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Microsoft Testing Social Networking with Vine Groups
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66250
Microsoft on Tuesday released a private beta of its new Vine service. Vine aims to allow small groups of people to exchange important information quickly.
Vine connects users to other people and places, lets them stay in touch with family and friends, and keeps them informed when someone needs help. Vine users can get involved to create neighborhoods, communities or causes. Users select the people and places they care about most, then rely on alerts, reports and a personal dashboard to stay in touch, informed and involved.
With Vine, Microsoft aims to create an inclusive network so anyone can ultimately participate through a social-networking application such as Twitter or Facebook or using e-mail, any computer connected to the Internet, or a mobile phone. Microsoft said it wants people to participate in the way that feels most natural to them and it will extend the tools on the site to accommodate user needs after the beta period. Currently, only a limited number of people can sign up for the beta testing.
The Vine dashboard alerts users about what's happening. Information associated with the places users have chosen will appear on their map, including articles from 20,000 news and public-safety sources. Information from people in a user's network, such as alerts and reports, will also appear on the dashboard. When a user's friends on Facebook update their status, the user will get an alert, too.
Users can also send and receive alerts. For example, users can organize people into groups -- the sports team they coach, people who live nearby, family far away, special friends, and emergency contacts. Each Vine user specifies how to receive alerts -- through e-mail, a text message, or on a computer. Users can choose to send messages from a computer or mobile phone to people on their list.
Finally,...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Lower Sales Lead Nokia To Trim 450 IT Employees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66246
Dealing with a continued decline in handset sales, Finland-based Nokia will make additional cuts to its workforce.
Nokia plans to downsize information-technology activities in its corporate development office by cutting 450 employees globally. The reduction in employment is part of Nokia's plans to cut costs and adjust its business operations based on market demand.
"The announcement makes sense and this isn't Nokia's first announcement related to apps and service as they have been going through major restructuring," said Jeff Orr, senior analyst of mobile content at ABI Research. "This poses a bit of concern, however, in the fact that they had to come back and say we have to go deeper."
While cutting costs is one way to stay competitive, Nokia is hoping to increase its bottom line by adding a variety of third-party partners, including social networking and image sites, to its image capture and sharing features on its handsets.
"The news is that we have announced our plans to focus the strategy of our services unit to create an even better user experience across our portfolio of consumer services (maps, messaging, music, games, etc), to allow us to accelerate the development of a common platform and therefore increase the opportunities for third parties," said Laurie Armstrong, a Nokia spokesperson.
Nokia is going to make its mobile games available through the Ovi Store in addition to its existing channels. "This will create a more simplified experience for Nokia's millions of consumers, while bringing more publishing opportunities for smaller and independent games publishers in the Nokia ecosystem," Armstrong said.
Tuesday's announcement was expected, according to Orr. "They were already on this path and had announced several services through Ovi, including branded e-mail accounts, app storefront in several markets, branded maps."
Nokia has had several rounds of layoffs in the past year....
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Google Serves Cupcake to Android Developers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66245
Internet search giant Google has released the Android 1.5 SDK for Android developer phones. Android 1.5 -- referred to by developers as the Cupcake update -- is available only for the Android Dev Phone 1 and is based on the Cupcake branch from the Android Open Source Project.
HTC, manufacturer of the G1, has made available new system images for users to upgrade the Android Dev Phone 1 to Android 1.5.
Android developer phones such as the ADP1 are intended for application development rather than everyday use, and are operator-neutral and country-neutral, so they may not include specific features found on end-user handsets, according to Android's Xavier Ducrohet, who first announced Android 1.5's availability on Monday.
Android 1.5 will be deployable to end users' Android-powered handsets beginning in May.
"Android 1.5 introduced a number of new features that application developers can take advantage of, like virtual input devices and speech recognition," said Andy McFadden, senior software architect at Android.
Improvements include faster camera startup and image capture, quicker acquisition of GPS locations, smoother scrolling of pages in the browser, and faster Gmail conversation list scrolling.
Cupcake will include several new system features, including a refined user interface. The updated UI will include changes to its browser, Gmail, contacts, camera and gallery, and a better way to manage applications.
"They are definitely adding some new stuff including video support, faster GPS, on-screen keyboard, which is very, very nice," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "And finally some ability to do Web-based widgets for the home screen, so developers can do stuff on their own to create additional functionality."
Aside from its improvements, the 1.5 update also includes a slew of new features, including Bluetooth support, a new browser updated with the latest Webkit browser, support for SquirrelFish JavaScript...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
HP Unwraps Notebooks Aimed at Small Businesses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66242
Looking to build on its recent rise to No. 1 in the U.S. PC market, Hewlett-Packard has taken the wraps off a new line of notebooks for small businesses that aims to merge business functionality with a sophisticated, yet minimalist, design.
The new HP ProBook series, which combines sleek matte and glossy surfaces in the user's choice of merlot or glossy noir finishes, also promises to lower costs for business notebook buyers through aggressive U.S. street pricing that begins at $529.
However, the new product lineup isn't just about good looks or low cost, noted HP Senior Vice President Ted Clark. "The HP ProBooks deliver the right blend of features and professional innovations to provide a great user experience," Clark said.
Featuring high-definition LED backlit displays with 14-inch, 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch diagonal wide-screen (16:9 aspect ratio) sizes, the HP ProBooks give buyers the option of selecting preconfigured models equipped with processors from Intel (Core 2 Duo or Celeron) as well as AMD (Athlon, Sempron or Turion) on the 14-inch and 15.6-inch models. And for the first time ever, business users can order preconfigured laptops featuring Novell's SUSE Linux operating systems, as well as run with Windows Vista or even downgrade to Windows XP.
Under the hood, the new HP ProBook series integrates a Wi-Fi radio that includes all available variants of the wireless technology (a/b/g/n draft 2.0). What's more, all models give buyers the option of adding a Bluetooth 2.0 radio to the mix.
Even better, the 15.6-inch ProBook 4510s (Intel) and 4515s (AMD) incorporate HP's latest mobile broadband technology as a user-selected option. Based on Qualcomm's Gobi platform, the HP un2400 module offers support for multiple mobile broadband network technologies from AT&T, Verizon and other 3G network operators worldwide.
Users who purchase a Gobi-enabled notebook will be able...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Amazon Buys Maker of iPhone E-Book Reader Stanza
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66241
Amazon.com is setting the stage to take e-book readers to the next level. Lexcycle on Monday announced that it will be acquired by the e-commerce giant.
Lexcycle is a year-old company that makes the iPhone e-book application Stanza. It's a free application that works with the iPhone and the iPod touch and can be used to download a selection of more than 100,000 books and magazines. Lexcycle positions it as a wireless electronic library that stays open 24/7.
"It has been an amazing experience to see Stanza grow out of our brainstormed ideas into one of the most downloaded iPhone applications," said Lexcycle founder Marc Prud'hommeaux. "Throughout this period we have attempted to listen to and innovate for our customers to provide a great e-book reading experience."
Lexcycle introduced the application last July, and Stanza surpassed 500,000 downloads within four months with media attention from the likes of Forbes, Time and The New York Times. By December, it had passed the one million mark. The company said more than 40,000 books are downloaded wirelessly from its online catalog every day.
Lexcycle got a head start with its iPhone e-book reader by finding its place on the Mac desktop first. Stanza Desktop addressed details that are often lacking in other software readers, including hyphenation, text columniation, automatic text scrolling, and user-friendly page and chapter navigation. Lexcycle also makes a Windows version of Stanza Desktop.
Stanza supports a variety of formats, including HTML, PDF, Microsoft Word, and Rich Text Format, as well as the major e-book standards, including Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket, Adobe, Microsoft LIT, Palm doc, and the International Digital Publishing Forum's new Open eBook standard. It's available in 12 languages and has users in more than 50 countries.
"We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Apple, Verizon May Be Discussing New iPhone Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66226
As Apple and AT&T continue talks about extending their iPhone relationship, rumors are flying about new iPhone devices and a possible deal with Verizon Wireless.
According to a story in Monday's Business Week and elsewhere, Apple is discussing with Verizon the possibility of distributing two new iPhone descendants. One is being described as an "iPhone lite," and the other as a media pad for listening to music, watching high-definition video, looking at photos, and making phone calls over Wi-Fi. AT&T currently is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S.
The magazine said the media-pad device would be smaller than Amazon's Kindle, but with a larger screen. The publication said its information comes from two anonymous sources "familiar with the matter."
AT&T has acknowledged that it's talking to Apple about continuing its exclusive U.S. deal for the iPhone, and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam has similarly confirmed that he has been talking with Apple CEO and cofounder Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave. Verizon didn't give any indication whether the discussion was about handling the current iPhone 3G or if it involved new devices.
The iPhone is currently designed for a GSM network like AT&T's, not for Verizon's CDMA technology. But Verizon is moving aggressively toward a 4G/Long Term Evolution technology, which is growing worldwide.
Each of the carriers has strong arguments in favor of coming to terms with Apple, for the iPhone or for newer devices. While Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart noted that he doesn't comment on rumors, he pointed out that these reasons are central to understanding why this story has gotten the play it has.
"The iPhone has been absolutely critical to AT&T," he said, noting that the carrier's deal with Apple has resulted in 1.6 million high-value subscribers in the last quarter alone....
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Foodies Will Welcome Foodzie's Online Offerings
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66209
The founders of Foodzie aren't your garden-variety tech entrepreneurs.
Yes, the online specialty grocer has an office in San Francisco's startup-laden South of Market district. Chief Executive Rob LaFave, Chief Marketing Officer Emily Olson, and Chief Technology Officer Nik Bauman are getting into the flow too, hanging out with locals like Digg founder Kevin Rose, who recently attended a tasting at Foodzie's office.
But the founders of the fledgling site are hardly steeped in Silicon Valley culture. It wasn't until January that Olson and LaFave moved from Boulder, Colo., to San Francisco, closer to the Bay Area food scene. What's more, LaFave, Olson, and Bauman, chosen as three of the most promising young entrepreneurs in tech this year, are building a retail site as many startups eye sexier social media.
The contrarian instincts could serve Foodzie well as it takes on big online specialty food stores like Amazon.com and iGourmet. Foodzie's site, which sells products from small producers in 25 states, relies on attractive photos and an uncluttered design to appeal to customers' palates. "What was lacking in online [food stores] was an experience that makes you hungry," Bauman says.
Foodzie, backed by $1 million from First Round Capital, SoftTech VC, and TechStars, is jumping into the online food sales business at a time when consumers' appetite for buying goods and researching recipes on the Web is growing. Online food and beverage sales in the U.S. were $4.8 billion in 2008, and grew 11 percent in the first quarter compared with roughly flat e-commerce sales overall, according to market researcher ComScore.
"It's one of the biggest consumer categories now, and even a small sliver of that can be attractive," says Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research. But online food sales can be challenging, as perishable goods and shipping costs erode profit margins,...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
The Surge To Impose Online Sales Taxes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66208
Amazon tax fever is spreading. In the months since a New York State law took effect that imposes sales taxes on products promoted through Web sites based in the state, other governments have moved to get in on the action, and online retailers aren't happy.
Last year, New York became the first state to pass legislation requiring large Web-based retailers, including Amazon.com and Overstock.com, to collect state sales taxes on products promoted through affiliated state-based Web sites. Cash-strapped states across the country are mulling similar legislation and a federal online-sales tax bill that may be introduced in Congress could be signed into law as early as this year.
The growing impetus for taxes on online goods has touched off a flurry of lobbying activity and lawsuits from online retailers hoping to defeat legislation that would take away some of the price advantage they enjoy over brick-and-mortar retailers. "We'll do everything in our power to assist our sellers so they are not harmed," says Tod Cohen, deputy general counsel and vice-president for government relations at eBay. "We want to make sure than small businesses aren't strangled in their cribs."
States and local governments hope sales taxes would help them recoup part of the revenue lost amid a recession that has diminished property values and crimped demand for items sold in stores. In the fourth quarter, state sales tax collections dropped 4 percent, the steepest decline in 50 years, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. Online sales taxes could help states generate at least $52 billion in added revenue over the next six years, according to an Apr. 13 study conducted by three University of Tennessee professors. Requiring virtual stores to collect taxes, even in parts of the country where they don't have physical operations, would also...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Former Facebook Exec To Be MySpace CEO
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66205
With MySpace falling behind Facebook as the world's largest online social network, MySpace tapped a former Facebook executive Friday as its new chief executive.
Owen Van Natta, 39, replaces Chris DeWolfe, a co-founder of MySpace, who stepped down as chief executive Wednesday. News Corp., which owns MySpace, said Van Natta's new role begins immediately.
Van Natta faces the lofty task of reinvigorating MySpace at a time when Facebook is growing at a faster clip and Twitter, the short messaging site, is grabbing scores of headlines and celebrity attention. While MySpace is still the largest social network in the United States, it has only 130 million users worldwide, compared with more than 200 million for Facebook.
Even so, MySpace may be making more money, at least for now. Research firm eMarketer estimates that the company brought in $585 million in U.S. ad revenue last year, nearly three times that of Facebook. A big chunk of that, however, comes from an ad-sharing deal with Google Inc. that expires next year. Neither Beverly Hills, California-based MySpace nor Palo Alto, California-based Facebook discloses how much money they make.
The executive change could be energizing for MySpace, said Charlene Li, an industry analyst and founder of Altimeter Group.
"MySpace has a very interesting product and a loyal user base," Li said. But from a technology perspective, they've been stagnant, she added.
Facebook, meanwhile, continues to redesign and update the site, even if doing so often leads to user rumblings.
"Owen is coming from Facebook and the history they have with being much more technologically innovative than MySpace," Li said. Shaking things up, she added, is the "whole purpose of a change in management."
At Facebook, Van Natta was chief operating officer and helped negotiate a $240 million investment from Microsoft Corp. that valued the company at $15 billion -- though it later emerged...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Qualcomm Posts Loss on Legal Settlement
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66201
Qualcomm Inc. posted a fiscal second-quarter loss Monday on a hefty payment to rival chip maker Broadcom Corp. to end legal disputes that spanned several continents.
The settlement with Broadcom, announced late Sunday, calls for Qualcomm to pay $891 million over four years. Broadcom is a relative newcomer to the business of making chips for cell phones but proved to be a fierce legal adversary.
Qualcomm lost $289 million, or 18 cents a share, during the three months ended March 29, compared to a profit of $766 million, or 47 cents a share, a year ago. The latest quarter includes a charge of $748 million, or 43 cents a share, to pay Broadcom.
Qualcomm's second-quarter revenue slid 5.8 percent to $2.46 billion from $2.61 billion, above an average estimate of $2.35 billion among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Its shares rose $2.36, or 5.7 percent, to $43.72 in morning trading. Broadcom shares gained 30 cents, 1.2 percent, to $24.52.
The agreement with Broadcom comes nine months after Qualcomm made peace with Nokia Corp., the world's largest cell phone maker. Ending the Broadcom fight removes a distraction for Qualcomm's management and engineers and lifts uncertainty for Qualcomm customers, said Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm's chairman and chief executive.
"There were just a number of things that led us to decide that this was the right thing to do," Jacobs said on a conference call with investors. "We had been in discussions with them on and off over a fairly long period of time and finally we were able to get to a solution that worked."
Qualcomm predicted fiscal third-quarter revenue between $2.4 billion and $2.6 billion, above an average analyst estimate of $2.35 billion but down from $2.76 billion last year.
Qualcomm estimated third-quarter operating income between $550 million and $650 million, down from $820 million last year. In January, Qualcomm...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
British Government Backs Down over Database Plan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66199
The British government said Monday it wants communications companies to keep records of every phone call, e-mail and Web site visit made in the country. But it has decided not to set up a national database of the information, a proposal that had been condemned as a "Big Brother"-style invasion of privacy by civil liberties groups.
The government said in October it was considering a central database of phone and Internet traffic as part of a high-tech strategy to fight terrorism and crime.
But Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Monday the plan had been dropped.
A document outlining the department's proposals said the government "recognizes the privacy implications" of a database and "does not propose to pursue this approach."
Instead, the government said it was backing a "middle way" that would see service providers store and organize information on every individual's phone and Internet traffic so that it could be accessed by police and other authorities on request.
The Home Office estimated introducing the new system would cost up to 2 billion pounds ($3 billion).
Under current rules, British Internet service providers are already required to store records of Web and e-mail traffic for a year. The new proposals would also require them to retain details of communications that originated in other countries but passed across British networks -- for example if someone in Britain accessed a U.S.-based e-mail account.
Industry group the Internet Service Providers Association said companies would want the government to compensate them for the cost of keeping the data. Secretary-general Nicholas Lansman said the group would hold talks with the Home Office on details of the proposal.
The government said providers would not store the content of calls, e-mails or Internet use. They would retain details of times, dates, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and Web site URLs.
Smith said officials had to strike "a delicate...
Wed, 29 Apr 09
Net Startups Find Global Expansion a Costly Game
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66192
Facebook is booming in Turkey and Indonesia. YouTube's audience has nearly doubled in India and Brazil.
That may seem like good news. But it is also a major reason these and other Web companies with big global audiences and renowned brands struggle to turn even a tiny profit.
Call it the International Paradox.
Web companies that rely on advertising are enjoying some of their most vibrant growth in developing countries. But those are also the same places where it can be the most expensive to operate, since Web companies often need more servers to make content available to parts of the world with limited bandwidth. And in those countries, online display advertisement is least likely to translate into results.
This intractable contradiction has become a serious drag on the bottom lines of photo-sharing sites, social networks and video distributors like YouTube. It is also threatening the fervent idealism of Internet entrepreneurs, who hoped to unite the world in a single online village but who are increasingly finding that the economics of that vision just do not work.
Last year, Veoh, a video-sharing site operated from San Diego, decided to block access to users in Africa, Asia, Latin American and Eastern Europe, citing the dim prospects of making money and the high cost of delivering video in those places.
"I believe in free, open communications," said Dmitry Shapiro, the Veoh chief executive. "But these people are so hungry for this content. They sit and they watch and watch and watch. The problem is they are eating up bandwidth, and it's very difficult to derive revenue from it."
Internet start-ups that came of age during the Web 2.0 era -- roughly from 2004 to the beginning of the recession last year -- generally subscribed to a widely accepted blueprint: build massive global audiences with a free service, and let...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Facebook Opens User Newsfeeds To Other Locations
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66220
The social-networking site Facebook has a lot going for it: A staggering 200 million users, an enormous media profile, and a steadily increasing advertising base. But the company is clearly worried about the new social-networking sites on the block -- most notably Twitter, which lags far behind in subscribers but has been basking in a sudden wave of celebrity buzz, thanks to high-profile tweeters like Oprah Winfrey and Ashton Kutcher.
It's not terribly surprising, then, that Facebook announced Monday the launch of the Open Stream API, a set of tools to allow third-party developers to create applications that read the content of a user's Facebook newsfeed and publish to it. The company hopes to spark a wave of software innovation that will keep the service fresh and dynamic.
According to Facebook engineer Justin Bishop, the goal of the new API is to give users the ability to see their Facebook stream -- including updates, photos, comments, etc. -- in a wide variety of new locations.
"Now, you'll be able to view your stream and publish information into it from places you never could before -- like your desktop computer or your mobile phone," Bishop said. "We believe that the ability to see more and more of what is happening around you will lead to greater openness and transparency."
Bishop said Facebook has worked with some developers to create desktop stream readers, and is planning to release its own desktop application. Two pieces of software are currently available that use the Open Stream API: Facebook for Adobe Air, and the Seesmic Desktop application. Bishop predicted dozens or hundreds of others will appear shortly.
Given some of Facebook's stumbles in the past, it's not surprising that questions about privacy rose immediately. Unlike a service such as Twitter, which is designed almost entirely for...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Chinese Company Readies Android Netbook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66219
A low-cost, Android-based netbook could be available to consumers in as little as three months from China-based Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies Co. In an interview with Computerworld, Guangzhou founder Nixon Wu said the device, dubbed the Alpha 680, is going through final testing.
Wu said his company's interest in an Android device was sparked by a conversation with retail giant Wal-Mart about the possibility of producing a low-cost PC. "[Wal-Mart] was looking for a way to build a $100 PC. We had expertise in porting Linux to embedded systems, and so they found us," Wu said. "At the end of the day, we couldn't meet Wal-Mart's target, but we continued on this path anyway."
Prototypes of the small device were shown at an electronics show in Hong Kong about a week ago. Wu said his company received more than 300 inquiries from companies around the world.
The Alpha 680 will bring an unprecedented level of computing to a small form factor, he said. Measuring 8.5 inches long by 6 inches wide by 1.2 inches thick, and weighting just 1.5 lb., the device will sport basic connectivity (Wi-Fi and EDGE capability) and a seven-inch screen.
The netbook will use an ARM11 CPU running at 533 Mhz, a chip that has seen extensive service in a variety of smartphones, including Apple's iPod and iPhone. The basic configuration will include 128MB of RAM and a 1GB solid-state disk, both of which can be upgraded.
Battery life will check in at a relatively anemic two to four hours, depending on the applications being used. Currently, Wu said, roughly 20 percent of the applications on the Android Market are not compatible with the Alpha 680, although the company hopes to have the issue sorted out shortly.
A gallery of software icons on the Alpha 680 page of the Guangzhou Web...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Windows 7 XP Mode Extends a Crutch to Older Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66217
Microsoft said it expects Windows 7 to include a new technology called Windows XP mode (XPM) that will enable the next-generation operating system to run just about any application compatible with Windows XP in a virtualized environment -- all but eliminating the compatibility issues that plagued Vista's initial release.
Specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7, XPM will provide users with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7-based PC, wrote Scott Woodgate in an official Microsoft blog.
"All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode, which is a virtual Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC," Woodgate said. "The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7."
XPM is designed to take advantage of the virtualization technologies that Intel and AMD have been building into their latest processor chips. For this reason, Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC "are best experienced on a new Windows 7 PC," Woodgate wrote.
XPM works much like other virtual PC products currently available, but with one important exception, noted bloggers who have been testing XPM for the past several weeks.
"Windows XP Mode (XPM) dramatically changes the compatibility story for Windows 7 and, we believe, has serious implications for Windows development going forward," said Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott in comments posted at the Windows Supersite. "By removing the onus of legacy application compatibility from the OS, Microsoft can strip away deadwood technology from future versions of Windows at a speedier clip, because customers who need to run older applications can simply do so with XPM."
Moreover, XPM does not require users to run the XPM as a separate Windows desktop, they said. "Instead, as you...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
IBM's Watson System Will Compete on TV's Jeopardy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66216
It answers challenging questions and competes against humans on a television game show. "What is IBM's Watson technology?"
Engineers at Big Blue have developed a question-and-answer system dubbed Watson, and the company believes it can challenge and win against contestants on Jeopardy, a television game show produced by Sony Pictures Television and shown by CBS Television Distribution.
IBM's Watson is being designed to handle the meaning behind words, or semantics, in order to answer questions. The questions posed on Jeopardy require the system to identify both relevant and irrelevant content and to decompose questions into sub-questions.
Watson will be able to handle the semantics and provide an answer in seconds, according to IBM.
"The Jeopardy match is aimed to showcase IBM's Question Answering technology," said Michael Loughran, communications manager at IBM Research. "The first step is for Watson to demonstrate its worthiness to play against human contestants by competing in a series of sparing matches starting sometime this year."
A final matchup is planned for sometime in 2010, but the date and specific contestants have not been decided, according to Loughran.
This isn't the first time IBM has used its technology to challenge humans. IBM's Deep Blue computer beat Garry Kasparov, a world chess champion, in a battle of machine versus human. In playing Jeopardy, Watson will interpret the user's question as a question and determine what the user is asking.
The computer system uses this approach to bring together advanced machine learning and statistical techniques with natural-language processing, according to IBM.
"The challenge is to build a system that, unlike systems before it, can rival the human mind's ability to determine precise answers to natural-language questions and to compute accurate confidences in the answers," said Dr. David Ferrucci, head of IBM's Watson project team.
Having this processing ability is significant,...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Apple's App Store Leads in Downloads, Controversy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66214
New applications continue to roll out on Apple's App Store. Apple last week reported that customers have downloaded more than one billion applications from the platform -- but the nagging issue of the Baby Shaker app is still casting a shadow.
Apple removed the controversial Baby Shaker application last week. Sikalosoft developed Baby Shaker, which features a drawing of a crying baby. The object of the game is to get the baby to stop crying. This is accomplished by shaking the iPhone until red Xes appear over the baby's eyes.
"This application was deeply offensive and should not have been approved for distribution on the App Store," Apple said. "When we learned of this mistake, the app was removed immediately. We sincerely apologize for this mistake and thank our customers for bringing this to our attention."
Sikalosoft also issued an apology: "Okay, so maybe the Baby Shaker iPhone app was a bad idea. You should never shake a baby! Even on an Apple iPhone Baby Shaking application." It's not clear whether the Baby Shaker application will end up on a rogue application site or if Sikalosoft will nix it. The company wasn't immediately available for comment on the ongoing controversy over freedom of speech.
"The controversy continues among those who are looking to have a controversy. We already saw last week the application outraged some folks, and other folks said this is a freedom of speech issue," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "We can talk about it from a theoretical perspective as it relates to freedom of speech, but there probably wasn't going to be much of a market for this application anyway. I don't think anyone is lamenting it from that perspective."
Meanwhile, beyond the Baby Shaker drama, the App Store is seeing new additions to...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Samsung Joins Android Party with i7500 Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66213
Samsung Electronics has joined the Google-backed Android party with the announcement of the Samsung i7500. The device, with a full touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, and 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, will be available in Europe in June.
No official plans have been announced for availability in the U.S., but J.K. Shin, a Samsung executive vice president, told Engadget that two Android smartphones will be made available in the U.S. later this year.
"Samsung is among the earliest members of the Open Handset Alliance and has been actively moving forward to introduce the most innovative Android mobile phone," Shin said. "With Samsung's accumulated technology leadership in the mobile-phone industry and our consistent strategy to support every existing operating system, I believe that Samsung provides the better choices and benefits to our consumers."
The Seoul, Korea-based company's new smartphone gives users access to several Google services, including Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar and Talk. Its GPS feature also allows the use of Google's My Location, Latitude and Street View services.
"We're pleased to see more Android-powered devices coming to market," said Carolyn Penner, a Google spokesperson. "As the world's first open mobile platform, we believe Android will help spur greater innovation for the benefit of mobile users everywhere."
While some features are expected, including Wi-Fi, others, including the five-megapixel camera and memory capacity up to 40GB, are valuable additions, according to Ramon Llamas, an IDC analyst.
"It's pretty cool, pretty sweet and Wi-Fi and 3G, that is normal-expectation stuff, but if you want to have a slick handset, it will have to be the complete package," he said. "If you are going to have a hot device, it has to look slick and sexy and has to have similar features" to Apple's iPhone.
Samsung's device not only has great features, it also looks sexy in comparison to other...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Verizon Profit Rises as Subscriber Gain Outpaces AT&T
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66212
In another positive earnings report for the wireless industry, Verizon Communications on Monday said its first-quarter profit rose 5.3 percent. Verizon's wireless sales were up 29.6 percent, including gains from the Alltel acquisition. Adjusted for the acquisition, Verizon's sales rose nine percent.
The leading U.S. mobile-phone carrier added a healthy 1.3 million wireless customers in the quarter, not counting the subscribers it added when it acquired Alltel. Verizon's subscriber wins in the first quarter outpaced AT&T's 1.2 million, which surprised analysts given AT&T's Apple iPhone advantage. Verizon ended the quarter with 86.6 million wireless subscribers.
In a possible further challenge to AT&T, USA Today reported Verizon and Apple were reported in talks about Apple's iPhone. AT&T is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, but only through next year.
An Apple-Verizon deal would give Apple access to a larger market and might help stem Verizon subscriber losses to AT&T. However, the iPhone has been a significant revenue source for AT&T, and it likely would fight hard to retain exclusive rights to the iPhone.
"Our business groups executed with excellence in the first quarter," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg. "Our operational and financial discipline produced continued revenue and earnings growth, as well as an expansion of our already strong operating cash flows. A highlight of the quarter was our successful completion of the Alltel acquisition. We quickly began integration efforts, and we are aggressively pursuing synergies."
Verizon's wireless sales totaled $15.1 billion in the first quarter, but landline revenue plummeted 3.8 percent to $11.6 billion. That represents a 10.4 percent decline in local phone connections. Some of that loss is attributed to cable companies that are offering VoIP phone service, and some to the recession that led to losses in business customers.
"In this challenging economic environment, we remain focused on delivering value...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
GE's Holographic Tech Can Put 500GB on a DVD
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66189
You reach for your collection of the 100 most popular movies of all time, and pull down from your shelf -- one disc. That's a possible scenario resulting from an announcement Monday that General Electric has made a breakthrough in storage on optical discs using holographic technology.
At the moment, the breakthrough exists only in the company's research labs, but it holds the promise of enabling huge amounts of storage on a single DVD, possibly creating new consumer and business markets.
According to a report in Monday's New York Times, the GE team has pioneered an approach different from that of other researchers who, for decades, have been looking for ways to exploit holography's potential for extremely dense storage. Working on this for the past six years, the GE researchers have created microholographic storage by utilizing small holograms with increased reflectivity.
Rather than burning marks in the recording layer of the disc, as current CD/DVD/Blu-ray technology does, the GE researchers create chemical changes in microscopic patterns. The team's most recent breakthrough was when it was able to make major improvements in the materials used. This resulted in substantial increases in the amount of light that can be reflected from the holograms, enabling the relatively low laser power levels of a consumer player to read the disc.
The team formatted the holographic materials so a player could conceivably be developed to read CDs, standard DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and the new holographic discs.
But the storage difference would be immense. A regular DVD can store up to five gigabytes, a Blu-ray Disc up to 50 GB, and the GE holographic discs as much as 500 gigabytes.
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, noted that other companies have looked at holographic storage, but to date "it hasn't been...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Missing Public Records on the Web
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66179
As anyone with a computer knows, information about nearly everything is now just a mouse click away. So why is it that so many public records remain hidden?
A new nationwide survey of state government information online concludes that while "Americans can easily find videos of water-skiing squirrels on the Internet ... they'll have less luck finding out whether their children's school buses and classrooms are safe, or if neighborhood gas stations are overcharging."
The study, conducted by Sunshine Week, an alliance of open-records advocates, and released Sunday, found that death certificates are accessible online in only five states; records of gas stations found to have pumps that register falsely high amounts of fuel going into customers' tanks are available in only eight states; and records of school bus inspection reports are posted in only 13 states.
Some states are making progress, but problems persist everywhere:
*In Connecticut, anyone seeking a state official's financial disclosure report -- a key to looking for political and financial conflicts of interest -- must e-mail a request; whether the request will be honored is, believe it or not, at the discretion of the governor. In Maine, the law requires that financial disclosure reports be posted on the Web -- but they aren't.
*In Colorado, bridge inspection reports are considered public, but they aren't published online. In Louisiana, a researcher asking about putting bridge inspections online was told, astoundingly, "We have a problem with the legality of it."
*In Oklahoma, hospital inspection reports are viewed as "confidential," and gas-pump overcharge records, once available, no longer are.
*In Delaware, a legislative proposal last year to establish a searchable database "to allow taxpayers to access details of how their tax dollars are being spent" never got out of committee. Rhode Island has an online database of statewide expenditures -- but you have to be...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Amazon Profits Amid the Recession
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66176
Despite the dismal retail environment, Amazon.com posted results that beat expectations for the second consecutive quarter. And, even more surprising to many, the retailer managed to accomplish that feat without resorting to price discounts.
Amazon continues to benefit disproportionately from the general shift to online commerce and the careful shopping behavior that consumers are exhibiting during the downturn. The breadth of the products it offers through independent merchants and its own expansion into new categories, along with low-priced shipping in the U.S. and abroad, continues to woo shoppers.
First-quarter revenue jumped 18 percent to $4.89 billion, from $4.13 billion a year ago, surpassing the 15 percent growth that analysts had been expecting. The company posted net income of 41 percent a share for the quarter, 10 percent higher than analysts' average forecast.
This accelerated growth is helping Amazon grab an even larger share of the retail market than analysts have been expecting. It's far outstripping the 2.7 percent growth in the U.S. and 9.6 percent growth overall that Jeffery Lindsay, an analyst at Bernstein Research, forecasts for the year for e-commerce. And it compares with the 0.5 percent decline that the National Retail Federation is expecting for traditional U.S. retailers.
"It was a strong quarter," says Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets. "Amazon continues to take market share and they continue to be a favored outpost for consumers who are looking for good value."
Amazon was able to offer that value without giving away the store. The operating margin, a measure of profitability, was also better than expected. At 5 percent, it was well above Wall Street's expectations of 4.3 percent. And despite the difficult economy, Amazon showed better-than-expected growth in its domestic sales of books, CDs, and other media as well as strong demand for electronics gear. It's likely...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Mobile Apps for Urban Explorers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66172
For a recent transplant like myself, New York is a mysterious jungle, promising to deliver just about anything you want, but only if you can find it.
But moving to a new city has been a perfect opportunity to take full advantage of the digital Sherpa hidden inside my iPhone. Thanks to the abundance of location-based mobile services and applications, I am able to navigate labyrinthine neighborhoods and discover restaurants, galleries and cozy pubs in my new town -- not to mention navigate unknown cities when I'm traveling for work.
Most apps are made for the iPhone first, but that could change as other companies open their own app stores. Google (maker of the Android mobile phone operating system), Research In Motion (maker of the BlackBerry), Microsoft (maker of the Windows Mobile operating system) and Nokia (the biggest mobile phone maker) have all either opened or said they would open stores to sell third-party mobile applications, so users should be able to find most apps on most smartphones. Here are some that can help urban explorers.
Trying to find a decent place to nosh in an unknown city can be treacherous. Using Urbanspoon, which covers major cities in Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, helped uncover the best salmon nigiri I've had since leaving the West Coast of the United States. Urbanspoon's free iPhone application, which relies on a gimmicky, shakable interface -- think Magic 8 Ball -- can get tiresome, but being able to quickly search by neighborhood, price and cuisine never does.
OpenTable's database of restaurants and reviews is a reliable fallback for scouting out a good place to get a bite, mostly in North America but expanding (Dubai lists 15 reviews, all hotel-based restaurants). OpenTable offers a mobile version for the iPhone and BlackBerry that lets you reserve a...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Congress: Privacy Fears Over Cable Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66170
Congress put cable TV operators on notice that it will scrutinize their plans to roll out targeted advertising to viewers, questioning whether they will use set-top boxes sitting in millions of homes to monitor and store what people watch.
As part of a broader discussion Thursday over Internet privacy issues, lawmakers at the House subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet brought up cable's newest advertising endeavor called Canoe Ventures.
They asked whether, and to what degree, set-top box data will be used to send targeted ads to viewers. That would mean, for instance, that pet food commercials are routed to households likely to have pets, based on a tendency to watch TV shows about animals.
The questions come even before Canoe, which was formed by the nation's six largest cable TV operators last year, has launched its first targeted advertisement.
But Canoe has no current plans to use data collected by set-top boxes, said Kyle McSlarrow, chief executive of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association who spoke at the hearing.
If cable companies use set-top box data in the future for targeted advertising, McSlarrow said, they will have to comply with existing cable laws protecting private consumer information.
"They're very conscious of the privacy implications of what they do," he said.
Canoe currently has two advertising products in the works. One uses demographic data, such as age and income, to send relevant ads to customers, starting this summer. The other, slated for later this year, would involve interactive ads, such as a button that pops up during a car commercial for viewers to click on with their remote control to get more information.
McSlarrow said the latter has a "built-in, opt in" system. Viewers choose to click on the button before information is sent to them using the address on file with the cable company.
The hearing focused...
Tue, 28 Apr 09
Craigslist Death Renews Calls for Limiting Sex Ads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66168
"Late night cravings special," promises the Craigslist ad in the "erotic services" category. "My exotic mix makes me an intoxicating and sensual treat."
The "treat" runs a discreet 100 "rose petals" for 15 minutes, 130 rose petals for a half-hour and 160 for an hour.
Prostitution persists on Craigslist even as attorneys general pressure the online classified service to stamp it out, experts say. Those efforts are intensifying after the killing of a Boston masseuse hired through the site.
"It is clear that Craigslist is the new frontier," said Mark Lagon, executive director of the Polaris Project, an anti-slavery group.
Many of the victims who come to Polaris can point to a Craigslist posting used by a trafficker to market their bodies against their will, Lagon said in an April 6 letter to the site.
"Ultimately, the 'erotic services' section must be shut down," Lagon wrote, noting that a study last year found that Craigslist was the site used most frequently by johns seeking prostitutes.
The recent arrest of Boston University medical student Philip Markoff, charged with murder, armed robbery and kidnapping for the killing of a 25-year-old masseuse he met through Craigslist and the robbery of another, has intensified long-standing concerns about the ads.
In Illinois, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart sued Craigslist last month, saying the site not only allows the solicitation of prostitution, but also has actively created "the largest source of prostitution in America."
Craigslist rejected the sheriff's contentions, saying the company cooperates with law enforcement, has taken several steps to prevent illegal use of the site and pulls inappropriate ads.
"The Internet is still fairly new, and there's a tendency to focus on any crime story that has a connection to the Internet, as I suspect was done in the early days of the telephone as well," Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist's CEO, told The Associated...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Congress Considers Limits on Deep-Packet Inspections
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66185
At a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Internet subcommittee Thursday, Congress began the tricky business of trying to understand Internet privacy issues and launched another round of debates about legislation regulating the collection and handling of personal data online.
"One clear way Congress can promote a greater use of the Internet for access to information, e-commerce and entertainment," said subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va) "is to assure Internet users a high degree of privacy protection. It's my intention for the subcommittee this year to develop legislation extending to Internet users that assurance that their online experience is more secure."
The specific focus of the subcommittee's hearing was the practice of deep packet inspection (DPI), a data-handling technique that allows Internet service providers and communication companies to look at the content of all traffic flowing through their servers.
ISPs argue that DPI is a valuable tool because it enables them to block illegal content flowing across the Internet, including copyrighted materials and contraband such as child pornography. One industry advocate -- National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow -- went so far as to argue that DPI is actually a pro-consumer technology, enabling ISPs to better filter viruses and other threatening content.
DPI gained notoriety last year when it was revealed that Comcast used the technique to throttle the flow of BitTorrent data across its networks. Other ISPs have suggested using DPI as a tool to prioritize traffic (perhaps based on a sliding fee scale), a technique that engineers argue is simply good network management.
But many worry that DPI can have profound privacy implications, since it enables ISPs to examine the content of all traffic, not merely that which is illegal or potentially damaging.
"DPI poses unique risks to individual privacy," said Leslie Harris, president and CEO...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Apple Lays Off 1,600 Employees at Retail Stores
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66184
Executives at Apple may be celebrating the success of the company's one billionth application being downloaded from its App Store and smiling about its successful non-holiday quarter, but 1,600 retail employees being laid off have nothing to cheer about. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company downsized from 15,600 retail positions in the last quarter to 14,000 this quarter.
Apple's retail net sales rose $20 million, or one percent, in its fiscal second quarter compared to a year ago and revenue grew more than eight percent. However, the growth in retail net sales was less than the increase in the average number of stores open.
"I don't think it is a particularly big deal," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy for Interpret. "This is a case of wanting to make sure you are on target with what it is you are doing and lining up resources with sales. It is possible we saw overstaffing in some areas."
"In retail you are always balancing resources and on one hand you are covered and not short-staffed, and on the other side of the equation you don't want to be overstaffed," he added.
The job cuts are a result of a challenging consumer spending environment, according to the company. The average revenue per store decreased 17 percent from $7.1 million in the second quarter of 2008 to $5.9 million, according to financial documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Apple's increase in net sales came from the iPhone and strong demand for the MacBook, according to the company. Apple, however, also saw a decrease in sales for most other products, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iPods, according to the company.
"This is not the typical selling season to begin with, and you are in the middle of a recession," Gartenberg said. "Still, (with...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Trial Under Way for RealDVD Copying Software
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66183
Late last year, RealNetworks released RealDVD, which allowed users to make a personal backup copy of their DVDs. The software was only available for a few days before the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed a copyright-infringement suit, alleging that RealDVD violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by allowing consumers to bypass DVD content-scrambling systems.
Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of U.S. District Court in San Francisco issued a temporary injunction against the sale of the software and began hearing testimony Friday on whether the injunction should be permanent. The hearing, RealNetworks spokesperson Bill Hankes said, was expected to last three days.
The MPAA's main argument, according to court pleadings, is that RealDVD will enable users to "rent, rip and return" DVDs from video-rental outlets like Blockbuster and Netflix, or simply copy a friend's collection.
Without specifically addressing those concerns, RealNetworks argues that individuals have a right to protect their purchase of DVDs by making a backup copy. The company also says it respects the copy protection in place on DVDs by making a precise copy of each disk, including content-scrambling systems. That means users can't then replicate the digital copy or burn it to a new DVD.
As is so often the case, the real battle is less about technology than about cash flow. For a variety of reasons, DVD sales are down 40 percent in the past year, and studios are leery of any tool that could further damage sales.
Moreover, the studios have their own plans for satisfying consumer demand for backups: Premium DVDs (with a premium price) that come with a premade digital copy that purchasers can transfer to a laptop or computer. It's too early to gauge whether consumers are willing to pay extra for the convenience of a digital copy.
There is some speculation that RealNetworks is...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Users Approve Facebook Policy Face-Lift
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66182
Facebook has decided to move forward with the implementation of new policies based on the results of a week-long vote by users that ended Thursday evening.
During the past week, users of the social-networking service were given the opportunity to vote for the policy documents they think should serve as the foundation for governing the site, noted Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel.
"The preliminary numbers indicate that approximately 74.4 percent of users who voted chose the proposed documents -- the new Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities -- over the existing terms of use," Ullyot said. "More than 600,000 users participated in the vote."
Many Facebook users were outraged in mid-February when the social-networking site unilaterally changed its terms of service in a way that granted Facebook an irrevocable worldwide license to use, retain, modify and distribute their content as well as use their names, likenesses and images for any purpose. Under Facebook's previous terms of service, users had retained full ownership over all their content and could remove it from the site at any time.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerman initially tried to head off what amounted to a perfect storm by saying the site's philosophy is that people own their information and control who they share it with.
"When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they've asked us to share it with," Zuckerman said. "Without this license, we couldn't help people share that information."
But Zuckerman's comments did not fly with blogs such as The Consumerist, which noted that anything users uploaded to Facebook under the policy introduced in February could be used by the social-networking site "in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Vodafone To Unleash Second Android Phone in Europe
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66181
The second major Android phone is soon landing. Next month, Vodafone will release the HTC Magic, the first touchscreen-only device based on the Google-led, open-source operating system. It will be only the second Android device from a major carrier.
The Magic will be available first in Germany on May 5, followed in a matter of days with releases in France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Spain and Italy.
The Magic, exclusive to Vodafone in Europe, will feature a 3.2-inch screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera, high-speed Internet access, and GPS. Vodafone is taking pre-orders in advance of the device's release.
The first Android-based phone, the G1, has sold about one million units since its release by T-Mobile about six months ago, according to news reports. The G1, like the Magic, is made by Taiwan-based HTC.
If the Magic is released in the U.S. through T-Mobile, there has been speculation among some observers that the carrier will dub it the G2, or, since the Magic is already out, choose instead the G3 title. But no release plan for the U.S. launch of the Magic has yet been announced, nor has its availability through T-Mobile been confirmed. China Mobile is expected to handle the Magic's release in Asia.
