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Dell Aims for Home Market with Studio Hybrid Desktop
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61034
Dell announced its Studio Hybrid desktop Tuesday -- with an emphasis on small and stylish. The Round Rock, Texas, computer maker set a list price for the stock system at $499 with an Intel TZ390 dual-core processor.
The form factor for the Studio Hybrid, according to Dell, is 80 percent smaller than standard desktop models. It comes in an array of seven removable color sleeves, including bamboo.
All Studio Hybrids come with a minimum of 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, a dual-layer DVD drive, and 5.1 surround sound. Upgrades include Blu-ray drives for $250 and processor upgrades up to an Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 for $625. All systems come with HDMI HD outputs and Windows Vista Home Basic. In addition, the Studio Hybrid includes a TV tuner for watching broadcast TV live or recording to the hard drive.
According to the company, the system uses 70 percent less power than a standard desktop. The packaging is made from 87 percent recycled materials, and even includes a recycling kit for when the machine is replaced with something else.
Hewlett-Packard and Sony have a tighter grip on the home-computer market than Dell, according to industry analysts. The HP Pavilion line has been popular with gamers and PC-to-TV multimedia enthusiasts with its raft of video, audio and storage options, including a base $699 system that comes with Blu-ray. Another competitor is the Apple Mac mini, which at $599 also boasts a small form factor, high-definition video and comparable processor and memory options.
Sony's popular VAIO PCs are also competitively priced and full of multimedia and connectivity options. The VAIO carries the same footprint as a standard desktop, however. On the high end, Sony recently announced the LT/PC HDTV. More than a string of acronyms, the machine is a wall-mounted HDTV already integrated...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Adobe's Lightroom 2 Targets Avid Shutterbugs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61033
Adobe Systems has begun shipping Lightroom 2, the latest version of its software toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. The new program supports 64-bit operations on Macintosh computers equipped with Intel processors running for Mac OS X 10.5, as well as PCs running Windows Vista 64-bit operating systems, Adobe said.
Lightroom 2 promises to simplify photography from shoot to finish, said Tom Hogarty, the senior product manager for Lightroom at Adobe.
"A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately helping us deliver a better product," Hogarty explained. "We've considered their requests, which helped us develop useful features that make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present brilliant photographs."
Lightroom 2 is targeted at avid photography enthusiasts in need of a less time-consuming way to visually organize thousands of images stored on one or more hard drives. To ease user navigation among thousands of photos, the library module within Lightroom 2 displays information pertaining to image count, available collections, occupied disk space and status. The module's new keyword capability also makes it possible for users to quickly find the specific photo they need, as well as specifying the import criteria for instantly creating a "smart collection" on the fly.
The upgraded program's Develop module includes a local adjustment brush that gives users the ability to fine-tune the color, exposure and tonal range of specific image areas without making any changes to other areas of the photo. Even better, users can modify larger image areas through the use of the program's new graduated filter. Simply click and drag to create the gradient on an image, and then adjust exposure, vibrancy, clarity and saturation, either in isolation or in any combination....
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Apple's MobileMe Service has Users Seeing Red
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61032
Did Apple bite off more than it could chew? It apparently made promises to MobileMe users that it's having trouble keeping.
The recently launched MobileMe subscription service boasted the ability to synchronize data between Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and Macs, and even PCs. E-mail, contacts and calendars are supposed to be updated wherever users check them on any of the devices.
Just last week, Apple acknowledged that at least one percent of subscribers were unable to retrieve information and files, blaming the problem on MobileMe's mail servers. As of Tuesday, the problems persisted and even strong Apple backers are getting hot under the collar.
The blogosphere is turning blue with subscribers' complaints and laments, with many of them regretting signing up for the service. One subscriber said he transferred all his e-mails over from a Hotmail account, only to have them lost in cyberspace. Moreover, the MobileMe service sets subscribers back $99 a year whereas Hotmail, Google and Yahoo are just a few of the free e-mail services that have not had such serious issues. Users are also reporting problems with time stamps on e-mails and lost calendar entries.
On Monday, an updated status report seemed to have gone unnoticed by a majority of users on Apple's MobileMe support forums. One small thread criticized Apple for hiding its MobileMe e-mail support form.
Perhaps in an effort to save face, Apple is coming clean about the problems and even posting a status page online where users can receive updates on fixes. The company apologized to customers, calling the transition from the former .Mac service "a lot rockier than we had hoped." Apple is even picking up the tab for affected subscribers for 30 days.
Apple is also backpedaling from its original description of the service as "pushing" e-mail and other data. Push e-mail is...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
HP, Intel and Yahoo To Research Cloud Computing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61031
Industry giants Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Yahoo announced Tuesday a joint project to research large-scale cloud computing, the ability to use applications, servers, storage and other computing services on the Internet without hosting, maintaining or configuring them locally. Early cloud applications include desktop office suites, but have rapidly grown to include enterprisewide services such as storage and network management.
The three companies will create a Cloud Computing Test Bed that will accommodate global, large-scale applications. The hope is that researchers will be able to test designs, computing and infrastructure requirements and train students and other scientists in the use of cloud computing. The test beds will be hosted in the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.
Prith Banerjee, senior vice president of research at HP and director of HP Labs, said, "To realize the full potential of cloud computing, the technology industry must think about the cloud as a platform for creating new services and experiences. This requires an entirely new approach to the way we design, deploy and manage cloud infrastructure and services. The HP, Intel and Yahoo Cloud Computing Test Bed lets us tap the brightest minds in the industry, academia and government to drive innovation in this area."
Researchers hope to develop applications that can harness the collective computing power of the Internet, distributing data and applications over many processors and network facilities. In essence, networked applications could surpass the power of multiple supercomputers and have storage capacities that no single institution could manage on its own.
Banerjee also suggested cloud applications could become highly predictive and anticipatory, serving data and services to businesses and individuals with little or no initiation on their part, based solely on past usage and locality.
All three companies will...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Oracle Expands Theft Allegations Against Rival SAP
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61029
Escalating its rancor with German rival SAP AG, business software maker Oracle Corp. accused SAP on Monday of knowingly buying and then embracing an illegal operation set up to steal Oracle's products and customers.
The allegations emerged in the latest documents filed in a fraud case that Oracle brought against SAP last year in San Francisco federal court. Oracle fired its volley the day before Germany-based SAP is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings.
The 16-month-old lawsuit focuses on TomorrowNow, a software maintenance specialist that SAP bought in 2005 to counter Oracle's $11.1 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft.
TomorrowNow offered to support PeopleSoft products at lower prices than Oracle did, an advantage that SAP hoped to use to lure customers away from its biggest rival in business applications software. Those products automate a wide range of administrative tasks.
But Oracle alleges that TomorrowNow relied on a "corrupt" strategy that included breaking into Oracle's computers to obtain confidential information.
After reviewing internal SAP documents obtained during the discovery phase of its lawsuit, Oracle became convinced that its rival's top executives were warned about TomorrowNow's outlaw behavior before the acquisition and then embraced the conduct after buying the subsidiary.
Oracle's allegations contradict some of the public statements of SAP's chief executive, Henning Kagermann, who said the company's hierarchy in Germany and the United States never had access to any "inappropriate" material obtained by TomorrowNow.
In the documents filed Monday, Oracle alleged that SAP executives could enter TomorrowNow's system through an internal Web site and also routinely exchanged material with the subsidiary through e-mail.
In June 2005, SAP executives even considered conspiring with TomorrowNow's management to cover up the covert activity as part of a plan called "Project Blue," Oracle alleged Monday. The project was eventually scrapped, according to Oracle's legal brief.
"For years, SAP profited from (TomorrowNow's) illegal business model, without breathing...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Facebook Scrambles Scrabulous in U.S. and Canada
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61028
In response to demands from game publisher Hasbro, Facebook has disabled the Scrabble-like game Scrabulous on its U.S. and Canadian Web sites.
Hasbro sent Facebook a notification of copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act last week. Users who attempt to access Scrabulous will get a message that says, "Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here."
Click that link and you get a form from the creators of Scrabulous asking for your e-mail address. Scrabulous is still accessible in other nations and the Scrabulous.com Web site is still operating.
Hasbro also filed a lawsuit against Scrabulous last Thursday, alleging the game infringes on the company's Scrabble intellectual-property rights. The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York, names Scrabulous creators Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla and India-based RJ Softwares as the defendants.
"Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties," said Barry Nagler, Hasbro's general counsel. "We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand."
Facebook first introduced Scrabulous in 2005 and the game has grown popular over the years. Hasbro was quiet about the knockoff -- until it developed its own Scrabble application for Facebook. Then Hasbro dropped the legal hammer. Facebook could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, but a spokesperson told The New York Times that the popular social-networking site intends to maintain the neutrality of its platform.
Charles S. Baker, an intellectual-property attorney at the law firm of Porter & Hedges,
doesn't expect the Hasbro-Scrabulous battle to be a...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Cuil Ready for a Long Battle To Match Google in Search
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61023
The latest search war is being touted as a David and Goliath battle. In modern-day terms, that means Cuil versus Google.
Cuil, pronounced "cool," on Monday launched a new search-engine platform that claims to combine the largest Web index with content-based relevance, results organized by ideas, and complete user privacy. Cuil said it has indexed 120 billion Web pages, three times more than any other search engine.
What gives this classic David and Goliath story an interesting twist is that several former Google engineers are behind Cuil. Co-led by COO Anna Patterson, best known for her indexing work at Google, Cuil is looking to win the hearts of searchers with what it says is a better way to scour the Web's trillion-plus pages.
Beyond its breadth of search, Cuil's "cool" features include organized results. Cuil uses a magazine-style layout that separates results by subject and allows further searches by concept or category. Unlike other search engines, Cuil ranks results by the content on each page, not its popularity. Cuil also boasts "complete privacy protection" since it does not keep any personally identifiable information on users or their search histories.
Patterson knows how to build a search engine. She was the architect of Google's large search index and also led a Web page-ranking team. She was there in the early days, which means she understands that a search giant isn't built in a day, or even a year. It's going to take at least that long to determine if Cuil could possibly be a Google contender, according to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
"What impressed me most in my meeting with Cuil was Patterson's attitude. Beyond her background and her team, she had a very realistic attitude about the search marketplace," Sterling said. "She recalled Google's traffic growth in...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Sony Profit Plunges 50 Percent from One Year Ago
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61013
Sony Corp. said Tuesday its April-June profit plunged to 34.98 billion yen ($326.9 million) -- about half that recorded a year ago -- as a strong yen, the absence of "Spider-Man 3" revenue and faltering results at its cell phone operations battered earnings.
The Japanese electronics and entertainment company, which makes the Walkman player and the PlayStation 3 game machine, had recorded 66.46 billion yen in profit for the fiscal first quarter the previous year.
Price competition in its core electronics sector also led to Sony's worse-than-expected quarterly performance. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast a 52 billion yen ($486 million) profit.
Sony also lowered its full year profit forecast Tuesday to 240 billion yen ($2.24 billion) from an earlier 290 billion yen ($2.71 billion), blaming expected poor results at its Sony Ericsson mobile joint venture and a pessimistic outlook in electronics.
The results for the latest quarter were also hurt by the absence of a blockbuster like "Spider-Man 3," which lifted the performance of Sony's movie division in the same period a year earlier, according to the company.
In a bit of bright news, the Tokyo-based manufacturer marked a continued recovery in its long struggling video game section, which was profitable in the latest quarter in contrast to losses the previous year.
Sony sold 1.56 million PlayStation 3 machines in April-June, more than double the 700,000 machines sold the same period a year ago. It kept unchanged its forecast for selling 10 million PS3 consoles the fiscal year through March 2009.
The PS3 has been struggling against the hit Wii from rival Nintendo Co. Sony said it has now sold a cumulative 14.4 million PS3 machines worldwide since it went on sale late 2006. Nintendo reports earnings Wednesday.
Sony's quarterly sales were just about unchanged at 1.979 trillion yen ($18.5 billion) compared with 1.977 trillion yen...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
AOL Shutting Down Xdrive, Other Services
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61002
AOL is shutting three data-storage services, including one of the Internet's earliest photo-sharing sites, as it seeks to cut costs and focus resources on its advertising opportunities.
AOL Pictures, the year-old media-sharing site BlueString and the online backup service Xdrive will likely shut down by year's end, though the company is looking to sell at least Xdrive, which AOL bought in 2005 for an undisclosed fee.
Company officials denied speculation Friday that the closures were meant to prime AOL for a sale. AOL parent Time Warner Inc. has been in continual discussions with both Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., though the talks have been preliminary.
"The decision to sunset these products is 100 percent part of a strategy that began last year to focus on the areas where we can win and to move away from products or features that are not contributing to our growth," AOL spokeswoman Trish Primrose said.
AOL began taking a hard look at its portfolio following a 2006 decision to fully shift the company into an advertising business and pare down its legacy Internet access services.
AOL Pictures began in 1998 as You've Got Pictures and came at a time Internet users had few options to share their digital photos. Since then, services like Yahoo's Flickr and Google Inc.'s Picasa have emerged, joining offerings from Eastman Kodak Co. and others.
BlueString launched last year as a repository for other media files such as video and music as well, but it never gained much traction.
Nor did Xdrive, which offers 5 gigabytes of free storage for backing up files.
All three services suffered from the fact that while data-storage costs have come down, those costs still add up, and the services contribute relatively few opportunities to display advertising.
Transition details are still being worked out. AOL likely will give existing users a way to migrate...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
What Steve Jobs Won't Tell: Do We Deserve To Know?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60999
"No one wants to die," said the Apple chief executive, Steve Jobs. "And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it."
It was a little over three years ago that Jobs spoke those existential words, during a commencement address at Stanford University. His thoughts about death came during a portion of his speech in which he publicly discussed -- for the one and only time, so far as I can tell -- his brush with pancreatic cancer.
He talked about how he had learned in 2004 that he had a tumor on his pancreas. How his doctors told him that he shouldn't expect to live more than six months. How, after "living with that diagnosis all day," he had a biopsy that showed that his was a rare form of pancreatic cancer, curable with surgery.
"I had the surgery and I'm fine now," Jobs told the Stanford graduates. He added, "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."
It was an uplifting tale, and an inspiring message. It was also something less than the whole truth. In fact, Jobs first discovered he had an islet cell of an neuroendocrine tumor -- which is both rarer and less deadly than other forms of pancreatic cancer -- in October, 2003. This was a full nine months before he had the surgery to remove it.
Why did he wait so long? Because, according to an article published last May in Fortune, Jobs believed he could beat the cancer with a special diet.
The Apple directors who knew the gravity of the situation urged him to undergo surgery, according to the Fortune article. But it was only when Jobs realized that the tumor was growing that he finally...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Micron Scores Big on Patents, NAND Innovation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60998
Media coverage of Micron over the last few years has focused mostly on layoffs and glum financial reports, but some good news came for the Boise-based semiconductor giant over the past few months.
First, in May, Micron announced that a joint venture with Intel had produced the industry's first (and so far only) sub-40 nanometer (nm) memory chip; then, early this month the company, with about 15,000 patents, placed second only to Intel on the Patent Board's "Patent Scorecard."
"At the end of the day it comes down to innovation," said Micron spokesman Dan Francisco. "We're continuing to design and innovate on the broader memory and imaging front as we have for years."
The Patent Board, a leading intellectual property and patent portfolio analysis firm, releases its "Patent Scorecard" each year which is published in the Wall Street Journal. The 2008 edition of the report ranked 208 companies in the semiconductor category, going beyond pure numbers of patents to include five criteria: Science Strength, Innovation Cycle Time, Industry Impact, Technology Strength and Research Intensity.
Micron's Science Strength -- which represents how much a company uses a combined measure of science and quantity in building its patent portfolio -- was its highest score, actually beating Intel's.
Its Technology Strength score -- how many patents a company has and how strong they are -- was also high, owing in large part to the pioneering strides it's made with dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash memory development.
"[Micron's] total number of patents is what's doing it; they have 30 percent more than IBM," said Patent Board representative Christine Wren. "They may have some cutting edge things that are pulling their portfolio up."
Assessing what it means however is another matter. Despite its strong standing among competitors in the DRAM and NAND space particularly, Micron has still suffered...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Verizon 2Q Profit Up 12 Percent, Beats Expectations
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60993
Verizon Communications Inc.'s second-quarter earnings rose 12 percent, the company said Monday, while revenue was slightly shy of expectations and customers disconnected their landlines faster than before.
The nation's second-largest telecommunications company earned $1.88 billion, or 66 cents per share, in the quarter ended June 30, up from $1.68 billion, or 58 cents per share, a year ago.
Verizon said that excluding a merger-related item, it earned 67 cents a share, beating the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial by 2 cents.
Revenue rose 3.7 percent to $24.1 billion from $23.27 billion a year ago. Thomson says analysts expected $24.2 billion.
Investors had been expecting the weak economy to catch up to the big telecommunications companies in the second quarter. AT&T's report last week showed that customers were quicker to move to wireless and cable telephone, but the company otherwise did better than expected.
The same pattern showed up in New York-based Verizon's report, even though its local-phone service areas are not the ones where the real-estate market have been hit the hardest. Verizon lost 11.4 percent of its residential landlines in the past year, up from a 10.9 percent decline in the first quarter.
Verizon shares fell 50 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $33.95 in morning trading.
For the first time, Verizon also reported a drop in the number of DSL subscribers, as customers moved to its fiber-optic service, FiOS, where it is available. It lost 133,000 Digital Subscriber Lines while adding 187,000 FiOS Internet customers.
Separately, Verizon said it started selling cable-TV service over FiOS in New York City on Monday. The company received final regulatory approval from the state two weeks ago. Verizon is in the early stages of building out its network in the city, and still needs to negotiate with landlords for access to apartment buildings. It's the first major metropolitan...
Wed, 30 Jul 08
Michael Dell Promises: 'A Big Second Half' of 2008
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60989
Dell's uneven turnaround may be smoothing out. After three up-and-down quarters of job cuts, product overhauls, and a costly retail blitz, Chief Executive Michael Dell is predicting a strong second half of 2008.
The Dell founder told BusinessWeek in an interview that growth rates for July through December could match or exceed growth in the company's fiscal first quarter, which ended on May 2. Consumer business sales for the quarter rose 20 percent and unit growth hit 47 percent, outpacing the rest of the PC industry. "We've kind of reignited the thing," says Dell. "You'll see the growth rate be every bit of that in the second half of the year, if not more. We're going to have a big second half."
Before Dell reclaimed the reins as CEO a year and a half ago, the PC maker suffered nearly two years of declining market share, falling profits, and slower growth. Although the executive, who founded the company in 1984, has made strides toward a turnaround, results in recent quarters have been choppy. Expectations that the rough patch may be ending resurfaced in May, however, when Dell said first-quarter profit rose nearly 4 percent, and sales climbed 9 percent, to $16.08 billion. Dell has cut jobs, redesigned products to capture share in the fast-growing consumer market, and moved computers onto the shelves of 13,000 retail stores, lessening dependence on a long-standing direct-sales approach.
Now the company is looking for new ways to expand beyond selling commodity PCs, notebooks, and servers. It's stepped up the pace of acquisitions, making eight since 2007, compared with half that in the company's first 22 years. Its founder says Dell also is gearing up to expand its services business. And PCs are selling overseas at a blistering pace: First-quarter revenue in Brazil, Russia, India, and China...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Virgin Unveils the WhiteKnightTwo Space-Tourism Craft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61009
Virgin Galactic opened the hangar today at the Mojave Air and Space Port to reveal its suborbital aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo. The aircraft is a mother ship capable of ferrying its component airship, the SpaceShipTwo, into a suborbital trajectory where it can easily exit the Earth's atmosphere into space.
Sir Richard Branson, iconic CEO of Virgin, and Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, lead designer of the project, were on hand for the unveiling. SpaceShipTwo -- still under wraps at the facility -- has yet to be shown.
Branson remarked, "As usual, Burt and the Scaled team have created a beauty, and this is a very proud day for us all. The rollout of WhiteKnightTwo takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this most ambitious of projects is not only for real, but is making tremendous progress toward our goal of safe commercial operation." Virgin has stated in the past that it will become the first commercial airline to travel to space on a regular basis.
Virgin Galactic will use a two-stage system to boost scientists, astronauts and passengers into Earth's orbit. The WhiteKnightTwo will carry between its twin fuselages its orbital companion, the SpaceShipTwo. Once the WhiteKnightTwo reaches altitudes of 50,000 feet, it will release SpaceShipTwo to make its way beyond the atmosphere into space.
Specifications of the WhiteKnightTwo indicate its capacity is 30 percent greater than needed when it is loaded with SpaceShipTwo, giving it ample power to piggyback the passenger vehicle.
The aim of Virgin Galactic is to accelerate the commercialization of space through reusable and reliable transportation of passengers and materials into Earth's orbit. The specifications of the WhiteKnightTwo boast that it can accommodate four flights per day -- an incredible increase...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
FCC Reported Ready To Act on Comcast Blocking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61008
The Federal Communications Commission is reportedly ready to take enforcement action against cable-TV giant Comcast for blocking Internet traffic. An investigation began after complaints from the public-interest group Free Press.
Philadelphia-based Comcast is the country's second-largest Internet service provider, with 14.1 million subscribers.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and two Democratic commission members, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, have recommended action and the full commission is expected to approve. Comcast will not be fined, but it will be ordered to stop blocking or slowing peer-to-peer traffic using software like BitTorrent, clearly define how it has blocked content in the past, and publicly disclose future network-management policies.
Free Press general counsel Marvin Ammori said, "Comcast was exposed for blocking free choice on the Internet. At every turn, Comcast has denied blocking, lied to the public, and tried to avoid being held accountable. We have presented an open-and-shut case that Comcast broke the law. The FCC now appears ready to take action on behalf of consumers. This is an historic test for whether the law will protect the open Internet."
Martin, chairman since 2005, has said ISPs should not be allowed to pick and choose content for consumers. Under Martin the FCC approved a policy statement in September 2005 that outlined a set of principles to ensure that broadband networks are "widely deployed, open, affordable and accessible to all consumers."
The FCC was established in 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications on radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The law was overhauled in 1996 to add the Internet.
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Apple Continues MobileMe Restoration Process
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61007
Apple is trying to put the MobileMe fiasco behind it -- and the company is sharing a more-than-usual amount of information in the process.
MobileMe is a service that delivers push e-mail, push contacts and push calendars into the "cloud" of native applications for the iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs. The service also provides a suite of ad-free Web applications that aim to deliver a desktop-like experience through any modern browser.
Well, that is, when it works.
MobileMe was supposed to help Apple compete with the BlackBerry. But MobileMe saw major outages and even lost customer e-mails, leaving many consumers angry. Apple posted its latest update on Sunday, indicating that restoring full e-mail access to the remaining one percent of MobileMe users who need it is the company's first priority.
"We turned on Web access to their current e-mail [Saturday] and the feedback has been cautiously positive. Since then, we've restored full e-mail history -- minus the approximately 10 percent of mail received between July 16 and July 18, which may have been lost -- and the ability to access e-mail from a Mac, PC and iPhone, to over 40 percent of these users, and expect the remainder to be restored in the next few days," the company wrote on its MobileMe Status blog.
What caused the outage? One issue Apple encountered was a mail outage affecting one percent of MobileMe members. On July 18, a serious problem with one of Apple's mail servers blocked those members' access to their MobileMe mail accounts.
"The day we launched MobileMe, we had a lot more traffic to our servers than we anticipated, with the result that access to the Web versions of the MobileMe applications -- Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, iDisk -- was temporarily unavailable," the company said in its...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Fabrik Offers Environmentally Friendly Hard Drives
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61006
Fabrik has introduced what it claims is the world's most environmentally friendly, energy-efficient USB hard drive, called SimpleTech [re]drive.
The San Mateo, Calif.-based Fabrik said Monday that its external drive with fast "Turbo USB 2.0" port can transfer data 25 percent faster than products with a standard USB 2.0 port. The drive, for Mac or PC, comes with the company's automated backup software and is available in sizes of 250GB, 320GB and 500GB.
Fabrik said its drive uses up to 90 percent less power than competitors, which means a yearly drop of nearly 475 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions, equal to taking 300,000 cars off the road for one year.
Backing up its eco-friendly claim, the SimpleTech is enclosed with bamboo, one of the earth's most durable natural resources, and recycled aluminum. To avoid transporting the bamboo over long distances, Fabrik has the bamboo grown near its manufacturing facility. A thick aluminum casing is used for durability and saves energy by acting as a heat sink to cool the drive without a fan.
The SimpleTech comes with an Energy Star-labeled power adapter and uses as little packaging as possible. The setup guide is printed on the inside of the box, the backup software and a user guide are installed on the drive, and all the packaging is recyclable.
For disaster recovery, the backup software automatically saves copies of files on both the drive and on Fabrik's encrypted servers. Virus protection is included for PC users to avoid transferring any infected files during backups.
The drive has a one-time setup process that allows users to decide which folders and files to save and when. The drive comes with 2GB of free online backup space, or for $5 a month, users can get unlimited backup capacity.
The 500GB drive lists for $160 and is available both online...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Google's Wikipedia-Wannabe Knol Names Names
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61005
Last week Google launched Knol, its Wikipedia-wannabe site, with a sparse base of knowledge. The online encyclopedia has millions of words to go before it catches up with the hundreds of thousands of international entries in Wikipedia's storehouse of human knowledge.
But some critics maintain that a few of Knol's features may give Wikipedia some much-needed competition.
Unlike Wikipedia entries, Knol entry contributors must assign their names to the articles they contribute. Readers can then make a decision whether the named author is indeed trustworthy. Authors can be checked out online -- or off -- to determine if they have the credibility needed.
While some studies show most of Wikipedia's entries rival print-encyclopedia accuracy, the site has been marred by political and personal squabbles. For example, Wikipedia entries concerning Chinese government oppression and Iranian capital punishment have gone missing in the past -- deleted or severely altered by unknown editors.
In the United States, political candidates say their Wikipedia entries have been edited with some bias and sometimes contain outright erroneous information. Anonymous online edit wars can ebb back and forth -- made possible, say some analysts, by the anonymous nature of the contributors.
By assigning author names and ownership to articles, Knol hopes to drastically reduce bias, edit wars and false information. In addition, attributing authorship to articles may have the salient effect of attracting more credible sources for information. After all, what academics or experts don't want to see their names in print, even if it's in an online encyclopedia?
By default, the Knol site assigns what is known as "common code attribution" to all articles. This means articles found on Knol are governed by the rules of the Creative Commons Attribution license. Under terms of the CC, users of Knol articles can share the content and/or...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
China Claims World's Largest Internet User Base
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61004
According to the China Internet Network Information Center, more than 253 million people in China are now online. By contrast, Nielsen Online reports more than 220 million Americans have Internet access at home and/or work, and 73 percent of those were active in May.
"This is the first time the number has drastically surpassed the United States, becoming the world's number one," the nation's official net monitoring body said in a statement quoted by BBC News. However, western researchers say some caution is advisable when it comes to weighing statistics about Internet use in China.
"Estimates of the size of the Chinese Internet population vary a great deal, depending on the definition of 'Internet user,' among other things," noted the authors of a report issued by Pew Research and the American Life Project earlier this year. The estimates are more "interesting for their trend, rather than for their absolute numbers," Pew Research analysts said.
For comparison, comScore reports Internet use in China rose 14 percent in April to 102 million visitors. Moreover, the research firm currently ranks the Chinese-language search engine Baidu as No. 3 in the worldwide search market, behind Google and Yahoo.
Despite the uncertainties involved in making statistical comparisons between Chinese and western data, researchers agree that China's eclipse of U.S. Internet usage is inevitable. Though the U.S. still accounts for 21 percent of Internet users worldwide, growth in the number of users has been slowing, comScore reports. Only 19.1 percent of China's 1.3 billion residents have online access, whereas 71 percent of Americans are connected to the Internet.
Among other things, the overall growth trend for China is a harbinger of the growing online shopping and advertising dollars that will be at stake moving forward. More than 85 percent of the world's online population has used the...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
New Search Engine Cuil Challenges Google Technology
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61003
A new search-engine platform was unveiled Monday by some former Google engineers to compete with the leading search site. Dubbed Cuil and pronounced "cool," the new company claims to combine the largest Web index with content-based relevance, results organized by ideas, and complete user privacy. Cuil said it has indexed 120 billion Web pages, three times more than any other search engine.
"The Web continues to grow at a fantastic rate and other search engines are unable to keep up with it," said Tom Costello, CEO and cofounder of Cuil. "Our significant breakthroughs in search technology have enabled us to index much more of the Internet, placing nearly the entire Web at the fingertips of every user."
Costello said Cuil presents searchers with content-based results, not just popular ones. He's convinced Cuil's approach provides "different and more insightful answers that illustrate the vastness and the variety of the Web."
As Cuil's founders describe it, the search engine goes beyond today's search techniques of link analysis and traffic ranking to analyze the context of each page and the concepts behind each query. It then organizes similar search results into groups and sorts them by category. Cuil displays results and offers organizing features, such as tabs to clarify subjects, images to identify topics, and search-refining suggestions.
"Cuil seems to be quite flexible about many aspects of the product. They have built a back end with a large index and a different approach to search ranking. But the company seems to be somewhat agnostic about how all that is presented," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "I am sure we'll see changes and refinements and experiments with the interface."
Sterling said there is an opportunity to build a better mousetrap, but Cuil has some hurdles to jump, primarily consumer behavior. Indeed, the test with...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Satellite Radio Companies To Pay $19.7 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60978
A merger of the nation's only two satellite radio companies moved closer to fruition Thursday after the pair agreed to pay $19.7 million to settle a case alleging violation of federal rules.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told The Associated Press the agency had reached an agreement late Wednesday night where XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. will pay $17.5 million and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. will pay $2.2 million to resolve that issue.
The agreement, which still requires a full vote of the commission, is expected to lead to approval of Sirius's $3.9 billion buyout of XM, which has been under regulatory review for more than a year.
The violations involve complaints about interference the satellite radios cause with land-based radio stations and violations related to land-based signal repeaters the companies operate to deliver programming. Martin said XM's penalty was greater because the company's offense was more egregious.
He said that XM had a number of repeaters that were in violation of rules. "And even more significantly," Martin said, "XM had continued to operate their repeaters without authority when they were in violation."
The vote on approving the buyout is currently 2-2 with Republican Deborah Taylor Tate still undecided. According to agency officials, Tate will approve the takeover once the enforcement action is circulated to the full commission.
"This was an issue that Commissioner Tate thought was important for us to deal with prior to her supporting the merger," Martin said of the consent decree. "I think that this was a significant issue that we can take off the table that I think will allow us to move forward soon on finishing up the merger."
Tate had apparently sought a fine of $8 million, according to FCC officials who asked not to be named because the deal was not yet final.
If a majority of commissioners sign...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Advisory Firm RiskMetrics Endorses Yahoo Board
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60976
An influential shareholder advisory firm endorsed the re-election of Yahoo Inc.'s entire board Thursday, reducing the chances that the Internet company's directors will be ousted for spurning Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid during the spring.
Although the board's response to the now-abandoned offer was "concerning," RiskMetrics ISS concluded that a recent truce with activist investor Carl Icahn should be enough to protect shareholder interests during the next year.
Another shareholder advisory firm, Glass Lewis & Co., is recommending votes against three Yahoo directors -- Chairman Roy Bostock, Ron Burkle and Arthur Kern. The same three were opposed by more than 30 percent of Yahoo shareholders in last year's election.
Glass Lewis targeted the three men this time because they sit on a compensation committee that signed off on an expensive employee severance program shortly after Microsoft made its takeover bid.
Because the severance packages could have triggered hefty payments to Yahoo's employees, the program threatened to lower Yahoo's value to potential buyers.
The RiskMetrics' endorsement Thursday is particularly significant for Yahoo because it comes from the oldest and largest shareholder advisory firm.
Yahoo's deal with Icahn, reached Monday, lowered the stakes of the director vote that will take place at the company's Aug. 1 annual meeting. Under the agreement, Icahn will join an expanded Yahoo board along with two allies that must be approved by the Sunnyvale, California-based company. The deal ensures Icahn will be involved in any discussions involving a proposed sale of all or part of Yahoo.
Icahn, a billionaire, bought a 5 percent stake in Yahoo in hopes of working out a sale to Microsoft, which withdrew a $33 per share offer in early May after Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang asked for $37 per share.
Yahoo has since indicated it will sell for $33 per share, or $47.5 billion, but Microsoft now says...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Internet Service Providers Want To Serve You Ads, Too
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60968
Just what we need: another way to get bombarded with personalized ads. Consumers are already spoon-fed ads based on the searches they conduct with tools like Google and Yahoo!; wireless service providers can send coupons, using call logs to track subscriber tastes and navigation tools to determine their whereabouts; and cable companies tailor local marketing messages to a viewer's neighborhood or city.
Now Internet service providers want in on the act. The companies that manage those massive, coast-to-coast broadband networks which deliver a host of communications services may soon tap vast storehouses of data on our network use to -- you guessed it -- serve up personalized ads. Many providers of high-speed Internet access also sell TV and wireless services. By placing ads via broadband as well, they'd become "triple-play advertisers," says Aditya Kishore, senior analyst at consultancy Heavy Reading. "There's a lot of interest in that."
Carriers including Embarq, spun off in 2006 from Sprint Nextel, and BT are exploring ways to mine data they can collect about customers' online habits to deliver tailored ads. At stake is a slice of the $25.9 billion in online advertising projected by eMarketer this year. Already, phone companies use a technology known as deep-packet inspection [DPI] to weed out spam, catch viruses that could possibly harm a network, or determine what practices are hogging bandwidth.
It wouldn't be a stretch to also use DPI to figure out which ads to shoot to which users. Robert Dykes, CEO of advertising DPI vendor NebuAd, likens the technology to "an eyedropper, picking up select things" from the communications network. NebuAd's gear attaches to a communications network and collects data on Web site usage -- although it ignores e-mails, Web calls, and activity on password-protected sites like those of financial institutions. NebuAd's tool works by keeping...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Microsoft: With No Yahoo, What's the Web Strategy?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60967
Microsoft has all but shut the door on the prospect of resuming talks to buy all or part of Yahoo. Speaking at the company's annual meeting for analysts on July 24, Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said a Yahoo deal at this point "essentially makes no sense."
If Yahoo is no longer the remedy for Microsoft's ailing online operations, what is? The software giant spent part of the day trying to persuade analysts that it's got something better in mind. Yet with Wall Street growing increasingly impatient to see results from its online operations, Microsoft gave only a glimpse into what to expect in terms of ongoing spending and returns. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said the company plans to continue spending 5 percent to 10 percent of operating income, a modest amount relative to the potential returns, he argued. And those returns could hit 20 percent to 40 percent if Microsoft is successful, Liddell said, though he didn't disclose a time frame for when that might happen.
Microsoft also pulled back the curtain on plans to provide Web search tools to users of Facebook, and to place search-related ads on pages of the social network by the end of 2008. The Redmond [Wash.] company last year paid $240 million for a tiny, 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, a swiftly growing Web site that boasts some 90 million registered users. Deepening ties with Facebook is probably a smart move.
Still, some Wall Street analysts came away from the meeting wishing Microsoft had said more. "My expectations were low and they exceeded my expectations, but they didn't give me everything I wanted," Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Charles Di Bona said. "It would have been nice to have been more concrete about what was game-changing."
That's important because now Microsoft is losing the game,...
Tue, 29 Jul 08
Speech Within Your Reach: Hosted Systems for Everyone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60155
Who doesn't remember the first time he or she interacted with a speech recognition engine? Sure, it felt a bit odd to be speaking to a computer, but it also felt so progressive and futuristic. As an end user of the technology, it was exciting.
As a contact center manager or CTO, it was a tad depressing. It was a technology so far out of the reach of your organization for a number of reasons: cost, implementation time, a lack of IT personnel to plan and administer it and the imagined headaches of troubleshooting it.
There is a reason why only large financial services organizations and airlines had speech self-service technologies: they were the only ones that could afford it. Even with the volume of calls that these organizations moved, the ROI still took a long time. Forget even the expense and time of purchasing and implementing earlier iterations of speech. Just determining your organizations needs in terms of call-routing and self-service sounded like a headache waiting for a place to happen. Speech is not touch-tone IVR and can't be treated the same way (and who ever really got the knack of effectively building touch-tone IVR menu trees in the first place?)
Today's hosted speech solutions are bear little resemblance to the massive-scale projects of five to 10 years ago, except in their enviable end goal: to allow customers to use the most natural of interfaces -- their human voice -- to take care of their own needs and keep your expensive live agents free to handle complex inquiries which is, after all, what you pay them for.
So now that cost and implementation are no longer a barrier keeping you from seeking speech for your call center, you might need to sit down and make a list to convince yourself (or...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Colorado's Spam King Murders Family, Self
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60985
His name was Edward Davidson, but the world will remember him as the notorious "Spam King" who was convicted and sent to prison, only to escape, kill his wife and child, and then turn a gun on himself.
Colorado's "Spam King" drama came to its conclusion on Thursday when the bodies of Davidson, his wife and three-year-old daughter were discovered in an SUV parked in a farmhouse driveway in a rural area east of Denver.
"What a nightmare, and such a coward," said U.S. Attorney Troy Eid. "Davidson imposed the 'death penalty' on family members for his own crime."
On July 20, Davidson walked away from a federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado -- a minimum-security facility that features dorm-style housing, a low staff-to-inmate ratio and a program-oriented work environment.
Davidson, who was sentenced to serve 21 months in federal prison for illegally sending spam e-mail messages, left the Florence prison complex in a car with his wife, who probably never suspected his escape would lead to her death.
Davidson drove the car to Lakewood, a Denver suburb, where he got a change of clothes and cash. He then left. Davidson was next seen with a fatal, self-inflicted gunshot wound. In addition to shooting his wife and child, Davidson shot a fourth person in the neck. A one-year-old boy was found unharmed.
On April 28, 2008, Davidson was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Marcia S. Krieger to serve just under two years in federal prison. Judge Krieger also ordered him to pay $714,139 in restitution to the IRS. Davidson seemed amenable, having pled guilty before Judge Krieger on December 3, 2007.
As part of the restitution, Davidson had agreed to forfeit property he purchased, including gold coins, which were the ill-gotten proceeds of his offense. At the...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Microsoft Challenges Google's PageRank Technology
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60984
Microsoft engineers, in collaboration with researchers at several Asian institutions, have proposed a new method for improving upon the Web page rankings produced by today's search engine requests. Called BrowseRank, the new approach adds a human factor to the process by weighing how people actually use the Internet, the collaborators reported in a paper recently presented before the Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval.
"The more visits [to] the page made by the users, and the longer time periods spent by the users on the page, the more likely the page is important," the paper's authors noted. The goal is to "leverage hundreds of millions of users' 'implicit voting' on page importance," they said, "in accordance with the concept of Web 2.0."
Google's trademarked PageRank method measures the relative importance of Web pages through the use of a sequence of data-processing instructions -- called a link analysis algorithm -- that assigns a numerical weighting to each element within any given set of hyperlinked documents.
"Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results," Google said. "We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the Web to determine a page's importance."
Gauging the relevance of Internet searches is extremely important to Google, Yahoo and Microsoft because it allows the search engine leaders to more precisely target their placement of ads on behalf of clients. But Microsoft and its collaborators claim that PageRank misses the mark because it allows the importance of pages to become artificially inflated.
For example, Web sites such as Adobe.com are ranked very high by PageRank because Adobe.com has millions of sites linking to it for Acrobat...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
DNS Exploit Means Quick Patches Are Critical
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60983
Researchers have released software that exploits the recently leaked flaw in the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) software. That may mean IT admins are in for a long weekend of implementing and testing the patch.
IOActive researcher Dan Kaminsky discovered the bug earlier this month. The attack code was released Wednesday by developers of the Metasploit hacking toolkit, headed by the infamous HD Moore.
By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker can redirect an ISP's users to a malicious phishing server every time they try to visit a legitimate Web site. The patches released through various vendors should protect from the threat, but it may be a rush for some.
The threat emerges from two different issues with the DNS protocol, according to McAfee Avert Labs. DNS primarily uses UDP packets to send questions and receive answers. The client will accept any packet as an answer to its question on three conditions: the packet is coming from the DNS server, the source and destination ports match the destination and source ports of the question packet and, most importantly, the transaction ID and question match its question.
"An attacker can spoof such an answer packet as long as he can pretend to be the DNS server and also guess the source port and transaction ID (the destination port is usually 53)," said Ravi Balupari, a security researcher at McAfee Avert Labs. "The attacker also needs to make sure his spoofed answer packet reaches the client before the actual answer packet from the legitimate DNS server."
Complicating matters, when a DNS server replies to a question, it can also include additional information in the answer to make future processes more efficient. Combining the answer packet spoof with the additional information makes the story more interesting because it makes exploitation easier.
In...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
iPhone Software Update May Fix Frustrating Bugs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60982
When Apple released its iPhone 2.0 software earlier this month, CEO Steve Jobs said it would provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform for a mobile device. However, glitches in the software are leaving users frustrated, with a laundry list of complaints.
Apple launched its App Store just before it released the iPhone 3G, which uses the 2.0 software. Users of both the iPhone 3G and the first-generation iPhone upgraded with the 2.0 software can buy and download apps created by third-party developers.
The 2.0 software was also supposed to allow subscribers to Apple's $99-a-year MobileMe service (formerly called .Mac) to seamlessly share e-mail, calendars and contacts between iPhones, PCs and Macs. It was billed as compatible with Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers.
Instead, users are reporting crashes, slow synchronizations, and unexpected reboots with both the iPhone software and downloaded applications. Some users have reported sync times of 30 minutes, plus problems with GPS and Bluetooth. Other problems have been screen freezes, long iTunes backup times, and dropped applications.
Users have found some relief in deleting and then again downloading applications, but this is a temporary fix because the deleted apps return on the next sync. A more reliable fix has been to update the iPhone directly through the App Store or from iTunes instead of through the iPhone.
Relief could be on the way as Apple distributes an iPhone 2.1 software update to developers. That version may include fixes for the reported bugs, though some observers are speculating there could be a special 2.01 update.
The update is also expected to include an improvement to the GPS feature, which currently reports a user's location. Reportedly, the new version will add velocity and direction, which could be the start of turn-by-turn guidance.
Apple said 10 million apps were downloaded in...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Hasbro Sues Creators of Scrabulous Game on Facebook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60981
Hasbro filed suit Thursday against the creators of the Scrabulous online game. Hasbro alleged the game infringes on the company's Scrabble intellectual-property rights.
Hasbro also sent Facebook, which hosts Scrabulous, a notification of copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Hasbro wants the social-networking site to remove the game in the U.S. and Canada as soon as possible.
"Hasbro has an obligation to act appropriately against infringement of our intellectual properties," said Barry Nagler, Hasbro's general counsel. "We view the Scrabulous application as clear and blatant infringement of our Scrabble intellectual property, and we are pursuing this legal action in accordance with the interests of our shareholders, and the integrity of the Scrabble brand."
The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York, names Scrabulous creators Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla and RJ Softwares as the defendants.
The timing of the suit is hardly coincidental. Hasbro has a strategic alliance with video-game giant Electronic Arts to create digital games based on a wide selection of Hasbro's intellectual properties. Hasbro is the company behind Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers and other well-known gaming brand names.
As part of its alliance with Hasbro, Electronic Arts launched a legitimate version of Scrabble for Facebook earlier this month. This represents the first of many Hasbro game properties slated to launch on social-networking sites later this year, according to the company.
"After playing with EA's version of Scrabble on Facebook, I have no doubt that Scrabble players in the U.S. and Canada will absolutely love the authentic game play and overall experience," said John D. Williams Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association. "I am particularly pleased that EA's version of Scrabble offers such a simple and intuitive interface which will allow players to jump right in and start playing."
