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iPhone Users Buy More Apps Than Android Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71890
Users of both the iPhone and Android platforms are avid application users, but iPhone owners buy more apps. That's one of several conclusions about mobile users in the January 2010 Mobile Metrics Report from AdMob.
The mobile advertising network found that Android and iPhone consumers download approximately the same number of apps, and spend about the same amount of time using them. But about 50 percent of iPhone users buy at least one app per month, while only 21 percent of Android users do.
The app-activity profile in the report could impact third-party developers and marketers, since platforms with the most-active and most-spending users could influence app-making decisions.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said one of the reasons behind the higher purchases by the average iPhone user could simply be "the sheer quantity and variety of applications" offered in Apple's App Store.
"Developers have had more than a year to develop for the iPhone," he said. In particular, he said, entertainment-based apps have gravitated first to the iPhone.
But Greengart noted that the "tremendous variety and quality" of the apps extend beyond entertainment.
He said that, while in Barcelona recently for the Mobile World Congress, he was able to find and download an app to help him with the Barcelona Metro. "In fact," he added, "I had several to choose from."
The survey also looked at users of Palm's webOS devices. It found that they are also app-active, although they downloaded fewer free and paid apps.
Owners of Apple's iPod touch were the heaviest app users, downloading an average of a dozen apps monthly. This is 37 percent more than either iPhone or Android users, who download only about nine per month. Users of webOS had an average of about six.
iPod touch users also spent the most...
Sat, 27 Feb 10
Palm Needs To Make Changes -- Or Find a Buyer
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71889
The reduced revenue guidance for Palm's current business year, announced Thursday, is suggesting to industry observers that the company will either have to make major alterations to its business plan or find a buyer. The slower-than-expected consumer adoption of the company's products -- which pushed Palm's annual projections well below its earlier forecast of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion -- was no big surprise to industry observers.
"Having an excellent product is not the guaranteed formula for attaining marketplace success," noted IDC Research Manager Francisco Jeronimo. "Palm has an excellent platform, the webOS, but the company's lack of a wider portfolio and the strong competition from Apple and Research In Motion has been impacting the business."
The smartphone maker needs to invest and invigorate its brand, Jeronimo observed. "The question is whether or not Palm has the money to do this," he said.
Palm's webOS is "very gesture-centric" compared to rival offerings and thus may not appeal to the full range of smartphone buyers, noted Roberta Cozza, a principal analyst at Gartner Research. Moreover, other analysts pointed out that Palm has failed to educate resellers about the benefits that webOS devices offer consumers.
"Every time I go to a store in the U.K. and ask about the Palm Pre and what I can do with the device, salespeople struggle to explain," Jeronimo said. "A minute later, they are asking me" whether (I) have considered "the iPhone, or a Blackberry."
The Palm Pre's hardware, user interface, form factor, services and pricing offer nothing superior to what stronger smartphone brands such as Apple and RIM already offer, Jeronimo noted. However, if Palm's technology was backed by a well-known brand with global distribution channels, it would doubtlessly be doing far better, other analysts say.
"They need scale," and an "acquisition is the...
Sat, 27 Feb 10
Does Facebook Patent Mean It Owns the News Feed?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71887
Has Facebook patented the news, or at least the news feed, in social-networking environments? On Tuesday, the United States Patent Office granted Facebook a patent for "Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network." The patent is published and numbered 7,669,123.
Facebook's patent, which was filed in 2006, describes a "method for displaying a news feed in a social-network environment," including "generating news items regarding activities associated with a user of a social-network environment," attaching an "informational link" to at least one of the news items, limiting access to the item to a "predetermined set of viewers," ordering the news items, dynamically limiting the number of items, and displaying the news items.
That sounds pretty broad, and the social-networking world was all atwitter at the possible ramifications. Writing for ReadWriteWeb, Marshall Kirkpatrick proclaimed, "This could be very big. ... MySpace, Flickr, Yahoo, Twitter (?), the sharing part of Google Reader, and even Google Buzz -- do all of these sites have technology at the center of their social experiences that falls under this new patent of Facebook's?"
The patent may not be that broad. Nick O'Neill at the All Facebook blog wrote that the patent doesn't appear to cover status updates as used by Twitter. "It appears that this patent surrounds implicit actions. This means status updates, which is what Twitter is based on, are not part of this patent."
"Instead, this is about stories about the actions of a user's friends. While still significant, the implications for competing social networks may be less substantial," O'Neill wrote.
But Kirkpatrick disputed that conclusion, writing, "Implicit actions are a very big deal. LinkedIn contacts making new connections or changing their jobs would be the most immediate example that comes to mind. If offering a stream of updates of the non-status...
Sat, 27 Feb 10
Relentless Twitter Attacks Focus on British Politicians
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71886
Cybercriminals are relentlessly attacking Twitter. Over the past few days, Twitter has noticed an increase in phishing attempts and is working feverishly to reset passwords for affected accounts. British politicians are the latest to fall victim to the scams.
Twitter users who have received a direct message or see tweets with phrases like "This you???" or "LOL is this you" followed by a link are warned not to click through because the destination is a crafty phishing site designed to steal personal information.
"While simply receiving this message does not mean your account is compromised, if you do click through and enter your username and password, you'll want to change your password," Twitter said in a security update. "If you've received this type of spam from a friend, you may want to alert them to change their password."
The Twitter scams essentially take over a user's account and send out sexually oriented messages to followers. Cybercriminals hijacked British Energy Minister Ed Miliband's Twitter account and used it to distribute a racy message that mentioned his sex life. Miliband sent a tweet later that read, "Oh dear, it seems like I've fallen victim to twitter's latest 'phishing' scam."
House of Commons leader Harriet Harman said her account was also hijacked and used to send a message to opposition lawmaker Alan Duncan. The contents of the message were not disclosed. Intel U.K. and tech blogger Cory Doctorow also reported their Twitter accounts were hacked.
Money is ultimately the driver for the attacks on social-networking sites like Twitter. Criminal gangs can make money by stealing users' credentials and using their accounts to spam out revenue-generating adverts or spreading malware to create botnets, according to Graham Cluley, a senior security consultant at Sophos.
Sophos' research reveals that 70 percent more people are reporting that they have been spammed...
Sat, 27 Feb 10
Salesforce.com Enjoys Fourth-Quarter Sales Jump
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71879
Salesforce.com on Wednesday posted a 48 percent jump in fiscal fourth-quarter profit, on strong sales growth for its online business software applications.
For the three months ended Jan. 31, Salesforce.com said profit jumped to $20.4 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $13.8 million, or 11 cents per share, in last year's fourth quarter.
Revenue shot up 22 percent to $354 million, from $289.6 million a year ago.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected profit of 15 cents per share, on revenue of $342.3 million.
Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff said the company is benefiting from the move to cloud computing.
Cloud computing lets companies collaborate online and store data on outside servers, lowering the cost of maintaining their own computer systems.
For the fiscal year, the company earned $80.7 million, or 63 cents per share, on revenue of $1.31 billion. That compares with profit of $43.4 million, or 35 cents per share, on revenue of $1.08 billion last year.
The company said it added more than 17,000 new customers during the fiscal year, to about 72,500.
For the fiscal first quarter, the company expects earnings between 12 and 13 cents per share, on revenue between $365 million and $367 million.
Analysts call for profit of 18 cents per share, on revenue of $354.7 million. The earnings per share numbers, however, may not be comparable because of unusual items.
For the full fiscal year, Salesforce.com forecast earnings between 58 cents and 60 cents per share. It raised its revenue guidance to growth between 16 percent and 17 percent, from 15 to 16 percent. That implies a revenue forecast between $1.51 billion and $1.53 billion.
Wall Street expects profit of 82 cents per share on revenue of $1.51 billion for the fiscal year.
Salesforce.com shares wobbled in aftermarket electronic...
Sat, 27 Feb 10
T-Mobile Reels in Prepaying Subscribers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71875
T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier, said Thursday it gained 371,000 new customers in the fourth quarter, reversing subscriber losses in the third quarter.
But the new subscribers were mainly low-paying ones who don't sign contracts, and T-Mobile USA's earnings and revenue fell from the same period a year earlier.
T-Mobile USA, which is owned by Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, ended the year with 33.8 million customers, up 1 million from a year ago. That means T-Mobile isn't growing as quickly as Verizon Wireless, which had 91.2 million subscribers at the end of the year, or AT&T Inc., which had 85.1 million. Sprint Nextel Corp., in third place with 48.1 million, has been losing customers.
T-Mobile USA has been building a faster data network in hopes of competing for higher-paying buyers of "smart" phones. The trends point against it, however: T-Mobile lost 117,000 net contract customers in the quarter, while adding a net 488,000 prepaying customers, who don't often have smart phones or data plans.
T-Mobile's net income was $306 million, down from $483 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Revenue was $5.41 billion, down from $5.72 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. The main reason for the revenue decline was continuing price cuts: T-Mobile USA customers paid an average of $47 per month, down from $50 per month a year earlier.
Prices for voice and text-messaging services have been declining across the industry as competition intensifies. AT&T and Verizon Wireless are compensating by selling more data plans.
The Wall Street Journal reported three weeks ago that Deutsche Telekom is considering an initial public offering for T-Mobile USA, to help fund the network buildout. The company hasn't commented on the report.
Sat, 27 Feb 10
Help Wanted: iPhone OS Guru with Multitasking Skills
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71872
Apple is showing its true mobile colors. The company is on the lookout for an engineer who can help get its mobile-phone software onto additional devices.
On Feb. 15, Apple posted an ad on its Web site for an engineering manager "to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS [operating system] on new platforms." Days later, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook called the company "a mobile device company," echoing remarks by Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who in January said "Apple is the largest mobile device company in the world."
The posting and remarks underscore Apple's growing reliance on devices that provide Web access and computing features for users on the go. In the three months ended Dec. 26, the iPhone and related products accounted for $5.58 billion, or 36 percent of total sales, up from 25 percent of revenue a year earlier. Apple also sells other mobile devices, including the iPod Touch.
An adaptation of the operating system used in Macintosh computers, the iPhone OS runs the iPhone, iPod Touch music player, and the forthcoming iPad tablet computer. In the future, analysts say, Apple may put the OS onto Web-connected TV machines and devices that help viewers watch 3D programming. The Cupertino [Calif.]-based company may also consider licensing the iPhone OS to outside cell-phone manufacturers. Apple has shipped more than 75 million devices based on the iPhone OS, which lets users download and run applications such as games and calendars sold at the Apple App Store. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment.
Responsibilities for the sought-after engineer include "working closely with the hardware and custom silicon teams to bring-up new platforms and prototype systems." The term bring-up "typically refers to the final stages of a technology being brought to market," says Nick Corcodilos, a tech recruiter who...
Sat, 27 Feb 10
Will Smartphones Kill the Humble Alarm Clock?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71870
Smartphones can not only play music and help you locate the next restaurant, they also perform more banal tasks like waking you up in the morning. It is common for people to be dragged from their sleep to the electronic sound of their mobile ring tone.
That raises the question of whether the ordinary alarm clock should be put on the list of endangered species. After all, the desktop computer put paid to the typewriter. Is it time for the bedside clock to sound its last post?
German appliance manufacturer Braun no longer lists alarm clocks in its range of products online. Its classic analogue clock has been licensed to other manufacturers since last year and is now being marketed by a British company. What led to this development?
"That business no longer belongs to our core activities," says Braun spokesman, Lars Atorf, who also stresses that shoppers can still buy the clock in the shops. Atorf believes that alarm clocks will eventually give way to the age of the mobile phone.
Braun's analogue clock can be found in the catalog of Manufactum, a company that specializes in selling classic design items. Manufactum also has a mechanical clock that retails for 364 dollars. The silver, round alarm clock is made by a small firm in Switzerland called Looping and is based on a 1932 design.
According to the catalog description, it is "a product of serious clockmaking" and has a secure place in our digital age.
"It's a very popular mechanical clock," says Looping's owner Edgar Sutter who points out that a spring-driven clock can be repaired by any watchmaker if something goes wrong. "But they can't help when your quartz clock is broken."
Sutter bought Looping in 1982 after it went bankrupt and turned it into a success story. Its order books are full for another...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Jobs Says Apple Will Be 'Bold' with $40 Billion War Chest
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71885
Apple is sitting on $40 billion in cash, which it will use not for revenues but to make "big, bold moves," CEO Steve Jobs announced at the company's annual shareholder meeting. He said the company will be aggressive in coming years and its big barrel of cash will provide an important buffer.
"When you take risks, it's like jumping in the air. When they don't work out, it's nice to know the ground is always there," Jobs said.
Jobs didn't offer much direction on how the company will spend the money, except to announce that Apple will open 25 retail stores in China over the next two years.
So what else does Apple have in mind for that money, given that Jobs aims to shoot "big?" Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, expects more acquisitions, he said in a telephone interview. Apple's recent acquisition of Quattro Wireless was a "surprise," Sterling said. "Perhaps they'll go further afield from their core business with other acquisitions," he added.
The acquisition of Quattro, a mobile advertising company, for approximately $300 million was clearly out of Apple's usual direction and served as a warning that Apple won't cede search and advertising on the iPhone to Google forever.
The purchase led many observers to define the current tech landscape as Apple vs Google. "You can just see the tempers rising between the two companies," Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, told The New York Times in January. "Two years ago it was a very friendly relationship. Now just every day it gets more competitive."
Both companies are clearly converging on mobility with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android operating system. Apple COO Tim Cook has been emphasizing that Apple should be considered a "mobile-device company," even as it continues to support...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Italy's Google Conviction Sets a Dangerous Precedent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71884
When an Italian court convicted three current and former Google executives for failing to comply with Italy's privacy code, it also created a firestorm of anger from organizations rallying for free expression and an open Internet. The convictions came after three Google executives -- David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and Arvind Desikan -- and one former Google executive, George Reyes, were accused of criminal defamation and breaking privacy laws.
The four executives were first accused because of a controversial video that was uploaded to its Google Video service, despite not having any involvement in making, uploading or viewing the video. None of the executives had any knowledge of the video until it was removed, according to Google.
The controversial video showed students at a school in Turin, Italy, harassing a schoolmate with Down syndrome.
The Internet search giant responded the same way it has in the past with other law-enforcement groups, helping the Italian police to identify the person responsible for uploading the video, according to Google.
Google immediately said it would appeal the court's ruling based on the fact that Google's employees on trial had no involvement in the actions in question.
Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the Google verdict sets a dangerous precedent that threatens free expression and stifles innovation on the global Internet.
"This ill-advised prosecution and conviction of Google senior executives is plainly contrary to the 2000 EU E-Commerce Directive and to the best practices of thriving Internet economies," Harris said.
The European Union E-Commerce Directive was created to promote the development of e-commerce in the EU, making it the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, according to the European Commission. A legal framework for the directive was created to remove obstacles to cross-border online services in the EU and...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
10 Billion Songs Sold by Apple's iTunes Store
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71883
The number-crunchers at Apple aren't counting just profits these days. Less than two months after it announced three billion applications had been downloaded from its App Store, the computer giant boasted Thursday that its iTunes Store has sold its 10 billionth song.
The lucky music fan who won Apple's download contest -- which for months enticed iTunes users with a $10,000 gift card -- was identified as Louie Sulcer, who, perhaps appropriately, comes from a place called Woodstock (albeit in Virginia, not New York.) Apple didn't release his age or occupation.
The 10 billionth song was Guess Things Happen That Way by the late Johnny Cash. Apple boasts an inventory of more than 12 million songs, 55,000 TV episodes, and 8,500 movies, including more than 2,500 in high definition.
"We're grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet services. "We're proud that iTunes has become the number-one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering."
iTunes was launched in 2001 and is now in its ninth software version, which debuted in September. Apple announced the five billion download mark in 2008, and launched the iTunes Countdown to 10 Billion Songs last month.
"The 10 billion number is important, as it emphasizes that no one else is even close to these levels," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group, a research and advisory firm based in California.
Apple spokesperson Jason Roth said there are 125 million iTunes accounts worldwide, but he didn't have data on the number of TV shows or movies downloaded.
Last March, Apple raised the price of some of the most popular music choices from 99 cents to $1.29, while allowing some music vendors to charge lower prices. Most competitors, such as Amazon MP3,...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Android's Rise Crimps Palm's Sales and Revenue
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71882
Palm said Thursday it expects revenues will fall well below the company's previously forecast range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion for the current business year. The smartphone maker attributed the anticipated decline to slower than expected consumer adoption of the company's products, which has led to lower order volumes from carriers as well as the deferral of future orders to later periods.
"Driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated," said Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein. "Our carrier partners remain committed, and we are working closely with them to increase awareness and drive sales of our differentiated Palm products."
Gartner always said it was a bold, but risky, move for Palm to move to its new smartphone platform, called webOS, noted Roberta Cozza, a principal analyst at the research firm. She thinks the biggest challenge Palm now faces is building a competitive ecosystem around webOS.
"What makes or beaks a platform is how appealing it is for consumers," Cozza said. "I think the reason it is getting more difficult for Palm comes down to the fact that when consumers buy a phone they are more aware of the supporting ecosystem -- which apps are available that will do what they want them to do."
Apple's App Store and the Android Market each offer a diversity of third-party apps that make these ecosystems highly attractive to consumers, whereas webOS only has Palm as a vendor. So platforms like Android are a better proposition for developers, Cozza noted. "The problem Palm will have going forward is to attract more developers," she said.
Moreover, Android has many manufacturers globally, while Palm is just one manufacturer with strength in only one region -- North America. According to Gartner, Palm held a 4.3 percent market share in North America at...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Nintendo Enters E-Reader Market with DSi XL Handheld
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71881
Nintendo on Thursday revealed its next wave of products. The video-game maker is also planning to release Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M in the first half of 2010, but Nintendo DSi XL is taking the spotlight -- and entering the e-reader market.
The new DSi XL handheld system launches March 28 and will retail for $189.99. There are plenty of improvements, beginning with screen size. The screens are 93 percent larger than the Nintendo DS Lite and feature a wider viewing angle so friends and family can share the experience.
The DSi XL will roll out in burgundy and bronze colors and come with a larger pen-like stylus designed to make it easier to play games that leverage the touchscreen. But the news that's really making waves in the tech industry is the DSi XL doubling as an e-reader.
Software called 100 Classic Books transforms the DS family into a literary library. Launching on June 14 and priced at $20, the offering includes 100 works from authors such as William Shakespeare, Jules Verne, Jane Austen, and Mark Twain. Nintendo said readers can adjust the size of text, place bookmarks, and even download new content via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service if they have a broadband Internet connection.
Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group, said Nintendo is jumping on the e-reader bandwagon. Nintendo's immediate problem, he said, is that it takes more than $20 worth of books that no one wants to read to be a force in the e-reader world. He pointed to efforts from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Apple to optimize hardware, building out software ecosystems, and establishing relationships with publishers to drive e-reader strategies.
"This is almost reminiscent of when Nintendo added a music player to the last iteration of the DS. Very few consumers used...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Microsoft Uses Court Order To Cripple Waledac Botnet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71880
Microsoft is cracking down on botnets through the legal system -- and winning. The software giant launched a legal assault this week against networks of compromised computers controlled by hackers, and a federal judge in Alexandria, Va., agreed to its request to deactivate 277 infringing domain names.
The story began unfolding on Monday when Microsoft filed a suit specifically naming a botnet known as Waledac and 27 "John Doe" defendants. Microsoft alleged the cybercriminals broke federal laws with their scheme to create bot-herders that could be used for spamming, click fraud, denial of service, and distribution of malicious software.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to issue a restraining order under seal to allow the software giant to secretly sever communications channels to the botnet before its masterminds could reestablish links to the network. VeriSign subsequently had to temporarily shut down the domain names.
Waledac is one of the most active spam bots -- with the capacity to send about 1.5 billion spam e-mails a day -- and is one of the 10 largest botnets in the U.S. It steals sensitive information, turns computers into spam zombies, and establishes backdoor remote access.
In fact, security experts estimate Waledac has infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world. Microsoft's recent analysis shows that about 651 million spam e-mails attributable to Waledac were directed to Hotmail accounts alone between Dec. 3 and 21.
"The takedown of the Waledac botnet that Microsoft executed this week -- known internally as Operation b49 -- was the result of months of investigation and the innovative application of a tried-and-true legal strategy," said Microsoft Associate General Counsel Tim Cranton.
Microsoft also been taking additional technical countermeasures to downgrade much of the remaining peer-to-peer command and control communication within...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Bloom Energy Launches Cheaper, Cleaner Electricity
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71869
Following a prelaunch buildup that could be called the energy world's equivalent of the Apple iPad rollout, Bloom Energy launched its cleaner-energy-in-a-box product Wednesday. The Bloom Energy Server, which uses a patented solid oxide fuel-cell technology, has already achieved a customer base that includes Coca-Cola, Cox Enterprises, eBay, FedEx, Google, Staples and Wal-Mart.
The launch was attended by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, board member Gen. Colin Powell, venture capitalist John Doerr, and executives from some of the initial customers.
Dr. KR Sridhar, principal cofounder and CEO, said his company is "dedicated to making clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world." In fact, he added, he believes Bloom's technology can have "the same kind of impact on energy that the mobile phone had on communications."
The comparison was chosen to emphasize that the Bloom Energy Server allows users to generate electricity locally, rather than receiving it via a landline from an energy company.
Sridhar and his team founded Bloom Energy in 2001, building on their work at NASA to utilize solar energy and water to generate air and fuel for astronauts on Mars.
In the earthbound adaptation, the energy server uses an electrochemical process, instead of combustion, to combine air and any of a variety of fuel sources so that electricity is generated. Each energy server houses thousands of ceramic fuel cells, which have been made from a sand-like powder and treated with a special coating.
According to Bloom Energy, when the cells are powered by a renewable fuel source, such as biogas, they can be 100 percent cleaner than electricity from a traditional coal-fired power plant. Even when fossil fuels are used, the company said the servers are about 67 percent cleaner.
Bloom's first corporate customer was in the summer of 2008. Since that time, customers have...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Remote-Deposit Apps Make Banks, ATMs So 2009
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71860
In the near future, you might not even have to visit a bank or an ATM to deposit a check. You'll simply snap a couple of photos of it with your cell phone.
Applications to do just that are already available for Apple's iPhone and other gadgets from USAA, a company that provides insurance and banking mainly for military veterans. Chase, Bank of America and Citibank are among the banks planning to release similar applications this year.
Although the technology, known as remote-deposit capture, promises to save consumers time, it adds a new wrinkle to concerns about fraud and the privacy of financial data. But the banks and the technology companies helping them say they have largely overcome these concerns. And with new guidelines from federal regulators, more banks could start to feel comfortable putting the technology in consumer hands.
"Our customers are becoming more and more tech-savvy," said Marylou Dowd, senior vice president for Citibank's mobile banking division. "We're trying to support those people on the go."
Here's how it works. When you take a picture of a check, a computer that receives the image looks for the amount, the check number and the digits on the bottom with information on the check writer's account number and the bank's routing number. A photo of the back of the check verifies that it's been signed by the recipient.
A banking clearinghouse then routes the funds from the check writer's account to that of the recipient. That also prevents the same check from being deposited multiple times.
Remote-deposit capture started as a way for big companies and financial institutions to process huge numbers of checks without having to ship them around the country.
Regulators were surprised when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks caused delays in financial transactions. With air traffic grounded for several days, the bundles of...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Security Experts Urge Federal Regulations
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71859
The U.S. government must take a more active role in securing the Internet, industry experts told Congress on Tuesday, arguing that as businesses and governments rely more on cyberspace the prospect of a serious attack grows.
Comparing the digital age to the dawn of automobiles, analysts said more government regulations may be the only way to force the public and private sectors to counter cyber threats adequately. They compared the need for new oversight to regulations for seat belts and safety equipment that made U.S. highways safer.
At stake is the need to secure the financial and power systems vital to national security and daily life without choking off business innovation and competition. President Barack Obama declared cybersecurity a major priority early last year, but his administration struggled to make progress, not naming a new cyber coordinator until December.
"Cyber has become so important to the lives of our citizens and the functioning of our economy that gone are the days when Silicon Valley could say hands off to a government role," Michael McConnell, former director of national intelligence, told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
The panel has been trying for the past year to draft legislation that would map out a way the government and private industry could work together to protect critical computer networks, set industry standards and promote more high-tech education and public awareness.
Demands for more government authority over the Internet's free enterprise has alarmed privacy advocates and other critics, forcing Congress to grasp for ways to encourage rather than mandate better online security.
Now on their fourth major draft, committee leaders have struggled to overcome protests from industry leaders and private groups who say the government should provide financial and other incentives, but stay away from regulation that might constrain the electronic age.
McConnell and others, however, warned that cyber...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Cyber-Whistleblower's Tax Heist Stuns Latvia
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71851
Latvian officials struggled Wednesday to come to grips with an enigmatic group that stole millions of classified tax documents from government computers in a purported effort to expose waste and graft in Europe's weakest economy.
The massive data theft from the tax authority's computer system has raised concerns about cybersecurity in the Baltic country.
It has also embarrassed politicians and other public officials whose income and wealth -- often many times the national average -- are being exposed to the public at a time when Latvia is undergoing painful budget cutbacks to rebound from a severe recession.
News of the electronic security breach surfaced last week, when an organization calling itself the People's Army of the Fourth Awakening told Latvian TV it had downloaded millions of classified documents over several months from the revenue service's Web site.
One of the group's members, who uses the name "Neo" -- apparently in reference to the hero of the popular "Matrix" films -- has been making some of the documents available on the Internet.
On Wednesday "Neo" published salaries of members of Latvia's police force and, in comments on a Twitter account, said "I call on the police union to analyze the data and determine whether the salary reform is fair and to continue the fight against crime."
Earlier this week "Neo" released data showing that the CEO of Riga's heating company, Aris Zigurs, paid himself a 16,000 lat ($32,000) bonus last year -- a hefty sum for a city-owned utility, especially at a time when many municipal workers have had their salaries slashed. Zigurs confirmed to Latvian media the data was accurate.
It is unclear where "Neo" and the other organization members -- if they exist -- are located, though "Neo" has indicated that he or she is currently abroad. Even "Neo's" gender remains a mystery, though local...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
California To Amazon: Show Me the Money
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71849
California lawmakers are eager to harpoon the great white whale that is Amazon.com to force it to pay sales tax on every HDTV and Kindle it sells here. But those efforts could ensnare scores of smaller fish: mom-and-pop Internet businesses that rely on Amazon and other e-tailers for their livelihood.
The e-commerce behemoth has avoided paying sales tax in California because it has no offices, stores or warehouses in the state.
But California contends that Amazon does have a presence here.
This week, the state Legislature is considering a bill that says California Web sites known as affiliates that send customers to Amazon and other e-commerce companies in exchange for a commission constitute a sales force, giving Amazon and others a physical presence, or "nexus" here. Under a 1992 Supreme Court decision, only retailers with a nexus in a state can be compelled to collect sales tax from its residents.
Cash-strapped California says it could garner $150 million a year from the so-called Amazon bill if out-of-state retailers collected tax on every laptop, Cuisinart and best-seller they peddle to folks here. Currently consumers are supposed to pay that tax themselves, but it's a rare shopper who does.
Scores of mom-and-pop California Web sites that drive traffic to e-tailers say they would be unfairly ensnared by the state's attempts to force Amazon to pay up. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retailers say Amazon's use of the Internet as a sales-tax haven is unfair to them.
Amazon (which did not return calls), Overstock and other large out-of-state e-tailers say they will cut off their California affiliates to duck the sales-tax obligation. The affiliates say that means they'll lose their income and the state still won't get the sales tax revenue.
California has more than 25,000 affiliates, ranging from part-time Web-masters earning a few bucks to large enterprises pulling in millions, said the...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Tax Season Makes Identity Thieves' Hearts Race
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71848
JuWanda Harris spent the last year rising before the sun to work two jobs, using the money to support her brother and sister and help her parents with everything from gas bills to toothpaste.
She lived week to week but took solace in knowing her long hours at minimum-wage jobs would pay off once she received her tax refund. She has more money withheld than needed so she can get a hefty refund each spring. This year, she was set to collect $5,100, money she was counting on to buy a car and pay back a loan.
But nine stolen digits changed everything.
When Harris tried to file her tax return, the Internal Revenue Service rejected it this month because someone else had already filed a return using her Social Security number. That's when she realized she had become a victim of identity theft.
It's a scam that entails using stolen Social Security numbers to file phony returns and cash in before anyone realizes, authorities say.
"I feel like I'm being robbed," said Harris, 29, of Chicago's Englewood community. "I worked so hard. I needed that money."
After filing a police report and contacting authorities, Harris may have to wait months before she sees a penny of the money owed to her. But first she has to prove her case.
Tax season can make identity thieves' hearts race. Experts say they swoop in quickly and quietly this time of year and the victims, like Harris, are oblivious to what has happened until they try to file their own returns.
Using stolen Social Security numbers, the thieves make up incomes and employee details to file returns, according to the IRS. As long as they file first, the IRS assumes the returns are legitimate until they hear from the victim.
Although the scam isn't new, fraud...
Fri, 26 Feb 10
Enterprises Turn To Clouds To Save the Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71846
Everyone loves clouds these days in corporate computing, and the concept will be a big part of the buzz at the CeBIT information-technology trade fair in Germany March 2-6.
Tasks that we used to do with a desktop computer are often being shifted into the "cloud," meaning that some nameless computer, often on another continent, is helping do the job or save the data.
"It's not just big companies like Microsoft and IBM that are going in for this. Quite small companies will be showing cloud products at CeBIT," said trade fair spokesman, Hartwig von Sass.
Cloud computing could equally well be described as digital outsourcing.
In cloud set-ups, distant servers provide data storage, the software to do the job, and sometimes even the operating system. Armed with a fast Internet connection and a basic computer or smartphone, the user gets access to all those resources.
The idea is not new.
Holger Bleich, a writer with the German magazine c't, thinks the sudden omnipresence of the term is a bit of marketing fluff.
People who use Hotmail accounts have been doing cloud computing for more than a decade. The emails are on a Microsoft server and can be accessed from any Internet-connected computer. Putting photos on Flickr or posting to Facebook is also cloud computing.
Google Apps is a free set of office programs, all accessed via a web browser so that a user can do without their own spreadsheet software, for example. Microsoft is bringing out a similar cloud product that will be free for private users: Office Web Apps 2010.
"Three to four years from now, the bulk of applications will run via the web," forecasts Carlo Velten of the Experton Group market analysis firm in suburban Munich. What is more, demand is growing for private data backups, and many people are willing to pay for...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
Italian Court Convicts Google Execs for Uploaded Video
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71866
In recent weeks, Google has made much of its problems with China. But it turns out the company has a much bigger problem with Italy.
In what Google called an "astonishing decision," an Italian court convicted three Google executives of privacy invasion for a 2006 video of Italian teenagers taunting and abusing a boy with Downs syndrome. They were acquitted of defamation charges.
The court sentenced Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, Chief Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer, and former CFO George Reyes to six-month suspended terms. A fourth defendant, Arvind Desikan, was acquitted on all charges.
Google reacted angrily to the news. In a blog post, Matt Sucherman, a vice president and deputy general counsel for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, wrote, "To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it, or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed."
"In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload," Sucherman said in announcing the company will appeal the decision "because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question."
"Throughout this long process, they have displayed admirable grace and fortitude. It is outrageous that they have been subjected to a trial at all," Sucherman added.
In the larger picture, though, the conviction is troubling for reasons that cut to the heart of Google's business. "It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built," Sucherman said. "Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
FCC Wants To Reassign Spectrum for Mobile Broadband
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71865
The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that it is seeking ways to reassign additional wireless spectrum to foster mobile broadband adoption in the U.S. According to its study released Tuesday, 93 million Americans, representing one-third of the nation's population, do not have high-speed Internet connections in their homes.
The FCC is slated to submit a national broadband plan to Congress on March 17 that will detail a strategy for connecting more of the country to affordable, world-class broadband. To meet that goal, the FCC plans to recover and reallocate spectrum as well as update spectrum policies to reflect 21st century technologies and opportunities, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
"Spectrum really is the oxygen of mobile broadband service," Genachowski said. "Without sufficient spectrum, we will starve mobile broadband of the nourishment it needs to thrive as a platform for innovation, job creation, and economic growth."
Changing the nation's spectrum allocation is essential if the U.S. is to keep pace with an estimated thirtyfold increase in mobile communications traffic in the years ahead. Among other things, the FCC is eyeing frequencies now used by the nation's broadcasters as a possible source of additional mobile spectrum.
One reason for targeting the broadcast spectrum is that the VHF and UHF frequencies have characteristics that make them particularly suitable for mobile broadband. Under the FCC's proposed Mobile Future Auction, however, any move to reallocate broadcast spectrum would take place as part of a voluntary program under which broadcasters "would be able to continue to serve their communities with free over-the-air local news, information and entertainment, and they would be able to experiment [with] mobile TV," Genachowski said.
Still, broadcasters are prepared to tenaciously defend their turf. "We look forward to working with policy-makers to help expand the rollout of broadband without threatening...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
Intel Reports Servers Hacked, Admits Regular Attacks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71864
First Google, and now Intel. The chipmaker has revealed that its servers were hacked in January, around the same time search giant Google and 24 other companies reported a highly sophisticated security breach. And Intel says such attempts happen regularly.
News of the Intel breach was contained in the company's most recent financial filing, for the 2009 fiscal year, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and gave few details. Listed under the heading "risk factors," the disclosure was an unusual way of announcing a potential setback, a move that seems intended to protect the company from legal liability to investors in light of new disclosure regulations.
"We may be subject to intellectual-property theft or misuse, which could result in third-party claims and harm our business and results of operations," Intel said in its disclosure to the SEC. "We regularly face attempts by others to gain unauthorized access through the Internet to our information-technology systems by, for example, masquerading as authorized users or surreptitious introduction of software."
The company described these attacks as possible attempts at industrial espionage or the work of malicious hackers.
"One recent and sophisticated incident occurred in January 2010 around the same time as the recently publicized security incident reported by Google," the company said. "We seek to detect and investigate these security incidents and to prevent their recurrence, but in some cases we might be unaware of an incident or its magnitude and effects."
Such attacks could "adversely affect our competitive position and reduce marketplace acceptance of our products," Intel warned, as well as cause product recalls, reputation harm and lawsuits.
Alan Paller, director of research at the Sans Institute, a security training school in Bethesda, Md., said large U.S. corporations are increasingly under attack from Chinese competitors or their operatives.
"Intel is one of about 1,000 U.S. organizations that do...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
CA Acquires 3Tera To Expand Into Cloud Management
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71863
CA on Wednesday said it agreed to acquire privately held 3Tera. The acquisition lets the former Computer Associates move deeper into cloud management with 3Tera's popular AppLogic solution. The terms of CA's latest in a string of acquisitions were not disclosed.
AppLogic is a solution for building cloud services and deploying complex enterprise-class applications to pubic and private clouds using an intuitive graphical user interface. 3Tera's solutions aim to make it easier for service providers to offer application stacks on demand by adding apps to the AppLogic catalog, where they can be deployed to a shared cloud infrastructure.
Following CA's recent acquisitions of Cassatt, NetQoS and Oblicore, 3Tera is yet another move in an aggressive expansion of portfolio solutions to manage cloud computing as part of an integrated information-technology management program.
"By adding this technology to its own strengths in IT management, CA is offering an intriguing value proposition to customers who want to both take advantage of the cloud's adaptability and maintain rigorous control of their virtual-service delivery infrastructure," said Rachel Chalmers, research director at The 451 Group.
AppLogic draws from a catalog of pre-configured virtual server and software components to simplify the design and deployment of applications as a single logical entity in the cloud. By unifying application configuration, deployment and a virtual-server fabric -- functions that are typically performed in a fragmented manner -- CA said AppLogic helps reduce costs, improve productivity, and increase service quality.
But AppLogic isn't the only value 3Tera brings to the CA table. 3Tera also boasts a cloud-computing marketplace that paves the way for software vendors to offer developers production-ready cloud components and full applications available on a pay-as-you-go basis. As CA sees it, the marketplace facilitates exchanges of value between developers, service providers, and customers.
With 3Tera, CA has new capabilities that work alongside its...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
Yahoo Partners with Twitter To Share Social Content
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71862
What do you get when you combine 600 million searchers with 50 million daily tweets? A new Yahoo-Twitter tie-up. While consumer privacy organizations continue bashing Google about its Google Buzz service, Yahoo and Twitter are partnering on a more benign social-networking play -- content sharing.
Yahoo on Wednesday announced the partnership with the popular micro-blogging service that will see real-time Twitter feeds integrated across the Yahoo network. The deal is part of Yahoo's drive to deliver personally relevant information from various online sources and largely mimics the efforts of Google and Bing.
Brad Shimmin, a social-media analyst at Current Analysis, said the Yahoo deal gives consumers yet another entry point to Twitter and may lead to the democratization of micro-blogging services. Although Twitter is ubiquitous, he said, it could blend into the background as a service for other platforms.
"What matters is not that your micro-blogging is running on Twitter," Shimmin said. "What matters is that wherever you call home, you are communicating using the methodology of micro-blogging. Twitter could become less and less relevant. What counts most is the communication rather than the brand."
While the search-engine deals may broaden Twitter's exposure and lead to short-term growth, Shimmin noted, at the same time it lessens Twitter's grip on its user base. Google Wave-type services could provide a similar capability and reach the same number of people. If that happens, is Twitter that important?
Time may answer Shimmin's question. Meanwhile, Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president of Yahoo's consumer-products group, took the opportunity to offer a marketing message around the deal in Twitter style (that is, 140 characters or less). Lamkin wrote: "We're turning the key to the online social universe -- you will find the most personally relevant experiences through Yahoo."
Marketing hyperbole aside, the nuts and bolts of the...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
EC Launches Probe of Google Search Rankings
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71839
Google is being probed by the European Commission for antitrust behavior. EC officials confirmed Wednesday that the Internet search giant is under investigation after a trio of companies filed complaints against Google.
The complaints came from Foundem, a price-comparison web site; French legal search site Ejustice; and Ciao from Bing, a search site operated by Microsoft.
Google wasted no time defending itself against the allegations. Google said it is confident that it operates in the interests of its users and partners and within European law, according to Julia Holtz, Google's senior competition counsel.
Attorneys for Google said the probe into its business behavior isn't a surprise, given the source of the complaints. Foundem is a member of an organization called ICOMP, which is partly funded by Microsoft, and Ciao is now owned by Microsoft.
"It makes sense for the world for Google to say this is just another case of us against Microsoft, but it is not going to carry a lot of weight with EC investigators who are going to look at each specific claim," said Ilan Barzilay, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
While Google may be playing its us-against-Microsoft card, each complaint is different. Foundem, based in the U.K., told the EC that Google demotes its web site in its results because it's a vertical search engine.
"Google says they have 90 percent of the U.K. search market," Barzilay said. "And when they are giving their own product preferential treatment, the EU can have problems with that."
Ciao, which first took its case to the German competition authority before it was moved to Brussels, has complaints about Google's standard terms and conditions.
Ciao was once an AdSense partner with Google, and Google said the two companies had a good business relationship. "However, after Microsoft acquired Ciao in 2008, we...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
Consumers Are Pushing Up Sales of Smartphones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71838
Mobile-phone sales worldwide headed up at the end of last year, according to a new report from industry research firm Gartner. Sales in the fourth quarter posted a 8.3 percent increase compared to a year ago, although overall 2009 sales dropped 0.9 percent.