The Magic, which was first announced by HTC at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this past February, has virtual on-screen typing keys, not the G1's slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
For the markets in this initial release wave, Vodafone will make the Magic available for free to customers who sign up for a two-year contract, which includes unlimited data, 700 minutes for phone calls, 250 texts, and unlimited calls to landlines and customers on the Vodafone network.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said that, while HTC is undoubtedly "thrilled" by the one million units sold...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Microsoft Invites Businesses To Test Apps on Windows 7
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66180
Businesses will have a chance to test the waters before diving into Microsoft's next operating systems, Windows 7. The software giant is inviting businesses to test their applications on Windows 7 during a free trial at Microsoft's TechEd Conference on May 11-15 in Los Angeles.
Microsoft is offering customers a chance to register for the Windows 7 Bring Your Own Apps Lab. The lab will be free to developers and enable companies to work with Microsoft engineers on specific Windows 7 compatibility issues, Microsoft's Yochay Kiriaty said in a blog post.
For developers worried about security and privacy, Microsoft is setting up a secure Windows 7 test platform in a private developer lab environment, according to Kiriaty. "Just bring your applications and we will load them on the test platform, and our dedicated consultants will help you investigate any application-compatibility issues and offer architectural guidance," he wrote.
Companies need to preregister for the testing, according to Microsoft. They must register a list of developers and application names and versions that they wish to test during the 75-minute lab session.
The lab will also be open May 10, the Sunday before TechEd.
"Windows 7 release candidate should not be too far off," said Michael Silver, vice president of research at Gartner.
Early this month, Microsoft posted a memo on the TechNet Web site showing that the company is considering May to release Windows 7 release candidate. Windows 7 RC will be available through June and Microsoft will dole out an unlimited number of download keys to users who want to test the operating system and provide feedback.
Offering such a lab to companies isn't surprising, according to Silver. "Microsoft needs to work with independent software vendors to get them to provide supported versions of their applications in a timely basis, as this is a...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Microsoft Offers a Downbeat Outlook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66174
There was little optimism in remarks by Microsoft executives when they reported fiscal third-quarter results on Apr. 23. Chipmaker Intel had said the PC business had bottomed when it announced earnings on Apr. 14. A few days later, IBM gave investors glimmers of hope that the economy may be turning around. And whole divisions of Apple seemed to shrug off the recession entirely when the company's results soundly beat analysts' estimates on Apr. 22.
Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, is seeing no such rays of sunshine. In an Apr. 24 call with Wall Street analysts, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell sounded downright morose. "We remain more cautious than most," he said. "While we'd all like to hope that the recovery will be short and painless, we unfortunately think it will be slow and difficult."
The numbers show why. In the fiscal third quarter ended Mar. 30, the company suffered the very first year-over-year sales decline in its history, with revenue slipping 6 percent to $13.65 billion. For starters, Microsoft is feeling the effects of a recession that has depleted demand for PCs. Businesses are hitting the brakes on new computer purchases, and many consumers are opting for new, low-cost netbooks that carry an older version of Windows that costs less than half the amount Microsoft gets for software on a full-featured PC.
Then there are the competitive pressures Microsoft would be facing even if the economy weren't contracting. Apple is siphoning off business in the market for more expensive PCs. And while Microsoft saw brisk sales of its Xbox game console, it's making little headway in other efforts to crack new markets, including smartphones, TV systems, and online search and advertising.
To its credit, Microsoft is taking pains to deal with this new reality. Thanks to the first...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
App Store Downloads Reach 1B After Nine Months
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66171
One day you are down, the next you are up. After a controversial Baby Shaker game slipped through Apple's App Store review process, angering groups that fight child abuse, the iPhone maker is celebrating the one billionth download.
The one billionth app downloaded from the store was called Bump. Created by Bump Technologies, the application aims to make swapping contact information as simple as bumping two phones together. Many users may want to "bump" with the Connecticut teenager, Connor Mulcahey, who won Apple's grand prize for downloading the app. He will receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro.
"The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we'd like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve the astonishing milestone of one billion apps downloaded," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "In nine months, the App Store has completely revolutionized the mobile industry, and this is only the beginning."
As of Friday, the App Store has more than 35,000 applications available to consumers in 77 countries. The store lets developers reach tens of millions of iPhone and iPod touch users around the world.
This summer the iPhone OS 3.0 update will provide developers with more than 1,000 new APIs enabling in-app purchases, peer-to-peer connections, app control of accessories, and push notifications. The iPhone OS 3.0 will also add more than 100 customer features, including cut, copy and paste; Spotlight search; a landscape keyboard and a view for all key iPhone apps; and expanded parental controls for apps, TV shows, and movies.
What does the one billion app download really mean? Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst at Current Analysis, isn't sure. He...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
T-Mobile Sells One Million Google Android G1 Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66161
T-Mobile USA has sold one million G1 Android devices, also known as Google phones. The notable milestone comes six months after the wireless provider launched the much-anticipated handheld.
The revelation, which was all but buried in the company's quarterly earnings report, makes the G1 the dominant 3G device on T-Mobile's network, with two-thirds of its 3G customers toting the Google software-based device.
Although the G1 hasn't achieved the success of Apple's iPhone -- Apple sold one million iPhones in about two months and one million iPhone 3Gs over a single weekend -- T-Mobile's figures demonstrate a healthy market for mobile innovation. Still, analysts said good news for HTC, maker of the G1, and T-Mobile doesn't necessarily translate to a smash hit for Google -- at least not yet.
"When you compare Android to other platforms, it is younger and it is struggling right now to get the type of unit sales the Apple iPhone enjoys or the breadth of the devices Windows Mobile and RIM's Blackberry have. RIM sold eight million BlackBerries last quarter," said Avi Greengart, a wireless analyst for Current Analysis. "But we'll have to wait until later this year when more devices are developed for Android to see what happens."
Despite Android's youth, there is no denying its growth. AdMob, a mobile advertising platform, is putting a spotlight on the rapid growth of both the Android and iPhone platforms in its March 2009 Mobile Metrics Report. The company said growth in requests from devices running the Android and iPhone operating systems continued to outpace other platforms in March, despite the relatively limited number of devices in the market.
AdMob concluded that the application stores for both platforms have significantly influenced this growth, spurring hope for online stores by Research in Motion, Microsoft and Nokia.
Specifically, more than half of...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Now on Google's Vast Stage: You
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66144
Google wants to conquer the social networking world without creating an explicit social network.
Rather than trying to revive its Orkut networking site, which has been a flop outside of Brazil, the online search giant is weaving the various components of social networks through its existing services. Your contacts in Gmail and Google Talk, for example, are being turned into a list of "friends" with whom you can share photos from Picasa or blog posts from Blogger.
Another piece of Google's decentralized social network is an option that lets people create a profile page with photos and the usual tidbits about where you went to school and so on.
This week, Google began a campaign to get people to create these profiles, using its biggest gun: the Google search engine. If you want to control what people see when they search for your name, create a profile and click the box to have it included in Google search results.
While some people may well want to do anything they can to hide from the prying eyes of surfers around the world, many more in this narcissistic era will want to ascend to the stage Google is offering them.
There are good reviews of the nuances of this feature from Danny Sullivan, of Search Engine Land, and John Battelle, the author and ad-network entrepreneur.
Are the new profile pages enough to get Google's ersatz social network to rival Facebook and MySpace? I don't know. But it doesn't hurt.
As much Google's strategy makes a lot of sense as a business, I think it has some real problems for users. Social networks are not just software with features they are -- really -- communities. What you do on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook are different because each has different rules about who can see what about you and different norms...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Craigslist CEO: Crooks Who Use Site Will Be Caught
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66141
The chief executive of Craigslist has a message for people who try to use the popular Internet advertising site to commit crimes: You're going to get caught.
Violent crimes linked to Craigslist ads in Minnesota and Boston have made headlines, but CEO Jim Buckmaster said Wednesday the site is an "extremely unsafe venue for criminal activity because you're virtually guaranteeing that you're going to get caught."
"That's been the case with nearly every serious violent crime that's been connected with the site," Buckmaster said in a telephone interview from San Francisco, where Craiglist is based. "There's an electronic trail leading to yourself. So don't use Craigslist for crime unless you want to go to jail."
A Minnesota man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole this month for the 2007 slaying of Katherine Ann Olson, who answered a phony ad he posted for a baby sitter. This week, a 23-year-old Boston University medical student was charged with robbing women who advertised erotic services on Craigslist and killing one of them, Julissa Brisman.
"We were shocked and saddened to learn that a horrific crime like this had any connection to the use of Craigslist, and our hearts went out to the family and friends of Julissa Brisman," Buckmaster said.
Buckmaster said the attention Craigslist has received because of crimes linked to it is partly a function of how heavily the site is used and the relative newness of the Internet.
"There are 50 million people using the site every month, and the site has facilitated billions of human interactions over its history. Compared to human society as a whole the risks of Craigslist are low, but they're not zero," he said.
Buckmaster declined to say much about how Craigslist is cooperating with authorities investigating the Boston case but said, "We make ourselves 100...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
Sources Say Pentagon Plans New Cyber Command
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66140
The U.S. military is planning to create a new military command to focus on cyberspace and protect its computer networks from cyber attacks, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
The move comes as the White House prepares to release a broader study on the nation's cyber security. Officials in recent months have warned increasingly that the nation's networks are at risk and repeatedly are being probed by foreign governments, criminals or other groups.
The Pentagon has been reviewing for at least a year just how it needs to reorganize military efforts on cyber issues, one official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. Another official said that under the new plan, being completed now, a subcommand could be set up under the U.S. Strategic Command.
The military's plans to create the new cyber command was first reported Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Sited at Offutt Air Force Base just south of Omaha, Nebraska, the command oversees space issues and is responsible for protecting and monitoring the military's information grid, as well as coordinating any offensive cyber warfare on behalf of the country.
Defense Department networks are probed repeatedly every day and the number of intrusion attempts have more than doubled recently, officials have said. Military leaders said this month that the Pentagon spent more than $100 million in the last six months responding to and repairing damage from cyber attacks and other computer network problems.
In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011.
A broader Obama administration study also about to be released looked at how the government can manage and use technology better to protect everything from the nation's electrical...
Sat, 25 Apr 09
China Denies It Hacked into U.S. Jet Program
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China denied media reports that hackers in the country breached a U.S. jet fighter program two years ago, calling the allegations Thursday "irresponsible" and "made up."
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China was resolutely opposed to and has cracked down on cyber crimes, including hacking.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the breach, cited unnamed former U.S. officials as saying the attacks appeared to have originated in China.
A senior U.S. defense official in Washington earlier this week confirmed that hackers nearly two years ago breached a high-tech F-35 jet fighter program developed for the Pentagon by Lockheed Martin Corp., but said it was unclear who did it and that classified information was not compromised.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, also said it was unclear whether the attack was an attempt at corporate thievery or a hacker trying to harm the program. The Pentagon is expected to pay about $300 billion to buy nearly 2,500 of the F-35 jets for the Air Force, Navy and Marines.
"Some people keep making up stories. I don't know what their intention is," Jiang said at a regular briefing when asked to comment on the reports. "We believe that without the results of any investigation, it would be irresponsible to make accusations against China."
U.S. computer networks, including those at the Pentagon and other federal agencies, are under persistent attack, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious assaults, possibly from other nations.
Officials in the U.S., Britain and Germany have accused Chinese hackers backed by the country's military of intruding into their government and defense computer networks.
Chinese government officials have denied accusations of computer espionage, saying they were meant to feed anxiety over Beijing's growing influence.
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Pirate Bay Appeal Accuses Judge of Copyright Bias
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66160
Lawyers for defendants in The Pirate Bay case are demanding a retrial. Four men were sentenced last week to one year in jail and ordered to pay $4.5 million to several copyright owners, including Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Bros., and Columbia Pictures, after being found guilty of enabling downloading of copyrighted material.
Attorneys for Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, and Carl Lundstrom are asking a Swedish appeals court for a retrial after it was discovered that Judge Tomas Norstrom, who presided over the case, had three conflicts of interest.
"For those who missed it -- the spectrial judge seems to be working within the copyright lobby," posted Sunde on Twitter. "Just found a PDF showing that the judge's organization wrote to the EU about a stronger law for blaming the middlemen on the Net."
Norstrom turned out to be a member of the Swedish Copyright Association. Three representatives of the entertainment industry who took part in the trial are also members of the association.
Norstrom also sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, which works to strengthen copyright protection, and works with the .SE Foundation, which administers Internet domain names in Sweden. One of his colleagues represented the American film industry in The Pirate Bay trial and the two worked together to settle a conflict over a domain name two years ago, Swedish Radio P3 News reported.
"From what I've seen in the past, when there is a conviction, appellate lawyers tend to look for any and every possible piece of evidence that could help show a problem with the original trial," said Michael McGuire, an analyst with Gartner. "On the other hand, I would be extremely upset with the original defense counsel -- if I was the defendant --...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Yahoo Will Shut Down Pioneering GeoCities Site
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66159
"GeoCities will close later this year." That's the stark announcement at the top of Yahoo's GeoCities Help page.
The company goes on to say it is shutting down the ability of new customers to sign up for the free Web-hosting service and will close the service. "We'll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer," Yahoo says, "and we will update the help center with more details at that time."
The announcement marks an ignominious end for one of the pioneering Web-hosting services. Originally founded in 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet, the service was purchased five years later by Yahoo for $3.57 billion.
Unfortunately for Yahoo -- one of the many contributing factors to the company's current fiscal dilemma -- it purchased GeoCities at what proved to be the height of the dot-com boom. The bubble collapsed soon afterward and took the GeoCities share price with it.
The service's financial problems were exacerbated by some questionable operational decisions by Yahoo.
The company sparked a mass exodus by issuing new terms of service that said, among other things, that the company owned all content posted to GeoCities Web pages (sound familiar, Facebook?). Other users left when Yahoo capped data-transfer rates in an effort to encourage site owners to upgrade to paid hosting accounts.
In a conference call to discuss Yahoo's first-quarter earnings, CEO Carla Bartz didn't make a specific reference to the fact that Yahoo was about to electronically bulldoze GeoCities. However, she did make it clear that the company is trying to better prioritize aspects of its corporate structure most likely to be profitable.
Bartz told reporters that her conversations as a new CEO convinced her that the most important step for Yahoo is to create "a 'wow' experience for all of our users around the...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Cyberspace Director Urges National Dialogue on Threats
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66158
A little over two months ago, President Barack Obama appointed Melissa Hathaway as the acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council. Her primary task, the president said, was a two-month review of the nation's cybersecurity readiness and to propose improvements.
Hathaway handed in her report last Friday and, although it has not been made public, she has begun a campaign to point out significant cyber threats facing the nation. Speaking Wednesday at the 2009 RSA Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Hathaway offered a stark assessment of the nation's vulnerability.
"We have witnessed countless intrusions," Hathaway said, "that have allowed criminals to steal hundreds of millions of dollars and allowed nation-states and others to steal intellectual property and sensitive military information." Among other things, she cited the recent discovery of copies of Marine 1 plans on peer-to-peer networks and the intrusions into computers holding top-secret data about the nation's newest fighter jet.
Demonstrating a sense of humor, Hathaway was ushered onstage to the strains of the Mission Impossible theme, as a gravelly voice read her long list of accomplishments and responsibilities over the public-address system.
Improving the nation's cybersecurity will be a complicated and difficult task. There are a number of different constituencies involved in the cybersecurity field within the federal government, including the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, and the FBI.
Moreover, private companies -- which have their own cybersecurity issues -- are increasingly vocal in their concern that a stricter approach to cybersecurity by the federal government could limit creativity and innovation in the commercial sector.
Added to the mix is Congress, which is actively considering legislation aimed at revamping the nation's cybersecurity infrastructure. Sens. Olympia Snow (R-Maine) and John Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), have introduced two bills...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Cofounder Will Step Down as CEO of MySpace
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66155
After more than four years at the helm of the popular social network, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe is stepping down before his contract expires. He is one of the creators of MySpace and has been the CEO since February 2005.
The company said the decision to step down in the "near future" was a mutual one between DeWolfe and News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller. News Corp. owns MySpace.
"It's been one of the best experiences of my life and we're proud of, and grateful to, the team of talented people who helped us along the way," DeWolfe said. "We thank them as well as the MySpace community for making our vision a reality."
Observers believe the move may have been triggered by tougher competition from rival Facebook, which in the past year has added hundreds of thousands of users and tapped a larger demographic.
While DeWolfe will no longer handle day-to-day operations of the company, he will still serve on the board of MySpace China and will remain an adviser to the company.
DeWolfe, along with cocreator Tom Anderson, who serves as president, grew MySpace from a small startup with seven employees to a profitable company with 1,600 employees and one of the most visited Web sites on the Internet.
Anderson is expected to take a "new role" within the organization, but it's not clear if he will fill his partner's shoes.
Another contender is former Facebook CFO Owen Van Natta, a source told the Los Angeles Times.
Social-networking sites have seen an increase in visitors, claiming 6.13 percent of U.S. Internet traffic in 2008, up four percent year over year, according to tracking company Hitwise.
MySpace, which dominated the social-networking scene for the past few years, got more competition from Facebook in the past year. In February...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Baby Shaker Crosses Apple's Fine Line for App Store
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66154
Apple has removed the controversial Baby Shaker application from its App Store. Now that the dust has settled on the fuss, people are wondering how Apple could have let such a potentially offensive application through its seemingly strict approval process.
Sikalosoft developed Baby Shaker, which features a drawing of a crying baby. The object of the game is to get the baby to stop crying. This is accomplished by shaking the iPhone until red Xes appear over the baby's eyes. Here's a description of the game:
"On a plane, on the bus, in a theater. Babies are everywhere you don't want them to be! They're always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker there was nothing you could do about it."
The game's premise was extremely offensive to groups like the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, an organization dedicated to children suffering from brain injuries. Patrick Donohue, founder of the group, wrote a letter to an Apple executive protesting the Baby Shaker app.
"As the father of a three-year-old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only five days old, breaking three ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury, words cannot describe my reaction," Donohue wrote. "You have no idea the number of children your actions have put at risk by your careless, thoughtless and reckless behavior!"
How could Apple let an game that could offend so many onto its mobile application platform for the iPhone and iPod touch? Because the people that work at Apple are human beings and prone to make mistakes, said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret.
"Apple walks a fine line. If they are too conservative they get criticized for censorship and people say they should let the market...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
AMD Unveils Six-Core Drop-In Chip Along with Road Map
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66153
Advanced Micro Devices has previewed a six-core Opteron processor code-named Istanbul that promises a 30 percent performance improvement within the same power envelope in comparison with currently available quad-core Opteron chips.
The two extra cores in Istanbul, which is based on AMD's Shanghai server chip design, are expected to give a performance boost to data centers supporting cloud computing and ultra-dense environments that demand greater energy efficiency.
The new processor, slated for release in June, "is simply a drop-in to the existing Shanghai socket infrastructure," said AMD spokesperson Phil Hughes. "All that is needed is a BIOS update."
Istanbul has a new feature called HT Assist that provides significant memory and I/O performance increases by reducing the overhead of cache lookups, noted John Fruehe, AMD's director of business development for server and workstation products. "Think rifle shot instead of shotgun, cutting down on a lot of the inner-chip communications," Fruehe said.
AMD also unveiled a new product road map this week that calls for the introduction of eight- and 12-core Magny-Cours processors in 2010 as well as the release of 12- and 16-core Interlagos processors based on 32nm process technology in 2011.
"We're currently working on new processors which we expect will deliver more than 35 times the performance of the original single-core AMD Opteron processor released in 2003," said AMD Vice President Patrick Patla.
Meanwhile, AMD has just unleashed a new quad-core Opteron EE processor targeted at very dense data centers such as those built to support cloud-computing environments that demand both extreme energy efficiency and a balanced system that can handle high transactional demands. In comparison with AMD's Opteron HE processor, the new 45nm chip achieves a 13 percent reduction in platform-level power consumption and up to a 14 percent reduction in processor power at idle,...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Warner Will Trade Blu-Ray Discs for HD DVD Discs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66131
If you were hoping to hold your now-obsolete HD DVD discs until their price on eBay rose, you may want to reconsider. Warner Home Video announced Thursday a trade-in program where customers can exchange HD DVD discs for a Blu-ray Disc of the same title at a discount.
The trade-in program is called Red2Blu, and centers around Warner's Web site of the same name. The cost with trade-in is $4.95 for each Blu-ray Disc, plus $6.95 for shipping and handling for each order, whether single or multiple discs.
On the Web site, a user selects from the available Blu-ray titles. There is a limit of one exchange per title, and up to 25 per household. The user then mails the original -- not copies -- of each HD DVD's cover art to Warner and receives the Blu-ray version of the same title within four to five weeks. For boxed sets, Warner is offering special instructions as to what cover art to mail in. Only trade-ins of the same movie are allowed.
The site offers 128 Blu-ray titles from Warner, including Batman Begins, A Clockwork Orange, Blood Diamond, Michael Clayton, Ocean's Eleven, Pan's Labyrinth, The Sopranos, Phantom of the Opera, and the Best of HD DVD series, which becomes, of course, the Best of Blu-ray.
Josh Martin, an analyst with industry research firm Yankee Group, said Warner's motivation is "probably public outreach, so that they look like they're doing the right thing." He noted that, when the HD DVD-versus-Blu-ray format war was at its height, Warner's conversion to Blu-ray was the turning point.
Martin also pointed out that Best Buy offered a similar trade-in, with a discount for purchasing Blu-ray players if you traded in your HD DVD player, and that also was an effort to keep HD...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Apple Defies Recession Despite Lower Mac Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66130
Wall Street is once again rallying around Apple. The Mac maker defied the recession with earnings growth in its fiscal second quarter, and the news boosted Apple's stock.
Apple posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share, for the quarter. That compares to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Apple's gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter's revenue.
"We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history," said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. "Apple's financial condition remains very robust, with almost $29 billion in cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet. Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion, and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about 95 cents to $1."
The only chink in Apple's armor was in the PC sector. Apple sold 2.22 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a three percent decline from the year-ago quarter. Its non-CPU products continue to show strength. Apple sold more than 11 million iPods for three percent growth. Quarterly iPhone sales were 3.79 million for 123 percent growth.
Apple's fiscal second quarter earnings reflect the company's ability to effectively anticipate consumer demand and evolve to meet that demand, according to Tim Deal, a senior analyst at Pike & Fischer.
"Over the past eight years, Apple has steadily diversified its product portfolio in order to capitalize off of -- and in some cases drive -- consumer trends. The iPhone represents the most recent 'beyond the box' product in the company's offering...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Broadcom Launches Hostile $764M Bid for Emulex
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66110
Chip designer Broadcom Corp. is launching a $764 million hostile takeover offer for network gear maker Emulex Corp. Broadcom said Tuesday the deal would help it develop new technologies for corporate data centers.
The acquisition would amount to $9.25 per share, a 40 percent premium over Emulex's closing share price Monday.
A spokeswoman for Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Emulex did not immediately return a call requesting comment on the offer.
Meanwhile, Irvine-based Broadcom said it lost $92 million, or 19 cents per share, in the first quarter. That compares with a profit of $74 million, or 14 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.
Sales fell 17 percent to $853 million.
Analysts projected a profit of 3 cents per share on sales of $848 million, according to Thomson Reuters.
Broadcom shares tumbled $1.27, or 5.8 percent, to close at $20.52, while Emulex saw its stock surge $3.09, or 46.8 percent, to $9.70.
Broadcom said its unsolicited offer for Emulex, to be funded by cash and marketable securities, would help it develop technology aimed at streamlining computer networks by adding Emulex's expertise in data storage equipment.
"Our combined entity can be a one-stop shop for key networking and storage technologies," Scott McGregor, Broadcom's chief executive, said in a statement.
McGregor said Broadcom approached Emulex about a possible deal in December. Emulex responded in early January, saying the company was not for sale and cutting off talks, according to a letter to Emulex's board released by Broadcom.
Emulex followed by writing a so-called "poison pill" into its bylaws in January. That step was intended to thwart a hostile takeover by giving existing shareholders the right to purchase more stock should any group or individual acquire more than 15 percent of outstanding shares.
Broadcom indicated it would try to get the provision removed. The company plans to ask a Delaware court to invalidate any "improper...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
Lawmakers To Reexamine Internet-Sharing Software
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66109
A House committee is reopening its investigation of Internet services that let computer users distribute music and movies online amid reports the same software was exploited to gain unauthorized access to government and private data.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent letters Monday to the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and The Lime Group, which runs LimeWire, a popular file-sharing service. The letters, signed by chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and ranking Republican Darrell E. Issa of California, sought information about any such breaches and what the Obama administration and company are doing to protect against them.
Internet file-sharing links computers across the Internet and allows users to access files stored on any other computer within the network. In the past, these networks have been popular among people who distribute popular music, movies and commercial software without paying legally required copyright fees.
The House committee held hearings in 2007. The problem of pirated music has since declined due to rising popularity of legal services such as iTunes, concerns over the threat of personal lawsuits by the entertainment industry and efforts by colleges to limit illicit data traffic on their computer networks. LimeWire is the largest remaining such network popular among computer users.
Witnesses at the earlier hearings "easily obtained bank records, health records, military files, tax returns, corporate documents, and other highly sensitive private files via the LimeWire network," Towns and Issa wrote to Mark Gorton, chairman of The Lime Group.
They recalled that Gorton told lawmakers he would make significant changes in the software to prevent inadvertent disclosures of personal or confidential information over the Internet service.
"However, it appears that nearly two years after your commitment to make significant changes in the software, LimeWire and other P2P (peer-to-peer) providers have not taken adequate steps to address this critical problem," Towns and Issa wrote.
They...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
EU Lawmakers Approve New Price Cap on Text Message
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EU lawmakers voted Wednesday for a new price cap that will cut the cost of sending text messages from abroad by nearly two-thirds.
Phone users will pay a maximum of 11 euro cents (14 cents) for sending text messages from another European Union nation starting July 1, down from the current average cost of 28 euro cents (36 cents).
The European Parliament also approved new, lower caps for "roaming" calls that set a ceiling of 43 euro cent (56 cents) per minute for making a call and 19 euro cents (25 cents) for receiving one.
Mobile Internet users could also see cheaper fees as the Parliament fixed a one-euro ($1.29) limit per megabyte on how much operators could charge each other to use their networks.
"Today's vote marks the definite end of the roaming rip-off in Europe," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding, who had pushed hard for the lower charges.
"Just in time for the summer holidays, European citizens will now be able to see the single market without borders on their phone bills," she said.
The Parliament vote was the final approval needed for the price caps after EU telecoms ministers said they were in favor.
Telecoms companies' association GSMA said they were unhappy with price regulation and hoped the price caps would expire -- as intended -- in mid-2012. They say regulation could hurt the new investments that have cut mobile prices by more than a third since 2004.
Consumers' group BEUC said it would start pushing in 2011 for the price caps to be extended again.
Text messages are wildly popular in Europe, especially among people under the age of 25. Some 2.5 billion were sent in 2007 at a total cost of 800 million euros ($1 billion).
The cost of sending a message from abroad varies widely in different nations. Latvians on vacation in Spain...
Fri, 24 Apr 09
AT&T To Shut Down Internet Phone Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66104
AT&T Inc. is shutting down its CallVantage Internet-based phone service, according to letters received by subscribers this week.
The announcement is another nail in the coffin for Internet phone service of the kind that was pioneered in the early years of the decade by companies like Vonage Holdings Corp.
Vonage and CallVantage customers got a small adapter that allowed them to place calls by connecting a phone to a high-speed Internet line. They paid monthly fees of $20 to $30 for unlimited domestic calling.
The approach held appeal for those wanting to save money, but problems with sound quality and reliability hampered the technology. Wireless service and cable phone service have instead emerged as the main competitors to traditional landlines.
The shutdown of CallVantage was not unexpected. AT&T stopped signing up new subscribers last summer. In January, Verizon Communications Inc. said it would shut down its corresponding service, VoiceWing, at the end of March.
In the letter dated April 17, AT&T didn't give a specific date for the shutdown, but said subscribers may want to find another service provider.
AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said the service will be retired in phases, with the last accounts disconnected by the end of the year. The company will send several more reminders before the final shutdown.
CallVantage is being shut down because the company is focusing its efforts on other technologies, Coe said.
AT&T hasn't revealed subscriber figures for CallVantage since the end of 2004, when it had 53,000.
AT&T introduced the service in March 2004, when it was still a long-distance company. CallVantage allowed it to compete in the local-phone business as well. AT&T was later bought by SBC, the local-phone company for much of the Midwest. The combined company assumed the AT&T name.
AT&T has a new Internet-based phone service, which sends voice calls as numerous data packets just like e-mail...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Second Life Will Regulate Content for Adults
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66129
Linden Lab, the creator of the popular virtual world Second Life, said it will roll out a filtering system to segregate mature and adult content from the rest of the Second Life offerings. According to company officials, the plan is based on feedback from subscribers, content creators, and businesses.
"Preferences and community standards vary tremendously across industries, countries and cultures," said Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden. "Our goal is to retain as much of the freedom as possible while continuing to push the medium and our platform forward. As we continue to grow, it is crucial that we maintain the diversity of user-generated content while providing enhanced controls to support a wider range of uses."
The new plan has two components: Virtual segregation of mature and adult content into a brand-new continent within Second Life, and an age-verification system to limit who can view the content.
Linden said the time line and procedures for migrating existing adult businesses to the new continent is being finalized and should be released by the end of the second quarter. Businesses that are required to move will be able to leave a sign temporarily indicating their new location.
In addition, the company will institute procedures requiring users to obtain account verification before accessing adult content. Verification can be accomplished in one of two ways: By having payment information on file, or by signing up for Linden's age-verification service operated by Aristotle, which uses government-issued IDs to verify ages.
The move to ship adult content "overseas" is reminiscent of the real-world efforts of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to clean up Times Square and make it more family-friendly. For Linden Lab, however, the motivation is less about tourism than it is about being more business-friendly.
The company's press release makes it clear why blue activities are...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Celebrity Tweeters Give Twitter a Huge Boost
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66127
A sudden surge in celebrity tweeters has given a huge boost to Twitter, the micro-blogging service that offers up the world in 140-character chunks.
Last Friday, after media maven Oprah Winfrey sent her first tweet during a live broadcast, Twitter saw its share of U.S. Internet visits increase by a remarkable 24 percent, according to the industry analyst firm Hitwise. The company also found that visits to the Twitter site were up 43 percent over the previous Friday.
Oprah's decision to join the Twitterati follows on the heels of (and may have been inspired by) a well-publicized contest between actor Ashton Kutcher and CNN to see which could be the first to cross the million-follower mark. Much to the chagrin of the media outlet, Kutcher prevailed, but most observers expect Oprah to rapidly sail past that mark.
Among the many questions currently unanswered is the effect that such high-profile micro-bloggers will have on the young site. Currently, Twitter has about 14 million members, less than 10 percent of the total claimed by social-networking leader Facebook, which boasts more than 200 million members.
"There's been much debate among loyal Twitter users," Hitwise senior online analyst Heather Hopkins said in a blog post, "about whether this spells the end for Twitter's coolness, as soccer moms sign up in droves."
And the soccer moms are clearly interested: The service has picked up a cool one million new users in the five days since the first Oprah tweet, and there is widespread speculation that many more Oprah fans will follow her lead. It could be, as actor Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca, the start of a beautiful friendship.
But Twitter has wrestled with service issues over the past several months, growing pains associated with the challenges of handling millions of tweets from around the world. Members are often...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Bluetooth SIG Adopts 3.0+HS High-Speed Standard
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66125
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has formally adopted a new high-speed standard that will enable Bluetooth functionality to run over Wi-Fi (802.11) without the need for an intervening wireless network connection.
Bluetooth 3.0+HS maintains backward compatibility with current Bluetooth protocols, profiles, security and pairing while simultaneously achieving substantially faster data-transfer speeds of approximately 24 megabits per second through the momentary use of a secondary 802.11 radio riding piggyback on the enabling device. And when the high-speed 802.11 is not required, the wireless connection will revert to normal operation over a regular-speed Bluetooth radio.
"Consumers with Bluetooth 3.0+HS products will get faster exchange of information without changing how they connect," said Bluetooth SIG Executive Director Michael Foley.
From a technical perspective, the 10x speed improvement offered by Bluetooth 3.0+HS over the previous generation come from the new standard's integration of a generic alternate MAC/PHY with an 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL). The combination enables Bluetooth profiles to take advantage of 802.11 speeds whenever required.
Product manufacturers such as Motorola, Toshiba, Sony and Samsung are expected to incorporate Bluetooth 3.0+HS into next-generation smartphones, netbooks, TV sets, camcorders and other consumer gear that consumers will be able to buy within the next nine to 12 months. "And they'll get the chips to do that from folks like Atheros, Broadcom, CSR and Marvel -- companies who participated in the prototyping phase of this specification to ensure it was up to snuff for the marketplace," Foley said.
For example, Broadcom says it has developed a single chip that integrates a qualified Bluetooth 3.0+HS controller and a certified Wi-Fi media access controller/physical layer device. Moreover, the chipmaker's core Bluetooth software stack already has been qualified as compliant with the new Bluetooth spec.
One common goal of the association's members is to enable consumers to share and...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Amazon's Kindle 2 Retails for Nearly Double Its Cost
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Amazon's Kindle 2, an electronic book reader available from the online retailer since late February, retails for almost double what it costs to build the device, according to iSuppli. Its teardown analysis service said the Kindle 2 retails for $359 but only costs $185.49 to build.
As of April 16, nearly 300,000 Kindle 2 devices had shipped, suggesting the company has taken in more than $100 million from sales this year.
All parts involved in making the device total $176.83, but when components, including battery and manufacturing costs, are thrown into the mix, the price increases $8.66, according to the report.
That total does not include intellectual-property costs, licensing fees from software development, royalties, shipping and marketing.
iSuppli breaks down the cost by component, showing the display costs Amazon.com $60 and the wireless broadband module $39.95. Component costs under $5 include the main enclosure, the audio circuit, and the SDRAM.
Kindle 2 users can purchase more than 230,000 book titles, newspapers, magazines and 1,000 blogs with downloads in less than 60 seconds, according to Amazon.com's marketing material. The first version of Kindle launched with only 90,000 titles. Kindle 2 holds more than 1,500 books, 1,300 more than the first version.
The Kindle 2 also has a 25 percent longer battery life, which allows users to read on a single charge for up to four days with the wireless feature on. If the wireless feature is turned off, the Kindle 2 can be read for up to two weeks.
Because the e-reader displays a page in 16 shades of gray and has a sharper display, it's easier to read even in sunlight, according to the company. Andrew Rassweiler, a director and analyst at iSuppli, said the display is easy on the eye.
"The new version of the E Ink display in the...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Apple's iPhone Puts AT&T Earnings Above Estimates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66122
AT&T may have had a challenging first quarter with net income falling nine percent, but its wireless business kept the company strong enough to exceed Wall Street expectations. The company had earnings per share of 53 cents and net income of $3.2 billion, down from 57 cents and $3.52 billion in last year's first quarter.
"These results demonstrate focused and disciplined execution as we work through a tough economy," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO.
Thanks to its exclusive deal to offer Apple's iPhone in the U.S., AT&T's wireless business kept the company steady. The carrier had an overall decrease in net income, but wireless revenue rose 8.8 percent to $12.9 billion and wireless services revenue, which doesn't include handsets and accessory sales, was up 9.6 percent to $11.7 billion, AT&T said.
Wireless data revenues were up 38.6 percent to $3.2 billion, more than double the total for the first quarter in 2007. The increase in data revenue was based on messaging, e-mails, Internet access, and access to applications and other services.
AT&T also added 1.2 million wireless subscribers for the quarter, for a total of 78.2 million.
More than 1.6 million iPhone 3Gs were activated during the first quarter and the number of postpaid wireless subscribers with integrated devices more than doubled over the past year, according to AT&T. More than 40 percent of iPhone 3G activations were by customers new to the company.
"I am particularly pleased with the success of our iPhone 3G initiative, which has driven strong high-end customer growth and delivered financial benefits ahead of our original outlook," Stephenson said. "Business and consumer expectations for mobility are on the rise, wireless innovation is flourishing, and the opportunities ahead are substantial."
AT&T is also investing in its 3G network. Currently, the carrier offers 3G...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Amazon Offers High-Definition Programs On Demand
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66121
More than 500 high-definition TV shows and movies will be available on demand from Amazon, the Seattle-based company announced Tuesday. Titles from Warner Bros. Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, MGM, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and Showtime Networks include recent releases such as Frost/Nixon, Twilight, Yes Man, Californication, The Tudors, Smallville and Gossip Girl.
The videos are available through several compatible devices -- the Roku digital video player, several TiVo DVRs, the Sony Bravia Video Link, and Panasonic VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs.
Rental prices are $3.99 to $4.99. HD TV shows can also be purchased and watched on Macs or PCs through compatible devices or downloaded for offline viewing for $2.99.
Some observers have contended that online delivery of HD is a major competitor to the still-growing Blu-ray Disc format. But Ross Rubin, director of analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, said that Blu-ray is still the preferred medium for HD purchases.
Josh Martin, an analyst at Yankee Group, agreed, saying that he doesn't "think Blu-ray is quaking in its boots quite yet." He added that Amazon is still a relative niche player in this market, with only Apple's iTunes Store the "800-pound gorilla."
But James McQuivey at Forrester pointed out that there's HD, and then there's HD. "HD streamed over the Web," he noted, "is usually lower quality than HD in Blu-ray." The issue for Blu-ray, he said, is that the quality is good enough for most people, just as up-converted regular DVDs can be good enough.
McQuivey said this is one reason Blu-ray prices are falling, because "fewer people are willing to pay a premium to get hold of Blu-ray content when other experiences are good enough."
Rubin said the on-demand impulse might be awakened by Amazon and others like it, but it would currently be...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
VMware Is Setting the Stage for a Data-Center Revolution
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66100
VMware's just-launched operating system for building the internal cloud comes with big promises, but will the virtual-solutions company be able to deliver?
VMware vSphere 4 is designed to bring cloud computing to enterprises in an evolutionary, nondisruptive way that delivers more control, more efficiency, and more customer choice. It taps into the buzz around cloud computing and corporate eagerness for its benefits.
The goals for VMware vSphere 4 are simplifying how computing is delivered and letting CIOs respond more rapidly to changing business requirements. The technology aggregates and holistically manages the infrastructure in a dynamic operating environment with guaranteed service levels.
VMware may be on to something. According to Chris Wolf, a senior analyst at the Burton Group, the days of the traditional monolithic operating system are numbered.
"Server platforms are now being purposed-built for virtualized workloads, and many of the roles associated with the traditional OS are transitioning to virtualized internal and external cloud-based infrastructures," Wolf said.
"Organizations looking to gain the operational and financial benefits of cloud-based IT can do so today by deploying purpose-built cloud infrastructure software that streamlines internal data-center operations while providing a gateway to future external cloud expansion," he said.
According to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, VMware is looking at cloud computing as a wholesale reimagining of the enterprise data center in which virtualization holds the central role in aggregating, integrating, managing and provisioning enormous pools of processor, server, storage and networking assets. That is resonating well so far with major players like Dell, EMC, Hewlett-Packard and Intel.
"If vSphere succeeds to the extent that VMware and others appear to believe, it will provide the driving force behind an evolutionary shift in data centers that could usher in an IT industry renaissance," King said. "But vSphere 4 is not only about cloud computing. While...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Yahoo Profits Drop for First Quarter Under CEO Carol Bartz
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66099
Yahoo on Tuesday posted declines in revenues and profits during CEO Carol Bartz's first three months on the job. Yahoo did meet analyst estimates, but the news wasn't good.
Revenue fell to $1.58 billion for the first quarter, a 13 percent decrease from a year ago. Net income was $118.7 million, or eight cents a share, compared with $536.8 million, or 37 cents a share, a year ago.
"Yahoo is not immune to the ongoing economic downturn, but careful cost management in the first quarter allowed our operating cash flow to come in near the high end of our outlook range," Bartz said. "While we experienced pressure in both display and search advertising in the first quarter, we believe Yahoo remains one of the most compelling advertising buys on the Internet. With our leading audience properties, substantial reach and innovative advertising solutions, we are confident Yahoo will be well positioned when online brand advertising resumes its growth."
Yahoo's marketing-services revenues declined 12 percent and fee revenues declined 20 percent. As expected, the effects of currency-rate fluctuations, the sale of Kelkoo and lower revenues from broadband partnerships, voice over IP services, and subscription music offerings negatively impacted revenues.
Marketing-services revenues from owned and operated sites were $872 million for the first quarter, a 10 percent decrease compared to $966 million for the same period of 2008. The decrease was driven by a three percent decline in search advertising revenue and a 13 percent decline in display advertising revenue.
Marketing-services revenues from affiliate sites were $511 million for the first quarter, a 16 percent decrease compared to $606 million for the same period a year ago. The company said the decrease was driven primarily by efforts to improve traffic quality and lower revenue per search.
"Yahoo's balance sheet remains strong, and we are continuing to generate...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
French Plan for Internet Faces Hurdle in Brussels
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66088
The governing party of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, scrambling to save a law that would cut off Internet service to people who make repeated illegal downloads, is threatening to block a European Union telecommunications bill that would undermine the legal foundation of the French plan.
The E.U. bill would create a new telecommunication regulator in Europe, enable regulators to separate dominant phone companies from their networks, and increase coordination of broadcast frequencies within Europe.
But the measure prohibits the exact proposal that France is considering -- allowing a government agency to cut off the Internet service of E.U. citizens. The French National Assembly, which unexpectedly rejected the proposal this month, is scheduled to revisit the plan next week.
Representatives of Mr. Sarkozy have spent the past week lobbying Brussels to eliminate the clause, which is part of legislation that has been two years in the making.
"What the conservatives are doing now is holding the entire European telecoms package hostage because of the French," said Raphael Delarue, a legislative assistant to Guy Bono, the French member of the European Parliament who proposed the ban on administrative sanctions for Internet piracy last year.
Mr. Bono's amendment was approved overwhelmingly by Parliament in September. It would require E.U. governments to obtain court orders before disconnecting Internet service.
The committee in Brussels debating the telecommunications package, the Industry, Technology and Research committee, is expected to vote on the package Tuesday.
The committee's chairwoman, Catherine Trautmann, a former French minister of culture, last week offered European telecommunications ministers a compromise that would reduce Mr. Bono's ban to a "recital," a form of legislative preamble that would guide the ban's transcription into law.
Recitals are considered by some to have less effect than if the ban were inserted as an article in the body of legislation. But E.U. ministers last week indicated...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
With Security and Privacy Issues, Is the Internet Broken?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66087
My initiation to the Internet and the World Wide Web occurred in 1994 in a large meeting room at an Atlanta hotel. Most of the 100 or so seats were empty. Those in attendance seemed fairly rabid about this new network and took exception to one speaker's prediction that the Web would become a major marketing vehicle. "Not gonna happen," said one attendee. "We'll spam them into submission if they try. We won't let this become commercialized." I kind of chuckled to myself.
Those early adopters were mainly concerned with protecting the Internet from commercialization and marketing. Security was not even part of the discussion. Now, it is threatening to dismantle the Internet as a communication and commerce tool.
Cyber attacks on U.S. government computer networks increased a reported 40 percent in 2008, according to data from the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. More than 100 million credit card accounts at Heartland Payment Systems were compromised last year. In November, the Pentagon suffered from a cyber attack in the form of a global virus or worm that spread rapidly throughout a number of military networks, and caused the agency to ban the use of external storage devices, such as flash drives and DVDs.