While the fate of Scrabulous...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Yahoo's Zimbra Desktop Manages E-Mail, Documents
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60980
Zimbra is offering an office productivity suite. The Yahoo-owned provider of open-source messaging and collaboration tools announced Thursday a free beta of Yahoo Zimbra Desktop, which offers a centralized location for managing e-mail even when a user is not connected to the Internet, plus a tool for creating documents and spreadsheets.
Satish Dharmaraj, cofounder of Zimbra and a vice president of Yahoo, said the new application takes the "world-class collaboration suite and makes it available for everyone for use anywhere, anytime, with any e-mail account."
Yahoo said Zimbra Desktop is available for Windows, Mac and Linux users with access to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL, or any IMAP/POP-enabled server. The desktop is a downloadable application that doesn't run in a browser window and offers offline access to e-mail.
Using the same Zimbra interface as its previous messaging and collaboration incarnation, the desktop expands on such functions as mashups with other services so that, for example, a user can view an e-mail, see his or her schedule when hovering over a date, or see a flight's status when hovering over a flight number.
The desktop also provides document creation, spreadsheets, task management, and document storage as part of Yahoo's effort to play in the same arena as Google and Microsoft. With Zimbra Documents added to the desktop, users can embed photos and other objects into documents and spreadsheets and switch tasks without opening other applications.
To stay organized, there's also calendaring, task management, and online document storage. Zimbra Briefcase, part of desktop, enables users to store files online and Zimbra Tasks offers to-do lists with start and due dates, progress, percent complete, and priority ratings. The calendar uses the iCal standard for taking a calendar offline and e-mails can be labeled with advanced tagging.
Microsoft Office files can't...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Embarq Provides More Details on Web-Tracking Test
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60977
Embarq Corp. has revealed more details about its exploration of a program that tracked Internet subscribers' Web-surfing habits for advertising purposes, telling Congress that it performed the test on 26,000 customers in a Kansas town.
Building on an earlier response to Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Embarq CEO Thomas Gerke wrote in a letter late Wednesday that his Overland Park, Kan.-based company chose Gardner, Kan., for its test because it was Embarq's smallest market and near qualified technicians.
Gerke's letter also revealed that the company included a notice about potential uses of customer Internet history for advertising on an obscure part of its Web site, and that 15 people asked not to participate.
Internet service providers like Embarq have attracted the scrutiny of Congress and privacy advocates for technology that develops targeted ads based on what Web sites a particular subscriber visits. Those providers and the companies that make the programs, notably Silicon Valley-based NebuAd Inc., have defended the technology, saying it protects customer privacy and enhances the online experience by weeding out ads that don't matter to people.
In his letter, Gerke repeated the company's claims that the test didn't generate or use any information that would personally identify a specific customer.
"The only data during the test consisted of codes representing categories of interest that were derived anonymously via software," he wrote. "Once the test was complete, all such data that had not otherwise expired was destroyed."
Rep. Edward Markey, chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, wrote the original letter questioning Embarq over the test, asking how customers were told about the test and whether they could avoid participating.
Gerke said the company posted a two-paragraph notice about the potential use of anonymous surfing habits for advertising purposes on its Web site in a section describing...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
China Says Web Use Now Surpasses United States
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60969
China's booming Internet population has surpassed the United States to become the world's biggest, with 253 million people online despite government controls on Web use, according to government data reported Friday.
The latest figure on Web use at the end of June is a 56 percent increase from a year ago, the China Internet Network Information Center said. It said the share of the Chinese public using the Internet is still just 19.1 percent, leaving more room for rapid growth.
The United States had an estimated 223.1 million Internet users in June, according to Nielsen Online, a research firm. The Pew Internet and American Life Project puts U.S. online penetration at 71 percent.
"This is the first time the number has drastically surpassed the United States, becoming the world's No. 1," a CNNIC statement said.
The communist government encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to block access to Web sites deemed pornographic or subversive. Web surfers have been jailed for posting or e-mailing material that criticizes communist rule or is deemed a violation of vague national security laws.
Beijing blocks access to Web sites run by dissidents, human rights groups and some foreign news media. Web surfers were blocked from seeing Google Inc.'s YouTube and other foreign sites with video footage of anti-government protests in Tibet in March.
That same month, the government said it would shut down 25 Chinese video sites and punish 32 others for violating new rules against carrying content that is deemed pornographic, violent or a threat to national security.
In financial terms, China's market lags those of the United States, South Korea and other economies. But online commerce, video sharing and other businesses are growing rapidly and have raised millions of dollars from investors.
The commercial boom has produced success stories such as games site Tencent.com and search engine Baidu.com,...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
AT&T Introduces Global GPS Service for Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60953
Is it a long, long way to Tipperary? Don't know if you're on the path to Bath?
AT&T Inc. aims to help, with a new phone service that truly puts the "global" in the Global Positioning System, or GPS.
On Tuesday, it introduced the AT&T Navigator Global Edition, a service that for the first time allows some of its phones to provide GPS navigation overseas. AT&T said it is the only plan of its kind from a U.S. carrier.
The plan costs $19.98 per month and works with seven "smart" phones: four BlackBerry models, plus the Tilt, BlackJack II and Moto QTM 9h.
Its maps cover most of Western Europe (Tipperary is in Ireland, Bath in England), Canada, Mexico and six cities in China that will host the Olympics this summer.
The service uses data connections to download maps, so an international data roaming plan is strongly recommended. It's not uncommon for people who don't have international roaming plans to come home from trips to find charges of hundreds of dollars.
AT&T has a BlackBerry International data plan that covers includes domestic and international use for $64.99. For other phones, international data roaming costs $24.99 per month on top of a domestic plan.
The service doesn't work with Apple Inc.'s new iPhone 3G, even though it has a GPS chip. AT&T spokeswoman Jeannie Hornung said the company is working with Apple to enable AT&T applications, including Navigator, to run on the iPhone.
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Nokia, Qualcomm Settle Long-Running Dispute
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60945
The legal salvos between Nokia Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. stopped months ago, part of what officials at the wireless industry heavyweights described as a truce in a long-running battle that spanned three continents.
Peace came Wednesday as the two sides prepared for a courtroom showdown. Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, and Qualcomm, the world's largest maker of chips that run cell phones, agreed to settle a high-stakes licensing dispute and drop all legal complaints against each other in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
The agreement, announced after markets closed, thrilled Qualcomm investors. The company's shares soared 18.7 percent, or $8.38, to $53.20 after hours. During regular trading, its shares rose 1.6 percent, or 72 cents, to $44.82 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Nokia's U.S. traded shares fell 0.3 percent, or 7 cents, to $26.70 on the New York Stock Exchange, then added 31 cents after hours.
The 15-year licensing deal gives Nokia rights to a wide portfolio of Qualcomm's patents. Nokia will pay Qualcomm an upfront sum and ongoing royalties, but the companies did not elaborate on the terms.
Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, said it will withdraw its antitrust complaint filed against Qualcomm at the European Commission. Nokia filed the complaint in October 2005 with five other companies, which led to a flurry of lawsuits between Qualcomm and its rivals and several regulatory probes into Qualcomm's licensing practices.
"This is one where saying this is important is not an overstatement," Rick Simonson, Nokia's chief financial officer, said in an interview. "It's a big relief for everybody."
The stakes were especially high for San Diego-based Qualcomm, which gets about two-thirds of its profits from licensing fees on its patents. Nearly all the rest of its profit comes from making chips.
Carriers and equipment makers will also be spared having to worry how legal uncertainties hanging over two...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Steve Jobs Says He Is Well, but Doubts Dog Apple
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60940
Rumors of Steve Jobs's ill health have been greatly exaggerated.
That is what Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has been telling a number of his associates, even as concerns about his health have weighed on the company's stock price.
The latest flurry of talk was set off Monday when, in a conference call after the release of Apple's earnings, a company executive responded to a question about Jobs's condition by saying that it was "a private matter."
But in recent weeks, Jobs has reassured several people that he is doing well and that four years after a successful operation to treat a rare form of pancreatic cancer, he is cancer-free.
People who are close to Jobs say he had a surgical procedure this year to address a problem that was contributing to a loss of weight. These people declined to be identified because Jobs had not authorized them to speak about his health.
Jobs's gaunt appearance last month when he unveiled the iPhone 3G led to speculation that his cancer had returned. An Apple spokesman has said that Jobs picked up a "common bug" in the weeks before the event and was taking a course of antibiotics. An Apple spokeswoman declined further comment Tuesday.
Jobs ran a high fever for the week preceding his presentation, according to an industry executive he spoke with. He considered canceling his appearance but did not want to skip a long-scheduled event, that person said.
In an interview after the presentation, Jobs responded to a reporter's question about how he was feeling by saying, "I feel fine." Jobs has told several associates, as well as some members of Apple's board, that he is dealing with nutritional problems in the wake of his cancer surgery. Medical descriptions of the surgery state that in some cases it leads to weight loss and low energy.
Analysts were...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Your Fingers Do the Walking with HP's TouchSmart
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60936
We all walk up to a computer screen from time to time and touch it to accomplish some task. Think ATM or airport kiosk. But that's pretty rare at home. We're commonly seated with a keyboard and mouse.
Hewlett-Packard hopes to get you out of your chair with the TouchSmart IQ506 I've been testing. You can still use a mouse or keyboard with this handsome all-in-one desktop PC. But you're also supposed to get your paw prints all over it -- often while standing up. The idea is to use your fingers to rummage through your music collection, pore through pictures, watch videos or peek at your calendar.
HP is pushing TouchSmart as a family-central, living room or bedroom PC. You can record audio memos or use your finger to scribble an on-screen note: "Remember to buy milk."
The IQ506 is the more aesthetically pleasing new version of hardware HP launched more than a year-and-a-half ago. And HP's improved software builds on the touch capabilities of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system.
For now, that only takes you so far. You'll have to wait for the upcoming Windows 7 operating system to take advantage of the multitouch-type smarts popularized by the iPhone. There's no two-finger pinching gesture, for example, that would let you enlarge a picture.
Such quibbles aside, I had a positive experience with the new TouchSmart. A closer look:
*Design. HP compares the design of the new TouchSmart with, of all things, a messenger bag. I don't quite see the similarity, but the silver-trimmed black PC is nice looking in its own right. It's pretty thin overall and smaller than its predecessor. That's despite having a generous 22-inch-wide display, compared with 19 inches before. The machine has an ambient light to illuminate the keyboard, or, as HP marketers stress, "set a mood." Anything to take...
Sat, 26 Jul 08
Beware the Hype for Software as a Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60935
Time to dispel a few popular myths.
SUVs are not cool. They never were. You Hummer guys were drawing snickers a few years ago. Now, with the price of gas nearing $5 a gallon, we're laughing out loud. And Microsoft's Vista is not a failure. To date, the software company has sold more than 150 million units. Vista has made Microsoft a ton of money. Yes, yes -- it's preloaded on every new computer. And yes, of course -- it stinks. But no, it's not a failure.
A couple more myths to dispel: Cell phones cause brain damage. Some of the conversations conducted on a cell phone would lead you to believe this. But there's no evidence it's bad for the brain. It's also a myth that the longest day of the year is June 21. The longest day of the year for me was the Winter Middle School Orchestra Concert back in February. I know it was only an hour. But it didn't feel like it.
The biggest bucket of myths I hope to bust centers on a technology that many business owners are hearing a lot about these days. It's known as Software as a Service [SaaS], or the idea that you can get your software delivered conveniently, and at a low price, via the Web. Unlike buying software the old-fashioned way, by paying a big licensing fee up front, you pay for SaaS -- also referred to as on-demand software -- in pieces, spread out over time.
But as with most IT innovation, there's a lot of hype surrounding this technology -- so much so that many of us don't know what to believe. Is this a viable thing? Should we be using this stuff? Don't worry, folks. I've done some research into this SaaS thing. Let me debunk a few...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Facebook Will Extend Social-Networking Across the Net
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60962
Facebook on Thursday displayed its site redesign and demonstrated its upcoming Facebook Connect at the second annual F8 developer conference in San Francisco.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg urged more than 400,000 developers to connect with the social-networking site and distribute their applications. He said the site will decentralize, with less being said about Facebook and more about social networking across the Internet.
Third-party applications can now be integrated into Facebook to make them more user-friendly, the company said. Users can choose to interact with an application, grant access to the user's information, and decide the placement for profiles.
Zuckerberg noted problems with applications that disrupt the site experience by bombarding users with requests. To discourage this, applications that create "meaningful, trustworthy and well-designed user experiences" will be branded with a Great Apps label. The label means more visibility on Facebook, earlier access to new features, and more feedback. Though Facebook Connect is scheduled to start in September, Zuckerberg named iLike, a music-sharing application, and Causes, a social-activism application, as the inaugural Great Apps.
Facebook has been working on a redesign since early this year, and over the past six months has been fielding user suggestions on layout and features.
Facebook Connect will allow users to carry account information, privacy choices, and friends to any third-party Web site, desktop application, or device. When fully launched, users will be able to authenticate partner sites with a Facebook account; link friends wherever they go; ensure their privacy settings remain intact; and share actions with friends on sites they visit.
Already 24 Web sites and applications have linked to Facebook Connect and the company has set up a sandbox for developers.
Web sites such as Digg, City Search, and Six Apart began planning during the conference by demonstrating how they will implement Facebook...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
MS Plots iPhone Rival, Vista PR, as MobileMe Draws Flak
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60961
Apple has been boosting sales of Macs with its Mac OS X operating system -- seemingly at Microsoft's expense, as more PC users turn up their noses at Microsoft's Windows Vista. Apple also has had great success with its iPhone, but now that Apple is taking flak because of problems with its MobileMe service, an admiring Microsoft appears ready to go after some of Apple's revenue.
In a memo distributed to Microsoft employees Wednesday, CEO Steve Balmer said Apple is good at "providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience." As a result, he wrote, Microsoft will work with hardware vendors to make sure there are "absolutely no compromises."
Amid reports that Microsoft is planning a rival to the iPhone, Ballmer wrote that he wants Microsoft to emulate Apple by controlling all aspects of a product's design. Reportedly, Microsoft's iPhone challenger would be built around its struggling Zune media player using Windows Mobile 7.
In the memo, Ballmer acknowledged that changing the public's perception of Vista is a priority. He said the company will soon mount a campaign to "tell our story."
Meantime, Walt Mossberg, a well-known technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, criticized Apple's MobileMe subscription service in a rare swipe at Apple products. Many longtime users of the renamed .Mac service are upset because they haven't been able to access their e-mail. The $99-a-year service is meant to seamlessly synchronize (or push) data between iPhones, PCs and Macs.
MobileMe, Mossberg wrote, is both sluggish and buggy with Web pages loading slowly. In his tests, syncs between the PCs and Macs he used took 15 minutes. Apple says it's working on a fix.
He also found problems synchronizing with Microsoft's Outlook e-mail application. And he said that for changes to...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Ballmer Says Yahoo Out, Now It's Microsoft vs Google
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60959
Forget Yahoo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday at the company's annual meeting for financial analysts. Any plans for a merger are dead and "there's nothing under discussion between the two of us," Ballmer said. "It didn't work out; we're done."
He also told the analysts that "Yahoo for us was always a tactic, not a strategy," and he said the search business is now a "two-horse race" between Microsoft and Google. Microsoft will take the money it didn't spend on Yahoo and invest more in search technologies, he added.
"We're going to need to continue to invest until we get greater scale," Baller said. "I'm not going to say it's not a big bet. It is; I'm not going to say it's not risky. It is."
He said Microsoft didn't want to buy Yahoo "at the wrong price" and since the two parties didn't reach an agreement in the spring, there wasn't time to finish a regulatory review before a new president would take office.
"We're comfortable proceeding on our own," Ballmer said. "Does that mean that no one will ever talk to anybody again? I suspect the answer is no. That's a long time and it's a big world."
Ballmer shared with the analysts his vision of an Internet world focused on search.
"Everything in the world that can move to be delivered and embraced over an IP network, over the Internet, will be," Ballmer said. "Everything you read, everything you watch, everything you want to communicate, all of those experiences are going to happen over the Internet."
"We're going to have to innovate, we have to reinvent, but we also have to ante up," he added. "I think there are really only two companies that have capability and staying power -- Microsoft and Google. Despite the fact that...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Intel Unveils 'Smart' System-on-Chip Designs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60958
Intel has unveiled eight new Integrated Processor chips that the company claims will yield new levels of performance and energy efficiency versus traditional system-on-chip (SoC) designs.
Beyond targeting the company's traditional computing businesses, Intel intends to customize members of its new product line to fit specialty applications in the Mobile Internet Device (MID), consumer electronics and embedded markets, noted Doug Davis, vice president of Intel's digital enterprise group.
"As the number of Internet-connected devices reaches into the billions, performance expectations rise and device sizes shrink," Davis explained. "These products enable our customers to rethink their own innovation and system design."
Based on Intel's Pentium M processor, each "smart" SoC device joins an integrated memory controller hub with a variety of communications and embedded I/O controllers. And four of the new chips will feature Intel's QuickAssist Technology, which simplifies the use and deployment of security and packet accelerators in Intel-based PCs.
Additionally, several of Intel's new chip designs are based on the same blueprint, called Intel Architecture (IA), that the company has used as the basis for developing the processors that run the bulk of the Internet today.
"By designing more complex systems onto smaller chips, Intel will scale the performance, functionality and software compatibility of IA while controlling the overall power, cost and size requirements to better meet respective market needs," said Gadi Singer, vice president of Intel's Mobility Group. This will enable Intel to deliver "more highly integrated products ranging from industrial robotics and in-car infotainment systems to set-top boxes, MIDs and other devices."
In response to the growing need for complex integrated systems, Davis said Intel has created a shared layer of capabilities that integrates Atom cores, fabrics and interconnecting IP blocks. Having this additional layer riding on top of Intel's technology means that highly efficient --...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Google Offers Knol, a Wikipedia Copy with Attribution
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60957
Watch out Wikipedia. Google is targeting your space.
On Wednesday Google took the lid off a new product called Knol. The search-engine giant first announced it was testing the product in December. Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects.
"The Web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the Web. An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads: Millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge. Knol will encourage these people to contribute their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone," Google product manager Cedric Dupont and Google software engineer Michael McNally wrote on the corporate blog.
As Dupont and McNally explain it, the key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) to put a name or names behind content and opinions. Google expects there will be multiple knols on the same subject.
"With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call moderated collaboration," Dupont and McNally wrote. "With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!"
Knol includes community tools for interaction between readers and authors. People can submit comments, rate or write a review of a knol. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads from Google's AdSense program. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with a revenue share.
Google also announced an agreement with the New Yorker magazine...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
More Than 75 Percent of Bank Sites at Risk, Study Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60956
More than 75 percent of bank Web sites have at least one design flaw that could make customers vulnerable to cybercriminals after their money or even their identity, a University of Michigan study says.
Atul Prakash, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, said some banks may have taken steps to resolve these problems since the data was gathered, but overall he still sees a need for improvement.
"To our surprise, design flaws that could compromise security were widespread and included some of the largest banks in the country," Prakash said. "Our focus was on users who try to be careful, but unfortunately some bank sites make it hard for customers to make the right security decisions when doing online banking."
These design flaws aren't bugs that could be fixed with a patch. They stem from the flow and layout of these Web sites, according to the study. The flaws include placing log-in boxes and contact information on insecure Web pages and failing to keep users on the site they initially visited.
The flaws leave cracks in security that hackers could exploit to gain access to private information and accounts. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says computer intrusion, while relatively rare compared with financial crimes like mortgage fraud and check fraud, is a growing problem for banks and their customers.
A recent FDIC Technology Incident Report, compiled from suspicious activity reports banks file quarterly, lists 536 cases of computer intrusion, with an average loss per incident of $30,000. That adds up to a nearly $16 million loss in the second quarter of 2007. Computer intrusions increased 150 percent between the first quarter of 2007 and the second. In 80 percent of the cases, the source of the intrusion is unknown but it occurred during online banking, the report...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Microsoft Exec Who Led Yahoo Buyout Team To Leave
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60947
Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said Kevin Johnson, the executive in charge of its Windows and Web operations and an instrumental player in the company's failed $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc., is leaving the company.
After a short transition, Johnson will step into the role of chief executive officer at Juniper Networks Inc., a networking hardware maker, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The person asked not to be named because Juniper had not yet announced Johnson's appointment.
Johnson has served since 2005 as president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, which included the Windows operating system and Windows Live programs such as Web e-mail and instant messaging. The division also included online advertising, search and Microsoft's MSN sites.
Johnson, who joined Microsoft in 1992, has been the public face for the company's search and online advertising strategy, meant to help the company catch market leader Google Inc., since starting the job.
It was Johnson who laid out Microsoft's aggressive goals last November that included capturing 30 percent of U.S. search queries.
Over the last year, as it became clear that Microsoft's internal search and advertising efforts were not propelling the company forward fast enough, Johnson was at Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer's side while Microsoft attempted to buy Yahoo outright and, when that failed, to buy the Silicon Valley icon's search operations.
He also spearheaded the $6 billion acquisition of online advertising company aQuantive in 2007. Incorporating aQuantive has boosted Microsoft's Web ad revenue, but not enough to put the software maker in league with leader Google Inc.
"Whether it was his decision to leave, or whether it was based on recent events probably related to Yahoo and the online segment's last-quarter performance, I don't know," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst for the independent research group Directions on Microsoft.
Last week, Microsoft said its online...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
SanDisk: Vista Shortfalls Limit Use of SSDs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60933
SanDisk, a maker of Solid State Drives (SSD), said on Monday that Vista is not optimized for those kinds of drives, and suitable SSDs won't be available until late this year or next year. The SanDisk CEO admitted that his company didn't understand the limitations of Vista.
SSDs are currently available as options for the Apple MacBook Air and Toshiba Portege R500.
SandDisk's CEO, Eli Harari, spoke to the issue at their second quarter conference call and said that the design of Vista presents a challenge. "As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk," he said.
This is due to Vista's design. "The next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls," Mr. Harari continued. "Unfortunately, performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we'll start sampling end of this year, early next year."
Mr. Harari placed some of the blame on his own company and said: "... I'd say that we are now behind because we did not fully understand, frankly, the limitations in the Vista environment."
Yesterday, in a story that has a tie-in, Peter Burrows with BusinessWeek surmised that analysts have misinterpreted Apple's strategy announced during the July 21 Q3 earnings report. "It's a well-timed move, and a time-honored tactic by market leaders in tough times. If your competitors can't afford to match you on price, why not accept a lower margin for a time and load up on market share (or force them to incur losses)?" Mr. Burrows asked.
Some analysts believe that Apple was referring to a MacBook related product that would use more expensive components and trade market share and low...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Protect Your Computer from the Dangers of Summer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60924
Keeping your PC cool during the hot summer months should be the top priority for any conscientious computer owner. Heat and humidity are component killers, so it's important to take steps to keep your equipment safe from sweltering conditions.
If the temperature in your home is too hot for you, imagine what it's like inside a closed box filled with high-voltage electronics. Despite new energy-efficient components, there's a lot of heat generated by increased RAM, high-end video cards, speedy dual- and quad-core processors, high-wattage power supplies, internal storage devices and CD/DVD drives. Running together, in close quarters, the insides of your PC case can easily become an oven. Left unchecked, component failure is just a matter of time.
Home air conditioning does more than just keep users comfortable. Besides cooling the air, AC also helps to cut down on humidity, which can be even worse on electronics than heat alone. Condensation anywhere near your PC is a sign of trouble. Air that's too dry, as in the winter months, can also cause problems, in the form of static electricity. The trick is achieving the right balance.
Because your computer components are sealed inside a metal box, proper air flow is essential. Fans inside the case help pull cool air in and push hot air out. Make sure you have enough and that they are working properly. Fans are inexpensive, so if yours are old and tired, replace them. The bigger, the better and the more, the merrier.
Personally, I have a total of nine fans running inside my computer case. Three intake fans -- one in front, two on the side -- pull fresh air into the case, passing over my hard drives and motherboard. Two other fans direct heat away from the CPU, RAM and video card. The power supply contains two...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Apple Hints at Something New and 'Juicy' on the Horizon
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60918
While warning that its profit margin will fall in the coming quarter, alarming investors, Apple is indicating that it has something really juicy to introduce before the end of September.
The tease came Monday as Peter Oppenheimer, the Apple chief financial officer, explained why the company expected its gross profit margin to drop from 34.8 percent in the three months that ended in June to 30 percent in the current quarter. That caused a sharp drop in Apple's stock price in after-hours trading on Monday.
One reason for the narrower margins is a promotion that gives free iPods to students who buy new Macintosh computers. But another is what Oppenheimer called "a future product transition, which I can't discuss today."
Apple is widely expected to be getting ready to refresh its line of notebook computers, and there is some speculation that it may introduce a new kind of device that is smaller than a laptop but larger than an iPhone. In several ways, Apple executives hinted that this new product would compete aggressively on price with rival devices.
"We will deliver state-of-the-art new products that our competitors just aren't going to be able to match," Oppenheimer said during a conference call with analysts, responding to a question about the lower profit margin targets. And several times Tim Cook, the chief operating officer, outlined Apple's evolving pricing philosophy.
"One of the investments we make is to introduce new products that initially cost more because they deliver an entirely new level of value to the customer," Cook said. "Then we ride the cost curves down with value engineering and volume manufacturing, leaving us far ahead of our competitors. We have some of these types of investments in front of us that I can't discuss."
For years, Apple pursued a premium pricing strategy, reflecting its status as a niche...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
'Spam King' Escapes from Prison in Colorado
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60917
The man known as "The Spam King" walked away from a minimum-security federal prison Sunday in Florence, [Colorado], and was last seen in [the Denver suburb] Lakewood.
Edward "Eddie" Davidson, 35, was sentenced in April to serve 21 months in prison for his role in sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited fraudulent e-mails touting certain penny stocks as excellent investments. Davidson also was ordered to pay $714,139 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and to forfeit gold coins and other property he purchased with ill-gotten gains.
He'd been in the Florence, [Colorado] facility for about a month and a half when he escaped.
According to Lakewood police Tuesday, Davidson apparently escaped when his wife came to visit him Sunday in Florence. "He jumped in the car with his wife," said Will Cochenour of the Lakewood police Tuesday. "When they were leaving, he forced her in the car, brought them home and left after a change in clothing. He's still at large."
It was not clear Tuesday whether Davidson or his wife was driving the vehicle from Florence to Lakewood.
Davidson was last seen leaving the home on South Fig Street on Sunday afternoon in his wife's 2006 silver Toyota Sequoia.
U.S. Marshals are leading the search for Davidson, with the FBI, IRS and the Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force assisting. A warrant for Davidson was issued shortly after his escape.
Between 2002 and 2005, Davidson's Power Promoters spamming network promoted watches, perfumes and other products, U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said. Then he started concentrating on a Texas company's penny stock.
Eid and prosecutor Tim Neff said the e-mail messages Davidson and his subcontractors sent to hundreds of thousands of addresses contained false header information that concealed the actual sender.
The agreement that led to his guilty plea and 21-month sentence says Davidson, of Louisville,...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Yahoo CEO Remains Upbeat Despite Lackluster Quarter
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60915
With Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover bid off the table and his company's stock price down 20 percent during his 13-month reign as Yahoo's CEO, Jerry Yang has a message for his exasperated shareholders: Things aren't as bleak as they look.
"This company is doing just fine in a tough economy and a tough environment," Yang told The Associated Press in an interview late Tuesday. "We think there are a lot of good things to come still."
Yahoo Inc.'s second-quarter results didn't provide much reason for enthusiasm.
But at least they weren't as bad as many investors feared after Yahoo spent months sparring with Microsoft Corp. and dissident shareholder Carl Icahn while also trying to cope with a weakening U.S. economy that's make it tougher to sell online advertising -- the company's lifeblood.
"It was a 'rice-cracker' quarter," said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis. "It didn't taste great, but it wasn't totally horrible either."
Investors found enough to like to nudge Yahoo shares up 59 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $21.99 in Tuesday's extended trading after finishing at $21.40, down 27 cents, in the regular session.
The stock still remains slightly below where it stood last week before Internet search leader Google Inc. set off alarms about the state of the online ad market with second-quarter earnings that came in below analyst estimates.
Yahoo letdowns are far more common that the occasional stumble by Google.
The April-June period marks the ninth time in the past 10 quarters that Yahoo's profit has slipped from the previous year.
The company earned $131 million, or 9 cents per share, an 18 percent drop from $161 million, or 11 cents per share, last year.
Analysts had projected earnings of 11 cents per share in the most recent quarter, according to Thomson Financial.
Yahoo's financial erosion has dragged down its stock, leaving it exposed to Microsoft's unsolicited...
Fri, 25 Jul 08
Vodafone: A Bad Omen for Europe?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60911
When Finnish handset maker Nokia came in with better than expected quarterly results on July 17, the telecom sector was encouraged. Sales and shipments of Nokia's handsets were up. Just as important, a big part of the Finnish company's growth in the quarter came from Nokia Siemens Networks, its joint venture in telecom equipment with Siemens. Sales for the network business surged 18 percent in the quarter, to more than $6.34 billion. The market took that as an indication demand remained strong for mobile handsets, despite economic uncertainty, and telcos would still put money into building and upgrading wireless networks.
But that optimism evaporated on July 22, when Vodafone, the world's largest mobile-phone company, reduced its sales forecast. The company said organic growth was lower than the previous quarter, primarily due to a decline in customer spending in Spain, which it characterized as a difficult "macroeconomic and competitive environment."
Vodafone's news was seen as an ominous sign that telecom operators, which have thus far been shielded from the economic slowdown, are starting to feel the pinch. The fear is the slowdown in Spain will spread elsewhere in Europe and that telco operators will respond by cutting back orders of mobile handsets and networking equipment.
European telecom stocks tumbled in response. Vodafone's share price plunged 16 percent, the most in 20 years, dragging down Swedish telecom equipment vendor Ericsson, the world's largest wireless equipment maker, and three of Europe's biggest telcom operators. Ericsson slid 10 percent in Stockholm, Spain's Telefonica posted its biggest drop in six years, and Germany's Deutsche Telekom fell 6.9 percent. "Until today, we took the view that telecom operators, relative to many sectors, had a good position in terms of resilience, but this report has called that into question," says John Davies, a financial analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort....
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Prosecutor Says San Francisco System Set to Melt Down
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60930
A computer engineer who allegedly held San Francisco's computer system hostage was denied a reduction in his $5 million bond Wednesday after the prosecutor said the system had been rigged to melt down during routine maintenance.
Earlier this week, Terry Childs, 43, gave the disputed password to the system to Mayor Gavin Newsom in a jailhouse meeting arranged by his lawyer, The San Francisco Chronicle reported the mayor then gave the password to a team from Cisco Systems which had been working to open up the city's FiberWAN network.
However, the password did not work initially, prompting the mayor to call Childs for clarification. The Chronicle said Childs then gave the mayor missing protocols to go with the password and the city regained control of its system.
Childs has been charged with causing a loss of more than $200,000 and four counts of felony computer tampering. His bond was set at about five times the amount usually set for murder suspects after $11,000 in cash was found on him when he was arrested July 13, leading the district attorney to fear he planned to flee.
Prosecutor Conrad del Rosario told Superior Court Judge Lucy Kelly McCabe that Childs, a five-year veteran of the city's Technology Department, had put key program data in temporary memory files. They would have evaporated when the network was shut down during maintenance or a power failure. Experts were able to transfer the data to permanent files before a shutdown scheduled for last Saturday.
"He had a malicious intent to destroy the entire network," del Rosario said, noting that Childs did not give the mayor the password until after the scheduled shutdown. The prosecutor further noted that other systems Childs had access to are still not functioning properly.
He said the sheriff's department and the parks and...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Google Rumored Ready To Buy Digg for $200 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60929
Google is reportedly ready to purchase the Digg Web site for $200 million. The search giant could beef up its news service with Digg, where readers select and vote on stories from around the Web.
The rumors began about a week ago when images on Web sites suggested Google was testing voting methods.
Some reports say Google could complete the acquisition of Digg within two weeks, and Microsoft is said to be waiting in the wings if Google doesn't seal the deal. Digg has a three-year deal with Microsoft that would likely end if the search giant absorbs the popular news site.
"This rumor has been around for a couple of months. But this is the most concrete version of the rumor," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "Digg seems to be trying to create some sort of bidding for the company in order to get the highest return."
Digg describes itself as a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg claims to surface the best content as determined by user votes. Digg doesn't employ editors, but relies on its community to determine the most worthy headlines.
Diggers can push news, videos, images and podcasts. Once content is submitted, other people see it and vote on what they like best. Submissions that receive the most diggs are promoted to the site's front page for millions of visitors to read. There is also a social-networking aspect as users launch conversations around stories.
"Digg is trying to evolve from a social news site into a 'recommendation engine' which uses the power of the community to promote certain kinds of results higher or to use that crowd wisdom to identify what are the best or most relevant...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Court Overturns Child Online Protection Act -- Again
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60927
In a ruling the American Civil Liberties Union is calling a clear victory for free speech, a federal court on Tuesday once again upheld a ban on a law that would criminalize constitutionally protected speech on the Internet.
The ACLU challenged the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) as unconstitutional on behalf of a broad coalition of writers, artists and health educators who use the Internet to communicate constitutionally protected speech.
"For years, the government has been trying to thwart freedom of speech on the Internet, and for years the courts have been finding the attempts unconstitutional," said Chris Hansen, senior staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group. "The government has no more right to censor the Internet than it does books and magazines."
Previously, a federal district court and a federal appeals court found that the online censorship law violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. The Supreme Court upheld that decision, effectively banning enforcement of the law in June 2004, sending the case back to the district court to determine whether there had been any changes in technology that would affect the constitutionality of the statute.
Specifically, the court looked for technological changes, such as whether commercially available blocking software was still as effective as the banned law might be in blocking material deemed "harmful to minors." In March 2007, a district judge once again struck down COPA; the government again appealed, and on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the ban.
The ACLU's clients in the case include Salon Media Group, which runs the online magazine Salon.com; the Sexual Health Network, which operates sexualhealth.com; and Aaron Peckham, who owns UrbanDictionary.com. COPA would have imposed harsh criminal sanctions, including penalties of up to $50,000 per day and up to six months...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Microsoft Opens Xbox 360 To Outside Game Creators
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60926
Microsoft is opening the Xbox 360 to third-party software creators in a bold attempt to dramatically expand the number of games available on its platform. The goal is to give gaming aficionados far more choices than rivals Sony and Nintendo are offering.
Taking a page from the playbooks of social-networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook, which have long provided custom software from third-party developers, Microsoft said it will begin offering independently produced games to its Xbox Live community in advance of the holiday shopping season.
"Not only are we democratizing game development with Xbox LIVE Community Games later this year, but we're creating an opportunity for aspiring developers to start their careers on the world stage," said Chris Satchell, chief technology officer for Microsoft's interactive entertainment business group.
Microsoft also announced that the multiplayer components of its Games for Windows - Live service are now free. And it said its next revision to its Direct X application framework will let developers use the graphics card as a parallel processor.
According to Satchell, independently created games that successfully navigate a rigorous community peer-review system will be added to the Xbox Live Marketplace catalog for sale to consumers. "It is really a win for both developers and consumers because this will no doubt act as an incentive for game creators to continue to develop the best, most innovative games for Xbox 360," Satchell said.
Microsoft expects this autumn's launch of Xbox Live Community Games in the U.S., Canada and select European markets will double the size of the Xbox 360 video-game library to more than 1,000 titles. Moreover, the software giant is betting that accomplished gamers in search of new challenges will be enticed to try independently developed games, which are expected to be more inventive and quirky than those typically created...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
With Slydial, Breaking Up Is Not so Hard To Do
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60925
The old song had it right: Breaking up is hard to do. But a free new phone service called Slydial might make it easier to get through that and other awkward moments -- without actually having to talk to anyone.
Slydial lets you connect directly with another person's cell phone voice mail, bypassing the traditional ringing process that often results -- sometimes disastrously -- with someone picking up on the other end.
Users call (267) SLY-DIAL from either a cell phone or a landline, and are prompted to enter another person's cell phone number.
After playing a short advertisement -- unless users pay a subscription fee or 15 cents per call to skip ads -- Slydial puts callers directly into their target's voice mail.
Recipients should then get a voice mail notification, and sometimes they will see a caller's number show up as a missed call, too.
Gavin Macomber, co-founder of MobileSphere Ltd., the Boston-based communications company behind Slydial, said there were currently some technological limits. It can only be used in the U.S. right now, and generally won't work with prepaid cell phones.
Also, sly dialers must have the caller ID feature activated on their phones, which Macomber said is meant, in part, to prevent people from using it to harass people undetected.
Macomber thinks it can be useful not only in the dating scene, but also in the hectic business world.
"Everybody has gone through the scenario where they've called somebody and just hoped they got voice mail so they didn't have to have a conversation," he said.
Nora Rubinoff, 45, who runs an administrative support company, At Your Service Cincinnati Ltd., has found Slydial helpful both for business and personal situations. She has left reminder messages for people one of her clients intends to interview. And when her husband travels to a different time zone for...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Electronics Giants To Create Wireless HD Standard
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60916
Sony, Samsung and other consumer-electronics heavyweights are uniting to support a technology that could send high-definition video signals wirelessly from a single set-top box to screens around the home.
The consortium due to be announced Wednesday is an important development in the race to create a definitive way to replace tangles of video cables, but doesn't end it -- both Sony and Samsung also are supporting a competing technology.
In the new consortium, Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., along with Motorola Inc., Sharp Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., will develop an industry standard around technology from Amimon Ltd. of Israel called WHDI, for Wireless Home Digital Interface.
"If you have a TV in the home, that TV will be able to access any source in the home, whether it's a set-top box in the living room, or the PlayStation in the bedroom, or a DVD player in another bedroom. That's the message of WHDI," said Noam Geri, co-founder of Amimon.
Amimon is already selling chips that fulfill part of that promise, but the creation of a broad industry group makes it more likely that consumers will be able to buy WHDI-enabled devices from different manufacturers and have them all work together.
Geri expects TVs with Amimon's chips to reach stores next year, costing about $100 more than equivalent, non-wireless TVs.
Wireless streaming of high-definition video is a relatively tricky engineering problem that many companies are trying to tackle. It can be done with the fastest versions of Wi-Fi, a technology already in many homes, but that requires "compression," or reduction of the data rate, with picture quality degrading as a result. There's also a delay in transmission as chips on both ends of the link work to compress, then decompress the image.
That's prompted much research into radio technologies that are faster, requiring less compression. A leading...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
iPhone 3G Shortages Could Last for Weeks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60909
Last week's iPhone 3G launch appears to have been a success, with the device sold out in virtually all U.S. locations. Calls to local AT&T stores in the metropolitan Chicago area, for example, turned up no phones, and long wait lists. Reasons for the shortage range from Apple underestimating demand to a shortage of components from overseas suppliers.
An Apple fan site cited an AT&T memo to store managers noting that iPhone 3Gs will not be available for 10 to 14 days, while other reports indicated the iPhone 3G was sold out in all Apple stores with no new inventory expected for at least two weeks.
Some analysts questioned whether the shortages were real or artificially created to build buzz and further increase demand. But with shortages lasting weeks, carriers with competing products, such as the RIM Blackberry, the Samsung Instinct, and the LG Voyager, will likely step up marketing efforts.
More than one million iPhone 3Gs were sold during the initial weekend. Some stores reported a steady stream of sales as long as inventory held out. The device is in high demand as it provides features that the original lacked -- namely, GPS and high-speed 3G. The 3G capabilities, in particular, are pushing units out the door and may explain the shortages.
3G is a nearly ubiquitous phone transmission medium, built for international use. Some analysts believe many of the iPhone 3Gs sold in the U.S. are winging their way across the globe to countries such as China and Russia where the iPhone is not yet scheduled to be sold. Reports of Russian and Chinese sales indicate the devices are entering these countries somehow.
In addition to these black markets, the iPhone 3G is sold in 20 countries other than the U.S., further putting pressure on inventories. Apple will launch the iPhone...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Viacom Steps Up Pressure on Google in Lawsuit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60908
Media giant Viacom took its fight to the public this week seeking to outline battle lines in its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube's parent, Google. Viacom filed the lawsuit in March 2007 alleging that YouTube purposefully allowed Viacom's copyrighted content to be distributed on the site. The suit was filed after negotiations between Google and Viacom over licensing content fell apart.
Viacom's CEO Phillipe Dauman took jabs at his opponent at a San Francisco press conference. He expressed disappointment in Google's management of YouTube, citing numerous copyright violations still on the site months after negotiations with Viacom.
While some observers point to a problem in YouTube's architecture for weeding out and blocking protected content, others believe YouTube and Google were intentionally lax in keeping such Viacom plums as the Daily Show, South Park, and other TV shows. Google maintains it is working on better filtering software to remove copyright-protected videos.
Dauman said he thinks Google purposefully allowed the piracy to continue so YouTube would grow. Google did not step in to curtail the copyright infringements until YouTube dominated the market, Dauman said. YouTube has more than 70 million views per month.
In its suit Viacom asked for the release of YouTube user information to track how often its copyrights were violated. Both parties have since agreed to drop this requirement, even though a judge ruled that Google should comply. Some analysts point to this as a sign the companies may be seeking a settlement.
The lawsuit is causing a bleeding of cash -- Google's stock price dropped 12 percent on July 17, in part due to the costs of defending itself in the Viacom suit. Analysts estimate the lawsuit has cost Google tens of millions of dollars and it threatens the viability of YouTube, which is predicting it will fall short of...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Big Fight, Little Fallout After Icahn Battles
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60897
Billionaire Carl Icahn may use the three board seats at Yahoo Inc. that he added to his collection on Monday to do ... not much.
The colorful corporate raider, who has been locked in a public feud with Yahoo over its rejection of Microsoft Corp.'s takeover attempt, spent more than $1.5 billion to amass a 5 percent stake in Yahoo and snag the board seats. But without the support of all-important institutional investors, his impact after winning similar fights has been muted.
"Icahn's strategy is get in, make money and get out," said Thomas Lys, a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management who teaches about mergers and acquisitions.
The 72-year-old Wall Street veteran, whose movement to amass shares has been known to make some executives sweat, sits on at least seven boards and has hand-picked surrogates serving on many others, according to regulatory filings.
Many of those seats -- like the two he picked up this spring for his nominees on Motorola Inc.'s board -- were acquired after Icahn locked horns with executives during expensive and public proxy battles.
But so far, his impact on Motorola has been minimal.
The Schaumburg, Ill.-based cell phone maker agreed to get Icahn's input on the planned separation of its mobile devices operations into a freestanding company and the ongoing search for the division's chief executive.
In exchange, Icahn agreed not to solicit proxies at the company's annual meeting and to dismiss litigation he filed against the company.
Critics say Icahn can be little more than a distraction, especially for troubled companies like Motorola that are already in the midst of a massive turnaround.
"Motorola is changing itself at a DNA level and when it finishes over the next year or so, it's going to be a very different company," said Jeff Kagan, an Atlanta-based independent telecommunications industry analyst. "And instead...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Scholars Plan To Reunite Ancient Bible -- Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60896
The oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the world, is being made whole again -- online.
The British Library says the full text of the Codex Sinaiticus will be available to Web users by next July, digitally reconnecting parts that are held in Britain, Russia, Germany and a monastery in Egypt's Sinai Desert.
A preview of the Codex, which also has some parts of the Old Testament, will hit the Web on Thursday -- the Book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark.
"Only a few people have ever had the opportunity to see more than a couple of pages of the (Codex)," said Scot McKendrick, the British Library's head of Western manuscripts. The Web site will give everyone access to a "unique treasure," he said.
Discovered at the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai by German Bible scholar Constantine Tischendorf in the mid-19th century, much of the Codex eventually wound up in Russia -- just how exactly the British Library won't say, citing lingering sensitivity over the circumstances surrounding its removal from the monastery.
The British Library bought 347 pages from Soviet authorities in 1933. Forty-three pages are at the University Library in Leipzig, Germany, and six fragments are at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. And in 1975, monks stumbled on 12 more pages and 40 fragments stashed in a hidden room at the monastery.