Gartner said the drivers pushing up sales are smartphones and low-end devices. Smartphone sales, said Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi, "continued their strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2009," up 41.1 percent over 2008 to 53.8 million units. For all of 2009, smartphone sales were up 23.8 percent.
The big smartphone winners were Research In Motion and Apple, which now have 19.9 and 14.4 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, respectively. As premium devices, they spent last year busily capturing market share from other devices. Their operating systems still trail Symbian, which has nearly half the market with 46.9 percent.
Microsoft's Windows Mobile is in fourth place for smartphone OSes, with an 8.7 percent share, followed by Linux and Android in low single digits, and Palm's webOS below a point.
A key battle shaping up in 2010 could be the one between the two leading smartphone open-source operating systems, Android and Symbian. The Symbian Foundation said recently that a new version of its OS should be available by the end of March, which will be the first since the OS became fully open source. Android increased its market share last year by 3.4 percent, to 3.9 percent, but last year was its first full launch year.
Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said that, "despite the recession, people are investing in smartphones," which accounts for their continued strong sales performance. And, he said, "there is no question" that most of those buyers are consumers.
In addition to the growing competition between...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
Upgrading To Windows 7? Tips for Success
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71824
Although Windows 7 has been out for some time, many are just now thinking about upgrading. And that's when the questions begin. The existence of multiple editions, different upgrade options, restrictions on how a PC may be upgraded, the packaging of 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating system in the same box, and volume pricing are enough to confuse even experienced techies. Read on for some help.
Q: I'm confused about the "upgrade" version of Windows 7. Which operating systems can I upgrade with it, and can I perform an installation on top of my existing Windows XP? How is the existence of a previous operating system verified?
A: For each edition of Windows 7 -- Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate -- Microsoft offers an Upgrade version that sells for substantially less than the full version of each edition. In order to qualify for the upgrade version -- or activate it -- you must have an existing version of Windows XP or Windows Vista installed on your computer.
Plenty of caveats come with the upgrade versions of Windows 7, however. First, only with an identical edition of Windows Vista can you do an "in place" upgrade of the operating system. In other words, if you currently run Vista Home Premium, you can purchase and install Windows 7 Home Premium as easily as popping in your Windows 7 disk and selecting the upgrade option. You cannot, however, upgrade Vista Home Premium with the Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate editions.
You also cannot do an "in place" upgrade of Windows XP. Instead, with your existing XP operating system installed, you will need to reboot your computer with your Windows 7 upgrade disk in the DVD drive and allow the operating system to be installed into a new folder or directory.
Many people wonder whether they can...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
With 99-Cent TV Shows, Apple Seeks Cheap iPad Content
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71823
If Apple cut the price of each TV episode in half -- to 99 cents, from $1.99 -- would sales on iTunes increase enough to offset the price drop?
Experiments in the United States are under way to find out, and the head of the No. 1 U.S. television network, CBS, indicated last week that some shows, at least, would be priced at less than a dollar in the future.
Apple wants to ignite TV show sales, especially as it prepares to introduce the iPad tablet computer next month. But its proposals to lower prices across the board are being met by skepticism from the major U.S. networks.
Television production is expensive, and the networks are wary of selling shows too cheaply. They are equally wary of harming their far more lucrative deals with affiliates and cable distributors, who may feel threatened by online storefronts like Apple's and those operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Sony.
But the networks do not want to ignore the 125 million customers with credit cards who have iTunes accounts, either. "We're willing to try anything, but the key word is 'try,"' said a TV network executive who requested anonymity because his company had declined to comment publicly on talks with Apple.
With the iTunes pricing debate, the television industry is facing the same question that music labels and publishers are: Just how much is our content worth in a digital world?
It is especially complicated for TV, given that most people already pay for TV through their cable or satellite services and that they can watch most network shows free on streaming sites like Hulu, albeit with advertisements.
The notion of selling individual TV episodes straight to the consumer is still a relatively new one. Apple added video to its music store in late 2005 and sold episodes of the ABC shows...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
Elite Shanghai University Gets Unwanted Scrutiny
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71822
With its sterling reputation and its scientific bent, Shanghai Jiaotong University has the feel of an Ivy League institution.
The university has alliances with elite American ones like Duke and the University of Michigan. And it is so rich in science and engineering talent that Microsoft and Intel have moved into a research park adjacent to the school.
But Jiaotong, whose campus here has more than 33,000 students, is facing an unpleasant question: Is it a base for sophisticated computer hackers?
Investigators looking into Web attacks on Google and dozens of other American companies last year have traced the intrusions to computers at Jiaotong and an obscure vocational school in eastern China, according to people briefed on the case.
Security experts caution that it is hard to trace online attacks and that the digital footprints may be a "false flag," a kind of decoy intended to throw investigators off track.
But those with knowledge of the investigation say there are reliable clues that suggest the highly sophisticated attacks may have originated at Jiaotong and the more obscure campus, Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province, an institution with ties to the Chinese military.
Over the weekend, the two schools strongly denied any knowledge of the attacks, which singled out corporate files and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists.
A spokesman for Jiaotong told local news outlets that school officials were "shocked and indignant" to learn of the allegations. And a Lanxiang spokesman called the reports preposterous.
But analysts say Jiaotong and Lanxiang are certain to come under close scrutiny.
Jiaotong is one of the top universities in China and one charged with helping transform this country into a science and technology powerhouse.
The school has exchange programs with some of the world's leading universities. Earlier this year, Duke University in North Carolina said that with the help of Jiaotong, it...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
Hey Pennsylvania School, Try GPS Next Time
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71819
School officials in Pennsylvania who admit remotely activating student webcams to locate missing laptops could have used far less intrusive methods such as GPS tracking devices, technology and privacy experts say.
The Lower Merion School District instead finds itself defending a potential class-action lawsuit after a student complained of being photographed inside his home and accused of selling drugs.
The FBI is investigating the school district for possible wiretap and computer-use violations.
"The issues raised by these allegations are wide-ranging and involve the meeting of the new world of cyberspace with that of physical space. Our focus will only be on whether anyone committed any crimes," U.S. Attorney Michael Levy said Monday, taking the unusual step of confirming the FBI and Justice Department investigation.
While pledging to cooperate with any criminal probe, lawyers for the district also appeared in court for the first time Monday in the civil case, negotiating an agreement aimed at preserving computer evidence. The district agreed not to destroy any evidence that might be found on its servers or on the nearly 2,300 laptops issued to students at its two high schools.
Harriton High School student Blake Robbins and his family hope to learn "whether there were systematic violations or whether this is an isolated instance," according to their lawyer, Mark Haltzman.
The district activated the webcams after 42 laptops disappeared in the past 14 months. Eighteen were located, district spokesman Doug Young said Monday. He did not immediately know whether any were found -- after webcam pictures were taken -- in student homes.
Young has declined to discuss whether Blake Robbins' laptop was reported missing, because of the litigation, but said the district did not violate its policy to activate webcams only for that purpose.
Yet Robbins insists in court filings that it was never reported missing.
Either way, technology and privacy experts agree...
Thu, 25 Feb 10
China Clamps Down Harder with Internet Controls
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71815
China's technology ministry moved to tighten controls on Internet use Tuesday, saying individuals who want to operate Web sites must first meet in person with regulators.
The state-sanctioned group that registers domain names in China froze registrations for new individual Web sites in December after state media complained that not enough was being done to check whether sites provided pornographic content.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that ban was being lifted, but would-be operators would now have submit their identity cards and photos of themselves as well as meet in person with regulators and representatives of service providers before their sites could be registered.
It said the rule was aimed at cracking down on pornography.
China has the world's biggest online population, with 384 million Internet users. The government operates the world's most extensive system of Web monitoring and filtering, blocking pornographic sites as well as those seen as subversive to communist rule.
The new regulations come as the government is in talks with Google Inc. about whether the U.S.-based Internet giant will be allowed to continue operating in China after saying in January it would no longer cooperate with the country's Web censorship. The two sides have given no details of the status of their discussions.
Chinese authorities have launched repeated crackdowns on online pornography and the government says nearly 5,400 people were detained last year.
Thu, 25 Feb 10
Does Using Google Make You Smarter?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71781
Google and other Internet sites aren't making us stupid: They're making us smarter, according to an overwhelming majority of 895 experts surveyed by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University.
"Three out of four experts said our use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence, and two-thirds said use of the Internet has improved reading, writing and rendering of knowledge," study co-author Janna Anderson said in a statement Friday.
"There are still many people, however, who are critics of the impact of Google, Wikipedia and other online tools," said Anderson, director of the Imagining the Internet Center at North Carolina's Elon University.
Anderson and Lee Rainie, director of the Pew project, conducted the survey in response to author Nicholas Carr's July/August 2008 Atlantic Monthly cover story, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
Anderson and Rainie invited business executives, scientists, consultants, writers and tech developers "to share their views on the Internet's influence on the future of human intelligence." The survey was "opt-in," so it wasn't a representative sample.
From the Pew project's site at www.pewInternet.org, here's a selection of responses, including from Carr:
Carr: "What the Net does is shift the emphasis of our intelligence, away from what might be called a meditative or contemplative intelligence and more toward what might be called a utilitarian intelligence. The price of zipping among lots of bits of information is a loss of depth in our thinking."
Google chief economist Hal Varian: "Google will make us more informed. The smartest person in the world could well be behind a plow in China or India. Providing universal access to information will allow such people to realize their full potential, providing benefits to the entire world."
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark: "People are already using Google as an adjunct to...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
Apple Insists Complaints Led To Ban on Sexy Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71837
Days after it was revealed that Apple is barring some sexually explicit material from its App Store, the computer giant defended itself from charges that it is being a selective prude. In an interview with The New York Times on Monday, Philip Schiller, Apple's head of of worldwide product marketing, said it's all about complaints.
"It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see," Schiller said.
An app called Wobble iBoobs, which allows users to give certain segments of photos the ability to shake (the name suggests a practical application) was among 5,000 apps removed. Also removed was SlideHer, which allows a scantily clad model to be assembled as a puzzle, and Sexy Scratch-Off, which allows a woman's dress to be removed via a touchscreen interaction, the Times said. According to another report, a swimwear retailer's application was also banned.
Meanwhile, many bloggers have noted that content from Playboy and Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition is still available.
"They feel there is a difference between established branded content, that it's in a different category" from apps developed by smaller companies, said Interpret Vice President Michael Gartenberg.
"As the App Store grows in popularity and is now a mainstream source of content for all members of the family, Apple is wise to select carefully what content it puts on the shelves of the store," Gartenberg said. "This is a Apple's store, and therefore I think they do have the right -- as well as an obligation -- to their customers to be self-selective."
It's not the first time Apple has been accused of being selective about applications in the App Store. Earlier this year, some programs...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
35 Percent of Americans Lack Broadband, Survey Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71836
The Federal Communications Commission will deliver a national broadband plan on March 17, the first of its kind to create a strategy for improving the U.S. high-speed Internet infrastructure. To set the stage, the FCC released Tuesday the results of its consumer survey, which found that 35 percent of adult Americans don't have high-speed Internet connections at home.
That percentage represents 80 million adults and 13 million children over the age of five. The survey, a national random digit-dial survey of 5,005 adults in October and November, found that affordability, digital literacy, and relevance were the main obstacles to broader use and availability of broadband connections.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said that "we need to make sure that all Americans have the skills and means to fully participate in the digital economy" to bolster American competitiveness. He has said he wants an industry minimum connection of 100 Mbps by 2020, compared with an industry average of four Mbps currently.
About a third of the non-adopters, or about 28 million adults, reported that money played a key role in their lack of broadband. Fifteen percent said the monthly fee is too expensive, ten percent said the installation fee is too high, and nine percent don't want a long-term service contract. Owning or renting a computer was also a major expense obstacle.
But some of the non-adopters -- about 12 percent -- have concerns about digital literacy. They either do not believe they have the digital skills necessary to utilize a broadband connection, they are concerned about potential exposure to unwanted content, or they are uneasy about security for their personal information.
About 19 percent of non-adopters say the Internet is a waste of time and they are not compelled to go online -- or, if they have dial-up, they are happy with...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
Iron Mountain Acquires E-Discovery Company Mimosa
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71835
Iron Mountain on Monday announced its acquisition of enterprise-class content-archiving solutions company Mimosa Systems for about $112 million in cash. Mimosa brings more than 1,000 enterprise customers to the Iron Mountain fold.
Iron Mountain's latest acquisition gives the company an integrated archive for e-mail, SharePoint data and files, and an on-premises archiving option to complement its existing cloud-based archives. With the Mimosa acquisition, Iron Mountain is positioning the company as a one-stop shop for data capture, archiving and management.
"Iron Mountain has seen its core business come under a lot of pressure from traditional storage vendors," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "Its traditional business is being sliced and diced. So it makes sense for them to become greater than they were. We've seen that with previous acquisitions in some of the cloud-based archive offerings the company has been offering."
By combining Mimosa's on-premises archive with Iron Mountain's cloud-based technologies, Iron Mountain said the company can store, recover and discover digital content wherever it resides.
Specifically, the acquisition makes it possible for Iron Mountain to deal with enterprise information on "edge-of-the-network" devices like desktop PCs and laptops as well as from company repositories like e-mail stores, SharePoint servers, and file systems. Iron Mountain said the acquisition also allows the company to "extract intelligence" from the information it manages both on-premises and in the cloud.
"This is the kind of opportunities that the big companies fully understand. IBM has poured billions of dollars into the development and acquisitions aimed at this same area," King said. "The entire EMC Documentum product group is dedicated to this area and SharePoint content management is a really hot topic right now."
With the acquisition, Iron Mountain picks up Mimosa NearPoint, an enterprise archiving platform with applications for retention and disposition, e-discovery, compliance supervision, classification, recovery and...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
iPhone Soars To Third Place in World Mobile Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71828
Gartner said Tuesday that Apple succeeded in capturing market share from Nokia and other smartphone producers last year. The iPhone OS held 14.4 percent of the worldwide market at the end of 2009 -- sharply up from Apple's 8.2 percent share in the prior year -- enabling Apple to slip by Microsoft and become the world's third-largest smartphone vendor, the research firm said.
One reason behind Apple's 2009 success story is the company's realization of the importance of the ecosystem, noted Roberta Cozza, a principal research analyst at Gartner. Still, she thinks it won't be easy for Apple to maintain the same market growth this year.
"The iPhone continues to be the most iconic device in the industry, and we have yet to see another device to match that," Cozza said. "But Apple still needs to continue to innovate and stay ahead of everybody else."
Cozza believes we will probably see a new product release from Apple in June. "But a lot of other higher-end platforms have improved their user interfaces and can now compete with the iPhone," so it's going to be "tough for Apple" to maintain its marketplace edge, Cozza said.
One indication of the challenges that Apple now faces comes from the latest smartphone sales figures for North America. According to Cozza, Apple's market share fell from 29.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009 to 24 percent in the fourth quarter. This is largely attributable to heavy promotion of new handsets running Android, which increased its North American market share to 19 percent in the fourth quarter -- up from 5.2 percent in the prior quarter.
Moreover, the Android platform grew its market share worldwide by 3.5 percentage points in 2009, Cozza said. "Android's success experienced in the fourth quarter of 2009 should...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
FTC Warns Organizations of Data Leaks To P2P Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71806
Nearly 100 organizations have been notified by the Federal Trade Commission that "sensitive data" about customers and employees has been taken from their computer networks and made available on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. The FTC said Monday that it has also opened "nonpublic investigations" of other companies whose information has been "exposed" on the P2P networks.
As part of its effort to help businesses deal with the security risks posed by this kind of breach and P2P technology, the FTC said it is making available new educational materials about the nature of the risks and how to manage them.
The notices have gone to public entities, including schools and local governments, as well as private businesses. The contacted organizations are as small as eight employees and as large as publicly held corporations with tens of thousands of employees.
In part, the FTC letter said it was sent "because at least one computer file containing sensitive personal information from or about your customers and/or employees" has been shared on P2P networks. The letter also named one of the breached files from that organization.
The letter warned that "your failure to prevent such information from being shared to a P2P network may violate laws" enforced by the FTC, although it added that no determination of violation has yet been made.
In addition to notifying the organizations of security breaches, the notices urged them to "review their security practices" as well as those of their contractors and vendors. The FTC also recommended that companies and public organizations identify affected customers and employees and "consider whether to notify them that their information is available on P2P networks."
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the agency found "health-related information, financial records, and drivers' license and social-security numbers" exposed. He added that "companies should take a hard look...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
Twitter Hits 50M Tweets a Day as Cybercriminals Watch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71805
Fifty million. That's how many tweets Twitter users send every day. It's the latest stat in a micro-blogging growth story that has taken the social-media world by storm. But as corporations and celebrities join the fray, cybercriminals are lying in wait with spam scams.
Kevin Weil of Twitter's analytics team posted a graph on the company's blog that tells the story of how the service has grown over the past three years in number of tweets created per day -- not counting tweets from accounts identified as spam.
The results: Users tweeted 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400 percent last year to 35 million per day. Today, Weil reported, Twitter sees 50 million tweets per day -- an average of 600 tweets per second.
"Tweet deliveries are a much higher number because once created, tweets must be delivered to multiple followers. Then there's search and so many other ways to measure and understand growth across this information network," Weil said. "Tweets per day is just one number to think about."
Twitter's revelation comes on the heels of a Nielsen report that consumers spent more than five and a half hours a month on social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December. That's an 82 percent increase over December 2008, when users were spending just more than three hours on social-networking sites. What's more, Nielsen reports, overall traffic to social-networking sites has grown over the last three years.
Not surprisingly, Facebook remained the leading global social-networking destination in December. Sixty-seven percent of global social-media users visited the site during the last month of 2009, and spent nearly six hours a month on the site. Among the top five U.S. social-networking sites,...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
Is the Death Knell Sounding for Game Controllers?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71798
Will this year mark the death of the joystick?
With major video game publishers adopting camera and motion controller technologies, the end of the traditional controller -- you know, that thing with all those buttons, sticks and pads -- could be imminent. Microsoft and Sony will introduce dueling systems for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year that could rival Nintendo's popular Wii.
"I think it's going to be awhile, if ever, that we get away from a solid control pad, especially with our game," said Robert Bowling, creative strategist at "Modern Warfare" franchise developer Infinity Ward. "In a first-person shooter, you have to have that accuracy, so I don't think we will ever move away from having that stick control and using a control pad."
The next input evolution, the one that Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. unveiled at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, involves cameras connected to consoles. Sony's unnamed system employs detectable wandlike devices, while Microsoft's Project Natal relies on camera-gesture recognition, which can enable gamers to exert their actual fists in a fighting game, for example.
Meanwhile, Nintendo has teased the Wii Vitality Sensor, a peripheral device also expected out this year that attaches to players' fingertips and can measure their body signals. Much like the Microsoft and Sony camera systems, developers believe such technology can provide more specialized experiences, like a zombie game that unleashes more undead if a gamer seems bored.
"It's this whole sensory thing that we've never had -- a window to the player's sort of mental state -- or with the Wii, the biometrics that we can tune and tweak to customize an experience that way," said Morgan Gray, senior producer at "Resident Evil" developer Capcom. "That is exciting because now it's a two-way dialogue between the player and the game."
Yet most developers and...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
Detroit Citizens Press for Renaissance Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71789
Online social networks have helped organize political demonstrations, inspired "flash mobs" to perform impromptu street acts and reunited long-lost loves. Can they help save a city?
In a twist on urban revitalization, a small group of Detroiters is galvanizing residents to help lift the declining city out of its economic funk via a Web site and Facebook page.
Declaration Detroit is an online call to action: "We know you love Detroit and want to see it not just survive, but thrive. This is our rallying cry. Welcome to a political movement for a brighter Detroit future."
Drafted by 20 residents, the manifesto (DetroitDeclaration.com, facebook.com/DeclareDetroit) lays out 12 principles, from promoting sustainability and cultivating creativity to demanding better transportation services and government accountability. Posters are available, too.
Supporters are asked to sign the declaration, and about 2,100 have done so since it went online Jan. 21. More than 20,000 visited the Web site and 8,000-plus have become fans of the Facebook page.
"It's grown pretty organically," says Kirsten Ussery, 31, director of communications and marketing for Business Leaders of Michigan, a non-profit economic development group.
"It is not the voice of any one person," says Nichole Christian, 39, a former journalist who is communications director at Tech Town, a small-business incubator.
"What I see the Detroit manifesto as is that people who are not in a position to lead major institutions are saying, 'We're in this, too. We're going to help,' " says Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, a national network of urban leaders that promotes city revitalization.
"It says there's a whole layer of people in Detroit who are committed to Detroit's future," she says.
Organizers of Declaration Detroit say their employers are not involved in the movement, which grew largely from chats between friends and neighbors.
"People were talking among...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
Flash Is Under Fire, But Adobe Shares Stay Strong
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71788
The new year began harshly for Adobe Systems. Shares of the maker of Photoshop, Flash, and other widely used software have dropped almost 8 percent in 2010, after big gains last year, amid speculation that Adobe's Flash Web-video software will be eclipsed by a competing technology backed by Apple and Google.
Apple has fanned the concern, saying it won't let videos and graphics created with Flash play on the iPhone or on its upcoming iPad computer, introduced by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs in January. Adding to the bearish outlook, some technology executives ask whether Adobe, which has traditionally specialized in software for the desktop, is adapting quickly enough to the emerging mobile computing realm. Adobe's products "have a lot of competition," says Carl Bass, chief executive at design software maker Autodesk, which uses Flash to power a Web site that helps consumers remodel homes.
For all the negativity aimed at Flash, Wall Street analysts are surprisingly bullish on Adobe, the world's No. 5 software maker by market value. No less than 19 of 29 analysts covering Adobe recommend its stock, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Some analysts dismiss talk of Flash's demise as overblown, saying that this year's share decline should be measured against a 73 percent gain in 2009. "Adobe was this darling company that could do nothing wrong," says Brent Thill, a software analyst at UBS who favors Adobe shares. "Now the king of tech, Steve Jobs, is throwing rocks at them on the playground. This is overdone."
Another reason for optimism, analysts say, is Adobe's plan to release a new version of its Creative Suite, which accounts for a majority of its sales, in the first half of this year. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect Adobe's sales to rise 22 percent to $3.59 billion in...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
Dell Chases Acer, With a Little Help from China and India
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71787
Dell is fed up with losing ground to Acer. Last year Dell lost its spot as the world's second-largest computer maker to its Taiwanese rival, lagging behind Acer in market share for the first time ever. As of the fourth quarter of 2009, Dell had just 12.4 percent of the global market, according to market research firm IDC, compared with 13.4 percent for Acer and 21 percent for Hewlett-Packard.
While Acer executives, including Chairman J.T. Wang, are already talking about how they're going to close the gap with HP, Dell isn't giving up on recovering its No. 2 spot, says Stephen J. Felice, Singapore-based president for the Dell division focused on consumers and small and midsize businesses. And Dell hopes to claw back lost ground without sacrificing profitability. "We are not ceding that second place," he said on a conference call with reporters on Feb. 19. "We see a way to get back to leadership position but will do it in a more measured way."
Dell executives want to avoid following in the footsteps of Acer, which has grown largely because of its strength in low-cost netbooks and other inexpensive computers. "Acer has had a focus on low-end products, but the operating margin they work at is substantially lower than ours," Felice said. "We don't think that's the right strategy for our shareholders."
Acer's share gains aren't helping Dell investors much either. Dell's fourth-quarter profit dropped 4.8 percent, to $334 million, the company reported on Feb. 18. Dell's gross margin of 17.4 percent was also below the 18 percent expected by analysts, Bloomberg News reported. And the profit picture isn't likely to improve soon. Margins "will be under pressure short term with increased competition from the likes of Acer and, to a lesser degree, Hewlett-Packard," Ashok Kumar,...
Wed, 24 Feb 10
Chips Get Smaller, While Market War Gets Tougher
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71785
The semiconductor industry has long been a game for titans.
The going rate for a chip factory is about $3 billion. The facilities typically take years to build. And the microscopic size of chip circuitry requires engineering that nearly defies the laws of physics.
Over the decades, legions of companies have found themselves reeling, even wiped out financially, after trying to produce some of the most complex objects made by man for the lowest possible prices.
Now, the chip wars are about to get even more bloody. In this next phase, the manufacturers will be fighting to supply the silicon for one of the fastest-growing segments of computing: smartphones, tiny laptops and tablet-style devices.
The fight pits several big chip companies -- each trying to put its own stamp on the same basic design for mobile chips -- against Intel, the dominant maker of PC chips, which is using an entirely different design to enter a segment of the market in which it has a minuscule presence.
Consumers are likely to benefit from the battle, which should increase competition and innovation, according to industry players. But it will be costly to the chip manufacturers.
"I worry about that," said Ian Drew, an executive vice president at ARM Holdings, which owns the rights to the core chip design used in most smartphones and licenses that technology to manufacturers. "But ultimately, these chip makers are all pushing each other and, if one falls over, there are still two or three left."
Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, has long been held up as the gold standard for ultraefficient, advanced chip manufacturing plants. The company is the last remaining mainstream chip maker to design and build its products, which go into the vast majority of the personal computers and servers sold each year.
Most other chips, for everything from cars to...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Wal-Mart Buying VUDU To Build an E-Commerce Platform
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71804
The world's biggest retailer has long struggled to dominate the streaming video market against competitors like Netflix, Apple and Blockbuster. Now Wal-Mart is taking a new tack, The New York Times reports.
Sources told the Times that Wal-Mart has agreed to buy VUDU, a three-year-old company that embeds its streaming technology into high-definition TVs and Blu-Ray DVD players. Wal-Mart and VUDU began briefing movie studios and TV makers about the deal on Monday.
At the International Consumer Electronics Show in January, VUDU announced deals to embed its technology into equipment from Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp and Toshiba. It already has deals with LG Electronics, Vizio and Mitsubishi. VUDU doesn't yet have any deals with Panasonic or Sony.
Why is Wal-Mart investing in a company that provides an embedded technology into brand-name electronics?
"This is all about trying to control the user experience and give Wal-Mart more direct access to the customer," Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said in an e-mail. "The goal would be to integrate these services into next-generation TVs and Blu-ray/DVD players and try and integrate them into users' overall digital experience to make it easy for them to gain access to movies over the Internet on demand."
"This is a major trend and one that has a lot of potential if done right," Bajarin added. "Best Buy's approach, which includes cloud-based movie downloads of Cinema Now, is another great example of how this will work as they, too, will integrate these on-demand movies into an easy-to-use platform that can work with devices that have an Internet connection."
Contrast this with Netflix's approach, where users stream movies either by watching them on a laptop or buying and plugging in an Internet-aware device from Roku. That's one more box and one more ugly cable...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Google Buzz Fallout Could Hurt Future Cloud Prospects
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71803
The fallout over Google's bumbling social-network Google Buzz venture continued into its second week with a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Gmail users who feel their privacy was violated.
And as blogs buzzed with comparisons to Facebook's badly received Beacon feature and the risk to children who use Gmail, an analyst speculated that there could be an impact on future Google business prospects.
"When Google won the contract with the City of Los Angeles last year, they made a statement: The cloud is safe, you can trust us with even your most critical data," said Scott Menter of Shire Ventures, a California-based technology and business consulting practice and former CIO of WaMu Investments. He referred to a deal to outsource e-mail for 30,000 LA municipal employees to Google.
"The Buzz debacle, which has much greater visibility than the LA deal outside the IT world, has considerably diminished the credibility of their position," Menter said. "While I don't see consumers fleeing Google or Gmail en masse as a result of this issue, it's likely to have a chilling effect on future corporate IT deals."
But it's not just Google who should worry, Menter said. "That effect may spread to other cloud providers as we are reminded, once again, that one instance of poor judgment on the part of a vendor can compromise privacy and create an unacceptable level of risk," he added.
Google Buzz went online last week, utilizing Gmail accounts and profiles as the template for a network that shares contacts and content from Google Reader and Picasa. In response to complaints, Google changed the privacy settings to make it easier to opt out and for users to choose who follows them.
But anger lingers. "Tying Buzz to Gmail, and then fumbling the privacy aspect of that service, served as a jarring...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
DynamicBooks Lets Professors Customize Textbooks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71802
One of the largest textbook publishers is taking textbooks where they've never gone before -- to a digital publishing platform that paves the way for professors to customize the material. On Monday Macmillan launched the platform called DynamicBooks.
The new software lets instructors tailor textbook content to suit the specific needs of their classroom by editing or adding new text or media. They can add or delete entire chapters, add a syllabus, include notes, and much more. After instructors finish customizing the textbook, students can either purchase the digital text or a printed version through Lightning Source, Ingram's print-on-demand service. Digital versions will cost as little as half the price of a printed book.
"Most college students don't read textbooks anymore," said Charles Grisham, a professor of chemistry at the University of Virginia. "Students jump from point to point, as they do on the Internet. It's also safe to say that no textbook has completely matched every instructor's syllabus. DynamicBooks offers instructors and authors a better way to convey content that is more relevant and creative-minded, and that mirrors the always interactive environment in which students live."
Here's a closer look at how it works: Instructors can integrate podcasts, video clips, animation, equation editors, graphing tools, and their own content to customize a textbook to match their teaching style and class focus. Instructor-edited content will be highlighted as changed from the original text and attributed to the instructor who made the change. All original content and original multimedia additions will be copyrighted by the instructor.
Students who purchase the digital package can access the book online, download a version, or even put it on an iPhone. Students can also annotate or highlight and search terms or their notes in DynamicBooks and print from within the application. Printed, bound versions are available in black...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Gadget E-Waste Poses Significant Risks, U.N. Warns
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71801
A sharp rise in the sale of consumer gadgets around the globe will pose serious environmental and public-health risks over the next 10 years unless action is taken to properly collect and recycle their materials, according to a report from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). The products range from computers, printers and mobile phones to music devices, electronic toys, and televisions.
Based on the data collected by the UNEP to date, the e-waste from discarded computers will rise 200 to 500 percent over the next 10 years in comparison with 2007 levels in countries such as China, India and South Africa. E-waste from cell phones is also projected to grow in China and India by seven and 18 times, respectively, during the same period.
"This report gives new urgency to establishing ambitious, formal and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via the setting up of large, efficient facilities in China," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
The UNEP report singles out China as an example of the e-waste challenges ahead. The world's largest consumer market is expected to produce about 2.3 million tons of e-waste this year, second only to the United States with about three million tons.
China also remains a major e-waste dumping ground for developed countries, even though Chinese authorities banned e-waste imports. But China isn't alone in facing a serious challenge, Steiner noted. "India, Brazil, Mexico and others may also face rising environmental damage and health problems if e-waste recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal sector" -- which primarily is comprised of backyard recyclers who incinerate discarded electronic products as an easy way to recover gold, silver, palladium, cobalt and other valuable metals, he said.
Such unsupervised practices end up releasing plumes of far-reaching toxic gases, which...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Google Upgrades Ad-Serving Platform for Publishers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71800
Just days after a Microsoft and Yahoo search-engine and advertising partnership was approved by U.S. and European regulators, Google has rolled out an upgraded ad-serving platform for publishers. Dubbed DoubleClick for Publishers, or DFP for short, the single platform replaces DoubleClick's DART for Publishers and Google Ad Manager by combining Google's technology and infrastructure with DoubleClick's display-advertising and ad-serving experience.
Neal Mohan, vice president of product management at Google, said Monday that DFP is part of a suite of products (including AdSense and DoubleClick Ad Exchange) to help online publishers maximize advertising revenues. "Ad serving is the machinery that powers the online advertising world," he said, "so improving that technology can put a lot of money in publishers' pockets."
As Mohan suggested, DFP includes new features to help publishers get the most value from their online content. Google is promising the platform will help publishers of all sizes monetize their web sites more efficiently.
Features include a redesigned interface that aims to save time and reduce errors, more detailed reporting and forecasting data to help publishers understand where revenue is coming from and what ads are most valuable, and algorithms that automatically improve ad performance and delivery.
DFP also offers a new, open API that lets publishers integrate their own or third-party apps with DFP, such as tools for sales, order management, and work flow. DFP also works with the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange "dynamic allocation" feature, which promises to maximize revenue by letting publishers open up their ad space to bids from multiple ad networks.
DFP comes in two Google-described "flavors" it said are customized to meet the needs of publishers large and small. DFP is targeted at large online publishers who currently use DART for Publishers. DFP Small Business is a free version for growing online publishers...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Bloom Box Helps Companies Reduce Electricity Costs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71799
Your business probably already uses Wi-Fi for wirelessly connecting laptops in your office, and employees' cell phones are replacing landlines. Now a new energy-in-a-box technology could let your business disconnect from the electrical grid as well.
While many new technologies for untangling businesses and consumers from power lines are emerging, one called the Bloom Box has been receiving a lot of attention recently -- including a feature piece on Sunday's 60 Minutes. The fuel-cell technology, from Bloom Energy in Silicon Valley, Calif., adapts NASA technology to create a clean-energy powerplant in a box that is now being used by several large corporations, including Google, Federal Express, Wal-Mart and eBay.
The key scientist behind the box is Bloom Energy founder K.R. Sridhar, who created a similar energy box for generating oxygen on Mars when he worked for NASA. For earth-bound use, Sridhar decided to pump oxygen into the box, where it helps create a chemical reaction that produces electricity.
The fuel cells in the Bloom Box are developed from inexpensive, sand-based ceramics coated with special black and green "inks," whose composition is a closely guarded secret. Instead of requiring pure hydrogen, as many fuel cells do, the Bloom Box can use natural gas, bio-gas or other sources as fuel.
According to the company, which will officially announce the technology on Wednesday, one of the fuel-cell discs can provide enough electricity for a single light bulb, while 64 discs can power a Starbucks.
Google reportedly has been powering one of its data centers for about 18 months with four boxes, using about 50 percent the amount of natural gas that otherwise would be required. eBay has said that its five Bloom Boxes, which run on bio-gas, saved the company $100,000 in electrical costs over nine months.
Currently, the pricing for a Bloom...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
FBI Reportedly Looking Into School Spycam Case
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71778
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now looking into the Pennsylvania school spycam case, according to a new report. CNN said this weekend that "a law enforcement officer" told the network the FBI has opened an investigation following the lawsuit filed by a family in the Lower Merion School District which contended that federal laws and the Constitution's Fourth Amendment were violated.
In a statement released Friday evening, School Superintendent Dr. Christopher W. McGinley said the district has retained the services of former federal prosecutor Henry E. Hockeimer Jr. to "assist in our comprehensive review." He also reported that the security-tracking software has been disabled, and that it was limited to "taking a still image of the computer user and an image of the desktop" for locating missing or stolen student laptops.
Parents Michael and Holly Robbins are seeking damages against the suburban Philadelphia district for invasion of privacy, theft of private information, and "unlawful interception and access" to electronic communication. They claim that, without their knowledge or authorization, the district was spying on students and their families through the "indiscriminate remote activation of the webcams incorporated into each laptop."
The Robbins said they first learned of the remote monitoring capability on Nov. 11 when an assistant principal at one of the district's two high schools told their son that he was "engaged in improper behavior in his home," according to the lawsuit, and that the evidence was a photograph from the webcam in his laptop. According to their suit, the father then verified with the assistant principal that the district can remotely activate and view through the webcam of their son's laptop.
But Dr. McGinley specifically denied that any high-school administrator had the ability to access the security-tracking software, adding that the assistant principal "has been unfairly portrayed and unjustly...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Cyberattack on Google Traced To Chinese Schools
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71773
Evidence is accumulating that the Chinese government was in fact behind attacks on Google and other major U.S. companies, investigators say. The New York Times reported the attacks have been traced to two schools in China, one of which has close ties to the Chinese military. The attacks likely originated in April, months earlier than previously believed, the sources said.
On Jan. 12, Google revealed that its servers had been under attack since mid-December and charged that the hackers were politically motivated. "We have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties," Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said. Google went on to announce it was reconsidering its role in China, an announcement that made headlines around the world.
Officially, National Security Agency investigators and other computer security experts have only traced the attacks to servers in Taiwan. The news that schools tightly connected to the Chinese government are involved appears to verify Google's charges.
But not necessarily. For instance, an American military contractor acquired evidence leading investigators to suspect an Ukrainian computer-science professor at one school with military ties.
The schools are Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lancing Vocational School, the Times' sources said. Jiaotong is one of China's top computer-science schools. Lancing is a huge vocational school founded with military funding and which trains some computer scientists for the military. Interestingly, the school's computer network is operated by a company with close ties to Baidu, Google's main competitor in China, the Times reported.
Intelligence analysts are split about what the latest evidence means. Some say the schools are simply extensions of the Chinese government. Others suggest the schools were a "false flag" operation being run...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Nokia Losing Mobile-Trendsetter Allure
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71760
Nokia Corp. may be the world's top cell phone maker, but it's no longer a trendsetter, as a host of inventive and alluring technologies from North America is shifting the center of gravity in the cellular universe away from Europe.
Despite efforts to boost its position in the U.S., Nokia is struggling to compete with Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. -- maker of the iPhone -- and Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry.
"There has long been a steady stream of North American firms attacking Nokia and they are likely to encourage others, such as Amazon, to follow suit," said Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics. "The intensity of competition can really only get tougher.
Innovation is where Nokia has faltered, experts say. After much hype, its N-Gage online game flopped. And it's been slow to catch on to market trends, from folding "clamshell" handsets to phones with sliding tops and touch screens. It was forced to quickly ship models with those features to markets.
In October, it launched its first laptop, a netbook with a 10-inch screen that runs on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 7 software. It also has introduced touch-screen handsets that unmistakably resemble the popular iPhone.
Nokia's chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo concedes the Finnish company is under pressure.
"There is no doubt the center of mobile innovation has shifted from Europe to Silicon Valley. We are working to tap into this innovation," Kallasvuo told analysts earlier this month. He said Nokia had installed more than 3,300 employees in North America to redress the balance.
When Kallasvuo took over as CEO in 2006, he announced that a top priority for Nokia would be to improve its performance in the U.S. market, but success has been elusive. Sales volumes in North America plunged more than 7 percent in the last quarter from a year earlier...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
A Disheartening Fourth Quarter for Dell
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71759
Dell Inc. said Thursday its net income fell 5 percent in the last quarter despite early signs that businesses may be starting to buy new computers again.
Consumers snapped up low-cost laptops and smaller netbooks over the holidays, pushing Dell's PC shipments up 29 percent. Those products are less lucrative, though, and Dell's revenue and profit in the consumer PC division grew much more slowly. Dell's profit margin was below expectations, and its shares fell 7 percent in Friday trading.
Revenue from businesses, which makes up about half of Dell's total, grew 9 percent from last year. During a conference call, Dell's chief financial officer, Brian Gladden, said many corporations were buying servers, a trend that also appeared in recent reports from Hewlett-Packard Co. and Intel Corp. But he added that companies were also starting to buy new laptops, a sign that corporate spending on technology might be coming out of its recession-induced slump.
CEO Michael Dell said some of the increase could be attributed to technology executives spending what was left of their budgets for the calendar year, the so-called end-of-year "budget flush."
However, demand has remained strong in January and into the current first quarter. In part, Dell credited the arrival of Microsoft Corp.'s newest computer operating system, Windows 7.
Many companies skipped Microsoft's last update, Windows Vista. Then, the recession caused those companies to hold on to aging computers longer than usual, and they can't wait much longer to upgrade.
Dell did not provide guidance for the current first quarter, but Gladden said the company is cautiously optimistic that corporate demand for its products will continue.
For the three months ended Jan. 29, Dell said earnings slipped to $334 million, or 17 cents per share. That was down from $351 million, or 18 cents per share, a year ago.
