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Facebook Learns Not To Step on Toes in Privacy Dance
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73631
In what may go down in Internet history as the Facebook Privacy Scandal, the leading social-networking site over the past week took the covers off a simplified privacy policy. But some privacy advocates say it's not enough. And some analysts expect more privacy changes to come.
The ACLU's Chris Conley said the changes are a "major step forward for privacy on Facebook," but continued to say that there are still "substantial issues that Facebook needs to address."
Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney specializing in free speech at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, agreed that "the changes are pretty good, though more is needed." And Leslie Harris, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said although the changes don't resolve every privacy issue that CDT has identified, the announcement was a "welcome step."
To review, Facebook made three major changes to its privacy settings. First, Facebook has provided a new basic privacy-settings page to allow users to set a "default privacy level." Users can choose one of the old options or mix and match based on preference.
Facebook also moved to undo one of the most controversial privacy changes it made in April. Specifically, Facebook is restoring true privacy controls for Facebook Connect, which had made users' likes, interests, education, work history, hometown and current city public. A user's name, profile picture, gender and networks remain public.
Another controversial change Facebook made last December was also reversed. Facebook has restored a user's ability to opt out of sharing information with Facebook applications and connected web sites. Facebook is also making it easier to opt out of information sharing with web sites participating in Facebook's Instant Personalization program.
Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis, expects to see Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spend more face time making his...
Sat, 29 May 10
iPad's International Launch Draws Lines at Apple Stores
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73634
The iPad frenzy has now gone international. On Friday, Apple's tablet computer -- which sold a million units in the month after its U.S. launch on April 3 -- became available in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Japan, Australia and Canada.
At Apple's flagship U.K. store on Regent Street, hundreds attended the launch at 8 a.m. Actor and writer Stephen Fry was among those in attendance, as was the world's tallest couple -- in full wedding attire, holding his and her iPads.
In Britain, the price for the iPad is about 25 percent more than the equivalent U.S. price. Many Apple products are priced higher in the U.K., at least partly because of the country's value-added tax. Nevertheless, a possible iPad inventory shortage has led retailer Best Buy to limit sales to one per household at the two U.K. stores that currently carry the iPad. The original timetable for the international release was delayed because of concerns about inventory.
In Toronto's Yorkdale Mall, a small but enthusiastic crowd was reported at the flagship Apple store in Canada. The diminished size of the crowd may have been due to the fact that some interested Canadians purchased an iPad after its U.S. release.
In Toronto, as at most other Apple stores in the nine countries, one line was for customers who pre-ordered, and another was for those buying on the spot. Apple began pre-orders for all nine countries on May 10. Instant activation was available for those who couldn't wait to get home and activate it themselves via iTunes on their computers.
At the flagship Apple store in Tokyo, some buyers camped out front to be certain of a place in what became long, chanting lines. In Sydney, Apple said about a thousand people waited in line, many carrying...
Sat, 29 May 10
iPhone-Sized Apple TV Could Appeal To Gamers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73633
Hooking an iPhone to a TV is hardly the first thing that would cross the minds of the smartphone's millions of users. But with Apple's sister device, Apple TV, selling far slower than the iPhone after almost three years on the market, the company may be looking for a winning combination.
A source close to the computer giant reportedly told a tech site that Apple TV is getting a major revamp. The next generation may be smaller and leaner but pack more value, run the latest iPhone operating system and, with only 16 gigabytes of storage, depend on cloud content, according to a report in Engadget, which said the device -- essentially an iPhone sans touchscreen -- could be as cheap as $99.
That's a big change from the current $229 Apple TV with 160-gigabyte hard drive that sends content from iTunes, YouTube, Flickr and other sites or services to high-definition television screens. The report said the new Apple TV will be internally the same as the imminent iPhone 4G, with an A4 processor and capable of 1080p HD.
One group of consumers who could benefit from the new device is gamers.
"While some of the games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are touch-centric, other games would work quite well with a more traditional game controller," said Michael Inouye, a digital-home analyst for ABI Research.
"In fact, some might argue the touch interface is simply serviceable but not ideal for some games," Inouye added. "So if Apple were to include or offer a game controller for the Apple TV, the device could potentially become a game platform as well."
If the Apple TV platform described in the report is similar in design to the iPhone, it could have widespread appeal to casual gamers, who have been found by Nintendo to be a...
Sat, 29 May 10
Ad Planner 1000 Lets Google Ad Clients Target Top Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73632
Google gave its online advertising clients a new tool Thursday that gives them the ability to restrict their online marketing campaigns to the world's top 1,000 web domains from Facebook on down, based on unique visitor numbers. Google said it launched the new Ad Planner 1000 filter in response to feedback from a number of customers running branding campaigns.
With Ad Planner 1000, the goal is to enable Google's online advertising clients to only show their ads on the leading 1,000 web sites around the globe, noted DoubleClick Ad Planner Product Manager Sean Harvey. "This new feature will ensure that your ads reach a large number of users, but only on well-known sites best suited for branding goals," Harvey wrote in a blog.
With Facebook having generated 540 million unique web-site visitors and a staggering 570 billion page views in April alone, the social-networking site is doubtlessly high on the wish lists of many advertisers contemplating the launch of online media campaigns. Number-two Yahoo generated a respectable 490 million unique visitors, but its page views lagged far behind Facebook at 70 billion.
Microsoft's top web properties Live.com, MSN and Microsoft.com had 370 million, 280 million and 230 million unique visitors, respectively. Rounding out the world's top 10 were BlogSpot (230 million), Chinese web portal Baidu (230 million), and e-mail and messaging service qq.com (170 million). Though Wikipedia (310 million) and Mozilla (140 million) also made the top 10, neither web site currently accepts advertising.
Other popular web destinations include Bing and Adobe Systems, which were tied at 110 million unique visitors in April. Twitter and Ask.com made the top 20 with 96 million and 88 million unique visitors, respectively.
Google's web-site performance rankings for April didn't include any data for the company's own web properties, such as the number of unique...
Sat, 29 May 10
Google Begins Integrating AdMob with Mobile Searches
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73629
Six months and a federal investigation later, Google has finally sealed the AdMob deal. On Thursday, Google announced that its acquisition of the mobile advertising company is complete.
The Federal Trade Commission delayed the acquisition with an investigation into possible antitrust issues that could arise in the wake of the search giant adding a prime-time mobile advertising network to its war chest.
But the FTC determined the deal is not likely to hinder competition. That freed Google to begin integrating AdMob technology into its mobile advertising platform. Google didn't offer a timeline on the integration.
"It's clear that mobile advertising is becoming a much larger part of our clients' and partners' strategies and, with this acquisition, it's now a central part of our own business," said Susan Wojcicki, Google's vice president of product management.
Wojcicki added that Google will continue to invest in the highly competitive mobile space as it works to combine the strengths of its technology and resources with AdMob's mobile advertising solutions. At the heart of a Google-AdMob combo will be search. Wojcicki said Google's mobile search volumes have grown more than fivefold in the past two years.
Wojcicki also pointed to Google efforts like "click-to-call" search ads that let advertisers include a local business or national phone number in their ad text that consumers can click to reach the business directly via phone. Finally, Wojcicki promised many more advances to come to facilitate mobile search advertising.
Beyond search, Google is betting on mobile display and text ads on mobile web sites. Wojcicki called AdMob a pioneer in that space, as one of the first companies to serve
ads inside mobile applications on the Android and iPhone platforms.
"The AdMob acquisition makes Google arguably the strongest all-around player in mobile advertising with both search and...
Sat, 29 May 10
Big-Gun Studios Back Adobe's Flash Fight with Apple
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73628
If this were a gunfight scene in a western, just as Apple and Adobe Systems exchanged shots over whether Flash should be on the iPad, two big guys have come to Adobe's aid. Back in the real world, Time Warner and NBC Universal have reportedly told Apple they have no intention of mass re-encoding their movie and TV libraries from Flash video into a format that supports HTML5.
Apple has been battling with Adobe, the maker of the Flash technology that is nearly ubiquitous on the web for video and animation. According to a report in Thursday's New York Post, sources at the two big media companies said reformatting their libraries to accommodate Apple's mobile devices is too expensive, and Flash is the dominant media technology.
Apple has refused to allow Flash on its popular iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, insisting that standards-based technology supporting HTML5 is preferable over proprietary technology like Flash, even if Flash has such a large installed base. Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs has also publicly criticized Flash's performance on mobile devices and wrote a lengthy open letter about his decision.
In response, Adobe cofounders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke published an open letter on Adobe's web site, accusing Apple of undermining "the next chapter of the web." Adobe has also taken out ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, technology blogs, and other publications about Apple's refusal to allow Flash.
The Post story indicated that the big media companies are feeling "emboldened" by the launch or impending release of several iPad competitors from major manufacturers, including Dell and Hewlett-Packard, as well as the potential for distribution of high-resolution, online video on the recently announced Google TV platform.
Dell's tablets run Google's open-source Android operating system, which, in its next update, will support...
Sat, 29 May 10
Three Charged in 'Scareware' Malware Scam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73627
A Swede and two Americans have been indicted on federal charges that accuse them of conning people in more than 60 countries into buying $100 million in bogus software by convincing them their computers were infected by malicious programs.
A federal grand jury in Chicago returned indictments Wednesday against 26-year-old James Reno, Bjorn Daniel Sundin and Shaileshkumar Jain.
Sundin is a 31-year-old Swedish citizen believed to live in Sweden. Jain is a 40-year-old American authorities believe is in the Ukraine.
"These defendants allegedly preyed on innocent computer users, exploiting their fraudulently induced fears for personal gain," Robert D. Grant, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office, said in a news release.
While authorities say they expect Reno to turn himself in at some point, none of the three are in custody. U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Randall Samborn declined to discuss when Reno will turn himself in or how authorities plan to pursue Sundin and Jain.
There was no immediate response to messages left by The Associated Press on Thursday at a telephone number listed for James Reno in Amelia, Ohio.
Jain, Sundin and others used a company they incorporated in Belize called Innovative Marketing Inc. and a series of fictitious advertising agencies to place fake ads on legitimate Web sites from December 2006 through October 2008, the indictment says.
The ads contained hidden computer codes that redirected browsers on any computer used to view the ads to Web sites that would display error messages -- known as scareware -- telling users their computers were infected with malicious software. Computer users were prompted to use their credit cards to buy Innovative Marketing software with names such as "DriveCleaner" and "ErrorSafe" for anywhere from $30 to $70, authorities said.
The money,...
Sat, 29 May 10
Taiwan's Foxconn Raising Pay for Workers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73623
The Taiwanese electronics company buffeted by a spate of suicides at its China factories said Friday it will raise the pay of workers by an average of 20 percent.
The pay raises at Foxconn Technology Group have been in the works for months to cope with a labor shortage following China's recovery from the global recession, said a company official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
But the official said the big jump in pay could help to lift worker morale. "Feeling sad is contagious, and so is feeling happy," he said. "We hope the workers will have a positive attitude toward their lives."
The basic salary at the China plants of Foxconn Technology Group -- which makes iPhones and other popular gadgets -- is currently about 900 yuan ($130) per month.
Ten workers have killed themselves and three have attempted suicide at Foxconn's operations in southern China this year, involving mainly workers who jumped from buildings. The most recent suicide attempt involved a 25-year-old man who slashed his wrists in the factory dormitory Thursday. One additional Foxconn worker in northern China also committed suicide this year.
Labor activists accuse the company of having a rigid management style, an excessively fast assembly line and forced overwork. Foxconn denies the allegations.
The company, part of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is the world's largest contract maker of electronics. Its long list of big-name customers include Apple Inc., Sony Corp., Dell Inc., Nokia Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou led a media tour of the company's mammoth industrial park in Shenzhen earlier this week and promised to work harder to prevent more deaths.
The Foxconn chairman showed off a motherboard factory, hot line center and even a swimming pool for employees. The walled-in industrial park, where 300,000 people...
Sat, 29 May 10
Review: New Laptops Beam PC Content to the TV
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73607
Want to get Internet video to your TV? There are lots of options, but here's a pretty elegant one: new laptops that can send whatever is on their screens wirelessly to the TV.
The technology is called Intel Wireless Display, and it's showing up in laptops from Dell Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. It works well, though I don't think it's the be-all and end-all that will bridge the world of PCs and TVs. The biggest hurdle for Wireless Display is that you need a new laptop to use it.
The laptops are relatively big, heavy models, ranging in price from $900 for the Toshiba E205 I tried to $1,050 for the Sony Vaio S. As sold by Best Buy, they come with a Netgear Push2TV wireless adapter, which is a small box the size of two card decks. You place it in your entertainment center and connect it to the TV, preferably with a digital HDMI cable, or to a digital receiver that's already connected to the TV.
You fire up Intel's software on the PC. It senses the presence of the Push2TV receiver and lets you connect to it. Whatever's on the laptop's screen is now duplicated on the TV.
In early versions of the product, it was difficult to utilize the full screen area of a "1080p" HDTV, but Intel has fixed that. You still need to make a quick manual adjustment to make the PC's signal fill out the screen.
The resolution projected by the PC is equivalent to 720p, the lower of the two HDTV resolutions. Blown up on a big TV with 1080p resolution, it can look a little blurry. But for the most common purposes, like watching videos on YouTube, Hulu or Netflix, it works well enough. The wireless signal carries audio as well, which you can...
Sat, 29 May 10
Do Businesses Need Einstein for Cybersecurity?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73604
A U.S. government computer security system that can detect and prevent cyber attacks should be extended to private businesses that operate critical utilities and financial services, a top Pentagon official said Wednesday.
William J. Lynn III, the deputy defense secretary, said discussions are in the very early stages and participation in the program would be voluntary. The idea, he said, would allow businesses to take advantage of the Einstein 2 and Einstein 3 defensive technologies that are being developed to put in place on government computer networks.
Extending the program to the private sector raises a myriad of legal, policy and privacy questions, including how it would work and what information -- if any -- companies would share with the government about any attacks or intrusions they detect.
Businesses that opt not the participate could "stay in the wild, wild west of the unprotected Internet," Lynn told a small group of reporters during a cybersecurity conference.
And in the case of Einstein 2 -- an automated system that monitors federal Internet and e-mail traffic for malicious activity -- companies already may have equal or superior protections on their networks.
"Einstein 2 is like a 1999 Mustang with a little rust," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert and senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "For some companies it isn't a big deal. But for others who haven't done much (to secure their networks) it would be a good idea."
Lewis said the larger challenges would come with Einstein 3, a separate program being developed which would detect and actively block or prevent cyber intrusions.
Einstein 2 is in place in at least 11 of the 21 government agencies that police their own networks. The other 89 federal agencies will go through one of four major technology contractors for the Einstein monitoring. Einstein 3...
Sat, 29 May 10
Silicon Valley? Fuggedaboutit! NY Beckons Tech Startups
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73576
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a message for computer geeks everywhere: Forget sunny Silicon Valley and launch your company here.
Bloomberg made his pitch Tuesday at a gathering of technology entrepreneurs, announcing the creation of a city-sponsored $22 million venture fund that will invest in promising tech companies headquartered in New York.
The city's Economic Development Corporation will invest $3 million in the fund while FirstMark Capital, a New York-based venture capital fund will provide up to $19 million more.
The backdrop for Bloomberg's announcement was TechCrunch Disrupt, a media and technology conference that draws tech entrepreneurs from across the country.
Bloomberg, 68, is a multibillionaire who made his fortune starting Bloomberg LP, a financial data and news company. He reminded the crowd that he was a tech pioneer long before the Internet existed and offered up some of his other high-tech credentials as well.
"Before this morning's conference I updated my Facebook page, sent a Tweet, browsed my Digg feed and checked in at Foursquare," he said. "I even posted a personal ad on Craigslist: Cleveland basketball star to play basketball in the Big Apple."
It was a joking reference to the city's efforts to woo LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Asked why a tech startup should choose New York over the warmer West Coast climes, Bloomberg said that venture capital funding of companies in New York was up 19 percent last year even as it fell elsewhere amid the poor economy. He said the creativity and talent in New York was unmatched anywhere.
"It's a great place where intellectual capital is important. If you want to compete in the big pond, if you want a breadth of cultural opportunities ... this is the place to come," Bloomberg said.
He said New York should be particularly attractive to tech companies because it is "the most...
Fri, 28 May 10
Norton Everywhere Will Protect Non-PC Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73615
Anyone who has lost a cell phone and worried about contact information about friends and family -- or maybe potentially embarrassing photos -- falling into the wrong hands will appreciate the ability, with one text message, to wipe a wayward handset clean.
That's just one of the features of Symantec's Norton Everywhere initiative, which the company hopes will move its popular security software from PCs to other devices that increasingly access the Internet, from smartphones to Blu-ray players, smart TVs, home security systems, digital cameras, and even picture frames.
At this stage of the game, few people have had a virus on their smartphone or e-book reader, or had information hacked. But Symantec wants to keep it that way with initiatives for mobile safety, web safety, and device embedded services.
The company, best known for its Norton Utilities suite, demonstrated Norton Everywhere at its annual investor conference in New York on Thursday. In the next few weeks the company will release beta versions of Norton Smartphone Security for Android, Norton Connect, and Norton DNS.
"We are entering a new era where non-PC devices are exploding in numbers, which means more opportunity for cybercriminals," said Janice Chaffin, president of Symantec's Consumer Business Unit. "It's becoming more and more critical for consumers to be protected beyond their PCs."
"The Norton Everywhere initiative takes a broad view of how Norton can deliver trust and high value to consumers and address evolving market needs," Chaffin said. "Symantec's breadth of resources, partnerships, global reach, and brand recognition make it uniquely able to deliver security and more to any Internet-connected device in the world."
Michael Gartenberg of the technology consulting firm Altimeter Group said the company is looking at issues related to specific types of devices.
"If you see their offering, it's not about virus or malware," he said....
Fri, 28 May 10
iPad Distribution Floodgates Ready To Open Overseas
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73614
Overseas electronic gadget enthusiasts will finally be able to get their first hands-on experience with Apple's iPad beginning Friday, when the company opens the shipment floodgates in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Major European wireless carriers have already announced plans for the new device, including Orange, T-Mobile, Telefonica and Vodafone.
Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads on the device's first day of availability in the United States, and shipped more than one million units in the first four weeks, including pre-orders. As a result of the stronger-than-expected U.S. demand, Apple had to delay the iPad's international launch by one month.
Analysts are waiting to see if Wall Street's most highly valued technology company will be able to duplicate, or perhaps even exceed, the iPad's impressive U.S. shipment numbers overseas. "We know that the U.K., Germany and France are Apple's largest markets behind the U.S., and they are all part of the international iPad rollout," said Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Murphy.
Morgan Stanley predicted last month that Apple will end up shipping six million iPads in 2010 and seven million over the first 12 months, based on the financial firm's recent survey of 2,500 consumers. The proprietary survey's results point to strong consumer interest in the iPad, with 4.6 percent of respondents indicating extreme interest and 16.4 percent somewhat interested in purchasing the new device.
"The consensus forecast of four to five million iPad units is too conservative, in our view," said Morgan Stanley analysts Katy Huberty and Mathew Schneider. "We see potential upside to our estimates with the introduction of a broader array of apps and new distribution partners in the U.S. and international markets."
Piper Jaffray analysts noted earlier this week that strong U.S. demand -- tempered by supply constraints --...
Fri, 28 May 10
Ballmer May Appear at Apple's Developer Conference
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73613
You might think that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer making an appearance during the keynote address at the upcoming Apple 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference would be about as likely as Barack Obama walking onto the stage at the Republican National Convention. But an industry analyst says Ballmer's entrance is already planned.
Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry, quoted by Barron's online, said Thursday that seven minutes of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote on June 7 has been reserved for a presentation by Ballmer about his company's Visual Studio 2010. The newest version of the development tool suite, according to Chowdhry, will support the creation of native applications for Mac OS X, the iPhone, and the iPad. The WWDC is scheduled to run June 7 to 11 in San Francisco.
In case Ballmer is busy that day, Chowdhry suggested that Microsoft Server and Tools division head Bob Muglia might be called on to do the presentation. Although Ballmer would be the greater surprise, a Microsoft presentation by either executive during the WWDC keynote would be attention-getting.
A senior Microsoft executive venturing to Apple's big developer conference might be seen in another context than simply a representative from Windows appearing on Mac's stage. On Wednesday, news stories noted that Apple has surpassed Microsoft as the most valuable technology company, with a market capitalization of about $221 billion, compared to Microsoft's $219 billion. When Ballmer took the reins from cofounder Bill Gates a decade ago, the company's value was about $556 billion.
On Thursday, Ballmer pointed out to news media that the Redmond, Wash.-based giant had a net profit of $4.01 billion in the last quarter, compared to Apple's profit of $3.07 billion.
An additional irony could be that the iPhone and iPad, the platforms for which the new Visual Studio tools are intended, represent...
Fri, 28 May 10
OLPC, Marvell To Build Under-$100 Tablet for Third World
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73610
One Laptop Per Child and Marvell Technology are joining to launch a tablet computer for under $100. The nonprofit OLPC, which originally targeted a rugged and innovative $100 laptop for children in third-world countries, announced Thursday that it has an agreement with Marvell to launch the XO-3 tablet by early 2011.
Ed McNierney, OLPC's chief technology officer, told news media that his organization "saw that Marvell was going in the right direction in terms of the capabilities and functions," including low power requirements.
OLPC announced at the end of last year that it would develop a tablet for less than $100, and release it by 2012. The alliance with Marvell allows the organization to move up its timetable.
The tablet route for OLPC offers a number of other advantages as well. The XO-3 will require only one watt of power to operate, compared to about five watts for the current XO laptop. A multilingual soft keyboard with touch feedback will be able to support almost any language.
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, noted that a tablet is "a simpler device to manufacture," and more parts, as in the laptop, "result in higher costs."
In addition to offering the most inexpensive tablet available, OLPC is intending to expand its educational capabilities. Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of OLPC, said current tablets and e-readers are "terrific literary, media and entertainment platforms," but they don't yet "meet the needs of an educational model based on making things, versus just consuming them." He said OLPC will target its tablet toward constructivist learning.
Although tablets are considered to be less functional for productivity than laptops, Rubin noted that the quality of applications, such as iWork for Apple's iPad, is "good enough for a...
Fri, 28 May 10
Home Computers Lead Worldwide Rise in PC Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73609
If the recession isn't over for the PC industry, a recovery certainly seems at hand. Worldwide PC shipments are expected to total 376.6 million units in 2010, according to Gartner. That's a 22 percent increase from the year-ago period.
Of course, shipments are one thing, revenues are another. But there's also good news there. Gartner estimates worldwide PC spending will reach $245.4 billion in 2010. That's up a healthy 12 percent from 2009, and it's driven, in large part, by the home PC market. The home PC market will post nearly 30 percent growth this year compared to 13.1 percent growth in the business market.
"PC demand in the consumer segment continues to strengthen even though the global economy remains uncertain. Consumers are now viewing PCs as necessities rather than luxury items," said Ranjit Atwal, principal research analyst at Gartner. "In the downturn, PCs remained the electronic device of choice on which to spend household income in mature markets, and we do not expect this to change either in 2010 or beyond."
Companies that have been holding out through the recession may be about ready to spend on PCs. Indeed, Atwal said aging PCs will drive replacements in that market. In fact, he said, organizations will find it tougher to further extend PC life cycles without incurring more costs.
Atwal said this, together with the adoption of Windows 7, will generate robust demand in the professional market. Larger businesses expect to start replacements in the second half of 2010, Atwal said, with the majority replaced in 2011. He now expects Windows 7 migration to last through 2012. But there is some uncertainty around PC refreshes in corporate settings.
"A lot of the folks I've spoken to are talking about using Windows 7 as a way to extend the life of their PCs....
Fri, 28 May 10
Rising Stock Price Pushes Apple Above Microsoft
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73608
Apple's share price hit a milestone on Wednesday -- pushing the company's market capitalization higher than Microsoft's for the first time.
Apple's shares closed at $244.11, putting its value at $222 billion. Microsoft's shares slipped to $25.01, pegging the software giant's value at $219 billion. Market cap is the dollar value of a company's outstanding shares. Microsoft has far more employees, products and customers, but on paper, at least, Apple is the world's highest-valued tech company.
"Very simply, investors believe Apple's growth prospects are superior to Microsoft's," says Bill Whyman, research director at ISI Group.
Apple is worth more than Microsoft but less than ExxonMobil, No. 1 among U.S companies at $278 billion. Apple's string of successes include the iTunes music store, iPod music device, iPhone smartphone and iPad tablet PC. Market value "in and of itself doesn't help them," says Gene Munster, analyst at Piper Jaffray. "What helps them is great products."
Microsoft, on the other hand, has been plodding. Its newest PC operating system, Windows 7, has been a success, but only on the heels of its lackluster predecessor, Vista. Last year, Microsoft sold 15.9 million Windows smartphones, 9 percent fewer than in 2008; Apple sold 24.9 million iPhones, twice as many as a year earlier, research firm Gartner says.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer this week announced the departure of two top executives to clear the way for him to take more direct control of key upgrades to the Xbox gaming system and Windows smartphones this fall. Apple's milestone increases pressure on Ballmer to "find new growth opportunities while maintaining the health" of current core businesses, says Matt Rosoff, analyst at research firm Directions on Microsoft.
Apple has come a long way since co-founder Steve Jobs returned in late 1996 after a hiatus. Challenges remain. It doesn't sell much to big organizations. Google is...
Fri, 28 May 10
Yahoo Borrows Zynga's Cool Factor
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73605
Yahoo Inc. is leaning on one of the Internet's cool kids in an effort to be more chic.
This time, Yahoo is teaming with Zynga, a rapidly growing startup that makes several popular online games, including "Farmville," "Mafia Wars" and "Fishville," that have been primarily distributed through Facebook. All those pastimes will be coming to Yahoo within the next few months, the companies said Wednesday.
The Zynga alliance is the latest example of Yahoo piggybacking on other online services that have been stealing its thunder in the past few years.
Although Yahoo still boasts one of the Internet's largest audiences, people increasingly are spending more of their time on social and communications services such as Facebook, Twitter and Zynga.
In response, Yahoo has tied some of its services to those sites in hopes of giving people more reason to stick around. Keeping people engaged on its site would make it easier for Yahoo to sell advertising and snap out of a prolonged financial funk that has caused its stock to lose more than half its value during the past four years.
Yahoo will get a cut of the revenue that Zynga gets from people who play the games while they're on Yahoo. Terms of the split weren't disclosed.
More than 35 million people play Zynga's games each day. The company is hoping Yahoo will help it attract millions of new game players. Privately held Zynga makes its money from ads and virtual goods sold for its games.
Founded in 2007, Zynga is being touted as one of the Internet's top prospects for an initial public offering of stock, along with Facebook and Twitter. Like his Facebook and Twitter counterparts, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has indicated he isn't in any hurry to go public because his company still has ample financing. Zynga has raised a total of $219...
Fri, 28 May 10
Thirteenth Foxconn Worker Reportedly Attempts Suicide
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73600
A Foxconn Technology worker tried to kill himself Thursday, becoming the 13th person to commit suicide or attempt to do so this year at the company, which makes high-tech products for industry giants such as Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, state media said.
Police said the man survived after cutting himself in his dormitory room at the factory, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said the 25-year-old man, surnamed Chen, migrated from central Hunan province and began working at Foxconn two months ago.
Foxconn officials and police did not immediately answer calls by The Associated Press.
The 12 previous suicide attempts at Foxconn Technology Group's operations in southern China involved workers who jumped from buildings. Two survived. Another worker killed himself in January at a factory in northern China.
On Wednesday night, a 23-year-old worker from the northwestern province of Gansu killed himself by leaping from a dormitory balcony. Hours earlier, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou had led a media tour of the industrial park and promised to work harder to prevent more deaths.
Gou said he couldn't sleep at night and dreaded answering his phone in off hours, fearing more news about deaths.
The Foxconn chairman showed off a motherboard factory, hot line center and even a swimming pool for employees. The walled-in industrial park, where 300,000 people work, looks like a small city, with palm tree-lined streets, fast-food restaurants, banks and a bookstore among huge factory buildings and towering dormitories.
Gou said the company would do everything possible to prevent more deaths. Safety nets were being installed on buildings and more counselors were being hired. He also said all the employees were being divided into 50-member groups, whose members would watch for signs of emotional trouble within their group.
Labor activists accuse the company of having a rigid management style, a too-fast assembly line and overwork. Foxconn...
Fri, 28 May 10
Expenses Wipe Out TiVo's Revenue Increase
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73573
Digital video recorder pioneer TiVo Inc. on Tuesday reported a net loss in the first quarter -- its sixth straight money-losing quarter as the company struggled with higher legal expenses and other costs that wiped out an increase in revenue.
While TiVo has a loyal following among hardcore TV fans who believe its user guide is superior to those offered by cable boxes, the company has had a history of losses typically resulting from higher hardware and research and development costs. Now, a six-year lawsuit against satellite TV company Dish Network Corp. for allegedly infringing on a DVR technology patent is taking a toll on the bottom line.
In recent years, TiVo has been lessening its dependence on DVRs sold directly to consumers as the main source of revenue by licensing its software to subscription TV operators such as cable company Comcast Corp., or letting them use its DVRs as their own, such as the case with RCN Corp., another cable provider. TiVo also has slashed prices on DVRs to consumers and marketed the units through more retailers.
On Tuesday, the company for the first time said it would incorporate its software into Internet-enabled Insignia TV sets, a brand from Best Buy Co. as it staves off competition from the likes of Google TV, a device that hooks up to a set-top box to bring the Web to the television.
"We are trying to make sure that TiVo has every possible path to framing the TV experience," said CEO Tom Rogers in an interview with The Associated Press.
In the first quarter, TiVo lost $14.2 million, or 13 cents per share, in the quarter that ended April 30. In the same quarter last year it lost $3.9 million, or 4 cents per share.
TiVo incurred higher legal expenses as part of its lawsuit against Dish, a...
Fri, 28 May 10
Microsoft Web Site Aims To Make Your House a Hohm
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73570
Microsoft Corp. is slowly beefing up a Web site aimed at helping people monitor their home energy use and pinpoint ways to cut costs. The site, called Microsoft Hohm, launched last summer. People can enter details about their home, such as when it was built and what kind of heating system and thermostat it has.
Hohm can also be hooked up to users' utility accounts, though so far this only works in some areas of Washington, California and the Midwest. Microsoft models year-round weather conditions and other factors using a mix of its own software and research from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to come up with a picture of how much energy a home uses. The more data the system has, the more accurate its estimates would be for how much someone would save by installing a programmable thermostat, for example.
Starting Wednesday, Microsoft is adding real estate data to its calculations and assigning a Hohm score to most houses in the U.S., so people can compare their home to their neighbors' or scout one they're thinking of buying. The scale goes from one (think of running the heat full blast with the windows open, for starters) to 100 (energy-efficient sainthood ).
For now, Hohm seems of limited use. After all, there are countless Web sites that tell me to replace my incandescent bulbs, wrap a special blanket around my hot water heater and insulate the attic.
The idea gets more interesting when all the appliances and outlets in the house can talk to the Internet and feed data into a site like Hohm. Troy Batterberry, who leads the Hohm team at Microsoft, says people could then use the site to see their energy costs broken down in much finer detail.
Batterberry also hopes Hohm will be part...
Fri, 28 May 10
Former Hacker Praises Microsoft on Security
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73562
There's no safe place on the Web, reports former hacker Marc Maiffret, who shared some interesting insights recently with CNET.com regarding Internet security.
Nearly a decade after he exposed the vulnerability used by the Code Red worm, Maiffret gave Microsoft's security model high marks.
"Now, when you look at Microsoft today, they do more to secure their software than anyone," he said. "They're not perfect; there's room for improvement. But they are definitely doing more than anybody else in the industry, I would say."
In general, platforms like Apple and Windows Mobile have been less-often attacked because their market share is relatively small and hackers like to go after the big fish, said Maiffret, now a security expert.
But there's nothing that makes those platforms inherently more secure than the Windows operating system, he said, and in fact, that could be a problem for Mac users.
"We've only seen a scratching of the surface as far as Apple vulnerabilities because nobody cares to find them," Maiffret said. "The Apple community is pretty ignorant to the risks that are out there."
IBM Distinguished Engineer Jeff Crume agrees.
"I know there are lots of people that think that because they use a Mac, they don't have to worry about security," he said. "As the saying goes, 'There's nothing more dangerous than presumed security.'"
Maiffret also pointed out other risks including Web-based applications such as Facebook and (surprising to me) Adobe. People don't regularly update security patches for Adobe and other desktop applications as they do for Microsoft software, he said, leaving them vulnerable every time they open a PDF.
By the way, to protect your system against PDFs carrying malicious code, the geeks at the blog ghacks.net suggest the following process: Open Adobe Reader or Acrobat and click on "Edit," then "Preferences." Select "Trust Manager" from the categories menu on the...
Thu, 27 May 10
Rumor Has Sprint Getting Apple's New iPhone 4G
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73586
All indications are that Apple and AT&T have a loyal and cozy partnership with the iPhone. But sporadic reports suggest a crack in the armor.
The latest is a tech blog that reports a commenter, supposedly a Best Buy employee from Pennsylvania, who said, "Sprint will be carrying the iPhone, beginning in June. They've begun to grease the wheels for advertising."
The commenter then cited rumors that Apple made a deal with AT&T to continue its U.S. iPhone contract in exchange for iPad Wi-Fi coverage with no contract as Apple launched its groundbreaking tablet device.
Sprint Nextel is the only carrier that currently has a 4G network up and running, which could potentially provide better connectivity for iPhone users than AT&T currently offers. Published reports said AT&T has blocked employees from taking vacation time in June and the company has quietly confirmed that an iPhone release is imminent.
Apple didn't respond to our request for comment in time for publication, and a spokesperson for Sprint said "we don't comment on rumor and speculation."
According to Information Week, Sprint Chief Financial Officer Robert Brust recently told investors that the company, which didn't have much success with Palm's Pre phones, longs for an iPhone deal. "We'd love to have it," he reportedly said, while acknowledging that it was unlikely to happen soon.
Current Analysis consumer-devices analyst Avi Greengart said any report of a Sprint iPhone is greatly exaggerated. "I think that all these rumors are equally credible," he said cynically.
But analyst Gerry Purdy of MobilTrax said since only an estimated 10 to 15 percent of AT&T users have bought an iPhone, it may be only a matter of time before Apple seeks out other U.S. carriers.
"I think it is in Apple's best interests to have a CDMA offering, whether it is Sprint or Verizon...
Thu, 27 May 10
Single Check Box Will Hide Facebook Info from Web Sites
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73585
Faced with a storm of criticism over the complexity of new privacy controls, Facebook announced Wednesday that it will provide simpler controls. CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg told a press event at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. that the controls had "gotten complex."
A single check box will prevent a user's information from being available to outside sites, but Zuckerberg said there will still be granular settings for more exacting control of a user's information.
"Basic directory information," which is needed so that friends can find a user, will be differentiated from other kinds of information. Zuckerberg said "allowing people to find you on Facebook is a very different use case than sharing your information." However, less information is required to be made public.
A frequently reported complaint has been that the popular social-networking site allows users to hide their interests on their personal page, but other web sites would still have the ability to tailor content to a user's "liking" profile. Under the new policy, hiding a list of interests would also hide it from this "instant personalization" feature on other sites.
The same limitation also applies to Facebook applications and other sites. Controls will allow a user to specify if an application can have access to his or her e-mail, friends and other information.
The policy changes follow several days of public activity by Zuckerberg and Facebook. On Sunday, an e-mail from Zuckerberg was published with his permission by a tech blogger. In the e-mail, the CEO wrote that "we've made a bunch of mistakes," adding that "our intentions are in the right place."
On Monday, an op-ed with Zuckerberg's byline was published in The Washington Post. "Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls," he wrote, but "we just missed our mark." He promised simpler privacy...
Thu, 27 May 10
FCC Survey Finds Sudden Jumps in Mobile-Phone Bills
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73581
According to a Federal Communications Commission-sponsored survey on the consumer mobile experience released Wednesday, one in six mobile users in the United States has experienced a sudden increase in monthly bills not attributable to a change in service plan. What's more, nearly half of cell-phone users with plans subject to early termination fees have no idea of the amount they would have to pay should they decide to switch services.
As part of an official proceeding introduced last year, the FCC has been examining the early termination fee (ETF) policies of the major U.S. wireless carriers. The ultimate goal, noted FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, is to establish industry guidelines that empower consumers to make smart, informed decisions on communications services.
"The wireless industry has achieved remarkable innovation, but there is still more that can be done to help customers navigate what is sometimes a confusing marketplace," Genachowski said. "A simple and easy-to-understand mobile purchase and billing process will empower consumers to avoid bill shock and other unexpected fees."
Earlier this month, the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau asked for public comment on possible solutions for preventing bill shock. The FCC said Wednesday that its survey supplies essential data about the consumer experience that clearly demonstrates a need for mobile billing reform.
Of the estimated 30 million Americans who have experienced mobile bill shock, 84 percent said their mobile carrier didn't contact them when they were about to exceed their allowed minutes, text messages, or data downloads. Moreover, 88 percent of the respondents said their carrier failed to contact them after their bill suddenly increased.
The survey found that young people and parents with minor children living at home are more likely to experience mobile bill shock than other cell-phone users. One-fifth of respondents between the ages of 18 and 29, as...
Thu, 27 May 10
T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson Will Step Down in 2011
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73580
A day after Microsoft shook up its entertainment group, T-Mobile USA has announced a shake-up of it own -- at the CEO level. After 15 years with T-Mobile, Robert Dotson, president and CEO of the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., plans to pass the torch to a new leader.
Dotson is staying on until March 2011 and will remain actively engaged in the daily operations as he transitions the business to successor Philipp Humm. Humm is an experienced executive at Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile USA. In fact, Humm is the former CEO of T-Mobile Deutschland. He currently serves as a chief regional officer for Europe. He'll officially take over in February 2011.
"For 15 years it has been a privilege to lead the talented T-Mobile USA team in its journey to become a leading U.S. wireless provider. The time is right to ensure a thoughtful leadership transition to position T-Mobile USA for the next 15 years of opportunity," Dotson said.
"It has long been my intent to step away from the business at this stage in my life in order to devote more time to family and to take on entirely new and unique challenges," he added. "That change can only be made possible if a suitable successor is in place. Over the next year, it will be my relentless focus and responsibility to work closely with Philipp to ensure marketplace success, and to enable a seamless leadership transition."
Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, said he regrets, but respects, Dotson's decision to leave T-Mobile. Obermann also expressed his gratitude for Dotson's willingness to stay on another year and work with Humm. Humm called the new position "a great challenge" that he's grateful for.
Although some may look at a 2.2 percent slip in sales in...
Thu, 27 May 10
Antitrust Team Probes Apple's Music-Market Practices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73579
The Department of Justice is investigating Apple's practices in the digital music market, according to reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Apple has not publicly commented on the formal examination.
The Times cited "people briefed on the conversations" in its report that revealed Justice staff members have talked to major music labels and Internet music companies. The antitrust inquiry, which is zeroing in on how Apple sells music online, is reportedly still in its infancy.
"Apple is hardly a monopoly in the music industry. There are plenty of places people can go to get their music," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "So the question is -- and what will be investigated -- is whether or not Apple in its position in the industry did something that ran afoul of the law."
One specific accusation against the iPod maker is that the company used its dominant market position to compel music labels to turn down requests from Amazon.com for exclusive rights to sell soon-to-be-released music.
Billboard magazine reported in March that Amazon was seeking first dibs on songs a day before their official release. Amazon planned to promote those songs as a MP3 Daily Deal on its web site. Billboard also reported that Apple penalized music labels that agreed to Amazon's terms by nixing marketing efforts for those songs on iTunes.