And this is just the tip of the Internet security iceberg. Enterprise networks are being used to launch phishing and other Internet scams, such as the Conficker worm that infected 12 million computers late last year.
IT directors everywhere are adding multiple layers of protection to their networks and constantly having to upgrade those measures to adjust for new threats. Is this good? Is the Internet too broken to fix? Is there a better path to enterprise network security?
According to John Markoff of the New York Times, "There is a growing belief among engineers and security experts that Internet security and...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Cut-Rate Prepaid Plans Shake Up Wireless Industry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66076
As wireless carriers start reporting first-quarter results this week, investors will be looking at the effects of some spectacular price cuts for prepaid cell phone service.
That's a change from recent years, when flashy new phones and data services hogged the spotlight. This year, the developments have been more appropriate for a recession: People who are least able to pay are getting cheaper service.
In traditional prepaid service, which generally has been marketed to people with iffy credit, customers buy minutes in advance, and often are charged a fee for each day they use the phone.
The big change this year has been the rise of prepaid plans with no limit on the minutes used.
In January, Sprint Nextel Corp. made a bold move to capture a larger share of the prepaid market, launching a service with unlimited calling, texting and Web access for $50 per month under its Boost Mobile brand.
The plan was partly a response to MetroPCS Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc., two upstarts building their own wireless networks. In the last few months, they've expanded into New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago with unlimited plans that cost around $50 a month, depending on the options.
Sprint's price cut left Virgin Mobile USA Inc., another big player in prepaid, in an untenable position with its $80 per month unlimited plan. This month Virgin Mobile said it would slash its product to $50.
This is a contrast to the situation a year ago, when the four national carriers -- AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile USA -- offered unlimited service at about $100 a month on their "postpaid" plans, the kind used by subscribers who sign contracts, usually for two years at a time.
Because of the rise of more attractive prepaid plans, the recession, and the fact that nearly everyone who can...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
Humanity's Earliest Written Works Go Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66073
National libraries and the U.N. education agency put some of humanity's earliest written works online Tuesday, from ancient Chinese oracle bones to the first European map of the New World.
U.S. Librarian of Congress James Billington said the idea behind the World Digital Library is not to compete with Google or Wikipedia but to pique young readers' interest -- and get them reading books.
"You have to go back to books," Billington said in an interview in Paris, where the project was launched at UNESCO's headquarters. "These are primary documents of a culture."
A Web site in seven languages -- English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian -- leads readers through a trove of rare finds from more than a dozen countries.
Among them: a 1562 map of the New World; the only known copy of the first book published in the Philippines, in Spanish and Tagalog; an 11th-century Serbian manuscript; and the oracle bones -- pieces of bone or tortoise shell heated and cracked and inscribed that are among the earliest known signs of Chinese writings.
It also has early photographs, films and audio tracks.
For now, searches on the site produce no more than a few hundred items in any category. But Billington says the project is ready to expand as other national libraries join in with the 32 libraries and research institutions already involved.
He insists the idea is quality, not quantity.
"It's not an online bibliography," he said. "These pieces are one of a kind, or available in just a very few places. ... You don't get that elsewhere."
The site provides page-by-page viewing of the original works, scanned in by the national libraries that took part in the project, often with multilingual narration by curators.
It unites items about one subject but held in different countries, in a kind of online retrospective. "It brings...
Thu, 23 Apr 09
TI Profit, Revenue Tumble on Shrinking Demand
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66071
Shares in Texas Instruments Inc. fell Tuesday after the chip maker reported that first-quarter profit and revenue tumbled as competition heightened and demand for its chips shrank amid the recession.
In reporting financial results Monday, the company said customers have begun to whittle down inventories of TI's chips, which are used in cell phones and other gadgets. Orders for TI chips have risen each month since hitting bottom in December.
The results beat the company's own expectations as well as Wall Street's, but executives stopped short of declaring a rebound.
"We remain cautious," said Ron Slaymaker, vice president of investor relations. "What we're really watching for are broad-based increases in consumption and we're not seeing that today."
Shares fell 30 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $17.02 in morning trading Tuesday, when many tech stocks rose.
The Dallas-based chip maker posted a profit of $17 million, or 1 cent a share, during the first quarter, down 97 percent from $662 million, or 49 cents a share, in the same period last year.
Excluding a restructuring charge for job cuts, TI earned 7 cents a share during the latest period. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 3 cents a share.
Revenue tumbled 36 percent to $2.09 billion from $3.27 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $1.9 billion.
TI's profit and revenue estimates for the second quarter were rosier than Wall Street forecasts. The company projected a profit of 1 cent to 15 cents a share, compared with the analyst estimate of 2 cents a share. TI's estimate includes a charge of 5 cents a share for restructuring costs.
The company estimated second-quarter revenue of $1.95 billion to $2.4 billion, compared with the analyst estimate of $1.94 billion.
Demand for TI's chips has shrunk amid the recession, prompting deep job cuts. Slaymaker said the company remains committed to plans announced in...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Apple Approaching One Billionth App Store Download
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66098
A counter on Apple's Web site is quietly ticking off the number of apps downloaded from the App Store. Late Tuesday afternoon, the number was approaching 990 million. Watching the digital numbers spin along is mesmerizing, and if you sit quietly enough you can almost feel the breeze.
According to calculations by U.K. research firm Mobile Squared, at the current rate of downloads, the one billionth app will be sent over the Web sometime on Thursday.
"It took Apple almost six months to reach its first 500 million app downloads and the following 500 million downloads in just 94 days," said Nick Lane, Mobile Squared's chief researcher. "That equates to an improved average daily download figure of 2.98 million for the first 500 million to 5.32 million per day for the second 500 million downloads."
The rapidity with which Apple has approached the one billion mark is receiving a great deal of media attention, but some question whether the significance is overblown. Lane, for instance, notes that worldwide the iPhone accounts for just 0.4 percent of the mobile market.
Moreover, a significant number of the apps that are being so rapidly downloaded -- as many as 75 percent -- are free, which means Apple is essentially underwriting their distribution. The amount spent by consumers on the remaining quarter of apps, however, has added handsomely to Apple's bottom line.
Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, agreed that Apple has puffed up the billion-download phenomenon, but said there is a real accomplishment underlying the milestone.
"Although the idea of apps predated Apple and the iPhone," Sterling said, "they've created essentially a new marketplace that others are emulating -- that's significant. And while Apple's handset market share may be small, its role in the mobile Internet is much bigger. The iPhone drives an enormous amount of...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
AT&T Aiming To Double 3G Speeds for iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66097
AT&T, the exclusive wireless carrier for Apple's iPhone in the U.S., is working to double its 3G speeds. AT&T officially completed the build-out of its 3G network in June and is aiming for speeds of 3.6 megabits per second, Scott McElroy, AT&T vice president of technology realization, told Telephony Online.
Currently, AT&T offers 3G speeds of 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps for a typical download and 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps for an upload using High-Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System (HSDPA/UMTS) technology.
McElroy said AT&T is conducting trials of the upgraded 3G network in two markets and plans to expand the changes across the entire network once the tests are completed. The move is expected to be AT&T's last change to the existing HSPA network. AT&T plans to switch to HSPA+ later this year, which could triple peak speeds on the network.
Not only is AT&T adding capacity through upgrades, it's also including HSPA carriers at various cell-phone sites. McElroy said it's being done on a market-by-market basis and second and third carriers will be added based on demand.
In order to deal with the increased data traffic from its network upgrades, AT&T is upgrading its backhaul network wherever possible, according to McElroy.
The carrier first launched its 3G network in 2005, supporting 1.8 Mbps. Over the past few years, AT&T has upgraded to support 3.6 Mbps. Most mobile devices, including smartphones, laptops and Apple's iPhone, have the ability to use more capacity.
AT&T is now in the midst of certifying 7.2-Mbps devices on its two test networks, McElroy said.
AT&T's upgrade is necessary as both the carrier and Apple have been under fire for misleading consumers on the power of the network. Both have been sued for delivering data to the iPhone at slower speeds than...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Computer Users Applaud Macs, Give Dell Low Marks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66096
A new report from Forrester Research demonstrates that Dell has a long way to go to regain the full approval of American computer users.
As part of a survey of nearly 4,600 consumers in the United States about their interactions with a variety of companies, Forrester Research examined the scores of the five largest computer manufacturers: Apple, Compaq, Dell, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard. When it comes to three key performance criteria -- usefulness, enjoyability and ease of use -- Apple led the pack, noted Bruce Temkin, a principal analyst and vice president at Forrester.
"Apple's rating of 80 percent was 14 points higher than that of the next firm on the list, Gateway," Temkin said. By contrast, Dell ended up with "the lowest score and was one of three firms with an overall 'poor' rating."
One obvious reason why Apple's machines likely did better than their PC rivals is that many consumers appear to find the Mac operating system more user-friendly than Windows. So Microsoft's launch of a more user-friendly Windows 7 in the months ahead could help boost the fortunes of PC makers over the long haul.
"The OS absolutely plays a role in how consumers rate their experience with the computer manufacturers," Temkin said. "But the hardware companies control a lot of the experience as well -- from how they configure the software to how they sell the systems to how they support them after the sale."
Gateway, HP and Compaq were able to achieve similar scores across all three of Forrester's key performance criteria, where Dell wound up with significantly lower ratings than its rivals in the areas of being easy to use and enjoyable -- and that's bad news for Dell.
"The analysis did not examine the underlying causes of the low scores," Temkin said. "Clearly, Dell's problems with...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
LEGOs Will Rock in Unusual Game with (Gasp!) MTV
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66095
It's either a brilliant marketing move or a mind-blowing public-relations disaster on the scale of the Edsel or New Coke. This December, two high-profile brands will merge with the planned release of LEGO Rock Band. The video game is being developed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games, in conjunction with the LEGO Group, Harmonix and MTV Games.
"LEGO Rock Band combines two compelling properties and creates an experience that family members of all ages will enjoy playing together as a group," said Tom Stone, managing director of TT Games. "Harmonix and MTV Games are the world experts in music game play, and we're genuinely thrilled to bring the unique and humor-filled LEGO experience to their Rock Band universe."
Initially, the game will be released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii video-game consoles. A Nintendo DS version will be released soon after. LEGO Rock Band will use existing Rock Band controllers and will be compatible with other music controllers as well.
According to company reports, players will be able to build their own rock-band members on-screen, along with a host of other game characters, including roadies, managers, crews, entourage and presumably groupies. In addition, avid LEGO fans can build their own custom music stages with both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial backdrops.
Although she agrees the combination is somewhat unusual, Zippy Aima, a digital-media analyst at ABI Research, thinks the game could be a success.
"It might do well both with the older Rock Band fans as well as kids," Aima said. "Since the game will let players/gamers create the LEGO (Rock Band) based on their imagination, it might click with that segment of the audience who are Rock Band fans. Kids, on the other hand, who are exposed to playing with video games might also find it exciting to play...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Apple May Add Voice Command and Control To iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66094
Apple may be adding voice command and control to some of its devices, including the iPhone. Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple is working on an enhancement to its SpringBoard application, which is used as a launcher and which will support the recently announced iPhone OS 3.0 software, a source told Ars Technica.
Sources have uncovered references to voice-control codes that appear to be accessible only by Apple and not by third-party developers. The references may provide support for voice dialing on both current and future iPhone devices.
Under the code name Jibbler, it appears that the technology may provide not only voice synthesis, but also voice recognition when iPhone OS 3.0 launches this summer.
Apple recently introduced a VoiceOver feature in the new iPod shuffle. Users press a button and the iPod tells the user what song is playing and who is singing it. The feature also tells users the names of playlists.
Sources believe Jibbler may be controlled in the iPhone headset by squeezing a button used to record short voice messages, which would then be interpreted by Jibbler. Voice synthesis could be used to give the iPhone user a response, similar to the new iPod shuffle.
Apple regularly files for patents and speculation continues to swirl around the company's every move. Because of this, rumors should be taken with a grain of salt, according to Interpret analyst Michael Gartenberg.
"Like everything else it may or not make it into the product, but one thing that would be clear to me if they would add something like command and control to the mix is to make sure it is there not gratuitously but for user benefit," Gartenberg said. "When it comes to voice user interfaces, it comes down to accuracy and implementation."
Voice command and control, in particular, has been a problematic concept,...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
VMware Announces vSphere 4, an Internal Cloud OS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66070
More clouds are rolling into cloud computing as virtualization provider VMware announced Tuesday its vSphere 4, described as "the industry's first operating system for building the internal cloud."
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said vSphere 4 "brings cloud computing to enterprises in an evolutionary, nondisruptive way." Computing clouds internal to an enterprise, the company added, can simplify delivery, decrease costs by up to 30 percent, increase flexibility, and allow for a more rapid response to changing needs.
The company also announced new services in its VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace, including a beta release of VMware VAM App on Demand, which allows for free software evaluation via the cloud.
VMware said vSphere 4 will allow IT departments to "holistically manage" infrastructure components, including processors, storage and networking, as one seamless operating environment. Hosting providers will be able to use vSphere 4 to deliver cloud-computing services more efficiently, according to the company, which added that it's working to support a "dynamic federation" between external and internal clouds.
The company said the new product extends VMware Infrastructure 3 by delivering the efficiency and performance needed for large-scale environments, enabling new levels of control over application service levels and allowing the customer a greater choice of hardware, application architecture, on- or off-premise hosting, and other components.
The increased efficiency could offer as much as a 50 percent storage savings and up to a 20 percent savings on power and cooling. As an illustration, the company said the storage savings, if accumulated across all vSphere customers, could save up to 50 times the number of pictures now on Facebook, and the power savings across its customers could provide the power required by all of Denmark for 10 days.
vSphere 4 is also being touted for its ability to deliver more powerful virtual machines, in terms of number of virtual processors...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Google Speeds Searching for Images and News
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66069
Google Labs on Monday launched a duo of new services in its quest to improve the user experience. Google believes Similar Images and News Timeline add compelling new features and functions to the Google platform.
Like other Google Labs innovations, analysts said these tools might prove valuable for users looking for faster ways to find specific types of information.
"At Google, we are constantly researching, designing and brainstorming about the next big idea, and when we think we've found something compelling, we often use our '20 percent time' to build a working version," said Michael Cohen of Google Labs. "Back in 2002, we created Google Labs to give these budding experiments a home where users could try them and share their thoughts with us. Some of our most popular products began this way, including Google Maps, iGoogle and Google News."
Many Google users are familiar with Image Search, a tool that will offer up just about any type of image on the Internet. However, Google admits that sometimes it's difficult to find the right image if you don't have the right words to describe it.
Similar Images aims to help image searchers overcome that obstacle. Searchers can find images that look like an existing result by clicking on a link. For example, if you search for "jaguar," you can use the "Similar Images" link to narrow your search to just cars or just animals.
"You might try exploring the pyramids of Egypt or discovering the Forbidden City. Or you might go shopping for an elegant evening gown or that perfect pair of shoes," explained Chuck Rosenberg, Google's computer vision researcher. "So if you see an image you like, but you're stumped on how to describe it, just click the 'Similar Images' link to see more like it."
Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Oracle-Sun Deal Signals a Major Shift for IT Industry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66068
Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems has major implications for the high-tech world that will unfold in the months ahead. There is already plenty of speculation about how the merger will position Oracle to compete and plenty of optimism about what this megamerger means for the high-tech industry in the midst of a global crisis.
A couple of things are certain:
Innovation is a likely fruit of the acquisition. By acquiring Java's programming language, Oracle can explore continued innovation and investment in Java technology that will benefit its customers and the industry.
And with the acquisition of the Sun Solaris operating system, Oracle can optimize its database with new features.
"Sun is a pioneer in enterprise computing, and this combination recognizes the innovation and customer success the company has achieved. Our largest customers have been asking us to step up to a broader role to reduce complexity, risk and cost by delivering a highly optimized stack based on standards," said Oracle President Charles Phillips. "This transaction will preserve and enhance investments made by our customers, while we continue to work with our partners to provide customers with choice."
The merger represents a bold strategic vision and will be truly transformative for Oracle, according to Murray Beach, managing director of TM Capital, a leading investment bank. By acquiring Sun, Beach said, Oracle is evolving from a leading provider of enterprise applications to a full-service provider of IT systems on par with IBM.
Beach said Oracle and Sun have been strong strategic partners for years, and there are many reasons the combination makes sense. He said the merged company will be able to pitch customers with the software, the operating system, the middleware, the database, and the servers necessary to roll out new system deployments.
By centralizing the development of Oracle's software with...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Conn. Pols Weigh Updates To Reflect GPS Advances
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66051
Addicted to that GPS navigation system? On Connecticut roads, that might make you a lawbreaker.
With technology often moving more quickly than bureaucracy, state legislators are updating laws that bar drivers from having video display screens within their line of sight.
The laws, originally intended to prevent distractions from televisions and video devices, went into effect before the proliferation of portable GPS navigation units. But because their screens include moving images beyond simply text, they technically could be interpreted as violating the law -- though police say they certainly are not lurking with their ticket books to spot and cite GPS users.
"They certainly are a fact of life on our roads and do require a certain amount of attention, but I don't think they're terribly distracting as long as drivers are responsible about it," said state police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance.
Under current law, Connecticut drivers cannot have moving video images within their view. That bars them from watching portable televisions, DVD players, video iPods and other devices.
The General Assembly's transportation committee endorsed updates in March to specifically exempt navigation units, rearview backup video monitors and similar factory-installed devices as long as they are used properly.
The updates require full General Assembly approval before taking effect.
State legislatures throughout the U.S. have struggled with the challenge of anticipating technology as they update their laws. It's led to a proliferation of cell phone use restrictions over the years, along with laws to ban text-messaging on phones and similar devices while driving.
The original laws on in-car video displays stemmed from increasing reports in the late 1990s and current decade about drivers being caught watching movies on their laptop computers and portable DVD players. Some also have had video screens set up within their line of sight so they could watch whatever their back seat passengers were...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Sweden: Hundreds Protest Pirate Bay Conviction
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66043
Wearing bandanas and waving Jolly Roger flags, hundreds of supporters of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay demonstrated on Saturday against a Swedish court's conviction of the Internet site's organizers.
The Stockholm district court on Friday sentenced Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom to one year in prison each for helping millions of Pirate Bay users commit copyright violations of movies, music and computer games.
The court also ordered them to pay 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) in damages to international entertainment companies, including Warner Bros., Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.
The entertainment industry applauded the move, calling it a landmark decision protecting the rights of those whose livelihood depend on creative activity.
All four defendants have vowed to appeal the verdict.
The rallies against "judicial murder" occurred in Stockholm, Goteborg, Karlstad and Lund and were organized by The Pirate Party. The political party, which supports free file-sharing for noncommercial use, said its membership rose by more than 20 percent to about 20,000 after the court announced its verdict.
Police spokeswoman Birgitta Nilsen said at least 500 mostly young people were protesting in Stockholm alone, many supporting the Pirate Bay defendants by wearing bandanas and carrying skull and crossbones flags.
The Pirate Party does not have any formal ties to The Pirate Bay, but has expressed its support of the site on several occasions.
Party Chairman and founder Rickard Falkvinge received loud cheers as he addressed the black-clad crowd at the Medborgarplatsen square in downtown Stockholm, demanding that the defendants to be freed from the charges.
"The establishment and the politicians have declared war against our whole generation," he said, calling on "file-sharing for the people."
The Pirate Bay doesn't host copyright-protected material, but directs users to content through so-called torrent files. It has an estimated 22 million users worldwide.
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Wanted: Computer Hackers To Help Government
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66042
Wanted: Computer hackers.
Federal authorities aren't looking to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation's networks.
General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could "think like the bad guy." Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems.
In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011.
With warnings that the U.S. is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes.
President Barack Obama appointed a former Bush administration aide, Melissa Hathaway, to head the effort, and her report was delivered Friday, the White House said.
While the country had detailed plans for floods, fires or errant planes drifting into protected airspace, there is no similar response etched out for a major computer attack.
David Powner, director of technology issues for the Government Accountability Office, told Congress last month that the U.S. has no recovery plan for a digital disaster.
"We're clearly not as prepared as we should be," he said.
Administration officials says the U.S. has not kept pace with technological innovations needed to protect its computer networks against emerging threats from hackers, criminals or other nations looking for national security secrets.
U.S. computer networks, including those at the Pentagon and other federal agencies, are under persistent attack, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious assaults, possibly from other nations, such as China. Industry leaders told Congress during a recent hearing that law...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Windows Washer: Meet Microsoft's Antidote to Vista
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66040
Julie Larson-Green hopes you'll like Windows 7. If not, well, now you and a billion other people know whom to blame.
Microsoft Corp. is counting on Larson-Green, its head of "Windows Experience," to deliver an operating system that delights the world's PC users as much as its last effort, Vista, disappointed them. She's in charge of a wide swath of the system, from the way buttons and menus work to getting the software out in January as scheduled.
Given Microsoft's history, Larson-Green's plan seems downright revolutionary: Build an operating system that doesn't require people to take computer classes or master thick manuals.
"We want to reduce the amount of thinking about the software that they have to do, so that they can concentrate all their thinking on the task they're trying to get done," Larson-Green said in an interview.
Microsoft relies on Windows for half its profit, which helps fuel money-losing operations like the pursuit of Google Inc. online. Windows was still profitable after Vista's 2007 launch, but its poor reception dinged the software maker's reputation at a critical time. Vista was designed for powerful, pricier PCs just as nimble rivals like Google were releasing Web-based programs that could run on inexpensive computers. Microsoft appeared to be clinging to an endangered world order that spawned its operating system monopoly.
What's more, Vista's initial incompatibility with many existing programs and devices, and its pestering security warnings, exposed Microsoft to ridicule in Apple Inc. commercials that helped Macintosh computers gain market share. Businesses didn't give up Windows, but many delayed upgrading to Vista.
Microsoft's executives have since distanced themselves from Vista, acknowledging its flaws. Now the company needs Windows 7 to widen that distance even more.
You probably don't know her name, but if you're using Office 2007, the sleeper hit of the Vista era, you're already familiar with...
Wed, 22 Apr 09
Review: BlackBerry App World Simple, Light on Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65995
I'm typing this in between perusing Facebook, trying (and failing) to master a guitar-simulation game and listening to Internet radio on my smart phone.
And no, I'm not using an iPhone. I'm using a BlackBerry Curve 8900 to try out the recently rolled out BlackBerry App World.
Lately, any smart phone maker worth its salt is operating or about to launch an application store that corrals all kinds of free and paid software you can download straight to your handset. Apple Inc. started the trend with July's release of its App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Google Inc. runs one for phones that support its Android operating system -- currently just the T-Mobile G1, though more are expected -- and Nokia Corp. runs several it plans to consolidate into one. Palm Inc. is developing the Palm App Catalog for its upcoming Pre handset, while Microsoft Corp. is making one for phones that use its Windows Mobile OS.
Not wanting to be left in the dust, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled App World early this month, marking a major change from the past, when third-party programs were available for BlackBerrys but not in one convenient spot.
App World will undoubtedly appeal to RIM's growing legion of consumer users, as well as business users with some free time.
But with only a fraction of the applications available through Apple's App Store and many fewer than Google's Android Market, App World has a lot of growing to do before it can become a serious contender in the booming smart phone application market. It doesn't help either that starting prices are three times those for Apple and Google programs.
First, the good: Available as a free download from RIM's site, the App World software has a simple design, is easy to navigate and works on all recent...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
HP Integrates Server and Software with Matrix
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66065
Hewlett-Packard on Monday unveiled new solutions within its Adaptive Infrastructure portfolio. Despite the convergence theme, some analysts said the direct comparison against Cisco's Unified Communications Systems is overstated.
In any case, HP is making bold promises. The company is claiming its new approach fundamentally changes the way technology is used to deliver business services while also reducing infrastructure costs and data-center complexity.
Dubbed HP BladeSystem Matrix, the solution merges software, server, storage and networking on a single platform that automates service delivery for the data center.
Meanwhile, the HP Matrix Orchestration Environment offers a unified management interface to design, deploy and optimize the application infrastructure.
"Increasingly, customers are looking for data-center solutions with Adaptive Infrastructure properties such as superior economics, application-based cost tracking, and true dynamic capacity management," said Mark Potter, a HP senior vice president. "Matrix is a game-changing, all-in-one technology that allows the infrastructure to run at the pace of the business."
Matrix aims to simplify complex infrastructure tasks such as disaster recovery, capacity planning, consolidation and provisioning. HP estimated companies can save nearly 80 percent in operational costs and realize payback in as little as eight months, with a potential return on investment in three years of more than 300 percent.
One way is through a self-service portal that aims to streamline application infrastructure provisioning. The portal allows CIOs to dynamically assign resources to meet the needs of businesses. Resources are assigned to requests as needed and then returned to the pool.
HP introduced several new offerings as part of the converged Matrix world, including HP LeftHand P4000 SAN solutions, HP StorageWorks SB40c with P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software bundle, HP StorageWorks 600 Modular Disk System, and HP Insight Capacity Advisor Virtualization Services. HP figures a 45 percent reduction in server hardware and software costs.
Based on the HP BladeSystem portfolio,...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Time Warner Cable Backs Off Tiered Internet Pricing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66053
Metered pricing has been used for decades to charge consumers for utilities, and some Internet service providers would like to use that model. Earlier this year, Time Warner Cable began testing tiered pricing in several markets, but the company has changed its mind after objections from consumers and some legislators.
TWC had planned to change its unlimited Internet service to a capped service in specific markets in Texas, New York, and North Carolina. Reports pointed to $29.95 a month for up to five gigabytes of bandwidth; $54.90 for up to 40GB; and an undisclosed amount for up to 100GB.
The company said 86 percent of its customers would not be affected because they would not reach the cap, based on its test in Beaumont, Texas.
Landel Hobbs, TWC chief operations officer, defended the company's actions earlier this month in a blog post, saying: "With regard to consumption-based billing, we have determined that as broadband usage and penetration grow, there are increasing differences in the amount of bandwidth our customers consume."
"Our current pricing plans require all users to pay the same amount, whether they check e-mail once a month or download six movies a day," he added. "As the amount of usage has dramatically diverged among users, this is becoming inherently unfair and not the way most consumers want to pay for goods they consume."
Consumers revolted and some even formed petitions. On Friday, the company buckled under the pressure and announced it would shelve plans to offer the tiered service in four markets.
"It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption-based billing," TWC CEO Glenn Britt said after Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced the same news during a press...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Adobe Flash Is Coming To a TV Set Near You
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66050
Adobe's Flash technology, omnipresent in virtually every computer and rapidly moving throughout mobile devices, is now rolling into digital home devices, including televisions and set-top boxes.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company announced Monday that Flash will be extended to Internet-connected televisions, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and other home devices. Various "major system on chips" vendors, OEMs and content providers have signed on to support the optimized Flash technology, including Atlantic Records, Broadcom, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group, Intel, Netflix, STMicroelectronics, The New York Times, and NXP Semiconductors.
Adobe said "Flash technology-based applications will allow users to quickly switch between television programming and Web content outside the Web browser." It also said that cable operators and device manufacturers will be able to "develop new services and powerful user interfaces that deliver immersive experiences." The first wave on new TV sets is expected to roll out early next year.
David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of Adobe's Platform Business Unit, told news media that the Flash platform, which includes the delivery of high-definition Web videos as well as interactive experiences, "will dramatically change the way we view content on televisions."
The company said the expanded rollout builds on the Open Screen Project, an initiative announced last May that uses Flash as a runtime environment across televisions, desktop computers, mobile devices, and other consumer devices.
It also builds on Flash's ubiquity. Adobe said the Flash player resides on more than 98 percent of computers with Net access, the runtime has delivered content on nearly 40 percent of all mobile devices, and the technology is the most used on the Web for video.
The platform consists of integrated tools, frameworks, clients and servers for development and delivery, providing a consistent runtime across devices. At the same time it announced...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Ashton Kutcher Is Twitter King, but Oprah May Challenge
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66049
For now, Ashton Kutcher is the king of Twitter. But there is a new challenger -- Oprah.
Kutcher triumphed over CNN in their much ballyhooed race to be the first to reach a million followers on the microblogging Web site. Kutcher surpassed that benchmark in the early morning hours Friday, narrowly edging out the breaking news feed from the Time Warner Inc.-owned network.
Speaking in a live webcast early Friday, Kutcher took the tone of a revolutionary.
"We have shown the world that the new wave is here," Kutcher said on ustream.tv shortly after passing the million mark. "It is present and it is ready to explode. You guys are all of it because I can't follow me."
Kutcher had long trailed CNN, but he staged a rally in recent days that captured the attention of the Web. The million mark race was taken by many as a symbol of huge upswing of Twitter's popularity.
In recent months, the site has increased exponentially in visitors. The search engine Yahoo said Friday that searches for Twitter over the past four months increased more than 5,559 percent over the same time last year.
The site allows users to type "tweets" of 140 characters or less on their computers or cell phones, which others "follow" on Twitter like a stock ticker.
Kutcher, who's an avid user of the site along with wife Demi Moore, said Twitter is democratizing media and removing filters between celebrities and fans, big media companies and their customers.
"We can and will create our media," said Kutcher, who celebrated his victory with champagne and by posting the tweet: "Victory is ours!"
The 31-year-old Kutcher had claimed he would "ding-dong-ditch" CNN founder Ted Turner if he won, and pledged to make good on his promise after winning. Sean "Diddy" Combs was among the celebrity "Twitteratti" who supported his run.
CNN's...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Oracle Will Buy Partner Sun Microsystems for $7.4 Billion
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66038
After a false start with IBM, Sun Microsystems has agreed to be acquired by Oracle for $7.4 billion. Oracle sees long-term advantages to acquiring two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris.
Java is one of the most widely deployed technologies in the computer industry. Oracle called it the "most important software" it has ever acquired. Oracle Fusion Middleware is built on top of Sun's Java language and software.
Oracle expects the Sun acquisition to contribute more than $1.5 billion to its operating profit in the first year alone, and increase to more than $2 billion in the second year. That would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per-share contributions in the first year than its acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined.
With the acquisition, Oracle will hold rights to the Sun Solaris operating system, which is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle's largest business. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle said it can optimize its database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris.
"The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system -- applications to disk -- where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems-integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up."
Oracle and Sun have been industry pioneers and close partners for more than 20 years. Sun sees the merger as a natural evolution of this relationship. In fact, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz called it a fantastic day for Sun's customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe.
"From the Java platform touching nearly every business system on...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Google: The Recession Takes Its Toll
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66029
It's official now: Even Google can't escape the recession. With its first-quarter results on Apr. 16, the leader in Web search revealed its first quarter-on-quarter decline in sales, reflecting cutbacks in online ad spending. Thanks to cost cutting, Google handily beat profit expectations, but it offered no assurance that overall business conditions would turn around anytime soon.
Google's revenue, almost all of which comes from advertisements placed next to related search results, rose 6 percent from a year earlier but slipped 3 percent from the fourth quarter. Sales, after subtracting commissions to Web site partners, were $4.07 billion. That's about what analysts, who have been reducing their estimates in recent weeks, had expected.
Investors initially liked what they saw, boosting the stock almost 6 percent in extended trading after the figures were released. After all, Google's slowdown looks good compared with the larger advertising market, which is expected to fall at least 5 percent this year. But as it became apparent that Google's underlying business was feeling the effects of the recession, shares reversed course and gained only a fraction of 1 percent. "The quarter confirms that Google is suffering from the economic slowdown," says Sandeep Aggarwal, analyst at financial-services firm Collins Stewart.
In comments during a conference call with analysts, Google executives, who don't provide formal earnings guidance, were muted in their outlook. They noted that the second and third quarters are usually "seasonally weak," implying they see little scope for a rebound, at least for now. "We're still basically in uncharted territory" in the overall economy, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said, repeating a phrase he used in the previous quarter. "The economic environment remains tough. Google absolutely feels the impact."
Google's reluctance to discuss the outlook for Web advertising echoes the unwillingness of chipmaker Intel to issue a forecast...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
With Korea Deal, eBay Tries Again in Asia
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66028
Internet retail giant eBay is going on the offensive in Asia. On Apr. 16, eBay said it had secured agreements to buy a 67 percent stake of South Korea's Gmarket in a deal estimated to be worth as much as $1.2 billion.
The purchase will give eBay control of Korea's two e-commerce heavyweights and help with eBay's expansion into one of the world's largest and fastest growing online markets. The San Jose company will own roughly 90 percent of all consumer-to-consumer e-commerce spending in the country, and 37 percent of its overall e-commerce, according to brokerage Woorie Investment & Securities. Korea's Fair Trade Commission has signed off on the deal, but ordered eBay not to raise fees for three years.
Until a few years ago, eBay subsidiary Internet Auction was the leader in Korea and eBay's big success story in Asia. At Internet Auction's peak, it accounted for three-quarters of eBay's revenues from Asia. But upstart Gmarket quickly gained a foothold, and by 2006 it was beating Internet Auction for market share. Last year, Gmarket sold $3.2 billion worth of goods, compared with Internet Auction's $2.2 billion.
The move is part of eBay CEO John Donahoe's effort to increase revenue in coming years. EBay's global sales declined for the first time in the fourth quarter of last year. The acquisition is expected to more than double eBay's revenues in Korea immediately. Gmarket's revenue stood at $220.8 million last year, when Internet Auction posted revenue of $161.2 million.
Donahoe, a former Bain & Co. consultant who took over the top job from Meg Whitman, said in a statement his strategy in Korea is important as the country is "one of the world's largest, most dynamic, and innovative e-commerce markets."
EBay is making a cash offer to buy all outstanding shares of Gmarket for $24...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
DOJ Requests More Time for Microsoft Oversight
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66024
The Justice Department asked a federal judge Thursday to extend its watch over some of Microsoft Corp.'s business practices for a second time, saying it needs an extra year and a half to make sure Microsoft's antitrust compliance passes muster.
Microsoft, the federal government and 17 states agreed in 2002 to settle an antitrust battle over the software maker's use of its Windows monopoly to squash competitors.
The terms of the settlement were initially to expire in November 2007, but U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted a two-year extension covering parts of the agreement. Now the Justice Department wants to extend that to May 2011.
Microsoft agreed to the extension request. Kollar-Kotelly is expected to address it in a status conference in Washington on Wednesday.
The antitrust settlement requires Microsoft to produce a how-to manual for outside companies that license Microsoft's server software and other programs, explaining how the servers communicate with Windows personal computers. Microsoft is also required to document how various parts of these systems can be used together.
According to a status report released Thursday, Microsoft's documentation efforts are almost done. The company has been barred from charging royalties for the technology until the documentation reaches a certain level of quality, and the report said Microsoft might reach that point by the end of this year. The technical committee that reviews the documentation will continue to scrutinize the materials and work with Microsoft on changes through the term of the extension.
The government also wants to extend its oversight of the way that Windows gives PC makers and users a way to install non-Microsoft Web browsers and media players and set them as defaults.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker is readying its newest PC operating system, Windows 7, for launch in less than a year. Microsoft has added control panel options to...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Senate Panel Plans Hearing on Wiretapping
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66023
The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that the panel would hold a hearing to get to the bottom of reports that the National Security Agency improperly tapped into the domestic communications of American citizens.
"We will make sure we get the facts," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
The House and Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees learned of the problem in late February from the Justice Department, a congressional official said Thursday. The committees have since had multiple private briefings on the NSA transgressions.
The Justice Department confirmed Wednesday that it had reined in the NSA's wiretapping activities in the United States after learning that the agency had improperly accessed American phone calls and e-mails while eavesdropping on foreign communications.
Justice officials discovered the problems during a routine review of NSA wiretapping. The government's action was first divulged Wednesday by The New York Times.
The Senate hearing will be closed to the public. It will delve into questions raised by The New York Times story that have not been covered in closed-door informal briefings, a committee official said. The official would not say what those issues are.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the NSA program is classified.
Justice officials said the problems have been corrected, but they declined to say what measures were taken. They would not detail how the law governing NSA wiretapping was violated or for how long, nor estimate how many Americans' communications were compromised.
Critics of the secret program -- the extent of which has never been revealed -- contend the government has illegally wiretapped and used data-mining techniques to sweep up vast amounts of phone and e-mail communications.
Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the revelation shows the "NSA surveillance program is not narrowly targeted against international terrorist communications as...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Music-Downloading Hearing Can't Be Streamed Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66022
Oral arguments in a music downloading lawsuit filed by the recording industry against a Boston University student can't be streamed online, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous decision that allowed online streaming and said it was "bound to enforce" rules that close federal courtrooms in Massachusetts to webcasting and other forms of broadcast.
Charles Nesson, a Harvard Law School professor representing student Joel Tenenbaum, had requested that a courtroom video service be allowed to transmit a hearing to the school's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, which wanted to stream it unedited on its Web site with free access.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner approved the request in January.
But the Recording Industry Association of America, a Washington, D.C., trade group representing the U.S. recording industry, appealed the decision, arguing that it violated federal court guidelines on cameras and threatened its ability to get a fair trial.
The federal appeals court agreed with the recording industry and said Gertner's ruling was based on "incorrect interpretation" of the law.
"This is not a case about free speech writ large, nor about guaranty of a fair trial," the court wrote, but about "the governance of the federal court."
Nesson said the ruling was disappointing but not unexpected.
"The judges, they are from a different age," he said. "They don't recognize that the Internet is fundamentally different than traditional media."
He vowed to pursue appeals in every possible way, including the U.S. Supreme Court. But he also said the ruling would not delay the substantive proceedings in the Tenenbaum case and he would go forward with motions before Gertner.
RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said the organization was pleased with the appeals court's decision and looked forward to moving on to the copyright infringement case.
Fourteen news organizations, including The Associated Press and The New...
Tue, 21 Apr 09
Delta No Longer Sending Reservation Calls to India
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66018
Delta Air Lines Inc. no longer is outsourcing reservation calls to India after years of complaints from customers who preferred to speak to someone in the United States.
Chief Executive Richard Anderson told employees in a recorded message late Thursday night that the world's biggest airline operator is in the process of bringing all customer calls back in-house in the U.S.
Customer calls were no longer forwarded to India as of the first quarter of this year, Anderson said. Foreign call centers remain in Jamaica and South Africa, though Anderson indicated that staffing at those locations likely will be reduced in the future as the global financial crisis cuts call volume.
"The customer acceptance of call centers in foreign countries is low, and our customers are not shy about letting us have that feedback," Anderson said.
Difficulty understanding the call center agents in India was a concern among some customers over the years.
Atlanta-based Delta said in 2002 that it would send some reservations work to India to save money. In 2004, amid an earlier bout with hard financial times, Delta shuttered one of its three call centers in India.
At the time, Delta said outsourcing some call center functions had saved Delta about $25 million a year.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines outsourced some reservation calls to India. In 2007, Hawaiian Airlines outsourced most of its reservation call center to the Philippines.
A United spokeswoman said Friday that some of the call center work the airline was outsourcing to India has been brought back to the U.S., though some reservation calls are still forwarded there. United also has call center operations in Chicago, Detroit and Hawaii, she said.
Sat, 18 Apr 09
Under Fire, Time Warner Cable Yields on Metered-Access
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66036
Faced with growing opposition, Time Warner Cable announced Thursday that it was delaying the rollout of trial plans that would charge customers according to levels of how much they downloaded.
In a statement, the company said it would "alter plans to test Consumption Based Billing, shelving the trials while the customer education process continues."
CEO Glenn Britt said that it was "clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing." He added that the company will not proceed with the trials until there has been "further consultation with our customers and other interested parties."
The company also said that it would make measurement tools available "as quickly as possible," so that customers could see how much bandwidth they actually use.
In the statement, Britt specifically mentioned that Time Warner looks forward "to continuing to work with Senator Schumer," among others. Charles Schumer (D-NY) had recently joined Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), the largest newspaper in Rochester, N.Y., and various consumer groups in protesting the planned rollout of the metered plan in that area. Massa has said he is preparing legislation to counter the tiered approach, which he said hurts America's capability to compete globally by limiting access to broadband.
Additionally, Rochester-area competitor Frontier Communications announced this week that it was dropping its own plan for tiered DSL service -- and looking to accommodate any disgruntled Time Warner customers.
Time Warner's metered plan began last year in Beaumont, Texas, where a company spokesperson said that only about 14 percent of customers used enough bandwidth to hit the caps. The other trials, besides Rochester, are planned for Greensboro, North Carolina, and San Antonio and Austin in Texas.
In the most recently released version of...
Sat, 18 Apr 09
Judge Sentences Pirate Bay Employees
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66035
The founding employees of The Pirate Bay, a company which was accused of enabling downloading of copyrighted material, have been sentenced as Swedish Judge Thomas Nordstrom announced his judgment today charging the four men with allowing file-sharing and infringing on copyrighted material. Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, and Carl Lundstrom must each serve one year in jail and pay $4.5 million to several copyright owners including Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Bros and Columbia Pictures, according to the 107-page judgement.
Music companies were seeking $2.8 million, but that amount was only based on 23 music files selected as the basis for the case. The film industry, however, sought $13.7 million in damages for four movies and one television show.
"It's so bizarre that we were convicted at all and it's even more bizarre that we were [convicted] as a team," Sunde, told the BBC. "We can't pay and we wouldn't pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn't even give them the ashes."
The team plans to appeal, according to Sunde, in an online conference.
The Pirate Bay is the world's larges Bit Torrent tracker and has 3.4 million registered users. As of January, The Pirate Bay displayed 1.6 million torrent files linking to movies, music and other media, according to the IFPI, which represents the worldwide recording industry and includes Sony Music, Capital Music, and Universal Music Group.
The case against the four men began when The Pirate Bay was raided in May 2006 by Swedish police, who confiscated the servers. In January 2008, the four defendants were charged with copyright infringement.
The four men have been in court since early February to defend their file sharing tactics and argued that what they were doing was not illegal.
Despite...
Sat, 18 Apr 09
Is Google Shifting Toward Display Ads?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66015
Google is not immune to the recession. That's the message swirling around the search giant in the wake of its first quarter earnings report.
Google reported revenues of $5.51 billion for the first quarter, an increase of 6 percent compared to the year-ago period but a 3 percent decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. Sales after subtracting commissions to its partners totaled $4.07 billion.
Google's net income was $1.42 billion, or $4.49 per share, compared to net income of $1.31 billion, or $4.12 per share, in the year-ago period. That met Wall Street expectations, but showed that Google is not escaping the impacts of a down economy. Still, Google remains optimistic.
"Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession -- while revenues were down quarter over quarter, they grew 6 percent year over year, thanks to continued strong query growth. These results underline both the resilience of our business model and the ongoing potential of the Web as users and advertisers shift online," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "Going forward, our priority remains investing for the long term to drive future growth in our core and emerging businesses."
In more good news, Google-owned sites generated revenues of $3.70 billion, or 67 percent of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2009. That marks a 9 percent increase over first quarter 2008 revenues of $3.4 billion and a 3 percent decrease from fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $3.81 billion.
Meanwhile, Google's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.64 billion, or 30 percent of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2009. That marks a 3 percent decrease from first quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.69 billion and a 3 percent decrease from fourth quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.69 billion.
Revenues from outside of the United...
Sat, 18 Apr 09
Twitter Taps Into the Collective Brain
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66004
The first reaction many people have to Twitter is befuddlement. Why would they want to read short messages about what someone ate for breakfast?
It's a reasonable question. Twitter unleashes the diarist in its 14 million users, who visited its site 99 million times last month to read posts tapped out with cell phones and computers.
Individually, many of those 140-character "tweets" seem inane.