The figures include Dell's acquisition of...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
'Amateur' Hackers Feast on Trove of Logons
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71756
A band of hackers who were recently discovered hoarding a trove of account logons pilfered from thousands of companies worldwide are garden-variety cyberthieves, security experts say.
The gang most likely began by hiring spam specialists to send out e-mail and social-networking posts to lure recipients into clicking on a tainted Web link, says Don Jackson, senior researcher at SecureWorks.
They then used a dated free version of a hacking tool called ZeuS and did nothing to hide their tracks, indicating that "they're probably amateurs," Jackson says.
That disclosure underscores how deeply cybercriminals -- from novices to elite gangs -- have now saturated the Internet with infections that allow them to take full control of Windows PCs. Cybergangs slot newly infected PCs, called bots, into networks called botnets. On any given day, 12 percent to 15 percent of the 1.6 billion computers connected to the Internet are bots, according to security firm Damballa.
Botnets are the engines that drive cybercrime, ranging from petty scams to espionage. "We've become desensitized to botnet infestation," says Tim Belcher, NetWitness chief technology officer.
In late January, NetWitness began tracking data exchanges between a bot in one of its client's networks and a remote server. Investigators accessed the server and found some 68,000 user name and password pairs for an array of online accounts. The data were stolen from 75,000 botted PCs in 2,411 organizations from 196 countries.
These included government agencies and schools, as well as drug, health, energy, tech, financial and media companies.
Gunter Ollmann, Damballa's vice president of research, has tracked this particular gang since late 2008. He says the hackers, now being referred to as the Kneber gang, are responsible for infecting at least 97,100 PCs in corporate networks in North America, in what's considered a "small" botnet. There are some 2,000 botnet gangs that...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Facebook Users Are an Easy Target for Cybercriminals
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71755
Facebook users have become easy prey for criminals as more and more people share personal information on the social networking site, says a computer anti-virus company.
Criminals are harvesting and selling Facebook users' information, stealing identities, sending spam and planting viruses, according to [security product vendor] AVG.
"People put themselves at risk every day by carelessly clicking on invitations sent by 'friends' to join groups or write on their wall," AVG marketing manager Lloyd Borrett said.
"They put all their personal information including date of birth and photos on their page. They even respond to fake Facebook requests for security details."
To help people stay safe on Facebook, AVG gave 10 tips:
1. Think about who you add: accepting a friend request provides your new mate with access to posts, photographs, messages and background information about yourself. Go through your list of friends and think about who you really want accessing your stuff.
2. Check privacy settings: Facebook recently got a face-lift, changing default privacy settings. It's worth going through them again; you may be sharing more than intended.
3. Why are you on Facebook? To share photos? Keep in touch with people? Share links and updates of your activities? Ask yourself what you want to achieve. It could be better to cut down on information-sharing.
4. Be smart about your password: try not to use the same passwords for all your accounts. Think about the type of security questions you set and where you are sending your updates.
5. Be aware of where you sign in from: When signing in from a different computer, check that it doesn't store your email address and password. It's easy to accidentally choose it to "remember you".
6. Be careful what you say: once status updates and comments are posted, anyone can see, copy, and post it elsewhere. Do you really want people...
Tue, 23 Feb 10
Smartphones Boot PCs from Top of Tech Food Chain
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71754
The era of the PC's dominance is officially over. We have crossed over into the age of mobile computing.
This transition has been building momentum for a while. Some might argue that the iPhone was the dawn of this era. Others might say it was really the rise of the BlackBerry. Or maybe even Android, Google's mobile operating system. Good cases could be made that any one of these marked the start of the mobile era.
But Microsoft's announcement of its new mobile-phone platform [signals] a clear end to the old PC era and an epic shift in computing. But why Microsoft? The reason has little to do with the details of Windows Phone Series 7 that the company unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, [last week].
I haven't touched it, and it won't be available to consumers for months.
This isn't about specific features or its design, or whether it will help Microsoft regain lost momentum in the mobile market. Rather, what struck me is how Microsoft did this.
For years, the company took its Windows operating system and created a miniature version for smart phones. While initially good enough for many users, this was the approach of a titan aimed at protecting its turf, rather than a nimble tech firm trying to innovate. It was safe, which is often the enemy of creativity.
Along the way, Windows Mobile was surpassed by the iPhone, Android and Palm's webOS in terms of elegance and features.
Rapidly losing market share in this critical space to those competitors, Microsoft eventually decided it was time to reboot. For the new version, Microsoft scrapped the Windows-based version completely. The need to think mobile first was so critical that the company was willing to risk undermining its biggest franchise, Windows, which brings in...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Patent Wars Heat Up for Apple, Nokia, Kodak and RIM
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71772
Apple is one step closer to potentially taking a bite out of Nokia's U.S. market share. The U.S. International Trade Commission on Thursday said it will review the iPhone maker's complaint against the Finland-based mobile-phone giant. The ITC is also reviewing a similar complaint from Nokia against Apple.
The ITC is an independent federal agency that, among other things, reviews complaints against unfair trade practices involving patent, trademark and copyright infringement. It has the authority to order U.S. customs officials to block goods from entering the U.S. If Apple wins its bid, it would effectively block Nokia from bringing its handsets into the U.S.
"Obviously there is a lot of money to be made in mobility. Over time, if it turns out there are legitimate claims on anyone's part, usually there is some sort of licensing deal," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "This does show that companies like Apple will continue to be targets because you don't sue companies that don't have money."
Both Apple and Nokia are alleging patent infringement. Nokia took the first swing in October when it filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Delaware accusing Apple of infringing on its patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption, and Nokia said they are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since its introduction in 2007.
Apple sat quietly for about two months before launching a counterattack against Nokia in December. Apple's countersuit charged Nokia with infringing on 13 Apple patents. That led to an escalation, with Nokia proceeding to file its complaint with the ITC and Apple quickly following suit.
The ITC has its hands full these days with mobile-market complaints. Beyond the Nokia-Apple brawl, Eastman Kodak filed a complaint...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Apple Tells Developers To Behave as Racy App Booted
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71771
Want to see a supermodel jiggle on your iPhone? Sorry, there's no app for that. At least not anymore.
In an apparent response to complaints, Apple has removed Wobble iBoobs from the ranks of the more than 100,000 available downloads in its App Store last month. And in a message to other purveyors of racy content, the computer giant is warning developers to behave.
According to reports Friday, John Atherton, the designer of Wobble iBoobs, received a letter from Apple telling him that his app was inappropriate. The program allows the user to designate zones of a photo that will wobble when the iPhone is shaken. While this trick can be applied to a photo of a martini shaker or a pogo stick, the app's name makes its intention pretty clear.
The letter reportedly read, "The App Store continues to evolve, and as such, we are constantly refining our guidelines. Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately."
However, several tech writers on Friday were noting which programs were, and were not, still available, and some noted that titles similar to "iBoobs" were still live. Some speculated that it may take time to purge the App Store of iPorn, while others noted that Apple has a history of inconsistency in its screening process.
"Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content, we review them," Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller told us. "If we find these apps contain inappropriate material, we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple."
But when asked if apps that might be more explicit, but have received no complaints, would continue to...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Microsoft Prepares Choice Ballot for European IE Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71770
Microsoft said Friday that it will soon supply European users of Internet Explorer with a choice screen to select an alternative web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari. The so-called browser ballot was an essential requirement of the antitrust settlement reached between the software giant and the European Commission in December, and to which Microsoft will be bound for the next five years.
"External testing of the choice screen will begin next week in three countries: The United Kingdom, Belgium and France," Microsoft Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner wrote in a blog. "We plan to begin a phased rollout of the update across Europe the week of March 1."
As part of the settlement, the choice screen will be offered as a download through Windows Update for machines running Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
"The software update will be installed automatically, or will prompt you to download or install it, depending on which operating system you are running and your settings for Windows Update," Heiner wrote. "If you do not have automatic updating enabled, you can get the choice screen by going to Windows Update and clicking on 'Check for Updates.'"
The design and operation of the screen was worked out in extensive discussions with the commission and is reflected in the commitment that Microsoft made, Heiner wrote. "Users who get the choice screen will be free to choose any browser or stick with the browser they have, as they prefer," he explained.
To enable users to learn more about what the alternative choices offer -- as well as how to install them -- the browser list will include links. The EC-mandated ballot also gives European PC users the ability to turn access to Internet Explorer on or off.
What's more, the software giant will no longer be...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
School District Sued for Spying on Students with Webcam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71753
A school district gives each of its high-school students a laptop, and then your child is reprimanded for improper behavior in his home -- as seen by the school over the laptop's web camera. A Pennsylvania couple contends this happened to their son, and they have filed a class-action lawsuit against the school district.
The Lower Merion School District says it has now deactivated a tracking device on the laptops, promising it would not be reinstated without permission from the students and their families.
In the lawsuit, Michael and Holly Robbins sought damages against the district for invasion of privacy, theft of private information, and "unlawful interception and access" of electronic communications in violation of various federal statues, state laws, and the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
They claim that, without their knowledge or authorization, the district was "spying" on students and their families through the "indiscriminate remote activation of the webcams incorporated into each laptop." There are about 1,800 high-school students in the district, each of whom received a laptop.
The Robbins said they first learned of the remote monitoring capability on Nov. 11 when an assistant principal at one of the district's two high schools told their son that he was "engaged in improper behavior in his home," according to the lawsuit, and the evidence was a photograph from the webcam in his laptop. According to their suit, the father then verified with the assistant principal that the district can remotely activate and view through the webcam.
The district contends the remote capability was an antitheft measure, and the webcam was turned on only if a laptop was believed to be stolen or missing. According to news reports, many teachers were aware of the remote capability and commonly turned the laptops to a wall when not in use to...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Cisco Cuts Long-Time Partner Ties with Hewlett-Packard
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71750
Cisco Systems on Thursday moved to end its long-term relationship with Hewlett-Packard. With the two companies increasingly competing in servers and networking, Cisco decided to formally cut HP from its reseller program, effective April 30.
Cisco's decision means HP will no longer have access to proprietary information from its newly found rival. Although HP can still sell Cisco products to its client base, the computing giant won't be able to tap into incentives.
Keith Goodwin, senior vice president of Cisco's Worldwide Partner Organization, said partnering is a critical element of the company's growth and innovation strategy. But after evaluating its relationship with HP, Cisco decided the companies have "conflicting visions of how to deliver value to customers."
"Being a Cisco Certified Channel Partner has numerous benefits, including access to proprietary information -- such as product road maps -- and partner profitability initiatives," Goodwin said. "Given the evolution of our relationship, it simply no longer makes sense to provide these benefits to HP."
Cisco and HP have been headed toward divorce for several years, said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at the Yankee Group. Although some blame Cisco for stepping onto HP's turf with its Unified Computing initiatives, Kerravala said HP threw the first punch.
"Years before Cisco's Unified Computing, HP got extremely aggressive with the pricing on the ProCurve side. HP's value proposition basically said customers were paying too much for Cisco. So Cisco has been on the defensive since then," Kerravala said. "When you look at how aggressive HP has been in trying to punch Cisco in the nose every chance they get, this was inevitable."
While sometimes rocky, Cisco has managed to maintain good relationships with other server vendors, including Dell and IBM. So Kerravala doesn't think it was Cisco's move into servers that ultimately caused the rift; rather, it was HP's move...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Apple's iPad: No Fun, No ROI for Small Businesses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71741
I'm not a big fan of change. I've lived in the same city all my life. I go to the same supermarket every week. I read the newspaper every day. I drive non-hybrid American cars (thank God). I watch 60 Minutes every Sunday. And I think the Who looked just fine at the Super Bowl, O.K.?
I don't like change in my personal life. And much of the time, I hate it when things change in my business -- especially when that change lessens productivity and boosts my costs.
Which is why I'm not especially happy about the imminent release of the Apple iPad. It seems like a really cool device. Apple does a great job innovating new products. I love my iPod. My first computer was a Macintosh. My kids love their MacBooks. I get it. Apple is a great company with a history of great products.
The iPad may become another great product -- for consumers. Not businesses. Apple admits this. It and AT&T, which will provide the wireless connectivity for the iPad in the U.S., are targeting the iPad to at-home users.
Yet for me, as a small business owner who sells software and related consulting services, the iPad is destined to become a pain in the rear. Some of my clients are already talking about buying one. So are some of my employees. They'll start using it at home. Then they're going to want to bring their toys to work.
Clients are going to ask me why I don't recommend it for their business. My employees are going to get frustrated when I tell them to leave their iPads at home. They're all going to call me names and accuse me of living in the Dark Ages. A few of them will probably make fun...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Critical Census Software Plagued by Glitches
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71740
A key software system for the 2010 Census is behind schedule and full of defects, and it will have to be scaled back to ensure an accurate count of the U.S. population, according to a government watchdog report.
Even as Census takers have begun the decennial head count in Alaska and other remote areas, the system is still not ready to handle the paperwork and payroll data for what eventually will be a half-million Census takers.
The software to schedule, deploy and pay Census takers is at risk, according to the report released this week by the inspector general for the Commerce Department, which includes the Census Bureau. If changes are not made, the Census risks ballooning costs, delays and inaccuracies.
The Census Bureau must deliver a complete count of the nation's population to President Obama by Dec. 31. The counts are used to allocate each state's seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years and more than $400 billion a year in federal aid.
Census forms will be mailed to more than 130 million households next month. One-third are not expected to send them back. Census workers will have to visit all of those addresses to collect demographic information.
The Census got a late start designing a paper-processing system because it initially had planned to equip workers with handheld computers to record data from households that don't mail back questionnaires.
Those devices were scrapped in 2008 because of technical problems, forcing the bureau to fall back on a paper-based system for door-to-door follow-up visits, the Census' most expensive phase. So far, the Census Bureau has budgeted $2.74 billion for this phase of the operation and $411 million more in case costs rise.
"This is a risky endeavor," Census Director Robert Groves says. "We know it. We're watching it very carefully. We're...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Technology Is Altering the Health Care Landscape
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71737
A boom in medical technology over the past decade or two has led to a surge in certain medical tests and increased prescription drug use, say authors of a report that provides a snapshot of Americans' health today.
Imaging, assisted reproductive technologies, prescription drugs and knee replacements have all seen a dramatic rise since the early '90s, says Amy Bernstein, the report's lead author, a health scientist for the National Center for Health Statistics. The center, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released the 33rd annual Report on the Nation's Health Wednesday. It includes a special section on health technology.
"There are newer and better technologies all the time, and they're changing the face of health care and practice patterns," Bernstein says.
She points to report findings that show the use of statin drugs, which lower cholesterol, increased almost tenfold from 1994 to 2006 in adults over age 45.
"One of the reasons cholesterol is declining and people are living longer with heart disease is because we have better drugs. Technologies can be very helpful," she says.
Other indications from the report of how medical technology has heavily influenced medical treatments Americans receive:
*Imaging: Rate of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT/PET (computed tomography/positron emission tomography) scans ordered or provided in doctors offices and emergency departments tripled from 1996 to 2007.
*Knee replacement: Rate of adults 45 and over discharged from the hospital after receiving at least one knee replacement increased 70 percent from 1996 to 2006 (26.5 per 10,000 in 1996 vs. 45.2 per 10,000 in 2006).
*Diabetes medicines: Anti-diabetic drug use by people 45 and up increased about 55 percent when comparing 1988-1994 with 2003-2006 figures.
*Kidney transplants: New kidney transplants per 1 million people have risen 31 percent (43.7 per 1 million in 1997 vs. 57.2 in 2006).
*Liver transplants: They rose 42 percent...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Sony Ericsson Seeks Smartphone Success in U.S.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71734
Sony Ericsson, a big but struggling maker of phones internationally, wants to be more than a bit player in the U.S. It plans to get there by giving U.S. consumers what they want: phones similar to the iPhone.
The strategy is much like the comeback recipe of U.S.-based Motorola Inc., which has hit on hard times since its Razr phone fell from popularity. It's revamping itself as a maker of smart phones running Google Inc.'s Android software.
Sony Ericsson announced that it was making its first Android phone, the Xperia X10, in November. This week, it revealed two more in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, the world's largest cell phone trade show. It hasn't announced a deal with a U.S. carrier yet, but the venture's president, Bert Nordberg, hinted that the devices would likely be carried by AT&T Inc.
That would be good news for Sony Ericsson, whose previous flagship smart phone, the Windows-powered Xperia X1, wasn't sold by any U.S. carrier. Since carriers (also known as operators in the industry) subsidize expensive phones, they're the gatekeepers of the U.S. phone market.
"If you want to be big in America you need to work with the operator," Nordberg said.
Sony Ericsson has also been hamstrung in the U.S. market because its phones work fully only on AT&T's network. Nordberg said it would adapt future models to other U.S. providers, but didn't give any specifics.
The X10 is a keyboard-less touch-screen phone very similar to the iPhone. The X10 mini, announced at the show, has the same layout but is half the size, an unusual design for a smart phone. The X10 mini pro looks the same, but features a slide-out keyboard. Prices were not announced.
The joint venture of LM Ericsson AB of Sweden and Sony Corp. of Japan sold 14.6 million phones in the fourth quarter,...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Wikipedia Windfall: Google Donates $2 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71733
Google Inc., the Internet's most profitable company, is giving $2 million to support Wikipedia, a volunteer-driven reference tool that has emerged as one of the Web's most-read sites.
The donation announced Wednesday matches the largest grant made so far to Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that oversees the 7-year-old Wikipedia. Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar also donated $2 million to Wikimedia six months ago through one of his investment arms.
The latest largesse has catapulted Wikimedia beyond its $10.6 million revenue target for its fiscal year ending in June. That goal had looked ambitious, given that it represented an increase of more than 20 percent from $8.7 million a year earlier.
But the worst recession since World War II evidently didn't dampen support for the Internet's most popular encyclopedia, which has more than 14 million entries written and edited by some 100,000 unpaid contributors in about 270 languages.
Wikimedia, which gets most of its revenue from donations, has collected contributions from more than 240,000 individuals so far this fiscal year, mostly in small sums.
The outpouring has allowed Wikipedia to expand while keeping its Web site commercial free, spokesman Jay Walsh said. "We intend to keep it that way, too."
Wikimedia, based in San Francisco, plans to spend about $9.4 million of its revenue this year, mostly to pay salaries and benefits to a staff of more than 30 people. The second-biggest expense is for operating Wikipedia's Web site.
The donation is a pittance for Google, which ended December with $24 billion in cash. Google makes much of its money from ads that run alongside Internet search results, many of which send people to Wikipedia.
In a statement, Google co-founder Sergey Brin hailed Wikipedia as "one of the greatest triumphs of the Internet."
Sat, 20 Feb 10
Tablets, Smartbooks Aim To Fill PC-Phone Gap
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71732
If you've got a car and a bicycle, do you need a motorcycle too? Wireless carriers are betting that you do. They're making a big push this year for the motorcycles of the gadget world: devices that are bigger than a phone but smaller than a laptop.
The most famous entrant in the category is Apple Inc.'s iPad, which comes out next month. But many other manufacturers are crowding into the niche, and were planning to do so even before Apple's announcement in January.
Some of them are making keyboard-less "tablet" computers in the vein of the iPad. Others are making small laptop-like things known as "smartbooks" that will sell for a few hundred dollars [although a German company claims it owns the rights to the name "smartbook" and is trying to prohibit others from using the term].
Hewlett-Packard Co. showed its first smartbook this week in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, the world's largest cell phone trade show. At first glance, HP's Compaq AirLife 100 looks just like a netbook -- a small laptop -- but the inner workings are quite different.
Rather than using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software, the smartbook runs Android, which Google Inc. created for mobile devices and gives away for free. Rather than using a computer processor from Intel Corp. or Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the AirLife uses a chip from Qualcomm Inc. that has cell phone heritage.
The AirLife works somewhat like a cell phone as well: It's ready to use as soon as you flip the lid open. Like a phone, it receives your e-mail even when it's in standby mode with the lid closed. Because the Qualcomm chip uses a lot less power than a PC chip, HP says the AirLife can be used for 12 hours between charging.
Smartbooks are like cell phones in another way: Wireless...
Sat, 20 Feb 10
No Quick Ruling for Google Book Case
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71726
Supporters of Google's effort to create the world's largest digital library Internet told a federal judge Thursday that it would benefit society.
Marc Mauer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, said the audio capabilities of Google's system "will give us access to 10 million books."
One of the opponents -- which include authors, foreign governments, corporate rivals and even the U.S. Department of Justice -- countered at a packed court hearing in Manhattan that Google's plans were more about commerce, not access to books.
"It's not going to be a great library, it's going to be a good store," said Sarah Canzoneri, a member of the Children's Book Guild and plaintiff in a lawsuit by authors and publishers.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin already has read more than 500 submissions about a $125 million settlement aimed at ending a pair of 2005 lawsuits that tried to stop Google from scanning books into a gigantic online database.
On Thursday, he was hearing statements from interested parties before deciding whether changes made to a deal first announced in October 2008 are sufficient to withstand constitutional scrutiny.
"To end the suspense, I'm not going to rule today," he said at the start. "There is just too much to digest."
He added, "Voluminous materials have been submitted. There is a lot of repetition. Some of the submissions even quote other submissions."
In court papers submitted last week, Google Inc., which is based in Mountain View, California, defended its deal with authors by saying its digital library lives up to the purpose of copyright law, which is to create and distribute expressive works.
"No one seriously disputes that approval of the settlement will open the virtual doors to the greatest library in history, without costing authors a dime they now receive or are likely to receive if the settlement is not approved,"...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Despite Suggestions, Microsoft Will Charge for Mobile OS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71749
When Microsoft showcased its latest smartphone operating system in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday with innovative features and a new name, CEO Steve Ballmer noted that one thing that won't be updated is its business model. That means original equipment manufacturers who want to feature Windows Phone 7 Series will still pay a fee for each device, estimated in the past by Strategic Analytics at between $8 and $15 per phone.
"I think there's something clean and simple and easy to understand about our model," Ballmer was quoted as saying. "We build something, we sell that thing ... I think it's not only in our best interests, but it's a simple model that's easy for developers, handset manufacturers, and our operator partners to deal with, to understand, and to build from."
One published estimate put Microsoft's potential income from the smartphone licensing at $300 million.
Ballmer's comments spawned a debate among tech writers about whether the software giant, which is already losing market share to Research In Motion and Apple, should change its practices. Google's growing Android mobile platform is available free to OEMs, while Apple and RIM make their own operating systems for their fast-selling smartphones.
If it gave away Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft could still profit by selling applications, mobile subscriptions to Xbox Live and Zune, and advertising, or following Google's example and selling its own hardware, critics have suggested.
"I think it comes down to creating value," said Kirk Parsons, senior telecommunications analyst at J.D. Power and Associates. "The fact that Microsoft's OS system offers built-in applications like Office -- featuring Word, Excel and PowerPoint -- increases the value proposition to OEMs and carriers. Whether that model will be sustainable in the long term remains to be seen."
Parsons said the model of free software platforms such as Android is...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Amazon Debuts Kindle for BlackBerry App
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71748
Amazon.com unleashed new e-reader software Thursday that enables selected BlackBerry handsets from Research In Motion to access and read e-books directly on mobile devices based in the United States. Called Kindle for BlackBerry, the free beta app is available for download from the world's largest online retailer.
Amazon's latest software launch places the emphasis on dramatically boosting the number of individuals who can directly access the retailer's e-book offerings. Another big benefit comes from the fact that Amazon does not have to provide free wireless access to BlackBerry subscribers, who already have cellular connections.
Since Amazon's launch of its popular Kindle for iPhone app last year, customers have been asking the online retailer to bring a similar experience to the BlackBerry, noted Amazon Kindle Vice President Ian Freed.
"Kindle for BlackBerry is a great way for customers to continue reading their current book wherever they are -- in between meetings, at the grocery store or waiting in the doctor's office," Freed said.
Compatible with BlackBerry Bold (9000, 9700), Curve (8520, 8900), Storm (9530, 9550) and Tour (9630) smartphones, Kindle for BlackBerry harnesses the power of Amazon's homegrown Whispersync technology, which both saves and synchronizes the customer's bookmarks across devices such as the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, and BlackBerry. Whispersync also is expected to arrive on the Mac and iPad shortly, Amazon said.
Wireless subscribers who download Amazon's free beta app to their BlackBerry handsets will have access to more than 420,000 Kindle books, including New York Times bestsellers as well as the latest releases. Users also will have direct access to free content and previews as well as their previously purchased titles, which are stored on Amazon's servers.
Additionally, the free beta app makes it possible for customers to access the Amazon Kindle Store and download titles directly...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Botnets Found in Government and Business Systems
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71747
A new Zeus botnet has been discovered affecting 75,000 systems in 2,500 organizations around the world. Both corporate and government networks have become victims of the severe cyberattack dubbed the Kneber attack, named after the username linked with the attack.
The attack was first discovered in January while a security analyst at Hernon, Va.-based NetWitness was installing a monitoring system for a client. In investigating the discovery, the company found Kneber had compromised 68,000 corporate log-ins; access to various e-mail systems, including Yahoo and Hotmail; access to online banking sites; and access to social-networking sites, including Facebook. All of this was done in a four-week period.
Kneber has been identified as a botnet, where compromised computers run software remotely.
"Systems compromised by this botnet provide the attackers not only user credentials and confidential information, but remote access inside the compromised networks," said Amit Yoran, CEO of NetWitness and former director of the National Cyber Security Division.
The Kneber botnet is not stopped by traditional malware protection or other intrusion-detection systems, and NetWitness analysts fear organizations will not see the damage from this attack until it has already occurred.
More than half the infected machines were also infected with a peer-to-peer botnet dubbed Waledac, a worm that is capable of collecting and forwarding password information. It's also capable of receiving commands from a remote server, including to upgrade malware components or send information from the infected computer.
Used together, the botnets have the potential to enable hackers to collaborate in what NetWitness said may be a "criminal underground."
"On a microlevel, there are new versions of Trojans and viruses that come out all the time and some gain traction while others do not," said Matthew Prince, cocreator of Project Honey Pot, a spam tracking network. "On the macrolevel it is really scary."
The...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Salesforce Chatter Offers Enterprise Social Networking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71745
Salesforce.com on Thursday announced a private beta program for an enterprise collaboration platform. Dubbed Salesforce Chatter, 100 companies around the world are testing the platform that offers anywhere, anytime access to Chatter's real-time feeds via BlackBerry or iPhone smartphones.
Chatter aims to help companies understand everything going on in their organization and avoid missing critical information. Chatter is taking direct aim at legacy software such as SharePoint and Lotus Notes with a design that looks and feels like popular consumer social-networking sites.
In fact, Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, boldly declared that Chatter marks the end of legacy collaboration software like Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Lotus Notes. "Consumer Internet services like Facebook and Twitter have shown us better ways to collaborate," he said.
Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, said Chatter represents an area with plenty of promise. "The different ways different vendors have been trying to leverage social-networking trends in business environments is interesting," King said. "IBM was the first company to start supporting different types of inter-organizational social networking. The ability to get your arms around information coming from disparate sources is a valuable concept."
Chatter offers profiles, status updates, feeds, application updates, document sharing, and more. Employees can create business profiles and use status updates to automatically keep colleagues informed with alerts that prevent duplicative efforts, and share files and links.
Real-time feeds let employees keep track of information with personalized updates from people, applications and documents. A feature called Application Updates makes sure all relevant status updates from a customer's Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or custom Force.com application are available. The apps can even flag time-sensitive developments, like new sales opportunities or customer contact changes.
Chatter also features document sharing that avoids e-mail in-boxes and file servers for instant delivery, as well...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
U.S., Europe Approve Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71744
On Thursday, Microsoft and Yahoo received something they've been waiting for since July -- a nod from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission on a search agreement that could help the companies compete with Google. With the regulatory approvals, Microsoft and Yahoo can implement the deal that calls for transitioning Yahoo's search platforms to Microsoft.
Once the transition is complete, Microsoft and Yahoo will offer a unified search experience the companies expect will breed innovation and better volume and efficiency for advertisers. They also expect it to provide better monetization opportunities for web publishers with a larger pool of search queries.
"Nobody is going to see any immediate changes. The question is whether or not this will somehow challenge, damage or threaten Google," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "The answer in the near term is no, and we'll have to wait and see in the long term."
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have a different take. Bartz called it a "breakthrough search alliance" that will free Yahoo to combine its science and technology with compelling content. Ballmer called it an "exciting milestone," insisting the companies working together can bring more choice, better value, and greater innovation to the marketplace.
Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will provide Yahoo with Bing search tools and Yahoo will add rich Yahoo content, enhanced listings with organized information about key topics, and tools to tailor the experience for Yahoo users.
Yahoo will work to provide a search experience that lets consumers find and explore topics of interest. While Microsoft will provide the underlying platform, the companies will create different, compelling and evolving experiences as they compete for audience engagement and clicks.
"The irony is that Yahoo may be suffering at the hands of...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Google Buzz Raises a Stink Far and Wide
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71743
The Google Buzz name suggests the sound of flying insects, but are those insects attracted to the honey of a great new social-networking tool, or to something else that flies are known for lighting on? After a launch designed to show that Google was aiming straight for Facebook, the buzz has become a cacophony of complaints, not excitement.
Google has been backpedaling since its Feb. 9 launch, trying to address users' privacy concerns. Just two days after the launch, Google announced it would stop automatically displaying lists of followers, make it possible to block followers without profiles, and making it more apparent which followers appear on your Buzz profile.
Now Google has enabled two ways for users to disable Buzz. In Gmail, there's a new tab in settings which allows users to hide Buzz from view or totally disable the service. "Do not show Google Buzz in Gmail" only hides the Buzz tab in Gmail. "You'll still be able to use Buzz on your phone. Your connected sites will continue to create new posts in Google Buzz," the setting says.
A separate option totally disables Buzz and comes with this warning: "You are about to delete your public profile, including any Buzz posts you have made and your connected sites settings. Your personal profile information will be permanently removed from our system." Yet another checkbox serves to unfollow anyone being followed in Buzz and Reader.
Such privacy settings are unlikely to assuage critics like "Harriet Jacobs," the pseudonym of a woman who says Buzz exposed her contact information to her abusive ex-husband. "I use my private Gmail account to e-mail my boyfriend and my mother. There's a BIG drop-off between them and my other 'most frequent' contacts. You know who my third most frequent contact is? My abusive ex-husband," she wrote...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
AT&T Becomes Last of Big Four Carriers To Offer Android
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71736
Google might figuratively be doing a backflip Thursday with news that AT&T will, for the first time, offer a mobile device based on the software and search giant's open-source Android mobile operating system. Appropriately, the device is Motorola's Backflip smartphone.
AT&T is the last of the big four carriers in the U.S. to offer an Android device. T-Mobile was the first in late 2008, followed by Sprint Nextel, and then Verizon Wireless. Though late to the party, AT&T said on its web site that it plans to add at least two more Android-based devices in the first half of this year -- a new smartphone from HTC, and Dell's first smartphone.
The $99 3G/Wi-Fi Backflip, after a rebate and with a two-year service agreement, has a touch pad, a 3.1-inch HVGA touchscreen, and a flip-out QWERTY keyboard. AT&T described the keyboard as featuring "an original reverse flip design."
By flipping the keyboard backward, the device can be set in tabletop mode for listening to music, looking at videos and photos, or acting as a digital alarm clock. There's also a five-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, a full HTML browser, and AT&T's Backtrack. The carrier describes Backtrack as "a new way to scroll through the web, texts, e-mails and news feeds," which the user can do without clogging up the home screen.
MOTOBLUR, Motorola's constant-updating delivery service for social networking, is now Android-ized. AT&T said MOTOBLUR on the Backflip, as part of the "exclusive Android experience," allows users to sync contacts, posts, messages, photos, status updates, and more from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail, Picasa, work and personal e-mails, and Last.fm. For the socially busy user, MOTOBLUR also allows broadcasting status updates to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter all at once.
The social information is delivered automatically to live widgets on the...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Cell-Phone Jamming Tested at Prison
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71712
Equipment that jams cell phones will get its first federally sanctioned test inside a prison in Maryland this week, as state officials try to show Congress how the technology can prevent inmates from using the contraband devices to commit crimes, a governor's spokesman said Tuesday.
The state wants to show the equipment can be used without interfering with emergency response and legitimate signals outside the prison perimeter, said Shaun Adamec, Gov. Martin O'Malley's spokesman.
The Federal Communication Commission can only allow federal agencies -- not state or local authorities -- permission to jam cell phone signals. But a bill that passed the Senate and awaits action by the House would allow states to petition the FCC to block the use of cell phones from prisons.
Testing is set to begin Wednesday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Adamec said. The governor has strongly backed allowing states to use the jamming technology to battle the growing problem of cell phone use in prisons.
A bipartisan measure sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., was approved by the Senate in September. A companion bill is in the House.
"I think all of this can help Senator Mikulski in her efforts to pass a bill, and hopefully if the FCC sees it coming they might just do it by regulation," O'Malley said.
The tests are being conducted to provide more information about the technology as the legislation is being considered.
Prisons around the nation have been trying to stem rising problems from prison inmates using cell phones to coordinate criminal activity from behind bars. Officials in New Jersey even intercepted a conference call among gang members from different prisons who were plotting retaliation against another gang member.
In Maryland, a Baltimore drug dealer used a cell phone from the city jail to plan the killing...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Microsoft Releases Outlook Social Connector Beta
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71707
Microsoft Corp. is taking another step toward turning Outlook, its desktop e-mail program, into a hub for information from popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
On Wednesday, Microsoft is releasing a "beta" test version of the Outlook Social Connector. The add-on software, which was first discussed last November, adds a new pane to the main e-mail reading screen on Outlook. When a user clicks to read an e-mail message, the new pane fills up with the sender's most recent social-networking activities. Those could include the addition of a professional contact on LinkedIn or a "what I'm doing now" status update from Facebook.
Microsoft has a mixed record when it comes to Web trends. The company's free Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger programs are widely used, but its Windows Live blog/social network didn't pick up much steam in the face of competition from Facebook. In this case, a small startup called Xobni has already built an Outlook add-on that combines inbox search with content from Facebook, LinkedIn and others.
Microsoft's new software also treats Outlook itself as a social network. If the e-mail sender and recipient are jointly working on a document stored on a company's Sharepoint server, both will see updates if one logs on to make edits.
For now, the new software doesn't let people use Outlook to push information back up to LinkedIn, Facebook or other sites.
People using Office 2003, 2007 and beta versions of Office 2010 can download the updated Outlook Social Connector beta Wednesday. LinkedIn, which is primarily used for business networking online, is the first company to make its add-in software available. It can be downloaded from LinkedIn.com.
Microsoft said the Facebook and MySpace plug-ins will be ready for download by the time Office 2010 goes on sale in June.
Will Kennedy, a corporate vice president for the...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Broadband Reform Emphasis Should Be Jobs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71703
When it comes to broadband, we Americans are a bit like Maverick and Goose in Top Gun. We feel the need for speed -- download speed, that is. We cringe at reports that show average U.S. download speeds lagging behind those of other countries. Representative Rick Boucher [D-Va.], chairman of the House Communications, Technology & Internet Subcommittee, says that within the next five years, 80 percent of Americans should have access to broadband speeds that are more than ten times what we have today.
And now Google has gotten into the faster-is-better game, announcing on Feb. 10 that it plans to create a broadband network with download speeds of as high as 1 gigabyte per second -- about 100 times faster than those available today.
No one is denying that download speeds matter. But too heavy an emphasis on megabytes and gigabytes per second threatens to obscure a more pressing issue during a period of high unemployment: how broadband can be harnessed to create jobs.
Regulators and lawmakers will have a chance to address the link between Internet access and the unemployment rate in the coming weeks as the Federal Communications Commission drafts its National Broadband Plan, a road map for increasing access to broadband, due to Congress in March.
Currently, about two-thirds of Americans subscribe to a broadband Internet service. A range of wired and wireless technologies -- cable, DSL, WiMAX, and others -- make broadband access possible at work, at home, and almost everywhere in between. As the government hashes out a plan for bring fast Web connections to the remaining one-third of the population, it must avoid getting bogged down in detailed discussions of how much better foreign broadband systems are than those in the U.S. -- and instead keep a close eye on ways broadband...
Fri, 19 Feb 10
Student's Facebook Rants Are Protected Speech
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71698
A student who set up a Facebook page to complain about her teacher -- and was later suspended -- had every right to do so under the First Amendment, a federal magistrate has ruled.
The ruling not only allows Katherine "Katie" Evans' suit against the principal to move forward, it could set a precedent in cases involving speech and social networking on the Internet, experts say.
The courts are in the early stages of exploring the limits of free speech within social networking, said Howard Simon, the executive director of the Florida ACLU, which filed the suit on Evans' behalf.
"It's one of the main things that we wanted to establish in this case, that the First Amendment has a life in the social networking technology as it applies to the Internet and other forms of communication," Simon said.
In 2007, Evans, then a senior at Pembroke Pines Charter High School, created a Facebook page where she vented about "the worst teacher I've ever met."
But instead of other students expressing their dislike of the teacher, most defended the teacher and attacked Evans.
A couple of days later, Evans took the page down.
But after Principal Peter Bayer found out about it, he bumped Evan from her Advanced Placement classes, putting her in classes with less prestige, and suspended her for three days.
In late 2008, Evans filed suit against the principal, asking that the suspension be ruled unconstitutional and reversed, that the documents be removed from her file at the school and that she receive reimbursement for attorney fees.
Evans, an honors student, was concerned that the suspension would tarnish her academic record and hurt her chances in graduate school and her career.
Bayer tried to get the case dismissed and asked for immunity against paying damages.
In a ruling on Friday,...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
Microsoft Targets Consumers with New Mobile OS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71720
With only a slight nod toward business clients during the launch of Microsoft's latest mobile-phone operating system this week, CEO Steve Ballmer fueled speculation that the software giant wants a bigger slice of the consumer pie.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday, Ballmer devoted most of his 70-minute presentation on the rebranded Windows Phone 7 Series -- no longer called Windows Mobile -- to social-media compatibility, games and other features, highlighting live tiles that transform dormant icons into dynamic displays. He also showcased the hubs for people, pictures, games, music and video.
Tech bloggers and analysts were quick to note that Ballmer spent just more than two minutes highlighting the features that have made Windows Mobile the second biggest operating system for enterprise users. Windows Mobile is second only to Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating system, but losing ground to Apple's iPhone among corporate customers.
"A lot of their tweaks and adjustments and added-value proposition are definitely geared toward new consumers," said Ramon Llamas, a senior mobile-devices analyst at IDC. "If you want to be competitive in this market and follow where the growth is, it's outside of the enterprise user."
But that's not to say Microsoft is abandoning business users, he stressed.
"I still think [those users] will find quite a bit of value in what Windows 7 can do in terms of being connected to the business and having access in a lot of back-end services and documents and contacts and such," Llamas said. "That part does not go away."
But stopping the momentum of Apple's iPhone, the single most popular handset on the market today, means maximizing a "seamless" user interface that doesn't take time to master.
"This iteration of Windows 7 puts Microsoft more on par with Apple, Palm and Google, where the...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
Verizon, HBO Team To Stream Content To FiOS Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71719
HBO on Wednesday announced a partnership with Verizon to deliver streaming content to the telecom's FiOS TV customers. The deal introduces Verizon customers to HBO's online destination for video programming, HBOGO.com, which offers HBO programming.
Here's the catch: It's not available to all FiOS TV customers. Only those who also subscribe to HBO will receive the promised free, unlimited online access to HBO programming on demand from any U.S. location with a broadband connection. Would-be viewers also have to be subscribers to both FiOS TV and FiOS Internet.
