers a fully managed virtual data center. VI3 is VMware's solution for virtualizing servers, storage, networks, applications and desktops. The technology aims to help make sure IT services are delivered...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Novell Buys Software Maker PlateSpin for $205 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58539
Novell has agreed to pay $205 million in cash to acquire Toronto-based PlateSpin, which provides software resources for the management of heterogeneous data-center workloads on a single physical or virtual host.
PlateSpin's software portfolio is expected to serve as a cornerstone for Novell's virtualization strategy for delivering the next generation of infrastructure software needed to power tomorrow's data center, Novell executives said.
"Together, we will have the most comprehensive workload-management solution that allows customers to monitor and analyze what to virtualize, provide the tools to seamlessly virtualize and unvirtualize workloads, automate the management of workloads, and provide the leading open-source platform from which to run virtualized work," said Novell Chief Executive Ron Hovsepian.
PlateSpin's technologies are designed to improve both the speed and quality of server consolidation, data-center relocation, and disaster recovery. Once the deal closes, Novell expects to offer its customers tools for moving physical workloads to Xen-based virtual machines running on SUSE Linux Enterprise as well as other virtual platforms provided by Citrix, Microsoft, VMware and other vendors.
Novell's virtualization platform had been missing some key virtualization capabilities, noted Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon. For example, there was no "good way to assess and monitor which workloads were candidates for virtualization" or stream "virtual and physical workloads," Dragoon said.
Novell's platform also needed "an elegant and affordable method for enabling businesses to recover from disasters" as well as protect their data-center workloads from unplanned outages, Dragoon said. "PlateSpin's PowerRecon, PowerConvert and Forge products are designed from the ground up to handle those important tasks," he said.
With its acquisition of PlateSpin's technology, Novell said it will be able to provide IT departments with a fully integrated product suite that automates data-center initiatives such as server consolidation, relocation and hardware upgrades. PlateSpin's disaster-recovery offerings are also expected...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Google Invests in One of Four Transpacific Cables
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58526
While it appears that Google will not be getting into the cell-phone business, the search giant announced Tuesday it is taking a different route. Most observers believe Google wasn't the winning bidder in the Federal Communications Commission's 700MHz wireless spectrum auction. So rather than controlling the airwaves, Google has joined with five telecommunications companies to build a submarine fiber-optic cable to connect the U.S. and Japan.
Google's partners in the new $300 million Unity cable are Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI, Pacnet and Singapore Telecommunications. The cable will run 6,200 miles from Chikura, off the coast near Tokyo, to Los Angeles and other West Coast centers.
"The Unity cable system allows the members of the consortium to provide the increased capacity needed as more applications and services migrate online," said Jayne Stowell, a spokesperson for the consortium.
Unity said the cable will provide "much-needed capacity" as growth in Internet traffic skyrockets between Asia and America. It will initially boost transpacific cable capacity by 20 percent and potentially could add 7.68 terabits per second of bandwidth across the Pacific.
It's unusual for an Internet company to become so involved with infrastructure. "While Google is the first non-telecom company to take an active role in ownership of a submarine cable, it's not likely that this is the beginning of a new trend," said Alan Mauldin, research director at the submarine-cable consultancy TeleGeography.
Indeed, Google has a unique reason for investing in infrastructure, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, in an e-mail. "Google appears to be trying to vertically integrate -- my guess is so they eventually can provide a complete Internet/phone/entertainment service which is completely ad-driven," he wrote.
Such integration would make the company "virtually impossible to displace without disruptive technology and be in the best position to take advantage" of...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Apple Boosts MacBook Pro Speed, Graphics
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58525
Apple has updated its MacBook Pro line to include faster graphics. While there's not much to wow Mac fans, the new laptops offer speed increases thanks to Intel's new chip architecture.
"It's absolutely just what we expected," Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, told NewsFactor. "They're moving to the new Intel processor platform, which is bringing faster speeds and a little better power management. Those are the noteworthy things."
The new MacBook Pro includes an Intel Core 2 Duo processor that can run up to 2.6 GHz with as much as 6 MB of L2 cache. In a nutshell, "you can get more done in less time," Apple's Web site says. The new processors are almost 75 percent faster than the MacBook Pro's original Intel processors. The new laptops can be expanded to 4GB of 667 MHz DDR2 memory.
That doesn't mean an increase in energy use, however. Bajarin explained that Intel's 45-nanometer process puts transistors closer together so they can share resources. Apple's site says the transistors are small enough that "you could fit a hundred inside a human cell," which helps keep the MacBook Pro thin.
With NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics cards that can expand on some configurations to 512MB of video memory, the new laptops have powerful graphics capabilities. They use a solid-state trackpad with Apple's Multi-Touch gesture support, which gives users more precise cursor control. The full-size keyboard is backlit with an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts keyboard and screen brightness.
The 15-inch MacBook Pro is available with a 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB of on-chip shared L2 cache, or with a 2.5-GHz or a 2.6-GHz processor with 6MB of L2 cache. Storage options are a 200GB or 250GB, 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive (a 200GB 7200-rpm drive is available). This...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Comcast Executive Grilled at FCC Hearing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58524
Is throttling of peer-to-peer traffic -- especially BitTorrent traffic -- on Comcast's cable Internet service "reasonable network management" or a breach of trust? That was the question at the Federal Communications Commission's hearing Monday in Cambridge, Mass.
The FCC met at Harvard Law School in response to petitions from a consortium of public-interest groups and Internet video company Vuze. The petitions accused Comcast of violating the FCC's four Internet policy principles, which boil down to allowing consumers to use the Internet without interference from service providers. An exception to the principles is "reasonable" network management and the hearing focused on whether Comcast's actions were reasonable.
By the end of the day, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he hadn't come to a conclusion, but he told reporters later, "One of the main concerns I have is that there wasn't a transparency to some of the network-management practices (Comcast) engaged in."
The highlight of the hearing, which included panels on policy and technology issues, was Martin's grilling of Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen. Martin asked Cohen why Comcast thinks it "necessary to block" BitTorrent when customers "are acting within the constraints you sold them. ... Doesn't that undermine the arguments you're making?"
No, Cohen responded, "I don't think we're restraining the customers from using the service in accordance with the way we're selling it to them." He said Comcast gave subscribers fair notice of the practice in a FAQ on its Web site. "Comcast may on a limited basis temporarily delay certain P2P traffic when that traffic has or is projected to have an adverse effect on other customers' use of the service," Cohen read from the notice.
Is that sufficient notice to consumers and developers? No way, said Marvin Ammori, general counsel for Free Press, one of the groups that petitioned...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Yahoo Buzz Ranks Web Content by Votes and Searches
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58523
Forget the buzz about Microsoft acquiring Yahoo. This week the search titan wants the world's attention on Yahoo Buzz, an extension to Yahoo.com that promises to deliver the most interesting and relevant content from Web sites. The new tool is currently in beta.
In true social-networking style, Yahoo Buzz measures consumer votes and search patterns to identify interesting and timely stories and videos from large news sources as well as niche blogs around the Web. Top stories are then given primary consideration for placement on Yahoo.com.
Yahoo Buzz can highlight anything -- a major news event, an intriguing video or image, or an interesting blog post -- and instead of editors, real people vote and search for their favorite stories to determine the top-rated content.
Yahoo Buzz ranks the most popular content of the moment by combining votes with search popularity to give a story a Buzz Score. Yahoo said it is creating a lens on what people are most interested in to enhance relevance on Yahoo.com and help publishers deliver their best content to Yahoo's 500 million-plus users.
Yahoo is aiming to build on its recent successes in improving the Yahoo.com home page. According to the company, consumer engagement with the home page has increased nearly 20 percent year over year. Yahoo sees this as evidence that continuing to open up and provide consumers with direct links to third-party publishers keeps people coming back to Yahoo.
Currently, Yahoo Buzz includes content from nearly 100 publishers, each of which has a "badge" that lets readers vote and submit stories to Buzz in real-time. Stories with the highest Buzz Scores will be highlighted through direct links to the publishers' sites from buzz.yahoo.com and submitted to Yahoo.com's editors for possible coverage on the Yahoo homepage. Yahoo allows users to submit Buzz...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 Tops MacBook Air Features
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58522
Lenovo on Tuesday launched the ultrathin, ultralight ThinkPad X300 notebook, which immediately invited comparisons to Apple's MacBook Air. The laptop is three-fourths of an inch at its thinnest and weighs as low as 2.9 pounds. It includes solid-state drive storage, a 13.3-inch LED backlit WXGA+ high-resolution display, and low-voltage processors.
"Our customers told us that they wanted a notebook that was amazingly thin and light," said Peter Hortensius, Lenovo senior vice president, "but they still wanted their battery options, their USB ports and, of course, their DVD burner."
Hortensius made obvious references to features the Air has been criticized for lacking, notably a battery removable by the user, USB ports in excess of the Air's single port, and no internal optical drive. The Air does offer wireless access to an external drive.
The X300 is a "great step in the progression of the ThinkPad line," said Doug Bell, an analyst with industry research firm IDC. He added that the X300 is "what a lot of road warriors are looking for," and the option of either Windows XP or Vista is "a big plus" because many enterprises are reluctant to move to the newer Vista operating system.
The biggest hurdle for businesses, Bell said, is the price, which starts at $2,799. He noted that many business users do not have input into which model is purchased for them, and IT departments may be put off by the cost. But he added that the X300 could be of interest to consumers and the MacBook Air is primarily a consumer-oriented product.
With the X300, road warriors will have plenty of options. The laptop includes stereo speakers, a digital microphone, and an integrated camera. For the itinerant salesperson, the new notebook boasts a roll cage to protect it from falls and drops.
Lenovo...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
iPhone Developer's Kit Expected Soon
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58521
The iPhone is about to get more than a little help from its friends.
Any day now, Apple is expected to release a developer's kit that will allow independent programmers to create new applications for the device. While it is common for mainstream PC users to download third-party programs to their computers, it is relatively uncharted territory for average cell-phone users to do the same, observed American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu.
Apple's kickoff will follow on the heels of Microsoft's announcement this week of a software giveaway campaign that will unlock high-end developer tools used to create everything from games to cell-phone programs to millions of college and high school
students around the world.
"It's going to make the platform more attractive, no question," Wu said of the iPhone. What is unknown, he said, is whether the new applications will boost iPhone sales.
The move will give the device -- a combination of telephone, multimedia player and Wi-Fi gadget -- an array of new features, from games to better ways to sync it with corporate e-mail accounts. And it could eventually help make the iPhone Apple's iconic product,
unseating the iPod as consumers increasingly embrace smart-phone devices.
"I think the phone portion will be reduced as a service on these cool devices. You won't be buying it because it's a phone," said Jim Grossman, an equity analyst at Thrivent Asset Management in Minneapolis. "I call it a mini-computer."
Even without Apple's technological road map for the iPhone, there already are some 300 "underground" applications created for the device, a powerful indication of interest among code writers to join its universe, said Yankee Group analyst Andrew Jaquith.
"You will see a lot of them move real quickly to the new environment, and you'll see mainstream software companies jump...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Get Untangled from the Web with Twine
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58520
How often have you wasted time searching through page after page of e-mail messages, Web sites, notes, news feeds and YouTube videos on your computer, trying to find an important item?
If the answer is "too often," a company in San Francisco, Radar Networks, is testing a free, Web-based application, called Twine, that may provide some robotic secretarial help in organizing and retrieving documents.
Twine, at twine.com, can scan almost any electronic document for the names of people, places, businesses and many other entities that its algorithms recognize.
Then it does something unusual: it automatically tags or marks all of these items in orange and transfers them to an index on the right side of the screen. This index grows with every document you view, as the program adds subjects that it can recognize or infer
from their context.
Customers have individual accounts on Twine's Web site, where they save URLs or other information.
They can make their collections, or "twines," private, share them in groups with other members having common interests like politics or fashion, or even make the twines public.
For instance, people planning a trip to Italy could send all the Google maps, articles and travel guide Web pages they are collecting to Twine.
As each document is added, Twine automatically tags items and adds them to the database for the Italy trip, compiling an index with references to, for example, Pisa, Rome and Siena; Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon and Dante; and the Holy Roman Empire, the Hapsburg
family and St. Peter's.
The more documents that are added, the more numerous the references and the more links to related information.
Twine is based on technologies created for the developing semantic Web -- foreseen as a smarter Web where machines may someday be able to process the meaning of words and phrases in documents and even routinely answer...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Could Microsoft Learn from Oracle?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58502
In its continuing battle with Google, Microsoft has worked its way down its list of ideas to its current course of action: pursuing a hostile bid for Yahoo.
Michael Cusumano, a management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has written several books about the software industry and about Microsoft, is not impressed with Microsoft's rationale. He said the bid seemed to be a pursuit of "an old-style Internet asset, in decline, and at a premium."
Determined to match Google in Web search and online advertising, Microsoft has managed to overlook a plain-vanilla strategy, the oldest one in the book: build on your own strengths. What it does best is to sell software to corporations, for all sorts of applications, visible and not so visible, at a handsome profit.
If Microsoft thinks this is the right time to try a major acquisition on a scale it has never tried before, it should not pursue Yahoo. Rather, it should acquire another major player in business software, merging Microsoft's strength with that of another.
For an illustration of how Microsoft could select targets more judiciously, Cusumano, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, pointed to Oracle's strategic acquisitions and its prudent use of capital to "roll-up firms with similar products and customers to its own." With impressive regularity -- 13 strategic acquisitions in 2005, another 13 in 2006 and 11 in 2007 -- Oracle has picked up major products and customers while avoiding venturing too far away from its core business, or paying too much.
Last month, Oracle pulled in another major prize, BEA Systems, a leading software company, for about $8.5 billion. You have probably never heard of BEA: it is doubly obscure, producing the behind-the-scenes infrastructure that large companies use to build behind-the-scenes software systems for their entire business, or...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Pakistan Blocking Sends YouTube Into 'Black Hole'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58519
In a bizarre turn of events, Pakistan's attempts to block its citizens from accessing Google-owned YouTube wound up sending the video-sharing site into a "black hole" and exposing some fundamental weaknesses of the Internet architecture.
It's not clear what YouTube video spurred the Pakistani action. Leading contenders include a film by Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders and the incendiary political cartoons featuring the prophet Muhammad published by Dutch newspapers in 2005. The newspapers recently republished the cartoons in solidarity with the cartoonist, whose life was threatened in a plot discovered by Dutch authorities.
Whatever the reason, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority issued an order to Pakistani ISPs to block YouTube. The nation's largest ISP, Pakistan Telecommunications Corp. Ltd. (PTCL) took steps to send all requests from Pakistan for YouTube into a "black hole." But, apparently inadvertently, the ISP hijacked YouTube's IP addresses, effectively shutting down the site for users around the world for several hours.
"Traffic to YouTube was routed according to erroneous Internet protocols, and many users around the world could not access our site," Google announced after working around the problem. "We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan. We are investigating and working with others in the Internet community to prevent this from happening again."
BBC reporter Darren Waters, who did some of the early reporting on the story, wrote in a blog, "There will definitely be some fallout from this. It would seem that all it takes to hijack a Web site globally is for a telecoms firm to instruct its ISPs that they now run a domain, and for one of those ISPs to announce that globally. So that other ISPs follow suit in a piggyback chain of confusion."
What happened exactly? The answer has to do with some fairly low-level details...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Dick Tracy Would Love Nokia's Morph Cell Phone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58518
At a trade show, you stretch your wristwatch cell phone to check the time and then hand out business-card phones with your logo. This vision of the not-too-distant future is one of the possibilities of the Morph joint venture by Nokia and the United Kingdom's University of Cambridge.
That vision went on display at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on Sunday, as part of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit. "Morph," Nokia said, "is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes."
Dr. Bob Iannucci, Nokia chief technology officer, said the Nokia Research Center is looking to "reinvent the form and function of mobile devices" through the use of nanotechnology and the Morph "concept phones" show some of the possibilities -- including flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.
The partnership between Nokia and the university, announced last March, involves a research facility at the university and collaboration with several academic departments, including the Nanoscience Center and the Engineering Department. Nokia said the projected timeline for integration into handheld devices is within seven years, initially through high-end devices, and applications could include lowering the cost of manufacturing.
Chris Hazelton, an analyst with industry research firm IDC, noted that the collaboration supports a general trend toward the development of morphing or changeable phones. Morphing, he said, is the industry's growing effort to address the need "for greater capability for mobile phones, while getting around the size barrier."
He noted that the morphing trend includes designs in which form literally follows function, such as the keypad in Motorola's Rokr E8, in which a 12-key alphanumeric pad for phone use can become a media playback pad with play, stop and other functions.
He...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
MetaRAM Finds a Way To Quadruple Memory
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58517
While microprocessing power increases dramatically from year to year, memory capacity lags behind. That may change as a start-up called MetaRAM addresses the gap with an innovation it promises will quadruple the amount of memory on servers and workstations at a much lower cost.
Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) provides short-term storage for computer data, and successive generations with more capacity come at a higher price because there are few manufacturers and they're more difficult to make.
"More memory is a critical enabler for computing-intensive applications," including CAD/EDA simulations, database transaction processing, and virtualization, said Jeremy Werner, senior marketing manager at MetaRAM.
As critical as memory is, Werner said there have been restrictions on storage capacity because of a limitation on how many DRAM chips a memory controller can address. "Also, DRAM density has been limited by the rate of technological advancements of memory-process technology, doubling density in SDRAM about every three years," Werner said.
MetaRAM has overcome this problem by creating MetaSDRAM, a chip that sits between multiple DRAM chips on a computer's memory module, allowing cheaper one-gigabit memory chips to work together while making the package appear to the computer as a much larger-capacity memory chip. Different versions of the MetaRAM chips will double or quadruple capacity.
The chips fit into standard memory slots and are engineered to work with a minimum of power. Companies are already looking at how the MetaRAM chip will change the ways they do business.
"Business owners, independent researchers, and IT managers looking to implement virtualization will recognize a significant increase in efficiency at a lower cost," Werner said. He added they will be able to serve large databases much faster and solve large simulation problems in a fraction of today's time.
Today South Korean DRAM manufacturer Hynix Semiconductor Inc. announced the launch...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Adobe's AIR and Flex Merge Desktop and Web
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58515
The worlds of online and offline applications came closer to converging Monday as Adobe Systems released its AIR 1.0 and Flex 3 platforms. The platforms include tools and services that help developers create rich Internet applications (RIAs) that combine the Web's real-time updates with the desktop's speed and access to local files.
The applications can be run in the Flash player as well as in the Adobe Media Player, now in beta release, which the company said will be "a fusion of TV and the Internet."
"AIR is the big thing" in this release, said Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst with industry firm Forrester, although he noted that there are no obvious improvements over AIR's beta releases. He said the platform gives developers a sandbox in which existing skills in HTML, Ajax, Flex and Flash can be utilized to "blend the previously separate development models -- development for the desktop and development for the Web."
Flex 3 is a free, open-source framework. AIR and the AIR SDK (software developers kit) are also free, and, large parts of AIR are open source, including the WebKit HTML engine, Tamarin ActionScript Virtual Machine, and SQLite local database functionality.
The blending of desktop and Web applications could impact many e-commerce and other business experiences on the Web. AIR's momentum, said Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, shows the "real need for businesses to engage with customers in more effective ways."
Adobe said the momentum includes AIR-deployed applications from such companies as AOL, eBay, NASDAQ, The New York Times, Nickelodeon/MTV Network, Sharp and others.
NASDAQ has an RIA for the desktop that allows financial pros to replay market activity at any point in time. With it, brokers can remotely show customers exactly what was taking place when an order was placed. Adobe said AIR "allows for instant...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
EU Decision on IP Addresses Could Hurt Search Engines
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58514
European regulators are considering whether to categorize IP addresses as personal property. Their decision could throw a monkey wrench into the methods that search-engine operators like Google, Yahoo and MSN use to track the online habits of Web surfers.
"As the use of search engines becomes a daily routine for an ever-growing number of citizens, the protection of the users' privacy and the guaranteeing of their rights remain the core issues of the ongoing debate," the European Commission's data-protection working group said earlier this month.
The group said it expects to release a final report in the months ahead. Its recommendations will have worldwide implications because any search engine with at least one establishment in any European Union country will be required to comply with EU privacy policies.
Google has been trying to convince the regulators that IP addresses aren't personal. Given that not everyone is connected at the same time, each Internet service provider assigns a different IP address to each connecting computer, and then reassigns it when users disconnect, noted Google software engineer Alma Whitten.
"Because of this, the IP address assigned to your computer one day may get assigned to several other computers before a week has passed," Whitten said.
For example, as laptop users move from home to work or operate from temporary locations, they are changing IP addresses constantly. "And if you share your computer or even just your connection to your ISP with your family, then multiple people are sharing one IP address," Whitten said.
Still, Whitten admits that each ISP knows the name and address of the person who holds the subscriber account to which a specific IP address has been assigned.
"On the other hand, the IP addresses recorded by every Web site on the planet without additional information should not...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
FCC Hearing Focuses on Comcast Internet Blocking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58513
The Federal Communications Commission convened at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass., Monday for a public hearing on allegations that Comcast improperly throttled the peer-to-peer application BitTorrent.
In opening remarks the commissioners also signaled they would look at a broader range of alleged wrongdoing, including a case where Verizon blocked a pro-choice group's text message. Two Democratic commissioners called for additional policies protecting network neutrality.
Chairman Kevin Martin focused the meeting on the FCC's four Internet policy principles:
-- Consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice.
-- Consumers are entitled to use applications and services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.
-- Consumers are entitled to connect legal devices, so long as they don't harm the network.
A
-- Competition among providers needs to be protected.
All these principles are "subject to reasonable network performance."
"The question is, 'What are reasonable network practices?'" Martin said. He emphasized that the principles require network providers to be "open and transparent" to consumers in terms of fees, practices and services. The purpose of the hearing, he said, is to "hear from both sides publicly."
And the chairman warned: "The commission is ready, willing and able to step in if necessary."
After the commissioners' opening remarks, the hearing was to feature two panels of legal and technology experts, as well as consumer organizations and industry executives.
A morning session focusing on policy issues expected representatives from Comcast and Verizon, several law professors and the general counsel for Free Press, one of the organizations that filed a petition with the FCC challenging Comcast's actions.
Speaking to the media last week, Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu, who will speak on the policy panel, said, "What we're going to see on Monday is a trial of the Internet. "Comcast is in the docket, accused...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
EA Publicizes Rejection of $2B Offer for Take-Two
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58499
Call it a flashback to the Microsoft-Yahoo takeover battle. On Sunday Electronic Arts announced a proposal to acquire Take-Two Interactive Software in an all-cash merger valued at approximately $2 billion. In true Yahoo style, Take-Two said the proposal is inadequate and not in the best interests of its stockholders.
EA's proposal of $26 per share is a premium of 64 percent over Take-Two's closing stock price on Feb. 15 and 63 percent over Take-Two's 30-day trailing average price ending on that date.
Take-Two did not solicit the deal, and EA did not publicize its Feb. 19 offer -- until it was rejected. That's when EA decided to release the letter and bring its proposal to the attention of all Take-Two stockholders.
"Our all-cash proposal is a unique opportunity for Take-Two shareholders to realize immediate value at a substantial premium, while creating long-term value for EA shareholders," EA CEO John Riccitiello said. "Take-Two's game designers would also benefit from EA's financial resources, stable, game-focused management team, and strong global publishing capabilities."
Take-Two's board of directors said it thoroughly reviewed EA's unsolicited proposal with independent financial and legal advisers and concluded that the proposal is inadequate. Specifically, Take-Two said, the offer undervalues its franchises. Take-Two called EA's offer "highly opportunistic" and one that attempts to "take advantage of our upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV."
"In addition to undervaluing key elements of our business, EA's proposal fails to recognize the value we are building through our ongoing turnaround efforts, which will further revitalize Take-Two," said Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two board chairman. "While we have made substantial progress already, the turnaround of our business which we initiated in June is not yet complete, and we believe its benefits have not been recognized in either our current stock price or in the value of EA's...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Goolag Scanner Checks Web Sites for Vulnerabilities
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58498
On Monday, the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker group released an open-source Web auditing tool that aims to let owners check their Web sites for security vulnerabilities. Dubbed the Goolag Scanner, the technology is based on "Google hacking," a form of vulnerability research developed by Johnny I Hack Stuff. Goolag Scanner is a standalone Windows GUI-based application.
"It's no big secret that the Web is the platform," Cult of the Dead Cow spokesperson Oxblood Ruffin said. "And this platform pretty much sucks from a security perspective. Goolag Scanner provides one more tool for Web-site owners to patch up their online properties."
Hackers are constantly looking for vulnerable Web sites on which to plant malicious code. The Sophos 2008 Security Threat Report published in January revealed just how prevalent the danger is.
Sophos detects a newly infected Web page every 14 seconds. Eighty-three percent of those pages belong to companies and individuals who are unaware that their sites have been hacked.
"We've seen some pretty scary holes through random tests with the scanner in North America, Europe and the Middle East," Ruffin said. "If I were a government, a large corporation, or anyone with a large web site, I'd be downloading this beast and aiming it at my site yesterday. The vulnerabilities are that serious."
Cybercriminals can target any computer user through e-mails containing links to the poisoned Web pages. The hacked Web site can determine if the visiting computer is a Mac or a PC, and deliver malware custom-written for the surfer's operating system.
Web sites of all types from antique dealers to ice-cream manufacturers to wedding photographers have hosted malware, according to Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"Tools like Goolag can help Web-site owners determine if their sites are vulnerable,"...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
The Dawn of Green Mobile Networks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58495
Mobile phones long ago began conquering parts of the world that are far away from the nearest electrical substation. But the rising price of oil is exposing a problem with the networks that connect mobile handsets together.
In the far reaches of places like India or Africa, where companies such as Ericsson or Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, are installing new cellular base stations at a furious pace, the facilities almost always get their power from diesel-powered generators. But fuel can account for as much as two-thirds of base-station operating costs. Add to that the expense of trucking diesel over poor roads to far-flung locations and protecting the valuable fuel against theft. "Getting oil or diesel to these stations is tremendously difficult," says Mats Granryd, president of Ericsson India.
As a result, green energy is suddenly becoming more than a feel-good project for the world's mobile service providers. As mobile networks expand far beyond the reach of power grids, they need to find alternatives to diesel. After experimenting for years with base stations powered by wind, solar energy, or biofuel, equipment suppliers are preparing to roll out alternative energy technology in significant numbers.
"We're starting to see this deployed globally now," says Dawn Haig-Thomas, director of the development fund of the GSM Assn., an industry group. "It's our hottest area." Two Asian network operators will shortly announce plans for more than 500 new base stations powered by a combination of sun and wind, Haig-Thomas says. [She declines to name the operators.]
Solving the power problem is key to maintaining the growth of the mobile industry. The number of mobile subscribers is expected to climb to 5 billion by 2015, from 3 billion today. A large proportion of those new users will be in poor, rural areas with little...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Google Launches AdSense for Video
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58484
Hoping to earn more from its vast advertising network, Google has said it plans to begin selling ads to appear inside videos on sites across the Web.
While the money spent on Web video ads is a small fraction of the $20 billion spent on Internet ads in the United States, Google wants to capitalize on the explosion in online video and the scale of its advertising network, which analysts say includes a vast majority of Web advertisers and hundreds of thousands of Web sites.
The new program, AdSense for Video, could help Web publishers in that network make more money from their video clips.
While AdSense for Video is the latest in a string of new advertising initiatives that Google has started over the past two years, few, if any, of those initiatives have created substantial revenue for Google. They include Google's programs to place ads in
newspapers, on radio and on television stations and in a variety of new formats on the Web and on cell phones.
Last year, an overwhelming majority of the company's $16.6 billion in revenue came from small text ads that appear alongside search results and on the Google advertising network. In its 2007 annual report, which it filed last week, Google noted: "Revenues
realized through the Google Print Ads Program, Google Audio Ads, Google TV Ads, Google Checkout, YouTube, Postini and Search Appliance were not material in any of the periods presented."
AdSense for Video will offer advertisers a choice between video or text ads that will be overlaid on a small portion of the video viewer.
The text ads will rotate every 20 seconds and be tailored to match the content of the video and of the Web page where the video is played.
Overlay video advertising formats have been gaining favor with marketers as an alternative to the more common...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
The Secrets of Microsoft's Sync
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58481
Microsoft has spun its wheels for years attempting to craft an in-car computer, but the company may be primed for pole position with its latest effort to weave software into auto design.
The system is called Sync, and it lets motorists control car stereos and mobile phones with voice commands. Sync was featured in a keynote speech by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it's available exclusively from Ford Motor.
The automaker has sold more than 100,000 vehicles with the Sync system since it was introduced in November, says Martin Thall, general manager of Microsoft's automotive business, with 70 percent of those sales coming in 2008. Ford expects to sell a million Sync-enabled cars by early 2009, when the system will be available in 85 percent of its cars.
Part of the reason for the popularity is price. Adding a Sync system to a Ford, Lincoln, or Mercury adds only $395 to the sticker price, while adding similar features for controlling music and cell phones to other cars can cost as much as $800.
