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| Jun 2009 | May 2009 | Apr 2009 | Mar 2009 | Feb 2009 | Jan 2009 | Dec 2008 | Nov 2008 | Oct 2008 | Sep 2008 | Aug 2008 | Jul 2008 | Jun 2008 | May 2008 | Apr 2008 | Mar 2008 | Feb 2008 | Jan 2008 | Dec 2007 | Nov 2007 |Fri, 31 Oct 08
Beatles Music Coming To MTV Game in 2009
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62754
The Beatles have long been rock-and-roll's most notorious holdouts from the digital revolution. Stroll through the electronic aisles of Apple's iTunes Store, and there's a big, gaping hole where the Fab Four should be, a gap not really filled by A Tribute to the Beatles by The Silver Beatles, or Lullabye Renditions of the Beatles by Rockabye Baby.
But that may be changing. On Thursday, MTV Games and Apple Corps Ltd., the primary rights holder for the Beatles catalog, announced that over the coming year they will collaborate on a new interactive music video game featuring the band's music.
The game will be developed by Harmonix, publisher of the phenomenally popular Rock Band. The company expects it to be available in time for the 2009 holiday season.
"Introducing the genius of The Beatles to a whole new generation of music lovers through original and inspired ways is extremely exciting to us at Apple Corps," said Jeff Jones, CEO of Apple Corps. "We are truly pleased to be working with the innovative forces at MTV and Harmonix as they embody our mutual passions for music and creativity."
The project has received strong support from the two remaining Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as representatives of the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison.
"The project is a fun idea," McCartney said, "which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out."
Ringo Starr agreed: "The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time, and how wonderful that The Beatles' legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in. Let the games commence."
The deal brings together music's best-selling group with one of the breakout video-game hits...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Hewlett-Packard Expands Mini-Notebook Lineup
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62753
HP has just unveiled three mini-notebook PCs in a push to dramatically build upon the inaugural Mini 100 model it rolled out for education applications in April. The PC maker's overriding goal is to match speeds with rivals in what is fast becoming a high-growth segment globally.
Both Asus and Acer experienced robust growth in the mini-notebook segment during the year's third quarter, explained Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. Though HP did maintain the No. 1 position in worldwide PC shipments in the latest quarter, the company's sales were negatively impacted by HP's slower entry into the mini-notebook market, Kitagawa said.
"Though most major vendors now have their own mini-notebook offerings, it will be a challenge for them to match or beat the market expansion that Asus and Acer have attained so far," Kitagawa noted.
Less than one-inch thick and weighing about two pounds, each member of the new HP Mini 1000 lineup is equipped with a backlit LED display featuring 1,024x600-pixel resolution, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios, two USB ports, an Ethernet jack, and a built-in webcam with microphone. What's more, all three models are powered by a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor from Intel.
Available for $399, the HP Mini 1000 ships with Windows XP Home preinstalled. Prospective buyers also can choose between 8.9-inch and 10.2-inch displays, as well as select between a solid-state drive offering with 2GB, 4GB or even 8GB of storage, or a hard disk drive.
Slated for release in January at $379, the HP Mini 1000 with MIE (for Mobile Internet Experience) will come fully loaded with instant messaging, e-mail, and Skype for online video chat. To minimize the startup time, all available social-media applications can be run from the machine's Linux-driven MIE dashboard.
The HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition, which is scheduled for a...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Apple Fixes MobileMe Service on the Sly
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62752
Apple has gotten to the core of the problems plaguing the company's MobileMe Internet service since its July launch, and has resolved several technical glitches.
Subscribers to MobileMe have been dealing with problems since the service launched and, in an e-mail to employees just weeks after the launch, Apple CEO Steve Jobs admitted the company prematurely released the service. What MobileMe is supposed to do is keep e-mail, contacts and calendars up to date across several devices, including an iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC. Instead, it has been a mobile mess.
Challenges have included problems with the Reply All function, Internet Explorer 7 issues, and difficulties with keyboard shortcuts. Other challenges included using the MobileMe Calendar in Mozilla and Firefox 3, and problems with the MobileMe Gallery, where users share photos with friends and family.
Jobs, in his e-mail to employees made public, said it was not the company's finest hour, and the service needed more testing and should not have been launched at the same time as the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software, and the App Store.
Apple corrected several issues, but did so in stealth mode by not alerting its customers to the upgrade or posting any news about the update on its blog. Instead, the company issued an article about MobileMe's recent improvements and resolutions of known problems.
"Apple is always working to improve MobileMe," the company said. "Since MobileMe is primarily a server-side, or 'cloud'-based, service, the MobileMe team can make improvements and push updates to MobileMe without any action being required of MobileMe customers. Since server-side updates are a bit more innocuous than a standard software update to Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows, it's easy not to notice that updates are occurring. Usually the only hint of these updates is that things just 'work better.'"
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Research Demos Wow Developers Conference
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62751
On the third day of its Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft cranked up the "wow" factor by showing off some projects under development in the company's research wing. Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft research, delivered the day's keynote address and used the opportunity to talk about Microsoft's ideas for dealing with a variety of technological and social challenges.
"Advances in software hold the key to progress in multiple fields," Rashid said. "The modern world generates massive data sets -- online search, astronomical phenomena, the climate, particle physics, and the human genome, to name a few areas. With software, we can capture, analyze and make sense of this data to help combat global warming, develop life-saving vaccines, and enrich our kids' education."
In keeping with Microsoft's growing fascination with touch, the company has been focusing on both surfaces and sensors.
Rashid demonstrated the newly released software developer's kit for Microsoft Surface, a computing platform that Microsoft hopes will change the way people interact with digital information.
The Surface interface will enable people to interact directly with content, without having to use a keyboard or mouse. The software recognizes 52 different gestures, and will enable users to move more than one object on the screen at the same time. Microsoft says its new software will also be able to recognize objects placed on the surface.
During his discussion of Surface, Rashid introduced Steve Hodges and Sharam Izadi from Microsoft's research lab in Cambridge, Mass., to demonstrate the company's plans to go beyond a two-dimensional surface.
"What we're trying to do with this project," Hodges said, "is not just do surface computing, but actually bring the interaction so that it works in the area above the surface as well, so you can interact in the space above the surface, and really we're talking about bringing the user...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Yahoo Opens Platform To Third-Party Developers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62750
Yahoo has officially opened its platform to developers. It's all part of the search company's vision for a more open Yahoo that leverages outside innovation, unlocks the power of social networking, and meshes the Yahoo experience with other sites to bring viewers the best of the Web.
That's the vision. And Yahoo has taken one more step toward it by making its tools and data available to developers to build applications for a more customized network.
According to Jay Rossiter, senior vice president of Yahoo Open Strategy, the most obvious impact will be the social aspects. At a high level, he said, Yahoo is rolling out a social platform that will draw on the hundreds of millions of connections on Yahoo -- everything from random encounters with someone who commented on the same photo as you, to connections with friends who know nearly everything about you.
"By using the social contacts you already have on Yahoo -- through mail, messenger, Flickr, finance, fantasy sports, etc. -- we'll make those social connections more active and useful," Rossiter wrote on the corporate blog. "Most importantly, by enabling developers to make your social connections specific to the Yahoo service you're using, we believe you'll enjoy some incredibly unique and creative new experiences that we would never have thought of."
Unlimited Potential?
According to Yahoo, there's really no limit to the potential. The company offered a few examples, such as sharing updates and discovering new things online. Basically, Yahoo is letting developers centralize anything you do on the Web as an update for its platform, with user permission.
"You'll be able to see what your friends are doing on Yahoo (like entering ratings on Yahoo Movies or buzzing articles on Yahoo Buzz) and off our network (like the blog post they just commented on, photo they've uploaded, movies they've...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Netflix and TiVo Partner to Stream Movies to TV
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62724
TiVo and Netflix announced Wednesday that subscribers to both services will be able to instantly stream thousands of movies and TV episodes to their television screens.
The collaboration, for TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL subscribers who also belong to Netflix, is being tested in several thousand U.S. households and is expected to become more broadly available by early December. There will be no extra charge for those subscribers.
A variety of companies have been trying to connect TV sets to the growing inventory of movies and TV shows available online, but many solutions have been complex and required additional purchases.
Reed Hastings, cofounder and CEO of Netflix, said "this collaboration offers a fabulously easy way to enhance the enjoyment of watching movies" in the comfort of home. Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo, added that this joining of forces "creates the ultimate video on demand service."
The logistics involve streaming Netflix movies to specific TiVo DVRs through a wired or wireless broadband connection, with a Netflix queue-based user interface. Members still need to visit the Netflix Web site to manage their queues, such as adding or deleting TV episodes or movies.
This collaboration has been a long time coming. In 2004, both companies started development on a way to deliver Internet-based video to the TV set, but Netflix reportedly ran into roadblocks in securing licensing rights from movie and TV studios.
But eventually Netflix was able to work things out, and more than a year ago launched an Internet streaming service to deliver programs directly to subscribers over their computer broadband lines, rather than only through DVDs. The alliance with TiVo builds on that service.
"This is very big news for both of them," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president for consumer strategy at Jupitermedia. He added that both...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Motorola Delays Spin-Off for Mobile Devices Division
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62723
Just one day after news broke that Motorola is cutting its mobile operating platforms from seven to three and amid speculation about thousands of layoffs, Motorola on Thursday said it will delay spinning out its mobile devices division.
Sanjay Jha, co-chief of Schaumberg, Ill.-based Motorola and CEO of mobile devices, said the unstable economy has forced the company to rethink its strategy.
"While our strategic intent to separate the company remains intact, we are no longer targeting the third quarter of 2009, primarily due to the macroeconomic environment, stresses in the financial markets, and the changes under way in mobile devices," Jha said. "We have made progress on various elements of the separation plan and will continue to prepare for a potential transaction at the appropriate time frame that serves the best interests of the company and its shareholders."
He also said in a conference call Thursday that the company will take drastic cost-cutting measures that will help the company's plan to rebuild its mobile devices division and become more competitive.
Motorola said it plans to cut about $1 billion in annual expenses this year. Already it has reduced costs by $474 million in the first nine months of the year and expects to exceed $600 million in additional reductions this year. Although the company has not announced any layoffs, observers expect thousands of layoffs will be part of the cost-cutting.
Jha, who in August left his position as chief operating officer at Qualcomm and has only been in his new position for 90 days, said he's ready for the work ahead of him.
"Although I've been here for only a short time, I understand the challenges and changes we need to make and how to address them," he said during the conference call. "The reality is there is no quick...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Psystar Offers Blu-ray, Graphics Options for Mac Clones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62722
Psystar is on the move again, beating Apple to market with a Mac clone with an optional Blu-ray drive and the Nvidia 9800GT graphics card. Psystar is also planning to add a Mac OS-based notebook.
While Blu-ray offers movie-watching and storage options, the GeForce 9800GT promises increased graphics performance for high-end game play and media editing. Apple currently does not offer the 9800GT on any computer.
"Blu-ray has already won the format war," said Rudy Pedraza, president of Psystar. "Not only is there fully functional and mature support for Blu-ray in other operating systems, but you can now rent Blu-ray discs from almost any rental chain. Blu-ray has become pervasive technology that is being widely adopted by consumers everywhere."
Pedraza did not offer details about what "widely adopted" means. Rather, he focused on the Blu-ray drives, pointing out that Blu-ray is not just for movies.
"The ability to burn 25-gigabyte discs is a feature that can help users in media-editing or enterprise environments keep archives of large file sets," he said. "Our systems, regardless of configured operating system, can now provide this functionality."
Psystar is currently offering several sales promotions, such as no-cost processor upgrades and shipping discounts. Psystar buyers can choose to upgrade a Mac clone with a 6x Blu-ray burner for $310 and a 52MB GeoForce 9800GT card for $200. Psystar also offers a 2x GeForce 9800GT 512MB card for $400.
The Open with Mac OS starts at $554.99 with OS X Leopard v 10.5. That comes with 2GB of DDR2 memory. A 19-inch monitor is an additional $199. This stripped-down Mac clone doesn't come with a Firewire port or a wireless protocol, or even a keyboard and mouse.
Psystar is betting the combination of a Mac clone with both a Blu-ray drive and the GeForce 9800GT will give...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Alcohol 120% Burning Tool Creates Buzz
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62710
[In a previous article], we examined the volatility of data burned to optical discs, concluding that CDs or DVDs might not be as ideal for long-term storage as previously thought. Because the loss of data integrity is caused by physical limitations of the media itself, one solution is to go virtual.
The average cost of an internal hard drive now runs about 15 cents per gigabyte, which translates to a lot of storage bang for your buck. As technology improves, hard drive prices go down, and storage capacities go up. That's a win-win by anyone's standards and all the more reason to consider using hard drives for archiving data previously stored on optical disc.
Now you just need a way to transfer a stack of discs onto your hard drive. One of the most efficient ways to capture the entire contents of a CD, DVD or Blu-ray data disc -- whether commercial quality or homemade -- is to turn it into a single ISO disc image file. Once converted, this file can be stored and organized on your hard drive, perhaps used at a later time to burn another disc.
Another cool thing you can do with ISO files is using them on your computer as virtual discs, mounted in a virtual CD/DVD drive. Because virtual drives exist only in your computer's virtual memory, their performance is as much as 200 times faster than a real optical drive.
There are plenty of programs available for creating and burning ISO disc images, but my favorite is Alcohol 120% from Alcohol Soft. This software does it all -- from image file creation and disc burning to virtual drive emulation.
For image making, the program supports three file types for CDs -- .iso; .cue/.bin; and the CloneCD standard .ccd/.img/.sub file formats -- but for DVDs, Alcohol 120% uses...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Key Republican Questions Yahoo's Cooperation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62709
The top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is joining a chorus of lawmakers urging the Justice Department to scrutinize the planned Internet advertising partnership between Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
Texas Republican Joe Barton also accuses Yahoo of resisting congressional inquiries into the deal. He said that many of the company's answers to his questions "seemed designed to obscure rather than clarify how the Google-Yahoo partnership would work."
In particular, Barton said Yahoo has resisted his efforts to obtain an unredacted copy of a document suggesting that some of its employees are concerned that working with Google would result in an "effective monopoly."
In a statement, Yahoo said it "has cooperated fully with Congressman Barton's staff, and will continue to do so."
The Justice Department is deep into an investigation of the deal, which will allow Google to sell some of the ads displayed alongside search results on Yahoo's Web site. Google and Yahoo have delayed the start of the partnership to allow the department to complete its antitrust review.
Yahoo entered the agreement in June after rebuffing a $47.5 billion takeover by Microsoft Corp. Yahoo and Google say their deal will benefit advertisers and consumers by delivering more targeted, more relevant ads, while giving Yahoo additional revenue it needs to remain viable as an independent company.
But many advertisers warn that the partnership will leave them with fewer options for placing online ads, raise the cost of online advertising and cement Google's control over the market.
In his letter to the Justice Department on Tuesday, Barton said he is "concerned about the adverse effects such a partnership could have on competition and pricing with the online search advertising community."
Barton said he is also concerned about the privacy implications of the deal since Google and Yahoo both "collect a great deal of information relating...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Google To Sell Books To Be Read Only Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62708
Google's next frontier: selling books to read online.
The online search giant's $125 million settlement with book publishers paves the way for a new business for Google, authors and publishers: selling books that can only be read on your computer.
"Call me weird, but I think there are a lot of advantages to reading books online," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in an interview Tuesday. "You don't have to look at it at a funny angle, and today's monitors have better resolution than ever."
Nearly four years ago Google began scanning out-of-print books to add to its online index, saying it would offer parts of the book in searches. Publishers responded with a copyright infringement lawsuit.
Google's Book Search project expanded, adding portions of in-print books to the index with links to buy them. Google has digitized 7 million books to date.
"We would have remained unhappy about the scanning, but for this deal," says Paul Aiken, executive director of the Author's Guild. By Google's agreeing to pay authors and publishers, and to work out a revenue share for future sales, "We're thrilled," says Aiken.
The settlement awaits approval by the court, expected in mid-2009, when the venture will begin. Meanwhile, Google is setting up an online registry for authors. (Authors will set prices and pocket a little more than 50% of the sale, Google says.)
Brin says he often reads books on his computer. Reading in bed under a lamp is cool, "but frankly, there's a lot to be said for efficiently buying a book online and not having to wait for it to arrive."
Danny Sullivan, editor of the SearchEngineLand blog, says the settlement shows a mature Google. "Google came from this place where they could just go index everything without asking anyone's permission."
Coming to terms with publishers paves the way for other settlements, Sullivan says,...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Can Microsoft Succeed in the Crowded Cloud?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62702
Looking for growth in new markets where it is increasingly being bypassed, Microsoft plans late next year to begin offering a new "cloud" operating system that would manage the relationship between software inside the computer and on the Web, where data and services are becoming increasingly centralized.
The company needs a new kind of operating system for a new computing world populated not by a single style of desktop computer but instead by dozens of different kinds of Internet-connected appliances ranging from smartphones to mini-laptops called netbooks.
More of those devices use programs that reside on a remote server rather than on the device itself. The servers, in the so-called cloud, deliver what are called Web services, which can be anything from customer relationship software or a Facebook game.
Microsoft is a late entrant into a market that is crowded by a range of players offering every flavor of cloud computing, including Sun Microsystems and IBM, as well as Amazon and Google.
Although Microsoft has continued to see strong sales of its operating-system software to corporate customers, growth of its Windows Vista operating system appears stalled. Moreover, Microsoft has significantly delayed its next generation of software for mobile smartphones at a time when competitors like Apple and Research in Motion are using their own software to sell more cellphones to corporate customers.
The new Microsoft "cloud OS" -- dubbed Azure -- gives Microsoft an opening.
But many of the giant software company's competitors believe that it is unlikely that Microsoft will be able to maintain its advantage either in market share or profitability going forward.
"Today's announcement of Azure is the same Microsoft, keeping developers locked into their proprietary solutions, and failing to grasp the true power of cloud computing," said Mark Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce.com, a San Francisco company that helped pioneer the commercial...
Fri, 31 Oct 08
Is New MacBook 'Stealth' Business Machine?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62692
Apple's new aluminum MacBook could be a stealth business notebook, according to an IT columnist writing for Computerworld.
At a time where some mainstream pundits are criticizing the MacBook's $1299 price point, and Mac users are complaining about the lack of FireWire ports in the device, Scot Finnie argues that the combination of several factors could see the MacBook be the biggest selling Mac yet in the business world.
"After more than 25 years of watching technology," wrote Mr. Finnie, "I've come to believe in the consumerization of IT as a more powerful driver in the adoption of end-user technology by enterprises than most analysts and pundits allow for. I'm not predicting wholesale adoption of Macs by larger enterprises anytime soon, but the new MacBook will make the most significant inroads into the enterprise market of any Apple product, probably ever. It comes down to price/performance, price point, design focus, durability, suitability to task and market timing."
Mr. Finnie argues that the MacBook's specs and price point, as well as its more professional (i.e. non-plastic) appearance combine to make Apple's consumer and education-oriented MacBook a compelling business offering, even if Apple itself does not make a compelling enterprise partner due to its penchant for not sharing product roadmaps or caring much about IT execs.
Apple's stealth business offering, the MacBook?
"But," he argued, "while the company may never admit it, the MacBook is a shot fired across the bows of Windows enterprise notebook makers."
Mr. Finnie's opinion is the first in some time that we've noticed from a non-Mac-centric source making the case for a Mac as a business machine. That it comes in the midst of much grousing from a subset of Mac users is either irony or fitting, depending on your viewpoint.
Thu, 30 Oct 08
LinkedIn Makes Professional-Style Apps Available
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62721
Apparently suffering from a bit of application envy, LinkedIn announced Tuesday that it has implemented its own platform for running apps on its professional-networking site. In keeping with LinkedIn's strong business focus, the new service is called Intelligent Applications, or InApps.
"Our audience is a professional audience, it's not the typical social-network audience," says Jamie Templeton, LinkedIn's vice president of platform products. "They don't want noise."
The serious nature of LinkedIn can be seen both in the limited number of initial apps and their business purpose. According to Reid Hoffman, chairman and president, products, at LinkedIn, the goal is to enable the service's 30 million members to communicate, collaborate and share information more easily.
"This initial rollout features productivity applications that range from gathering information that professionals around you are generating to enhancing your abilities to collaborate and communicate more effectively," Hoffman said on the LinkedIn blog. "You'll be able to work much more closely with your contacts on LinkedIn with tools such as file sharing, project management, business trips, and many more."
The company is offering nine apps to start: Reading List from Amazon, WordPress, Box.net, Blog Link from Six Apart, Company Buzz by LinkedIn, SlideShare presentations, Google Presentation, My Travel, and Huddle Workspaces.
Some of these apps -- like the file sharing in Box.net, the collaborative work spaces in Huddle, or the slideshow resources -- may offer a productivity boost. Others -- like Amazon's dynamic reading list or LinkedIn's own Company Buzz, which provides a customized Twitter feed from coworkers -- may cause headaches for management and IT departments.
Nonetheless, LinkedIn has added apps to keep it from becoming too stodgy and because the incoming generation of workers have grown up in a social-networking environment.
Unlike the freewheeling app environments on Facebook or MySpace, LinkedIn has made it clear that...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Motorola Adopts Android as One of Mobile Platforms
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62720
The Wall Street Journal reports Motorola Co-CEO Sanjay Jha has decided to adopt Google's Android mobile operating system as one of the company's three platforms for building next-generation cellular handsets and smartphones.
Jha, who left Qualcomm to join Motorola in early August, also reportedly intends to further trim the company's workforce. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said Jha will announce the company's next round of job cuts when Motorola reports its quarterly results on Thursday.
Jha informed company employees last month that he intends to reduce the number of handset operating systems that Motorola supports from seven to just three: Android, the company's homegrown P2K mobile platform for low-cost handsets, and Windows Mobile, whose second-quarter smartphone deployments rose 20.6 percent year-over-year, according to Gartner. So cuts in the company's development team won't necessary hamper Motorola's ability to innovate.
Motorola's continuing commitment to Windows Mobile was evident earlier this week when the company announced the availability of the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system on its rugged mobile computers and enterprise digital assistants. However, with Apple's iPhone enjoying raging success and with Android looking poised to follow suit, Motorola clearly needs to find a way to hitch a ride on the wireless industry's high-growth curve.
Motorola recently told BusinessWeek it is "excited about the innovation possibilities on Android and looking forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google" and other Open Handset Alliance members. The publication also reported that Motorola has given spec sheets for its first Android-based handset to several major wireless carriers worldwide.
The bad news is that Motorola's first Android-based handset may not be ready for a U.S. launch until the second quarter next year or go on sale in Europe until the following quarter. In the interim, Motorola is betting its investments in...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Xbox 'Ultimate' Entertainment Experience To Be Offered
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62719
Microsoft is giving its Xbox customers an early Christmas gift on Nov. 19: The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is offering Xbox 360 owners a chance to upgrade their dashboard with a conversion called the New Xbox Experience (NXE), an upgrade it is dubbing the "ultimate social-entertainment experience" with "something for everyone."
NXE gives users a new experience with a load of different features, including the creation of avatars and the ability to choose from 10,000 movies and TV shows from Netflix, some of which will be available in high definition.
Members of the press and analysts who have had a chance to preview NXE say the look is snazzy, the experience is superfast, and it shares similarities to Nintendo's Wii.
Once users download NXE, they will have a chance to create their own avatar, adding as many features as they like -- a process that can take anywhere from a few seconds to 10 minutes, depending on how many features are added. Once facial features are added and avatars dressed, they can be used throughout Xbox 360 in games such as SceneIt and in Friends lists.
All users need to do is watch the update download like a typical system update. A status bar will be give consumers an idea of how long the process will take. Once the update is complete, the console will reload to the Xbox welcome page.
Microsoft will not say how long the download will take, but did say Xbox owners should expect a larger download than other dashboard updates, so it will take more time. All users need is 128MB of memory available, but the company also suggests having a hard drive for the best experience.
Of course, Microsoft is willing to sell a 20GB hard drive to those needing an upgrade. The price for...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Microsoft Shows Upgrades to Visual Studio and .NET
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62718
Windows 7 may have gotten much of the attention at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, but on Wednesday other Microsoft programs got their turn to shine.
In keynote speeches by Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group; Scott Guthrie, vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division; and others, attendees were shown demos of Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0.
The two application are being developed with a focus on concurrent execution, to take advantage of the trend toward parallel processing in laptops and desktops. They also have slick new interface options intended to support the look and feel of Windows 7.
"You're going to see a lot of investment in multi-core development," Guthrie said, "specifically around allowing you to build parallel applications that take advantage of multiple processes and multiple cores, as well as in debugging analysis tools that you can actually see what code is happening on which core, and when it happens, and how you coordinate that."
The demos were somewhat surprising, given the fact that Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 SP1 just came out earlier this year. But Microsoft has been working on creating richer visual displays through the use of a software library called Windows Presentation Foundation. Visual Studio 2010 has been engineered specifically to use WPF to produce flashier interfaces without the performance penalties that initially plagued Vista's Aero.
Guthrie told attendees that .NET 4.0 will make extensive use of WPF, but the real benefit lies in the improved start-up times that have already been built into the most recent .NET Framework upgrade.
"In particular for client development, we spent a lot of time focusing on performance," Guthrie said. "In general, we see about a 40 percent cold start-up performance win for .NET applications that have...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Christian Science Monitor Moves To 24/7 Online News
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62717
After a century of publishing, The Christian Science Monitor is slowing the presses. The paper is moving from a daily print format to a daily online edition that updates around the clock. The paper will maintain a weekly print edition.
The new model will launch in April 2009 at CSMonitor.com with original reporting seven days a week. The paper will also produce a daily electronic subscription product. And the weekly print publication will look behind the headlines to help readers understand global issues.
In its 100-year history, the Monitor has earned seven Pulitzer Prizes and hundreds of other awards. With 18 bureaus worldwide, the Monitor aims to cover both major news events and stories from every corner of the globe. The Monitor first went online in 1996.
"Like much of the news industry, the Monitor has embraced online reporting and is now one of the first publications to treat its Web site as its primary publishing format," said John Yemma, editor of the Monitor. "The Christian Science Monitor recognizes that daily print has become too costly and energy-intensive. Online journalism is more timely and is rapidly expanding its reach, especially among younger readers."
With its paradigm shift, the Monitor becomes the first major international newspaper to fully embrace the Internet as the future of journalism. The Monitor expects its publish-news-as-it-happens model to span the globe with original reporting and spur global conversations between readers and Monitor staff.
The weekly print edition intends to stay true to the Monitor's reputation for thoughtful, in-depth coverage of global issues, including analysis of U.S. and global news, weekly snapshots of life around the globe and news around the Web, profiles of people who are tackling tough problems and trying to make a difference, and special emphasis on the environment, innovation, money and values.
"There's still a...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Privacy Experts Say Global Network Is No Silver Bullet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62716
In a move to protect and advance the human rights of freedom of expression and privacy, the Global Network Initiative was launched Tuesday. But for all the big names in technology, human rights, academics and communications, some privacy advocates say this initiative fails to address the depth of the issue.
The initiative was formed to provide a systematic approach to resist efforts by governments that try to enlist companies in acts of censorship and surveillance that violate international standards. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are among the Internet companies leading the charge.
"This initiative is the result of two years of discussions with other leading technology companies, human-rights organizations, socially responsible investors, and academic institutions," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google's director of public policy and government affairs. He added that "the initiative sets the kinds of standards and practices that all companies and groups should use when governments threaten internationally recognized rights to free expression and privacy."
Initiative members have committed to acting together to promote free expression and protect privacy across all communication technologies. By taking a united stance instead of acting individually, the members believe they are more likely to bring change in government policies.
Member companies have committed to putting procedures into place that will protect users by evaluating government requests to censor content or access user information, providing greater transparency, assessing human-rights risks when entering new markets or introducing new products, and instituting employee training and oversight programs.
"This initiative is by no means a silver bullet or the last word, but it does represent a concrete step toward promoting freedom of expression and protecting users' privacy in the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," McLaughlin said. "Now we're actively recruiting more companies and groups to join the initiative and advance these critical human rights around the...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Online Version of Microsoft Office Is Planned
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62691
Microsoft announced Tuesday that it plans to finally allow the crown jewels of its applications -- the Microsoft Office suite -- to be delivered through Web browsers.
The announcement was made at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.
Chris Capossela, senior vice president of the Microsoft Business Division, said Office Web will allow users to employ lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote to create, edit and collaborate with Office documents through a Web browser.
He added that this is part of the company's "software plus services" approach for all its technology, and users will now be able to have a "consistent Office experience" whether they are using desktop applications or a Web browser on a desktop computer or a Windows Mobile smartphone.
Capossela pointed out that Microsoft has been developing "cloud-based services for more than 10 years," including Hosted Exchange, Outlook Web Access, Live Meeting, and Microsoft Online. Announced earlier in 2008, Microsoft Online allows businesses to access Exchange and SharePoint over the Web.
This increasing emphasis on applications that have online components and functionality reflects the fact that desktop apps are only one of the ways users employ applications these days, with an increasing demand to access and use the same applications and documents on a desktop computer or a mobile device.
"Our customers don't use one device," Capossela said, "but rather several." He added that they want "a seamless, synchronized experience across those devices to help them work smarter, faster and better." The company indicated that Office Web will work on Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox, and will utilize HTML, AJAX and Microsoft's Silverlight technology.
Office Web applications will be made available to consumers through Office Live, which has both advertising- and subscription-based versions. Office Web apps will be made available to business users through a hosted...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Logitech Buys SightSpeed Video Services for $30 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62690
Logitech International plans to use Internet video-call technology to help soldiers see families at home and help executives abroad communicate with colleagues. Such scenarios are expected from Switzerland-based Logitech's acquisition of California-based SightSpeed, a provider of Internet video services.
Logitech, a computer-peripherals company with more than 7,000 employees, announced late Tuesday that it will pay $30 million in cash for SightSpeed, which currently has 25 employees. Logitech expects to close the deal in early November, but does not expect the acquisition to affect results for its current fiscal year.
"With this acquisition, we are significantly augmenting our current video R&D resources to help us move more quickly toward our goals for video services that complement the way people socialize, communicate and enjoy entertainment," said Junien Labrousse, executive vice president of Logitech's products group.
The announcement comes just two months after Logitech announced it would pay $34 million for another California company -- Ultimate Ears, a provider of custom, in-ear monitors.
Logitech is using the acquisition to tap into what it said is an untapped market of people wanting to use video communications. It wants to build on SightSpeed's existing services, which include video chat; video calls and instant messaging; video mail with an inbox; unlimited video storage; and four-way friend calling.
"According to our research, there is large untapped market of people who want to communicate with friends and family using video," Labrousse said. "But they want it to be integrated into their family lifestyle, which means going beyond the PC."
"We believe with SightSpeed we can help create the next wave of video-communications enthusiasts," he added.
Currently consumers pay $9.95 per month per seat and $99.95 a year for the personal-use version. SightSpeed also offers a free version with fewer features. For businesses, the cost is $19.95 per seat and $189.00 annually for one...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Virus Infections via USB Drives Increasing Sharply
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62685
Antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc. has found that reported computer virus infections via USB flash memory drives more than doubled in September, Jiji Press learned.
Infections in the month with the Otorun worm, which propagates via removal drives such as USB drives, surged 140 percent from the previous month to 347 cases, Trend Micro said in a monthly survey report.
The company's monthly reports showed that viruses transmitted via USB drives began to rapidly increase in February, with the number of Otorun infections in January-June reaching 517, the most popular to far exceed 201 cases of the Agent, Trend Micro said.
The company said that 53.7 pct of viruses newly found in September were capable of sneaking into computers via USB drives.
Such viruses are becoming a great threat because most people are not aware of them, the security software firm warned.
Many companies and public organizations are trying to prevent leakage of personal and classified information by building independent networks isolated from the Internet, as viruses are often transmitted via files attached to e-mail or those on the Internet.
However, USB drives are often used on unspecified computers, so viruses can immediately spread even in an independent network.
Trend Micro calls on computer users to regularly check virus infections on not only internal hard disk drives but also USB flash drives and not to carelessly use these flash drives on unspecified machines.END
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Analysis: Can Microsoft Meld Windows with the Web?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62680
After years of efforts by Google (GOOG) and Amazon.com (AMZN) to spin visions of a future where the Web supplants Windows, Microsoft (MSFT) struck back on Oct. 27. The software giant unveiled what one executive called the most important plan in 16 years aimed at keeping its Windows operating system franchise vital. "What we announced today was much broader than anything anyone has tried before," says Senior Vice-President Robert Muglia.
The project, called Windows Azure, was unveiled by Microsoft head techie Ray Ozzie during a conference for more than 6,000 Microsoft software developers at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Azure is an ambitious effort to create an operating system that allows for greater flexibility in using Windows -- letting companies run some programs on their own computer networks while also commissioning Microsoft to dole out other tasks from its own massive data centers. If successful, Azure could transform Windows from a wasting asset to be defended at all costs into an offensive weapon that gives Microsoft advantages even Google can't match.
Indeed, Muglia compared the day's news to the 1992 launch of Microsoft's Windows NT, which enabled Microsoft to go from dominating desktop PCs into the much larger, more lucrative world of back-office corporate computing. That's because Azure could potentially affect the entire Net, from wonky programs used by companies to run their operations to consumer services doled out to teenagers' laptops and cell phones. While Microsoft has rolled out "live" versions of some of its programs in recent years that had Internet-based features, Azure is designed to be a common foundation on which they will all run. Gartner (IT) analyst David Mitchell Smith says "this is much bigger than NT. It's a tremendously broad and ambitious strategy. This is clearly about more than just competing with Amazon."
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Researchers Expect Hackers To Prey on Cell Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62679
Some of the most vicious Internet predators are hackers who infect thousands of PCs with special viruses and lash the machines together into "botnets" to pump out spam or attack other computers.
Now security researchers say cell phones, and not just PCs, are the next likely conscripts into the automated armies.
The mobile phone as zombie computer is one possibility envisioned by security researchers from Georgia Tech in a new report coming out Wednesday.
The report identifies the growing power of cell phones to open a new avenue of attack for hackers. Of particular concern is that as cell phones get more computing power and better Internet connections, hackers can capitalize on vulnerabilities in mobile-phone operating systems or Web applications.
Botnets, or networks of infected or robot PCs, are the weapons of choice when it comes to spam and so-called "denial of service attacks," in which computer servers are overwhelmed with Internet traffic to shut them down. For example, botnets were used against Estonia's government and financial Web sites in a devastating wave of attacks last year.
Botnets are so troubling because they have massive computing power and a seemingly endless supply of newly infected PCs to replace old ones that are wiped clean or taken offline. Millions of PC have fallen victim. The owners typically never know.
The Georgia Tech researchers say that if cell phones become absorbed in botnets, new types of moneymaking scams could be born. For example, infected phones could be programmed to call pay-per-minute telephone numbers or to buy ringtones from companies set up by the criminals.
"The question is, can they do it effectively -- make a lot of money without much risk?" said botnet expert Joe Stewart, director of malware research with SecureWorks Inc. "And if they can, then they will do it."
The Georgia Tech researchers say a big appeal...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
GPS Devices Are Enticing Thieves
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62677
It takes just 15 minutes of scouring a few adjacent parking lots in Schaumburg [Illinois] to find five sitting targets.
Perched above the dashboard, GPS devices spied in vehicles in parking lots outside a health club and office building are prime picking for smash-and-grab thieves.
Tapping into satellites, global positioning system devices have been a boon for drivers.
But as they have grown more affordable and increasingly common, they also have become more prone to theft. The portable units range in price from about $200 to more than $1,000.
Schaumburg police Sgt. John Nebl drove a reporter in a crime enforcement van to tour a few area parking lots on a recent weekday morning.
His mission: To show just how common it is for people to leave out GPS devices despite police warnings to hide them.
"It's just as simple as driving through a parking lot and looking in people's windows," Nebl says from behind the wheel. "It takes all of 10 seconds to grab it and walk away."
Schaumburg police alone logged 21 reports of stolen GPS devices in the first two weeks of May. Des Plaines police took reports of five thefts in a single day, May 27.
Parking lots for apartments, hotels and shopping centers are the popular prowling grounds, Nebl said.
Other suburban police departments are seeing the same trend.
While CDs and police radar detectors used to be the "it" thing for car thieves, now it's more about laptop computers, GPS devices and satellite radio portable units.
"People need to exercise a little more common sense. They should secure it and other valuables," Naperville police Cmdr. Dave Hoffman said. "Oftentimes, the damage to the car is more than the items stolen."
With summer approaching, Buffalo Grove police spokesman Todd Kupsak said it's a good time to remind people to remove both the device and its holder when...
Thu, 30 Oct 08
Want a Smartphone? Questions You Should Ask
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62667
If you visit the Web sites or look at the ads from the major wireless carriers, smart phones aimed at both consumers and businesses are front and center.
What was once a niche aimed at road warriors, sales types and techies is rapidly going mainstream. There's a very good chance that if you can afford it a smart phone is in your future.
So says a survey from IBM which, strangely, neither makes nor sells phones. IBM talked to 600 people in the U. S., the U.K. and China, and found more than 71 percent expected to ramp up their phone-based Internet activities. And a study released in April by ABI Research predicts more than 700 million phones with Web browsers will be shipped in 2013. Last year, 76 million mobile browsers were sold.
Indeed, smart phones are not just cool, they're incredibly useful.
They're getting good enough that you can now do almost anything on them that you can do on a personal computer and then some. But if you've never bought one before, it can get confusing. Here are some of the things you should consider before you shell out money for a smart phone.
-- Do you really need one?
Smart phones can be pricey and I'll deal with the costs next so you should think about whether you really need one, or simply want one.
Smart phones are great for communicating in a variety of ways e-mail, instant messaging, via social networks, texts and, of course, good, old-fashioned telephone calls. Most let you take pictures;, many let you capture video. You can access the Web and all the knowledge it holds.
And some let you install more programs on them, turning your smart phone into almost any device you want it to be.
That all sounds wonderful, but think about whether you actually would do...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Microsoft Previews Windows 7 with Touch Capabilities
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62689
At the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft offered the first public glimpse of a post-Vista world Tuesday. Dubbed Windows 7, the new operating system promises faster bootup times, better memory handling, and extensive support for a touch interface.
"We are excited to be delivering a pre-beta developer release of Windows 7 today at PDC2008," said Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group. "With our new approach to planning and development we now have a great foundation for our partners to start learning and innovating on this exciting new version of Windows."
Attendees at the conference received pre-beta developer releases of both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition, Microsoft has set up a Web site for developers to share code, apply for Windows 7 certification, and get updates as the software evolves.
Company executives declined to offer a specific rollout date for the new OS, but gave 2010 as a ballpark figure. A full beta release of Windows 7 is scheduled for sometime next year.
There is some suggestion that the pending rollout of Windows 7 will slow the implementation of Vista, particularly in corporate environments. In a keynote address at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo a couple of weeks ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer conceded that was a possibility.
"If people want to wait, they really can," said Ballmer. "But I'd definitely deploy Vista."
He took issue, however, with the notion that Vista has performed below expectations, both in terms of sales and ease of implementation, although he conceded some early compatibility issues.
"The adoption rate of Vista is faster than the adoption rate was of XP two years in," he said. "We had a great success with security and are starting to see a ramp with adoption."
The Windows 7 feature...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Dell Refreshes Business-Desktop Portfolio
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62688
Dell has launched a major refresh of the venerable OptiPlex desktop PC line for business professionals that the company first launched in 1995.
Among other things, Dell's OptiPlex rollout includes desktops that embrace advanced Intel technologies for remotely managing and servicing enterprise-class machines -- even when they are located beyond the corporate firewall, noted Darrel Ward, director of the Dell Product Group. Even better, the new OptiPlex machines deliver cutting-edge processors and graphics cards to enable end users to do more.
"Whether you need multicore processing power with Intel Core 2 quad processors or support for up to four independent displays, these new OptiPlex systems will scale to meet your needs," Ward said.
Dell's 10 new OptiPlex systems promise to supply enterprises with the flexibility they need to deploy solutions that fall outside traditional computing models. Diskless versions of the OptiPlex 760 and 960 are available for on-demand desktop streaming, and a thin client called the FX160 offers support for "both virtual remote desktop and on-demand desktop streaming scenarios," Ward said.
Dell's OptiPlex portfolio refresh is also more environmentally friendly than any other comparable desktops, Ward boasted.
"We've engineered our new desktops to reduce power consumption up to 43 percent with our OptiPlex 960 when compared to previous-generation OptiPlex products," he said. "That's a significant yearly savings that can add up over time."
Select OptiPlex models also offer Dell's exclusive "quiet" option, which Ward says can deliver a 60 percent reduction in acoustic noise versus comparable systems from HP and Lenovo.
"Studies have shown that a reduction in workplace noise leads to an increase in employee productivity," Ward said. "This might seem like a small innovation, but it reaps a significant benefit for desktop users around the world."
Security is another area in which Dell has introduced major improvements....
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Google Finds Solution to Book-Search Suits
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62687
Google is settling its long battle with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP). The groups have been embroiled in copyright litigation with Google over its Book Search product for two years.
Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million.
The settlement could expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of participating libraries. The negotiation resolves a class-action suit brought by the Authors Guild and five separate lawsuits filed by five large publishers representing the AAP's membership.
"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, together with the authors, publishers and libraries, we have been able to make a great leap in this endeavor," said Sergey Brin, cofounder and president of technology at Google. "While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers. The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their fingertips."
The agreement promises benefits for readers, researchers, authors and publishers, according to Google, because it makes content from millions of books available in digital form and searchable on the Web. At the same time, the agreement acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright owners and gives them the ability to control how their intellectual property is accessed online.
Perhaps most important to the authors and publishers, the settlement offers a way to receive compensation for online access to their works.
"It's hard work writing a book, and even harder work getting paid for it," said Roy Blount Jr., president of the Authors Guild. "As a reader and researcher, I'll be delighted to stop by my local library to browse the stacks of some of the world's great...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Gamers Make Noise About Guitar Hero Problems
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62684
Guitar Hero World Tour players are making noise about Activision's newly released interactive music video game. The noise, however, is not about the state-of-the-art controls the company touted before the game's release -- and consumers are not living out their rock 'n' roll fantasies as Activision intended.
Instead, Web posters are filling pages of Guitar Hero message boards with complaints about the game, including problems with its cymbals and footpad. The game's biggest problem, however, is the sensitivity of the drum set, with complaints about the drum system completely shutting down.
Leading up to its release, Activision touted Guitar Hero's newly designed, more responsive guitar controller with a touch-sensitive slide and realistic drum controller. The velocity-sensitive drums are supposed to deliver a bounce back when struck with a drumstick, according to the company.
For some, however, the only thing Guitar Hero World Tour is doing is bouncing back to the manufacturer.
Activision is telling consumers to first troubleshoot problems by changing batteries, powering off and back on, and making sure the drum set is properly bound to the console. Other troubleshooting advice includes: "Hit the drum set harder or softer," and "Make sure that the drum set is powered on and bound to the console." Posters on Guitar Hero community boards are offering their own fixes, including putting tape on the sensors. Some even posted videos about temporary fixes.
"We have learned that certain drum-kit controllers manufactured for Guitar Hero World Tour have sensitivity issues," the Activision Support Web site says. "We believe that these controllers are limited to ones in the earlier manufacturing stages."