Both Verizon and HBO appear to be looking for ways to add value to their subscriber base and stem churn rates in a down economy. With HBOGO, Shawn Strickland, vice president of consumer strategy and planning for Verizon, said mutual customers have the "convenience of accessing their programming in more ways and in more places."
Some are comparing HBOGO to Netflix. Netflix has 12 million subscribers, making it the world's largest subscription service streaming movies and TV episodes over the Internet. For $8.99 a month, Netflix members can watch unlimited TV episodes streamed to their TVs and computers and get unlimited DVDs delivered to their homes without late fees.
"Netflix is becoming more competitive with HBO generally, if you look at the streaming service and the quick turnaround on DVDs and the fact that they get DVDs before HBO gets the movies," said Colin Dixon, a senior IPTV analyst at The Diffusion Group. "Netflix is beginning to look more like a premium movie service like HBO."
Indeed, HBOGO doesn't directly compare. It's not sold as a separate service and only Verizon FiOS TV customers can access it. Even if HBO expands to other telecoms and wireless carriers, the model still relies on HBOGO as a way to offer existing subscribers additional ways to...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
Verizon Subscribers Will Be Able To Make Skype Calls
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71717
Some Verizon Wireless customers will soon have access to Skype, an Internet telephone service, the companies announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday. Skype, based in Luxembourg, allows people to use the service to make free video and voice calls. Users are also able to send instant messages and other files.
Verizon data customers will be able to make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls, according to the companies. Users will also be able to make international calls using Skype Out, a competitive service.
Of Verizon's 91.2 million customers, only those who have data plans on the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition, and Tour 9630 devices, plus users of the Droid by Motorola, Droid Eris by HTC, and the Motorola Devour will have access to Skype, beginning in March.
"Skype mobile on Verizon Wireless changes the game," said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon.
The deal is about options for the consumer, analysts said. "It allows Verizon customers to use their smartphone to download the Skype application and communicate with other Skype users all over the world," said Richard Murphy, an IDC analyst. "It also allows the Verizon consumer to save money by using Skype to make international calls to non-Skype users at a cheaper rate."
For Verizon, the move means a more competitive approach to gaining customers over rival AT&T. It makes Verizon's smartphones and data plans required for the service more marketable, Murphy added.
Since late last year, Skype has expanded from taking a share of the telecom market from traditional phone providers to making nice with wireless carriers. As of the first quarter 2009, Skype had 42.2 million daily active users.
The deal with Verizon isn't the first for Skype. The company...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
HTC Adds BREW Smartphone To Telefonica's Lineup
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71716
HTC unveiled an advanced handset Wednesday that is powered by Qualcomm's Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) platform -- which provides developers with the technology for porting their applications between all Qualcomm devices. The move marks a major departure for the Taiwan-based company, which has heavily invested in the development of handsets based on Google's Android platform and Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS.
Scheduled to take its inaugural bows on Telefonica's networks in Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom, the HTC Smart is squarely aimed at price-sensitive consumers, noted HTC CEO Peter Chou at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
"More and more people are craving advanced mobile phone experiences with e-mail, web browsing, and social networking, but the cost and complexity often represent a significant obstacle for many," Chou said. "The HTC Smart introduces this functionality in an intuitive phone that is affordable."
HTC sees Qualcomm's BREW as an opportunity to give its handset customers access to new applications and services from software developers worldwide. Though Gartner analyst Tole Hart has noted that the BREW platform has long been "a fairly closed ecosystem" with a complete storefront, applications development program, and carrier billing integration, things are changing.
Qualcomm signaled a willingness to open up its ecosystem last October when it announced an agreement with Brazil-based mobile operator TIM governing the launch of Plaza Retail -- a widget framework for the support, management and delivery of mobile apps and mobile content based on Java, BREW, Flash and Android. Moreover, Qualcomm says support is also in the works for Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian and LiMo.
However, Qualcomm will have to fiercely compete to divert developers' attention from Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market. Additionally, Qualcomm faces the prospect of heightened competition from MeeGo -- a new open-source platform...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
FTC Complaint Adds To Google Buzz Backlash
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71715
Google is getting plenty of backlash from privacy advocates. Just a week after the search giant launched Google Buzz social features in its Gmail service, the Federal Trade Commission is receiving accusations about violations of federal consumer-protection laws.
On Tuesday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint to that effect with the FTC. EPIC wants the commission to require Google to make Google Buzz fully opt-in, stop using Gmail users' private address-book contacts to compile social-networking lists, and give Google users meaningful control over their personal data.
"This is a significant breach of consumers' expectations of privacy," said Marc Rotenberg, EPIC executive director. "Google should not be allowed to push users' personal information into a social network they never requested."
Google launched Google Buzz on Feb. 9, activating it for all Gmail users. When users began viewing the service, they were automatically listed as following posts from their most common e-mail contacts. Participation in the service also created a public profile that included contacts. Google has changed the service twice since launch, but EPIC said the privacy violations still stand.
"We designed Buzz to make it easy for users to connect with other people and have conversations about the things that interest them. Buzz was launched only a week ago. We've already made a few changes based on user feedback, and we have more improvements in the works. We look forward to hearing more suggestions and will continue to improve the Buzz experience with user transparency and control top of mind," said a Google spokesperson via e-mail.
With the changes, Buzz will no longer play matchmaker, but instead make connection suggestions. Buzz is also making it easier for users to block the follower Google matched them with, or those who requested a connection. And Google disconnected its Reader and Picasa...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
Industry Leaders To Build a Common Mobile Platform
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71714
With key mobile platforms and their application communities rapidly moving forward, a group of wireless carriers and device makers have decided to simplify. On Monday, two dozen of the largest telecom companies announced plans to create an open platform called the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC).
The companies include AT&T, China Mobile, Orange, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, LG Electronics, Samsung, Deustsche Telekom, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone and Sony Ericsson. The idea is to create a platform that will allow developers to create an application once and then have it run on any device supporting that platform.
This "write-once, deploy many" approach has been attempted for years by various players and technologies, including Java, web standards, and most recently Adobe System's AIR/Flash. They want applications to work similarly on different operating systems and devices, which is challenging enough for desktop or laptop computers. Mobile devices, with a wide range of displays, functionalities and connection speeds, are even more of a challenge.
Apple, which makes its devices and operating systems, has been most successful in having apps work on the devices in its ecosystem, and the growing importance of its App Store is a key target of the new alliance. RIM is in a similar, enviable position. Some other operating systems, such as Android and Windows Mobile, work across devices from many manufacturers.
The prize could be big. As WAC notes on its web site, the customer base is potentially more than three billion users who are customers of the participating companies.
To reach those billions, WAC said "the alliance will provide a single gateway for developers to access a vast potential customer base." It added that the gateway will use existing technical standards so developers can access network capabilities through application programming interfaces (APIs).
One version of an application, the alliance said, will be able to...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
States Go Online for Surplus Property Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71682
States looking to unload surplus property used to do little more than take out an advertisement in the local newspaper, hang an "Open" sign at a warehouse and set up a cash register.
Not anymore. This spring, Vermont will begin selling its surplus goods on eBay, the online auction site. The goal is to attract more bidders and bring in more revenue to state coffers, says Mark Casey, the state's Surplus Property Programs assistant.
"We can move a lot more stuff," Casey says from his office at the warehouse in the central Vermont town of Waterbury.
Vermont will be joining a number of states that have turned to the Internet -- or plan to do so -- to sell surplus and unclaimed property.
Rhode Island and Georgia are the most recent to do so. Other states turning to online auctions include Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Texas, according to an eBay search, state officials and surplus-property Web sites.
"More and more states are seeing a better return on their investments because, with a simple photograph and description, you can reach tens of thousands of people," says Curt Howard, president of the National Association of State Agencies for Surplus Property.
Howard, who also is the administrator of the State and Federal Surplus Property Program for Illinois, says his state is considering Internet-only sales within the next year to 18 months.
In Rhode Island, the General Treasurer's Office concluded a successful experiment with an eBay sale of unclaimed property Dec. 14-Jan. 11, says David Salvatore, a manager at the office.
Rhode Island pulled in $40,000 from the eBay sale, which included 80 items declared unclaimed in 2007, Salvatore says. By comparison, the last in-person auction, featuring items from the past decade, generated $300,000 -- or an average of $30,000 per year...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
USB 3.0 Boosts Speeds and Bandwidth
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71681
USB connections are nearly ubiquitous for linking computers to external devices. The USB 2.0 standard has already boosted data transfer rates. Now computer users are waiting for the faster speeds that will come from USB 3.0, also dubbed SuperSpeed USB.
SuperSpeed USB should offer transfer rates 10 times faster than USB 2.0, says Jeff Ravencraft of chipmaker Intel. Ravencraft Is head of Intel's USB Implementers' Forum. That division invented the Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology.
Better yet, despite five additional data channels, USB 3.0 cables should still be compatible with USB 2.0 connections.
Theoretically, USB 3.0's maximum data transfer rate should lie around 5 gigabits a second, says Benjamin Benz of c't, a German computer magazine.
"Purely speculatively, de facto rates of 300 megabytes per second could be reached." Among other factors, the data transfer rate is dependent on the cable's properties. On top of that, the first generation of the controller chips might not be able to fully accommodate these speeds. "But it's still noticeably faster than USB 2.0."
External hard drives will be the first devices to come out with USB 3.0 connections. Up until now, those drives could theoretically write data at rates of up to 120 megabytes per second. But slower, USB 2.0 speeds slowed that down to 31 to 35 megabytes per second.
"USB 3.0 clears up one of the biggest problems with these devices." To date, Buffalo and Western Digital have already marketed devices with the new standard.
Daniel Mauerhofer of Western Digital agrees that external hard drives will enjoy faster speeds with USB 3.0. The company's My Book 3.0 was the first external hard drive to be released with the new standard, earlier this year. That means a two-hour high-definition video can now be transmitted in three minutes, unlike in 13 minutes with USB 2.0.
The right combination of computer chips...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
Wireless-Device Explosion Causes Data Traffic Jam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71680
With the exploding popularity of smartphones, wireless laptops and, if Steve Jobs has his way, tablet computers, it's fast becoming a wireless world. But the breakneck growth of all things wireless is threatening to cause a traffic jam -- of the airwaves that deliver calls, Web searches and video to those data-hungry devices.
Left unchecked, that could eventually mean more dropped calls, slower service and a lot of frustrated customers. Recent complaints of dropped calls and slow connections by iPhone users on AT&T's networks in San Francisco and New York foreshadow a potentially widespread problem.
Now federal regulators are working to head off what they call a "looming spectrum crisis" -- a severe shortage of the wireless frequencies that deliver data and allow smartphones to perform all the tasks people expect. A proposal from the Federal Communications Commission is expected next month.
The electromagnetic spectrum that carries these transmissions is highly valuable and allocated by the government to businesses that often pay for their slice. That complicates any effort to shift it from one use -- such as over-the-air TV broadcasts or satellite TV -- to wireless providers.
The problem is one of basic supply and demand. More and more Americans are buying smartphones and using them not only to make calls but also to watch YouTube videos, share pictures, surf the Web and download books, among a litany of other applications on the horizon. But the bandwidth to deliver data for all those functions is limited.
At the end of 2008, 34 million mobile subscribers in the United States accessed the Internet using their cell phone, according to Forrester Research, a technology market research firm. That number is projected to grow to 106 million by 2014. And Web-enabled smartphones, which are expected to account for the majority of cell phone purchases...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
Hacker Sentenced To Prison for Credit Card Scam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71678
A San Francisco man who had more than 1.8 million stolen bank and credit card numbers on his home computers was sentenced Friday to 13 years in federal prison and ordered to repay $27.5 million to the banks and credit card companies he victimized.
Max Ray Vision, who legally changed his last name from Butler, had pleaded guilty in June to his role in an online clearinghouse where identity thieves shared stolen information.
A self-taught computer whiz who fell in love with the devices as an 8-year-old boy in his father's computer store, Vision told Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. that he was mesmerized by "the thrill of hacking, being addicted to it."
Bespectacled, soft-spoken and articulate, the 37-year-old Vision told the judge he had changed and realizes what he did was wrong.
"You probably hear that a lot, but it's absolutely true," he said.
Cohill's sentence was based on a joint recommendation by federal prosecutors and Vision's public defender, Michael Novara. Federal sentencing guidelines suggested a sentence of 30 years to life, which Novara called "ludicrous."
Still, Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Dembosky said serious punishment was merited because of the scale of Vision's crimes. Dembosky agreed to the lesser sentence because Vision has continued to work with the government under terms that remain sealed.
All Dembosky would say is, "It could relate to a whole range of things."
Before his arrest in 2007, Vision had developed software to prevent hacking and had even worked as a volunteer who helped the FBI understand and prevent cyber crimes.
Dembosky agreed that Vision wasn't mean-spirited, but was more "wide-eyed" and "curious" about what he could accomplish behind a keyboard.
"Unfortunately, that curiosity took a dark turn and that's why we're here today," Dembosky said. "The amount of damage a person can cause with a keyboard in this day and...
Thu, 18 Feb 10
Samsung Unveils Bada-Powered Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71676
Samsung Electronics Co., the largest maker of cell phones for the U.S. market, on Sunday revealed the first phone running Samsung's own "smart" software system, bada.
With bada, Korea-based Samsung is taking the TouchWiz system used on its touch-screen non-smart phones and making it the basis of a smart phone platform to take on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry. Samsung also makes phones based on other competing smart phone systems: Android, created by Google Inc., and Symbian, of which Nokia Corp. is a major backer.
J.K. Shin, the president of Samsung's phone division, said the goal of bada was to expand the market for smart phones, making them available to people across the world who have made do with non-smart phones.
The new phone, dubbed the Wave, is a touch screen phone like the iPhone. It features a highly saturated, high-resolution screen using organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Samsung said the phone will go on sale in April, but did not say if the U.S. would be one of the launch markets, nor did it say what the phone would cost.
To support the Wave and existing phones using TouchWiz, Samsung is launching online applications stores in 50 countries this year, including the U.S. Most major phone makers now operate applications stores, or make phones that use stores administered by others, like Google.
Samsung revealed the phone in Barcelona a day ahead of the start of Mobile World Congress, the world's largest cell phone trade show.
Thu, 18 Feb 10
Survey: No Home Broadband for 40 Percent in U.S.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71669
Roughly 40 percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home, according to new Commerce Department figures that underscore the challenges facing policymakers who are trying to bring affordable broadband connections to all Americans.
The Obama administration and Congress have identified universal broadband as a key to driving economic development, producing jobs and bringing educational opportunities and cutting-edge medicine to all corners of the country.
"We're at a point where high-speed access to the Internet is critical to the ability of people to be successful in today's economy and society at large," said Larry Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an arm of the Commerce Department that released the data Tuesday.
The NTIA and the Rural Utilities Service, part of the Agriculture Department, are in the middle of handing out $7.2 billion in stimulus funding for broadband. Most of that money will be used to build networks in parts of the country that lack high-speed Internet access.
And next month, the Federal Communications Commission will deliver policy recommendations to Congress on how to make universal broadband a reality. Among other things, the FCC is expected to propose expanding the fund that subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural communities and finding more airwaves for wireless broadband services.
The NTIA report released Tuesday stems from a Census Bureau survey of about 54,000 households conducted in October of last year. The statistics show that U.S. broadband usage continues to grow, with 64 percent of U.S. households subscribing to high-speed Internet as of October, up from 51 percent two years earlier.
But the results also highlight remaining hurdles, particularly in rural America. While 66 percent of urban households subscribed to broadband in October, that was true for only 54 percent of rural households, the survey found.
That is partly because broadband is not as...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Google Apologizes for Buzz Fuss, Stops Automation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71692
Google's effort to launch a social-media network on top of its existing 143 million Gmail users had a rough first week. Within days of last week's launch of Google Buzz, it was hard to keep up with users' privacy complaints and the company's rapid responses. Being automatically linked to contacts was a nonstarter. So was having those contacts revealed to other Gmail users.
So as the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant looked ahead at how to make Buzz more marketable, company executives also looked back, admitting it might not have been a good idea to beta-test the system only with Google employees.
"Getting feedback from 20,000 Googlers isn't quite the same as letting Gmail users play with Buzz in the wild," Todd Jackson, the product manager for Gmail and Buzz, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Over the weekend, Jackson announced on The Official Gmail Blog that Google had further tweaked Buzz in response to user feedback, after an initial fix on Thursday that made it easier for users to block the followers Google matched them with, or those who had requested a connection.
With the latest change, Buzz will no longer match people up, but merely suggest that users make the connection. "You won't be set up to follow anyone until you have reviewed the suggestions and clicked 'Follow selected people and start using Buzz,'" Jackson wrote.
Google also disconnected its Reader and Picasa sites, which share users' favorite web sites and photos, from Buzz, so that even if the settings are public they will not go automatically into the news feed.
"We're very sorry for the concern we have caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback," Jackson wrote.
Ryan Calo, a residential fellow at the Center for the Internet...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Steve Jobs Is Reportedly Working on an Official Biography
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71691
There's no lack of books on Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs, but an official biography may get a little closer to the whole truth. Jobs is reportedly working with former Time magazine Managing Editor Walter Isaacson to develop an authorized biographical account of his life.
The New York Times reported the book will chronicle Jobs' life, including the dark days when Apple sent him packing through his remarkable comeback as a consumer electronics visionary. It's not clear how much of Jobs' personal health challenges the book may reveal as part of the unfolding drama that is the Silicon Valley tech guru's life.
"If there was ever a guy who has been reminded of his mortality, it is Jobs. Most of the unofficial biographies focus on his less-desirable attributes and he likely wants a biography that tells the story he wants told," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "I wonder if he will revisit his distinct dislike for philanthropic acts, as folks thinking about their mortality and legacy often feel that philanthropic efforts later in life will correct mistakes made earlier."
There are more than a few books with Jobs' name in the title. There's The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How To Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. There's Return to the Little Kingdom: How Apple and Steve Jobs Changed the World. There's also Inside Steve's Brain and Steve Jobs: The Brilliant Mind Behind Apple -- and all of those have hit store shelves in the last few months.
Older titles seeking to give readers a glimpse into the life of this charismatic tech character include iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, and Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs. In fact,...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Apple's App Store Blocks Known iPhone Hackers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71690
Apple has been accused of approving poor-quality applications, taking too long to approve an app, and rejecting apps similar to its own offerings, but never has Apple been accused of blocking hackers from its App Store -- until now. A small number of self-proclaimed iPhone hackers have reported being denied access into the App Store, including Sherif Hashim.
Hashim may have been targeted because of his jailbreaking of Apple's iPhone, a process that allows iPhone and iPod touch users to run any code on their devices versus only code authorized by Apple. Once a device is jailbroken, users are able to download applications that were previously unavailable through the App Store.
Hashim reported receiving a message after attempting to log in to his App Store account. "'Your Apple ID was banned for security reasons,' that's what I get when I try to go to the App Store; they must be really angry and, guess what, my apple ID was sherif_hashim@yahoo.com, what a fool was me not to notice, can't help laughing, they are babies."
After attempting to log in again, Hashim received the same message and tweeted "I wonder if this was an Apple act or someone messing with my account."
After failing to successfully log into the App Store, Hashim used his wife's credit-card information to create a new account and received the same message yet again.
"This Visa rejection is very weird and doesn't seem like an Apple act, but the timing is also weird," he added.
Hashim isn't alone. The iPhone hacker and developer behind the jailbreaking tool SnowBreeze, ih8sn0w, also tweeted about his App Store trouble on Twitter.
Since launching its App Store, Apple has dealt with jailbreaking by creating iPhone OS updates that break the previous jailbreak. Blocking and disabling accounts of alleged iPhone and iPod...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Verizon Teams with Skype for Wireless Calls
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71689
Verizon Wireless will let customers use the Internet phone service Skype to make free calls on some phones, an application that wireless carriers have been slow to allow.
Under a deal announced Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress trade show, users of some Verizon phones who have a voice and data plan will be able to download a free Skype application in late March. That will let them call or instant-message other Skype users for free or call regular phone numbers outside the United States for a fee paid to Skype. These calls would go over Verizon's network and would not use up minutes on a cell phone plan.
Minutes would be deducted, however, to use Skype to call regular phone numbers in the U.S., Verizon said.
Initially, the mobile application will be available for nine Verizon phones, including several BlackBerry models and Motorola Inc.'s Droid and upcoming Devour handsets.
John Stratton, Verizon's chief marketing officer, said the application will be able to run all the time in the background. This means other people should be able to contact you through Skype even if your phone is on standby.
Other wireless carriers have blocked the Skype app from running all the time. It's available on the iPhone only in Wi-Fi hot spots. In October, AT&T said it would relent and let the program work over its cellular network as well, but Skype has not yet released an application to enable that. Verizon's version of Skype mobile will not work over Wi-Fi, the companies said.
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Mobile Devices Get Adobe AIR 2.0 and New Flash Player
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71688
Adobe Systems will make its AIR platform and new Flash player available to mobile devices. The company previewed the new AIR version at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
AIR 2.0 enables rich media applications to be delivered outside the mobile browser and across a variety of mobile operating systems, and it utilizes features found in the newest Flash player. Adobe said this mobile version of AIR is designed specifically for high performance on small screens, and it supports such common mobile functions as multi-touch, gesture inputs, accelerometer, geolocation and screen orientation.
Adobe said AIR allows developers to create "contextual applications" that can adapt to different environments while reusing the same code. Different contexts for mobile devices could include a variety of displays, device-specific interaction, functionality designed for a given platform, and differences in bandwidth. The platform could also make it easier to create a mobile version of a desktop app.
AIR will be made available for Android-based devices later this year, and Adobe said it is working to roll out BlackBerry, Symbian and webOS versions as well.
Flash Player 10.1, which supports high definition, has been made available as a beta to content providers and mobile developers, and a release version is expected in the first half of this year. Adobe said the new player will support the intentions of its Open Screen Project -- providing a consistent user experience across mobile platforms such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks and various consumer electronics.
Quoting from a Strategy Analysis report from last month, Adobe said more than 250 million smartphones are expected to support the Flash player by the end of 2012.
David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the platform business at Adobe, said "with the Flash platform further advancing on mobile devices, we enable developers and content publishers to deliver...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
RIM Offers Free Server Software To Connect BlackBerrys
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71668
In a move to compete in a broader smartphone market, Research In Motion on Tuesday rolled out BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express. The free server software wirelessly syncs BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Windows Small Business Server.
RIM is giving away the software to leverage what it sees as two key market opportunities -- small businesses and consumers. With Apple's iPhone grabbing the attention of these growing smartphone audiences, RIM figures free software could help woo these demographics to its platform.
RIM President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis called the free server software a "cost-effective solution that allows companies of all sizes to support enterprise-grade mobile connectivity for all employees without compromising security or manageability."
With a price tag of free, few can dispute Lazaridis' point about the economic advantage to small and midsize companies that want enterprise-grade security without advanced features. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express will also serve the consumer market. RIM pointed to a growing demand from employees to connect their personal BlackBerry smartphones to work e-mail.
"Like everyone else, RIM needs to evolve its position going forward," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "The notion of offering the BlackBerry server for free for small to midsize businesses underscores how important that market segment is and, at the same time, how RIM also needs to evolve its platform going forward in a world that's very different."
BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express works with Microsoft Exchange 2010, 2007 and 2003 and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 and 2003 to offer users push-based, wireless access to e-mail, calendars, contacts, notes and tasks, as well as other business applications and enterprise systems behind a firewall.
RIM stressed that the new server software leverages the same security architecture found in BlackBerry Enterprise Server. It offers 35 controls and policies, including the ability to...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Intel, Nokia Combine Mobile OS Platforms Into MeeGo
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71667
Intel and Nokia are combining their Moblin and Maemo operating systems to create a unified Linux-based platform that will run on a wide range of mobile computing devices, including advanced cellular handsets, netbooks, tablet computers, TV sets, and in-vehicle infotainment systems. Called MeeGo, the new open-source platform is expected to launch on next-generation devices from Nokia and perhaps other vendors in the second half of this year.
Designed to deliver a range of Internet, computing and communication experiences with rich graphics, multitasking and multimedia capabilities, MeeGo is a foundational step in the evolving partnership between Intel and Nokia announced in June, noted Intel CEO Paul Otellini.
"The merging of these two important assets into an open-source platform is critical toward providing a terrific experience across a variety of devices and gaining cross-industry support," Otellini said.
To encourage developer participation, the MeeGo platform will be hosted by the nonprofit Linux Foundation as a fully open-source project. Although the first release of MeeGo is not expected until the second quarter, developers can begin writing apps immediately using Qt -- a cross-platform application development framework widely used for building user interfaces.
Nokia acquired Qt with its purchase of Trolltech, the technology's original producer, in June 2008. Using Qt, developers will be able to write applications once and easily deploy them on MeeGo as well as across other platforms such as Symbian, said Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin.
"For developers, they will have the power of the Qt platform across a multitude of devices and architectures, giving them an incredible opportunity to innovate and reach users," Zemlin said.
Given that MeeGo will run on multiple devices, consumers will often be able to keep their favorite apps when they change handsets. "MeeGo has been built from the ground up for rich, mobile devices and...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Windows Phone 7 Series Focuses on Live Information
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71664
At the Mobile World Congress 2010 on Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer offered a sneak peak of the Windows Phone 7 Series. The new platform signals the software giant's intent to compete head-on with Apple and Google for mobile market share.
Microsoft is pushing an integrated-experiences message with its latest mobile platform. Phones featuring the new operating system will be in stories in time for the 2010 holiday shopping season.
"In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience," Ballmer said. "Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people's lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences."
How can Ballmer speak so boldly in a mobile era where Apple's iPhone is setting the pace and Google's Android is rapidly emerging (not to mention RIM's latest innovations and Palm's webOS)? Ballmer contends that Windows Phone 7 Series takes a fundamentally different approach to mobile-phone software.
The Start screen is a prime example. Microsoft has developed what it calls dynamically updated "live tiles" that show real-time content. This flies in the face of traditional static icons that offer stepping-stones to an application. With social networking in mind, the Start screen lets users create a tile of a friend and get a readable, up-to-date view of the friend's latest picture and posts.
Of course, Microsoft is making a full court press with Bing on Windows Phone 7 Series. Every phone that uses the operating system will offer a dedicated hardware button for Bing to give users one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone. What's more, Microsoft said, a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Motorola Plans Technology 'Divorce' in 2011
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71644
Struggling technology company Motorola Inc. said Thursday it plans to split in two in early 2011 -- with one half containing its consumer-focused mobile phone and television set-top box products, and the other holding divisions that target business customers.
The split will give current shareholders a share in each new company, which will be roughly the same size in terms of annual revenue at $11 billion. Both halves will be publicly traded.
The move gives the company's two co-CEOs, Sanjay Jha and Greg Brown, separate companies to run. Jha will concentrate on Motorola's entertainment and consumer-oriented devices, including smart phones like the Droid, and Brown on high-tech business solutions.
"We believe this configuration is cleaner and more compelling for customers and investors," Brown said in an interview. "We do anticipate that both business segments will have positive operating cash flow moving forward."
The move is a change from plans the company announced in late 2008 to spin off only its handset unit by the third quarter of 2009. It put that plan on hold as the recession deepened and sales deteriorated.
The current separation is planned for the first quarter of 2011.
Motorola, based in Illinois, rode high for a few years after introducing the wildly popular Razr flip phone in 2005, but as the phone's popularity faltered, the company struggled to develop a worthy successor and losses piled up in its mobile-phone division.
Two newer phones based on Google Inc.'s Android operating system, the Cliq and the Droid, have been well received, and Motorola said it shipped 2 million units in the fourth quarter. Motorola's Android-based Devour will go on sale in March through Verizon Wireless.
Motorola plans to launch 20 smart phones this year alone.
Jha suggested that smart phones will be increasingly wedded to television set-top boxes as video is watched on multiple devices. He added...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Getting the Fundamentals of Innovation Right
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71623
As the economic environment stabilizes, there's a temptation to return to business as usual. And although much about the future of the economy is uncertain, I can say with some confidence that a return to the recent status quo would be a colossal mistake.
GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said it best in a speech he gave to the Business for Social Responsibility conference in November 2008. "This economic crisis doesn't represent a cycle. It represents a reset. It's an emotional, social, economic reset. People who understand that will prosper. Those who don't will be left behind." Immelt's remarks constitute nothing less than a challenge to his peers: Reinvent your business, or go home. Organizations that wait for solutions to fall from the sky fully formed will be the next to fall. Even a casual observer can see that the challenges facing GE are an object lesson for the rest of us.
How do you navigate an enterprise through uncertain times? By getting back to fundamentals. That goes for innovation, too, which doesn't mean novelty for novelty's sake. Innovation is about growth, and growth takes empathy, creativity, and execution. Empathy, on an organizational scale, is a shared intuition for what people outside the company really need and value. Creativity is the ability to come up with new ideas for products, services, and businesses that are different and distinct. And execution is the art of getting things done. These aren't feel-good ideas for easy times. They're the secret to surviving a storm.
For individuals, empathy affords the ability to step outside their own perspective to see the world as other people do. For organizations, empathy is a shared intuition for the people who buy your products and services. That goes far beyond market research. Companies that create...
Wed, 17 Feb 10
Review: Windows Is a Tough Fit for the Archos 9 Tablet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71619
Apple brings out its iPad tablet computer in late March, but other companies are already preparing a new batch of tablets running Windows. Judging by a model that's already out, the $550 Archos 9, the Windows tablets have a rough road ahead.
Windows just doesn't seem at home when squeezed into this 1.8-pound (0.8 kilogram) slab, with a touch-sensitive screen that is 8.9 inches (22 centimeters) on the diagonal. It's sluggish, and the controls aren't adapted to the size of the screen or the fact that there's no real keyboard or mouse.
On-screen keyboards kept popping up in the wrong places, blocking the fields where I wanted to enter text and the buttons I wanted to push. I struggled to hit the little "x" in the corner of the window to close it, so I had to fall back on guiding the mouse cursor with a small touch pad that's built into the tablet's frame.
It's also a bad idea to couple a touch screen with a slow computer. When I pressed an on-screen button, I found myself wondering whether the computer had failed to register the press or whether it was just working on reacting. I kept jabbing at the screen like I was poking at a lazy dog, just to be on the safe side.
Archos 9 is lethargic because it runs Windows 7 on a processor that's even slower than those used in netbooks -- those slow, small laptops. How slow is it? Windows rates computers from 1.0 to 7.9 based on how fast the hardware is, and places the Archos 9 at a 1.3 -- the lowest I've seen. It takes nearly two minutes to boot up. TV shows on Hulu.com stutter so badly they're like slide shows with a soundtrack.
It's a little disconcerting that the Windows tablet experience is...
Tue, 16 Feb 10
Apple To Lure iPad Buyers with 99-Cent TV Shows
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71653
Apple wants to drive iPad sales by offering downloads of television shows for just 99 cents, half the price of most shows currently being sold on Apple's iTunes Store, news reports indicate.
Apple now charges $1.99 per episode for standard resolution and $2.99 for a high-definition episode. Those are very high prices for content that is free over the air or with a cable subscription and that can be viewed only on PCs, iPods and iPhones.
But with the March release of the iPad, Apple is hoping that reasonably priced content plus the iPad's huge, high-resolution screen will make paying for TV content more compelling.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple met with at least one network last week to discuss the 99-cent pricing model. Apple is trying to "ignite the video part of iTunes," a source said. Apple had originally been trying to strike subscription deals with TV networks and producers, but those efforts have stalled.
Will 99-cent TV shows drive adoption of the iPad? "That in itself probably won't drive a lot of sales," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence. Sterling believes the conventional wisdom that consumer disinterest in the iPad will dissipate when the device actually appears.
"My belief is that once it gets into the stores [in late March] and people can touch it and play with it -- especially if they drop the price a little bit -- I think it is going to sell," Sterling said. Despite a rash of negative coverage after the incredible pre-announcement hype, Sterling asserts that "sales will be fine." Apple's retail strategy will be "key to popularizing the device. I just believe that once people can touch it they'll be interested."
And it is high-definition video on an impressively sized mobile screen that...
Tue, 16 Feb 10
Olympics Sponsors Play a Social Game
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71650
Sponsors have a new name for the Vancouver Olympics: the Social Games.
More consumer eyeballs will be on computer and mobile phone screens during the Winter Olympics than on TV screens. Coca-Cola says that while 100 million saw its Super Bowl ads air once, online interactions with the ads now number more than 500 million. The Olympics will be no different.
Sponsors have spent months creating strategies aimed at nudging folks to mingle with their brands online and share virtual goodies with friends.
"Virtual goods and currency are becoming enormous," says Rebecca Lieb, vice president at Econsultancy. But, she cautions, "It needs to be relative to the Olympic Games and your brand."
Visa is getting a bigger boost in pre-Olympic buzz online than any sponsor, reports LBi, an interactive ad agency. "Social-media buzz is important because it makes ad dollars work harder," says Joe Schab, CEO at LBi.
Social-media plans for four sponsors:
*Visa. About 40 percent of its Olympic marketing funds will go to digital, four times the past share, marketing chief Antonio Lucio says. It created a YouTube channel where its six Olympic spots can be seen before they air on TV. Folks can pick their favorite and enter to have their name appear in the ad.
*Coke. The brand created a virtual snowball fight for consumers to share via social media. It also has an iPhone app with NBC that has sounds of cheering, air horns and a Coke being poured. Coke-sponsored athletes will tweet on Twitter about their experiences.
"Every piece of our Olympic marketing has a social and mobile component," says Katie Bayne, marketing chief for Coca-Cola North America.
*McDonald's. The chain has created a virtual scavenger hunt: How Do You McNugget? The first to figure out such things as how Olympic athletes eat McNuggets can win a trip for two to the 2012...
Sun, 14 Feb 10
Changes Address Privacy Concerns in Google Buzz
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71655
Just three days after Google launched its answer to Facebook and Twitter, the search giant announced changes in Google Buzz to address some privacy concerns.
The option to share Gmail information with other users is still the default setting, but the box to uncheck for more privacy has now been added more prominently to the Google profile that users must have to use the service. If they don't uncheck, anyone who searches a user's name or e-mail can have access to the user's most frequent contacts.
In another change, Buzzers who show up in the list of followers now have an easy "block" button next to their names. And in the third modification, only those who have created a public profile will appear on a user's list of followers. Previously, the service listed public profiles as well as previous Gmail contacts who may later create a public profile.
Unchanged is the fact that Gmail users are essentially opted into the service without consent. To completely opt out of Buzz, Gmail users must delete their Google profile, block all the followers they have picked up, and then click on the "turn off Buzz" link at the bottom of the Gmail in-box.
"I think they addressed some, but not all of the problems," said Ryan Calo, an expert in Internet privacy at Stanford University. "I'm concerned about formerly private things becoming public without the user understanding that your Google Chat status will be available, where it was not before."
The third largest e-mail service in the United States, Gmail has an estimated 143 million users. Those who also utilize Google Reader, which shares web sites, and Picassa, which shares photo albums, will find that items they have marked public are automatically posted as part of their news feed. Users' chat statuses are also automatically linked so...
Sun, 14 Feb 10
Developers Rush To Build Apps for Apple's iPad
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71654
Developer interest in building applications for Apple's App Store nearly tripled in January thanks, in part, to the introduction of the much-anticipated iPad. So says Flurry Analytics in its Friday report of the Smartphone Industry Pulse for January.
Flurry Analytics tracked data in more than 20,000 mobile applications to determine that developers who started applications that integrate its mobile analytics package into iPhone applications in January rose nearly three times from December.
Flurry reported developers started more than 1,600 new applications with Flurry. That compares to less than 600 in December and marks a dramatic new year surge -- the largest since the company started tracking apps.
Flurry is calling the activity "the iPad effect." Historically, Flurry has measured surges in new application starts within its system in anticipation of new device launches, including for the Motorola Droid and iPhone 3GS, said Peter Farago, Flurry's vice president of marketing. That history led the company to speculate on the reason for the jump -- and that guess is Apple's iPad event in January.
"For developers who get a jump on customizing their applications for the iPad, there may be an opportunity to stand out early on and earn more downloads," Farago said. "Android new-application starts are also growing, showing a steady ramp for the second half of 2009 and for January 2010. Over this time period, month-over-month growth has averaged approximately 25 percent."
Android's steady new-application growth over the second half of 2009 closed the gap against the iPhone. Android apps represented about 33 percent of new starts within Flurry for December. But the recent spike in Apple iPad support shifted popularity back in Apple's direction at a level Flurry hasn't witnessed in six months.
Farago sees the unprecedented surge in support of the iPad as a positive early indicator of its...
Sat, 13 Feb 10
Social Answers Service Costs Google $50 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71640
In its second social-media move in a week, Google has acquired a social answers service for a reported $50 million. Google on Thursday snapped up Mechanical Zoo, the company behind a service known as Aardvark.
Four entrepreneurs -- Max Ventilla, Damon Horowitz, Nathan Stoll, and Rob Spiro -- launched Aardvark in 2007. The quartet first conceived it as a social search engine -- a way to find people (rather than web pages) with specific information.
The company rolled out the Aardvark concept last summer via e-mail, instant message, Twitter and the iPhone before launching it more broadly in October at vark.com. It didn't take long for Google to take notice and buy out the fledgling service that raised venture capital from the likes of August Capital and Baseline Ventures.
"Aardvark is a kind of real-time social search tool or 'answer engine.' It was never really a threat to Google, but the company was doing something very different than Google," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "An earlier almost identical service, Mosio, shifted its model toward enterprises for revenue reasons, it would appear. There have been a number of efforts toward social search, but Aardvark is really the closest to realizing that elusive goal."
Consumers looking for trusted information such as product recommendations, travel suggestions, local tips, or career advice get results from friends, or friends of friends, by sending Aardvark a question in plain English. For example, you could ask Aardvark, "Where should I go for lunch in Midtown Manhattan?"
Aardvark then figures out who might be able to answer your question and asks on your behalf. Aardvark said most questions are answered within five minutes, and the vast majority are answered within 10 minutes. The speed with which questions are answered depends on the subject of the...
Sat, 13 Feb 10
Valentine's Day in the Internet Age
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71626
If you've been together for decades, chances are you met your valentine through family, work or in other traditional ways.
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But if your relationship is newer, it's more likely you met online.
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According to a new nationally representative survey of 3,009 adults with a romantic partner, the Internet has now overtaken all the ways people meet, save one: meeting through friends.
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Regardless of when they met, at least 32 percent of respondents said friends brought them together, according to the study by Michael Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.
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It's the one category that works for every kind of couple -- gays and straights, young and old. Everybody relies on their friends, says Rosenfeld, who will discuss his preliminary findings at a meeting of the Population Association of America in April.
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But among those who met in just the two years before the survey, 23 percent of heterosexual couples and 61 percent of gay and lesbian couples met online. (Of those surveyed, 474 were gay or lesbian.)
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The Internet is the one social arena that is unambiguously gaining in importance over time, the study finds.
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Rosenfeld's research is among a few national samples that shed light on how people become couples, and it is by far the most recent data, compiled last spring. USA TODAY asked readers for their own how we met stories, and more than 300 responded; their experiences, along with Rosenfeld's research, paint a picture of the way romances form in contemporary society.
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Rosenfeld says his research was conducted online by Knowledge Networks, a survey research company; participants were recruited by phone and provided online access if needed.
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The rise of the Internet as a way of meeting people makes a bit of an end run around family, he says. It doesn't seem to erode the importance of friends, but...