Researchers at market research firm iSuppli probed under Sync's hood for a closer look at how Microsoft and Ford managed to keep the price so low. The makers use inexpensive chips, for one thing. A teardown analysis by iSuppli found that the six major chips used in the system cost a grand total of $25. Of those, the most expensive component is an $8 applications chip from Freescale Semiconductor, the privately held former chip unit of Motorola. A second Freescale microcontroller chip costs $5.
Add in $4.80 worth of memory chips from Micron Technology, a $3.80 flash memory chip from Samsung, a $1.75 Bluetooth chip from Cambridge Silicon Radio, and a $1.65 audio chip from Cirrus Logic, and you've...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
EMC Embraces Cloud Computing with Pi Purchase
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58494
Enterprise storage giant EMC has acquired Pi Corp., a small technology start-up that has yet to release any products on its own. EMC did not disclose the purchase price, but did announce plans to hire Pi's founder Paul Maritz as president of a new Cloud Infrastructure and Services division.
Maritz is a 14-year veteran of Microsoft who left the company in 2000 and went on to serve as chairman of the Grameen Foundation, the innovative nonprofit founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
While information about Pi's technology is limited, EMC CEO Joe Tucci offered some clues about the company's cloud-computing plan.
Cloud computing, for those unfamiliar with the term, refers to the strategy of data and applications existing on a shared network rather than on individual users' computers. With cloud computing, users have greater access to shared resources.
Tucci emphasized that Pi's technology is complementary to EMC's emerging cloud infrastructure strategy. And, he said, Maritz will provide leadership to help position EMC at the leading edge of cloud computing and personal-information management.
Maritz described his vision as "allowing consumers and corporate information workers to create, repurpose, store, share and access personal information in novel ways, taking advantage of the ubiquity of computing power and a new interconnected world."
EMC has been focused on cloud opportunities for the past year, said analyst Charles King in a telephone interview with us earlier today.
The company "has identified the incredibly rapid growth in information acquisition and storage as a really huge challenge for individuals and enterprises," he said. And, King added, EMC recognizes this as an opportunity to explore products and services they could offer to help.
EMC's acquisition of Berkeley Data Systems and the release of its Mozy product was the first step, while "Pi takes this a step forward," King said. "Pi is...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Nintendo's Wii Fit Creates an Exercise Program
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58493
Nintendo wants to turn a movement that is a key part of its Wii video-game console into an exercise program with a new Wii Fit product.
Announced earlier this week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and launching in mid-May, the Wii Fit will use the motion-sensing controller and a new interactive Balance Board to create a workout. The board senses weight and motion, and the company said third-party publishers are also working on applications. Wii Fit is expected to retail for less than $100.
Wii Fit also includes access to the interactive Wii Fit Channel, where users can check their fitness progress on a daily basis, including weight and BMI index. Wii Fit is already available in Japan, and has sold more than 1.4 million units since its launch on December 1.
Reportedly, Nintendo's Takao Sawano worked with Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto in designing Wii Fit. The impetus came from an effort to adapt a simple weight scale for the Wii. Noting that sumo wrestlers require two scales to weigh themselves, Sawano began developing a scale from scratch with the idea of being able to sense a shift in weight. From that, a balancing peripheral was born that is sensitive enough to detect if a user is moving a hand to pick up a controller.
The fitness program offered with the Wii Fit focuses on yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance games, with as many as 10 activities for each area. Some activities use the board, such as balancing or push-ups, and some do not. For instance, running in place can use the Wii Remote like a pedometer to track progress and effort.
The Wii Fit is a "by-product of the whole Wii plan for getting people off the couch," said Michael Gartenberg,...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
10 Teams Register for Google's Robot Moon Race
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58492
One small step for man and one giant leap for robots. You could feel that sentiment from one of the first 10 teams to register for the Google Lunar X Prize, a robotic race to the moon with $30 million in prizes.
International teams will compete to land a privately funded robot craft on the moon and roam the lunar surface for at least 500 meters while sending video, images and data back to Earth.
"We are excited that 10 teams from around the world have taken up the challenge of the Google Lunar X Prize," said Megan Smith, Google's vice president for new business development. "We look forward to the exciting achievements and scientific advancements that will result from the efforts of these teams as they participate in the next great space race."
Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, reported a strong response to the competition. Six months after Google and the foundation announced the race to the moon, 567 groups from 53 nations have expressed interest. By comparison, at the six-month point of the Ansari X Prize, only two teams had registered.
"I think we are going to see an exciting and very competitive race to the moon, highlighted by some very creative designs unlike anything we have seen come out of the government space programs," Diamandis said. "Many of these teams represent some of the most creative and entrepreneurial minds in space exploration today. I wish them all the very best of luck. I can't wait to join with Google in paying the winner."
There's plenty at stake in this race. The $30 million purse is divided into a $20 million grand prize, a $5 million second prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. To win the grand prize, a team must...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Symantec Offers Online Backup Solutions
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58491
New Web-based solutions from Symantec aim to make it easy for small and midsize businesses to back up data and be prepared for disaster. Symantec Online Backup and Symantec Online Storage for Backup Exec join recent enterprise offerings from EMC and CommVault that use software as a service (SaaS) to simplify backup.
With SaaS solutions, consumers pay to use, not own, software that can be accessed across the Web. With a backup solution built on SaaS, businesses don't have to rely on putting data on disks or tapes, which can be administrative nightmares.
Symantec Online Backup offers browser-based backup and restoration. Data is stored on redundant servers and encrypted both before it's transmitted and while it resides in Symantec's data centers. Symantec says it has no access to the stored data.
Symantec Online Storage for Backup Exec is an add-on to the company's existing offering, Backup Exec. Previous versions of the product allow data to be backed up to tape or disk. Now an online-storage option is also available.
Chris Schin, director of product management for the Symantec Protection Network, said the new offerings were engineered to work with Microsoft's next edition of Windows Server, known as Longhorn. "Each of them is the first solution in its market to be logo-certified for Windows Server 2008," he told NewsFactor. That's important because the way in which Longhorn is backed up has changed from Server 2003, he said.
Schin said the new products would be integrated with other Symantec solutions as customers have demanded. "We started to deliver on the promise of integration across Symantec's many security-product lines. For example, this version of Backup Exec 12 now integrates with Enterprise Vault, so if you have an Enterprise Vault e-mail archive, you can back it up using Backup Exec," Schin said.
Backup Exec...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Cold-Boot Attack Can Crack Disk Encryption
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58490
Encrypting your hard drive has been touted as the ultimate in data protection. But new research shows that a savvy attacker with a can of compressed air and good timing can access encryption keys used by Vista's BitLocker, the Mac's FileVault, and other well-known encryption tools -- and then your data.
While a computer is running, data and the encryption keys used by full-disk encryption systems are held in dynamic random-access memory. Researchers at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy took advantage of the fact that data persists on DRAM modules even when a computer is turned off.
Researcher Ed Felten wrote on his blog, "Virtually everybody, including experts, will tell you that DRAM contents are lost when you turn off the power. But this isn't so."
The data in DRAM modules persists only for a minute or less at room temperature, but the decay of data can be significantly slowed by using an air-spray duster to cool the chips (a few sprays can lower the temperature to -50 degrees Celsius). Then, with specialized software, "someone could carry out our attacks against a target computer in a matter of minutes," Felten wrote. The Princeton team did not disclose the source code or software used in the cold-boot attack.
"Most disk-encryption systems can be defeated if the computer is stolen or accessed while it is in sleep mode or in a password-protected screen saver," Felten wrote. Vista's BitLocker "is also sometimes vulnerable even when the computer is completely off."
Microsoft acknowledged that the attack could occur. "Like all full-volume encryption products, BitLocker has a key in memory when the system is running in order to encrypt/decrypt data on the fly for the drive(s) in use. If a system is in 'sleep mode' it is, in effect, still running," Microsoft said in a statement provided...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Whoops! Microsoft Vista SP1 'Escapes'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58489
The slow rollout of Microsoft Vista Service Pack 1 has confused nearly everyone, with Microsoft announcing it had released SP1 to manufacturing several weeks ago but delaying its release until March 18.
Mike Nash, senior vice president of Windows product management, said at the time that Microsoft was dealing with an issue "with the way the device drivers were re-installed during the SP1 update process."
Microsoft then changed course slightly and announced it would release SP1 to volume customers by the end of last week. But now some 64-bit users are reporting that Windows Update is already delivering SP1.
Writing on the Hexus.net site, Parm Mann said Windows Update informed him Thursday that "I have one important update to install on my 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium-based system -- Windows Vista Service Pack 1 for x64-based Systems." Parm reported the installation took less than 30 minutes and went smoothly.
Microsoft confirmed that the update went out, but said it was a mistake. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, an internationally published technology author, blogged Thursday that he received this statement from Microsoft:
"Since releasing SP1 to manufacturing on February 4th, we have made Windows Vista SP1 available to beta testers, MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers, as well as Volume Licensing customers. Today, a build of SP1 was posted to Windows Update and it was inadvertently made available to a broad group. The build was intended only for our more technically advanced testers, and was meant to only be offered to those with a specific registry key set on their PC. For general availability, we are still planning to make SP1 broadly available in the mid-March time frame."
Microsoft also warned Friday that updating to SP1 may break a number of third-party antivirus applications. Some programs are blocked or do not run, while others...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
T-Mobile Testing Unlimited Home Phoning for $10
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58480
T-Mobile wants you to talk forever. The wireless provider is testing its Talk Forever Home Phone plan in two cities, Seattle and Dallas. The plan allows unlimited U.S. calling for $10 a month.
The home user needs four components: an existing high-speed Internet connection, a T-Mobile Wireless Router with Home Phone Connection, a qualifying T-Mobile wireless plan with the Talk Forever plan, and a compatible home phone. The router plugs into the user's broadband connection, and then any regular phone can be plugged into the router.
"You just plug in the router into your broadband connection and plug in your home phone into the router," the company said on its Web site, emphasizing ease of use. The existing home phone number can be used, and any standard touch-tone phone will do.
For homes with several cordless phones running off a base station, the base station can be plugged into the router and any of the cordless phones can use the unlimited service. However, T-Mobile warns, while 5.8-GHz cordless phones or traditional touch phones work fine, 2.4-GHz cordless phones "do not work well with Wi-Fi."
The Talk Forever plan can be added to an existing T-Mobile single-line mobile plan of $39.99 or higher, or any FamilyTime mobile plan of $49.99 or higher. Caller ID, voice mail, call forwarding, three-way conference calling, call holding, and call waiting are included.
"This is phase two of T-Mobile's existing HotSpot@Home plan," noted Bill Ho, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis. The HotSpot@Home plan, which offers a wireless router for home, has been out since fall 2006. It currently offers unlimited wireless calling over Wi-Fi for about $20 a month. Aside from the price difference, the user cannot employ a regular home phone in that plan.
Although the Talk Forever plan...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Red Hat Skeptical of Microsoft's Openness Promise
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58479
In a move to appease European antitrust officials, Microsoft on Thursday promised to open its products. It said its four-pronged approach would ensure open connections, promote data portability, enhance support for industry standards, and improve engagement with customers and the industry, including open-source communities.
It's that last item, open-source communities, that has the tech world talking, but it's not all pro-Microsoft. Open-source heavy hitters like Linux vendor Red Hat are viewing the announcement with skepticism.
According to Michael Cunningham, executive vice president and general counsel for Red Hat, three Microsoft commitments would show the company really means what it says: a commitment to open standards, interoperability with open source, and competition on a level playing field.
"Eight years ago the U.S. regulatory authorities, and four years ago the European regulators, made clear to Microsoft that its refusal to disclose interface information for its monopoly software products violates the law," Cunningham said. "So it is hardly surprising to see even Microsoft state that 'interoperability across systems is an important requirement' and announce a 'change in [its] approach to interoperability.' Of course, we've heard similar announcements before, almost always strategically timed for other effect."
Red Hat wants Microsoft to embrace the cross-platform industry standard for document processing, OpenDocument format, at the International Standards Organization's meeting next week in Geneva. The Linux giant also wants Microsoft to extend its Open Specification Promise to all the interoperability information it says will be made available. Red Hat also noted that Microsoft's announcement appears carefully crafted to foreclose competition from the open-source community.
"How else can you explain a 'promise not to sue open-source developers' as long as they develop and distribute only 'noncommercial' implementations of interoperable products? This is simply disingenuous," he charged. "The only hope for reintroducing competition to the monopoly markets Microsoft now controls --...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
EU to Microsoft: We'll Believe It When We See It
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58475
European Union regulators were skeptical Thursday on Microsoft Corp.'s offer to share more information about its products and technology, saying it has seen four similar statements before.
Microsoft's announcement doesn't touch on possible monopoly abuse in the past, it said, nor does it touch on allegations that it illegally gives away its Internet Explorer browser with the Windows desktop operating system to damage rivals.
The European Commission is currently investigating a complaint from rivals that Microsoft does not share essential information on the Office word processing program that would help create compatible products.
It said it would check if the company's offer complies with antitrust rules as part of that probe it launched in January, five months after an EU court upheld European regulators on Microsoft's legal challenge against a EU497 million (US$613 million) antitrust fine.
"The Commission would welcome any move toward genuine interoperability," the EU executive said. "Nonetheless, the Commission notes that today's announcement follows at least four similar statements by Microsoft in the past on the importance of interoperability."
The EU's new probe into how well Microsoft's products work with others was triggered by a complaint from the European Committee for Interoperable Systems -- a group representing IBM, Nokia Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Oracle Corp.
It will examine whether Microsoft withheld information from companies that wanted to make products compatible with its software -- including Office word processing, spreadsheet and office management tools, some server products and Microsoft's push into the Internet under the name of the .NET framework.
Since Microsoft supplies the software to the vast majority of home and office computers, rivals complain that refusal to give them interoperability information shuts the door on a huge potential market.
ECIS was also doubtful on the Microsoft offer. "The world needs a permanent change in Microsoft's behavior, not just another announcement," it...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Apostrophes in Names Stir Lot O' Trouble
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58474
It can stop you from voting, destroy your dental appointments, make it difficult to rent a car or book a flight, even interfere with your college exams.
More than 50 years into the Information Age, computers are still getting confused by the apostrophe. It's a problem familiar to O'Connors, D'Angelos, N'Dours and D'Artagnans across America.
When Niall O'Dowd tried to book a flight to Atlanta earlier this year, the computer system refused to recognize his name. The editor of the Irish Voice newspaper could book the flight only by giving up his national identity.
"I dropped the apostrophe and ran my name as 'ODowd,'" he said.
It's not just the bad luck o' the Irish. French, Italian and African names with apostrophes can befuddle computer systems, too. So can Arab names with hyphens, and Dutch surnames with "van" and a space in them.
Michael Rais, director of software development at Permission Data, an online marketing company in New York, said the problem is sloppy programming.
"It's standard shortsightedness," he said. "Most programs set a rule for first name and last name. They don't think of foreign-sounding names."
The trouble can happen in two ways, according to Rais.
One: Online forms typically have a filter that looks for unfamiliar terms that might be put in by mistake or as a joke. A bad computer system will not be able to handle an apostrophe, a hyphen or a gap in a last name and will block it immediately.
Two: Even if the computer system is sophisticated enough to welcome an O'Brien or Al-Kurd, the name must be stored in the database, where a hyphen or apostrophe is often mistaken for a piece of computer code, corrupting the system.
That's what happened during the Michigan caucus in 2004, when thousands of O'Connors, Al-Husseins, Van Kemps and others who went to the polls didn't...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Microsoft Opens APIs, Protocols as EU Demands
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58478
In a major shift in its approach to the open-source community and intellectual property, Microsoft announced Thursday four broad principles for openness and interoperability.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the principles -- to provide open connections to Microsoft's high-volume products, to improve data portability, to enhance Microsoft's support for industry standards, and to open communications with the IT industry.
The move is a direct result of the European Court of First Instance's decision in October that Microsoft must provide open access to its APIs and protocols.
"It's a fundamental recognition on Microsoft's part that the company has more to gain by working within the requirements of the European court's decision than to continue beating its head against the wall," said Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, in a telephone interview.
"The EU courts have said Microsoft is going to have to abide by its market's rules. There comes a point where a company needs to examine and re-examine what its doing," King said. "As the IT industry increasingly goes global, companies have to learn to play by the rules of the markets they want to compete in," whether that means the openness the EU requires or the complicity in censorship that China requires.
To open connections to Microsoft products, "We will document APIs and communication protocols," Ballmer said. "Developers will not need to take licenses to access that information."
Ballmer said Microsoft is immediately publishing 30,000 pages of documentation for Windows client and server protocols that were previously available only under a trade-secret license. It will also post documentation for Office 2007 protocols "in coming months," Ballmer said. Bob Muglia, senior vice president for the server and tools business, said that documentation will come online no later than June 2008.
"Documents and data have a lifetime that now exceeds the lifetime of...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Remote System Will Ease Lost-Notebook Worries
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58476
Technology in the next generation of notebook hard drives will help you sleep better at night if your notebook is lost or stolen. Phoenix Technologies has an agreement with hard-drive manufacturers Seagate and Hitachi to have FailSafe, its remote data-protection system, built into new drives available within the next two or three quarters.
"If you lose your computer, you lose the machine, but more important for most users is that the machine contains an invaluable amount of data," Phoenix's Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Gaurav Banga, told NewsFactor. "FailSafe is a mechanism by which the owner of a personal computer can continue to exercise command and control over the computer even when it is not in their possession."
When a computer that contains FailSafe is purchased, the consumer adds it to the FailSafe system. FailSafe works through a password-protected, Web-based console that allows users to exert control remotely. From there, Banga said, "You can see where your computer is, and you can reach out to it" and delete files, disable it temporarily, or simply turn it into a brick. Different manufacturers will offer different FailSafe capabilities.
With new-generation notebooks including GPS, Banga said a stolen machine could even triangulate its location and display on a Google Map the next time it's connected to a network. Or it could snap a picture of the thief with its webcam and that could be made available to law enforcement.
Like other hard-drive manufacturers, Seagate already offers Seagate Secure Technology that provides encryption at the drive level. Banga said with the manufacturer agreements, FailSafe will protect the encryption keys and ensure that only the authorized user can access them.
In the event that a hard drive is removed or a new operating system installed, FailSafe will continue to protect the data and not release the keys, Banga said,...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Google Looking at Balloons for Wireless Coverage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58472
Google, a company with sky-high valuation and aspirations to match, is seriously thinking about wireless transmission using balloons. According to a report in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, the search-and-advertising giant is considering contracting with, or even buying, Space Data Corp., which launches 10 balloons a day to provide industry-specific telecommunications to truckers and oil companies.
Each balloon rises 20 miles, carrying a small box of electronics that perform as a miniature cell tower. The company said it has flown more than 15,000 flights over the southwestern U.S. since 2004. In addition to well monitoring, vehicle tracking, and pipeline monitoring, the balloon network will soon be used for such applications as monitoring diabetes reading via wireless PDAs for members of the Navajo Nation in Arizona.
According to Space Data, one balloon can cover an area that would otherwise require 40 cell towers. But the catch is that each balloon usually has a life span of about 24 hours before it pops in the thin, upper atmosphere. A light parachute lowers the Styrofoam-encased box of electronics safely to Earth, usually on command from Space Data.
Consequently, the company needs to continuously supply its target area with a stream of new balloons. According to the Journal report, mechanics at small airports and dairy farmers are employed by Space Data to keep its crop of balloons current.
Space Data also hires about 20 hobbyists with Global Positioning System tracking devices to find the transceivers after they've descended. The balloons are worth only about $50, but the transceivers are valued at about $1,500. Rescuers are paid $100 for each recovered transceiver.
While both Google and Space Data declined to comment, the Journal said Google believes balloons could "radically change" the economics of Internet and wireless services in rural areas. Google has been a highly...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Blackberry Subscribers Increase, But Not RIM's Revenue
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58471
Research In Motion expects new Blackberry subscriber accounts to be 15 to 20 percent higher than the 1.82 million it forecast at the start of its current business quarter. And the Canadian handset maker said it expects total BlackBerry accounts to reach 14 million by March 1.
"BlackBerry smartphones proved to be a big hit throughout the holiday selling season," said RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie. "The seasonal slowdown in net subscriber account additions that we expected in the new year did not occur and our focused execution with partners has continued to produce strong results within both enterprise and consumer segments."
RIM's global listing of where its Blackberry handsets are being deployed resembles a world atlas. In the past two months alone, the company has announced deals with carriers in Bangladesh, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mexico, the Netherlands, Qatar, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Uganda. But even as Blackberries proliferate, the company has had more complaints about service outages.
Two of the outages occurred this month. Industry analysts attributed these snafus to the fact that all Blackberry traffic must pass through the company's servers and network operations center (NOC) in Canada.
Every mobile-service operator "has a NOC, and it is every carrier's bread and butter to make sure that it is up and running," said Godfrey Chua, IDC wireless research manager. On the other hand, Chua said all communications services are subject to outages, even on regular cell phones.
"RIM probably gets a little bit more attention than others because what they do is so specific and it's what they are known for," Chua said in a telephone interview. "It was a big deal last week at the Mobile World Congress because so many of the people attending were carrying RIM handsets and couldn't...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Microsoft Unveils Small Business Server Solutions
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58470
Microsoft on Wednesday introduced the Windows Essential Server Solutions family of products, built on Windows Server 2008 and the newest Microsoft server technologies and services. The company also unveiled details about the newly named Windows Small Business Server 2008.
"There are 31.9 million small businesses and 1.2 million midsize companies worldwide in need of powerful IT solutions, and they typically have very small IT staffs or none at all," said Bob Kelly, a Microsoft vice president. "Windows Essential Server Solutions make the benefits of enterprise-class IT accessible, affordable and simpler for smaller organizations and their technology advisers."
The essential-solutions family includes Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008. Microsoft said it conducted extensive research and gathered in-depth feedback worldwide to design these SMB-targeted solutions.
The products integrate the technologies of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, and other Microsoft offerings into all-in-one solutions. That benefit is a blessing and a curse, according to analysts.
One of the strengths and weaknesses of Microsoft products is that they tend to work best with other Microsoft products. That means that although Microsoft products are fairly seamless in unison, they don't fit quite as well into pick-and-choose environments where CIOs select products from various vendors, said Gordon Haff, a server analyst at Illuminata.
"Microsoft has consistently tried to put together integrated collections of products. The one problem is ... that the company often creates so many variants that it complexifies more than simplifies," Haff said.
Microsoft argues differently. The company said Windows Small Business Server 2008, previously known by the code name "Cougar," helps multiply businesses by helping them protect data, expand productivity, integrate with Microsoft's online services, and add security.
Small Business Server 2008 is touted as a boon for IT managers and technology consultants. Setup and administration are...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Microsoft Opens Xbox Live to User-Made Games
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58460
Taking a cue from YouTube, Microsoft will open its Xbox Live community to all game developers. The announcement came during the keynote address at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) on Wednesday.
Xbox Live members will soon be able to play, rate and share community-created games. Xbox Live has about 10 million members who pay $50 a year to play games against online competitors.
The open-distribution model for games is an industry first that Microsoft expects will double the size of the Xbox 360 game library. By the end of the year, the company said, Xbox 360 owners will have access to more than 1,000 games.
"The time has come for the games industry to open its doors to all game creators, enabling anyone to share their creations with the world," said John Schappert, a Microsoft vice president. "Our goal is to drive a creative and social revolution in games with the same transformative power that we've seen in digital music and video sharing."
Chris Satchell, general manager and chief XNA architect at Microsoft, showcased the first seven games created using XNA Game Studio 2.0 that will be available immediately for Xbox 360 owners to download from Xbox Live Marketplace.
One of the games is "JellyCar," created by U.S. developer Walaber. The game is about driving a squishy car through squishy worlds, trying to reach the exit. Another game, "Little Gamers," by Loïc Dansart of Belgium, is a 2-D high-definition scroller based on the Web comic. And for puzzle game fans, "TriLinea" mixes fast-paced action with strategy in a game created by Edison S. Prata Jr., Renato Pelizzari da Silva and Davi da Silva Prata from Brazil.
Any game developer can use Microsoft's XNA Game Studio software and a XNA Creators Club membership to develop and submit a game for distribution on Xbox Live....
Thu, 21 Feb 08
New Game Controller Reads Your Thoughts and Acts
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58459
Thinking is now doing with this week's presentation of the first brain-driven game controller. The American-Australian company Emotiv Systems demonstrated the EPOC "neuroheadset" at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Looking like the shell of a high-tech bicycle helmet, the device reads the user's thoughts for such basic commands as "drop," "push," "pull" or "rotate" and wirelessly translates them into those actions on the screen.
The headset reads the mind's signals from 16 sensor points and a gyroscope orients the device to match the user's orientation.
Based on noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG), which reads neuron activity in the brain, the device can also sense expressions.
More than 30 expressions, such as laughing, smiling or winking, can reportedly be picked up from the electrical activity and transmitted. The company said the headset could allow a user to communicate expressions to avatars in an environment such as Second Life.
Emotiv President Tan Lee told reporters that the device "allows the user to manipulate a game or virtual environment naturally and intuitively." The EPOC is expected to be available later this year for just under $300.
Emotiv is also reportedly working with IBM to apply this computer interface to other applications beyond making an avatar cry or a virtual machine gun fire. The headset will come bundled with a game designed specifically for it, and the company said it will also be available for game consoles.
The company has been working toward the EPOC since it was founded in 2003 by neuroscientist Professor Allan Snyder, chip designer Neil Weste, and technology entrepreneurs Tan Le and Nam Do. The vision was specifically "to introduce the immediacy of thought to the human-machine dialog."
Mike Goodman, an analyst with industry research firm Yankee Group, said he saw the device some months ago at a demonstration in his...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Russian Blogs Give Voice to Dissidence
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58447
In the final weeks of Russia's presidential election, the three major TV networks and much of the media are filled with uncritical and often fawning coverage of the man President Vladimir Putin has blessed as his successor.
Some of Russia's bloggers, however, have been sharply critical of First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and the presidential contest he seems certain of winning.
One blogger named "lekka_reka" said an old lady asked him on the street: "Have they named Medvedev president yet or will we be able to actually go out and cast our votes?"
A blogger named "YUGva" was worried about Medvedev's liberal image: "This Medvedev is a strange personality, a dark horse.... I think he's just going to skip out on Russia, sell it to America and the West -- and everyone is openly lauding his arrival?"
The postings by Web commentators, professionals and amateurs alike, are sometimes barbed, frequently satirical and always unfiltered -- a marked contrast to most of Russia's major media, where many reporters, editors and producers are wary of incurring the Kremlin's wrath.
During Putin's eight years in office, the Kremlin has extended and strengthened its control over the news media, mainly through the purchase of national broadcasters and major newspapers by state-controlled corporations or loyal billionaires.
Anyone interested in probing reporting or frank commentary has few places to turn. Increasingly, savvy Russians are turning to the Internet.
"The propaganda on TV doesn't work for anyone anymore," said Oleg Panfilov, a journalist advocate who is also a regular blogger.
The Internet's uncontrolled nature has long worried the Kremlin. Parliament's upper house is considering legislation that would make Web sites with more than 1,000 readers daily subject to the same regulations as print media. And some Web advocates fear a newly updated law on publishing allegedly extremist literature could be used to prosecute bloggers...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
The Do-It-Yourself Technology Boom
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58433
What do you do when you've bolted a computer onto a remote-controlled car, hooked it up with Internet access, a wireless router and a camera but you don't have anyone to show it off to?
Just ask Mike Davis. He brought his mobile Internet access point to a meeting with other readers of Make magazine, a how-to publication for people who just love to tinker with stuff.
The 28-year-old systems engineer from Brooklyn found people who built homemade LCD displays, a clock that makes you solve a math problem before setting the alarm and a class in mastering pipe mechanics -- something with many uses beyond just making a potato cannon.
Make magazine, not yet three years old, is leading a new wave of interest in build-it-yourself projects. Even as technology comes to us in packages that are ever harder to take apart and tinker with, Make harkens back to a time when it was OK to build your own radio, get under the hood of your car and open up electronic devices like record players just to see how they worked. Its Web site sells hooded sweat shirts emblazoned with the credo: "If You Can't Open It, You Don't Own It."
People seem to be catching on. In the summer of 2005, not long after Make's first issue came out, an MIT-educated engineer named Eric Wilhelm launched a site called Instructables.com with how-to instructions for all kinds of projects, while a meet-up group called Dorkbot has been springing up in cities around the country to showcase artistic, musical and just plain quizzical inventions with one thing in common -- using electricity.
Make is about to gain an even bigger national audience. A Make-themed TV show is set to air on public TV stations around the country early next year, and on May 3-4 the...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Blu-ray Triumph May Be Short-Lived for Sony
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58454
Sony executives may be popping the champagne corks after winning the high-definition war between the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats -- but at least one observer suggests any celebration might be premature.
On Tuesday, Toshiba, HD DVD's main backer, dropped the format. And on Wednesday, Amazon announced it will feature Blu-ray, although it is not yet discontinuing HD-DVD products. It joined Wal-Mart, Best Buy and others in favoring Blu-ray. Universal Studios, one of the few major Hollywood producers backing HD DVD, also switched to Blu-ray.
Sony "better not be drinking any champagne yet," warned Yankee Group analyst Mike Goodman. He said they now face a possibly more formidable competitor -- online or over-the-air digital distribution.