The site goes on to say that it is an isolated manufacturing issue and the company has increased quality-assurance efforts by randomly testing drum-kit controllers.
"Our goal would be to immediately address any hardware issues Guitar Hero...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Microsoft Joins with Google To Favor White Space
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62683
The debate about using white spaces in the television spectrum white space is getting red-hot as a Nov. 4 vote by the Federal Communications Commission grows closer. As further proof that telecommunications policy makes strange bedfellows, Microsoft has joined Google in urging the FCC to allow white space to be used for a national wireless broadband.
In a telephone conference with reporters Monday morning, Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said the software giant agrees with Google that using the white space could make the United States a world leader in broadband access, particularly in rural areas.
"As we look to rural communities, we'll see more community broadband connectivity," Mundie said. "Using unlicensed white-space spectrum, we could connect farmhouses in the square states that you couldn't achieve with Wi-Fi."
The white-space pot has been simmering for a long time -- in fact, Mundie said it's an idea Microsoft has been looking at since 2002. The debate intensified earlier this year when Google cofounder Larry Page traveled to Washington to urge the FCC to look into the proposal.
After a favorable report was issued earlier this month by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated a draft order to open up the white space and tentatively scheduled a vote for the commission's Nov. 4 meeting.
The OET report found that if wireless devices are equipped with frequency-sensing and geolocation capabilities, the technologies can prevent the devices from interfering with television signals.
Television broadcasters strenuously disagree. They argue that regardless of what technology is built into wireless devices, the use of white space for broadband will interfere with television signals broadcast on adjacent frequencies, rendering the channels useless.
The National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to at least delay the vote. In a...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Zimbra Adds Cloud-Based Educational Collaboration
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62682
In the wake of Microsoft's Windows Azure announcement on Monday, it seems Yahoo will not be left out of the cloud-computing buzz.
Yahoo's Zimbra is tapping into the cloud to deliver a collaboration platform for educational institutions. Through Zimbra Hosted, universities now have access to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite without having to manage on-premises software and hardware.
Yahoo has established a foothold in the university market. More than 500 educational institutions are using Zimbra's collaboration and communications software. But its customers wanted more options and flexibility for delivery and management, according to Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra cofounder and Yahoo vice president.
"Zimbra is the partner of choice with the only open-collaboration solution on the market that is built from the ground up to offer both on-site and hosted options," Dharmaraj said. "With the new Zimbra Hosted, we have removed the challenge of managing thousands of mailboxes and encouraged schools to rebrand Zimbra as their own, creating a communications portal that connects all key audiences."
Zimbra Hosted leverages Yahoo's worldwide infrastructure to offer service level agreements with 99.9 percent guaranteed uptime, 24/7 support, and built-in disaster-recovery features.
By taking advantage of cloud computing, Yahoo said, Zimbra offers access to its tools without associated infrastructure and administration costs. Zimbra Hosted users don't have to implement software upgrades, pay for maintenance, or add additional hardware.
Kansas State University is among 500 educational institutions tapping Zimbra. With more than 30,000 students, faculty and staff, as well as thousands of alumni, KSU needed a collaboration system with e-mail and a calendar for students and enterprise features for the faculty.
"We evaluated many collaboration systems, and found that there was nothing else on the market that could compare to Zimbra Hosted, which offers superb technology and delivers different tiers of service for our different constituencies," said...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Technology Giants Join Global Rights Initiative
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62665
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have joined rights groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to create the Global Network Initiative to protect and advance privacy, freedom of expression, and human rights.
The initiative will examine issues relating to freedom of expression and privacy around the world and international laws and standards that affect companies doing global business.
"What is significant about this is what we hope will be a global standard for companies challenged by government for promoting the privacy of users," said Bob Boorstin, Google's director of corporate and policy communications, in a phone interview. "Our belief is that when you are combining the power of all of those groups, you are more likely to get action than a single group would on its own."
The participants have committed to greater transparency with users, assessing risks to human rights, and requesting a legal rationale for government actions.
The companies and the rights groups began working together in 2006 and started formalizing the initiative in early 2007 after several cases involving privacy led to actions against human rights.
"Internet service providers and (others) face serious risks related to human rights around the world," said Bennett Freeman, senior vice president at the Calvert Group. "This initiative has the immediate potential to become the global standard that guides companies in addressing these risks and meeting their responsibilities not only to their shareholders, but also to the hundreds of millions of users who are also their stakeholders around the world."
Although many groups are supporting the effort, others say the results of two years of work are not enough. The World Organization for Human Rights has two major objections.
"It took two years of very substantial efforts that we heard about, and for that two-year effort to produce something as...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Google Extends Calendar and Docs To Gmail
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62664
It's a connected world, and Google is moving to connect it a little more tightly this week for Gmail account holders.
The search-engine giant on Monday announced a new innovation from Gmail Labs that aims to streamline personal connectivity by tethering its Web-based e-mail program with its calendar function and Google Docs.
"Google is responding to user feedback by introducing the calendar and docs gadgets into Gmail," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "In particular, the calendar gadget is useful. But it's also a way for Google to reinforce usage and build awareness of other Google services. And more broadly, Google is increasingly integrating its services and using gadgets or widgets to do so."
Sterling is on to something with the "useful" observation. Until now, Gmail users had to open separate tabs in a browser, accessing Gmail on one screen and Google Calendar and Google Docs on additional screens. Gmail Labs' latest project integrates the trio of Web-based products in the name of convenience. The new "lab experiments" let consumers add gadgets to the left navigation bar, next to Chat and Labels.
"We've worked with the engineers from the calendar and docs teams on two highly requested features: A simple way to see your Google Calendar agenda and get an alert when you have a meeting, and a gadget that shows a list of your recently accessed Google Docs and lets you search across all of your documents right from within Gmail," Gmail engineer Dan Pupius wrote on the company's blog.
Beyond these additions, a third lab lets Gmail users add any gadget to the Web-based e-mail interface by pasting in the URL of its XML spec file (e.g. http://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube_videos.xml). Less patient Gmail users, though, may want to wait until Google works the bugs out.
"We realize...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
For E-Commerce, Downsizing Is a Factor
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62649
The day after I spoke to Rich Barton by phone last week, he laid off 25 percent of his staff at Zillow.com.
According to New York Times blogger Damon Darlin, Zillow "has been the envy of many a Web entrepreneur because it has a healthy $87 million in financing (about $540,000 per pre-layoff employee)."
The company, founded in 2006, boasts 5.4 million monthly visitors, but has yet to turn a profit.
The elimination of 40 employees brings staffing at Zillow to about 105 employees. The layoffs come amid a small wave among e-commerce companies this month. On Oct. 6, eBay laid off 10 percent of its employees -- 1,600 -- and Yahoo let go 10 percent -- 1,500 -- on Tuesday. As Times reporter Brad Stone wrote on Oct. 12, e-commerce "was once thought to be a refuge from economic storms. People who stay away from the mall might actually be more tempted to shop online and hunt for deals."
Not anymore. The current economic woes seem to extend everywhere.
In an Oct. 17 company blog post titled "Difficult times, difficult decisions," Barton said the cuts were necessary to prepare for a prolonged recession:
"This was an incredibly painful decision for me and the leadership team, but, in the end, we concluded that we had no choice but to securely batten down the hatches as we sail into a major economic storm," he wrote.
The company's business, based on ad revenue, continues to grow, he wrote. "While our revenues do not yet cover our expenses, those revenues have been growing at a rapid pace and we will continue to have open positions in areas that are directly tied to revenue, such as advertising salespeople."
At a Liberty Media sponsored forum of e-commerce execs earlier this month, Russ Fraden, CEO of Adify, warned that some of the biggest advertisers...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Review: Apple Polishes Popular MacBook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62644
Apple's MacBook laptop, the company's low-end portable computer aimed at average consumers, isn't just any old product. It's the best-selling Macintosh in history at a time when Mac sales are growing much faster than sales of PCs in the United States overall. And, according to the sales-research organization NPD Group, the midrange model of the MacBook has been the single best-selling laptop of any brand in U.S. retail stores for the past five months.
So, when Apple completely revamped the design of the MacBook last week, it was a big deal, not only for Mac die-hards, but for anyone shopping for an everyday laptop.
I've been testing the base model of the new MacBook for the past five days, and I like it a lot, despite a few downsides. I found this new MacBook to be speedy, solid, innovative and comfortable to use, with very good battery life.
The new model sports a sturdy aluminum case, instead of the old plastic one, and looks gorgeous. It even seemed to run cooler than earlier Apple aluminum laptops. It's 10 percent lighter, at 4.5 pounds, and 12 percent thinner, at 0.95 inches, than its predecessor, and it continues to include a built-in DVD drive. Its processor is slower, yet it has good performance because of much faster graphics, and it also offers a far brighter screen in the same 13.3-inch size. It still gets strong battery life -- slightly better in fact than the older model, in my tests.
Plus, the new MacBook includes a huge, innovative glass track pad that functions as a combination of a traditional track pad and the multitouch screen of an iPhone. This track pad allows all sorts of fingertip gestures you can use to navigate Web pages, manipulate photos and switch among programs.
In another radical step, Apple eliminated the...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Mobile Gadget Roundup: Wireless Tech Toys
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62643
$400; www.t-mobile.com
This phone's debut last week is significant because Google, like Apple, has the muscle to change an industry. The G1 is the first of what is expected to be many phones using Google's Android open-source platform.
GOOD Touch screen: very responsive and the best I've used outside of Apple's multi-touch screen.
Multimedia: easy to add music, pictures and videos.
Browsing: The Web browser has a neat feature, called Window (hmmm), that shows four open Web pages at once. Tap on one to enlarge. Also, you can increase or decrease the size of a Web page with the touch of a finger.
The Android market: Like Apple's App Store, it shows promise: There will be 50 third-party programs available at launch, with more to come. I've downloaded several applications, including a faithful version of Pac-Man and one to watch the preparation of a recipe.
Compatibility: Works with Macs and PCs (but not iTunes) for media downloads.
BAD Privacy: You need a Google account, which worries some privacy advocates.
Software: It cannot access Microsoft's Exchange software, widely used in corporate America. Expect that to change, as it did with the iPhone.
Headphone jack: The G1 does not include a standard headphone jack. You must attach the included headphones into a mini-USB port, the same one used to charge the phone. If you're charging, you can't listen to music. Plus, you can't use third-party headphones to improve the average sound, a very un-Googley approach.
- Eric Benderoff, Chicago Tribune
$130; www.logitech.com
The Wave Pro marries the popular Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave keyboard with the Editors' Choice-winning MX 1100 mouse. Although it might be more than you're used to paying for a mouse and keyboard set, the package combines two of Logitech's flagship input devices, and the price reflects a substantial improvement over a budget set...
Wed, 29 Oct 08
Verizon Third-Quarter Earnings Up 31 Percent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62642
Verizon Communications Inc. said Monday earnings rose 31 percent in the third quarter as wireless did better than expected, while its traditional phone business continued to decline.
The country's second largest telecommunications company, after AT&T Inc., earned $1.67 billion, or 59 cents per share, up from $1.27 billion, or 44 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 4.1 percent to $24.7 billion.
Excluding charges for job cuts and merger costs, Verizon earned 66 cents per share, matching the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. They were expecting $24.52 billion in revenue.
Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg said business was holding up well despite the economic turmoil, but said it would have an effect in the current quarter.
"For the Christmas season, consumer spending will be somewhat lighter, and business spending will be somewhat curtailed," he said in a conference call.
Seidenberg said the company expects to increase earnings, excluding items, by 8 percent from last year. At the beginning of the year, it had put the increase at 8 percent to 10 percent.
The new forecast indicates fourth-quarter earnings of 62 cents per share, falling below the 65 cents per share analysts are expecting.
Investors, however, found Verizon's results reassuring, sending shares up $2.27, or 9.1 percent, to $27.35 in morning trading.
Seidenberg also said Verizon Wireless still views its planned acquisition of Alltel Corp. as attractive, even though borrowing costs will be higher than when the deal was announced this summer. There had been speculation that the company would back away from the deal due to the turmoil in the credit market.
Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million subscribers in the quarter, more than most analysts had expected, particularly after AT&T reported adding 2 million subscribers in the period. Of those, nearly a million were people who came over from other carriers to get the iPhone, which is...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Qik Now Streams Video on BlackBerry Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62663
Qik, the video-sharing site that clearly aspires to be the mobile YouTube, is jumping on the BlackBerry bandwagon. The company announced that it has created an alpha version of its video-sharing client for several BlackBerry models, including the Pearl 8120 and 8130, the Bold, and the Curve 8320 and 8330.
"We are excited to bring our lifestyle technology to the millions of BlackBerry users worldwide," said Ramu Sunkara, cofounder and CEO of Qik. "In our quest to bring mobile live video sharing to the masses, we now support the broadest range of platforms including Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Java-enabled mass market phones."
The company enables mobile users with video capability to stream live video around the world, either on their mobile phones or on the Web. Qik-captured videos can also be embedded in Web pages or social-networking sites like Orkut and MySpace.
The application is playing an increasingly powerful role in the shifting media world. A large number of public events, from the American presidential race to consumer-electronic announcements, have been streamed using Qik.
The release of an alpha client for the BlackBerry is a significant move for Qik, enabling the company to begin tapping into the popular handset's 12-14 million subscribers.
Although there are definitely still some rough edges, the Qik streaming function is remarkably easy to use. The basic requirements are straightforward: a Qik user account, a supported phone, and the Qik streaming app. Once the app is installed and the user is signed in, pressing the Qik application pops up a "stream" button on the screen. Once the button is pressed, captured video is streamed directly to the Qik site.
The Qik software now works on smartphones manufactured by a variety of companies, including Apple, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. The largest number of compatible phone...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Ubuntu Updates Offer Mobility, Virtual Machine Building
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62662
Canonical has announced that it will release its latest Ubuntu updates for desktop and server editions on Oct. 30.
According to the Linux-based operating system's commercial distribution sponsor, the free download of Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition has been specifically tailored to fulfill the connectivity needs of today's digital lifestyle. For example, users of the new desktop OS will be able to move seamlessly from wired and Wi-Fi networks onto 3G cell-phone networks while on the go, noted Canonical Chief Operating Officer Jane Silber.
"Ubuntu 8.10 lays the groundwork for a radically different, more mobile, desktop computing environment," Silber said.
Ubuntu's new network manager offers multiple paths for detecting and connecting to 3G networks. Whether connecting through a mobile phone, over Bluetooth, or via a dongle, Ubuntu's always-on system features the ability to auto-detect and connect to many popular devices.
"This is a great step for both mobile and desktop computing," said Stormy Peters, executive director of the GNOME Foundation. "Users no longer need to worry about finding a network -- their computer is always connected."
Based on the latest GNOME 2.24 desktop, Ubuntu 8.10 is also designed to enable users to temporarily share their PCs with a guest without having to worry about security issues. Once the user has locked down a guest session on the PC, friends and colleagues can surf the Web or check for e-mail without the user having to worry about whether the integrity of his or her own data is at risk.
Whenever Ubuntu's built-in Totem Movie and Rhythmbox media players are launched, users have access to a menu that presents free-to-air video and radio programs, podcasts and other selected content. The new Linux-based OS also now includes the Ekiga 3.0 video and audio-conferencing tool.
With Ubuntu 8.10, users will even be able to...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Microsoft Launches Cloud-Computing Initiative
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62661
For every developer who has been waiting with bated breath for Microsoft to spell out its cloud-computing strategy, the day has finally arrived.
During a keynote speech on Monday at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008, Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, announced Windows Azure. Azure is Microsoft's cloud-based service foundation underlying its Azure Services Platform.
Ozzie highlighted Windows Azure's role in delivering a software-plus-services approach to computing. As he describes it, the Azure Services Platform is Microsoft's move to help developers build the next generation of applications that will span from the cloud to the enterprise data center and deliver compelling new experiences across the PC, Web and phone. He called it a turning point for Microsoft and the development community.
"We have introduced a game-changing set of technologies that will bring new opportunities to Web developers and business developers alike," Ozzie said. "The Azure Services Platform, built from the ground up to be consistent with Microsoft's commitment to openness and interoperability, promises to transform the way businesses operate and how consumers access their information and experience the Web."
Most important, Ozzie said, Azure gives Microsoft's customers the power of choice to deploy applications via cloud-based Internet services or through on-premises servers, or to combine them in any way that makes the most sense for the needs of their business.
Ozzie went on to describe how the Windows Azure platform combines cloud-based developer capabilities with storage, computational and networking infrastructure services, all hosted on servers operating within Microsoft's global data-center network.
This, Ozzie explained, gives developers the ability to deploy applications in the cloud or on-premises, and enables experiences across a broad range of business and consumer scenarios. Ozzie also stressed the ability to tap into existing skills, tools and technologies, such as the Microsoft .NET Framework and Visual Studio.
Given competition...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Cox Teams with Sprint To Offer Wireless Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62659
Cable, Internet and telephone service provider Cox Communications just added wireless to its list of bundled offerings.
Atlanta-based Cox, the third-largest cable provider in the nation, announced Monday that it is teaming with Sprint to give its customers access to a wireless network. With the new offering, customers will be able to use mobile devices to access television shows, program a DVR, and access content on a home computer.
"As consumers are increasingly adopting a mobile lifestyle, we will continue to deliver in ways that are uniquely Cox -- offering the first truly integrated bundle that is easy to use, reliable and supported by the best customer service available," said Pat Esser, president of Cox. "Wireless service will be a key driver to Cox's future growth."
While building on wireless services, Cox is also working on developing its own 3G wireless network for launch next year. In recent years, Cox has invested more than $500 million to buy wireless spectrums in Federal Communications Commission auctions.
The move comes after Cox joined three industry groups, including CTIA - The Wireless Association, the Rural Cellular Association, and CDMA Development Group.
Cox plans to tap into its existing customer base of more than six million residential and business customers to offer the wireless service while bringing in new customers looking for a bundled service.
More than 64 percent of Cox customers buy multiple services, according to the company, and one-third subscribe to cable, Internet and telephone services.
Cox plans to manage all aspects of the new wireless service, including product development, marketing, sales, customer support, and billing. It plans to bundle the wireless service on a single bill along with other service fees.
This isn't the first time Cox and Sprint have teamed up. In February 2007 Cox and Sprint offered mobile access in...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
The World in Your Hand: Google Earth Hits the iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62658
One of Google's most popular programs, Google Earth, has been released for the iPhone and iPod touch (2.0 and up). The application can be downloaded for free from Apple's App Store.
"The world just got a little bit smaller," said Peter Birch, Google Earth product manager. "Google Earth is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch, allowing you to fly to the far reaches of the world from the palm of your hand."
Birch said that more than 400 million copies of Google Earth have been downloaded since the desktop version of the program was released just three years ago.
The programmers at Google have smoothly ported the desktop software to the iPhone, and in the process have taken advantage of some of the device's unique capabilities.
When you turn on the Google Earth app, you see a lovely NASA photo of Earth floating in space, and then the familiar globe starts to zoom in. If you give the app permission to use your geolocation information (which even on the iPod touch is startlingly accurate), the app will focus the Google Earth map on your current location.
You can then use the familiar Apple finger movements to maneuver around the map -- swipe in any direction to move the map, pinch to zoom out, unpinch or double-tap to zoom in. You can even tilt the phone to get the perspective views that make Google Earth so compelling (particularly in mountainous areas, as Birch demonstrates in a YouTube product demo).
The app screen comes loaded with various goodies. A small compass icon in the upper right of the screen automatically orients the map to due north. As long as your iPhone or iPod touch is connected to the network, a small looking glass in the upper-left corner connects you to Google search,...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Dell Rolls Out Inspiron Mini 12 Netbook in Japan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62657
Dell has rolled out a new mini-notebook PC in Japan that is slated to launch globally next month at a retail price of under $600.
Tipping the scales at 2.72 lbs and measuring just 0.92 inches thick, the Inspiron Mini 12 integrates Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) radios, 1GB of RAM, a 12.1-inch WXGA display, a built-in Webcam, and a 60GB or 80GB hard disk drive. In addition to Windows Vista Home Basic, users can elect to run Windows XP or Ubuntu Linux.
Dell's Inspiron Mini 12 follows substantial sales growth within the mini-notebook segment, which took off globally in the third quarter, said Mika Kitagawa, a principal analyst at Gartner Client Computing. "In the North America market, the economic crunch created more interest in the sub-$500 mini-notebook segment," she said.
As a relative latecomer to the netbook segment, Dell is looking to catch up with entrenched rivals such as Asus and Acer. Within Japan in particular, Dell also will be going head to head with Fujitsu and NEC, which recently introduced a new mini-notebook called the LaVie Light.
Smaller-sized devices usually prove to be very popular in Japan, Kitagawa noted. "For instance, people like to carry lighter and smaller devices in public transportation," Kitagawa said. "Smaller devices traditionally demand a premium price in Japan, but mini-notebooks have changed the price structure completely."
Kitagawa observed that preliminary sales figures for Japan indicate that the growth of mini-notebook unit shipments there was much higher than Gartner's expectation. Asus in particular saw a strong increase in sales due to the launch of a new channel by a telecommunications service provider in the third quarter. "Asus and T-mobile had a bundle of a two-year phone contract and $1 [Asus] Eee PC," she said.
Though Dell has made a significant commitment to expanding...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Netflix Adopts Silverlight, Opens Streaming To Macs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62656
Netflix on Monday made announcements that favored both Microsoft and Apple and opened up a new audience for its streaming video service.
First, Netflix has started deploying Microsoft Silverlight to enhance the instant-watching component of its service. Second, that move opens the door for subscribers to begin watching movies and TV episodes instantly on Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers.
The Silverlight deployment, which will initially touch only a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated rollout of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.
"Instantly streaming from Netflix directly addresses the needs and wants of today's Web users by providing on-demand, high-quality online video," said Scott Guthrie, vice president of the developer division at Microsoft. "By using Silverlight, Netflix can deliver to its subscribers a higher-quality video experience on the Web, on more platforms."
Silverlight competes with Adobe Flash and is designed to deliver cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences. Netflix expects its members who watch movies and TV episodes instantly to see immediate benefits, including a faster, easier connection and a more robust viewing experience.
A breakthrough in time-line navigation that improves fast-forwarding and rewinding is among the viewing enhancements Netflix is touting with the Silverlight player. The player also leverages PlayReady DRM, which is built into Silverlight, to play protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs. That was not possible with previous-generation technologies.
Silverlight's dynamic streaming provides a faster start and higher-quality video, adapted in real time to users' connection speeds, according to Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt.
"Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next-generation improvement of access and quality on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox,"...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Army Says Twitter Could Coordinate Terrorist Attacks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62633
The U.S. Army has identified Twitter, a popular micro-blogging service, as a potential vehicle for terrorists to plot destructive schemes. Global Positioning System maps and voice-changing software were also listed in the draft report by the 304th Military Battalion.
The Federation of American Scientists has posted the report, which examines mobile and Web technologies and how they could be used by terrorists, on its Web site. The Army based its report on Open Source Intelligence.
According to the report, Twitter has become a social-activism tool for socialists, human-rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and send messages to broader audiences.
The report described scenarios in which terrorists could leverage "potential adversarial use of Twitter," including detonating explosives and planning ambushes.
Scenario One: Terrorist operative A uses Twitter with (or without) a mobile phone camera/video function to send and receive messages from the rest of his cell. Operative A also has a Google Maps-Twitter mashup of where he is under a code word for his cell that can be viewed from members' mobiles. The members receive near-real-time updates on how, where and how many troops are moving in order to conduct an ambush.
Scenario Two: Terrorist operative A has a mobile phone for Twitter messaging and taking images. Operative A also has a separate mobile phone that controls an explosive device or a suicide vest for remote detonation. Terrorist operative B has the detonator and a mobile to view A's tweets and images. This may allow B to select the precise moment for remote detonation based on near-real-time movements and images sent by A.
Scenario Three: Operative A finds U.S. [soldier] Smith's Twitter account. Operative A joins Smith's tweets and begins to elicit information from Smith. This information is then used for a targeting...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Data Overload: The Digital Universe Explodes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62629
According to research from IDC, a provider of market intelligence for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, by 2011, the digital universe will be 10 times the size it was in 2006. "The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe: An Updated Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2011" highlights several findings that will affect individuals and business around the world in the years to come, such as:
* At 281 billion gigabytes (281 exabytes), the digital universe in 2007 was 10 percent bigger than originally estimated.
* With a compound annual growth rate of almost 60 percent, the digital universe is growing faster and is projected to be nearly 1.8 zettabytes (1,800 exabytes) in 2011, a 10-fold increase over the next five years.
* Your "digital shadow" -- that is, all the digital information generated about the average person on a daily basis -- now surpasses the amount of digital information individuals actively create themselves.
* The digital universe in 2007 was equal to almost 45 gigabytes (GB) of digital information for every person on earth -- or the equivalent of more than 17 billion 8 GB iPhones.
* About 70 percent of the digital universe is created by individuals, yet enterprises are responsible for the security, privacy, reliability, and compliance of 85 percent.
To deal with this explosion, IDC says IT organizations must:
* Transform existing relationships with business units. It will take all competent hands in an organization to deal with information creation, storage, management, security, retention, and disposal. It's not a technical problem alone.
* Spearhead the development of organization-wide policies for information governance: information security, information retention, data access, and compliance.
* Rush new tools and standards into the organization, from storage optimization, unstructured data search, and database analytics to resource pooling (virtualization) and management and security tools. All will be required to make...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Woman Jailed After 'Killing' Virtual Husband
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62625
A 43-year-old player in a virtual game world became so angry about her sudden divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.
The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his ID and password to log onto the popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in May, a police official in the northern city of Sapporo said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.
"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.
The woman, a piano teacher, had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.
She has not yet been formally charged. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison or a fine up to US$5,000.
Players in "Maple Story" create and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting monsters and other obstacles.
In virtual worlds, players often abandon their inhibitions, engaging in activity online that they would never do in the real world. For instance, sex with strangers is a common activity.
The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married to kill the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his online avatar was dead.
The woman was arrested Wednesday and taken 620 miles from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sapporo, where the man lives, the official said.
The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world.
Bad online behavior is usually handled within the rules set up by online worlds, which can...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Oracle Hopes for Some Buzz Around Beehive
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62623
Software giant Oracle has built what it hopes will be a new home for corporate worker bees.
Dubbed Beehive and introduced at Oracle's recent user conference in San Francisco, the new software aims to let employees team up through electronic workspaces as well as calendar, instant messaging and e-mail tools.
Beehive is part of a broader push by Oracle into the hot area of employee collaboration, also called Enterprise 2.0.
Beehive isn't on the cutting edge in terms of functionality, says Dana Gardner, president of consulting firm Interarbor Solutions. But by centering the system in back-end computer servers rather than relying heavily on software installed on client personal computers, Oracle could woo customers from Microsoft Outlook by offering a simpler, more flexible alternative, Gardner says. "It's about the architecture more than it is the feature functions," he says.
Enterprise 2.0 refers to the way companies are trying to tap a variety of interactive and networking technologies to improve communication, cooperation and productivity. Many of the tools emerged first in the consumer Internet realm. The Web 2.0 era includes such practices as blogging, instant messaging and social networking.
Vendors such as SelectMinds sell corporate versions of social networks. The Enterprise 2.0 bug also has bitten talent management software vendors, which sell applications for HR tasks such as employee performance management.
Oracle, which along with SAP is one of the titans of the HR software field, also has embraced Enterprise 2.0 itself. At its OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, the company announced the release of Oracle WebCenter Suite, a set of products that allows customers to establish online portals with services such as discussion forums and wikis-Web pages that let people create content collectively.
With Beehive, Oracle says it is tackling two business challenges around collaboration: teaming up in a secure fashion and doing it in the context of...
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Microsoft Defends China Anti-Piracy Move
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62621
Microsoft on Thursday issued a public letter defending its "black out" tool to stamp out piracy in China and attempting to clear up "misunderstandings" over the measure.
The software giant's program turns computer "desktops" black if the installed software fails a validation test, but it has been met with fury by Chinese computer users and renewed complaints over the price of genuine software.
In the letter, the company stressed that it would not collect personal information via its Windows Genuine Advantage program, aiming to assuage fears of possible privacy infringements.
"People are attaching more importance to intellectual property protection, but we notice there is still a long way to go," the letter said.
The program launched just after midnight on Tuesday, turns the desktop black every hour and users must manually restart the desktop.
With reports of "black screen incidents" hitting headlines in the Chinese media, major portal Web sites have launched on-line surveys of public attitudes to the move.
A survey by qq.com showed that as of 4:30 p.m.on Thursday, 66.53 percent, or 29,555 people, strongly disapproved of the program, while another survey by www.sina.com.cn showed 87.44 percent, or 130,756 people, said the program would put them off buying genuine Microsoft products.
"The black screen teaches us a better lesson than all preaching," said Ni Guangnan, a leading researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering.
"Now people understand why China needs its own software, especially basic programs.... Aren't worse things likely to happen in the future?" Ni asked.
Tue, 28 Oct 08
Greenstein Brings Lost World Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62609
What do the super-wealthy do with their money when both stocks and bonds take a nose-dive? Buy antique artifacts, of course. From goblets to jewelry, manuscripts to menorahs, connoisseur collectors of antiques are still raiding the treasure trove of the past. They are doing so, however, with modern tools, as the long lost world of antiques comes alive on the Internet.
Take New York entrepreneur Jonathan Greenstein, for example. The man who is widely acknowledged as the world's leading expert on antique silver-made Judaica does not roam the musty old caverns that you would expect to find in an Indiana Jones movie. Instead, his premier collection of antique Judaica can be found online. Gone are the days of face-to-face haggling. Instead, now Greenstein's reach is global in nature, with instant bidding and secure transactions that take place quicker than you can say 'e-commerce.'
"Never before has the ability to access a world of antiques, art and collectibles been so easy," notes Greenstein. "Unlike a few years ago when our sales were limited to the four walls of the auction, today we are able to attract Judaica collectors from across the globe via the Internet."
Indeed, very few people understand the investment needs of the captains of industry as well as Jonathan Greenstein does. The Brooklyn native is not only a modern-day guardian of antique Judaica, but he is also an accomplished business owner and a self-made real-estate mogul. As such, Greenstein is able to effectively serve his clientele by bridging between the antique past and the online present.
"Our clientele ranges from first time buyers to serious Judaica collectors such as [prominent hedge fund manager] Michael Steinhardt. Attend virtually any major business or entertainment industry event, and you'll certainly see many of our bidders in the room."
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Amazon Hopes Oprah Endorsement Boosts Kindle
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62632
Can talk-show host and media maven Oprah Winfrey do for Amazon's Kindle what she's done for her book club? That's the hope of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who was scheduled to appear on Winfrey's show Friday for a not-very-well-kept secret announcement by Winfrey about her favorite new toy.
The online bookseller hyped Friday's announcement with a video trailer on its front page entitled "What is Oprah's new favorite product?"
"I'm unveiling my new favorite gadget," Winfrey says in the promo. "It's life-changing for me ... this is the most amazing gadget ... this is the wave of the future. I'm going to tell you what it is ... Friday ... live from Chicago."
A carefully placed burst of light obscures the object Winfrey is holding, but publicity photos show her holding a Kindle-like object. The final clue is in the promo tagline as the announcer says, "Watch the Oprah Show, then order yours from Amazon.com."
It's difficult to imagine Amazon getting this excited if Oprah was talking about a new toothbrush or the latest flash drive. And this being the age of the Internet, it didn't take long for bloggers to poke around in the headings of Amazon's Web pages and find confirmation of Winfrey's announcement. Bezos subsequently confirmed the news in an e-mail to reporters.
The market power of Oprah's Book Club is well known. Authors regularly fantasize about the prospect of boosting sales by tens or even hundreds of thousands after spending 10 minutes on Oprah's couch. But some question whether the Kindle book reader will see a similar benefit.
The biggest question mark stems from the fact that the Kindle costs about the same as 23 copies of the latest recommendation from Oprah's Book Club. At $359, it isn't clear that many people below Oprah's tax bracket will feel...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Teen To Blame for Jobs Heart Attack Rumor
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62631
A teenager may be behind a bogus story posted on CNN's public-journalism Web site earlier this month that said Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack and was being rushed to the hospital.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission immediately launched an investigation into the false story posted by "Johntw" on CNN's iReport.com after the news caused Apple's stock to plunge nearly six percent that day, from $106.50 to $94.65.
A teenager is to blame, according to Bloomberg News, which cited two unnamed sources "with knowledge of the matter" who did not want to be identified because the "probe isn't public."
The teenager did not post the story to CNN's site as a way to affect Apple's stock or for financial gain, according to Bloomberg.
"When [the SEC] asked us for certain information when all of this went down in the beginning, we coordinated with them in compliance with policy and closed the file on the matter," said CNN spokesperson Jennifer Martin.
Other than that, Martin said the company has not been in touch with the SEC and has no additional information about the poster, including age and sex.
CNN's iReport site was criticized for its citizen-journalism service, which allows people to post news that is unedited.
The day of the incident, CNN's Martin said the company had no plans to change the openness of iReport.com. Martin went on to say that the spirit of iReport is that it is unedited and uncensored.
iReport is considered by CNN as a valuable source of information, and CNN uses a percentage of the content provided by users. CNN.com or CNN News ran 1,500 stores from the 21,000 user-generated stories posted to iReport.com last month, Martin said.
Any content pulled from iReport and used by CNN is fully vetted, Martin added. Since the incident occurred, CNN has...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Amazon Ends EC2 Beta, Adds Windows Services
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62630
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is reaching farther into the cloud. After two years in beta, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is now generally available. Amazon also announced a beta for hosted support running Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server.
The company's service level agreement for EC2 provides resizable cloud capacity for businesses and developers. The SLA guarantees 99.95 percent availability, and Amazon said it's designed to spur confidence that even the most demanding applications will run dependably.
Peter De Santis, general manager of EC2, said accessing computing power over the Web was a novel idea when the company launched the beta two years ago. Today, more businesses are turning to cloud computing for cost savings without sacrificing speed, reliability, flexibility and performance. Amazon cited Eli Lilly and Company as an example.
"Amazon EC2 has given us the ability to easily spin up tailored computing environments that can quickly and cost-effectively process tremendous amounts of research data," said Dave Powers, associate information consultant at Eli Lilly. "This is a huge step forward in maximizing our results relative to IT spend, and now that Amazon EC2 runs Windows and SQL Server, we have even greater flexibility in the kinds of applications we can build in the AWS cloud."
As Powers mentioned, the next step for Amazon is EC2 running Windows Server or SQL Server. Amazon said Windows on EC2 has been a common request of AWS customers since the service launched. EC2 now offers an environment for deploying ASP.NET Web sites, high-performance computing clusters, media transcoding solutions, and many other Windows-based applications.
Amazon offers the same pay-as-you-go model with no long-term commitments and no minimum fees as it did with its original service. Pricing for using Windows Server with EC2 begins at $0.125 per computing hour.
The Microsoft EC2 deal offers the...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Smartphones Are Moving Closer To Replacing PCs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62612
If Mae West were alive today, the blond bombshell might be asking her dates, "Is that a PC in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?" With each new generation of smartphones, that question is getting harder to answer.
At the same time that mobile phones like Apple's iPhone 3G, the T-Mobile G1, and now the BlackBerry Bold are getting smarter and able to perform more tasks, the amount of work that can be done on the Web -- or in the cloud -- is also growing rapidly. It's not surprising, then, that a recent poll by IBM found that more than half of all respondents would be willing to trade their PC for a smartphone to access the Internet.
Industry analysts have been speculating recently that the increase in cloud computing will give rise to a new category of devices called netbooks. These devices would essentially be thin clients with limited processing power and would do most of their work on the Web, utilizing either mobile or wired broadband. Smartphones, however, may be making the development of netbooks moot.
"The usage that iPhones have already had clearly validates the idea that smartphones will expand into PC territory," said Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence. "Indeed, the G1 is not being positioned as a phone, but rather a handheld Internet device."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs echoed that view in a recent conference call to announce Apple's strong fourth-quarter sales.
"You know, one of our entrants into that category [netbooks], if you will, is the iPhone," Jobs said, "for browsing the Internet and doing e-mail and all the other things that a netbook lets you do. And being connected via the cellular network wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Russia Blocks Google From Acquiring Competitor
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62611
Russia has stopped the acquisition of a company by Internet search giant Google. The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) blocked Google from acquiring Zao Begun, a text-advertising and contextual-search company owned by Rambler Media. Zao serves more than 143,000 Russian-language Web sites.
"We are very disappointed to hear that FAS has come to this decision," said Vladimir Dolgov, Google's business manager in Russia. "We strongly believe that this acquisition will enable us to significantly improve opportunities for Russian users, advertisers and publishers as well as the entire industry."
"At this time we are reviewing FAS's decision," Dolgov added. "Once this process is complete, we will decide on our next steps."
The FAS said it received a petition from Kokuna Holdings Ltd. (owned by Google) about purchasing all the shares of Zao. After studying "the received materials and information on the transaction, FAS Russia, governed by Clause 5 Part 2 Article 33 of the Federal Law On Protection of Competition dismissed the petition," FAS says on its Web site.
FAS's chief, Igor Artemyev, told a Russian online publication that Google had not provided accurate and adequate information about the acquisition.
When Google announced the deal with Rambler in July, the company said the acquisition would give advertisers access to a broader network of sites. Google has been working to gain a larger market share in Russia and planned to build on Zao's experience building advertising, dealer networks, and direct sales in Russia.
Rambler had planned to use Google's AdSense technology on its Web sites. The company, which already owned 51 percent of Zao, was in the midst of acquiring the remaining shares from Finama Bannatyne to sell the entire company to Google.
Google has struggled to gain market share in Russia. Cofounded by Moscow native Sergey Brin, Google hasn't been well received...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Windows Hole Could Be Used By Dishonest Employees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62610
It doesn't happen often, but when it does it gets the attention of the security world. Microsoft on Thursday issued an out-of-band patch designated as critical for Windows XP and older versions, and important for Windows Vista.
MS08-67 resolves a vulnerability in the server service that affects all currently supported versions of Windows. Because the vulnerability is potentially wormable on older versions of Windows, Microsoft is encouraging customers to test and deploy the update as soon as possible.
Microsoft discovered the vulnerability as part of its research into a limited series of targeted malware attacks against Windows XP systems. Researchers found attackers were using a new vulnerability that was potentially wormable. The company planned a Webcast on Friday to discuss the release.
Symantec tracked the issue as BugTraq ID 31874. The weakness allows an attacker to take complete control of a vulnerable system. While Symantec isn't reporting a widespread exploitation of this issue, there have been reports of a certain file, n2.exe, being downloaded on compromised computers. According to the security firm, this file copies another piece of malicious code onto the compromised computer.
This advisory has all the makings of a worm, according to Tyler Reguly, a security engineer for nCircle. "The difference between this and slammer or code red, or at least I hope it's a difference, is that hopefully there aren't too many Internet-facing machines listening on ports 139 and 445," he said. "If it is facing the Internet, that means that not even a simple home router is used, and that thought scares me."
Reguly could see this used by an employee inside a company. For example, if a company's internal security isn't adequate, a disgruntled employee with the proper skill set could take advantage of the vulnerability.
Security researchers are warning IT administrators to keep in mind...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Review: Firefox 3.0 Has Lots to Like -- and It's Free
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62602
Thankfully, my friends at Mozilla have not let me down with the new release of Firefox 3.0. I've been testing it, and it is certainly something to cheer about.
This is a relief, since Firefox 2.0 was more than a little disappointing. It got to the point where Arlene (my trusty assistant) and I couldn't recommend 2.0. This left us in a bit of a quandary. Internet Explorer is a kluge.
Although I consider IE version 7 far superior to version 6, it falls short of the speedy, secure, lightweight Web browser that Firefox promised with its initial offerings.
When Firefox 2.0 was released, there was excitement in the air; however, it proved to be unstable, which has been attributed to memory leaks. Firefox, I am willing to forgive and forget, especially because you did right with version 3.0. I am happy to talk about it and recommend it.
First, this has been the fastest install I've ever known. In a world where software installation means downloading the software, connecting to the Internet, checking the authenticity and only then starting the install, the quick install is appreciated.
Second, you'll notice the slickly designed user interface. Hands down, aside from not crashing, this is my favorite thing. There are things that make sense, like the back button doesn't light up unless you have a Web page to go back to. These are small but intuitive improvements that make me happy.
Maybe I lied. My favorite aspect is the speed of Firefox 3.0. Things are loading much faster. Firefox attributes that to its new Gecko 1.9 platform and a handy memory application that monitors and cleans up unused memory.
You don't care? Me neither. It's fast, and that's all I need to know.
Support for online applications is another great improvement. It's now...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Review: New MacBook Puts Style over Affordability
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62594
Plastic used to be the sexy material of the future. Now, it's the cheap, ugly material of the past.
Just look at the effort Apple Inc. put into getting rid of plastic when designing its new $1,300 MacBook laptops, which went on sale last week. Apple now is machining the upper part of the chassis from a single block of aluminum, shaving it down to perhaps one-tenth of its original mass.
The result is a laptop with the stark elegance of a Modernist skyscraper, all glass and metal. The only things that are still plastic are the keys, the Apple logo on the lid, the bumpers on the bottom and some cladding on the hinge between the bottom and the display.
All that metal looks great, and it feels cool, in both senses of the word, to touch. But is this really what we want out of Apple?
The company is doing better than ever, with 9.5 percent of the U.S. PC market, according to Gartner Inc. Ten years ago, that figure was more like 3 percent. Not to knock Apple hardware, but I think the reason for this rally is mostly the company's software, which is easy to use and well integrated with the hardware and Apple's online services.
One of the best ways to get access to Apple's OS X software has been its cheapest laptop, the MacBook. Chief Executive Steve Jobs has said it's Apple's best-selling computer. But at $1,100, it's been nearly twice as expensive as a Windows laptop with comparable hardware. That's a hefty premium to pay for good software.
Unfortunately, with the laptops it released last week, Apple chose to make the hardware slicker and more stylish, rather than push the price down. It brought some of the features of its even more expensive MacBook Pro line to the consumer...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
West Virginia Official stands by Touchscreen Voting
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62593
West Virginia's chief elections officer is standing by the state's touch-screen voting machines after a review prompted by complaints that some of the devices had incorrectly recorded votes.
Secretary of State Betty Ireland says a technician from manufacturer Election Systems & Software has checked all the iVotronic machines in Putnam and Jackson counties. A handful of residents in each alleged machines had switched their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates in several races.
"There are no problems with the machines as re-calibrated," Ireland told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. "Touch-screen voting in West Virginia is accurate and secure."
Ireland also has asked all 55 county clerks to re-calibrate their machines each morning during early voting, which runs until Nov. 1, and on Election Day, Nov. 4.
Blaming both poorly calibrated machines and "voter error" for the complaints, Ireland urged voters to ask poll workers for help if they have problems or questions while casting ballots. She also thanked the 10 or so residents who had phoned her office to report switched votes.
"Each got to vote for the candidates of their choosing," Ireland said.
About 35,000 people have cast their ballots since early voting began Oct. 15, according to Ireland's office.
Thirty-five counties rely on the touch-screen machines for all voting, while all 55 counties offer at least one per precinct to ensure disabled voters can cast ballots on their own. They have been used in four prior state elections, Ireland said.