Biblical scholars are thrilled at the news that the Codex Sinaiticus -- divided since Tischendorf's trip to the monastery in 1844 -- is finally being put back together, albeit virtually.
In the past, anyone wishing to examine the document first hand would have had to approach the British Library "on bended knee," said Christopher Tuckett, a professor of New Testament studies at Oxford University.
"To...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
Brocade Deals for Foundry Networks in Cisco Salvo
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60892
Brocade Communications Systems Inc., dominant in an obscure corner of the data storage market, wants a piece of a bigger pie: Cisco Systems Inc.'s cash cow business of networking equipment that shuttles Internet traffic.
San Jose-based Brocade said Monday it has agreed to pay $3 billion to acquire one of Cisco's much-smaller competitors, Foundry Networks Inc., to try and make that happen.
The proposed acquisition would meld two companies with presence deep in the data center and pose a direct challenge to Cisco, which at $29 billion in annual sales is the world's leader in Internet networking equipment.
Surging Internet traffic, especially in bandwidth-hogging video, has driven intense demand for the routers and switches that direct Internet traffic, Cisco's home turf. That's also lifted the fortunes of Cisco's smaller rivals, including Santa Clara-based Foundry Networks, which specializes in high-end networking gear, making them attractive takeover targets.
Brocade wants Foundry Networks because Brocade's primary business -- it's dominant in a type of switch that connects servers to data storage machines -- is under pressure. Data centers are changing, and networking companies are eyeing acquisitions or expensive R&D efforts to come up with technologies that make the servers, storage and related equipment more robust and easier to manage.
The acquisition promises to make Brocade a more well-rounded competitor to Cisco, but isn't likely to substantially dent Cisco's dominance because Foundry Networks, with $607 million in sales last year, is considered a niche player.
Foundry owned just 2 percent of the market for Ethernet switches in 2007, while Cisco had 71 percent, a huge lead in supplying essential networking gear, according to data from the Dell'Oro Group research firm.
Alan Weckel, a senior analyst with Dell'Oro, said competitive pressures probably drove Brocade into pursuing Foundry Networks, since Cisco is pushing a convergence of technologies that threatened Brocade's business.
Brocade specializes in...
Thu, 24 Jul 08
With New Technology, Virtual Meetings Finally Get Real
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60891
Jill Smart, an Accenture executive, was skeptical the first time she stepped into the consulting firm's new videoconferencing room in Chicago for a meeting with a group of colleagues in London. But the videoconferencing technology, known as telepresence, delivered an experience so lifelike, Smart recalled, that "10 minutes into it you forget you are not in the room with them."
The technology consulting firm has installed 13 of the high-end videoconferencing rooms at its offices around the world and plans to have another 22 operating before the end of the year. In May alone, Accenture figures its consultants used virtual meetings to avoid 240 international trips and 120 domestic flights, for annualized savings of millions of dollars and countless hours of wearying travel for its workers.
As travel costs rise and airlines cut back service, companies large and small, are rethinking the face-to-face meeting -- and business travel as well. At the same time, the technology has matured to the stage where it is often practical, affordable and more productive to move bits instead of bodies.
The emerging trend, analysts say, goes well beyond a reaction to rising travel costs and a weakening economy this year.
"These technology tools are going to change the way corporations think about travel and work in the long run," said Claire Schooley, an analyst at Forrester Research.
No single technological breakthrough explains the progress, but rather a series of step-by-step advances -- and steady investment -- in telecommunications networks, software and computer processing.
The results can be seen not only in the expensive new telepresence systems like those from Cisco Systems or Hewlett-Packard, but also in a host of more mainstream collaboration technologies -- Web conferencing, online document sharing, wikis, group instant messaging and Internet telephony. The audio and desktop presentations in Web-based meetings, for example, are now more...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
DNS Security Flaw Leaked Before Patches Applied
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60907
A major flaw in the Internet infrastructure was leaked to the public Monday before many IT directors had the chance to apply security patches. The flaw was discovered weeks ago by Dan Kaminsky, a security expert at IOActive, who has worked with industry leading software developers investigating Internet vulnerabilities.
The potential breech is in the current implementation of the Domain Name System for Web servers. DNS is essentially a lookup system for Web servers: names of domains, such as newsfactor.com, are translated by DNS servers to static IP addresses, essentially the true location of the site.
A flaw in the DNS caching of incoming requests makes it susceptible to malicious misdirection of Web traffic. If a DNS server does not have an IP address for a requested domain, it asks for this information from another DNS server.
If the clueless DNS server's cache is fooled by malicious information, the user requesting the domain of a legitimate site can be redirected to a spoofed IP address. For example, if a DNS server is fooled into directing legitimate traffic from www.yourbanksite.com to a rogue site, every user hitting the legitimate site would be redirected to the rogue site.
A patch for the flaw was released two weeks ago to corporate and institutional users, but it's unclear how many servers have been fixed and tested. The patch was issued without detailed explanation, but with a strong recommendation to apply it to avoid security breaches. The IOActive Web site includes a link for testing the effectiveness of the patch.
Speculation circulated around the Internet about what, exactly, Kaminsky discovered. The security researcher was due to make his finding public at the Black Hat hacker's convention in Las Vegas on Aug. 2-7. Kaminsky felt that would give DNS server operators plenty of time to fix...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
MySpace Will Support OpenID Log-Ins Between Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60906
MySpace announced this week it will support the OpenID initiative, which allows users to move identities from one Web platform to another. This avoids multiple log-ins and manual updates of information across applications. Users logged into MySpace should be able to transparently access other sites without a separate log-in.
The ID is portable to any OpenID-enabled site. Current members of the OpenID Foundation include Yahoo, Google, IBM, Microsoft and VeriSign, among others. The foundation boasts that more than 10,000 Web sites support the technology and nearly 350 URLs are OpenID-enabled.
MySpace rival Facebook does not currently support OpenID.
Founded in 2007, the foundation says OpenID is not just for everyday users tired of remembering and entering usernames and passwords, but also for online businesses. With security breaches a primary concern for Internet-based enterprises, OpenID reduces the amount of personal data stored in multiple locations. Eliminating tedious, multiple log-ins should make OpenID sites more attractive to users, the foundation says.
MySpace users can also carry over subsets of their data to other sites, such as media favorites, interests and on-line bios. Foundation members envision a Web experience that requires one log-in for users to move between sites seamlessly, and with their important data protected in one highly secure location. Ideally, photos, media, files and e-mail should travel along as well, blurring the line between Web sites and applications.
As with many technical innovations, there's always a catch. The OpenID "gotcha" appears in the form of OpenID providers and relayers. Many early OpenID supporters such as Yahoo provide log-ins for their customers. The catch comes when a user goes to another Web site. Unless that site has been programmed to accept the IDs, the OpenID is useless.
Developing sites that accept OpenIDs is far more work than...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Apple Stock Drops Despite Jump in 3Q Profit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60904
Shares of Apple Inc. fell sharply as investors focused more on the company's cautious guidance for the current quarter than on the blockbuster Macintosh and iPod sales during the previous three-month period.
Investors sent Apple shares down $12.60, 7.6 percent, to $153.69 in midday trading Tuesday.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple said it shipped more Macs in its fiscal third quarter than ever before -- 2.5 million, up 41 percent from a year ago, with desktop shipments growing faster than laptops.
That's a much steeper growth rate than the overall global PC market. Total computer shipments rose about 15 percent in the three months ended June 30, according to Framingham, Mass.-based research group IDC.
"The quarter was a home run," Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said in an interview.
Apple also said iPod unit sales jumped 12 percent, a strong showing despite last year's launch of the iPhone, which melds iPod features with those of a smart phone. Some analysts had wondered whether iPod sales would lag as consumers opted for fancier, but pricier, iPhones.
The company shipped 717,000 iPhones in the quarter and reiterated its goal to sell 10 million by the end of the fiscal year, including the cheaper, faster iPhone 3G that reached stores in 22 countries in early July.
In all, Apple earned $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per share, 11 cents ahead of Wall Street's expectations, according to a Thomson Financial survey of analysts.
Revenue jumped 38 percent to $7.46 billion, ahead of analysts' average view for $7.37 billion in sales.
Sales from Apple's retail stores, most of which are in the U.S., rose faster than revenue overall, despite economic turmoil wrought by the domestic mortgage and credit crises.
"The stock is plagued by high expectations," said Shaw Wu, an analyst for American Technology Research, in an interview. "Looking at the numbers by themselves, they are actually quite...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Sony Aims To Step Up Sales and Dethrone Nintendo
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60900
Nintendo's Wii may be in the lead, but Sony is looking to reach the 150 million sales mark for its PlayStation 3 video-game console within the next few years.
Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony's PS3 game-console division, told E3 convention attendees last week that sales of the original PlayStation reached 102 million units since 1994. The popular PlayStation 2, now in its ninth year on the market, has sold 140 million units. Hirai hopes the PS3 will outpace its predecessor in a similar time frame.
"It's not fun for me replicating the PS2 numbers. I've seen that movie already," he said. "I want to try to see if we can exceed the PS2 numbers after nine years, otherwise why are we in this business?"
Of course, Sony didn't have the Wii to contend with in the past. The game-console crown was Sony's to lose in the latest round of video-game hardware wars. Sony held the title for the past two consecutive generations, an impressive feat in the industry, according to Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch.
"Fairly late in the console cycle Sony is making some moves to try to reestablish its position," Gartenberg said. "It's not likely now that Sony will dominate the market as it did in past generations. At this point is a question of can Sony at least move into the market leader position? Certainly the last company Sony was expecting to deal with in that role was Nintendo."
Sony's admitted problem is that it made a heavy bet early on that Blu-ray drives would drive adoption of the PS3, and it didn't. Rather, the Blu-ray issue caused manufacturing delays and drove up the cost of the console out of the gate. What's more, Gartenberg said, Sony didn't have a great game title at launch. Now Sony has Metal...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
TiVo Viewers Can Buy Products from Amazon.com
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60899
TiVo and Amazon expanded their digital partnership Monday. The pioneers in digital video recorders and online retail have teamed up to give TiVo subscribers the ability to purchase products from Amazon.com on TV sets, using the TiVo remote control.
With the new Product Purchase feature, television advertisers will be able to market products sold through Amazon.com on any broadcast or cable network, or via any of TiVo's extensive interactive advertising features, the companies said.
TiVo launched the new service Monday by featuring products related to several high-profile shows, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Colbert Report, and Burn Notice.
Evan Young, director of broadband services for TiVo, said Product Purchase will add a new dimension to TV viewing. The partnership, he explained, lets viewers buy products related to their favorite TV shows or that they've seen in in TV ads without leaving their seats.
For example, if a guest on the Daily Show or Oprah promotes a new book, CD or DVD, viewers could purchase it on Amazon.com without missing a second of TV, whether the viewer is watching the show live or recorded. Interactive tags enhance traditional commercials and make them actionable, allowing consumers to get additional information and make purchases while automatically pausing a program.
"The viewer with an impulse can buy right away and no longer needs to remember to do so the next time they are at their PC," Young said. "Television advertisers and consumer-products companies are no longer limited to the traditional linear shopping channels that require live viewing for product merchandising and fulfillment -- if their product is seen or advertised on any TV show or network, and sold by Amazon.com, it can be merchandised to viewers through TiVo."
Consumers will also be able to...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Esquire Will Publish Scrolling Cover with Electronic Paper
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60898
Esquire magazine, a venerable men's magazine, will celebrate its 75th birthday this year by becoming the first print magazine to utilize electronic paper.
The technology, from Cambridge, Mass.-based E Ink, will allow words and images to scroll across the front cover of its October issue. The back of the cover will feature a double-page ad for the Flex car from the cover's sponsor, Ford.
David Granger, the magazine's editor-in-chief, said the cover will demonstrate that "the 21st century begins this fall." The magazine, which is known for the quality of its writing, will be devoted to exploring "ideas, people and issues" in this century.
Representatives from the magazine and its parent company, Hearst, contracted with E Ink last summer to create a version of its electronic-paper technology, a form of which is already used for e-book/e-newspaper products like Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader.
Hearst's manufacturing division and E Ink worked to address the challenges of mass manufacturing a cover for the magazine. Ford was brought into the project after it was underway.
But the 21st century issue will have a limited reach. The special cover will only be available on 100,000 issues to be offered at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and selected newsstands.
Andrew Frank, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, said E Ink is "one of those technologies that has been struggling" to get into the mainstream for quite a while, and that it "probably still has a long road" before it becomes widespread.
But, he added, the Esquire cover could point toward "a vision" of publishing and technology that begins to merge Web, print and video/TV. Frank indicated that print magazines could be a key portal for E Ink, since the industry "still maintains an outsized proportion of advertising spend" and the technology could be...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Comcast Pushed To Block Child-Porn Access
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60895
New York's attorney general notified Comcast Corp. on Monday that the state will take legal action if the company -- the nation's second-largest Internet service provider -- doesn't agree to eliminate access to child pornography.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants major Internet access providers to agree on steps to remove certain newsgroups that contain child pornography and purge their servers of Web sites that contain child porn.
New York has already reached such agreements with AT&T Inc., AOL, Verizon Communications Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc.
"Last week, Comcast joined with nearly the entire cable industry and 48 state attorneys general and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children to sign an unprecedented, and highly praised, industrywide agreement to fight child pornography," Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said. "Comcast has been working with the New York attorney general and we expect to become a signatory to his agreement as well."
Cuomo was not one of the 48 attorneys general to publicly support the efforts of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children because he said it was not as tough on online child pornography as his own code of conduct.
According to Cuomo's office, the agreement that Comcast and others in the cable industry agreed to has targeted Web sites with child pornography but had weak language when it came to eliminating newsgroups -- where illegal images can proliferate. Newsgroups are essentially online message boards in which users can post text and files in any of thousands of categories.
Cuomo was also concerned that the agreement Comcast has signed so far would not require the most thorough reporting to law enforcement.
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Customers Warned To Upgrade Smart-Card Chips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60881
A Dutch company warned corporate customers Monday to upgrade the security of a smart-card chip widely used to enter buildings and for public transportation after scientists won the right to publish its arithmetic code.
A spokesman for NXP Semiconductors said the compromised code of the smart cards may require "complex system modifications" of hardware, software and infrastructure, and could take years for customers to secure their systems.
A district court in Arnhem on Friday rejected NXP's request to block a research group from Radboud University Nijmegen from publishing the algorithm of the Mifare Classic chip that the scientists had decoded.
The research group, headed by Bart Jacobs, said it told NXP in March it would release its findings at a Spanish conference in October 2008, giving the chip-maker six months to react. NXP said publication of the algorithm would be irresponsible.
"Damage to NXP does not result from the publication of this article but from the production and marketing of a defective chip, which is NXP's responsibility," the court said.
NXP spokesman Pieter van Nuenen said the Mifare Classic is one of several chips the company makes and is about 10 years old, making it "not the most modern and secure one."
The Mifare Classic is used in over 1 billion cards, roughly 70 percent of "contactless" smart cards worldwide, NXP says on its Web site. It said the London subway and bus system invested 200 million pounds (US$400 million) in a system based on the chip.
Van Nuenen said it was "very unlikely" the company will appeal.
A company statement urged customers to take "the appropriate measures to upgrade the security" of their systems, whether by switching to a higher level security chip or to another system altogether.
"Different installations have different security requirements," it said, and it was impossible to protect all users before the scheduled publication...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Ousted AOL Chief Miller Could Guide Yahoo Strategy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60879
Given that he was ousted from the top job at a struggling AOL, Jonathan F. Miller might not seem a natural candidate to advise its Internet rival Yahoo Inc. But Miller was instrumental in transforming AOL into an advertising company, giving him expertise in a field Yahoo must master.
In his four-plus years as chairman and chief executive of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL LLC, Miller made key acquisitions, including Advertising.com for $435 million in 2004, along with a crucial decision to shed AOL's roots in dial-up Internet access and give away content once reserved for paying subscribers.
Miller, 51, could similarly offer Yahoo a strategic vision it needs to overcome its malaise. Activist investor Carl Icahn revealed Monday that Miller is a candidate for one of the two open board seats Icahn gets in a deal avoiding a battle for control of Yahoo.
"Jon understands the online medium as well as any executive I know," Ted Leonsis, one of Miller's top deputies, wrote in a 2006 blog posting just after Miller's firing. "And he helped save a company that I -- and millions of users and thousands of employees -- love."
Miller now is a partner at Velocity Interactive Group, a venture capital firm that focuses on digital media and communications.
He could bring Yahoo insights he developed running AOL, and perhaps he could even run Yahoo if pressures to oust CEO Jerry Yang continue.
AOL and Yahoo have much in common. Both have had happier times, but both are strong in graphical "display advertising" such as banner ads, a rare segment in which industry leader Google Inc. has been weak.
Miller also brings experience as an executive with Barry Diller's USA Interactive, now known as IAC/InterActiveCorp. Before becoming AOL's chairman and CEO, Miller spent two years at the helm of the unit that includes such properties...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
On-Demand Computing: Will It Ever Be Profitable?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60861
The Internet revolutionized the distribution of software -- perhaps a bit too much. The Web brought a new, cheaper method for getting software into the hands of users, but in doing so may have killed one of the best models in Silicon Valley history.
At the outset, the Internet ushered in an exciting new era of corporate software. On-demand computing -- its poster child Salesforce.com's grinning, rosy-cheeked Marc Benioff sporting his once trademark "No Software" button -- promised low-priced, convenient delivery of applications. Buyers would save on consultants, because vendors would host the applications and just rent access via the Web. No more obnoxious upgrade cycles, because software would be improved and tweaked daily. And if the software didn't live up to expectations? Just cancel. Businesses didn't invest in installing and configuring the software, so there was no lock-in.
On-demand represented a welcome break from the traditional way of doing things in the 1990s, when swaggering, elephant hunter-style salesmen would drive up in their gleaming BMWs to close massive orders in the waning days of the quarter. It was a time when representatives of Oracle, Siebel, Sybase, PeopleSoft, BEA Systems, or SAP would extol the latest enterprise software revolution, be it for management of inventory, supply chain, customer relationships, or some other area of business. Then there were the billions of dollars spent on consultants to make it all work together -- you couldn't just rip everything out and start over if it didn't. There was too much invested already, and chances are the alternatives weren't much better.
Funny thing about the Web, though. It's just as good at displacing revenue as it is in generating sources of it. Just ask the music industry or, ahem, print media. Think Robin Hood, taking riches from the elite and distributing them to everyone...
Wed, 23 Jul 08
Nokia CFO: Mobile Phone Market Expected To Grow
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60836
Nokia expects the mobile phone industry to weather any global economic slowdown because the devices have become such a part of people's lives, the company's finance chief said Thursday.
Nokia, the world's top cell phone maker, saw its shares rise 8 percent Thursday after posting better-than expected results for the second quarter and upgrading its forecast for the global handset market.
"With half a year visibility, we're able to say growth will be 10 percent or more," Nokia's Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson told The Associated Press.
The Espoo, Finland-based company had previously forecast volume growth of 10 percent for the mobile phone market.
Nokia's share price had plunged about 40 percent this year amid concerns the mobile industry would suffer as the credit crunch and inflation take their toll on economic growth and consumers' spending power. However, Simonson said demand for cell phones will remain high even as consumers face tough choices on how to spend their income.
"One of the highest priorities is to use their usable income to insure that they have communications," he said in a phone interview.
"Everybody's affected by the economic reality that we're aware of -- Nokia and its customers are no different," he added. "But we have an ability to play all markets. Some markets are growing strongly, some not so strongly but we aren't trapped to one market only. That's the beauty of it."
Nokia's net profit dropped 61 percent in the second quarter to EU1.10 billion (US$1.75 billion), down from EU2.82 billion in the same period or 2007. Sales rose 4 percent to EU13.2 billion (US$21.0 billion).
The drop in profit reflected a EU1.88 billion gain in the year-ago quarter from the formation of Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture with Germany's Siemens AG.
Excluding special items, Nokia said its profit rose 8 percent to EU1.37 billion (US$2.18 billion).
The...
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Hackers Post Software to Jailbreak Apple's iPhone 3G
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60884
According to an online community, the latest iPhone operating system 2.0 has been hacked less than a week after its release. The iPhone Dev Team, a portal for iPhone hacks, cracks and comments, announced in a blog entry that it had broken the code.
The group posted its PwnageTool 2.0.1 software on its site and noted that it works on the first-generation iPhone and iPod touch as well as the latest versions. Its "unofficial" blog reported that user response "brought down several of our servers, and some of them have yet to recover!"
One of the hackers noted, "We adapted our Pwnage technique to the 2.0 firmware, using a new, unreleased exploit that we'd been keeping to ourselves in the hope that Apple wouldn't patch it. This ... enable[s] you to run all the custom software and patches you please."
Demand to jailbreak the iPhones is huge, and non-Apple applications give customers utilities not otherwise available for the iPhone. Dozens of Internet sites host hundreds of these applications. Apple's official policy is that any hacking of the iPhone OS voids the warranty.
Earlier rumors suggested that the hack would also unlock the OS -- allowing users to connect the iPhone to carriers other than AT&T in the U.S. However, the blog clarified that the iPhone 3G is not unlocked because the new OS uses a different bootstrap loader. U.S. customers who don't want AT&T are out of luck, since Apple has an exclusive arrangement with AT&T through 2012.
However, there are reports that Russian Web sites are advertising unlocked iPhones at prices nearly triple those in the U.S. While the iPhone 3G has been released worldwide in more than 20 countries, Russia and China have not received allotments. Some Russian and Chinese dealers reportedly offer unlocking services so iPhone users can connect to local...
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Facebook Lawsuit Calls German Network a Copycat
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60882
Facebook filed an intellectual-property lawsuit in California Friday claiming that German social network StudiVZ copied its look, feel, features and services. With more than 10 million customers, StudiVZ is the most popular social network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Comparisons of Facebook and StudiVZ show striking similarities in layout, function and form, with only minor differences. Some users have commented it is just "Facebook in German." The Facebook lawsuit also says knockoffs of its site may not perform well, and thereby damage the image of the original.
A significant difference between StudiVZ and Facebook, however, is the segregation of various audiences in the StudiVZ realm: it offers separate sites for students and nonstudents.
Critics allege the social-networking sites are identical except for their color and language -- Facebook is blue, while StudiVZ is red.
Facebook showed interest in acquiring the German site last year, but it was scooped up by the German publishing group Georg von Holtzbrinck for more than $100 million in January 2007.
Marcus Riecke, CEO of StudiVZ, commented Monday, "Now that Facebook, despite trying hard, has not been successful in the German market, the company seeks to obstruct StudiVZ through court action. Their strategy appears to be: If you can't beat them, sue them."
This isn't Facebook's only overseas competitor -- China's Xiaonei, looking much like the U.S. company's site, even trumpets that it is the "Facebook of China." But with a rumored $400 million in its coffers, Facebook may have to think twice about pursuing them. Xianonei has even more subscribers and page views than StudiVZ.
"Look and feel" lawsuits have met with mixed results in the past in the U.S. In the 1980s Lotus successfully stopped competitors from copying the user interface of its spreadsheet program, while Apple fought Microsoft to a draw over the look and...
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Apple Struggling to Keep iPhone 3G in Stock at Stores
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60877
Apple appears to be having trouble keeping its new iPhone 3G in stock in the U.S., as reports suggest few phones were available in Apple's stores.
The problem appears to be exacerbated by the simultaneous launch of the iPhone 3G across international markets. Another factor driving demand is likely because exclusive carrier AT&T is offering subsidies on the iPhone 3G, making the price considerably less than when the first-generation iPhone launched.
An Apple fan site reported severe shortages in California and New York. It said only one store in California had stock on hand, and that was limited to the black 16GB model. It also said Apple's 5th Avenue store was the only outlet in New York with stock, limited to the white 16GB model.
The Web site for the Apple Retail Store has a tool to check iPhone availability at Apple's stores in the U.S., but it appeared to be disabled Monday and a notice advised visitors to return after 9 p.m. Reportedly, last week only 13 Apple stores had all three iPhone 3G models in stock, and on Sunday no stores had all the models. Those models are the black 8GB, the white 16GB, and the black 16GB versions.
AT&T stores began running out of stock just four days after the July 11 launch for the iPhone 3G. AT&T says the average wait time for the iPhone 3G is now about three weeks.
There were also problems on launch day, with AT&T reporting in-store iPhone 3G activations were stopped at about 9:30 a.m. Eastern time because of issues with the iTunes 7.7 software needed to configure the device. AT&T then recommended that customers activate the smartphones at home.
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch, noted that the July 11 launch started in New Zealand and was to continue on to California as stores...
Tue, 22 Jul 08
New iPhone-Jailbreak Software Released
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60876
The iPhone-Dev Team quietly released PwnageTool 2.0 over the weekend, allowing iPhone and iPhone 3G owners to hack, or "jailbreak," their handhelds and load applications that aren't available through Apple's App Store.
The utility also lets first-generation iPhone owners unlock their device for use on unapproved cell carrier networks.
According to the group, Pwnage 2.0 will also jailbreak the iPod touch.
Jailbreaking was popular among iPhone power users before the launch of the App Store and its Apple-sanctioned third-party applications.
While some users speculated that hacks for unauthorized apps wouldn't be necessary after the iTunes-based store opened, it appears that there is still interest in apps that fall outside of Apple's approval circle.
Since jailbreaking is not an Apple sanctioned process, there is a chance that it could damage your handheld, and in some cases Apple may refuse to provide warranty coverage for jailbroken devices.
Tue, 22 Jul 08
CherryPal Announces New 'Cloud Computer'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60875
CherryPal, which could be the name of a friendly summer treat, is actually a new cloud-based, low-cost, mini-desktop computer that could signal the end of consumers having to figure out operating systems.
In cloud computing, most or all of the applications and at least some of the storage is kept on the Internet, the cloud. One of the main advantages is that the user doesn't need to deal with updates, operating systems, or incompatible software. A downside is that the computer has little use if the network connection is down or unavailable.
Announced Monday, the Linux-based device uses a maximum of two watts of power -- about three percent of what most desktops consume. It has no moving parts and is priced at $249 without monitor or keyboard.
It comes with the open-source OpenOffice productivity suite, a branded media player and IM client, iTunes, the Firefox Web browser and 50GB of online storage. It is expected to become available later this month. The maker, Mountain View, Calif.-based CherryPal, described its first product as "the most energy-efficient and affordable computer available."
Doug Bell, an analyst with industry research firm IDC, said the price was "a little expensive, given the specs and capabilities." He noted that some of the limitations, such as 4GB of internal flash storage, could be overcome with an external drive through a USB port. He also described the Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and the two USB ports as "nice touches" for such a device.
Bell added that he expects to see more cloud computers for the consumer market because there's a demand. The ideal customer, Bell said, would be someone who wants a second PC at home, primarily as an Internet browser. He pointed out that there are some similar client-only machines in enterprises, but said a cloud computer for the...
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Web Networking Photos Come Back To Bite Defendants
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60872
Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labeled "Jail Bird."
In the age of the Internet, it might not be hard to guess what happened to those pictures: Someone posted them on the social networking site Facebook. And that offered remarkable evidence for Jay Sullivan, the prosecutor handling Lipton's drunken-driving case.
Sullivan used the pictures to paint Lipton as an unrepentant partier who lived it up while his victim recovered in the hospital. A judge agreed, calling the pictures depraved when sentencing Lipton to two years in prison.
Online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace have offered crime-solving help to detectives and become a resource for employers vetting job applicants. Now the sites are proving fruitful for prosecutors, who have used damaging Internet photos of defendants to cast doubt on their character during sentencing hearings and argue for harsher punishment.
"Social networking sites are just another way that people say things or do things that come back and haunt them," said Phil Malone, director of the cyberlaw clinic at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "The things that people say online or leave online are pretty permanent."
The pictures, when shown at sentencing, not only embarrass defendants but also can make it harder for them to convince a judge that they're remorseful or that their drunken behavior was an aberration. (Of course, the sites are also valuable for defense lawyers looking to dig up dirt to undercut the credibility of a star prosecution witness.)
Prosecutors do not appear to be scouring networking sites while preparing for every sentencing, even though telling photos of criminal defendants are sometimes...
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Websense Gets High Marks for Data Protection
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60870
San Diego-based Websense Inc. was deemed a front-runner in the data leak prevention market by top-tier industry research firm Forrester Research. In its second quarter 2008 report on DLP released this month, Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester ranked Websense and Reconnex Corp. of Mountain View highest across 74 criteria, including market presence and product offerings.
Websense, with corporate headquarters in Sorrento Valley, is an integrated Web, messaging and data protection company. It employs 1,200 workers.
Websense captured a lead in the market for its balance of product capabilities and solid marketing, said Forrester Senior Analyst Thomas Raschke.
Stephen Brunetto, product manager for Websense, said many chief technology officers use Forrester reports as key sources for buying and decision-making.
"Customers use it to find out who the big players are," said Brunetto. "It is a very positive step for us to be named a leader in this report."
Leo Cole, vice president of marketing for Websense, said research in the report shows that preventing data loss is an integral part of corporate security strategies and broader information management initiatives.
During the last 18 months, few technology areas in security and risk management have seen as much level of attention as data leak prevention, according to Forrester.
Websense plans to release an updated software solution in the third quarter. The new version of Websense's Data Security Suite will protect data in motion (sensitive information sent over the Internet), data at rest (information on servers, hard drives and laptops) and now data while in use.
The Forrester report conducted product evaluations in January and interviewed 12 vendors and more than 30 customers, including Code Green Networks Inc. of Sunnyvale, McAfee Inc. of Santa Clara and Verdasys Inc. of Waltham, Wash.
Websense clients include Sallie Mae, Altura Credit Union in Riverside and San Diego-based Intuit Inc.
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Cross-Border Data Fees Facing EU Pressure
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60866
Iayn Dobson, a computer technician from a suburb of Manchester, downloaded a 60-minute episode of the U.S. television show Prison Break last September using a 3G network and mobile data card. Wireless data are expensive in Europe, but Dobson's mistake was making the download while on vacation in Portugal.
That became clear when his monthly bill arrived from Yes Telecom, a subsidiary of Vodafone, the largest European mobile operator: pound(s)31,000, or about $61,000 -- most of it for international data-roaming charges from the video download.
"Mr. Dobson knew he had downloaded a lot of data but thought this went beyond the pale," said Danielle Mestraud, Dobson's lawyer at Farleys Solicitors in Manchester, where Yes Telecom is based. "What he felt was unfair was that at no point during the download could he determine how much he was paying. The system was simply opaque."
Dobson's case may be an exception, but incidents of similar high billing are prompting European lawmakers this year to pursue limits on the price of cross-border mobile data. A bill limiting roaming charges for short text messages will be considered this autumn,
which could be expanded to include large-scale data downloads made
by unwitting consumers like Dobson.
Given the attention that European policy makers have paid to the issue, some analysts were surprised that Viviane Reding, the European Union telecommunications commissioner, did not include price limits on data-roaming charges in a recent plan to limit cross-border fees for text messaging. Both she and the European Regulators Group, the advisory panel of the 27 EU national telecom regulators, said they wanted to give mobile operators a few more weeks to voluntarily bring down the charges before pursuing regulation.
Roaming fees for data have fallen by an average of 36 percent in the European Union over the past year, according to the European Commission, the...
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Yahoo Yields Three Board Seats to Carl Icahn
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60863
Yahoo Inc. is relinquishing three seats on its board of directors to activist investor Carl Icahn, ending a battle for control of the Internet company while still leaving the door open for a possible sale to Microsoft Corp.
The truce announced Monday gives Yahoo a reprieve from two months of bickering with Icahn, who had been spearheading a shareholder rebellion aimed at replacing the company's entire board in retaliation for its rejection of Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover bid in early May.
The showdown had been scheduled to culminate in a shareholder vote at Yahoo's Aug. 1 annual meeting.
But the compromise doesn't necessarily settle Yahoo's fate, which has been unclear since Microsoft made its first unsolicited offer in January.
Icahn, who owns a five percent stake in Yahoo, emphasized he still believes a sale of all or part of Yahoo may still be the best way for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company to lift its sagging stock price. Yahoo's current board already has said it remains open to reviving sales negotiations with Microsoft after repeatedly rejecting a series of proposals from the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker.
Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Yahoo's expanded board may include a possible successor to Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang, whom Icahn had threatened to fire if his attempted coup had been successful.
Besides taking a board seat himself, Icahn will be able to recommend two other directors.
To fill those spots, Icahn will choose from the eight men he had already nominated and one new candidate -- Jonathan Miller, the former CEO of Yahoo rival AOL. Miller is the kind of seasoned CEO that Icahn envisioned for Yahoo.
Eight of Yahoo's nine current directors, including Yang, will fill the remaining seats. Robert Kotick, a Yahoo director for the past five years, will surrender his seat as part of the...
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Time Warner Not Finding a Buyer That Wants AOL
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60849
Amid all the maneuvering over the fate of Yahoo, Time Warner is again exploring whether it can persuade either Microsoft or Yahoo to buy its AOL unit.
There have been on-again, off-again deal talks among the three companies all year. And in recent days, Time Warner has signaled a renewed interest in a possible transaction, according to executives at all three companies who have been briefed on the discussions.
Both Microsoft and Yahoo continue to listen to ideas from Time Warner, the executives said, but neither company appeared to be especially interested at this point.
Microsoft and Yahoo seem to be focused on their talks with each other, which have run hot and cold since Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo. On Aug. 1, Yahoo shareholders will have the chance to vote on a slate of directors proposed by the activist investor Carl Icahn, who would like to replace Yahoo's management and sell the company, or parts of it, to Microsoft.
Richard Greenfield, an analyst who covers Time Warner for Pali Capital, said it seemed unlikely that any AOL deal would precede the Yahoo shareholder vote.
"I don't see why anyone would make a move now with all the pieces on the chessboard where they are," he said.
He added that Time Warner was in a difficult spot because the value of AOL was declining. Its main business of selling graphical display ads is under pricing pressure. And its brand has such a "toxic" connotation with consumers, Greenfield says, that the company does not use the AOL name when it starts new Web sites.
But Yahoo and Microsoft also face significant problems. "I'm not sure a combination of any of them solves it," he said.
Tue, 22 Jul 08
UK, EU Clamping Down on Bogus-Ringtone Sellers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60840
Misleading Web sites that trick kids into signing up for expensive mobile phone contracts by offering "free" ringtones are facing a crackdown.
Watchdogs found nine out of 10 UK sites offering phone downloads such as tones and pictures were breaking consumer laws.
They are now being warned they face fines and could be shut down if they fail to clean up their act.
Many target kids and teens by offering a free ringtone without making it clear they were agreeing to pay a monthly fee for more extras.
In many cases, the youngsters do not realize that they have signed up to a premium-rate service until a huge bill arrives -- which parents often end up having to pay.
EU trading chiefs are launching the clampdown across 27 countries, not all of them in the EU, after receiving hundreds of complaints.
In the UK alone, trading officers looked at 43 Web sites and found 39 had broken consumer rules.
Some deliberately made offers and prices unclear by not including tax in the advertised cost or hiding that customers were agreeing to a monthly subscription.
Some did not give any contact details for those wanting out of the contract or buried key information in hard-to-find, very small print.
In all, the EU checked more than 500 Web sites in a four-day sweep.
EU consumer commissioner Meglena Kuneva said: "There will be Europe-wide enforcement action to track down each of these traders.
"But we need to get a clear message out, particularly to teenagers and children -- be on your guard.
"It's all about the small print."
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Russian Officials Told To Learn To Use Computers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60837
Russia's new 42-year-old president showed frustration with government officials who do not know how to use a computer and warned Thursday that they could soon be out of a job.
"They either should learn or, as they say, goodbye," President Dmitry Medvedev said. "We don't hire people who can't read and write. Computer literacy today is the same."
Since taking office in May, Medvedev has made it his mission to modernize Russia and fight pervasive corruption.
He said Thursday that, if the government carried out more of its work online, it would increase transparency and make corruption more difficult to hide.
But Medvedev said there had been no real progress toward putting documents, government purchase orders or the results of government-funded research online, despite years of talk about establishing an "electronic government." He blamed the foot-dragging on poor computer skills.
"Civil servants who don't have elementary computer skills cannot work effectively," he said during a nationally televised meeting with federal and regional officials in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk.
Computer literacy should be part of job evaluations, Medvedev said.
For the government's part, he said, it should help increase Internet access and possibly compensate students for their Internet use.
Medvedev often makes a point of noting his use of the Internet. In an interview with the magazine Itogi before his election in March, he said he even watches the television news online.
Internet penetration in Russia is among the lowest in Europe, with only 12 percent of people age 15 or older online, according to a 2007 study by Internet research company comScore.
But Russia also has the fastest growing Internet population in Europe, the study showed.
Tue, 22 Jul 08
Security Check: Don't Give Away Data with Your Old PCs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60050
You've read the headlines about PCs and laptops with sensitive information falling into the wrong hands -- and the aftermath of the data breach.
Symantec recently conducted a study and discovered one root of the problem -- PCs and laptops that aren't properly cleaned before they are donated or disposed of.
Symantec looked into the types of data being left behind on used computers donated to Goodwill. The firm recovered a wealth of confidential and/or sensitive business information from several computers, such as invoices, inventory lists, bank account records, a corporate organizational chart with name and titles, and even business e-mails.
Here's the rub: When files are deleted from a computer disk by the operating system, the content of the files is not erased. The operating system only deletes references to the files on the hard drive. The contents of these deleted files continue to be stored on the disk and can be easily restored with data-recovery utilities.
"If you want to maintain a secure IT environment and protect your company's digital assets, you need a system that properly disposes of computer assets," said Kevin Murray, director of product marketing at Symantec. "It's not just a matter of calling a computer-disposal firm or donating the computer to Goodwill. You need to find certified and tested solutions that completely wipe all data from the hardware device."
The very first step in properly disposing of a computer is to remove it from the network. Getting rid of active connections is the key, Murray said, because you want to make sure the computer stops drawing items from the network and stop mapping to the network.
Next, be sure to make a copy of pertinent information. Before donating a computer, go over the information not already on a network. Often, employees save drafts of documents they are working...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Dell Roars Back as Global PC Shipments Lead Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60858
Nearly a year and a half after the return of Michael Dell to the helm of the company he founded, the PC maker finally appears to be on the verge of making a comeback. According to Gartner, Dell's worldwide PC shipments increasing a robust 21.9 percent in the second quarter, fueled by the company's ambitious expansion into retail and other indirect channels.
Another recent PC shipment report from IDC also indicates that Dell's global operations are firing on all cylinders. Dell's growth outpaced the market in all regions, particularly in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, noted Loren Loverde, IDC's PC tracker. The company also continued to see double-digit growth in its core U.S. market, she said.
"Dell's aggressive channel partner program and retail expansion should help drive volume going forward," Loverde said. "On the retail front, Dell recently launched a fleet of service centers within Wal-Mart stores to compete with the likes of Best Buy's Geek Squad."
Dell's share of the global market rose to 15.6 percent in the second quarter -- up from 14.8 percent one year earlier, noted Mita Kitagawa, a principal analyst at Gartner. The company also achieved more than 40 percent year-over-year growth with respect to its global mobile shipments in the last two quarters, she said.
Although Hewlett Packard continues to hang on to the top PC sales position globally, its latest 18.1 percent market share is little changed from what HP held in the same quarter last year. By contrast, Michael Dell told financial analysts at the end of May that his company has been growing "faster than the industry worldwide in all major product categories and regions, and it has been three years since we have accomplished this."
Clearly, Dell is once again breathing down HP's neck...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
San Francisco System Lockout Called 'Misunderstanding'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60856
The lawyer representing an engineer who allegedly locked up San Francisco's computer system said Friday that he has been willing to reveal the password all along.
Terry Childs, 43, has been held on $5 million bond and pleaded not guilty Thursday to four counts of tampering with a computer network.
Erin Crane, Childs' court-appointed lawyer, called the case a big misunderstanding and said Childs has "been willing to hand over the password since Tuesday." He said negotiations are ongoing with city officials.
That was news to officials in the city's IT department, who told the San Francisco Chronicle they did not know of any offer to turn over the password. A spokesperson for District Attorney Kamala Harris would not comment on any talks.
The city's IT department has been trying to regain control of the network, which handles everything from the mayor's e-mail to San Francisco's electronic court records. All IT administrators were denied access.
Estimates were that, if necessary, the network could be rebuilt from scratch in six to eight weeks. Childs could be liable for the costs.
Officials searched Childs' car and home in Pittsburg, concerned that he could have given the access code to an accomplice to destroy sensitive documents. However, no evidence of a collaborator was found.
Childs was part of a team that built the city's computer system and the trouble reportedly started June 20 when he photographed the new head of security for the IT department after she began an audit of access to the system. She reportedly believed Childs was reading supervisors' e-mails about his conduct. On July 9, Childs was ordered to leave work for alleged insubordination.
The security director reportedly became so concerned about Childs' behavior that she locked herself in her office and called authorities, leading to his arrest.
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Oops, AT&T Did It Again: Posts, Pulls Free Wi-Fi Offer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60855
Oops, again. AT&T once more announced free hotspot access for iPhone owners early Friday on its Web site, but then quickly removed the posting. The exclusive carrier for Apple's iPhone made a similar blunder in May.
The now-removed notice reportedly read, "AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter, which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network with more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks. Now users can relax and access music, e-mail, and Web browsing services with their favorite blend in hand from the comfort of their favorite location."
AT&T confirmed that the notice was posted in error and removed. A spokesperson said the company does intend to offer the service in the future.
Starbucks has announced plans to close 600 stores nationwide, so AT&T's figure of 17,000 hotspots could be a bit high. Besides Starbucks, the company said the hotspots include more than 8,000 restaurants, 31 hotels, 12 airports and 18 convention centers.
In May, the company reportedly backed off its announcement after discovering that anyone could get free access by using the iPhone's Safari browser.
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Congressman Wants Opt-In Rule for Web Tracking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60854
The chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet said he thinks online monitoring services working on behalf of the advertising community should be required to obtain clear approval before tracking the online activities of individuals.
There are notable differences between the typical data gathering that individual Web sites conduct and those deploying deep-packet technologies in broadband networks, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) noted during a hearing on the impact of deep-packet technologies on consumers, Internet service providers, and the Internet.
"First, there is a distinction in the detail, type and amount of data collected," Markey said. "As opposed to individual Web sites that know certain information about visitors to its Web sites and affiliates, deep-packet inspection technologies can indicate every Web site a user visits and much more about a person's Web use," he said.
Markey, whose subcommittee has direct jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission and providers of telecommunication services, noted that deep-packet technologies can used not only to target advertising based on a user's Web habits, but also to manage traffic on a network, detect network threats, and discover the presence of copyrighted or illegal material.
"As a result, these technologies raise not only significant privacy concerns but also highlight broader policy questions, including how they impact the evolution of the Internet itself and its future prospects for driving innovation and fostering competition and job creation," Markey said.
During this month's hearing, Markey and other subcommittee members grilled NebuAd CEO Robert Dykes about his company's Web monitoring service. Though Dykes said his company's technology does not gather personal information about individuals and translates the IP addresses it gathers into anonymous identifiers, committee members expressed concern that the electronic profiling of any individual's online activities is an invasion of privacy.
In particular, Dykes did not...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Nintendo Leads in Sales of Video-Game Consoles
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60853
In the wake of the big E3 trade show in Los Angeles, sales reports show the Nintendo Wii is the leading video-game console in the U.S. this year.
According to the NPD Group, a market-research firm, Wii sales in the U.S. in June brought the total for the year to 10.9 million. This news must have been particularly disappointing to Microsoft, whose executives declared at E3 that the Xbox 360 would be the final winner in the console wars. Later, Vice President Shane Kim told news media that the declaration only referred to the Xbox 360 versus Sony's PlayStation 3.
In May, Microsoft said Xbox 360 sales were 10 million for the year, ahead of the others, but the most recent numbers show the Wii is doing better month by month.