In fact, his research firm projects that in five years video on demand will account for 30 to 50 percent of movie rentals and sales via cable, satellite, telco or the Internet. "The majority of that marketplace will be high-definition fare," he said.
Other observers have noted that, for Internet distribution, there is the problem of displaying movie fare on a TV screen, rather than on a PC. Goodman countered that downloading to TVs has already started. He noted that Microsoft's Xbox 360 has accounted for as many as 380 million "pieces of content" downloaded -- including games and other material -- and virtually all of it has been played on a TV.
Goodman said he "wouldn't be shocked" if Microsoft, which had backed HD DVD and offered a HD DVD player for the Xbox, now releases a Blu-ray add-on. His perspective is that Microsoft's support of HD DVD "was intended to delay the success of Blu-ray, because they fundamentally believe that the future is digital distribution" on demand. A delay in Blu-ray meant on-demand distribution would have more time to develop, he said. Most of Microsoft's effort...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Alliance Will Promote PC as a Gaming Platform
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58453
Intel, Dell, Microsoft, AMD and a host of other tech titans joined forces Tuesday to form the PC Gaming Alliance. The PCGA's focus is to advance the PC as a gaming platform.
The alliance brings together hardware and software creators, game developers and publishers, and others committed to the PC gaming market. The goal is to accelerate innovation, improve the gaming experience and serve as a source of information and expertise on PC gaming. Acer, Gateway, Activision, Epic Games, NVIDIA and Razer USA are also members.
"This collaboration will provide developers and publishers with a champion for consistent demographics, hardware adoption, and revenue measurement and reporting," said David Cole, an analyst with DFC Intelligence. "An authoritative source of information on the PC as a gaming platform will serve as an invaluable catalyst for growing the market and improving the consumer's PC gaming experience."
DFC calls PC gaming "one of the fastest-growing segments of the interactive entertainment market" and projects worldwide growth of more than 80 percent over the next five years.
However, the definition of PC gaming has changed radically over the past few years and revenue has declined. In 2002, PC gaming in North America was about a $1.5 billion business, according to the Yankee Group. Last year it fell to $917 million, a precipitous drop that could be partly blamed on piracy and new hardware requirements.
The PCGA will focus on coordinated marketing and promotion of PC gaming, consistent and accurate reporting of market sizing and research, and creating forums for members to cooperate on challenges facing the industry. The alliance will develop guidelines and foster information sharing between members.
"PCGA members believe that we are stronger and more effective together than any member company is alone, and that our shared vision and group effort will improve PC gaming worldwide," said Randy...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
DVD Jon's New Sharing Tool Could Mean Trouble
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58452
When your company's goal is to allow easier sharing of media "between friends and family," you can be sure you'll get the attention of the giant media companies. If one of your founders is best known for having helped break the encryption around DVDs and being prosecuted twice (unsuccessfully) for hacking, you can bet the attention the company gets is going to be controversial.
"DVD Jon," or Jon Lech Johansen, is the cofounder and CTO of doubleTwist, whose free application of the same name allows the sharing of media files between devices, with the application handling format conversions behind the scenes. The application works with Apple's iTunes so playlists can be synched between phones and media players. That means it can effectively strip away any digital-rights management (DRM).
The new company is partially funded by Index Ventures, a European technology venture firm that has also invested in other Web start-ups such as Skype. Index Ventures partner Neil Rimer said, "Consumers will no longer tolerate having their digital media tied to a single device or platform," and doubleTwist's promise "to liberate every consumer's media should make it a hugely popular application."
While consumers may love it, industry analysts are skeptical about a long-term vision for the company. Ben Bajarin, analyst and strategist at high-tech advisory firm Creative Strategies, told NewsFactor that the technology used to prevent songs and movies from being copied and sold (or easily shared) will soon be history.
"We believe the DRM technology around music will be gone in this calendar year. That means all music sold in [Apple's iTunes Store] or any other place will work on any device," Bajarin said.
But doubleTwist has plans for pay features that could make the business model worthwhile. Its Web site notes that while the application will remain free once beta testing is...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Microsoft Pulls Vista Update To Fix Endless Reboot Glitch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58451
Several weeks after Microsoft started to feed a Windows Vista update to users, it has suspended automatic delivery while it investigates user complaints of PCs endlessly rebooting or failing to start normally. Update KB937287, billed as a prerequisite to Vista Service Pack 1, was meant to fix a problem with Vista's installation software.
A post on Microsoft's support boards dated Jan. 27 reported: "My install of the SP1 RC Refresh has gone wrong. Every time I start the computer it says: Configuring updates: stage 3 of 3 -- 0% complete. And then reboots, and reboots, and reboots ... I had it rebooting for over an hour before I stopped the madness."
That user later reported: "I found a brute-force solution to my problem. I yanked the power cord when it said 'do not turn off your computer.' That resulted in a trashed file system -- it wouldn't even boot (they weren't kidding)."
Posting on the Windows Vista Blog on Tuesday, product manager Nick White downplayed the problem. "Immediately after receiving reports of this error, we made the decision to temporarily suspend automatic distribution of the update to avoid further customer impact while we investigate possible causes," he wrote.
White said the problem "only affects a small number of customers in unique circumstances." He said the update required for SP1 will be automatically delivered after the issue is resolved.
But White offered few options for customers afflicted with the problem, other than to restore the system or "contact 1-866-PC-Safety for help troubleshooting." That generated angry comments on the Microsoft blog.
"That's it, no fix, no updates. To fix this problem I had to format my drive from this issue. Well, I have one thing to say to ya -- WOW," wrote one user (comment edited for readability.) He added, "And what's up with that...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Free-Speech Advocates Alarmed by Wikileaks Shutdown
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58441
Free-speech and privacy advocates are up in arms after a U.S. judge shut down Wikileaks.org. The Web site that let whistle-blowers publish sensitive information launched last December and had more than 1.2 million documents posted anonymously.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in California ordered the injunction at the behest of a Swiss bank and its Cayman Islands subsidiary, according to court documents. Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. and its subsidiary, Julius Baer Bank & Trust, said "immediate harm will result to (the bank) in the absence of injunctive relief."
"We are in the Internet Never-Never-Land of the First Amendment," said Reuben Guttman, an attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. "You've got First Amendment issues at stake. You've got basic injunction-law issues at stake. And you've got the whole issue of whistle-blower protection."
Wikileaks has exposed rewards and penalties at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Yahoo's lawsuit over a Chinese dissident's jailing, a police raid on Bermuda Broadcasting, and thousands of other documents.
At the root of Julius Baer's complaint were documents related to its offshore activities. According to the court order, those documents had titles that included phrases like "tax avoidance," "offshore tax scheme," and "tax evasion." Wikileaks could not be reached for comment, but reportedly plans to continue publishing in other nations.
After an initial review of the complaint, White ordered Dynadot, a California Web-hosting company, to "immediately clear and remove" records from Wikileaks and "prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org Web site or any other Web site or server other than a blank page" until he can undertake a closer review of the case.
Despite White's ruling, versions of the site hosted throughout the world remained online and even the Wikileaks site itself was still available Wednesday at its numerical address, http://88.80.13.160.
"You could look...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Mozilla Plans Significant Enhancements to Thunderbird E-Mail
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58440
The open-source developer of the Firefox browser has fleshed out its plan for a new Mozilla Messaging subsidiary. The new division is expected to deliver significant enhancements to the next release of Mozilla Thunderbird, an e-mail client built on the same technology platform as the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation's successful Web browser.
"The stunning proportion of time that many people spend communicating online each day clearly indicates that, as a society, we are more intricately connected via the Internet than ever before," said Mozilla Messaging CEO David Ascher in a recent blog. "Yet the joy that communication can bring is too often replaced by frustration, confusion, or stress" as "privacy and control questions become more and more troublesome."
As Mozilla Messaging attempts to resolve this paradox, the Mozilla Foundation will place greater emphasis "on the notion that anyone can, and should, participate in helping fix whatever is broken," Ascher said.
Although Mozilla Messaging has its own core development team, the subsidiary has no intention of doing all the work on its own. As was the case with the development of Firefox, it expects major help from the worldwide community of open-source developers.
"We see our primary role as that of facilitating collaborative approaches to problem solving and incremental progress, through a combination of leadership and facilitation work," Ascher said. "We'll provide significant input and leadership in the direction setting, engineering work, and operational support, but the really interesting story will be whether we can convince people to spend their time working with us."
Still, the foundation believes it has sufficient consensus in the Internet community to decide which enhancements should be tackled first. Its goals are integrated calendaring, enhanced search and an improved user interface.
"What each of those means in practice will be worked out in public, on blogs, mailing...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Talk All You Want on Wireless Phones for Just $99.99
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58439
Forget about counting minutes. In an unusual synchronicity, three major carriers -- AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile -- announced Tuesday unlimited wireless plans for voice.
The plans are targeted at heavy users, such as business customers. Verizon Wireless told news media that third-party research has indicated as many as 15 percent of wireless customers in the U.S. would be interested in unlimited plans.
Verizon's Nationwide Unlimited Anytime Minute Plans, available immediately, allow subscribers to call anyone at anytime for a flat rate of $99.99 monthly. Its new BroadBandAccess Plans, available March 2, offer two options for data -- 50MB for $39.99 per month and a five-gigabyte option for $59.99, with average download speeds of 600 Kbps to 1.4 megabits.
AT&T's unlimited calling plan is also $99.99, with no domestic roaming or long-distance charges, and is available beginning Friday. It said existing customers can choose unlimited calling without extending their contract, and new customers have the option of a month-to-month, 12-month or 24-month contract.
For data, AT&T offers a variety of plans, including $5 monthly for 200 text, picture, video and instant messages, and $35 monthly for unlimited messaging and Media Net access. The company said these plans are for "standard wireless phones," not smartphones, PDAs or Apple's iPhone.
T-Mobile USA's plan offers unlimited nationwide wireless calling and unlimited messaging for $99.99 monthly, beginning Thursday. This includes not only voice, but text messaging, picture messaging and IM. Its MyFaves plans, which it described as "affordable unlimited calling plans suited for a majority" of the company's customers, begin at $39.99 monthly for unlimited calls to "your five favorite people."
In making the announcement, AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph de la Vega said that "this is a highly competitive market and we're committed to moving fast to meet customer needs."
Competition is...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
HP Cheers Uncertain Market with Sales Growth
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58435
As economic indicators continue to suggest the U.S. economy is headed for -- or is already in -- recession, Hewlett-Packard reported Tuesday that its first-quarter net revenue increased 13 percent from a year earlier.
"We are raising our guidance yet again, reflecting our confidence in anticipated cost
reductions and share gains in key markets," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and CEO. "We added more than 2,000 sales positions in the past year through acquisitions and hiring. HP remains well positioned for profitable growth as we continue to focus on our numerous cost initiatives and improve our market coverage."
HP's good news surprised analysts and suggested that there is hope for the economy. "Their guidance was much more bullish than we thought it would be, particularly with what we've seen out of Cisco," Brent Bracelin, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, told the Bloomberg financial news service. "Their outlook suggests that things aren't as bad as people thought."
Addressing analysts on the company's quarterly conference call, Hurd credited three factors with driving HP's earnings growth: "significant cost savings," additional sales resources and diversification around the globe and across product lines.
Indeed, it was strength in emerging markets that propelled HP's revenue growth. Revenue in the Asia Pacific region grew 22 percent to $4.9 billion, but only eight percent in the U.S. to $11.2 billion and 15 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to $12.3 billion. Adjusted for currency fluctuations, growth in Asia was 16 percent compared to seven percent in the other regions. And in the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- revenue grew a whopping 35 percent.
"They are capitalizing on the international better than anyone else," said Jane Snorek of First American Funds in Minneapolis. "They're taking share from Dell and I think they're taking...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Students Fight Back Against Gossip Site
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58408
The Cornell University junior was in his dorm between classes when the text message came in from a friend. Check out JuicyCampus.com, it said.
The student found his name on the Web site beside a rambling, filthy passage about his sexual exploits, posted by an anonymous student on campus. The young man could only hope the commentary was so ridiculous nobody would believe it.
"I thought, `Is this going to affect my job employment? Is this going to make people on campus look at me? Are people going to talk about me behind my back?" said the student, who asked not to be identified. He also wondered about his 11-year-old sister, who is spending more time on the Internet. "What if she Googles me? What will she think about her big brother?" he said.
JuicyCampus' endless threads of anonymous innuendo have been a popular Web destination on the seven college campuses where the site launched last fall, including Duke, UCLA and Loyola Marymount. It recently expanded to 50 more, and many of the postings show they've been viewed hundreds and even thousands of times.
But JuicyCampus has proved so poisonous there are signs of a backlash.
In campus debates over Internet freedom, students normally take the side of openness and access. This time, however, student leaders, newspaper editorials and posters on the site are fighting back -- with some even asking administrators to ban JuicyCampus. It's a kind of plea to save the students, or at least their reputations, from themselves.
"It is an expression from our student body that we don't want this junk in our community," said Andy Canales, leader of the student government at Pepperdine, which recently voted 23-5 to ask for a ban.
The vote came after a long and emotional debate on the limits of free speech, and was swayed by stories...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
It's Take Two for Apple's Enterprise Storage with Xsan 2
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58429
Apple today announced a major upgrade to Xsan, its enterprise-class storage area network (SAN) file system for Mac OS X. Xsan 2 represents the first upgrade since the original product was released in 2005.
The new version of Xsan introduces MultiSAN, which allows users to access multiple SANs at the same time from a single workstation. MultiSAN offers significant speed improvements because it allows file copies from one SAN volume to another directly over FibreChannel. This could be important in enterprise scenarios like newsrooms where users have to access broadcast and print-production files at the same time.
Apple said Xsan 2 simplifies setup and deployment through the redesign of its administration tools. Administrators can now preset volume workload settings for "optimal streaming of all file types," Apple said. The system can handle huge files like compressed high-def video as well as small data-center files.
In addition, Appled explained, the Xsan Admin module is designed to simplify tasks such as expanding a volume, optimally configuring volume settings, or managing file system permissions. The system represents SAN components such as computers, volumes, and LUNs as "assets" and prominently displays an overview of SAN health.
The new version of Xsan also has other features to improve performance, particularly in large SANs with dozens or even hundreds of individual nodes. The Inspector feature provides information about volumes, LUNs, computers, and the other components that make up a storage network. Xsan 2 also includes new options for connecting to remote computers and servers using Server Admin, SSH, and screen sharing.
Xsan 2 integrates with OS X Leopard features -- so users can, for instance, search across volumes with the Spotlight feature -- and Leopard Server features, like iCal Server and Mail Server, to support clustered file systems to maximize performance and availability.
Unlike its predecessor, the new version...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Microsoft Threatens Proxy Fight for Yahoo's Board
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58428
Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo may get more hostile. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Microsoft intends to launch a proxy fight for control of Yahoo's board. If Microsoft wins, the revised board would vote in favor of the acquisition.
The move would cost Microsoft about $20 million to $30 million, substantially cheaper than raising its $31-a-share bid even $1. With the number of Yahoo shares outstanding, a dollar rise in the offer would cost Microsoft $1.4 billion.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates denied any behind-the-scenes negotiations with Yahoo. "We sent them a letter and said we think that's a fair offer. There's nothing that's gone on other than us stating that we think it's a fair offer. They should take a hard look at it," Gates said.
If Microsoft does launch a fight, the move "ratchets up the pressure without raising the bid," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, in a telephone interview. Yahoo cofounders Jerry Yang and David Filo "now have to produce something very concrete and tangible," Sterling added.
That could be a deal with News Corp., which was reported to be negotiating to exchange its MySpace social-networking site for roughly a 20 percent share of the company. That would give News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch a controlling share of Yahoo, but allow Yang and Filo to continue running the company.
Google was reported last week to be backing off a proposal to provide searches for Yahoo's properties in exchange for hefty cash payments.
"If there's a reasonable alternative like News Corp., investors might vote to retain the current board," Sterling said. "But if there's nothing, it's a no-brainer the investors will vote for acquisition."
Unlike Yang, institutional investors are dispassionate about corporate...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Microsoft Will Lure Students with Free Software
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58427
Microsoft will give free access to some of its development, design and gaming software to students worldwide to help spark their creativity and prepare for high-tech careers -- and, perhaps, to improve the company's reputation with young people.
The free software available through the DreamSpark program to students in the United States, Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (more countries will follow) includes Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft Expression Studio, and Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
The move may help Microsoft compete against open-source programs as well as Adobe Systems and other competitors, but the company insists it's all about workforce development. In an interview on Microsoft's Web site, Joe Wilson, Microsoft's senior director of academic initiative, said, "Making sure there is a strong pipeline of technically skilled students is key to the future of the global economy. The ability to create new software and services will be an essential part of the skill set of the next generation of workers."
Access to Microsoft's development, design and gaming software will help students "take their programming skills to the next level," Wilson said. For example, Visual Studio will help students improve their skills by allowing them to create FaceBook or MySpace plug-ins, he said, or even entirely new applications.
The software giveaway will provide access to tools well out of the price range for students. Microsoft's estimated retail price for Expression Studio is $599 on site, while a five-client edition of Windows Server Standard 2003 retails for $649.99 on Amazon.com.
No stranger to the perils of online piracy, Microsoft has taken steps to ensure that only students have access to the software freebies. Verification of student status will take place through the DreamSpark Web site with the help of academic institutions and student organizations, a process...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Sprint Offers Globe-Trotting Samsung Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58419
Sprint has rolled out the Samsung Ace -- a dual-mode smartphone capable of switching seamlessly between Sprint's CDMA and high-speed EVDO networks in the U.S. and the GSM/GPS networks more typically used overseas.
The smartphone also ships in unlocked mode, which gives globe-trotting users the option of switching to a foreign carrier's SIM card to dramatically reduce their calling and data expenses overseas.
At 3.9 ounces, the Ace sports a QWERTY keyboard, a 2.3-inch LCD screen with 65,000 colors, a 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder, and a signature slide-click navigation wheel. Its slim form factor is not only a more natural fit for the hand than its Samsung Blackjack predecessor, but also slips more easily into a pocket or purse.
Under the hood, the Ace has 64 MB of RAM, 128 MB of ROM, a mini-SD slot for 2GB flash memory cards, and Bluetooth for wireless connections with compatible headsets, car kits and other devices. In addition, its built-in EVDO circuitry can deliver fast access to a wide variety of online content, including Sprint's TV and audio offerings.
The new handset's standard 1300 mAH internal battery delivers up to 4.3 hours of continuous talk time. An optional 1800 mAH battery is also available.
The Ace uses the Windows Mobile 6 operating system, which gives users the ability to view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files as well as display Web content in the Internet Explorer browser. The smartphone also integrates all four of the cellular bands in use worldwide, giving users the ability to receive and place phone calls, text messages or e-mail at thousands of overseas destinations.
Until now, American tourists had to pay sky-high global roaming charges to use their own handsets for calls from overseas destinations. But with Samsung's Ace, users have the option of purchasing a low-cost prepaid plan...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Web Host Bows to Court, Shutters Whistleblower Site
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58418
Whistle-blowers have taken a blow. On Friday, a Web site that let tattletales publish sensitive information was closed on orders of a federal judge. The site, Wikileaks.org, launched last December and had more than 1.2 million documents posted anonymously.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in California ordered the injunction at the behest of a Swiss bank and its Cayman Islands subsidiary, according to court documents. Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. and its subsidiary, Julius Baer Bank & Trust, said "immediate harm will result to (the bank) in the absence of injunctive relief."
After an initial review of the complaint, White ordered Dynadot, a California Web-hosting company, to "immediately clear and remove" records from Wikileaks and "prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org Web site or any other Web site or server other than a blank page" until he can undertake a closer review of the case.
Wikileaks was developing an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis. The site cites its primary interests as Asia, the former Soviet Bloc, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but organizers hope to give people around the world a platform to reveal unethical behavior in governments and corporations.
Wikileaks has exposed rewards and penalties at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Yahoo's lawsuit over a Chinese dissident's jailing, a police raid on Burmuda Broadcasting, and thousands of other documents.
At the root of Julius Baer's complaint were documents related to its offshore activities. According to the court order, those documents had titles that included phrases like "tax avoidance," "offshore tax scheme," and "tax evasion." Wikileaks could not be reached for comment, but reportedly plans to continue publishing in other nations.
According to Mark G. McCreary, an attorney with Fox Rothschild LLP in Philadelphia, the interesting story is that it...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
High-Definition Format War Ends as Toshiba Concedes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58416
The war is over. The nearly three-year conflict between the two competing high-definition DVD formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD, concluded Tuesday with Toshiba's announcement that it is dropping its HD DVD format.
Tokyo-based Toshiba said that after "a thorough review of its overall strategy," it has decided it will "no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders." Shipments of players and recorders to retail channels will be reduced, with a goal of stopping them completely by the end of March.
The company will, however, continue to provide support and after-sales service for Toshiba HD products for an unspecified amount of time. It also said it will continue to assess if market demand exists for HD DVD drives in notebooks.
President and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida said Toshiba had "assessed the long-term impact of
continuing the next-generation format war" and decided that "a swift decision will best help the market develop."
He added that the opportunity for high-definition content remains, and the company said it will continue to develop other technologies that can drive high-def use. These include high-capacity NAND flash memory, small-form-factor hard drives, next-generation CPUs, and wireless and encryption technologies.
The announcement "wasn't a big surprise," said Gartner analyst Van Baker, given the "serious case of piling on" recently against the HD DVD format. The "real killer," he said, was Wal-Mart's decision Friday to back Blu-ray exclusively. On the same day, a report in the Hollywood Reporter quoted "reliable industry sources" as saying that Toshiba would abandon the format within a few weeks.
Other news last week went from bad to worse for the HD DVD camp. Major retailer Best Buy said it was "addressing consumer confusion" and would be "prominently showcasing Blu-ray" as its preferred format, beginning in March.
Online movie renter NetFlix also...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Palm's Centro Now Available Through AT&T
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58415
Struggling mobile-device maker Palm on Tuesday released a version of its popular Centro for AT&T, the first Palm OS-based product available for AT&T's 70 million customers.
AT&T Vice President Michael Woodward said, "The Centro hits a sweet spot for many customers looking for a QWERTY device with a solid suite of messaging and multimedia features."
From AT&T's perspective, said analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis, the Centro is one of many consumer-oriented smartphones, several of them within $50 of each other. The AT&T Centro is $99 after a rebate and a two-year contract.
But, he added, "from Palm's perspective, this deal is incredibly important" because it places its popular device with the largest U.S. carrier. Greengart said that, while Palm's Treo phone is "big, clunky, expensive and dated," the Centro "is a current-generation device."
Greengart pointed out that this Centro is slightly different than the one available from Sprint, which is 3G. AT&T's Centro is quad-band EDGE for the Internet.
"The value proposition is about the same for both phones," he said, offering "a little more than a regular feature phone." He did note that the Centro's QWERTY keyboard is "unbelievably tiny and you're astonished it works at all, but even a bad QWERTY keyboard is better than none at all."
Other features on the AT&T-offered Centro include a one-touch speakerphone, conference calling, the ability to answer a call with text messaging, and Bluetooth. The company pointed out that the Centro offers text messaging in a chat-style view, so users can see the conversation unfolding. Supported instant-messaging services include AIM, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.
For business users, the Centro supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, allowing access to Microsoft Outlook and synchronization to Outlook contacts and calendar appointments. Xpress Mail enables access to Gmail, AOL, Yahoo and Windows Live.
The...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Digital Photo Frames May Harbor Elusive Trojan Horse
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58414
Your digital photo frame could hold more than pictures, according to security vendor Computer Associates. A virus on the device could steal data from your PC.
The recently discovered virus has been identified as a Trojan horse from China that roots out passwords from online games. However, the authors may have more on the agenda than free game play.
"It is a nasty worm that has a great deal of intelligence," Brian Grayek, who heads product development at Computer Associates, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Computer Associates calls the virus Mocmex. It recognizes and blocks antivirus protection from more than 100 security vendors. It also passes through the security and firewall built into Microsoft Windows.
Mocmex downloads files from remote locations, randomly names them, and hides them on infected PCs. The hidden agenda and the antivirus blocking make it difficult to trace and rid the machine of the virus that spreads through photo frames and portable storage devices plugged into infected PCs.
Grayek called it the "nuclear bomb" of malware, noting the Trojan authors are well-funded professionals who have designed the virus to capture information without leaving behind any digital footprints.
This isn't the first time this kind of incident has happened -- and it's unlikely to be the last, according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. However, he doesn't think hackers are deliberately targeting digital photo frames. It's more likely, he said, that an accident occurred during manufacturing.
"Today, most of these electronic devices are manufactured in China and quality control may not always be all that it should be," Cluley said. "My suspicion is that the virus was introduced on the conveyor belt; perhaps one in every 50 devices is picked off the conveyor belt and plugged into a PC to check that it works. Now, if that PC...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Dot-Com Survivors Benefit from Web Changes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58412
The long-held axiom "timing is everything" has profound meaning for Wayne Gattinella.
The WebMD CEO says it is as good a reason as any to explain his company's long-term survival in the ever-shifting dot-com market.
"There has always been interest in health topics, but even more today," he says. WebMD's average number of unique monthly users in the third quarter was 40.8 million, up 26 percent from a year earlier, the company says.
WebMD -- not to mention health-related Web sites BabyCenter and About.com -- all have carved important niches in a specialized market that is going gangbusters.
As of January, there were 2,070 health-information sites, reaching 0.5% of all Internet traffic. That compares with 1,047 sites, reaching 0.3% of all Internet traffic, in 2005, says Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise.
The trio of companies didn't just survive the dot-com meltdown of the early 2000s, but are thriving in today's Web 2.0 era. They are among the last vestiges of an earlier boom that appears to be re-emerging. Silicon Valley today is as flush with venture capital and start-ups as it was in the mid- to late-1990s.
While scores of their peers are road kill, footnotes from the halcyon days of the Internet bubble before it burst, these players have benefited from a fundamental change in the way consumers use the Web, the advent of specialized content online and a boom in advertising.
They have also flourished from takeovers by media giants that chose a hands-off management approach.
"None of them blew down the doors like MySpace, but they are survivors," says David Card, senior analyst at JupiterResearch. "MySpace turned out to be the New New Thing, along with YouTube. But these are all respectable companies that survived the worst stage of the Internet era and have been deemed by advertisers and marketers as...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
No Domain Name Snatching Found
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58400
An Internet committee investigating suspicious domain name transactions has found no evidence that insider information is being used to snatch desired Internet addresses to make money off the individual or business that actually wants to register them.
The committee said the 120 claims of "domain name front running" it reviewed generally resulted from misunderstandings about how the domain name industry works.
"When Internet users are unable to distinguish among different market activities, they often appear to conclude that they have fallen victim to a domain name front runner," the committee said in a new report.
In some cases, however, the committee found that a separate practice of domain name tasting may be causing problems. That refers to someone testing the financial viability of a name for up to five days and then returning it for a full refund, using a loophole in registration policies. Domain tasting can tie up millions of Internet addresses, including ones someone checks but does not buy.
The Security and Stability Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which has oversight of domain name policies and is known by its acronym ICANN, recommended better education so consumers know what to expect.
The report, brought before the ICANN board in New Delhi on Friday, did not examine a controversial practice by domain name seller Network Solutions LLC of grabbing names that people search for on its Web site but don't immediately register.
The company said it did that to keep the names from front runners. But the practice shared similarities with what Network Solutions was trying to prevent. It has made some changes in response to complaints, and its discussions with ICANN continue.
The ICANN committee said cases suspected of front running often turned out to be coincidence, with multiple parties interested in the same names.
Separately, ICANN has floated a...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Data Breaches: A Global Dilemma
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58396
While reporting laws and an insatiable appetite by U.S. consumers for privacy-related news keep data breaches in this country on many people's radar, it's not just a problem in America. Recent widely reported data breaches in the U.K. and Canada highlight the global nature of the problem. In late November, the British government admitted to the loss of computer disks containing detailed personal information on 25 million of the country's citizens as well as an unknown number of bank account identifiers. Some analysts described this incident in published reports as potentially the most significant privacy breach of the digital age.
At about the same time, reports from Canada released information about potential data breaches from lost laptops and from hacked computers.
For example, Toronto has one of the highest incidents of laptop theft, according to John Livingston, CEO of Absolute Software, a company that provides software to identify the location of laptops, much like LoJack can identify the location of a car.
"There is a lot of petty crime in the Toronto area," Livingston says. "We have more stolen laptops [based on the company's own reports] in Toronto on a prorata basis than anywhere else. Crime rings here target specific buildings."
For the targeted building, the crime ring members will pose as a cleaning crew to get access, and then they will remove laptops and other materials from offices, according to Livingston. "Laptops are easy targets."
However, many of the crimes never get much notice outside of the local area, he says, adding that notification laws lag behind those of the U.S. That is also the case in many other parts of the world, according to Livingston and other security experts.
The experts agree that the type and amount of breaches in the rest of the world are on par with those experienced...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Software You Shouldn't Ever Notice
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58392
Aza Raskin wants your computer to disappear, but the 24-year-old is no latter-day Luddite. His goal is to make communication with the PC so intuitive you'll forget you're using a device. And Humanized -- a software company and think tank he and a trio of fellow idealists founded in 2005 -- is the means to that end.
