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Hackers Hijack, Redirect IANA and ICANN Web Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60525
Hackers calling themselves NetDevilz temporarily hijacked the sites of key organizations that control routing of Internet traffic and redirected them to a taunting page.
Visitors to the sites for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) were temporarily redirected Thursday morning. The sites affected were iana.com, iana-servers.com, icann.com and icann.net, according to researchers at Zone-h.org, which monitors attacks.
A message at the bogus site said, "You think that you control the domains but you don't! Everybody knows wrong. We control the domains including ICANN! Don't you believe us?"
IANA is responsible for managing the domain-name root system that translates domain names like newsfactor.com into IP addresses. ICANN oversees IANA.
The sites were redirected to the same IP address used last week in an attack on Photobucket.
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Bill Gates Retires Amid a Legacy of Growth, Controversy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60524
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates "retired" at 52 Friday from the company he cofounded to spend more time with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has given more than $16.5 billion in grants worldwide.
He is known as the person who pushed the computer industry to unprecedented success with his goal of a PC in every home. But in 33 years of building Microsoft, Gates has also been characterized by some as a merciless competitor and a monopolist, and even accused of appropriating other people's ideas.
Starting in 1980, Gates turned an obscure operating system called QDOS into MS-DOS, which some techies have derided as the "retarded little brother" of open-source UNIX, since it basically consisted of flopped slash marks and similar commands with slightly different names.
IBM paid for the development but didn't retain the rights to MS-DOS because it was certain its bread-and-butter big mainframe computers would always be dominant and PCs were just a passing fad. Big mistake. Gates supplied MS-DOS and later Windows to thousands of entrepreneurs who assembled PCs with off-the-shelf parts and sold them for much less than IBM.
Along the way, Gates added other software, sometimes buying out competitors or adding their features as Microsoft Office and other software programs grew to dominate the industry. Some claimed the Windows code was manipulated to cripple competitors, and that became an issue in the company's antitrust battles along with Microsoft taking over the Internet browser market by making Internet Explorer free.
The European Union has also objected to Microsoft's tactics, leading to some changes in the company's behavior toward competitors.
Add that behavior to Microsoft products that often didn't work well on the first release, notably Windows Vista, and the critics have been hard on Gates and Microsoft. Some in the industry...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Virgin Mobile USA Buys Helio for $39 Million in Equity
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60523
Virgin Mobile USA on Friday said it has agreed to acquire Helio, a joint venture between SK Telecom and EarthLink, for $39 million in equity.
Strategically, the Helio acquisition allows Virgin to add a set of data applications to its suite of products and services. Entering into the postpaid market will also give Virgin access to about 140 million prospective new customers.
Dan Schulman, CEO of Virgin Mobile USA, characterized Helio as an asset that adds to the company's scale and allows it to reduce network costs.
"This strategic acquisition integrates Virgin Mobile USA's brand recognition, scale and extensive distribution with Helio's accomplishments in advanced handset and content offerings," Schulman said. "It provides us with a firm foundation to create a truly holistic, leading-edge product suite to service all of our existing and prospective customers."
With the acquisition, Virgin will gain an established postpaid billing and customer care platform. Virgin expects acquiring Helio's 170,000 customers and expanding its portfolio will increase the company's volume. That, the firm said, will drive down the company's cost per minute under an amendment to its Personal Communications Service agreement with Sprint Nextel.
On the consumer side, Helio has made headway on social networking. The company has developed data services in partnership with YouTube, Google and MySpace. Virgin said it will use this to strengthen its competitive position in the prepaid, hybrid and postpaid markets while moving its handsets upmarket.
"With about 20 percent of our disconnects currently going to postpaid products, we believe this new platform will be a powerful retention tool as we offer a unique and desirable postpaid alternative to our customers," Schulman said.
JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg is somewhat surprised Virgin is buying Helio. The Helio concept was struggling as a high-end Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) targeting...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Sony Will Offer News, Weather, Video Through PlayStation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60522
In addition to keeping up with battles on alien planets, PlayStation 3 will soon be able to help you stay current with planet Earth. On Thursday, Sony Computer Entertainment President Kazuo Hirai announced both Life with PlayStation, a service that allows users to see current news and weather around the world through a spinning-globe menu, and a PS3 download service for movies, music and TV shows.
Life with PlayStation will "bring unique content centering on two axes, place and time," Hirai said.
The interface includes a globe that the user can spin, showing different parts of the planet. News headlines and weather conditions related to indicated cities can be accessed via the globe, and Sony reportedly has said the globe will also feature weather-satellite images of cloud patterns. No release date for Life with PlayStation was set.
Hirai also said Sony intends to add the capability for users to store their own photos and movies according to where and when they were recorded, and then also use the globe -- plus some sort of selector for time -- to find them.
But personal movies are not the only movies PS3 intends to offer. Hirai also confirmed that the long-expected movie-download service for PS3 will be launched this summer in the U.S., with later dates in Japan and Europe.
An official announcement is expected at the big E3 trade show in July. The service would compete with Video Marketplace on Microsoft's Xbox 360, Apple's iTunes Store movie service, and others. At the moment, no agreements have been announced with any major studios -- other than an expected deal with the company's own Sony Pictures.
The download service is also expected to roll out to other consumer-electronics devices, including computers, Bravia LCD TVs, mobile phones, and portable video players. There are some reports indicating...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Ballmer May Buy PowerSet Search, Tighten Microsoft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60521
As Bill Gates enjoyed his last day as a Microsoft employee Friday, rumors swirled that CEO Steve Ballmer was ready to make a powerful move to improve search capability. An unconfirmed report in VentureBeat said Microsoft will acquire semantic-search start-up PowerSet for $100 million.
At the same time, Gates told NBC's Tom Brokaw that it's unlikely Microsoft would cut a deal with Yahoo. Microsoft sought to acquire Yahoo, the No. 2 search and advertising company behind Google, for $47.5 billion. Ballmer walked away from the deal after Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang refused a sweetened offer and cut a deal with Google to share search revenues.
Powerset, founded in 2005 by artificial-intelligence technologist Barney Pell, focuses on natural-language searches. On its Web site, the company says its strategy is to "improve the way we find information by unlocking the meaning encoded in ordinary human language."
The first implementation of Powerset's technology is a Wikipedia search engine, which it says "gives more accurate results, often answering questions directly, and aggregates information from across multiple articles."
The approach is fundamentally different than Google's, which delivers what most users consider excellent results by analyzing the frequency of words typed into the query box and ranks results in part on the number of inbound links to a given page. Microsoft's rumored acquisition of Powerset is intriguing, then, because it would not only raise in-house search technology but do so in a fundamentally different way than Google.
If Powerset's technology can be made to work across the Web, as opposed to the rather limited and well-structured Wikipedia, it has the potential to make a Microsoft search more useful than a Google search.
But the technology has risks, Venture Beat's Matt Marshall noted. Getting computers to understand language in any meaningful way has long been an elusive goal of...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Yahoo Shakes Up Its Management Team
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60520
Yahoo Inc. is setting up a new chain of command amid the turmoil triggered by the embattled Internet icon's snub of Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid.
Under the new pecking order announced Thursday, Yahoo executive vice presidents Hilary Schneider and Ash Patel are being given expanded responsibilities over the Sunnyvale-based company's products and sales teams.
Schneider, a former newspaper executive, has been moving up the ranks since she joined Yahoo in September 2006. Patel has played a key role in developing many of Yahoo's most popular products, including its finance section and instant messaging service, since joining the company 12 years ago.
Yahoo also is reorganizing its technology division in an effort to use its computing power more effectively and improve the coordination between its product developers and engineers.
This is the third time in 19 months that Yahoo has redrawn its management chart as it tries to snap out of a financial malaise that has ravaged its stock price, jeopardized its independence and demoralized employees.
In the other two shake-ups since November 2006, chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig and Chief Executive Terry Semel resigned.
This time, both of Yahoo's top executives -- co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang and President Susan Decker -- are staying put despite shareholder unrest about the company's recent decisions.
Decker said in an interview with The Associated Press that she and Yang had been working on the latest changes for several months as part of the company's efforts to become a one-stop destination for online advertisers and build an even more appealing Web site for consumers.
The overhaul comes as the company tries to fend off a shareholder mutiny led by activist investor Carl Icahn and to fill a leadership vacuum created as dozens of senior managers and top engineers have headed for the exits during the past year.
The exodus has accelerated...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
RIM Shares Hammered, Despite Healthy Profits
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60509
Fighting Apple comes with a heavy cost. Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of the popular BlackBerry devices, continues to sign up new subscribers at an impressive clip, even in the face of growing competition from Apple's snazzy iPhone and other devices. But in a first-quarter earnings report on June 25, the company disappointed investors by saying it would sacrifice profits in the short term to improve its competitive position in the future. Its stock plummeted 12 percent on June 26, as the overall stock market slid.
On the surface, RIM's earnings appeared plenty impressive. The company reported revenues of $2.24 billion, up 107 percent from the year-earlier period. And it generated $483 million in net income, or 84 percent a share, compared with net income of $223 million in the same quarter last year, or 39 percent a share. It also said that wireless operators added 2.3 million new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter, bringing its industry-leading total in the smartphone market to more than 16 million subscribers.
But RIM fell short of the financial community's high expectations. Analysts were expecting the company to report $2.27 billion in revenue, and 85 percent a share in net income, according to a poll by Thomson Financial. Profits were light because operating expenses came in higher than expected. RIM is ramping up its investments to capture more market share, with operating costs rising 22 percent, instead of the expected 17 percent.
"The quarter was good but it wasn't better than expected," says Ken Smith, senior portfolio manager of Munder Capital Management, which owned 90,000 shares of RIM as of the end of March. "There was no positive surprise."
On a conference call following the announcement, analysts expressed concern about RIM's growing expenses. The company attributed the rise to an increase in prices of components...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Customized Domains May Not Help Businesses Much
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60506
ICANN on Thursday moved closer to allowing a range of customized domains to become part of the Internet's addressing system. Web addresses like ABCCompany.dealer, though, won't happen overnight.
The Board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization responsible for coordinating domain names, still has to approve a final version of the implementation plan. ICANN expects to see the new names come online in early 2009.
The proposal paves the way to expand domain-name choice and opportunity, according to Dr. Paul Twomey, president and CEO of ICANN. But not everybody is convinced that more domain suffixes will benefit businesses.
"The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net," Twomey said. "It's a massive increase in the 'real estate' of the Internet."
Currently, users have a limited range of 21 top-level domains to choose from -- familiar names like .com, .org, .info. The proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. The present system only supports 37 Roman characters.
ICANN expects applicants will apply for targeted community strings such as .travel for the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community, as well as generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere. There are already consortiums seeking to establish city-based top-level domains, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.
"One of the most exciting prospects before us is that the expanding system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of the world," ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said. "This is going to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Russia."
If past experience is any indicator, there...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Review: Strong, Innovative Web Browsers Emerge
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60485
With all the recent attention on the new Firefox 3 Internet browser, it's easy to miss two strong, innovative rivals. Add it all up, and Microsoft Corp.'s market-leading Internet Explorer has some impressive challengers.
Opera 9.5, for instance, lets you share bookmarked Web pages and notes among several computers. And another browser, Flock 2, brings Firefox 3's improvements to an already strong system for sharing photos and blog entries and linking friends on social-networking sites like Facebook.
Developed by the Mozilla open-source community, mostly volunteers, Firefox 3 showcases the "awesome bar." Start typing anything into the address bar, and you'll find letters and words jump around as Firefox 3 attempts to suggest up to 12 sites, with priority given to those you most recently visited or manually typed in.
Some people find the choices annoying, preferring how Firefox 2 limits matches to the start of previously visited Web addresses.
But I like that the new browser also looks at the entire address, the Web page's title, bookmarks and the descriptive tags added to them. The way recommendations instantly change with each keystroke reminds me of the powerful desktop search feature built into Apple's Mac computers.
I wouldn't call it "awesome," but it's quite impressive and useful.
Firefox 3 also brings speed and security improvements. Sites known to engage in "phishing" scams or the distribution of malicious software are now automatically blocked. The address bar turns partially green for sites that have passed vigorous background checks by outside parties.
The new browser also lets you launch Web-based e-mail rather than a standalone desktop program when clicking on basic "contact us" links within Web pages, though only Yahoo Inc.'s service is supported for now.
Firefox 2 users will do well to upgrade, and others should consider a switch.
Those drawn to Firefox 3's "awesome bar" may also want to consider Opera...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Hey, Is This Site Down? The Toll of the Shaky Web
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60480
Alex Payne, a 24-year-old Internet engineer, has devised a way to answer a commonly asked question of the digital age: Is my favorite Web site working today?
In March, on a whim, Payne created downforeveryoneorjustme.com, as in "Down for everyone, or just me?" It lets visitors type in a Web address and see whether a site is generally inaccessible, or whether the problem is on their end.
"I had seen that question posed so often," said Payne, who perhaps not coincidentally works at Twitter, a Web messaging service that is itself known for frequent downtime. "Technology companies have branded the Internet as a place that is always on and where information is always available. People are disappointed and looking for answers when it turns out not to be true."
There is plenty of disappointment to go around these days. Such technology stalwarts as Yahoo, Skype and Research In Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry, have all suffered embarrassing technical snafus in the past few months.
Three weeks ago, a surge of visitors to Payne's site began asking about the normally impervious Amazon.com. That site was ultimately down for several hours over two business days, and Amazon, by some estimates, lost more than $1 million an hour in sales.
The Web, like any technology or communications medium, has always been susceptible to unforeseen hiccups. Particularly in the early days of the Web, sites like eBay and Schwab.com regularly went dark. But since fewer people used the Internet back then, the stakes were much lower. But the Web is now an irreplaceable part of daily life, and Internet companies have plans to make us even more dependent on it.
The companies are promoting the idea of conducting their business and relationships in the "cloud" -- a set of interlinked, geographically dispersed and theoretically disaster-proof servers housed in...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
ISPs Are Still Considering Tracking Web Use
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60478
Although a large Internet service provider has backed away from technology that tracks subscribers' Web use in order to deliver personalized advertising, two other broadband companies said Wednesday they are still considering whether to deploy it.
Phone companies Embarq Corp. and CenturyTel Inc. have both completed trials of the same tracking system, from online advertising company NebuAd Inc., and are now considering whether to proceed.
The largest U.S. Internet provider that had been actively looking at Web tracking, Charter Communications Inc., announced Tuesday that it had canceled its planned test because customers had raised concerns.
The technology gathers data on the interests of Web surfers by looking at the sites they visit. It passes the information to online advertising companies, without revealing a surfer's identity, so they can display more relevant ads on Web sites. For instance, a surfer who visits sites about dogs might see more banner ads for dog food.
The system has been criticized by privacy advocates and legislators. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, wrote to Charter asking it to put the test on hold to give time for discussions. Markey chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
"We are not currently using behavioral targeting tools and have not decided whether to move forward with them, either through NebuAd or with any other vendor," said Debra Peterson, spokeswoman at Embarq.
The Overland Park, Kan., company is the country's ninth-largest ISP, with 1.34 million broadband lines at the end of March.
Tony Davis, the head of investor relations at CenturyTel, said it was his understanding that the reaction to Charter's proposed test had to do with cable-industry regulations that don't apply to a phone company.
"So at this point it's not affecting our thinking," Davis said.
Monroe, La.-based CenturyTel had 586,000 broadband customers at the end of the first quarter.
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Twitter Gets Investment Help from Amazon's Bezos
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60473
When the news broke on June 24 that microblogging sensation Twitter picked up new venture investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the company -- as luck would have it -- was suffering a service outage. "Twitter is stressing out a bit right now, so this feature is temporarily disabled," read the message.
Trouble is, that message and others like it have become all too common on Twitter. The site, a tool that lets some one million people exchange brief 140-character messages, seems to be as unreliable as it is popular. In fact, it's the surging traffic, in part, that leads to failures.
The new investments, from Bezos and Boston's Spark Capital, will give the company "some runway and breathing room" as it invests in a big technology upgrade, says Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder. He would not disclose the dollar or equity amounts of the investments. The goal, he says, is to rebuild the architecture "piece by piece." The process is already underway and "will take months," Stone adds. Existing Twitter backers Union Square Ventures in New York and Tokyo-based Digital Garage also participated in the most recent round.
Bijan Sabet, a partner at Spark who landed a Twitter board seat through the investment, says the "highest priority is providing rock-solid service." He envisions Twitter becoming "a global communication utility system," though he didn't elaborate on what that will look like. Bezos didn't respond to a phone call seeking comment.
More crucial to Twitter's future than deep-pocketed investors and dependable machines are its throngs of users around the world. And it's not clear these devotees will stick around through months of hiccups. Some are tempted to bail for rivals and related offerings, such as Plurk and FriendFeed, which appear to suffer fewer outages. As blogger Rafe Needleman asked on FriendFeed on...
Sat, 28 Jun 08
Typhoon Hits Apple with Touch-Technology Lawsuit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60471
Typhoon Touch Technologies added Apple, Toshiba, Palm, and several other companies to a lawsuit on Monday that alleges the companies are infringing on touch screen technology patents it owns. The case was originally filed in December 2007 against Dell and could, according to Typhoon, extend to "millions of devices" already on the market.
"The addition of these defendants is a further step in protecting Typhoon's IP from being unfairly exploited," said Craig Weiner, Director of Legal Affairs and Licensing for Typhoon. "Hopefully, the world of potential infringers will take notice that it is the company's intent to aggressively protect its intellectual property."
Typhoon holds two patents it claims the companies are using without proper licensing. Patent 5,379,057 was issued in January 1995, and patent 5,675,362 was issued in October 1997. Both are titled "Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computer System Employing Same," and the company claims that devices like smartphones, PDAs, and tablet PCs with touchscreen interfaces fall under their scope.
Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, and soon to be released iPhone 3G all use touch-based interfaces. Palm has been using touch technology ever since the release of its first PalmPilot PDA in 1996. The other companies named in the suit, including Panasonic, Fujitsu, Samsung, Nokia and LG also sport devices with touch-based interfaces.
Typhoon has already reached out of court settlements with Motion Computing and Electovaya.
Considering the growing trend toward touch-based computing interfaces, Typhoon's patent suits could have a significant impact on the adoption of the technology. What is more likely, however, is that the cases will be settled out of court and the real impact will an increase in Typhoon's profits.
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Microsoft Releases Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60505
Microsoft on Thursday released Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, its virtualization technology for Windows servers.
Nearly 1.5 million copies of the beta version of Hyper-V have been distributed. The technology is based on hypervisor, a virtualization platform that allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on a single host computer.
By switching from a one-server-per-box model to running multiple servers on a shared hardware box, virtualization helps IT departments reduce their server footprint, conserve energy and maximize technology investments. It also makes systems more flexible and easier to change as business conditions dictate.
"Customers who buy Windows Server 2008 are not only getting the scalability benefits, the high performance and reliability," but "as of today they can benefit from integrated virtualization with Hyper-V," said Bill Hilf, general manager of Windows server marketing and platform strategy.
To illustrate the benefits, Microsoft cited Land O'Lakes, an early adopter of Hyper-V. With tremendous growth from acquisitions, the Minnesota-based company's data center was strained by aging servers and a utilization rate of just three percent. "We faced a combination of underutilized and aging hardware, applications running on outdated operating systems, and rising data-center power and cooling costs," said Jason Nord, the company's server administrator.
The Land O'Lakes solution was an initial rollout of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 with four physical servers, each hosting 10 to 13 virtual machines, and each virtual machine running one application. This year, the company will migrate to Hyper-V and move an additional 10 to 15 new applications onto virtual machines.
To manage changing data centers, Microsoft's System Center family provides tools to allocate both physical and virtual resources. "To truly see the full benefits of virtualization, it is critical to have the right processes and tools in place," Hilf said. "That's why management tools are so important -- they are the glue that...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Panasonic Releases Rugged Ultra-Mobile PC
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60489
Rugged, small and ultra-mobile. That could be the description of a unit of miniature commandos, or Panasonic's new Toughbook CF-U1.
The CF-U1 is the first ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) with the new low-power Intel Atom processor in this line of handheld computers that prides itself on being more rugged than the other guys.
Rance M. Poehler, Panasonic's president, pointed out the number of firsts that Panasonic has had in the UMPC category. He said the company was the first to deliver rugged notebooks in a standard form factor, as well as the first to create a rugged convertible tablet.
"The mobile rugged U1 is another example of how we take advances in mobile technology and make them reliable advances," he pointed out. The company says the new product -- at 2.2 inches high by 7.2 inches wide by 5.9 inches deep -- allows remote workers to connect to critical information and applications in real time, in the field.
The U1 features an LCD touch screen that allows sunlight viewability with low power, a solid-state drive, and an optional fingerprint scanner for user authentication. There is data capture using 1D and 2D barcode and RFID readers; a two-megapixel camera; a full-shift battery life; and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G mobile-broadband connectivity.
The U1 can operate either with Windows XP or Windows Vista, and it comes with a "thumb-friendly" backlit QWERTY keyboard. It also has a fanless all-weather design, and a pair of hot-swappable batteries that allow battery replacement without disruption. A magnesium-alloy chassis provides an armor that can protect the computer from drops of up to four feet.
Panasonic noted that the Atom processor has 47 million transistors on a chip smaller than a dime, and is the smallest and lowest-power consumer processor. The Atom, as befits its name, is intended by the chipmaker...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Get Ready To Surf the Net in Yo' Hot Mopar Vehicle
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60488
Mopar, Chrysler LLC's original-equipment parts manufacturer and distributor, said Thursday it will launch in-vehicle wireless Internet connectivity for Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge passengers in the U.S.
Dubbed Uconnect Web, the in-vehicle system is powered by Autonet Mobile and delivers continuous Internet connectivity to all vehicle passengers for entertainment and real-time information. The service will be available in August as a dealer-installed Mopar accessory.
"With Uconnect Web, all passengers in or near the vehicle are continuously connected to the Internet," said Rob Richard, director of Mopar Part Sales and Service Marketing. "They can make dinner reservations; check directions or weather; make online purchases; surf Facebook, MySpace, Disney or Webkinz; watch the latest YouTube videos; upload photos to a Flickr account -- all at the same time."
Uconnect Web aims to transform the vehicle into a mobile hot spot, delivering unlimited and reliable Internet connectivity, Chrysler said. The hot-spot connection radius is approximately 100 feet -- making it convenient to access the Internet at a soccer field or family picnic.
"Uconnect Web goes beyond today's DVD and GPS solutions, letting passengers extend their Internet lifestyle to the car," said Sterling Pratz, CEO of San Francisco-based Autonet Mobile. "The Internet is the future of in-car entertainment."
The industry-first technology seeks to accomplish this by combining Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Wherever cellular service is available, Uconnect Web enables vehicle passengers to connect Wi-Fi devices like a laptop, iPhone, Sony PlayStation or PDA for Internet access.
"After several years of moderate growth, consumer telematics solutions are expected to become very popular in the future as drivers start to appreciate the advantages of GPS and cellular communication technology for improved safety, comfort and entertainment," said ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte. "According to our latest forecasts, by 2013 OEM and aftermarket consumer telematics hardware...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Dell's Studio Laptops Offer Personalization and Simplicity
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60487
Dell on Thursday announced a new consumer product line of PCs. Dubbed Studio, the laptops take a personalized approach to high-definition mobile computing.
The Dell Studio 15 and Dell Studio 17 are the first two laptops in the new lineup. Dell opted for visual color elements and personalization options with features such as a built-in Webcam, media-control touch buttons, slot-load drives, optional mercury-free LED displays, and built-in mobile broadband.
The Studio 15 starts at $799 and the Studio 17 at $999. Consumers can purchase them directly from Dell beginning Thursday. They also will be available at Best Buy and Staples stores in a few days, the company said.
"These products are built for today's digital nomad based on the millions of conversations we have every year on dell.com, Ideastorm and community forums," said Michael Tatelman, vice president of Dell consumer sales and marketing worldwide. "With Dell Studio we're answering the call for personalization, connectivity and simplicity."
The Studios inherit design elements first introduced in Dell's XPSTM, M1330 and M1530 laptops, including a wedge-shaped profile and a drop-hinge design. Taking its cue from the Inspirion portfolio, Studio laptops also offer several personalization options that allow a customer to color-customize a laptop.
Customers may pick one of six optional color choices, including Plum Purple and Tangerine Orange, in addition to Flamingo Pink, Midnight Blue, Ruby Red, Spring Green, or standard Jet Black. Dell also offers an optional high-gloss Graphite Grey choice that can be customized with contrasting black, more vivid blue, pink or red edge trim around the display back.
"What's new is how Dell has divided its branding into targeted customer segments as opposed to form factors," said Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates. "Each of Dell's new lines, Studio, Inspirion and Alienware, offer both notebooks and desktops in...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Sony Pledges Return to Glamor and Profit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60477
Chief Executive Howard Stringer said Sony Corp. will win back its electronic leadership by improving its Internet-linked gadgets, wiping out losses in video games and TVs and pushing services and software, not just hardware.
"This is not your father's Sony," he said Thursday at Sony's Tokyo headquarters, outlining a strategy for growth.
Stringer vowed the company will become profitable in its TV and video game businesses during this fiscal year, which ends March 2009. He said he wants to beef up networking gadgets, making sure 90 percent of Sony Corp.'s electronics products wirelessly connect to the Net by March 2011.
Stringer said Sony has rebounded from a bottom in 2005 by exiting or downsizing 15 product categories, reducing 10,000 global workers and shutting down 11 manufacturing sites.
When Stringer, a Welsh-born American, became the first foreigner to head Sony in 2005, the manufacturer of the Walkman portable player and PlayStation 3 game console had been battered by cheaper rivals, and fallen behind in key products to innovative makers like Apple Inc.
"Our job, however, is not complete," he said Thursday. "We must complete our transformation."
Stringer said Sony must come up with better software and services that match its longtime reputation for gadgets and entertainment content.
For example, in the autumn, Sony will start a U.S. service that uses the Internet to deliver feature films and TV shows directly to Bravia TVs, without using satellite or cable distribution systems. He called it an industry first.
That service will start with "Hancock" from Sony Pictures, which is becoming available before it comes out in DVDs, Stringer said.
A movie download service also will come for the PlayStation 3 game console in the summer in the U.S., said Kazuo Hirai, who heads Sony's video game unit. The service will be offered in Japan and Europe at later dates.
Koya Tabata, analyst at...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
ICANN Paves Way for Hundreds of New Domains
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60476
The Internet's key oversight agency relaxed rules Thursday to permit the introduction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new Internet domain names to join ".com," making the first sweeping changes in the network's 25-year-old addressing system.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers unanimously approved the new guidelines on the final day of week-long meetings in Paris. ICANN also voted unanimously to open public comment on a separate proposal to permit addresses entirely in non-English languages for the first time.
New names likely won't start appearing until at least next year, and ICANN won't be deciding on specific ones quite yet. The organization still must work out many of the details, including fees for obtaining new names, expected to exceed $100,000 apiece to help ICANN cover up to $20 million in costs.
Domain names help computers find Web sites and route e-mail. Adding new suffixes can make it easier for Web sites to promote easy-to-remember names -- given that mainly of the best ones have been claimed already under ".com."
The new guidelines would make it easier for companies and groups to propose new suffixes in English. ICANN had accepted bids in 2000 and 2004, but reviews took much time, and one -- ".post" for postal services -- remains pending more than four years later.
The streamlined guidelines call for applicants to go through an initial review phase, during which anyone may raise an objection on such grounds as racism, trademark conflicts and similarity to an existing suffix. If no objection is raised, approval would come quickly.
Some ICANN board members expressed concerns that the guidelines could turn the organization into a censorship regime, deciding what could be objectionable to someone, somewhere in the world.
"If this is broadly implemented, this recommendation would allow for any government to effectively veto a string that makes it uncomfortable," said...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
As Gates Departs, Microsoft Faces Rough Waters
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60470
So this is really goodbye? Bill Gates' last day at Microsoft is Friday and tech-watchers around the globe are assessing the impact of the man responsible for the dominance of the PC, DOS, Windows and the "Evil Empire."
Such an assessment seems almost impossible. Gates and Microsoft have not only dominated the PC industry, they often dictated the computer and software choices for the home and, more importantly, defined the computing environment for businesses around the world.
Gates' claim to fame may be the storied history of DOS and how he outsmarted IBM, but "it was his creation of the first software development tools for DOS that actually gave the software industry the wings to fly," said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, in an e-mail. "That can't be underestimated, as its impact was enormous. And his decision to do Microsoft Office, Exchange and eventually include the Web browser in the operating system has become the center of most of today's digital business environments."
If Microsoft is synonymous with Windows and business computing, it is also tightly tied to another moniker: the Evil Empire. As Microsoft's dominance in the industry grew, it increasingly engaged in anticompetitive behavior, including a successful effort to stomp out once-leading browser manufacturer Netscape. Such monopolistic practices led to intense scrutiny of the company from U.S. and European regulators and Microsoft has substantially changed its practices in the light of government scrutiny.
Microsoft's dominance eventually gave rise to the ultimate unintended consequence -- open-source software. As developers rankled under Microsoft's control of the computing environment, programmers volunteered their time to develop an alternative operating system, Linux, and eventually a whole ecosystem of open-source applications and tools. The open-source challenge was a "very unusual development" virtually unprecedented in business history, said Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, in...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Coalition Seeks Federal Nudge for Broadband
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60457
One of the Internet's founding fathers and a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission joined forces Tuesday in renewing calls for the U.S. government to more actively expand broadband service.
They and other members of a new coalition promised hearings across the country and set up a Web site at InternetForEveryone.org to outline principles such as universal access and competition to ensure lower prices and faster Internet connection speeds.
But the group offered few specifics, including any proposed legislation. Josh Silver, executive director of the Free Press advocacy group, said that given the complexities of broadband policy, the new coalition was focusing instead on raising awareness and establishing ideas for the next administration to consider.
By some measures, the United States lags behind South Korea and other nations in high-speed Internet access despite being the Internet's birthplace. In many rural areas, broadband services aren't available at all or come from a single provider.
Vint Cerf, a Google Inc. executive who had co-developed the Internet's core communications protocols in the 1970s, said a nudge from the government would be crucial because the Internet's benefits are so broad.
Jonathan Adelstein, one of two Democrats on the five-member FCC, said the coalition was hoping to mobilize the public to force his fellow policy makers to act.
Otherwise, he said, many Americans would be denied opportunities to remotely attend classes at a distant universities, or access resources at larger libraries and museums. Doctors wouldn't be able to confer with specialists over the Internet, and employees wouldn't be able to save energy by telecommuting.
Other members of the coalition include leading Internet scholars Lawrence Lessig and Jonathan Zittrain; Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America-East, which recently battled Hollywood over online rights; and Robin Chase, co-founder of the Zipcar automobile-rental service.
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Tech Industry Takes Aim at 'Password Overload'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60451
Microsoft, Google and PayPal, a unit of eBay, are among the founders of an industry organization that is hoping to solve the problem of password overload among computer users.
The Information Card Foundation is an effort to create a single industrywide approach to managing personal identities online that promises to reduce drastically the use of passwords and create a system that is less vulnerable to fraud.
"There is such a market requirement to solve this problem," said Paul Trevithick, chairman of the new group and chief executive of Parity, an identity-protection technology company in Needham, Massachusetts, that is developing what it calls an i-card. The foundation, which also includes Equifax, Novell, Oracle and nine industry analysts and technology leaders, will try to set shared standards.
The idea is to bring the concept of an identity card, like a driver's license, to the online world. Rather than logging on to sites with user IDs and passwords, people would gain access to sites using a secure digital identity that was overseen by a third party.
In addition to simplifying online shopping, such information cards would reduce the number of phishing incidents -- that is, the fraudulent use of someone's identity to gain access to financial records, according to Robert Blakeley, a research director at the Burton Group, a consulting firm that is participating in the effort. "You don't have to depend on a password, so there's no phishing opportunity," he said.
One of the biggest tasks facing the group is getting the millions of Web sites to support the system, a process analysts estimate would take a few years.
"The technology is available today, but what is not available today is a lot of sites that will accept information cards," Blakeley said. "The mission of the group is to assure everybody that the industry is working...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Russian Company Has Big Plans for the iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60445
Will VimpelCom be the first wireless operator to sell the iPhone in Russia? If Chief Executive Alexander Izosimov has his way, it will. "Nobody's struck a deal with Apple yet, but we would love to," he says. Izosimov says no negotiations are taking place, and he has no idea whether his company will win the rights to sell Apple's coveted device.
But in a wide-ranging interview with BusinessWeek, the CEO makes it clear that he's looking at many avenues to maintain the rapid growth his company has seen in recent years, from adding new devices like the iPhone to expanding into the broadband business.
VimpelCom, which operates under the Beeline brand, is Russia's second-largest wireless provider, with 52 million subscribers. In early June, it reported a $601 million profit in the first quarter, up 117 percent from the year-earlier period, as revenues increased 42 percent, to $2.1 billion. This follows an 80 percent increase in net income for 2007, to $1.46 billion, as revenues rose 47 percent, to $7.17 billion.
Despite the strong performance, Izosimov has reason to be concerned about VimpelCom's growth. Virtually all of the company's revenues come from providing wireless service in Russia, and that business is showing signs of maturing. After years of rapid expansion by VimpelCom and its two major rivals, most Russians have mobile phones. One research report by UralSib Financial puts the penetration rate at more than 100%, though it cautions the figures may be skewed by unreliable data. VimpelCom's stock has slid from a high of nearly $45 last year to about $30 now.
Izosimov has a number of ideas for keeping up growth. At the top of the list is international expansion. VimpelCom now operates in six countries beyond Russia -- Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, and Armenia -- and Izosimov would...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
New-Age Data Protection: Pre-Fab Structures
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60431
Jerry Lyons says bring on hurricane-force winds, smoke and gas, explosions, high-pressure water, leaking water pipes or a disgruntled employee: His modular structures can take them.
Lyons, 49, is the idea man behind iFortress in West Paterson, designers and developers of metal-based assembled panels used to build multimillion-dollar computer data centers, the heart of a company's computing and telecommunications operations.
"We needed to create this technology that was comprehensive and [could withstand] multiple threats," said Lyons, such as fire, rain and smoke.
Since the company was formed in 2001, Lyons has been designing and testing panels that, when assembled as a room, would protect the equipment against a collapsing roof, water-pipe bursts, gas, fire and wind.
He came up with the idea while he was setting up stock-trading desks in Manhattan in 1999 when he realized everyone's job depended on computers often housed in a building's most vulnerable places: basements, closets, under bathrooms and kitchens, where plumbing and fires occur, or against exterior walls.
Lyons talked to his trading customers about their companies' data centers and discovered that events such as leaking toilets caused extensive computer damage and downtime losses. He also found other weak points in the construction of data centers: light switches that let in smoke and gas from a fire; dry wall that could be cut through.
Data centers use high-tech devices such as advanced retinal scanners, backup generators and digital firewalls to safeguard and protect the critical equipment inside. Lyons believed the center designers overlooked the outer structure.
To describe what iFortress has developed, Lyons trademarked the phrase "structural security" to market his modular panel structures and took his idea to company executives and data center designers.
"It'd be the 'Aha!' factor," said Lyons, "like we invented shoes when the whole world was barefoot."
Lyons' timing...
Fri, 27 Jun 08
Review: Apple's Time Machine Travels in Wrong Direction
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60415
Apple's Time Machine, a way-cool device designed to be a simple backup device for your gleaming new Apple computer, is appropriately named, in my experience.
That's because installing one reminded me of hours (if not days) wasted installing my first floppy disk drive to a Commodore 64. Sure, it was supposed to work. Sure, everyone said it would work. But why didn't it work? (And why were we all changing to floppy disk, when cassette-tape storage was so darned reliable?)
But I digress. The Time Machine, which comes in 1TB and 500GB flavors, is typical Apple Way Cool. It has a built-in wireless AirPort that theoretically can extend an existing wireless network (it didn't play nicely with a Netgear router on the network I was using) or create another wireless network altogether.
You are supposed to be able to plug it in, run a configuration utility, and then your Apple is miraculously backed up each day without your intervention. If you need a file that you accidentally deleted, head to the Time Machine and get it back. Need to restore your entire computer after a hard-disk crash? Put in the new hard disk and run your Time Machine to put your machine back where it was.
It's all very nice if you can get the Time Machine to work in the first place. (This is the point in the column, if not before, where the Apple faithful call up the e-mail pitchforks and simply point out that it is all user error, and Apple hardware or software can never, ever be at fault.)
However, a glance at the Time Machine forum at Apple.com points out I am not alone in my frustration. (My favorite post is one from a gentleman who suggests he is going to buy a handgun for the only purpose of putting...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Charter Stops Tracking Internet Users for Targeted Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60468
Charter Communications on Wednesday abandoned plans to deploy NebuAd's user-tracking system after objections from Congress and privacy advocates. Its stock dropped slightly after the announcement.
The NebuAd system places tracking cookies and sells users' Internet data to advertisers for targeting ads. Charter had been testing the system that privacy watchdogs Free Press and Public Knowledge called a "classic man-in-the-middle attack."
While NebuAd has worked with small Internet service providers, Charter is the country's fourth-largest ISP as well as a cable-TV and phone-services provider. That attracted the attention of Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, who sent Charter a second letter expressing concerns and asking it to wait while Congress looks at the technology. The congressmen had also asked Charter to desist when it announced plans for the testing in May.
Markey, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said he was "pleased to hear that the company has decided to delay implementation of this program, which electronically profiled individual consumer Web usage." He added, "I urge other broadband companies considering similar user-profiling programs to similarly hold off on implementation while these important privacy concerns can be addressed."
That warning could effectively hamper plans by NebuAd and United Kingdom-based Phorm to expand their tracking technologies in the U.S. So far, their attempts have not progressed beyond testing.
Charter began testing tracking this month in Ft. Worth, Texas; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Oxford, Mass.; and Newtown, Conn. Charter Senior Vice President Joe Stackhouse had assured high-speed Internet subscribers that targeted ads "will better reflect the interests you express through your Web-surfing activity. You will not see more ads -- just ads that are more relevant to you."
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Symbian Foundation Could Unleash Mobile Innovation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60464
On Tuesday, Nokia not only moved to acquire Symbian for $410 million, it also partnered with mobile-industry giants to launch a foundation to provide royalty-free software and accelerate innovation.
Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo said they intend to unite the flavors of Symbian and create a single, open mobile-software platform. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, the mobile giants are establishing the Symbian Foundation.
Nokia will make the foundation possible by acquiring the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that it doesn't already own, then contributing its Symbian and S60 software to the foundation. Sony Ericsson and Motorola will contribute technology from UIQ, and DOCOMO has indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets. This lays the groundwork for a platform with a common framework and a royalty-free license.
"Ten years ago, Symbian was established by farsighted players to offer an advanced open operating system and software skills to the whole mobile industry," said Nigel Clifford, CEO of Symbian. "Our vision is to become the most widely used software platform on the planet and, indeed, today Symbian OS leads its market by any measure."
Contributions from foundation members will be integrated to further enhance the platform. The foundation will make selected components available as open source at launch. It will then work to establish the most complete mobile software in open source. This will be made available over the next two years and is intended to be released under Eclipse Public License (EPL) 1.0.
Symbian powers more than 200 million phones across 235 models offered by multiple vendors. Tens of thousands of third-party applications are already available for Symbian-based devices.
"Establishing the foundation is one of the biggest contributions to an open community ever made," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's CEO. "Nokia is a...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
At $10, T-Mobile Turns Home VoIP Into a Loss Leader
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60463
While the big cable and telephone companies -- along with Vonage -- are charging roughly $25 a month for Voice-over-Internet Protocol phone service, T-Mobile has made VoIP a loss leader.
T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, announced T-Mobile@Home on Wednesday, a new plan for cell subscribers to get unlimited VoIP service for $10 a month using traditional wired or wireless phones. A $50 router is required, as well as home broadband service and T-Mobile cell service.
T-Mobile's offering allows subscribers to keep existing phone numbers, with home and cell service accessible on the same handset. Subscribers can also use cell features -- like personalized ringtones -- on home lines. By virtually giving away home service, T-Mobile hopes to hopes to retain and attract subscribers.
The move aligns T-Mobile's service with the lifestyles of many young, urban users, where T-Mobile's coverage is strongest. Many such customers say they have given up a home phone line, relying completely on cell service. For young people on the go, home service is of limited utility but cell coverage is flaky enough that not having a backup service can be problematic.
Joe Sims, vice president and general manager of T-Mobile USA, said the @Home service is targeted at families who aren't ready to go all-mobile. The company tested @Home in Dallas and Seattle, where 97 percent of customers with a traditional landline phone dropped the service after adopting T-Mobile@Home.
At $10 a month, the service isn't making big bucks for T-Mobile. Rather, the service is about reducing subscriber churn, Sims said.
T-Mobile USA President Robert Dotson said the new service is taking on the big telcos. "For years the traditional landline companies have been great at consistently delivering one thing to their customers -- a high monthly bill," he said. "T-Mobile is now delivering the...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Subsidy Puts Apple's iPhone Margin Above 50 Percent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60462
Two weeks ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the much-anticipated iPhone 3G. Now iSuppli is sharing how much it costs Apple to build the mobile device -- and the company's profit.
Apple's second-generation iPhone will have an initial hardware and manufacturing cost of $173, according to a preliminary "virtual teardown" by iSuppli. The new iPhone 3G goes on sale July 11.
"At a hardware bill of materials and manufacturing cost of $173, the new iPhone is significantly less expensive to produce than the first-generation product, despite major improvements in the product's functionality and unique usability due to the addition of 3G communications," said Dr. Jagdish Rebello, director and principal analyst for iSuppli.
In advance of the iPhone's release, iSuppli used insights from its analysis staff to develop estimates of iPhone content, suppliers and costs.
The original 8GB iPhone cost $226 after component price reductions, Rebello explained. That figure doesn't include other costs like software development, shipping and distribution, packaging and miscellaneous accessories included with each phone.
"The original 2G phone was sold at an unsubsidized price of $499," Rebello noted. "However, at a retail price of $199 for the low-end 8GB version of the new 3G model, wireless communications service carriers will be selling the product at a subsidized rate, using a common business model for the mobile-handset market."
The subsidy the wireless carriers pay to Apple will be about $300 per iPhone, iSuppli estimates. That means that with subsidies from carriers, Apple will be selling the 8GB version to carriers at an effective price of about $499 per unit, the same as the original product, iSuppli said.
For the first version of the iPhone, Apple received a portion of the wireless carriers' revenue from service subscriptions. With the second-generation version, Apple will not receive service revenue, making a profit...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Yahoo's Stock Revives on Reports of Revived MS Talks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60456
Yahoo Inc.'s steadily sinking stock pulled out of its descent Tuesday on reports that the Internet pioneer is reconsidering its recent decision to fall into the arms of online search leader Google Inc. instead of Microsoft Corp.
The prospect of Yahoo spurning Google in favor of an alternative deal with Microsoft cheered investors still disillusioned with Yahoo's rejection of a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft.
Yahoo shares climbed 59 cents, or 2.8 percent, to finish Tuesday at $22.04 -- the stock's largest one-day gain in two weeks. The shares have been shriveling since Yahoo announced it will use Google's superior technology to show some ads on its Web site in the United States.
When it embraced Google, Yahoo terminated talks with Microsoft about a sale of the entire company as well as a more limited deal focused on Yahoo's search engine. That led to a 16 percent drop in Yahoo's market value, making it even harder for Yahoo board's to justify its decision to turn down Microsoft's last takeover offer of $33 per share. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang had sought $37 per share.
Yang is now under intense pressure to prove Yahoo is worth as much as he thinks while also trying to fend off a shareholder revolt being led by activist investor Carl Icahn.
To make matters worse, Yahoo is facing a leadership vacuum created by the departures of several top executives and engineers. The Sunnyvale-based company is expected to address the exodus in a reorganization to be announced this week.
The backlash to the Google alliance may have prodded Yahoo to rekindle talks to sell its search operations to Microsoft as part of a $9 billion deal.
Technology news site CNet.com and the blog Silicon Alley Insider both reported Yahoo and Microsoft are once again exploring a more limited deal, perhaps at a higher...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
American Airlines To Test In-Flight Internet Access
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60455
American Airlines says customers will be able to test in-flight Internet access on two flights beginning Wednesday, with broader service expected to begin in the following couple weeks.
Facing record high fuel prices, airlines are looking at entertainment and information services as ways to make a few more bucks per passenger.
American's technology partner, Aircell LLC, will charge $9.95 to $12.95 for Internet service, depending on flight length. Aircell and American share the revenue, officials said.
The test will begin on one flight from New York's Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles and one return flight, said Doug Backelin, American's manager of in-flight technology. The test service will be free, he said.
The airline would not say on which flights it would conduct the test.
American is among several companies preparing to offer in-air Internet service.
Aircell is also working with Virgin America, and JetBlue Airways Corp. started testing free e-mail, instant-messaging and some Amazon.com services aboard one of its planes in December.
American will begin charging for Internet service soon on its Boeing 767-200 jets that fly from New York to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami.
Passengers will be able to use e-mail and instant messaging and to download video and connect to secure networks on notebook computers or other wireless devices such as smart phones through three wireless access points on the plane, said Dave Bijur, an Aircell executive.
Bijur said Aircell's networks can handle a planeload of Web surfers.
Besides the paid service, passengers will be able to connect free to American's Web site, Frommer's travel guides and limited news headlines, Backelin said.
American won't filter any Internet content. Backelin said attempts to block pornography, for instance, could disrupt legitimate Web sites.
"We already have policies and procedures to deal with inappropriate material that people bring on board, including magazines and DVDs," he said, adding it will be up...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Panasonic Adds Ultra-Mobile PC to Toughbook Series
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60450
Panasonic's latest PC offering is small enough to cradle in one hand, yet strong enough to handle the rough and tumble of extreme environments.
Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., whose Toughbook series of rugged laptops is used by U.S. police, military and utility workers, on Wednesday unveiled a compact, "ultra-mobile" version that is practically as easy to handle as a PDA but with all the features of a standard PC.
And like other Toughbook models, it's made to survive.
The CF-U1 mini-tablet emerged unscathed after demonstrators Wednesday dropped the device 120 centimeters (3.9 feet) face down, then dunked it in four quarts of water.
Its batteries last 10 hours, in part because it runs on Intel's new, low-power Atom microprocessor. It measures 184 mm (7.2 inches) wide, 151 mm (5.9 inches) tall and 57 mm (2.2 inches) deep.
Shigeo Okuda, general manager of Matsushita's marketing group, said the CF-U1 broadens the reach of rugged laptops, which have been too bulky thus far to carry directly on site to warehouses and construction zones.
The tablet features a 5.6-inch touch-screen display, a thumb-operated keyboard, Bluetooth and wireless Internet. With a handstrap in the back, the CF-U1 is held like a flat camcorder.
"This will be used in different ways than the Toughbook now," Okuda said. "This is a completely new category of rugged PCs."
Through its Panasonic brand, Matsushita holds a leading 61-percent share of the rugged-PC market worldwide, according to the company. It sold 574,000 units in 2007, and hopes the CF-U1 will extend its dominance.
The company will launch overseas sales of the 2.3-pound device in August, and begin sales in Japan in October for an unspecified price. It aims to sell 90,000 CF-U1 units overseas and 10,000 units in Japan in a year.
Matsushita's strategy in the competitive PC market has been to focus exclusively on business- and field-use...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Pornographer Uses Google to Argue 'Everybody Does It'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60444
What's obscene? Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said, "I know it when I see it." If Stewart were around today, he could see a lot more of it on the Internet. And in a way, that's what the defense is arguing in the Florida trial of a pornographer.
Stewart's comment, of course, is not the current constitutional standard for obscenity. That is defined by the Miller standard, which defines obscenity as appealing to the prurient interest, being patently offensive, and lacking substantial artistic, political or scientific merit.
Prurient interest is defined by "prevailing community standards," according to the Supreme Court. So the defendant in the case, Clinton Raymond McCowen, is arguing that thanks to Google and the Internet, local community standards aren't what they used to be.
Using data from Google, defense attorney Lawrence Walters intends to show that people in Pensacola, Fla., search more often for "orgy" than for "apple pie," The New York Times reports.
"Time and time again you'll have jurors sitting on a jury panel who will condemn material that they routinely consume in private," Walters told the Times. Using the Internet data, "we can show how people really think and feel and act in their own homes, which, parenthetically, is where this material was intended to be viewed," he added.
It's not clear if the strategy will work. The prosecutor in the case said he will argue that locally based Internet searches are not necessarily a proxy for community values. The definition of community values is not necessarily what people do or watch behind closed doors, but what they think is appropriate in public.
Jeffrey J. Douglas, chairman emeritus of the First Amendment Lawyers Association, tried a similar strategy in a federal obscenity case involving another Florida pornographer. He set up a computer in the...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Google Grapples with Its Runaway Success
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60440
Google may be widely admired for its technical wizardry and its quick, accurate search engine, but one of the company's most impressive accomplishments has been its ability to grow as powerful as it is while still remaining, in the minds of most Americans, fundamentally likable.
The company today is a behemoth, with more than 15,000 employees and a market value as big as Coca-Cola and Boeing combined. Its search engine is the tool of first resort for expert researchers and schoolkids alike; for suspicious employers, first-daters, long-lost friends, blackmailers, reporters, and police investigators -- in short, for seekers of any and all sorts of information. In April, the most recent month for which it compiled statistics, Nielsen Online found that 62 percent of all U.S. Internet searches were done using Google. Yahoo, the next largest player, had only 17.5 percent of the market.
Despite its size and dominance, Google has avoided the public suspicion and vilification that have plagued powerful companies from Standard Oil to Microsoft. Instead, protected by its reputation for innovation, its famed "Don't Be Evil" mantra, and the ever-improving precision of its search engine, Google has remained for the most part a trusted, even a beloved, brand.
But as Google's influence grows, a number of scholars and programmers have begun to argue that the company is acquiring too much power over our lives -- invading our privacy, shaping our preferences, and controlling how we learn about and understand the world around us. To counter its pervasive effects, they are developing strategies to push back against Google, dilute its growing dominance of the information sphere, and make it more publicly accountable. The solutions range from programs one can install on one's computer to proposed laws forcing Google to reveal parts of its proprietary search algorithm. A few experts and privacy activists...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Technology: It's Where the Jobs Are
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60437
Here's a hint for high school graduates or college students still majoring in indecision: Put down that guitar or book of poetry and pick up a laptop. Study computer science or engineering, and plan to move to a big city.
A new survey out this week from AeA, the group formerly known as the American Electronics Assn., reports that jobs in the technology industry are growing at a healthy clip, especially in large cities. The organization's Cybercities 2008 survey says that 51 cities added high-technology jobs in 2006, the most recent year for which data were available. The survey tracks new jobs related to the creation of tech products, including fields such as chip manufacturing and software engineering. It is the AeA's first such survey since 2000, which was taken before the crash of the tech bubble that created so many jobs in the late 1990s.
And while slowing economic conditions have dulled the pace of growth since the 2006 data were collected, AeA researcher Matthew Kazmierczak says it's far from turning south. "Nationally, there are some data that show the rate of growth has slowed since 2006, but it hasn't gone negative," he says.
The leader in number of jobs gained is Seattle, home to such tech companies as Amazon, RealNetworks, and software giant Microsoft, based in nearby Redmond, Wash. Seattle added a net 7,800 jobs during the period surveyed, followed by the New York and Washington [D.C.] metro areas, which added more than 6,000 jobs apiece. The fastest-growing area on a percentage basis was the combined metro area of Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., which saw its tech-employment figures grow by 12%. Riverside-San Bernardino benefited from higher costs of living in nearby Los Angeles and Orange County.
The highest concentration of technology workers -- 286 for every 1,000 workers -- was in, no...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Designing a Successful Web Community
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60428
"Community" continues to be the buzzword for businesses looking for a meaningful online presence. Everywhere you look there's another company bragging about its online social network, either to embrace clients or consumers or even to unite employees. As membership in social networks such as Facebook and MySpace continues to grow, brand-sponsored apps that tap into some network somewhere, somehow, have become common. But vibrant, successful communities are difficult to design and implement.
Online communities are not only expensive to build, they're expensive to maintain -- and they're not even always appropriate, warns Maria Giudice of San Francisco design company Hot Studio. Giudice has been involved in Web design since the days of 1.0. She has built a number of community sites for clients, including the Open Architecture Network [OAN] for Architecture for Humanity [AfH], a nonprofit, humanitarian-focused architecture charity. "All clients start out saying they want a community, but who's going to manage it once it's built?" she asks. "You can't just put up a community and expect that it'll magically run itself."
For Giudice, the key to successful community design -- and Web design as a whole -- lies in research. That means the designers take a step back to question clients' expectations and needs. For instance, Hot Studio ended up recasting the Open Architecture Network from its initial brief as an open-source community for architects. "Through research we realized that it wasn't a Web site they needed, it was an ecosystem of sites," says Giudice. "There was a bigger vision that wasn't just about a community, but about accomplishing discrete goals for different people in a holistic way."
In other words, the design and tools of OAN should provide an online hub for involved parties, from designers to administrators to project managers working on the ground at disaster...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Data Breaches Top the Agenda at RSA Conference
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60412
Data breaches remain a significant problem for any company that manages information about personal identity. In recent weeks, widely publicized data breaches have hit Lending Tree, Hannaford Bros. Co., and the Bank of Ireland. Past data breaches at ChoicePoint, TJX Cos., and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have resulted in large, class-action lawsuits with claims for or settlements in the millions of dollars in some cases.
At the April RSA Conference in San Francisco, a number of speakers addressed the technical and legal aspects of the data breach problem. The conference, sponsored by data security company RSA Security, Inc., was attended by more than 17,000 people and featured 200-plus sessions on information security issues, including data security technology, strategies and compliance challenges, and legal and governmental issues. This latter issue was the focal point for a number of speakers who addressed the data breach challenge.
Many of the data breaches reported in the media have been the result of outside forces against a data company. This has taken the form of criminals hacking into database files, stealing portable devices (laptops or hard drives) containing data, or using fraudulent means to gain access to data. According to the "2007 E-Crime Watch Survey" -- conducted by Microsoft, Carnegie Mellon University's CERT Program, and the U.S. Secret Service and originally published in CSO Magazine 49 percent of survey participants reported that some form of electronic crime had been attempted against them. In nearly 40 percent of those cases, the crime involved attempted access to customer or credit card records.
Researchers from the CERT Program presented a longer, more detailed analysis of this data at the RSA Conference. They noted that insiders (people within the organization) were responsible for more than one-third of the e-crimes, according to the 2007 survey. The crimes ranged...
Thu, 26 Jun 08
Chubb's Security Firm Demos High-Tech Protection
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60411
In September of 1965, a new comedy series called Get Smart aired on television. Satirizing the spy movie genre then the rage -- Secret Agent, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., etc. -- Get Smart was the brainchild of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, and starred Don Adams as a secret agent named Maxwell Smart.
As a running gag, whenever it was necessary for Smart to contact headquarters, he would enter a telephone booth and take off his shoe, the heel of which contained a telephone dial. He then used the dial to call the head of his secret agency. (He could have used the phone in the booth, but that wouldn't have been as funny.)
The show was filled with any number of "gadgets" such as the shoe phone and other gags spoofing all of the electronic "toys" that were especially part of the early James Bond movies. Of course, these gadgets didn't really exist. Not then.
Today, however, is a whole different story. These communications and listening devices and minuscule cameras do exist and are being used by industrial spies who want to get a leg up on corporate decision-making, or by thieves and sexual predators who want to enter
your house and endanger your family.
Recently, Risk Control Strategies (RCS), Chubb Corp.'s personal security consulting firm, held special "demonstrations" in New York to describe how the privacy of homes and commercial organizations can be breached and what RCS security experts can do about it. RCS executives described how their people can gather intelligence, design security architecture for estates, conduct a lifestyle diagnosis, protect clients from cybercrime and mitigate corporate and personal espionage.
These services, of course, are for Chubb's upscale, well-to-do insureds who face particular exposures because of their financial positions. For VIP Chubb insureds the services are...
Sat, 21 Jun 08
House Leader Questions Yahoo-Google Search Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60391
When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped his bid to buy Yahoo, he took pains to point out that Yahoo's search-sharing arrangements with Google were likely to bring intense antitrust scrutiny for any company acquiring Yahoo. Given Microsoft's lengthy history with antitrust enforcement, Ballmer found that particularly unappealing.
This week, his prediction started to come true. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang expressing concern over "how this collaboration will impact competition" in online search.
Barton noted that, according to the latest comScore results, Google accounts for 60 percent of online searches, followed by Yahoo at 20 percent. Microsoft trails distantly at a mere nine percent.
Barton referred to a Department of Justice guideline on collaborations among competitors, which notes that even though collaborations may be intended to benefit competition, "they may in practice reduce competition."
"I am also concerned about how the relationship between Google and Yahoo will affect the collection, storage, and use of data relating to an individual's online activity," Barton said. He added that between Google's acquisition of DoubleClick and Yahoo's purchase of advertising exchange RightMedia and ad network Blue Lithium, both companies are collecting "a great deal of data about people's online activity and behavior." The collaboration thus raises the "potential for the data to be shared or merged, and perhaps used by Google and Yahoo" in ways consumers don't understand.
Barton posed eight detailed questions to Yang, including which company made the first move in forming the collaboration, how Yahoo will determine which search queries will be routed to Google, how Yahoo arrived at its estimate that the deal will generate $800 million in revenue for Yahoo, how Yang figures that the collaboration will not have an anticompetitive effect, what investments Yahoo...
Sat, 21 Jun 08
eBay Boosts Fraud Protection for PayPal Transactions
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60390
In preparation for this year's holiday shopping season, eBay and PayPal on Thursday announced improved protections for buyers and sellers on eBay.com.
For the first time, buyers who pay with PayPal will be protected on eligible transactions for 100 percent of an item's purchase price, with no cap on coverage. In addition, all U.S. eBay sellers will receive improved seller protection for eligible transactions when they are paid through PayPal.
"We're combining the power of eBay and PayPal to give all buyers and sellers more confidence and trust," said Lorrie Norrington, eBay's president of marketplace operations. "Buyers who pay with PayPal on eBay will be covered, with no limits, on most transactions. Any seller who gets paid with PayPal will be covered on most transactions, too, and can ship to 190 countries worldwide where PayPal is accepted."
Norrington introduced the protections at the company's seventh eBay Live! community conference this week. Currently, 97 percent of eBay.com listings offer PayPal and more than 90 percent of active eBay users in the U.S. have PayPal accounts.
PayPal Buyer Protection covers eligible transactions on eBay.com for items that aren't received and for items that are significantly not as described. Beginning this fall, PayPal will remove the coverage limit, giving buyers more confidence when they pay for eBay purchases with PayPal.
PayPal's improved seller protection covers sellers against claims, charge-backs and reversals due to an unauthorized payment or an item that was not received. Under this improved protection, sellers can ship to buyers in markets worldwide where PayPal is accepted and be eligible for protection. PayPal's seller protection is provided without any additional cost, and beginning later this year, PayPal will remove the annual coverage cap.
PayPal's increased buyer and seller protections take effect this fall.
"Today's announcement makes it simple for our customers -- we're...
Sat, 21 Jun 08
FCC Extends Date For Sprint Wireless Channel Swap
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60388
The Federal Communications Commission has granted Sprint Nextel a one-year reprieve to relocate its iDEN mobile customers to new channel assignments on the same 800-MHz frequency band.
The FCC wants to reconfigure its allocation of all communication channels at 800 MHz so commercial wireless services will cause less interference to spectrum slices assigned to firefighters, police, emergency responders, and other public-safety workers. However, the majority of public-safety licensees are not ready to retune their 800-MHz radios from current channels, leaving Sprint Nextel with nowhere to go.
"More than 60 percent of all NPSPAC (National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee) licensees have had to file waiver requests seeking more time to finish retuning their systems," Sprint Nextel noted. "Retuning nearly 1,000 NPSPAC licensees has proven to be more complex than anticipated and continues to challenge the resources of vendors, consultants, engineering companies, and public-safety agencies."
The FCC was also expected to rule against Verizon on Friday after cable companies Bright House Networks, Comcast and Time Warner Cable complained that Verizon used private information to lure back landline customers who planned to switch to VoIP on cable.
Sprint said it would face customer disruptions if it surrendered all of its current channels in "flash-cut" fashion without access to an adequate number of replacement channels in the 800-MHz band. Moreover, moving its customers to alternate channels in the 900-MHz band is not a viable option. "There are not enough 900-MHz channels available to make up for the channel-based capacity shortfall Sprint Nextel will suffer at 800 MHz," the company said.
Additionally, if it vacated all its 800-MHz channels prematurely, Sprint said it would face limitations in its ability to provide service to several public-safety agencies that have already advised the FCC that they rely heavily on Sprint's iDEN network.
"Sprint Nextel needs a...
Sat, 21 Jun 08
iTunes Store Dominates Music, and Movies May Be Next
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60387
On Thursday, Apple passed yet another significant milestone at its iTunes Store. The company announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than five billion songs. Movies could be the next digital medium to realize those numbers.
The iTunes Store is the largest music retailer in the U.S., according to the NPD Group. And iTunes customers are now renting and purchasing more than 50,000 movies every day, according to Apple.
Analysts said Apple's decision to give consumers the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, has helped its cause.
"This is just further evidence, if any is needed, that the recorded music business is headed toward Internet distribution," said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. "Apple is already selling more music than Wal-Mart."
In addition to its more than eight million songs, the iTunes Store peddles more than 20,000 TV episodes and more than 2,000 films, including more than 350 in high definition.
iTunes features movies from all the major movie studios, including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate and New Line Cinema.
Apple is working to make it easy for consumers to access digital movies with initiatives like iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, and iMix playlist sharing.
Users can rent movies and watch them on their Macs or PCs, all current generation iPods and iPhones, and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV. iTunes Store customers can also purchase new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios on the same day as their DVD release.
"As far as movies are concerned, it's as certain as fleas on a yard dog that movies are going to the Internet,"...
Sat, 21 Jun 08
As Executives Leave, Yahoo Considers a Reorganization
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60386
With executives leaving Yahoo at a steady pace, the company is contemplating a major reorganization. According to a report in Friday's Wall Street Journal, Yahoo's management is considering a plan that would centralize various product groups into a single global-product organization, instead of the current, separate divisions for mail, search and home page.
The Journal said the change is being sought by Yahoo President Susan Decker as a means of improving communication between product teams and overseas sales units.
The reorganization follows the announcement this week that Jeff Weiner, executive vice president of Yahoo's network division, will exit the company. No successor has been named.
Weiner's exodus is only the latest in a series. The senior vice president of search, Vish Makhijani, is leaving to work for a Russian search company. The executive vice president for search and advertising technology, Qi Lu, has also said she's leaving.
Executive Vice President Usama Fayyad and two people involved in the creation of Flickr, Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake, have also left or are in the process of doing so.
And Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president for communications and communities, has said he's quitting. His position covers e-mail, messaging, Yahoo Groups, and Flickr.
One of Garlinghouse's claims to fame is something he wrote called the Peanut Butter Manifesto. Originally penned as an internal memo, it was released to The Wall Street Journal. It criticized Yahoo for spreading itself too thin across too many products, as peanut butter might be spread on bread.
That diluting of the Yahoo brand was seen by outsiders as one of the reasons that cofounder Jerry Yang assumed the position of CEO. Like Steve Jobs coming back to Apple, Yang's top leadership role was seen as possibly providing a...
Sat, 21 Jun 08
Student Charged with Hacking into School Computer
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An 18-year-old high school senior is scheduled to be arraigned today on charges alleging he and a schoolmate hacked into their school's computer in a scheme to improve their chances of college admission.
Tanvir Singh, 18, of Ladera Ranch, is expected at the Newport Beach courthouse at 1:30 p.m. to answer to one felony count each of conspiracy, burglary, computer access and fraud, as well as attempted altering of a public record, said Farrah Emami of the Orange County District Attorney's Office. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted, she said.
Omar Khan, 18, of Coto de Caza, will face 34 felony counts when he is arraigned at 9 a.m. on Thursday in Harbor Justice Center. Khan, who should have graduated today with the rest of his class at Tesoro High School, is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail and faces up to 38 years and four months in prison, Emami said.
Between Jan. 23 and May 20, Khan allegedly broke into locked rooms at the Rancho Santa Margarita high school, where he was a senior, on several occasions late at night and on weekends to access school computers and change his grades, as well as scores on Advanced Placement tests and school records from previous semesters, Emami said.
Khan changed grades of "C," "D," or "F" to "A," she said.
Khan also stole personal log-in information from teachers to gain access to their computers and grades, primarily changing his own grades, but also altering the permanent transcript grades of a dozen other students, Emami said.
On April 18, Khan allegedly cheated on an English class on a test, leading his teacher to seize the test and give Khan a failing mark, Emami said.
The test was turned over to the assistant principal, and that...
Sat, 21 Jun 08
YouTube Opens Screening Room for Indie Filmmakers
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Google Inc.'s YouTube is setting up a virtual screening room to bring the work of independent filmmakers to a global audience.
Struggling filmmakers already use YouTube to kick-start viral marketing campaigns. The new feature, which debuts Wednesday, gives them an easy-to-find home -- and makes them partners in drawing new ad revenue.
"Hopefully as they see thousands of people watching their films, it's going to be a very eye-opening experience," said Sara Pollack, YouTube's film and animation manager.
The screening room will highlight four new films a week, picked by a YouTube editorial panel.
Submissions are welcomed. The panel also will scour film festivals and work with partners such as the Sundance Channel to identify prospects.
Among the first eight titles to be showcased are "Love and War," a stop-motion puppet movie by a Swedish director; the Oscar-nominated short "I Met The Walrus," about an interview with John Lennon; and "Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?" by performance artist Miranda July.
Filmmakers can choose to have a "Buy Now" button attached to their work for sales of DVDs or digital copies. They will also collect a majority share of ad revenue generated from views of their work.
YouTube said people whose clips regularly attract a million viewers can make several thousand dollars a month.
The bigger prize can be exposure.
When YouTube featured the nine-minute short "Spider" by Nash Edgerton in February, it became the fifth-best selling short on iTunes, Pollack said.
The creators of the full-length feature "Four Eyed Monsters," Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, got their break when more than a million YouTube views helped land them a TV and DVD distribution deal, she said.
"They ended up doing really, really well, ironically by putting their film online for free," Pollack said.
Sat, 21 Jun 08
Firefox Leads Surge of Web Browsing Competition
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60362
Your new Internet browser is ready -- several of them, actually.
They're all free, so take your pick.
The Mozilla Foundation, whose Firefox browser has already snared over 18 percent of the world's Web surfers, has just introduced its latest upgrade, Firefox 3. For a nonprofit outfit, Mozilla can really sling the hype. The foundation practically dared us to visit getfirefox.com on Tuesday and download the new browser, in an effort to set a world record for the most file downloads in a single day. Suckers that we are, at least 7 million of us fell for it.
And what did we get in return? A darn good browser.
Firefox caught fire in 2004, when Microsoft Corp. hadn't upgraded its Internet Explorer browser in three years. IE 6, as techies called it, was so famously buggy that the federal government's data security experts began urging people not to use it. Suddenly, Firefox looked especially attractive -- free, feature-rich, and far more secure than Explorer. Within a year, users had downloaded 100 million copies. By including a search window linked to the popular Google search engine, the Mozilla Foundation began raking in millions in advertising revenue. Microsoft's near-monopoly on browsers was gone.
Still, Firefox wasn't perfect. In 2007, security software maker Symantec found twice as many security bugs in Firefox as Microsoft's newest browser, IE 7. Firefox 3 aims to squash the bugs and to deliver a bunch of new features.
Best of the lot is a new address bar that begins searching for Web sites even as you type. Start typing an address you frequently visit and Firefox 3 will display links to pages from that site that you viewed in the past.
Firefox 3 has also buffed up its file download system. New files are automatically scanned for viruses, and you can see the Internet domain...
Sat, 21 Jun 08
Investor Carl Icahn Hits Web as Billionaire Blogger
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60361
For months, billionaire investor and shareholder activist Carl Icahn has been threatening to launch a blog so he could vent about corporate governance issues of the day.
Now, it appears, that day is nigh. Icahn said Wednesday that his new blog, The Icahn Report, would go live this afternoon. "We're finally getting it together," Icahn said.
Although he announced the blog in January, and even reserved the domain name (www.icahnreport.com), Icahn has yet to weigh in with any entries.
For the past month, at least, he's been otherwise engaged, firing public salvos at the board of directors and CEO of Yahoo, criticizing it for not accepting Microsoft's recent takeover offer.
In an interview, Icahn said his first post wouldn't involve his battle with Yahoo, but would be concerned with the larger issue of accountability in the boardroom. "The question of accountability in this country is very, very important, and corporate democracy is a bit of a myth," he said. "Right now, the system is not really working."
Icahn may be a new presence on the Internet, but he's a familiar voice in the ongoing debate over corporate governance. Over an investing career that has spanned three decades, Icahn has consistently criticized do-nothing boards of directors and overpaid CEOs.
Most recently, he has complained about the amount of money made by Yahoo board members ($10,000 a week) and the severance negotiated between Blockbuster's board and former CEO John Antioco.
"The blog will be terrific if he uses it to advance the discussion on these topics," says Nell Minow of The Corporate Library, who has her own corporate governance blog.
Sat, 21 Jun 08
More Airport Alerts Sent to E-Mail, Cell Phones, PDAs
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Need some last-minute travel information? A growing number of airports are sending messages and alerts to e-mail, BlackBerry and cell phone users.
Travelers need to sign up, but the service transmits information about flights, parking, ground traffic or security waiting times electronically for free. It's also available at many airports' Web sites.
Boston Logan airport's Flight Alert service made its debut last week. Seattle-Tacoma airport began providing flight information to cell phone users last month. San Diego airport says it is considering a similar service, and Oregon's Portland airport may begin looking into it, says Port of Portland spokeswoman Karen Fisher.
Seattle-Tacoma airport gets its flight information directly from airlines, while Logan uses airline and Federal Aviation Administration data, Logan spokesman Matthew Brelis says. Subscribers to Logan's service receive messages for cancellations, or delays or diversions greater than 30 minutes.
Frequent business traveler David Mazzotta, of Salt Lake City, regularly uses Seattle-Tacoma airport's alert service and says all airports should have it.
"I think it's great, and it helps me immensely," says the vice president of a marketing and advertising consulting company. "It allows me to stay longer with a client when a flight is delayed."
Many business travelers already rely on airline e-mail messages to stay abreast of flight changes.
American Airlines' electronic message service, for example, "has made travel much easier," says software salesman Ted Mitchell of Dallas. Among other things, he uses the service to confirm departure and arrival times and gate and baggage-claim information.
But frequent flier Vincent Greenlee of Chicago says airline alert services can fail when flights are pushed back by weather delays. "The updates are not sent accordingly," says Greenlee, who works in the information technology industry.
Airlines say their own e-mail alert services are the best for travelers, because no one knows their operations better than they do. An airline's alert...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Downloads From Apple's iTunes Store Top Five Billion
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Apple reported Thursday that more than five billion songs have been downloaded from its online iTunes Store.
That milestone confirms a MusicWatch survey from NPD Group that found the iTunes online store is the top music retailer in the U.S., selling more music than retailing giant Wal-Mart. As recently as the third quarter of 2005, the iTunes Store was ranked seventh among major music retailers.
The iTunes Store offers more than eight million songs and more than 2,000 movies, plus 20,000 episodes of TV shows. More than 50,000 movies are rented or purchased every day, Apple said, making it the most popular online movie store as well.
Sales of Apple's iPods and iPhones continue to grow and may be a factor in its online dominance of both music and movies. This is particularly true as consumers have shown a growing preference for buying just the songs they want instead of an entire CD like those available at Wal-Mart.
As an added feature, the iTunes Store gives customers the ability to turn previously purchased music into albums at a reduced price.
Apple's store offers movies from all the major movie studios, including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate and New Line Cinema. Rented movies can be viewed on Macs and PCs, iPods, iPhones and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.
In addition, iTunes Store customers can buy new movie releases on the same day they are released on DVD.
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Chinese Agency Denies Microsoft Monopoly Investigation
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China's State Intellectual Property Office has denied a flurry of media reports suggesting the government agency was investigating Microsoft for discriminatory software pricing. In a statement briefly posted at its official Web site, according to media sources, the SIPO noted that it has never undertaken any market-monopoly investigations before, and has no plans to do so because its mandate from Chinese government agencies is "to investigate and research domestic piracy issues."
The statement was intended to contradict a report by Shanghai Security News in which an unnamed source had suggested to the Chinese financial newspaper that Microsoft would be vulnerable to a lawsuit following the debut of China's forthcoming anti-monopoly law, which becomes effective Aug. 1. Microsoft quickly responded by telling western media outlets it was unaware of any antitrust investigation by Chinese authorities.
The Shanghai Security News article was given coverage by the worldwide media, which deemed the news to be credible because SSN is wholly owned by the Xinhua News Agency -- the official voice of the People's Republic of China. SSN also promotes itself by saying it serves as "the China Securities Regulatory Commission's government-designated channel for disclosure for Chinese-listed companies."
According to a joint study conducted by the Business Software Alliance and IDC, 82 percent of all PC software in China was pirated in 2007 -- down from 92 percent in 2003. Under such circumstances, a Chinese investigation of Microsoft would have been most ironic, given that the software giant has suffered huge losses from lax anti-piracy regulations in China over the past five years.
Microsoft has been making a huge public-relations effort to rehabilitate its reputation as a monopoly. The software giant issued an interim status report this month that sought to show it is making progress in resolving U.S. antitrust issues...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Competition Looms as Verizon, Comcast Boost Services
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For the first time in years, consumers may be getting real competition in telecom services. Verizon Wireless announced Wednesday that it will speed up its super-fast fiber-optic service in 10 new states.
The expanded network will be available to 10 million consumers beginning next week and will reach 18 million people by 2010, Verizon said. FiOS will be available in various configurations ranging from 50 megabits per second downstream and 20 Mbps upstream to 10 Mbps downstream and two Mbps upstream.
The expansion upgrades FiOS customers in parts of California, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Those customers previously were limited to a range of 30 Mbps downstream and 15 Mbps upstream to five Mbps downstream and two Mbps upstream.
Verizon sees ever-increasing demand for bandwidth as users download and upload large media files like video and high-resolution photos. "As our customers shoot and send their own photos and movies, work at home more often, and expand their home networks, they love the faster speeds FiOS delivers," President and CEO Denny Strigl said.
The announcement came as Comcast announced a slowdown in rolling out its faster cable network, based on DOCSIS. That network will offer 80 Mbps downstream and 30 Mbps upstream.
Verizon's announcement doesn't reflect any new investments in the network. "This is not an infrastructure upgrade; it's a loosening of the speed caps by Verizon," said George Ou, senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in an e-mail. "Verizon fundamentally has a lot more bandwidth than any DOCSIS 1.1 or 3.0 network," the technology on which cable networks are based. "We're talking many times more bandwidth," Ou added.
"The first DOCSIS 3.0 implementations are 76/27 Mbps down/up shared amongst a cable node consisting of anywhere between 200 and 400 users," Ou said. "So...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Firefox 3 Vulnerability Rains on Mozilla Download Parade
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60370
For all the hype over how many people downloaded Mozilla's Firefox 3 open-source browser in a five-hour period, there is now hype about how long it took security researchers to disclose a flaw.
Five hours after Mozilla officially released the much-anticipated update, Tipping Point confirmed a vulnerability. Tipping Point's Zero Day Initiative program received notification about a critical vulnerability affecting both Firefox 3 and Firefox 2.
"We verified the vulnerability in our lab, acquired it from the researcher, then promptly reported the vulnerability to the Mozilla security team shortly after," Tipping Point wrote in its Digital Vaccine Laboratories blog.
"Successful exploitation of the vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code," the company said. "Not unlike most browser-based vulnerabilities that we see these days, user interaction is required, such as clicking on a link in e-mail or visiting a malicious Web page."
Mozilla is working on a fix, and Tipping Point isn't saying much else until a patch is available. So just how serious is the threat? It's difficult to say for sure, according to Carole Theriault, a security researcher at Sophos, because there's not much detailed information on the threat.
However, she said, it would be sensible to take the normal precautions that people are advised to take: Visit only reputable Web sites, patch security vulnerabilities, and put this patch in place as soon as Mozilla makes it available.