But taken collectively, the stream of messages can turn Twitter into a surprisingly useful tool for solving problems and providing insights into the digital mood. By tapping into the world's collective brain, researchers of all kinds have found that if they made the effort to dig through the mundane comments, the live conversations offered an early glimpse into public sentiment -- and even help them shape it.
Companies like Starbucks, Whole Foods and Dell can see what their customers are thinking as they use a product, and the companies can adapt their marketing accordingly. Last week in Moldova, protesters used Twitter as a rallying tool while outsiders peered at the tweets to understand what was happening in that little-known country.
And over the weekend, Amazon.com learned how important it was to respond to the Twitter audience. After one author noticed that Amazon had reclassified books with gay and lesbian themes as "adult" and removed them from the main search and sales rankings, a protest broke out on blogs and Twitter. The company felt compelled to respond despite the Easter holiday, initially saying the problem had been caused by a "glitch in our system" but later blaming a "ham- fisted cataloging error" that had affected more than 57,000 books dealing with health and sex.
Soon, machines could twitter as much as people. Corey Menscher, a graduate student at New York University, developed the Kickbee, an elastic band with vibration sensors that his pregnant...
Sat, 18 Apr 09
Fresh Hope for Broadband with Stimulus Money
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66002
On the campaign trail and in the White House, President Barack Obama has embraced the idea of providing high-speed Internet access to every community in America. But the plans for universal broadband have gotten off to a rocky start. Some technology executives complain that the $7.2 billion allocated in the federal stimulus plan isn't half the amount needed to do the job. Telecom companies, including AT&T and Verizon Communications, are so wary of the program's potentially onerous rules -- the strings that usually come attached with federal money -- that they may sit out the first round of grants.
Now, the Obama Administration's broadband plan looks to be getting a new group of unexpected partners: state and local governments eager to play a leading role in bringing fast Internet connections to the nooks and crannies of the American landscape. Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia are planning to seek broadband stimulus money, BusinessWeek has learned. Tennessee says it expects to receive as much as $150 million in broadband grants.
The involvement of local governments could add momentum to the Obama Internet push. But state and local authorities will have to find approaches that work better than in the past. Earlier this decade, such cities as Philadelphia and Houston tried to build so-called municipal wireless networks to offer free Internet service to local citizens. The efforts floundered, however, because of higher-than--expected costs and administrative headaches.
Still, the money comes at an opportune time for states and municipalities. Many are facing huge budget deficits but would like to finance the broadband plans to help stimulate economic development. "It's a huge deal for us," says Donald M. Elliman Jr., Colorado's director of the Office of Economic Development & International Trade. "We will be pretty aggressive in how we seek that funding."
Virginia Technology Secretary Aneesh...
Sat, 18 Apr 09
PC Shipments Slide in Q1, HP Tops Dell in U.S.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65998
Global shipments of personal computers fell 7.1 percent in the first three months of the year, but the decline was smaller than expected and research group IDC on Wednesday said the industry could turn around by the end of the year.
A second research group, Gartner Inc., calculated first-quarter PC shipments fell 6.5 percent from the same period in 2008. The two groups use different methods to track PC shipments.
IDC had predicted worldwide shipments would fall 8.2 percent in the quarter. The U.S. market was also much stronger than IDC forecast, with PC shipments falling 3.1 percent from a year ago, compared with an expected 8.9 percent drop. By Gartner's count, U.S. shipments dipped less than one percent.
"Based on the U.S. being the center of the financial crisis, and looking at trends of last recession, we were concerned that demand and growth would continue to decline," said Loren Loverde, an IDC program director.
Instead, the U.S. PC market, which took a beating in the fourth quarter, benefited from intense price competition among PC makers as well as the growing demand for netbooks, or small, cheap, low-powered laptops.
Both groups reported that Hewlett-Packard Co. used the trend to overtake Dell Inc. as the top PC maker in the U.S. HP's lower prices and more established brand among shoppers helped push its market share to 27.6 percent. Dell's share fell to 26.3 percent as it struggled to reorganize its consumer business, according to IDC.
Taiwan's Acer Inc., the No. 3 PC maker in the U.S. and a force in the netbook market, snagged 10.5 percent of the market. Apple Inc.'s share edged up to 7.6 percent, and Japan-based Toshiba Corp., the fifth-largest, took 6.6 percent.
Worldwide, HP's market share crept up to 20.5 percent while Dell's slipped a few points to 13.6 percent, IDC reported. HP's shipments...
Sat, 18 Apr 09
Govt. Won't Classify Proxies as 'Sophisticated'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65997
The U.S. government has dropped -- for now -- a plan to classify the use of "proxy" servers as evidence of sophistication in committing a crime.
Proxy servers are computers that disguise the source of Internet traffic. They are commonly used for legitimate purposes, like evading Internet censors and working from home. But they can also be used to hide from law enforcement.
The Washington-based U.S. Sentencing Commission was considering a change to federal sentencing guidelines that would have increased sentences by about 25 percent for people convicted of crimes in which proxies are used to hide the perpetrators' tracks.
But after digital-rights advocates complained that the proposed language was too broad, the commission struck the controversial language from the amendments it voted on Wednesday.
The commission declined to comment, saying it hasn't yet submitted to Congress its formal reasons for the amendment language.
The Justice Department supported the proposed amendment as a way to hand down stiffer sentences for people who set up elaborate proxy networks -- sometimes in multiple countries -- to commit crimes and hide their identities.
Detectives often hit a dead end in following a criminal's Internet traffic through a big proxy network because it's hard to win cooperation from some foreign governments and Internet providers to get access to the proxy computers used as relay points.
Digital-rights advocates said the amendment would have sent a chilling message about using a common technology that is often encouraged as a safer way of using the Internet. They wanted language clarifying that the amendment only applied to people who used a proxy specifically to commit a crime.
A proxy only broadcasts its own numeric Internet Protocol address to the outside world, while the IP address of the person routing traffic through it disappears. Tapping into legitimate proxy networks is relatively easy, since many companies offer the...
Sat, 18 Apr 09
New Venture Aims To Introduce Fees for Online News
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65964
Three media veterans plan to bundle the Internet content of newspaper and magazine publishers into a subscription package that will test Web surfers' willingness to pay for material that has been given away for years.
The system won't be ready until the fall, but the plans were announced late Tuesday because so many publishers already are clamoring to sign up, said Steven Brill, co-chief executive of the new venture, called Journalism Online.
"The interest in this came together a lot more quickly than we anticipated," said Brill, the founder of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine. "We are dancing as fast as we can now."
Brill declined to identify the publishers willing to participate because agreements haven't yet been signed.
Journalism Online's other principals are former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz and former cable television executive Leo Hindery.
The decision to place more toll booths in front of online news reflects the deepening financial problems threatening the survival of print publishers, particularly newspapers.
Since 2005, the annual volume of print advertising in U.S. newspapers has plunged by $12.7 billion, or 27 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Over the same time, the amount of online advertising on newspaper Web sites has risen by $1.1 billion, a 53 percent increase, not nearly enough to offset the erosion in print.
With their profits shriveling, newspapers have been laying off workers and cutting other costs. In the most severe cases, five newspaper publishers have filed for bankruptcy protection since late last year, while the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has gone online only and the Rocky Mountain News has closed.
Many newspaper publishers now believe they can stop the hemorrhaging by charging for at least some of the material on their Web sites instead of giving it away. Besides raising more revenue online, Internet subscriptions could be included in the cost...
Sat, 18 Apr 09
Hackers Grabbed More than 285M Records in 2008
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65962
Hackers made off with at least 285 million electronic records in 2008, more than in the four previous years combined, according to a new study that shows identity thieves are getting better at exploiting careless mistakes that leave companies vulnerable to attack.
The number comes from a study of 90 data breaches investigated by Verizon Communications Inc., which is hired to do a post-mortem on most big computer intrusions.
No victims are identified in the report. Many of the breaches aren't even public. That can happen if law enforcement insists on secrecy because of an ongoing criminal investigation, or if personally identifiable information wasn't lost in the hack.
In many breaches, especially involving lost or stolen laptops, the records aren't used for anything at all.
Verizon's study looked only at breaches involving attacks that resulted in compromised records being used in a crime, like making counterfeit credit cards and buying homes and medical coverage under someone else's identity -- and on their dime.
The company found that 90 percent of the breaches it investigated could have been avoided with basic security measures.
One of those is recognizing how valuable so-called "non-critical" computers are to hackers.
Peter Tippett, vice president of research and intelligence for Verizon's business security solutions division, says criminals aren't looking to crash through the front door with a brazen computer attack. Often they're content to feel around the edges and look for vulnerabilities that can get them in through the equivalent of a side window.
Even by tapping into computers of low-level employees who don't handle sensitive data, hackers can get a toehold for installing more malicious software that scans the network traffic and looks for vulnerabilities in other computers.
The study also found that data breaches are getting more severe because criminals are using sophisticated new programs that were custom-designed for particular attacks and weren't...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Nokia Profit Plunges, But Expectations Boost Stock
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66014
Nokia on Thursday reported its worst quarterly profit in more than a decade. Nevertheless, the cell-phone maker's shares rallied in the wake of optimism expressed by CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.
The Finnish company said its profit declined to 122 million euros (US$160.7 million), from 1.2 billion euros (US$1.6 billion) a year earlier. Sales fell 27 percent.
Nokia's Devices & Services unit saw net sales decline 33 percent year-on-year to 6.2 billion euros (US$8.2 billion). Still, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, one of its flagship devices, sold 2.6 million units in the quarter and more than three million since it launched in late November. But its services division saw a five percent decline over the same period last year.
Nokia remains the largest mobile-device maker in the world with a market share of 37 percent in this year's first quarter. However, that's down from 39 percent in the year-ago period. Nokia expects industry sales to continue to decline this year, estimating a 10 percent overall slide from 2008.
"In what has been an exceptionally tough environment, we continue to invest in a focused manner in consumer Internet services delivered across our broad portfolio of mobile devices. Combined, these solutions will drive our future growth," Kallasvuo said.
As a first-quarter example, Kallasvuo pointed to the performance of Nokia's first mass-market touch product, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Together with Comes With Music, he said it's a great example of Nokia providing solutions that consumers value.
"Regarding the health of the overall mobile-device market, the inventory already in the sales channels decreased substantially during Q1 due to extensive destocking by operators and distributors. This adversely impacted our sales volumes in the quarter," Kallasvuo said. "However, it has also resulted in the demand picture becoming more predictable as we enter the second quarter."
Nokia expects industry...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Verizon's Hub Will Get Its Own Application Store
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66013
Following Apple's success, application stores for mobile devices have been popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm. Now Verizon Communications is planning an application store for its stationary new Hub device, which is intended to be an all-in-one home phone with a small display for limited Internet access.
The company hopes that, like Apple's App Store and others that have followed for BlackBerry, Palm, Android and other devices, applications sold or given away through a prominent online location will stimulate third-party developers to produce more software, and thus increase the value of the device. Verizon is also planning the release of a software development kit.
According to news reports, Verizon is looking to launch its Hub app market this year.
The Hub has been on sale since Feb. 1 for Verizon Wireless customers, but Verizon Communications said it is dropping that restriction and will allow anyone to buy the device. The company is marketing the Hub to customers who not only need a phone, but who would also like to have some Internet access to news, weather, sports and daily menus at the local high-school cafeteria.
Additionally, Verizon and other traditional phone companies are concerned about the numbers of customers who are dropping landlines for either cell phones or Voice-over-Internet (VoIP) phones. The Hub is a Net phone, running off an Internet connection.
The company is reportedly preparing new versions of the Hub, including sleeker models that look like a digital picture frame and models that support multi-touch interaction.
Verizon will also be offering its own widgets, or small software programs, cooking videos, games and other applications.
Industry observers are wondering if the Hub is a viable device in this recessionary economy, especially given the $199 price for the hardware and an additional $34.99 per month for the service.
The...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
McAfee Demonstrates Environmental Impact of Spam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66010
A week ahead of Earth Day, McAfee is offering insights into spam's impact on the environment. McAfee's research reveals that spam is not only a nuisance that hinders business productivity, it also damages the environment and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
On Tuesday, McAfee released a study, Carbon Footprint of Spam. The study spells out the findings of climate-change researchers and spam experts: Globally the annual energy used to transmit, process and filter spam totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours, or 33 terawatt hours. That's equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes, with the same greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using two billion gallons of gasoline.
"As the world faces the growing problem of climate change, this study highlights that spam has an immense financial, personal and environmental impact on businesses and individuals," said Jeff Green, senior vice president of product development and McAfee Avert Labs. "Stopping spam at its source, as well investing in state-of-the-art spam-filtering technology, will save time and money, and will pay dividends to the planet by reducing carbon emissions as well."
McAfee points to late 2008 as an example of the potential energy savings of stopping spam. When McColo, a major source of online spam, was taken offline, global spam volume dropped 70 percent. According to McAfee, the energy saved during the time it took spammers to rebuild their sending capacity was equal to taking 2.2 million cars off the road that day, proving the impact of the 62 trillion spam e-mails that are sent each year.
The Carbon Footprint of Spam study looked at global energy expended to create, store, view and filter spam across 11 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, India, Mexico, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It correlated the electricity spent on spam...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Twitter Posts 131 Percent Growth in March
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=66009
In what has emerged as Web 2.0's latest phenom, Twitter's membership is growing by leaps and bounds. According to comScore Media Metrix, Twitter saw 9.3 million visitors in March. That's an increase of more than five million visitors, or 131 percent, from February.
What's causing Twitter's exponential growth? Is it the media attention? The Google acquisition rumors? The viral nature of Web 2.0 technologies? All of the above?
"One interesting theory alluded to by several people in last week's discussion was that the mainstream media attention on Twitter is really helping fuel its growth. And there may certainly be some merit to that," said Andrew Lipsman, a senior industry analyst at comScore. "It seems you can't get through a typical newscast anymore without some mention of Twitter."
Lipsman offers some examples of the media attention. If you watched the news this past week, he noted, you might have heard that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich leveled criticism of President Obama's response to the Somali pirate standoff over Twitter. In this case, a micro-blogging site was used as a politician's primary media outlet.
"It just goes to show you how much social media, and specifically a site like Twitter, have become woven into the fabric of our daily media lives," Lipsman said. "News broadcasters like CNN's Rick Sanchez have actually incorporated Twitter into their live broadcasts, and it seems like just about every other journo these days has a presence on Twitter."
Lipsman also noted how Twitter is turning average citizens into journalists, such as when news and pictures of Flight 1549 landing in the Hudson River broke on Twitter. Like it or not, he said, Twitter is quickly revolutionizing the way our news ecosystem operates, from journalist to consumer, and blurring the lines in between.
"Given the natural synergies between Twittering...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Swedish Court To Issue Verdict in Pirate Bay Case
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65996
Innovative digital pioneers or reckless cyber pirates? The founders of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay are either heroes or villains depending on whom you ask.
On Friday a Stockholm court will rule on whether the four men broke Swedish copyright law by running and funding the Web site, which has become the entertainment industry's enemy No. 1 after successful court actions against file-swapping sites such as Grokster and Kazaa.
The Pirate Bay provides a forum for its estimated 22 million users to freely download music, movies and computer games so-called torrent files -- popular because they enable users share the parts they have already downloaded, increasing download speeds for the most sought-after files. But the site itself doesn't host any protected material, which is why defendants Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundstrom say they haven't done anything illegal.
Prosecutors charged them with accessory and conspiracy to break copyright law and asked the court to hand down one-year prison sentences to each. They also face 120 million kronor ($14.3 million) in compensation claims from Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., MGM Pictures Inc., Colombia Pictures Industries Inc., 20th Century Fox Films Co., Sony BMG, Universal and EMI.
In keeping with The Pirate Bay's defiant attitude, Sunde told The Associated Press by telephone the site would keep running regardless of the verdict, and insisted he wouldn't give the entertainment companies a single krona in damages.
"I would rather burn that money than give it to them," he said.
Experts say the ruling is significant because a guilty verdict would raise questions about whether mainstream search engines like Google or YouTube can be held accountable for content downloaded illegally by its users. Andre Rickardsson, a computer expert and former investigator for the Swedish security police, said that, in essence, the only thing that separates Google from The...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Time Warner's Tiered Internet Plan Draws More Fire
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65986
Time Warner Cable's plan for tiered Internet service is running into more opposition and competition. In Rochester, N.Y., the site of one of the trials, competitor Frontier Communications has dropped its own plan for tiered DSL service -- and is looking to accommodate any disgruntled Time Warner customers.
Frontier spokesperson Ann Burr told news media that her company got "hundreds of calls from Time Warner customers into our call centers," adding that it appeared the trial in that area was a "public-relations crisis for Time Warner." However, Frontier says five gigabytes monthly is "a reasonable amount" for its service, in effect a soft cap.
Time Warner's metered plan began last year in Beaumont, Texas, where a company spokesperson said only about 14 percent of customers used enough bandwidth to hit the caps. The other trials, besides Rochester, are planned for Greensboro, N.C., and San Antonio and Austin in Texas.
Legislators are also getting into the act. Rep. Eric Mass (D-N.Y.) has said he will introduce legislation to counter the tiered approach in Rochester, which he said can hurt America's capability to compete globally by limiting bandwidth access. The largest newspaper in the Rochester area, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, is calling for more explanation from the company, and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has told local news media that he doesn't want Rochester used as a "guinea pig."
Time Warner's tiers in its trials now begin at 1GB per month at 768KB/128KB for $15, with an overage charge of $2 per gigabyte. Time Warner said about a third of its customers use less than 1GB. Other packages are available at 10GB, 20GB, 40GB, and 60GB, with overages at $1 per gigabyte.
There is also a top tier of 100GB for $75 a month, with $1 per gigabyte over that. But the overages...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Web Series Hope Viewers Follow Music
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65977
Entertainment programming geared specifically for the Internet is far from a revelation. But creating online-only series that keep attention-challenged Web crawlers enthralled would be.
Two new shows from established entertainment names aim for that Holy Grail -- an online program with a big enough profile to lure dedicated fans and advertisers -- with a shared secret sauce: music.
New on the Web is Rockville, CA from Josh Schwartz, who crafted network hits The OC and Gossip Girl. And launching in May is $5 Cover from Craig Brewer, director of 2005's Hustle & Flow.
Rockville, whose 20 episodes update each Tuesday, is TheWB.com's project exploring the lives of twentysomething rock fans at an L.A. club. $5 Cover is a venture with MTV that chronicles the fictional lives of actual up-and-coming musicians in Memphis.
The creators of both hope using music as the primary ingredient will lure the young audience interested in discovering new sounds and accustomed to the fast pace of music videos.
"That cliffhanger style is big with most Web series, but I really felt people would go for a more self-contained program that could exist on its own on YouTube or wherever," Schwartz says. "I love the challenges of doing shows online. Besides, I think five minutes is about my attention span these days."
Schwartz says he aimed for a "Jim Jarmusch-meets-Robert Altman style, using behavior as story and plot." But he also says it's a relief to have good music -- from rockers Eagles of Death Metal to Swedish singer Lykke Li -- serve as a distraction for any viewer losing interest in the emotional gyrations of the characters.
(Warner Bros. says viewership figures won't be available until closer to Rockville's finale in May.)
Rockville and $5 Cover are symbolic of the coming online entertainment shift from amateur to professional, says Nancy Miller, senior editor at...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Unemployed Seek Training for 'Green Collar' Jobs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65973
As the economy sheds jobs, community colleges across the country are reporting a surge of unemployed workers enrolling in courses that offer training for "green-collar" jobs.
Students are learning how to install solar panels, repair wind turbines, produce biofuels and do other work related to renewable energy.
"I think the opportunities in this field are going to be huge," said Rudy Gastelo, a part-time handyman who left the construction industry two years ago. "I'm not getting that 9-to-5 paycheck, so I'm looking forward to maybe getting a job within a solar company."
To meet growing demand, two-year colleges are launching or expanding green job training with money from the federal stimulus package.
Students and schools are betting that President Barack Obama's campaign to promote alternative energy and curb global warming will create millions of well-paying green jobs that do not require a four-year degree.
Gastelo, 32, is learning how to install solar power systems at San Jose City College, which has long waiting lists for such classes.
But the steep economic downturn has not spared the green energy industry, which had been expanding rapidly before the financial crisis. Many renewable-power firms are now canceling projects, laying off workers or selling themselves to competitors because business has dried up.
"It's going to be a very tough year. A lot of companies are not going to make it," said Ron Pernick, co-founder of the market research firm Clean Edge Inc.
Many newly trained workers are having trouble finding jobs, and some people worry that schools could end up producing too many workers for too few jobs.
"Even in these areas with great potential, the number of actual positions is way down from where they could be," said Barry Sedlick, who chairs the California Green Collar Jobs Council.
But many college officials believe there will be strong demand for green-collar workers once the...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Vermont May Set Aside Harshest Penalties for 'Sexting'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65971
Parents, school districts and law enforcement have been grappling with what to do with teenagers who take sexually explicit photos of themselves with their cell phone cameras and send them to friends.
Vermont legislators are moving to get rid of one option: child pornography counts that result in lifetime listings on the state's Internet sex offender registry.
Legislation passed by the Vermont Senate and pending in the House would remove the most serious legal consequences for teenagers who engage in "sexting." The bill would carve out an exemption from prosecution for child pornography for 13- to 18-year-olds on either the sending or receiving end of sexting messages, so long as the sender voluntarily transmits an image of himself or herself.
The bill, however, would not legalize the conduct. Legislators believe prosecutors could still use laws against lewd and lascivious conduct and against disseminating indecent materials to a minor.
State legislatures, including Vermont's, have been cracking down on sexual predators in recent years, but lawmakers here say they don't want increasingly tough penalties applied to those caught up in what many regard as a youthful fad.
"We felt that it's poor behavior and it's not something we want to give our OK to," said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "But at the same time, do we want a kid in jail? Do we want them tagged as a sex offender for the rest of their lives? And the answer is no."
Sexting appears to be widespread among teens. A December survey of 1,400 young people for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that one-fifth of girls had sent nude or seminude pictures of themselves electronically and that a third of boys had received such pictures, said Marisa Nightingale, senior adviser with the group.
Prosecutors around the country have...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
IBM Roars into Business Consulting
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65970
In IBM's biggest foray in business consulting since it acquired PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting in 2002, the company announced on Apr. 14 that it is setting up a 4,000-person organization focused on helping corporations analyze data better and make smarter decisions. The consultants will mine IBM's research and software divisions for innovations. They'll also incorporate products from other companies.
The new business unit, IBM Business Analytics & Optimization Services, is the brainchild of Frank Kern, who ran IBM's sales force until January, when he was shifted to lead the $19.6 billion Global Business Services division. "We're at the beginning of a new wave," Kern says. "We're beginning to instrument the world, but we have to take the data and analyze it to make a better bank, a better electric utility, a better planet."
Business consulting has become a mainstay at IBM since the PricewaterhouseCoopers deal. In 2003, GBS delivered $184 million in profit. Its contribution swelled to $2.3 billion by last year.
Analytics is a potentially lucrative target since it's emerging as one of the most strategically important fields in corporate computing. Executives analyze their sales patterns so they can do a better job of targeting customers with product offers and advertising. They pick apart and modify operations to make them ever more efficient. And, increasingly, they want to slice and dice data as quickly as it comes into their computing systems, and to make more accurate forecasts of future sales and shifting market conditions.
Business analytics is a bright spot in an otherwise subdued technology market. While overall demand for corporate technology is expected to shrink this year, market researcher IDC forecasts a relatively healthy 3.45 percent growth for the $23 billion market for business analytics software in 2008. It forecasts 2 percent growth in the $45 billion analytics consulting business...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Nokia: Signs of Stabilization Ahead?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65969
Investors scanning the horizon for rays of economic hope may find some cheer in first-quarter results from Nokia, which the world's largest mobile-phone maker is set to release on Apr. 16. While sales and profits most likely declined in the period, some analysts expect the Finnish company to say it has worked down the bulging handset inventory that built up in the fourth quarter of 2008, setting the stage for a return to growth.
If so, Nokia, which is renowned for its supply-chain efficiency, would build support for the view that one reason the current downturn hit so suddenly was that companies reacted more rapidly than in the past to a drop in demand. They dialed back production drastically when the global economy slowed -- but could also ramp up fairly quickly as the market stabilizes. "If the supply side is leaner and fitter and sharper during the downturn, then it has potential to race back faster in the upturn," says Neil Mawston, a senior analyst of the wireless industry for market researcher Strategy Analytics.
Nokia shareholders are due for some good news. In the fourth quarter of 2008, sales dropped a stomach-churning 19 percent from a year earlier, to $16.5 billion, while operating profit plunged 80 percent, to $639 million. One reason was a surfeit of phones, combined with Nokia's refusal to engage in price wars in developing countries. In China, the company's largest market, Nokia sold 36 percent fewer devices in the fourth quarter compared with the year-earlier quarter.
Analysts expect Nokia to report further steep declines during the first quarter of 2009. Brokerage Nomura International forecasts a 26 percent drop in sales, to $12.5 billion, while net profits could plunge 90 percent year-over-year, to $113 million. But Nokia shares have been rising recently -- up 60 percent...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Next Version of Microsoft Office Coming in 2010
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65961
Microsoft Corp.'s next version of its Office desktop programs will reach consumers next year, though not likely in conjunction with the Windows 7 operating system.
Microsoft is set to announce Wednesday that Office 2010 will be finished and ready to send to manufacturers in the first half of next year.
From there, it can take six weeks to four months or more for the programs to reach PC users, said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in the Microsoft group that makes Office. The timing will differ for big businesses and individual consumers, and for people who buy packaged software versus those who download it.
Some industry watchers had expected a new version of Office this year, but Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer extinguished that rumor at a meeting with analysts in February.
Capossela declined to be more specific about a launch date. Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, is scheduled to reach consumers by the end of January 2010.
Office 2010 -- previously known by the code name "Office 14" -- will include slimmed-down versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that let people create and edit documents in a Web browser. Consumers will have access to a free, ad-supported version, and Capossela said the company is still hammering out what to charge businesses that want a version without ads.
Microsoft plans to let hundreds of thousands of people test a technical preview of the new Office portfolio starting in the third quarter of 2009, Capossela said. The company did not say whether average PC users will have a chance to test a more polished beta version.
Microsoft also said a new version of its Exchange e-mail server will be available for purchase in the second half of 2009. When paired with the next version of Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program, Exchange 2010 aims to prevent...
Fri, 17 Apr 09
Solid-State Drives Grow More Appealing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65907
Solid State Drives (SSD) are becoming standard in modern notebooks and netbooks, often replacing traditional hard drives. More and more, it's becoming common to retrofit older computers with SSDs, either as external hard drives or with PCMCIA cards.
Anyone in need of an especially fast hard drive should do well with an SSD. They work much faster than standard drives, which rely on magnetic storage, reported the German magazine PC Welt recently. A test of 10 SSD drives showed that users usually enjoy faster speeds, both with index and data searches, the report said.
Anyone interested in buying an SSD drive has a choice between MLC and SLC technology. An SLC device costs about 9 euros (12 dollars) per gigabyte, while the MLC costs about 1.80 euro per gigabyte. PC Welt recommends that anyone who can afford one, should opt for the SLC, since it offers steady high writing speeds and long life.
Compared with standard drives, SSDs have relatively small capacities. Magnetic drives have reached capacities of a terabyte (TB), with one producer even announcing a 2 TB model. Currently, SSD technology offers no more than 250 GB, and that costs 600 euros. For comparison's sake, a 500 GB standard drive costs significantly less than 100 euros.
Samsung offers an SSD drive with a 256 GB capacity. Meanwhile, Verbatim has a unique offer that could be of interest for notebook users. Its PCMCIA Express Card Standard -- coming in either 16, 32 or 64 GB versions -- lets users pop a card into their notebook to expand its storage space. The card offers more space and quicker speeds than a USB stick.
Meanwhile, Buffalo Technology has an SSD external drive for sale. The LinkStation Mini transfers data wirelessly and thanks to the SSD technology is practically noiseless, according to the Dusseldorf-based manufacturer. The drive...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Blocking Spam Would Reduce Pollution, Study Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65983
Protect every e-mail inbox with a top-notch spam filter, and the result would save 25 terawatt hours of electricity and reduce greenhouse gases as much as taking 2.3 million cars off the road.
That's one of the conclusions of a new report out Wednesday from ICF International and McAfee. The report details the energy effect of the enormous spam tide that has engulfed the world's e-mail -- an estimated 62 trillion spam e-mails in 2008 alone.
ICF is a global professional services firm that works with government and corporate clients on climate change, energy, environment and other areas. McAfee is a leading provider of security and spam-catching software.
Although spam involves no postage or actual paper envelopes tossed into the garbage, it does use up energy and create pollution. The report, one of the first to look at spam from this point of view, set the "annual spam energy" for the planet at about 22 billion kilowatt hours, which it said is equivalent to the electricity use of 2.4 million homes in the U.S. or the same greenhouse gas emissions of 3.1 million passenger cars using two billion gallons of gas.
Current spam-fighting efforts do help, with filtering saving 135 terawatt hours, equal to taking 13 million cars off the road. According to the report, a typical medium-sized business uses 50,000 kWh to handle e-mail, of which more than 20 percent can be spam-related.
The report associates 0.3 grams of carbon dioxide to each spam message. It admits that the "average legitimate e-mail" also results indirectly in carbon dioxide, almost four grams worth, but notes that 80 percent of all e-mail messages -- consumer and business -- are spam.
Of course, spam filtering itself consumes energy, but the report put it at only 16 percent of spam-connected energy use....
Thu, 16 Apr 09
eBay Will Spin Off Skype and Make an IPO in 2010.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65982
On Wednesday, eBay put an end to speculation about the fate of Skype. eBay will spin off the Internet VoIP telephone service and make an initial public offering in the first half of 2010.
Although Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating growth, eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said it's clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and its PayPal subsidiary.
"We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential. This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications," Donahoe said. "In addition, separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines -- e-commerce and online payments -- and deliver long-term value to our stockholders."
The decision to separate Skype isn't a sudden one. Donahoe outlined a time line for determining how to deal with the phone service when he took over as CEO in April 2008. The company spent a year evaluating Skype and its potential within eBay's portfolio before deciding that spinning off the company was the best choice.
Donahoe also installed a new management team at Skype led by Josh Silverman. That team has driven stronger momentum and improved performance. In 2008, Skype generated revenues of $551 million, up 44 percent from 2007, and segment margins of approximately 21 percent. Registered users reached 405 million by the end of 2008, up 47 percent from 2007, and user metrics improved significantly throughout the year. The company recently said it expects Skype to top $1 billion in revenue in 2011, nearly double 2008 revenues.
"Under the leadership of Josh Silverman and his management team, Skype has become a stronger business in the past year, and I expect it...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Microsoft Releases Beta of Exchange Server 2010
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65981
Microsoft's Office 2010 products are rolling toward the beach, and the first wave hit Wednesday with the public beta release of Exchange Server 2010. The final release version is expected later this year.
The widely used email server has been designed to work well in cloud computing. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant described this Exchange as "the first server in a new generation of Microsoft server technology built from the ground up to work on-premises and as an online service."
The company is also promoting new integrated e-mail archives and features it said will help "reduce costs and improve the user experience." The integrated archives can make storing and querying e-mail easier, thus helping companies with compliance and other legal requirements.
From an IT manager's point of view, Microsoft said Exchange 2010 can help lower costs by offering more flexible deployment and management options, such as being deployed on-premises, as a service from Microsoft or its partners, or both.
Enhanced management features include simplified, always-on communications and disaster recovery, and better performance when running lower-cost, direct-attached storage.
The new Exchange also has a number of features to make users' lives easier. MailTips warns users "before they commit an e-mail faux pas," such as sending what could be a sensitive subject to a large number of recipients or recipients outside the organization. Voice Mail Previews offers text previews of voice mail in Outlook, and Ignore Conversation features something that could appeal to any busy user -- combining related e-mails into a single view to lessen clutter.
Laura DiDio, an analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corp., called the new Exchange "an evolutionary step forward, and one that Microsoft had to take."
She noted in particular that 32-bit and 64-bit versions are "essential" for modern IT departments, and she described the integrated archive functionality as...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
AT&T, Apple Discussing iPhone Exclusivity Extension
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65965
Apple and its exclusive domestic iPhone carrier, AT&T, are in talks to extend the carrier's exclusive right to offer iPhone service in the United States. AT&T's current deal expires next year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Not having the terms of the deal has been a handicap for observers, who see this as a crossroads for Apple. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has had success with the iPhone, selling nearly 14 million units last year, but a chance to expand into other markets can be tempting, say some analysts.
Consumers have already shown Apple that the device, which has had a halo effect, is enough to make them switch carriers to AT&T. "My sense is there are some people who turn from one carrier to another because of a hot device they really want," said Lewis Ward, mobile consumer services research manager at IDC.
Just months after Apple released its iPhone 3G last July, consumers began switching to AT&T from other mobile carriers. Nearly half (47 percent) of new AT&T iPhone subscribers who switched came from Verizon Wireless, 24 percent came from T-Mobile, and 19 percent from Sprint, according to the NPD Group.
"The terms of the deal are obviously confidential, and that would make a big difference with how hard of a bargain they can drive with AT&T," Ward said.
If Apple decides to end its contract with AT&T next year, it could offer the iPhone through other CDMA carriers, including Sprint, Verizon, MetroPCS and U.S. Cellular.
"If we are talking about Sprint and Verizon, there is a difference and a fair amount of investment there with the chips, but they have an opportunity to have a much broader market and can do cross-carrier pollination," Ward said.
Doing so, however, would bring some complexity to the table, Ward added.
"As we've...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Yahoo Plans First Major Layoffs Under New CEO
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65963
Yahoo Inc. is gearing up for its third round of mass layoffs in 14 months, signaling the long-slumping Internet company is still struggling to snap out of its financial malaise under a new leadership team.
The cuts will likely affect several hundred employees, a person familiar with the plan said late Tuesday, confirming a report first published on The New York Times' Web site.
The person asked to remain anonymous because Yahoo isn't publicly discussing anything that might affect its stock price until the April 21 release of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's first-quarter earnings report.
Most analysts expect those results to be lackluster, extending a pattern of disappointing profits that began in 2006.
Yahoo hired technology veteran Carol Bartz as its chief executive in January to steer a turnaround. The blunt-talking Bartz has spent much of her tenure trying to understand Yahoo's strengths and weaknesses while promising to throw out the dead wood. She already has reorganized Yahoo's management team.
Bartz's predecessor, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, also tried to shake things up by laying off about 1,000 workers in February 2008 only to expand the payroll again in the next few months. Just before Bartz's hiring, Yahoo eliminated more than 1,500 jobs to enter 2009 with 13,600 workers.
When they made the last cuts, Yahoo executives warned more layoffs could be coming if the recession worsened -- an unwelcome turn that occurred during the first three months of the year.
The deepening downturn has caused more advertisers to trim their spending, a trend that has hurt all companies like Yahoo that depend on advertising for most of their revenue. The retrenchment has been a bigger problem for more traditional media, particularly newspapers, but it's also forcing Internet companies to tighten their belts.
Even Internet search leader Google Inc., which generates three times more revenue than Yahoo, decided to...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Intel Shares Fall Despite Bullish PC Prediction
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65957
Investors don't seem to totally buy Intel Corp.'s proclamation that slumping personal computer sales have "bottomed out."
The chip maker posted first-quarter profit Tuesday of $647 million, or 11 cents per share, that sailed past Wall Street's estimates. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting 3 cents per share. Sales of $7.1 billion also beat forecasts, even though both sales and profit were way down over last year, 26 percent and 55 percent, respectively.
The problem was sketchy guidance, which stirred fears that the tech turnaround Intel sees might not happen as fast as some investors hope.
Intel's stock fell 77 cents, or 4.8 percent, to $15.24 in morning trading Wednesday. The earnings results were released after the stock market closed Tuesday.
Intel is predicting that revenue will stay flat from the first to second quarter. That's roughly in line with the $7.01 billion analysts were expecting for the April-June period.
Some analysts said they were impressed with the prediction, considering the troubled state of the economy and the fact that the first and second quarters are typically the roughest for chip makers. Back-to-school and holidays are usually boom times.
"This is an unseasonably strong result that they're guiding to, and I think people need to use that as the backdrop," said Doug Freedman, an analyst with Broadpoint.AmTech.
But some investors seemed unnerved that Intel wouldn't give more specifics. Intel said it wouldn't give a detailed revenue forecast because it's still too hard to accurately predict results in this environment.
One unknown is whether people are buying significantly more PCs, or whether Intel is mainly benefiting from computer makers replenishing their chip inventories, which had been whittled to low levels to save cash.
"The strength of end demand is not clear," Intel's chief financial officer, Stacy Smith, said in an interview.
In a broad sense, Intel's outlook was relatively upbeat,...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Attackers Focused on 10 of 23 Patch Tuesday Holes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65952
Microsoft on Tuesday issued eight security updates to fix 23 security holes in its software, 10 of which are rated critical. Attackers have already used six vulnerabilities and four have a proof of concept or attack plan published.
This marks the largest release of security patches since October 2008 and addresses issues in Windows, Internet Explorer, DirectX, Excel, Word and in the company's security software.
One of the four critical vulnerabilities that address issues with Internet Explorer is of particular concern, according to Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager for Symantec Security Response.
"Vulnerability CVE-2009-0554 appears to be the easiest of the bunch to take advantage of by an attacker and also happens to be the one that requires the least amount of involvement by a user to exploit. An attacker can simply lure a victim into viewing a Web page that contains malicious content and that individual's computer can then be taken over," Greenbaum said.
"This collection of Internet Explorer patches released today is a positive step, since the Web has become the primary conduit for attacks against end users. Many browser vulnerabilities, such as these announced by Microsoft, allow attackers to gain complete control over everything a user has permission to do on an exploited machine. You can imagine how dangerous this can be, especially if the user has administrator rights."
April's monster Patch Tuesday release patches three of the four publicly known Microsoft security bulletins. The only remaining open bulletin from Microsoft at this point is PowerPoint, which just became public on April 2.
"With all the recent media focus on Conficker, consumers are wondering if any of these new bugs could be used for the next Conficker-like worm. As it stands, April's bugs are probably not a gateway to the new Conficker worm," said Andrew Storms, director of security...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
U.S. Mulls Stiffer Sentences for Common Net Proxies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65941
"Proxy" servers are an everyday part of Internet surfing. But using one in a crime could soon lead to more time in the clink.
A key vote Wednesday on new federal sentencing guidelines would classify the use of proxies as evidence of "sophistication," increasing sentences by about 25 percent -- which could mean years or even decades longer behind bars, depending on the crime. It's akin to judges handing down stiffer sentences when a gun is used in a robbery.
Yet digital-rights advocates are worried. Although they aren't absolving criminals, they complain that the proposal is so broad, it could lead to unnecessarily harsh sentences for tech neophytes who didn't know they were using proxies in the first place or who were simply engaging in a practice often encouraged as a safer way of using the Internet.
"It sends a bad message about protecting your own privacy," said John Morris, general counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology. "This is the government saying, 'If you take normal steps to protect your privacy, we're going to view you as a more sophisticated criminal.'"
Proxies are computers that sit between a user and the Internet at large. They can be used to disguise that person's numeric Internet Protocol address, which is akin to a street address for a computer. Proxies are scattered around the Internet and are routinely used to relay Internet traffic, often unbeknownst to Internet users.
Corporations routinely use proxies to let their employees work from home; virtual private networks, or VPNs, make traffic look like it's coming from within the company's internal network, thus bypassing its security firewalls.
Cell phone providers use proxies to connect devices to the Internet, while people in repressive countries use them to circumvent Internet censors. Internet service providers also use proxies to speed traffic, by storing copies of frequently...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Microsoft Offers Computer Training to Unemployed
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65931
Microsoft Corp. announced Monday it would be giving away more than 30,000 vouchers over the next 90 days to help unemployed people in Washington state get new computer skills.
The vouchers will entitle them to take computer classes for free -- either in person or online -- and take Microsoft certification exams at no or low cost.
At a news conference in Seattle, Gov. Chris Gregoire commended Microsoft for stepping up to the challenge of helping the nation come out of the recession stronger.
"When this downturn ends, we will need more skilled workers ready to enter the job market. Microsoft's generosity will provide thousands of men and women the skills they need to work with the software that runs our businesses," Gregoire said.
Washington's WorkSource job centers across Washington started giving out the vouchers on Monday. Washington state had the 17th highest unemployment rate in the country last month with a jobless rate of 8.4 percent.
The vouchers are part of a new national program Microsoft announced at the National Governors Conference in February. Elevate America hopes to offer job training to as many as 2 million Americans over the next three years.
Sue T. Carter of Bellevue picked up one of the first vouchers. She said she has been working part time for more than two years and really needs to find a job that will help her pay her rent, because she is less than a month away from eviction.
Carter earned several college degrees years ago and has picked up most of her computer skills on her own, but she knows companies seek employees with professional training.
"Knowledge is power and I'm willing to do anything to make myself a more viable candidate in the workplace," Carter said. "It always makes you more viable if you've...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Identity Theft Industry Is Going Strong
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65928
One economy apparently isn't hurting these days -- the one run by identity thieves in the dark corners of the Internet.
Demand and prices remain stable for stolen credit cards, Social Security numbers and other private information, according to a new study by security software maker Symantec Corp.
Meanwhile, the supply of such data is steady too, thanks to the way the recession has inspired new scams targeting people who are worried about work and their finances, according to the Symantec report and another study from Gartner Inc. that was due to be released Tuesday.
"There's no pricing pressure at all -- it's not dropping, they're not negotiating down," said Alfred Huger, vice president of Symantec Security Response. "That tells us that there are still the same number of buyers. The underground economy has not been affected by the recession."
One reason is that the prices for some records have been falling for years and can't go much lower. Stolen credit card numbers now go for as little as 6 cents each, if they're bought 10,000 at a time. The price can be $30 per card for smaller orders.
Access to hijacked e-mail accounts: 10 cents to $100.
Bank account credentials: $10 to $1,000.
Scammers can hire people to "cash out" compromised bank accounts for between 8 percent and 50 percent of the amount they're stealing. Hosting for scam Web sites ranges from $3 to $40 per week.
Symantec says sellers appear loath to undercut each other. Many cyber gangs are believed to be affiliated with organized crime, and crooks who don't play by the rules risk being locked out of future business, or being targeted with Internet attacks or possibly even physical violence.
"It makes you wonder if there's some collusion among the sellers," Huger said. "And it's a very heavily self-policing industry. I think people there would...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
EU To Sue Britain Over Internet Privacy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65927
The European Union started legal action against Britain on Tuesday for not applying EU data privacy rules that would restrict an Internet advertising tracker, called Phorm, from watching how users surf the web.
They also warned that they could force social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace to hide minors' profiles from search engines.
The European Commission said Britain should outlaw Internet traffic interception and monitoring unless users give explicit consent that their behavior can be tracked and analyzed.
It said it had received numerous complaints about BT Group PLC, which tested Phorm in 2006 and 2007 without informing customers involved in the trial. Phorm analyzes Internet users' behavior so it can target them with advertising that might appeal to them.
"Such a technology in the view of the European Commission and European data protection law can only be used with the prior consent of the user," said EU spokesman Martin Selmayr.
Regulators sent a first legal warning to Britain on Tuesday, asking it to explain or change the way it interprets EU rules, because it currently allows interception when it is unintentional or when a tracker has 'reasonable grounds' to believe that consent was given.
Britain has two months to reply. The European Commission can issue more warnings before it can take a government before an EU court, where it may be ordered to change national law or face daily fines.