While they've yet to foment a computing revolution, Humanized did release two successful products during 2007, and their ideas have caught the attention of prominent designers and engineers at major tech companies, including Google. Hundreds of thousands have downloaded Enso, a program that simplifies tasks such as defining words. And 6 million songs have been streamed on Songza.com, a music search engine launched in November. Both embody Raskin's passion for software designed with people in mind.
Raskin views almost everything he handles in terms of its design. Mobile phones aren't just devices that make calls; they're "a Medusa's head of seething submenus." That mindset results from 21 years of Socratic tutelage by his late father, Jef Raskin, the Renaissance man who came up with the idea for Apple's Macintosh and led much of its development. The oldest of three children, Aza gave his first technical talk as a middle schooler and consulted internationally with his father as a teen. When Jef was diagnosed with cancer in late 2004, Aza left the University of Chicago to work side by side with him in Pacifica, Calif. Shortly after his father died at age 61 a few months later, Aza returned to Chicago, completing four months' worth of research for his senior physics thesis on dark matter in just weeks. "When he came back, I gave him zero chance of success, but Aza is Aza," says astrophysics professor Juan Collar.
Raskin and three college friends then founded Humanized, raising...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Private Investors Resuscitate The SCO Group
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58405
The SCO Group, which claims to own the UNIX code used in the Linux operating system, is poised to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the help of private investors.
Stephen Norris Capital Partners, together with unnamed investors from the Middle East, have agreed to provide up to $100 million to finance a reorganization under which the investors will take a controlling interest in SCO even as it takes the company private.
"Not only will this deal position us to emerge from Chapter 11, but it also marks an exciting future for our business," said Jeff Hunsaker, chief operating officer of SCO Operations. "This significant financial backing is positive news for SCO's customers, partners and resellers who continue to request upgrades and rely upon SCO's UNIX services to drive their business forward."
In Utah's Federal District Court last year, Judge Dale Kimball ruled that Novell, not SCO, owns the copyrights to the UNIX code at the heart of Linux. Kimball's ruling indicates that SCO owes Novell compensation for copyright infringement.
Nevertheless, SCO continues to assert that it owns the core UNIX operating system originally developed by AT&T/Bell Labs, and it claims to be the exclusive licensor to UNIX-based system software providers. According to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., a primary purpose of SCO's reorganization "is to encourage and promote an early and favorable resolution of the Novell/IBM litigation."
SCO's investors have agreed to provide up to $95 million to support appeal bonds and other court costs, including any final claims that might arise in SCO's pending cases with IBM and Novell. That $95 million line of credit will be secured by all of SCO's assets, "including all of its present and future litigation claims," the court filing said.
Beyond litigation, SCO's principal investment partner...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Yahoo Board Divided Amid Talks With News Corp.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58404
Despite its bold rejection of Microsoft's $44.6 billion buyout offer, there is not peace around the Yahoo board table. The New York Post reported Friday that the board is divided, with one faction led by new Chairman Roy Bostock and billionaire Ron Buckle, and the other by CEO Jerry Yang.
The Bostock group is concerned that Yang's strong emotional resistance to the Microsoft deal is trumping his fiduciary duty to look out for shareholders' interests. All corporate directors face personal liability for actions that violate the "duty of care" and the "duty of loyalty" to shareholders.
"The emotional part of Yang would rather do anything but sell to Microsoft, but he doesn't have the cards to come up with a value-creating, competitive alternative for shareholders," an unidentified source told the newspaper. Aligned with Yang are Eric Hippeau of Softbank and Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision, said the Post's source, who appears to be closely aligned with the Bostock faction. "They're just as emotional as Jerry and as biased against selling to Microsoft as he is."
The prospects of Yahoo maximizing shareholder value with a go-it-alone strategy look shaky compared to the guaranteed $31 a share Microsoft is offering. "We believe Yahoo would have to show substantial re-acceleration in revenue growth and margin expansion for the stock to be back substantially above $30 -- something that requires a leap of faith today -- if it were to stay independent," Jefferies analyst Youssef Squali told the Post.
But the most unlikely of white knights has appeared: Rupert Murdoch. Yahoo is reportedly in talks with Murdoch's News Corp. to trade 20 percent of the company for News Corp.'s MySpace social-networking site. That would give Murdoch control of Yahoo's board. The largest shareholder today is Capital Research and Management with 11.36 percent.
Both sides described the...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Activision Plans Aerosmith Version of Guitar Hero
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58403
Activision, publisher of the enormously popular computer game Guitar Hero, will release a special version of the game built entirely around the music of the band Aerosmith in June. The game will play on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and Playstation 2.
The band, formed nearly 40 years ago in Boston, has often been touted as "America's greatest rock and roll band." According to Activision, the group has sold 150 million albums, has been inducted into Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has won four Grammy awards. The release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith coincides with the group's work on a new studio album.
"Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honor and really a great experience for us," guitarist Joe Perry said. "We've put a lot of ideas into the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting inside our body of work and learning about the band's history."
From Saturday through Monday, owners of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock can download one of Aerosmith's most popular songs, Dream On, for use on either the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3.
Some 20 years ago, Aerosmith's music video for its smash hit Walk This Way received saturation-level time on the recently founded MTV cable channel. Music companies and groups were initially skeptical that MTV would amount to much, but quickly found a strong correlation between video broadcasts and album sales. Now it looks like music video games like Guitar Hero are having a similar effect.
"It's great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing," Perry said. "Fans want to get and experience music in new formats -- and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Sony's PlayStation 3 is Roaring Up the Video Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58399
Sony's PlayStation 3 may be just hitting its stride. Two reports indicate the PS3 is moving upmarket fast, and one of them projects the video-game console could be number two by the end of this year -- and in first place by 2011.
According to industry research firm NPD, the PS3 moved to second place in U.S. sales in January, with 269,000 units sold, compared to 230,000 for the Microsoft Xbox 360. Nintendo's Wii remained in first place, with 274,000 players sold. Microsoft told reporters earlier this week that its reduced sales were due, at least in part, to its underestimation of post-holiday demand and stores have been running short of product.
And market researcher iSuppli said Thursday that the worldwide installed base of Nintendo Wii consoles will top the Xbox 360 this year, rising to 30.2 million units. It projected the Xbox 360's base by the end of 2008 at 25.7 million units and the PS3's at 20.3 million. The Wii has been rising like a rocket, from 3.2 million players at the end of 2006 to 18 million last year, but these projections also mean the PS3 will have doubled its installed base by the end of this year.
The iSuppli report also projects that the PS3 is growing fastest, with a 97 percent increase in its installed base year over year, compared to 68 percent for Nintendo and 41 percent for Microsoft. Next year, Sony's installed base is projected to increase about 9.7 million units, versus an increase of 6.8 million for Wiis and 5.4 million for Xbox 360s.
If this continues, iSuppli said, Sony could have the largest installed base of this generation of players by 2011, with nearly 39 million units, and Nintendo will have slipped to barely second place with about 38 million. Microsoft...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Robots Could Replace Animals in Chemical Tests
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58398
In a move that should delight animal lovers, two U.S. government agencies have launched an initiative to develop robotic tools to reduce and perhaps replace the use of animals in chemical toxicity tests.
During a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health announced the signing of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding to promote the development and implementation of tools to speed up chemical tests, reduce their cost, and lower the number of animal tests required.
The announcement drew praise from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "The announcement of the collaboration is a definite positive step forward," said Kate Willett, Ph.D., PETA's science-policy adviser. "It's a small step forward, but it's definitely a move in the right direction."
According to an article in Friday's issue of Science magazine, the goal is a technology known as high-throughput screening (HTS). The robotic devices will expose various types of cells to varying concentrations of chemicals, and for various periods of exposure. Unlike animal tests, which are slow and expensive, HTS offers the prospect of successfully running hundreds of thousands of toxicity tests per day.
"I launched the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research five years ago to create collaborations between institutes and centers on big projects that none of them could do alone. But I never envisioned a trans-agency collaboration testing for environmental toxins," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "This research collaboration has the potential to make crucial discoveries that will protect the public health by identifying and understanding chemical toxicants to which people are exposed."
HTS is already used extensively in the pharmaceutical industry to speed up its search for new drugs. The technology can be used in reverse to determine toxicity by counting the number of...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Microsoft Shakes up Online and Windows With Eye on Yahoo
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58397
Microsoft shook up its executive ranks Thursday, bringing together a triumvirate of managers to take over its troubled online-services operations and shaking up management of Windows Mobile and Vista.
Steve Berkowitz, the former head of Ask Jeeves, who has been running online services for the past two years, was ousted; he will remain through August to aid the transition. Taking over for Berkowitz are three longtime Microsoft executives, a move that contrasts with bringing in Berkowitz from outside.
Bill Veghte will handle marketing and product management for Windows Live, search and MSN, as well as for Vista. Satya Nadella will run engineering for search, portals and advertising. Brian McAndrews, formerly CEO of aQuantive, which Microsoft bought in May, will be responsible for marketing and engineering for Microsoft's advertising and publishing solutions group.
There was widespread speculation that the shake-up is preparation for the integration of Yahoo, should Microsoft succeed in acquiring the Silicon Valley icon. "They always talk about the acquisition as a done deal, but the fact is it's not a done deal -- and [Yahoo's] talks with News Corp. make it a little more uncertain," noted Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research. "But notwithstanding that confidence, you can't reorganize the company before the deal is done."
Microsoft top management is "playing both sides," Sterling said. "They're thinking Yahoo is going to be acquired but it also has independent integrity." Although the moves are "not entirely a statement" that Microsoft's strategy hasn't been working, they do "reflect Microsoft's desire to put more emphasis on search and mobile," he added.
With the bid for Yahoo and other acquisitions Microsoft has made, including the purchase last year of aQuantive and this week's purchase of handset maker Danger, "Microsoft is trying to redouble its efforts" on these fronts, Sterling said.
Fri, 15 Feb 08
eBay Named in Suits Against Pirated Software
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58389
Online auction giant eBay has been implicated in piracy lawsuits. The Software & Information Industry Association is suing several eBay sellers as part of its campaign to stop auctioning of pirated software.
The latest round of lawsuits marks the largest onslaught since SIIA launched its auction-site antipiracy program two years ago. It filed nine separate suits in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of members Adobe Systems and Symantec.
Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of SIIA's antipiracy division, said the association has declared war against people and companies who continue to sell pirated software on auction sites.
"Our goal is to give illegal software sellers a rude awakening, so that unsuspecting software buyers and legitimate sellers are protected. For too long, auction sellers have been able to sell pirated software while risking only the removal of their auction. SIIA has upped the ante by bringing those who pirate software to justice in court."
The nine suits are the most significant legal action SIIA has taken since launching its Auction Litigation Program, which monitors popular online auction sites, identifies individuals or groups selling pirated software, and sues the pirates on behalf of association members.
SIIA's lawsuits have led to prosecutions of eBay pirates and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) software sellers. Last year it collected $205,000 in the Symantec et al. v. Chan et al. suit involving OEM, unbundled, counterfeit and other copies of software not authorized for resale.
"Online auctioning of pirated software hurts both business and consumers," said Scott Bain, litigation counsel. "When consumers buy cheap, illegal software, they get no support and often find they've spent good money on bad software. In addition to taking legal action against software pirates, SIIA is giving consumers tools to help them fight back."
Fighting the Good Fight...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Major Newspapers Form Online Advertising Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58388
Four of the largest media companies have formed a new online ad-sales network. The alliance marks the second formal partnership in the newspaper industry and competes with Yahoo's newspaper consortium.
Dubbed quadrantONE, the network includes newspaper and Web-site publishers Tribune, Gannett, Hearst and The New York Times.
Dana Hayes, interim CEO of quadrantONE, said aggregating the Web audiences of the media companies gives national advertisers access to tens of millions of unique visitors in the country's top markets.
"Each participating company has agreed to dedicate advertising inventory to quadrantONE, so the network can offer customized online campaigns on a highly competitive basis," Hayes said. "Imagine placing the same ad across hundreds of local Web sites on the same day with one buy -- that's the power of this network."
According to Nielsen Online data, the network reaches nearly 50 million unique visitors each month, and covers 27 out of the top 30 markets. QuadrantONE promises advertisers the capability to consistently deliver their brands and messages on a national scale through advertising with the major newspaper and broadcasting sites.
"When faced with a growing number of fragmented ad-media options, particularly on the Web, advertisers are looking for new opportunities and innovative models providing a valuable, measurable consumer experience," said Chris Boothe, president and chief activation officer at Starcom USA. Starcom handles media planning and buying for some of the world's biggest brands.
"QuadrantONE steps up to the challenge of the new media future, and on behalf of our advertisers, we appreciate that it provides hyperlocalized opportunities for brand impact that resonate with targeted audiences," he said.
QuadrantOne will compete head-on with Yahoo. In fact, some of the members of Yahoo's consortium are also part of quadrantOne. Yahoo's consortium takes a cross-media approach to advertising online and offline. Yahoo has...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Defectors May Push Toshiba Out of HD-DVD Format
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58387
When the history of the nearly three-year, high-definition DVD format war is written, this may be the point when both sides realized the end is near.
According to a report today in the Hollywood Reporter, "reliable industry sources" say primary HD-DVD backer Toshiba will abandon the format "within the coming weeks," although officially no announcement has been made. The format war, according to the publication, has become a "format death watch."
In the last week alone, bad news turned to worse for HD DVD in its battle against Blu-ray. On Monday, leading retailer Best Buy said it was "addressing consumer confusion" and that, beginning in early March, it will "prominently showcase Blu-ray" as the preferred format. It said, however, it will continue to carry HD-DVD products.
On the same day, online movie renter Netflix said that, "with the industry now having picked a winner," the company would stock high-definition DVDs exclusively in the Blu-ray format. It cited the decision by four of the six major studios to back Blu-ray as a key reason for its move. Previously, Netflix had been offering both formats.
The logjam with the studios began to break in January, when Warner Bros said that, in May, it will sell high-def movies only in Blu-ray. Warner joined Disney, Fox, Lionsgate and Sony in that decision. The remaining major HD-DVD backers include Universal, Paramount, DreamWorks Animation, and Microsoft, in addition to Toshiba.
There's also another, less talked-about, factor that was reportedly instrumental in the VHS victory over Betamax -- the porn industry. The head of Digital Playground, which claims to distribute more than 80 percent of high-def adult video DVDs, has told reporters his company is phasing out HD DVD and moving entirely to Blu-ray.
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with industry research firm...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Who Will Control the Heart of Handsets?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58371
In years past, when the mobile-phone industry gathered for its biggest annual convention, the talk was mostly about bells and whistles -- who had the sexiest, thinnest, or most feature-packed handsets. Not this year. At the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the center of attention has shifted to the software inside phones that most consumers don't ever think about.
From flashy newcomer Apple with its hit iPhone, to gate-crashing Google, to stalwart Nokia, the titans of tech are locked in a high-stakes battle for the heart and soul of mobile phones. At stake is nothing less than the future of mobile communication -- and, by extension, of the Internet, as a growing number of consumers around the world access the Web from handheld devices.
It's no wonder operating systems have become the industry's new focus. The majority of today's handsets are still based on proprietary operating systems developed by makers such as Nokia and Motorola for use in their own phones. These closed software environments are costly for makers to maintain and upgrade, limiting the opportunity for economies of scale that would be possible if phones from many makers shared common software.
What's more, by fragmenting the market, closed systems make life more difficult for operators and suppliers of mobile software and services. Paris-based Gameloft, for instance, the leading seller of mobile games, has to separately develop, test, and support hundreds of versions of every game it makes thanks to the lack of software standards in mobile phones and differences in operator network configurations.
Industry leaders are fed up. "Today there are 30 to 40 different operating systems for mobile, and that is too many," said Arun Sarin, the chief executive of Vodafone during a Feb. 12 speech in Barcelona. "We need to narrow that range to three, four, or even five."...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Cell Phone Helps With Poor Eyesight
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58370
Even those of us who don't gab on cell phones appreciate having one for an emergency. For a blind or visually impaired person, the Nokia N82 promises much more: It's a liberating day-to-day tool that grants access to printed materials not otherwise easily available.
A sightless person can use the phone to snap a picture of a menu, book, printed receipt or business card. Software on the phone processes the words on those items and reads the text aloud in a synthesized voice. The device can even let a blind person know if paper currency is a $5 or a $20 bill.
As you might expect, the candy-bar-shaped Nokia houses an extremely capable digital camera -- 5 megapixels, auto-focusing, high-intensity flash. But it's the character-recognition and text-to-speech software from KNFB Reading Technology that makes it so powerful. KNFB is a joint venture of the National Federation of the Blind and Kurzweil Technologies.
A brief history: In the 1970s, noted inventor Ray Kurzweil developed a machine that could scan text, convert it to audio and effectively read ordinary books out loud to a blind person. It was the size of a washing machine. By 2006, the technology harnessed a digital camera and could fit into a commercially available $3,500 personal digital assistant. The PDA was portable but not pocket-size like a cellphone.
Late last month, the knfbReader Mobile was launched with the N82. It's currently the only cell phone to work with KNFB's software.
The cell phone reader is less expensive than the PDA version. But the software alone will still set you back $1,595, and the Nokia phone an additional $500 or so. (You'll also need thin, plastic filters, or polarizers, that reduce glare on the phone.) You can find a dealer at www.knfbreader.com.
There are other potential constraints beyond the size of your wallet. The...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Lose My Laptop, Gimme (Or Don't) $54 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58380
If you took your laptop in for repairs to a well-known big-box store only to discover the store's tech contractor had lost the machine, lied to you about it, manufactured fake documentation and finally offered you a "We're sorry" gift card -- you'd be steamed.
That's what allegedly happened to Raelyn Campbell of Washington, D.C. On her blog -- at bestbuybadbuyboycott.blogspot.com -- she tells a story of theft, lies, errors and cheapskate customer service. In fact, she was so mad that she filed a lawsuit. For $54 million.
Campbell says she brought her laptop into Best Buy in May 2007 for repair under a service contract. Shortly thereafter, she says, the computer was stolen. In June and July, Geek Squad -- which provides computer service under a contract with Best Buy -- told her the machine was "not in the system." On July 4, she says, a store employee created a false computer record to make it appear that the laptop had been processed for repair on that day. She said the machine was confirmed missing on August 9.
What really appears to have gotten Campbell's goat is that Best Buy at first ignored her and then offered what she considered insulting levels of compensation, ultimately amounting to $1,100 for the computer and a $500 gift card as an apology.
On her blog Campbell freely admits that $54 million is "a ridiculous sum of money." It's not just the cost of the computer ($1,100), the emotional distress of losing all her data or even the risk of identity theft. Campbell wants punitive damages.
Indeed, she identifies two motivations for such an "absurd" amount (her words): to persuade Best Buy to "reassess its ways" and to gain enough publicity to put widespread consumer pressure on the company.
Even so, "there's no way she'll get...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
MacBook Air, Say Hello to Lenovo's ThinkPad X300
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58378
There's something in the air -- a new ultrathin laptop from Lenovo that some observers think could become the first major competitor to Apple's MacBook Air.
Profiled Wednesday in a sneak preview by The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg, the ThinkPad X300 has a 13-inch-wide screen, a full keyboard, and a 64GB solid-state drive (SSD). Apple has touted a 13.3-inch-wide screen and a full keyboard as among the highlights of the Air.
But the Air, launched last month during Steve Jobs' keynote address at MacWorld, has been criticized as skimpy on some features.
For instance, the Air lacks a built-in DVD drive, and instead offers wireless access to an external drive. Its battery cannot be removed by the user, and the machine offers only one USB port.
The X300, on the other hand, has a built-in DVD drive, a removable battery, three USB ports, and an Ethernet networking jack. It can also be customized with a cell-phone modem or GPS. And it has an advantage among new Windows computers -- it can be ordered with either Windows XP or Vista.
Unlike the Air, Mossberg noted, the X300 is "a bit heavier than the three-pound weight that traditionally denotes a subnotebook." It is 3.12 pounds with the standard battery and DVD drive, but he added that it "still feels very light to carry around."
While Mossberg and others are comparing the X300 to the Air, IDC's Doug Bell said it isn't a direct competitor because Lenovo is geared toward the enterprise market and Apple, while making some inroads into businesses, is still primarily consumer-oriented.
The X300 has features important to the road warrior, Bell noted. The most important, he said, is the removable battery, but he also cited the built-in DVD drive and extra USB ports. The option of choosing XP is...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Yahoo's oneConnect Links Addresses To Social Networks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58362
Yahoo is planning to "reinvent mobile communications" with its new Yahoo oneConnect, even as it fends of Microsoft. Announced Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Yahoo said the oneConnect service "combines integrated mobile messaging with a socially connected address book."
The company described it as "the first mobile product that aggregates communications tools -- e-mail, instant messaging (IM), text messaging (SMS), and social networks -- for a new level of convenience in mobile communications."
The new service is expected to be rolled out in the second quarter as part of Yahoo Go 3.0 for hundreds of devices and mobile browsers.
With oneConnect, users can integrate activities from their social networks into their address book, so that, for instance, they can see status updates, photo uploads and the "pulse," or recent activities, of contacts. Supported social networks include Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, among others. A user can also update his or her own status, "broadcast" it to friends, and maintain a list of favorite contacts.
Any IM or SMS messaging service, including Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger in addition to Yahoo Messenger, can use oneConnect's open-application programming interfaces.
And you can know when your friend is in the neighborhood. By using location-sensing technology, oneConnect can help identify nearby contacts, and proximity alerts can be set for a given person.
E-mail can be accessed via widgets from various providers, including MSN Hotmail, Gmail and AOL Mail, in addition to Yahoo Mail. Business users will want to be able to access their company accounts through Microsoft Exchange, and Yahoo said it is "in discussions" with DataViz to develop widget versions of its applications for that purpose.
With oneConnect, Yahoo is seeking to ride the wave of activity in social networking. One of the areas under development in social...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Comcast Admits and Defends Network Throttling
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58361
Comcast simultaneously admitted and defended its practice of throttling peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic in comments filed with the Federal Communication Commission on Tuesday. The comments respond to petitions filed by public-interest groups and the Internet video company Vuze.
"The carefully limited measures that Comcast takes to manage traffic on its broadband network -- including its very limited management of certain P2P protocols -- are a reasonable part of Comcast's strategy to ensure a high-quality, reliable Internet experience for all Comcast High-Speed Internet customers," the company said.
In another development, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, introduced a bill Wednesday that would prevent Internet service providers such as Comcast from interfering with consumers' use of the network. The bill was cosponsored by Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.).
The bill's goal, Markey said, is to assure that the "historic, open-architecture nature of the Internet will be preserved and fostered." Consumers and content providers "should be free to send, receive, access and use the lawful applications, content and services of their choice on broadband networks, possess the effective right to attach and use non-harmful devices to use in conjunction with their broadband services, and that content providers not be subjected to unreasonably discriminatory practices by broadband network providers," Markey said.
He also emphasized that the bill does not "regulate" the Internet. The bill "seeks to enshrine such principles in the law as guide stars for U.S. broadband policy." Under the bill, the Federal Communications Commission would be required to assess broadband practices and consumer rights, and to hold eight broadband summits around the U.S. and report back to Congress on its findings and recommendations.
In its filing, Comcast emphasized a distinction it has consistently made between managing and blocking...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Apple Expected to Offer 3G iPhone This Year
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58360
Reports that Apple is cutting production orders on current iPhone models support rumors that a 3G version of the cutting-edge device is in the works for midyear, analysts say.
Last week, Craig Berger of FBR Research reported to clients that Apple has been accelerating production cuts for the iPhone and iPod Touch. "For both iPods and iPhones, we believe Apple was previously targeting a roughly 50 percent quarter-over-quarter decline for first-quarter units, whereas we now think the firm is targeting a 60 percent quarter-over-quarter unit decline for first-quarter units," Berger said.
In a research note Monday, analyst Richard Gardner of Citigroup cited the falling production numbers as an indicator that Apple is gearing up for a new model, The Washington Post reported. In Europe, iPhone sales have been underwhelming. "We believe that lack of 3G has been a significant headwind for iPhone in Europe, where 3G is already pervasive," Gardner said.
Apple told Citigroup analysts that it plans to enter Asia and more European countries by the end of the year. Apple and AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier, have separately indicated that a 3G iPhone will be released this year.
"You'll have it next year," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told an audience in November when asked about a 3G iPhone. That comment suggested AT&T would be expanding a 3G network this year, and the company recently made good on that promise, announcing plans to roll out 3G in 350 U.S. markets, including all of the largest 100 cities.
Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said that while 3G is definitely in Apple's future, "the timing of this is still in question." Whenever it happens, the development will "help Apple get even more attention for the iPhone in the U.S. and abroad in markets where it is legal."
Apple has yet to...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Sun Will Buy Innotek, Developer of Virtualbox
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58359
Sun Microsystems is acquiring German software developer Innotek and its Virtualbox technology. With more than four million downloads, Virtualbox is already enabling enterprises around the world to switch between multiple operating systems at the click of a mouse button.
With Virtualbox, applications that otherwise would be unavailable to PC users will run on laptops and desktops regardless of the base operating system. The free software, which takes up about 25MB of disk space, can be quickly installed on any x86-architecture laptop or desktop running the Windows, Linux, Mac or Solaris operating systems, said Tim Marsland, chief technology officer at Sun's operating-platforms organization.
"You can run most any other popular operating system on the same machine, or several at the same time, depending on what hardware resources are available," Marsland noted in a blog.
Sun Executive Vice President Rich Green thinks Virtualbox is the perfect complement to the company's new virtualization engine for data centers. "Whereas Sun xVM Server is designed to enable dynamic IT at the heart of the data center, Virtualbox is ideal for any laptop or desktop environment," Green said.
In particular, Sun likes Virtualbox because it will enable software developers to build multi-tier or cross-platform applications.
"The grand plan, inclusive of Innotek, and like most everything we do in software at Sun, has a focus on developers," Green wrote in a recent blog. Virtualbox is free "for developers to learn, understand, enhance and contribute to the ever-growing community around the technology."
Marsland sees desktop virtualization as "the key to creating a working implementation, on a developer's laptop, that can include much or all of the machinery that resides in the server farm, or the deployment environment." It will allow developers to construct "an image in miniature of the server...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Google's Android Stirs Mobile-Device Industry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58358
Google's Android platform is stirring up the mobile-device industry. Introduced this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the open-source platform based on Linux powered prototypes shown by Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, HTC, Motorola, LG and Samsung.
Most of the prototypes were still tethered to circuit boards, and only a handful of applications were up and running on the phones. Nonetheless, most observers agreed that the new mobile operating system (MOS) shows considerable promise.
One thing the vendors are reluctant to predict is when the first Android phones will hit the market. But most agree that consumers should start seeing Android-driven handsets in the second half of this year.
In an analysis provided by Forrester, analyst Charles Golvin predicted that the impact of Android will be significant, but will develop slowly.
"Even if a tsunami of Android-based phones should arrive in 2008 -- which won't happen -- the platform will still represent a tiny portion of the market," Golvin predicted. "Despite its long-term promise, the platform will initially put the onus on developers to incorporate yet another port into the mix, adding to rather than reducing the complexity of their task."
Nor are Google's competitors standing still. The looming launch of the Android MOS has spurred some of Google's competitors to form some new and somewhat startling alliances. Microsoft, for instance, has moved into the teen market by purchasing Danger, the maker of software for Sidekick mobile devices. (Ironically, Danger was founded by Andy Rubin, the current leader of the Android project.)
The current king of the MOS hill is Symbian, which drives about half of the world's smartphones. But Sony Ericsson, which has a 16 percent stake in Symbian, is planning to use Windows Mobile on its new Xperia X1 handset. Handset giant Nokia is also planning to license Windows Mobile...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
What Takeover Bid? Yahoo Buys Ad Vendor Maven
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58357
If Yahoo is supposed to be paralyzed by Microsoft's pursuit, someone forgot to tell Yahoo. On Tuesday, the sought-after Internet giant announced that it has acquired Maven Networks, an online video-platform provider, to expand its video and advertising offerings.
The reported price was about $160 million.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based Maven operates a platform that manages and distributes online video and advertising for such Web sites as Fox News, Sony BMG, CBS Sports, Hearst, Gannett, Scripps Networks, Sony Pictures Television, Ogilvy, TV Guide, CBC, the Financial Times, and others. The publishing platform allows publishers to manage the delivery of video and increase video-ad inventories with what Yahoo described as a "dynamic advertising insertion engine, sophisticated inventory management, reporting tools and advanced ad formats."
With Maven, Yahoo said, it can offer publishers "a full portfolio of technology and media solutions." The company said it already had the largest library of professionally produced, licensed video content, and it has video-advertising relationships with more than 75 percent of the major TV advertisers and publishers such as eBay, Comcast, Newspaper Consortium, Forbes.com and others.
Andrew Frank, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, noted that the deal was in the works well before Microsoft moved to buy Yahoo. He added that Maven is among the leaders in online video management and works with a lot of broadcasters. "In general," he added, "advertisers are more enthusiastic about professionally made video" from broadcasters and similar sources.
Yahoo Executive Vice President Hilary Schneider said video "is projected to be the fastest-growing segment of the online ad market." The online video-ad business is now about $775 million, and Yahoo noted that Forrester projects a $4 billion market by 2011.