In June, the NPD figures show that Nintendo sold more than 666,000 Wii consoles in the U.S., plus 783,000 DS portable gaming devices. The DS was the top-selling game system in the U.S., with about 20.8 million units sold since its release. About 405,000 PS3s and more than 219,000 Xbox 360s were sold in June.
Industry sales overall climbed 53 percent from the same time last year, according to NPD, from $1.1 billion to $1.69 billion. Sales of games were up 61 percent, from $542 million to $872 million.
Nintendo is similarly leading the pack in games. Six of the top 10 best-selling games in June were designed for Nintendo machines, including Guitar Hero on Tour for the DS.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for the PS3 was the top-selling game in June, with about three-quarters of a million units sold, excluding copies bundled with the machine. The Wii Fit exercise game, which uses a balance-board peripheral, was in fourth place.
Speaking of guitars, Nintendo is hoping its...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
SCO To Pay Novell $2.5M in Suit Over Tech Licensing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60852
The SCO Group Inc. will have to pay Novell Corp. more than $2.5 million in a technology-licensing dispute, but that's far less than the nearly $20 million to which Novell had said it was entitled.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball in Salt Lake City this week said Novell should get $2,547,817 from Lindon-based SCO, which is in bankruptcy.
The case began as a "slander of title" lawsuit against Novell involving questions over ownership of the Unix operating system and UnixWare software copyrights. But Kimball ruled last year that Novell was the owner. Novell was seeking revenues that SCO received
from Microsoft Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and other Fortune 1000 companies when SCO licensed certain Unix technology to them.
The Novell-SCO dispute was an offshoot of another SCO lawsuit, against International Business Machines Corp., filed in 2003. SCO accused IBM of improperly placing proprietary Unix code into Linux, an open-source operating system that competed with Unix.
SCO filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware last September. Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners LP has said it wants to negotiate to buy SCO's assets.
SCO's lawsuit against IBM has been stayed because of the bankruptcy.
Kimball ruled Wednesday that Novell was entitled to one-third of more than $7.6 million paid by Sun under its agreement with SCO. He concluded that SCO was entitled to enter into certain licensing-related agreements but was not authorized to enter into the Sun agreement.
SCO issued a statement saying it is reviewing Kimball's ruling and assessing its next steps.
"This ruling is an important step in our ability to pursue the appeals to try to get all of our claims heard by a jury as soon as possible," SCO said. "We are pleased, however, that the court agreed that Novell is not entitled to anywhere near the more than $20 million it was seeking.
The court ruled...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
EU Regulators Expand Intel Antitrust Case
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60847
European Union regulators have expanded their antitrust case against Intel Corp., claiming that the world's largest semiconductor maker has deliberately squeezed rival AMD out of the chip market.
The European Commission said Thursday that it has added three new charges against Intel, warning that it may order Intel to change its behavior under threat of large fines that can total 10 percent of its global revenue. Intel's 2007 sales were $38 billion.
Intel said the new charges did not reflect any major change to the first group sent in July 2007.
The company said in a statement that its conduct "has always been lawful, pro-competitive and beneficial to consumers." It claimed that the EU seemed to be supporting AMD's view that Intel should stop price discounts that have lowered prices for customers.
"This is still just the EU doing what the EU does -- it hasn't changed our posture with respect to Europe," Intel's general counsel, Bruce Sewell, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "This doesn't change our exposure. It's just more of the same."
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s vice president of legal affairs, Tom McCoy, said the latest charges reinforce AMD's long-standing allegation that Intel is "robbing consumers of their fundamental right to choose."
Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., sells more than three-quarters of all microprocessors that run computers using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. AMD is its only real rival.
The EU regulators accused Intel of giving a major personal computer retailer -- Germany's MediaMarkt AG -- substantial rebates in return for it selling only Intel-based computers. It said Intel also paid a manufacturer to delay an AMD range of x86 central processing units, or CPUs, and gave rebates to the same company in return for buying all its laptop CPUs from Intel.
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Microsoft 4Q Profit Rises, but Wall Street Is Disappointed
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60846
Shares of Microsoft Corp. sank more than 5 percent on Friday, a day after the company missed Wall Street's earnings forecast by a penny, and issued softer-than-expected guidance for the current first quarter.
Microsoft cited weakness in the online business, which makes most of its money from Web advertising.
With a Yahoo Inc. search deal uncertain at best, Microsoft also plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars more than expected in the next year to whip its unprofitable online operations into shape.
Analysts, however, wondered how long Wall Street can wait to see those bets pay off.
Shares dropped $1.41 in morning trading, to $26.11.
Microsoft said Thursday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 42 percent -- or 13 percent, factoring in a hefty charge a year ago -- as revenue topped $15 billion.
For the three months ended June 30, Microsoft's profit jumped 42 percent to $4.3 billion, or 46 cents per share. In the year-ago quarter, earnings totaled $3 billion, hurt by more than $1 billion in charges related to defective Xbox game consoles.
Revenue increased 18 percent to $15.8 billion from $13.4 billion last year, just ahead of Wall Street's average forecast of $15.7 billion, according to a Thomson Financial survey. The revenue rise would have been 14 percent if not for weakness in the dollar.
"Those are very good numbers for a company of our size, in what many companies are finding challenging conditions," Microsoft's chief financial officer, Chris Liddell, said in an interview.
Sid Parakh, an analyst for McAdams Wright Ragen, wasn't buying it.
"The bottom line was disappointing," he said in an interview. "Across the board, they are investing more in growth, which is hurting the bottom line. That's been a concern about Microsoft that investors have felt for a long time."
Earnings for the thee segments responsible for Microsoft's major franchises -- the Windows...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Google Shares Drop After Disappointing 2Q Earnings
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60845
Google Inc. shares tumbled more than 8 percent in early trading Friday after the Internet search leader's second-quarter earnings missed analysts' expectations.
Management said economic turmoil in the United States and parts of Europe appears to be causing consumers to click less frequently on the ads that generate virtually all its profits.
That unnerved already jittery investors, although Google managers said they expect the Mountain View-based company will thrive even if the economy weakens further.
Its shares fell $45.20, or 8.4 percent, to $4488.24 in early trading Friday, leaving it below $500 for the first time in three months.
The red flags raised after the bell Thursday included a dramatic slowdown in the company's hiring pace and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's description of the economy as "challenging." Google's chief economist, Hal Varian, even participated in the company's conference call for the first time to discuss business conditions.
"That was a tip-off," said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown. "Economic sluggishness has entered the discussion at Google, more so than we have ever heard."
Google earned $1.25 billion, or $3.92 per share, during the three months ended in June. That represented a 35 percent increase from net income of $925 million, or $2.93 per share, at the same time last year.
If not for costs incurred for employee stock compensation, Google said it would have earned $4.63 per share. That figure missed the average earnings estimate of $4.74 per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Google's second-quarter revenue fared slightly better than earnings, rising 39 percent to $5.37 billion from $3.87 billion at the same time last year.
More than half the revenue -- $2.8 billion -- came from international markets, helping to offset some of the economic weakness in the United States.
After subtracting commissions paid to its ad partners, Google's revenue totaled $3.9 billion -- about $30 million above...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Lions Gate To Share Ad Revenue on YouTube Clips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60833
Google Inc. said Wednesday that it will partner with filmmaker Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. to share revenue from ads that Google places on YouTube clips from the studio's movies.
The deal will put advertising on clips uploaded by users and by the studio itself from Lions Gate movies such as the "Saw" horror series and "Dirty Dancing."
The deal would make Lions Gate the second major moviemaker to try to profit from the popularity of online movie clips.
"It's another example of a very, very creative group taking advantage of their brand and then using the distribution network, the Internet, to actually capture new users," said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, speaking at a conference put on by Advertising Age and the William Morris Agency.
In March, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures launched a more limited clip-sharing Facebook application called VooZoo that allows users to share studio-made clips using points that they can purchase.
Lions Gate's president of digital media, Curt Marvis, said the YouTube channel would launch by early September.
Talks about the revenue-sharing deal emerged after Lions Gate worked with YouTube to remove pirated copy from the site, Marvis said. Some unsanctioned "Dirty Dancing" clips on YouTube have generated more than a million views.
"The idea here is not to alienate fans of particular movies or TV shows," Marvis said. "We just want to make some money out of it."
YouTube has similar arrangements with CBS Corp. and the British Broadcasting Corp.
The announcement came as Hollywood studios continued talks with the Screen Actors Guild that included the issue of obtaining actors' consent and paying them for use of their voice and images in a commercial clips market.
Schmidt said Google was in discussions with other Hollywood studios about similar arrangements, with the exception of Paramount because of a Viacom suit accusing YouTube of violating copyrights of shows on...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Japan Cautious in iPhone's Bid for World Dominance
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60830
Kentaro Tohyama is proud of his new iPhone. He stood overnight in line to get it when the device became available in Japan for the first time. But the 29-year-old computer engineer isn't about to part with his made-in-Japan cell phone either.
That kind of cautious response to the July 11 arrival of Apple Inc.'s phone appears common in Japan.
The iPhone was welcomed here with long lines of gadget fans. But it's also being seen as shockingly alien to this nation's quirky and closed mobile world, somewhat like the 19th Century "black ships" of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry that forced an isolationist Japan to open to the West.
Japan's cloistered mobile system has its own icons for e-mail and other unique tools. That means many people, even iPhone fans like Tohyama, are likely to stick to their old-style phones lest they be left out of familiar communication circles.
"I don't want my friends to think I'm this uncool, cold-hearted person," Tohyama said.
For example, young people in Japan take for granted the ability to share phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other contact information by beaming it from one phone to another over infrared connections. Being without those instantaneous exchanges would be the death knell on the Japanese dating circuit.
While the iPhone has Bluetooth wireless links, it has no infrared connection.
The iPhone lacks other technology long available on Japanese cell phones, such as digital TV broadcasts, a built-in camcorder, voice recognition and an "electronic wallet" function.
Japanese cell phone customers also might struggle with the fact that using the iPhone requires both hands. The Japanese style of texting relies mainly on a thumb -- so much so that experienced users are dubbed "oyayubi zoku" or "thumb tribe."
Also missing from Steve Jobs' much-praised design: a hole in the handset for hanging trinkets. Westerners may scoff at them...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
PC Shipments Rose Faster Than Expected
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60825
Computer shipments rose faster than expected in the second quarter, fueled by exceptional demand in emerging markets and a decline in prices in the U.S. and Western Europe, a research group said Wednesday.
Worldwide shipments increased 16 percent from a year ago to 71.9 million PCs, according to Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. The company had predicted 11.2 percent growth.
Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa attributed some of the surge to ongoing trends: rising shipments to emerging markets like China, Brazil, India and Russia; and the increasing number of computers per home thanks to the popularity of laptops.
But economic jitters in mature markets also had a surprisingly positive effect on PC shipments, Kitagawa said.
The analyst had forecast less than 2 percent growth in the U.S. in the shadow of its mortgage and credit market turmoil. But those troubles pushed down PC average selling prices, sparking a 4.2 percent increase in U.S. shipments.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. held on to the top spot in the global market, which it wrested from Dell Inc. in 2006.
But as in the first quarter, Dell's decision to expand sales of computers to retail stores helped it gain ground.
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell's shipments grew 22 percent to 11.2 million computers, while HP shipments rose a slower 17 percent to 13 million.
HP's market share of shipments held steady from the year-ago quarter, at 18.1 percent, while Dell's share edged up to 15.6 percent from 14.8 percent.
China's Lenovo Group Ltd., Taiwan-based Acer Inc. and Japan-based Toshiba Corp. rounded out Gartner's list of the top five, each clocking in with less than 10 percent share.
In June, Gartner upped its outlook for PC shipment growth for all of 2008 to 12.5 percent on the expected strength of worldwide laptop sales.
Despite the blockbuster shipments, Kitagawa said Gartner won't automatically boost its 2008 outlook again. Along...
Sat, 19 Jul 08
Activision's Guitar Hero Leaps into Cell Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60817
Guitar Hero has turned millions of people into rock stars with plastic guitars. But can they shred on a Nokia?
The answer is a resounding yes.
Cell phone carriers are rolling out a mobile version of Activision's rock music game, and customers are subscribing at a pace that could make it the most successful console-to-cell phone crossover game in history. As the cell phone rapidly emerges as the next computing platform, cell phone games would seem to be a natural application.
For consumers, the trend could eventually lead to big improvements in mobile gaming -- a market that has drastically fallen short of market projections. But for now the Guitar Hero phenomenon is a lot like Jimi Hendrix, circa 1968: a great solo act, without backup.
Drag your finger down the list of the top-selling games for phones from the mobile industry statistics firm M:Metrics, for instance, and you'd pass by an array of yawners -- sorry, Tetris fans - before hitting a really engaging game.
As of May, the latest period for which M:Metrics provided data, Guitar Hero's mobile version ranked at No.9, but it had climbed from No.85 in three months. It will go further. Hands-On Mobile, which adapted the game on behalf of Activision, said it would introduce Guitar Hero III Backstage Pass, a new version of the game for Sprint and AT&T customers on Thursday, with other carriers to follow.
The networks finally have a breakout success on their hands and more is to come. Electronic Arts, the giant game maker, is releasing Spore, its long-awaited game for cell phones, including the iPhone, not just on the well-known game platforms.
Hands-On Mobile, is also selling a classic Mac game, Crystal Quest. This and "Kung Fu Panda," Electronic Arts' mobile adaptation of the Activision console game, and "The Dark Knight," Glu Mobile's game...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Admins Locked Out of San Francisco's I.T. System
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60835
San Francisco's computer network was still being held hostage Thursday, allegedly by a disgruntled employee who programmed the system with a password only he knows. Terry Childs, 43, was jailed Sunday night. He has a 25-year-old criminal record in Kansas for aggravated robbery that had been disclosed at the time he was hired.
San Francisco's IT department was trying to regain control of the network, which was running and handling everything from the mayor's e-mail to San Francisco's electronic court records. Currently all IT administrators are denied access.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Mayor Gavin Newsom said administrators were blocked from making changes to the city's computer network, so if the system were to crash, workers could not undertake repairs or upgrades.
Cisco Systems has been consulted, and estimates are that in the worst case, the network could be rebuilt from scratch in six to eight weeks. Childs could be liable for the costs.
Childs pleaded not guilty Thursday to four counts of tampering with a computer network. His lawyer, public defender Mark Jacobs, said his client's $5 million bail was inappropriate. But city prosecutors said the bail is high because Childs endangered public safety.
Childs could be stripped of his public defender, since there might be a conflict of interest because the defender's office is part of the city and county of San Francisco.
Officials searched Childs' car and home, concerned he may have given the access code to an accomplice who could have destroyed hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents. No evidence was found to suggest a collaborator.
According to city officials, on June 20 Childs began photographing the new head of security for the city's technology department after she announced an audit of access to the system. According to authorities, she believed Childs had given himself exclusive access...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Sony Tries To Move Beyond PlayStation Price Cut
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Sony cut the price of its 60GB PS3 console in advance of this week's E3 Business and Media Summit, which finished Thursday in Los Angeles. The company also announced a new 80GB system for $499, then announced that the price would be cut $100 by fall. While news reports have emphasized the price drop, Sony tried to highlight other aspects of the PS3 experience, including the ability of PlayStation Home subscribers to download movies and inhabit virtual online communities.
In trailers posted on its site and shown at E3, Sony demonstrated the 3-D virtual communities, explaining that users can belong to multiple game worlds using realistic, customizable 3-D avatars. The company also hyped its new on-line movie downloading service through the PlayStation Network.
The price move may revive Sony's competitive edge in the video-game console market. Industry forecasters expect that market to be worth more than $10 billion by 2010. In the console wars, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has a commanding lead with 5.6 million units sold versus Sony's 1.4 million.
Analysts have urged prices cuts for the PS3 since its introduction. But console wars are mainly driven by games, and with a year's head start on game development, Microsoft has a significantly larger game library than the PS3.
To counter that lead, Sony announced a raft of new titles about to be released for the PS3, including Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hellboy, SEGA Rally Revo, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas.
The PS3 Home announcements are also an answer to Microsoft's lead in online gaming and entertainment. The Xbox 360 has had movie and television downloads for more than a year.
Analysts predict that these after-sale subscriber services will will rival game sales in revenue. As families become comfortable with shopping, chatting and watching videos through game consoles, the...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
TiVo Ready To Push YouTube Videos To TV Sets
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60832
TiVo says it has completed the technology to make YouTube videos available on TV sets connected to its digital video recorder (DVR) boxes. As part of an agreement with YouTube announced in March, TiVo expects to roll out a software upgrade over the next few weeks.
Broadband subscribers with TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs will have access to the YouTube video universe. Viewers will be able to search by keyword or browse for content under categories such as featured, most recent, favorites or most viewed today.
"With YouTube content now available on TiVo on top of all the movies, music videos, songs and TV shows that are simply unavailable on cable and satellite, TiVo subscribers have more choice on their TV sets than any other TV viewers in the world," said TiVo CEO Tom Rogers.
YouTube will arrive on TV sets just in time for the technology to play a role in this year's national, state and local elections. Earlier this month, both the Democratic and Republican national convention committees gave voters a chance to win a day on the campaign trail, and possibly a trip to the conventions, by creating videos that reveal which political party they support and why.
YouTube's RNCC and DNCC convention channels already host content from past conventions such as Ronald Reagan's speech at the 1964 Republican convention and Barack Obama's address at the 2004 Democratic convention. YouTube's deal with TiVo should push this year's envelope even further.
Following in the tracks of YouTube's trailblazing participation in this year's presidential primary debates, TiVo's technology should make it even easier for the candidates and political parties to interact with voters. According to TiVo, more than 3.7 million subscribers nationwide were using TiVo DVRs at the end of April.
"The partnership with TiVo extends our ability to...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
iPhone App Store Thriving Despite Developer Tricks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60831
Apple's new iPhone App Store already has customers talking and picking their favorites -- and bad-mouthing others. Earlier this week, Apple reported that App Store downloads exceeded 10 million in the first weekend. It said the store had more than 800 native applications, of which 200 were free and more than 90 percent were less than $10.
Microsoft appears to have noticed the comments and put up a Windows Mobile Applications site this week powered by Silverlight.
One bump in the App Store road has been that some developers were putting special characters such as spaces, quotes, and numbers in front of their applications' names so they would rank near the top in the listings. One Apple-oriented site described the practice as "line-cutting," but Apple appears to have fixed this problem.
Earlier this week, the Apple iPhone School, an independent site, said the practice shows "extreme unprofessionalism" by developers and makes the store "look very disorganized."
The school also said there have been rumors of developers "hiring people to write positive reviews on their applications and negative reviews on competitors' applications."
This is reportedly not uncommon elsewhere on the Web, but the school called on Apple to "take a stand" and provide some regulation.
Even as some developers might try to tilt the deck in their favor, a handful of applications are already standing out.
Boston-based uLocate Communications announced this week that its location-based application called WHERE is among the most popular on the App Store, with "as many as 100 activations per second" and 125,000 downloads since the store's launch. WHERE allows users to find friends in a city, locate the lowest gas prices, and achieve other benefits of mobile location-sensing.
WHERE made one of the first "top 10 of App Store" lists by noted technology columnist Walter Mossberg. Other programs on his list include the AIM...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Newspaper Reports Microsoft, AOL Continue Talks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60828
Executives from Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are trying to advance discussions on a possible combination that could give the software maker an alternative to a deal with Yahoo Inc., a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Word of a meeting follows a breakdown in negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo over the weekend, one that led activist investor Carl Icahn to step up efforts Monday to replace Yahoo's board in an Aug. 1 shareholder vote.
AOL has been in continual discussions with both Yahoo and Microsoft, and previous talks led Google Inc. to buy a 5 percent stake in AOL for $1 billion in December 2005. Yahoo and Google also have separately agreed to a broad advertising partnership.
The Wall Street Journal, citing undisclosed people familiar with the matter, said the Microsoft-AOL discussions remained preliminary but would involve the companies' online operations. There were no indications the two companies are any nearer to a deal.
Microsoft and Time Warner officials declined comment Wednesday.
Microsoft shares rose $1.05, or 4 percent, to $27.19 in late afternoon trading Wednesday, while Time Warner shares were up 80 cents, or 5.8 percent, to $14.72. Yahoo shares rose 87 cents, or 4 percent, to $22.41, while Google's stock went up $15.44, or 3 percent, to $532.53.
Time Warner has been entertaining the sale of all or parts of AOL as the Internet unit tries to transform itself into an advertising-driven business to offset rapid declines in its dial-up Internet access operations. Time Warner is already working on splitting AOL's advertising and access operations, which would make the sale of one or both easier.
Microsoft has been struggling in its online efforts and earlier this year proposed an acquisition of Yahoo, which is also having trouble competing with market leader Google. But Yahoo fiercely resisted and instead advanced discussions with Google, AOL and other...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Google and Yahoo Defend Advertising Alliance
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60819
At a U.S. congressional hearing, lawyers for Google and Yahoo have defended the companies' recent decision to partner on advertising, saying the arrangement does not violate antitrust laws and will help to keep Yahoo competitive.
Their arguments, made on Tuesday, were countered by Microsoft officials who argued that the partnership would allow Google and Yahoo to dominate more than 90 percent of the search advertising market and could significantly raise prices.
"I never felt so sorry for poor little old Microsoft," said Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to laughter.
In a statement, Bradford Smith, senior vice president and general counsel of Microsoft, said: "If search is the gateway to the Internet, and most believe that it is, this deal will put Google in a position to own that gateway and the information that flows through it. When Yahoo talks about this deal generating up to $800 million in additional revenue, that's money out of the pockets of American businesses, big and small, who will pay higher prices for the very same ads they buy from Yahoo today."
Earlier in the morning, Smith testified under oath about a meeting on June 8 with Yahoo's chief executive, Jerry Yang, in San Jose, California.
"Jerry Yang looked across the table, looked us in the eye and said: 'Look, the search market today is basically a bipolar market. On one pole there's Google, and on the other pole there is Yahoo and Microsoft both competing with Google,'" Smith said.
"He said, 'If we do this deal with Google, Yahoo will become part of Google's pole.' And Microsoft, he said, would not be strong enough in this market to remain a pole of its own," Smith continued.
Michael Callahan, executive vice president and general counsel for Yahoo, said, "I am not going to...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
SaaS Sets the Stage for Cloud Computing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60807
Software as a service has come far in a few years, adding new functionality and depth. In time, say a pair of technology researchers, users will move beyond SaaS to "cloud computing," the delivery of IT and business functionality in a utility environment.
In just a few years, Software as a Service (SaaS) has moved rapidly beyond its initial point-solution "outsourced application function" phase to become an important source of broadbased business functionality and competitive advantage.
SaaS is now found in all aspects of business and information technology (IT), including an increasingly important presence and role in business-critical systems and operations.
But, due in large part to its relative newness and varied forms, SaaS is also miscast and misunderstood, especially when we consider its roles and benefits to the enterprise, and to finance organizations.
In what follows, we'll examine SaaS' true nature to the organization, focusing on its and management requirements for finance, and to the executives responsible for enterprise financial strategy, planning, management and value.
Business IT functionality has been offered as a service for decades in many simple forms, from payroll services to time-sharing of mainframe computing power. What makes SaaS different, and more compelling, today are a series of IT technological improvements that facilitate shared access by thousands of organizations, with use of a wider range of more sophisticated, and increasingly customized, business and IT capabilities.
A core improvement has been the shift by leading SaaS providers to a multi-tenant software architecture. In a multi-tenant architecture, customers leverage a common infrastructure and application schema. Customers can configure applications, with the data partitioned in a completely secure manner.
Multi-tenancy enables cost-effective delivery and use of applications, potentially, by multiple thousands of users simultaneously. This overcomes issues of scale, security and customization that limited the growth and use...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Criminal Probe Ends, but Apple CEO Still Has Hurdles
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60801
A criminal probe of Apple Inc.'s co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs over stock options tampering is now over, but the potential legal shadow over him and the company isn't going away just yet.
Although Jobs is not being indicted for his role in Apple's backdating of stock options grants, he will likely be called to the stand in at least two other cases. And there could be trouble over stock options at Pixar Animation Studios Inc., where Jobs was also chief executive before its buyout by Walt Disney Co. Pixar has said its former chief financial officer could face civil charges from securities regulators.
The biggest options-related issue still looming over Apple is a shareholder lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose accusing the company and Jobs of defrauding investors with the company's backdating practices. Most shareholder lawsuits are settled out of court, but Apple could be forced to cough up millions in penalties if a jury finds it liable.
"Shareholders need to be careful with these kinds of lawsuits," said B. Espen Eckbo, founding director of the Center for Corporate Governance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. "Part of the cost may be a very expensive reduction in the reputation of the firm -- one that goes way beyond that issue that's prompting the suit itself."
Jobs will also likely be called to testify in the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil trial of Apple's former general counsel, Nancy Heinen. That case carries less risk to Wall Street's perception of Apple than the shareholder lawsuit, but it could provide illuminating details about Jobs' role in the options scandal.
Heinen is charged with altering company records to conceal the backdating activities. Her trial is scheduled for 2009.
Apple's former chief financial officer, Fred Anderson, was also charged by the SEC. He agreed...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Intel's Second-Quarter Profit Beats Estimates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60800
Intel Corp.'s second-quarter profit jumped 25 percent as blossoming sales of laptop chips helped the company cruise past Wall Street's estimates Tuesday.
Investors viewed the chipmaker's favorable results as a sign that global PC demand is healthy despite a sputtering U.S. economy that has depressed some domestic spending. Intel CEO Paul Otellini said demand for Intel's chips remains strong "in all segments and all parts of the globe." Three-quarters of Intel's business is outside the U.S.
Intel shares rose 23 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $20.94 in after-hours trading. They had risen 24 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $20.71 in the regular session before the Santa Clara-based company reported its results.
Intel said its net income was $1.6 billion, or 28 cents per share, in the three-month period ending June 28.
That was 3 cents per share higher than what analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting. It was a 25 percent jump from the $1.28 billion, or 22 cents per share, that Intel earned a year ago.
Intel is profiting from surging global demand for laptops and the processors that power them, though lower prices for some of the fastest-growing models drove down Intel's closely watched average selling price in the latest quarter.
However, Intel can absorb the trend easier than smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. because Intel has made a faster switch to a new manufacturing process that lowers the cost of making each chip.
Intel is the world's No. 1 supplier of microprocessors, the electronic brains of personal computers. Intel commands about 80 percent of the market, with AMD owning roughly the other 20 percent.
Intel has been taking market share from AMD in recent quarters with a more robust product lineup. Meanwhile, AMD has been hurt by lengthy product delays and the substantial debt it took on to finance its $5.6 billion acquisition...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Video-Game News: Metallica's Guitar Hero Album
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60799
Real news from the virtual world:
Activision's Guitar Hero World Tour is one of this year's most eagerly anticipated games, but the company has big news for fans who can't wait for that: Metallica will be releasing its next album, Death Magnetic, as a Guitar Hero III download on the same day that the CD arrives in stores.
"It's exciting, 27 years into your career, to be doing something first," said Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. "In five to 10 years it'll be a normal thing to release an album to Guitar Hero the same day as the record."
To make its big announcement, Activision eschewed a booth at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles in favor of a reception at a former cathedral. A big chunk of the video games community -- namely, the companies that make them and the journalists who write about them -- is in Los Angeles this week for the annual gathering where most of us get our first look at games for the holiday season.
Ulrich said he's definitely noticed an upswing in Metallica's popularity since its songs started appearing in games, particularly with one part of the target audience.
"Dad's a little cooler than he was yesterday," Ulrich said. "I now have a 7-year-old whose favorite band is Mountain, and a 9-year-old who's into Black Sabbath and Danzig" -- all veterans of the GH series. "It's a great way for kids to be exposed to stuff that transcends generations."
Activision's impending merger with World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard means it's about to become even more of an industry powerhouse. Besides Guitar Hero, two of Activision's other big names, Call of Duty and Spider-Man, will be returning this fall, and the company is reviving a couple of franchises that have been dormant for a...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Korean Carrier in Talks To Buy Wireless Carrier Sprint
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60798
South Korea's SK Telecom Corp. is in talks to buy struggling U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp., business news channel CNBC reported Tuesday
An agreement would be at best weeks away, CNBC said, citing people familiar with the talks.
Sprint shares closed up 9 percent at $9.04.
U.S.-listed shares of SK Telecom, Korea's largest mobile-phone service operator by subscriber numbers, fell 2 percent to $20.67.
Sprint spokesman James Fisher had no comment on the report. No SK Telecom representatives were available in the early morning hours, Korean time.
CNBC reported that private-equity firms would provide financing for the deal, since SK Telecom's market value is about half of Sprint's $22.6 billion.
Sprint has been losing subscribers for some time, but it's still the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., with 52.8 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter. Its stock has lost half its value in the last year, and there have been reports that the company has been talking to other possible acquirers, like T-Mobile USA.
Bank of America analyst David Barden said that CNBC's report reflected that Sprint's board "is prudently and consistently evaluating all its options." He believes the company is more likely to try to press ahead with a turnaround plan.
Walter Piecyk, an analyst with Pali Research, said on his firm's blog that it was more likely that SK Telecom was seeking to make an investment in Sprint. It is believed to have offered $5 billion last November but was ultimately rebuffed.
"The lack of liquidity in the capital markets would make an outright purchase difficult for a company the size of SK Telecom no matter how many private-equity companies would be involved," Piecyk wrote.
SK Telecom has been trying to get a beachhead in the U.S. for some time. In 2006, it launched Helio, a joint venture with EarthLink Inc. that aimed...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Anonymity of Bloggers Is Clashing With the Law
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60795
There is no better way to get a blogger talking than by telling him what he cannot publish, although you might forgive a government prosecutor for thinking otherwise.
A grand jury subpoena sent by prosecutors in New York this year sought information to help identify people blogging anonymously on a Web site about New York politics called Room 8.
The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence "could impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with law enforcement" -- implying that if the bloggers blabbed, they could be prosecuted.
"We were totally perplexed," said Ben Smith, who founded Room 8 with Gur Tsabar. (The site calls itself an "imaginary neighbor" to the press room -- Room 9 -- in the New York City Hall.) The two promptly began looking for a lawyer. "We knew enough to be scared."
This, of course, is a blogger's nightmare: enforced silence and the prospect of jail time.
The district attorney eventually withdrew the subpoena and lifted the warning after the bloggers threatened to sue. But the fact that the tactic was used at all raised alarm bells for some free speech advocates.
The demand for secrecy raised the unnerving prospect that prosecutors could quietly investigate anyone who posts comments online, while the person making those comments is unaware of and unable to respond to the risk. The tactic also robs bloggers of one of their most powerful weapons: the chance to spread the word and turn the legal attack into an online cause celebre.
Lawsuits over information posted online are usually civil, not criminal -- that is, they are filed by private citizens or companies trying to keep something off the Web. Courts have developed ways to evaluate the claims, often using tests to balance the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections of speech against the...
Fri, 18 Jul 08
Former Samsung Chairman Avoids Prison
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60792
Former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee saw the suspension Wednesday of his prison sentence in a tax-evasion conviction, a move that confirmed South Koreans' view that tycoons are immune from jail.
The Seoul Central District Court convicted Lee for failing to pay tens of millions of dollars in taxes, and imposed a hefty fine of 110 billion won ($109 million) against the man who led the country's most powerful business conglomerate before he resigned in April over the allegations that included a range of fiscal crimes.
Still, the court said putting the 66-year-old Lee behind bars would be too harsh because he did not actively seek to evade the taxes.
"The extent of his crime is not serious enough to sentence him to prison," Judge Min Byung-hun said. He sentenced Lee to three years in prison and then suspended the sentence for five years, meaning Lee will not go to jail as long as he avoids further legal woes.
After the verdict, a relieved-appearing Lee said: "I'm sorry for causing trouble to the people."
Lee, one of the richest men in South Korea, is the latest in a series of South Korean tycoons whose lawyers deftly used their clients' "contributions" to the country's economic development to help them avoid jail despite guilty verdicts.
Last year, Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo was sentenced to three years in prison for embezzlement, but a higher court suspended the sentence, saying he was too important for the nation's economy to go to jail.
The chairman of another big conglomerate who assaulted bar workers allegedly involved in a fight with his son -- Kim Seung-youn from Hanwha Group -- received 1 1/2 years in prison last year, but also saw that sentence suspended on appeal.
South Korean judges' penchant for such leniency toward heads of big conglomerates, known as chaebol, has often been...
Thu, 17 Jul 08
MobileMe Team Apologizes for Problems Updating Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60812
When Apple launched its MobileMe Web cloud software last Friday, customers ran into severe glitches. The subscription service is designed to synchronize calendars, e-mail and other applications between iPhones and Mac or Windows desktops, but users of the new service were unable to log in or sync files correctly.
The company fielded a torrent of criticism from end-users. An e-mail from the MobileMe team on Tuesday read in part:
"Although core services ... went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe Web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the Web apps are now up and running."
As a goodwill gesture, Apple is extending customer subscriptions by 30 days. According to the e-mail, subscribers should see the credited time on their next statements. According to a FAQ on Apple's Web site, customers are eligible if they subscribed to its earlier .Mac service before July 9 or created a new MobileMe account before Tuesday at 7 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
Most affected were syncs between iPhones and desktops. The service had advertised push technology that implied any change made in applications on one device would automatically be pushed out to the users' other devices. But push needed a shove, according to user complaints. iPhone and Web-based apps did propagate properly, but Mac and PC desktop changes were less than automatic. According to one user's post on Apple's support Web site:
"If I make a change on the MobileMe Web contacts, my Macs will update pretty quickly, but if I make a change to my contacts on my Mac, nothing happens until I manually initiate a sync, even though I have MobileMe sync set to Automatic ... I was under the impression the way everything was explained was that all the data was going to be stored server side...
Thu, 17 Jul 08
Tape Storage Gets a Makeover with New 1TB Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60811
The business world has long relied on tape storage as a cost-effective medium for protecting critical business data from becoming lost due to system failure, operator errors, theft and natural disasters. The good news for many enterprises is that an aging technology that has long lain dormant is once again springing back to life through the launch of new products spanning the small to very large business environments.
For example, it is significant that both IBM and Sun Microsystems have unveiled new tape-drive products this month that promise to break the one-terabyte-capacity barrier. Moreover, HP and Sony now say they will be partnering in the creation of a next-generation Digital Audio Tape (DAT) format that will deliver improved performance and capacity over current DAT tape offerings.
Many small to midsize businesses currently rely on DAT to back up and restore critical business data. So it's no wonder that many tape customers "are concerned about outgrowing their existing tape drives and do not want to switch away from a cost-effective and trusted technology like DAT/DDS," noted IDC Research Director Robert Amatruda.
Featuring backup speeds of up to 86 gigabytes per hour with 2:1 data compression, the new DAT 320 standard now under development will offer up to 320GB of capacity on a single cartridge, which is twice the capacity of today's DAT 160 format.
"The doubled capacity with the DAT 320 will be an ideal choice for small to midsize businesses who have limited space for extra hardware," Amatruda said.
Even better, DAT 320 is expected to consume fewer watts per gigabyte than previous tape generations and will be backward-compatible with today's DAT 160 format. Though the two partners will be jointly developing DAT 320 as an open standard, each company intends to separately offer its own DAT...
Thu, 17 Jul 08
Sony Slashes $100 From Price of 80GB PlayStation 3
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60810
On the heels of Microsoft's $50 price cut for the Xbox 360, Sony has announced a price cut of $100 for its 80GB flagship PlayStation 3 and said it is dropping the 40GB version of the PS3.
On Monday, Microsoft cut the price of its Xbox 360 video-game console with a 20GB hard drive to $299 from $349 with the caveat "as supplies last," which could mean a clearance sale in advance of the August debut of its new model with a 60GB hard drive for $349.
Sony responded by slashing the price of its PlayStation 3 with a 80GB hard drive from $499 to $399. The PS3 is now right in the middle between the $449 Xbox 360 Elite with a 120GB hard drive and the $349 60GB Xbox 360.
Certainly a downturn in sales and reported losses for both Sony and Microsoft have played into the decisions to drop prices.
But price is just one of the components to capture consumer dollars and loyalty. The top three video-game console makers -- Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo -- have different market strategies.
Nintendo has etched out a space beyond the traditional gaming base of young male players with its Wii console and innovative motion-sensitive handheld devices that couple gaming fun with exercise. Microsoft will include minimal motion sensitivity in its new Lips karaoke game under development, but is no threat to Nintendo's market space at this time.
Microsoft is carving out a niche as a gaming device and a home entertainment center with announcements of video agreements with Netflix and the British Telecommunications Group. BT Group is the largest communications provider in the United Kingdom and one of the largest communications companies in the world.
Sony has a movie-download service over its PlayStation Network that capitalizes on the PlayStation 3's...
Thu, 17 Jul 08
Apple Asks Court for Recall of Psystar Mac Clones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60809
Macintosh clone maker Psystar is feeling the heat. In a suit filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco on July 3, Apple Computer asked the court to "[require] Psystar to recall all such products sold to the public as a result of Psystar's infringement of Apple's copyrights."
The Miami-based startup began shipping Apple clones to the public in April. Psystar's OpenMac was offered on the company's Web site for $399 -- a bit more than half the price for a similarly equipped Mac. On Wednesday, the company's Web site was still offering its Open Computer alternative with Mac OS X.
Psystar's marketing of a Mac clone is the latest David to go against the Apple Goliath. At the heart of Apple's lawsuit is Psystar's installation of Mac X OS X Leopard on the company's clone. While there may be support on the street for a price-competitive Mac clone, the Mac OS X end-user licensing agreement (EULA) expressly states: "You agree not to install, use or run the Apple software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so."
How Psystar will fight a clear violation of the software agreement may have been hinted at early this week when an unidentified company employee asserted that the Apple EULA violates antitrust agreements. However, legal experts have noted that since Apple controls only seven or eight percent of the total desktop PC market, an antitrust charge would be hard to maintain.
Apple's lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and the removal of Psystar clones from the marketplace. Whether this means purchasers of Psystar units will have to surrender their clones to the court is not clear.
The suit also charges trademark and copyright infringement. Both parties are scheduled for a case-management conference on Oct. 22, but some observers wonder...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Netflix To Stream Videos To Microsoft's Xbox 360
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60808
Microsoft and Netflix have forged an exclusive partnership under which Netflix will begin streaming feature films and TV programs to owners of Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming console. Beginning this fall, Netflix subscribers who also have an Xbox Live Gold membership will be able to download and view movies at no additional cost, said Microsoft Corporate Vice President John Schappert.
"Watching movies at home will never be the same," Schappert said. "We are creating a completely new social-entertainment experience, and Xbox 360 will be the only video-game system where you can access your library of instantly streamable movies from Netflix and turn any room into a virtual movie theater."
Mike Goodman, director of media and entertainment at the Yankee Group, thinks the new partnership has strong potential. "It's a nice deal for Microsoft if it drives some of the Netflix subscriber base over to the Xbox," Goodman said, but "is even more important for Netflix."
Last May, Netflix unveiled its new Netflix Player by Roku -- a $99 device for enabling Netflix subscribers to directly stream movies and TV episodes to TV sets. "With 12 million subscribers, Xbox Live is a much bigger base than Netflix is going to get with its proprietary box," Goodman noted.
Xbox Live requires no PC to enable movies and TV episodes to be viewed on TV sets. Xbox Live Gold members will be able to use their Xbox 360 controller or media remote to fast-forward, pause and rewind the downloaded movies and TV episodes.
Netflix intends to make its library of 10,000 movies and popular TV episodes available when it launches on Xbox Live in late autumn. Netflix members will simply add movies and TV episodes to their queues at the Netflix Web site.
Their choices will be automatically downloaded to the Xbox 360 for...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Russian Cybercrooks Target High Bank Balances Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60790
Call them the Coreflood Gang. A ring of cyber bank robbers from southern Russia has quietly perfected a way to get a beachhead inside company networks.
Once inside, it infects every PC within reach with a custom-made data-stealing program called Coreflood. The goal: go rip off bank accounts online.
Over the past 16 months, the Coreflood Gang has infected swaths of PCs inside thousands of companies, hospitals, universities and government agencies, says SecureWorks researcher Joe Stewart, who has tracked and documented the spread of Coreflood over that period.
"It's spying on you, capturing your log-ons, user names, passwords, bank balances, contents of your e-mail," Stewart says. "It can capture anything."
Coreflood is part of a class of malicious software, called banking trojans, designed primarily to help crooks break into bank accounts online. The number of banking trojans detected on the Internet this month topped 24,800, up from 3,342 at the start of 2006, security firm F-Secure says.
An infection usually starts when you visit a Web page implanted with a snippet of malicious coding. By simply navigating to the tainted page, your browser gets redirected, unseen, to a hub server that downloads the data-stealing program onto your hard drive.
Dozens of gangs specialize in banking trojans. They have it much easier than phishing scammers, who must lure victims into typing sensitive data on spoofed Web pages, says F-Secure researcher Patrik Runald.
"This is very organized crime," Runald says. "These gangs are hiring people and making tons of money."
The Coreflood Gang is among the most sophisticated. Stewart recently analyzed 500 gigabytes of stolen data stored on a rented hub server. He pinpointed 378,758 Coreflood infections inside thousands of organizations, small and large.
A workplace PC can get a new infection each time someone logs on. The most infections: a county school district with 31,425, a hotel chain with 14,093...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Animal Crossing Among Plans for Nintendo's Wii Console
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60787
Nintendo announced Tuesday at the E3 video-game show in Los Angeles that its much-anticipated Animal Crossing: City Folk game for the Wii console will ship in time for the holiday season. It also announced a surprise peripheral -- a speakerphone to ship with the game that will allow players to chat with other players.
The new speakerphone, called Wii Speak, is a small semicircle device that Nintendo displayed on top of the Wii's sensor bar. It is meant to let players participate in the Animal Crossing: City Folk game while chatting with players around the world. A demonstration showed four players fishing in the game while chatting with each other.
The Wii Speak can also be used with other games.
The Animal Crossing: City Folk game lets players care for a virtual world that continues to function even when the game isn't being played. The Animal Crossing franchise began as a hit on Nintendo's GameCube and handheld Nintendo DS.
Nintendo also said it will offer a music game to compete with the popular Guitar Hero game available on available on other game platforms. But unlike Guitar Hero, Wii Music will let players simulate more than 60 different instruments, including sax, piano, violin and drums, as well as guitar.
And the company said a more sensitive Wii MotionPlus controller add-on will ship next spring along with new sports games. The MotionPlus reportedly attaches to the end of the Wii controller, and Nintendo says it uses the accelerometer and sensor bar to deliver an astonishing 1:1 arm-to-screen movement.
Nintendo also announced that its DS handheld will get an exclusive version of the popular Grand Theft Auto video game called Chinatown Wars this winter.
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Intel Ships Centrino 2 with Laptop Management Features
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60786
Intel has begun shipping its Centrino 2 microprocessors and chipsets for laptops. Formerly code-named Montevina, the next-generation platform gives notebook designers five Core 2 Duo processors to choose from, including a new Extreme chip capable of running at 3.06 GHz. Nearly 250 new consumer and business notebook PCs are slated to adopt Intel's latest processors and chipsets, the company said.
Featuring the latest enterprise-class manageability capabilities and power-saving performance enhancements, Centrino 2 also integrates the latest chipsets for delivering super-fast wireless access, noted Mooly Eden, general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group.
"When we first introduced Intel Centrino back in 2003, there were very few Wi-Fi hotspots, YouTube videos, and social media didn't really exist; 'thin and light' referred to personal weight goals; and desktop PCs outsold notebooks by a very wide margin," Eden said. "Today, notebooks outsell desktops in the U.S., and we're paving the way to HD entertainment, rich online gaming, faster broadband wireless speeds, and an easier and more secure way for businesses to manage, update and repair their notebook fleets."