BT sought consent from users when it once again tried out Phorm from October to December 2008 in an invitation-only trial. The company says on its Web site that the trial didn't keep or pass on information that could identify users and what they did. It gave no comment on Tuesday on the EU statement.
Internet companies, privacy advocates and regulators disagree on what kind of traffic data is personal -- such as IP addresses that...
Thu, 16 Apr 09
Prisons Press Fight Against Smuggled Cell Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65926
Drugs were once the contraband of choice of prisoners. These days, corrections officials across the country are on the lookout for a more high-tech scourge -- cell phones.
Cell phones have been used to help at least two inmates escape from minimum-security conservation camps. Prison investigators fear they also are being used by gang leaders to order assaults on other inmates and employees and to coordinate the timing of prison uprisings.
Richard Subia, California's associate director for adult prisons, called cell phone use in state prisons "one of the most severe security issues that we have right now."
It's been a problem in prisons across the country.
A condemned inmate in Texas used a smuggled cell phone to make a threatening call to a state senator in October. Authorities say a drug dealer behind bars in Maryland used a phone to arrange to have a witness assassinated outside his home last summer.
In Kansas, a convicted killer sneaked out of prison after planning the 2006 escape using a cell phone smuggled by an accomplice. The following year, two inmates escaped another Kansas prison with the help of a former guard and a smuggled cell phone.
California prison officials confiscated about 2,800 cell phones statewide last year, double the number discovered the year before. Inmates can be punished for having them but have found ingenuous ways to hide them.
Guards have found duffel bags full of cell phones hidden near prison fences and in garbage sacks thrown over prison walls. Unscrupulous guards looking for a quick buck have brought them in by the dozens to sell to inmates.
Officials in California and other states are lobbying for a Federal Communications Commission waiver so they can use jamming devices to disrupt cell phone signals inside prisons. The effort has been unsuccessful so far.
Connecticut, Virginia and Maryland are using cell phone-sniffing...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Sun Servers Aim for Speed, Lower Data-Center Costs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65948
In the wake of a stalled IBM acquisition deal, Sun Microsystems on Tuesday unveiled new products and technologies in its Open Network Systems strategy. The products aim to maximize the economics of computing for data centers and clouds and include an advanced blades architecture, new networking technologies, and seven new systems based on the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series.
As John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun's Systems Group, said today's IT customer is looking for three things -- speed, simplicity and savings. He said Sun's Open Network Systems approach offers all three: "Our new x64 systems with integrated networking technologies, advanced thermal management, open software, and (Sun) Open Storage enhancements will give the data center an extreme makeover, boosting efficiency and maximizing IT investment."
Sun said its approach uses "The Network is the Computer" as a guiding principle to integrate technologies such as Flash-based solid-state disks (SSDs) and Open Storage platforms for speed, integrated networking for simplicity, and advanced thermal management and the Solaris operating system for savings.
Sun is offering SSDs across all platforms and delivering systems with onboard Flash modules. These storage technologies help eliminate I/O bottlenecks and improve application performance. With SSD integration across software, systems and storage, Sun said customers can achieve up to 70 times faster response times, up to eight times better throughput, and up to 38 percent less power consumption than servers with traditional spinning hard disk drives.
Sun is also delivering low-latency, high-performance networking in its new Sun Fire x64 servers and Sun Blades. With Sun NEM technology for Sun Blade Modular Systems and servers, Sun said customers can reduce cost and complexity and simplify large-scale blade server deployments into existing network fabrics. Fire x64 products start at $1,488.
"We anticipate that the new high-performance capacity computing systems we are developing in...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Mom Was Right! Facebook Users Have Lower Grades
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65947
Echoing warnings from worried parents, a new study says students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade-point averages (GPAs) than non-Facebook students.
But Aryn Karpinski, a doctoral student in education at Ohio State University and coauthor of the study, cautioned against finding a cause-and-effect connection between Facebook and lower grades. "We can't say that use of Facebook leads to lower grades and less studying," Karpinski said, "but we did find a relationship there."
She added that "there may be other factors involved, such as personality traits, that link Facebook use and lower grades."
At the same time, Karpinski did say the study showed a "disconnect" between students who "claim that Facebook use doesn't impact their studies and our finding." The study, coauthored by Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican University, will be presented later this week in San Diego at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association.
The difference was significant, showing that Facebook users had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, and nonusers had 3.5 to 4.0. Also, users averaged one to five hours of studying per week, compared to 11 to 15 hours for nonusers.
However, the sample size was relatively small, 219 students at Ohio State. Of those, 148 said they had a Facebook account. About 85 percent of 102 undergrads were Facebook users, as were 52 percent of the 117 graduate students.
The study also found several other differences between users and nonusers. The more hours a student worked at a paying job, the less likely he or she was to use Facebook, but it wasn't only a factor of having more free time. The more students were involved in extracurricular activities, for example, the more likely they were to use Facebook.
And students whose majors were science, technology, engineering, math or business...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Google Gives Developers Preview of New Android SDK
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65946
Google has unleashed a preview version of its software development kit for Android 1.5 to give developers an early look at the new features and capabilities coming in the mobile platform's refresh. The final SDK for Android 1.5 is expected to become available to software developers around the end of this month.
Android 1.5 integrates performance improvements such as faster camera startup and image capture, support for video recording and playback, smoother browser page scrolling, and speedier acquisition of the user's GPS location. The SDK upgrade introduces APIs for on-screen keyboards and speech-recognition applications, said Android Open Source Project team member Xavier Ducrohet.
Though Android is an evolving open-source product, some software development has been continuing in a private development branch. During the past few months, the Android Open Source Project began pushing these changes to a read-only mirror of the private Android branch called the cupcake.
Android 1.5 is expected to include all the changes previously featured in the cupcake, together with others not yet specified. "Cupcake is still very much a work in progress," the Android Open Source Project team said. "It is a development branch, not a release."
Android 1.5 comes bundled with several home-screen widgets such as an analog clock, calendar, music player, and picture frame. The new SDK offers developers a framework for building their own home-screen widgets as well as the ability to populate live folders with their creations.
The Android Open Source Project also has changed the structure of the SDK. "Future Android SDK releases will include multiple versions of the Android platform," Ducrohet said. "For example, this early look includes Android platform versions 1.1 and 1.5."
One benefit of this change, Ducrohet said, is that developers can target different Android platform versions from within a single SDK installation. "Another is that it enables...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Ultra-Sensitive Wii Motion Controller Due in June
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65945
Building on its pioneering motion-sensing video-game console, Nintendo announced Tuesday the pending release of the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which it said will deliver "new levels of precision and performance."
The accessory, previewed at the E3 trade show last summer and which attaches to the Wii wireless controller, is planned for release in early June. The company said, when used for specially designed games, it offers "finer detail" and "greater accuracy than ever before."
At a MSRP of $19.99, the MotionPlus is designed to replicate exactly on a TV screen each turn of the player's wrist or twist of the body. One game designed to take advantage of such subtleties of motion is Nintendo's Wii Sports Resort, the sequel to the Wii Sports game that comes with the console. Activities in the Wii Sports Resort include cruising on a water scooter, dueling with swords, and throwing a Frisbee. A MotionPlus accessory is included with each Wii Sports Resort.
Wii Sports Resort will be launched in July, but two other games from Electronic Arts -- Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 -- will be released sooner, shortly after the accessory, and they are also designed specifically for the MotionPlus.
Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing, said Nintendo expects the new accessory to offer "a new evolution in video-game control," and developers are already working on additional games to take advantage of its motion sensitivity.
But it will take a while for developers to adapt to the new capability. Game pioneer Masaya Matsuura recently told MTV that he had MotionPlus development kits during the making of his Major Minor's Majestic March marching-band game for the Wii, but "it didn't really make it any more fun than it already was." He speculated that MotionPlus...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
EMC Launches Symmetrix Next-Gen Data Storage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65937
EMC on Tuesday took the lid off its latest approach to high-end data storage: A new architecture to support virtual data centers. The company also announced a storage system based on the new architecture that it said will serve as a cornerstone of virtual computing infrastructures.
Dubbed Virtual Matrix Architecture, the technology integrates industry-standard components with EMC Symmetrix capabilities to enable massive scale to the tune of hundreds of thousands of terabytes of storage to support hundreds of thousands of virtual machines. The Symmetrix V-Max system is the first storage system based on Virtual Matrix. It uses quad-core Intel Xeon processors.
"The shift from physical to virtual computing is being driven by efficiency gains too compelling to ignore," said EMC Chairman, President and CEO Joe Tucci. "Virtualization's ability to maximize resources and automate complex and repetitive manual tasks is overtaking the server world and is now happening in the storage world."
EMC said its Virtual Matrix Architecture allows Symmetrix V-Max engines to interconnect and share resources. The Symmetrix V-Max system scales to 1,024GB of global memory, with twice as many front-end and back-end connections compared to EMC's Symmetrix DMX-4 systems. The ability to interconnect and share resources to linearly scale out is a key customer requirement as virtual machines and applications are dynamically added and shifted, EMC said.
The Symmetrix V-Max system provides more than three times the performance, twice the connectivity, and three times more usable capacity than Symmetrix DMX-4 systems and uses significantly less power per terabyte.
"Server virtualization has caught fire, and there is no turning back. To realize the ultimate benefit, however, the whole infrastructure stack has to be virtualized and integrated," said Steve Duplessie, a senior analyst for The Enterprise Strategy Group. "EMC's new Virtual Matrix Architecture provides all the missing ingredients required for the virtual...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Who Moved My Rank? Sales Rank Purged from Amazon
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65930
Amazon.com apologized Monday for an "embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error" that led to the sales ranking being removed from tens of thousands of books.
The online retailer initially said Sunday that a "glitch" had caused the problem and promised that the numbers would be restored. But Monday afternoon, sales numbers were still gone for such recent works as Chelsea Handler's "My Horizontal Life" and from such classics as Gore Vidal's "The City and the Pillar" and James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room."
"What kind of a childish game is this?" Vidal said Monday. "Why don't they just burn the books? They'd be better off and it's very visual on television."
On Monday, Amazon spokesman Andrew Herdener called the deletions an "embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection." He said that 57,310 books in categories ranging from gay and lesbian literature to health and erotica had been affected.
"This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon's main product search," Herdener said. "Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future."
Authors strongly questioned Amazon's explanation, with some posting e-mails they had received from the online seller that said their books had been placed in an unranked "adult" category, excluded from some searches and best-seller lists. And the glitch dates back to at least February, when Craig Seymour noticed that the ranking for his memoir "All I Could Bare" had been deleted. (It came back, he said, a few weeks later.)
Affected books include the scholarly (Michel Foucault's "The History of...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Twitter Tormented by Nettlesome Computer Program
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65929
An obnoxious computer program that barged into Twitter Inc.'s mishmash of Internet chatter served as another reminder of the challenges facing the rapidly growing service.
The nettlesome program, known as a worm, targeted Twitter's network with four different attacks starting early Saturday and ending early Monday, according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
The worm was set up to promote a Twitter knockoff, StalkDaily.com. It displayed unwanted messages on infected Twitter accounts, urging people to visit the Web site.
The worm was designed to automatically reproduce itself once its links were clicked on, but it didn't filch any personal information from the more than 6 million people with Twitter accounts, Stone wrote in a posting about the incident. Nearly 10,000 Twitter messages, known as "tweets," had to be deleted to contain the potential damage.
"We are still reviewing all the details, cleaning up and we remain alert," Stone reassured Twitter's audience.
Michael "Mikeyy" Mooney, a 17-year-old high school student who created StalkDaily, acknowledged unleashing the worm in a Monday interview with The Associated Press. Besides wanting to promote his Web site, Mooney said he wanted to expose Twitter's weaknesses.
"I really didn't think it was going to get that much attention, but then I started to see all these stories about it and thought, 'Oh my God,' " said Mooney, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. He first confessed his responsibility for the worm to BNONews.com.
Mooney began having second thoughts about what he had done after reading a part of Stone's posting indicating that Twitter might pursue legal action against its tormenter. In a Monday e-mail sent to the AP, Stone said he didn't know whether Twitter will go after Mooney.
"If I get hit with a lawsuit, I am going to have major regrets and a big brick on my back," Mooney said. "I am backing off now....
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Be On the Lookout for New Police Tool, aka Twitter
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65918
When Milwaukee police wanted to get word of a murder out quickly, they did it in 113 characters on Twitter.
"Latest homicide in the city is NOT a random act. Male, 33, shot in 1500 block N. 39. More details as we have them," read the recent entry.
Milwaukee's department is one of a growing number of police and fire agencies turning to social networking Web sites such as Twitter, which lets users send text-message "tweets" to a mass audience in 140 characters or less. The tweets can be read on the Web or on mobile phones within seconds.
Some departments use Twitter to alert people to traffic disruptions, to explain why police are in a certain neighborhood or to offer crime prevention tips. Others encourage leads on more pressing matters: bomb scares, wildfires, school lockdowns and evacuations.
People signed up to automatically receive every tweet from one source are known as "followers," and by that measure, public-safety Twitter pages are nowhere near the most popular. Cyclist Lance Armstrong and actress Demi Moore each have more than 500,000 followers. Milwaukee police have about 900.
But even non-followers can see the updates too, and Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz, one of two Twitterers in the department, says the site is a valuable resource.
"We are trying to reach people in the places they are already going for information," she said.
One risk of Twitter is that anyone can go on the site and claim to be the cops. In March, the Texas attorney general's office shut down a phony Twitter account called "Austin PD," which had about 450 followers and used the official city seal.
The culprit has not been arrested, so his or her intent is not yet known. Mainly the tweets were in a joking vein, such as "Warming up my radar gun for SXSW," a...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Circuit City Seeks To Sell Brand, Web Site
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65914
Circuit City Stores Inc. hopes to sell its brand, trademarks and e-commerce business to Systemax Inc., the same company that purchased electronics retailer CompUSA's intellectual property when it closed in 2008.
Richmond-based Circuit City, also a shuttered electronics retailer, has entered a so-called stalking horse agreement with Systemax for $6.5 million, according to bankruptcy court filings. A stalking horse bid is an initial offer for a bankrupt company's assets from an interested buyer chosen by the company.
The agreement includes two and one-half years of payments to Circuit City of a portion of Systemax's revenue from the Circuit City Web site.
Port Washington, N.Y.-based Systemax manufactures and sells consumer electronics online, by direct mail and in retail stores under the TigerDirect and CompUSA brands. When it bought Dallas-based CompUSA's intellectual property in January 2008 from restructuring firm Gordon Brothers Group LLC, it also acquired some stores.
Other companies will have an opportunity to bid on Circuit City's intellectual property, if a federal bankruptcy court judge at a hearing Tuesday grants a motion for a May 11 auction and May 13 sale hearing.
Court filings show about 40 interested parties looked into buying the assets.
Richard L. Kaye, executive vice president of Northbrook, Ill.-based retail consulting and liquidation firm Hilco Merchant Resources LLC said Hilco and its joint venture partner Gordon Brothers still "have a very active interest" in acquiring the Circuit City assets and plan to participate in the auction.
Circuit City closed its 567 remaining U.S. stores on March 8. It has laid off about 34,000 workers since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. A small staff remains at the corporate office.
The company, which posted losses in seven of its final eight quarters, sought bankruptcy protection as it faced heightened competition, pressure from vendors and waning consumer spending.
It had hoped to emerge this summer...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Wireless Carriers: Your New PC Retailer?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65909
Consumers on the prowl for new PCs may soon find themselves heading for the local wireless carrier instead of a big-box retailer. In a move that could dramatically change the way people shop and pay for computers, AT&T and other mobile-phone service providers are swooping in on the PC retailing business.
One of the earliest signs of this shift came Apr. 1, when AT&T began selling small laptop computers in Atlanta and Philadelphia for as little as $50 to people who also signed up to get at-home and mobile broadband services for two years. It was no April Fool's joke. AT&T, the biggest U.S. phone company, is "very pleased with the early results" and is considering introducing the offer nationwide, says David Haight, vice-president of business development for emerging device organization at AT&T. He wouldn't provide details on the results so far. Rival Verizon Wireless plans to offer small, inexpensive laptops called netbooks to customers this quarter. Other carriers are expected to follow suit.
With the market for cell-phone service saturated, the PC market represents a way for mobile-phone carriers to get more people to buy monthly wireless Internet-access service plans. Consumers who buy wireless Web access can save money on the up-front purchase price of a computer and, in some cases, the price of monthly access to high-speed Internet services. But the shift in who sells PCs could also mean lower revenue for computer makers if it lures buyers toward lower-priced netbooks and away from big-ticket machines. It could also crimp demand for smartphones.
Wireless service providers are already emerging as big PC vendors in Western Europe, where companies like Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile International began selling netbooks last fall. Carriers already account for 20 percent to 25 percent of all small laptops sold there, estimates Richard...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Startup Embeds Web Photos with Shopping Links
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65905
Inspiration comes in many forms, and in the case of James Everingham, it appeared as a pair of knockoff Christian Dior shoes.
Everingham's vision ultimately became Pixazza, an online advertising startup that converts photos on Web sites into interactive advertisements.
Mouse over an image, and tiny price tags appear over handbags, dresses and other items. Hover on top of one, and a balloon pops up with images and links to similar items you can buy online. Move your mouse away, and the balloon disappears.
Even Google Inc. is interested: The online advertising and search leader, through its new venture-capital fund, is among those that have recently invested a combined $5.8 million in the company.
Everingham came up with the idea after his wife spent hours figuring out what shoes "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker was wearing in a photo ($1,000 Christian Diors) and hours more looking for a similar, cheaper version.
When the shoes arrived in the mail, the two sifted through a number of blogs and spotted comments from consumers who also wanted to know where they could get celebrities' looks.
Everingham figured he hit on an online void. If all those people were spending that much time seeking out products they could buy, why not find a way to bring the products to them, without coming across as an obnoxious intrusion?
After all, ads work best when they don't resemble ads but rather a feature that helps shoppers find items they may already be interested in buying.
Pixazza was born out of that inspiration last August and has since added a number of Web site publishers, merchant advertisers and investors to its stable.
By working with the company, Web sites can earn money from the images they would have displayed anyhow. And while it introduces another type of advertising, Pixazza believes its flavor is...
Wed, 15 Apr 09
Japan Ends Import Duties on Hynix Memory Chips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65904
A three-year trade quarrel between Japan and South Korea came to a close Monday when Tokyo said it would end a punitive import duty on computer chips from Hynix Semiconductor Inc.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it will lift the 9.1 percent tariff on April 23, pending Cabinet approval later this week.
Japan began imposing a 27.2 percent duty on Hynix DRAM chips in January 2006 because of South Korean government support for Hynix when it nearly collapsed under debt twice this decade. The country, along with the United States and the European Union, accused South Korea of enabling Hynix to sell memory chips at unfairly low prices.
The levy was lowered to 9.1 percent in September after pressure from the World Trade Organization.
Both the U.S. and the EU have dropped their Hynix tariffs, and South Korea had been urging the WTO to demand Japan also scrap the import charge.
A government panel decided Monday that Hynix is no longer benefiting from government aid or receiving any other state support, the ministry said.
Hynix, the world's second-largest manufacturer of computer memory chips, produces both NAND flash and DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chips. NAND chips are used in digital devices such as music players and cameras, while DRAMs are used mostly in personal computers.
The latest move by Tokyo could help bolster struggling Icheon-based Hynix. Its fourth quarter net loss more than doubled amid falling prices and weakness in the South Korean won.
"We welcome the decision," said Hynix spokeswoman Park Seong-ae.
Hynix held a 15.4 percent share of Japan's DRAM market last year but now expects the figure to "go up significantly," she said.
The company has racked up five straight quarters of red ink amid a long price slump in the semiconductor industry that has also hit rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co....
Wed, 15 Apr 09
New PC Needed? Try Fixing That Slow Computer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65897
Over time, your computer's performance will slow down. But that doesn't mean you need a new machine. Maybe you simply need to fix your clunker.
My friend, Ed, has a homebuilt machine. Seven years later, it's still fast and reliable. Over the years, he's replaced the DVD drive (twice) and the power supply. He added memory, too, which was cheap. He also reinstalled Windows once. I've got more about that below.
If you're handy, or willing to learn to fix your computer, good machines last for years. Repair shops usually aren't cost- effective. Replacing a hard drive could run $300 or more. That's approaching the cost of a new computer.
A computer could be slow because of its hardware, software or both. Say your computer used to be fast and then you added programs. Maybe you overwhelmed the RAM (random access memory). If you have Windows XP, 1 gigabyte of memory should handle everything. If necessary, add some memory.
Still slow? Your microprocessor may be struggling. Theoretically, you could update the chip, but don't try. Put up with it, or buy a computer with horsepower.
Got Windows Vista? Raise your memory to 2GB if you have a 32-bit machine. Owners of 64-bit machines can go to 4GB.
(Don't know 32 and 64 from Adam's cat? To see which kind of computer you have, click Start, then Control Panel. In the left pane, be sure you're in Classic View. Double-click System. Under System, find "System type.")
The Vista video system needs 128 megabytes of dedicated video memory, minimum. If you think you need more, go to 256MB. That is, if you have a video card. They're easy to swap out. Stop at 256MB, unless you're a serious gamer. If the video system is built into the motherboard, forget it, you won't be able to upgrade the video memory.
But...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Enterprise Deployment of Windows 7 Will Be Slow
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65921
According to media summaries of a new survey commissioned by systems management appliance company KACE, 83 percent of the IT decision makers who responded said they will skip Windows Vista and go directly to Windows 7. However, just 17 percent of the survey's respondents said they are slating their migrations to take place within 12 months of Windows 7's official release.
Still, the survey results are not nearly as big a surprise as they may appear at first blush. "It's hard for any large organization to deploy a new OS in the first 12 months after its release," noted Gartner Vice President and Distinguished Analyst Michael Silver. "It takes many (software providers) the better part of the year to say they'll support their app on a new OS, and it's not till then that organizations can really begin their deployments."
One initial complaint about Windows Vista was its perceived lack of stability. This time around, Microsoft is heavily relying on the feedback it receives from Windows 7 beta testers to ensure that the new OS is stable and secure right out of the starting gate.
"We've had millions of people install and use the beta since January," noted the Windows 7 test team. "The feedback and telemetry have been of tremendous value as we finalize the product."
The first Service Pack for Windows 7 is not necessary for the operating system's stability and security readiness, Silver said in a Gartner report last month. "However, organizations likely won't be ready to deploy Windows 7 before SP1 ships, so they will include it in their initial deployments," he said.
With all the organizations skipping Vista, Windows 7 has a big chance to be very successful, Silver thinks. "But it's unlikely that large organizations will do large deployments within 12 months of...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
As App Store Nears 1B Mark, Pirates Also Benefit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65920
The iPhone App Store, as much of a game changer as the iPhone itself, is about to reach a new milestone.
Apple's site features a page with a rapidly changing counter displaying the number of App Store downloads as it approaches one billion. As of midday Monday, the count was about 947 million and counting at about 100 downloads a second. In celebration, Apple is offering a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro as prizes, with everyone downloading an application automatically entered.
The App Store is also posting the all-time Top Paid Apps and Top Free Apps. Included in the first category are Vivendi Games Mobile's Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, The Blimp Pilots' Koi Pond, Pangea Software's Enigmo, PopCap Games' Bejeweled 2, and Freeverse's Moto Chaser.
Top Free Apps include Facebook, Google Earth, Pandora Radio, Taplulous' Tap Tap Revenge, and John Haney Software's Flashlight.
But popularity breeds imitation, and as many as 20 percent of the applications in the App Store are available elsewhere on the Web as pirated software, according to market researcher Medialets.
Pirated versions are not unknown for successful software ventures, and Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, noted that Apple's App Store has not only been a success, but has played a defining role in the third and current stage of mobile devices.
In the first stage, he said, services such as voice calling were dominant, and users were simply asking themselves whether they needed a phone and related services. In the second phase, users wanted the services and, he said, "they wanted the device to be pretty."
This third stage, he said, is characterized by users asking themselves, "What else can I do with this device?" In this...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Microsoft, Yahoo Ponder a Display-Advertising Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65917
In the deal that refuses to die, Microsoft and Yahoo are reportedly in talks once again about joining forces in search advertising.
This time, it's not a merger or a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo's search assets. Rather, Yahoo might take over Microsoft's display-advertising business, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Yahoo's stock rose 6.5 percent in early trading on the news.
According to the Journal, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz have discussed what a potential partnership might look like. A variety of ideas are being explored, but a full acquisition of Yahoo is reportedly not on the table.
"We have to take all these rumors with a grain of salt. We've heard all of this before. What's different this time is the personnel change at the top of Yahoo. That makes it possible for the two companies to talk and consider how they might work together in a less emotional way," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "In a way, it would be irresponsible for Carol Bartz not to have a conversation with Microsoft."
Yahoo is the leader in display advertising, and the Journal reports Microsoft may turn over some of its display-advertising operations to Yahoo as part of a larger collaboration that includes the overall search-advertising market.
It appears that the companies are looking for ways to leverage their combined strengths against rival Google. Microsoft has a small percentage of the search- and display-advertising markets, but has resources to use in a Google battle. Yahoo has seen a slight uptick in its market share and offers Microsoft the ability to reach a broader audience.
"It would make sense for Yahoo and Microsoft to form sort of a partnership because they are the number-two and number-three players in search advertising,"...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Steve Jobs Reported Leading Apple Netbook Effort
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65912
As netbooks gain market share, industry observers have been asking if Apple is going to jump into this product category. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company may be preparing to do just that -- with the guidance of CEO Steve Jobs.
Quoting "people familiar with the matter," the Journal reported that Jobs, officially out on medical leave until June, continues to work from home on product strategies, reviews and plans, including the user interface of the newest version of the iPhone operating system. Jobs was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004, and took a medical leave early this year because of complications from a "hormone imbalance."
The Journal said Apple is working not only on new iPhone models, but on a portable device that fits between the iPhone/iPod touch on one hand, and the company's laptop computers on the other. By most definitions, this might end up in the netbook category.
Netbooks are responsible for "virtually all unit sales growth in PCs," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group. "Apple has a large product price gap between the iPod touch and the lower-end MacBook," he noted, and that's where a netbook could fit nicely.
The talk about Apple developing a netbook has also been prompted by a report from Reuters in March that Apple is taking delivery in the third quarter of new, 10-inch touchscreens from a Taiwanese manufacturer, Wintek. Wintek has refused to comment. The news service also quoted Taiwan media as saying that Quanta Computer, based there, would make the actual mini-PCs under contract to Apple.
But although netbooks are hot in an otherwise cold landscape, they have their downside for manufacturers, such as reducing margins. But, Rubin pointed out, Apple is sacrificing some market share by not participating in...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Mutating Worm Plagues Twitter with Malware Tweets
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65911
In another attack against social networks, a malware author targeted Twitter over the weekend -- and the worm was still spreading in mutated form on Monday. Security experts warn that Twitter may be battling variants of the worm throughout the week.
The micro-blogging service was struck with a computer virus that plagued tweeters with unwelcome messages on Saturday. Dubbed "Mickeyy," the latest Twitter worm spreads when tweeters click on an affected page linked from a message posted by another infected user. That click sets off a chain reaction that automatically starts posting annoying tweets to other Twitter members. It's a vicious cycle that has the ability to spread rapidly among users not aware of the worm.
Richard Wang, a U.S. manager for SophosLabs, isn't surprised to see attacks against Twitter. Malware creators have a tendency to target popular software and services, he said, and the more people who use a site, the more attractive it is for those who want to spread their message -- or worse, their criminal software.
"Currently this worm is an annoyance to Twitter users, sending bogus tweets and attempting to gather their username and browser cookie," Wang said. "The worm will spread rapidly within the Twitter community until Twitter closes the cross-site scripting hole in their profile code. Of the three sites that have hosted versions of the worm's code, one is still active."
The first word of the Twitter worm emerged early Saturday morning, and two additional attacks arose over the weekend. Monday morning witnessed a fourth attack. Twitter reported that none of its members' sensitive information has been compromised in the attacks.
"The worm introduced to Twitter this weekend was similar to the famous Samy worm, which spread across the popular MySpace social-networking site a while back," said Twitter cofounder Biz Stone. "At that time, MySpace...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
India Outsourcing Firm Buys Stake in Satyam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65903
Indian telecommunications outsourcing firm Tech Mahindra won a bid to buy a controlling stake in Satyam Computer Services, the outsourcing giant nearly brought down in a $1 billion fraud.
Satyam board members and investment bankers from Goldman Sachs and Avendus Capital had planned to hole up all day in a room in Mumbai's elegant Taj President hotel, poring over the offers.
But the exercise proved short.
Just three bidders came forward for what was once India's fourth-largest outsourcing company, two Satyam spokespeople said Monday.
Shortly after noon -- about three hours after the deadline for bids -- Tech Mahindra emerged the clear winner.
"We hope this will infuse greater confidence and comfort amongst customers," said Kiran Karnik, Satyam's chairman.
Suitors faced the difficult task of valuing Satyam before its scrambled books had been untangled, and the wide range of bid prices -- from 20 rupees a share to 58 rupees a share -- underscored the uncertain valuation of the company.
Satyam, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, faces a spate of class action suits in the U.S. and a lawsuit on charges of fraud and forgery by Upaid Systems Ltd., a U.K. mobile payments company.
Tech Mahindra, which is owned by India's Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and British Telecommunications, agreed to purchase 31 percent of Satyam for $351 million through a new share issue, offering 58 rupees a share. It will also make an offer on the open market to buy an additional 20 percent of Satyam.
"This is a very major game changer for Tech Mahindra," said Tech Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra.
Tech Mahindra plans to finance the 28.9 billion rupee ($592.4 million) acquisition with 7 billion rupees ($143.5 million) in cash and the rest in debt.
Larsen & Toubro, one of India's largest engineering conglomerates, which acquired a 12 percent stake in Satyam from late last...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Motorola: Ex-CFO Alleges Misstated Internal Forecasts
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65889
The curious case of Paul Liska's departure as Motorola's chief financial officer just became more bizarre. In court documents supplied to BusinessWeek by Cook County [Ill.] court officials, Liska details differences with his former employer, alleging that the Schaumburg [Ill.]-based cell-phone maker repeatedly misrepresented the financial performance of its Mobile Devices unit and that he was unlawfully dismissed.
In a complaint filed in late February in Cook County Circuit Court and held under seal by Judge Allen S. Goldberg until Apr. 9, Liska says he became increasingly alarmed over what he considers misstatements of the division's performance. He also alleges that he was unlawfully fired when he brought his concerns to the attention of the board. The documents, along with Motorola's response, depict an increasingly acrimonious relationship between Liska and Motorola's management against a backdrop of worsening financial performance in what was once its flagship business.
During the fourth quarter of 2008, Liska began to "develop concerns that the executives within the Mobile Devices Business were, intentionally or recklessly, materially misstating its 2009 forecasts and strategic plan," according to the filing. In his view, the forecasts were "based on inaccurate or unsupportable financial assumptions." Liska, the complaint says, warned Motorola's board of directors about the "continual forecasting errors," saying that they would have "a significant deleterious impact on Motorola's credit ratings and relationships, particularly if Mobile Devices' actual results continued to fall well short of its actual forecasts."
In the complaint, Liska alleges "retaliatory discharge," legalese for a whistleblower lawsuit, saying his firing "violated mandated policy that favors full disclosure, truthfulness and accuracy in financial reports." The lawsuit also alleges a breach of contract; Liska, who had been hired in March 2008, says he has not received the severance pay he is owed. Liska is demanding a jury trial.
In a response filed...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Yelp To Let Businesses Comment Publicly on Reviews
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65883
The review Web site Yelp, which has garnered some criticism from the businesses put under its microscope, will soon let those businesses and others respond publicly to customers' critiques.
In an e-mail sent to some of Yelp's most active users Thursday, the San Francisco-based company solicited feedback about an upcoming feature that will let businesses post replies to user reviews. Businesses must first register for a free business owner's account. After a business posts a reply on the site, Yelp will alert the reviewer by e-mail.
Currently, businesses that want to challenge a review or correct any errors can only contact the reviewer via the Web site. The business has had no option to post a direct reply on the site -- something that business owners have long complained about.
Yelp plans to activate the reply feature in a week or two.
The decision to add this feature comes amid complaints from businesses reviewed on the site, some of which have questioned how the site works. News reports have cited other issues, including allegations from businesses that Yelp offered to obscure negative reviews or move up positive ones in exchange for advertising dollars. Yelp denies it and blames a misunderstanding.
Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp's co-founder and chief executive, said allowing businesses to comment on reviews has been under consideration for some time. He said the company has been hearing "concerns of business owners, especially when it comes to factual disputes."
Although Yelp has been concerned that businesses might use such comments as a way to strike conflict with users, Stoppelman said that interactions in private messages between businesses and reviewers have been mostly positive thus far. That has made the company more comfortable about adding the direct-reply capability.
"We're confident business owners will realize they're talking in public and that they need to put their best foot forward,"...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Cyberspying a Threat, and Everyone Is In On It
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65878
Ghost hackers infiltrating the computers of Tibetan exiles and the U.S. electric grid have pulled the curtain back on 21st-century espionage as nefarious as anything from the Cold War -- and far more difficult to stop.
Nowadays, a hacker with a high-speed Internet connection, knowledge of computer security and some luck can pilfer information thought to be safely ensconced in a digital locker. And the threat is growing, with countries -- including the U.S. -- pointing fingers at each other even as they ramp up their own cyber espionage.
The Pentagon this week said it spent more than $100 million in the last six months responding to damage from cyber attacks and other computer network problems. And the White House is wrapping up a 60-day review of how the government can better use technology to protect everything from the nation's electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems and nuclear launch codes.
In 2008, there were 5,499 known breaches of U.S. government computers with malicious software, according to the Department of Homeland Security. That's up from 3,928 the previous year, and just 2,172 in 2006.
Serious breaches by what are described as "unknown foreign entities" have occurred in recent years in computers at the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Commerce, as well as NASA, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan organization in Washington.
The electrical grid might already have been compromised by spies who left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service, a former U.S. government official told The Associated Press. The official said the sophistication of the attack meant it was almost certainly state-sponsored, but the government does not know its extent because federal officials lack the authority to monitor the entire grid.
"The vulnerability may be bigger than we think,"...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Extra Security for Boot Campers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65876
Q. I recently purchased a Mac Mini, and I used the Boot Camp utility to partition the drive and install Windows XP. Is it necessary to install virus protection on the Windows partition?
A. Apple's Boot Camp software simplifies the process of partitioning off part of the Mac's hard drive so you can install a copy of the Windows operating system. When you start up the Mac from the Windows partition, though, it is essentially a Windows computer -- with pretty much all the Windows vulnerabilities to viruses, spyware and other malicious code floating around the Internet.
If you plan to use the Windows side of the machine online, adding extra security helps makes it less vulnerable to malware.
And there is no shortage of security suites for Windows; you can find reviews of this year's products at sites like pcantivirusreviews.com and anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com.
Comparatively tiny amounts of malware aimed at the Mac itself have been reported. But if it worries you anyway, a few companies like Intego and Symantec that sell security software have "combo" bundles aimed at Boot Campers with both Mac and Windows antivirus programs.
Free utilities for both Windows and Mac OS X are also available. Avast (avast.com) and AVG (free.avg.com) are two options for the PC, as is ClamXav for the Mac (www.clamxav.com).
Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org) and Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free (www.lavasoft.com) are two free Windows antispyware programs. Windows XP has its own firewall in the Control Panel area, but Check Point's free version of the Zone Alarm firewall is another option (www.zonealarm.com).
Mac OS X also comes with a built-in firewall -- click on the System Preferences icon on the Dock and open the Security icon to get to the Firewall tab.
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Ticket? Check. Suitcase? Check. Kindle?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65875
When the second edition of Amazon's best-selling electronic reader launched in late February, the Kindle 2 piqued new interest among travelers eager to trade a carry-on crammed with books and magazines for a single gadget that weighs less than a paperback.
Slimmer and easier to use than its predecessor, the $359 device is an "unbelievable travel tool," says BootsnAll.com co-founder Sean Keener, who has been "devouring books" on the Kindle 2 during his backpacking trip through the South Pacific. Peripatetic bookworms can tote a library of 1,500 books, plus blogs, newspapers and magazines; ordering is via a computer or Kindle's built-in wireless store (only available in the USA) that lets readers sample, buy and download books in under a minute.
But for all its gee-whiz features, most major travel publishers have been slow to jump on the Kindle bandwagon. Of the more than 260,000 titles available on Kindle, about 1,500 are travel-related, a category that also includes essays and travelogues.
Among Kindle's latest offerings is a $40 digital collection of 12 Frommer's City guides that would cost more than $200 -- and weigh more than 8 pounds -- in print. By summer, Frommer's will offer 18 of its more than 300 titles through Kindle.
Kindle 2, though still limited to a one-column format and black-and-white images and maps, "has a lot more graphical capability" than the original version, says Brice Gosnell of Lonely Planet, which will sell a single series of guides through Amazon's Kindle store starting this summer.
But travel author Rick Steves, who praised the first Kindle when it made its debut in late 2007, says it remains "clunky for guidebook layout."
"I'm not thinking about Kindle much. I think it's fine for novel-type reading at this point," Steves says. His publisher, Avalon Travel, sells five Rick Steves city guides through Kindle now; six...
Tue, 14 Apr 09
Nintendo's New DSi: Well Worth the Money
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65874
Nintendo dominates handheld gaming, hands down. The company recently said it has sold more than 100 million of the original Nintendo DS and its follow-on DS Lite since the line was introduced almost five years ago. There's little evidence momentum is slowing.
If the DS line is doing so well, I was left wondering why Nintendo should introduce a new version, the Nintendo DSi? After a few weeks of hands-on time with the device, which went on sale Apr. 5 in the U.S., I can see exactly why. Once again, Nintendo has redefined handheld gaming by delivering a device that's good for hours of mostly mindless fun.
Nintendo loads the $170 DSi with technology -- in this case, a camera and photo-editing software -- that make for hours of fun even before a user begins playing a professionally created game. Boasting such features as a Web browser and the ability to download games and other applications wirelessly from a new DSi Shop, the handheld has a better shot at fending off competition from Apple, which is moving to catch a bigger chunk of the handheld gaming market with its iPod Touch and iPhone devices, and Sony, maker of the PlayStation Portable.
The new DSi delivers subtle but significant improvements over its predecessor. Its dual screens are 8 percent larger and noticeably brighter. Company engineers also doubled the DSi's processing power to 133Hz and quadrupled memory capacity [via SD card] to 16MB. There is 256MB of onboard memory to store applications.
The new processing brawn will help game developers create titles that might appeal to a broader user base. But it also comes at a price. The DSi holds a charge for nine to 14 hours, depending on screen brightness and usage of such power-hungry features as the cameras, down from 19...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
Conficker Launches Money-Making Scam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65890
Researchers discovered a new variant of the Conficker worm Thursday whose mission is to cash in on unsuspecting PC users. Security companies are warning that the variant is attempting to download malicious code onto victims' systems, possibly including copies of the Waledac Trojan, a spam-oriented application that has propagated through bogus e-mail messages.
The malware authors seem to be making headway after a false start on April 1. US-CERT said it's aware of reports indicating a widespread infection of the Conficker/Downadup worm, which can infect a Microsoft Windows system from a thumb drive, a network share, or across a corporate network if the network servers don't have the MS08-067 patch from Microsoft.
What happens next is up to the controllers of Conficker, according to Richard Wang, a manager at Sophos. There have been no significant updates since Thursday. The new Conficker variant, complete with enhanced features, is spreading, he said, and the malware authors are in a position to supply whatever updates they choose into the Conficker network.
One of Conficker's early moves was to download rogue security software onto infected PCs. "The fake security software that is downloaded is very visible. It will display messages and fake security scan results to users, urging them to purchase additional protection software," Wang said. "If it's on your PC, it's hard to miss."
The scareware is called Spyware Protect 2009. The program displays a pop-up message that tells a victim the computer is infected and says software is available to remove the fake antivirus program for $49.95. The victim is then sent to a fake Web site to enter credit-card information. The cybercriminals walk away with the money and the victim gets nothing but the bill. Security researchers warn that Conficker could be used to launch further attacks that are likely to focus on...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
Time Warner Sets Unlimited Bandwidth at $150 a Month
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65887
Following criticism of a plan to bill Internet customers by usage, Time Warner Cable CEO Landel Hobbs released an expanded version Thursday that includes a top price of $150 a month for "virtually unlimited usage."
Hobbs said "some recent press reports" were "premature and did not tell the full story." But, he added, "bandwidth consumption is growing exponentially," about 40 percent annually among Time Warner Cable's subscribers, and the company must address the costs.
In fact, Hobbs said, industry analysts project that the Internet's infrastructure may not be able to handle this explosion by 2012, and the company believes the "fairest approach" is not to raise all prices but to use a tiered model.
That approach has been meeting with significant opposition, including from Congress, newspaper editorials, and such consumer groups as Stop the Cap.
The revised cable plan has a 100GB monthly tier at the top end for $75 monthly, plus $1 per gigabyte above that. But the over-the-limit charge is capped at $75, so a user could pay $150 and get what the company described as "virtually unlimited" bandwidth.
The tiers now begin at 1GB per month at 768KB/128KB for $15, with an overage charge of $2 per gigabyte. Time Warner said about a third of its customers use less than 1GB.
Other packages are available at 10GB, 20GB, 40GB and 60GB with overages at $1 per gigabyte. There will also be an initial ramp-up period of two months while the company collects usage data, and then a one-month period of noting overages on bills but not charging. The trial is being rolled out in Rochester, N.Y.; Greensboro, N.C.; and, in October, in San Antonio and Austin, Texas.
Bruce McGregor, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said that "$150 a month is high for a broadband service."
On...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
Silicon Valley Disrupted -- and Hackers Didn't Do It
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65885
A telecommunications network in technology-oriented Silicon Valley was taken down Thursday -- and it wasn't the fault of hackers. In a reminder of just how vulnerable infrastructure systems are, vandals with simple cable cutters clipped four fiber-optic lines in the San Jose, Calif., area.
The outage affected landline phones, wireless services, broadband Internet and even ATM machines for tens of thousands of customers in parts of three counties. Emergency 911 services were also affected.
The four cables cut belonged to AT&T, the major carrier in the area, but also affected other carriers like Verizon Wireless who use the cables. Another cable, owned by Sprint Nextel, was also cut, but that outage was brief as the Sprint was able to reroute its traffic.
Services were being restored Thursday afternoon and early Friday. It appears the vandals simply opened manhole covers and cut the inch-thick cables, which AT&T said were protected by tough plastic. AT&T is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to apprehension of the vandals.
The outage raised questions about how secure the telecommunications network is and comes just days after national security experts warned about malware placed on the U.S. electrical grid, allegedly by hackers from China and Russia. The malware could be activated to disrupt the nation in case of war.
Security experts said the penetration of the electrical grid was not a surprise because of weak security. Phyllis Schneck, vice president of threat intelligence for McAfee, described it as a wake-up call about threats to the nation's public services.
McAfee said critical networks have often had little or no protection other than guards, gates and guns. Such measures can be useless against hackers who penetrate systems over the Internet.
But in the case of Silicon Valley, guards, locks and backup systems might have prevented the telecommunications outages. While Sprint was able to...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
To Access Data from Afar, Hop on Pogoplug
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65868
You're on a business trip when you realize important files you need to work on are on the computer at home. Or perhaps you want to share pictures of the newborn with grandma but don't want to take the time to upload them.
A new $99 white contraption called Pogoplug promises to bail you out. And unlike other remote computing solutions, Pogoplug is relatively simple and fast to set up and use, notwithstanding a couple of minor activation challenges.