"Companies that are concerned that their users are dashing out and installing the new browser should consider controlling what browser and version can be used in the company," Theriault said. Tools like Sophos' Application Control allow administrators to control browser usage within the network, ensuring that the network is not at unnecessary risk.
It's not unusual for bug reports to emerge in the wake of newly released software, especially...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
DontLikeUrName? U Can Get a New Yahoo Address
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60357
Yahoo on Thursday announced two new e-mail domains for Yahoo Mail users worldwide. The domains are ymail.com and rocketmail.com.
The search-engine provider is billing the new domains as a way to give users a chance to register for the e-mail address or Yahoo ID they really want. For some, that could mean abandoning early selections, such as CutiePie4Ever80 or mattclark1977@yahoo.com for a new image.
"We recognize that people want an e-mail address that reflects who they are, whether they are signing up for an e-mail address for the first time, or simply updating their e-mail pseudonym to reflect the stage they are at in life," said John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail.
Despite the rise of Google's Gmail, Yahoo Mail is still the number-one Webmail service in the world with more than 260 million users, according to comScore Media Metrix.
Because it has so many users, the most desirable e-mail addresses have been taken for the yahoo.com domain, as well as for localized versions in countries around the world. With the new domain choices, Yahoo will make millions of new e-mail addresses available.
Yahoo may also be trying to put some juice into its brand, according to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
"Some people may perceive, in some sense, that the Yahoo brand is not be as edgy or cool as it once was," Sterling said. "The Yahoo brand is still very across the board, but groups of people may not think it's quite as buzzworthy."
Yahoo recently commissioned a survey conducted by Harris Interactive to determine what online adults look for when choosing an e-mail address. The study found that the majority of online adults (59 percent) consider the most important attribute of an e-mail address to be that it is easy to...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Microsoft Buys Digital TV Ad Provider Navic Networks
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Microsoft's aggressive campaign to increase its position in digital advertising took another step this week as it announced the acquisition of Navic Networks, a television advertising provider. Terms were not disclosed.
The deal, announced Tuesday, will give the software giant ownership of Navic's sophisticated campaign-management tools for digital advertising. Those tools optimize where and when interactive television ads are placed. One tool, called Admira, offers a unified ad network so that selected audiences can be targeted across all ads in a campaign.
The Waltham, Mass.-based Navic has about 80 employees.
Microsoft said Navic's tools will allow its own advertising platform to "facilitate enhanced digital advertising across online and offline environments," integrating online and on-air. With Navic's system, users can click on an ad to see a video or a phone number for a product.
Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of the advertiser and publisher solutions group at Microsoft, said TV advertising has the largest percentage of major advertising budgets. With Navic as a wholly-owned subsidiary in his group, McAndrews said Microsoft will be able to "deliver addressable television advertising solutions" to increase advertisers' reach and return on investment.
Navic's addressable technology was primarily built to serve the cable and direct-broadcast satellite industry. Navic's tools use real-time audience measurement data and target addressable interactive TV and advertising applications that live on more than 35 million digital set-top boxes in the U.S. and Canada.
Microsoft's collection of businesses and tools, some home-grown and some acquired, encompasses 42 markets globally and 21 languages. It includes digital advertising for such platforms as MSN, Windows Live, Microsoft Office Live, Xbox, Microsoft Live Search, Facebook, and tools that include Atlas, AdECN, Microsoft adCenter, DRIVE pm, Massive and ScreenTonic.
When Microsoft was rebuffed in its efforts to buy Yahoo, company executives reportedly told employees it would...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Venture Capitalists Are Betting on LinkedIn
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Four venture capital firms are betting Internet startup LinkedIn Corp. is worth $1 billion, highlighting the lofty hopes riding on online services that connect people with their friends, family and business associates.
The 10-figure valuation is implied by a $53 million investment being announced Wednesday from Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.
The investors received a combined 5 percent stake in Mountain View-based LinkedIn, whose 5-year-old Web site helps people use the Web to advance their professional careers.
It's one of the richest appraisals for a Silicon Valley startup since Microsoft Corp. paid $240 million for 1.6 percent of Facebook Inc. late last year. That deal valued Palo Alto-based Facebook and its online hangout at $15 billion.
The Facebook financing in turn helped several other startups that promote online socializing to promote themselves.
Ning Inc. and Slide Inc. wrangled implied valuations ranging between $500 million and $560 million when investors poured more money into them earlier this year, while RockYou was valued between $200 million and $300 million in a deal completed last week.
Venture capitalists are counting on the services to mine more advertising revenue from their rapidly growing audiences even as much of the U.S. economy is withering.
But finding an effective advertising approach has been tricky for the top social networks.
Privacy complaints prompted Facebook to rein in a marketing tool that tracked its members' activities on other Web sites. Even Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc. has had trouble peddling products and services to denizens of the Web's largest social network, News Corp.'s MySpace.
LinkedIn believes its emphasis on connecting executives, other ambitious employees and deal makers gives it a demographic edge over more recreational Internet networks that cater to students and other less-affluent consumers.
"If LinkedIn is able to achieve its goals and objectives in the coming years, this...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Gather.com Connects with Over-35 Crowd
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60346
The online social networking trend seems destined to get together somehow with the handheld, GPS-equipped device.
Gather.com founder and Bethel Park native Tom Gerace envisions this. He's mapped out a relationship, in fact.
By year's end, Gerace said his Boston-based networking site will allow owners of the upcoming iPhone 3G to share their locations with friends, former co-workers -- anyone with whom they keep in touch -- via the phone's global positioning system feature. Apple will start selling its latest iPhone July 11.
Gather is fine-tuning other ways to continue building what has become a leading social networking site for adults, with a half-million registered members and twice as many "unique visitors," or casual viewers, each month.
Gerace, Gather's CEO, spent last week in Pittsburgh working on details for the redesigned Web site, to launch in mid-July.
Gather Inc.'s local office in Gateway Center, Downtown, employs 18 people and is where product development and design work take place. Overall, Gather's full-time work force totals 42.
"Every time we go out to talk to adults, they want simpler, simpler simpler," Gerace said. The redesigned site will be rooted in four main areas -- My Gather, Groups, People and Explore -- where visitors can find the content and contacts they're seeking related to their interests.
Janet Loraine, 52, found Gather through a promotion on another Web site.
"I just loved it. It's like a MySpace for adults," said the Mt. Washington resident, who posts her games, stories and photos on the site, and communicates with friends and relatives.
Gerace, 37, got the inspiration for Gather while working in the travel industry, as vice president of marketing for National Leisure Group in Port Washington, N.Y. He envisioned an online community where informed adults could share ideas about travel and related topics, such as food and wine....
Fri, 20 Jun 08
EU Missing Its Mark on Software Diversity
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60344
The European Commission, a thorn in Microsoft's side for its antitrust campaigns against the software giant, is falling short in its own internal attempt to promote competition in the technology sector.
The European Union executive has so far not followed its own policy of purchasing office software and operating systems with open standards, as well as Microsoft products.
"For the moment we are working in a Microsoft environment," said Christos Ellinides, director of corporate IT solutions and services, who recommends software for the commission.
Last week, Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner, noted the commission's pledge to buy open-standard software. "This policy, adopted last year, needs to be implemented with vigor," she told an audience.
The policy requires that all future procurement should promote software using "open, well-documented standards" that operates freely with other software, essentially in desktop and laptop machines. By using open-standard software, the commission would signal it was practicing what it preached in terms of promoting competition in computing.
Ellinides said that studies showed the costs of moving to open source outweighed the benefits. He said it might be time for a new study.
Commissioner Siim Kallas oversees procurement.
"There is a decision that we will explore the possibility of initiating this study on an institutional basis," he said.
He said the commission could already read and send data in open formats, but a lawyer for open-standards groups disagreed.
"The commission should be more thorough in following their own policies," said Carlo Piana, based in Milan. "I have clients who have complained that the commission mandates using Excel spreadsheets in some funding projects." Excel is a Microsoft application.
The city of Munich has dumped Microsoft for open-standard desktops and has said the transition was going well so far.
Ellinides said he planned to talk with Munich representatives this week. Mayor Christian Ude of Munich appeared...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Sirius-XM Satellite Radio Deal: The Pace Quickens
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60340
The static over a planned merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio may finally be clearing. U.S. regulators are likely to give their blessing to the transaction, imposing conditions that both sides have said they're willing to accept and analysts say neither side will find too onerous.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on June 16 said he would give a green light to the deal, assuming XM and Sirius make some concessions aimed at ensuring the combination doesn't hurt consumers or thwart competition. "The conditions the FCC is considering applying are not nearly encumbering enough to dissuade the companies from going ahead," says Frederick Moran, an analyst at Stanford Group. "[The conditions] are a small price to pay."
Investors, who in recent weeks had grown concerned about how long it was taking the FCC to sign off, breathed a sigh of relief. Sirius shares rose 3.15 percent, to 2.62, on the news, while XM's stock rallied 3.96 percent, to 11.30.
Martin is likely to circulate a proposal to the four other commissioners later this week, and analysts expect a decision within a month. "I am recommending that, with the voluntary commitments they've offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest," Martin said in a statement. He's asking for a total of eight concessions, including lifting restrictions on the hardware that is able to transmit the enlarged company's broadcasts, and opening some channels to noncommercial and minority-owned broadcasters.
Analysts say those hurdles won't hinder the new company's bid to wring billions of dollars in cost savings by combining. "I don't think that these conditions will" keep them from meeting those targets, says Blair Levin, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus and a former FCC staffer. Tom Watts, an analyst at Cowen, says he is not revising his...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
Enterprise Mobility Means Changes in the Cabling Industry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60337
Fiber to the desktop, Wi-Fi networks and copper prices affect plans. "The enterprise network is undergoing a major shift in emphasis that impacts cabling," according to Jim Hayes of the Fiber Optic Association, the international non-profit professional society for the fiber-optic industry that develops educational programs and certifies fiber-optic technicians.
"Users expect mobility, demonstrated by the sales of laptops exceeding desktop computers and the popularity of mobile platforms like the BlackBerry and iPhone. Wireless has had growing pains, but with the advent of 802.11n, better cell phone data systems and the likelihood of success for WiMAX, users now have adequate wireless bandwidth practically everywhere and are not crazy about being tethered to a patch cord.
"The network of the future is certainly not recabling every couple of years with another UTP upgrade," he adds. "If 10-Gigabit Ethernet needs to be delivered to the desk, it's probably going to be on fiber, not just for the bandwidth, but also for the lower power consumption. But I'm betting on more mobile applications, with a backbone of fiber connecting wireless access points. That's how cell phone networks are built, as well as many metro Wi-Fi networks."
With most large enterprises already depending on fiber backbones, adding adequate wireless access is easy, and, of course, upgrades are simply a matter of replacing wireless access-point hardware.
Zone cabling with fiber to the zone hub is the first step to fiber to the desktop (FTTD). Fiber has been a crucial part of the campus and riser solution for years; now, fiber is reaching the horizontal plane in the structure with a host of economic and functional benefits.
Currently, plenum-approved communications cable dominates new building installs in the United States. Return-air plenum design is still less expensive than ducting feed-and-return HVAC. That brings up another area of concern: supply.
Copper continues to be...
Fri, 20 Jun 08
New Web Technology To Provide Convention Coverage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60332
The Democratic National Convention Committee is preparing for a crush of traffic on its Web site in August.
And that's what the committee wants, with plans to offer gavel-to-gavel coverage, including live speeches, caucus meetings, video highlights and archived material that can be accessed on demand.
"The real goal online is to bring down the walls of the Pepsi Center so as many people as possible can experience what's inside," said Aaron Myers, the DNCC's director of online communications.
Microsoft and Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications, which operates an international fiber-optic network, are the official Web-streaming providers.
The convention Web site, demconvention.com, will employ Microsoft's relatively new Silverlight technology.
Officials won't disclose details yet, but Silverlight enables such applications as information bubbles over a video screen, multiple video windows, and zoom-in and zoom-out features.
For example, let's say someone is watching a live speech from the convention floor on the Internet.
You might be able to click a portion of the screen and look at a biography of the speaker and career highlights. Or there might be a separate video featuring the speaker in the corner of the screen. Or you may be able to zoom in on the speaker.
"There's a lot of ideas on the table," said Joel Cherkis, Microsoft general manager of government solutions. "It comes down to the information that people will want to consume, and then the staffing behind the scenes" to assemble the material.
The Internet has been around for a while now, but the Democratic National Convention in 2004 in Boston offers little in the way of a model.
That's because, in the life of the Internet, "four years is an absolute eternity," said Grant van Rooyen, president of Level 3's content markets group.
The consumer appetite for online content, especially video, has grown. Witness the popularity of YouTube, the dramatic increase in the number...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Sprint Hopes New Instinct Will Stop Subscriber Churn
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60355
Sprint Nextel is hoping to knock the iPhone off its lofty perch with the launch this month of Instinct -- a new smartphone it codeveloped with Samsung Electronics. Like Apple's new 3G handset, Instinct combines full touch-screen functionality and fast wireless speeds with live TV, stereo Bluetooth, and GPS with turn-by-turn navigational capabilities.
In response to Apple's announcement earlier this month of a reduced 3G iPhone price of $199, Sprint will offer its new "iPhone killer" for $129 when existing subscribers sign up for a new two-year service contract.
Sprint clearly wants to use the new smartphone to help stem the rising tide of subscriber defections to rivals AT&T and Verizon. Last month, the company reported a loss of 1,070,000 post-paid subscribers in its first business quarter -- equivalent to a subscriber turnover or churn rate of 2.45 percent.
The fact that the network operator is making the Instinct "available to existing Sprint customers first rather than to new customers speaks volumes about how we are reorienting our marketing toward improving the Sprint customer experience and reducing churn," Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said during a conference call with analysts last month.
Unlike Apple, which no longer allows its customers to buy iPhones online, Sprint said it will make the Instinct available for purchase over the Web as well as through Sprint's own brick-and-mortar shops and Best Buy stores nationally. The Instinct will also be marketed in tandem with Sprint's popular Simply Everything subscription plan, priced at $99.99 per month. Simply Everything combines unlimited nationwide voice capabilities with premium data services such as music and TV downloads, GPS navigation, e-mail and Web surfing.
The Instinct integrates a Bluetooth 2.0 radio, a GPS navigation chip, a two-megapixel camera/camcorder, and a microSD card slot capable of accepting up to...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Flickr Founders Are Latest To Join Yahoo Exodus
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60354
Flickr founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake have joined the parade of executives leaving Yahoo. Flake officially left the company Friday, while Butterfield will leave on July 12. He will be replaced by product-management director Kakul Srivastava.
Fake and Butterfield's departures are just the latest in a veritable exodus. Earlier this week, Jeff Weiner, vice president of Yahoo's network division, announced he is leaving. Last week, Jeremy Zawodny, who had been Yahoo's chief open-source developer, and Usama Fayyad, vice president of research and strategic data solutions, announced their exits.
Yahoo bought Flickr, an original Web 2.0 photo-sharing site, in 2005, and it was generally considered a jewel in Yahoo's crown. PaidContent once described Flickr as "one of the few investments Yahoo has not messed up."
Weiner left Yahoo to join the venture firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners as executive in residence, where he will advise the firms' leadership teams of existing consumer-technology portfolio companies, "and will also work closely with the firm's partners to evaluate new investment opportunities," according to a press release.
Clearly, Yahoo has been distracted by Microsoft's abandoned takeover attempt. President Jerry Yang has spent substantial amounts of time not only in negotiations with Microsoft, but also in seeking out white knights and forging strategic relationships with Google and others. He's also been dealing with a shareholder revolt led by Carl Icahn, and he has been involved in responses to several lawsuits.
"The company's been going through turmoil in the last few months," said Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT. With Yahoo's annual meeting scheduled for Aug. 1, "We'll be looking at weeks more of turmoil," King continued. "It becomes very hard to accomplish anything in that kind of environment."
Some people may simply want to get on with their careers and -- at least in...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Roadrunner Named World's Most Powerful Supercomputer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60353
On Wednesday, IBM made history with the hybrid supercomputer it built for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Los Alamos National Lab. The Roadrunner burned its way into the Top500 supercomputer record book as the most powerful system in the world -- by a wide margin.
Roadrunner's sustained performance of 1.02 petaFLOPS (1.02 quadrillion calculations per second) puts the system in a class of its own -- more than three times faster than the nearest non-IBM system.
The official results were reported during the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany, where the biannual listing of the world's Top500 supercomputer sites was released.
"IBM's Roadrunner and the Blue Gene systems that dominate the top 10 are all based on the technologies coming out of the company's Power Systems group," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Research. "Hands down, from a pure performance perspective, those systems blow away most anything else on the list."
The Roadrunner gets its world-leading power from 12,240 IBM PowerXCell 8i Cell Broadband Engine processors -- derived from chips that power some of today's most popular video-game consoles. More than 6,500 AMD Opteron Dual-Core processors perform basic compute functions, freeing the IBM PowerXCell chips for the math-intensive calculations that are their specialty.
This hybrid architecture, which optimizes the strength of multiple types of processors, is an IBM hallmark. The design is analogous to that of a hybrid car with similar benefits. For example, if the NNSA supercomputer were built with standard x86 chips alone, the system would have been significantly larger and would have required much more power.
While the Roadrunner will be used to ensure the reliability and safety of the nation's nuclear-weapons stockpile, it also sets the pace for future research in a variety of scientific and commercial fields, including biotech, alternative energy, climate change, and physics. IBM said...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Analysts Expect Apple To Exceed iPhone Sales Goals
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60352
Apple sold a million iPhones in the U.S. in the first 76 days. But will the Mac-maker reach its announced goal of 10 million units this year?
Analysts are betting the answer is yes, and then some. Indeed, some pundits are forecasting Apple is on track to sell 20 million in 2009.
Apple has sold about five million 2G iPhones worldwide, and some analysts estimate the total is closer to six million. Others say the company could not meet its 10 million goal if the new 3G iPhone had not debuted at a lower price.
Morgan Stanley raised its target price for Apple's shares from $185 to $210 and predicted iPhone sales will double in 2009. Morgan Stanley pointed to the new price of $199 as a factor.
Specifically, the investment bank is projecting Apple will sell 27 million iPhones in 2009 with an average revenue of $550 per unit. The lower price of the 3G model, Morgan Stanley wrote, will dramatically increase sales volumes and help drive revenue from sales of updates and other software for the long term.
"We believe the market generally expects a doubling of iPhone units with the lower price point, and we believe this is realistic, if not conservative," Morgan Stanley said.
Morgan Stanley isn't alone in its predictions. Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner also increased the firm's price target, from $248 to $287. Citigroup said it expects the iPhone to ship 12 million units in the second half of this year and 23 million in 2009.
Apple's move to shift from a model where it shared revenue from mobile operators to sell the device directly at a lower price is a positive step, Gardner said, because the company will realize iPhone-related revenues more quickly.
Meanwhile, Bernstein Research's Toni Sacconaghi predicted 10 million new iPhone...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Verizon Pushes for Maximum Broadband Speeds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60351
Verizon is poised to throttle up the speed of its fiber-optic service (FiOS) in 10 more states, beginning next week. The super-fast broadband service already has reached maximum velocity in parts of Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, the company said. Since fiber-optic technology sends data with pulses of light, it is the fastest method available for transferring data.
"The Verizon network is delivering broadband speeds that are unmatched by any competitor," said Verizon President and CEO Denny Strigl. "As our customers shoot and send their own photos and movies, work at home more often, and expand their home networks, they love the faster speeds FiOS delivers."
FiOS offers blistering download speeds of up to 50 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20 Mbps. By contrast, conventional copper-wire networks offer a maximum of seven Mbps. New customers in parts of California, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington will have access to FiOS at maximum velocity beginning next week.
The need for greater speed is crucial for anyone involved in multimedia-intensive online activities such as video conferencing, social networking, multiplayer gaming, and online work collaboration, Strigl said. "The appetite for bandwidth shows no signs of slowing down," Strigl noted. "Neither will we. We've already had successful trials of the 100-megabit home, which will be a reality faster than anybody thinks."
Having a 50 Mbps broadband connection means a 60-minute Web video could be downloaded in eight seconds. On the upload side, users will be able to relay a photo album containing 400 digital pictures in less than four minutes.
Verizon notes that the nation's transition to HDTV will place additional demands on home broadband systems. With FiOS, users will be able to download a 112-minute, high-definition movie purchased online in about 13.3...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Toshiba Offers Laptop with 128GB Solid State Drive
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60350
Laptops with solid-state drives took another step forward Tuesday as Toshiba announced the first laptop with a 128GB SSD.
The Portege R500-S5007V is the newest addition to the company's Portege line and, at 2.4 pounds, is being described as "the world's lightest laptop." The unit also contains a DVD SuperMulti drive, a transreflective LED backlit indoor/outdoor viewing display, and Energy Start 4.0 compliance. It has received the highest gold rating from EPEAT, which measures the environmental impact of electronic products.
Jeff Barney, a Toshiba vice president, said the Portege R500 series has become a launch pad for technology innovations and "green" attributes. The series was also the first to ship with a 7mm DVD SuperMulti optical drive, which lowered weight by providing an all-in-one solution for storage.
The R500-S5007V comes with Windows Vista Business, although Windows XP Professional is also available, and it uses an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 1.33 GHz.
The WXGA, 1280 x 800 LED display is described as the world's first 12.1-inch transreflective LED backlit display, which accommodates a wide variety of lighting conditions. The backlighting helps when the unit is used indoors. Outdoors, the screen allows light to pass through and reflect back to help show images and allow the backlighting to be turned off.
Like some real-life human models, laptops are in an accelerating battle to be the thinnest. The R500 series comes in at 0.77 inches.
The thinness is, in part, due to Toshiba's High Density Mounting Technology, which allows dual-sided motherboard component mounting. Toshiba said this kind of mounting means it can produce a motherboard that is one-third the size of a normal 15.4-inch notebook with the same functionality.
Similarly, Toshiba engineers sought to tweak the energy efficiency so the R500-S5007V could run for eight hours on a single battery...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Firefox Downloads Exceed 1.6 Million on First Day
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60331
Five hours. That's how long it took Mozilla fans to download enough copies of Firefox 3 to eclipse what the previous version tallied in its first day.
According to Mozilla, Firefox 3 reached 1.6 million downloads by early Tuesday evening. The Web site saw almost 9,000 copies of the free, open-source software downloaded every minute in the opening hours of its availability.
The release of Firefox 3 kicked off Download Day, the Mozilla community's campaign to set a new Guinness World Record for the greatest number of software downloads in 24 hours.
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch, is not surprised at the download numbers, since Mozilla has been pushing the new version heavily for months. "Mozilla certainly threw a nice stunt and Firefox 3 is very good browsing technology," he said. "Most users, though, are not going to see dramatic differences from what they were using before."
Still, Mozilla calls Firefox 3 a major update. "We're really proud of Firefox 3 and it just shows what a committed, energized global community can do when they work together," said John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla.
It took the community three years to develop the latest version. It's available in about 50 languages. It's two to three times faster than its predecessor and it offers more than 15,000 improvements, including a smart location bar, malware protection, and extensive under-the-hood work to improve the speed and performance of the browser, Mozilla said.
At the end of the day, Gartenberg said, browsing innovations are about speed, displaying Web pages so content presents correctly, and security features to protect users from malicious Web sites.
"Firefox's big new feature is the ability to search your surfing history and find sites you've been to in the last three months," Gartenberg said. "It's sort of a mini-search engine for your...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Getting a Grip on Spyware, Malware and Viruses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60329
Protecting yourself against spyware is no simple task. First, you have to be able to identify exactly what spyware is. Then you need to be knowledgeable enough to know which tools can protect you -- and when their warning of infections can be safely ignored. And finally, you should know precautions that you can take to keep from getting spyware in the first place.
Spyware, as its name suggests, involves some element of eavesdropping on your activities while online. That eavesdropping can cover a range of activities, from logging your keystrokes to tracking your Internet activities or noting the Web sites you visit so that advertisers can push targeted ads at you.
Computer viruses, strictly speaking, are computer programs that mimic organic viruses in that once they infect your computer, they can spread throughout the machine or infect other computers with which you have contact. Before the Internet became popular, viruses were spread by sharing infected floppy disks or CDs. Now, viruses can be spread much more easily and quickly over the Internet or through files transmitted by e-mail.
Malware is a more general category that can include both spyware and viruses but more specifically refers to any software that is created to do harm to you, your computer, or other computers with which you have a connection.
A: If you're using one of the free anti-spyware tools, run it at least every month, more frequently if you tend to visit sites from which spyware is typically contracted, particularly gaming, gambling, and adults-only sites.
Many experts recommend that if you rely upon free anti-spyware programs, you install and run several on a monthly basis. But be sure you stick to the well-known and well-respected programs, such as Ad-Aware SE,...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Adobe Reports Strong Second-Quarter Results
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60321
Adobe Systems Inc.'s profit rose 41 percent in the second quarter because of strong sales and booming demand in international markets.
For the three months ended May 30, the maker of Photoshop design software and the Acrobat publishing tool reported Monday that it earned $214.9 million, or 40 cents per share, compared to $152.5 million, or 25 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
Excluding special items, the software maker reported income of $272.7 million, or 50 cents a share, compared to $223.2 million, or 37 cents a share in the same quarter a year ago.
On that same basis, analysts polled by Thomson Financial had predicted, on average, earnings per share of 46 cents on revenue of $880 million.
Actual revenue beat those expectations at $886.9 million, up 19 percent from $745.6 million a year ago.
Sales in foreign markets with stronger currencies than the dollar translated into more dollars for Adobe. About 5 percent of second-quarter revenue, or $44 million, came as a result of positive foreign exchange rates, Chief Financial Officer Mark Garrett told investors in a conference call.
More than half Adobe's sales some from overseas.
Emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Brazil and China offer great opportunities for growth as software piracy declines, Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Narayen said the company's positive performance results from burgeoning demand for digital content and from the fact that both Adobe's geographic reach and its product mix are very diversified.
"The amount of video that's being used on the Web continues to explode, and I think frankly we are very early in people using video on the web," Narayen said. "The desire to continue to consume personalized content is going to continue for a long time."
The San Jose-Calif.-based company expects third-quarter earnings of 34 cents to 36 cents...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Electronic Arts Extends Deadline for Buyout Offer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60320
The game is far from over. On Tuesday, Electronic Arts Inc. extended its $2 billion tender offer for Grand Theft Auto maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. for the fourth time, to July 18.
The $25.74-per-share offer, which had been set to expire at midnight Monday, remains unchanged, EA said. The world's largest video game publisher called the more than 48 percent premium to Take-Two's stock price before the bid became public in February "substantial."
New York-based Take-Two has repeatedly rejected the unsolicited bid as too low but has said it has begun discussions with "interested parties" about possible alternatives, which could include a sale. Take-Two said Tuesday the EA offer still "significantly undervalues" the company.
Analysts generally expect a deal to eventually go through, with EA raising the price by a couple of dollars. Take-Two has touted the successful launch of its blockbuster Grand Theft Auto IV as proof the company is worth more, but EA calls the offer full and fair. As of May 31, 8.5 million copies of GTA IV have been sold to consumers worldwide.
"We congratulate Rockstar on the successful launch of GTA IV but believe our offer reflects a full and fair price based on the long-term value of Take-Two's entire operation," Owen Mahoney, senior vice president of EA's corporate development, said in a statement.
In the latest quarter, the GTA franchise accounted for more than three-quarters of Take-Two's total publishing revenue. The company's sports business, meanwhile, remains unprofitable.
Like the last time it extended the offer, Redwood City, California-based EA said the latest extension allows the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust review of the proposed acquisition to continue.
As of Monday, about 6.1 million shares of Take-Two had been tendered, which represents less than 8 percent of the company's outstanding shares. It is also slightly below the 6.2 million shares that had...
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Social Web Browser Flock Out With New Test Version
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60317
Developers of a "social" Web browser called Flock have released a new test version.
Like its predecessors, the Flock 2 beta uses building blocks from Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people collectively develop free products. The newest version of Flock incorporates improvements from Mozilla's Firefox 3 browser, which is scheduled for release Tuesday.
Flock emphasizes the social aspects of the Web with features such as better integration with news-recommendation site Digg, online hangout Facebook and group-messaging service Twitter.
For instance, Flock's media bar lets users view images from Yahoo Inc.'s photo-sharing site Flickr without having to visit Flickr directly.
The new version of Flock promises to display Web pages faster and run complex Web applications such as Google Inc.'s Gmail twice as fast as the previous version.
Like Firefox 3, the new Flock also adds protection from sites known to distribute viruses and other malicious software, not just those that engage in "phishing" scams.
Flock released the test browser Monday for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. Firefox 3, in tests since November, has a final release due out Tuesday for the same platforms.
Firefox is the main browser made by Mozilla, but other volunteers and companies have adapted Mozilla's core technology to produce Flock and other browsers.
Thu, 19 Jun 08
MySpace Gets $6 Million in Lawsuit Against Spammer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60316
MySpace can collect $6 million from a notorious Internet marketer accused by the popular online hangout of spamming its users.
An arbitrator has ruled that Scott Richter and his Web marketing company, Media Breakaway LLC of Westminster, Colorado, must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in attorney's fees for barraging MySpace members with unsolicited advertisements. Media Breakaway and its employees were also banned from the site.
MySpace, a unit of News Corp., had alleged that some of the messages were sent from accounts whose sign-on information had been hijacked by "phishing." Media Breakaway countered that rogue business affiliates -- independent contractors who sent messages for Media Breakaway -- were to blame for phishing and other improper behavior.
In a statement, Media Breakaway celebrated the fact that the arbitrator had awarded MySpace "95 percent less than the amount demanded" by the company.
Indeed, Thursday's arbitration ruling pales next to a $230 million verdict MySpace won in U.S. District Court last month against two Internet marketers, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines. Nonetheless, MySpace hopes the Richter case will increase the pressure it has been trying to place on spammers.
"MySpace has essentially declared a war on spam and phishing on our site," Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in an interview.
Richter is a familiar figure in such matters. Microsoft Corp. won a $7 million settlement against him in a spam lawsuit in 2005, and the state of New York got $50,000 from Richter the year before.
However, Richter's father, Steven Richter, who serves as Media Breakaway's president and general counsel, said Monday that the company has worked harder in recent years to stay clean. He said Media Breakaway now has five employees tracking its legal compliance, up from one in 2006.
In this case, he said, Media Breakaway had misunderstood MySpace's rules prohibiting commercial messages....
Thu, 19 Jun 08
Cheap PC Gadget for Internet Calls Gaining Ground
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60315
What's the fastest-growing fixed-line phone company in the United States?
It's not Verizon Communications Inc. or AT&T Inc. -- they're losing lines. What about cable company Comcast Corp., which is raking in subscribers for its phone service? Even that company is being beaten by a small Palm Beach, Florida, company called YMax Corp., judging by its own figures.
YMax may not be well-known but the company has been running TV ads for its product, the MagicJack, which works with a broadband connection.
It's about the size of a matchbox and plugs into a PC. After plugging a regular phone into the MagicJack, the user can make and receive calls much like using a regular landline.
In January, just after the broad advertising campaign started, YMax was selling a few hundred MagicJacks per day, said Jim Donlon, its chief marketing officer. Now, it's selling 8,000 to 9,000 per day, and the company is on track to have half a million subscribers by the end of June.
That's a meteoric trajectory in the phone business, propelled by the pricing: The MagicJack costs $39.95, including one year of free calls in the United States and Canada. Another year of service costs $19.95.
"It's extremely low-risk. Most people I know are willing to gamble on 40 bucks," said TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert, who follows voice-over-Internet providers.
Unlike most voice-over-Internet Protocol -- or VoIP -- providers, YMax is licensed as a phone company in the continental United States and operates a wide network of servers to carry its calls. VoIP providers generally outsource that side of the business.
Comcast, the fastest-growing cable voice provider, signed up a net average of 7,100 customers per day in the first quarter, ending with 5.1 million on March 31. Vonage Corp., the leading independent provider of VoIP that works with regular phones was averaging 334 per day,...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
Mozilla Site Goes Down Amid Firefox 3 Downloads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60330
It's official. Mozilla has made the Firefox 3 Web browser available to the masses. After more than 34 months of active development and the contributions of thousands of people, Mozilla is promising this is the best browser -- period.
Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web-rendering platform. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 15,000 updates, including some major re-architecting for improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. The result, Mozilla said, is a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with more under the hood to offer Web-site and Firefox add-on developers.
Mozilla was hoping to break a world record for downloads in a single day and gain ground on its browser competitors. Firefox boasts more than 18 percent of the global market, according to Net Applications.
The response was so great Tuesday afternoon that the Mozilla.org site went down as consumers rushed to download the third major release of the open-source browser.
Firefox 3 features advanced security protection to help Mozilla's 175 million users avoid giving sensitive information to e-criminals. Firefox 3 supports Extended Validation (EV) Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates.
When Internet users visit a site protected by VeriSign EV SSL certificates, the "Site Identity" button attached to the location bar changes color to indicate the level of identity information provided, offering immediate reassurance that they've reached a site whose authenticity has or has not been verified by VeriSign.
That kind of assurance is essential on today's Internet, where identity thieves frequently lure consumers to impostor Web pages. Such fraudulent pages are a common tool for e-criminals bent on stealing sensitive personal information, from passwords to Social Security numbers. According to Netcraft, the number of sites live with EV SSL certificates has surpassed 6,000.
"To shield Web users from online crime rings...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
Apple, AT&T Settle iPhone Technology Patent Dispute
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60326
Klausner Technologies has settled a patent-infringement lawsuit it filed late last year against Apple and codefendant AT&T. "A settlement was reached with both Apple and AT&T, and a license was granted to them," said company founder Judah Klausner.
Klausner Technologies, which owns U.S. and international patents covering visual voice-mail products and services, asserted last December that Apple's iPhone -- together with other services offered by AT&T -- had infringed on two Klausner patents dating from 1994 and 1996. Both patents cover designs pertaining to telephone answering devices that link the displayed data with recorded audio messages.
Earlier this year, the company announced it had reached a licensing deal with GotVoice -- another of the lawsuit's codefendants.
"We are happy to add GotVoice to our growing list of licensees," Klausner said. "GotVoice's visual voice mail is an excellent example of our patented visual voice-messaging technology, letting consumers view and select voice messages in a similar fashion to the way they view and select e-mails."
The disputed technology empowers a popular feature offered by the iPhone's revolutionary user interface. Called visual voice mail, it enables iPhone users to access a list of all incoming voice messages in an e-mail-like display format. Users then have the option of designating the precise order in which they wish to play back their voice-mail messages.
Klausner Technologies said the iPhone's design infringed on the company's intellectual-property rights by allowing handset users to selectively retrieve voice messages via the iPhone's inbox display.
"Apple has called iPhone's visual voice mail 'one of the greatest advances in the history of mankind . . . without question,'" Klausner Technologies said when it filed the lawsuit, which sought $360 million in damages and future royalties.
Now that an agreement has been reached, however, Klausner is refraining from the...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
EA Hypes Spore with Teaser 'Creature Creator'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60325
Electronic Arts is daring gamers to test the limits of their imagination with the latest game debut from its Maxis studio.
On Tuesday, EA released Spore Creature Creator. Noteworthy is the fact that Spore Creature Creator is not a full game in itself, but rather an introduction to the highly anticipated video game called Spore that will ship globally in September.
Spore comes from the creators of The Sims. The game will give players their own personal universe in a box. Players, in essence, enter a virtual world where they can create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds, and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings and even UFOs.
"Today is the day we begin to see Spore come to life," said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer and general manager at Maxis. "We're excited to see what players will do with the powerful and intuitive creativity tools we've put into the Spore Creature Creator."
Spore Creature Creator is available now for both PC and Mac. This is a stand-alone product that EA is calling a "creativity toy box" that lets players create their own unique creatures, bring them to life with animations, and share them online with friends around the world.
The Spore Creature Creator lets players take their creatures on a test drive, snap pictures, and make movies of them. Clicking one button lets players share pictures or videos with friends. Players can also share their creations with others by uploading to the "Sporepedia" at the game's Web site. The Sporepedia is an online destination where people worldwide can search for and share Spore creations, comment on other players' designs, and check out celebrity creature creations.
"Our...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
United Offers iPod Seats -- for Upgraded Travelers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60324
As rising fuel prices slash airline profits and a recent charge for checked baggage irks fliers, United Airlines is beefing up its appeal to business travelers through Apple's iPod.
United's international flights are offering an entertainment system with a 30-pin connector to plug in an iPod and listen to music or watch videos on a 15.4-inch screen. Plugging in also charges the device.
"Our guests may now watch or listen to what they want, when they want, with programming they choose," said Graham Atkinson, United's chief customer officer. He said the airline is committed to providing technology to make travel "more relaxed and enjoyable."
Apple participated in the announcement with enthusiasm. "We think United customers are going to love being able to listen or watch personal music and video content on their iPod or iPhone via the in-flight entertainment system, and we can't wait for United to roll this out to their fleet," said Greg Joswiak, vice president of iPod marketing.
The initial flight of the new iPod-enabled United was Flight No. 936 from Washington to Zurich, which departed Monday at 5:40 p.m. United will roll out the entertainment service on its wide-body international planes over the next two years. The aircraft will also get lie-flat seats and on-demand entertainment. The perks are only available in first-class and business-class seating.
For many fliers, the ability to charge devices may be more important than the screen display. A Macworld reader said, "Even just recharging would be a major improvement. On a recent flight to Prague, my iPod (5G) died with about two and a half hours to go. Having some way to recharge it would have been very much appreciated."
But while business travelers may appreciate such quality-of-flight improvements, consumer dissatisfaction with airlines casts a pall over announcements like these. "After my experience this past...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
MySpace Teen Suicide Defendant Pleads Not Guilty
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60323
A Missouri woman indicted on federal charges for fraudulently using an account on MySpace and posing as a teenage boy pled not guilty on Thursday. Lori Drew's alleged shenanigans led to the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier. Megan killed herself after the "boy" who feigned romantic interest in Meier later spurned her and told her, among other things, that the world would be a better place without her.
Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Mo., was named in a four-count indictment returned in May by a federal grand jury. The indictment charges one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.