Earlier this week, Yahoo's board unanimously rejected a $44.6 billion takeover bid from Microsoft, and there were reports that...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Storm Worm Sends Trouble for Valentine's Day
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58356
If you unexpectedly receive a Valentine's Day e-card, give it a close look before you get sentimental. It may be a stealth virus called the Storm Worm.
With lovers expected to express their feelings on Thursday, the FBI is warning about spam e-mails spreading the Storm Worm. The e-mail directs the recipient to click on a link to retrieve a bogus e-card. Once the link is clicked, malware is downloaded and the recipient's machine becomes part of the Storm Worm botnet.
A botnet is a network of compromised machines under the control of a single user. Botnets typically facilitate criminal activity such as spam, identity theft, denial-of-service attacks, and spreading malware to others on the Internet.
"The Storm Worm virus has capitalized on various holidays in the last year by sending millions of e-mails advertising an e-card link within the text of the spam e-mail," The FBI warned in an advisory. "Valentine's Day has been identified as the next target. Be wary of any e-mail received from an unknown sender. Do not open any unsolicited e-mail and do not click on any links provided."
Indeed, security firm Sophos has reported that virus writers are increasingly using love, money and lust to encourage victims to activate malicious code. Sophos says the latest variation is a romantically themed e-mail with subject lines such as "I Like You," "Powerful Love," "Tower of Love," "You Stay In My Heart," "Hugs And Kisses," "Val-ANT-ines," "Just You," and "What is Love?" The e-mails look sweet, but contain a nasty payload -- the Storm Worm.
Every year in the run-up to Valentine's Day, people let their guard down and are fooled by hackers and cybercriminals using the cover of romance, according to Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"You would think that people would learn,...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Monster Patch Tuesday Covers 17 Vulnerabilities
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58349
Microsoft issued 11 security bulletins on Patch Tuesday covering a total of 17 vulnerabilities, 10 of them critical. The 11 patches address the Windows operating system, the Internet Explorer Web browser, Microsoft Office and other programs.
"While the batch of critical vulnerabilities all require some sort of user interaction to exploit, the interaction can be as simple as visiting a trusted Web site that has first been exploited by an attacker," said Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager for Symantec Security Response.
As consumers and enterprises become more savvy to security risks, he added, attackers are finding ways to distribute malware through trusted sites in addition to distributing via an attachment or random link in an e-mail.
"These vulnerabilities underscore the importance of having a full security suite to protect consumers and enterprises from being exploited since they can no longer only rely on traditional best practices alone, such as avoiding unknown or unexpected e-mail attachments or following Web links from unknown sources," Greenbaum said.
"This month's patches are going to require a great deal of man-hours for IT admins, from determining what is affected to the testing and deployment processes. IT administrators might be spending this Valentine's Day in the office," said Paul Zimski, senior director of market strategy at Lumension Security.
"Because we are so used to trusting and opening Office attachments, the fact that there are three critical patches for Office opens up a huge window for a potential attack, whether general or targeted," Zimski said.
Indeed, five of the 11 advisories this month are client-side issues that are part of the daily experience for users. These are likely responses from Microsoft to specific, targeted attacks that have been building up over the past few months.
"This is bad news for enterprises," said Tyler Reguly, security researcher for...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
U.S. Struggles with Airport Screening Technology
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58345
In the nearly seven years since the tragic attacks on 9/11, air travel has gotten steadily slower, later and more irritating. A raft of new regulations has helped make loafers the most popular shoe for flying, limited carry-on liquids to a few ounces, and introduced hundreds of Americans to the thrills of a pat-down search.
But Congressman Bernie Thompson (D-Mississippi), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has failed to identify and implement new technologies that could make check-ins faster and flying safer.
"The snail's pace of deploying new technology is unacceptable," Thompson told Washington Post reporter Del Quentin Wilber in a recent interview. "We remain vulnerable because we have not kept up with technological innovation."
Last year, a report by the Government Accountability Office was critical of the TSA's efforts to bring new screening technologies online. Among other things, the GAO noted that the TSA requested funds for fiscal year 2007 to operate approximately 434 explosives trace portals (the large doorways that blow puffs of air over travelers to dislodge any possible molecules of explosives).
The GAO found, however, that the TSA "halted the acquisition and deployment of the portals in June 2006" due to maintenance and performance issues. The Washington Post found that the portals were unable to cope with the challenging airport environment and fell victim to dirt, dust and jet fumes. More than a hundred of the portals, each of which cost the TSA tens of thousands of dollars to purchase, are sitting in a Texas warehouse while the TSA tries to figure out how to make them more durable.
Another security innovation, the so-called back-scatter X-ray machine, has been slowed by significant privacy concerns. The device works by scanning passengers with a low-intensity X-ray that provides the machine technician with a...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
New Chips Could Boost iPhone Rivals
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58339
If the debut of Apple's iPhone last June wasn't enough of an eye-opener for cellular industry players, a Google memo recently made public should have done the trick: While the iPhone accounts for just 2% of high-end Web-browsing and media-playing handsets, or smartphones, sold worldwide, its users over the holidays accounted for a majority of incoming mobile traffic through Google's giant server network.
Now Apple, which hasn't rented an inch of floor space at the wireless industry's four-day confab beginning Feb. 11 in Barcelona, Spain, is again transforming the agenda. Wireless companies throughout the industry will announce new alliances, hardware, and software in Barcelona as they try to topple Apple's outsize influence on lucrative consumer data services in the market.
"Smartphones historically have still been used primarily for making calls, but all that's changed with the iPhone," says Mike Rayfield, general manager for the mobile business unit of graphics chipmaker Nvidia. "Now everyone is trying to make their phones more intuitive, engaging, and connected."
The most anticipated step in that direction will come on the software side. Chip licensing company ARM, in private meetings with journalists and analysts, will show off a prototype device based on Google's Android mobile computing platform that promises to create a new Internet-friendly standard, based on open-source software, for software on midrange phones.
Mobile is fast becoming the first and "most accessible screen" for Web access, according to research house Visiongain, but the complexity of many of the devices that can deliver on mobile broadband coverage is limiting growth. In Western Europe, about 25% of mobile subscribers use the Internet on their cell phones at least once a month -- a figure that seems laughable when comparing Web usage among iPhone customers.
Incumbent players will need to develop fast expertise with Linux-based platforms to compete with...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
eBay Slashes Rates for Some Sellers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58332
eBay bowed to pressure Monday from some of its high-volume sellers, saying it will further cut listing fees for books, music, movies and video games sold through the online auction site.
Monday's move amends a fee structure announced last month and could mean savings for merchants who sell those goods in high volume. Those sellers had expected to lose money from the new plan, slated to take effect Feb. 20. Some had threatened to stop selling
on eBay.
The company said last month it plans to cut the fees for listing an item but raise eBay's commissions on items that sell. Merchants quickly complained the cuts were not enough to balance the hike in commissions.
Monday's amendment further cuts -- by as much as half -- the listing fees for items in the "media" category selling for less than $25.
Shares of eBay rose 10 cents, about one-third of 1 percent, to close at $28.17 Monday.
The two rounds of changes come as eBay struggles with flattening growth in listings and the number of active users -- and with a gradual loss of the market share to Amazon.com, which does not charge listing fees.
Online message boards have been abuzz with threats of a site-wide sellers strike since the new fee structure was announced.
People who sell media items complained the changes would hit them especially hard, because they post many more listings than other sellers -- some offering more than 40,000 items on eBay each month.
Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay's Global Marketplace Operations, which includes the company's online shopping sites, announced the new changes Monday.
"We heard your comments about the need for media and category-specific pricing," Norrington said in a statement posted online.
Steve Grossberg -- a top seller of video games and president of the Internet Merchants Association, which lobbied the company to take another look at...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
BlackBerry Service Outage Frustrates Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58328
The company that makes the ubiquitous, addictive BlackBerry smartphones said Tuesday it was still looking into what caused the second widespread service disruption in less than a year.
Research in Motion Ltd. said customers in the United States and Canada "experienced intermittent delays" for about three hours Monday beginning about 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT). Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said no messages were lost, and voice and text messaging services were unaffected.
"It is too early to determine root cause at this time, but RIM does have a team addressing this issue in order to define the problem and prevent it in the future," the company said in a statement.
The BlackBerry service, which lets users check e-mail and access other data, has become a lifeline for many business executives and is increasingly popular among consumers with smartphones like the BlackBerry Pearl.
Outages have been rare in the BlackBerry's nine-year history, but when they do hit, subscribers who have become addicted to the gadgets are quick to unleash their fury.
"I'm mad -- it's enough already," said a frustrated Stuart Gold, who said he gets 1,000 e-mails a day as director of field marketing for Web analytics company Omniture Inc.
Gold, who worked most of Monday on a laptop while traveling, plans to ask his company to buy him a backup smartphone from a rival like Palm Inc., which makes the Treo, in case BlackBerry service goes on the blink again.
"I don't know what happened, I don't care what happened. They need to save their excuses for someone who cares," Gold said.
RIM has 12 million subscribers worldwide and has deals with scores of wireless carriers to offer the BlackBerry service around the world.
The company did not say how many were affected, though officials with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless said RIM told them the outage hit customers...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Senate OKs Immunity for Telecoms
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58327
The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
After nearly two months of stops and starts, the Senate rejected by a vote of 31 to 67 a move to strip away a grant of retroactive legal immunity for the companies.
President Bush has promised to veto any new surveillance bill that does not protect the companies that helped the government in its warrantless wiretapping program, arguing that it is essential if the private sector is to give the government the help it needs.
About 40 lawsuits have been filed against telecom companies by people alleging violations of wiretapping and privacy laws.
The Senate also rejected two amendments that sought to water down the immunity provision.
One, co-sponsored by Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, would have substituted the government for the telecoms in lawsuits, allowing the court cases to go forward but shifting the cost and burden of defending the program.
The other, pushed by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, would have given a secret court that oversees government surveillance inside the United States the power to dismiss lawsuits if it found that the companies acted in good faith and on the request of the president or attorney general.
Full telecom immunity must still be approved by the House; its version of the surveillance bill does not provide immunity.
At issue is the government's post-9/11 Terrorist Surveillance Program, which circumvented a secret court created 30 years ago to oversee such activities. The court was part of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law written in response to government abuse of its surveillance authority against Americans.
The surveillance law has been updated repeatedly since then, most recently last summer. Congress hastily adopted a FISA modification...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
EU Raids Offices of Intel, Computer Retailers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58344
European Commission investigators have raided the offices of Intel Germany in Munich as part of a wide-ranging probe into alleged antitrust violations by the world's largest chipmaker. A European Union spokesperson said the raid is ongoing but refused to divulge the reasons.
"Commission officials carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of a manufacturer of central processing units and a number of personal computer retailers," said Jonathan Todd, a commission spokesperson.
"I can confirm that there has been a raid on our offices in Munich," Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy said. "As is our normal practice, we are cooperating with authorities."
The EC also raided the offices of several computer retailers that it did not name. British retailer DSG International, which runs the Currys, PC World and Dixons chains, confirmed its offices in Hemel Hempstead, UK, were raided. "I can confirm that officials ... are currently conducting an inspection ... We are fully cooperating with the inspection," a spokesman told media outlets.
France's PPR group, which includes retailers Fnac, Surcouf and Conforama, also confirmed their offices had been searched. "I confirm that in the framework of an inquiry which it has opened into Intel that the Directorate General Competition is carrying out an inspection at the moment at the offices of PPR Purchasing," a PPR spokesperson said. "PPR and the group's companies are concerned by this inquiry only to the extent that they sell products made by Intel, among others."
In a statement, the EC said: "The commission has reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated ... rules on restrictive business practices and/or abuse of a dominant market position."
Not surprisingly, AMD welcomed the news. Giuliano Meroni, the company's president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: "This is an important expansion of the commission's investigation into Intel's illegal business practices...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Linux-based Android and LiMo Dominate Mobile-Phone Show
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58338
Open-source Linux is coming of age for mobile phones. While Google's Android platform has attracted attention at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain, so has LiMo, another Linux-based platform.
NEC Corporation announced Monday that it will show what it described as "the first LiMo-compliant handsets" for the global market.
Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation, said that, within a year, "LiMo has secured powerful industry engagement, announced the on-schedule availability of the LiMo platform," and the first generation of handsets are appearing.
NTT DoCoMo also showed four LiMo handsets for the Japanese market. One of them, the FOMA N905i, features 3G/GSM international roaming, HSDPA, mobile TV, GPS location tracking, and credit payment services.
The Barcelona show is a big coming-out party for the LiMo Foundation, which describes itself as a "consortium of mobile-industry leaders" working to develop "an open and globally consistent handset software platform based on Mobile Linux." It was founded in January 2007 by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone. LG is not officially a member, but it has shown a LiMo prototype. On Monday, telecommunications companies Orange and ACCESS said they would join.
Other handset makers are showing LiMo devices. Motorola has announced a Motorokr and Razr2, and Purple Labs, a supplier of embedded Linux solutions for mobile devices, announced an under-$100 LiMo feature phone. At least 18 LiMo-based handsets have been announced, including from Panasonic and Samsung.
The first release of the LiMo operating system is scheduled for March, and a software development kit is scheduled for the second half of this year.
Several LiMo backers also support Google's Open Handset Alliance (OHA) -- Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, and Samsung. In all, 34 companies back OHA, which was first announced in November. Texas Instruments, ARM Holdings, Qualcomm, NEC, Marvell, ST...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 Challenges Apple's iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58337
Sony Ericsson has launched a shot across Apple's bow with its Experia X1 multimedia cell phone. Announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the X1 features a three-inch VGA touch screen, an arc slider and a full keyboard. It supports the fast 3G networks HSDPA/HSUPA, as well as slower EDGE and GSM networks, and it supports WiFi. The X1 weighs 5.1 oz.
The phone is Sony Ericsson's first Windows Mobile phone and will be available in the second half of the year.
"Our vision for the Xperia X1 is to deliver a seamless blend of mobile Web communication and multimedia entertainment within a distinctive design," said Rikko Sakaguchi, the company's head of portfolio and propositions. He called the Xperia line "our promise to think foremost of user experience and to deliver the premium experience -- anytime, anywhere, anything, with anyone."
If that sounds a lot like Apple's value proposition for the iPhone, it's not a coincidence. At first glance, the X1 looks remarkably like the iPhone, with a flashy nine-panel interface that lets users choose the programs and Web pages it displays. Past the initial screen, however, the interface is pure Windows Mobile. That makes the interface both familiar to American users and not as innovative as the iPhone's.
The X1 dazzled the technology-chattering classes in Barcelona, Spain. They extolled its "luscious aluminum shell" and "amazingly sharp display" that would "put Apple's [iPhone] to shame."
It's a serious product -- more than an iPhone knockoff, said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, in an email. "The new X1 is one of the most innovative products in the Windows Mobile space and it is a true iPhone competitor," he wrote.
"Apple still has the edge in this space given its Web browser and better integration with Mac OS 10,"...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Microsoft Will Speed Up Vista SP1 Release
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58336
Microsoft now says its Vista Service Pack 1 will become available to some business users before the end of this month -- an about-face from the software giant's earlier announcement of a delay of up to six weeks to fix a performance issue.
Many subscribers to Microsoft's TechNet support service indicated they were unhappy with the delay, with one calling it "a major slap in the face for loyal subscribers who pay good money each year to have early access to this technology." Another asked how he was supposed to test potential issues if SP1 was held back. Additional comments called into question "the usefulness of having a TechNet subscription."
Saying Microsoft had "heard the feedback," Windows Product Management Group spokesperson Mike Nash said Vista SP1 will be made available to at least some users beginning later this month.
"For broad availability, we are still planning to release in mid-March, as we want to be sure that everyone has the smoothest experience possible," Nash wrote in a blog.
Earlier this month, Nash announced the discovery of a performance issue posed by a small set of hardware devices that might not function properly after a Windows Vista-based PC was updated to SP1.
"This is an issue with the way the device drivers were re-installed during the SP1 update process, not with the drivers themselves," Nash explained. "For new PCs with Windows Vista SP1 preinstalled, this is not an issue."
In a telephone interview last week, Gartner Client Computing Vice President Michael Silver noted that the device-driver issue should not pose a problem for tech-savvy users. "They should have enough smarts to take SP1, along with some guidance from Microsoft on where the problems lie, and at least do their testing with it," he said.
In his latest blog comments, Nash agreed...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Microsoft Gets Hip With Danger Purchase
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58325
On Monday, Microsoft announced it has agreed to acquire Danger, whose software powers the popular Sidekick and Hiphop devices.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Danger earned $50.6 million in 2007, most of it from its T-Mobile relationship.
Danger has invested 10 years in consumer mobile services and is known for its software platform that attracts young, hip audiences. Microsoft hopes to tap that experience to deliver "innovative and compelling" mobile experiences.
"Microsoft is a global leader with our Windows Mobile software and expanding mobile services," said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "The addition of Danger serves as a perfect complement to our existing software and services, and also strengthens our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like."
Microsoft said the acquisition will accelerate its entrance into the consumer mobile space and complement its focus on entertainment and information.
Applications on Danger-powered handsets include Web browsing, instant messaging, games, multimedia, social networking, Web e-mail and personal information management.
Microsoft is convinced that combining these services with its technologies like MSN, Xbox, Zune, Windows Live and Windows Mobile will position Redmond to become a contender in the consumer mobile entertainment space.
Microsoft software can be found on more than 160 mobile phones made by more than 50 hardware partners and offered through more than 160 mobile operators around the world. Microsoft expects to nearly double sales of its Windows Mobile licenses this year. That would bring the total to more than 20 million.
Danger has nothing to do with the Windows Mobile platform. So the acquisition begs the question: What will Microsoft do with this technology?
"Danger has a strong consumer following. It's not about Windows, per se, and it's not a business device," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "Microsoft...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Microsoft Gears Up as Yahoo Looks for a Way Out
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58324
The Microsft-Yahoo battle continued Monday with some unexpected twists. Microsoft indicated it will keep fighting even as Yahoo's board raised the price and reports suggested Yahoo is trying to restart merger talks with AOL.
The saga that began with Microsoft's bid of $44.6 billion for Yahoo brought objections from Google and led Yahoo's board to unanimously reject the offer Monday. The board, with support from its financial and legal advisers, including Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Moelis & Company, said the offer wasn't in the best interests of the company or its stockholders.
In response, Microsoft said it won't accept that decision. In a published statement, the company called Yahoo's decision not to embrace Microsoft's "full and fair proposal" unfortunate.
"We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company," Microsoft said. "The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market."
A Microsoft-Yahoo combination, the company insisted, would create a more effective company that would provide greater value and service to customers. Furthermore, Microsoft said, the combination would create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number-two competitor [behind Google] for Internet searches and online advertising.
"The Yahoo response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal," Microsoft said. "As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo's shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal."
The AOL rumors added yet another twist to the saga. The Times of London reported that Yahoo and AOL tried to come to an agreement in the past but could not agree on a price. Google has a...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Nokia Adds Google to Mobile-Phone Search Engines
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58323
In keeping with their strategies for the highly competitive mobile environment, Google and Nokia announced Tuesday that the popular search engine will be integrated with the Nokia Search application.
The deal was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The plan is for Google search to be available to customers in more than 100 countries on a variety of Nokia handsets, but the deployment will begin with the Nokia N96, N78, 6210 Navigator, and 6220 classic in select markets.
Nokia Search can access Web information, as well as content that is local to a device and on local search engines. The company said direct access is available on many of its devices with one click from the active standby screen. Retrieved information can be used by applications such as maps, messaging and the Web browser.
The combination of Nokia applications and Google search can "provide an excellent overall experience," said Google Vice President Vic Gundotra. He added that the "fast, relevant and comprehensive search experience" will be familiar to people who use Google to search the Web from their desktop.
Chris Hazelton, an analyst with industry research firm IDC, noted that the on-device search is controlled by Nokia and, when a user wants to search the Net, he or she is given several options -- Yahoo, Microsoft Live Search, and now Google. The deal doesn't give Google exclusivity, he noted, but those who use that search engine on a computer may choose the same tool on their Nokia device.
"Nokia is only allowing all of these search engines to compete on a Nokia device," he said. "Nokia still maintains the platform ownership."
This is where Nokia wants to be, Hazelton said. It is the world's leading mobile-device manufacturer, he added, "but they want to transform themselves into a...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Demand for Video Reshaping Internet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58320
In 1995, the first warning was raised: Throngs of people swarming to the Internet would overwhelm the system in 1996. For more than a decade, that fear has proven untrue.
Until right about now. The growing popularity of video on the Net has driven a traffic increase that's putting strains on service providers, particularly cable companies. To deal with it, they have had to change the way they convey Internet data.
And they've done this in secret, raising concerns -- by Web companies, consumer groups and the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission -- that the nature of the Internet is being altered in ways that are difficult to divine.
But as traffic grows, there are signs that these subtle and secret controls are insufficient, and will give way to more overt measures. For instance, we could find ourselves paying not just for the speed of our connection, but for how much we download. Already, some ISPs are hindering file-sharing traffic, and AT&T is talking about blocking pirated content.
The issue is coming to a head this year, as the FCC is investigating complaints from consumer groups and legal scholars that Comcast Corp., the country's largest cable ISP, secretly hampered file sharing by its subscribers. File sharing, which allows Internet users to download movies, music and software among each other with software like BitTorrent and KaZaa, has been a haven for piracy, though legal uses are proliferating as well.
By interfering with traffic, the groups said, Comcast is determining what will and won't work, violating the Internet's unwritten tradition of "net neutrality" -- the principle that traffic be treated equally.
The FCC has adopted a broad policy that Internet service providers can't block specific applications. But its interpretation of that statement is not clear, because it hasn't had to rule on a similar case. Crucially, the...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Nikon's Coolpix S51c: Not Cool Enough
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58311
Over the past couple of years, Nikon has been amping up the style of its Coolpix point-and-shoot cameras to compete with the likes of Canon and Sony for consumers who buy just as much for looks as for performance. The 5-ounce Nikon Coolpix S51c fits squarely in that category, with a sleek silver-and-chrome faceplate that immediately catches the eye.
The front of this $280 camera is slightly thicker on the right side, where a built-in Wi-Fi radio is housed. The back is devoted almost entirely to the 3-inch, antireflective, liquid-crystal display screen, which makes quite a statement, though it might not be one many will like. Despite a relatively bright luminance, there's no painless way to quickly adjust the display in sun and other glaring light. Instead, you have to dig through a cumbersome menu on the screen, fighting the glare as you do. And while navigating the controls on many cameras is relatively simple, this Nikon gives you only a cramped, half-inch area to the right of the screen to work the buttons.
On the upper right, a tiny zoom control rocks left and right. Below that are two small buttons to adjust picture mode and playback. A thumb dial lets you adjust flash, exposure compensation, and the self-timer. Finally, there are minuscule menu and delete buttons.
The knock on this design is no petty gripe. With the S51c, you'll need to use assorted combinations of these buttons and the setup menu if you're doing anything beyond simple point-and-shoot photography, whether it's adjusting scenes or turning on the red-eye fix. This is one case where a touch-sensitive screen that removes the buttons altogether might serve Nikon well.
The tiny-button phenomenon continues on top of the camera. On the left are two, one for detecting up to five faces in a frame and...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Economic Fears Curb Tech Spending
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58308
The technology industry's outlook for 2008 looks worse than it did just two months ago, when fears of a U.S. recession already were leading analysts to predict a slowdown in purchases of computers, software and tech services.
A report released Monday by Forrester Research says U.S. companies and government agencies are expected to increase their spending on information technology by just 2.8 percent this year. That is a substantial downward revision from the 4.6 percent growth that Forrester was predicting in December.
Typically, the analyst firm leaves its tech-spending forecasts alone for several months, because the economic trends that support such predictions tend not to change very quickly. However, Andrew Bartels, a Forrester vice president, said that in the past two months "there is a clearer sense that we're in or headed toward a recession."
Even if a recession does not materialize, fears that it will happen can be enough to make technology buyers more conservative.
Evidence from technology companies bears that out. In the past week, network equipment providers Cisco Systems Inc. and Alcatel-Lucent said they would be hurt by economic uncertainty this year. Last month the leading microprocessor maker, Intel Corp., spooked investors with a cautious forecast.
Forrester expects the worldwide tech market to grow a healthier 6 percent, but the December forecast had envisioned a 9 percent gain.
Another analyst firm, IDC, said Monday that negative economic indicators were leading it to adjust its 2008 predictions as well. IDC expects the worldwide information-technology market to grow 5 percent this year, down from the 5.5 to 6 percent range it provided in a December forecast. IDC expects U.S. growth of 4 percent.
The good news for technology companies and investors is that there is growth at all. In the 2001-02 downturn, information technology expenditures actually shrank. Neither Bartels nor Gartner Inc. analyst Ken McGee, who...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
MySpace Becomes Hackers' Space
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58300
It starts off innocently enough. A probe launched from a laptop in a coffee shop or a spare bedroom. Hackers find a pretty girl or a popular guy goofing around with friends on MySpace or Facebook.
But the hackers don't just click and watch -- they invite themselves into the youths' online world and make themselves at home. And whether by sophisticated, high-tech tools or just an old-fashioned guess of a password, they seize control of the account.
In doing so, the hackers have committed a felony -- an increasingly common one.
"We're beginning to see more and more instances of people committing intrusions into social networks, PDAs, even cell phones," said Kathryn Showers, deputy in charge of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office's High Tech Crimes Division.
"The hackers are getting very sophisticated. They seem to think that the norms we expect for people's privacy don't apply to them.
"It's sort of like electronic voyeurism."
The attacks present a challenge for law-enforcement agencies normally tasked with targeting gangsters and bank robbers because the crimes cross so many jurisdictions.
The cases have elements of everything from identity theft and fraud to cybercrime and extortion. With so many elements, it's difficult to even classify the crimes, but Showers is working with local agencies to develop statistics on the frequency and range of offenses.
"It's a whole other element of crime to think about," said Sgt. Chris Colelli of the San Fernando Police Department, a former detective specializing in fraud.
"I could put pictures of you doing something compromising on the Internet, then extort money from you. And once the stuff's out there, it's almost impossible to get it back."
Later this month, Jeffrey Robert Weinberg is scheduled to face charges in San Fernando Superior Court of extortion, fraudulent and unauthorized computer access, unauthorized disruption of computer services and identity theft.
The...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Political Web Clips Click with Voters
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58296
All this fuss over a concession speech. Addressing supporters after the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary won by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama oozed the sort of charisma Mitt Romney would have killed for in his campaign. It so galvanized Will.i.am of the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas that he created the "Yes We Can" Internet video around it.
The 4-minute, 30-second clip -- released on Super Bowl weekend -- became an instant viral hit and has brought more than 10 million views to its host Web site and nearly 4 million to its various YouTube pages. Traffic to Obama's Web site increased so much last week that it was temporarily overwhelmed.
The black-and-white video collects celebrities such as John Legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Scarlett Johansson and Herbie Hancock to speak along to a video of Obama while an acoustic melody plays in the background.
Simple, but effective.
"The video recognizes one of the core attributes of a great YouTube video, which is the mashup," said Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube. "They've taken existing footage and re-edited it to have a different meaning. ... This mastered that medium."
Obama supporters may have done it best, but they are far from the first. Other candidates and their supporters have been using YouTube to raise awareness since the start of the presidential campaign. Seven of the 16 major candidates announced their bids on YouTube, and all host their videos at YouTube.com/youchoose.
"It provides candidates with a lot of opportunities, particularly with campaign-finance laws as they are," said Rob Fairbank, a former Colorado state representative working for Sen.
John McCain's campaign. "You can use the Internet for all sorts of free advertising and to communicate with your supporters."
YouTube's Grove said that when politicians make themselves accessible online, it empowers supporters to do the same.
"The 'Yes...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Starbucks Will Ditch T-Mobile for Free AT&T Wi-Fi
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58317
Starbucks announced Monday that AT&T will provide tiered Wi-Fi service in some 7,000 Starbucks stores. The move expands AT&T's Wi-Fi network to some 17,000 hot spots in the U.S. and ends Starbucks' relationship with T-Mobile, which had offered Wi-Fi in the stores for $6 an hour or $9.99 for a day pass.
The build-out begins this spring and should be complete by the end of the year, the companies said. Under the new plan, customers who use a Starbucks purchase card get two hours of free Wi-Fi per day and can buy additional two-hour blocks for $3.99. AT&T will also offer a monthly membership for $19.99, good at any of its 70,000 hot spots around the world.
The move is expected to be especially useful for Apple's iPod Touch and Nokia's 810 phone, which depend on widespread Wi-Fi service.
In addition, AT&T broadband customers and remote-access business customers will get unlimited free access at Starbucks locations. AT&T will also extend the benefits of Starbucks Wi-Fi to its wireless customers, the companies said.
"People want to stay connected to their world 24/7, and Wi-Fi hot spots, broadband and wireless make that mobility possible," said Rick Welday, AT&T's chief consumer marketing officer. "Laptops and smartphones give us the online mobility we crave, and now millions of AT&T and Starbucks customers will get Internet access free from the comfort of their neighborhood Starbucks."
"This is what our customers have been waiting for -- free Starbucks-quality Wi-Fi," said Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks' chief technology officer.