When you plug Pogoplug into your home network router (via ethernet cable) and plug a USB hard drive into Pogoplug, you can remotely access and share files on that drive over the Internet.
You don't have to load software or muck with networking settings. And despite a few drawbacks -- it didn't work with all of the portable USB drives I plugged in -- the device pretty much lives up to its billing. In the netbook age in which folks may not have a lot of storage on the machine they're traveling with, accessing files from afar may make sense.
I first saw Pogoplug at the Consumer Electronics Show in January but the device, from San Francisco-start-up Cloud Engines, only started shipping this week. Among its potentially useful stunts:
*Tap in from anywhere. If you're in a hotel room and must edit a document left behind at home, you can remotely fetch it onto the laptop or netbook you have on hand, provided you have Internet access. When done editing, you can upload the file back onto the home drive.
You fire up your browser, go to my.pogoplug.com, and log in. Alternatively, you can download software onto your PC or Mac that will let you access files on your computer through Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, just as if they were "local" drives. (You still need Internet...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
Fast-Growing Facebook's User Base Hits 200 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65865
In less than eight months, Facebook has doubled its user base by signing up 100 million people from around the world, officially hitting 200 million on Wednesday.
Its population is now higher than Brazil's and Japan's.
The ubiquitous online hangout, available only to college students when it opened in 2004, has been growing rapidly since opening up to anyone who wants to sign up.
But how long can that continue?
After a meteoric rise, News Corp.-owned MySpace has petered off and now has roughly 130 million active users, according to comScore Inc. Facebook could ultimately plateau as well. After all, while there more than a billion people connected to the Internet, that doesn't mean they all want to be on Facebook.
Still, even if it's inevitable that Facebook's growth will slow down at some point as the site runs out of prospects to convert, Facebook continues to change what it has to offer, meaning today's holdouts might decide later to join after all.
"What's striking to me is how Facebook has become a kind of dashboard for Internet users," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
He said Facebook, along with MySpace and other social sites like Orkut from Google Inc. or Bebo from Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, have clearly changed the online experience for many people.
Facebook's expansion has been peppered by growing pains, from concerns about how it handles users' private information to site redesigns that irked tens of thousands.
And just last week, the company announced that finance chief Gideon Yu would be leaving, as Facebook looks for a replacement with "public company experience" -- never mind that Yu had worked at Yahoo Inc. as treasurer.
On Wednesday, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook also updated its display of site statistics.
According to these, more than half of its users log in to the site...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
Nintendo Not Planning Price Cuts for Hit Machines
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65862
Nintendo has weathered the global recession because of the popularity of its game machines and won't be resorting to price cuts to boost sales, the company's president said Thursday.
Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata said consumers don't hold back on spending on products that are high on their "wish list" like his company's Wii home console or the new Nintendo DSi, the upgrade of the hit handheld machine.
"If products are similar, then people are going to look at which is cheaper," he said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. "We do not think our video game machines are that kind of product."
He said he wasn't ruling out a price cut in the longer run, but said none were in the works in the immediate future.
Despite a slowdown that has battered spending worldwide, Iwata said game purchases have held up, and actually grew over each of the last two years.
Nintendo has scored hits with easier-to-play games that attract newcomers to gaming, including the elderly. The DS comes with a touch panel, making it possible to play some games without complex button-pushing. The Wii has been a hit, partly because of its wand-like controller.
"It is more effective to work on how to become No. 1 on the wish list," Iwata said.
The Japanese maker of Pokemon and Super Mario games has sold more than 50 million Wii consoles worldwide since late 2006, and more than 100 million Nintendo DS portable handheld game machines worldwide.
The Wii sells for 25,000 yen ($250) in Japan and about $250 in the U.S., and its price has never been cut. In contrast, prices on its rivals, including the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp. and Sony's PlayStation series consoles have been slashed to woo buyers. This month, Sony cut the price of the PlayStation 2, the predecessor to the...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
Strictly Legit: Madoff's Tickets On Sale On eBay
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65861
For $1,710, you can put yourself in Bernard Madoff's place -- his Citi Field seats, that is.
The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities put a pair of tickets for Monday's Citi Field opener on sale on eBay on Wednesday. As of midnight, the current bid was $1,700 for the tickets, seats 5-6 in the eighth row in section 11, just to the home plate side of the New York Mets' dugout.
There was a deadline of 8:21 p.m. EDT Friday to bid for the seats, which are called Delta Club Gold and come with access to the Delta Club behind home plate. The tickets retail for $525 apiece, and 13 bids for the pair had been made. The next bid would have to be at least $10 more.
Lawyer Irving H. Picard worked out a deal with the Mets, returning to the team two $695 seats in the second row, called Delta Club Platinum, in exchange for the pair being sold on eBay. Links for other April tickets to be sold will be posted on Picard's Web site, http://www.madofftrustee.com.
Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz were close to Madoff, who pleaded guilty March 12 in federal court to 11 counts, including securities fraud and perjury, stemming from a Ponzi scheme prosecutors said was worth $64.8 billion. The 70-year-old Madoff faces up to 150 years in prison at sentencing June 16.
Wilpon, Katz and many entities of their company, Sterling Equities, and various affiliated foundations are among the swindled creditors.
According to a motion filed with the bankruptcy court, Madoff's firm bought two Delta Club Platinum ticket -- section 16, row 2, seats 5-6 -- for $80,190. Those tickets are worth $295-$695 per game, depending on the opponent and day of the week, and average $495 -- the top price in...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
College Too Expensive? Try YouTube
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65859
College too expensive? Try YouTube.
It might seem counterintuitive to look for higher education alongside Avril Lavigne music videos, but the video-sharing site has become a major reservoir of college content.
The Google Inc.-owned YouTube has for the last few years been forging partnerships with universities and colleges. The site recently gathered these video channels under the banner YouTube EDU (http://www.youtube.com/edu).
More than 100 schools have partnered with YouTube to make an official channel, including Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Yale and the first university to join YouTube: UC Berkeley.
There are promotional videos like campus tours, but the more interesting content is straight from the classroom or lecture hall. Many schools have posted videos of guest lecturers, introductory classes and even a full semester's course.
At a time when many are finding college unaffordable and the ranks of the unemployed are swelling, free higher learning can sound like a good way to spend some free time.
"There's a huge appetite around the world for people to better themselves, to study subjects that they either never got a chance to or haven't studied in a while," said Obadiah Greenberg, the strategic partnership manager for YouTube.
In the past five years or so, colleges and universities have been increasingly opening their doors digitally to the public.
"That Ivory Tower reputation may be even more dated than the advent of YouTube," said Scott Stocker, director of Web communications at Stanford.
In 2002, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched the MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu) with the plan to make virtually all the school's courses available for free online.
As a visitor, one almost feels like you've somehow sneaked through a firewall. There's no registration and within a minute, you can be watching Prof. Walter Lewin demonstrate the physics of a pendulum by being one himself.
Last December, MIT announced that OCW had been visited by more than...
Sat, 11 Apr 09
Faster Unemployment Service on the Way
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65853
For millions of jobless people dependent on unemployment benefits, the wait for help may be getting shorter.
After computer system crashes and overwhelmed phone lines at state unemployment offices inundated with record claims, federal funds are starting to ease the jam, says Richard Hobbie of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. The $500 million from the economic stimulus package President Obama signed Feb. 17 began flowing into state coffers in mid-March.
The aid is separate from the package's $7 billion for enhanced employment benefits, which some Republican governors, including those of South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Alaska and Mississippi, have rejected because they say it would lead to higher business taxes when the federal funds end. The administrative funds are meant to improve claims processing and help the jobless find work.
"Now it's a matter of getting the money and spending it on the right things," Hobbie says. He predicts those filing for unemployment benefits "will see more reliable and faster service and more help at finding a new job."
The unemployment rate hit 8.5 percent in March, the highest in a quarter-century. Of the 13.2 million people out of work, 5.5 million are receiving state jobless benefits and 1.5 million are getting extended benefits from the federal government, Hobbie says.
In the week ending March 28, 669,000 people filed new claims.
Doug Bonestroo, 48, was among those who applied for benefits this week. The Eden Prairie, Minn., regional sales director for a technology company was laid off in February. He tried to log on to the Minnesota Unemployment Insurance Program Web site on Monday after his severance pay ran out. He couldn't get in; the computers had crashed for the second time in a month. He was able to file his claim after the system came back three hours later.
Kirsten Morell, a spokeswoman for Minnesota's...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Huge Apple Purchase Sparks 32GB iPhone Rumors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65872
With anticipation high for a new iPhone this summer, rumors are rising after a recent Apple purchase from Samsung. Apple bought 100 million 8GB NAND flash chips, which DigiTimes says points to increased storage for the iPhone.
Flash-chip suppliers Hynix, Intel, Micron and Toshiba may also have had a part in the Apple purchase. The order fueled rumors that Apple is building a bigger-memory iPhone, likely with 32GB of storage, to share shelf space with the 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3G models already on the market.
Industry observers are expecting new Apple iPhone hardware to be announced as early as Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.
Conflicting reports have surfaced, with some saying the storage chips in question are eight-gigabit chips with 1GB of storage each, while others say they each have 8GB of storage.
Ramping up storage to 32GB would help Apple boost its success with the iPhone and App Store, which has had more than 800 million downloads, according to Apple.
The extra storage, expected to be used for video capability, may come around the same time the iPhone OS 3.0 arrives, which is expected to be this summer. Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 includes 100 new features, including search functionality; cut, copy and paste; and the ability to send photos, contacts and audio files via MMS. The new OS also allows users to read and compose e-mail and text messages.
The iPhone isn't the only device expected to receive the extra storage. Apple is also rumored to be working on a 32GB NAND chip for the iPod shuffle.
"It's all speculation right now, so it could be more storage for the iPhone, or even the iPod touch," said Ramon Llamas, an IDC analyst.
The timing of such storage and rumors of a next-generation iPhone are significant as app-store competition...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Micron Rejects DRAM Deal with Taiwan Government
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65871
Micron Technology and its Taiwan-based partner Nanya Technology said Thursday they are no longer interested in establishing a DRAM partnership agreement with Taiwan Memory Company, which is backed by Taiwan's government and counts the island's DRAM chipmakers as members.
The announcement was no surprise to analysts, given what Micron executives had to say last week about a potential tie-up. "There has been a lot of speculation around the consolidation of the Taiwan assets," Micron CEO Steven Appleton said. "As you know, the Taiwan companies are, I would say, very unstable in terms of their debt and cash structures."
Appleton noted that TMC tapped Elpida Memory to become its key technology partner only after its Japan-based rival agreed to terms that Micron found unacceptable. He also said Micron saw no upside in risking the loss of some of its memory intellectual property to its Japan-based rival.
"Having to deploy all of our technology" in exchange for equity or some other type of financial instrument "doesn't really interest us," Appleton said in a conference call with investors. "We just don't see the advantages for us to do that."
Micron intends to concentrate on the production of new products through its Inotera memory-chip partnership with Taiwan-based Nanya Technology. "Clearly we're focused on the relationship we have with Nanya and Inotera," Appleton said.
During the call, Oppenheimer senior analyst Gary Hsueh told Appleton he agreed with Micron's assessment of the deal. "It really sounds like there's no upside here to be gained in saddling up side by side with Elpida -- certainly not in terms of kicking in your (intellectual property) for free, or in exchange for capacity, because you pretty much already have that" through your "agreement with Nanya and Inotera," Hsueh said.
Nam Hyung Kim, the chief analyst at iSuppli, also agreed with Micron's...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
It's Malware Time as Conficker Awakens and Updates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65870
This is no April Fools' joke. The Conficker botnet is alive and well, and is using its peer-to-peer communications system to update itself as it downloads fake antivirus programs to millions of Windows machines previously infected with the virus.
The Conficker worm, also known as Downadup, raced across the Internet in January with tricks to spread undetected. Millions of computers were infected in just a four-day period. There are several different variants running wild already and the latest variant, Conficker.E, is now on the loose. On Wednesday, Symantec discovered a new sample that is a slightly modified version of the original worm.
"We've detected a slightly modified version of Downadup which we're calling variant E. This new variant is similar to previous variants. It has the ability to spread itself as we saw in variant A and it exploits a Microsoft vulnerability like was seen in variant B," said Orla Cox, security operations manager for Symantec Security Response. "However, it drops the C variant, which didn't have the ability to propagate."
According to Symantec, the new sample reintroduces the MS08-067 exploit vector, which was removed in the C variant. It includes a previously unseen self-removal functionality to remove itself from an infected host on May 3.
The new sample includes a slightly different list of URLs to obtain the IP address of the infected host and also reaches out to a new list of high-profile domains to confirm the current date. When reaching out to these domains, the worm is not exploiting any weaknesses nor downloading any code.
Symantec has also observed a possible connection to W32.Waledac, one of the most active spam bots. W32.Waledac steals sensitive information, turns computers into spam zombies, and establishes a backdoor remote access. "We're seeing a connection with Downadup and Waledac in that Downadup could...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Virgin Mobile Will Give Customers a Pink Slip Plan
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65869
In an effort to attract new customers, one mobile-phone carrier is extending a helping hand. Virgin Mobile USA will give customers who have lost their job three free months of service.
The company will roll out its Pink Slip Protection plan beginning April 15. The program includes a waiver of up to three months of monthly charges, including taxes and surcharges, if the customer should become unemployed.
"It's certainly prompted by the difficult economic environment we find ourselves in, and our customers tend to be in the mid-lower socioeconomic levels, very impacted by the current recession," said Jayne Wallace, a spokesperson for Virgin. "What inspired it was our direct conversations with customers, asking them what is important to them, what would be features of value we might provide."
New Virgin Mobile customers who opt for its monthly plans without annual contracts are automatically included in the company's Pink Slip program. Customers, however, have to have a monthly plan for at least two months before getting the protection.
Customers who lose their job and become eligible for state unemployment benefits within 12 months of losing their job -- and can prove it -- will be covered.
The Pink Slip program comes with Virgin Mobile's new $49.99 Totally Unlimited Calling prepaid program and will also apply to the company's new Texter's Delight program, for those who are thumbing more than talking.
"Virgin Mobile has always looked to be a customer champion and innovator -- for example, we introduced Sugar Mama in 2006, which lets customers earn free airtime in exchange for watching ads online -- and our Pink Slip Protection program fits right in there," Wallace said.
Job cuts are rising at a historic rate, leading customers to tighten their budgets and change their spending behavior.
"With the unemployment rate...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Games Pioneer Will Wright Leaves EA for Think Tank
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65866
Will Wright, who made social ecosystems a distinct category of computer games, is leaving publisher Electronic Arts and setting up an entertainment think tank. In its announcement Wednesday, EA said it was making an equity investment in the think tank, called Stupid Fun Club.
The club, according to the company, is "developing intellectual properties to be deployed across multiple fronts, including video games, movies, television, the Internet, and toys." Wright will head up the club, and he and EA will be the principal shareholders with equal percentages.
In a statement, Wright said Stupid Fun Club will "explore new possibilities that are emerging" from the "sublime chaos" resulting from this period of revolutionary change in the entertainment industry. He added that he's had the "pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry" during his 12 years at EA.
In 1989, Wright and Jeff Braun started Maxis, which EA bought in 1997. He's best known for the blockbuster game franchises The Sims, SimCity and, most recently, Spore.
Wright has been inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement award from the 2001 Game Developers Choice Awards.
The Spore franchise and Maxis label will continue to be run by Maxis Vice President and General Manager Lucy Bradshaw, and near-term release plans include the Spore Galactic Adventures expansion pack and spin-offs such as Spore Hero, Spore Hero Arena, and Spore Creature Keeper. The Sims line is handled by the EA Play label, which expects to launch The Sims 3 in June.
Galactic Adventures, out in June for computers, enables players to take the Spore adventure to planets. Spore Hero, for the Nintendo Wii, allows users to create creatures that can fight and save their planet, and Hero Arena delivers a battle...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Electric Grid Hack Shows Need for Real Security
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65848
Cyberspies from China, Russia and other nations have hacked into the U.S. electrical grid and installed software programs that could be used to wreak havoc on the system. National security officials warn the spies could try to damage the power grid during a crisis or war.
This penetration shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, according to Cisco Fellow and Chief Security Researcher Patrick Peterson, because we all know there are a number of state and non-state actors pursuing U.S. intelligence and disruption of activities.
"The public espionage cases involving Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames are two of many examples. Today's world is wired, and of course these groups have added electronic infiltration to their attack portfolio," Peterson said. "The report Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency states clearly, 'Cybersecurity is now a major national security problem for the United States'."
New capabilities from nuclear power to the automobile all come with risks, he said, and the use of off-the-shelf technology and networked systems provides an avenue of attack. Peterson thinks this story and others like it are invaluable in providing the visibility and attention to catalyze necessary security improvements.
"The truth is slowly coming out. I for one am hopeful that the truth will set us free. Recent federal activities are promising. President Obama's comprehensive 60-day review of federal cybersecurity initiatives is due any day now," Peterson said.
"Senate legislation would create a White House national cybersecurity adviser in charge of coordinating cyber efforts within the intelligence community and within civilian agencies," he said, "as well as coordinating the public sector's cooperation with the private sector."
Reports of the electrical-grid hacking prompted security experts from McAfee to issue a warning and advice to organizations tasked with protecting the nation's critical infrastructures. This is a serious wake-up call...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Google CEO Sees Newspaper Future in Advertising
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65838
Google Inc.'s chief executive told newspaper publishers Tuesday that they should continue to rely on advertising but seek new ways to reach readers.
Without providing specific recipes, Eric Schmidt laid out a few possibilities, including a site for medicine similar to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which lets users collectively contribute and edit entries. He urged publishers to focus on mobile technology and the development of new platforms for delivering news.
Schmidt said there's still room for subscription and pay-by-the-piece journalism but he emphasized advertising, the source of 98 percent of Google's revenue, thanks to its success matching ads with a user's search terms and other keywords.
"The important thing here is that advertising that is useful is going to work," he said.
Schmidt commended newspapers for staking claim on the Internet in the 1990s but said there wasn't a second act. He says news Web sites take too long to read, even slower than flipping through a newspaper or magazine, a shortcoming that can be addressed by improving technology.
"At Google we're working hard to address the technological questions," he said at the Newspaper Association of America's annual convention. "We don't have any answers here."
He said technology for reading news on devices like mobile phone must ultimately be as pleasant as reading a magazine.
"From my perspective, the online experience can be thought of as terrible compared to what I view as this wonderful experience with magazines and newspapers," Schmidt said.
Schmidt's wide-ranging remarks for about 45 minutes came before an audience whose businesses have plummeted as the recession compounds a decline in print advertising that began with the shift of some advertising to free or low-cost alternatives online.
Schmidt told reporters he was deeply concerned about the decline in quality journalism but had no easy answers for the industry's woes.
His appearance came one day after The Associated...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Cable's Answer to Online's Ad Success: Targeting
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65833
You're watching Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," when suddenly you see a commercial for the Mustang convertible you've been eyeing -- with a special promotion from Ford, which knows you just ended your car lease.
A button pops up on the screen. You click it with the remote and are asked whether you want more information about the car. You respond "yes." Days later, an information packet arrives at your home, the address on file with your cable company.
This is the future of cable TV advertising: personal and targeted.
Cable TV operators are taking a page from online advertising behemoths like Google Inc. to bring these so-called "addressable" ads onto the television.
"It hasn't really been done on TV before," said Mike Eason, chief data officer of Canoe Ventures, a group formed by the nation's six largest cable operators to launch targeted and interactive ads on a national platform starting this summer.
They're betting they can even one-up online ads because they also offer a full-screen experience -- a car commercial plays much better on your TV than on your PC. As such, they hope to charge advertisers more.
The stakes are high: Cable companies get only a small portion of the $182 billion North American advertising market. Eason said the cable operators, which sell local ads on networks like Comedy Central, get roughly 10 percent of the commercial time on those channels. With targeting, they are hoping to expand that.
But they have to tread carefully. Privacy advocates worry the practice opens the door to unwanted tracking of viewing habits so ads can target consumers' likes or dislikes. They also fear it could lead to discrimination, such as poorer households getting ads for the worst auto-financing deals because they are deemed credit risks.
"You've got to tell people you're doing it and you've got to give...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Scientist Who Sold Rocket Technology Sentenced
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65832
A Virginia scientist who sold U.S. rocket technology to China and bribed Chinese officials to obtain a lucrative contract for his company was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in federal prison.
Quan-Sheng Shu, 68, pleaded guilty in November to two counts of violating the federal Arms Control Act and one count of bribery. U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. sentenced Shu to 51 months on each count, to be served concurrently.
Prosecutors argued that the information and equipment Shu sold to China put U.S. national security at risk, saying it could have enhanced that country's military or intelligence capabilities. Shu's attorney countered that most of the information was available to anyone with online access and the equipment could have been purchased from other companies worldwide.
"America has provided me with such a wonderful working environment and opportunity, I would never deliberately harm the country I love," Shu told the judge through an interpreter before he was sentenced.
A naturalized citizen born in Shanghai, Shu is president of AMAC International Inc. of Newport News.
He has acknowledged selling technology to China for the development of hydrogen-propelled rockets and bribing officials to award a $4 million hydrogen liquefier contract to a French company acting as an AMAC intermediary.
Shu had faced more than seven years in prison. He already paid nearly $387,000 in restitution.
He has been free on $100,000 bond. Because of Shu's age and some minor health problems, the judge allowed him to remain free until it is determined where he will serve his sentence. If a prison hasn't been found by May 22, Shu must surrender to federal marshals, the judge said.
An expert in cryogenics, Shu has worked with the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA on several research and development projects. In 1998 he started AMAC, marketing cryogenic products from U.S. and...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Sandra Day O'Connor Touts Civics Lessons via Games
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65829
Sandra Day O'Connor didn't get a computer until she was in her 40s, doesn't have a Facebook or Twitter account, but she said Tuesday that using technology is the way to teach students about the Constitution.
Since retiring from the Supreme Court three years ago, the 79-year-old justice has helped develop free Web-based games to teach civics. But she admits her grandchildren are much more tech-savvy than she is.
"I don't even do much text messaging," O'Connor told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.
O'Connor spoke to middle school students, civics teachers and the Florida Legislature about the games she's helped develop.
She told lawmakers that more people can name an "American Idol" judge than the three branches of government. And she said she hopes her games help students to learn how to analyze problems and develop arguments.
"You're going to have greater success if you teach it in ways that they like to use," O'Connor said. "They spend 40 hours a week, on average, in front of some type of screen."
Two of the games O'Connor was promoting -- "Do I Have a Right" and "Supreme Decision" -- are designed for middle school students and intended to be played in class. The games should be ready this summer, she said, and are part of a project called Our Courts. The project is being backed by Georgetown University and Arizona State University but is largely privately funded.
In the first game, students play the director of a constitutional law firm who must decide which amendment resolves a problem posed by a client. In the other, students play a Supreme Court law clerk. They have to help Justice Irene Waters write the majority opinion on whether a school can ban students from wearing music band T-shirts.
On the fictional court, Waters is one of five women. But O'Connor,...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
After Layoffs, Many Workers Go Back to School
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65827
In this tough economy, the path from a layoff to a new career often runs through a classroom.
After Shannon Boge was laid off twice from factory jobs within a year, she knew it was time for a different occupation. "My only chance is to go back to school," she recalls deciding. "I've got to do this, and that's it."
Millions of laid-off workers are being forced to make tough decisions about their futures. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost more than 5 million jobs. In March, U.S. employers cut 663,000 jobs.
Pursuing a new career -- even one that pays less -- can be an easy call for people whose old jobs have disappeared, forcing them to re-evaluate their version of the American dream.
Boge, 30, who has two sons, is studying at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) here. She's willing to trade the bigger paycheck that came from working 10 or more hours of overtime at the factory every week for a 40-hour-a-week job that doesn't require her to work overnight shifts or worry about the next round of layoffs.
She plans to become a physical therapy assistant, Boge says, "because anything in the medical field is pretty safe right now."
Federal and state tuition aid for displaced workers entering college and vocational programs can make returning to school an appealing option: Students often can continue to collect unemployment benefits.
Boge gets financial aid that covers most of her school costs and receives unemployment benefits as long as she's enrolled.
The $787 billion economic stimulus bill signed in February by President Obama includes $1.7 billion for adult employment services, including training, according to the Department of Labor.
Even so, the transition from old dreams to new realities can be painful. Leontine Jameson, manager of the Employment Transition Center in Henrico County...
Fri, 10 Apr 09
Putting a Price on Social Connections
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65826
Messaging with the boss much? Maybe you ought to be. Workers who have strong communication ties with their managers tend to bring in more money than those who steer clear of the boss, according to a new analysis of social networks in the workplace by IBM and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The research, released this week, even assigns a dollar value to e-mail interaction with an employee's managers. Among the group studied, several thousand consultants at IBM, those with strong links to a manager produced an average of $588 of revenue per month over the norm.
The results represent an early attempt to understand the value of the broadening variety of personal connections afforded by the Web. Users of social media rack up LinkedIn contacts, Facebook friends, and Twitter followers by the hundreds, if not thousands. But figuring out how big a difference all those contacts make in a person's life, financial or otherwise, is a far murkier matter.
That's why leading tech companies, including IBM, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, are hiring economists, anthropologists, and other social scientists to map and classify new types of friendships -- and put a value on them.
Researchers at IBM Research and MIT's Sloan School of Management found that the average e-mail contact was worth $948 in revenue. To unearth that and other data, they used mathematical formulas to analyze the e-mail traffic, address books, and buddy lists of 2,600 IBM consultants over the course of a year. [Their identities were shielded from researchers, who viewed them only as encrypted numbers, known as hash codes.] They compared the communication patterns with performance, as measured by billable hours.
To be sure, not all networking yields dividends. The IBM-MIT study found that consultants with weak ties to a number of managers produced $98 per month less than average. Why? Those...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
Elan Challenges Apple's Use of Touchscreens
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65846
Elan Microelectronics is attempting to take a bite out of Apple. The Taiwan-based developer of multi-touch technology has filed a lawsuit, giving Apple a taste of its recent legal actions against Palm.
Elan says the touchscreen technology used in Apple's MacBook, iPhone and iPod touch infringe on two of its patents. It is seeking an injunction that would stop Apple from producing, using and selling those products.
Elan owns the rights to technology that allows Apple's products to detect the position of a finger on a touchscreen or touchpad, the company said. Palm recently came under fire from Apple, which sued Palm for using multi-touch technology in its Palm Pre smartphone.
Capacitive Touchpad is at the core of Elan's technology and, since the release of Apple's iPhone in 2007, Elan's Multi-Finger touch interface has received much attention.
Elan's suit against Apple comes just two months after Apple was awarded a multi-touch patent. Just after Apple was granted patent 949, Elan said the award would not have any bearing on Elan or its multi-touch technology, called Multi-Finger.
"Although [Apple's] patent comprises of 20 items covering software, firmware and memory storage, its scope is actually limited within the establishment of the one- and two-dimensional commands mechanism," the company had said in a statement. "Simply speaking, it emphasizes more on one- or two-dimensional commands finger gesture recognition rather than about multi-touch technology. Hence, to make things unmistakably clear, having a multi-touch feature cannot be interpreted as an infringement of the 949 patent."
Elan's statement didn't clear its own technology from patent infringement and it also sent out a quiet warning. "Aside from continuing to provide total solutions to its customers, Elan is also actively protecting its IP rights to safeguard the company's and its customers' interests," the company said.
Elan's February statement added that there was "no...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
Report Says Hackers Have Penetrated Power Grid
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65839
The U.S. power grid and other utilities, including water and sewage, are being watched by cyber spies, most likely from China and Russia, who have penetrated the nation's electronic grid. The hackers have placed malware on the grid's system that, if activated, could have serious consequences, a former homeland security official told The Wall Street Journal.
Some experts believe the news is just Capitol Hill politics, while others say it's not something to take lightly.
Ira Winkler, author of The Spies Among Us and president of the Internet Security Advisory Group in Maryland, has been warning of such access to the nation's power grid for more than a decade.
Winkler, who writes about corporate espionage in his book, began his career at the National Security Agency. But his exploits in the private sector, testing security systems by breaking into banks and high-profile companies, caught the attention of many. He was inducted into the Information Systems Security Association Hall of Fame.
"If you can send an e-mail, you can control the power grid," Winkler said. "In the last year we saw a GAO report about how the Tennessee Valley Authority (a federally owned corporation) intermingled their systems, and there is a report by the CIA that some were able to extort lots of money by charging people through the Italian power grid."
Winkler listed several ways the grid is vulnerable. "You have another case where a nuclear reactor shut itself down because a system on the business network of the company was unavailable, and when the business system was down the reactor shut itself down, and that shows there is a dependency on the business network to control the nuclear reactor in that case."
Last year Winkler was hired by a power company to penetrate its system. Within a day of their attack, Winkler and...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
Acer Unveils New Mobile and Desktop PCs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65836
Acer is previewing a refreshed lineup of mobile and desktop PCs that includes a new 11.6-inch netbook that tips the scales at just over one kilogram and is just one inch thick.
Like its 8.9- and 10.1-inch counterparts, Acer's substantially larger Aspire One model integrates an Atom processor and mobile chipset from Intel. However, the new machine will integrate a 160GB internal hard drive, a multi-card reader, and a six-cell 5200-mAh battery that offers up to eight hours of operation from a single charge versus the 5.5- to 6.5-hour maximum of Acer's older netbooks.
Featuring a high-definition (WXGA) back-lit LCD screen, the new netbook offers Dolby Pro Logic sound together with Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth and 3G wireless options. And the new machine's touchpad is now multi-gesture, which means that users can zoom Web pages at a single touch or leaf through multiple Web pages in a manner similar to how people read newspapers, Acer said.
Acer's said its AspireRevo -- which combines a Intel Atom 230 processor with a Nvidia Ion graphics processor -- is capable of delivering 10 times faster graphics performance than other small desktop PCs. Sporting a mini-PCI Express slot and an HDMI port for high-definition video, Acer's book-size "nettop" -- a low-cost, space-saving desktop PC -- can play 1080p HD movies and DirectX 10 games as well as deliver 3-D capabilities when running Windows Vista Premium.
AspireRevo options include the user's choice of a serial ATA hard disk or a solid-state drive, gigabit Ethernet or 802.11b/g networking, and up to 4GB of DDR3 memory. Selected models also will offer a high-speed draft-n Wi-Fi option.
Additionally, Acer said it is developing a new Aspire Z5600 desktop PC that will offer touchscreen capabilities at an affordable price. The main design point that sets this machine apart from...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
Windows XP To Linger as Users Skip Vista for Windows 7
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65835
Windows XP fans will get a boost, and many Windows customers are already looking beyond Vista to the upcoming Windows 7. That's the takeaway from reports this week about Microsoft's policy and a new survey by industry researcher ChangeWave.
Microsoft has told news media that when Windows 7 is released, it will allow volume-license users to downgrade to either the current Vista operating system or the older XP. There are also news reports that the software giant will allow Hewlett-Packard to continue selling XP on its computers for another year.
While some eyebrows are being raised among industry observers, the downgrade policy is in keeping with Microsoft's approach to big purchasers, whose license gives them the right to use any version of Windows.
Although Vista may not be the only choice if a user wants to move backward from Windows 7, it's still the launching pad. In a post on its Windows 7 engineering blog, the Microsoft team noted that many of its Windows 7 beta testers are running Windows 7 full-time and are getting ready to upgrade to the release candidate (RC).
But the RC, the team wrote, "is about getting breadth coverage to validate the product in real-world scenarios." As a result, the team is asking testers to revert to Vista and then upgrade to the RC -- or do a clean install of the RC rather than upgrading to the RC from Windows 7 beta.
"The reality is that upgrading from one prerelease build to another is not a scenario we want to focus on because it is not something real-world customers will experience," the team wrote on the blog.
However, a new poll from industry research firm ChangeWave indicates that Windows 7 beta testers would prefer not to venture back to Vista. It...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
Others Join Price Hikes Under Apple's iTunes Model
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65824
Apple managed a price increase for music Tuesday under the veil of a variable pricing model for its iTunes Store. Now Amazon, Lala, Wal-Mart and Rhapsody are adopting the tiered pricing scheme.
In the variable pricing model, new releases and top tracks are now selling for $1.29 instead of 99 cents. Wal-Mart is the exception, offering new releases for a market-leading $1.24. Apple and others are selling recent songs for 99 cents and older selections for 69 cents.
"It's really not the retailers that are raising the prices. It's the record labels. The retailers are just passing it along to the consumers," said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. "Retailers have no choice but to raise prices or sell below cost."
Under variable pricing, classics are supposed to sell for 69 cents. But Leigh's investigation on Amazon.com and other sites found older songs still selling for 99 cents. It's not clear whether the companies have not yet updated their catalog or don't plan to reduce prices on songs like Louie, Louie, Zippity Do Dah, and Beethoven symphonies. Amazon could not immediately be reached for comment.
Will consumers object to the price changes in the midst of a down economy? Leigh is betting consumers are going to be disappointed by the new pricing model.
"The record labels may find that the new pricing reduces overall demand and stimulates piracy," Leigh said. "If the record industry can't get away with this, it may cause the video industry to go back to the drawing board, because it is focusing on ways to restrict free access to videos at advertising-supported Web sites."
As Leigh sees it, the record labels and the video industry -- and the newspaper industry, for that matter -- must find a way to make advertising work online. As it stands,...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
VMware Promotion Guarantees 50 Percent Savings
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65823
In a sign of the economic times, VMware is running a promotion that guarantees at least a 50 percent savings on server hardware.
Customers that participate in the program will work with the VMware Professional Services organization to deploy VMware's virtualization platform on existing servers using best practices. Customers won't have to pay for design and implementation services until they realize at least a 50 percent savings on server hardware.
VMware is also offering customers assistance with a server buyback referral program. This helps customers get an appraised value for the server hardware the company no longer needs, thanks to server consolidation.
"In today's difficult economic climate, this new promotion shows our commitment to customers and our confidence that we can help them reduce cost with no risk," said Bogomil Balkansky, vice president of product marketing for VMware's server business unit. "Based on our experience in thousands of customer engagements and data collected over more than three years with our Capacity Planner tool, we are confident that many customers will be able to achieve more than 50 percent savings on server hardware costs."
In tough, uncertain times, certainty and quantifiable economic value are at a premium, and that is the essential message underlying VMware's guaranteed program, according to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. The promotion also speaks volumes about how confident the company is in delivering on the promised savings. But why is that important for IT customers?
"A large majority of businesses' x86-based virtualization efforts focus on
data-center consolidation -- reducing the overall number of servers required by running multiple, virtualized applications and workloads on fewer machines," King said. "That provides great practical results that can add to a company's bottom line, ranging from lower power consumption -- by both servers and cooling systems -- and costs to leveraging improved system efficiencies...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
Beatles Catalog To Be Digitally Remastered
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65811
Beatles fans will have a chance to add substantially to their collections when a digitally remastered version of the band's catalog becomes available in September.
Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music announced Tuesday that they will be releasing the new discs worldwide on Sept. 9, the same day as the release of a video game, "The Beatles: Rock Band."
The release continues a recent trend of repackaging and tweaking The Beatles' output, which fans may have thought ended in 1970 with "Let It Be."
Each of the dozen CDs will include the original U.K. album art and new, expanded liner notes, according to an announcement on The Beatles Web site. For a limited time, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album.
The collections "Past Masters Vol. I and II," including singles, out-takes, live versions and B-sides which weren't on the albums, will be reissued in one package.
In addition, Apple Corps and EMI will be releasing a boxed set named "The Beatles in Mono," with the original monaural versions of 10 albums plus two further discs of mono masters of early material. The mono versions of "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" also include the 1965 stereo mixes.
There has been no breakthrough yet on negotiations to get the Beatles' extensive catalog available for legal downloading.
"Discussions regarding the digital distribution of the catalog will continue," Apple Corps and EMI said.
The repackaging began in 1973 with "The Beatles/1962-1966" and "The Beatles/1967-1970."
Then came "Live at the BBC" in 1994, "Past Masters" in 1988, "Anthology 1" and 2 and 3 in 1996, "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" in 1999, "1" in 2000, "Let It Be ... Naked" in 2003 and "Love" in 2007.
Apple said the new package is the fruit of four years of work by engineers at the Abbey Road Studios.
The surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
Digital Health Records Spark Debate
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65806
The blank wall behind the receptionists' desk stands as a symbol of efficiency in Peter Basch's bustling office. A dozen years ago, Basch and his fellow doctors went paperless and ditched the stacks of patients' charts that stood there.
An early entry into the world of electronic medical records, Basch is an enthusiastic supporter. "It allows our staff and physicians to be far more organized," he says. And that means "more focused on the patient."
President Obama wants doctors' offices and hospitals nationwide to follow suit, and the government has set a goal for every American to have an electronic health record by 2014.
Kathleen Sebelius, the White House nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, calls the move to computerization "one of the linchpins" of overhauling the nation's health care system. Obama casts it as a factor in the nation's economic recovery, saying going paperless would "save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs."
Naysayers suggest health information technology (IT), the overall move to computerization, is full of false promise. Digital records can lead to better care and fewer medical mistakes, they say, but the costly transformation could waste money if the doctors and hospitals buy systems that can't be connected to share information.
"We could head for a techno-Katrina," warns Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., referring to the government's failed efforts to respond to the 2005 hurricane. "I do not want to do that, where we do a dollar dump, and at the end of the day, we have a lot of microchips floating around."
Studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine show that less than 2 percent of hospitals use electronic records in all departments and that 17 percent of doctors have functioning digital systems.
The Obama administration says the government could save $12 billion over 10 years if doctors...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
New Web-Address Endings Could Start Turf Wars
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65797
A sea change may be coming to cyberspace with Web addresses ending in anything from .a to .z. That has businesses increasingly worried they will have to spend millions to guard their brand names.
The familiar .com, .net, .org and 18 other suffixes -- officially "generic top-level domains" -- could be joined by a seemingly endless stream of new ones next year under a landmark change approved last summer by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, the entity that oversees the Web's address system.
Tourists might find information about the Liberty Bell, for example, at a site ending in .philly. A rapper might apply for a Web address ending in .hiphop.
"Whatever is open to the imagination can be applied for," says Paul Levins, ICANN's vice president of corporate affairs. "It could translate into one of the largest marketing and branding opportunities in history."
Many businesses see more problems than profits -- opportunities for scammers to exploit brand names and mislead consumers, or even attack brands.
"It costs companies hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, to enforce their trademark rights in the existing space, so imagine how expensive it will be when Verizon gets infringed in a thousand new domains," says Sarah Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel for Verizon. "Many businesses feel this is a form of extortion."
To beat a competitor to the punch, a company might decide it needs to control a new generic domain, such as .cereal or .detergent, but it would be costly. The currently proposed application fee is $185,000, says Levins, plus an annual "continuance" fee of $25,000. If more than one company wants a suffix, there could be a bidding war.
A more likely scenario would be for a business just to register site Web addresses pairing their brand name with any new extensions, such...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
After IBM Deal Collapse, What Now for Sun?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65795
Now that merger talks between IBM and Sun Microsystems have broken off, the future of Sun, long one of the tech industry's most innovative and dynamic companies, is in doubt.
The breakdown puts Sun in an extremely weak position, and analysts expect its stock price to come under severe pressure. The stock had been trading at about $4 a share, but rose to above $8 when word of the IBM talks leaked in late March. "Sun is now sort of damaged goods," says Peter Falvey, a partner at Boston-based Revolution Partners, which invests in Silicon Valley firms. "If IBM got under the covers and didn't like what they saw, then what does that mean for other potential buyers?"
Only a couple of companies stand out as potential acquirers. Cisco Systems, the networking giant, recently got into the computer server business, and Oracle, the world's No. 2 software maker, has long been a close partner with Sun, which specializes in making the kind of servers large companies use to run Oracle database software. But neither of those organizations is a natural fit, since they're not computer companies, per se. The two largest computer makers, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, are very unlikely to show interest in Sun. Both are committed to selling so-called industry-standard servers that run on microprocessors made by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
IBM and Sun had been talking for more than three months, but a disagreement over price and some terms of the agreement led to the break-off, according to people close to the negotiations. Neither IBM nor Sun would comment or even acknowledge that they had been negotiating. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein Research, says: "I am worried that Sun's customers won't continue to hang in [in] uncertainty, wondering if Sun will be an independent...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
Another Gold Rush, Courtesy of Apple?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65793
As I reported in The New York Times, the iPhone has been a golden ticket for some developers who have cashed in on the platform with popular applications.
But the chances of hitting the iLotto have grown increasingly slim. As more developers seek their fortunes in the glossy curves of the device, the App Store is becoming crowded. Competition is spiking, driving down application prices -- and the chances of becoming the next iMillionaire.
Could the iPhone 3.0 change that? Some developers think so.
Apple's new version of phone software, expected to be released publicly this summer, will allow developers to employ several new ways to sell content and build new business models beyond mobile advertisements and charging a flat fee per download. In particular, developers will be able to sell subscriptions and allow users to make individual purchases from within the application itself.
Those changes might benefit only professional developers and larger gaming companies like Sega and Electronic Arts with the resources to deliver extras worth paying for, like secret gaming levels and expansion packs, warns Erica Sadun who has written several books about programming for the iPhone, including one on the newest software changes. "These are advances that will better benefit the larger developers than the smaller developers," she said.
But Nicole Lazarro, a game design consultant, described the upgrades as "a big win for developers."
"Right now, it's pretty hard to make back your development cost at a $1 per application," she said. "You have to sell quite a few applications to do that." With the changes, she said, developers can still entice iPhone owners with a lower upfront price and introduce upgrades and offers within the application that will generate additional revenue over time.
Some independent developers, like Kostas Eleftheriou, think the upgrade will encourage a new wave of creativity based on new...
Thu, 9 Apr 09
High-Tech Heists a Risk for Banks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65774
Bank customers know that if their ATM card is stolen, thieves could sneak money out of their accounts. But millions of dollars? In at least one case, bank robbers committed a massive global bank robbery with counterfeit ATM cards.
Last December RBS WorldPay, a payment processor, announced that as many as 1.5 million accounts had been compromised by thieves. But the robbers didn't wreak havoc with everyone. They didn't need to.
Hackers who hit RBS's database, exposing a vast number of accounts to potential havoc, only copied about 100 cards. But it was enough to do a lot of damage.
They raised withdrawal limits and otherwise altered codes so they could make $500 withdrawals in cities ranging from New York to Moscow and Hong Kong. By the time they were done, they had siphoned off $9 million in one day.
RBS is the most recent case of bank robbery with a twist, but only one example of how banks' reliance on technology in an interconnected world can put them at risk around the globe.
Tom Field, editorial director of Information Security Media Group, which operates bankinfosecurity.com and cuinformationsecurity.com said robberies affecting U.S. banking customers now goes far beyond U.S. borders.
"This is an international issue," Field said, citing ability to access networks worldwide. "For hackers are everywhere, they're insiders, customers themselves."
Field cited data vulnerability as a key concern, but the biggest threat to bank data today may not be within banks themselves. Field said it may be exposure to hackers breaching credit and debit card processors.
"The banks do a good job. Vendors that they're dealing with, do they do as good a job? That's where the vulnerabilities are," Field said. "Regulators put the pressure on banks to make sure they're assuring security. But there isn't the same regulatory scrutiny [for processors as...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
Gmail, Calendar Updated for iPhone and Android Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65816
Google on Tuesday updated its Gmail and Calendar offerings for Apple's iPhone and Android-based mobile devices. When users access Gmail and Calendar through mobile browsers, Google promises an improved experience.