The indictment alleges that Drew, along with others, registered as a member of MySpace under the name "Josh Evans." Drew and her co-conspirators then used the Josh Evans account to contact Megan and began what the girl believed was an online romance with a 16-year-old boy.
In taking those actions, the indictment alleges, Drew and her co-conspirators violated MySpace's terms of service that prohibit users from using fraudulent registration information, using accounts to obtain personal information about juvenile members, and using the MySpace communication services to harass, abuse or harm other members.
After approximately four weeks of flirtations between "Josh Evans" and Megan, Drew and her co-conspirators broke off the relationship. Within an hour, Megan hanged herself in her room. She died the next day.
Parry Aftab, a security, privacy and cyberspace attorney and executive director of WiredSafety.org, an online safety and educational site, is not surprised that Drew plead not guilty because that's a typical move at this phase of a case unless the defendant has cut a deal with prosecutors. Drew, Aftab said, has been protesting her involvement in the case recently. But her previous testimony may belie her.
"All...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
AMD Counters Nvidia with Cinema 2.0 Graphics Chip
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60322
On the same day competitor Nvidia released its GPU 200 series of high-end graphics chips, Advanced Micro Devices announced what it called "the Cinema 2.0 experience" that will be possible because of its forthcoming teraFLOPS graphics chip.
At a press conference in San Francisco on Monday, AMD said that, until this release, content creators had to make a choice -- between cinema-like experiences that were rendered offline and didn't have interactivity, or interactive experiences that didn't have ultra-realism.
But now, the company said, the experiences can become one. Charlie Boswell, director of the digital media and entertainment group at AMD, said Cinema 2.0 will allow users to not only play movies, but to "play in them."
He added that the possibilities could include looking around inside a sci-fi movie, being in the driver's seat in a race scene, or ducking behind things for cover during an intense gunfight.
In fact, AMD touted the power of the chip as more powerful "than every generation of video-game console ever brought to market," combined. A teraFLOP is a trillion floating-point operations per second.
The company showed a demo that it said fused real-time interactivity with what appeared to be "real places and things captured on video," made possible because of the power of the chip. The demo system included two of the TeraFLOPS chips, which are code-named RV770, along with an AMD Phenom X4 quad-core processor and AMD 790 FX Chipset.
AMD worldwide developer-relations manager Richard Huddy said the new chip could allow moviegoers to see a feature film in a theater, and then play a game at home in which the scenes were not just close resemblances to the on-screen versions, but identical.
The TeraFLOPS chip is expected to be introduced this summer as an ATI Radeon HD-branded graphics card. The company said that,...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
MSU at Forefront of Cybercrime Training for Officers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60301
Mississippi State University (MSU) has established an impressive reputation in the field of cyber security as evidenced recently by MSU being named by the National Security Agency (NSA) as one of 23 Centers of Academic Excellence in Research in Information Assurance Education in the country.
"This is a new certification that recognizes security research capability," said Dr. Ray Vaughn, head of the Center for Computer Security Research housed in the Computer Science Department. "This designation puts us in a really good group of other universities that the national government has sanctioned as universities having a very strong program in information assurance research and education. We are very proud of that."
MSU has also started a training center to help law enforcement officers become skilled at digital forensics.
"Today, most criminals have computers and tend to leave evidence on those computers," Vaughn said. "There are special techniques that law enforcement must use to extract evidence from digital devices so the evidence is admissible in court. We train police on how to do what we call 'search and seizure' and how to present the evidence in a court of law. Police go to crime scenes and search for physical evidence. Just as important today is to capture the computer system that is there and search for digital, as well as physical, evidence. But that takes a different skill set and we are trying to bring that
skill set to law enforcement."
People often think about child pornography offenders regarding computer crimes. But it goes far beyond that into areas such as finding evidence of thefts, drug sales and even voter fraud.
"Almost every criminal today relies on automation, even drug dealers," Vaughn said. "They tend to leave evidence on their computer that may show up in spreadsheets, e-mails or other files they create and...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
Message-Tracking: Return to Sender, but Not By E-Mail
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60300
For centuries, letter writers have wondered whether their missives safely reach the hands of their intended recipients. "I know not whether this will ever come to your hands or miscarry," opened a typical one in 1625, from Roger White in the Netherlands, who was writing to friends at Plymouth colony.
Today, of course, we send e-mail messages that travel great distances in seconds, rather than weeks. Occasionally, however, we do not hear back and wonder whether our message was ever received. Wouldn't we be grateful if we could know with certainty?
I'm blithely inconsistent, however. When I'm the recipient of an e-mail message, I'm uncomfortable when a sender, seeking reassurance of safe delivery, presents me with a pop-up box requesting that I click to acknowledge its receipt. I routinely decline to do so. Why? I can't say exactly. Maybe it's like the unpleasant business of being presented with a certified letter from an unpaid creditor.
Before the advent of a federal postal system, letters passed through the hands of many volunteer carriers on the way to their destinations. William Merrill Decker explains in "Epistolary Practices: Letter Writing in America Before Telecommunications," published in 1998, that letter writers were willing to "consent to write five letters on the chance that one might reach the addressee." When a letter was lost or delayed, it was said to be "miscarried."
So, too, can e-mail be miscarried. A message usually hops several times as it traverses one mail router to the next. The technical name is MTA, for mail transport agent. Each mail router can see only as far as the next hop. Once it hands off responsibility, it has no way to track the progress of the message.
The basic Internet e-mail standard -- SMTP, or simple mail transport protocol -- has always provided for the destination...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
Tech Firms Fight Information Overload They Created
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60298
The onslaught of cell phone calls, e-mail and instant messages is fracturing attention spans and hurting productivity. It is a common complaint. But now the very companies that helped create the flood are trying to mop it up.
Some of the biggest technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and IBM, are banding together to fight information overload.
Last week they formed a nonprofit group to study the problem, publicize it and devise ways to help workers -- theirs and others -- cope with the digital deluge.
Their effort comes as there is mounting statistical and anecdotal evidence that the same technology tools that have led to improvements in productivity can be counterproductive if overused.
The big chip maker Intel found in an eight-month internal study that some employees who were encouraged to limit digital interruptions said they were more productive and creative as a result.
Intel and other companies are already experimenting with solutions. Small units at some companies are encouraging workers to check e-mail messages less frequently, to send group messages more judiciously and to avoid letting the drumbeat of digital missives constantly shake up and reorder to-do lists.
A Google software engineer last week introduced E-Mail Addict, an experimental feature for the company's e-mail service that lets people cut themselves off from their in-boxes for 15 minutes.
Jonathan Spira, chief analyst at the research firm Basex and a member of the new group's board, said that the companies realized they faced a monster of their own creation. He pointed to a Silicon Valley maxim that companies should "eat their own dog food," meaning they should make use of their own innovations.
"They're realizing they're eating too much," Spira said.
Many people readily recognize that they face -- or invite -- continual interruption, but the emerging data on the scale of the problem may...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
Some Employees Buy Own Laptops, Phones for Work
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60294
Many employees -- frustrated that their companies are unwilling to pay for the laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices that they want on the road -- are spending their own money to get them.
Nearly 40 percent of professionals recently surveyed by researcher In-Stat paid for a laptop that they regularly carried. Cell phone users often picked up their bill. And company-provided personal digital assistants (PDAs), cameras and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are relatively rare, says the survey, released today.
Businesses say they must carefully choose which electronics to provide for employees because they're expensive. A BlackBerry e-mail device with one year of service costs around $1,400.
"You have to find the business value," says Eric Davies, founder of the Davies Murphy Group, a marketing and public relations firm in Burlington, Mass.
Some companies end up being "penny wise but pound foolish," says In-Stat tech analyst Bill Hughes. "These things do add value" -- and often cost far less than an employee's time, he says.
Deciding which electronics to buy employees is tough, because there's no easy way to measure how much they boost productivity, says tech analyst Roger Kay at Endpoint Technologies Associates. Some companies also aren't willing to gamble on newer technology.
Chris Pugh, an auditor for Virginia, often spends four days a week driving around the state. He doesn't have a company-provided cell phone or GPS, so he bought his own. "They help a whole lot," he says.
But Chuck Guedelhoefer, a senior principal at forensic engineering firm Raths Raths & Johnson in Willowbrook, Ill., says most of his employees already have cell phones, so the company reimburses them for extra work-related charges. "If you're working, you're not supposed to be on the phone," he says.
There's also the issue of personal use. Since most people aren't going to carry two cell phones or...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
After Roadrunner, Where Do Supercomputers Go?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60293
Once you've shattered the supercomputing speed barrier, what do you do for an encore? You train your sights on the next frontier of superfast high-powered computing, of course. At least, that's the plan for the engineers at IBM and Los Alamos National Laboratories, who built Roadrunner, the world's fastest computer.
Unveiled this month, the $133 million Roadrunner is the first computer able to handle more than a quadrillion calculations in a second. Roadrunner, named after the speedy state bird of New Mexico, is more than twice as fast as the prior record holder, BlueGene, also developed by IBM.
Roadrunner was commissioned by the U.S. Energy Dept.'s National Nuclear Security Administration. Ultimately the machine will be closed off for classified research and used to ensure that the nation's nuclear stockpile remains usable.
But for a six-month period, Roadrunner will be open to the scientific community to perform cutting-edge simulations. Los Alamos ran a competition to determine which projects would be best-suited to the abilities of Roadrunner, which is packed with versions of the Cell chip designed for Sony's PlayStation 3, as well as Advanced Micro Devices' dual-core Opteron chip.
For starters, researchers will use Roadrunner to simulate the strong magnetic forces generated by plasma, the ionized gas that makes up much of the solar atmosphere. Scientists will also harness Roadrunner's power to model oceanic heat exchange to advance understanding of such phenomena as El Nio, the warming of the ocean's surface that causes unusual weather patterns.
In the future, computers like Roadrunner could also be used in a wide range of tasks, from animation to medical imaging to financial risk management, says Dave Turek, vice-president of deep computing at IBM. The company is working to implement technology based on the Roadrunner system at Mizuho Securities in Japan, where it will be...
Wed, 18 Jun 08
Consumers Win as Wireless Plans Get Cheaper
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60280
Sprint Nextel and Verizon are rolling out new, more consumer-friendly calling plans, reflecting the hyper-competitive state of wireless.
Starting Monday, Sprint will begin offering a new "share" plan that offers 3,000 voice minutes and a bounty of add-ons for $169.99 a month for two lines. Additional lines cost $19.99 each.
In addition to the 50 hours of calling time, subscribers will receive: unlimited messaging and e-mail, unlimited access to the mobile Web, 50 streaming music channels, 25-plus live TV channels, on-demand TV -- clips as well as full-length TV shows -- and unlimited GPS navigation. For sports fans, there's also unlimited access to NFL Mobile and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile. BlackBerry users also qualify for this plan.
Cheaper plans with fewer services start at $69.99 a month. Depending on the plan, lines can be added for as little as $9.99 a month.
For a family of three, the $169.99 plan represents a $45 savings off Sprint's prior plans, says Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at Pali Research. The savings is $60 compared with Verizon and $45 compared with AT&T wireless. The latter don't offer GPS navigation or BlackBerry options, he notes.
With prices for gas, food and other necessities rising, Piecyk says Sprint's approach is pitch-perfect.
"If you can save somebody $50 to $60 on a rate plan, they're going to switch," he predicts.
Sprint has been struggling with a string of operational problems related to the Nextel merger. Piecyk says most consumers don't care about that -- but they do care an awful lot about saving money.
"If you cut the price enough, that moves customers," he says.
Verizon, on the cusp of becoming the USA's No.1 wireless carrier, thanks to its proposed acquisition of Alltel, is also turning up the marketing heat.
Next week, Verizon plans to start offering discounts of $8 to $21 a month to people...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
FCC Chief Recommends OK of Satellite Radio Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60310
The proposed merger of the nation's two satellite radio broadcasters -- bogged down in the regulatory process for over a year -- has cleared a major hurdle: The Federal Communications Commission chief is recommending approval of the $3.8 billion deal.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin made his recommendation Sunday in exchange for a number of concessions, including turning 24 channels over to noncommercial and minority programming. That sets the stage for a final vote that could occur any time after Martin's recommendation is circulated among his fellow commissioners.
The provision on noncommercial and minority programming along with several others -- including a three-year price freeze for customers -- persuaded Martin to support Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. The deal would affect millions of subscribers who pay to hear music, news, sports and talk programming, largely free from advertising, in homes and vehicles.
The other four commissioners have kept their views on the deal largely to themselves. Unlike most FCC decisions, there is no clear indication how the vote will go.
Martin said the conditions will make the combination of the two companies good for consumers.
"As I've indicated before, this is an unusual situation," Martin said in a statement. "I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they (the companies) have offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest."
The companies also agreed to an "open radio" standard, meant to create competition among manufacturers of satellite radios, according to FCC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been made public.
Other conditions are similar to promises made by Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin last year.
They include a three-year freeze on prices and packages that include programs from both services, including a so-called "a la carte" offering that would be available within three months...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
IBM, Partner Aim To Cut Solar-Cell Production Costs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60309
IBM is collaborating with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo to develop thin-film techniques that promise to make the next generation of photovoltaic devices more affordable as well as easier to install.
The companies plan to jointly develop the processes, materials and equipment needed to make highly efficient solar-cell modules based on an exotic compound known as Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide (CIGS).
"Our goal is to develop more efficient photovoltaic structures that would reduce the cost, minimize the complexity, and improve the flexibility of producing solar electric power," said IBM Research Vice President Dr. Tze-Chiang Chen. "IBM's advanced technology, combined with TOK's expertise in equipment design and manufacture, have the potential to broaden the use of alternative energy sources."
IBM says it has already developed CIGS-based solar cells capable of achieving efficiencies of more than about 15 percent. By contrast, today's solar cells -- which largely rely on conventional silicon to convert sunlight into electricity -- only achieve efficiencies of about six to 12 percent.
For its part, TOK says it has succeeded in formulating the high-purity chemicals and chemical-application techniques that IBM needs to mass-produce CIGS-based solar cells more cheaply. For example, TOK has developed a high-precision "spinless" technique that enables a photoresist coating to be deposited on top of glass substrates that have proven difficult to coat using conventional spin-process methods.
When applied to a cheap glass substrate, this super-thin coating can be up to 100 times thinner than a silicon wafer. This ends up cutting production costs substantially in comparison with conventional technology, the companies said.
By joining forces, the companies also expect to bring large-scale production of thin-film solar cells to market in ways that will enable them to be deployed in a wider range of applications. In particular, IBM and TOK will investigate whether thin-film solar cells could be...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
Developers Will Get Access to eBay, PayPal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60308
Up to now, the online tool for managing and tracking listings on eBay, called eBay Selling Manager, has only offered sellers direct access to applications that the e-commerce giant developed in-house. But that's about to change.
Project Echo, unveiled at this week's eBay Developers Conference in Chicago, takes the company's online platform to the next level by enabling outside developers to embed applications in the eBay site.
"Third-party developers want our help with marketing and distribution, and sellers consistently seek better tools to help them scale," said Max Mancini, senior director of platform and disruptive innovation at eBay. "Opening eBay.com directly to third-party applications through the selling manager gives developers an immediate channel to growth-minded eBay sellers."
Developers meeting the site standards for trusted buying and selling experiences will have an opportunity to showcase their tools as well as realize direct sales to eBay's 700,000 sellers.
"This move presents a great opportunity for us to tap into the distribution and marketing scale of eBay in a way we've never been able to utilize before," said Jerad Schempp, CEO of Hosted Support.
Developers will embed their applications in selling manager through an 'Echo Canvas' window slated to appear within My eBay. They will be able to promote their products based on keywords as well as manage the delivery of important information to subscribed users over a secure on-site communications channel.
Developers will also be given the opportunity to benefit from real-time promotions and placements. Listings for their applications will appear within popular eBay site flows based on context-sensitive user profile data, with sellers shown the applications most relevant to their needs.
According to eBay, subscribing to a third-party application or feature in selling manager will be identical to how eBay-developed selling features and applications are offered. Business sellers will be able...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
MySpace To Roll Out Redesign with Room for Advertising
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60307
As part of a yearlong initiative to redesign and rethink the core functionality of its site, MySpace is launching a new user interface this week in hopes of making it easier for members to communicate with friends and family. But analysts say the major motivation may be as much about attracting advertising dollars as making navigation more user-friendly.
The changes will roll out throughout the week, and are based on results from multiple in-home usability studies, online surveys, impromptu testing, focus groups, and user messages and comments sent to the profile of Tom Anderson, president and cofounder of MySpace. MySpace is working with Adaptive Path, a best-of-breed "experience-strategy" and design firm based in San Francisco, to usher in some of the user-interface changes.
"A year ago, we set out on a path to rethink the way people interact with the fundamental features of MySpace," said Anderson. "These changes lay the groundwork for what is to come -- by the early fall, we expect to reveal an entirely new and remixed MySpace that deepens the engagement of current users and attracts new ones."
The changes begin with the splash page. On Wednesday, U.S. users will see a branded splash page sponsored by a major advertiser. On Thursday, users will see an entire new look and feel that features a more intuitive and simplified log-in system, the company said.
The new splash page features a larger creative palette for advertisers, allowing for a flexible platform to put a large percentage of the page into a brand. It also highlights new content -- news, blogs, video and music, including "top 10" charts from the MySpace community.
Social networks are ultimately a brand-advertising vehicle and demographic-targeting tool on which it's difficult to succeed with performance-based advertising alone, according to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
AP Backs Down on Blog-Posting Crackdown
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60306
Read almost any blog, and you'll find an Associated Press article being quoted. Usually it's just a paragraph or two, and most bloggers have assumed such quoting qualified as "fair use" under U.S. copyright laws.
The AP has a different opinion. Last week, it sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Drudge Retort blog -- a left-wing response to the popular Drudge Report -- demanding the site remove several items that included relatively brief excerpts of AP stories, from 39 to 79 words.
But faced with an onslaught of criticism from bloggers, the AP made a quick about-face. After issuing a determined statement on Friday that it would go after bloggers when it feels "the use is more reproduction than reference, or when others are encouraged to cut and paste," Jim Kennedy, the AP's vice president and strategy director, told The New York Times that approach was "heavy-handed."
"We don't want to cast a pall over the blogosphere by being heavy-handed, so we have to figure out a better and more positive way to do this," Kennedy said.
The upshot is that the AP has promised to release a comprehensive set of guidelines on what it considers acceptable quoting in blogs. That's something bloggers need now, said Rogers Cadenhead, owner of the Drudge Retort. "There are millions of people sharing links to news articles on blogs, message boards and sites like Digg. If the AP has concerns that go all the way down to one or two sentences of quoting, they need to tell people what they think is legal and where the boundaries are."
But Michael Arrington at the influential TechCrunch blog believes such a policy is an illegal infringement on the fair-use doctrine, and has vowed not to link to or quote AP stories.
"The AP doesn't get to make it's...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
Nvidia Releases GeForce GTX 200 Graphics Processors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60305
Leading graphics chipmaker Nvidia on Monday introduced its new lineup of GeForce GTX 200 graphics processors. They are expected to be available in graphics cards later this month.
The GTX 200 GPU, according to Nvidia, "is the most advanced GPU ever built." Instead of requiring more than five hours to convert a video for an iPod, the new GPU needs only about half an hour.
GPUs provide the graphics horsepower for some of the most processing-intensive tasks, such as rendering 3-D images in real time, encoding and playing high-definition videos, editing photos, or other such tasks.
The GTX 280 and 260 feature 50 percent more gaming performance, compared with the previous Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra GPU. The new GPU's 240 enhanced processor cores offer resolutions as high as 2560 x 1600.
Three-way SLI technology provides alternate frame rendering for what the company called "the world's fastest gaming solution under Windows Vista," and the CUDA technology enables programmers to offload processing tasks from the CPU to the GPUs. The company also said its chips are the only ones to support PhysX technology, a physics engine that is already being used in more than 140 games.
Nvidia cited Elemental Technologies' BadaBOOM Media Converter, which utilizes the new chips and is expected to be released in August. "By taking advantage of the massively parallel, general-purpose computing architecture of a GeForce GPU," said Elemental CEO Sam Blackman, "we are able to transcode high-quality video 18 times faster than with CPU-only implementations."
Nvidia also noted that the GPUs can be utilized to increase the speed of one of the most processing-intensive tasks, simulating protein folding for research into treatments for diseases. The Folding@Home project from Stanford University utilizes distributed processing grids, with processing from many home-based personal computers and game machines.
Vijay Pande, an associate...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
Voters Take Advantage of Internet To Get Unfiltered Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60304
Nearly half of all Americans have used the Internet, e-mail or cell-phone text messaging to get news about the 2008 presidential campaign, share their views, and mobilize others, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The proportion of Americans going online to get political news or information on a typical day at the tail end of the primary season has more than doubled since a comparable point in the 2004 race -- from eight percent of all adults in spring 2004 to 17 percent in spring 2008.
"The Internet is allowing people to learn and share their interest in the political realm in a way that wasn't available 10 years ago or 20 years ago," said Pew Internet project research specialist Aaron Smith, an author of the report.
The poll found, among other things, that younger voters are among the most active and intense Internet users. Young voters are helping define the online political debate -- 12 percent of online 18-to-29-year-olds have posted their own political commentary or writing to an online newsgroup, Web site, or blog. Led by young voters, Democrats and Obama supporters have taken the lead in their use of online tools.
These online voters are more likely to support Democrat Barack Obama, Pew revealed, and that means his partisans were significantly ahead of Hillary Clinton's supporters online in the Democratic race. What's more, the survey showed, Obama backers have a higher profile in some online areas than supporters of Republican John McCain.
Three online activities became especially prominent as the presidential primary campaigns progressed: First, 35 percent of Americans say they have watched online political videos -- a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew project got in the 2004 race.
Second, 10 percent say they have used social-networking sites such as Facebook...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
Obama Sets Up Web Site To Fight Cyber Attacks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60281
Democrat Barack Obama is fighting back against cyber attacks and innuendo with a Web site that seeks to debunk Internet rumors, most notably a claim his wife used a racial epithet during a church talk and assertions that he is a Muslim.
Obama, who is the first African-American to win a major party's nomination for the White House, faces problems new to U.S. presidential politics in a country burdened with a history of racism.
The Internet move is an unusual one in American politics, where candidates routinely ignore fabricated negative stories about them -- unless they reach a boil -- rather than risk giving them more publicity with explanations or denials.
The Obama campaign appeared to be trying to get out front of a flurry of expected attacks from Republican-allied nonprofit groups, known as 527s after the section of the U.S. tax code that governs them, that can raise unlimited amounts of money for television ads not controlled by campaigns.
Such groups did heavy damage to the 2004 presidential bid of Democrat Sen. John Kerry by questioning his military service in Vietnam and denouncing his criticism of the war when he returned home.
Both Obama and Republican John McCain are running on pledges of changing the highly partisan atmosphere in Washington that has frequently slipped into gutter politics. On Friday, Obama was campaigning in Columbus, Ohio, while McCain was holding a town hall-style meeting in New Jersey.
The top item on the new Obama site, http://www.fightthesmears.com, which was inaugurated Thursday, denies a persistent claim that Obama's wife, Michelle, used the word "whitey" in a talk she once gave at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
The Obamas recently resigned from the congregation after it became a repeated source of embarrassment for the campaign, beginning with revelations of inflammatory remarks by Rev. Jeremiah Wright during his...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
How Mozilla and Firefox Outran the Hounds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60278
It has been a wild first decade for Mozilla. Despite having had a staff of fewer than 100 for most of its existence, the grassroots organization managed to break Microsoft's lock on the Web browser market. If not for Mozilla's popular Firefox browser, Microsoft's software might have come to dominate the Internet the way it does computers. It's an achievement that demonstrates how an open-standards software project guided by an unusual mix of social and business principles can have a huge impact on the technology industry.
Over the past four years, Firefox has steadily chomped away at Microsoft's commanding share of the market. When Firefox was launched in late 2004, about 95 percent of the world's Web surfers were using Microsoft's Internet Explorer [IE]. As of May, Firefox's worldwide market share was 18.4 percent, while Internet Explorer's stood at 73.8 percent, with Apple's Safari browser accounting for most of the rest, according to Web metrics company Net Applications.
While Microsoft's lead remains quite wide, Mozilla's gains have leveled the playing field. The growing strength of Firefox as an alternative to IE has convinced most Web site owners to use open Internet software standards adopted by international bodies rather than Microsoft's proprietary technologies. "They broke the monopoly. They were the provocateur, the disrupter," says Lisa Gansky, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley and former head of Ofoto, a photography Web site now owned by Kodak.
As it gains ground on Microsoft in browsers, Mozilla is also branching out into other markets. The company expects to deliver a version of Firefox for mobile phones before the end of the year. And earlier this year, it created a separate unit named Mozilla Messaging to focus on e-mail products.
In spite of the company's success, it takes nothing for granted. The immense popularity of Adobe's Flash...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
A Guide to Parenting in a High-Tech World
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60273
Everyone knows that babies crawl before they walk and that tricycles come before two-wheelers. But at what age should children get their first cell phone, laptop or virtual persona?
These are new questions being faced by 21st-century parents, and there is no wisdom from the generations for guidance. You can't exactly say to your teenager, "When I was a boy, I didn't have an unlimited texting plan until I was in high school."
Some parents flood their children with technology. "My 4-year-old has been on the Web since he could sit up," said Samantha Morra, a mother of two from Montclair, New Jersey. "My 6-year-old has an iPod and wants a cell phone, although my husband and I aren't sure who he'd call."
Others, like Christine Jorgensen, a mother of three from Flemington, New Jersey, are more cautious.
"I'm not a huge fan of flooding my children's lives with the latest gadget," Jorgensen said. "My children go online for schoolwork, but our computer is in my sight, and protected to the teeth."
Studies of child development offer some middle ground. Long before the invention of the first microprocessor, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development by watching his own children. His theories bring some logic to the debate about how to support your child's growth with the latest technology.
Ages 0-2: Babies and toddlers can't use a mouse until at least age 2, and flat monitors don't offer much in the way of stimulation in Piaget's first "sensorimotor" stage. To work at this age, technology products must act like a busy-box, with lights or sounds that respond to a child's actions.
Toys like the Laugh & Learn 2-in-1 Learning Kitchen by Fisher- Price (www.Fisher-Price.com), which has doors and switches for a baby to explore and a...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
Microsoft Pushes Unified Communication for Call Center
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60156
There is a level of excitement in the call center space I haven't witnessed since VoIP began transforming the call center into the contact center. Over the years, we have seen technology after technology change the way contact centers work, and we are at the point today where IP communications affords us the opportunity to distribute call centers and agents at will. But VoIP seems so yesterday. The latest revolution to come to contact centers is unified communications. I recently wrote about how Aspect introduced a unified communications platform that will allow call centers to increase service, sales and first call resolution levels (see www.tmcnet.com/1853.1).
Just a few days after my article appeared, Microsoft decided to invest in Aspect and, moreover, the two companies decided it made sense to collaborate on a suite of contact center solutions integrating the best of Microsoft OCS and Aspect's UC solutions (see www.tmcnet.com/1854.1).
In an interview with Mike Sheridan, SW of Strategy for Aspect, and Microsoft's Clint Patterson, Director of PR for Unified Communications, I had a chance to learn more about this agreement between the operating system and contact center software leaders. The duo believe that the synergies afforded by this collaboration will be great. They view it as transformational -- they see peoples' lives improving because of better call center service levels.
While on the surface it is easy to dismiss such comments as "PR speak," one of the most frustrating experiences many of us deal with on a regular basis is communication with rock-bottom contact center agents who are still digging. An improvement of even a few percentage points in customer service quality will likely make our lives a bit easier.
The two companies have entered a five-year agreement that encompasses a collaborative roadmap between Aspect Unified IP and OCS. Microsoft will help improve the...
Tue, 17 Jun 08
Using Call Center Technology To Optimize Your Business
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60147
Highly productive agents, minimal employee turnover and well-defined processes are just a few of the factors that tend to separate a successful contact center from an unsuccessful one. However, by leveraging the right technology, your business can maximize revenue and improve agent performance and productivity.
In this article, I will share with you four technology-enabled best practices that will help you drive your business to new levels of success!
The most efficient call centers train their agents to handle both inbound and outbound calls. This allows supervisors to better balance staffing levels based on call volume. For example, your agents can conduct outbound campaigns to generate sales as their primary responsibility, while also receiving incoming customer service calls. This allows the agent to convert routine, inbound customer service calls to revenue-generating interactions ("As you requested, I have updated your mailing address. By the way, have you heard about our new product?").
From a technology perspective, managing a blended agent environment is easier facilitated if your system 1) allows for the same agent desktop for both inbound/outbound activity; and 2) monitors call volume and automatically switches agents between outbound and inbound campaigns (based on business rules that you define). Automatic call blending increases contact center efficiency and removes the supervisor from the time-consuming task of monitoring call activity and manually moving agents between campaigns.
A unified desktop provides a single, integrated interface to all enterprise and external applications that agents typically make use of during a call. The unified desktop manages key supporting systems such as scripted sales and service workflows, an objections/rebuttals knowledgebase, payment processing and a customer interaction history that shows prior interactions, activities and additional profiling and context....
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Firefox 3 and IE8 Have Different Design Philosophies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60290
Mozilla is in the final stages of preparing for the launch of its next-generation Firefox 3 Web browser on June 17. "After more than 34 months of active development, and with the contributions of thousands, we're proud to announce that we're ready," said Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's director of user experience.
Mozilla is also hoping to generate a huge splash of publicity with the release of Firefox 3. "We want to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours," the open-source organization said.
Mozilla's short-term goal is to grab market share from Microsoft before the software giant is ready to release its next-generation Internet Explorer 8, which is currently available in a beta version. A quick comparison between Firefox 3 and what is currently known about Internet Explorer 8 demonstrates that the two organizations have different design philosophies.
Mozilla has put a lot of effort into a design making it easier to become organized. Firefox 3 features a new auto-complete feature that allows a user to type multiple words into the browser's 'AwesomeBar' to access matches gleaned from the user's recent Web surfing history and bookmarked pages. The returned results are sorted by an algorithm that combines the frequency and 'recency' of the user's Web visits.
Firefox 3 also features new bookmarking features. 'Stars' provides a single-click method of bookmarking a page, while a double click opens an editing box that allows the user to customize the entry. For example, the user has the ability to add a 'Tag' to the bookmark that contains extra information. And through the integration of 'Smart Folders,' Firefox 3 enables saved searches to be automatically updated whenever a user adds new bookmarks.
By contrast, Microsoft's plans for IE8 place more emphasis on streamlining the Internet surfing experience. For example, IE8's...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
GTA IV, Wii Lead Video Games To New Heights
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60289
The economy may be trending downward, but video-game software and hardware sales in the U.S. keep going up. Game sales are up 37 percent over the same time last year, according to the NPD Group, a leading market-research firm. Hardware sales are up 34 percent.
On Thursday, NPD said video-game sales in May were about $1.1 billion, bringing total sales for this year so far to about $6.6 billion. NPD projected that 2008 games sales could go as high as $23 billion. In 2007, games sales were $18 billion, an increase of more than 40 percent over 2006.
A boost in overall sales came from the fourth installment of the most recent title in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, whose Microsoft Xbox 360 version has been the best-selling game for two months. It sold 1.3 million units in May, for a total of 4.2 million since it came out in April.
Total hardware sales reached $428 million. In fact, there was substantial improvement in sales, year-over-year, in every category, including accessories. In order, the hardware rankings for May were the Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Portable.
Take-Two Interactive's GTA IV fought off stiff competition from two new popular releases, Mario Kart and the exercise game Wii Fit, both for Nintendo's popular Wii console.
In fact, the Wii and its Nintendo cousin, the handheld DS, had seven of the top 10 game titles for May.
GTA IV for the PS3 was fourth, after the Xbox 360 GTA IV, Mario Kart, and Wii Fit, and was followed by Wii Play with Remote, Wii Super Smash Bros: Brawl, PS2 Iron Man, Wii Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, NDS Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness Noa, and NDS Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time Noa.
NPD indicated,...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Deja Vu! Yahoo Again Ends Talks with Microsoft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60288
Yahoo and Microsoft once again announced Thursday that talks between the companies have ceased. According to Yahoo, discussions with Microsoft regarding an acquisition or a partial purchase have officially concluded.
An end to the Microsoft-Yahoo discussions is familiar to tech-news watchers who have been monitoring the months-long drama. The latest round failed after several meetings and conversations with Microsoft about numerous alternatives.
The most recent meeting took place on June 8th. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and other Yahoo board members participated. At that meeting, Microsoft representatives stated unequivocally that Microsoft was not interested in pursuing an acquisition of all of Yahoo, even at the price range it had previously suggested, according to Yahoo.
With respect to an acquisition of Yahoo's search business that Microsoft proposed, Yahoo's board said it determined, after careful evaluation, that selling off the search business "would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces." It added that course "would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future" and, ultimately, "would not be in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders."
"Yahoo declined to sell the search business to Microsoft because it was too strategic. Yahoo didn't want to part with that -- and Microsoft is no longer interested in buying the whole company," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "If Yahoo really feels that search is strategic, the company will have to continue to invest in Panama or whatever successor platform comes next. Yahoo will have to continue to keep its search platform competitive with Google if it hopes for that piece of its business to remain viable."
Yahoo said it remains focused on maximizing value for stockholders by continuing to execute its strategy to be the...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Yahoo To Show Google Ads Alongside Search Results
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60287
On Thursday, Yahoo reached a deal with Google to advance the company's open strategy in the search and display marketplace.
Yahoo will run Google-supplied ads alongside its own search results and on some of its Web properties in the U.S. and Canada. The agreement is non-exclusive, giving Yahoo the ability to display paid search results from Google, other third parties, and Yahoo's own Panama marketplace.
"This agreement provides a source of funds to both deliver financial value to stockholders from search monetization and to invest in our broader strategy to transform display advertising and advance our starting-point objectives with users," Yahoo President Sue Decker said. "It enhances competition by promoting our ability to compete in the marketplace where we are especially well positioned: in the convergence of search and display."
Under terms of the agreement, Yahoo maintains significant control. For example, Yahoo will select the search-term queries for which -- and the pages on which -- Yahoo may offer Google paid-search results.
Yahoo will define its users' experience and will determine the number and placement of the results provided by Google and the mix of paid results provided by Panama, Google or other providers. The agreement applies to paid search and content match and does not apply to algorithmic search. The agreement also applies to current partners in Yahoo's publisher network.
"We believe that the convergence of search and display is the next major development in the evolution of the rapidly changing online advertising industry," Yahoo CEO and cofounder Jerry Yang said. "Our strategies are specifically designed to capitalize on this convergence -- and this agreement helps us move them forward in a significant way. It also represents an important next step in our open strategy, building on the progress we have already made in advancing a more open marketplace."
Yahoo...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Metal Gear Solid 4 for PS3 Goes on Final Mission
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60286
Solid Snake has returned. The covert-operations hero of Metal Gear Solid has returned for the fourth and final release of the hit video-game franchise.
A PlayStation 3 exclusive, MGS4: Guns of the Patriots is a classic "stealth action" game with a list price of $59.99. The franchise began way back in the last century, 1987 to be exact. But, this time, a major new target has been added to Solid Snake's mission -- to increase sales of the PS3 console.
Initial responses around the Web have been enthusiastic, with some division as to whether the story line and other aspects have gotten clearer over the years.
Scott Taves, writing on MSNBC.com, advised that players first read a summary of past MGS plotlines, or revisit those earlier games, to get up to speed on the new version.
Even so, he said he dove in without heeding his own advice. "Despite having played through all the previous games," he wrote, "I was soon scratching my head." The new version, he wrote, has "more flashbacks, plot twists and resurrected characters than all the episodes of [the] Lost [TV series] combined."
But he said he was too caught up in the presentation and the game play to stop. The plot involves Solid Snake's mission to investigate the rise of Private Military Companies (PMCs), in spite of the fact that he is now the victim of a mysterious accelerated aging condition. In fact, the game calls him Old Snake.
That's only the entry point. It seems the PMCs, which are larger than the U.S. Army, are enhanced by nanotechnology that if it fell into the wrong hands could make any enemy invincible. And then there are the enemies, such as Laughing Octopus and Screaming Mantis, and new weapons technology.
A Sneaking Suit can adapt Snake's colors...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
FCC Chief Lays Out Plan for Cell-Phone Fees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60272
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission laid out a plan Thursday to regulate the high fees that cellular phone companies charge consumers for canceling their contracts early.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's proposal was similar to an industry plan put forward last month.
Martin said he was skeptical ongoing class-action lawsuits would adequately resolve for consumers all the pending issues about the unpopular fees. The chairman made his comments at a public hearing.
Martin joked that his wife, apparently unhappy about the fees, had volunteered to testify at the hearing. He also criticized the fees, saying that "in practice, it can leave people locked into a service that they really want to leave."
Companies charge early termination fees that can range from $150 to $225 to recover the cost of cell phones, which they subsidize under long-term service contracts, according to wireless companies. The fees also defray costs for signing up new customers, companies said.
The fees have resulted in class-action lawsuits in several states and legislative proposals on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures.
Martin did not specifically commit the commission to regulating the fees, but said how such a system should work if it did.
"If we take jurisdiction and therefore responsibility for this issue, then we must have clear rules that adequately protect consumers," he said.
Martin's plan would require the fees be related to the actual cost of the phones. A fee for a $50 phone would be higher than for a $5 phone, he said.
Martin said such fees should be pro rated, or reduced over the time of the contract. The nation's two largest wireless carriers have both begun pro rating fees with other national carriers promising to follow.
The chairman also said the contract should be a "reasonable length of time" and extension of contracts should not necessarily include a renewal of the...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Research Firms Boost Forecast for PC Shipments
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60262
Two research firms on Wednesday said growth in computer shipments worldwide will be more robust than they had previously forecast for the year, driven by continuing strength in sales of portable computers.
IDC now expects shipments to rise 15.2 percent over last year, compared with a 2008 forecast of 12.8 percent growth that the Framingham, Mass.-based firm made in March.
Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner, which uses different methods than IDC to track shipments, now forecasts a 12.5 percent increase from the 264 million units it counted last year, up from its 10.9 percent projection three months ago.
IDC's new forecast predicts global PC shipments will reach 310 million units this year, up from 269 million last year, when the growth rate was about 14 percent compared with 2006.
