Newsfactor Technology

Fri, 26 Sep 08
T-Mobile's Android Phone Has Limits Outside Google
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62095
Now that analysts are getting their hands on the T-Mobile G1, talk is beginning about what the first Android-powered phone doesn't offer. T-Mobile launched the HTC-made device Tuesday, complete with full touchscreen functionality and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for a mobile Web experience largely driven by Google products, including Search, Google Street View, Gmail and YouTube.

The phone is making the intended splash. In fact, Neil Mawston, director of Wireless Device Strategies at Strategy Analytics, is forecasting a major Android impact on the 10.5 million smartphones to be sold in the United States during the fourth quarter of 2008.

"We estimate smartphones with Google's Android operating system, led by HTC of Taiwan, will reach 0.4 million units in the quarter, for a four percent market share," Mawston said. "Android is a relatively late entrant and it will join an increasingly crowded market alongside Blackberry, Microsoft, Apple, Palm, Symbian and LiMo."

Limited Synchronizing

The T-Mobile G1 synchronizes e-mail, calendar and contacts from Gmail as well as most other POP3 or IMAP e-mail services. The device multitasks, so you can read a Web page while also downloading e-mail in the background. And it combines Instant Messaging support for Google Talk, as well as AOL, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. But there is no connection to the desktop.

"If I have my contacts in Outlook or my Calendar in iCal, I have no easy way of synchronizing that content onto my device without figuring out some way of getting it up to a Google service," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia. "That's fine if I am a Google user. If I am not a Google user, then I have to sign up for that service, and I have to figure out how to export and maintain my content. In some cases it...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
MySpace Offers Free Music Downloads -- with Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62094
Users of the popular social-networking site MySpace can now listen to and download music from several music companies, including Sony, EMI and Warner.

Starting Thursday, users will have free access to hundreds of thousands of songs from hundreds of record labels -- but there's a catch. MySpace's 120 million users who want to use the free service need to deal with the advertising that comes with it, and they will only be able to access the service using a PC.

Users in the U.S. can also purchase the digital rights management-free MP3 music downloads using MySpace's e-commerce feature. Users can download and buy MP3s on all digital music devices, including Apple's iPod.

Chris DeWolfe, chief executive at MySpace, said the deal is the beginning of a new chapter in modern music. "Millions of die-hard music fans and artists already call MySpace Music home. By partnering with these industry leaders, our vision for MySpace Music as the definitive platform for unlimited artistic expression and unrestricted user experience is finally being realized," he said.

The good news is that users will not be limited to how many times they download a song to playlists, each of which can hold 100 songs.

MySpace Music's e-commerce feature will allow artists to sell tickets and merchandise to fans and generate commercial revenue. Currently, the service is supported by ads and sponsorships. In fact, McDonald's, Toyota, Sony Pictures, and State Farm are sponsoring the service.

Time to Listen

Users have been anticipating the new service since MySpace and the music companies first announced the service in April.

Users were greeted with this message from MySpace President Thomas Anderson: "MySpace Music has gotten a big upgrade. Today you'll find that some of the world's biggest bands have added their entire discography to MySpace -- all the albums and CDs they've ever recorded!"

Anderson went on to...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
RIAA Award in P2P File-Sharing Verdict Overturned
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62093
Last year, the Recording Industry Association of America scored its first-ever legal victory in court when a federal jury awarded the group $220,000 for copyright infringement of 24 songs by Jammie Thomas. The crux of the RIAA's complaint against Thomas was that she had made the songs (and roughly a thousand others) available to others on the Kazaa peer-to-peer (P2P) network.

However, on Wednesday U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis overturned the verdict, telling the parties he had committed a "manifest error of law" during the trial. Specifically, Davis said he was wrong to instruct the jury that it could find Thomas liable without any proof that "actual distribution" of copyrighted material had taken place.

"Jury Instruction No. 15 was erroneous," Davis said, "and that error substantially prejudiced Thomas' rights. Based on the court's error in instructing the jury, it grants Thomas a new trial."

The RIAA will now have to decide whether to pursue its claim against Thomas again or negotiate an out-of-court settlement. So far, the Thomas case is the only P2P infringement case to go to trial; according to a study by Wired magazine, most of the 30,000 lawsuits filed by the RIAA against individual file sharers have been settled out of court.

What Proof Is Required?

The issue troubling Davis is one that courts have wrestled with repeatedly. Is it sufficient for the RIAA to show that a defendant made copyrighted materials available for P2P users to access, or should the RIAA be required to show that an actual transfer of copyrighted music took place?

As proof of actual distribution, RIAA offered evidence that its investigator, Media Sentry, had downloaded copyrighted materials from Thomas' computer. However, Davis rejected that evidence, stating that a copyright owner (or its agents) cannot violate its own copyrights.

The RIAA was unavailable for comment and has not issued...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Is IT of the Future Firmly Rooted in the 'Cloud'?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62061
Yes, says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "Cloud computing is the story of our lifetime. Eventually all devices will be on the network," he told an audience of software developers at a conference of IBM's business partners.

Upstart Google and old-line IBM are forging an alliance to alloy their pioneering traditions in software and hardware in the cause of revolutionizing the acquisition and delivery of information technology. Gartner, which has studied and issued technical notes on the state of the concept, defines cloud computing as "a style of computing where massively scalable IT-enabled capabilities are delivered 'as a service' to external customers using Internet technologies." Basically, the hardware is pooled together and shared by all.

Microsoft, widely viewed as an arch competitor to both Google and IBM, has also joined the cause with systems for bringing cloud computing to the desktop. Addressing a technical audience last June, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates outlined his vision of applying massive web-based computing power to enterprise software as a service: "We're taking everything we do at the server level, and saying that we will have a service that mirrors that exactly. . . For SQL, we'll have SQL Server Data Services, and so you can connect up, build the database. It will be hosted in our cloud with the big, big data center, and geo-distributed automatically. Today we have, in our data center, many hundreds of thousands of servers, and in the future we'll have many millions of those servers." This lets Microsoft become "very radical" in thinking about the kinds of software products it can offer, Gates adds.

Already Google, IBM, and Amazon are doing just that. "The robust computing platform that has been built and refined over the years by Amazon is now available to anyone, anywhere, who has access to the Internet," is how...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
D-Link's Pitch: We're Cheaper Than Cisco
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62058
D-Link Systems Inc. wants to sell more to businesses that have tighter purse strings these days.

The Fountain Valley-based maker of networking gear, part of Taiwan's D-Link Corp., is pitching its routers and other products as a cheaper way for budget-conscious businesses to expand their networks.

The company's selling point: We're cheaper than Cisco.

D-Link's less expensive prices could appeal to small and midsize companies that have seen their businesses slow this year, crimping their ability to spend on technology.

They also appeal to resellers-tech shops that sell and install computer gear at businesses-which keep more of the profits on D-Link sales.

Targeting businesses is a bit of a switch for D-Link, which is better known for selling to consumers and home-based businesses.

"We have two different models we are running now, two different faces," Chief Executive Steven Joe said. "D-Link is well known in the consumer sector, which we started here in Fountain Valley a dozen years ago. But we've actually been involved hi the business sector for 22 years."

D-Link's Taiwanese parent got its start selling to businesses through resellers, according to Joe.

The Business Journal estimates D-Link's local operation, which has some 300 workers, sees about $1 billion in sales a year.

The bulk of D-Link's U.S. revenue comes from switches, routers, modems and network adapter cards sold at electronics stores and by online retailers.

Products aimed more squarely at businesses -- network switches, extra data storage and security cameras -- are a small, growing part of D-Link's sales, Joe said.

The company's main competitor for consumers is Jjvine-based Cisco-Linksys LLC, an independently run division of Cisco Systems Inc. that sells through electronics retailers.

For sales to smaller businesses, D-Link also competes with Linksys but more so with Cisco itself, as well as with Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com Corp.

"As for the technology, we've been working on it to meet business...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
SimpleFeed Helps Clients Boost the Value of RSS Feeds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62056
Here's a high-tech company that offers a solution for companies who want an effective way to reach their customers.

After seeing an XML button on The New York Times Web site a few years ago, Mark Carlson started thinking that companies such as The New York Times could benefit greatly from such a service. "I knew a lot about XML from other start-ups and I played around with it and figured out that they could offer RSS feeds of their content for customers," says Carlson, who co-founded Los Altos, Calif.-based SimpleFeed with Alik Eliashberg (the company's executive vice president and CTO) in June 2004.

"The fundamental thing was that you can subscribe to content without providing an email address," says Carlson, SimpleFeed's CEO. He previously served as CFO at First to File, an enterprise software company. He was also the founder and CEO of Walk Softly, Inc., an Internet privacy firm. "[Walk Softly] offered some of the first software that allows you to control your cookies," says Carlson. "We positioned it as Internet protection software. So maybe it was that privacy bug that made me look at RSS and how you didn't have to provide an email address."

Startup Facts

SimpleFeed was created as a solution for companies that wanted an effective way to get their messages to customers. Ensuring customers' privacy was an added bonus. "I looked at it and thought it was going to be a great way for companies to get their information out to customers directly, and that it would work well because not having to provide an email address makes it a lot easier for people to opt-in for information," says Carlson. He and Eliashberg took their idea on the road and pitched it to potential customers. The first to show an interest was VMware, which was on...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Radio-Frequency ID Technology Takes Off
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62054
Federal agencies have deployed radio frequency identification technology to manage their assets, tracking everything from seagoing containers to paper medical files, and even to determine how fast a letter moves through the international postal system.

RFID technology uses readers that beam a radio signal to gather information from data tags, which come in two flavors-active and passive. Active tags, used by the Defense Department to track large containers, are powered by an internal battery, allowing them to initiate communication and hold data that can be rewritten or modified and transmitted over a distance of about 300 feet. Passive RFID tags have a shorter range, about 30 feet, and get their operating power from the reader. Data on a passive tag typically is read-only, which means the tag cannot be modified.

In January the Homeland security Department's Customs and Border Protection directorate awarded a $62 million contract to Unisys to equip 380 traffic lanes at 39 of the nation's busiest border crossings, which process an average of 850,000 travelers a day with RFID technology and license plate readers. It's one of the largest passive RFID projects in federal government.

As of June 1, 2009, U.S. citizens crossing land or sea borders will be required to carry an RFID travel document issued by the State Department as part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. Kelly Klundt, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, said the agency has launched an aggressive construction and deployment schedule to meet the deadline.

As of mid-June, State had received 350,000 applications for RFID-equipped passport cards, which look like driver's licenses. And two states, Washington and New York, have started issuing enhanced driver's licenses equipped with RFID chips for border crossings.

The new travel documents are designed to tighten security at U.S. land borders, but that's not the only benefit. "Deploying RFID will be...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Nvidia Turns to Chips for Industrial Imaging
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62052
Figuring out the best way to transform a frozen pizza into a perfectly warmed pie, gooey on top and crispy on the bottom, is as much a computer problem as a work of culinary art.

General Mills, maker of the Totino's and Jeno's brands of pizzas, would prefer not to whip up a thousand combinations of mozzarella cheese, tomato paste, crust and chemicals and blast them with microwave radiation. It's a lot less expensive and easier to model different pizzas using a sophisticated computer and only cook up the best candidates.

To speed up the task, General Mills turned to computers containing high-powered graphics chips from Nvidia, a Santa Clara company best known for making video games look more realistic on game consoles and personal computers.

Energy exploration companies, clothing designers, medical companies and financial services have also bought systems running on Nvidia chips. All of these companies share a common problem: They need hardware that can analyze a vast quantity of data and do it much faster than standard computers.

Nvidia, which dominates the market for stand-alone graphics processors, has a clear lead over competitors to provide this kind of industrial data crunching, thanks to a risky bet the company made several years ago.

Deliberately giving up some of its graphics performance, Nvidia created a new interface, released in 2006, that lets computer programmers easily tap the hundreds of processing engines on a graphics chip to handle other tasks that require a large number of simultaneous calculations.

"A couple of billion dollars in R&D later, scientists and researchers around the world have come out to thank us," said Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's co-founder and chief executive.

If the expensive gamble pays off, Nvidia could break out of its graphics niche and become a far more significant player in the computing landscape. "Once you have lots and...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Skyfire Browser Ready for Windows Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62071
Silicon Valley startup Skyfire is giving Windows Mobile smartphone users an opportunity to take the latest beta version of its mobile Web browser for a test drive. First unveiled in January, Skyfire brings many of the latest Web 2.0 innovations to mobile handsets, the company said.

"We don't like to think of ourselves as a mobile Internet browser," said Skyfire CEO and cofounder Nitin Bhandari. "Skyfire is a full-feature Internet browser on the mobile device."

A Real Web Experience

The 0.8 beta of Skyfire is now available for smartphones running Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0. A Symbian version for Series 60 phones is slated for release in the near future, the company said.

A key feature that differentiates Skyfire from other mobile Web browsers, Bhandari said, is that it enables users to experience the Internet on phones the same way as on PCs.

"For too long consumers have been promised the 'real Web' on their phones, only to be disappointed by slow rendering, error messages, no Flash support, watered-down WAP pages or second-rate mobile versions of their favorite site," Bhandari said earlier this year. "Skyfire has remedied those ills at a speed not seen before on the mobile platform."

Skyfire's latest release features a SuperBar that streamlines the search process by suggesting the most commonly used search keywords as a user types. Search results from Google and Yahoo are presented in easy-to-read tabs, such as Web, images and maps. "Users can now find content more quickly with SuperBar, and can now easily share that content with anyone in their address book," said Skyfire's Adam Sexton.

Skyfire supports many of the latest multimedia innovations for the Web, including Flash, Silverlight and QuickTime. "Our users love media-rich sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and ESPN on Skyfire, and based on their input we added the most requested...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Google's Transit Helps New Yorkers Find Their Way
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62068
Search giant Google and New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority have launched Google Transit for New Yorkers, giving Google users and New York's public-transportation riders access to station and schedule information for the nation's largest transit system.

Google Transit, a feature of Google Maps, provides point-to-point public-transit trip planning. Users now have access to information about New York's Long Island Rail Road, Long Island Bus, Metro-North Railroad, and the MTA Bus Company. The feature will also include itineraries for regional connecting services, including New Jersey Transit services, the Port Authority's AirTrain and the Staten Island Ferry.

Itineraries will feature station locations, schedule times, and trip-length times.

MTA officials say the Google Transit service complements existing MTA trip-planning services, including its Trip Planner and Trips 123. Trip Planner allows users, in three steps, to plan their trip by entering their start location, destination and expected arrival time. Trip 123 gives users information on bus, ferry, train and subway schedules.

"We are excited to welcome Google Maps for Transit to New York City," said Edward Skyler, New York City's deputy mayor. "One of the keys to increasing mass-transit usage is making it easier for people to understand how to use the system. This partnership between Google and the MTA does exactly that."

Key Features

Google provides searchers with information about a destination, such as the subway, train or bus stops serving the destination; scheduled departures from the station or stop; and nearby businesses, restaurants, attractions and amenities. Still-photo entries for popular destinations and icons for Wikipedia entries for places of interest are included.

Users seeking driving directions will be given an option to use public transportation as an alternative, defraying the use of automobiles and cutting drivers' spending on gas.

And for those who like to walk, Google also includes walking directions for the beginning or end of the trip,...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Oracle, Intel Partner To Boost Cloud Computing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62067
Oracle and Intel on Tuesday announced a joint effort to accelerate enterprise readiness for cloud computing and make it more efficient and secure. The companies also plan to identify and drive standards to breed flexible deployment across private and public clouds.

Cloud computing is an efficient way to run programs and store data that a large number of users can access through Internet technologies. Oracle and Intel already have common ground in the enterprise, where customers are running applications on shared infrastructure within their firewalls using Intel Virtualization Technology and Oracle Grid Computing technologies. This foundation sets the stage for private clouds of internal applications, as well as the ability to extend them to public, multi-tenant clouds, according to the companies.

"Oracle understands that enterprises would like the flexibility of choosing to run their enterprise systems in either private or public clouds, but in order to do that, cloud computing needs to be highly efficient, secure and standards-based," said Robert Shimp, group vice president of the Oracle Global Technology Business Unit. "Intel and Oracle are collaborating to make this happen."

Efficiency, Security and Standards

Oracle and Intel will cooperate in three broad areas: efficiency, security and standards.

The companies point to a 17 percent performance increase for Oracle databases running virtualized on Intel Xeon processors. Oracle and Intel will continue working together to drive additional performance and power-efficiency gains.

Security is also a hot-button issue for enterprises running software in public clouds. Companies want assurances that the environment is secure and private data is only accessible by authorized users, Oracle and Intel said. Activities also need to be tracked for auditing and compliance reporting. Oracle and Intel have pledged to work together to strengthen virtual-machine security in shared cloud environments.

Finally, Intel and Oracle will join with other industry leaders to extend standards that enable portability...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
No Charges Filed After Grand Jury Probes Palin Hacking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62066
A federal grand jury convened Tuesday in Chattanooga, Tenn., to hear testimony relating to the hacking of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo e-mail account, but ended without leveling any charges. Federal prosecutors said the investigation is ongoing.

In a closed-door session, the grand jury heard testimony from three roommates of University of Tennessee student David Kernell, 20, who is suspected of illegally accessing the Republican vice-presidential nominee's account. Kernell's father is Democratic Tennessee State Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis, whose political affiliation has set the blogosphere a-twitter, but there are no credible suggestions of national political involvement.

Wade Davies, the attorney representing Kernell, issued a brief statement saying, "We are confident that the truth will emerge as we go through this process. David is a decent and intelligent young man, and I look forward to assisting him during this difficult period."

Late-Night Raid

Kernell became the leading suspect because of electronic crumbs left in cyberspace. When screenshots and a description of the break-in were posted to the 4chan imageboard, the author used the handle rubico, suspiciously similar to the Yahoo ID rubico10 associated with Kernell.

In addition, only one anonymous proxy was used to mask the hacker's IP address. Ten years ago that might have stymied the Department of Justice, but a huge amount of money has since been spent upgrading the government's cyber-investigation capabilities. The break-in was quickly tracked to the proxy Ctunnel, whose logs showed that a particular IP address accessed Yahoo mail, reset Palin's password, and then visited 4chan.

That IP address was linked to the apartment complex where Kernell lives. The FBI executed a search warrant for Kernell's apartment during a Sunday evening party. In addition to taking pictures, the FBI also seized computer equipment for forensic analysis.

Possible Federal Charges

There are at least two federal criminal statutes that could affect this...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Developers Expected To Transform First Android Phone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62065
Google is calling Tuesday's announcement of the T-Mobile G1 an important milestone in the young history of Android. The first Android-powered handset to come to market is made by HTC with a touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard.

The combination of Google's open-source Android mobile operating system, T-Mobile service, and HTC manufacturing comes less than a year after the Open Handset Alliance unveiled plans for Android.

"Software developers are key to driving innovation on the Web, and also for mobile. That's why, over the past year, we've released several early versions of the software developer kit (SDK) and worked with developers from around the world to make it better and more complete," wrote Erick Tseng, lead product manager on the Android team, in the company's blog.

Betting on Innovation

The SDK gives developers unfettered access to the G1's hardware and software capabilities to inspire innovation. The possibilities are vast, and more than 1,700 applications were developed during the Android Developer Challenge. Google engineers have also developed applications.

"Developers will soon be able to distribute their applications to real handsets through the beta version of Android Market. Handset manufacturers and wireless carriers will be able to incorporate Android innovations into their own new handsets and service offerings," Tseng said. "And users will get better handsets and more choice. We think it's another step toward realizing the full potential of the mobile phone."

When the G1 comes to market in October, legions of developers and hackers will transform the device in ways that HTC and T-Mobile can't even imagine, predicted Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.

"It's going to be interesting to see when they start coming up with things like applications to unlock the phone so you can run it on other networks, or applications to tether it so you can use it as a modem,...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
AAI Suggests Restrictions for Google-Yahoo Ad Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62046
The American Antitrust Institute said Wednesday it thinks the ad agreement between Google and Yahoo may be blocked because of antitrust issues. Norman Hawker, a senior fellow at AAI, released a white paper pointing out several anticompetitive issues with the agreement and provided suggestions.

The paper was released after AAI met with representatives from Yahoo and Google on a number of occasions, according to Hawker.

"The risk harm to competition in this case is exceptionally great because the agreement has the potential to increase Google's market share to over 90 percent," said Hawker in an interview with us. "At that point Google would have the power to dictate prices and other terms to advertisers. Yahoo provides the most significant source of competition to Google in paid search, and the agreement has some potential to strengthen Yahoo as a competitor, but it also poses an enormous risk of either weakening Yahoo's ability to compete or causing Yahoo to exit the market entirely."

Enforceable Restrictions

The government cannot force Yahoo to stay in the paid search business, but it can insist on enforceable requirements to ensure Yahoo can continue to develop and deploy Panama, its search technology.

Yahoo has said since the deal was first announced in June that it plans to keep search as part of its core business. "We believe strongly that this agreement will strengthen Yahoo's competitive position in online advertising and will help to drive a more robust, higher-quality Yahoo marketplace for our advertisers, publishers and users," Yahoo spokesperson Tracy Schmaler said Wednesday.

Enforceable restrictions could include a decree that stops Yahoo from using Google ads on organic search results outside North America and on any third-part Web sites, according to AAI. Another restriction could prohibit Google and Yahoo from setting minimum bids or reserve pricing for ads. Yahoo may also be forced to...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Hospital Workers Fired for Posting Photos on MySpace
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62037
Two employees of a U.S. hospital have been fired for using their cell phone cameras to take photos of patients receiving treatment and then posting the images to a social networking Web site.

Sam Giammo, the director of public affairs at University of New Mexico Hospital, said Sunday the photos -- mainly close-ups of injuries being treated in the Albuquerque hospital's emergency room over the past few months -- were posted on an employee's private MySpace page.

Giammo said he's never heard of a similar incident at the University of New Mexico Hospital or any other hospital.

A few other hospital employees were disciplined and the investigation is ongoing, he said.

UNMH values patient privacy "very, very highly and we will do everything we can to protect them," Giammo said. "We just won't tolerate unprofessional actions by any of our staff. We just won't stand for that."

The photos were discovered after a hospital supervisor received an anonymous tip about them Tuesday and launched an investigation.

Hospital managers personally oversaw the removal of the photos from the Web site and from the employees' cell phones, Giammo said.

"We have to rely on the people telling us that they don't have any others," he said.

The patients in the photos could not be notified that their pictures had been taken because their faces and personal identifying features had been removed from the photos, Giammo said.

Giammo said the MySpace page could only be accessed by the employee's online friends, not the general public.

Giammo said the employees who were fired violated a hospital policy that bans the use of cell phone cameras in patient areas. The other employees were disciplined for not bringing the photos to the attention of managers, he said.

The hospital is treating the matter as an employment issue and law enforcement has not been involved, Giammo said.

The use...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Microsoft To Issue Debt, Buy Back $40B in Stock
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62036
Chaos in the money markets gave Microsoft Corp. an opening Monday to announce it would take on debt for the first time, launch a new $40 billion stock buyback plan and raise its dividend.

The moves indicate that for all the credit problems plaguing the financial sector, cash-laden technology companies with good credit ratings are still borrowing money on favorable terms and otherwise enjoying flexibility.

The largest information-technology company, Hewlett-Packard Co., approved an $8 billion buyback plan Monday. And Intel Corp. Chairman Craig Barrett told The Associated Press that the chip maker -- which boasted $11.5 billion in cash and $2.1 billion in debt at the end of the last quarter -- was feeling no squeeze from the credit crunch.

"I don't see any slowdown in our technology investment or R&D investment or manufacturing investment going forward," he said. "When you've got 10, 15 billion dollars in your bank account, short-term credit is not a significant issue."

Microsoft, which benefits from having $23.7 billion in cash and short-term investments on hand as of June 30, historically has avoided taking on debt to fund day-to-day operations, acquisitions and stock buybacks, even as many of its peers, including IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp., have done so.

Oracle, for one, has accumulated $11.2 billion in debt in recent years while buying up dozens of its smaller rivals, while sitting on $13 billion in cash as of Aug. 31. The business software maker indicated recently that much of that money would go toward acquisitions or buybacks.

Microsoft did plan to borrow money for its $47.5 billion run at Yahoo Inc. this year, but the proposal fell through before the company issued any debt.

Now, as investors are growing increasingly risk-averse, blue-chip companies like Microsoft are finding interest rates on commercial paper -- short-term loans that range from overnight to nine months...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
For Computer Security, Know Thy E-Mail Sender
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62034
My secretary recently walked into my office and asked with some trepidation, "Did you send me an e-card?" When I told her I hadn't, she confessed, "I thought it was from you and I clicked on it and..." I walked to her computer, saw the screen and knew we had a virus. The message indicated that if we purchased some new software the virus could be cleaned.

I'm familiar with these scams and figured I could just delete the message, run an alternate virus scanner and clear her computer. My virus scanner automatically updates the definitions every day. I confirmed that it was working, disconnected her computer from the office network, grabbed a pad of paper to write down all the text on the screen and started a full scan. But the virus scanner wouldn't work. I ran an alternate virus scanner program, but that didn't remove the virus either.

Next, I rebooted the machine, thinking that starting in Safe Mode might let me get behind the virus. I thought I was getting close until an error message popped up stating that a fatal error had occurred and the computer would automatically shut down in 60 seconds.

Three hours later, I called in a professional colleague for assistance. First, we had to address the fatal error which shut down the computer 60 seconds after it appeared. "Shutdown/a" took care of that. Now that we could keep the machine running we ran a virus scanner from a CD. To our amazement, none of the tools worked.

At this point I had to make a decision. Was it worth it to keep trying? In this case, the machine was old and should have been replaced last year. I decided to cut my losses and headed to the local store for a new computer....

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Voter Registration Fraud Could Lead to Identity Theft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62033
The presidential election is nearly upon us, and with interest in the race peaking, both political parties will be pushing for maximum voter registration in the coming weeks. While many Americans are showing their civic pride and engaging in the political process, scammers and ID thieves see an opportunity to ply their trade. Your Better Business Bureau is warning Americans to be extremely cautious with their personal information this election season to avoid phony voter registration drives that are designed to steal their identities.

The New York Times puts the potential number of new voters in the millions and, according to the Pew Research Center, if the current level of voter engagement continues up to the election, the nation could experience historically high voter turnout this November. Unfortunately, a projected increase in voter turnout also means there will be a lot of people registering who are unfamiliar with the process, and who may be easy prey for ID thieves.

While pundits are concerned about voter fraud and its potential to skew election results, ID thieves are taking voter fraud in a different direction by trying to get their hands on new voters' personal information, such as Social Security or bank account numbers. Voter registration laws vary by state and changes take place regularly, which creates the confusing environment that ID thieves thrive on.

ID theft under the guise of voter registration can be perpetrated through e-mail, on the phone, and even in person.

Younger voters and first-time registrants need to be especially wary. According to the 2008 Identity Fraud Survey Report by Javelin Strategy and Research, those in the 18- to 24- and 25- to 34-year- old age demographics have the highest incident rates for ID theft in America. All voters, though, need to be aware of the following ways ID...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Hunting for a House? Try Searching With Cell Phone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62032
If you ride around in the car on weekends trying to find open houses while balancing a map on your lap, it might be time to use your mobile phone instead. A display of properties for sale -- and even open houses -- could be as close as the screen on your wireless device.

Despite the housing market slowdown, many Americans are still house hunting, and they helped send sales of smart phones and wireless devices to nearly 21 million units in North America last year, according to research firm Canalys.

Big companies and startups alike are scrambling to provide what could be described as the ultimate tech novelty for home shoppers and lookey-loos: searching for homes from a phone.

New mobile services allow users to search for homes for sale, see pictures and details about the properties, get driving directions and call or e-mail the real estate agents handling the sales.

Here are a few of the companies delivering real estate listings to mobile devices:

Trulia: The San Francisco company, a self-described listings "search engine," two weeks ago announced its new downloadable Trulia Mobile, an application for iPhones and other smart phones, including some BlackBerry, Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung models.

Because the devices can pinpoint your location, you can search for open houses and listings nearby without typing in a city or street address.

You can see one picture and a few details about the listing, phone or e-mail the agent, and get driving directions. Listings come from Trulia's database, which is extensive but not as complete as most local multiple-listing services' data.

Terabitz: The Palo Alto, Calif., company that builds Web sites and customer management systems for realty brokerages has also developed mobile listings search for some of its clients, including Intero Real Estate Services and Frontdoor.com, the listings...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
EU Says Text-Message Charges Should Be Slashed
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62026
Sending a text message home to boast about a beach vacation should cost less than half of what it does now, EU regulators said Tuesday.

The European Commission wants to set a price cap for text messages of 11 euro cents (16 U.S. cents), far below the current EU average of 29 euro cents (43 cents).

The EU's top telecom official, Viviane Reding, said she was putting the new rules forward because telecommunications companies had not responded to her call for them to lower the roaming charges for sending or receiving mobile phone text messages outside a user's home nation.

"There is no reason or justification in a normal functioning market for so excessive prices," she said.

The effort builds on an EU campaign last year to slash the cost of voice calls made and received outside a user's home nation. And it comes as the cost of text messages also has come under scrutiny in the U.S., where a key member of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked the nation's top four wireless carriers to justify why prices for individual text messages have doubled since 2005.

The European action was met with disapproval from companies that say the EU is interfering in the market without proving its claim that lowering prices would drive up text-message usage. The companies said their lost revenue could harm their plans to invest in future technology.

The EU regulators will also ask for a stricter cap on voice calls. The plan would bring prices from the current level of 46 euro cents (68 cents) per minute to 34 euro cents (50 cents) per minute for a cell phone call made abroad. Receiving a call on a mobile phone internationally would incur charges of 10 euro cents (15 cents) by July 2012, down from 22 euro cents (32 cents) now.

The EU...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
OOXML Fuss Leads IBM To Scold Standards Setters
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62045
Last spring, the International Organization for Standardization voted to certify Microsoft's Office Open XML format as an international standard. The decision came at the end of a long and contentious worldwide vote, a process that featured complicated rules, confusing proposals, and last-minute vote switches by delegations from Denmark, Britain and South Korea.

Microsoft's efforts to win certification for OOXML were strongly opposed by IBM, which backs a rival standard called the Open Document Format used in suites like OpenOffice and StarOffice. IBM has been a longtime supporter of ODF, which was earlier certified by ISO, and objected to what it described as strong-arm tactics by Microsoft to obtain fast-track OOXML certification.

In a press release announcing a new IBM policy for participation in the adoption of open technical standards, Bob Sutor, IBM vice president of open source and standards, stressed the qualities that IBM expects from standards groups.

"Common, open and consensus-based technology standards from reputable standards bodies help ensure that each of us can easily purchase and interchangeably use computing technology from multiple vendors," Sutor said. "The ways in which they are created and adopted provide reasonable assurances that disparate products will work with one another, and withstand the test of time."

Are Standards Organizations Open?

The controversial decision and the manner in which OOXML certification was approved inspired IBM to sponsor and facilitate a "Standards Wiki & Discussion" during the summer. The company invited 70 experts from around the world to debate "whether standard-setting bodies have kept pace with today's commercial, social, legal and political realities."

In the summary of the Wiki comments published by IBM, there was a mixture of opinion about just how open the international certification process should be.

Don Purcell, cofounder and chairman of The Center for Global Standards Analysis at the Catholic University School of Law, argued that some confidentiality...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Intel Targets SMBs With Revamped vPro
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62044
Intel has rolled out the latest update to its vPro technology, which is designed to give IT enterprise managers the ability to remotely manage all the PCs in the enterprise.

Targeting small businesses with little or no in-house IT management capabilities, Intel's 2008 vPro release now includes several automated features pertaining to PC maintenance, repair and security. Moreover, all the original vPro features that have delivered good performance within the firewall "will now work outside the firewall as well," noted Peter Kastner, vice president and research director at the Aberdeen Group.

"No matter where in the world the device is, the corporate laptops that workers take home or on business trips are all now manageable, fixable, and diagnosable," Kastner explained. "As long as you can get to a network, vPro and related technology can help to solve the problem."

Huge Savings

One of the primary goals of Intel's revamped vPro, which combines the chipmaker's quad-core or dual-core processors with a new Intel chipset and gigabit network controller, is to enable small businesses to keep their PCs up and running while minimizing downtime and reducing the total cost of ownership, Kastner noted.

Five years ago, major service companies told Kastner that the TCO outcomes they saw were in the range of $700 to $3,000 per PC per year. On the low end, Intel's vPro technology has cut that down "to under $500 per PC per year, and that's not all that much more than just the device itself," Kastner said.

On the high end, the vPro has pushed the cost to less than $2,000, Kastner noted. "So that the not-quite-so-efficient companies have whacked out $1,000 per employee per year," which is a "huge savings that can go right to the bottom line," he explained.

The technology's new IT Director "dashboard," which is specifically...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Google Book Search Opens Pages to Readers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62043
Google took another step toward its vision of bringing more books online with the Monday launch of free tools that let retailers, publishers and Web site owners embed books from the Google Book Search index.

As part of its latest push to digitize the world's books, Google has partnered with booksellers, libraries, publishers and social book networks to enable preview functionality for their sites. That means consumers may see more sites with features like Amazon's "Search Inside" function as they shop online for new reading material.

"We are also providing new ways for these sites to display full-text search results from Book Search, and even integrate with social features such as ratings, reviews, and readers' book collections," Alex Diaz, a product manager for Google Book Search, wrote on the company's blog. "By providing tools that help sites connect readers with books in new and interesting ways, we hope publishers and authors will find even wider audiences for their works."

Reading Around the World

Here's how the preview functionality works: You visit the Books-A-Million site -- one of Google's new partners -- to look for a book on the history of your hometown. When you see a book that looks like it might fit the bill, you can click on "Google Preview" to browse through the book in much the same way you would at a bricks-and-mortar store.

Just like on Google's Book Search site, consumers can search within the book, zoom in and out on the page, and browse up to 20 percent of the book's content for free. As Google sees it, because Google Previews are supported by the same infrastructure as Google Book Search, publishers and authors gain benefit from a larger distribution platform without having to offer any additional content to consumers.

In addition to Books-A-Million, Google has also signed on retail partners...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Chrome Users Return to Internet Explorer, Firefox
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62042
They're back. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox lost some users with the debut of Google's Chrome browser, but they are returning. Just three weeks after its launch, Chrome is seen as not so polished and is losing some users, according to Net Applications, an Internet tracking company.

Net Applications tracked 40,000 sites and found that Chrome made up .77 percent of the browsers visiting the sites, down from .85 percent last week. And down substantially from 1.4 percent in the first week of its release, according to Nielsen Online.

Chrome's numbers, like those of Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari, increase after working hours and then fall as employees hit their desks the next day.

When Chrome debuted on Sept. 2, Google described it as a browser that "combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the Web faster, safer and easier."

Not Reaching Its Goal

Web browsers, which were developed before there was a demand for video and music content, are evolving. Google wanted to be part of that evolution and set out to give users a faster and secure browser, but instead was hit with concerns from privacy advocates.

Just days after its launch, privacy advocates were warning users about Chrome. They said keystrokes were being collected with the browser's auto-suggest feature.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronics Privacy Information Center cited Chrome's Omnibox, which collects and stores user data on its servers. One way around that is by turning off the auto-suggest feature or using a search engine other than Google.

To address the situation, Google began anonymizing its data on Sept. 12. But Google may need to do more to make Chrome shine.

Competitors Shine

A report Tuesday from Net Applications showed Internet Explorer commanded 72.15 percent of the browser market, Firefox followed with nearly 20 percent, and...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
T-Mobile's G1 Android Phone Comes with Goggle Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62040
T-Mobile on Tuesday gave the world a sneak peak of the highly anticipated, first-ever Android-powered mobile phone. Dubbed the T-Mobile G1, the phone touts touchscreen functionality, a QWERTY keyboard, and a Google-centric mobile Web experience.

Specifically, the G1 is loaded with Google Search, Google Maps Street View, Gmail, YouTube and other popular Google software that PC users are familiar with. The phone will be available in the U.S. on Oct. 22 for $179 with a two-year voice and data agreement, undercutting Apple's iPhone 3G through AT&T by $20. Customers can preorder the phone on T-Mobile's Web site.

"The Internet and the mobile phone are both indispensable tools for our hectic lives, but only a fraction of us access the Web on our phones. The T-Mobile G1 is our opportunity in the U.S. to accelerate the mass adoption of the mobile Web by unleashing Google innovation with a unique software experience that mobilizes the Google services [that] hundreds of millions of consumers rely on every day," said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer at T-Mobile USA.

'Most Important Platform'

The G1 builds on the promise of the Google mobile operating system, which gives users access to the Android Market. There customers can find and download applications to expand and personalize the HTC-made handset. Google pushed its developer-friendly theology at the launch.

"Increasingly, connectivity does not just mean a phone call, but rather access to the world's information," said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms for Google. "Today's news signifies an important first step for the Open Handset Alliance: With Android, we've opened the mobile Web not only for millions of users, but also to mobilize the developer community that understands the next most important platform in the world rests in the palm of our hand."

With one-click contextual search, users can search with the touch...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
SanDisk's slotMusic Goes Against Digital Music Trend
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62039
Will a small microSD card save the album/CD music format? That's the provocative question raised by SanDisk, which announced Monday that it has struck deals with music-industry leaders to release DRM-free MP3 music on slotMusic cards.

The cards, which will begin selling in time for the holiday season, will each hold up to a gigabyte of music, or roughly the same amount as a traditional CD. According to SanDisk, four music-industry giants -- EMI Music, SONY BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group -- have agreed to provide content. Retailers Best Buy and Wal-Mart will stock the cards, as will online stores.

The company says the capacity of the microSD will enable musicians to include a variety of old and new media content, including liner notes, videos, album art, and so on. Consumers will also be able to add their own content.

Unanswered Questions

The new music format raises a number of questions, including: 1) are consumers interested in preserving the album/CD format for music, and 2) will consumers be interested in purchasing physical copies of music (even DRM-free) when there are so many digital delivery options?

SanDisk obviously thinks the answer to both questions is yes. The company's announcement featured a brief analysis by Danielle Levitas, vice president of consumer, broadband and new media for the market-intelligence firm IDC.

"slotMusic offers consumers an immediate, tangible and high-quality alternative to CDs and digital delivery," Levitas said. "This year, more than 1.2 billion mobile phones will ship globally, outstripping portable media players by nearly an order of magnitude -- and this trend is accelerating."