Last year, Starbucks and Apple announced the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks, which allowed free browsing of the iTunes Music Store at the coffee shops. At the time, consumers reported that the experience wasn't quite as advertised, in part because of difficulties in offering free access on T-Mobile's for-fee service.
"Our...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Knee Device Charges Portable Batteries
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58279
Researchers at Simon Frasier University in British Columbia have developed technology that generates electricity from the natural motion of walking. In an article published in the journal Science this month, Max Donelan, an assistant professor of kinesiology, and other team members say their biomechanical energy harvester promises to revolutionize the way people charge the batteries that power all sorts of mobile gear.
Their harvester, which straps across a knee joint just like an athletic knee brace, can generate up to five watts of electricity with little physical effort. And one minute of brisk walking can generate 13 watts -- enough to support 30 minutes of cell-phone use.
In much the same way that hybrid-electric cars recycle the power from braking, the wearable device harvests energy from the end of a walker's step, when the muscles are working to slow the movement of the leg, Donelan said.
"Humans are efficient converters of chemical energy," Donelan added. "There's a hundred times more energy in a granola bar than in an equivalent-sized battery."
The technology has already been spun off to a new company called Bionic Power, which intends to make the energy harvester for military, medical and consumer applications. Though the prototype device weighs about 1.6 kg (3.5 pounds), Donelan believes commercial production units will end up weighing less than 1 kg (2.2 pounds).
"I think the early adopters will be people who are away from the electric grid -- like the hikers and emergency rescue workers who don't know when they will be able to recharge their batteries," said Donelan in a telephone interview. "Right now they end up carrying around large amounts of batteries, but they won't need to if they can treat themselves as the juice."
Bionic Power is taking a double-barreled approach by initially tackling military and medical applications....
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Facebook Adds Spanish-Language Version
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58273
Facebook is going multilingual. On Thursday, the social-networking giant announced the first step toward internationalizing the site with a translation into Spanish.
Nearly 1,500 Spanish-speaking users on Facebook translated the site from English to Spanish in less than four weeks, Facebook said. German and French versions of the site are expected to launch in coming weeks.
"Over 60 percent of Facebook users are now outside of the U.S., and many live in countries where English is not the primary language," said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. "Our goal has always been to allow people to use Facebook in their native language, so we built an application to enable users to participate in translating the site into their local languages and dialects."
Facebook currently has more than 2.8 million users in Latin America and Spain. Beginning Monday, anyone who visits Facebook.com from a Spanish-speaking country will see the site in Spanish. Other users who want to view Facebook in Spanish can change their language preference in their account settings.
From a social-networking perspective, language is one of the most important aspects of the user experience, according to Lee Raine, a project director at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Socializing is much easier if the network members speak the same native tongue with all its nuances, he added.
"Adding new language capabilities is a natural way for any social-networking enterprise to get ahead," Raine said. "Social-networking sites also take off in different cultures. It's much easier now to find people in different cultures who otherwise share your interests and passions, or the things that make you you. Facilitating that in a global sense makes some sense."
Facebook relied on its community for the translation. Users who added the Facebook translation application were allowed to submit translations while browsing the...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
ARM Will Show Android Phone at Mobile Conference
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58272
ARM Ltd. designs the processor cores for virtually every cell phone on the planet, but hasn't signed on to Google's Android standard for mobile platform development. That will change next week at the mammoth Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
ARM will demonstrate Android running on an ARM-based handset at the conference, Google and ARM have confirmed.
"ARM will be demonstrating Android on an early prototype device to show how the platform works on their processor," Google spokesman Barry Schnitt told reporters. And there will also be more Android phones being demonstrated at the congress, Schnitt said.
The congress could establish Android's standing in the industry. Schnitt said Google is "very excited" by the number of companies ready to demonstrate prototypes of Android phones.
Because ARM designs the processor cores for most mobile phones, its support could make Android more than a specification and a developer's kit.
"The key for Google will be to get not only carrier support, but also application support if this platform is to succeed," said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, in an e-mail. "It is true that the ARM chip needs minimal support, but the support issues come in at the OS and apps level, and that always presents a challenge to companies that adopt it."
The Android alliance includes some 30 handset makers, carriers and chipmakers. Android is based on Linux, and ARM supports Linux as well as other operating systems. ARM is said to have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the standard, so its cooperation with Google in Barcelona is a big step forward for Android.
"Having someone like ARM on board could be a real accelerator; it could be instrumental in boosting Android's perceived credibility," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, in a telephone interview.
Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and Taiwanese...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Yahoo Caught Between Microsoft and Google Offers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58271
Yahoo's board of directors planned to meet Friday to discuss Microsoft's offer to purchase the multifaceted Web company for $44.6 billion.
CEO Jerry Yang clearly does not want to become part of Microsoft and has been scurrying to put together a deal to counter the offer. One possible white knight was the Japanese telecom company SoftBank, which owns a 41 percent share of Yahoo Japan and 3.9 percent of Yahoo. But Thursday night, SoftBank said it was not interested in making a bid.
The other offer on the table is a bit murkier. According to press reports, Google has offered to take over Yahoo's search business for a sizable chunk of change. Such an arrangement in fraught with antitrust hazards but would give Yahoo more operating revenue.
The TechCrunch blog reported that Yahoo's outside consultants are recommending it take Microsoft's offer, but "a contingent of senior executives at Yahoo, who are willing to do literally anything to thwart a Microsoft takeover, are pushing for the Google deal and will present their case at the meeting."
Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney earlier this week handicapped five possible outcomes for the situation. The most likely is that Yahoo rejects the $31-per-share offer, Microsoft increases the price, and the Yahoo board gives in. But the Google option is well within the realm of possibility.
"We believe the probability of [Google] is greater than financial markets realize," Mahaney wrote. "If Yahoo's board and management want to remain independent, shareholders will insist on a major value-creating strategy to balance the [Microsoft] bid. This may be the only viable strategy, as it could deliver 25 percent-plus accretion to [Yahoo]'s cash flow."
Under the Google offer, Yahoo would more than double its revenue from today's four cents per search to an estimated nine cents per search, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
OpenID Foundation Adds Internet Heavyweights
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58270
The possibility that Internet users may one day be able to safely use a single log-in and password for multiple web sites advanced Thursday. The OpenID Foundation, which is working to develop an identity-management system for the Web, announced that software giants Google, IBM, VeriSign and Yahoo have joined its executive board.
"With this support from the new company board members, the OpenID Foundation will be able to continue to promote and protect the technology and its community moving forward," said Bill Washburn, executive director of the OpenID Foundation. "The community has clearly expanded since the inception of the foundation and these companies will help bring OpenID into the mainstream markets."
Mitchell Savage, executive vice president of Vidoop, which provides secure log-ins on the OpenID platform, said, "The addition of these organizations to the OpenID Foundation is an immense step forward not just for OpenID, but for every Internet user who is fed up with maintaining scores of user names, passwords, cookies and credentials. A snowball just started down a very big hill called the entire Internet."
For aging baby boomers who find it hard to remember multiple log-ins and passwords for numerous sites, the OpenID concept offers relief. But acceptance of the technology has been slow.
The foundation says there are currently more than 350 million OpenIDs, and 10,000 Web sites that accept an OpenID log-in. Relatively few of those sites, however, are well known. That may change now that some of the Internet's largest players have come on board.
"The chicken/egg dilemma has now been passed," Savage said. "With hundreds of millions of OpenID users now asking 'Where can I use my new OpenID?', Web sites will begin accepting the credential to gain usership. With the addition of these players (and Yahoo as a major ID provider), accepting the...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Has Google 'Won' FCC Auction -- By Dropping Out?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58269
Has Google gotten what it wanted in the Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction without spending billions?
That question is being answered in the affirmative by a variety of auction observers. The FCC auction, now taking place, is selling licenses in the 700-MHz spectrum, which is being vacated as TV stations in the United States transition from analog to digital transmission in 2009.
Of the five blocks of spectrum, one of the most-watched is the C block. After a Google-led coalition of organizations and businesses successfully lobbied the FCC to adopt open-access rules for the C block, Google was widely expected to join the bidding -- and did. The rules require that, if the minimum price of $4.6 billion was met, the winner will allow the use of "any wireless device and download any mobile broadband application, with no restrictions," as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin noted. Currently, carriers in the United States determine what devices and software will operate on their frequencies.
Last week, a package that includes C-block licenses for the entire United States was bid at $4.71 billion. Earlier this week, bids totaling $4.74 billion were made for the eight regional C-block licenses. The FCC has said that the C-block spectrum can be sold as regional licenses if those bids exceed the national package. Some observers have said that the regional licenses make sense for Verizon Wireless or AT&T, but less sense for Google -- and Google, having triggered an open-access network that it can now leverage, may have stopped bidding.
The speculation that Verizon was either the leading bidder or one of the few remaining bidders for the C block was fueled by a report from Reuters, which noted that the carrier sold $4 billion in debt yesterday to raise cash. The debt included five-year notes, 10-year notes, and 30-year...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Investor Worries Hang Over Microsoft Bid
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58268
Microsoft views its proposed takeover of Yahoo as the missing piece in its Internet advertising puzzle, but skeptics think the deal could become a jumbled mess that will help make rival Google even stronger.
The second-guessing about Microsoft's unsolicited bid, initially valued at $44.6 billion, is typical for large acquisitions. Investors are debating whether the benefits outweigh the potential management distractions, sagging employee morale and other headaches that can arise after the deal is done.
But the dynamics of the rapidly evolving Internet and sheer size of this deal have magnified the worries about a Yahoo acquisition backfiring on Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.
The investor backlash during the past week has reduced Microsoft's market value by more than $40 billion, an amount roughly equal to the current value of its bid for Yahoo.
"Whenever you see something like that, you have to wonder if something is wrong," said Anant Sundaram, a professor of finance at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business.
If Microsoft winds up in a lengthy antitrust battle to seal the deal or runs into trouble cobbling together the disparate pieces, analysts say Google will likely be able to widen its already formidable leads in the Internet's lucrative search and advertising markets.
"There is going to be a lot of red tape, bureaucracy and (cost cutting), so one would think there could be long wait before we see any benefits to this deal," said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown. "While all that is going on, Google will be stepping on the accelerator."
Google seems intent on trying to prolong the antitrust review if Yahoo and its shareholders accept Microsoft's offer. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company already is lobbying regulators around the world to take a hard look a Microsoft-Yahoo combination.
A Congressional committee had been scheduled to discuss the proposed deal Friday, but the hearing was postponed...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Abandoned Ship's Anchor Cut Internet Cable
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58267
A ship's anchor lying at the bottom of the sea was behind one of two cuts last week in undersea Internet cables around the Middle East that caused dramatic outages across the region and in parts of Asia, the cable-owner company said Friday.
FLAG Telecom said its repair ship managed to recover one end of the cut FALCON cable in the Persian Gulf, 56 kilometers (35 miles) north of Dubai, between the Emirates and Oman.
At the site, FLAG's repair crew discovered an abandoned anchor which the company said was behind the cut last Friday. The anchor, weighing more than 5 metric tons (5.5 U.S. tons), was pulled to the surface.
It was not immediately clear whether FLAG had any indication what vessel the anchor belonged to, or how such a heavy anchor could have moved to snap the cable or whether the cable itself was drifting and why.
At the time of the cut -- the second in three days and involving three separate Internet cables -- rough weather was reported in that part of the Gulf.
The unusual cuts led to disruptions in services, slowed businesses and hampered personal Internet usage. They also caused a flurry of Internet blogger speculation, including mentions of sabotage -- allegations authorities and FLAG have refused to comment on.
"It is difficult to comment right now on this," said a FLAG spokesman reached over the telephone. "We are doing our own investigation." He spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with company policy.
Ovum analyst Matt Walker said undersea cable networks are highly vulnerable to deliberate attack and need enhanced security.
"If ports, railways, gas pipelines and other types of networks are being secured against possible sabotage, we must similarly increase the security of undersea optical highways," said Walker.
The cuts also underlined potential threats that disrupted Internet connectivity could pose to...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Are Biofuels Bad for the Environment?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58265
The biofuels production race is on, but new research might slow the alternative fuel momentum. A new study by The Nature Conservancy and the University of Minnesota finds that converting land for biofuel crops results in major carbon emissions, actually worsening the problem of global warming instead of mitigating it. The first-of-its-kind study will be published in Science later this month.
This research examines the conversion of land for biofuels and asks the question, "Is it worth it?" Does the carbon you lose by converting forests, grasslands and peatlands outweigh the carbon you save by using biofuels instead of fossil fuels?
"Surprisingly, the answer is no," said lead author Joe Fargione, a scientist for The Nature Conservancy. "These natural areas store a lot of carbon, so converting them to croplands results in tons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere."
When scientists analyzed all the benefits of using biofuels as alternatives to oil, they also found that the benefits fall far short of the carbon losses. It's what they call "the carbon debt." If you're trying to mitigate global warming, Fargione said, it simply does not make sense to convert land for biofuels production.
According to research, the conversion of peatlands for palm-oil plantations in Indonesia resulted in the greatest carbon losses, or debt, followed by the production of soy in the Amazon.
"All the biofuels we use now cause habitat destruction, either directly or indirectly," Fargione noted. "Global agriculture is already producing food for 6 billion people. Producing food-based biofuel, too, will require that still more land be converted to agriculture."
These findings coincide with observations that increased demand for ethanol corn crops in the United States is likely contributing to conversion of the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado (tropical savanna). American farmers traditionally rotated corn crops...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Modular Mobile Phone Offers Some Big Benefits
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58264
Like stereos and computers, the cell phone is moving toward components. An Israeli company, Modu, on Thursday debuted the first modular mobile phone.
The ecosystem, as the company calls its approach, is sold in parts and assembled as needed. Its heart is a tiny phone reduced to its core functions and smallest size -- smaller than a credit card. It can be housed in a variety of "Modu jackets" or phone enclosures, and snapped together with "Modu mates," or compatible consumer electronics devices.
Modu mates could include portable music players, digital photo frames, video displays or cameras. The company said this mix-and-match capability enables "best of breed functionality."
Modu sees this as the opportune time for cell-phone functions to become components. The problem with the hundreds of handsets available, said CEO and founder Dov Moran, is that "you can only have one at a time and you are usually tied to a long and expensive contract." Modu's solution, he said, allows the consumer to "change your phone without it costing a fortune."
Modu said it has lined up several mobile-network operators representing tens of millions of subscribers in several countries. These include Telecom Italia, BeeLine of Russia and Cellcom in Israel. It said it also has several consumer-electronics and media partners, including Blaupunkt, whose products include car multimedia and navigation, and Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company.
The ability for consumers to change their phone several times a year without penalties could benefit the operators as well as consumers, providing the operators with more handsets, increased usage and less subscriber churn.
The time is right for a module device "that can change its personality," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with JupiterResearch. He noted some other vendors, such as Bug Labs, are showing similar approaches. Bug's products are expected to be out...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Encrypted Laptop Poses Privacy Dilemma
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58261
When Sebastien Boucher stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border, agents who inspected his laptop said they found files containing child pornography.
But when they tried to examine the images after his arrest, authorities were stymied by a password-protected encryption program.
Now Boucher is caught in a cyber-age quandary: The government wants him to give up the password, but doing so could violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by revealing the contents of the files.
Experts say the case could have broad computer privacy implications for people who cross borders with computers, PDAs and other devices that are subject to inspection.
"It's a very, very interesting and novel question, and the courts have never really dealt with it," said Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based group focused on civil liberties in the digital world.
For now, the law's on Boucher's side: A federal magistrate here has ruled that forcing Boucher to surrender the password would be unconstitutional.
The case began Dec. 17, 2006, when Boucher and his father were stopped at a Derby Line, Vt., checkpoint as they entered the U.S.
Boucher, a 30-year-old drywall installer in Derry, N.H., waived his Miranda rights and cooperated with agents, telling them he downloads pornography from news groups and sometimes unknowingly acquires images that contain child pornography.
Boucher said he deletes those images when he realizes it, according to an affidavit filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
At the border, he helped an agent access the computer for an initial inspection, which revealed files with names such as "Two year old being raped during diaper change" and "pre teen bondage," according to the affidavit.
Boucher, a Canadian with U.S. residency, was accused of transporting child pornography in interstate or foreign commerce, which carries up to 20 years in prison. He is free on his own recognizance.
The laptop was...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Privacy on Hold with Mobile Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58258
The mobile phone industry sees location-based services on
cellphones as a certain money maker in the future. But the same
technology that can send a targeted advertisement to a cellphone in
the vicinity of a clothes store also lets the phone company know a
lot more about its clients.
Mobile operators already know who their customers call and how long they stay on the phone; location information lets the carriers know where a person has been and where they normally go.
Calls can also be tracked based on patterns and key words and the
operators can see all the text messages that are stored on a SIM
card even after they have been erased from the operator's servers.
"Make no mistake about it, a lot of information is being tracked
about you, me and everybody else," said Camille Mendler, a London-
based vice president at the telecommunications consultant Yankee
Group.
Privacy groups have long sounded a whistle of warning that mobile
phone companies store too much information about their clients.
Wang Jianzhou, the chief executive of China Mobile, the world's
largest mobile phone company by the number subscribers, stoked those
fears last month when he told a room full of politicians and
business leaders what everybody knows, but generally do not say in a
sort of code of silence by the phone companies: "We know who you
are, but also where you are," Wang was quoted as saying about
location-based advertising.
In doing so, he broke an unwritten rule of operators in Western
markets not to discuss openly how much information they collect.
Spokespeople for Vodafone in Britain and Telecom Italia Mobile in
Italy, for example, would say only that they abide by government
regulations that require data to be retained for a year in Britain
and five years in Italy.
"What worries me is how much data they are gathering and where
that ends up," said Marco Calamari, an engineer and privacy advocate
who co-founded Progetto Winston Smith, an...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
The Stress-Free Call Center?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58255
Businesses are increasingly turning to massage therapy to help combat at-work stress among employees. Call center staff are among those employees to benefit from the
traditional anxiety-relieving therapy.
It is thought that the boom in at-work massage sessions is
evidence that employers are taking a more pro-active role in their
employees' health and wellbeing.
Denise Bailey, a therapist and founder of Revive at Work, which
provides at-work massage, said, "Call centers are very keen on it
because their workers are on the telephones a lot, which can be
quite stressful, and they are unable to leave their desks and walk
around.
"The Indian head massage, the most popular treatment, can be done
over clothing, so in call centers I can give people a massage while
they are at their desks.
"They love it -- it's a way of giving workers a bit of a lift and
a bit of a treat. It's also a way of letting the workforce know that
they are valued and a way of saying thanks for all the hard work.
"In the US companies are being sued for stress-related illnesses,
so it's good for a company to have something like this. It covers
them if the question ever arises about what they are doing to
relieve stress."
Massage is one of the oldest and simplest forms of medical care
and has traditionally been used to relieve both pain and anxiety.
Gentle massage affects the nervous system through nerve endings
in the skin, stimulating the release of endorphins -- the body's so-
called "feel good" chemicals -- to help induce relaxation and a sense
of wellbeing, to relieve pain and reduce levels of stress chemicals
such as cortisol and noradrenalin.
Research by the department of management at the Bowling Green
State University in Ohio found that a 15-minute at-work massage
significantly reduced people's blood pressure, although no control
group tests were performed.
And a study published last year...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Apple Cuts iPhone, iPod Touch Production
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58250
Are Apple sales in trouble? Two research analysts have reported in recent days that Apple is aggressively cutting back production on iPods and iPhones, while increasing production on Mac computers.
Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR Research, told clients in a research note this week that Apple has reduced orders for iPhones and iPods for the second time in two months. Berger concludes that Apple is experiencing weak sell-through in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007 or in the early going this year.
"For both iPods and iPhones, we believe Apple was previously targeting a roughly 50 percent quarter-over-quarter decline for first quarter units, whereas we now think the firm is targeting a 60 percent quarter-over-quarter unit decline for first-quarter units," he wrote.
It seems that the iPod Touch may have seen the weakest sales. Berger reported production orders for the Touch have fallen the most. The device may suffer from being less than an iPhone, since it has no phone capabilities but is substantially more expensive than Apple's music-playing iPhones. The touch relies on Wi-Fi for connectivity, so users who aren't in range of a Wi-Fi connection simply can't get online.
Berger also said MacBook chip orders in the first quarter look to be down 50 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. But iMac orders are up 35 percent compared with previous checks.
Apple just announced new, higher-capacity versions of both the iPhone and iPod Touch, so the production cutbacks may have been in preparation for the new models. Another possibility, more remote, is that Apple is scaling down production of the current iPhone in preparation for a 3G version. AT&T, Apple's exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., announced it is building out its 3G network to more locations around the country.
Meanwhile, Banc of America...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Time Warner Will Split Off AOL Dial-Up Business
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58249
On Wednesday, Time Warner said it will split off AOL's remaining dial-up business.
Led by newly minted CEO Jeff Bewkes, the move comes in the face of AOL subscriber losses and reduced revenue. Bewkes shared the news during his first financial briefing with analysts since taking over at the beginning of the year. "This should significantly increase AOL's strategic options," he said.
Bewkes is also considering reducing Time Warner's 84 percent stake in Time Warner Cable, but the buzz centers on the AOL split and the company's earnings. AOL's revenues declined $2.6 billion, or 33 percent, to $5.2 billion in 2007. A decrease in subscription revenues drove those losses.
Subscription revenues were affected by the sales of AOL's Internet access businesses in the U.K., France and Germany, the company said, as well as a decrease in domestic AOL subscribers. The U.S. drop partially reflects AOL's previously announced strategy to offer its e-mail, some software and other products free.
As of December 31, the AOL service had 9.3 million U.S. access subscribers, a decline of 740,000 from the prior quarter and 3.8 million from the year-ago quarter, reflecting subscriber losses as AOL focused on advertising revenues.
Former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons made it clear last September that the company would divest itself of the AOL access business at some point. The move aims to quicken AOL's migration from a dying dial-up business to a thriving Internet advertising business. The company did not offer details on when the split will take place or what the company will look like when it does.
The news isn't all grim for AOL. The Internet portal saw an 18 percent increase, or $345 million, in advertising revenues in the fourth quarter. Advertising revenues benefited from growing sales on third-party Internet sites as well as...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Google Team Ed Could Be Both Good and Bad for IT
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58248
Google is releasing today its new Team Edition of Google Apps -- which could make life both harder and easier for IT departments.
The new release of the hosted applications suite will allow employees to set up Google Apps worksgroups if they have e-mail addresses within their company's domain. The collaborative groups can be set up without the involvement of IT personnel, although some controls are offered.
The free Team Edition includes Google Docs for documents, spreadsheets and presentations; Google Calendar for schedules and events publication; Google Talk for instant messaging; and a Start Page to preview Calendar and Docs and to add gadgets. But Team Edition does not include Gmail, which would require technical personnel for implementation.
While establishing collaborative workgroups in a third-party hosted environment might ease some of the burden faced by a company's technical staff, Yankee Group analyst Laura Didio pointed out that it also raises some red flags.
The good news, she said, "is that employees can set it up" -- which is also the bad news.
As one example, she noted that healthcare or financial companies might have compliance regulations that have to be observed, even in off-site collaborative groups. She pointed out that the information shared or generated will often be stored in a hosted environment beyond the company's firewall. Companies, she said, "will have to revise their procedures for security and for compliance."
Didio added that the Google suite "has been a real hit among SMBs," or small and midsize businesses, so the impact of a Team Edition could be substantial. Google said about half a million organizations had signed up to use the suite before today's announcement.
Organizations do need a level of security and control, said Google software engineer Justin Sadowski on The Official Google Blog. Team Edition, he wrote Thursday, allows employees...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Device-Driver Snafu Delays Vista SP1 Rollout
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58243
Microsoft is delaying the rollout of Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) for several weeks in order to address problems arising from the use of a small number of device drivers that do not conform to the software giant's installation guidelines.
"We are going to stage our rollout of SP1 for current Windows Vista users to be approximately concurrent with the availability of Windows Vista SP1 on new PCs and in stores," said Windows Product Management Group spokesperson Mike Nash in a recent blog.
Microsoft said Vista SP1 will be available for purchase by new customers on March 1. However, volume-licensing customers with active Microsoft Software Assurance coverage or an Enterprise Agreement will be able to download the operating system toward the end of February, the software giant said.
Microsoft will be taking the next month or so to continue identifying as many of the noncomplaint drivers as possible, Nash said. "This will give us time to work with some of our hardware partners to make adjustments to the installation process for the affected drivers," he added.
The performance issue reported by some beta testers had to do with the way the drivers were installed and not the drivers themselves, Nash said. "The solution was simply to reinstall the drivers," he explained.
However, the reinstall option is clearly not practical for enterprises with large bases of installed PCs with various vintages. Given that device manufacturers have had a year to bring their drivers up to snuff, it would not be fair to hold Microsoft solely responsible for the delay, industry observers say.
"Certainly device-driver vendors need to make sure they are following Microsoft's guidelines and best practices for their products," noted Gartner Client Computing Vice President Michael Silver. "But many vendors don't want to spend the time and money to...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Cable Conspiracies Spin as Repairs Proceed
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58242
It's been a busy, crazy week in the Middle East. Forget Iraq. Forget Gaza. Forget Iran. The big Middle East story was the damage to four telecommunications cables in the region. Actually, don't forget Iran -- they might be involved after all.
Last week, two of the world's fiber-optic cables -- Flag Telecom's Europe-Asia cable and the consortium-owned SEA-ME-WE 4 system -- were cut. That cut off several Middle East countries, not including Iran, and pinched access to India.
Then Flag reported that its Falcon cable -- which runs between Dubai and Oman -- was cut. And then a fourth cable -- the Qatar-UAE Submarine Cable System -- was said to be cut. That last cable suffered a power outage, not a physical cut, according to the news site ArabianBusiness.com.
The good news, Flag Telecom reports, is that it has repair ships on the job and its two cables should be fully repaired by Sunday. For the Europe-Asia cut between Alexandria, Egypt, and Palermo, Italy, "the ship loaded with spares has reached the fault location and has initiated the repair work," Flag reported on its daily bulletin. It said there had been some interruption on capacity to London, but customers had been re-routed.
On the Falcon cut, Flag said, "The ship loaded with spares, marine experts and optical engineers have reached the site yesterday. The crew has recovered the one end of the cable and cable-joining work is in progress."
Flag reported it had found the abandoned anchor that caused the two cuts last week.
But news of four cable breaks in one week had a big effect on the blogosphere. Among the conspiracies suggested were that the U.S. engineered the breaks in order to cut Iran off from the Internet while the U.S. launched an attack during the Super Bowl.
"A...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
New on Amazon's Shelves: Storage for Startups
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58241
Critics thought it was over the top when Amazon.com expanded from books into music in 1998. When the Web retailer let competitors start selling things alongside its own inventory in 2000, they said Amazon had gone nuts.
In both cases, Amazon proved them wrong. Media sales now total in the billions each quarter, and third-party merchandise, more profitable for Amazon than its own wares, makes up nearly a third of everything sold through the site.
Now, Amazon is making an even greater stretch -- selling storage, computing power and other behind-the-scenes data center services.
The venture, which Amazon expects will grow into a significant business segment, could help keep the company strong if retailers get hit by an economic downturn. More broadly, Amazon Web Services, as the business is called, could improve chances for a new generation of Web startups by slashing how much they spend up front on costly infrastructure.
MileMeter, a Dallas-based startup that plans to sell auto insurance by the mile, started out running its own server in a data center. Recently, it moved most of its applications onto virtual computers in Amazon Web Services' Elastic Compute Cloud.
EC2 lets its customers quickly start up a virtual computer in the "cloud" -- industry slang for data centers around the world -- then use it as a Web server or for crunching data and shut it down just as fast.
"I don't need to have a systems administrator or a network administrator," said Chief Executive Chris Gay. "I don't have to worry about hardware becoming irrelevant."
Gay said he also uses Amazon's online payments service and is evaluating its data storage and simple database services. During the first dot-com boom, he said, "It was a badge of strength to have as much as possible in house.
"Now, unless that is your core business...it's a liability."
Adam Selipsky,...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Cisco's Gloom Hurts Stock Despite Profit Growth
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58239
On Wednesday, Cisco Systems projected fiscal third-quarter revenues well below what analysts expected. The company said its U.S. and European customers are being increasingly cautious, and did not provide a view for fiscal 2008 due to uncertainty.
Cisco reported second-quarter net sales of $9.8 billion, a 16.5 percent boost. For the fiscal second quarter that ended Jan. 25, Cisco said it generated a $2.1 billion profit, or 33 cents per share, compared with $1.9 billion, or 31 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
"Cisco delivered another solid quarter with strong revenue and order growth driven by a broad base of geographies, products, services and customer markets," Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers said. "Cisco's ability to understand market transitions, whether technology or business model-based, continues to be a key contributing factor to our long-term success."
But Cisco's forecast of 10 percent sales growth for its third fiscal quarter affected its stock. Wall Street analysts had projected 15 percent growth and Cisco's shares dropped in early trading, but recovered.