Centrino 2 integrates Intel's vPro technology, which offers several enhanced options of interest to IT enterprise managers, including the ability to remotely manage all the PCs in an enterprise space, regardless of location or activity status. Having the ability to wake up systems remotely, even those on a wireless network, is going to be especially important for IT managers going forward, said Camille Morhardt, a marketing manager at Intel's Mobile Platforms Group.
"IT can wake them up in the middle of the night, do whatever critical maintenance or security updates are necessary, and then power them back down again," Morhardt said. "We are also seeing a big trend for small businesses to hire managed-service providers to proactively manage their IT environments. Managed-service providers can...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Viacom, Google Agree on Privacy for YouTube Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60785
If you were concerned that your YouTube viewing habits were about to be revealed to the world as part of the Viacom lawsuit against Google, you may rest easier.
A Google spokesperson told The New York Times and other news media on Monday that the two companies have agreed how to share data about YouTube during Viacom's copyright-infringement lawsuit and still protect the privacy of users. Last year, Viacom sued Google and its YouTube site for $1 billion, alleging unauthorized use of video clips from Viacom properties.
Google will provide the viewer database, but without revealing user names or other information that could be used to identify individual users.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in New York City ordered Google to release YouTube user information to Viacom and other plaintiffs suing the search giant for copyright violations. The data was sought so that Viacom could discover the extent of what it claims were violations, but the company has also said it was not interested in identifying individuals.
An undetermined part of this latest agreement is how to reveal viewing patterns of employees of YouTube or Google. The privacy agreement between the two parties does not cover employees of those companies.
The decision by Judge Louis L. Stanton had directed that YouTube show its logging records for every video viewed on the site, or on sites with embedded YouTube content. The records include the login ID, the time when viewing started, the IP address, and the identifier for the video.
But some observers, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, criticized the ruling as an invasion of privacy. It said the judicial order ignored the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act and "threatens to expose deeply private information about what videos are watched by YouTube users."
There are actually two...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Mozilla's Firefox 3: A Very Good Browser
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60783
It's already huge. Surfers downloaded 8.3 million copies of the new Firefox 3 on June 16, the day it was launched. But, that number does not answer one crucial question: how good is Firefox 3?
It is lighter than other browsers and makes browsing a lot more pleasant, particularly compared to Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6, which is what one could call bloatware software that has been bloated with all sorts of useless stuff. The earlier versions of Firefox quickly became quite popular as a viable alternative to IE.
The nicest thing about Firefox 3 is that third-party vendors can develop all sorts of applications that feature as plug-ins into the browser. Of course, several of the plug-ins are quite silly, and tend to make Firefox fairly bloated too, but the logic is simple.
If you want your browser to be nice and light, you can have the plain vanilla Firefox, plus, maybe, one or two plug-ins such as the Google toolbar.
However, if you want more bells and whistles in your browser, you can do that as well. Some of the plug-ins are fairly useful. Toolbars work on all browsers, but Firefox has plug-ins that allow you to work your Web e-mail as an online drive, store online bookmarks, and, of course, there's Greasemonkey, which allows people to make changes in the way they view pages. Firefox is, therefore, infinitely customizable.
For people who have light installations of Firefox 3, the changeover can be rather smooth. Others, particularly some people who are running Greasemonkey applications, have complained that the first version of Firefox 3 is a resource hog.
The other main change with Firefox 3 is the security enhancement. The problem is that most of these changes are not visible and they said the same thing about Microsoft Vista. But...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
AbiWord: A Worthy, Free Microsoft Alternative
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60782
A master carpenter would neither drive a finishing nail with a sledgehammer nor trim a tabletop with a chain saw.
Such a craftsperson needs tools that are small, versatile and cheap.
One such tool -- for writers and anybody who needs to kick out anything from a short memo or letter to a full-length report -- is AbiWord.
This free, open-source word processor is available for Windows, Macintosh and Unix computers of just about every variety.
AbiWord loads quickly on my 9-year-old, 233-megahertz Pentium II laptop and even quicker on a more recent 3-gigahertz Pentium 4 desktop.
The world's leading word processor, Microsoft Word, is a worthy, if bloated application. Once it buried WordPerfect for good in the 1990s, MS Word had the field to itself for quite a while.
Over the years, Word acquired feature after feature -- most of which average users never use. And Word continues to cost a lot of money, especially when bundled with Microsoft Office, the Redmond, Wash., company's most giant of cash cows.
It's a cow that keeps on giving milk. Microsoft updates its Office suite every few years and offers users the opportunity to keep up with the latest changes for a not-insignificant fee.
And while the free, open-source OpenOffice program has a full-featured word-processing application called OpenOffice Writer, I feel an MS Word-like, sledge-hammery, chain-saw-esque weight dragging me down when all I need to do is write this weekly column,
a business letter ... OK, I pretty much use AbiWord for everything that needs to look "formatted": bold and italic words, indented paragraphs and the like.
While AbiWord's best feature is its quick loading time, it can do just about everything you'd expect in a word processor -- plus a few things you don't.
AbiWord can save your documents in MS Word's .doc format. As a bonus, AbiWord...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Review: Epson PP-100 Discproducer Does Double Duty
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60780
As our business has grown, the need for larger duplication orders from our corporate clients has increased. I wasn't happy with the print quality from the older automated printing and duplication system we'd been using in our studio and was looking for a more
reliable solution. That is why I was happy to receive the Epson PP-100 Discproducer for review.
The PP-100 is a super-cool printer that doubles as a duplicator, an all-in-one system that is worth the investment (street price $2,995). You can easily duplicate and print up to 100 discs unattended on glossy or matte media. Six-color printing technology allows you to print exceptional-quality labels that rival discs put out by the Hollywood studios.
More surprising still, the unit comes with two DVD burners for speedy production. Whether you need to produce one disc or 1,000, you will find the PP-100 is a professionally built, very solid, and reliable duplicator/printer.
Setting up the printer is a simple process that requires installing the included Total Disc Maker software, connecting the USB cable, and powering on the unit. Because the PP-100 weighs 52 pounds, you'll need to make sure that you place it on a sturdy surface that can handle the weight.
The included disc stackers can hold up to 100 DVDs or CDs for hands-free operation. Another cool feature allows you to output short-run duplication jobs to the tray below without the need to open the unit while it is printing.
The Discproducer comes with six ink cartridges that easily push into place. The set of cartridges comes loaded with plenty of ink and is rated to print up to 1,000 discs. Cartridges run $45 each, bringing the total cost of replacing the cartridges to $270. This works out to be 27 cents per disc, which is less than the 45 cents...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Disney Goes Interactive With Blu-Ray 'Sleeping Beauty'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60775
Walt Disney Co., along with the broader entertainment industry, is counting on "Sleeping Beauty" to help awaken interest in Blu-ray DVDs.
In October, the company will release a 50th anniversary edition of the classic animated movie in the high-definition Blu-ray format. But Disney is not stopping there. "Sleeping Beauty" will also come with unusual features geared toward a generation of viewers who embrace interactivity and social networking.
Viewers can watch the movie in tandem with friends in other locations and chat using a laptop, PDA or cell phone. (Comments appear on the screen.) Parents who are not able to watch the film with their children can record a video message that will pop up during a designated scene as the child watches. Viewers will also be able to compete against others around the world at trivia.
All of these activities are possible because of a technology that connects Blu-ray discs with the Internet, which the entertainment industry is calling BD Live. Disney and other studios, including Lionsgate and Sony, believe that BD Live could be Blu-ray's killer app, potentially altering the tepid response that consumers have given Blu-ray to date.
"Our research shows that so many people watch TV with their laptop nearby," said Lori MacPherson, senior vice president and general manager for Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment North America.
"Online gaming and texting are already popular. The question is, how do we harness this?"
Hardware is a giant hurdle. First-generation Blu-ray players are not compatible with BD Live and cannot be upgraded. Although the Sony PlayStation 3 can use the technology, there is currently only one BD Live Blu-ray machine -- Panasonic's DMP-BD50K model -- and it costs about $800.
Several new BD Live-enabled machines will arrive in stores by fall, but they will still be out of reach for many. The new Blu-ray players...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Changes at eBay Only Embitter the Faithful
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60774
The golden era of the small seller on eBay, hawking gewgaws and knickknacks from the basement or garage, is coming to a noisy and ignominious end.
Consumers appear to be tiring of online auctions, and rivals like Amazon.com are attracting more shoppers with fixed-price listings, while eBay has been struggling for growth. To shift toward that model, eBay has struck a deal with the Web retailer Buy.com that allows the company to sell millions of books, DVDs, electronics and other items on eBay without paying the full complement of eBay fees.
The recent change is one of several under eBay's new chief, John Donahoe, that is stirring rancor among the faithful who depend on the site for their livelihood. The deal with Buy.com has added more than five million fixed-price listings to eBay.com since the beginning of the year -- for items from Xbox 360 video game consoles to Weber grills.
Since eBay's search listings favor larger sellers who can add perks like free shipping, which improve their feedback ratings, Buy.com's presence has hurt many smaller sellers who compete in those product categories.
EBay is signaling that its future lies with big, reliable sellers, not the mom-and-pop shops that are objecting so vociferously to the Buy.com deal, said Tim Boyd, an Internet analyst with American Technology Research.
"It's a tragic ending to what was once a warm and fuzzy Silicon Valley story," he said.
EBay says the Buy.com deal will fill gaps in its product offerings while making shopping more predictable. Wall Street will be paying close attention to whether people are indeed buying at eBay.com in greater numbers when eBay reports its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday. This task is made more difficult because while there are more listings, it is not clear that more people are buying.
"Frankly, we are challenging some of the core...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Outraged Icahn Refocuses on Ousting Yahoo Board
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60772
Apparently abandoning hopes for a truce with Yahoo Inc., investor Carl Icahn sharpened his focus on replacing the Internet company's board Monday after his attempt to negotiate a deal with Microsoft Corp. was angrily rejected.
Icahn filed the final nominating papers for a slate of candidates that will oppose Yahoo's current nine directors in a showdown scheduled for an Aug. 1 shareholder vote. In separate letter to Yahoo shareholders, Icahn accused the incumbent board of being more interested in protecting its jobs than evaluating the merits of Microsoft's latest offer for Yahoo's online search operations.
Icahn, who owns a 5 percent stake in Yahoo, also accused the board of misleading shareholders about some aspects of the proposal, which was rebuffed late Saturday.
"Our company is on a precipice and our board seems ready to take the risk of seeing it topple," Icahn wrote to Yahoo shareholders.
Yahoo reiterated its disdain for Microsoft's "ludicrous" offer in its own shareholder letter, which underscored the Silicon Valley company's determination to fend off Icahn's attempted coup.
"We are prepared to let you, our stockholders, not Microsoft and Carl Icahn, decide what is in your best interests and we look forward to the upcoming vote," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and Chief Executive Jerry Yang wrote.
Yang advised Yahoo's employees to brace for even more turbulence during the next few weeks, predicting that Microsoft may make more buyout proposals as Icahn ridicules the board.
"The last few months and weeks have certainly been challenging, and the waters are not likely to calm before our stockholder meeting," Yang wrote in one of two e-mails Monday to Yahoo employees and senior managers.
The standoff caused Yahoo shares to fall $1, or 4.2 percent, to finish at $22.57 in Monday's trading. The stock price had surged 10 percent last week on hopes that Icahn might be able...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Better Computer Chips Raise Laptops' Abilities
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60770
The hot laptop market has sparked a war among computer chip companies -- and they're not just fighting over who can build the fastest processor.
Intel on Monday rolled out Centrino 2, its next-generation laptop chips. Centrino 2 laptops are faster than their predecessors. But their biggest benefits are other features, such as better graphics and battery life.
Advanced Micro Devices, Intel's chief rival, released a similar set of laptop chips last month. Graphics-chip maker Nvidia, best known for desktop components, also rolled out a laptop line.
"It's a big shift," says AMD Vice President Patrick Moorhead. The number of laptops sold will outpace desktops by 2009, Intel CEO Paul Otellini predicts. (Laptop revenue already exceeds desktops, because laptops are usually more expensive.) That's prompting chipmakers to put new emphasis on the problems that arise in small, portable computers.
They include:
*Battery life. The best laptop in the world isn't worth much when its battery dies. Intel's new chip line features an ultra-low-power processor and other energy-saving tools. AMD's chips can detect whether a computer is plugged in and adjust power levels accordingly. (Other features also help.)
*Graphics. Laptops traditionally used low-end graphics chips that piggyback off other components. But now 26 percent have powerful stand-alone graphics chips, says semiconductor analyst Dean McCarron at Mercury Research. Demand has risen as more people watch movies, play games and use graphics-intensive programs such as Google Earth on their laptops, he says.
Nvidia now makes so many laptop chips that when a problem developed in some of them last month, the company said it must take a charge of at least $150 million. AMD's new chip line has a vastly improved graphics processor.
*Wireless Internet. Intel's new chip line features the latest version of Wi-Fi, known as 802.11n. Later this year it plans to roll out chips using a new wireless...
Wed, 16 Jul 08
Tearing Down the iPhone 3G: A Peek at What's Inside
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60768
Not only did Apple sell 1 million iPhone 3Gs in three days, but the company is making a healthy margin on each one sold. That's the conclusion of researchers at market research firm iSuppli, who took apart the new device to learn who made what inside, and how much Apple spent on the parts.
The total cost of materials used inside the latest iPhone is $174.33, a dollar and change higher than the preliminary estimate iSuppli made in June, about two weeks before the phone was actually released. If the analysis is correct, Apple is spending about $53 less on materials than it did with the first iPhone, which iSuppli says costs $227 to make.
After accounting for a subsidy from AT&T, iSuppli reckons Apple makes a per-unit gross profit of 55 percent. That's a fatter margin than other phone manufacturers tend to make on their own handsets and reflects falling component costs and Apple's ability to negotiate a bargain from suppliers. Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, averages 36 percent hardware margins across all its products, while certain high-end models command hardware margins of 45 percent.
Apple sliced $200 from the price of its least expensive iPhone in part through a generous $300 hardware subsidy from AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone. "We think Apple aimed for a more cost-effective design for the 3G version of the iPhone compared to the 2G, in order to lower the retail price," says Andrew Rassweiler, an iSuppli analyst who managed the teardown. "The lower price will encourage adoption and allow Apple to capture more of the market now, while it still has a buzz and a perceived differentiation relative to its competitors."
Many of the companies supplying parts for the latest iPhone have remained the same, iSuppli found. German chipmaker Infineon appears to...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Apple Continues iPhone Hype at One Million Mark
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60764
The hype that began with Apple's iPhone 3G launch Friday continued through the weekend and was almost as loud on Monday, with Apple adding to the fire. The company said it sold more than one million iPhone 3Gs and users downloaded more than 10 million applications from its App Store.
The new iPhone 3G combines all the original features of the iPhone plus 3G networking that is twice as fast, built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software, which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs more than 800 third-party applications available through the new App Store. In the U.S., the new iPhone 3G is priced at $199 for the 8GB model, and $299 for the 16GB model.
The iPhone 3G is selling in 21 countries -- Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the U.S. -- and will go on sale in France on July 17.
"iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world."
Apple also announced that iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded more than 10 million applications from the App Store since its launch late last week. More than 800 native applications are available, with more than 200 offered free and more than 90 percent priced at less than $10.
Developers have created a wide array of mobile applications ranging from games to location-based social networking to medical applications to enterprise productivity tools. Users can wirelessly download applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch and start using them immediately.
"The App...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
No Deal! Yahoo Rejects Icahn-Microsoft Offer No. Two
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60763
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn brokered a meeting Friday evening between Microsoft and Yahoo to consider a new offer. Yahoo balked at Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover offer in February, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ended purchase negotiations in May.
On Saturday, Yahoo rejected Icahn's proposal for Microsoft to buy Yahoo's search business for a guaranteed $2.3 billion per year over a five-year period. Yahoo recently agreed to an $800 million nonexclusive deal deal with Google for search ads, and Microsoft and Icahn wanted an exclusive contract.
The proposal also would have removed Yahoo's board of directors, including CEO Jerry Yang, and replaced them with Icahn's dissident slate.
The situation heated up last week when Icahn, in an open letter to shareholders, revealed he was talking with Microsoft executives. Microsoft had expressed frustration with the process and said it could no longer negotiate directly with Yahoo.
Icahn now wants shareholders to dissolve the current Yahoo board and create one more amenable to a Microsoft deal at the company's annual meeting Aug. 1. The proposal rejected by Yahoo would also have given Icahn, which owns five percent of Yahoo, control of the remainder of Yahoo's business, including e-mail, news and social networking.
Yang charged last week that Microsoft was out to destabilize Yahoo. He also indicated that an Icahn-led board would not be in the best interests of Yahoo.
Shareholders can expect increased attention before the annual meeting at the Freemont Hotel in San Jose, Calif., as Yang and Icahn promote their choices for directors.
Icahn's slate of directors is led by Mark Cuban, a former owner of Broadcast.com. The first priority for an Icahn-led board would be to rescind a poison pill that would allow Yahoo to release new shares of stock at a discount if a hostile party like Microsoft...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Teen Hangout Gaia Online Gets $11M in Venture Capital
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60762
Gaia Online, one of the world's fastest-growing online hangouts for teens, says it has attracted $11 million in a new round of venture funding led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).
"Social networks and virtual worlds are constantly evolving as users become more involved and embedded, and at Gaia Online we are focused on bringing 'Gaians' experiences they will not get anywhere else," said Gaia Online Chief Executive Craig Sherman. "With this capital, we are excited to continue to deliver on this mission, while growing and developing new site elements to support the rapidly increasing interest in Gaia Online."
Gaia's announcement is the latest evidence that investors are betting big on virtual worlds. Venture-capital and media firms shelled out more than $345 million to 39 virtual worlds-related companies through the first six months of 2008, according to Virtual Worlds Management.
Investors think Gaia's growing audience of teenage users will attract companies looking for ad branding and virtual marketing opportunities. According to research firm eMarketer, 53 percent of the 34.3 million child and teen Internet users in the U.S. will be participating in virtual worlds on at least a monthly basis by 2011.
"Gaia Online is one of the most exciting companies that we have seen in the online social-community space," said IVP partner Norm Fogelsong. "We feel that Gaia Online is poised for explosive growth."
The online community has already provided MTV, Nike, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Toyota, Warner Bros, and Xbox with new ways to reach teens and young adults. Gaia Online has just announced a new partnership with Virtual Greats, which holds the multiplatform distribution rights for virtual goods associated with pop-culture icons such as Elvis Presley, Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton, and Snoop Dogg.
"We're always looking for ways to create a deeper, more relevant engagement for our very active community," Sherman...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Palm Offers Treo 800w for Sprint with EV-DO and GPS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60761
Palm released a new business phone for Sprint on Monday -- the Treo 800w, with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. The new model, which Palm described as its "most business-friendly phone yet," supports EV-DO Rev. A, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, and a Global Positioning System.
Sprint said the Treo 800w is its first smartphone to ship with EV-DO Rev. A support, and includes Microsoft's Internet Explorer Mobile.
Microsoft Exchange Server is supported through Direct Push Technology, for automatic updates of e-mail, calendars, contacts and tasks. The 800w is also compatible with Microsoft's System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, for corporate management through mobile VPN.
A local search bar on the home screen is GPS-based, and Wi-Fi can be turned on and off by a switch on the phone. Prices start at $249.99 and, although the announcement was made by Palm and Sprint, the 800w is reportedly not exclusive to Sprint.
Sprint said its mobile broadband network, which reaches more than 246 million people and 16,000 cities, can provide peak download data rates of 3.1 Mbps and peak uploads of 1.8 Mbps on the 800w. Averages, the company said, range from 600 kbps to 1.4 Mbps down and 350 to 500 kbps up.
The 800w features 170MB of user memory, a two-megapixel camera, and support for 8GB MicroSDHC memory cards. The smartphone's 320 x 320 screen is a step up from the 240 x 240 display on other Windows Mobile Treos.
For the media- and socially-inclined, the 800w offers the Sprint TV service, a news application from Handmark, and instant messaging for Yahoo Messenger, AIM and MSN Messenger.
For the dining- and shopping-inclined, the new Treo offers functions for both. Maps, point-to-point directions, and point-of-interest (POI) searches utilize GPS and enhancements to the Palm software. POI search is integrated with contacts, and the turn-by-turn directions are powered...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Hotlines Helpful for Blowing the Whistle on Fraud
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60745
Required for public companies under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, corporate hotlines for whistleblowers have become a big weapon against fraud -- more effective than internal audits. Yet, research shows that companies may not deem them highly effective. Question: What is the No. 1 deterrent to corporate fraud? If you guessed "tips" -- and if this had been a TV game show -- you'd have hit the jackpot.
Most studies consistently show that about a third of the instances of business and workplace fraud that eventually come to light were first disclosed by employees or other key informants blowing the whistle. Most recently, this was confirmed in 2006 by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) in its biennial, in-depth survey. The fraud-busting group found that 34.2 percent of "occupational fraud" -- defined essentially as misusing one's position at an organization for personal economic gain -- was first detected by tipsters.
Tips, according to ACFE's survey, work better at detecting white-collar larceny than a whole panoply of formalized legalistic procedures. Disclosure of fraud from informants outpaces internal audits (20.2 percent), internal controls (19.2 percent) and external audits (12 percent).
None of those more orthodox constraints, moreover, qualified for the second-most-common way that rip-offs are uncovered. A quarter of occupational fraud (25.4 percent) was detected "by accident," according to ACFE.
Together, tips and accidental discovery account for nearly 60 percent of all fraud detection, which speaks to the capricious and serendipitous nature of combating thievery that is often elaborate and technologically sophisticated. Unlike an old-fashioned bank embezzler, who stuffs cash into a valise and blows town, modern defalcation schemes typically involve adding or removing accounting entries into a computer or remitting payments to spurious addresses.
In cases where top company executives or owners concocted a scam, ACFE reports, the percentage of frauds first uncovered by tips alone...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Apple iPhone, Asia Demand Create Touch-Screen Boom
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60744
It's been a good year for touch screens.
The launch of the first iPhone model a year ago boosted interest in the technology tremendously, and the updated model available Friday likely will stoke enthusiasm further. Now touch-screen manufacturers are going flat out, and more devices will soon be controlled by the tip of your finger.
"After the iPhone came out, a lot of mobile-phone companies said 'Oh, I can make that kind of touch-screen mobile phone, too,'" said Jennifer Colegrove, analyst at iSuppli Corp.
In the U.S., Sprint Nextel Corp. just introduced a touch-screen phone, the Samsung Instinct, that's very reminiscent of the iPhone. Verizon Wireless this year introduced its first two phones that use touch screens as their main interface. Research In Motion Ltd. is believed to be making a touch-screen version of the BlackBerry. Sony Ericsson is bringing out its first touch-screen model in a few months.
Jon Mulder, product marketing manager for Sony Ericsson's U.S. arm, said touch screens have become a "hygiene factor" -- a must-have for phones that want to compete in the high end of the U.S. market.
Colegrove projects that 341 million touch screens will be shipped worldwide this year, up from 218 million in 2007 and 81 million in 2006.
In the first half of 2007, before Apple Inc.'s iPhone launched, a big maker of touch sensors for portable electronics would make perhaps a million units per month, Colegrove said. "Then in the second half of 2007, suddenly they received huge orders, so they ramped up their production to maybe three or four million units per month."
Apart from the iPhone, demand for touch screens is driven by new phones in Asia that allow the user to write Chinese or Japanese characters on the screen, usually with the aid of a stylus. That's much easier than entering those characters...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Privacy Protections Disappear with a Judge's Order
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60742
Credit card companies know what you've bought. Phone companies know whom you've called. Electronic toll services know where you've gone. Internet search companies know what you've sought.
It might be reassuring, then, that companies have largely pledged to safeguard these repositories of data about you.
But a recent federal court ruling ordering the disclosure of YouTube viewership records underscores the reality that even the most benevolent company can only do so much to guard your digital life: All their protections can vanish with one stroke of a judge's pen.
"Companies have a tremendous amount of very sensitive data on their customers, and while a company itself may treat that responsibly ... if the court orders it be turned over, there's not a lot that the company that holds the data can do," said Jennifer Urban, a law professor at the University of Southern California.
In the past, court orders and subpoenas have generally been targeted at records on specific individuals. With YouTube, it's far more sweeping, covering all users regardless of whether they have anything to do with the copyright infringement that Viacom Inc., in a $1 billion lawsuit, accuses Google Inc.'s popular video-sharing site of enabling.
It's a scenario privacy activists have long warned about.
"What we're seeing is (that) the theoretical is becoming real world," said Lauren Weinstein, a veteran computer scientist. "The more data you've got, the more data that's going to be there as an attractive kind of treasure chest (for) outside parties."
U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton dismissed privacy arguments as speculative.
Last week, Stanton authorized full access to the YouTube logs -- which few users even realize exist -- after Viacom and other copyright holders argued that they needed the data to prove that their copyright-protected videos for such programs as Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" are more...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Schmidt: Independent Yahoo Better for Competition
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60738
Google Inc. backs Yahoo in its effort to stave off an unsolicited takeover by Microsoft Corp. because an independent Yahoo will increase competition in the Internet search and advertising markets, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said here Thursday.
"We absolutely support the decision that Yahoo made" in rejecting the Microsoft overture, Schmidt said at the annual Allen & Co. media summit at this Idaho resort. He made the comments during an hourlong interview with reporters. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were also present.
"There is no question in our view that an independent Yahoo is better," Schmidt It "will provide more competition in search and other advertising markets, in particular in display advertising," he said.
Google is the leading seller of Internet ads, but most of its revenue comes from paid search ads, which appear next to the results of an Internet search using Google.
Yahoo, which is stronger in display ads, rejected in May a $47.5 billion offer from the world's largest software maker. Schmidt would not say whether the informal offer -- originally made in January for $31 per share, but later increased to $33 per share -- fairly valued Yahoo, but said there is no way to know what the actual bid would ultimately be.
"Microsoft has a long history of having deals that look quite good and end up looking not so good when you read the fine print," he said.
Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates is also in Sun Valley, but has so far ducked reporters' questions. A Microsoft spokesman did not immediately return calls seeing comment.
The software company has indicated recently it would like to reopen talks, but Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang told reporters he didn't expect to meet with anyone from Microsoft at the summit. Yang is trying to fend off activist investor Carl Icahn's...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Business Intelligence: Software Helps Decision Makers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60578
Business intelligence is a method of using software programs to analyze huge amounts of electronic data collected by a federal agency or private company. It is increasingly being used to dig through seemingly unrelated data to find relationships that explain events and predict future ones. Executives can then use that information to plan the agency's strategy to meet its mission.
It's impossible for humans to keep track of the numerous terabytes and petabytes of information in many government data warehouses, or to easily identify trends that are lurking behind the numbers. BI, as it's known, uses software programs to sift through the information to find relationships among data sets that otherwise might go unnoticed. The results can help managers determine better ways to operate an organization, improve products or services, identify which strategies are working or not working, or find other opportunities.
According to the Congressional Research Service report "Data Mining and Homeland security: An Overview," traditional analysis requires someone to develop a hypothesis and then test it based on the data. For example, a hardware store owner might assume that a
customer who buys a hammer also would buy a box of nails, therefore leading the owner to place the nails on a shelf close to where the hammers are hanging. The owner then can measure any increase in sales of nails.
But BI allows users to discover multidimensional relationships that never would have occurred to them. "For example, a hardware store may compare their customers' tool purchases with home ownership, type of automobile driven, age, occupation, income, and/
or distance between residence and the store," the report notes. This in turn could lead the store owner to rethink how the business operates and which products to carry.
For the federal government, BI can help an agency find relationships in its data that could lead...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
The Agent at Home: More Than Wearing Slippers to Work
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60499
"Agent at home" is more than a new buzz phrase or job title that takes business casual dress to an extreme level. Instead, it is becoming a key asset in the contact center industry that is increasing overall contact center performance, agent productivity, and enhancing hiring options for the industry.
"Agent at home" technologies usually include an advanced ACD capability to route calls to the right agent, Web-based or thin client software, and flexible telephony infrastructure such as VoIP or SIP. These technologies enable a contact center worker to perform their duties from anyplace that has a computer with a high-speed Internet connection.
There are many common examples where "agent at home" is a key asset to the contact center
Retaining knowledge workers. These are employees that have a specialized skill or experience set that can be retained and given a more flexible working arrangement using "agent at home" technologies. Nurses, support experts, veterans, stay-at-home moms and semi-retired people are all examples of knowledge workers who can provide their expertise to the contact center and retain a flexible schedule while working from home.
Overflow and seasonal peak volumes. During anticipated high volume call periods, these employees can be used to handle the increased call volumes without actually being in the contact center. Non-contact center employees or outsourced agents using "agent at home" technologies can be deployed quickly to augment the contact center during high volume periods.
Disaster recovery. "Agent at home" can play a central role in disaster recovery plans by ensuring that contact center agents can still perform their duties from any location that has high-speed Internet connectivity.
Regardless of the exact use of "agent at home" technologies, there are some significant benefits to be gained through their use:
Retain talent. Knowledge workers are difficult ID replace; the costs associated with ramping a new...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
The Market Research Industry Is Getting a Makeover
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60395
Taylor Nelson Sofres, a market research company, interviews consumers on behalf of mobile phone makers like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, helping them figure out which buttons, bells and whistles to put on their new devices. After the cell phones reach stores, another market researcher, GfK, takes over, tracking global sales of the devices.
Taylor Nelson Sofres, which is based in London, and GfK, which is controlled by a nonprofit organization based in Nuremberg, want to bring those services together under one roof. But their plan to merge in a deal that would create the second-largest market researcher in the world, after Nielsen, has run into opposition from WPP Group, an advertising company that wants to strengthen its own market research arm, Kantar.
WPP has already made several approaches to TNS, which have been rebuffed, and might make another, higher bid, its chief executive, Martin Sorrell, said during an interview.
The 50-50 merger agreement between GfK and TNS would value the combined company at about pound(s)2 billion, or $3.95 billion. WPP's most recent approach, in May, valued TNS alone at about pound(s)1 billion, though the value has fallen as WPP shares have slipped.
The battle over TNS reflects broader changes that are reshaping the market research industry. Midsize players like TNS, GfK and Kantar are under pressure to find partners to meet multinational marketers' demands for standardized global information. Meanwhile, new companies are springing up, sometimes employing little more than a handful of programmers, to take advantage of a powerful, low-cost research tool, the Internet.
"In three or four years, there will probably be three or four large players and a whole lot of smaller ones," said David Lowden, chief executive of TNS. "The middle will be squeezed out."
According to Morgan Stanley, a combined TNS and GfK would have 14 percent of...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Customer Service Debacles 'R' Us: A Retail Nightmare
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60146
There are some customer service fiascos that make you want to bang your head against the wall. When they come to you courtesy of a mom-and-pop Internet business, all you can do is sigh, heave your shoulders and say, "Well, that's my fault for going with amateurs."
When the debacle is brought to you courtesy of a national chain, it really makes you wonder how the business has managed to keep its doors open and who is running the company's customer service.
Witness the following scenario. Tuesday, April 1st: Upon realizing that my increasingly mobile young child required a play yard for the purpose of her safety, our sanity and the continued mental health of our family cats, I began investigating options. I found one we liked -- the largest available, the Graco Pack 'n Play in Bugs Quilt Totblock. I checked both Walmart.com and Toysrus. com for the item. Neither had the play yard in stock at my local stores, so I was obliged to order it online. I chose Toysrus.com and received an e-
mail confirming my order and informing me the item was in stock.
Tuesday, April 8th: It was at this point, a reasonable week after placing the order, that I began anticipating the arrival of my play yard. To no avail.
Thursday, April 10th: Realizing that my credit card number hadn't been charged yet, an indication that the company had not even begun processing the order, I called the Toys "R" Us customer service number, which has some fine and expensive speech recognition software at the front end (please keep this fact in mind for purposes I will outline later). The agent informed me that for standard ground delivery, it could take up to 10 business days for the item to arrive, so we were still technically within our...
Tue, 15 Jul 08
Fusing Agents with Better Workflow and Processes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=59645
Jacada is a provider of unified desktop and process optimization solutions for customer service operations. The company's solutions, Jacada WorkSpace and Jacada Fusion, are designed to simplify, automate and optimize a call center's work processes across disparate business systems, eliminating inefficiencies and boosting productivity. I recently got a chance to catch up with the company by chatting with Jacada's CEO Paul O'Callaghan.
RT: So how was business in 2007?
PO'C: 2007 was a record year for Jacada. In terms of results, we achieved record revenues of $25.8 million for the year, in line with our annual guidance, and representing 25 percent growth over 2006. This growth was driven by a 57 percent increase in our call center business. On January 1, 2008, we sold our "Application Modernization," or legacy business, to Software AG for $26 million in cash. We are now entirely focused on our call center solutions business, which grew to a record $13.3 million from $8.5 million in the fiscal year 2006. Our cash position is now approximately $56 million.
From a new contract perspective, we had a very successful year. We signed new customer contracts in a number of different verticals, including telecommunications, public utility, financial and insurance services, retail, hospitality/gaming and government. We announced new contracts with O2 UK, Harrahs Entertainment, Station Casinos, Central Hudson Gas & Electric and Lillian Vernon. We also signed new contracts with other major customers we could not mention by name to include a major telecommunications provider in Canada, a premiere telecommunications provider in Eastern Europe, a significant contract with a major, brand name North American insurance company and another large North American public utility.
In 2007, we also signed reseller agreements with Avaya, Accenture and IBM Global Business Services. The partners are currently engaged in promoting our solutions and assisting us in...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Despite Some Glitches, 'Suits' Wait for Apple's iPhone 3G
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60749
Long lines and activation delays marred Friday's debut of Apple's iPhone 3G. Carrier AT&T blamed Apple.
AT&T said in-store iPhone 3G activations stopped at about 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, thanks to issues with the iTunes 7.7 software needed to configure the device. AT&T is recommending that customers activate the smartphones at home. Some analysts are certain the problem is getting blown out of proportion.
"Today's iPhone launch differs a little bit from last year because this is a global launch. This started in New Zealand and will continue on to California," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "You literally have hundreds of thousands of people buying and activating iPhones. I am not surprised that we are seeing some issues with the activation process with some people in some locations. Frankly, that's probably to be expected."
Gartenberg visited both an AT&T store and an Apple store in New York City on Friday. He reported lines were moving along smoothly. However, an AT&T store in midtown ran out of the 16GB iPhone 3G as early as 9 a.m.
Whether consumers wound up disappointed with iPhone shortages after waiting in line, perhaps all night, might depend on where they were standing in line and the luck of the draw.
"At the Apple store I visited, they said they had plenty of iPhones on hand and they were not anticipating shortages. Of course, they didn't know what the demand would be like the rest of the day," Gartenberg said. "They've been selling the new iPhone since 8 a.m. The line was going around the block."
The lines of people around the block would seem to indicate Apple has scored another big hit. But reports of glitches could be a bit of an ugly memory for some consumers.
"Any time...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
FCC Chairman Seeks to Discipline Comcast
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60748
In what may be an early test of enforcing open-access rules for the Internet, the head of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that he will seek to have Comcast punished for violating openness guarantees.
According to the Associated Press, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said his agency "has adopted a set of principles that protects customers' access to the Internet," and Comcast violated those principles. The FCC policy to which Martin refers is a 2005 set of principles.
The violation involved Comcast's blocking of Internet traffic between users exchanging large downloads via a file-sharing application. Martin told AP that Comcast "arbitrarily" blocked access without regard to how much bandwidth was actually being used, and did not tell those customers about the actions.
The FCC chairman was to outline his recommendation for enforcement action to other FCC commissioners Friday, and a vote will be held on August 1. The action would make Comcast cease blocking while informing the FCC about what it has done, and telling consumers what its policies will be.
A spokesperson for Comcast denied it blocks content or services, and said its actions were part of "carefully limited measures" that it takes to make sure all its customers receive quality service.
The FCC's action followed a complaint by Free Press, a nonprofit group that supports network neutrality. Neutrality is the concept that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Some Internet service providers have advocated the ability to adjust charges for either different levels of service or different kinds or levels of content.
Larry Hettick, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, noted that less than 10 percent of Internet consumers use 40 percent or more of Net bandwidth. He noted that this asymmetry raises several questions, such as whether it's fair to the other 90 percent. A...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Rambus Smacks Nvidia with Memory Lawsuit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60747
Rambus has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accusing Nvidia of infringing on its high-speed memory designs. Rambus claims that graphics processors and chipsets in six different Nvidia product lines infringe on 17 Rambus memory technology patents.
"Graphics and multimedia products require leading-edge memory performance, and as Nvidia advances its product portfolio, it infringes more and more of our patents," said Tom Lavelle, senior vice president and general counsel at Rambus. "We are left with no other recourse than litigation to protect and seek fair compensation for the use of our patented inventions."
Rambus said it is seeking injunctive relief barring current and future infringements, together with monetary damages. The company also claims to have long attempted to resolve the matter out of court, but without success.
"For more than six years, we have diligently attempted to negotiate a licensing agreement with Nvidia, but our good-faith efforts have been to no avail," Lavelle said. "Nevertheless, we hope to continue discussions with Nvidia to reach a negotiated settlement."
Nvidia said it was only notified by Rambus about the new lawsuit on the day of its filing. "It's now pending litigation, so we can't make any comments, but we will look at the complaint and respond to it accordingly," said Nvidia spokesperson Calisa Cole.
Lavelle said Rambus first filed a patent application for its memory technology in 1990 and proceeded to teach the industry how to apply that technology, subject to nondisclosure agreements. By invitation, Rambus later joined an industry standard-setting organization called the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) that was developing a DRAM standard.
Memory makers such as Hynix Semiconductor, Micron Technology and Nanya Technology later claimed that Rambus improperly used its membership in JEDEC to establish a monopoly over the technology.
Rambus...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Cuomo: AT&T and AOL Block Child-Porn Newsgroups
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60739
Two more Internet access providers have agreed to eliminate certain newsgroups that contain child pornography and purge their servers of child pornography Web sites in an agreement with state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Thursday's announcement covers AT&T Inc., the nation's largest access provider, and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, the third largest. They follow similar agreements last month with Verizon Communications Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc.
Although the agreements are with New York officials, they are expected to apply to all customers nationwide.
Like the three previously announced providers, both AT&T and AOL are going beyond newsgroups known as Usenet containing child pornography.
AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said the company would disabled all those with addresses starting with "alt.binary," which is where child-porn images are often exchanged. But not all such groups have child pornography.
AOL has agreed to block all Usenet newsgroups -- something the company already stopped offering in 2005 because of shrinking usage of the groups.
All five companies are now agreeing to eliminate child porn images stored by users on the companies' servers -- something they were already required to do by federal law, which criminalizes possession of child pornography. Notification of servers or newsgroups to eliminate could come from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Cuomo's office and customers.
Cuomo also announced a new Web site Thursday, http://www.nystopchildporn.com. The site provides details on which Internet service providers have signed agreements with his office to eradicate access to child porn through their servers.
Cuomo said ISPs can't "drag their feet when it comes to protecting our children and instead must quickly purge child porn from their servers."
The agreements came after investigators from Cuomo's office reviewed millions of pictures over several months and found 88 different newsgroups that contained 11,390 lewd photos of prepubescent children.
Cuomo has used similar investigations and...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
'Fake Steve Jobs' Ends His Parody Blog
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60736
The once-mysterious blogger known as "Fake Steve Jobs" is turning off his iPhone for good.
Daniel Lyons, the former Forbes magazine journalist who wrote the blog "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs" for the last two years, is moving on with his professional life and creative pursuits.
In a final entry Wednesday titled, "I'm sailing away," the author, who is moving to Newsweek as a technology columnist this fall, said he was shutting down the popular parody of the life of the Apple chief executive and starting a new blog under his own name.
Lyons said he had grown tired of his fictional creation, but mainly he was worried about making fun of a real person whose health had been a recent topic of speculation. Jobs said he was healthy in response to a reporter's question last month.
"I tried transitioning to other voices, like Jerry Yang's, but it just didn't work," Lyons said, referring to the embattled Yahoo chief. "It seems clear that people reading the blog wanted to read Fake Steve or nothing."
For Jobs's online doppelgnger, the lights are dimming on a creation that once captivated the technology world. Publishing pseudonymously until an article in The New York Times revealed his identity last summer, Lyons wrote with insight and hyperbole about Jobs's tyrannical moodiness at Apple and the fictional antics of other high-profile technology figures, including Steven Ballmer of Microsoft and Larry Ellison of Oracle.
An industrywide guessing game as to the identity of "Fake Steve" ensued, with the real Jobs and Microsoft's Bill Gates weighing in.
Lyons translated the appeal of his blog into a novel, "Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody," published in October by Da Capo Press, and he is writing a screenplay based on the book for a Hollywood production house, Media Rights Capital....
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Microsoft Likely To Cut $50 Off U.S. Price of Xbox 360
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60730
Microsoft will cut the U.S. price of its Xbox 360 gaming console by $50, from $349 to $299, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company has already slashed the price by $50 in New Zealand and Australia, and U.S. gaming blogs have been predicting a similar move to boost sales.
The software giant could not immediately be reached for comment, but the Journal cited people familiar with the matter in reporting that Microsoft will reduce the price for the version of the Xbox 360 with a 20GB hard drive as early as Sunday. In fact, the Journal said the lower-priced console is expected to be widely advertised in Sunday advertisements for electronics stores.
Michael Cai, a video-game analyst at Parks Associates, said the price cut could lead to a summer sales boost. Microsoft, he said, needed to stimulate gamer interest in the console, and now is the right time for a price cut.
Ironically, although the video-game industry is reporting one of its strongest sales periods in history, Cai said Grand Theft Auto IV didn't do much to help console sales. NPD Group reports game sales in May climbed 41 percent to $537 million. Launches of highly anticipated titles like Guitar Hero, GTA IV and Wii Fit have been a boon to the industry.
"GTA IV didn't help much and there isn't a killer game on the horizon -- no pun intended," Cai quipped. Parks Associates' study of 2,000 U.S. Internet gamers, Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home II, reports that consumers interested in buying a console are more interested in Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 than the Xbox 360. Among those who intend to purchase a console, 38 percent ranked Wii as their No. 1 choice, followed by PS3 at 31 percent, and Xbox 360 at 19...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Combating Computer Rage: Easing Cyber Stress
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60723
Along with road rage, therapists now treat "computer rage."
Nearly 2,000 complaints against Dell have been made to New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, recently prompting a state judge to order the computer retailer to more clearly disclose, among other revelations, that most consumers don't qualify for "next day" repair service. Even more complaints about the Xbox 360 video game system have been reported to the Better Business Bureau.
If you're one of the [many] struggling with the Xbox 360, a relatively new Windows Vista operating system and laptops from the firm that rhymes with "hell" -- meet Robert S. Swiatek, a tall computer software consultant from Amherst who has worked for decades at major corporations locally and throughout the country.
Swiatek has debugged computer problems at companies like Blue Cross/Blue Shield, helped with programming puzzles at places like Citibank, Keycorp and Welch's Foods, and did consulting work with firms ranging from Nestle Foods to Sea World to Xerox Corp.
Now he is calling for a revamping of technology.
Swiatek has analyzed systems, designed them and written computer programs in various languages. He's also worked on mainframe computers as well as microcomputers and minicomputers. And yet, even with his expertise, Swiatek says he personally continues "to suffer the defects of personal computers and the Internet."
"Technology needs a huge revamping," declares Swiatek, who holds a master's degree in computer science from Binghamton State University's School of Advance Technology, another math master's from the University at Buffalo, with an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Canisius College.
"First of all," says the former high school math teacher, "technology has to be user-friendly."
He feels we're living a version of "the-technocrat-has-no-clothes" that few people discuss.
"I cannot understand how any programmer would accept a paycheck with all the defects in what he produces. Some people call these things challenges, but I...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Online 'Open Textbooks' See College Doors Opening
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60719
As textbook prices skyrocket, college students and faculty seeking more affordable options increasingly are turning to "open textbooks" as an alternative.