Sat, 13 Feb 10
Hackers in China Feast on a Lucrative Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71621
Chinese Web sites sell hackers all sorts of Trojan horse programs and other malicious software designed to penetrate computer security systems. Online gaming in China alone presents hackers with a market whose value, according to a recent estimate by the state broadcaster CCTV, is 10 billion yuan (1 billion euros) annually [or $1.37 billion].
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Using Trojan software secretly implanted in targeted computers, hackers steal users' personal information and game accounts and logins and then transfer valuable, hard-won virtual items and sell them via online sites. Meanwhile, non-hackers dip deep into their pockets to stay competitive in the online games.
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According to Chinese experts, the country's Trojan horse attackers derive 95 percent of their revenues from selling virtual items and online game accounts.
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The controversy surrounding recent sophisticated cyberattacks on the U.S.-based Internet giant Google Inc. has put a spotlight on China's booming hacker industry. Google experts suspect that the attacks originated in China, which the Chinese government has dismissed as groundless.
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The spat has become highly politicized. Google said it was reviewing its operations in China and would relax self-censorship, under which it abided by the Chinese government's Web restrictions, even if this prompted a shutdown of its Internet search engine in China.
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Now China's propaganda machine is doing all it can to show that the country is cracking down hard on cybercrime. Part of the campaign is this week's report by state media that the biggest training Web site for hackers, called the Black Hawk Safety Net, had been closed.
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The report, however, quickly turned out to be old news that was announced only in the wake of the Google dispute. The Web site was actually shut down in November. Meanwhile, similar Web sites continue to provide hacker training and spyware with impunity. One such site offers answers to the tantalizing question: How do I...
Sat, 13 Feb 10
AOL and Facebook Team for Chat Integration
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71620
Users of AOL's main instant-messaging service can now chat directly with friends on Facebook.
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AOL Inc. said Wednesday that a new version of the AIM software connects with the chat function on Facebook's Web site, letting AIM users communicate with friends who are logged on to the social network.
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The AIM user still needs a Facebook account, however, and it's the Facebook persona rather than AIM's that appears to the friend on Facebook.
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Users who download the new AIM software and link it with their Facebook profile will see their AIM buddy list include online Facebook friends in a separate section.
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New York-based AOL said it was making the changes as part of ongoing efforts to improve the user experience.
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Excluding mobile, AIM has about 17 million users -- a fraction of the more than 400 million on Facebook.
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Before the rise of cell phones and social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, AIM was a pioneer in online social networking. Its instant-messaging service was one of just a few that made it easy for people to communicate instantly on the Web.
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In an effort to keep users engaged on its platform more recently, AIM launched a lifestreaming feature last year that let users see friends' latest posts on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
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AIM also has had arrangements with other instant-messaging services, including Google Chat, which is incorporated into Google's Gmail service and lets AIM users sign in to their accounts from the e-mail site.
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Google Buzz Automatically Exposes Gmail Information
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71638
After facing criticism and a lawsuit or two involving its privacy policies, Facebook can at least tell its critics that it's better than Google Buzz. By being part of the new Gmail social-networking service unveiled this week by the search giant, users are automatically exposing their Google profile, including their e-mail, to everyone who can do a Google search.
And if that's not bad enough, the default setting allows anyone who connects with you to see your list of contacts. You can disable that setting, but then those contacts won't be accessible for sharing photos, links and daily witty updates.
Google Buzz is essentially a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook, with the innovation that it makes use of an existing network. If you have Gmail, you don't have to join Buzz -- you're already on. By finding a small-print link on the bottom of your inbox, you can opt to "turn off Buzz."
Sharon Udasin, 25, a New York-based writer and Gmail user since 2005, took immediately to Buzz, but with some reservations.
"As a young journalist, I like to have every form of online social networking at my fingertips at all times, and am excited to see how Buzz goes," she said. "My concern with Buzz, however, is that there is only an 'on and off' option, rather than a customizable scale of privacy settings."
After much criticism about its privacy settings, Facebook in December allowed users to be more selective about what information can be seen by the general public, within the system, and via Internet searches.
When clicking on Buzz, which now appears directly under the inbox link, Gmail users may find that Buzz users are already following them, and then have the chance to modify their profile. By unchecking a box, users can keep the list of people who are...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Google's Broadband Test Draws Widespread Praise
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71637
Google's announcement Wednesday that it will roll out a high-speed fiber trial in select U.S. locations unleashed a flurry of comments ranging from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to the telecoms and cable industries to network-neutrality advocates.
Google is asking cities, counties and states to indicate interest in having Google-built one-gigabit-per-second fiber service. The company emphasized it is not entering the Internet service provider business but rather is conducting an experiment to see what happens when truly high bandwidth is available.
"We're excited to see how consumers, small businesses, anchor institutions, and local governments will take advantage of ultra high-speed access to the Net," said Richard Whitt, Google's telecom and media counsel.
"In the same way that the transition from dial-up to broadband made possible the emergence of online VoIP and video and countless other applications, we think that ultra high-speed bandwidth will lead to many new innovations -- including streaming high-definition video content, remote data storage, distance learning, real-time multimedia collaboration, and others that we simply can't imagine yet," Whitt wrote on the Google Public Policy Blog.
"Big broadband creates big opportunities," Genachowski said. "This significant trial will provide an American test bed for the next generation of innovative, high-speed Internet apps, devices and services. The FCC's national broadband plan will build upon such private-sector initiatives and will include recommendations for facilitating and accelerating greater investment in broadband, creating jobs and increasing America's global competitiveness."
Free Press, a nonprofit group that supports network neutrality, called on the FCC to "adopt these high standards and aspirational goals when it delivers the national broadband plan to Congress in March. The national broadband plan should chart a course to guide the United States in the near term to universal deployment and adoption of high-capacity Internet infrastructure, and in the long term...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Facebook Removes Prisoners' Pages Taunting Victims
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71634
Facebook has removed 30 prisoners' pages after complaints that they were using the social network to harass their victims. The company on Thursday removed the pages after England's justice secretary brought to Facebook's attention the taunting of victims.
Prisoners in England used Facebook accounts to make threats against victims through messages to their own group of friends, according to published reports. One well-known prisoner serving time for his involvement with the mob sent messages to his 500-plus friends saying he could not wait to see the fear in some of his enemies' eyes.
Access to social networks by inmates serving time is against prison policy, according to the Ministry of Justice.
With that knowledge, Facebook removed the pages within 48 hours of being notified, according to England's Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw.
Even if the prisoners were allowed to access social networks while in prison, Facebook might have removed the pages based on its own Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which states: "You will not bully, intimidate or harass any user," and "you will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence."
Facebook asks users to notify the company of any harassment and also provides users with the option to block messages and access to their pages by other users.
The company's removal of the pages created a storm of debate on Internet forums about the rights of prisoners. Some agree Facebook did the right thing and say Internet access is a privilege that prisoners should not have.
"Taunting victims is bad, but there's a lot worse they could do online," wrote a poster named Anrkist. "Even with Internet restrictions, you'd never be able to block all the bad outcomes."
Others, however, argue that prisoners should have...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Garmin-ASUS Alliance Unveils Two GPS Smartphones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71633
The Garmin-ASUS alliance unveiled two co-branded smartphones Thursday that integrate advanced navigation features equivalent to those found in any high-end personal navigation device (PNG) from Garmin. Both devices, which are slated to go on sale in Asia and Europe during the first half of 2010, will ship with everything the user needs to deploy the device in a car, including a powered cradle and windshield mount.
Still, Garmin and ASUS clearly need to do more to overcome the huge market chatter generated by free navigation offerings from Google and Nokia. Garmin and ASUS launched a co-branded G60 smartphone in several Asian countries last July and via AT&T in the United States in October, but consumer response has been underwhelming.
Gartner Senior Research Analyst Annette Zimmermann, who is based in Europe, hasn't seen any signs of the G60 gaining market traction in Asia or the U.S. "They have not launched with any operator here" in Europe, leaving "out key markets like Germany," Zimmermann said.
Sporting a 3.5-inch WVGA display with a touchscreen interface featuring a QWERTY keyboard, the Garmin-ASUS nüvifone M10 integrates Wi-Fi and HSPA radios, a five-megapixel camera, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM.
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The Garmin-ASUS M10 is our answer to people's need for work-life balance, said ASUS Vice President Benson Lin. The M10 runs Windows Mobile, making it the ideal smartphone for business use, while its smart navigation capabilities, comprehensive social-networking features, and connected services enable users to lead a truly smart lifestyle.
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The A50 smartphone, which is based on Google's Android platform, sports a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touch-sensitive display with on-screen QWERTY keyboard, 4GB of internal storage, and an expandable microSD card slot. Also on tap is an accelerometer for enabling every screen to be automatically viewed in portrait or landscape mode.
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The A50...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Panasonic Offers Beefy -- and Costly -- iPad Competition
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71631
Apple's new iPad tablet computer may be fine for surfing the web and watching surfing movies, but Panasonic Computer Solutions thinks many field workers need a tougher companion. On Wednesday, the maker of Toughbook mobile computers released its Toughbook H1 Field, described as the world's most rugged handheld tablet computer.
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The new model is targeted at field sales personnel, first responders, supervisors, inspectors, maintenance workers, and other mobile professionals.
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subhead
No Wimp
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Kyp Wallis, Panasonic's director of product management, said the H1 is best positioned to meet the computing needs of both highly mobile workers and their IT administrators. He added that the model's design is based on extensive customer input to ensure it had the right mix of form factor, features and durability to maximize worker productivity and value.
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The H1 is no wimp. It meets military spec MIL-STD-810G, and is rated able to withstand a six-foot drop. The chassis is magnesium alloy, encased in polycarbonate, and the sealed all-weather design is IP65-certified. The operating temperature range is -4 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Built around a 1.86-GHz Intel Atom processor with 2GB of RAM, the unit has six hours of battery life, can handle twin hot-swappable batteries, and has a 10.4-inch dual-touch display. A 64GB solid-state drive is reinforced, and there is an optional 2.0-megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED lights.
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There's also an optional SmartCard, RFID, bar code readers, GPS and Qualcomm's new Gobi2000 mobile broadband technology. At launch, the H1 Field is certified for Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless networks, and Panasonic said other carriers will soon be announced.
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subhead
'Exceptional Ergonomics'
/subhead
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For workers who would use this device in direct sunlight, the screen has a circular polarizer, as well as antiglare and antireflective screen treatments.
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Since many of the target users would be holding the unit for much of the workday, Panasonic said it...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Microsoft Previews Office for Mac with More Connections
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71630
Microsoft offered a sneak peak of Office for Mac 2011 on Thursday at the Macworld 2010 expo in San Francisco. Office for Mac 2011 will be available later this year and includes new connections to Microsoft services to improve compatibility and help users collaborate more effectively.
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Among the new features are co-authoring tools and web apps. The new tools allow users to work on Word, PowerPoint and Excel files from different locations via a Microsoft Office Web Apps connection.
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Co-authoring is aimed at removing confusion from having multiple versions of documents and lost edits. The feature lets users keep track of the team with a Presence Everywhere function that offers real-time status updates on who is working on a document.
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subhead
Pushing Web Apps
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Office Web Apps is currently in beta, but is available for both home and business users across platforms. Documents are stored in the user's Windows Live ID account or Microsoft SharePoint. It's a direct move against Google Apps.
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Neither Apple nor Microsoft wants to lose to Google. So Office Web Apps is really trying to keep the product feeling relevant to the customer base, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
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Customers don't like to move. So typically an entrenched vendor like Microsoft can hold on to customers if they meet minimal new needs and not break anything customers like. It's an interesting dance to dance, but one that's very important right now.
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subhead
Office for Mac Ribbon
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Despite the new collaboration features, Microsoft said it was careful not to completely rearrange the look and feel of the software. Rather, the new design represents an evolution of the Office 2008 Elements Gallery, leveraging the classic Mac menu and standard toolbar. Users can collapse the ribbon and the toolbar to get more screen space.
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With the new design, Microsoft intends to make it easier...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
MySpace CEO Reportedly Fired in Corporate Drama
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71610
News Corp. late Wednesday evening announced a major shake-up in the MySpace executive ranks. With seemingly little warning, MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta has stepped down after only seven months at the helm of the struggling social-networking site.
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Owen took on an incredible challenge in working to refocus and revitalize MySpace, and the business has shown very positive signs recently as a result of his dedicated work, said Jon Miller, News Corp.'s chairman and CEO of digital media.
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However, in talking to Owen about his priorities both personally and professionally going forward, we both agreed that it was best for him to step down at this time, Miller said. I want to thank Owen for all of his efforts.
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subhead
A Van Natta Cover-Up?
/subhead
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That's the public story. Behind the scenes, the rumor mill points to something much more dramatic. Reported tensions between Van Natta and Miller apparently came to a head on Wednesday, ending with Miller firing the former Facebook executive charged with reviving MySpace.
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What happened? My sense from third-party reports is that there are some politics involved between Van Natta and his boss Jon Miller, who hired the guys who are now going to run MySpace, said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. There's also the decline of MySpace and the challenges of figuring out MySpace's identity in Facebook's shadow.
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The guys who are now going to run MySpace are Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn. The duo will serve as co-presidents, reporting to Miller. Van Natta, Jones and Hirschhorn joined MySpace in April 2009. Until yesterday, Jones and Hirschhorn were serving as COO and chief product officer, respectively.
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Although Miller positioned Van Natta's departure as a mutual agreement, the grapevine insists the former Facebooker was flat-out fired. Published reports suggest Van Natta did not get along with Miller, Jones or Hirschhorn, and...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Outsourcing Provider Convergys Names New CEO
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71595
Convergys Corp., a business services outsourcing provider, said Wednesday that former Alltel Corp. executive Jeff Fox will take over as president and CEO.
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David Dougherty, who led the company less than three years, will stay on as a consultant, the company said.
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Fox, 47, has agreed to head Convergys at least one year, the company said. The former chief operating officer of wireless provider Alltel became a Convergys board member one year ago.
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Convergys chairman Philip Odeen said the board decided it was time for a new leader.
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The board believes we need greater focus on effective execution, revenue growth, and improved profitability, Odeen said in a statement.
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Convergys provides call-center, billing and other customer relations services. It has seen its growth falter during the recession.
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It recently reported a 2009 profit of $77.3 million, down from $92.9 million a year earlier. Revenue edged up to $2.83 billion from $2.79 billion.
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The company has forecast 2010 sales will fall to about $2.6 billion.
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Convergys recently eliminated an undisclosed number of jobs among other changes Dougherty had described as difficult but necessary actions to further streamline costs and pursue operating improvements. Convergys has 70,000 employees in 30 countries. Its largest overseas operation is in the Philippines.
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An industry expert said the CEO switch wasn't surprising.
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They obviously wanted to make a change, because they've had a hard time, said Donna Fluss, president of DMG consulting.
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Fluss said Dougherty, 53, headed the company during a tough economy, but she said some competitors such as India-based Genpact, formerly owned by General Electric Co., have been increasing revenues at the same time.
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Convergys says its clients include more than half of the Fortune 50 companies. It made its biggest mark in outsourcing call center operations, and has expanded into human resources outsourcing and other services.
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During 13 years with Alltel, Fox held a number of roles before...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
'Snow Day' Is Just Another Telecommuting Work Day
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71593
Faster computers, broadband connections and free public Wi-Fi are taking the fun out of snow days.
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The federal government was shut down for the second day in a row Tuesday and many offices were empty in the nation's snowbound capital, but work continued -- in homes across the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region. It showed just how seamlessly well-equipped workers can soldier on even through disruptions such as heavy snowstorms.
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With more snow expected today, some businesses are extending teleworking plans. At Adaptive Marketing, an Internet marketing services company based in Norwalk, Conn., employees have been told to call a toll-free number to find out if the office will be open. If not, they can use their work-provided laptops to log in and do business from home.
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We're going to be hit, and they're saying it's going to be huge, human resources Vice President Marcella Barry says. But whether we're open or closed, it will be business as usual.
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Not all government officials get to take a snow day: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has shown up every day this week in a suit to work. With the cafeteria workers off, staffers have gotten coffee from local downtown cafes.
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For many companies, it's the information technology departments that keep business running smoothly. Employers need to be sure they have sufficient network capacity.
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Telework works with the right policy, procedures and process combined with IT. Then you wouldn't have a problem, says Chuck Wilsker, president and CEO of the Telework Coalition. The burden is when you haven't planned ahead.
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The ability to work from anywhere also means snow days no longer offer a break from work. Many are like Nicko Margolies, a communications assistant at the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based non-profit.
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With the federal government shut down, his office closed. Margolies worked at home.
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No snowstorm, no matter how big, will keep me from...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Today's 'iGeneration' Has No Off Switch
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71590
Move over, Millennials. You're not the younger generation anymore.
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For the past decade, you were the ones to watch. But now, as the eldest among you are fast approaching 30, there's a new group just begging for some attention. They're still kids, and although there's a lot the experts don't yet know about them, one thing they do agree on is that what kids use and expect from their world has changed rapidly.
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And it's all because of technology.
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It's simply a part of their DNA, says Dave Verhaagen, a child and adolescent psychologist in Charlotte. It shapes everything about them.
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To the psychologists, sociologists, and generational and media experts who study them, their digital gear sets this new group (yet unnamed by any powers that be) apart, even from their tech-savvy Millennial elders. They want to be constantly connected and available in a way even their older siblings don't quite get. These differences may appear slight, but they signal an all-encompassing sensibility that some say marks the dawning of a new generation.
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The current generation seems to be moving well into adulthood, and there seems to be another generation setting itself up as a contrast to it, says Neil Howe, a historian and demographer who has co-written several books on the generations.
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Kathryn Montgomery, a communication professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and author of the 2007 book Generation Digital, hears similar stories from her students. They tell me their younger siblings have different relationships with these technologies, she says.
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The difference is that these younger kids don't remember a time without the constant connectivity to the world that these technologies bring, she says. They're growing up with expectations of always being present in a social way -- always being available to peers wherever you are.
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The contrast between Millennials and this younger group was so...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Apple vs Adobe: Can't We All Just Get Along?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71589
The bickering between Apple and Adobe over why Apple's iPhone and its new iPad don't run Adobe's Flash software is giving me a headache.
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Apple CEO Steve Jobs says Flash is buggy and accuses Adobe of being lazy. Kevin Lynch, Adobe's chief technology officer, denies that and accuses Apple of trying to control what iPhone and iPad users can do with their devices.
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Jobs says Flash is on its way out. No way, says Lynch. Enough already. You guys are beginning to remind me of my kids. Can't you find some way to get along?
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It seems to me that Apple and Adobe need each other. Even if they didn't, the millions of us who own iPhones and iPod touches or who plan to buy an iPad when the new multimedia tablet hits the market need them to work things out. Because we're the ones who are going to lose out if they don't.
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Adobe's Flash is a software program that plugs into a Web browser to deliver multimedia content such as games, videos and interactive advertisements. Adobe says the vast majority of top Web sites include Flash content and that 75 percent of the video on the Web is delivered using Flash.
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Flash has mostly been a PC experience, because Flash players either haven't been available on smartphones or weren't powerful enough to access much of the Flash content on the Web.
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Until now, the lack of Flash on the iPhone hasn't been that big of a deal. When the iPhone debuted in 2007, the browsing experience was so much better than what came before it on mobile phones that it was hard to complain that it didn't support Flash. It was great just to be able to access the Web and full HTML pages. And because other smartphones also lacked...
Fri, 12 Feb 10
Windows 7's 100-Day Report Card
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71527
Unlike politicians, operating systems (OS) don't get a honeymoon with the general public. Windows 7 has been on the market for [about] 100 days now, so -- as in politics -- it's a good time to review how the software has performed so far. The results are largely positive.
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First and foremost, Microsoft has to be pleased with sales, which have been brisk. Just a week after the Windows 7 launch on October 22, 2009, the sales figures had already bested the company's expectations. Compared with the start of Windows Vista, five times as many consumers have opted for the new operating system in the first five days, Microsoft reported.
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Even better: despite millions of new installations, no major problems have been reported. There have been astonishingly few problems with Windows 7, says Axel Vahldiek from German computer magazine c't. He'd know: his magazine fields questions from readers. Unlike the OS's predecessor, Windows Vista, the questions received by c't general involve minor issues.
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That said, even the little things can rub nerves the wrong way. The biggest problems are coming from older hardware, says Axel Vahldiek. If the manufacturer doesn't produce Windows 7-ready drivers, then the device will either refuse to work under the new OS or offer limited functionality. The difficulties are most prevalent in peripheral devices like scanners with SCSI ports.
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The blame shouldn't necessarily be laid at Microsoft's door, though. The device makers sometimes make things difficult by design, Vahldiek explains. They might be speculating that those affected by problems will buy new hardware and throw their old devices out if they don't offer enough functionality. The hardware inside the PC usually works without a problem.
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No major security holes have been identified yet. Microsoft clearly learned its lesson from the painful introduction of earlier operating systems. From a security standpoint, Microsoft's...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
Opera Develops Mini Browser for Apple's iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71609
Opera announced it has developed a version of its Opera Mini web browser for Apple's iPhone. The Norwegian company said it will demonstrate the new browser at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Jon von Tetzchner, cofounder of Opera Software, said he is "thrilled" to offer the preview and added that the software provides a "fast, feature-rich" experience for iPhone users. Opera on the iPhone brings the company "one step closer" to its mission of "bringing the web to the world," he said.
The big question, however, is whether Apple will approve Opera as an iPhone application on its App Store. Apple currently only accepts browsers that run on the WebKit engine -- the same engine that powers Apple's Safari browser.
But Apple has gotten into hot water with the Federal Trade Commission over its initial refusal to certify Voice over Internet Protocol applications, Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, noted. This time around, Apple will be hard-pressed to exclude competitors.
"Given Apple is under FTC review for their application approval process, I don't think they can refuse this application -- but they could break it or limit its capability," Enderle said. "For instance, both the ARM processor and the Opera browser support Flash on other platforms, but Apple will likely make sure Flash doesn't work on Opera any better than it does on Safari on the iPhone."
"Changing defaults will likely be difficult as well," Enderle added, "so that it is the Safari browser that opens when you click on a link. If Opera gets on the phone, it is likely that [Google's] Chrome will soon follow, and Apple will do whatever it can to make sure that never happens."
Opera Mini 5, currently in beta, boasts quite a few advanced features over Safari, including tabbed browsing so users...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
iSuppli Sees Big Gaps Between iPad Costs and Prices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71608
Apple has plenty of breathing room to lower the price of its new iPad tablet computer if sales aren't as brisk as hoped, research from iSuppli has suggested. Without taking apart an actual iPad, the El Segundo, Calif,.-based market-research firm concluded, based on Apple's description of the device features, that the cheapest iPad model, the 16GB device without wireless 3G, contains $219.35 worth of parts and costs about $10 to assemble.
With a 3G card, the parts price rises to $246.45, and manufacturing rises slightly to $11.20. The expected retail price is $499 for the 16GB device without 3G and $629 with 3G.
For the most expensive models, iSuppli estimates the 64GB iPad costs Apple $307.85 in parts and $10 in labor, and $334.95 for parts and $11.20 for labor with 3G. The expected retail price is $699 without 3G and $829 with 3G.
The 32GB version of the iPad with 3G is the most profitable, according to iSuppli, with a parts and labor cost of $287.15, or about 39 percent of the $729 retail price. Without 3G, the 32GB device has an expected retail price of $599.
The most expensive component is the touchscreen, estimated at $80 for all models.
Apple didn't immediately respond to our request for comment about the estimates.
Michael Gartenberg, a vice president of Interpret, said the estimates should be taken with a grain of salt.
"I'm a little skeptical of a tear-down that doesn't actually include the hardware being torn down," said Gartenberg. "But then again, we've had critiques by people who've never held the device as well."
Jeff Orr, a mobile devices analyst at ABI Research, said the estimates are likely lower than the actual cost.
"This is one firm's analysis of what they think the 'bag of parts' or 'bill of materials' cost is for the...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
FCC Pressure Leads Google To Slash Nexus One Fee
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71606
Internet search giant Google has slashed its fee for returned Nexus One smartphones by more than half. The fee went from $350 to $150 after consumers clogged Internet forums with complaints about the fee.
Effective immediately, customers who bought Google's Nexus One phone and cancel or downgrade their wireless plan within 120 days from activation may be charged a $150 equipment recovery fee, according to the company's U.S. terms of sale. Customers who return the device to Google within 14 days won't be charged the fee.
"I thought Google was trying to be different and shake things up a bit in the wireless industry," one poster using the name mhammo said said before the fee was reduced. "Not only is the customer service related to Nexus One in really bad shape, we now learn that Google will implement their own ETF of $350 on top of any ETF imposed by the carrier. I don't begrudge them making a profit, that's a no-brainer, but let's be reasonable."
Even with Google's lowered fee, Nexus One users may think twice before returning the device because wireless carrier T-Mobile charges a $200 early termination fee.
"Google's fee seems a little high, given the fact that consumers are also paying an ETF to T-Mobile," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president of Interpret.
Besides online forums, the Federal Communication Commission received a slew of complaints about the fee, and the FCC put pressure on Google.
Mobile-phone makers and carriers have been under close watch by the FCC in recent months after the agency launched an internal consumer task force. Led by Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the group is charged with investigating consumer complaints against companies like Google.
The Internet search giant, however, isn't the only one feeling pressure from the FCC...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
AT&T Picks Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson for LTE Network
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71603
AT&T has tapped Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson to deliver network equipment and related engineering services for the U.S. wireless carrier's upcoming deployment of a high-speed 4G network based on long-term evolution (LTE) technology. The financial terms of the supplier contracts were not disclosed.
The new agreements with Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, which build on earlier relationships with AT&T, are expected to enable the wireless carrier to take full advantage of compatibility between the suppliers' existing 3G equipment and forthcoming LTE upgrades, AT&T Operations CEO John Stankey said Wednesday.
"AT&T has a key advantage in that LTE is an evolution of the existing GSM family of technologies that powers our network and the vast majority of the world's global wireless infrastructure today," Stankey said. "As some competitors move away from their existing investment in niche 3G platforms, we are able to efficiently and quickly move toward LTE while enhancing our existing 3G performance and providing access to a strong ecosystem of customer devices."
The selection of Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson is an important step forward in AT&T's ongoing mobile broadband strategy, Stankey said. LTE field trials are slated to begin later this year, with the first commercial deployments of the equipment at cell sites across AT&T's network in 2011.
AT&T is following in the footstep of rival Verizon Wireless, which likewise tapped Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson a year ago to serve as the primary vendors of LTE infrastructure equipment for the carrier's 4G deployments. Verizon plans to deploy LTE commercially beginning this year, thus giving it a potential head start over rival AT&T.
However, Verizon's apparent timing advantage may be limited to nothing more than "some marketing hype," noted Gartner Research Vice President Phil Redman. "National coverage is not promised by year-end 2010," which means "it will be even less available than...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
Google Will Experiment with Ultrafast Internet Connections
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71602
Google on Wednesday announced plans to experiment with ultrafast Internet access -- more than 100 times faster than most Americans have access to today with one-gigabit-per-second connections. Google expects to offer the fiber service at a competitive price to between 50,000 and 500,000 people in several cities.
Google product managers Minny Ingersoll and James Kelly described several scenarios for the ultrafast connections in a company blog post. In one, they ask readers to imagine sitting in a rural health clinic streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York.
Other scenarios include downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes, and collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture. Google believes universal ultrafast Internet access can make these possible.
"This is an interesting experiment. The idea of Google getting into the ISP when they are in so many other businesses is, I guess, not that much of a stretch," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "It will be interesting to see who they target initially to get the service, how much they charge for it, and what type of disruption this creates in the market."
Google's stated goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Google has outlined three specific agendas: Next-generation apps, new deployment techniques, and openness and choice.
For next-generation apps, Google wants to see what developers and users can do with ultrafast connections, whether it's creating bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services or uses people haven't yet imagined. Google will also test new ways to build fiber networks and operate an "open access" network, giving users a choice of multiple service providers.
"Like our Wi-Fi network in Mountain View...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
Flickr Cofounder Working on Online Social Game
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71601
If a new game from a cofounder of Flickr is a hit, "glitch" may take on a new meaning. On Tuesday, a new startup from Stewart Butterfield, cofounder of the popular photo-sharing site, announced a social online game called Glitch, where users team up to solve problems.
The game, targeted for launch by the end of this year, is now in private alpha, with a public beta scheduled this summer. Butterfield's new company, called Tiny Speck, said the massive multiplayer game takes place in "one big world," so "anyone's actions have the ability to affect every other player in the game."
The makers also pointed out that, unlike many games, Glitch "involves very little war, moats, spaceships, wizards, mafiosos," or similar violent action and tools. Another difference, the company noted cryptically, is that the game has eggplants and they "make it very different."
The basic premise is that in the far and perfect future, the world starts falling apart because of a glitch and the players have to go back in time into the minds of 11 great giants "walking sacred paths on a barren asteroid who sing and think and hum the world into existence." After going back in time, players work together to solve puzzles and do other tasks that help save the present world.
The game is attracting attention because of Butterfield's history with Flickr, which he sold to Yahoo in 2005 for $35 million. Originally, Flickr was an online game called Game Neverending, where players could drag and drop photos into conversations. But players were spending most of their time sharing photos, so the popular photo-sharing site evolved.
Butterfield also indicated that the game will try to explore areas that games seldom do. For instance, a player can "heal" people nearby by meditating and doing nothing. There will also...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
Big Patch Tuesday Fixes Server-Side Vulnerabilities
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71581
Microsoft on Tuesday patched 26 vulnerabilities in 13 security bulletins. Eleven bulletins affect Windows and two affect older versions of Microsoft Office.
Although there's plenty of attention to a critical vulnerability in DirectShow, the SMB pathname overflow vulnerability tops Joshua Talbot's list this month. Talbot is a security intelligence manager at Symantec Security Response.
"Server-side vulnerabilities aren't too common anymore, but they're a golden goose for attackers when they are discovered," Talbot said. "With this one, if an attacker can find a vulnerable remote server that has a guest account set up, just like that they've got access to the machine and possibly the entire local network -- all without any user involvement required."
Talbot also called the TCP/IP router advertisement vulnerability a "biggie" because it's a server-side remote code-execution issue. The scary thing, he said, is that it affects everyone running one of the affected systems, whereas the SMB issue only affects users with an SMB server. To make matters worse, by default the Windows firewall doesn't protect against this, he said, and no user interaction is required for exploitation.
Andrew Storm, director of security operations at nCircle, has a different take. He said the most important bug by far for all IT security teams is MS10-0013, a bug in Microsoft Media Player.
"The nature of the exploit lends itself to drive-by attacks that leave unsuspecting victims infected," Storms said. "Since media is what excites people most on the Internet today, an exploit of this bug would make it extremely easy to entice users to watch videos that are actually gateways to malware."
MS10-007 will certainly attract a fair number of malware authors as well, Storms said. That's because any time there is the potential to remotely run a shell on Windows, he explained, attackers perk up and take notice...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
Hacker Cracks 'Digital Fort Knox' Security Chip
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71572
Deep inside millions of computers is a digital Fort Knox, a special chip with the locks to highly guarded secrets, including classified government reports and confidential business plans. Now a former U.S. Army computer-security specialist has devised a way to break those locks.
The attack can force heavily secured computers to spill documents that likely were presumed to be safe. This discovery shows one way that spies and other richly financed attackers can acquire military and trade secrets, and comes as worries about state-sponsored computer espionage intensify, underscored by recent hacking attacks on Google Inc.
The new attack discovered by Christopher Tarnovsky is difficult to pull off, partly because it requires physical access to a computer. But laptops and smart phones get lost and stolen all the time. And the data that the most dangerous computer criminals would seek likely would be worth the expense of an elaborate espionage operation.
Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat security conference and a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's advisory council, called Tarnovsky's finding "amazing."
"It's sort of doing the impossible," Moss said. "This is a lock on Pandora's box. And now that he's pried open the lock, it's like, ooh, where does it lead you?"
Tarnovsky figured out a way to break chips that carry a "Trusted Platform Module," or TPM, designation by essentially spying on them like a phone conversation. Such chips are billed as the industry's most secure and are estimated to be in as many as 100 million personal computers and servers, according to market research firm IDC.
When activated, the chips provide an additional layer of security by encrypting, or scrambling, data to prevent outsiders from viewing information on the machines. An extra password or identification such as a fingerprint is needed when the machine is turned on.
Many computers sold to...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
How Not To Get Mugged Online
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71565
No, the Internet was not created so you could order cookies online.
It came about as academics, government folks and scientists began to link various computer networks together. It's a patchwork creation that is both magnificent and highly flawed when it comes to security.
It's magnificent because it lets you do so much from your home computer -- banking, shopping and even playing games -- for free.
It's flawed because these features also serve as a gateway for crooks to abuse your trusting nature and separate you and your money. Today we'll talk about some of the pitfalls and ways to avoid them.
Not long ago I got an e-mail telling me my online bank account had been breached and I needed to follow a link -- in the e-mail -- to change my password. The e-mail wasn't from my bank; filling in the information would have handed crooks the information they needed to raid my account.
Yet, at a glance, the e-mail passed muster. The return address, for instance, matched the bank's. That's because of a flaw that allows what techies call e-mail spoofing. A relatively simple procedure makes it easy to send an e-mail that appears to come from your bank, the administrators of your favorite online game, or even whitehouse.gov.
Sometimes these spoofed e-mails are easy to spot. They might be full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. But it is almost impossible to tell a well-crafted spoof from the real thing.
To avoid trouble, never respond to an e-mail that asks for passwords, Social Security information or account numbers. If you think the e-mail is authentic, call the bank, company or government agency to check.
There are times we need to check e-mail or access the Web while away from home. Nowadays that's easy. Many hotels, coffee shops or other businesses...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
A Tangled Web of High-Speed Net-Access Funds
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71563
The Obama administration knew that there'd be a lot of interest in the $7.2 billion for high-speed Internet projects it included in last year's huge economic stimulus package.
The goal was to quickly create tens of thousands of jobs and connect millions of poor and rural communities to broadband, a technology that's essential for economic development, modern medicine and education.
But officials had no idea that the demand for the cash would be so overwhelming. They also were bombarded with questions and challenges from large cable and phone companies including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T.
The combination has swamped the agencies in charge and created a bottleneck that might threaten disbursement. After nearly a year, about 7 percent of the funds has been assigned to specific projects.
As a result, "There's significant doubt as to whether the monies can be awarded before the end of September," when the funding authorization expires, says Dan Hays, who directs the communications practice at consulting firm PRTM.
Officials scrapped their original plan to assign $4 billion by the end of 2009, followed by two more funding rounds. Instead they're poised to hit as much as $2 billion when the first round ends this month, as they begin to consider applications to the second -- and last -- round up to March 15.
The effort to spend that money quickly but responsibly is like "trying to use a fire hose with a garden hose nozzle," says Craig Settles, an independent consultant who helps companies develop broadband strategies. "Getting broadband to the American public is not going to be easy."
Such concerns have trained a spotlight on two agencies grappling with the biggest telecommunications program either has ever handled. Congress gave the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) responsibility to allocate $4.7 billion. The remaining $2.5 billion is being handled...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
Lenovo's Top-Notch T410 Gives Netbook Converts Pause
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71561
Last year, millions of consumers flocked to netbooks, the stripped-down machines viewed as low-priced alternatives to laptop computers. If you were one of the netbook converts, a few minutes with the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 laptop might make you backslide.
Like many of Lenovo's business-focused ThinkPad laptops, the T410 is nothing special to look at. Don't be fooled by the matte-black industrial shell that evokes the ThinkPad's IBM lineage.
Under the hood, the $1,350 T410 is smoking fast. It uses Intel's new Core i5 dual-core chips, which boast a clock speed of 2.53GHz and a chipset design that removes speed bottlenecks. The notebook took about half the time to download photos, music, and video as my six-month-old Sony laptop, which has a comparable chip clock speed.
To keep computing tasks humming along, Intel's processors adjust clock speed up or down, depending on the task being handled. Lenovo also built in power-management software that it says boosts battery life 25 percent over previous generations, up to 10 hours. The timing assumes you're using the laptop mainly for word processing; otherwise, expect about four hours of battery life.
Lenovo's T410 also rises to the challenge -- largely posed by Macintosh maker Apple -- of making computing easier. For one, it features the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, a vast improvement over its widely derided predecessor, Windows Vista.
Then there's a handy tool called the Lenovo Access connections utility, which scans for wireless access points and then shows a map that is zoned by relative signal strength. It also tells you if the connection is an open or a secure network and it lets you switch the computer between competing wireless choices, including Wi-Fi, WiMax, and 3G wireless broadband.
The connection tool will become all the more important later this year, when WiMax becomes more widely...
Thu, 11 Feb 10
China's Government Denies All Hacking Allegations
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71557
A high-ranking Chinese official on Tuesday again rejected all accusations of involvement of his government in any hacking attacks against Western companies.
"The government has never supported or been involved in cyber attacks, and it will never do so. Those remarks are sheer nonsense," said Peng Bo, of the Internet bureau of the State Council's Information Office.
He rejected accusations by U.S. experts that China's military or government offices were behind cyber attacks aimed at illicitly acquiring information on technology or trade secrets for the benefit of Chinese state companies.
China itself was the biggest victim of hacking attacks, Peng was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. "The remarks are groundless," he said.
Even if an attack was traced to China, it was very likely that people in other countries were controlling the attacks he said.
"There are tens of thousands of computers in China hijacked by people outside the country," he said.
Peng's remarks are the latest in a series of Chinese denials of involvement in hacking attacks, following accusations by U.S. Internet giant Google Inc. Google said it had fallen victim of sophisticated cyber attacks originating from China in December.
The company then said it was to reassess its engagement in China and announced it would stop to censor search results of its Chinese search engine.
A recent report to the U.S. Congress said it found evidence hinting at Chinese state involvement in hacking activities.
Thu, 11 Feb 10
Google To Chinese Site Goojje.com: Knock It Off!
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71556
U.S. search engine Google Inc. has threatened legal action against a new Chinese Web site for imitating its logo, news reports said Tuesday.
Google has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Goojje.com, citing copyright infringement for the similarities between the start-up site and its own logo, said the Global Times daily.
The founder of Goojje, going by the pseudonym Xiao Xuan, refuted the allegations, saying that it was "unimaginable" that users could be misled to believe the two sites were linked.
The Web site had also turned down advertising and sponsoring deals, he told the Global Times, and has not profited from any similarity with Google's appearance.
Goojje.com is a social networking site with a search function which combines the hits from google.cn with those from Chinese rival search engine Baidu.
Goojje's multicolored logo is not dissimilar to Google's own. It also includes a blue paw-mark reminiscent of the one used -- and trademarked -- by Baidu.
The Chinese search engine has no intention of suing Goojje, one of Baidu's legal staff was quoted as saying by the Global Times.
The new site, whose name makes it sound like Google's sister in Chinese, was launched on January 14, one day after Google announced its plans to withdraw from China. "The brother is leaving but the sister will be missing him," ran a message under its logo.
When Google said it was to keep operating in China, the message changed to "the brother stayed for the sister."
The site had 60,000 registered users on Thursday, but had been targeted by "sophisticated unidentified hackers" since that date, Xiao told the Global Times.
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Google Buzz Aims To Social-Network Gmail Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71580
Google has watched more or less on the sidelines as social-networking sites -- most notably Facebook and Twitter -- have captured the public's attention. Facebook, especially, has become more than a destination web site. It has become a user-centric world where users communicate via status updates, third-party applications, and shared groups.