Zippy Aima, an industry analyst of digital media for ABI Research, acknowledged that individual track downloads are growing in popularity, but he thinks the new format may offer a useful option.

"Yes, I do agree that the trend in the market is a bit...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Adobe's CS4 Includes Nearly All of Adobe's Design Tools
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62038
In the likely event that you haven't yet mastered everything in Adobe System's massive Creative Suite 3, take a breath. On Tuesday, the company announced CS4.

Adobe said the new version delivers "radical work-flow breakthroughs that bring down the walls between designers and developers." Adobe added that CS4 is "packed" with new features.

All Adobe in One Box

Creative Suite 4 comes in several editions, including Design, Web, Production Premium, and Master Collection. The suite will ship in October at prices ranging from $1,799 to $2,499.

Adobe said the suite includes "virtually all of Adobe's design and development applications in one box." These include Photoshop CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign CS4, Illustrator CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver CS4, After Effects CS4, and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe president and CEO, said CS 4 offers powerful tools "whether you're creating a rich Internet application, a video, or a best-selling magazine."

The simplified work-flow Adobe is touting allows users to work across media more efficiently by making it easier to finish common tasks and switch between media without exiting a project.

Among other features, Adobe noted that a new Live Preflight tool in InDesign CS4 allows users to catch production errors, and a customizable Links panel allows files to be placed more efficiently.

In Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended, a new content-aware scaling tool can automatically recompose an image as it is being resized to new dimensions. In the Production Premium suite, a new version of dynamic link allows a user to move content between various applications, including After Effects, Adobe Premium Pro, Soundbooth and Encore.

Previously, a 'Rubber-Band Suite'

The company also cited increased 3-D capabilities in CS4 and noted that Flash Pro now allows a creator to apply tweens on objects instead of keyframes, and a new Bones tool provides for more realistic animation...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Grand Jury Ponders Fate of Politician's Son in Palin Hack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62020
A federal grand jury was to convene Tuesday to consider evidence in the hacking of Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account. The prime suspect in the case is David Kernell, the son of Democratic Tennessee State Rep. Mike Kernell.

Meanwhile, the Web site of Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, was reportedly hacked. O'Reilly had been expressing anger about the Palin case, and the hackers posted a list of subscribers to BillOReilly.com on the Wikileaks site. Wikileaks said there was no security on the O'Reilly site.

On Sunday morning, the FBI served a search warrant on Kernell's apartment in Knoxville, Tenn., near the University of Tennessee, where he is a student, apparently interrupting a party. Kernell's roommates have been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, television station KBIR reported. The station also reported that Kernell and friends fled when the FBI arrived.

Not an Activist

Wade V. Davies, managing partner at the Knoxville firm of Ritchie, Dillard and Davies, has been retained to represent Kernell. In a statement, Davies said, "I have been asked by the Kernell family to represent their son, David. This is a difficult time for David and his family."

"The Kernell family wants to do the right thing, and they want what is best for their son. We are confident that the truth will emerge as we go through the process. David is a decent and intelligent young man, and I look forward to assisting him during this difficult period."

Davies is skilled in computer forensics -- he authored an article on how to obtain and analyze electronic evidence -- a specialty that likely will be important in Kernell's defense.

In an interview with KBIR, a friend of Kernell's, Devon Holbrook, expressed concern for his well-being. He said Kernell had never been known as an activist. "I...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Advertisers Want Google-Yahoo Deal Blocked
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62019
Advertisers are not happy with a proposed ad partnership between Google and Yahoo, and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has asked for the agreement to be blocked.

Since announcing the agreement to partner on advertising, Google and Yahoo have been dealing with opposition from advertisers. The agreement allows Yahoo to run ads supplied by Google alongside Yahoo's search results on some of its Web sites in the U.S. and Canada.

The WFA is asking the European Commission's directorate-general for competition to block the agreement because it would have a global impact on advertising. The WFA said the deal will reduce the options available to advertisers, result in price increases, and have a devastating effect on competition.

"We feel this deal between Google and Yahoo in North America will have a detrimental impact on how they compete with each other around the world -- as they do today," said WFA spokesperson Robert Dreblow.

This is the second time the WFA has had an issue with Google. In 2007, the WFA opposed Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.

Google and Yahoo say their ad deal is limited to Web sites in the U.S. and Canada. But the WFA -- which represents 55 national advertising associations, including the U.S. Association of National Advertisers and the Association of Canadian Advertisers -- said it believes that such advertising would reduce their competition worldwide.

Yahoo disagrees. "Although the World Federation of Advertisers did not seek any information from us about this agreement, we have made clear from the beginning that it will strengthen Yahoo's competitive position in online advertising and will help to drive a more robust, higher-quality Yahoo marketplace for our advertisers, publishers and users," said Yahoo spokesperson Tracy Schmaler. "Furthermore, advertiser demand will continue to drive prices -- up or down -- and advertising performance will drive...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Lehman Lifeline Was Critical to Chipmaker AMD
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62013
With Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s cash reserves dwindling and the chip maker's overall financial health deteriorating to dangerous levels last year, the company was thrown a lifeline by Lehman Brothers, the investment bank now in bankruptcy.

The $1.5 billion in AMD debt that Lehman scooped up in August 2007 demonstrates the important role that banks like Lehman and other investment firms play in helping prop up wobbly companies by pouring money into them when they're down.

The banks profit from the investment in so-called "convertible senior notes" through interest payments and the conversion of the debt into either cash or favorably priced shares delivered at some point in the future. Healthy companies also use the debt offerings to raise money on favorable terms to buy back stock or pay for other general expenses.

The Lehman-AMD deal is a snapshot of a common type of partnership that could be harder to come by with Lehman's bankruptcy and the disintegration or consolidation of other banks.

In AMD's case, Lehman's problems won't affect the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's balance sheet, which at the end of June showed AMD holding about $1.6 billion in cash while carrying $5.3 billion in debt.

That's because AMD has already spent the proceeds, and its debt offering was sold off by Lehman to other banks or held by its subsidiaries that are now being sold to other firms.

There were no clauses that required anything further of AMD other than paying interest on the investment and fulfilling the contracts when they reach their maturity date.

AMD declined to comment.

AMD used the cash infusion to pay down debt from its $5.6 billion acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies and for other corporate expenses.

Richard Lane, a fixed-income analyst with Moody's Investors Services who follows the high-tech sector, said that in today's environment, any company considering issuing long-term...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Computing Privately with Today's Web Browsers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62006
Enough about "porn mode" in Internet Explorer 8.0.

The new privacy features previewed in the recent beta 2 are a good idea.

The problem that Microsoft is addressing -- and in a serious fashion -- is mysterious to less-sophisticated computer users: In the name of convenience, computers track stuff that, if found by someone, could embarrass you, bust you dead broke or get you fired.

Forget about porn. Give me about five minutes with a PC you've been using, and I can tell most of what you've been doing on the Internet, including details of your banking transactions if you're careless.

Meanwhile, on the Internet end of things, computers routinely track your activity to create custom advertising, commissions and marketing information.

Manipulating data

Internet Explorer's 8's "InPrivate" option lets you turn off data collection for specific sites, then turn it back on again. Among the data you can manipulate are:

-- Your browsing history and address bar.

-- The disk cache, designed to speed up surfing, also records hundreds of megabytes of Web pages you've accessed.

-- Cookies, usually with no bad intent, but which do contain site-specific names that can be read locally.

-- File download history.

-- Saved form information where passwords and other site-specific data might lurk.

-- Sending of referrer headers. If you visit site A, site B can read this to tell who sent you; this is the basis of "click through" advertising referrals.

The idea is that you freeze data collection on sensitive sites. True, people who view porn sites will find this wildly useful to keep casual snoops from noticing, although most likely such sites will refuse to let people log in if they have privacy enabled.

But it also is useful for anyone who occasionally indulges private surfing at work, contrary to company policy, who uses Internet cafes or has to borrow someone else's PC.

A Big...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
New Marketing Model Tracks Web Activity, Profiles User
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62004
You've been browsing the Internet lately for information about carbon emissions to help your daughter with her climate change project at school.

You've also done a little shopping in advance of the holidays, buying that more-than-you-really-wanted-to-pay-for digital camera for your spouse.

Now, instead of that usual Staples banner ad on the online site of your local newspaper, you are getting ads about hybrid cars and high-definition TVs.

You may be the recipient of "behavioral" marketing -- the practice of examining a person's activities on the Internet, building a profile of that consumer, and then delivering ads tailored to the individual.

Such "behavioral" marketing or targeting is stirring up controversy these days, in large part because of "deep packet inspection," a relatively new technology that can be used to examine the content of Internet transmissions rather than capture just a search query or Internet address.

"What's different about the new model is that ad networks can tap into data streams that ISPs (Internet service providers) have control over and use that information to build a profile (of the person)," said Alissa Cooper of the Center for Democracy & Technology. "In theory, they could be a party to everything you do on the Internet."

The nonprofit center likens the technique to a phone company listening in on a person's calls and believes the practice may violate federal wiretapping laws. The technology theoretically can be used to collect sensitive information such as someone's medical records, religious preference or even private e-mails, although Internet providers insist that's not their goal.

Traditionally, online advertisers have used "cookies," small text files placed on the hard disk of someone's computer, to remember certain information about a customer.

For example, a bank might use a cookie to identify a customer's account log-in. The information also is used by big search engines such as Google to evaluate...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Symantec Rewrites Security Suite to Curb Nuisances
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62001
It can be awful to have your Windows computer infected with malicious software, but it is almost as bad suffering the daily burdens imposed by the security software designed to protect you.

Too often, security programs significantly slow down the computer, causing lags in booting up the machine, launching programs and receiving e-mail. Not only that, they can be incredibly annoying, popping up frequent messages or asking questions in techie lingo.

Now, Symantec has decided to radically rewrite its main security suite for Windows to directly address these problems. And in my tests, this new product, Norton Internet Security 2009, largely succeeded. It isn't perfect, but it is the fastest, simplest and least obtrusive security suite I have ever used.

Being quick and quiet is great, but, of course, a security product also has to be effective against the vast number of viruses, spyware programs and other malicious attacks aimed at Windows. I don't have a security lab in which to test such effectiveness. But PC Magazine does, and the magazine called the new Norton suite's spyware and virus protection "extremely effective." The magazine's tests are described at http://tinyurl.com/4hc9hm.

However, I wasn't impressed with Norton's optional antispam feature, which caused the only significant problem I ran into in my testing.

The new suite costs $70, and can be purchased at www.symantec.com and elsewhere. For that price, you get to install it on three PCs and you get a one-year subscription to its updates, which cost $60 thereafter.

Symantec is including free support, even over the phone, though in my tests this support proved lousy. Norton Internet Security 2009 works only on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

I tested the new security suite on a Dell desktop running Vista and on a Macintosh laptop running Windows XP as a "virtual machine," meaning Windows and Windows programs ran...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Google-Yahoo Ad Deal Continues To Stir Antitrust Fears
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62018
The proposed massive advertising deal between Google and Yahoo, first announced by the companies on June 12, continues to spark antitrust fears that may bring close scrutiny from U.S. and European regulators.

Under the terms of the deal, Yahoo will be given access to contextual advertising opportunities through the use of Google's Adsense for Search and Adsense for Content technology. In return, Yahoo agreed to supplement its own ads with Google ads, vastly expanding the potential reach of Google's advertising system.

By some estimates, Yahoo could earn as much as $800 million by offering Google ads alongside its own, money that the once-mighty Internet company desperately needs to fend off takeover attempts like the one recently launched by Microsoft.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft is one of the strongest critics of the proposed advertising deal. During an appearance before Congress in July, the company's general counsel, Bruce Smith, said that ""Never before in the history of advertising has one company been in the position to control prices on up to 90 percent of advertising in a single medium."

Google Denies Monopoly

In the past week, Google has gotten much more aggressive about defending its deal. In a blog posting Friday, Tim Armstrong, Google's president of advertising and commerce for North America, said the proposed advertising deal will enhance competition rather than hurt it.

"This agreement -- unlike Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo -- means that Yahoo will remain an independent company in the business of search and advertising," Armstrong asserted. "Yahoo has stated that it will reinvest the additional revenue from this agreement into improving its user services and competing vigorously against Google, Microsoft and other companies."

Armstrong also said Yahoo is committed to maintaining and operating its own ad platform, a prospect that will be enhanced by the revenues from its deal with Google. Moreover, Yahoo only plans...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Intel Ships Dual-Core Atom for Specialized Desktops
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62017
Intel has begun shipping a new dual-core Atom processor for use in "nettops" -- affordable desktop computers that are expected to be purpose-built primarily for Web surfing, e-mail and basic Internet usage. The Atom 330 is priced at $43 in 1,000-unit quantities.

Overall, Intel expects its new Atom chips to fuel an increase in the number of PC deployments per household in the more affluent urban environments worldwide and in the top-tier cities of emerging-market countries like China, said CEO Paul Otellini.

"In many households, you're going from one PC to multiple PCs with these machines," Otellini told investors in July. His view is that the new price points for the Atom -- "combined with a limited amount of features, which is required to enable the price points -- are likely to generate a new segment in the business."

Low Cache Size

This year Intel is looking for booming netbook demand to be the primary driver of Atom sales. Through the release of its Atom 330 for nettops, however, the chipmaker is clearly hoping to trail-blaze an entirely new market segment beginning in 2009.

Like their ultra-low-cost mobile netbook counterparts, nettops are expected to run the Linux operating system instead of Windows and sport a limited amount of solid-state memory instead of a hard drive. The idea is that neither of the more expensive alternatives will be required in devices dedicated to surfing the Web. The retail price of nettops based on the Atom 330 is expected to be "just under current value-desktop PC pricing," said Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at iSuppli.

Intel's new dual-core Atom 330 features a 1.6-GHz processing core and 1MB of Level 2 cache -- the temporary storage area where the PC stores frequently accessed data. Though the chip's cache is relatively small in comparison to...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
New iPhone App Teaches Japanese
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62016
The iPhone may not be selling as fast in Japan as it is in the United States, but a Japanese language application is proving to be a big hit with iPhone owners.

Until now, if you wanted to learn Japanese using technology, you'd resort to electronic dictionaries. Or, if you were running a recent version of Windows, you could download the Global Input Method Editor from Microsoft.

But if learning Japanese on the go is on your list of things to do, you're in luck. iPhone and iPod touch owners can now eschew their language dictionaries in favor of an application called, aptly enough, Japanese, from Codefromtokyo, a privately funded company founded in 2007 by Mark Gaensicke, who lives in Tokyo.

"Do you also dislike carrying a paper-based dictionary around and rather want to have one of those electronic dictionaries (denshi jisho)? Look no further, it's here," writes the Codefromytokyo developer on the company's Web site.

Using the Japanese app, available at the App Store, users can learn how to write kanji characters and pronounce Japanese words and phrases. The app is specifically designed as an aid for users learning Japanese, known to be one of the most difficult languages to learn, let alone master.

Japanese is written with three different scripts: kanji, hiragana, and katakana. Kanji, used to write nouns, adjective stems and verb stems, has thousands of characters, while hiragana, used to write inflected verbs and adjective endings, and katakana, used for emphasis on certain words, each have 50.

Using Japanese

When you start up the application, Japanese presents a user interface that resembles the iPhone's Address Book. Searching works quickly, and results appear within seconds and are sorted by relevance to assist the user in choosing the correct word, according to Codefromtokyo.

Entries are shown in their Japanese form along with a transcription for...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Comcast Submits Its Network-Management Plan to FCC
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62015
Comcast, which has been under scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission for how it allocates bandwidth for heavy users, submitted its formal broadband management plan on Friday.

Without notification and without posting a policy, Comcast had targeted users who employed peer-to-peer file sharing. Under the new plan, the company will slow speeds for the heaviest users when traffic congestion is the greatest. This will be accomplished by creating a slower lane of traffic for heavy users at those times, a lane that will have lower priority than traffic for other users.

'Very Few Customers" Impacted

In announcing the plan, the company said the new congestion-management techniques will be in place by the end of this year, and that "very few customers will ever be impacted." It added that its "real-world consumer trials have shown that on average less than one percent of our customers will experience anything different."

If an area of the network nears congestion, the company said, the new plan will make sure that all customers have a "fair share of access to the network." Customers using the greatest amounts of bandwidth will be temporarily managed during the congestion period. Comcast said those customers' activities will not be affected, but they could experience longer times for downloading, uploading, playing games, or surfing the Web.

Comcast added that the decision on which customers to move into a slower lane "has nothing to do with aggregate monthly data usage," but is dynamic and based on current and very recent network conditions.

After complaints from consumer groups, the FCC ruled in August that Comcast had been blocking Internet traffic, and ordered the company to submit a compliance plan addressing how it intended to stop what the agency called "discriminatory management practices." The blocking was aimed at users of such peer-to-peer programs as BitTorrent. To complicate matters, Comcast...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
T-Mobile, HTC Ready for Android's First Chapter
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62014
T-Mobile and handset maker HTC are taking the cover off the first Android-based cell phone Tuesday at a press conference in New York. The Open Handset Alliance, a group that includes Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others, is billing Android as the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices.

What will a Google Android-based HTC look like? And how will it shake up the market? Here's what we can discern from leaked photos: It's a touchscreen device with a full, slide-out keyboard. Pricing rumors peg the device at $199, in line with Apple's iPhone 3G.

"Based on what we publicly have seen, it looks like it's going to be a very, very interesting offering," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia. "This offering is likely to have initial appeal to consumers more than business users, and particularly consumers that are already engaging with Google's services like Gmail, Calendar and Reader."

Google's Brand Power

In terms of market impact, there are already predictions. According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, the Google Android mobile operating system will account for four percent of all smartphones sold in the U.S. during the fourth quarter.

Google has the brand power in the U.S. to make a big impact at launch. The main issue will be operator subsidies, according to Chris Ambrosio, executive director at Strategy Analytics.

"As seen with the iPhone and smart devices in general, retail prices need to be well below $200 to be competitive. Longer-term success will, of course, rest on Android vendor ability to create designs with wow factor and an intuitive user interface," Ambrosio said. "Google will do its part to drive growth, and we expect Android will eventually offer a compelling range of mobile applications emphasizing Google's online assets, such as advertising, mapping and search."

Android's Present and...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
SanDisk and Music Companies To Offer Digital Music
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61993
Owners of MP3 players and microSD-enabled phones will soon be able to listen to their favorite tunes without Digital Rights Management issues, passwords, or even an Internet connection.

SanDisk, together with Sony, Universal and Warner Bros., has developed microSD cards called slotMusic cards with "more stuff in less space." The new cards will allow users to listen to preloaded music, videos and images from Sony, Universal, Warner Bros. and EMI.

SanDisk, which last week turned down a $5.9 billion acquisition offer from Samsung Electronics, has not yet made the cards or announced pricing. Carmella Lyman, a company spokesperson, said the cards will be available before the holidays in the U.S. on the Internet and at retail stores, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart. The cards will be available in Europe soon after they are offered in the U.S.

SanDisk chose two of the top three music retailers according to a consumer survey by NPD Group that included CDs and digital music downloads.

Daniel Schreiber, senior vice president and general manager of SanDisk, said the company has been innovative for decades and was at the forefront of replacing chemical film with digital film, and floppy disks with USB drives.

"Now, with billions of hosts already in consumers' hands, slotMusic launches into an install base that few formats ever achieve," Schreiber said. "Plus, its portability, openness and penetration into the mobile space are a perfect complement for the music industry."

"This form of music delivery is perfectly suited for today's mobile consumer," said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business and U.S. sales for Sony BMG Music Entertainment. "It's unique, hassle-free entertainment that slots easily into a large number of mobile phones."

Tuning Into New Features

The slotMusic cards will include a USB sleeve so they can be used with all computers, including Windows, Linux and Mac. Also with...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
FBI Raids Apartment of Suspected Palin Hacker
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61992
What's in your mailbox? That's a question that may be much easier for a hacker to answer than most people realize, as Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin discovered last week.

Six days ago, screen shots of e-mails from Palin's Yahoo account (gov.palin@yahoo.com) were briefly posted to 4chan, a generally anonymous imageboard site. The account of the hack and the accompanying images were quickly pulled from the Web site, but not before the news of the exploit hit the mainstream media.

FBI Raid at University of Tennessee

Identifying a leading suspect in the case did not exactly tax the FBI's investigative capabilities. The post detailing the exploit was submitted to 4chan by someone using the ID "rubico." Numerous bloggers (and no doubt, the FBI), noted that the ID resembled a Yahoo e-mail address, "rubico10@yahoo.com," used by University of Tennessee student David Kernell.

In addition, the hacker apparently made relatively little effort to anonymize his or her IP address before attempting to reset Palin's password. As the hacker wrote in the 4chan post, "yes I was behind a proxy, only one ... I panicked."

The proxy in question was Ctunnel, which reported that the FBI visited to look at its server logs. The owner of Ctunnel declined to identify the IP address the FBI was investigating, but Portfolio.com reported it as owned by Pavlov Media, which provides service to a Knoxville, Tenn., housing complex known as The Commons.

On Sunday, the FBI raided an apartment at The Commons where David Kernell lives and reportedly spent one to two hours taking photographs. While no charges have been filed yet in connection with the illegal access of Palin's account, a grand jury is scheduled to meet Tuesday.

Webmail Security Concerns

The ease with which Palin's account was accessed raises some serious questions about Yahoo's security mechanisms and the security...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Apple Recalls iPhone USB Power Adapters
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61991
Apple is facing public-relations woes again. This time it involves a USB power adapter's metal prongs that can break off and get stuck in a power outlet. The issue leaves consumers at risk of electric shock.

Apple said it has determined that, under certain conditions, the new ultracompact Apple USB power adapter's metal prongs malfunction. Apple declined to reveal what those conditions are. No injuries have been reported.

"Apple has received reports of detached prongs involving a very small percentage of the adapters sold, but no injuries have been reported," the company said in a media alert. "Customer safety is always Apple's top priority, so it has voluntarily decided to exchange every ultracompact power adapter for a new redesigned adapter, free of charge."

Another iPhone Problem

While Apple's latest woe doesn't relate directly to the iPhone 3G handset itself, it is connected. Apple said the ultracompact USB power adapters were supplied with every iPhone 3G sold in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico and several Latin American countries. The USB power adapter was also sold separately as an accessory.

Apple stressed that the USB power adapters supplied with original iPhones or supplied with iPhone 3G units sold in other countries are not affected. In any case, Apple is offering a new, redesigned adapter that should be problem-free. Users with the potentially problematic power adapters should immediately stop using them until they exchange them, the company said.

"In the meantime, they should charge their iPhone 3G by connecting it to their computer with the USB cable that came with their iPhone or by using a standard-sized Apple USB Power Adapter (with fold-up prongs) or with a third-party adapter designed to work with the iPhone, such as a car charger," Apple said.

For consumers who aren't sure if they have the USB power adapter in question, Apple has posted...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Suspect Nabbed in Palin E-mail Hack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61990
In the wake of hacking the Yahoo! e-mail account of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Web sleuths and the Feds may have nabbed the perpetrator. Meanwhile, Associated Press reporters were apparently in e-mail conversation with the suspect even as authorities were attempting to track him down.

According to reports in Knoxville's Tennessean, Democrat State Representative Mike Kernell admitted that his son, David Kernell is being questioned by authorities in connection with the crime. The Secret Service and the FBI launched an official investigation on September 17.

Kernell, 20, is a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Rep. Kernell refused to disclose any further information about his son, including his whereabouts.

Not-So-Secure Security

In a message on a Web site frequented by hackers, a poster who identified himself as 'rubico' explained how he cracked Palin's Yahoo! account. The hacker tracked Palin's Yahoo! e-mail address from materials posted in the media, and then used the 'password reset' function to get into the account.

By successfully answering the account security question, 'rubico' was able to gain exclusive control of Palin's e-mail by substituting his own password -- 'popcorn.' The stored security question was: "Where did you meet your husband?" The hacker used online search to glean background information on Palin, and eventually hit on "Wasilla High School."

Analysts, of course, note that such security questions are less than secure. The hacker continues in his message to express frustration over his inability to download all the material. He then posted the password to the board after leaving screen captures of a few messages, family pictures and the inbox on the Wikileaks Web site, and asks other hackers to check out the material.

Alarmed by the message, another anonymous message board member logged into the Palin account, changed the password again, then contacted the Palin family with the new password...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Analyst: Debt Crisis Favors Bigger Telecoms
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61982
The escalating financial crisis has hit some companies in the capital-intensive telecommunications business, and is likely to favor the biggest, most stable players over the long term, an analyst said Thursday.

"The riskiest of the telco bets, and in particular the ones that are most dependent on financing, have taken the biggest hit," said Craig Moffett at Sanford Bernstein.

Sprint Nextel Corp., which has been on shaky footing for a while, has lost nearly a third of its stock value in the last two weeks. Regional wireless carriers MetroPCS Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc. are both down about 14 percent in the last week.

For Sprint, the trouble is double, Moffett said, because not only will it have a hard time raising cash for operations, but the prospect of selling off its Nextel business looks more distant, since it would be hard for a buyer to raise financing.

"We have been hit harder than some other telecom companies over the past week or so because our credit profile is not as strong," Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse acknowledged Thursday at a Goldman Sachs analyst conference.

Hesse played down the need to sell the Nextel business, saying "it's a very valuable business."

The largest phone companies, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., haven't been immune to the turmoil, but Moffett believes they'll grab market share.

"In general, in economic hard times, you tend to get increasing concentration with the strongest players," Moffett said. "They have the flexibility to invest in advertising and networks."

Verizon's chief operating officer, Denny Strigl, speaking at the analyst conference, emphasized the company's confidence in its cash flow.

"We feel we're well positioned," he said.

A spokesman for AT&T said the company had no fresh comment on its financial position.

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Managing the E-Mail Security Risk in Business Today
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61980
It's a rare week when the news doesn't include a report about a corporate data breach -- putting personal, financial, or medical records at risk for theft. Often -- all too often, say security experts -- these breaches are caused by a lack of a solid email policy. Email has not just revolutionized the way we communicate, it has transformed the way we do business today. Along the way, it also added a significant layer of risk. An employee can now easily share confidential information with an unauthorized co-worker or friend. Former employees are often kept on an email circulation list long after they've left the company or continue to have access to their old work accounts months after leaving an organization. And then there are issues such as sending personal emails and forwarding jokes, which may not necessarily be risks but do put a drain on company resources.

However, despite the clear security risks, an Osterman Research survey found that 86% of companies do not have a tool in place to address email usage, a practice that, according to Avivah Litan, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner, Inc., needs to be rectified. "Email accounts are often compromised." She points out that email should not be used as a secondary channel (e.g., in addition to the web or a call center) to convey sensitive information such as example passwords or secret questions and answers used to log into an account.

There are three reasons a company should put an email policy in place, according to Litan:

* Email is a major attack vector for crooks. For example, it is used to spread malware across enterprise and individual PCs and to entice individuals to give credentials and other sensitive information away through phishing attacks.

* Email account credentials are often compromised (e.g., email user IDs...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Monitoring Your Brand and Reputation Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61979
There's no question that the Internet serves as a great megaphone for organizations that want to conduct business around the globe. The web can communicate your message to more people and more locations than any previous communications channel ever could. However, with the ever-growing number and influence of online social networks, blogs, and forums, an increasing number of voices can be heard, and word certainly travels fast.

Unfortunately, that word isn't always complimentary. Yet many companies do not know what information about them is floating around cyberspace. They have no idea that negative and potentially damaging information is being circulated and possibly eating away at their businesses and the reputations they have worked so hard to build.

Getting a Reputation

Some companies (especially larger ones) make considerable investments in creating their brands, while risking everything by falling short of maintaining the integrity of those brand names in the online environment. One reason is they don't know where to begin -- especially today when references to brand name products or organizations can appear in thousands or even millions of webpages.

Augmenting traditional media measurement tools that help marketers better understand their customers, technologies have emerged that are designed to help organizations (and individuals too) wade through the vast web and monitor how their brands are being perceived online. Online reputation management is gradually growing on the priority list of marketers, corporate communication specialists, and even IT professionals within organizations of all sizes.

"We're just at the early stages now, but there is a growing realization that companies need to be proactive and take a strategic approach to online reputation management," says Jay Heiser, a research VP at Gartner. He believes that while this will become a corporate communications function, it requires a partnership between IT and corporate communications.

It will certainly need a solid team behind...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Internet Services Simplify File Sharing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61972
It's time I put a few more operas on my iPod.

It has 20 gigabytes of storage, but I've long kept a few gigs in reserve, to copy large data files and tote them between home and office.

We're talking about files that are far too big to travel as e-mail attachments, so I've been slipping them in a shirt pocket instead.

But there's a better way -- a lot of them, in fact. A host of Internet services offer easy ways to store and share large files among multiple computers. Some let users synchronize files between machines, so they can keep identical copies of critical files on all their computers.

Others offer a simple way to send large files to friends and colleagues.

Perhaps the most sophisticated of the bunch is SugarSync, a share-and-sync service with something for everyone. After signing up at www.sugarsync.com, you download and install a piece of software on each of your Windows or Macintosh computers. The software allows you to copy important files to SugarSync's online storage system. Now you can launch SugarSync on any of your computers, and access any files that were backed up. You can also use any Internet-connected computer to access files through the SugarSync Web site. Even if you're a thousand miles from home and the dog ate your hard drive, SugarSync-ed files are safe and accessible. And you can send files to other people -- just e-mail them a hyperlink that lets them download files, even if they're not SugarSync users.

SugarSync's Magic Briefcase feature is truly magical. Use it to store files you frequently change -- for instance, a complicated spreadsheet.

The file will appear in the Magic Briefcases of your other SugarSync computers. Any changes in the file automatically show up on all your computers.

If you have got a smartphone, like a BlackBerry,...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Palm Faces Strong Competition as Stock Drops
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61989
Longtime PDA and phone manufacturer Palm had a rough day Friday. Although the stock exchange rose sharply in the wake of news that the U.S. government was stepping in to stabilize the financial markets, Palm's stock fell nearly eight percent, to $7.83.

The drop was driven by the release of Palm's fiscal first quarter results. The company said its revenue rose less than two percent, to $366.9 million, while its quarterly loss rose to $41.9 million, or 39 cents a share.

Overall, the first-quarter report was better than anticipated (even Palm officials had predicted declining revenue), but analysts raised concerns about whether Palm can remain competitive in an increasingly crowded smartphone market.

Palm 'Slow to Adapt'

Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, said Palm is wrestling with consumers' perception of a tired brand.

"Palm helped create the smartphone market with its Treo line," Sterling said, "but the company has been slow to adapt to a new competitive marketplace. The dynamics don't look as good from a consumer or business perspective."

Sterling said the Palm Treos have been popular and the Palm Treo Pro should be well received. But, he added, there's a lot of new smartphones competing for consumer attention.

"I think it's a fairly straightforward situation in the marketplace," Sterling said. "There's a lot more competition for the same smartphone dollars. Both Apple, obviously, and RIM have stepped up their efforts by introducing more phones and more features, targeted at both consumers and business users. And in the coming week, we'll see the rollout of the first Android-driven phone. It's tough for Palm to attract attention."

No Carrier Support?

One factor hampering the Treo Pro is that Palm has not yet signed a marketing agreement with a major telecommunications carrier. Instead, Palm will sell the device unlocked, which means it can be used on multiple networks...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Yahoo Testing Home Page with Multiple Features
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61988
Yahoo is testing a more streamlined version of its home page that provides users with one-click access to multiple e-mail accounts and third-party applications.

"We're working on a new home page that will help you get more out of the Internet, make more of your precious time, and make sense of all the things going on in your world," said Tapan Bhat, Yahoo's senior vice president for front doors, communities and network services. "We're testing with a fraction of home-page visitors chosen at random, starting in the U.S., U.K., France and India."

More Preview Applications

Yahoo's revamped page integrates AOL and Google e-mail accounts in a dashboard area on the left side. The company said it expects to embrace additional e-mail accounts.

AOL announced much the same strategy for its home page earlier this month. "We know that consumers today have multiple e-mail accounts on different services to keep tabs on daily, and we want to make it easier for them," said Bill Wilson, AOL's executive vice president of programming.

Yahoo is also looking to tap into the expanding Web universe of social networking. The search-engine provider recently launched oneConnect, a free iPhone application that supports social networking on platforms such as Facebook and MySpace.

Besides e-mail, Yahoo hopes to keep its existing users happy and attract new ones by placing SMS and IM messaging, and perhaps even Twitter, on a single page. Yahoo also plans to open its home page to the Yahoo Application Platform so third-party developers and publishers can submit preview applications as optional customization choices.

"We plan to add plenty more preview applications in the future, so that you don't have to spend as much time jumping from site to site just to stay plugged in," Bhat said. "As we continue evolving the test versions, you'll also notice...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
T-Mobile's Android Device Will Have $199 Price Tag
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61987
As Android gets closer to launch, details about the first device using the open-source mobile platform are coming into focus. A new report indicates that the first Android phone, to be released in October by T-Mobile, will be priced at $199. The price was reported earlier this week in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.

In preparation for the launch, T-Mobile is getting its house in order. On Thursday, it announced it was expanding its 3G network from 13 markets in the United States to 21 by the middle of next month, growing to 27 markets by the end of 2008.

'Absolutely Not Coincidental'

The Android handset will be officially announced on September 23 and available next month. The HTC Dream, aka G1, will be the first device using the new open Android platform, whose development has been spearheaded by Google.

Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said that T-Mobile's expansion of its 3G network just as it is about to roll out the first Android-based device "is absolutely not coincidental."

He added that T-Mobile has been planning to expand its 3G network "for a long, long time," but that it ran into problems with spectrum it had purchased being vacated. T-Mobile spent more than $4 billion in 2006 to acquire licenses to that spectrum.

This launch is "very significant" for the company, Greengart said, since T-Mobile has not released any iPhone-like or higher-end multimedia phones, with the possible exception of the Shadow.

"But," he said, "if you're going to launch an Android device, based on Google technology and with an emphasis on Web browsing, you're going to want to expand your 3G network."

Up to 700,000 Units at Launch

Earlier this week, news reports indicated that T-Mobile will ship as many as 600,000 to 700,000 units at launch, which is...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Cisco Will Boost Collaboration with Jabber Acquisition
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61986
Cisco Systems on Friday announced plans to acquire presence information and messaging software developer Jabber. Financial terms were not disclosed.

With Jabber in its portfolio, Cisco can embed presence information and messaging services in the network. The acquisition will also offer Cisco users aggregation capabilities through both on-premise and on-demand solutions and across multiple platforms, including Cisco WebEx Connect and Cisco Unified Communications.

"Enterprise organizations want an extensible presence and messaging platform that can integrate with business process applications and easily adapt to their changing needs," said Doug Dennerline, Cisco senior vice president of the collaboration software group. "Our intention is to be the interoperability benchmark in the collaboration space."

Presence: The Foundation

Jabber's technology can gather presence information across different devices, users and applications. With Jabber, users can also collaborate across various presence systems, including Microsoft Office Communications Server, IBM Sametime, AOL AIM, Google and Yahoo.

Cisco said the Jabber acquisition demonstrates its "build, buy and partner" strategy to move quickly into new markets and capture key market transitions. In addition to internal software innovations, Cisco is known for making investments in small start-up firms and acquiring companies to support its software strategy. Indeed, Cisco's latest string of purchases includes WebEx, IronPort, Securent and PostPath.

According to Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala, Cisco has been looking to grow its collaboration business significantly. "Collaboration business growth has become a main focus area for Cisco," he said. "And the Jabber acquisition gives them a much better presence offering."

Although Cisco historically has positioned Voice over IP, or VoIP, as the foundation of unified communications and collaboration, Kerravala believes presence is the bedrock. Presence, he explained, adds some intelligence to collaboration.

"I think presence is the most important piece of building business processes around collaboration," Kerravala said. "So this acquisition gives Cisco a much better product than they...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Lawsuit Cites NSA, Others for Domestic Surveillance
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61967
The National Security Agency, other governmental agencies, and President George W. Bush are named in a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The action by EFF, a nonprofit with offices in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, also accuses Vice President Dick Cheney; David Addington, Cheney's chief of staff; Alberto Gonzales, former White House counsel and attorney general; and John McConnell, director of national intelligence, of participation in domestic surveillance.

The EFF filed the lawsuit to stop the NSA from allegedly spying on millions of Americans and to hold those who authorized the spying accountable. The EFF is also asking in its 55-page brief that all surveillance records be destroyed and for punitive, statutory and actual damages plus legal fees.

"For years, the NSA has been engaged in a massive and massively illegal fishing expedition through AT&T's domestic networks and databases of customer records," said Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney for EFF. "Our goal in this new case against the government, as in our case against AT&T, is to dismantle this dragnet surveillance program as soon as possible."

Cindy Cohn, legal director for EFF, said the lawsuit should send a message to the White House's future administration that breaking the law by violating Americans' right to privacy means consequences.

The NSA declined to comment on pending litigation.

Not the First Time

This is the second lawsuit by EFF for domestic spying. In 2006, EFF filed a suit against AT&T after Mark Klein, a telecommunications technician at AT&T, blew the whistle on the telecom giant. Klein said AT&T had a secret room called the SG3 Secure Room controlled by the NSA where millions of AT&T customers' phone conversations and Internet chats were being watched without their knowledge.

The SG3 room, according to court papers, contained sophisticated equipment, including a Narus Semantic Traffic Analyzer. The analyzer looks through...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Microsoft Taps Real People in Post-Seinfeld Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61966
Millions of people watched comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates chatter about practically nothing as part of Microsoft's $300 million ad campaign. Now those lengthy "teaser ads" are relegated to the YouTube archives and Microsoft is forging ahead with the next phase of its campaign to connect with real people.

In it, you won't see Seinfeld. But you will see more celebrities -- and real, everyday people. Microsoft wants to promote the meaningfulness of the Windows platform, which includes Vista, Windows Mobile and Windows Live. The campaign, Microsoft said, will reflect the holistic approach it took when it developed these products to work together.

Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services & Windows Business Group, described Windows is a vibrant community of individuals who are passionate about how Windows helps them express their ideas and live life on their own terms. Microsoft hopes to capture that passion in the next marketing initiatives of its "Life Without Walls" campaign.

Connecting with Real People

"At the core, Windows is about enabling each one of us, as individuals, to live our lives without walls," Veghte said. "I want to work when I want to work, I want to play when I want to play. I want to communicate and share with friends and family and coworkers."