Open textbooks are free textbooks available online that are licensed to allow users to download, customize and print any part of the text. Professors can change content to fit their teaching styles. Some authors offer a print-on-demand service that produces professionally bound copies for $10 to $20.
Textbook prices have outpaced inflation 2-to-1 in the past two decades, says a 2005 report by the Government Accountability Office. They account for 26% of tuition and fees at four-year public universities and nearly three-quarters of costs at community colleges, the GAO says.
Open textbooks can change the way textbooks are used, produced and sold, says Nicole Allen, director of the Make Textbooks Affordable campaign by Student Public Interest Research Groups.
The non-profit student advocacy network has been pushing for open textbooks since 2003, hoping the format catches on so prices will decrease and bring some relief.
"The way we're going to lower prices in the long run is by giving viable options," Allen says. "Right now the publishers have a stronghold on the market. What we're trying to do is expand the market and instigate a market shift."
Allen is leading an effort to gather signatures for an Open Textbook Statement of Intent, which asks faculty to consider using open textbooks. The statement (published at www.maketextbooksaffordable.org) has more than 1,200 signatures from faculty in all 50 states in schools ranging from community colleges to four-year universities to graduate schools.
In California, the Foothill-De Anza Community College District is beginning a project that will train professors to find and use open resources. The goal is to have participants eventually produce their own open textbooks.
Some in the publishing industry have noticed the trend.
Eric Frank spent seven years working for Pearson...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
AOL: Fees Up 20 Percent for Some Plans with Phone Help
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60713
If you're still paying for AOL, your bill may be going up 20 percent this month.
AOL's cheapest dial-up Internet access plan is going from $9.99 to $11.99 to offset costs of round-the-clock help by telephone. Subscribers can keep the $9.99 rate if they forgo full phone support, but they must actively change their plans to avoid an automatic price increase.
Millions of AOL users have already ditched subscription plans entirely now that the company is giving away free AOL.com e-mail accounts and other features as part of a push to generate more revenue from its free, ad-supported Web sites.
AOL's parent company, Time Warner Inc., is even working on splitting its access and advertising businesses, a move that could lead to the sale of one or both.
As of March 31, AOL had 8.7 million U.S. subscribers for Internet access, fewer than a third of its peak of 26.7 million in 2002. AOL no longer breaks down subscribers by pricing plan, though it said most are on a $25.90 premium plan, which remains unchanged.
The low-end plan offers either unlimited dial-up access with basic security software, or 10 hours of dial-up with additional security services.
Even with the price increase, AOL's plans are still competitive. EarthLink Inc.'s cheapest dial-up plan, at $12.50 a month, requires a year of prepayment, while United Online Inc.'s Juno and NetZero $9.95 services charge for phone help -- Juno also requires a year's commitment.
Of course, if you have no need for dial-up access or extras like technical support, you can cancel your account and still keep your e-mail address.
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Gmail Allowing Remote Log-Off in Case You Forget
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60712
One of the benefits of Web-based e-mail is the ability to log on from just about anywhere -- at home, at work, a friend's house, a mobile device or even a public library or cybercafe.
But what if you forget to log off? Someone else who encounters an active session not only can read your personal correspondences, but they also can use that account to grab your passwords from many online services that offer to send reminders via e-mail.
Google Inc.'s Gmail service is trying to address that by letting you know if you're still logged on elsewhere and giving you a chance to disconnect remotely.
At the bottom of a Gmail inbox is a small notice of other active sessions. The new feature, being rolled out to users in waves, also offers some information on the time and location of recent Gmail activities.
The notification is bound to be useful, though it's by no means foolproof. You have to be log on somewhere to learn of other active sessions, and you have to look carefully for that notice. And if you have chosen to save your password on the other computer, someone else can simply log back on unless you change it.
But the feature does offer an extra level of comfort.
"Usually I remember to sign out, but every once in a while I wonder if I really did," Gmail engineer Erwin D'Souza wrote on a company blog. "Now I no longer have to wonder."
Other major Web e-mail providers -- Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL -- also allow simultaneous sessions, but they do not provide similar notice or ability to remotely log off. However, AOL does have a setting forcing automatic logoff after as little as 30 minutes of inactivity. Microsoft said Hotmail will ask for a password if the...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Murdoch: No Deals for News Corp. in Sun Valley
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60711
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch plans to forgo making deals at this year's Allen & Co. media retreat, dampening the five-day event renowned as an incubator for big-time media and Web combinations.
"Not today, not this week," Murdoch told reporters Wednesday morning on his way to the annual retreat's opening breakfast. Murdoch built his media and entertainment empire through brash dealmaking at Sun Valley and elsewhere, including last year's purchase of Dow Jones Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal.
Murdoch's presence signifies the importance of the Allen event, but his certainty that no deals are afoot underscores the uneasy times facing many media and Web moguls.
Many of them arrived this year at the closed event with their stock prices at multiyear lows as investors increasingly question how media companies are addressing the loss of advertising revenue to the Web and as Internet firms try to maximize their investments.
Much of the talk at the retreat so far has centered on speculation over the next move in the complex takeover dance between faltering Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc. and its unbidden suitor, Microsoft Corp.
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who rejected a $33-per-share bid from the world's largest software maker in May, saying the company he helped found is worth $37 per share, isn't expected to arrive until Thursday. And billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who owns about 4 percent of Yahoo and has been agitating for a sale, isn't expected at all. Icahn reportedly bought his stake for $25 per share.
Microsoft Corp. dealmaker Henry Vigil, head of strategy and development, looked overwhelmed as photographers circled him when he arrived Tuesday. He did not answer questions from reporters.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is expected Friday.
Bill Miller, whose Legg Mason Capital Management Inc. owns just over 5 percent of Yahoo, said Icahn, who is trying to unseat Yang by...
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Verizon Settles Suit Over Early Termination Fees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60710
Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay $21 million to settle a lawsuit filed by California customers upset with the company's early termination fees, a lawyer on the case said Wednesday.
Many details of the settlement still need to be worked out and authorized by an Alameda County Superior Court judge, said Alan Plutzik, an attorney for the customers.
"We are recovering cash" that would "be available" to Verizon mobile phone customers who paid fees to end their contracts early, Plutzik said.
Plutzik said its unclear how many Verizon customers will be eligible to share in the settlement, a decision that will ultimately be up to the judge. A spokesman for Verizon Communications Inc. could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Telecommunications companies charge early termination fees that can range from $150 to $225 when customers cancel their service contracts before they expire.
Wireless companies have said they must charge the fees to recover the cost of cell phones, which they subsidize when they sign up customers for new long-term service contracts.
Customers of six companies sued the carriers in 2006 in Alameda County Superior Court alleging that the fees violate California law.
Sprint Nextel Corp. faced trial first in Alameda County Superior Court last month. Judge Bonnie Sabraw has not yet issued her decision on the legality of the fees in California in that case.
Jury selection began last month in Verizon's trial, which will be halted now that an agreement has been reached. AT&T Inc. is next up for trial, Plutznik said.
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin last month laid out a plan to regulate the fees, saying he was skeptical that the lawsuits would adequately resolve all pending issues about the unpopular fees. The industry supports Martin's proposal to prorate the fees in exchange for immunity from state lawsuits.
Sat, 12 Jul 08
Japan Backs Joint Display Technology Research
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60709
The Japanese government said Thursday it will support Sony Corp., Sharp Corp. and other domestic companies in joint development of super-thin TVs based on organic light-emitting diodes.
The group will aim to develop a 40-inch OLED display sometime after 2015, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, or NEDO, said in a statement. NEDO is a Japan government agency that promotes research into new technologies.
OLEDs use light-emitting organic compounds similar to those found in fireflies. TVs using OLEDs don't require a backlight and can be made thinner than those based on traditional liquid crystal or plasma displays.
The technology is still young, but Japanese manufacturers are eager to get the jump on South Korean TV heavyweights such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Display Co.
Last year Sony introduced the first OLED TV for the commercial market -- an 11-inch TV with a screen just 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) thick. The TV went on sale at roughly 10 times the price of comparable LCD models.
Sony is working to mass produce a 20-inch model by next year and has pegged the technology as a key to regaining its elite status as an electronics innovator. The company will now work with some of its biggest rivals in development, but spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa said it will keep advanced technologies in-house.
Kitsukawa said Sony was keen to work with component makers and companies that will produce manufacturing equipment.
"OLED TVs won't take off if we don't foster an infrastructure like the one that exists for LCDs," he said.
Sharp is taking a longer view on OLED TVs and has no fixed plans for commercial production. The company has invested heavily in LCD manufacturing and believes it will remain the dominant technology for at least the next 10 years, spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said.
The joint research is to run from this...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
MobileMe Debuts in Advance of Apple's iPhone 3G
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60729
Apple had some trouble rolling out its MobileMe site on Thursday to replace its .Mac online subscription service. The .Mac site was shut down Wednesday evening to migrate users to MobileMe, but problems reportedly kept the new service offline longer than expected.
The rollout came in advance of Apple's release of the new iPhone 3G on Friday. MobileMe will let subscribers store and automatically synchronize e-mail, contacts and calendars between iPhones, Macs, PCs and iPods. The service includes 20GB of storage, double the amount available under the .Mac name.
Apple is positioning MobileMe as the answer to Microsoft Exchange for enterprise iPhone users. The service at me.com is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2003 or newer, Outlook Express, and Windows Contacts. For Macs, the service works with Mail, Address Book and iCal.
"MobileMe is suited for the 3G network," said Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "Coupling the rollout of the iPhone and MobileMe is more than marketing. Consumers who get 3G iPhones will upload and download a lot of rich data like pictures and e-mail attachments; on the 2G iPhone the end-user experience would be painfully slow if it's not over Wi-Fi. The combination of the 3G iPhone and MobileMe, both optimized to run on a fast 3G network, makes a difference in their experience."
"A challenge for Apple is to migrate consumers who use core features of Exchange and already manage their calendar and contacts on their computers in an integrated way," he added. "For those not currently using Exchange, it might be more difficult for them to understand the core value proposition for syncing the management components of their life digitally."
MobileMe might also appeal to Mac users and even encourage others to become Mac users, said Shiv K. Bakhshi, director of IDC mobility research. "MobileMe...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Microsoft, Google Back Broad Privacy Legislation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60727
Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. told lawmakers Wednesday that Congress should pass basic privacy legislation to protect information about consumers, such as the data being gathered about people's Web surfing habits in order to pinpoint Internet advertising.
At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on online advertising, representatives of the two technology rivals said meaningful privacy rules should be based on three core principles: Consumers should be clearly notified what information is being collected about them; people should control how that information is used; and such data should be secured to ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands.
The Commerce Committee held its hearing amid mounting concern about the volume of personal information being gathered about consumers as they surf the Web -- including the sites they visit and the search terms they look up -- as well as the many ways that information is mined to deliver targeted ads. One focus of the hearing was a small Silicon Valley startup called NebuAd Inc., which works with Internet service providers to track many of their subscribers' online interests and serve up targeted ads based on that behavior.
While Congress has not taken up a comprehensive privacy bill, privacy watchdogs are hoping that Wednesday's hearing could lay the foundation for eventual legislation. North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan, who chaired the panel, pledged more hearings.
"The Internet brings the world to your fingertips ... but I would hope that every consumer traveling on the Internet would have the opportunity to understand what kind of information trail they are leaving behind," Dorgan said.
The Senate hearing also came as the Federal Trade Commission is working to draft a framework by which online advertising companies can regulate themselves. Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC's bureau of consumer protection, told the panel that "self-regulation is the best approach" to...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
DNS Security Flaw Secretly Patched by Multiple Vendors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60726
The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) has disclosed the discovery of defects in an essential component of everyday Internet operations.
The flaw was found at the heart of the Domain Name System -- the Internet "phone book" for translating Web URLs into the numerical IP addresses that networking computers use to deliver information. According to CERT, hackers could use a technique called DNS cache poisoning to place forged DNS data into the cache of a name server at any Internet domain.
"An attacker with the ability to conduct a successful cache-poisoning attack can cause a name server's clients to contact the incorrect, and possibly malicious, hosts for particular services," CERT said. "Consequently, web traffic, e-mail and other important network data can be redirected to systems under the attacker's control."
The underlying DNS defects were brought to CERT's attention by Internet security expert Dan Kaminsky, the director of penetration testing at IOActive.
"There's a bug in DNS, the name-to-address mapping system at the core of most Internet services," Kaminsky said. If "DNS goes bad, every Web site goes bad, and every e-mail goes somewhere," but "not where it was supposed to," he added.
Software companies across the industry have been quietly collaborating to simultaneously release patches for virtually all the affected name servers, Kaminsky said. "We got everyone into a room and hammered out a plan," he recalled in a blog. "After an enormous and secret effort, we've got fixes for all major platforms, all out on the same day."
However, the specific nature of the vulnerability is still being kept under wraps to prevent hackers from knowing precisely where to look.
"This is actually a flaw in the core of DNS itself," Kaminsky said in a recent network security podcast. "What this means is that it isn't something...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
iPhone Owners May Not Need Apple's New 3G Model
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60724
The Apple iPhone will account for 6.3 million of the 18.1 million touchscreen phones sold in the U.S. this year, for an impressive 35 percent market share, according to Strategy Analytics.
"We expect the release of the heavily subsidized 3G iPhone 2.0 on July 11th to catalyze a healthy spurt in touchscreen volumes during the second half of the year," said Strategy Analytics analyst Bonny Joy.
The only question is, which version of the iconic phone will you own? Doubtless, many first-generation iPhone users are likely to upgrade to the latest 3G model. But some analysts are suggesting that, unless you want the speed boost and the GPS capabilities, you may not need to spend money on the new device.
"Most of the original challenges with the iPhone were software-related, not hardware-related," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "Yes, people would be happier with longer battery life and a replaceable battery, but Apple fans can deal with a non-replaceable battery. With the software update Apple is issuing, you don't necessarily need to buy a new iPhone."
Gartenberg is not saying the iPhone 3G doesn't offer some compelling upgrades. The new iPhone 3G is twice as fast with built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services. But the iPhone 2.0 software that includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs hundreds of third-party applications is compatible with first-generation iPhones.
More than 500 native iPhone applications are available for immediate purchase and download at Apple's App Store, and more than 125 applications are being offered to iPhone customers for free. Many of these new applications take advantage of the iPhone's large display, multi-touch user interface, 3-D graphics, built-in accelerometer and location-based technology.
The iPhone 2.0 software update includes enterprise support, contact search, complete iWork and MS Office document-viewing support, the abilities to delete or move...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Apple Opens App Store for iPhones with 2.0 Software
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60701
Apple's new App Store turned on its virtual lights Thursday, featuring third-party applications for the iPhone and the iPod. The store is intended to support developers who are creating applications for the iPhone. The store is also reportedly helping developers get their products into final shape.
Developers can reportedly select any price they want for their products, as long as it ends in 99 cents -- $1.99, $49.99, and so on. Developers can also offer their products for free. To track sales, developers will be able to use iTunes Connect, just as bands and artists do. Payment will be made by Apple when the amount reaches $250 or more.
Already, the store has hundreds of apps, a number of which are free. The free ones include AOL's AIM instant-messaging client, Google Mobile, Typepad, an iPhone version of Twitter, and Apple's Remote for controlling iTunes remotely.
Other applications include a MySpace updater, which allows you to see changes in your MySpace friends' activities or to post photos from the iPhone directly to the social-networking site. Pandora has an app that allows the creation of customized Internet radio stations.
eBay has an auction app that allows users to browse auction photos and place bids from the iPhone, using its multi-touch capabilities. The Super Monkey Ball game enables a player to roll and tilt the action with the iPhone's built-in accelerometer, and Loopt lets you find where your friends are on a map, using location feeds.
According to USA Today, the store's offerings number more than 500. The paper quotes Apple CEO Steve Jobs as saying that with those many products, the store's launch "is the biggest launch of my career."
Some observers have noted that the proliferation of third-party apps, together with a centralized channel for sales and distribution, could strengthen...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Yahoo BOSS Opens Search Technology to Developers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60700
In a move to build partnerships with third-party developers, Yahoo on Thursday introduced a new open Web services platform. Yahoo Search BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) gives outside developers unprecedented access to Yahoo's search technology, including the ability to re-rank and control the presentation of results.
Yahoo launched BOSS as an API in beta and said it will enable developers and companies to build world-class custom search experiences and disrupt the search industry.
BOSS extends Yahoo's Open Strategy by giving developers access to its search infrastructure. This builds on the recent launch of Yahoo's SearchMonkey developer platform, which opened up the Yahoo search-results page to allow site owners and developers to create enhanced search results.
"Today, the search market is generally limited to three major search engines to drive innovation and growth," said Prabhakar Raghavan, chief strategist for Yahoo Search. "BOSS opens up the playing field for developers and companies to disrupt the search market, become principals in search and build new Web search experiences that offer more choice for users."
Yahoo said BOSS will make it more economical for companies to build Web-scale search experiences. BOSS will also generate revenue for Yahoo's partners. Over the next several months, Yahoo plans to introduce a BOSS monetization capability using Yahoo search advertising and potentially other models to create a search revenue stream.
From a design perspective, BOSS lets developers control the presentation and ranking of Web search results as well as unlimited queries per day. Its framework allows developers to blend Yahoo Search results from Web, news and image indexes with any data source from across the Web. Over time, the company said other Yahoo Search indexes will become available.
BOSS will offer two options for companies and developers. Immediately, developers can begin using the BOSS self-service API and the mashup framework...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Case Study: Enterprise Deploys Fiber-Optic Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60697
The Alameda County Fair Association knew it needed a long-term infrastructure solution to solve its antiquated network issues. Alameda County Fair Association Chief Financial Officer Randy Magee and maintenance supervisor Ed Johnson [examined] plans for the
next phase of the fiber-optic network at the nation's oldest one-mile horse racetrack. The historic fairgrounds needed a solution that could support today's changing technology.
The country's oldest one-mile horse racetrack sits among 267 acres of high fairgrounds maintained by the Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association. Today, jockeys and trainers run their horses on the same grounds once used by champion racehorse Seabiscuit. Each year, this Northern California site 30 miles outside of San Francisco opens its gates to the Alameda County Fair, which has attracted people from around the county since 1858.
Though history is part of the fairgrounds' charm, its age was creating obstacles as the association sought to incorporate new technologies into the fairgrounds' antiquated copper network. Dropped calls, connectivity failures and slow-loading network applications were taking their toll on the association's daily operations. Limited bandwidth and monthly DSL service charges created additional inconvenience and expense.
Though he had part-time help from an external IT company, fairgrounds maintenance supervisor Ed Johnson needed a long-term infrastructure solution. "I like to be self-reliant," Johnson says. "I don't want to wait for help." Johnson had his work cut out for him. The copper-structured cabling system lacked a central backbone to connect the more than 30 buildings scattered throughout the fairgrounds. Upon inspection, Johnson discovered that about 30 percent of the copper wiring was unusable, while about 20 percent was in marginal condition.
"It was a matter of, are we going to pull all this old wire out and start from scratch, or are we going to work with what we have," Johnson says.
The association's needs went far beyond...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Data Storage Products Roundup: A Look at the Latest Offerings
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60696
Infortrend's 16-bay SAS-to-SAS/SATA RAID arrays include the single-controller EonStor S16S-G1030 and the dual-controller EonSfor S76S-R1030. The 3LJ arrays feature four SAS host ports that provide 12 Gbps of bandwidth per port. Via expansion units, the arrays can support up to 80 TB with 1-TB SATA drives. The arrays support RAID levels 0, 1(0+1), 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50 and 60.
Designed to work with existing hardware, operating systems and applications, Business Continuity Server version 2.6 helps manage the demand for continuous availability and data protection, while offering thin-provisioning capabilities to minimize storage requirements. The solution protects SQL, Exchange and Windows file-server applications and data by capturing and indexing all data events to create a virtualized data store, which allows instant recovery to any point in time. [From] Asempra Technologies.
Offering centralized network storage for up to 200 users, the six-bay gigabit network-attached storage appliance ReadyNAS Pro series includes the 1.5-TB RNDP6350, the 3-TB RNDP6310 and the 6-TB RNDP6610, which allow users across the LAN or WAN to store, back up and share digital data from Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.
Supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and auto-expandable X-RAID2, the systems provide protection against single disk failure and include dual redundant Gigabit Ethernet ports for failover protection. [From] Netgear.
Utilizing an event-driven policy engine, the Archive Facilitator discovers, classifies and moves fixed content to archival storage to free space on primary storage. The system scans, manages and classifies data based on frequency of access, last time modified, age, size, type and location. The appliance offers flexible tag/link migration policies to handle end-user and application requests for archived data by recalling data or redirecting requests to the archive appliance. [From] PowerFile.
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Network File Systems Offer Virtualization Benefits
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60695
New appliances provide an alternative to typical Fibre Channel and iSCSI approaches. Running virtual machines on network file systems (NFS) provides a number of architectural advantages, starting with the fact that virtual machines use files to store their image information. Since network-attached storage (NAS) systems are built from the ground up for file management, the administrative time and resources to oversee a large number of virtual machine files is less than what is required to manually assign and place those files on individual logical unit numbers (LUNs).
New offerings, such as scalable caching appliances, now allow customers to extract more performance out of their existing NAS and NFS infrastructure. In fact, there are environments where NFS can perform as fast, if not faster, than other storage solutions based on Fibre Channel or iSCSI. By deploying NAS and NFS storage solutions, administrators can forgo many of the complexities associated with maintaining separate Fibre Channel adapters, switches and storage systems.
The necessity of Fibre Channel adapters is also one of the biggest problems in virtual environments, since rack-mounted servers often have a limited number of slots available for adapter cards. An Ethernet and IP-based solution avoids excessive adapters and can make effective use of embedded Gigabit Ethernet ports on the motherboard.
When provisioning virtual disks with NFS, new data stores can be added quickly by mounting a file system. There is no need to create or provision LUNs, as is the case with Fibre Channel or iSCSI data stores. In addition, some NFS systems allow for expanding and decreasing NFS volumes on the fly, and incorporate thin provisioning features by default, saving disk space. Users also can provision new virtual disks from an NFS snapshot, allowing rapid deployment of new virtual disks from a copy/snapshot of an existing virtual disk.
Managing virtual disks is typically...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Larger Enterprises Are Migrating to SaaS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60693
More than half of Fortune 500 and other large enterprises expect to spend more than previously or the same on software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for their organization in the future. More than seven out of 10 (73 percent) of the 100 executives interviewed in a survey conducted by Kelton Research stated their enterprise has adopted SaaS or plans to adopt SaaS within the next 18 months.
The survey also indicated that confidence in SaaS solutions in the largest global enterprises is gaining ground. The survey was commissioned by Acumen Solutions, a business and technology consulting firm. Among the findings in the survey are:
* Subscription costs? No big deal. Just more than one in five (21 percent) execs say the subscription fees are an issue vs. the old model of a one-time cost that depreciated over time.
* They are budgeting for it. A majority (55 percent) plan to spend the same amount of money-if not more-on their on-demand software in the future.
Large enterprises, such as global financial institutions or multinational telecommunications companies, have invested heavily in technology over the past decade to support software implementations from "cradle to grave." Expensive software licenses, months of development time to create customized applications, quality assurance testing, and then ongoing maintenance and hosting of business applications involve millions of dollars and a large part of their ongoing budget expenditure every year. Championed by such companies as Salesforce.com, WebEx, Oracle and Google, SaaS delivers services on demand over the Internet on a subscription basis.
SaaS allows organizations to launch software for business functions almost immediately, while maintaining the ability to customize the software in the future for their specific business needs. With a pricing model based on monthly user fees, the initial cost of entry for an organization to launch a new software application is often significantly...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Backing Up Isn't Hard to Do with PC Backup
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60692
Just as the first three rules of real estate are location, location, location (at least they were before the housing bubble burst), the first three rules of safe computing are backup, backup, backup.
The fourth rule is installing and updating an antivirus program. We can't help you if you're behind in your mortgage payments, but I can help you safeguard your most precious files.
PC Backup is an inexpensive, rock-solid program that requires little of your time, and can save the files you value the most: financial, photos, documents, bank statements that you've downloaded -- just about any file that can't be replaced when (not if) your hard
drive decides it's had enough of your abuse.
Hard drives, even the newest ones, which can hold zillions of files, seem to crash moments before you were planning to back up your hard drive. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that next to getting caught by a red light camera, one of the worst non-
violent things that you can experience is losing everything to a hard drive crash.
Trying to retrieve your data is expensive and often fruitless. Which is why PC Backup could be your best friend. It's easy to set up and use. You choose which files you want to back up and where you want them backed up: external hard drive, USB drive, secure digital card -- in short, anything that you can plug into or attach to your PC.
If you want to back up files every two minutes, go for it. Or you can schedule a daily backup, hourly or anything in between.
After my initial backup, I configured the program to back up files as they're modified. Each time I saved this column to my hard drive, it was automatically backed up to an external hard drive. It doesn't get much...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Court Keeps Cell Tower Backup Rules on Hold
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60690
More than a year after they were introduced, federal rules intended to keep cell phone towers operating during natural disasters remain in limbo.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday put off deciding on the wireless industry's challenge to the regulations until the Federal Communications Commission gets preliminary clearance for the rules.
After a panel of experts appointed by the FCC pointed out that many cell towers along the Gulf Coast stopped working when they lost power during Hurricane Katrina, the agency proposed in May 2007 that all cell towers have a minimum of eight hours of backup power that would switch on in the event a tower lost its regular energy source.
The loss of power contributed to communication breakdowns that complicated rescue and recovery efforts during the 2005 disaster.
Wireless companies have said the regulations were illegally drafted and would present a huge economic and bureaucratic burden. In particular, they said, the thousands of generators or battery packs required would be expensive and local zoning rules or structural limitations could make installation impossible in some places.
The FCC agreed in October to exempt cell sites that a wireless carrier proved couldn't meet the rules. The FCC would give companies six months to report on the feasibility of installing backup power and another six months either to bring sites into compliance or explain how they would provide backup service through other means, such as portable cellular transmitters.
CTIA-The Wireless Association, Sprint Nextel Corp. and others asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., this year to intervene, saying the exemptions would still leave wireless companies scrambling to inspect and compile reports on thousands of towers.
The appeals court put the rules on hold while it heard each sides' arguments in May.
On Tuesday, it noted that the FCC has yet to get clearance for the rules from...
Fri, 11 Jul 08
Japan's Apple Fans Camp Out for iPhone 3G Launch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60683
Hiroyuki Sano hadn't blown out any candles as of Wednesday, but his birthday wish had already come true when he landed at the head of the line to buy Japan's first iPhones.
The graduate student from Nagoya, who turns 25 this week, wanted an iPhone so badly that he ditched class and headed 160 miles northeast to Tokyo. He showed up in front of mobile carrier Softbank Corp.'s flagship store in the trendy Omotesando district at 6 a.m. Tuesday and began the 73-hour wait until Apple's much-hyped handset goes on sale at 7 a.m. Friday.
A longtime Apple fan, he brought along his MacPro laptop and iPod, as well as a change of clothes, an umbrella, snacks and a folding chair. He even got permission to skip school.
"My professor is a big Apple fan, so when I told him I wanted to come line up for the iPhone, he told me to go for it," said Sano, wearing an Apple T-shirt. "My mom told me I was crazy."
About 15 other iPhone enthusiasts had joined Sano in line as of Wednesday morning, willing to endure sleepless nights, rain and boredom to get their hands on a device that hasn't been available in Japan until now. The previous generation of iPhones, which operated on GSM-based networks, were incompatible with Japanese systems.
Softbank, Japan's No. 3 mobile phone company, won the coveted right to sell the new 3G version and will launch nationwide sales at noon Friday. Its shop in Omotesando will open five hours earlier and devote Friday, Saturday and Sunday solely to the iPhone, said company spokesman Naoki Nakayama.
Nakayama declined to reveal how many iPhones Softbank expects to sell or how many units it will have on hand at the store. The company is limiting sales to one unit per customer.
When the iPhone 3G...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Microsoft Outlines Enterprise and Worker Online Suites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60698
At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston this month, attendees received new details about the software giant's push into the realm of SaaS (software as a service).
Tailored to meet the needs of an entire workforce, the Microsoft Online Services platform is designed to delivers enterprise-class software to businesses of all sizes -- from employees using a PC infrequently to information workers in need of more advanced capabilities, said Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division.
"Microsoft Online Services is a key component of the software plus services initiative, and we're seeing customers, partners and even competitors embrace this flexible approach to the cloud," Elop explained. "Our vision is that everything you can do with our on-site servers, you will be able to do with our online services."
The Microsoft Online Services lineup, which will be hosted by Microsoft and sold through partners, includes Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office SharePoint, Microsoft Office Communications, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The smorgasbord of enterprise-class applications is being made available under two separately priced software suites. Customers will also be able to subscribe to individual service components a la carte.
Microsoft's Business Productivity Suite for information workers will deliver enterprise-class communication and collaboration software as a subscription service. The suite integrates Dynamics CRM and Exchange e-mail and calendar capabilities with Office SharePoint and Live Meeting conferencing for $15 per user, per month.
The second suite, called Deskless Worker Online, incorporates online versions of Exchange and SharePoint and will be offered to businesses of all sizes for $3 per user, per month. The suite will include Outlook Web Access Light for corporate e-mail along with easy access to SharePoint portal and team sites and search functionality -- including read-only access to company information on policies, training and benefits.
Thu, 10 Jul 08
VMware Shares Plunge on CEO Change, Slowing Growth
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60689
VMware Inc. abruptly replaced co-founder Diane Greene as chief executive Tuesday and lowered its sales outlook, triggering alarms that pounded the business software maker's shares to their lowest depths since the company's lucrative public offering 11 months ago.
Former Microsoft Corp. executive Paul Maritz took over as VMware's new leader. In the past few months, Maritz had been running a division of VMware's controlling shareholder, data storage specialist EMC Corp.
VMware didn't provide any explanation for the sudden change in command. The Palo Alto-based company didn't return phone calls.
Greene, who was eligible for a $750,000 bonus to supplement her $750,000 salary, had been working under a one-year contract scheduled to expire at the end of this month. She also has had an uneasy working relationship with Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC and its CEO, Joe Tucci, who chairs VMware's board.
Given those tensions, Greene's departure was interpreted as a sign that VMware isn't faring as well as EMC had hoped in the face of increasing competition and a slowing economy. VMware fed that perception by warning its revenue growth this year will fall shy of the 50 percent increase that management had been targeting.
"This was out of the blue, so people are speculating the second-quarter results weren't up to snuff and this (change) was something that Tucci probably instigated," said Caris & Co. analyst Shebly Seyrafi. VMware is scheduled to release its second-quarter numbers on July 22.
In a prepared statement, Tucci thanked Greene and praised her for developing "a company that is changing the way that people think about computing."
VMware dominates the market for so-called "virtualization" software -- products that help corporate data centers lower their expenses on power and equipment by enabling a single computer to function like multiple machines. The "VM" in the company's name stands for "virtual machine."
Greene, 53, and her husband,...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Google Ventures into Virtual Reality with 'Lively'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60684
In the latest expansion beyond its main mission of organizing the world's information, Internet search leader Google Inc. hopes to orchestrate more fantasizing on the Web.
The Mountain View-based company unveiled a free service Tuesday in which three-dimensional software enables people to congregate in electronic rooms and other computer-manufactured versions of real life. The service, called "Lively," represents Google's answer to a 5-year-old site, Second Life, where people deploy animated alter egos known as avatars to navigate through virtual reality.
Google thinks Lively will encourage even more people to dive into alternate realities because it isn't tethered to one Web site like Second Life, and it doesn't cost anything to use. After installing a small packet of software, a user can enter Lively from other Web sites, like social networking sites and blogs.
The Lively application already works on Facebook, one of the Web's hottest hangouts, and Google is working on a version suitable for an even larger online social network, News Corp.'s MySpace.
"We know people already spend a lot of time online socializing, so we just want to try to make it more enjoyable," said Niniane Wang, a Google engineering manager who oversaw Lively's creation over the past year.
Although Google is best known for the search engine that generates most of its profits, the company has introduced other services that are widely used without making much, if any, money. Google's peripheral products include its 3-D "Earth" software, Picasa for sharing photos and programs for word processing, calendars and spreadsheets.
Google has no plans to sell advertising in Lively, Wang said.
But the service could still indirectly help the company if it encourages people to remain online longer. Google's management reasons that more frequent Web surfing ultimately will lead to more moneymaking clicks on the ads it shows alongside its search results and millions of...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Congress Looking at NebuAd's Targeting Scheme
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60677
Online ad company NebuAd faced tough questions from U.S. senators on Wednesday. Privacy advocates have complained that the company's technology is too intrusive and may be breaking laws.
NebuAd is insisting its privacy protections are comprehensive. It also is offering new tools, such as customer notification and new opt-out technology, to empower Internet service providers.
"NebuAd is committed to driving innovation in online advertising while pioneering industry-leading privacy practices," said NebuAd CEO Bob Dykes.
Privacy advocates aren't waiting for the Senate's conclusions. On Tuesday, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) released an analysis questioning the legal standing of NebuAd's approach to online advertising that is being considered by ISPs and Internet advertising networks.
Under the scheme, an ISP would allow an advertising network to copy the Web traffic streams of subscribers. The ad network would record each subscriber's online behavior and use it to target ads.
"Based on what we know so far, this new advertising model appears to defy reasonable consumer expectations and may violate communications-privacy laws," said CDT President and CEO Leslie Harris.
The CDT report examines how the practice of copying consumer data at the ISP level relates to the protections for online communications set out in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
CDT's analysis concludes that the practice may run afoul of federal and state wiretap laws. Federal law would allow the practice with the consent of the subscriber. However, CDT noted, that consent should not be obtained through a notice buried in a "terms of service" agreement or inserted in a billing statement. State laws may be even more stringent, requiring consent from all parties.
"Consumers do not expect their ISP to be copying their Internet communications and selling them to third parties," said CDT Vice President Ari Schwartz. "We have concluded that the advertising-network model at issue...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Patch Tuesday Vulnerabilities Include Two Key Servers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60676
Microsoft issued four bulletins that address nine vulnerabilities for July's Patch Tuesday, none of them critical. This is the first time since last year that none of the patches were rated critical.
With only four vulnerabilities rated "important," IT administrators have some breathing room to get caught up and reassess their security, researchers said.
(Early reports on the Web have indicated the DNS bug fix, patch KB951748, which scrambles the address from which a request comes, affects some third-party firewalls. In particular, ZoneAlarm Pro was reported unable to access the Internet after the patch was applied. Suggested workarounds were to lower ZoneAlarm's Internet Zone security setting to medium or remove Microsoft's patch.)
"There are no patches rated critical this month, but there are a number of notable patches, including one addressing a new file type found in Vista," said Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager at Symantec Security Response. "The Microsoft Windows Explorer saved-search File Remote Code Execution Vulnerability is the first report of a vulnerability using the new Search-MS file type, introduced in Vista."
Despite the apparent reprieve, organizations still need to pay close attention to the two security updates that address elevation of privilege on Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, said Don Leatham, director of solutions and strategy at Lumension. That's because elevation of privilege can easily negate the policy and enforcement efforts on these systems.
"Both of these products can be high-value targets and these vulnerabilities could be considered critical, depending on the organization. Many corporations hold not only their basic business information, but also their customer/patient data and critical intellectual property in Microsoft SQL Server databases, or transmit these types of data via Microsoft Exchange servers," Leatham said.
The two Exchange vulnerabilities involve cross-site scripting (XSS) and underline again the growing importance of Web application...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Google Rewrites Rules for the Modern Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60663
Bill Gates, who walked away from full-time work at Microsoft last month, was perhaps the foremost applied economist of the second half of the 20th century.
Gates and Microsoft fundamentally shaped how people think about the behavior of modern markets in which technology plays a central role.
Under Gates, who co-founded the company, Microsoft also challenged the conventional wisdom about competition, business strategy and even antitrust law.
Now, in the early years of the 21st century, Google is the company prompting a rethinking of assumptions.
Microsoft was a master practitioner of "network effects," the straightforward precept in economics that the value of a product or service often goes up as more people use it. There is nothing new about the concept. It was true of railroads, telephones and fax machines, for example.
Microsoft, however, applied the power of network effects more lucratively than any company had done before it.
Microsoft attracted consumers and software developers to use its technology, the software that controls the basic operations of a personal computer. The more that people used Microsoft's operating system (DOS and later Windows), the more that third-party developers built products to run on Windows, which attracted more users.
So Microsoft's success snowballed, and the company owned the essential technology, making it harder for users and developers to switch to alternatives.
But the Internet has changed the rules of networked competition, partly because Internet software standards are more open than those in the PC industry. That helps explain why Microsoft has struggled to catch up with Google in the rich new market for Internet search advertising.
Google's huge, widening lead in that business suggests that while some weapons of competition have changed, the market dynamics are similar, say economists and industry experts. At this stage, they note, Internet search appears to be a market that is winner take most,...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
On the Web, Now You See It, Now You Don't
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60662
For generations, people and institutions have had second thoughts about decisions: Stock exchanges delist companies, higher courts overrule lower ones, tennis players replay a disputed point, celebrities reinvent their personalities.
On the Internet, however, we have the technology to act more comprehensively: specifically, to unpublish. One moment there is material on a Web site, the next moment it is gone, and in such a way that nobody would guess it had existed.
Unpublishing from a Web site certainly is not uncommon, particularly after a lawyer sends a letter demanding it. And on obscure personal blogs presumable it happens all the time -- a writer simply may have a change of heart.
But when one popular Web site, Boing Boing, recently unpublished all references to a blogger named Violet Blue, some of its readers treated the decision as a step of utmost consequence, even though it took place about a year ago. A discussion thread on the site, at boingboing.net, has grown to more than 1,400 messages.
The issues here are larger than the material itself, which amounted to at least 70 or so posts by one of the site's contributors, Xeni Jardin, in which she referred to the writings of Blue, who is the weekly sex columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle and a former friend of Jardin. (For the number of posts, I stand on the shoulders of David Sarno of The Los Angeles Times Web Scout blog, who has tracked the dispute attentively.)
In this case, what looks like a personal spat has turned into a cautionary tale, one that reflects the odd and influential community that has grown around Boing Boing. The site, which began as a fanzine in the early 1990s, calls itself "a directory of wonderful things," and its readers can appear particularly intense. Theirs is the intensity that...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Uncertainty Aplenty as Web, Media Leaders Convene
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60661
When media and technology tycoons convene Tuesday in idyllic southern Idaho for five days of dealmaking and outdoor recreation, the mountain air will carry more than a whiff of uncertainty as most arrive with their businesses in various states of disarray.
Powerful moguls come to Allen & Co. investment bank's annual retreat in Sun Valley seeking new acquisitions and alliances and -- increasingly in recent years -- the opportunity to retool their businesses.
But this year both media and online leaders are grappling with the Internet's increasing fragmentation. And they're all looking for more advertising revenue online, where media companies have recouped only a small fraction of what they lost in print and where Web companies want to maximize their investments.
Even the top Internet companies -- save maybe Google Inc. -- are seeing revenue growth slowing as online audiences fragment. And they worry that, without steady access to high-quality content, they won't be able to attract enough viewers to keep growing fast.
At the same time, the barons of old-line newspapers and broadcast TV seem to have realized it's pointless to keep fighting the shift online, but they're still unsure how to embrace it. And they're struggling to attract new online users just to survive.
The flagging economy, slowing consumer spending and costlier capital on Wall Street will only add to any gloom and may prevent the summit, hosted for 25 years by investment banker Herb Allen, from living up to its reputation as an incubator for big deals.
"This could be the least headline-making Allen & Co. event in the past 10 years," said Porter Bibb, managing partner at Mediatech Capital Partners, a financier of media businesses. "Most companies have real problems and they don't necessarily know where to turn for help."
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, a perennial at the Allen conference, won't be joined...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
New LG Phone Is Packed with Attractive Features
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60660
The enV2, one of the latest cool phones from LG Electronics, has everything most consumers will want in a cell phone (aside from an easy to remember name, I suppose.)
The upgrade from last year's popular enV, this is a popular offering from Verizon Wireless for consumers who need a QWERTY keyboard for text messaging and e-mail.
I took one of these for a test drive and compared it to my trusty Motorola Q, with which I have had a love-hate relationship for more than a year.
The new LG model has received a complete redesign. It has a larger internal display and a better, sort of rounded, feel. It comes in black and maroon and a variety of pricing packages, depending on during what phase of the moon you arrive at the Verizon store, the length of your contract and any promotions at the time.
I loved the phone's battery life. I got a week on standby, which was great, considering I was not syncing any mail to it. I am lucky to get a day on my Q with an oversized battery, considering I sync to Microsoft Exchange about every 15 minutes. I found the talk time to be great, as well.
The downside for me was lack of Windows Mobile support. Of course, most consumers won't really care about seamless syncing to Exchange servers and opening Excel attachments. But if you do,
getting a PDA phone with Windows Mobile 6 should be at the top of your list.
This guy is a side-opening clamshell phone. It looks like a normal phone but opens at the side for a full PDA with another color screen on the inside. It is about a half-inch smaller than the old model and feels much more sleek. It has a large dial pad. When my dad was alive, he...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Microsoft Fluffs Cloud Computing Lineup
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60658
Microsoft Corp. is strengthening its early-stage push to fend off competition by offering more Internet-based software, a change from its traditional method of selling programs that run on individual desktops or corporate servers.
With Internet-savvy rivals threatening Microsoft's usual sales model, Microsoft started offering its Exchange e-mail server software and other programs to "beta" testers in March. Under the new setup, companies including Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc. started to let some of their business software be run remotely in Microsoft's data centers, rather than buying, installing and managing it themselves.
On Tuesday, Microsoft said it will sell a package of four server products -- Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Communications Online and Live Meeting -- to U.S. companies by the end of the year for $15 per PC user per month, and to global businesses in the first half of 2009.
The company also plans to sell a lightweight version that gives limited e-mail and Sharepoint access to "deskless" workers like nurses, factory employees and salespeople for $3 per user per month.
Microsoft's announcements coincided with its annual conference for partner companies that resell its software to other businesses, held this year in Houston.
Competitors from search leader Google Inc. to IBM Corp. and business back-office software maker Salesforce.com Inc. are pushing online alternatives to Microsoft's installed programs, arguing that this approach is less expensive and more flexible. For example, updated versions of the software can be delivered instantly over the Internet.
For its part, Microsoft has stuck by its pronouncement that consumers and businesses will opt for a mix of remotely hosted programs and desktop or on-premise programs.
In this case, Microsoft will still require companies to buy Outlook and other desktop programs powered by the remote servers.
As an incentive, Microsoft also told partners Tuesday it would give them a cut of contracts for online services, totaling...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Internet Service To Give Magazine Subscribers Freedom
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60656
Magazine buying may get an Internet-era makeover in September when Time Inc. launches Maghound, a service that promises to blend the convenience of subscriptions with the flexibility of newsstand sales.
Customers will pay a monthly fee for home delivery of the publications they want. But unlike with subscriptions, which typically run for fixed terms, users can go online and swap one title for another whenever they want.
"The magazine industry is a little challenged now" in circulation and ad sales, says Maghound Enterprises President Dave Ventresca. "It needs some innovation. And this is our best swing at it."
He will begin with 300 consumer magazines. They'll include Time's most popular titles, including People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune. Although he won't name others, he expects to have deals with Hearst, Hachette, Rodale, Conde Nast, Meredith, Source Interlink, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Reader's Digest Association and Wenner Media.
"It's a great concept," says Patrick Taylor, spokesman for Meredith, which publishes Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal. "We're always looking for innovative ways to test our magazines with readers."
Users will pay about $5 a month for three magazines, $8 for five, $10 for seven and $1 for each additional. About 10 percent of titles, including some weeklies, will cost more.
Consumers in tests liked the freedom to have titles match their changing tastes, he says. Someone who loves the outdoors could read about skiing in the winter and golf in the summer.
Swaps may not take effect immediately. But Ventresca says that customers will be able to see online when they can expect to see the last issue of a current choice and the first issue of a new one.