While Google has made various attempts to gain traction in the social web, nothing has really worked. So on Tuesday, Google gave notice that it's serious about the social web with its announcement of Google Buzz -- a new feature of its Gmail web-based e-mail system.
Rather than simply adding status updates to Gmail, Google is pouring on the social-networking juice in an attempt to exploit the growing user base of Gmail.
"Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch -- it just works," product manager Todd Jackson wrote in an announcement blog post.
Buzz will take advantage of the social network inherent in e-mail by "automatically setting you up to follow the people you e-mail and chat with the most," Jackson said.
How will this impact Facebook and Twitter? Not too much, said Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, in an e-mail. "It really boils down to Google attempting to get folks to spend more time with their assets," he said. "Time will tell how this works out, but I don't really see this as a threat to Facebook or Twitter, given that neither of those services has been cannibalized by each other."
Buzz is intended to be an "easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Intel Launches Quad-Core Itanium 9300 Series Processor
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71579
It may be late, but Intel has launched a new Itanium processor that is expected to double the performance of its predecessor. After two delays, Intel on Monday launched the Itanium 9300 series, a quad-core processor code-named Tukwila.
The chip, a 64-bit processor designed for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems, was slated to be released in early 2009, but Intel delayed the release, saying only that it was undergoing application scalability enhancements. A second delay was announced in May.
Intel may have taken more time than expected, but it said companies, especially Hewlett-Packard, which helped develop the architecture, will benefit from enhancements.
The boost in processing power is what Global 100 companies are seeking, according to Intel. Currently, the Itanium platform is running mission-critical applications for 80 percent of Global 100 businesses. The processor offers 800 percent more system interconnect bandwidth, up to a 500 percent increase in memory bandwidth, and up to 700 percent more memory capacity.
Microsoft, Red Hat, Novell and others praised Intel's new processor.
"Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 support the Itanium architecture," said Ted Kummert, senior vice president of Microsoft's Business Platform Division. "Together with the new features in the Intel Itanium processor 9300 series, Microsoft will provide a platform for businesses to run their mission-critical transaction processing, data warehousing, and business intelligence applications with high levels of reliability and scalability."
Powerful servers will be needed because there will be a 650 percent increase in IT data processing over the next five years, according to a recent Gartner report.
The French Family Allowance Service said it will be able to consolidate multiple data centers into one because of the Itanium 9300's additional throughput and performance.
The processor also handles error corrections across a company's hardware, firmware and operating systems. It improves system...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
iPhone OS and Android Gain Market Share in Q4
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71576
Among the 234 million cell-phone users over age 13 in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, Motorola-manufactured hardware dominated the market of all mobile users, according to a comScore survey released Monday. Among operating systems, Research In Motion had the largest smartphone market share.
The survey showed only a slight loss by the two industry leaders from the period ending in September, a 1.4 percent drop for Motorola to 23.4 percent, and a one percent slip by RIM to 41.6 percent.
But the real OS action was with Apple's iPhone operating system and Google's Android OS, which both had slight gains. The iPhone OS rose 1.2 percent, from 24.1 percent of the market to 25.3 percent. Android had a bigger gain of 2.7 percent, from 2.5 in September to 5.2 percent in December, although its share was still the lowest. The survey does not take into account any gains from the Nexus One handset launched by Google in January and sold unlocked from its online store.
Apple's second-place status is impressive since its OS is only available on the iPhone.
The numbers, while interesting, say little at a time of such fluctuation in the smartphone industry, said J.D. Power and Associates senior telecommunications analyst Kirk Parsons.
"One point in time does not make a trend," Parsons said. "RIM is coming out with a couple of their own launches in early spring or summer, so I guess the market-share numbers will rise and fall with the rollout of new devices. I do expect Android to increase its share in 2010 at the expense of Palm, just given the size and scope of Android-based devices set to launch this year."
The second-place hardware ranking went to LG Electronics in the OEM market, with 21.7 percent, followed by Samsung with 20.4 percent, Nokia with 9.6 percent,...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Nvidia Auto-Switches Notebook GPU To Save Battery Life
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71574
Nvidia took the wraps off a new notebook technology Tuesday that chooses the best graphics processor for running any given application and then automatically routes the workload to either a Nvidia discrete graphics processor unit (GPU) or an integrated graphics processor (IGP) offering from Intel. Called Optimus, the technology will soon be available on several next-generation ASUS notebook PCs, Nvidia said.
Optimus enables notebook workloads to become instantly directed through the most efficient graphics processor engine for the job, said Sasha Ostojic, Nvidia's senior director of notebook software. "Consumers no longer have to choose whether they want great graphics performance or sustained battery life," Ostojic wrote in a blog. "Optimus gives them both."
With Optimus, Nvidia's goal is to enable consumers to obtain optimal battery performance when watching a HD movie, surfing the web, or playing 3-D games -- all without having to manually change graphics settings. Ostojic also pointed out that whenever the notebook's discrete GPU isn't in use, it automatically powers off. "It powers back on as soon as an application is launched that requires it," Ostojic added.
Nvidia claims the technology can extend notebook battery life by up to two times in comparison with similarly configured systems equipped with discrete graphics processors without sacrificing graphics performance. Still, it's difficult to say right now whether Optimus is a significant industry development, said Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at iSuppli.
"I haven't seen any benchmarks on battery savings when using laptops with this technology," Wilkins said. "Semiconductor suppliers are continually looking for ways to increase performance and yet decrease power consumption."
Though Nvidia is currently focusing on the deployment of Optimus in laptops, it's also possible that the technology will eventually become available in other types of computing devices, according to company spokesperson Brian Burke. "We...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Macworld Focuses on Mobile Apps as Apple Stays Away
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71555
The 2010 rendition of the Macworld Expo kicked off in San Francisco today, although this time without a major Apple presence. The annual five-day event will showcase hundreds of Mac products and services, expert advice, and demonstrations -- but this year mobile apps may steal the show.
According to expo organizers, Macworld 2010 is hosting the largest viewing of applications for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch. Attendees can test-drive more than 100 of the hottest apps from companies like TomTom, Tap 11, and BeeJive.
Although Apple won't be exhibiting at Macworld 2010, the company released a major product update in time to leverage the expo buzz. This announcement comes, in addition of course, to Apple's recent iPad launch, which has been generating buzz for several weeks now.
Today's announcement focuses on Aperture 3, the latest version of Apple's photo-editing and management software. Apple said the new version has more than 200 new features, including Faces, Places and Brushes.
The Faces feature uses face detection and recognition to find and organize photos by the people in them. Consumers can view faces across an entire photo library or just the faces that appear in selected projects. Aperture 3 also displays faces that have been detected but not yet named.
The Places capability lets users explore photos based on where they were taken, and like iPhoto, Places automatically reverse-geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, consumers can assign locations by dragging and dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS-enabled cameras, tracking devices, or iPhone photos.
Aperture 3 also includes new tools to refine photos, including brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of a photo and adjustment presets for applying professional photo effects with a single click. A new slideshow function lets consumers share their...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Microsoft Says Battery Woes Not Caused By Windows 7
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71545
Battery problems on Windows 7 machines are not caused by the operating system. That's the position of Stephen Sinofsky, head of the Windows division, in a long posting Monday on the Windows engineering blog.
"At this time," he wrote, "we have no reason to believe there is any issue related to Windows 7 in this context." He acknowledged reports in the press and in forums about faulty battery warnings and batteries failing. "In every case we have been able to identify," Sinofsky added, "the battery being reported on was in fact in need of recommended replacement."
Sinofsky said that the company has been contacting customers who report issues in forums, monitoring customer-service communications, keeping in touch with PC makers, and utilizing opt-in, anonymous "telemetry in Windows 7" to keep track of the situation. In all cases investigated, he wrote, "Windows 7 has simply accurately detected a failing battery."
One factor Sinofsky emphasized is that there is a new battery notification in Windows 7 not available in Vista or Windows XP. The notification, with a battery meter icon and the message "Consider replacing your battery," appears when the battery is performing at 40 percent of its designated capacity. He noted that some customers upgrading a PC to Windows 7 did not know the battery was degrading until 7 offered this new level of notification.
He pointed out that PC batteries, through the hardware and the BIOS firmware, offer several read-only fields of information about the battery, including manufacturer, serial number, design capacity, and last full charge capacity. Sinofsky added that this information "is read-only and there is no way for Windows 7 or any other OS to write, set or configure battery status information."
But user complaints continue to populate the Microsoft support forum, where the issue has...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Google's Nexus One 'Support' Mostly Passes the Buck
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71544
Need support for Google's Nexus One smartphone? You can finally call Google directly -- but you might not get all the answers you're looking for.
A month after launching its so-called "superphone," Google on Monday began offering a dedicated phone support line for Nexus One customers. Consumers can call 888-48NEXUS from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. PST to speak with a live support operator, but they may get directed elsewhere.
Google is giving directions on four types of questions via the old-fashioned telephone: Existing order status and shipping queries, technical support, repair and return issues, and T-Mobile service issues.
Customers seeking order status and shipping times need to have their 15-digit order number in hand and Google will dig up the information. However, Google is pointing customers in need of technical support or repairs and returns to phone maker HTC. And customers who have questions about their wireless service are being ushered to T-Mobile. So actually, the only service Google is providing is for status and shipping updates.
Google is moving to address the negative publicity around its smartphone. Shortly after launch, customers began complaining about spotty reception and early cancellation fees. After hundreds of complaints on its forum, Google said it was aware of the issues that it said affected a small number of users and planned to fix the problem.
Google later came out with a fix and has lowered early termination fees from $350 to $150. But the memories remain and the complaints about lack of support continued. Google sells the Nexus One via an online store that, until Monday, only offered support through customer forums.
Those forums are still up and running and still show problems ranging from spotty 3G coverage to touchscreen problems to missing audio on Bluetooth pairing to camera problems. The list goes on...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Top Tips for More Windows 7 Productivity
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71531
Speed, stability, compatibility -- these are the headline features for which Windows 7 has been praised. But Microsoft has also stuffed Windows 7 full of little productivity-enhancing features that few are aware of. Here's a rundown of some of the niftiest.
Work in an office, and sooner or later you're going to need to hook your PC up to a projector. When you do this with older versions of Windows, you invariably end up in the Display Properties dialog box or hunting for key combinations on your notebook computer that allow you send an image to a projector, to your notebook screen, or both. With Windows 7's new Projector Mode, you'll have one less thing to worry about when you head to the conference room.
Just hold down the Windows key and tap the letter P on your keyboard. The Projector Mode window appears, allowing you to make a simple selection about where your monitor image should be projected. Just keep tapping Windows key-P to scroll through the options. Press Enter to activate the one currently selected.
If you regularly end up with dozens of applications open at the same time, finding the one you want can be a real hassle. Say, for example, that you have five Windows Explorer sessions open, three copies of Word, nine Internet Explorer windows, and several instances of your image browser.
How can you get back quickly to the one open application you need? The traditional way is with the Alt-Tab keyboard shortcut, but cycling through dozens of open applications is neither easy nor productive. With Windows 7, you can hold down the Ctrl key and click the taskbar icon representing the open application you want to see. If you have several instances of the application open, each time you click the...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Faster and Greener? Go Online and Save the Planet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71528
This should make netizens feel better about themselves: being online and saving the environment can go hand in hand.
For example, shopping online, instead of traveling to the stores by car, means cutting back on gas consumption and associated emissions.
But there is a downside. Many online surfers are unaware of the enormous energy consumption that goes with running the Internet. Still, even though end users aren't the biggest consumers, they can still do a lot to keep energy consumption under control and even save a little money for good measure.
Online service providers run the computing centers that serve as the "hotspots of energy consumption," says Siegfried Behrendt of the IZT Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment in Berlin. About half the energy consumed goes just to cooling the centers. After all, a room full of mainframe computers needed to run these systems gives off incredible amounts of heat.
On top of that comes the energy consumption of normal consumers. "Altogether, that means that all information and communications technology devices in Germany had a consumption of 55 terawatt hours in 2007," says Behrendt. "That equals 10 per cent of all power consumption."
That also means carbon dioxide emissions linked to computer use rival those associated with the domestic German air travel market. "That is considerable and has some serious climate politics repercussions."
That doesn't make the Internet bad. It's still a good thing. But private users can become a part of the problem if they just surf without a goal, clicking randomly. Every Google search consumes energy, reports the UBA, a German environmental group -- perhaps not much individually, but it adds up.
Experts recommend targeted use of search engines for quicker access to desired information. "It's also a question of time use," says Behrendt.
There is no shortage of intelligent ways to put those computing...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
New Zealand Student Auctions Virginity for Tuition
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71525
A New Zealand teenager who says she auctioned her virginity online for $32,000 to raise tuition money did not break any laws but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal, police warned Wednesday.
The anonymous 19-year-old student offered her virginity to the highest bidder on the Web site http://www.ineed.co.nz under the name "Unigirl," saying she would use the money to pay for her tuition. She said in a post that more than 30,000 people had viewed her ad and more than 1,200 had made bids before she accepted an offer of more than New Zealand dollars 45,000 ($32,000).
Unlike similar New Zealand Web sites, bidding and correspondence between buyers and sellers on the ineed site is private so it is not known what bids Unigirl's offer received.
Web site owner Ross McKenzie said the site's policy was that as long as an ad was legal and did not offend the general standards of society, "it was OK." He confirmed Unigirl was a member on the site.
Prostitution is legal in New Zealand under laws considered more liberal than many countries. Prostitution among consenting adults is allowed in brothels and on the streets, and offering sexual services in print ads and online is also legal.
National police spokesman Jon Neilson said no law appeared to have been breached.
But "we would suggest it's not a safe practice," Neilson told The Associated Press. "There are definitely issues of personal safety" in using chat rooms, social dating networks and other Internet sites that can be used to arrange meetings between strangers.
Unigirl, in her initial post, described herself as attractive, fit and healthy. She did not post a photograph of herself, and bidders did not appear to have a way of confirming any of the details of her posts.
Unigirl said she was desperate for money...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Super Bowl Ads Go for Laughs Amid Product Spotlight
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71524
Betty White plays football, babies talk about "milkaholics" and a house made of Bud Light cans falls slowly apart.
It must be the Super Bowl -- or at least the advertising showcase that entertains amid the gridiron action.
Not every commercial was strictly humorous. Automaker Toyota aired several ads before and after the game to reassure worried owners after its recalls connected with accelerator problems.
A hotly anticipated commercial by conservative Christian group Focus on the Family hinted at a serious subject, although even it had a surprise punchline.
Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother talk about her difficult pregnancy with him -- implying an anti-abortion message, because she had been advised to end the pregnancy for medical reasons. But the ad ended with Tebow tackling his mom and saying the family must be "tough."
Amid the laughs Sunday night on CBS, advertisers such as Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola also put the focus on their products, Villanova marketing Professor Charles R. Taylor said. That marks a turn from ads that were heavy on entertainment but light on salesmanship.
Taylor said he had been disappointed for at least the past five Super Bowls in the effectiveness of ads in connecting with products. Advertisers pay dearly for the airtime -- from $2.5 million to more than $3 million per 30 seconds -- and marketers say ads work best when they sell the product, as well as entertain.
He cited a commercial by tiremaker Bridgestone featuring men carrying a whale in the back of their truck, and another by Dove launching its new men's skin-care line. They were winners, he said, because they manage to entertain while telling people about the brands. The ad for Dove tells the story of boy growing into a man and the signal events in a man's life.
"So far from what I've seen I'm...
Wed, 10 Feb 10
Microsoft: Russian Pirates Keep Scamming Us
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71521
One-quarter of Russian software outlets sell bootleg Microsoft programs, the company said Monday as it published the results of a survey intended to elbow authorities into taking more action.
Russia is a notoriously lucrative market for unlicensed software, movies and music -- a persistent issue in Moscow's stalled accession to the World Trade Organization.
Microsoft checked 2,500 retailers in 53 Russian cities over the last few months and found 25 percent offered illegally copied software, while 11 percent of stores offered to install the unlicensed programs onto clients' computers.
Microsoft provided evidence for nearly 1,000 prosecutions across Russia over 2009. Central Siberia and the Far East it deemed the worst offenders. Up to 71 percent of retail outlets in those regions vended illicit software, Microsoft said.
Moscow recorded 27 percent.
Microsoft said it was an improvement and praised authorities for what they have done so far.
"A few years ago most computer stores in some form or other offered pirate software," said Denis Guz, head of the company's department that promotes the sale of licensed software, in emailed comments. "Now, as we see, there are significantly fewer sales points of that kind ... and now the majority of retailers offer only licensed programs."
Stiffer penalties and stricter enforcement have rendered the massive illegal markets that sprouted up during the chaotic 1990s transitional economy a thing of the past. But nook-and-cranny peddlers remain popular and trade openly, suppressing market prices for their legitimate competitors.
Russian authorities have sought to make examples of violators. The 2007 conviction of a high-school teacher who was found guilty of using bootleg Microsoft software in classroom machines garnered huge coverage in the state-controlled media. Alexander Ponosov from a Urals Mountains school was fined $190.
Tue, 9 Feb 10
Google May Add Facebook, Twitter Links to Gmail
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71543
E-mail is about communicating with friends, coworkers and the world at large. So why should users have to switch over to Facebook or Twitter to post a status update? That seems to be the thinking behind the news that Google will roll more social-networking features into Gmail, the fastest-growing e-mail service.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google will announce later this week a new Gmail feature that allows users to post ongoing streams of status updates while using the web-based e-mail service. A source told the Journal that Google will eventually seek to allow users to stream other Google services like YouTube videos and Picasa photos.
In the short term, it's unlikely that having status updates in Gmail would cause much of a ripple at Facebook, which is a full-blown ecosystem of friends, advertising, third-party apps, groups and more.
The new feature sounds closer to Twitter, which is purely a status update service. There may be more room for Google to make some inroads there. A recent survey by RJMetrics found that the formerly torrid pace of new Twitter accounts has slowed to about 20 percent below the peak hit last July. These days, about 6.2 million new accounts are created every month.
But, it turns out, many of those accounts are vapor. Twenty-five percent of all Twitter accounts have no followers and 40 percent have never tweeted. "About 80 percent of all Twitter users have tweeted fewer than 10 times," and "Only about 17 percent of registered Twitter accounts sent a Tweet in December 2009, an all-time-low," RJMetrics reported.
Twitter seems vulnerable to Google, while Facebook does not, exactly because tweets just go into the either while Facebook posts go to a (sometimes very broad) circle of friends. Just as interest in blogging has started to...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
Analysts See iPad Price Drop, with Some Cannibalization
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71542
Just weeks before Apple officially rolls out the iPad, financial analysts are making pricing predictions. But could the analysis itself hinder the initial demand for the pricey tablet computer?
The much-anticipated iPad is priced at $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model, and $699 for the 64GB model -- all available in March. The 3G models won't be available until April and will sell for $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model.
Credit Suisse analysts said Apple will stay "nimble" with its pricing strategy and may even discount the devices if customers aren't buying. Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, sees irony in the reports: The comments could actually cause the result.
"We certainly saw people rush out initially and buy the iPhone. When the demand dropped off after the first couple of weeks, Apple dropped the price sharply," Enderle said. "Of course, the iPhone over time has gone from about $600 to around $200, which is a fairly substantial drop in price."
Enderle predicts the iPad will go through a similar price drop, but adds that the coverage of Apple's willingness to stay nimble may actually slow initial sales -- especially among consumers who feel burned by buying the first iPhone too quickly.
"The $600 price range has been a graveyard for products, starting with the original iPod, which had to drop its price point very rapidly, all the way to the Sony PS3, which also died at that price point," Enderle said. "I expect they will drop out of that price area fairly quickly."
Will the iPad cannibalize Apple's other product lines? In a publicized note, Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope indicated cannibalization is not as large a concern as some may believe because there is...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
Black Hawk Down: China Busted Hacker-Training Site
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71541
The Chinese government has arrested three hackers who were running an online hacker-training business. The trio of hackers operated Black Hawk Safety Net, a company that collected nearly $1 million from more than 120,000 members.
The three unidentified individuals were arrested after using the now-defunct 3800CC.com web site to train and provide the necessary tools to wannabe hackers, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Government authorities seized $249,000 in cash, nine servers, five computers and a car from the company.
Last year, China made it a crime to provide other people with hacking tools.
More than 195 million Internet users were attacked by viruses and Trojan horses online within the last six months of 2009, and the accounts and passwords of 110 million users were stolen, according an annual report by the China Internet Network Information Center. Increasing users' trust in the Internet has become "a problem pressing for solution at present," the report determined.
Two men, identified as Li Qiang and Zhang Lei, were listed as the founders of Black Hawk Safety Net in a separate case from 2007. The founders were arrested at that time after their involvement in a virus that caused problems on both private and government computers in the city of Macheng, Xinhua reported.
News of the arrest, however, comes nearly three months after the three were arrested by police in the Hubei province. The delayed announcement comes just weeks after China's government has denied having any knowledge of a major attack on Google's China-based service. Google, however, came under attack by what many believe was a Chinese hacker.
Some believe the attack was done to sabotage Google's service in China in an effort to increase the number of users and advertisers who frequent Baidu, Google's China-based competitor.
"The digital spying in this case and several other...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
Nook E-Reader Heads to Barnes & Noble Stores
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71540
Barnes & Noble said Monday that its popular nook e-book reader is back in stock online and will be rolling out in the majority of the bookseller's U.S. stores this week. Customers also will be able to enjoy exclusive Valentine's Day-themed online content this month, the company said.
The nook differs in several ways from many of the e-readers announced at the Consumer Electronics Show, which suffer from either high prices or little access to consumer channels, said Forrester Research Vice President James McQuivey.
"The nook, despite its slow start, is priced right, targeted to book readers rather than skipping off to focus on magazine or newspaper readers, and, most importantly, the nook will be featured in front of millions of book buyers every month as they walk through the store," McQuivey said. "You can't underestimate the power of that."
The nook is the first e-reader to offer digital lending for a wide selection of e-books, and the company's latest software update now places a LendMe flag next to the eligible e-books in the user's My Library folder. Though the machine's LendMe technology only applies to select books and only lasts 14 days, McQuivey considers this to be a huge step forward, given that people often share books and then spend a considerable amount of time talking about them with friends and family members.
"This fact is so critical to the way people read books that it is amazing that none of the e-readers yet offered to the market have any meaningful book sharing built into them," McQuivey wrote in a blog.
Among all the e-reader launches beyond Sony and Amazon, McQuivey thinks the nook has a real shot at becoming the third key player -- but not because of its social features.
"The social features...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
SAP CEO Abruptly Resigns; Co-CEOs Will Take Over
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71539
Leading business-software maker SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) on Monday announced a strategic shift in the corporate suite. Léo Apotheker has resigned as CEO and member of the SAP executive board, effective immediately. The abrupt decision came as part of a mutual agreement with the company's supervisory board not to extend Apotheker's contract as a member of the executive board.
p
Apotheker joined SAP, which is based in Germany but well-known worldwide, more than 20 years ago. The company didn't offer details on severance or his future plans.
p
His replacement came quickly with two co-CEOs: Bill McDermott, head of field organization, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development. Both are already executive board members. In addition, Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka has been appointed to the board.
p
subhead
Ready to Return to Growth
/subhead
p
SAP, which is best known for its CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, is shoring up its executive direction during the transition. At the request of the supervisory board, Hasso Plattner, cofounder of SAP and chairman of the supervisory board, will play a strong role in advising the new leaders on technology and product development.
p
The new setup of the SAP executive board will allow SAP to better align product innovation with customer needs, Plattner said. The new leadership team will continue to drive forward SAP's strategy and focus on profitable growth, and will deliver its innovations in 2010 to expand SAP's leadership of the business software market.
p
The moves come just more than a week after SAP's fourth-quarter earnings report was released. The company's software-related service revenues were down five percent, service revenues were down 15 percent, and overall revenues were down nine percent.
p
During the announcement, Apotheker seemed optimistic, saying the company was ready to return to top-line growth. Despite the difficult environment last year, we never lost focus...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
Survey Suggests iPad Blitz Hasn't Won Over Buyers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71538
The good news for Apple is that it has clearly accomplished its objective of getting the word out about its new iPad tablet computer. The media blitz that began weeks before CEO Steve Jobs' Jan. 27 launch in San Francisco garnered front-page coverage in 47 states and 24 countries. So you'd practically have had to turn off your TV and computer and avoid newspapers to not know about it.
p
The bad news is that with about a month until the product starts shipping, people aren't likely to line up to get their hands on an iPad, according to a follow-up survey from Retrevo Pulse.
p
subheadNo, Thanks/subhead
p
The company's survey of 1,000 people found that the number who had heard of the iPad nearly doubled from 48 percent in the days before the launch to 80 percent in the Jan. 27-Feb. 3 period immediately following. But the number of those who knew about it but were not interested doubled from 26 percent to 52 percent. The number of definite buyers rose from three to nine percent.
p
The participants are users of Retrevo's electronic marketplace. The number of people who were hiding under a rock and hadn't heard of the iPad shrank from 35 percent to just 18 percent, but the number of people taking a wait-and-see attitude was statistically unchanged, from 19 to 21 percent.
p
A ChangeWave Research survey released about the same time found that just 14 percent of respondents said they were likely to buy the device. Both surveys found that a majority would not pay more than $700 for the iPad.
p
So when Jobs announced that the price point for the basic iPad model was $499, some boost in interest might have been expected.
p
But after learning the price and many features, the number of people who said they didn't feel they need an...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
IBM's New POWER7 Servers Save Energy with Big Loads
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71537
IBM on Monday unveiled high-capacity servers that are the first to be based on its new, multi-core POWER7 chip. The company said the new product line is designed to manage the most demanding emerging applications, including high-capacity smart electrical grids and real-time analytics for financial markets.
p
The servers are optimized for processing huge workloads of simultaneous transactions, data handling, and analysis. IBM said they offer dramatic improvements in price versus performance, energy savings, and server virtualization.
p
subhead
Energy Efficiency
/subhead
p
The new systems are built around the newest generation of IBM's POWER chip, with eight processing cores, and are designed to manage millions of transactions in real time while utilizing a variety of approaches to remain highly energy-efficient. With Intelligent Energy technology, for instance, parts of the system can be turned on or off, and clock speed can be lowered or raised, on one server or a group. The company said these systems can deliver twice the performance per watt as Sun SPARC servers and eight times that of comparable Hewlett-Packard Itanium-based servers.
p
POWER7 systems are optimized for massive parallel processing, high-end throughput, and analytics, and the systems can be used to manage others, such as IBM mainframes and x86-based servers.
p
Laura DiDio, a research fellow at Information Technology Intelligence Corp., said these turbocharged systems should really jumpstart multi-threading computing. She added that each of the eight cores can execute up to four tasks each, so it's as if this were a virtual 32-core processor on a chip.
p
This capacity is four times the maximum number of cores in POWER6 systems and eight times the processing threads.
p
subhead
Smart Energy Grids
/subhead
p
DiDio noted that these systems will enable a huge performance boost in the growing market of smart energy grids, allowing utility companies to go from a million meter reads a day to 85 million. In its announcement, IBM noted...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
FBI Braces for Haiti-Relief Scam Onslaught
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71510
Federal law enforcement officials have received more than 170 complaints about fundraising scams tied to Haitian earthquake relief, and they're bracing for more online cons using Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.
p
Scams are growing more diverse, and the FBI has a special team of computer analysts, fraud investigators and white-collar crime experts reviewing complaints, says David Nanz, chief of the FBI's economic crimes unit.
p
We're seeing a lot of computer-based fraud -- unsolicited e-mails, bogus Web sites, Nanz adds, plus traditional stuff (in which) people are just raising money on the street fraudulently.
p
The FBI and at least five state attorneys general have issued alerts on Haiti relief scams.
p
A hotline at the Justice Department's National Center for Disaster Fraud has received more than 100 complaints, and dozens more have come via the Internet, department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney says.
p
The complaint volume is lower than after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 but on par with other foreign disasters, Sweeney says. These days, people can be drawn into scams just by typing Haiti donations into Google, says Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer for the SANS Institute, an organization that does computer security research.
P
One site that pops up in response to that search greets visitors with an ominous message: Warning!!! Your computer contains various signs of viruses... The user then is prompted to buy virus-removal software.
p
It's a con to sell bogus software that could be designed to steal personal data, Ullrich says. And it highlights the risks facing Americans eager to support earthquake relief. Among them:
p
*bIn-person scams/b. These range from door-to-door solicitations for fake charities to more esoteric cons. On Jan. 22, for example, federal prosecutors charged a Michigan man with posing as an FBI agent to collect money to help children in Haiti.
p
*bE-mail, texting scams/b. These include bogus e-mail solicitations from people...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
Bar Codes Go Mobile, Get Hip Again
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71507
Bar codes are getting hip. For decades, retailers and manufacturers have used these patterns of black dots, lines, and squares to encode pricing and other data onto products and supplies. Now, bar codes are gaining currency as an easy way for cell-phone users to view ads, coupons, and other information instantly.
p
The Weather Channel is using bar codes to deliver maps, forecasts, and severe weather alerts. Universal Pictures is using mobile bar codes to promote its coming thriller Repo Men. Later this month, a Hearst magazine will use the technology to provide additional information to readers. And mobile bar code technology in various forms has recently been used by search engine owner Google, Web portal Yahoo!, sportswear maker Nike, and packaged foods maker Frito-Lay.
p
In Japan, advertisers for years have used bar code technology on magazines, posters, products, tourist sites, and business cards to deliver information wirelessly. But the features can be glitchy or cumbersome and haven't taken off in the U.S.
p
Microsoft and a handful of startups including Scanbuy and JagTag are trying to turn the tide. On Feb. 2, Motorola was among a group of investors that made an undisclosed investment in Scanbuy. Bar code tech makes the world [around us] clickable, says Marja Koopman, a marketing leader at Microsoft. Lately, bar code scanning is being more widely used in part due to the broader adoption of Web-enabled smartphones and prevalence of cameras, now in about 90 percent of cell phones.
p
subhead
Special Software or Just the Camera
/subhead
p
In the case of the Weather Channel, viewers hold their cell phones up to the TV screen to scan a bar code displayed at various points throughout the day. The feature, which works with handsets including the Motorola Droid and Google's Nexus One, downloads one of the Weather Channel's mobile apps. Since the TV promotion...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
Telecom Italia-Telefonica Deal 'Inevitable' for Italy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71485
The Italian government is in talks with Telecom Italia Spa about the phone company's strategic options, including a possible takeover by Spain's Telefonica SA, said a person familiar with the situation.
p
The discussions, involving the Italian treasury, are at an early stage, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. The future ownership of Telecom Italia's fixed-line network, which the government wants to keep in local hands for national security reasons, is among the issues under discussion, the person said.
p
Telecom Italia surged the most in almost a year in Milan yesterday after la Repubblica reported that the Italian government supports an inevitable merger. A combination would let Telecom Italia cut debt of about 35 billion euros [$49 billion] and give Telefonica, which already owns a stake in the Italian company, a larger presence in Europe and Latin America.
p
Sooner or later there is going to be a deal, said Carlo Luoni, a fund manager at 8A+ Sgr SpA in Varese, Italy. With Telefonica, there would be the opportunity to make investments that Telecom Italia can't afford now because of its debt burden.
p
Other bidders for Telecom Italia could also emerge, said the person. Telefonica joined a group of Italian investors in 2007 to acquire a controlling stake in Telecom Italia for 4.1 billion euros, beating Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. Telefonica is the largest shareholder of Telco SpA, an entity controlling Telecom Italia with a 22.4 percent stake.
p
subhead
Minister Meeting
/subhead
p
Spokesmen for the Italian treasury and Telefonica declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Telecom Italia.
p
This story has legs and there is some industrial logic in it, said Roger Appleyard, head of global credit research at Royal Bank of Canada in London. By merging with Telecom Italia, Telefonica would create a lot of synergies, albeit execution risk is high. Telefonica...
Tue, 9 Feb 10
U.S. Falling Behind in Clean-Technology Innovation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71484
Even before the Great Recession, policymakers were commonly asking, Where are the new jobs going to come from? Now with U.S. unemployment at 10 percent, that question has taken on a new urgency. And today's Mr. McGuire-like advice is as succinct as it was in The Graduate in 1967: Green. Everyone from President Barack Obama to mayors of small towns are proclaiming that green industry is the savior of the U.S. economy, bringing jobs to the unemployed, needed economic activity to distressed industrial regions, and an overdue shot in the arm to U.S. industrial competitiveness.
p
This is not necessarily a vain hope. Global private investment in renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies is estimated to reach $450 billion in 2012 and $600 billion in 2020. These are hefty numbers, and attracting even a modest share of that investment will produce hundreds of thousands of jobs.
p
Yet these hopes are likely to remain unfilled unless the U.S. embarks on a very different course. A joint study by the Information Technology Innovation Foundation, which I direct, and the Breakthrough Institute finds that Asia's rising clean-technology tigers -- China, Japan, and South Korea -- have already passed the U.S. in the production of virtually all clean-energy technologies. The report, Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant, also finds that between 2009 and 2013, the governments of these nations will out-invest the U.S. three-to-one in these sectors, or $509 billion to $172 billion.
p
subhead
China's Growing Clout
/subhead
p
In fact, Asia's clean-tech tigers are already on the cusp of establishing a first-mover advantage. China is exporting the first wind turbines destined for use in an American wind farm, a project valued at $1.5 billion. All three Asian nations lead the U.S. in the deployment of new nuclear power plants. The U.S. produces less than 10 percent of the world's solar cells,...
Sun, 7 Feb 10
With No Killer App, Apple's iPad Is a Hard Sell
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71508
With the introduction of the iPad, Apple's status as a cultural icon reached new heights. Based on an unscientific survey of newspapers archived by The Newseum, pictures of or stories about the tablet-style computer appeared on front pages in at least 47 states and the District of Columbia and no fewer than 24 countries on six continents -- in places as varied as Bulgaria, Uruguay, Turkey, and Portugal.
When is the last time you saw a company command that kind of attention without first filing for bankruptcy, contributing to the collapse of the global financial system, or building a car with a gas pedal that sticks? The media's crush on Apple is not just alive and well, but it has gone global.
In the last decade, Apple has revolutionized the music and wireless industries with its iPod and iPhone, respectively. The recent buzz around Apple reflects high hopes that with the iPad, Apple can similarly transform a third industry: publishing. But based on early reviews, the iPad as introduced may not deliver.
Newspapers look to the iPad to reinvigorate their rapidly shrinking industry by spurring demand for whiz-bang downloadable applications that feature content you can't get on the Web. Book publishers see the iPad as a vehicle to stimulate buying of electronic books and fuel competition that forces e-book leader Amazon to give publishers more leeway on pricing. Software developers who have been successful selling apps on the iPhone hope to cash in even more on new ones that take advantage of the iPad's larger screen.
Yet it's hard to see how the iPad, in the form unveiled last month, will come close to transforming daily life as much as the iPod or iPhone. When the iPod arrived in 2001, consumers were already well-acquainted with personal music players...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Apple Bans Location-Based Ads for iPhone Apps
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71516
Location-finding applications that give iPhone users information about weather, restaurants or traffic are fine. But if they give information to third parties for targeted advertising, the deal is off.
That's the message Apple sent to developers this week. The computer giant posted a message on its Developer Connection blog encouraging its partners to use the core location framework, but only for programs that provide "beneficial information," such as the weather forecast or where to find ATMs.
"If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store," Apple warned.
The company didn't explain its position, and a call to Apple's media-relations center was not returned by publication time.
"My internal optimist says they are trying to protect the users," says Jeff Burstein, program manager for Florida-based developer Mobile Applications. "My pessimistic side feels that Apple could be working on their own ad-delivery system for the mobile platform. Time will tell if altruism is their true motivation or just a way of keeping out the competition."
Applications and advertising are increasingly joined at the hip, said Joe Berkowitz, founder of Interactive Moxie, a digital strategy and incubation company, and a consultant to media companies building and launching mobile apps.
"Out of the three billion apps that have been downloaded from the App Store, the bulk of them are free. [The developers] are making money either by getting you to upgrade to the paid version or, in other cases, using AdMob to be able to market their other apps."
But Berkowitz said it appears Apple's new developer policy is intended less for commercial gain than to screen out apps solely intended to...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Facebook Engineers Hit Redesign Button Once Again
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71515
Just when Facebook users get used to a new interface, engineers at the social network press the redesign button. Once again, Facebook has made changes it says will make navigating easier.
For the last several months, Facebook has been testing changes to the navigation tools, and on Friday it began rolling out the changes to some of its 350 million users, according to Facebook engineer Jing Chen.
"We've simplified the home page to make it easier for people to find what they're looking for on Facebook," said Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokesperson.
Rather than a flashy redesign, users should look for changes on their top and side menus.
Requests for causes, friends and invitations are now in a menu on the top of the Facebook page. Rather than a red bubble on the bottom right corner notifying users that someone has tagged them in a photo or has written on their wall, the bubble will appear in the left-hand top corner near the search bar.
Another navigation change includes the ability to access messages and other features in one place. This will now be located to the left of a user's news feed.
The redesign is a bad choice, according to a slew of negative responses from users who don't like the changes.
"You really need to give people the choice to use this new one or not," said Facebook user Jenna Bramlett. "I have spent a lot of time organizing my friends into groups. You have now ruined all that work and all of my friends will be lopped into one freaking group. Other web sites like MySpace and LiveJournal give us the choice."
While some aren't happy about the changes, users who engage in the applications found on Facebook such as Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Pet Society may...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Patch Tuesday Release Will Tie Microsoft's Record
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71514
After a light start to the year, Microsoft is getting ready to dump a heavy load on the shoulders of IT administrators. On Patch Tuesday next week, Microsoft will release 13 patches.
Five of the bulletins carry the maximum security rating of critical. Seven are rated important and one is rated moderate. The bulletins address 26 vulnerabilities.
With 13 bulletins, Microsoft has tied its record for the most security updates released in a single month. The last time Microsoft issued 13 bulletins was October 2009. This month's record release comes on top of a Jan. 21 out-of-band patch to fix a zero-day exploit in Internet Explorer used in cyberattacks against Google and other U.S. companies doing business in China.
"Bulletin six appears to be the most disruptive, as it is critical across all Microsoft platforms -- both server and desktops and laptops," said Don Leatham, senior director of solutions and strategy at Lumension. "Microsoft indicates that a reboot is required, so this patch could impact the availability of key servers and impact the productivity of information workers."
Leatham warns that IT teams managing servers will need to be on high alert this month and have proactive patching plans in place before Tuesday. That's because administrators are facing critical patches for the three most common server platforms in Microsoft environments.
Specifically, the patches cover three critical vulnerabilities in Windows Server 2003, two critical vulnerabilities in Windows Server 2008, and two critical vulnerabilities in Windows Server 2008 R2. What's more, Leatham added, IT teams managing work stations might have the heaviest load of all with four critical vulnerabilities for Windows XP and two critical vulnerabilities for Windows Vista.
"The bit of good news in the February patch update is that the Microsoft Office suite doesn't have any critical patches coming out, but overall, IT departments...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
DOJ Cites Antitrust Issues with Google Book Settlement
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71513
The Department of Justice believes significant antitrust, class certification, and copyright issues remain in the amended book settlement proposed by Google and publishing industry representatives in September. However,the government attorneys also said Thursday that the U.S. believes the parties have approached the effort in good faith.
In a new filing before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the DOJ said the amended settlement agreement (ASA) attempts to use the class-action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court.
"The ASA purports to grant legal rights that are difficult to square with the core principle of the Copyright Act, that copyright owners generally control whether and how to exploit their works during the term of copyright," the DOJ said. "Those rights, in turn, confer significant and possibly anticompetitive advantages on a single entity -- Google."