Each machine also prints a paper record, and Ireland said voters can check them before they leave the polling place.
"We're very confident that the electronic votes match the paper votes," she said.
Ireland also said more than 350 people from ES&S, her office and the governor's Office of Technology will spread out across the state on Election Day to respond to any problems.
Sat, 25 Oct 08
LinkedIn Connects with Investors for $22.7 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62591
LinkedIn Corp. has raised an additional $22.7 million to help insulate the steadily growing online business network from the economic storm and provide more financial flexibility.
The investment announced Thursday was made by one of LinkedIn's long-time backers, Bessemer Venture Partners, and three newcomers -- business software maker SAP Ventures, banker Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., which publishes Business Week.
The deal values privately held LinkedIn at slightly more than $1 billion, the same appraisal assigned the Mountain View-based company when it raised $53 million in June.
LinkedIn hasn't drawn on any of that money yet, but still thought it was prudent to have more money in the bank as the economy slumps amid a credit crunch, said Dan Nye, LinkedIn's chief executive officer. He also said LinkedIn wanted the extra cash in case an enticing acquisition opportunity crops up.
The new investors in LinkedIn are all intrigued with how they might be able to use information picked up from the Web site's 30 million members to drum more sales in their own businesses, Nye said.
Goldman Sachs' investment won't give it the inside track to become LinkedIn's investment banker should it ever pursue an initial public offering of stock, Nye said.
For now, LinkedIn is still trying to boost its revenue. Toward that end, LinkedIn also will begin offering a survey service that will poll its members about specific topics for a fee that will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
Sat, 25 Oct 08
Get Real! Virtual Campaign Draws Followers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62587
It's not just Earthbound voters who are intensely following the U.S. presidential campaign: The race also is a hot topic in the virtual world of Second Life.
John McCain supporters and Barack Obama supporters -- more accurately, the personas they have created -- meet regularly in Second Life, described on its Web site as "an online, 3D virtual world imagined and created by its residents."
They watch the presidential debates together. They make T-shirts, banners and yard signs. They hold voter registration drives and rally on Capitol Hill.
Second Life is an Internet-based interactive world with an economy and cultures developed by its users, who create avatars -- their personas in the virtual world -- representing themselves in whatever form they want. More than 14 million users from around the world participate.
Two men orchestrate the major presidential politicking in Second Life: Keith Mandell, 36, with the Obama camp, and Gordon Olivant, 43, with the McCainites. Neither has any connection to the real presidential campaigns.
"My main focus is to get people to commit to do real-life work," said Mandell, a real-life attorney whose avatar bears a slight resemblance to Obama and goes by the name Cubsfan Pugilist.
Mandell founded his group of Obama supporters in December 2006, before the Illinois senator announced his candidacy early the following year. The group has grown to more than 1,000 members, including pirates, people with tails and a floating ball of light.
"I had been supportive of his potential candidacy for a long time," Mandell said. "It was a few bucks to set up the group, and then I just got going."
Olivant began organizing the McCain crowd last spring and has attracted about 400 members to his virtual Straight Talk Cafe. At first he hosted discussions with suggested topics such as tax breaks or Second Amendment rights. Now he finds...
Sat, 25 Oct 08
How Telnic Will Revolutionize Dialing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62585
Say you want to reach an old friend who's always on the move. Calling her at home using the number listed in the phone book [what a quaint notion!] probably won't work. But how else can you find the various other ways to reach her -- via mobile, or at work, or perhaps e-mail, instant messaging, Skype (EBAY), Facebook, or Twitter addresses?
Enter Telnic, which is aiming to become the Google (GOOG) of online address books in competition with traditional yellow and white pages. The London-based startup has developed technology that lets anyone store the full range of their contact details online and then give chosen people access to it. "It is a bit like an interactive business card on the Web that you can change and give to anyone so they can reach you," says Justin Hayward, Telnic's communications director. The service is slated to go live in December.
At first blush, that might not sound like much of a breakthrough. But Telnic's approach is revolutionary because it's exploiting a significant new capability in the Internet that has been authorized by governing body ICANN [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers], a private nonprofit group that oversees technical aspects of the Internet's address system. ICANN has sanctioned a new top-level domain called .tel -- similar to .com or .net -- that is set aside purely to integrate contact information directly into the heart of the Net.
Telnic, which has so far raised about $35 million in financing, first applied to ICANN to commercialize the .tel domain in 2000. Permission finally came six years later, when ICANN awarded Telnic exclusive use of .tel. In the intervening time, the startup has spent about $15 million on the years of engineering needed to perfect the technology, Hayward says.
Along the way, Telnic has also...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Microsoft Releases Emergency Security Patch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62608
Microsoft announced Wednesday night that it is issuing an emergency security patch Thursday, 19 days before the next regularly scheduled Patch Tuesday on Nov. 11. It's the first time in more than a year that Microsoft has issued a so-called "out-of-band" patch.
News of the patch first appeared in a brief blog posting by MSRC security program manager Christopher Budd, who wrote that "I wanted to let you know that we've just posted an advance notification for an out-of-band bulletin release. We plan to release one Windows security bulletin with a maximum severity of critical; scheduled for a target time of 10:00 a.m. PT on Thursday Oct. 23, 2008. A restart will be required."
Microsoft was hosting a special Webcast Thursday afternoon to discuss the threat in detail.
The patch is intended to prevent hostile code from executing specifically constructed remote procedure calls on vulnerable systems. It is described as critical for every flavor of Windows from XP forward.
So far, there are relatively few details about how the security hole might be exploited, and no indication that it has been. Preliminary reports, however, have described it as a "wormable" flaw -- i.e., a software weakness that could be exploited without any action on the part of the user.
Some preliminary information about the nature of the threat was contained in an updated Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for October 2008. Under the dry heading of Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution, Microsoft says that "consistent exploit code has been discovered in limited, targeted attacks, affecting Windows XP and Windows Server 2003."
The summary linked to the more specific Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067-Critical, which states that "On Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability without authentication to run arbitrary code. It is possible that...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
BlackBerry Bold Set for Election Day Launch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62607
AT&T is preparing for a Election Day sales surge on Nov. 4, when Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold will launch at AT&T's stores nationwide for $299.
RIM's new 3G smartphone, which features a QWERTY-style keypad and trackball navigator, represents another AT&T exclusive for its U.S.-based customers, said AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega.
"The BlackBerry Bold is the complete package, providing customers with an absolutely outstanding mobile experience whether doing e-mail, browsing the Web, viewing streaming video, or simply making a phone call," he said. "And it is being introduced in the U.S. only from AT&T."
Housed within a satin chrome-finished frame, RIM's sleek and stylish smartphone is an all-band cellular handset that supports the full spectrum of UMTS/HSPA and GPRS/EDGE. The good news is that users will be able to simultaneously hold phone conversations even as they check for e-mail, browse the Web, or use another data application.
Measuring 4.88 x 2.6 x 0.59 inches and weighing 4.8 oz, the BlackBerry Bold sports a vibrant 65K color TFT display with support for both full-screen and widescreen formats. Featuring a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels, the display area also sports an iconic set of desktop-style graphics, which makes the Web-browsing experience a breeze. But unlike two other AT&T exclusives -- the Apple 3G iPhone and the new Samsung Epix -- RIM's BlackBerry Bold does not incorporate any touchscreen capabilities.
The new smartphone features a 624-MHz processor; built-in Bluetooth 2.0, GPS and Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) radios; 1GB of built-in memory; a speakerphone; a 2.0-megapixel camera/camcorder with flash and digital zoom; and a microSD/SDHC expansion slot that can accept memory cards with storage densities of up to 16GB. Moreover, the handset's removable 1500mAh battery supplies up to 4.5 hours of talk time and up to 13.5 days of operation in...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Samsung Blu-ray Players Will Stream Netflix Videos
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62606
DVD-rental company Netflix has been working aggressively to expand its delivery options beyond the U.S. Postal Service. In its latest move, the company has struck a deal with Samsung Electronics to embed software in Blu-ray players that will allow consumers to stream video selections from Netflix's library of more than 12,000 titles. No financial terms were disclosed.
"Samsung has been at the forefront of innovation in consumer electronics and has established a market leadership position in Blu-ray and digital television," said Netflix cofounder and CEO Reed Hastings. "We're excited about the upgraded Blu-ray Disc players. Moreover, we look forward to working with Samsung in the years to come to deliver a variety of outstanding products on which consumers can watch movies delivered over the Internet from Netflix."
The software to access the Netflix library will be preinstalled on Samsung models BD-P2550 and BD-P2500, which are currently available for $399 each. Consumers who have already purchased the machines can download new software from Samsung to gain access to the Netflix library.
Consumers who purchase the Netflix-ready Samsung players will probably not be able to stream movies at the same resolution as a Blu-ray disk. Most streamed high-definition movies meet the minimum resolution of 780p, while Blu-ray movies are 1080p. However, Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy at Jupitermedia, said that won't be a sticking point for most consumers.
"It's not the question of quality," Gartenberg said, "it's the question of 'good enough,' and that's a standard they should have no problem meeting."
The real point of the deal, Gartenberg suggested, is that the consumer media market is in transition from the DVD format to online downloads, and manufacturers are experimenting with hybrid products.
"We're not there yet, but it's clear that's where this market is headed in the future," he said. "Products like this are...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
ESA: E3 2009 Promises To Be Bigger and Better
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62605
Past attendees of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, will notice some changes in next year's event, organizers say.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) said E3, slated for June 2-4, 2009, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, will have larger booths, a larger and more qualified audience, and a focus on reinforcing innovation and entertainment in the computer and video-game industry.
Changes were necessary, according to ESA officials, who after conducting qualitative and quantitative research decided to change their focus in order to meet the demands of exhibitors and attendees.
"E3 2009 will be a smarter, more effective and strategic show where we will take the best practices of all shows and apply them to create the best event for the computer and video game industry," said ESA spokesperson Dan Hewitt.
ESA is opening the expo to international and U.S.-based media, industry analysts, retailers, developers and business partners.
Exhibit floors will include the latest in interactive entertainment and technology. Press conferences will be held by both the console companies and third-party publishers, and private meetings will be held by top game-company executives, according to ESA. Attendance is expected to reach between 40,000 and 45,000.
From its start in 1995, the ESA's event was flashy, including large, extravagant parties, drawing in tens of thousands of people who attended for a glimpse of the latest and greatest in video and computer games. The expo even included actors such as Vin Diesel and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who were brought in by publishers to promote games.
It was considered the place for video-game developers to show off their newest innovations. Publishers did not hold back and spent millions of dollars on their elaborate displays to show off their latest work.
That all ended in July 2006, when organizers said the event would be downsized and more focused, based...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Bill Gates Launches Mystery Company Called bgC3
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62604
Did anyone really think Bill Gates would actually retire? Apparently Gates has launched a new company called bgC3. No outsiders know what it's about, but there is plenty of speculation.
Indeed, there is no public Web site for bgC3. There is no press release surrounding its plans. And Gates hasn't offered a peep about what he is doing -- or plans to do --with the startup. However, a trio of Seattle-area reporters have been digging for the scoop.
John Cook, Eric Engleman and Todd Bishop, three well-known tech and venture-capital writers in the Northwest, wrote a story about Gates' mysterious new firm as part of the launch of a new venture of their own -- a tech blog dubbed TechFlash.
According to the story as reported by Bishop and Engleman, the new company has its own high-tech office space and a logo. Public documents describe the new entity as a think tank and it's based in Kirkland, Wash., office Gates established after he retired this summer.
"Is this Bill Gates' next big business? A Gates insider gives an emphatic no -- saying it's not a commercial venture but rather a vehicle to coordinate the software mogul's work on his business and philanthropic endeavors," the authors wrote.
"However, bgC3 will also oversee Gates' personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology. The insider said the goal isn't necessarily to create new companies, although ideas could be passed along to Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- or others -- as it makes sense."
State records don't offer many details, other than the fact that the company was originally called Carillon Holdings and was established in March 2008. The company changed its name to bgC3 in early July. bgC3 marks Gates' third venture after Microsoft and the philanthropic foundation...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Comcast Doubles Net Speeds for Northeast Customers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62579
Internet users in the Northeast who have a need for speed will soon be able to get their fix from Comcast. The cable and Internet service provider said it will soon roll out its Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, or DOCSIS 3.0, making customers' Internet speeds faster.
Comcast's service will be up and running in the next few weeks, according to the company, and will be available to millions of residential homes and businesses in parts of New England, including Boston and southern New Hampshire, plus Philadelphia and New Jersey.
Comcast has been working on the new specification for nearly two years while it was under development by Cable Laboratories Inc., a nonprofit research and development group formed by multiple cable companies.
"We have continuously enhanced our speed offerings for our customers for years," said Charlie Douglas, a Comcast spokesperson. "Ten years ago, fast was 1.5 Mbps. Today, we're now offering 50 Mbps speeds, and that is just the beginning of what wideband is capable of -- in the future, we'll be able to offer 160 Mbps or more."
"Where these new speeds are available, consumers of our six Mbps Performance tier or our eight Mbps Performance Plus tiers will not have to do anything but restart their modems to get the complimentary speed upgrades to 12 Mbps and 16 Mbps, respectively," Douglas added.
Customers or prospective customers can go to the Web site and enter their zip codes and see if the new speeds are available in their areas.
Comcast's Ultra service offering up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to five Mbps of upstream speed costs $62.95 per month for residential customers.
And for those seeking even greater speeds, Comcast's Extreme service with 50 Mbps costs $139.95 monthly for residential customers and $189.95 for businesses.
This...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Cisco, Sun Executives Move To Head Cloud Startup
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62578
Arista Networks on Thursday announced the startup has landed two big executive fish: Jayshree Ullal and Andreas Bechtolsheim. Arista, formerly known as Arastra, a vendor of high-performance 10Gbit Ethernet and cloud networking solutions, is looking to give Cisco Systems a run for its money.
Ullal was previously senior vice president of Cisco, responsible for the $10 billion data center, switching and services group. Ullal will serve as president and CEO of Arista. A 25-year industry veteran, Ullal was named one of the "50 Most Powerful People" in 2005 by Network World and was nominated one of the 20 most powerful "Women to Watch in 2001" by Newsweek.
Bechtolsheim, a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur who cofounded Sun Microsystems and served as the company's senior vice president and chief architect for the systems group, has been installed as chairman and chief development officer at Arista. From 1996 to 2003, Bechtolsheim was vice president and general manager of the gigabit systems business unit at Cisco.
Arista has been shipping a portfolio of 10Gbit Ethernet products since May to financial, high-performance computing, public sector, manufacturing, Internet data center, health care, and media/entertainment markets.
"I am delighted to join Arista. The combination of an outstanding team, innovative hardware, and software technology and the cloud networking vision drew me to this company," Ullal said. "I look forward to creating a unique focus for our strategic customers, partners and channels."
In the upcoming era of cloud computing, the Web will be much more than just a means of delivering content -- it will be a platform in its own right, requiring an extremely scalable cloud networking infrastructure, according to Ullal.
"A similar transformation is happening in the enterprise, where many customers are consolidating existing data centers into much larger virtualized computing clouds," Ullal said. "We look...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Strong iPhone 3G Sales Both Boost and Hurt AT&T
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62573
Telecommunications giant AT&T reported its earnings rose 5.5 percent during the third quarter, but profits fell short of analyst predictions. Ironically, the chief cause of both the rise in revenues and the disappointing profits was the same: The company's strong sales of Apple's iPhone 3G.
According to the company's report, 2.4 million people activated an iPhone 3G during the third quarter, and 40 percent of those were new AT&T wireless subscribers.
"I am particularly pleased with the customer response to the iPhone 3G," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive officer. "The new customers we're winning are high-value, with attractive revenue and churn profiles. We're expanding the market as users adopt more data and media-rich services and access a wide array of applications. These achievements are positive for the future of our business."
The news, however, was disappointing to Wall Street -- in midday trading, AT&T was down about five percent.
Before the release of AT&T's earnings statement, analysts had predicted the company would earn 71 cents per share. AT&T fell well short of that target, reporting earnings of just 55 cents per share.
A significant portion of the shortfall (roughly 10 cents per share) was attributed to AT&T's decision to subsidize the cost of the iPhone 3G. The company underwrites approximately $375 of the cost of each handset, enabling consumers to purchase the iPhone 3G for just $199 or $299, depending on the configuration they select.
When it rolled out its exclusive iPhone 3G to the public in July, AT&T had predicted that over the course of the coming year, handset subsidies would cost the company 10 to 12 cents per share. But thanks to the more than two million activations, AT&T hit the low end of its cost estimate in just three months.
Nonetheless, AT&T believes the significant subsidy is a useful...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Sprint To Join Rivals in Cutting Termination Fees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62572
Following its rivals, Sprint Nextel Corp. will soon begin trimming the fees customers face for canceling their cell phone service early.
Chief Executive Dan Hesse said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press that Sprint could start lowering the early termination fees as soon as December, once the company updates its billing software. The fee of $200 or more is charged to wireless subscribers who end their service before their two-year contract ends.
The new policy would reduce the fee slightly for each month a subscriber stays with the plan. Competitors AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA already prorate their fees.
A California judge this summer said such fees likely violate state law and ordered Sprint to reimburse customers more than $73 million. Days before that ruling, Verizon Wireless agreed to settle an identical lawsuit for $21 million.
Wireless companies say the termination fees are necessary to recover the cost of cell phones, which are typically subsidized under long-term contracts, and to defray the costs for signing up new customers.
Consumer groups, however, say the fees are unreasonable and are intended to discourage customers from jumping ship to another carrier.
The wireless industry has asked the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the fees and prevent other state class-action lawsuits from going forward. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin this summer discussed a preliminary plan that would call for wireless carriers to prorate the fees, but that plan hasn't gone anywhere since then.
Fri, 24 Oct 08
American Airlines Sues Yahoo over Search Terms
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62571
American Airlines is suing Yahoo Inc. for trademark infringement, a case similar to one that the nation's largest airline settled this summer against Google Inc.
The airline complains that when computer users enter American's trademark terms such as AAdvantage, the name of its frequent-flier program, in a search they can be directed to competitors who pay Yahoo for the traffic.
American filed its lawsuit last week in U.S. District court in Fort Worth for unspecified damages, legal costs and money to run a "corrective" advertising campaign.
Kelley Benander of Yahoo said, "We have confidence in our trademark policies and are prepared to defend them in court."
Yahoo's policy allows advertisers to use the trademark terms of others only if it refers to the trademark "without creating a likelihood of consumer confusion."
American, a unit of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., reached a confidential settlement of a similar lawsuit against Google this summer, also in federal court in Fort Worth.
Each side agreed to pay its own legal fees, and American got nothing from Google. But Google searches for "American Airlines" or "AAdvantage" no longer produce paid ads along the right side of the portal screen.
Google had prevailed in previous lawsuits filed by other companies over their paid search advertising practices using trademark terms.
Tim Smith, a spokesman for American, said Tuesday that the airline is suing Yahoo to protect its intellectual property and prevent confusion among consumers and the diversion of shoppers looking for American's products.
Smith said the dispute centers on Yahoo's practice of selling American's trademark terms to other companies for use in Internet searches. He said the airline saw value in Internet searches and hoped to continue a "professional and amicable relationship" with Yahoo.
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Study: Most Data Breaches Preventable
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62568
The Verizon Business Risk Team reviewed more than 500 corporate data breaches between 2004 and 2007 and found that 87 percent could have been prevented -- if only the companies had the proper security measures in place at the time of the breach. After four years of forensic research involving more than 230 million records, the "2008 Data Breach Investigations Report" found that 73 percent of breaches resulted from external sources, while 18 percent were caused by insiders. Thirty-nine percent implicated business partners -- a number that increased five-fold over the time period of the study -- while 30 percent involved multiple parties.
The first-of-its-kind study looked at data breaches in a wide variety of industries, including retail, food and beverage, technology, and financial services. According to the findings:
* Most breaches resulted from a combination of events rather than from a single action. Specifically, 62 percent were attributed to a significant error; 59 percent resulted from hacking and intrusions; 31 percent incorporated malicious code; 22 percent exploited a weakness; and 15 percent were due to physical threats.
* Of those breaches caused by hacking, 39 percent were aimed at the application or software layer. Fewer than 25 percent of attacks took advantage of a known or unknown vulnerability. Significantly, 90 percent of known vulnerabilities exploited had patches available for at least six months prior to the breach.
* Nine of 10 breaches involved some type of "unknown" -- unknown systems, data, network connections, and/or account user privileges. Also, 75 percent of breaches were discovered by a third party rather than the affected organization.
* Seventy-five percent of all data breaches result in compromised data within a matter of days. Despite this, the study also reveals that 63 percent of companies don't learn about data breaches until months after their data has been compromised. Even...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Samsung Withdraws Bid To Acquire SanDisk
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62558
Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it has withdrawn a $26 a share bid to acquire SanDisk Corp., but suggested it was still interested in buying the U.S. flash memory card maker at a lower price.
In a letter dated and released Wednesday, Samsung Vice Chairman and CEO Lee Yoon-woo informed SanDisk's board that "we are no longer interested in acquiring SanDisk at $26 a share."
The letter said the offer was being withdrawn "after nearly six months of efforts to pursue a transaction with no meaningful progress."
Milpitas, California-based SanDisk, which last month rejected the bid, said in a statement Wednesday that Samsung's announcement came despite SanDisk having outlined a path for further discussions of the offer.
Samsung never contacted SanDisk regarding the proposal after SanDisk's board wrote a letter to Samsung on Sept. 15, the statement said.
"We believe this raises questions about the real motivations behind Samsung's offer," SanDisk said.
In rejecting the bid, SanDisk's board had determined the $5.85 billion takeover offer was "inadequate in multiple respects" and "opportunistic." Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung had said the offer was "full and fair."
Samsung spokesman James Chung said Wednesday that a deal could still be done.
"The point is at the moment SanDisk has been reluctant to begin serious discussion about the M&A issue," he said.
SanDisk is the world's largest supplier of flash storage card products. Samsung is the world's largest manufacturer of NAND flash memory chips used in digital devices such as cameras and music players.
"This is good for Samsung," semiconductor analyst Jim Handy of the Objective Analysis research firm wrote after the bid's withdrawal. "Samsung's stockholders will be rewarded if the company can acquire SanDisk at the lowest possible price."
In his letter, Lee told SanDisk that Samsung had determined that acquiring the company amid what he called "growing uncertainties in your business" went against "obligations...
Fri, 24 Oct 08
Penny-Pinching Shoppers May Get PC Deals Soon
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62556
Sales of personal computers didn't live up to expectations over the summer, and now analysts predict shoppers will cut spending even more drastically in the all-important holiday quarter.
So far, PC prices appear to be holding steady. But buyers may get better deals soon as computer companies try to avoid getting stuck with a pile of unsold inventory on Dec. 31.
Analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies said the unofficial start date for holiday PC promotions has crept earlier in recent years. This year, Kay said, computer makers are feeling panicky and wondering if they'll even make it through October without slashing prices.
"People with a lot of money are still going to come out and buy whatever they want," Kay said. "But there's a whole big pack of folks in the middle that are going to be looking at trade-offs."
PC makers generally reap thin profit margins, so don't expect prices to drop precipitously. In addition to whatever price cuts they do make, companies also are likely to offer more package deals that include free software or hardware add-ons to make more expensive machines look like a better deal. They may also rely on the age-old practice of luring shoppers with a low-end, cheaper configuration, but try hard to up-sell pricier, more powerful machines.
Four of the top PC makers, Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Acer Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd., wouldn't comment on prices or new products set to launch in coming months. HP's marketing efforts have focused recently on the TouchSmart line, touch-screen PCs that range from $1,300 to more than $2,000. The No. 3 U.S. computer maker, Apple Inc., already unveiled its holiday season lineup, with only modest price cuts, such as trimming the lowest-priced MacBook to $999 from $1,099.
"We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Circuit City Faces Bankruptcy or Closing Up To 150 Stores
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62519
Electronics retailing giant Circuit City is facing a classic Hobson's choice: file for bankruptcy protection or close as many as 150 stores. If the nation's second-largest seller of consumer electronics chooses Door #2, it could generate an estimated $350 million in inventory liquidation, job cuts, and infrastructure reductions.
According to The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news, the company is eager to avoid a high-profile bankruptcy filing right before the holidays. According to the Journal, company executives are concerned that the news would depress sales due to concerns among consumers that Circuit City would not be able to honor warranties on electronics purchases.
Circuit City spokesperson Bill Cimino told reporters that no decisions have been made. "The management team, board of directors, and its strategic financial advisers," Cimino said, "are conducting a comprehensive review of all aspects of our business to determine the best methods of accelerating our turnaround."
An e-mail to the Circuit City press office for elaboration was returned as undeliverable.
Like many companies, Circuit City is feeling the effects of the current economic crisis on Wall Street. Over the past year, the company's stock has fallen more than 90 percent; it finished trading Monday at 35 cents per share.
Real-estate costs are a particularly acute problem for Circuit City. According to financial experts, the cash from a massive inventory sale could be used to pay off leases on closed stores and abandoned sites, and would buy the company time to renegotiate leases on its remaining properties.
The Journal reported that the company has hired noted law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP to serve as its bankruptcy counsel, and is working with the investment bank Rothschild to line up debtor-in-possession financing. The funds would enable Circuit City to continue operating even if it files for bankruptcy.
However, the...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Scientology Hacker To Plead Guilty in DDoS Attack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62518
Dmitry Guzner will plead guilty to hacking attacks that brought down the Church of Scientology's Web site.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against the 18-year-old New Jersey man, who is part of an underground hacking group called Anonymous. Guzner was charged Friday, and has agreed to plead guilty sometime in the next few weeks. He could spend up -to 10 years in prison on computer-hacking charges.
Guzner began launching attacks against the Church of Scientology's Web site on Jan. 19. The defendant successfully took Scientology.org offline with a series of traffic surges to the site, known as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. According to computer security firm Arbor Networks, Guzner sent as much as 220 Mbps of traffic to Scientology.org, which was sufficient to temporarily disable the site.
The Church of Scientology has been vocal about the case, saying, "Guzner admitted that he acted on behalf of Anonymous, an Internet hate group whose members have in recent years engaged in illegal threats, attacks, criminal harassment, and hate crimes against minorities, religions, media organizations, individuals and other groups in the form of terrorist threats and acts, bomb threats, death threats, acts of vandalism, Web site attacks, and computer hacking."
Since January, the Church of Scientology said that Anonymous has been responsible for more than three million harassing e-mails and 141 million malicious hits against its Web sites, as well as 41 death threats, 56 bomb and arson threats, 103 threats of other violence, and 40 incidents of vandalism against church staff, executives, parishioners and/or facilities.
"The Church of Scientology is by no means the only target of this group," the organization said. "Anonymous has also claimed responsibility for illegal attacks against MySpace, Fox News, The Epilepsy Foundation, prominent hip-hop Web sites, and many other groups and individuals. Some of...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Sony Delays LittleBigPlanet Over Quran References
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62517
In a startling move, Sony Entertainment has postponed the release of the PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet (LBP), one of its most highly anticipated holiday releases. According to Sony, the decision to delay the game's release came after the company learned that a song in the game uses language from the Quran, the sacred text of Islam.
"During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet," the company said, "it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Quran. We have taken immediate action to rectify this, and we sincerely apologize for any offense that this may have caused."
The scheduled Oct. 21 release date in North America has been pushed back to Oct. 27; the game will be released "no later than" Nov. 3 in Europe.
LittleBigPlanet is an entry in the emerging class of "metagames," which allow users to not only play the game, but also to design, create and share game levels with other players. Sony Entertainment has been banking on LBP, which has received rave reviews and intense prerelease buzz, to spur sales of its high-end PS3 consoles for the holidays.
Alex Evans, cofounder of the U.K.-based Media Molecule, which designed LBP, said it was completely blindsided by Sony's decision.
"At MM we were as shocked and dismayed by this as anyone -- shell-shocked and gutted," Evans wrote on the company blog. "Within 12 hours of hearing about this issue involving a lyric (in Somalian, I believe!), Media Molecule had prepared an automatic day 0 patch and had a new disk image ready; however a decision was made within Sony that the right thing to do for quality and support of people with...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Motorola Developing an Android-Powered Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62516
When Motorola joined Google's Open Handset Alliance under former CEO Ed Zander, there was speculation that Motorola would develop a smartphone using Google's Android mobile operating system.
Today, with CEO Greg Brown at the helm, it's no longer speculation. Motorola is working on an Android-based smartphone that will have an iPhone-like touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard, BusinessWeek reports. The report said the smartphone will be aimed at social networking, but will not be available until the second quarter of 2009.
Motorola would not confirm any details in the report, but spokesperson Charles Kaiser said the company is excited about innovation possibilities on Android and that Motorola is looking forward to "delivering products in partnership with Google and the Open Handset Alliance community."
"Motorola is pleased to see the industry enthusiasm and support of the Android operating system," Motorola's Kaiser said in an e-mail. "As a pioneer in mobile Linux and a founder of OHA, Motorola believes Android promises to be one of the most powerful, flexible and customizable open platforms, enabling truly integrated mobile hardware, software and Web experiences."
The news Monday comes just two days before the first Android-based smartphone is slated to launch. T-Mobile, handset maker HTC, and Google have partnered to launch the T-Mobile G1.
Cole Brodman, chief technology officer at T-Mobile, said the partners believe there needed to be a compelling set of applications and devices that take advantage of mobile broadband networks. The companies announced the device starting at $179 in September.
T-Mobile's G1 includes one-touch Google search, an iPhone-like touchscreen, a three-megapixel camera, Google Maps Street View, and a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. There will opportunity for third-party developers to work with the G1, but it will be SIM-locked to T-Mobile, according to the company.
Motorola moving into the smartphone market would be...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Pew Says Internet, Cell Phones Bring Families Together
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62515
Once thought to be a distraction, the Internet and cell phones are now central components of modern family life. So says a new national survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Specifically, Pew discovered households with a married couple and minor children are more likely than other households to have cell phones and use the Internet. What's more, Pew reports positive impacts from the high rates of technology ownership in nuclear families.
"Some analysts have worried that new technologies hurt family togetherness, but we see that technology allows for new kinds of connectedness built around cell phones and the Internet," said Tracy Kennedy, author of a new report about the survey called Networked Families. "Family members touch base with each other frequently with their cell phones, and they use those phones to coordinate family life on the fly during their busy lives."
Among the most telling stats, couples in which both partners own a cell phone contact each other daily to say hello or chat, while only 54 percent of couples who have one or no cell phones do this at least once a day.
Sixty-four percent of couples in which both partners own a cell phone contact each other daily to coordinate their schedules, and 42 percent of parents contact their children every day using a cell phone. That makes cell phones the most popular communications tool between parents and children.
"A lot of families treat the Internet as a place for shared experiences," Kennedy said. "They don't just withdraw from the family to their own computer for private screen time. They often say, 'Hey -- look at this!' to others in the household."
Pew's survey respondents see much upside and little downside in the way new technologies are impacting the quality of communications with others. Twenty-five percent...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Intel Demos Moorestown Platform for Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62514
At this week's Intel Developer Forum in Taiwan, Intel conducted its first public demonstration of Moorestown -- a new Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform that company executives say will "increase battery life an order of magnitude" in a variety of portable devices.
With the launch of Moorestown, Intel is on track to reduce "idle power by more than 10 times compared to the first-generation MIDs based on the Intel Atom processor," said Intel Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekher, who is also general manager of the company's ultra mobility group.
Moorestown consists of two silicon-based devices, a system on a chip (SoC) and a companion hub chip. Code-named Lincroft, the SoC integrates an Intel Atom processor and memory controller with graphics and video encode/decode capabilities. The platform's Langwell hub chip provides support for the I/O ports that connect the platform's SoC to wireless, storage and display components.
With support for 3G, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and mobile TV, Chandrasekher said Moorestown is poised to become a catalyst for further extending the Internet experience into the mobile space. The potential applications are expected to include entertainment and media, connected GPS navigation, online gaming, social networking, and data communication.
"As the next billion people connect to and experience the Internet, significant opportunities lie in the power of technology and the development of purpose-built devices that deliver more targeted computing needs and experiences," Chandrasekher observed. "Technology innovation is the catalyst for new user experiences, industry collaborations, and business models."
Ericsson and Intel have already begun collaborating to produce High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) data modules optimized for the Moorestown platform and a Moblin-based Linux operating system. With 221 commercially deployed networks around the world, HSPA is the world's most widely deployed 3G mobile broadband technology.
"The high performance, low power, and compatibility of...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Hey PC, Apple Has Some More Commercials for You
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62489
Apple is taking some shots at Microsoft by launching its own series of commercials. It didn't take long for the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer giant to poke fun at Microsoft after it launched a $350 million advertising program with a series of "I'm a PC" and Jerry Seinfeld commercials.
One commercial, the bean counter, features an accountant sitting at a desk with two piles of money. The accountant is dividing the pile into two, with one pile for Windows Vista advertising dollars and the other to be used to fix problems with Vista.
The PC says he is budgeting because of the problems with Vista that have been frustrating users. Mac asks the PC if he really thinks the smaller pile of money will be enough to fix Vista. The PC responds, "You're right" and puts all the money into the advertising pile.
Windows Vista is Microsoft's latest operating system and biggest revenue producer, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the software company's $60.4 billion in revenue in fiscal 2008. More than 180 million Vista licenses were sold as of July 2008, according to the company. Still, since the November 2006 rollout of Vista, Microsoft has been plagued with complaints from users about the operating system's privacy, performance and security.
A second ad, called the "V word," features a Mac and a PC. The Mac presses a red buzzer each time the Mac says the word "Vista." PC tells the Mac that the company is officially going to stop referring to the operating system by name because it does not sit well with users. Mac responds by saying not using its word will not help fix its problems.
Apple's most recent ads come after the company released its pizza-box ad, which had a person representing a PC in a pizza box saying it would...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
New Service To Stop Loose Lips from Crashing Cars
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62444
When David Teater's 12-year-old son, Joe, was killed in 2004 by a driver who was talking on a cell phone, he tried to cut back on his own habit of driving and talking. It turned out to be very difficult.
"You have to remember to turn the phone off ... which you never remember to do. Or you have to ignore a ringing phone, which is incredibly hard," Teater said. "We've been conditioned our entire lives to answer ringing phones."
Teater became an advocate for curbing what he calls "driving while distracted," and now, he's part of a company with a technology that can help.
Aegis Mobility, a Canadian software company, announced Monday that it has developed software called DriveAssistT that will detect whether a cell phone is moving at car speeds. When that happens, the software will alert the cellular network, telling it to hold calls and text messages until the drive is over.
The software doesn't completely block incoming calls. Callers will hear a message saying the person they're calling appears to be driving. They can hit a button to leave an emergency voice mail, which is put through immediately.
Several states, including New York and California, have introduced laws against talking on a cell phone while driving, but they still allow the use of hands-free devices like Bluetooth headsets. However, studies have shown that hands-free devices may not help. It appears that it is the distraction of dialing or talking that is dangerous, rather than the act of taking a hand off the wheel.
A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2006 found that dialing or talking on the phone was the cause in 7 percent of crashes and near-crashes. For the study, drivers had onboard "black boxes" that recorded their actions.
Last year, 41,059 people died in traffic accidents.
Aegis' software...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Flexible OLEDs Could Be Part of Lighting's Future
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62443
On a bank of the Mohawk River, a windowless industrial building of corrugated steel hides something that could make floor lamps, bedside lamps, wall sconces and nearly every other household lamp obsolete.
It's a machine that prints lights.
The size of a semitrailer, it coats an 8-inch (20-centimeter) wide plastic film with chemicals, then seals them with a layer of metal foil. Apply electric current to the resulting sheet, and it lights up with a blue-white glow.
You could tack that sheet to a wall, wrap it around a pillar or even take a translucent version and tape it to your windows. Unlike practically every other source of lighting, you wouldn't need a lamp or conventional fixture for these sheets, though you would need to plug them into an outlet.
The sheets owe their luminance to compounds known as organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. While there are plenty of problems to be worked out with the technology, it's not the dream of a wild-eyed startup.
OLEDs are beginning to be used in TVs and cell-phone displays, and big names like Siemens and Philips are throwing their weight behind the technology to make it a lighting source as well. The OLED printer was made by General Electric Co. on its sprawling research campus in upstate New York. It's not far from where a GE physicist figured out a practical way to use tungsten metal as the filament in a regular light bulb. That's still used today, nearly a century later.
The invention of the incandescent bulb created the pattern for home lighting: Our light sources are small and bright. Maybe there are a few in the center of the ceiling, and a few in the corners of the room. Because they're too bright to look at, they need to be reflected and diffused with lamp shades and...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Selecting the Right Headset Technology for Your Firm
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62301
Most organizations today still employ the traditional corded phone systems common to offices 20 years ago. These systems keep office workers tethered to their desks, negating the benefits of other portable technology and reducing productivity, comfort and ergonomic safety. With a modest investment in wireless headsets, organizations can bring their existing phone systems into the age of portable technology. Some businesses that have deployed wireless headsets have realized benefits that include a productivity increase of up to 30 percent.
Consider a few factors:
Do your employees use the phone throughout the day? Do they frequently multitask while on the phone, typing on the computer or taking notes? If so, a wireless headset could help improve ergonomics by letting both hands be free. It can also help them multitask more efficiently.
Are your employees mostly stationary, or do they move around the office, visiting conference rooms, alternative work areas, and the desks of peers and supervisors to touch base on projects? If so, a wireless headset could help eliminate missed calls. Wireless systems can also help promote collaborative work with colleagues.
When considering wireless headsets, look for solutions that offer the following:
Easy setup. Most name-brand headsets are compatible with existing phone systems. Select headsets that offer plug-and-play capabilities, so the IT team will not have to spend a lot of time on installation.
Support. Work with a vendor that will act as a partner and efficiently handle any equipment issues, rapidly providing replacements when necessary.
Good sound quality. Clear audio is imperative for effective communications solutions. Higher-end headsets have the latest features, including simple volume control and noise regulation. Also, weigh the benefits of binaural versus monaural headsets. Binaural headsets cover both ears, helping users block outside noise and concentrate fully on their phone conversations. Monaural headsets cover one ear, and let users take calls while maintaining...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
The Best Online Course for Customer Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62129
In recent months, high fuel costs have forced various types of businesses, most notably airlines, to scale back their operations. As is typical during an economic downturn, companies in various industries seem to have few choices other than to cut costs. But if you want your company to stand out in how it cares for customers, reducing costs need not require you to lower standards for service. At a time when companies are likely to cut back on service in an effort to reduce costs, now is the best opportunity for companies to distinguish themselves in customer care.
An investment in service is primarily an investment in people. In many industries, employee compensation typically accounts for the majority of a company's costs. The same is true throughout the overall U.S. economy, given that employee compensation has represented between 57% and 59% of the U.S.'s gross domestic product throughout this decade. If you seek a return on your call center's investment in service, your best option is to focus on agents.
Various types of software help agents become more productive. But e-learning software is unique in that it accelerates your efforts to increase agents' value to your company and customers. This type of software delivers material, such as slide presentations or video courses, to agents' computers only when agents are available for training. Some e-learning tools automatically assign an agent specific material based on how your quality assurance team evaluates the agent's proficiency with certain skills. In this scenario, quality assurance and training teams determine in advance which training material corresponds to certain skills, and which material reflects the degree to which agents need help with developing these skills.
E-learning software enables agents to use their time more efficiently than if they only receive training in classrooms. A more efficient use of agents' time...
Tue, 21 Oct 08
Tips on Regulatory Compliance for the Call Center
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62127
Compliance is a top of mind issue for contact centers, especially those conducting outbound campaigns. Enterprises and nonprofits alike need to stay within what is often a confusing and ever-changing set of laws and regulations.
1. Have knowledge of the rules
2. Have written compliance guidelines
3. Meet record-keeping requirements
4. Have mutually-supportive due diligence
5. Have a defendable position
"Even the most sophisticated firms have compliance issues," explains ATA Chief Executive Officer Tim Searcy. "Constant vigilance to know the requirements and ongoing diligence to verify that your firm meets those requirements is crucial in avoiding potential mistakes."
Steve Brubaker, Senior Vice President -- Corporate Affairs, InfoCifion Management Corporation, offers these compliance recommendations:
1. Understand the state and federal regulations and how they apply to different industries
As a third party vendor it is the teleservices company's responsibility to be compliant with both federal and state Do Not Call (DNC) regulations. To make sure the organization is in line with all of the laws it is beneficial to have a compliance officer. The compliance officer can work with the corporate attorneys to understand and interpret the laws and regulations as they pertain to the company, clients and the different types of campaigns being run. At the end of the day it is the teleservices company that is responsible for compliance. This is what clients expect.
2. Invest in compliance from a monetary stand point and a personnel standpoint
There is a significant commitment of resources for ensuring compliance. There are ongoing costs for staff and legal expertise, in addition to federal, state and even international fees to maintain up-to-date DNC lists. It is important to invest in a highly trained and experienced compliance staff that will monitor all levels of business and the applicable state and federal regulations. On top of these expenses are the investments in compliance technology. Even...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Apple Is Greener, Greenpeace Says, But Has More To Do
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62488
At last Tuesday's laptop event on the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif., the environment got a lot of attention. CEO Steve Jobs, who has been pushing for a "greener Apple" for months, flatly declared that the new Mac laptops, with their unibody aluminum construction and less toxic parts, "are the industry's greenest notebooks."
The verdict from the planet's leading environmental group, Greenpeace, is a qualified yes. "Compared to where Apple was before Tuesday," said Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International's toxics campaigner, "its laptops are definitely better. That in and of itself is a good thing. But not all toxic pieces have been eliminated yet."
Harrell said Greenpeace had been hoping Apple would be the first to announce a laptop manufactured without any polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or brominated flame retardant (BFR) materials. Both produce toxic chemicals when burned, which frequently occurs when computer parts are shipped overseas for disposal.
"They fell slightly short of that goal," Harrell said. "They didn't quite get the PVCs out of the external power cord. If Apple can achieve that, then we could unequivocally say that they've put the rest of the computer industry on notice that these materials can be completely eliminated."
In a press release Tuesday, Apple said it did eliminate all PVCs on internal cables in its MacBook laptops, and avoided the use of BFRs altogether. In addition, Apple said, the new MacBooks meet Energy Star 4.0, EPEAT Gold, and RoHS environmental standards.
Harrell predicted that Apple's ranking on Greenpeace's environmental scale will rise in part because of the reduction in the use of toxic chemicals and because the new MacBooks use significantly less packaging.
Apple said it measures its recycling performance by a standard first suggested by Dell: The percentage of material sold (by weight) collected in recycling. In 2007, Apple recycled 18.4 percent of the material it...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Facebook Is Reportedly Considering Digital Music
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62486
News emerged Friday that Facebook may be considering adding music to its mix. According to the New York Post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is considering getting into the digital-music business.
If the report is true, it would put Facebook on the heels of MySpace's latest strategic effort to differentiate itself among youthful social networkers.
Rhapsody.com, iMeem.com, iLike.com and Lala.com are among the digital-music sites Facebook is reportedly in talks with. Facebook is also said to be in talks with major music labels. It's a move that would put Facebook in competition not only with MySpace, but also Apple's iTunes Store and Amazon.com, among others.