Portable computers have posted stronger growth rates than desktop models in recent years, and IDC projects a 35 percent growth rate for portable models this year. Those gains have recently offset slow growth in U.S. demand for PCs amid an economic slump.
Factors driving recent portable PC growth include the replacement of desktop models with notebook computers and the emergence of extremely low-cost portables popular in developing nations.
"Despite recent economic pressure, the consistent gains fueled by portable adoption, falling prices, and new users -- particularly in emerging regions -- will continue to drive growth during the forecast," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's worldwide quarterly PC tracker.
Low-cost portables such as those built off Intel Corp.'s Classmate PC platform and the "XO" from the One Laptop Per Child initiative had previously been excluded from IDC's statistical tracking because of their nontraditional designs and features such as relatively low processing power and storage capacity. But IDC said that it has now begun counting such models because "the latest versions of these systems are now more robust, meeting IDC's criteria to...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Google CEO: Helping Newspapers a 'Moral Imperative'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60261
Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Wednesday that the Internet search leader hopes its recently acquired advertising service DoubleClick will aid newspapers as they struggle to corral more online revenue.
"It's a huge moral imperative to help here," Schmidt said during a question-and-answer session at an event hosted in San Francisco by Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Without providing specifics about how it might be accomplished, Schmidt said DoubleClick's system for serving up online display ads could generate "significant" revenue online for newspapers.
Still, he acknowledged the boost probably won't be enough to restore the hefty profit margins that newspaper publishers historically have enjoyed from print advertising.
Mountain View-based Google completed its $3.2 billion acquisition of DoubleClick in March after an extensive antitrust review that focused on whether the deal would give the combined entity too much power over the $40 billion online ad market.
Google also has a financial incentive to bolster newspapers because the stories, pictures and other content that they distribute online creates more opportunities for the company to make money from short advertising links that appear on millions of Web pages each day.
But footing the bill to gather news and other information has become a more daunting task in recent years as advertisers have shifted more of their budgets to the Internet in an effort to connect with consumers who are increasingly eschewing newspapers and other traditional media.
The shift has been particularly painful for newspapers, which have been laying off hundreds of workers and trimming other costs as their revenue crumbles.
Newspaper publishers also are boosting their online revenue, but so far those efforts haven't been nearly enough to offset the decline in print advertising. Last year, for instance, the U.S. newspaper industry's overall ad revenue fell by 8 percent to $45.4 billion, according to the Newspaper Association of...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Cell Phone Fees OK for Consumers, Not Government
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60260
A leading cellular phone company declined to charge the government the same expensive fees it charges consumers for canceling their contracts early, acknowledging that "the government will never, never accept such penalty amounts," according to internal corporate e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.
The exasperating fees are the subject of a hearing Thursday at the Federal Communications Commission. The e-mails from Nextel Communications Inc. come at a time when the FCC is considering whether to offer consumers relief from cell phone fees that the government itself appears to have avoided.
The Associated Press last month revealed details of the industry's efforts to help consumers avoid such fees in exchange for letting companies off the hook in state courts where they are being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars by angry customers.
Cell phone companies routinely charge customers $175 or more for quitting their service early.
In documents unearthed as part of one such lawsuit, employees at Nextel -- now part of Sprint Nextel Corp. -- debated whether to assess a $200 termination fee to federal government subscribers under a contract with the General Services Administration.
"The government will never, never accept such penalty amounts and for the most part i think a lot of the (complaining) is real," then-Nextel marketing vice president Scott Wiener wrote in an e-mail in January 2004. Wiener declined to comment Wednesday about his e-mail exchange.
Nextel ultimately decided against charging the fees to the government, because, according to Sprint Nextel spokesman John Taylor, it would have been against federal procurement laws.
The e-mails obtained by the AP were marked "confidential."
The jury in Alameda County, Calif., has the case and will be deliberating this week.
Taylor said the company is upfront with its customers about the fee and offers a variety of pricing plans.
At Thursday's FCC hearing, wireless companies were expected to argue...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Web Site Offers Insiders' Look at Major Employers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60259
Ever wonder whether you'd be better off working some place else?
A new Web site called Glassdoor.com is trying to make it easier to find out by compiling free snapshots of the current salaries paid by hundreds of major employers, along with reviews anonymously written by current and past workers.
"We think it's super important that people are able to find a job where they can go home happy at the end of the day," said Robert Hohman, Glassdoor's co-founder and chief executive.
The Sausalito-based startup's other founders include Rich Barton, CEO of online home appraisal site Zillow.com.
By providing free access to sensitive salary information and sometimes blunt reviews of companies, Glassdoor is bound to upset some employers, predicted Jupiter Research analyst Barry Parr.
"I like the idea, but there is absolutely no question that some CEO is going to see something negative on the site and hit the roof," Parr said. "It just makes me wonder how long it will take before they get sued."
A Glassdoor feature that allows workers to rate their CEOs could be particularly provocative.
In Glassdoor's test phase based on a small sampling of opinions, Microsoft Corp. workers seemed to have a higher opinion of their CEO, Steve Ballmer, than Yahoo Inc. workers had of their CEO, Jerry Yang, who spurned a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Ballmer last month.
Hohman is trying to convince employers that Glassdoor is a great tool for gathering worker feedback. With 12 employees, the startup plans to screen all reviews to identify remarks that seem fabricated or libelous.
Glassdoor has an incentive not to alienate corporate America because it hopes to make money from advertising.
To start, Glassdoor is allowing all visitors to look at the salary information and reviews of four high-tech heavyweights -- Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
To get the...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Play-Along Video-Game Genre Amps Up Music Industry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60256
Tapping on fake instruments and screeching into microphones connected to video game consoles has become lucrative for both the music and gaming industries. Downloadable tunes for music-based games Guitar Hero, Rock Band and SingStar have become as vital as iTunes itself -- and one of the last ways to expose youngsters to classic rock.
The genre will evolve again later this month when game publisher Activision and developer Neversoft release Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the first such play-along rhythm game pegged to one music group, instead of featuring a multi-artist compilation more akin to one of those Now That's What I Call Music! albums.
"The game is really about the spirit of guitar music," Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton recently told The Associated Press. "It's all about being into music that sounds powerful, energetic and lush. You're rhythmically pushing buttons that create a certain reaction or sound along with the music. You can't say it doesn't have any musical relevance. It does."
Players start out as lead guitarist Joe Perry and can unlock Hamilton and Brad Whitford while playing in virtual versions of venues where Aerosmith once rocked, such as their first show at Nipmuc High School outside of Boston, their first showcase at Max's Kansas City in New York and the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show in Tampa, Fla.
"I guess it's one of those rewards that we get for keeping the band together," said Hamilton. "It might be the silver lining of the Napster cloud, too. Far more of this audience will hear our music via this game than if we had strenuously attempted to talk them into buying all of our CDs."
While regular versions of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and SingStar come loaded with songs by bands like The Rolling Stones and Radiohead, the most recent incarnations of these games allow players to...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Federal Judge at Center of Web Porn Tempest
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60254
Judge Alex Kozinski is more accustomed to appearing on lists to fill U.S. Supreme Court vacancies than headlines involving pornographic scandals.
But on Wednesday, the chief judge of the country's largest federal appeals court was forced to suspend an obscenity trial he was presiding over after sexually explicit images posted to his his family's Web site became public.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Kozinski had posted sexual material on his personal Web site and then blocked access after being interviewed about it Tuesday evening.
Kozinski, 57, told the Times he thought the material on his site, which included a video of a man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal, couldn't be seen by the public. The judge said he didn't believe any of the images were obscene.
"Is it prurient? I don't know what to tell you," he told the newspaper. "I think it's odd and interesting. It's part of life."
Yale Kozinski, the judge's film editor son, told The New York Times on Wednesday that the site is registered to him and he maintains it. Friends and family are able to post there, he said.
"The fact that it was publicly accessible actually is my fault, too," Yale Kozinski told the newspaper. "I made a mistake in configuring it."
Neither father nor son made clear Wednesday who posted the images in question. Judge Kozinski said earlier that he didn't believe any of them were obscene.
He suspended until Monday the trial of Ira Isaacs, who is charged with obscenity for selling movies depicting bestiality and extreme fetishes involving feces and urination. Appellate judges such as Kozinski occasionally handle trial court cases.
Kozinski told lawyers in the case he wanted to give them time to consider whether to ask that he be disqualified. Federal prosecutors were discussing their options, Department of Justice lawyer Kenneth Whitted said.
At best,...
Sat, 14 Jun 08
Microsoft: What Cost the Vista Fiasco?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60251
Microsoft has irked consumers and corporate customers with the most recent version of its Windows operating system, which they complain requires hefty investments in PC hardware and offers a paucity of compelling new features in return. Now there are signs that companies' reluctance to install Vista is starting to weigh on Wall Street's outlook for the company's stock.
Charles Di Bona, a senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein and a noted bull on Microsoft, said in a June 10 report that "dampening" adoption of Vista by corporate customers will shave $395 million in revenues and 2 percent a share in earnings from the company's financial results for the 2009 fiscal year, which begins July 1. According to a Bernstein Web survey of 372 information technology professionals fielded in May, companies expect just 26 percent of their PCs to be running Vista by the beginning of 2011, down from an estimate of nearly 68 percent of computers by respondents to a similar survey a year ago.
The new survey, conducted primarily in the U.S. in conjunction with Ziff Davis Media and Peerstone Research, also shows Vista's requirement of running on PCs crammed with lots of memory and powerful processors to be a deterrent. Companies expect to install Vista on only about 10 percent of the PCs they already own, compared with estimates last year that they'd be able to do so on 27 percent of their machines.
"It seems like the IT community has turned tepid to negative" on Vista, says Di Bona in an interview. "There aren't any features in there they find compelling -- even ones that haven't had bad PR." For example, companies said in the survey that they were indifferent to Vista's Windows Presentation Foundation technology for building visually compelling programs, according to Di Bona.
Windows Vista,...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Google CEO: We Don't Know How To Monetize YouTube
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60275
In an on-stage conversation with New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, Google CEO Eric Schmidt conceded that the search-engine giant doesn't know how to make money off of YouTube, the popular video-sharing site for which it paid $1.65 billion in 2006.
In an event at Syracuse University's Newhouse School, Schmidt said it "seemed obvious" that owning YouTube should generate "significant amounts of money" for Google, but that has proven harder than expected. In any case, monetization is not Google's primary concern with YouTube at this point, as YouTube could lead to "the creation of a whole new industry."
And there are two facts on Google's side: "We know people are watching it" and "We have the luxury of time to invest."
Google's goals are loftier than monetizing its products. "The goal of the company isn't to monetize everything. The goal is to change the world. We start from the perspective of what problems we do have," Schmidt said.
For instance, Google.org, the company's philanthropic arm, is devoted to causes such as renewable energy and preventing disease.
Google's infamous motto -- "don't be evil" -- is taken seriously within the company. "We don't have an evil meter we can apply," Schmidt said, but internal discussions do address the issue.
"I thought when I joined the company this was crap -- companies don't have these things. I thought it was a joke. It must be a Larry and Sergey thing. So I was sitting in a room six months in, and an engineer said, 'That's evil.' It's like a bomb goes off in the room. Everybody has a moral and ethical discussion that, by the way, stopped the product."
As part of this corporate culture, Wall Street's criticism -- in the form of share price -- is "not the...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Intel Denies Slowing Technology Needed for USB 3.0
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60274
Intel has denied recent media speculation that it may be dragging its feet on developing technology essential to the release of the next-generation Universal Serial Bus 3.0 interconnect specification.
Intel spokesperson Nick Knupffer said the chipmaker has invested heavily in the resources required to create the host controller technology for USB 3.0.
"Think of the host-controller spec as a 'Dummies Guide' to building a USB 3.0-compatible piece of silicon; it is not the USB 3.0 specification itself," Knupffer wrote in a recent blog. "The industry is keen to get this guide as it will allow them to build USB 3.0-compatible circuits without repeating the massive investment undertaken by Intel."
Though other companies have been clamoring for an inside look at Intel's hub controller, the chip giant said it is unwilling to release an unfinished product. "One danger of distributing an unfinished spec is the risk of incompatible hardware down the line, leading to a right mess," Knupffer wrote.
According to recent media reports, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia have been suggesting that Intel may be holding up to gain a competitive advantage. However, Knupffer notes that Intel plans to make its host controller technology available under no-royalty licensing.
"This isn't only because we are just nice guys, but it is also because Intel has set the bar for technology leadership and industry stewardship," Knupffer said. "We at Intel love it when available processor performance is used to the max."
Knupffer also thinks the recent industry storm clouds and rumblings about delays in the release of Intel's hub controller spec have a silver lining. "The impatience of our fellow chipset-makers -- as described in the press -- to leverage Intel's investment and begin to design great USB 3.0 supporting devices of their own is, however, very encouraging and should aid a fast USB 3.0...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Mozilla Ready to Launch Firefox 3 into Browser Wars
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60269
Just more than 10 years ago, Mozilla threw its open-source code into the public domain. Today, its browser -- Firefox -- is preparing to launch its third major release in hopes of continuing to eat away at Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Firefox already has more than 18 percent of the global market, according to Net Applications. With the release of Firefox 3, Mozilla could see a boost in downloads and market share. Microsoft's next version of Internet Explorer won't come to market until later this year.
On June 17, Mozilla will release Firefox 3. After more than 34 months of active development and the contributions of thousands of people, Firefox 3 will be downloadable free from the Mozilla Web site. Mozilla is promising this is the best browser -- period.
"Firefox 3 is a very nice browser. It's still going to have to go up against Internet Explorer {Windows] and Safari [Mac], which have the home court advantage on their operating systems," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "It shows that the browser market is anything but stagnant."
Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 15,000 updates, including some major re-architecting for improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. The result, Mozilla said, is a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer Web-site and Firefox add-on developers.
Mozilla begins with a focus on security. Users can click a Web site's favicon [icon] in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if the connection is secure. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand, Mozilla said. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site's favicon will...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Google's Sergey Brin Pays $5 Million Toward Space Trip
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60267
Google cofounder Sergey Brin has a ticket to ride. He's ponied up a $5 million deposit for a seat on the Russian spacecraft Soyuz. The total ticket price is $35 million.
Brin made the deposit with Space Adventures, the space tourism company announced Wednesday. Brin's deposit gives him the right to a seat on a future space flight or to sell his seat to another would-be cosmonaut. He is currently slated to go into outer space in 2011.
So far, Vienna, Va.-based Space Adventures has sent five people into outer space since 1998. For the 2011 flight, Space Adventures bought two of the three seats on a Soyuz spacecraft.
On his two-week voyage, Brin will orbit the earth about 150 to 200 times and carry out a scientific mission of some sort. Possible work includes pharmaceutical testing or experimenting with computer circuit boards.
"It's like we chartered an airplane, only in this case it was a rocket," said Eric Anderson, founder of Space Adventures.
"I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier, and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space," Brin said. "Space Adventures helped open the space frontier to private citizens and thus pave the way for the personal spaceflight industry."
Among the wealthy lined up to be cosmonauts are Richard Garriott, creator of the Ultima video games. Garriott has a seat on a craft that will travel to the International Space Station in October.
Brin's interest gives a boost to Space Adventures, which is building "a definitive consortium of future private space explorers who share a lifetime goal of orbital spaceflight or the investment therein," said CEO Eric Anderson.
But working with the Russian government is not a predictable business model. In April, Vitaly Lopota, the president of Energia, the...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Verizon Counters Apple's iPhone with Palm Centro for $99
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60266
Verizon Wireless and handset maker Palm are raining on Apple's iPhone 3G parade this week. The companies announced the Palm Centro smartphone will go on sale through Verizon on Friday -- for $99.
Dressed in a crisp cobalt blue, the Centro provides customers with a wireless tool to manage busy lives with voice, text messaging, e-mail and the Web.
Centro runs on Verizon's high-speed data network, so customers can send and receive e-mail messages and attachments and browse rich Web content. Verizon customers can also use the Centro as a modem for laptops when they subscribe to Verizon's BroadbandAccess Connect service plan. The handset offers a touchscreen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a lightweight design.
"Centro has done really, really well for other carriers. It has come in at a very low price point at $99 or less. It's really been a smartphone for the masses," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "For lots of people, $199 is simply too much money for a phone. But $99 is really a magical price point."
Centro also has some software bells and whistles. Centro users also get access to VersaMail 4.0 with built-in Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support for Microsoft Direct Push Technology to deliver e-mail and calendar updates from a home or office PC using Outlook.
Centro users also have the option of using Wireless Sync, Verizon's proprietary e-mail solution, for access to personal or corporate e-mail, contacts, calendar and tasks from a home or office PC. Wireless Sync supports POP3 or IMAP e-mail accounts and it supports Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes, and IBM Lotus Domino.
The built-in Google Maps application delivers directions and lets users perform local searches and view movable/scalable maps, satellite images and traffic updates. Customers can also map a contact's address directly from the contact application by selecting the "maps"...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
China Accused of Hacking Computers on Capitol Hill
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60265
On Wednesday, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) introduced a resolution on the House floor calling for greater protection of congressional computer and information systems.
As part of that resolution, he said four computers in his office had been hacked, along with computers used by other Congress members and by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He identified the culprit as the People's Republic of China.
Wolf said his foreign-policy and human-rights staff person's computer was attacked first, then the computers of his chief of staff, his legislative director, and his judiciary staff person. Information about all the work he has done on behalf of political dissidents and human-rights activists around the world were stored on the computers. That kind of information, as well as everything else on his office computers -- e-mails, memos, correspondence and district casework -- became open to outside eyes, he said.
"I am aware that computers in the offices of several other members were similarly compromised, as well as a major committee of the House -- the Foreign Affairs Committee," Wolf told the speaker of the House. "It is logical to assume that critical and sensitive information about U.S. foreign policy and the work of Congress to help people who are suffering around the world was also open to view from these official computers."
In subsequent meetings with House IT and FBI officials, it was revealed that the attacks came from within the People's Republic of China. According to Wolf's testimony, these cyberattacks probed his system's defenses and viewed and copied information. Wolf suspects he was targeted because of his history of speaking out about China's human-rights record.
"I have also learned that this threat exists not only here in the Capitol complex, but also when members travel overseas," Wolf said. "I have been told that, particularly in countries...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Apple Executes Enterprise Checklist for 3G iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60264
Apple says it is poised to extend the reach of its red-hot iPhone into the enterprise space. CEO Steve Jobs recently told ABC News that Apple has followed through on business user requests for push e-mail, calendar and contacts capabilities, compatibility with Microsoft Exchange, and various security features missing from the original iPhone.
"On the enterprise side, Apple has taken a huge step forward for kind of ticking off all of the boxes that enterprises want, from Cisco VPN to wiping the device remotely," said Carolina Milanesi, Gartner research director. "They are basically executing what they had promised to do."
Achieving growth in the enterprise space is an essential component of Apple's plan for meeting its 10 million iPhone sales target for 2008. Though the company still has much work to do to make the iPhone an enterprise hit, Jobs says Apple has already laid the groundwork.
"The business world has bought a lot of iPhones in the last year," with the "CEOs and senior executives in most of the Fortune 500 companies already having iPhones of their own," Jobs told ABC News. "And there are a lot of employees that have them at home, and they really want to use them at work."
For enterprises, productivity is key. Apple noted that the speed of its new iPhone is twice as fast over 3G than over the EDGE wireless technology featured in its original iPhone. "My impression is that it's going to be able to handle enterprise applications more quickly," said Rena Bhattacharyya, IDC research manager.
Having that 3G capability on an iPhone "is a good thing for countries where wireless LAN is not as pervasive as in the United States," Milanesi noted. "There are plenty of places" where workers "really need the speed of 3G because they can't fall back on Wi-Fi,"...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Mac OS X To Ease Programming for Multi-Core Chips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60250
The next version of Apple's OS X operating system will include breakthroughs in programming parallel processors, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told The New York Times in an interview after this week's Worldwide Developers Conference.
"The way the processor industry is going is to add more and more cores, but nobody knows how to program those things," Jobs said. "I mean, two, yeah; four, not really; eight, forget it."
The new OS, code-named Snow Leopard, will also focus on security and reducing its footprint, but have fewer features. "We've added over a thousand features to Mac OS X in the last five years," Jobs said. "We're going to hit the pause button on new features."
Jobs said Apple is proposing a new processing standard called Open CL (Open Computing Language) that allows programmers to take advantage of graphics processors. "Basically it lets you use graphics processors to do computation," he said. "It's way beyond what Nvidia or anyone else has, and it's really simple."
P.A. Semi, the small chip-design firm Apple acquired in April, will not be involved in this effort. P.A. Semi will focus on custom-designing chips for the iPod and iPhone, Jobs said.
That's no surprise, said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies. "The logical impact of the P.A. Semi acquisition was that Apple would create their own custom chips for use in the iPhone and the iPod's of the future," Bajarin said.
But Apple's effort in parallel-processing tools is potentially a "real breakthrough," Bajarin said. "As Jobs has said, the real issue impacting the future of personal computing has to deal with programming applications that work with many processors."
Intel and Nvidia have both developed tools for addressing parallel processing -- Intel with Terrascale and Nvidia with Cuda, Bajarin noted, "but Apple's Open CL appears to represent real...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Server Farms Are Spreading Across the United States
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60246
A new kind of farm is popping up. Tucked away on small plots on America's back roads, it cultivates no soil or seed.
Rather, it nurtures curiosities about everything from porn to pinochle expressed in a nearly endless sequence of 1s and 0s queried from desktops, laptops and iPhones around the globe.
The computer server farm -- huge banks of computer servers doing the heavy-lifting logic of Internet giants such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon -- is bringing bits of Silicon Valley to places like Pryor, Okla., and Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Moving inland means quicker connections by getting closer to customers. Spreading hubs across the continent makes networks more dependable. And tax breaks await. But server farms also guzzle electricity, the way computer technicians gulp Red Bull. The farms are massive, up to football-field-size, buildings filled with racks of servers.
So finding places where the light bill is, well, lighter goes a long way toward pleasing stockholders. "If you can make the machines use power 5 percent more efficiently, that could save tens of millions of dollars," said Dan Wallach, a computer science professor at Rice University.
Consider Google's decision to plop down server farms on the outskirts of Pryor and Council Bluffs -- the latest expansions from its original hub in California. Both sites come with tax abatements that will save millions. And by sitting 1,000 miles from another new server farm that the company has planted on the banks of the Columbia River in Oregon, the search engine lowers the chances that a West Coast brownout will dash your ability to Google your blind date.
Similarly, diversifying locations makes Google's network more stable, as sabotage or natural disaster in a single location will have less impact.
Google acknowledges building five server farms -- all in cheap-electricity locales -- in the United States and dozens around...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
iPhone In-Store Activation Makes Life Hard for Unlockers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60243
The new iPhone and the way it will be sold look set to shut down a small industry that arose to make the first version of the iconic phone available around the world.
The original iPhone, which launched in June last year, was initially available only in the U.S. and only for use on AT&T Inc.'s network. In little more than a month, however, enterprising hackers found a way to "unlock" the phone to make it usable on other networks, including networks in other countries.
IPhones soon flowed out of the U.S., and analysts have estimated that one-third to one-half of the phones sold never made it onto AT&T's network.
"I saw it in action and I had to have one," said Ernesto Zeivy, a 50-year-old restaurant owner in Mexico City. He had one friend buy an iPhone for him in San Diego for $500 and another unlock it using software downloaded from the Internet.
Apple announced a new iPhone Monday for use on 3G, or third-generation, data networks. It will stem the flow of unlocked phones in two ways.
First, the phone will be sold in more countries. Apple added five countries beyond the U.S. for the first phone, but the second one will go on sale in 22 countries on July 11. Apple has said it will add more countries at a rapid clip and reach 70 by the end of the year. That takes away one of main incentives for unlocking.
Second, Apple is abandoning the unusual arrangement under which the iPhone was being sold. Customers could buy them from a carrier or from Apple without activating them on a service plan, and that meant customers could go home and unlock the phones -- and never sign up with AT&T.
"Anyone can unlock it without paying anyone anything," said Blas Caballero, another iPhone user...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Yahoo May Face Trial Before Icahn Showdown
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60242
Yahoo Inc. may have to defend its response to Microsoft Corp.'s takeover attempt in a trial that could sway the outcome of the Internet pioneer's August showdown with investor activist Carl Icahn.
The legal drama will unfold next month if a Delaware judge grants a request made by attorneys for Yahoo shareholders.
The disgruntled shareholders are seeking to cancel an employee severance plan that Yahoo's board adopted shortly after Microsoft made its initial bid of $44.6 billion, or $31 per share.
In court papers filed late Monday night, the shareholder attorneys argue that the legality of the severance plan should be determined in a trial before an Aug. 1 election pitting Yahoo's current board against Icahn and eight other candidates nominated by the billionaire.
Yahoo had no immediate comment Tuesday, but legal and corporate-governance experts expect the Sunnyvale-based company to vigorously oppose the motion for a July trial date.
A trial "would force Yahoo's board and senior executives to answer a lot of questions that they probably don't want to answer right now," said James Post, a Boston University professor specializing in corporate governance and business ethics. "The last thing they want to do is to expose any more information about this severance program or anything else that Icahn could use."
The severance plan has become a flash point in Yahoo's battle with Icahn because it could trigger payments and benefits totaling more than $2 billion to the company's 13,800 employees if they are fired or quit after being reassigned within two years of a takeover.
Icahn hopes to engineer a sale if he gains control of Yahoo's board, but the severance plan would remain a potential obstacle because Yahoo's current board included a provision that will prevent him from rescinding the program before August 2010.
Icahn has been urging Yahoo's board to eliminate the severance plan, citing...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Security Hole Exposes Utilities to Internet Attack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60237
Attackers could gain control of water treatment plants, natural gas pipelines and other critical utilities because of a vulnerability in the software that runs some of those facilities, security researchers reported Wednesday.
Experts with Boston-based Core Security Technologies, who discovered the deficiency and described it exclusively to The Associated Press before they issued a security advisory, said there's no evidence anyone else found or exploited the flaw.
Citect Pty. Ltd., which makes the program called CitectSCADA, patched the hole last week, five months after Core Security first notified Citect of the problem.
But the vulnerability could have counterparts in other so-called supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, systems. And it's not clear whether all Citect clients have installed the patch.
SCADA systems remotely manage computers that control machinery, including water supply valves, industrial baking equipment and security systems at nuclear power plants.
Customers that use CitectSCADA include natural gas pipelines in Chile, major copper and diamond mines in Australia and Botswana, a large pharmaceutical plant in Germany and water treatment plants in Louisiana and North Carolina.
For an attack involving the vulnerability that Core Security revealed Wednesday to occur, the target network would have to be connected to the Internet. That goes against industry policy but does happen when companies have lax security measures, such as connecting control systems' computers and computers with Internet access to the same routers.
A rogue employee could also access the system internally.
Security experts say the finding highlights the possibility that hackers could cut the power to entire cities, poison a water supply by disrupting water treatment equipment, or cause a nuclear power plant to malfunction by attacking the utility's controls.
That possibility has grown in recent years as more of those systems are connected to the Internet.
The Citect vulnerability is of a common type. Called a "buffer overflow," it allows a...
Fri, 13 Jun 08
Olympic Visitors Beware: Your Data Is at Risk
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60234
National security agencies are warning businesses and federal officials that laptops and e-mail devices taken to the Beijing Olympics are likely to be penetrated by Chinese agents aiming to steal secrets or plant bugs to infiltrate U.S. computer networks.
Chinese government and industry use electronic espionage to "easily access official and personal computers," says one recent report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, a federally chartered panel comprising security experts from corporations and the State, Commerce and Treasury departments.
Equipment left unsupervised for just minutes in a hotel or even during a security screening can be hacked, mined and bugged, adds Larry Wortzel, who chairs the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a federal panel that monitors China-related security issues for Congress. China's government also controls Internet service providers and wireless networks, he says, so computers and PDAs can be monitored and planted with bugs remotely, too.
"There is a high likelihood -- virtually 100 percent -- that if an individual is of security, political or business interest to Chinese ... security services or high technology industries, their electronics can and will be tampered with or penetrated," Wortzel says.
China's embassy did not respond to requests for comment but usually dismisses espionage charges.
"The so-called accusation of the Chinese military espionage against the U.S. is groundless and fabrication with ulterior motives," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a news conference last month.
China's pursuit of American government and business secrets has been noted repeatedly in federal threat assessments.
Last year, the office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that China's espionage services are "among the most aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. targets."
Thousands of Americans are expected to attend the Olympics, including President Bush and a large entourage of federal officials. The government isn't doing enough to publicize the potential espionage risks, says...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
Red Hat Settles Patent Suit for Open-Source Community
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60249
Linux vendor Red Hat announced Wednesday that it has settled patent-infringement claims filed against it by two companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The Raleigh, N.C.-based company said the settlement with Firestar Software and DataTern "protects Red Hat's customers and the open-source community" from similar suits, as well as setting a precedent "in the breadth of protection for the open-source community."
Rob Tiller, vice president and assistant general counsel at Red Hat, added that a patent settlement usually involves a company "getting safety for itself," but his company wanted broad provisions to cover its customers and the open-source community.
In 2006, Firestar sued Red Hat in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas. The lawsuit contended that Hibernate, a JBoss product, infringed its patent related to a method for interfacing an object-oriented software application with a relational database. JBoss is owned by Red Hat, and Red Hat denied the claims.
As the lawsuit proceeded, Red Hat said that its products had not infringed the patent and that, at any rate, the patent was invalid. At one point, the patent was assigned by Firestar to DataTern, which became a party to the suit.
Firestar products include EdgeNode, a platform for managing business processes between companies. DataTern's products include a data-services runtime engine called ObjectSpark that controls data between the logical processing layer in an application and the data sources.
The products covered in the settlement include all software distributed under the Red Hat brands, in addition to predecessor versions, derivative works, and combined products.
Software patents in general have been the source of more than a little controversy in the software industry. Red Hat said its position has been that software patents impede innovation and conflict with open-source development and distribution.
Red Hat is not out of the patent-litigation woods yet. It is...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
HP Sets Smaller Voodoo Against Apple's MacBook Air
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60231
Hewlett-Packard is hoping a little Voodoo will help it compete against Apple's MacBook Air and similar ultra-portable notebooks.
On Tuesday, the computer giant unveiled the Voodoo Envy 133 at its Connecting Your World event in Berlin. The new Envy, part of the company's line of Voodoo computers, boasts a height when closed of half an inch and a weight of less than 3.4 pounds. It features a 13.3-inch display and runs on Intel's Centrino mobile platform.
By comparison, the Air's screen is the same size, weighs in at a svelte three pounds, and offers a height-when-closed of three-quarters of an inch in the back and 0.16 inch in the front.
Another computer in the thinner-than-thou category is the Lenovo ThinkPad X300. It also has a 13.3-inch screen, uses an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and is less than three pounds.
HP is emphasizing the new Voodoo's style, as well as its thinness and technology. Mike Perkins, vice president and general manager of the Voodoo business unit, said the Voodoo systems "exemplify technology excellence while also looking like they would fit as well at an art gallery as on a desk."
With its Instant-On feature, the Envy boasts a fast-loading system, which HP said provides "near-instant access to the Internet and Skype." The Aura PowerConnect offers a one-to-one wireless connection between the notebook and an Ethernet connector located on the power supply.
The Envy also features Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, a multi-touch touchpad, a replaceable battery, and a HDMI port. It includes an external eSATA optical disk drive and is expected to begin shipping this summer.
The Envy has a base price of $2,099, compared to the ThinkPad X300's starting price of $2,500 and the Air's $1,799.
Also at the Berlin event, HP announced the Voodoo Omen, a luxurious...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
Academia Sees Case Studies in iPhone Marketing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60230
Apple is making headlines with the new iPhone 3G, and the academic world is seeing some opportunities for business case studies.
The iPhone 3G has built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software with support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. It can run hundreds of third-party applications built with the recently released iPhone software developers kit.
Quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA provide voice and Internet connectivity around the world. The iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them. It also makes multitasking easier with simultaneous voice and data communications, so users can browse the Web, get map directions, or check e-mail while on a call.
To compete with the Blackberry, the iPhone 3G includes, besides Microsoft Exchange support, contact and calendar syncing, remote wipe, and Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to corporate networks.
Fareena Sultan, a digital-marketing professor at Northeastern University's business school, said with features such as 3G, enterprise support, third-party applications and availability in more countries, the iPhone can better appease the enterprise customer.
"This could enable Apple to challenge the Blackberry market more aggressively," Sultan said. "Also, more third-party applications could help soften the impact of the Android initiative from Google and the Open Handset Alliance."
Gloria Barczak, chairperson of the marketing department at Northeastern, said Apple's additions of 3G technology and GPS are the right moves to gain market share in the enterprise market.
She said download speed was a notable deficiency in the original iPhone and slowed enterprise adoption of the product. But the lower pricing may do the most for consumer adoption, she added.
In the U.S. the iPhone 3G is priced at $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model. The phone goes on sale in the U.S. on July 11.
"The big...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
Patch Tuesday Includes Wireless Vulnerability
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60229
On Tuesday, Microsoft released security fixes for desktop users and network administrators alike. Seven security bulletins address 10 vulnerabilities, three of them critical.
Security researchers say the critical patches that affect Windows desktop users should be given the highest priority.
There are also three important patches, MS08-034, MS08-035 and MS08-036, that affect Windows servers, as well as a moderate patch. Managers of Windows servers should install these patches. MS08-032 is the moderate patch and addresses the "kill bit" for Windows. The patch disables code with a known security bug.
"The vulnerability in the Bluetooth stack is especially noteworthy because it allows an attacker in range of a Bluetooth-enabled device running Windows XP or Vista to take control of that device," said Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager for Symantec Security Response. "User interaction is not required. All that is required is for the device to have Bluetooth on and to be within range of the attacker."
Tyler Reguly, a security engineer with nCircle, a network security firm that works with companies like ESPN and Safeway and government agencies like the FCC, said he finds the Bluetooth patch interesting because it's a vulnerability in a popular wireless protocol.
"It is remote code execution in both XP and Vista. People traveling with laptops are probably the most likely to have Bluetooth enabled," Reguly said. "It's important to keep in mind the limited range of Bluetooth, which is what, in my opinion, somewhat limits the severity of the vulnerability."
According to Amol Sarwate, manager of the vulnerability research lab at Qualys, the most serious of this month's patches is the vulnerability in Internet Explorer, MS08-031, which is a zero-day threat.
"Victims would only need to visit a compromised site in order to be affected by the remote code for viruses, worms and other...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Sprint To Block Child Porn
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60228
Three of the largest Internet service providers -- Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint -- have agreed to block access to newsgroups and Web sites that serve up child porn, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced Tuesday.
Cuomo said, "The pervasiveness of child pornography on the Internet is horrific and it needs to be stopped. We are attacking this problem by working with Internet service providers to ensure they do not play host to this immoral business." He said the companies have "stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry."
The attorney general's office conducted a months-long investigation into child porn on the Internet and discovered 88 Usenet newsgroups containing 11,390 "sexually lewd" photos of prepubescent children, which in some cases depicted children being raped and sexual activity with animals.
Investigators developed a system for identifying digital child pornography. Taking advantage of the hash values that every online image contains, investigators built a library of hash values for known child-porn images. The tool allowed the team to quickly search through thousands of images at a time and quickly identify which ISPs were providing access to the images.
The ISPs have also agreed to block Web sites listed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as containing child pornography. NCMEC maintains an updated list of illegal sites.
Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint also vowed to created new systems to improve their responses to user complaints about child pornography and to provide a combined $1.125 million to fight child porn.
Ernie Allen, chief executive of NCMEC, called the agreement a "major step forward" in combating child pornography. Cuomo's system "cuts online child porn off at the source and stops it from spreading across the...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
Amazon.com Web Site Deals with More Outages
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60222
Amazon.com Inc.'s Web site suffered sporadic outages Monday, just days after unspecified issues knocked the online retailer offline for more than two hours.
Keynote Systems Inc., a California-based company that monitors Web site performance, said the latest troubles started shortly after 1 p.m. EDT and lasted at least an hour.
Keynote's automated probes were able to reach the main Amazon.com site as little as 30 percent of the time. Even when the monitors did reach the site, they faced delays, said Shawn White, Keynote's director of external operations.
The probes also found problems with the British Amazon.co.uk site, but other country-specific sites appeared to be functioning, White said.
Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith described Monday's troubles as "intermittent" and said they did not affect Amazon Web Services, a separate offering that provides pay-as-you-go data storage to other companies such as the photo-sharing service SmugMug Inc. and Web e-mail provider Mailtrust.
On Friday, Amazon's site shut down for more than two hours during the business day, giving an error code to anyone visiting it.
"Amazon's systems are very complex and on rare occasions, despite our best efforts, they may experience problems," the company said in a statement explaining Friday's outage.
Smith said Monday that the statement was not meant to rule out any specific cause, including an external, denial-of-service attack intended to overwhelm Amazon's servers, as some blogs have speculated.
But Keynote's White said the "service unavailable" error message returned and the speed with which the site went down suggested an internal systems problem rather than an outside attack.
A similar "service unavailable" message greeted some visitors Monday, though at times the generic message was replaced by an apology and a promise to restore service quickly.
Outages at Amazon are rare, though the retailer had brief disruptions in 2006 because of a Thanksgiving Day sale on Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 video game...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
AT&T To Take Earnings Hit from iPhone Subsidies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60220
AT&T Inc.'s profits for the next two years will take a hit as it subsidizes the new low price of the latest iPhones, the company said Monday.
The news sent the carrier's stock down 65 cents, or 1.7 percent, to close at $37.56.
AT&T, which is the iPhone's exclusive U.S. carrier, put the cost at 10 cents to 12 cents per share for this year and next, or roughly $600 million per year.
Carrier subsidies for expensive phones are usually around $200 each. The expected cost figure points to AT&T expecting to sell about 3 million of the new iPhones per year, but AT&T executives did not reveal specifics of the subsidy.
The cheapest model of the new iPhone, announced by Apple Inc. on Monday, will cost $199 when it goes on sale July 11. A model with twice the memory -- 16 gigabytes -- will cost $299. The cheapest model of the first-generation iPhone sold most recently for $399.
AT&T expects the new iPhone to add to its earnings in 2010 when it will no longer be required to share monthly subscriber revenue with Apple. Analysts had estimated these monthly payments at $10 to $15.