Did Amazon cry foul? Although Amazon is a force to be reckoned with in e-commerce, Apple remains the king of the hill in the online music category. According to NPD Group, Apple holds 69 percent of that market. Amazon is a far-and-away distant second with a mere eight percent market share.
"Apple is not the scrappy underdog anymore. It's a powerful force in the industry. You can't get to that position without making some enemies...
Thu, 27 May 10
Survey Shows Apple's iPad Eating into Netbook Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73578
The category of netbooks is young and growing, but a new survey suggests it could be stifled by Apple's iPad. Electronics site Retrevo said its research showed as many as 30 percent of potential netbook buyers held off buying a netbook until Apple's tablet was launched in January, and eventually bought the iPad instead.
The study also found that, of those who initially held back, 40 percent eventually bought a netbook, and the remaining 30 percent were not influenced by the iPad's launch.
But, more ominously for netbook makers, the survey found that, of those now considering whether to buy an iPad or a netbook, an overwhelming 78 percent are leaning toward the iPad while only 22 percent are inclined toward a netbook.
The iPad isn't the only device category getting in the way of netbooks' growth. With laptops getting lighter and cheaper, 65 percent of those who had to decide between the two form factors in the last year chose a laptop, compared to 35 percent for the netbook. The split is exactly the same for consumers leaning one way or the other who are facing that decision in the coming year.
Netbooks are generally selling in the $200 to $400 range, and price has often been mentioned as a key driver for purchases in the category. But Retrevo's survey indicates that, with the price of lower-end laptops approaching the top end of netbooks' cost, price isn't a key attraction for netbooks.
Fifty-four percent of those surveyed said that being "small and light" was the key attraction for netbooks. Price was nearly tied for second place with battery life, at 20 and 19 percent, respectively. Seven percent of respondents indicated other, unnamed factors.
Netbooks are frequently based on Intel's Atom chipset, have a small form factor, cost a few...
Thu, 27 May 10
AT&T's Digital Phone Lines Hit with Outage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73575
AT&T's new digital home phone service failed across the country Tuesday, illustrating continuing reliability issues with Internet-based phone service.
Customers of AT&T Inc.'s U-Verse Voice said their landline phones have had no dial tones since the morning. Reached by cell phone, the customers said those who call them get a message that the line has been disconnected. Support personnel are telling customers that a server crash brought down U-Verse Voice in AT&T's entire 22-state local-phone service area.
AT&T spokeswoman Mari Melguizo said the outage started at about 10:30 a.m., and service was restored to most subscribers at 2:45 p.m. She said the extent the outage was unknown.
AT&T has 1.15 million U-Verse Voice customers. The service sends calls over subscriber's Internet connections, making it technically similar to independent Internet phone services such as Vonage. The technology, known as Voice over Internet Protocol, has a spotty reliability record compared with standard phone service, though it has been improving. U-Verse Internet and TV services weren't affected by the Voice outage.
Charles Tillman, a bank employee working from his home in Jupiter, Fla., said the outage was "infuriating."
"If you have a client calling and they get message saying it's a non-working number, they don't know it's a service outage," he said. "Thankfully, I have my cell phone."
Kimberly Dotseth, a real-estate broker in San Diego, was also upset that clients were unable to reach her.
"It's a big deal to me to just have the calls go off into the ether somewhere," she said. She has been a U-Verse customer only for a month and now wants to switch back to a regular landline.
U-Verse voice is only available in areas where AT&T has upgraded the local phone network to support TV service over phone lines.
Thu, 27 May 10
Wired's First iPad Issue Makes Its Digital Debut
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73569
As the magazine for a digital generation, Wired has talked a big game about the opportunities for publishers on Apple's new iPad.
"We decided this was the big one," Wired editor Chris Anderson said last winter, even before Apple would comment on the much-rumored gadget.
Now it's time for Anderson to put his money -- and his magazine -- where his mouth is. After nearly a year of laboring on a tablet computer edition of the magazine, Wired planned to begin selling the application in Apple's digital newsstand Wednesday.
Other titles from Conde Nast, including Vanity Fair and GQ, have already come out for the iPad, which launched April 3. But Wired is the first to undergo a top-to-bottom re-imagining for the new format. The magazine's editorial staff built the issue at the same time it was putting the physical edition together. It features a piece about the latest "Toy Story" sequel on its cover.
To hear Anderson describe it, the process of adapting for the iPad is already prompting some soul searching about just what a magazine is.
"You start asking yourself first-principles questions, like `What is it that we do every month?'" Anderson said in an interview Tuesday.
The iPad, with its touch-screen navigation, offers new editorial tools, such as high-definition video and push-button graphics. A reader can slide a finger across the screen in one feature to watch as a Lego Lamborghini takes shape step-by-step, compiled from 180 different images.
Advertisers have new opportunities as well. Mercedes has a 30-second, TV-style video ad.
The catch: You'll have to pay $4.99 for each issue, the same as the cover price for the printed version of Wired. It's yet to be seen whether many readers will pay for an app when the Web site is free and just a few clicks away. Subscriptions, which in the case...
Thu, 27 May 10
Getting the Most Out of Solid-State Drives
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73545
Solid state disk drives (SSDs) are this year's hot ticket item for computer users -- and with good reason. SSDs can cut boot time in half, open bloated software applications in the blink of an eye, and save your files so quickly you'll wonder whether anything happened at all. In short, an SSD will probably add more pep to your PC or notebook than almost any other upgrade.
But with new technologies come new questions and concerns. In the case of SSDs, questions about insufficient storage space and how to properly set up and care for SSDs are common. Read on for some answers.
Q: I purchased a 32 gigabyte SSD to use as a boot drive. It's barely big enough to hold Windows 7 and the applications I use, so I frequently am on the lookout for files I can delete from it. Is there a tool that can help me pinpoint which folders are using the most space?
A: Folder Sizes (http://www.foldersizes.com) can be of great assistance in helping you to find out which folders and files on your SSD are consuming the most space. Just launch the tool, point it at your C drive, and it will start analyzing the folders immediately, showing you with a bar graph exactly which ones contain files that are eating up the most space. You can also use the tool to generate reports about duplicate files and -- most importantly -- the largest files on your SSD.
While 32 gigabyte (GB) SSDs are certainly affordable, they're barely sufficient for a reasonably loaded Windows system. While the operating system itself and many applications will fit comfortably within that space, it's the additional files that get created -- including media databases and search catalogs -- that can add unexpectedly to space requirements. For that reason, it's important...
Thu, 27 May 10
On-the-Go Net Access Gets Mixed Reviews
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73544
When Roger Phelps hits the road for business, he often puts in 17-hour days.
So when he finally boards his flight, don't look for him to be in touch.
"I let (people) know upfront I'm not going to be that connected," says Phelps, promotional communications manager for Stihl, an outdoor power equipment company in Virginia Beach. "Don't expect me to be winging an e-mail back to you at 32,000 feet. You get enough of me as it is."
Nowadays, you can surf the Web and dash off an e-mail from a speeding train or airborne jet, as wireless service is increasingly available.
Last week, Alaska Airlines joined such carriers as Delta, Virgin America, American and AirTran in offering in-flight Wi-Fi, putting the service on six of its jets with plans to offer it fleetwide by the end of the year. Since March, Amtrak's high-speed Acela trains from Washington, D.C., to Boston have provided wireless Internet access. Amtrak plans to add the service to routes in the Northwest and California in 2011.
But what many business travelers see as a perk, others consider a potential nuisance that threatens to take away one of the last remaining respites from work.
"I've heard different travelers already complaining that that used to be the one time they knew that they were safely unreachable by their bosses and colleagues and could actually ... read a novel and enjoy themselves," says Dalton Conley, dean for the social sciences at New York University and author of Elsewhere U.S.A., about the impact technology is having on American society. "So that's now yet another little corner of our lives that's been invaded and colonized by the new technology, and work."
Being able to communicate from nearly anywhere has its advantages, road warriors and workplace experts say.
Workers are no longer tethered to their desks. They're able...
Thu, 27 May 10
Match.com Taking Over Yahoo's Dating Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73540
Match.com, the dating Web site owned by Internet company IAC/InterActiveCorp, said Monday it will become Yahoo Inc.'s online dating site, replacing the company's own Yahoo Personals brand.
Financial terms and the exact length of the multiyear deal were not disclosed.
Yahoo has been trying to focus on creating and licensing content and selling online advertising, while forging partnerships with other companies to run some of its other services. Also Monday, Yahoo said that Nokia Corp., the world's largest cell phone maker, will run maps and navigation services for Yahoo on phones and computers.
Match said that users of the Yahoo Personals dating service can switch over to the cobranded "Match.com on Yahoo" during the next 60 days.
In an interview, Match.com CEO Greg Blatt said the agreement is a "great deal" for Match.
"Online dating is a pretty interesting thing because your users are in many ways part of your product. The more and better users you have, the better experience you're delivering to your users," he said.
In the first quarter, IAC's Match unit, which includes Match.com and other dating sites, had a total of 1.6 million paid users. IAC does not break down the figures by service. Yahoo has not disclosed the number of Yahoo Personals users.
IAC shares rose 82 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $22.30 in afternoon trading Monday, while shares of Yahoo rose 28 cents to $15.76.
Thu, 27 May 10
Google Spills the Beans on its Ad-Commission Rates
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73538
Google Inc. has finally revealed one of its financial secrets and spelled out how it splits revenue with other Web sites that show its online ads.
The Internet search leader's partners get 68 percent of the revenue from ads placed alongside articles and other content on Web pages. Web sites keep 51 percent of the revenue from Google's ads shown next to their own search results.
The breakdown appeared Monday on one of Google's blogs.
Google has always said its advertising partners keep most of the revenue, but has faced criticism for not being more specific about the commission rates.
The commission for ads shown next to general Web content has remained the same since 2003, Google said. The rate for search ads has been in effect since 2005.
Most of the ads that Google sells appear next to its own search engine and other services that it owns. The company keeps all that revenue.
Ads shown next to Google's own services brought in $15.7 billion in revenue last year compared with $7.2 billion from marketing messages that Google distributed to other Web sites.
Wed, 26 May 10
AT&T Pilots Wi-Fi Option for 3G Smartphone Users
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73557
AT&T launched a free Wi-Fi hot spot in New York City's Times Square Monday with the goal of providing its 3G cellular subscribers with an alternative way to connect in a dense urban area where cellular traffic and mobile data usage are very high. The new wireless coverage zone near 7th Avenue between 45th and 47th Street, will enable AT&T users to gain mobile broadband access using any Wi-Fi-enabled device, including smartphones, laptops, netbooks and tablets.
The pilot project will enable AT&T to evaluate whether Wi-Fi can serve as a stopgap option to alleviate customer-service complaints. The wireless carrier says it may deploy additional hot zones in other areas across the country based on the results from its pilot program in Times Square.
"With this pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hot zone, we're examining new ways to combine our Wi-Fi and 3G networks to help ensure that AT&T customers in Times Square always have a fast mobile broadband connection," said John Donovan, AT&T chief technology officer. "It's another example of how AT&T is exploring the ideal blend of technologies to maximize the mobile experience for our customers in New York City."
The heavy demand of data super-users equipped with iPhones and other advanced handsets has long been a major drain on AT&T's 3G capacity. In response, AT&T began devoting special attention last year to Manhattan and the financial center of San Francisco -- two locales where iPhone users have long complained about service and for which the wireless carrier admitted that the level of performance did not meet the company's standards.
With respect to the rest of the nation, AT&T said late last year that it would add 2,000 cell sites to its network in 2010. Since then, AT&T has been lighting up new backhaul connections across the country and anticipates that the majority of...
Wed, 26 May 10
Shake-Up Revamps Microsoft's Entertainment Group
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73552
Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices (E&D) Group is getting a makeover. On Tuesday, the company announced that Robbie Bach, head of the consumer-focused unit since its launch in 2005, will retire this fall following more than two decades of employment at Microsoft.
In addition, J Allard, currently senior vice president of design and development for E&D, will also leave to become a strategic consultant to CEO Steve Ballmer. The division heads -- Don Mattrick at interactive entertainment and Andy Lees at mobile communications -- will report directly to Ballmer.
E&D is one of five operating units at Microsoft and, in the last quarter, accounted for 11 percent of overall sales and three percent of the operating profit.
"Robbie's an amazing business person and close personal friend," Ballmer said, "which makes his departure a point of sadness for me." Bach, aged 48, told news media that he wants to spend more time with his family and his nonprofit work, which includes the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He noted that his career has included participating in the launch of Office, Xbox and Xbox LIVE, the Halo franchise, Windows phones, and Zune.
Mattrick, the former president of Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios, has headed up interactive entertainment since the summer of 2007. David Treadwell, currently corporate vice president of live platform services, will take a new position as head of the core technology operation in interactive entertainment.
Lees has led mobile communications since early 2008, and oversaw the development of the new Kin phones optimized for social networking and of Windows Phone 7 Series.
While the Group's Xbox video-game console has been successful, there have also been a number of misses -- including the Zune portable media player and the lack of a strong entry into the tablet-computer market.
Wed, 26 May 10
Legislators Oppose FCC's Broadband Reclassification
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73551
On Monday, 74 Democratic legislators sent a letter urging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to reconsider a plan to reclassify broadband Internet service. The legislators oppose the FCC's so-called Third Way approach and have started their own movement to update the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The Third Way approach would reclassify the transmission of data as a telecom service. That means the FCC could regulate it. The reclassification notion comes in the wake of the Comcast ruling in April, where an appellate court said the FCC's National Broadband plan reached beyond the agency's rightful powers.
Sen. John Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet; and Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, announced a set of "bipartisan, issue-focused meetings" to begin in June.
Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst, said updating the Telecommunications Act is an important task, but nearly impossible since the industry transforms so quickly.
"The problem was by the time the 1996 Telecommunications Act was signed, the industry had already surpassed the law. That law set the local and long-distance phone companies into competition with each other. That was the model we thought would play out over the next decades. It did not even address the wireless or Internet companies. They just were not important yet," Kagan said.
"Within a few short years the local phone companies won and acquired the long-distance giants. There is no more long distance industry," he noted. "Today, the local phone companies are competing against the cable-television industry. That was not even addressed in the 1996 law."
Still, there are many who are trying to update the law and there are clear sides of the telecom fence emerging:...
Wed, 26 May 10
Wal-Mart Offers iPhone 3GS for $97 as WWDC Nears
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73548
With lines about to form for the new iPhone 4G, America's largest retailer is the first to try to liquidate its stock of older models, knocking $100 off the cost of a 16GB iPhone 3GS handset as of Tuesday.
At $97 with a two-year AT&T contract, that may be the lowest price around for an iPhone. Apple sells its eight-gigabyte iPhone 3G for $99 online. The catch is you'll have to go into a Wal-Mart store to take advantage of the $97 deal. Likely hoping shoppers will spend more money once they are lured to the chain's sprawling shelves, the company isn't offering the deal online.
Apple's new iPhone OS 4.0, unveiled last month, will be available for the iPhone 3GS, so that handset won't be a complete dinosaur once the new operating system lands. But unless Apple and AT&T make some provisions for upgrades, those who take advantage of the Wal-Mart price and get locked into a two-year contract would pay a steep price if they later decide to trade up.
"You could be spending up to $700 to get the new version, and that's a lot of money," said Ramon Llamas, a wireless analyst at IDC Research, estimating that price based on the unsubsidized cost of the iPhone 3GS.
Wal-Mart's low-cost 3GS suggests that Apple wants to phase out the older models, Llamas said. "We saw similar aggressive pricing when they were making way for the second generation," he said. "It's not very Apple-esque to have three different models out all at the same time." The analyst predicted that even with the lower price, many consumers will hold out for the newest iPhone.
"If you look at the 4G, from what's been out there, it has a lot going on," he said, referring to leaks of the iPhone 4G...
Wed, 26 May 10
Twitter Bans Third-Party Ad Networks To Maintain Quality
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73547
Twitter has officially banned third-party ad networks from its micro-blogging platform. The decision could have dire implications for advertising startups that center their strategy on Twitter ads.
The decision comes just more than a month after Twitter launched its own advertising service, Promoted Tweets. Promoted Tweets are ordinary tweets that advertisers want to highlight to a wider group of users.
Twitter COO Dick Costolo said Twitter's primary concern is the long-term health and value of the network. That same thinking is curbing the company's use of its own Promoted Tweets service. Twitter, he said, wants to monitor the impact of Promoted Tweets on the user experience rather than rolling out the service more aggressively.
"It is critical that the core experience of real-time introductions and information is protected for the user and with an eye toward long-term success for all advertisers, users and the Twitter ecosystem," Costolo said. "For this reason, aside from Promoted Tweets, we will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API."
Costolo made it clear that there are opportunities to sell ads on the platform, and he expects third-party monetization engines to crop up in the timeline. Costolo also acknowledged that the new terms of service ban activities that could squelch the efforts of companies that have invested time and money. But he did not apologize for Twitter's stance.
"Twitter's API is used by hundreds of companies, and some of those have started to try and monetize the data. TweetUp is the most visible example, but there are several others," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "What Twitter appears to be saying is that it's going to tightly control the placement of ads around the feed. No ads will be allowed -- other...
Wed, 26 May 10
Dell Preps Android-Based Streak Tablet, An iPad Competitor
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73546
The tablet category now has a Streak -- the new entry from Dell. On Tuesday, the computer giant said the five-inch, Android-based device will be available this month in the United Kingdom, and a U.S. release is planned later in the summer.
Ron Garriques, president of the Dell Communication Solutions Group, said the Streak's form factor and features hit "the sweet spot between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets." Pricing was not announced.
The new tablet has built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G, and runs on Qualcomm's ARM-based Snapdragon one-gigahertz processor. Google Maps enable turn-by-turn navigation with street and satellite views, and there's a five-megapixel front-facing camera with dual LED flash, 2GB of internal storage, and up to 32GB of user accessible, microSD expandable memory.
Dell also pointed out that the Streak will support over-the-air updates, including platform upgrades to the new Android 2.2 later this year, which is expected to include Adobe Flash 10.1. The Streak will be released with Android 1.6, and comes pre-loaded with applications designed for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The Flash component has become a key differentiator since Apple has banned Flash from its iPad tablet. In response, Adobe has noted that Flash will be a key part of Android 2.2, which has been dubbed Froyo.
Apple is pushing HTML5 on its mobile devices, an up-and-coming standard that is not yet the technical equivalent of Flash. Earlier this month, for instance, popular video site Hulu announced a variety of updated features made in Flash, and a Hulu executive made a point of noting that HTML5 "doesn't yet meet all of our customer's needs."
Last week, Adobe Systems announced a new HTML5 tool set for web designers and developers as an add-on to its Creative Suite 5.
Al Hilwa, program director with industry research firm IDC, said Adobe's release of...
Wed, 26 May 10
New Net Domains Help Create 'Global' Internet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73541
The use of non-Latin characters in Internet addresses is a key step to opening up the Web and making it more "personalized" for billions of users, the head of the nonprofit body that oversees Internet addresses said Monday.
Rod Beckstrom, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said around half of the people using the Internet do not use Latin script. But the recent approval of Arabic and Russian characters for domain name suffixes will help bridge that linguistic barrier and encourage more users online, he said.
"This is part of the Internet becoming more truly global," Beckstrom told The Associated Press on the sidelines of an event celebrating the introduction of such suffixes in Arabic. "We see this just opening up and making the Internet more global."
"It seems to be a more important offering for the psyche of people. Our language is part of our culture and our identity, and having ... the ability to express our domain in our chosen language is something that people feel very powerfully about," Beckstrom said.
Earlier this month, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Russia become the first nations to get Internet addresses entirely in non-Latin characters.
Egypt, for example, secured the right to the ".masr" domain (written in Arabic).
The step marked a fundamental shift in the Internet domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.
Until the approvals were received for Arabic and Russian, Web sites had to end their addresses with suffixes like ".com" that were written in Latin characters -- a restriction that posed challenges to expanding the reach of the Net to people who could not read such script.
Beckstrom, in comments echoed earlier by Egypt's Information Technology Minister Tarek Kamel, said lifting the language barrier would allow new and unprecedented access to the Internet.
Kamel told reporters earlier...
Wed, 26 May 10
Yet Another Employee Death at Foxconn
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73533
A Chinese employee of Foxconn Technology Group fell from a building and died Tuesday, state-run media said, in the 10th such death this year at the world's largest contract maker of electronics, such as the iPod, Dell computers and Nokia phones.
Police have yet to determine if the victim, Li Hai, 19, committed suicide after working at the plant for only 42 days, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Foxconn did not immediately comment on the death.
The death is the ninth at Foxconn's massive plant in the southern city of Shenzhen, which employs more than 300,000 people. Two other workers have tried to kill themselves by jumping from buildings in Shenzhen but they survived. Another suicide occurred at a smaller plant in northern Hebei province in January.
Labor activists say the string of suicides back up their long-standing allegations that workers toil in terrible conditions at Foxconn. They claim shifts are long, the assembly line moves too fast and managers enforce military-style discipline on the work force.
In Hong Kong on Tuesday, about a dozen labor activists protested at Foxconn offices in the Chinese territory. They held signs that said, "Foxconn lacks a conscience" and "Suicide is no accident." The protesters from the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions burned cardboard cutouts resembling iPhones.
But Foxconn has insisted that workers are treated well and are protected by social responsibility programs that ensure their welfare. The Shenzhen factory is perennially a popular place to work, with hordes of applicants lining up for jobs during the hiring season.
On Monday, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou told reporters, "We are certainly not running a sweatshop. We are confident we'll be able to stabilize the situation soon."
Tuesday's reported death came just three days after a 21-year-old man who worked in the logistics department jumped from a four-story building shortly after...
Wed, 26 May 10
Old Computers Can Have New Uses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73521
Thanks to Windows 7, a lot of people have purchased new computers or are planning to. And that leaves them with one of life's more pleasant problems: what to do with the old machine.
With prices for used computers so low, reselling an older PC is often more trouble than it's worth, and you can actually get more value out of your old machine by keeping it and using it for another purpose. Here are some ideas to get you started.
If your old computer is a desktop with a decent amount of storage or the capability to hold more storage (hard drives) than it currently has, it's a good candidate for duty as a Windows Home Server (http://bit.ly/q85Fb).
Buy an OEM copy of Windows Home Server on a site like Newegg for 99 dollars, install it on your old machine, hook the computer up to your in-home network, and you'll never again have to be embarrassed when someone asks you whether you back up your data. The answer will be "yes, every night."
Install the free client software for Windows Home Server on each computer in your home that is connected to your network -- either wirelessly or with wires -- and Windows Home Sever will automatically perform backups every night when you're asleep.
Even better, the Windows Home Server box will also act as a multimedia repository, allowing you to stream and share music, video, and digital photographs. It will also provide you with remote access through a standard web browser to any connected PC in your home.
So, if you forget a file while traveling, you'll be able to log on to your home machine and download it. You can't beat that for convenience. And don't worry if your old computer is slow -- speed is not an issue...
Wed, 26 May 10
Tech Giants Scramble for Mobile Ad Deals
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73519
Now begins the race to push more ads to your cell phone.
Despite antitrust and privacy concerns expressed by consumer groups, the Federal Trade Commission late last week greenlighted Google's $750 million acquisition of mobile ad company AdMob. Recent moves by Apple to stake out turf in the nascent mobile advertising field turned out to be a pivotal factor.
Earlier, Apple made a failed bid to acquire AdMob, then followed up by acquiring mobile ad firm Quattro Wireless for $275 million. And last month, Apple launched a mobile advertising system dubbed iAd.
The agency's blessing clears the way for a clash of tech titans. Google, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo are expected to slug it out in advertising's hottest segment. Spending on mobile ads should nearly double this year to $433 million, according to IDC.
That's only a smidgen of the $31.5 billion U.S. advertisers will spend for online ads this year. But mobile ads are "strategically important," says IDC analyst Karsten Weide. "Mobile will be important for the mid- to long-term future, but not decisive within the next five years simply because search advertising will attract more absolute dollars."
AdMob gives Google a fast start. The search giant can offer advertisers the ability to run common ads on Google search results pages on PCs and on mobile devices, including Google Android phones, says Greg Sterling, senior analyst at Opus Research.
Apple's recent moves put it in the running. Apple has the iPhone and iPad, but lacks systems for selling and publishing ads. "It very much remains to be seen whether Apple can become an effective advertising company," Sterling says.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is about to blend its Bing search engine with Yahoo's online ad system. Both giants have the capacity to sell mobile ads. And it would not surprise Trip Chowdhry, analyst at Global Equities Research, if they...
Wed, 26 May 10
AT&T To Raise Fees for iPhone Contract-Breakers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73515
AT&T Inc. is raising the fees it charges buyers of the iPhone and other smart phones if they break their two-year contracts, while lowering them for "dumb" phones to better align the fees with their real costs.
Starting June 1, smart-phone buyers will have to pay $325 for breaking their contract, up from $175 currently. For buyers of regular phones, the fee is being decreased by $25 to $150.
The early termination fee goes down for every month customers stay in their contract -- by $10 for smart phones and $4 for regular phones. So if a smart phone contract is broken after two months, the termination fee is reduced by $20 to $305.
The changes only apply to new contracts and renewals.
Dallas-based AT&T charges customers $199 for the latest model of the iPhone, but pays Apple Inc. far more than that. AT&T makes the subsidy back through the customer's service fees over the two-year contract period. AT&T likely loses money for every customer that breaks a contract and pays a $175 termination fee, but may break even with the new, higher fee.
Meanwhile, simpler phones may cost AT&T only $125 to buy, meaning that a $175 termination fee is excessive.
Following the same logic, Verizon Wireless doubled its smart-phone termination fees in November, from $175 to $350. Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA still charge the same termination fees for all types of phones: $200. All three also pro-rate the fees for customers who leave later in their contracts.
The Federal Communications Commission has questioned Verizon Wireless about the higher termination fees for smart phone users, but hasn't taken any action. The pro-rating of the fees came about after the carriers settled several class-action lawsuits by customers who found it unfair that they paid the full termination fee when breaking a contract after nearly two...
Wed, 26 May 10
Customers' Revenge: Cable Providers To Play Nice
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73513
For far too long, cable customers fumed as they waited in vain for the cable guy to show up. When he did come, sometimes it took multiple visits to fix outages. Some customers grappled with billing mistakes that took months to resolve. And cable prices went up every year.
Now it may be the cable customer's turn for revenge.
Cable TV operators are trying to treat their customers better. Consumers now can get a 30-day money-back guarantee from at least two major cable companies. Soon subscribers might set specific times for technician visits and get their orders confirmed in writing.
These sound like simple or even obvious steps, but they address longtime complaints about the cable TV business.
Cable companies are forced to do it because of intensifying competition from satellite TV and phone companies that offer video -- and from people disconnecting subscription TV services altogether to watch videos online.
And people are leaving. In 2006, cable TV companies had 68.5 million video customers. The number fell to 63.3 million in 2009, according to research firm In-Stat.
"People have a bad opinion of their customer service," said Mike Paxton, principal analyst at In-Stat. "Until (cable) started losing customers, there was no pressure."
It won't be easy to change a poor reputation that was captured in a 1996 "Seinfeld" episode in which Kramer retaliates against his cable company by telling the technician he'll be home between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. but then doesn't show up. In 2007, a Virginia woman was so upset at Comcast Corp.'s customer service that she smashed a keyboard with a hammer in a Comcast service center.
Cable's customer satisfaction ratings have been among the worst of any industry. In the American Customer Satisfaction Index, based on surveys of U.S. households, the four largest cable TV providers -- Comcast, Time Warner Cable Inc.,...
Tue, 25 May 10
Picture-Frame Maker Offers Android-Based E-Reader
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73527
The growing world of e-book readers expanded again on Monday with the debut of a new device from Pandigital, a company previously best known for digital picture frames.
The one-gigabyte Novel isn't breaking new ground, as the name suggests, but it's offering a low-cost alternative to Barnes & Noble's nook, Amazon.com's Kindle, and Apple's top-selling iPad.
The Novel Color Multimedia eReader sells at major retailers for $199, placing it on the low end of the e-reader price scale but more than the Kobo device unleashed two weeks ago by Borders, which sells for $149, and the lowest-priced Sony reader, the Pocket Edition, which sells for $140. The nook and Kindle each sell for $249, while the iPad, which offers many more features than e-reading, starts at $499, or $629 with 3G capability.
The Novel runs on the popular Android operating system, which Google has been pushing to have installed in everything from smartphones and TV sets to cars and even an iPad rival tablet computer. The Novel's features include a seven-inch, 800x600 display and an ARM 11 processor, but it's not 3G compatible and has no camera. Via Wi-Fi, Novel users can access Barnes & Noble's inventory of one million e-book titles, half of which are free, as well as access Google's growing Android Market.
Memory is expandable via a card slot, and later versions will include 2GB of storage and access to AT&T's EDGE, a wireless technology that is somewhat slower than 3G but widely accessible in more than 13,000 cities and towns, according to AT&T.
Other features Pandigital is highlighting include a built-in dictionary and word search, a virtual keyboard, e-mail access and web browsing, music and video players, and, naturally, a photo viewer.
"The Novel device announcement seems to address some of the concerns raised with the addition of...
Tue, 25 May 10
New Intel Chips Intended for Slimmer Laptop Designs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73526
Intel took the wraps off four new Core processors Monday that are squarely aimed at laptop PC makers. According to the market-leading microprocessor giant, the new ultra-low-voltage devices featuring integrated memory controllers and graphics will enable OEMs to build sleeker, lighter weight laptops that are less than one inch thick.
Intel's latest Core i7, i5 and i3 chips, which are based on 32nm process technology, give manufacturers the ability to build ultrathin laptops that are 32 percent slimmer and improve multitasking performance by up to 35 percent, the company said. More than 40 designs based on the new chips from computer makers such as Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and MSI are expected to begin shipping next month.
"Intel's leadership in 32nm high-k metal gate process technology, combined with breakthrough architecture and design, has enabled thinner, lighter and faster notebooks than previous models, with terrific battery life," said Intel Vice President Mooly Eden. "Not only are laptops becoming ultraportable, but with the new processors inside, users will see faster response times and less waiting."
Beyond helping OEMs deliver products featuring a slimmer form factor, Intel's new Core i7, i5 and i3 chips promise to lower laptop power consumption by up to 20 percent. According to a recent Intel consumer survey, 66 percent of the respondents rated less energy consumption and better battery life among their top mobile-computing needs, while 42 percent want to see laptops become lighter.
Through the launch of its latest Core chips, Intel is looking to help mainstream PC vendors position themselves for gains as the market recovers by leveraging new ultrathin designs. This particular segment of the market is expected to grow from about 11 percent in 2008 to approximately 19 percent in 2014, noted Intel, citing IDC data from the fourth quarter of 2009. Gartner...
Tue, 25 May 10
Yahoo Goes Mobile, But Nokia Still Faces Problems
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73525
While Google looks to dominate with its Android mobile operating system, Yahoo is taking a different approach to bolstering its presence in the mobile world. Yahoo and Nokia on Monday announced a worldwide strategic alliance for five years that includes e-mail, instant messaging, maps and navigation services.
As part of the deal, Nokia becomes the exclusive provider of Yahoo's maps and navigation services. Nokia plans to integrate Ovi Maps across all Yahoo properties with the label "powered by Ovi." In return, Yahoo gets exclusive rights to provide e-mail and chat services to Nokia, branded as Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat "powered by Yahoo."
Nokia and Yahoo are also working on an ID federation between their services. This aims to make it easier for Nokia customers to use services from both companies with a single log-in and password. The fruit of the alliance will come to market in the second half of 2010, with global availability in 2011.
As Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart sees it, the deal between Nokia and Yahoo is simply a co-branding agreement. Although Yahoo brings the potential of 600 million users to the table, Greengart isn't too impressed with the potential for Nokia.
"This doesn't address the structural problems Nokia has in the North American market, either with carrier acceptance of its handsets or consumer acceptance of its operating system," Greengart said.
He added that Yahoo's e-mail and messaging services are a clear improvement over Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat from Nokia's perspective. But he still doesn't see the addition of Yahoo services moving the needle much for consumers shopping for a new handset.
"When consumers go to retail stores and they look at the phones, I don't think which brand is being used for chat and mail is going to make all that much difference," Greengart said. "It's...
Tue, 25 May 10
Facebook CEO Admits Privacy Mistakes, Promises Fixes
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73524
In the wake of a firestorm of criticism over its privacy policies, Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that errors were made, and he promised to make amends. "I know we've made a bunch of mistakes," he wrote in an open letter to tech blogger Robert Scoble, "but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place."
In the e-mail, published by Scoble on Sunday, Zuckerberg added that "people understand that our intentions are in the right place" and the company responds "to the feedback from the people we serve."
In an op-ed in Monday's Washington Post, Zuckerberg wrote that, "after listening to recent concerns," the company is responding.
One of the main complaints about recent privacy-related changes was that user controls to change settings were too complex. "Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls," he wrote, but "we just missed the mark." He said simpler-to-use privacy controls will be added within weeks.
He also wrote that there was confusion about the principles under which Facebook operates. Those principles, Zuckerberg said, are that the user controls how information is shared, advertisers do not get access to personal information, the information is never sold, and Facebook will remain a free service.
There has been a major backlash from Facebook users about what has been perceived as an erosion of privacy. Last month, the popular social-networking site launched new features that make users' likes and dislikes available on partner sites. "Like" buttons, which have quickly become famous, are placed on the partner sites to reflect a user's interest in the site, photos, blog posts, songs and similar content.
Clicking on the Like button makes that information viewable by a user's friends -- and, in the aggregate, to...
Tue, 25 May 10
Apple CEO Steve Jobs Will Keynote WWDC 2010
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73523
What's in store for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year? Will the world see a new iPhone that looks anything like the prototype Gizmodo got its hands on? Is Apple planning a new MacBook? Or some other innovative device that even the rumor mills haven't picked up on yet?
The speculation is sure to rise in the weeks ahead as the annual event draws near. But one thing is certain: Apple CEO Steve Jobs will give the keynote address on Monday, June 7, at 10 a.m. to a sold-out crowd of more than 5,000 developers. The 55-year-old Apple chief sat out last year's WWDC in the face of health issues that led to a liver transplant. Apple COO Tim Cook took the reins, introducing the iPhone 3GS. Many analysts expect the next-generation iPhone to make its debut at the June conference.
"It's not a big surprise Jobs is back. He's in good health, it seems. So it would certainly make sense for him to do the keynote," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "There are a lot more devices in the market. No one is ceding the cool-device space to Apple, which puts even more pressure on Apple to raise the bar and drive things forward with innovation."
Jobs is well known for his presenting skills and ability to stir excitement about new Apple products. His speech will kick off the five-day event that equips developers in five key technology tracks, including Application Frameworks, Internet & Web, Graphics & Media, Developer Tools, and Core OS.
Developers will find help in areas such as implementing local and push notifications, understanding what's new in the foundation of iPhone OS 4.0, integrating ads with iAd, delivering audio and video using web standards, advances in HTTP live streaming, network apps for...
Tue, 25 May 10
Halo: Reach Will Continue Top Series in September
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73522
Halo. It's a video-game franchise that stirs the hearts and minds of hard-core gamers everywhere. It's no surprise, then, that the next installment in the series, Halo: Reach, is making an impact on the video-game market -- before it even hits store shelves.
Halo: Reach is the prequel to the number-one game series of all time, and it debuts in the U.S. on Sept. 14. Halo: Reach follows the story of Noble Team, a squad of Spartan soldiers, as they make their final stand on planet Reach. Planet Reach is humanity's last line of defense between the terrifying Covenant and Earth.
Bungie developed the game exclusively for the Xbox 360. Judging by the history-making beta release of the game, which drew 2.7 million gamers to a multiplayer test drive on Xbox LIVE, Microsoft and Bungie both have something to smile about.
"It's certainly good for Microsoft to have the Halo franchise as part of the Xbox experience," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "Halo has traditionally been one of those titles that not only sells a lot of copies, but also sells a lot of hardware as well. There's no reason to think this next version of Halo won't continue in that tradition."
Just how popular is Halo? The last game, Halo 3, sold about eight million copies. Halo: Reach might surpass that. In the multiplayer beta on Xbox LIVE, gamers played Halo: Reach more than 13 million times and logged more than 16 million hours of online game play. That adds up to more than 1,826 years of total play time in just over a two-week period. Halo fans have logged more than two billion hours of game play on Xbox LIVE in the past decade. To date, Halo titles have exceeded sales of 34 million.
Beyond the...
Tue, 25 May 10
Struggling Internet Pioneer AOL Turns 25
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73520
In a year steeped in significant anniversaries for tech companies, one that has been largely ignored is the 25th of online pioneer AOL.
Today, the company originally known as Quantum Computer Services, which introduced millions of Americans to the Internet, is still around but not what it used to be.
Sales are declining and its subscriber base is dwindling as it copes with a slide in online advertising revenue and tries to recast itself amid stiffening competition.
AOL has been trying to reinvent itself as a content and advertising company since it regained its independence last year from media giant Time Warner, with which it merged in 2001. Time Warner spun off AOL to shareholders in December, ending what many experts called the most disastrous corporate merger ever.
Which leads to the question: Can AOL regain its mojo?
As the company enters Year 26 of its existence, its current CEO and one of its founders both think it can, as they reflect on AOL's past, present and future.
"Sure, it will be around for a long time," AOL co-founder Steve Case says. "The question is, how do you return it to being a leader. I think (AOL CEO) Tim (Armstrong) is on the right track."
Adds Armstrong: "The AOL brand is still one of the most meaningful in Internet history. In many cases, it was (people's) first (experience) online."
America Online took consumers by storm in the 1990s as a dial-up Internet company. During its heyday, it helped redefine how people communicate, ushering in an era of PCs with built-in modems and chat-room conversations. It was even the subject of a Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romantic comedy, You've Got Mail, in 1998.
At its zenith, AOL had nearly 30 million members.
But its glory was short-lived in the fast-paced digital age. Dial-up business shriveled over the years as faster broadband connections...
Tue, 25 May 10
FCC Clears Verizon Phone-Line Sale to Frontier
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73517
Federal regulators have given Verizon Communications Inc. the green light to sell nearly 5 million phone lines in 14 states outside of its core service areas to Frontier Communications Corp.
Friday's approval by the Federal Communications Commission marks the final step for the $8.6 billion cash-and-stock deal, which was announced more than a year ago and is expected to close on July 1. The transaction has been cleared by antitrust regulators at the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, as well by as state regulators and local officials.
Verizon is selling 4.8 million residential and small-business phone lines and 1 million broadband connections in rural and small-town markets to Frontier. The deal will nearly triple the customer base for Frontier, which is based in Stamford, Conn.
In return for FCC approval, Frontier has pledged to make significant investments in high-speed Internet networks. Expanding broadband availability, particularly in rural America, is a top priority for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
The companies have also pledged to honor all of Verizon's existing contracts to provide wholesale telecommunications services.
The sale includes all of Verizon's phone lines in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin as well as some assets in border areas of California.
Verizon has been selling off assets outside of its primary footprint in the Northeast and California, even as it has been installing fiber-optic lines that deliver high-speed Internet connections and subscription video services in its core markets.
Tue, 25 May 10
IBM To Buy AT&T's Sterling Commerce Unit for $1.4B
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73512
IBM Corp. said Monday that it is buying AT&T Inc.'s Sterling Commerce unit, which makes software that helps businesses buy and sell to each other, for $1.4 billion.
The deal would be IBM Corp.'s largest acquisition since it bought business software maker Cognos in 2008.