The next campaign run aims to hit Apple square between the eyes with an "I'm a PC" series that features celebs like green architect Edouard Francois, astronaut Bernard Harris and celebrities such as Eva Longoria and Deepak Chopra. But Microsoft is hoping to keep it real by also focusing on real PC users of all ages and from all walks of life, such as teachers, cabbies, designers and fishmongers.

"One of the really fun things we've done is to create a series of ads called 'I'm a PC'...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Web Inventor Backs Group To Improve His Creation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61957
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, is helping start a new foundation with the aim of supporting the Web as a tool that's open and accessible to everyone.

Exactly what the World Wide Web Foundation is going to do hasn't been decided yet, but Berners-Lee pointed to some possible areas of focus, like making the Web better suited to people in emerging countries.

"I understand that 80 percent of the planet don't use the Web, but quite a large number ... may have signal from a cell tower," Berners-Lee said.

Those people might use a cell phone to get access to the Web, but the problems don't end there. "It might not work for the way they want to work. They may be illiterate, for example," Berners-Lee said in an interview.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation said it will give the WWW Foundation $5 million in seed money to get its operations started.

The idea for the foundation springs from Berners-Lee's involvement with the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, which sets standards for Web technology, and the Web Science Research Initiative.

The chief executive of the W3C, Steve Bratt, will leave that position to assume the same title at the new foundation. The W3C has many big-name donors behind it, and Bratt said they would be invited to donate to the new foundation as well.

"We're going to be ... hopefully attracting some significant donations to really get this thing off the ground starting early next year," Bratt said. "We expect a big announcement sometime early next year when we'll be talking about the programs we expect to be funding."

Berners-Lee, now based in Cambridge, Mass., proposed the Web in 1989 while working at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (known as CERN) and created the first browser a year later.

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Samsung Bid for SanDisk Shows Memory-Market Woes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61956
A $5.85 billion bid by Samsung Electronics Co. to take over SanDisk Corp., a wounded competitor that also serves as a partner, reflects the turbulence in the market for flash memory, a key ingredient in digital cameras, music players and other devices.

For now Samsung has been rebuffed in its attempt to scoop up SanDisk for $26 per share. SanDisk called the offer an "opportunistic attempt" to take advantage of its slumping stock price. But SanDisk left open the possibility for further negotiations if the pot were sweetened, and SanDisk shares jumped $6.19, 41 percent, to $21.23 on Wednesday.

The memory market is prone to severe boom-and-bust cycles, like the rest of the semiconductor industry, and is suffering now from a prolonged funk caused by a glut of chips and plunging prices, even though demand is high.

Those pressures have whacked companies like Milpitas, California-based SanDisk, which owns more than a third of the U.S. market for flash memory cards.

SanDisk's profit has plunged 43 percent over the past two years, to $218 million in 2007, while its stock has tumbled from more than $60 per share in 2006 to less than $15 per share before word of the acquisition talks leaked this month. That decline vaporized $9 billion in shareholder wealth -- and cracked an opening for South Korea-based Samsung.

Among other things, Samsung is the world's second-biggest semiconductor company, behind Intel Corp., and the biggest maker of a type of memory chip called NAND flash. In SanDisk, Samsung sees the chance to pick up valuable patents on current and future memory technologies and absorb a well-known company with steadily improving sales.

SanDisk had $3.9 billion in revenue last year, a nearly 20 percent improvement over 2006. Although its profits and market value have suffered, the company still enjoys rising demand for digital devices that...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Google CEO Won't Delay Yahoo Deal any Further
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61949
Google Inc.'s chief executive said Wednesday the Internet search leader won't delay its proposed advertising partnership with rival Yahoo Inc. even if government regulators need more time to assess whether the alliance will diminish competition.

After voluntarily delaying the start of the Yahoo deal three months ago to give antitrust regulators time to review the potential impact, CEO Eric Schmidt said he isn't willing to wait very much beyond an Oct. 11 deadline spelled out in the companies' contract.

"Time is money in our business," Schmidt told reporters in a 75-minute meeting that covered a wide range of topics.

He declined to predict whether regulators might try to block the partnership.

"While we have been talking to regulators, we don't know what their position is," Schmidt said. "We don't know if they think it's a good deal or poor deal."

The pact between Google and Yahoo raised competitive concerns because the two companies combined control more than 80 percent of the rapidly growing U.S. market for advertising connected to Internet searches.

Microsoft Corp. and a large group of advertisers have complained that Google will gain too much pricing power by linking up with Yahoo -- an assertion Google disputes because its rates are set in an auction-style process. Yahoo also has the right to pick which Google ads to show on its site.

Antitrust regulators are nevertheless taking a hard look at the partnership, and recently hired an outside lawyer to help review evidence in the case so far.

Schmidt blamed the backlash against the Yahoo partnership on Microsoft's lobbying and Google's own inability to explain the benefits more clearly. "There is a natural fear of things getting larger," he said.

By forging the partnership, Google provided Yahoo an escape from Microsoft, which spent five months trying to buy Yahoo in its entirety or at least its online search...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Some ISPs Move To End Their 'All-You-Can-Eat' Plans
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61948
When Richard Tallent moved to a new home in Beaumont, Texas, he had one worry on his mind: signing up for Internet service as soon as possible. Time Warner Cable, the local provider, had imposed a 5-gigabyte usage limit for its new customers.

Tallent, a programmer and photographer who frequently uploads large photographs, slipped in under the deadline with two days to spare. If he had not, he would have had to pay $1 for every extra gigabyte he used each month.

What Time Warner is experimenting with in Beaumont may very well be the way phone companies and cable TV companies sell Internet service in the near future. The company thinks it is not fair for the average users to subsidize the heavy users.

The Federal Communications Commission recently voted to forbid a plan by Comcast, a major U.S. provider, for slowing the service of its most voracious customers. (Comcast recently filed a lawsuit to reverse the regulator's judgment). So the best thing to do might be to throttle the once-unlimited use of the Internet.

Customers are reacting like patients when a doctor orders a strict diet. Some are looking for tools to restrain their use of the Internet, while others are hoping to find another doctor with a more liberal attitude toward vanilla Swiss almond ice cream and prime rib.

Some Internet service providers want to end their all-you-can-eat plans because a few customers with huge appetites for Web content are overwhelming the networks and slowing the delivery of news and entertainment for everyone else.

Other providers blame copyright pirates who program their computers to crawl the Internet and suck down complete copies of music CDs or DVDs.

A few companies say the culprits clogging Internet networks are legitimate video services like YouTube.com, Hulu.com and Apple's iTunes that use more bandwidth than the illicit file...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Design Tunes Up Altec Lansing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61942
Darrin Caddes has his work cut out for him. In the dimly lit backroom of a ritzy Manhattan hotel, a dozen or so gadget bloggers and technology writers have gathered to meet with Caddes, vice-president for corporate design at headset maker Plantronics (PLT). But instead of the form-fitting ear pieces or business communications gear Caddes is known for, the soft-spoken, 43-year-old designer is surrounded by a range of gleaming iPod speaker systems, their LCD displays glowing blue and orange.

Caddes is charged with hitting the reset button on consumer-electronics manufacturer Altec Lansing, which Plantronics bought for $166 million in 2005. The Milford [Pa.] engineering firm has a long track record of innovation, including pioneering technology that gave voice to the first talking pictures, putting its stamp on everything from professional loud speakers to the audio inside Walt Disney's (DIS) Epcot Center in Orlando, and creating the first speaker system with an integrated iPod dock in 2003.

But recently, Altec has seemed anything but fresh. The company had been happy to trundle along with the same playlist even as the $1.1 billion U.S. market for iPod docks became more competitive. Its products -- a hodgepodge of out-sourced designs -- became indistinguishable in the bazaar of look-alikes made by Asian manufacturers. Unable or unwilling to differentiate itself, Altec began bleeding money.

Bland Design

As a whole, Plantronics saw revenue grow 7%, to $856.3 million, in fiscal 2008, with net income jumping 38%, to $79.4 million, from fiscal '07. But the faltering consumer audio division, which absorbed Altec, dragged down its roaring communications division, which has been boosted by a boom in sales of wireless headsets. The remnants of Altec saw net revenues slide 12%, to $108.4 million, from the year before while operating losses swelled 24%, to $35.8 million. Striking a somber note, the company's annual...

Sat, 20 Sep 08
Nortel: Would a Breakup Be Best?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61941
Wall Street securities firms aren't the only bearers of bad news these days. On Sept. 17 telecom equipment maker Nortel (NT) trimmed growth forecasts and said it's likely to announce cost-cutting measures such as staff reductions.

Most troubling for investors who pummeled Nortel stock, slicing 47% off its market value, was the announcement that Nortel may sell one of its fastest-growing businesses. Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski said he may flog the Metro Ethernet division, which makes gear that delivers broadband within cities. The business accounts for about 14% of Nortel's total sales, and is "one of the faster-growing [market] segments," registering a 10% compound annual growth rate, Mark Sue, managing director at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a Sept. 17 research note.

Analysts viewed the potential sale of one of Nortel's growth engines as a harbinger of more sales; some said it may even presage a complete dissolution of the company. "The fact that they are weighing the sale is giving the impression of a lot more trouble," says Richard Windsor, an analyst at Nomura Securities.

A Widening Loss

Nortel is struggling amid an economic slowdown that's causing customers to delay telecom equipment purchases. The company is also losing share to rivals such as Huawei that can sell products at a lower price. Other telecom equipment makers including Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) face similar challenges [BusinessWeek.com, 9/2/08], but Nortel appears less well-equipped to manage them, says Stephane Teral, an analyst at consultancy Infonetics Research. "Nortel is the weakest of all these [large] players," he says. Nortel's second-quarter loss widened to $113 million from $37 million a year earlier.

Investors and analysts are concerned that a multiyear effort to stem losses and revive growth isn't paying off. Some are beginning to wonder whether Zafirovski may conclude the company is better off sold in pieces. "Nortel has entered a...

Fri, 19 Sep 08
Sarah Palin's E-Mail Hacked, Personal Mail Posted
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61961
Web-based e-mail users take note: Use strong passwords. The private e-mail account of Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was apparently hacked earlier this week, and screen captures of e-mail messages, family photos, and the e-mail inbox were posted on a Web site.

Tracing the Hacker

The alleged screenshots were published on the Wikileaks Web site, which publishes leaked government, corporate and religious documents and protects the identity of the sources. From there, the e-mail spread throughout the Internet.

Hacking into an e-mail account may be punishable by up to five years in prison under federal law. Local statutes may also have been broken.

According to a report in the Register, a proxy server operated by Ctunnel.com in Fairbanks, Alaska, was used to anonymously attack the Yahoo account. IP addresses from incoming users are allegedly held in cache on the Ctunnel server at another facility in Chicago and could identify the hacker.

In fact, in a post discovered on a hacker-oriented Web site, a user named "rubico" posted, "THIS [hack into Palin's account] was serious business, yes I was behind a proxy, only one ... I didn't know how to [download] all that stuff, so I posted the pass[word], and then promptly deleted everything."

Getting to the Chicago server may not be problematic for the FBI or Secret Service. Charles Silverman, a Chicago-based attorney, said it all depends on whether the government wanted a warrant or a subpoena. "The main difference being that warrants need probable cause, whereas subpoenas merely need reasonable suspicion," he said.

Legal consequences for the hacker may be dire. Silverman said, "If the e-mail search or release was done in a threatening manner, or seemed designed to intimidate or release potential security information, then the Secret Service could make an arrest. If this was done for embarrassment and/or...

Fri, 19 Sep 08
GAO Says EPA Not Enforcing E-Waste Export Rules
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61960
U.S. companies are still exporting harmful electronic waste and the Environmental Protection Agency is doing little to stop it, according to the Government Accountability Office. On Wednesday, GAO officials testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment.

In January 2007 a rule took effect that required U.S. companies to notify the EPA before exporting cathode ray tubes to foreign countries. CRTs are harmful to humans and the environment because they contain lead, a known toxin.

Dismantling of these used products is done mostly in Asian countries and not properly regulated, resulting in open-air burning of wires to retrieve copper and immersion in acid baths to separate metals. These practices expose people to lead and other hazardous materials.

Breaking the Rule

GAO officials testified that a growing international trade in used electronic parts has emerged mostly in developing countries. As this trade increases -- especially in China and India -- recycling is not done responsibly and U.S. and other countries may be at fault.

"In many cases they do wind up in the hands of exporters and the economics are such that it is a lot cheaper to get rid of them through the export market, and a lot of money can be made by exporters to buyers in countries like China," said Steve Elstein, assistant director at the GAO, in a phone interview.

While posing as fictitious buyers, GAO investigators found dozens of companies offering to break the EPA's CRT rule. These companies were in Missouri, Colorado, New Jersey, and Washington state. The GAO found brokers in developing countries made 230 requests for CRTs, totaling 7.5 million units.

Forty-three companies were found breaking the EPA's rule, according to the GAO. Several are the same companies hosting recycling events and whose Web sites say products are recycled in the...

Fri, 19 Sep 08
Amazon Will Launch 'Local' Content Delivery Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61958
Amazon is readying a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to compete with the likes of industry veterans Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networks. It's another step toward cloud computing, and it will be available later this year.

Amazon is no stranger to the cloud. The retailing behemoth launched its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in 2006. EC2 is a Web service that hosts business software applications. Then Red Hat tapped into the cloud last November with a beta version of its Enterprise Linux operating system on EC2. Now Amazon is expanding the cloud.

On Thursday, Amazon announced a new service that will give developers and businesses the ability to serve data to customers worldwide, using low latency and high data-transfer rates. Using a global network, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels said the new service can deliver data stored in Amazon S3 to customers around the globe through local access.

"This is an important first step in expanding the cloud to give developers even more control over how their applications and their data are served by the cloud," Vogels said in his blog. "The service is currently in private beta, but we expect to have the service widely available before the end of the year."

Lofty Goals

Amazon's CDN does not yet have a name, but the company is promising businesses can distribute popular publicly readable content to customers all over the world. Amazon has four stated goals for the new service.

The first goal is to allow developers and businesses to get started with content delivery without any dollar or volume commitments.

The second goal is ease of use. Amazon said only one API is needed to get started with content delivery.

Amazon's third goal was to develop a CDN that works with Amazon S3 so businesses can feel secure about data storage. S3 is storage for the Internet that's designed to...

Fri, 19 Sep 08
Open Source and the Creative Commons
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61930
Open source software may sound like just another passing buzz phrase, but it is no fly-by-nighter. It has been around for decades and we have all relied on it for some time. As more and more people are coming into direct contact with open source, it's a good time to ask what makes it so special.

The source here is source code, the human-readable (or at least programmer-readable) form of a computer program.

Computer programs are written in various programming languages (source code) and then translated by computer into instructions a computer can follow directly (machine code). To run the program you only need the machine code. To discover how a program works, or make changes, the source code is essential.

Almost none of the software used by the typical computer user comes with source code. Software giants like Microsoft and Adobe treat source code as a trade secret. After all, the argument goes, these programs are the fruits of their labor; why should they let anyone else study their inner workings? This is closed source, or proprietary, software.

Open source software takes the opposite approach. Not only does the software come with source, but recipients are also allowed to make changes and pass it on to others without charge. The original author gives up the tight control over their source -- and the revenue it could bring them -- in the hope that the software will be enriched even if they are not.

Open source is supposed to encourage better software by allowing more eyes to inspect and correct existing code and providing solid foundations on which new projects can be built. The technical value of opening source up to exploitation by all is supposed to outweigh the monetary value of selling closed copies.

Open source goes back a...

Fri, 19 Sep 08
Firm Provides Disaster-Ready Data Storage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61929
"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst" is more than just a nugget of sage advice for Mark Giannini.

It's practically his business model.

Giannini, founder of Service Assurance (http://www.saccorp.net), specializes in protecting electronic files and records. He takes seriously the time-honored proverb and encourages all business owners to do the same.

"Without a doubt, advances in technology have increased efficiency and productivity in the workplace," Giannini said. "The downside is that too many businesses don't have a viable plan to access their data in the event of an emergency."

Co-owner Kelli Mitchell agreed.

"For some small companies, the extent of data storage is just backing up their computer's hard drive," Mitchell said. "In today's world, that's not just inadequate, it's dangerous."

Service Assurance provides electronic backup, storage and retrieval of files and records. All information is encrypted and privacy is assured.

In addition to [its] local operation, the company uses a facility in Birmingham, Ala., to store data. In the event of a local emergency -- Giannini cited 2003's Hurricane Elvis -- records are maintained at the remote site and are accessible 24 hours a day.

That's imperative for entrepreneurs like David Tate, president of Signet Inc., a corporate logo and apparel company.

"We hold a lot of data for our clients and there has to be no question that the information is readily available," Tate said. "The redundancy of local and regional sites helps offset any threats to our business records."

According to a 2004 poll by the National Federation of Independent Business, only 38 percent of small-business owners had emergency preparedness plans.

More than 20 percent reported having to close down for at least a day due to the loss of electricity directly related to storms.

And with hurricane season in full force and the potential for widespread damage from flooding, high winds and power outages, business owners...

Fri, 19 Sep 08
Dell and Ingram Warn About Technology Demand
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61924
Dell and Ingram Micro, two of the biggest computer vendors, warned Tuesday that demand for information technology was weakening, adding to worries that the crisis on Wall Street would hurt corporate and consumer spending.

Neither company mentioned the financial sector, but they were the first major U.S. technology companies to warn investors since Lehman Brothers collapsed, Merrill Lynch was sold and American International Group said it would need a huge loan to survive.

"When you see these failures on Wall Street and the concerns that people have about banks," said Shannon Cross, an analyst for Cross Research, "I think it does cause people to pull back a little on their spending."

Dell, the second-largest maker of personal computers behind Hewlett-Packard, said in August that customers were holding back on purchases.

"The company is seeing further softening in global end-user demand in the current quarter," Dell said Tuesday. Dell added that it expected to incur costs to cut its work force and invest in infrastructure and acquisitions.

Ingram Micro, the world's biggest computer products distributor, cut its third-quarter profit and revenue outlook, saying economic softness in the summer was continuing into September and pressuring operating margins.

"In Europe, we are not seeing the typical September bounce-back from the summer holidays," Gregory Spierkel, the Ingram Micro chief executive, said in a statement. He added that after a stable summer, North America was weakening in September.

The warnings came a day after HP said it would eliminate 24,600 jobs, or 7.5 percent of its work force, as part of its plan for digesting Electronic Data Systems, the computer services giant that HP acquired for $13.9 billion in August.

The layoffs are the start of a three-year plan in which HP will try to unify its existing services business with EDS. Up to half of the eliminated positions may be refilled over...

Fri, 19 Sep 08
Audit: ATF Lost 76 Weapons, Hundreds of Laptops
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61921
The ATF lost 76 weapons and hundreds of laptops over five years, the Justice Department reported Wednesday, blaming carelessness and sloppy record-keeping.

Thirty-five of the missing handguns, rifles, Tasers and other weapons were stolen, as were 50 laptops, the internal audit found. Two of the stolen weapons were used in crimes.

The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found "inadequate" oversight of weapons and laptops resulted in "significant rates of losses" at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"It is especially troubling that that ATF's rate of loss for weapons was nearly double that of the FBI and DEA, and that ATF did not even know whether most of its lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information," he added.

In a Sept. 10 letter responding to the audit, ATF acting Director Michael J. Sullivan said his agency "agrees or partially agrees with most of the recommendations."

"We are revising our procedures of reporting losses of weapons or laptops," Sullivan said.

The audit looked at ATF's inventory of weapons, laptops, ammunition and explosives between Oct. 1, 2002 and Aug. 31, 2007.

It found that ATF lost three times more weapons each month than it had in a similar 2002 audit by the Treasury Department, which used to oversee the agency. It also lost 50 times as many laptops as reported in the earlier audit.

Of the 76 weapons, 35 were reported stolen, 19 lost and 12 missing from inventories, investigators found. Of the 418 missing laptops, 50 were stolen, 8 lost and 274 could not be found during inventory. Another 86 laptops were unaccounted for because ATF had either destroyed or lost documents showing where they were, the audit concluded.

Two weapons reported stolen were used to commit crimes. In one instance, a gun was stolen from an ATF car parked...

Fri, 19 Sep 08
NBC Puts It All Out There Early Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61918
Web-savvy viewers routinely catch up with missed TV episodes online, but networks are split on screening them before their premiere.

For the third year, NBC plans an aggressive campaign to make new series widely available a week before their premieres.

Knight Rider, Kath & Kim, Crusoe and My Own Worst Enemy, along with several second-year shows, will be everywhere: NBC's Web site, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon's UnBox, Microsoft's Xbox Live and Zune, as well as on-demand from TV providers such as Comcast, Cox, Charter, Dish and Verizon Fios. Knight Rider and Lipstick Jungle, due Sept. 24, are available today.

NBC's strategy is at odds with that of most other networks, which plan far more selective treatment. It's unclear whether such peeks help, hurt or have no effect on a show's chances. Early screenings can build positive word of mouth and create awareness, but they also can spread bad buzz faster.

"We want to make (programs) available in as many ways as we can so we can get fans," says marketing chief John Miller. "If you don't embrace people's behavior, you can be lost by it."

Other networks say their local stations and advertisers prefer to have first dibs on fresh content:

*CBS, which has offered advanced peeks at Jericho, this year put nothing online. Instead, it has been screening pilots of comedies Worst Week and Gary Unmarried on American Airlines since Sept. 1. It also held screenings at 10 universities of Worst Week and new drama The Ex List.

*ABC will go online with many new and returning series, but to tease viewers with the first segment of each episode, often a six-minute clip.

*CW, which last year screened two shows on Yahoo only to see them quickly fail, held back the pilot of 90210 until its debut but has since posted episodes online.

*Fox offered K-Ville and Back to...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
IBM Opens Center To Study Social-Networking Software
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61939
Computer-industry giant IBM announced at the Interop conference in New York on Wednesday that it is has established the IBM Center for Social Software (CSS) in Cambridge, Mass. The new facility is part of the company's ongoing Tomorrow at Work program, an initiative IBM says is designed to "anticipate what the next work world will bring -- and prepare for it today."

Irene Greif, an IBM fellow and the inaugural director of the CSS, said the new facility "is a channel for the social-computing community and our customers to collaborate on the most innovative social technologies being developed today."

"We view the center," Greif added, "as a magnet for the top social-computing scientists around the world to visit, share work, and innovate."

Business and Academic Partnerships

According to the CSS Web site, a primary focus will be on "gathering, analyzing and publishing data on adoption rates and the value of social software to business."

Two companies, Dow Jones and the health-care division of Thomson Reuters, have announced that they will be the first to participate in the CSS's corporate residency program. Company representatives will collaborate with IBM researchers from around the world who come to CSS to work on specific social-networking projects.

The goal, Greif said on the Web site, is to "use rapid, large-scale deployments and social-science research to understand the kind of viral adoption common in today's nonbusiness social software and apply it to create Web 2.0 implementations that are 'fit for business.'"

In addition to working with the corporate world, CSS will also reach out to academics. Cambridge is popular with technology and biotechnology companies due to the presence of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

Social Networking in the Workplace

One of the goals for CSS is to "work with forward-thinking businesses to pilot and customize enterprise social networks unique to their industry...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
Google Economist Says Yahoo Deal Improves ROI
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61938
With the European Union announcing that it will launch an inquiry -- a step below a formal investigation -- into Google's ad-sharing deal with Yahoo, the open question is whether the arrangement would in fact be anticompetitive.

Even though the ads will be shared only on Yahoo's U.S. and Canadian sites, the EU believes that because the companies operate in Europe, the deal will impact European consumers. Google had hoped to avoid EU scrutiny by excluding Yahoo's European sites from the ad deal.

Now that the game is on in the EU, Google is taking its case to the court of public opinion. Tuesday Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, lashed out at a July report by SearchIgnite, which predicted that keyword advertising rates would jump 22 percent as a result of a Google-Yahoo deal.

Tail, Head, Brand Terms

SearchIgnite broke its study into three kinds of keywords: "tail" terms, which are infrequently searched, very specific terms; "head" terms, which are commonly searched words and phrases; and "brand" terms, which include brand and product names. In all three categories, SearchIgnite predicted costs to marketers would rise.

For tail terms, the top three ad positions are 12 percent to 17 percent more expensive on Google than Yahoo. For head terms, Yahoo ads are actually 5 percent to 16 percent more expensive than Google in the first three ad positions, but 23 percent cheaper in the fourth position. Yahoo is typically more expensive than Google on brand terms, the study found.

In his rebuttal to this study on Google's Public Policy Blog, Varian said the study was based on "flawed assumptions and questionable methodology." Varian's key argument is that the agreement will deliver "significantly better performance at prices that reflect that improved performance."

Problems, Problems

Varian identifies three problems with the report. Most importantly, he wrote, the study doesn't recognize that...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
Searching for Brad Pitt Can Lure Surfers To Malware
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61937
Movie fans who love to search what leading man Brad Pitt is up to need to beware of malware. Pitt's name is being used to lure Web surfers to malware-hosting sites, according to McAfee. Web surfers looking for wallpaper, ring tones, photos and screensavers are the main targets.

Typing Pitt's name in a search engine produces a one in five chance of hitting a malware site, according to McAfee. Other top search names used as lures include Angelina Jolie, Beyonce, Maria Carey, Jessica Alba, and George Clooney.

Each month, Internet users make more than 550 million clicks to risky Web sites, according to McAfee.

This is good news for criminals using "drive-by downloads" to spread malware, according to F-Secure, a security company. But it is not good news for Internet users typing in innocuous words such "knitting mittens," warns F-Secure.

A Growing Trend

Malware continues to be a problem, warn security experts. Last year, Google's malware team spent a year identifying Web pages that infect vulnerable hosts. What it found is alarming. Of the billions of URLs investigated, the team found more than three million unique URLs on more than 180,000 sites that automatically installed malware.

Google also looked at seven million URLs and mapped them to Open Directory Project or DMOZ categories and found that each was infected.

In 2007 McAfee detected 327 new sites per calendar day and 527 per business day. And the number is growing. Nearly 25,500 detections were added in 2007 compared to 2005 and 2006 combined, according to Jeff Green, McAfee's senior vice president of Avert Labs.

"Scary numbers any way you break them down," Green said in a McAfee blog. "One could almost say malware creation has reached epidemic proportions. We are seeing more malware than ever before, even though the lifespan of malware is decreasing."

Protecting Your Computer

Malware...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
SanDisk Spurns Samsung Takeover Bid
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61936
SanDisk has rejected an unsolicited $5.85 billion acquisition offer from Samsung as "an opportunistic attempt to take advantage of SanDisk's current stock price, which is significantly depressed given industry cyclicality," the company's board of directors said.

By any measure, the current market value of the world's largest supplier of flash memory cards for cameras, smartphones and other consumer devices "is in a deep discount compared to a few months ago," noted Nam Hyung Kim, chief analyst and director at iSuppli. "It should be a good time for the big players such as Samsung and Toshiba to acquire the world-class flash storage player."

Best in the World

According to iSuppli, Samsung led the NAND flash memory market in the second quarter of 2008 with a 42.3 percent market share, followed by Toshiba at 27.5 percent and Hynix at 13.4 percent. "SanDisk is the No. 1 flash storage maker of cards and USB flash drives, and SanDisk's business will be complementary with Samsung's NAND chip business," Kim noted.

Samsung would undoubtedly benefit from acquiring SanDisk's R&D, "which is known [to be] one of the best in the world," Kim said. Samsung also issues royalty payments to SanDisk that total around $400 million to $500 million per year. "Therefore, by acquiring SanDisk, Samsung can save tremendous money in the future," Kim added.

SanDisk CEO Eli Harari characterized Samsung's takeover bid as "a calculated negotiating ploy" with respect to ongoing negotiations for the renewal of the companies' patent cross-license agreement, which is slated to expire in August 2009.

It "evidences an unwillingness to engage in a process designed to legitimately protect SanDisk's stockholders' interests," Harari said. "Without the right to use SanDisk's patents, Samsung's stand-alone NAND business' prospects would be significantly compromised."

Open-Minded

Yet another problem with Samsung's offer, Harari said, was that it failed...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
VMware Takes on Microsoft, Citrix with VDC-OS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61935
VMware this week announced a string of new products with a single goal in mind: to expand its flagship virtual-infrastructure suite into a Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS).

VDC-OS aims to help businesses pool hardware resources -- servers, storage and network -- into an aggregated on-premises cloud, and to move workloads to external clouds for additional computing capacity when needed.

"The first 10 years of VMware were about enabling customers to build out dynamic and efficient virtual infrastructure that delivered high levels of flexibility and resiliency," said Paul Maritz, president and CEO of VMware. "The next generation of innovative technologies in the Virtual Datacenter OS will enable companies to realize the promise of enterprise cloud computing -- where applications are automatically guaranteed the right quality of service at the lowest TCO by harnessing internal and external computing capacity."

A Three-Pronged Virtualization Approach

VDC-OS aims to expand virtual infrastructure in three ways. VMware said the first track delivers a set of infrastructure services to aggregate servers, storage and networks as a pool of on-premise cloud resources and allocates them to applications that need them most. The second track delivers a set of application services to deliver availability, security and scalability to all applications -- independent of the operating system, development frameworks, or architecture on which they were built to run.

Finally, VMware said, the VDC-OS delivers a set of cloud services to facilitate computing capacity between the on-premises and off-premises clouds. VMware is stressing the difference between its VDC-OS and traditional operating systems. While the traditional OS is optimized for a single server and supports only applications written to its interfaces, VDC-OS, by contrast, serves as the OS for the entire data center. VDC-OS also supports any application written to any OS, from legacy Windows applications to modern distributed applications that run...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
Think Video Games Are Solitary? New Study Says No.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61914
If you think video games are solitary, antisocial endeavors, a new study indicates otherwise. Released Tuesday, the survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that 76 percent of teenage gamers play with others online at least some of the time, with 65 percent playing with others in the same room.

But this doesn't mean gamers are always in social mode -- 82 percent play games by themselves, at least occasionally.

Solitary 'Doesn't Hold Up'

Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist for Pew, said the "stereotype that gaming is a solitary, violent, antisocial activity just doesn't hold up." She added that the "average teen plays all different kinds of games and generally plays them with friends and family, both online and offline."

The study surveyed 1,102 Americans aged 12 to 17. It found that gaming is one thing nearly all of them have in common, with 97 percent of teens in that age group playing some kind of video game, and at least half playing a game on any given day. Among boys, game playing is nearly universal, with 99 percent saying they are gamers. About 94 percent of girls say the same.

The types of games are diverse, according to the Pew study. Most teens play at least five different kinds of games, such as action, adventure, racing, puzzle and sports. About 40 percent play eight or more different game types, and even those who play violent games also usually indulge in nonviolent ones.

Lenhart said gaming for most teens can range anywhere from "blow-'em-up mayhem to building communities," from "cute and simple to complex," and from "brief private sessions to hours' long interactions with masses of others."

If any kids are reading this, here's the part that should really win your parents over. The Pew study also found that games can "incorporate many...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
Despite T-Mobile, Android Launches May Be Delayed
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61913
T-Mobile is expected to be the first carrier with a Google Android-based cell phone, with an announcement Sept. 23. And HTC says it will be the first handset maker to use the open-source mobile-phone operating system.

T-Mobile promised to unveil details of the first mobile phone based on Android at a Sept. 23 press conference in New York, according to The New York Times. T-Mobile could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Times reported the HTC phone probably won't be available until October, which is in line with Google's forecast that devices running Android will be on the market by the fourth quarter. Pricing details are not yet available.

Still, there may not be the diversity of Android-powered mobile devices this year that observers expected. China Mobile had planned a third-quarter Android phone launch, but that will be stymied until at least the end of the year. Sprint Nextel may also miss the end-of-year deadline.

Making Good on the Promise

The Open Handset Alliance, a group that includes Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others, is billing Android as the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices.

Android is expected to allow handset manufacturers and wireless carriers to customize the platform. That could include new services, rich Internet applications, and user-friendly interfaces. With Android, Google aims to be smack-dab in the middle of the mix of mobile handsets.

Indeed, Google appears to be pushing into Apple's newly found mobile territory. Apple is set to sell 10 million iPhones this year. Some analysts predict Apple could sell as many as 20 million. Android is also competing against Symbian and Research in Motion's Blackberry in the growing smartphone market.

According to the NPD Group, U.S. sales of smartphones reached nine million from January through July. That's a year-over-year increase of 84 percent, totaling $1.7 billion...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
Current TV To Broadcast 'Tweets' During Debates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61906
Current TV is handing over feedback on the upcoming presidential debates to those who make up so much of the network's programming: its audience.

During the debates, the network bent on viewer-created content will broadcast Twitter messages -- or "tweets" -- from viewers. In close to real time, Current will display comments on the screen while Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama face off.

It's an all the more interesting new kind of interactivity in political discourse given that Current was co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Joel Hyatt, CEO of Current, said the technique -- dubbed "Hack the Debate" -- was not Gore's idea, but he and Gore both share a dim view of post-debate punditry.

"He certainly shares the belief that the punditry aspect of the process has not been enriching to American democracy," said Hyatt. "We're trying to empower young adults to participate in the process, to have their voice heard, to join the conversation."

Hyatt lamented the limiting nature of debate coverage, populated by experts with axes to grind and predictable partisan arguments to make: "We want our audiences to take over the process," he said.

Comments will be filtered, but Hyatt claims they will only be filtered to suit broadcast standards.

The first presidential debate is planned for Sept. 26, with two more debates and a vice presidential debate to follow. Current, partnering with Twitter, will have a similar live stream on its Web site, Current.com.

Launched in 2005, Current TV devotes much of its programming to viewer-created short programs called "pods." It last year won an Emmy for best interactive television service.

Thu, 18 Sep 08
Cut Down on Internet Downtime in a Few Easy Steps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61901
Twice a year or so my wife will breathlessly tell me: "The Internet is down."

My first reaction is that I am sitting on one heck of a news story. Civilization as we know it would slow to a crawl if the Internet itself stopped working. But I know what she really means: Our DSL connection isn't working.

Compared with the old dial-up days, most of us have it easy. I'm not just talking about speed. The connection is much more reliable nowadays. That's the good news. The bad news is that the connection is much more crucial to the way we live. It connects us to work, to school, to our online banking and bill-paying.

Luckily, there are some simple ways to remain well-connected.

Today we'll talk about what you can do to avoid the dreaded conversation with your Internet provider's tech support staff.

Let's start with the most basic trick I know. It's embarrassingly simple but enormously effective: Turn the modem off, let it sit for a moment, and then turn it on.

Here's why that often works wonders in restoring a connection.

Modems occasionally lose synchronization -- in layman's terms, the ability to properly link your computer to the Internet provider's network. When that happens, the Web unravels, e-mail stops working.

On-screen messages may tell you what you already know and offer brainy suggestions such as making sure all the cables are plugged in. But I've never seen a message that offers the most obvious fix: Turn off the modem and any router connected to it, let it sit, then turn it back on.

Let me make up a statistic here: I estimate this on/off trick will get your connection going again about 60 percent of the time.

It forces the modem in your home to renew its acquaintance with the equipment at your Internet provider.

If that...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
Feds: Technology Could Have Prevented Train Crash
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61898
Federal officials blamed railroads Monday for refusing their requests to install an expensive safety feature on all U.S. tracks that many say could have prevented Southern California's deadly commuter train crash.

Railroads have balked at the cost and reliability of the technology, which is in use on only 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) of track out of about 140,000 miles (225,300 kilometers) nationwide.

The technology has not been installed on the Los Angeles track where 25 people died in a crash on Friday.

"Many times in this country, we regulate by counting tombstones," said Barry M. Sweedler, former director of the Office of Safety Recommendations for the National Transportation Safety Board.

"Unfortunately, it takes a tragedy like this with many people dead for action to take place, even though people in the know knew what needed to be done and didn't do it," he said.

The system known as positive train control monitors train location and speed using satellite-based positioning systems and digital communication. It can engage the brakes if a train fails to heed signals or gets on the wrong track.

The head-on collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train was the deadliest rail accident in 15 years. The commuter train drove through three warning light signals before striking the freight train.

NTSB board member Kitty Higgins has said the positive control technology could have prevented the crash.

"I've seen it tested," she said. "It makes a difference."

Rep. Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said in a statement the accident was preventable and "the unwillingness of rail companies to make the needed investments in safety have prevented this technology from being fully implemented."

The Association of American Railroads, the lobbying arm for the freight railroads, said it has concerns that the technology has not been perfected.

"This is not off-the-shelf technology. You can't...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
Old News or New? Click on Reliable Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61895
I miss Ben Bradlee.

Not just Ben Bradlee, but everyone like him. Bradlee, in case you don't know, was the crusty executive editor of the Washington Post from 1968 to 1991 and one of the main reasons I became a journalist years ago. Basically nothing of note was printed in The Post unless Bradlee took a look at it first.

When I was a city editor, the newspaper worked that way, too. Nothing was printed in terms of local news unless I read it and approved it. And after I read it, another editor after me read it just to make sure I was doing my job.

What this has to do with computers and technology is the fundamental change that has happened to the news business in the last decade. Today, news doesn't necessarily need a printing press or a television studio. All you need is a blog and a laptop. And there's no editor above you to make sure you're correct, fair or even sane.

Last week, a Florida newspaper Web site was blamed for republishing a six-year-old story that United Air Lines had filed for bankruptcy. What really happened is an investment newsletter actually picked up the story after it was "scraped" by a search engine, and he republished it manually without checking with anyone from United. He didn't notice it was six years old because the only apparent date on the story was in the URL.

In the moments that followed, the airline's stock plummeted from $12 a share to about $3 before trading was halted by Nasdaq as the story flew across the Internet unchecked. The stock almost recovered after the "real" news outlets started whacking down the story.

What's scary, of course, is with the rise of the Internet there is mingling of "real" news sites, where news is reported...

Thu, 18 Sep 08
United States Cybersecurity Is Weak, GAO Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61890
The federal government cybersecurity team with primary responsibility for protecting the computer networks of government and private enterprise isn't up to the job, according to a draft Government Accountability Office report obtained by BusinessWeek.

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, known as US-CERT, mans the front line in any cyber-attack. The group monitors computer networks for hacker threats, investigates suspicious activity online, and is supposed to issue timely alerts to information technology security professionals from the White House to corporations and electric utilities. But the GAO draft report describes US-CERT as bedeviled by frequent management turnover, bureaucratic challenges that prevent timely sounding of alarms, a lack of access to networks across wide swaths of critical terrain, and an inability to fill large numbers of positions with qualified workers.