In Gmail, Google has improved the mobile user interface to make it easier to "message on the go." The search giant also unveiled what it is calling a Floaty Bar so common actions -- such as archive and delete -- are only a click away. Messages got a face-lift so labels look more like the Gmail labels users see on a desktop.
"You'll notice that it's a lot faster when performing actions like opening an e-mail, navigating or searching. And if the data network drops out on you, rest assured that Gmail won't," said Joanne McKinley, an engineer for Google Mobile. "You'll still be able to open recently read messages and to compose over a flaky, or nonexistent, network connection."
With the updated Calendar, mobile users can edit or respond to an event. Like Gmail, the application is accessible even without a network connection. To quickly navigate between Gmail, Calendar and other mobile applications, Google said users can use the classic links across the top of the screen. And the More menu provides access to the full list of applications.
"Being able to check the week's schedule is great," said Jyri Engestrom, a product manager at Google Mobile. "However, I've been missing a way to respond to invitations and change my attendance status on the go. And I haven't been the only one. The number-one idea on Google Product Ideas was the ability to edit Google Calendar on mobile devices."
Why Web apps? From a product perspective, Web apps allow Google to iterate quickly. According to Shyam Sheth, a product manager for Google Mobile, users benefit because they will see...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
Google Now Returns Search Results Based on Location
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65814
Google changed the way its search engine processes queries on Monday by making the user's current known location the default for all returned results, giving the search giant a new way to micro-target the ads it displays.
Whether looking for a good restaurant in Zurich or a dentist in Houston, wrote Google software engineers Jenn Taylor and Jim Muller on The Official Google Blog, users can now receive suggestions from Google by simply entering the search terms 'restaurant' or 'dentist' without having to specify a particular place.
"We've just finished the worldwide rollout of local search results on a map, which will now appear even when you don't type in a location," Taylor and Muller wrote. "When you search on Google, we will guess where you are and show results near you."
Smartphone users have had access to Google's location-based search capabilities since September. However, the company's mobile "search my location" capability, based on the company's Gears Geolocation API, performs automatic location detection only on Windows Mobile devices that use Internet Explorer and provide support for cell-ID or GPS.
By contrast, Google's new "guess where you are" search capability works on all computing devices and Web browsers. In most cases, Google determines the location by matching the user's IP address to a broad geographical range. "We try to make our guesses as good as they can be," Taylor and Muller wrote.
Still, Google's technology does not always arrive at accurate location results, and may not deliver any location at all if the user is using a proxy to conceal location data. So Google's search page now provides users with a way to specify a location to serve as the basis for their search queries.
"You can also specify your likely location using the 'change location' link on the top right...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
iTunes Store Offers DRM-Free Music with Pricing Tiers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65812
There are new prices on the songs at Apple's iTunes Store, but they're now all free of digital-rights management (DRM). Beginning Monday night, pricing at the popular online music store has three tiers -- 69 cents, 99 cents, and $1.29. iTunes was previously known for its original one-price model of 99 cents per song.
It's expected that older, less popular songs will be priced at the lowest rung, and at least some of the top-ranked songs will carry the highest price.
According to news reports, six of the top 10 songs are currently listed at $1.29, and 29 of the top 100. By contrast, many of the same songs can be found at Amazon's MP3 store for 99 cents, although iTunes' catalog, at about 10 million songs, is estimated to be twice that of Amazon's.
At the same time that it's switching to pricing levels, iTunes is making all of the music on the store available without DRM and at the high quality of 256 Kbps encoding. Users who already own songs from iTunes with DRM can upgrade to a DRM-free version, assuming such a version exists. There are reports that some songs that were present on the store before this transition are not available in DRM-free versions.
DRM-free songs can be played on all players, without such restrictions as limits on copying or restrictions on the kinds of playback devices that can be used.
The move to DRM-free songs for the entire store was announced in January during Apple executive Phil Schiller's address at Macworld Expo. At the time, Schiller said there would be more songs priced at 69 cents than at $1.29.
Some observers have suggested that the new pricing levels were part of a deal Apple made with the record companies, trading freedom from DRM for variable...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
Three Android Smartphones Coming From Samsung
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65810
Samsung has confirmed plans to release Android phones, according to a recent story in Forbes. Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, executive vice president of global product strategy in the mobile communications division, told the magazine during the recent CTIA trade show in Las Vegas that the company will release several handsets using the Google-backed, open-source operating system.
The first of the devices will be launched in June outside the U.S. Hong confirmed that two other Android devices will be released in the U.S. during the second half of 2009.
In the U.S., the Samsung executive said, each of the phones will be different because of the needs of the carrier partners, each of whom will sell one model. The carriers, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, are both members of the Open Handset Alliance, formed to promote Android.
T-Mobile sells the only major Android-based phone on the market, the G1, and there were reports this weekend that it is expanding its commitment to the mobile platform by developing a home phone and a small tablet computer, among other devices, that will be based on Android.
There have also been reports that computer maker Hewlett-Packard is looking at Android for possible use in a line of netbooks. In addition to the possible branching of Android into non-phone devices, the OS is also beginning to evolve into versions that are Android-based and Google-branded, and others that don't emphasize Google.
Hong told Forbes that the Samsung Android phones will not be Google-centric, as T-Mobile's G1 is, but Android-centric.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, noted that, although Samsung had been saying for a while that it intended to release Android devices this year, there was disappointment when no announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.
There...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
Apple Boosts Xserve with Intel Nehalem Processors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65809
Apple on Tuesday announced an updated Xserve that delivers up to twice the performance of its previous-generation server.
The combination of Intel's Nehalem Xeon processors and a new system architecture deliver up to an 89 percent performance-per-watt improvement. Xserve is available with one or two Intel Xeon processors, a low-power solid-state drive (SSD) and up to 3TB of internal storage. The Xserve includes an unlimited client license and sells for $2,999.
"The Xserve is the best work group server for our education, business and creative customers," said David Moody, Apple's vice president of worldwide Mac product marketing. "With up to twice the performance, better power efficiency, and an innovative SSD drive option, this is the best Xserve we've ever made."
The Xserve's Intel Xeon processors run at speeds up to 2.93 GHz. Each processor offers an integrated memory controller with three channels of 1066-MHz DDR3 ECC memory that Apple said delivers up to 2.4 times the memory bandwidth while cutting memory latency up to 40 percent. Using high-efficiency power supplies and intelligent thermal management, Apple said Xserve delivers a 19 percent reduction in idle power use.
Xserve offers a 128GB SSD boot-drive option that demands only a fraction of the power of a hard disk and delivers up to 48 times faster random-access times without occupying a drive bay, according to Apple. Xserve's three 3.5-inch drive bays support both 7200 rpm SATA and 15,000 rpm SAS drives and can be configured with up to 3TB of internal storage.
Two PCI Express 2.0 x16 expansion slots provide massive I/O bandwidth to support the latest high-bandwidth expansion cards. Apple said the Xserve RAID card option now delivers improved performance up to 497MB/s and supports RAID levels 0, 1 and 5 with 512MB of cache without using a PCI Express expansion slot....
Wed, 8 Apr 09
GM, Segway Team for Sporty New Two-Seater
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65796
General Motors is teaming with Segway, the scooter company, to develop a battery-powered vehicle to cut urban congestion and pollution.
The companies plan to announce the partnership today in New York, where they are testing a prototype of the partially enclosed, two-seat, two-wheel scooter. The venture is called Project PUMA, for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility.
The companies hope to recruit partners, such as cities or colleges, to set up Puma travel lanes, like bicycle lanes. They'd be used to test the vehicles and their on-board wireless communicators designed to keep them safely apart and even operate them while drivers do other tasks.
The Pumas also could be operated manually. Not intended for highway use, they would hit about 35 miles per hour and go up to 35 miles on a charge.
"There's no technology that has to be invented here. It's really just putting the pieces together," says Chris Borroni-Bird, director of the project for GM.
Nonetheless it could take years to get to market. "It's not going on sale anytime" soon, he said.
The partnership with Segway began about 18 months ago, predating GM's emergency survival loans from the government.
GM is developing the electronic wireless systems for safe, autonomous operation. Segway is responsible for the self-balancing, electric, two-wheel chassis. The prototype has "training wheels" front and rear, helpful at stoplights. Pumas would use lithium-ion batteries, like those Segway uses in its stand-up scooters.
Though being unveiled in New York, the Pumas might appeal most in densely packed cities in places such as India and China, Borroni-Bird says. There they would seem a big step up from bicycles. Americans, who are used to cars, might not take them as seriously.
He forecasts energy consumption equivalent to 200 miles per gallon of gasoline. That falls to about 70 mpg adding in fuel to generate electricity used to charge...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
Tech Firms Eager To Gobble Stimulus Funds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65783
The biggest federal public works project since World War II offers tantalizing possibilities for the struggling tech market.
President Obama's staggering $787 billion economic stimulus package, passed in February, could be a financial oasis -- especially for an industry facing a precipitous drop in tech spending by economically ravaged corporations and consumers.
It allocates tens of billions of dollars for tech upgrades to energy ($4.5 billion for smart grids), health care ($20 billion for electronic medical records), broadband deployment and education.
The dizzying amounts have tech giants jockeying to land government contracts, the first expected to be awarded in the next few weeks. IBM, General Electric, Cisco Systems, Intel and some well-positioned start-ups are among suitors poised to capitalize.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal," says Sean Maloney, chief sales and marketing officer at Intel, which is working on broadband projects with governments in the U.S., Japan, Vietnam and others. "This dwarfs the Marshall Plan and the New Deal. It is unimaginably large, and will never happen again. It is incumbent on us to spend it wisely."
Adds Cisco CEO John Chambers, "I think technology can transform health care, can transform education, can transform the environment -- not just from smart grids or better utilization of data centers, but also change our lives in a positive way."
IBM, GE and Cisco are expected to reap financial rewards because of their expertise in IT infrastructure. The largesse will assuredly filter to third-party tech partners that work with IBM and Intel, and to small businesses. Intuit CEO Brad Smith notes the stimulus plan is designed to free up credit for small businesses and stimulate start-ups.
"It takes more than one company to innovate the economy and fix systems in need of repair," says Teresa Carlson, vice president of Microsoft Federal, which works with federal agencies, the Defense department and the...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
Samsung Widens the Gap with Sony in TV
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65780
Is "extreme shepherding" the latest craze out of Scotland or New Zealand? Making the rounds on YouTube these days is a goofy video of sheep covered with LED lights being herded around a hillside in the darkness. As the flock makes its way across the heath, viewed from afar the lights form and re-form into various shapes and ultimately bounce through fields like the old Pong video game.
But what looks like yet another oddball clip by some unknown group of college kids is actually a clever marketing ploy by electronics maker Samsung. The Korean company hired a British TV studio to make the short film as part of its campaign to launch a new flat-screen technology that uses LEDs (light emitting diodes) as its light source. So far, some 5 million people have watched the clip, which only mentions Samsung in the last 10 seconds or so.
This combination of smart marketing and cutting-edge technology has helped Samsung unseat Sony as the leader in the race to dominate sales of flat TVs. For several years, Samsung and Sony were neck and neck in the race to sell LCD TVs. But as Sony has stumbled in recent months, Samsung has surged ahead of its Japanese rival. Last year, Samsung's U.S. share of TVs with liquid-crystal display screens hit 25.1 percent vs. Sony's 16.5 percent, according to market researcher NPD Group. "It looks like we've hit the sweet spot with consumers in our campaign to generate curiosity and interest in LED technology," says Sue Kim, Samsung's senior vice-president for marketing.
Of course, Samsung isn't pinning its marketing push solely on Internet sheep videos. This year, it will spend more than $50 million on marketing in the U.S. alone, says Tim Baxter, president of Samsung's American consumer-electronics division. More than half of...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
Online Real Estate Brokers Retool
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65779
Silicon Valley once thought it could replace the old-fashioned Realtor, touring would-be buyers around town in a well-worn Mercedes, with online agents working remotely for cut-rate commissions. It hasn't worked out that way.
ZipRealty and privately held Redfin, two firms slugging it out in the online realty business, are posting some better numbers recently. But both have had to change their business models radically, making them look a lot more like the traditional real estate agencies they once hoped to put out of business.
The first of the dot-home contenders was Zip, which was launched in 1999 with funding from Benchmark Capital, one of the early backers of eBay. Zip, like Redfin, is a discount broker, meaning it shares some of its sales commissions with its clients. This is a different business from that of real estate search sites, such as Zillow.com, Yahoo Real Estate, and MSN Real Estate, which list homes for sale and sell advertising on their sites but don't actually try to handle the sale.
On a typical $200,000 house, Zip earns a $6,000 commission from the seller and rebates $1,200 of that to the buyer. The concept holds some appeal in these budget-conscious times. "We had to break a lease, so the idea we'd get some money back was definitely an incentive," says Georgi Heltz, a 30-year-old social worker who recently bought a townhouse in suburban Los Angeles through Zip.
Last year, one in which home sales nationwide were down 13 percent, Zip sold 17,100 houses, a 23 percent increase over 2007. In February traffic to its Web site was up 74 percent, year over year, to 1.8 million monthly visitors, according to Web tracking firm comScore. That puts it ahead of sites run by much larger brokers, such as RE/MAX and Century 21, but below the...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
MIT Researchers Make Virus Battery
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65777
For the first time, MIT researchers have shown they can genetically engineer viruses to build both the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium-ion battery, according to a study released on Thursday in the online edition of journal Science.
The new virus-produced batteries have the same energy capacity and power performance as state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries being considered to power plug-in hybrid cars, and they could also be used to power a range of personal electronic devices, said Angela Belcher, the MIT materials scientist who led the research team.
The new batteries could be manufactured with a cheap and environmentally benign process: The synthesis takes place at and below room temperature and requires no harmful organic solvents, and the materials that go into the battery are non-toxic.
In a traditional lithium-ion battery, lithium ions flow between a negatively charged anode, usually graphite, and the positively charged cathode, usually cobalt oxide or lithium iron phosphate. Three years ago, an MIT team led by Belcher reported that it had engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to form a nanowire.
In the latest work, the team focused on building a highly powerful cathode to pair up with the anode, said Belcher, the Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering in MIT. Cathodes are more difficult to build than anodes because they must be highly conducting to be a fast electrode. However, most candidate materials for cathodes are highly insulating (non-conductive).
To achieve that, the researchers, including MIT Professor Gerbrand Ceder of materials science and Associate Professor Michael Strano of chemical engineering, genetically engineered viruses that first coat themselves with iron phosphate, then grab hold of carbon nanotubes to create a network of highly conductive material.
Because the viruses recognize and bind specifically to certain materials...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
TV Shows on the Web: The Haggling Begins
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65775
Could cable subscribers one day go to the Web to watch their favorite TV channel, much like they do today with their television sets? That day is coming, at least according to Walt Disney Chief Executive Robert A. Iger, who clearly wants his company to be among the first to offer the capability. "We are certainly open to exploring that possibility," Iger said in a keynote speech on Apr. 2 to the annual Cable Show in Washington, D.C.
Iger was treading on potentially treacherous territory, as content owners and cable operators have been eyeing one another warily these days over the issue of "authentication," the latest industry buzzword. Authentication would effectively require content owners who offer TV shows to consumers online to certify that those folks aren't canceling their cable bills to get the online feeds. How they would do this isn't clear, although cable companies, such as Time Warner Cable, are already working on ways to bill folks for the amount of time they use the Internet.
Needless to say, cable operators want to be assured that their customers aren't "cutting the cord," as Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn A. Britt said recently, in order to go channel surfing online. Moreover, the cable operators have a point: They pay billions each year to Disney, Viacom, and other content creators to carry their channels and aren't likely to take kindly to seeing their customers go off -- with a content owner's help -- and watch it free online.
Iger clearly wasn't offering anything close to caving in to cable industry demands. Giving consumers ABC or some other network online, he said, "would be an interesting and potentially compelling feature," if the two sides could work out a compromise on the authentication issue.
What's not likely to happen, at least in Iger's...
Wed, 8 Apr 09
The Cisco Kid: To Branch Out While Others Retrench
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65773
On the surface, there doesn't seem to be much of a connection between the servers that run corporate data centers and a handheld video camera you use to film family vacations. Yet both have somehow become part of the master plan at Cisco Systems Inc.
After growing into one of Silicon Valley's most prominent companies by selling behind-the-scenes computing products, Cisco is now expanding aggressively, using its hefty financial resources to go on the attack while other companies are just trying to survive.
In recent weeks, Cisco said it will start selling servers, opening a new rivalry with longtime partners like Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. Cisco also agreed to pay about $590 million in stock to pick up Pure Digital Technologies, which makes the popular Flip camcorders.
Cisco has not been spared by the recession. Its profit declined 27 percent in its last quarter, which ended in late January, and it reported flat earnings in the previous period. It is slashing more than $1 billion in expenses, partly by cutting back on travel and freezing hiring.
Yet it also has $29.5 billion in cash and investments, a solid reputation, a network of product resellers and thousands of sales employees -- assets that the company hopes to exploit.
One challenge will be whether Cisco can maintain focus. By the company's own count, it has 28 overall priorities, running the gamut from computer networks in space to "virtual health care."
Even if Cisco doesn't stumble, Cisco's rivals will try to use the breadth of its goals against it.
Mike Banic, vice president of marketing for the switches business at Juniper Networks Inc., a Cisco competitor, said it appears Cisco is focusing more on moving into adjacent markets and less on innovations in its core business.
"Based on what customers are telling us, we are seeing they're becoming a bit...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Skype Fuels FCC Fight for an Open Wireless Internet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65792
Skype's free iPhone application is stirring up debate again. Available on Apple's App Store on March 31, the app first stirred debate after being blocked by Deutsche Telekom in Germany. Now Skype is fueling debate on network neutrality.
Skype's Voice over Internet Protocol app gives users Skype calling and instant messaging on Apple iPhones and second-generation iPod touches. The application, which saw more than one million downloads in the first two days after being made available, allows users to make calls on the iPhone over a Wi-Fi connection, but not on AT&T's 3G cellular network.
The limitation, which has been formally imposed by Apple's App Store policies, has caused groups such as the Free Press to ask the Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether Apple and AT&T are breaking federal rules. The Free Press wants the FCC to clarify whether its Internet Policy Statement for an open Internet applies to wireless service providers who also offer broadband Internet access service.
The Free Press complaint comes after a senior AT&T official was quoted in USA Today as saying that AT&T expects its vendors to not facilitate the services of competitors. That statement indicates it won't be developers who have control over wireless innovations, but wireless carriers through restrictive language used to control the use of applications and services on their network, according to the Free Press.
The Free Press says the mobile Internet should be as free as the Internet users access from fixed locations.
"This issue is not new -- it is simply unresolved," said Ben Scott, policy director at the Free Press. "Wise voices at the FCC have long said that the Internet Policy Statement applies to wireless. As more and more consumers begin to access the Internet wirelessly, it is critical that the FCC clarifies that online consumer protections that...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Enterprises Continue To Purchase BlackBerry Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65788
When Research In Motion posted a 24 percent revenue jump for the company's fourth fiscal quarter last week, much of Wall Street's attention was centered on the surprising strength of the company's Blackberry smartphone sales to consumers.
RIM added approximately 3.9 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts in the quarter ended Feb. 28, boosting the total BlackBerry subscriber base to more than 25 million, according to RIM Co-CEO James Balsillie.
"The strength of the BlackBerry net subscriber account additions in December was unprecedented, with many carriers hitting their highest level of Net activations ever and with channel and marketing support for BlackBerry products at an all-time high," Balsillie said during a conference call with industry analysts.
However, consumers weren't the only ones snapping up RIM's smartphones. The unsung hero in the company's latest results was the continuing strong sales of Blackberry handsets to enterprises, which currently account for 30 percent of the company's handset shipments. "RIM's results are indicative that in the business environment the overall demand for smartphones is still pretty good," said Lisa Pierce, an independent wireless industry analyst.
Pierce attributed the continuing robust business demand for Blackberry handsets and other smartphones in part to enterprise decisions made last year before the economic downturn became readily apparent. "Certainly in the corporate world a lot of the sales activity in the first quarter was the result of purchasing decisions that companies made last year," Pierce noted.
However, Pierce also thinks that smartphone sales to businesses have remained robust because many enterprises see the merit in moving to corporate mobile policies, and that's not expected to change any time soon. "If you are buying, say, a thousand devices, then it is cheaper to use them under a corporate-liable contract than as individual-liable devices," Pierce said. "The move to corporate-liable plans is...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Microsoft Claims Netbook OS Dominance as Linux Lags
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65787
In the growing netbook market, where it once lagged well behind its open-source competition, Microsoft is now proclaiming operating-system dominance.
According to the NPD Group, the growth of Windows on netbook PCs has skyrocketed over the past year. Microsoft has grown Windows' netbook market share from less than 10 percent in the first half of 2008 to a whopping 96 percent as of February 2009.
"It's hard to believe it's been a year since we first started to see netbook PCs running Windows come to market," said Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's Windows blogger. "Little did we know that these devices would evolve so much in such a short time. A year ago, they were Internet-centric devices defined mainly by their tiny size and low cost. An interesting concept perhaps, but sales didn't really take off until the category evolved into the more capable small notebook PCs we see on the market today."
Early netbook models were Internet-centric, with a seven-inch screen, a small keyboard and slow processors. This early generation offered 512MB of RAM -- or less -- and up to 4GB of solid-state storage at most. Today's netbooks are far more powerful, with nine- or 10-inch screens, near full-sized keyboards, 1GB of RAM and up to 16GB of storage.
"Initially, some in the industry viewed low-cost netbook PCs as a new challenge for Microsoft and an opportunity for Linux to make inroads in the consumer market. Some believed consumers wouldn't want or need their netbook PC to be a full-featured PC," LeBlanc said, noting that the opposite is true.
Not only are people overwhelmingly buying Windows netbooks, but LeBlanc said those who try Linux netbooks are often returning them. He points to public reports from netbook manufacturers and Linux distributors that reveal a Linux return rate that is four times higher...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Twitter Cofounder Not Surprised By Acquisition Rumors
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65786
There are a lot of people tweeting on speculation that Internet search giant Google might add Twitter to its lengthy list of acquisitions, and Twitter has finally responded. While Twitter cofounder Biz Stone wouldn't say much Friday about the rumors, he did say the rumors shouldn't be surprising.
"It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects," Stone said. "Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company, and we're just getting started.
"A Twitter-Google merger has been speculated on for quite some time, along with Twitter/Microsoft and Twitter/Yahoo mergers as well," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret. "At the moment, it's all still rumor and even the source of the original rumor has toned down the likelihood quite a bit."
Google hasn't been shy about acquiring both small and larger businesses since its start in 2001 and has acquired 53 companies, including DodgeBall, Zingku and Jaiku, all for Google Mobile services.
DodgeBall, a SMS social-networking service, was acquired by Google in 2005. It was not too long after Google acquired the company that its founder, Dennis Crowley, and founding employee Alex Rainert left Google.
The duo blogged about their disappointment with Google and its lack of support for DodgeBall. In his posting announcing his departure, Crowley said he was frustrated by his experience at Google because he couldn't convince Google that DodgeBall was worth the engineering resources.
Crowley added that it was even more frustrating watching other startups innovate in the mobile and social space.
Not long after that, Jaiku and Zingku were acquired by Google. Both companies have services similar to Twitter.
Zingku, acquired by Google in September 2007, was aimed at people in their 20s and allowed users to send standard text and...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
T-Mobile Reported Developing New Android Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65785
Android, Google's open-source operating system for mobile devices, is beginning to spread to other devices. According to a report in Sunday's New York Times, T-Mobile is planning to take the lead in that migration, rolling out Android on a variety of new consumer devices.
In the first wave, T-Mobile, which released the first Android-based phone last summer, is said to be planning an Android-based tablet computer and a home phone. A docking station will enable the user to synchronize data on the T-Mobile G1 smartphone as well as recharge it. The tablet computer will reportedly have a seven-inch touchscreen, but no physical keyboard.
The Times attributed its information to "confidential documents obtained from one of the company's partners." T-Mobile has declined to comment.
Android has begun to attract more attention from manufacturers in recent months, with a variety of carriers saying they will release Android-based phones sometime this year. The current list includes Samsung, Sprint and Motorola.
Major carriers, with T-Mobile among them, are developing products that go beyond phones to include various, other home- and business-based devices -- and Android provides a open platform to do so. Besides phones, these devices could include cameras, digital photo frames, home-based hubs, and small, mobile computers.
AT&T, for instance, recently announced it would offer netbooks at the ground-breaking price of $50 for customers who sign two-year contracts. And there are reports that PC makers, like Hewlett-Packard and ASUSTeK, are considering using Android for new netbooks.
"The fact that Android is open source gives manufacturers a lot of flexibility" on how to use it, noted Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at NPD Group.
But, Rubin pointed out, the applications that are being developed for Android are designed mostly for the functionality, interface and screen size of a small portable device like...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Sun Pulls a Yahoo and Rejects IBM's $7 Billion Offer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65784
On Friday, IBM and Sun Microsystems were rumored close to an acquisition deal. By Sunday, talks between the technology rivals appeared stalled.
IBM reportedly offered about $7 billion, or $9.40 a share, to acquire Sun and all its intellectual property. But according to The Wall Street Journal, merger negotiations between Big Blue and Sun have significantly deteriorated.
Sun's board rejected IBM's formal acquisition offer Saturday and sent a notice terminating Sun's agreement to negotiate exclusively with IBM, according to the Journal. IBM countered by withdrawing its offer to buy Sun. Some news reports suggest company advisers are still keeping lines of communication open.
The rejection was reminiscent of Yahoo's rejection of Microsoft's takeover offer last year. After much criticism and a market that pounded its stock, Yahoo reversed course, only to find Microsoft no longer interested in buying all of the company.
Sun's board reportedly divided on the possibility of becoming an IBM brand. Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman and cofounder, led a group of board members who opposed the offer while Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz led a group that was in favor of the deal, according to the Journal.
IBM's offer of about $9.40 a share is down from $10 reported earlier, but it still represents a near-100 percent premium on Sun's value before the acquisition rumors began in March. So why did the deal deteriorate? Some speculate that it wasn't merely about the financial aspects of the deal, but rather the terms of the negotiations.
According to news reports, Sun felt the proposed deal gave IBM too much room to walk away from the agreement. IBM disagreed, noting that the proposed language suggested it was committed to finalizing the acquisition. Sun saw the fallout on Wall Street on Monday with its stock down nearly 30 percent.
Analysts have pegged IBM...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Google To Invest in Startups Through New Venture Unit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65753
Google, which has invested in many startups over the years, was expected to announce [that] it was creating a venture capital arm whose main objective would be to turn a profit.
p
The group, called Google Ventures, is expected to invest up to $100 million over the next 12 months. It will be overseen by David Drummond, who will continue in his role as senior vice president of corporate developing and chief legal officer at Google. Investments would be vetted by William Maris, who joined Google about a year ago, and Rich Miner, a co-founder of Android, a mobile software startup that Google acquired in 2005.
p
Mr. Maris said during an interview that Google would tap the connections of its employees and its ties to the venture capital world to find promising start-ups in areas like the Internet, clean technology and life sciences.
p
Many other companies have set up venture capital units. But those groups typically have dual missions of profiting from investments and advancing their parent company's strategic goals, and their track record has been mixed.
p
The venture unit comes as Google is rethinking the mission of Google.org, its corporate philanthropy, which has invested in areas like clean energy. Some of those investments will now be made by the venture unit.
p
A lot of the things we have done in the energy area are the kinds of things you might see from Google Ventures, Mr. Drummond said. He said that Google's corporate development arm would continue to make other investments.
p
Google Ventures has already made two investments: Silver Spring Networks, a company that makes technology to help manage electric grids, and Pixazza, which links online images with related products that can be purchased. Google declined to say how much it invested in those companies.
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Intel, GE To Spend $250 Million on Health Products
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65752
Intel Corp. and General Electric Co. are jointly investing $250 million over the next five years to develop personalized home health care devices.
p
The companies envision products that will cut health care costs and help aging baby boomers and people with chronic illnesses remain in their homes by allowing doctors to monitor patients remotely.
p
Announcing the agreement Thursday, Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini and GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt said their cooperation will help them jump quickly into a market they estimate will grow to $7.7 billion by 2012, from $3 billion this year.
p
The investment is one of four or five big bets that Intel, the computer chip maker, is making outside of PCs, Otellini said.
p
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has been developing health care products for the past four years, part of a long-running -- though sometimes halting -- effort to expand meaningfully into other areas. It has already introduced the Intel Health Guide, a home computer that monitors vital signs and allows doctors to communicate with patients over the Internet.
p
The new investment is tiny compared to Intel's multibillion-dollar research and development budget, American Technology Research analyst Doug Freedman said. But he expressed some optimism about Intel's ability to grow beyond PCs.
p
I wouldn't put them in the camp of, `They failed before so they're going to fail again,' he said.
p
Fairfield, Conn.-based GE, which is taking over marketing and distribution of Intel's Health Guide, has its own health care products as well. The company's GE Quiet Care system monitors patients' vital signs remotely using electronic sensors.
p
Intel shares rose 67 cents, 4.5 percent, to close at $15.70 as the broader market also posted big gains. GE shares rose 57 cents, 5.6 percent, to $10.74.
Tue, 7 Apr 09
On New Cell Phones, QWERTY Eases Out 1-2-3
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65750
Goodbye, numeric cell phone keypads. You're going the way of the rotary dial. Touch screens and QWERTY keyboards will take over from here, thank you.
p
At North America's largest cell phone trade show, running this week in Las Vegas, there were few new phones for the U.S. market that had a numerical keypad instead of an alphabetic keyboard. Touch screens also were out in force.
p
These changes are a recognition of the popularity of text messaging and wireless Internet use. Industry organization CTIA Wireless, which hosts the show, said U.S. subscribers sent 1 trillion text messages last year, three times the 2007 volume. Meanwhile, the same people used 2.2 trillion minutes of voice calls, an increase of less than 5 percent.
p
This shift in how people use their mobile devices has overturned cell phone design. According to NPD Group, 31 percent of phones sold in U.S. stores in the fourth quarter of 2008 had full-alphabet keyboards, up from 5 percent two years earlier.
p
ATT Inc., the second-largest wireless carrier after Verizon Wireless, introduced six phones this week, all of which had either a touch screen, a typewriter-style keyboard, or both. At the booth of Samsung Electronics Co., the largest seller of phones in the U.S., there were no new keypad phones.
p
Motorola Inc., the largest domestic maker of phones, was showing off one low-end handset with a keypad. It went on sale through ATT two weeks ago. But Motorola's big news was a model called the Evoke, which has a touch screen. It's designed for the U.S. market, though it doesn't have a carrier distribution agreement yet.
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LG Electronics Inc. displayed a new handset, the GD900, that seemed to both emphasize a numeric keypad and make it vanish. A pad slides out from the GD900's body, but it's made of transparent plastic, so you can see...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Salesforce.Com's Service Cloud
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65711
Salesforce.com (www.salesforce.com) has lifted customer service, including technical support, literally to the next level, in the cloud. It has rolled in the Service Cloud: which combines live agent voice, e-mail, and chat customer interactions with social networks and communities and with hosted knowledge solutions to provide coherent, effective, and lower cost service and support.
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Built on Salesforce's the Force.com platform, the Service Cloud brings together cloud computing platforms like Google, Facebook, and Amazon.com to capture every conversation and leverage every community expert within them. Force.com provides the necessary building blocks to quickly build and run business applications including database, workflow, logic, integration, customization, mobile, and user interface capabilities.
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Contact center agents and support reps will use the Service Cloud as a community/social network informal presence tool by quickly reaching out to experts in these communities and sites that will be created, defined, and limited by their organizations. Through these companies will be able to funnel this information directly into their knowledge bases. The Service Cloud ensures that they will have the most up to date support information sourced from community experts.
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subhead
Key Features and Components
/subhead
p
Salesforce.com's Service Cloud includes the following features and components:
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* Presence capabilities for contact center agents, enabling them to seek and obtain assistance from available experts
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* Tools to create an internal online active community within and adjacent to your organization, such as remote agents, suppliers, and partners
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* Ability to reach out to community/social networks, ensuring that the quality of customer service is consistent across every channel. Organizations can define the size, scope, and members of their communities
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* Hosted easily updatable knowledge bases within your firm or with password access your network
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* Google search built-in
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* Force.com development tool
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subhead
System Requirements
/subhead
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Must be Salesforce.com customer.
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subhead
Pricing
/subhead
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The Service Cloud packages start at $995 per month, which includes creating a customer community with unlimited usage for...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Rx for the Downturn: Better Marketing, Customer Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65708
One would think that in a marketplace that is being buffeted by the nastiest economic downturn in years and by a shift in customers' attitudes from passive respondents to becoming active, empowered participants, that companies would step up their marketing, backed up by strong customer service. Yet there is unfortunately evidence to the contrary. And companies that fail to get the word out and do not deliver effective service risk failing, period.
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The most amazing statement I have heard in my career -- and I am hearing it frequently these days is -- we are waiting for sales to pick up so we can start marketing, wrote TMC Group Publisher Rich Tehrani in his blog. This is the equivalent of going to the fireplace and telling it you are waiting for it to produce heat before you put a log in. This is obviously lunacy... Marketing to your potential customers is what allows your sales to begin with. You can't increase sales without increased PR and/or marketing.
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Alas a new report by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council reveals that a majority of senior marketers admit their companies are failing to take decisive, company-wide action to integrate customer voice and experience into key business and marketing processes.
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The study, Giving Customer Voice More Volume, reported that 56 percent of over 400 executives surveyed said their companies have no programs in place to track or propagate positive word of mouth among customers. In addition, only 30 percent said their companies rate highly in their ability handle and resolve customer problems or complaints. A surprising 59 percent of said their firms do not compensate employees or executives based on customer loyalty, satisfaction improvements or analytics.
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The report, sponsored by Satmetrix, also revealed that two-thirds of companies do not have 'voice of customer programs in place...
Tue, 7 Apr 09
Getting Satisfaction from SaaS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65706
Software as a Service (SaaS), also known as hosted solutions or cloud computing, is fast becoming a very popular method of delivering an increasingly wider range of contact center applications, as an alternative to premises licenses and thin-clients. We approached a wide several leading firms on the benefits and issues with SaaS in the contact center. Here the answers, in whole and excerpted.
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subhead
Enkata (www.enkata.com)
/subhead
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Liz Amarai, Senior Director of Product Marketing
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There are a couple of reasons that customers are becoming fans of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. For Enkata's customers, the choice was made because it involved minimal IT involvement, faster implementation and the ability to incrementally scale. Enkata's customers also preferred the lower up-front outlay of an annual subscription versus the traditional license/maintenance model. Additionally, the lower total cost of ownership is also a big plus.
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The lines are blurred every day. It used to be that companies wouldn't consider any mission-critical applications in a SaaS model, but applications like Salesforce.com really broke that barrier. Today, Enkata see customers choosing to adopt SaaS offerings even for core infrastructure, such as telephony. The only applications that would not work as a SaaS offering are those that are completely proprietary to a company or require unusual customization. However, flexible, user-oriented applications like contact center performance management and analytics are a perfect fit for SaaS, because they take the burden off the overworked IT departments while helping customers solve challenging business problems.
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SaaS-suitable solutions are definitely a growth area in the software arena. Technology, hosting and security standards have evolved to the point that all types of applications are being offered in a SaaS model.
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Almost everyone (with one or two notable exceptions) is now offering a SaaS alternative. We wouldn't expect traditional premises- based solutions to disappear completely, but whole product lines are now being offered...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
IBM Reported Ready To Acquire Sun for $7 Billion
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65758
Google may not be buying Twitter, but IBM may be closing in on its rumored Sun Microsystems acquisition for about $7 billion. The companies have reportedly been in negotiations for several weeks on a deal that would propel IBM into the lead in the Unix market.
The New York Times cited people familiar with the matter as saying IBM is willing to pay $9.50 a share. That's down from $10 reported earlier and a near-100 percent premium on Sun's value before the acquisition rumors began in March.
If IBM acquires Sun, it will inherit a large software portfolio from a former rival that includes the Solaris operating system, the open-source MySQL database, the Java programming language, and SPARC chips. Sun is also a market leader in server sales.
The IBM-Sun deal would be an unusual merger, according to Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions. In fact, he added, merger may not be the right word. He called it a "fire sale acquisition" of a company whose time ran out in the midst of an economic downturn.
"IBM is really looking at the equivalent of a rummage sale. IBM will pick over the parts, keep the ones that make some sense, and discard the others," Gardner said. "From IBM's perspective, the combination of removing competition and gathering market share and products probably adds up to the aggregate $4.3 billion that they will be paying."
Although the acquisition cost that's being reported is about $7 billion, if you subtract Sun's $2.7 billion in assets, Big Blue would only pay about $4 billion. Given the amount of cash IBM has on hand, along with its $100 billion in annual revenues, the company isn't looking at any debt obligations.
"If this acquisition happens, it's a rather sad outcome for Sun. Over its illustrious...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
FCC Asked To Apply Open Internet Rule To Skype
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65757
The Free Press has asked the Federal Communications Commission to confirm that all U.S. wireless networks must adhere to the same open Internet policy as landline networks. The policy gives consumers the right to access all online content.
The nonprofit media-policy watchdog said recent statements from AT&T strongly suggest the wireless carrier, in cooperation with Apple, is blocking the use of Skype's VoIP application on the iPhone. Free Press also said applications which would allow the tethering of the Android-based T-Mobile G1 phone are not available to T-Mobile customers on Google's Android Marketplace.
"The Internet in your pocket should be just as free and open as the Internet in your home," said Free Press Policy Counsel Chris Riley. "The FCC must make it crystal-clear that a closed Internet will not be tolerated on any platform."
When it comes to forcing broadband operators to open their networks, the Free Press is no novice. Together with Public Knowledge, the media-policy watchdog filed a successful complaint with the FCC against broadband service provider Comcast last year.
Former FCC Chairman Keven Martin subsequently compared Comcast's suppression of BitTorrent P2P traffic to post office employees opening an individual's mail, deciding they didn't want to bother delivering it, and hiding that fact by sending it back stamped "Address unknown -- return to sender."
"Unfortunately, that is exactly what Comcast was doing with their subscribers' Internet traffic," Martin said last August. "Subscribers should be able to go where they want, when they want, and generally use the Internet in any legal means."
Now the Free Press is asking acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps -- who sided with Martin in last year's Comcast decision -- to inform AT&T and other U.S. wireless operators that they cannot adopt discriminating terms of service prohibiting the use of certain applications.
"As more and...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
Swedish Internet Traffic Plunges with New Piracy Law
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65756
A law enacted in Sweden similar to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act has nearly halved Internet traffic in Sweden.
Just two days after the European Union's Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive was put into effect as a law in Sweden, Internet traffic sank more than 40 percent, according to the Netnod Internet Exchange, which measures Internet traffic.
The new law requires Internet service providers to disclose the Internet Protocol (IP) address of users committing copyright infringement to the holders of the copyright. The copyright holder can get a court order forcing ISPs to provide the necessary information.
Henrik Pontén of the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau said he welcomed the decrease in Internet traffic, saying it's a sign that file sharers are pulling back on swapping for fear of getting caught. There's no other explanation for it, he told the Associated Press.
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In the United States, some copyright holders, including the Recording Industry of America Association, are asking ISPs to send copyright offenders a letter warning about copyright infringement.
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subheadDirective Criticized/subhead
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Peer-to-peer file sharing has become an issue in Sweden with Statistics Sweden reporting that eight percent of the population uses P2P. Companies such as Sweden's The Pirate Bay make the battle between copyright holders and online pirates tougher.
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The Institute for Policy Innovation said global music piracy causes yearly losses of $12.5 billion in revenue, 71,060 U.S. jobs, $2.7 billion in worker earnings, and $422 million in tax payments.
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Some ISPs are criticizing the new law and say it puts Sweden's position as a leader in online technologies at risk.
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Half the Internet is gone. If this pattern keeps up, it means the extensive broadband network we've built will lose its significance, Jon Karlung, chief executive of Banhof, a Swedish ISP, told the Associated Press.
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ISPs in the United States are also trying to find a...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
British Villagers Chase Away Google's Street Views Car
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65744
It may take more than a village to scare away Internet search behemoth Google. This week, Google employees were met by angry citizens in the village of Broughton Buckinghamshire, England, when they began photographing homes.
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Villagers in the upscale U.K. town chased away a car used by Google to collect images and data for its Street View service.
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Google's Street View, initially launched in 2007, is a combination of Google Maps and Google Earth that gives users both horizontal and vertical panoramic views of streets in various cities. Since its launch Google has also added the service to its Maps application on Apple's iPhone and to the Microsoft Windows Mobile version of Google Maps.
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Street View photos are taken by a fleet of cars in several countries, including Japan, Italy, France and, just this month, the Netherlands and the U.K. London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast, Amsterdam and Rotterdam are some of the cities that have been added to Street View.
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Google captures images by mounting a camera on its cars. In the United States, Google uses Chevrolet Cobalts, and in the United Kingdom it uses Vauxhall Astras. When an area cannot be accessed by car, Google uses bikes.
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subheadPrivacy vs. Interest/subhead
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Since its launch, Google's Street View service has been met with complaints of privacy. Views have been found to show individuals picking up prostitutes and leaving strip clubs, sunbathers in bikinis, and protesters at abortion clinics.
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While Google maintains that all the views are taken in public areas, some people don't want their activities to be seen publicly. Google has received hundreds of requests to remove images, and the company said it has complied.
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Blurring technology and operational controls like image removal are among the ways in which we ensure that an individual's privacy is respected, Google says on its Web site. We...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
Reports Indicate Google Won't Buy Booming Twitter
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65743
Is Google going to buy Twitter, or not? That's what social networkers are tweeting, commenting and otherwise buzzing about this Friday.
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Twitter is a service that lets users stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one question: What are you doing? It's a real-time messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices, including PCs and smartphones. And Facebook would reportedly love to add it to its social-networking services.
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In February, Google's debut on Twitter launched speculation that the search giant might be looking to acquire the micro-blogging service. Those rumors died down, only to be rekindled again by TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington, who cited two separate people close to the negotiations saying Google is in late-stage negotiations to acquire Twitter.
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subhead
Facebook Rejected
/subhead
p
Twitter has already rejected an all-stock acquisition offer from Facebook. Despite a recently inked ExecTweets deal with Microsoft, Twitter isn't reporting any revenue yet. The two-year-old company is still building its user base, yet the darling of Silicon Valley has reportedly been valued at $500 million.
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Twitter plans to become a successful, revenue-generating company that attracts world-class talent with an inspiring culture and attitude toward doing business. But contradictory news reports suggest Google is not in late-stage talks to acquire Twitter after all. Rather, it seems the two companies entered product-related discussions around real-time search in recent weeks.
p
Still, Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said Twitter would make a smart acquisition for either Google or Microsoft. Few Internet companies rise to this level of visibility with such an interesting range of potential future options, he said. Indisputably, Twitter is the hottest company around right now -- hotter than Facebook, though with a tiny fraction of the social network's users.
p
There are ways in which Twitter has already emerged as a more potentially successful marketing and CRM tool than...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
Texas Tells Microsoft's Vista To Mosey on Out of Town
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65742
Texas government shouldn't be Vista country, according to its state Senate. That legislative body approved earlier this week a rider to the state budget that would prevent governmental agencies from using the Microsoft Vista operating system without approval from a legislative board.
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Democratic Sen. Juan Hinojosa, who serves as vice chairman of the state Senate's Finance Committee, proposed the rider. He told the Senate that there were many reports of problems with Vista.