"Facebook is a serious challenger to MySpace and they would certainly want to do anything that record labels would allow them to do with advertising-supported music," said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. "Advertising-supported revenue would be good for Facebook and certainly free access to recorded music would be good for Facebook members. It would be good for the labels, too. If the MySpace deal is working out well, then the labels would probably want to replicate that on Facebook."
MySpace Music streamed a billion songs within days after its Sept. 25 launch. By contrast, it took the iTunes Store nearly three years to reach that mark. MySpace admitted it doesn't know if it can keep up those numbers. Its launch was highly publicized.
What's not clear is the pricing model. Would Facebook, if sells music, go with a flat price for a digital download, a subscription model, or an advertising-supported stream, as Leigh suggested? There is no lack of competition on any of those fronts. Nokia and Sony Ericsson are challenging Apple's digital-music empire with a subscription model.
In a recent consumer study by Strategy Analytics, 84 percent of respondents indicated a willingness to pay for a...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Observers Upset By Changes To iGoogle
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62485
Google is painting its own portrait by adding canvas views to its iGoogle platform. The search giant rolled out the new design feature for U.S. users.
iGoogle, formerly Google Personalized Web Page and Google IG, is an AJAX-based service which brings together several Web feeds and Google Gadgets for users, including news, traffic and weather on one page designed and arranged by the users.
While the canvas feature is not available for all gadgets, it is for most, including Google Finance, Gmail and GasBuddy. Others include Soduku, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
"We want to make iGoogle as useful and as personalized as possible for our users," said Jessica Ewing, group product manager for iGoogle, via e-mail. "Adding the infrastructure for canvas view gadgets allows users the choice of accessing more content directly from their gadget, which is part of this overall goal, and gives developers more space to create compelling gadgets. We've heard from both users and developers consistently that they want more gadget "real estate."
Google is constantly thinking about ways to improve products for users, according to Ewing, who added that Google takes its ideas, prototypes them, and puts them through a vigorous set of usability tests to ensure they are the right move for users.
"The iGoogle features we launched yesterday went through this exact process, and we've made changes along the way based on feedback from users and developers," he said.
One of the biggest changes is with the layout and left navigation.
Clicking any tab opens that tab, while clicking the plus sign next to any tab reveals a full list of the gadgets in that tab, according to Google. Viewing the tabs this way allows users to see all of a tab's content in one click.
"We're excited about these changes because...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
NAB Seeks To Delay FCC's White-Space Ruling
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62484
The National Association of Broadcasters is raising objections to a Federal Communications Commission report suggesting that unlicensed wireless devices could operate in vacant slices of the white-space spectrum without causing interference to adjacent TV channels.
The NAB said the executive summary released by the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology is actually contradicted by the report's key findings.
"It would appear that the FCC is misinterpreting the actual data collected by their own engineers," said NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton. "Any reasonable analysis of the OET report would conclude that unlicensed devices that rely solely on spectrum sensing threaten the viability of clear television reception."
The FCC is expected to consider approving white-space devices at the next meeting of the five commissioners on Nov. 4. The move would be a victory for Google cofounder Larry Page, who recently told members of the Wireless Innovation Alliance that he hoped the FCC would act before the results of the November elections were in. "We can show real leadership in the world in a way that matters to everybody," Page said.
However, the trade association representing the nation's broadcasters wants the FCC to seek public comments on its report before it decides to move forward. "With the transition to digital television looming and tens of millions of TV viewers at risk, the stakes are too high for this proposal to be rammed through without thoughtful deliberation," Wharton said.
The NAB said the test results documented in the report clearly show that the spectrum-sensing technique used by the white-space devices that were tested is clearly not reliable. For example, the report said Microsoft's prototype sample device "began to malfunction and eventually ceased to operate, necessitating the abandonment of further measurement utilizing this device."
And with respect to the prototype devices that the FCC...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Video-Game Sales Slide, But Analysts Optimistic
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62483
Sales of the Nintendo Wii game console rose 37 percent in September, but the rest of the industry saw losses. It was the first time in more than two years that the market for consoles and games has seen an overall decline.
In all, consumers purchased 687,000 Wii consoles, according to the NPD Group. That marks an increase from 501,000 in September 2007. But the industry's total sales fell seven percent to $1.27 billion.
"Last September, the industry saw the release of Halo 3, so that's probably affecting the numbers," said Michael Cai, a video-game analyst at Parks Associates. The Microsoft blockbuster sold 3.3. million titles, which boosted overall industry sales 75 percent for September 2007, according to NPD Group.
"With just one month of data it's difficult to generalize whether this is going to be a downward trend or not," Cai said. "Even a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of decline. So it's difficult to make a conclusion from one month of data."
Indeed, despite the down numbers and the economic uncertainties, NPD reports that the health of the video-game industry is strong. For example, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Microsoft's Xbox 360, September's hottest title, sold 610,000 units.
Nintendo is readying for the holiday season, the most important time of the year for the video-game industry, by upping its shipment volume 50 percent in the fourth quarter. The company hopes to avoid lost sales from any potential shortages. Nintendo has no plans to cut the Wii's already market-low $249 price for the holidays, according to the company.
It's a different story for Microsoft. Redmond slashed the price of the the Xbox 360 Arcade, its low-end model, from $279.99 to $199.99 in September. The Xbox 360 is still selling well, pushing out 347,200 units in September to secure second place...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Computer Time Can Stunt Teens, But Benefit Elderly
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62482
According to a noted neurobiologist, the rapid growth of computer technology is dividing humans into "digital natives" -- people who grew up using technology -- and "digital immigrants" -- people who started using technology later in life.
That's the provocative suggestion of Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and director of the UCLA Center on Aging, in his new book, iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind. Small coauthored the book with his wife, Gigi Vorgan, a former actress and Hollywood scriptwriter.
Among other things, Small argues that as children use technology throughout their development, they run the risk of stunting social development.
"There's a process in young people of pruning, meaning that a lot of the neural networks are kind of pruned away, are never used," Small told Canada's Globe and Mail. "Sixty percent of the brain synapses are pruned away during development. And the teenage brain is not as empathetic. Without the face-to-face time learning to read the subtle, nonverbal social cues, we are going to miss out on some of the empathy building that's traditionally learned during adolescence."
The problem, Small suggested, is that when certain tasks are repeated, the neural pathways associated with those activities grow stronger, while less frequently used pathways get neglected and grow weaker.
The goal, he said, is to help children and teens strike a balance between technology use and social activities. He offered a familiar prescription: "I say turn off the computers and the PDAs at a certain time every night and enjoy your family, your friends."
Ironically, the results of a study led by Small suggest that older Americans may benefit from more time at the computer. A group of 24 healthy people ranging in age from 55 to 76 were asked to...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Adobe's Flash Player 10 Takes on Microsoft's Silverlight 2
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62481
Just weeks after releasing the beta version of its Flash Player 10, code-named Astro, Adobe Systems this week released the final version for Linux, Windows and Macintosh computers. Flash Player 10 comes with a slew of new features and goes head-to-head with Microsoft's Silverlight 2, which was also released this week.
The multimedia products are competing head-to-head. Adobe has the lion's share of the market, but adoption of Microsoft's Silverlight has ramped up since it launched a year ago with 150 partners, including NBCOlympics.com, Blockbuster, Yahoo Japan and AOL.
Silverlight features content protection, deep zoom, a compatible subset of Microsoft's .Net framework, and built-in controls. Silverlight also supports several programming languages, including JavaScript, Visual Basic, C# and IronPython.
"We launched Silverlight just over a year ago, and already one in four consumers worldwide have access to a computer with Silverlight already installed," said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president at Microsoft.
Adobe's new Flash Player includes new 3-D effects, custom filters and effects, enhanced sound through audio mixing, and improved visual performance, including faster and smoother videos. The company said it has used 25 years of experience to develop its new text engine, which gives designers and developers more text-layout options and better control.
"Designers and developers know if they deliver video, online games, rich Internet applications, and other interactive experiences using Adobe Flash Player, they can reliably reach the entire Web," said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the platform business unit at Adobe.
After releasing the beta version to developers, Adobe found some issues and has created fixes.
For example, in Linux, Flash Player 10 supported only browsers supported by each specific distribution of Linux. At the time the product was written, Firefox 3 was not supported by Ubuntu 7.
Another problem was with the 3-D effects. Components were not working...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Sony Ericsson Swings To a 3Q Loss
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62478
Mobile-phone maker Sony Ericsson on Friday said it swung to a loss in the third quarter, hurt mainly by weaker sales, continued price pressure on its handsets and negative effects from exchange-rate fluctuations.
The LM Ericsson and Sony Corp. joint venture said it booked a net loss of EU25 million (US$33.6 million) for the quarter, compared with a profit of EU267 million in the same period last year.
It said it shipped 25.7 million units during the third quarter, which was lower than the quarter before but a flat development year-on-year.
The company said that although it expects the global handset market for 2008 to grow at a rate of around 10 percent from more than 1.1 billion units in 2007, it believes the industry average selling price will continue to drop.
Most of the growth is expected to come from emerging markets where the cheaper phones dominate, it said.
Sales dropped about 10 percent in the July-September period, landing at EU2.81 billion (US$3.8 billion).
Sony Ericsson President Dick Komiyama said the quarter had "continued to be challenging."
He said the company's target to cut operating costs by EU300 million (US$405 million) a year by the end of the second quarter next year -- with the full effects expected to appear in the second half of 2009 -- "are progressing in line with expectations."
Evli Bank analyst Mikko Ervasti said that even though the mobile-phone maker dipped into the red in the quarter, the results were still more or less in line with the market's expectations -- or at least "less on the negative side."
The key, he said, was that Sony Ericsson had maintained its guidance for the global handset market.
With regards to the global financial crisis, Ervasti said he did not think the company would suffer a harsh blow in the shorter term, but may be hurt...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Nokia 3Q Profit Falls 30 Percent, Market Share Slips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62474
Nokia Corp., the world's largest cell phone maker, lost market share in the third quarter as profits dropped 30 percent because of falling sales and lower prices on the handsets that did sell.
Even so, Nokia said Thursday it expects increasing sales for the rest of the year, and it stuck to its 10 percent growth estimate for the whole industry in 2008.
Net profit in July through September plummeted to 1.09 billion euros ($2.7 billion), from 1.56 billion euros a year earlier. Net sales dropped 5 percent to 12.2 billion euros ($16.6 billion), from 12.9 billion euros.
Nokia shares fell after the report but the stock rallied and was almost unchanged in late trading in Helsinki. Nokia's U.S. shares were up 23 cents, 1.5 percent, at $15.34 in midday trading.
Nokia said its market share in the period fell to 38 percent -- down from 39 percent in 2007 and 40 percent in the previous quarter. It sold nearly 118 million handsets, up from 112 million during the same period last year.
Last month, Nokia had warned that its market share would drop because of price cuts by competitors, but said it would not change its strategy.
"We said we would not participate in the aggressive pricing competition in the third quarter and I believe that the decision was correct and will repay us in the long run," Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said.
As Nokia continues to sell an increasing proportion of cheaper phones in emerging markets, the average selling price of its handsets -- a much-watched indicator in the industry -- also is on a downward curve. In the last quarter, the average selling price was 72 euros ($98), down from 82 euros in the third quarter last year.
Despite the global financial meltdown, Nokia said it expects sales to increase in the final quarter, with...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Prediction Markets Meet Wall Street
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62453
With all the fuss about Wall Street lately, one fact has gone unobserved: The stock market has performed brilliantly as a form of artificial intelligence. That's right. The Dow Jones can see the future, and last month it tried to warn you.
Consider what happened on Monday, Sept. 29. A $700 billion bailout package was on the table in Congress, and many constituents were opposed to it, complaining that it would help fat cats on Wall Street but not mainstream America. The House of Representatives, where members are up for re-election in November, stopped the bill.
That same day, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged almost 778 points, its biggest one-day percentage decline in two decades. A vast group of investors bet instantly that the political logjam was very bad for the economy. And as the global stock sell-off continued in the succeeding days, Americans began realizing that failure to do something to help the credit markets was not helping their personal fortunes.
How did Wall Street know what would happen? It acted like a prediction market, a pool of intelligence that can foresee the future. Prediction markets are simply bets on ideas: What do you think something is worth, and more important, what will it be worth tomorrow? When groups of people bet on something, their combined intelligence is often remarkably prescient. British scientist Francis Galton was one of the first to notice this in 1906, when he observed 787 people at a country fair try to guess the weight of an ox after it was slaughtered. The average of all guesses was 1,197 pounds, only one pound less than the correct answer.
James Surowiecki expanded on Galton's observation in his 2004 book The Wisdom of Crowds. The most obvious example of collective intelligence is sports wagers, where the odds...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
Coalition of Businesses Goes Green By Choice
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62442
Green is no longer just for hippies. Over the past couple of years, mainstream companies have started to realize that they need to fundamentally rethink their environmental policies, and while some still see the issues in terms of compliance, risk management or marketing, others see business opportunity.
Companies in the latter category have been appointing high-level executives as corporate sustainability officers and giving their managers financial incentives to meet environmental targets.
"There's a growing understanding that it's largely an opportunity for profit and growth for the companies that get on the right side of things and get ahead of the issue," said Rick Duke, director of the Center for Market Innovation at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental nonprofit organization based in New York.
Interface, a U.S. manufacturer of modular carpets, is a case in point: It began greening every aspect of its business -- from energy consumption to design to sales -- in 1994, after its founder, Ray Anderson, read "The Ecology of Commerce" by the environmentalist and corporate critic Paul Hawken.
Among the resulting changes, the company created a senior management position, vice president of sustainability, about five years ago, which has been held for the past six months by Erin Meezan.
Meezan's team works with all Interface businesses, each of which has its own sustainability staff, and offers technical assistance on everything from waste programs to employee engagement. It is involved in strategic planning and works on external projects and partnerships.
Meezan says she reports directly to the chief executive, Dan Hendrix, "which is pretty huge. I also have regular interaction with our chief financial officer and with our business-level presidents. I think that really helps. I'm not removed from what's happening."
Intel, the chip maker, is also a leader in sustainable initiatives, winning top place in the 100 best corporate citizens list...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
The Cell Phone Reaches Milestone 25th Birthday
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62440
The first commercial cell-phone call in the U.S. was made 25 years ago this week: Bob Barnett, then president of Ameritech Mobile Communications, placed the first commercial wireless call from inside a Chrysler convertible at Soldier Field in Chicago, to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, who was in Berlin.
The breakthrough had been a long time coming. Ten years earlier, Martin Cooper, widely regarded as the inventor of the cell phone, made a demonstration phone call to Joel Engel while walking the streets of New York. Cooper was then the general manager of Motorola's communications systems division; Engel was his counterpart at rival AT&T. But only in 1983 did the Federal Communications Commission approve mobile phones.
The first cell phone on the market, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, weighed 28 ounces (thus its nickname, "the brick") and had a retail price of $3,995. Little wonder, then, that in his 1987 film "Wall Street," Oliver Stone illustrated corporate raider Gordon Gekko's wealth, freedom and power with a scene in which Gekko stands on a beach, phone in hand, giving a rapt description of the sunrise to his disciple, Bud Fox.
In 1987, large numbers of the well-to-do had car phones, console-based affairs that gave one the unprecedented ability to conduct business while driving. But a phone that was not attached to anything at all -- well, in 1987 that was a billionaire's toy.
Now, cell phones are ubiquitous, so much so that one might sometimes wish there were fewer of them. There are more than 262 million wireless users in the U.S. alone, and the industry's annual revenues have topped $140 billion. An entire generation has grown up using cell phones. An increasing number of consumers use them exclusively, going without a land line. Not even Superman bothers looking for a phone booth in which...
Sat, 18 Oct 08
EA Turns to Online Games To Boost Asian Presence
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62439
Electronic Arts Inc. is turning to online games to boost its limited presence in Asia, the Asia president of the U.S. video game maker said Tuesday.
EA's main business in the West comes from packaged games software for consoles and personal computers, but online games are more popular in Asia, EA President for Asia Jon Niermann told The Associated Press in an interview.
"It's night and day," Niermann.
Niermann was attending the launch of "Need for Speed Undercover," which features a character played by actress Maggie Q.
The executive says EA hopes to increase its market share in Asia by launching more online games, with 12 editions of different games expected to roll out this year.
The company has already launched online versions of "FIFA," "NBA Street," "Warhammer Online" in the region, with "Battlefield Heroes" to follow. The online version of "Need for Speed," which was developed in Singapore, will launch next year.
The executive said Asia revenues account for only about 6 percent of EA's total revenue. The Redwood City, California-based company reported US$3.67 billion in revenue for its 2008 fiscal year.
"It's nowhere where it needs to be. We need to get that growth significantly higher," Niermann said.
In the coveted China market, EA's market share is in the single digits, but the company hopes to change by that by launching online versions of "FIFA" and "NBA Street" with local partners, he said.
EA is launching "FIFA" with The9 Ltd., which operates "World of Warcraft" in China, and "NBA Street" with game operators Tencent Inc. and T2CN.
The company is also developing games in Asia for the Asian market, Niermann said.
EA has offices in 16 Asian cities, with game developing sites in Singapore, Hyderabad, India, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo.
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Sony, Vudu To Match Apple in Renting High-Def Video
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62477
Apple's recent embrace of HDTV is putting the spotlight on a growing trend of renting high-definition movies and TV shows online for up to 24 hours of viewing. Rivals such as Sony and Vudu are already preparing to make high-definition video a bigger part of their online entertainment offerings, and additional providers are expected to join the fray.
However, Apple upped the ante this week by making high-definition TV episodes from all four U.S. TV networks available for download at its iTunes Store, which has already rented more than one million HDTV shows since its introduction of HDTV programming last month. Even better, it now has more than 600 feature films available in HDTV.
"We've got an incredible fall 2008 TV lineup with over 70 prime-time comedies and dramas, including many of the most popular shows on TV in stunning HD," said Apple Vice President Eddy Cue. "With over 200 million episodes sold, iTunes customers have proven they love watching television on their computer, iPod, iPhone and TV with Apple TV."
Later this month, Sony will stream its hit movie Hancock to BRAVIA (Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture) large-screen displays equipped with the company's BRAVIA Internet video link module. The module is designed to receive a variety of online programming in both standard and high-definition formats, including on-demand movies, YouTube videos, and other content not found on TV networks, cable channels, or satellite TV.
Sony's online Hancock release from Oct. 28 through Nov. 10 marks the first time a top-grossing theatrical movie will be streamed to consumers' homes in advance of the packaged media release. Consumers who register online and purchase Sony's Hancock rental stream will also receive a free Blu-ray copy of Hancock following the movie's Nov. 25 release on disc, the company said.
"This is an important development...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Ballmer Hints Microsoft Still Lusting for a Yahoo Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62476
The Microsoft-Yahoo circus is open for business again. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Thursday said a Yahoo acquisition would still make sense for both companies. He spoke at the Gartner technology conference in Orlando, Fla.
While Ballmer insisted that Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo and is not currently holding any discussions with the search giant, he also said the companies could consider a partnership on search engines in the future.
"It's clear that Yahoo did not want to sell the company. It didn't want to sell when we offered $33," Ballmer said, according to Bloomberg News. Microsoft later issued a statement Thursday afternoon, saying: "Our position hasn't changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo; there are no discussions between the companies."
A quick overview: Yahoo rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid -- twice. Ballmer sent what amounted to an ultimatum to Yahoo's board in early April. That letter made clear that Microsoft's goal in making "such a generous offer" was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction.
Ballmer wanted Yahoo to authorize a team to negotiate and come to an agreement. He then threw down the gauntlet: A three-week deadline to come to an agreement -- or else. But the "or else" never happened. After much back-and-forth posturing in the media, Yahoo remained independent.
More recently, rumors began to emerge that Yahoo and AOL would combine forces. The rumor mill threw out numbers as high as $10 billion for AOL. That caused Yahoo's stock to drop 84 cents on Wednesday. Yahoo's stock was at a 52-week low before Ballmer spoke, but saw a jump late Thursday on the news.
There are any number of scenarios that could play out in the coming week before Yahoo releases its earnings report. There may be some closure...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Google Open About Kill Switch in Android Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62475
Although T-Mobile's G1 smartphone with Google's Android mobile operating system won't be formally launched until Oct. 22, observers are busy peering under the hood and reading the fine print. One feature is sure to cause some comment: A remote kill switch that will let Google wipe out any application that violates the developer distribution agreement for Android apps.
Not long ago, the discovery that Apple retained the ability to remotely kill iPhone apps (and was not afraid to use it) sparked a sharp response from some Apple customers, in part because there was no disclosure of the kill switch and because Apple seemed indifferent to the fact that customers had no easy mechanism to get refunds for killed apps.
But Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy at Jupitermedia, doesn't think customers will have the same reaction to Google's kill switch.
"The existence of a kill switch for Android applications is not a big deal," Gartenberg said. "The big difference here is that Google did not make any secret about it; they were open about its existence from the start."
Gartenberg thinks customers will actually appreciate the fact that Google has retained the ability to protect its operating system.
"The important thing to remember," Gartenberg said, "is that the Android system is an open platform, which means that developers are generally free to do what they want. That means, of course, that some applications may potentially be harmful and even cause damage to the network."
The goal of Google and its partners, he suggested, is to create an environment in which they have control over the software ecosystem.
Google has also announced it will take a more active role in helping purchasers of killed applications to recover their money. The company promises to make "reasonable efforts" to recover the purchase price from the developer, and...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
FCC Office Says Use of White Space Is Feasible
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62473
For the last two years, a coalition of high-tech companies and organizations called the Wireless Innovation Alliance has been pushing the Federal Communications Commission to allow access to white space, the portions of the broadcast spectrum set aside by the FCC to prevent interference between neighboring television signals.
WIA's members include such computer-industry heavyweights as Google, Dell, Microsoft and Motorola, as well as such public-interest groups as the New America Foundation, the Public Interest Research Group, and Free Press. Google has been particularly active, hosting a public-relations campaign called Free the Airwaves that features videos and a petition currently signed by more than 18,000 people.
There is a great deal of interest in the unused frequencies because they are particularly well-suited for carrying data signals over long distances and through obstacles, including the walls of buildings. If the technical issues can be resolved, WIA and other groups believe they hold tremendous potential for new consumer broadband applications.
WIA's campaign got a boost Wednesday with the release of a report by the FCC's Office of Engineering Technology (OET) which concluded that using low-powered digital devices on the frequencies between television channels is feasible, although some further testing is necessary.
"We are satisfied," the OET said, "that spectrum sensing in combination with geolocation and database-access techniques can be used to authorize equipment today under appropriate technical standards and that issues regarding future development and approval of any additional devices, including devices relying on sensing alone, can be addressed."
As the OET suggests, any devices designed to use the white space would have to be equipped with a sensor to determine if any neighboring frequencies are in use, so they can be avoided. In addition, by building in geolocation, a white-space device could query a database to find out if there are any broadcasters operating...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Chrome Advances But Has a Way To Go in Browser Wars
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62472
The browser wars are alive and well. While Google is working out the kinks in its beta version of Chrome -- a Wednesday update fixed issues with crashing and video playback -- Firefox is pushing a beta 3.1 version that promises new features and better performance. Meanwhile, market leader Microsoft still dominates with Internet Explorer 7.
"The browser wars continue. But consumers already have plenty of choices with IE, Safari, Firefox and Opera. The real question is if Google can get those users to shift. Mainstream consumers are wondering why they need to make the transition," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia. "Chrome is still a solution in search of a problem."
If test results from WebSketch are right, Chrome may have a marketable advantage: Speed. The company reported a 3x performance improvement over Microsoft IE 7 when using Google Chrome.
In its internal benchmarking tests, editing sites using Chrome is on average three times faster than with IE, WebSketch said. The company said the benefits of Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine also make adding, moving and resizing objects such as Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and other widgets significantly faster and smoother.
Google may have an advantage for the time being, but how long is another matter. Like Chrome, upcoming versions of Firefox and Safari are developed with JavaScript-heavy Web 2.0 applications in mind in order to deliver a rich, interactive user experience. That once again levels the playing field and makes it harder to convince consumers to make the switch, analysts said.
Even if Chrome is faster with Web 2.0 applications, the Google-branded browser still has plenty of problems to solve to compete with Microsoft and Mozilla. Google has not indicated how long Chrome might remain in beta, but the company is known for...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
T-Mobile's G1 Is Google-Centered, Ignores Video
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62471
The T-Mobile G1 officially goes on sale Oct. 22, but reviews are already flooding in. Early reviews are polarized, with some signaling the first Google Android-based device is a true iPhone challenger, others calling it an iPhone rip-off, and still others expressing overall disappointment.
The G1 touts touchscreen functionality, a QWERTY keyboard, and a Google-centric mobile Web experience. Google-centric means the phone comes fully loaded with Google Maps Street View, Gmail, YouTube and other popular Google software familiar to PC users.
"Whether or not you would want this phone is going to depend a lot on whether or not you are a Google customer and make use of tools like Gmail and Google Calendar," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy at Jupitermedia. "If you don't, this is probably not the device for you."
Prices for the G1 start at $179 for some existing T-Mobile customers with a two-year voice and data agreement. T-Mobile has 1.5 million preorders for the device basically sight unseen. Analysts said these are most likely from early adopters who buy up new tech in a hurry, as well as T-Mobile customers looking to upgrade to a touchscreen without switching carriers.
The smartphone offers some user-friendly features and Google Web enhancements. Users can search with the touch of a finger, and a full HTML Web browser displays any Web page the way it was designed to be seen -- and any section can be zoomed in by tapping on the screen.
But, Gartenberg said, if you aren't a Google customer -- or if you don't plan on becoming one -- this phone won't be as user-friendly as it seems.
"In fact, you have to have a Google account just to use the device. If your calendar and contacts are not up on the cloud, there's no...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Samsung Reenters U.S. Notebook Computer Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62447
Diversified electronics maker Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it is re-entering the U.S. computer market with a range of branded products that build on its component supply strengths.
The Korean-based company will introduce on Tuesday new ultralight notebooks designed to appeal to potential buyers of Apple Inc's ground-breaking MacBook Air and smaller "netbook" models from the likes of Asustek Computer.
Breaking into the crowded U.S. market involves taking share from more established players. The Korean electronics maker sees other Asian brand-name players as vulnerable, especially Toshiba Corp, Sony Corp and Lenovo.
Samsung is also coming out with models aimed at business professionals and the market for bulkier laptops known as "desktop replacements", a Samsung executive said.
Like Apple's Air, Samsung's X-Series premium lightweight notebooks come with options for either a hard drive or solid state memory. But Samsung's X360 is priced at $2,499 and carries 128 gigabytes of flash memory, twice the 64 gigabytes that comes with the Apple Air selling for $2,598.
"These products really go after Apple and Sony. This is the MacBook Air killer," Bret Berg, the senior product manager for Samsung's U.S. computer division, said in an interview.
The X360 weighs 2.8 pounds and has an ultra-thin, tapered wedge design with a magnesium allow chassis, an aluminum top and a "pebble"-style keyboard.
Samsung's hard-drive version, the X460, starts at $1,899 for a 160-gigabyte hard drive, twice the capacity of Apple's existing MacBook Air model that is priced at $1,799 for an 80-gigabyte drive. The X460 weighs just under 4.2 pounds.
Its premium netbook, the NC10, in white or metallic-blue colored cases, starts at $499 with a 10.2-inch display and 160 gigabyte hard drive. Netbooks are a smaller class of PCs that are lower priced than notebooks and can sell for $300 or less.
Samsung is positioning its product between lower cost EEE PCs from Asustek...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Analog's Twilight: Slowly, Digital Trumps Physical
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62445
Sometimes, in the decades after he came home from World War II, it seemed as if the movie camera was surgically attached to Christoffel Teeuwissen's hand.
He carried it everywhere, trained it on everything. When they widened the street in front of his house in Florida, there he was. When a septic tank was installed in West Virginia, there he was. High school football games, construction sites, the building of a swimming pool -- there he was, camera in hand.
Film ebbed into video, and he kept recording. When the VCR arrived on the scene, history programs joined the collection, as did episodes of "The Lawrence Welk Show" and TV biographies of Glenn Miller.
Then, in 2005, Christoffel Teeuwissen died at 88. And when Jon Teeuwissen and his two sisters began going through their parents' ranch house, another story unfolded.
All over the house, behind each closet door, sat boxes of memories -- dozens of 7-inch reels of film, smaller reels of shorter clips, Super 8s, audio recordings, VHS cassettes.
So Christoffel Teeuwissen's children inventoried. They labeled. They assembled the recorded remains of their father's time on Earth into what coherence they could. And then they put everything into boxes and sent it all off to an address in Arizona.
There, courtesy of a company called iMemories Inc., the dusty personal archives of the Teeuwissen family are losing their physicality. Bit by bit, they are becoming DVDs and JPEGs and online videos searchable with a click.
And with that, for Jon Teeuwissen, as for so many people in a new millennium brimming with computerized wonders, the march toward digital remembrances -- away from the tactile ones we kept in the 20th century -- is under way.
***
Things fall apart.
Paper burns. Videotape decays. Negatives rot. Slides fade into seas of midcentury yellow and orange. LPs scratch. Cassettes become too...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Frankfurt Book Fair Looks to E-Books
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62438
Organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair said Tuesday that book sales have stood up so far to the global economic crisis, but acknowledged that the industry is changing.
"The publishing industry is doing well," Gottfried Honnefelder, head of the German Booksellers Association, told reporters as the annual fair opened. "Books are resistant to economic cycles, an indication that they are not luxury items, but basic necessities."
Honnefelder said there had been 3.4 percent growth in the German book market in 2007, and a year-on-year sales increase of 1.4 percent in the first nine months of this year, but did not elaborate.
Some 7,448 exhibitors -- a slight increase from 2007 -- hailing from 100 nations will be presenting more than 402,280 titles in Frankfurt. German publishers account for the highest number of stands, followed by the U.S. and Britain.
This year's event is focusing on the growth of the electronic, or e-book, market that is expected to be a new area for growth in the industry.
Both Sony Corp. and Amazon will be promoting their e-book readers.
Already, only 42 percent of the products on display at the fair -- one of the largest in the industry -- are books, while digital media accounts for 30 percent, said Juergen Boos, the fair's director. Other products include audio books and book-related items such as calendars.
This year's fair runs from Wednesday to Friday for members of the industry and opens its doors to the public on Saturday and Sunday. Organizers expect some 300,000 visitors to attend.
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Dell Remote Access Keeps Files at Your Disposal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62428
Say you're on the road and you need to look at a file that's on your main computer at your office or house. Or you're using a device with limited storage, like a smart phone or one of the tiny new "netbook" portable PCs, and you want access to a file that isn't on the device at hand.
You might be able to get at the desired file if you have previously uploaded it to an online storage or photo-sharing service, or e-mailed it to yourself. But, in many cases, you could be stuck.
Now Dell, the big computer maker, is aiming to solve that problem with a new service called Dell Remote Access. Despite the name, the service can be installed on any brand of Windows PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista to make its files remotely accessible, as long as it has a broadband connection. You can transfer, or stream, or share these files with others. You can even remotely use the host computer's Web camera.
And some of the service's functions also work even if your remote device is one of Apple's Macintosh computers or iPhones, or a computer powered by the Linux operating system, such as Dell's Mini netbook.
For basic functionality -- making the files on one Windows PC remotely accessible from other devices - Dell Remote Access is free. If you want to use its advanced functions, like the ability to remotely control the host PC or to access other devices on your home network, it costs $9.95 a month, or $99 a year. This paid version of the service also includes the ability to share with others access to files or to devices on your network, such as stand-alone Web cameras.
You only need to install special software on the host PC...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
Drives and Devices: Data-Storage Product Roundup
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62290
The DATABeast is a high-capacity, high-density, full-service storage system that stores up to 336 TB and scales to accommodate up to 4 PB in a single, easy-to-manage system. The solution includes management tools necessary for thin provisioning, storage pooling, tiering and virtualization, along with mirroring, snapshots and replication. The DATABeast fully integrates and consolidates SATA and SAS disk-based storage, and all components are preinstalled, preconfigured and ready to go in 42U or 25U racks. -- Nexsan
The ComplianceVault eSeries 2000 and 4000 provide 2 TB and 4 TB of storage to capture and archive all company e-mail on a continuous basis. Both models use server-class SATA hard drives, feature RAID 5 protection, include dual power supplies and provide e-mail alerts for hardware-related events. The remote-management feature is IPMI v2.0 compliant, allowing access to the appliance from any network location. ComplianceVault works with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, Novell Groupwise and most IMAP or POP3 e-mail systems. -- Intradyn
Designed for Windows-based PCs and servers, NovaBACKUP 10 empowers users with the choice to create backups and store data locally or online. The data-protection and disaster-recovery software includes disk image recovery, which takes a snapshot of the entire system to protect and preserve data in the event of a disaster, allowing recovery from a local/network source. The software can back up, copy or mirror data to corporate servers, FTP or online storage accounts. -- NovaStor
The data center-class Cougar 6000 NAS gateway features redundant modular architecture, heterogeneous storage virtualization and advanced multicore storage network processors. Built into a 2U cluster-in-a-box design with eight GigE ports and eight FC ports, the system offers 18 cores per filer and can scale up to 4 petabytes.-- ONStor
Little Big Disk Quadra 1TB includes dual 2.5" hard disks that work together in RAID 0...
Fri, 17 Oct 08
EU in Standoff With American Search Engines
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62279
For more than a year, European data privacy officials have been battling with U.S.-based Internet search engines, trying to get them to conform to European restrictions on the storage of personal information gleaned from the Web.
Now, as the U.S. titans Google, Microsoft and Yahoo continue to retain personal data beyond the six-month time limit established this year by the European Commission, regulators say their patience is running thin.
"For the moment, Google refuses to submit to European data protection law," said Alex Turk, the French data protection chief, who is also the chairman of a European Commission working group on the issue. "Despite some progress, significant work must still be carried out to guarantee the rights of Internet users and to ensure the respect of their privacy."
The dispute centers on the search engines' practice of collecting demographic details from users, which the Internet companies argue is needed to fine-tune searches, guard against fraud and aim relevant advertising at Web surfers.
That practice has raised concerns on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, four members of Congress began a review of industry practices in August, while the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is developing voluntary guidelines. For now there are no time limits on data retention in the United States.
In Europe, where 221 million people made 24.6 billion searches in the month of March alone, according to the research firm comScore, regulators want Internet companies to discard these data after six months. Google recently agreed to cut in half its retention time, to nine months. Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN Live Search hold such data for 13 months and 18 months, respectively.
Turk, whose panel met with other data privacy officials last week, said he planned to hold a hearing in December with representatives of Google and other Internet companies to try...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
McCain Objects To YouTube Removing Campaign Videos
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62470
The hotly contested 2008 presidential election is spilling over into yet another corner of cyberspace. The McCain/Palin Republican campaign is challenging a decision by YouTube to pull several of its videos and election advertisements from the popular video-sharing site, an action YouTube says was necessary under terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
In a letter earlier this week to YouTube CEO Chad Hurley, McCain/Palin general counsel Trevor Potter praised YouTube for "the groundbreaking contributions it has made to the political discourse, including through the CNN/YouTube primary debates." But by removing the campaign's videos, Potter argued, YouTube has "deprived the public of the ability to freely and easily view and discuss the most popular political videos of the day."
All the videos submitted by the McCain/Palin campaign, Potter said, are protected under the copyright doctrine of "fair use." He asked YouTube to conduct a full legal review of all political videos to see if they are protected by fair use before taking them down.
"Surely the protection of core political speech," Potter said, "and the protection of the central role YouTube has come to play in the country's political discourse, is worth the small amount of additional legal work our proposal would require."
On Wednesday, the YouTube press office released a copy of a reply sent by YouTube's chief counsel, Zahavah Levine, to Potter. Levine expressed appreciation for Potter's understanding that YouTube cannot vet every video submitted to the site.
"Lawyers and judges constantly disagree about what does and does not constitute fair use," Levine said. "No number of lawyers could possibly determine with a reasonable level of certainty whether all the videos for which we receive disputed takedown notices qualify as fair use."
But Levine added that while YouTube recognizes the importance of the videos uploaded by the presidential campaigns, the...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Foes See Problems in New Net Laws Protecting Children
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62469
President George Bush signed two bills into law on Monday that would protect children from online predators, but one group said the bills were rushed to the White House for signature without careful consideration.
While Congress considered the nation's financial bailout plan, other significant bills protecting children were being debated, including the Protect Our Children Act of 2008 (POCA) and Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act (KIDSPA).
The POCA law will increase funding for fighting child pornography by providing law enforcement with $320 million over the next five years, force the Department of Justice to develop a way to fight child pornography, and provide forensic and other resources to help state law enforcement protect children.
PROTECT, the National Association to Protect Children, a children's advocacy group, fought hard for the bill by testifying before Congress, as did talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who encouraged her viewers to send letters to their state's senators supporting the bill.
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), which promotes democratic values and liberties, believes there are some problems with POCA and some holes in KIDSPA.
John Morris, general counsel and director of CDT's Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project, said Congress insisted on adding parts of another bill the SAFE Act before the bill would pass. He disagrees with a provision outsourcing investigative responsibilities to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). He believes the trend in Congress to outsource law-enforcement functions to private groups leads down a dangerous path.
Morris echoed the thoughts of Greir Weeks, PROTECT director, who testified before Congress on the same issue. "It would be inappropriate at best to house a database containing records on hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and millions of crimes in private or corporate hands, or to outsource such a core law-enforcement function,"...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 for Public Testing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62468
Mozilla's Firefox 3.1 beta 1, now available for public download, is loaded with new features that once again put the Firefox developer community on the cutting edge of browser development.
Code-named Shiretoko, the first test version of Mozilla's free upgrade to Firefox 3 is being touted as a public-preview release ostensibly intended for the developer community. However, everyday Web surfers will also find much to like about the improvements over Firefox 3 in Web compatibility, performance and speed.
Under the hood, Firefox 3.1 beta 1 sports a number of improvements that won't be readily apparent to the casual Internet surfer, but are sure do make a difference in overall performance. The browser is based on the new Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which incorporates a number of changes that collectively act to improve performance and ease of use.
Support is provided for the latest Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) properties for Web pages written in HTML and XHTML. Also on tap is support for a number of esoteric Web technologies of interest to developers, such as JavaScript query selectors, Web worker threads, SVG transforms, and offline applications.
From the user's perspective, one of the more obvious improvements is search. Conducting searches within the browser's smart location bar is even easier and more productive. Results can now be restricted to only show the user's history, bookmarks, tagged Web pages, or smart keywords. Here's how it works:
Searches are restricted to user history by typing a caret (^) in front of the search term. Or searches can be limited to bookmarks by prefacing with an asterisk (*) or to tagged pages with a plus sign (+).
Firefox developers have also added a new tab-switching shortcut that makes it easy to display a thumbnail overview of all the Web pages currently open in the browser's tabs....
Thu, 16 Oct 08
TargetSpot Will Acquire Ronning Lipset Radio
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62467
Internet radio advertising just got a little more competitive. That's because TargetSpot is acquiring Ronning Lipset Radio, and together the merged company will boast a network of more than 50 partnerships with more than 1,000 stations reaching more than six million listeners a week.
Those network partners include the top tier of Internet radio, from large terrestrial broadcasters like CBS Radio and Entercom to mammoth Internet pure-play properties like Yahoo, AOL and Live 365. The hottest independent stations such as Big R Radio, 181.fm and 1club.fm are also in the mix.
TargetSpot CEO Doug Perlson is betting the combination of his company's technology with Ronning Lipset's sales force will drive better solutions for advertisers and stronger monetization possibilities for Internet radio companies.
"Ronning Lipset Radio was the first company to recognize the untapped value and immense opportunities presented by Internet radio advertising," Perlson said. "They have generated more revenue for the online radio industry than any other third-party rep firm and have accounted for close to 14 billion audio-player impressions sold since the company's inception."
Over the past five years, Internet radio has posted explosive growth on both the listener side and the advertiser side. According to Arbitron Edison's Infinite Dial 2008 Study, more than 50 million people in the United States currently listen to Internet radio every month. That number is expected to double over the next several years. With this acquisition, TargetSpot intends to leverage that growth in new ways.
"The online radio audience is exploding, and our combined platform is now clearly unsurpassed in the industry," said Andy Lipst, cofounder of Ronning Lipset. "Ronning Lipset and TargetSpot have been complimentary leaders and innovators in the space and combined are poised for explosive growth. We aim to be able to meet every advertiser's needs and continue to be the leader...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
SanDisk Stresses Convenience as SlotMusic Cards Debut
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62466
SanDisk is keeping good on its promise to bring music to its consumers. On Wednesday, the Milpitas, Calif.-based company, along with four music giants, said consumers this week can begin buying its SlotMusic microSD cards to be used in slot-enabled mobile phones, portable media players, computers and car stereos.
SanDisk's digital-rights management-free SlotMusic cards are preloaded with MP3 music from artists from Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and EMI.
When SanDisk first announced it would be offering the SlotMusic cards, people wondered how the company would compete in a market where Apple's iTunes Store and Amazon.com are successfully offering digital downloads. Consumers bought $6.3 billion worth of MP3s in 2007, according to NPD Group.
"Anytime something new comes to market there are naysayers. However, there was plenty of positive, too," said Eric Bone, SanDisk's vice president of product marketing.
Industry watchers also worry SanDisk is launching SlotMusic at a time when sales of mobile phones and CDs are slowing. Analysts also worried that consumers would not be ready for another music format.
"This product is not for all people and all places," Bone said. "This is for the general consumer looking for a quick, simple solution. SlotMusic cards are about plug and play --into a mobile phone or MP3 player with a slot. This is not the end-all, be-all for everyone, but it's a nice alternative to downloading or managing music that many consumers find difficult or tedious."
The difference, however, may be in the price and convenience of SlotMusic. The cards have 1GB of capacity, are packaged with a USB adapter, and MP3-based tracks are played at up to 320 Kbps, according to SanDisk.
The USB adapter will allow the cards to be used with all computers, including Windows, Linux and Mac. They can also...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Gartner Says Virtualization Is Top Strategic Technology
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62465
Virtualization is the number-one strategic technology for 2009, Gartner said at its Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla. this week.
Gartner analysts highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends it predicts will be strategic for most organizations, defining "strategic technology" as having the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years.
Taking it a step further, Gartner defines "significant impact" to include factors such as high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.
Gartner said the technologies impact an organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives. They may be strategic because they have matured to broad market use or because they enable a strategic advantage from early adoption.
"Strategic technologies affect, run, grow and transform the business initiatives of an organization," said David Cearley, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Companies should look at these 10 opportunities and evaluate where these technologies can add value to their business services and solutions, as well as develop a process for detecting and evaluating the business value of new technologies as they enter the market."
Virtualization, which ranked fifth on Gartner's list last year, is on top for 2009. While much of the current buzz is focused on server virtualization, virtualization in storage and client devices is also moving rapidly, according to Gartner.
As Gartner sees it, virtualization to eliminate duplicate copies of data on real storage devices while maintaining an illusion to accessing systems that the files remain as originally stored can reduce the cost of storage devices and media significantly. Hosted virtual images deliver a near-identical result to blade-based PCs. But instead of the motherboard function being located in the data center as hardware, it is as a virtual machine.
"With the continuing adoption...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Internet Searches Good for Aging Brains, Study Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62464
According to a new study from the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior at UCLA, using the Internet and other types of communication technology can boost aging brains.