Five years after the Homeland Security Dept. took charge of the team as a critical safeguard against threats to national security, US-CERT "still does not exhibit aspects of the attributes essential to having a truly national capability," according to the draft report.

Vulnerable to Foreign Adversaries

Privately, many within government and industry have grown increasingly concerned about the lack of such a capability. Without being able to effectively monitor a wide variety of computer networks across the country and quickly issue warnings of possible attacks, the government is, in effect, flying blind, or at least partially blind, despite the best of intentions. As BusinessWeek reported in April, the concern these days is not merely that a pimply teenager in Bratislava will hack a corporate network or that Russian hackers will shut down a retailer's Web site with a so-called "denial-of-service attack." Rather, it's that there could be a sophisticated intrusion of sensitive computer networks by a potential foreign adversary such as China.

An independent bipartisan commission of corporate executives, network security specialists, and military and intelligence officials...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
The EU Scrutinizes Google-Yahoo Ad Partnership
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61912
At the request of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), an international organization for the newspaper industry, the European Commission's Competition Directorate has launched an inquiry into a proposed online advertising relationship between Google and Yahoo.

In June, the two Web giants announced that advertisements from Google's AdSense program would appear on Yahoo sites alongside Yahoo's own advertisements. The U.S. Justice Department is already reviewing the proposed arrangement to see if it violates antitrust laws. According to most estimates, Google and Yahoo will control as much as 80 percent of the North American online advertising market when the deal goes into effect in October.

Gavin O'Reilly, president of WAN, said in a letter to the head of the Competition Directorate that the arrangement would give Google too much control over online advertising prices.

"In our view," O'Reilly said, "the proposed advertising deal between Google and Yahoo would seriously weaken [advertising rate] competition, resulting in less revenues and higher prices for our members. WAN is also concerned that this deal would give Google unwarranted market power over important segments of online advertising."

EU Probe Is Unwelcome News

According to Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, the planned inquiry by the European Commission will be unwelcome news for the two Internet companies, since European regulatory standards are often stricter than those in the United States.

"The deal was hatched to avoid the EU and Asian regulatory scrutiny by launching first in North America," Chester said. "But once approved here, it will undoubtedly be extended."

WAN's O'Reilly agreed, warning in his letter that the companies' extensive control of online advertising rates could affect newspaper revenues in Europe. He also pointed out that European newspapers will be affected directly, since many have an online presence in North America as well.

Chester also argued that the new advertising arrangement...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
VMWare Unveils Products for Enterprise Integration
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61911
At VMworld 2008 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev., this week, VMWare unveiled software products for cloud, storage, management and virtualization-aware networks. The series of interrelated products emphasize integration of VMWare across the enterprise for a variety of services.

VMWare says this year's show will host more than 14,000 attendees and 206 vendors.

Zero Downtime

The centerpiece of VMWare's push this week is its Virtual Data Center Operating System(VDC-OS). The system allows users to pool a variety of storage, server and network hardware resources into one aggregated cloud for use by the enterprise.

VMWare says VDC-OS is self-managing and self-healing, and dynamically allocates cloud resources where and when needed. It said VDC-OS seamlessly supports applications written for any operating system, including distributed applications that run in mixed environments. As part of the VDC-OS initiative, the vServices component delivers the appropriate level of security, fault tolerance, or quality of service for applications without additional hardware or software.

A high-availability component provides zero downtime and zero data loss and includes an automatic restart of virtual machines. Protection scales all the way up to a Site Recovery Manager that automates failover for an entire company in case of comprehensive disasters, but simple data protection using disk-based backup and recovery for all applications is also part of the OS.

vStorage and vNetwork

VMWare's new cloud capabilities can allocate applications to both on-site and off-site clouds, giving multisite enterprises a great deal of flexibility for application management and fault tolerance. New features include vCapacityIQ that constantly analyzes system capacity and plans accordingly, ConfigCentralControl that automatically rolls out policy-based configurations across the VMWare enterprise, and AppSpeed, which automatically monitors application performance and triggers remedial performance enhancements without intervention.

All the new services tie into the VDC-OS central management console. The VMWare announcement also indicated that management-console vendors such...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Citrix Releases XenServer 5 Cloud-Computing Platform
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61910
Citrix Systems has rolled out XenServer 5 -- a next-generation server platform that promises to reduce the complexity of virtualization deployments. To keep things simple, XenServer 5 integrates new configuration wizards and intuitive interfaces, together with point-and-click conversion of physical servers into virtual machines.

Even better, the platform's dynamic workload-provisioning capabilities will allow hundreds of workloads to be instantly booted and delivered from a single image with one click -- even when the target servers have no locally attached disk or hypervisor. According to internal company tests, the technology can immediately reduce the storage footprint required to run common enterprise tasks by as much as 80 percent.

"XenServer 5 is going to completely change the way a lot of people think about server virtualization," said Lou Shipley, general manager of the XenServer product group at Citrix Systems.

Recovery Support

The XenServer 5 platform -- which is based on the same open-source Xen hypervisor that powers most of the world's largest computing "clouds" -- has been validated through Microsoft's Server Virtualization Validated Program for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems from AMD and Intel.

"We're working with Citrix to standardize on a common virtualization format, develop virtual machine interoperability and portability between XenServer 5 and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, enable cooperative technical support, and use Microsoft System Center as a common management framework," said Zane Adam, senior director of integrated virtualization at Microsoft.

Together with support for replication and remote-mirroring architectures, Citrix said it has added more than 100 new virtualization-management features to XenServer 5. Moreover, the new platform's distributed-management architecture helps to prevent a single point of failure from bringing down all the servers across an entire data center, the company said.

What's more, XenServer 5 features built-in replication for virtual machine metadata information, which should make it easier for data-center...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Microsoft, Cray Partner on Low-Cost Supercomputer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61909
A new deal between Microsoft and Cray may speak to major changes in the supercomputing market in the years ahead.

The companies on Tuesday introduced the Cray CX1 supercomputer. It comes preinstalled with Windows HPC Server 2008, and the various models carry price tags that range from $25,000 to more than $60,000.

What's different about the Cray CX1 compared to other Cray supercomputers is its ability to fit into standard office environments and workflows. The companies said the new product reflects a shared goal to drive high-performance computing (HPC) farther into the mainstream in diverse markets, including financial services, aerospace, automotive, petroleum, life sciences, government, academic and digital media.

"This combined solution will enable companies in various sectors to unify their Windows desktop and server workflows," said Vince Mendillo, director of HPC at Microsoft. "Many Microsoft financial services customers, for example, want to unify back-office modeling and simulation with the work of front-office trading desks."

Supercomputing for Everyone?

Microsoft appears to be on to something. According to studies from the Council on Competitiveness and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), nearly all large firms using high-performance computing consider it indispensable to their ability to compete and survive.

However, smaller companies, as well as workgroups and departments in larger firms, have been hampered by the cost of HPC systems and a lack of access to in-house experts to help them use these systems.

"The Microsoft-Cray collaboration is an interesting example of what you might call the downward migration of supercomputing that's been going on now for the last five or six years," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "A decade ago, supercomputing wasn't possible in commercial markets because stand-alone systems were too expensive. That is changing."

This change is due, according to King, to x86 computing clusters. A quick review of the Top 500 Supercomputers list...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Intel's Six-Core Xeon 7400 Allows Up To 96 Processors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61908
If quad-core CPUs are good, six cores must be better -- especially for servers. On Tuesday, Intel announced a six-core Xeon 7400 CPU, positioning it as the premier virtualization and transaction-processing platform.

On hand with testimonial support were the industry's largest hardware and software vendors, including IBM, Dell and Microsoft.

Xeon Virtualization

The 45-nanometer Xeon 7400s come in seven flavors, varying in CPU speed and cache size. The top Level 3 (L3) CPU cache is 16MB, and Intel says up to 16 of the 7400s can be on one system board for the equivalent of 96 processors.

Each CPU supports up to 256GB of system memory. The 7400 is socket-compatible with the Xeon 7300, but is 50 percent faster, according to Intel.

In support of that 16-processor claim, Unisys of Bluebell, Pa., also announced its ES7000 Model 7600R Enterprise Server, which can accommodate 16 Xeons. According to Brian Daly, spokesperson for Unisys, the new servers are engineered for online transaction processing, business intelligence and virtualization. "Large-scale server consolidation is a key asset when you have a 96-processor environment," he said.

Server virtualization enables companies to carve out multiple servers on one hardware platform, maximizing CPU usage, space and power. Instead of a farm of server boxes, companies can squeeze more computing into one space.

Server virtualization began in the testing and disaster-recovery markets, enabling companies to test new applications in the safety of an isolated, virtualized environment or to fail over to other virtualized servers when a primary server crashed.

At Intel's roll-out event a number of customers extolled virtualization. Oracle said it will reduce the number of physical servers at its facilities by half next year by using multi-core Xeon systems and virtualization. Dell, HP and IBM also announced support for the Xeon 7400 with multiprocessor models, including the HP ProLiant DL580 G5 and...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
T-Mobile's Android-Based Dream Expected Next Month
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61907
A famous science-fiction novel's title once asked if androids dream of electric sheep. Today, the answer might be that they dream of an Android phone called Dream.

According to a report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, T-Mobile USA will begin selling the first Android-based phone, called the HTC Dream, by the end of October. The article, which cites unnamed sources "familiar with the matter," said the phone will come out on schedule, despite some recent reports of problems with Android.

Up to 700,000 Units

The Journal said T-Mobile will ship as many as 600,000 to 700,000 of the HTC-made phones, higher than previous analyst estimates of 300,000 to 500,000.

A formal announcement is expected on Sept. 23, according to the paper, and no pricing information has been released. Google, T-Mobile and HTC declined to comment. Authorization for the device in the U.S. was granted last month by the Federal Communications Commission.

Preliminary reports have indicated this first Android phone will be heavier than Apple's iPhone, to which it has been compared because of its potentially revolutionary position and the excitement it has generated among software developers. Industry observers are predicting the Dream will have a large touchscreen, a full keyboard, and a navigation trackball.

Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said he expects T-Mobile's phone to be the only Android-based product released this year, although other vendors have said they will be releasing devices in 2009.

There has been a lot of speculation about the kinds of applications an Android phone might offer because Google is known for innovation and there has been a heavy emphasis on third-party development. Greengart said a number of the upcoming Android apps will be based on location-sensing.

Media Attention Because of Google

He added that most consumers don't buy a phone because of an operating system, but because of...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
HP To Slash More Than 24,000 Jobs From EDS Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61885
In one more shock to a stunned Wall Street, Hewlett-Packard on Monday said it will cut more than 24,000 jobs over the next three years. Once completed, the restructuring is expected to mean an annual cost savings of about $1.8 billion.

The announcement came at a securities analyst meeting where HP unveiled new plans to gain market share in a changing enterprise market.

At the core of the announcement is EDS. HP acquired the technology-services firm five months ago. Layoffs were expected, but slashing about 7.5 percent of the workforce was a surprise to analysts. It's part of an effort to restructure EDS to streamline costs, invest in growth, and drive shareholder value, according to HP.

"HP now has the broadest technology capabilities in the market to meet customer needs today and in the future," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive officer. "HP has a strong track record of making acquisitions and integrating them to capture leading market positions. We will deliver on the promise of HP and EDS for our customers and shareholders."

Aligning the Acquisition

HP's stated goal with the job cuts is to better align the combined company's structure with HP's proven operating model. HP is convinced that changes to its global workforce will better serve its services customers long-term. The company also said it has identified synergies in corporate overhead functions, such as real estate, IT and procurement.

The job cuts won't happen overnight. Instead, the restructuring will see operational changes over a three-year period. The cuts are global, but they are not cut and dried. HP's plans to slash employment are dictated, in part, by local legal requirements. The company said it would consult with work councils and employee representatives.

At least one group is speaking out against HP's plans. On Tuesday, Unite, the United Kingdom's largest union,...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Amazon's Imdb Offers Movies and TV Shows Free
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61884
Internet Movie Database, the company behind the popular imdb.com site, wants to give visitors a free viewing of every movie and TV show on the Internet and filmmakers a chance to show the world their films.

The Amazon.com subsidiary, which was started by an international group of movie fans, said Monday that users can watch 6,000 feature films such as Fever Pitch and Fiddler on the Roof, TV episodes such as Big Brother and CSI, and old classics such as Star Trek and Charlie's Angels on its Web site.

Users can access a featured list, but not all the available films and shows are listed. Instead, users need to type in the shows they want to view one at a time.

Along with full-length movies and shows, Imdb catalogs every detail about a movie, from who is featured to who created it. The company also posts information on filming locations, reviews and fan sites.

"We're excited to offer our users a simple online experience to watch full-length movies and TV episodes for free," said Col Needham, company founder and managing director, who claims he has watched more than 7,000 movies.

Reaching the Masses

Imdb is also allowing filmmakers and rights owners worldwide to tap into imdb.com's 57 million unique monthly visitors and show their films.

In January Imdb began to expand its focus on independent films when it acquired Los Angeles-based Without A Box Inc., a media company focused on advancing independent films and connecting artists with audiences. The withoutabox.com site allows artists to submit films to festivals and promotes the films directly to fans while giving festival organizers tools to manage and promote the festivals online.

CBS, Hulu, Sony Pictures Television, and more than 500 independent filmmakers will provide video content on a rotating basis and Imdb will stream some of...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Program Turns to Online Masses To Improve Patents
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61875
Some of the biggest players in the technology industry complain that the U.S. patent system is broken -- putting too many patents of dubious merit in the hands of people who can use them to drag companies and other inventors to court.

And Blaise Mouttet, a small inventor in Alexandria, Va., thinks he knows why. The problem, he said, is that "there are too many lawyers and not enough inventors involved with the patent system."

So Mouttet is taking part in an experimental program launched in June 2007 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and backed by the technology industry that is intended to give the public -- including inventors -- more of a voice in the system.

The concept behind the program, called Peer-to-Patent, is straightforward: Publish patent applications on the Web for all to see and let anyone with relevant expertise -- academics, colleagues, even potential rivals -- offer input to be passed along to the Patent Office.

By using the power of the Internet to tap the wisdom of the masses, Peer-to-Patent aims to dig up hard-to-find "prior art" -- evidence that an invention already exists or is obvious and therefore doesn't deserve a patent.

The goal is to locate prior art that Patent Office examiners might not find on their own -- and to produce better patents by reducing ones granted on applications that aren't novel. The hope is that this will drive innovation by improving the patent process and reducing the patent infringement lawsuits clogging the courts.

"The Patent and Trademark Office is the agency of citizen creativity, and it needs more and better information to do its job of awarding patents to those citizens who are truly the most creative," said New York Law School professor Beth Noveck, who came up with the idea for Peer-to-Patent while teaching a...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Do You Know If Your Web Site Is Optimized?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61874
Nearly every company has a Web site these days, just like every home has a lawn. Maybe your firm does manage to post some new information on your site now and then, just like you manage to mow the lawn once in a while. But when's the last time you weeded, fertilized, and edged your lawn? And when's the last time your Web site was tuned up?

You can see neglected lawns wherever you go. And it's the same with Web sites -- there are a lot of neglected ones out there, hard to use, with out-of-date information that's being ignored by the search engines.

To serve this need, there are firms that do what's called Web site optimization, the process of reducing Web site size and complexity to maximize Web site performance. Web site optimization can include search engine optimization, pay per click optimization, and other ways to get more traffic and sales as part of an overall site redesign process.

For many firms, having an optimized Web site is a matter of survival. "There's still a belief that if you build a Web site, they will come, but that's not the case," said Jody Hartwig, vice president of e-business at Netconcepts, Madison [Wisconsin]. "Web sites need constant improvement, and if you don't do it, your competitors will and your site will fall by the wayside."

Hartwig says that many company Web sites don't have a clear owner once they are past the "build" stage. "The site sort of sits there, and responsibility for updating it falls between departments," she says. "And even when there is an internal owner, there often aren't clear objectives for what is expected of the Web site."

That's where a company like Netconcepts comes in. "We start with a baseline evaluation," says Hartwig, "and use analytical tools to see...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
EU Proposes To Cut Tech Tariffs Under U.S. Pressure
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61869
Under pressure from the United States and Asia, the European Union proposed Monday to eliminate taxes on imports of newly developed high-tech goods in the hope of avoiding a lengthy and costly World Trade Organization dispute.

Brussels said it wants to "update and expand" a 1996 WTO agreement that ended tariffs on information technology equipment by granting the special treatment to new products that have entered the market since the accord went into effect.

The U.S. says these new products are already covered by the deal, and charges the 27-nation bloc with breaking the rules.

The EU said in a statement that negotiations would solve disagreements "within a matter a months, not years" -- a reference to the numerous disputes between the trans-Atlantic powers that have dragged on for long periods of time.

Brussels believes that changes in the agreement "can only be made on the basis of consensus ... and not as a result of litigation by some members." It wants the deal extended so that it includes more countries and helps eliminate other barriers to imports than tariffs.

The U.S., Japan and Taiwan all filed suit earlier this year over European tariffs on flat-panel computer monitors, cable and satellite boxes that can access the Internet, and printers that can also scan, fax and copy.

The duties, which are as high as 14 percent, make U.S. exports less competitive in the European Union, according to the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade association. The group's members include Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

Leading manufacturers of flat-panel computer displays include Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard.

Washington says the EU's duties violate the 12-year-old WTO agreement, which it claims was also intended to cover future products. But the EU contends that it can change duties on the goods as they are technologies developed since the deal was...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
iTunes 8 and the Blue Screen of Death on Vista
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61858
In the Apple support forum, users are complaining that iTunes 8 is causing Blues Screens of Death (BSOD) when an iPod or iPhone is connected. Users are trying to sort it out, and Apple has provided some minimal guidance. One PC columnist believes that it has to do with Windows device drivers in kernel space instead of user space.

Davey Winder at ITWire described the problem and noted that there are 300 replies and about 15,000 people viewing the thread cited above.

The problem appears to be related to the Windows architecture in that, while a poorly written app can crash itself, it shouldn't be able to crash the whole system. That is, unless there are conflicting device drivers.

"A new USB controller driver appears to be the real problem here, because this is installed when an iPod is connected via USB to iTunes 8 for the first time. And that is when the BSOD appears," Mr. Winder wrote.

This time, however, the tail may be wagging the dog. The desire of Windows users to have iTunes 8 is, in some cases, casting the blame on Microsoft rather than Apple. Apple could even obtain some benefit, Mr. Winder added, because if iTunes 8 crashes Vista and not Mac OS X, there must be something really wrong with Vista.

Over at Computerworld, Steven Vaughn-Nichols pointed out: "Vista runs a monolithic kernel and, despite all the nonsense about Vista being better because it only runs digitally signed drivers, the truth is that because Vista runs drivers right in kernel space where bad, bad things will happen."

"Yes, it is true. Drivers tend to be badly written, and since many of them are closed source, you can't just go in there and fix them. But, that's been a given for more than thirty-years now. Smart operating systems, like, oh,...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Best Buy Will Acquire Napster for $121 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61883
Consumer electronics giant Best Buy announced Monday that it will acquire digital-music pioneer Napster for $121 million. Under the terms of the agreement, Napster shareholders will receive $2.65 for each outstanding share. The companies expect the purchase to be completed in the fourth quarter.

Brian Dunn, president and COO of Best Buy, said the deal will give the retailer's customers an expanded range of options for the delivery of electronic media.

"This transaction offers Best Buy a recognized platform for enhancing our capabilities in the digital-media space and building new, recurring relationships with customers," Dunn said. "Over time we hope to strengthen our offerings to consumers, who we believe will increasingly seek devices and solutions that enable them to access their content wherever, whenever and however they want."

Best Buy does not plan to make any significant changes to Napster's management or relocate the company from its current headquarters in Los Angeles.

The Next 'Geek Squad'?

Among the assets Best Buy will acquire in its purchase of Napster are the service's existing 700,000 music subscribers, a Web-based customer-service system, and various mobile music delivery options.

Napster is not Best Buy's first foray into the service industry. In 2002, the retailer purchased the computer repair service Geek Squad and two years later established a Geek Squad "precinct" in every Best Buy store.

Whether Best Buy can be similarly successful with Napster is an interesting question. Unlike Geek Squad, Napster is up against entrenched and successful competitors, including Apple's iTunes and Amazon's rapidly growing MP3 store. As a result, the company has had trouble attracting customers to its $12.95-a-month subscription plan.

But for Best Buy, it may not be just about the music. "We can foresee Napster acting as a platform for accelerating our growth in the emerging industry of digital entertainment, beyond music subscriptions," said Dave Morrish, Best Buy's...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
iPhone App Lets Users Send Photos To Other Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61882
Apple iPhone users have have a new way to send photos. They can now use Flutter, a free application that allows users to take a photo and send it to another cell phone.

Until now, an iPhone user could not send a picture to another cell-phone number, although the user could e-mail pictures to anyone.

JuiceCaster, a social-broadcasting service for cell phones, called Flutter the next best thing to multimedia messages, or MMS.

A Small Step

"Being in the business of multimedia and other products with JuiceCaster, we thought why not use the underlying platform we use to send pictures," said Amir Hosseinpour, Juice Wireless senior vice president of product strategy, speaking from London. He said it's just a small step in the company's plans for the iPhone. "We are in the process of porting JuiceCaster to the iPhone, and it just seemed like we were going to take that big step anyway."

It's unclear why the iPhone 3G doesn't have the ability to send pictures without e-mail, but Hosseinpour says there are three schools of thought about this.

One is that Apple's software wasn't ready when Apple wanted to launch the iPhone 3G and it would just add the functionality in new versions. Another thought is that AT&T simply did not want to enable the feature. The third thought is that it was not included for strategic reasons.

Flutter allows individuals to take a photo, address it to cell-phone numbers listed in contacts, and add messages.

The person on the receiving end gets a text message with a link to JuiceCaster. JuiceCaster will host the photo.

Location Can Be Sent

A feature included in the service is the ability to use the iPhone 3G's GPS to show recipients your location. The recipient gets an option to see the sender's location.

"I can also geo-tag my picture,...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Seagate, Western Digital Change Hard-Drive Lineups
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61881
Seagate and Western Digital both detailed changes in their external hard-drive lineups Monday. Customers can choose capacities from 250GB to 1TB, with software add-ons and color options. Smaller, faster and cheaper are the buzzwords.

Seagate FreeAgent

Seagate revamped its 2.5-inch FreeAgent portable and external drives for PCs and Macs. The drives are preformatted for the Macintosh or PC, come in an array of colors, and include utilities to make external storage easier to use.

The FreeAgent Go is the first portable drive with a docking station, according to Seagate. With docking stations hooked up on multiple computers, users can easily connect for file, video, music and photo sharing. The FreeAgent Go is available in capacities up to 500GB in silver, black, red or blue. An imitation leather carrying pouch and a USB cable are included, but the docking station is sold separately for $29.95.

The PC Go drives are $119.99 for 250GB, $149.99 for 320GB, and $239.99 for 500 GB. The Mac FreeAgent Go sells for $159.99 for 250GB and $189.99 for 320GB. There was no word on whether Seagate will offer a 500GB version for the Mac, but the Mac FreeAgent Desk drives designed for desktop use have a retail price of $169.99 for 500GB, $269.99 for 1TB and $349.99 for 1.5TB, which will be available in October.

The PC versions of the FreeAgent Desk drives are slightly cheaper at $129.99 for 500GB, $149.99 for 640GB, $229.99 for 1TB and $279.99 for 1.5TB. Mac drives come with both FireWire and USB connections.

On the high end, Seagate also announced the FreeAgent Xtreme Drive with a purported 3GB per second transfer time. The company is positioning it as an ideal storage medium for video and complex graphics. The drive uses an enhanced SATA interface and comes in capacities ranging from 500GB ($159.00) to 1.5TB ($299.00)....

Tue, 16 Sep 08
LinkedIn Launches Its Own Advertising Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61880
While Facebook is grinning about earning the attention of employment recruiters looking for the best and brightest talent, LinkedIn is earning some new revenues from its just-launched social-networking advertising program. Or at least hoping to.

LinkedIn, a professional online network with more than 27 million members, launched the LinkedIn Audience Network on Monday. A grown-up version of Facebook and MySpace, LinkedIn is tapping into its profile-based targeting technology to help marketers reach specific audiences of what it calls "influential and affluent professionals across hundreds of high-quality brand-name publishers."

"The message we hear from advertisers is simple: They want mass reach against specific segments of decision-making professionals, and they want their ads to appear in quality environments," said Steve Patrizi, LinkedIn's director of advertising sales. "The LinkedIn Audience Network offers advertisers one of the most accurate audience data sets available on the Web, along with the confidence of knowing that their brands will only appear on sites with high editorial standards."

LinkedIn's Affluent Audience

LinkedIn may be in for a warm reception with its official launch. The company said hundreds of top-tier advertisers have already run campaigns on LinkedIn.com to deliver advertising based on the personal information that its members publicly share in their profiles. Specifically, LinkedIn has access to public data in profiles such as company size, industry, profession and seniority.

As LinkedIn describes the program, advertisers have several opportunities through the new network. They can target LinkedIn's "InCrowds," which are predefined audience segments -- such as corporate executives, small business professionals and IT professionals -- that exist within the broader audience. Alternatively, advertisers can also work with LinkedIn to define their own customized audience targets through LinkedIn's data-mining approach.

LinkedIn is working both sides of the Web table. The professional networking site says its new ad platform will also benefit partner publishers. LinkedIn is...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Is the Enterprise Ready for Google's Chrome Browser?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61879
Google built its new Web browser, Chrome, specifically to be a robust front end for Web applications, especially Google's own Docs and Apps products. But should enterprises that deploy Web apps be quick to switch over? Definitely not, say a number of enterprise writers.

Indeed, some observers say, Google's designs on the enterprise are not about winning market share for browsers, but about creating a wedge in the enterprise that will drive users away from Microsoft Office and toward Google Docs.

When Google launched Chrome on Labor Day, team leaders Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson described the motivation for creating yet another browser. "We realized that the Web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications, and that we needed to completely rethink the browser," they wrote on The Official Google blog, saying they set out to create a "modern platform for Web pages and applications."

What's Under the Hood

While the browser is "clean and fast" like the Google home page, Chrome wasn't about building a streamlined user experience, but rather what's under the hood. "We were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex Web applications much better," Pichai and Upson said. Innovations include a "sandbox" to isolate each tab, improved protection against malware sites, a more powerful JavaScript engine, and improved speed.

From that language it's clear, writes Computerworld's Preston Gralla, that Google hopes enterprises will not only adopt Chrome as a platform for Web apps, but that "they will abandon desktop-based applications for Web-based ones and desert Microsoft Office and Exchange for Google Docs and Gmail."

The problem, Gralla says, is that Google has a long way to go to win the confidence of enterprise IT. Google may offer cool technology that impresses technologists, but they don't have the track record and enterprise-focused attitude...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Spammer Freed by Virginia Supreme Court Ruling
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61857
The Supreme Court of the State of Virginia has released a spammer previously sentenced to nine years in prison. Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh, N.C., was convicted in 2004 of sending tens of thousands of e-mails from his home.

In part, the ruling handed down by the court last week said Jaynes' conviction "is constitutionally deficient as overbroad under the First Amendment and therefore the statute cannot be enforced."

Court Reversal

This unanimous decision by the Virginia Supreme Court comes only six months after a circuit court refused to hear the case and upheld the previous decision.

According to reports, Justice Steven Agee said the Virginia law under which Jaynes was convicted was too broad and did not protect free speech. The court determined that the law as it stands would prohibit political and religious speech, and therefore is a threat to the First Amendment.

Jaynes allegedly sent tens of thousands of e-mails from his home through AOL servers in Virginia advertising shady financial offerings. The Virginia law prohibits sending 10,000 e-mails per day and also prohibits the alteration of e-mail routing information.

When Jaynes was arrested and convicted, the federal CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) had not been implemented; the federal law specifically protects noncommercial speech. At the time of his arrest, Jaynes had CDs containing nearly 200 million e-mail addresses.

State of Spam

While CAN-SPAM is a boon to prosecutors after most spam merchants, individual states have written their own laws, either supplementing or predating existing laws. Virginia is one such state.

The Internet's most notorious spammer, Robert Soloway, was sentenced to 47 months in prison in July under the CAN-SPAM law. In a separate ruling in 2005, Soloway was ordered to pay Microsoft $7.8 million for using MSN and Hotmail accounts to send spam.

While many spammers have been...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Tech Titans Promise a Digital-Content Standard
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61856
The digital-content landscape could look very different in the months ahead if a group of more than 20 companies has its way.

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), a consortium that includes seemingly all the major players except Apple, officially announced Monday plans to define and build a new digital-media framework using industry standards. The goal is to allow consumers to acquire and play content across a wide range of services and devices.

The DECE is anchored by Alcatel-Lucent, Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Fox Entertainment Group, HP, Intel, Lionsgate, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Philips, Sony, Toshiba, VeriSign and Warner Bros. The consortium hopes to clarify what it calls growing consumer confusion about buying, downloading and playing digital content.

A Laundry List of Promises

"This is great news for consumers hungry for access to a wider array of digital content they can enjoy on any device they own. We formed this consortium to give consumers that kind of power and choice," said Mitch Singer, president of DECE.

Singer said the group's efforts will open the market for digital distribution with a specification that connects a wide variety of services and devices. He added that DECE is taking the lessons learned from the "buy once, play anywhere" experience that consumers have with CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs and applying them to digital media.

DECE is promising plenty. For starters, the group promises a licensable specification, along with a recognizable brand and logo for compliant products and services, to assure consumers that content they download will play on their devices. The group is also promising the specification will outline the hardware and software requirements for companies to follow as they define new consumer experiences.

According to the announcement, the specification will also define how consumers can view content on an assortment of devices, or even remotely. The...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Google Acquires Korean Blogging Company
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61854
TNC, a Korea-based software company also known as Tatter and Company, has been Googled, according to Chang Won-Kim, TNC's cochief executive.

Chang announced Google's acquisition of TNC, which occurred Friday, in his personal blog.

Chang, who shares the CEO title with TNC's founder, Chester Roh, said he believes the reason for the acquisition is because Google has very little market presence in Korea and Asia.

"We will commit ourselves to increasing Google's market share in Korea," Chang wrote.

South Korea is one of the top 10 countries in the world with the highest number of Internet users, according to a June 30 update by Internet World Stats. About 70 percent of Korea's population is online, and Korea has the highest percentage (88 percent) of computer ownership in the world, according to The Nielsen Company.

Complementary Vision

TNC, launched just two years ago, provides blogging software and services to 400,000-plus users, including Korea's top 100 bloggers, according to Chang. TNC, which works with the open-source community, had recently launched its new blog service Textcube, and some are speculating that Google wants to use that service to gain market share in Korea.

Google's latest acquisition should not come as a surprise to users, because employees have been talking for some time about Google's move toward making its products more social.

"We are just now starting to navigate all the intersections between sociology and engineering on the Web," Joe Kraus, Google's director of product development, wrote in a blog post. "We -- meaning Google and many others in the Web community -- are in the midst of a burst of energy around all things social that is teaching us more every day about what people want to do with their friends and where."

Kraus said the company is working toward this goal on many fronts, listening to users...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Why Bill Gates Couldn't Win the War Against Spam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61844
One of the dumber things Bill Gates ever did was pronounce, a few years ago, that he was going to eradicate spam.

He failed, and now spends his time working toward a more achievable goal -- wiping out global disease, poverty and hunger.

The problem with spam is that -- as much as this may pain legitimate direct marketers -- spamming is a bloody effective way of selling stuff. Or at least certain types of stuff.

It may surprise you to learn that new research from Internet security company Marshal reveals 29.1 percent of people have bought something from a spam e-mail. This is up from 20 percent when a similar survey was carried out in 2004.

The strong -- and growing -- pulling power of dodgy e-mails highlights what Marshal spokesman Oscar Marquez describes as spam's "inconvenient truth."

"Spam is commonly believed to attract very low response rates. Estimates indicate there are often fewer than 10 purchases made for every million spam messages sent," says Marquez.

"But most of these messages are blocked by spam filters. This means the actual response rates are much higher if you only count those e-mails that make it into a person's inbox."

It's estimated a staggering 150 billion spam messages are pumped out globally each day, and they now account for more than 85 percent of all e-mail.

The widely held belief that "regular" people don't buy from spam is a common misconception, says Marquez. "You have to consider the types of products people are buying. It's pirated software, knock-off watches, counterfeit designer goods, cheap drugs and prescription medicines, pornography and other adult material.

"The Internet provides convenience and a degree of anonymity to people who want to buy illegal or restricted goods. It is a black market and spam has become a conventional means of advertising to a willing audience of...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Adobe Systems Is Taking Aim at Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61839
Adobe Systems chief executive Shantanu Narayen wants to make it easier for people to watch online videos, play games and use other sophisticated Internet applications on a variety of cell phones and other mobile devices.

And he'd be extremely happy if they were doing that with the help of Adobe's software. Narayen stressed the need for industry collaboration to create a better mobile Web experience in a keynote speech Thursday at the Wireless IT and Entertainment trade show in San Francisco, sponsored by the wireless industry association known as CTIA.

"We've seen just an explosion of digital content, in the amount of Web sites being created, the amount of video being consumed over the Web and now increasingly the number of devices with which people are accessing the Internet," Narayen said in an interview this week.

"Now for the industry, it's all about how do we get these great engaging applications, Web content and new services" that people are consuming today on PCs "to also be consumable on handheld devices, as well as in the living room."

As an example, Narayen said he'll demonstrate how an Internet service called Finetune, which helps customers find music they like, can work on three devices: a desktop PC, a mobile phone and a television equipped with a Nintendo gaming console.

Since he was named chief executive of the San Jose software company 10 months ago, succeeding his longtime boss Bruce Chizen, the 45-year-old Narayen has continued Adobe's efforts to expand its presence beyond the desktop and to become a factor on-line and in mobile devices.

In recent months, Adobe has introduced Web-based versions of its popular Acrobat and Photoshop document and photo-editing programs. Adobe also launched an industry initiative aimed at getting cell- phone manufacturers, chip-makers and others to develop a way for Adobe's Flash software, now used widely...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Accused Hacker Pleads Guilty in Breach
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61835
Federal prosecutors won a guilty plea Thursday from one of 11 men who made up a ring that was charged last month with the largest data theft case in history, involving tens of millions of customers of retailers, including TJX Cos. of Framingham, Mass., and BJ's Wholesale Club of Natick, Mass.

Separately the government also said it has evidence the group breached the security of many more businesses than previously disclosed.

At a hearing in federal District Court in Boston Thursday afternoon, Damon Patrick Toey, 23, of Miami, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including wire fraud, credit card fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

Prosecutors alleged he helped the accused ringleader, Albert Gonzalez, to break through the computer security of a number of retail stores in the Miami area.

Gonzalez himself appeared at a second hearing later in the day and pleaded not guilty to a set of similar charges.

Prosecutors said both men were key players in a loose-knit ring spanning countries from China to Ukraine that stole or trafficked in more than 40 million payment cards in all, causing more than $400 million in damages.

The ring initially accessed customer data by using laptops to penetrate wireless networks of retail stores, from which they were able to access the companies' servers.

At the hearing for Toey Thursday, Assistant US Attorney Stephen Heymann elaborated on his role in the scheme. Toey first helped Gonzalez steal money from automated teller machines in the New York area in 2004, then became more involved in stealing and selling card data from vulnerable retail computer networks, according to Heymann and previous government filings. Last year he lived rent-free at Gonzalez' Miami condo, the government said.

When asked by Judge William G. Young why he was entering the plea, Toey said prosecutors "have enough, other than what I'm pleading guilty to," on him,...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
At eBay, Is Skype Service There to Stay?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61834
Josh Silverman is on the defensive. As the head of eBay's Skype unit, he's happy to talk about his company's more than 330 million users and six straight quarters of profitability. But the topic he has been asked to address more frequently in his six months at the helm is how eBay could have so grossly overestimated Skype's value when in 2005 it paid more than $2.5 billion for the Internet calling service. "There is this perception gap related to eBay and what people thought eBay would do with Skype," Silverman says.

The gap is more than just a matter of perception. Executives at eBay bet Skype's cheap and easy-to-use Internet calling tools would help eBay users land more sales. But it turns out many of the small business owners who market their wares on eBay had little time to sit by the phone to take questions, and in October, eBay was forced to concede it overpaid, recording expenses of $900 million.

Silverman's task now is to ensure that Skype earns its keep, giving eBay executives reason to retain the business rather than sell it to the highest bidder. So far, eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe says he'll keep Skype. "We know Skype is a great stand-alone business that's experiencing explosive growth in terms of its financials and in terms of its user base," Donahoe said during a conference call with analysts earlier this year.

Growth Slowing Down

Yet, even as Skype grows at a faster pace than eBay's core online shopping business, it accounts for a sliver of total sales. And like its parent, Skype is undergoing a growth slowdown. Skype's revenue rose 51 percent in the most recent quarter, vs. more than twice that pace a year earlier. Donahoe could jettison Skype to focus on bigger areas of need. Analysts have speculated...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Yahoo Follows AOL with Open Web Strategy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61853
Following in the footsteps of AOL earlier this week, Yahoo on Friday talked about its plans to open its online services to third-party developers.

Yahoo calls it the Yahoo Open Strategy, or YOS for short. The mission is to "deliver open, industry-leading platforms that attract the most publishers and developers."

The YOS platform aims to harness Yahoo's audience of a half a billion users per month. The plan is to keep open Yahoo's content repositories to the innovations of the developer community. Yahoo first announced the initiative in April, calling it a major rewiring of Yahoo that blows the doors wide open.

"Yahoo is trying to position itself as a distribution vehicle for third-party content," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "This is not a break with anything or a change of direction, it's just a continuation of what they have been talking about for a few months. It would have been really novel if they had done this two years ago."

YOS Innovations Announced

The latest news on the YOS front includes allowing users to search other content, such as classified ads, from within Yahoo Mail, according to The Wall Street Journal. Users can also access online music-download services from within Yahoo Music.

Yahoo said it would redesign its home page to make it easier for users to access these third-party services, and offered demonstrations of how users might add a link to Netflix in the corner of their screens, the Journal reported.