The revenue-sharing deal was an experiment, one of many things about the iPhone that turned industry practices on their head. Now, Apple and AT&T are adopting the standard model for the phone business: The carrier pays the handset maker for the phones, then subsidizes the phones to consumers in exchange for a two-year contract.
"We have changed the nature of the agreement to a more traditional wireless model," said Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T Mobility.
Consumers will be the winners in the short term, as the price of the feature-rich iPhone is cut in half. But AT&T is raising the prices for service plans to start at $39.99 per month,...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
AOL Revamps Online Radio, Adds CBS Stations
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60219
AOL is revamping its popular online radio service Tuesday, adding streams from all 140 CBS Corp.-owned radio stations and upgrading its player to add more functions and expand the service's reach.
Much is at stake for AOL, which is looking for new ways to boost revenues from online music streaming a year after a panel of copyright judges sharply increased the royalties that online radio providers pay to record labels and artists.
Lisa Namerow, the general manager of AOL's online radio unit, said the company's music streaming business was still unprofitable, even though recent figures from Arbitron Inc. show AOL has the largest average weekly online audience.
"We really needed to figure out a new business strategy in order for us to stay in business," Namerow said. "We needed to monetize radio better."
For AOL, a unit of the media conglomerate Time Warner Inc., that meant teaming up with CBS' radio business, the second-largest player in radio after Clear Channel Communications Inc.
The addition of CBS stations will bring a number of highly rated news, talk and sports channels such as WFAN in New York to AOL's online radio service, replacing a previous arrangement AOL had with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.
CBS will also use its vast advertising sales force to sell all ads across the AOL radio service, something that Namerow is hopeful will bring in more local advertising dollars.
AOL had been selling national advertising on its radio service but had hardly cracked the market for local ads, which traditionally make up the vast majority of radio advertising spending.
The deal with AOL also jump-starts CBS Radio's efforts to build up online audiences. David Goodman, the head of digital media and integrated marketing at CBS Radio, said the deal could double the total amount of people listening to streams from CBS stations during peak periods....
Thu, 12 Jun 08
Smells Phishy: E-Mail Promising Tax Rebate Is a Scam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60218
As the government continues to dole out economic stimulus checks, far too many taxpayers are still falling victim to Internet scams preying on the confusion about their payments.
One such scam that has become prevalent enough to warrant a warning from the FBI is a spam e-mail that claims to be from the Internal Revenue Service. The e-mail is causing confusion because, although it's not from the IRS, it does contain relatively accurate information.
"The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by direct deposit to your checking/savings account," the e-mail reads.
That part of the statement is true. But if you did not receive your tax returns via direct deposit, it's too late to switch now. To get your refund deposited directly into your account, you would have needed to file for direct deposit on your regular tax return, which was due April 15. Those who signed up for direct deposit to receive their tax returns have already received their stimulus checks.
But the e-mail offers a bogus opportunity to switch to direct deposit. The e-mail provides a link to a form, claiming those who fill it out will have their payment directly deposited to their bank accounts. In reality the information it seeks -- such as bank PIN numbers, passwords, account numbers and routing numbers -- will not help you get your payment faster. But it will help a thief steal your identity.
E-mail scams, which are often called "phishing" scams, can be easy to identify. For example, the IRS never contacts taxpayers via e-mail.
So if you get an e-mail purporting to be from the IRS, just delete it. Better yet, forward the e-mail to phishing@irs.gov. That way, you can help the IRS warn others about such scams.
And if you haven't yet received your stimulus payment, you don't have...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
EU Says Open-Source Standards Are 'Smart Business'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60217
The EU's top antitrust official on Tuesday called for governments to favor open-source software for their own use, taking aim at Microsoft Corp. for "locking in" customers to their proprietary technology.
EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said choosing open technology formats that can be used by different vendors -- often without paying a fee -- was "a very smart business decision."
She said no one should be forced to use a particular company's technology to access government information when open alternatives are available.
"No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first," she said in a speech at a conference organized by nonprofit open standards advocates OpenForum Europe.
She said the European Commission would do its part when it picks software standards for its own use, saying "it must not rely on one vendor, it must not accept closed standards, and it must refuse to become locked into a particular technology."
Her comments appeared to target Microsoft -- currently under EU investigation again for possible antitrust abuse -- which shunned an existing open format for archiving word processing documents backed by IBM and open source developers in favor of its own open version, Office Open XML, or OOXML.
Despite a chorus of complaints, OOXML was in April approved as an international standard that paves the way for it to be picked up by the IT departments of governments and large corporations. Critics of OOXML claim it locks out competitors, giving Microsoft customers no choice but to keep buying Microsoft programs forever.
Kroes said customers can pressure technology companies to open up their formats, saying this seems to have encouraged Apple Inc. to allow its iPod music players use other online music stores than iTunes and let iTunes serve competing music...
Thu, 12 Jun 08
AVG's Free Anti-Virus Software Difficult to Find, Use
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60215
I have been bombarded with questions about AVG's free antivirus program, which periodically expires in an effort to sell the commercial (non-free version) to unsuspecting consumers.
This happened about a year and a half ago, when version 7.1 "expired" and was replaced with version 7.5. AVG's manufacturer, the Czech company Grisoft, didn't make it widely known that a free version still existed. Now, here we are again. On May 31, many users of version 7.5 got a notice to "please upgrade now." Clicking on it brought up links to AVG Security 8.0, which costs $55 and includes a firewall, anti-spyware and other stuff not included in the free product.
I certainly don't begrudge AVG's efforts to sell product, considering it has been giving away Anti-Virus to home users. However, hiding the free product is disingenuous, at best. The company should be up-front. It should either offer a choice or offer the upgrade for downloading.
Even when you visit the company's home page (www.free.grisoft.com), the free download is hard to locate, which is an odd strategy. It is almost as if Grisoft, which once was proud to offer the free product to home users, is hoping you stumble into a purchase.
In my opinion, it should not take five clicks to get to the free product. In the process, the company further confuses consumers by putting only some of the correct links in boldface type. It's pretty smarmy.
Overall, I am conflicted. On one hand, the antivirus is free. On the other hand, the company has made it hard to find and use.
But I'm not conflicted, just dismayed, by the news that Time-Warner is going to test -- and charge for -- metered Internet access. According to news reports, the company will begin a trial this week in Beaumont, Texas, charging customers $1 for each gigabyte...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Wireless Giants Form a Patent Pool to Boost WiMAX
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60227
Six wireless industry giants have formed an Open Patent Alliance (OPA) to foster the development and deployment of WiMAX worldwide. Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Clearwire, Intel, Samsung Electronics, and Sprint Nextel are working on a competitive and open intellectual-property rights model that will help WiMAX ecosystem participants obtain one-stop access to patent licenses at a predictable cost.
The goal is to stimulate innovation through broader choice and lower equipment and service costs, said Barry West, president of Sprint's Xohm business unit.
"We expect to unleash wireless innovation with this patent alliance," West said. "The open-licensing program will help prompt pervasive WiMAX technology. This speeds the day when consumers can enjoy the convenience of WiMAX mobile broadband services on new devices in new places, and experience all the open Internet has to offer."
The OPA will urge the inclusion of essential WiMAX patents in a "patent pool." An independent third party will evaluate the patents submitted to determine how essential they are to the WiMAX standard and WiMAX Forum profiles. The OPA intends to keep royalty rates low, which should translate into lower prices for consumers.
Another principal goal is to stimulate innovation through the establishment of a predictable and simple intellectual-property framework, said Sprint spokesperson John Polivka. "It will create a one-stop shop for WiMAX patents that facilitates the licensing of intellectual property," he said.
Intel envisions the OPA bringing "the openness of the Internet and computing industries to the wireless industry and WiMAX," said Intel Capital Vice President Sriram Viswanathan. "By facilitating an open IP-rights model, we expect the alliance to in turn create a more competitive, innovative and broader WiMAX industry that ultimately benefits the consumer with more choice for WiMAX technology and services."
To make this happen, Polivka observed, a large number of devices is key. "This creates a more...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Canon's EOS 1000D/Rebel XS Shoots Through LCD
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60226
Canon is adding another model to its entry-level D-SLR series -- the EOS 1000D/Rebel XS, whose release has been rumored on various technology blogs.
The new camera, announced Monday, includes a few improvements over the EOS Rebel XT, which it replaces, such as a 2.5-inch CMOS LCD, an increase to 10.1 megapixels, and the Live View feature. Live View enables a user to shoot through the LCD screen rather than through an optical viewfinder.
In addition, the XS features a new Digic III processor with 12-bit processing, better battery life, a seven-point autofocus system, and an unlimited burst rate of three fps. An image-stabilization lens, the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens, is included and can reduce image blur.
The four-stop image stabilization is designed to offer excellent performance, according to the company, even under low-light conditions. The new model is compatible with SD and SDHC memory cards, and is fully compatible with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites. The XTi actually had a nine-point autofocus system, but Canon said the seven-point system provides significant cost savings.
Included in the new model is the E-TTL II, the company's distance-linked flash exposure system. The LCD screen has a tab-based menu system to avoid scrolling, and there is direct control from the menu over external devices like flash units. An Auto Lighting Optimizer can correct brightness and contrast, such as improving skin tones by providing correct exposure for faces.
The XS was announced in Japan, and the U.S. launch is expected in July. No pricing has yet been established, although there have been reports it would be in the same ballpark as for the Rebel XTi, another model that the XS replaces. The XTi goes for $630 to $740.
The XS, similar to other Canon entry-level D-SLRs, will be...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Researchers Ask for Help Cracking Ransom Virus Code
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60225
Kaspersky Lab is asking for help cracking an encryption key that holds victims' PCs for ransom. It's an extortion scheme that demands money from victims whose machines have been infected.
Kaspersky detected a new variant of Gpcode, which encrypts a variety of user files, targeting those with extensions such as DOC, TXT, PDF, XLS, JPG and PNG.
"We recently started getting reports from infected victims, analyzed a sample, and added detection for Gpcode.ak to our antivirus databases," wrote Kaspersky analyst "VitayK" in the Russian company's blog. "However, although we detect the virus itself, we can't currently decrypt files encrypted by Gpcode.ak -- the RSA encryption implemented in the malware uses a very strong, 1,024-bit key."
The encryption algorithm uses two keys, according to Kaspersky, a public key and a private key. Messages can be encrypted using the public key, but can only be decrypted using the private key. That's how Gpcode works -- it encrypts files on victim machines using the public key coded into its body. Once encrypted, files can only be decrypted by someone who has the private key -- in this case, the author or the owner of the malicious program, Kaspersky analysts explained.
Kaspersky estimates it will take about five million modern computers, running for about a year, to crack the key. The firm has offered up the public keys, hoping other security researchers will join the firm in factoring the key.
"We're calling on you: cryptographers, governmental and scientific institutions, antivirus companies, independent researchers ... join with us to stop Gpcode," Kaspersky senior virus analyst Aleks Gostev wrote on the company blog. "This is a unique project -- uniting brainpower and resources out of ethical, rather than theoretical or malicious, considerations."
Sophos Principal Virus researcher Vanja Svajcer confirmed this is a variant of the...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Hybrid Roadrunner Pushes Supercomputing Envelope
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60224
The U.S. Department of Energy plans to use a new hybrid supercomputer codeveloped by IBM and the Los Alamos National Laboratory to simulate U.S. nuclear-weapons performance. Code-named "Roadrunner," the $100 million machine will be capable of performing 1,500 trillion computational operations per second (1.5 petaflops), which is three times faster than the largest supercomputer currently in use.
IBM executives say Roadrunner, which is twice as fast as IBM's trailblazing Blue Gene supercomputer, has the computing power of 100,000 of today's most powerful laptops. According to IBM Vice President David Turek, the new supercomputer represents the first significant manifestation of what Big Blue calls hybrid computing.
"At its center are very conventional kinds of microprocessors from AMD --- the kinds of microprocessors that you'll find in laptops and servers," Turek said. "But surrounding this are a large number of chips known as a Cell Broadband Engine --- the same kind of chips that you find in the Sony PlayStation 3."
Roadrunner, which is housed in 288 refrigerator-sized racks and occupies 6,000 square feet of space, integrates 80 terabytes of memory with 6,948 dual-core AMD Opteron chips as well as 12,960 Cell Broadband Engines. The eight cores within each Cell chip function as "vector engines that can produce significant computational capability for the kind of program that we are using for Roadrunner," said IBM Vice President Bijan Davari.
To scale the platform's capabilities upward in a space- and power-efficient manner, IBM brought in hundreds of technical experts in all aspects of software, packaging, cooling and overall system design. "To get the maximum performance from any software application you have to optimize it for the architecture its going to be running on," said Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at iSuppli. "So if they are gaining this sort of...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
MobileMe Helps Apple Compete with BlackBerry Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60210
On Monday, Apple introduced a new service that delivers push e-mail, push contacts and push calendars into the "cloud" of native applications on the iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs.
Dubbed MobileMe, the service also provides a suite of ad-free Web applications that aim to deliver a desktop-like experience through any modern browser.
MobileMe applications -- available at www.me.com -- include Mail, Contacts and Calendar, as well as Gallery for viewing and sharing photos and iDisk for storing and exchanging documents online.
"Think of MobileMe as 'Exchange for the rest of us,'" said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push e-mail, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get."
Here's how it works: With a MobileMe e-mail account, all folders, messages and status indicators look identical whether you are checking e-mail on an iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC. New e-mail messages are pushed instantly to the iPhone over the cellular network or Wi-Fi, removing the need to manually check e-mail and wait for downloads.
"With the BlackBerry, if you are sent an e-mail, you get it right away. In the previous version of the iPhone, you had to go back and sync up before you could get your e-mail," said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. "If you can get e-mail on your iPhone on the fly now, that's a pretty significant advantage."
Push technology also keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes made on one device are automatically pushed up to the cloud and down to other devices. Push works with the native applications on the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as Microsoft Outlook for the PC. It also works with the Mac OS X applications Mail, Address Book...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
An iPhone That's Twice as Fast at Half the Cost
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60209
Apple introduced the iPhone 3G on Monday. The new model has the original features that consumers raved about, but is twice as fast and half the price as the first-generation iPhone.
In the U.S. the new iPhone 3G is priced at $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model. The phone goes on sale in the U.S. on July 11.
The iPhone 3G has built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software with support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. It can run hundreds of third-party applications built with the recently released iPhone software developers kit (SDK).
"Just one year after launching the iPhone, we're launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third-party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year."
iPhone 3G relies on quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world for access to the Internet and e-mail.
iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds, Apple said. The iPhone 3G also makes it easier to multitask with simultaneous voice and data communications, so users can browse the Web, get map directions, or check e-mail while on a call.
In a move to compete with the Blackberry, iPhone 3G includes, besides Microsoft Exchange support, contact and calendar syncing, remote wipe, and Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to corporate networks.
The iPhone 2.0 software makes possible a laundry list of new features. Users can do real-time mapping and tracking with GPS, move and delete multiple e-mail messages,...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Comedy Central's 'Fake News' Shows Come to Hulu
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60208
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert fans can now watch their Comedy Central shows until the cows come home. Video site Hulu.com has announced that the two politically oriented, "fake news" shows will be available on that site.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report are among the first TV shows on the Hulu site that did not originate with the site's two parent companies, NBC Universal and News Corp. The Comedy Central network is owned by Viacom.
Both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have established an extensive Web presence through their own sites, and MTV Networks, the division at Viacom that oversees Comedy Central, has been very aggressive about online distribution and content. Viacom has also made some of its programming available to Joost, a Hulu competitor that also distributes high-quality TV programming via broadband Net.
Both Viacom shows are expected to hit their stride as the national election approaches. But the impact of the shows is greater than simply a chuckle. For instance, The Colbert Report was awarded a coveted Peabody Award this year, and the host has boasted on more than one occasion about the alleged "Colbert bump" -- an increase in popularity following a politician's appearance on the show.
Hulu, which has more than 70 programming partners, is also expected to add selected programs from PBS later this month, including Nova, Carrier, Scientific American Frontiers, Wired Science, and others. In all, Hulu.com has more than 700 television and movie titles.
Bobby Tulsiani, an analyst with JupiterResearch, said it was "certainly exciting" that Hulu is expanding its programming to include Viacom. He noted that both The Colbert Report and The Daily Show "are perfect for the Web," because both of the Comedy Central shows are based on short material.
"It's perfect for the 'video-snacking' form...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Snow Leopard Will Accelerate Macs But Not Til Next Year
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60207
On Monday, Apple previewed the next generation of its popular Mac OS X operating system -- Snow Leopard. The OS was one of several introductions on the opening day of the Mac-maker's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Snow Leopard aims to build on the marketplace success of OS X Leopard. It marks the next major release of Apple's operating system, often touted for its ease of use.
"We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years, and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering. "In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world's most advanced operating system."
As Serlet suggested, Apple is taking a different approach with Snow Leopard. Instead of focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality, and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation, according to the company.
Apple said Snow Leopard is optimized for multi-core processors, taps into the computing power of graphics processing units (GPU), enables large amounts of RAM, and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime X.
Also noteworthy is the fact that, for the first time, OS X will include native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in Apple's Mail, iCal and Address Book applications. That, Apple, said, will make it easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.
Snow Leopard delivers support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named Grand Central that makes it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of multiple cores.
Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
HP Executive Treats Business Like a Team Sport
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60195
Ann Livermore, head of Hewlett-Packard's storage and servers, software and services businesses, has faced decisions in her company that might have sent some executives heading for the door. But despite deals that cut into her territory, she keeps her focus on the big picture, on the challenges at hand, and on new opportunities for growth. It's all part of knowing that "business is a team sport," she says.
That sentiment isn't common among business leaders these days. Many senior executives are more focused on their individual well-being than on furthering their company's goals. They're quick to jump to new employers when they don't feel appreciated.
Some outside HP had speculated that Livermore was unhappy about relinquishing part of her portfolio after the company announced plans to acquire Electronic Data Systems, based in Plano, Texas, an IT outsourcing company. Under the agreement, the outsourcing portion of HP's services businesses -- about 13 percent of the group she runs -- will become part of EDS under its current chief, Ronald Rittenmeyer. Rittenmeyer will report to HP CEO Mark Hurd.
She says she's staying put. "This isn't about me," she said in an interview. "It's about doing what is best for HP. It makes sense to combine all outsourcing businesses -- and with a merger this big, for EDS to report directly to Mark," to ensure the best integration.
This doesn't mean the 49-year-old Livermore has taken a place on the sidelines. Her division reported $37.7 billion in revenue last year, or 36 percent of HP's total. Her office at HP's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters is about 20 feet from her boss, Hurd, who describes her as "one of the best executives I know. She's running a huge business and doing that very well."
Livermore helped develop strategy for the EDS deal with Hurd. Like him, she...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Jawbone 2 Bluetooth Headset Makes Talking Easy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60194
So many Bluetooth headsets look silly -- especially when they are not actually being used and instead are worn as fashion statements.
Still, the easy connectivity and the wireless, hands-free convenience are worth looking like a cyborg wannabe, especially if the earpiece works as well as the new Jawbone from Aliph.
The newest incarnation of the company's flagship headset went on sale recently through AT&T Wireless, and it's compatible with the most common versions of Bluetooth mobile phones.
Just for the record, Bluetooth is a short-ranged wireless technology used to connect one device to another, such as a phone to a headset or a keyboard to a computer.
The Jawbone 2 doesn't look like your typical headset. Unlike many other Bluetooth earpieces out there, all of the Jawbone's buttons are on the inside. You control the device by pressing down on it in specific places.
About half the size of its popular predecessor, the Jawbone 2 is tiny, measuring 2.1 inches long, 0.6 inches wide and 0.9 inches high. It weighs a nearly non-existent 0.4 ounces and comes with different-sized ear loops to ensure a snug, comfortable fit.
One of the few complaints about the original Jawbone was that it didn't connect very well to its charger, but its successor has no such problem. The USB-based charger even comes with a wall outlet adapter, which is a rarity among consumer electronics makers that like to sell them as a separate accessory.
The Jawbone's battery runs for about four hours of talk time, depending on the phone, and about eight hours of standby.
But it is inside this tiny $130 device where the specifications become truly impressive.
The creators of the Jawbone 2 say it can accurately separate speech from ambient noise by using a proprietary technology sexily named NoiseAssassin. The system uses a "voice activation sensor"...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Firefox 3.0 Voted Best Browser for Web -- for Now
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60193
If you buy a new Windows Vista PC, it comes with a decent built-in Web browser, Internet Explorer 7. If you buy a new Macintosh computer, it comes with a decent built-in Web browser, Safari 3.0. So why would you want or need a different Web browser?
That is the question that Mozilla, the nonprofit organization that makes the leading alternative browser, hopes to answer this month when it releases version 3.0 of its Firefox Web browser. In some tech-industry circles, Firefox already is preferred over Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari, but it still isn't used by most people, and Mozilla is hoping to broaden its appeal.
The new version will be released simultaneously for Windows and the Mac's OS X operating system, as well as for Linux. While each of the three editions will have the visual style of the operating system on which it runs, all three will have the same features.
I've been using pre-release versions of Firefox 3.0 for months, and have recently been testing a near-final version and comparing it closely to IE and to Safari. I have tested it on multiple Windows PCs and Macs, on desktops and laptops, over slow connections and fast ones. I have tried it with well over 100 Web sites.
My verdict is that Firefox 3.0 is the best Web browser out there right now, and that it tops the current versions of both IE and Safari in features, speed and security. It is easy to install and easy to use, even for a mainstream, non-technical user. It can be downloaded, free, on their Web site by clicking on "Firefox 3 Sneak Peek."
This situation may change. Microsoft is working on a new version of IE, scheduled to be introduced later this year, with some impressive new features. And Apple is...
Wed, 11 Jun 08
Icahn's Big Bet on Yahoo Hinges on Microsoft Sale
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60191
Antagonistic investor Carl Icahn became a billionaire by bullying already distressed companies, but his harassment of Yahoo Inc. could leave him with a black eye -- and a hole in his wallet -- if he's wrong about Microsoft Corp.'s desire to buy the Internet pioneer.
Icahn, 72, has used a combination of guile, gall, grit and gamesmanship to get his way more often than not since he began tormenting vulnerable companies 30 years ago. The conquests helped Icahn build an estimated fortune of $14 billion after starting out on Wall Street with a $4,000 bankroll from his winnings playing poker.
His roll call of stock market successes include profitable showdowns with Marshall Field, Phillips Petroleum, Texaco, USX and, most recently, BEA Systems. There have been flops, too: the now-defunct airline TWA and video rental chain Blockbuster Inc., whose stock has lost nearly two-thirds of its value since Icahn bought a stake in the company in 2005 and muscled his way on to the board of directors.
Having spent more than $1 billion for a 4.3 percent stake in the company, Yahoo represents one of Icahn's biggest bets yet.
The payoff -- or possible loss -- will hinge largely on the irascible financier's matchmaking skills as he tries to patch up a tiff between two fellow billionaires, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.
If he can't persuade Ballmer to change his mind and renew his pursuit of Yahoo, Icahn could find himself holding a losing hand as investors bail out of Yahoo's stock.
"There may be some unintended consequences to Icahn's actions that he hasn't fully thought about," said Dennis Carey, senior client partner for Korn/Ferry, which specializes in recruiting chief executives and board directors for corporate boards.
Icahn hasn't returned repeated phone messages left by The Associated Press during the past three weeks.
But...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
PS3 Components Used To Build World's Fastest Computer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60205
A supercomputer with components originally developed for Sony's PlayStation video-game console has become the world's fastest computer.
IBM said the computer, nicknamed Roadrunner, can process more than 1,000 trillion calculations per second, known as a petaflop. Built for the Energy Department's Los Alamos lab with off-the-shelf components, Roadrunner is named for the state bird of New Mexico and will be used to monitor the U.S. nuclear-weapons stockpile.
Roadrunner cost $133 million and is twice as fast as IBM's Blue Gene system, which had been considered the world's most powerful. The Blue Gene is at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
Along with almost 7,000 dual-core processors from Advanced Micro Devices, the Roadrunner also has almost 13,000 improved Cell microprocessors originally developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. The Cell combines the Power Architecture instruction set with coprocessors to accelerate computing.
Roadrunner will make it possible for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration to certify the reliability of the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons without the need for underground nuclear tests. To accomplish this, it will be used to solve classified military problems.
"Roadrunner tells us about what will happen in the next decade," said Horst Simon, associate laboratory director for computer science at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Technology is coming from the consumer electronics market, and the innovation is happening first in terms of cell phones and embedded electronics."
Since President George H.W. Bush ended underground nuclear tests in 1992, the United States has relied on research and development to extend the life of the stockpile of nuclear weapons, most of which were created 30 to 40 years ago.
To illustrate the power of Roadrunner, the Energy Department said it can perform a calculation in one day that would take 46 years if everyone on Earth used a hand...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
Citysense Monitors Real-Time Human Traffic
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60203
A new company has launched an alpha version of a platform that can show the location-based trends of consumers in real time. New York City-based Sense Networks publicly announced itself as a company Monday -- along with its patent-pending software platform, Macrosense, and the platform's first application: a real-time social-navigation and "nightlife-discovery application" called Citysense.
Citysense is available now for download from the company's Web site, but initially only for BlackBerry handhelds. The company said an iPhone version will be available soon.
Greg Skibiski, the company's CEO and cofounder, said the Macrosense platform "enables an entirely new business model for location-based services," which other company officials are describing as "social navigation."
He added that the new model is made possible by companies and investors making money from "understanding emerging trends in real time, while consumers receive compelling applications free of intrusive mobile advertising" and are able to remain anonymous.
The way Macrosense accomplishes this is by collecting massive amounts of location data that is sent, anonymously, from mobile phones and vehicles. Machine-learning technology is employed to analyze the data, with each data point being evaluated in the context of other data from the same location. The data consists of time-stamped location data, and metadata streams from GPS, Wi-Fi positioning, cell-tower triangulation, RFID, and other sources to provide what the company calls its "predictive analytics."
The company said this kind of real-time information, plus historical data, enables the platform to quantify consumer behavior and show "macro trends in spending and sentiment," in real time. These trends enable companies to answer such questions as: Where do its customers go after a transaction? How far will people be willing to travel to a store compared to last year? Where do most of the customers at a given location come...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
T-Mobile Suit Slams Starbucks Wireless Transition
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60202
The battle over Starbucks is heating up -- and we're not talking about coffee temperature. Late last week, T-Mobile USA sued the high-end coffeehouse chain for violating its exclusive agreement when AT&T Internet Services began offering free Wi-Fi service.
According to the Reuters news service, the lawsuit was filed Thursday in New York state court for breach of contract, interference with a contract, and unfair competition. It contends that AT&T and Starbucks failed to abide by an agreement between the three companies concerning the transition to the partnership with AT&T. T-Mobile seeks unspecified damages, legal fees, and an order that will stop Starbucks from breaching its agreement.
Early last week, Starbucks announced that new and existing members would be able to use their Starbucks Card to get as much as two consecutive hours of complimentary AT&T-provided Wi-Fi each day in U.S.-based, Starbucks-operated stores. There are more than 7,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S.
The coffeehouse chain said it had joined with AT&T to undertake a national rollout that would bring Wi-Fi to every Starbucks-operated location in the country by the end of this year. The lawsuit indicated that only two markets -- San Antonio, Texas, and Bakersfield, Calif. -- had made the move to AT&T.
Customers can use their Starbucks Card to receive various discounts or freebies for beverage selections, and, if the card has a minimum of $5 credit on it, the user can get the free Wi-Fi. To stay active, the card must be used at least once a month.
The chain's seven-year partnership with T-Mobile concluded in February when Starbucks signed a new agreement with AT&T. Under the previous T-Mobile arrangement, customers could buy Wi-Fi by the hour or the day.
A transition agreement was reportedly reached between T-Mobile and Starbucks in February, which T-Mobile...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
Apple Ranks Third in Global Smartphone Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60201
Gartner Research reports that smartphone sales within North America more than doubled during the first quarter of 2008 in comparison with year-earlier figures. Moreover, Apple became the number-two smartphone vendor in the U.S. by grabbing a 20 percent market share in the quarter.
Despite worrisome economic concerns, the U.S. smartphone market continued to expand in response to heavy advertising and strong marketing promotions as more devices reached mass-market price points, observed Hugues De La Vergne, Gartner's principal analyst for mobile terminals.
"North American operators are giving these devices strong support, as they provide higher average revenue per unit," De La Vergne explained. "We expect operators to continue to make these devices the focus of 2008 promotions."
Worldwide smartphone sales totaled 32.2 million units in the first quarter, a 29.3 percent increase from one year earlier, the research firm said. Moreover, Apple became the world's number-three smartphone vendor, behind Nokia and Research In Motion, by shipping 1.72 million iPhones -- which was good enough to achieve a 5.3 percent market share in the quarter.
Apple has a long way to go before it can seriously challenge rivals Nokia and RIM, which grabbed 42 percent and 13.4 percent global market shares, respectively. However, the iPhone is slated to become officially available in more than 60 countries around the world by the end of this year. Apple is also moving away from demanding market-exclusivity agreements, which have placed limitations on its ability to gain market share.
"There are quite a few countries now where Apple is going with more than one carrier," noted Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi. "Their moving away from exclusivity is something we have seen for a while."
Apple's expansion overseas will also help the company avoid missing out on its share of the service revenues currently generated by...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
WWDC Could Add Products to iPhone App Store
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60200
It's that time of year again -- the Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple and the analysts who follow the company were in San Francisco Monday as the show got under way.
But will the WWDC feature new whizbang software for the iPhone App Store?
Applications could quickly expand the iPhone's built-in software features and help make the experience more personal for millions of consumers. While some developers are planning announcements, additions to the App Store remain to be seen.
Apple previewed the App Store in March, positioning it as a way for developers to deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod touch users. Developers set the price for their applications -- including free -- and retain 70 percent of all sales revenues.
The five-day WWDC from June 9 to June 13 will feature the first-ever iPhone track for mobile developers, with in-depth sessions and hands-on labs to explore the capabilities of the OS X iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone software developers kit (SDK) and the App Store.
The iPhone track will let mobile developers work with Apple engineers to create applications that leverage the iPhone's multi-touch user interface, animation technology, and APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies, built-in accelerometer and geographical location technology.
Leading developers such as AOL, Electronic Arts, Epocrates, salesforce.com and Sega have already demonstrated applications using the SDK. And more applications are expected, likely just in time for the 3G iPhone launch.
Sling Media plans to debut its technology at the WWDC. Sling Media has developed a proof of concept version of SlingPlayer Mobile that works with the iPhone and iPod touch. The player brings mobile TV to the devices. Sling Media in March launched a SlingPlayer for the Symbian mobile OS.
Meanwhile, Robosoft Technologies is developing nearly half a...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
Cheaper Apple iPhone with 3G May Anger Early Adopters
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60198
A 3G iPhone is the Apple of the wireless world's eye. Apple CEO Steve Jobs was expected to announce the iPhone 2.0 Monday at the opening of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Along with January's MacWorld event, WWDC is a natural venue for blockbuster announcements. Apple, as usual, has been tight-lipped about the final features and pricing for the 3G iPhone, but speculation abounds.
"I am hoping to see the incorporation of Geo-positioning technology as well as a robust suite of location-based services for the iPhone," said Tim Deal, a senior analyst of broadband services for Pike & Fischer. "This is one area where it has clearly fallen behind its peers."
The next-generation iPhone is due out in just a few days. The latest version will support 3G, which means much faster wireless networking. Improved location services and GPS are expected.
Corporate users won't be left out. Apple is offering support for corporate e-mail and a host of new applications that could help the iPhone compete with the Blackberry on the business front.
There have been rumors that the 3G iPhone will let consumers download songs directly from iTunes over the AT&T cellular network. AT&T is ready for the device, with an upgraded 3G network to handle the traffic and downloading speeds of up to 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps and uploading speeds of 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps.
Then there's the price. The 3G iPhone could cost as little as $199, thanks to an AT&T subsidy. That last point, if true, could draw the ire of first-generation iPhone consumers who shelled out several hundred dollars more for their devices.
The long-standing rumors of a 3G iPhone at a lower price will undoubtedly be met with enthusiasm, Fischer said. However, he added,...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
June Patch Tuesday Addresses Bluetooth, Kill Bit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60187
Microsoft plans to issue seven sets of security patches on June 10 in a Patch Tuesday that will include critical fixes for Internet Explorer, DirectX and Bluetooth wireless software for Windows.
Beyond the critical fixes, Microsoft plans to release patches rated important. Important fixes are due for Active Directory, the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), and the Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) protocol, which Windows uses to stream media to multiple recipients.
The seventh update is rated moderate. This security update addresses "kill bit" for Windows. The patch disables code that has a known security bug.
The Bluetooth critical update affects the latest versions of Windows, including Windows XP SP2 and SP3 and Windows Vista SP1. The vulnerability could allow attackers to take control of a computer from a remote location.
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer can detect whether your computer system requires this update. The update may require a restart.
Tyler Reguly, a security researcher at nCircle, said that by his records, this is the first time Microsoft has issued a Bluetooth patch. "I'm curious to see what it affects," he said, "especially given the rather small effective range of Bluetooth." Bluetooth has a range of about 30 feet.
The kill bit is a feature Microsoft invented to solve the problem of unexpected ActiveX execution in Internet Explorer. This is a flag that allows a user to prevent execution of some ActiveX items while running Internet Explorer.
"Microsoft is setting another kill bit," Regulay said. "I'll be interested to see what product it is this time. It was First4Internet XCP (Sony Rootkit incident) in 2005, and Yahoo Jukebox a few months ago."
This month Microsoft is acknowledging two denial-of-service vulnerabilities. Regulay said it's interesting that Microsoft is once again wavering on its DoS stance. Microsoft can't seem to make up its...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
E-Mail Spammer Cries Free-Speech Violation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60177
A lawyer for a man once considered one of the world's most prolific e-mail spammers urged the Virginia Supreme Court on Wednesday to strike down a state anti-spam law, arguing it violates free speech protections under the U.S. constitution.
Lawyer Thomas M. Wolf said the state law that makes bulk e-mailing a felony is unconstitutional because it fails to distinguish between commercial messages, which are not covered by the constitution, and protected political and religious speech.
The high court was hearing arguments on whether convicted spammer Jeremy Jaynes can challenge the state law based on free-speech issues despite the fact that his conviction was for sending commercial e-mails, not religious or political messages.
Wolf urged the court to reverse a previous ruling that Jaynes has no standing to make the appeal.
State Solicitor General William Thro countered that the high court was correct when it ruled 4-3 in February against Jaynes. The state also argued that even if Jaynes is allowed to pursue the free-speech claim, the law should be upheld.
Jaynes in 2004 became the first person in the United States to be convicted of a felony for sending unsolicited bulk e-mail. Authorities claimed Jaynes churned out up to 10 million e-mails a day from his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the e-mails went through an AOL server in Loudoun County, where America Online is based.
Jaynes appealed his conviction on several grounds, but the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed his conviction. The justices later agreed, without explanation, to reconsider just the free speech issue.
The court must first decide whether Jaynes can act as a surrogate for others whose free-speech rights might be violated by the anti-spam law.
The stakes are high, Wolf said.
"This case is bigger than one criminal defendant, one state statute,"...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
Comcast Plans 100 Mbps-Capable Web Service by 2010
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60174
Comcast Corp. said Thursday that by early 2010 it plans to offer consumers in most of its markets Internet service so fast they will be able to download a high-definition movie in minutes.
The nation's second-largest Internet service provider -- and biggest cable TV operator -- will deploy a technology capable of delivering up to 100 megabits of data or more per second in 20 percent of its markets by the end of 2008, Comcast senior vice president of investor relations Marlene Dooner said at the Merrill Lynch U.S. Media Conference in London.
Dooner said the speed was "very competitive" with Verizon's fiber-optic Internet service, which had about 1.8 million subscribers in the first quarter.
Among cable operators, Comcast has been one of the most aggressive in deploying a wideband technology called Docsis 3.0 to fend off competitors as more users download videos over the Internet.
Dooner also said Comcast expects to move the majority of its analog television channels to digital in most markets by early 2010. The Philadelphia-based company had set a goal of reclaiming analog bandwidth in 20 percent of its markets this year.
As competition increases, cable's triple-play package -- of video, Internet and phone service -- is no longer exclusive because phone and satellite TV companies are offering comparable bundles.
In response, Comcast has been aggressively courting cost-conscious consumers, with its economy plan and packages that bundle two services instead of three.
"We've responded. We're adjusting and we think it's working," Dooner said.
The economy did take a toll on advertising, with revenue down 5 percent in the first quarter after excluding this year's extra broadcast week and a boost from political ads, Dooner said.
Softness was seen in automotive, real estate and retail advertising and in ad sales in Florida, Michigan and California.
Comcast's ad revenue in 2007 topped $1.5 billion.
Shares of Comcast rose...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
Intel Hit with $25.4 Million Antitrust Fine by South Korea
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60173
Korea's antitrust regulator said Thursday it will order Intel Corp. to pay $25.4 million for violating fair trade rules.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission said in a statement it was issuing the order because the semiconductor giant offered rebates to South Korean computer companies to undercut competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Intel immediately criticized the ruling and said it would consider its options, including a possible appeal.
"We're disappointed and we completely disagree with the findings," Bruce Sewell, Intel senior vice president and general counsel, said in Seoul.
The KFTC last year charged Intel with violating South Korean antitrust laws after completing a two-year probe.
The commission said that Intel provided rebates to Samsung Electronics Co. and Trigem Computer Inc. to not use central processing units, or CPUs, manufactured by AMD, Intel's main competitor.
Samsung spokeswoman Lee Soo-jeong said the company had no comment.
Trigem spokesman Bang Yeong-il said that rebates were used legally for joint marketing.
Intel has been scrutinized by regulators in several countries and the European Union over allegations it abused its market dominance to pressure computer makers and undermine rivals.
Intel dominates the world market for microprocessors, the electronic brains of computers.
The company, based in Santa Clara, Calif., has faced numerous legal battles over how it maintains its market position.
One of Intel's biggest legal headaches is a landmark antitrust lawsuit AMD filed in June 2005 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware -- and is still pending -- accusing its much-larger rival of illegally maintaining and protecting a monopoly in microprocessors by threatening computer makers and forcing them into exclusive deals.