Sterling runs "collaboration networks" where companies can interact with vendors. It has 18,000 clients worldwide and enables more than 1 billion deals per year, IBM and AT&T said. Customers include H.J. Heinz Co., Motorola Inc., Boise Cascade LLC and Boston Market Corp. The parties would not provide a figure for the unit's annual revenue.
AT&T Inc., then known as SBC Communications, paid $3.9 billion for Sterling in 2000, near the peak of the Internet bubble. The price tag was driven by forecasts that all "business to business" commerce would soon be conducted through online marketplaces not unlike a stock exchange, with demand dictating prices more efficiently.
The unit, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, has little connection to AT&T's main telecommunications business and has maintained its own brand.
AT&T spokeswoman McCall Butler said AT&T's business has changed since 2000, and Sterling is "no longer core to the company's long-term strategic objectives."
IBM said the deal complements its portfolio of business process integration and transaction software portfolio, which grew more than 20 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
The parties expect the deal to close in the second half of the year. AT&T expects it to result in a one-time pretax gain of approximately $750 million in the quarter it closes.
IBM is based in Armonk, N.Y, while AT&T is based in Dallas.
Tue, 25 May 10
Microsoft Gets Creative with Social-Media Marketing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73489
Free concerts. Open bar. Big names. Small venues. The catch?
You've got to find them first, and only a string of tweets, texts, Facebook updates and blog posts will lead you there.
Microsoft Corp. is combining social media and detective work to market its new Kin cell phone by throwing surprise concerts with bands such as Passion Pit and the Black Keys in four cities this month.
But key details such as the time and location are trickled out through social networking in the days and hours leading up to the show online by various sources: Microsoft, the bands and key people in each city with varied social networks.
The premise, the brainchild of marketing agency Exposure, taps into Microsoft's target audience for the phone -- teens and twenty-somethings who text and tweet rather than call and e-mail. It skips right over other demographics -- older people who are more tethered to e-mail and voice calling.
So far, the Kin "Spot" campaign is generating buzz. Last week, hours before Passion Pit was to play in New York, fans posted on Twitter and Facebook, waiting to find out the location. The band sent clues via Twitter and its own site, narrowing down the location to the Tribeca neighborhood.
There's pressure to find out the location first because the concerts are limited to several hundred people. And the venues are more apt to be auto body shops than concert halls, so it's not easy to guess.
Shows have already taken place in San Francisco and New York and will take place later this month in Chicago and Atlanta.
Would-be concert-goers should check out Kin's Facebook page and its Twitter feed to see who is playing. Stay tuned to those sites and check out pages for upcoming bands as the weekend nears to find out locations and times.
Garrett Wilson waited nearly...
Tue, 25 May 10
Tips To Harness the Power of Search Engines
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73439
In the race to be the dominant Web portal, Internet search engines are constantly growing smarter. Although outward appearances may not change much, the algorithms churning behind the scenes are getting better at predicting what users want and delivering answers almost instantly.
Google recently unveiled new tools for its search-results pages to help users further refine their queries. But there's plenty of power built into the search box on the main page. Most users will find what they're looking for with just a basic query on a search page. But there are some lesser-known tricks to help consumers maximize the search function.
Most of the shortcuts below also are available on Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo Search. Those portals have their own unique features: typing in a company name such as "Amazon" on Bing spits out a toll-free customer-service number, for example, and entering "gas" and a ZIP code on Yahoo calls up a list of local gas prices.
Still, Google remains dominant in search. According to Experian Hitwise, Google captured 71 percent of all U.S. searches in April, compared with 15 percent for Yahoo and 9 percent for Bing.
Here are some quick tips to make searching easier:
* Packages: Enter a tracking number to get a direct link to the page listing a shipment's status. It works with the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS.
* Show times: Enter a movie title and ZIP code to see nearest theaters and times. Clicking on the name of the theater will return complete listings for that location, while clicking on a movie time leads to a Fandango site to purchase tickets if online sales are available.
* lights: Enter an airline and flight number to track its status.
* Conversions: Calculate the number of teaspoons in a fluid ounce, or try something more obscure like pascals to pounds per...
Tue, 25 May 10
Hit the Road, Landline: VoIP Services Take Off
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73437
David Christian of Eagan, Minn., has been doing the landline shuffle.
He's among the 25 percent of Americans who have dropped traditional phone service from providers such as Qwest and AT&T, according to the National Health Interview Survey released last week. Many of them replaced the landline with a cell phone. But Christian and other customers who prefer a home-based phone save $40 to $50 a month by using an Internet-based service -- or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
After trying other VoIP systems, Christian finally settled on Ooma as the best replacement for his Qwest service.
"I have never had a problem with Ooma," he said. "I am so happy that I got my brother in Milwaukee to sign up, too."
But Ooma is only one of many VoIP choices, including Vonage, Skype and magicJack.
Vonage and Skype scored near the top of Consumer Reports' reader ratings for value, but reliability and call quality were rated "average" or below. Skype is usually free for voice and video calls if you install free software on your computer, but your computer must be left on to receive calls. Skype charges for calls to regular phones and to receive incoming calls. Vonage VoIP costs $216 per year for a basic plan.
Consumer Reports editors were more impressed with magicJack. It's a $40 device that plugs into your computer's USB port and allows you to make unlimited local and domestic long-distance calls through the Internet for $20 per year. Voice quality was rated as being good, although if you're talking on the phone while downloading a file or playing a game online, expect interference.
After reading online reviews, I decided to try Ooma (untested by Consumer Reports). I had dropped Qwest a year ago when Comcast offered digital phone service with long distance for $15 a month for six months...
Sat, 22 May 10
FCC Reports Explosive Growth in Mobile-Device Usage
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73503
The Federal Communications Commission released its latest report on mobile competition Thursday in fulfillment of its obligations to the Congress. According to the FCC study, 90 percent of Americans had a mobile wireless device at the end of 2008 and were using their devices to talk for an average of 709 minutes each month.
This year's report marked the first time that the FCC has reported a reduction in voice usage, and an increased reliance on text and multimedia messaging may be a contributing factor. By contrast, data traffic grew significantly because of the introduction of a growing number of smartphones that provide mobile Internet access and other non-voice services, the FCC report said.
"In so many ways, this explosion of mobile innovation is great news for American consumers," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "Perhaps no sector of our economy holds more promise for 21st century U.S. leadership in innovation and investment than wireless broadband."
Android-powered and iPhone devices have been particularly successful in creating an ecosystem of applications and services, the report noted. According to the FCC, there were more than 100,000 applications on the Apple App Store, and 15,000 on the Android Market as of December 2009.
But some of the report's other findings are worrisome and downright sobering, noted FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. The report's measurement of mobile industry ownership density, for example, "shows that the concentration of mobile wireless service providers has skyrocketed since the first FCC report of this type was issued seven years ago," Copps said.
The finding should flash a bright caution light for the FCC as it goes about the business of advancing competition and consumer well-being in the broadband age, Copps observed. "We are going to need an extra dose of vigilance going forward and use whatever policy levers we have...
Sat, 22 May 10
FTC Approves Google's Acquisition of AdMob
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73502
It's a go for Google's acquisition of AdMob. On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission concluded its investigation on a 5-0 vote and said the purchase "is unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile-advertising networks."
The FTC added that "recent developments" in the market overshadowed any concerns it had about Google combining its mobile advertising strength with AdMob's. It cited Apple's announcement that it is launching its own competing mobile-ad network, as well as "a number of firms" that are developing or acquiring smartphone platforms to compete against Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. These competing platforms, the agency said, will have a "strong incentive" to maintain and increase competition among mobile-advertising networks.
In January, Apple bought Quattro Wireless and has built its iAd service around the acquisition. The maker of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad also controls its application marketplace, manages the user data on its devices, and owns the tools and licenses to create applications for its platforms.
In November, Google first announced its intent to acquire AdMob, which is based in San Mateo, Calif. It was founded in 2006 by Omar Hamoui, who was trying to find ways to generate traffic for his mobile site.
The price was $750 million, and, in its announcement, Google said the acquisition would give advertisers and publishers more choice, bring innovation to mobile advertising, and lead to more effective tools, among other benefits. Before the AdMob buy, Google's focus was on mobile search ads, while AdMob's was display and in-application ads.
Google also noted at the time that AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo have also made mobile-advertising acquisitions in the last two years. The FTC's reference to Apple's position reflects the fact that iPhone and Android mobile users browse the web more than other users, and they spend about 90 minutes a...
Sat, 22 May 10
Android 2.2 Froyo May Finally Outdo Apple's iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73501
Froyo. It's the latest iteration of Android, otherwise known as Android 2.2. The question is, what can it do? The answer is, plenty more than its predecessor.
The seventh update to the Android platform is chock full of new features and functions and offers new tools to encourage developers to build apps for Android-powered handsets. Android 2.2 handsets will start hitting the market later this year, but analysts are already talking about the possibilities of Android overtaking Apple's iPhone.
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, pointed to the broad reach of Android phones in terms of both sales and carriers. With the introduction of the HTC Incredible, Verizon's flagship phone, Enderle believes Android may have finally outdone the iPhone.
"All this means that for the first time, as Android 2.2 comes to market, Apple may actually be behind," Enderle said. "If carriers like Verizon, which has done a good job with Android phones, can convince the market that the Incredible is as good as it is, I think Android 2.2. is going to be the first time we really start to see Google kick serious Apple butt."
One of the most notable new features of Android 2.2. is its speed. The operating system offers the Dalvik JIT computer. In benchmark testing, the new technology delivered between a two to five times performance improvement compared to Android 2.1. On the browsing front, Google integrated the V8 JavaScript engine, which offers two to three times the browsing speed of Android 2.1
Enterprise users will also find something to cheer about with Android 2.2. Google added Exchange capabilities, including account auto-discovery and calendar sync. What's more, device policy-management APIs set the stage for developers to write applications that can control security features of the device such as the remote wipe, minimum password, and lockscreen timeout.
Sat, 22 May 10
Google Takes on Apple TV with Web-Based TV Service
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73500
In yet another move that pits Google against a one-time close ally, the search giant is rolling out a competitor to Apple TV. Given Google's ownership of YouTube, it seemed only a matter of time before the company would experiment with a web-based television service.
Google is working to bridge the gap between phones and computers that display web videos and television. With more consumers spending more time watching videos on devices other than televisions -- but with web videos still lacking the user-friendly features TV offers -- Google smells opportunity.
Google's solution is called (what else?) Google TV. If you can imagine turning on the TV and getting all the channels and shows you normally watch and all of the web sites you browse all day, you've just imagined what Google is promising with its new TV service.
Salahuddin Choudhary, Google TV product manager, revealed part of the new product offering's secret sauce: Google Chrome. With the browser built into the TV experience, he said, you can move between television and the web at will. That, he said, opens up the TV from a few hundred channels to millions of channels across both television and the web.
Google is also leveraging its search prowess in the new product. In describing how Google TV search capabilities work, Choudhary offered an example of the consumer who already knows what channel to watch. In that case, the user would type in the name and Google TV goes there. Choudhary also offered a few more scenarios.
"Want to check out that funny YouTube video on your 48-inch flat screen? It's just a quick search away. If you know what you want to watch, but you're not sure where to find it, just type in what you're looking for and Google TV will help you find...
Sat, 22 May 10
iPad 3Gs Sold Out as Apple Prepares To Go International
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73497
Want an Apple iPad 3G to get a head start on your summer reading? Forget about it. You may have to wait weeks to get your hands on one of the hot new tablet computers.
Just three weeks after the 3G version of the iPad went on sale, a survey of 50 stores by Piper Jaffray found none had one in stock.
A team led by the investor research firm's Apple analyst, Gene Munster, called stores around the country and found the supply of all iPad models scarce. Thirty-seven didn't have an iPad while 13 only had the Wi-Fi-enabled model.
Munster told investors in a note that Apple stores were gathering waiting lists of prospective iPad buyers to be notified within four to seven days of availability, while online sales have a seven- to 10-day wait.
The shortage comes a week before Apple is set to launch the iPad internationally on May 28.
Although the iPad exceeded many projections, selling one million in just 28 days (boosted by the emergence of the 3G model at the end of April), the shortage could cause Apple to fall short of Wall Street projections.
"Given the international iPad launch on 5/28 and continued strong demand in the U.S., we expect supply constraints to last through the June quarter, reaching equilibrium in the mid-to-late September quarter," Munster wrote.
Another research note by Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets, as published in media reports, estimates that Apple is selling a brisk 200,000 iPads per week in the U.S., falling in between the company's Macintosh computer line, at 110,000 per week, and its iPhone 3G handsets, selling at 246,000 per week in the first quarter.
Abramsky suggested that iPad sales will take a 25 percent chunk out of sales of other Apple products and didn't dismiss the idea that...
Sat, 22 May 10
Yahoo, Nokia Reportedly Teaming Up for 'Project Nike'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73496
While Google has attracted much of the technology press attention this week with its I/O conference, Yahoo is hoping to grab the spotlight next week. The venerable Internet company has announced a major press event for Monday, when it's expected to reveal a new collaboration with Nokia.
The content of the event has not been announced, but many industry observers expect the launch of a collaboration in which Nokia brings Yahoo's search, e-mail and other applications and sites to its mobile devices, possibly replacing the handset maker's Ovi service. According to news reports, the effort has been code-named Project Nike -- with no reference to the sportswear maker that has appropriated the name of the Greek goddess of victory.
Some Nokia devices already offer Yahoo services, as do mobile products from Samsung that are built on the Android or Bada operating systems.
The press invite said Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will have "an exciting announcement about providing global consumers with rich online and mobile experiences, and bringing forward a new era in keeping consumers connected." The press conference is scheduled Monday morning in New York City.
If Yahoo does connect with Nokia in a substantial fashion, it could help counter efforts by its two main competitors in the search space, Google and Microsoft. Google has developed a large and growing mobile ecosystem, based around its open-source Android and Chrome operating systems, and Microsoft has Windows Mobile 6.5 and its new Windows Phone 7 Series platforms.
Nokia is the largest handset maker in the world, and its Ovi service offers a store, mail, music, contacts, maps, a calendar, remote access to a user's files, and more. Most observers believe the announcement will not specifically proclaim a "Yahoo phone."
Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis, said "Ovi has morphed...
Sat, 22 May 10
Corporate Sales Boost Dell's Net Income
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73492
Computer maker Dell Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter net income rose 52 percent, helped by sales of computers to businesses and technology services to public-sector customers.
But Dell's gross profit margin dropped from a year ago, and the company said certain PC components are likely to remain in short supply. Investors sent shares down in extended trading.
For the February-through-April quarter, Dell's net income rose to $441 million, or 22 cents per share, from $290 million, or 15 cents per share in the same period last year.
Excluding certain items, Dell said earnings totaled 30 cents per share, three cents more than Wall Street analysts were expecting, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.
Dell's revenue rose 21 percent to $14.9 billion, more than the $14.3 billion analysts expected.
The majority of Dell's business comes from selling computers and other hardware to companies and large organizations. It also has a smaller technology services division, expanded with a $3.9 billion acquisition of Perot Systems last year.
Dell and much of the technology industry fared poorly during the worst of the recession, when businesses stopped spending to upgrade their systems and consumers flocked to the least expensive, and least profitable, PCs.
Dell's report Thursday echoed what its larger competitor, Hewlett-Packard Co., said Tuesday, and what industry research groups published in April: Corporations were replacing aging servers and other behind-the-scenes technology first, and were starting to buy new PCs for employees.
Dell said revenue from large business customers jumped 25 percent to $4.2 billion in the latest quarter. Revenue from small and medium businesses increased 19 percent to $3.5 billion.
Brian Gladden, Dell's chief financial officer, said during a conference call that companies' desire to upgrade employee computers to Microsoft Corp.'s latest operating system, Windows 7, will fuel sales of new Dell computers, since less than 5 percent of Dell's customers have upgraded...
Sat, 22 May 10
Guidebooks Adapt To the Mobile-Download Era
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73474
When she was traveling in India with her sister last year, Katie Reed, a 21-year-old who lives in Miami, Florida described her 1,000-page travel guide as "monstrous" in size.
But it was too handy to toss.
"It was invaluable," said Reed, a budget traveler. "We would read it on the train."
Even as more and more guidebook publishers, travel Web sites and others make travel information available online, publishers say they expect sales of guidebooks, the paper-and-ink kind, to remain strong.
"The book is such a great technology. It's lightweight, it's mobile and the battery never runs out," said Matt Goldberg, the CEO of Lonely Planet, an Australian travel guide publishing company that covers the world with more than 600 guidebooks in 17 languages.
Travel guide publishers and a host of other providers also are making information available online and through applications that can be downloaded to smart phones and other devices.
Like many other publishers, Lonely Planet, at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/us, offers some of its guides online and is working to increase that presence dramatically. Lonely Planet also offers location-aware maps that steer smart phone users to restaurants and other sites recommended by the guide.
"What we're witnessing right now is an explosion in mobile applications," said Goldberg.
You can also see that trend at http://traveldk.com/, a site operated by the Eyewitness Travel Guides publisher Dorling Kindersley, where users can design their own guidebooks to be downloaded for free or mailed to them as a bound book.
"Let's say you're staying with a friend and don't want to cart around a book with hotels in it," said Katy Ball, a publicity manager for DK Eyewitness Travel and for Rough Guides, both travel publications. "You can select restaurants, shops and maps so you have only what you need."
As for whether online applications will supplant the traditional book, publishers and booksellers alike...
Sat, 22 May 10
New Malware Entices with Mentions of TV Show Lost
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73466
"Lost" fans searching for secrets of the ABC show's final episode may be in store for a nasty surprise: An infected computer.
PandaLabs, a unit of computer company Panda Security, said it has detected a new distribution method for a kind of malware called the MySecurityEngine fake antivirus.
This malware and the way it infects a computer are not new, but the bait it uses does change according to current events and popular search terms.
Most recently, the malware has affected searches related to "Lost," which will have its final episode this Sunday. Searches for tidbits about the upcoming series finale or ways to watch the show on streaming video turn up fake Web sites that appear high up on results pages, PandaLabs said.
Anyone who clicks the links will get a prompt to accept a file download, which then installs the malware on the computer.
"What continues to surprise us is the speed with which the numerous Web sites are created, and then indexed and positioned on the Internet," said Luis Corrons, PandaLabs' technical director.
"As the screening of the final episode of 'Lost' approaches, we expect the number of malicious links to double or triple."
PandaLabs said it has also come across other search terms for TV shows and films being exploited for malware, including "Glee," "Family Guy" and "Iron Man 2."
Sat, 22 May 10
A New Dawn for Health Insurers Means Customer Focus
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73436
The times, they are a-changin'.
After years of shrinking enrollment, the U.S. health insurance industry faces a tidal wave of consumer demand. Up to 32 million potential new customers will join the ranks of the already insured, thanks to the health-care legislation signed into law in April.
This is a decisive moment for the health insurance industry and the health-care industry as a whole. As millions of additional new customers call with questions about plan options and services, joining the millions of those already insured, insurance carriers have big decisions to make.
How will they handle the increase in consumer calls? Their decision will determine more than ever whether consumers will continue merely to tolerate their health insurance providers or view their insurers as true partners in their health and well-being and that of their families. This critical first impression could lead to additional enrollment or increased churn as customers are offered more options.
The flood of questions from consumers about the impact of policy changes is already starting to place a huge burden on operations. Convergys, which provides relationship management services on behalf of three of the top five health insurance providers, experienced a 15 percent to 20 percent spike in call volume from consumers on the day the new bill became law.
This shift from a B2B service model to a B2C model brings new challenges to providers. Those insurance providers able to scale up their customer service operations quickly to meet the demand and simultaneously provide excellent customer service will likely emerge as winners from this sea change. The wave of questions by phone and e-mail and reams of paperwork will engulf others, as disjointed processes, long hold times, and overwhelmed customer service representatives lead to a great loss of current customers as well as opportunities to win new...
Sat, 22 May 10
Hard Drive Companies Conjure Up Digital Media Players
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73433
Hard-drive companies are on a new mission to do more than just back up your data. Now they want to bring you and your digital content into the living room.
For that, you can thank the growing collection of digital media -- photos, videos and music -- that largely has replaced CDs, DVDs and photo prints.
To expand beyond the basic drive, top manufacturers Seagate, Western Digital (WD) and Iomega have quietly introduced a new product category: the digital media player. The device is a vehicle for moving digital content from the computer to the living room; some of them don't even have a storage feature.
Seagate's new GoFlex TV ($130, out in June) and Iomega's ScreenPlay HD Director ($169 and $249) go one step further. The GoFlex also accesses online video site Netflix's collection of more than 20,000 movies, and streams them directly to the TV. ScreenPlay works with Roxio CinemaNow. The concept is similar to a connected Blu-ray player, which can display Internet programming in addition to Blu-ray and DVD discs.
Beyond the living room, Western Digital also has an app for Apple's iPad and iPhone, which lets you view photos stored on your networked Western Digital drives while you're out.
The push beyond the basics helps the storage giants expand their potential audience. "If we can show people how to do more with their digital content, that helps the consumer and it helps Seagate," says Seagate Vice President Darcy Clarkson.
Beyond the new Netflix connection, Seagate has updated its media player line by changing the name from FreeAgent Theater to GoFlex TV. Another change: The new media players will have an open slot to slip in a Seagate drive.
The units plug directly into the television and use Wi-Fi to access movies, photos and videos from your computer.
With the push to watch high-definition...
Fri, 21 May 10
Flash Supported in Google's Android 2.2 Froyo Release
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73483
Google took the wraps off a refresh of its Android smartphone platform Thursday at the company's I/O developer conference in San Francisco. Code-named Froyo, short for Frozen Yogurt, the company's latest software refresh will integrate several new features such as portable hot-spot functionality and support for Adobe Flash in the Android browser.
Google's addition of Flash capabilities to Android 2.2 comes on the heels of a heated exchange between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Adobe Systems over Apple's ban on Flash on its iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Jeffrey Hammond, a principal analyst at Forrester Research who has been testing a Froyo-based Nexus One for the past week, thinks the Froyo-Nexus combo is fast and called the device's multitasking performance "excellent."
Hammond noted that apps relying on Adobe's Flash technology can clearly deliver an engaging mobile experience. "I have not noticed a significant difference in battery life when I view Flash-enabled content," Hammond wrote in a blog. "Even with hardware acceleration turned off in the beta, video and audio work just fine for me on sites like the BBC."
Consumers will benefit from the new Android 2.2 platform by gaining the ability to transform their handsets into portable hot spots offering connections for up to eight other wireless devices -- a feature that Sprint Nexus has already promised for its forthcoming Android-based HTC EVO 4G handset. Moreover, an update to the Android platform's native music app will enable Android smartphone users to directly access their favorite music tracks.
Even better, Android 2.2 features a new browser with an Adobe 10.1 Flash plug-in that Google says will be even faster and more powerful. "We have brought the V8 JavaScript engine to the Android browser as part of 2.2," wrote Android SDK Tech Lead Xavier Ducrohet in a blog. "This has resulted in...
Fri, 21 May 10
Pakistan Blocks 'Blasphemous' Facebook, YouTube
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73482
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ordered the blocking of YouTube on Thursday and Facebook on Wednesday because of "blasphemous" material. According to The Wall Street Journal, the ban has been lifted on YouTube after some videos were removed. It's not clear which content was to blame, but the Facebook ban is still in effect.
In 2007, YouTube was similarly blocked in some Islamic countries because of videos that offended some Muslims.
The Facebook ban resulted from an order by the Lahore High Court, which followed a petition to the court by a lawyer representing Pakistan's largest religious party.
On Wednesday, PTA told Internet service providers in that country to block the popular Facebook site because of an online contest called Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. A representative of Nayatel, a Pakistani ISP, told news media that Facebook and YouTube accounted for about 25 percent of all Net traffic in Pakistan.
According to a Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson, caricatures of Muhammad were published on Facebook, and he called it an "extremely sensitive and emotional matter for Muslims." He added that these "malicious and insulting attacks hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and cannot be accepted under the garb of freedom of expression."
Facebook has said the content doesn't violate its guidelines, but it's considering making the offensive content inaccessible in Pakistan. The creators of the competition page, which has more than 90,000 followers, said their intent isn't to be disrespectful, but to challenge extremists.
Ironically, by cutting off all access to Facebook, the PTA also stopped access to opposition to the drawings, also on Facebook. The opposition has more than 100,000 followers.
A PTA spokesperson told news media that the agency tried to block specific URLs and was successful with about 450 of them, but the content kept showing up. An...
Fri, 21 May 10
Oracle Will Acquire Secerno for Database Security
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73481
Oracle is still integrating Sun Microsystems into its fold, but that didn't stop it from making yet another acquisition. On Thursday, Oracle agreed to acquire database firewall-solutions provider Secerno.
Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed, but the acquisition is expected to close before the end of June. Analysts said that puts Oracle in a position to compete more effectively against IBM in the database market.
In acquiring Secerno, Oracle gets firewall solutions that work with both Oracle and non-Oracle databases. Oracle is tapping into the demand for security solutions that protect databases against sophisticated hacker attacks. Secerno's technology promises to block unauthorized activity in real time.
"The Secerno acquisition is in direct response to increasing customer challenges around mitigating database security risk," said Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president of Oracle Database Server Technologies.
He made clear that Oracle plans to use the Secerno technology as a first line of defense against threats from both the outside and within an organization. As he explained it, the firewall makes a protective perimeter around databases that will compliment Oracle's other database-security solutions.
In other words, Secerno offers a missing piece that Oracle thinks will bolster its database-security suite to protect data privacy, block threats, and enable regulatory compliance. The missing piece is like the one IBM acquired last December when it scooped up Guardian, so it's not surprising that Oracle is making this acquisition. In fact, it was almost a must, according to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
"Secerno and Guardian, which IBM acquired, offer tools that both help to secure database assets and also to track the activities of people who are accessing that data," King said. "So you can basically be alerted to see if any particular employee is coming by a place they are supposed to stay out of...
Fri, 21 May 10
Germany Opens Criminal Probe Into Street View Data
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73477
Although Google is creating excitement at its I/O conference in San Francisco, there is some unwelcome attention in Germany as well. German prosecutors have started a criminal probe into whether the search giant broke laws when its crews collected private Wi-Fi data while taking photos for Google's Street View application.
The company has reportedly been given a May 26 deadline by German officials to turn over a hard drive from one of the vehicles, which Google has not agreed to do. The investigation is in response to a complaint filed Monday by a German law student who sought clarification about whether such collection violated the law. About 600GB of such data has been collected around the world by Google's vehicles.
The Hamburg Prosecutor's Office said it is in an early stage of investigation, and is at least two weeks away from deciding if criminal charges will be pursued.
Germany isn't the only country to take a second look at Street View collecting. Google said the Irish Data Protection Authority last week asked it to delete the data collected "in error" in Ireland, and it has done so. It also said it is asking similar agencies in other countries about the best way to dispose of the remaining data obtained in their areas.
Authorities in Italy and France are currently reviewing Google's Street View data-collection practices. U.S. Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) have also asked the Federal Trade Commission to see if Google broke any U.S. laws.
On the Official Google Blog, Senior Vice President for Engineering and Research Alan Eustace wrote late last week that the data-protection authority in Hamburg had previously asked to audit the Wi-Fi data collected "for use in location-based products like Google Maps for mobile." He said the request prompted the company to "re-examine...
Fri, 21 May 10
New Chrome Store Centralizes Browser Applications
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73476
Google got busy at the start of its I/O conference in San Francisco on Monday. The first day saw enough announcements to make a developer's head spin as Google offered scores of the more than 180 demonstrations and 90 technical sessions, breakouts and fireside chats.
The potential of HTML5 was one of the demonstrations Google offered as it worked to push the message of web evolution deeper into the development community's consciousness. The HTML5 presentation was standing room only, proving the interest in the next iteration of the coding language.
Google also announced the open availability of Google Wave, a personal communication and collaboration tool, and Google App Engine for Business. The app engine makes it possible for corporate developers to build applications on the same structure that Google developers build apps.
But for all the hoopla over Google Wave and all the anticipation of multiple Android announcements on Thursday, analysts said the new Chrome Web Store is a noteworthy addition to the search giant's stable of projects.
The web apps Google is listing in the store are regular web applications built with standard web tools and technologies. The applications will also run in other browsers that support these technologies.
Although there are a growing number of free apps online, Google decided it was time to build a single open marketplace where consumers can find them. The Chrome store also gives developers opportunities to reach consumers by offering a single platform where consumers can search for apps.
"Google Chrome users who find web apps in the store will be able to create convenient shortcuts in Chrome for easy access," said Erik Kay, lead software engineer at Google. "Also, developers will have the option to easily sell their apps through the store using a convenient and secure payment system."
As...
Fri, 21 May 10
Google Offers Royalty-Free Video Codec for Developers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73475
As Google enters day two of its Google I/O conference in San Francisco, the technology world is still abuzz about the first day of the annual two-day event. Of the many innovations Google rolled out or revealed plans for on Wednesday, one collaboration in particular has video makers doing cartwheels. Google partnered with several web companies to roll out an open web-optimized video format and codec called WebM.
Google is contributing the project, which includes elements of the technology the company acquired when it bought On2 Technologies for $120 million last summer. At issue are video codecs, which are used to encode and decode video data.
"A key factor in the web's success is that its core technologies are open and freely implementable," said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google. "Video is fundamental to the web experience, so developers and content publishers need an open video format option."
WebM includes VP8, a high-quality video codec Google just released under a BSD-style, royalty-free license, as well as Vorbis, an already open-source and broadly implemented audio codec, and a container format based on a subset of the Matroska media container. Google promised that VP8 efficiently adapts to the varying processing and bandwidth conditions found on a broad range of web-connected devices.
Google's V8 codec competes with the H.264 codec that Apple and Microsoft support. The open-source community has shunned H.264 because of worries about patent-licensing demands from the tech giants who contributed patents to MPEG-LA, the organization that oversees H.264 licensing.
WebM already has broad support from industry players like Brightcove, AMD, Logitech, Skype and many others. "With the release of this new video format, Google is taking an open-standards approach so that future consumers will be confident that any .webm file will play in any supported player," said...
Fri, 21 May 10
Review: HTC's Evo 4G Is a Very Good 3G Phone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73473
HTC's Evo 4G phone is fast, powerful and fun to use -- as long as your heart isn't set on tapping into the speedier new network it was designed for.
The Evo 4G, $199 with a two-year contract and rebate, is the first smart phone made for Sprint's fourth-generation wireless network, which is available in Seattle and a few dozen other cities today. But the vast majority of the time, the phone was connected to the current-generation 3G network. It turns out there are gaps in the coverage area, and my house and my office are both in that 4G-free zone.
That means I usually couldn't surf the Web and chat on the phone at the same time. It also wouldn't let me upload a large video file over 3G, waiting instead to be connected to a Wi-Fi network. The upload did work from my car once I got a 4G signal a few blocks from home.
Another disappointment was that the video-chat feature wasn't set up on the review unit from Sprint. I used the program, called Qik, to stream live video to a Web site, which seemed to work well over 3G without too much of a lag. Sprint says once the feature is working on the phones, I would have been able to chat with my parents, say, after they downloaded a desktop version of Qik.
All that said, I wouldn't pass on the Evo 4G completely.
It's a very good 3G phone. It's also a really big 3G phone, almost too big to fit in the back pocket of my jeans comfortably. It has a massive 4.3-inch screen, noticeably larger than the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen and the 3.7-inch screen on the Droid Incredible, which HTC recently launched through Verizon Wireless.
Despite its size, the phone is sleek, with few buttons along the...
Fri, 21 May 10
Symantec Is Buying VeriSign's Web-Security Arm
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73472
Symantec Corp.'s decision to pay $1.28 billion to buy a division of VeriSign Inc. that sells security technology to Web sites highlights how quickly the companies are moving in opposite directions.
Symantec, best known for its antivirus software for personal computers, wants to secure more things.
With the VeriSign deal, announced Wednesday, Symantec will have spent nearly $3 billion in two years acquiring technologies that make it a bigger player in other parts of the security market, such as protecting data on mobile phones and delivering software over the Internet.
Meanwhile, VeriSign, whose brand is ubiquitous on the Web for protecting online transactions, wants to secure fewer things.
It wants to focus instead on a lesser-known but more robust part of its business: managing traffic to Web sites with addresses ending in ".com" and ".net," and collecting fees for registering those domain names.
VeriSign has been purging divisions for the past three years, after realizing it was spread too thin following a buying binge designed to insulate it from the kinds of problems it had after the dot-com collapse a decade ago.
Prior to Wednesday's deal with Symantec, VeriSign had sold more than a dozen businesses since 2007 for a total of nearly $1 billion. Some were curious choices for VeriSign to have in the first place, such as a division that did billing services for telecommunications companies and another that sold ring tones and insurance for mobile phones.
What Symantec gets out of the VeriSign deal is one of the Web's best-known brand names for security.
VeriSign's logo -- a check mark and the tag "VeriSign Secured" -- is ubiquitous on Web sites that have bought its security technology. The VeriSign division that Symantec is buying sells "certificates" to Web sites that want protection for their customers' data. The Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, certificates allow data...
Fri, 21 May 10
Procter & Gamble Opens E-Store To Sell Products
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73441
The world's largest consumer products maker says its online shopping store is open for business.
Procter & Gamble Co. said Wednesday the "eStore" is up and running for the general public after months of testing. The Cincinnati-based maker of such household brands as Tide detergent, Pampers diapers, and Olay skin cream has jumped into online retailing with a site operated by Plano, Texas-based PFSweb.
P&G insists the venture's main goal is to learn more about online shopping, and not to compete with stores and online retailers. P&G says it will share the "learning lab" information it gathers and that will help retail partners sell more P&G products.
The site offers $5 flat-rate shipping and also P&G's digital coupons. Initial prices appear comparable to retail stores.
It's still marked "beta," in what P&G spokeswoman Aja Silvas calls "a nod to show that this is a living learning lab, and a work in progress with the input of our online shoppers."
Most major retailers have been building up their Web businesses because of shopping growth online that Forrester Research says has been at double-digit rates.
P&G's leaders sees the Web as a good growth opportunity, saying less than 1 percent of its sales currently come there, mainly through such as sites as Amazon.com, Walmart.com and other retailers.
They don't expect the site to have much immediate impact on revenue or profits, but to provide key insights into what works best in digital marketing and shopping. P&G plans tie-ins with social media sites such as Facebook and also a mobile phone application.
Fri, 21 May 10
For Companies, Cloud Computing Concepts Clear
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73438
Cloud computing used to be one of those wispy technical phrases that was hard to define.
Was it a new name for outsourcing? A different kind of computer network? Or just marketing nonsense?
But the overcast outlook is beginning to clear: Cloud computing is a new business that lets you rent computers by the hour, the way you might rent a fishing boat.
Just ask Jim Graham, a 3M technical manager, who has launched a new software business from his St. Paul, Minn., research lab without using any 3M computers. Instead it lives "in the cloud," which means 3M's software resides on computers in Microsoft Corp. data centers around the world.
His reason: Cloud computing is an inexpensive way to launch a new business for which demand is unknown. Rather than commit to buying or leasing computers, telecommunications lines and data storage, Graham rents them.
3M's new business, called Visual Attention Service, lends itself to cloud computing. 3M software analyzes advertising agency photos to help determine, in less than a minute, whether the picture actually directs a customer's eye to the object being sold. This work has typically been done by experts, but 3M's automated process is cheap and quick.
But will it sell? Since 3M can't predict the demand for the service, which was introduced in January, it didn't want to commit to long-term data center use. Graham's new business has become a cloud-computing pilot project that the rest of 3M is watching.
If it works, 3M could be one of the first big corporations to widely adopt cloud computing, which so far has attracted mainly small and medium-sized businesses seeking to lower costs. Big companies, which have voiced more concerns about privacy and security, haven't embraced it.
But cloud-computing providers are pushing it hard.
Besides Microsoft, St. Paul-based Lawson Software Inc. and Eden Prairie, Minn.-based VISI Inc....
Fri, 21 May 10
No Bull: HP Scientists Say Manure Can Fuel Data Centers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73434
Giving new meaning to the term "server farm," a team of Hewlett-Packard researchers has come up with a plan for combining cow chips and computer chips to build an environmentally friendly data center -- powered by manure.
In a paper set for release this week, HP scientists have proposed using a "biogas" recovery system that would convert livestock waste into methane, to be used as fuel to generate electricity for data centers -- those cutting-edge computer facilities that serve as the nerve centers for an increasingly Internet-dependent world.
In turn, the system would use the heat produced by the banks of server computers -- sometimes referred to as server farms -- to assist the process of converting the animal waste into fuel.
The result is what Chandrakant Patel, a scientist at HP Labs in Palo Alto, Calif., calls "a symbiotic relationship between manure and IT."
Patel, who recalls collecting buffalo droppings for fuel as a boy in rural India, says the ancient practice of burning manure for energy can be updated with new technology, in a process his team has outlined in a paper they're presenting this week at a conference on energy sustainability, convened in Phoenix by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
HP says it has no immediate plans to build a dung-powered data center.
But these days, energy efficiency is an industry Holy Grail.
Modern data centers require vast amounts of electricity, both to power their high-tech components and to run air conditioners that keep the computers from over-heating. That translates to high energy bills and a big carbon footprint, at a time when corporations face growing pressure to be green.
Some big tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, have built large data centers in the Pacific Northwest, where power from hydroelectric dams is plentiful and less pricey.
But that's not always an option, and Patel...
Thu, 20 May 10
VMware, Google To Collaborate on Cloud Applications
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73463
VMware on Wednesday announced a high-tech collaboration with Google. The companies said they will make enterprise software developers more efficient in building, deploying and managing applications in the cloud.
VMware President Paul Maritz announced the collaboration at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, emphasizing how the work by the companies will accelerate enterprise adoption of private, public and hybrid clouds. It was all part of the 2010 Google I/O agenda to celebrate what Google describes as the "web's evolution into the software development platform of choice."
"Companies are actively looking to move toward cloud computing. They are certainly attracted by the economic advantages associated with the cloud, but increasingly are focused on the business agility and innovation promised by cloud computing," Maritz said.
He said VMware and Google are partnering to reassure mutual customers -- and the Java community -- that choice and portability are important to both companies. VMware and Google will work to make sure modern applications can run smoothly within the firewalls of a company's data center or out in the public cloud environment.
The companies said they will accomplish this by working on multiple fronts. The end result is supposed to make it easier for Java developers to build rich web applications, use Google and VMware performance tools on cloud apps, and deploy Spring Java applications on the Google App Engine.
The Spring Java effort is part of a vision Google shares with VMware to make applications easier to develop and more portable across clouds. Developers can use the Eclipse-based SpringSource Tool Suite to build Spring apps that can be deployed in VMware vSphere, VMware vCloud partner clouds, or directly to the Google App Engine.
VMware and Google are also working to blend the benefits of Spring Roo with Google Web Toolkit (GWT) to build rich...
Thu, 20 May 10
Adobe Releases HTML5 Add-On for Creative Suite 5
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73462
Adobe Systems announced Wednesday that it is releasing a new HTML5 tool set for web designers and developers as an add-on to its Creative Suite 5. The move follows weeks of verbal jousts between Adobe and Apple over the latter's insistence that HTML5 and other solutions be used for interactive multimedia on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, rather than Adobe's popular Flash technology.
The announcement was made at Google's third annual I/O developers conference, now taking place in San Francisco. Google has also promoted the use of HTML5, but Flash is expected to be supported by the next version of the search giant's Android mobile operating system.
The Adobe HTML5 Pack is an extension to Dreamweaver CS5, the newest version of its web authoring tool. The company said the new tools will enable developers and designers to "more easily create, deliver and optimize compelling content" across a wide range of platforms and screen sizes. The extension is offered as a free download.