At Yahoo's annual "Hack Day" on Friday, developers had their first opportunity to build versions of their service that integrate with Yahoo's home page or that can be used by Yahoo Mail's 275 million monthly users, the Journal said.

On Tuesday, AOL announced its own plans to open up. The initiative began with AOL opening up its home page...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Google Launches Mobile Location Service with Search
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61852
Building on the mobile mapping capabilities that Google rolled out last November, the search giant is launching a new location-awareness capability called Search with My Location.

Previously, when a Windows Mobile handset user went to Google.com from the phone's browser for a local search, the results were tailored to the last location entered, noted Google software engineers Terry Van Belle and Tim Cox in a new blog.

Google's newly introduced mobile-search technology, which is powered by a new Gears Geolocation API, "makes searching for nearby businesses on Windows Mobile phones both faster and easier," the members of Google's mobile team wrote.

Cell-ID Broadcasts

Google's API relies on a number of location sources to estimate the user's position. For example, the technology can take cell-ID broadcasts from multiple cellular towers and sift them through Google-developed algorithms to approximate a user's current location.

"Now, using the Gears Geolocation API, Search with My Location approximates your actual location using the same cell-ID technology used by Google maps for mobile," Van Belle and Cox explained. "So if you want to find sushi nearby, just type 'sushi' and Google will return local business listings around you."

The new API also has the ability to access the GPS chips embedded in location-aware handsets. As a percentage of total sales, GPS-enabled devices only accounted for 13.7 percent of the handset market in 2007, noted Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi. However, GPS-handset penetration is expected to rise to 18 percent this year and reach the 43 percent mark by 2011, Milanesi said, citing a Gartner report from October 2007.

Google says estimates based on cell-tower information are calculated much faster than those based on GPS. And unlike GPS, the technology "works reliably indoors and doesn't drain your phone battery at the rate that GPS does," noted Google software engineer Mike Chu in a...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Is Google's New Anonymity Policy 'Worthless'?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61851
Earlier this week, Google announced it would cut in half the amount of time it keeps user logs before anonymizing them, from 18 to nine months. The decision appeared designed to mollify Google's European critics.

The move was partly successful, as Jacques Barrot, the EU's justice and home affairs commissioner, called it a "good step in the right direction." Barrot urged Google to cut the anonymization time even further, however, to six months, as recommended in a report by the EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party. "Awareness and compliance with fundamental human rights are of pivotal importance" for Internet companies, Barrot said.

But Internet security expert Chris Soghoian, writing on CNET, said Google's time reduction is almost completely illusory. Despite Google's assertion that "we're significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users," Soghoian said that Google's new policy fails to provide meaningful anonymization.

Preserving Utility, Securing Privacy?

Google maintains that even anonymizing after 18 months entails "sacrifices in future innovations." The process for anonymizing after nine months will not "use precisely the same methods for anonymizing as we do after 18 months," Google's senior legal staff posted on the company's official blog. "After months of work our engineers developed methods for preserving more of the data's utility while also anonymizing IP addresses sooner."

Soghoian reported that he sought additional details from Google and was told, "After nine months, we will change some of the bits in the IP address in the logs; after 18 months we remove the last eight bits in the IP address and change the cookie information." The statement conceded that "it is difficult to guarantee complete anonymization, but we believe these changes will make it very unlikely users could be identified."

Soghoian explained that Google anonymizes...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Microsoft's Second Seinfeld Ad Reimages Bill Gates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61850
The second installment of Microsoft's "Seinfeld" campaign launched Thursday night during the reality TV series Big Brother. Like the first commercial in the $300 million campaign staring the well-known comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the spot didn't discuss Windows.

The two-and-a-half-minute ads show Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Seinfeld living with a typical American suburban family in hopes of "connecting with people." The cast of characters includes three kids, a cranky grandma with many skills, and mom and dad.

"Why are we doing this?" Gates asks Seinfeld. The comedian responds with his trademark humor about how the duo is out of touch with regular people, referring to Gates' "moon house hovering over Seattle" and his own vehicle collection that causes him to "get stuck in my own traffic." The bottom line, Seinfeld says, "We need to connect with real people."

Memories of Seinfeld

The commercial depicts Gates reading technological bedtime stories, playing video games with the kids, and filling an above-ground pool with a garden hose. Meanwhile, Seinfeld plays a tag-team ping-pong match with the household mom before clipping his toenails in the teenaged daughter's bedroom. She walks in on him and expresses her distaste.

The disgusted daughter sets up the famous duo by putting the family's prized leather giraffe in Seinfeld's backpack, for which they are punished. They confront the girl for her clandestine deed and leave the home, looking for the next connection down the block. The commercial closes with Gates and Seinfeld rolling their luggage down the street.

Brand marketers were confused by the first commercial, in which Seinfeld helped Gates pick out some shoes at a discount shoe retailer. Do these new spots hit closer to the mark? Some advertising pros are answering with a resounding yes. Others are still confused.

"I am fairly intelligent and understand branding. I have no clue as to what...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
SanDisk Announces 32GB CompactFlash Card
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61849
SanDisk announced Thursday a new, 32-gigabyte CompactFlash card that it said can record more than 80 minutes of high-definition video. Called the Extreme III CompactFlash card, it is described as targeted "to meet the demands of professional digital videographers and photographers."

SanDisk said that many such cards increase storage capacity at a cost to speed, but the Extreme III offers a fast data-transfer rate of 30 megabytes per second.

50 Percent Increase

The company said it is upgrading data speeds for all its SanDisk Extreme III cards. The entire Extreme III line, from the 4GB to the new 32GB cards, now feature a data speed increase to 30 MB/s. For some of the cards, this is an increase of up to 50 percent.

The company said the new 32GB card will allow field producers and camera crews, working under tight deadlines, to transfer content such as video or photos quickly. To emphasize this use, the card was to be shown in the Thomson Grass Valley booth at the International Broadcasting Convention, which began Friday in Amsterdam.

A spokesperson for Thomson pointed out that, for up to 80 minutes of recording time, the Extreme III CF card can handle 100MB per second in 10-bit, 4:2:2 video.

SanDisk also noted that all Extreme III cards have the widest guaranteed operating temperature in the industry, another factor of interest to field crews. It works in temperatures ranging from 13 degrees below zero to 185 degrees Fahrenheit.

The card's capacity for high-resolution photos is also being promoted. SanDisk noted that photographers often shoot in RAW format, which requires up to 10 times as much storage space as JPG images, and a high-capacity card can be what they need. Sports photographers, for instance, can take a high-speed stream of RAW images during sporting events.

Diminishing Returns

At $299.99, the new...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Browser Wars Heat Up as Firefox Adds 'Privacy Mode'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61848
Keeping in step with rival Web browsers from Microsoft and Google, Mozilla has announced a "privacy mode" for Firefox 3.1. The update is scheduled to be released in beta form in October.

In privacy mode, a browser doesn't record a history of visited sites or save cookies from those sites.

Line Between Public and Private

On the Mozilla Wiki, developer Mike Connor listed three goals for the privacy mode.

"There should be a clear line drawn between your 'public' and 'private' browsing sessions," he wrote, so users can't be tracked when they are doing things they consider private. Information on visits can still be explicitly saved, he continued, such as per-site permissions, bookmarks, and so on.

In addition to not recording visited sites and removing all downloads from a given session, privacy mode will also mean there is no prompt to save passwords, and password fields cannot be autofilled. "Autocomplete" can be available, but entered data will not be kept. When a user enters or leaves privacy mode, any current authenticated sessions will be logged out.

Currently, Firefox offers an extension called Stealthier with private browsing features.

The addition of privacy mode is a response, at least in part, to the recent launch of a beta version of Google's Chrome browser, which features a privacy mode called Incognito. In the Web-published log of Mozilla bug tracking, one Firefox developer noted that "recent developments with Chrome will likely make finally getting private-browsing mode shipped a priority for 3.1."

No Protection Against Secret Agents

When a user opens Incognito in Chrome, however, Google points out that its privacy mode is not intended to deal with such privacy issues as identity theft or tricking users. This includes, Google noted drily, "Web sites that collect or share information about you," malicious software that tracks your keystrokes, "surveillance by secret agents" or "people standing...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Video-Game Sales Still Booming Despite Slowdown
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61830
Stockings are expected to overflow with video games this year, researchers say. As the 2008 holiday season approaches, the gaming industry is gearing to get under the tree and analysts are predicting August's single-digit sales growth is no indication of what to expect for the holiday season.

Analysts predicted the gaming industry would begin to slow down during the summer months and they did, according to NPD Group, a research firm based in New York. But that will not hurt the bottom line.

The gaming industry's massive double-digits growth over the year had to slow eventually. August saw an increase of only 9 percent in video-game sales from August 2007, but analysts say single-digit growth in August is okay.

Summer Slowdown

"It's not a big deal," said David Riley, a spokesperson for NPD Group. "The summer months are historically the slowest months in the industry in terms of sales. The industry historically has followed the seasonality trends."

In the summer months consumers are busy doing other things like vacationing and playing outdoors and are not normally in front of the television, according to Riley.

Retailers in the U.S. cashed in on $1.08 billion in video-game sales for August, compared to $995 million the same month in 2007.

"Why have we seen continued growth in this industry even though we are in a recession?" Riley asked. "{Software games} are going to be under the tree because they won't fit in the stockings," he quipped. "I don't think the industry is going to be suffering."

In fact, NPD analysts say the industry will do well because during the holidays and in the last three calendar months, the industry generally makes 50 percent of annual sales.

Despite a slow month, companies are expected to hit their annual revenue target of $22 billion to $24 billion because year-over-year numbers are still...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Review: Peek Is E-Mail on the Go, and That's It
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61822
It's hard to remember now, but the first BlackBerry devices weren't phones. They were two-way e-mail pagers that couldn't be used for calls.

Now a New York-based startup is betting it can fill the niche the BlackBerry abandoned. It has made a sleek, $100 e-mail pager called the Peek that hits Target Corp. stores Monday.

The goal of the Peek is to reach the people who don't already have e-mail on their phones and may be intimidated by today's feature-rich "smart" phones, like BlackBerrys, BlackJacks and iPhones. The Peek does e-mail and nothing more: no phone calls, no Web surfing, no camera. The service fee is $20 a month, with no contract.

Conscious minimalism is rare in gadgets, and usually welcome. But it's hard to see the Peek being a big hit. If you do one thing, you're supposed to do it well, and I have a few too many reservations about the Peek.

But to start with the good, the hardware is tasteful. The tablet, 4 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide, is covered by rubber on the front and metal on the back. It has a full-alphabet keyboard with generous spacing between the keys for easy typing. The keys are backlit. The color screen is sharp and relatively large, with a 2.5-inch diagonal. It's not touch-sensitive, so you control the device with a scroll wheel on the side, just like older BlackBerrys.

It's reasonably easy to set up for the Web-based e-mail services of Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The service fee compares well to the data plans that are required for e-mail service on a cell phone. These are usually around $30 a month, in addition to the voice plan. Peek Inc. founder Amol Sarva assures me that there's nothing tacked on to the monthly fee, unlike cell phone bills,...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
VideoSurf Hopes To Ride Internet Video Wave
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61818
There are plenty of places to watch online video, but still no easy way to find a particular clip without suffering through a lot of trial and error.

Now a startup led by a former Yahoo Inc. engineer is promising to simplify Internet video search with a complex technology that enables computers to recognize images, such as actors' faces, and index them scene-by-scene.

"We absolutely think that it's a leap forward in finding and discovering video on the Web," said Lior Delgo, who left Yahoo in 2006 to start VideoSurf. His previous startup was the travel search engine FareChase, which he sold to Yahoo in 2004 for an undisclosed amount.

VideoSurf showcased its search engine for the first time Wednesday at a conference hosted by the blog TechCrunch. A test version is up and running, but visitors still must submit an e-mail address and obtain a password to use it.

VideoSurf's "computer vision" is much different than other video search engines such as YouTube, Blinkx and EveryZing that read written tags assigned to video or scan transcripts of their spoken words in order to catalog clips.

"We have taught computers to see inside the videos," Delgo said.

The approach enables VideoSurf, which has indexed millions of clips from YouTube, Hulu and other popular video sites, to detect specific people appearing in a video, even if their names haven't been tagged to every scene. For instance, a search for Alec Baldwin might produce thumbnails from his work on the TV show "30 Rock" as well as his famous sales talk in the movie "Glengarry Glen Ross."

The clips can be seen on VideoSurf's own site, giving the San Mateo, Calif.-based startup a chance to make money from ads. For now, Delgo and VideoSurf's 21 other employees are getting by on $5.5 million provided by investors who include Al...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Creator of Web Spots a Flaw in Internet Explorer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61817
Tim Berners-Lee, the British-born inventor of the World Wide Web, says he doesn't like to express preferences among Web browsers. But he does have an issue with one of them: Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer.

Berners-Lee, director of the standard-setting World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, said in an interview this week that Internet Explorer is falling behind other browsers in the way it handles an important graphics feature for Web pages.

A Web image that is encoded as a scalable vector graphic, or SVG, can be resized to fit the computer screen or zoomed into without becoming blocky and losing sharpness, as happens with images encoded as the more traditional "bitmaps." Maps are one popular use of SVG.

"If you look around at browsers, you'll find that most of them support scalable vector graphics," Berners-Lee said. "I'll let you figure out which one has been slow in supporting SVG."

That would be Internet Explorer. While Firefox, Safari and other browsers have built-in support for SVG, Microsoft relies on a plug-in from Adobe Systems Inc. that must be downloaded before Internet Explorer can show SVG objects. This applies even to the recently released "beta" version of Internet Explorer 8.

"SVG support is something that we have been evaluating for some time," Microsoft said in a statement. "We recognize the demand for vector graphics from Web developers, and realize this is a high-priority demand."

The matter is more urgent for Microsoft because on Jan. 1, Adobe will be ending its support of the SVG plug-in, and it's unclear if it will be available for download after that.

Microsoft supported another format for vector graphics, called Vector Markup Language, or VML. However, the World Wide Web Consortium recommended SVG in 2001.

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Researchers: Press Struggling To Adjust to Web
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61814
Newspaper editors are struggling to adapt as more and more readers turn away from the printed page and toward the Web, mobile devices and other means to get their news, a leading news industry researcher says.

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, told a crowd of editors Wednesday at the Associated Press Managing Editors conference in Las Vegas that a survey of more than 250 newspapers calls into question whether newsrooms are planning ahead.

"Do we have a plan for the future, or are we just sort of reacting as things come at us?" Rosenstiel said.

Rosenstiel said newspapers are being asked to shift from a product -- the physical newspaper -- to a service encompassing the Web, mobile devices and other forms to deliver information to consumers.

"It can be subtle, but it's a fundamental change," he said.

Results from the survey released in July showed that just 5 percent of editors were confident in predicting how their operations would work in five years. The rest of the editors were equally split between being either somewhat confident or having little or no confidence.

"Editors seem cautious and only marginally more confident than not," the study said. "In the face of such uncertainty, several editors cited their staff's willingness to accept change and embrace new technology as the factor contributing most to their competitiveness."

The survey was based on interviews with newspaper editors in 15 cities in four regions of the United States and senior news executives at 259 newspapers nationwide.

Editors attending the conference are mulling questions that were largely irrelevant to newspapers two decades ago before the Internet became a fixture.

Today, papers are struggling to generate the same revenues from the Internet as they have lost in print ad sales, which has forced job cuts and tough decisions about...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Cell Phones: The Wi-Fi Hotspot in Your Pocket
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61810
Wi-Fi nomads are a sorry bunch, wandering with laptops open, hoping their modern-day divining rods can locate a free Internet connection.

Here's a tip: check your pocket.

The cell phone there makes it possible to bypass the laptop cards and dongles that turn cell signals into Internet connections. New technologies are making it possible to bypass the wireless phone companies' old approaches as well as the steep monthly fees that accompany them.

At the moment, the Internet alchemy needed to turn the phone into a wireless Web transmitter is only available to a small subset of phone owners, since one needs a smartphone new enough to feature Wi-Fi connectivity. Those include newer generation Nokia smartphones and some of the later Palm Treos, though more devices arrive each week. IPhone owners -- we'll get to you later, but the news is not good.

Why use a Wi-Fi phone to send an Internet signal to your laptop when you could just use that phone to jump onto the Web? This trick is for times when your phone or laptop cannot get an Internet signal in the first place, or you can't use the phone to send documents.

And why would you want to go through the bother I'm about to outline? The best reason is that a data card or dongle costs up to $150 or it is rented for a monthly fee, like your cable box.

Here is the alternative. Getting the software for a smartphone is fairly easy. People with smartphones featuring Windows Mobile software can go to WMWiFiRouter.com, where the application costs about $30. Those with smartphones featuring Symbian software can visit Joiku.com, where the software costs about $21.

Both sites include a full list of compatible devices, as does WalkingHotSpot.com, a similar service that made its debut this week. That service costs $7 a month,...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Fast Google Chrome Browser Is Building a Following
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61829
Though it has only been available since the start of September, the new beta version of Google Chrome is already attracting a following. As of Wednesday evening, about one percent of Internet surfers were using Google's open-source browser, according to Net Applications. By comparison, the longtime Opera browser had a 0.74 percent share of the global browser market in August.

Obviously, Chrome still has a long way to go before it can be considered a serious challenger to Internet Explorer (72.15 percent), Firefox (19.73 percent), and Safari (6.37 percent). For one thing, the beta version of Google's browser is missing some of the flashier bells and whistles found in Internet Explorer and Firefox. On the other hand, there are advantages to driving a hotrod stripped to its chassis.

Lightning Fast

As anyone who has had a chance to test Chrome knows, Google's open-source browser is lightning fast, one reason the beta version is attracting fans. By contrast, only 0.34 percent of Internet users were test-driving IE8 beta 2 on Wednesday.

Chrome is also more durable than other browsers because each Web-site tab is isolated in its own window, which prevents one tab from crashing another and bringing the full browser down. Google's unique "sandbox" approach to tabbed browsing also gives users the ability to check each open tab to see how much memory and processor resources individual pages are consuming.

Chrome's screen footprint is very streamlined, which should make it attractive to users of mini-notebooks and other small portable devices. The browser's speedy engine is also likely to be attractive once it arrives in the mobile space.

Google Suggest

Chrome also incorporates a time-saving feature found in other products such as Google Search, Google Toolbar, and even Google Search on Apple's iPhone. Called Google Suggest, it guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Blackberry Expands with Multimedia Partnerships
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61828
Research in Motion announced Thursday a raft of mobile multimedia partnerships and applications. The introduction of RIM's Blackberry Pearl 8220 Flip on Wednesday was a departure from its business-focused product line, and deals with TiVo, MySpace and others confirm its attempts to appeal to the consumer marketplace.

Consumer RIM

In a joint announcement, RIM and Microsoft said they will work to integrate Microsoft's Live Search features into the Blackberry browser and Blackberry maps. The Live Search capability, especially tied to Blackberry maps, will compete with other mobile location applications. Yahoo's Fire Eagle maps restaurant searches according to your GPS position, and Yahoo's Blueprint platform hints at geo-aware capabilities for cell phones.

The RIM-Microsoft integration is also expected to include Blackberry-based Hotmail and Internet Messenger.

MySpace will work with RIM to develop a smartphone front end its social-networking site, so Blackberry users can access their pages on the go. According to data included in the RIM announcement, eMarketer, a research and analysts firm, estimates that more than 800 million users will be signed up for social-networking sites worldwide by 2012. RIM will host a MySpace page for Blackberry users to get the latest news and updates from RIM, including the Blackberry-MySpace application.

TV and Radio

TiVo and RIM hinted at providing Blackberry users access to TiVo content. The companies said an initial application will include delivering TV schedules to TiVo subscribers on Blackberry phones, with the ability to send commands to their TiVo box for their selections. The release cryptically hints at further development that will "focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content." Sounds like TiVo-recorded content might come to a Blackberry screen, but neither company confirmed release dates.

Ticketmaster entered the Blackberry party as well, providing a smartphone interface for searching, sorting and -- of course -- buying tickets....

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Tech Trade Groups ITAA and AeA in Talks To Merge
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61827
The heads of two major technology associations have been at the table since January discussing a possible merger. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association, are now formally meeting in the hope of combining.

Christopher Hansen, AeA's president and CEO, said he and old friend Phil Bond, ITAA's president and CEO, felt for a long time that the associations in the technology space should come together because there were too many of them, and individually their voices were being lost.

"We started realizing these organizations are incredibly complementary and operate in different areas, but have strengths in those areas," said Hansen. "ITAA has a particular strength on the federal level, and specifically federal procurement, and AeA does federal lobbying as well, but the industries we represent were more commercial."

As one, the group would have offices dotting the U.S., as well as in Beijing and Brussels. The combined force would also bring together AeA's regional councils and ITAA's alliances with more than 40 regional associations through its Technology Councils of North America and ITAA's membership in the World Information Technology and Services Alliance -- a group of nearly 79 technology associations.

"[A merger] will help policy-makers who are often dealing with [an] alphabet soup of associations," said Bond.

Although both leaders say the groups are complementary, Hansen admits there are challenges. "There are always challenges, but the main difference is one of emphasis," he said.

ITAA's full board, representing 25 companies, met on Wednesday.

"That was 25 companies right there who felt it was worth exploring and [liked] the strategic nature of it," Bond said. "There is a lot of positive feedback. We do work in the same areas; why not put them together?"

Perks and Sealing the Deal

If the merger takes place, the groups,...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Microsoft, Novell Team Up for Virtualization Solution
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61826
Evidencing the ongoing collaboration between two formerly bitter rivals, Microsoft and Novell on Tuesday announced a joint virtualization solution optimized for customers running mixed-source environments.

The latest product to hit the virtualization market taps Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server configured and tested as an optimized guest operating system running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.

"The availability of this virtualization solution from Novell and Microsoft further proves that the two companies can and are continuing to deliver on the promises of their collaboration," said Janet Waxman, vice president for hardware channels and alliances at IDC. "This offering is a net win for the channel partners, who now can offer their customers a fully supported and optimized virtualization solution for mixed Windows and Linux environments."

Mixed-Source Success

The companies are billing the solution as the first complete, fully supported and optimized virtualization solution to span Windows and Linux environments, building the promised bridge between proprietary and open-source software.

"For customers standardizing on Microsoft's hypervisor who also have a mixed-source IT environment, this virtualization solution gives that choice," said Bob Kelly, corporate vice president of infrastructure server marketing for Microsoft. "For channel partners who need a cross-platform hypervisor offering, our work with Novell gives them an easy starting point."

According to the companies, the new offering represents more than 18 months of technical collaboration between Microsoft and Novell in response to customer demand for a virtualization solution that provides high performance and ease of deployment, and is tested and supported. Both companies' channel partners, including Dell, are fully supporting the solution.

"Virtualization radically simplifies IT, providing greater flexibility and helping our customers focus their resources on innovation instead of maintenance," said Rick Becker, Dell's vice president of software and solutions. "By supporting this new solution from Microsoft and Novell, we can provide our customers running mixed...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
RIM's Blackberry Likely To Take on Apple's iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61825
No phone was more eagerly anticipated than Apple's iPhone 3G. But consistent problems with connecting to AT&T's high-speed networks and finger-pointing between Apple and AT&T have tarnished what might have been another victory for Apple.

The problems with 3G connectivity and Apple's troubled MobileMe subscription service appear to have breathed new life into Research in Motion and its flagship BlackBerry line. On Wednesday, RIM unveiled its first flip-top model, the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Flip, which boasts a traditional cell-phone form factor. It only runs on slower EDGE networks, however.

RIM has several new models ready to roll out later this fall and next year, with a focus on going after current customers of Motorola's RAZR phones. RIM is expected to release the BlackBerry Bold later this month and a clamshell version of the Pearl later in the fall.

Waiting for Storm

Gadget blogs have bristled with leaks and reports of a touchscreen Blackberry designed to compete head-to-head with the iPhone. Allegedly code-named Storm (or Thunder), the device is said to feature an all-glass screen, on-screen keyboard, multi-touch and a Webkit-based mobile browser -- just like the iPhone. RIM has not confirmed these rumors.

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie was to deliver the keynote address Thursday at the CTIA Wireless, IT and Entertainment trade show in San Francisco, where he may provide more information. In any case, Wall Street already expects RIM to deliver a "broad consumer assault" this year, "including the Bold, a touchscreen, flip, slider, 3G Pearl and others," Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets told his clients in a note last month.

Both Apple and RIM, as well as other smartphone makers, are feeling pressure from the tightening economy as consumers delay purchases. The smartphone sector grew only 16 percent in the second quarter, compared to 55 percent in the same quarter of 2007.

Even though...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Yahoo Debuts iPhone Social-Networking App oneConnect
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61824
Mobile Web traffic is where it's at, according to Yahoo. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet company announced this week significant enhancements to its mobile-development platform, Blueprint, along with a new iPhone app.

Partnering with several wireless-application developers, Yahoo is promoting easy mobile-optimized Web site development and debuted its oneConnect social-networking software application for the iPhone at the CTIA trade show.

iPhone oneConnect Social-Networking App

Available now as a free application, Yahoo has released its oneConnect iPhone social-networking software for download from Apple's App Store. iPhone and iPod touch users running oneConnect have a single address book for e-mail, text messages, subscribed social-networking sites, and Yahoo Messenger. The software's Pulse feature reaches out and polls social-networking sites the customer belongs to and retrieves the latest updates. Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, MySpace and Twitter are among those supported.

The company also said it will make oneConnect available for other phones in the future, but declined to say when. These, too, would be a free download. This seems like a great move for Yahoo -- widespread adoption by Facebook and text fans would ensure captive cell-phone traffic worldwide, nearly tantamount to making Yahoo the cell phone's home page.

Web Site Blueprint

On the other side of the phone -- on the Web -- Yahoo announced a major new expansion of its Blueprint development platform. According to the company, Blueprint enables Java, Windows Mobile, and Symbian developers to quickly create Web sites compatible with most mobile-phone browsers.

"Developing applications for the fragmented mobile ecosystem is a Herculean effort," said Marco Boerries, Yahoo's executive vice president of its Connected Life division. Blueprint supposedly allows developers to write once, yet deploy to many different devices. The system has the capability to sense the device that is accessing Blueprint-created sites and render the best possible screens and performance based on the...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Mobile Text Messaging Soaring Despite Price Hike
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61823
Despite a doubling of the cost to send a mobile-device text message, users are still thumbing messages at record rates.

Wireless data is changing, and consumers are making it clear that texting is a favorite way to communicate, according to CTIA, a wireless association based in Washington, D.C.

There were 75 billion messages recorded in June alone, about 2.5 billion messages per day, according to CTIA's Semi-Annual Wireless Survey. That's a 160 percent increase from the 28.8 billion messages sent in June 2007.

Each year the number of text messages has increased. Last December users sent 48 billion text messages, up from 19 billion in December 2006.

Steve Largent, chief executive and president at CTIA, said more texts were sent and received in the first half of this year than in all of 2007.

"Well, it is obvious Americans are still all thumbs," Largent said in a podcast from CTIA's Wireless, IT and Entertainment 2008 trade show.

Research firm Gartner estimated that there were 189 billion mobile messages sent in 2007 in North America, and it expects the messages to reach 301 billion in 2008.

Texting is not just personal. More people are using text messaging in the workplace, according to IDC, because they like the instant gratification. Two-thirds of respondents of an IDC/Nortel survey of 2,400 employees in 17 countries said they use text messages for both personal and business reasons. Some said they use it to send orders to suppliers.

Increase in Prices

CTIA released its findings just one day after Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), sent a letter to Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T, the four carriers covering 90 percent of the wireless market, asking why Sprint increased the price for texting from 10 cents per message to 20 cents and why the other carriers followed.

Kohl questioned the price increase because...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Apple Focuses on Enhancing iPod Features
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61808
Apple is boasting new iPod nano and iPod touch models with functions first-generation iPod buyers probably never saw coming. But are the new bells and whistles enough to sell the next generation of Apple's market-leading MP3 players?

Apple started the iPod frenzy by introducing the fourth-generation iPod nano earlier this week. It's the thinnest iPod ever with a design that centers on a curved aluminum and glass enclosure. The new nano comes in nine colors and incorporates Apple's Genius technology, a one-click feature that automatically creates playlists from songs in a user's music library that complement each other.

The new iPod nano also features an enhanced user interface, a high-resolution portrait display and a built-in accelerometer that automatically switches to Cover Flow when rotated and automatically goes into Shuffle mode when lightly shaken. The new iPod nano gives users up to 24 hours of music playback or four hours of video playback between charges and is available worldwide in an 8GB model for $149 and a 16GB model for $199.

"The iPod nano is the world's most popular music player and we've made it even better for this holiday season," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think users are going to love the amazing new design, the automatic Genius playlist creation, as well as automatically going into Cover Flow with just a turn of the wrist."

Touching the Next Generation

Apple also introduced the second-generation iPod touch with a thin contoured metal design, a 3.5-inch widescreen glass display, and a laundry list of features to attract new customers.

The iPod touch offers 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking, integrated volume control buttons, a built-in speaker for casual listening, a built-in accelerometer and other advanced sensors, and, of course, Apple's multi-touch user interface. The 8GB iPod touch is priced at $229.

"iPod touch is the funnest iPod...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Comcast Says Wireless Deal Could Close This Year
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61799
Comcast Corp. said Tuesday that its investment in a joint venture to offer mobile Internet access to subscribers could be finalized by the end of the year.

Steve Burke, president of Philadelphia-based Comcast, said the new service would let cable companies offer "wireless data speeds that Verizon and AT&T can't match."

Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV operator, in May joined Time Warner Cable Inc., Intel Corp., Google Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Clearwire Corp. and other partners to form a $14.55 billion communications company that will offer high-speed mobile Internet access.

The company, to be called Clearwire, will use WiMAX technology. It's similar to the Wi-Fi service found in coffee shops and airports, but with a wider range that is able to cover whole cities in some cases. WiMAX also promises faster speeds than cellular networks.

With Clearwire, cable should have at least a two- to three-year head start on similar ventures being developed by rivals, Burke told analysts at the 2008 Merrill Lynch Media Fall Preview Conference in Marina del Rey, Calif.

Once Clearwire's service is in place, Comcast will be able to offer bundles that include wireless Internet connections outside the home, Burke said.

Burke also took a shot at rival phone companies, saying their price cuts on digital subscriber line, or DSL, Internet service won't stop customers from leaving. That's because consumers increasingly are watching video online and therefore seek higher Internet speeds.

"There's nothing they (phone companies) can do. The problem isn't price," he said.

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Don't Be Scammed When Buying an iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61795
Within three days of its release, Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3Gs.

Such widespread excitement over a product means that scammers have a new opportunity to rip off unsuspecting consumers, and the Better Business Bureau is providing advice on how consumers can protect themselves from the many schemes associated with the product.

When it comes to hot, new technology that has everyone buzzing, consumers can get caught up in the craze and let their common sense lapse.

While consumers are still scrambling to get their hands on the iPhone, scammers are taking advantage of an opportunity to get their hands on consumers' money.

BBB wants consumers who are looking to purchase, or who have already purchased an iPhone, to be aware of the following ways they could be ripped off.

Unauthorized Sellers

Some eager early adopters decided to avoid long lines outside Apple and AT&T stores and tried buying an iPhone online. Unfortunately, many were fooled by scammers who had set up Web sites posing as legitimate retailers, brokers and resellers or posted ads online at classified sites such as Craigslist.

Typically, victims were asked to wire payment for the phone to the scammers, and of course, the iPhones never arrived. In an even worse case scenario, the New York Police Department recently busted a ring of crooks placing ads on Craigslist for iPhones.

However, when buyers arrived to complete the transaction, they were robbed, ending up with no iPhone and no money.

Electronics retailer Best Buy has started selling iPhones, giving customers a third outlet for purchase -- in addition to Apple and AT&T.

BBB advises consumers to purchase new iPhone 3Gs only at authorized stores and to never wire money as payment when shopping for a secondhand iPhone online.

Jailbreak Leads to Heartache

The iPhone was released exclusively for...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Vodafone Reorganization Puts in New Chief for Europe
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61794
Vodafone announced the reorganization of its business structure and top management Tuesday, splitting in two its emerging-markets division and appointing a new boss for Europe.

Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone operator by revenue, said it had appointed Michael Combes, the former finance director of France Telecom, as the new chief executive for Europe and said Paul Donovan, chief executive of the emerging-markets division, would leave.

The group also announced that under the new system, its investment in the U.S. cellular service Verizon Wireless would not be part of any region and would instead be managed at a senior level by a team including the Vodafone chief executive, Vittorio Colao.

Vodafone owns Verizon Wireless, the second-largest U.S. mobile service provider, in partnership with Verizon Communications.

Analysts said they welcomed the moves, saying Combes would bring an emphasis on cutting costs in the mature European businesses. They said the time was right to divide the emerging-markets group because of its size.

Colao was promoted from chief executive of Vodafone's European operations to group chief executive at the end of July.

After his tenure at France Telecom, Combes became chairman and chief executive of TDF Group, a television and radio transmission service backed by private equity.

Under Combes, TDF diversified both operationally and geographically, snapping up businesses in Germany, Finland, Hungary and the Netherlands and exploring new services like WiMax and digital radio.

"Michel Combes has a decent reputation and he's also the sort of profile of person that Vodafone needed to bring in," said John Davies, an analyst at Dresdner. "They had Colao doing that job so there was a gap to fill."

Combes will now be in charge of all markets in Europe, with responsibility for marketing, technology and business services.

"I am pleased that we have recruited someone of Michel's talents and expertise," Colao said. "I am confident that...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
HP Tops Data-Storage Market, But with Slow Growth
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61789
Despite tough conditions in the U.S. economy, which have decreased demand for everything from new homes to semiconductors, the market for computer data storage systems is going strong, and with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard among its leaders.

According to a report released last week by analyst firm IDC, HP just passed IBM for the top position in the worldwide disk storage systems market -- which grew 10.9 percent from the second quarter of 2007 to $6.9 billion -- posting factory revenues of $1.25 billion and 18.1 percent market share. IBM reported revenue of $1.22 billion and 17.7 percent market share.

The external disk storage systems sub-market -- defined as storage systems designed to operate outside of a server cabinet -- experienced its healthiest revenue growth in two years, with factory revenues of $5.1 billion in the second quarter this year representing 16.7 percent year-over-year growth.

HP, which employs more than 3,000 people at its imaging and printing group in Boise, accounted for $655 million of the external systems market -- making up 12.9 percent of second quarter market share -- and tied with IBM for second place behind EMC, which reported revenue of more than $1.1 billion.

But behind those seemingly rosy numbers is the fact that of the top five disk storage systems vendors, HP experienced the lowest growth figures both in the total disk storage market and in the external systems space.

While external disk storage systems leader EMC saw its revenue grow 19.7 percent and IBM's rose 14.3 percent from second quarter 2007, HP reported revenue growth of only 8.2 percent -- lagging behind fifth-ranked Hitachi -- and saw its market share shrink from 13.9 percent to 12.9 percent. IBM's market share shrank as well, but from an already-healthier 13.4 percent to 13.1 percent. EMC's rose from 21.1 percent to 21.7 percent.

In...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Patterns Emerge in Consolidating Data Centers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61787
"It's all about the data" is a popular expression today. More and more, we've come to realize that data is the central building block for protecting, processing, sharing and storing information. And, as government and industry data owners learn to believe in these realities, they quite often decide to establish their own data centers to maintain control. On the surface, this might easily seem like the right thing to do, but it isn't always the best course to achieve effective consolidation. Being aware of data center consolidation experience and realities can save organizations large sums of money and improve operations.

I first began watching the patterns in data center consolidation in the early 1990s, when individual organizations within the U.S. Defense Department had built 194 mainframe data centers. However, through Defense Management Report Decisions, these numerous data centers were transferred into the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for management attention. Over the past 18 years, the data center transformation achieved by DISA professionals has been nothing short of remarkable. Their actions are something that we can all continue to learn from today, both in government and in industry.

In 1990, after inheriting the Defense Department data centers, DISA found itself managing 194 centers being run by more than 9,600 government workers with mainframe workload of 4,645 millions of instructions per second (MIPS) at an operating cost of more than $1 billion per year. By 1995, DISA continued to leverage advancements in technology, and it adopted commercial best practices to achieve a substantial increase in efficiency along with significant cost reductions, which saved hundreds of millions of dollars per year. These advancements were achieved by consolidating the mainframe workload in all 194 locations into 16 larger data centers, which in 2002 were further consolidated into five data centers and one legacy processing site.

Overall,...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Facebook Makes New Design Permanent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61807
Sayonara, arrivederci, and adios to the old Facebook.

No matter which way you say it, Facebook's 100 million global users said good-bye Wednesday to the old version of Facebook and hello to the final version of the social-networking Web site's face-lift.

It was no secret that users would be switched to the new version. Last week Mark Slee, Facebook product manager, said the time was coming.

"We can't maintain both versions, and we really think you'll like the new Facebook once you get used to the changes," Slee wrote in his blog. "Sometime soon, we're going to switch everyone over to the new Facebook."

Slee made good on his promise exactly one week later as Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook made the permanent switch.

How It Started

Facebook first announced the changes to its Web site in July in an effort to give users a new, cleaner and simpler design. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the company had been working on the changes since May and invited users to try out the new design with updated features and asked for feedback.

Access to the redesign was limited at first and gradually became more available to Facebook's large user base. The changes, according to Zuckerberg, gave users more control and ownership of their profiles and simplified the user experience.

"Facebook's new design makes it a lot easier for users to share information, and we encourage them to check it out," Zuckerberg said in July.

Lots of Input

And they did. As of July, more than 100,000 Facebook users offered suggestions for the site's layout and features, and by early September more than 600,000 users had offered feedback.

As of last week, more than 30 million users had checked out the new design and many were already using it as their Facebook, according to Slee. Many of the...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Google Backs Broadband Satellite Internet Project
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61806
O3b Networks has taken the wraps off a bold plan to launch a global satellite network capable of delivering high-speed Internet connectivity to people living in emerging markets, where the commercial deployment of fiber networks is neither economically viable nor practical.

Though a number of ambitious satellite initiatives have come and gone over the years without ever getting off the ground, O3b Networks does not appear to be just another broadband pipe dream. The United Kingdom-based startup already has the financial backing of the world's largest banking group HSBC, international cable operator Liberty Media, and search-engine giant Google.