A victory by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD could mean potentially billions of dollars in damages. Trial is scheduled for 2009. The lawsuit is currently in the document-swapping phase of the legal process called "discovery."
Intel has also been hit with antitrust charges in the European...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
Alltel Customers Worry About Verizon Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60172
Verizon Wireless' deal to buy Alltel Corp. for $5.9 billion was applauded by investors and should mean a greater range of choices for Alltel subscribers, but some worried that Alltel's commitment to rural coverage will get lost.
Dan Yahro in Bishop, Calif., close to the border with Nevada, has two options for wireless service: Alltel and Verizon Wireless. Now that one is buying the other, he wonders what will happen.
"Alltel has twice the coverage of Verizon here. When you get into Death Valley National Park, which is where I spend a lot of time, Alltel is the only game out there," Yahro said.
Alltel's wide-ranging rural coverage in 35 states has given it 13.2 million subscribers and plenty of fans. In its area, mainly in the interior of the country and in the Southeast, it provides an alternative to the four big national carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA.
John Wilfong, 29, of Alexander, Ark., said he had service on his Alltel phone everywhere when he worked as a deliveryman.
"When I used to go into a lot of fringe areas, it got a better signal," Wilfong said. "When I was living at home before I got married, my dad had Cingular and he couldn't get a signal in the house, but I could."
Having the No. 2 carrier, Verizon Wireless, swallow the No. 5 carrier, Alltel, would catapult it beyond 80 million subscribers and past AT&T Inc. to become the largest carrier in the country. It could also reduce competition in areas where Verizon Wireless and Alltel overlap.
A Justice Department spokeswoman Thursday said the agency "would be interested in looking at the proposed transaction."
Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said the deal "merits the utmost scrutiny by antitrust officials...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
Yahoo Announces a Slew of New Ad Deals
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60171
Yahoo has been very often in the headlines these days, much to its chagrin. But the company is now setting out to make news of its own, describing an array of deals in the online advertising realm.
The deals are mostly small ones, but the all-at-once grouping suggests that Yahoo is trying to shape its own image after months of being described as takeover bait. The announcement Wednesday came a day after the investor Carl Icahn proposed that Jerry Yang, the chief executive of Yahoo, be removed over the way he handled Microsoft's bid for the company.
Despite Yahoo's efforts to spread the news of its deals -- one with Wal-Mart Stores, one with CBS and another with the advertising agency Havas Digital -- people who follow the company seemed more interested in the status of Yahoo's talks with Microsoft. In discussing the arrangements at an advertising conference Wednesday morning, the president of Yahoo, Susan Decker, said that talks with Microsoft were "ongoing," and that seemed to be the tidbit people seized on.
In a meeting with reporters over lunch, Decker was asked to clarify what she meant by "ongoing." "Just that," she said. "Microsoft said they're talking with us about partnerships, and we are."
Of the Yahoo deals, one, perhaps the most prominent, was a pact to sell display advertisements on Walmart.com. Although another agency also sells these ads, Yahoo will be the only portal that is allowed to resell the inventory.
Yahoo will be able to use consumers' browsing and purchase histories on Walmart.com to select ads for individuals, said Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo publisher network. For instance, if a Walmart.com visitor puts a digital camera in the shopping cart but does not buy it, Yahoo could serve a Nikon ad when the visitor returns to Walmart.com, or when...
Tue, 10 Jun 08
Customer-Service E-Mails: Getting It Right
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=59647
Newton's Third Law of Physics, as you well know, states that for every e-mail, there is an equal and opposite e-mail. And we live in the parallel universe where we get those equal and opposite e-mails. We also get to hear what's really on politicians' minds when they're talking, we know how often girls actually wash their hair and we always get good parking places in midtown Manhattan.
It's nice, yeah, but we wish we could get a decent cup of coffee from the Starbucks here, because Newton's Fourth Law of Physics holds that for every cup of good coffee, there is an equal and opposite cup of abject swill.
We know you want to provide good customer service via e-mail, so you tell customers when they can expect a response -- and you keep to that schedule. You actually respond when you say you will. This is because you know that response time depends a great deal on how quickly your automated routing gets the appropriate e-mail to the appropriate respondent in your organization.
You never write in all caps, you have a punchy, relevant subject line, and you even include the recipient's name in the response. Your agents have access to all the customer information they need to write an intelligent, useful response, they understand what the customer is talking about and they have the reporting and analysis capability to track trends.
You've analyzed the most common customer queries and have developed responses with highly effective habits. You've done such a good job with your FAQ list that your agents are only getting the complicated questions, but because you've prepped your agents so well, they don't have any trouble.
Remember that confirmation e-mail you sent last week to Elmer Schlumpkin of Rusty Gulch, New Jersey, confirming shipment of his order of...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Virtual Walt Disney World Added To Google Earth
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60184
Disney World is going virtual. On Thursday, Disney and Google announced Walt Disney World Resort in 3-D.
All four theme parks and more than 20 Disney Resort hotels of the Orlando, Fla., tourist destination have been created and placed on Google Earth. Users, the Disney company said on its Web site, "can zoom down Main Street, USA, fly around Cinderella Castle, explore Spaceship Earth and climb the Tree of Life."
Aside from the joy of visiting Disney World without waiting in line, the online tour is designed to help users plan a vacation. There are menus, descriptions of attractions, event calendars, and links to online ticket buying and reservations. The virtual Disney World also contains small details that heighten the sense of being there, including park benches, merry-go-round horses, minimum rider height for certain rides, and souvenir shops.
To virtually go to Disney, a user downloads Google Earth and selects the Gold Mickey Ears icon.
As befits a company that would, say, create or re-create entire worlds in its Florida park, Disney said its virtual Disney World is the largest effort ever undertaken by any company for Google Earth. About 100,000 photos by eight photographers were used to create 1,500 3-D models of buildings, and there are also links to blogs and YouTube videos.
The effort may be worthwhile, since Disney said about 90 percent of its guests plan their vacations via the Web. Disney Chairman Jay Rasulo said people will now be able to book their vacations while exploring what a particular attraction offers, all with the click of a mouse. There was no indication if he was referring to Mickey.
But some observers are suggesting that, in creating such a detailed online planning tool, Disney may be opening the door to virtual trips that take the place of the real thing. For...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Apple Expected to Address IT Concerns at WWDC
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60183
Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week in San Francisco is widely expected to serve as the forum for Apple CEO Steve Jobs' unveiling of a new 3G iPhone.
So far the company has been able to maintain a tight lid on its iPhone strategy. But one thing is certain: CIOs will be closely following what comes out of the WWDC track devoted to IT, an area in which Apple has long lagged behind Microsoft and its open-source rivals.
In particular, network managers considering the iPhone as a potential Blackberry alternative will be critically eyeing Apple's support for enterprise-class e-mail capabilities.
A recent Apple patent application suggests the new iPhone may offer support for voice-activated commands, instant messaging, and GPS navigation. Others speculate that Apple may take the current iPhone's multimedia focus to the next level by adding video chat.
However, even more interesting iPhone news -- both this month and beyond -- may be coming from developers. Given that Apple began shipping preliminary versions of its software development kit and iPhone 2.0 software last March, we can expect to see a flurry of native iPhone applications that expand its capabilities.
This isn't necessarily good news for IT managers. Apple will need to address enterprise concerns about giving employees direct access to the applications on their iPhones, said Dr. Shiv Bakhshi, director of mobility research and devices at IDC.
"There is a level of control that the CIO or network manager seeks to make sure that levels of authentication or access are controlled by him or her," Bakhshi explained. "These boundaries will need to be negotiated and we'll see what Mr. Jobs has to announce, as I am sure Apple is cognizant of this issue."
Bakhshi also wonders whether the new iPhone's "input methodology will be savvy enough"...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Google Launches Gmail Labs To Test Extensions
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60182
Google moved Thursday to convert its popular Gmail application from a proprietary service into a platform that developers can extend. Its launch of Gmail Labs provides a way to write and deploy modules for the e-mail and chat program.
When users in the U.S. and Britain log in to Gmail, they'll see a new Labs tab under Settings that will let them activate about a dozen experimental features. Many of the add-ons currently available, however, seem trivial.
For instance, there's a feature called Superstars that adds new colors for Gmail's star feature. Another add-on displays friends' profile pictures in chat. One of the more useful modules allows users to customize keyboard shortcuts for frequent operations.
Writing on an official company blog, product manager Keith Coleman said, "Gmail Labs is a way for us to take lots of the ideas we wouldn't normally pick and let you all (who use Gmail) decide whether they're good or not."
When users go to the Labs menu, they can easily enable and disable any of the offered modules. "Some of the popular ones will become core parts of the product, and we'll eventually retire the ones that don't get much use. We've put feedback links in there, too, so you can discuss a feature with other users and the engineer(s) who wrote it," Coleman wrote.
In other words, it's a "giant focus group," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, in a telephone interview. "They've always had a Labs area, where they showcased new ideas. This is a little different because its closer to the user. It gives them a way to preserve the product and throw new things in," he added. "It's a pretty interesting and progressive strategy."
For now, the ability to write new modules for Gmail is...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
New Water-Cooled Design Accelerates Computer Power
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60181
The future of powerful computing may be all wet. That's the outlook as IBM and the Fraunhofer Institute on Thursday demonstrated a 3-D stack of computer chips cooled by water. The concept means the industry may continue to innovate well into the future.
In conventional computing, chips and memory are placed in rows. But designers have known that placing them in 3-D stacks accelerates computing because the distance that data needs to travel is reduced 1,000 times. It also allows 100 times more channels for information flow, but the problem has been heat. A 3-D stack can produce nearly 10 times more heat than side-by-side placement.
IBM's solution is to pipe water between the 3-D layers through tubes as thin as a human hair. Water is much better at absorbing heat than conventional heatsinks and fans, and the water is well insulated from delicate components with silicon tubes that are sealed and double-layered. IBM said the design is "one of the most promising approaches to enhancing chip performance beyond its predicted limits."
Water cooling has been used in supercomputers for years, with the water flowing past chips to keep them cool. The difference with IBM's design is that the water now flows inside the microprocessor to remove heat.
"As we package chips on top of each other to significantly speed a processor's capability to process data, we have found that conventional coolers attached to the back of a chip don't scale. In order to exploit the potential of high-performance 3-D chip stacking, we need interlayer cooling," said Thomas Brunschwiler of IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory.
IBM said its design is complex like the human brain. Water has to flow without causing shorts, similar to the way that blood vessels intermix with nerves and neurons. To achieve this design, the scientists had to overcome technical...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
FCC Delays Proposal for Free Wireless Internet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60164
A free wireless Internet proposal by the Federal Communications Commission has been put on hold. According to Reuters, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Thursday that he would delay a vote on his proposal to auction a 25-MHz spectrum with the specific condition that the winner provide free Internet access. Martin said he wanted more time to investigate concerns by wireless carriers that there could be interference with frequencies already in use.
Martin has said he didn't believe there was a problem with interference, and that the new auction would provide the same protections against interference as previous auctions.
"I am happy to end up giving people a little more time to consider this," he told Reuters, although he added that he still thinks it's a "critical goal" and he's "still anxious for the commission to do it." He has also told other news media that he is committed to providing a lifeline broadband service.
The proposal had been scheduled to be discussed at the next FCC meeting on June 12. It could still be taken up at the FCC's meeting in July, which would allow the agency to approve auction rules before an August deadline. If the FCC approves no later than August, the auction could take place before the end of the year.
If Martin's proposal is adopted, the auction winner would be required to provide free wireless Internet to half the U.S. population within four years and to 95 percent within 10 years. It would not be the same Internet that is otherwise available, as the FCC proposal also requires that the winner filter out pornographic content. However, Martin has said he would support a plan that would allow adults to use an unfiltered service.
While some groups have protested the availability of an unfiltered Internet, others have protested the filtering as...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Verizon-Alltel Deal Could Isolate Sprint and WiMAX
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60163
Verizon Wireless and Alltel are merging in a $28.1 billion deal that analysts said could have a ripple effect through the U.S. wireless industry -- if the integration goes smoothly.
Verizon Wireless' acquisition crowns it king of the carriers in the U.S., dethroning AT&T and possibly signaling an eventual acquisition of Sprint Nextel, analysts said. Verizon will add 13 million clients in 34 states and save about $9 billion from the purchase. Synergies are expected to generate incremental cost savings of $1 billion in the second year after closing.
"This merger adds a significant number of customers to Verizon's strong and rising total. Alltel has common network technology, though Verizon has somewhat higher data rates. Alltel fills in-coverage gaps in rural areas and it's got some good cost synergies," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "This is a merger, at least on the surface, that seems to make a lot of sense. You can certainly understand the logistics and we now have a new king of the hill in terms of carriers."
The multimillion-dollar question, though, is what does the Verizon-Alltel hookup mean for Sprint? T-Mobile benefits from economies of scale, thanks to its corporate parent in Europe. But does Sprint have enough scale to be cost-competitive with the other carriers?
"T-Mobile also benefits by the fact that it is not into the local, long distance, TV infrastructure service offerings that AT&T and Verizon are in," Gartenberg said. "At this point, WiMAX is still just a Sprint thing. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out."
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is designed to provide wireless connections over long distances and is faster than today's 3G networks. With embedded WiMAX chipsets in laptops, phones, PDAs, mobile Internet devices, and consumer electronics equipment, WiMAX is expected to allow...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Pure Digital Rolls Out Pocket-sized Mino Camcorder
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60159
Pure Digital Technologies has rolled out the latest member of its popular Flip Video family of camcorders. Available from online outlets such as Amazon.com for $179.99, the company's new Flip Video Mino ships with Mac and PC software to edit and share videos, with links to post content at MySpace, YouTube and other social-networking sites.
"For the millions who share their lives online every day, it's more than a camcorder -- it's a fun tool for communicating and creatively expressing themselves," said Pure Digital CEO Jonathan Kaplan.
The pocket-sized Mino, which measures 3.94 x 1.97 x 0.63 inches, improves upon its predecessors by sporting an internal lithium-ion battery that recharges over any USB connection to a PC or laptop. The Mino also incorporates 2GB of internal flash memory, which is sufficient for storing up to 60 minutes of video at VGA resolution.
Though camcorder capabilities have been converging into high-end mobile phones and feature-packed digital cameras, Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin thinks Pure Digital's focus on making video capture painless is the right strategy.
"The general premise of Pure Digital's strategy is that people will want to capture video, transfer it to a computer, and then send it to others or upload it right onto the Web and in good quality," Bajarin said. "It may be convenient at times to use a camera phone to capture video, but more often than not these devices are only good at performing certain tasks. So there'll continue to be a market for specialized devices."
One of the reasons for Pure Digital's success has been the simplicity the company's products offer in the areas of sharing and capturing video content, Bajarin noted. "Consumers are going to gravitate to anything that makes that process easier and more affordable," he said.
Video content...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Study Secretly Tracks Cell-Phone Users Outside U.S.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60144
Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.
The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States.
It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.
The scientists would not say where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.
Researchers used cell phone towers to track individuals' locations whenever they made or received phone calls and text messages over six months. In a second set of records, researchers took another 206 cell phones that had tracking devices in them and got records for their locations every two hours over a week's time period.
The study was based on cell phone records from a private company, whose name also was not disclosed.
Study co-author Cesar Hidalgo, a physics researcher at Northeastern, said he and his colleagues didn't know the individual phone numbers because they were disguised into "ugly" 26-digit-and-letter codes.
That type of nonconsensual tracking would be illegal in the United States, according to Rob Kenny, a spokesman for the Federal Communications Commission. Consensual tracking, however, is legal and even marketed as a special feature by some U.S. cell phone providers.
The study, published Thursday in the journal Nature, opens up the field of human-tracking for science and calls attention to what experts said is an emerging issue of locational privacy.
"This is a new step for science," said study co-author Albert-Lazlo Barabasi, director of Northeastern's Center for Complex Network Research. "For the first time we have a chance to really objectively follow certain aspects...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Copyright Quiz Limits Students' Music File Sharing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60143
A tech-savvy university near the Missouri Ozarks is resorting to an old standby to reduce illegal music downloads by students: the pop quiz.
Missouri University of Science and Technology now requires students to ace a six-question quiz on digital copyright law to get six hours of access to peer-to-peer software they can use to share music and movies online.
The quiz has cut copyright complaints on campus from recording industry to eight this academic year, down from 200 in 2006-07, said Tim Doty, a campus systems security analyst.
"We're still allowing peer-to-peer access," Doty said, "but in a controlled fashion. We're providing them the information to make an informed decision."
Missouri S&T students who violate copyright law may lose their Internet privileges or face fines, community service, extra research assignments or suspension from classes.
Violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act also can draw lawsuits by the recording industry, which often cost several thousand dollars to settle. Universities that fail to stop repeat offenders can face liability too.
Several schools have addressed the problem by eliminating access to peer-to-peer software, even though it is used by academic researchers to share data. Most schools that continue to allow access have toughened penalties for piracy, including completing tests like Missouri S&T's or watching an anti-piracy DVD provided by the recording industry. The Missouri school appears to be the only U.S. campus that requires a test in advance, Doty said.
At Stanford, students who don't remove illegal downloads from their computers must pay $100 to reconnect to the Internet once they're found out. A second offense boosts the reconnection fee to $500.
Jonathan Lamy, a Recording Industry Association of America spokesman, applauded schools' efforts to teach students about copyright law.
"What we've found to be the most effective is a comprehensive approach that employs a combination of tools: innovative educational programs, legal...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
A New Crop of Minicomputers Try To Fill Mobile Niche
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60140
Lugging around a big-screen MacBook Pro or other large laptop to the local wireless hot spot may give you a great visual experience on the road, but it is so heavy it could also give you a bad back.
Enough people feel that way that computer makers are sensing a market opening for smaller laptops. A number have jumped in with what they are calling ultraminiature PCs or mininotebooks.
Their creators are hoping to carve out a niche between full-size laptops, which offer much more screen real estate, and smartphones, which are small and convenient but lack many features. Ultraminis can do what any laptop or desktop can do, but they have screens that are not much bigger than a paperback book.
They first gained serious attention last year after Asus began selling its Eee computer. Thanks to that success, several other manufacturers, including Everex, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard, have jumped in, selling mininotebooks ranging in price from $300 to more
than $1,000.
Industry analysts expect mininotebooks to remain a niche category, especially in the United States and Western Europe, where many people can afford to spend a few hundred dollars more for a bigger and speedier laptop, while using a smartphone or other device as an adequate substitute when they don't have the full-size machine with them.
"This is for people who would have bought a desktop but buy this to save money," said Leslie Fiering, a vice president at the research firm Gartner.
Indeed, the availability of ultraminis in the United States has left some analysts scratching their heads. "Why would you want a PC with stripped-down features that make it harder to do your work?" said Benjamin Reitzes, a computer industry analyst at Lehman Brothers.
That raises a question: Is cost the only reason to buy this neither-fish-nor-fowl device?
Some people may focus on the weight...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Cell Phones and Cancer: The Debate Is Revived
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60139
What do brain surgeons know about cell phone safety that the rest of us don't?
Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cell phones next to their ears. "I think the safe practice," said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, "is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain."
Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cell phones, said: "I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it to my ear."
And CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Black he used an earpiece.
Along with Senator Edward Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor that critics have long associated with cell phone use, the doctors' remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cell phones and cancer.
That supposed link has been largely dismissed by many experts, including the American Cancer Society. The theory that cell phones cause brain tumors "defies credulity," said Dr. Eugene Flamm, chairman of neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, three large epidemiology studies since 2000 have shown no harmful effects. CTIA (the Wireless Association), the leading industry trade group, said in a statement, "The overwhelming majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk."
The FDA notes, however, that the average period of phone use in the studies it cites was about three years, so the research doesn't answer questions about long-term exposures.
Cell phones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
The Popularity of E-Books Haunts Publishers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60138
Is the electronic book approaching the tipping point? That topic both energized and unnerved people attending BookExpo America, the publishing and bookselling industry's annual trade show, which ended at the convention center [in Los Angeles] on Sunday.
Much of the talk was focused on the Kindle, Amazon's electronic reader, which has gained widespread acclaim for its ease of use.
Jeffrey Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, spent much of a packed session on Friday evangelizing about the Kindle, which he said already accounts for 6 percent of his company's unit sales of books that are available in both paper and electronic
formats.
But excitement about the Kindle, which was introduced in November, also worries some publishing executives, who fear Amazon's still-growing power as a bookseller. Those executives note that Amazon currently sells most of its Kindle books to customers for a price well below what it pays publishers, and they anticipate that it will not be long before Amazon begins using the Kindle's popularity as a lever to demand that publishers cut prices.
Overall, traffic at the book fair seemed lower than in past years, reflecting perhaps that some editors did not make the long trip west from Manhattan, as well as the fact that the growth in the book business has slowed.
While authors including William Shatner, Andre Dubus 3rd and Ty Pennington drew big crowds of booksellers seeking autographs, several books by little-known authors scheduled for publication were being pushed hard by publishers. Those include two that use witches, of a sort, as their protagonists and one whose author is in shaman training.
One, "The Heretic's Daughter," is a novel about Martha Carrier, the first woman to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. The author, Kathleen Kent, is a 10th-generation descendant of Carrier (though not a...
Sat, 7 Jun 08
Leaving Your Wireless Carrier Is Going To Cost You
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60133
There may be 50 ways to leave your wireless carrier. Just don't do it before your contract is up -- or you'll be forced to pay a fat early-termination fee. That's the lot facing most U.S. consumers of communications services, from mobile calling to cable TV to high-speed Internet access.
Consider the subscriber who wants to end a DirecTV service contract and has to pay $20 a month for the remainder of the term. Breaking a wireless services contract can cost as much as $175. It's a big reason why few people switch communications providers. At satellite TV company DirecTV, only 1.42 percent of customers close their accounts each month. Even Sprint Nextel, with one of the highest customer defection rates in the wireless industry, loses a mere 2.45 percent of its customer base in a month.
But in a move that could make it easier for customers to drop phone or satellite providers, early termination penalties are coming under new fire from federal regulators, legislators, and courts. The Federal Communications Commission [FCC] has scheduled a hearing for June 12 to consider potential restrictions on the penalties. And even if the FCC doesn't act to rein them in, Congress is mulling legislation that would.
Cable and phone companies, which spend hundreds of dollars on advertising and promotions to sign up each new subscriber, fear they'll have a harder time recouping that investment if the penalties are diminished too far. And exit penalties exist worldwide: European telco Vodafone requires subscribers to pay their monthly fees for the duration of wireless contracts, even if they don't use the phone.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has suggested that the commission may require service providers to prorate penalties through the life of a contract, so that the longer a customer stays, the lower the fee. The agency...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Japan's Softbank To Offer Apple's 3G iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60129
Japan's third-biggest mobile carrier has announced it will begin distributing Apple's new 3G iPhone later this year. What makes Apple's latest iPhone deal with Softbank so significant is that the Japanese have a long history of preferring locally made products over imports.
Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi said she thinks the iPhone may be able to gain market traction in Japan due to the element of "ease of use and cleanness of design" that have driven its wide appeal to date.
"Growth in Japan's mobile market has remained flat for some time now, and unless there's the introduction of some new technology or product, you won't see any blip in sales," Milanesi added.
She observed that many of the handsets currently being sold in Japan look downright bulky. "They're not elegant, like what we are used to seeing in Europe," Milanesi said. "Although from a technology point of view Japan is a very advanced market, as far as user interface and design are concerned, they are not leading the way."
Apple's deal with Softbank is a bit counterintuitive, given that the network operator is far smaller than Japan's market leader, NTT DoCoMo. On the other hand, Softbank has Japan's fastest-growing mobile subscriber base.
In the long run, Japan may turn out to be one of those markets where Apple departs from the exclusivity model it initially elected for the U.S., France, Germany and the U.K.
Apple realized that if it wanted "to have a bigger market share, it would have to move away from exclusivity," Milanesi said. "So there are quite a few other countries now where Apple is going with more than one carrier."
NTT DoCoMo recently indicated it may still be in the running for an iPhone deal. "If there's still a possibility of releasing iPhone...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Cable Companies Test Bandwidth Management Schemes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60128
After facing public hearings before the Federal Communications Commission and widespread protests from consumers and network-neutrality advocates, Comcast announced earlier this year that it would stop blocking peer-to-peer traffic from the BitTorrent system. Instead, it promised to adopt a protocol-agnostic scheme to slow heavy users during peak traffic times without necessarily targeting BitTorrent P2P users.
This week, the No. 1 cable provider is launching the first tests of its new system in Chambersburg, Pa., and Warrenton, Va. Customers in those areas received e-mails advising them of the tests.
The tests, which start Thursday, come the same week that Time Warner Cable -- Comcast's chief competitor -- announced it would experiment with a metered usage plan that charges customers extra if they exceed set bandwidth caps. In that test, customers in Beaumont, Tex., will be charged $1 for every gigabyte of data they consume in excess of their cap.
Time Warner is offering two data plans in the test area -- a $29.95 plan that offers 768 kilobytes per second and a five-gigabyte limit, and a $54.90 plans that offers 15 megabits per second and a 40GB limit.
Comcast also said it is considering a 250GB ceiling, but it hasn't made a decision. "We want to deliver the best online experience for our customers," a Comcast spokesperson said. "We can do it really quickly and without the need for government intervention."
George Ou, a network-architecture consultant in Silicon Valley, decried Time Warner's move toward metered usage. "The metered Internet has been tried and tested and rejected by the consumers overwhelmingly since the days of AOL," he said in an e-mail. "Metered pricing will never eliminate the need for network management, but good network management can easily eliminate the need for metered pricing."
Comcast's practice of blocking BitTorrent users energized...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
McAfee Pinpoints World's Most Dangerous Domains
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60127
Like the real world, the virtual world of the Web has some dangerous addresses. A new report, released Wednesday by security technology firm McAfee, says Hong Kong's .hk domain has jumped over 28 others to become the most dangerous domain on the Web.
The report, titled Mapping the Mal Web Revisited, found that 19.2 percent of all Web sites ending in the .hk domain were a security threat for Web users. China, with a .cn domain, is in second place with more than 11 percent of its sites risky.
The .hk domain replaced last year's number-one dangerous domain, .tk in Tokelau. The real-world Tokelau is a tiny island in the South Pacific, occupied by only 1,500 people. Its domain dropped to 28th place this year. Samoa, a group of islands also in the South Pacific, also improved its .ws domain, to 12th riskiest.
Apparently, the McAfee report helped Tokelau wake up to its reputation. According to Jeff Green, senior vice president of product development at McAfee, last year's report spurred the domain manager in Tokelau to review its policies.
Green added that virtual threats are constantly changing. "Web sites that are safe today," he said, "can be dangerous tomorrow. Surfing the Web based on conventional wisdom is not enough to avoid risk online."
While some virtual countries are becoming known as unsafe, others are getting a reputation as having the safest domains. For instance, Finland, with a .fi domain, has overtaken Ireland's .is as the safest domain, with just .05 percent of its sites risky. Second place as the safest is Japan's .jp domain.
Romania (.ro) and Russia (.ru) are still in the top five most dangerous domains, with 6.75 and 6 percent, respectively, of their sites risky. The Philippines, with a .ph domain, had an explosion...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Starbucks Launches Free-Wi-Fi Rewards Program
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60126
Up until this week, people looking for free Wi-Fi were reduced to seeking out independent coffee shops that offered the service. That's been OK for folks seeking to go online in their own communities, but at Starbucks -- the ubiquitous purveyor of coffee at airports, shopping centers and on city streets -- the cost of Internet access was virtually prohibitive.
Offered through T-Mobile, Starbucks customers could pay $6 an hour or $9.99 a day for Internet access. But in February, Starbucks announced it was kicking T-Mobile out of some 5,000 stores in favor of a deal with AT&T. Now Starbucks is unveiling a rewards program that gives Starbucks cardholders two free hours of in-store AT&T Internet access.
To use the free service, customers have to buy a Starbucks card, sign up for the company's rewards program on its Web site, use the card at least once a month, and agree to receive four e-mails from AT&T.
Starbucks may not have realized how popular the offer would be. Many customers trying to access the rewards site to activate their service were turned away due to an overwhelmed server. "Due to overwhelming interest in Card Rewards, we are currently experiencing difficulty accessing Starbucks Card accounts. We are working to fix the problem and ask that you please try again later," a notice on the site said.
"Customers overwhelmed the site when joining Starbucks Card Rewards," said Doug Cavarocchi, a Starbucks spokesperson. The problem was solved by midday Tuesday.
The fact that the Starbucks site was overwhelmed with would-be customers indicates just how much pent-up demand there is for free public Internet service. For AT&T, the deal is part of a strategy to become a ubiquitous provider of broadband.
"Our philosophy is that we want broadband to be on demand," Mike Woodward,...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Sony Ready to Launch Qore Subscriptions for PS3 Players
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60125
Sony has begun the countdown to Qore. An addition to the PlayStation Network (PSN), the subscription-based gaming program will debut Thursday.
Available only on the PlayStation Store on PSN, Qore is the first in a series of original content planned for the PlayStation community. Qore will feature exclusive multimedia news, developer interviews, in-depth game previews, and behind-the-scene looks at popular PlayStation games. Sony said subscribers will also have special access to game demos, betas, add-ons and other downloadable and game-related content.
"Qore is the first step in providing original content dedicated to the PlayStation community and evolving the network into a place where our customers can gather, share and discover new forms of entertainment," said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America.
Qore episodes will be available the first Thursday of every month to coordinate with weekly PlayStation Store updates. The first episode will feature SOCOM: US. Navy SEALs Confrontation, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Secret Agent Clank, Soul Calibur 4, and Afro Samurai, as well as the latest Blu-ray Disc trailers, an exclusive SOCOM: Confrontation theme with an invitation to the SOCOM: Confrontation beta, art galleries, and a few other surprises.
The high-definition, interactive Qore lets members customize their experience through the Sixaxis or DualShock 3 wireless controllers. Sony said gamers will "act as the director" of the content and can access and control how they want to view content, using multiple windows, picture-in-picture and other features. Qore also offers advertisers interactive advertising opportunities through rich-media executions, video trailers, active ad pages, and contextual branding.
Gamers can purchase episodes of Qore through the PlayStation Store for an introductory price of $2.99, or an annual subscription for $24.99. Sony is offering bonuses with annual subscriptions. For example, annual subscribers will receive 13 episodes of Qore. In addition,...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
AMD Launches Puma Platform for Gaming, HD Laptops
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60124
AMD's Puma is coming onto the stage. The new laptop platform from Advanced Micro Devices, with AMD's dual-core Turion X2 Ultra mobile processor, a seven-series chip set, and ATI Radeon HD 3000 series graphics, was to be unveiled Wednesday at the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan.
The target markets are consumers, notably gamers, as well as small and midsize businesses. AMD President and COO Dirk Meyer said the "interrelated innovations" in the Puma platform deliver both "enhanced business productivity and the ultimate in HD visual performance on the go." The company noted that business users with Microsoft Windows Vista are utilizing applications that are more graphically intensive.
The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series was first announced in January, and offers a new family of discrete graphics chips. At the time, AMD noted that the 3000 series was optimized for Puma to provide what it called "The Ultimate Visual Experience." Several major laptop makers, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Toshiba, Asus, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, NEC, Toshiba, and Acer are planning to use the Puma platform in upcoming products.
Among other things, the company touted the 3000 series' support for Microsoft DirectX 10.1, which can provide a high level of lighting and rendering techniques for 3D games.
The Puma platform mixes integrated and discrete graphics, with the first for basic graphics with low power and lower cost, and the second for turbo performance. Usually, a laptop provides one or the other, but Puma can turn on both at the same time for 3D games and high-definition video.
AMD said the Puma, running both integrated and discrete graphics, can utilize ATI CrossFireX Technology for a performance boost of up to 70 percent.
The Radeon graphics will allow users to download and watch high-definition video, and is also designed for efficient use of battery power. Enhancements in...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Apple, Microsoft Feud Over Safari, Internet Explorer Flaws
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60103
Microsoft is sounding the alarm in Apple's camp, warning that a previously disclosed flaw in the Safari browser could spell trouble for Windows users. Another flaw in Internet Explorer makes the situation worse.
Apple is not treating the blended threat as a security issue, but as a further reason to raise the bar against unwanted downloads. Who will take responsibility for fixing the issue remains to be seen.
Security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani originally disclosed the Safari bug on May 15. The flaw allows attackers to dump executable files on a victim's desktop, a tactic known as "carpet bombing."
If the Safari flaw is exploited in combination with an unpatched bug in Internet Explorer, it opens the door for attackers to run unauthorized software on a victim's computer.
"Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a blended threat that allows remote code execution on all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista when Apple's Safari for Windows has been installed," Microsoft said.
Ironically, the combined threat has probably become greater thanks to media attention generated by the spat between Microsoft and Apple on this flaw, according to Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"The good news is that Safari still has a small market share amongst Windows users compared to Internet Explorer and Firefox, and so most cybercriminals are unlikely to try and take advantage of it," Cluley said. "However, there are bound to be some in the Internet underground who will be tempted to see if they can exploit and widen this security hole, to see what is possible."
This isn't, of course, the first time eyebrows have been raised about Apple Safari on Windows. Recently Apple was criticized for pushing Safari onto Windows users of iTunes rather too aggressively.
To its credit, Microsoft has built up a...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
AT&T Settles Suit Over Third-Party Cell-Phone Fees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60094
AT&T customers who have seen mysterious charges for ringtones and other content show up on their cell-phone bills will be eligible for refunds as part of the settlement of a group of class-action lawsuits, a lawyer for the class said Monday.
Customers will able to claim refunds for spurious charges that appeared on up to three of their monthly bills between Jan. 1, 2004, and May 30, 2008, according to Jay Edelson, lead counsel for the plaintiffs.
It is the first nationwide settlement over the business of third-party content, Edelson said. AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said he knew of no other similar settlement.
Edelson's firm has filed similar suits against Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA.
Vendors of ringtones and daily text-message services with horoscopes and jokes solicit customers to sign up by entering their phone numbers on Web sites or by sending text messages. The charges, which can be hidden or poorly explained, show up later on cell-phone bills, often as recurring charges.
The cell-phone carrier keeps some of the fee and passes the rest to the content provider.
Sixteen class-action suits that are part of the settlement alleged that AT&T should have been more careful in vetting the services. AT&T did not admit wrongdoing.
The settlement shows the company "really does want to fix this problem and not benefit from any of the unscrupulous third-party instances out there," Edelson said.
The company now requires customers who sign up for third-party services with recurring fees to confirm by replying to a text message. It also requires the content providers to send monthly reminders with instructions on how to unsubscribe from such services.
"AT&T has taken aggressive action to put industry-leading safeguards in place to protect our customers from unauthorized changes from third parties. We believe this settlement is consistent with that approach," Richter said.
Richter had no...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Going Back to Basics To Fight Botnets
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60092
Employee education might be the best tool for fighting invasion of computer networks. While malware has dominated the security conversation in the past year, the growing strength of botnets -- systems of thousands or even millions of personal computers networked together and controlled for cybercrime -- has even the most experienced in the Internet security industry concerned.
An estimated 70 percent to 90 percent of the world's spam is now due to botnets, and an estimated 11 percent of computers connected to the Internet contain botnet programs.
More abundant than ever, botnets are becoming sophisticated at quickly scanning a computer for important financial and corporate data. They often fly under the radar, because they rarely affect the performance of the computers they infect, and since they create a large network of computers, they can segregate roles-with some computers acting as "communicators" and others as "doers."
While a botnet is usually complex, the best solution may be to educate users on best practices, combined with a defense-in-depth strategy. The battle against botnets may come down to ensuring that Bob in marketing knows not to click on an enticing e-mail link, while making sure that well-established security solutions such as intrusion-prevention solutions and firewalls are used correctly.
Employees need to be made fully aware of the possible consequences of clicking on a link regardless of how legitimate it appears. Hackers have the means of finding and using personal and localized information to convince the recipient that an email was addressed to him.
Malware can even spread unintentionally through e-mails coming from friends and colleagues. Therefore, users should not only know whether to trust the person sending the e-mail, they should also have certain knowledge that the person had a clear intent to include an attachment or link. The same rules apply for the use of...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Digital Media Is Growing Fast, Study Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60086
As readership and revenues shift onto the Internet, experts said on Tuesday that top news media executives must seek new digital opportunities without neglecting their traditional print publications by rushing headlong into cyberspace.
The second annual World Digital Media Trends report, released at a meeting of the World Association of Newspapers, said the digital platforms of newspapers are growing at a double-digit rate worldwide, as the world increasingly goes on line. The report, compiled with the help of 71 research groups, said digital and mobile advertising revenues are expected to increase 12-fold from 2002 to 2011, to about $150 billion worldwide.
The report said the number of wireless device subscriptions is expected to increase threefold to 3.4 billion from 2002 to 2011, the number of homes with broadband is likely to rise 10-fold in the same period, and the mobile telephone customer base has increased from 945 million in 2001 to 2.6 billion in 2006.
The report said one study says that in some countries "the Internet will become the primary news and information source within five years, while newspapers will lose the dominating position they have held for more than a century." Newspapers cannot count on their print editions alone to keep them solvent, the report said.
However, association President Gavin O'Reilly warned that newspapers should not rush unprepared into new mobile and Internet markets and said about 60 percent of the new revenues goes to two companies, the search engine giants Google and Yahoo.
"The Net is a wonderful place if you know what you are looking for," he said at a panel debate about digital media's impact on newspaper revenues. "But we run the risk that running headlong into digital will turn our dollars into pennies."
Newspaper companies must also continue to invest in the medium they know best -- printed editions --...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
WorldWide Telescope Is Microsoft's Final Frontier
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60084
Microsoft is boldly going where the company has never gone before -- and I am tempted to say, "an operating system that won't crash," but instead I will say, "into space."
The company, which obviously has time on its hands, has released Microsoft WorldWide Telescope, which is a really cool and ill-named application. It should be "Universal Telescope," I think. But basically, it is Google Earth for the universe. It takes 13 terabytes of data from the universe's coolest telescopes, including the immortal Hubble, and provides a basically seamless view of the universe traveled by Captain Kirk, Bones and his buddies.
You have to install a small application on your PC. But after that, it's a pretty seamless experience. Interestingly, in one case, my installing it on a laptop running Windows Vista caused the machine to crash with a Blue Screen of Death, which is either ironic or Voyager phoning home.