The ASA gives Google the exclusive right to sell full access to books to libraries as well as market copyrighted works to consumers in a variety of ways: As online offerings, e-books and print-on-demand publications. Google also would have the exclusive ability to exploit without risk of liability so-called "orphan works" -- publications whose rights holders cannot be identified or located after a diligent search.
"There is no serious contention that Google's competitors are likely to obtain comparable rights independently," the DOJ's attorneys noted. "The suggestion that a competitor should follow Google's lead by copying books en masse without permission in the hope of prompting a class-action suit to be settled on terms comparable to the ASA is poor public policy and not something the antitrust laws require a competitor to do."
For example, competitors such as Amazon.com -- which has already amassed a library of approximately three million digital titles with...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
IBM Opens Eco-Friendly, Cloud-Focused Data Center
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71512
IBM opened its latest data center on Friday in North Carolina. Big Blue said the $362 million, 100,000-square-foot facility at its Research Triangle Park campus is designed to support cloud computing and other new computing models.
According to IBM, the new data center cuts technology infrastructure costs and complexity for clients while raising quality and speeding services deployment. Big Blue's data center also has green implications because it uses only half the energy of most facilities its size.
Pat Kerin, general manager of IBM North America, said data centers have always been a critical part of IBM's global technology services and will become even more important as the processes, infrastructure and systems that define business today become increasingly connected and intelligent.
"This new facility not only sets new standards for energy efficiency," Kerin said, "but provides the flexible capacity that allows IBM to deliver services that enable clients to reduce costs, improve productivity, and gain competitive advantage in their markets."
With the new data center, IBM is beefing up support for new Internet technologies and services. IBM's stated goal is to meet the business challenges of an environment characterized by an "exponential rise in computational power, a proliferation of connected devices, and an imperative to manage energy costs."
IBM accomplishes this, in part, by using advanced software virtualization technologies that make possible access to information and services from any device with high levels of availability and quality of experience. The facility works aggressively to conserve energy resources by leveraging a smart management approach that links equipment, building systems, and data-center operations.
Support for cloud-computing workloads allows clients to tap into only the resources they need to support their IT operations at any given time. This approach also does away with the need for up to 70 percent of the required hardware resources to...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
AT&T Will Let Revised Sling Player Use 3G on iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71499
The trend toward TV anywhere took another step forward Thursday as AT&T announced that it will support Sling Media's mobile application on its 3G network. Sling, whose player app is already in use on the carrier's Wi-Fi network, released a player for the iPhone late last year.
The announcement reverses a decision by AT&T last spring not to allow the Sling iPhone app because it would increase congestion on its 3G network. In Thursday's announcement, AT&T noted that Sling has developed its wireless app to "make efficient use of 3G network bandwidth" and to "conserve the finite wireless spectrum available to the wireless industry."
AT&T and Sling are saying that the new app has been optimized for its network, the result of a cooperative effort between both companies. AT&T mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has indicated that his company will be working with developers to make data-intensive apps more "bandwidth-sensitive."
The Sling app is only useful for consumers with a Sling box. The app allows the user to watch streaming TV from cable, satellite or DVRs from the Sling hardware over the Internet, as well as control the TV sources.
AT&T's bandwidth capacity has become an issue with consumers recently, so the carrier wants to make clear that it is paying attention to bandwidth in adding new video-player capability for the iPhone.
In late December, blogger Dan Lyons -- aka Fake Steve Jobs -- promoted an effort to overwhelm AT&T's network by having thousands of users run data-intensive applications at the same time. The intent was to protest the network performance, but the protest was called off after a warning from the Federal Communications Commission.
According to industry observers, AT&T may have underestimated the iPhone's appeal and the bandwidth needs of those customers. The initial projections by the real...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Cisco Sees 'Dramatic' Profit Surge in Second Quarter
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71490
Cisco Systems Inc. blew past its own forecast for the latest quarter, reporting its first sales increase in a year as it left the recession behind.
Improvement was dramatic "across the board," CEO John Chambers said Wednesday. "The recovery, from a capital spending perspective, is very strong."
The company also provided an outlook for the current quarter that was far above analyst expectations.
Because Cisco is the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, its sales are seen as a bellwether of technology spending by large corporations, government agencies and telecommunications service providers around the world. Investments in big-ticket network upgrades are easy to put off when money is tight.
Earnings were $1.9 billion, or 32 cents per share, up 23 percent from $1.5 billion, or 26 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding one-time charges, Cisco earned 40 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected 35 cents per share.
Revenue grew 8 percent to $9.8 billion. Order growth was especially strong in the U.S., with a 17 percent increase from a year ago.
For the fiscal second quarter, which ended Jan. 23, the company had forecast a 1 percent to 4 percent sales increase, the first such year-over-year sales increase in a year. That's in contrast with two quarters earlier, its worst of the recent recession, when sales were down 18 percent.
For the current quarter, which ends in April, Chambers said Cisco expects a sales increase of 23 percent to 26 percent from the same quarter last year. That works out to $10 billion to $10.3 billion. Analysts were expecting $9.5 billion.
Chambers cautioned that it's too early to say if the strength of the recovery will last through the year, and asked investors to not revise their long-term forecasts dramatically.
"It's important that expectations not get ahead of market realities, especially until we see...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Cybersecurity Vendors Look Hot in 2010
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71486
Tech-security companies are poised to become Wall Street darlings this year, thanks in part to Google's tiff with China.
Last month, the search giant threatened to pull out of China because of censorship and a distinctive cyberespionage attack on itself and some two dozen other tech, financial and media companies.
The Google-China affair has reinforced an already positive outlook for 2010 stock price performance of major security vendors, such as McAfee, Symantec and Check Point, says Daniel Ives, analyst at FBR Capital Markets.
"Security has been underinvested," Ives says. "Given the constant attacks, corporations and governments can't continue to delay these high-priority purchases."
It's not a sure thing. UBS analyst Brent Thill says companies could decide to accelerate spending on long-deferred business-application upgrades instead of security.
But Google's Jan. 12 disclosure of details of a sophisticated cyberbreak-in aimed at specific companies was a watershed event. Since then, security firm McAfee has signed 16 deals with federal agencies to begin pilot tests of technology to deflect such attacks. "We've seen complex attacks like this before, but Google being involved brings a lot more awareness," says Mike Carpenter, McAfee's senior vice president, public sector.
Companies and governments already had been paying closer heed. Worldwide spending on tech security rose 6 percent to $26 billion in 2009, and is expected to grow 9 percent to $28.3 billion this year, says market researcher IDC.
That contrasts with information-technology spending as a whole, which declined 4.5 percent in 2009 and may rise 3 percent, to $1.5 trillion, in 2010, IDC says.
Security firms have already benefited. McAfee shares closed Wednesday at $38.18, up 23.8 percent from its Feb. 3, 2009, closing price. Over the same 12-month span, Symantec's shares have risen 13.5 percent to $17.26 and Check Point's 40.9 percent to $32.61.
Meanwhile, the rising incidence -- and visibility -- of cyberattacks also is...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Ex-Yahoo Exec Lands at Chegg.com
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71481
It took three years, but former Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig believes he has found another great Internet gig.
Rosensweig's career shifted in a new direction this week when he took over as CEO of Chegg.com, a Silicon Valley startup that says it has rented about 2.4 million textbooks to cash-strapped college students since its 2007 inception.
It's Rosensweig's first job running an Internet company since he stepped down as Yahoo's chief operating officer at the end of 2006. His departure turned out to be a prelude to years of upheaval that included Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid for the company and a shareholder revolt that ushered out two CEOs, Terry Semel and co-founder Jerry Yang.
Rosensweig, 48, watched the drama with interest, but doesn't want to share his feelings about what happened to the company since he left. Yahoo's stock price has dropped by more than 40 percent since he announced his resignation. The shares tripled in value while he was COO.
"I had a great time in my five years (at Yahoo) but that was three years ago," he said in an interview. "I have moved on hopefully to the next great opportunity."
Rosensweig left Yahoo with a financial package that gave him time to figure out his next move. Yahoo paid him $1.4 million in cash and awarded him 100,000 shares of stock worth about $3 million at the time.
After doing some charitable work in Africa, Rosensweig spent slightly more than a year as a partner at a private equity firm, Quadrangle Group. He returned to management during the past year overseeing the Guitar Hero video game franchise for Activision Blizzard Inc., whose CEO, Robert Kotick, is a former Yahoo director.
Rosensweig says he couldn't pass up a chance to shake up the $10 billion textbook market. And he won't have to worry...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Chinese Cyberattacks Seen as a Pervasive Threat
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71479
Google's accusation that its e-mail accounts were hacked from China landed like a bombshell because it cast light on a problem that few companies will discuss: the pervasive threat from China-based cyberattacks.
The hacking that angered Google Inc. and hit dozens of other businesses adds to growing concern that China is a center for a global explosion of Internet crimes, part of a rash of attacks aimed at a wide array of targets, from a British military contractor to banks and chemical companies to a California software maker.
The government denies it is involved, and it reiterated that on Wednesday. Speaking in Paris, China's foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, said China itself "is the victim of pirate attacks" and the international community must fight the phenomenon together.
But experts say the highly skilled attacks suggest the Chinese military, which is a leader in cyberwarfare research, or other government agencies might be breaking into computers to steal technology and trade secrets to help state companies.
"Chinese hacking activity is significant in quantity and quality," said Sami Saydjari, president of the consulting firm Cyber Defense Agency and a former U.S. National Security Agency official.
Officials in the United States, Germany and Britain say hackers linked to China's military have broken into government and defense systems. But attacks on commercial systems receive less attention because victims rarely come forward, possibly for fear it might erode trust in their businesses.
Google was the exception when it announced Jan. 12 that attacks hit it and at least 20 other companies. Google says it has "conclusive evidence" the attacks came from China but declined to say whether the government was involved.
Google cited the attacks and attempts to snoop on dissidents in announcing that it would stop censoring results on its China-based search engine and leave the country if the government does not loosen...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Chip Espionage Case Highlights Cutthroat Competition
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71478
The world's top producers of computer memory chips are embroiled in an apparent case of industrial espionage after South Korean prosecutors indicted 18 people over alleged technology theft.
Prosecutors said Thursday those involved are suspected of leaking semiconductor technology belonging to Samsung Electronics to its domestic rival Hynix Semiconductor.
The case highlights the intense competition among chipmakers and other sellers of high tech products, who frequently sue each other over alleged patent infringements.
Samsung Electronics Co. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. are the world's top two producers of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips, used mostly in personal computers. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung is also the world's biggest manufacturer of NAND flash chips, used in digital devices such as cameras, music players and smartphones. Hynix ranks No. 3 in NAND, behind Samsung and Japan's Toshiba Corp.
Eighteen people were indicted on Wednesday, though 14 were not physically detained ahead of a trial, said Kim Yeong-cheol, a prosecutor handling the case. He said prosecutors were also seeking a former Samsung employee for questioning.
The technology is believed to have been obtained by employees of the South Korean arm of Applied Materials Inc., a U.S. company that makes equipment for chip manufacturers including Samsung, and then passed on to Hynix, according to prosecutors.
The local operation of Applied Materials had access to Samsung's "core technology" through installing and maintaining the company's chip manufacturing equipment, prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday.
Indicted and being held were one employee each from Samsung and Hynix, the former head of the South Korean arm of Applied Materials -- who currently serves as a vice president of the U.S. company -- and one of the South Korean unit's current employees, prosecutors said.
Kim, the prosecutor, said Thursday that no decision has been made whether to seek extradition of a former Samsung employee who is working...
Sat, 6 Feb 10
Text4Baby Campaign Sends Messages To Mom
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71477
Expectant mothers are getting a new tool to help keep themselves and their babies healthy: pregnancy tips sent directly to their cell phones.
The so-called text4baby campaign is the first free, health education program in the U.S. to harness the reach of mobile phones, according to its sponsors, which include Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, WellPoint and CareFirst BlueCross and Blue Shield. Wireless carriers including AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have agreed to waive all fees for receiving the texts.
Organizers say texting is an effective means of delivering wellness tips because 90 percent of people in the U.S. have cell phones.
"Especially if you start talking about low-income people, cell phones are the indispensable tool for reaching them and engaging them about their health," said Paul Meyer, president of Voxiva, a company which operates health texting programs in Africa, Latin America and India.
Studies in those countries have shown that periodic texts can reduce smoking and other unhealthy behaviors in pregnant mothers.
Meyer said the U.S. program, run by Voxiva, will be the largest health-related texting program ever undertaken.
Under the new service, mothers-to-be who text "BABY" to 511411 will receive weekly text messages, timed to their due date or their baby's birth date. The messages, which have been vetted by government and nonprofit health experts, deal with nutrition, immunization and birth defect prevention, among other topics. The messages will continue through the baby's first birthday.
Text4baby is expected to be announced Thursday morning by officials from the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy. Government officials will be publicizing the campaign in speeches and promotional materials.
Organizers hope the effort can curb premature births, which can be caused by poor nutrition, excessive stress, smoking and drinking alcohol. About 500,000 babies are born prematurely in the U.S. each year, and 28,000 infants die before their first birthday, according...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Adobe Fires Back at Apple's Snub of Flash on the iPad
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71498
What's Apple's problem with Flash? Three years after the introduction of the iPhone, Apple's refusal to include Flash on its soon-to-be-released iPad has sparked another kerfuffle between Apple and Flash maker Adobe Systems.
In a lengthy blog post, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch railed against Apple's Flash avoidance and detailed why Flash has become successful on the non-iPhone part of the web. From its humble start allowing low-bandwidth vector animations on the web, Flash now includes animation, streaming audio, rich interactivity, arbitrary fonts, two-way audio/video communication, local storage, and "enabling the video revolution on the web," Lynch wrote.
The explosion of smartphones and the imminent wave of tablet devices -- including the iPad -- means an "important crux for the future of Flash," Lynch wrote. In the mobile near future, a plethora of devices with different web-browsing capabilities threatens to break up what Flash largely built -- "seamless, consistent and rich experiences," he added.
Adobe is attempting to manage the transition to the mobile web with a version of the Flash player for smartphones -- which will be deployed by "all but one of the top manufacturers," Lynch wrote.
Guess who that is.
Flash works just fine on Apple's devices, Lynch wrote. Adobe is developing stand-alone apps built on Flash that are currently available on the App Store. "This same solution will work on the iPad as well. We are ready to enable Flash in the browser on these devices if and when Apple chooses to allow that for its users, but to date we have not had the required cooperation from Apple to make this happen," Lynch charged.
Apple is a supporter of the open-standard HTML5, which it says will eventually replace Flash. Lynch doesn't think so. "I don't see this as one replacing the other, certainly not today nor...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Kindle May Get Touchscreen To Battle Apple's iPad
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71497
Amazon.com has reportedly purchased a leading touchscreen innovator in an apparent bid to add more functionality to its Kindle e-book reader. With Apple set to begin shipping its highly anticipated iPad tablet computer in less than two months with an iBooks application and multimedia capability, Amazon is under pressure to keep its share of the market.
Amazon has also announced an application store and this week produced a software development kit for "active content" that includes sample code and a simulator. The company plans to add puzzles, games and travel guides to selections that readers can download.
However, Amazon reportedly will exclude applications that use the Voice over Internet Protocol.
Some analysts are skeptical that the Kindle can avoid being swamped by the iPad tsunami.
"As always, it depends on what else they add," said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "Adding touch to the existing Kindle seems gratuitous and actually can work against E Ink legibility."
E Ink, the largest supplier of electronic-paper display technology, currently provides the Kindle's monochrome display.
Gartenberg questioned why the world's leading online retailer would want to compete with hardware giants.
"If the question is, is Amazon thinking of a new generation of devices that can more effectively compete with the iPad, the better question is, should Amazon be in the device business at all [instead of focusing] on adding value to other devices?" he asked.
While the $499 price for the iPad's basic model is almost double the Kindle's $259, it was set lower than the anticipated $700 to compete with the e-reader.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Amazon has purchased Touchco, a company that manufactures a highly sensitive touchscreen that costs only $10 a square foot, far cheaper than the screen used in Apple's devices. The screen has unlimited touch points and is able to distinguish...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
EPIC Objects To Google-NSA Cyber Partnership
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71496
Internet search giant Google has tapped government agencies to help the company find the person or people responsible for a recent cyberattack. But privacy advocates are not happy with the backdoor partnership between Google and government authorities.
Google is working with the National Security Administration (NSA), according to published reports. While the company admits it's working with relevant U.S. authorities on the cyberattack, Google would not disclose which agencies are involved.
"Quite frankly, most in the business of data mining and its related research area would be surprised to learn Google had not been cooperating with NSA all along," said Jart Armin, a security expert with Host Exploit.
If the two are working together, they are sharing information without breaking any U.S. laws or Google policies, according to reports. While it may only be for defensive purposes, privacy advocates object to Google working with an agency that conducts surveillance. Privacy advocates also worry that users' privacy will be under the microscope of the same agency created to protect Americans' security.
What they will probably find is that the attack was commercially inspired to rattle Google and gain competitive advantage via industrial espionage, Armin suggested.
"With this perception and now public confirmation, many should not be surprised China -- and several other countries for that matter, including Russia -- would rather have their homegrown search engines in prevalence, such as Baidu," Armin said. "Baidu has 60 percent-plus of the China market and obviously is culturally more appealing than Google for most Chinese."
Privacy advocates also say these kind of practices, currently being done in secret, should be done in public.
"This raises substantial concern about the adequacy of privacy standards," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public-interest group focused on civil liberties, protecting privacy, and...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Google Apps Now Enforces Policies on Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71495
Google has added remote management controls to the Google Apps platform to give IT administrators greater control over their smartphone fleets. With the changes introduced Thursday, Google Apps Premier and Education Edition clients will be able to enforce corporate policies across a range of mobile devices from Apple, Nokia, Research In Motion, and Windows Mobile handset vendors.
"These policies will let employees access their data from their phones while helping IT administrators easily control access to corporate data on mobile devices," Google software engineer Bryan Mawhinney wrote in a blog.
Among other things, the new controls will let IT administrators require a password on each phone and set minimum lengths for secure passwords, Mawhinney wrote. Moreover, administrators will be able to automatically lock down idle devices following a specified period of inactivity.
And once a user starts syncing devices with Google Apps, the domain administrator "will be able to remotely wipe device data -- right from the user-settings page," Mawhinney explained. All these features "will be accessible from the 'Mobile' tab under 'Service Settings' in the Google Apps control panel," he wrote.
Thursday's rollout to IT administrators represents the latest step in making Google Apps readily accessible from mobile devices, the company said. In the past 12 months, Google has launched the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server and announced new web versions of Gmail and Google Calendar for Android-powered phones.
What's more, Google Apps Premier Edition and Education Edition clients have more options now offered by Google Sync -- a new utility for Apple's iPhone, BlackBerrys, Nokia E-series devices, and Windows Mobile handsets.
"Sync is a two-way service, which means you can add, delete or change calendar events or contact information on your desktop or on your phone," Google said. "Whenever you do this, your other device...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Sun CEO Schwartz Tweets Good-Bye with $12 Million
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71493
Controversial Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz has stepped down in a nonconventional way by using Twitter. He tweeted his resignation early Thursday, well within the 140-character limit.
"Today's my last day at Sun. I'll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more", Schwartz said via Twitter. Schwartz also tapped into social media on Jan. 28, when he signaled his impending departure from the company with a blog post that he called "likely my last blog at Sun."
Schwartz didn't offer any insights as to where he'll go from Sun. But in a blog post last week, he suggested people follow him via Twitter to find out. One thing is certain -- Schwartz is walking away with a healthy sum of cash, about $12 million as part of his severance package.
His departure was widely anticipated. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison reportedly doesn't like Schwartz, and that's one of two things that may have worked against him. Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, described Schwartz as a polarizing character within and outside Sun.
"Schwartz was one of those guys that, for good or ill, just didn't seem to illicit general responses in people. They either loved him or they hated him," King said. "There was actually something of a similarity between people's reaction to Schwartz and the people's reaction to Sun founder Scott McNealy."
As King sees it, McNealy is an executive who "shoots from the lip." Even though some disliked him, most considered him clever, King said, while Schwartz didn't enjoy that same level of lovability. In fact, Schwartz was considered something of a blowhard by many, King said, and that personality doesn't carry much value for Oracle.
Schwartz also had Sun's woes on his back that led executives to seek an acquirer...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Blogs Are Out, Social Networking Is In
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71492
If you have an image of young people continuously blogging and tweeting, it's time to recalibrate. According to a new study from the Pew Research Center, Millennials are doing less blogging but more social networking.
The study, entitled Social Media and Young Adults and released Wednesday, says blogging has declined among users age 30 and under, but increased somewhat among those over 30. Teens in general are not doing a lot of tweeting on Twitter, except for high-school girls.
The study attributes the rise in social networking in part to the new tools that have been embedded into those sites in recent years. The report notes that "youth may be exchanging 'macro-blogging' for micro-blogging with status updates" on such sites as Facebook and MySpace.
Facebook is the number-one social-networking site, with almost three-quarters of all adults who have a profile online saying they are on that site. MySpace is second with 48 percent, and LinkedIn, which is more professionally oriented, is claimed by 14 percent. Obviously, a number of users have multiple profiles online.
In 2006, about 28 percent of teenage Net users said they blog, while only about 14 percent now say they do. Commenting on blogs is also down, from 76 percent in 2006 to about 52 percent now.
But blogging has remained relatively constant among older users. Pew said its studies in recent years have "consistently found that roughly one in 10 online adults maintain a personal online journal or blog." About 11 percent of Net users age 30 and over maintain a personal blog, compared to seven percent in late 2007.
Nearly half of all adults online use social networking, a 10 percent increase since November 2008.
The study is the latest report from Pew's Internet and American Life Project, which is looking at the attitudes...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Symbian 3 Goes Open Source, But Nokia Ties Remain
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71467
It's official -- and ahead of schedule. The Symbian mobile operating system is now completely open source. The Symbian Foundation on Thursday released Symbian 3, the latest version of the platform.
With the open-sourcing of Symbian, along with Google's Android operating system, the mobile world continues forging an open strategy that invites handset makers to further customize and differentiate their products.
"Open-sourcing a market-leading product in a dynamic, growing business sector is unprecedented," said Haydn Shaughnessy, CEO of Cogenuity and editor of the Symbian Foundation's blog. "Over 330 million Symbian devices have been shipped worldwide, and it is likely that a further 100 million will ship in 2010, with more than 200 million expected to ship annually from 2011 onwards."
Symbian's transition from proprietary platform to open source is the largest in software history. The Symbian Foundation insists the open-sourcing of the platform lays the foundation for unlimited innovations in mobile development.
"The development community is now empowered to shape the future of the mobile industry, and rapid innovation on a global scale will be the result," said Lee Williams, executive director of the foundation. "When the Symbian Foundation was created, we set the target of completing the open-source release of the platform by mid-2010, and it's because of the extraordinary commitment and dedication from our staff and our member companies that we've reached it well ahead of schedule."
Under terms of the Eclipse Public License, any individual or organization can use and modify the code for any purpose, whether that be for a mobile device or something else entirely. Symbian's commitment to openness also includes complete transparency in future plans, including the publication of the platform road map and planned features up to and including 2011. Anyone can now influence the road map and contribute new features.
"It's increasingly important for...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Too Popular, Too Fast? The Tech Rally's Demise
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71458
If you talked to portfolio managers at any time in 2009, chances were good that they would extol the virtues of technology stocks. The information technology sector of the Standard & Poor's index of 500 stocks rocketed 59 percent higher last year, beating every other sector and doubling the broad index's 23.5 percent advance in 2009.
How quickly fashions change on Wall Street. A month into 2010, tech is down 8.2 percent, more than any sector but telecommunications, itself off 8.9 percent this year. The S&P 500 has dropped 2.3 percent.
The tech sector has lost steam despite good news on both the U.S. economy -- such as a 5.7 percent rise in gross domestic product last quarter -- and from technology companies themselves.
On Jan. 29, for example, tech heavyweight Microsoft reported earnings of 74 percent a share, 15 percent more than analyst predictions tallied by Bloomberg. Yet the results merely deepened Microsoft's stock decline this year. After rising 57 percent in 2009, Microsoft shares in the new year have fallen 7 percent.
The tech sell-off has been broad. The Nasdaq 100-stock index includes large-cap tech stocks such as Microsoft, along with Apple, which is down 8.8 percent this year; Amazon.com, down 13.9 percent; Qualcomm, off 15.3 percent; and Google, which has fallen 14.6 percent this year. Only 18 Nasdaq 100 members are in positive territory in 2010.
Conversations with stock-fund managers suggest several reasons why tech stocks are having a tough year.
First come seasonal factors. In a new year, investors tend to rebalance their portfolios. After tech's great run in 2009, it's likely that many managers need to sell tech stocks to return their portfolios to their preferred sector allocation, notes Sean Kraus, chief investment officer at CitizensTrust.
Experienced traders have come to expect good results from tech companies...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Review: Palm's Pre Plus Is Losing Pace
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71453
When Palm launched the Pre smartphone last June, I considered it a close second to the iPhone in the race for best smartphone on the market.
The smartphone market has changed a lot since then. Unfortunately, Palm hasn't kept pace.
Last week -- at long last -- Verizon began selling Palm phones running its new webOS operating system. The move to Verizon addresses what many analysts have seen as the biggest problem with the Pre and its sister phone, the Pixi: the carrier that was offering them. Sprint, the carrier that exclusively carried both phones up until now, is far less popular than Verizon and has tended to have poorer coverage.
Palm has also updated its phones and software. Last month, the company announced that the Verizon version of the Pre, dubbed the Palm Pre Plus, would have 16 gigabytes of flash memory -- double that of its Sprint-based predecessor. And the company showed off some new features for webOS, such as the ability to record videos and to play three-dimensional games.
There's a lot to like about the Pre Plus and its underlying webOS. The new 3-D graphics capability is a great addition. One of the most popular uses of Apple's iPhone and iPod touch devices has been playing games. With webOS's new capabilities, developers can now create games for the Pre that are as graphically compelling as those on the iPhone. I played Electronic Arts' "Need for Speed Underground" on the phone and was impressed.
The additional memory is also a nice change, allowing you to store more music, games and movies on the phone.
Palm promises to soon offer two more welcome updates for the Pre Plus. One will allow it to record video. The other will be a version of Adobe's Flash software written for webOS. The software should allow users...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Oops! iPad Punch Lines Fly Around the Internet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71449
You have to wonder whether there were any women in the room when the marketing geniuses at Apple decided to call the company's new gadget the "iPad." The jokes about feminine hygiene products have been flying since last week's debut.
"Will women send their husbands to the Apple store to buy iPads?" went one joke on Twitter. And a "MadTV" comedy sketch from several years ago about an electronic sanitary napkin called the iPad went viral on YouTube.
So how did the company come up with the product name? And how could Apple have set itself up for such obvious punch lines?
Apple, a company notoriously secret about its product development process, refused to comment about the name or how many women were involved in the launch. Three Apple executives, all men, introduced the iPad at its presentation in San Francisco.
Still, brand experts said the name is not so bad.
"It fits with what Apple's been doing consistently. They take literal words that exist and stick an `i' in front of it. And it works for them. It's not offensive despite the silly jokes," said Tye Heckler, a vice president at Seattle, Washington-based Heckler Associates, which is responsible for the store names Cinnabon, Panera and Starbucks.
Ira Kalb, associate director of the Center for Global Innovation at the University of Southern California's business school, said: "Unless you've been under a rock, you know this is an Apple product just by the 'i' in front, and you know what it does by what `pad' connotes."
Kalb said the jokes are probably good for Apple -- more buzz -- and eventually will pass.
He said other names floated for the product -- iTab, iSlate or iTablet -- would have been far worse. ITablet has too many syllables. ISlate is too ancient. ITab is too confusing.
"Apple is all about innovation...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Obama Seeks an End to Business Cell-Phone Tax
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71439
Ever make a personal call on your company cell phone? Did you record the value of that call as taxable income, as required by law?
Join the club, but don't worry. President Barack Obama will propose repealing the widely ignored requirement as part of his 2011 budget plan, a Treasury Department official said Saturday.
The administration made a similar proposal in June, and it was well received in Congress. Lawmakers, however, became preoccupied by the health care debate for much of the year and a lot of their work on tax law was delayed.
Obama is scheduled to release his proposed tax and spending plan on Monday. If the cell phone tax is repealed this year, taxpayers would be off the hook for all of 2010, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the budget had not yet been released.
A 1989 law says that personal use of a company cell phone should be taxed like other fringe benefits, such as a company car. The law, however, was passed when cell phones were referred to as car phones and were considered a luxury. Today, workers increasingly use company-issued mobile devices for texting, e-mailing and browsing the Internet -- sometimes for work, sometimes for personal use.
Last summer, the Internal Revenue Service issued a request for comments on ways to improve compliance with the tax, and there was such a backlash that the administration proposed repealing it.
At the time, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said the tax was "poorly understood by taxpayers" and acknowledged it was difficult to enforce consistently.
Some employers have faced big tax bills after failing to comply with the law.
In 2008, the IRS audited two University of California branches, in Los Angeles and San Diego. As part of a settlement, UCLA paid a tax assessment of $238,474 and San Diego paid...
Fri, 5 Feb 10
Wired Chinese Yawn in the Face of Google Exit
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71433
A world without Google? They can imagine it just fine in China. After all, it's not like losing "World of Warcraft."
The online giant's threat to pull out of China over censorship has drawn little reaction among the country's 384 million Internet users. No flood of complaints to China's consumer rights agency, like the tens of thousands received in one day when the online fantasy game "World of Warcraft" was yanked last year because of a bureaucratic turf battle. Nor has there been the type of fury that saw 32,000 indignant gamers participate in an online chat session on the "World of Warcraft."
"If Google leaves China, we'll lose one search engine. But we still have other choices," said 28-year-old Deng Zhiluo, who works in marketing in Beijing. He said while Google's search results are more "international," most of what he wants can be found on Chinese competitor Baidu. "For locals, Baidu is enough."
The indifference of many Chinese points to a telling challenge for Google in the world's most populous Internet market. The Chinese Internet world is youthful, with people under 30 making up 61.5 percent of the online population, and Google's cause isn't generating popular support among China's wired teens and 20-somethings.
"It's like in the U.S. saying, 'You can't use Yahoo search anymore'," said T.R. Harrington, CEO of Shanghai-based Darwin Marketing, which specializes in China's search engines. "What would people say? 'So what? I'll use Google more, and I'll try Bing and I might try a few other ones ... I don't care.'"
Google threatened three weeks ago to shut down its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, citing cyberattacks emanating from China plus attempts to snoop on dissidents.
Some Chinese admire the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's stand and its "don't be evil" image: A few dozen laid flowers outside Google's Beijing headquarters, and a...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Initial Sales of Apple's iPad Are Likely To Be Modest
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71466
Apple's iPad is undeniably cool, but will consumers buy the tablet computer in large numbers? Too big to fit in your pocket and with few native apps that can take advantage of the larger screen, is the iPad a "third device," as Apple claims, or an awkward middle child?
Analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham & Company released a research report Wednesday that projects modest sales of just two million units this year. Sales are expected to reach six million in 2011, but Wolf wrote that it will take a catalyst to propel sales to the eight million mark in 2012.
Other analysts, such as IDC's Richard Shin, are predicting sales of two million to four million units this year.
Both the iPod and iPhone started off relatively weakly until Apple delivered such catalysts, Wolf said. The iPod was just another MP3 player until Apple rolled out the iTunes Store, creating the famed ecosystem where users can browse, buy and download to the iPod in a seamless experience.
The iPhone didn't truly become a must-have device until Apple opened the platform to third-party developers, unleashing tens of thousands of free and paid apps.
"The long-term trajectory of iPad sales is unlikely to be revealed in the first 18 months after its introduction this spring," Wolf wrote. "If the analogy with the iPod and iPhone holds up, history suggests, then, that a hockey stick in sales is unlikely to occur before fiscal 2012, which is beyond our forecast period."
Wolf predicted that iPad sales will cannibalize iPod touch sales as users buy a much larger web-browsing device for a price not much higher than the touch. He predicted that along with two million iPad sales, Apple will sell two million fewer iPod touches this year. In 2011, he expects three million fewer iPod...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Nexus One Gets Pinch-To-Zoom Like Apple's iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71465
Google has enhanced the user experience of its HTC-manufactured Nexus One smartphone by adding a feature that had been available only on Apple's rival iPhone. Pinch-to-zoom functionality is now available for the Nexus One's Android browser via an over-the-air download. The function also works with Google Maps and the phone's photo gallery.
The feature, already available on some third-party Android apps, is an idea Google may have, well, pinched from Apple.
"The new pinch feature certainly copies the iPhone experience as it relates to opening and viewing applications on the device," said senior telecommunications analyst Kirk Parsons of J.D. Power and Associates.
But Parsons said it's now up to Google to create more applications that make the most of the new feature.
"The jury is still out on whether it will offer a more unique experience versus the iPhone," Parsons said. "Clearly it opens the door to developers that offer services and applications that utilize that pinch feature, so future new apps most likely will follow on the Google apps web site."
Pinch-to-zoom is part of the patch promised last week by Google to correct issues with 3G coverage. Also included is Google Goggles, an app that allows users to snap a photo of an object and search for data about it; automatic night mode for Google Maps; and location search suggestions from the user history.
Nexus One owners can access the update after receiving a message on the notification bar. Google said most users won't receive the notification until the end of the week.
The potential advantage of multi-touch capability -- a term Google seems to be avoiding for legal reasons -- raises the question of why Google didn't introduce the feature from the beginning.
"I think some people are going to ask why they didn't have it at...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Verizon Will Offer Android-Powered Motorola Devour
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71464
Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that it will launch another Android-based smartphone from Motorola next month. The Motorola Devour will be the first phone on Verizon's national network to feature MOTOBLUR -- an application and service suite that provides users with dynamically pushed Internet content via a unique user interface.
The unveiling of the Motorola Devour is the latest sign that the struggling handset maker will continue to fiercely contend for a sizable slice of the lucrative smartphone market. Motorola's first Android smartphones -- the Droid and the CLIQ -- have been "very well received by consumers, resulting in shipments of two million smartphones in the fourth quarter to more than 20 countries," Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha told investors last month.
Gartner analysts argue that the majority of Motorola's smartphone sales were Droids, and a good indication that Android helped boost the company's performance in the quarter. "What I would say, though, is that considering the tremendous push from Verizon, those results are somewhat underwhelming," said Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi.
Sporting a touch-sensitive navigation pad and 3.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, the Motorola Devour integrates a slide-out QWERTY keyboard; Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi radios; a USB 2.0 port and DLNA interface for wirelessly sharing content with other compatible devices; and a motion-sensing accelerometer. The new handset, which ships with an 8GB microSD card, also offers support for to 32GB of storage.
On the software side, the Devour integrates an Android-based web browser featuring Adobe's Flash Lite player. Other preloaded applications include Gmail, Google Search, Google Talk, and YouTube, together with Google Maps and Google Maps Navigation. Additionally, users will be able to select and choose from among the 20,000 applications available at the Android Market.
Featuring an extruded aluminum case, the 5.89-ounce Motorola Devour integrates a native music player. According...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Tech Firms Asked To Outline Human-Rights Measures
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71463
Government officials continue to put pressure on U.S. technology companies to stop censorship in China. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, is joining other government officials to fight censorship in China and other countries.
Just two weeks after Google announced it would pull the plug on censored search information on its Google.cn service in China and weeks after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged businesses to help stop censorship, Durbin has asked more than two dozen companies to outline what measures they will take to ensure that products and services do not facilitate human-rights abuses by the Chinese government.
Companies in the U.S. operate in many countries where the Internet is censored or where governments use technology to repress citizens. While citizens are stripped of freedom of speech, in some countries they are also persecuted and imprisoned if they violate Internet regulations, according to Durbin.
The senator's letter to 30 companies, including Facebook, Skype, Twitter and Apple, comes a year after he asked technology companies to join a global network initiative. The GNI is a code of conduct for companies operating in countries that restrict the Internet.
Organizations such as the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C., have applauded the action.
While companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have agreed with Durbin and the GNI, others such as Acer, Toshiba and Twitter never responded, according to Durbin.
"I commend Google for coming to the conclusion that cooperating with the 'Great Firewall' of China is inconsistent with their human-rights responsibilities," Durbin said. "Google sets a strong example in standing up to the Chinese government's continued failure to respect the fundamental human rights of free expression and privacy. I look forward to learning more about whether other American...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Will Business Users Buy Into the iPad Without Multitasking?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71462
As with many new Apple products, once the initial hubbub dies down there remains a single question: Is it ready for the business market? It didn't take long for analysts to start trying to answer that question as it relates to the yet-to-be-released iPad.
Of course, Apple is positioning the iPad as a business-appropriate device, complete with its Microsoft Office-compatible iWork productivity suite and the iPad's VGA output that sets the stage for business presentations. There's also support for Microsoft Exchange and the device was designed with security in mind.
All that being true, some, like Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, are skeptical. He describes the iPad as a sort of Swiss Army tablet that only allows users to open one blade at a time. That, he said, puts Apple at a disadvantage in the traditional tablet market of doctors and other mobile professionals.
"While the company should be commended on the iPad's lightness and form factor -- it easily qualifies as yet another company product design triumph -- the keyboard, docking station, and peripherals required to make the iPad a more truly useful business productivity tool undermine its vaunted form and portability," King said.
Some of the iPad's strategic shortcomings, as King called them, include the GSM microSIM cards and the lack of multitasking capabilities. The multitasking issue may be the iPad's biggest flaw because it prevents the device from fully qualifying as a notebook replacement.
"At heart, Apple's new device is designed more for the passive consumption of digital content than its active creation. That does not mean the iPad will only be used for web-based entertainment. People write novels on cell phones and smartphones are quickly becoming increasingly powerful handheld computers," King said. "But traditional notebooks and even netbooks remain far better tools for conducting serious business and...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Battery Draining Reported on Windows 7 Machines
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71447
Some owners of Windows 7 machines are complaining that the newest Microsoft operating system may be causing battery problems. Microsoft said it's investigating the issue.
On the Microsoft support site and elsewhere, there are a variety of battery-related complaints, and many commenters believe the cause is Windows 7.
The problems include batteries that are prematurely drained or reported to be so, batteries unable to hold a charge, warning lights indicating a battery needs to be replaced before it should need to, and more.
In a statement to news media on Tuesday, Microsoft said it is "investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners, which appears to be related to system firmware." It added that "the warning received in Windows 7 uses firmware information to determine if battery replacement is needed."
The BIOS firmware boots a computer and initializes such components as batteries.
Complaints about batteries and Windows 7 started populating Microsoft's Windows Client TechCenter forum last June, before Windows 7 was formally released.
On June 5, a poster called DanLee81 noted he had been "receiving an error message saying 'Consider replacing your battery.'" However, he noted that he knew "for a fact that the battery is good," as it was only about four months old and worked fine under Vista. He also reported that he updated his BIOS.
On Wednesday, about a dozen postings on the same forum indicated similar problems on a variety of computer models. "Wow, I'm in the same boat here with a HPDV6600," noted a poster named Rendezvous, who added that the battery died as soon as Windows 7 was installed.
Another user, apniceone, reported a similar problem on a 12-month-old Dell XPS M1330. "After updating to Windows 7 Ultimate, the problem started," apniceone wrote.