"We believe in O3b Networks' model and its goal of expanding the reach of the Internet to users who currently have limited and expensive connection options, as it complements our mission of organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful," said Larry Alder, product manager at Google's Alternative Access Team.

The Other Three Billion

Rather than beaming broadband signals directly to homes and offices, the new system will focus on bulking up the intervening infrastructure known as the "Internet backbone." The goal is to provide the "other three billion" (O3b) people living in the world's emerging markets with the same broadband-access capabilities that residents of the developed nations currently take for granted.

Core transmission capacity is one of the most significant barriers to rolling out the high-speed infrastructure necessary for a developing country and its economy, noted Liberty Media CEO Michael Fries. "Using innovative modern satellite technology, O3b Networks will make fiber-quality connectivity available" throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East "without having to lay any fiber," Fries explained.

Satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space says it has already begun construction work on the initial 16 satellites for the system, which can be further scaled through the launch of...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
AOL Invites Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail to Home Page
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61805
In a move to drive more traffic through its network, AOL on Tuesday opened its home page to other e-mail providers, including Google's Gmail.

AOL's mail-aggregation feature lets users access e-mail accounts from Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail, in addition to AOL and AIM Mail. What's more, the mail preview panel gives users the status of their AOL, Gmail and Yahoo accounts, so users can see new messages as they arrive. Users can navigate directly to new messages by clicking on the message link. Users can also click a link to launch a window to compose a message.

"We know that consumers today have multiple e-mail accounts on different services to keep tabs on daily, and we want to make it easier for them," said Bill Wilson, executive vice president of programming at AOL. "This is an important first step in opening up AOL.com and giving users the ability to populate the AOL.com home page with content and services they use on a daily basis, regardless of where it lives."

Opening AOL

The announcement comes as a precursor to more dramatic plans over the next two months to revamp AOL.com to offer more choices and customization to consumers. AOL plans to debut new features, for example, that give consumers more control over content and services displayed on the site.

AOL will also allow consumers to add their own Web links in the main navigation bar and access custom feeds from social-networking services, local news, and RSS-enabled sites directly from the main page of AOL.com.

AOL.com also debuted an extended navigation bar. It offers direct access to a broader variety of the company's content and services. AOL.com's upcoming additions include a "keyhole" view of social networks that will allow consumers to manage all their social-networking feeds from one location, a customizable RSS feed reader, and the ability...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Nokia Adds Microsoft Exchange To Smartphones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61803
Nokia smartphone users can now set up and manage e-mail choices, receive alerts for conflicts in meeting times, and gain access to a global company directory to find colleagues. No additional fees are required.

Finland-based Nokia said it is expanding its service by offering Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for all Nokia S60 third-edition devices and enabling nearly 80 million mobile-phone users to connect to e-mail accounts on Exchange servers.

Exchange ActiveSync is a synchronization protocol for high-latency and low-bandwidth networks. Based on HTTP and XML, the protocol lets devices such as cellular phones or Microsoft Windows Mobile devices access e-mail, calendar, contacts and tasks on a server running Microsoft Exchange. It also allows users to access the information offline.

Before Wednesday's announcement, there were 20 enabled devices and now there are 43, including the Nokia 96, which started shipping a few days ago, according to Nokia.

Work-Life Balance

Nokia is not only enabling 43 devices, but is making it possible for professionals whose offices are connected to Microsoft Exchange to enjoy a work and life balance, said Dinesh Subramaniam, a Nokia spokesperson, in a phone interview from his office in Finland.

"For consumers, they are already comfortable with the device and to be able to add this function to this device is a big boon to them," Subramaniam said. "It's not meant to replace the PC, but allows them to manage their e-mail box better. In terms of total product offering that the enterprise can look at, it does not have to invest in additional infrastructure and does not have to buy any more pieces for users."

Setup and Features

Exchange ActiveSync is compatible with many devices, but Nokia users will have features not available in other licensees' devices, according to the company. Those features include setting e-mail priorities, alerts for meeting request conflicts, a...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Congress Questions 100 Percent Rise in Texting Prices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61802
Prices for phone text messages have risen 100 percent in the last three years, and Congress wants to know why.

In a letter to the top four wireless providers this week, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) asked for their answers by Oct. 6.

'Identical Price Increases'

Text-message prices have climbed from 10 cents per message to 20 cents in three years while the carriers' costs for sending and receiving messages has reportedly decreased. The four major carriers, which some analysts say control nearly 90 percent of the market, have raised prices at nearly the same time.

For these reasons Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile received the letters from Kohl, chairman of the Senate Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights subcommittee.

His letter says, "Text-messaging files are a fraction of the size of e-mails or music downloads. Also of concern is that it appears that each of the companies has changed the price for text messaging at nearly the same time, with identical price increases. This conduct is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace."

Gang of Four

The committee also expressed concern about recent consolidations in the marketplace from six to four carriers, leaving Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile dominant.

Kohl said the last major price increase was kicked off by Sprint, followed shortly by identical increases by the other three carriers.

He added, "The large national wireless carriers continue to acquire their smaller, regional competitors, with the announced acquisition of Alltel by Verizon Wireless being just the latest example. As chairman of the antitrust subcommittee, I am concerned with whether this consolidation, and increased market power by the major carriers, has contributed to this doubling of text-messaging rates over the last three years."

Kohl wants the carriers to cough up data on the cost of delivering services to customers. He's asking...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
RIM Adds First Flip Case, Multimedia To New Blackberry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61786
Research in Motion announced Wednesday the latest in its Blackberry smartphone line, the Pearl 8220 Flip. Long a holdout in the flip-case design, RIM's new four-band EDGE device not only gets a lid, but new multimedia features.

Flip for Media

The Blackberry line has long been the business person's workhorse. With a QWERTY keyboard, the smartphone enabled business people across the globe to practically take their office on the road. While the 8220 Flip delivers the clamshell case preferred by many cell-phone users, there are some sacrifices.

Like most clamshells, the new device has a small screen on the outside for phone and text functions, while the interior 240x320 screen is closer to what Blackberry users expect. Multimedia features include video streaming, stereo Bluetooth 2.0, a graphics equalizer with 11 preset audio profiles, a two-megapixel zoom camera, and a microSD slot.

The smartphone comes with Roxio Media Manager software for managing and syncing music, embedded support for Apple's iTunes, and PhotoSuite LE software.

No More QWERTY

The 8220 Flip continues Blackberry's business focus with DataViz's Documents to Go software for viewing and editing Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Also included are a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, conference calling, background noise cancellation, and Blackberry Enterprise Server support for secure integration with corporate e-mail systems.

But RIM has replaced the traditional QWERTY keyboard with a SureType keypad that assigns two letters to each key. Longtime Blackberry users may find that a drawback, and even experienced keypad users will need to learn a new system since the SureType does not have the same key assignments as traditional handsets.

The 8220 Flip will be available this fall exclusively from T-Mobile. Prices were not announced, nor were timetables for Europe or the Far East.

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Patch Tuesday Addresses Eight Critical Vulnerabilities
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61785
Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday was comparatively light after August's onslaught of fixes. Still, there is plenty for IT administrators to tackle this month. For September, Microsoft issued four security bulletins to address eight vulnerabilities -- all of them critical.

"Given that the four critical bulletins deal with all the majority of current Microsoft operating systems, organizations should not be lax when rolling out this month's patches," said Don Leatham, director of solutions and strategy at Lumension Security. "This group addresses critical-level, remote-code execution vulnerabilities that reside on just about every Windows computer in an organization, so companies should be ready to react swiftly."

Bad News, Good News

MS08-052 fixes five privately reported bugs in Windows Media Encoder 9, while MS08-54 addresses a flaw in Windows Media Player. MS08-055 fixes a vulnerability in Microsoft Office. Meanwhile, MS08-052 is the greatest concern. This fix addresses five flaws in the Microsoft Windows GDI+, a Windows graphics API.

All these flaws could allow a hacker to take complete control of a system. The good news is the issues are all client-side and require some user interaction, such as opening a malicious file or viewing a Web page containing malicious content.

Spotlight on GDI+

The vulnerabilities that affect GDI+ are the most dangerous because GDI+ is used in such a large array of Microsoft and third-party software, according to Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager at Symantec Security Response.

"If a user visits a page controlled by an attacker or a site that allows users to upload images, such as some of the social-media sites, they could fall victim to this attack," Greenbaum said. "Attackers are routinely using vulnerabilities like these to gain control of endpoint systems as part of large-scale fraud campaigns."

Greenbaum noted that at least one of the vulnerabilities is highly similar to one that security researchers have...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Analyst Group: Some Companies Cutting IT Spending
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61779
Many large companies, especially those in the financial services, utilities and telecommunications industries, have cut their technology budgets this year because of the economic slowdown.

In a report released Tuesday, Forrester Research Inc. found that 43 percent of large U.S. and European businesses it surveyed have cut their overall spending on technology products and services in 2008. Some companies, meanwhile, have put discretionary spending on hold and others are planning to negotiate lower rates for information-technology services.

The research firm did not change its annual technology spending forecast, but it is reviewing it. In its most recent forecast, in February, Forrester had said it expects tech spending to grow 2.8 percent this year. That marked a significant downward revision from a December 2007 forecast of 4.6 percent growth.

Tuesday's report, said Forrester vice president and principal analyst John McCarthy, is "really just a snapshot" of companies' spending sentiments.

In general, corporate technology buyers were less optimistic than they were in the last such survey, in October 2007, just before the credit market tightened and the housing market "really fell apart," McCarthy said.

Forrester's survey found that the effects of the economic downturn varied by geography and by sector. U.S. companies were more likely to cut their budgets than those in Europe, for example. And while companies in finance, utilities and telecom are tightening their belts considerably, those in media and entertainment are spending more. McCarthy noted that such companies are going through a "fundamental upheaval" that requires they spend on technology regardless of how the economy is doing.

In the survey, taken in late May and early June of nearly 950 IT managers at companies in North America and Europe, nearly half of the U.S. respondents said they have already cut their IT spending budgets, compared with 38 percent of those in Canada and 28 percent...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Economy Impacts Smartphone Sales Growth
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61775
According to Gartner, smartphone unit sales in the second quarter of 2008 rose 15.7 percent in comparison with the year-earlier period. However, the research firm noted that the subcategory's share of the cellular handset market remained flat at 11 percent.

"The current economic environment continues to negatively impact the market, limiting consumer spending and replacement purchases in general," explained Roberta Cozza, a Gartner principal analyst. "In addition, smartphone sales slowed down as a result of new compelling touch technology mainly available on enhanced phones rather than smartphones."

The Right Perspective

During the second quarter, smartphone sales to end users in North America grew at an impressive 78.7 percent year-over-year clip, and with the region accounting for nearly 25 percent of all unit sales globally, Cozza said. However, she cautioned that we need to see these numbers from the right perspective.

A total of 44.1 million cellular phones were sold in North America during the second quarter, whereas smartphone sales amounted to just 8 million units. "So smartphones are still just a tiny percentage of the entire phone market in North America, though it is still a category that is growing," Cozza said.

Though North America's economic climate remains challenging, there are plenty of "people who are happy to spend money on higher-end devices," Cozza said. "Obviously, the big driver of regional growth is the iPhone, which has made more consumers aware of the advantages of higher-end phones."

The biggest second-quarter surprise occurred in the Asia/Pacific, where smartphone unit sales declined by 4.8 percent. Cozza attributed the negative growth to a sharp year-over-year decline in the sale of Linux-based smartphones.

"Last year Motorola still had good volumes coming from the Linux-based devices that it was selling into China," Cozza explained. "Just recently Motorola announced a product refresh, but it came a bit...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Countries Collaborate To Counter Cybercrime
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61774
It's a small world after all. As the Internet continues to connect peoples across the globe, individuals and groups drawn to destruction find new ways to wreak havoc on communications and services. Now, government leaders are coming together with each other and the private sector to form a united front and fight back because a vulnerability in any region can wreak havoc globally. A new multilateral federation is combating cyberthreats and cyberterrorism, creating greater security in developing networks and stopping dangers before they spiral out of control.

The International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Terrorism (IMPACT) has been launched to bring together the global community to prevent and counter cyberthreats. Membership in the organization is open to all countries, so developing nations can take advantage of existing expertise, and larger ones can help stop attacks. Certain corporations and research agencies also are invited to participate. IMPACT is modeled on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a government agency interacting with the private and academic sectors.

IMPACT aims to offer network solutions and ideas not available currently. Members will assess security efforts already underway and who is involved with them to determine what needs to be accomplished to protect the network better. The organization aims to fill the gaps it finds in security and defenses. The importance of protecting networks is not confined to ensuring Web sites and e-mails remain viable. Network security also involves guarding critical infrastructure such as transportation, communications, utilities and public services as well as financial services and other personal information.

IMPACT was launched at the World Cyber security Summit during the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in May in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysia has invested $13 million to get the organization underway and part of that funding will build a headquarters in the country. The headquarters will...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Sprint To Help Customers Understand Their Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61769
Sprint Nextel Corp. is making a big push to help customers understand their phones, creating a formal program to make store employees available to explain their products and set them up for buyers.

The campaign to be announced Tuesday is the first official program for in-person help by a cell carrier, but is similar to moves in the wider consumer electronics industry to demystify gadgets through one-on-one contact.

Sprint closed all of its 1,219 stores on Sunday Aug. 17 to train its employees for the "Ready Now" program. The goal is that customers should leave stores with their phones "completely set up and personalized," said Kim Dixon, Sprint's senior vice president of stores.

Customers "have got these really great devices ... but they just don't know how to set it all up," Dixon said.

Employees will now set up e-mail access, move over contacts from an old phone, connect Bluetooth headsets and explain other functions.

Customers who don't have time for the 10-minute to half-hour sessions can make appointments for later visits. These free sessions will be available to existing subscribers as well, even if they aren't buying a new phone or accessory, Dixon said.

The company tested the system in St. Louis and Pittsburgh in July, and customer satisfaction improved so much that the company rushed it into a nationwide launch, she said.

"Not only will the customer be more satisfied, but as a business, we expect to reduce the number of returns," Dixon said. Over the holidays, as many as 20 percent of "smart" phones Sprint sold were returned because the customer didn't understand them.

Apart from reduced return rates, the company saw signs that the uptake of data services like e-mail and mobile Web access improved in the trial cities. As competition has cut into margins on the voice side, cell carriers are looking to...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Justice Signals Challenge to Google-Yahoo Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61762
In a possible blow to Yahoo Inc.'s hopes for an advertising partnership with Google Inc., the Justice Department has hired an antitrust litigator to review evidence for what could become a legal challenge to the deal.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the attorney is Sanford Litvack, a former vice chairman at Walt Disney Co. and chief of the Justice Department's antitrust division during the Carter administration.

Litvack is reviewing evidence the department has gathered in what could become an antitrust case focused either on Google itself or on the search advertising partnership it announced with Yahoo in June, the Journal reported. That deal was part of Yahoo's attempt to ward off a takeover attempt by Microsoft Corp.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

But Yahoo said in an e-mailed statement, "We have been informed that the Justice Department, as they sometimes do, is seeking advice from an outside consultant, but that we should read nothing into that fact. We remain confident that the deal is lawful."

Blair Levin, a regulatory analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, said in a note to clients that the hiring of an outside lawyer such as Litvack is a "rare" move by the department that likely indicates a legal challenge against a company or transaction.

"The stakes are ... far higher for Yahoo," Levin wrote, because Google has "already succeeded in keeping Yahoo out of the arms of Microsoft."

The partnership between the two companies would allow Google to sell some of the ads displayed alongside search results on Yahoo's Web site. Yahoo and Google have insisted the deal would benefit consumers and advertisers, but they have delayed it until early October to give the Justice Department time to review it.

"We are confident that the arrangement is beneficial to competition, but we are not going to discuss...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
The United States Closes the Mobile-Innovation Gap
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61758
It was a familiar refrain: The U.S., the birthplace of the Internet, was a wireless backwater. Even early in this decade, many viewed the U.S. as a developing market, fit mostly for hand-me-downs from the more advanced Europeans and Asians. Unlike unified Europe, the U.S. market was fractured by warring radio standards and dotted with dead zones. Long after cellular was a way of life elsewhere, Americans still carried beepers and left messages saying to call cell phones only in emergencies. America was to be pitied, and the competitive upshot was huge: The next great innovations in wireless, including the mobile Internet, were likely to arrive from outside the U.S.

Yet the competitive balance is shifting. As the focus of the wireless world moves toward Internet communications, the U.S. strength in software, most notably at Google and Apple, is pushing the U.S. ahead as a laboratory for wireless development. American users are catching up, too. In the past year, the U.S. surpassed Western Europe in the number of subscribers to the high-speed networks known as 3G, according to consultancy comScore M:Metrics. "The industry needs to stop talking about the gap between the U.S. and Europe," says Kanishka Agarwal, vice-president of mobile media at Nielsen. "We have caught up, and we have already passed."

The change has been dramatic. While a year ago 6 percent of Americans who bought phones purchased smartphones, capable of Web access and application downloads, their ranks rose to 16 percent in early 2008, according to consultancy Nielsen Mobile's survey of 70,000 U.S. wireless subscribers. Over the same time, in Western Europe, the jump in recent smartphone buyers was smaller, from 11 percent to 17 percent, according to Nielsen.

Stride for Stride With Europe

The U.S. is now neck and neck with Western Europe in use of short text messages [SMS],...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
AT&T Launches Yahoo's oneSearch on Mobile Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61752
As part of an expanded strategic alliance first announced earlier this year, AT&T on Monday officially launched Yahoo's oneSearch mobile search platform on its MEdia Net portal.

That makes AT&T the first U.S. carrier to integrate Yahoo's mobile-search service directly into its portal, and gives Yahoo a win over rival Google in the latest round of the nascent mobile-search battle. Yahoo boasts more than 60 partnerships with mobile operators around the world.

Yahoo oneSearch gives mobile-phone users who search AT&T MEdia Net access to news, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr photos, and Web images, as well as Web and mobile Web sites. Yahoo oneSearch will also display relevant ringtones, wallpaper, games and other content available in the AT&T MEdia Mall within search results. And AT&T's YellowPages.com will offer local search information to customers as part of the agreement.

Relevant Mobile Results

"Our customers want mobile search to be convenient and intuitive, and Yahoo oneSearch is an important step for us in delivering that level of experience to them," said Michael Bowling, vice president of converged services at AT&T.

Yahoo oneSearch returns results grouped around the user's query intent. For example, when users search for a sports team, Yahoo goes beyond just returning the team's home page. Instead, Yahoo also returns the latest scores, schedules, team profiles, roster, news, images. Likewise, if a user searches for a movie, Yahoo returns more than show times at local theaters. It also returns reviews, news articles and information on the cast. It's a move toward relevancy on the mobile-search front.

"Yahoo oneSearch has proven to be one of the leading mobile Internet search products on the market, and Yahoo has been successful in partnering with carriers globally," said Scott Ellison, vice president of mobile and wireless communications at IDC. "This partnership with AT&T will enable Yahoo to reach tens...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Apple Ready To Rock with Possible iPod, iTunes News
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61751
"Let's Rock" is the tagline for Tuesday's press event that Apple is teasing as a major product announcement. The question for the legions of Apple speculators is: What will Apple CEO Steve Jobs announce?

At the top of the speculation list is a new, significantly redesigned iPod nano. Other rumors include a major upgrade to Apple's iTunes software or the launch of music and video subscriptions to the online iTunes Store.

The event will take place in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a larger venue than the Moscone Center, where Apple's San Francisco events usually take place. And Apple has been encouraging journalists from around the country to fly into San Francisco for this one. So expectations are high.

Product Transition

Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer mentioned at Apple's last conference call that this quarter's revenue would be affected by a "future product transition," Wired.com's Charlie Sorrel pointed out.

Sorrel predicted that new iPods would not merit the hype Apple is generating and that the event will unveil a major change in iTunes, featuring a "genius" feature and sidebar and perhaps some sort of Pandora-like music-recommendation feature. The genius feature would build playlists from "songs in your library that go great together," according to Digg founder and Apple rumormonger Kevin Rose.

Even more radical would be a subscription option for the iTunes Store, a move the record labels have long wanted and Jobs has rejected.

A Difficult Summer

If new iPods are not as exciting as the iPhone 3G or the MobileMe service, they are ultimately more important to Apple, Tom Kravitz at Cnet News wrote. "The iPod represents Apple to more people around the world than any other Apple product by far," Kravitz wrote.

Both of those launches wowed the faithful, but Apple's delivery turned out to be less stellar. The iPhone 3G --...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Intel Brings Enviro-Friendly Chips to Customers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61749
In an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, chipmaker Intel has rolled out four new chips designed to be faster -- while also being environmentally friendly.

Intel has launched low-power, 45nm Xeon server chips made with hafnium instead of halogen. Halogen is a member of a family of elements used primarily, in Intel products and throughout the industry, as a flame retardant. Recycling halogen-based products is done by incineration. If halogen is not incinerated properly and is inhaled, it can be toxic and harmful to people.

As the company moved from a 65nm chip to a 45nm chip, the layer of insulation in the chip became thinner and provided opportunity for electrons to travel from one point to another when they are not supposed to, leading to unwanted leakage, according to Intel.

Intel is attacking the problem by replacing components of the transistor with new materials. The company is replacing insulation with high-k material. The polysilicon gate is being replaced by a metal material. Together, the combination allows Intel to make the insulator thicker, which reduces leakage.

"There are no legislative or regulatory requirements forcing us to do this," said Joe Barletta, operations manager at Intel. "This is something Intel has chosen to do because it contributes to our environmental footprint. Doing so created some technical challenges as well, but we think this is the right thing to do."

Faster, Energy-Efficient

Intel has been working on its environmental impact since 1999, according to the company, and announced several efforts on lead reductions since 2003. Intel also has been working on halogen removal since 2004.

The new material enables more than 20 percent improvement in transistor-switching speed and includes 10 times the reduction in outside leakage, according to Intel.

All 5200 and 5400 Xeon-series chips will now be halogen-free. The low-voltage version uses 50 watts...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
RealDVD Allows Copying DVDs To Hard Drives
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61748
Real Networks, best known for its ties to the Rhapsody music service and RealPlayer multimedia software, announced Monday the release of a DVD copy and playback program at DEMOfall 08 in San Diego. RealDVD lets users copy DVDs to hard drives for later playback.

Ryan Lukin, spokesperson for Real Networks said, "It's very reasonable for someone to save a DVD to a portable drive and want the ability, flexibility to watch on his or her home computer, work computer, etc."

Real Need?

Real Networks says average consumers have more than 50 DVDs and shuffling through the stack is time-consuming and discs can get damaged. The company estimates that more than $16 billion has been spent on DVDs.

The company also claims that running DVDs off a hard drive consumes far less power than playing a movie on optical drives, especially laptops. The software preserves all the original features of the DVD, including parental controls, special features, and menus.

According to Real Networks, RealDVD lets users make exact copies of DVDs to any internal or portable hard drive. Multiple, simultaneous playbacks of the DVD are also possible with the RealDVD player. The catch? Up to five users can access the DVD, but only if each of the five are using licensed copies of RealDVD software.

Lukin said, "Each PC needs a separate license. First one is $29.99. Each additional license is $19.99." So home networks and laptops using portable drives would be a natural for accessing a DVD library. The software catalogs all the DVDs for ease of playback and allows categories and search tags.

At 4GB-8GB per movie, that average home library of 50 movies takes up 200GB-400GB of disk space. Some users will probably want to have backups of great DVDs in case the originals get damaged.

The DVD content resides on the media...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Electronic Paper Appears on Magazine, New Reader
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61726
Someday you may be reading this on paper-thin, high-contrast, electronic paper technology. That's the promise of new technology shown Monday by Esquire magazine and Plastic Technology.

For its 75th anniversary issue, Esquire features a first-ever digital cover with moving electronic imagery. The inside of the cover has an electronic ad for the Ford Flex crossover, and the cover flashes "The 21st Century Begins Now."

E-Ink's Technology

The technology is provided by Cambridge, Mass.-based E-Ink, which also provides the core technology for Amazon's Kindle electronic reader. E-Ink uses microcapsules of ink controlled by an electric charge.

E-Ink is also used in the electronic paper offered by Plastic Logic, from the United Kingdom. The company is today previewing a lightweight, electronic newspaper screen twice as large as the Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader. The product is being shown at the DEMOfall 08 conference in San Diego.

The reader is the size of an 8.5x11-inch piece of paper, thinner than a pad of paper and with high-contrast fonts. Rather than targeting consumer markets, as other electronic readers have done, Plastic Logic is targeting business users. CEO Richard Archuleta said his company's research "confirms professionals read much more business content than recreational content," and they require access to digital content at their fingertips.

The Plastic Logic device supports Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus Adobe PDFs, with a gesture-based user interface and tools for information management. It features wired or wireless connectivity, and can store thousands of documents. The key difference between its reader and competitors, according to the company, is that the Plastic Logic reader uses "revolutionary" plastic electronics display technology and a large display, rather than a small display with a glass screen.

The reader is scheduled to ship in the first half of next year. Pricing has not been announced.

'Right on Cusp'

Michael Gartenberg, vice president for...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Excitement and Fear Abound Over Super Collider
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61725
Scientists are getting ready to flip the switch on the largest science experiment ever conducted on Earth -- the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN.

The LHC is a 27-kilometer ring located in the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland, around which high-energy protons will be smashed together in two counter-rotating beams. More than 1,000 magnets will keep the beams -- each containing millions of protons -- on a circular path around the collider, while hundreds more keep the beams focused. The beams will travel at almost the speed of light.

What's the point? To replicate as closely as possible conditions in the universe immediately after the Big Bang, and to search for the elusive Higgs boson, an undiscovered particle that is required for physics' Standard Model to work. The Higgs boson -- popularized as "God's particle" -- was theorized in 1964 by Peter Higgs and independently by a number of other physicists.

Public Fear and Worry

The LHC experiments may enable scientists to observe a number of theorized aspects of the early universe. For one thing, 96 percent of the universe consists of so-called dark matter and dark energy. "They are incredibly difficult to detect and study, other than through the gravitational forces they exert. Investigating the nature of dark matter and dark energy is one of the biggest challenges today in the fields of particle physics and cosmology," CERN explained on its Web site.

The experiments may even be able to detect whether extra dimensions of space exist, as theorized by the "string theory" in theoretical physics.

But the collider has been the subject of intense fear among the public. Public-relations staffers at the LHC are receiving a flood of worried and angry phone calls and e-mails, reported James Gillies, head of PR for the collider. Nobel prize winner...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Chrome's 'Save As' Flaw Could Give Attackers Control
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61724
Bach Khoa Internetwork Security, a security-research firm in Vietnam, claims to be the first to discover a critical vulnerability in Google's Chrome browser.

"This is the first critical Chrome vulnerability permitting [a] hacker to perform a remote code-execution attack and take complete control of the affected system," the firm wrote in its Sept. 5 advisory. While four Chrome vulnerabilities were discovered, Bach Khoa said the "Save As" flaw is the only one that can allow an attacker to launch remote attacks from a victim's PC. Other vulnerabilities just crash the browser.

The vulnerability is caused by a boundary error when handling the "Save As" function. When a user saves a malicious page with a title tag in the HTML code, the program causes a stack-based overflow, according to Bach Khoa. A hacker could construct a specially crafted Web page that contains malicious code, trick a user into visiting that Web site, and convince the user to save the page. That will execute the code and give the attacker privileges to remotely use the infected system.

A Google spokesperson said, ""We have released a fix to address this vulnerability. Users will get this fix through an automated update to the browser, so they will not have to take any action to be protected."

Zeroing in on Chrome

No one should really be surprised by the news of flaws in Chrome, according to Graham Cluley, a senior security consultant at Sophos. Any Google software release is likely to attract a lot of attention from security researchers, he said, all keen to discover if a problem can be found amid all the hoopla of a new product launch.

"The good news is that all the signs are that Google's security team is aware of the importance of securing their applications -- be they on Internet users' hard disks or...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Microsoft Deploying In-Store Customer-Service Reps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61722
As part of its new $300 million marketing campaign and image makeover, Microsoft Corp. plans to deploy its own customer-service representatives at retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City to help people with their PC purchases.

The world's largest software company plans to have 155 "Microsoft Gurus" in U.S. stores by the end of the year, and expand based on the project's success, Microsoft's general manager of corporate communications, Tom Pilla, said Friday.

These gurus will be answering questions about PCs and Microsoft products, as well as giving demos of how the company's products work together -- help designed to get them thinking Microsoft.

"Think of that as borrowing a page from Nordstrom with that retail customer experience," Pilla said, referring to the upscale department store chain known for customer service.

The move is more likely to strike up comparisons with the rival that has portrayed Microsoft as unhip and out of touch -- Apple Inc., which runs "Genius Bars" in its stores to answer questions about Macs and iPods. The Genius Bar also offers technical support on already-purchased products, which the Microsoft reps will not do.

The Microsoft Gurus will not be paid on commission, Pilla said, and instead will be measured by customer satisfaction and their "ability to translate the technology to a language consumers feel comfortable with."

Microsoft had tested about 25 of the service employees in the U.S. and Europe since October 2007.

Richard Williams, a senior software analyst at Cross Research, is curious to see how Microsoft's use of this sort of retail-level marketing plays out, though he cautioned that such services can get expensive.

With consumer spending tight in a weak economy, he said, "it may be necessary to provide exceptional services to draw additional market share," he said.

Its Gurus join a barrage of efforts behind Microsoft's latest and largest-ever marketing campaign,...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
U.S. Moving To Adopt International Accounting Standards
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61713
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to allow some large American companies to begin using international accounting standards as early as next year, and to require all U.S. companies to do so by 2016.

The SEC voted unanimously on Wednesday to propose a "road map" for conversion, with eventual adoption depending in part on revised provisions for financing the group that writes the international standards.

The adoption of international accounting standards by the United States would move the world toward one set of standards, which should make it easier for investors to compare companies operating in differing regions -- and make it easier for firms to raise capital in whatever market seems most attractive.

"The proposed road map is cautious and careful," said the chairman of the SEC, Christopher Cox.

Under the proposal, a small group of large companies, which the SEC estimated at about 110 firms, would be allowed to use the international rules in financial statements issued after Dec. 15, 2009. This means that companies on a calendar-year basis could use the international rules for their 2009 annual reports.

To be allowed to do that, the company would have to be among the 20 largest companies in its industry around the world, and a large number of its competitors would have to already be using the international standards.

The commission said it would consider requiring large American companies to move to the international standards for their 2014 financial statements, with smaller ones required to make the move in 2015 and the smallest -- but largest number -- allowed to delay until 2016. Under the plan, a final decision on those companies would be made in 2011.

That decision would be made by an SEC whose chairman would have been appointed by a new president. But by allowing some U.S. companies to stop using...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Hackers Track Online Acts of War
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61711
In the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, a new breed of hackers is conducting digital espionage.

They are among a growing number of investigators monitoring how traffic is routed through various countries, where Web sites are blocked and why it's happening. Now they are turning their scrutiny to a new weapon of warfare: cyber attacks.

Tracking wars isn't what many of the researchers set out to do. Many began intending to help people in countries that censor online content. But as the Internet has evolved, so has their mission.

Ronald J. Deibert, the director of the Citizen Lab, calls the organization a "global civil society counterintelligence agency."

Researchers say Internet assaults are playing a larger role in military strategy and political struggles. Even before Russia invaded Georgia last month, Citizen Lab's researchers noticed sporadic attacks aimed at several Georgian Web sites. Such attacks are especially threatening to countries increasingly linking critical activities such as banking and transportation to the Internet. Once fighting began, massive raids on Georgia's Internet infrastructure were deployed using techniques similar to those used by Russian criminal organizations. Then, attacks seemed to come from individuals who found online instructions, and they shut down much of Georgia's communication system.

"These attacks in effect had the same effect that a military attack would have," said Rafal Rohozinski, who co-founded the Information Warfare Monitor, which tracks cyber attacks with Citizen Lab, in 2003.

The cyber attacks marked the first time such an assault coincided with physical fighting.

Georgian Internet providers also limited access to Russian media outlets, cutting off the only remaining updates about the war. On Aug. 12 -- the height of the fighting -- "there was panic in Tbilisi brought about by a vacuum of information," Mr. Rohozinski said. Seven years ago, Mr. Deibert opened the Citizen...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Tiger Woods Tops This Season's Golf Games
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61709
If you're like most sports fans, you haven't watched that much golf since June, when Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open -- and then announced he was getting knee surgery and was done playing for the rest of 2008. Since then, the PGA Tour has suffered from the absence of its most glamorous celebrity.

But while we may not be watching golf, that doesn't mean we aren't playing it. Even if you don't have an entire day to spend on the links, or if you can't afford the clubs and the greens fees, you can still squeeze in 18 holes in about half an hour. And it's all thanks to video golf.

Golf games have been around almost from the start of the video-game era, but over the last decade or so, EA Sports' "Tiger Woods" series has been atop the leaderboard. This year's edition has a bigger selling point: It's the only way you can see Woods play before 2009.

_"Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09" (EA Sports, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $59.99; Wii, $49.99; PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, $39.99): Woods isn't the only familiar face in his namesake game: You'll also compete against pros like Vijay Singh and Annika Sorenstam. But the one guy you'll really see a lot of is Woods' coach Hank Haney, who pops up after every round with exercises to improve various aspects of your game. Haney is a welcome addition, and I found that his drills actually did improve my overall performance.

The big improvement in "PGA Tour 09" is in the mechanics of swinging your club. The analog controls in last year's edition made it too difficult to gauge the power and accuracy of your shots. This time, EA has added on-screen indicators to give you a better idea, before you make the shot, of...

Tue, 9 Sep 08
Drivers Rely on OnStar To Evade Hurricane Gustav
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61707
For the most part, the callers were calm, patiently asking for the fastest path out of New Orleans or some other Gulf Coast city as Hurricane Gustav twisted its way to the northwest.

They started calling General Motors Corp.'s OnStar service by the thousands early Saturday, and by Sunday their numbers had grown to more than 3,000 an hour.

As more than 2 million people tried to outrun the deadly storm, OnStar beefed up its staff to around 500 and put emergency plans in place at three call centers in Pontiac, Mich.; Oshawa, Canada; and Charlotte, N.C.

The storm calls are sent to specially trained OnStar advisers, many of whom were on duty during Hurricane Katrina.

"They're more prepared. They know what questions have been asked," said Brad Williams, a service manager for the automaker's motorist help line who was overseeing OnStar's response from a command center in Detroit.

The advisers were armed with computerized maps, databases of hotels with vacancies and even locations of Red Cross emergency shelters, Williams said.

All day, callers asked for the closest hotel with vacant rooms. They asked OnStar to find loved ones who were on the road. But most of all, they wanted to get around the clogged interstate evacuation routes.

"They don't want to get on the major highways because they know traffic is at a standstill," said Kim Dupee, a senior adviser in Charlotte who spent much of Sunday directing people out of metro New Orleans.

"It's steady. The calls don't stop."

Advisers reported that most callers were calm, leaving well in advance of the storm. Governments and drivers, they said, were far better prepared for Gustav than they were for Hurricane Katrina.

By Sunday evening, OnStar was telling people that most hotels were booked up in areas along the Gulf and even as far inland as Dallas. They were...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
App Stores: Microsoft, Google Follow Apple
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61723
When Apple opened its iTunes App Store in July, the idea of a mass-market Web site that sells downloadable games, tools, and other applications for cell phones was a rarity. Handset owners could buy apps from their carriers or the occasional niche site. But these days, the app store concept is becoming commonplace. The question is, does the world need a warren of wireless app stores?

In the coming six months, at least four would-be rivals of Apple will probably open their own online bazaars where developers of all stripes will sell downloadable software applications to make cell phones more fun and useful. Google has already announced its plans, while Microsoft, Symbian, and T-Mobile USA are in the likely-to camp.

The appeal of an app store is undeniable. Since the App Store debut, users of Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch have downloaded more than 60 million applications, sampling the more than 3,000 games, calendars, and fitness applications on offer for as much as $10 a pop, though some are available at no charge. Sales averaged $1 million a day in the first month.

Microsoft's Skymarket Is Coming

Microsoft and other owners of competing operating systems want to ensure Apple's popularity doesn't take a toll on their own market share. "People are chasing the iPhone," says Van Baker, an analyst at consultancy Gartner. Microsoft's plans to launch a store were laid bare by job descriptions posted Sept. 2 on job board computerjobs.com. The mobile applications marketplace, to be called Skymarket, may launch in tandem with the next version of Microsoft's cell-phone software, Windows Mobile 7, expected in 2009.

While he wouldn't confirm or deny plans for Skymarket, Scott Rockfeld, group product manager for Microsoft's mobile communications business, says the company ultimately wants to provide a resource, akin to CBS's CNET, which...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Bill and Jerry Chat as Confusing Windows Blitz Begins
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61721
Microsoft's Seinfeld campaign launched Thursday night. The $300 million campaign starring the well-known comedian Jerry Seinfeld, however, didn't say anything about Windows.

The ad shows Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates picking out a new pair of shoes at a discount store. Seinfeld notices him and helps Gates test several pairs of shoes before finally selecting the perfect fit.

What does buying shoes have to do with Windows? Microsoft is calling it an effort to reconnect with consumers around the globe.

Future commercials will highlight how Windows has become part and parcel of the lives of consumers everywhere on PCs, online and through mobile devices. The first ads seek to start a conversation about the Windows brand using Seinfeld's offbeat humor, Microsoft said.

A New Chapter in Windows History

"Windows is entering a new chapter in our history," said Bill Veghte, a Microsoft senior vice president, said in a feature article Microsoft published to explain the campaign. "We're renewing our commitment to consumers and working with our partners to deliver quality and value on the PC, across devices, and across the Web."

According to Brad Brooks, corporate vice president for Windows consumer product marketing, the effort stems largely from the fact that Microsoft's brand and products, and the way people use technology in general, are vastly different now than they were even a decade ago. Microsoft's historic relationship with consumers has become insufficient in this new world, he said, and that's a situation that has led the company to fundamentally rebuild the customer experience.

"When you think of more than a billion people using Windows across the globe, each person with a unique set of circumstances, and then factor in three Windows platforms and what they can do, it's hard to even comprehend the number of unique scenarios Windows can potentially address," Brooks said. "So how can...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Samsung May Buy SanDisk, Consolidate Flash Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61720
A major consolidation of the flash-memory market may be in the works. Samsung, the world's largest memory manufacturer, says it may make an offer for SanDisk, which makes flash-memory chips. SanDisk is valued at $3.2 billion.