According to principal investigator Dr. Gary Small, a professor at Semel and holder of UCLA's Parlow-Solomon Chair on Aging, the research is the first to look at the impact of Internet search activity on brain function. The results of the research will be formally published in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
"The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults," Small said. "Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function."
The subjects studied by Small and his team were 24 individuals between the ages of 55 and 76. Half the group had extensive experience online, while the other half were Internet novices.
The research team performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans on the subjects while they engaged in two activities, reading and searching the Web. The fMRI scans are designed to detect changes in brain activity when an individual engages in various activities; specifically, the devices measure cellular activity in the brain by measuring blood flow as each task is performed.
It has long been known that reading is a beneficial activity for the elderly, since it engages several areas of the brain, including the regions that control language, memory, visual abilities, and the ability to read itself. But what apparently surprised researchers was how much of the brain was involved in searching the Internet.
"Our most striking finding," Small said, "was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading."
In addition to all the areas of the brain activated by reading,...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Obama Campaign Shows Up in Video Games
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62463
Sick of the advertisements for the presidential election? Thought unplugging your phone, ignoring television programs, and avoiding the newspaper would protect you from advertisements featuring Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain? Think again.
With less than three weeks left before Election Day, Obama wants to be sure the public knows he's in the game. So Obama's campaign has purchased ad space in Xbox 360 Live's Burnout Paradise game and eight other Electronic Arts games. So gamers who connect their Xbox 360 console to the Internet will get more than a gaming experience; they'll get to see Obama campaigning.
Obama, the first presidential candidate to be featured in video-game ads, is seen on billboards and other areas of the Xbox game popular among 16-to-30-year-old males.
With young adults spending a minimum of six hours per week playing video games, according to NPD Group, it seems a smart move by Obama's campaign.
"To be honest, this news really threw me for a loop," said David Riley, spokesperson for NPD Group. "I've always believed that politics and religion don't belong in the gaming industry -- think the oil and water analogy -- but I don't see why this cannot be explored, and why it cannot be successful. If anything, this might help to close the divide between gaming and politics, so I view this as a step in the right direction."
Most consumers don't mind in-game ads, according to a Nielsen study that found 82 percent of surveyed gamers felt games were just as enjoyable with ads as without. There was an average 61 percent increase in consumers' positive opinions of products advertised in-game, according to the study commissioned by IGA Worldwide, an in-game advertising company.
More than 70 percent of consumers who were most opinionated about the in-game ads felt...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Microsoft Patches 20 Vulnerabilities and Debuts Index
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62462
Microsoft's October Patch Tuesday list is hauntingly large. Redmond issued 11 bulletins that address 20 vulnerabilities, nine of them rated as critical.
This month's Path Tuesday also delivered a first -- Microsoft's rankings of how likely it is for a hacker to exploit each vulnerability.
The two critical server-side vulnerabilities in Active Directory and Host Integration Server are of the greatest concern and have the potential to be quite severe, according to Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager for Symantec Security Response.
"Server-side vulnerabilities are still the mechanism of choice for attackers to modify trusted resources, and they are dangerous because they do not require any user interaction and can lead to complete compromise of the host computer," Greenbaum said. "Once a server is compromised, the attackers typically embed further attacks against that server's users in public-facing content."
MS08-56, MS08-57, and MS08-58 are client-side vulnerabilities -- and Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office are targets. As the number of client-side vulnerabilities continue to increase, IT admins need to rethink what the average user considers to be a trusted application, according to Tyler Reguly, a security engineer at nCircle.
"If I were to ask my wife, who works in an office, if she had to be concerned about Microsoft Office security when she goes online, she'd most likely ask me why. This is because she thinks of it as an application on the computer," Reguly said.
Reguly's point is this: People trust Office because they don't think about interacting with it online. However, he noted, a Google search could just as easily return a file that takes advantage of Office vulnerabilities as it could IE vulnerabilities. As more of these vulnerabilities are exploited, he continued, it's critical for people to learn that they can't trust these traditionally "local" applications.
Meanwhile, vulnerabilities like MS08-061, MS08-064 and MS08-066,...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
As Crisis Deepens, Amazon and eBay Battle for the Top
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62422
When the e-commerce giant eBay emerged from the last U.S. recession seven years ago with an aura of invincibility, its chief executive, Meg Whitman, boasted that "eBay is to some extent recession-proof."
As the online auctioneer's revenue and stock price kept climbing, one of its main rivals, Amazon.com, just limped along.
How times have changed.
Whitman, now one of the heads of Senator John McCain's campaign for the U.S. presidency, retired from eBay this year as the company struggled with stagnation. Amazon, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most vibrant and reliable retailers in the United States.
And in an unmistakable sign that Internet companies are indeed exposed to the gathering economic storm stemming from the credit crisis, Whitman's successor, John Donahoe, laid off 10 percent of eBay's 16,000 employees this month.
Donahoe said eBay was already feeling the effects of the downturn. "This looks like it is going to be a more typical economic cycle that impacts consumer spending," he said. "We are not immune."
That the economic crisis is washing up on Silicon Valley's shores should not, perhaps, come as a surprise. Most technology companies are defenseless against waning advertising, business spending and consumer interest for big-ticket items like computers. Over the past three months, investors have punished the shares of companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple.
E-commerce, though, was once thought to be a refuge from economic storms. People who stay away from the mall might actually be more tempted to shop online and hunt for deals, or so the thinking went.
But analysts are now revisiting that assumption. Many consumers, citing an uncertain economy, say they will clutch their wallets tightly this holiday season regardless of where they shop: 48 percent surveyed recently by eBillme, an online payment service, said they planned to delay purchases.
Traditional brick-and-mortar stores had wrenching, double-digit sales declines in...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Review: Tiny Flash Drives Improve Their Security
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62403
Flash memory drives, the size of your thumb, are dirt cheap and offer gigabytes of storage. It's tempting to fill one of them with important computer files, clip it to a key chain and hit the road.
But what if you lose it while fumbling for change at Starbucks and the hacker in the corner finds it? This is not a good thing.
That's where a new breed of flash drives comes in -- chock full of military-strength encryption and passwords and keypad combinations that must be entered before the data can be accessed.
I put a few secure flash drive solutions to the test: Take Anywhere's Pocket Safe ($59.95), the IronKey ($149) and TrueCrypt, a free software program that works with any USB flash drive.
Each had its strengths and limitations, but I liked the IronKey unit best, with its built-in Firefox browser, large storage space and powerful password protections.
Setting up my 4-gigabyte, brushed-metal IronKey drive was pretty painless. After putting it in a USB slot on my home PC, I was asked to create a user name and password before I could access any of the storage space or other features. (Among those extra features: You can create an encrypted backup of the IronKey's contents on a PC desktop.)
Then, every time you plug the IronKey into a computer, a control panel appears on the screen to ask for the password again. No password, no reading or tinkering with the drive's contents. In fact, you have to be careful, because if you enter the wrong password 10 times in a row the unit permanently deletes all of your data and is no longer usable. You can't even reformat it. That's tough love.
My favorite IronKey feature was the built-in Firefox browser. It let me take my favorite Web bookmarks and login information with me,...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Survey Says Online Banking Security Flaws Prevalent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62401
More than 75 percent of the bank Web sites surveyed in a University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, study had at least one design flaw that could make customers vulnerable to cyberthieves after their money or even their identity. The study -- Analyzing Web sites For User-Visible security Design Flaws -- conducted by the University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, examined the Web sites of 214 financial institutions in 2006.
The study concluded that the design flaws researchers discovered weren't bugs that can be fixed with a patch, but rather they stemmed from the flow and the layout of the Web sites.
The flaws include placing log-in boxes and contact information on insecure Web pages as well as failing to keep users on the site they initially visited, according to Atul Prakash, co-author of the study.
"To our surprise, design flaws that could compromise security were widespread and included some of the largest banks in the country," Prakash said. "Our focus was on users who try to be careful, but unfortunately some bank sites make it hard for customers to make the right security decisions when doing online banking."
The flaws leave cracks in security that hackers could exploit to gain access to private information and accounts, Prakash said. While some banks may have taken steps to resolve these problems since the study data were gathered, overall, Prakash said, he still sees much need for improvement.
According to the study, 47 percent of banks placed secure login boxes on insecure pages. A hacker could reroute data entered in the boxes or create a spoof copy of the page to harvest information. In a wireless situation, it's possible to conduct this "man-in-the-middle" attack without changing the bank URL for the user, so even a vigilant customer could fall victim, Prakash explained.
To solve this...
Thu, 16 Oct 08
Beware: 'Hit Man' E-Mail Scam Hits the Web
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62272
It can be quite unnerving to find an e-mail in your inbox from someone claiming to be a hit man who's been hired to kill you -- especially if he lists your address and the names of your spouse and children.
Odds are you've got nothing to worry about: The note is one of the latest e-scams circulating through cyberspace. The e-con artists -- usually firing off their threats from the other side of the planet -- use information that's free and easy to find on the Internet to make threats seem more credible.
"When you open this e-mail, you feel a little bit more like it's specifically aimed at you," said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko.
Kolko said he's never heard of anyone actually paying off the "hit man," though he suspects that the rare victims might be too embarrassed to report that they fell for the ploy.
Even though the details lend an air of authenticity, authorities say many of the e-mails are not very sophisticated.
"Someone you call a friend wants you Dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this," one e-mail posted on Fraudwatchers.org explained. "As I am writing to you now my men are monitoring you and they are telling me everything about you.
.. As someone has paid us to kill you.
"Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare your life ..."
The "hit man" then asks the message's baffled recipient: "Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE?" and suggests that he will cancel the contract in exchange for a sum between $5,000 and $150,000.
The hit-man message is the latest generation of e-mail scams, but it's not the most insidious, nor is it the most successful.
Most scam e-mails use the victims' own greed against them --...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Elbot Wins Competition for Human-Like Computers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62433
HAL. WOPR. KITT. R2-D2. C3PO. Hollywood films and television shows are filled with examples of computers capable of having an intelligent conversation with humans. The reality is somewhat different: Even the simplest ATM or gas-pump activities are beyond the grasp of computer chit-chat. But an annual test of silicon-based conversationalists suggests that might be changing.
Nearly 60 years ago, British mathematician Alan Turing proposed conversation as a test for determining whether an artificial device can think. "If, during text-based conversation," Turing said, "a machine is indistinguishable from a human, then it could be said to be 'thinking' and, therefore, could be attributed with intelligence."
To eliminate any potential bias by humans toward computers, Turing said the idea of artificial conversation should be tested by having humans engage in a chat session on a computer terminal. At the other end of the chat would be either a human or a computer program; the test is for the human to judge whether he or she is talking to another human or an artificial device.
The threshold for artificial intelligence, Turing said, is whether a computer program can fool humans into thinking it is alive 30 percent of the time.
On Sunday, a version of the Turing test called the Loebner Prize was held at Reading University in the United Kingdom under the direction of Professor Kevin Warwick. The prize is named after Hugh Loebner, president and CEO of the New Jersey-based Crown Industries, who has pledged $100,000 to the first person to write a program that passes the Turing test. In addition, Loebner awards $2,000 to the entry each year that is the most human-like (i.e., fools the most judges).
Warwick said people would be surprised at how close the machines are coming to passing the conversation test.
"What we found today," Warwick said, "is that if...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Gartner IT Forecast Optimistic, Despite Economy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62432
Fighting off memories of the dot-com bust, many in the tech world are a little nervous in today's uncertain economy. Will corporations cut back IT spending? If so, how much and for how long? There are still more questions than answers, but Gartner is making some predictions.
Here's what we know: The dot-com bust saw budgets slashed from mid-double-digit growth to low-single-digit growth. We also know that global economic problems make an early impact on IT budgets.
Despite the many comparisons being drawn between today and the turn of the century, Gartner is offering good news for nervous tech giants. The firm predicts the industry will not see the dramatic reductions experienced during the dot-com bust.
"In a worst-case scenario, our research indicates an IT spending increase of 2.3 percent in 2009, down from our earlier projection of 5.8 percent," said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of research. "Developed economies, especially the United States and Western Europe, will be the worst affected, but emerging regions will not be immune. Europe will experience negative growth in 2009; the United States and Japan will be flat."
Sondergaard offered Gartner's latest IT industry outlook during the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo that is going on in Orlando through Oct. 16. Gartner said the events of the past two weeks will have an impact on IT budgets in the fourth quarter, but it will not change 2008 substantially. The IT industry went through more dramatic reductions during, and after, the recession of 2001. Many lessons were learned.
"We learned that in tumultuous times, CEOs want their executives and managers to be advisers and counselors, not just great implementers of directions given to them," Sondergaard said. "What they want now most of all is agile leadership. Leadership that can guide us through simultaneous cost...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
FCC Green-Lights Wireless Free Internet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62431
The Federal Communications Commission has released an engineering report that opens the door for the FCC to apportion a chunk of wireless spectrum for free Internet services across the nation.
"We need to reserve some spectrum for free broadband services," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said. "This would be a lifeline broadband service that would be designed for lower-income people who may not otherwise have access to the Internet."
T-Mobile had warned that the FCC's proposed launch of an advanced wireless service (AWS) in the 2155-MHz to 2180-MHz band would interfere with the 3G wireless services it operates in an adjacent slice of the spectrum. However, lab tests conducted last month demonstrated that devices operating at FCC-designated power levels would not present "a significant risk of harmful interference," the commission said.
Several aspects of the FCC's AWS proposal owe their origin to an application submitted two years ago by M2Z Networks, which envisioned earning money primarily by offering a premium wireless Internet service operating at speeds of up to three megabits per second. However, the Arlington, Va.-based startup also proposed to provide a free lower-speed service that would pay for itself by generating advertising revenue.
The FCC now says that the ultimate winner of its AWS spectrum auction must use up to 25 percent of its capacity to provide free, two-way broadband Internet service at data rates of at least 768 kilobits per second in the downstream direction. Moreover, the commission has embraced M2Z's call for the use of a network-based filtering mechanism to block Web content deemed unsuitable for children.
The winning spectrum bidder will be required to provide signal coverage and offer service into at least 50 percent of the total United States within four years, and to at least 95 percent of the U.S. population by the end...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Sony Says PS3 Price Will Remain Firm for Holidays
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62430
The Tokyo Game Show is, to put it mildly, a noisy event as game manufacturers crank up the volume on their latest racing or military combat products. But the loudest sound may have come from Kazuo Hirai, president and group chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, who told the Financial Times that Sony has no plans to cut prices on its gaming consoles for the holiday season.
"The answer is yes, if you're asking, 'Are these the prices we're going with this Christmas?'" Hirai told the Financial Times. "When you really compare apples to apples, then I think we have a very good value proposition."
From Hirai's comments, it's clear he thinks the PlayStation 3's ability to play high-resolution Blu-ray DVDs outweighs the sub-$200 price of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Arcade, which lacks a hard drive and can only play standard DVDs.
A more accurate comparison, in his view, would be between the basic model of the PS3, which retails for $399, and either the Xbox 360 ($299) or the Xbox 360 Elite ($399). However, none of the Xbox 360 consoles can play high-definition movies, as Microsoft has discontinued support for the HD-DVD format.
Sony clearly is hoping the release of Blu-ray versions of popular Hollywood titles, such as last summer's "Iron Man," will give game consumers another reason to buy the higher-priced PS3. In addition, Sony has chosen to enhance the PS3's value instead of lowering prices by replacing the standard 40GB hard drive with an 80GB unit and a free game.
The wild card in this, of course, is how the global economic turmoil affects holiday sales. Like most gaming-industry executives, Hirai thinks the video-game industry will not be as affected by the downturn as other sectors of the economy.
What makes the Sony decision particularly...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
RIM Unveils First BlackBerry Flip Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62429
While the smartphone world is moving toward touchscreen technology, Research in Motion on Monday partnered with T-Mobile to announce the first BlackBerry flip phone.
According to Leslie Grandy, vice president of product development at T-Mobile, the flip phone remains the preferred design for mobile phones in the United States. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 offers the same core features other Pearl models offer, but adds a few new bells and whistles.
At a glance, those features include a large keyboard that aims to make it easier for consumers to type and dial. The flip design seeks to protect the large screen and offer consumers assurance the call is over when they close the device. The Pearl Flip 8220 also offers an external display for previewing calendar reminders, e-mail, text messages and phone calls without having to flip the phone open.
The Pearl Flip 8220 boasts multimedia capabilities, including RIM's mobile push e-mail solution, text and picture messaging, mobile Web browsing, and built-in W-Fi that targets consumers who frequently share pictures, check sports scores, and access social-networking sites.
Beyond the flip design, the new model also boasts advanced multimedia capabilities through video recording and playback, a 2.0-megapixel camera with digital zoom, stereo Bluetooth support, and an external memory card slot.
"The BlackBerry Pearl Flip takes all the advanced features and refined usability that customers have come to expect from BlackBerry smartphones and makes them available in a friendly and innovative design," said Mark Guibert, vice president of corporate marketing at Research In Motion. "Whether they are sending text messages or e-mail, listening to music, or simply making phone calls, customers are going to love using this phone."
T-Mobile's additions to the BlackBerry Pearl Flip include support for unlimited hot-spot calling and myFaves support for one-click access to instant messaging, e-mailing or texting...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
YouTube Launches Full-Length TV Shows with Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62411
In the second of a back-to-back move to generate more ad revenue from YouTube, Google is serving up what it calls "full-length TV dinners." A new deal with CBS makes it possible, with episodes of Dexter, Beverly Hills 90210, and Star Trek on deck.
YouTube is often criticized by copyright holders for the volume of infringing content that users post on its site, and Google faces a $1 billion lawsuit from Viacom for alleged infringements. But Google seems to be exploring ways to satisfy copyright holders' demand for revenue while also fulfilling consumer hunger for on-demand television programming.
On Friday YouTube announced it has launched a test to determine if viewers will tap into full-length television programming on the site.
The shows will be available in the new Theater View style YouTube rolled out last week. The new format promises to offer viewers an optimal experience for full-length programs on a computer.
As YouTube sees it, the new format, along with the launch of its new player, marks an important milestone for the company as it continues its efforts to expand user choice and improve viewer experiences.
"You asked to be beamed up with Scotty, to devise a world-saving weapon using only gum and paper clips, and to get your grub on at 'The Peach Pit.' So we're giving you full-length episodes of these shows and many others," the company wrote on its blog.
YouTube emphasized that it will offer new options for advertising on the full-length TV shows as it tests the new format. Those options could include in-stream video ads -- including pre-, mid- and post-rolls -- embedded in some of the episodes.
YouTube assures viewers that this advertising format will only appear on premium content where viewers are most comfortable seeing such ads. YouTube is...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Report Puts T-Mobile's Android G1 Presales at 1.5 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62410
As T-Mobile gears up to release the first Android-based smartphone, reports say it already has sold about 1.5 million T-Mobile G1s in preorders. According to the financial site fool.com, T-Mobile tripled its manufacturing directive to handset maker HTC for preorders after the first run sold out, and all of the 1.5 million units available for preorder have sold out.
The report also indicated that another two million units are being readied for sale through retail outlets.
As the first on the block to use Google's open-source Android mobile platform, the G1 needs strong sales to avoid being quickly brushed aside in the marketplace. Last week, T-Mobile announced it had sold out its initial presales inventory, although it didn't give sales figures. Some analysts, such as Strategy Analytics, had predicted T-Mobile could sell up to 400,000 units this year, but the new report indicates that preorder sales alone are more than three times as much.
First unveiled in early September, the G1 features a touchscreen, a QWERTY sliding keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G networking. The excitement surrounding the first Android device is reminiscent in some ways of Apple's iPhone launch, but the G1 will be able use third-party applications from the beginning, while the iPhone was a closed device until this summer.
In addition, Google has seeded the market with $10 million in prize money to encourage Android application development, and it will not take any cut from the sale of third-party apps. Apple takes a 30 percent fee on most application sales.
Google's business model, at least in part, is to increase Web use on mobile devices, and thus increase ad sales and other Web-based revenue. On Friday, AdWeek reported that the search giant has shown a new advertising option to agencies, which will allow iPhone-targeted, search-term-sensitive ads to be shown...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Despite IBM Profits, a Tech Gloom Still Looms
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62402
Even after IBM Corp. surprised Wall Street with a healthy profit in the third quarter and a reaffirmation of its earnings outlook for the rest of the year, the broader technology sector dived again Thursday. There's just not enough of what lifted IBM to go around.
Tech stocks were pummeled Thursday, and IBM ended the day down as well. Analysts expressed fears that Armonk, New York-based IBM could see trouble in the fourth quarter and into 2009 if the lending and spending climate worsens as expected.
Signs of weakness in the just-concluded third quarter could also emerge when IBM releases its full results for the period on Oct. 16. The company announced more than a week early Wednesday that profit per share was 4 cents higher than Wall Street's forecast, helped by an internal clampdown on spending.
What IBM didn't include in its short statement was any mention of the value of the new technology services contracts it signed, a key measurement that Wall Street uses to gauge the revenue IBM will be able to count on in coming years.
With the deepening distress in the financial services market -- which accounts for nearly 30 percent of IBM's sales -- analysts fear that IBM has taken a big hit like other companies in the past few weeks, damage that wouldn't show up until the fourth quarter.
Earlier this week, for example, business software maker SAP AG said its sales plunged at the end of September as global financial turmoil escalated. Dell Inc., the world's second-biggest PC maker, also warned last month that softening demand is hurting its business more than expected.
"While the IBM announcement kind of soothed some nerves, I don't think it calmed them completely because there's still a lot of uncertainty out there about how long this credit crisis will play out," said...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Micron Tech Cuts Global Workforce by 15 Percent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62400
Micron Technology Inc. will cut about 15 percent of its global work force as part of a restructuring of its computer memory chip operations, the company said Thursday.
The bulk of the job losses will be in Boise, where the semiconductor company is headquartered.
A company statement said the cuts were a result of declining customer demand and product oversupply, which has driven the selling price for NAND flash memory below manufacturing costs. Micron will shut down the NAND flash memory plant in Boise it operates as part of a joint venture with Intel Corp., it said.
The job cuts will take place over the next two years, starting with a voluntary program. Micron officials say the company will provide severance and outplacement services.
Micron employs about 19,000 people worldwide. A reduction of 15 percent would mean 2,850 fewer employees, and company spokesman Dan Francisco said roughly 1,500 of the cuts would be made in the Boise area.
"I believe we're still the largest private employer in the state, and while this isn't good news for us or our employees or anyone in the community, we're doing what we have to do to remain competitive and protect the employees that are still here," said Mark Durcan, Micron's president and chief operating officer.
The company has posted nearly $2 billion in losses since 2007, and more than 1,000 people have already been laid off from Micron jobs in the last few years.
The cuts announced Thursday contrast to Durcan's statements in March, when he said Boise would be the best place for Micron to build a plant capable of producing the next generation of memory chips. At the time, Durcan said Boise was the front runner because of the existing Micron research and development offices here and because of a series of tax incentives passed by the Legislature...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Computer Hard Drive Cited in UK Car Bomb Trial
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62395
A laptop recovered from a flaming Jeep used to attack a Scottish airport indicates that the occupants were determined to kill, a prosecutor said Friday.
For a second day, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw outlined the case against Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Mohammed Asha, 28. Each faces two counts of conspiring to murder and cause explosions outside a London nightclub, near a West End bus stop and inside Glasgow International Airport in June 2007. They deny all charges.
Police captured Abdulla beside the burning wreckage of the sport utility vehicle that had rammed the airport's pedestrian entrance. The driver, 28-year-old Indian Kafeel Ahmed, died later from his burns. Asha was arrested in England hours after the attack.
Abdulla claims the bombs were designed to make political points but hurt nobody, Laidlaw told jurors.
However, the laptop pulled from the wrecked vehicle contained what appeared to be a draft of Abdulla's will, he said.
"This document is addressed to, amongst others, the leaders of jihad in Iraq to Bin Laden and to the brothers or soldiers of jihad in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine and other areas of the world. The terms in which it is written, we submit, expose that the defendant's position in his trial before you is a lie," Laidlaw said.
"The attacks he was planning were intended to kill. They were in revenge for the injustices as the defendant sees them that the British and American people and their armies visit on the Muslim communities."
The hard drive also held video clips of attacks on coalition forces in Iraq and recordings of bin Laden's speeches, Laidlaw said.
Laidlaw contends that Abdulla and Ahmed decided on a suicide attack in Glasgow because their two car bombs discovered in London the day before had misfired.
Shortly before the attack, Laidlaw said, Abdulla sent an e-mail to his employer in which he...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
British Military Loses Portable Hard Drive in New Blunder
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62393
A disk which a tabloid said carries personal details on some 100,000 serving British military personnel is missing, the Ministry of Defense said Friday.
The military acknowledged a report in The Sun newspaper that contractor EDS lost track of a portable hard drive, but said it could not comment on the claim that it contained names, addresses, passport numbers and driver's license information of service personnel along with data on 600,000 potential recruits.
"We don't know what's on it, and we don't even know if there's anything on it," a ministry of defense spokesman said, speaking anonymously in line with military policy.
A government mandated data security review was unable to account for the disk, according to EDS UK, the British subsidiary of Plano, Texas-based EDS. It said the disk was being stored at its secure facility in Hook, a town about 45 miles west of London when it went missing.
EDS refused to say whether the disk was encrypted.
The military said it was investigating the incident, which it said became known earlier this week.
The loss is one in a series of information breaches at the ministry. Last month it said a disk carrying sensitive personnel information was stolen from a military base. Earlier this year the military said a laptop with details of 600,000 new and prospective recruits was stolen.
The British government has struggled to get a handle on data losses even as it rolls out an ambitious national identification card program. Last year's loss of computer disks containing information -- including banking records -- on nearly half the U.K. population caught international attention, and a steady stream of data blunders since then has kept the spotlight on the way the government stores and handles data.
EDS, an information technology company, has worked on a range of British government projects, including providing support for...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Venture Firms Recoil from Crisis, But Not for Long
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62390
Venture firms are sounding the alarm over what this downturn might mean for their portfolio companies. While it's true that great companies are built during downturns, it's also true that plenty of entrepreneurs are going to be shut out of any sort of financing for the foreseeable future, as their personal wealth dwindles and banks decline to offer home equity loans or other lines of credit.
We've already reported on how the rest of this year is going to be a cautious time for venture and angel investors, but what does that mean for tech entrepreneurs? And how long, exactly, will VCs stay on the sidelines? As bad as things are forecast to be, my bet is they won't be there for long.
For venture firms, this economic crisis looks a lot different from the nuclear winter they went through after 2001. From a high of $105 billion invested in all of 2000, investments by venture firms hit a low of $19.76 billion in 2003. Since that time, the growth has been slow and steady, so there's not as far to fall -- last year, the total came to $30.69 billion.
This time around, rather than putting tens of millions into startups whose basic business models would never enable them to reach profitability, venture firms have been, in most cases, investing in real businesses. Some, most likely the Web 2.0 businesses whose goal is to get eyeballs now and revenue later, will end up flopping, but even they haven't raised as much as the dot-coms did. Also, having learned from the bubble, most VCs have been putting money into reserves so that it can be used for follow-on investments. That means they can keep funding their portfolio companies a bit longer than originally planned.
That's the good news. But first venture firms have to...
Tue, 14 Oct 08
Speech Rec: The New Leader of Automated Voice?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62134
Speech recognition applications are not such revolutionizing IVR, defined for this article as enabling dual-tone multiplex frequency (DTMF) or TouchTone(TM) interactions, but instead appears to be supplanting it as the key means of automated voice interaction. That victory, which may be in sight, sets the stage for integrating voice with web, e-mail, and SMS to provide a unified user-friendly automated solution that will reduce agent engagement time and, for an increasing number but far from all interactions, eliminate agent involvement.
The value proposition of speech rec is that offers superior usability compared with DTMF for much lower cost than live agents: typically 50 cents compared with $5-$9 per transaction.
Implemented right, speech rec, along with the text and web applications can cut costs and maintain if not increase customer service satisfaction and retention.
Yet while speech rec technology has come a long way, it still places significantly lower than live agents in customer satisfaction surveys, though higher than DTMF.
"Speech rec has a customer satisfaction ranking of about 4.5 on a 10 point scale while DTMF IVR is typically between 1 and 2, points out Bob Lyons, General Manager and Vice President, Avaya's customer service business. "In contrast, live agent interactions score a 7 on average. The real opportunity is in finding a way to get speech interactions to begin approaching scores seen by live interactions."
To achieve that goal will, however, require resources. Speech rec software and integration can costs upward of several hundred thousand dollars, can take nine to 12 months to implement followed by one year of operation before achieving return on investment (ROI).
It will also require speech applications to be more user-responsive and integrated with multiple sources of rich content such as web, voice and user-specific data. These sources are typically in application silos, which will require large investments to integrate...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Sprint Turns Baltimore into One Big Hotspot
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62409
A rapidly growing phenomenon in the telecommunications world is the growth of "cord cutters," people who give up their hardwired landline phones and use only cell phones. Now one of the leading proponents of that shift, Sprint Nextel, hopes to do for the Internet what it's doing for telephones.
At a ceremony Friday in Baltimore, officials from Sprint Nextel celebrated the official launch of the company's XOHM WiMAX service by literally cutting a cord -- they sliced through some Cat-5 wire with pruning shears to mark the end of the wired Internet.
"4G has rapidly gone from a mobility vision to service reality with the launch of XOHM service in Baltimore," said Barry West, XOHM's president. "Nothing has ignited the imagination of a cross section of industries and the partnership of an ecosystem the way WiMAX technology has. We are delighted with the reception we have received."
Although XOHM, Sprint's 4G business unit, has aggressive plans for nationwide WiMAX, the actual implementation may take some time. John Polivka, a spokesperson for Sprint/Nextel/XOHM, said that not every corner of Baltimore can receive WiMAX just yet.
"About 70 percent of the city has coverage, and we continue to work on expanding it," Polivka said. "There are 180 base stations operating, and the target at end of build out is about 300." Polivka did not say how long it might be before the build out was complete.
Long-term, XOHM hopes to roll out enough of its national network to make WiMAX available to as many as 140 million people by the end of 2010. Executives said that financing is in place to provide approximately $3.2 billion of the $5 billion needed for the build out, and expressed confidence that despite the ongoing economic problems, the remaining $1.8 billion would be available.
Polivka said that the...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Zoho Mail Goes Public With Offline Capabilities
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62408
Zoho Mail has emerged from its private beta-testing stage. Tapping functionality built into Google Gears, Zoho's Web-based e-mail application now sports a "setup offline" link at the top of the page that gives users offline e-mail access.
To operate Zoho Mail in offline mode, the user needs to have Google Gears installed in a Internet Explorer or Firefox browser, said Zoho cofounder and evangelist Raju Vegesna.
"We offer support for up to 5,000 e-mails currently and make them available to users as a download they can access when not online," Vegesna said. "You can also choose to download images and attachments to access in the offline mode."
One component of Zoho's product release is an e-mail add-on to the company's suite of productivity applications, Vegesna said. "If an individual, you'll get a free e-mail account with unlimited storage, and will be able to open e-mail from your other existing accounts as well," he said.
Any e-mail in the offline user's outbox will be sent as soon as an online connection is established, and any other changes the user has made while in offline mode will automatically synchronize with the online platform.
"I've got to say that I am really impressed," commented Brad Neuberg of the Google Gears team. "Offline is hard, especially with something like e-mail."
Zoho Mail automatically detects the user's connectivity status and switches to online and offline modes seamlessly, Vegesna said. "While offline, you can view your e-mails as you would normally," he added.
The application supports both the standard folders structure in Microsoft Outlook and the labels capability in Gmail. "We didn't want to decide what you should use -- we wanted to give you a choice," Vegesna said.
The labels capability allows users to view e-mails as conversations, Vegesna noted. "In conversations, responses are listed hierarchically so that...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Apple Will Fix MacBook Pros with Faulty Nvidia Chips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62407
When Apple released its MacBook Pro laptop, reviewers called it an evolutionary improvement and touted its new GeForce 8600 GT mobile graphics processor, made by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia. Now some models may have faulty chips.
After months of speculation that the MacBook Pro included failing Nvidia chips, Apple finally said Thursday that three MacBook Pro models manufactured between May 2007 and September 2008, including the 15-inch, 17-inch and Early 2008, may have faulty chips.
But Apple said it was not at fault in a note posted on its MacBook Pro Web site. The company said Nvidia told Apple that Mac computers with the graphics processors were not affected.
It was not until its own investigation that Apple determined some MacBook Pro computers with the GeForce processors were affected.
"Our analysis shows that a failure in an Apple MacBook Pro notebook is remote," Nvidia spokesperson Derek Perez said in an e-mail. "However, Apple, like other OEMs, decides on their own how to handle their warranty and repair programs, based upon their own quality standards. Regardless, we stand by our products, thus the reason why we set aside such a large reserve, and we have and will continue to work closely with Apple and their customers."
MacBook Pro users, according to Apple, need to check their systems for distorted or scrambled video or the absence of video when the computer is running.
"If the Nvidia graphics processor in your MacBook Pro has failed, or fails within two years of the original date of purchase, a repair will be done free of charge, even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty," Apple said.
Owners of affected MacBook Pros are asked to bring them to an Apple retail store or Apple authorized service provider. Customers who already paid for repairs to the MacBook Pro as a...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Microsoft Prepares To Preview Oslo Modeling Platform
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62406
Microsoft is preparing to release new details about its Oslo modeling development platform. The company said Friday that it will offer a preview of the platform at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles on Oct. 27.
New details emerging before the conference include a declarative modeling language code-named M and a software development tool code-named Quadrant. The preview will also demonstrate a repository for integration between models. Microsoft said it is looking for user feedback to help outline the road map for Oslo technologies.
"Microsoft hopes Oslo will open up programming technology to people who aren't necessarily or primarily developers," said Rob Helm, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. "Microsoft has had technologies for work flow, which help you write down a business process and then automate it. But it wants to provide another layer to simplify development."
Modeling is leveraged across a range of domains to allow more people to participate in the application-design process. Analysts say it also allows developers to write applications at a much higher level of abstraction. Part of Microsoft's Connected Systems Division, Oslo offers three prongs.
First, Oslo consists of a tool that helps people define and interact with models in a rich and visual manner, Microsoft said. Second, it consists of a language that helps people create and use textual domain-specific languages and data models. Finally, it consists of a relational repository that makes models available to both tools and platform components.
"Microsoft would like to have a tool for someone who's an occasional software developer -- the kind of person that does complicated Excel macros or Access database programs -- so they can write down a business process," Helm explained.
Those business processes might include how a company processes invoices or how it maintains its subscription base, or even what level of...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Yoo-Hoo! Google's Satellite Can See You Much Better
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62405
For people who worry that it's impossible to escape from Google's amazing search capabilities, the ability to hide just got harder. Last month, Google helped sponsor the launch of the high-resolution GeoEye-1 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. After a month of calibration and testing, the satellite's first image was released Friday by Satellite Imaging, a Houston-based remote sensing and survey company.
The stunningly clear image shows the campus of Kutztown University, located midway between Reading and Allentown, Penn. According to GeoEye executives, the image was formed by blending panchromatic and multispectral data to create a true-color image; it has a resolution of one half meter, or about a foot and a half.
"This image captures what is in fact the very first location the satellite saw when we opened the camera door and started imaging," said Brad Peterson, GeoEye's vice president of operations. "We expect the quality of the imagery to be even better as we continue the calibration activity."
The Geo-Eye-1 satellite is arguably the most accurate mapping satellite ever launched. The bird's panchromatic camera can take photographs at .41-meter resolution, which means objects as small as 16 inches across will be visible. One byproduct of the heightened resolution is that objects on Earth can be mapped to within an accuracy of three meters of their true location on the planet. The satellite's capabilities are all the more remarkable since it orbits 423 miles above the Earth's surface.
Under the terms of Satellite Imaging's contract with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees U.S. satellite imagery, only the U.S. government will have access to the most detailed images. One-half of the satellite's cost was provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which evaluates satellite imagery as part of the homeland security effort.
For other customers, including Google, Satellite Imaging will...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Firefox Plug-In Updated To Fight Clickjacking Attacks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62386
Mozilla is doing its part in the battle against clickjacking. The open-source company is offering an updated plug-in for the Firefox browser that blocks what security researchers call one of the most dangerous problems on the Web.
Clickjacking occurs when a person browsing a Web site clicks on an invisible link that leads them to a malicious site without their knowledge. Some never realize it even happened. A design feature in HTML that lets Web sites embed content from other sites makes it possible, which means nearly everybody is vulnerable.
The Firefox add-on, NoScript, is a well-known security plug-in. It is used to block all sorts of content types within Web pages. It is not a security scanner in the sense that it does not scan content with any form of signature database to look for specific known threats. Rather, it is a tool that enables you to block certain types of content. An update to NoScript includes a feature dubbed ClearClick to combat clickjacking.
According to Fraser Howard, principal malware researcher at SophosLabs, the new feature in NoScript is specifically designed to combat the user-interface redress attacks known as clickjacking and should help. However, there is a potential downside.
"Enabling the feature will result in some degree of false positives," Howard warned. "This is not a criticism of the product; more a reminder that given the widespread legitimate use of similar techniques, some false positives are inevitable."
Of course, the NoScript add-on alone isn't enough to solve the problem. That's because it only covers Firefox. The other 70 percent of the browser market is still open to clickjacking.
"User discretion is still an important factor in the defense against these attacks, just like any other," Howard said. "The usual common-sense guidelines apply to this, just like other forms of malicious Web attack."
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Amazon Lowers Costs for Its S3 Online Storage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62385
Amazon Web Services announced Friday that it will be lowering prices for its Simple Storage Service, known as Amazon S3. Beginning Nov. 1, there will be new volume discounts, based on a tiered pricing structure that offers greater discounts as storage volume increases.
S3 offers volume storage via a Web-service interface, allowing users in the United States or Europe to store any amount of data and then download or delete it from anywhere.
Amazon said its service is presently storing "over 29 billion objects," which is an increase from 22 billion at the end of the second quarter. S3 has received, during its peak at the beginning of this month, more than 70,000 requests per second to store, download or remove one or more of those objects.
The new tiered pricing for U.S. customers starts at 15 cents per gigabyte for the first 50 terabytes of storage used each month, on a sliding scale that goes down to 12 cents per gigabyte for storage over 500 terabytes.
Alyssa Henry, S3 general manager, says the growth of S3 has allowed the operation to "become even more efficient and further lower our operating expenses," which has helped the company to pass along savings to customers. She noted that, in addition to this new storage savings, S3 recently lowered its data-transfer costs.
Amazon said S3 is being used by a wide range of companies. For example, National Geographic's topo.com offers topographic maps that users can buy for planning and sharing trip information. "Prior to Amazon S3," said Paul Glauthier, National Geographic Maps vice president, "the resources required to host such a large data set would have been cost-prohibitive."
Also cited was Oracle, whose Secure Backup Cloud module uses S3 for its scalable database backup.
Al Hilwa of industry research firm IDC said the current...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
RIM, AT&T Want Bold 9000 To Avoid iPhone Woes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62384
Research In Motion and its U.S. carrier, AT&T, are being careful to avoid the problems Apple had with its launch of the iPhone 3G.
In May, the Ontario, Canada-based company said the BlackBerry Bold 9000 would go on sale in the summer. What it didn't mention was that the phone would be available only outside the United States.
Since August, RIM has announced the availability of the Bold 9000 in a slew of countries, including Taiwan, Bahrain, Japan, Indonesia, India and Serbia, but release in the U.S. is being delayed to complete further testing, according to the company.
"The BlackBerry Bold has been launched by 60 carriers in 29 countries, and RIM is looking forward to continued rollout of the BlackBerry Bold around the world, including a U.S. launch in the near future," said Rachel Colley, a spokesperson for RIM. "The device is currently undergoing certification with AT&T."
The Bold 9000 features a large HVGA color LCD, GPS and support for Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b and g. The smartphone includes a media player for music, videos and photos, and a two-megapixel camera with video recording.
"We have said consistently that we will offer the Bold this year," Mark Siegel, AT&T Mobility's spokesperson, told us. He would not comment on whether the delay had anything to do with the problems involving the iPhone 3G.
RIM CEO Michael Lazaridis, however, told the Associated Press that the phone is still undergoing certification by AT&T and implied that it's because of the number of complaints received by AT&T and Apple about the iPhone 3G.
"RIM is taking an extremely cautious approach to launching the device on AT&T's network until AT&T can guarantee that the Bold won't suffer from the same problems as the 3G iPhone," said analyst Stuart Robinson of Strategy Analytics. "What may...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Fake YouTube Pages Used To Spread Viruses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62374
Savvy Internet users know that downloading unsolicited computer programs is one of the most dangerous things you can do online. It puts you at great risk for a virus or another time bomb from a hacker.
But even some sophisticated surfers could get taken in by a sneaky new attack in which criminals create fake YouTube pages -- dead-on replicas of the real site -- to push their malicious software and make it look like it's safe stuff coming from a trusted source.
A program circulating online helps hackers build those fake pages. Users who follow an e-mail pointing them to one of the pages would see an error message that claims the video they want won't play without installing new software first. That error message includes a link the hacker has provided to a malicious program, which delivers a virus.
Even worse: once the computer is infected, it's simple for the hacker to silently redirect the victims to a real YouTube page to see videos they were hoping to see -- and hide the crime.
"It's spot-on accurate, and that is scary," said Jamz Yaneza, threat research manager for security software company Trend Micro Inc. "If I were watching YouTube videos all day I would probably click on this one."
The tactic itself isn't new: There's a constant push by criminals to build more convincing spoofs of legitimate sites to trick people into downloading harmful software. And the latest attacks don't target any vulnerability in the YouTube site.
But it highlights the fact that criminals are getting better at creating bogus sites and developing so-called "social engineering" methods to fool people.
Fortunately, truly alert Internet users can still see the telltale warning signs with the fake YouTube pages. For one, the Web browser won't show the real YouTube's Internet address. And to even see the malicious...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Probe Finds Homeland Security Network Has Problems
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62373
The replacement for the Homeland Security Department's computerized network for nationwide information sharing could be headed down the same path as its cumbersome original, said a government report released Wednesday.
The Homeland Security Information Network, or HSIN, was launched in 2004 to provide a secure, Internet-based system to share terrorism information with federal, state and local agencies and the private sector. Last year officials stopped trying to improve the $91 million system, opting instead to replace it with a new and improved version, called HSIN Next Gen, which could cost as much as $62 million more.
The original was criticized for limited capabilities and features that made the system hard for users to navigate. That was particularly true for users in critical areas such as transportation systems and food distribution. For example, the original system could not let users use one sign-in name and password, send and receive alerts through e-mail or cell phones or support online meetings, the Government Accountability Office said.
GAO, Congress' investigative arm, found that plans for HSIN Next Gen are not clear, which could lead to delays and higher costs for the final product. And an internal department review of the original system found that HSIN had been developed without enough planning and management, GAO said.
The contract for the new system was awarded in June to Virginia-based General Dynamics. The first system was run by several contractors, including Raytheon Co. and Man Tech International Corp.