The extension includes code hinting for HTML5 and CSS3, so Dreamweaver users can more easily use the new HTML5 tags. There are also WebKit engine updates and support for video and audio in Dreamweaver's Live View. New CSS3 functions enable users to design multiple web pages and see how they will look and operate on various browsers and devices, and there are HTML5 starter layouts.
The Adobe-Apple battle over Flash has heated up in the last few weeks. A recent open letter to Apple from Adobe cofounders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke accused the maker of the iPhone, iPod and iPad of undermining "the next chapter of the web."
Adobe published the letter on its Web site and launched an advertising campaign. Some of the ads were placed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The...
Thu, 20 May 10
Yahoo Challenges Google with Associated Content Deal
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73455
Yahoo is doing more than rolling out new advertising campaigns that shed a negative light on Google. The struggling search engine is making acquisitions that shed a positive light on its network.
On Tuesday, Yahoo announced an agreement to acquire Associated Content. With the deal, Yahoo is moving to offer more relevant content to its 600 million users and give its tens of thousands of advertisers more relevant backdrops against which to trumpet their wares.
An emboldened Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz called the deal a game changer and outlined the plan for the Associated Content acquisition: To "create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network."
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. What we do know is that Associated Content was founded by Luke Beatty in Denver in 2004. Associated Content boasts more than 16 million unique users per month, according to comScore, and the editorial staff reviews more than 50,000 pieces of content -- including articles, images, audio and video -- every month.
Associated Content brings about 380,000 contributing writers on more than 60,000 topics to the Yahoo table. Yahoo plans to leverage that force to better its social, mobile, local and media offerings with more diverse content. Associated Content's articles are U.S.-centric, but Yahoo plans to scale the crowd-sourced content platform globally.
Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said the Associated Content acquisition may turn out to be a genius move for Yahoo -- but it's very complicated.
"Yahoo, which has long aspired to produce its own content, now must manage hundreds of low-paid freelancers. It does provide a way to generate more traffic and page views that can host display ads, but I'm skeptical that this is going...
Thu, 20 May 10
Surging Smartphone Sales Boost Cell-Phone Market
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73454
Global cell-phone shipments rose 17 percent year over year to 314.7 million units in the first quarter, buoyed by robust smartphone sales, according to Gartner analysts. Smartphone sales to end users soared 48.7 percent to 54.3 million units -- the strongest year-on-year increase since 2006.
Smartphones accounted for 17.3 percent of all mobile handset sales in the first quarter -- up from 13.6 percent in the same period last year. Apple's iPhones, Research In Motion's BlackBerry handsets, and smartphones based on Google's Android OS all proved to be big winners in the first three months of the year.
"The first quarter was Apple's strongest quarter yet, which placed the company in the No. 7 position with a 112.2 percent increase in mobile-device sales," noted Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi.
During the first quarter, Android displaced Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform in the number-four global smartphone slot for the first time, Milanesi noted. Moreover, Android was the biggest winner in the U.S. market, where it displaced Apple's iPhone OS as the number-two smartphone platform by growing its market share by nearly 22 percentage points year over year to 26.6 percent.
"Android's momentum continued into the first quarter of 2010, particularly in North America, where sales of Android-based phones increased 707 percent year on year," Milanesi said.
BlackBerry sales reached 10.6 million units in the quarter -- a 45.9 percent year-on-year increase. "This quarter saw RIM, a pure smartphone player, make its debut in the top five mobile-device manufacturers, and saw Apple increase its market share by 1.2 percentage points," Milanesi said.
RIM's focus on its ecosystem strategy -- together with its tightly integrated control of store, OS and device -- played to RIM's strengths on a global basis during the first quarter, Milanesi noted. In the United States, however, RIM saw its...
Thu, 20 May 10
New iPhone OS Beta Includes a Tethering Option
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73453
A new beta version of the upcoming operating system for Apple's iPhone shows an option in the settings for tethering on AT&T's network. The carrier has not yet provided this service on Apple's devices in the U.S.
Tethering allows a laptop or other devices to share a 3G connection with the iPhone through Bluetooth or USB. The fourth beta of OS 4.0 became available to developers on Tuesday, part of Apple's regular release every few weeks of a new build. While there are other minor changes in the new beta, tethering is capturing the most attention because of the multiplier effect it could have to quickly broaden mobile connectivity.
The indication of Internet tethering via AT&T is now explicit in the network settings of this beta. A screen to "Set Up Internet Tethering" instructs that "to enable tethering on this account, contact AT&T at 611 or visit http://www.att.com/mywireless." Button choices are to call, go to web site, or cancel.
Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, noted that the tethering option has been in the iPhone since last year, but has not been implemented by AT&T, the exclusive carrier in the U.S. AT&T has indicated it will eventually support the functionality, but hasn't committed as to when, saying it needs to ensure it can deliver the network capacity.
Rubin said the difference between how tethering is supported in the iPhone OS beta and previously indicates that "it might be shifting from being the carrier's prerogative to Apple saying the user can set it up." In its earlier incarnation, he said, tethering needed a service update or other action by the carrier for the user to see the functionality.
He noted that iPhone tethering has been implemented in other countries outside the U.S. AT&T currently supports tethering...
Thu, 20 May 10
Microsoft Files Patent Suit Against Salesforce.com
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73452
Microsoft on Tuesday filed a patent-infringement action against Salesforce.com in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Microsoft claims Salesforce.com's customer relationship management (CRM) product trespasses on nine of its patents.
The patents in question work to make CRM software more efficient. But by targeting Salesforce.com with the suit, it appears Microsoft is going for the jugular. CRM is at the heart of Salesforce.com's business model.
Microsoft is seeking a court order that would prohibit Salesforce.com from offering features in its software suite that infringe on its patents. If Microsoft succeeds, it could damage the core of Salesforce.com's business.
"Microsoft has been a leader and innovator in the software industry for decades and continues to invest billions of dollars each year in bringing great software products and services to market," said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing. "We have a responsibility to our customers, partners and shareholders to safeguard that investment, and therefore cannot stand idly by when others infringe our IP rights."
Salesforce.com Director of Public Relations Gordon Evans declined to comment on the lawsuit. However, the company's recent regulatory filing mentions a "large technology company" alleging patent infringement in 2009. In the regulatory filing, Salesforce.com said it was in talks with the company.
"The resolution of this claim is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, but it could be material to the net income or cash flows or both of a particular quarter," Salesforce said in the filing. Unless there are additional IP-infringement allegations that have not yet been revealed, it appears that "large technology company" could be Microsoft.
It's very unusual for Microsoft to file a patent-infringement suit. In fact, Microsoft has only filed four such suits in...
Thu, 20 May 10
Tech Titans Are Playing 'Let's Make a Deal'
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73412
After a recession-induced lull, the tech industry is back playing a familiar game: Let's Make A Deal.
Just last week, SAP plunked down $5.8 billion on database maker Sybase in the biggest tech deal of the year. A recent flurry of wheeling-and-dealing included IBM, which gobbled up Cast Iron Systems to bolster its standing in Internet-based computing. Apple nabbed Siri, maker of a voice-recognition application, and Intrinsity, a chip designer. Hewlett-Packard snapped up Palm for $1.2 billion. And Salesforce.com acquired Jigsaw, maker of a Web-based business address book, for $142 million.
In this season of mergers and acquisitions, there are bargains aplenty. And many start-ups -- especially in hot markets such as mobile and cloud computing -- love it.
"Being in the right space definitely makes things exciting," says Krishna Subramanian, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Mobclix, a 2-year-old start-up that does mobile advertising for apps. It's been approached by a handful of would-be buyers in the past six months, he says.
Milo.com, a 2-year-old local-shopping search service, has been approached by several potential acquirers the past four months, and by about 40 venture capitalists about possible investments, says Jack Abraham, its founder and CEO. Venture capital "and M&A drive each other," he says.
Through the first quarter of 2010, the number of tech mergers and acquisitions announced globally swelled to 628, from 405 in the same period a year ago. The average value of deals in which the purchase price was disclosed also mushroomed, to $68 million from $44 million, says Ernst & Young. Acquisitions "really matter to us," Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said in an earnings call in April. Google acquired Picnik, On2 Technologies and Aardvark in the past few months to "build on (Google's) existing focus areas and to bring new talent and new technology."
The rise in activity reflects...
Thu, 20 May 10
iPhone's Cool Factor Trumps Better Technology
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73405
It's been three years, an eternity for gadgets, since Apple Inc. unveiled the iPhone, and by now other phones do some things better. Yet Apple is selling more iPhones than ever.
What is it about the iPhone? Its success shows how Apple has triumphed at two crucial qualities: status and simplicity. And it's a reminder that while intense Apple fans will obsess over the upgrades the iPhone is expected to get this summer, such details won't matter as much to everyday buyers.
Other phones have higher-resolution cameras and can shoot high-definition video. The processor seems faster in new phones such as the Droid Incredible. A more energy-efficient touch-screen technology is eclipsing the one used in the iPhone screen. And competitors are matching features that once set the iPhone apart, including its slim shape and its store with thousands of applications and games.
"This thing is not state of the art," says ABI Research analyst Michael Morgan.
But whether the iPhone has the best technology doesn't seem to be the question most people ask.
Instead, many people crave the aura of cool that iPhones seem to convey.
"When you see people with them, I'm like, `Oh, OK, they get it,'" says Jason Sfetko, a designer at Complex magazine in New York. When he sees someone with a BlackBerry, "I might think, maybe they're an accountant or something. They're answering too many e-mails."
The allure extends to China, where Apple started selling iPhones in October. "I'm quite amazed about what the iPhone has achieved," says Deng Jinchun, a manager at Jing Lang, a large iPhone retailer in China's Hunan province. With slight changes, "Apple has been selling the same phone for about three years and the sales are still increasing. I can't imagine a Nokia phone or any other brand could achieve something similar."
Others are more focused on the...
Thu, 20 May 10
NAS Offers Centralized Storage and Convenience
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73386
Digital photos, videos, music, and more -- the volume of personal data we store grows by the day. That's why the question of where to find secure, simple storage solutions is increasingly on the minds of computer users.
On the one hand, it's important for the data to be easily accessible -- and in some cases by multiple users. Standard external hard drives are one option, but the logistics can get complicated. A different, better option is network attached storage, or NAS for short.
NAS refers to a box that holds one or more hard drives and a processor capable of assuming the functions of a standard file server. The NAS doesn't connect to just one computer, but rather directly into the home network via an Ethernet cable to the router.
"Networking is on the rise in private households as well," says Roland Stehle from the Society for Entertainment and Communications Electronics (gfu) in Frankfurt. As would be expected, NAS storage is thus also of increased interest for consumers. The devices come from manufacturers like Buffalo, Netgear, Plextor and Western Digital.
The primary benefit is centralized storage. "It's of interest to families with two or more computers, for example," says Daniel Mauerhofen from Western Digital. Everyone with access to the home network can access the data. Films, photos, and music are then available to all network-ready devices in the home.
The NAS owner defines who has access to what during the initial configuration, and the setup procedure is not overly complicated. "The user interface for these devices is similar to that found in Windows," says Boi Feddern from c't magazine.
Simple models are available for around $100. In many cases those are actually NDAS (Network Direct Attached Storage) devices. Unlike NAS, those devices do not include a server function. Any computer needing to access them will...
Wed, 19 May 10
Google Teams with Sony and Intel for Smart TV Initiative
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73426
Imagine a TV screen with windows or tabs displaying Monday Night Football and the day's stock quotes, e-mail and your Facebook profile all available at the same time, with the ability to toggle between them. Google wants to make that vision a reality, partnering with Sony, Logitech and Intel to expand its Internet presence and its Android operating system further into everyday American life with Smart TV.
The search giant will announce its quest to add software to TV sets at its I/O conference in San Francisco on Thursday, which will be attended by 3,000 developers the company hopes will produce content and applications for Smart TV.
The initiative would further Intel's goal of getting its chips into a larger range of devices, help Sony win back market share it has lost to Samsung and LG Electronics, and help Google generate revenue from targeted ads and content. Google is in the process of acquiring advertising giant AdMob in a bid to kick up its commercial output. Logitech would create peripherals such as keyboards for the effort.
But it's not an easy road to the bank. The merger of TV and Internet has been slow, with only small steps like Hulu's vintage TV archive, Apple's undersold Apple TV set-top box that allows iTunes downloads of shows and movies, Netflix's movie service via computer or Nintendo's Wii, and Boxee, which displays web content on plugged-in sets.
"It's a challenging space," says Michael Gartenberg, a partner with the technology consulting firm Altimeter Group. "Even Apple calls Apple TV a hobby at this point. Given, however, that consumers are looking at more connected screens, it's no surprise Google wants to make sure their content, services and, of course, ads are on the TV as well as the PC and phone."
Eric B. Kim, senior...
Wed, 19 May 10
Amazon Will Offer Kindle for Android E-Reader App
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73425
Amazon.com is on the verge of releasing a new Kindle app that will enable Android smartphone users to read e-books. The free software download to access more than 540,000 books in the Kindle Store is slated to be released this summer, the online retailing giant said.
As is the case with all Kindle apps for the BlackBerry, the iPhone, and other mobile platforms, Kindle for Android will integrate Amazon's homegrown Whispersync technology, which saves and synchronizes the reader's bookmarks across devices. "We think customers are going to love the convenience and simplicity of having instant access to a massive selection of books from Amazon," said Jay Marine, director of Amazon Kindle.
Handset users who wish to download Kindle for Android this summer will need a smartphone running Android OS version 1.6 or greater and an SD card. According to Amazon, the app will be compatible with the Droid Incredible, Google Nexus One, HTC MyTouch, Motorola CLIQ, and Motorola Droid, as well as many other Android-based handsets.
Amazon's embrace of the Android platform is no small move for the online retailing giant now that Android-based mobile devices have begun outstripping the popularity of the iPhone in the United States. In a first-quarter survey by the NPD Group, 28 percent of the respondents indicated their preference for a smartphone running Android, versus 21 percent for Apple's iPhone OS.
During the first quarter, carrier distribution and promotions continued to play a crucial role in determining smartphone market share, said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD. "In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones," Rubin explained.
Considering the number of devices and vendors backing Android, it was only "a question of time" before the Android platform overtook...
Wed, 19 May 10
Revamped Microsoft Hotmail Features Management
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73419
Closely following the recent release to business of its Office 2010 suite, Microsoft announced Monday a new version of its Windows Live Hotmail. The software giant is describing the newest version of the popular mail client as "the next generation in personal e-mail."
In a post on the company's Windows Live blog, Group Program Manager Dick Craddock said the new version addresses e-mail needs that have arisen in the last few years, including e-mail that often requires a user to leave the inbox to complete an action, bigger attachments, and smartphones that sync e-mail, contacts and calendar.
Not surprisingly, Craddock said Microsoft's research showed the number-one issue for e-mail users is helping to manage the deluge of incoming e-mail.
To help users "take back your inbox," he said, Hotmail will offer new tools that will not only help with a Hotmail inbox, but also with other e-mail services like Gmail, Yahoo Mail Plus, or AOL -- all from within Hotmail.
In a new summary screen, incoming mail is divided into categories such as from contacts, social updates, appointments, shipping notices, or flagged, and the categories can be used to sort the inbox. Since many people receive social updates from their friends on Facebook, Flickr and the like, the updated Hotmail also lets a user post comments directly to the sites.
A new tool, which Craddock described as "the first and only virtual broom in any inbox," can manually or automatically sweep unwanted graymail -- not spam, but not top priority -- into folders. Automatic sweeping can be set up by checking a box.
E-mails with photos can automatically show a preview of attachments and be viewed as a slideshow with one click. By combining Hotmail with an account on Windows Live's online storage service, SkyDrive,...
Wed, 19 May 10
Best Buy Offers Release-Day Access To Movies, TV
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73418
Best Buy has made good on its promise to offer a digital video service that will give its customers same-day access to new-release movies and TV shows. On Tuesday, the electronics retailer rolled out its CinemaNow service on some models of the Blu-ray Disc players and HDTVs it sells. The service is also available on most PCs.
For now, Best Buy is focusing on LG Electronics' brand of Blu-ray Disc players and home theater systems. But the company also plans to launch the content-download service on a range of devices from other manufacturers later this year.
Chris Homeister, senior vice president of entertainment for Best Buy, pointed to the CinemaNow rollout as proof that the company is committed to evolving with its customers as the demand for digital content grows. But analysts aren't so sure most consumers are looking for an alternative to the already-popular services they are using.
Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, thinks Best Buy will soon discover that the CinemaNow brand is weak in comparison to Amazon Video on Demand, Netflix and iTunes. Indeed, the brand is not as well known as the trio of market changers Leigh listed.
"The advantage CinemaNow has against Netflix is that there will be no subscription required," Leigh said. "But I am not sure that's a significant advantage, because with the subscription people are constantly reminded of the availability of the service."
Best Buy almost has to make a move, since it owns the legal rights to the trademark CinemaNow. CinemaNow in its current form is the offspring of a strategic partnership between Sonic Solutions and Best Buy. The service is powered by RoxioNow technology.
Best Buy plans to use the brand name to market digital movies and TV shows to consumers that want to buy...
Wed, 19 May 10
MySpace Updates Privacy To Woo Angry Facebookers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73414
As the firestorm around Facebook and its privacy issues continues, MySpace is making a push to simplify its privacy tools. In doing so, the ailing social network appears to be trying to exploit Facebook's perceived flaws to woo users back to its platform.
Indeed, Mike Jones, copresident of MySpace, tipped the social-media giant's hand when he announced the new privacy measures, noting that the last few weeks have been "fraught with discussion around user privacy on social networks." MySpace, he said, is taking the opportunity to discuss its view of user privacy on MySpace.
Of course, MySpace itself has been in the media spotlight in years past for the dangers associated with children and teenagers sharing personal information with strangers. Did MySpace learn something from its history that could help it make a comeback in a social-media world where privacy is an ever-growing concern?
"We want our users to know we are planning the launch of a simplified privacy setting for our user profiles," Jones said. "While we've had these plans in the works for some time, given the recent outcry over privacy concerns in the media, we felt it was important to unveil those plans to our users now."
MySpace believes users want a simpler way to control their privacy. In the coming weeks, MySpace will strive to deliver that simpler way with what Jones calls a "more intuitive approach" that gives users more control over their information.
Specifically, the new MySpace privacy-setting options will include "public," "friends only," or "public to anyone 18 or over." In making this change, Jones said MySpace will default the setting to "friends only" for any user who previously had any granular page setting to "friends only." Users can change this option with one click if they choose.
MySpace has fallen far...
Wed, 19 May 10
YouTube Celebrates Birthday with a Five-Year Channel
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73413
In a future history of media, YouTube's fifth birthday may mark the point when Internet video became a grown-up, next to its older sibling, television. The popular video site marked its birthday Sunday and touted its more than two billion views every day.
"That's nearly double the prime-time audience for all three major U.S. television networks combined," the site noted on its official blog. The YouTube figure includes its international viewers.
YouTube said that "what started as a site for bedroom vloggers and viral videos has evolved into a global platform that supports HD and 3-D, broadcasts entire sports sessions live in 200+ countries," and delivers Hollywood features, independent films, and videos that document social unrest. The first video ever uploaded to the site, called Me at the Zoo, was posted shortly before the launch by cofounder Jawed Karim, and was 19 seconds long. In 2006, the "site for bedroom vloggers" was purchased for $1.65 billion by Google.
Since then, the site has taken an increasingly prominent position in the culture. Some videos, for instance, have achieved instant classic status, including Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent competition, Barack Obama's YouTube videos, and daily uploads of videos from the Iranian election protests.
Appropriately, to celebrate its fifth birthday, the site is starting a Five Year channel, with video stories of how YouTube has "changed or shaped" people's lives. One story, for instance, features a Hawaii teen who began posting his short fictional movies and later changed his major to film in college. There's also an interview with Jessica Rose, the actress who played 16-year-old Bree in the hit fake-diary series, Lonely Girl 15.
YouTube asked guest curators to pick their favorites -- Net pioneer Vint Cerf, news anchor Katie Couric, talk-show host Conan O'Brien, and film director Pedro...
Wed, 19 May 10
IBM To Open New Service Center, Add 800 Jobs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73409
Big Blue is coming to the land of black and gold.
Global technology company IBM announced Monday that it is opening a technology service delivery center in a Columbia office park that could create as many as 800 new jobs in central Missouri.
Gov. Jay Nixon and other state and local officials joined company leaders Monday afternoon for the announcement outside City Hall before hundreds of supporters crowded onto a closed city street and office workers watching overhead from second- and third-floor windows.
Nixon called the International Business Machines Corp. center -- code-named "Project Tiger" after the University of Missouri mascot during the secret negotiations leading up to the move -- "a home run for mid-Missouri and the entire Show-Me State."
"There is no bigger name in the global information technology industry," he said.
The state is offering IBM more than $28 million in tax credits and other economic incentives to come to Missouri, including $4.2 million toward job training. And the City Council is expected to approve a proposal Monday night to purchase for $3.2 million the abandoned office building in east Columbia where IBM will locate its center.
In turn, IBM will pay $1 in annual rent over 15 years while paying just 50 percent of the personal property taxes on its equipment.
Company officials said they plan to work closely with the university to cultivate partnerships and groom potential new hires. IBM senior vice president Tim Shaughnessy said the service center should be open by the fall with 100 new hires and fully staffed by 2012. He could not specify how many of the estimated 800 jobs would be local hires as opposed to current IBM employees who relocate to Missouri.
"We needed a site that had the right attitude," he said. "We found that in Columbia."
The technology services delivery center will be the company's...
Wed, 19 May 10
Cryptography Pioneer Whit Diffie Joins ICANN Staff
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73391
Cryptography pioneer Whit Diffie has joined the staff of the Internet's key oversight agency for domain names.
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As vice president for information security and cryptography, Diffie will provide general advice on security and help manage networks operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.
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Diffie, 65, previously served as vice president and chief security officer at Sun Microsystems Inc., where he worked from 1991 to 2009, just before Oracle Corp. took over Sun.
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A paper Diffie co-wrote in 1976 advanced computer scientists' understanding of how to deal with the mathematical keys required for unscrambling sensitive messages.
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ICANN is in the midst of pushing security improvements in the domain name system, a network of thousands of servers around the world that tell computers how to locate specific Web sites. Because of the system's decentralized nature, hackers have many potential launching points for attacks that, for instance, could land you at a scam Web site instead of your bank's site.
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While ICANN does not run many of these domain name servers directly, it can press for the use of a security protocol that is meant to verify that the directory information is authentic. The technology uses mathematical techniques similar to encryption.
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Diffie declined an interview request Friday, but he said in an e-mail that the security challenges facing ICANN and the domain system are very similar to those facing the Internet as a whole.
Wed, 19 May 10
Germany Lashes Out at Google for Privacy Breach
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73388
Germany's consumer protection minister strongly criticized Google for a widespread privacy breach and insisted Saturday the U.S. Internet giant must cooperate better with data protection authorities.
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Google Inc. issued an apology Friday, acknowledging it has been vacuuming up fragments of people's online activities broadcast over public Wi-Fi networks for the past four years while expanding a mapping feature called Street View.
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Minister Ilse Aigner said the alarming incident showed that Google still lacks an understanding of the need for privacy.
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According to the information available to us so far, Google has for years penetrated private networks, apparently illegally, her office said in a statement Saturday.
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The ministry also accuses Google of withholding information requested by German regulators.
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Only two weeks ago, Google was telling Germany's consumer protection authorities that it was only recording the network's names and addresses. Repeated questions about whether the company was gathering even more data remained unanswered, the statement said.
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Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do, Alan Eustace, Google's top engineering executive, wrote in a blog post. We are acutely aware that we failed badly here.
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Google has characterized its collection of snippets from e-mails and Web surfing done on public Wi-Fi networks as a mistake and said it has taken steps to avoid a recurrence. The company said it only recently discovered the problem following the inquiry from German regulators.
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Street View provides photographs of neighborhoods taken by Google cameras. The service has been enormously controversial in Germany and other countries as privacy groups and authorities fear that people -- filmed without their consent -- could be seen doing things they didn't want to be seen doing or in places where they didn't want to be seen.
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The German ministry is now demanding that Google follow through on pledges to disclose its activities to data protection authorities in all countries.
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It also...
Wed, 19 May 10
'Contactless Commerce' Is the Latest Mobile Trend
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73387
At the Rochester, Ind., Dairy Queen, more than 350 customers can wave special stickers fixed to the backs of their cell phones at a scanner in the store, thereby banking loyalty points and qualifying for free cones and Blizzard sundaes. Customers have come back to the store more frequently as a result, helping sale rise more than 3 percent in the past year, says co-owner Dave Reasner. It's something that's working, he says.
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The radio frequency identification technology behind DQ's loyalty cards, similar to warehouse inventory tracking systems, is starting to work on behalf of consumers at the cash register. Discover Financial Services, Citigroup, and Visa are introducing contactless payment technology that lets consumers pay for purchases by waving chips attached to their cell phones. Instead of swiping a credit or debit card, consumers can wave or tap phones -- items that are nearly always handy -- equipped with specially encoded stickers, or holsters, on receivers at the checkout counter.
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Card issuers also hope that handset makers will embed the RFID chips into phones, then create smartphone applications to help shoppers manage payments. Everything you store in a leather wallet will migrate to a mobile handset, says Barry McCarthy, a general manager at First Data, which processes transactions for 2,000 card issuers worldwide.
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This summer, Citigroup will start issuing contactless payment stickers to some customers, says managing director Liza Landsman. Later this year, some Discover Card customers will be able to wave or tap two-inch-square stickers glued to the backs of their iPhones at McDonald's, 7-Eleven, and Home Depot stores. Discover Network, which issues the cards, plans first to test the technology with users of its iPhone app for viewing statements.
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On May 4, Visa and contactless device vendor DeviceFidelity briefly posted online -- and then removed -- a press release that said the...
Wed, 19 May 10
Optimistic Samsung Plans To Triple Spending
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73377
Samsung Electronics said Monday it will more than triple investment in capital spending and research and development this year to a record 26 trillion won ($22.7 billion), betting on future growth despite questions about the global economic outlook.
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Samsung said the investment in new production facilities means it expects to hire 10,000 new workers this year.
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The world's biggest manufacturer of memory chips and flat screen TVs will spend about 18 trillion won on facilities -- 11 trillion won for semiconductor manufacturing and 5 trillion won to increase production capacity for liquid crystal display panels. It will also spend 8 trillion won for RD, it said in a release.
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The total dwarfs the approximately 8 trillion won the company spent last year, according to a figure provided by Samsung spokeswoman Lee Soo-jeong.
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Although the global economic environment and business conditions remain changeable and uncertain, if we invest aggressively in expanding facilities and in hiring then these circumstances also present Samsung an opportunity for future growth and to stimulate the economy, Chairman Lee Kun-hee said in the release.
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Lee spoke at a groundbreaking ceremony attended by about 500 Samsung executives for a new memory chip plant in the city of Hwaseong, just south of Seoul.
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Monday's announcement came after the broader Samsung Group conglomerate said last week said plans to invest 23.3 trillion won over the next decade in technologies including solar cells and medical devices in a bid to boost sales and expand its work force.
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Samsung Group, which consists of dozens of companies in areas including electronics, shipbuilding, finance and fashion, said the money would be spent in five areas: solar cells, rechargeable cells for hybrid electric vehicles, LED, or light emitting diode, technologies, biopharmaceuticals and medical devices.
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Moody's Investors Service hailed last week's announcement as showing the kind of vision needed to support growth.
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The strategic...
Tue, 18 May 10
iPhone 4G Leak Hurt Current Sales, Apple Tells Court
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73398
Recent court documents filed by Apple in the April loss of an iPhone 4G prototype and its sale to a tech site claim the company could face a substantial loss as a result of consumers seeing the device prematurely.
"By publishing details about the phone and its features, sales of current Apple products are hurt wherein people that would have otherwise purchased a currently existing Apple product would wait for the next item to be released," said Apple lawyer George Riley in an affidavit unsealed by San Mateo, Calif., Judge Clifford Cretan on Friday.
The affidavit was given to a detective in support of a warrant to search the home of Jason Chen, the Gizmodo editor who reportedly paid $5,000 for the device.
"What they are talking about is that when end users know a new phone is coming, they stop buying the current version, leaving those holding stock to reduce prices to move the inventory," says Ken Dulaney, an analyst for Gartner Research.
But one week before the iPhone 4G photos and a breakdown were published, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the 4.0 version of the iPhone operating system. While that OS will work on most current models, Apple has released new iPhone hardware every summer since 2007.
Still, Dulaney said, this speculation may not have trickled down to a wide audience if not for the prototype leak, which received national media coverage outside of the dedicated technology beat. "We in the press and analyst area keep up on these things while the consumer doesn't," he said. "This just made it more public."
Apple's soaring stock price hasn't shown any signs of harm, trading at $258 on Monday, compared to $247 on April 19, when the photos were published.
And a new report on DigiTimes, a Taiwanese technology daily, projects that Foxconn, Apple's handset...
Tue, 18 May 10
Microsoft Will Pay VirnetX $200M To Settle Patent Suits
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73397
VirnetX Holding and Microsoft said Monday that the companies have agreed to settle two patent-infringement cases as part of an out-of-court deal under which VirnetX will receive nearly twice the amount a Texas jury recommended in March. Both VirnetX lawsuits pending against Microsoft will be dismissed, the companies said.
A Texas jury ruled March 16 that Microsoft willfully infringed on two VirnetX patents pertaining to the use of secure communication links between computing devices. The jury recommended to the U.S. District Court that VirnetX be awarded $105.75 million in damages.
Then on March 18, VirnetX filed a new lawsuit alleging that Microsoft's Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 infringe on the same patents cited in the original lawsuit. The move was "a tactical and procedural post-trial action to ensure and protect our property rights as we proceed to final resolution with Microsoft," said VirnetX CEO Kendall Larsen at the time.
As part of the settlement announced Monday, Microsoft will license VirnetX's patents for use in its products in return for a one-time cash payment of $200 million. Though the other terms of the settlement agreement were not disclosed, it's clear that another benefit for Microsoft is the termination of all court proceedings, including VirnetX's request for injunctive relief.
Injunctive relief was also on Microsoft's mind when it asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this year to reexamine the i4i patents that ultimately led to Microsoft being enjoined from licensing the ability to open Microsoft Word documents containing custom XML. However, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled last week that i4i's patents are valid.
Microsoft issued a work-around patch for custom XML in January so the software giant could continue to sell its Office productivity suite. However, Microsoft continues to face a jury award amounting to more than $290 million...
Tue, 18 May 10
Android and Flash May Star at Google's I/O Conference
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73396
With all the irons that Google has in various fires, there's a lot of speculation as to what will really catch fire in its third annual I/O developers conference, which starts Wednesday in San Francisco. Speculation about announcements and demonstrations include the next version of its open-source Android operating system, the new Google TV, Adobe's new Flash player on Android, enhancements to its browser-based Chrome operating system, and more.
As many as 5,000 developers and members of the press are expected to attend.
The Flash component of the conference is certain to be followed by developers who are frustrated by Apple's refusal to allow the popular video and animation technology on the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Adobe Systems and Apple have been publicly feuding over this issue, including open letters in the last few weeks by senior executives at each company that criticized the other.
Adobe has made a point of saying that Flash will be available on the next version of Google's Android mobile operating system, and Google has indicated it could be a part of the platform. At the I/O conference, Adobe is expected to show Flash Player 10.1, which is being released next month, on an Android-based device.
The upcoming 2.2 version of Android, dubbed Froyo, is also expected to be demonstrated. Froyo, shorthand for "frozen yogurt," is the latest in dessert nicknames that Google has given Android versions, such as Éclair 2.0 and 2.1, Donut 1.6, and Cupcake 1.5.
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Appropriately, there have been news reports of a variety of sweet treats coming in Froyo, including a massive 450 percent increase in performance over Éclair, sharing 3G connections through USB tethering or using an Android phone as a Wi-Fi hot spot, FM radio, and automatic updating of applications.
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subhead
Google TV?
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The interest in Android will be heightened by a recent...
Tue, 18 May 10
At Five, YouTube Video Views Top Two Billion a Day
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73394
YouTube is celebrating its fifth birthday and offering up some mind-boggling statistics that chronicle the growth of the video-sharing site. The Google-owned property is changing the face of broadcasting, but has yet to get out of the red.
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It all began in 2005. The YouTube team reminisced about months of late nights, testing and preparation that led up the launch of YouTube's first beta version. The mission was simple: Give anyone a place to easily upload their videos and share them with the world.
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What started as a site for bedroom vloggers and viral videos has evolved into a global platform that supports HD and 3-D, broadcasts entire sports seasons live to 200+ countries, the YouTube team said in a blog posting. That's more than self-congratulatory back-patting on YouTube's part. The impact the site has made on the Web 2.0 revolution is undeniable.
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subhead
YouTube by the Numbers
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YouTube became the place where you could broadcast yourself. Today, YouTube exceeds two billion views a day. That's nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined. This is only growing, as YouTube reports more than 24 hours of video is uploaded every minute.
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Although there's no profit, YouTube is actively seeking to cross that line -- and the company is making progress. YouTube now monetizes one billion videos every week. The company also reports that ad revenue tripled in 2009. And YouTube is attracting some heavy-hitting advertising clients. Ninety-four percent of Ad Age's top 100 advertisers have marketed their wares, widgets and services on the video site.
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YouTube has clearly continued to enjoy massive success as the leading video destination. Google also says that ad revenues are growing significantly there as well, said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.
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YouTube's efforts at subscription-based models so far have not fared as successfully,...
Tue, 18 May 10
Low-Cost HTC Wildfire Focuses on Social Networking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73393
As it prepares for a possibly long battle with Apple on intellectual property, HTC continues to roll out new Android-based smartphones. The Taiwanese handset maker hopes its latest device will catch on like, well, wildfire.
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Dubbed the HTC Wildfire, the new model is a Sense-based Android device laden with social-networking features akin to the Microsoft Kin smartphones. The Android 2.1 device is being billed as an affordable Android-powered device for the budget-conscious consumer.
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HTC has the opportunity to play either the high end or the low end of the consumer market with regards to volume. HTC is rapidly becoming synonymous with the leading player when it comes to Android customization, said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. But for many handset makers, the challenge is going to be how to differentiate their Android phone from everyone else's Android phone.
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subhead
Differentiating on Sociability
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HTC is trying to differentiate its latest handset with the social-networking play, despite the fact that several other popular devices offer the same value proposition. Florian Seiche, vice president of HTC's EMEA operations, said the Wildfire is targeted to young mobile users. Again, this isn't unique.
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That said, the Wildfire does put Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images and e-mail in what the company calls a HTC Friend Stream application. The application works to gather and display content from popular social networks and organize them into a single stream. The idea is to make it easier for Wildfire users to keep up with posts, comments, alerts and photos from friends.
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In a feature reminiscent of the Palm webOS operating system, the Wildfire's address book offers a thread of recent communications with each contact. At a glance, users can see when they last spoke to any given friend. They can also read recent text messages, e-mails and, of course, social-network updates. When a friend...
Tue, 18 May 10
Angry Users Seek Better Alternatives To Facebook
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73392
One drawback of building a huge social-networking community like Facebook is the intensity of that community when it gets mad at management. At the popular networking site, that anger -- over what some users perceive to be an erosion of their privacy -- is bubbling up in very public ways.
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For example, four New York University computer-science students are attempting to build a social-networking site that would value user privacy more highly than they believe Facebook does. In late April, they set themselves a minimum goal of raising $10,000, to pay for basic living expenses while they wrote code. They were able to raise that amount from online donors in 12 days. Within three weeks, as of Monday, they had raised nearly $175,000 from about 4,600 donors.
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subhead
'How Do I ...?'
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The open-source, free software they are developing is called Diaspora. We're going to build a great lightweight decentralized social-networking framework, write the four on their web site, joindiaspora.com. They added that they've also received offers of help from a massive number of talented and experienced people.
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There have also been publicized efforts by some users to delete their Facebook accounts and encourage others to do so. Web tech pundit Leo Laporte, for instance, has made public his efforts to delete his account -- and the convoluted efforts required to do so. Others have similarly publicized their attempts to quit Facebook, such as Google's search spam expert Matt Cutts and Engadget cofounder Peter Rojas. The effort has gathered enough interest that, on Google, entering How do I leads to How do I delete my Facebook account as the first auto-complete suggestion.
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In a recent question-and-answer article with Facebook users in The New York Times, Facebook Vice President for Public Policy Elliot Schrage said we don't share your information with advertisers. He added that the...
Tue, 18 May 10
Oops! Google Spies on Web Habits By Mistake
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73390
Google Inc. has been vacuuming up fragments of people's online activities broadcast over public Wi-Fi networks for the past four years, a breach of Web etiquette likely to raise more privacy worries about the Internet search leader.
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Even Google was troubled by its behavior, and issued a public apology Friday. The company said it only recently discovered the problem in response to an inquiry from German regulators.
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Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short, Alan Eustace, Google's top engineering executive, wrote in a blog post.
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Google characterized its collection of snippets from e-mails and Web surfing done on public Wi-Fi networks as a mistake, and said it has taken steps to avoid a recurrence. About 600 gigabytes of data was taken off of the Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries, including the U.S. Google plans to delete it all as soon as it gains clearance from government authorities.
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None of the information has appeared in Google's search engine or other services, according to Eustace.
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Nevertheless, Google's decision to hold on to the Wi-Fi data until it hears back from regulators shows the company realizes it could face legal repercussions. At the very least, company officials concede that snooping on Wi-Fi networks, however inadvertent, crossed an ethical line.
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We are acutely aware that we failed badly here, Eustace wrote.
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Google's contrition may not be enough to allay growing concerns about whether the company can be trusted with the vast storehouse of personal information that it has gathered through its search engine, e-mail and other services.
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Fears that Google is morphing into a real-life version of Big Brother has spurred previous privacy complaints, as well as pleas for more stringent regulation of the company.
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Consumer Watchdog, a group that has become one of Google's most outspoken critics, renewed its call for...
Tue, 18 May 10
Teens Learn Deadly Dangers of Texting While Driving
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73382
Kamy Mayott has been told that texting while driving is dangerous. But the 15-year-old didn't know just how dangerous until she navigated a golf cart through an obstacle course while texting and took out a whole row of orange cones.
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It definitely taught me to be careful and not to text while driving because I'm going to kill somebody, Mayott said.
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So far 25 states have banned texting while driving, but many are going a step further, sending kids through similar courses, so they can see the errors, accidents and fatalities they could cause. Officials hope the reality will alleviate the temptation to send an electronic message to a friend while behind the wheel.
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It's pretty eye opening for the kids, said David Teater, senior director of transportation initiatives for the National Safety Council in Itasca, Ill. They're very unsuccessful at texting and navigating the cones.
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The NSC estimates that 28 percent of crashes -- or 1.6 million per year -- are caused by cell phone use, either talking or texting.
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Drivers who use cell phones are four times more likely to be in a crash, while drivers who text increase that risk to 8 to 23 times, the NRC said.
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People shouldn't be messing with cell phones when they're trying to drive, said Drew Bloom, captain of the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicle enforcement, who brought the obstacle course idea to Vermont after hearing about it in North Carolina. We're finding a 400 percent average increase in driving errors. ... So when you have a 400 percent increase in amount of mistakes you're making and your reaction time slows dramatically, the proof is in data.
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The teens drive through the course once, and then a second time while texting to a friend on the side lines. It gives them hands-on experience that authorities hope will sink...