The flash-memory space has been under extreme pressure with prices falling. The deal would allow Samsung to eliminate its costs to license SanDisk technology.

"We are looking at various opportunities regarding SanDisk, but nothing has been decided yet," Samsung spokesperson James Chung said in response to rumors.

Samsung also identified an acquisition of SanDisk as a possibility in a regulatory filing. SanDisk shares spiked up 24 percent on Friday.

Defeat for Toshiba

If the purchase goes forward, it could be a major strategic defeat for Samsung competitor Toshiba, analysts said. Toshiba is planning to double its flash-chip production in a partnership with SanDisk, so Samsung's acquisition could squeeze Toshiba, which trails Samsung.

"Samsung buying SanDisk would mean big damage for Toshiba," Yoshihisa Toyosaki, the head of technology analyst firm J-Star, told Reuters.

Samsung pays SanDisk more than $350 million a year in licensing fees and is reportedly looking to reduce that cost through the acquisition.

Antitrust Scrutiny

"Although SanDisk and Toshiba are partners, there are doubts as to whether SanDisk will continue to invest" in the joint venture, James Song, an analyst at Daewoo Securities, told Reuters. "So in the medium- to long-term, Samsung would be able to gain more control over the flash market."

In addition, Samsung would take advantage of SanDisk's marketing presence to build its reputation in flash memory. "Toshiba is trying to take business and market share away from Samsung. Samsung could suppress this by taking control of SanDisk and gaining access to its basic patents," Toyosaki said.

But such a move could face strict antitrust scrutiny. C.W. Chung, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, said it's not clear that the...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Chrome Hints Google Aims To Become 'Big Brother'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61719
What's behind Google's release of its new Chrome browser? While the software boasts some impressive technology, does Google seriously mean to reopen the browser wars, even against its open-source partner Mozilla?

On the one hand, observers say, Chrome is an assault on Microsoft, but not in the obvious, browser-war sense. On the other hand, a number of revelations about how Google is using the browser raise substantial privacy concerns.

Indeed, they say, Chrome reveals just how vast Google's ambitions are -- and they go well beyond roughing up Microsoft.

Google vs Microsoft

For starters, Chrome is a "direct attack on Microsoft," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, in an e-mail message. Even the name is a dig. "Microsoft Chrome Effects was the most ambitious attempt to transform the Windows front end, and it failed largely due to internal politics and an untimely disagreement with Intel," Enderle said.

Chrome isn't about unseating Internet Explorer but a stab at Microsoft's fundamental life force -- Windows itself. "Chrome is intended to render Windows irrelevant by taking over the windowing system and allowing it to be platform-independent, breaking the dependency over time on legacy Windows applications," Enderle said.

A PC World article pointed out how Chrome is missing numerous features that users take for granted -- a drop-down menu bar, plug-ins and extensions, a powerful history search. But Chrome isn't about users, Enderle said. It's meant to be a "better front end for applications, not Web browsing," he said. "Chrome is a feint at IE but a flanking move on Windows."

Google vs the World?

The computer world is powerfully dominated by Microsoft. To fundamentally change that equation means, in Google CEO Eric Schmidt's estimation, not a power-sharing arrangement but the decimation of the empire. In the language of geopolitics, Microsoft is the Soviet Union. The question is...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
iPhone Gets EA's Spore Origins, More Mobile Titles
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61718
If you can't manage to occupy yourself Web surfing, e-mailing or listening to tunes on your iPhone, EA Mobile has just announced a raft of games for the iPod touch and the iPhone. Phone games have become a real phenomenon as more and more mobile devices have enough screen real estate and processing power to become a viable game platform. The EA announcement Friday focused on the release of Spore Origins for the Apple mobile market, but the company also released details of nine other upcoming mobile game titles.

Mobile Spore Origins

It's not the full-blown evolutionary strategy game you'll find on the PC and Mac, but EA's Spore Origins gives iPhone users a taste of "survival of the fittest" by incorporating two modes of play in the mobile version. In evolution mode, players create, edit, tweak and customize their creatures and explore strange worlds. In survival mode, players are prey and predator, advancing through 35 levels of eat-or-be-eaten action.

According to EA Mobile, the game incorporates the motion-sensing capabilities of the iPhone, so gamers can navigate creatures by tilting and moving the handset (as if talking aloud on a wireless headset didn't make you look odd enough). No word on whether the mobile version incorporates any of the more sexually explicit features of the main Spore game.

In a statement released by the company, Travis Boatman, vice president of worldwide studios at EA Mobile, said, "We're really excited to bring Spore Origins to the iPhone and iPod touch. By leveraging the unique capabilities of these devices, players can customize their own creatures and shape their destiny in an exciting evolutionary journey."

In contrast, EA's full-blown Spore allows for nearly total customization of the worlds and creatures that inhabit them, providing ample opportunity to tweak environment and evolutionary features. Supposedly...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Online TV Viewing Approaches the Mainstream
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61717
Nearly 20 percent of American households are tuning into TV over the Internet. That's twice the number from 2006, according to new research from The Conference Board Consumer Research Center and market-research firm TNS. The most popular destinations for online broadcasts? The official TV channel home page and YouTube.com.

The growing movement toward watching TV online is attributable, in part, to schedule-bucking viewers who want to watch the shows they want to watch when they want to watch them. Other reasons for the rise in online TV viewing include portability and the ability to skip commercials.

"Most consumers are pressed for time and require flexibility in their daily schedules and TV viewing habits," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "Being able to watch broadcasts on their own time and at their convenience are clearly reasons why we are seeing a greater number turning to the Internet. And, it is the reason why we would expect to see this trend continue."

Content on Demand Is King

News, drama, sitcom/comedy, reality shows and sports are the top five types of shows viewed online. User-generated content followed close behind.

Specifically, 43 percent of online TV viewers tune into the news, 39 percent watch drama shows, 34 percent view sitcom/comedy shows, 23 percent watch reality shows, 16 percent view sports, and 15 percent view user-generated content. Previews, additional content from favorite shows, soap operas and advertisements are also gaining the attention of online TV viewers.

Despite citing portability as a reason for watching TV online, almost 90 percent of viewers said they watch online broadcasts at home. About 15 percent said they watch Internet broadcasts in the office, and six percent watch from other locations, including the library or a friend's house.

"The shift from appointment TV to content on demand is well under...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Dell Is Considering Selling Its Factories
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61716
Dell is tightening its belt by another notch. As part of its continuing effort to cut costs and increase its competitiveness, the computer maker is reportedly considering selling its factories.

An article in Friday's Wall Street Journal reported that, according to unnamed sources, Dell has been approaching contract computer manufacturers in recent months "with offers to sell its plants." One source told the newspaper that the Round Rock, Texas-based company expects to sell most, if not all, of its factories "within the next 18 months."

Unsold factories would simply close, and Dell would get its computers made by contract manufacturers. The Journal report noted that ex-Dell factories could be first in line for contracts to continue making machines for Dell -- an obvious sweetener to any possible deal.

Shares Drop 18 Percent

For more than a year, Dell has been trying to find ways to reduce its expenses and expand its distribution. The reported move toward additional cost-cutting comes as Dell struggles to regain its financial footing and competitive position. Last week, it reported quarterly profits that led to shares dropping more than 18 percent.

The move to close its factories is an indication of how seriously this cost-cutting has become, as Dell once prided itself on highly efficient, build-on-demand PC manufacturing tailored to customer requirements. In ads and publicity, Dell touted that a customer's computer was built after the order had been placed -- often within hours of the order. This just-in-time approach minimized any unsold inventory.

And, by not having to deal with retail channels, Dell also was able to maximize channel efficiency. But, for laptops and other computer products, a number of customers prefer to buy in a brick-and-mortar store, where they can see the product, talk to a real person, and return it if there is a problem. As a...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Comcast Challenges FCC's Authority To Order Neutrality
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61715
Comcast fired back at the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday in its long-running duel with the agency. The cable-TV and Internet service provider filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

The filing is the result of a FCC hearing last month in which Comcast was sanctioned for throttling back the broadband speed of customers using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing application. The FCC ordered Comcast to provide plans for equitably managing its bandwidth and to make its network-management policies public.

Comcast's View

Comcast had already agreed to the FCC's demands and rapidly put into place a management program that capped home Internet users -- regardless of the application used -- at 250GB per month. The cap was widely reported in media outlets, bill inserts to Comcast customers, and banner announcements on Comcast's Web site.

The suit is not about the nature of the commission's sanction, but whether the FCC has the authority to make such a ruling.

"We filed this appeal in order to protect our legal rights and to challenge the basis on which the commission found that Comcast violated federal policy in the absence of preexisting legally enforceable standards or rules," Comcast said. "We continue to recognize that the commission has jurisdiction over Internet service providers and may regulate them in appropriate circumstances and in accordance with appropriate procedures. However, we are compelled to appeal because we strongly believe that, in this particular case, the commission's action was legally inappropriate and its findings were not justified by the record."

The FCC's Position

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has said the agency could not have a specific guideline in place regarding network management before the Comcast hearing, since the commission wants to keep the Internet as unregulated as possible. The FCC also believes, according to Martin, that the existing Broadband Policy Statement...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Vodafone To Resell Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 Netbook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61700
Just one day after Dell announced it was moving into the market of netbooks by introducing its new Inspiron Mini 9, which weighs less than 2.3 pounds and has an 8.9-inch LED display, the company said it is partnering with Vodafone to resell the Mini 9 in Europe.

The two companies said Friday that the Mini 9 would be sold with a Vodafone built-in mobile broadband connection, which supports High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA). Sales will be exclusively through Vodafone stores and online, and directly from Dell, later this month in key markets in Europe.

"Dell and Vodafone have teamed up to offer 3G/mobile broadband support in the Inspiron Mini -- a device that is built for Internet connectivity on the go," said Anne Camden, a spokesperson for Dell, in an e-mail. "Dell and Vodafone initially teamed up in 2006 to offer integrated HSPA support across Dell's commercial and consumer laptops and continue to do so today."

"Vodafone will also offer the Inspiron Mini through its retail outlets, which fits our retail strategy: develop the right products that will appeal to our retail partners' customers, and expose Dell products to customers we may not have typically reached in the past," Camden added.

Dell's other retail partners in Europe include Carrefour, Tesco and DSGi.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell and Vodafone would not disclose in exactly which markets the Mini 9 would be available or how much it will cost. "Details around specific market availability will follow in the next few weeks," Camden said.

Key Features

The Vodafone-equipped netbook will allow owners to surf the Web, share photos on social-networking sites, and connect any place and any time, according to Dell and Vodafone. Features include an solid-state drive that holds up to 16GB compared to a traditional laptop hard drive.

"The recent acceleration in the...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Cablevision Completes First Phase of Wi-Fi Buildout
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61688
Cablevision Systems Corp. said Thursday it has finished the first phase of its wireless network buildout in New York and remains on track to complete the project in two years.

The diversified cable operator is offering the Wi-Fi service at no charge to its 2.4 million Internet customers at speeds of up to 1.5 Megabits per second, similar to DSL at home.

The company currently doesn't have plans to offer the service to non-subscribers.

The Wi-Fi network, which is expected to cost about $310 million overall, is Cablevision's answer to a wireless option being pursued by other cable operators.

Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision announced the Wi-Fi project in May, soon after cable operators Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks joined chipmaker Intel Corp., Google Inc., Clearwire Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp. in a joint venture to offer a wireless Internet service.

Cablevision's first phase of Wi-Fi deployment comprised parts of Nassau and Suffolk counties and commuter rail platforms and station parking lots in Long Island.

The cable operator already has Wi-Fi pockets in other parts of New York, as well as in New Jersey and Connecticut. These will be folded into the Wi-Fi buildout announced in May.

Consumers seeking more information should log onto http://www.optimumwifi.com.

Sat, 6 Sep 08
HP Notebook Will Be Packaged in a Reusable Bag
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61685
Hewlett-Packard, responding to a challenge by Wal-Mart Stores to offer more ecologically friendly products, said Wednesday that it was selling a new notebook computer in a fabric messenger bag instead of packaging it in a box.

The change reduced by 97 percent the foam, cardboard and plastic used in packaging, Hewlett-Packard, which is based in Palo Alto, California, said in a statement.

The new computer, the Pavilion PC, went on sale for $798 Wednesday at almost 1,700 Wal-Mart outlets and 594 Sam's Club stores in the United States.

Hewlett-Packard, the largest maker of personal computers, has been trying to win over environmentally conscious customers by promoting its recycling programs for printers and PCs and by improving the energy efficiency of its machines.

With the new packaging, the company also can ship 25 percent more computers in each truck, reducing transportation costs, said Dana Harrold, marketing manager for consumer notebook products.

Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, started a contest in May 2007 that asked 30 consumer-electronics suppliers to rethink product design and packaging. Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, will gauge customers' interest in the packaging, Shannon Frederick, a spokeswoman, said.

Lexmark International, Sanyo Electric and Philips Electronics were among the other companies that entered the Wal-Mart contest. Frederick declined to disclose the full list of companies that submitted entries.

Wal-Mart judged the products on three criteria: design, product innovation that reduces environmental impact, and packaging design that reduces waste and the use of toxic materials.

Because of its size, Wal-Mart is considered one of the few retailers with enough clout to directly change global energy consumption.

The company has set a long-term goal of using only renewable energy and creating zero waste. It has challenged its suppliers to cut back on packaging and to increase energy efficiency in their products.

Sat, 6 Sep 08
EU Preparing Sharp Cuts in Fees for Text Messages
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61682
The European Union's telecommunications minister plans to propose a new set of price controls that would sharply cut the roaming fees charged by mobile operators to send short text messages while also reducing the cost of surfing the Internet on a cell phone.

Details of the proposal, obtained by the International Herald Tribune on Wednesday, show that the minister, Viviane Reding, will seek to cap retail roaming fees for short text messages, or SMS, within the European Union at 11 euro cents, or 16 U.S. cents, a message.

That would be a 62 percent reduction from the current average of 29 cents, according to the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU.

Reding also intends to recommend a cap on the wholesale cost of using mobile phones to access the Internet -- the fees operators charge each other -- that would halve the average cost to euro 1 a megabyte from euro 2.

SMS roaming prices range from 6 cents in Estonia to 80 cents in Belgium, according to the European Regulators Group, a panel of the European Union's 27 national telecommunications regulators.

"SMS prices are really too high so bringing them down is best thing that can happen for consumers," said Monique Goyens, the director general of the European Consumers' Organization, a Brussels group representing 41 consumer organizations in Europe.

In 2007, Europeans spent euro 800 million in SMS roaming charges and euro 560 million on data roaming services, according to the commission. They also spent euro 5.2 billion in voice roaming charges that year. Over all, euro 300 billion was spent on telecommunications in Europe, the European Information Technology Observatory said.

Reding devised the EU's limits on charges for voice roaming, which took effect a year ago and have, according to her, saved European consumers an average of 60 percent for the service.

Her new...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Demand Grows for Used Apple iPhones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61641
As the head of a company that sells used consumer electronics, David Chen follows sales of the iPhone with the precision of a mathematician. At the outset, the price of the first version of Apple's music-playing wireless device behaved as expected: When the newer iPhone 3G hit store shelves, demand for the earlier iteration plummeted. Then the unexpected happened.

Within days of the iPhone 3G launch, demand for used, older iPhone models began rising, and prices began a steady climb. "We've been raising our prices over the past few weeks," says Chen, who runs NextWorth.com, a Web site that buys and resells used iPhones and iPods. "It's an anomaly, but there's still a lot of demand for the first-generation [device]." As of Aug. 26, NextWorth Solutions was paying $200 and $300 respectively for gently-used, 8-Gigabyte and 16-GB original iPhone models. That's up $50 from what his company paid a month earlier -- and at the high end, on par with the price of a new 16-GB version of iPhone 3G -- for the latest iteration of the iPhone, with more features and faster download speeds.

The used devices fetch an even higher price, of course, when they're sold to a consumer. On e-commerce site eBay, where NextWorth peddles many of its wares, a 16-GB version of the first-generation iPhone goes for about $600, and an 8-GB model in good condition commands $500. When it was new, the 16-GB phone sold for $499; the 8-GB model went for $399. Today, AT&T's most expensive iPhone 3G model sells for $300 with a two-year service contract. "The old iPhone [in mint condition] is very hard to find," says Shawn Zade, who sells mobile phones through New York-based WirelessImports.com. "There's a lot of demand."

Bustling Competition

Why pay a premium for an older, less advanced model? Some users...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Microsoft Boasts One Million Office Live Workspace Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61699
The beta version of Office Live Workspace has one million users just six months after launch, Microsoft announced Wednesday as it released some minor improvements to the service.

"It takes companies years to attract a strong customer base such as this," boasted Microsoft Office product manager Kirk Gregersen. The rapid pace of adoption is a sign of a pent-up market for online access to documents, Gregersen said. Users are "looking for ways to resolve the complexities of their work, school and home projects through a range of choices," he said.

Office Live Workspace is not an online version of Microsoft's shrink-wrapped Office suite but a way for owners of the desktop software to upload, share and collaborate on documents.

Office 2.0 Conference

The announcement came on the eve of the Office 2.0 Conference though Friday in San Francisco, where productivity consultant David Allen was the keynote speaker and more than a dozen startups are demonstrating their products.

Among Microsoft's enhancements are an activity panel, the ability to get e-mail notifications of changes, unique URLs so documents can be bookmarked and linked, and improved support for the Firefox browser.

But many proponents of online office-productivity applications remain underwhelmed with Microsoft's offering, which is expected to leave beta status by the end of the year. A typical comment comes from Cnet's Rafe Needleman: "Yay, Microsoft. Now go back and build the service we want, please."

Ironically, given Microsoft's dominance in the desktop productivity space, the burden now appears to be on Redmond to catch up with Google Docs, which, although it can't compete with the sophistication of Microsoft Office, provides real-time online collaboration in a browser for free.

In the Enterprise

"I believe Microsoft could make an honest Google Docs competitor without killing its Microsoft Office business," Needleman wrote. "Eventually, Microsoft will have to. So it might be...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Microsoft Slashes Prices of Xbox 360 Models
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61698
There is something for everyone, according to Microsoft officials who are touting the company's new prices for all three models of its video game console, the Xbox 360.

On Wednesday, U.S. consumers saw the Xbox 360 Arcade base model drop from $279 to $199 just a day after the software giant cut prices by 30 percent for the Xbox in Japan. And beginning on Friday, prices for additional Xbox models will drop. The 60GB Xbox Pro model will drop from $349 to $299, and the 120GB Xbox Elite will have a new $399 price tag compared to its old price of $449.

Microsoft also said that beginning this fall, the Xbox 360 would be the only console offering instant streaming of 12,000 films and television shows from Netflix. In order to view those films and shows, consumers need an Xbox Live Gold membership and need to have an unlimited Netflix subscription plan. Analysts say this kind of innovation may thrust Xbox ahead of its game-console competitors, Nintendo and Sony.

Historic Indicators

The move to offer the Xbox 360 for less than $200 is spurred by increased competition from Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Wii both in the United States and across the globe.

Microsoft, however, said it is just following historic indicators. History shows that more than 75 percent of all console sales occur after the price falls below the $200 mark, according to Don Mattrick, senior vice president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business. "The majority of consumers make the decision to buy consoles once the price falls to this mark, making this an important milestone for consumers in the industry," Mattrick said.

Nintendo's Wii, in comparison, is priced at $249, while Sony's 80GB PlayStation 3 is $399.

Taking the Lead

Electronic Arts, a publisher of interactive games and software, came out last December with its predictions...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Dell Previews $349 Linux-Based Inspiron Mini 9 Netbook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61697
Dell has taken the wraps off a new mini-notebook PC squarely aimed at U.S. consumers. Called the Inspiron Mini 9, the PC maker's first offering in the so-called netbook category sports an 8.9-inch LED screen with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels.

To whittle the product's minimum-weight requirements down to just 2.28 lbs, the netbook is equipped with a solid-state drive instead of a standard laptop hard drive. According to Dell, the device is capable of operating for up to four hours off a single battery charge.

Under the Hood

The stripped-down version of the Inspiron Mini sports a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor and an Intel 950 media graphics accelerator, 512MB of DDR2 SDRAM, and a 4GB solid-state drive. An externally accessible 3-in-1 memory card reader is also on tap, together with external USB 2.0, VGA and Ethernet ports.

Dell has teamed up with Box.net to offer purchasers an additional 2GB of free online storage, which can be incrementally expanded to as much as 25GB for a fee. Buyers also have the option of expanding the capacity of the device's internal solid-state drive to a maximum of 16GB as well as upgrading to 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM.

Available this autumn at a starting price of $349, the Inspiron Mini will ship with an integrated Wi-Fi (802.11g) radio to enable users to wirelessly connect to the Internet. Though the entry-level device will feature the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system, buyers have the option of switching to Windows XP Home Edition for an extra $50. Other customization options include the addition of a Bluetooth chip for enabling the device to link up with nearby wireless printers and other Bluetooth-enabled accessories.

Growing The Market

Making the Inspiron Mini hugely popular in the U.S. will be a challenge for Dell in the short term. Though several mini-notebook PCs...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
TiVo Releases 1TB DVR, Inks a Deal with DirecTV
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61696
TiVo dropped two big announcements Thursday at CEDIA, the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association trade show that opened Wednesday in Denver, Colo.

First up was TiVo's one-terabyte high-definition DVR box, the HD XL. Next was a deal to bring the TiVo experience to DirecTV subscribers.

Massive Storage for the Masses

There's never been a 1TB DVR until now. But with terabyte drives at bargain prices, it was inevitable. Add the fact that high-definition content chews up storage at a rate nearly three times that of traditional video, and the capacity doesn't seem excessive.

TiVo claims the HD XL will hold more than 150 hours of high-definition content -- about 70 movies. The DVR is also THX sound certified and includes a premium backlit remote, a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), and a cable.

"Our user interface lets users search and program recording from their satellite or cable, off-air, the Internet -- it's an 'all-in' solution -- with great capacity for high-definition programming," said Jim Denney, vice president of product marketing at TiVo. The box retails for $599, and a TiVo service subscription starts at $12.95 a month.

DirecTiVo

Perhaps bigger news in the long term for TiVo was its joint announcement with DirecTV. Under the terms of their agreement, TiVo will work with DirecTV to deliver set-top boxes for DirecTV customers.

"TiVo's partnership with DirecTV is a win for both of them. TiVo has a good name, good product, and the user interface is better than most DVRs," said Joshua Martin, senior analyst for consumer products at the Yankee Group. "And DirecTV gets a great user interface for an HD DVR."

In fact, the DVR hardware will be produced by DirecTV. TiVo's Denney said, "We're working closely with them on the design, but it's their hardware and the TiVo software."

Analysts have seen the stand-alone DVR market, which...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Red Hat Snaps Up Qumranet in $107 Million Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61695
Red Hat on Thursday announced the acquisition of Qumranet, paying about $107 million in cash for the privately held company.

Qumranet is a virtualization company that is best known for its KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) platform and SolidICE offering, a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). In combination, these two Qumranet products offer a virtualization platform for enterprise customers.

Red Hat will also pick up Qumranet's talent. The company's team of professionals that develop, test and support Qumranet solutions, as well as leaders of the open-source community KVM project, will join Red Hat.

"Red Hat customers enjoy highly responsive, flexible and cost-effective IT infrastructures," said Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of Red Hat. "This acquisition furthers our capability to widen the gap between open source and proprietary infrastructure software."

The Next Generation of Virtualization

Whitehurst went on to say that Qumranet's KVM and VDI technologies are at the forefront of the next generation of virtualization. He's convinced these technologies represent an opportunity to raise the bar and meet the market's demand for virtualization solutions.

Red Hat said it acquired Qumranet to forward its efforts to transform the virtualization market and drive end-to-end virtualization technology and management solutions into every system, from servers to desktops, on both Linux and Windows. With Qumranet in its portfolio, the company can offer a solution that integrates with the operating system. That brings with it a promise to drive down IT costs and enhance the flexibility and responsiveness of the IT infrastructure.

"With this acquisition, Red Hat has clearly positioned itself as a competitor within the virtual desktop market," said Michael Rose, a research analyst at IDC. "KVM not only represents a competent platform for hosting virtual desktops and other workloads, but protocols such as SPICE will increase the performance that users can expect to experience from their server-based computing environments, making the...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
iPod and iTunes Lead Apple Announcement Speculation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61693
The drumbeat of expectations for Apple's Sept. 9 announcements continues. Fueled by Apple's cryptic "Let's Rock" and "playing soon" e-mails to reporters, the blogosphere has lit up with opinions on what will be announced. One blog is even holding a contest for readers -- whoever gets the most announcements right, wins.

Joshua Martin, an analyst at the Yankee Group, said, "ITunes upgrades and iPod innovations are inevitable. Apple has done a great job distancing themselves from the competition, so they don't necessarily need to have major new introductions, but don't put it past [CEO Steve] Jobs to do something big nonetheless."

The Obvious

With a "Let's Rock" theme, the announcements would indeed appear to focus on the iPod and iTunes. Wired's blog claims to have blueprints of a new 4GB iPod touch and iPod nano. The touch looks slimmer and appears to have external, mechanical volume controls, something users have requested.

A price drop also should be a no-brainer as the current iPod touch costs $100 more than the latest iPhone 3G. A 2GB iPod nano with a bigger screen and better video is also an odds-on favorite. And there could be more behind the nano screens than music files.

"Look for Wi-Fi to be added to more iPod devices and possibly some social-networking features. I know that was tried by another company a while back on their portable Wi-Fi MP3 players, but they didn't have a big enough market," Martin said in an obvious reference to Microsoft's Zune and its failed Zune-to-Zune Wi-Fi music sharing.

There's also some speculation that a new nano model might run some applications from Apple's App Store.

The iTunes Store is reportedly getting a refresh with music CD-like liner notes, still photographs, and music video content for participating artists. Snow Patrol, the Scottish pop-rock phenom, is expected to be the first...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Sony Recalls VAIO Laptops To Avoid Overheating
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61678
Sony has issued a recall for thousands of its VAIO laptop computers in the U.S. because of possible overheating or short-circuits.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday that Sony's recall is voluntary, and it recommended that VAIO owners stop using the products unless otherwise instructed. The recall affects about 73,000 Vaio TZ-series computers in the U.S. The Kyodo news agency in Japan is reporting that the recall applies to 440,000 units worldwide.

15 Reports of Overheating

The safety commission said the reason for the recall is because "irregularly positioned wires near the computer's hinge and/or a dislodged screw inside the hinge can cause a short-circuit and overheating."

It added that this hazard could result in burns to consumers. In fact, the commission reported that Sony has received 15 reports of overheating, including one person who received a minor burn.

The affected models are the VAIO VGN-TZ100 series, VGN-TZ200 series, VGN-TZ300 series, and VGN-TZ2000 series. The commission said owners of these models should stop using the computers "immediately" and get in touch with Sony to see if their unit is affected. Sony will arrange for any needed inspection or repair.

Sony posted a statement on its eSupport site that said "the issues involve a small number of units which may overheat due to a wiring problem."

Sony's Efforts

It added that consumers with VAIO notebooks should visit http://esupport.sony.com/fixmypc. At that site, users will be asked to input their product code and serial number from the bottom of the notebook. If a consumer has an affected model, there are instructions on the site about how to set up an inspection. A hotline number is also posted.

Sony said it would not charge for inspections, and, if necessary, it would arrange for on-site repairs at the owner's home or office -- or owners can ship their unit to...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Google's Chrome Grabs Market, But It's Not Finished
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61677
Google Chrome. It's a browser that was admittedly still in the development oven when Google released it, so are Internet Explorer 8-killer comments premature? Some analysts think so.

On Tuesday, Google launched its latest innovation: a new open-source browser intended to create a better Web experience. Chrome is now available in more than 40 languages for the Windows operating system.

Flanked by promises on one side and hype on the other, Chrome took one percent of the global browser market within a day of launch, according to Web traffic-analysis company StatCounter.

"This is a phenomenal performance," said Aodhan Cullen of StatCounter. "This is war on Microsoft, but the big loser could be Firefox." StatCounter's analysis also revealed that Internet Explorer holds 70 percent of the global browser market, followed by Firefox with 22 percent.

A New Approach To Browsing?

Firefox isn't worried, according to blog posts from Mozilla's CEO welcoming Chrome to the competitive browser landscape. Chrome does offer some new takes on the browsing experience. Chrome combines the search and address bar, and when users open a new tab they'll see a page that includes snapshots of their most-visited sites, recent searches, and bookmarks.

What's more, each browser tab operates as a separate process. By isolating tabs, Google said, if one tab crashes or misbehaves, the others remain stable and users can continue working without having to restart the browser. Google also built a new JavaScript engine, V8, which not only speeds up Web applications but enables a whole new class of applications that can't run in other browsers, according to the search titan.

"While we see this as a fundamental shift in the way people think about browsers, we realize that we couldn't have created Google Chrome on our own," said Linus Upson, director of engineering at Google. "Google Chrome was built upon other...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Computer Industry 'Green Giants' Take on E-Waste
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61667
Extended producer responsibility helps recover materials safely and promote cleaner design. Some people claim that asking manufacturers to take on the burden of being environmentally responsible for their own obsolete products is unfair, but manufacturers are the ones that are in the best position to affect the environmental impacts of their products.

Manufacturers can prevent waste and environmental problems at the source by changing the design of their products. They can design products to use less material, more recyclable material and fewer toxins. They can design products to be more durable, repairable, upgradeable or reusable. They can take back end-of-life products for reuse or recycling.

The concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR) has been mandated by law in many countries. The waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) directive in the European Union forces manufacturers of electronics to collect and recycle or reuse their products in order to divert them from landfills.

The United States does not have federally driven EPR programs, but the practice of extended producer responsibility in the United States is gaining support from an unexpected source producers. Perhaps setting the pace for the rest of the industry, some high-profile electronics manufacturers are voluntarily assuming responsibility for what happens to their products after they become obsolete.

Dell says it is committed to providing efficient and easy product-recovery options to facilitate responsible product retirement. The company also promotes refurbishing and reusing its products as an alternative to recycling them. Dell encourages this same level of responsibility from other producers throughout the electronics industry. "We have a responsibility to our customers to recycle the products we make and sell," says Chairman and CEO Michael Dell.

HP makes a point to remarket used equipment whenever possible, while obsolete or damaged equipment is directed to the company's recycling centers. HP reused 65 million pounds of hardware, refurbishing...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Take Steps To Thwart Identity Thieves
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61665
The Federal Trade Commission says more than 9 million Americans have their credit identities stolen each year, and 37 percent of victims discover this problem by looking at their credit reports.

Everyone has either experienced ID theft or knows someone who has. It can result from the new, high-tech methods (war-driving, phishing, spear-phishing, pretexting, spoofing, etc.) but mostly occurs through the standard, older techniques.

The Insurance Information Institute and the Federal Trade Commission point to the older techniques used by identity thieves and suggest ways to defeat them:

One card: Reduce the number of cards you carry in your purse or wallet. Carry only one credit card -- not every one you own -- and not your passport, not your Social Security card, not your birth certificate, etc. Guard your credit or debit cards when shopping by shielding them with your hand or body at the ATMs, pay phones and debit card terminals.

Sensitive documents: Grab those credit, debit card or ATM receipts. Don't put them in the trash, on ATM counters or in shopping bags they could disappear from. Tear up or shred documents with credit card numbers, banking numbers, charge-card receipts or credit card applications before disposal. Dumpster-diving is still a top tactic.

Online: Let's be careful online. Ensure you're buying from a reputable retailer with a secure network. See National Cyber Security Alliance info at tulsaworld.com/uscert for warnings on cyber attacks across the nation.

Phishing: It's becoming more common but you'll be immune as long as you remember: Your bank or credit union doesn't contact customers by e-mail to ask for account numbers, routing numbers or Social Security numbers. Don't reveal personal information unless you've initiated the contact and know who you're dealing with.

Monitor accounts: Don't rely on credit card companies or banks to...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Printers: The Last Frontier In Corporate Cost-Cutting
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61661
About that paperless office ... According to Hewlett-Packard, studies by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show that the average American office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year.

HP also maintains that some Fortune 500 companies could use up to 800 tons less paper a year -- saving themselves $77 million -- by using both sides of the paper in copiers or printers, also known as duplex printing.

There might be a little marketing hype in those figures, but it is obvious to many office workers that there is indeed a lot of printing and copying going on. The printer-copier industry maintains that many companies, in fact, don't know how much copying and printing they are doing.

"If you ask a CFO what does it cost them when they hit file-print, they have no idea," said Bill Orr, vice president of sales at Michigan Office Solutions.

Printers "pop up like mushrooms"' in many organizations he said. In many cases, the cost of an office printer is under $500, "so it's just a departmental expense to go out and buy one."

"There's no strategy," said Orr, which makes the investment in printers at some companies "kind of a run-away cost -- one of the largest un-audited expenses in corporate America."

Because the individual expenditures are low, "they fly under the radar," he added. "It's kind of out of control."

Tom Senecal, owner of Laser's Resource in Kentwood, said Gartner and IDC, two major research firms that study the information technology industry and its markets, have compiled evidence supporting the industry's claim that printers are "the last bastion of un-audited corporate costs."

"Most corporations in America look under every rock for cost savings," noted Senecal. "When we go talk to most corporations, we ask how many printers do you have? Nine out of 10 can't tell us the answer...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
New Music Site Gives Fans a Cut of Tune Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61656
Being a trendsetter can be pricey. As any fashionista or gadget hound knows, the latest frocks and tech toys don't pay for themselves. But a new Web site is trying to make it profitable for music lovers to stay ahead of the curve -- by paying them when other people purchase MP3s they've bought.

Berkeley, Calif.-based Popcuts, which publicly launched its Web site in early August, charges users 99 cents per song. Thereafter, whenever someone else buys the same song, those who have already bought it get paid in credit that can be redeemed for more Popcuts music. The earlier you buy a song, the larger your cut of future sales.

And while credit is currently the payment option, the site's founders hope to eventually pay users in cash, too.

Hannes Hesse, 28, one of the company's three co-founders, said the idea came from a desire to better align the interests of artists who want to sell their music and fans who want to get it for free.

"We thought that by providing this extra incentive to buy a song legally, namely, owning a stake in that song, would make it more attractive to buy," Hesse said.

Popcuts user Gary Yao, 25, said that while he'd prefer cash to the current site credit that users earn, he likes being rewarded for buying songs. So far, he's earned $5.25 by buying tracks.

"It gives me an incentive to go out there and see what's new and available," the San Francisco-based product analyst said, adding that he's discovered a few new bands by using the site over the past month.

The site's selection is still pretty slim -- it includes around 700 songs from about 200 artists -- but Popcuts is adding musicians through a deal it recently made with music distributor DashGo Inc. and is looking to connect...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Startup Wants To Provide Free Broadband
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61653
M2Z is a small wireless start-up with a big goal: free broadband for the masses.

Milo Medin, M2Z's chairman and co-founder and a broadband pioneer, wants the ad-supported service to ultimately be available to 95 percent of the USA. To make that happen, the company must snag a chunk of wireless airwaves being auctioned next year by the Federal Communications Commission. If all goes according to plan, free broadband could be available as early as fall 2009.

The free service, if it launches, would run at 768 kilobits a second, 10 times faster than dial-up. Big wireless carriers currently charge a lot more -- $60 to $80 a month -- for a lot less, 400 to 500 kilobits or so. Premium services at higher speeds -- 3 to 6 megabits initially, Medin guesses -- would start at just $20 a month.

M2Z plans to have its services built into laptops, home routers and other portable devices. Medin says the company is "in discussions" with a number of major device makers but declines to say which ones. For consumers, built-in service means "instant installation," Medin says. "You'll go to Best Buy or Target, buy a (Web-enabled device), turn it on -- and you're connected."

Right now, the U.S. broadband market is dominated by a handful of phone and cable TV companies. Though they compete vigorously for customers, they tend to move in lockstep on broadband, with similar monthly rates, data products and service packages.

Free broadband could seriously upset the status quo, says Blair Levin, a regulatory analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. "It would either cause the price (of broadband) to go down, or cause the current providers to really have to ramp it up" and improve their service offerings, he says.

Medin's deep-pocketed backers include venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Silicon Valley. M2Z is...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Google Chrome's Fine Print Spurs Privacy Concerns
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61674
Google Chrome didn't even make it through 24 hours of downloads before stirring controversy. The search giant's new Web browser is in the privacy spotlight thanks to terms of service that give it rights some may not want to grant.

"There are some questions about exactly what the browser is capturing. The licensing agreement says it is sending everything you type back to Google so it can better find searches. But are folks going to be comfortable with that?" asked Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.

Pushing Downloads Automatically

That's a question more people are beginning to ask. On the surface, Google said it designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. Under the hood, Google said it was able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex Web applications much better. But what else does it do?

According to Google Chrome's terms of service, the software may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. Google promises these updates are designed to "improve, enhance and further develop" the services, and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. When you download Chrome, you agree to receive the updates.

Given Google's philosophy to "launch early and iterate," its desire to automatically download and install updates to the user's PC doesn't surprise analysts. Google has said Chrome is far from done. The company is releasing the beta for Windows to start a broader discussion and get feedback from consumers as quickly as possible.

Perpetual, Irrevocable, Worldwide Rights

It's the latter part of the terms of service that are begging questions. Google Chrome users must agree that:

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Intel Quietly Adds Low-Cost Multi-Core Processors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61673
Without much in the way of fanfare, Intel added three new multi-core processors to its product price list over the Labor Day weekend. The chipmaker's stealth launch of the new low-cost chips followed price cuts at rival Advanced Micro Devices, which recently lowered the cost of selected Phenom X4, triple-core X3, and Athelon X2 processors.

Some media outlets pointed to the cascading developments as evidence that last year's price war between Intel and AMD may be heating up again. However, analysts have been cautioning the industry for some time now not to read too much into the revisions that Intel and other chipmakers periodically apply to their price lists.

Revisions are to be expected given the cost savings achieved through the introduction of new 45-nanometer process technology, said Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at research firm iSuppli. "These are the sort of things that go hand-in-hand with Intel's transition to 45 nanometers," Wilkins said earlier this summer.

Just in Time for Christmas

Chips like Intel's new quad-core Q8200, which features a CPU speed of 2.33 GHz, are expected to gain traction among PC makers looking to introduce consumer-oriented desktops in the sub-$800 category in time for Christmas. However, the new $224 chip is clearly not for everyone.