"We hear consumers say all the time, 'I just signed up for this regular subscription, and I'm already receiving notices to renew,'" he says. "And, 'I don't know...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
Unlocking Cell Phones May Get Easier
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60655
Unlocking a cell phone is something of a Houdini-esque exercise. Sure, it's possible to tweak a handset so it works on a network other than the one for which it was designed. But it requires following a series of steps that the average consumer may find complicated -- and which could render the device useless.
Little wonder fewer than 5 percent of U.S. cell-phone owners go to the trouble. But thanks to regulators and one of the country's fastest growing mobile-phone providers, it may soon get a lot easier to unlock a cell phone. The prospect of more consumers moving from one network to the next without a carrier's consent is only the latest in a series of trends loosening carriers' grip on a $140 billion market.
MetroPCS, which has 4.4 million subscribers and operates in markets including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Detroit, in late June became the first well-known U.S. carrier to publicly offer to unlock phones sold by a competing service provider. Under the offer's terms, MetroPCS will tinker with phones originally sold by Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Alltel, or any other carrier whose network is based on CDMA [code division multiple access], the technology MetroPCS uses. MetroPCS will unlock the phone and provide a month's worth of calling -- all for $30.
The service alone could help MetroPCS attract 200,000 to 500,000 subscribers in the next 12 to 14 months, says Vikrant Gandhi, an analyst at consultancy Frost & Sullivan. "Early indications show a tremendous amount of interest," says MetroPCS Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter. An increase at the lower end of Gandhi's estimate would translate to almost a quarter's worth of growth for a company that added 1 million customers in 2007 -- enviable, considering total U.S. subscribers increased by only 9.6 percent last year.
Other carriers may follow...
Thu, 10 Jul 08
China's Pre-Olympics Media Clampdown
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60654
While the Beijing Olympics were expected to usher in a period of greater media freedom in China, as the final countdown for the Games nears, the vise on the media is getting tighter. That's the conclusion of a report released on July 7 by Human Rights Watch, entitled "China's Forbidden Zones, Shutting the Media out of Tibet and Other 'Sensitive' Stories."
Speaking at the release of the report at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong, Sophie Richardson, the group's advocacy director for Asia, said the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee is "trying to extort favorable coverage in exchange for accreditation to cover the Games."
She also faulted the International Olympic Committee and Olympic sponsors, including Coca-Cola, Lenovo, and Samsung, for failing to press Beijing more on human rights. "They all have very nice-sounding lofty corporate social responsibility pledges, but when you challenge them on their involvement in the Games, their aims narrow dramatically," she says. "Their promises only apply to people who work for those companies. They have made no attempt to rock boats."
China won its bid to host the Olympics in part thanks to its promises to improve media freedom, Richardson says, and Beijing did lift temporarily restrictions on the foreign media for the period from January 2007 to October 2008. This liberalization allowed members of the foreign media to travel freely anywhere in the country except Tibet without prior approval, and to interview whoever they wanted.
But the pendulum swung back the other way after protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa erupted in mid-March this year, and a government-orchestrated campaign to "demonize" the foreign media ensued, Richardson says. All requests by foreign media to cover the unrest in Tibet were summarily rejected.
"The use of the state media for a campaign alleging Western bias became a convenient and powerful political...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
DreamWorks and Intel Join To Power 3-D Filmmaking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60675
DreamWorks Animation and Intel have formed a strategic alliance to revolutionize 3-D filmmaking. The move is expected to further DreamWorks' goal of rendering all its films in stereoscopic 3-D, beginning next year.
The trailblazing animation studio says it plans to employ Intel's visual computing products and tools for content creation, beginning with the film Monsters versus Aliens, slated for release next March.
"Technology plays a significant role in enabling our artists to tell great stories," said DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. "By utilizing Intel's industry-leading computing products, we will create a new and innovative way for moviegoers to experience our films in 3-D."
Under the agreement, Intel's software engineers will optimize DreamWorks' applications to run on the chipmaker's advanced multicore processors. DreamWorks will need thousands of such chips to create and modify high-quality images.
"When Hollywood does special effects, they have far more computing power at their disposal than what can be found in the most extreme editions of today's personal computers," said Jeffrey Howard, a technology strategist at Intel's Microprocessor Technology Labs. "Quad cores are actually pretty quaint when compared to render farms filled with hundreds of cores."
To bring that kind of computing into a personal computer, one has to think a lot bigger in scale, to the point where trillions of operations can be computed per second, Howard explained in a recent blog. "In Intel's Microprocessor Technology Labs, we call that Tera-Scale," he said.
Intel's future chips for 3-D applications will be based on a new processor architecture for visual computing that is expressly designed to achieve Tera-Scale performance. Code-named Larrabee, the new architecture will integrate a high-performance, vector processing unit (VPU) with acceleration enhancements. Intel plans to offer its first public demos of Larrabee later this year.
Meanwhile, the work continues on Intel's next-generation 3-D technology for home theater,...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
YouTube Users Pillory Viacom with Angry Videos
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60674
YouTube users are up in arms about Viacom's legal victory forcing Google to hand over data showing which videos they watch and when.
The backlash follows U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton's ruling last week that Google must supply Viacom with the records as part of the discovery phase in a $1 billion lawsuit alleging copyright infringement.
While the court denied Viacom's request for YouTube's source code, Stanton did require YouTube to hand over the user information. As a result, YouTube users are calling for a boycott of Viacom.
By Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of new videos were springing up when "Viacom" was typed into YouTube's search engine. Some of the videos, with headlines like "VIACOM VS YOU = BOYCOTT," "Viacom is a Copyright Bully," and "Viacom Knows You Are Watching This Video," had been viewed more than 100,000 times.
Viacom could not immediately be reached for comment. A statement on its Web site attempts to reassure YouTube users.
"A recent discovery order by the federal court hearing the case of Viacom v. YouTube has triggered concern about what information will be disclosed by Google and YouTube and how it will be used. Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any YouTube user," the statement said.
According to Viacom, the personally identifiable information that YouTube collects from its users will be stripped from the data before it is transferred to Viacom. Viacom said it "will use the data exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google." Viacom also said it has been in discussions with Google to develop a framework to share the data.
"We are committed to a process that will not only comply with the court's confidentiality order, but that will also meet our commitment to the strongest possible...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
Pioneer's 400GB Blu-ray Disc Holds 48 Hours of Movies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60673
Get ready to never leave your home. Pioneer announced this week a read-only Blu-ray technology that could put up to 48 hours, or 400GB, of movies on a single disc.
By comparison, the current Blu-ray Disc format stores 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer version. A 50GB Blu-ray disc can hold up to about six hours of high-definition video.
The new Pioneer technology has 16 layers on a conventional 12-centimeter optical disc, and is currently a play-only version. The company has indicated that a writable version is being developed.
Pioneer's announcement said "it is possible to maintain compatibility" between the new, very high-density Blu-ray format and existing players. However, the company indicated that some kind of modification may be necessary, either in the production of the discs or in the players.
The key to making such storage possible, Pioneer said, is reducing interference between adjacent layers, as its prototype does.
A formal announcement of the 400GB technology is expected at the International Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage, which begins Sunday in Hawaii. Industry observers anticipate that Pioneer will not commercially produce the discs, but will work with manufacturers. TDK has also announced a high-capacity disc, with six layers and a 150GB capacity.
In a separate announcement, Pioneer said it will start selling Blu-ray recorders in Japan before next March.
The recorders, to be sold under the Pioneer brand, will be made with Sharp Electronics. Sharp, Sony and Matsushita control virtually the entire Blu-ray market in Japan. Matsushita makes Panasonic products. No plans for sales of the recorder in the U.S. or elsewhere were announced.
Josh Martin, an analyst with industry research firm Yankee Group, said the new, high-capacity disc is "interesting, but not earth-shattering." He said the last time he checked, it was not much cheaper...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
Microsoft Offers Bug Workaround for ActiveX Exploit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60649
Microsoft on Monday issued a security advisory to warn users about attacks targeting a vulnerability in the ActiveX control for the Snapshot Viewer in the Microsoft Access database management system.
Microsoft said it is investigating active, targeted attacks. "When a user views the Web page, the vulnerability could allow remote code execution," Microsoft said in its security advisory. "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user."
The ActiveX control for the Snapshot Viewer enables users to view a Microsoft Access report snapshot without having the standard or run-time versions of Access. The vulnerability only affects the ActiveX control for the Snapshot Viewer for Microsoft Office Access 2000, Microsoft Office Access 2002, and Microsoft Office Access 2003.
In a Web-based scenario, an attacker could host a Web site with a page used to exploit this vulnerability. Or compromised Web sites and sites that accept user-provided content could contain specially crafted code to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker would have to convince users to visit the corrupted Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail or an instant message, Microsoft said.
A successful attacker could gain the same user rights as the real user. Users whose accounts have fewer rights could be less impacted than users who have administrative rights, according to Microsoft.
By default, Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 runs in a restricted mode known as Enhanced Security Configuration. This mode sets the security level for the Internet zone to high and is a mitigating factor for Web sites not added to the trusted-sites zone, Microsoft said.
Microsoft isn't in the habit of issuing out-of-cycle workarounds. But Carole Theriault, a security analyst at Sophos, is glad to see Redmond trying to help users...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
Overtime BlackBerry Use: Obsession or Billable Hours?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60645
Just before going to bed, you thumb through the inbox on your BlackBerry to check updates from work. You send out a few directives before turning in.
Some would say you're getting a jump on the next day's work. Others say it's billable hours.
Can you claim overtime for using your BlackBerry?
More employers have faced that question in the past year --- in court. Workers in California and Ohio have sued their employers to recoup time spent on their BlackBerry and other workplace tools such as laptops.
While Georgia courts have not decided such cases yet, there are new ones cropping up nationally each month in the wage-hour realm, said Clare Draper, partner in Alston & Bird's labor and employment group.
Most of the people being issued BlackBerries tend to be managers, professionals or executives, Draper said.
"They get paid the same amount no matter how much they work," he said. But it becomes a problem when companies issue remote technology such as BlackBerries to hourly or nonexempt workers who are eligible for overtime, Draper said.
So what can companies do to protect themselves?
"It would be wise for an employer to have a policy dealing with [nonexempt or hourly workers] reporting the times worked on cell phones, BlackBerries, pagers or laptops," Draper said. His firm is helping clients in Georgia craft such policies.
BlackBerry usage can become a legal problem for companies if workers are misclassified, Draper said.
Say you're classified as a manager, but you later claim that the work you do is really hourly work and, therefore, you should be receiving overtime pay. The time on a BlackBerry, laptop or cell phone could become a legal issue, he said.
Draper advises companies to "regularly check and update job classifications to make sure workers are properly classified."
Wed, 9 Jul 08
It's a Nice Day for a Web Wedding
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60640
John Roehsler took his wedding vows, exchanged rings with his bride -- and turned to the webcam.
"Whoever's watching ... we're sorry that you couldn't be here. But you are here, so that's great. The 21st century rocks."
Roehsler and his bride, the former Neperthey Velasco, used a webcast to allow friends and family from roughly 10 states and a dozen countries to view their wedding ceremony live. It's a service now offered for weddings and funerals to allow far-flung family and friends to take part. Wedding webcasts have been offered by a few companies for several years, and Las Vegas wedding chapels also market webcast ceremonies. But webcasting a wedding remains unusual.
Wise County was the first in Virginia to acquire the technology in 2000, said Clerk of Court Jack Kennedy, yet no couple there has used the service. Clerks of courts in South Hampton Roads do not have the service.
The still-fresh notion of webcasting weddings echoes the recent introduction of Internet-streamed funerals. That service is offered by a few Hampton Roads funeral homes, but requests have been few and far between.
The Roehslers' June wedding was the first to use the wedding webcast capabilities in Delaware's New Castle County, where the couple live. Their seven-minute ceremony included all the standard wedding prose, along with a few extras for the Web audience.
"John, please take Neperthey's ring, so the whole camera and everyone can see here," said Ken Boulden, clerk of the peace for New Castle County.
The wedding's intended online viewers included members of the bride's family in countries such as the Philippines and Thailand. But members of the groom's family watched online, too, because the wedding took place quickly under terms of the bride's visa. The couple is also expecting a baby in October.
"Our priorities shifted significantly," John...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
'Public' Online Spaces Don't Guarantee Free Speech
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60637
Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative.
Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.
Companies in charge of seemingly public spaces online wipe out content that's controversial but otherwise legal. Service providers write their own rules for users worldwide and set foreign policy when they cooperate with regimes like China. They serve as prosecutor, judge and jury in handling disputes behind closed doors.
The governmental role that companies play online is taking on greater importance as their services -- from online hangouts to virtual repositories of photos and video -- become more central to public discourse around the world. It's a fallout of the Internet's market-driven growth, but possible remedies, including government regulation, can be worse than the symptoms.
Dutch photographer Maarten Dors met the limits of free speech at Yahoo Inc.'s photo-sharing service, Flickr, when he posted an image of an early-adolescent boy with disheveled hair and a ragged T-shirt, staring blankly with a lit cigarette in his mouth.
Without prior notice, Yahoo deleted the photo on grounds it violated an unwritten ban on depicting children smoking. Dors eventually convinced a Yahoo manager that -- far from promoting smoking -- the photo had value as a statement on poverty and street life in Romania. Yet another employee deleted it again a few months later.
"I never thought of it as a photo of a smoking kid," Dors said. "It was just of a kid in Romania and how his life is. You can never make a serious documentary if you always have to think about what Flickr will delete."
There may be legitimate reasons to take action, such as to stop spam, security threats, copyright infringement and child...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
EU Plans Overhaul of Music Royalties
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60635
David Ferguson once played in a seminal art-rock band in Britain, but much of the money for his house and his son's education came from writing music for a children's television program, "Moondial," which has been rebroadcast many times over.
"I guess you could say it was my equivalent of having a smash hit record," said Ferguson, who is 55. "I never knew 'Moondial' was showing in so many different countries, but still I made money."
Ferguson and thousands of composers and songwriters like him say they rely for their living on a copyright system enforced by national organizations that collect money on their behalf from a variety of outlets that play their music -- from national television stations to local hair salons.
Without these "collecting societies" and the monitoring they perform in faraway locations, artists say they would be unable to keep track of when their creations are used, and might see little financial benefit from their intellectual property.
Now the system in Europe is about to undergo significant changes, as antitrust regulators prepare to require the societies, in some cases established in the 19th century, to adapt to the digital world of the 21st century.
The regulators want to end the current European system, under which the collecting societies effectively have domestic monopolies. By requiring societies to compete for the right to protect an artist's copyright, the regulators say, they will drive down artificially high administrative costs and stimulate the cross-border flow of music.
In a draft decision viewed by the International Herald Tribune, the European Union competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, has concluded that "collecting societies totally eliminate competition between each other" in "repertoires for satellite, cable and Internet broadcasting use." She said that the societies have "long-entrenched monopolistic positions" and that "creates a barrier to entry which is impossible for a newcomer...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
Amazon's Screen Reader Has Kindled a Small Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60634
Here's one reason you may want to take the hardcover of David Sedaris' new book to the beach this summer instead of the digital version for Amazon's Kindle: Sand between the pages won't ruin a good story.
About six months after its introduction, the Kindle electronic reading device is entering its first beach season amid increasing discussion that the gadget may have a future. Skepticism about whether people will try reading books on a screen instead of the printed page is being joined by evidence of a nascent but growing market for the Kindle and its competitor from Sony.
Much of the talk focuses on the comment by Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and chief executive, who said for the first time that the Kindle is having an impact on book sales.
"Of the 125,000 books available both as a physical book and on Kindle, Kindle books already account for over 6 percent of units sold," Bezos said in a statement coinciding with a recent book publishing trade show in Los Angeles.
On the other hand, Amazon won't disclose how many consumers have bought a Kindle -- reduced to $359 last week from $399 -- or how many actual e-books have sold for the device.
Nonetheless, publishers are making more titles available on the Kindle. Simon & Schuster is adding 5,000 titles to its Kindle offerings after e-book sales grew by 40 percent in 2007.
E-books represent the fastest-growing category for publishers, though the sales volume is tiny compared with traditional books. In 2007, sales increased by 23.6 percent over 2006, accounting for $67 million in sales. Overall, the book industry grew by 3.2 percent in 2007 and had sales of $25 billion, according to the Association of American Publishers.
Ross Rubin, an analyst for the NPD Group, said it's too early to say whether e-books...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
NBC To Use Olympics To Study How People Use Media
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60633
NBC is using the Olympics as a "billion-dollar research lab" to get a sense of how people are using different media platforms to experience the Beijing Games that begin Aug. 8.
Besides giving advertisers a clearer picture of how much consumers are paying attention to the games, NBC hopes its research provides a comprehensive picture of how people are supplementing TV viewership with tools such as video streaming, video on demand and mobile phones, said Alan Wurtzel, the company's research chief.
"The billion-dollar lab is an extraordinary research opportunity," he said.
NBC has scheduled 3,600 hours of Olympics programming on its main network, along with Telemundo, USA, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and Bravo. That's the equivalent of eight days of programming packed into each day.
In addition, the company is planning to make 2,200 hours of streaming video available on NBCOlympics.com. Consumers may also get video on demand via their computer and Olympics content through their mobile phones.
NBC relies on Nielsen Media Research for a count of how many people are watching the Olympics on their TVs at home, but there is no existing research tool that pulls together all the different types of exposure, Wurtzel said. With the help of outside companies and its own research staff, NBC is using about 10 methods for measuring the audience.
NBC has contracted with Quantcast Corp. to get a sense of who is using NBCOlympics.com. Besides video streaming, computer users are being offered reams of Olympics data, blogging of live events and gaming. NBC wants to know how many people will visit NBCOlympics.com, what pages they are viewing and how much time they are spending on the computer.
The information could be used on the fly to program the Web site. If one sport is doing particularly well with video on demand requests, NBCOlympics.com might feature it on its...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
Is Circuit City Headed for a Bankruptcy Blowout?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60630
Will Circuit City join the long list of electronics retailers, like Tweeter Home Entertainment and Harvey Electronics, that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the past year? Given that shares of the Richmond [Va.] company are trading at just over 2, Wall Street is betting that could be a possibility. "Circuit City is in very serious trouble, and any scenario is possible today," says Nick McCoy, senior consultant at TNS Retail Forward, a research firm.
Circuit City's market capitalization currently is a mere $368 million -- pocket change for a large private equity firm. But buyers are not lining up and have clearly concluded that the chain's problems won't be easy to resolve. On July 1, beleaguered movie-rental company Blockbuster effectively delivered a slap in the face to the nation's second-largest electronics retailer by withdrawing its proposal to acquire Circuit City. "Based on market conditions and the completion of our initial due diligence process, we have determined that it is not in the best interest of Blockbuster's shareholders to proceed with an acquisition of Circuit City," said Blockbuster Chairman and CEO Jim Keyes.
Blockbuster's move sent Circuit City's stock tumbling a further 15 percent, to $2.14 a share, on July 2.
Now, even if a private equity player decides to buy Circuit City, there's speculation that the buyout might take place under a Chapter 11 reorganization plan. Such a filing could certainly take care of a key problem that CEO Philip Schoonover has often pointed to, which is that many of the company's 682 stores are in poor and underperforming locations, and would be expensive to close because they have long-term leases.
A potential buyer can take advantage of a special provision of the U.S. bankruptcy code, called Section 363, allowing it to sell assets and get out of leases...
Wed, 9 Jul 08
Google Deemed Unlikely To Force a Sale of AOL
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60629
Google, which has a 5 percent stake in Time Warner's AOL, now has the right to force the media conglomerate to bring its Internet division to the market.
But Time Warner investors should not hold their breath if they think this is an opportunity for the media company to finally rid itself of the legacy of its disastrous 2001 Internet merger, once hailed as the deal of the century.
A clause in Google's 2005 purchase agreement for the AOL stake gives the Web search leader the right, but not the obligation, to force a public offering of the shares or a repurchase at fair market value as of July 1, 2008.
But at current market valuations, Google stands to lose an estimated $500 million if AOL is taken to market, analysts estimate. The $20 billion valuation of AOL, established at the time by Google's $1 billion investment, has been cut to as low as half of that in some projections.
"Under the current market and strategic conditions, Google is unlikely to rock the boat," Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst for Bernstein Research, said.
Analysts and investors also say that Google is enjoying the estimated $70 million to $80 million it receives annually from AOL by providing search advertising services, and is unlikely to want to risk AOL's taking its business to rivals.
The July 1 date was viewed months ago as a catalyst for the Time Warner board of directors to speed discussions to spin off or sell AOL to any interested party, including Yahoo, Microsoft or News Corp.
That is because a similar scenario played out when Comcast sought to resolve its 21 percent stake in Time Warner Cable in 2003. The two agreed to buy and divide the assets of the bankrupt cable operator Adelphia, and the deal eventually led to the partial spinoff of Time...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Vulnerabilities in Web Browsers Worry Researchers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60648
A study from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Google and IBM says more than 600 million Internet browsers were at risk this year.
"Insecure Web browsers are of course a critical security problem," the report noted. "But vulnerable plug-ins that are accessible (and exploitable) through the Web browser extend the 'insecurity iceberg' and form the part hidden below the water surface."
The report says browsers need to have auto-update mechanisms that are enabled by default and that cause minimal disruption to users. Though Microsoft's Windows auto-update service includes Internet Explorer, patches are released less frequently in comparison with Mozilla's Firefox, which "can result in a lower short-term patching effectiveness," it said.
Dave Marcus, McAfee's director of security research and communications, thinks the report is on target about browser and plug-in vulnerabilities. But he added that Microsoft's current method of conducting updates in a controlled manner makes better sense.
"I can certainly understand why they are recommending auto updates, but that's always going to be problematic to enterprise environments, which have a lot of customized applications so you can theoretically break something," Marcus said.
He also warned that malicious scripts are increasingly being embedded into hijacked Web sites.
McAfee's technology "can actually evaluate pages and scan for those scripts to be sure they are not doing something they shouldn't be doing," Marcus said. "It stops the install of the script that the malware is attempting to push out."
Though browsers now incorporate features that warn users when they access risky sites, such warnings depend on lists that must be continuously updated, Marcus noted. "There is a certain amount of truth to saying that they can only warn you about what they already know about," he said.
According to the study, most users updated to a new version of Firefox within three days of...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Google's Data Collection Gives Viacom Privacy Details
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60644
U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton last week ordered Google to supply Viacom with records that reveal which users watched specific videos on its YouTube site. The ruling comes in the discovery phase of Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against Google for copyright infringement.
Stanton decided Viacom needed more than user log-in names and IP addresses to target unique YouTube visitors. Nonetheless, privacy advocates are calling the ruling a blow to online privacy.
Some are criticizing Viacom for making the discovery request. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), doesn't entirely disagree with those concerns, but he said the larger issue is Google's business practices.
"Viacom is doing what an aggressive corporation does when it files a lawsuit, which is to try to learn as much as it can about whether its rights have been violated," Rotenberg said. "Google, because it's sitting on all this information, is making it much easier for Viacom to pursue litigation."
While the court denied Viacom's request that YouTube turn over the source code that powers its search engine, Stanton did require YouTube to hand over information that records all video viewing for the site. That data shows which users watched which videos and when.
"The logging database does not identify users by name, but it does contain users' IP addresses and unique log-in IDs. A log-in ID will be whatever the user chose -- which could be anything from a nonsensical set of characters or a random word to the user's actual name," wrote Dave Sohn, senior policy counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Sohn figures that in a substantial number of cases, the ID will contain name or e-mail information. In those cases, the ID, perhaps aided by the IP address, could be sufficient to determine the real-world identity of the user....
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Shootout at Yahoo Gulch Looms for Shareholders Meeting
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60643
High drama is expected on Aug. 1 as Yahoo shareholders gather at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters for the annual meeting.
With corporate raider Carl Icahn pushing an alternative slate for the board of directors to forge a deal with Microsoft, the shareholder election is nothing less than a referendum on Yahoo's future. The question is, can CEO Jerry Yang mount a convincing argument that Yahoo's current strategy -- chiefly, outsourcing some search business to Google and finding new ways to extend its brand -- will yield better results than selling the company, in whole or in part, to Microsoft?
Microsoft and Icahn turned up the heat Monday. In a statement, Microsoft repeated that "we have never been able to reach an agreement in a timely way on acceptable terms with the current management and board of directors at Yahoo."
But Microsoft added that if a new board is elected, the company would be interested in purchasing either Yahoo's search business --- "with large financial guarantees" -- or the entire company.
Microsoft said it continues to believe, as it said on June 12, that "our proposed search acquisition and partnership would have delivered superior value to Yahoo's shareholders and the marketplace as a whole. We have not changed our position, even as we continue to move forward with our own online search and advertising offerings. We therefore welcome interest by Mr. Icahn in pursuing this and other discussions."
In a companion statement, Icahn was more explicit about Microsoft's plans. He said that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cannot cut a deal with the current board because of the risk that Yahoo's current board would mismanage the company during the time it would take a deal to clear regulatory hurdles. "Their recent track record is far from reassuring," Icahn added. "Microsoft would be...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
This Time, Apple's iPhone Launch Offers More
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60641
In the technological equivalent of deja vu all over again, Apple's iPhone will launch on Friday with 3G.
It remains to be seen if the buzz gets anywhere near the hoopla surrounding the iPhone's initial launch last June, but a line has already started forming outside Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York. The iPhone 3G goes on sale at 8 a.m. local time on Friday. Outside the U.S., launch times and dates vary, with the earliest also being July 11.
The newest version of the "phone that changed the world" comes not only with faster 3G connectivity, but a lower price -- $199 for the 8GB model. It is also now in sync with the most prevalent telecommunications networks in countries around the world, and will be available in more than 70 countries.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said the addition of 3G, plus a "dramatic increase" in the number of countries where the iPhone is available, should result in the device selling "considerably greater" numbers outside the U.S. than in the past.
For the U.S. market, he added, the price drop puts the iPhone 3G more in the range of some smartphones.
Greengart noted two differences between this week's launch of the iPhone 3G and last June's launch of the original iPhone.
A big one, he said, is that this time the iPhone has corporate e-mail support. "This opens up the iPhone as a choice for those customers who are interested in a smartphone for its e-mail capability," he said.
Among the criticisms of the original iPhone at launch was its lack of support for enterprise use, and there have been reports of increasing demand among employees to use the device.
The second big difference, Greengart said, is that the iPhone 3G is "becoming a...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Google Responds To Privacy Critics with Link To Policy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60620
To appease privacy advocates, Google has added a privacy-policy link to its home page. Google had previously said it didn't want to clutter its page.
Led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), several privacy groups, including the California-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the World Privacy Forum, Consumer Action, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU of Northern California, and the Consumer Federation of California, sent a letter to the search-engine giant on June 3. The letter notified Google it was in violation of California law for not posting the link.
The groups cited the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003. That law requires commercial Web-site operators who collect personal information to link to a privacy policy from the home page. They went so far as to mock up a Google home page with the privacy link.
"We felt that Google not only violated California law -- and keep in mind that Google is a California corporation -- but that Google was also violating standard practice for all Internet companies by not posting a link to the privacy policy on the home page," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC.
California law dictates that after a company has been notified of its failure to comply, it has 30 days to respond or legal action can be taken.
"We literally started counting down the 30 days on our home page. It got up to day 30 and Google didn't have a privacy link. But later that day, July 3, Google put it up," Rotenberg said. "So by day 31 there was a privacy link on the Google home page, which from their perspective is good timing."
Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, said the company values its users' privacy. Trust, she said, is the basis of everything Google does...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Report: Fiber Internet Growth Overtakes Cable
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60613
For the first time, more people around the world are signing up for fiber-optic broadband service than for cable Internet service, according to a British research firm.
Fiber providers added 4.2 million customers in the first quarter, while 2.5 million customers signed up for cable modems, according to a report released Wednesday by Point Topic.
The bulk of the new fiber subscribers are in China, where 2.5 million signed up, for a total of 16.7 million. The U.S. is in fourth place after Japan and Korea. Point Topic counted 303,000 new U.S. fiber customers, for a total of 2.6 million.
Fiber-optic Internet connections provide faster speeds, but the cost of the buildout is daunting. In deregulated telecommunications markets like those of the U.S. and Western Europe, carriers are unsure if fiber is worth the investment because they are competing there with cheaper technologies like cable and DSL, and it's unclear how much regulators will let them profit.
"It's difficult to persuade operators to make the sort of commitment needed when they can't guarantee their returns," said Oliver Johnson, chief executive of Point Topic. Without government funding, it will be a long time before fiber connections are widespread, he said.
Verizon Communications Inc. is the only major U.S. telecommunications company to pull fiber all the way to subscriber homes. Verizon accounts for slightly more than two-thirds of total U.S. fiber hookups. The rest of the fiber-to-the-home, or FTTH, deployments are by small phone companies and by municipalities.
Cable modems are far more common, at 79.6 million worldwide, according to Point Topic, compared to 42.1 million fiber connections. More than half, or 40.1 million, of all cable subscribers are in the U.S., which has a comparatively extensive cable infrastructure.
Broadband over phone lines remains the most common means of Internet access. Globally, 238.1 million households had DSL, or Digital...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Review: Create Master Strokes with a Digital Pen
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60606
In gadget-head circles, one of the most buzz-worthy new products this summer is the Pulse pen: a ballpoint pen that simultaneously records both your handwriting and the sound of the words you are transcribing. Both get transferred to a Windows PC when you return home -- seemingly a perfect setup for lecture-hall students, journalists and note-takers of any kind.
Well, perfect except for one thing: the Pulse pen doesn't work unless you write on special paper. Thousands of tiny micro-speckles tell the pen's tiny camera where it is on the page as you write, but that limits you to writing in notebooks that you buy from the Pulse company. No back-of-the-envelope brainstorms, no legal pads allowed, no using your own letterhead.
Pity, then, the two entirely buzz-impaired cordless digital pens from other companies that can write on any paper at all. The Mobile Digital Scribe from Iogear and the ZPen from Dane-Elec can capture your notes no matter what you're writing on. The notes appear on your Windows PC as a digital image, which you can convert into typed text for copying or e-mailing.
To be fair, these pens are not as sophisticated or ambitious as the Pulse pen; they do not have microphones, cameras or little screens. They do not record audio and do not accept add-on programs. But if you just want to capture notes and drawings in the field and then transfer them to your PC when you get home, the "any paper, any time" feature might sound attractive, indeed.
Now you can venture forth to meetings or classes without having to fool around with the weight and fragility of a laptop, and still wind up with your notes safely ensconced on the computer.
You also, in effect, create a safety copy of everything you write. If you lose your class notes,...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
The Often-Cursed Consequences of Upgrading
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60605
The gadget galaxy in which we live -- constellations of televisions, computers, DVD players, cellphones and other battery-powered, Wi-Fi delights -- is held together by many forces. None are more potent and persistent than what shall heretofore be known as Schwarz's Law: Try to upgrade one thing, and you will invariably downgrade three others.
The maxim holds in other matters in life and love, but is never quite so maddening than when one is wrestling with technology. Buy a new printer, and watch its fancy new software befuddle your desktop. Switch to Vista, and -- wham-o! -- your iPod and PDA drivers go on strike. And God help you if you decide to encrypt your Wi-Fi signals.
Even something as straightforward as purchasing a new television -- a mere display, the ads wink -- spawns a salivating beast of Ethernet, HDMI and surround-sound tentacles. I know this because my wife only recently disensnarled me from the one currently panting at our living-room baseboard, waiting for me to edge too close again.
This is the jungle that real-life consumers like me live in: a savage wilderness where intelligent beings enter only to be transformed into howling, chest-beating orangutans. The product reviewers and tech columnists we rely upon for guidance? They live in a fantasy land, receiving umpteen cameras and Blu-ray players gratis from various manufacturers, test-driving each model, and telling us which have what features. Real tough.
We commoners live in the real world: We must plunk down our own money, ask the product to work with our other gizmos, and -- tee-hee -- succeed in one try or live with the consequences.
This was my problem: When my new Hewlett-Packard MediaSmart television was called upon to play nice with my other perfectly utilitarian components (cable box, DVD player and computer), the 47-inch, or 1.2-meter, beauty...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Anti-Obama Bloggers Upset at Google Unit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60603
Was Google's network of online services manipulated to silence critics of Barack Obama? That was the question buzzing on a corner of the blogosphere over the past few days, after several anti-Obama bloggers were unable to update their sites, which are hosted on Google's Blogger service.
The bloggers, most of them supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton and all of whom are critical of Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, received a notice from Google last week saying that their sites had been identified as potential spam blogs.
"You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog," the Google e-mail message read.
Many of the bloggers were affiliated with JustSayNoDeal.com, a Web site opposed to an Obama presidency.
In an article that appeared on Bloggasm.com, the reporter Simon Owens spoke with some of the affected bloggers, who said they believed that Google had fallen prey to a campaign by Obama advocates. According to the bloggers, Obama supporters clicked on a "flag" on the anti-Obama blogs to make Google believe that they were spam.
Should that be the case, it would be an embarrassment for Google.
On its Web page explaining the "flag" feature, Google says that "it can't be manipulated by angry mobs. Political dissent? Incendiary opinions? Just plain crazy? Bring it on."
On Monday, Google did not explicitly rebut the idea that it had been tricked but said that the cause of the temporary blockage appeared to be elsewhere.
"It appears that our anti-spam filters caused some Blogger accounts to be blocked from creating new posts," a Google spokesman, Adam Kovacevich, said in a statement. "While we are still investigating, we believe this may have been caused by mass spam e-mails mentioning the 'Just Say No Deal' network of blogs, which...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
For eBay, Lawsuits Could Result in Profit Squeeze
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60602
Further legal setbacks could shave the profit margins for eBay, the online auctioneer.
In the near term, the biggest damage could be to the eBay brand, which promises shoppers the widest range of goods in a marketplace that connects millions of buyers and sellers.
A French court ordered eBay on Monday to pay $61 million to LVMH, parent of the Louis Vuitton and Dior brands, for failing to properly monitor auctions.
In the United States, a federal judge is due to rule on whether it is the responsibility of eBay or of the plaintiff, Tiffany, to police the site for fake Tiffany diamonds.
EBay has already increased its spending on people and technology to try to keep counterfeit items off its site, and further investments prompted by unfavorable court rulings would be mostly incremental at this point, analysts say.
"Does that destroy the business model or fundamentally change it?" the Global Crown Capital analyst Martin Pyykkonen asked. "No, not really."
Such rulings would incrementally put pressure on profit margins, requiring constant vigilance for fakes and more employees in the trust division, he said.
Legal experts were not predicting the outcome of the eBay-Tiffany case, which would decide the ground rules of doing business in cyberspace and whether traditional notions of trademark and copyright protections deserve greater protection on the Web.
Although the lawsuits are a distraction for eBay, the bigger issue for investors is how the company, based in San Jose, California, can revive its stalled growth. Adjusted operating margins have stabilized around 35 percent because of cost controls, Pyykkonen said, but expansion would depend on growth in sales.
"Unless they can accelerate the growth in their core business, all this other stuff is minor," Steve Weinstein, an analyst for Pacific Crest, said. The Tiffany lawsuit "is not what's going to drive the stock," he said.
Shares of...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Online Surveys Can Expose Customers' Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60504
You may have a real threat to your organization's data security perimeter you may have never considered, much less taken action to prevent. This threat is not the result of some sinister activity or technical exploit of your network -- it comes from your employees performing what would generally be perceived as a benign act.
The use of online survey software to collect feedback from customers is growing consistently as companies search for ways to take the pulse of their customer base. As a result, there is a growing roster of companies that offer survey solutions, ranging from simple survey tools to comprehensive enterprise feedback-management solutions that help companies build, manage, and analyze survey activity.
Inviting customers to take a survey and collecting results means customer data is exposed. The vast majority of online surveys use e-mail to send invitations to potential respondents. This requires customer data in the form of mailing lists and other information be loaded onto the servers of the survey solution provider. Responses to the survey are also stored on these same servers and are accumulated over time for analysis. Depending on the nature of the survey, the responses result in detailed profiles that include customer information such as:
* Opinions
* Preferences
* Buying habits
* Demographics
* Contact information
Taking a survey is an act of trust by the respondent, who provides this data trusting that it will be used appropriately and handled securely.
Unfortunately, this may not be a valid assumption. As noted, there are many survey solutions on the market, some of which are very inexpensive. However, choosing a low-cost survey solution could mean that your data -- both the customer data from the organization and the data from the responses is stored on an unprotected server. Since many of these tools use the software as a service model, the survey...
Tue, 8 Jul 08
Responding to an Absurd Claim from a Customer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60491
Question: I'm a customer-service team member for an auto manufacturer. Recently, a gentleman called requesting to speak with someone "high up." When I asked him what the issue was, he refused to say and continued to request that he speak with a supervisor. I didn't want to upset the guy even more, but in order to get him to the right person, I told him I had to know what the situation was.
After a moment of silence, the caller finally told me that he had flooded his new SUV while he was launching a boat. As he put it, "I backed down the boat ramp and stopped a little past the launch point, and when I got out to roll the boat off the trailer, water came pouring in through my door and totally flooded the interior. It's obviously a manufacturer's defect, and I'd like it fixed!"
To say it was an unusual case would be an understatement, so without a word, I transferred the call to my supervisor. Unfortunately, I never heard how she handled it, and now I'm curious. What would you have said to the caller? (The cause of the flooding seemed apparent to me and probably worth a joke or two, although I know a joke would have been inappropriate and cause for a disciplinary write-up, or more.)
Answer: You know, after nearly 18 years in this industry, I've heard some strange complaints from customers, but this one definitely reaches unchartered waters. A "little past" the launch point? Just a hunch here, but something tells me the guy was half a mile out into the lake -- so I'll crack the obvious joke for you: "Sir, is your SUV the LE (Land Edition) or the H2O Edition?"
No matter how absurd or amusing a customer's claim might be,...
Sun, 6 Jul 08
Police Wnt U To Fight Crime W/ Txt Msgs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60612
Police in the 1970s urged citizens to "drop a dime" in a pay phone to report crimes anonymously. Now in an increasing number of cities, tipsters are being invited to use their thumbs -- to identify criminals using text messages.
Police hope the idea helps recruit teens and 20-somethings who wouldn't normally dial a Crime Stoppers hot line to share information with authorities.
"If somebody hears Johnny is going to bring a gun to school, hopefully they'll text that in," said Sgt. Brian Bernardi of the Louisville, Ky., Metro Police Department, which rolled out its text-message tip line in June.
Departments in Boston and Cincinnati started accepting anonymous text tips about a year ago. Since then, more than 100 communities have taken similar steps or plan to do so. The Internet-based systems route messages through a server that encrypts cell phone numbers before they get to police, making tips virtually impossible to track.
In Louisville earlier this week, Bernardi's computer displayed a text message from a person identified only as "Tip563." It read: "someone has vandalized the school van at valor school on bardstown rd in fern creek." The note also reported illegal dumping in a trash container and in the woods.
"It's obvious that the future of communication is texting," said officer Michael Charbonnier, commander of the Boston Police Department's Crime Stoppers unit. "You look at these kids today and that's all they're doing. You see five kids standing on the corner, and they're texting instead of having a conversation with each other."
When Boston adopted the system last year, the first text tip yielded an arrest in a New Hampshire slaying. In the 12 months that ended June 15, Boston police logged 678 text tips, nearly matching the 727 phone tips during the same period.
Earlier this year, a text tip led to the arrest...
Sun, 6 Jul 08
New Laws Drive Wireless Headset Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60598
In a move that could give a welcome, if short-lived, boost to consumer electronics makers and retailers, consumers up and down the West Coast are snapping up headsets that let them talk on cell phones while driving -- and stay in compliance with a law that took effect in California and Washington state on July 1.
Demand for hands-free headsets has been so robust that the Verizon Wireless store in San Mateo, Calif., added a whole new section for the devices, says store manager Aari Jethmal. "The shelves have been cleared and restocked and cleared and restocked." Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone, is the second-largest U.S. mobile-phone provider, after AT&T.
The law, which stipulates penalties for driving while talking on a handheld cell phone, is a boon for Plantronics and other makers of headsets that use so-called Bluetooth wireless connectivity. "Historically Bluetooth headsets have been a low-margin product, so they would need to drive significant product to move the bottom-line needle," says Avondale Partners analyst John Bright, who has an "outperform" rating on Plantronics shares. "Luckily California is the largest state and a heavy cell-phone usage state, so it certainly bodes well for heavy volume."
On June 26, Bright raised his estimate for Plantronics' June quarter earnings by a penny, to 35 percent a share, in anticipation of the law taking effect. That's a cent higher than the average of Wall Street estimates. The shares have gotten little apparent lift since the law kicked in, slipping to 21.05 on July 2, from 22.32 on June 30.
Plantronics expects a sales boost in California for the second and third quarters, says spokesman Dan Race, though he didn't provide specifics. "We're seeing good interest in our premium products," Race says.
Other Bluetooth manufacturers poised to benefit include Motorola; GN Netcom, maker of...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Openmoko's Neo FreeRunner Smartphone Really Is Open
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60618
Openmoko has taken the wraps off its Neo FreeRunner, a Linux-based smartphone based on the company's open mobile-computing platform. Before you yawn about reading yet another product-introduction story -- especially about a handset that lacks 3G capability -- what sets the Neo FreeRunner apart is that it really is open, literally and figuratively.
The company's black, oval-shaped smartphones are built for users to actually open. For example, buyers will be able to take the unit's casing apart to get at the electronic circuitry. Openmoko says it will even supply the tools to make opening the device a snap.
And the handset's flexible development platform will allow designers to create Linux-based mobile applications for specialized markets, Taiwan-based Openmoko said. The goal is to empower developers and consumers alike to personalize their devices, much like a PC.
Measuring 4.75 x 2.44 x 0.73 inches and tipping the scales at 6.5 oz, the Neo Freerunner sports a 2.8-inch touchscreen with a display resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. Underneath the hood, the handset integrates chips for connecting tirelessly with functions and services compatible with the Bluetooth 2.0, GPS and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) standards.
The handset uses a 400-MHz ARM9 processor, 128MB of WSDRAM and 256MB of NAND Flash memory. Though there is no camera, the smartphone has two three-axis motion sensors and a microSD expansion-card slot.
The Neo FreeRunner is a tri-band GSM device that comes in 850/1800/1900-MHz and 900/1800/1900-MHz forms. To find out which Neo to buy, Openmoko suggests that prospective buyers first determine the GSM bands supported in their home markets.
On the software side, the new handset can dial numbers, send and receive SMS text, and record personalized contact information. Openmoko expects to supplement these with downloads, beginning with the release next month of a software suite that will include...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Suit Seeks Information on U.S. Cell-Phone Tracking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60617
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are suing the Department of Justice to obtain official records concerning the U.S. government's possible use of cell-phone-tracking technology to spy on individuals without first obtaining a court order based on probable cause.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the civil-liberties groups said the DOJ failed to provide an adequate and timely response to a records request filed last year under the Freedom of Information Act.
"This is a critical opportunity to shed much-needed light on possibly unconstitutional government surveillance techniques," said Catherine Crump, the ACLU lead attorney. "Signing up for cell-phone services should not be synonymous with signing up to be spied on and tracked by the government."
At least some U.S. attorneys may have violated a DOJ "internal recommendation" that "federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas," according to a Washington Post article published last November. Moreover, the ACLU said other media reports have raised the possibility that law-enforcement officers may have obtained tracking data directly from the nation's mobile carriers without any court involvement.
Due to the limited amount of information currently available about the government's tracking practices, the ACLU said it believes the lack of information on the issue raises serious questions about whether the government is complying with current law and the U.S. Constitution.
"The government's policies and practices for monitoring the locations of mobile phones are unclear," the ACLU noted in its original records request. "It is not even apparent whether the government routinely obtains mobile-phone location information without any court supervision whatsoever."