Tue, 18 May 10
Cell Phone-Brain Cancer Link Deemed Inconclusive
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73380
Cell phone users worried about getting brain cancer aren't off the hook yet.
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A major international study into the link between cell phone use and two types of brain cancer has proved inconclusive, according to a report due to be published in a medical journal Tuesday.
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A 10-year survey of almost 13,000 participants found most cell phone use didn't increase the risk of developing meningioma -- a common and frequently benign tumor -- or glioma -- a rarer but deadlier form of cancer.
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There were suggestions that using cell phones for more than 30 minutes each day could increase the risk of glioma, according to the study by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. But the authors added that biases and error prevent a causal interpretation that would directly blame radiation for the tumor.
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Longer call times appeared to pose a greater risk than the number of calls made, the study found.
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Among the factors that weren't examined were the effects of using handsfree devices during calls or the risk of having cell phones close by while not making calls -- such as in a pocket, or next to the bed at night.
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The authors acknowledged possible inaccuracies in the survey from the fact that participants were asked to remember how much and on which ear they used their mobiles over the past decade. Results for some groups showed cell phone use actually appeared to lessen the risk of developing cancers, something the researchers described as implausible.
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The authors said further investigation is necessary before they can conclude with certainty that there is no link between cell phone radiation and brain cancer, partly because people's use of the devices has changed considerably since the start of the study in 2000.
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Scientists are also planning to examine whether cell phone use increases the risk of...
Tue, 18 May 10
For Wireless Subscribers, Commitment Is Out
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73359
For wireless subscribers, commitment is out and short-term relationships are in. This year, customers have been making a big shift away from two-year contracts toward prepaid cell phone service, which often costs less and does not require contracts. This is happening even though contracts are needed to get popular phones such as the iPhone and the Droid.
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Now prepaid service looks like it will get even more attractive, with further price cuts. That's because wireless carriers have hit a wall when it comes to finding new customers who will sign contracts.
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I would love to have an iPhone. I just can't swallow the $70 or more bill that would come with it, said Jeff Finlay, a 45-year-old stay-at-home dad in San Antonio who uses a prepaid plan.
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Unlike contract plans that bill subscribers each month for the services they used the previous month, prepaid services traditionally let subscribers buy minutes in advance for around 10 cents to 20 cents each. When the minutes are used up, people refill their accounts as needed.
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For years, such plans were marketed primarily to people who did not have the credit to qualify for plans with contracts. But as the recession forced more people to cut costs, prepaid service appealed to a broader slice of the market, and prepaid services responded by offering better deals.
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Now it's possible to make unlimited calls and text messages on a prepaid plan for $45 a month -- half of what it costs a customer with a contract on Verizon Wireless. At Tracfone, the largest independent provider of prepaid service, customers pay an average of $11 per month.
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The popularity of text messaging is also making some people move away from contract plans that provide a big bucket of monthly minutes that may not get used.
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Finlay uses prepaid service from Virgin Mobile, a division...
Tue, 18 May 10
Optimize Your Web Site for a Sales Boost
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73245
Starting a Web site is like opening a café just off the beaten path. Either could be great, but neither is going to develop a following without some kind of advertising.
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For Web site operators, that means building up some kind of web presence that interacts well with search engines like Google and Bing. There's no background in programming required, just a feel for content and the way it is presented.
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Structure is key. Text has to be structured in a clear fashion. You can look to a typical newspaper article, says Frank Fuchs, who is responsible for Bing's operations with Microsoft's Germany division. That means, follow up the headline with a quick summary before getting down to details.
p
When you get right down to it, search engines love text. Thus, Web sites should have lots of it. At least 300 words, recommends Mario Fischer, a professor of commercial information technology at the technical college of the southern German city of Wuerzburg.
p
That doesn't sound like much and it isn't. But plenty of online stores don't hit that mark, which is one of the reasons a lot of search engines don't find these stores, according to experts.
p
Word choice also plays its part. For example, someone who wants to sell sneakers at their online store needs to consider which keywords potential customers might type into a search engine, like sporting shoes or running shoes.
p
Those keywords have to appear again and again on the Web site. Two of three times per paragraph, is a rule of thumb says Daniel Koch, a web designer and author.
p
Forgetting a basic keyword isn't a disaster. Search engines will try to work around such errors by looking for similar words, explains Fuchs. But sites lose some cachet with the search engines if there isn't a high correlation between words entered by...
Tue, 18 May 10
Review: JooJoo Not Ready for iPad Prime Time
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=72891
You may not have heard about it amid all the iPad hype, but another take on the tablet has also started to reach consumers' hands: the JooJoo.
p
Before I held a demo model of the JooJoo in my hands in December, I didn't understand tablets or why someone would want one. The JooJoo made me realize that a tablet could complement -- not replace -- a laptop and a smart phone and be a far better gadget for watching digital video or reading e-books.
p
I was eager to play with the final version of the JooJoo because it sprang from a different philosophy than the iPad, even though both are touch-screen devices.
p
Like its sister device, the iPhone, the iPad is focused on task-specific applications. Although it has a Web browser that's comparable to what you might have on a PC, iPad and iPhone owners often use other programs in its place. So they might use the Facebook application instead of going to the Facebook Web site. And YouTube videos are typically viewed in the iPad's YouTube program, rather than at YouTube.com.
p
In contrast, the JooJoo, created by startup company Fusion Garage, is built entirely around a Web browser. Any applications you might want to use on it have to be Web apps.
p
In theory, that's not a bad idea, because you can do plenty of things on the Web these days. You can get e-mail through Hotmail or Yahoo. You can create a spreadsheet or write a letter in Zoho or Google Docs. You can play games on Facebook or Pogo, watch movies on YouTube or Hulu, and listen to music on Pandora or Lala.
p
The JooJoo's browser, unlike the iPad's, supports both Adobe's Flash technology and Java, a popular programming language on the Web, allowing the device to access many more Web-based applications and...
Sat, 15 May 10
Dell's Streak Handheld Will Download Virtual Desktop
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73369
Dell's chief executive showed off an Android-based mobile device called the Dell Streak before attendees at Citrix Systems' Synergy conference in San Francisco on Thursday. The new handheld computer with five-inch touchscreen, which Dell previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, will be available from AT&T this summer after taking its inaugural bows on Telefonica's network in Europe next month, Michael Dell said.
Among other things, the Dell Streak will make it possible for business users to maintain top work productivity while on the go by downloading virtualized images of their PC desktop onto the palm-sized gadget. Ultimately, however, "the device shouldn't matter because your client image can follow you everywhere," Dell said during his keynote address Thursday.
Dell described how health-care workers at Silver Cross Hospital are currently saving time and enhancing medical care with mobile devices that can download thin clients that mirror their PC desktops. "Now the data and apps follow the caregivers around" in an authenticated, secure environment, Dell said.
To implement this technology on a wide scale, however, the forthcoming transition to wireless 4G is an essential step. "Like the leap to Wi-Fi, this is a pretty significant one," Dell said. "Let's face it, we need this new capacity because the networks cannot really support all of the traffic."
When devices like the Streak run thin clients that virtualize the traditional desktop, Dell said, they can help businesses become flexible enough to enable their workers to perform all their work assignments from anywhere -- not just from a seat in the main office.
"It used to be that only the big companies were global," Dell said "Now you are seeing small companies become global, and this new way of working is making it happen."
Dell also sees the technology giving more companies the...
Sat, 15 May 10
Acer Will Show First Netbook with Google's Chrome OS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73367
Taiwan-based computer manufacturer Acer is expected to show the first netbook using Google's Chrome operating system at a trade show in early June. The Chrome OS, which was announced late last year, has attracted attention because it's a lightweight, browser-based platform that allows devices to boot up almost immediately and emphasizes cloud-based applications and storage.
According to news reports, the Acer device will first appear at the Computex Taipei show on June 1-5. Acer hasn't commented directly on the reports, although the company has said it would be one of the first hardware makers to offer a Chrome OS-based device.
Google has said that Chrome OS-based netbooks will begin appearing by year's end, and the release date for the OS itself is sometime in the latter part of this year.
Another potentially innovative feature of the Chrome OS, which uses a Linux kernel derived from Ubuntu, is cloud-based printing. Last month, Google Group Product Manager Mike Jazayeri wrote on a company blog that "some preliminary designs" were being introduced, based on the Chrome OS, that would allow any application "on any device to print on any printer."
A Chrome OS device would use a web-based or a locally based app, called a Google Cloud Print API. The printing job is sent to the cloud, and the cloud talks to a "cloud-aware printer," or to a cloud-aware PC, which then talks to a legacy printer. The main catch, as Jazayeri admitted, is the unfortunate fact that "cloud-aware printers don't exist yet."
Acer isn't the only manufacturer looking to release products based on the Chrome OS. Samsung Australia confirmed earlier this year that it will launch a Chrome-based netbook in 2010, and ASUS and Lenovo are expected to do so as well. Dell has shown a demo of Chrome OS on a netbook. There have...
Sat, 15 May 10
Nexus One Moving To Retail Stores as Online Sales End
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73366
Cutting its losses after three months of tepid sales of the Nexus One, Google announced Friday that it will begin shipping its signature Android-based smartphone to retail stores and phase out online sales. Google announced the change with a "what-were-we-thinking?" blog post, taking its knocks for betting that customers would snatch up the devices sight unseen.
"We launched Nexus One in January with two goals in mind: To introduce a beacon of innovation among Android handsets, and to make it quick and easy for people to buy an Android phone," wrote the company's vice president for engineering, Andy Rubin, on Google's official blog. "But, as with every innovation, some parts worked better than others. While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not."
He said the Google web store was "a niche channel for early adopters, but it's clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from."
While current sales figures have not been released, Google sold only 135,000 Nexus Ones in the first 74 days, the time it took Apple to sell one million iPhones and Verizon to sell one million Motorola Droids, according to an estimate by Flurry.
"Trying to buy online, especially when you haven't experienced [the product] is like trying to buy a car online," said Ramon Llamas, a senior communications analyst for IDC Research.
"You know what it feels like to drive, but not what to expect when you go from a sedan to an SUV. You really want to get behind the wheel and drive. And the same thing with a smartphone. If you put down a couple of hundred dollars on a device, you want to test it out."
Google...
Sat, 15 May 10
Full Service for Sprint's HTC EVO 4G Can Be Costly
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73365
Sprint Nextel is looking to go where no U.S. wireless carrier has gone before -- up to 10 times faster than 3G. Sprint is the first carrier to launch a commercially available wireless 4G network, and the HTC EVO 4G will be the first device to leverage its speed when it debuts in June.
Sprint is targeting small businesses with its 4G network, promising faster e-mail delivery, quicker file downloads, and the ability to run multiple applications without slowing down access. At up to 10 times the speed of 3G, the new network will also pave the way for faster web browsing and fewer lags with video conferencing and video streaming.
The HTC EVO 4G will debut on Sprint's network June 4. As its name suggests, the Android-powered phone is designed to work on Sprint's new network. It offers two cameras, video chat and simultaneous voice and data. Consumers can plug the EVO 4G into an HDTV and continue watching a movie at home that they started in the car.
"The HTC EVO 4G is a good phone that will really leverage WiMAX in a big way. You can do video chat on the device. You've got the capability of mobile hot-spot services that can support up to eight devices, but like all good things it doesn't come cheap," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group.
Sprint will sell the EVO 4G for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. Although Gartenberg said the phone is reasonably priced for what it delivers, getting the full functionality of the EVO 4G is more costly. For example, consumers need a Everything Data plan, which runs $69.99 a month. There is also a $10-a-month 4G surcharge consumers have to pay whether or not they have 4G in...
Sat, 15 May 10
Facebook Adds Security Tools as Privacy Worries Mount
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73364
Is Facebook panicking over its latest privacy crisis? The leading social-networking site has seen its share of privacy backlash in its brief lifetime. However, with criticism mounting from privacy advocates and the U.S. government alike, the young company may be feeling the pressure like never before.
Facebook held a company meeting to discuss privacy issues in what some bloggers have described as a panic-stricken response to public attacks on how it handles member information. Facebook also announced two new security measures Thursday that aim to keep member accounts and personal information secure.
"It would definitely appear that Facebook is moving at a very fast pace, perhaps, in many cases, too fast for some of its users," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "On the other hand, the market almost demands that type of fast pace, and consumers need to understand the implications of what they are doing online and take responsibility."
One way consumers can take responsibility is to use the new Facebook tools that work to keep the bad guys out and keep members aware of any suspicious activity so they can take action to correct it.
"Over the last few weeks, we've been testing a new feature that allows you to approve the devices you commonly use to log in and then to be notified whenever your account is accessed from a device you haven't approved," explained Lev Popov, a software engineer on Facebook's site-integrity team. "This feature is now available to everyone."
The security feature lets users select the option to receive notifications for log-ins from new devices. You can save your home computer, your school or work computer, and your mobile phone, for example. When you do this, Facebook will ask whomever logs into your account from a device that is not on...
Sat, 15 May 10
Hulu Rejects Apple's Stand, Will Use Flash Over HTML5
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73362
In the battle over the use of Adobe's Flash technology on Apple's mobile devices, Apple has prohibited Flash and promoted the use of the evolving HTML5 as an alternative. On Thursday, leading video site Hulu threw cold water on that position, saying it is updating its player using Flash, and HTML5 "doesn't yet meet all of our customers' needs."
That observation by Eugene Wei, Hulu's vice president of product, was part of a lengthy posting on Hulu's blog. He also said that HTML5, in its present form, doesn't provide the functionality that the popular site needs, including securing content, handling reporting to advertisers, using a high-performance codec for "premium visual quality," and talking with the server to determine buffering and streaming bitrate.
Wei noted that "not all video sites have these needs," but they are important components, even contractual requirements, for Hulu. Hulu is owned by NBC Universal, News Corp., The Walt Disney Company, and others, and features a collection of current and classic TV shows and movies.
He pointed out that HTML5 could add those features in the future, or allow for easier implementation than currently. "Technology is a fast-moving space," Wei wrote.
Given Hulu's prominence in web video, Wei's comments call into question whether HTML5 is currently a feasible alternative to Flash. Apple and Adobe Systems have been waging an increasingly heated battle over Apple's refusal to allow the popular Flash technology on its mobile devices.
On Thursday, Adobe cofounders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke published an open letter on the company's web site, accusing Apple of undermining "the next chapter of the web." The letter came in response to a recent open letter by Apple CEO and cofounder Steve Jobs, justifying Apple's decision against Flash and pointing to the open-source, standards-based HTML5 as an alternative. Unless...
Sat, 15 May 10
Adobe Makes 'Love' Not War in Dispute with Apple
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73360
Adobe is firing back at Apple with love.
Adobe Systems Inc. is countering Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs' recent jab at Adobe's Flash technology for Web video and games. The company is running ads in newspapers and popular technology blogs saying "We Love Apple" -- with a bright red heart in place of love.
Jobs had described Flash as outdated, unreliable and unfit for Apple's iPhone and iPad gadgets. In a detailed, 1,685-word offensive posted online two weeks ago. Jobs spelled out the reasons why Apple continues to ban Flash from its mobile devices, including "reliability, security and performance," and the fact that Flash was designed "for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers."
But he said the most important reason is that Flash puts a third party between Apple and software developers. In other words, developers can take advantage of improvements from Apple only if Adobe upgrades its own software.
Adobe's ad -- at 82 words -- begins, "We love creativity," "We love innovation," "We love apps."
"What we don't love," it continues, "is anybody taking away your freedom to choose what you create, how you create it, and what you experience on the Web."
The full-page ads appeared Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and more than a dozen other newspapers. Online, they peppered tech blogs such as ArsTechnica, Engadget and TechCrunch, as well as CNN.com and Wired.
Adobe co-founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock, highly regarded in Silicon Valley, also posted a statement titled "Our thoughts on open markets" -- 411 words -- criticizing Apple.
"When markets are open, anyone with a great idea has a chance to drive innovation and find new customers," they wrote, adding that Apple's "opposite approach" could undermine a future in which mobile devices outnumber traditional computers on the Internet.
Adobe would not say how...
Sat, 15 May 10
NPD: April Video Game Sales Down 26 Percent
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73358
U.S. retail sales of video games fell 26 percent to $766.2 million in April from a year earlier, hurt by a lack of game launches and the Easter holiday falling in March.
Market researcher NPD Group said Thursday hardware sales plunged 37 percent to $249.3 million in April compared with the same month last year. Software sales dropped 22 percent to $398.5 million.
Sales of the handheld Nintendo DS tumbled by more than half to 440,800 from more than 1 million last April. Even with the big drop, the DS was still the month's best-selling system.
Sales of the Wii also declined, while both Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 saw upticks from a year earlier.
"The portable side of the industry contributed more than its fair share to the industry decline," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. She added that sales of portable systems -- the DS and Sony's PSP -- accounted for 61 percent of the month's total video game sales decline.
Just as it can hurt overall retail sales, the shift of Easter to March from April put a dent in last month's video game sales. Though not as big as the Christmas holiday season, Easter does give game sales a lift, said Jesse Divnich, an analyst with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.
Consumers may also be putting off buying new portable game systems in anticipation of Nintendo's launch of its 3D handheld gaming device, the 3DS. Apple's iPhone and the iPad are also competing with portable gaming systems for consumers' time and money.
April is generally the slowest month of the year for video game sales, Divnich said. That's because the fiscal year ends in March for many game makers, who generally try to fit in new game launches before the year is up, leaving few titles for April.
There was just...
Sat, 15 May 10
Google CEO Discusses China, Mobile Industry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73356
Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt seems more interested in keeping the peace with China than with Apple Inc. and other rivals in the rapidly growing smart phone market.
At least that's how it sounded Thursday during Google's annual shareholder meeting, where Schmidt spoke with a diplomat's restraint while discussing the Internet search leader's tenuous position in China. He was less circumspect discussing Google's intensifying battle with Apple in the mobile market.
Google sparred with China's leaders for two months before finding a way to stop censoring its search results in the country without abandoning one of the Internet's key markets. Since late March, Google has been redirecting search requests from mainland China to Hong Kong. That part of China isn't governed by the same restrictions.
Although some investors had worried the decision would hobble Google's remaining business in China, Schmidt said Thursday the situation "seems to be stable." He cautioned things could change quickly if China's government becomes more antagonistic.
In earlier remarks, Schmidt jabbed at Apple and other phone makers that keep tightfisted control over their devices.
While boasting about Google's recent gains in the mobile phone market, Schmidt stressed that the company is eager to work with all software developers and device manufacturers who want to use its Android operating system. The open attitude "is inverse to the competition," Schmidt said. "If they say no, we say yes."
Apple, in particular, has come under recent criticism for requiring software developers to use its programming tools to create applications for the iPhone and iPad. U.S. regulators plan to examine whether Apple's restrictions violate antitrust laws.
The tensions between Google and Apple have been growing as they compete to sell mobile devices, services and advertising.
The duel has fractured a once-cordial relationship that gained Schmidt a seat on Apple's board for three years. Schmidt resigned last summer as...
Sat, 15 May 10
Versatile Sony Dash Moves at a Stroll
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73343
Sony's Dream Machine clock radios have been bedside fixtures. Now, Sony has come out with an alarm clock that befits the cyberage. It's the touch-screen Sony Dash that I've been testing, and it'll wake you up with a music video or Internet radio.
To typecast Dash as an alarm clock is to sell it short. Dash also functions as a digital photo frame for Facebook or Photobucket pictures. It serves up Martha Stewart recipes and Facebook and Twitter status updates. You can browse The New York Times or Engadget headlines or watch YouTube -- even take in a full-length flick from Amazon's video on demand or Netflix. Wi-Fi is built right in.
Sony is marketing the $200 Dash as a "Personal Internet Viewer," equally at home on your desk, kitchen countertop or nightstand. It's potentially useful for "video snacking," or for glancing at weather, traffic alerts or stock quotes.
In the era of smartphones, tablets and netbooks, Dash is none of those things. Helping you understand where Dash fits in -- and what contraptions it may stand in for in your house -- is Sony's big challenge. And the Dash name is unfortunate, because the contraption is slow, immobile and ultimately unsatisfying. Here's a closer look.
*Ties to Chumby. If the idea behind Dash seems vaguely familiar, you're probably thinking of a similar device called Chumby from Chumby Industries in San Diego. Sony has teamed with its Southern California neighbor to produce more than 1,000 free Chumby apps for Dash, everything from an e-mail viewer to a lava lamp.
Think of the first Chumby as the cute, cuddly little kid. Dash comes off as the more dashing and mature older sibling. Dressed in black with easy-to-grip rubber trim, Dash costs $50 to $80 more than the two Chumby models. But it has a 7-inch screen...
Sat, 15 May 10
Office 2010: Did Microsoft Get It Right?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73338
Will Office 2010 rescue Microsoft's ubiquitous productivity suite in the same way that Windows 7 resuscitated the reputation of Windows?
That's the billion-dollar question. And [with] the official unveiling of Office 2010, answers begin to emerge.
Boasting a host of collaborative features, interface improvements, and seamless integration with the new, free Office 2010 Web Apps, Office 2010 is Microsoft's best attempt to redress the complaints that users had about Office 2007 while not throwing out the 2007 experiment entirely.
At the same time, with Office 2010 Microsoft attempts to fend off the advances of Google with its free, web-based Google Docs -- viewed by some as a legitimate threat to the desktop-based application model. There's no doubt that the challenges for Office 2010 were great. Here is an overview of the result.
With Office 2010, Microsoft hopes to lure back lucrative corporate customers, who largely took a pass on Office 2007, with enhancements that take collaboration and mobility to a new level. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel now allow co-authoring a document in real-time, for instance.
Rather than being locked out of a document when it's open on someone else's computer, you'll see a tiny "toast" icon in the status bar, indicating that the document is being worked on, and a pop-up will tell you who else is reviewing the document. Gone are lockouts and confusing "merge" messages resulting from others having edited a document you need to update.
To get this level of collaboration, though, you'll have to employ one of two technologies: SharePoint 2010, which Microsoft released concurrently this week with Office 2010, or SkyDrive (http://skydrive.live.com), the free online storage space offered on Windows Live, Microsoft's set of online services and applications that's largely aimed at individuals.
Many companies that have deployed Office have adopted SharePoint, the document storage and management tool, so Microsoft hopes to...
Sat, 15 May 10
Review: Microsoft Kin Smartphones Not Smart Enough
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73336
The search for a cell phone starts with one big question. Should you get a smart phone that lets you customize your device with all kinds of applications, or should you save money and get a not-so-smart phone that has fewer functions?
Microsoft Corp. thinks it has two new phones that could bridge the gap. Its Kins, which cost $50 or $100 through Verizon Wireless, are geared toward social networking-obsessed teens and twenty-somethings who want an affordable way to keep in touch on the go without diving into additional apps like Apple Inc.'s iPhone offers.
It's a potentially shrewd move because the world's largest software maker has been losing ground in the mobile market to newer players such as Apple and Google Inc., which makes the Android operating software.
The Kins' simple software, moderately good looks and low upfront cost could turn hip young heads. Unfortunately, the phones have aggravating shortcomings. They're saddled with a sluggish processor, lack instant messaging and mapping applications and require a full-price data plan ($30 per month).
The first thing you'll notice about the Kins is their shape. Kin One ($50 with a rebate and two-year Verizon Wireless contract) is short and squat with a keyboard that slides out from its bottom, while Kin Two ($100 with a rebate and two-year contract) is longer, with a keyboard that slides out from its side.
Kin One has a touch screen that measures 2.6 inches diagonally, a 5-megapixel camera and 4 gigabytes of built-in memory; Kin Two includes a touch screen that measures 3.4 inches diagonally, an 8-megapixel camera and 8 gigabytes of memory.
The Kin's software, which Microsoft developed just for these phones, is a mixed bag. It's well designed and extremely simple, but it's too limiting.
It starts in a promising way, with a home screen populated by a rotating list of...
Fri, 14 May 10
Android Devices May Control Some GM Car Functions
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73352
There's never a dull minute at Google headquarters, it seems. In between developing and improving its search engine, a budding online cell-phone business, planning a tablet computer, a pending e-book store, and ongoing computer cloud operations, the Mountain View, Calif.-based corporation appears to be working with General Motors to add more computer functions to cars.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Google and GM hope to pair OnStar, GM's onboard communication, security and navigation system, with Google's increasingly popular Android operating system to make smartphones into remote controls for some car functions (but not driving).
The report was not confirmed by Google, but OnStar President J. Christopher Preuss announced on his Facebook page that the company will have significant news next week, the Journal reported.
It's unclear from the reports whether the OnStar-Android collaboration would mean more online operations inside the car, as Ford and Microsoft announced they would do with Ford Sync. That announcement was in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Safe-driving advocates like the American Automobile Association have raised alarms about the integration of cars and computers at a time when driver distraction, including cell-phone use and texting, is already being blamed for more than one million accidents per year.
"If done right, there's little or no distraction issue," said Michel Gartenberg, a partner at the technology consulting firm Altimeter Group. He said cars are one of the last frontiers of unconnected time in the lives of increasingly wired Americans.
"Car screens are among the last of those that are disconnected. In a world of 33 screens and a cloud, that won't stay the case for long," Gartenberg said. "Vendors are going to find ways to make the auto a connected device and a key part of their strategy going forward."
But Avi Greengart of Current Analysis sees the...
Fri, 14 May 10
Sprint Prices HTC EVO 4G for Small Businesses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73351
Sprint Nextel has unveiled pricing plans for its new Android-based 4G smartphone, which promises to deliver data up to 10 times faster than today's 3G phones. Under the plans announced Thursday, small businesses will be able to deploy the forthcoming HTC EVO 4G to workers under a pricing structure that starts at $44.99 per month, excluding taxes and surcharges.
When businesses tap the power of next-generation 4G, e-mails arrive quicker, files download sooner, multiple applications stream smoother, and web browsing becomes blazing fast, said Tom Shaughnessy, director of small business at Sprint. "For small businesses, 4G makes sense," said Shaughnessy. "It's all about working faster, boosting productivity, cutting costs, and, ultimately, improving profits."
Slated to take its inaugural bows exclusively on Sprint's network beginning June 4, the HTC EVO 4G integrates a 4.3-inch color display, a one-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1GB of ROM and 512MB of RAM, an 8GB microSD memory card, and plug-and-play USB. And to enable video chat, the smartphone has two cameras: An eight-megapixel autofocus unit featuring an HD-capable video camcorder and dual LED flash, plus a forward-facing 1.3-megapixel sensor.
Beyond 3G and 4G, the handset's wireless communications capabilities include Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP Stereo and EDR functionality. Also on tap is an HDMI output for connecting the smartphone to video entertainment platforms.
Even better, HTC EVO 4G buyers will be able to convert their devices into mobile hot spots for an additional monthly fee, allowing the user's other Wi-Fi-enabled gadgets to enjoy 3G/4G speeds, including laptops, cameras, music players, and video players. Yet another option is to share the smartphone's built-in roving hot-spot platform from Novatel Wireless with up to five persons on the fly.
On the software side, the HTC EVO 4G incorporates the full spectrum of Google mobile...
Fri, 14 May 10
Android Update Expected To Be Faster, with Tethering
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73347
Share the 3G connection on your Android phone with your laptop through USB tethering, or use your phone as a Wi-Fi hot spot. Those are some of the features Google is reportedly planning for the upcoming version 2.2 of its open-source operating system, nicknamed Froyo.
Froyo, which stands for frozen yogurt, is the latest in a line of dessert code names Google has used for its Android versions -- like Éclair 2.0 and 2.1, Donut 1.6, and Cupcake 1.5 -- and Froyo promises to offer some fine treats. According to news reports, Android 2.2 will become available to customers of Google's Nexus One smartphone by the time of a Google developer conference in San Francisco next week.
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subhead
450 Percent Performance Increase
/subhead
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Another sweet improvement being reported is a massive 450 percent increase in performance over Éclair, which could dramatically increase Android's capabilities for media and other tasks.
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Connection sharing is available from mobile devices such as Verizon's MiFi and Sprint's tethering, but there are additional monthly charges. It's not yet known if carriers supporting Android will also charge more for the functionality.
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Google has been mum about what to expect in Froyo, except to say that it will include Adobe Flash technology. Along with connectivity sharing, support for Flash could become a major differentiator.
p
In late April, a Google vice president mentioned in an interview with The New York Times that the Android update would include full support for Adobe's Flash technology, which is used throughout the web for video and interactive animation. This week, Adobe's cofounders published an open letter criticizing Apple for not allowing Flash on its mobile devices, and Adobe is running ads to the same effect in various U.S. newspapers and on web sites.
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subhead
FM Radio, Auto-Updating
/subhead
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There are also expectations of such new features in Android 2.2 as FM Radio, automatic updating of...
Fri, 14 May 10
HTC Moves To Block iPhone, iPod and iPad Imports
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73346
HTC is hoping to turn the tables on Apple in the early stages of what could be a long intellectual-property battle unfolding in the media spotlight. On Wednesday, the Taiwan-based smartphone maker filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to block Apple from importing or selling the iPhone, iPad and iPod in the U.S.
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HTC, widely known for its success manufacturing smartphones based on Google's Android operating system, alleges that Apple is infringing on its patents. HTC's legal response comes less than three months after Apple launched its first IP missive against the company, claiming that HTC's phones that run Android trespass on five of Apple's patents.
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I think patent suits will be an ongoing issue, not just between players like Apple and HTC, but an issue in the broader industry as we move toward the traditional vertically integrated voice world to more of the multimedia environment where the complexity of the devices becomes much more important, said Phil Marshall, a wireless analyst at Yankee Group.
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subhead
HTC's Legal Maneuvers
/subhead
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Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC's North America operations, reminded the IP world that the company was the first to launch a smartphone based on Android in 2008. He noted HTC's belief that healthy competition and innovation should drive the industry, and then spelled out the company's complaint against Apple.
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We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones, Mackenzie said. HTC claims Apple is infringing on three of its patents related to telephone directors and two patents for power management.
p
Analysts suspected HTC was up to something when HTC inked a deal to use Microsoft's intellectual property in its Android devices in late April. Microsoft's patent agreement with HTC gives the Taiwanese handset maker broad coverage...
Fri, 14 May 10
SAP Will Buy Sybase; Does It Mean a Shift in Strategy?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73345
In the largest technology industry acquisition of the year, SAP announced plans to buy Sybase for about $5.8 billion. SAP said the merged company will focus on serving unwired enterprises.
p
There are clear synergies between SAP and Sybase across both product lines and markets. SAP expects the merger to help the company hasten its reach across mobile platforms and drive adoption of its in-memory computing vision, which in turn is expected to spur greater adoption of SAP software. Sybase's mobile platform will also connect and enable SAP apps and data on mobile devices.
p
Meanwhile, the companies expect SAP's in-memory technology to give Sybase the opportunity to improve the performance of its analytics offering and extend the reach of its event-processing and analytics solutions to new industries. SAP's tech should also beef up Sybase's core database business, the companies said.
p
subhead
The Mobile Enterprise
/subhead
p
Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEO of SAP, noted that mobile devices are becoming the preferred interaction point with business applications. He then pointed to how this plays out in the merger.
p
The combination of SAP and Sybase will give users the option of running their operations from leading mobile devices and will unleash the full power of mobility, including messaging interoperability, content delivery, and mobile commerce services, across all companies and roles and in any location, Snabe said.
p
Warren Wilson, an analyst at Ovum, agreed that the merger will strengthen SAP's hand in mobile applications. But, he added, the acquisition may also signal a shift in the company's long-standing strategy of growth through internal development and acquisition.
p
subhead
A Shifting Growth Strategy
/subhead
p
Indeed, Sybase is SAP's second major acquisition. The company snapped up BusinessObjects, a business intelligence and analytics vendor, for $6.8 billion in 2007. If SAP hadn't moved on that deal, the company would have sorely lagged behind Oracle and IBM in what now is a...
Fri, 14 May 10
Adobe Cofounders Accuse Apple of Undermining Web
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73344
The Adobe Systems-Apple battle over Flash is heating up. An open letter to Apple from Adobe cofounders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke accuses the company behind the iPhone, iPod and iPad of undermining the next chapter of the web.
p
Adobe published the letter on its web site and began an advertising campaign. The Freedom of Choice ads say that, while Adobe loves Apple, the iPhone maker is taking away your freedom. The ads are being placed in The New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as technology blogs and news sites including a href=http://www.TopTechNews.comTopTechNews.com/a.
p
subhead
'Freely Access' Content and Apps
/subhead
p
The Adobe cofounders wrote that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. They added that no company, no matter how big or how creative, should dictate the user experience.
p
If the web fragments into closed systems, they wrote, some companies may thrive with content and applications behind walls, but the success will come at the expense of the very creativity and innovation that has made the Internet a revolutionary force.
p
They added that, since they publish Flash specifications, anyone can make a player. The cofounders also pointed to Postscript and PDF, two Adobe cross-platform software solutions with openly published specifications. The letter and ads may not be Adobe's only attempts at pressuring Apple, as there are reports of a possible federal antitrust investigation in response to a complaint from Adobe.
p
The escalation follows a recent, lengthy open letter from Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs, in which he attempted to explain why Adobe's nearly ubiquitous Flash technology is not allowed on Apple's mobile devices. Flash, he said, is a proprietary, closed system, and Apple is interested in...
Fri, 14 May 10
LimeWire Loses Copyright Case in RIAA Dispute
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73334
File-sharing software company LimeWire has lost a long-running court battle to the major recording companies.
p
A judge with the U.S. District Court in New York ruled this week that the company and its chairman, Mark Gorton, were liable for inducing copyright infringement.
p
The decision in the case, which began in 2006, doesn't mean the site will shut down right away. The record labels and LimeWire are to meet with Judge Kimba Wood on June 1 to determine the next steps, such as a possible deal to work together going forward and a potential award for damages.
p
Recording Industry Association of America Chairman Mitch Bainwol said in a statement Wednesday that the ruling was an extraordinary victory against one of the largest remaining file-sharing services in the United States.
p
The RIAA said more than 200 million copies of LimeWire's file-sharing software have been downloaded so far, including 340,000 in the last week alone.
p
The ruling could pave the way for a deal, similar to the way Napster was sued out of existence in 2000 but was reborn and is now under the ownership of Best Buy Inc. with licensing deals with all the major recording companies.
p
This isn't about getting something shut down, it's about getting something licensed and legal, said Steve Marks, general counsel for the RIAA.
p
LimeWire CEO George Searle said in a statement that while it strongly opposes the court's decision, the company held out hope for a deal. The company sells an Extended Pro version of its free software for $34.95 a year, leaving open the possibility that a new business model could emerge in cooperation with the music industry.
p
LimeWire remains committed to developing innovative products and services for the end-user and to working with the entire music industry, including the major labels, to achieve this mission, Searle said.
Fri, 14 May 10
James Cameron: 3-D Is the Future of Entertainment
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73330
Avatar director James Cameron said Thursday that 3-D will replace 2-D as the standard, mainstream format for film, television and online content in less than 25 years.
p
Viewers will soon not only enjoy films in 3-D theaters but all forms of entertainment, including sports and music shows on TVs and laptops, Cameron said at a technology forum in Seoul.
p
Cameron directed the 3-D epic Avatar, which won three Oscars and is the highest grossing film in history, with $2.7 billion in worldwide ticket sales to date. He has also directed other blockbuster films such as Titanic and Terminator.
p
Avatar has proved that 3-D technology is not just a fad but a revolution changing how the audience chooses to consume media and entertainment content, the 56-year-old director said in a speech to the Seoul Digital Forum, an annual technology and media gathering.
p
Quite simply, where they had a choice, the audience was selecting for the best possible way to see the movie, he said. And they saw 3-D as the premium viewing experience.
p
Cameron likened what he called the 3-D renaissance to the advent of sound and color in motion pictures. But he said full adoption of the enhanced format will require less time than the 25 years it took for color movies to become standard.
p
Pointing to the popularity of 3-D films, Cameron envisions the film, technology and consumer electronics industries rapidly moving toward mass adoption of the enhanced format.
p
That could come as soon as in a couple of years, but definitely less than the 25 years it took color movies, he told reporters at a press conference after the speech.
p
Television makers Samsung Electronics Co. and Panasonic Corp. started selling 3-D TVs this year in hopes of riding one of the next big waves in consumer electronics.
p
Movie studios Universal and Disney have released 3-D films on...
Fri, 14 May 10
Sony Aims for Black as Annual Loss Shrinks
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73329
Sony Corp., maker of the PlayStation 3, stayed in the red last business year but predicts a return to profit as restructuring and an aggressive 3-D rollout bear fruit.
p
The Tokyo-based company Thursday reported progress toward profitability, booking a 40.8 billion yen ($439 million) loss for the year ended March 31. That's an improvement from the previous year's 98.9 billion yen loss, which was Sony's first annual red ink in 14 years.
p
The electronics and entertainment giant credited LCD televisions and digital cameras for helping drive its turnaround. It also cited its life insurance unit, where revenue surged 58 percent.
p
We began to see improvements gain momentum from the second half last year, said chief financial officer Nobuyuki Oneda.
p
Sony expects to climb back into the black in the year through March 2011. It forecasts a net profit of 50 billion yen on revenue of 7.6 trillion yen.
p
Since taking over in 2005, Chief Executive Howard Stringer has been trying to unite the company's sprawling businesses, improve efficiency and rein in costs. He strengthened control over Sony a year ago by calling for a companywide reorganization and naming a new leadership team, which includes former IBM executive George Bailey to the newly created position of chief transformation officer.
p
The Welsh-born CEO's initiatives appear to be paying off. Sony cut costs by more than 330 billion yen last year, beating its own targets, the company said. Procurement costs have declined almost 20 percent, and it has shut 11 plants since December 2008.
p
As a result, Sony swung to an operating profit of 31.8 billion yen ($342 million) after a 227.8 billion yen operating loss the previous year. Some analysts view operating profit, which excludes taxes, as the best indication of a company's pure business performance.
p
The company is leaner, nimbler and cooperating under a more united front to make...
Fri, 14 May 10
With iPad's Success, Others Test the Tablet Waters
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73316
The success of Apple's new iPad has prompted other tech companies to plunge into the market for tablet computers, with startups and major PC makers racing to introduce their own competing devices before the end of the year.
p
Verizon Wireless confirmed Tuesday that they have a tablet in the works. Speculation is swirling around the intentions of Hewlett-Packard, the world's biggest PC maker and the company that some believe has the best shot at catching up with Apple's early iPad lead. Meanwhile, everyone from upstart Fusion Garage to established names such as Dell are jumping into the pool.
p
Experts say the iPad's early sales figures -- Apple said that it sold 1 million in four weeks -- are proof there's a strong market for such products. But it's unclear if other manufacturers can duplicate the iPad's appeal, or if Apple will dominate the market in the same way its iPods are much better known than competing music players.
p
Anybody can make a tablet. I could go to Taiwan, hire a contract manufacturer, and make 'Bob's tablet,' said Bob O'Donnell, an industry analyst with International Data Corp. The hard part is doing the software and getting the applications.
p
If any company has that ability, analysts say that HP, which sold nearly 60 million PCs last year, has the size and clout to line up deals with major content providers and mount a massive promotional campaign.
p
They can do that. So you have to take HP seriously, said Jayson Noland, who follows the tech industry for Robert W. Baird Co.
p
Earlier this year, even before the iPad officially went on sale, HP launched an Internet marketing campaign to promote a tablet it calls the Slate, which was designed to run on Microsoft software and which HP promised to begin selling this year. But plans to buy...