The Q8200 features a modest 4MB cache -- a temporary on-chip storage area where PCs place frequently accessed data for rapid access. By comparison, Intel's other quad-core chips feature 6MB, 8MB or even a 12MB cache. Moreover, the Q8200 does not have an enterprise future because it lacks the virtualization technology Intel offers in its other quad-cores.

Intel's other two low-cost chips are likewise squarely aimed at consumer applications. The new Core 2 Duo chip, priced at $84, features a clock speed of 2.5 GHz and has a 2MB cache. The lineup is rounded out by...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Oracle Buys SOA Company ClearApp
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61672
Oracle added to its lineup of service-oriented architectures (SOA) Tuesday with the purchase of ClearApp, which supplies management solutions for composite applications.

"As customers deploy more SOA-based applications, the task of effectively managing them becomes paramount," said Leng Leng Tan, Oracle's vice president for applications and systems management.

In order to best serve customers managing complex application environments, Oracle solutions must address end-user experience management, business services, application-performance management, application testing, and quality management, Tan said.

By adding ClearApp's technology to Oracle's Enterprise Manager product line, Oracle expects to provide customers with "continuous and uninterrupted top-down views of their business services and applications, helping them maximize service availability while reducing IT operations costs," Tan said.

IT Invisibility Gap

In a letter to customers released Tuesday, Tan explained that ClearApp addresses an "IT invisibility gap" created when different business teams deploy different SOA applications. "The high level of abstraction that makes these architectures attractive also hides key application component relationships," Tan said.

ClearApp addresses the gap by allowing customers to "discover and model end-to-end business services and component dependencies in runtime, monitor business service performance, and diagnose performance issues quickly," continued Tan.

The acquisition comes fast on the heels of two other SOA acquisitions. Oracle bought a Dutch firm, Moniforce, last December and an Indian firm, Auptyma, this year.

Moniforce's products, WebStress and WebProbe, monitor and report on performance and availability of Web applications. Auptyma offered a Java-application monitor that has been renamed Oracle Application Diagnostics, which is being offered as part of the company's Fusion middleware management solution.

Building on BEA

In a presentation, Oracle said the ClearApp purchase "builds on the acquisitions of Moniforce and Auptyma, which have provided a core set of capabilities in the application management space."

The three acquisitions together give customers a "top-down application management solution that provides comprehensive management of their standards-based applications and...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Smartphone Competition Heats Up with Many Choices
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The market for smartphones is heating up and forcing competitors to make smart choices. With lots of players, including Apple going global with its iPhone 3G and HTC's Google Android-based phone, companies like Nokia-owned Symbian are paying attention.

On Tuesday, Symbian said it shipped 19.6 million mobile phones in its second quarter and 225.9 million since it was formed in 1998. Symbian, based in London, has a strong lead with more than 150 models available through eight vendors, a 30 percent increase from last year. An additional 92 models are in development, according to the company.

Still, is that enough to compete with the 800,000 iPhone 3Gs Apple is selling per week, and the more than six million first-generation iPhones it has already sold since its launch in July 2007? Symbian executives think so.

"In 10 years we've achieved an enormous amount," said Nigel Clifford, Symbian's chief executive. "Together with our customers we have invented, built and continue to lead the smartphone market."

Nokia purchased all of Symbian's shares earlier this year and made Symbian's operating system free to others, so that alone may put Symbian and Nokia ahead of competitors. Carriers and device makers may choose Symbian over other operating systems such as LiMo, Windows Mobile, or Android.

"It is a very competitive market because there are so many players," said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. "We are, however, at a point historically both in the U.S. and worldwide where there is a lot of space to play in. In 2007 there were 120 million smartphones sold worldwide, and if you paint that against 1.2 billion handsets, there is a lot of space for them to play."

New Smartphone Features

Shipments of mobile phones in North America increased from last quarter, with vendors introducing a number of features in advance of the release of the iPhone 3G....

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Apple's 'Let's Rock' Invites Stir Announcement Rumors
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The crystal ball is getting a good polishing this week as speculations fly about what Apple will -- or will not -- announce next week at a Sept. 9 event in Cupertino, Calif. Apple sent out cryptic invitations to reporters this week featuring an iPod-toting silhouette and the words "Let's Rock" and "playing soon." Nothing more.

What's Up?

Most bets favor an improved and less expensive iPod touch, which is seen as overpriced at $299 while a comparable iPhone 3G is $199. With a nearly identical operating system, the touch can already take advantage of many third-party applications from Apple's App Store, but at the same cost as a full-fledged iPhone. So a price cut and a few new features may be in the cards.

Reports in MusicWeek also indicate that Apple will resurrect the long-dead liner notes and album art of the LP vinyl days by offering these as extras in its iTunes Store. The first band in this "experiment," according to the report, is Scotland's Snow Patrol with lyric sheets, videos and photos to accompany the release of its latest CD.

Indeed, there could be more announcements about the iTunes Store than new hardware, although Apple has made a habit of introducing its new holiday-season gadgets in the September-October time frame.

Some analysts and wishful bloggers have speculated that Apple might move to an "all you can eat" iTunes buffet, similar to Microsoft's Zune store where one monthly fee allows an unlimited number of music downloads. The Zune Pass is currently $14.95 a month for unlimited downloads, but critics point out that Microsoft's music store does not stock as many titles as iTunes.

Other speculations are that Apple might further reduce iPod prices and offer more memory in newer models, especially the popular nano. Other wish-list items include an iPod touch with...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Sony, Pioneer Announce Pricey New Blu-ray Players
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Sony, Pioneer and other manufacturers are expected to announce new Blu-ray DVD players for the U.S. market over the next few weeks. Sony, announcing new players and recorders in Japan this week, is expected to make a $2,000 Blu-ray player available for the upcoming holiday season in the U.S. Pioneer is expected to ship a similar model as well -- but many believe the price tags will doom their sales.

Sony Models

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Sony's $2,000 Blu-ray player will include a special chip designed to give viewers an even clearer high-definition picture. Sony's next-cheapest model will cost $499 and includes High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) as well as DVD and CD support. Whether a chip to enhance high definition is worth $1,500, the market will soon determine.

Sony also released new Blu-ray recorders in Japan, where the recordable format is highly popular. Sony could not be reached for comment on its new players.

Blu-ray Player Market Uncertainties

Since Toshiba surrendered the high-definition format war last spring and buried HD DVD, Sony and its Blu-ray technology licensees have had an open field with the winning Blu-ray format. But sales, as tracked by market analysts, appear to be totally stagnant. A recent search of Blu-ray sites reveals that more than 50 models have shipped this year, with prices in the $300-$2,000 price range. Most players offering HDMI 1.3 interfaces are going at a premium -- usually more than $1,000.

The HDMI 1.3 specification gives customers greater speed, eliminating many lip-sync problems found in earlier implementations, as well as deep color and broad color space. Deep color, with increased pixel depth, supposedly supports billions of colors, eliminates color banding, and provides a nearly infinite array of shades, according to the HDMI standards organization. Broad color space enables HDMI-compliant...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
DVRs Are Essential To Households, Study Finds
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In the popular TV series Sex and the City, one of the single characters described her relationship to her TiVo DVR with the kind of affection that might be used to talk about a boyfriend. A new report Wednesday from NDS Group indicates that many others feel the same way.

The international survey of 1,000 owners of digital video recorders found that the device has already obtained the status of second-most-essential technology in the household, after mobile phones.

Only Washing Machines, Microwaves Better

Among household appliances, the ability to get hot meals and clean clothes were the only functions ranked higher than being able to easily record TV on a DVR. That's because only washing machines and microwave ovens are considered more indispensable among appliances.

In addition to individuals such as the Sex and the City character, DVRs can be enjoyable for couples as well. The study found that DVR owners with partners say the device "makes for a happier home life." And the level of satisfaction is not limited to the U.S., where 89 percent of Americans say the DVR increases their enjoyment of TV. In Britain, 81 percent of viewers agree, as do 80 percent of Australians and 78 percent of Italians.

Part of the reason is the ease of use, since 61 percent of those surveyed said a DVR is "much easier to operate" than a videocassette recorder. About 58 percent said they are watching more interesting programs, since the DVR allows watching any TV program at any time, without having to record it on a VCR.

In fact, many users want another DVR -- 52 percent of Americans, 30 percent of British, 49 percent of Australians, and 57 percent of Italians.

The London-based NDS has some interest in the results of this survey. It is a provider of DVR technology to pay-TV operators...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Analyst Says Google's Chrome Browser Needs Polishing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61649
Microsoft hasn't publicly commented on Google's new Chrome browser, but Redmond's Internet Explorer 8 team may wind up echoing Mozilla's makers: We're not worried.

Google launched Chrome on Tuesday with all the hype you might expect. Google said it created Chrome because the company believes it can add value for users and help drive innovation on the Web. But will Chrome really give IE8 and Firefox a run for their money?

"Competition often results in innovation of one sort or another -- in the browser you can see that this is true in spades this year, with huge JavaScript performance increases, security process advances, and user interface breakthroughs," Mozilla CEO John Lilly wrote in his company's blog. "I'd expect that to continue now that Google has thrown their hat in the ring."

Where's the Browser Beef?

Chrome uses components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others, and Google is making its code open source. The company said the browser is "clean and fast." Google also pointed to features like keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox" to prevent one tab from crashing another, and improved protection from rogue sites.

But for all the hype, Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Juptermedia, said Chrome is somewhat underwhelming for a first release. If it had come from anyone but Google, he added, this browser would not be gaining widespread media attention.

"The user interface is a little bit different. It's much more smartened. It comes down to whether you like things like a menu bar that lets you access options or not. Certain aspects of Chrome that Google talked about, like better speed and performance, were unnoticeable," Gartenberg said. "None of the Firefox add-ons work. It's interesting that one of the most prevalent add-ons, the Google Toolbar, is unavailable for Chrome just yet."

Purpose Isn't Clear

As...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
iRobot CTO Leaves To Build New Robotics Company
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The cofounder and chief technical officer of iRobot, the company that brought robotic vacuums to the homes of millions of consumers, is leaving to start another venture.

Rodney Brooks launched Bedford, Mass.-based iRobot in 1991 with Colin Angle and Helen Grenier, his former students. The roboticist plans to spend time with his new startup, Heartland Robotics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based industrial robotics company. Heartland is not considered a competitor, according to iRobot.

Brooks, in a phone interview with us, said he can't provide great detail about the new company just yet, but Heartland will focus on robots in manufacturing. Asked if the proposed robots would be developed to replace assembly-line workers, Brooks said, "PCs did not replace the office worker, and this is not about that at all."

Brooks has also taken a leave of absence from his teaching role at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to concentrate on Heartland and recruit employees. "I'm on leave effective Monday, so I can put my heart and soul into this," he said. "We need some time to get stuff together."

Since Brooks was not able to talk about his departure until now, he is still ironing out his future role with iRobot's management team. Brooks will remain on the board of directors and work with the company to form a new technical advisory committee. "We decided that that's my task at iRobot," he said.

A new CTO is expected to be named next year.

No Rookie To Robotics

The robotics expert is the Panasonic Professor of Robotics at MIT and the former director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Brooks received degrees in pure mathematics from Flinders University of South Australia and a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University in 1981. Brooks has also held research positions at Carnegie Mellon University and MIT. Brooks landed...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Report Shows E-Mail Data Loss Still a Problem
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Data protection continues to be a hot topic, according to a report from security vendor Proofpoint, as large-scale breaches of personal information continue to come to light and as the regulatory environment becomes more sophisticated.

Proofpoint surveyed 301 e-mail decision makers at U.S. enterprises with more than 1,000 employees. Forty-one percent of organizations with 20,000 or more employees employ staff to read or otherwise analyze outbound e- mail. Overall, more than one quarter (29 percent) of companies surveyed employ such staff. More than one in three (38 percent) perform regular audits of outbound e-mail.

Forty-four percent investigated a suspected e-mail leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months. Forty percent investigated a suspected violation of privacy or data protection regulations.

Twenty-three percent said their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the last 12 months. Eighteen percent said they had been impacted by improper exposure or theft of customer information.

More than a quarter (26 percent) terminated an employee for violating e-mail policies in the past 12 months.

More than half (51 percent) disciplined an employee for violating email policies in the past 12 months. More than a quarter (27 percent) investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information via lost or stolen mobile devices in the past 12 months.

Fifty-six percent of respondents are concerned or very concerned about the risk of information leakage via e-mail sent from mobile devices.

Interestingly, seventy-five percent are concerned or very concerned about protecting the confidentiality of personal identity and financial information in outbound e-mail.

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Removing 'Bloatware' Is a Threat to Computer Profits
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Before they ship computers to retailers like Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer in the United States, computer makers load them up with lots of free software. For $30, Best Buy will get rid of it for you.

That simple cleanup service is threatening the precarious economics of the personal computer industry.

Software companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars to computer makers like Hewlett-Packard to install their photo tools, financial programs and other products, usually with some tie-in to a paid service or upgrade.

With margins growing thinner than most laptops, this critical revenue can make the difference between profit and loss for the computer makers, industry analysts say.

If the programs are removed, the software makers gain no value out of the $2 to $10 they typically pay HP and others to install them on each computer -- and computer makers miss out on their cut from revenue-sharing deals. But Best Buy tells computer buyers that the preinstalled software, also known as "bloatware," can clutter their machines and slow them down.

"You'd be surprised how often consumers tell us to get rid of it," said Robert Stephens, the head of Geek Squad, the technical support division of Best Buy that removes the software. He declined to say how many people were paying for the service, but said that "it's going to increase in popularity."

The demand for the service, along with similar offers from Circuit City and other chains, reflects an outpouring of consumer frustration with the way that a brand-new computer can feel as though it is full of digital infomercials -- even if those come-ons knock a few dollars off the computer's price tag.

The Web has dozens of do-it-yourself guides to removing such software, which, as one tutorial puts it, "turns your computer into a messy battleground." Stephens said the computer makers...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Tech Firm Helps Fight for Cyber Security
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Long gone are the days when vital defense, financial and energy systems could be protected simply by locking doors and checking nametags. As cyberspace has spread, governments and institutions have adapted accordingly, relying on vast Internet-based networks to serve as the central nervous system of the country's most critical infrastructure.

But security threats have kept pace, ranging from viruses and denial-of-service attacks, to malware, spyware and old-fashioned system instability. Now an Idaho company thinks it has a solution to a wide range of those threats, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense is willing to support it.

Moscow, [Idaho]-based Computer Measurements Laboratory -- founded a little over a year ago by computer scientist and University of Idaho professor John Munson and veteran hardware architect Rick Hoover - won a U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant award to pursue development of its cutting edge computer security and reliability technology.

"What we're basically going after right now is the low-hanging fruit in the security space," Hoover said. "The idea here is to be able to detect that you've got a problem in your system, but it's a very different way of going about it than any other antivirus program out there."

The biggest difference is in the speed of response: Most antivirus software contains an updating list of virus "signatures" -- identifiers that alert the software once the virus has entered the system. Based on that it isolates or deletes the infected file, but if your computer gets a virus that isn't in the database yet, it can easily slip past the defenses. With too many viruses for a reliable count and about 200 new ones discovered every month, the need is great for quicker responses to threats. That's where CML comes in.

Hoover likens the company's approach to installing a series...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Experimental Web Site Lets Users Share Complex Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61623
People share their videos on YouTube and their photos at Flickr. Now they can share graphs, charts and other illustrations they create to help them analyze data buried in spreadsheets, tables or text.

At an experimental Web site, Many Eyes, users can upload the more technical data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays.

These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to a display of the comparative frequency of words used in speeches by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barrack Obama.

The site was created in January 2007 by scientists at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to help people publish and discuss graphics in a group. Those who register at the site can comment on one another's work, perhaps visualizing the same information with different tools and discovering unexpected patterns in the data.

Collaboration like this can be an effective way to spur insight, says Pat Hanrahan, a professor of computer science at Stanford University whose research includes scientific visualization. "When analyzing information, no single person knows it all," he said. "When you have a group look at data, you protect against bias. You get more perspectives, and this can lead to more reliable decisions."

The site is the brainchild of Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas, two IBM researchers at the Cambridge lab. Wattenberg, a computer scientist and mathematician, says sophisticated visualization tools have historically been the province of professionals in academia, business and government.

"We want to bring visualization to a whole new audience," he said - to people who have had relatively few ways to create and discuss such use of data. The conversation about the data is as important as the flow of data from the database."

The Many Eyes site offers 16 ways to present data, from stack graphs...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Sony Ericsson Confirms Xperia 1 Launch Date
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To counter recent blog reports predicting that its Xperia 1 smartphone would miss this year's holiday shopping season, Sony Ericsson told media outlets this week that its first-ever Windows Mobile device will be released in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The new multimedia handset, which will feature a three-inch color display, slide-out Qwerty keyboard, Wi-Fi radio and GPS-based navigation, will be available for use on selected high-speed (HSDPA/HSUPA) cellular networks worldwide before the end of this year, the company said.

Sony Ericsson is clearly hoping to benefit from a sales surge that has already been under way for more than two years. "Smartphones are still seeing growth rates hovering around 40 percent year-over-year, while the rest of the industry is growing at roughly 10 percent," explained Ryan Reith, IDC senior research analyst.

Escalating Competition

However, converged mobile devices such as the Xperia 1 will face an increasingly competitive playing field moving forward, noted Ramon Llamas, another IDC senior research analyst. "Smartphones have typically been the category of handsets incorporating higher-end features such as GPS and touch screen, but these features are quickly moving onto handsets further down the food chain," Llamas explained.

These design changes are escalating competition between devices in a new way. "Reception towards these devices has been warm, and as we head into the holiday quarter, demand for these and other devices will no doubt increase," Llamas said.

The rise of the feature phone is forcing a battle at the high end of the market, with the main difference between smartphones and feature phones being the high-level operating system, Reith noted. "The upshot is that handset manufacturers launching new smartphone products will likely face a wider range of competing products going forward," he said.

Falling Further Behind

Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi notes that Sony Ericsson's global market share in this year's...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Face Recognition in Picasa May Give Google More Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61646
Google's new Chrome browser isn't the only spiffy technology to come out of Google this week. Google is also releasing a new version of its Picasa photo-sharing application, complete with digital facial recognition. But the new facial-recognition feature won't cause biometric data companies to lose any sleep.

"This upgraded Picasa site is designed to expand people's digital photo experience and to make it easy and safe to share your photos with the world," said Mike Horowitz, a Google product manager.

"Our face-recognition technology automatically groups pictures containing similar faces so users can quickly label a number of pictures at once. Our software determines which faces are roughly similar by looking at a few basic measurements, like the relative distance between a person's eyes and nose, and nose and ears," Horowitz said.

Users Provide Names

The facial recognition depends on users tagging photos of people with a new Add Name Tags function. Picasa provides a wizard to walk users through the ID process and serves up groups of photos with similar faces, so users can educate Picasa about who is who.

The new function appears to address one of the limiting factors of online photography software -- the tedious process of typing in tags and captions to identify the people in photos. In this regard, things have not progressed much from the days of scrawling identification on the back of photo prints.

If Picasa can accurately identify people, that would appear to give it a major leg up on popular photo sites like Flickr and Shutterbug.

Connecting the Dots

But the technology also raises the possibility that users will be feeding Google even more valuable personal data. By knowing who is in someone's personal snapshots, Google could connect the dots and deliver sophisticated advertising messages. And this information would be far more powerful than today's social-networking sites.

On...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Sprint Offers Rugged Motorola Renegade Handsets
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Sprint announced new Motorola Renegade v950 and i365 handsets Tuesday for its push-to-talk Nextel service network. The v950 meets military specifications for resistance to shock, dust and moisture, which should cover most industrial and agricultural work.

The Renegade is compatible with other Sprint push-to-talk handsets in one-to-one or one-to-many broadcast mode.

Renegade Feature Set

The Renegade v950 also sports stereo Bluetooth, GPS for Sprint's navigation service, and a two-megapixel camera capable of video. Weighing in at 4.1 ounces, the clamshell phone has a main display of 2.2 inches with 240x320 pixels. It sports a MicroSD slot for storage as well as a mini-stereo jack and external music controls for those who don't own Bluetooth headsets. The color choice is limited to a sleek black finish.

On the software end, the v950 supports Sprint's online music store and Sprint TV, which includes live news and selected shorts from ABC, CBS and CNN. NFL Mobile Live keeps football in reach, while Sprint Email and IM provide multiple e-mail accounts and online chat.

The Sprint Mobile Sync utility included with the phone syncs phone numbers, e-mail and contact information to a PC. Sprint has pegged the v950 price at $129 if you sign up for a two-year contract, $199 with a one-year plan, and $329 off the shelf. Sprint's Everything Plan is $99 per month, with base plans starting at $49.95.

The Renegade gives Sprint an all-in-one handset for its push-to-talk crowd that comes close to Apple's iPhone. The Samsung Instinct just covered the company in its PCS network with an iPhone wannabe, while the Renegade covers most of the Nextel bases with the rugged features needed at work sites.

Amy Schiska-Lombard, a Sprint spokesperson, said the Renegade is exclusive to Sprint but would not comment on whether other carriers might wind up with the handset. Asked why...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Apple Close to Inking iPhone Deal in China
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Apple's iPhone has sold by the millions in many parts of the world, but China is perhaps the most notable exception. Now reports from China's government-controlled media indicate the popular mobile device could soon make its way to the Asian nation.

According to the AFP, the 21st Century Business Herald, a Chinese state-controlled financial newspaper, reported that talks between Apple and China Mobile, the world's largest cell-phone carrier, are in the "final stages."

"Steve Jobs and I hope the iPhone will enter China as soon as possible," China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou told reporters at the ITU Telecom Asia 2008 exhibition in Bangkok on Tuesday. "We are discussing this issue, but we do not have an agreement."

Overcoming Hurdles

China Mobile reportedly has a nondisclosure agreement with Apple that prevents Wang from commenting further. Noteworthy is the fact that China Mobile is a member of Google's Open Handset Alliance, a group of companies that plan to develop products based on Google's Android mobile-phone platform that would compete directly with the iPhone.

If Apple inks a deal with China Mobile, the iPhone 3G would be sold in 43 countries. China has more than 600 million cell-phone subscribers, with China Mobile accounting for 415 million of them, according to the company's figures.

"China represents a huge and potentially lucrative market for Apple to get into. We know that iPods, for example, are very popular in the Chinese market," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.

"One would imagine that a deal that would open up the Chinese market to Apple for the iPhone is potentially huge in terms of the number of sheer devices Apple can put into that marketplace and the number of devices the marketplace can absorb," he added.

The major obstacle -- a revenue-sharing agreement Apple initially insisted on -- has been removed....

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Heavily Hyped Spore Near Release With Big Expectations
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Will Spore be the biggest thing to hit the gaming world since Doom? Electronic Arts dearly hopes so. The long-awaited game by Sims creator Will Wright has so much hype surrounding it that anything less than a home run will be a disappointment, say game-industry watchers.

Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, told The Wall Street Journal that between the cost of developing the game and marketing it, EA needs to rake in $75 million with Spore. Pachter expects EA to sell two million copies by the end of the year.

Marketing the game, which comes out in Europe on Friday and the U.S. on Sunday, is a challenge for EA's marketers since the game seems to encompass the evolution of life on Earth from primordial stew to space exploration.

"If you told somebody you were going to be playing a game where you controlled life from a primordial soup to intergalactic travel and you have responsibility for the entire galaxy, that can seem like a pretty daunting task," Patrick Buechner, vice president of marketing for EA's Maxis unit, told the Journal.

Preloading Sales

EA is also making the game available online. In order to lighten the load on EA's download servers on launch day, the company is hoping customers will download (and pay for) the game now, even though it won't be operational until launch day. The download is expected to take 30 to 60 minutes.

EA isn't releasing a demo version of the game, but is offering software called the Spore Creature Creator, which allows users to create their own life forms for the Spore universe. The software has already been downloaded three million times, a pretty good indicator that the game is on track to generate the same worldwide appeal of The Sims.

And Creature Creator may be coming to...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Two Vendors Will Offer iPhone 3G Legally in Russia
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Apple's iPhone 3Gs, widely available in Russia on the black market, will be offered legally by at least two phone companies.

On Monday, Russia's third-largest mobile-phone company, MegaFon, announced an agreement with Apple to start selling the iPhone 3G later this year. No further details were provided.

Late last week, Vimpelcom, another of the big three carriers in Russia, also announced an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone 3G. A Russian business daily newspaper, Vedomosti, reported several days ago that a deal had been made by Apple with the largest mobile-phone operator in Russia, Mobile TeleSystems (MTS). However, there has not yet been a formal announcement of an agreement with MTS.

Black Market Nears 700,000

Even before legal distribution, Russia is already one of the largest markets for iPhones in the world.

Some industry observers have estimated that monthly sales figures for unauthorized sales of iPhones are around 20,000, with the total number of black-market iPhones possibly reaching 700,000 by the end of this year. Anecdotal reports indicate that many of them are purchased in other countries, brought into Russia, sold for black-market prices of around $1,000, and then, with another fee often paid to a skilled user, unlocked so they can be used with phone services there.

Some observers have noted that the iPhone 3G, when purchased through legal Russian channels, will be tied to that particular carrier's service. But many Russian users have shown a preference for buying handsets and service contracts separately, an arrangement which the black-market versions support.

The sale of the iPhones is expected to begin in October. The Vedomosti report indicated that MTS alone expects to sell one million iPhone 3Gs over the next two years, and all three carriers together are targeting 3.5 million devices over two years.

Some Success in Europe

The news of carrier deals in...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Nokia Offers Unlimited Music Service with New Device
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It "comes with music." That will be the basic selling proposition from Nokia for a new, unlimited music service that will accompany some mobile devices.

The Comes With Music service will be launched first in the United Kingdom. Nokia said the service will offer "a year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalog with the ability to keep all downloaded tracks even after the year is over." The catalog includes both international and UK artists.

The 5310 Xpress Music

Tero Ojanpera, executive vice president and head of Nokia's entertainment and communities business, said the new service "will transform the way people enjoy music." Ojanpera added that users will be able explore new music "without having to worry about individual track or album purchases."

In the UK, Carphone Warehouse will be the exclusive channel for the first device with the service, the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music. The price is expected to be higher than for a comparable Nokia device without the service, but pricing has not yet been announced. The 5310 is expected to be released in the fourth quarter.

Major music labels Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner offer their titles in the Nokia Music Store, which has about three million Digital Rights Management-protected music titles. While music can be kept beyond the original subscription, there's no word yet on rates for continuing the subscription. The ability for users to transfer the tracks to other devices, and the number of times they can be transferred, will depend on the particular track.

Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, noted that while the to-be-announced pricing could affect reception, Nokia's "different business model" of making music part of a prepaid device could have a long-standing impact.

'Wrenching Change'

Given the "wrenching change" that the music industry has undergone in the age of digital music, with...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Google's Chrome Browser Challenges Microsoft's IE8
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Does the world need yet another Web browser? Google thinks so and planned to make its beta version of the door to the World Wide Web available on Tuesday.

Google did not say what time Tuesday the new browser, dubbed Chrome, would be downloadable in more than 100 countries. But analysts were to get a sneak peak at Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters at 11 a.m. Pacific time, according to Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Research.

"Until people really have a chance to download and use Chrome, it's difficult to say whether or not it's going to be a significant player," Sterling said, noting Google's servers could crash in the wake of millions of people trying to download the new browser. "Chrome could have a Safari-like share, an Opera-like share, or less. Then again, Google has some pretty massive distribution and it could gain adoption globally."

Google's Mandate: Improve Browsing

Google said it is launching Chrome because the company believes it can add value for users and help drive innovation on the Web. Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, Google's engineering director, said the concept for Chrome stems from a discussion about what kind of browser could exist if they started from scratch and built on the best elements available.

Google used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others, and the company is making all its code open source. Google said it hopes to collaborate with the entire Internet community to help drive the Web forward.

"We realized that the Web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser," Pichai and Upson wrote on the Google blog. "What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for Web pages...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Case Study: Academic Health System Goes Wireless
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61597
Hardwired communications and computing devices are no longer the preferred tools of the trade for doctors and nurses at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC) in Winston-Salem, N.C. That is because the academic health system has gone wireless.

The 1,300-bed facility-comprising North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Brenner Children's Hospital-concluded that a campus-wide wireless network would give medical staff faster and easier access to patient records via its electronic medical records (EMR) system.

"We realized that our caregivers are highly mobile and need devices that match their behavior," explains Chuck Ware, director of computer and communication services at the medical center. "They were losing continuity of patient care when they traveled between locations using cabled PCs and phones."

For example, doctors and nurses consult and update patient charts continually as they roam among inpatient, outpatient, office and research lab facilities scattered throughout 16 buildings. Having electronic access to patient information frees them from having to constantly return to a nurse's station or hunt down a given patient's paper chart and manually update it.

The medical center installed a 900-access-point (AP) wireless LAN to mobilize the electronic patient charting and to gain valuable timesavings with a direct, wireless patient-to-nurse call system and wireless connections for ultrasound equipment. The WLAN spans about two million square feet, stretching across inpatient, outpatient, post-anesthesia care and other critical areas, as well as the medical school lecture halls. A Meru Networks WLAN replaced the previous wireless system, and has become the first WLAN to cover all the other areas.

The initial 400 APs took about a month to install, says Mike Jarvis, lead network systems analyst. The job was completed quickly because the cabling was already in place to connect APs to the medical center's wired Cisco Catalyst switches, which power the radios using standard...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
The Case of the 12,000 Lost Laptops
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61596
Business travelers are losing more than 12,000 laptops per week at U.S. airports. Only one-third of those are reclaimed, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute, sponsored by Dell.

At the same time, more than 53 percent of polled business travelers say their laptops contain confidential or sensitive information, and 65 percent of these travelers admit they do not take steps to protect or secure the information contained on their laptop.

Companies are dependent on a mobile workforce with access to information no matter where they travel. This mobility, however, is putting companies at risk of having a data breach if a laptop containing sensitive information is lost or stolen. To gather more information about this concern, the Ponemon Institute conducted field research at 106 major airports in 46 states and surveyed 864 business travelers in an airport environment. Among the findings revealed in this study:

The average loss frequency among the largest U.S. airports is 286 laptops per week or 10,278 for all 36 Class B airports included in the study. The comparable frequency for the remaining large U.S. airports is 28 devices per week, or 1,977 for all 70 Class C airports included in the study.

The airports with the highest number of lost, missing or stolen laptops include: Los Angeles International, Miami International, Kennedy International and Chicago O'Hare. While Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International is the busiest airport in the United States, it is tied for eighth place (with Washington's Reagan National) for lost, stolen or missing laptop computers.

The 67 percent of subsequently found laptops remain in the airport until they are disposed of, often sold at auction to the highest bidder or donated to charity, resulting in potentially millions of files containing sensitive or confidential data that may be accessible to a large number of airport employees and contractors.

Part...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
EU Regulators Warn Phone Companies Overcharging
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61587
EU regulators warned Thursday that they may take action against mobile phone companies who overcharge users for calls made abroad.

EU spokesman Martin Selmayr said some European phone operators are fixing roaming fees by the minute instead of by each second of a call.

On average, users pay 24 percent more for calls they make outside their home nation and 19 percent more for calls they receive, he said.

Selmayr said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding "may tackle this issue" in draft rules to be presented at the end of September.

The EU last year capped the costs of mobile phone calls made and received in other EU countries but criticized operators for not making deeper cuts to average retail prices.

From Aug. 30, the cap will fall again from EU0.49 to EU0.46 (US$0.72 to US$0.68) for calls made and from EU0.24 to EU0.22 (US$0.35 to US$0.32) for calls received. These prices do not include value-added tax, which is levied at different rates in each of the EU's 27 nations.

Regulators claim the EU move has brought real savings for customers as average prices have crashed from EU1.15 (US$1.70) per minute in 2006.

But telecoms companies dispute the EU's claims that they generate unjustified profits from roaming charges, saying some are making losses that will hurt investment in new technology and that lower fees have not encouraged travelers to use their phone abroad.

Cheered by the success of slashing call costs for travelers, the European Commission is now threatening to impose a cap on roaming fees for text messages, saying it wants prices to drop by up to 70 percent.

EU residents abroad send some 2.5 billion text messages every year, paying 10 times more than they do at home.

The commission is also warning that it may take action on "heavily overpriced" mobile Internet fees if companies do not...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Cell Phones Make Headway in Education
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61583
Cell phones have long been anathema in the classroom, banned as a potential distraction, at best, and as a possible vehicle for cheating, at worst. But lately, educators have begun changing their tune on mobile phones.

Abilene Christian University will hand out Apple's iPhone 3G smart phone to two-thirds of this year's entering class of 950 freshmen. Students will be expected to use the devices to brainstorm ideas and get virtual handouts and podcasts during class. Instructors will use them for such tasks as monitoring attendance. "This is a new platform for learning, in the same way a laptop or a desktop was a new platform," says William Rankin, co-director of mobile learning research at the school, which is in Abilene, Texas.

Other schools across the country, from Michigan to Maryland and Texas to North Carolina, are coming to the same conclusion -- that advanced wireless devices can be used as much for learning as for entertainment. According to a survey of 700 teens published in April by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 71 percent of respondents already own cell phones, while only 59 percent own computers. Cell-phone ownership among college kids is even higher.

The New Bookbag

So-called smart phones -- such as the iPhone, which in the U.S. is authorized to run on the AT&T network -- offer myriad new capabilities, including Web access, e-mail, and access to educational software. "The time is approaching when these little devices will be as much a part of education as a bookbag," write the authors of a report last year by the nonprofit New Media Consortium, which studies emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching.

A well-equipped cell phone with a foldout keyboard could even supplant a laptop in classrooms, says Bill Davidson, senior vice-president for global marketing at Qualcomm, which makes...

Tue, 2 Sep 08
Self-Service Drives Contact-Center Success
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61603
Traditional call centers were both an asset and a liability to the organization as they fulfilled a need by operating as a point of contact for the customer, yet they also incurred significant cost without directly driving revenue. Over the years, the traditional telephone-based call center has morphed into the multichannel contact center, offering customers the ability to contact the center via phone, e-mail, Internet, SMS, chat, fax and even more.

With this increased use of these alternative channels, it is important for the contact center to understand how much of its traffic is flowing through these channels and how best to manage them for optimal performance.

According to Dimension Data, an IT solutions and services provider, the global contact center industry has seen an increase in the use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) self-service channels with 60 percent of the world's contact centers using the channel.

SMS/Text messaging has also experienced an increase in use by 8 percent according to last year's level of 32 percent. These findings are part of Dimension Data's tenth annual Contact Center Benchmarking Report. This report includes survey responses from 300 contact centers in 36 countries across five continents.

"Ten years ago, enterprises were focused on improving service and moving away from face-to-face interactions toward a phone experience," said Grant Sainsbury, practice director, Customer Interactive Solutions, Dimension Data Americas, in a company statement.

"Today, the reality is that the choice of channel varies and is dependent on the type of transaction. High-value customers may be more than happy to use automated self-service channels to pay a bill or view their balance -- they don't need a live agent for every interaction."

The increased use of self-service channels provides a significant benefit to businesses. In 1997, the first year of the Dimension Data survey, only 6 percent of calls resulted in...

Tue, 2 Sep 08
Firm Enhances Customer Service with New VoIP System
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61598
With just 63 employees serving a customer base from its headquarters in Richmond, Va., and remote sites in Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Memphis and Tampa, InSource Software Solutions (ISS) staff must cover a lot of terrain in terms of sales, technical support, customer care and administration. According to Dunn Dillard, ISS's executive vice president and chief financial officer, managing staff and customers remotely was a cumbersome and expensive proposition that the company needed to address.

"In the past, one of our biggest challenges revolved around coordinating communications between locations and with our customers," notes Dillard. "The previous communications system we used hampered our efficiency due to a number of limitations. We did not have the ability to transfer calls between our offices, and its lack of a robust contact center solution inhibited our ability to serve customers. We knew that we needed to find a communications solution that would allow us to run our business more effectively, serve our customers more completely and project a more professional appearance."

Most small and midsize companies have learned that superior customer service and speed to market are the hallmarks of success. The ability to anticipate and address customer needs -- as well as offer more personalized and customized service -- helps smaller businesses differentiate themselves and gain a foothold in a highly competitive marketplace.

For ISS, this paradigm is especially true. A provider of manufacturing automation software and the exclusive distributor of Wonderware software for the southeastern United States, ISS has earned a reputation among its customers for being reliable, fast, thorough, cost-efficient and, above all, nimble.

When performing its due diligence in identifying a new communications solution, ISS examined a variety of voice-over-IP (VoIP) communications systems and vendors. The company eventually elected to deploy Mitel's IP communications solution, using five Inter-Tel 5000 CS-5200 platforms networked together as...

Tue, 2 Sep 08
Social Media Can Reverse Anti-Corporate Slant
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61564
Truth or dare: We dare you [CMO, brand manager, PR-communications specialist, CRM manager, or whoever you are] to have your company authentically enter into the innovative realm of online social media, the world of Facebook and other networking sites [or as it is known in shorthand, Web 2.0].

Not ready yet? Afraid you won't have control of what happens? C'mon, we double dare you.

Still, not that daring? O.K. If you won't take the dare, you have to tell the truth. Is your company customer-focused?

"Yes, of course" [you answer without thinking]. Seriously now, be honest. Does your institution really care about its customers or only about itself? "Our customers," you reply.

We believe you. But what we believe doesn't matter. And the fact is, survey after survey says your customers don't believe you. Ever.

The reason is obvious. Your organization is seen as a corporation, and corporations in the eyes of most people are evil. Large companies -- with a 13 percent approval rating -- rank just above Congress and law firms when people are asked to list the most admired institutions in America, according to Harris Interactive.

In fact, if people were to anthropomorphize your organization, your firm would be seen as highly antisocial at best and psychopathic at worst.

Reverse the Anticorporate Slant

The impassioned polemic, otherwise known as the movie The Corporation, asked people to describe big business.

Among their answers:

-- "Self-interested"

-- "Inherently amoral"

-- "Callous and deceitful"

-- "It breaches social and legal standards to get its way."

-- "It does not suffer from guilt."

Sure, the movie has an anticorporate slant. But Harris Interactive chose its people at random -- companies would not have scored at the bottom of the pack if those surveyed thought of workplaces in the same light as Mother Teresa.

So this is what you are up against. People think companies are inherently bad....