The best part of this application is it shows the vast size of the universe and brings that home in some sort of scale that is really easy for children to understand. I hope to be able to give some of this experience to my kids.
I never will forget working on a volunteer project with some schoolchildren a few years ago and actually landing an appearance by a NASA engineer who brought with him some moon rocks. When he showed them to the fifth-graders during an outside classroom, I expected the sound of collective awe. Instead, the kids didn't seem to really care they were holding an actual moon rock. When I pointed out to the kids how cool it was, one boy pointed to the moon in the afternoon sky and said, "What's the big deal? It's right there!"
Anyway, the application is pre-populated with all kinds of celestial locations you can...
Thu, 5 Jun 08
Verizon, Other Telcos: Is It Time To Get Geeky?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60081
Anyone who has taken a do-it-yourself approach to home networking gets exactly why we need Best Buy's Geek Squad. As digital media technology finds more locations within the home, and becomes increasingly complex, there's a growing need for technical experts to help make it all work together. Today's homes have begun to resemble small businesses, with multiple networked computers and increasingly networked devices like printers and entertainment systems. It's no surprise that Geek Squad, which pioneered the business of dispatching a national network of trained technicians, has built a highly visible service brand that positions Best Buy for the future.
Now it's time for telecom service providers to get in on the Geek Squad game. Carriers such as AT&T and Verizon Communications are doing an impressive job of bundling services like video, telephone, and Internet to meet customer demand. We expect the number of customers buying three communications services from the same provider to increase 29 percent a year for the next two years. But the proliferation of services and digital options is causing problems on the home front. No fewer than 15 percent of the calls to the customer service center at cable provider Cox Communications involve home networking problems. Such frustrations have opened the door for an army of versatile technicians, who, unlike the traditional cable installer or telephone repairman, can integrate Internet, TV, phone, and digital entertainment.
To date, most telecom and cable providers have shied away from the opportunity, fearing the cost and potential drain on resources. But now they're facing slower growth rates not just for traditional wired communications, but wireless services, too. Mobile-phone subscriber growth is expected to slow, to 2.5 percent, by 2012, down from 7.5 percent today. As that growth slows, a new battleground will emerge, this one over servicing customers' digital media needs.
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Documents Hint at Yahoo Malfeasance to Block Microsoft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60100
In a revelation that could have wide-ranging implications for Yahoo, documents unsealed in a shareholder suit show the company rejected a deal to outsource search to Google just one day before Microsoft made its infamous takeover offer.
A memo to executives prepared for an all-hands meeting on Jan. 30 -- the day before Microsoft's offer -- dismissed the idea of hooking up with Google because of antitrust concerns and the long-term impact on the company's value.
The document came to light when Delaware Chancellor William B. Chandler III unsealed the amended complaint in a case two pension funds brought against Yahoo. The funds allege that Microsoft directors -- especially CEO Jerry Yang -- breached their fiduciary duties by adopting defensive measures to the detriment of shareholders.
"We are focused on long-term value creation rather than short-term gains," the memo said. The memo argued that while an outsourcing deal with Google would provide short-term revenues, it would undercut Yahoo's ultimate value proposition.
"Short-term analysis of the revenue potential of outsourcing monetization may not take into account the longer-term impact on the competitive market if search becomes an effective monopoly," the memo said.
Yet, on April 9 Yahoo announced it would undergo a test with Google to outsource search to its competitor. The evidence that management had already identified outsourcing as not in the company's financial interest may bolster claims that the board acted to entrench itself rather than protect shareholders' interests -- a violation of fiduciary duties.
The complaint alleges that Yahoo was following an ABM strategy (Anybody But Microsoft) as it desperately tried to cut deals with News Corp. and AOL. When the Google test was announced in April, The New York Times noted, "Yahoo suggested it might be willing to cede part of its core...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Asus, Acer Offer Mini-Laptops Built on Intel's Atom
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60099
Intel's Atom processor took center stage at Computex this month in Taiwan, where several mini-laptop makers introduced new products featuring the chipmaker's power-efficient microprocessors and companion chipsets. Though the so-called "netbook" market segment is currently tiny, Intel believes that 2008 will be the first year that more mobile computing devices will be sold than desktop computers.
Intel Executive Vice President John Maloney told Computex attendees that many people have an innate desire to be connected all the time and see personalized, mobile technology as the way to meet that need.
"The convergence of mobile computers, WiMAX wireless broadband, and powerful, HD-rich computer technologies point to a tremendous growth opportunity," Maloney said in his keynote address. "Individuals -- not households -- will drive the next era of growth with people each owning one or more computing devices."
Maloney noted that ubiquitous wireless Internet access is required to mobilize how people are using the Internet today "for things such as creating and watching videos, playing games and sharing photos." He also said mobile WiMAX will make the Internet open, fast and mobile and the technology will quickly progress toward "a healthy global footprint" that will reach more than 650 million people by 2010.
"Mobile WiMAX is the right solution, and it's happening now," Maloney added. "Wireless networks will be how the majority of people get connected, and they have to be Web 2.0 capable. That means they've got to have a lot of bandwidth to send data either to or from devices at a rapid-fire pace."
Also at Computex, Microsoft announced it will respond to customer and OEM demand by extending Windows XP to include desktop PCs called "nettops" as well as mini-notebooks. Having Windows XP available as a customer option has been good news for mini-notebook makers such as Asus....
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Time Warner Launches Bandwidth-Capped Internet Plan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60098
On Thursday, Time Warner Cable will begin testing a new pricing plan that caps bandwidth usage. Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable's executive vice president, said the plan will be launched as a trial in Beaumont, Texas, and will consist of several tiers. The first tier, at $29.95 monthly, will be a relatively slow 768 kilobits per second with a 5GB monthly cap, while a plan at $54.90 per month will offer 15 megabits per second and a 40GB cap.
Both downloads and uploads count toward the monthly total. Overages will be charged at $1 a gigabyte.
Time Warner has an estimated 90,000 customers in the area, and only new customers will be offered the tiers. With some users exchanging huge, media-based files like video, some other cable companies have also considered caps. For instance, Comcast, the largest cable company in the United States, has reportedly said it may cap usage at 250 gigabytes per month.
The experiment comes as consumers have grown used to unlimited Internet usage. But Larry Hettick, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said the current problem for Internet service providers is mostly created by five percent of users, while the rest have usage patterns within expectations. Those five percent, he added, are frequently downloading or uploading huge files.
Hettick noted that providers have previously said, in effect, that their policy is "unlimited, within reason," and then kicked off those few who go unreasonably beyond expected usage. "From a marketing point of view," he said, "it's probably a better approach."
He added that it will be interesting to see how users react to this experiment, as they have become accustomed to unlimited bandwidth, and the phone market is going the other way -- toward unlimited use for a flat price. "Personally," said Hettick, who sometimes works at...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Google Launches Site Search for SMB Enterprises
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60097
On Tuesday, Google launched Google Site Search, a rebranded version of Google Custom Search Business Edition. Site Search makes it possible for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) to offer Google search capabilities on their Web sites.
"Search is never far from our minds -- not just on Google, but also for the millions of Web sites that don't yet have high-quality search," wrote Nitin Mangtani, lead product manager for Google Enterprise Search, and Rajat Mukherjee, group product manager, Search, on the Google blog. "And since we've already built powerful search technologies into our computing infrastructure, site owners don't have to build it themselves."
Google has enhanced index coverage and added features to improve usability and customization, including synonyms, data biasing, and top-results biasing.
Google Site Search can serve all Web-site content -- even deep pages or frequently updated material -- as search results. The goal is to serve up relevant and comprehensive coverage of a Web site. Google accomplishes this by creating special indexes that supplement pages already searched by Google.com. For even greater coverage, Google said, site owners can upload site maps.
A feature called Synonyms lets users find documents with related terms without having to search multiple times. If the user types in "cd," it will bring up results for both compact discs and certificates of deposit. Date Biasing and Top Results Biasing aim to fine-tune the relevance of search results by specifying a bias for newer documents or certain subsections of the Web site.
The new features will potentially lead to increased conversions and sales, Google said. EMC content manager Rudy Layla said EMC Insignia experienced an approximate 20 percent increase in e-commerce sales after implementing Google Site Search.
To sign up, businesses fill out a Web-based form with their site URL and a few customization specifications to get a...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
User Participation Drives Retooled Wikia Search Engine
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60096
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has launched a new version of Wikia Search, a search engine based on the notion that communities of people can produce better search results than Google's sophisticated algorithms.
Conceding that the previous version of Wikia Search -- launched in January to universal criticism -- "pretty much sucked," Wales said the new version allows users to "participate like never before, by editing and adding to search terms in a way no other search engine ever fathomed."
The search-results page in Wikia includes a field that lets users recommend Web pages for a given search. Even more radical, users can rate, delete, annotate, spotlight and add comments to each Web page returned as a search hit.
Deleting does not actually remove the page from the results, but reduces the hit to a URL with a strike-through. Spotlighting puts the result at the top of the page inside a tinted box. User comments are displayed under each search result. In addition -- just like on sites such as Netflix.com or Amazon.com -- users can give a star rating to each search result.
Such user feedback to a search engine's results are unprecedented. None of the major search engines provide for any feedback at all. Still, community features can go only so far. Most search users are not trying to build a search engine, only to find what they're looking for. And Wikia's initial results so far are substantially inferior to the mainstream engines.
For example, a search with the term "Fourth Amendment" on Wikia brings up a Wikipedia article as the top-ranked hit, but also a FindLaw article on the First Amendment and press releases from U.S. congressmen. Several other results are off-topic. By contrast, all of Google's first-page hits led to pages giving the text of the amendment or explaining its...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Microsoft Advises Windows Users To Restrict Safari Use
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60080
Microsoft has officially responded to the discovery of a "blended threat," the design of Safari that allows a malicious Web site to download and clutter the user's download space with a myriad of unwanted files. This is the so-called "Carpet Bomb" effect.
While Microsoft's Security Response Center is working on the problem with Apple and is not calling it a vulnerability of either Windows or Safari, they have issued a security advisory which provides guidance to Windows customers to restrict their use of Safari until an update is available from either Apple or Microsoft.
Microsoft's official statement is as follows:
"Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a blended threat that allows remote code execution on all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista when Apple's Safari for Windows has been installed. Safari is not installed with Windows XP or Windows Vista by default: it must be installed independently or through the Apple Software Update application.
Microsoft issued Security Advisory (953818) to provide guidance to customers running Safari on the affected platforms to help them protect themselves. Microsoft is actively monitoring this situation to keep customers informed and will provide additional customer guidance as necessary. Security Advisory (953818) does not refer to a vulnerability in either Safari or Windows. Rather, it describes a blended threat in which files may be downloaded to a user's machine without prompting, allowing them to be executed. This results from a combination of the default download location in Safari and how the Windows desktop handles executables. Safari is available as a stand-alone install or through the Apple Software Update application.
At the present time, Microsoft is unaware of any attacks attempting to exploit this blended threat. Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate measures to protect our customers. This may include providing a solution through...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Facebook Makes Part of Its Platform Open Source
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60077
Social-networking site Facebook is opening up part of its platform. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said Monday that it will make what it described as "a significant part" of its platform open source.
The platform, one year old last week, has led to the development more than 24,000 applications created by outside developers for its community of users, Facebook said. "We see about 140 applications added to our directory per day," said Facebook's Ami Vora in a posting on the Facebook developers blog.
In order to "give back to the developer community," Vora continued, Facebook is making the platform itself open source, including most of the code and the most-used methods and tags. The announced goals of fbOpen, as the open-source part of the platform is being called, are to help developers more easily build applications, run test servers, and optimize code. With extensibility points, developers can add functionality to the platform.
Many observers are saying that a key reason for this move is Facebook's ongoing struggle with Google's OpenSocial. OpenSocial establishes a standard set of application-programming interfaces, or APIs, which allow outside developers to create an application that, with only a few modifications, can run on all OpenSocial-supported sites.
OpenSocial is supported by Yahoo, AOL and MySpace, as well as LinkedIn, Friendster, Plaxo, Nine and Google's social network, Orkut. Makers of business software, such as Salesforce.com and Oracle, are also supporting OpenSocial so outside developers can add applications to their platforms. Developers of some of the most popular Facebook applications have said they will support OpenSocial.
Platform open-sourcing "is Facebook coming in from the cold," said Laura DiDio, an analyst with research firm Yankee Group. She added that it's clearly a response to the OpenSocial initiative, and they "had to do it or become increasingly marginalized."
The struggle with...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Custom Live Search on HP PCs May Boost Microsoft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60076
On Monday, Microsoft heralded a search distribution deal with market-leading PC manufacturer Hewlett-Packard. All HP consumer PCs shipped in the U.S. and Canada, beginning in January 2009, will arrive with Microsoft's Live Search-enabled toolbar.
"This agreement with HP is a strategic indicator of our increased focus on securing broad-scale distribution for Live Search," said Kevin Johnson, president of the platforms and services division at Microsoft. "This is the most significant distribution deal for Live Search that Microsoft has ever done."
Specifically, Microsoft is building a custom, Live Search-enabled toolbar for HP customers that aims to leverage the user-experience capabilities of Microsoft Silverlight. The toolbar will offer HP customization capabilities within the buttons on the toolbar to provide quick access to online services and tools, such as Snapfish, HP's online photo service, and HP customer support.
"This deal is potentially big. It puts Live Search and Silverlight in front of a lot of HP buyers," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "Consumers are typically fairly passive about changing default settings, so this could translate into some added usage for Live Search."
As part of the deal, the default search engine setting in the browser on all HP consumer PCs will be set to Microsoft Live Search. That puts Microsoft closer to Google in terms of the number of PC-search distribution deals with major PC manufacturers. Microsoft has deals with Lenovo and HP. Google has deals with Apple, Dell and Toshiba. Yahoo is preinstalled on Acer computers.
Still, Google reigns supreme. In April, Americans conducted 10.6 billion core searches, with Google continuing to gain market share as the leading search engine, according to comScore. Also in April, Google extended its share of core searches to 61.6 percent, up from 59.8 percent the previous month. Yahoo...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Private Town Takes Itself Off Trespassing Google Maps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60075
The tiny city of North Oaks, Minn., has two words for Google: Keep out. The town doesn't want images of its streets and homes on Street View in Google Maps. Google has agreed to take down the images.
The town's residents say it's a matter of privacy. The roads in this lakeshore community north of Minneapolis are privately owned and the city enforces its trespassing ordinance. The North Oaks Golf Club represents a substantial amount of the town's real estate. Residents say Google broke the law when it came onto private roads and took photos.
"It's not the hoity-toity folks trying to figure out how to keep the world away," Mayor Thomas Watson told the Star-Tribune. "They really didn't have any authorization to go on private property." The mayor added, "You had a guy with a dashboard camera going around taking pictures. They wouldn't be able to film on your property and advertise it."
Of course it's not the first time Street View has caused controversy. Last month, the Pentagon banned Google from military installations after Google staffers photographed Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. And governments from Russia to Saudi Arabia have expressed concern about the images appearing on Google Earth, a satellite-mapping site.
The case of North Oaks may be unique as a case of a town asking to be wiped off the Google map. The North Oaks City Council sent a letter to Google in January asking that its images be removed and threatening to cite the company for trespassing. Google has removed the images, Google spokesperson Elaine Filadelfo said. "This is very rare where an entire town would request to be taken off," she told the Star-Tribune.
Drivers with mounted cameras take photos for Google's Street View feature and since the North Oaks streets are clearly marked...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Cyberspace Offers Productivity Freebies for Businesses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60067
Online resources offer small business owners access to "the free stuff," according to Debra Simpson, and everybody likes free stuff, she says.
Simpson is owner of Magic In Words, a Carlsbad-based Internet marketing business designed to help entrepreneurs increase traffic to their Web sites.
"I spend a lot of time with my clients teaching them online social networking and how to incorporate those Internet tools into their businesses," said Simpson, who also produces North San Diego Business, a blog dedicated to North San Diego County business news.
"Most people just need to be shown what the tools are and how to use them, and I think I fit that need," she said.
In regular podcast interviews with local business professionals and as a guest speaker throughout Southern California, Simpson said she teaches low-cost and no-cost forms of marketing online, while creating passive income via sale of information products.
Simpson said she took out equity in her home to purchase a small-business newspaper in San Diego called The Business Resource, formerly known as Networks.
"I did well for a while in publishing but was unable to overcome the 1993 recession, so I sold the paper and began working in multimedia and Web publishing for McGraw-Hill," Simpson said.
Simpson spent four years in computer programming for The McGraw-Hill Cos.' Web sites until the publishing and financial information company closed its Carlsbad office in 2000, at which time the entrepreneur found the path to her current venture.
Starting over again in the small-business community may have been challenging for Simpson, but she downplays any difficulty she faced during that time.
"I was unemployed, so I started building Web sites for all the small businesses I started for, based on my programming experience from McGraw-Hill," she said.
But contrary to some assumptions, programming experience is not a must for those looking to create...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Slower Cell Phone Growth in U.S. Could Bring Good Deals
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60066
After years of go-go growth, the number of people signing up for cell phone service in the USA is finally slowing.
That could spell good news for consumers as carriers turn up the marketing heat, says Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research and author of a report documenting the trend.
"When operators have no choice but to try to take customers away from each other, they have a natural inclination to sharpen the pencils and make the best offer they can," he says.
The wireless industry added 23 percent fewer subscribers in the first quarter this year than it did last year. The overall growth rate -- how fast the total is growing -- dropped to 7.9 percent from 11.5 percent, and will "slow further from here," the report said.
Moffett says carriers are victims of their own success. "The vision of every adult in America having a cell phone is a great aspiration until you get there. Then it raises the obvious question: Now what?"
For years, wireless was a story of heady growth. As of year-end 1995, the USA claimed 33.8 million subscribers. By December 2007 the number had jumped to 255.4 million, a sevenfold increase.
About 83 percent of U.S. consumers have at least one cell phone. By 2010, the number will rise to 89 percent, Bernstein predicts. At that level, Moffett says, everybody who wants a cell phone will already have one.
For carriers, wireless analyst Charles Golvin of Forrester says it's now about "stealing your competitors' customers."
For now, AT&T and Verizon continue to add a lot of customers -- more than 1 million each in the first quarter. But Moffett says that's only because they can feed on Sprint Nextel, which is struggling with operational problems. Customers are deserting Sprint by the thousands, providing easy pickings for rivals, he says.
"If...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Counting the Clicks (and the Money) at Google
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60061
If Google were the U.S. government, the data that streams into Nicholas Fox's laptop every day would be classified as top secret.
Fox is among a small group of Google employees who keep a watchful eye on the vital signs of one of the most successful and profitable businesses on the Internet. The number of searches and clicks, the rate at which users click on ads, the revenue all this generates -- everything is tracked hour by hour, then compared with the data from a week earlier, then charted.
"You can see very, very quickly if anything is amiss," said Fox, the director of business product management at Google.
Fox and his "ads quality" team can also quickly see whether something is working particularly well. His group's mission, to constantly fine-tune Google's ad delivery system, has one overriding objective: show users only the ads they are most likely to be interested in and click on.
Google runs a complex auction-based system that determines which ads will appear where, and in what order. Every time the team alters the formulas that select and rank ads, Fox can run a test and quickly see the effect of the changes on users, advertisers and Google's revenue -- which, in this year's first quarter, came in at the rate of more than $2 million an hour.
The job has given Fox, a soft-spoken 29-year-old with an obvious affinity for nuance and numbers, a detailed understanding of the complex dynamics at work inside Google's ad-driven economic engine.
Fox, who graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics and spent two years at McKinsey & Co., the management consulting firm, before joining Google in 2003, also helped organize its "Revenue Force." This select group of company engineers, sales and finance people, product managers and statisticians is charged with keeping top executives apprised...
Wed, 4 Jun 08
Best Buy Testing Free E-Waste Recycling Program
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60058
Under pressure to help dispose some of the electronic waste it helped create, Best Buy Co. is testing a free program that will offer consumers a convenient way to ensure millions of obsolescent TVs, old computers and other unwanted gadgets don't poison the nation's dumps.
The trial, expected to be announced Monday, covers 117 Best Buy stores scattered across eight states that will collect a wide variety of electronic detritus at no charge, even if the Richfield, Minn.-based retailer didn't originally sell the merchandise.
The pilot stores are in Best Buy's Northern California, Minneapolis and Baltimore markets, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Depending on how the test goes, the nation's largest electronics retailer may expand the recycling program to all of its 922 stores in the United States.
"We want to take the time to learn if we can handle this before we go any further," said Best Buy spokeswoman Kelly Groehler. "We know the need is there and the waste stream is there. We think everyone needs to bear some responsibility for this -- consumers, retailers and manufacturers."
As it is, Best Buy's test is believed to be the most extensive free electronics recycling program to be offered by a major retailer so far.
Consumers will be able to bring in up to two gadgets per day at the participating Best Buy stores. The list of acceptable items includes computer processors, computer monitors and televisions with screens up to 32 inches. Console televisions, air conditioners, microwave ovens and other large appliances won't be accepted.
Best Buy agreed to set up the recycling trial after a social responsibility group, As You Sow, submitted a proposal that would have asked the company's shareholders to endorse an electronics recycling program. As You Sow withdrew the proposal after Best Buy...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Microsoft Live Search Will Be the Default on HP PCs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60074
Microsoft Live Search will be the default on new Hewlett Packard consumer PCs shipped to customers in the U.S. and Canada.
According to the president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division, the agreement is a strategic indicator of the software maker's increased focus on securing broad-scale distribution for Live Search. "This is the most significant distribution deal for Live Search that Microsoft has ever done, and we are very pleased to be partnering with HP to help bring Live Search to millions of consumers across North America," Kevin Johnson said.
Based on Microsoft's Silverlight platform, the Live Search-enabled browser toolbar will give HP buyers direct access to a variety of online services and tools, including HP's Snapfish online photo service. Moreover, the new toolbar will be a user-friendly, fully customizable way to give PC users the ability "to access their favorite online services," noted HP Vice President Ulf Claesson.
Microsoft hopes the deal will allow it to place more sponsored links in front of a wider universe of Internet users. As the world's No. 1 PC maker, HP has the potential to give Live Search a higher profile. On the other hand, Microsoft has gone down the road before with mixed results.
In March last year Microsoft announced a similar deal with Lenovo under which Windows Live services began to be preloaded on Lenovo PCs sold worldwide. Five months later, Microsoft's share of the U.S. search market reached 11.3 percent, according to search-engine performance tracker comScore.
Though it is unclear to what extent the Lenovo deal actually helped Microsoft grow its numbers last year, by April comScore said the software giant's share of the U.S. search market share had fallen back to 9.1 percent -- far behind market leaders Google (61.6 percent) and Yahoo (20.4 percent).
Since abandoning its bid for Yahoo...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Publisher To Offer 5,000 New Titles for Amazon's Kindle
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60073
Amazon and Simon & Schuster have inked a deal to bring 5,000 new titles to the Kindle e-book reader this year. Amazon's Kindle is a portable e-book reader that wirelessly downloads books, blogs, magazines, newspapers and personal documents to a high-resolution electronic paper.
Simon & Schuster's latest e-book initiative will more than double the number of the publisher's titles currently available on Kindle. Kindle customers will be able to discover, buy and read popular books such as Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
When added to books already available on Kindle, including thousands of new releases and bestsellers, these Simon & Schuster titles represent the vast majority of the publisher's catalog.
"This announcement is significant because it just indicates this wave is gathering momentum. It's another step on the accelerator," said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. "Simon & Schuster is a major publishing house. So this indicates that mainstream publishers are increasingly taking e-books seriously."
Indeed, the initiative represents Simon & Schuster's most concentrated effort to date to provide quality content for the growing community of e-book readers who now want a broader and deeper assortment of titles to become available in the e-book format.
"At Simon & Schuster, we are excited by how many Kindle books we're selling and the feedback from readers who want to read our titles on their Kindles," said Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster. "We have also learned that readers aren't just looking for new or best-selling books, but also books that are older or hard to find."
Reidy said the new titles made available for Amazon's Kindle include books that have proven themselves to be of enduring interest. The selection of titles for the initiative was based on statistical analysis of physical books that...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Nvidia's Tegra Line Puts Computer on a Mobile Chip
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60072
On Monday, Nvidia upped the ante on Intel. The company introduced the Tegra family of processors, a single-computer chip that promises rich high definition and Internet exploration consumers have grown accustomed to on PCs -- but on small mobile devices.
The Nvidia Tegra is a computer on a chip, smaller than a U.S. dime. Nvidia designed the chip from the ground up to enable the "visual PC experience" on a new generation of mobile-computing devices while consuming the smallest amount of power.
"Creating Tegra was a massive challenge. Our vision was to create a platform that will enable the second personal-computer revolution -- which will be mobile-centric -- with devices that last days on a single charge and yet have the Web, high-definition media, and computing experiences we've come to expect from our PC," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia.
The Nvidia Tegra 650 processor is the second product in the Tegra line. The first was the Nvidia Tegra APX 2500 processor, which will find its place in the next generation of Windows Mobile smartphones. The company said its Tegra products will reach consumers toward the end of the year.
Nvidia described the Tegra as a heterogeneous processor architecture with multiple processors, each architected for a specific class of tasks -- an 800-MHz ARM CPU, a HD video processor, an imaging processor, an audio processor, and an ultra-low-power GeForce graphics unit. With this architecture, the company claims Nvidia Tegra processors achieve up to 10 times the power efficiency of existing products in battery-operated computer systems running visual computing applications.
"What will be interesting is to see over time how well vendors can support different types of multimedia functions on mobile Internet devices," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Research. "If you take a look at some of the initial...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Developers Reported Enthusiastic About Android Platform
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60071
Android, the open-source mobile platform spearheaded by Google, is gaining favor with developers and online media. At its Google I/O conference in San Francisco last week, Google showed off a variety of new Android tricks to the nearly 3,000 developers in attendance. According to news reports, the developers were favorably impressed, and media outlets are teeming with reports on the conference.
A big hit was a demonstration of Google Maps Street View and a touchscreen interface with a unique navigational approach.
Android engineering director Steve Horowitz used hand gestures on the touchscreen to move from screen to screen. But then, with a view of San Francisco streets on the portable device's Web browser, he turned around and the Street View followed his movement, using the device's internal compass.
Other demonstrated features were notification of new e-mail, missed phone calls, or calendar appointments, as well as locking/unlocking security software that involved drawing a shape rather than using a password. While support for a touchscreen was shown, Android development is not yet up to multi-touch, where two fingers can be used, for instance to make a photo larger, as on Apple's iPhone. Reportedly, Android can support that technology for multi-touch screens.
There is also a magnifying tool for enlarging Web content, as well as reports that a centralized online store for Android applications might be in the works.
Some observers have been comparing Android and its Open Handset Alliance against the other open-source mobile platform offered by the LiMo Foundation, a consortium whose members include Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic and others.
But Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said a big difference is that, even though Android is open-source, Google is in control of that platform while LiMo is more of a group effort.
Greengart noted that the...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Adobe Updates Acrobat, Launches Hosted Services
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60052
Adobe Systems on Monday announced a major upgrade to its Acrobat software for creating and sharing documents. Adobe Acrobat 9 includes native support for Flash and other rich media plus new features for collaboration and sharing. Concurrent with the new software, Adobe has launched Acrobat.com, a Web site offering a suite of hosted services centered around the software.
Adobe executives said the upgrade addresses the emerging needs of the business community for online collaboration. "The ability to break through and communicate a message in a compelling way has never been at a greater premium," said Rob Tarkoff, senior vice president in Adobe's business productivity unit. The new features in Acrobat 9 will "fundamentally change how professionals communicate and collaborate using electronic documents," he said.
Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, believes Adobe's deep roots in business may encourage users to engage in more online collaboration for document creation. "Something Adobe has, that Google doesn't, is a really deep footprint in existing businesses," King said. "Most companies use both Office and Acrobat. In business environments, documents are created in a highly collaborative manner and finding a way to track changes in documents over time has been a challenge. It looks like Adobe's done a very good job of addressing that."
Adobe completed its acquisition of Macromedia, the developer of Flash, in December 2005, but this is the first time it has integrated the interactive technology into its Acrobat software. The move keeps Acrobat's PDF up with the times, as video has become an increasingly important way to communicate information. Software documentation, for example, could include embedded Flash videos demonstrating how to use the software.
"As the market gets used to the idea of Flash being in documents, people will start using it in new and different ways," King said. Another intriguing use...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Netflix Offers a $99, No-Frills Movie Player
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60043
As I watched the first few minutes of a TV program on the new $99 Netflix Player, I grew worried that the DVD rental service had gotten something horribly wrong with this foray into Internet video downloads.
The player, Netflix's first stab at consumer hardware, was designed in partnership with set-top box maker Roku. I had fired up the first episode of Sleeper Cell, a cable series about terrorists plotting on American soil, and watched the first minute in dismay. The picture was so grainy it made me wonder how both companies could be confidently predicting they would compete with the likes of Apple, TiVo, and Vudu, whose elegant video-streaming boxes have been on the market for some time.
After that first minute, though, I became a believer. The box stopped the stream for about a minute as it optimized the picture based on my Internet connection and setup, then came back with a picture so crisp and clear that I practically cheered. The video looks to be about DVD-quality, though it may have been helped somewhat by a new Samsung high-definition television that does a decent job of up-converting images to the set's native 1080p resolution.
After about a week with the Netflix Player, I came away convinced that despite certain flaws, this device is the first to deliver a truly enjoyable digital download experience with none of the preconditions and expense that have discouraged consumers from embracing these products.
Upon taking the remarkably compact device out of its box, setup was quick and simple. With your purchase, you get a component cable with red, white, and yellow connectors that works well with older analog televisions. I used a spare HD multimedia, or HDMI, cable to connect the box to the HDTV.
To use the service, you need a relatively...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
A Request for the Next iPhone: GPS, Please
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60042
If there's anything the iPhone has lacked compared with other phones in its class, it has been high-speed connectivity and the ability to determine its location accurately. Apple will address the first shortcoming in a matter of days, when it unveils the second version of the year-old iPhone on June 9.
I'm hoping Apple also tackles No. 2 -- by including support for Global Positioning System navigation. For one thing, most of the handsets in the iPhone's peer group contain GPS chips by default. Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices have included GPS support for a few years now, while Finland's Nokia considers GPS so strategically important that last year it spent $8.1 billion to acquire Chicago's Navteq, a digital mapmaker that supplies all the major navigation device companies.
What's more, navigation applications can make a lot of money for carriers, and by extension, Apple, which splits service revenue with AT&T, its partner in the U.S. A survey last year by Nielsen Mobile found that navigation applications were second only to games as the most popular downloadable wireless application. Companies like TeleNav and Networks In Motion have deals to supply their software and services to all the major carriers. The potential market is huge: iSuppli pegged the number of navigation-ready handsets sold last year at north of 160 million units, more than seven times the number of standalone navigation devices sold.
The iPhone currently employs a system often described as pseudo GPS to determine its location. Instead of getting a true location fix from the GPS satellites orbiting Earth, it determines its position in part by using the nearest cell towers, using technology from Google. It also fixes its location based on Wi-Fi access points using another technology from Skyhook Wireless.
The result is adequate for the casual pedestrian user,...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Beyond Outsourcing, Businesses Look to 'Worldsourcing'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60041
Over the next several years, virtually any global company's success will depend on its willingness to reorient its view of the world map. This attitudinal -- and longitudinal -- shift will have enormous ramifications for business leaders, employees, and customers alike. Here's one perspective on ways to prepare and put yourself in the best position to succeed in this new environment.
For some five decades, multinationals have been living in an era I call "Global 1.0." From this predominantly Western vantage point, many emerging markets are perceived as sitting at the map's outer edges. They're seen primarily as sources of cheap labor to mass-produce inexpensive consumer goods and, secondarily, as fertile markets for expansion and growth.
Through such a lens, the design of goods and services is guided by a minority of the world's citizens: those in the West. Business ideas and innovations come solely from the developed world and flow in one direction toward the developing world. This built-in bias thwarts companies from discovering creativity, culture, content, and ideas from the developing world that can create value -- and command market premiums.
Any company that clings to this Global 1.0 paradigm is in for a rude surprise. We're not just nearing the end of that era; I believe we're past it. We've now entered the early stages of "Global 2.0," an era where the most successful companies will look for ideas and innovation anywhere to meet customer needs everywhere. Only the organizations that adopt a flexible "worldsourcing" approach to their business models will survive.
Today, there are some 4 billion people, mostly Asians, who don't yet participate fully in the global economy. But they already are a crucial part of the economic equation and are fast exerting their influence through their market demands, as well as the ideas and innovations that emanate...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Review: Sony's Rolly Not Quite Love at First Dance
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60037
For years, Sony Corp. has been scrambling to regain its position at the leading edge of music players. Now, that scrambling has produced an egg -- a $399 dancing egg that flashes, rolls and flaps its plastic flippers to the beat.
Before you think the Walkman pioneer has finally cracked, it's worth noting that the Rolly is an amusing and somewhat educational robot whose moves can be programed using a PC. And the gadget certainly is a conversation-starter if your dancing hamster has run off.
But even if you need a robotic egg to be the life of a party, it's hard to justify shelling out $400 for the Rolly. Its controls are just too frustrating, its memory too limited and playback options too restrictive to justify the price. Plus, like all eggs, it's hard to figure out the point.
Rolly intrigued me as soon as I opened the box. It's slightly larger than a goose egg and wrapped by two large rubber tracks. The ends of the device turn easily, and caps on either end swing open to reveal two speakers. It can receive music wirelessly from a Bluetooth-enabled gadget. Songs also can be loaded from a PC.
It was easy to get Rolly rolling. With a couple clicks of the center button, Rolly launched into a sassy performance of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend." The song and dance are among a few that come pre-loaded on the player.
Rolly and I did have some good times together. It was entertaining for a while, playing music and dancing around my office and living room floor with its little lights flashing and changing colors. I wouldn't want Rolly to DJ a party, though, as it is probably too quiet for a sizable crowd and might get stepped on.
The lack of traditional controls can make it difficult to...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Infineon Warns of Cell Phone-Chip Unit Operating Losses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60032
Infineon Technologies, the German chipmaker, warned Thursday of a wider operating loss in its communications unit this quarter because a project to supply equipment to Nokia had been delayed.
A spokesman for the company said that Infineon had also received lower orders than expected for an unidentified project to supply chips for high-speed Internet phones.
Infineon, whose chief executive, Wolfgang Ziebart, said this week he would step down early over differences on strategy, said Thursday it now expected a bigger operating loss and flat sales at its communications unit, which brings in about a third of the revenue at
Infineon's core businesses.
Infineon shares fell 63.5 cents Thursday, or 10.1 percent, to close in Frankfurt at euro 5.625.
Other chipmakers have noted weakness in the communications market. Texas Instruments last month cited caution among a broad customer base and weak demand for high-end mobile phones.
On Wednesday, the research firm Gartner said mobile phone sales in Western Europe fell sharply in the first three months of the year.
Infineon's delayed supply deal with Nokia is for single chips for ultralow-cost phones aimed at developing markets. Nokia said its development of these phones was on target and it would not be affected by Infineon's announcement because it had multiple suppliers for the project.
"This does not increase at all confidence in cell phone market development," said Hannu Rauhala, an analyst at Pohjola Bank.
Analysts speculated that the unidentified customer that had placed lower orders for high-speed chips was Apple, which was expected to announce its new third-generation, or 3G, iPhone early next month. Infineon's increased production run would have been a significant ramp-up of the high-speed chips, called Hsdpa or high-speed downlink packet access.
"In our view the profit warning has been caused by ramp changes of next generation iPhone," Nicolas Gaudois of UBS wrote, saying...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
Did Chinese Secretly Copy U.S. Data from Laptop?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60029
U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce computers, officials and industry experts told The Associated Press.
Surreptitious copying is believed to have occurred when a laptop was left unattended during Gutierrez's trip to Beijing for trade talks in December, people familiar with the incident told the AP. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was under investigation.
Gutierrez told the AP on Thursday he could not discuss whether or how the laptop's contents might have been copied.
"Because there is an investigation going on, I would rather not comment on that," he said. "To the extent that there is an investigation going on, those are the things being looked at, those are the questions being asked. I don't think I should provide any speculative answers."
A Commerce Department spokesman, Rich Mills, said he could not confirm or deny such an incident in China. Asked whether the department has issued new rules for carrying computers overseas, Mills said: "The department is continuing to improve our security posture, and that includes providing updates, guidances and best practices to staff to maintain security."
It was not immediately clear what information on the laptop might have been compromised, but it would be highly unorthodox for any U.S. government official to carry classified data on a laptop overseas to China, especially one left unattended even briefly. Modern copying equipment can duplicate a laptop's storage drive in just minutes.
The report of the incident is the latest in a series of worrisome cyber security problems blamed on China and comes at a sensitive time, with looming trade issues between the countries and special attention on China over the upcoming...
Tue, 3 Jun 08
The Call Center Customer of the Future
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=59361
We talk a lot about the call center/contact center of the future and what it might look like. We regularly write about the next-generation contact center with its integrated workforce optimization, its ergonomics, its real-time reporting, its speech-recognition, its customer surveying and feedback mechanisms, its multifaceted analytics, its distributed and virtual nature, its hosted technologies and its home agents.
What we seldom talk about, however, is the call center customer of the future, and this is significant, as the call center systems and infrastructure are merely there to serve the customers, and customers, as we know, are not always predictable. Expecting them to match their needs to the call center and e-commerce infrastructure is as poor a business strategy as deciding to make ice cream in only one flavor and expecting one's customers to be resigned to eating mango macadamia nut crunch for the rest of their lives.
But it's not just the changing habits of consumers that need to be taken into consideration -- it's the consumers themselves who are changing. As generations X, Y and whatever comes after them (generation Z? And where do we go after that -- to the Greek alphabet?) matures and starts pulling in significant disposable income, how will companies seeking to service them have to adapt?
And why stop at young adults? According to a study from eMarketer, children between the ages of 8 and 14 -- so-called "tweens" and young teens -- are themselves a powerful demographic group online. They control billions in purchasing power and make up 60 percent of Internet users under age 18, according to the market researcher. Granted, it's allowance money, lawn-mowing money and babysitting earnings, but it's still significant, and its owners are eager to spend it.
Keep in mind, these are consumers who will have grown...