The Homeland Security Department describes the new system as a "software upgrade" and defends the success of the original system among its law enforcement and emergency management partners. For instance, during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when New Orleans' 9-1-1 emergency telephone system went down, the city was able to link with the HSIN network to carry about 20,000 9-1-1 calls, said Homeland Security spokesman...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Sleek, But Don't Touch: Samsung's Glyde Disappoints
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62367
Touchscreen cell phones are everywhere these days. Yet precious few offer the finger-swipe scrolling and dragging of the iPhone's display. Most of these phones merely let you poke an icon rather than scoot around the screen with a flick or drag of a finger.
There are some notable exceptions. One is the Storm [BusinessWeek, 10/8/08], from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.
Another is the Samsung Glyde, available through Verizon Wireless for about $80, when purchased online with a two-year contract. The Glyde is a sleek, compact device with several high-end capabilities, including a full-typewriter keyboard that slides out from behind the screen. You can also swipe your finger along the display to move the image up and down, side to side, or even diagonally. No, you can't flick it with the same dexterity as you can an iPhone screen, but even limited swipe-ability makes the Glyde's touchscreen a whole lot more useful -- at least in theory. As full-featured and handsome as the device is, I found working with its screen too taxing to make the Glyde a phone I'd strongly recommend.
The Glyde's screen is incredibly fickle. All too often during testing, I found myself poking on an icon three or four times, if not more, just to get my command to register -- this despite the fact that I felt a small vibrational feedback in my fingertip, presumably confirming that my pokes had hit their mark. Even after I adjusted the screen settings for maximum touch sensitivity, I had to stub my finger with maddening regularity to get my commands to register.
To its credit, the Glyde lets users connect with the Internet and view Web pages in their native format, rather than in the "optimized" mobile versions that Verizon and other cellular providers feature on most mobile phones. Of...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Online Recruiting: Monster's Big China Move
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62366
There's no shortage of U.S. Internet companies that have failed to replicate their successes at home in Chinese cyberspace. Despite throwing considerable resources at its Chinese-language operation, for instance, Google (GOOG) is a distant No. 2 in online search [BusinessWeek.com, 8/30/07] behind local champion Baidu.com (BIDU). In online auctions, eBay (EBAY) threw in the towel [BusinessWeek.com, 12/19/06] in December 2006 after failing to dislodge the market leader, Hangzhou-based Taobao, and joined forces with Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's TOM Online. In instant messaging, Microsoft (MSFT) lags far behind local rival Tencent. Most recently, News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace has had a disappointing performance in its attempt to export its social-networking model to China.
Edward Lo, the top China executive for online recruitment company Monster Worldwide (MNST) knows all about this sorry track record, but he says those failures won't deter him and his colleagues. In a sign of their confidence, Monster on Oct. 8 announced it was taking 100% control of ChinaHR, one of the top online recruiting companies in the country. Monster, which already owned a minority stake in the company, is paying $174 million for the remaining 55% of the Beijing-based ChinaHR.
Why is Lo so confident that Monster can avoid the traps other U.S. e-commerce powerhouses faced in China? Demographics. With some 70 million college graduates a year, China has a strong demand for online recruitment, he argues, and Monster can capitalize on that. "The key thing is, we are in the right space," says Lo, a former executive at AIG (AIG) who joined Monster in January.
Another plus: China's young people are extremely savvy about using the Net, he says. Chinese college students spend a lot of their time playing online games, sending instant messages, and participating in social networks. So it's only natural that young Chinese will...
Sat, 11 Oct 08
Information-Technology Product Roundup
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62291
Designed to complement Windows Vista OS, the Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 includes an ergonomic keyboard and rechargeable, high-definition laser mouse with a charging station. The keyboard features hot keys for one-touch access to most-used Web sites, files and folders. The mouse features four-way scrolling and five customizable buttons. Users can work up to 30 feet away from the transceiver, even if it is out of sight.-Microsoft
With the managed service ActiveVault 4.0, enterprises can consolidate, archive and manage inactive data from virtually any media source into an accessible format in order to apply and enforce retention policies and legal holds to ensure data is properly retained and managed. Self-service early case-assessment tools are available through a Web browser interface.-RenewData
Delivering access control at plug-and-play ports and drives, DeviceLock 6.3 prevents employees from using corporate or personal mobile computing resources to extract information beyond the scope of security policy guidelines.
Featuring centralized management integrated with Microsoft Active Directory, DeviceLock enables administrators to control, monitor, shadow-copy, log and analyze end-user access to USB and FireWire devices, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters, CD and DVD drives, serial and parallel ports, local and network printers, PDAs, smart phones and other plug-and-play devices. Local sync filtering allows IT administrators to set permissions for different objects transferring to or from PDAs running Palm OS.-DeviceLock
Zenprise 3.3 monitors the overall health of the entire BlackBerry infrastructure and automatically troubleshoots BlackBerry end-user challenges with detailed detection of user-specific issues such as low battery life, weak signal strength or low available device memory. Enterprises can proactively identify issues outside their infrastructure that impact users, such as wireless carrier outages or users traveling in and out of network coverage areas.
The software collects and analyzes data across the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Exchange and Active Directory infrastructure, and provides...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Rumors Have Apple Offering an $800 MacBook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62382
The Web is percolating rumors that a new Apple laptop is in the works with an $800 price tag. Currently, Apple lists its lowest-priced MacBook at $1,099.
The intense speculation was fueled by an Apple e-mail inviting reporters to attend an Oct. 14 media event hosted by CEO Steve Jobs, at which he is expected to tout a notebook lineup refresh. Tech bloggers are abuzz about unconfirmed reports of a new Apple price list that features the $800 product.
Additionally, Fortune magazine pointed photos of a new laptop casing posted by a Taiwan-based blogger. The business publication noted that the images are "consistent with reports that Apple has switched to a new manufacturing process that carves the shells of its notebooks out of a single 'brick' of aluminum."
IDC noted last month that the global PC market had been able to resist economic pressures due to the rising sales of low-cost portable PCs. "We continue to see a rapid transition to portable PCs around the world, even as economic pressures rise," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's PC tracker program.
The research firm also noted that the market trend through September reflected the increasing importance of computing -- not just in the home or office, but also as an integrated part of people's lives. "Falling prices, more design choice and competition for PC makers to capture this market continue to drive a rapid transition," Loverde said.
The increasing form factor diversity in notebooks as well as desktops is enabling people to justify multiple PC purchases, noted Bob O'Donnell, IDC's vice president of clients and displays.
"The right way to gauge the success of consumer PCs is no longer the adoption rate of households with PCs, or even the number of PCs per household, but rather the number of...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
SlingCatcher Outruns Digital Media Boxes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62381
On Thursday, Sling Media pushed out its latest innovation -- the SlingCatcher. The SlingCatcher lets customers watch online video from a diverse spectrum of sites on the Internet, including network television venues like ABC.com, video content sites like Hulu.com and CollegeHumor.com, community video sites like YouTube, and even online movie rentals from popular services like Netflix.
Here's the twist: The SlingCatcher lets consumers draw from all of those sites directly from a PC to the TV. Sling Media describes it as on-demand access to diverse video programming over the Internet that dwarfs linear programming that comes into homes from cable and satellite.
"Thousands of video programs are available for viewing online for free, but until now there hasn't been an easy way to watch them on a screen larger than your laptop computer," said Blake Krikorian, co-founder and CEO of Sling Media. "In addition, SlingCatcher will give Slingbox customers the ability to watch their home TV on another TV, something they have been asking for since we first introduced the original Slingbox in 2005."
The SlingCatcher comes with a remote control, and allows viewers to access and control any device connected to it. Specifically, SlingCatcher comes with three built-in applications: SlingPlayer for TV, SlingProjector, and My Media. It's a trio the company says combines to create a unified media platform that delivers content from disparate places for viewing on a single TV screen.
SlingPlayer for TV delivers one of the most-requested features from existing Slingbox customers: the ability to watch and control their living-room TV on another TV in the home, or on a TV in a remote location, without using a PC or custom cabling. For example, SlingCatcher can tap into a DVR, cable or satellite set-top box located in another room in the house, or even from a Slingbox...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Microsoft, Sony will Launch Competing Virtual Worlds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62380
Microsoft is raising Xbox 360 forecasts in Japan amid rumors Sony might drop the price of its PlayStation 3 even more. Meanwhile, Microsoft is planning to release an Xbox 360 with a Blu-ray drive, putting it on more equal digital-media footing with its main rival.
And as the holiday shopping season approaches, Sony and Microsoft are preparing to launch virtual communities. Sony has delayed its Home virtual world for the PS3 twice already, but company officials said it will be launched later this year. Microsoft plans to start its New Xbox Experience virtual world on Nov. 19.
Both companies are hoping their virtual worlds will capture gamers who have been visiting Linden Lab's Second Life in droves. Second Life features a cyber universe where players create digital versions of themselves, called avatars, and then build relationships, attend social gatherings, and even do business.
With the new Xbox 360 experience, gamers can personalize their entertainment by creating their own avatar and jumping into a party with friends from around the world. Some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Netflix, NBC Universal, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, the SCI FI Channel, USA Network, Constantin and MGM, are bringing their content to Xbox 360.
"We're entering a new age in entertainment, and Xbox 360 is uniquely positioned to become the heart of the living room," said Don Mattrick, senior vice president for the interactive entertainment business at Microsoft. "The new Xbox experience offers more content than you can find from any device that connects to the television. That convergence of entertainment and gaming will bring new people and more families to the category, driving a record year for the games industry."
Sony's Home will let PS3 owners create their own avatars and explore a real-time virtual community as if they were playing a detailed 3-D game...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Confident IBM Previews Earnings To Calm Wall Street
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62379
At a time when consumers are worried about the nation's economy, IBM wants everyone to know it is financially sound. The Armonk, NY-based company released a preview of its earnings Wednesday, a week before its scheduled earnings announcement on Oct. 16, and said it remains confident in its financial outlook for the year.
Analysts say the move was a silver lining in a dark cloud and helped reassure shaken technology investors who have been selling stocks because of fears of a decrease in spending.
"With these market conditions, we felt it was important to get our results out as soon as possible," Mike Fay, a spokesperson for IBM, told us.
The computer and software maker reported an increase of 22 percent in its third-quarter earnings of $2.05 per share, up from $1.68 in the same quarter of 2007. The unexpected announcement pushed up IBM's stock price.
IBM's earnings beat forecasts on Wall Street, which had predicted a four-cent difference. But sales were not on target with analysts' estimates of $26.5 billion. Some analysts in recent days pulled back their initial estimates for IBM's earnings for the quarter and year given the economy and how it might impact the company's sales.
IBM's income for the quarter was $2.8 billion, an increase of 20 percent, according to the company. At the end of the third quarter, IBM's year-to-date free cash flow was approximately $6.4 billion and its cash balance was $9.8 billion.
"Our results demonstrate that the combination of a steady base of recurring revenue and profits, investments for growth in emerging markets, a range of products and services that deliver value to clients, and a strong and flexible financial foundation give IBM a competitive edge in good times and tough times," said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Questions Remain From Break-In of Palin's E-Mail Account
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62378
The indictment of David Kernell, 20, the University of Tennessee student accused of breaking in to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account, may mark the end of the FBI's forensic investigation. But even if Kernell is convicted at his December trial, important policy questions are likely to remain unanswered. Here are some examples:
According to a confessional posting on the image-sharing site 4chan.org, the break-in of Palin's account took just 45 minutes. That was the time required to search for answers to the standard security questions posed by Yahoo's password-retrieval service. In this case, Palin chose the security question, "Where did you meet your spouse?" and the answer was the relatively obvious "Wasilla High."
Yahoo told reporters that it consistently reviews its security procedures, but had no specific changes to announce. Yahoo Director of Public Affairs Kelley Benander said the company has no comment on the indictment, either.
"For a variety of reasons," Benander said, "including the protection of our users' privacy and the sensitivity of ongoing law-enforcement investigations, Yahoo does not discuss the details of law-enforcement compliance."
On its face, the answer should be obvious: Even elected officials should have the ability to e-mail friends and family without fear that the communications will be distributed around the Web.
But the issue grows more complicated when politicians blur the lines between public and private. Palin has been embroiled in a well-publicized controversy in Alaska about the firing of Alaska's public-safety commissioner, Walter Monegan. Some observers have suggested Palin used one or more personal e-mail accounts to conduct official business in an effort to avoid disclosure under the state's public-records law.
In fact, according to the 4chan.org post, that was one of the reasons given by the Palin e-mail intruder for breaking into her account. The...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Touchscreen Smartphones Are Leading the Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62359
When Sam Hurst, a professor at the University of Kentucky, developed touchscreen technology nearly four decades ago, he probably had no idea his innovation would be the basis for a popular consumer interface and change the way humans and machines interact.
We have come a long way since Hurst's touch technology, which is now used in several products, including smartphones.
Apple'S iPhone and its finger-tapping touchscreen and Research In Motion's Blackberry Storm with a clickable touchscreen have captured the market's attention. And analysts predict the technology will pop up on more smartphones.
Apple's iPhone interface is different than other touchscreen smartphones that use a stylus. Many features of the multi-touch interface require users to touch multiple points on the screen at the same time.
For example, a user can zoom into pictures by putting a thumb and a finger on the screen and spreading them apart. Then the user can zoom out by bringing the thumb and finger back together.
The BlackBerry Storm gives a different touchscreen experience than that of Nokia's XpressMusic consumer-focused smartphone and Apple's iPhone.
The Storm, available later this year, comes with a touchscreen that clicks when depressed very lightly and released. That gentle click is similar to the feeling of a keyboard or a mouse.
The Storm also supports slides, multi-touch taps, and other touchscreen gestures, giving users the ability to highlight, scroll and zoom, according to RIM.
"The BlackBerry Storm is a revolutionary touchscreen smartphone that meets both the communications and multimedia needs of customers and solves the long-standing problem associated with typing on traditional touchscreens," said Mike Lazaridis, RIM's president.
RIM's Storm will be offered to Verizon Wireless customers in the United States and Vodafone customers in Asia, Europe, India and Australia.
While worldwide sales of smartphones continue to increase with 32.2...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Software Applications Offer Blast from Past
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62346
This probably will make me sound like an old fogey, but I believe you can't fully appreciate the present until you understand the past. This is especially true in the realm of consumer electronics, where innovations move so fast, it's easy to forget where we've been.
I've owned many computers over the years, each more robust than the last. My latest is an absolute screamer, with heaps of RAM, a massive array of hard drives and a blazingly fast dual-core CPU. Quite frankly, it packs more power than I ever imagined was necessary. Yet in a few years, even this won't be enough. Like many people, I've gotten spoiled.
I got hooked on computers relatively late, in 1984, with Commodore 64, the world's best-selling home computer. The basic machine came with a whopping 64KB of RAM, built-in BASIC programming language, a ROM-based operating system, integrated keyboard, sprite graphics and a 3-voice sound chip.
Today, the average cell phone is more advanced than the old C-64, but at the time, it was nothing short of revolutionary. It connected to any TV set, or a 40-column monochrome monitor, if you could afford one. For storage, you were limited to the agonizingly slow Commodore Datassette tape drive, or the 1541 51/4-inch external floppy drive, which held only 170 KB of data per disk.
Despite their now-laughable specs, personal computers weren't exactly cheap back then. If I remember correctly, my C-64 and disk drive retailed for about $800, but that still beat the competition: An Apple IIe cost about $1,400, a Tandy TSR-80 III ran about $1,000 and the original IBM PC cost around $1,350. Yet none of them could touch the C-64 in computing power or fun factor.
I eventually graduated from the C-64 to the Commodore 128, which featured twice the power -- a 2 Mhz CPU,...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Intel Experiments with New Cooling System
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62320
An experiment conceived and conducted by two enterprising Intel employees in Rio Rancho [New Mexico] has shown how businesses worldwide could drastically reduce the amount of electricity they use to cool essential computer systems.
It works the same way as rolling down a car window to let in cool air. Instead of using a power-hungry air conditioning to combat the heat generated by hundreds of densely packed computer servers, Don Atwood and John Miner created a ventilation system that draws in cool air from outside and allows heated air to escape.
A data center is the place where companies concentrate computer servers critical to running their business. Intel has about 5,000 servers located in six data centers at its Rio Rancho plant. They are kept cool by air conditioning systems, which require a constant supply of about 10-megawatts of electricity.
A megawatt is enough power to supply about 500 to 700 average homes under normal conditions, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Businesses worldwide use similar cooling technology. The cost of power to run the air conditioning can amount to about 70 percent of a data center's operational costs, Atwood and Miner said.
Their air-cooling experiment showed how the data center can operate safely and reliably using less than half the power consumed by traditional cooling designs.
They say that would mean lower power costs, resulting in fewer carbon-emissions and less mechanical maintenance.
"It opens the door to a lot of scenarios," Atwood said in an interview on Friday.
With lower cooling costs, companies could increase the size of data centers -- something Intel intends to do. The computer chip manufacturer is planning to cut the number of data centers worldwide from 100 to 8, two of those will be in the U.S., one in Rio Rancho and...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Will Samsung Lift Bid for SanDisk to Reflect Royalties?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62316
SanDisk could be worth $34 to $36 a share if Samsung Electronics were to sweeten its offer to reflect the value of royalties it pays to the U.S. flash memory maker, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
South Korea-based Samsung, the world's top maker of memory chips, made public an offer to buy SanDisk for $5.85 billion, or $26 a share, on Sept. 16, after SanDisk rebuffed the offer in private.
Samsung makes memory chips based on NAND flash technology, while SanDisk is best known for its flash memory cards that use such chips. Flash is a type of compact data storage used in consumer gadgets like as digital cameras and MP3 players.
SanDisk said that Samsung's offer undervalued the company, but the board made clear in a letter to Samsung's chief executive, Lee Yoon Woo, that it was open to talks about a higher offer that would reflect the "intrinsic value" of the company.
SanDisk has not yet said what such an offer might be, but two sources, who requested anonymity because the matter was sensitive and they were not authorized to speak on the record, said a per-share offer somewhere near $35 was likely to be a more agreeable price to get the ball rolling on negotiations.
The sources declined to say whether executives and advisers from the two parties had met since the offer was made public.
Samsung said its offer, which represented an 80 percent premium to SanDisk's closing price on Sept. 15, was "full and fair."
A Samsung official who was not authorized to speak on the record questioned whether SanDisk would be able to pull up its stock price and generate shareholder value as a stand-alone company, given the volatile market conditions. SanDisk shares fell 11 percent on Friday to $18.38.
Analysts have speculated that SanDisk may be...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Upgrade Your Computer or Purchase New One?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62315
With today's economy going into the dumper, it seems clear that fewer computers will be moving off the shelves this fall and winter season.
That will mean more computer upgrades as users try to get more performance out of aging machines. So let's discuss the upgrades that make the most sense, and when to upgrade and when to go for a new machine.
First of all, if your desktop machine is more than six years old, it is likely not worth upgrading. A simple check is if the machine has a sticker on it indicating that the computer was designed for Windows XP or Vista, it likely is worth upgrading. If the computer is made for Windows 98 or before, I would consider it too old.
First, take a look at the amount of system RAM (memory) in the computer. Many computers more than a few years old came with 256 MB or 512 MB of RAM. I would consider a RAM upgrade to be the most cost-effective upgrade on the market today. The trick, of course, is to find out what kind of RAM your computer needs and how much your computer can hold.
That is a two-phased question. One is how much your computer can hold and how much is in there already, and the other is what kind your computer can take. Today, most computers take either DDR memory or DDR2 memory. DDR is about twice as expensive and is used in older models. DDR2 RAM is fantastically cheap; I have seen DDR2 RAM in 1GB size for less than $15.
A great site to determine what your needs are is Crucial's Web site. It has a memory calculator where you can type in your computer model number, and the site will tell you the capacity and type of RAM you need.
Installation...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Automating Routine Information-Technology Tasks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62298
In the course of less than a decade, online banking has taken off, now growing at a rate of about 27 percent per year. This is not surprising, given that it provides a more convenient option for customers and is a cost-saving move for financial institutions.
CashEdge has assisted financial transactions for institutions such as Bank of America, Citibank and Wachovia since 1999. As the online banking trend has grown, so has CashEdge.
The company's rapid growth, combined with its multiple locations, has presented a challenge for its IT team when it comes to user provisioning. CashEdge maintains multiple servers for both Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange in multiple locations. In addition, CashEdge's security and compliance regulations mandate the strict enforcement of IT policies and require the necessary audit trails across the entire infrastructure. As a result, CashEdge was forced to limit user-provisioning tasks to only a few individuals despite the use of scripts.
Much of the burden fell to David Truong, senior systems engineer, who manages change-control needs, such as password resets, mobile device access and user provisioning. Because CashEdge's help desk received 20 to 30 tickets per day for each of its three locations, this equated to roughly three hours per day just handling those requests. The manual process also affected productivity, since employees were required to wait, on average, half a day before receiving a response.
In an effort to automate tasks, such as setting up new users, Truong manually wrote and ran a variety of scripts. Each script had to be individually tested and launched for every instance on every server in every location. Once approved, each script had to be copied and verified on the target server where it would run. Manually performing the administrative tasks was error prone and lacked the necessary audit trail required by corporate compliance...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Utility Bills Are the Key to Greener IT
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62292
Due to the steady increase in the cost of electricity over the last few years, many organizations have begun to focus on reducing energy use. When looking for ways to lower the utility bill, the spotlight often shines on the company energy hog: the IT department. The prevalence of computing equipment in most enterprises makes the IT department a major source of power consumption.
Every organization that wants to cut costs looks at reducing power consumption. The energy costs tied to computers, servers, cooling systems, switches and storage systems consume a large percentage of the IT budget. For every dollar spent on computer hardware, a company typically spends 50 cents on energy-related costs each year, according to research firm IDC. By 2010, 71 cents of every IT dollar will be devoted to powering and cooling IT equipment.
IT executives say they are concerned about energy efficiency, however, many are not aware of how much energy their IT operations use -- even though this information is fundamental in energy-reduction efforts. CDWs Energy Efficient Information Technology (E2IT) Report, based on a survey of 778 information technology professionals, indicates that almost half of IT organizations in business, government and education do not know exactly how much energy they use.
Typically, those who manage technology have little, if any, interaction with those who pay the utility bills. "The first step in reducing energy consumption is to know what you are spending, yet more than 40 percent of technology professionals say they don't see their organization's energy bill," says Mark Gambill, vice president of CDW.
IT executives armed with information about their energy consumption are more likely to implement energy-reduction measures, Gambill says. When someone in the IT department receives reports, authorizes payments or otherwise has responsibility for the amount and cost of energy used in the organization's IT...
Fri, 10 Oct 08
Data Protection With Software as a Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62289
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings can provide small and midsize businesses (SMBs) with access to software remotely as a Web-based service. SaaS data protection provides online backup and recovery and can meet broader information-management requirements, such as archiving, compliance, search and disaster recovery. With SaaS-based data protection, SMBs can elevate current capabilities beyond backup and recovery, while reducing costs and administrative overhead. According to Enterprise Strategy Group, 86 percent of organizations use tape-based backups. While the portability of tape lets organizations fulfill disaster-recovery requirements, the inherent slowness of these backups and restores, as well as reliability issues, are validating the accelerated adoption of disk-based solutions and growing interest in SaaS-based alternatives.
Another reason to consider SaaS: increased pressure to retain data longer in accordance with corporate compliance or industry regulations. As information typically exists in different formats and different applications, determining the best way to provide access and respond to compliance requests can be daunting, due to hidden costs and administrative complications.
With SaaS-based data protection, companies have the potential to reduce or even eliminate hardware, software, tape media and offsite media shipping expenses. Another advantage is the ability to meet service-level guarantees while gaining the assurances of successful backups and timely, efficient file restores. Predictable pricing also is a plus, as fixed, monthly expenses are easier to budget than large, sometimes unforeseen expenditures.
Most MSPs possess an understanding of what is required to meet service-level agreements, as 24/7 monitoring and management is a core IT services offering. MSPs also typically provide appropriate bandwidth-throttling capabilities to lessen network impact during backup and recovery operations. They often specialize in supporting mission-critical databases and usually are knowledgeable about compliance and regulatory audits.
Online backup and recovery is the first step toward the delivery of multiple services, such as replication, deduplication, archiving, search and e-discovery. The key for SMBs...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Palin E-Mail Break-In Suspect Indicted By Federal Jury
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62358
David Kernell, a 20-year-old University of Tennessee student, was indicted Tuesday by a Knoxville, Tenn., federal grand jury on one count of "intentionally and without authorization access[ing] a protected computer by means of interstate communication." Kernell is accused of breaking into the personal Yahoo e-mail account of Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Upon hearing of the indictment, Kernell turned himself in to authorities. At an arraignment, he pled not guilty and was released on bond. According to the Associated Press, a trial is set for Dec. 16. If convicted, Kernell could serve up to five years in prison and be fined a maximum of $250,000, followed by up to three years of supervised release.
A spokesperson for the Sen. John McCain-Palin campaign described the incident as "deeply troubling" and "a blatant violation of the law."
"We are certain that the proper authorities will pursue justice," McCain-Palin spokesperson Tracey Schmitt said, "and send a clear signal to reassure all Americans that their personal e-mail accounts cannot be hacked into with impunity."
The indictment charges that Kernell gained "unauthorized access" to gov.palin@yahoo.com on Sept. 16 by using Yahoo's password-recovery tool to reset Palin's password. According to a posting on the image-sharing site 4chan.org, which has since been attributed to Kernell, it only took about 45 minutes of research to guess the answers to Palin's secret security question (Wasilla High, where she met her spouse). The account has since been deleted.
"Once defendant Kernell established control over the e-mail account by changing the password," the indictment alleges, "he read the contents and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content, and other personal information." Those screenshots were posted to 4chan, along with Kernell's explanation of how he gained access.
"The personal information included," the indictment continued, "and was not limited to, other e-mail addresses of...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Firefox Introduces Plug-In with Geolocation Capability
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62357
Mozilla has introduced an experimental Firefox browser add-on featuring powerful geolocation capabilities. Called Geode, the technology allows the location of Web surfers to be fixed and then maintained as users move about their hometowns, across the nation, or even when traveling around the world.
"You'll be able to play with this in the upcoming beta releases of Firefox 3.1," Geode's developers said. "We realized, though, that some of our Firefox 3 users might also want to get a head start playing with geolocation today, and users can tell us what they think of the experience it provides."
Among other things, Geode will give Web sites the native ability to request -- and Web surfers to optionally grant -- access to the approximate position of the user's computing device. This will enable search results to be ranked according to the user's proximity to nearby stores, restaurants, theaters, parks and other local attractions.
However, Geode's potential extends far beyond something as simple as a restaurant lookup, Mozilla noted. "Imagine a news site whose local section is, in fact, actually local, or Web site authentication that only allows you to log in from certain physical locations, like your house," Geode's developers said.
Geode's enabling API, which is based on the W3C geolocation spec, defines a high-level interface to location information associated with the hosting device. In addition to accessing standard GPS signals, the technology also will be able to approximate the user's location based on any available network signals, including Bluetooth, cellular IDs, Wi-Fi and even IP addresses.
For example, Mozilla is using Skyhook's Loki technology to map locally available Wi-Fi signals to the user's location. This enables Geode to almost instantly get a location fix with an accuracy of between 10 to 20 meters, regardless of whether the user is indoors or...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Social Networking Goes Mobile, Gets Corporate Face
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62356
As IBM sets out to launch its Bluehouse corporate social network to compete with Cisco and Google, word comes that Facebook and MySpace are the most popular social-networking sites for mobile-phone users.
According to ABI Research, nearly half (46 percent) of those who use social networks have also visited a social network through a mobile phone. Of these, nearly 70 percent have visited MySpace, and another 67 percent visited Facebook. No other social-networking site reached 15 percent mobile adoption.
"As in the online social-networking space, there is clearly a large gap between the big two (MySpace and Facebook) social networks and the others," said ABI's Michael Wolf. "ABI Research believes this is because consumers do not want to recreate entirely new and separate social networks for mobile, but rather want to tap into their existing social network and have it go with them via the mobile phone. For most, this means MySpace, Facebook, or even both."
The most popular feature mobile consumers use when tapping into social networks is to check for comments and messages; both these features registered at 50 percent in the survey. Status updates are also popular, with 45 percent of mobile social users keeping others in the know about what they are doing when on the go.
"The social network is increasingly becoming a central hub for communication across online and mobile domains for many consumers," Wolf said. "To a degree, it allows them to centralize messaging, communication and even digital media consumption through a centralized property on various screens. We believe this centralization of a consumer's digital lifestyle through social networks will only increase adoption of mobile social networking in coming years."
The question not addressed in the survey is how this translates to business use. Some analysts believe internal corporate social networking could...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Web Surfers Face Dangerous New Threat: 'Clickjacking'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62355
Internet and Web browser security experts are sounding the alarm about a new type of malicious attack called "clickjacking," a technique that can be used to dupe Web surfers into revealing confidential information while clicking on seemingly innocuous Web pages. Among other things, a clickjacking attack can be used to take control of a computer's Webcam and microphone without the knowledge of the user.
Clickjacking has been identified as a vulnerability for the Adobe Flash player, as well as for every major browser, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari and even the newly released Google Chrome.
"It is a very serious problem," said Giorgio Maone, the author of a widely praised free Firefox extension called NoScript, which blocks potentially malicious scripts from running in the Firefox browser.
"Clickjacking is a very simple attack to build, and now that the details are out, any script kid can try it successfully," Maone warned. "There's no estimate to the number of trap sites, and it's unlikely that we will see any credible report about the number of sites using this technique, because there are literally infinite ways to implement such an attack, therefore no signature-based scanning can detect it automatically."
The growing severity of the clickjacking problem was identified by Robert Hansen, CEO of SecTheory, and Jeremiah Grossman, CTO of WhiteHat Security. The two were scheduled to speak publicly about their discovery last month at the Open Web Application Security Project NYC AppSec conference in New York, but postponed their talk in order to give Adobe and browser companies a chance to come up with a solution.
Reacting quickly to the announcement, Adobe released a security advisory Tuesday, describing the threat as "critical" and instructing users on how to turn off Flash access to cameras and microphones.
"We have just posted a Security Advisory for Flash...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Mufin Matches Characteristics To Discover Music
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62354
Music enthusiasts will have another way to search for their favorite tunes in coming months. Mufin, a Berlin, Germany-based company, has launched the beta version of its music-discovery platform, mufin.com.
Mufin's free technology recognizes and identifies music titles for users and provides music recommendations. Mufin automatically searches out and plays music suitable to an individual's tastes and mood, according to the company.
Mufin, which is short for music finder, is based on technology developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, the same Germany-based research organization that developed the MP3 player's compression algorithm.
AudioID is Mufin's audio-identification technology is capable of recognizing a piece of music in a split second, according to the company. Mufin generates a fingerprint for each song based on more than 40 characters, including tempo, sound density, instruments and rhythm. The AudioID database currently includes more than four million audio fingerprints and is growing.
The Fraunhofer, which has several locations in Germany and the United States, is focused on different fields of applied science.
To find favorite tunes, users search by song or artist in the Mufin database. The discovery engine then presents the user with a selection of songs that sound similar.
Users are then able to create playlists featuring their favorite songs, listen to music, or purchase songs.
"Mufin's unique approach to music discovery puts geographic borders, big marketing machines, and genre classifications aside," said Juergen Jaron, Mufin's president. "As soon as a song has been indexed, it can be instantly recommended even if no one has ever heard it before."
For example, an unknown artist's music can be recommended alongside Ozzy Osborne's if the songs have similar metrics, according to Jaron.
Mufin differs from other applications like the iPod's built-in recommendation tool and Amazon.com because it is focused on a song's musical characteristics. Other music-discovery...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Dual Carriers Will Storm Market with New Blackberry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62341
Research in Motion, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless are hoping to take the holiday season by Storm with Wednesday's announcement of a new RIM touchscreen smartphone. The BlackBerry Storm, available later this fall, will be offered exclusively to Verizon Wireless customers in the United States and to Vodafone customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand.
The Storm's calling card is what the companies call its "revolutionary touchscreen technology." The device is intended to enhance user interaction and typing with the world's first "clickable" touchscreen. To make a selection, the user slightly pushes down the screen in an action described by RIM as being "much like a physical keyboard." The screen also supports single-touch, multi-touch and gesture interaction.
Mike Lazaridis, RIM president and co-CEO, said the new design "solves the long-standing problem associated with typing on traditional touchscreens," offering a "large and vibrant screen with a truly tactile touch interface."
In the U.S., the Storm supports Verizon Wireless' EV-DO Rev A network, and Vodafone's 3G network in Europe and other countries.
The BlackBerry Storm features a built-in accelerometer, so the screen can automatically switch between landscape and portrait orientation. Double-tapping allows users to zoom in, and sliding fingers result in a scroll or pan.
An enhanced browser facilitates streaming audio and video, and built-in RSS support. There's also a 3.2-megapixel camera with variable zoom, a built-in GPS for location-based applications, 1GB of onboard memory, a microSD/SDHD memory-card slot for up to 16GB of additional storage, and a media player for movies, music and slides.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said the clickable screen is an attempt by RIM to integrate navigation and confirmation. "On a device like an Apple iPhone or HTC Touch," he said, "you could accidentally select something just by putting your finger on it,"...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Google Launches Click-To-Buy Links on YouTube
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62340
Google is adding click-to-buy links to its YouTube video-sharing site. The new feature will let customers purchase songs and video games they like while watching videos on the site.
Google calls it instant gratification. Click-to-buy links, the company said, are non-obtrusive retail links positioned on the watch page beneath the video with other community features. That means users can buy products the same way they share, comment on, and respond to videos.
Google's first step is to embed iTunes and Amazon links in videos from companies like EMI Music, and provide Amazon product links to the newly released video game Spore on videos from Electronic Arts.
According to Glenn Brown, YouTube's strategic partner development manager, and Thai Tran, YouTube product manager, this is just the beginning of building a broad e-commerce platform for users and partners on YouTube.
"Our vision is to help partners across all industries -- from music, to film, to print, to TV -- offer useful and relevant products to a large yet targeted audience, and generate additional revenue from their content on YouTube beyond the advertising we serve against their videos," they wrote in the company blog. "And those partners who use our content identification and management system can also enable these links on user-generated content by using Content ID to claim videos and choose to leave them up on the site."
The retail links are being gradually added to YouTube's library of music videos -- and only in the United States. But YouTube is looking to expand the program to additional content and product partners, and to international users. YouTube also said it will be experimenting with the user interface over time to make sure this works for the community and will innovate based on feedback.
Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Google AdSense Now Manages Ads in Online Games
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62339
Google is getting in the game. The Internet search giant is putting its assets into play by introducing AdSense for Games.
Google announced in its official blog that the company has built ad technology, an extension of its AdSense program, for games played within a user's browser. Now it's looking to expand its publisher network.
"As a beta user of AdSense for Games, you can display video ads, image ads, or text ads within your online games to earn revenue," said Google's Ryan Hayward.
Publishers who have a minimum of 500,000 game plays and 80 percent of their traffic from the U.S. or U.K. are eligible to participate in the beta version. Once AdSense is implemented, publishers will have control over when an ad is shown either as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over, according to Google.
So far publishers using the beta version include Armor Games, Konami, Mochimedia, Zynga and several others. Marketers include Sony Pictures, Sprint and Esurance.
It was only a matter of time before Google made use of its assets from its acquisition of San Francisco-based Adscape, a small in-game advertising company it acquired for $23 million in February 2007. Google bought the company shortly after Microsoft acquired in-game advertising company Massive.
Just after acquiring Adscape, Google said in-game advertising was an area where it could add a lot of value to users, advertisers and publishers.
"Ad dollars will ultimately follow users to the media where they spend their time," Google spokesperson Elisabeth Diana said in an e-mail to us. "User growth is 17 percent year upon year, with currently 25 percent of the global Internet population playing online games. We have been testing the product with a number of advertisers and developers before launching publicly."
Google said adding...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Guarding the Privacy of Your E-Mail
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62324
While it bears repeating that e-mail messages offering you a lot of money later in exchange for a little of yours today will lead to nothing good, all of us can do a lot more to protect our privacy and pocketbooks in the online world.
Nothing made the dangers more clear than the recent reports of a hacker gaining access to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo Mail account.
According to reports, the hacker used Yahoo's password-recovery process, through which Yahoo users can reset lost passwords, to reset the password of the GOP's vice presidential candidate and gain access to her e-mail.
It didn't help that Palin's e-mail address -- gov.palin@yahoo.com -- was way too obvious. It also didn't help that the questions Yahoo! asks during password recovery, including "Where did you meet your spouse?" are easily answerable for even moderately well-known persons by just about anybody who knows their way around Wikipedia.
Here are a few things you can do to add a measure of safety and security to your personal e-mail accounts:
Avoid the obvious: Don't pick an e-mail address that is at all obvious. That means not using your first and last name with a dot in the middle. I know my company e-mail address does that, but don't miss the opportunity to avoid it with your personal account.
The only people who absolutely need to know who you are are those you tell. Don't divulge anything more than you need to, and even if your e-mail address is slightly obnoxious -- like highschoolmusicalfan@yahoo.com, it is way more secure than using your own name.
Rethink your password: You might be surprised at this bit of advice: Write your e-mail password down on paper. Keep that paper hidden. A strong password, written down on a piece of paper to which only you know the location,...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
Asustek's Low-Priced Eee PC Helps Boost Revenue
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62313
A low-price laptop product line is helping Taiwan's Asustek Computer Inc. generate record revenue despite signs of slowing global growth, a senior company executive said Tuesday.
Chief Executive Jerry Shen said the company is expecting revenue will grow 26 percent to $834.3 million in September with the prospects for October and November even brighter.
Shen attributed much of the success to Asustek's budget Eee PCs, whose prices range from $300 to $1,000.
"The sales of computers, as daily necessity goods, are only slightly affected during a financially turbulent period," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Since launching the Eee PCs last year, Asustek has shipped about 4 million models, according to company officials.
Asustek's success with Eee PCs has already prompted competitors, including Taiwan-based Acer Inc. and U.S.-based Dell Inc., to launch their own low-price laptops.
On Tuesday, Asustek unveiled a new Eee PC model, the S101, aimed at Christmas shoppers in Europe and the United States that costs $699. The new machine boasts an ultra-thin, ultra-light style. It weighs only 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) and is a half-inch (1.8 centimeters) thick.
Asustek stock has lost about 18 percent in the past month -- a drop Shen attributed to the generally pessimistic tone on world markets.
He did however, adopt a cautious attitude about 2009, based on competitors' possible responses to Asustek's continuing dominance in the small laptop market.
"The worst I am expecting is that next year's profit growth might be cut in half if our competitors start to offer ludicrously low prices to attract consumers in a sluggish economy," he said.
Thu, 9 Oct 08
New Google Tool Reveals Marine Protected Areas
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62312
Conservationists working with Google Inc. have unveiled a tool that lets people view protected marine areas with the click of a mouse -- a bid to harness the Internet's top search engine to raise awareness of endangered ocean habitats.
The feature on Google Earth displays icons indicating sensitive areas of the world's oceans, from the waters off the Galapagos Islands to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
A click on them brings up photos and/or video of the sites and marine life there, as well as text explaining the sites, how they are managed and local maritime lore.
Google Earth project manager Steve Miller said the tool presented Tuesday, which Google Earth calls a layer, is the culmination of a yearlong project to let conservationists bring hard science to the general public in an entertaining way.
"We sat down and said 'let's open this up, let people around the world who might be passionate about their (marine protected area), who might be passionate about the water in their backyard, let them contribute to this,'" Miller said.
The new feature was presented at a congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a grouping of more than 1,000 government and nongovernment organizations and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries.
Google Earth is the platform for the new tool and helped develop it with the IUCN and the World Commission on Protected Areas.
Around 4,500 spots scattered around the world's oceans have been designated as marine protected areas, which means activities such as commercial or recreational fishing are restricted or outright banned to protect dwindling stocks of fish and other marine species.
Not all of them are featured on the Google tool, but its creators say it is nonetheless a groundbreaking way to get people all over the world interested in the environment.
At the same presentation,...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
SonicWALL's SSL VPN: The Wisdom of Simple Security
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62299
When DePaul University in Chicago first made wireless connectivity available to students and staff, the wireless network used basic wired equivalent privacy (WEP) authentication as an extension of traditional hard-wired networking ports already available in offices, classrooms, labs, libraries and other areas. This Wi-Fi connectivity allowed faculty, students and staff with laptops to move around campus with ease while staying connected to the network. Security and information services (IS) management, however, became a nightmare.
"DePaul originally distributed complex WEP keys to end-users, which caused confusion, lost keys and lots of calls to the help desk," says Joe Salwach, associate vice president for information services.
As a security protocol for wireless networks, WEP solutions have also been prone to exposure to malicious threats due to inherent authentication vulnerabilities. Salwach noted emerging studies in which WEP had been broken within a few minutes of passive eavesdropping by an attacker. While DePaul is taking extra precautions beyond WEP, the use of secure applications, such as SSL, on top of the wireless network became imperative. DePaul decided it needed to phase out its existing wireless network deployed with WEP for a more secure wireless authentication solution.
"The turning point came when we decided to implement about 100 access points in a residence hall at our Lincoln Park campus," says Salwach. "We wanted to provide wireless coverage to the students living in our halls in addition to their existing wired connectivity.
"Since we're so geographically dispersed, we didn't want to manage distributed boxes. We wanted to centrally control it out of only one campus," says Salwach. After ruling out an IPSec VPN approach, because it would require hands-on installation and maintenance of clients on widely distributed and unmanaged student machines, DePaul chose to evaluate SSL VPN solutions that could enable users to easily set up and connect via the...
Thu, 9 Oct 08
The Biggest Threat to Network Security: End-Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62297
Savvy administrators recognize that because end-users are privy to an organization's sensitive data, they represent a significant risk factor. Security pros, however, continue to struggle with mitigating this threat. While no single solution exists, there are steps organizations can take to ensure that corporate policies are effectively enforced and insider threats are minimized.
Organizations should clearly define and publicize policies, automate policy enforcement, and provide detailed auditing and reporting. Here are some fundamental steps organizations can take:
First, accept that employees will always engage in risky behavior. They will open unsolicited attachments, browse a wide assortment of Web sites, click on links in e-mails and instant messages, utilize outdated and unpatched versions of software, and plug in personal devices or removable media without understanding the potential impact of these decisions.
In a perfect world, written corporate policy would be enough to dictate employees' interactions with technology. While a policy is an important step, the reality is that even the most stringent policies need a solution to support and enforce them.
The second step is to provide a way to develop and enforce policies that enable users to focus on their assigned tasks, but also reduces the risk of their day-to-day decisions when they interact with technology. This includes understanding which employees need access to specific applications, devices and data.
Also, enforce policies that give users access only to what is required in order to successfully complete their job function, and ensure that the applications in use are up to date with the latest patches.
By enforcing application and device control, organizations can flexibly control execution of specific files or removable devices to the user level.
Also, by enforcing mandatory baselines for critical patches and configurations, organizations can automate the remediation process throughout the enterprise and not have to rely on users. This ensures proper security configurations are...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Mono 2.0 Boosts Cross-Platform App Development
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62337
The Mono project has just released Version 2.0 of its open-source implementation of Microsoft's .NET framework. Mono is both a runtime environment for applications and a kit for developers writing applications with C, as well as other Common Language Infrastructure languages developed by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA).
Though Mono's early use was mostly on Linux desktop applications, over time it has evolved into a cross-platform environment for software developers, noted Miguel de Icaza, cofounder of the GNOME project.