Fri, 14 May 10
Apple-Adobe Feud Profitable for Video Companies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73305
As Apple and software giant Adobe battle over the future of online video, there's one clear winner: Services that help companies add video to their Web sites.
p
Outfits such as Brightcove, Sorensen Media's 360 and Ooyala charge companies a monthly fee to ensure that their videos will play both on the Web and on mobile devices such as Apple's iPhone and new iPad touch-screen tablet. They serve a range of businesses with heavy video demands: media companies, restaurants, hotels, travel agencies and more.
p
Adobe dominates online video with its Flash software, used for some 75 percent of Web video. But Apple doesn't like Flash and promotes alternatives, including a Web standard called HTML5. Videos that use Flash won't play at all on Apple's mobile devices.
p
Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote an essay in late April detailing his criticisms, calling Flash an outdated format that's a battery drain for mobile devices and prone to crashing. Adobe responded by calling Apple's claims a smokescreen.
p
The war of words over the future of online video has been really great for business, says Jeff Whatcott, Brightcove's senior vice president of marketing.
p
Dan Rayburn, an analyst at Frost Sullivan, says the battle has taken its toll on media companies. It's time-consuming and costly to re-encode a video library just so it can be seen on the iPad, he says.
p
Still, Whatcott says there's so much interest in the iPad, Our customers want their sites to be seen by everyone now, not later.
p
Video site Viddler, which charges $100 monthly for its pro service to companies such as Sony and Engadget, on Tuesday made available a new video player that works with iPads and iPhones.
p
This whole thing swept us off our feet, says Viddler President Robert Sandie. We knew the iPad was coming, and despite what Apple said, we thought by now...
Thu, 13 May 10
eBay CEO Envisions PayPal in More Offline Settings
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73323
The waiter comes to your table and asks: "Will you be paying by cash, credit or PayPal?"
Don't be surprised to hear that question six months or a year from now, says John Donahoe, the CEO of PayPal's parent company, eBay Inc. Although PayPal is best known as a way to pay people or buy things online, the service is eyeing more opportunities offline.
To get there, PayPal is letting others do some of the hard work. Last fall, PayPal opened its system to make it easier for outside software developers to create Web services or mobile applications that use PayPal as a payment engine. Since then nearly 30,000 developers have signed up to create PayPal-based applications.
Among the third-party apps in the works are services that would let restaurants or retailers collect payments over PayPal on a customer's mobile phone, Donahoe told The Associated Press in an interview.
Accepting PayPal isn't necessarily cheaper for a merchant than taking plastic. But it could be very quick for customers who are frequent PayPal users and possibly safer for them as well, because PayPal does not require a user to share a credit card number or other financial information with merchants.
So it's not hard to imagine a restaurant with a PayPal-enabled mobile app letting customers book reservations on an iPhone and then asking after the meal, as Donahoe put it, "Would you like the bill or would you like us to send it to your phone?"
Donahoe is confident that PayPal's huge customer base, with 84 million active accounts worldwide, will be an advantage in the still-early mobile payments market. But he knows other companies are racing to provide similar services. Several iPhone applications let people carry out quick mobile transactions. Payment-services companies and startups such as Square, founded by one of the people behind Twitter, are...
Thu, 13 May 10
Dell Rolls Out Latitude E-Family with Desktop Virtualization
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73322
Dell has rolled out new Latitude E-family laptops and Flexible Computing solutions aimed at the mobile workforce. The PC maker is pushing security and flexibility as key attributes of the new line. But at the heart of the new functionality is desktop virtualization.
To be sure, simplifying virtual image management is the concept Dell hopes to forward with its new line. The idea is to increase the user's access to applications and boost performance while also offering better security. Dell is working toward that end with Citrix XenClient technology.
Dell said it is working with Citrix to validate its Dell Latitude laptop and Dell OptiPlex desktop client systems for XenClient. XenClient extends desktop virtualization to corporate laptop users while addressing customers' needs for security, flexibility and performance.
Dell's new Flexible Computing solutions include Dell Managed Virtual Client, Application and Profile Virtualization, and Virtual Remote Desktop. The Managed Virtual Client is Dell's cloud-optimized virtual desktop managed service. Dell added this technology from its Perot acquisition.
Application and Profile Virtualization has been beefed up to include virtualized or streamed application delivery and customized user profile options. And for virtual remote desktops, Dell not only leverages VMware View or Citrix XenDesktop, but now also provides optimized reference architecture for virtual remote desktops based on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center management infrastructure.
Dell also added new laptops to its Latitude E-family, each certified with Citrix and VMware clients. The new models include an ultraportable Latitude E4310, a 13.3-inch E5410, a 14.61-inch E5510, and a more affordable 2110 aimed at users who need a secondary computer.
Desktop virtualization has come a long way in the past few years. Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, said significant changes in the marketplace, including Citrix's 2007 acquisition of XenSource, further enhancements to VMware View, and Microsoft's...
Thu, 13 May 10
Microsoft Releases Office, SharePoint 2010 for Businesses
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73321
Microsoft's Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 became available worldwide to businesses on Wednesday. In a statement accompanying the release, which included Visio 2010 and Project 2010, business division President Stephen Elop said the products will "define the future of productivity."
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said it expects 90 million businesses to deploy the newest version of its suite of products, which includes the company's crown jewels of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It emphasized a return on investment through "significant productivity gains," and from the ability to use the tools from mobile devices as well as PCs.
In its announcement, the company spotlighted a study by Forrester Consulting that it commissioned. Using a model that focused on costs, benefits to an entire organization, flexibility and risk, Forrester put the return on investment for the 2010 releases of Office and SharePoint, as well as for Exchange and Office Communications Server 2007 R2, at about 300 percent, with a payback period of 7.4 months after initial deployment.
The general availability of Office and SharePoint follow large beta programs, which involved three times the number of participants as the Office 2007 beta program. Because of the size of the beta release, nearly nine million users already have Office 2010, and Microsoft said more than 1,000 partners are creating Office- and SharePoint-based solutions.
New features include revised e-mail management and calendaring functions in Outlook, including Outlook Social Connector, which integrates communications history and social-network feeds into the popular e-mail client.
In Excel, Sparklines can be used to visualize trend data, and PowerPoint has the ability to broadcast to any user with a browser. Throughout Office, users can get quick access to decision-related data as part of business intelligence capabilities.
Office Mobile 2010, for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones, allows "lightweight editing" and is...
Thu, 13 May 10
Second iPhone 4G Prototype Reported in Vietnam
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73320
Just weeks after a wayward, beta-test iPhone 4G prototype caused a stir when it made its way from a California bar into the hands of tech bloggers, a second prototype may be loose.
A Vietnamese tech site, TaoViet, posted photos of a device very similar to the one Apple acknowledged as its property last month, touching off a round of legal wrangling and bad public relations for the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer giant. The company, notoriously tight-lipped about product launches, is expected to unveil the newest iPhone this summer.
Unlike the model that was sold to Gizmodo last month for $5,000 after being misplaced by an Apple engineer and which was disabled remotely, the device displayed on the Vietnamese site is operational but uses a system called Inferno rather than the iPhone operating system.
"Inferno appears to be some sort of test program," says Michael Gartenberg, a partner in the technology consulting firm Altimeter Group. He added that the distance from the U.S. makes it hard to assess whether the device is authentic or one of many knockoffs found in China and Japan. "It's interesting to see another device, but we don't know all that much until we see the final product with all the hardware and software finished and revealed," he said.
While Apple's response has been muted as of Wednesday afternoon, Gartenberg noted there isn't much the company can do. "There's no OS, so perhaps nothing to shut," he said. "As it appears it is in Vietnam, there might not be much Apple can do to recover [it]."
The supposed 4G device also appears in a video on YouTube, showing a Vietnamese man examining the device and comparing it with an iPhone 3G, as well as demonstrating the ability to insert a micro SIM card.
The new device, with a...
Thu, 13 May 10
Notebook Makers Will Use AMD's New Vision Chips
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73319
Advanced Micro Devices unveiled a new notebook platform Wednesday featuring chips with multi-core processors, lower power consumption, and lower profiles to facilitate ultrathin product designs. Notebook makers are already lining up to introduce machines featuring AMD's new chips before this year's back-to-school shopping season.
AMD's refreshed notebook platforms for consumers and business professionals now include multi-core Phenom II processors, DirectX 11 capabilities, and the chipmaker's homegrown Vision technology, which AMD says offers visual clarity, vibrant colors, and support for seamless multi-monitor functionality. The goal is to enable notebook makers to deliver machines offering up to eight hours of battery life together with an outstanding visual experience and advanced 3-D gaming capabilities at a great price, said AMD Senior Vice President Nigel Dessau.
"With Vision technology from AMD, we are finally connecting how people use their PCs with the way people purchase them," Dessau said. "Today, after little more than 200 days in market, our partners are introducing more Vision-based PCs than ever before -- a testament to both the competitiveness of AMD platform technology and the simplified marketing approach."
A total of 135 new mainstream and ultrathin notebooks from Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Toshiba and other OEMs based on AMD's Vision technology are already slated to reach the market in advance of the back-to-school shopping season. As a result, AMD finally appears to be in a good position to improve its standing in the global notebook market.
According to IDC, Intel held an 87.8 percent share in the mobile PC processor segment in the first quarter of 2010, a gain of 0.5 percent. By contrast, rival AMD finished the quarter with 12.1 percent, a loss of 0.6 percent, according to the research firm's analysts.
Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at iSuppli, views the PC industry response to AMD's...
Thu, 13 May 10
Patch Tuesday Fixes Vulnerabilities in Office, E-Mail
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73318
After a heavy April release, Microsoft issued just two security bulletins for May's Patch Tuesday. The bulletins address vulnerabilities in Office and mail products.
MS10-031 addresses a flaw in the Visual Basic environment associated with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). It is rated "critical" for Microsoft VBA SDK 6.0, and third-party applications that use Microsoft VBA. For Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007, MS10-031 is rated as "important."
Although there are several available patches to fix the VBA flaw, the Microsoft patches released Tuesday may not solve the problem in third-party applications if the vendor didn't follow best practices. In some cases, then, the vendor may have to serve up its own patch.
Joshua Talbot, security intelligence manager for Symantec Security Response, put the Visual Basic for Applications vulnerability first on his list this month.
"Both vulnerabilities require social engineering to exploit, but the VBA vulnerability requires less action from a user," Talbot said. "For instance, an attacker would simply have to convince a user to open a maliciously crafted file -- likely an Office document -- which supports VBA and the user's machine would be compromised. I can see this being used in targeted attacks, which are on the rise."
The second security bulletin is MS10-030. The vulnerability, which is caused when a malicious response is received from a POP3 or IMPAP server, could allow an attacker to execute malicious code remotely. For Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003, and Server 2008, the flaw carries a "critical" rating. The impact is lessened for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, where it carries an "important" rating.
"It is important to note that neither has a mail client installed by default," said Paul Henry, a security and forensic analyst at Lumension. "Deployment of the patch...
Thu, 13 May 10
Verizon, Google Creating Tablet That May Use Android
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73317
Although Apple is currently the most visible company in the tablet category, that may soon change. On Tuesday, the CEO of Verizon Wireless said his company is working with Google on a tablet computer.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, the carrier's Lowell McAdam said the companies are "looking at all the things" Google has that could be put "on a tablet to make it a great experience." Although McAdam didn't specify, the expectation is that the tablet will be based on Google's open-source Android operating system.
McAdam also indicated that carrier pricing may essentially treat various devices under one price plan. He told the Journal that "the old model of one price plan per device is going to fall away" in favor of plans that feature a "bucket of megabytes."
Verizon and Google are already working together on such products as the Droid, a Motorola-made smartphone that runs Android and Google software. This alliance is also a symmetrical balance to the AT&T Wireless-Apple partnership. AT&T is the carrier for the iPhone and the iPad, as well as for Amazon's Kindle e-reader.
This isn't the first report that Google is working on an Android tablet, but it's the first confirmation from one of the participants. Google, however, has said it has no announcement at this time.
In April, Google bought Bump Technologies, which makes a 3-D multi-touch desktop for Windows and Mac computers, and some industry observers took that acquisition to be a sign the company was interested in scaling up Android for tablets.
Another Google purchase last month, of a company called Agnilux, has also been seen as pointing to tablet development. Although details of the acquisition and the acquired company are murky, it's known that Agnilux was founded by engineers who were involved with the design of the A4, the chip...
Thu, 13 May 10
Review: Droid Incredible Lives Up to Its Name
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73315
Google and its smart phone partners have been on quite a roll lately.
Last fall, Motorola introduced the Droid, the first hit phone based on Google's Android operating system. Droid not only was the best Android phone, but it also was the best smart phone on the market at the time other than Apple's iPhone.
In January, Google and Taiwan-based manufacturer HTC topped the Droid with Google's Nexus One. Although sales of the Nexus One have been disappointing, the device took Android to the next level with its sleek physical design, refined three-dimensional interface and speedy processor.
Now, with the new HTC Droid Incredible, Google and HTC have raised the bar once more.
The Droid Incredible shares a lot in common with its sister phone, the Nexus One. It's got the same snappy 1-gigahertz processor and the same bright 3.7-inch OLED screen. And like the Nexus One, it runs Android 2.1, which is the latest version of Google's operating system.
But the Droid Incredible offers some significant improvements over the Nexus One. The first thing users will notice is that the Incredible comes with HTC's Sense interface. Sense is a program that runs on top of Android and helps organize the phone's home screens.
Users see a big clock when they turn on and unlock their phones and icons of commonly used programs. Double-tapping the Incredible's home button allows you to see thumbnail views of each of the phone's seven home screens.
Instead of having to swipe across the screen multiple times to get to the page you want, you can simply tap on its thumbnail and go to it directly.
Sense also lets you customize your home screens with scenes that correspond to particular uses or times of the day. So there's a "work" scene that includes links to your e-mail box and calendar and stock chart...
Thu, 13 May 10
SaaS Business Apps Give Small Firms Cloud Cover
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73287
Most small-business owners don't realize this yet, but a mother lode of technology that can free precious cash and manpower is available to them as in no other time in history.
Small firms typically buy basic clerical and accounting software in shrink-wrap boxes and run them on a company computer. The owner, or a harried employee, invariably gets pressed into service as resident tech expert.
But today, they can tap into a swelling portfolio of business applications residing in far-off computer servers. These programs come down from the Internet cloud, sent by a growing army of software companies eager to deliver powerful tools to Web browsers in laptops, netbooks and smartphones. Users pay as they use.
So-called software-as-a-service, or SaaS, has long been available to big companies. Now that computing power has become dirt cheap and Internet usage ubiquitous, software developers are racing to put cutting-edge business apps into the hands of small firms in ways that could give a lift to the economic recovery.
"We're entering an entirely new paradigm," says Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, a San Francisco-based supplier of programs that manage customer relations. "It's fantastic for small business, because software-as-a-service gives them a whole new level of capabilities."
Services such as Speakeasy, Concur Breeze and Avalara have cropped up to manage Internet phone systems, do expense and travel accounting, and handle complex sales-tax payments for small firms. For modest fees, these suppliers assume the burden of keeping programs updated, secure and readily accessible. "This technology allows you to do more with less," says Bruce Chatterley, CEO of Speakeasy, a Seattle-based supplier of Internet phone systems. "Small business can now go toe-to-toe with big business."
The trend has grabbed the attention of the tech giants. Microsoft and IBM have begun hustling to prepare a new generation of hosted services, tuned for small businesses...
Thu, 13 May 10
Troubleshooting Windows 7 Compatibility Issues
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73286
You've got Windows 7 up and running. That was the easy part.
Now comes the challenge of getting all of your hardware and software to run properly with the new operating system.
Everything from unrecognized device drivers to application compatibility can give you headaches in Windows 7 if you're not sure how to correct the problems. Read on for some answers.
Q: Every time I start Windows 7, it tries but fails to find a USB device driver. An error message tells me about this every time I start the computer. Everything is plugged in and working, so I'm not sure what is missing. How can I find out?
A: This can be a tough issue to solve, since there could be a lot of causes. So start by using a process of elimination.
If you have any internal add-on USB cards in your PC, remove them. Make sure, too, that you have downloaded and installed all of the motherboard chipset and device drivers from the manufacturer of your motherboard or computer. Unplug all your USB devices (except keyboard and mouse, if these are USB-based), and restart your computer.
If you still see an error, you know that it's caused by something inside your PC, which would again point to an internal add-in card or a chipset issue.
You can also turn to the free Unknown Device Identifier (http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html), a small utility which will give you more information about every device that shows up in the Windows Device Manager as "unknown" or with a yellow exclamation mark next to it. The utility works with all recent versions of Windows, including Windows 7.
Q: I have an older application -- Adobe InDesign CS2 -- that does not seem to run well under Windows 7. I don't want to buy an updated version. What are my choices?
A: First, since the...
Thu, 13 May 10
Data Security Issues in Digital Mapping, Photo Sharing
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73246
Digital mapping and photography can bring the world closer together. The problem is, for some people, that's too close.
Where travelers see great ways to track where they're going, data protection advocates see voyeurism. And the trend is only growing.
Hobby photographers are putting their pictures up on services like Flickr while tourism agencies are posting webcams to highlight their promenades and beaches. Meanwhile, mapmakers aren't just producing paper maps, but detailed online city plans with images linked to specific street addresses.
More pictures of our world are always finding their way online and, thanks to Google, Bing and the like, a lot of them are only a click away.
It's clear who is using these services. Vacationers tired of pouring over travel brochures would rather click to a webcam to check things out themselves to see if there's a nearby disco or whether the beach is as close as advertised. People considering moving can check their neighborhoods out digitally without leaving their home.
The services are also helpful to those on the go. Anyone with a multimedia mobile phone can use it for directions to the closest Mongolian restaurant, checking out the menu online while underway (assuming the establishment has posted it online). Once that's done, the mobile can then help the user find the train schedule for the way home.
"Our vision is to bring the entire Internet into one map," says Raphael Leiteritz, responsible for Google's StreetView project in Europe. The system links panoramic views of individual homes to satellite maps.
And the search giant isn't the only one who wants to recreate the map. Microsoft has a similar service -- Photosynth -- up and running in 56 US cities. Users can upload images or panoramic videos and link them to a site, making them generally available or only to those in a group...
Thu, 13 May 10
Virtualization: A Winner for Multisite Contact Centers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73238
The latest research by contact center industry analysts at ContactBabel confirms that joining multisite contact center operations together into a single 'virtual' contact center has brought significant benefits to both businesses and their customers. This is according to the more than 200 contact center operational leaders surveyed for "The U.S. Contact Center Decision-Makers' Guide" -- a major annual study produced by ContactBabel and sponsored by CosmoCom.
Research for the report found that respondents who had implemented virtual contact centers were generally very pleased with the gains in efficiency and service levels that they have experienced. Nearly three quarters cited ability to smooth out call spikes by balancing the load between contact centers as their top benefit, followed closely by reduced wait times, wider ranges of skills available to callers, and overall cost savings between sites.
Coping with call spikes is one issue which is growing year upon year. With virtual contact center technology, like that offered by CosmoCom, call workload is not limited to a single site, but instead can be allocated across all agent locations, including home workers, as call volume increases. Spreading the load helps eliminate many of the issues normally associated with call spikes.
Flexibility to allocate agents when and where needed means better agent utilization, so virtual call centers are less likely to have agents sitting idle while others are under great pressure. This same flexibility also expands the pool of agent talent available to callers, including specific technical and language skills. The resulting reduction in wait time and increased access to skilled agents translates to increased caller satisfaction.
A majority of virtual contact center respondents also strongly agree that there have been significant savings on call costs when the calls are split between remote physical sites.
Of the survey respondents with multiple-site...
Wed, 12 May 10
Mozilla Outlines Plans for Firefox 4 To Overtake Chrome
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73296
Mozilla gave developers a heads-up Monday on its plans to release a new version of Firefox featuring advanced HTML5 capabilities. Reacting to the recent market-share success of Google's lightning-fast Chrome browser, Mozilla said one of the priorities for its forthcoming Firefox 4 release is to make the next-generation browser "super-duper fast."
With Firefox 4, the ultimate aim for Mozilla is to develop a technology base that is fast, secure and optimized, noted Firefox Director Mike Beltzner. "For users, we want to build a product that is fast, friendly and empowering," Beltzner told the Mozilla developer community on Monday. "For developers, we want to give them tools for capable, fast Web access."
However, it's not just the next version of Firefox that needs to be fast. The Firefox development team needs to hustle because Chrome growth in the global browser market has been outpacing all its rivals for the past several months.
According to the latest data from Net Applications, Chrome increased its market share to 6.7 percent in April -- which is about five percentage points higher than it was a year ago. Moreover, Google Chrome has been the major beneficiary of Microsoft's weakness in the browser market over the course of the past 12 months, a role that Firefox used to enjoy.
The global market share held by Internet Explorer hit a 12-month low of 59.95 percent at the end of April, and over that period Chrome received the lion's share of Microsoft's percentage slide. Meanwhile, Mozilla's share of the browser market in April continued to hover at 23.8 percent, up only slightly from April 2009.
Beltzner hopes the addition of advanced capabilities to Firefox 4 like HTML5, 64-bit computing support, and reduced I/O operations on the main thread will help. However, none of these advancements will do anything to...
Wed, 12 May 10
FCC Wants Warning Texts for Cell-Phone Overages
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73295
Moving to address the "bill shock" cell-phone consumers get when they exceed their monthly agreement for voice, text or data, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed that wireless carriers be required to send a warning text when overage fees are about to be applied.
"We are hearing from consumers about unpleasant surprises on their bills," said Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, in a public notice. "We've gotten hundreds of complaints about bill shock. But this is an avoidable problem. Avoiding bill shock is good for consumers and ultimately good business for wireless carriers as well."
The proposal forces wireless carriers to decide whether to oppose the measure as unnecessary regulation or embrace it as a service, perhaps with a price tag that might be embraced by the budget-weary.
On Tuesday, Steve Largent, CEO and president of CTIA -- the Wireless Association, an international organization representing wireless carriers, noted that the nation's top four carriers already allow consumers to check their usage with simple key combinations.
"Even though the 'hundreds of complaints' that the public notice references is less than four ten-thousandths of a percentage of the industry's total subscribers, the industry strives to serve and provide all of our 285 million customers with the necessary tools to have a positive experience," Largent said.
Kirk Parsons, a wireless analyst for J.D. Power and Associates who says he recently had a bill-shock experience of his own, predicted that overage alerts would be popular. "I think consumers would love it," said Parsons. "It just happened to me, and it would have been nice if I was alerted that I was going over."
"The carriers may fight it [or] ]they may add this feature into existing plans and charge a nominal fee a month like handset insurance, just...
Wed, 12 May 10
Sales of Android-Based Devices Top Apple's iPhone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73294
Apple is no longer on top when it comes to sales of its iPhone. Open-source Android-based smartphones have surpassed iPhone sales.
After enjoying strong growth in last year's fourth quarter, Android moved past Apple in this year's first quarter to take the number-two position in smartphone operating systems, according to a report by NPD Group.
Based on unit sales of devices to consumers, the Android operating system held 28 percent of the market, ahead of Apple's 21 percent. Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating system still sits at number one with 36 percent.
Being in the number-two slot isn't too shabby for an operating system that launched two years ago and had to go up against OS heavy hitters that include BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and of course the iPhone, said analysts.
"We had seen Android grow very strong in the fourth quarter and the two operating systems were neck in neck," said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. "We knew that AT&T was going to be supporting Android in 2010 (with its Dell Aero and Motorola Backflip phones), so it was not much of a surprise."
While the operating systems are created by the phone makers, it's the carriers who drive sales with marketing and promotions. And there were a few factors in Android's push past the Apple iPhone OS.
"One of the things that led to strong growth is the Verizon Wireless buy-one-get-one deal, which effectively lowered the price," Rubin said.
AT&T's sales comprised nearly one-third of the entire smartphone market with 32 percent, followed by Verizon with 30 percent, T-Mobile with 17 percent, and Sprint with 15 percent.
"Strong sales of the Droid, Droid Eris, and BlackBerry Curve via these promotions helped keep Verizon Wireless' smartphone sales on par with AT&T in Q1," Rubin said. "On the Android side,...
Wed, 12 May 10
Microsoft's Project Natal Video Controller Due in October
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73293
Start practicing your body gestures. Microsoft's Project Natal, a controller for its Xbox 360 that could radically redefine user control for video games and other devices, is expected to be released in October.
That date was given by Syed Bilal Tariq, a Microsoft marketing manager in Saudi Arabia, during an interview with a TV station in that country. In the videotaped interview, which was posted on video gamer site Gamertag Radio on Monday, Tariq said "he had great news to share with everyone." The news was that Project Natal will be launched in Saudi Arabia at the same time as elsewhere -- which he said will be in October.
He added that the date will be confirmed at the E3 Expo trade show in June in Los Angeles. Microsoft itself is only saying that Project Natal will be launched by the holiday season.
An add-on to Xbox 360, Natal reads players' body movements and turns them into actions and characters on the screen. Nintendo's Wii created a sensation by its extensive use of a motion-sensing controller, but here body movements become the controller.
Sony is also getting into the body-sensing act. In March, it announced its motion-sensing controller, called Move, which looks like a microphone with a ping-pong ball on the top. Sony was an early innovator in this area with its Eye Toy, and the Move is Sony's attempt to catch up with Nintendo. It allows the kind of actions that Nintendo's controller does, but with greater accuracy. The company also believes it will satisfy hard-core game enthusiasts in ways that Nintendo's solution does not while expanding its PlayStation 3's appeal to non-gamer family members.
That appeal to non-gamers was the Wii's ace in the hole, since the Sony and Microsoft game machines were focused on being sharper, more...
Wed, 12 May 10
Skip Office 2010, Google Says, and Add Google Docs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73289
With the impending business launch of Microsoft's Office 2010 on Wednesday, rival Google is telling businesses to keep the Office they have -- and add Google Docs, not 2010. The counter-strike comes as Microsoft's newest version of its crown jewels will feature free online versions, a clear competitor to Google's in-the-cloud productivity suite approach.
Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard told news media that "Google Docs works quite well with Office and, in fact, it makes Office better." He pointed to opposite approaches between the companies -- Microsoft is adding online components to its desktop applications, while Google offers online apps that do not need a desktop version.
Girouard said adding Google Docs to the old Office version is not so much a pitch from Google as it is an echo of what he hears his customers are doing.
Salesforce.com's CEO and cofounder Marc Benioff has also chimed in on the competition between the two giants -- on Google's side.
"No one has to buy software anymore," he told USA Today. He said software has gone online because "users are just completely frustrated with the lack of innovation that has occurred in traditional business software," noting that Microsoft's SharePoint and IBM's Lotus Notes are designed "for systems whose days are gone by."
Benioff reiterated his oft-repeated conviction that we are now in the second generation of cloud computing for business, which he calls Cloud 2.0. This era, he has said, is designed for BlackBerrys, iPhones and iPads, and its central functionalities are "collaboration, social computing, communication, entertainment and information management."
The Office 2010 suite will include a free, but limited, online component. The consumer version will be available in June.
Sheri McLeish, an analyst with Forrester Research, said Google "has an uphill battle" to compete with Microsoft...
Wed, 12 May 10
AT&T Five-Year Deal May Keep iPhone from Verizon
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73288
Does AT&T still have a stronghold on Apple's iPhone in the U.S. or not? Despite old newspaper reports and newly revealed court documents, analysts still aren't sure what the truth is.
As the story goes, on May 23, 2007, USA Today reported that AT&T had exclusive distribution rights on the iPhone for five years. The paper called that "an eternity in the go-go cell-phone world." According to the USA Today article, Apple is barred until 2012 from developing a version of the iPhone for CDMA wireless networks. That effectively locks out Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel.
The latest revelation comes from court documents in a class-action lawsuit that alleges Apple is running a monopoly. Apple's response seems to confirm its exclusive five-year iPhone deal with AT&T: "[T]here was widespread disclosure of [AT&T's] five-year exclusivity and no suggestion by Apple or anyone else that iPhones would become unlocked after two years."
According to Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group, the reason that confirmation of the five-year deal may be important is evident: An exclusive agreement would mean consumers looking for a Verizon iPhone this year or next shouldn't hold their breath. The rumors of a Verizon or Sprint iPhone seem to go up in smoke based on these court documents -- unless.
The unless is interesting. Gartenberg said the exclusive iPhone deal between AT&T and Apple was presumably put together about three years ago.
A lot can change in three years, especially given all the issues AT&T has had supporting iPhone customers on its network. A customer satisfaction survey from ChangeWave Research indicates AT&T has the lowest customer satisfaction rate and the most dropped calls among its carrier peers.
There's yet another unless. AT&T has an exclusive deal for the iPhone -- unless the terms of that deal changed since...
Wed, 12 May 10
Sprint Joins Verizon in Rejecting Google's Nexus One
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73278
After getting snubbed by Verizon Wireless, Google's Nexus One is also getting the cold shoulder from Sprint Nextel. The Android-powered "superphone" won't find a home at the CDMA-based carrier after all.
Like Verizon, Sprint had pledged to carry the Nexus One on its network. But the company backed out of its March promise and has decided to run with the soon-to-be-released HTC EVO 4G instead.
Verizon also opted for a different Android device for its CDMA network: the HTC Incredible, which has met with rave reviews in the wireless marketplace and is now Verizon's flagship smartphone. That means the Google Nexus One can only run on GSM networks from AT&T and T-Mobile. Consumers can also buy an unlocked version of the device for $529.
Given the velocity at which the wireless market is moving, analysts aren't surprised that smartphones announced in January -- and that haven't come to market by May -- aren't finding a warm welcome from wireless carriers who can pick and choose from other devices that have the same or arguably better functionality.
"If you are Verizon, you have the HTC Incredible. If you are Sprint, you have the EVO 4G. You don't really need a Nexus One in your lineup. It's not offering anything for the most part that those other devices aren't doing and doing better," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "It might confuse your customer base and you can focus on your brand as opposed to Google's brand."
Gartenberg noted that even AT&T and T-Mobile aren't selling the Nexus One directly. Google sells versions that work on those networks directly to consumers through its own e-commerce platform, and Gartenberg sees no great loss for consumers. Consumers who want a Nexus One can buy it and get service on AT&T and T-Mobile, he said,...
Wed, 12 May 10
De-Cluttering Your Digital Life Can Set You Free
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73265
We've got multiple e-mail accounts, social networks, media streams, blogs, Web sites, electronic calendars, instant messages, phone contacts, online bills, passwords coming out of our ears and screen after screen after screen of computer stuff to back up, share and sync.
That doesn't include the virtual reams floating in the ether, enough to fill the Library of Congress more than 40,000 times, said Douglas C. Merrill, former chief information officer for Google, Ph.D. in cognitive science and dude who wants to help us better manage our digital clutter.
"That's 32 feet of books for every man, woman and child in America. We're drowning in information," said Merrill, who nearly wrecked his health helping to manage the details of taking Google public.
Merrill, once an information scientist at the Rand Corp., struggled with dyslexia as a kid, so de-cluttering -- digital and otherwise -- is a huge priority for him, so much that he's written a book on the subject with James Martin, "Getting Organized in the Google Era."
We all know about clutter offline, but our digital selves have filled up in a huge way, too. We're suffering, but we can't dig out or keep up with rapidly changing and proliferating tools. Geeks do. They track products and reviews -- and have the time and skills to test them. The rest of us fret and stress.
"I have several e-mail accounts. I have several Web sites. I'm constantly behind returning phone calls. It's a good day if the number of unread messages is below 200," said Berit Brogaard, a St. Louis college professor and single mom to a busy 6-year-old whose life also needs to be managed.
Anybody looking for a non-urgent e-mail reply from Brogaard might be waiting awhile. She relies on a few canned e-mail responses that she stashes in Gmail and rolls out...
Wed, 12 May 10
Internet 'Hijacking' Leaves Networks Vulnerable
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73261
In 1998, a hacker told Congress that he could bring down the Internet in 30 minutes by exploiting a certain flaw that sometimes caused online outages by misdirecting data. In 2003, the Bush administration concluded that fixing this flaw was in the nation's "vital interest."
Fast forward to 2010, and very little has happened to improve the situation. The flaw still causes outages every year. Although most of the outages are innocent and fixed quickly, the problem still could be exploited by a hacker to spy on data traffic or take down Web sites. Meanwhile, our reliance on the Internet has only increased. The next outage, accidental or malicious, could disrupt businesses, the government or anyone who needs the Internet to run normally.
The outages are caused by the somewhat haphazard way that traffic is passed between companies that carry Internet data. The outages are called "hijackings," even though most of them are not caused by criminals bent on destruction. Instead the outages are a problem borne out of the open nature of the Internet, a quality that also has stimulated the Net's dazzling growth.
"It's ugly when you look under the cover," says Earl Zmijewski, a general manager at Renesys Corp., which tracks the performance of Internet data routes. "It amazes me every day when I get into work and find it's working."
When you send an e-mail, view a Web page or do anything else online, the information you read and transmit is handed from one carrier of Internet data to another, sometimes in a long chain. When you log into Facebook, your data might be handed from your Internet service provider to a company such as Level 3 Communications Inc., which operates a global network of fiber-optic lines that carry Internet data across long distances. It, in turn, might pass the...
Wed, 12 May 10
Airline Merger Poses Customer-Service Concerns
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73254
Whose service will greet passengers at the merged Continental and United airline: Continental's highly rated or United's low-rated?
Will the new airline -- to fly under the United name -- have two, three or four classes of seats? Will it fly big or little planes?
The new airline needs to get approved by federal regulators before it can fly. And the airlines have yet to put together teams that will work out answers to important passenger questions.
"It's very early in the process," Continental spokeswoman Christen David says. "We've had lots of questions asked already, including, 'What operating system will we use, Vista or Windows 7?' But we don't have any answers yet."
Among key issues for passengers:
*Customer service. Continental is regarded as having the better image. It ranked second among U.S. airlines in the University of Michigan's latest American Customer Satisfaction index, second only to Southwest. United came in last.
*Classes of seating. United has conventional first, business and coach sections, plus an "Economy Plus" section with economy seats that have a few extra inches of legroom. Continental has a standard coach section, plus "Business First." It's a hybrid designed to be near first-class quality but priced near business class.
*Size of planes. More than half of United's departures are flown under contract by United Express carriers, which fly smaller planes. Continental farms out a smaller share to regional affiliates.
Millions of dollars in revenue hang on how the issues are decided. For example, Continental can pack a maximum of 285 passengers on its Boeing 777s used on international routes. United can get only 253 passengers on its 777s. But 138 of those passengers on United's 777s pay premium prices to sit in first, business or Economy Plus sections.
"There are two key areas of concern: product delivery and service delivery," says marketing consultant Shashank Nigam, CEO...
Wed, 12 May 10
Tech CEOs Predict Who'll Win Tomorrow's Tech Race
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73252
It seems every major tech giant is celebrating a landmark birthday these days. This year, it's been Microsoft (35), Cisco Systems (25) and Yahoo (15). Next year, IBM turns a century old, and Apple hits 35.
Some have more reason to celebrate than others. While some have matured, tech's latest waves have others gasping to keep up.
In this ever-changing landscape, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.com have grown stronger, and Cisco, Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Intel forge ahead, according to numerous tech analysts, executives and venture capitalists.
Meanwhile, the fortunes of Yahoo, AOL, MySpace and eBay are less clear, a consequence of missed marketing opportunities, lack of innovation or something else. The debate rages over Microsoft, good and bad.
Rapid change has been a staple in tech for decades, but the pace of today's market -- accelerated by explosive growth in the mobile, social-media and so-called cloud-computing segments -- presents as many risks as opportunities.
USA TODAY asked more than a dozen high-profile CEOs, over several months, to reflect on this slice of time and to handicap who is best positioned to adapt and prosper. Though their opinions vary widely, they agree the tech industry dictates that they relentlessly innovate, revamp business plans every few months or acquire key technologies.
"When the world is moving and changing so fast, the worst risk is to do nothing," says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The competitive treadmill moves so fast, MySpace co-President Jason Hirschhorn says, an executive team needs a "level of insecurity."
His concerns are borne out in a recent report by Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, dubbed the "Queen of the Net." She posits that tech is in the midst of its fifth major cycle. Mainframe computers dominated the 1950s and '60s, mini-computers the 1970s, desktop PCs the '80s and the Internet the '90s.
The current cycle is the mobile...
Wed, 12 May 10
German iPad Rival Gets a New Name: WeTab
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73250
Germany's heavily publicized answer to the Apple iPad changed its name Friday to the WeTab, with weeks to go before the touchscreen tablet computer goes on the market.
The device had originally been dubbed the WePad, a play of words on Apple's model name involving the English pronouns I and we.
Neofonie said the distribution company would be renamed WePad as well with immediate effect "to more clearly distinguish the product on the international market for tablet computers." It did not say who prompted the change.
The Germany-based parent company has said that it will sell the Asian-manufactured device for 449 to 569 euros ($610 to $770) starting this summer.
The WePad can be used to read digital newspapers, magazines and books, as well as to watch films in color. Unlike the iPad, it will play Adobe Flash videos.
Hopes in technology-loving Germany that a local company could mount a challenge to US computer giant Apple were dampened in April, when journalists showed up for the public launch of the device in Berlin and found no WePads there.
The company explained that the prototype had been held up by a customs examination, prompting bloggers to speculate it was fiction.
A hand-picked group of journalists were allowed to test a WePad a week later. Some said it worked, but lacked the verve of an iPad.
Critics say Apple's iPad is nothing more than a phone with a big screen, but fans say its intuitive and foolproof operation justified the sale of 1 million within days after its US launch.
Some media outlets hope tablet computers will provide a cheap new way to distribute magazines and newspapers.
Apple has come under fire from some media providers in Germany because it bans soft pornography from its iPhone and iPad.
Wed, 12 May 10
Online in Seconds Flat: Quick-Starting Operating Systems
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73248
No-one wants to wait forever for a computer to boot up. Yet that's exactly what many Windows users have to suffer each day. But slow-booting computers don't have to be the rule. There are actually operating systems out there that boot up in no time flat.
Christian Loebering from Germany's PC-Welt magazine names two good reasons for using a quick starting operating system. "For one," he says, no doubt echoing the sentiments of many, "I don't want to wait around forever for the computer to boot up just to download a couple of email messages."
Second, he notes, many of the quicker operating systems, which tend to run on Linux, are less exposed to attacks than Windows, and hence fundamentally somewhat more secure. That last statement has lost some of its punch with the advent of Windows 7, however, which is better than its predecessors in this regard.
One of those rapid-boot systems is known as Moblin. It is open source and can be modified or redistributed without restriction. The Linux-based operating system can be downloaded as an image file from http://moblin.org. At only 754 megabytes in total, it fits comfortably onto a USB stick. It can even boot right from that stick. The process takes only 30 seconds or so on a current laptop, c't magazine found after running tests.
Android has recently enjoyed its breakthrough as an OS for mobile phones. The Google software also runs on traditional computers. "LiveAndroid" is the variant for this and can boot directly from a CD or USB stick. The best part is that you can try it out without having to modify your computer at all. That practice is common to many Linux versions and Android is in fact based on the free operating system.
Acer's Aspire One D250 netbook comes with both Windows XP and...
Tue, 11 May 10
Sony Launches Diminutive Vaio P Series PC
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73274
Sony Electronics has taken the wraps off a revamped Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC that sports an array of built-in one-touch buttons for enabling users to instantly access the web, adjust screen resolution or even tune-up their machines. The overall design is focused on attracting buyers looking for a thin, small and light-weight alternative to the traditional laptop.
Approximately the size of a business envelope and tipping the scales at just 1.4 pounds, the diminutive device has industry observers speculating that the design platform might help Sony launch a Web tablet to compete with Apple's iPad. One reason is because Vaio P users will be able to surf the Web without a keyboard or mouse because the trackpad as well as the left and right click buttons have been built right into the LCD bezel.
