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| Oct 2008 | Sep 2008 | Aug 2008 | Jul 2008 | Jun 2008 | May 2008 | Apr 2008 | Mar 2008 | Feb 2008 | Jan 2008 | Dec 2007 | Nov 2007 |Wed, 30 Jul 08
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, wh