"We originally started to work on Mono because we wanted to make developers happier and more productive on Linux," de Icaza said. "As the project matured, developers started taking advantage of Mono's open-source nature" to essentially gain access to .NET on their own terms via "a platform that could be adapted, morphed, ported and modified to suit many different uses."
Mono 2.0 enables software developers to build applications for desktops, servers and other computing devices while employing Microsoft-based environments. The resulting applications can then be deployed across multiple operating-system platforms, including Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, Nintendo's Wii, and even the iPhone and iPod touch, de Icaza said.
Previous iterations of Mono have already been deployed to run code on large clusters of servers for Linden Labs' SecondLife. De Icaza also noted that Mono is currently being embedded in portable MP3 players and powers Unity3D's game engine on the Apple iPhone and the Nintendo Wii.
However, there was an area where the Mono project had underdelivered in the past, which de Icaza characterized as a constant source of pain. "Up until now, we did not have a working debugger," de Icaza said. "This has finally changed, and Mono 2.0 includes one for the first time."
Among other things, the latest open-source implementation of Microsoft's...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Antitrust Suit Against Apple, AT&T Moves Forward
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62336
Apple and AT&T Mobility's attempt to block a class-action antitrust lawsuit against the two companies has been denied.
Federal Judge James Ware denied the companies' request to dismiss a lawsuit brought on one year ago by iPhone owners who said Apple's 1.1.1 iPhone software update made their phones inoperable. The judge, in his 31-page order, also denied Apple's motion to dismiss and force arbitration, according to case documents filed with the court.
The judge, however, did agree to Apple's motion to limit the claims to New York, California and Washington, the states where the plaintiffs reside.
The iPhone owners first filed the lawsuit after their "unlocked phones" were no longer working. Unlocking a phone allows the owner to use the phone without having to contract with a specific carrier -- in this case, AT&T. Unlocked iPhones also allowed owners to upload third-party applications.
Apple allegedly wanted to stop this unlocking from happening, so on September 27, 2007, the company released a software update, 1.1.1, for the iPhone to stop the unlocking. After the update, those phones that had been unlocked became inoperable, angering many iPhone owners who had unlocked their phones.
The judge found that Apple and AT&T were in violation of illegally conditioning the iPhone warranty on consumers' use, and were therefore breaking the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a federal statute governing warranties on consumer products.
The update was issued by Apple as a way of retaliating against consumers who had unlocked their phones or installed unapproved applications, according to the judge's order. Proof of this is in Apple's own press release, which states that downloading the 1.1.1. version will "likely result in the modified phone becoming permanently inoperable when future Apple-supplied iPhone software is installed."
The lawsuit, filed last year by Paul Holman and Lucy Rivello, claimed several ways in which Apple and...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Ford Plans To Annoy Teens with MyKey Auto Supervision
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62335
The ability of parents to nag their teenage children about their driving habits is about to be electronically enhanced. Ford Motor Company announced Monday that beginning in 2010, purchasers of the Ford Focus Coupe will be offered a free electronics package called "MyKey," which will allow parents to program electronic settings for various car features.
For instance, parents can set a top speed for the vehicle, or set a maximum audio volume for the sound system. The seat-belt system can be set to mute the audio system altogether and beep continuously until the belt is buckled. Additional chimes can be set to go off when the car crosses a certain speed threshold, or to provide additional warning that the car is low on gas.
The reaction of teens to additional electronic supervision is predictable, but Ford clearly believes that parents will welcome assistance in improving teen-driving habits.
"We are turning up the annoyance factor a little bit for teens," conceded Susan Cischke, Ford's group vice president of sustainability, environment and safety engineering. However, she added, when the suggestion was made to teen focus groups that the new features might increase their access to the family car, their concerns diminished rapidly.
For parents, the overwhelming selling point is child safety. Although teen-driving fatalities have declined by nearly a third, from a high of roughly 4,500 deaths in 1988 to just over 3,000 last year, most parents still worry when their children get behind the wheel.
"Ford not only offers industry-leading crash protection and crash avoidance systems, we also are committed to developing new technologies such as MyKey that encourage safer driving behavior," Cischke said. "MyKey can help promote safer driving, particularly among teens, by encouraging seat-belt use, limiting speed and reducing distractions."
Unlike some other automotive technology aimed at teen drivers, the MyKey program...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
AMD Splits Into Two Companies with Abu Dhabi Backing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62334
Advanced Micro Devices, which has been struggling to regain its footing in competition with rival Intel, announced Tuesday that it will split into two companies. One of the companies will be a global enterprise focused on semiconductor manufacturing, temporarily called The Foundry Company. AMD itself will focus on designing microprocessors.
The Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), a corporate entity formed by the government of Abu Dhabi, will invest several billion dollars into the two companies, some of which will go toward construction of a new chip factory near Albany, N.Y., as well as to upgrade a current factory in Europe.
AMD said The Foundry Company starts with "key strengths" needed for a leading-edge manufacturer, including a history of "manufacturing excellence" from AMD, financial and intellectual capital, a talented workforce, and a long-term technology-sharing partnership with IBM.
The Foundry Company will continue with the planned capacity expansion for manufacturing facilities in Dresden, Germany. Its new factory in Saratoga County, New York, is on target to begin construction, pending the transfer to the new entity of previously approved state incentives. The New York facility is expected to hire more than 1,400 people.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD said it will concentrate on designing the "next generation of innovation based on the fusion of computing and graphic processing," adding that it is the only company with a proven track record in both x86 CPU and graphics technologies.
According to news reports, AMD will own 44.4 percent of The Foundry Company, and ATIC the rest, although each will have the same voting rights and the board will be equally divided. About $2 billion will be invested immediately by ATIC, including about $700 million to purchase shares in AMD, with up to $6 billion more to create or update chip-fabrication plants.
An Abu Dhabi company called...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Apple iPhone 3G Sales Approaching 10 Million Mark
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62333
Apple may not have reached its goal of selling 10 million iPhone 3Gs yet, but the company has spurred a large number of consumers to abandon their carriers and flock to AT&T, the exclusive mobile carrier for the iPhone in the U.S.
News reports are circulating that predict Apple is nearing the sale of the 10 millionth iPhone 3G. Apple hasn't confirmed the rumor, but analysts said it's possible. Apple sold one million of the devices in the first weekend after its introduction.
"Apple executed well. The company took sufficient time to build up enthusiasm prior to launch. They launched two successful iterations of the device. They managed to get the device sold in more than 20 countries. And they've become a player in the market," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.
While the tech world waits for Apple to report the 10 million iPhone 3G mark, the NPD Group has reported that 30 percent of U.S. consumers who purchased Apple's iPhone 3G from June through August switched to AT&T from other mobile carriers.
Nearly half (47 percent) of new AT&T iPhone customers who switched carriers came from Verizon Wireless. Another 24 percent switched from T-Mobile, and 19 percent switched from Sprint, according to the NPD's iPhone 3G Report.
"The launch of the lower-priced iPhone 3G was a boon to overall consumer smartphone sales," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for the NPD Group. "While the original iPhone also helped win customers for AT&T, the faster network speeds of the iPhone 3G have proven more appealing to customers that already had access to a 3G network."
Before the iPhone 3G's launch, iPhone sales made up a mere 11 percent of the smartphone market. Since the launch, Apple has...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Oops! Google Gmail Can Save You From Yourself
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62330
If you've ever hit the send button after writing an e-mail while under the influence only to feel that immediate pit in your stomach called regret, then a new Google feature may be just what you need.
The Internet search giant has added a feature to Gmail called Mail Goggles, which allows users to take a closer look at an e-mail while preventing the sending of messages to significant others, friends and bosses in the late hours of the night. The feature is only available at night and on the weekend, according to the Official Gmail Blog.
Jon Perlow, a Gmail engineer who wrote the code for Goggles, said he developed the feature after his own bad experiences in sending e-mail and text messages in the wee hours of the night.
"Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night e-mail to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together," Perlow wrote. "Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help."
"When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday e-mail," Perlow added. "And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?"
Perlow isn't joking. Users who activate Mail Goggles must first solve a group of simple math problems in a short period before hitting send. The simple math problems are a safeguard for those who may not be in the right state of mind to send e-mail.
Of course, Mail...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Judge Orders RealNetworks To Pull Copying Software
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62319
RealNetworks Inc. said Monday it had temporarily stopped distributing its DVD copying software, RealDVD, at a federal judge's request in a copyright case brought by Hollywood studios.
"We temporarily suspended distribution of the product until tomorrow," said Seattle-based RealNetworks' spokesman Ryan Luckin.
The site, made inactive Friday, now tells visitors: "Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use."
U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel is scheduled to take up the case Tuesday at 2 p.m. (2100 GMT) in San Francisco.
Six major movie studios jointly sued the company Sept. 30, the day the software launched. They claim RealDVD illegally bypasses the copyright protection built into DVDs.
The studios asked the court for a restraining order, saying the software allows consumers to "rent, rip and return" movies and copy friends' DVD collections -- instead of buying legitimate downloads or DVD copies.
The Motion Picture Association of America was prohibited from commenting on the case, said spokesman Seth Oster.
The studios that sued are Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, General Electric Co.'s Universal, The Walt Disney Co.'s Disney studio and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros.
Wed, 8 Oct 08
T-Mobile Sells Out Early Inventory of G1 Android Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62308
T-Mobile may have at least a short-term shortage of its G1 Android-powered phone as customers flood the company with preorders. T-Mobile said it has already sold its presale inventory of the first Google Android phone.
"Given the great anticipation and the heavy presale demand for the T-Mobile G1 with Google, we nearly tripled the number of phones initially available for delivery on our Oct. 22 launch date, and have sold through them all," T-Mobile said.
T-Mobile declined to disclose the number of phones initially available, so analysts can't discern what tripling the number means. However, Strategy Analytics has predicted T-Mobile could sell as many as 400,000 of the G1s this year. What is known is that the devices are now back-ordered until Nov. 10.
The G1 phone touts touchscreen functionality, a QWERTY keyboard, and a Google-centric mobile Web experience. It was unveiled with iPhone-like hype on Sept. 3. 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.
All hype aside, the G1's success will boil down to how well the first devices are received in the marketplace and how much effort T-Mobile, Google and HTC put into advertising the phone, according to Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia.
"Apple spent a lot of time telling people about the iPhone and educating the market," he said. "With a product like the G1, it's going take more for success than just putting the phone out there and seeing if it sells. It takes marketing and evangelizing to drive a new product like this forward."
T-Mobile has said Google will work with the wireless carrier on G1 promotion. But just what that means...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Lawsuit Seeks To Preserve Palin E-Mails
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62284
A critic of Gov. Sarah Palin is suing to try to force preservation of any government-related e-mails that Palin sent from private accounts.
Andree McLeod, a former state worker, filed the lawsuit against Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, in Anchorage on Thursday. Palin's gubernatorial spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, said Saturday she could not comment on pending litigation.
Palin's e-mail account with Yahoo Inc. was compromised last month by a hacker who revealed as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate.
Palin used "gov.sarah" in one of the Yahoo e-mail addresses she sometimes used to conduct state business. The hacker targeted her separate "gov.palin" account. Both have been shut down.
The hacking of Palin's private account is significant because Palin has sometimes used private e-mail accounts to conduct state business. Previously disclosed e-mails indicate her administration embraced Yahoo accounts as an alternative to government e-mail, which could possibly be released to the public under Alaska's Open Records Act.
"Palin's decision to conduct state business in such an unprofessional and secretive manner suggests that her promise to have an ethical, open, honest and transparent administration is pure bogus," McLeod said in a statement Saturday.
"Equally troubling is the fact that most of Palin's private e-mail accounts have recently been shut down," she said. "I'm seeking the court's help by requesting them to tell the governor to obey Alaska's public record laws."
McLeod also has submitted an open records request with the state of Alaska seeking copies from Palin's private e-mail accounts as well as one belonging to her husband, Todd. The Associated Press has submitted similar requests.
In August, McLeod filed an ethics complaint with the attorney general's office against Palin and members of her staff, accusing them of giving a state job to a man who held a...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Fraud Plagues Prepaid Calling Card Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62283
Rosalba Posada can tick off a list of problems she has encountered trying to use prepaid calling cards to stay in touch with family back in Colombia.
There were the cards that didn't deliver as many minutes as promised and the cards that charged extra fees to call a cell phone. There were the cards that offered several hundred minutes of calling time, but began deducting minutes if they were not all used in a single call. There was the card that had already expired when Posada tried to use it just a few months after buying it. And there was the card that simply didn't work at all.
"Some of those prepaid calling cards are good for nothing," said Posada, a high school registrar who lives in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and now uses Skype, a free Internet calling service, to talk with her family. "All they do is make some companies rich while we the customers have no say."
Over the past decade, the prepaid calling card business has mushroomed into a $4 billion industry that has injected new competition into the market for international phone calls and provided a critical lifeline to connect immigrants with family and friends back home. The cards are sold in gas stations, newsstands, convenience stores, bodegas and groceries across the country.
But consumer watchdogs and government officials warn that certain segments of the market are plagued by fraud and deceptive practices that give consumers fewer minutes than they pay for and tack on all sorts of hidden and unfair "junk fees."
The problem takes many forms: connection fees on calls that don't go through because no one is home or the line is busy; post-call service fees and 99-cent hang-up fees on cards that are only worth a few dollars to start with; calling rates that go up...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Connecticut Towns Grapple with New Web Law
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62281
Harwinton residents hoping to learn about recycling policies and library hours online are out of luck.
The town's Web site, which also includes a listing of municipal services, parks and recreation information and key town phone numbers, is gone. It's been replaced by a simple message that the site is "currently unavailable."
It's not an error.
Officials in the small Litchfield County town and several other Connecticut communities worry they could face lawsuits if they don't comply with a new state law requiring towns to post agendas and minutes for every board and commission on their municipal Web sites.
The law went into effect Oct. 1.
Towns such as Harwinton say they don't have the resources to post agendas at least 24 hours before all public meetings and minutes within a week afterward.
"There are so many questions," said First Selectman Frank J. Chiaramonte, who worries some town residents may leap at the opportunity to sue if Harwinton doesn't follow the law perfectly. So they've pulled the plug on their site.
The town of Roxbury, population 2,500, has the same fear. First Selectman Barbara Henry says town hall employees work part time, some only two days a week. Getting the town's board and commission meeting minutes posted on time would be impossible, she said.
State Sen. Andrew Roraback said the new law got little discussion during this year's General Assembly session. It was tacked onto a law that revokes pensions of state officials who are convicted of illegal activities in office.
Roraback said he's gotten complaints from officials in the 15 communities he represents, all saying the law is unworkable. Most towns don't have a full-time Webmaster or other person designated to regularly update municipal Web sites.
"In our zeal to make information more available to the public, we're making information less available because towns are taking down their Web...
Wed, 8 Oct 08
Verizon Says $28.1B Buyout of Alltel on Track
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62277
Verizon Wireless says it is moving forward with plans to acquire Alltel Corp. for $28.1 billion, although the country's financial climate has worsened since the companies reached an agreement four months ago.
Verizon maintains that the deal, which would make it the largest wireless carrier in the United States, is still on track to close by year's end, company spokeswoman Robin Nicol said Friday.
But a major ratings firm that evaluates companies' financial strength for world credit markets is not so sure.
"Considering the size of this deal, it would be surprising that Verizon would enter something with such significant risk that it really threatens to preclude this deal from closing," said Bill Densmore of New York-based Fitch Ratings.
In a Sept. 26 report, largely written by Densmore, Fitch identified several factors that could threaten New Jersey-based Verizon.
For one, it must have enough financial strength to buy assets it will probably have to sell in order for federal regulators to approve the deal. Also, the deal with Little Rock-based Alltel contains triggers that allow Verizon to back out if the company has to divest too many subscribers for federal approval.
So far, nothing has emerged from continuing talks between Verizon and the Department of Justice, Nicol said.
"There could be more markets we have to divest. Right now we have no idea," she said. "But even if those numbers increase, we still think we'll be able to reach an agreement with DOJ."
Tue, 7 Oct 08
eBay To Drop 1,000 Employees, Buy Two Companies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62307
One of the Internet's long-running success stories, global auction operator eBay, announced Monday that it is laying off 10 percent of its workforce in the coming weeks. Roughly 1,000 permanent employees and several hundred temporary employees will lose their jobs.
The company also announced that it expects its third-quarter revenues to be on the low end of previous estimates. Ebay's report will be released on Oct. 15.
John Donahoe, eBay's CEO, tried to put the best face on the company's planned firings: "While never an easy decision to make," he said, "these reductions will help improve our operations and strengthen our ability to continue investing in growth."
Over the balance of the year, eBay said, it will take a pretax restructuring charge, which it estimated at between $70 million and $80 million.
In the midst of the day's heavy losses on Wall Street, eBay's stock was down 6 percent, dropping to $16.70 and closing at $17.89 per share. That's well off the company's 52-week high of $40.73.
Not all of eBay's financial news was about restructuring and workforce reduction. The company announced it is spending $1.34 billion to acquire two companies, online-payment company BillMeLater and the Dutch classified-ad Web sites Den Bla Avis and BilBasen.
eBay executives hope the acquisitions will enable the company to reverse slowing sales growth and augment its PayPal payment system. BillMeLater allows consumers to get a nearly instantaneous loan and purchase items online. It remains to be seen how that model will work in an increasingly challenging economy.
In a video for CNBC, Donahoe stressed the importance of the acquisitions for eBay's long-term prospects.
"We are making aggressive moves to strengthen our leadership positions in e-commerce and payments to competitively position our company for long-term growth," Donahoe said. "BillMeLater is a perfect complement to our portfolio, a company that...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
New Readers, Software Heat Up E-Book Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62306
The battle over e-readers is heating up rapidly, thanks to new hardware entries from the world's two leading e-book manufacturers and the surprising popularity of e-book software on Apple's iPhone and iPod touch. Although the total number of e-books is still well short of a single Steven King press run, the next-generation devices point to a steadily maturing market for digital literature.
On Friday, Sony announced the latest version of its e-reader, the Sony PRS-700 Reader. The device will be released next month and will cost approximately $400.
The many gadget blogs on the Web are also speculating that Amazon is about to announce the release an updated Kindle, and a few purported photos of the device have even been posted on sites like Engadget and Boy Genius Report. However, there is no word from Amazon about when a Kindle 2.0 might hit the market.
Cost continues to be one of the main impediments to widespread adoption of e-readers. According to Ross Rubin, an analyst with the NPD Group, the cost of the new Sony device will prevent any dramatic surge in sales.
"Right now," Rubin said, "the e-reader market is a fairly small one, focusing primarily on the avid readers of New York Times best sellers and frequent travelers. Any big plans for dramatic market expansion will require a substantial reduction in price."
The Sony PRS-700 offers a number of new features, but seems unlikely to get over the cost hurdle. The new reader will keep a slim profile and low weight (10 ounces, about the weight of a paperback book). However, the company is adding a reading light and the ability to turn pages by simply touching the screen, a feature that may have been inspired by the e-reader programs for the iPhone and iPod touch.
"Readers now have another choice...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
iPhone 3G Entices Mobile-Carrier Defections
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62305
The NPD Group, a market-research firm, reports that 30 percent of the U.S. consumers who purchased Apple's iPhone 3G from its release on July 11 through August switched mobile carriers in order to join AT&T, which holds exclusive U.S. sales rights for the red-hot device.
About half of AT&T's new iPhone 3G customers elected to switch from Verizon Wireless, while 24 percent came from T-Mobile defections, and 19 percent abandoned Sprint, noted Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD.
"The launch of the lower-priced iPhone 3G was a boon to overall consumer smartphone sales," Rubin said. "While the original iPhone also helped win customers for AT&T, the faster network speeds of the iPhone 3G have proven more appealing to customers that already had access to a 3G network."
Even before the release of the iPhone 3G, AT&T's wireless business unit had been on a roll. The company said in July that its wireless revenues in the second quarter amounted to $12 billion -- a 15.8 percent increase over the prior-year period. The wireless carrier's service revenues, which exclude handset and accessory sales, grew 14.8 percent to $11 billion.
AT&T's iPhone exclusive should give the carrier a competitive edge over its rivals. "The current economic environment continues to negatively impact the market, limiting consumer spending and replacement purchases in general," said Roberta Cozza, a principal analyst at Gartner.
Despite the economic downturn, smartphones in general -- and the iPhone 3G in particular -- are expected to continue to attract a lot of consumer attention.
"As they become inexpensive gateways to the Internet from practically anywhere, smartphones are delivering a better consumer value than ever before," Rubin said. "However, more must be done to show the advantages of their operating systems to keep them ahead of increasingly sophisticated feature phones."
Tue, 7 Oct 08
Ask.com Boasts Semantic Search Enhancements
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62287
In a move to compete against Google, search engine Ask.com on Monday launched a new version of its site. The latest iteration claims significant boosts in relevance, user interface, and speed.
Ask.com is betting on proprietary technologies like DADS, DAFS and AnswerFarm to break new ground in semantic search, Web extraction, and ranking. The company said Monday's announcement marks the first of several new search-technology innovations it will introduce in the coming months.
Initial feedback from customers testing the new site has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Jim Safka, Ask.com's CEO.
"By listening to our customers and giving them what they want, we've already seen a 14 percent increase in customer satisfaction," Safka said. "Ask.com is well on its way to accelerating growth with an improved product, expanded distribution, and an emotionally resonant brand."
Ask.com said its latest search-engine improvements rely upon a combination of recent enhancements to its proprietary search technology. Specifically, the company pointed to significant advancements in its core relevance capabilities since this time last year.
Site-download speeds, for example, are 30 percent faster today than they were a year ago. These improvements, Ask.com says, have already demonstrated a 16 percent increase in customer retention.
"On average, it takes consumers three clicks to find what they are searching for online. Ask.com's goal is to reduce this to one click of the search box," Safka said. Ask hopes to achieve this goal by going deeper into the highest-volume categories, including entertainment, health and nutrition, jobs and reference.
The company said its latest enhancements give it the ability to deliver more direct answers on the results page, which lets consumers avoid back-and-forth clicking between Web pages. Ask.com said it will drill down deeper into additional categories this year.
Here's an example: Consumers doing entertainment-related searches such as "Is COPS on TV...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
IBM Shifts Focus To Cloud Computing with New Services
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62286
IBM is getting in the cloud. After a string of announcements over the past few weeks from Citrix, Red Hat, VMware, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard, Big Blue is launching an initiative to extend its traditional software delivery model toward a mix of on-premise and cloud-computing applications with new software, services and technical resources for clients and independent software vendors (ISVs).
As IBM sees it, businesses face a unique set of challenges as they look to grow in a globally integrated economy. The company described a perfect storm of data deluge, a fluid regulatory environment, and widening gaps in IT skills that add more cost pressures to resource-strapped organizations. Part of the answer, IBM says, is cloud computing.
"We are moving our clients, the industry, and even IBM itself to have a mixture of data and applications that live in the data center and in the cloud," said Willy Chiu, vice president of high-performance on-demand solutions at IBM.
Chiu said feedback from the business world inspired IBM's four-pronged cloud strategy, which includes delivering its own cloud-services portfolio; helping ISVs design, build, deliver and market cloud services; helping clients integrate cloud services into their business; and providing cloud-computing environments to businesses.
As part of its initiative, IBM is launching a free, open beta for Bluehouse, its Web-based social-networking and collaboration cloud service that aims to help professionals work together securely. Lotus Sametime Unyte is also on IBM's cloud to let businesses communicate in real time with a worldwide network of employees, partners and consumers.
IBM is also offering Rational Policy Tester OnDemand. Big Blue said the software helps reduce online risks by automating Web-content scanning to isolate privacy, quality and accessibility compliance issues.
Meanwhile, Rational AppScan OnDemand scans Web applications for security bugs, and Telelogic Focal Point helps product-management teams collect, analyze and...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
SEC Probes Posting About Steve Jobs Heart Attack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62285
On Friday a report that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital spawned a frenzy in Apple's stock. Now the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation into whether the false report was an effort to hurt the company's stock, according to CNN spokesperson Jennifer Martin.
Apple's shares plunged Friday from $106.50 to $94.65 after a "citizen's journal" report was posted on CNN's iReport Web site.
The report said "Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it."
iReport is CNN's public journalism Web site, which allows users to post videos and photos showing news from their local towns. iReport was launched in 2006 and was bought by CNN last January and relaunched in March.
The Securities and Exchange Commission's spokesperson, John Heine, said staff members are not authorized to confirm or deny whether the SEC "is investigating or not investigating" a company. But Martin said the company has been contacted by the SEC looking for information regarding the person who posted the message.
"The SEC has contacted iReport.com and we are certainly cooperating with them," Martin told us in a phone interview. "The report was taken off (the Web site) on Friday morning and the user's, who submitted that report, account was canceled."
Apple issued a statement Friday denying the...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
Facebook Cofounder Leaving To Start New Company
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62262
The Facebook duo is no more. One of Facebook's two cofounders is leaving the popular social-networking site.
Dustin Moskovitz is leaving and forming a new duo by taking engineer Justin Rosenstein with him. Together, the two will launch another company, Rosenstein said on his Facebook page.
Rosenstein, who was recruited from Google by Moskovitz in the early stages of launching the company, said the two have had similar visions on software and what Facebook needs to do to evolve as a company.
"Leaving Facebook makes me sad, but I feel I have to follow my passion on this," Rosenstein said. "I can't say enough about Facebook and the friends I've made here, and I am enormously excited for the company's future success, a destiny I'm confident it will reach regardless of my participation."
The two will leave Facebook in about a month, Rosenstein said, and build an "extensible enterprise productivity suite" and a "high-level open-source software development toolkit." The new software will use Facebook Connect as a default option for identity and authentication, according to Rosenstein.
He said the new venture is complementary to Facebook and he hopes the new company's products will be as integral to users' professional work lives as Facebook has become in their social lives.
The decision to leave was a tough one, according to Rosenstein. "As our visions for how productivity software could work came into alignment, we thought about building it inside of Facebook," he said. "It was an attractive option in many ways, and neither of us was eager to exit a company that was in such an exciting phase of its development."
The fog soon lifted and Rosenstein said it became clear that doing so would not be good for Facebook or the duo.
"Facebook needs to continue its mission of making the world more open through...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
Apple's 'Brick' Is an Innovative Manufacturing Process
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62261
New laptops from Apple, maker of such advanced products as the iPhone, the iPod and the Mac, could be made from bricks. An aluminum brick, that is.
According to reports on the Web, the computer and consumer-products innovator is about to unveil a new kind of manufacturing that carves a solid-aluminum chassis for MacBooks out of an aluminum brick. With new MacBooks scheduled to be released next week, speculation has grown that it might include models made with the brick process.
According to the reports, the manufacturing process uses lasers and water-jet cutting tools to carve the aluminum block. Some observers have suggested that, rather than making the laptop heavier, it could lead to stronger and lighter laptops.
The reason is that a solid chassis could mean no seams, bends, screws or other fastenings, saving a bit of weight and increasing strength. And, as with all Apple products, it could result in a visually pleasing device.
According to the Mac enthusiast site 9to5mac.com, the new manufacturing process is "totally revolutionary, a game changer," adding that it was the "biggest Apple innovation in a decade."
The site also reported that Apple has spent several years perfecting the process, and that it can now become more self-reliant in controlling the manufacture of its products, rather than farming them out to Chinese or Taiwanese factories. They point out that Apple CEO Steve Jobs built a totally automated plant in 1990 for his NeXT computers, an accomplishment that he said made him as proud as the computers from that company.
There are several advantages to making a chassis out of a solid metal block, the site said. In addition to seamless smoothness and no need for fasteners, the site said the chassis can be very inexpensive and creative in its shape.
Mark Margevicius, a research director...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
A Fog of Anxiety Invades Sunny Thinking in Silicon Valley
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62251
Ever since the credit crunch first gripped the financial world, Silicon Valley has watched from the sidelines, secure in the faith that it was insulated from the coming storm.
With the stock market in turmoil, a U.S. bailout up in the air and recession seemingly inevitable, that faith is now being seriously undermined. High-tech entrepreneurs, investors and executives now believe the question is when, not if, the financial chaos will have an impact on the cradle of innovation in the United States.
From San Francisco to San Jose, the effects are already palpable. This week, Apple, one of the Valley's high-fliers, lost 13 percent of its value as investors reasonably concluded that consumers would shun pricey gadgets over the holidays in favor of lower ticket items -- or paying down their credit cards.
On Monday, Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, traveling in Europe, conceded that financial problems would drag down business and consumer spending -- and that many technology companies, including Microsoft, were vulnerable. (Page 20)
The heart of the Valley's success is, of course, its ecosystem of start-up companies. Many claim that ecosystem remains healthy, thanks to the lessons learned and prudence gained from the dot.com crash.
Nevertheless, a dense fog of anxiety has settled over the land.
"Funding will tighten up. We are certainly going to see some ripple effects," said Ron Conway, a prominent angel investor who has invested in hundreds of Web start-ups over the last decade. Start-ups that have less than six months of cash in the bank "better reduce costs," Conway said. "I will certainly be advising my companies to do that."
Silicon Valley has recited several calming mantras to itself during the prolonged economic turbulence. As the influence of the Internet becomes even more pervasive, goes one mantra, advertising will inevitably follow. Blue-chip tech firms like Google, eBay and...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
Google Aims To Reform Energy Grid
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62249
Google hopes to do for the power grid what it did for the Web.
Having conquered the market for Web search by first simplifying how it is done and then making sales of related advertising more efficient, Google is now funding green technology and using its brand power to lobby for policy change.
Google introduced a plan Wednesday to wean the United States off the burning of coal and oil for power by 2030 and to cut oil use for cars by 40 percent. Such initiatives could cost trillions of dollars, but Google believes they should ultimately save money.
Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the annual cost of the Google energy plan would still be less than the $700 billion being considered to bail out the financial industry. He also cited parallels between the energy challenge and the credit crisis.
"That is an unconscionable failure of system design," he said, referring to the credit crisis. "It is inconceivable to me that the sum of the financial industry would have created that as a possible outcome."
He said Google had not yet felt the economic impact of the financial turmoil, but he added that it was hard to say what would happen next.
"There is an equivalent-scale problem in energy," he said after delivering a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. His talk was titled "Where Would Google Drill?"
"I'm a computer scientist and computer scientists love scale problems," Schmidt said. "We like scale and replication and leverage in a technical way."
Through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, the company is backing start-ups designing wind, solar and geothermal technologies, which it hopes will eventually be cheaper than coal. Google invested $45 million in such companies this year.
"But that is a drop when we need a flood," Google says on its official blog.
Calls for energy efficiency and...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
Cyber Expert Details Internet-Safety Dangers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62246
It took computer safety expert Linda Criddle only nine minutes to snag the phone number of a teenage girl in Nebraska who had posted just a little information about herself on a social networking Web site.
Criddle is a former Microsoft employee who specialized in online safety and is the author of a consumer-safety book, "Look Both Ways: Help Protect Your Family on the Internet."
She spoke at the Economic Crime Conference sponsored by the Utah Attorney General's Office on Thursday -- with a message that would send shivers down any parent's spine.
Criddle said social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, can be useful tools, as are other things such as online banking and shopping, which she uses regularly. But she strongly urges consumers to protect themselves with the best safety software available and to be extremely cautious about revealing personal information.
Criddle on Thursday focused primarily on how criminals profile victims through the Internet. The Nebraska teen, Brittany, offered a sobering example.
The girl offered scant written material but posted two photos that could be a road map for crimes -- not only for sexual predators but also for other types of criminals. The first showed a young girl sitting on the porch of her house. Another photo showed the view from her home, with a car and her father in the foreground.
What's the problem?
Criddle pointed out that the girl's socioeconomic status could be determined by the house, car and the child's manner of dress; the house address numbers were visible; the view from the house showed an easily identifiable business; and a railing suggested an older person might live there.
Thieves might want grandma's valuables. Someone could stake out the house from the business across the street and burglarize it. As for Brittany, what little data she provided was enough to reveal...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
Apple's Case Against Psystar Comes into Focus
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62241
Apple's filing to dismiss with prejudice Psystar's countersuit revealed the tenants of Apples' strategy to win. The basis of Apple's argument is that Mac OS X and Macs do not, in themselves, create a legally plausible market, antitrust does not apply, and Apple has no obligation to share its sources of advantage.
An attorney who has been following the case, and wishes to remain anonymous, explained Apple's argument to [The Mac Observer] on Thursday:
"First, all of Psystar's counterclaims require the definition of a legally plausible relevant market. Second, Psystar's attempt to define the markets as OS X and OS X-capable computers do not define legally and factually plausible relevant markets. That's because the U.S. Supreme Court and all of the U.S. Circuit Courts, that have considered the issue, have rejected the proposition that an company having a monopoly in its own brand of a class of products is a violation of antitrust law. [TMO emphasis added.]
"Even Psystar's own responses admit that Apple's Mac OS X is only one brand of operating system in a vigorously competitive market consisting of Mac OS X, Windows and Linux -- where the dominant player is Microsoft. As a result, Apple has no 'market power.'
"Finally, even if Apple did have market power, according the U.S. Supreme Court and the 2nd Circuit, Apple wouldn't have any obligation under antitrust law to share the legitimate sources of its advantage in the market (for example, valid patent or copyrights) with competitors," he said.
The key to all this is that Mac OS X is just one brand of an OS, a minority OS, in a broader market, and so Antitrust issues do not apply. Apple, in its arguments, has supported these facts that are well accepted in law and confirmed by higher courts, and, accordingly, has asked that the countersuit...
Tue, 7 Oct 08
Fuel Costs Drive Increased Contact Center Interactions
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62131
The rise in fuel costs has far-reaching implications, even in the contact center industry. While this phenomenon has been attributed to the rise in home-based agents, it is also causing a rise in contact center interactions as a result of an increase in Internet use among rural residents.
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According to New Zealand rural broadband provider, Farmside, there was a 97 percent increase in inquiries through its contact centers in April, with a similar pattern emerging through May. The company contributes this increase to a surge in rural residents opting to use the Internet for routine tasks in an effort to offset rising fuel costs.
"They realize they can save money by using the Internet for errands that have traditionally required a personal trip, like banking, shopping, vehicle registration, study or even doing tax returns," Farmside sales and marketing director Nick Carter said, in a company statement.
A Ministry of Transport Ongoing Household Travel Survey has found that the average driver in rural New Zealand spends 300 hours driving nearly 15,000km each year. Nearly 30 percent of this travel is due to shopping or carrying out other personal business.
Carter noted that with the increase in online services offered by the retail, business and government sectors, rural people are becoming more aware of how using the Internet could save on travel costs.
The challenge in this increase is that contact centers may not be adequately prepared for such increases. Workforce management software solutions can go long way in helping the contact center to prepare for spikes in call volume. Such programs, however, examine known variables, such as campaigns, seasons, and past performance, to name a few.
While it is true that rising fuel costs are impacting economies throughout the world, contact centers may not be fully prepared for the increase in volume. This is where it...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Fake Jobs Heart-Attack Posting Batters Apple's Stock
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62260
"It is not true. There is no truth to the rumor." That was the terse denial issued by Katie Cotton, vice president of worldwide communications for Apple, in response to a post on CNN's iReport that Apple CEO Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack Friday.
The report, which was pulled from the iReport site at about 10:15 a.m., was dramatic: "Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable."
At 9:41 a.m., about the time the report was apparently posted, Apple stock was trading at its high for the day at $106.50 per share. In just 11 minutes, the share price fell more than 10 percent, to $95.406.
Thanks to Apple's quick and firm denial, the stock recovered early losses, but at midafternoon was still trading below $100.
Shortly after removing the story, CNN issued a brief statement that read in part: "After the content in question was uploaded to iReport.com, the community brought it to our attention. Based on our Terms of Use that govern user behavior on iReport.com, the fraudulent content was removed from the site and the user's account was disabled."
There was no word about whether the report was a deliberate attempt to manipulate Apple's stock price, although it's likely that possibility will be investigated carefully.
As any grifter knows, the best cons play into people's preconceptions. For much of the past year, online medical evaluations of Jobs have been a cottage industry. Things reached a fevered pitch in June, when he appeared at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference looking thin and wan.
The speculation...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Sony Launches E-Book Reader with Touchscreen Display
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62259
In a move to compete with Amazon's Kindle e-book reader, Sony on Thursday launched a new Reader that leverages some of the Apple iPhone's strengths.
Specifically, the Sony PRS-700 Reader boasts an interactive touchscreen display that promises an intuitive digital reading experience. The latest addition to Sony's Reader lineup has the dimensions of a slimmed-down paperback book in a textured black casing with a soft black cover. It weighs about 10 ounces. The new Reader will be available next month for about $400.
"Readers now have another choice in digital books," said Steve Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reading business division. "This new model has the eye-popping design and intuitive functionality that people have come to expect from Sony."
Of course, "eye-popping" is in the eye of the beholder. What consumers will see in the PRS-700 is a device with a six-inch display with touchscreen capabilities that allows book enthusiasts to flip pages with the slide of a finger. Users can also search terms within a document or book, create notes using the virtual keyboard, and highlight text with a stylus pen that comes as part of the package.
The PRS-700 offers five preset text sizes, so readers can choose which is easiest on their eyes. Readers accustomed to large-print books can zoom in by tapping the screen. Sony said the device offers a high-resolution, high-contrast electronic paper-display technology that generates a reading experience akin to ink on paper.
Sony said its technology makes it possible to read e-books even in bright sunlight, and the PRS-700 offers a built-in LED reading light so users can keep on reading even when ambient light is not available. The new Reader can store about 350 digital books and offers the option of a removable memory stick or SD memory cards that expand the...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Reactions Positive as CRB Sets Stable Music Rates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62258
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington ruled Thursday that music publishers and artists are entitled to a royalty payment of just more than nine cents for each track sold online. In addition, the CRB established a royalty rate of 24 cents for content used as ringtones.
The ruling is the first to formally establish a rate for digital downloads. Until now, online stores such as Apple's iTunes Store had been paying the same rate paid to artists for CD tracks. The new ruling will remain in place until 2012, bringing a level of predictability to the online music industry.
The CRB's decision also brings to a close the brief but entertaining drama sparked by Apple's comments that it might shutter the iTunes Store rather than swallow a royalty rate increase. The implicit threat had received a lot of attention recently, but was derided by some analysts, who noted the Web site's strong revenues and integral role in promoting Apple hardware.
Although copyright holders had been asking the CRB to increase digital-music royalties from nine cents to 15 cents, the decision to extend CD royalty rates to online tracks received support from both sides of the issue.
Apple had the least to say, offering only a brief statement that the company is "pleased with the CRB's decision to keep royalty rates stable." However, Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association -- a trade group whose members include iTunes, Amazon.com, Best Buy, and other online music stores -- offered a broader assessment.
"During this challenging time for the music industry and digital stores and services," Potter said, "we are pleased with the CRB's decision to keep royalty rates stable for the next five years. Keeping rates where they are will help digital services and retailers continue to innovate and grow for the...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
DOJ Expected To Rule on Google-Yahoo This Month
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62257
Advertisers and lawmakers, along with Google and Yahoo executives, are eagerly awaiting a decision from the Department of Justice on the Internet search giants' ad agreement. The DOJ is expected to decide by mid-October whether Google can provide Yahoo with search advertisements.
At stake are the future of search advertising prices and whether Yahoo could remain in the search business. Some observers think the long process indicates the DOJ is considering views from opponents of the deal.
"My best guess is that they'll either oppose or approve the deal in its entirety, but the fact that it's taking so long for the DOJ to make up its mind makes me hopeful that they will seek the type of restrictions we have proposed," said Norman Hawker, senior fellow at the American Antitrust Institute.
The institute released a white paper on the agreement, calling it "presumptively anticompetitive with procompetitive benefits," and suggested several provisions.
Both Yahoo and Google have said the deal is procompetitive and will benefit advertisers, consumers and publishers.
"The Internet is a dynamic, competitive environment due to the openness which has always been its hallmark," said Google attorney David Drummond. "Let there be no doubt about this point -- Google and Yahoo will remain fierce competitors in search online advertising and many other products and services."
Bob Liodice, president of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), is happy with the length of time it is taking the DOJ.
"It's not a long time," Liodice said in an interview with us. "They are simply doing their due diligence. This has broad implications, so they must be sure to do it right and their investigation mirrors the seriousness for what they need to accomplish."
Liodice, who posed several questions to Yahoo about the deal on Wednesday, heard back from the company's executive vice president, Hillary...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Adds a 'Human Interface'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62256
Nokia has taken the wraps off a new smartphone powered by the latest version of the company's Symbian S60 operating system for mobile devices. By adding the benefits of touchscreen technology to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the company is taking the familiar and giving it a human touch, according to Nokia Senior Vice President Jo Harlow.
"As Nokia's first mass-market device with a touchscreen, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic turns a 'user interface' into a 'human interface' by truly putting people first," Harlow said. "For example, we've introduced the Nokia Contacts Bar, which is like a digital RSS feed on your life."
The smartphone's Contacts Bar enables users to scroll through Web pages and interact directly with Web content at the touch of a finger, Harlow said.
"We have used touch technology where it really adds value such as the Contacts Bar, Media Bar, and clever shortcuts from the home screen to menu items such as calendar, profiles and clock," she explained. Users can highlight up to four favorite contacts "on their home screen and, through a single touch, track a digital history of recent text messages, e-mails, phone logs, photos and blog updates," Harlow added.
The Media Bar is a drop-down menu that provides users with direct access to multimedia content, including favorite music tracks, videos, photos and Flash-based Web content. The device supports the recording and playback of VGA-quality video at a full 30 frames per second.
The Nokia 5800, which is slated for worldwide release in current quarter, sports a 3.2-inch-wide screen featuring a cinematic 16-by-nine aspect ratio, a virtual Qwerty-style keyboard, 8GB of storage space, and support for tactile feedback. On the music front, the device is equipped with stereo speakers, a graphic equalizer, and support for all popular digital-music formats.
The...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Skype Investigates China Surveillance of Messages
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62240
Skype is answering concerns about its joint venture with TOM Online in China. A report released Thursday by Canadian human-rights activists revealed a massive surveillance system that monitors Skype messages containing words China's government deems offensive.
Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto, released the report, Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China's TOM-Skype platform.
Skype President Josh Silverman wrote on the company's blog about the company's position and what the eBay subsidiary is doing.
Silverman wrote that Chinese regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages that offend Chinese authorities. Examples include "Taiwan independence," "the Falun Gong," and "political opposition to the Communist Party of China."
"It is common knowledge that censorship does exist in China and that the Chinese government has been monitoring communications in and out of the country for many years," Silverman wrote. "This, in fact, is true for all forms of communication such as e-mails, fixed and mobile phone calls, and instant messaging between people within China and between China and other countries."
Silverman added that Skype publicly disclosed in April 2006 that TOM operated a text filter blocking certain words in text messages, and that if a message is found to be unsuitable, TOM is supposed to discard it. Skype, he insisted, didn't realize TOM was storing the messages and is now digging into the issue to find out why the protocol changed.
What's more, Skype said it learned about a security break for the first time on Wednesday. The breach made it possible for people to gain access to the stored messages on TOM's servers. Silverman said TOM quickly moved to fix the breach.