Measuring 9.6x 0.78x4.7 inches, the Sony Vaio P sports an eight-inch, ultra-wide LED display with a resolution of 1600x768-pixels and an 83-key Qwerty-keyboard. Under the hood, the new machine integrates a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and Intel graphics media accelerator, a multimedia memory card reader and SD memory card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, camera and microphone. Also on tap is a solid state drive with up to 256GB of memory and 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM.
The communications capabilities aboard the Sony Vaio P include built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) and Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband radios. Furthermore, the new device features built-in real-time GPS, together with a Bluetooth radio for streaming audio in stereo to compatible speakers and headsets.
Battery life is expected to range up to 3.5 hours on the standard 2500 mAh lithium ion battery that ships with the device. However, buyers also have the option of ordering an extended battery pack that is capable of delivering up to 7 hours of operation off...
Tue, 11 May 10
Man Found Guilty of Sending Threatening Tweet
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73273
Twitter users may need to think twice before typing their next 140 character-long tweet. An accountant in England today was found guilty after sending out what was considered by the court to be a threatening tweet.
Along with being found guilty, Paul Chambers was fined $1,500 after a British court convicted him of sending out a threatening tweet, which included comments about blowing up an airport in South Yorkshire.
Frustrated by an airport closure, Chambers sent a tweet to his 600 followers that read:
Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!
Once sent, Chambers forgot about it and continued sending tweets. It was not until days later, however, that an employee of Robin Hood Airport discovered Chambers' tweet. The employee said he stumbled across the tweet when researching Robin Hood Airport on Twitter and notified the airport's security. Officials then notified the police.
The tweet was not intended to be a threat, according to Chambers. Instead, it was a joke to be read by his own followers who were being updated of his travels.
Despite Twitter's Terms of Service, which states "content you submit, post, or display will be able to be viewed by other users of the services and through third party services and Web sites," Chambers said he was not aware that his tweet would be viewed by anyone other than his followers.
Still, the Judge ruled against him and issued the fine. As a result of the prosecution, Chambers lost his job as a finance supervisor.
Chambers took no time before hitting the Web to tweet about the ordeal. Chambers tweeted his thoughts and frustration with Crown Prosecution Services, the agency responsible for prosecuting criminal cases investigated by the policy in...
Tue, 11 May 10
Apple Pays Price For AT&T Loyalty, Survey Says
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73272
Apple's decision thus far to stick with AT&T as the sole wireless carrier for the iPhone seems to be costing the company market share as Google's multi-carrier Android operating system eats up an increasing slice of the smartphone pie, new data suggest.
A survey on first-quarter 2010 smartphone sales by NPD Group found that Android-based phone sales edged past Apple to become the No. 2 system, with 28 percent, behind Research In Motion, which leads with 32 percent of the market. Apple's share was 21 percent of the market.
The survey also found that AT&T is responsible for the most devices in use, at 32 percent nearly neck and neck with Verizon Wireless' 30 percent. Trailing are T-Mobile with 17 percent and Sprint/Nextel with 15 percent.
With the addition of Palm's Pre and Pixi phones, AT&T is now the only carrier to feature plans on all five top operating systems: Apple's iPhone, Palm's webOS, Research in Motion's BlackBerry, Microsoft's Windows Phone Series 7 and -- with the new Motorola Backflip -- Google's Android.
"As in the past, carrier distribution and promotion have played a crucial role in determining smartphone market share," said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD. "In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones."
An AdMob survey two weeks ago also found that Android phones are gaining ground, with 46 percent of the U.S. market, beating iPhone's 39 percent, while globally, iPhone reigns with 46 percent compared to 25 percent of Andoid phones.
The AdMob survey was based on impressions on 180,000 Web sites monitored by the mobile advertising firm, while NPD Group's research is based on 150,000 online monthly surveys of consumer users.
"The biggest single thing that Apple can...
Tue, 11 May 10
HP Reportedly Working on Tablet Using Palm's webOS
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73269
HP's Slate tablet, once promoted by Microsoft for its use of Windows 7 in this new form factor, is reported to be in the process of being reborn as a Palm webOS-based tablet. HP bought Palm a few weeks ago, and this move could mean the rebirth of Palm into the new world of tablets -- and the diminishing of Windows 7 for that platform.
Various industry observers have speculated that the versatile webOS platform was the main target of HP's $1.2 billion purchase last month of the struggling mobile device maker. This weekend, a technology columnist for Examiner.com, Daryl Deino, cited an "insider at HP" in his report that a webOS tablet, with the code name of HP Hurricane, will be launched in third quarter.
HP has not commented on the webOS report, and has dismissed earlier reports in various publications that the Windows 7-based Slate, which was expected to be released mid-2010, has been killed. Most of the reports cited HP's frustration with Windows 7, even with a HP touch overlay, for such a device.
In its announcement of the purchase last month, HP had praised the webOS platform as "unparalled." Todd Bradley, executive vice president in the HP Personal Systems Group, said in a statement at the time that webOS "provides an ideal platform to expand HP's mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices."
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had demonstrated the HP Slate in his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in January in Las Vegas, and HP had been leaking videos and specs about the device over the last few months. All indications were that the two computer giants were setting it up as the main competitor to Apple's hit iPad.
But some Web reports, including by those...
Tue, 11 May 10
Get Ready for WiGig Wireless Speeds Up to 7 Gigabits
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73243
Wireless transmission speeds in your home or business as fast as 7 gigabits per second. That's the vision of the next generation of WiFi, called WiGig, offered in a cooperation agreement announced Monday between the Wi-Fi Alliance and the WiGig Alliance.
The two industry groups said that they will share technology specification for the creation of a Wi-Fi Alliance certification for operation at 60 GHz. Current Wi-Fi network supports 2.4 and 5 GHz. Downward compatibility to the current spec is expected in many devices that will support WiGig.
The top transmission rate of 7 Gbps is more than ten times faster than the highest 802.11N Wi-Fi rate. The organizations said that protocol adaptation layers, now in development, will support different device architectures, including PC data buses and displays such as HD TVs, monitors, and projectors.
"From its inception," said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa in a statement, "the WiGig specification was designed to work on a wide variety of devices." The process now moves to definition of the interoperability and certification standards, and for adoption of WiGig in products for home and business.
Both organizations have been working toward faster transmission protocols, and both share many member companies in common. For example, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Panasonic are members of both groups.
The spec itself defines protocols for data transfer in the gigabit range, and it also indicates the hand-over procedure so that devices can operate in the lower bands. The organizations said they expected the new standard and the certification process will result in a new category of tri-band Wi-Fi Certified devices, capable of operating at 60, 5, and 2.4 GHz.
One question is what kind of applications used in homes and businesses could benefit from such high wireless speeds. Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research...
Tue, 11 May 10
EMC Announces Converged Networking Portfolio
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73240
On Monday, EMC outlined its converted network strategy with new products and services for Ethernet-based storage, data centers and private clouds. EMC's new converged networks portfolio aims to help customers address network sprawl, complexity, as well as power and cooling costs.
With its new strategy, EMC is betting more organizations will move to replace multiple separate networks with converged networks, which are single network infrastructures designed specifically for the needs of virtualized storage and server environments. Working with its partners, EMC wants to lead the transitional charge with its new portfolio.
EMC plans to introduce an expanded portfolio of converged networking services for Ethernet environments over the next few months, including network assessment, planning, design and implementation services, supporting a range of protocols.
The company will also offer an enhanced suite of tools to size, analyze, design and migrate converged networks, new Ethernet competencies, a full range of Brocade 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches and a data center solution based on Cisco products.
"Customers today are on their journey to the private cloud by virtualizing servers, networks and storage," said Howard Elias, president and COO of EMC's Information Infrastructure and Cloud Services. "The advent of converged networks will simplify network challenges and create the data center infrastructure required to realize the full potential of private clouds."
For years, enterprises have deployed multiple dedicated and segregated storage networks whose capabilities generally paralleled the value of the information assets they supported, noted Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. Storage Area Networks (SANs), he said, were reserved for the business critical data inhabiting enterprise-class arrays populated with FibreChannel drives while more common data and traffic were relegated to pedestrian Ethernet infrastructures.
IT evolution, King noted, has a way of lowering barriers over time. He pointed to the plethora of storage solutions leveraging increasingly...
Tue, 11 May 10
Apple Starts Selling iPads Internationally
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73239
Apple is looking to repeat its U.S. iPad success in countries around the world. The company announced May 28 as the release date for the iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
On Monday, Apple opened up pre-orders on all iPad models from Apple's online store. Analysts are bullish on the iPad's global prospects. Apple has already sold over one million iPads in the U.S. Customers have downloaded over 12 million iPad apps from the App Store and more than 1.5 million e-books from the iBookstore.
"The iPad certainly has been an unqualified success in the U.S. with over a million units sold in 28 days and Apple continues to ramp up sales in many places," said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. "People tried to buy the device for Mother's Day, for example, and found it was in somewhat short supply. You had to look around to find one."
Gartenberg points to the declining availability in stores, as well as the number of people looking for the iPad on sites like Craigslist and eBay, as reasons to believe that the iPad is going to perform well in international markets.
The iPad allows users to perform like web browsing, reading and sending e-mail, viewing and sharing photos, watching HD videos, listening to music, playing games, and reading e-books using Apple's Multi-Touch user interface. And the App Store on iPad lets users wirelessly browse, buy and download more than 200,000 that work with the iPad.
"I think we are going to see the iPad do well in the same places that the iPhone has gained traction -- and that is most of the countries it's launching in," Gartenberg said. "The iPad does seem to be resonating with consumers. Consumers are understanding...
Tue, 11 May 10
Web Goes Truly Global with First Non-Latin URLs
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73229
Three Mideast countries have become the first to get Internet addresses entirely in non-Latin characters.
Domain names in Arabic for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were added to the Internet's master directories on Wednesday, following final approval last month by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. It's the first major change to the Internet domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.
Registrations for Web sites to use those names are to begin soon. On Thursday, Egypt granted three companies approval to register names using the country's new Arabic suffix.
Until now, Web sites had to end their addresses with ".com" or another string using Latin characters. That meant businesses and government agencies still had to use Latin characters on billboards and advertisements, even if they were targeting populations with no familiarity with English or other languages that use the Latin script.
Non-Latin characters were sometimes permitted for the portions of the Internet address before the suffix. But Arabic Web sites generally haven't had that option because Arabic characters are written right to left, conflicting with Latin suffixes written left to right.
"Introducing Arabic domain names is a milestone in Internet history," Egyptian Communication and Information Technology Minister Tarek Kamel said in a statement. "This great step will open up new horizons for e-services in Egypt" as well as boosting the number of online users and enabling Internet service providers to enter new markets by "eliminating language barriers."
ICANN, which cleared the way for non-Latin suffixes in October after years of debate, said the Mideast shows growth potential, with just a fifth of the populations online, on average.
Egypt will keep its ".eg" suffix in Latin and will offer ".masr" in Arabic alongside that. Masr is the country's name in Arabic. Kamel said TE Data, Vodafone Data and Link...
Tue, 11 May 10
Operation Network Raider Targets Bogus Equipment
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73226
The U.S. government said Thursday that it has won 30 felony convictions and seized $143 million worth of counterfeit network computer equipment manufactured in China.
The law enforcement initiative is called Operation Network Raider.
The announcement by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security came as a Saudi citizen living in Sugarland, Texas, was sentenced to 51 months in prison. He was ordered to pay $119,400 in restitution to Cisco Systems Inc., whose network hardware is a prime target of counterfeiters.
Ehab Ashoor, 49, bought counterfeit Cisco equipment from an online vendor in China intending to sell it to the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq for transmitting troop movements, relaying intelligence and maintaining security for a military base west of Fallujah, according to evidence at Ashoor's trial.
"Counterfeit products pose safety risks for unknowing users," said Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's criminal division.
"Anything that has even the potential to negatively impact our armed forces or any unsuspecting consumer is simply unacceptable," Breuer said of the two-year law enforcement operation. "They aren't what they purport to be and haven't undergone the same quality control and testing as the legitimate products."
Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have seized more than 94,000 counterfeit Cisco network components and labels worth more than $86 million.
The FBI was part of the cooperative effort.
U.S. law enforcement authorities are working with China's Ministry of Public Security to prevent the export of counterfeit hardware.
Tue, 11 May 10
Internet Filters Are OK, Says Wash. Supreme Court
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73221
Public libraries' refusal to disable content-blocking Internet filters for adult patrons does not run afoul of the state constitution, the Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
In a 6-3 ruling, the majority said libraries have discretion about which Internet content to allow, just as they decide which magazines and books to offer.
"A public library can decide that it will not include pornography and other adult materials in its collection in accord with its mission and policies and, as explained, no unconstitutionality necessarily results," wrote the majority, led by Chief Justice Barbara Madsen. "It can make the same choices about Internet access."
Justices Susan Owens, Charles Johnson, Mary Fairhurst and Gerry Alexander signed on in agreement.
Justice Jim Johnson wrote a separate opinion, agreeing with the majority conclusion but saying the focus of the reasoning should be on scarcity of resources that libraries deal with, which in turn allows them to filter materials they obtain for their collections.
The majority said libraries, while not completely removing Internet filters, can provide access to individual Web sites containing constitutionally protected speech if requested by an adult.
The majority cited heavily from a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in United States v. American Library Association, which upheld the 2000 Children's Internet Protection Act. That act requires public libraries to install Internet filters in order to receive federal money.
Four justices in that 6-3 majority said the law did not violate First Amendment free-speech, and two others said it was allowable as long as libraries disable the filters for adult patrons who ask.
Citing that fracture in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Washington state Supreme Court Justice Tom Chambers said in his dissent Thursday that under the First Amendment, "the library's filtering policy is at best doubtful and, I predict, will be struck down."
Chambers, joined by Justices Richard Sanders and Debra Stephens,...
Tue, 11 May 10
Great Mobile Apps for Your Smartphone
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73219
Washington (dpa) -- As more people are performing computing chores on their mobile phones, the search for useful apps is on. E-mail is usually covered adequately by smartphones, but how about instant messaging, forum reading, better web browsing, and tweeting? No problem. Read on for some suggestions.
Q: I'm addicted to instant messaging on the computer, but my iPhone doesn't seem to have the ability to tie in to my Yahoo instant message account. Is there a cell phone app that will work?
A: If you use only Yahoo!, you can certainly do worse that downloading and installing Yahoo! for mobile. Just navigate to http://mobile.yahoo.com and type in your phone number. Yahoo will message you a direct link to the application's download site. Or you can type m.yahoo.com into your phone's browser, and you'll get the same thing. The Yahoo! app will give you access to the IM client as well as plenty of other Yahoo! services, including e-mail.
If you need access to more than one instant messenger from your smartphone, though, try Beejive (http://www.beejive.com). This nifty little application can aggregate your IM account from multiple services, including Yahoo!, AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, and more. Also available for BlackBerry, Beejive sports a very intuitive and easy-to-read interface, and with it, you'll be able to keep track of multiple conversations from multiple services at once.
Q: I use my BlackBerry for everything except web browsing because the browser is so slow and hard to read. Is there a better browsing application I can use?
A: The web browser in the BlackBerry phone is indeed lacking. But there are options. Your first stop should be to http://m.opera.com on your BlackBerry browser. There, you'll find Opera Mini, a free browser that does everything that the BlackBerry browser doesn't. It's fast, first of all. But just...
Tue, 11 May 10
For Facebook Users, Life Is an Open Book
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73218
As the world's most popular social-networking site, Facebook has more data on us than any other private company, and a lot more than most governments.
So it can be both disconcerting and dangerous when the Web site -- whether as a matter of policy or by mistake -- lets out a lot more information than we would like.
Unfortunately for Facebook and its users, that's happening all too frequently. As the magazine PC World so succinctly put it after the last debacle: "Another day, another Facebook security snafu."
The latest glitch was revealed Wednesday when Facebook said it had fixed a security bug that allowed user's to snoop on their friends' private chats and view the pending friend requests by others.
In March, a bug exposed the private emails of many users and limited their ability to hide other contact information.
In December, Facebook changed its privacy settings, sparking a new Facebook protest group that now boasts more than 2.2 million members.
The new settings automatically share members' information, unless they take specific steps to opt out of the info giveaway. That meant that your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, Friends List and all the pages you subscribe to were made publicly available and searchable for anyone on the web to see.
Prior to that there was Beacon, a Facebook information system that mined data from member profiles to send them targeted ads and displayed users visits to external sites on their Facebook stream.
Though a mass public outcry prompted Facebook to quickly abandon that idea, its newly announced OpenGraph initiative is proving just as controversial.
Given that the aim of OpenGraph is to accompany Facebook members on their travels to every corner of the web, the problem could get much more serious.
The OpenGraph initiative allows Web sites to adopt the Facebook Connect sign-in system so that...
Sun, 9 May 10
Borders Enters Hot & Heavy E-Book Market with Kobo
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73236
America's second largest bookstore chain stormed onto the e-books market today, unveilng its own electronic reader, the Kobo. Borders also announced plans to open its e-books store next month, in June.
The Kobo will compete with Amazon's wildly popular Kindle and the more recently introduced Nook from Barnes & Noble, as well as Sony's e-reader and Apple's iPad -- which functions as an e-book reader and much more. So, how does the Kobo stack up?
Price is one major differentiator. The 8-ounce Kobo, with 1 GB of memory and a 6-inch e-ink gray display, sells for only $149, which is $100 less than both Barnes & Noble's Nook and Amazon's Kindle. But there's a key difference: The Kobo can't download books on its own. Instead, it must be connected to a computer or smartphone via USB cable or Bluetooth to retrieve new titles.
"That will be OK for those who have a computer and are willing to do that kind of cable transfer," said mobile devices analyst Jeff Orr of ABI Research. But, it could be limiting if you have to have a computer available, and have to feel comfortable using a computer for downloading more books.
Manufactured by Kobo, Inc., formerly Shortcovers, a Canadian company in which Borders has a significant investment, the Kobo device is available for pre-order now, and ships on June 17, in time for Father's Day in the U.S.
The 4.7 by 7.2 inch device comes with 100 classic books preloaded. It will support Epub, PDF and Adobe's DRM formats and has an expansion slot for added memory. The Bluetooth feature will enable synching with "select smartphones," according to Borders.
"It looks like a solid device," said Orr. "It's comparable to the Sony Reader Pocket Edition."
The lack of WiFi or 3G may allow a lower price...
Sat, 8 May 10
Is the iPad Killing Netbook Sales?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73237
Financial analysts at Morgan Stanley are suggesting that Apple's iPad may already be having a negative impact on portable PC sales. According to a recent Morgan Stanley/Alphawise survey, 44 percent of U.S. consumers looking to buy an iPad have indicated that they would be foregoing the purchase of a netbook or notebook because of the decision.
Tablets in particular, may prove a headwind to notebook growth, wrote Morgan Stanley analysts Katy Huberty and Mathew Schneider in recent report. Given the versatility of the iPad in particular, they noted, cannibalization is a threat.
"The notebook (44 percent), iPod Touch (41 percent) and eReader (28 percent) markets are the most at risk," Huberty and Schneider wrote. "Consumers see broad iPad use cases including browsing and email (90 percent), multimedia consumption (67 percent), print media consumption (60 percent), gaming (57 percent), and other apps."
Apple recently said it has already sold more than one million iPads, including those coming from pre-orders. "Assuming that rate continues in May -- and because even Apple Stores keep running out of stock, that seems likely -- we'll see Apple having sold about 1.5 million units by the end of May," wrote Yankee Group Analyst Carl Howe in a blog.
Still, it is too early to reach any conclusions concerning the iPad's potential impact on portable PC sales, according to Stephen Baker, vice president of market research firm the NPD Group.
"One month of sales is not a trend on anything -- especially for Apple," Baker said. "One of the things which Apple is great about is building momentum -- and [that] tends to manifest itself very aggressively at the launch of a new product. But whether this is evidence of a long term trend remains to be seen."
According to a recent NPD Group survey, consumer...
Sat, 8 May 10
IDC: Smartphone Market Skyrockets, Apple Hits RIM
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73234
Smartphone growth nearly doubled the overall mobile phone market in the first quarter, with vendors shipping 54.7 million units. That's up 56.7 percent from the year-ago period, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
By contrast, the overall mobile phone market grew only 21.7 percent.
The fourth quarter is typically the strongest quarter of the year, so the fact that first quarter smartphone shipments were even stronger is telling. The industry saw 38 percent growth in the fourth quarter. IDC said this signals both the tremendous potential of the market and how far the market dropped in the year-ago period.
Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team, says 2010 looks to be another year of large-scale consumer adoption of converged mobile devices.
"Consumers will gravitate to smartphones not just because the devices themselves look 'cool' and 'slick', but because the overall experience aligns with their individual tastes and demands," Llamas said. "Users are seeking -- and finding -- experiences that are intuitive, seamless, and fun. Already, we've seen what Palm's webOS and Google's Android can do. This year, we expect updates for BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile to spark greater smartphone demand with their offerings."
Greater awareness, increasingly affordable data plans, and the global economic recovery will drive higher smartphone sales in 2010, said Kevin Restivo, senior analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.
"More consumers are aware of smartphones now due to positive referrals from friends and family and manufacturer's mass media campaigns," said Restivo. "Coupled with increased confidence on the part of consumers, these factors will create a perfect storm of demand for suppliers this year."
Nokia maintained its position as the leading smartphone vendor worldwide in the first quarter. Nokia introduced several new models, including the C3, C6, and...
Sat, 8 May 10
Microsoft Readies for Light May Patch Tuesday
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73214
In its monthly heads up for IT administrators, Microsoft has announced a light Patch Tuesday for May 8. Next week's security bulletins will only offer two critical updates for Microsoft products.
With two bulletins, May is a sigh of relief compared to April's updates. Microsoft issued 11 security updates to fix 35 flaws last month. And with 13 bulletins, February tied Microsoft's record for the most bulletins released in a single month.
April's update also included nine "critical" fixes. Microsoft's April update came on top of security fixes for Adobe and Oracle. By way of comparison, IT admins can breathe easy in May.
In May's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft will address vulnerabilities in Windows and Office. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 customers will be offered the Windows related update but are not vulnerable in their default configurations, according to Jerry Bryant, group manager for Microsoft's Security Response Communications.
"Concerning the recent Security Advisory for SharePoint, 983438, we will not be releasing an update for that with the May bulletins," Bryant said. "Our teams are still working on an update for that issue. In the meantime, we recommend customers review the advisory and apply the workarounds."
Bryant also reminded IT admins that support for Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 will end after July 13, 2010. He recommends customers upgrade to either a supported operating system or the latest service pack in order to keep receiving security updates.
Microsoft recommends customers prepare for the testing and deployment of both bulletins as soon as possible. Microsoft expects that the patch for Windows will require a restart, and warned that the Office patch may potentially require one as well. The company will hold a webcast next week to offer more in-depth details about the bulletins and answer questions live.
As Bryant mentioned,...
Sat, 8 May 10
'Cyberwar' Term Stirs Controversy and Confusion
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73206
Is there really a "cyberwar" going on? Some officials and computer security companies say yes, arguing that armies of hackers are stealing online secrets and using the Internet to attack infrastructure such as power grids.
However, some security analysts said at a conference this week that "cyberwarfare" is such a broadly used term that it might be hurting efforts by countries to agree how to cooperate on Internet security.
For instance, last month the United Nations rejected a Russian proposal for a new treaty on cybercrime. That highlighted a schism with the U.S. and European countries, which support a 2001 treaty that Russia claims gives foreign governments too much leeway to electronically pursue criminals across borders.
"Lots of times, there's confusion in these treaty negotiations because of lack of clarity about which problems they're trying to solve," said Scott Charney, vice president of Microsoft Corp.'s Trustworthy Computing Group, before a speech at the Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit.
The conference was sponsored by the EastWest Institute think tank and assembled about 400 security officials and industry executives from dozens of countries.
Cyberwar is a catchall phrase: It's often used to refer to everything from purely financial crimes to computer attacks that could kill people by blowing up an oil pipeline. Last year came revelations that spies had hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service.
Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer at British telecommunications operator BT and an influential security blogger, noted that attacks last summer that knocked out service to government Web sites in the United States and South Korea -- and were suspected but never proven to have originated in North Korea -- were also widely called acts of cyberwar, even though they were essentially harmless.
The White House's cybersecurity coordinator, Howard Schmidt, has called "cyberwar" an inaccurate...
Sat, 8 May 10
Lack of iPad-Specific Apps Hampers Travel Planning
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73203
As a new iPad owner, many of my iPad fantasies involved using the device for entertainment while traveling.
I could see the iPad on an airplane tray table feeding me movies, books and music. I imagined the iPad in Rome, offering me tidbits of Vatican history as I sipped espresso. Downloaded games would squash my boredom while waiting at the Miami airport. In Las Vegas, it could suggest where to eat during a convention.
But I had not thought much about using the iPad as a travel-planning tool until I sat down to book a vacation to Italy. Instead of using a laptop to buy tickets, I decided to try doing it on the iPad. My goal was to find the cheapest tickets from Tampa or Orlando, Florida, to Rome, for September, and to look at hotel options, car rentals and a guidebook. I decided to download some apps to try, all free except for the guidebook.
I could have done my booking and searching without downloading apps, by connecting directly to travel Web sites using the iPad's Internet connection. But while some Web sites look virtually identical on the iPad compared to a conventional computer screen, other sites do not display as well on the iPad. Naturally, apps designed specifically for the device format better, are easier to use, and take advantage of certain features.
Unfortunately, at the time I was planning my trip, many of the big travel sites like Expedia and Travelocity had not yet developed apps specifically for the iPad. As a substitute, I tried using iPhone apps for those sites.
The results were disappointing. Using iPhone apps for Expedia and Travelocity did not display the content at full-screen size, and magnifying it resulted in slightly fuzzy text. Navigating to screens where I could enter my destination, search for airfares and...
Sat, 8 May 10
Sprint Nextel To Revamp Virgin Mobile
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73202
Sprint Nextel Corp. is revamping Virgin Mobile, the prepaid wireless service it bought last year, and making it focus on inexpensive plans for young people who would rather text or send Facebook messages than talk.
The announcement, set for Thursday, clarifies Sprint's strategy in the increasingly important prepaid market. With cheaper prices and increasing choices of phones and services, prepaid plans have lured more consumers in the last year. In the first three months of this year, new prepaid subscribers outnumbered those who signed traditional two-year contracts in the industry as a whole.
For Sprint, prepaid is especially important, because that segment represents all of the company's growth. It's losing contract-signing customers to AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.
Next week, Virgin Mobile will introduce three new plans that include unlimited text messaging, e-mail, and Web access. The prices start at $25 per month for 300 minutes of calling.
"The way traditional telecom plans are oriented, it's all around big buckets of minutes, and on top of that, if you want to get text and data, they're typically bolt-on or add-on packages," said Dan Shulman, the head of Sprint's prepaid division, "These young, data-oriented, constantly connected customers, in order to get that functionality, are paying for all these minutes that they never use."
Unusually for a prepaid service, Virgin Mobile will be selling a BlackBerry for these plans, but at high price compared to a contract plan: $300. Carriers don't subsidize the phones for prepaid service as much as they do for contract-signing customers, so the few high-end phones available for prepaid service are expensive. Virgin Mobile will charge an extra $10 per month for data service for the BlackBerry.
Sprint is stripping Virgin of its pay-by-the-minute plans, though current customers can remain. Next week, it plans to introduce a new brand for these services, which are...
Sat, 8 May 10
Project Puts Books Online for the Blind and Dyslexic
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73199
Even as audio versions of best-sellers fill store shelves and new technology fuels the popularity of digitized books, the number of titles accessible to people who are blind or dyslexic is minuscule.
A new service being announced Thursday by the nonprofit Internet Archive in San Francisco is trying to change that. The group has hired hundreds of people to scan thousands of books into its digital database -- more than doubling the titles available to people who aren't able to read a hard copy.
Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project will initially make 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from foundations, libraries, corporations and the government. He's hoping a subsequent book drive will add even more titles to the collection.
"We'll offer current novels, educational books, anything. If somebody then donates a book to the archive, we can digitize it and add it to the collection," he said.
The problems with many of the digitized books sold commercially is that they're expensive, they're often abridged, and they don't come in a format that is easily accessed by the visually impaired.
The collections are also limited to the most popular titles published within the past several years.
The Internet Archive is scanning a variety of books in many languages so they can be read by the software and devices blind people use to convert written pages into speech. The organization has 20 scanning centers in five countries, including one in the Library of Congress.
"Publishers mostly concentrate on their newest, profitable books. We are working to get all books online," Kahle said.
Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, says getting access to books has been a big challenge for blind people.
"Now, for the first time, we're going to have access to an enormous quantity," he said.
Maurer, who is blind,...
Sat, 8 May 10
Will Apple Form a Chip Partnership with AMD?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73195
In the pantheon of Apple rumors, some refuse to die. Among these is the idea that Apple should team up with Advanced Micro Devices to offer its chips inside Macs.
That team-up may be coming sooner rather than later, perhaps during the first half of 2011. AMD's forthcoming Fusion line of processors, due near the end of this year, will combine two chips -- a main central processing unit and a specialized graphics chip -- onto a single, fast-performing piece of silicon. If Apple decides to use the chips, breaking a lock on using only Intel CPUs in Macs, they would supply Apple computers with graphics muscle for a variety of applications in a small, low-power package. AMD could get a key design win and a big psychological boost.
One scenario could be Apple including AMD chips in some models of its Mac Mini, MacBook, or 13-in. MacBook Pro. "AMD has a better-than-average chance at landing a chip in an Apple system," says Jim MacGregor, an analyst with market research firm In-Stat. "Apple would be crazy not to seriously consider all the options it has available."
If Apple uses AMD CPUs, it would join DELL, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and Toshiba as computer makers that use the chips in some of their machines.
Fusion may fit in the lower end of Apple's lineup. It could be used in one version of the Mac Mini, the stripped-down consumer desktop that's about the size of a box of tissues and has a starting price of $599. A mobile version of the Fusion chip might also work in lower-priced models of Apple's MacBook notebooks. If Fusion's performance is good enough, it could also be an option for the ultrathin MacBook Air. "Fusion is a chip that is designed for low cost, low power consumption, and...
Sat, 8 May 10
Kins Off To a Promising Start, But Need Tweaking
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73194
Microsoft has unleashed a pair of promising youth-oriented handsets that go completely against type. The Kin One and Kin Two phones are neither staid nor corporate. They have built-in Zune music players. And they elegantly back up nearly everything you do on them online.
The phones, which are made by Sharp and in the U.S. run exclusively on the Verizon Wireless network, are Microsoft's attempt to be hip and social. In the end, the Kins leave you wanting more, but Microsoft is well on the right path.
The two devices are available online now and hit stores next week. They have touch-screens, slide out keyboards, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and attractive prices, at least on the hardware side. The hockey-rink-shaped Kin One, $49.99 after $100 rebate and two-year contract, is cheaper, smaller and cuter, though it has a more cramped 2.6-inch display, less memory and less-capable digital camera. Kin Two, $99.99 after the same rebate, is more conventional looking. It has a 3.6-inch screen and can shoot HD video.
Verizon's monthly voice plans start at $39.99 for 450 minutes; data plans go for $29.99. European versions on the Vodafone network are scheduled for fall.
The Kins represent phase one of Microsoft's bold two-prong attempt to reinvent itself in mobile. The second stage begins later in the year, when handsets based on Microsoft's newly hatched Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system start to appear. My reaction to the Kins is decidedly mixed. Consider:
*Living it up in the cloud. Nearly everything you do on the Kin phones -- texts, photos, call history -- is uploaded onto a companion Web site called Kin Studio. It's a cool new direction for Microsoft.
If there's a killer app here, this is it: A timeline view lets you see what you were doing and who you were communicating with on any given day,...
Thu, 6 May 10
Verizon Rolls Out Microsoft's Kin Phones
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73182
"I want it. I need it. When can I have it?" That was Verizon Wireless's marketing pitch for the Kin One and Kin Two phones unveiled last month by Microsoft, and on Wednesday the software giant provided the answer.
The two models built by Sharp, equipped with touchscreens and sliding keyboards and geared toward younger social media addicts, will begin shipping from online orders on May 6 and roll out to stores operated by their exclusive carrier, Verizon Wireless, a week later. Vodafone, Verizon Communications' partner in Verizon Wireless, will distribute the phones in Europe.
Kin One, with 4 GB of memory and a five megapixel camera, will sell for $149 before a $100 gift-card rebate with a two-year plan, while the Kin Two, with 8 GB of storage and an 8 megapixel camera, will carry a $199 price tag, with the same rebate offer. The phones will require both a Nationwide Talk plan, starting at $39.99 a month and a data plan for browser and email, starting at $29.99 a month.
"Anything under $100 is considered a value play given the specs and features these device employ, especially with the generous memory space of 4G and 8G internal memory," said J.D. Power and Associates wireless analyst Kirk Parsons.
Though lacking apps and games, the appeal of the two phones is in near-instant sharing of photos, videos, links and updates through an icon called the Kin Spot, which then prompts the user for contacts. The Kin Loop keeps track of all the latest tidbits from the user's most frequent contacts. They also ship with the Zune digital media player. The phones use a hybrid version of Microsoft's Windows Phone Series 7 and a revamped version of the Danger system that Microsoft acquired in 2008,
Designed specifically for people who are actively...
Thu, 6 May 10
Nokia, Microsoft Launch Communicator Mobile App
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73181
Microsoft and Nokia have released a unified communications (UC) client for directly connecting Nokia handsets with enterprise IT systems running Microsoft Exchange. Called Microsoft Communicator Mobile for Nokia devices, the offering unveiled Tuesday is the first app to emerge from the companies' alliance around mobile productivity, which was announced last August.
Available for download from Nokia's Ovi Store, the new software client is currently compatible with the Symbian-based Nokia E72 and Nokia E52 smartphones. However, the partners say they intend to expand the new app's range to include other handsets moving forward, including the recently announced Nokia E5.
"This application really provides a much more efficient way to work with others, as you can see if someone is busy or available and the best way to start a conversation with them," said Nokia Vice President Ukko Lappalainen. "It also meets all of the requirements for the enterprise: cost-effective to implement, secure, familiar and reliable."
Worldwide handset shipments grew 19 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2010, according to ABI Research. However, Nokia's market-share remained flat at 34 percent -- indicating that the company is not growing with the rest of the market, the firm's analysts observed.
Nokia's loss of traction in the smartphone sector negatively impacted the company's quarter sales performance, industry observers say. In response, Nokia is moving to boost its smartphone opportunities by expanding the range of its smartphone offerings to include the mid-tier and low tier segments, where it believes it has strength, ABI analysts said.
This week's announcement of the new Communicator Mobile app demonstrates that Nokia is eyeing the mobile enterprise market as other opportunity to expand its smartphone presence globally. But the challenge for Nokia is to move beyond the growth success it has enjoyed in emerging markets, noted IDC Research...
Thu, 6 May 10
Browser Battle Between Microsoft and Google Intensifies
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73180
The browser war between Microsoft and Google has intensified. The software and Internet search giants are going head-to-head in attracting and keeping users of their popular Internet browsers.
Microsoft, which has dominated the browser market for years, is quickly losing market share to Google's Chrome browser. That was made clear when Microsoft's share of the browser market fell below 60 percent in April, while Chrome's share increased by nearly 25 percent.
The battle between the two grew stronger on Tuesday when Google shared new features of its browser, Chrome 5 beta for Windows, Mac and Linux. The release of Chrome 5 beta came just six weeks after Microsoft provided developers with a sneak peek at Internet Explorer 9 touting some its new features.
Both companies are touting the new preview and beta versions' speed. Google Chrome 5 beta release boasts the best speed to date, according to Mads Ager, a Google software engineer. It also provides a 30 percent improvement on the Chrome's JavaScript engine (V8) and 35 percent improvement over the previous release in code compression, 3D ray tracing, and cryptography bemchmark testing.
Improvements in speed also means users will be able experience web pages load at 2,700 frames per second, a faster rate than what competitors, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera Software's Opera and IE offer.
While a speedy browser is a must to Internet users, it is not the differentiating feature.
Consumers and developers are seeking support for the multiple applications that will run on the browsers.
At the core of the Chrome 5 beta are new HTML5 features including Geolocation APIs, App Cache, and drag and drop capabilities, according to the company. Also included for the first time is an integrated Adobe Flash Player plug-in, which enables users to browse secure, rich web sites....
Thu, 6 May 10
Seagate Rolls Out GoFlex External Hard Drives
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73177
In a move to keep up with the demand for more storage space, Seagate on Tuesday rolled out the next evolution of its FreeAgent line of external hard drives. Dubbed GoFlex, the latest in Seagate's family of storage solutions is designed with flexibility in mind.
Beyond traditional USB 2.0 storage, the GoFlex line up offers plug-and-play portable and desktop drives. Consumers can use a variety of cables and desktop adapters to connect to the devices from which they need to upload or download files. GoFlex also offers interoperability between Microsoft Windows and Mac OSX computers.
"GoFlex interface cables are about providing the speed, performance and connectivity people need to support their interaction with their digital content. The explosive growth of video capture and multimedia collecting is expanding personal digital libraries to terabytes worth of content within the home," said Dave Mosley, executive vice president, Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management at Seagate.
More than half of people planning to purchase a new hard drive consider the interface connection an important factor in their selection, according to recent research from Yankee Group. GoFlex drives answer that demand with a myriad of cables to choose from.
One example Seagate is pushing is media sharing with the GoFlex TV HD media player. The company says consumers can insert a GoFlex ultra-portable drive into the media dock, or another connecting another storage device, digital or Flip camera and view movies, photos, and music in 1080p high-definition and surround sound.
"As consumer's lives become increasingly connected, people will demand capabilities beyond the traditional hard drive," said Carl Howe, director of Anywhere Consumer Research at Yankee Group. "Consumers are looking not only for storage, but for new ways to use their digital content. Connecting, sharing, and repurposing content is part of the purchasing decision process for today's...
Thu, 6 May 10
HP Bolsters AMD in New Business Notebook Line
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73175
In a clear nod for AMD technology, HP on Wednesday rolled out 14 new notebooks featuring the Intel rival's chips. The new additions to the ProBook line includes machines targeting consumers, small- to mid-sized businesses and corporate users.
The new notebooks feature AMD's Vision and Vision Pro technology with AMD Phenom II, AMD Turion II, AMD Athlon or AMD V-Series processors. HP said notebooks with the new AMD Phenom II Dual-Core N620 processor offer up to 69 percent faster performance than previous-generation HP AMD-powered notebooks and get up to 24 percent longer battery life.
Ted Clark, senior vice president and general manager of the Notebook Global Business Unit in HP's Personal Systems Group, bragged about HP's position as worldwide leader in notebook sales in the company's announcement. It's true that HP has the deepest portfolio of notebook products. HP's decision to use AMD processors is a boon for the chipmaker.
"AMD has improved the battery life dramatically and the performance gap there is closing. AMD perennially has a price advantage because that's what they have to do to survive," said Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates. "AMD now has better value proposition and HP is constantly reevaluating its suppliers. This time around it decided AMD is up to snuff."
Consumers can choose AMD's Vision Technology in the HP Pavilion notebooks, which includes dm and dv lines and Compaq notebooks. Vision and Vision Pro technology aim to offer an enhanced visual experience on the notebook. With its new notebooks, HP is also promising longer battery life at an affordable price, as Kay mentioned.
One of the new models, the HP Pavilion dm3, is designed for ultra mobile customers who want fast performance and an attractive design. The dm3 dons etched patterns and a metal finish. It's less than one inch...