"Cisco guided [itself] to 10 percent growth. So think about what that means," said Zeus Kerravala, a vice president at Yankee Group. "It's likely that Cisco's advanced technologies will grow more than 10 percent and the emerging markets will grow more than 10 percent -- but the core of what it does, routing and switching in the U.S. enterprise, is likely to be far below that to average only 10 percent. That's a staggering admission."
Some have speculated Cisco's gloomy report bodes poorly for the tech industry at large, but others see a different picture. As the tech market goes, so goes Cisco, Kerravala said, but the converse is not true. Reviewing the quarterly earnings reports of smaller tech companies often paints a different picture.
The Yankee Group reports that CIOs are...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
AT&T Catching Up With Expanded 3G Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58238
AT&T is expanding its 3G footprint. The telecommunications giant announced Wednesday an expansion of its third-generation wireless broadband service to more than 80 cities in the U.S. before the end of this year.
The rollout will mean AT&T's 3G service will be available in about 350 markets in the U.S., including the top 100 cities, and will add more than 1,500 cell sites.
AT&T said its 3G service will deliver downlink speeds between 600 and 1400 kbps. Previously, the announced downlink speed for its BroadbandConnect 3G network, as described on the AT&T Web site, has been 400 to 700 kbps, with bursts up to 1 megabit per second.
The company also announced that it will complete its High Speed Uplink Packet Access network by the middle of this year, and, for users with laptops that can receive HSUPA data, uplink speeds of 500 to 800 kbps will be available.
Ralph de la Vega, CEO and president of the wireless unit, emphasized the importance of speed in supporting the growing expectations of mobile users. He called it the foundation of a range of new and emerging applications, "including everything from social networking to sending live video and large business files."
He added that the expansion of 3G establishes "a clear path to a 4G network." AT&T said the addition of HSUPA will complete the transition of its 3G network to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) standards. The expansion, it said, "is the only full transition by any wireless provider in the United States to this latest generation of wireless broadband capabilities."
AT&T noted that its network supports customers in much of the world, with Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications available in nearly 200 countries, accounting for nearly 90 percent of the globe.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Tech Startup Industry Still Shaky
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58237
There are a few hurdles between Landy Ung and her dream of
growing her startup into a household name. One is the fact that her
only outside funding comes from her mom's fried chicken restaurant,
another is that her only full-time programmer is her boyfriend, who
has a day job.
She and her boyfriend, Wan Hsi Yuan, 27, run the business,
8coupons.com, from their 500-square-foot studio apartment, meaning
headquarters is, effectively, their couch. The business, which text
messages discounts to users' mobile phones, keeps Mr. Yuan and Ms.
Ung, who is 28, up until 3 a.m. most nights. Then, Ms. Ung said,
she sometimes finds herself lying awake, worrying.
"I need to watch a little National Geographic special on the rain
forest or something before I go to sleep," she said.
Welcome startup life in 2007.
Though their Internet bubble predecessors dreamed of stock
offerings, spoke blithely about burn rate and talked about selling
everything online, these startups are focusing on interactivity,
services for mobile gadgets and getting bought by a bigger company.
This time, the cost of everything from laptops to programmers is
lower and no one is splashing for fancy office space, so starting
up a company is cheaper, said Chris Shipley, the executive producer
of the DEMO Conference, a new-technology showcase.
"If your team includes some engineers, you've got a laptop,
you've got an Internet connection, you code like hell and see what
you can come up with," said Ms. Shipley.
Venture funding for all industries has fallen by more than half
since 1999, dropping from $54.1 billion then to $26.5 billion in
2006, according to the National Venture Capital Association.
Funding for Internet startups is running at roughly $1 billion a
quarter in 2007, down from a high of $14.27 billion in the first
quarter of 2000.
At an October...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Modu To Launch Tiny Phone Module
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58235
An Israeli startup has convinced wireless carriers in three countries to try a new concept: a tiny cell phone that pops into interchangeable "jackets" to become a bigger, smarter phone -- or into other gadgets to connect them to the Internet.
The company, Modu, was to announce Thursday that it will launch the phone, also called Modu, on Oct. 1 with Telecom Italia SpA in Italy, OAA Vimpel Communications in Russia and Cellcom Israel Ltd.
Telecom Italia Mobile and Cellcom are the largest carriers in their respective countries, while VimpelCom is the second-largest in Russia.
The Modu is slightly smaller than the current iPod Nano and weighs 1.5 ounces. It has a small color screen and a limited keypad, which allows it to work as a rudimentary cell phone on its own.
The jackets that will come with the Modu look like cell phones, with standard numeric keypads and other features like cameras. But they lack they lack the antenna and chips that communicate with a wireless network, and this is where the Modu comes in -- it pops into a slot, turning the jacket into a fully functional phone.
Modu founder Dov Moran said in an interview that the Italian carrier is excited about the concept because it can make cell phones more like fashion, tempting consumers to update their looks every few months.
"This allows you to make a summer collection and a winter collection," Moran said.
"The carriers really are interested in having more and more customers coming through their stores, rather than signing up and coming every two years to sign a new contract and get a new phone," said Daniel Amir, a chip analyst at Lazard Capital Markets in San Francisco. He called the Modu a potential "game changer" in the cell-phone industry.
The jacket is cheap to make, has almost no electronics,...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Japan's Softbank Talking With Yahoo on Microsoft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58230
The president of a Japanese mobile carrier that owns a stake in Yahoo said Thursday he is in talks with Yahoo chief Jerry Yang about how to respond to Microsoft's takeover bid.
"The talks have just started," said Masayoshi Son, president of Softbank Corp., at a news conference about earnings. "We need much more exchange before coming to a final decision."
Last week, Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo Inc. for about $44.6 billion. Softbank owns a 3.9 percent stake in Yahoo of the U.S. and about 40 percent of Yahoo Japan. Yahoo owns about a third of Yahoo Japan.
Son declined to elaborate on his role in the talks or a possible outcome. But, in response to a reporter's question, he denied he was thinking of making a counter offer to buy Microsoft Corp.
"Anything is possible, but I'm not thinking about that at the moment," he said.
Softbank, which has built its Internet empire through acquisitions, bought Vodafone's Japan unit for US$15 billion in 2006.
Son, who boasts friendships not only with Yang but also Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, noted Yahoo and Softbank have two important assets in common -- Yahoo Japan and Chinese search engine Alibaba Group.
Revenue related to Softbank's one-third stake in Alibaba was a major boost to its October-December profit, lifting it by more than sixfold to 46.73 billion yen (US$438.8 million; EU300.1 million) from 7.49 billion yen. Softbank booked a 57 billion yen (US$535.2 million; EU366 million) one-time gain from the listing of affiliate Alibaba.com Ltd. in Hong Kong.
Son stressed Yahoo and Alibaba are still more popular search engines in Asia than Google, underscoring a cultural difference.
If Yahoo rejects Microsoft, some analysts believe the company may have to line up another acquisition offer, or make changes to better satisfy shareholders. Google reportedly has broached a potential partnership with Yahoo, but that...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Some Banks Will Allow Check Deposits From Home
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58229
Online banking-service provider CheckFree is rolling out technology that could mean consumers will no longer have to go to a bank branch to deposit checks.
Called Remote Deposit Capture, the technology that lets people scan checks through their home computers and deposit them electronically has been around for several years, but it has been used mainly for businesses.
Customers want to be able to deposit checks without having to go to banks, said Rod Springhetti, CheckFree's vice president of global strategic marketing, and banks want to be able to offer that.
"I think the ability to remotely capture a check will become part of the standard features and functions of online banking," Springhetti said.
CheckFree said the service is available starting this week for any consumers who banks online, as long as their banks offer it.
Recently acquired by Brookfield-based Fiserv Inc. for about $4.4 billion, CheckFree has been in discussions with institutions large and small, though none have committed to using the technology, Springhetti said.
Bob Meara, a senior analyst for research firm Celent, said lots of smaller competitors may follow CheckFree's lead, but it remains unclear how many banks will adopt it and how consumers will react.
"Eventually it will be a staple element in banks online and the mobile banking platform," he said. "That doesn't mean every consumer is going to pay attention to it."
A recent Celent survey found that about 20 percent of banks had the technology for consumers or planned to get it, and another 20 percent were considering it -- while about 90 percent either use the technology with business clients or want to.
CheckFree's technology already is in the top 150 banks. Springhetti said it is fairly simple to use, and banks can tailor it for their clients.
Customers need a scanner, which is often standard on printers now, a computer and...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Will Workers Loaf Online?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58217
Sam Zell just told the 20,000 employees at his company that he trusts them on the Internet during work time. "I have instructed that all content filters be removed," he told Tribune Co. workers in a memo last week. "You are now exposed to the dangers of YouTube and Facebook. Please use your best judgment. Let's focus on what is important, and go for greatness."
Is this guy crazy -- or is he onto something?
Understand, this isn't what we usually think of as an IT decision. Sam Zell isn't a CIO. He's not in charge of cybersecurity for his company. It's not even clear whether Tribune's IT people were consulted.
Zell is the Chicago real estate billionaire who took Tribune private last year. Now he's the chairman, CEO and biggest shareholder of the company that owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, along with dozens of TV stations and the Chicago Cubs.
In other words, he's Tribune's big boss. So when he decides that Internet content filtering will go, it goes.
What's more interesting is why Zell thinks this is a good idea. Doesn't he understand that unrestricted Web access will demolish productivity, clog networks, amp up legal liability issues and blow holes in security? (It must be true -- after all, every Web-filtering product vendor says so.)
Tribune won't comment on Zell's memo except to confirm that it's authentic. But we know Zell has a law degree, so it's safe to assume that he understands liability. Bandwidth and security issues aren't his forte, but he appears to trust that his IT people are competent to manage the networks.
And productivity? Zell seems to think his employees are grown-up enough to get their work done, even with YouTube just a click away.
Or maybe he figures that in the age of the iPhone,...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
As Yahoo Mulls Options, Microsoft Demos Ad Tech
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58221
As Microsoft awaits a response from the Yahoo board on its $44.6 billion hostile takeover bid, Redmond showed that it is moving forward with new online advertising technologies it has already acquired.
At an event on Tuesday, Microsoft's adCenter Labs demonstrated seven new advertising concepts including contextual video ads, image categorization and advertising analytics. Microsoft acquired aQuantive, an online advertising and technology firm, last year for $6 billion, its largest acquisition ever -- until the Yahoo bid.
Previewing the demo, CEO Steve Ballmer told financial analysts Monday, "We're in the course of building an online business, and an online business is typically advertising funded. That's a new muscle, a new set of skills that we're building."
At Tuesday's event, Tarek Najm, a technical fellow at Microsoft, said, "Solutions to today's challenges must be capable of handling and understanding the complexity of vast amounts of data. To address that challenge, we are developing advertising algorithms that can anticipate and understand consumer behavior faster than the speed of thought."
Meanwhile, things heated up on the acquisition front. The Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and his board of directors are pinning their hopes of avoiding becoming part of the "evil empire" on negotiations with Google, which has suggested that Yahoo outsource its search advertising to Google. The Journal said such a deal could boost Yahoo's cash flow by 25 percent.
But such a move would bring plenty of antitrust scrutiny down on Google, which would then run the risk -- currently borne by Microsoft -- of being seen as a monopolist. "The idea would be that Google is bailing out Yahoo and Yahoo would owe something to Google," Barak Orbach, a law professor at the University of Arizona, told the Journal.
Regardless of the outcome in the high-finance machinations for Yahoo, Microsoft...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
Nvidia Buys Ageia to Boost Gaming Performance
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58215
Nvidia is acquiring gaming-technology developer Ageia Technologies under undisclosed terms. Ageia says its PhysX hardware and software are currently featured in more than 140 games for the Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii platforms as well as specialized computers from Dell and other PC vendors.
PhysX is all about making radical changes to the ways in which physical objects move and react to one another in the gaming environment. The technology allows game developers to abandon the use of scripted animations for dynamic interactions that more closely emulate real-world physics.
The technology enables characters with complex, jointed geometries to display more life-like motion and interaction. Even better, dense smoke and fog billow around objects in motion, and explosions generate dust and collateral debris. The goal is to create a more immersive environment for game players.
"The Ageia team is world-class, and is passionate about the same thing we are -- creating the most amazing and captivating game experiences," said Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang.
Huang said the computer industry is moving toward a model that combines a flexible central processing unit (CPU) with a massively parallel processor. The combination allows computer-intensive applications like real-time graphics to be rapidly crunched without dragging down CPU performance, he said.
To spearhead the transition, Nvidia has developed a Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), which enables software programmers to code sophisticated algorithms with the standard C language and simplified extensions.
"Nvidia's CUDA technology, which is rapidly becoming the most pervasive parallel programming environment in history, broadens the parallel-processing world to hundreds of applications desperate for a giant step in computational performance," Huang said. "Applications such as physics, computer vision, and video/image processing are enabled through CUDA and heterogeneous computing."
Ageia's PhysX currently requires the use of a separate processor, but...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
Apple's iPhone Takes Third of Global Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58214
Apple bested Motorola to grab third place in global fourth-quarter sales of smart mobile devices, according to market researcher Canalys.
With 2.3 million iPhones sold in the quarter, Apple has a 6.5 percent global market share of smart devices, still substantially behind BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, with 4 million units sold and a 11.5 percent market share, and global leader Nokia with 18.8 million unit sales and a 53 percent market share. In the U.S., the iPhone accounted for 28 percent of the market, advancing on RIM with 41 percent and blowing past Palm with only 9 percent.
"When you consider that it launched part way through the year, with limited operator and country coverage, and essentially just one product, Apple has shown very clearly that it can make a difference and has sent a wake-up call to the market leaders," said Pete Cunningham, Canalys senior analyst.
Meanwhile, Apple on Tuesday doubled the storage capacity of the iPhone to 16GB and the iPod Touch to 32GB. Apple originally offered 4GB and 8GB versions of the iPhone. The beefed-up devices come with software previewed at Macworld last month, which among other things allows them to identity the user's location.
Can Apple build on its success to seriously compete with Nokia for dominance of the smartphone space? To do so, it will have to expand its coverage and build out its product portfolio, Cunningham said. "A broad, continually refreshed portfolio is needed to retain and grow share in this dynamic market," he said.
Apple will be a strong contender for the crown over the next several years, said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, in an e-mail. "While Nokia is a key player, Apple is clearly going down a path to challenge them and all the other players in the area...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
FCC's Wireless Spectrum Auction Picks Up Steam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58213
With 36 rounds of bidding concluded Wednesday morning, the Federal Communications Commission auction of the highly coveted 700-megahertz band of the wireless spectrum has shifted to a faster-paced stage 2. Under rules designed to promote more competition, the number of new bids rose from 87 in Round 35 to 203 in Round 36.
The auction is scheduled to remain active until no more bids are made. So far, a total of $18.94 billion has been bid for slices of the spectrum, including $4.8 billion for licenses (the C Block) that cover all 50 states.
More than 200 companies were preapproved by the FCC to participate in the auction, including high-profile names Verizon Wireless, Google, AT&T, and Qualcomm. The companies are bidding on a total of 1,099 licenses for various portions of the country: A Block (176 economic areas); B Block (734 cellular-market areas); C Block (a national bundle of 12 regional economic-area groupings); and D Block (a single nationwide license for the creation of a combined commercial/emergency communications network). An additional 176 licenses are being offered in a fifth slice of spectrum (E Block) for certain types of one-way communications.
Under the rules for stage 2, companies are required to more actively participate in order to continue bidding. The FCC has made it a little easier for companies to do so by lowering the minimum raise on a previous bid from five percent to just two percent.
For some licenses, that's not much. The current bid for the cellular license of American Samoa, for instance, is just $6,400. But in more urban areas, like Chicago, even a two percent raise on the current high bid -- $892 million -- represents a serious commitment.
When the bid for the C Block exceeded $4.7 billion, it triggered an FCC-imposed requirement that the winner...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
Trust Your Eyes When Upgrading to HDTV
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58209
"Say what?" acronyms, dizzying numbers of options, resolution specifics and impenetrable jargon intimidate newbies to the high-definition TV market.
Just remember: Your eyes are the most persuasive sales force on the floor.
"You can read specifications and literature until your eyeballs fall out," says Eric Brawner, the home-theater installation supervisor for Sundown. "But it's the details and the colors you see that should make the final call."
Like eight-tracks, VHS tapes and audiocassettes, square-shaped TV sets -- or standard-definition TVs -- are going the way of the dodo bird. In fact, those receiving signals over the air on most such TVs -- i.e., not through cable or satellite -- must replace or enhance their sets by Feb. 17, 2009 -- that is, if they want to watch "House" at their own house.
The digital signal of high definition enhances picture and sound. When Jack Bauer judo-chops the throat of a terrorist on "24," the impact rumbles in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. And HD clarity of the turf and cleats in NFL replays lets you make as accurate a challenge call as the on-field official.
HDTV also opens avenues for interactivity and channel "multicasting." That's when one channel can offer several programs at the same position -- say, Channel 12.1 or 12.2.
By comparison, HDTVs are rectangular and enhanced for widescreen presentations. Those pesky black bars? No more, as the picture on all high-definition TV programming and most DVDs is stretched in proper proportions to fill the entire screen.
All this at a price that no longer has to bust a budget. Five years ago, a 42-inch plasma HDTV cost $7,000. That same TV today could cost $1,400 or, if you catch a closeout deal, even $200 less. Pacific Media Associates, a marketing and research group specializing in large-screen TVs, predicts HDTV prices will drop by another...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
The Best Tech Tools for Your Business
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58208
Technology awards tend to be real yawners because there are so
many.
But there's one annual competition I love because the winners in
over two dozen tech categories are chosen by popular vote of small
business tech buyers themselves. In other words, the folks who use
the stuff day-to-day under real business conditions are naming the
hardware, software, e-commerce services and security products that
they think have performed best.
And when it comes to recommending a product or service for your
business, there's no better source than another small business.
Voters in the 2008 Excellence in Technology Awards run by
SmallBusinessComputing.com continue to back perennial small business
winners such as Dell, Symantec, HP, Intuit and Microsoft. But Apple
has seen a surge of popularity, gaining hearts, minds and market-
share among small business and earning top honors in two categories
for the first time.
Here are some of the key results:
Desktop PC: Despite the move to more mobility, desktop computers
are still the main small business workhorse, and Dell remains the
most popular brand for the fifth straight year. This time it was
Dell's Optiplex 755 in the winner's circle. This powerful but power-
saving new line of PCs meets Energy Star standards and starts at
around $800. Runner-up was the HP Compaq dc5750.
Notebook PC: The sleek and powerful MacBook Pro surged to the top
for the first time, as business users embraced its speed and
versatility. The Apple entry grabbed 53percent of the votes to run
away with the award. In second place, with 16 percent of the votes,
is the HP Compaq 6820s.
Printers and multi-function devices: HP rules the printer and
multi-function categories with an iron fist. For color printers, HP
took top honors in a landslide with its Officejet Pro K5400dtn
model. Tied for runner-up were the Brother HL-4070CDW and Xerox
Phaser 8860. HP also earned both top places for black and white
printers, with its LaserJet P1505n (first...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
Opera Offers PC-Like Browsing on Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58207
On Tuesday, Opera Software unleashed the latest commercial version of its mobile Web browser. Opera Mobile 9.5 was developed for sophisticated mobile devices and offers users a desktop-like browsing experience, complete with zooming and panning. The Norwegian company said the browser loads pages quicker for a more PC-like experience.
"Opera Mobile is the result of Opera's unwavering commitment to a vision that puts a true Web experience in the hands of mobile users," Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner said. "The improved functionality of Opera Mobile 9.5 and easy access to information has raised the bar on a more compelling mobile Web-browsing experience and will further stimulate mobile Internet adoption."
Opera modified its Presto engine to accelerate Web-page handling. It said the engine improves responsiveness on pages that make heavy use of scripting languages like JavaScript and AJAX.
Opera Zoom lets users focus in closer on pages. The new browser also offers productivity tools, including the ability to save pages for off-line browsing, Web address auto-complete and a password manager.
The browser is Web 2.0-enabled and widget-ready with Flash support to accommodate social-networking sites. The Flash Lite 3 capability means users can get access to the full Web, including the ability to watch videos on YouTube. Opera Widgets, which are mini applications that allow content to be accessed from an idle screen with just a few clicks, offer quicker access to information.
"Clearly more and more effort is going into this space. Apple has made a big deal about the ability of Safari to bring the notion of the real Internet into your pocket," said Michael Gartenberg, a wireless analyst at JupiterResearch. "It looks like Opera wants to make sure that experience is available for other devices as well."
Opera Mobile is currently shipped on more than 100 million phones with...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
It's Time to Take Cybercrime More Seriously
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58200
After tracking hundreds of leads over several months, law-enforcement authorities finally tracked down the computer hacker they believe to be responsible for the February cyber-attacks against CNN, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon.com and other well-known Web sites.
Perhaps the most disquieting revelation in the wake of the arrest is that the culprit who inconvenienced millions of Internet users was no computer wiz -- no Bill Gates gone bad.
Rather, he was merely a mischievous 15-year-old Montreal youth operating under the computer handle "Mafiaboy" and with far too much idle time on his hands.
"It is our estimation that Mafiaboy wasn't that good," said Jean-Pierre Roy, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which arrested the teenaged hacker nine days ago. "He wasn't what we would call a genius."
So if a non-genius, if a hacker who isn't that good, could wage the largest cyber-attack on Internet sites in memory, according to the FBI, one can only imagine what mayhem a real computer genius (or a hacker who is merely "good" at what he does) could achieve.
That is why federal law-enforcement officials, from Attorney General Janet Reno on down, have elevated computer crime to the list of threats to national security not far behind terrorism and foreign espionage.
Indeed, in recent congressional testimony, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said the susceptibility of the nation's private and public computer infrastructure is "astonishingly high," adding that "online crime is rapidly increasing."
For the private sector, for companies engaged in business over the Internet, the increasing incidence of cyber-attacks poses a threat to their bottom lines.
In fact, Mafiaboy's February attack on eBay, Amazon and the other Web sites will end up costing more than $1.2 billion in losses, missed revenues and expenses for security upgrades, according to Yankee Group, a Boston market-research company. Of course, it is impossible to determine how much such...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
Teen Is World's Youngest 'Ethical Hacker'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58199
Whiz kid Shane Kelly is a world-record breaker -- at the tender age of 16.
Shane has left older rivals across the globe standing by becoming the world's youngest ethical hacker, five years ahead of schedule.
The Solihull College student is the youngest person on the planet to successfully complete a Certified Ethical Hacker course, which normally requires students to be at least 21.
The teenager, from Solihull, pulled off the remarkable achievement despite suffering from years of torment at the hands of school bullies -- and being diagnosed a diabetic.
Now the computer "ghostbuster" has his sights set on a full-time career in IT. Shane said: "I have been interested in computers since I was 10 or 11. I was bullied in my early years at school and computers became a real hobby.
"This qualification proves your knowledge of attacks and how organisations can defend themselves -- hackers can cause incredible damage to companies. I think I've put all my problems at school behind me. I'm a lot happier now."
Shane's father, Joe Kelly, who is acting managing director at Birmingham International Airport, said: "I am very proud of Shane -- he has had a few bumps and knocks in life and we are very pleased for him. Computers have been a passion of his for a long time.
As long as he stays on the right side, he will not get me into trouble!"
Shane's success has already been recognised by business experts in the IT security sector, who say the key to ethical hacking is to adopt the thinking of a hi-tech thief.
Rajive Kapoor, Head of Business Development of Security Systems Resource International, said: "Shane has great skills in the ethical hacking world and applying these skills in protecting business, demonstrating there are no minimum age limits.
"Safeguarding business assets from malicious hackers, some younger than...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
Companies Embrace Brain-Training Gurus
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58195
According to the mountaintop gurus of the business world,
boosting one's bottom line, getting ahead, selling yourself better
... it all boils down to attitude, approach and planning -- all of
which are products of those things we call thoughts.
Whether you relate more to Buddha or Bill Gates, it's hard to
argue the power of the mind. It is the creator of mighty deeds, good
and bad, author of peace and profit.
Former Black Cap cricketing all-rounder Richard Petrie, now a
business coach for small businesses, is a firm believer that our
worst enemy and our best friend is the mind. Personal experience
convinced him so.
Before Petrie made it big in cricket, he was just an average club
player who was keen to get ahead.
Schooled in a brand of sports psychology that encourages athletes
to imagine themselves on the podium in order to get there, Petrie
embarked on a self-imposed mental-conditioning program where he
meditated daily for five minutes, envisioning himself as a Black
Cap.
Eighteen months later, Petrie was part of the team. "I reckon I
knew for a long time before I played for New Zealand that I was
going to because I'd convinced myself mentally that's where I was at
and that's what I was going to do."
Petrie's career in cricket was cut short after he tore his
Achilles' heel and he ended up, as many of the sports pros often do,
in sales.
Unsatisfied with being a mid-level salesman, Petrie says he
brushed up on his sports psychology, supplemented it with business
gurus' advice, and began powering up his mind.
Again, he took five minutes out of his day to focus on his new
goal of boosting his sales from $50,000 a month to $100,000. For an
added challenge, he set a goal of $200,000, just in case he got to
$100,000 by coincidence, or luck.
Three out of four months he reached his target...
Tue, 5 Feb 08
Intel's Silverthorne Chip Could Power Apple's Future
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58194
Just because a paper is technical doesn't mean marketing wasn't involved. A good example is Intel's presentation Monday at the International Solid-State Circuit Conference in San Francisco on its upcoming Silverthorne mobile processor. The title: "A Sub-1W to 2W Low-Power IA Processor for Mobile Internet Devices in 45nm High-ÊMetal-Gate CMOS."
Sounds geeky, but consider the phrase "mobile Internet devices." That appears to align with Apple's vision of the iPhone and iPod Touch as "the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, running all kinds of mobile applications."
But while Silverthorne draws 10 to 15 times less power than Intel's Centrino laptop processor and is "easily the lowest-power laptop-style processor that Intel has produced," Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT, said in a telephone interview that the new chip is far better suited to ultra-portable laptop computers than handheld devices.
So for Apple, one of several manufacturers committed to adopting Silverthorne, think MacBook Air, not iPhone, King said.
Indeed, Intel is aiming the first version of Silverthorne at the ultra-portable market -- "potentially a very interesting market, but one that's still evolving," King said. "Hats off to Intel. It's a very interesting development, potentially very valuable" for the next generation of mobile devices.
The problem is that price and battery constraints have made ultra-portables of limited interest for most consumers. And while Silverthorne may dramatically reduce a laptop's power consumption, it's just part of the problem.
"Processor power consumption pales in comparison to display and hard-drive power consumption," King said. Silverthorne "is not a magic bullet," he added.
That's not to say that Intel won't deliver smaller and more powerful versions. "Maybe Silverthorne is a step toward a hybrid device that would blend mobile-phone capabilities with tablet or laptop capabilities," King said.
Exactly the point, Intel says. Silverthorne is not just a chip for new laptops, it's...
Tue, 5 Feb 08
Yahoo Takeover Would Be Costly for Microsoft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58193
It's a story that continues to send shock waves through the technology world. Microsoft is vying to acquire Yahoo. Google is bent on doing everything in its power to stop it. The stage is set for a long drama.
But reality is beginning to set in.
Beyond the hype, analysts are starting to look at what it would take for Microsoft to pull off the $44.6 billion Yahoo acquisition, and noting that the price could rise even higher if a bidding war breaks out with the likes of AT&T and others who might be interested in owning a major Internet brand.
The acquisition would be Microsoft's largest, would offer relief to Yahoo shareholders who have watched the search-engine giant's stock struggle, and would give Google a fierce competitor for advertising. But Microsoft may have to take on some debt, may see its profits shrink, and would certainly face investigations from antitrust regulators.
Microsoft seems more than willing to take those risks. The online advertising market is growing fast, from more than $40 billion in 2007 to nearly $80 billion projected by 2010. Today this market is increasingly dominated by one player: Google.
Microsoft could sell bonds to finance the proposed Yahoo takeover. The company's first-ever entry into the debt market would be a certainty, Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell told analysts in New York on Monday.
Microsoft is convinced the deal is good for its shareholders. "We think it's in our interest, in Yahoo's interest to resolve their future as quickly as possible," he said. "Our thinking in striking what we consider to be an attractive price was to make it as attractive as possible to move quickly."
As Microsoft sees it, the merger would create a more efficient company with synergies in four areas: scale economics driven by audience size and increased value for...
Tue, 5 Feb 08
What Would Microsoft Do with Yahoo's Zimbra?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58191
Yahoo is moving forward with its subsidiary businesses amid speculation about Microsoft's hostile bid for the Internet pioneer. But observers wonder what will become of Zimbra if Microsoft acquires Yahoo.
On Tuesday, Zimbra, an open-source e-mail provider, launched Zimbra Collaboration Suite 5.0. Yahoo Vice President Satish Dharmaraj, a Zimbra co-founder, said the release incorporates feedback from 13,500 members of the open-source communty, and he promised innovation at a more rapid pace.
The latest version aims to set a standard for Web-based business productivity with hundreds of enhancements across desktops and devices. Yahoo said Zimbra's partners include universities, Internet service providers and small businesses.
One of the key enhancements in Zimbra 5.0 is added support for Microsoft Outlook 2007. It also supports BlackBerry Enterprise Server, J2ME-enabled handsets such as the Motorola RAZR, and a new version of ZCS for mobile Web browsers.