Information pertaining to the DOJ's procedures for obtaining real-time tracking information is vital to the public's understanding of the privacy risks of carrying a mobile...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Firefox Browser Share Tops 19 Percent as Record Set
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60616
The Mozilla Foundation has set a world record and achieved new heights in its battle for browser market share. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Mozilla's Firefox 3.0 Web browser set a record for the most downloads in a day. It was the first time a browser-maker attempted to set a record.
Mozilla set the record with 8,002,530 downloads in June. The Mozilla Foundation will receive the official certificate in London next week.
"Setting a world record really doesn't matter. It's a marketing stunt," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. "At the end of the day you still have to look at who has the overwhelming browser market share. It still belongs to Microsoft."
Indeed, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is still the dominant browser. But Firefox is gaining ground, according to a new report from Net Applications. The release of Firefox 3.0 on June 17 spurred rapid usage gains, topping four percent worldwide. In the first hour after the product was released, Firefox 3.0 gained one percent of worldwide market share.
Firefox 3 gains came mostly from users upgrading from Firefox 2, while its overall usage share grew about .4 percent, primarily at the expense of Internet Explorer, according to Net Applications.
IE's market share dipped from 73.75 percent in May to 73.01 percent at the end of June, Net Applications' latest data shows. Firefox increased its overall share during the same period from 18.41 percent to 19.03 percent.
In a flurry of good news reports for Firefox, Mozilla users are most likely to be using the latest versions of their browsers, with 83 percent of Firefox users patched, according to joint research from Google, IBM and Communications Systems Group in Switzerland.
By contrast, only 63.3 percent of Safari users and 56.1 percent of Opera...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Judge Protects YouTube Code, But Opens User Records
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60615
A Manhattan district judge gave Google some partial victories this week in its copyright-infringement battle with Viacom over YouTube. Last year, Viacom sued Google and its YouTube site for $1 billion for what it called unauthorized use of video clips from Viacom properties.
In Wednesday's decision, Judge Louis L. Stanton granted a protective order to Google so it doesn't have to turn over its search source code as Viacom requested. Viacom argued it wanted to show that Google did not have copyright filters, but Google countered -- successfully, at this round -- that the code is a trade secret. The search code is used both on YouTube.com and on Google's main search engine.
In his decision, the judge said Google and YouTube "should not be made to place this vital asset in hazard merely to allay speculation." He added that a "plausible" showing that Google/YouTube's denials were false and that the search function "can and has been used to discriminate infringing content" should be required before "so valuable and vulnerable an asset is compelled."
The judge said there was no evidence that the search engine can separate clips that violate someone else's copyright, such as Viacom's, and those that do not. He did leave open that there may be other ways to filter infringing clips.
Stanton also turned down Viacom's request for Google to deliver its electronic-index data for its advertising and video-content databases, or for the source code of YouTube's video-identification tool. The video ID program enables holders of copyright material to provide YouTube with samples, so infringements can be tracked down on the site.
One aspect of Viacom's case has been that YouTube does not merely share video content that users upload, but that the site copies the uploaded content onto its servers and makes that content available via its search...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Sony PS3 Update Locks Consoles, Web Site Attacked
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60596
Sony is feeling some gaming-division woes this week with a double PlayStation 3 whammy. First, Sony's PlayStation Web site fell victim to SQL-injection attacks. Now Sony's PS3 firmware update is turning some consoles into bricks.
Sony released Version 2.40 of its firmware on Wednesday with the promise of a more collaborative experience to compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360. But following customer reports of problems with the patch, the company temporarily suspended the download. Sony says only a few consumers have had problems with the new firmware.
"In order to further assess the issue, we have temporarily taken the firmware offline for further testing," Sony said. "We are working diligently to isolate the problem for those few consumers and to identify a solution before we put the firmware back up."
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch, called the firmware incident a black eye for Sony that will continue to raise quality-control questions until the company can come up with some answers about what and why it happened.
"No one wants to have their PS3 turned into a PS paperweight, which is apparently what happened to some users," Gartenberg said. "Sony was wise to immediately pull the update for general availability so no one else is affected by it. An official firmware upgrade put out by the company should never, ever damage the user's hardware."
Any time companies update the core part of a technology, whether it's a phone, an operating system, or a video-game console, there is the potential for things to run afoul. Seemingly minor issues can cause entire systems to stop working, Gartenberg said. Sony's disadvantage is the Internet age. Even if the foul firmware only disrupted the gaming systems of a few consumers, the masses know about it.
"The fact that people are communicating on the Internet about technologies makes it all...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Online Storage: A Simple and Secure Solution
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60595
Transferring information between computers is easier now than it ever has been.
I remember back in the days of my Commodore 64 when it was near impossible to exchange information between different machines unless they were of exactly the same manufacturer and model and had compatible peripherals.
Modems were primitive devices that few had access to and as such you ended up saving the information on to an audio cassette, then either posting or exchanging it in person.
Today things are much different; irrespective of your computer configuration you can easily transfer information via a number of removable media types or alternatively instantly to any location in the world over the Internet.
There is no doubting that the Internet has revolutionized how we move data and one resultant technology currently experiencing rapid growth is online personal storage.
Physical media such as a flash pen drive is fantastic but is not without its drawbacks. For example, it is so easy to leave at home when it will be needed or even worse if lost then you not only have to worry about the information being lost but also potentially falling in to the wrong hands.
[With online storage, your data] is secure. All the information stored is encrypted and can only be accessed using a designated password. It's portable -- you can gain access to your files from any machine with an Internet connection.
Most [online storage] services are either completely free or include a free "lite" version. While capacities vary, several gigabytes of free space is the norm.
A good starting point for most would be the Microsoft SkyDrive service.
Direct your browser to http://skydrive.live.com and you should be able to get going immediately if you already have a Windows Live ID.
This would have been set up in the past if you use another Microsoft online service such...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Browser Pioneer Andreessen Joins Facebook Board
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60582
Marc Andreessen, an entrepreneur and software engineer behind the Web's earliest browsers, has joined the board of the online hangout Facebook.
Andreessen's appointment could bring additional clout and insight to a young but growing startup headed by Mark Zuckerberg, 24, who started Facebook as a Harvard undergraduate.
In a statement late Monday, Zuckerberg said Andreessen, 36, "has experience that is relevant to Facebook in so many ways: scaling companies that are experiencing extraordinary growth, creating successful technology platforms and building strong engineering organizations."
Andreessen's appointment also brings him in alliance with a one-time rival. Microsoft Corp., whose Internet Explorer browser trounced Andreessen's Netscape in the 1990s, has invested $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, giving the privately held company a $15 billion valuation.
Andreessen joins Zuckerberg, Jim Breyer of Accel Partners and Peter Thiel of Clarium Capital and Founders Fund on Facebook's board. David Sze of Greylock Partners and Paul Madera of Meritech Capital Partners are board observers.
Andreessen also is co-founder and chairman of Ning, a service for letting groups create their own social networks -- potentially competing with Facebook, though Facebook described Ning's system as "complementary."
Andreessen's involvement with the Web spans more than a decade.
In 1993, Andreessen and colleagues at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications released Mosaic, the first Web browser to integrate images and sound with words. Previously, access was largely limited to text, with any graphics displayed in separate windows.
Andreessen and others soon left to commercialize the browser, and in 1994 they released the first version of Netscape. But Netscape's use eroded after Microsoft stepped into the market, and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL ultimately bought Netscape for $10 billion. Andreessen stayed on briefly as AOL's chief technology officer.
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Monster Founder Sets Sights on Online Obituaries
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60580
Fourteen years ago, Jeff Taylor helped set off a tectonic shift in recruitment advertising by founding Monster.com, one of the first online companies to challenge a big profit source of newspapers.
Now, just as papers are reeling from a massive drainage of ad dollars online, Taylor thinks he's found another one of their strongholds that's ripe for online competition: obituaries.
Funerals have historically been local affairs, which meshed well with newspapers' strong ties to their communities. But Taylor believes that may be changing as more people live far from the places they were born and grew up. Taylor hopes his new site, Tributes.com, will fill that broader need.
Unlike when Monster debuted in 1994, Taylor faces a lot more competition. Newspapers are already big players online in the obituaries business, thanks largely to a 10-year-old company called Legacy.com, which runs the obituary sections of Web sites for more than 650 newspapers, for which it earns a fee. The site, which is 45 percent owned by publisher Tribune Co., gets 12 million visitors per month.
Legacy, like competitors such as Memory-Of.com, offers a variety of ways for bereaved family members and friends to remember loved ones including virtual guest books, which can be archived online for a fee.
Taylor says his new venture can do that and more, but without relying on newspapers for information about funerals and deaths. Instead, Tributes.com will glean that information through alliances with funeral homes and groups directly as well as trade associations and public information about deaths from Social Security, though he declined to divulge specific deals.
Sophisticated search and database technology will allow users of Tributes to get e-mail alerts, say when someone from their home town passes away, Taylor said. Tributes expects to make money from selling advertising, online memorials and gift items like flowers and cards.
Help-wanted and other...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
The Frugal Can Shop Internet for Software Freebies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60575
Tech junkies looking to pinch pennies in today's economy can scour the Web for a bounty of free software -- for word-processing and photo-editing, online storage and more.
Dozens of downloadable or online-only applications are available at no charge. While many are scaled-down versions of paid programs, you'd be surprised at how feature-rich these freebies can be.
The catch? Some of these applications may be ad-supported and won't offer extensive tech support, if any.
Companies that offer free software are motivated by a range of factors -- from building brand recognition to up-selling users to a paid version, says Michael Gartenberg, research director at JupiterResearch. Some tech companies use free products to experiment with different revenue models, Gartenberg says. Google, for instance, embeds advertising in its Gmail e-mail offering.
"Google, in fact, is a good example of a company that can afford to develop a product today and figure out how to monetize it tomorrow," he says.
Here are a few of our favorite free apps.
Chances are you already know about Google's Picasa (picasa.google.com), a free downloadable program ideal for novice users that lets you manage, edit and share your digital photo collection, but there are other free photo programs worth noting.
Adobe has launched Photoshop Express (photoshop.com/express), an intuitive online application allowing you to upload up to 2 gigabytes of photos, make edits and share them via e-mail or social-networking sites, such as Facebook. The Web is a great opportunity for Adobe to bring its digital imaging expertise "to very large, new audiences," says Geoff Baum, director of Photoshop Express at Adobe. The free tool is not intended to replace Adobe's beefier photo-editing packages sold at retail, such as Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS3, Baum says.
Advanced users seeking free software might consider GIMP (gimp.org), available for Windows, Mac, Linux and other systems. With its...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Making Yourself @Home with T-Mobile's New Plan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60574
T-Mobile USA is breaking new ground. On July 2, the U.S. wireless calling division of Germany's Deutsche Telekom is introducing home-phone calling for as low as $10 a month, a fraction of the price charged by traditional phone companies including AT&T and Internet-calling providers such as Vonage. Analysts have said T-Mobile's @Home is really targeted at users of rival wireless calling services.
Watch out, Verizon Wireless. I've tested @Home, and I'm impressed with the results. Akin to an Internet calling service, T-Mobile @Home routes calls via a home broadband connection. The service is available for $10 a month to T-Mobile subscribers who are already paying at least $40 a month for their wireless calls. The necessary Wi-Fi router costs $50 for customers who sign a two-year contract; otherwise it's $150. [And remember that you'll still need a high-speed Internet connection.]
That monthly 10 bucks goes a long way. Besides unlimited local and long-distance calling, you also get voice mail, call forwarding, three-way conference calling, call waiting, and-:for phones with displays-:caller ID. The service also keeps a log of calls made and received on your My T-Mobile Web page, where wireless customers also can check balances and pay bills.
There's other convenient overlap with T-Mobile wireless calling. The same number works for checking voice mail [123], and T-Mobile puts home and wireless calling on the same bill. [For an extra $10 a month, the service also lets you make unlimited cell-phone calls from home.]
Router set-up is a snap, too. Slide a CD into your computer for step-by-step instructions on connecting the device both to your home broadband and to a landline. I was done in 10 minutes flat, a personal best. Installing Web-calling services is often nettlesome and can take hours, involving calls to customer service.
Best of all, I found call quality...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Nokia Tries Apple's Tune with Fledgling Music Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60573
Nokia wants some of Apple's rhythm. On July 1 the Finnish mobile-phone maker said that Warner Music Group has agreed to participate in Nokia's fledgling music service, making Warner the third of the major record labels to join in the effort. The move is one more step in Nokia's effort to compete against Apple for the people who want to carry around music libraries in their pockets.
Nokia's service, which will officially launch in the second half of this year, is called Comes With Music. It will be built into certain Nokia handsets and will allow customers to download unlimited amounts of music from participating labels. The downloaded music can be kept on a PC or mobile-phone forever. In theory, a consumer could download every single song from the labels' catalogs; they'd simply need a very big hard drive on which to store the files. Nokia and its partners have not disclosed pricing for the service, but they believe it has plenty of potential. "We believe this will be a significant contributor of revenue over a long-term basis for Nokia," says Liz Schimel, global head of music for Nokia.
The record labels seem to be buying that argument. Universal Music Group in December signed up with Nokia, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment partnered with the service in April. A spokesperson for EMI Group, the sole major label yet to join, says the company is talking with Nokia, although no deal has been reached. Nokia says it is in talks with independent labels as well.
For the music industry, the Nokia venture represents a departure from the old ways of doing business. Susan Kevorkian, program director of consumer markets at research firm IDC, says there is "broader experimentation" as CD sales decline and music revenues slide overall. For record companies, it may...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Cable, Satellite Customer Satisfaction Falls, Poll Finds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60558
Consumers are losing patience with cable and satellite TV customer service operators who are supposed to help solve their problems, according to a survey out today.
Customers who've called for help rate their satisfaction with cable's and satellite's service desks at a score of 66 out of 100, research and consulting firm CFI Group says in its second annual Contact Center Satisfaction Index study.
That's down 3 percent from a similar poll taken last year, and puts the TV providers last -- behind insurance and personal computer companies -- among the seven industries that the firm monitors.
It also trails government call centers, which earned a 70 on the CCSI rankings.
Some 20 percent of those asked in the March survey said that cable and satellite help desks couldn't solve their problems. "Cable does worse than satellite," although they're lumped together for reporting purposes, says CFI CEO Sheri Teodoru.
Consumers' growing frustration with the help lines could become a serious problem, as competition intensifies from phone companies that also offer TV and Internet services.
Cable companies in particular "don't get it, and customers don't believe them," Teodoru says. "If I as a consumer had a bad experience with my favorite online retailer, I'd say that I'll still go back because it's been great every other time. If I get a bad experience with my cable provider, I'd say, 'There they go again.' They have a whole lot of work to do to convince me that they've improved."
Consumers in the firm's Internet-based survey, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points, said that cable and satellite representatives are slipping when it comes to effectively handling an issue, showing interest in helping, their knowledge and their ability to discuss the matter clearly.
That tracks with an increase in the number of cable and satellite subscribers who...
Fri, 4 Jul 08
Changes to Internet Naming Policy May Lure Net-Squatters
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60556
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers [ICANN] has voted to allow--in addition to more traditional top-level domains [TLDs], such as .com and .org--theoretically any TLD at all, as long as it is no longer than 64 characters long. The application process for such custom TLDs looks set to be arduous and the criteria reasonably rigorous, but observers say the new system will create confusion.
"This has the potential for utter chaos," said John Mackenzie, of the law firm Pinsent Masons, on Friday. "The attraction for cybersquatters is not going to be setting up a registry that matches someone else's brand; it will be in the generic TLDs. All of a sudden, every brand will be forced to register their name at .shop, .buy and .london to stop anyone else getting it."
Mackenzie added that a similar effect was seen when the .eu TLD was introduced. "Our clients didn't want the .eu domain name but they felt they had no choice," he told ZDNet Asia's sister site ZDNet UK on Friday. "They had to register their brands as .eu names. Before that, it was .info and .biz and all the others. Each time a new TLD is introduced, large brands spend a fortune on defensive registrations to avoid the greater expense of recovering the names from cybersquatters further down the line. ICANN has just multiplied those costs. It's a brand owner's nightmare."
Roy Illsley, a senior research analyst at the Butler Group, echoed Mackenzie's sentiments. "It's going to give brand managers a massive headache," he said. "There will be a huge number of potential extensions. If [the brand owners] don't use them, then, if someone else gets them, it does potential brand damage."
"If you go beyond the brand, it's [slogans like] 'Every little helps' from Tesco," Illsley continued. "Can anyone use that?...
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Pricing for iPhone 3G Reflects a New Value Proposition
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60592
Last month, Apple announced that its new iPhone 3G would cost just $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB version. AT&T confirmed that pricing Tuesday, but clarified that those prices are only for certain users -- buyers of any iPhone before the iPhone 3G goes on sale July 11, new AT&T customers, or subscribers eligible for an upgrade discount.
For all others, the price is $399 for the 8GB iPhone and $499 for the 16GB iPhone 3G. In a new wrinkle, customers can buy the iPhone 3G without a service plan, but the price is steep at $599 for the 8GB iPhone 3G and $699 for the 16GB iPhone 3G.
AT&T also announced monthly service plans for the 3G iPhone, ranging from $69.99 for 450 anytime minutes to $129.99 for unlimited minutes. The plans include unlimited Web and e-mail access, but not texting. AT&T will charge $20 for unlimited text messages.
Those monthly service fees are higher than for the original iPhone. So will customers blink at those rates, even with a subsidized service plan?
Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies, doesn't think there will be much blinking. "I believe the new iPhone delivers a different value proposition via software, so the pricing plans will be viewed through the lens of its new software applications capabilities," he said in an e-mail.
Apple's iPhone 2.0 software will be preloaded on all 3G iPhones, AT&T said. The software supports a new ecosystem of third-party software and will connect to the Apps Store, Apple's mechanism for users to download software over the air.
Apple's Web site advertises that users will "find applications in every category, from games to business, education to entertainment, finance to health and fitness, productivity to social networking." And it boasts that the apps will exploit iPhone technologies...
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Microsoft To Put Office Online as Equipt for Consumers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60591
Microsoft is ready to put its popular Microsoft Office suite online, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Called Microsoft Equipt, the suite will join the software giant's online offerings of Windows Live Mail, Messenger, OneCare and Photo Gallery.
Previously code-named Albany, the consumer-oriented Equipt will be available for purchase on July 15 through Circuit City's 700 outlets nationwide. Each $69.99 one-year subscription will cover up to three home PCs, Microsoft said.
"Certainly the initial move is to capture more consumer eyeballs," noted AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy. "Though it's unclear at this point what the next version of Office will look like, it's likely that it will include a mechanism for Microsoft or its partners to monetize its widespread use -- whether that's through advertising or selling other value-added services."
Microsoft's move to make Office a consumer-friendly online service has some long-term implications for the small-business market. Gartner Client Services Vice President Michael Silver thinks we'll "see more subscription offerings from Microsoft as time goes on" because it would give the software giant a "more reliable" revenue stream.
The software giant's latest move basically adapts the model of Microsoft Software Assurance for enterprises to the home market, Silver said.
"Larger small businesses already have offerings like this through Microsoft's open-licensing program, but the pricing and licensing is more commensurate with prices businesses pay," Silver said. "Small businesses can probably expect something like this suited to them in the future, but may have difficulty buying this version in particular because it does not contain Outlook."
The terms of the current consumer license will prevent a small business from using Equipt, Silver noted. "Microsoft says that business use of Equipt is prohibited," he said.
When Microsoft eventually does offer a similar model to small-business users, it could cannibalize the software giant's...
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Microsoft Buys Powerset To Add Search Talent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60589
Microsoft on Tuesday confirmed it has reached an agreement to buy Powerset, a natural-language search firm in San Francisco. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but some industry watchers estimate the transaction at $100 million.
Powerset will join Microsoft's core search-relevance team. Microsoft said the company's technology complements other natural-language technologies Microsoft research has developed.
Powerset also brings talented engineers and computer linguists to Microsoft's Live Search. The Powerset team boasts a wide range of experience from other search engines and research organizations like PARC (formerly Xerox PARC).
"We're buying Powerset first and foremost because we're impressed with the people there," wrote Satya Nadella, senior vice president of search, portal and advertising at Microsoft, in the Live Search blog. "Powerset CTO and cofounder Barney Pell is a visionary and incredible evangelist."
Nadella cited a shared vision to take search to the next level by adding understanding of the intent and meaning behind the words in searches and Web pages. Roughly a third of searches don't get answered on the first search and first click, according to Microsoft.
"Usually searchers find the information they want eventually, but that often requires multiple searches or clicks on multiple search results," Nadella said, citing two specific problems.
The first is differences in phrasing or context between a user's search and the way the same information is expressed on Web pages. Today's search engines don't understand that "shrub" and "tree" are similar concepts. They also don't understand that "cancer" sometimes refers to a disease and sometimes to a horoscope and when a query or a Web page refers to which.
The second reason is a lack of clarity in the descriptions for each Web page in the search results. Sometimes a result looks relevant from its short description on the results page but turns out to be not...
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Rebounding AMD Offers Three New X4 Phenom Chips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60583
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices released three new Phenom quad-core processors for the desktop Tuesday, including an X4 9550 Black Edition that allows users to increase the clock speed.
The Black Edition (BE) model, with a "clock multiplier control" and a clock speed of 2.6 GHz, is aimed at gamers who want to build new systems or upgrade existing ones.
The other models are the X4 9350e and the 9150e processors, whose calling cards are that they are highly energy-efficient and take up a small amount of space. These processors are intended for computer users who need high-end processing power for video editing, photo manipulation, and similar tasks.
All three processors are optimized for multi-threaded applications, such as high-end business applications, media-based processing, and gaming. The 9350e offers a clock speed of 2.0 GHz, and the 9150e runs at 1.8 GHz. Prices are expected to be $235 for the BE, $195 for the 9350e, and $175 for the 9150e.
All three chips use AMD's 65-nanometer technology. Later this year, the company is expected to release 45-nanometer processors, which rival Intel did last year.
AMD, which has posted six straight losing quarters, received some mixed news Tuesday from market researcher iSuppli about its battle with Intel.
The research firm reported that AMD's share of the global microprocessor market fell one percent in the first quarter to 13 percent, compared to the final quarter of 2007. But compared to the first quarter in 2007, its share was 2.2 points higher. So AMD's overall progress took a bump, but it has a slightly better market position compared to a year ago.
A year ago, AMD's market share was 10.9 percent, then hit 14 percent before dropping to 13 percent in this year's first quarter. There are indications that about half of its increase...
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Forty Percent of Web Browsers Open to Hackers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60572
Researchers from Google, IBM and the Communications Systems Group in Switzerland released a study Monday that shows only 60 percent of Web users are surfing with patched, updated browsers.
They estimated that only 576 million of 1.4 billion Internet users worldwide used the most secure browsers. The data came from Google's server logs between January 2007 and last month.
Mozilla users are most likely to be using the latest versions of their browsers, with 83 percent of Firefox users patched. By contrast, only 63.3 percent of Safari users and 56.1 percent of Opera users have the latest versions. Microsoft Internet Explorer users ranked at the bottom with only 47.6 percent using the most secure version of IE7.
"We believe the auto-update mechanism as implemented within Firefox to be the most efficient patching mechanism of the Web browsers studied," the researchers wrote.
Security-research firm Sophos came to similar conclusions with its Endpoint
Assessment Test. The free online scanning service checks for security
vulnerabilities. It looks for missing Microsoft security patches, disabled client firewalls, or missing security-software updates.
After five weeks, Sophos compiled the findings, and the results showed that a whopping 81 percent of the corporate endpoints tested had failed one or more of these basic checks.
"Sadly, the Web is becoming more dangerous," said Carole Theriault, a senior security associate at Sophos. In fact, Sophos finds an infected Web page every five seconds. And almost 80 percent of these are legitimate sites.
"Sites become infected due to lax security, either due to poor maintenance or lack of understanding of the threat," Theriault said. "And this does not just affect small mom and pop sites."
Last week Sophos warned about a tennis-related Web site infected with malware, and on Wednesday it warned about Sony PlayStation Web pages.
Web surfers are a major target for attackers....
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Web 2.0: Communication, Collaboration -- and Danger
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60567
Web 2.0 users beware: Social networking technologies may be fun and useful, but the one thing they are not is secure. For all the benefits it offers, the Web 2.0 world is still pretty rowdy, and the risk to enterprises is very serious. Experts warn that capabilities such as social networking and collaborative content sites are a wide-open window to hackers who are using their mega-networking appeal to spread malware and crack into systems. Unless organizations take precautions, not only do they put themselves at risk, but they also may inadvertently become members of a ring of thieves whose goal is to get their virtual hands on information, which equals riches.
Information systems security companies see a whole new world of business opportunities opening up to them with the ever-widening use of Web 2.0 offerings. A study conducted by Forrester Research Incorporated, Cambridge, Massachusetts, reveals that Web 2.0 technologies are already in use or prevalent within organizations but with little regard for the security implications. Commissioned by Secure Computing Corporation, Ocala, Florida, the survey showed that while 96 percent of respondents reported finding value from the use of Web 2.0 applications, only 5 percent actually implemented comprehensive protection mechanisms.
Paul A. Henry, vice president of technology evangelism, Secure Computing, finds it appalling that 97 percent of organizations are still using packet filters as their firewalls when the threat vector switched five years ago to the application layer. "So essentially everybody is out there today living in the Web 2.0 world using Web 1.0 risk mitigation," Henry states. "Seventy percent of these people are reporting breaches and they wonder why. It escapes me completely."
The bi-directional interaction that is the essence of Web 2.0 makes it a prime venue for hackers. Web sites such as Wikipedia thrive on people adding content; however, organizations that...
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Lithuanian Web Sites Met with Cyber Attack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60561
Hackers attacked about 300 Web sites in Lithuania during the weekend, defacing them with Soviet symbols and anti-Lithuanian slogans, officials said Monday.
The sabotage of the Web sites occurred two weeks after Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, outlawed the display of Soviet symbols. The ban touched off new tensions with Russia.
Lithuanian officials did not directly accuse Russian hackers of initiating the attacks, but said they had come from foreign computers and were most likely related to the ban.
Last year, Web sites in Estonia, another Baltic nation and former Soviet republic that has rocky relations with Russia, were bombarded with cyberattacks after Estonian officials removed a statue of a Red Army soldier from the center of the capital, Tallinn, provoking violent disturbances.
Some Estonian officials contended that Russia was behind the attacks, but the Kremlin said it had no role in them.
During the weekend in Lithuania, Web sites of government agencies, political parties and businesses were defaced with the hammer-and-sickle symbol and five-pointed stars, as well as derisive and profane anti-Lithuanian slogans, said Rytis Rainys, a Lithuanian official.
Most of the Web sites were restored by Monday.
Meanwhile, relations between Russia and Estonia also appeared to worsen during the weekend.
On Sunday, the Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, walked out of a conference in Russia after a member of the Russian Parliament harshly criticized him. The Russian, Konstantin Kosachyov, accused Ilves of stirring up pro-independence sentiment among Russia's Finno-Ugric minority and condemned Estonia's treatment of its sizable Russian minority.
The conference was focused on Finno-Ugric culture. Last year, Ilves was barred from attending the conference in Russia, though Estonia is one of only three countries, along with Finland and Hungary, with a majority Finno-Ugric population.
After walking out of the conference on Sunday, Ilves told The Associated Press that Kosachyov's charges were absurd....
Thu, 3 Jul 08
eBay Told To Pay $61M to Fashion Brand for Fakes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60549
A French commercial court Monday ordered eBay Inc. to pay more than $61 million to a high-end fashion company because counterfeit goods were sold on the auction site.
The fashion company, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, is home to such prestigious brands as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci and Marc Jacobs, and had complained that it was hurt by the sale of knockoff bags and clothes on eBay.
Pierre Godet, an adviser to LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, said the Paris court's decision was "an answer to a particularly serious question, on whether the Internet is a free-for-all for the most hateful, parasitic practices."
EBay countered that LVMH is trying to crack down on Internet auctions merely because it is uncomfortable with the business model, which tends to cut out the middleman.
"If counterfeits appear on our site, we take them down swiftly," eBay spokeswoman Sravanthi Agrawal said. "But today's ruling is not about counterfeits. Today's ruling is about an attempt by LVMH to protect uncompetitive commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice and the livelihood of law-abiding sellers that eBay empowers every day."
She said eBay hopes to appeal the ruling.
The case pit two pillars of their industries -- one old, one new -- in a country whose courts often challenge Internet companies on matters protected elsewhere by freedom of speech. For example, French courts have ordered U.S. auction sites to keep Nazi paraphernalia away from French eyes.
The ruling came down against eBay on two fronts. The court faulted the online company for "guilty negligence," for not doing enough to prevent fake goods from being sold on its site. The court also ruled that eBay was responsible for the "illicit sale" of perfumes from the LVMH empire, which can be sold only through the brands' "selective distribution networks."
High-end fashion companies...
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Store Didn't Tell Consumers About Credit Card Hack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60546
An old name in retail was hit by a modern scourge -- a hack of its customers' credit card numbers -- but didn't inform the consumers, revealing how data breaches might be heavily undercounted even with new notification laws.
At least 51,000 records were exposed in the breach at the parent company of Montgomery Ward. The venerable Wards chain that began in 1872 went out of business in 2001, but in 2004 a catalog company, Direct Marketing Services Inc., bought the brand name out of bankruptcy. It now runs a Wards.com Web site along with six other sites, including three with Sears brands it has acquired: SearsHomeCenter.com, SearsShowplace.com and SearsRoomforKids.com.
Direct Marketing Services' CEO, David Milgrom, said the financial company Citigroup detected the computer invasion in December. By going through HomeVisions.com, another Direct Marketing Services site, hackers had plundered the database that holds account information for all the company's retail properties.
Milgrom said Direct Marketing Services immediately informed its payment processor and Visa and MasterCard. Then, Milgrom said, Direct Marketing Services closely followed a set of guidelines, issued by Visa, on how to respond to a security breach. That included a report to the U.S. Secret Service. He said he believed by the end of December that Direct Marketing Services had met its obligations.
However, those guidelines from Visa are largely technical, and they do not cover a key additional step: that notification laws in nearly every state generally require organizations that have been hacked to come clean to the affected consumers, not just to the financial industry.
Companies that fail to comply can be hit with fines or be sued by affected customers, depending on the state.
As a result, scores of breaches covering hundreds of millions of consumer accounts have been disclosed by banks, universities, corporations and retailers in recent years.
After being asked about...
Thu, 3 Jul 08
Lawsuit Raises Questions About Private E-Mail at Work
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60544
When he was fired, Scott Sidell was angry enough. Then he found out that his former employer was reading his personal Yahoo e-mail messages, after he had left the company.
In a lawsuit that he filed in May against Structured Settlement Investments, the finance company he used to run, Sidell claims that executives at the company went so far as to read e-mail messages that he had sent to his lawyers discussing his strategy for winning an arbitration claim over his lost job.
"It's kind of like the other side gets your playbook or they're spying on your locker room," said Russell Green, a lawyer representing Sidell. He said that his client was now using a new e-mail address.
The lawsuit filed by Sidell in U.S. District Court in Connecticut involves an unsettled area of the law, where changes in technology create tension between expectations of personal privacy and companies' rights to monitor the equipment they provide to employees. The case's unusual combination of facts, which are in dispute, paves the way for a decision that could help set a precedent for dealing with personal e-mail at work.
The law governing e-mail communications is still evolving. Generally, courts have found that employers can monitor employees' e-mail communications on company computers. But courts have also recognized greater privacy protection for e-mail messages sent using personal, Web-based e-mail accounts. For example, this month a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California ruled that personal text messages sent on two-way pagers provided to police officers in Ontario, California, were protected from the department.
Sidell's case gives the courts an opportunity to address other questions, said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "This case raises a lot of new issues that reflect the changing place of e-mail...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
In California, Cell-Phone Users Go Hands-Free
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60571
Tuesday, California joined the legion of states that ban talking on a cell phone while driving without a hands-free device. The new law will no doubt be a boon for Bluetooth device resellers because, from Hollywood to Silicon Valley, California does business on the phone, in the car.
The law imposes a $20 fine for the first offense, going up to $50 thereafter. Calls to 911 and calls made by long-distance truckers, tow-truck drivers and drivers of farm equipment are exempt.
California joins states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, as well as Washington, D.C., which have had hands-free laws for several years. California's new law doesn't ban talking on the phone, just holding a phone while you talk. And it doesn't ban dialing a number -- potentially more distracting than talking -- just talking.
The law went into effect Tuesday, and mobile stores were reporting huge spikes in headset sales. At AT&T's northern California stores, Bluetooth sales were up 30 percent between May and June after rising 20 percent between April and May.
Aliph, maker of the popular Jawbone headset, said sales have been rising rapidly. "We were expecting an onslaught right around this time," said company CEO Hosain Rahman. "Awareness of the legislation is making people look more at solutions."
And those solutions are wireless: NPD Group calculates that non-carrier vendors sold 2.5 million headsets since the beginning of the year, 1.7 million of which were wireless.
But does using a hands-free device make drivers any more attentive to the road than using a handset? Sprint had lobbied for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto the bill, saying the law ignores "more significant causes of inattentive driving, including drowsiness, smoking, and adjusting the radio/CD player." Sprint also faulted the law for failing to distinguish between "inexperienced...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
AT&T Unveils Pricing Plans for Apple's iPhone 3G
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60570
AT&T on Tuesday announced iPhone 3G pricing for new and existing AT&T customers, several voice and data plans, and tips on how to be "iReady" when Apple's iPhone 3G goes on sale. AT&T retail stores will begin offering the new iPhone at 8 a.m. on Friday, July 11.
iPhone 3G will be available for $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model. These prices require two-year contracts and are available to iPhone customers who purchased before July 11, customers activating a new line with AT&T, and current AT&T customers who are eligible for an upgrade discount.
"We can't wait to offer iPhone 3G to our customers, and we want to make sure the buying process is as easy as possible," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T's wireless unit. "Considering all the great new features of iPhone 3G, we think our pricing and monthly plans present a tremendous value for consumers and businesses alike."
AT&T's iPhone 3G customers can choose from four AT&T Nation plans, which bundle voice and unlimited data (e-mail and Web browsing). The first plan, dubbed AT&T Nation Unlimited, includes unlimited anytime minutes for $129.99 a month.
AT&T is also offering a Nation 1350 plan that includes 1,350 anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes for $109.99 a month, a 900-minute plan with free nights and weekends for $89.99 a month, and a 450-minute plan with free nights and weekends for $69.99 a month.
All AT&T Nation and AT&T FamilyTalk plans for iPhone 3G include nationwide long distance and roaming, visual voicemail, rollover, unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling, call forwarding, call waiting, three-way calling and caller ID.
AT&T will offer FamilyTalk plans, with bundled voice and unlimited data, starting at $129.99 a month for two iPhone 3G lines. Up to three additional iPhone...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
Alliance Aims To Welcome Macs into Enterprises
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60565
Five software companies announced Monday that they have created the Enterprise Desktop Alliance to help welcome Macs into Windows-based enterprises.
The founding members -- Parallels, Atempo, Centrify, Group Logic, and LANrev -- said enterprises "can easily integrate Macs and achieve the same level of control, security, policy compliance, and service that they currently have with their Windows platforms."
Peter Frankl, founder and CEO of LANrev, added that the popularity of Macs among employees does not mean headaches for IT administrators. He said the alliance is "determined" to help companies integrate Macs in ways that reduce the total cost of ownership and increase the platform's acceptance.
The alliance plans a series of events, including Webcasts and seminars, as well as white papers, product information, and related resources on its Web site at www.enterprisedesktopalliance.com.
Each of the founding companies offers Mac-oriented products that can be part of overall solutions. These include enterprise data protection from Atempo, virtualization from Parallels, identity and access management from Centrify, file and print services from Group Logic, and systems life-cycle management from LANrev.
Mark Margevicius, a research director at industry research firm Gartner, noted that one key player is missing from the alliance -- Apple. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has not been placing much emphasis on Macs in the corporate world, he pointed out, concentrating more on style and features than on the higher level of warranty, management tools, and integration that enterprise computer platforms require.
At the same time, he said, "there is an increased level of interest, of pressure, from employees to use Macs." He said there are a variety of reasons for this, including the experience of employees in using Macs or iPods at home, and the resistance of some enterprise users to move to Windows Vista. That resistance to Vista, he added,...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
Hot-Selling Instinct Phone May Lead a Sprint Comeback
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60564
Wall Street has been snapping up Sprint Nextel shares recently amid signs the struggling communications giant may be resolving problems that have plagued it since the second half of last year.
Perhaps the most encouraging sign comes in the form of record sales for the new "iPhone killer" Sprint co-developed with Samsung. Despite mixed reviews, the Instinct smartphone broke the company's record for the first week of sales for any high-speed EVDO mobile device.
"The strong early response tells us that wireless customers recognize Instinct as a highly innovative and convenient touchscreen device combined with the fast speeds available on the largest national mobile broadband network," said John Garcia, president of Sprint's wireless division.
Since joining the company early this year, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has been leading efforts to stem subscriber defections through the launch of beefed-up customer service and a $99 voice/data plan. That renewed focus on subscribers appears to be paying off. During a recent meeting with investors, Verizon Communications President Denny Strigl noted that Sprint's performance had picked up in the past 30 days, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sprint has also agreed to spin off its fledgling WiMAX network, which had been threatening to drain as much as $5 billion from the company. A joint Sprint/Clearwire WiMAX deal announced last year will launch with a combined $3.2 billion investment from industry giants Comcast, Intel, Time Warner, Google and Bright House Networks.
And last month Sprint and infrastructure partner Samsung Telecommunications said WiMAX was ready for prime time. Recent tests in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., areas show that the network has passed rigorous performance criteria pertaining to signal-handoff problems Sprint encountered earlier this year, the companies said.
In the short term, however, Sprint is relying on the Samsung Instinct to keep Apple's new iPhone...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
Adobe Joins with Google, Yahoo to Search Flash Files
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60554
Adobe Systems on Tuesday announced a new initiative with Google and Yahoo to improve search results for dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs).
Adobe is providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to enhance indexing of the Flash file format and uncover information currently undiscoverable by search engines.
This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player, according to the companies. That means RIA developers and Web-content producers won't need to amend their content to make it searchable.
"Until now it has been extremely challenging to search the millions of RIAs and dynamic content on the Web, so we are leading the charge in improving search of content that runs in Adobe Flash Player," said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the platform business unit at Adobe.
An openly published specification describes the SWF format used to deliver rich applications and interactive content in Adobe Flash Player, which is installed on more than 98 percent of Internet-connected computers.
Although search engines already index static text and links within these files, RIAs and dynamic Web content have been difficult because of their changing states -- a problem also inherent in other RIA technologies.
Adobe is initially working with Google and Yahoo to improve searches, Wadhwani said, and also intends to broaden its effort to benefit all content publishers, developers and end users.
Google has already begun to roll out Adobe Flash Player technology in its search engine. As a result, millions of existing RIAs and dynamic Web content that utilize Adobe Flash are searchable without changes.
"Google has been working hard to improve how we can read and discover SWF files," said Bill Coughran, senior vice president of engineering at Google. "Through our recent collaboration with...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
Rock Band 2 To Include New Online Modes, Songs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60540
Rock Band is ready for an encore.
A sequel to the play-along music game that redefined the genre last year will be released first for the Xbox 360 in September, according to publisher MTV Games and developer Harmonix. Rock Band 2 will feature a new variety of instruments, online modes and songs, and will allow players to import their previously purchased Rock Band tunes.
"With the original Rock Band, the focus was on innovation," Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos told The Associated Press. "With Rock Band 2, the focus is on perfection of the experience. We've had a year to listen to our fans and build out the scope, depth and polish of the experience, so it feels like a second-generation band game."
MTV Games and Harmonix will debut Rock Band 2 on Microsoft's Xbox 360 in September then make the game available for Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 as well as Nintendo's Wii later in the year. The original Rock Band was simultaneously released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 last November before later coming to the PlayStation 2 and Wii.
"Microsoft has been a great partner for Rock Band," said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music Group, which oversees the Rock Band franchise. "It's just so easy to download the content using the Xbox 360 system. It's evolved into a great marketing partnership as well. They'll really blow it out for us."
Rock Band allows up to four gamers to form a virtual band, thrashing and singing along to songs with friends online or in-person on various phony instruments. The second edition will feature a playlist of over 80 songs -- all master recordings -- which will include more female-fronted bands and artists who have never contributed tunes to a music game.
If you've already downloaded a song for the original...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
Fat and Slow: Windows OS Must Drop Some Weight
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60539
Microsoft Windows has put on a lot of weight over the years.
Beginning as a thin veneer for older software code, it has become an obese monolith built on an ancient frame. Adding features, plugging security holes, fixing bugs, fixing the fixes that never worked properly, all while maintaining compatibility with older software and hardware -- is there anything Windows does not try to do?
Painfully visible are the inherent design deficiencies of a foundation that was never intended to support such weight.
The best solution to the multiple woes of Windows is starting over. Completely. Now.
Vista is the equivalent, at a minimum, of Windows version 12. After six years of development, the longest interval between versions in the previous 22-year history of Windows, and long enough to permit Apple to bring out three new versions of Mac OS X, Vista was introduced to consumers in January 2007. When IT professionals and consumers got a look at Vista, they all had this same question for Microsoft: That's it?
Just after Vista's birth, Kevin Kutz, a manager at Microsoft, issued a cranky statement in February 2007, "In Response to Speculation on Next Version of Windows," announcing that the company could not say anything about post-Vista Windows "other than that we're working on it."
The internal code name for the next version is Windows 7. The 7 refers to nothing in particular, a company spokeswoman says. This version is supposed to arrive in or around early 2010.
Will it be a top-to-bottom rewrite? Last week, Bill Veghte, a Microsoft senior vice president, sent a letter to customers reassuring them there would be minimal changes to Windows' essential code.
But sticking with that same core architecture is the problem, not the solution. In April, Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald, analysts at Gartner, a research firm, presented...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
Google Data Take Aim at Web Surfers for Targeted Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60537
Google, with its deep reservoir of data about online behavior, gathered by tracking hundreds of millions of computers, is for the first time testing ways to use some of that information to aim advertising at Web surfers who use its search engine.
Ads that a person sees on one Google search may be influenced by what was searched a few minutes earlier. Searching for "scuba," then something else, and then "vacations" could pull up ads for diving trips, for example.
This change in Google's approach was discovered by Gene Munster, a securities analyst at Piper Jaffray, who this year started a series of tests looking at which ads were displayed in a series of queries on Google's search engine. Google assigns every computer that visits its sites a unique number, known as a cookie, and records searches and other activities in an unimaginably large file with those cookies.
The company had previously said that it had not used any of that information to draw inferences about users for the purpose of selecting ads to show them.
Google changed its privacy policy a few years ago and warned users that it might capture personal information about them for reasons that include "the display of customized content and advertising." Last year, Google started looking at the immediately previous search when considering ads. Google did not need to use its cookies for this because Web browsers report the address of the previous site visited to the current site being visited. And in the case of a search, that address contains the search terms.
Nick Fox, a director of product management who looks after ads on Google's search site, said the company was now testing the use of more search queries in its ad targeting. He did not describe how it was doing that. But Internet experts said that...
Wed, 2 Jul 08
On a Shoestring, Web Videos Reshaping 2008 Elections
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=60535
The video blasted across the Internet, drawing political blood from Senator John McCain within a matter of days.
Produced here in a cluttered former motel behind the Sony Pictures lot, it juxtaposed harsh statements about Islam made by the Reverend Rod Parsley with statements from McCain praising Parsley, a conservative evangelical leader. The montage won notice on network newscasts this spring and ultimately helped lead McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, to reject Parsley's earlier endorsement.
In previous elections, an attack like that would have come from party operatives, campaign researchers or the professional political hit men who orbit around them.
But in the 2008 race, the first in which campaigns are feeling the full force of the changes wrought by the Web, the most attention-grabbing attacks are increasingly coming from people outside the political world. In some cases they are amateurs operating with nothing but passion, a computer and a YouTube account, in o