Laura DiDio, a research fellow at Information Technology Intelligence Corp.,...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Phishers Harvested Twitter Logins from Fake Web Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71441
Twitter pushed out a password reset Tuesday evening to accounts that were following suspicious users. The move comes in the wake of a revelation that phishers were attempting to steal usernames and passwords using fake BitTorrent sites.
Twitter foiled the plan as part of its ongoing monitoring for odd activity. Twitter noticed a sudden surge in followers for a couple of accounts in the last five days. When Twitter technicians started digging, they discovered a plot that compelled immediate action.
"Torrent sites aren't exactly new; however, this is one of the first times that we've seen an attack that came from this vector," said Del Harvey, director of trust and safety at Twitter. "It appears that for a number of years, a person has been creating torrent sites that require a login and password as well as creating forums set up for torrent site usage and then selling these purportedly well-crafted sites and forums to other people innocently looking to start a download site of their very own."
But Harvey said these sites came with a nefarious bonus, of sorts, in the form of security exploits and backdoors throughout the system. This patient cybercriminal pushed out the torrents, waited for the forums and sites to get popular, and then used those exploits to get access to the username, e-mail address, and password of every person who signed up.
"Additional exploits to gain admin root on forums that weren't created by this person also appear to have been utilized," Harvey said. "In some instances, the exploit involved redirecting attempts to access the forums to another site that would request log-in information. This information was then used to attempt to gain access to third-party sites like Twitter."
Twitter has yet to identify all the forums involved. In fact, Harvey admitted, it's not...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Stealth Cookies Track Consumer Buying Habits
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71416
Watch out for those cookie crumbs. They might be costing money.
Cookies aren't just treats tasty with milk. They are little bits of text served to computers by Web sites that leave a sort of footprint, a crumb trail, that can tell retailers a consumer's IP [Internet Protocol] address, ZIP code and browsing and shopping habits.
And many use them to offer dynamic or flexible pricing, which means consumers might be paying more for those books, that cool jacket or a concert ticket than the same item sold to a neighbor on a different computer.
Most customers are accustomed to finding different prices in the bricks-and-mortar world, based on where a store is and how popular an item is. Sometimes, prices are different for the same product in a rural or urban setting or in a rich or poor ZIP code. Sometimes seniors and kids pay less for movie tickets.
But many consumers don't realize tailored pricing has hit a new level in cyberspace. Retailers are finding stealthier ways --- through cookies that track ZIP codes, shopping habits and even how long we take to buy --- to profile who can pay more, or less, for their products.
"We know there's price variability," said Joseph C. Nunes, associate professor of marketing at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. "But I don't think the average consumer has any clue to the extent to which they are subject to price discrimination."
ShopSmart Magazine, a publication of Consumer Reports, has tracked the practice since 2006. "Most consumers are totally unaware of the practice," said deputy editor Sue Perry. "The changes can be as little as $2, $3 and $4, but it all adds up."
Spotlight tried it, too, and found changes based on when we ordered. A basketful of books placed in the Barnes & Noble Web...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Tech Showdown: Smartphones vs. Netbooks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71415
The recent launch of Google's Nexus One may have injected new life into the smartphone wars. But a battle that's just as compelling is the one between smartphones and netbooks themselves. Both appeal to those who want maximum portability in a device that allows them to stay connected wherever they roam, and both are potentially attractive to those who currently have neither. But before ever getting to the question of which smartphone or which netbook to buy, many have to decide whether a netbook or a smartphone makes more sense for their needs.
It's not an easy decision to make -- especially since both smartphones and netbooks help you accomplish many of the same tasks, and they're both typically fighting for the attention of consumers that can afford one but not both. Here's a rundown of where the netbook versus smartphone battle stands.
There's no contest here: the smartphone wins by a hefty margin. While netbooks are the thinnest, lightest form of notebook computer that you can purchase today -- many can be carried as easily as a small stack of papers -- they are still computers, which means you'll be tempted to haul a power supply and perhaps some accessories, which will only add to the bulk. Smartphones, by comparison, will slip neatly into your pocket. Portability is often the main reason why people get tipped toward the smartphone in the smartphone/netbook debate.
Here the nod goes to netbooks. Today, the best netbooks can squeeze nine hours of continuous use out of a single battery charge -- long enough for those who use the device sporadically to go an entire week without recharging. Smartphone users, by contrast, must constantly keep an eye on remaining battery life.
Although smartphones might advertise as many as 14 hours of standby time, standing by is usually...
Thu, 4 Feb 10
Good Passwords Are Just a Sentence Away
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71391
Need a secure password for use on your computer? Think up a relatively long sentence. Then take the first letters of the individual words -- and you've got an instant password that even clever hackers will be hard pressed to crack, experts advise.
Each application should receive its own password. The other option is a "software vault" that requires the user to learn only a primary password to then access the rest of the passwords. That solution has a number of flaws, however, the experts at Germany's Computerbild magazine found.
A better option might be to come up with a sentence like "On my 30th birthday I received 500 dollars from Aunt Eunice!" Take the first letters and you have "Om30bIr500dfAE!" Be sure the sentence is at least eight digits long and include both small and capital letters, as well as numbers and special characters, the experts advise.
The problem with normal words found in the dictionary or combinations of letters found close to one another on the computer keyboard is that they are susceptible to "brute force" attacks. Hackers try out password after password until finding the right one. Writing down passwords is also a bad idea, since the notes could fall into the hands of intruders.
In a recent Computerbild test of eight "software vaults," half of the candidates earned a failing grade, including the corresponding functions by the Firefox 3.5 and Internet Explorer 8 browsers. In all four failing products the passwords could be recovered from RAM, the Hamburg-based magazine found.
Even the two top-rated solutions only earned a "satisfactory." Test winner "Password Depot 4" from Acebit earned a solid "B," with some demerits but also kudos for strong encryption and good protection against brute force attacks.
"Software vaults" permit password access to applications ranging from email programs to an eBay account. The...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
Apple Posts Another Patch for Flickering on New iMac
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71429
For the second time in six weeks, Apple has offered a firmware download to address problems on its new iMac 27-inch liquid crystal display. A 294-kilobyte download from Apple's web site entitled 27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0 comes on the heels of a similar but much larger update in December that was 683 kilobytes.
While the first update was for the ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards, the latest release is for the display firmware, or closed control program.
The fixes are in response to hundreds of complaints on Apple's support page about flickering or discolored screens since the iMac went on sale in October.
"After several hours of continuous use with the brightness set between 6-8 bars (halfway), Intermittent screen flicker both horizontal and vertical occurred with the occasional black screen for a brief second," wrote a U.K. user posting as AGPCard For Pm on Nov. 15. "The problem persisted and became more frequent, especially after waking from sleep."
There have also been numerous video clips of malfunctioning iMacs on YouTube.
Apple hasn't acknowledged discolored screens and the update does not address it. An electronics blog this week published what it said was an internal Apple memo instructing support staff not to "attempt to repair or replace at this time. Explain that slight color variability is normal for LCD displays and in general does not warrant replacement."
Some units have also arrived with cracked screens, users said. Despite these problems, sales of the iMac, which starts at $1,199, continue at a brisk pace. Sales are expected to reach as high as 2.9 million this quarter, even as production delays have held back shipments.
Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret, said he doesn't think the production and defect issues are related.
"It doesn't appear that Apple is sacrificing quality for speed," he...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
Microsoft Releases Windows Azure and SQL Azure
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71427
Microsoft on Monday announced what it called a "significant milestone" with the release of Windows Azure and SQL Azure in 21 countries. That means customers and partners can launch their Windows Azure and SQL Azure production applications and services with a full service-level agreement.
Windows Azure is a cloud-services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand computing and storage to host, scale and manage web applications through Microsoft data centers.
"We're hearing great feedback from those who are developing and deploying applications and services across the Windows Azure platform," said Doug Hauger, general manager of business and marketing for Windows Azure. He said thousands of customers have moved into production and can begin selling solutions.
Microsoft's partners include large and small enterprises. Hauger pointed to a startup called Lokad as an example of a Microsoft BizSpark One partner that's betting on the Windows Azure platform. Lokad delivers forecasts as a service, targeting the retail and manufacturing companies that need to optimize inventory.
As Hauger explained it, Lokad developed a new set of statistical models that deliver accurate forecasts. But the company soon realized its complex models require 10 times more processing power than earlier iterations. That posed a problem: The company couldn't maintain its previous one-hour delivery goal for forecasts.
"Lokad moved their forecasting service to the Windows Azure platform to take advantage of the scalable processing power," Hauger said. "They now have the ability to deliver 100 times more forecasts with Windows Azure than they could previously -- up to 100 million forecasts an hour."
Using the Windows Azure platform, Hauger said Lokad can compute and deliver forecast data in less than 60 minutes to its entire 300-plus growing...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
iPhone Loses Global Market Share as Rivals Advance
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71423
While the technology world continues to focus on Apple's yet-to-be-launched iPad, it seems iPhone sales may be slowing. Apple lost market share in the global smartphone market in the fourth quarter, ABI Research reports.
Apple's share fell from 18.1 percent in the third quarter to 16.6 percent in the fourth quarter, according to ABI's data. This comes despite the fact that Apple posted record iPhone sales for the quarter of 8.7 million units, up 100 percent from the year-ago quarter and up 18 percent from the third quarter.
"2009 may have started with a whimper, but by the fourth quarter of 2009 the global mobile handset market ended with a pretty reasonable bang," said Jake Saunders, vice president for forecasting at ABI. "We estimate 336.5 million handsets were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2009, up 15.1 percent quarter over quarter."
Despite market leader Nokia's weakened position in the smartphone segment, ABI said the company still managed to maintain 37.7 percent of the overall handset market. Korea's influence on the handset market is underscored by LG Electronics and Samsung. With 10 percent of the market, LG ranks behind Apple. LG has been counting on its S-class smartphone series to help it secure a bridgehead in the market, ABI said.
Nokia has another advantage over Apple. While Apple's App Store is still the most popular worldwide, Nokia's Ovi Store has overtaken Apple in crucial high-growth emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, according to the newly released Wireless Development Survey from Research and Markets. Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile and apps sold directly through a carrier were also popular channels.
"The app-store model is now an expected part of any wireless developer program," said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data. "And while Apple's iPhone App Store set the pace in North America and...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
Don't Click on That! Social Networks a Hacker's Delight
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71422
Social networks have infiltrated themselves into the lives of millions of Internet users. While some businesses have embraced the phenomenon, others are being negatively impacted by the use of social networks at the office.
Aside from distracting individuals from their everyday work and affecting companies' bottom lines, they are also negatively impacting their security.
Facebook, which has 350 million users worldwide, is the most disruptive to businesses because of the security risks involved, according to a recent report by Sophos. Reports show there has been a 70 percent increase since April 2009 in the number of spam and malware attacks on companies via social networks.
More and more companies are worried that social networks accessed through their systems are the cause of an increase in malware and spam attacks. The number of businesses affected by spam increased from 33.4 percent in April 2009 to 57 percent in December. And worldwide spam volumes could rise this year by 30 to 40 percent compared to 2009, according to Cisco's annual security report.
When companies first began noticing a decrease in productivity by employees using social networks while at work, many accepted the use of social media because it allowed employees to spread the word about their product or service, which equated to more sales.
Businesses such as JetBlue Airways, Comcast, PepsiCo and others are using social networks to communicate with customers to get feedback on their brands and market their businesses.
In fact, Dell last year came forward to say it had more than $2 million in PC sales directly through the use of its DellOutlet account on Twitter.
And a slew of new businesses have been formed that specifically focus on providing entrepreneurs and business professionals with the tools to market their business on Facebook and other social...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
New Sony Ericsson Aspen Handset Uses Windows Mobile
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71421
Sony Ericsson has taken the wraps off a new smartphone called Aspen that is based on the latest release of Windows Mobile from Microsoft. Together with Sony Ericsson's recently announced Android-based XPERIA X10 device, the new Aspen handset forms part of the company's new strategy for addressing the lack of a significant smartphone in its product portfolio.
"This phone is targeting a business user or the consumer who is really into messaging," said Sony Ericsson spokesperson Mattias Holm. "With both touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard, it really ticks all the boxes for fast messaging" and "it will run on Windows mobile 6.5.3, which delivers a really finger-friendly touch experience."
Sporting a 2.4-inch touch-sensitive color display, Aspen integrates a 3.2-megapixel camera; Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi wireless chips; a 4GB microSD card; and a pair of stereo speakers. Enterprise users will also appreciate the availability of business-oriented software, such as an Adobe PDF reader and Microsoft's popular Office productivity suite.
Outlook Mobile and Exchange Server synchronization offerings are on tap in support of enterprise e-mail, giving users the ability to manage multiple accounts right from their phones. And business users will even be able to secure Aspen's contents by using Microsoft's My Phone service, which can remotely erase data should the handset become lost or stolen.
Slated for release in the second quarter, Aspen will ship with Skype, which means business travelers will have the option of placing and receiving overseas calls at a fraction of standard cellular rates. Designed to deliver up to 10 hours of talk time from a single battery charge, the new handset also will incorporate a full range of GSM, EDGE and HSPA radios.
Beyond addressing the needs of mobile workers, Aspen offers users the option of enjoying a full-blown entertainment experience, whether listening to favorite music...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
Google Reportedly Planning an App Store for Business
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71420
Google means business. According to a new report in The Wall Street Journal, the search-and-everything-else giant is planning an enterprise app store, with a launch as early as March. The move would be an additional challenge to Microsoft's domination of office and business software.
The online store would contain third-party applications and services related to Google Apps. These enhancements could include additional security features, the ability to import data from other apps, and more.
Currently, Google allows users to find such apps, but the company doesn't sell them directly. Through its Google Solutions Marketplace, for instance, visitors can find apps for tools, enhancements and related professional services. The user is then directed to companies like Innovent Solutions for search appliance training, SADA Systems for user provisioning and sync tools for Google Apps, and Daston for Gmail integration for NetSuite.
Google declined to comment on the report. "The Google Solutions Marketplace makes it easy for our customers to connect with an ecosystem of products and professional services," Google said in a statement. "We're constantly working with our partners to deliver more solutions to businesses, but we have nothing to announce at this time."
According to The New York Times, the goal of the new app store is to provide better integration and make purchases easier. It's expected that, as with other app stores, Google will take a portion of revenue.
Google Apps is a business productivity suite that includes a calendar, Gmail, word processing, group management, spreadsheets, intranet creation, video sharing, and presentations. The entire suite costs $50 per user per year, and the company said more than two million businesses are running Google Apps. This includes thousands of users in several large enterprises such as Motorola, Jaguar Land Rover, and the Los Angeles municipal government.
Al Hilwa, program director at industry...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
Homeland Security Taps Into Twitter To Aid Haiti
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71398
The Homeland Security Department has joined the social-media movement and for the first time is reading Twitter posts, blogs and Internet forums to learn instantly about conditions in Haiti and send alerts to government agencies in the country.
The department's Haiti Social Media Disaster Monitoring Initiative is designed to get information more quickly to people involved in recovery efforts by tracking up to 60 Internet sites including Google Blog Search, The Huffington Post and Twitter, according to a department report.
"It's part of the way people communicate, so it should be part of the way we gain situational awareness," said Don Triner, acting director of Homeland Security's National Operations Center.
The center was created after 9/11 to be the government's primary eyes and ears about potential security threats, and to share information with emergency workers after an incident. The center expanded after Hurricane Katrina and monitors news Web sites and TV for information.
The social-media monitoring was used Jan. 21 when a center worker read a Twitter post about people buried under the Building Napolin in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, Triner said. The post read, "Let's save this life, someone is still alive under the rubble at Rue Centre, Building Napolin," and gave the building's latitude and longitude. The operations center forwarded the information to the State Department, which sent a rescue team to the building.
Before monitoring could start, the department had to assess whether the plan complied with privacy rules. It found no problems because the center is monitoring only public Web sites related to the earthquake recovery and is not storing any information or identifying any individual.
Homeland Security is not alone in using social media for rescue. The American Red Cross has received hundreds of posts about earthquake survivors on its Twitter and Facebook sites, said Wendy Harman, the department's social...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
Online Term Paper Company Gets Bad Marks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71397
A district court judge in Illinois has ordered the owner of a Web-based company to stop selling term papers unless he can prove he has permission from the papers' authors.
The order was based on an earlier ruling in which the provider was found liable of copyright infringement after co-authors of an undergraduate research paper saw their work posted on three of the company's Web sites and sued in 2006.
The case does not address whether it's legal or ethical to sell or buy term papers, an age-old practice that has proliferated on the Internet but for the most part has dodged legal trouble. But it appears to be the first time a court has penalized a seller based on how it acquires papers.
"The opinion does help the public see some of the sharp and shady practices of at least some of these companies," says Stetson University School of Law Dean Darby Dickerson. "The fact that someone was willing to take on the company and litigate for several years is significant."
In a ruling on the class-action lawsuit Jan. 21, David Herndon, chief judge of a U.S. District Court in Illinois, said Rusty Carroll and his company, R2C2 Inc. of Carbondale, Ill., caused continued "irreparable harm" to an unknown number of authors.
Lawyers for the authors say they hope it has a chilling effect on other U.S.-based providers.
"We'd like to stop this practice, or get as close to stopping (it) as we can," says attorney Eric Conn of McDermott Will & Emery in Washington, D.C. The firm is seeking compensation for its clients, which it says could number in the tens of thousands.
Carroll's term paper business includes at least nine Web sites that together offer 200,000 to 300,000 papers, says his attorney, Hugh Williams of Carbondale. A number of the sites named in legal...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
GPS Apps May Have Mobile Ad Potential
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71395
For Diane Bisgeier, marking her turf with her iPhone has become as regular as morning coffee. Bisgeier "checks in" at restaurants, cafes, and theaters around San Francisco using Gowalla, a popular iPhone app that lets people broadcast their locations, find friends, and compete to see who's shown up somewhere the most.
"I don't feel complete unless I check in" when I arrive, says Bisgeier, 41, who has also logged her location using iPhone apps from Gowalla competitors Foursquare and Yelp. By announcing her movements around town on Gowalla, Bisgeier, a marketing director for medical software maker Soar BioDynamics , says she's able to meet friends spontaneously and feel as if she "left [my] mark" on places. "It's because I'm hypersocial," she says. "That's why I love it."
As Silicon Valley's obsessions go, the virtual parlor games proffered by startups Foursquare and Gowalla rank among the more curious. New York and Silicon Valley techies have lately taken to whipping out their smart phones when they cross the transom of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and train stations, firing up Foursquare's or Gowalla's applications, and checking in to mark their turf.
Enthusiasts say they like the bragging rights that come with being the most frequent patron of a place, and that the apps let them serendipitously meet up with friends. Frequent patrons can become the "mayor" of a venue by playing Foursquare, or stamp a virtual passport in Gowalla's game. Hundreds of merchants offer free beer, coffee, and pizza to the top denizens of their establishments. "In the Bay Area, it has turned into a pretty valuable utility," Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg and an investor in both Foursquare and Gowalla, says of the software.
The popularity of the apps has attracted notice from other Web startups that rely on local advertising. Foursquare boasts...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
Picking a Twitter Client To Save Time and Clicks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71390
Twittering, tweeting to some, is about more than just sending 140-character text messages through the Internet. That's plain to see by a simple look at the various clients vying for the right to make your access to Twitter easier.
These small programs come with many functions and are geared to meet various demands -- some people want better coverage, others want ease in reading. Ultimately, the decision usually rest upon whether the Twitter follower accesses the Internet from a PC at home or on the go with a mobile phone or smartphone.
Clients do more than just reproduce Twitter's web interface. They help save time and clicks, says Nicole Simon, a social media expert and author of a German blog about the Twitter phenomenon.
"And they help you to see everything with one glance: new Tweets, answers and results of specific searches." As a bonus, they let people post comments simultaneously on other sites like Facebook or MySpace.
Nonetheless, the original Twitter interface remains the favorite, says Manuel Schreiber of Chip, a German computer magazine. But TweetDeck is another widely used tool. "Twitterfeed, which allows a user to publish his comments on Facebook as well, is the most favored client."
Clients are geared mostly toward PCs. A practical option for an ambitious user is a trimmed-down client like Twhirl, says Sven Wiesner, a social media advisor who also runs a German blog on tweeting. Twhirl sits on a person's desktop, just like an instant messenger program.
Twhirl includes the functions of any good Twitter client, says Wiesner. Packed with standard functions like uploading photos, picking favorite Tweets and functions like Reply, Retweet or Direct Message at the push of a button, Twhirl also offers a selection of URL shortcuts. It's also a good idea to opt for customizable notification for incoming replies and direct messages.
Twitter users...
Wed, 3 Feb 10
Mobile Apps Flood the Market: Will Hackers Notice?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71389
Mobile phones are increasingly keeping computers switched off. Train schedules, Facebook, music downloads -- all of these tasks will soon be handled primarily via mobile phones.
The key element here is apps -- short for applications, and referring specifically to applications for smartphones. Apple was the first to make a major move with its App Store for iPhone and iPod touch, now popular around the world. Other providers are now offering software as well, including Nokia, BlackBerry-maker RIM, and the Android consortium. Tens of thousands of apps stand ready, ranging from virtual whoopee cushions to highly refined video games.
Apple remains at the front of the pack: the company recently announced that the three billionth app was downloaded from the App Store. The users responsible for that staggering figure now have more than 100,000 of the little programs from which to choose. Among the most popular are PocketGuitar, which turns the cell phone into a kind of virtual guitar, and Shazam, which can deliver the title of a song heard through the phone's microphone.
While many of these applications are of questionable practical value, the App Store also contains a great number of helpful products, says Markus Weidner, a cell phone expert at German telecommunications portal teltarif.de. "I've still not found a multi-messaging program for my Palm Pre," he says. The iPhone is perhaps the only phone that can really be made into a digital Swiss Army Knife through apps.
There are also apps for Google's Android operating system: 18,000 in the Android Market at last count. The RepliGo Reader, for example, can display PDF files, and Photovault can encrypt image files. BlackBerry-maker RIM also provides a platform for mobile applications. "There are currently more than 4,500 apps in the BlackBerry App World," says spokesman Rainer Puster.
Regardless of platform, the solutions all allow for...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Apple's First-Generation iPad Has Some Maturing To Do
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71408
Now that Apple's long-awaited official announcement of the iPad has come and gone, Apple reviewers have had a chance to take a deep breath and take stock of what CEO Steve Jobs has delivered. In the wake of all the hype of the tablet computer as a "Jesus device," Apple fanboys and the general public were struck with an anticlimactic feeling. "Is that all there is?" many asked.
In the week or so since the announcement, the technology press has made much of the iPad's failings -- starting with jokes about feminine hygiene products but continuing on to real shortcomings such as the lack of support for Adobe Flash-based video.
After all the hype, is the iPad a letdown? "It's not a bad first-generation product; it's a reasonable offering," Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, said in a telephone interview. "It's going to mature a lot in the second and third generations, and the market will open up for them in that time frame. There's too big a bar to get a big wave on the first generation."
What does the iPad need in that second generation? "We need another carrier other than AT&T, and we probably need a different screen that's viewable outdoors," Enderle said. He said this first-generation iPad is probably comparable to the original iPhone.
"The iPhone was kind of crippled when it came out -- it took two generations to reach its potential," Enderle said. By contrast, "the screen and the mobile provider can probably be done by the second generation."
Jobs actually announced six versions of the iPad -- three Wi-Fi-only configurations and three with a 3G plan. Enderle expects the 3G models to be more popular than the Wi-Fi versions, even with AT&T's weak coverage. "The Kindle is so much better with...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Intel and Micron Double the Density of Flash Memory
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71407
Billions of microscopic cells on a single chip will soon add eight gigabytes of nonvolatile memory to smartphones and other devices, creating new possibilities for mobile applications and potentially lowering prices in the long term. IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between chipmakers Intel and Micron Technology, on Monday unveiled a 64-gigabit NAND flash die based on 25-nanometer process technology.
The new process doubles the density of the partnership's previous milestone creation, a 32-gigabit die based on 34-nanometer technology. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.
IMFT is currently market-testing the new chips with production expected in the second half of this year. About the size of a postage stamp, each die contains a memory array with more than 32 billion cells, each of which is only 25 nanometers wide.
"The smaller we make the storage cell, the more we can get into a die and the more capacity you as an end user will see," said Kevin Killbuck, director of NAND market development for Micron, in a video posted on the company's web site. He said the 8GB capacity is about the same as 11 CDs, enough to hold thousands of songs and photos and hours of video.
Killbuck said the technology will allow devices like flash memory cards and MP3 players to double their capacity while remaining the same size and consuming the same amount of power.
The new technology meets a growing demand for high density and low cost that has fueled the spread of cheap flash drives and other portable storage devices.
"More advanced manufacturing processes are bringing about computing functionality in a smaller package," said Jeff Orr, senior analyst for mobile devices at ABI Research. "Smaller semiconductors allow for smaller device form factors by using less space on the system board, and they generally consume less...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Cybercriminals Focus on Social Networks, Sophos Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71406
Facebook and Twitter users are under attack by cybercriminals -- and the incidents are rising, Sophos says in its its 2010 Security Threat Report released Monday. In the past 12 months, Sophos says, cybercriminals have focused more attacks on social-network users. Spam and malware are leading the charge.
Fifty-seven percent of users surveyed reported getting spammed via social-networking sites -- an increase of 70.6 percent from 2008. And 36 percent say they have been sent malware via social-networking sites, a 69.8 percent increase.
"Computer users are spending more time on social networks, sharing sensitive and valuable personal information, and hackers have sniffed out where the money is to be made," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for Sophos. "The dramatic rise in attacks in the last year tells us that social networks and their millions of users have to do more to protect themselves from organized cybercrime or risk falling prey to identity-theft schemes, scams and malware attacks."
Sophos surveyed more than 500 organizations and discovered that 72 percent are concerned that employee behavior on social-networking sites exposes their businesses to danger and puts the corporate infrastructure -- and the sensitive data stored on it -- at risk.
Facebook is perceived as the biggest threat. Sixty percent of the respondents named Facebook as the greatest security risk, followed by MySpace at 18 percent, Twitter at 17 percent, and LinkedIn at a mere four percent. Cluley said we shouldn't forget that Facebook is by far the largest social network -- and you'll find more bad apples in the biggest orchard.
"The truth is that the security team at Facebook works hard to counter threats on their site -- it's just that policing 350 million users can't be an easy job for anyone. But there is no doubt that simple changes could make Facebook...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Chinese Tablet Maker Says Apple's iPad Is a Copy
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71405
Just days after Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the highly anticipated iPad, a Chinese company says the Cupertino, Calif.-based company copied its P88 tablet. Apple's iPad is a replica of Shenzhen Great Loong Brother's tablet with similar functions, Wu Xiaolong, the company's president, told El Mundo, a Spanish newspaper.
The iPad is a mix between a laptop and a smartphone with functions similar to Apple's iPhone, but on a larger scale.
Xiaolong is threatening legal action against Apple if it attempts to sell the iPad in China.
The P88's developer, which launched the tablet six months ago at the International Electronics Fair in Berlin, may be waiting for the iPad's debut in China because it may not have the right to assert a patent dispute in the U.S., according to Ilan Barzilay, an intellectual-property attorney and partner with Boston-based Seyfarth Shaw LLP. The P88 developer, however, may have the right to take legal action in China if it has the rights in that country.
"Apple is a pretty big company and if you are ready to start suit with them, you will have to be willing to go the distance," Barzilay said.
The Chinese company may have a difficult case to prove, as many observers said the tablets may look similar but have different features and functions. So proving theft of intellectual property will be a challenge.
The iPad, which is a half-inch thick and 1.5 pounds, has a 9.7-inch LCD screen and will come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions. The Chinese company's P88 has a 10.2-inch screen without multi-touch functionality, uses a 250GB hard drive, and has an Ethernet port.
"Yes, Apple is selling a tablet computer, and yes, the P88 is similar, but the design is different, the interface is different, and it has different buttons,"...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Chrome Has 5.2 Percent of Browser Market, Ahead of Goal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71404
Google may not be winning over the multitudes with its Nexus One "superphone," but the search giant is gaining ground in the 21st century browser wars. Google's Chrome browser grabbed market share in January from its key rivals, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox.
According to NetApps, Chrome finished January strong, with a 5.2 percent market share. Although a 0.6 percent gain may not immediately rattle the dominance of well-entrenched players like IE and Firefox, it does show a steady flow of users to the youngest player in the browser market.
Overall, Google has doubled its market share, and in January saw the second-largest gain since rolling out the browser in September 2008. Google has already surpassed Apple's Safari in the browser wars, making it the third-most-used browser.
Google has exceeded its goals, hitting five percent well before its September 2010 deadline. Google aims to reach 10 percent by September 2011 but could reach that number this year if its growth rate holds steady.
Weeks after the bad publicity around Internet Explorer 6 and its role in the China-based attacks on Google, Internet Explorer lost half a percentage point of market share in January, according to NetApps. That leaves Microsoft with 62.2 percent of the browser market, a record low.
Microsoft has steadily seen its share of the market eroded by the likes of Firefox, Opera and even Apple. Google seems to be putting another dent in the browser market leader. Microsoft has lost 10 percent of its market in the past 12 months while Google reached its 5.2 percent mark.
Looking a little deeper, IE6 saw a 0.9 decline in market share to 20.1 percent. IE7 also suffered in January, dipping a full percentage point to 14.6 percent. The good news for Microsoft is that IE8 is stemming...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Firefox for Mobile Browser Runs on Nokia N900
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71403
Mozilla has released a mobile version of its Firefox browser for users of Nokia's N900 smartphone, which runs the handset maker's high-end Maemo operating system. Built on the same engine as Firefox 3.6 for PCs, the new mobile browser is currently available for download in more than 30 languages, with support for more smartphone platforms and languages on the way, the developers said.
Bringing Firefox to mobile devices is the next step toward fulfilling Mozilla's mission of providing one web that everyone can access -- regardless of device or location, Mozilla blogger Erica Jostedt said Friday. "Key design principles are at the heart of the mobile browsing experience, including minimal typing, seamless synchronization with desktop Firefox, and the ability to take your Firefox with you, to name a few," Jostedt wrote.
The fledgling mobile browser market represents a huge opportunity for browser makers, since smartphones accounted for about 14 percent of the estimated 1.2 billion mobile devices shipped last year, according to Gartner. The new mobile version of Firefox is intended in part to help counter the browser's slowing growth on desktop and notebook PCs. According to Net Applications, Google's Chrome browser outpaced Firefox by increasing its market share from 1.6 percent to 5.2 percent since March, even as Firefox boosted its share from 23.3 percent to 24.4 percent.
Mozilla is hoping to expand the browser market by bringing a full-fledged browser experience to smartphones, beginning with the N900. Though the world's leading handset maker has not released any sales numbers for the smartphone so far, Nokia did say the device has been positively received.
Due to the N900's fairly expensive price, however, Gartner expects the device to be of interest to technology lovers rather than a product destined for the mass market, noted Research Director Carolina Milanesi.
"What it...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Amazon Gives in to Macmillan's Demand for Higher Prices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71400
With Apple's new iPad acting as a big rock thrown into the e-book pond, Kindle maker Amazon.com has given in to the pricing demands of publisher Macmillan. The move could mean fewer under-$10 prices for new e-books.
Amazon, whose Kindle is currently the front-running e-book reader and which offers a large inventory of e-books, had been resisting Macmillan's requirement of a pricing hike. New e-books on Amazon have been priced at $9.99, but Apple is reportedly offering higher prices to publishers for iPad content.
Prices for Macmillan's e-book versions of best sellers and most hard covers will be $12.99 to $14.99.
"We have expressed our strong disappointment and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles," Amazon had said in a post on its Kindle forum last week. Macmillan titles remained listed, but could only be bought through third-party marketplace sellers. But, the bookseller noted, "we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms" because the publisher controls its titles.
Amazon said its customers will need to "decide for themselves" whether to pay prices that it described as "needlessly high for e-books." The bookseller said it doesn't expect that "all major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan," and "many independent presses and self-published authors" will price themselves lower to provide a competitive alternative.
The pricing showdown is only the latest battle is the rapidly changing environment for electronic books. Major publishers are concerned that low prices for e-book versions of titles currently in hard cover could drive down the perceived value of physical books, in the way that digital downloads of songs affected the CD industry.
Publishing executives and some agents and authors are praising Macmillan's stand and criticizing Amazon's attempt to establish monopoly control. Amazon is also getting criticism from...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Hacker Breaks Into 49 House Sites, Insults Obama
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71367
A hacker broke into 49 House Web sites of both political parties to post a crude attack on President Barack Obama after his State of the Union address.
Jeff Ventura, spokesman for the House chief administrative officer, said the sites were managed by a private vendor -- GovTrends of Alexandria, Va.
Most House Web sites are managed totally by House technicians but individual offices are permitted to contract with a third party to manage new features and updates.
Ventura says GovTrends let its guard down while performing an update, allowing the hacker to penetrate sites of individual members and committees overnight.
The attacker used an obscenity in referring to the president, who spoke from the House chamber Wednesday night.
Ventura said 18 House sites managed by GovTrends were defaced last August. The House is looking into continued use of the company, he said.
Phone messages left for GovTrends were not immediately returned.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican leader John Boehner wrote the House's chief administrative officer, Daniel Beard, ordering "an immediate and comprehensive assessment of how hackers were able to deface the Web sites of nearly fifty House members and committees last night."
They said an assessment must be made of GovTrends security -- although the company was not named in the letter -- and further ordered a review of security standards for all House contractors.
"We also request that you take immediate action to protect against breaches of the House firewalls and to ensure Web site security of all House offices," the leaders said.
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Google's Digital Book Settlement Still Under Fire
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71366
Google Inc.'s bid to secure the digital rights to millions of books remains under attack from rivals and other critics trying to block a revised legal settlement that would unlock a vast electronic library.
The opposition fired its latest salvo Thursday, the deadline for filing objections with U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in New York.
The critics contend Google's $125 million settlement of a class action lawsuit with U.S. publishers and authors would thwart competition and drive up prices in the budding electronic book market. Opponents also warn the digital books will give Google an important tool for attracting more traffic and building upon its already commanding lead in the Internet's lucrative search and advertising market.
Google argues the agreement will benefit society by making it easier to see and potentially buy hard-to-find books that have only been available in print in a handful of libraries.
The company, based in Mountain View, has made digital copies of more than 12 million books during the past five years, but can't display most of them until copyright issues are resolved.
Chin has scheduled a Feb. 18 hearing to consider whether he will grant final approval to the complex settlement that was first worked out 15 months ago.
Google revised the agreement in November, two months after the Department of Justice warned the original settlement probably would violate antitrust and copyright laws. The government has until Feb. 4 to file its opinion about the revised settlement.
The most strident criticism to the changes so far have come from the same foes that have spearheaded the resistance since last summer. The opposing camp includes the Open Book Alliance, a group including Google rivals Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., as well as Consumer Watchdog, a group that fights abusive business practices.
More people and industry groups have lined up to support...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Nintendo Chief Unimpressed with Apple's iPad
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71363
Nintendo's president shrugged off the just unveiled iPad tablet computer from Apple as delivering "no surprises," and displayed as little enthusiasm for 3-D technology and high-definition upgrades for games.
"It was a bigger iPod Touch," Satoru Iwata said of the much anticipated device shown Wednesday by Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs.
Iwata denied speculation in Japanese media that what Nintendo Co. has in the works in new gadgets may be a DS equipped with a motion-sensor similar to the wand for Nintendo's hit Wii home console, or a Wii upgraded for high-definition TVs.
"I question whether those features would be enough to get people to buy new machines," he said of the DS. Nintendo engineers are developing new machines, he said, without giving details.
Iwata also doesn't expect 3D video-gaming to catch on, although he welcomed 3D movies at theaters like James Cameron's hit "Avatar."
"I have doubts whether people will be wearing glasses to play games at home. How is that going to look to other people?" he said at a Tokyo hotel.
Sony Corp. and other technology companies are making big investments in 3-D TVs, expecting it will boost sales growth in the next few years.
Kyoto-based Nintendo, the maker of Pokemon and Super Mario games, would also have to look into the possible health effects of longtime 3-D game playing, which is likely to last longer than a two-hour film, Iwata said.
Nintendo has scored success by making games easier to play for the elderly, women and newcomers. Iwata reiterated his company will continue on that track as potential for sales growth remains in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.
He made no pretense to hide he was totally unimpressed with the iPad.
"There were no surprises for me," said Iwata.
Apple says the iPad is a new kind of mobile device that is more intimate than a laptop...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Microsoft Fiscal 2Q Earnings Up 60 Percent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71362
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday its earnings in the most recent quarter jumped 60 percent, as a rebound in the personal computer industry drove sales of the company's latest Windows operating system.
But results in Microsoft's other divisions show that while consumers have resumed spending on new PCs, big corporations have not.
Microsoft said the division that makes Office software and other business programs, the company's other cash cow, saw revenue slip 3 percent. Revenue from its typically fast-growing server software group edged up just 2 percent. In both cases, Microsoft blamed the ongoing lull in corporate spending on technology.
The software maker's results match PC analyst reports attributing growth over the holidays to consumer interest in inexpensive laptops and their smaller, less powerful cousin, the netbook. Intel Corp., the top maker of microprocessors for computers, also reported strong sales in consumer segments but ongoing weakness in business PCs.
Microsoft said it expects corporations to start spending on technology this year, but that the increase from the current lows would be gradual.
For the fiscal second quarter, which ended Dec. 31, Microsoft said its net income rose to $6.7 billion, or 74 cents per share, from $4.17 billion, or 47 cents per share, in the same period last year.
That exceeded the 59 cents per share Wall Street was expecting, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.
Revenue increased 14 percent to $19 billion in the year-ago quarter, ahead of analysts' average forecast of $17.8 billion.
In the Windows division, revenue leapt 70 percent and net income nearly doubled to $5.4 billion. The latest version of Windows, called Windows 7, was released in October, but in the months before the launch, Microsoft gave new PC buyers the right to upgrade to Windows 7 later. The second-quarter results included $1.7 billion in deferred revenue for Windows sales made during earlier quarters...
Tue, 2 Feb 10
Google Attack Highlights 'Zero-Day' Black Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=71361
The recent hacking attack that prompted Google's threat to leave China is underscoring the heightened dangers of previously undisclosed computer security flaws -- and renewing debate over buying and selling information about them in the black market.
Because no fix was available, the linchpin in the attack was one of the worst kinds of security holes. Criminals treasure these types of "zero day" security vulnerabilities because they are the closest to a sure thing and virtually guarantee the success of a shrewdly crafted attack.
The attackers waltzed into victims' computers, like burglars with a key to the back door, by exploiting such a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser. Microsoft rushed out a fix after learning of the attack.
How did the perpetrators learn about the flaw? Likely, they merely had to tap a thriving underground market, where a hole "wide enough to drive a truck through" can command hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Ken Silva, chief technology officer of VeriSign Inc. Such flaws can take months of full-time hacking to find.
"Zero days are the safest for attackers to use, but they're also the hardest to find," Silva said. "If it's not a zero day, it's not valuable at all."
The Internet Explorer flaw used in the attack on Google Inc. required tricking people into visiting a malicious Web site that installed harmful software on victims' computers.
The attack, along with a discovery that computer hackers had tricked human-rights activists into exposing their Google e-mail accounts to outsiders, infuriated Google and provoked a larger fight over China's censorship of the Internet content. Google has threatened to shut down its censored, Chinese-language search engine and possibly close its offices in China.
Pedram Amini, manager of the Zero Day Initiative at the security firm TippingPoint, estimated that the IE flaw could have fetched as much...