"It's important to remind everybody that the issues highlighted in yesterday's Information Warfare Monitor/ONI Asia report refer only to...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Review: Xpaper Eases Digitizing of Paper Documents
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62231
Promises of the paperless office have been circulating ever since the first IBM clones started showing up on desks in the early 1980s. Yet we're still tied to printed documents and there's no sign that's going to change.
With that in mind, the Xpaper PDF digital writing system from Talario Inc. ($400 for use with Windows XP, $450 for Vista) is designed to improve a computer's relationship with the paper document.
Here's how it works.
Typically, real-estate agents, salespeople, contractors, doctors or lawyers might sign a paper document and then scan it to put a digital version in a computer. That is slow. With the Xpaper system, you can simply print out a document and use the digital pen to sign the sheet. When you dock the pen with a computer, the image of the signature joins the document, which is ready to be saved, faxed or e-mailed to anyone needing a copy.
When Xpaper first debuted more than two years ago it had a limitation found in other digital pens: It required specially encoded paper. Having to keep track of the sheets' code numbers and load them properly into a printer tray proved cumbersome. This new, more efficient version allows users to produce encoded copies of any document with their own printers and scribble in a signature, initials or other handwritten notes using an included Logitech pen that's part digital, part ballpoint.
Each page printed as an Xpaper consists of a precisely printed pattern of dots that act like a GPS coordinate system. No two pages are alike, so the electronic pen's sensor instantly recognizes which page it's writing on and its exact location on that page.
The software package includes 150 digital ink credits; you're docked one credit for each Xpaper page that's written on and loaded into a computer. Additional digital ink credits,...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
How Can I Make My Computer Run Faster, for Free?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62229
Q. My computer has gotten slower and slower at doing basic things like booting up and running multiple programs at once. How do I improve its performance without spending any money?
A: You're wise to try to fix this problem yourself, for free. There are a few things you can do to make your computer feel more like the brilliant multitasking machine you want it to be and less like the wheezer it's turned into.
Let's start by setting aside one thing that a lot of people try but we won't recommend here. It's called overclocking, and it involves tweaking your PC's hardware settings to make the central processor or system memory run faster than their manufacturers officially intended. It can get tricky.
Besides, unless you're running nuclear simulations or are a huge video game player, your standard home PC probably should be fast enough for what you need. The problem isn't in the hardware. It's in all the software that's gotten larded onto it.
So here are some simple things to do to gain more control.
- Reduce the programs that automatically launch at startup. Windows offers a few ways to do this; one easy way is to click icons for programs on the taskbar, which most people have on the bottom of the screen. If you select the icons for instant-messaging programs like AOL's AIM service, look for a chance to adjust "options" or "settings." Find the box that tells the program to automatically begin running at startup, and unclick it. And next time you download a new piece of software, check the default installation choices carefully, and make sure you really want something to begin running at startup.
- Cut down on add-ons. You don't have to run every aspect of a useful program. For example, Google Desktop is great at indexing and...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Hollywood Studios Agree to Digital Rollout
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62227
Five Hollywood studios have agreed to help pay for a $1 billion-plus rollout of digital technology on about 20,000 movie screens in North America, a precursor to showing movies in 3-D.
Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a consortium of major theater chains, announced the deal Wednesday. The rollout in the United States and Canada, covering about half of all screens, is planned to start early next year.
To help offset the costs -- about $70,000 per screen -- the studios plan to pay the consortium slightly under $1,000 per movie per screen, roughly the same amount it costs them to print and ship a celluloid film copy.
Adding digital equipment is the critical first step in the technological upgrade to being able to show 3-D movies.
More than 20 3-D movies are set to hit theaters through 2010, but only 873 locations in the U.S. and Canada, with 1,264 3-D screens, are available now, according to The Walt Disney Co., a signatory to the digital rollout.
Disney plans to release five 3-D movies next year, including a Jonas Brothers concert movie in February.
The digital expansion will help convert more screens to show 3-D movies, which have packed theaters and commanded higher ticket prices than their 2-D counterparts.
"It should ultimately improve the grosses," said Chuck Viane, president of domestic distribution for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. "People will just fall in love with the medium."
Viane expected 1,500 to 2,000 locations, many with multiple screens, would be able to show 3-D movies by the end of 2009.
The studios in the deal include The Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Blackstone Group are leading the financing but will have to tap the turbulent credit markets in the fourth...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
You Say You're Eco-Friendly, But Is Your PC?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62224
Reusable tote bag? Check. Prius? Check. Rooftop solar panels? Check. In the bid to secure your green bragging rights, you have the usual suspects covered.
But what about your personal computer?
After all, the object that, via the Internet, can provide you with more information on how to lead an environmentally sound life can also be one of the things that contributes to the very same problem.
Consider the following: A standard-issue PC, left on all the time (a not-uncommon situation) consumes 746 kilowatts per hour a year, according to estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By comparison, a refrigerator uses about 500 kilowatts a year. Surely there are things that users can do to reduce their computer's environmental footprint. Read on to learn ways to run your PC more efficiently, make environmentally intelligent purchasing decisions and to dispose of an old computer properly.
The first piece of advice is the simplest: Don't leave your computer on all the time. Shutting it down at night should reduce its power consumption by around 500 kilowatts annually. In addition, your computer should be set to go to sleep after periods of inactivity. Different parts of your system can be set to sleep at different times: Setting your energy-saving preferences to put your hard drive to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity is a good benchmark; your entire computer (which takes more time to wake up) should be set to go to sleep after 30 minutes.
And ditch your screensaver. Screensavers can use your hard drive to power up and photo screensavers require the extra use of a graphics card, which means you'll have the hard drive, graphics card and monitor all in use.
Screensavers are "a throwback from the days of really old-school CRT monitors," Barbara Grimes, spokeswoman for the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, said...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Outsourcing Aids Many Data Thefts, Verizon Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62222
The reliance of restaurant chains and retail stores on outside companies to handle credit-card processing and other information-technology functions is partly to blame for a rash of consumer data breaches over the last few years, according to data sleuths at Verizon Communications Inc.
Even a chain with thousands of restaurants might have only 100 employees in information technology, so it uses outside vendors for many IT functions, said Bryan Sartin, director of the investigative response team at Verizon Business.
"What happens is there's a lack of accountability on the third party," Sartin said.
Verizon's unit investigates a quarter to a third of the big, publicly announced data breaches that occur each year, and hundreds of smaller cases.
In recent years, restaurant and retail businesses have accounted for more than half of Verizon's 230 to 250 cases per year, according to a report Verizon issued Thursday. It often finds that insiders at service vendors are part of the heists.
Organized data-stealing gangs "go to the call centers, the Web development companies, the content development companies, the business partners, the people who pick up the backup tapes," Sartin said. "They say ... if you hate your boss and you're in financial straits, we're your solution. Give us access to your customers. Better yet, give us your data."
In a typical case Sartin was involved in, the team was approached by a large oil company in Canada, with thousands of gas stations. Customers were finding spurious charges on their credit cards after using them at the stations.
The team soon figured out that someone at a technology vendor was responsible, but couldn't pin it down. So the investigators set a trap in the system, to see who accessed customer data.
"The trap went off on Saturday morning," Sartin said. "Hackers always think nobody's looking on Saturday mornings."
A police car headed to...
Sat, 4 Oct 08
Safari Inches Up, While Internet Explorer Inches Down
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62219
Apple's Safari Web browser continued to grab market share in September, inching up to 6.65 percent from August's 6.37 percent. In comparison, Microsoft's Internet Explorer continued its downward trend to drop below 72 percent for the first time, according to data from Market Share.
The Windows-only Internet Explorer started September with 72.15 percent of the Web browser market share, but dipped down to 71.52 percent by the end of the month. Microsoft's browser had been steadily losing market share for months on end.
Firefox, however, reversed its upward trend slightly to dip from 19.75 percent down to 19.46 percent. Considering variations in Web browsing habits and data tracking, the cross-platform browser likely maintained its position compared to August.
Safari and Firefox have been on an upward swing for months as interest in both browsers continues to grow. In comparison, Internet Explorer has been losing market share to both for well over a year, which is likely an indication that many Windows users are hunting for alternatives to Microsoft's market dominating Web browser.
Google's Windows-only Chrome Web browser made its debut in September, and managed to carve out its own little niche on the stats chart with 0.78 percent of the market share. Since the newcomer only has a few weeks under its belt, there's no way to know yet if it will have a significant impact on the other browsers that are already established in the marketplace.
While the statistics are handy for getting snapshot overviews of a particular Web browser's popularity, looking at the numbers over time offers a better impression of overall popularity. In this case, the numbers seem to indicate a growing interest in Safari and Firefox at the expense of Internet Explorer.
Fri, 3 Oct 08
CRB Keeps Music Playing with Unchanged Royalties
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62239
In an eagerly awaited decision, the Copyright Royalty Board announced Thursday that it will not increase the royalties paid by online music stores to members of the National Music Publisher's Association. The decision to keep the royalty rate at nine cents per song is the first ruling by the CRB on digital-music downloads.
The controversy caused considerable controversy online, particularly in the wake of comments by Apple representatives suggesting the company would no longer be able to profitably operate its popular iTunes Store.
The NMPA had asked the CRB to raise the royalty rate from nine to 15 cents, a 66 percent increase. Apple protested, arguing that due to massive infrastructure costs, the profit margins on each iTunes music sale are too slim to absorb the proposed increase.
In fact, Apple has repeatedly pushed to have the nine-cent royalty reduced, saying it is unnecessarily high.
Susan Kevorkian, the program director, consumer markets, for IDC, agreed with Apple's assessment of the economics of the online music business. "Margins on a la carte downloads are extremely tight," Kevorkian said, "and Apple has been able to run the iTunes Store profitably due to its high volume."
How much profit is a little difficult to ascertain, but it's almost certainly a respectable amount. According to industry estimates, Apple will sell roughly 2.5 billion tracks of music this year, for an estimated profit that could be as low as $200 million but might be three times as much.
Those estimates do not include the synergistic relationship that the iTunes Store has with Apple's enormously popular (and profitable) line of iPod devices and its iPhone.
Kevorkian said that even if the CRB had ruled in favor of the royalty increase, she didn't believe Apple would shut down iTunes. Instead, she said, the company would finally have considered the...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Netflix Adds Starz To Advance Online Strategy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62238
Netflix has inked an agreement with Starz Entertainment under which Netflix subscribers will gain unlimited access to 2,500 additional movies and other choices from the Starz Play broadband subscription-movie service.
This latest deal follows on the heels of two recent Netflix agreements with the CBS Television Network and Disney-ABC Television Group, which add current-season episodes of popular CBS and ABC TV shows to the company's growing portfolio of online video content.
Distribution agreements like the Starz deal reflect "the creative ways we are working with content partners to expand the profile and the number of choices our subscribers can watch instantly over the Internet, in addition to the 100,000 titles we offer on DVD through the mail," according to Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix.
Gartner projects that worldwide subscriptions to the Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services offered by Netflix and its many competitors will rise by 64.1 percent year-over-year to reach 19.6 million customers in 2008. On the downside, however, Netflix and its rivals will face an increasingly competitive video-streaming landscape going forward.
"The biggest change since 2007 is the rapid advent of new entrants making inroads in consumer video consumption and placing greater demands on IPTV operators to innovate," said Elroy Jopling, Gartner research director. "The video consumption field will become increasingly crowded."
Moreover, despite all the hoopla, the market is still in its infancy. According to Gartner, only 1.1 percent of households worldwide will be IPTV subscribers by the end of this year, and worldwide household penetration is expected to grow to only 2.8 percent by the end of 2012.
Yankee Group analyst Josh Martin agrees that the online video market is still taking shape. "But Netflix has a lot at stake because it already has millions of subscribers renting DVDs through the mail," he...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
China Reportedly Spying on Skype Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62236
Canadian human-rights activists and computer security researchers have uncovered a massive surveillance system in China that monitors Skype messages containing words deemed offensive to the Communist government.
Specifically, the technology is keeping track of messages TOM-Skype customers are sending. TOM-Skype is a joint venture between eBay (Skype's owner) and a Chinese wireless company.
Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto, released an investigative report called "Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China's TOM-Skype platform" this week to expose the issue.
Citizen Lab researchers report four key findings. For example, the text of chat messages of TOM-Skype users, along with Skype users who have communicated with TOM-Skype users, is scanned for sensitive keywords.
When those keywords -- such as "Taiwan independence," "the Falun Gong," and "political opposition to the Communist Party of China" -- are discovered in conversations, the information is uploaded and stored on servers in China.
What's more, there is filtering in place to block text messages that contain these and other politically charged words. And these text messages, along with millions of records containing personal information, are stored on insecure, publicly accessible Web servers together with the encryption key required to decrypt the data.
"Our analysis suggests that the surveillance is not solely keyword-driven," Citizen Lab said. "Many of the captured messages contain words that are too common for extensive logging, suggesting that there may be criteria, such as specific user names, that determine whether messages are captured by the system."
The University of Toronto's Information Warfare Monitor Web site archived more than 166,000 censored messages from 44,000 users in a two-month period. The researchers could not conclude who is operating the surveillance system, but suspect it could be the Chinese wireless company in conjunction with Chinese police.
Skype is not the...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Nokia CEO Says New Entrants Transform Mobile Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62235
Nokia, the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, has seen its market become more volatile and competitive. In remarks Wednesday at the Churchill Club, a Silicon Valley business and technology forum, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told attendees that the face of mobile technology is changing.
"The industry as a whole is in the middle of a transformation, and it's a very exciting time," Kallasvuo said. "It's moving from a device industry to an experience industry, and we're making a conscious long-term effort to capitalize on that."
Kallasvuo specifically noted the many new entrants into the cellular marketplace, including some of the world's largest tech companies: Apple, Research In Motion (RIM), Microsoft and now Google.
"Suddenly you have the mightiest companies in the world there as your competitors. That is a little mind-boggling," Kallasvuo said. At the same time, however, he said that the increased interest in using the Internet on mobile devices has been a boon to Nokia.
In fact, Nokia was to unveil in London the Tube 5800, a smartphone with a touchscreen that will compete head-to-head with Apple's iPhone. According to the gadget trackers at T3, the candy-bar-style phone will run the Nokia Symbian S60 operating system, and will be compatible with the Comes with Music subscription service for downloading music.
At the Churchill Club, Forbes magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard asked Kallasvuo if he liked the Apple iPhone. Kallasvuo was cautious in his assessment.
"Whether I like it or not, I definitely admire the people who make it happen," Kallasvuo replied. "I give Apple a lot of credit and thank Apple. They have done a service to the community. We have a credible competitor."
Another credible competitor, clearly, is Google and its Android operating system, although Kallasvuo said it is too early to know how much impact the new OS will...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Engineer Was Texting Seconds Before Train Wreck
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62234
Text messaging may have claimed the lives of 25 people, while injuring 135, investigators say. Robert Sanchez, the driver of a Los Angeles Metrolink commuter train that crashed head-on with a freight locomotive, may have been text messaging seconds before the fatal crash, according to subpoenaed reports from Verizon Wireless. Records show the driver had received a text at 4:21.03 p.m. and sent a text at 4:22.01 p.m. The two trains crashed seconds later at 4:22.23 p.m.
Records also showed that during his time operating the train, the engineer received seven text messages and sent five. Earlier in the day, during a two-hour morning shift, the engineer's cell phone received 21 text messages and sent 24 text messages.
"I am pleased with the progress of this major investigation to date," said Mark V. Rosenker, acting NTSB chairman. "We are continuing to pursue many avenues of inquiry to find what caused this accident and what can be done to prevent such a tragedy in the future."
So far, the investigation has found that the driver missed a red light, which caused the two trains to collide. What has not yet been determined is if his text messaging caused the crash, if he had an obstructed view, or if something else such as fog came into play.
Speculation about the driver being at fault has caused debate between those in the industry who say a number of things could have been factored into the crash, with those who believe the driver's texting caused the wreck.
Just after the September 12 crash in Chatsworth, California, which claimed Sanchez's life and the lives of 24 others, the National Transportation Safety Board banned drivers' use of mobile phones while operating a train. Using a cell phone while on duty was against Metrolink rules.
The situation has pushed lawmakers to...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Nintendo DSi Adds Multimedia, Game Downloads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62218
There's a new Nintendo kid on the block. On Wednesday, Nintendo confirmed rumors of a new version of the popular DS portable game machine, called the DSi. The announcement was made during the game giant's fall press conference.
The new device offers a 640x480 camera, a slot for SD cards, the ability to play music, a screen that is 17 percent larger than on the DS Lite, a built-in Web browser, and the ability to download games via Wi-Fi from a DSi Shop. The DSi is slated to be released in Japan on November for about $180, with worldwide release on a regional basis sometime next year.
The camera could enable new forms of game play, allowing the user to write on images, modify faces, or mix photos. As with its popular Wii console, which introduced video games to market segments that were not previously considered gamers, the company said the DSi is designed to be the first camera for children as well a tool for older users.
Games in the DSi Shop will be available free or for Nintendo points, such as the 1,000 points DSi customers get to spend through 2010.
Industry observers see this newest version of the DS as a countermove by Nintendo against new advances in portable game devices from Sony and Apple. Sony has indicated it will sell a new version of its PSP portable this month with a higher-resolution screen and a built-in microphone. Apple's iPods and iPhones are becoming popular game devices, helping to expand the growing category of motion-sensing games.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told news media that, while DS sales have been strong, he doesn't expect "the momentum will last much longer because the player has been available for almost four years." The DS has sold nearly 80 million...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Apple Drops iPhone 2.0 NDA, Developers Rejoice
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62217
After putting up a wall protecting its iPhone technology, Apple instead started a war with developers -- but now the company is waiving the white flag.
In an effort to stop its technology and innovation from being stolen, Apple placed a non-disclosure agreement for its developers working on applications for the iPhone that went along with its iPhone OS 2.O before it was officially released.
Apple has filed for hundreds of patents on the iPhone technology and said it thought the NDA would add another layer of protection. So the company kept the NDA with the release of iPhone 2.0.
Wrong. Instead it made developers question Apple's control of communication between developers and made many developers angry.
In about a week developers will receive an agreement without the attached NDA, according to the company, but unreleased software and features will continue under the NDA until they are released.
This is good news for developers who had been upset with Apple's recent actions.
"The NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success, so we are dropping it for released software," read a statement from Apple on its iPhone developer Web site.
Fraser Speirs, a Cocoa coder, spoke out against Apple's initial decision and vowed not to write another application for the device until Apple changed its ways. On Thursday, however, Speirs had a lot to smile about.
"Prerelease Mac OS X development has always been under NDA, but once an OS was on sale, we were free to talk about it," he wrote in his blog. "I can't blog about Snow Leopard, but I can post all the Leopard code I want. Until yesterday, that wasn't the case with the iPhone. Anyway, thanks to Apple for the moves on...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Lenovo, Others Jumping into Netbook Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62210
Computer makers are betting consumers want a product that's more than a smart phone but less than a full-featured laptop. Lenovo, the Chinese company with worldwide headquarters in Morrisville, N.C., is the latest to enter the burgeoning market for netbooks -- also known as Internet PCs. This month, Lenovo announced plans for a 1-inch-thick IdeaPad netbook with a 10-inch screen. Starting price: $399.
Lenovo's entry, which will begin shipping next month, is part of its broader push beyond the business market into consumer sales. In January, the company that bought IBM's PC business in 2005 jumped into the consumer arena in the U.S.
But Lenovo will have plenty of competition in the netbook category, which was jump-started last year when Taiwanese computer maker Asus introduced the $300 Eee PC. By contrast, high-end laptops go for more than $2,000.
In addition to a host of smaller companies, industry mainstays such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer have launched netbooks. Dell is expected to do so shortly.
"It just exploded," said Paul Goldenberg, general manager of Digital Gadgets, a company that this year launched a line of netbooks under the Sylvania brand. "When Asus entered the market, everyone followed."
A netbook is smaller, lighter and cheaper than a laptop. They're made for basic functions, such as surfing the Web and using e-mail and other Web-based applications available from sites such as Google Docs. They're not designed for running shrink-wrapped software.
Need a DVD drive? Do you intend to keep photos on your hard drive? If so, you should buy the mainstream product.
Lenovo isn't ready to detail its marketing plans but says since the netbook is designed primarily for Internet use, one focus of its campaign will be social networking sites.
The rush to netbooks has raised some concerns that they'll cannibalize laptop sales...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Congress OKs Bill To Improve Broadband Access
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62200
Congress has passed legislation that will require the government to keep closer tabs on who has access to the Internet and who does not.
Supporters hope the Broadband Data Improvement Act will help policymakers better identify areas of the country that are falling behind when it comes to high-speed Internet access.
The bill passed both houses of Congress, with the Senate approving a final version Tuesday on a voice vote.
Senate sponsor Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said the federal government has a responsibility to make sure Americans have access to the Internet, but "we cannot manage what we do not measure."
The Federal Communications Commission collects data on broadband use, but its methods have been criticized as outdated. The commission voted in March to greatly improve its data collection. Broadband providers will be required to provide subscription numbers by Census tract, speed and type of technology.
The legislation passed by Congress goes further. It requires the FCC to conduct consumer surveys of broadband use in urban, suburban and rural areas, as well as large and small business markets. Survey questions will include the cost of access and data transmission speeds.
The legislation requires the agency to compile a list of locales that lack broadband service and determine population and income levels in those areas.
The bill also requires the Census Bureau to add questions about Internet use on its survey. Residents will be asked whether they have a computer, whether they have Internet access and, if so, whether they have a dial-up or broadband connection.
It also orders the Government Accountability Office to study broadband speeds and costs and to compare the "availability and quality of broadband offerings" in the U.S. to other industrialized nations.
Such an analysis might provide some insight as to why the U.S. -- the birthplace of the Internet -- lags behind other developed countries...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Matsushita Adopts the Panasonic Name
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62199
After nearly a century of existence, Matsushita Electric Industrial is ditching its founder's name to trade under one name globally -- Panasonic, its best-known brand -- hoping this and an $11 billion reserve of cash will increase its growth outside Japan and help the company compete with rivals like Samsung and Sony.
Expansion overseas is an urgent task for Matsushita, which earns half its revenue from its home base of Japan, where the population is aging. Sony earns more than three quarters of its sales outside Japan, helped in part by its strong brand name.
Matsushita markets its products outside Japan under the Panasonic brand, while in Japan it sells home appliances under the National brand, splitting customer attention and employee identity among the three brands.
"We will strive not to waste even one moment of our effort or one drop of our sweat, and focus everything on Panasonic," the company's president, Fumio Ohtsubo, said this month.
A shift in branding to Panasonic for home appliances in Japan will be completed by March 2010.
Matsushita's decision to change its name, effective Wednesday, comes half a century after a rival company, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, was renamed Sony.
The late Konosuke Matsushita started his company at the age of 23, when he turned part of his rented house into a workshop. The company reckons that now -- its 90th anniversary -- is a good time to make the name change, and it will promote Panasonic as a single worldwide brand.
As part of its drive to expand globally, Matsushita plans to introduce its washing machines and refrigerators in Europe by March, going head to head with brands like Electrolux of Sweden.
Matsushita, with available cash of 1.16 trillion yen, or $10.9 billion, may consider mergers and acquisitions as a way to take on bigger rivals and increase its sales of...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
The Last Typewriter Repairman?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62196
Every business day, as he has done for the past 49 years, Paul Schweitzer, 69, travels the streets and skyscrapers of Manhattan making "house" calls, carrying his black leather tool bag by his side. Schweitzer, who insists on wearing a suit and tie while on his rounds, is one of the last of his kind: the typewriter repairman.
In 1932, Schweitzer's father opened Gramercy Typewriter in Manhattan, selling and repairing typewriters. "At one time, there were millions of typewriters in the city," says Schweitzer, who began working for the family business in 1959 and took it over when his father retired in 1975. "You would go in an office and there were a hundred desks and each one had a typewriter," he says.
Over the years, Gramercy earned a reputation for quick repairs and excellent customer service. The elder Schweitzer gave out wooden rulers that bore the company's name and logo as advertising. The shop's client base spanned from the tip of Wall Street up to the top of Harlem.
The Schweitzers were quick to adapt to changes. The first big one came in 1961, when IBM (IBM) introduced the Selectric typewriter. The Selectric used a typeball that could be changed to display different fonts. The ball replaced the traditional pivoting type bars and the need for a moving carriage with a paper roller. Gramercy, like every other repair shop, had to learn how to fix and overhaul the new machines. Aside from new iterations of the Selectric, for the next 30 years, the typewriter business remained relatively steady.
Then came the introduction of the personal computer in the 1980s. Gradually, businesses began replacing their typewriters with desktop computers. By the early 1990s, the shift practically had made the typewriter obsolete. A number of Gramercy's competitors went out of business. "When...
Fri, 3 Oct 08
Kingston, Intel Team Up for Flash Memory Drives
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62182
Kingston Technology Co. has teamed up with Intel Corp. to market flash memory-based drives to top makers of laptops and servers. The pact with chipmaker Intel is a shift for Fountain Valley-based Kingston, the leading maker of memory modules for computers.
Kingston traditionally has taken a "wait and see" approach to new products. It waited years to get into flash memory cards for consumer electronics, which now make up a quarter of Kingston's $4.5 billion in yearly sales.
The flash drive effort "almost flies in the face of the usual Kingston model," spokesman David Leong said. "This is one market where we believe it will grow quite a bit. The opportunity was there to jump into it right now with Intel."
The move puts Kingston in an emerging market. Drives made of memory chips are starting to grab business from traditional disk drives, but they're still in their infancy.
Kingston plans to resell drives made by Intel, which makes flash memory chips. Kingston is set to provide technical support, testing and sell the drives to the likes of Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc., IBM Corp. and others.
Intel makes two flash drive models-one that goes into business laptops and another for servers on corporate networks.
The drives are set to ship in the fourth quarter, Leong said.
Kingston has a long history with Intel.
"We have had both an engineering and marketing relationship with Intel for more than a decade," Leong said. "We work together because we are all part of the same ecosystem."
Kingston's main business is buying memory chips and assembling them onto circuit boards that boost the performance of computers. It also makes memory cards that store photos, songs and data on consumer electronics.
A few years ago, Kingston worked with Intel on a memory module designed to amp up the reliability, speed and density of memory chips...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Legal Battle Heats Up Over RealDVD
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62216
The federal courts in California will have their hands full with the brewing battle over RealNetworks' newly released software, RealDVD -- a program the company says is designed to enable "consumers to securely store, manage and play their DVDs on their computers."
As the program was hitting store shelves, RealNetworks filed a declaratory action in Northern California, asking for a ruling that RealDVD is not a violation of the anti-copying provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. At virtually the same time, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles, seeking among other things an injunction barring the sale of RealDVD.
In a widely quoted statement, Greg Goeckner, general counsel for the MPAA, said that "RealNetworks' RealDVD should be called StealDVD."
"RealNetworks knows its product violates the law," Goeckner said, "and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America's moviemakers and the technology community. We will vigorously defend our right to stop companies from bringing products to market that mislead consumers and clearly violate the law."
The MPAA argues that RealDVD violates the law in two respects: It illegally circumvents the "Content Scramble System" used by the film studios to prevent DVD copying, and it makes it possible for RealDVD users to engage in a practice known as "rent, rip, and return." That refers to the practice of renting a film from a DVD rental outfit like Blockbuster or Netflix, making a copy, and then returning the DVD.
RealNetworks admits that its software cannot prevent the "rent, rip, and return" scenario, although it makes it clear to purchasers that no such use is permitted under the software's license. Of course, there are numerous other software programs available that allow consumers to do the same thing.
RealNetworks also argues that it does not interfere with...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
IBM Offers Free Lotus iNotes for Apple's iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62215
IBM has launched an iPhone-specific version of the company's popular Lotus Notes collaboration software. Called Lotus iNotes ultralite, the free download gives mobile business users the ability to securely connect to Lotus Notes and Domino e-mail accounts.
Jason Michels, who manages the e-mail network for Wisconsin-based Aurora Health Care, said his organization is rethinking its mobile strategy now that a light version of Lotus Notes is available for Apple's iPhone.
"Lotus iNotes ultralite simplifies the way we transfer e-mail and calendar information to cellular phones, which could save us a lot of trouble and money," Michels said. "It's possible we'll see a lot of people with iPhones around here because of this."
However, the iPhone still has a long way to go before Apple can claim a significant amount of officially sanctioned enterprise traction, noted Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi. "On the iPhone side we have seen some interest in the enterprise, but more as a back-of-the-door device," she said.
iNotes is designed to deliver a day-at-a-glance calendar, together with basic mail and contacts capabilities. To avoid additional memory demands on the iPhone, iNotes is browser-based, IBM said. iPhone users will access Lotus e-mail accounts through an interface on the device's Safari Web browser.
An active content filter embedded in iNotes is designed to reduce the risk of users encountering dangerous scripts. And the program's browser cache management stores the user-interface components without retaining personal information, IBM said.
Enterprises deploying the software on iPhones can further boost the security of corporate data by deploying IBM's Lotus Mobile Connect virtual private network application. IBM has also unleashed new software called Lotus Protector for Mail Security, which shields enterprise systems and users from Internet spam and viruses.
Lotus Protector for Mail Security, which features a high-performance engine equipped with scanning and filtering...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Ballmer: Windows Cloud OS Coming Soon
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62214
Microsoft is working on a new operating system, "Windows Cloud," aimed at developers working on cloud-computing applications, and expected to launch at the end of the month, according to CEO Steve Ballmer.
Speaking at a software conference in London, Ballmer said the new OS will be rolled out at Microsoft's annual developers conference in Los Angeles, where the official details and name will be announced, according to International Data Group.
During a meeting with financial analysts in July, Ballmer talked about competitors and their focus on operating systems, and teased about Microsoft embracing the idea of cloud computing. He said he would talk more about computation, storage and management at the Professional Developers Conference.
"If you go talk to some of our erstwhile competitors, they'll tell you, 'Hey, we're actually building -- we won't call it an operating system, but we're building a new thick client, it's called the browser, and we're just going to keep pouring more and more of essentially operating-system capabilities into the browser,'" Ballmer said.
He added that companies believe in a world of balanced computation, but the question isn't what is going to happen, but how it is going to happen -- and who is going to win.
Regardless of how you spin it, analysts say the impact of cloud computing will be huge, and some say the recent downturn in the financial markets will only boost the need for cloud-computing services like software as a service (SaaS).
"The vendors are at very different levels of maturity," said David Cearley, a Gartner fellow. "The consumer-focused vendors are the most mature in delivering what Gartner calls a 'cloud/Web platform' from technology and community perspectives, but the business-focused vendors have rich business services and, at times, are very adept at selling business services."
Still, Cearley said cloud computing is an evolving...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Apple Threatens To Close iTunes Store If Fee Hiked
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62213
On Thursday, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to vote on a request by the National Music Publishers Association to increase the royalties paid to its members for online music sales. Artists are currently paid a royalty of nine cents and want the CRB to increase it to 15 cents.
The move is opposed by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Digital Media Association, a trade group of online music retailers that includes AOL, Apple, MusicNet, Napster, RealNetworks and Yahoo.
The CRB's decision will be the first to address the sale of digital music and will establish royalty rates for publishers and artists for the next five years.
None of the opponents of the royalty hike have been as emphatic as Apple, and the reason isn't hard to discern. Apple's online iTunes Store is the largest and most successful digital delivery service, and an increase would mean some difficult choices.
In a filing with the CRB last year, iTunes Vice President Eddy Cue said Apple has invested millions in the online store, and providing a quality consumer experience costs Apple a huge amount each month.
"The fact is," Cue wrote, "that even though we are optimistic about the future of the online music marketplace and heartened by iTunes' success so far, there are significant risks posed by very high operating costs, the infancy of the market, the evolving nature of the business models attempting to provide digital music to customers, and the competitive pressures that we face -- particularly from privacy."
The digital-music business, Cue told the CRB, has very small margins, and it is only because Apple recognizes that fact that the iTunes Store has never lost money. That could change, he said, if the royalty rate is increased.
"Any increase in the royalty rates we pay...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
HP Will Acquire LeftHand Networks for $360 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62212
As the world awaited the congressional vote on the Wall Street bailout bill Wednesday, Hewlett-Packard moved forward with business as usual. The company signed a definitive agreement to acquire LeftHand Networks, a storage virtualization and iSCSI storage area network (SAN) firm.
HP agreed to pay $360 million in cash for LeftHand Networks, which sells solutions to help midsize companies and remote offices of large corporations protect critical business data.
Customers need a faster, less complex, and more economical route to storage networking to protect critical business data, according to Dave Roberson, senior vice president and general manager of HP's StorageWorks Division.
"The acquisition of LeftHand Networks significantly expands our storage portfolio, enabling HP to deliver customers an expanded suite of storage functionality, scalable capacity, and interconnect options for every budget and performance requirement," Roberson said. "With our strong channel and leading position in the industry-standard server market, we are ideally positioned to deliver this technology to customers worldwide."
The privately held LeftHand has more than 11,000 installations across 3,000 customers. The company delivers scalable storage software on industry-standard hardware.
HP said the acquisition will help companies move to a SAN for a significantly lower cost, manage data more easily, and scale storage infrastructures incrementally as the businesses grow.
In certain virtualized environments, LeftHand's intelligent-cloning technology can reduce the amount of disk space required for storage by up to 97 percent, according to the company, and its thin-provisioning features reduce power consumption by minimizing over-provisioning of storage.
LeftHand also features advanced data-replication technology with bandwidth management and failover protection. This makes it ideal for backup and disaster-recovery operations between remote offices and a central location, HP said.
With the addition of LeftHand, HP adds midrange offerings to its suite of iSCSI solutions. But therein could lie the challenge, according to Charles King, principal analyst...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Microsoft Offers SearchPerks Prizes To Build Loyalty
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62192
Microsoft is making yet another attempt at pay for search. Following in the footsteps of Cashback, a program the company launched in May, Redmond's latest effort is called SearchPerks.
SearchPerks lets Live Search users earn "tickets" toward prizes -- up to 25 tickets a day. The program is free to join, but Microsoft is instructing users to register by pasting the GetSearchPerks.com URL into an Internet Explorer browser. The program doesn't work with Mozilla's Firefox or Apple's Safari. Users also have to use a Windows PC.
"At this time, SearchPerks is a limited promotion, though we remain open to expending availability of the promotion to different browsers and operating systems based on consumer interest," Microsoft said.
Here's how SearchPerks works: Participating users agree to a small application download that tracks their usage. They get one ticket for each Live Search query they complete from now through April. That's when users cash in those tickets for prizes or donate them to charity.
Will it attract more users? Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, isn't holding his breath. While Live Search may indeed win some new users and cause them to change their search behavior, he said, it's more likely that casual Live Search users may begin to use the search engine more frequently.
"The capping of the rewards at 25 points per day is intended to protect against fraud and also prevent people from just showing up and doing 25 perfunctory searches to max out on the daily reward quota and then move on," Sterling said. "This is a play to change long-term behavior."
As Sterling sees it, a searcher who begins to use the system to collect tickets and win prizes may settle into longer-term Live Search usage -- because they have to in order to access the program's benefits. That...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Internet Radio Bill Advances To White House
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62191
After approval by the U.S. House and now a nod from the Senate, the Webcaster Settlement Bill is headed to President George W. Bush's desk for his signature.
The bipartisan bill will allow copyright owners and artists, on behalf of SoundExchange, to negotiate with Internet radio services. The bill is expected to benefit all Webcasters, including National Public Radio, small Webcasters, and college Webcasters, who put their stations on the Internet.
The House passed the bill Sunday.
"This really is a bipartisan effort to find a resolution to a difficult issue, and there is a wide divergence on the right royalty to pay," said Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.).
SoundExchange, the Digital Media Association, National Public Radio, and the Record Industry Association of America have been negotiating alternative royalty rates since the Copyright Royalty Board, the group that determines royalty rates for Internet radio services, set a royalty rate in March 2007.
"On behalf of DiMA and our Internet radio members, I want to thank Congress for acting quickly to pass the Webcaster Settlement Act," said Jonathan Potter, executive director at DiMA. "This legislation will enable DiMA and our member companies, and all Internet radio services, to continue negotiating royalty rates with SoundExchange for the years 2006-2015."
"We are very hopeful of reaching an agreement soon and thereby creating long-term stability that will re-energize the Internet radio business," Potter added.
Negotiations have been ongoing for several weeks. Once the bill is enacted, negotiations between the different parties will continue, according to SoundExchange.
Inslee recently spoke for the bill, saying Webcasting has become a piece of Internet users' daily lives.
"This is really why our constituents love this service," Inslee said. "We want to find a business model where Webcasting can thrive, where consumers can listen, and at some point to rescue broadcasters who will...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Intuit Taps Hewlett-Packard and Google for Advice
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62183
As first-year CEO Brad Smith tries to reshape software maker Intuit for the online age, he has opened his Rolodex and is cribbing ideas from some tech industry icons.
A dinner with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd sparked ideas for a massive benchmarking project and reinforced Smith's conviction that Intuit (INTU) had to lay off 7% of its staff. Conversations with Google (GOOG) inspired a program that lets Intuit engineers contribute 10% of their time to experimental projects. And Smith rang up Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg to help Intuit shape online user communities around its products, a feature at the center of the new version of QuickBooks accounting software, announced on Sept. 29.
Smith, a West Virginian who rose through the ranks over five years before becoming CEO in January, is shaking things up at Intuit, which makes the widely used QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Quicken personal finance software. But Intuit shares have trod water for the past two years as revenue growth has slowed and Wall Street has viewed the company as short on new ideas. "The business has been seen by investors as not moving forward in terms of innovation," says Ross MacMillan, a managing director at Jeffries & Co. (JEF) who rates Intuit shares a buy. The stock has slumped 6.3%, to 29.92 on Sept. 29, and is down 4.5% since late September 2006.
Adding to the challenges facing Intuit, online startup Mint.com has garnered a strong following [BusinessWeek.com, 4/17/08] of nearly half a million users in their 20s and 30s who gravitate toward its free, slickly designed personal finance tools on the Web.
The burgeoning popularity of cheap online tools galvanized Smith's effort to make Intuit's products more Web-friendly. "They gave us a wake-up call," he says of Mint and comparable sites. "Quicken [on the] desktop is pretty...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
NPR Boosts Online Offerings, Seeks Larger Audience
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62179
National Public Radio, already strong online with free downloads from many of its shows, is boosting its digital ambitions with Monday's introduction of social-networking features akin to Facebook.
NPR also plans to overhaul its Web site and expand the tools for sharing its programs elsewhere over the next few months. And it is working to increase the flexibility of its popular "podcasts," audio downloads that have tripled in usage over the past two years.
These digital initiatives are aimed at capturing and retaining audiences -- particularly younger people who aren't habitual radio listeners but who represent the future for fundraising at NPR's member stations.
Yet NPR faces a challenge in finding common ground with the stations, which rely on traditional, local radio offerings to draw contributions.
The national organization, acknowledging that its early Internet initiatives at times collided with its member stations, insists many of the new offerings have been developed with the stations' needs and concerns in mind.
"We definitely see ourselves at a pivotal point," said Dana Davis Rehm, NPR's senior vice president for strategy and partnerships. "We know where we want to be, but navigating the waters can be challenging at times. Every now and then we get rough seas."
Jeffrey Dvorkin, a former NPR ombudsman now with the Ryerson School of Journalism in Toronto, described the tensions as "growing pains as NPR uses its considerable editorial and creative muscle to use the Internet to maximum effect."
The fears come down to whether enhancing the NPR.org Web site will encourage listeners to bypass the individual stations on the Web as well as on air. If listeners get everything they need from the central organization to which local stations pay dues, they might stop giving or give less to their local stations.
But both public radio audiences and contributions to public radio have been going up....
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Protecting Your Web-Based E-Mail
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62174
The tens of millions of people who use Web-based e-mail clients probably sweated some bullets when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account was compromised and its contents leaked onto the Web.
If they didn't, they should have.
That's because Palin's account wasn't so much "hacked" (hacking generally takes some computing skill) as much as it just had the screen door jimmied open. That's because the security in place on Web-based e-mail is woefully low.
In the Palin case, all the "hacker" did was use Yahoo's helpful "Password Recovery" feature that is used when people forget their password. That process required the hacker to enter Palin's login name (which was generally known from earlier stories critical of her use of Yahoo e-mail), date of birth and home ZIP code. The last thing that kept her account locked was the answer to the question, "Where did you meet your spouse?"
The kid who boasted of the hack on a Web forum, and is now presumably seeing the business-end of Secret Service German shepherds, said the whole process took 10 minutes, since Palin had discussed meeting her husband, Todd, in high school. He typed in "Wasilla High," and he was in.
The final question in most of these sites, including Yahoo, is user-selectable. I always encourage my readers to pick the same question every time on these sites and make the answer something nonsense and something only they would know. So if the question is "What is the name of your first pet" and you always answer "Sophia Loren" (assuming you have never had a pet named after the Italian bombshell) you're likely safer than if you answer "Spot" or "Rover." And never, ever, use your mother's maiden name.
I also use a random ZIP code when I sign up for these sites. One, I don't want sites...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft All Tumble
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62173
While much attention on Sept. 29 was fixed on the failed bailout vote in Congress and its impact on the Dow Jones industrial average, tech stocks also came under pressure.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq dropped 199.61 points, or 9%, to 1983.73, the third-largest percentage decline ever. The Sept. 29 tech-stock rout was eclipsed only by the Black Monday crash on Oct. 19, 1987, when the Nasdaq plummeted more than 11%, and Apr. 14, 2000, when it tumbled 9.7%.
Among tech stocks, the most notable loser was computer and consumer electronics maker Apple (AAPL), the subject of at least two analyst downgrades. Apple fell 22.98, or more than 17%, to 105.26, the company's fifth-biggest decline in percentage terms. The rout came eight years to the day after Apple's biggest-ever one-day percentage decline -- on Sept. 29, 2000, it lost more than half its value.
Investors sold tech on concerns that, barring a bailout for the financial sector, cutbacks in lending will cause companies to trim or delay orders on computers, software, networking gear, and other tech products. Wall Street's woes are also depressing consumer sentiment and could make for a bleak end-of-year selling season for consumer electronics makers and online retailers. "Tech is not at the epicenter of the problem," says Doug Freedman, managing director at American Technology Research in San Francisco. "[But] tech definitely carries higher-than-average multiples and above-average risk for the reward. We're at a point where people have little tolerance for risk."
RBC Capital Markets (RY) analyst Michael Abramsky cut his rating on Apple, citing survey data showing consumers are less willing to spend on consumer electronics. At Morgan Stanley (MS), analyst Kathryn Huberty cut her rating because of pressure on Apple's gross margins -- costs are rising for back-to-school promotions and other products. Apple shares finished the day down...
Thu, 2 Oct 08
Big Boost for Mobile Laptops Could Rival Wi-Fi
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=62172
Some of the world's biggest mobile operators, PC manufacturers, and chipmakers will reveal on Sept. 30 that they are uniting to pre-install support for high-speed mobile data services into notebook PCs. Backers hope the move will result in wider consumer use of so-called "mobile broadband" that could rival or even surpass use of Wi-Fi hotspots.
If the plan works, it could boost third-generation [3G] mobile broadband in much the same way that Wi-Fi exploded after Intel (INTC) built support for it into the Centrino chipset. Consumers will have an easier time getting online while on the move: Instead of having to search for a Wi-Fi hotspot, owners of laptops equipped with the new technology will be able to connect wirelessly to the Interne