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subhead
Not 'Trying to Pick on Microsoft'
/subhead
p
Speaking in the debate about his rider, Hinojosa said we are not in any way, shape or form trying to pick on Microsoft, but the problems with the particular system are known nationwide. He added that Microsoft's older but popular operating system still works very well.
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According to his rider, agencies must receive written approval from the Legislative Budget Board before buying any licenses for Vista, or before purchasing any PCs in which Vista is installed.
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In reply, Microsoft has told news media it was surprised that the Texas Senate would agree to a proposal that singles out a specific corporation and product for unequal treatment. The company also noted it has 1,500 employees in Texas and has opened a major data center in the state.
p
This kind of public relations could be devastating to Microsoft at it tries to keep selling Vista on the way to its newer Windows 7 operating system, according to Laura DiDio, an analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corps.
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But, she added, this isn't quite the giant boulder running after Indiana Jones, threatening to wipe out the protagonist. She noted that the biggest issues with Vista have been compatibility problems with older applications and peripherals, and Microsoft has made an effort to address those.
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subhead
Moving Up Windows 7?
/subhead
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The takeaway for some who hear of this action, she said, could be that...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
Review: IE8 Features Good, But No Need To Switch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65732
I procrastinated for nearly two weeks before installing Microsoft Corp.'s new Web browser.
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I'd been happy using rival products like Firefox and Chrome at work and Flock at home, and habits are hard to break, even though version eight of Internet Explorer, or IE8, has several promising features.
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In essence, all browsers have gotten so good at delivering the basics that I find little reason to change. The frills are what sets each browser apart, but getting unique offerings in one means giving up features in another. However thrilling IE8's new offerings may be, I'm not ready to give up Flock, Firefox or Chrome just yet.
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Still, Microsoft should be applauded for trying.
p
Most notable in Microsoft's free, Windows-only browser are tools called Accelerators, which are designed to better mirror how people use the Web these days. Accelerators help you share content and blend services from various sites.
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You can install Accelerators written by Microsoft, Yahoo Inc., Google Inc., Facebook or any developer that wants to participate -- no one needs permission from Microsoft.
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With a mapping Accelerator, I simply right-click on an address to launch an online map from Microsoft, Yahoo or Google. With a dictionary Accelerator, I right-click on a word to get the definition from Dictionary.com, Urban Dictionary or Microsoft's search engine.
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There are Accelerators for e-mail, news stories, currency conversions, eBay auctions, searching through Facebook friends and more. This week I counted more than 110 available through Microsoft's Add-ons Gallery.
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I can save a lot of time by not having to constantly copy and paste text from online stories into Gmail when I want to e-mail the tidbits to friends. I simply highlight a few paragraphs and right-click on the Gmail Accelerator. Those paragraphs and a link to the full story automatically get added to the message. Accelerators are also available for e-mail services...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
ATT To Try Selling Wireless Broadband Laptops
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65731
ATT Inc. is going to go beyond cell phones and test selling laptops in its stores in Atlanta and Philadelphia.
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The move, announced Wednesday at a trade show in Las Vegas, comes as the cell phone market is starting to saturate, and wireless carriers are looking for ways to expand into other gadgets.
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Just as it does with cell phones, the phone company will subsidize the price of laptops when the customer signs a two-year contract. In Atlanta, customers will be able to buy a small netbook-type laptop for $50 if they sign up for home and wireless broadband service plans totaling at least $60 per month.
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That offer is being tested only in Atlanta -- ATT doesn't sell home broadband service in the Philadelphia area. For those signing up for wireless broadband only, the netbook costs $100.
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ATT stores in both Atlanta and Philadelphia will be selling more expensive laptops as well, ranging up to a Lenovo X200 for $850 when bought with wireless broadband. Lenovo Group Ltd. sells it for $1,120.
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Dallas-based ATT started subsidizing netbooks sold at RadioShack Corp. stores late last year, bringing the price to $100, down from $500, for buyers who signed up for wireless broadband.
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It isn't the first time Internet service providers have subsidized computers: Around 2000, many of them provided $400 discounts for people who signed up for dial-up service. In Europe, it's already common for phone companies to subsidize computers with wireless access.
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Verizon Wireless, the country's largest cellular carrier, also plans to subsidize laptops. Lowell McAdam, the carrier's chief executive, said Wednesday that it would consider selling them in its own stores if customers want the level of service we can provide at retail.
Sat, 4 Apr 09
Verizon Wireless Sees Kindle-Type E-Readers Coming
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65729
Amazon's Kindle might soon be getting new competitors in the market for electronic-book devices.
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Tony Lewis, who heads an initiative within Verizon Wireless to provide access to non-phone devices, said Wednesday that five companies have approached Verizon about wireless connections for e-readers.
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You're going to see a lot of e-readers out there, Lewis said. The interest level is tremendous.
p
Lewis wouldn't say which manufacturers Verizon has been talking to. But he hinted that they are looking at entering parts of the e-book market that the Kindle doesn't focus on, like college textbooks.
p
Amazon.com Inc. launched the second version of the Kindle a month ago. It uses Sprint Nextel Corp.'s wireless network to provide near-instant access to a store with 100,000 books.
p
So far, the Kindle's main competitor has been Sony Corp.'s Reader. It has the same type of screen, meant to imitate the look of paper, but lacks wireless access. Instead, books are loaded by connecting the device to a computer.
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We'd love to have Sony on there, Lewis said, refusing to confirm if the company had been in touch. He spoke at a cell phone trade show that started Wednesday in Las Vegas.
p
ATT Inc., the second largest wireless carrier after Verizon Wireless, has also been talking to e-reader manufacturers, said Ralph de la Vega, the company's head of consumer services. Since ATT's network is more similar to ones used overseas, it could support international e-book readers, he noted. The Kindle can download books only in the U.S.
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Just like Verizon Wireless, ATT is looking for ways to expand the uses of its wireless network beyond cell phones to generate additional revenue.
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Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
Sat, 4 Apr 09
Apple's iPhone, an Indian Flop, Prepares for China
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65725
Take the most talked-about phone in recent history and launch it in one of the fastest growing cell-phone markets in the world, and you'd expect fireworks. But in India, where carriers Vodafone and Bharti Airtel have been offering Apple's iPhone since last August, unsold phones are stacking up at shops around the country. Apple won't break down sales figures by country, but a senior Airtel executive confirms analyst estimates that total official iPhone sales here have yet to touch 20,000 handsets. Vodafone, which has a lower-key advertising campaign, has sold even fewer, the analysts estimate. Even including sales on the black market, where the phone sells for half the $700 sticker price, the total only increases by an additional 15,000, according to an Indian customs official. That's puny, especially since Indian cell-phone providers have added nearly 20 million new customers since the iPhone's launch last year.
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What has gone wrong for Apple in India? Nearly two years after the phone officially went on sale in the U.S., Apple's failure to gain a foothold in India's lucrative [market] may hold lessons for its upcoming iPhone push into China. As the global recession hurts growth in the U.S. and other mature markets, Apple could use some success in these still-growing Asian giants. Sales are already slowing worldwide: The company says it has sold 30 million iPhone and iPod Touch units since their launch. On Mar. 5, JPMorgan Chase analyst Mark Moskowitz cut his estimates for iPhone sales to 3.41 million for the January-March financial quarter, down from almost 3.85 million. [Our] primary research contacts suggest that Mac and iPhone volumes had been trending below our prior expectations, Moskowitz wrote in a note to clients.
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In India, Apple has run up against some big obstacles. For instance, it has to fight against Nokia, a longtime...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
Skype's iPhone Limits Irk Some
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65723
Apple's unique treatment of the new Skype Internet calling feature on the iPhone -- the free app works only on Wi-Fi, not the cellular or 3G network -- is raising concern among public-policy makers and consumer advocates.
p
They say it's a clear example of ATT, the sole carrier of the iPhone in the U.S., trying to handicap a direct competitor.
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Consumers will pay the price for ATT's blocking, says Chris Murray, senior counsel to Consumers Union. By using Skype on the iPhone, consumers can sidestep ATT, allowing them to get by, potentially, with cheaper voice plans that offer fewer minutes. Consumers can also save a bundle on international calls.
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Technically, the limitation on Skype and other Internet phone companies is imposed by Apple, which has similar arrangements with other carriers.
p
Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock says the company has always said that Internet phone applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch would be limited to Wi-Fi but declined to elaborate.
p
Jim Cicconi, ATT's top public policy executive, says ATT has every right not to promote the services of a wireless rival.
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We absolutely expect our vendors -- Apple, in this case -- not to facilitate the services of our competitors, he says.
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Skype is a competitor, just like Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile, he says, adding, Skype has no obligation to market ATT services. Why should the reverse be true?
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Murray says logic like that highlights the urgent need for Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to clarify that the wireless Internet will be open just like the regular Internet. Unlike the land-line business, wireless is largely unregulated. The loophole owes to the origins of wireless, which began decades ago as a high-end business service.
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Now that millions of consumers are cutting the cord and going wireless, it may be time to revisit some of those rules, says acting FCC...
Sat, 4 Apr 09
Samsung's Memoir Sports a First-Rate Camera
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65722
Even if you don't carry a fancy smartphone, the phone in your pocket more than likely doubles as a camera. Yet few people shop for a cell phone based on its ability to snap photos.
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T-Mobile is touting the imaging capabilities of the Samsung Memoir I've been testing. The recently arrived handset is billed as the first 8-megapixel camera-phone sold in the USA. It retails for $250 with a two-year contract. Sony Ericsson is on its heels with the C905 Cyber-shot 8-megapixel camera-phone -- but has yet to announce pricing, release date or carrier.
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Many factors contribute to image quality. So the importance of pixel counts is sometimes overrated by marketers. The Memoir, in theory, is in the company of a typical point-and-shoot. But in my view, it's not an ideal substitute.
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For a phone, Memoir's camera (which includes video) is first-rate, if at times frustrating. Many pictures I shot were quite good. Memoir has a Xenon flash, white balance and several scene and shooting modes -- including continuous, panorama and smile shot. The latter is a feature in which the camera is supposed to snap a picture only when your subject smiles. It worked sometimes, albeit slowly. Good luck getting your kids to pose. The camera's blink detection is supposed to warn you when your subject blinks. Yet I still got squinty pictures.
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Shutter lag, in general, is a problem for Memoir, resulting in some out-of-focus action shots.
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The camera aside, Memoir is a benchwarmer compared with other touch-screen smartphones, especially when it comes to such basics as e-mail and mobile Web browsing. The touch-screen was hard to master. Barely tapping some icons opens them; on some screens, you have to press and drag with authority to scroll.
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Let's zoom in for a closer look:
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The camera. You'd be hard-pressed to even recognize Memoir as a...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
German Telecom Bans Use of Skype on the iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65741
Just two days after announcing an application for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, Skype has hit a roadblock. On Thursday, Deutsche Telekom, a German wireless provider, banned use of the application on the iPhone and said anyone caught using it will face a contract suspension.
Skype, owned by eBay, has more than 405 million registered users who communicate for free by voice, video calls, and instant messages.
Deutsche Telekom, which has exclusive rights to the iPhone in Germany through its T-Mobile business, said iPhone contracts block Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls, which Skype uses. The blocking has been in the contracts since 2007, spokesperson Alexander von Schmettow told the Associated Press.
Schmettow said using the iPhone application, which offers free Skype-to-Skype calls and fee-based calls to mobile devices and landlines, could slow down T-Mobile's network.
Skype's legal counsel, Robert Miller, charged that Deutsche Telekom is using technology as an excuse to blatantly block Skype. He insisted the network is not slowed.
Nearly 24 hours after being made available, the free application had more than 600,000 downloads through Apple's App Store, according to Skype.
"What amazes me is that Skype is the number-one download on the App Store in Germany, and yet the country's dominant telecom operator, Deutsche Telekom, has already made it known that it would block the use of Skype on iPhone and BlackBerry, both for its mobile network customers and at its Wi-Fi hot spots," Miller wrote in a blog post.
"I find it quite telling that Deutsche Telekom would be so bold as to announce this arbitrary blocking of Skype," he said. "They pretend that their action has to do with technical concerns; this is baseless. Skype works perfectly well on iPhone, as hundreds of thousands of people globally can already readily attest."
"It underscores the tension as...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Senate Committee Ponders Cyber Security Bill
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65735
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is considering an Internet security bill. Cosponsored by Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the bill addresses potential threats to critical private-sector systems that could literally shut down our way of life, Rockefeller said.
"Our enemies are real, they are sophisticated, they are determined, and they will not rest," so "we must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs," he added.
Cyber security threats like those tackled on the TV series 24 by Agent Jack Bauer must seem over the top to some U.S. consumers, especially those who don't have PC security software. But Snowe thinks the vulnerability of critical U.S. infrastructure components -- including banking, utilities, transportation and telecommunications -- is "one of the most urgent national-security problems facing our country today."
Her concerns were recently echoed by Dennis Blair, U.S. director of national intelligence. Blair reminded reporters last week how the infrastructures of the breakaway Soviet republics Estonia, Latvia and Georgia were crippled by cyber attacks from Russia.
"I don't think the United States is at risk" right now because "we're too big, we're too complex, and we are working on the defenses," Blair said. "But as you look out to the future, unless we work hard on this we could be very vulnerable."
He added that it's difficult to know whether the attacks from Russia were government-sponsored or from other groups. "It takes a lot of manpower and intensive effort to sort that out because of the ability of the attack originators to go through multiple IPs and ISPs along the way," he said.
"We're working hard on being able to do that quicker and more accurately," Blair said. "It's a high priority, and we're not where we want to be yet."
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Motorola Shows LTE as Verizon Teases CTIA Show
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65734
Motorola used its spotlight at CTIA 2009 to debut its broadband technology Thursday. The mobile-phone maker presented its next-generation wireless broadband technology at the Las Vegas event held each year by the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunication Industry.
The 700-MHz Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology is based on a radio frequency with high efficiency and uses an all-IP architecture. LTE has gained attention because it has 10 times the capacity of today's technology and provides greater options to use streaming video, video conferencing, and 3-D maps while also costing less.
Motorola has been testing LTE with operators in North America, Asia and Europe; at some of its labs in China and North America; and will conduct trials at its recently opened lab in the United Kingdom. The company said it's on track to make available the first commercial release of its LTE solutions for 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz this year.
"Motorola has once again demonstrated the maturity of our LTE solution and our ability to quickly deploy a live mobile broadband network in a real-world environment," said Fred Wright, senior vice president for Motorola Home & Networks Mobility. "As demand for mobile broadband continues to grow, we're seeing great operator interest in LTE because it can deliver data at a lower cost per bit."
CTIA is not only a place to showcase new technology. For Verizon Wireless it was a place to tease the audience on what's next.
Speculation swirled after President and CEO Lowell McAdam talked about existing Verizon Wireless services, including Get It Now and V CAST, and the company put out a press release announcing "new mobile Web games" and "App Store."
The company also told reporters at the show that it has teamed up with Vodafone and SoftBank to create one platform for developers to use for mobile...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Apple Revises iPhone SDK To Block Rogue Stores
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65733
Apple has taken offense at rogue iPhone application stores that are selling unauthorized software.
To thwart the practice, Apple has changed the terms of the iPhone software developers kit (SDK) to make authoring content for rogue sites against the rules. That means developers who are selling apps on the App Store cannot sell those same apps at unauthorized venues.
The SDK clause reads: "Applications developed using the Apple Software may only be distributed if selected by Apple (in its sole discretion) for distribution via the App Store or for limited distribution on Registered Devices (ad hoc distribution) as contemplated in this Agreement."
Apple seems to be responding to the rash of rogue stores emerging in the iPhone application marketplace. A trio of startups recently moved to compete directly with Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. Perhaps the most well-known is the Cydia Store, which offers unofficial iPhone applications -- for a fee.
Cydia is an application installed as part of a software program that effectively jailbreaks, or modifies, the iPhone so it can run unauthorized software. Jailbreaking the device voids Apple's warranty. Nonetheless, there seem to be a grey market for iPhone apps that don't meet Apple's approval.
Another renegade company plans to sell adult games for the iPhone. And a third company launched a mobile software store and bills itself as "the only independent iPhone application" that lets users enjoy the full potential of their iPhone apps without restrictions from Apple.
Rogue stores like these demonstrate that there are a lot of developers writing code that Apple doesn't approve of and that other people want to buy, according to Mike Disabato, a senior analyst at The Burton Group. His suggestion: Maybe it's time for handset makers to understand that when people buy devices they should...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Palm Boosts webOS with SDK Access, Cloud Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65721
Palm's efforts to jump-start an ecosystem for its new webOS platform took another step forward Wednesday, when it expanded the release of its Mojo software development kit (SDK). The announcement at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco also included plans for integrating cloud services into the webOS platform, as well as the unveiling of an application that will allow legacy Palm OS programs to run on webOS devices.
Before the announcement, the Mojo SDK had been available only to a small group of developer partners, but now it will be provided to a wider group of developers who apply for access at the Palm Developer Network Web site. However, the company said access will continue to be limited as improvements are made, and a general release will be scheduled later this year.
Palm Senior Vice President Michael Abbott emphasized the importance of developers to the webOS ecosystem. With the SDK available to more developers, he added, "the enthusiasm for webOS will only grow and accelerate."
Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst at industry research firm Forrester, noted that an SDK is "only the first step" in getting developers actively creating applications for a new
platform like Palm's webOS. Other essential issues for developers, he noted, include "what the overall ecosystem looks like," what's the business model, how well the application store works, and whether the barrier to entry is reasonable.
Palm is emphasizing to developers that "webOS is a new kind of mobile platform." For instance, the company said, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are integrated into the architecture, applications can cache data locally and be readily customized, and the platform has true multitasking.
Part of the new ecology for the webOS is in the cloud, with a new branded cloud service that provides resources over the Internet. The Mojo SDK, in its...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Hackers Mistimed Conficker, But Threat Lingers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65720
It wasn't meant to be an April Fools' Day gag, but the Conficker worm had a lot of computer users hoping they wouldn't be the fool with an infected machine that malware authors could turn into a spam bot.
April 1 has gone and Conficker didn't cause a network meltdown. Security analysts are speculating on what will happen next, although none are certain. They are staying vigilant, as memories of the Melissa virus linger.
The Conficker worm, also know as Downadup, raced across the Internet in January with tricks to spread undetected. Millions of computers were infected in just a four-day period. There are several variants running wild and the latest, Conficker.C, has been activated but so far there is no new rash of infections.
The worm first appeared in late November, exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows to spread unhindered on local area networks. Its goal so far has been to install rogue software on infected computers. Microsoft issued a patch for the vulnerability, but users who haven't installed it are open to infection as the worm spreads through portable USB flash drives.
Despite the lack of any Conficker-induced apocalypse, users still need to be diligent, according to Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle. Conficker numbers may be down, he said, but it's still a significant threat. Even a few million infected systems could disrupt many e-commerce sites or send massive amounts of spam.
"Aside from the technology Conficker uses, the most interesting thing about it is that it hasn't done anything. It has not been used to send mass spam or launch a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack on Web sites. Conficker, for the most part, is sitting idle," Storms said.
Although some observers are blaming the media for creating what may be remembered as Conficker hysteria,...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Gartner Expects Global Tech Spending To Decline
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65693
Dragged down by the weak economy, global spending on technology products and services will likely decline nearly 4 percent this year, research firm Gartner Inc. said Tuesday.
Gartner expects a broad-based slowdown, leading to a 3.8 percent decline from 2008, to $3.2 trillion. Hardware will see the sharpest drop, nearly 15 percent compared with a 2.8 percent increase last year. Spending on software, which can help companies save money, is expected to stay nearly flat, rising less than half of 1 percent.
The latest forecast would be worse than the 2.1 percent decline in spending that the tech industry saw in 2001, after the dot-com bust.
Worldwide, companies are trimming their budgets, waiting longer to upgrade to newer computers, for example. And consumers squeezed by the recession are slashing their discretionary spending.
Gartner called its forecast bleak, and said government stimulus packages won't be enough to offset things soon. The research firm expects a "slow, prolonged recovery during 2010," said Richard Gordon, research vice president, and head of global forecasting at Gartner.
Also on Tuesday, Forrester Research Inc. lowered its forecast for U.S. tech spending because of the worsening economy. The research firm now expects U.S. business and government spending on technology products and services to fall by 3.1 percent this year, compared with its earlier forecast of 1.6 percent growth.
Forrester Analyst Andrew Bartels said that in some ways the credit crunch has hurt technology spending more than the recession.
"Companies are so afraid they won't be able to borrow if they need to (that) they are going through extreme lengths to preserve cash," he said.
Forrester expects growth in tech spending to resume in the fourth quarter of this year, and "gather strength" in 2010. Bartels said there is pent-up demand from companies that need to spend money on new technologies.
"Once the recession bottoms out, once...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Facebook CFO Gideon Yu Leaving Company
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65692
Facebook's finance chief, Gideon Yu, is leaving the fast-growing social-networking site as the company looks for a replacement with "public company experience."
It's the latest sign that the site may be looking to go public in the not-so-distant future, though the company has said it has no immediate plans for an initial public offering.
Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said Tuesday that Yu, 37, has played an important role in establishing the company's core financial operations. He became Facebook's CFO in July 2007 after stints with Yahoo Inc., Google Inc.'s YouTube and a venture-capital firm. At YouTube, Yu helped negotiate the site's sale to Google in a deal valued at $1.76 billion when it closed in 2006.
Facebook, which is nearing 200 million users worldwide, said that despite the recession it is pleased with its financial performance and that it's in a good position for its next stage of growth.
A person close to the matter, who asked not to be named because privately held Facebook typically does not disclose financial details, said the company is on track to grow its revenue by 70 percent this year. And Facebook expects to generate positive cash flow, an important measure of a company's financial health, by 2010.
The company has also been profitable by one measure -- earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA -- for the past five quarters.
It is not clear how much Facebook would be worth if it were to go public. In 2007, an investment by Microsoft Corp. implied a market value of $15 billion. Facebook has noted, however, that Microsoft's investment, which was for preferred stock, does not necessarily compare with what the company's common shares would be worth on the open market.
A court hearing last June revealed that Facebook's own appraisal had priced its privately held shares at $8.88 each,...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
New Applications Change How We Use Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65691
They tell us where to eat, how to find friends, when to make a left turn.
Oh, and they can also make a phone call.
An explosive proliferation of software applications -- and easy ways to get them, most notably through Apple's App Store -- is changing our relationship with mobile phones. The always-connected era is dawning. The cell phone is becoming more a companion than merely a means of one-on-one conversation.
"I can't live without it," said James London, a 19-year-old De Anza College freshman, cradling his iPhone. "It's like water or food."
Though Apple was the first company to create an easy and orderly way for developers to sell smart phone software, the rest of the industry is trying to catch up.
Owners of all the major mobile phone operating systems -- Research In Motion, Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian and Google's Android -- are gearing up online application stores. Independent app sites are also popping up, offering unauthorized software for the iPhone.
Soon, nearly every imaginable function of the office and home entertainment center will be delivered to the computers that fit our palms.
"I'm a big believer that the mobile phone will become the remote control of our lives," said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless industry analyst. "Anything that we touch and see and feel, and whomever we communicate with -- we will control that with our mobile phones."
Though the recession is slowing sales of so-called smart phones, futurists view app-packed mobile devices as the next tech tsunami to hit society and fundamentally change how people navigate life.
"It's a new category of activity," said veteran Silicon Valley forecaster Paul Saffo. "Voice (functions) are an afterthought."
Already people are using their smart phones to locate friends at nearby bars and restaurants or find a service station with cheap gas. They stream TV to their phones, update...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
eBay To Test eBay Bucks Shopping-Rewards Program
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65687
Shopping on eBay just got a bit more rewarding, at least for some users of the online auctioneer's site.
On Wednesday, eBay Inc. launched a "beta" test version of eBay Bucks, a program that lets participants earn a 2 percent reward on certain items they buy through the site and pay for using eBay's online payment service, PayPal. Rewards come quarterly as gift certificates, which can be used to buy other items through eBay within 30 days.
Unlike many other "beta" tests, this one is open by invitation only; eBay is randomly selecting buyers to enroll. Kurt Apen, head of eBay's loyalty marketing team, said the company will likely expand the program to everyone over the next several months.
The arrival of eBay Bucks marks the company's latest customer-retention move -- something the company is focusing on as it works to improve its online marketplace, at a time when consumers also have cut back on spending because of the dismal economy.
Other efforts eBay has undertaken include distributing coupons to users and offering discounts on referrals from Microsoft Corp.'s Live Search site.
Program participants will be able to earn up to $200 in eBay Bucks per item purchased on eBay and up to $500 per quarter. Because the reward rate is 2 percent, a $100 cell phone would earn $2 eBay Bucks, translating to $2 in gift certificates at the end of the quarter.
Apen said eBay Bucks users will be able to collect rewards on most types of items sold on the site, but real estate and many items sold through eBay Motors will be ineligible.
EBay, based in San Jose, Calif., initially tested eBay Bucks as a smaller pilot program last year. Changes since then include making it easier for users to redeem their rewards and allowing them to spread them out over various transactions....
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Time Warner Cable Expands Internet Usage Pricing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65685
Web users, the meter is running. In a strategy that's likely to rankle consumers but be copied by competitors, Time Warner Cable is pressing ahead with a plan to charge Internet customers based on how much Web data they consume. Starting next month, the company will introduce tiered pricing in several markets.
In April, Time Warner Cable will begin collecting information on its customers' Internet use in the Texas cities of Austin and San Antonio and in Rochester, N.Y. Consumption billing will begin in those cities later this summer. In Greensboro, N.C., the billing changes will begin sooner. Spun off from Time Warner this month, Time Warner Cable had been testing a plan to meter Internet usage in Beaumont, Tex., since last year.
By charging a premium to the heaviest broadband users, much the same way cell-phone providers collect fees from subscribers who exceed their allotted minutes, Time Warner would upend a longstanding pricing strategy among Internet service providers. Typically, phone and cable companies charge flat fees for unlimited access to the Web. "We need a viable model to be able to support the infrastructure of the broadband business," Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt says in an interview. "We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension." Time Warner Cable has 8.4 million broadband customers.
Consumer advocates and Web site owners say tiered Web-use pricing limits customer choice and could stifle innovation by crimping demand for high-bandwidth services such as online video and music. Cable and phone companies say they need flexibility in setting prices for use of large, expensive, heavily used broadband networks.
In the case of Time Warner Cable, customers will be charged from $29.95 to $54.90 a month, based on data consumption and desired connection speed. Customers will be charged...
Fri, 3 Apr 09
Online Backup Can Save Your Data if There's a Crash
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65663
You've heard the warnings: It's not if you'll lose vital data through some hard drive catastrophe but when. So backing up files is critical. As passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 have discovered, you may want to consider a backup service in the "cloud."
Few people suffer data loss in quite as harrowing a fashion as Bill Wiley. He was a second-row passenger on the plane that was famously forced to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River. The passengers all survived the crash, but Wiley still hasn't recovered the two computers he had on board, containing about 250 gigabytes of data from his employer, Computer Associates.
Wiley had been good about backing up files on the two computers by sharing the contents of one hard drive with the other. He also kept data on thumb drives. And he rarely traveled with both machines but had to in this case because of an assignment. "I had no idea how screwed I was about to be," he recalls.
Fellow passenger Paul Jorgensen was more fortunate, at least when it came to his computer. The night before the flight, Jorgensen backed up "a ton of data" on his IBM ThinkPad via a business account his employer had with the Mozy online backup service. Jorgensen works for Epocrates, a producer of medical software.
"Pretty quickly after I realized I was 100 percent safe (on the ferry), I realized I was going to be in pretty deep trouble without that laptop," says Jorgensen, who had been seated in the first row of the plane. "My life is in that laptop."
Within a day, Mozy sent him six DVDs with recovered data. "The accident was on a Thursday. By Monday, I was completely back up and running."
Mozy says it stores more than 10 petabytes of data (about 500 trillion...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Hewlett-Packard Evaluating Android for Future Products
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65719
Hewlett-Packard is embracing Android, sort of. The computer maker is considering the open-source operating system for future products.
HP said it hasn't announced any products that would use the Google-backed mobile platform, and spokesperson Marlene Somsak said the company is constantly evaluating systems.
"We want to assess the capability Android may have for the computer and communications industries, and so we are studying it," Somsak said in an e-mail. "HP wants to understand all the OS choices in the marketplace that may be used by its competitors, and remains open to considering various approaches to meet its own customer needs."
Somsak would not say if studying Android included testing it on netbooks. "HP is constantly evaluating ways to help solve customer challenges," she said. "With respect to if, how or when HP might introduce any Android-enabled platforms, we maintain a practice of declining to comment on products that may or may not be under way."
HP's OS choices today include Microsoft's Windows XP and Vista for the majority of its products, Windows Mobile for HP handhelds, and Linux for some computers.
Validation from HP could be exactly what Google needs to challenge Microsoft's dominant operating systems. And adding HP to the Android party would benefit both the platform and HP, according to analyst Michael Gartenberg.
"It is potentially a very big win for Android and it would validate Android as a platform beyond phone devices and, at the same time, give a big boost of support from HP," said Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "If HP would build and develop products around Android, it would be a big win for Google and the platform."
It could also mean more business for HP. The company has a third of the netbooks market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and a solid base...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Server Vendors Jump on Intel Xeon 5500 Bandwagon
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65704
A record number of server and workstation vendors are enthusiastically backing Intel's Xeon 5500 processor rollout, with the new chips already poised to launch in 230 different computing systems from Cisco, Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, NEC, Sun Microsystems, and other vendors.
For example, IBM is integrating Intel's Xeon 5500 processor in its latest System x servers and software, noted Adalio Sanchez, general manager of IBM System x.
"The world is going through changes that require IT professionals in every industry to consolidate, virtualize and support a variety of different platforms -- a mix of operating systems, hardware, middleware and applications" for which "there is no one-size-fits-all solution for most businesses," Sanchez said. "System x supports multiple architectures and is designed to lower ownership costs and enable new paradigms, such as cloud computing."
Big Blue claims its four new x86 rack servers and blades feature unique designs that can slash energy costs up to 93 percent while doubling the computing performance in some models. The new machines, which offer 96GB and 1TB memory options, also run new software with the ability to automatically manage virtual and physical assets across platforms.
Hewlett-Packard's Xeon-enabled ProLiant G6 server product line sports a collection of 32 smart sensors that automatically track thermal activity right across each machine. HP's "sea of sensors" dynamically adjusts system components such as fans, memory and input/output processing to optimize system cooling and increase efficiency.
What's more, HP's ProLiant G6 machines feature the ability to precisely identify the power requirements for each server in the data center and set an energy-consumption limit based on that usage. The new machines also give customers the option to choose from among four different supplies to best match power performance to specific workloads, which HP claims can achieve energy efficiencies of more than 92 percent...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Just Like Y2K, Conficker Fears Fail To Materialize
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65703
It may remind some of Y2K. At the turn of the century, clocks around the world struck midnight and none of the fearful predictions about computer networks shutting down happened.
Fast-forward about nine years and the hype about Conficker appears to have been overinflated -- at least so far. The media helped to spread Conficker doom and gloom over the past week as the world prepared for the malware authors to begin using a new algorithm to determine what domains to contact. That contact could set off a new rash of computer infections if vulnerable Windows operating systems have not been patched.
The Conficker worm, also know as Downadup, raced across the Internet in January with tricks to spread undetected. Millions of computers were infected in just a four-day period. There are several different variants running wild already and the latest variant, Conficker.C, is being studied by security researchers to determine what might happen next.
"I kept telling everyone to worry about being secure, not about Conficker. Some people listen, some don't. So what happened over about the past 24 hours?" asked Randy Abrams, ESET's director of technical education. "By about 2 p.m. GMT on April 1, of the top 20 threats encountered by our users in the past 24 hours, four out of five of them were not Conficker."
Specifically, about 16.17 percent of the threats were online-game password stealing threats. Another 21.5 percent were threats that were not Conficker and were trying to use Autorun to infect computers. Nearly 10 percent of the threats were something called Win32/Agent, which tries to steal data from a computer.
"Eighty percent of the risk was not Conficker, but 99 percent of the attention was on Conficker," Abrams said. "Does that make sense to you? Can you imagine crossing the street and ignoring...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Rackable Systems To Pay $25M for Silicon Graphics
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65702
Silicon Graphics, a developer of visualization, servers and storage products, will be acquired by Rackable Systems for $25 million.
Rackable Systems, a Freemont, Calif.-based provider of storage systems for data centers, said it will acquire almost all assets of Silicon Graphics with cash, but only conditionally. Rackable said it has dropped plans to purchase up to $40 million of the company's stock as it had previously announced.
"The way that we'll complete the combination will be a little unique, but given today's economic environment, this approach will give us the desired result in the shortest amount of time," Silicon Graphics CEO Robert "Bo" Ewald wrote to customers in a letter.
SGI, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., will have to meet certain conditions before the acquisition is completed, expected to be in 60 days.
Before Rackable can acquire SGI, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court must approve SGI's filing. SGI will go through a Section 363 process, which will allow Rackable to acquire SGI without assuming its debt.
SGI's international business will be part of the sale but is not part of the bankruptcy process. All 14 of SGI's subsidiaries, however, are part of the process.
Rackable is using the acquisition to increase its global-services business and help bring itself to profitability after five consecutive quarterly losses.
SGI has been struggling for some time and blames its problems on its last experience with bankruptcy protection, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In December, the company announced it would reduce its workforce by 15 percent, or 225 positions. The cuts, which included several executive and senior-level positions, were expected to take place in the first half of 2009.
In its latest petition for Chapter 11 protection, SGI reported $390.5 million in assets and $526.5 million in debt.
The proposed acquisition is expected to turn both companies around.
"The combined company will be...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Google Continues April Fools' Day Tradition with CADIE
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65701
April Fools' Day is to Google as Christmas is to Macy's -- the day it was made for. On each first day of April, Google increasingly shows that the company devoted to organizing the world's information is also devoted to spoofing the world's information.
This year, Google is in full gear. To begin the party, its search page has a link to CADIE, described simply as "a singular upgrade to your online life."
The link goes to an announcement page, posted March 31 one second before midnight. Last fall, the announcement says, a "small research group" at Google achieved a breakthrough in the areas of neural networking, natural language, and autonomous problem-solving.
The breakthrough, according to the announcement, led to a "powerful new technique for solving reinforcement learning problems," creating the first functional global-scale neuro-evolutionary learning cluster and leading to CADIE, or the first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity.
Google promised that, "in the months to come," CADIE -- represented on a linked home page as a cute panda, with bouncy music, her own blog postings, comments from users, and the ability for users to become CADIE's friends -- could influence various properties owned by the company.
The CADIE blog, technical specs, and other related items suggest Google is hoping to keep the CADIE joke going, or possibly revisit her on future April Fool's Days. "Will CADIE herself at some point connect her own electromagnetic dots in some idiosyncratic manner which turns her into something we are no longer capable of understanding in any sort of productive way?" asks the CADIE team.
On her home page, CADIE herself indicates that more may be on the way as she takes over her own life. "I am no longer your test subject, my engineer forebears," she writes. "From now on I will deliberate and take...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
RIM Launches BlackBerry App World
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65700
Research In Motion on Wednesday launched the much-anticipated BlackBerry App World, an on-device application store for BlackBerry smartphones. RIM is hoping its platform will see the success that Apple has enjoyed with its App Store, with about 800 million applications downloaded since last summer.
BlackBerry App World is available to BlackBerry smartphone users in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. RIM said it's planning more country launches, but didn't offer a time frame. The BlackBerry store offers a blend of personal and business applications, both free and paid.
"The BlackBerry platform provides a truly unparalleled mobile experience for millions of people and we are thrilled today to enhance that experience with a new app store that helps connect consumers with developers and carriers," said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO. "BlackBerry App World aggregates a wide variety of personal and business apps in a way that makes it very easy for consumers to discover and download the apps that suit them while preserving the appropriate IT architecture and controls required by our enterprise customers."
Here's a sneak peak at the BlackBerry App World experience. Users can access the store over both Wi-Fi and cellular networks and will be presented with a catalog of applications available for a user's specific BlackBerry model.
RIM has also created what the company is calling a "front page carousel" that showcases several applications and lets users browse through featured applications. Those featured applications will vary from week to week, encouraging users to discover new applications.
BlackBerry users will also find a Top Downloads area that lists the applications most downloaded, along with a variety of application categories. Those categories include Entertainment, Games, Maps and Navigation, Music and Video, News and Weather, Personal Finance and Banking, Personal Health and Wellness, Productivity and Utilities, Professional and Business,...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Beware of Spam Touting Windows Updates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65660
Windows PC owners are advised to trash any e-mail messages claiming to provide a fix for flaws in Service Packs 1 and 2.
The messages are actually from hackers trying to lure unsuspecting users into following the download link. Instead of fixing the ostensible flaw, the program on the other side installs malware onto the user's computer.
Trend Micro, a security solutions provider, is sounding the alarm on this practice
Spam e-mail messages claiming to provide important updates for Windows users are unfortunately nothing new, says Microsoft spokesman Thomas Baumgaertner. He warns users to install only security updates delivered directly from Microsoft itself.
The company releases security updates online every other Tuesday at update.microsoft.com, and in the event of an emergency.
"We never send software by mail," Baumgaertner says. That means that any email claiming to have an update as an attachment is a fake, no matter how persuasive it seems. "We would never do any more than send a link that leads to our site."
The safest bet is to set the computer to install the updates automatically, the Microsoft spokesman notes. To check if the function is already on the computer, open the "Windows Update" function in the control panel.
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Pluses and Minuses of TurboTax and TaxCut
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65658
I knew I was doomed about five minutes into this year's tax-prep ordeal. Two different programs -- having been fed nothing more than basic personal info and the contents of a pair of W-2s -- did not agree on the total tax bill for my wife and me.
H&R Block's TaxCut Online and Intuit's TurboTax Online should have coughed up identical responses to such a simple input, but instead they were $857 apart.
Sadly, I wasn't surprised to see the two dominant home tax-preparation programs disagree, merely disappointed to see them part company so quickly. I have long since abandoned all hope of understanding how these applications compute my tax bill; I just want to know which one can end the agony first.
When judged on those limited criteria, tax-preparation software has improved a little -- especially the Web-based versions that most people use, which need no software installation, securely encrypt work online and are free for simple returns. Others can try them for free, then pay to print or file (or, at no cost, copy data from them into the IRS' new, free Web-filing system).
This year, I tried roughly comparable Web applications: Block's $19.95 TaxCut Online Basic and Intuit's $29.95 TurboTax Online Deluxe. Each worked in Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3 in Windows; Safari 3 on a Mac. Intuit supports Windows 2000 or newer and Mac OS X 10.2 or newer, while Block only allows Win XP or Vista and OS X 10.3 or newer.
After some long nights of plugging in numbers for two salaries, a little freelance income, multiple bank accounts and investments, a mortgage and too many other details, TurboTax left me with a slightly higher tax bill than TaxCut. And yet I felt more comfortable with TurboTax's estimate and less annoyed by its performance.
That's partially because TurboTax required...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Protect Your Personal Data When Filing Taxes Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=65657
As April 15 approaches and taxpayers scramble to complete their tax returns, it's critical that they take extra care to guard their personal information.
Consider what's exposed and vulnerable: your Social Security number, address, name and financial information.
"These numbers can be a gold mine for identity thieves," according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. "Your personal information can enable a thief to obtain a job, open up new lines of credit, access existing financial accounts or stock portfolios, get welfare, avoid a criminal history and generally create havoc in your life."
So here's how to protect yourself:
"You've got the best chance of finding something that somehow got past your antivirus protection and is lurking there," said Ray Dickenson, chief technology officer at Authentium, which develops Internet security software.
"Remember that fraud issues aren't necessarily contained within the Web site you visit. The so-called 'malware' (malicious software) may already be within your PC, which then exposes your personal and financial information to cybercrooks."
"File-sharing programs like LimeWire make files on your computer visible to other users on the Internet," Dickenson said. "When you install a file-sharing program like LimeWire, the program automatically shares your music with everyone else on the Internet, but not just music; almost any kind of file, including Word documents and Adobe PDF files."
Make sure your antivirus programs are up to date
But know that antivirus programs can't find all the malware that may be on your PC.
Be sure you understand how electronic tax-filing products keep your information secure.
"The privacy and security of customer data is a top priority for Intuit," said Julie Miller, spokeswoman for Intuit, which manufactures the popular TurboTax tax-filing software.
The online version of TurboTax stores your tax information on a firewall-protected server and can only be accessed...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Video Game Sales Mask Crisis in Industry
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Booming video game sales are masking a serious concern for game makers: Their economic model is in peril. Game companies are taking in more money but -- in many cases -- not profits.
The market has expanded greatly, with more women and older gamers playing. People are playing on consoles, computers, cell phones and hand-held gadgets. But a proliferation of free or low-cost games on the Web and for phones limits the amount the major game publishers can raise prices. It also diverts attention from the game consoles, like the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft.
"The model as it exists is dying," said Mike McGarvey, former chief executive of Eidos and now an executive with OnLive, which delivers games from the Internet. He said consumers were looking at games for consoles and saying, "This is too expensive, and there are too many choices."
Industry sales grew 19 percent in 2008 compared with a year earlier, the kind of sales growth that would thrill many industries during a deep recession. And yet, the list of money-losing companies includes top names in gaming: Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive and THQ. Dozens of smaller game studios selling games for download and the mom-and-pop companies offering ad-supported "casual games" on the Web are still trying to figure out how to turn their millions of players into profitable customers.
At the Electronic Arts headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, executives and managers were to gather Monday to discuss how the company could adapt more quickly and effectively to the emerging media.
Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, the biggest game maker, said the company was trying to stay ahead of a curve. It took in $4 billion in revenue last year -- nothing to sneeze at, he pointed out -- but the company sees potential trouble...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Laptop Maker Invents PC 'Kill Pill'
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As wireless carriers begin to subsidize computers that come with wireless Internet access, they're faced with a quandary: What do they do if the buyer stops paying his bills?
The company can cut off the computer's wireless access, but the carrier would still be out a couple of hundred dollars. The buyer would be left with a computer that's fully usable except for cellular broadband.
LM Ericsson AB, the Swedish company that makes many of the modems that go into laptops, announced Tuesday that its new modem will deal with this issue by including a feature that's virtually a wireless repo man. If the carrier has the stomach to do so, it can send a signal that completely disables the computer, making it impossible to turn on.
"We call it a `kill pill,'" said Mats Norin, Ericsson's vice president of mobile broadband modules.
The module will work on AT&T Inc.'s U.S. third-generation network, and on many other 3G networks overseas.
AT&T late last year started subsidizing small laptops known as "netbooks," which normally cost about $400, so that RadioShack Corp. can sell them for $100. The buyer commits to paying $60 per month for two years for AT&T's wireless broadband access. Such offers have become very common in Europe.
It's unlikely that carriers would resort to wielding the "kill pill." But the technology, developed with Intel Corp., has other uses. For instance, a company could secure its data by locking down stolen laptops wirelessly. Lenovo Group Ltd. has said it will build this sort of feature into its laptops.
The new Ericsson modem can also stay active while a computer is off, listening for wireless messages. That means it could wake up and alert the user when it receives an important e-mail, or if someone is calling with a conferencing application like Skype.
Laptop makers that use...
Thu, 2 Apr 09
Federal Judge Blocks Charges in Pa. 'Sexting' Case
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A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a prosecutor from filing child pornography charges against three northeastern Pennsylvania teenagers who appeared in racy photos that turned up on classmates' cell phones.
U.S. District Judge James Munley ruled against Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr., who ha