Thu, 6 May 10
Intel Announces New Atom Platform for Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73156
A new Atom could lead to more powerful small things. On Tuesday, Intel announced the newest incarnation of its Atom processor-based platform, which offers lower power consumption and higher performance for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile products than the earlier platform.
Previously known under the codename Moorestown, the platform equips mobile devices for full 1080p high-definition video, 3-D graphics, multi-tasking, multi-point videoconferencing and voice, and there's support for Wi-Fi, 3G/HSPA, and WiMAX. The chipmaker described it as bringing a "'PC-like' experience" to mobile devices.
Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher said in a statement that the new platform is "Intel's first product that is opening the door to Intel Architecture in the smartphone market segment."
Ross Rubin, Director of Industry Analysis for Consumer Technology at the NPD Group, noted that smartphones have been built mostly around the ARM processor, while the Atom has been a leader in netbooks. Although the new Intel platform could move into smartphones, he pointed in particular to the battle taking place between ARM and Atom in the emerging product categories known as smartbooks, e-book readers, and tablets.
Rubin said that ARM has had the power efficiency advantage. He added that the "first-generation Atom has been a good fit for the netbook market," but it was not "powerful enough to compete with the ARM designs" used by Apple, Dell, and others in smartphones. Apple's iPad tablet is also built around an ARM design. ARM Holdings, based in England, licenses its designs to a wide range of manufacturers, including to Apple for the custom A4 chip used in the iPad.
It could be seen as ironical that Intel, whose processors have so dominated the desktop and laptop categories that competitors have struggled to gain a position, is now faced with being the outsider in the smartphone...
Thu, 6 May 10
E-Books Are Latest In Google's Retail Push
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73155
With the growing popularity of Google's Android operating system, the electronic bookstore announced by the search engine giant -- increasingly branching out into other ventures -- this week could give Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple a run for their money.
A Google executive announced on Tuesday that the company would begin selling e-books by this summer, with over 500,000 titles. The announcement came at a Book Industry Study Group panel at Random House's Manhattan offices, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The paper cited Chris Palma, Google's manager for strategic-partner development, saying that the service will be called Google Editions and will involve multiple sites and platforms.
Rather than sell downloadable books like the competition, Google Editions will be tied to its highly popular search engine, bringing up suggested book titles related to the search topic. Editions would then allow previews of the book and direct to sites where they can be sold for online reading, and cached for offline reading.
Without downloading, Google avoids sticky issues with digital rights management.
Google has enough legal problems with authors and publishers: It's stuck in a legal battle with publishers and authors over Google Book Search, the company's bid to digitize out of print and public domain books. Some object to the idea that they must opt out of the program, after being included by default. A Manhattan federal judge is to rule on a settlement agreement.
Google has previously said that publishers would get 63 percent of the revenue from book sales in its online book sales. Other online retailers can partner with Google, pocketing the difference between an undisclosed fee to Google and 45 percent to publishers. The price for each sale has not been disclosed.
"Presumably the Google book store will be available with a web reader and ship by default...
Thu, 6 May 10
Apple: From Digital Underdog To Tech Bully
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73133
Apple forged its reputation at the dawn of personal computing as a fearlessly independent innovator with one of the most famous television ads of all time.
Called 1984 after the year it appeared and George Orwell's classic novel of dystopia and dictatorship, the ad featured a hammer-wielding female athlete representing the new Apple Macintosh, who single-handedly destroys the dictatorship of computing conformity offered by Apple's rivals like IBM and Microsoft.
But 26 years later, the pendulum has swung back -- and then some.
Apple is now one of the richest, most powerful tech companies on the planet thanks to its world-beating mobile devices like the iPod, iPhone and newly introduced iPad.
All of a sudden, Apple is beginning to look a lot like the dominant companies it so famously derided back at the start of its journey.
It's the third-most valuable company in the U.S. after Microsoft and oil giant Exxon and will probably soon overtake Microsoft. This year alone Apple will ring up $60 billion in sales.
But as Apple power grows, so do the company's critics.
Recent tech news headlines reflect Apple's changing image. The products may still be great, but a company once seen as the smart and scrawny underdog is increasingly portrayed as an overbearing monolith seeking to preserve and expand its dominance at all costs.
"Is Apple another Microsoft?" ComputerWorld asked, while even the mainstream New York Times chimed in with criticism, calling Apple "churlish", and saying that the gorgeous iPad had become "a metaphor for the hermetic kingdom of Apple: a seamless device that can't be opened, has no apertures for input and is animated mostly by purchases from Apple."
The criticisms may also be shared in Washington, where the US Justice Department is reported to be considering an antitrust investigation over Apple's announcement last month that all third- party programs written for...
Tue, 4 May 10
Android Gets Twitter Client Like iPhone and BlackBerry
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73122
If you're hooked to both Twitter and Google's Android phone system, you'll be delighted to download the social media giant's new client, available as of Monday.
A result of direct collaboration between the two companies' developers, Twitter for Android is available for brand new phones such as Nexus One and its cousin, the HTC Incredible, giving those phones a function that recently became available for Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry. Phones using versions prior to Android 2.1, though, won't be so lucky.
Using the Twitter client allows full interactivity with other Android applications, allowing users, for instance, to click a share button while looking at photos, maps or Web sites, then choosing Twitter from the list of pop-ups.
"It's a good addition, particularly for the younger crowd, as social media applications are becoming more of an option for connecting with friends and family," said Kirk Parsons, a wireless analyst for J.D. Power and Associates.
Using the client allows access to Twitter without logging in. "It's bundled together with other social media sites," said Parsons.
Android Tweeters can use a home screen widget that produces a timeline, shows a tweet location on a map, or displays a friend's latest tweet next to his or her phonebook listing.
Though it was in more than 140 characters, the free client was announced today on Twitter's official blog.
"When apps work well with each other, sharing becomes as second nature on machines as it does in person," read the blog post. "The Android platform is really good at that, and we've worked with the Android team to make it super easy to share what's happening. Twitter for Android is a fantastic application to use, and sharing any link or photo is super simple too -- just look for the share button in your favorite application and...
Tue, 4 May 10
Chrome Browser Growth Outpaces Rivals
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73121
Google's Chrome continued to outpace the growth of its browser rivals in April by growing its market share by 0.6 percent, according to the latest data from Net Applications. Chrome has been the fastest growing alternative to Internet Explorer over the past twelve months, during which it has increased its market share nearly 5 points to 6.7 percent.
By contrast, Microsoft's Internet Explorer saw its market share slide to a new twelve-month low of 59.95 percent in April, according to the web metrics firm. Moreover, market growth for Firefox during the same period is only up slightly from the browser's 23.84 percent market share in April 2009.
"After a year-and-a-half on the market, Google finally took Chrome to the people, delivering a marketing onslaught in Europe to coincide with the new browser menu," said Forrester Research Analyst Sheri McLeish in a blog. "It seems to be paying off."
Google Chrome's growth is showing some of the consistency previously seen in Firefox until Chrome's arrival, noted Vince Vizzaccaro, an executive vice president at Net Applications.
"As far as the reasons for the growth, I don't know if people are using Chrome because of a noticeable difference in technology from IE, Firefox or Safari," Vizzaccaro said. "But, I do notice that Google has been advertising Chrome heavily for the last few months online, on TV, and in print."
Microsoft, Apple and Google all have the means to run widespread ad campaigns for their respective browsers, but Google is the up and coming challenger, and they are the only browser Vizzaccaro sees investing in advertising at this time.
"It appears the campaign is working for now," Vizzaccaro said. "I'm intrigued to see if Chrome can start grabbing share from Firefox or make a dent on Mac OS, and what that will drive as...
Tue, 4 May 10
Rumor Mill Churns Around webOS-based HP Slate
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73120
Could Microsoft be the big loser in the HP-Palm deal? Hewlett-Packard is still promoting Windows 7 on collateral that discusses its up-and-coming tablet device, but some are betting HP will roll out its slate with webOS after its Palm acquisition.
In fact, news reports naming unidentified sources say HP plans to abandon Windows 7, the operating system that HP vice president and CTO Phil McKinney in March called "a big bonus" for the tablet because it offers full Adobe Flash support (unlike the iPad). McKinney's March 8 post remains on the site, leaving some to wonder if a final decision has been made about ending the partnership with Microsoft.
But Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, is hearing something yet different: the Slate as we know it is dead. Though there are still conflicting reports, and HP has not yet publicly confirmed the Slate's demise, Enderle said he has heard that the Slate was simply too slow in testing and would have been an "ugly" competitor to the iPad.
"The touch interface on the Slate wasn't working well. The device wasn't performing the way it needed to perform. HP wanted to put Windows Mobile 7 on the Slate, but Microsoft said no," Enderle said. "Given that, my expectation is for HP to bring a product to market that's based on the webOS."
As Enderle understands it, Palm has a tablet device that's "almost fully cooked and ready to go." The challenge, of course, for Palm is that there aren't many applications in the Palm app store. However, Enderle noted, in terms of a platform on which developers can build, webOS, Android and the Mac OS are the only three that are fully cooked.
"Palm's problem is going to be attracting application developers. Right now those guys are focused pretty heavily...
Tue, 4 May 10
Apple Could Face Antitrust Investigation
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73119
Apple's recent move to prohibit developers from creating applications using code from MonoTouch, Titanium, Unity and Adobe Flash has the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice's Antitrust Division sitting up and paying attention. One of the two agencies is expected to begin an antitrust investigation into Apple's policy change.
The investigation will likely look at Apple's recent change to section 3.3.1 in its iPhone Software Development Kit. One of the two agencies may subpoena Apple for more information on why it forced developers to use Apple-only approved software, published reports said.
Adobe Systems has made its opposition against Apple's policy change very clear. Adobe said the move by Apple is just another one of Apple's attempts to lock developers and consumers into using Apple's own proprietary technology. The recent changes to Apple's licensing agreement prove that, according to Adobe spokesperson, Holly Campbell.
FTC spokesperson, Mitchell Katz, would not provide any information on an investigation into Apple nor would he confirm or deny an investigation was underway.
Aside from a complaint from a competitor, there are many ways in which a federal antitrust investigation can get underway, according to Ilan Barzilay, antitrust attorney and partner at Seyfarth Shaw.
"The FTC or DOJ can begin investigations on their own based on news reports or general scuttlebutt but consumer complaints are another way they can get started," Barzilay said.
Apple defended its changes to the SDK saying it will benefit consumers. Allowing third-party layers of software such as Flash will result in "sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform," CEO Steve Jobs wrote in a posted letter on the change.
Jobs went on to say that if the change was not made, developers would become dependent on third-party tools and would only be able to make enhancements to their applications...
Tue, 4 May 10
iPad Sales Hit One Million Mark
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73097
Apple's iPad has hit the one million mark. On Monday, the Cupertino, California-based company announced that number of units have been sold in the tablet's first 28 days, and that 12 million applications and 1.5 million digital books have downloaded.
Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs said in a statement that one million iPads in 28 days is "less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone." He also noted that "demand continues to exceed supply." Apple's online store has said there's a five-to-seven day waiting time for iPad deliveries, and Best Buy is only offering the product at some stores.
Some industry observers are predicting sales of five million or more for 2010, even though launch day was on April 3 for the Wi-Fi model. On Friday, the 3G version went on sale. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has estimated over 300,000 of the 3G units were sold over the past weekend.
In addition to the more than 200,000 iPhone or iPod Touch apps in the company's App Store, more than 5,000 new, third-party apps for the iPad have been created.
The selling frenzy for the iPad could indicate that the tablet category has at last come alive, or it could just be about the iPad. The iPad builds on previous Apple successes by using the iPhone operating system and allowing the same apps to be used.
One key competitor was thought to be the Windows 7-based HP Slate, which was showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in January by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. HP had also been releasing a stream of videos and specifics about the tablet, and a launch date was expected sometime in the middle of this year.
But developments last week indicate that the iPad may not...
Tue, 4 May 10
Google Acquires 3-D Desktop Software Maker BumpTop
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73096
In its latest acquisition, Google has scooped up Bump Technologies. The company is widely known as the developer of BumpTop, a free app that makes a traditional computer desktop look like a real-world desk with stylus interaction.
When consumers use BumpTop, documents appear as 3-D boxes that display on a virtual desk. Users can position the boxes on the virtual desk using a mouse or a stylus. BumpTop works to present a realistic experience with effects like bumping and tossing, stacking boxes, selecting multiple items with a single swipe and pie menus.
"More than three years ago, we set out to completely change the way people use their desktops. We're very grateful for all your support over that time -- not just financially but also through all the encouraging messages from people who found BumpTop inspiring, useful, and just downright fun," the company said on its homepage announcement about the Google acquisition.
Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, called Google's latest acquisition "interesting" and one that could potentially be used on Android handsets or tablets or on the anticipated Chrome OS netbooks that are anticipated for release later this year.
However, he added, many of Google's original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners, including Motorola and HTC, have their own software interfaces. That means Google OEM's might not participate if the search engine giant offered a new 3-D Android UI.
Beyond tablet devices, Google may also be considering how to integrate the BumpTop "desktop" for Google Docs or Apps, Sterling said, with the caveat that his comments on the Docs and Apps front are speculation.
"People will automatically assume it's an effort to differentiate from Windows or Apple. I saw the TED demo that the CEO gave and found it interesting but not remarkable," Sterling said. "Perhaps with some of Google's...
Tue, 4 May 10
Small Businesses Find It's Hard To Keep Top Workers
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73088
This scene is likely to play out at many small businesses in the coming months: One of the company's top performing employees comes in to see the owner and says, "I've been offered a job at XYZ Widgets. They're going to give me a substantial raise. Can you make me a better offer?"
Many owners will be hard-pressed to come up with money to keep staffers who want to leave for better-paying jobs. But small companies can win a bidding war by offering more intangibles and flexibility than their larger competitors.
Rob Wilson, president of Employco, a Chicago-based resources outsourcing company, said his small business clients are starting to see employees recruited by larger firms. And many small businesses still have tight cash flows, making it hard to give a big raise.
What they can offer, however, are non-monetary benefits such as flexible scheduling and more vacation time. Wilson noted that many people start new jobs with a minimum of vacation time. A current employer can use extra vacation time to be competitive.
But, Wilson said, there are other benefits that will appeal to ambitious employees, including the chance for professional growth. Wilson said owners need to point out to employees that because they work for a small business, "you are much more involved than you would be with a larger company."
Wilson said workers also need to know what their roles will be as the economy improves and business picks up. He recommends telling an employee, "you've helped me through the last years, getting through the recession. You're a key person. Help shape the future."
Leza Raffel, president of The Communication Solutions Group Inc., a Philadelphia-based public relations firm, has had such a talk with a senior staffer who was considering what her other work options might be.
Raffel talked...
Tue, 4 May 10
McAfee Revenue Rises, But Net Falls on Charges
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73085
McAfee Inc.'s revenue in the first quarter jumped but net income fell 30 percent from last year as the company absorbed bigger charges for restructuring and accounting for employee stock compensation and income taxes.
The computer-security software maker said its sales to consumers were strong, but that it struggled with delays in closing some larger deals. The numbers were below Wall Street's forecasts, as was McAfee's second-quarter guidance, sending the stock down 10 percent in after-hours trading.
McAfee said its second-quarter numbers would be dragged down somewhat by its expenses for fixing a flawed software update pushed out last week that crashed some users' computers. McAfee has offered free subscriptions and to reimburse people who had to pay to get their computers repaired as part of the foul-up.
The results, announced after the market closed Thursday, caused McAfee's stock price to fall $4.11, or 10.4 percent, to $35.42 in extended trading, after finishing the regular trading session down 30 cents at $39.53.
McAfee's revenue and profit in the latest quarter were both lower than Wall Street's forecasts.
McAfee said its net income was $37.6 million, or 23 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, versus $53.5 million, or 34 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Excluding one-time charges, McAfee's profit would have been 60 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting 63 cents per share, on that same basis.
McAfee's revenue rose 12 percent to $502.7 million, which the company said was a record for its first quarter. Analysts expected revenue of $513.1 million.
Dave DeWalt, McAfee's chief executive officer, said the quarter marked McAfee's 17th consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year growth, driven by strong sales to consumers. However, he said McAfee "experienced delays in the closing of certain large deals," and had "foreign currency headwinds that were greater than we...
Tue, 4 May 10
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Joins Top Tech Earners
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73083
Yahoo Inc. CEO Carol Bartz received a $47.2 million compensation package during her first year on the job as the Internet company tried to motivate her to engineer a turnaround.
The 2009 package spelled out in a Thursday regulatory filing consisted mostly of stock incentives whose ultimate value will hinge on how much Yahoo's market value rises under Bartz's leadership.
Her first year proved to be a mixed bag. Bartz generally impressed analysts by closing Yahoo's unprofitable services, laying off workers and saving even more money by striking an Internet search partnership with Microsoft Corp. But the recession contributed to Yahoo's biggest drop in revenue since the dot-com bust in 2001.
Investors saw enough progress to lift Yahoo shares by 38 percent in 2009.
Bartz's 2009 compensation looks especially generous compared with how the more prosperous Google Inc. pays its leader.
The compensation of Google CEO Eric Schmidt fell 52 percent last year to $245,322, including a salary of just $1. Schmidt has become a multibillionaire through the stock he owns in Google, whose market value is more than seven times higher than Yahoo's.
Shareholders have complained about Yahoo's compensation practices in past years, especially after the company gave its then-CEO Terry Semel a package valued at $71.7 million in 2006. Semel resigned in June 2007 shortly after he sparred off with irritated shareholders at the company's annual meeting.
A proposal that would give shareholders a say on Yahoo's executive pay is on the agenda of this year's annual meeting, scheduled for June 24.
Yahoo signed Bartz, now 61, to a four-year contract in January 2009 in hopes of ending a prolonged financial funk. The slump had caused Yahoo's shares to plunge from $40 in early 2006 to $12 when Bartz came aboard.
More than half of Bartz's 2009 compensation package consisted of 1.67 million stock options valued at...
Tue, 4 May 10
Customizing Your Windows Desktop
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73078
You stare at your Windows desktop every day. So why not make it your own? With a little know-how, you can make your desktop easier to read, more enjoyable to look at, and more useful. Read on for some tips.
Q: How can I create a desktop background from a personal photograph that I love? I'm using Windows 7.
A: That's fairly easy, so long as you know the resolution of your monitor and you have a decent image editing program that allows you to crop an image to an exact size specification.
To find the resolution of your monitor, just right-click on your Windows desktop, and select Screen Resolution from the pop-up menu. The resolution will be listed in the resulting dialog box, in the form of 1024x768 -- although your numbers may be different. Those numbers represent the number of columns and rows of pixels that make up the image on your screen. Write that number down.
Now it's time to open your photograph in an image editor to make sure it matches the size of your monitor. If you don't already have a decent image editor, download and install PhotoScape (http://www.photoscape.org), which is a free and very capable program for performing many simple and advanced alterations to photos. For the purposes of this explanation, we'll assume you use PhotoScape. To use another application, just substitute the directions provided.
Load your image into PhotoScape, either by opening it from your hard drive or pasting it from the clipboard. Then select the Editor tab, and below the image you opened or pasted you'll see a "crop" tab. Select that. Now from the Aspect Ratio/Size drop-down on the Crop tab, select Assign Ratio/Size.
In the resulting Crop dialog box, enter the resolution of your monitor in the Width and Height boxes. For example, if your monitor's...
Sun, 2 May 10
The Case of the Lost-Then-Found iPhone 4G Prototype
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73091
It's unlikely that spending time in a bar ever made anyone as famous as Brian Hogan. The 21-year-old Californian was identified Thursday and quickly became well-known, since he was the remaining unknown character in the Case of the Missing-and-Then-Found iPhone 4G Prototype.
Earlier this month, technology blog Gizmodo posted photos and details about a prototype of an upcoming 4G version of Apple's popular iPhone. The blog, owned by Gawker Media, said the prototype had been left in a Redwood City, Calif., bar, found by someone, and sold to the blog for $5,000.
That someone who found the prototype is now known to be Hogan.
Through his attorney, Jeffrey Bornstein, Hogan said he thought the payment by Gizmodo was for exclusive access to review the phone. His lawyer also told news media that the technology blog had said "there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press."
Wired.com first identified Hogan. That site said it followed clues on social-networking sites and verified his identity with someone involved in the prototype case.
According to his lawyer, Hogan was in the bar and someone else handed him the prototype after finding it on a bar stool. The person who handed the device asked if it was Hogan's and then left the establishment. Hogan asked others if it was theirs, and then, when no one volunteered that it was, left the bar with it.
He then tried to look at a Facebook page on the phone, but it shut down and became inoperable. After removing a fake cover from the device, Hogan said he realized it wasn't an iPhone currently on the market. A friend called AppleCare, Apple's support service, to find out whose phone it might be, but was unsuccessful. Hogan made no other efforts to return the phone.
Apple reportedly wiped the unit...
Sat, 1 May 10
Hey, Google, Yahoo's CEO Says You Have Problems
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73095
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has put Google under a microscope -- and found some flaws. The search executive talked to the media about Google's weak spots, but some say she's not in a position to scrutinize a company when there are many problems at her own.
In an interview with BBC News tech reporter Jonathan Fildes, Bartz said Google will have to "do a lot more than search." As she sees it, Google needs to diversify to avoid problems and "grow a company the size of Yahoo every year."
Yahoo once dominated the search market and actually had an opportunity to acquire Google in its upstart days but declined. Now Google owns 65 percent of the U.S. search market, compared to Yahoo's 17 percent -- and Yahoo has been losing ground to its partner, Microsoft's Bing.
"Google is going to have a problem because Google is only known for search," Bartz told BBC News. "It is only half our business; it's 99.9 percent of their business. They've got to find other things to do."
With more than 70 web sites and services, Yahoo is indeed much more diverse than Google. Yahoo makes editorial content and services available in 20 languages in nations around the world. Although some have criticized Yahoo for its breadth, especially in the face of its struggles, Bartz believes it will be beneficial to the company over time.
"Yahoo is a company with a lot more fingers in a lot more pots," said Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis. "If Google was to lose its stature or there was something to come along that prevented them from realizing the same level of revenue they have now with their advertising platforms, they would be in trouble compared to another more diversified company."
Bartz's comments weren't reserved for...
Sat, 1 May 10
Adobe Strikes Back at Steve Jobs' Flash Attack
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73093
Adobe Systems is not taking lightly attacks on its technology by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. On Friday, Adobe responded to accusations by Jobs that Flash is behind Mac crashes and battery draining.
Apple is blowing smoke in the wrong direction, according to Adobe, which said Flash -- used in 81 percent of the videos on the Internet -- is not the cause of Mac problems. It said Apple's operating system is to blame.
"Adobe's vision and strategy has always been to empower customers to create, deliver and optimize content and applications across media and screens," said Holly Campbell, Adobe's director of corporate communications. "Flash is one of the most pervasive technologies on the planet and makes great web experiences and applications possible."
Apple's move is another attempt to control developers and consumers, according to Adobe. "Apple's moves to block Flash and other technologies are designed to protect a business model that locks developers and consumers into a single, proprietary stack," Campbell said. "Recent changes to Apple's licensing agreement are proof of that. Any attempt to position this solely as a technology issue is a smokescreen."
Jobs' attack on Flash comes after years of Apple using Adobe's Creative Suite to market its Macs to designers who rely heavily on Flash technology.
Things changed when Apple launched its popular iPhone. Apple didn't support Flash on the mobile device, and that was the beginning of a souring relationship between the two companies.
Adobe then created a way for Flash developers to connect programs to the iPhone. Adobe's Flash Professional Creative Suite 5 included a Packager for iPhone that enabled Flash developers to develop applications for the iPhone and iPad.
Just a week before Adobe was slated to release CS5 with the work-around, Apple threw salt in the wound by telling developers that iPhone apps...
Sat, 1 May 10
Symantec Will Centralize Encryption with Acquisitions
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73092
Symantec said Thursday it will pay $370 million in cash to acquire encryption technology providers PGP and GuardianEdge Technologies, with the deals expected to close during the company's June quarter. Symantec sees its acquisition of standards-based encryption capabilities from the two firms as a natural extension of its strategy for securing and managing information on any device -- across both the enterprise and consumer segments as well as in the cloud, said Symantec CEO Enrique Salem.
"With PGP and GuardianEdge's encryption solutions for full-disk, removable media, e-mail, file, folder and smartphones, Symantec will have the broadest set of integrated data-protection capabilities," Salem said. "We will be able to address the encryption needs of all customer segments from the largest enterprises and governments to small businesses and individuals."
Together, PGP and GuardianEdge are expected to significantly expand the addressable security market that Symantec can serve, Salem told investors during a Thursday conference call. "State and national governments are enacting more stringent mandates, driving the need to encrypt sensitive information and protect an individual's privacy," Salem said. "Also, the increased costs and frequency of data breaches are driving the adoption of encryption as companies strive to mitigate risk and protect their critical information from cybercriminals."
Symantec said PGP's key management platform and product portfolio of hard disk, file, folder, e-mail and mobile and removable media encryption will be integrated into the Symantec Protection Center to further enhance the management of endpoint security, data loss prevention and gateway security products. "PGP has more than 110,000 enterprise customers and more than one million SMB and individual customers worldwide," Salem said.
Forrester Research Vice President Jonathan Penn said the PGP acquisition was quite a surprise, and a pleasant one since PGP offers unique value to Symantec.
"They will have to support PGP encryption in e-mail...
Sat, 1 May 10
GM, Oprah Want To Stop Cell-Phone Use While Driving
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73090
Oprah Winfrey and General Motors are adding their voices to the growing chorus against cell-phone use while driving. The queen of daytime talk was to host on Friday a Fort Wayne, Texas, activist, Diveeta Johnson, who lost her 18-year-old son, Rodney, after he lost control of a car while texting. Johnson has since persuaded 7,000 students to take a pledge not to text behind the wheel.
Winfrey called for a national No Phone Zone day, and GM CEO Ed Whitacre and employees of the Lansing Delta Township Chevrolet plant in Michigan taped a video for Friday's show supporting the the no-phone pledge.
"My biggest hope for the No Phone Zone campaign is that it becomes mandatory that no one uses their phone in the car or texts while driving -- just as seat belts are mandatory, just as driving while drunk is considered absolutely taboo. I'm hoping that this becomes not just law, but second nature for all of us," Winfrey said.
Jim Campbell, a spokesperson for Chevrolet, said the company is "proud to help Oprah raise awareness of the risks of distracted driving. The No Phone Zone campaign fits our own mission to keep Chevrolet drivers and their loved ones as safe as possible while on the road."
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have banned cell-phone use by drivers.
"It's the most dangerous element of driving, and it seems to be growing in spite of the bans," said Robert Sinclair, a spokesperson for the New York chapter of the American Automobile Association.
Sinclair said that in many states, laws are not strict enough because they allow police to ticket drivers for texting only if they are pulled over for another offense.
In addition, he noted that many state laws don't include devices other than phones. On Thursday,...
Sat, 1 May 10
Microsoft Cancels Courier Tablet Amid Windows 7 Worries
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73089
As the tablet computer war heats up, one of the most interesting possible entries was Courier, a prototype that Microsoft was developing. But according to recent news reports, Microsoft executives told the internal team earlier this week that the project is dead.
Courier was never actually announced or even acknowledged by Microsoft, although there have been leaks of a video and photos. The video showed an innovative, two-screen tablet device with the screens able to act as one large, virtual desktop. The leaked information also indicated that Courier would have both touch- and pen-based interfaces.
A Microsoft official told news media that the company is always developing new ideas, that the Courier project will be evaluated again in the future, and that, at the moment, there are no plans to build this tablet.
The tablet that Microsoft is publicly promoting is Hewlett-Packard's Slate, which uses Windows 7. The HP device was first seen in prototype form during Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
But there are now reports that HP is canceling its Slate tablet, because the Windows 7 operating system on which it was built -- and which Ballmer highlighted -- is not optimal for tablets. HP had been steadily releasing information and videos about Slate, and a mid-2010 release was being discussed.
Michael Gartenberg, a partner at The Altimeter Group, said the Courier project "was sort of a digital unicorn that never existed -- and now has died."
"Microsoft needs to find a tablet solution," he said, and "putting touch on top of Windows 7, as in Slate, wasn't the solution." He added that the Courier video looked like the company was experimenting with a new kind of operating system that was "something not seen before" from Microsoft.
If the project was killed...
Sat, 1 May 10
iTunes Competitor Lala Will Be Shut Down by Apple
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73072
Did Apple buy the Lala music service just to shutter the competition? The iTunes operator acquired Lala last December. Just months later, the streaming music service has announced it will cease to provide service as of May 31.
Lala offers its customers Internet access to a music library such as iTunes. When it launched in October 2008, the site set out to replace what its founders viewed as an outdated approach to uploading MP3 files from a PC. Lala uses licensed technology to instantly match songs from a consumer's personal music library with the web-based catalog on lala.com.
In what appears to some analysts as an abrupt announcement, web songs, wallets and gift cards are no longer available for purchase on Lala. Uploads have been discontinued, and the company is not accepting new users for the service.
"Any MP3 songs purchased and downloaded from Lala will continue to play as part of your local music library," the company said in a message to its members. "You can continue to purchase MP3 songs through May 31st using your wallet balance or other payment methods."
Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, is betting Apple plans to offer a service similar to Lala as an innovative component of iTunes. Apple hasn't commented, nor is there any indication of when Apple might launch a streaming iTunes service. In the meantime, competitors like Grooveshark could gain some momentum.
Noteworthy is the fact that Grooveshark offers an application for mobile phones -- but not the iPhone. Apple hasn't approved the Grooveshark application for the iPhone, but it's available for Android-based phones. Leigh called Grooveshark's ability to ink deals with the labels for mobile services significant.
"If Apple can get the same type of label deal Grooveshark has, the company will be able to...
Sat, 1 May 10
Apple Wants $1 Million for an Ad on Its Mobile Devices
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73071
Apple is looking to charge advertisers about $1 million to put their marketing messages on iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads -- and maybe more to be first in line to leverage the unprecedented opportunity.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Apple is getting ready to promote its mobile-advertising play. The paper said Apple could charge as much as $10 million to be one of the few marketers that get to push ads over the devices at the launch of iAd, Apple's in-app advertising platform. The typical cost is between $100,000 and $200,000, making the iAd platform the premium advertising product for mobile devices.
"This is an audacious and risky move for Apple," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "Still, some advertisers will line up to be a part of the initial wave of iAd advertisers."
Apple introduced iAd earlier this month. Apple said its new mobile advertising platform combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads. When users click on mobile ads now, they are almost always taken out of their app to a web browser, which loads the advertiser's web page. Users must then navigate back to their app, and it can be difficult to return to exactly where they left.
Apple said iAd solves this problem by displaying full-screen video and interactive ad content without ever leaving the app, and letting users return to their app anytime they choose. iAd works with iPhone OS 4.0, which lets developers embed mobile advertising within their apps. The ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. Apple will sell and serve the ads, and developers will receive 60 percent of iAd revenue.
Forrester Analyst Julie Ask says Apple remains supportive of the developer community with the revenue splits. Beyond developers,...
Sat, 1 May 10
Sony Sued for Removing Linux Support in PS3 Upgrade
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73070
Sony Computer Entertainment is under fire by PlayStation 3 owners. A class-action suit has been brought against Sony for removing Linux support from PS3 consoles in its latest upgrade.
An attorney for PS3 owner Anthony Ventura filed the suit against Sony in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Wednesday after Sony removed support for Linux in its PlayStation 3.21 software update.
After Sony announced the update on March 28, unhappy PS3 owners took their frustrations to the web by flooding Sony's official PlayStation blog with angry comments. A total of 7,454 comments were posted as of Thursday. While some are upset with losing Linux support, others are more angry with Sony for removing a feature for which they paid.
Ventura, however, took his frustrations straight to a lawyer who filed the class-action suit on his behalf.
PlayStation 3 owners were anticipating the PlayStation 3.21 upgrade slated for April 1, but thought Sony was playing an April Fools' Day joke when it said the upgrade would remove support for Linux.
Sony quickly warned users that the upgrade was no a joke and, in fact, was an attempt to protect the intellectual property of the content offered on the PS3 system as well as to provide a more secure system. PS3 owners who chose not to upgrade risked losing other PS3 features, according to Sony, including access to the PlayStation Network, newer games, and Blu-ray movies. Gamers who decided not to upgrade also risked losing playback of copyright-protected videos stored on a media server, the company warned.
If Judge Edward Chen allows the class-action suit, it would include all individuals who bought a PS3 between Nov. 17, 2006, and March 27, 2010, according to reports. The suit does not specify any amount in requested damages, but does state damages will not exceed $5...
Sat, 1 May 10
Steve Jobs Says 'Closed' Adobe Flash Is a Threat
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73068
Apple CEO Steve Jobs released an open letter Thursday outlining why Adobe System's Flash technology is not available on the company's iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Adobe has characterized Apple's ban as primarily a business decision to protect Apple's App Store, Jobs said, but the decision is based on technology.
"Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true," Jobs wrote. "While Adobe's Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe."
Instead of depending on Flash, Jobs said Apple has elected to adopt several web technologies for its mobile products that are based on high-performance, low-power implementations of open standards such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript and HTML5.
He also countered the implication that Apple's customers are being shortchanged because 75 percent of all web videos are offered in Flash. "What they don't say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads," Jobs wrote.
Though Jobs admitted that Apple's devices cannot play Flash games, he said more than 50,000 games and entertainment titles are available for download at Apple's App Store, including many that are free. He also charged that Flash suffers from major security issues and consumes too much power from mobile-device batteries because Flash decodes video in software rather than in hardware.
However, Apple's CEO said the most important reason for banning Flash is the concern that if the company allowed a third-party layer of software to come between the platform and the developer, it would ultimately result in substandard apps as well as hinder the enhancement and progress of the platform. "We cannot be...
Sat, 1 May 10
Time To Poke Your Facebook Privacy Settings
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73063
As a sci-fi geek, when I heard of Facebook's changes, the first thing that came to mind was how it's becoming like Skynet -- and I wasn't the only one to think that.
All right, maybe it's an exaggeration to compare Facebook to the artificial intelligence software that tried to destroy mankind in the "Terminator" movies. But like the ubiquitous Skynet, it is integrating itself into many major Web sites in new ways.
Facebook is giving outside Web sites access to the information you make public. You should take the time to go back into your privacy settings and see what new ways it has attached itself to your online life.
For example, go on CNN.com and you'll see a widget that shows which CNN stories have been shared by people who are your Facebook friends. If you're not logged in to Facebook, it just shows what stories are popular with all Facebook users.
Some of these changes are cool and make sharing quicker -- such as being able to mark that you "like" a Web site without ever going to Facebook.
Or if you listen to music on Pandora.com, it can recommend playlists based on the artists you like on Facebook.
Your friends on Facebook can also share details about you via the Web sites they go to -- as long as you make that info available to everyone. The example Facebook uses is when a friend goes to a greeting card Web site, that site may prompt the friend that your birthday is coming up (if your birthday isn't private).
Here's how to control what is being shared on these sites:
_ Control what your friends share: Under Privacy settings, click "Applications and Web sites." You'll see the option to control what info Web sites can tap into from your friends' accounts and share (as long...
Sat, 1 May 10
Toktumi's Line2 Answers Your AT&T iPhone Hang-Ups
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73062
Even if you love your iPhone, you may not love AT&T. Cell reception can be crummy in some areas, non-existent in others.
Toktumi hopes to fill the gap. The San Francisco start-up sells a 99-cent iPhone app called Line2 that turns the iPhone into a dual-mode handset. In plain English, that means you can make and receive calls over the Internet through Wi-Fi or cellular, using your Line2-issued phone number. Result: You're no longer hung up if AT&T's coverage is spotty or simply unavailable, as it often is indoors, so long as there's a wireless hot spot.
Using Wi-Fi, Line2 voice quality is generally excellent, especially so if you're gabbing with another Line2 customer. On cellular, the quality is as good or bad as any AT&T cellphone call. You can also make a VoIP (or Internet call) using AT&T's 3G data network, but the quality is so-so.
You can usually detect a decline in quality when slipping from Wi-Fi onto AT&T's airwaves. Line2 is supposed to make the "handoff" from one network to another seamless, though it didn't always work out that way in my test.
While getting calls through when your cellular reception is lousy is Line2's main reason to crow, there are others. You might actually save money. Toktumi's service costs $14.95 a month for unlimited calling in the USA and Canada, which you have to pay on top of regular AT&T monthly rates. But the assumption is you'll make a lot of calls when you're near a Wi-Fi hot spot -- and those calls don't count against your regular AT&T voice allotment.
So you may be able to downgrade to the cheapest $39.99, 450-minute AT&T monthly voice plan vs. the unlimited $69.99 monthly plan.
Even after piling on Toktumi's fees, you come out ahead. VoIP calls made over AT&T's data (not voice) network...
Sat, 1 May 10
Is Digging Up Your Ancestry Online Worth Your Time?
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73057
Genealogy is hot again.
Shows such as "Faces of America" on PBS and "Who Do You Think You Are?" on NBC are renewing the country's fascination with family histories. And unlike when the TV series "Roots" aired in the 1970s, consumers now have numerous tools to dig up their ancestral pasts.
Web sites that enable you to research your family tree or submit to DNA testing can be costly, however, and the results likely won't be as dramatic as shown on TV.
It should also be noted that services can be limited depending on your family heritage.
Here's a look at what three major sites offer.
How It Works: A monthly subscription gives you access to 4 billion public records, including Census records from 1790 to 1930.
To help wade through the database, start by filling in a family tree with whatever information you have. If you punch in a grandparent's name and approximate date of birth, for example, the site turns up public records that may be matches.
Users can make family trees public too, so those created by others will turn up in a search if you share a common relative.
When testing the site, a colleague with a common Irish last name quickly uncovered new information on her family. Within a few minutes, she found a photo of her grandmother that a relative had uploaded, as well as a Census record on her maternal grandfather.
How much your own search digs up will depend in part on how long your family has been in the country.
Records from outside the U.S. cost extra and largely come from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
It should be noted that the site has considerable records for African Americans, including documents from the Freedman's Bank and Freedmen's Bureau, which were set up for freed slaves after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863....
Sat, 1 May 10
Motorola Posts Profit on Strong Sales
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=73055
Motorola Inc. posted an unexpected profit in the first quarter, as sales of its new phones outdid its own forecasts. It also gave an outlook that was brighter than Wall Street was predicting, and its shares jumped in premarket trading.
However, it has lost its position as the largest U.S. maker of phones to Apple Inc. Motorola sold a total of 8.5 million phones in the quarter, while Apple sold 8.8 million iPhones. Four years ago, when the Razr was still popular, Motorola sold 46.1 million phones in the first quarter.
The Schaumburg, Illinois, company has been trying to turn around that long slide in phone sales by focusing on new smart phones, including the Droid. That strategy is bearing fruit, but too slowly to compensate for the drop in overall phone sales. Motorola sold 2.3 million smart phones in the first three months of the year. It had said it expected to sell less than 2 million.
A year ago, Motorola sold 14.7 million phones in the fourth quarter. The drop in phone revenue in the latest quarter was just 9 percent -- less steep than the drop in overall unit sales would suggest. Motorola can charge much more for the new smart phones than for run-of-the-mill phones.
As a whole, Motorola earned $69 million, or 3 cents per share in the quarter. In the same quarter a year ago, it lost $231 million, or 13 cents per share.
Motorola had said it expected to post a loss of 1 cent to 3 cents per share for the quarter.
Revenue fell 6.1 percent to $5.04 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting $5.1 billion in revenue.
Motorola shares rose 44 cents, or 6.4 percent, to $7.36 in pre-market trading.
For the current quarter, Motorola said it expects to earn 7 cents to 9 cents per share....