Zimbra 5.0 also offers new features in its AJAX web client, including instant messaging, a briefcase, task applications and Zimbra Desktop, an offline-capable Web 2.0 collaboration tool.
Yahoo hopes to make Zimbra more practical with tools like Zimbra Tasks that monitor task start and due dates, priority, progress and percent complete. Web-based IM is now built into the collaboration suite to support multiple conversations and group chats.
The offline aspect is a major focus for Zimbra. The new platform lets users store any file from an e-mail in Zimbra Briefcase instead of as an e-mail attachment and work online or offline with Zimbra Desktop. The desktop is an AJAX environment for Zimbra users and users of existing POP and IMAP e-mail servers.
Yahoo is also integrating services from some of its properties, including Flickr, Yahoo Local, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Search. Later this year, Zimbra's technologies will be incorporated into properties including Yahoo Mail and Calendar.
Yahoo has been a leader in...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Intel Will Announce Server, Mobile-Device Chips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58176
It will be a busy week for leading semiconductor chip manufacturer Intel. According to Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer and head of Intel Labs, the company will present 14 papers at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.
Among Intel's leading announcements will be advances in two separate lines of chips: Tukwila, a new version of the Itanium processor aimed at high-end servers, and Silverthorne, Intel's pitch for the rapidly growing mobile-device market.
At a preconference briefing for reporters, Rattner said both chips represent significant technological advances.
The headline for the Tukwila processor, Rattner said, is that Intel believes it is the first to have two billion transistors on a single chip. Despite the increased number of transistors, the company says the new chip will only require 25 percent more power than its predecessor, Montvale, which was released late last year.
Tukwila will operate at speeds of up to 2 GHz and is designed to operate with a variety of operating systems, including Unix, Linux and Windows Server.
Relatively few consumers will stumble across the Tukwila chip. The powerful processor, built around a quad-core architecture and 30MB of cache memory, is designed specifically for enterprise-level applications, such as data warehousing. Rattner told reporters that the chips will have advanced RAS (reliability, availability and serviceability) logic to reduce processing errors.
Relatively speaking, the Tukwila will be fairly large, since those 2 billion transistors are being printed using Intel's 65-nm manufacturing process, rather than the company's latest 45-nm technology. However, company representatives say the replacement for Tukwila, code-named Poulson, will be a 32-nm chip. The Poulson, however, will not be available until 2010 or 2011.
Intel is making it clear, however, that it has no desire to lock itself into high-end servers. The Silverthorne chip, which made a preliminary splash...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Microsoft Picks Massachusetts for Sixth Lab
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58175
Microsoft plans to open a research lab in Cambridge, Mass., in July, its sixth research center and its first on the East Coast.
Microsoft Research New England will bring together computer and social scientists to study the computer and online needs of the future. The location will let Microsoft work with New England's large community of scientists, faculty members and students. Microsoft also expects new companies to be spawned.
"Every time the doors of a new basic-research facility open, new avenues for research, collaboration and innovation also open up," said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research. The lab "will create additional opportunities for researchers to pursue their passions in the Cambridge area."
The facility will focus initially on two key areas: core computer science, especially algorithmically oriented areas, and the social sciences, with a particular emphasis on building connections between the two areas. It will also include a small group focused on design.
Algorithms form the operational core of search engines, spam filters, online advertising engines, social networks and many other features of the online world. Social sciences, including economics, psychology and sociology, analyze how and why people value things and study how people interact.
Research in the New England lab will use social sciences to understand what people want in the online world, theoretical computer science to devise algorithms to make that happen, and design to add aesthetics and functionality to the process. The possibilities range from enhanced online social networks to new types of applications such as filter engines and new business models for fraud-resistant monetization of online activities.
Microsoft already has labs in Redmond, Wash.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; Cambridge, England; Beijing, China; and Bangalore, India. The newest lab continues Microsoft's long-standing commitment to investing in basic research at a time when many companies and government...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Congress, EU Will Probe Microsoft-Yahoo Bid
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58174
Congress and the European Union are preparing to take a hard look at Microsoft's $44.6 billion hostile takeover bid for Yahoo.
On Sunday, Google strongly suggested the proposal should be rejected on antitrust grounds. In a blog post, Google chief legal officer David Drummond wrote, "Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers." He added, "There is plenty of time for these questions to be thoroughly addressed."
Congress wasted no time in taking the hint. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Michigan) and ranking Republican Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced Monday that the committee will hold hearings on the proposed leveraged buyout on Friday.
"Microsoft's bid to acquire Yahoo is certainly one of the largest technology mergers we've seen and presents important issues regarding the competitive landscape of the Internet," Conyers said. The committee's Task Force on Antitrust and Competition Policy will conduct "a careful examination" of the deal, Conyers said.
"We will need to scrutinize the deal carefully to ensure that it will not cause any harm to the competitiveness of what has been a vibrant high-tech marketplace, nor negatively impact the privacy rights of Internet users," said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin), chairman of the Senate subcommittee on antitrust.
Neelie Kroes, the European Union's competition commissioner, also said she intends to investigate the merger. Dr Hans Friederiszick, a former EU competition official, told the British newspaper the Telegraph, "If Microsoft bundled search and advertisement facilities into the Windows operating system, this would certainly be a concern."
But what are the merits of antitrust complaints against the combination? Eric Goldman, director of Santa Clara University's High-Tech Law Center, said in a telephone interview that regulators will look at several areas.
"Antitrust law turns on a multifactor analysis and is a little difficult to anticipate," Goldman cautioned. "But...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
India Averts Total Internet Meltdown
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58171
When news broke Jan. 31 that an undersea fiber-optic cable owned by India's Reliance Communications had been accidentally sliced by a ship's anchor in Egypt, people feared a possible replay of 2006. That's when an earthquake in Taiwan disrupted Internet traffic in East Asia for nearly two weeks. India, where the Internet is the lifeblood of the outsourcing industry, was considered particularly vulnerable.
Happily for Reliance [which did not respond to phone calls], and for Indian outsourcing giants Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, and Satyam Computer Services, which use such undersea fiber-optic cables, no serious problems occurred. Neither, it appears, have the global operations of multinational tech players like IBM skipped a beat. True, some of India's Internet cafes saw connection speeds slow dramatically, so the time needed to connect to Google increased 60 times -- from two seconds to two minutes -- but overall the economic impact of the accident has proven minimal for India.
It could have been much, much worse. According to the Internet Service Providers Assn. of India, nearly half of the 25 gigabits of bandwidth India uses relies on cables, of which 60 percent snake under the Atlantic Ocean. The rest is routed through the Pacific.
Instead, the disruptions gave India's outsourcers the opportunity to prove to their clients how well they're prepared for such emergencies. As soon as the problem with the Reliance cable became known, traffic was rerouted through the alternative network of cables running under the Pacific Ocean. "There are redundancies built into the system. There are multiple pipes, so if one breaks, others work," says Pradipta Bagchi, a spokesman for Tata Consultancy Services.
Bagchi explains the pecking order for Internet traffic priority. Top of the heap is voice -- so that calls to Aunt Mathilda in Missouri or cousin Vijay in Bangalore...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Google Tool To Move Social Networks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58170
The balance of power in social networking is moving from the Web site to the user, and that could be accelerated with a new tool released Friday by Google -- a Social Graph API (application programming interface).
By providing an interface so applications can link a user's social connections between sites, Google boosts the potential of a user's network and of developers' applications, while possibly diminishing the value of any single Web site.
In a posting Friday on the Google Code blog, entitled "URLs are People, Too," Google software engineer Brad Fitzpatrick wrote that the new API could help address the dilemma of the lonely social app. If a developer has built a "totally sweet new social app," he said, there could be a problem if people join and "they don't have any friends on your site." It's cumbersome to ask them to search and add all their friends from other sites, and even an address-book import may not work because the user may not have entered all of his or her friends' e-mail addresses.
Enter the Social Graph API. It allows users to spend less time rebuilding their network for a new Web site or app because it "makes information about the public connections between people on the Web easily available and useful."
Fitzpatrick said the API crawls the Web to find "publicly declared relationships between people's accounts," just as the Google search engine crawls to look for links between pages. But, instead of returning links to HTML documents, it returns data structures that represent social relationships. In the new site or app, the API will ask users if they want to add as friends the people they've declared as friends on other sites.
Fitzpatrick added that the API can also do such things as ask whether you...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Yahoo Transfers Music Subscribers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58169
Yahoo is taking dramatic action to resolve problems with Yahoo Music Unlimited, its premium subscription service.
In a posting to Yahoo's music-related blog on Monday, Ian C. Rogers, general manager of Yahoo Music, said that every month about 25 million people visit Yahoo for music-related information. But few of those visitors sign up for the premium service.
"The fact of the matter is that building a great premium music service takes a huge amount of resources and effort," Rogers wrote, "and it was taking energy away from our important main offerings. Relatively speaking, a small percentage of [visitors] use Yahoo Music Unlimited, yet a large portion of our resources were being poured into this service. It was clear to us that we needed to make a major strategic shift."
As a result, Rogers wrote, Yahoo is discontinuing Music Unlimited and transferring its subscribers to Real Networks' Rhapsody music-subscription service. Subscribers will be able to transfer their music catalog and will continue paying the same price ($9 per month) that they currently pay for Music Unlimited. But once their current contract expires, Music Unlimited subscribers will be charged the same as existing Rhapsody subscribers ($12.99 per month).
The closing of Music Unlimited leaves just three music-subscription services on the Internet: Rhapsody, Napster and Microsoft's Zune Pass. There was no immediate reaction from Microsoft, which bid $31 per share, or $44.6 billion, for Yahoo on Friday.
An intriguing element to this announcement is that Real Networks and Microsoft have their own complicated history. Founded by Rob Glaser, a former Microsoft employee, Real Networks sued Microsoft a decade ago for antitrust violations. After eight years of expensive litigation, Microsoft settled by paying Real Networks $761 million.
Rogers assured Yahoo music fans that the company is not lessening its support for online music. "Au contraire," Rogers said. "It...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Industry Standard Returns, Online Only
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58168
An icon of the dot-com era is making a comeback of sorts. The Industry Standard launched Monday in a new online-only format, with news and analysis on the Internet economy and a social networking twist.
The resurrection comes 10 years after the weekly's initial print launch in 1998. The magazine folded just three years later in the wake of massive layoffs in the dot-com sector and a precipitous fall in ad revenues.
At its height in 2000, the self-proclaimed "newsmagazine of the Internet economy" garnered revenues of $140 million and boasted more advertising pages than any other consumer magazine.
A year later, as the dot-com bubble burst around it, yearly revenue had dropped to $40 million. Despite a reputation of journalistic excellence and credibility, it closed its doors in August 2001.
At the time, the magazine's payroll still included 180 employees. It goes live Monday at http://www.thestandard.com with a staff of four, along with about 50 outside contributors and bloggers, some of whom worked for the original Standard, according to general manager Derek Butcher.
Advertising sales will be handled by the Industry Standard's parent company and sole investor, Boston-based International Data Group, a publisher of more than 300 magazines covering technology, digital entertainment and video games.
Aside from tech news, the San Francisco-based site will also feature a "prediction market" where users place virtual "bets" to forecast events in the industry, such as mergers, or how many of a certain gadget might sell by year's end.
For instance, when news breaks that Microsoft wants to acquire Yahoo, betters can begin voting on whether Yahoo will accept the deal.
Users will have profiles and be able to bet against a group of friends or the whole market.
Those with the best track records will accumulate the most net worth and be able to wager more virtual cash on their next...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Microsoft Rolls Out Vista Upgrade, Server 2008
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58167
Following a flurry of Web reports, Microsoft confirmed Monday that the much-anticipated Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system will ship today to manufacturers along with Windows Server 2008.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer made the announcement this morning in a presentation to analysts, according to Reuters and other sources. For Vista, he said, "we think we are turning the corner in terms of enterprise adoption and deployment and we think Service Pack will be a big boon." Server 2008 had been scheduled to be officially launched at the end of February.
The release of SP1 was also confirmed with a posting today on the Windows Vista blog. Vice President Mike Nash wrote that he has been running Vista with SP1 for a few months and he's noticed his systems "run faster and more reliably than they did with the 'Gold' release of Windows Vista."
For instance, he said, copying or moving files on a PC, a home network or a corporate network "should now be much faster -- up to 50 percent faster in some scenarios." He also noted that resuming a task from sleep is faster with SP1. Microsoft has said that SP1 is designed to increase the performance, reliability and compatibility of Vista.
Nash also outlined the distribution "ecosystem." Within the coming months, he said, new versions of Vista with SP1 will be available and original-equipment manufacturers will start producing PCs with SP1 preinstalled. He added that the rollout to existing Vista customers will be "approximately concurrent" with the availability of SP1 on new PCs.
SP1 will be available through Windows Update and the download center at Microsoft.com by mid-March, which, Nash said, will give the company time to work with hardware manufacturers to adjust device-drive installations. He said Microsoft's analysis is that the difficulties between drivers...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Google Leads Attack on Microsoft-Yahoo Merger
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58165
Microsoft's announcement on Friday of a hostile takeover bid for Yahoo stirred up Silicon Valley over the weekend, as Google loudly voiced antitrust concerns, Yahoo's board emphasized that it will take its time evaluating the bid, and analysts questioned whether the offer price of $31 would be raised.
In a Google Blog post Sunday, David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, called on regulators to examine "thoroughly" the questions raised by Microsoft's offer, while reminding everyone that Google stands for "openness and innovation."
Drummond reminded readers about Microsoft's history of "inappropriate and illegal influence" over the development of the PC. "Could the acquisition of Yahoo allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?" he wrote. "Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' e-mail, IM and Web-based services?"
In a telephone interview, Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, said Google's "not-so-behind-the-scenes" comments highlight the "bitter contest" between the search giant and the software giant. "It's high drama," he said.
Google's antitrust argument may not win the day -- it will be hard for the Federal Trade Commission to deny Microsoft, having just approved Google's acquisition of DoubleClick -- but Google is well served by delaying the merger for as long as possible, Sterling said. "They may be able to speed ahead," he added, as the deal slowly moves through the approval process.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's top lawyer, returned fire Sunday. The "combination," he said, labeling it neither a merger nor an acquisition, would result in a "more competitive marketplace" for search and online advertising. Noting that Google controls 65 percent of searches in the U.S., while Yahoo and Microsoft combined...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Health Care Internet Sites: Surfer Beware
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58164
Mark Twain warned that the public should "Beware of health books.
A misprint could kill you." Now, the same can be said about the
Internet, which is rife with health information that is false,
misleading or biased.
Even more surprising? Many medical Web sites are run by lawyers,
not doctors, hospitals or other health care professionals.
The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest looked into the
issue of health information on the Web after receiving reports from
doctors about patients being increasingly wary about medicines that
they had read about on the Internet.
"The good news is that there's more information on the Internet
that allows people to take charge of their health care," said Peter
Pitt, president of CMPI. "But the big danger is that they feel they
don't need doctors or pharmacists anymore -- they think they can use
the Net to diagnose themselves."
So, CMPI took the Net to determine what patients were looking at
when they searched for information about their medications.
"An analysis of search engine results was not only misleading and
confusing, but dangerous for patients," said the study. "[It]
revealed that online real estate was dominated by Web sites paid for
and sponsored by either class action law firms or legal marketing
sites searching for plaintiff referrals."
The study found that patients who use Google to find information
about medications will "be overwhelmed with negative information and
will find little, if any, solid medical information to help them
weigh the risks versus the benefits of using these medications."
Google spokeswoman Katie Watson said the company uses more than
200 different signals to rank search results.
She said the company keeps paid advertisements separate from its
"organic" searches. If a company pays for an advertisement, it
appears in a different section of the Web page, and is worked on by
an entirely different department.
"Ad and search rankings are not related in any way, and in fact,
we have entirely separate teams to work on...
Mon, 4 Feb 08
Net Investors Suddenly Have a Lot To Think Over
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58162
Investors in Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, arguably three of the most important technology stocks, just got 45 billion reasons to think.
Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid Friday for Yahoo, in the biggest combination ever of two technology companies, shakes up the Internet's balance of power as the medium matures into a business with a few dominant players.
The bid, which still needs approval by Yahoo and regulators, sets up an escalated battle between Microsoft and Internet wunderkind Google, as well as a dilemma for investors.
"It's game on between Microsoft and Google," says Colin Gillis, Internet analyst at Canaccord Adams.
While the deal's approval could take months, investors are already handicapping what to do with their shares in each, including:
*Yahoo. Investors frustrated with Yahoo's sagging fortunes have the easiest decision: Cash in, says Bill McVail, portfolio manager at Turner Investment Partners. Shares of Yahoo jumped $9.20, or 48 percent, to $28.38 Friday on the news.
While the stock could still creep up to the offer price, given the risks the deal faces, "it's hard to not" just sell Yahoo and take the cash, says Rob Sanderson of American Technology Research.
*Microsoft. The software giant quickly becomes a significant challenger to Google, and existing investors should hang on, says Steve Neimeth, portfolio manager at AIG SunAmerica.
Neimeth says Microsoft's $31-a-share bid is reasonable, given Yahoo's dominance. The combined company would be visited by 86 percent of U.S. Internet users, says Nielsen Online.
Microsoft is also taking advantage of Yahoo's stock weakness. Before Friday's gain on the news, Yahoo stock was 38 percent lower than at the end of last February, following a previous failed buyout discussion between the two companies.
The initial reaction on Wall Street suggested some concern that Microsoft is overpaying. Microsoft's offer values Yahoo at 66 times Yahoo's 2007 earnings. Google's stock price values it at 39 times...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Microsoft Bid for Yahoo Raises Privacy Flags
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58150
In the wake of Microsoft's offer to purchase Yahoo for $44.6 billion, consumer advocates are renewing concerns about the potential for virtually unchecked surveillance and tracking of consumer activity online.
"Today's proposed acquisition by Microsoft of Yahoo, if consummated, will create a powerful interactive Internet duopoly in online media," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, in a statement e-mailed to reporters. "Google and Microsoft will have inordinate power to shape the online communications marketplace, including journalism, entertainment and advertising. In an era when individuals are increasingly conducting their personal, social and political lives online, the corporations that control the digital experience will have a far-reaching influence over every aspect of society."
In a live conference call this morning with reporters, a panel of Microsoft executives made it clear that the real target of their Yahoo bid is Google, which has a dominant share of both the online search and advertising market. Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division of Microsoft, put Google's global market share in online search at 75 percent; the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's share of the U.S. market is roughly 56 percent.
"Revenues in the global online advertising market are currently $40 billion," Johnson said during the conference call, "but they are forecast to reach 80 billion in the next 3 years. Online advertising is not only a growth industry, but it is key to the monetization of online services."
The Microsoft executives said the proposed merger with Yahoo would make it possible to deliver a broad range of new services that neither company could deliver alone, and predicted that four different types of synergies (scale economics; combined engineering talents; operational efficiencies; and innovation in emerging user experiences) will generate at least $1 billion in "annual synergy" for the combined companies.
"This is a...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Microsoft Bids $44.6B for Yahoo; Targets Google
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58149
The rumors are reality.
On Friday, Microsoft revealed it has made a $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo. Microsoft's offer equals $31 a share, a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing stock price on Thursday, with half cash and half Microsoft common stock.
The acquisition would be Microsoft's largest, would offer relief to Yahoo shareholders who have watched the search-engine giant's stock struggle, and would give Google a fierce competitor for advertising. Yahoo officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the offer, which came in the form of a letter to Yahoo's board of directors.
"We have great respect for Yahoo, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said. "We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners."
The online advertising market is growing fast, from more than $40 billion in 2007 to nearly $80 billion projected by 2010. Today this market is increasingly dominated by one player: Google.
"The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own," said Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft. This combination has been rumored for some time, and Microsoft talked with Yahoo last year about alliances or a merger. But Yahoo declined to be acquired. This year, the response may be different.
As Microsoft sees it, the merger would create a more efficient company with synergies in four areas: scale economics driven by audience size and increased value for advertisers; combined engineering talent to accelerate innovation; operational efficiencies by eliminating redundant costs; and innovation in...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Repair Ship Heads to Site of Damaged Net Cables
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58148
A repair ship is expected to arrive next week to the site of severed cables off the northern coast of Egypt to begin repair work on the damage that has disrupted Internet services across the Middle East and India, a leading provider of international network services said Friday.
The U.K-based FLAG Telecom said in an e-mail sent to The Associated Press that the ship was to arrive Tuesday on the location in the Mediterranean Sea. The repair work will likely be completed in a week of the ship's arrival, it said.
In a separate statement, FLAG Telecom reported that a different undersea Internet cable, FALCON, also belonging to the company, had been cut Friday at 0559 GMT at a location 56 kilometers (34.8 miles) from Dubai, on a stretch between the United Arab Emirates and Oman in the Persian Gulf.
There were no other details on this damage -- the first to be reported in the Persian Gulf.
But FLAG Telecom said that a "repair ship has been notified and expected to arrive at the site in the next few days," apparently referring to the Persian Gulf location.
Earlier, the company said its FLAG Europe-Asia cable in the Mediterranean was cut Wednesday morning, 8.3 kilometers (5 miles) from the Egyptian port of Alexandria, on a stretch linking Egypt to Italy. The company also said it was able to restore circuits to some customers and was switching to alternative routes for others.
It did not provide any details as to why it would take until Tuesday for the repair ship to arrive at a site so near the port of Alexandria. The harbor has been closed for most of this week because of bad weather.
Wednesday's damage to two undersea Internet cables off Egypt's coast disrupted Web access across a wide swath of Asia and the Middle East.
Egypt's...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Ericsson To Lay Off 1,000 Employees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58147
Wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson AB reported a sharp drop in fourth-quarter net profits and said Friday it would lay off around 1,000 employees in Sweden because of cost cuts.
At a news conference later Friday, Ericsson's CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg said job cuts would also be planned worldwide to reach its annual cost cut goal of 4 billion kronor [US$629 million].
"Totally in the world... as a rule of thumb, I'm sure that a thousand [people] per billion [kronor] is probably in the neighborhood of where it's going to end up," Svanberg said, adding that such a head count would include consultants, suppliers and temporary workers. The company later declined to clarify his comments further.
All parts of Ericsson's business would be affected by the savings, Svanberg said.
"What we're doing is to adjust to a slower market," Svanberg said. "We're taking action to safeguard our competitive position."
One-time costs are expected to reach around 4 billion kronor (US$629 million), but will be taken "as each activity is decided."
The full effect of the cost cutting is expected in 2009, the company said, and most of the layoffs in Sweden would be made through voluntary programs "as far as possible."
"Sometimes voluntary doesn't work," Svanberg said, "but that's how we want to approach it."
The company also said that although industry fundamentals and consumer behavior back a positive longer-term outlook, "we find it prudent to plan for a flattish mobile infrastructure market" in 2008 on the back of slowing market growth in the past year.
Operating margin for the quarter fell to 14 percent, from a previous 22.5 percent in the same three months in 2006.
The company blamed it mainly on tougher times in its networks business, where rapid build-outs of lower margin projects in emerging markets is pressuring profitability.
A fall in network expansions and upgrades in its mature...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Sprint Nextel May Have Big Write-Down
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58146
Sprint Nextel, the nation's third-largest wireless provider, said Thursday it will have to write off a significant chunk of the remaining value of its 2005 purchase of Nextel Communications and several affiliates, reflecting the continued struggles of its wireless operations.
In a securities filing, the company said it is taking a hard look at the $30.7 billion carried on its books for goodwill -- an accounting term for the difference between what is paid for acquistions and what the assets are actually worth -- related to wireless takeovers.
"Based on the work completed to date, Sprint Nextel will be required to record a material, non-cash impairment charge that will represent a substantial portion, and potentially all, of the goodwill recorded on its balance sheet," the company said in a securities filing.
The write-down won't affect the company's day-to-day operations, its cash balance or place the company in danger of violating its debt covenants, according to Sprint Nextel spokesman James Fisher.
"We remain sound financially and we have good cash flow from operations," Fisher said.
The company, based in Reston, Va., with operational headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., said it would announce the amount of the writedown as part of its fourth-quarter results, scheduled to be released on Feb. 28.
Investors were nonplussed by the news, with shares up 21 cents to $10.57 in afternoon trading Thursday.
Jackson Securities analyst Greg Gorbatenko said the writedowns are not on tangible assets and the markets already expected a hit after months of disappointing results.
"It verifies those assets aren't as valuable as they once were, which everyone sort of already knew," he said.
Sprint Nextel has struggled since buying Nextel in August 2005, falling far behind rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless to attract and retain customers. It also was forced to buy Nextel Partners and most of its Sprint-branded affiliates following the...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Motorola: The End of an Error
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58143
For connoisseurs of American electronics, Jan. 31 marks what may become the end of a technology icon. Motorola, the largest and most successful cell-phone manufacturer in the U.S., announced it's considering separating the cell-phone division from the rest of its businesses, possibly through a sale.
The company had to say there's no assurance a transaction will occur, but the statement from recently appointed Chief Executive Greg Brown reads like a fait accompli. "We are exploring ways in which our mobile devices business can accelerate its recovery and retain and attract talent while enabling our shareholders to realize the value of this great franchise," Brown said.
The fact is, Motorola management has been unable to speed up the recovery under its current structure. It's just not clear whether Motorola would sell the cell-phone unit or spin it off to shareholders. The company said it won't discuss the options under consideration until the board of directors picks one.
What is clear is that Motorola -- under immense pressure to fix its ailing mobile devices business, which tumbled last year from No. 2 in the world behind Nokia, to No. 3 behind Samsung Electronics -- failed to produce a best-selling phone that could match the allure of the Razr, which debuted in 2004. Revenue has dwindled and losses mounted, causing shares to lose 42 percent of their value over the past year.
Wall Street battered the shares again last week, when Brown acknowledged in an earnings conference call that a recovery in the cell-phone business isn't likely until next year at the earliest.
In a desperate attempt to cut costs and return to profitability, Motorola has axed thousands of engineers and managers. Now, "they are acknowledging this is a pickle they're in," says Mark McKechnie, an analyst with American Technology Research. "They have the core technology,...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Sony Rakes in Holiday Profits for Record Q3
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58141
When Sony released its third-quarter earnings Jan. 31, investors had plenty to be ecstatic about. Analysts had been predicting that Sony Chief Finance Officer Nobuyuki Oneda would declare the yearend holidays as the company's most profitable quarter ever, and Oneda didn't disappoint. October-to-December revenues and net profit were record highs, he told journalists in Tokyo.
The period highlighted, once again, how far Sony has come since Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer took over in mid-2005. Back then, Stringer and Co. laid out specific profit targets and promised to snip away at units that weren't vital to the company's consumer-electronics and digital entertainment businesses.
Most analysts think Sony will meet nearly every target on time. The one Sony says it may not reach: an operating profit margin of 5 percent. That's unlikely after its downward revision of its full-year operating profit forecast to $3.85 billion, 9 percent lower than its previous prediction of $4.2 billion. It blamed the yen's rise and stock market's swoon over the U.S. subprime mortgage mess.
But the revision wasn't entirely unexpected, and many analysts feel Stringer and Co. now need to consider setting the bar higher. The question is, what should Stringer's new goals be? BusinessWeek asked financial and tech-sector analysts to jot down a few things they want Stringer's management team to accomplish over the next three years. Some common themes: innovate like Apple, manage the financial books like Matsushita Electric Industrial [soon to be renamed Panasonic], and make the gaming business profitable as fast as possible. Here's a more detailed look at what analysts want to see from Sony.
Boost return on equity. Sony should aim for a return on equity of between 10 percent and 15 percent, says Kota Ezawa, of NikkoCitigroup. ROE gauges how much profit a company is making with the money...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Intel and Micron Offer High-Speed NAND
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=58151
A new, high-speed NAND flash-memory technology, released today by Intel and Micron Technology, could propel the use of solid-state storage in video cameras, PCs and other devices.
The technology enables data transfer as much as five times faster than conventional NAND. It was developed jointly by the companies, and is being manufactured by their joint venture, IM Flash Technologies. The announced speeds are up to 200 megabytes per second for reading data, and 100 megabytes per second for writing.
Regular NAND offers speeds of up to 40 megabytes per second for reading and up to 20 megabytes for writing. Micron said the new speeds are "the fastest read and write throughputs ever for a NAND flash device."
According to the companies, the technology accomplishes these speeds through a four-plane architecture with higher clock speeds. It is designed for use with the new Open NAND Flash Interface Working Group (ONFI) 2.0 specification, as well as the previous 1.0 spec. Intel and Micron said this allows both backward compatibility and forward-looking designs. The recently released 2.0 spec provides for a high-speed, standard NAND flash-memory interface with higher performance and shorter development cycles.
"Think of a NAND chip as a football field," advised Gartner analyst Martin Reynolds. The companies are now cutting the field into four sections, he said, which reduces travel distance and increases speed. The speed improvement, he added, will help NAND memory be competitive with hard drives if the user only needs relatively small capacities.
Pete Hazen, marketing director of the Intel NAND Product Group, said the technology "will enable new embedded solutions and removable solutions that take advantage of high-performance system interfaces," such as USB 3.0. The USB 3.0 specification provides for as much as 10 times the bandwidth of current USB 2.0, at about 4.8 gigabits per second.